First of all I want to congratulate coach Mike Tomlin and the Pittsburgh Steelers on their victory in Super Bowl XLIII. I'll be the first to admit that I picked the Cardinals, but I also believe the best team won in the end. Maybe now Coach Tomlin can escape the considerable shadow of The Chin and build his own legacy.
The controversy over Michael Phelps will die down quickly because there are too many people/groups/organizations that have a vested interest in seeing the Golden Child succeed. As Dan Patrick pointed out on his radio show, the media is giving him a pass and it reeks of hypocrisy compared with how other athletes are treated. Although the act of smoking weed is not a big deal in the grand scheme of things, it does show that we should never put ANY athlete on a pedestal no matter what they accomplish.
Speaking of hypocrisy, Charles Barkley was apparently fired from T-Mobile for his arrest on DUI charges. This is in addition to his suspension from NBA broadcasts on TNT. Is the offense more egregious because of the allegations of oral sex? Was he considered expendable because he didn't win eight Olympics gold medals? I guess some DUI offenses are worse than others.
The voting for the NBA All-Star Game is a joke. Orlando G Jameer Nelson over Cleveland's Mo Williams?! No love for Ray Allen (even though he is being rumored as the replacement for Nelson)? He may have decent stats, but I'd still rather see a somewhat rejuvenated Shaq over Yao Ming as the starting center. Another snub for Carmelo?! There's got to be a better way!
Roger Federer was on pace to become the greatest tennis player of all time. That is until he ran into the buzzsaw known as Rafael Nadal in the final of the Australian Open. Nadal holds a 13-6 overall edge in their head to head matchups and now you have to wonder how many Grand Slams Federer would have won if he had faced legitimate challengers like Nadal from the beginning of his career. It's easy to rack up titles playing underachievers like Andy Roddick, James Blake, and others. It stands to reason Fed would have been shedding a few more tears if he had a rival like Nadal his entire career.
Joe Torre needs to man up and stop hiding behind co-author tom Verducci in his new book The Yankee Years. Torre essentially threw a number of people associated with the Yankees under the bus, but now he is going on various interviews to say that he was taken out of context. A few years ago, former Yankee David Wells wrote a book about his experiences and was universally condemned by Torre and the Yankees and was subsequently fined. At the time, Torre (self-righteously) proclaimed that since Wells' name was on the cover, he was responsible for every word in the book. Torre needs to stop being a hypocrite and follow his own advice. You can't throw stones and then hide behind someone else to take the proverbial bullets.
