The South Carolina Gamecocks opened football practice this week, and coach Steve Spurrier reinstated oft-suspended starting quarterback Stephen Garcia and had quarterbacks coach G.A. Mangus on the field Wednesday when drills started.
South Carolina has as much talent as any team in the wide-open SEC East, so the big goals and title talk that are always bounced around Columbia actually have some teeth this year. Especially with the hardest partying coach-player duo in the SEC back to work.
Let's recap: Garcia was suspended for the fifth time in the spring for getting rowdy and smelling of alcohol at a university function. Last month, Mangus was picked up by police in Greenville for urinating in the street. Police also said Mangus was unsteady on his feet and slurring his words - which means he was either three sheets in the wind or suffering the mighty aftershocks of an attack of "Got-to-go-now-and-don't-care-what-happens"-itis.
Anyhoo, imagine what the post-practice celebration for a good day of work for the quarterbacks will be. Do you think there will be a water stand, a Gatorade stand and a Coors Light stand at Gamecocks practices this year?
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A website this week published photos of Li'l Miss Sunshine Casey Anthony wearing an Ohio State University hat.
One Columbus, Ohio-area radio station offered $10,000 to Anthony to lose the Buckeyes hat and wear Michigan gear.
Wonder if they made a similar offer to Terrelle Pryor.
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Almost a dozen deadbeat parents around Auburn, Ala., were picked up last weekend in Operation Iron Snare, a police sting that used Iron Bowl tickets as bait.
In April, Authorities sent letters to 140 wanted suspects informing them that had won tickets to this year's Alabama-Auburn football game. According to police reports published by the Opelika-Auburn News, each arrested person was behind anywhere from $35,000 to $75,000 on child-support payments. The group owed more than a quarter of a million dollars in back child support.
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How's this for a great story? The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported that when former Steelers secondary coach Ray Horton was saying his goodbyes before heading to coach with the Arizona Cardinals, he sold his 1999 Mercedes SL500 convertible to a friend who worked in the cafeteria. Horton's asking price was whatever Mo Matthews had in his pocket, so Matthews purchased the Mercedes for $20.
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The last two weeks of NFL moves and machinations have been so much fun that the league should do it this way every year - minus the lockout, of course. All these moves have been crazy fun to follow, but we know of at least one group that thinks that's the worst idea since New Coke. Think the Madden 2011 guys are working around the clock to get all the rosters set? Here's saying that the local Domino's knows how to get to the EA Sports compound and there have been a lot of working breakfasts, lunches and dinners the last several days.