Girls Just Want To Have Fun
Women. You can't live with them and you can't live without them Recently, two incidents involving two women broadcasters have shown the difference between the way the boys get treated and the way the ladies do.If you have ever read my ranting before, you know how I feel about the Kelly Tilghman deal. Not only did the African-American community let her slide, Tiger Woods did too. Instead of a fate worse than Don Imus (which she deserved) she got a two week suspension and made a somewhat lukewarm apology that the Golf Channel botched due to technical issues. I'll say it one more time: Had she been Johnny Miller, David Feherty or Nick Faldo, she would have been out on her ass, no matter how buddy buddy she was with Tiger Woods. But she isn't. And she won't be. May she be haunted by the ghosts of Al Campanis and Jimmy the Greek Snyder the rest of her days.
Meanwhile, the Dana Jacobson situation has been taken to a whole different level after her drunken, profanity filled monologue at the Mike and Mike roast. Not only did she embarrass herself to a point where you won't be able to look at her on TV and not burst out laughing. she also said some things that made Catholics made. And unlike the African-American community in the above item,.the Catholics are madder than hell. They plan to picket ESPN and demand that Jacobson be let go. Granted, Jacobson's comments make her a stupid, loud mouthed drunk with absolutely no filter, but she doesn't appear to be a hater. After all, she didn't call for Jesus to be lynched. And you wonder, if Dana Jacobson had been Trey Wingo or Scott Van Pelt, would they still have a job today? Probably. Because it's rare, in a case like this, where alcohol is clearly involved, that someone loses their job short of vehicular manslaughter.
So, here's where you get to ask yourself, where is my stupid threshold? Is it okay for anyone, even someone who claims that they are kidding to call for the lynching of an African-America athlete on live TV? No, it is not. Not by a male, not by a female, not by a white or not by a black. It is never correct to even make jokes about something as heinous as that. Saying the golfers should "stuff Tiger in a locker" is fine, but using the word "lynch", even on a network watched by three people, should cost you your job.
On the other hand, Jacobson is simply guilty of poor taste and not being able to hold her liquor. Certainly, her comments are offensive to some. That's some. Not all. And she certainly didn't advocate murder. If she would have said "One time Greenie came over to my house and took a shower. Unfortunately, I didn't have time to back the car up and hook up the water line to the exhaust pipe." Offended now? Yeah, I thought so. But that is the difference between Kelly Tilghman and Dana Jacobson right now. Tilghman not only crossed the line, she blew the line up. Jacobson just made herself look like an ass.
Eventually, all this will blow over. But remember it the next time your middle aged male says something racist or stupid or inappropriate. Because the precedent has been set and the bar has been adjusted. And what's good for the girls has to be what's good for the guys.
Lightning Round
- White Sox General Manager Kenny Williams got a little crankyduring the Q&A session with Sox fans. After hearing fans were disappointed that the Sox didn't sign Torri Hunter or Aaron Rowand, Williams angrily snapped "I want to talk about what we do have." Yes Kenny, but you have to be up there a while and what you have assembled isn't necessarily worth bragging about.
- The White Sox are thinking of extending Bobby Jenks and Orlando Cabrera so they can pay below market now and own them for multiple years. Cabrera is 32 and Jenks is 26, but three Big Macs away from having issues. The problem with doing it this way is while you lock the salaries in now, the resentment starts the minute someone over pays someone at that position. I'm more concerned about it getting contentious with Jenks than I am with Cabrera.
- Jermaine Dye totally gets it. Totally.
- God bless Chicago Blackhawks coach Dennis Savard. He says the things that Bulls coach for a day Jim Boylan wishes he could say but can't because diva NBA athletes don't respond well to being yelled at called out. In the NHL, shooting straight with your players does motivate them. GM Dale Tallon may make a lot of changes between now and the trading deadline to bring in the type of players that Savvy likes: Hard nosed, tough and accountable. I had doubts about Savard when they hired him and I still do, but the guy at least doesn't sugar coat anything which is a welcome change from normal Lovie Smith like coach speak. I'm sure now Mariotti will consider Savard a loon too. Savard even impressed our hero and role model who apparently would like to go into the t-shirt business.
