With all the hubbub about former Green Bay Packer QB Brett Favre's allegedly sharing inside information with then-Detroit Lions' GM Matt Millen, you may also have wondered to yourself: If the Lions knew what was coming and still lost by several TD's, then the Detroit football team must be -- to quote the esteemed Homer Simpson, the suckiest team that ever sucked.
1. The latest Brett Favre brouhaha would be a bigger deal from a Detroit perspective if, one, the Lions didn't get their butts kicked by Green Bay and, two, Matt Millen were still the Lions' president.
2. The Lions fell behind by three touchdowns in the first quarter and gave up 447 yards in the game. If Favre helped them prepare, that's just further evidence the Lions stink. And we already knew that.
3. Millen knows Favre from his days as a broadcaster. They have a lot in common as country boys. It would be no surprise if Millen called Favre to invite him over to hunt and then milked him for some football info.
4. Think of the Green Bay perspective, though. Imagine if Steve Yzerman had an ugly divorce with the Red Wings toward the end of his career, went to play for the Islanders and helped a lowly division rival like the Blue Jackets try to beat the Wings.
5. It would do Rod Marinelli no good to comment on the Favre thing if there's any shred of truth to it. If he lies, he's a liar. If he dances around the truth, he's shifty. If he comes clean, he makes everyone looks bad and invites more questions.
Bill Plaschke of the Los Angeles Times checks the pulse of the Wisconsin locals on the subject. (Yeah, I know it's a long way from home, but it's not like he has an actual NFL team in LA to cover.)
On Brett Favre Pass, some folks are wishing he had thrown his last.
"I just wish he had stayed retired," said Ron Enke, manager of Champion's sports bar, located a Hail Mary away from Green Bay's Lambeau Field. "What coming back has done for his image, what it has done for the mood of the town, lots of people wish he had stayed retired."
Eight months after the face of the NFL tearfully announced his retirement, that face is bruised and blushing.
It is the face of an accused liar. It is the face of an alleged cheater. It is a face lost.
The works of a lifetime, tarnished in less than a football season. An American hero, undone by the American way.
That's the thing about freedom. It gives us the right to choose wrong.
The score is now final, and it's not even close.
Brett Favre, New York Jets quarterback, Green Bay Packers traitor, fast-leaking legend, should have quit when he said he was quitting.
The college football season lingers on here in Madison. but the Wisconsin State Journal's Tom Oates suggests that the UW has now become a hoops school.
It may be for this year only, but, as they do at Kentucky, Duke, North Carolina and other basketball-first schools, UW fans have largely pulled the plug on football and are eagerly anticipating the start of the men's basketball season.
So are the Badgers, though it has nothing to do with football.
"We're just ready for basketball to start," junior guard Jason Bohannon said this week, the first full week of practice for the Badgers. "I don't know about everyone else, but we're ready for it to get going."
Why wouldn't they be?
They've won 30 and 31 games the last two years and last season won the Big Ten regular-season and tournament titles. The comparative lack of success in the NCAA tournament is an underlying issue only the Badgers can make go away, but aside from that, the program put together by coach Bo Ryan is rolling merrily along, methodically retooling every year and generally exceeding expectations.
Ryan admits, however, expectations are growing for a program that has averaged 24.7 wins per year during his seven seasons.
Of course, once upon a time, Wisconsin used to be a hockey school, so it's still a big deal when arch-rival Minnesota comes to town.
Their response to the Wisconsin Badgers on Friday, the way that goaltender Shane Connelly sees it, was that it wasn't yet time for them to get their first victory.
Minnesota rallied from a 2-0 deficit with a pair of goals off redirections in front of the net — the kind of plays that can be considered either highly skilled or highly lucky — and earned a 2-2 tie in front of 13,184 fans at the Kohl Center.
"The hockey gods aren't making it easy for us to get our first win," Connelly said. "At least a positive is a tie, but at the same time, we've got to hold onto these leads. It has to change pretty quickly."
Speaking of gods (or God or whatever), the religion writer for the Washington Post has a perfect explanation as to why the Tampa Bay Rays were able to make their miraculous "worst to first" run to the World Series. And as Dave Barry might say, I'm not making this up.
Devil be gone!
For 10 years, they were a losing baseball team with a fiendish nickname: the Tampa Bay Devil Rays. Then the club exorcised the "Devil" from its name, and suddenly Tampa Bay is in the World Series.
The Rays won the pennant less than a year after they put the Devil behind them, and some Tampa pastors would like to think that's the reason why.
Rev. Wayne Newman of Bay Life Assembly of God says the Rays' turnaround may be God's way of saying, "If you get the devil out, you're liable to go somewhere." Rev. Tom Atchison of New Life Pentecostal Church of God says that at the very least, the name change has allowed more Christians to root for the team.
Meanwhile, those Tampa Bay Rays fans (or is it, Tampa Ray Bays fans) are up in Philadelphia for the weekend and the hometown paper, the Inquirer is doing its best to be good hosts.
Just to clarify, we did not boo Santa Claus. We merely pelted him with snowballs. And most of the batteries we heaved at J.D. Drew were rechargeable. So lay off us, mainstream media.
Anyway, you have nothing to fear. As long as you follow these few commonsense guidelines, you should leave here with nothing worse than a fractured clavicle:
Make sure your health insurance premiums are paid up.
Pack heat.
Do not wear Rays gear, assuming there is any Rays gear and, if there were, anyone would wear it.
If you arrive early for Sunday's game, do not, under any circumstances, wander into the Eagles' parking lots. (If you're confused, the Eagles' lots are those where the balloons of nitrous oxide are going for $20 and the tailgaters are grilling Dallas fans.) The last out-of-town baseball fan who made that mistake was cornered, beaten, and forced to watch Eagles Post Game Live.
And since the games aren't scheduled to start until after 8 p.m., you'll have plenty of time to sightsee and partake of some of the city's historic culinary treats, and other items of interest.
Here are a few suggestions from a native:This is where the founding fathers approved the Declaration of Independence, drafted the Constitution, and ordered out from Joe's Peking Duck.
