Narcissism, Thy Names are A-Rod and Johnny Football

I would highly recommend that you read this week's edition of Sports Illustrated for two stories.

The first is the cover story on the soon to be banished Alex Rodriguez.  If there is any doubt in your mind as to why MLB is going after A-Rod with such fervor, then read this story.  Talk about a guy who had it all, threw it away, got a second chance, threw it away again, and STILL doesn't get it.  As the writer S.L. Price puts it, how can a guy with such superior talent and baseball smarts be so...dumb. 

The second story concerns Heisman Trophy winner Johnny Manziel, aka "Johnny Football".  In the space of a few short months, Manziel has evolved from being an exciting football player, and a refreshing story to a near train wreck.  You know the stories...speeding tickets, underage drinking, getting thrown out of the Mannings' Quarterback camp, being seen at the NBA Finals, and so on and on.  He has come this close to being awarded an H.A. Citation by The Grandstander, but one feature of this story is making me hesitant to do so, and that is the details of how Texas A&M is reaping a financial bonanza by selling all sorts of Manziel jerseys and t-shirts, caps, photos etc.  Manziel, of course, gets not a penny of this loot, so NCAA hypocrisy allows me to give Johnny Football a break in not awarding him an H.A Citation.  He is, however, on the "H.A. Watch List".

Oh, and one more thing.  In none of these stories, not the SI story this week nor in all of the others that have surrounded Manziel this off season, is any mention at all made of him actually, you know, attending classes at A&M.  I know this brands me as being hopelessly naive, but can't they at least pretend that he is a student-athlete?  At least until he declares for the NFL at the end of the season? I mean...

All-Time Top Ten NCAA Tournament Players

A special edition of Sports Illustrated came in the mail today that salutes "75 Years of the NCAA Basketball Tournament".  Cool idea.  Even cooler was the centerpiece of the issue, which named the ten "greatest players" in the history of the tournament, and for your consideration, here they are:

10. Jerry West
9. Christian Laettner
8. Magic Johnson
7. Bill Bradley
6. Wilt Chamberlain
5. Larry Bird
4. Oscar Robertson
3. Bill Russell
2. Bill Walton
1. Lew Alcindor

Pretty good list and hard to find fault with either the players selected or their ranking on the list.  However, what I find to be the most interesting facet of this list is the fact that seven of the men on the list fully pre-date the ESPN Era of sports (1979 to current).  Johnson and Bird, who played from 1977 to 1979 straddled the birth of ESPN, and only one player, Laettner, can be considered a pure ESPN Era player.

Also, consider that Russell, Robertson. Chamberlain, Bradley, and West played in an era before these games were televised on national television networks (I might be wrong, but I believe I am correct on that).  It was only when the John Wooden UCLA Dynasty came to the fore, anchored by Alcindor and Walton, that these games began being telecast nationally on one of the major networks.

Being that I am at times a Grumpy Old Man, it always rankles me that many people are of a mind that "if it wasn't on ESPN, then it didn't really matter, or didn't even happen", and ESPN itself is one of the foremost dispensers of this bit of conventional wisdom.  That being the case, I salute Sports Illustrated for having the integrity to look at the complete history of the event about which they are writing.

How would such a list coming from the Mike Greenbergs, Stewart Scotts, Chris Bermans, and other sages in Bristol look?  For one thing, you can be sure that it would include Michael Jordan.  In fact, I am betting the we will see letters to the editor in SI in a few weeks demanding to know why Jordan was left off.

From This Week's Sports Illustrated

The newest Sports Illustrated arrived today (John and Jim Harbaugh on the cover), and so far, it is proving to be an good issue, and I haven't even gotten to the Super Bowl stuff yet.  However, more than any story I've read thus far, I was most struck by the full page ad placed by Budweiser which I have scanned and shown above.  Well done, Budweiser.  And the story on Stan the Man by Richard Hoffer is a good one.

Also, in appreciation for Earl Weaver by Tom Verducci, there were two great quotes.  The first was by umpire Bill Haller who once said of Weaver, "When he dies, his family is going to have to pay for pallbearers."  The other - and I know my SABR and Facebook friend Father John Hissrich will like this one - concerned one of his "born again" outfielders, Pat Kelly.  After striking out with the bases loaded late in a game, Kelly said "Earl, I hope that you will walk with the Lord one day", to which Weaver replied, "Pat, I hope that you will walk with the bases loaded one day."

Chances are neither of those stories are true, but if they aren't, they should be!

Another great line  came in a story about the travails last week of Manti Te'o and the Cheating, Lying, Bullying Bicycle Rider, whose name I'd rather not mention.  Anyway, in describing the Oprah Winfrey interview with the C.L.B.B.R. and the moment when he confessed to all of his cheating, lying, and bullying, author S.L. Price writes "It was a classic TV takedown. Throw in a trail of cigarette smoke, and Edward R. Murrow would have felt right at home."

That's good writing!

I was interested to see how SI would right about the whole Te'o affair and and the Fall From Grace of the C.L.B.B.R., considering how they went all in on Te'o with a cover story in October and how no publication was more in the tank for the Bicycle Rider (was any lapdog ever more loyal to his owner than columnist Rick Reilly was to this guy?) over the years.  To the magazine's credit, Price pulls no punches in describing how the magazine (and every other news outlet) was duped by the Te'o story and the Bicycle Guy. 

Good issue, and now it's on to the Super Bowl Preview stuff.