Matt Walsh is a Dirty Liar

Dan's Thoughts on Sports

No Country For Old Men...

by Matt Brannen

It was an interesting week of "comings and goings" along the coaching sidelines in the National Basketball Association. First, legendary coach Pat Riley retired, this time as the coach of the Miami Heat. Then, Larry Brown resurfaces for another go around in "The Association" as Charlotte's head coach. To me, what these moves underscore are the idea that "Old coaches never die. They just resurface a couple of years later with another team."

It would be hard to argue that a tenure with a team could have ended worse than Larry Brown's in New York. Brown was unceremoniously booted from the organization by then President Isiah Thomas (who has, ironically, found the same thing happening to him after being replaced by former Pacers executive Donnie Walsh), culminating in a long disagreement over the dissolution of Brown's contract. Shortly after the money squabble was resolved, Larry was named to a front office post with Philadelphia. While Larry kept quiet on such things for quite some time, the word started leaking out in the media that he wouldn't mind getting back into the league as a head coach. When Philadelphia had an unexpected strong showing with underrated coach Maurice Cheeks in this year's playoffs, it looked like the door wouldn't re-open for Larry in "the City of Brotherly Love," one of his past stomping grounds. So, Larry went on the media offensive and made himself available for any potential spot (pro or college), just stopping short of indicating his interest in coaching in a pee-wee league. Ultimately, Michael Jordan and the Charlotte Bobcats came calling and Larry did what Larry does: go into a press conference and talk about how happy he is to be with (fill in the blank) organization.

http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/news?slug=dw-brownbobcats042908&prov=yhoo&type=lgns

On the other side of the proverbial coin, Pat Riley stepped down as head coach of the Miami Heat. Riley's history is no less sordid or controversial than Brown's. A brief coaching career recap: Riley gets elevated to Lakers' head coach after Magic Johnson (allegedly) blows up Paul Westhead's regime and wins a bunch of championships with the "Showtime" Lakers of the 1980s. Tired of the pace and needing to slow down some, "Riles" does a year or two in the NBC studio as an NBA analyst before the emerging Knicks come calling. Over his tenure, Riley gets the Knicks to their (allegedly) thuggish brink of the NBA Finals, never quite able to overcome Michael Jordan and the Bulls. Tired of the pace and needing to slow down some, "Riles" faxes in his letter of resignation to the Knicks organization, taking a front office spot with Miami. After watching Stan Van Gundy build up a championship contender with Dwayne Wade and Shaquille O'Neal, Riley (allegedly) boots Van Gundy and wins another championship. However, only a few years later, Miami has been unable to keep its core group together and the Heat muster 15 wins in 2007-2008. The next step? Riley announces that he is tired of the pace, needs to slow down, and resigns as head coach. Is the pattern even slighly visable?

http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/news?slug=dw-rileyresigns042808&prov=yhoo&type=lgns

A friend of mind remarked not long ago, regarding Brown and Riley, that "coaches coach. It's all they know how to do" and I suppose that is true. However, why can't coaches be straight with fans and the media? It seems like Larry Brown and Pat Riley have given the same speech (coming and/or going) for the last 15 years. My money, should Miami get good in the next year or two, is that "Riles" will return himself as head coach or move onto another team that is close to winning a championship. Can I predict where Larry Brown will end up? Nope and I'm not even going to try. What I do know is that Larry will probably tell everyone, if/when things don't work in Charlotte, that he "needs some time with (his) family" and will ultimately resurface in a year or so with another franchise or college program. I just hope that Brown and Riley would be honest and indicate that they won't be coaching for now, but we should expect them to show up somewhere again in the near future. If they did this, I would have more respect for these two obvious basketball lifers.