Independence Hall.
Morimoto. If you like sushi - and who among us doesn't enjoy raw fish wrapped in gummy rice and smeared with green paste hot enough for Beelzebub? - this tony restaurant is the place for you.
The fall foliage. Take a walk along beautiful Kelly Drive to see the lovely fall colors before they, like Jimmy Rollins' bat, vanish.
Geno's. The cheesesteaks are good, but the rocket scientist who runs the place asks that customers order in English, as if "Yo, gimme one wid" is the Queen's English.
Any Quaker meetinghouse. Take in a service on Sunday and you'll be amazed. Worshippers just sit there and meditate. They don't talk. They don't move. Sounds a lot like B.J. Upton, doesn't it?
You'll find out pretty quickly that, compared with Florida, Philadelphia is an unusual town.
People who live here actually were born here. There are no beaches, no early-bird specials and, thankfully, no Cuban sandwiches. (For Philadelphians unfamiliar with Cuban sandwiches, think stale Oscar Mayer Lunchables.)
So enjoy yourselves. Before you know it, that Mini Cooper will be here to take you back to Tampa-St. Pete.
Yes, this column has been rather Sarah Palin-centric of late. You might even say it's bordered on the Palin-oxious.
The Blues invited Palin to drop a ceremonial puck Friday, and before the game, arena workers laid out a roll of carpet in front of the team's bench. But before Palin came out, the Blues players took the ice and Legace was the first player on.
"I was going to ask (the arena worker) to move (the carpet), but he had his foot there, so I figured he was trying to secure it," Legace said. "He's yelling at us, 'Careful, the carpet ... Careful, the carpet.'
"I'm like I can't jump over it. It's too far and my little legs won't jump that far. I just figured he's holding it and the other end is usually secure, so I'm just worried about it sliding (one) way. As soon as I went down, he lifted his foot off the carpet ... I knew I was coming down and I just couldn't catch myself.
"It's not that serious ... we'll just see what happens tomorrow."
Legace is questionable for tonight's game against Florida at Scottrade Center, and if he can't play, Bishop would likely start and Marek Schwarz would be the backup.
As with Tina Fey, Palin is the gift that just keeps on giving.
Still, I haven't been this viscerally angry about somebody on my TV set since Barry Bonds slinked away from Major League Baseball. And he was simply ruining the National Pasttime. (I know, I just said that but please forgive me.)
This woman could bleep up a one-car funeral. Forget Canada. if she's President, we might need to look for a new planet.
I mean, we just went through eight years with an intellectually discurious person in the White House and we allllll know how well that worked out, eh?
And yet, if you asked Gov. Palin if she was intellectually inclined, she'd likely answer, "you betcha."
"And you have to be up on not only current events, but you have to understand the foundation of the issues that you're working on," Palin said in an interview with People magazine. "You can't just go on what is presented you."
Although Palin didn't name a single newspaper or magazine when CBS News anchor Katie Couric asked where she got her information, the Alaska governor told People that she has always been a "voracious reader" and named reading — anything from biographies to historical works — as her favorite thing along with her children and sports.
Besides author Lawrence Wright's terrorism history, "The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11," Palin said she's reading a lot of briefing papers.
"I appreciate a lot of information. I think that comes from growing up in a family of school teachers," she said.
Palin said if she and husband Todd had had a sixth child, they had already picked a name for a boy joining siblings Track, Bristol, Willow, Piper and Trig.
"I always wanted a son named Zamboni," she said.
Finally, director Ron Howard would also like to talk to you about this election. And so would Andy Griffith and Henry Winkler.
It was 50 years ago today. Miles taught all the cats to sway.
What is hip? Tell me tell me, if you think you know.
What is hip? If you're really hip, the passing years will show.
Tower of Power asked that musical question -- aw jeez, can it really be 38 years ago? All of which makes me -- since I can remember buying the album in 1970 -- well, to the younger generation, this fact anong others makes me old.
What is old?
I used to define becoming old as that time in your life when you start saying that young people have nothing of value to say and their music is too loud. That could come at age 29 or age 59, I reasoned, but once it did you were old.
Is this the year I finally got old? I can't say their music's too loud -- I mean, I once saw the likes of Living Colour and Television in bars with their stadium Marshall amps making the glass windows reverberate like the speakers of a Hammond B3 organ. Still, if Tupac is considered old school and borderline old, well then what's the point?
Yes, I can remember John Kennedy being shot. I can remember my dad bringing home our first color TV and listening to WLS Friday nights for their Silver Dollar Surveys.
Yes, I can also remember the 70's, although admittedly not as much of the decade as I would like. I actually saw the likes of Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin LIVE in the Dane County Coliseum.
What started this morning's rant was my ill-fated attempts to discuss the 50th anniversary of one of the most important albums ever recorded.
(And by the way, it's STILL AN ALBUM! It is a collection of songs, like a collection of pictures or poems, so it's still an album -- whether it's produced on vinyl, cassette, 8-track, CD, DVD or nuclear-fotoschmear. Okay, I made the last one up.)
Still, can't young people consider music that's more than minutes old? I was trying to discuss the importance of Miles Davis' Kind Of Blue and was met by painful sighs and rolling eyeballs.
Kind Of Blue was an album that transcended jazz itself, easily the biggest selling album in Miles Davis' illustrious career and perhaps, the biggest selling jazz album ever. It is intrinsically and eternally hip -- it was played by uber-hip DJ Clint Eastwood in Play Misty For Me.
It was one of the last recordings of its kind -- produced almost entirely in one take with no overdubs, no sonic enhancements, no digital remixing. It was also an important historical milepost -- in a way, it was almost the last jazz record of its kind. It precedes the free form jazz of John Coltrane and the jazz-rock fusion of Miles himself in the late 60's.
Kind Of Blue is being re-issued in a 50th Anniversary package, and that's a misnomer as well since it was recorded and released in 1959. Maybe, that's because Columbia/Legacy wanted to get it out before the holiday shopping season or perhaps because 1959 is also the 50th anniversary of Miles' own Sketches of Spain and Coltrane's Giant Steps.
