Super Bowl Shuffling …
Posted: February 1st, 2008 | Filed under: Baseball | 38 Comments »
You may have heard something about this — they apparently are going to play some sort of football game here in Phoenix on Sunday. I have been collecting all sorts of random thoughts — some football related, most not — and I offer them to you now in this ever growing list. Why would you want to read my list of random thoughts? Because they’re coming from the Super Bowl, of course.
* * *
Poor Jim Mora. I mean it’s bad enough to have a fine football coaching life reduced to one hilarious “Playoffs? You kidding me?” rant. But now, that poor guy is getting trotted out by the NFL Network to ask inane questions, such as this one to Giants coach Tom Coughlin — I am approximating here: “Tom, I was having dinner with Bill Belichick last night, and he wanted me to ask, can you just tell me all the plays you’re going to run?” Good stuff. Later, he was doing a report and said that three different players that day had asked him to relive the “Playoffs” rant. I don’t know — I just feel bad for the guy. Maybe I shouldn’t. Maybe he’s loving it.
* * *
Was driving down one of the main roads leading into downtown Phoenix when I saw one of those incredibly cheap looking signs on the side of the road that read, “Mattress Liquidation Sale.” You’ve seen those signs, right? They’re everywhere. Every town in America larger than 75,000 people right now has some sort of mattress liquidation sale going on in an abandoned warehouse in a very shady looking part of town. I can only assume these are mattresses that have had the tags unlawfully pulled, and that every so often the cops break in like Elliott Ness and the Untouchables and bust up these illegal mattress rings.
But that’s not my point. My question is: Exactly how cheap would these mattresses have to be in order to make you, as an impulse shopper, drive into one of these places and buy one? I mean, sure, if you happen to be in desperate need of a mattress — say you just got out of school or you’re Sonny Corleone — yeah, maybe I could see the need to walk on the dark side for a rectangle of sleeping comfort. But other than that, I’m just not sure I could imagine driving by, seeing one of these signs and thinking: “Hmm, well, I have a mattress, but I wonder how cheap they’re willing to go? I mean, they use the word ‘liquidation’ — that seems to me I might get a real mattress bargain. Maybe I should buy a few mattresses, keep them in the basement for a while, you know, in case I ever need to turn my house into a triage center.”
* * *
I have to say that the whole guaranteeing a Super Bowl victory has gotten so old that we media folks should just agree to never report a guarantee again. This week New York’s Plaxico Burress guaranteed victory and at least was original enough to come up with a score, 23-17, which did lead to Tom Brady’s funny line: “We’re only going to score 17 points? Plax playing defense?”
Still, that’s not enough to make it worthwhile. My problem with Plax’s guarantee is not that I think he’s being arrogant or that I’m fundamentally opposed to the idea of guaranteeing victory. No. My problem is that there have been SO MANY guarantees through the years, that now there’s no downside. You’re not really putting anything on the line. If the Giants get waxed — I should say, when the Giants get waxed — only a handful of people will even remember Plaxico’s guarantee. It’s not like he will have to live with that for the rest of his life, sort of the bizarro life of Joe Namath. Heck, every year now somebody on the underdog team guarantees victory. There’s nothing risky about it, nothing edgy about it.
I’ll tell you what — if you want to make a guarantee at the Super Bowl, you should have to put something behind it. You know how pro wrestlers will sometimes have that match where the loser has to leave town. I think that would be worthwhile. If Plax wants to get his guarantee recorded for posterity, he should have to say: “I guarantee we’ll win; and if I’m wrong I’ll become a construction worker in Birmingham.” That to me would be worth reporting.
* * *
If you happen to be in Tempe, I would highly recommend eating at an Italian place called “Cafe Boa,” mostly because of the food, but also because they have the single most expressive waiter in the history of the world. Honestly, this guy was looking to high-five customers over the restaurant’s wine list. He told us they had a special kind of chicken that was only prepared in three places in the whole world; this seems odd because it’s CHICKEN. At one point, he was telling us about the tiramisu (which, he had explained, means “pick-me-up” in Italian) and — I am not joking here — he did one of those Beavis and Butthead, “This dessert rocks!” arm motions.
I remember that Bob Huggins used to say all the time — and no doubt still does — that this world would be a much better place if everyone would put as much passion and life into their jobs as Hugs puts into his. Well, “better world” is a judgment call, but it certainly would be more entertaining.
* * *
Over dinner, we discussed the very important topic: What is the single worst television show idea ever? For some reason, this is always the level of discussion when I’m at a dinner table. Gee, I wonder why? People at tables all around us are discussing how everyone may have missed the long-range implications of NAFTA or the theological ramifications of archeologists finding that 7,000-year-old city in Egypt’s Fayyun oasis. And we’re discussing whether or not they even needed writers on Three’s Company.*
*They did not. Take two people, have them say something (often vaguely sexual), have a third person wildly misunderstand, have mayhem ensue. Add two gay jokes. Insert one joke about Mrs. Roper needing sex. Put Chrissie in short shorts. Include one meeting at Regal Beagle. Lather. Rinse. Repeat.
Anyway, everyone here knows by now my absolute opinion that the worst TV show idea (and, thus, in many ways, the best) was “The Flying Nun.” There is no second place. I have spent way too many hours in my life imagining that pitch meeting:
Pitcher: OK, so we have Sally Field.
Producer: That’s great. She’s cute as a button. Love that Gidget. OK, who’s her love interest?
Pitcher: That’s just it; there is no love interest.
Producer: No love interest? Why not?
Pitcher: Are you ready for this? She’s a nun.
Producer: She’s a nun? Why is she a nun?
Pitcher: People love nuns.
Producer: They do? What people?
Pitcher: Didn’t you see Sound of Music? Julie Andrews? You following?
Producer: Julie Andrews wasn’t a nun.
Pitcher: Plus we’re going to make Sally a special kind of nun.
Producer: How’s that?
Pitcher: She can fly.
Producer: Come again?
Pitcher: She flies.
Producer: Like Superman?
Pitcher: Like Superman.
Producer: You’re saying that she can fly.
Pitcher: That’s right. She flies around to help people.
Producer: How in the hell can a nun fly?
Pitcher: That’s the gimmick. Her habit is made so that she can use the wind currents to fly.
Producer: What if it isn’t windy?
Pitcher: It’s always windy in Puerto Rico.
Producer: This is in Puerto Rico?
Pitcher: Where else?
Producer: Why would a nun need to fly?
Pitcher: So she can help people.
Producer: Non flying nuns don’t help people?
Pitcher: Not as much as flying nuns do.
Producer: So she’s a flying nun who flies around on the wind and and helps people. This is a comedy?
Pitcher: Absolutely. Because she doesn’t really help people.
Producer: She doesn’t?
Pitcher: Well, in the end she does, but at first she doesn’t because she keeps fouling things up. Think Lucille Ball.
Producer: I love Lucy.
Pitcher: Right.
Producer: Only she’s a nun.
Pitcher: Right.
Producer: A flying nun.
Pitcher: Right.
Producer: Can we get at least get sweaty Latin guy to be in the show though he seems to have no compelling reason to be there?
Pitcher: That can be arranged.
Producer: Let’s start production in two weeks.
* * *
OK, I have in the past tried to nail down the most useful invention of the last 25 years. I used to believe it was those pay-at-the-pump credit card thingies because, honestly, how awesome are those? Young kids would not even believe that there was this time when you had to go into the gas station store and tell someone to PLEASE turn on Pump 4. Please? And then they want to know how much you’re going to put in, and you have to pay them six bucks in advance, and they turn on the pump but they actually turn on Pump 3 by mistake, and they don’t know how to turn that off that off, so you have to get back in your car and drive around to Pump 3, which isn’t as easy as it sounds because your gas opening is on the wrong side and … anyway, I just like the PATP credit card things.
I’m not discounting other innovations that are pretty good too … you know, advances in cancer research, clean burning coal, shampoo and conditioner all in one and so on.
But I have to say that my new choice as greatest invention in recent times is the Sling Box. I’m sure you people know all about the Sling Box; it’s a device that allows you to watch your home television on your computer. It’s amazing. It should allow me to watch baseball games at the Olympics in China. And it did allow me to watch the Kansas-Kansas State basketball game the other night in my hotel room. That was an amazing thing. Kansas State is something else. The Jayhawks have an incredible team — I would bet all five starters will play in NBA at some point — and yet Kansas State’s Michael Beasley was BY FAR the best player on the court. I mean, it wasn’t even close. At some point in the second half he just decided, “OK, that’s enough, I’m taking over now.” I believe the five most dominant college basketball players — just college players — I’ve seen live include:
– Michael Jordan at North Carolina.
– Kevin Durant at Texas
– Shaquille O’Neal at LSU
– Paul Pierce at Kansas (though for 10 games or in 1997, Raef Lafrentz was even more dominant)
– Byron Dinkins at UNC Charlotte
OK, it might not be Dinkins from my old school. Maybe Jamal Mashburn at Kentucky* or Glenn Robinson at Purdue or Carmelo Anthony at Syracuse or Wally Szcerbiak at Miami or Danny Fortson at Cincinnati (a personal favorite) or Marcus Fizer at Iowa State or Tim Duncan at Wake Forest. I’m probably forgetting some people. No matter what, I think I’m going to have to make room on the team for Beasley. The guy’s ridiculous.
* I remember Mashburn once lighting up South Carolina for like 493 points and the Gamecocks’ coach afterward saying something like, “We didn’t really know he could shoot three pointers.” Didn’t know? Three point shooting was the guy’s WHOLE GAME. I think that’s where an athletic director has to just step in and say, “Um, I’m sorry, we need to postpone the rest of this press conference because I’m going to fire this man right now”).
* * *
I was in the media center, in that special Super Bowl area called radio row — where every single sports radio station in the country, apparently, has some sort of show. This has to be America’s largest collection of Mad Dogs and Big Dogs and Top Dogs and Sports Dawgs and — am, I wrong here or does ever sports talk show have one host who gives himself some sort of canine nom de plume? Anyway, I saw Archie Manning. That’s probably not a huge surprise to you — I mean, the guy’s youngest son is a quarterback in the Super Bowl. But then I went around the corner, walked by a sandwich shop, and there eating a sandwich was … Archie Manning.
I took the escalator upstairs, walked out of the convention center, walked toward my hotel and I passed … uh, Archie Manning.
I went back to the hotel and was afraid to order room service; I was sure Archie Manning would deliver the food.
I kid. Yes, Archie Manning is pretty much everywhere here, but he seems like a very nice man. And he really was a really good quarterback at Ole Miss. Really good. I will say that I do think he lived quite well on his NFL “good quarterback wasted on a bad team” reputation — I mean, the guy was quarterback on the New Orleans Saints for TEN YEARS. You would think he might have squeezed one winning record out the bunch. His team’s record over those 10 years was 41-102-3. I’m not saying it was his fault. I’m saying I doubt they would have been significantly worse with Dave Mays (Dr. Bomb!).
* * *
I was talking with a parent of grown-up children the other day; I was telling her about my 3-year-old Katie and my 6-year-old (Elizabeth lost her first tooth on Thursday … you can read about that here, like I have to because I’m a million miles away getting ready to write about a Patriots’ blowout. Sigh). Anyway, she said what parents of grown-up children always say: “Oh, really cherish this time because it goes by so fast.”
I believe this is fundamentally true — I cannot believe Elizabeth is already 6. But I will say that it would be refreshing if just one time a parent would throw a curveball and say the exact opposite. You know, ask, “Oh, so how old are your children?
I’d say: ”They’re 6 and 3.“
And the parent would say: ”Oh, you won’t believe how slow the time goes. You are never getting those kids out of the house.“
* * *
It is 2:49 p.m. Eastern Time. When is that New York Mets’ Johan Santana announcement coming?
UPDATE: I guess the deal’s done now, pending the physical. It had to happen.
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three points on a beautiful, long post:
1) being a life-long seahawks fan and having heard some jim mora quotes this year… they guy has a sense of humour, albeit a dry one. i mean, as much as i love the “playoffs” spiel, i think he was being funny/sarcastic when he did it. pissed off? sure… but he was laughing at the reporter asking the question in his own way. and if you remember the question he was asked that led to that rant, it was pretty inane.
that said, mora is probably enjoying this, i think. based on my 2000 miles away read on his personality that is just of his most recent season. he’d rather be coaching in this game, but i think he’s still having a good time.
2) worst tv show idea ever? one word: woops! i vaguely remember the show. wikipedia it if you don’t remember.
3) the mets will get a deal done. no way minaya is going to put up with the heat he’d take for not signing him, not after all the glowing press reports and the predictions of pennants, world series titles and beyond that have been showered on the mets since the trade. they’ll give santana a year more and a couple dozen million more than they want to, but it will happen. i’d put as much money on that as i have on britney spears in my dead pool.
Joe,
I was shocked to see you use an oxymoron in this post. Really, “Pro Wrestler” ?? I hope it’s the jet lag…
Re: the most useful invention. With most advances it’s still possible to favor their predecessor on some sort of retro-aesthetic level. For example the audiophiles who prefer the “warmth” of vinyl records to the CD revolution. So I like to think about inventions that bar none, no matter what are 100% improvements.
Pay at the pump is one of these. My favorite is plastic bottles for condiments and shampoos that are shaped so that they are already upside down. True, some might prefer ketchup in a glass bottle, but this is a total improvement over plastic bottles that you have to balance upside down.
Most of these improvements are not technical, but just required someone to think of them. How about undershirts with the tag printed on the fabric? Brilliant!
Best Invention: how can this not be TiVo? especially for the sports fan. TiVo has revolutionized my life, made it possible to watch an entire only moderately-interesting football game in about 45 minutes (skipping timeouts, halftime, and “huddle time”), and see every episode of Good Eats, Mythbusters, Deadliest Catch, and Dirty Jobs without knowing or caring when they’re actually broadcast.
heck, i don’t even need to know when (or even if) the Royals are playing on TV – it just shows up on my Now Playing list once it has been recorded.
if you have it, you know what i’m talkin’ ’bout.
Worst Show Idea: that new show with the lie detector. “Destroy Your Life in Front of a National Audience for $10,000!” aka “Sell Your Soul for $10,000!” aka “Lose your Wife but Obtain National Infamy for $10,000!”
The Flying Nun was a bad idea, but worse than Cop Rock? An hour-long musical drama about a group of cops who break into a song and dance number every time they arrest someone? Look, I would buy a stupendously rare wind gust catching the habit of some pixie-like nun just the right way and making her take flight loooonnnnng before I would ever believe that Ronny Cox was a singing and dancing police chief. It’s not even close.
Rumor:
Royals STILL in the running for Santana.
You heard it here first. It may be untrue by the time you read this, but you heard it here FIRST!
re: pay at the pump
just used it about 15 mins ago. very utilitarian and an excellent example of ubiquitous technology that we quickly take for granted (tour a rural area (i’m thinking of applachia) sometime and learn how much of a bummer it is when you just assume there’s pay at the pump and it isn’t there… of course, you usually don’t have to pay first in those areas… heh.).
as far as the condiments… you could easily make an upside-down glass bottle with a wide plastic cap. the upside-down part was the innovation. the plastic thing has more to do with cost/shrinkage.
/dork mode off.
The “Hogan’s Heroes” pitch meeting must have been awkward too.
Sure, pay at the pump is great, much better than walking into the store. But not as great as when the guy came out of the store, filled up your tank, washed your windshield, and checked your oil and tires.
Sling-box sounds okay, although it’s still TV and thus mostly crap. My vote goes to the internet. Or if it has to be something tangible, then the PC.
That or the DVD/VHS. Twenty-five years ago, if memory serves, was right around the time home video started. If I wanted to see, say, an old classic film like “The Third Man,” I had to either wait for it to show up on TV (full of commercials) or, if I lived in a big city or college town, at the local repertory movie theater or film series. Might be 10 years. Now I can watch virtually any film I want any time I want. Amazing.
Worst TV show ever: My Mother the Car
Just for those readers who don’t know. Wally Szcerbiak played at Miami of Ohio where another guy also dominated: Ron Harper
And speaking of quarterback records, Dr. David Mays the ex-Brown third string quarterback and dentist, set the record for the biggest fraud ever perpetrated against Medicaid. Something in the neighborhood of $3M for dental work he didn’t perform on people who didn’t exist. Beautiful!
Pitcher: Ever seen those insurance commercials with the cavemen?
Producer: Sounds like a hit show to me!
Um, I know this was basically a throwaway comment on your Super Bowl Shuffling post, but “clean burning coal”? It doesn’t exist.
But hey, I like the idea of the waiter you had at Cafe Boa and the Bob Huggins line about passion for your job. Which, by the way, you certainly embody. Thanks for a great post.
keep in mind, huggins also has a passion for VERY UGLY YELLOW SUITS
look at the 2nd article on the fine blog of the newly employed c. trent rosecrans:
http://www.1530homer.com/pages/ctrent.html?page=2
Pay at the pump is great, but better than the ATM? I think not. I remember those Saturday morning bank lines.
*****
“Ok, so what’s the pitch?”
“Well, we got this guy, he’s like a young Jerry Lewis, you know with the funny voices and the spastic running around?”
“Yeah?”
“Except he’s twice as annoying, half as funny and he’s black. We call it ‘Martin’”
“A vulgar, unfunny, black Jerry Lewis?! Why it’s just what the world’s been waiting for!”
gogiggs: the best summary of martin lawrence’s career ever.
wait, was jerry lewis funny?
are you french?
Joe,
You are spot on about the crazy mattresses. I guess its a huge business though. In Houston a crazy loon named “Matress Mac” (here’s his wiki page http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mattress_mac )
has made millions and become a “leading business man” in the community by dressing as a mattress and thowing money in the air during his ads. Its truly amazing.
Speaking of weird furniture ads, have you ever seen the scary guy in Cleveland that looks and sounds like a serial killer in his late night ads? I forget his name, but he’s a legend. I don’t think he’s made the fortune that Matress Mac has however. Shoot, Matress Mac was leading the effort to get the olympics in Houston and holds huge fundraisers for politicians. America is a crazy and amazing place.
Here’s the crazy Cleveland furniture guy. It’s Norton Furniture. I think this must be a gimick that works for him.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norton_Furniture
PATP is a great but I go with current cell phone technology as the greatest invention of the last 25 years.
***********
Worst tv show ever: Mayberry RFD
Best ever: Arrested Development
***********
Most dominant college basketball players I ever seen:
Danny Manning -Kansas
Doug Smith -Mizzou
Shaq -LSU
Christian Laettner -Duke
Chris Mullin -St. Johns
************
Giants 28
Pats 27
Thanks for only considering, in the worst-ever-TV-show discussion, non-ESPN produced original programming.
I have to go with heated seats as the best invention ever. We got to go to a Christmas light display in a convertible, and did not freeze when we took the top down, because the heat was on full blast, and the seats were too.
I have to agree — My Mother the Car was worse than the Flying Nun.
I lived through the Archie Manning years, and I had no idea that the team was that terrible every year. I agree, with that record, I’m off the ‘he was a good QB on a bad team’ bandwagon.
No word on Santana yet. It’s white knuckle time for Mets fans.
I have to agree with Jeff P. on Danny Manning – that 1988 run was amazing. But Giants 28-27? That my friend, is a dream. Pats 36 Giants 20.
Oh and if memory serves “Joni loves Chachi” was pretty bad television.
I wondered if you were seeing KSU beat KU the other night. It’s weird, the things I wonder while watching something like that… First, it’s normal things like, “Is my dad watching this? What about Mom?” and then eventually, as I become more sure of the fact that a pillar of 2008 basketball excellence is about to lose, my brain wonders about EVERYONE. So, I actually did think, “Is JoePo watching this?? He should really be seeing this happen.”
I might have to agree with comment #4, heralding TiVo as the best thing to happen to the world, ever. I have had DVR since last May, and I will never go without it. If it comes to a choice between paying for heat and paying for DVR…I have a lot of blankets. It’s especially great when I’m at an O-Royals game for work, so I’d have to miss the KC game. DVR lets me relive all the stupid lineup changes, frustrating errors, and bad baserunning whenever I want to. What could be better?
Not that I watched it, but The Secret Diary of Desmond Pfeiffer has to be up there on the worst list. Also Good Grief on Fox, which they got from a MAD Magazine spoof on shows that Fox would air. (I don’t know if they did actually get it from there, but there was such a piece.)
Sigh. I live in New Jersey, so pay at the pump means nothing to me unless I’m out-of-state. On the other hand, Johan Santana (I HOPE!). And maybe the Super Bowl champs (Nah.)
I’m a big fan of pay at the pump. I’m actually nervouse when I have to go talk to the guy inside. I think I’m afraid I’ll forget what pump I’m at and pay for someone else’s gas.
That being said, 100% agree with DVR technology. Having an office job that lets me get home between 6 and 7 means I’m always late when my teams (Angels, Ducks) are playing anywhere but the Pacific time zone. I would either have to wait until the game was over or pick up watching in the middle of the game. Now I can start at the beginning WHILE I’m taping. It’s amazing.
A comment on the guaranteed victory thing: it’s cliched, it’s overdone, and the only purpose it usually serves is to get witty retorts from the other team. Say those types of things at practice or in team meetings to fire your team up, but there’s no reason to say them to the media unless you’re putting something behind it.
Love the internal dialogue on ‘The Flying Nun’. I have actually wondered the same thing about Wham!’s ‘Wake Me Up…”. Whose idea was it to start of the song w/ the word jitterbug? How does that enhance the song? Decisions like that fascinate me.
Mattress Store Experiments With Non-Blowout Sale:
http://www.theonion.com/content/news/mattress_store_experiments_with
Hope this doesn’t mess the formatting up.
Best Invention Ever: the Macintosh computer. If it weren’t for Apple we would all still be writing C:/tofu/poop/exe
There’s this mattress store here in the DC area that I swear by all that’s even potentially sacred has had heavily-advertised-on-TV “going out of business” sales at LEAST 19 times since I moved out here 12 years ago. Really, I dunno what that’s all about; you’d think there might be some law against that sort of thing or some such.
As far as Manning, I seem to remember a few years of Really Bad teams in San Diego before they finally realized that it might be a little helpful if they actually had any real live football players on the team not named “Fouts” and “Winslow”, but then I may be misremembering. Of course, the larger point to all this is… I honestly CAN’T remember anyone from those Saints teams other than Manning. I dunno, was Abromowitz around then maybe? Dempsey, I guess, but kickers don’t really count.
Bonzi Wells at Ball State. Obviously not among the best college players. But if dominant means “how does he compare against the competition”, then he’s on my list. He turned MAC games into farces, would just play with the opposition.
An important thing to remember is that the casting and execution of a TV show counts for at least as much as the original idea.
Example A: “let’s make a TV show based on that recently popular anti-establishment comedy motion picture” resulted in both the all-time great series “M*A*S*H” and the all-time disaster “Animal House”.
Example B: “Let’s make a series about a family of monsters and freaks living in a scary house in suburbia” resulted in both the excellent “The Addams Family” and the pedestrian “The Munsters”*
Example C: “Let’s make a series about a therapist who moves to the pacific northwest following a divorce to host a radio show and lets get that supporting character from that incredibly popular series to star” resulted in both the hugely popular “Frasier” and the legendary career killer “Hello Larry”.
*You may, for some reason, think that The Munsters are as good as or better than The Addams Family. Possible reasons for such a response include: total lack of a sense of humor; extreme stupidity; growing up under power lines; a childhood spent ingesting lead paint. Whatever the reason, you are wrong. The Addams Family was awesome, The Munsters was hackwork. In the extremely sad case that you don’t agree, why not save us all a lot of embarassment and discomfort and just keep it to yourself.
Great Post Joe!
What I say to folks with young children is that I have only one, she’s 27 and she’s all paid for.
While the Flying Nun is certainly a worthy candidate, my vote goes to My Mother the Car starring Jerry van Dyke and the voice of Ann Southern wherein Jerry’s Mom dies and is reincarnated as an old car.
Tell your kids about how a nice man would come and pump the gas for you.
Finally, you are at the Super Bowl, you are living in Kansas City, so can we have a few words about Hank Stram!
gogiggs:
I liked the Munsters and that doesn’t embarrass me one bit. I do find it amusing that you can get all worked up about it though so 5 stars for that I guess.
I seem to recall liking both the Munsters and Adams Family… however I have not seen either since I was about 8 years old… so I don’t really trust my recollections..
Was Leo Durocher ever on the Addams Family?
No… but he was on several tv shows…
“The Munsters” …. Himself (1 episode, 1965)
– Herman the Rookie (1965) TV episode …. Himself
“Mr. Novak” …. Himself (1 episode, 1964)
– Boy Under Glass (1964) TV episode …. Himself
“The Donna Reed Show” …. Himself (1 episode, 1964)
– Play Ball (1964) TV episode …. Himself
“The Judy Garland Show” …. Himself (1 episode, 1963)
– Episode #1.4 (1963) TV episode …. Himself
“Mister Ed” …. Himself (1 episode, 1963)
– Leo Durocher Meets Mister Ed (1963) TV episode …. Himself
“The Beverly Hillbillies” …. Himself (1 episode, 1963)
– The Clampetts and the Dodgers (1963) TV episode …. Himself
A friend of mine has been joking about firing a coach on the sidelines during a game, much like you describe during a press conference.
Best example I remember was during a Detroit Lions game that went to overtime, Marty Morningwhig decided to defer after winning the coin flip.
My friend immediately said: “Are you kidding me? If I was the owner, I would literally walk down to the sideline and fire him on the spot.”
“Marty, go ahead and head home, will work out the contract buyout later, but just give me the headset, and leave the building. You can come clean your stuff out tomorrow.”
The best part of the Morninhweg screw-up is that he “took the wind” in OT, and then took a penalty that if declined would have forced the other team to punt. On the second chance they got a first down, got into field goal range and kicked the winning FG despite the mighty wind.
The problem with that ‘97 Jayhawks team (and thus their players) was the same problem the current one has. The roles weren’t defined and the stars weren’t willing to consistently dominate because players like Pollard and Haas kept the other team from being able to attack anywhere.
Compare those teams to the Manning miracle team or the two teams that Hinrich and Collison took to the Final Four. On those teams the stars dominated.
Brandon Rush and Darrell Arthur – the two most highly projected NBA guys on the KU roster – disappeared against K-State just like LaFrenz and Pierce did any time it was time to really play. Paul Pierce was an incredibly disappointing college player. He’d be utterly unstoppable for 10 minutes and then glide through the rest of the game and the next two without much impression.
I love the Jayhawks, but to claim Paul Pierce was one of the top 50 college players over the last 20 years much less the top 5 is way over the top.
If Nick Collison had made free throws in the championship game, he’d be a contestant for the list. Also, Carmelo, who ran and hid from the ball the whole second half of the championship game, and then went to the NBA shouldn’t be mentioned as a runner-up either.
If you want the greatest college players of the last twenty years, you’ve got to look at guys like Sean Elliot, Danny Ferry, and the UNLV players. But Danny Manning is clearly the best college basketball player in that time frame.