At one time, picking Tiger Woods for any golf event was a no-brainer slam dunk. This morning, after U.S. captain Fred Couples picked the struggling Woods for the President's Cup team, that decision seems more no brain than no-brainer.
Couples picked Woods, saying Thursday, "He's the best player in the world forever." Is the other captain's pick going to be Jack Nicklaus or Arnold Palmer? Freddie, this is not a lifetime achievement award or a celebrity skins game.
If Coach K said Michael Jordan was going to be on the U.S. Olympic basketball team, you'd have some questions, right?
Here's hoping Woods politely declines. But that would be the classy move, and we've gotten to the point where we can't expect the classy move from Tiger Woods.
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Everyone knew Bruce Pearl was in the NCAA sights, but a three-year show-cause penalty seemed a little much.
The NCAA has sent a clear message that lying will not be tolerated. OK, message received, but let's see what the NCAA does with Jim Tressel. If Pearl got three years, doesn't Tressel, whose lies were deeper and longer and covered violations that were more egregious, seem destined for at least five?
The Pearl ruling from the NCAA has kind of set the stage for the rest of the rulings that are on the horizon. This will be the baseline for penalties for coaches and administrators who lie to the NCAA, unless the NCAA reforms its rules and sets different guidelines with specific penalties.
That said, Pearl's get-together Thursday - addressing the media at a barbecue at his house about the NCAA's punishments for in effect lying about a barbecue at his house - was pretty high on the irony scale. Real high, in fact.
It would be even more ironic for the NCAA to announce those changes at a barbecue.
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The Colts have an ever-growing worry about Peyton Manning's uncertain status for the season opener following offseason neck surgery. Manning has started every game of his NFL career for the Colts, who have won 10 or more games in each of the last nine seasons. With Manning they are a fringe contender for the Super Bowl; without him they are a fringe contender for the No. 1 overall draft choice.
Did you know the last time Manning did not start was in September 1994 during his freshman year at UT? Manning was on the sideline as current Colorado first baseman Todd Helton started for the Vols. Wow. In '94 the top movie was "Time Cop" with Jean Claude Van Damme, the top TV show was "Home Improvement" and the No. 1 song was "I'll make love to you" by Boyz ii Men. (Sidenote: Never really understood the "z" instead of the "s" trend of that time. Just think, if it had been five years later when the two Chattanooga papers merged, we could have been the Timez Free Prezz. Or maybe not.)
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It was a crazy week in sports.
It started with Cardinals slugger Matt Holliday needing medical attention for a moth flying into his ear and getting stuck there. It continued with reports that sprinter Justin Gatlin is getting ready to run a world championship race on frostbitten feet. Yes, you read that right.
It moved along to include how the police settled the starting quarterback battle at Ole Miss. Yes, Barry Brunetti will be the Rebels' starter after Randall Mackey was arrested early Tuesday morning.
"It's kind of exciting, but at the same time it's kind of sad, because Mackey's like my best friend here," Brunetti told The Associated Press. "I've just got to prepare, take each day one step at a time."
Neither Mackey nor his bail bondsman was available to discuss the decisions.
And now maybe the most bizarre of them all. After being caught speeding - and when we say speeding, we mean SPEEDING, as in 128 mph in a 45 - NASCAR points leader Kyle Busch had his driver's license suspended. So now Busch has to get a ride to the track so he can get behind the wheel and go 200 mph.
Crazy indeed, huh? (And this is not even mentioning the ever-growing scandals at LSU and Miami.)