Disc 1 of Kind of Blue: 50th Anniversary Collectors Edition will feature the original album in its entirety with the “Flamenco Sketches" alternate take, the rare “Freddie Freeloader" false start, and a selection of in-the-studio dialog from the Kind of Blue sessions. Disc 2 is a CD of rare musical material circa the Kind of Blue recordings including the very first session by the classic Miles Davis sextet (May 26, 1958 -- Davis's 32nd birthday -- with Adderley, Coltrane, Evans, Chambers and Cobb), more than a half hour's worth of studio material -- “On Green Dolphin Street," “Fran-Dance," “Stella By Starlight," “Love For Sale" -- previously available only on the two-time Grammy award winning Miles Davis & John Coltrane boxed set ("The Complete Columbia Recordings 1955-1961); and the first authorized release of two extended live performances: “So What" from the April 9, 1960 Den Haag Concert featuring Miles, Coltrane, Kelly, Chambers and Cobb. The final disc, Disc 3, is a DVD including an in-depth documentary illuminating the story behind Kind of Blue; and the historic April 2, 1959 television program “Robert Herridge Theater: The Sound of Miles Davis" starring Miles Davis and John Coltrane.
This deluxe Collector's Edition will also include a blue pressed vinyl copy of Kind of Blue, a poster, and an LP-sized 60-page hardbound book.
What's the secret of its staying power, asks Jack Garner of the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle ? I doubt anyone could answer a question about something as ephemeral and mysterious and magical as a piece of music. Certain things are obvious: First, it's performed by the greatest small jazz band ever assembled. Besides trumpeter Davis, there were saxophonists John Coltrane and Cannonball Adderley, bassist Paul Chambers and drummer Jimmy Cobb (the sole survivor from the '59 session). Central to the album's greatness, though, was the then-young pianist Bill Evans, who plays on four of the album's five extended tracks and co-wrote two of the tunes with Davis. Considered one of the great intellectuals in jazz, and the Chopin of improvised music, Evans famously collaborated with Davis on the album's breakthrough concept of modal improvisation.
Try as I may, my limited technical understanding of music has never allowed me to understand what modal means. All I know is this music is heavenly in its grace and simplicity and sublime beauty.
The album's five tracks work together almost as a suite, with at least two of the tracks now recognized as gems in the oft-performed standard jazz repertoire — "So What" and "All Blues."
"It grabs all kinds of people," says Cobb. "To see how good those guys are, what they could do with just a little, that they could make it sound like that—you know, that's the thing. That's what it is. Just bring it down and it reaches everybody. There's something to that. It was just something that came along and clicked with everybody. It's just probably a once-in-a-lifetime thing."
"Man, I don't think Miles even thought that it would have that longevity," he says. "If he even thought that that day, he would've asked for a pile of money. You know, if he thought that he had something that was going to really be selling for 50 years, he would've asked for real money."
As for the drummer, "I was probably the soberest one in the band," says Cobb, the only member of the Blue sextet other than Adderley to fully escape a heroin addiction. "And he knew I was going to be on time. And he knew when I got there, I would give 150 percent. So like that, you know. That's the pluses I had."
Here, in a sixth-floor East Side conference room, Jimmy Cobb hums the "Round About Midnight" melody.
"I started right there. I played that with them. I was in the band—no rehearsals, no nothing. So that's the way it started, man."
The ending, however, has yet to be written. Jimmy Cobb, suitably enough, is at the forefront of the 50th-anniversary DVD. This month, the drummer will be recognized as a National Endowment for the Arts Jazzmaster. November brings appearances at Dizzy's Club Coca-Cola, as well as a number of dates in Germany. In January, Jimmy Cobb will turn 80 years old; in February, he'll be leading a new outfit, the So What Band, as part of Kind of Blue's continuing golden-anniversary celebration, still officially 11 months away.
But despite all the attention that comes with this territory—and having provided percussion on a work of acclaimed and enduring genius—it's the people he remembers, not the songs: "I'm proud to be here, man. I'm proud to be going on 80 years old. I never thought I'd be 80 years old. I'm here. I'm sorry that all my friends are gone, you know, but I've got them here."
80 is most certainly old to most people. John McCain is the old one in this current election and his counterpart. Barack Obama is essentially the young one. I could add that -- although, the aforementioned young whippersnappers who considered me old for bringing up Miles Davis -- Sen. Obama, That young One, is a mere three and half years younger than me.
This age thing comes up in context in the sports world these days with the success of Joe Paterno. Penn State is currently #3 in the polls and I said three weeks ago that the Nittany Lions were the best team I've seen all season.
(Every once in a while, you get it right in this business. Three weeks ago, after Wisconsin laid a big stinky egg at Michigan, I told anyone who would listen that the Ohio State game was a toss-up, but that Penn State was going to murdalize the Badgers -- something like 42-10. This, of course, led to a barstool wag to confront me, 'hey if you think so, why not give me those 32 points? You said it right?" At 48-7, I still comfortably covered.)
I would also argue that Penn State has the easiest road to the BCS Championship game as they have no conference title game to slip them up on the way. And yet people are still saying that Joe Paterno is too old to coach football.
The Canadian Press offers that the man can still coach, even if a sore hip means he does it most weekends from the press box. He still knows how to win, too, seven straight and counting this season on a familiar climb back toward the top of the college football poll.
And so two months shy of his 82nd birthday, with two national titles to his credit and a third in his sights, the last thing left for Joe Pa to prove is that he cares as much about the future of Penn State football as he does about its past and present.
With the third-ranked Nittany Lions back in the national conversation for all the right reasons, there's a rare moment of consensus in the debate that has divided Penn State people for years. Just about everyone agrees once more that Paterno has earned the right to go out, whenever that is, on his own terms. What he needs to understand is there's no time like now to let the rest of us in on just what those terms might be.
Stubbornness is admirable sometimes, but it's not always an answer. Paterno doesn't have to come up with a date - more on that later - but sitting down with school president Graham Spanier to start discussing a successor would be a good place to start. Paterno is in the last year of a contract and with Michigan headed into Happy Valley this weekend and the Nittany Lions travelling to Ohio State the next, he could lose a whole lot of bargaining power in a hurry.
