THE FIGHTIN' JAYHAWKS, THE STREAKIN' ROYALS, CY FOR ZACK
KC SPORTS & FITNESS
OCTOBER 2009, BY JOHN LANDSBERG
A series of fights between basketball players and football players at the University of Kansas last month clearly shows that the college must take immediate action to protect both the football and basketball franchises at the esteemed educational institution.
Athletic Director Lew Perkins immediately issued a hard-hitting statement saying something to the effect of “Dang it, we pay these kids a nice salary and give them a scholarship. While we don’t expect them to attend real classes or anything dealing with that academic stuff, we do expect them not to hurt each other and possibly limit their playing time. Their actions clearly could potentially impact revenues and I will not stand for it.”
Very honestly, I was hoping that Perkins would have taken more dramatic action. First, I would have recommended that KU immediately hire a Director of Intercollegiate Altercations for the school. Someone like Mike Tyson would be a perfect candidate. Any athlete starting any type of fight would be required to then fight Mike. That should make them think twice about fighting.
Secondly, all athletes would be forbidden to have any type of Facebook or any other social media site where they would ever be permitted to write their unedited thoughts to the public. These sites do nothing but dramatically show that the term student-athlete is truly an oxymoron at KU.
As an example, basketball player Tyshawn Taylor talked about the fight on his Facebook page:
“I got a dislocated finger ... from throwing a punch ... so don’t let the news paper gas yall up aite.”
Minutes earlier he penned this ditty: “real (racial slur)s do real things .. point plankn.”
Not sure about you, but I have dealt with newspapers for years and not one ever gassed me “aite.” In fact, I don’t think I ever heard of the term “point plankn” either.
I know some English profs at KU and really doubt they have ever stressed using those linguistic terms in class. “To be or not to be, that is the point plankn…”
The bottom line is that as long as the football and basketball teams at KU continue to be successful most alumni and fans of the school really don’t care what they do between games. The bottom line for major colleges today is literally the bottom line.
As that esteemed man of integrity, Al Davis of the Oakland Raiders once proclaimed, “Just win baby.”
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The Kansas City Royals are streaking to the finish of the 2009 baseball season. No team in major league baseball wants to play our hard-charging boys in blue this time of year.
To tell the truth, it depresses the heck out of me. It has given me a huge Cleveland Indians flashback from my youth that I had hoped never to experience again in my lifetime.
An end-of-season run like the Royals have been experiencing means absolutely nothing. In fact, it might even be harmful heading into next season. It could actually get fans thinking that maybe this team has potential and it could be the start of something great.
Don’t fall for that trap. Your heart will be broken.
Year-after-year the Indians would put on a late-season run and every year it simply meant nothing. This is the time of the year when players realize their stats are not looking very hot. If they hope to get a fat contract or be traded in the future they better start producing.
There is no pennant race pressure; it is simply every man for himself. Sure, no player with any pride wants to be on another 100-loss team, but team statistics mean nothing when it comes around to contract time. “Show me the money” should be the team cheer for most of these Royals players.
All that being said Zack Greinke should get the Cy Young Award for 2009. Pitching every few days knowing that your team might score one, two or maybe even three runs, makes it 10 times more difficult than pitching with a five-run lead. Forget his record, he is the best pitcher in baseball. Period.
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Can someone explain to me why there seems to be so many helmets flying off college and pro football players these days? All the talk about player safety sounds great, but it is just a matter of time before some player gets severely injured after his helmet flies off and he gets nailed. Mark my words.
It seems to be a phenomena that I don’t remember happening in the “good old days.” The helmets today are padded more, are specially fitted and even have double and triple snaps to keep them on, but it is becoming common watching them fly off players several times a game. All the protection in the world doesn’t work when your helmet is on the ground.
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If you have some time log on to SportsRadioKC.com and check out the shows and the columnists. What I like is that the folks there talk about more than stats with guests. Many of the columnists bring more experience than you will find in the Kansas City Star these days. Heck, many of them were columnists there when the paper was in its heyday. Internet radio is the wave of the future.
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