Different words, different outcomes

In the past week or so, two men commenting on sporting events got themselves into hot water. Their divergent fates says something about their releative sins as well as about how they’ve handled them. In the more celebrated case (enough to knock the paternity of Anna Nicole Smith’s baby down a few notches) Don Imus referred to Rutgers women’s basketball team in a derogatory fashion. No one defends Imus, though there doesn’t seem to be a concensus what a fitting punishment would be. Baseball Crank though criticizes Rutgers for making the championship team into a bunch of wimps.

Somebody gave these young women the message – or at least failed to disabuse them of the notion – that they should take Imus’ words seriously, take them to heart. This press conference was a show of the coach and the players wallowing in Imus’ words, embracing them, and thus elevating them as if any serious person would think less of them – rather than of Imus – for what Imus said. This story should never have been about the players, because Imus’ words were generic (indeed, that’s precisely why they were offensive). It’s the Culture of Victimology at its most destructive, teaching these young women that they should consider themselves to have been genuinely maligned by an aging boor and to seek out the status and posture of one to whom a deep wrong has been done and who is owed.

To have had the team come out and say, “Nothing a declining two bit hack says can take away our triumph” would have put Imus in his place quite nicely.

 On the other hand Billy Packer stood his ground, SarcastiPundit agues, as he should have.

“I said he fagged out on me and it had nothing to do with sexual connotation,” Packer told the Philadelphia Inquirer. I got to know Charlie a number of years ago and have great admiration for his program and intellect. He is a big Dukie, and he has been talking a number of years about coming to the Final Four to be a runner.” Packer explained that he was using the word in the wholly legitimate form of an adjective meaning to exhaust or tire out. I’m certainly no fan of Packer; he’s (for lack of a better term) a college basketball supremacist and generally a blowhard. But I have to give him props here for refusing to be bullied in a situation where he has done nothing wrong. Anybody so ignorant as to be offended by such a thing should spend more time educating himself or herself and less time trying to impose speech codes on others.

And SarcastiPundit remembers a time when an inoffensive word led to a resignation due to mass ignorance.

Crossposted on SoccerDad.

Don Imus on NCAA Womens Basketball

It is sad when the biggest news story that came out of the Tennessee-Rutgers National Championship Game is another bonehead comment by Don Imus.

Imus started out talking about the Rutgers team as, “some rough girls from Rutgers. They got tattoos,” and then went on to call them “some nappy-headed hos.”

He compared them to the Tennessee team, saying “The girls from Tennessee — they all looked cute.”

The conversation then went on to compare the game to “the jigaboos versus the wannabes.”

Free NFL Network (At least for Rutgers fans)

So, the new NFL Network granted reprieve to the faithful following of the Rutgers Scarlet Knights, and will televise the game free to all those New Jersey folks pining to see their team take the field in the first-ever Texas Bowl on December 28th against Kansas State. For a while, it was nip-and-tuck, and no one was quite sure if they were going to have to find the local sports bar or locate someone who may be lucky enough to have this rare commodity.

Did anyone try to watch the game on Thanskgiving night? It was supposed to be broadcast to everyone, but when the game started, the NFL Network switched over to a documentary and all those turkey-eating football fanatics were left in the dark. The NFL Network, for all it’s hype, is only showing eight games this season, as well as a smattering of college bowl games. Did anyone tell the powers that be that there may be real football fans out there wanting to watch some of these late season battles?

Someone has got to be watching the store for the almighty league where they play for pay. At any rate, all you scarlet-wearing fans can breathe a sigh of relief and enjoy the festivities as New Jersey will be proudly represented during Holiday bowl week in the state where everything is big.

Greg Schiano not interested in University of Miami job

From AP-

PISCATAWAY, N.J. — Rutgers coach Greg Schiano will stay with the school he led to national prominence this season, rather than return to take over the troubled Miami program.

“This is where I want to be. This is the job I want to have,” Schiano said Monday.

Schiano, who was Miami’s defensive coordinator in 1999 and 2000, said he spoke with the Hurricanes’ athletic director Sunday night.

“We’re just scratching the surface here at Rutgers,” Schiano said. “The sky’s the limit. We’re going to do great things here. We haven’t done it yet.”

Schiano has orchestrated No. 16 Rutgers’ rise from one of the nation’s lowliest programs in the past six seasons.

If I were the U of M, I’d hire defensive coordinator Randy Shannon. Something tells me an outside coach will be hired. Much like when Tom Olivadotti was passed over for then obscure Jimmy Johnson in 1984.

Your guess is as good as mine at present.

UPDATE: AP has a few more details.

Schiano has orchestrated No. 16 Rutgers’ rise from one of the nation’s lowliest programs in the past six seasons. At 10-2 (5-2 Big East), the Scarlet Knights are heading to a Texas Bowl matchup against Kansas State. Rutgers narrowly missed the Bowl Championship Series by losing Saturday night in triple overtime at West Virginia. “We’re just scratching the surface here at Rutgers,” Schiano said. “The sky’s the limit. We’re going to do great things here. We haven’t done it yet.”

Last year, Schiano led Rutgers to its first winning season (7-5) since 1992, and its first bowl berth since 1978.

Schiano did not discuss his current contract and declined to say whether he was signing a new one. He made $191,000 last year before athletic director Robert Mulcahy gave him a seven-year extension that will max out at $350,000 — but only if he stays until 2012. The extension raised Schiano’s annual income from private sources from $325,000 to $625,000.

That’s a terrific income by any standards, although a tiny fraction of what he could get at Miami (or Alabama). From a purely professional standpoint, this is an inexplicable move: Coaches are supposed to climb the ladder, always taking an obviously more prominent gig. There’s simply no doubt that Miami–arguably the dominant program of the last generation–is light years ahead of Rutgers, a team that has spent many a year in the I-A cellar.

Still, Miami is a no-win situation while he’s already a minor legend at Rutgers. He could stay at Rutgers for years going 6-6; that’s a firing offense at Miami.

Rutgers Stuns Louisville 28-25

Where the heck did these two teams come from again? Rutgers has always been a bad program. After winning the first college football game ever 6-4 over Princeton, (November 6, 1869, actually, meaning that the anniversary was this past week), they seemingly lost every game since until a couple of years ago.

Now, they are national title contenders.

I love teams like Rutgers. They show the BCS to be the farce that it is. They are at a huge disadvantage in the polls, because voters are less likely to promote them. They came into this week ranked behind the one less West Virginia, which had just lost to Louisville.

It is going to be interesting to see where the BCS puts them.

Louisville is a great story in its own right. A second tier football program until the past few years, Louisville itself would have shaken up the BCS. Louisville doesn’t have the tradition that the other top programs have, and the fact that they were number 3 this late says a lot.

Rutgers has yet to play West Virginia, which could be a tough game. If they run the table, it will make for a VERY INTERESTING decision process for the BCS title game.