Another UT arrest
Something has to change.
Period.
The University of Tennessee football program has had too many run-ins with the law with sexually related offenses. Yes, in a perfect world, one is too many, but this is far from a perfect world, especially in the college setting with hormones and potential alcohol and who knows what other variables involved.
That is not intended as an excuse or a rationalization. It's simply a fact. Colleges across the country are wrestling with ways to fight sexual offenses, and college athletics is no different.
Tennessee defensive tackle Alexis Johnson was arrested Wednesday night on charges of aggravated assault and false imprisonment. A football spokesman told this paper's Patrick Brown, "We are aware of the report concerning Alexis Johnson. He has been suspended from all football activities. We will have no further comment at this time."
Well, that no comment, while making sense in the most recent arrest, will not cut it long term.
Check the time line of the last 10 days.
Feb. 9 - Title IX suit filed by six women known as "Jane Doe" who allege a culture exists at UT and within the athletic department has allows a culture of sexual assaults to exist. The lawsuit names three former UT football players and a John Doe who is still on the team in different incidents of alleged sexual crimes.
Feb. 13 - The Peyton Manning story from the New York Daily News explodes on the scene, recreating the story of accuser Jamie Naughright, a former trainer who claims Manning sexually harassed her in 1996. The incident is referenced as a mooning in the lawsuit.
Feb. 16 - Former UT offensive lineman Mack Crowder, who was a senior last fall, was arrested on five felonies in Florida on a variety of pornography charges, including trying to meet up with a 14-year-old girl.
Feb. 17 - Johnson is arrested.
Not a good look.
And the last two events of this week, while not proving any complicit efforts of anyone within the program, certainly looks bad, and from the outside looking indirectly gives more credence to that culture existing in Knoxville.
Remember where you were moment
It was 15 years ago today that Dale Earnhardt died.
It was one of the 'those' moments for our generation. You remember where you were. Exactly.
In retrospect, it's hard not to wonder how much would NASCAR be different if its most popular star and one of three best drivers ever had not died on turn four that Sunday afternoon.
NASCAR was about to jumpstart into its most profitable run ever. The 2001 Daytona 500 was the first race broadcast by Fox in a TV deal that was valued at almost $3 billion at the time and helped the sport unify its message. Before that deal, NASCAR TV deals were negotiated by each track, and it was almost impossible to know which station had which race on which weekend.
This was taking it to the mainstream, and that debut was amazing. Darrell Waltrip calling his brother Michael's first 500 win - and his first career win in almost 500 starts - with a young Dale Jr. finishing second - as Earnhardt was blocking the rest of the field.
The crash killed Dale almost immediately and led to a number of safety changes within the sport. That part was good.
But as NASCAR was ascending with that new TV deal and, remember in the early 2000s, there was a lot of "NASCAR's the next big thing" buzz, there were a lot of other changes too.
NASCAR made a lot of moves, and most of them were negatively perceived by a chunk of the hardcore fan base, to appeal to a national audience. Brian France, who took over NASCAR's leadership in 2003 made a lot of those changes, and while no one could have foreseen how hard the financial crisis of 2008 would affect everything - NASCAR and women's golf were severely hampered - a lot of Brian's moves were designed to make NASCAR more mainstream.
And a lot of them backfired. The car changes, the fluctuating rules on engagement, the different championship rules, you name it. It was confusing and counterproductive in the long run.
It's hard not to think that Dale Sr. would not have had a voice in a lot of those decisions. Dale was a trusted ally and a friend of Bill Jr., Brian's daddy, who ran NASCAR before Brian. Even if every decision had been exactly the same, if Dale Sr. had endorsed those decisions, the old-school NASCAR fan would have been way more likely to sign on.
Plus, as Jeff Gordon, Tony Stewart and eventually Jimmie Johnson started to rule the sport through the 2000s, the rivalries that Dale Sr. - and the support he would have generated - would have greatly helped NASCAR's attempt to go big time.
In truth, Earnhardt was one of the great lightning rod stars that individualistic sports crave. If you were a Dale fan, then you watched to see what he did. If you were a fan of anyone else, you watched your guy and then watched to see what Dale did.
