’Cats on top; Leaf down; Masters odd
Game On! bloggers Tom Weir and Reid Cherner are one and done every week. NCAA tournament
RC: John Calipari persuaded teenagers to put others first, play unselfishly and believe the whole is better than the sum of its parts. Every parent of a teen has to be in slack-jaw awe of that.
You can vilify his past and predict his future if you want. But the man is untouchable in the present. He should have won every coaching award out there.
TW: Those who think the NBA should raise its minimum age from 19 to 20 might want to reconsider after Monday night.
If the college game went from one and done to two and through, helping Calipari keep his best talent longer, Kentucky would soon be adding a new wing to its trophy case. Ryan Leaf
TW: When Leaf signed his $31 million deal as a San Diego Chargers rookie, he said, “I’m looking forward to a 15-year career, a couple of trips to the Super Bowl and a parade through downtown San Diego.”
Instead, he had 15 minutes of fame and now faces a couple of trips to court and a daily parade through the cellblock. It’s as if he put a bounty on himself and collected with a vengeance.
RC: There are no guarantees in life. In 1998, you needed a microscope and a scalpel to separate Leaf and Peyton Manning as quarterbacks. Now, 14 years later, one gets checks totaling $100 million and the other steals painkillers from medicine cabinets.
That is a fall so steep that we can only close our eyes and hope he survives the landing. Sadly, that also comes with no guarantee. The Masters
TW: It figures to be an odd-looking Masters, with this year’s early spring already taking the blooms off the dogwoods and azaleas. And with rain and lightning possibly interrupting play Thursday and Friday, Amen Corner won’t be the only challenge.
Tiger Woods won in those conditions in 2005, when he opened with a 74. And if anyone has learned how to weather a storm, he’s the guy.
RC: Not everyone might be thrilled to see Woods win a fifth Masters and a 15th major.
For instance, he might get a little nervous if Jack Nicklaus offered to season his food at the champions dinner or serves him a beverage in an open container. Ubaldo Jimenez/new Orleans Saints
RC: Saints players should hope that Bud Selig somehow becomes NFL commish overnight.
Cleveland Indians pitcher Jimenez put his own bounty on Troy Tulowitzki and will miss one start.
Some Saints will be lucky to get away missing just one month.
When you get called to the principal’s office, you hope to draw the benevolent dictator, not the guy slapping a yardstick across the desktop.
TW: The worrisome part of the Saints aftermath is the talk that players who cashed in on bounties conceivably could be guilty of criminal intent.
If every athlete who ever committed a chop block or threw a beanball gets in the legal system’s cross hairs, well, we might as well hand over sports to the lawyers.