Pac-Man Fever

by Matt Brannen

As a child of the 1980s, I have a certain fondness for the decade of my formative years. Whether it was listening to Journey albums (my female cousin, who was my neighbor, had a huge crush on lead singer Steve Perry, okay?) or playing Atari 2600 (come on, "Pitfall" is still a top 10 all time video game, regardless of what system you play), I connected to that decade far more so than my high school years in the early 1990s. How is this connected to sports? Well, not really. Yet, Adam "Pac-Man" Jones was traded to the Dallas Cowboys over the weekend and the move underscored how little leverage pro teams seem to have on their players (Okay, so the 1980s motif wasn't that well connected, but it was fun writing about it anyways).

http://sports.yahoo.com/nfl/news?slug=ap-pacmantrade&prov=ap&type=lgns

All NFL fans realize that Jones has been no stranger to American jurisprudence over the last couple of years, ultimately drawing a season long suspension from NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell. It wasn't long ago that Jones became eligible for reinstatement and the "Pac-Man To Dallas" rumors began heating up. This culminated with Jones granting a rare interview to former Cowboy Michael Irvin on his Dallas radio show, where Jones professed his love for "America's Team." The one sticking point: Tennesee held Jones' contract. So, how could "Pac-Man" gobble his way to the Lone Star State? Simply refuse to file for reinstatement. Yep, that's right. Simply sit out...longer. Prior to the NFL Draft, Jones' representatives told the Titans franchise that he had no interest in being reinstated...unless he was traded to Dallas. Then, he would presumably file the papers to get back into the league. In essence, Jones and his representatives held Tennesee hostage and the ransome payoff was in Big D.

Near the end of this past season, the Titans made it clear to Jones and the rest of the league, through well-respected head coach Jeff Fisher, that the franchise had 'washed' its collective 'hands' with Jones. So, going back to Tennesee wasn't really an option. However, "Pac-Man" was happy to use this as leverage to absolutely obliterate any value he might have by indicating that he wouldn't come back (perhaps planning for another stint in pro wrestling, I don't know), unless he was traded to his team of choice. To a degree, Jones had created his own "no trade clause." While I recognize the ingenius nature of this response, it must be noted that Jones wasn't being vastly underpaid by an organization that refused to rework his contract. This is a guy that has come in front of the legal system numerous times with some of the instances involving alleged violence and gun play, which may be responsible for the serious injury of some in attendance. When Dallas traded for Jones, he got exactly what he wanted and, well, what he may not have deserved.

I find it interesting that more pro sports franchises don't play "hard ball" with malcontent players, like Cincinatti is currently doing with standout WR and "Hall of Fame" motormouth Chad Johnson. Of course, there are cases in the past where teams have refused to back down, like Tampa Bay with Keyshawn Johnson and Philadelphia with Terrell Owens. However, both of those players (and now Jones) got big contracts and all the "love" from their new team (ahem, Dallas) that they felt they weren't getting in their old locales. I guess I am interested in seeing if Cincinatti is successful is forcing Johnson to shut up and play out his contract (or simply trade him to Dallas too). While I think that is unlikely to happen for any number of reasons, it has to give us sports fans hope that players like "Pac-Man" don't have unlimited professional "lives" like video game players tried so hard to achieve with his namesake.

The Golf Guys

by Matt Brannen

Wow...I never would have expected that I would receive such a reply from Dan Cassavaugh (or anyone, for that matter) on my column regarding the sports media's love for Tiger Woods. Given Dan's lengthy response, I think it is necessary to bring up a few counterpoints:

1) I still don't understand why Woods participated in The Masters while injured. As I mentioned in my previous column, if his injury was so significant that surgery was immediately announced THE DAY AFTER THE EVENT, why didn't he sit out this year so he could have the surgery and continue his recovery? Furthermore, would Tiger have even had surgery if he had won? While we will never know the answer, it is an interesting question to pose. Why? He must have known that his knee was bothering him and/or his performance prior to The Masters. Beyond that, the timing of the announcement submarined any additional mainstream media attention that the actual champion (Trevor Immelman) would receive because all the networks were running their obligatory "Can Tiger Come Back?" features. By Monday afternoon following his win Sunday, Immelman must have felt great being asked time after time how it felt to be The Masters champion and then, right after, a series of questions about Tiger Woods and Woods' injury.

