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12/18/2006: "Monday Sports Rant"

My life is almost back to normal, so I actually got to spend a weekend without thinking about my project. That means lots of sports, and lots of rant ...

- I was one of those who felt it was presumptious for people to start referring to Chargers running back LaDainian Tomlinson as "LT", given the Hall of Fame credentials of the last guy to have that nickname. But with all due respect to Lawrence Taylor, the kid's earned the initials. He shattered the record for touchdowns scored last week (with 4 games remaining), and yesterday broke Paul Hornung's 40+ year old scoring record. Best of all, he carries himself with class on and off the field - pretty rare these days. I never saw Jim Brown run the ball, but I feel like I'm watching the next great back every time LT gets the ball ...

- The other show dropped this morning for Saturday's basketbrawl in New York. A fifteen-game suspension for Carmelo Anthony, lesser amounts for five others. We can debate the merits of the suspensions, but I have one question - what about Zeke? It's pretty clear that the hard foul that sparked the fight was done at the explicit behest of Knicks coach Isiah Thomas - where's his suspension? Thomas was a world-class jackhole as a player, and clearly he's not changed. Nuggets coach George Karl let him have it yesterday, and I'd have to agree with him. The league keeps taking steps to make their players act less like street thugs - maybe they need to look at the coaching ranks as well ...

- Terrell Owens demonstrated once again why he's the biggest ass in professional sports by spitting on Falcons DB DeAngelo Hall during Saturday's game. I'm not going to even waste words trying to explain that kind of action, but if any sports league is serious about curbing this kind of behavior, they're gonna have to do more than fine them $35K - TO carries that much in his wallet. If I spit on a coworker, I'd be fired - no ifs, ands or buts. I don't give a damn how much money an athlete makes or brings to the owners - if you don't take a serious action, you won't send a serious message. Worse, you'll demonstrate a tacit approval of the behavior, and I'm betting that's not the message they want passed on to their fans ...

- A runner who took the silver medal in the 800M event at the Asian Games was stripped of the medal after failing a gender test. Basically, she turned out to be a he. Considering how fast and loose we've become with our definition of what makes a man or a woman, and reached a point where the only real difference between the two is surgery and a liberal judge, the only real surprise is that we don't see this more often ...