Media Watch:
WWE Bashes CNN Over Editing John Cena Interview on Steroids: I have to agree with the WWE here. The way the interview was edited was unfair, taking out the part where Cena states clearly that he hasn't used steroids and leaving in an ambiguous, out-of-context statement.
ESPN Would Prefer You Not See Lisa Salters' Views on Race and Parkour: "This is something that white people do," Salters said. "How many black people parkour? None. There's some things that are intrinsically not interesting to us as a people. This is one of them." It was a ridiculous comment from Salters (it will come as news to Sebastien Foucan), and it's stunning that no one at ESPN realized that and kept her statement from getting on the air.
ESPN Says It Did Not Intentionally Edit Out Lisa Salters' Comments on Parkour and Race: The spokesman pointed out that parts of another E:60 piece, a non-controversial report on Gunnar Esiason, had also been lost during the transfer to the online video. I've been told that ESPN will fix the glitch this week and get the full video -- with Salters' comments -- up on ESPN.com. I still disagree with what Salters said, but I no longer think ESPN was intentionally trying to hide what she said.
NCAA Basketball:O.J. Mayo Scores 32, Leads USC to Embarrassing Loss to Mercer: And those 32 points? All but seven of them came after Mercer had already gotten out to a huge lead, meaning Mayo basically racked up 25 meaningless points while he and his teammates lost to a bunch of much less talented players. Mayo also had a game-high eight turnovers.
NFL:
The Debriefing: The Seven Deadly Sins of Sunday ... Week 10: It was a cute little run you had, Giants, with wins over Miami, San Francisco, Atlanta, and the Jets ... but the Cowboys would like to take this opportunity to remind you that your place in the NFC East food chain is somewhere significantly below them.
Can We Stop Pretending Adam Vinatieri Is a Good Kicker? He used to be, a few years ago, although even then he was overrated because he was on a good team that gave him lots of opportunities to kick in big games. But now he's not good. He's not average, either. He's bad. It's not just the fact that he missed two field goals in tonight's 23-21 loss to the Chargers, including a 29-yarder that would have given the Colts the lead with less than two minutes to play.
The Crowning Achievement in the Career of Brian Billick, Offensive Genius: The Bengals, owners of a truly awful defense, damn near pitched a shutout against Billick's boys and won easily despite not scoring a touchdown. That's right, all 21 points came off the foot of Shayne Graham which means that the Ravens defense held Carson Palmer, T.J. Houshmanzadeh, Chad Johnson and the well-rested Chris Henry without a touchdown and still lost by 14 points!
Funeral Snafu Could Cost Vikings: Now when free agency rolls around next year, you have to wonder if opposing teams will point out that the Vikings aren't exactly family friendly. In a game where any small edge can be the difference between signing and losing a free agent, the Vikings have just handed their competitors a big advantage. You can argue whether the decision to fine Williamson was fair, but it's likely to ensure that he heads elsewhere as soon as he can and it may encourage free agents to sign elsewhere.
Soccer:
Italian Police Shooting of Soccer Fan Sparks Riots in Rome: Police are calling the shooting a "tragic error," while fans throughout Italy protested the fact that games continued today. Atalanta supporters nearly broke through protection glass while protesting the continuation of their match against A.C. Milan, and more fans protested outside a TV station in Milan.
NBA:Dennis Rodman Wants to Coach in the WNBA: Terwilliger suggested that Teresa Edwards, a former All-American at Georgia and current assistant with the Minnesota Lynx, is one of the leading candidates. I'm not sure I've even heard the name Teresa Edwards before five minutes ago, but I'm already convinced she'd be a better choice than Rodman.
Toni Kukoc Calls Current NBA Players Selfish and Stupid: A couple of observations here. If Kukoc is referring to this year's incarnation of the Bulls, it's hard to blame him. Not that the team is selfish, they're just really horrible, starting the season 1-5 and losing at home last night by 30 to the Raptors. I wouldn't exactly be eager to head to the arena to watch that crap either. But what about the assertion that he could have scored 30 per game if he wanted to? I'm finding that one extremely hard to swallow.
NCAA Football:
Notre Dame Keeps Making New History: With the 42-24 loss to Air Force, the Irish achieved a few dubious things.
- Notre Dame's first 9 loss season in the Irish history.
- The sixth straight home loss is a first for Notre Dame.
- The most lopsided loss by ND to a service academy in 44 years (Navy winning 35-14 in 1963).
- The first time ND has lost to two service academies in the same year since 1944.
And Then There Were Two (Undefeateds): Kansas and Hawaii: The Jayhawks are doing their level best to be the wrench in this already cracked out season. Nobody's taking Hawaii seriously and most fully expect them to lose to Boise State soon enough. So let's talk about Kansas. They're good. Really good. I just don't know about "best or second best team in the country good".
