Sports fodder for a Friday morning ... The Nevada Wolf Pack’s 2010 miracle football season just keeps getting better and better. In fact, it doesn’t seem like such a miracle anymore. The 2010 team can now boast nine players that have been drafted by the NFL. Safety Duke Williams (fourth round by the Buffalo Bills) and cornerback Khalid Wooten (sixth round, Tennessee Titans) were picked in last week’s NFL draft. Despite not-so-quiet whispers to the contrary lately, it seems like the old Wolf Pack head coach could recruit after all. Offensive lineman Joel Bitonio, a senior this fall, might be the 10th player off the active 2010 roster to get picked by the NFL.
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When the Wolf Pack shocked Boise State and the nation on Nov. 26, 2010, (34-31 in overtime), there were 19 future NFL draft picks on the field at Mackay Stadium. In addition to the nine wearing silver and blue, Boise State had 10 future NFL picks wearing orange and blue. A total of 19 NFL draft picks in one game isn’t so bad for a couple of Western Athletic Conference schools who supposedly don’t play anyone. That’s more NFL talent on the field in one game than an Oakland Raiders-Kansas City Chiefs game.
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Why does everyone keep picking on Tim Tebow? The Omaha Beef, a silly indoor football team, offered Tebow $75 a game to play for them. Tebow could make 10 times that in about five minutes signing autographed photos in the Beef’s parking lot. Warren Moon came out this week and said Tebow wouldn’t even be a good Canadian Football League quarterback because he can’t throw the ball well enough. Really? The CFL? If Tebow was in the CFL his team would win the Grey Cup every year. Tebow is a winner. He is a leader. Yes, it’s true he doesn’t throw the ball all that well. But there are other ways to score points. When Tebow gets on the field his entire team — offense and defense — plays to its fullest potential. And he wins games.
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If you are running the Los Angeles Lakers, don’t you have to blow things up and start over? Dwight Howard is a coach killer. An old and beat up Kobe Bryant cannot be your best player if you want to win a championship. Steve Nash needs to retire. Pau Gasol is a pulled muscle waiting to happen. Mike D’Antoni thinks he’s coaching Loyola Marymount in the early 1990s. The Lakers need to hire Phil Jackson as their president and let him pick the coach and the players. Pat Riley did it in Miami. Jackson can do the same in Los Angeles.
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The New York Knicks wore black suits to Madison Square Garden before Game 5 against the Boston Celtics this week because they said they were going to the Celtics’ funeral. So the Celtics went out that night, rose from their coffin and beat them. The Knicks haven’t won a playoff series in 13 years. They have no right to disrespect anybody in the league, let alone the Celtics. The Knicks are now two losses away from being the first team in NBA history to lose a series after being up 3-0. If that happens, it will be the Celtics asking where to send flowers.
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It is time to recognize Mariano Rivera as one of the best pitchers in baseball history. Forget labeling him simply the best closer in baseball history. That‘s not even up for debate anymore. You can argue that Rivera is the best pitcher to ever throw a baseball. He is 43-years-old and coming off a serious injury and he has 11 saves. For his career he has 619 saves and a 2.21 earned run average. In the postseason he has 42 saves, eight wins and a 0.70 ERA in 96 games. Did we mention that he is 43 and still the best at what he does?