During his midweek conference call, Paterno turned aside questions about his own future the same way he always does. Someone asked how long before he could move back down from the press box to the sidelines and JoePa replied, "I don't know," then added a moment later, "I don't get get-well cards. Can we talk about the football team and not me, for crying out loud?"
ESPN has revealed that 42 Penn State football players faced 163 criminal charges of varying circumstance since 2002. Twenty-seven players either were convicted or pleaded guilty to a combination of 45 charges.
There will be significant blemishes on any major football program when placed underneath such a piercing microscope. Paterno sternly rejects the notion of compromising character for better talent and more victories, but in the aftermath of that report Paterno nonetheless wielded a sterner disciplinary stick — dismissing three prominent players from the team.
This was precisely how one paves the exit road for a longtime college head coach — create the appearance that he's losing control. All of a sudden, the skeletons that consistently remained hidden behind lock and key see the light of public scrutiny.
It's not worth it any longer for Paterno.
He injured his hip demonstrating an onside kick during preseason practice. He might need hip replacement surgery after the season. Paterno's relegated to the coaches' box upstairs because he can't get around on the sidelines without the use of a cane.
JoePa's proven he's still got it, but it's time he realizes he's had enough.
If not old, perhaps the word for the day should be OOPS!
As in the Tampa Bay Rays being seven runs up and seven outs away from dispatching the Boston Red Sox and reaching the World Series for the first time before OOPS!
After losing that lead and that game, how will the Rays react? The Boston Globe's Shira Springer reveals that Tampa Bay designated hitter Cliff Floyd will stick with a steady diet of Nickelodeon. He will bypass all news and sports channels. He will toss the daily papers aside. Sitting beside his kids at home, Floyd will try to forget last night's devastating 8-7 loss to Boston with an overdose of "Dora the Explorer" and "SpongeBob SquarePants."
"That's how you eliminate all the stuff," said Floyd. "You can't turn on the news and see how we made history."
"We've got two games to see what we're made of," said Floyd, who made (and won) a World Series with Florida in 1997 but fell short with the New York Mets in 2006. "We win Saturday and we go to the World Series. We've got to go out there and play.
"We learned a valuable lesson tonight. Anything can happen at any given time. The only luxury we have is that we were up 3-1. The momentum has shifted to them, but we're in our house where we feel real comfortable."
Meanwhile, the BYU Cougars were undefeated and making noises of running the table and barging their way into the BCS discussion before OOPS!
Now his team has given voters a reason to stop wondering whether the Horned Frogs deserve to be mentioned among the nation’s best.
TCU dominated No. 9 BYU in all aspects of the game, snapping its Thursday night curse at five games and putting a damper on the Cougars’ reign atop the Mountain West Conference with a 32-7 victory before 36,180 fans at Amon G. Carter Stadium.
TCU (7-1, 4-0 in Mountain West Conference) has lost just once this season — to then-No. 2 Oklahoma — and BYU had won 16 straight games and 18 in a row against conference foes.
But Patterson knows he can’t tell voters which way to go.
"We wanted to come out and be the best TCU football team," he said. "Then we’re going to let everybody else judge it.
"This was a big win, but I’d be making a mistake for my football team if I made this the season-ending victory. We’ve got a lot of good football left. To win a championship, it takes them all."
In Green Bay, came word of the Packers finishing the paperwork for a trade with Kansas City's Tony Gonzalez and then OOPS!
The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel's Tom Silverstein claims that the Green Bay Packers and one other NFL team had agreed on a third-round pick as compensation for Kansas City Chiefs tight end Tony Gonzalez, but according to Gonzalez, Chiefs general manager Carl Peterson pulled out at the last second.
According to an NFL source, the Packers were the team Gonzalez was focusing on and preferred them over the other contender. He had approved a trade to Green Bay. It was up to the Chiefs, however, to determine where he would be traded.
"Last night I talked to Carl and I point-blank asked him what it would take to get it done," Gonzalez said in an exclusive interview. "I wanted to know if it could happen with a fourth (-round pick). He started talking about a second and a fifth like the (Jeremy) Shockey deal. Nobody is going to trade a second for a 32-year-old tight end. All along Carl said he would do something that works for both parties. Then he talked about how he traded a third for Willie Roaf, and he made it pretty clear to me that's what was going to get it done. That was certainly fair.
"I know teams offered a third and in the end, Carl made the asking price a second. I'm very disappointed that he didn't go through with it after he told me he was going to try to make it happen. I've been around this league a long time, it's a business. There's nothing I can do about it. I was (ticked) off about it, but I'll get over it. I won't let it affect my play and my preparation."
Down in Chicago, Denis Savard was preparing his Blackhawks for their fifth game of the new NHL season, when OOPS!
The Tribune's Mike Downey (yeah, he's getting entirely too much ink here, but what can I say when he's front and center ice on the biggest stories of the day?) thinks that the team didn't give Savard much of a chance.
Canning a coach four games into a season is a pretty bloody ice-cold act on the Blackhawks' part.
Particularly when the gentleman in question is Denis Savard, a prince of a fellow who in Chicago is considered to be hockey royalty.
"Like a brother to me," said the general manager who fired him, Dale Tallon.
"All class," said the team president who fired him, John McDonough.
Two minutes for back stabbing.
Savard was given—wow—four whole games to show results.
No, check that. Three games. It is plain that the process of kicking Savvy off the Blackhawks' reservation was well under way before Wednesday night's icebreaker over Phoenix, isn't it? You don't win a game and lose your job for it. Willie Randolph can vouch for that.
Hypothetically, could Savard have saved his job if he had gone 4-0 rather than 1-2-1?
"Hypothetically, probably," Tallon said.
Well, as long as he got a fair shot.
A bombshell was dropped like a puck on a faceoff Thursday at the United Center, where the smiley-faced Blackhawks took the mask off like the Phantom of the Opera and revealed an ugly side underneath.
