A lot of coaches love to espouse the notion that sports are like life, and if you have the dedication, character and intelligence to succeed in one, then you can succeed in the other.
Well just like in real life, sports have the good, the bad and the ugly. And since I’m a sports editor and not a life editor, I fortunately get to comment on the good, bad and ugly for sports — not life.
The following are just a few of the gems that have occurred in the sporting world in the past year; some headlines from Sports Illustrated’s end-of-the-year issue.
For the second year in a row, the Bowl Championship Series college football computer ranking system sent a disputed team to the national championship Rose Bowl by picking Nebraska, who was embarrassed by Colorado during the regular season and then was embarrassed again by Miami. When are the college officials going to realize that the BCS just doesn’t work? Maybe next year they can use my shitty iMac, and we’ll see UCSD come up for the 2003 Rose Bowl.
A heads-up for all the whiny multimillionaire athletes in the United States: Here is just one of the differences between sports in America and sports in the rest of the world — here, the average salary for a designated hitter is $5,650,019, whereas in Turkey, a soccer club traded four players to its rival team for 225 sacks of cement. I guess they’re in a rebuilding phase.
The Stanford rugby team forfeited a match against Cal because according to Stanford coach Franck Bolvert, his players were “”afraid to get injured, and indeed, fear for their safety.”” Hmm, do you think a forfeit is a fair trade for your manhood?
Former Dallas Cowboy Nate Newton was caught on Nov. 4 with 213 pounds of marijuana in his van. Six weeks later he was caught again, this time with only 175 pounds of marijuana. I guess the harsh enforcement of the law toward rich law-breaking athletes really worked.
Padres pitcher Adam Eaton was forced to go on the disabled list and miss a start after giving himself an inch-deep cut in his stomach while trying to open a new DVD. Yeah, Eaton, watching digital quality film from the emergency room just isn’t quite the same, is it?
Two University of Kansas Jayhawk football players stole a student’s purse and used her credit card to order pizza. She called the police, who tracked the card and apprehended the players. Showing those world-famous football smarts, they pleaded not guilty.
In December, after the UCSD women’s soccer team won the National Collegiate Athletic Association Championship, the mayor of San Diego declared a “”UCSD women’s soccer day.”” Hey, if he counted the six championships in the last seven years, they could almost have a whole week.
Notre Dame hired football coach George O’Leary, then fired him five days later after discovering he lied on his resume about having a master’s degree from New York University. What really tipped them off was the six years as head coach of the championship UCSD football team on O’Leary’s resume.
Last but not least: In Florida, a 71-year-old woman drove her golf cart into a water hazard and drowned. Darwin’s theory of natural selection claims another victim.
