News And Notes From Around The World

"I think I'm in love, but it makes me kind of nervous to say so."

Hello Charlotte! I am officially all moved in. Yes, I have no job, few prospects, and little money, but for the time being, I'm living it up in the "Queen City." But enough about that, there's a lot that is in need of over-analysis, so here we go...

Ok, the whole Tom Brady "Yankee Hat" fiasco went down last week, and yes, people of Red Sox/Patriot nation, including myself, were in complete shock about seeing the footage of our hero wearing the hat of the team we have grown to despise. How could this be? Say it isn't so Tom! So, I'm going to bring closure to all of this right now. Yes, it's true, Tom is from California, he didn't grow up in New England, and probably doesn't have the kind of passion for the Sox as people like me have, but here's the thing: He plays in New England, and plays his home games about 20 minutes outside of Boston...he needs to be aware of the fact that wearing a Yankee hat may not be such a great idea. See, the fans that he plays for, I would guess around 90% are also Sox fans, meaning that they are Yankee haters. I know that we may have made too much of a deal about the whole thing, but the fact of the matter is that Tom wore a Red Sox hat for years, and now, all of a sudden, he shows up wearing that ugly thing. It's like he's trying to have it both ways. Yes, I'm sure that other athletes in Boston have worn Yankee apparel (in fact, that's a certainty), but Tom Brady is on top of the mountain of Boston sports. I mean if you're from New England, and didn't go to a Big 10 school (or even if you did), how could you possibly not like Tom Brady? So for him to do that was probably not in the best of tastes. However, if anyone is going to get a pass on this kind of thing, it's Tom Terrific. Hopefully though, the little backlash that occurred from this incident may have gotten Tom to think twice about wearing the enemy's cap in public when he's with Gizelle (you know what...not even concerned with the man-purse...look at who he's with...I know who's idea that was).

Dale Jr. is leaving DEI, which has sent shock waves all around the NASCAR/sports circles. How can a guy not race for the team named after his father? There's a simple answer to that: His step-mom is really, really greedy. Junior wanted to gain majority ownership in the team his Dad started. That's his blood, not his step-mom's. Unfortunately for Junior, he is not going to get that kind of deal. In fact, he stated that the sides were "way off" in terms of reaching an agreement. I really don't get this entire scenario. This could be due to the fact that I am somewhat partial to Junior, but when you have the name of the guy who founded that team, and basically, was destined to take over as part of his legacy. Then again, this is a business, and owning a team does bring in big bucks. However, with that being said, how much is DEI really going to be worth once Dale leaves this team? I guarantee it's going to be a whole lot less than what it is now. When you factor in the merchandise sales, appearances, and everything else Junior does for the company, I would say he accounts for around 70-80% of that team's revenues (again, that's just my estimation). Once he leaves, who is going to make up that money? No offense to Marin Truex, but he is not ready to step up and become a star in this industry. Also, Earnhardt is probably the biggest star in NASCAR, so DEI not only would lose most of their revenue, but also a lot of credibility for not having Junior on that team. So now, Earnhardt is about to fall into a pretty hefty payday, but with who? A knee-jerk reaction would be to assume that he would join the team his father once belonged to, Richard Childress Racing, and drive the #3 car for the rest of his career like his Dad. However, Junior has been pretty adamant in saying that, yes, one day, he would like to be in his Dad's car, but it would only happen at the tail end of his career, and not in his prime. Also, the fact that Junior has said countless times that he wants to blaze his own trail in racing makes me think that Childress is not going to happen. So now, who else is out there? If I had to put money on it right now, I would tend to side with Hendrick Motorsports purely for the fact that they run Chevrolets (which he already said was his car of preference) and that they have been running real hot right now with Gordon and Johnson (combined to go 4-for-4 with the "Car of Tomorrow"). Hendrick has the kind of resources that Junior could thrive under. This story has been big so far, but it's going to be one of the biggest stories in sports in the last three or four years once the Nextel Cup season ends, and the bidding war builds up to a fever pitch.

The story of Pac Man Jones has to be one of the most intriguing and bizarre to come down the pipe in quite some time. This guy was seemingly the "teflon" of professional athletes. He was brought in for questioning on ten different incidents, and had no convictions. Yet, Commissioner Roger Goddell found it to be suitable to suspend Jones for a year, basically for being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Seeing as he never was convicted of anything, Jones decided to appeal his year-long suspension. Not to say that Jones had a great chance of getting it lowered, but it certainly was a possibility...but the guy just couldn't stay out of trouble. You would have thought his agent, or some of his friends, would have held him up in a house, basically making it impossible for him to get into trouble before his meeting with Goddell, but apparently, this was not the case. The first incident that was reported was Jones making a special cameo and one of New York's finest gentlemen's clubs the day before his meeting. Wait wait, so basically, what you want me to try and comprehend was that a guy, who's season was on the line (by the way, I know "playing is everything" for these guys, but he was #5 in the Draft not so long ago, meaning he's probably losing a hunk of change by sitting this year), and who was involved in a strip cub shooting, decided that this would be the optimal time to go back to one right before he met with Goddell? I mean...wow. He talks about cleaning up his act, but this guy isn't even close. They're going to have to move him to the Yukon to try and clean him up (I was going to say Canada in general, but I figured we had to be talking a little more North considering Ricky went to Toronto...a lot of good that did him). Seriously, you're going to have to remove this guy from society for a couple years for him to get his act together. I guess he enjoys playing the "bad boy" role or something, or relishes in making stupid, moronic mistakes, because, as a professional athlete, you are held to standards of professionalism. Sure, you can have a good time. Hell, go the day after the meeting, but you can't be serious by doing that the day before. I mean that's totally ridiculous. Ok, and if that's not bad enough, he then gets pulled over for speeding, and once the cop starts talking to him, he finds out Jones doesn't have a license! Are you kidding me?! You know what, it's almost going to be like a game now. It's like what else can this guy do short of murder? (the reason I'm not going as far as that is because murder is basically the next logical step in his pattern, but at the same time, I want to believe that there is something more ludicrous out there for Pac Man to do...there has to be). So, although the decision won't be handed down for a couple of days, you know what, forget it, this guy doesn't deserve to play this year. Even if he was allowed to play, you have to think that he would get himself into trouble anyway, so what's the point? I was actually on Jones' side in saying that his sentence should at least be reduced to half a season, because basically, Goddell is punishing him for running with the wrong people. However, after everything that went down, I no longer feel like that at all. Jones is too stupid, and although stupidity is not really a punishable, dangerous stupidity is. When you put other people's lives in danger, like by driving without a license, then that is deserving of whatever kind of extreme punishment you want to throw out there. I'm all done even attempting to give any kind of support for this guy.

So that will do it for right now. Again, there will be a running diary of my Maymester class, so stay tuned for that. I'm not sure of the frequency I'll be able to get my posts up. In any case, they will most likely be available before the end of May, and hopefully, I will be doing this in my spare time outside of my job, because if I'm still unemployed, I'm going to shoot myself. You would think being out of school, I would want some down time, but that is totally the opposite of how I operate. I need to be doing something, or else, I become wicked lazy, and are rendered useless to the world, so that's no good. Anyway, I want to wish my Mom a happy Mother's Day, and the same for all the other mothers out there. I'm going to go out on a limb and say none of us would be here without you. Hope everyone has a great rest of May. Until next time, take care. I'm gonna go watch me some baseball kid! Later. Peace.

~Mell-o