Sports fodder for a Friday morning . . .
Alex Rodriguez used performance enhancing steroids while he was in high school? The Oakland Raiders picked the third or fourth best wide receiver with the seventh overall pick in the NFL draft? Brett Favre could return to the NFL this fall? Let's just say that nobody should be as shocked by any of these developments as Paula Abdul was stunned to find Adam Lambert in the bottom three of the American Idol voting Wednesday night.
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Is there any doubt that the Oakland Raiders are the most dysfunctional organization in all of professional sports? Darrius Heyward-Bey? With the seventh overall pick? The guy caught just 13 touchdown passes in his entire Maryland career. Al Davis is always looking for the next Cliff Branch and Warren Wells but this is going a bit too far. Heyward-Bey can run. No doubt. He was the fastest wide receiver in the draft. And that's all it takes for the Raiders to start salivating. Heyward-Bey caught just four passes for 48 yards and no touchdowns against the Wolf Pack in December's Humanitarian Bowl. And we all know the Wolf Pack secondary last season couldn't cover A-Rod with a bum hip, Paula Abdul in a wheelchair and Brett Favre in a Wrangler commercial.
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The San Francisco 49ers didn't fare that much better last weekend. Michael Crabtree was a solid pick at No. 10 in the first round. But don't start lobbying the Niners to take No. 80 out of retirement. Crabtree is a product of that ridiculous Texas Tech offense. He'll be a productive receiver in the NFL but Jerry Rice's records won't be in jeopardy. And don't forget that he doesn't have No. 16 or No. 8 throwing him passes. The rest of the Niners' draft? Pitt linebacker Scott McKillop was an interesting pick but Alabama running back Glen Coffee, Ball State quarterback Nate Davis and Fresno State tight end Bear Pascoe were boring, uninspired and unexciting at best. Pascoe caught just seven passes for 57 yards in three career games combined against the Wolf Pack. Yes, I judge every receiver on how well he does against the Wolf Pack.
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Brett Favre needs an intervention. Six or seven of his ex-teammates need to charge into his bedroom in the middle of the night, tie him up and lock him in a hotel room somewhere and convince him that it is time to retire. Favre, though, will never walk away. Expect him to be wearing a Minnesota Vikings uniform this season. Feel sorry for Favre. The guy won't leave the game until he is Charleton Heston as fictional New Orleans Saints quarterback Cat Catlan in the classic late 1960s football movie "Number One," limping off the field with blood running from his battered head.
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The Nevada Wolf Pack baseball team started the 2009 season by losing seven of its first nine games. And now they have dreams of winning the Western Athletic Conference Tournament later this month in Hawaii and going to the NCAA Regionals for the first time since 2000. The Pack has won 14 of its last 21 games and is in first place in the WAC. Yes, seven of the wins have come against Cal State Bakersfield, Utah Valley and UC Davis. So credit the turnaround to an extremely soft non-conference schedule the last month. But the WAC is down this year, three wins at struggling Fresno State this weekend is a legitimate goal and winning the postseason tournament is a distinct possibility.
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Wolf Pack point guard Armon Johnson is extremely fortunate that he has a very forgiving head coach (David Carter) and athletic director (Cary Groth). Johnson, as Carter and Groth called a press conference last week to tell us, did nothing illegal by hiding a friend's handgun at his home. But is it a comforting feeling for anyone to know that Wolf Pack athletes are passing handguns back and forth between them? Is this a basketball team or the cast from the Soprano's?
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The WAC announced this week that it will conduct its volleyball postseason tournament this November in Las Vegas. Expect a similar announcement in the coming months about the men's and women's basketball tournaments. This is just another example of how out of touch the WAC has become with the few fans it has left. The coaches want a neutral site tournament so that's what we get. Is it really fan-friendly, especially in this economy, to force the fans of every school in the conference to travel to the postseason tournament?
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The Wolf Pack football program should be applauded for bringing Arizona to Mackay Stadium in 2015 and UCLA in 2016. We, though, just have two questions. Will Chris Ault still be the coach (doubtful) and can we find a loophole somehwre in the NCAA rules to make sure that Colin Kaepernick is still the Pack quarterback?
Joe Santoro is a freelance columnist for the Sierra Nevada Media Group. His entire column can be viewed online at www.recordcourier.com.
