5-at-10: Questions everywhere about Sandusky, the draft, baseball and motorcycle etiquette

Monday, June 25, 2012

We've got a lot of questions today. Lots. In fact, we're looking for a slew of answers and we feel strongly that the 5-at-10 folks will have a slew of responses.

From the "Talks Too Much" Studios, here we go...

Sandusky

photo Former Penn State University assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky, center, arrives at the Centre County Courthouse in Bellefonte, Pa., Friday, June 22, 2012.

The news Friday night of a verdict in the Jerry Sandusky case was not unlike the unstoppable and far-reaching ripples after dropping a pebble into a still puddle.

And our faith in the judicial system was rewarded, and a post-trial interview this weekend with one of the jurors revealed that each of the eight victims who took the stand were viewed as credible and that the stories and claims were so similar and consistent that Sandusky obviously followed a set pattern. There is still a lot to be hashed out, though, as our ace columnist Mark Wiedmer expertly wrote today.

In fact, in addition to investigations of the cover-up by the Penn State employees, there will be serious looks into the Sandusky family (remember one of their adopted sons made abuse allegations Friday) and several others who turned a blind eye to the abuse. And that indifference may very well have made them complicit. There also will be a slew of civil suits filed against the Sandusky family, their charity, Penn State and even the Paterno estate.

Sandusky is on suicide watch, and that seems a real possibility before he is sentenced on what will likely be 100s of years in prison. In truth, this is one of those cases that we feel safer with Sandusky off the street and happy... strike that... we feel relieved that he was found guilty.

There is no happiness in any of this mess. Period.

There is anger and empathy. There is sadness and seclusion. There is hatred and even a sliver of hope. But there is no happiness in Happy Valley.

(Question No. 1: What's the Mount Rushmore of sports scandals? Sandusky - and the toppling of Paterno's legacy - is either No. 1 or No. 1A depending on how you view O.J. Simpson's fall from grace, right? We'll go Sandusky, Simpson, Black Sox of 1919 and Pete Rose. And remember this is biggest sports scandals, not most serious - or Rae Carruth's murder for hire would be there.)

NBA draft

photo Harrison Barnes looks on during a pre draft workout for the Charlotte Bobcats NBA basketball team in Charlotte, N.C., Thursday, June 21, 2012.

We love the draft. You know this.

This week the NBA will hold its annual selection of hot-shot college freshmen, gifted foreign teenagers and even a few early-20 somethings with a lot to prove. Hey, it's like the selection Axl Rose had after a late 1980s G-n-R show, only with basketball players.

Anyhoo, everyday leading into Thursday's draft, we'll take a look at some of the big storylines heading into what is the most-stocked draft in recent history, look back at some of our favorite draft moments and look at our draft contest.

This draft: There is little debate that this is the deepest draft in some time. Sure the 2003 draft was super-stacked with stars - LeBron James, Carmelo Anthony, Chris Bosh and Dwyane Wade were four of the first five picks... ah, Darko - but this year there are potential all-stars in the 10-20 range. And we're not talking about sleepers, either. Look at it this way, Austin Rivers, Perry Jones III and Draymond Green are all pegged anywhere from 10-25 in mock drafts. Those boys are good... good and terrible.

Draft rewind: One of our first life lessons from the draft came in the NBA selection in 1984. The ballyhooed pick of Bowie over Jordan was the talk of the early picks, but midway through Round 1, there was a pick that the 5-at-10 and best friend Brent Rhodes mocked mercilessly. He looked like a goof, playing against church league competition in small high school gyms. In retrospect, Uah's pick of John Stockton at No. 16 was a great one and we learned never to judge a player by his appearance (or a draft pick solely by his competition).

Draft contest: We're thinking the "Feeling the Draft contest" will have the following:

Second player drafted (we all know Anthony "Uniblocker" Davis is going No. 1)?

Number of SEC players picked in Round 1?

