Three For The Hump: Pettrino, Perkins, and Pooh Bear Shot

Time is a hot commodity these days. The truth is I could have time if I wasn't so bad at time management. I can't work all the time!

I digress. A few interesting stories today. I'm only posting once because I need sleep before I trek to the beach Thursday night. I know. Rough life. That means Pleats 'n Cleats last post will be tomorrow night.

First item of interest, the poor Atlanta Falcons just cannot catch a break. No sooner did they learn that they lost their meal ticket superstar Michael Vick than they also lost their coach. Bobby Petrino jumped ship, effective immediately, to take the vacant coaching job with the Arkansas Razorbacks football team. His move was a shock to many it seems, as he'd only been there for a whole 13 games, and he's returning from whence he came - the college ranks. A whole lot of others are just feeling let down. I guess he figured that the team wasn't going to get any better in the next two years without Vick.

Making matters worse, Falcons owner Arthur Blank said that Pettrino had reassured him as late as Monday afternoon that he was going to stick with the team through 2008. Yes, Blank, Tuesday could be worse than Monday. But maybe this was a blessing in disguise, as one source called him "one of the worst communicators in pro sports." Well, he didn't tell anyone about this move, so I'd have to agree with that assessment. Plus, the players didn't really like him, either. It seems he was more of a dictator, which can work on the college level, but he didn't really know how to relate to guys to whom he couldn't talk down. Apparently no one told him that that strategy doesn't work in the NFL, so it's easy to see why he wasn't popular with the players.


Second item: Bostons Celtics center Kendrick Perkins hurt his big toe when his bed allegedly fell on it, which will likely cause him to miss a game, and cause Boston to add a new person to the starting line up for the first time all season. As much hype as the Big 3 have received (I did see a sort-of funny ESPN commercial with them today, though), I don't think anyone cares who they rotate into the top 5 unless this person is, say, Larry Bird. Perkins explanation for the accident:

"Man, that's a weird story," Perkins said after practice Tuesday. "I was asleep. I guess whoever put my bed together didn't put it together right when I moved, so one side of my bed fell. My bed was tilted, so I got out of my bed to go push down on the other side.

"And when I was about getting ready to push down on the other side, the headboard started coming in. So I tried to push the headboard back so it wouldn't fall over. My foot was under the bed and the other side of the bed fell on my foot.''

Yeah. I don't know, this sound pretty fishy. I tried to follow along with his explanation and had some trouble. If his bed was poorly put together, someone please get the man some better help. Playing with the Big 3 ought to give him top of the line assemblers, if nothing else. This has to be one of the sorriest reasons I've ever heard for missing a game, somewhere ahead of not feeling like showing up.



Finally, as reported on ESPN (so I'll tentatively give it a "sports" label pro hac vice ) Davy Crockett's great - great - great - great - great - great - great - great - great - great - grandson (did someone check this?), five-year old Tre Merritt, killed a 400+ lb. bear, just like Davy did when he was allegedly three years old. When I saw this, I thought this meant Tre killed him with his bare hands - no pun intended. Well, it turns out that Tre shot him.

What the heck is a five year old doing with a gun? In the story it's called a "youth rifle." Tre has been shooting since the age of 2, and according to dear old "paw-paw," who shed a tear upon the realization that Tre had killed a bear, Tre killed three deer last year.

Well, this just warms the heart. Of course, this happened in a rural area as you all imagined, but who is selling youth rifles, and why is it OK for people to buy these for toddlers? It seems like dad should be arrested. If the bullet could kill a 400 lb. bear, then it could definitely kill a human being - unless, the bullet had some kind of bear kryptonite that doesn't affect humans. . . . And Michael Vick gets 23 months for killing dogs, but a kid kills a bear and poses with it, and that's A-OK. Got it.

Maybe it is illegal for kids his age to use guns, and Tre just got "grandfathered" in. HA. Where's my drum beat when I need it?

P.S. Toronto Raptors' guard T.J. Ford was hurt following a hard foul by Al Horford in the Raptors win over the Atlanta Hawks on Tuesday night. Ford's head hit the ground very hard when Horford hooked him in the face (he says it was an accident, but was ejected from the game anyway). Ford looked to be in immense pain when they him off the court in a stretcher. There are reports that he has movement in his limbs, so that's a good sign. Keep him in your thoughts and prayers.