2) Dan's golf "challenge".....Um, okay. In return, I challenge readers to throw 3 consecutive strikes in bowling. There. This is the old argument about golf, bowling, billiards, and other activities, for example, compared to basketball, baseball, and football. In my view, there is a definite difference between "skill" and athleticism. Pro golfers, bowlers, and pool players will have skills far beyond anything that I will ever have for their activities. However, in my mind, that does not necessarily make them "athletes." It does make them highly skilled and I mentioned, in my original column, that there is no question that Woods is the #1 golfer in the world. Dan's claim that Tiger Woods is more dominant than Michael Jordan is just absurd to me and I won't comment further except to write that, in my mind, this is like indicating Kobayashi (the long-time Hot Dog eating champion) is more dominant than Tom Brady. Moreover, I took far bigger issue in my original column with the media's outrageous predictions that Woods was going to win every major event and tournament that he entered. I never mentioned anything about Woods having a "bad" or "great" year. Ah, good old misdirection, a classic rhetorical strategy.

3) LeBron James....While I have not written about this at "The Sports Guys" blog prior to this, I actually think James is far more overexposed by the national sports media than Woods. At the least, Woods has been the best performer in his activity and won major championships (as Dan so proudly mentioned in his reply). However, I would argue that James and Woods are both products of the same corporate sponsorship-national sports media alliance. Major multi-national corporations like Nike and Gatorade have invested millions upon millions of dollars in advertising of both spokesman for their products. Major national sports networks, like ESPN, have accepted these large sums in ad revenue. So, do you think we are going to see scads of Tiger Woods and LeBron James in highlights, features, and in every possible way? Absolutely. As much as I would like to think that it is, this isn't rocket science.

So, in summary, my "beef" is not really with Tiger Woods. It is with the sports media that coddles and promotes him, win, lose, or behave boorishly. Pro golfers are highly skilled at their activity and can do many things on the golf course that I cannot do. However, this does not make a golfer more dominant than athletes in pro sports. Most importantly, the sports media needs to do what it is supposed to do: report and not fawn, whether it be Woods, James, or Brett Favre. Is that really too much to ask? You can discuss this while I try to hit a green 180 yards away with an 8 iron.

Re: Tiger Woods, The Greatest Golfer...

Matt:

Tiger Woods is more dominant in his sport than Michael Jordan was in basketball. He is more dominant than Babe Ruth in baseball and more feared than Barry Bonds in 2001.

The reason why people that don't follow golf unless its a major don't realize this is because they don't understand what it takes to win a PGA tournament or a Major.

A "good year" is getting a couple wins and a few top 10 finishes. A "good year" is making the cut more than you miss it. A "good year" is finishing in the top 20 on the money list.

Tiger Woods secured a "good year" five weeks into this season.

A "great year" is finding yourself with a handful of wins, making nearly every cut, finishing most tournaments in the top 10, gettign in the top 10 on the money list and, now, being in contention for the FedEx cup.

Tiger Woods secured a "great year" five weeks into this season.

He has never blown a lead in a his life and when he is in the hunt, the rest of the field collapses in fear.

I agree that the sport media has overblown the knee injury story, but that's the result of 24 hour sports programming. There has to be something to fill that time. On a slow Monday and start to the week when the only thing happening is April baseball and the end of the NBA season (oh yeah, and the NHL playoffs that no one cares about except the people at NBC), there has to be something to talk about and report.

Tiger Woods saved golf from the purgatory of post-Jack. Between Nicklaus and Woods, can you recall a consistently dominant player? The closest was David Duval.

Historically, the World's No. 1 holds that title for maybe two years and then flip-flops until they fall into relative obscurity. Tiger held that title for the longest time in the history of the tour and when he lost it, it took him three weeks to get it back and pull away.

Sergio? Vijay? Els? Mickelson? Furyk?

Those are the five names that came closest to threatening Tiger's dominance. Vijay took it over for a day. Els was relevant for three weeks. Furyk is consistent but can't take it to the next level and Sergio hasn't been able to find his game since he choked on the 18th at Carnoustie.

How many of those names did you hear on Sunday? Mickelson for two holes until he, too, fell apart.

