Sports fodder for a Friday morning... Cody Fajardo’s Nevada Wolf Pack football legacy is at a crossroads. Nobody questions Fajardo’s ability and skills but the 2014 season is his last chance to show that he is indeed a true leader and winner. Fajardo goes into his senior season with just a 14-16 record as the starting quarterback. He’s lost 12 of his last 16 starts. He’s never won a bowl game or a conference championship or beaten Boise State. He’s also never stayed healthy for an entire season. His Wolf Pack teams have wilted down the stretch every season. Colin Kaepernick faced a similar crossroads early in his junior season. His record as a starter through his first 24 starts was a mediocre 11-13 and then he showed he was one of the greatest leaders in school history by winning 21 of his last 24 games. It’s time for Fajardo to do the same or else he will go down in history as the Deonte Burton of football, a wonderfully talented athlete who didn’t win enough.
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Remember that big smile on Johnny Manziel’s face when he slipped on his ugly Cleveland Browns hat and walked to the podium during the NFL draft? Well, it might be the last time we see Manziel smile while wearing Browns gear. The Browns are a horrible football team and Manziel isn’t going to change that this year or anytime soon. Think Archie Manning running for his life for a decade in New Orleans. Cleveland is where young quarterback careers (Brady Quinn, Tim Couch, Colt McCoy, Brandon Weeden, Seneca Wallace, Kelly Holcomb, Derek Anderson, Mike Phipps) go to die. The good news for the Browns, though, is that they will likely get the top pick next year so they can pick Florida State quarterback Jameis Winston and ruin his pro career, too.
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There seems to be an epidemic of elbow, arm and shoulder injuries to major league pitchers this year. Miami Marlins’ standout Jose Fernandez is the latest victim. If you are a young pitcher who throws hard, odds are something connected to your throwing arm is going to give out and surgery is in your future. On a related note, a high school pitcher in the state of Washington just threw 194 pitches in a game. He pitched 14 innings. His coach should have been fired after the last out of the game.
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Michael Sam, apparently, is not camera shy. Sam, who felt the need to announce before the NFL draft that he was gay for some reason, was taken in the seventh round by the St. Louis Rams. In his first press conference Sam repeatedly told the media that he was simply going to concentrate on football now. Yeah, right. The Oprah Winfrey Network announced this week that it was going to do a documentary on Sam as he goes through training camp this summer. Does that sound like a guy who is concentrating on football? What, exactly, is Oprah hoping to show to the world? A seventh round pick trying to make a NFL team as a backup linebacker and special teams player? How exciting. Having cameras around Sam will no doubt be annoying to the other Rams players. But the good news is that Oprah will likely give all them a free blender just for being part of the studio audience.
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Don’t be stunned when Phil Jackson announces later this summer that he is going to be the next coach of the New York Knicks. Steve Kerr, who was supposed to be Jackson’s top choice as Knicks coach, decided on Wednesday that he would rather coach the Golden State Warriors. Kerr, who supposedly made his decision based on being closer to his family on the west coast, made a very smart choice. The Warriors are legitimate NBA title contenders, the Knicks are a dumpster fire and Kerr can learn how to be a coach without all of the pressure of being in New York and having Jackson and Spike Lee looking over his shoulder.
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The hiring of Kerr, a guy who has never coached a second of basketball in his life, is further proof of just how important coaching is in the NBA. Jason Kidd never coached a second before getting the Brooklyn Nets job and his team got to the second round of the playoffs. Coaching in the NBA is overrated. All you need to know are a few basic plays and who to give the ball to in the final few minutes. And, oh yeah, don’t make enemies with your superstars.
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Major League Baseball made a big mistake this week when it changed David Ortiz’s fly ball last Friday against Yu Darvish and the Texas Rangers to a hit. The routine, weakly hit fly ball was originally correctly ruled an error when it fell between two Rangers. An error was the right call for three reasons. A batted ball does not have to be touched to be ruled an error, the ball should have been caught easily and it preserved Darvish’s no-hitter. You should not lose a no-hitter on a ball that two fielders could catch in their back pocket with one eye closed. That’s a hit in Little League, not the major leagues. But now that major league baseball has shown it has no problem going back and changing an official scorer’s decision, it needs to go back to 2010 and change umpire Jim Joyce’s horrible decision to rob Armando Galarraga of a perfect game.