- Speaking of coaches, I really enjoy the way Bill Bellichick treats the media. The media feels they are entitled the same way Jack Nicholson called out Tom Cruise in "A Few Good Men." The difference is Bellichick isn't a Marine commander and is under no obligation to answer questions about anything.
- Having interesting commercials is nice, but if the commercials are selling an inferior product, who cares?
- Run Chuck run. If they can't find you, can they serve you? And can the feds use every means at their disposal to find Chuck Knoblauch like running down his cell phone signal or tracking his credit cards? If that does happen, isn't it heartwarming that we live in a country where your elected officials are spending your tax dollars running down a ball player when they can't even find Osama Bin Laden or prevent people from climbing under fences? I'm just saying.
- It appears that the new dome in Indy is like everything else in Indy: Crappy. (Kissing Suzy Kolber)
- Gregg Williams is out of the running for the Washington Redskins head coaching job. It's too bad because he's a good guy and a fine coach. Apparently, the midget didn't like him. The question is why do you let a guy stay on your staff that obviously is going to be upset when you bring in an old Fassel from the outside? Obviously the Midget is keeping him so that when he does get an offer from another team another team (say Jacksonville) that the Jags will have to pay up or cough up a draft pick to win Williams' services. That's why the Midget has so much money. He's a smart Midget.
- If Al Davis succeeds in his plan to oust Lane Kiffin, who in their right mind would want to work for him? Seriously. It would have to be a coach that was either so desperate to get back on the sidelines that he'd take the job or some assistant that was dying to be a head coach. Until Davis either retires or dies (which will probably occur simultaneously) this kind of stuff will keep happening. As much as I rag on Jerry Jones and the Midget, this has to be the worst coaching situation in the NFL.
- Here's what happens to marginal players that come out early for the NFL draft. Jack Ikegwuonu most likely would have been picked on Sunday. Had he stayed for another year at Wisconsin, he might have become a Saturday pick. But he decided to go pro and hired Drew Rosenhaus as his agent. Rosenhaus had him doing all kinds of workouts prior to the combine and low and behold, Ikegwuonu blew out his ACLand will have to sit out a year before he even gets the opportunity to play in the pros. This probably killed any chance of him getting drafted, but rather put him in the category of free agent signee which is league minimum and no bonus. Stay in school, kids.
- Coach O will now bring his genius to the NFL and the New Orleans Saints.
- Is there anyone left on the coaching staff in Dallas besides Wade Phillips, Jason Garrett and Jerry Jones?
- Tampa Bay running back Mike Alstott announced his retirement. A great guy from Joliet, IL, he's a sure thing for the Hall of Fame, maybe even in his first year of eligibility.
- Some humor from Melt Your Face Off and another installment of Gary Bettman's Diary.
- Here's what I don't understand about that New York Hockey mom who is up on 35 counts of having sex with teen boy players. You can't have sex unless the woman says yes, so how could she have, as alleged, raped them? Each of these boys could have said no, kept it in their pants and walked away, but the thought of having Mrs. Robinson go down on them was too much temptation. While I agree what this woman did was wrong, I also argue that it's totally different for older females with teen boys simply because SHE has to say YES and the boys are not being forced to do anything unless SHE initiates it. While she was wrong to initiate it, I am absolutely 100% positive that there will be no lasting phycological damage to these boys as long as a bunch of bible thumpers or liberal shrinks stay far away from them. I was a 15 year-old boy and some MILF wanted to show me the ropes, there is no way in hell I would stop and think "this is wrong." And, if it were my son (and I have a daughter so this is hypothetical) I would not be that annoyed. I would be annoyed about the booze and the pot but not about the sex. I don't think anyone was violated here, I just think she exercised poor judgment.
- Today's LIst: Tremendous Upside Potential's Top Ten Chicago Born Athletes
- 23 years ago today, the Chicago Bears pistol whipped the New England Patriots 46-10 to win Super Bowl XX, the greatest football game ever played
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