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Monday, December 24, 2007
Christmas column
Because of the All-Area Teams and early deadlines, I was unable to run my normal Monday column. Here is said column:
A very sporting Christmas list
With Christmas just hours away, I find myself with a very long Christmas list and not much time to fill it. So without further ado, I’d better get to it.
To Barry Bonds: Some help with the weight on your shoulders. Though you are still the face of the steroid problem in baseball, you now have some help with that burden you are carrying. Though with all of that muscle mass you have put on over the last several years, you probably don’t need much.
To Roger Clemens: Your share of Bonds’ steroid shame. No, more than your share of it. Your name has come up every so often, but you have escaped the white-hot spotlight that Bonds has been suffering under. It’s your turn now. Too bad you will probably just retire.
To Bobby Petrino: The whippin’ of your life in the SEC. There is no shame in striking while the iron is hot and moving to the NFL, but to jump ship midseason and leave form letters to your players … I hope you find no success at Arkansas.
To Major League Baseball: A salary cap and an anti-doping policy that works. For that matter, the same to all pro sports leagues that is missing or both.
To Duke, UNC, N.C. State: As much success in football as you have in basketball. Wake and ECU look like they are in pretty good shape on the gridiron. For them, help in hoops.
To the Washington Redskins: A trip to the playoffs. You deserve it after what you’ve been through this year.
To the Cleveland Browns: A trip to the playoffs. You deserve it after everything you have been through since Art Modell took the money and ran.
To the Cincinnati Bengals: Enough get out of jail free cards to get you through to next season.
To the National Hockey League: Visibility. You need it since no one knows where to find your games on TV. (It is Versus, by the way.)
To Elizabeth City State’s athletic program: A pick-me-up. The 2007-08 seasons have started a little slow, but hopefully the basketball teams will be back in form come tournament time. They sure were last year. But then, maybe last year has left my hopes for the home teams a little higher than normal. Success does that sometimes.
To the University of Michigan: A lump of coal. Rich Rodriguez can bring it with him from West Virginia. Rich will get his on Nov. 22.
To Jim Tressel: A lifetime contract. It is not unusual for a coach to come to a program and have immediate success. It is more unusual for that success to continue without the coach jumping ship. That’s what Ohio State has.
To Joe Paterno: A lifetime contract. No coach is more deserving of one for what he has done for his school. And to think he’s making half a million. That’s a big-time bargain in the coaching ranks.
To all of the readers: Happy Holidays.
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