They cut their ties with Savard, who was given a new goaltender, a new defenseman and less than a week to go 4-0 with them or else.
Unless you accept the explanation that he also was fired for how the team looked in training camp.
"It was a flat camp," Tallon said. "Then we got out of the gate flat."
Savard's team lost unimpressively on the road against the Rangers and Capitals, then looked better in the home opener with the Predators but lost in a shootout.
I was at that game and heard people speculating Savvy's job was in jeopardy.
"But the season began Friday," I said. "This is Monday."
Meaning that it's never too early to give up on a Blackhawks' season or coach.
As previously mentioned, the college football season been a drag locally. Last Saturday, the Badgers turned in one of their ugliest performances at Camp Randall, a 48-7 shellacking at the hands of 7-0 Penn State. It was Bret Bielema’s second consecutive home loss (following a streak of 16 victories), and the worst Wisconsin football home loss since 1989, when the Don Morton-led Badgers lost to Miami 51-3.
Still, the biggest story of the week might have been the UW Police Dept. feeling the need to Tazer a 54-year old woman during a scuffle at the stadium. The Capitol Times reports Margaret Hiebing, 54, of Madison was charged with disorderly conduct and resisting arrest while her husband, Roman Hiebing Jr., 65, same address, was charged with disorderly conduct, according to UW-Madison police.
The brawl between the Hiebings and the cops started when too many people were trying to sit in Row 69 of Section U on the stadium's east side, said UW police Sgt. Jason Whitney.
"We asked her to go to her seat because she was sitting in the aisle," Whitney said. "We made attempts to contact guest services to help her to her seat, but that didn't happen, so our policy is if you're not in your seat, you get ejected."
This episode brings to mind the bad old days of Badger football in the late 1990's when the combination of lousy football and frisking any and everyone for liqour bottles resulted in acres of empty seats in Camp Randall.
Way to go, Wisconsin cops! What a great marketing campaign -- Come for the lousy football, stay for the Tazering!
A quick peek to the Badger Beat website reveals some other information from a friend of the Hiebings, conveniently left out of the UWPD report.
The victim has had 2 total knee replacements & a bad back from previous injury. She explained this to the female officer and that is why she could not occupy the empty seat in the next row 8 seats in from the isle, but the officer was unimpressed. Once the people in her isle finally moved down, she was able to get in her seat. By the time all the other police officers had shown up, they were pulling her hair & dragging her down the stairs and she kicked them because they were twisting her knees sideways and she was terrified they would damage the artaficial joints and she would need additional surgury.
All in all, do you really feel the police had to take things this far? To taser her? She was not threatening to anybody, just mouthy and standing up to what she believed were her rights, and yes, she shouldn't have done that. But once she was in her seat, which was her's which she paid for, the officer should just dropped it because the crowd was at that point getting very upset, but the officer just wouldn't let it go. And the additional police officers got into the frey and made it much worse. The police are getting too comfortable with using a taser and not using diplomacy and crowd control measures they supposedly were taught. All this because of someone sitting in the isle at a Badger game???
Another observer, three rows from the fracus claims the "rent a campus cop" blew this one. She did ask her to move out of the aisle and the lady kept telling her she has a ticket for this seat but no one would move down. The big bad rent-a-cop said well it looks like you need to go and tried to pull her arm to move her. The lady pulled her arm back and then that's when the rent-a-cop started yelling at her and pulled the mace out and stuck it in her face. When that did not work she called for back-up. The lady was able to get in her seat when a couple moved down into are row. The real cops arrived but by this time the lady was in tears and was curled up in her husbands arms. I think she was in shock and was not going to go anywhere with the cops. Then the 8 to 10 cops said it was show time and attacked the lady.
Having had my own up-close-and-personal such chats with the UWPD, I now stay miles away from the stadium on game day.
The question begs, though: If the UW cops are going to Tazer handicapped middle aged women during abysmal losing football, how many fans do they expect will show up for that November game versus Cal Poly?
Welcome back to the bad old days, which are already in progress.
Finally, another anniversary this week in sports. Forty years ago yesterday, track and field athletes Tommie Smith and John Carlos made their famous, silent gesture at the Mexico City Olympic Games.
They raised two black-gloved fists in a black power salute from the victory stand, during an Olympic gold medal ceremony.
With that in mind, the pair returned to Mexico City, scene of that controversial stance, and Smith recalled that historic moment with Helen William of the UK's Morning Star Online.
"Athletes have a responsibility to speak because they are in a position to make a difference and they have a responsibility to make that difference. That is a truth which remains to this day," he said.
On October 16 1968, Smith clocked a world record 19.83 seconds to take the 200 metres crown ahead of Australia's Peter Norman and his US team-mate Carlos, who won bronze.
With the eyes of the world watching, the US athletes took their moment on the medal podium to make a stand against US racial discrimination.
Smith and Carlos, both shoeless, bowed their heads and raised a gloved fist as The Star Spangled Banner played.
Payback was swift and enduring. They were kicked out of the Games, ostracised, ridiculed, threatened and left struggling to find work.
"1968 was not a protest of anger. It was a cry for freedom through the only avenue that I had open to me," Smith said. "It was the only secular route available to me. It was the only stand that I could take.
"There is no such thing as perfection, but it did make a difference then and now because young people can associate with it."
With this in mind, Smith, who has a Masters degree in sociology, visited London last week to talk to youngsters about how sport and education can counter gang culture in the run-up to the 2012 Olympics.
The countdown to 2012 has made his visit, backed by the British Library and London's Camden Council, all the more timely.
Sport, with its health, discipline and safety benefits, has now been pushed up the political agenda, but there is also a violent knife and gun crime culture.
Smith said: "Young people today in Britain do not have the international platform that Tommie Smith had, but they have a community. They have places where they can start to learn.
"It starts from the inside, in families, and it is up to us to help those who do not have families to help them grow." The 1968 Olympics arrived amid a tense mood of unrest in the US after the assassinations of Dr Martin Luther King Jr and Robert Kennedy earlier that year.
But to make a political stand at an international event came at a huge price.
Smith was fired from jobs and scholarships for his family were taken away.
