Now is not a good time to be Joe Buck. The lead FOX announcer’s popularity is in the toilet as fans have gradually discovered that Buck doesn’t actually care about the games in front of him. That’s fine, we suppose; Buck is free to choose what he does or doesn’t enjoy, of course. But if he’s going to freely admit that he doesn’t watch baseball in his spare time, why on earth is he being paid an insane amount of money to talk about it during the playoffs, when it matters the most?

(Cue the Price Is Right failhorns.)

So perhaps it’s a touch of sports karma, if it exists [It doesn’t. Trust Me.–God], that the restaurants bearing Buck’s name in the St. Louis area are tanking right in line with Buck’s approval ratings. The ST. LOUIS BUSINESS JOURNAL is reporting that there are major changes in store for the five “J. Buck’s” locations, including management change, closure, and murder. Okay, we made up the murder part.
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Here’s something that will make your day, Michigan fans. With an unemployment rate of over 10% in your state, you might not have job, but your football coach is doing pretty well for himself. Michigan paid $6.6 million to compensate Rich Rodriguez for winning three games in 2008.

In addition to the $2.5 million he made in salary and other compensation, the university kicked in an additional $4.1 million to cover part of the buyout Rodriguez owed his former employer in West Virginia.  The athletic department is separate from the rest of the school financially, but that’s still a lot of dough for not much return.

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