Ranting and Raving

Is it too much to ask that those who are hired to speak actually be capable of doing so with competence?  TBG studied the cyclists on the Tour de France and I watcged the scenery and our ears were bombarded by announcers with grammatical deficiencies.  "There's a great distance between he and the peleton."   

TBG says that his talent was riding quickly uphill, not being a sportscaster.  But still......

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Reggie Bush thought that he was above it all, that he was so cool, so talented, so much the man that he didn't have to pay back the money the ex-con had lent to him and his step-father and so the felon went public to get his money back. 

Now, kids who thought they'd be playing for the Trojans in The Rose Bowl game are transferring to other programs as USC pays the price for overlooking what was obvious to everyone else.  The NCAA may be trying to herd cats in its attempts to oversee a theoretically amateur athletic organization, but you had to be obtuse to overlook some of this stuff.  Reggie and his car were on the front page of a muscle car magazine, for crying out loud.  Pete Carroll may have thought "It was just a Chevy," as he told ESPN, but I find it impossible to believe that no one in the organization knew that it was pimped out to the max.  And what about his parents showing up at all the away games?  Hadn't a recruiting coach been to their home when Reggie was in high school?  Didn't that person see how they were living?  These are people who were evicted from their home yet had the funds to travel around the country watching her son/his step-son do amazing things on the football field.  It seems to me that this ought to have raised a red flag for someone.

Sure, USC has hired more compliance officers, and these kinds of mistakes won't happen again.... but I have the feeling that the mistakes they are talking about preventing are not the corruption inherent in the system, but the appearance of overlooking the graft.

Meanwhile, once again, the NCAA is punishing current players and coaches for the actions of their predecessors.  If you ever needed an example of the fact that college sports (especially the big time basketball and football programs) are nothing more than cash cows for their universities, I invite you to examine this situation at USC.  Those post season bowl games that the current players won't get to enjoy..... the titles and trophies they won't be bringing home..... the stunted opportunities for national exposure..... it all pales behind the massive financial hit the University is taking. 

That's where the power lies, in the money.  The kids are secondary.  So no one stands up for their lost opportunities.... except we, here in The Burrow, who know that they did no wrong.

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More sports aggravations:  It seems that Michael Vick turned 30 and threw himself a party.  He spent the weekend apologizing - to the NFL, to his team, to the media - for the behavior of his guests.  Could he really be held responsible for the fact that one of his invitees shot his cousin after the birthday boy had left the scene?  

Stop and think about that for a minute or two.  When was the last time someone was shot after you left a birthday party?  

The Eagles had sworn to uphold a zero tolerance policy towards Vick, after taking a chance by signing him after his incarceration for dog fighting related offenses.  But Andy Reid thinks that as long as you are not breaking the law, everything is copacetic.  

I guess zero tolerance is a mutable concept in the Eagles organization.

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Enough cantankerous writing.  Here's a smile:  

Be kind to your behind is my new favorite commercial.  I love that they aren't skirting the issue.  We all know how the product is used; it's nice to see them acknowledge it.  Watch and enjoy: