Friday Wrap Up: Rich Cho Aftermath, NBA Finals Are Set, And Ohio State is Dirtier Than We Thought

Happy Friday, folks.  My last post was a review of Maxim's 2011 Hot 100 list that I took way too seriously.  But hey it was fun, okay?  The lovely Sarah Shahi came in at #24 on the list.  I didn't mention her in my overrated/underrated post because I thought 24th was a good place for Shahi to be at on the list.

The Aftermath: So we've had a few days to recover from the madness that we call "Paul Allen's management style".  Rich Cho is long gone, and Allen stated that it was a "chemistry" issue that sent Cho packing.  I still think it's nonsense.  I mean, if Paul Allen wants to have chemistry with someone, he needs to go out and join eHarmony.  Paul Allen is kind of a weird guy, and can be socially awkward.  Guess what?  Rich Cho is the same guy, who is quiet and keeps to himself.  So when Allen and Cho aren't BFFs right away, it shouldn't surprise anyone.  Allen obviously has a different opinion.

Since Cho was fired, all Blazers fans have been getting is a steady dose of "hey, it's Paul Allen's team and he can do what he wants with it, so shut the hell up".  I'm still of the opinion that this change of direction at the top for Portland is troubling and shows a clear lack of direction.  Some Blazer fans have sort of bought into the change, convincing themselves that it was a positive move.  But I'm not so sure about that.  Regardless of all the craziness, Joel Freeman says that the Portland GM position is still an attractive job. 

I guess we'll see in the next few weeks.  I think Paul Allen should just go ahead and hire himself as the GM and save himself the trouble of firing about 3 or 4 more GMs in the coming years.  It would probably save him some time as well, and definitely save him some cash.  Whoever the Blazers hire as the next GM is going to be even more of a puppet than Rich Cho was anyway.

Friday Wrap Up: 2011 NFL Draft Edition

Last night was a weird night for me.  As soon as I got home, I turned on the Blazers-Mavs game.  But I also wanted to watch the rest of the NFL draft.  So I was flipping between the two for a bit.  

As the Blazer game progressed, the more and more depressed and angry I got.  But the craziness of the first round of the draft was off the charts.  The drama of the draft helped to take my mind off of the Blazers' season ending last night.  So I was pissed off about the game on the one hand and intrigued with what was happening at the draft on the other.  It was all very odd.

Anyway, since today there is nothing on the internet except morning-after draft day analysis (at least the first round), today's post is going to be all about the draft.

Cam Newton:  As expected, Carolina made Cam Newton the top pick of the draft.  Whatever your opinion of Cam Newton is, you can find a journalist out there that agrees with you.  Charlotte Observer columnist Tom Sorenson seems to be on the positive end of the opinion spectrum.  To put it mildly, opinions about Cam Newton's potential may vary a bit, depending on who you're asking.

Now that Newton has been drafted, we'll finally get to see what he can do as a professional entertainer and icon.  Oh and don't forget "football player" too.  One thing we know for sure though, is that he got one helluva raise.  Even with a rookie salary cap in place, the million dollars (or more) that he gets as a signing bonus will make the $180,000 he got last year at Auburn look like chump change.

Oh, and now he won't have steal any laptops.  He can just buy one whenever he gets the urge to jack one.

Weekend Wrap Up: Manny Ramirez Retires, Tom Brady Cries and John Daly's Ex-Wife Is Kinda Hot

I've only seen about seven total minutes of the current season of American Idol.  And all of those seven minutes have been spent watching the lovely Pia Toscano singing.  I like to think that I know talent when I see it.

Last week Pia was voted off of Idol and apparently nobody expected it.  We're not worried about it at all though.  Our girl Pia will surely land on her feet.  If it's not something to do with singing, she always has the option of becoming a professional hot chick.  Professional hot chick is actually been proven to be the easiest job in the history of the world.  Go figure.

1. Manny Ramirez: The declining slugger abruptly retired from baseball last Friday.  It came after Ramirez reportedly tested positive for a banned substance once again.  Many are saying that it's going to be hard for Manny to make the Hall of Fame now, but as Ty Duffy of The Big Lead argues, does making it to the Hall of Fame matter as much anymore?

Duffy says, "Manny’s disgrace may keep him from the Hall of Fame, but does Cooperstown even matter? The voting process has been endlessly scrutinized. Induction isn’t the mark of immortality it was once perceived to be. It’s the collective, controversial whim of aging sportswriters many of whom (a) hold personal grudges and (b) remain willfully ignorant of the sport they cover."

2. Tom Brady: Apparently, Tom Brady is a human being and he cried.  And the video is currently on every website and blog in the world!!  With this whole lockout nonsense going on, I guess there's nothing else more exciting going on.

Weekend Wrap Up: College Football Cheaters Edition

Hope everyone is having a good weekend.  Happy Opening Weekend for all you baseball freaks out there.  Personally, I love when baseball rolls around each year.  Because every year when the baseball season starts, no matter what, the Braves have a chance to win it all.  Even though they probably won't be winning it all, optimism is always at it's peak level this time of year.

In other news, Audrina Patridge stops by to say hello.  Boy, she sure looks comfortable.

So today, there are few things that are bugging me, so the wrap up today is going to be a little longer than usual.  So bear with me.

1. Cam Newton: Well what do ya know, Cam Newton is in the news again this week.  In case you somehow missed it, a scouting report written by Pro Football Weekly's Nolan Nawrocki had some pretty negative things to say about Newton's prospects as an NFL professional.  Here's a taste of what he said:

Very disingenuous — has a fake smile, comes off as very scripted and has a selfish, me-first makeup. Always knows where the cameras are and plays to them. Has an enormous ego with a sense of entitlement that continually invites trouble and makes him believe he is above the law — does not command respect from teammates and always will struggle to win a locker room. 

So after this report was made public, everyone absolutely freaked out.  Gasp!  How could you call Cam Newton a bad guy if he's such a great quarterback?!?  It can't be true!  Oh the travesty!  And then Warren Moon sat down with Mike Freeman, of CBSSports.com, and played the race card.

Friday Wrap Up: Jim Tressel, Oregon's Recruiting Troubles, Barry Bonds and Minka Kelly

Happy Friday to you all.  And here's a PSG favorite Minka Kelly, to add a little joy to your life today.  Wow, she's something, ain't she? (I'm currently shaking my head in disbelief while thinking of how lucky that bastard Derek Jeter is...)  I may hate the New York Yankees with all my heart and soul, but I've got nothing but respect for Derek Jeter.

So here are a few things that are on my mind.

1. Jim Tressel -- What a lying sack of crap.  I'm really starting to be bugged by all these college coaches/programs being busted and all their lame ass excuses for why they cheated.  I mean, I'm not a moralist or anything, but Jim Tressel should be fired, straight up.  Bruce Pearl lied to the NCAA (essentially did the same thing as Tressel did, but in a different way), but admitted it right away and still got canned.

Tressel lied and kept the lie going for months, and then held a press conference about it once he got caught.  He even extended his own self-imposed suspension from 2 games to 5 games, but he is only doing that in hopes that the NCAA goes easy on him when they get done with their own investigation on the matter.  But I hope the guy gets canned.  Plain and simple.

2. Oregon's recruiting troubles -- I'm sure Chip Kelly has made several phone calls to Jim Tressel thanking him for being just a little bit dirtier and high-profile than the Ducks.  As soon as the Ohio State story hit the wire, everyone forgot about Oregon's dirty deeds.  But the allegations are still there, and regardless of what Duck homers will tell you, they still seem really shady.

But it just makes me laugh that all these Oregon fans are getting so defensive and claiming that these allegations are "no big deal" and "everbody does it", but I guarantee you that if USC, Auburn, Texas, Washington, or Oregon State had these allegations come out about them, Oregon Duck fans would be screaming bloody murder right along side the rest of the country.  Most college football fans these days are so freakin hypocritical, it's laughable.  Hard to take most of them seriously.

Friday Wrap Up: Sno-mageddon 2011, Rex Ryan, the NBA Trade Deadline, and Cam Newton

Well we survived the week.  We also survived the much-anticipated Sno-mageddon 2011.  Pfft.  Thanks a lot Matt Zaffino.  You too, Mark Nelson.  Don't forget you, Andy Carson.  Jerks.  Thanks for getting my hopes up.  The so called winter storm warning didn't even get me one lousy day off work.  Here, I thought I'd be snowed in both Thursday and Friday, but noooooo.

Next time I sure ain't going to get my hopes up.  I hate snow anyway.  I just wanted to days off of work.  I'm convinced snow sucks unless you're, like, eight years old or younger.  Yeah, playing in the snow when you're eight years old is great.  But when you're an adult and have to actually do adult things (go to work, go to the store, drive anywhere), it completely sucks.

So screw you Sno-mageddon 2011.

Anyway, here's what has been thrown around in the world of sports this past week.

1. The NBA trade deadline was pretty awesome, wasn't it?
For the first time in at least a few years, the NBA trade deadline was pretty interesting.  Lots of deals went down, especially on that last day.  If you didn't get a chance to keep track of all of them, here is a pretty good list from Yahoo! Sports of all the details.

Besides the Blazers pulling a fast one on the Bobcats, there were a couple other deals that caught my eye.  For one, Baron Davis must be pretty pissed off today.  Getting traded to the Cleveland Cavaliers will piss anyone off, no matter what team you come from.  Like everyone's been saying, we're not going to see much of Davis in a Cavs uniform, I don't think. 

And how about the Nets trading for Deron Williams.  That was pretty ballsy, right?  I think it's a good move for both sides.  But how pissed off do you think Jerry Sloan is right about now?  He gets ran out of town by D-Will, and then management ships Williams outta there.  Could Utah maybe have hinted about this to Sloan a couple weeks earlier?  Utah is not going to be very good for a couple years now, if you ask me.  But if they would have kept Sloan as head coach, they would still have been a decent team.

2. I'm sorry Auburn fans, but Cam Newton is going to get nailed by the NCAA eventually.
I've mentioned this idea before, but The Big Lead brought up the point again this past week.  In a post titled, "When will the NCAA find dirt on Cam Newton?", TBL states that "you can be sure the NCAA will take many more months to find something – anything – to nail Auburn on. According to Kevin Scarbinsky of the Birmingham News, the NCAA is still getting its sleuth on, but hasn’t found anything new.....I’m of the belief that it’s a “when” situation, not “if.”"

Our resident expert on all things SEC, Clay Travis, who writes for Fanhouse.com, also wrote this article back on November 15, 2010, predicting practically the same thing...that "Scam" Newton is going to get busted.  Travis says, "It might take 10 days, it might take two years, but the ineligibility ruling is coming.....In the meantime Auburn fans can continue to bury their heads in the sand and blame everyone but the Newton family for the plague of Biblical proportions that is about to rain down on their football program."

The way the NCAA has handled the whole Cam Newton mess has been embarrassing.  It's obvious that they didn't rule him ineligible during this past season because they wanted a great national title game matchup with the two undefeated teams going head to head.  Because they're so cowardly, they'll have no problem ruling Newton ineligible and stripping Auburn of the national title so long after the fact, that no one is going to care.  And then they'll be able to say that they enforced the rules, upheld the integrity of the game, blah, blah, blah and feel good about themselves.

Meanwhile, Auburn will suffer and no one else will care.

Friday Wrap Up: Albert Pujols, Dale Sr., Stupid Alabama Fan, and NFL Mock Drafts

SI Swimsuit Rookie Kate Upton

Well the weekend is finally upon us, folks.  And yes, I say that every Friday, but it never gets old.  And, for me at least, this weekend is extra kick-ass because it's a three day weekend.  I don't have any special plans or anything, but having the extra day off is good enough for me.

So here's a few stories that are being tossed back and forth in the sports world.

1. Albert Pujols wants to get PAID.

The St. Louis Cardinals and slugger Albert Pujols have been trying to work out a new contract and the world might just come to an end if they can't get a deal done, apparently.  I am a huge baseball fan, and I really don't care at all about this story.  I don't really have an opinion one way or the other on where Pujol's should end up and if wherever he goes, it's going to be the best thing for baseball.

I would actually be pretty pissed off if he ended up on the Yankees, but that's only because I hate the Yankees.  I am at peace with the fact that, in the sports world I currently live in, any player who reaches a certain level of "stardom" is going to play for the Yankees or at least have the Yankees chasing them.  It's just the way it is.

SI's Tom Verducci thinks Pujols is as good as gone.  ESPN's Michael Wilbon wants his Chicago Cubs (of course) to do whatever it takes to get him to Chi-town.  SI's Jon Heyman reports that Pujols apparently is not interested in a 9 year offer for around $200 million from the Cards.  And St. Louis Post-Dispatch columnist Jeff Gordon lays out a plan that makes it possible for the Cardinals to afford Pujols long term.

All I know for sure is that if this situation doesn't get resolved soon, I am going to hate Albert Pujols by the end of baseball season.  This story will make every sports fans' ears bleed plenty before the end of the season.

2. Harvey Almorn Updyke Jr.

Geez, this guy's a real asshole isn't he?  No doubt our favorite Auburn grad Lindsay McCormick thinks so.  Here's the story, if you haven't heard the details.  I mean, this is a real douchebag move Harvey, man.  And how smart do you have to be to actually call a national radio show and tell everyone what you did in detail?  No need to answer that, but you get the point.

Listen, guys like this are the exact reason why we haven't progressed farther as a society.  Seriously.  I hope he gets the whole ten years in the slammer because of how stupid he is.  He deserves it.  Better yet, while he's in prison, he should get to have a TV in his cell, but a TV that only plays Auburn football games.  That'd be a good punishment for this idiot.

And if you or any part of you thought what this clown did was cool or funny or 'not that bad', you are an idiot too.  Plain and simple.  Here's part of what Clay Travis, who is where I go for everything SEC, had to say about what happened:  "Seriously, has a football rivalry truly come to this? That you have to worry about a drive-by on a college campus? That you have to assign additional officers to protect campus relics? Is this Tehran or Tuscaloosa? Auburn or Beirut?......And I don't see it getting better anytime soon. Not until some sense of sanity returns. Not until the fans with the college degrees actually take charge of this rivalry."

SI's Andy Staples and ESPN's Mark Schlabach were both pretty pissed about it too.

Friday Wrap Up: Super Bowl XLV Edition

Well we've made it through the much ballyhooed week of Super Bowl media coverage, and we're ready to just sit back and enjoy the game. 

Since our beloved New England Patriots haven't made an appearance in the big game in a few years, it's been a while since we've had a true rooting interest.  But games like this are more enjoyable for us anyway, because we get so worked up for Super Bowls that the Pats have played in, that we haven't been able to sit back and relax at all.

In fact, we're so nervous that we have to go into a separate room to watch the game so that annoying Super Bowl party goers don't bother us, and in turn, make us even more nervous.  That's how crazy we get when New England plays in the Super Bowl.

On a completely unrelated note, if Molly Qerim was watching all those Super Bowls with us, we probably wouldn't have given two sh*ts whether the Patriots win the game or not.  She'll distract a fella from time to time.

Crap, we just forgot what we were writing about.  See?  It's already happened.  Oh, that's right...

1. Here's a lengthy article where among lots of other things, The Sports Guy lays down his rules for cities that should be able to host the Super Bowl.  Couple of the highlights are:

--If MTV would never film a "Real World" season in your city, you probably shouldn't host the Super Bowl. 

--If your location doesn't quadruple the chances that a player on one of the two teams will get arrested, you shouldn't host the Super Bowl.

Friday Wrap Up: There Will Be No Football This Weekend

There will be no football this weekend for the first time in a long time.  We have the Super Bowl next weekend and that's it.  What are we going to do to pass the time?? 

Former Dallas Cowboys cheerleader Sarah Shahi is here to help take us into the weekend though, and that should help soften the blow.  She's got this new show on USA called Fairly Legal that looks decent, but I haven't had time to check it out yet.  Maybe I'll get to that this weekend sometime, since there won't be any football.

1. Royals pitcher Gil Meche is retiring from baseball, and giving back the last $12m of his contract to the Royals.  This story is pretty amazing, not to mention very refreshing to hear.  An modern athlete that is not out for every dollar he can get?  Pretty few and far between these days.  Tyler Kepner has a story in the New York Times that is a great read. 

But Meche knew the Royals really signed him to start games and log innings. His deteriorating shoulder, surgically repaired twice in 2001, would not allow him to do that. As a divorced father of three, he believed his children — ages 7, 5 and 3 — needed him more than his teammates did.

Meche told the Royals’ general manager, Dayton Moore, that he did not want any of the paycheck due him. No settlement, no buyout, no strings. The Royals had been roundly criticized for signing Meche in the first place — he was 55-44 with a 4.65 earned run average in six seasons for the Mariners — and Meche believed they had already paid him enough.

Friday Wrap Up: Brooklyn Decker Stops By To Say Hello And Brighten Your Day

Happy Friday everyone.  Seems like it's been a long week, right?  At least for me, it has.  Maybe it's the clouds and grey skies.  Luckily, Brooklyn Decker is here to make us forget about the grey skies.  Hell, she can help you forget anything you need some distraction from. 

1. Aaron Rodgers isn't that bad of a guy after all.  Earlier this week, a video of the Green Bay QB was making the rounds through the internet.  It is a video of Aaron Rodgers walking by a fan at an airport that is dressed in all pink breast cancer swag.  When watching the video, it looks like Rodgers purposely ignores this lady and snubs her autograph request.

Every column and blog had their shot at Rodgers during this past week.  But Gregg Doyel of CBSSports.com sets the record straight about what kind of person Aaron Rodgers really seems to be.  Good stuff.

2. Blake Griffin's hot girlfriend is just some random hot chick, and not really his girlfriend.  This whole thing got really confusing today when Brooks over at SPORTSbyBROOKS posted the story breaking down how this fake "Blake Griffin's girlfriend" rumor got started.  It's a good story and it looks as though, for some stupid reason, someone started this internet rumor.  Well, all I know is that whoever actually calls Jasmine Shein his girlfriend, he is a lucky, lucky man.

Then, like an hour later, John Canzano of the Oregonian tweeted that Blake Griffin says he met his girlfriend on Facebook, which is in line with the original rumors that SPORTSbyBROOKS debunked.  So Blake Griffin may or may not have a hot girlfriend and he may or may not have met her through Facebook.  Or something.  Anyway...(UPDATE: Looks like Canzano has since deleted that tweet, but below is a picture of it.)

3. Homeless dude wins ESPN.com fantasy football contest.  And he won it all on the last week, when at the very last minute, he decided to start Tim Tebow, instead of Matt Cassell and Josh Freeman.  Pretty freakin' incredible if you ask me.  This season, I qualified for the playoffs with my crappy 8th seeded team, and very nearly made a Cinderella-like run and won the whole damn thing.  But geez, I needed like an ounce of this guy's luck and the title would have been mine.  Maybe next year, I guess.  Pretty crazy story though.

The best part of the story is this sentence: "My fiancee says she's never going to say a word about fantasy football when I'm on the computer again," Harrington said.  Yeah, I bet she won't.

4. The Oregon Duck cheerleaders are the hottest damn group of hotties in this fine country.  Watch the video and then google them sometime.  Anytime.  Just do it.  You'll enjoy it.

5. Why no one remembers the Mark Sanchez rape case.  Personally, I don't even remember hearing about this.  Nothing against Mark Sanchez, but this is pretty interesting stuff.  Everyone has been killing Ben Roesthlisberger for his off-the-field miscalculations and problems.  But he may not be the only one that has his share of issues.  The Deadspin article ends with this, and it seems to be the point of the article: "There's a story everyone wants to tell about Sanchez, and his getting popped on a rape accusation doesn't fit."

Anyway, folks.  Have a good and safe weekend.  Catch you all later.