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Kickin'
It When I arrived home from our remote broadcast in Greensboro on Friday night, I could hear the band and the crowd at nearby Myers Park High School. A smile came to my face as I opened up the door of my Ford F-150....yes, indeed.....it was officially football season. I could hear the screams and drums as Myers Park was in the process of a fourth quarter rally against Garinger. It's time to kick it off. Football is in the air, and the purity of high school football gets the first honors as the college and pro guys continue to tweak the rosters and plan for their opening night. Life is good again....despite this nagging summer cold. I had plans for a night on the town with my wife, Amie, on Saturday, but this bout with bronchitis (or whatever it is that's kicking my ass) floored me for the weekend. So, instead, I was able to load up on meds and watch non-stop sports throughout the day/night. Panthers football, night racing at Bristol and important MLB series.....once again...life is OK. I wanted to see how the Panthers' starters competed against Miami. Ten seconds into the broadcast, I realized that either my medication was messing with me, or that the audio was out of sync.....or both. Either way, it was annoying. Mike Morgan and Mike Rucker looked like they were doing their best Bruce Lee/Godzilla lip sync impersonation. Then Pete Yanity's first sideline report was drowned out by the Land Shark PA system.....this was starting to get comical. Finally, kick-off. Once Jake Delhomme got under center, the crowd noise in a half-empty stadium was so loud that Morgan and Rucker sounded like a murmur. I was reaching for more medication and the mute button. The good news is that the Panthers played better than the production and broadcast crew. The mute button came in handy....and the team looked a little better. They still have some work to do, but not as much as the Panthers TV crew. I loved watching Kyle Busch win again at Bristol. Amazing, but 43 stock cars and 165,000 people didn't make nearly the noise of the Land Shark Stadium in Miami. Maybe it was the Jimmy Buffet song blaring in the background? Even Dale, Jr. posted another Top 10 finish as he gets closer and closer to finding Victory Lane. As for Busch: he's now 34 points behind the the 12th and final slot in the Chase for the Cup. He needs to make it, because without him, the final 12 drivers have the potential to put you to sleep...or at least the racing will take care of it for you. There are only two races left to make the Chase.....Atlanta and Richmond are up next. NASCAR has worked hard to create some drama and a "regular season"....right now, I'd have to say they have done just that. It's kind of goofy, how college hoops has made the headlines this past few weeks. First it was Slick Rick Pitino and his lunatic friend having sex in a Louisville restaurant, and now the Memphis basketball team is vacating 38 wins from their 2007-08 almost-national championship team. Fans were screaming for the head of then Memphis, and now-Kentucky coach, John Calipari. Coach Cal has some baggage and the reputation for pushing the rules to the limit (and then some), but when Memphis received the news from the NCAA about the use of an illegal player, it was all she wrote. UNC and Duke fans ripped into Calipari and Kentucky on my radio show. Ironically, neither Calipari or Kentucky appear on the formal NCAA investigation.....but that didn't matter to the upset callers and emailers. They know Coach Cal has to have his hand in the cookie jar at some point in time. The organization that tests for SAT flags and the NCAA Clearinghouse both failed in this process and it allowed Coach Cal and Memphis to proceed as usual in this case. I'm not sure what Calipari should have done differently? The NCAA gave him and his player(s) the green light to play...and they played. And they almost won the NCAA Championship in the process. In the meantime, Derrick Rose left school to make millions in the NBA, and Coach Cal did the same thing at Kentucky. Memphis can't say the same. Welcome back, Brett....Nice comeback.....8 plays...1-4 passing for 4 yards. Hilarious. |
Packman
on Sports Commentary
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