Dale, also, would have been a media treasure as NASCAR moved into the mainstream. His tell-it-like-it-is style would have been embraced and treasured. Think an Andy Griffith meets Gregg Popovich with a little bit of a turbo-charged Twain (and twang) mixed in. It would have been glorious.
In the end, though, 15 years later, that's sadly all we're left with: "Would have been."
NBA trading deadline
There could be a lot of movement. There could be next to none.
Either way, as elite teams - there are maybe five teams that could realistic compete with Golden State - look to add a piece or two, today is the trade deadline in the NBA.
We're not going to speculate - there are a slew of other place on the inter web with better contacts than the 5-at-10 about whether Dwight Howard goes to Atlanta or whom the Cavs may add - but we are intrigued by this theory.
Fantasy sports, and the fact that everyone that plays them gets the virtual experience of being a GM, pulls people into trade dealing talk and the draft - I love the draft; you know this - more than ever.
It's interesting, right?
This intrigue also hinges on the advances in sports video games - building franchises and the like - in the last decade, as well as the 24/7 sports news cycle.
Ah, so it goes, and so we'll follow.
This and that
- Remember earlier this week when we posted the Family Feud clip and asked if they had an IQ test and only permitted families who scored under 85? Well, here's you next example https://www.yahoo.com/tv/family-feud-contestant-says-wrong-234214898.html. Yes, with his pregnant wife standing next to him as Steve Harvey asked this contestant, "Admit it, just once, you'd like to tell your wife that she's. what?" Dude says, "I'm going to get in a lot of trouble for this. She's fat."
- From the other side of the Game Show dial comes this news https://www.yahoo.com/tv/man-wins-bmw-with-dramatic-wheel-spins-on-the-222111260.html. Apparently "The Price is Right" is having a 'dream car' week and one woman took home an Aston Martin worth more than $120,000. The dude above won a BMW by hitting $1 on the wheel on back-to-back spins. Good times. Dare we say, Phat Times.
- How does this happen? The former co-creator of "NYPD Blue" says he lost more than $100 million on horse racing http://nypost.com/2016/02/18/nypd-blue-creator-gambled-away-100m-on-horse-racing/. Egad. (He should not have bet on "Glue Stick" and "Beef-a-rino" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ugazcvzOM0Q. Rusty.)
- Crazy night in college hoops as Iowa and Oklahoma lose, and Duke takes down UNC in Chapel Hill. Yes, the craziness of this March could be historic.
- Will Muschamp has had that grand quality of falling up wherever he goes. It's a great life skill to be sure, considering he failed at Florida and was less-than-great as the DC at Auburn (the team's best performance of last year was the one in which Muschamp was not involved) and he lands at South Carolina and buys this http://www.cbssports.com/collegefootball/eye-on-college-football/25486209/will-muschamps-new-185m-lake-house-in-south-carolina-has-a-florida-room. That friends is living large. Or dare we say, living phat.
- We thought a lot of you may enjoy this: Tonight on the MLB Network, Bob Costas is hosting a MLB Misremembers special that looks at how baseball history may have been different if certain plays from the 1992 NLCS, the 2003 NLCS and the 2004 ALCS had turned out differently. The 1992 NLCS was obviously if Bonds' throw had been better, what that would have meant for the Pirates and Braves, considering the Pirates blew up their team and the Braves dominated the next 10 years. The 2003 NLCS was obviously the Bartman game and the Cubs heartbreak. The 2004 ALCS was the way the Red Soc came back from a 3-0 hole to beat the Yankees in the ALCS and sweep the World Series for their first title since 1918. Could be very interesting. (And one more that you could surely add was Wohlers hanging a slider to Jim Leyrtiz in the 1996 World Series that became the jumpstart for a Yankees' dynasty and denied the Braves from going back-to-back.)
Today's question
In honor of Dale Earnhardt's death, we're looking for the Rushmore of the most iconic lightning rods in sports in the last 30 years. Who were those guys that everyone had an opinion, whether the fans loved them or loved to hate them.
Whatcha' got? (And remember the mailbag.)