Who do the Hawks take first (and there are trade talks afoot)?

Who has the most "impactful" suit (this category will be judged by the Mrs. 5-at-10 and all her decisions are final... trust us, all her decisions are FINAL. End of discussion)?

Who's in?

(Question No. 2: The 1984 draft class was amazing. Hakeem, MJ, Sam Perkins, Barkley went in the first five picks. We say it's the best ever. What about you?)

Baseball

photo Boston Red Sox's Kevin Youkilis, left, hugs teammate Dustin Pedroia as Youklis comes off the field after hitting a triple and being replaced with a pinch runner in the seventh inning of a baseball game against the Atlanta Braves in Boston, Sunday, June 24, 2012.

OK, the Red Sox are officially dead to us. First, they let Jimmy Fallon and Drew Barrymore participate in the 2004 World Series celebration for a wretched sports movie (Question No. 3: Worst sports movies? We say Fever Pitch is right there. The Fallon-Barrymore debacle is in the discussion because we as guys have already sacrificed a great deal and why do we need Romantic-Comedy sports movies? Why... Oh the humanity? And if anyone makes "The Playbook" - a combination of "The Notebook" and "Rudy" - there will be blood. It may not be the worst -- c'mon, the one with Matt LeBlanc and the monkey playing third base (and the monkey out-acting Matt LeBlanc) is BERRR-utal -- but "Fever Pitch" is in the team picture.)

Sunday, Boston dealt Kevin Youklis, a guy that was part of the guts of a team that ended a near-century old curse, because in large part he couldn't get along with Booby Valentine. (Question No. 4: Spy can you explain this, and we know that Boston has some hot-shot prospect named Middlebrooks poised to replace him?)

Sure, maybe they were getting younger but they are paying $5 million of the $7 million left on Youk's contract to get Brent Lillibridge and Zach Stewart (no relation to Jon Stewart or Stuart Little for that matter).

Hey, rebuilding is never easy and we understand backing management for backing management's sake when needed, but jumping flap jacks and hold the bacon, this is a head-scratcher.

Side note: Jason Heyward is killing it right now. Slap, killing it.

This and that

• Riding with the family through the A-T-L this weekend, we saw two dudes riding on a motorcycle. The same motorcycle, and it dawned on us there is no other explanation than they are involved... not that there's anything wrong with that. In fact, we're sure that even if we broke down on the interstate, had zero bucks, and knew exactly one person in town and his only mode of transport was a motorcycle, we're calling him and asking if he'll pay the taxi when we pull up in front of his house. We're not getting on the back of his bike. Period.

• The news reports say that Clint Bowyer won the NASCAR event Sunday. Well, this may sound overly Southern or what have you, but if the NACSAR boys have to turn right, we're turning it off. So it goes at Sonoma and such. (Question No. 5: Does that make us a track elitist? Would that be a tracist?)

• OK, if you had your TV on this weekend you saw at least one commercial for the movie "Ted" with the talking teddy bear and Mark Wahlberg. Question No. 6: Is there any way this movie is not either AW-ful or funny? There's no in between, right? There's no way anyone leaves there and says, that was OK (and we're leaning toward turrr-ible).

• Did you see the Olympic sprinting qualifying where two women finished tied for third in the 100 meters? Three people make the Olympic squad, and the tie will be decided by either another race or a coin flip. Yes, a COIN flip. Sweet buckets of crawfish heads and shrimp tails, that's a game of chance. Well, at least it's not for anything important like the Olympics. What.. oh never mind.

Today's questions(s)

They are scattered throughout today's F-O-I-B sports column so have at it.

And remember the draft contest, the mailbag and it's a free-for-all Monday.

But if you still need a question of the day because some folks just like consistency... following last week's discussion of the Vols' football under/over win total being right at 8. UGA's is 9.5, even though the Bulldogs are favored in every game.

UGA over/under 9.5 wins? Whatcha' got?