Carlos remembers chopping furniture up for firewood and putting his children to sleep in front of the fire when he could not pay his electricity bills. The pressure of it all saw relatives of both men become very ill.
So, does Smith regret his actions or feel it made a difference?
One possible legacy, he accepts, is that the US is now prepared to consider electing its first black president.
Smith said: "Yes, that is true. I was on that trail, but I was one of many humans who were on that trail, through from Dr Martin Luther King Jr and back to slavery. There was a lot of others on the same path as me, especially in the human rights campaign."
Now, 40 years on, Smith is trying to carve out a new legacy for the impact that sport and education can create. He said: "I am a sort of in-your-face person.
"I will look right at the kid and let them know they have a responsibility to get to class, to be responsible to their parents and to treat others how they want to be treated.
"A child's brain is like a computer chip and you have to programme it and that can be done in the home or in the classroom or potentially in the street.
"You cannot grow roses in a rock. Children have to have people around them who will give them a chance to broaden themselves. It is called cultivating our youth."
Yes, I'm old enough to remember that day. You have to consider the life and times of 1968. Martin Luther King Jr. had been shot. resulting in riots across the ghettos of America. Bobby Kennedy had also been shot and protesters had been billy-clubbed with the whole world watching in Chicago. In that context, Carlos and Smith decided to say something about all that to the Olympic audience.
They were among my biggest childhood heroes. And the fact that both men are still alive and giving of themselves to young people is one of those sparkling moments that -- Sarah Palin notwithstanding -- truly make me proud to be an American.
Locally, besides the election that is, the big story is whether Wisconsin will show up for their night home game against Penn State. Coach Joe Pa gave the New York Times a blunt assessment of the Wisconsin Badgers' woes.
"They let Michigan off the hook, and I think they let Ohio State off the hook," Penn State's Hall of Fame coach said.
Penn State fans hope the Lions offense went conservative in last week's unstylish win at Purdue and will open things up again against Wisconsin. Galen Hall and Jay Paterno likely will expand the playbook, particularly with top wideout Jordan Norwood back, but quarterback Daryll Clark must continue to play smart on the road. Wisconsin reserve running back John Clay has provided a lift in each of the team's last two losses. Clay has to touch the ball more for the Badgers to have a chance at an upset.
Well, another wheel may have fallen off the Straight Talk Express last night when Sen. McCain actually found the common (or maybe, not common) decency to defend Sen. Obama during one of his fakey psuedo-town-hall-meetings last night in Minnesota. The GOP Presidential nominee was actually booed when he said, "I have to tell you he is a decent person and a person that you do not have to be scared of as president of the United States,"
My question is, where did they find so many angry people in Minnesota, yah dere hey? Aren't they all warm and fuzzy like Garrison Keillor? Another sportswriting colleague Steve Rushin once said that if it was up to Minnesotans, they'd be called the Prettty Darn Good Lakes, as in, "they're not so great, but..."
Nobody here is bitter or angry. As far as I can tell, nobody in Minnesota ever gets riled up about anything. Minnesotans really are, as the expression goes, "Minnesota nice." They are beyond nice. They make Mister Rogers look like ####.
If you drove your car at 85 miles per hour into a Minnesota family's house, their reaction, once they pulled you out of the wreckage and gave you some hot cocoa, would be to apologize for building their house in a location that you would eventually want to drive through.
Which may be why no Minnesotan has ever been elected president.
The hometown Minneapolis Star-Tribune reports, Coleman told reporters that after a day of fasting and prayer for Yom Kippur, a "time of fasting, soul-searching and refocusing on your life," he had decided to change the tone of his campaign.
"We're in a place that I don't think any of us of this generation, this time, have ever seen before," Coleman said. "At times like this, politics should not add to the negativity. It should lift people up with hope and a confident vision for the future."
Almost wryly, Coleman added that he also "decided I was not all that interested in returning to Washington for another six years based on the judgment of the voters that I was not as bad as the other guys. I want voters to vote for me and not against the other folks."
Security is expected to be somewhat tighter than usual for Vice-Presidential nominee Sarah Pailn, who Dave Barry once observed combines "the fresh-faced feisty toughness of a small-town Alaska hockey-mom snowmobiling mayor governor who can kill and field-butcher a mature grizzly bear using only a nail file and her teeth."
As reported here previously, the governor of Alaska and the nation's “most popular hockey mom,'' will join the winner of the Flyers' regional search for the “Ultimate Hockey Mom” contest and drop the puck at center ice.
Writing to the board last summer, San Francisco resident Paul J. Miller expressed a view that many others had raised: "Attention should be given to mental health assistance," he wrote, "not paying tens of millions of dollars to contractors who are just trying to milk money from citizens."
On the other hand, the Psychiatric Foundation of Northern California has supported the idea, contending that the effectiveness of barriers has been "dramatic" at such landmarks as the Empire State Building and Eiffel Tower.
The group also cites a study of 515 people who were stopped from jumping off the Golden Gate Bridge. It concluded that 94% of them were alive or had died naturally long after their thwarted attempts.
In its 14-1 vote Friday, the agency's directors determined that a net would be the least visible of five alternatives.
The others included extending the height of the bridge's railing from four to 12 feet -- an option widely criticized as too obtrusive.
All of the possibilities -- except doing nothing -- would cost $40 million to $50 million.
Still, most of the players on these teams for these photo-ops are Republicans -- call it a Charles Barkley anti-populism. When the Atlanta Braves were summoned to the White House for their photo-op moment with then-President Bill Clinton, relief pitcher Mark Wohlers leaned over to say, "Sir, I think I'm the only one up here who actually voted for you."
If that wasn't funny enough, the Mark Wohlers Obsession page reveals that when the Braves' pitcher met Public Enemy rapper Chuck D, he told his child, "Austyn, dear, don't use any of the words that Chuck D uses. Only Daddycan use those words..."
When stupid hair is outlawed, only outlaws will have stupid hair
Keith Olbermann has already beaten me to creating a Worst Person In The World list, featured nightly on MSNBC's Countdown, but I'd still like to nominate Lincoln Middle School Principal Curtis Davis in Manatee County, Florida for the honors.
