Running from for Office*

Late night at the office, so as much as I wanted to avoid it, sometimes you just can't help having to. . . run. It. Down. Here goes:

1) 31-year old Daunte Culpepper, once a celebrated QB, now says he can't get a callback (much less a quarter back - ba dum bum!). He claims it's because he stands up for what he believes in and represents himself, which the league and teams don't like. On PTI (can't stop gushing about my love for DVR these days!), they basically said his personality must suck, and I tend to agree. There are plenty of team with - excuse my language - piss-poor QB's that Culpepper could play ahead of or behind. My benchmark here is none other than Joey Harrington. Joey had a job until he got a cut a few days ago, and if he can get a job . . . I'll stop here, but suffice it to say that Harrington's record speaks for itself, and if he's getting looks ahead of Culpepper, Daunte must really be in the inferno. Here's hoping he lands something in this tough economy.

2) It turns out that Chad Ocho Psycho** Cinco is not alone in his interesting name change. SI.com did a flip through Vault piece on this, including 13 different athlete name changes. If I had to pick one to take the cake, I'd have to go with the athlete formerly known as J.R. Henderson. After a stint at UCLA, Henderson wasn't able to find basketball success here, so he went to Japan and became a star. But it seems that he was too black to be put on Japan's national team. Not to fear, Henderson had a plan. He would change his last name to Sakuragi, get a Japanese passport, and then all would be well. "Well" meaning he could earn double his salary because he wasn't a foreigner, but not "well" for the national team, which failed to make it to Beijing for the Olympics this summer (and hasn't done so since 1976). That's dedication.

3) LeBron James got his "highness" handed to him by a warehouse worker in a game of H-O-R-S-E. I can't say that I'm really that surprised, since special skills aren't really Bron Bron's forte. Had he lost in an ego-strength competition, then I might have worried. But seriously - and don't tell anyone I said this - kudos to King James for even agreeing to participate. He just made this guy's life, which means if you know him (and even worse, if you play pickup ball with him) you're probably in for a real treat from here on out. (". . . and I kicked LeBron's ***, what have you done?")

4) Redeeming himself after the slight at the Republican National Convention last night (see asterisk at bottom of that post), Eli Manning and (Plaxi) Co. opened up the year like they ended it - with a win, this time over the Washington Redskins. I was at work and didn't watch the game, so that's all I've got for you, except that, as noted during the RNC, the Giants still don't get any respect. And they probably won't unless they win another one. One day, Eli. One day.

5) Another event I couldn't watch today but would have liked to: the U.S. Open. Someday, when I get to that U.S. Open round-up, perhaps I'll talk about the #3 male player in the world, Novak Djokovic, and his struggle to win over the fans. He got some positive attention when he did impressions of Raphael Nadal and Maria Sharapova, but since then, the crowd just hasn't been on his side. When I was in attendance for one of his matches the other night, I did notice that a lot of people were cheering for his opponent but I thought it was because they wanted to see more tennis (even though it was 1 a.m. and I was quite ready to go home). Maybe they just really don't like him. He can certainly make the occasional incendiary remark, as he did tonight following his win over "America's son," Andy Roddick.

Literally, I think sometimes his delivery just doesn't translate into English very well. Although he has a tendency to get "over-amped" and have a short temper, I really don't think he's a bad guy. It takes a big man to apologize for his remarks this evening - which he did - and he has seemed in the past to be truly hurt by the lack of support he receives from the American crowd. Maybe he just needs an advisor on American culture. The women do it (what, you thought Sharapova was a natural?), and if he wants to get anywhere near the endorsement money that the two men ranked above him get (assuming he continues to perform well), he really ought to look into that. I should add that I'm available, Novak, if you can see this.

Have a great weekend!


* This refers me to me running from my office, and Senator Obama running for his. And, yes, it should belong to him.

** Thanks, Tiger!

Five But Still Alive

I know I said that there would be something coming by midday Monday, but life happened which made that impossible. And if you are reading this, then you're witnessing dedication at its finest because I am one pillow shy of a passing out. Ahem . . .



1. Federer's 10 years of making it to all of the Grand Slam finals (ok, not that many, but a lot) came to an end when he lost to Novak Djokovic - the eventual winner of the Australian Open. Hey, Tiger loses every now and then. Whether this signals the beginning of the end for Fed, I am not quite ready to predict his demise just yet. At least we know he's really human. When pressed, he admitted that he had a little food poisoning that could have affected his preparation, but he was sure not to blame the loss on that. After that match at the U.S. Open where Pete Sampras puked out his guts courtside from the flu and winning the match in five sets, that excuse isn't really available, so good choice, Fed.



2. After starting 29-3, the Boston Celtics are now 5-5, or pretty average. Their latest loss (I almost wrote "laws" - I need sleep) came at the hands of Dwight Howard and the Orlando Magic. The game before that, they beat Kevin Garnett's old team, the Minnesota Timberwolves, by 1 point. Of course, KG has been sitting out now (taking turns with Ray Allen) but I still think you're looking at their playoff team. Why? One of these guys is bound to be hurt by then (Allen, most likely), so they better figure out a way to drive the tricycle with at least one flat tire.



3. Come on, boys. Let's raise the level.



4. I read an article in the SportsBusiness Journal discussing the intersection between politics and sports. The article included a pie chart showing the breakdown of Democratic vs. Republican support by executives acrosss several of the major sports (I think hockey was included, too). According to their contribution history, NFL execs are overwhelmingly Republican supporters, and the NBA execs are overwhelmingly Democratic supporters. Does that really surprise anyone? What did surprise me is that 1) a lot of execs support both parties; and 2) our friend and Atlanta Falcons' owner Arthur Blank has given money to both Hillary Clinton'a and Barack Obama's campaign; and one thing that did not surprise me: I don't recognize any of the three execs listed as supporters of John Edwards. That's all I'll say.



5. Back to tennis. Regular people were talking about Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, who lost to Djokovic in the final. it's funny when you have unique knowledge or experience with something the average person does not - i.e., competitive tennis. Whenever something happens in tennis, people ask me questions like I get e-mail updates on every player. (They stopped sending those e-mails years ago.) Unfortunately, I don't know that much about Tsonga nor was I able to see many points of the final, but from what I did see, this kid could definitely be great if he keeps working and getting more consistent. He wiped out Rafael Nadal like Nadal was #200 not #2 in the world. Although, on hard court, that just might be a more accurate ranking for him.

And congrats to Maria Sharapova on winning the Australian Open on the women's side. She played some very tough matches and made them look easy. But it's not.

Yes, I ended on tennis. If you read this far and don't like tennis, pat yourself on the back. And keep living on the edge in 2008. It's good for you.

Shocking But True

(I was supposed to do my full U.S. Open post today but I can't find my camera, and I am not happy!! I will try a few more places, and if I can't locate it still, I'll just see what I can find on the Internet. Pray that I find it . . .)

Surprising and shocking to absolutely no one, and to the delight of Nike (because their other golden boy won today, too), Roger Federer captured his fourth consecutive U.S. Open title with his straight set win over Novak Djoko. Never mind. You don't care and it doesn't really matter anyway, although the kid he beat is not half bad and has actually beaten Federer earlier this year. But not today. Today, all that matters today is that I was right and that Federer is quickly becoming the best in any sport the world has ever seen. Take a look at Roger by the numbers. He got to take home an "extra million" today because he won the U.S. Open Series (the series of hard court tournaments leading up to the U.S. Open). So congrats, Roger. And watch your back.