Mike Bianchi: Agent deserves award for coaches’ deals.
Running off at the typewriter …
You know how Sports Illustrated always picks its Sportsperson of the Year and it usually goes to somebody like LeBron James, Serena Williams, Tom Brady or some other amazing athlete who has accomplished an incredible feat?
Well, this year nobody has accomplished a more extraordinary deed than Jimmy Sexton, the incomparable sports agent who represents former FSU coach Jimbo Fisher and new FSU coach Willie Taggart. Just consider for a moment the strings Sexton pulled and the money he made for two coaches who both had losing conference records this year.
Sexton somehow parlayed the Seminoles’ worst season in nearly four decades into the richest contract in college football history (10 years, $75 million from Texas A&M) for Fisher, who went 5-6 before bailing out in Tallahassee. If that weren’t miraculous enough, Sexton simultaneously persuaded FSU to nearly double Taggart’s salary to $5 million a year after he spent a single season at Oregon, where he went 7-5 (4-5 in the Pac-12 and 0-3 against ranked teams).
Welcome to the whacked-out world of college football, where our fine institutions of higher
earning are spending money like lame-duck politicians.
In most professions, you have to actually earn a huge pay raise by having a great year on the job.
In college football, all you need to do is hire Jimmy Sexton.
SHORT STUFF: I love UCF sophomore lightning-bolt Adrian Killins, but he probably shouldn’t have told reporters earlier this week, “SEC football doesn’t have a lot of speed, so Auburn hasn’t seen any speed the way we have here. I would say they’re in for a rude awakening.” This is what you call poking the hibernating bear, and I’m sure coach Scott Frost already has had a stern conversation with Killins that went something like this, “Hey, A.K., you want to transfer to Nebraska?” …
Sports super agent Scott Boras calls the Miami Marlins the “pawn shop” of Major League Baseball. If that’s the case, then Giancarlo Stanton is the 3-carat diamond engagement ring that was pawned to the Yankees for $57 and a used lawnmower. … Steve Spurrier, whose son Steve
Spurrier Jr. is the quarterback coach for Western Kentucky, will be the honorary captain for the Hilltoppers in today’s Auto Nation Cure Bowl matchup with Georgia State (2:30 p.m. kickoff at Camping World Stadium). Ironically, Spurrier’s high school team in Johnson City., Tenn., had the same nickname as Western Kentucky. “How about that?” the Head Ball Coach said and chuckled earlier this week. “Once again, I’m the captain of the Hilltoppers.” … Kudos to the Orlando Magic Youth Foundation Golf Tournament for raising more than $215,000 for at-risk kids in Central Florida earlier this week. Good times for a great cause. …
Big news in the TV sports media world earlier this week when it was announced that ESPN is buying all of Fox Sports Regional Networks, including Fox Sports Florida, which televises all of the Orlando Magic’s games. Now that they’re under the ESPN umbrella, isn’t it only a matter of time before Magic broadcasters start talking politics and tweeting about President Trump ?… Tampa Bay Bucs Hall-of-Famer Warren Sapp, accused of sexual harassment against a former female employee of the NFL Network, admitted he gave sex toys to female employees but said that doesn’t constitute sexual harassment in his world. Sadly, he’s probably right. You see, Sapp’s is a world of entitled pro athletes who have no sense of etiquette and decorum and don’t know what the rules are in a real business environment outside the domain of a misogynistic, testosteronecharged NFL locker room. … The bad news: Orlando Magic star rookie Jonathan Isaac has missed 17 games now with a sprained ankle. The good news: He’s not seeing
Grant Hill’s doctor. … Did you see where Lou Holtz, the Hall of Fame football coach and fellow Central Floridian, filed a federal lawsuit in Orlando suing The Daily Beast over an article that claimed he called immigrants “deadbeats” last year at the Republican National Convention? In related news, Holtz is starting to look more and more like Granny Clampett. … Is it good news or bad news that Orlando City didn’t lose anybody in this week’s MLS expansion draft?
MIKEY LIKES: Jaguars over Texans by 7, Dolphins over Bills by 5, Falcons over Bucs by 9, Patriots over Steelers by 11, Pawn Shop over Marlins by three gold-teeth fillings from a dead relative.