Colin Cowherd Goes Off The Wall With Rant On Wizards Rookie

Too often these days, we are quick to criticize people and their actions without ever having met that person or learned more about what led to their actions.  In a microwave-infused society, the speed of the reaction seems to be more important than the accuracy and/or fairness of the reaction.

Such ill-advised impatience usually results in a greater chance of someone not only saying something stupid, but appearing to have a one-sided, self-serving agenda.  The latest example of this trend is ESPN Radio’s Colin Cowherd’s rant on Wizards rookie John Wall doing “The Dougie” during pregame introductions Tuesday night.

Cowherd went off about Wall saying, "Before the game started, he spent 34 seconds doing the Dougie. That tells me all I need to know about J-Wow. Then he opened his mouth later and confirmed it: not a sharp guy. All about him."

Actually, Colin, Wall is anything BUT "all about him".

Wall Pass:  Cowherd Called Out

Bay Area Anchor Famous For Singletary Interview Gets The Boot

Maybe you've heard about the infamous live interview 49ers Head Coach Mike Singletary did recently with KPIX sports anchor Dennis O'Donnell. In case you haven't seen the video, you should watch it below.

Having just recently viewed the video myself, I felt the need to voice my opinions here.

I think what Singletary did to O'Donnell on the air was completely uncalled for and downright disrespectful. But beyond that, for O'Donnell to be removed from that special segment is even more ridiculous in my mind.

Not only were O'Donnell's questions timely and topical in wake of a recent Yahoo! Sports article, he was giving Singletary a chance to set the record straight in the team's special segment on KPIX's newscast, which I'm sure is where 49ers fans expect to get the most direct information regarding the team. Even if Singletary didn't know or respect that, he's certainly aware of the money the station pays for that access. And for that reason, he should have been more cooperative during O'Donnell's interview.

Being a sportscaster myself, I just hate the idea that the station and team executives didn't do what was right and have Singletary apologize to O'Donnell. Instead, as we often see in Corporate America, KPIX station execs seemed to bend over backwards to appease the 49ers. It seems as though being a slave to the almighty dollar supersedes doing the right thing.

Bad Year For Minorities In Broadcast Journalism

The minorities in the United States increased as a percentage of population from 2009 to 2010, but at the same time, minority staffing in radio and television news departments was decreasing, and in neither case did the numbers reflect the total population, according to the latest RTDNA/Hofstra University study.

In 2010, minorities made up 35.3% of total population, but comprised only 20.2% of TV news staffing and an almost invisible 5% of radio staffing. The 2009 numbers were 34.4%, 21.8% and 8.9% respectively.

rbr.com:  Bad Year For Minorities In Broadcast Journalism

Unless LeBron Told You Directly What He's Going To Do, You Need To Stop Frontin'

Coming into this NBA off-season, the number one question centered on the summer’s #1 free agent.  Where’s LeBron going?
 
I get that question a minimum of five times a day, and my response is always the same.  I have no idea, and quite frankly, neither does anyone else who is speaking publicly on the question.
 
The reason “Where’s LeBron going?” is the number one question this off-season is because, not only will his decision potentially trigger the largest power shift in the league since Shaq left Orlando for LA, but it is also the one question to which no one in the media has any credible inside information.


 foxsportswest.com:  What Will LeBron Do?

USBWA NAMES 2009-10 MEN'S ALL-DISTRICT TEAMS

ST. LOUIS (USBWA) – The U.S. Basketball Writers Association (of which, I am a member) has released its 2009-10 Men's All-District Teams, based on voting from its national membership. There are nine regions from coast to coast and a player and coach of the year are selected in each. Following is the entire region-by-region listing:


USBWA Names Men's All-District Teams

Tiger Got Yanged

I realize we have become so accustomed to Tiger Woods winning golf tournaments--especially ones in which he is leading on Sunday--that when he actually fails to close it out, it's so easy to assume that Tiger lost as opposed to him getting beat. Sunday, he got beat. Plain and simple.

It seems as though sports fans, as well as sports media, love to throw out the word "choke" anytime a player or team of high profile loses--particularly in upset fashion. Do some people really get more satisfaction out of someone losing versus someone excelling?

I'm sorry, but I just don't roll like that. I love a good story, and Y.E. Yang may be the best story of this golf season. Tiger didn't give him the PGA Championship. Yang took it!

On a day when only 10 players broke par, Yang shot the best score of the day. Down the stretch of a major championship, Yang went eagle, par, par, bogey, birdie. Under the most immense pressure of the tournament, Yang brushed that pressure off his shoulders like a pimp in a vice squad raid. The playa made plays.

As far as Tiger choking goes, child please! He shot 75 in the final round, not 82. It wasn't like he was spraying the ball all over the course, he just didn't make any putts.
　
"I hit the ball great off the tee, hit my irons well," said Tiger. "I did everything I needed to do except for getting the ball in the hole."

So ease up on the choke talk when discussing this year's PGA Championship. Greg Norman choked in the 1996 Masters. Jean van de Velde choked at the 1999 Open Championship. Phil Mickelson choked at the 2006 U.S. Open.

Tiger didn't choke at the 2009 PGA Championship. He simply got Yanged!

Brett Favre: Retired or not?

Let me preface my following comments with this statement: I really don't care if Brett Favre stays retired or comes back to play for the Packers this season. I truly and honestly don't. He's a grown-ass man and he can do whatever he wants.

But having said that, I do have a problem with the media's--especially ESPN's-- utter infatuation with this man. I mean, some people are treating Favre's impending comeback as though it were Jesus Christ rolling back that stone on Easter Sunday. If Favre does indeed play again this season, will he get a holiday named after him leading people to get dressed up in their Sunday best for a game?

Yes, he's one of the game's all-time greats. Without question. But he hasn't won a Super Bowl since 1997. His last Super Bowl appearance came in 1998. His run of 3 consecutive MVP awards stopped more than 11 years ago. He's come close to getting back to the Super Bowl in recent years, but so have Drew Brees and Jake Plummer, and Rex Grossman and Matt Hasselbeck actually got there. So what exactly does that say?

He's just another Hall of Fame football player hoping to make sure his decision to leave the game is one he won't regret. He wants to be certain he's ready to leave when he actually leaves. So while he battles with this emotional, life-altering choice, give the man some space. If you stop crowding him demanding a definite yes or no, he might actually give you what you want-- one more year!

What's Really In A Name?

In the latest installment of "Some people just take some things way too far," comes this report from the Washington Post. And just for the record, when did "gay" become a 4-letter word?

OneNewsNow.com, a Mississippi-based website committed to delivering "news from a Christian perspective," has a strict policy to replace certain words deemed offensive. So imagine the surprise when readers learned Sunday that Tyson Homosexual -- not Tyson Gay -- had run the world's fastest 100-meter dash.

The website ran the following altered Associated Press recap of Gay's 9.68-second wind-aided sprint:

"Tyson Homosexual was a blur in blue, sprinting 100 meters faster than anyone ever has. . . . Homosexual qualified for his first Summer Games team and served notice he's certainly someone to watch in Beijing."

"It means a lot to me," the 25-year-old Homosexual said. "I'm glad my body could do it, because now I know I have it in me."

Fred Jackson, news director of OneNewsNow, told the Washington Post that the site has been fixed.

"We took the filter out for that word," he said, without uttering the "G" word, the Post reported.