Media treats Tiger Woods like a God because he is a living legend in golf. Moreover, Tiger never admits to his body ailing. The media, therefor, does that job for him. We all want to know why he wasn't playing his best, or why he looked like he was laboring during the Masters. Tiger never once mentioned his knee, but when he went into surgery, the media went crazy.

I think that people like Matt, our wonderful CEO, wouldn't have a problem if the media frenzy was at the same level if Lebron James shot 10% from the field and then sat out the rest of the playoffs because he was playing with a torn ACL.

The bottom line: people that don't play golf don't respect golf. They do this because they don't understand it.

The people that do play golf regularly on their low-level public courses and still can't break 100, or 90, or 80 understand how difficult and athletic one must be to create shots and pull off some of the feats Tiger Woods and other members of the PGA tour can and do.

Tiger hit a shot out of the trees 181 yards onto the green with an 8-iron.

Those who don't think golf takes skill and it shouldn't be respected, I have a challenge for you.

Place a golf ball on a tee in the middle of the fairway looking at a monster green 180 yards away. Now, take an 8-iron and try to hit that green.

Next, when you realize that you can't do it in perfect conditions, picture Tiger hitting 180 yards off of pine-needles, over a tree and onto a postage-stamp-sized green.

Come back to me and maybe we can have a real discussion.

Sincerely,

Dan Cassavaugh, Sports Guys golf expert

Tiger Woods, The Greatest Golfer, Athlete, And Person Ever?

by Matt Brannen

Okay, so let's get the disclaimer out of the way right up front. I am not a golf fan. I have played golf. Okay, a 9 hole "executive" course but I think that counts. I don't watch golf on TV and no one is going to mistake me for Scott Van Pelt (or Dan Cassavaugh for that matter) when it comes to golf knowledge. However, this I know: The fawning by the media over Tiger Woods has to stop. After the way that Woods' knee injury story has been covered the last few days, you would think that the entire sports world has been brought to its knees. If you don't think so, then you haven't watched "Sports Center" for 3 minutes (ESPN News continually ran the Woods' injury story as "Breaking News" for hours on its crawl during Monday night) or read the newspaper/Internet.

http://www.usatoday.com/sports/columnist/brennan/2008-04-16-tiger_N.htm

Here's a question to think about: If Woods was injured so severely that he needed surgery just days after the event, why did he even compete in the first place? To me, this is not the "gutty" effort that the Tiger sycophants want you to think that it is. More likely, it is Woods and his handlers thinking that he was so much better than the entire field that he could win the most prestigious golf event in the world with a bad wheel. Or, unlike what the Tiger backers want you to think, this is an "excuse" why the great Tiger Woods lost The Masters to a guy (Trevor Immelman) that was significantly ill within the last year and missed a cut, well, in his last tournament prior to "the event with a tradition like no other." So, which is it "Tiger Woods Nation"?

http://sports.yahoo.com/golf/pga/news?slug=ap-woodssurgery-reax&prov=ap&type=lgns

Don't get me wrong...Woods is clearly the #1 golfer in the world. However, this idea that he is somehow the most "dominant athlete" in sports is nonsense. Earlier in the year, golf analysts were running their gums about how Woods would not only win all the majors, but he would win every tournament he entered this year. By the way, just as a point of fact, Woods hadn't won every tournament he entered this year prior to The Masters. Oops. I guess it was the bad knee, huh? Or, like several years ago, the swing and/or the swing coach? Or, when necessary, people taking pictures. There always seems to be some explanation from Woods and, most importantly, his supporters in the media when Tiger doesn't win.

So, the Tiger Woods obsessed sports media will have to sit on the sideline for the next 4 to 6 weeks, drink their Tigerade, and save up all of its pro-Tiger superlatives until Woods comes back. When he does, don't be surprised that it will be portrayed as the biggest thing to happen in golf (and sports) since someone decided to put dimples on a little white ball and smack it around with a flat iron stick. If you're not a golf or Woods fan like me, enjoy the golden sound of silence while it lasts.