12 year old Zachary Sharples, his father and his 4-year-old brother trucked to the barber shop last weekend and all got Mohawks in solidarity with the Tampa Bay Rays winning their first playoff series.
That proved his undoing when he showed up for class at Lincoln Middle School in Palmetto in Manatee County on Monday: He was summarily dumped into an in-school suspension for violating the dress-code.
"I was in the gym, waiting for the bell to ring, and the principal came up to me and said we are not allowed to have mohawks in school," Zachary told the Suncoast News.
The principal brought him to the guidance office, and the counselor confided in Zachary that she too was a Rays fan, but that mohawks violate school policy and Zach had to pay the price.
"I had to go into something called camp," he said. "It was one room, the whole day and I couldn't do anything. I just had to sit there."
There is a happy ending of sorts as young Zach's family is moving and his new school won't have a problem with his rather ugly haircut. Still, what kind of #### bans a haircut? If he thought the mohawk would become a distraction to learning, then what was the suspension and subsequent media storm that followed it?
It was a painful reminder for me of when my former step-daughter was in school. It seemed as if each year brought a new litany of rules and regulations -- each one intended to instill some kind of discipline and respect. These "law and order" types never have a clue that they're just making fools out of themselves and instead teaching the kids that too many grownups have an enormous stick up their collective ####.
Why do so many self-styled idiots make rule after rule and restriction after restriction upon youngsters -- forgetting that they themselves were young and stupid once upon a time? Because they can, of course. As Eddie Cochran told us all fifty years ago, "I'd like to help you, son, but you're too young to vote."
Of course, the national TV networks aren't especially thrilled to see Tampa Bay and not the New York Yankees in post-season play. The Daily Commercial, a Lake Country, Florida paper sums up their horror.
Fox television executives are likely sticking pins in a Tampa Bay bobblehead, hoping to keep the Rays out of the World Series. In the sordid world of television ratings, a Philadelphia-Tampa Bay World Series would be the worst thing since "Cop Rock." Who knows? By beating the Red Sox in six games to set up the "dreaded" Tampa Bay-Philadelphia World Series, maybe the Rays can force broadcasters into joining everyone in 2008, instead of dwelling on the past.
And since those Tampa Bay Rays are facing the Boston Red Sox, it's surely time for the provincial and parochial East Coastie media to start looking down their noses at the hopelessly tradition-barren Floridians. The Boston Globe's Dan Shaughnessy kicks off the snobbery.
It's not the Yankees this time. No century of history, no House That Ruth Built, no famous facade in the backdrop. It's not Cleveland with Bob Feller throwing out the first pitch. It's not Chicago with ancient references to Eddie Collins, Black Sox, South Siders, and cheapskate Charles Comiskey.
No. We're a little thin on tradition this time. The Red Sox are playing the Tampa Bay Rays in the American League Championship Series and it reminds me o####raig Nettles line when he found himself playing for the San Diego Padres after a long run with the Yankees. Dressed in his Padres UPS-driver uniform, pining for his old Yankee pinstripes, Nettles said, "You really notice it on Old Timer's Day. In New York we had Joe DiMaggio, Mickey Mantle, and Whitey Ford walking into Yankee Stadium. Here it's Nate Colbert coming back trying to sell you a used car."
Still, the column did contain a humorous recollection of the time they tried to have an NHL preseason hockey in the Rays' home dome, Tropicana Field -- then called the Suncoast Dome.
The Bruins' Chris "Knuckles" Nilan was one of the first skaters to notice a problem with the ice surface. The sheet was soft and chippy and green slime oozed from exposed pipes when players skated during warm-ups. Fans booed during an hourlong delay while Dome officials tried to correct the problem. Finally, the game was canceled. More boos. But it was a good move in the name of safety.
Had the game been played, said wise guy Nilan, "They would be calling this the Knuckledome."
Does anybody else out there think that it's waaaaaaay too early for the start of hockey season anyway? I mean, what's the hurry? It's just a sad reminder that summer is gone and we might as well start finding our gloves and boots.
Still, the Detroit Free Press' Drew Sharp believes that the game's return could be a tonic to a city in the crosshairs of the economic meltdown.
For a few hours Thursday night, Detroit wasn't home to a scandal that will land its former mayor in jail or increasingly distressing economic news from the automotive industry. It wasn't home to bad baseball or even worse football.
There was finally something worth smiling about, something that didn't instinctively make you recoil in apprehension at the mere mention of the city's name.
The Red Wings struck one final pose with the Stanley Cup, then immediately distanced themselves from what was the old achievement and what's now the new objective. It's the lingering aftertaste of champagne and echoes of worship from appreciative fans four months after the last game that contributes to "Stanley Cup hangover."
But if they're seeking a motivational underdog they can embrace, they need look no further than their own city.
The Tigers were a disaster. The Lions remain a disaster.
Michigan football struggles through a transitional period while the Pistons introduced another new coach while returning pretty much the same roster.
And there remained pockets of empty seats at Joe Louis Arena on Thursday, more evidence of the devastating effects of the economic climate. It's not a question of taking the Wings and their remarkable consistency -- 17 straight playoff appearances -- for granted. It's simply a matter of money becoming tighter.
"[Jones] is completely idiotic in this situation," began Smith, who once had his own Quite Frankly show on ESPN.
He was just warming up.
"I’m really ticked off right now," Smith continued. "Because one of the things that I think a lot of people can’t say, but obviously I can say being an African-American, I don’t see too many white players getting into these kinds of situations."
Smith outlined three years of "trials and tribulations" for A. "P" Jones and one major "second chance" given by Cowboys owner Jerry Jones.
"It’s entirely embarrassing," Smith said. "As an African-American, I’m really getting sick and tired of having to sit up here and give some kind of explanation as to why these guys find themselves in this situation.
"My last comment: White players are not finding themselves in these situations. We’ve got to start taking a look at ourselves."
