Sports Editor
Tim Tebow is not the answer in Denver.
Tim Tebow is like the prom king at your high school. He was the man back in the day. All the guys wanted to be him, all the girls wanted to be with him. Then you got to your 10-year high school reunion, and that same prom king with the golden boy looks and the rock hard abs is sporting a noticeable beer belly and rapidly receding hairline.
Tebow was a great college quarterback, no one is debating that. But he’s not the answer in Denver, at least not right now. During the preseason, coach John Fox placed both Tebow and first-round bust Brady Quinn as second string. That sure sounds like Quinn was outplaying the former Heisman winner. The Broncos front office needs to tune out the fans’ dying chants for Te-Bow! Te-Bow! Fans are fans for a reason.
The NFL has to do something about faking injuries.
It was almost blatant that New York Giants safety Deon Grant and linebacker Jacquian Williams were faking injuries to slow down the St. Louis Rams in Monday night’s game.
Grant and Williams can claim they were truly hurt, but the video doesn’t lie. They flopped so well, Italy just added them to its national soccer team. I know it’s hard to judge who’s hurt and who’s not, but this can’t go on any longer. You don’t want a bush-league move like that to determine a crucial game. Penalties, fines, anything to get rid of this.
Floyd Mayweather’s knockout was clean.
Floyd Mayweather knocked out Victor Ortiz in the fourth round of Saturday night’s fight to win the WBC Welterweight title. The knockout was as clean as can be. Ortiz had already hugged (still not sure why he did that) and apologized to Mayweather for head-butting him. Then, after Mayweather and Ortiz tapped gloves to resume the fight, Ortiz goes in for another hug. I’m sure Mayweather didn’t want the first hug; why would he want the second hug? Mayweather did what any boxer would have done: knocked out a guy who wasn’t looking and kept his perfect career record.
If you want to blame someone, blame referee Joe Cortez. Cortez, who wasn’t even looking, claims he called “time-in,” but he looked really surprised when Ortiz was falling to the canvas.
The Big East Conference is dead.
This weekend, Syracuse and Pittsburgh both jumped to the ACC. This leaves the Big East with six schools in football. With Connecticut and Rutgers also showing interest in joining the ACC, the Big East has a lot of work ahead of them. In July 2012, Texas Christian is scheduled to join the Big East, but how quickly will it take for them to leave that conference for a better one like the Big 12? For now, the Big 12 looks to be sticking together, so rule out any chance of Kansas and Kansas State being added to the Big East. The Big East will still have a good, not great basketball conference, but football is the main sport. Honestly, adding teams like Central Florida and East Carolina isn’t going to make that conference any better.
Terrence Payne may be reached at tpayne2@springfieldcollege.edu