A Mixed Bag Today …

After Dan Hurley turned down the Lakers offer to coach the team, I mentioned here that Mike Krzyzewski has also turned down an NBA offer after he won a National Championship; Coach K also turned down an offer from the Lakers.  I received an email from a friend who notified me that I had missed another connection there.  Back in the 1970s, the Lakers tried to lure Jerry Tarkanian away from UNLV to come and coach the Lakers.  That too was an offer spurned by the college coach.  [Aside:  Tark did eventually take an NBA job with the Spurs in the 1990s and only lasted 20 games into his first season there after butting heads with the team owner.  Coach K never dipped his toe in NBA waters.]

Switching sports and switching gears …  The Buffalo Bills signed a free agent named Gable Stevenson as a potential addition to their defensive line.  Stevenson has no football experience – – but he did win a Gold Medal in wrestling at the Tokyo Olympics in 2020.  Stevenson is 24 years old and is listed at 6’1” and 265 lbs.  And that background and physical size reminded me immediately of Curly Culp who eventually made it to the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

Culp was an NCAA wrestling champion and also played football at Arizona St. back in the 1960s.  The KC Chiefs signed him, and he became a top nose tackle in the Chiefs’ 3-4 defense.  Like Stevenson, Culp was similarly listed at 6’1” and 275 lbs.

Stevenson’s contract with the Bills was originally reported to be for 3 years which led me to believe that the team would take some time to “teach him football techniques” that could blend with his innate strength and agility as demonstrated by his wrestling accomplishments.  However, a check at Spotrac.com for details on the contract indicates that the contract is only 1 year in length for $795K which is the rookie minimum salary as defined by the existing CBA.

Moving on …  I and many other commentators have noted the amazing level of attention being paid to Caitlin Clark as she begins a career in the WNBA.  In terms of media attention and focus, it is easy to refer to her as the female version of LeBron James – – and maybe right now, it might be proper to refer to LeBron James as the male version of Caitlin Clark.  It is not about her exploits on the court; it is about Caitlin Clark as a person who has not quite morphed into an institutional figure.  In this morning’s Washington Post, there is an article on the front page of the sports section with this headline:

• “Clark can’t escape noise, but she’s still finding joy”

The story consumes 43 column-inches of real estate in the sports section (including headlines).  It is at best a “feelgood piece”; in terms of “news value” let me be very generous and say you have to look very carefully to find any.  I bring this up not to cast any negative light on Caitlin Clark or even on the author here; this kind of stuff is appearing in many locales on the Internet.  I think this article and its kin demand a new vocabulary entry for sports commentary.  Let me explain.

If this kind of story were written about a male athlete who was of a similar stature in his sport and in the public eye, the piece might be classified as “jock sniffing”.  Let me be clear, that sort of label is wrong when applied to Caitlin Clark – or any female athlete – on multiple levels and I have ZERO intention to try to make such a figure of speech acceptable.  My problem is that I also have NO IDEA what to call this parallel phenomenon as it pertains to women athletes.

Next up …  The Patriots retired Tom Brady’s number and put him in the team’s hall of fame.  The fact of that happenstance should surprise no one who follows football even a little bit.  Brady was involved in a roast recently which veered off into some comments about his family life that one could characterize as “over the line”.  Whatever.  In his “induction ceremony” in New England, there was a comment that could easily have been part of that roast and was nowhere near “out of bounds”.  The line came from Drew Bledsoe – – the guy Brady replaced after Bledsoe was injured in a game:

“You were the worst backup quarterback in the history of the NFL.  You never understood that when I got healthy, you were supposed to go sit the hell down.”

Finally, let me usher in the weekend with some observations by George Carlin:

“Well, if crime fighters fight crime and fire fighters fight fire, what do freedom fighters fight? They never mention that part to us, do they?”

And …

“Some people see things that are and ask, Why? Some people dream of things that never were and ask, Why not? Some people have to go to work and don’t have time for all that.”

And …

“Death is caused by swallowing small amounts of saliva over a long period of time.”

But don’t get me wrong, I love sports………