Finally, there's certainly been a deluge of race-baiting by the Republicans and their friends, since they're terrified one of THEM(and you know what I mean) might actually get elected President, but I would still like to explain something to people who saw the angry white folks frothing at the mouth in Wisconsin on their television sets.
Waukesha County, where that election rally took place, is the home of white flight in my home state of Wisconsin. It's the home of Congressman F. James "what are all those brown people doing here?" Sensenbrenner. And it's where all the Milwaukeeans moved to get away from them goshdarned coloured folks and so they're pretty darn upset about it, you betcha.
Still, just mentioning that squeaky Reptile's name (and yes, his voice has always been that irritating) brought to mind a column by a colleague and former editor Joel McNally.
McNally once wrote that Sensenbrenner was the kind of person who never realized calling himself F. James gave his opponents a ready-made campaign slogan.
In this economy, it might be a buyers' market as many will be forced to sell low.
So, which baseball team will be the winner of the Manny Ramirez sweepstakes? Your first guess might be the team that always throws money at the game's top free agent to be, the former Best-Team-Money-Can-Buy, the New York Yankees.
The NY Daily News' Lisa Swan and Jon Lewin, while bemoaning the cancellation of a proposed closing ceremonies event at Yankee Stadium, cite the following reasons why the Steinbrenners will want Manny.
He’s perceived as a winner, and it’s in the Yankees’ best interest to have Manny, not Torre, as the face of the Dodgers’ success. Plus, the hope is that Ramirez will do for the Yanks what he did for the Dodgers
He puts fannies in the seats, and will get people talking about the Yanks again.
The Yanks need a hitter who does well wih runners in scoring position. Manny is a monster at the plate.
Manny is a Yankee-killer, and that’s the type of guy who usually gets a free agent contract from the team. Look at Carl Pavano - all he had was one World Series against the Yanks, and he got $40 million!
He’s getting older, and wants a lot of money. Those factors are usually irresistible to Brian Cashman.
Signing Ramirez could stick it to the Dodgers, Red Sox, and Mets. How can the Yanks pass that trifecta up?
The baseball playoffs will finally resume tonight with the Phils and Dodgers squaring off in Philly. If you're thinking of attending, the Philadelphia Daily News' Paul Vigna reveals that a ticket to Game 1 will be the least expensive of any of the NLCS games to be played at Citizens Bank Park.
Sean Pate, of StubHub, said yesterday that prices had slowly decreased during the week.
"If I look at the last few days, it has been creeping down," he said. "Monday it was at $238, Tuesday at $241, Wednesday $239. Probably [today] you'll see $225 potentially. But again, that's going to be the steady average. As far as getting in, the low end probably will be in the $120 range.
"What might be interesting to look at is see what the tickets are listed for, maybe even in the morning. That's when you start to see some people getting desperate and wanting to get rid of these tickets."
I know thousands of you must have had a World Series with the Cubs on your bucket list—things to see before you croak.
Sorry, my friends. It doesn't matter how much lipstick you put on this goat.
Your Cubs are still baaaaad.
Wednesday was the 63rd anniversary of the last World Series game won by the Cubs, for those of you at the assisted-living center in your "Party Like It's 1945" shirts and funny hats.
Tradition matters. But don't you worry, if Mark Cuban does buy the Cubs, he will make sure that they continue to be total losers in the very same way his basketball team is.
Still, in the spirit of equal time, he also finds time and space to slam the crosstown White Sox for being the first team to lose a playoff series to the fledgling Tampa Bay Rays, which he equates with, "a little like becoming the first Democrat or Republican to lose a presidential election to the Green Party."
If you have some spare cash and are looking for that final piece of Brett Favre memorabilia to complete your collection, the Appleton Post-Crescent reports that the former Green Bay Packers quarterback’s home is on the market.
There’s no “for sale” sign in front of the ranch-style home at 2085 Shady Lane, at the corner of Shady Lane and Morris Avenue, but it’s listed by local real estate agency Micoley and Company for $475,000. The nearly 3,000-square-foot home includes four bedrooms and three baths, according to Micoley’s Web site.
Say what you will about Adam "Don't Call Me Pacman No Mo'" Jones, who was involved in a fight with his Cowboys-installed bodyguard early Wednesday morning. On Mike and Mike In The Morning, Mark "Roc Hoover" Schlereth noted that Wednesdays are usually the day for special teams practice EARLY...so the former Pac-person was out in yet another bar fight just hours before he was due at practice.
I think he really turned the corner," Arora said over the phone. "I don't know how accurate everything that's being reported is. As far as I'm concerned, he's a wonderful person. He knows my family.
I helped him as much as I could. Unless somebody tells me that this is true, I'll stand by him. If this is true, unfortunately it's a step back, and there's going to be consequences."
Finally, the country's most famous hockey mom will be at center ice this weekend, also in Philly. (Editor's note: Sheesh, as David Letterman might say -- if he was still talking to McCain, that is -- this is almost too much entertainment!)
"We are very excited she has accepted our offer and we are very proud of the publicity she is generating for hockey moms and the sport of hockey," said Comcast-Spectacor chairman Ed Snider, who runs the Flyers.
Last month, after Palin spoke in her acceptance speech about being a hockey mom, the Flyers launched a search for the area's "ultimate hockey mom." The winner will be on the ice with Palin for the faceoff.
John Shivers is in his 25th season as a journalist -- for the least two years producing and hosting a funk music show -- Back In The Day w/ Johnny Rasta -- on WSUM 91.7FM Madison, WI. Started in radio as a Morning Sports Reporter and Late Night DJ with WMAD 92FM. Served a quarter-centu ry as a sportswriter most recently, for the Milwaukee Shepherd Express, including stints as a beat reporter covering Major League Baseball (Milwaukee Brewers) and college football and basketball (Wisconsin, Marquette & UW-Milwaukee) . Born on January 5, 1957, John is the great-grandso n of slaves who first homesteaded in Wisconsin in the 1840's. He holds a BA in Broadcast Journalism (2001) from UW-Milwaukee with a Minor in Africology. John, now single, resides in Madison, WI with his beloved kittie: Black Jack (McDowell)
