12:16 PM Western Kentucky passes over Bobby Petrino's brother Paul for football coaching job, instead hiring Stanford assistant coach Willie Taggart. Taggart played at WKU as a QB and lead Hilltoppers to a I-AA championship back in the day.
11:39 AM I'm hearing that Al Golden is under serious consideration for the UVA football job, which is sad considering they're scalping Temple football tickets for the first time in ... foreva.
11:17 AMJoe Paterno to the media on getting his Lions into the BCS Bowl picture: "Pick us. Maybe I could get on the phone and call somebody and say, 'you owe me one,' or 'you might find a horse?s head in your bed.'" #notkidding
When Tiger Woods accepted Jimmy Fallon’sPR stunt challenge to take him on at the “Tiger Woods PGA Tour 10″ video game for the Wii, you can imagine that Woods was hardly sweating bullets. After all, it’s his game. And while I know that doesn’t mean that John Madden would be good at video game football or that Bill Laimbeer would excel at “Combat Basketball,” I feel pretty confident in Tiger Woods’ ability to play a video golf game. (Although I wouldn’t want to take on “QB Eagles“ in Tecmo Super Bowl.)
But it turns out that Fallon has more talents than being the only person in America who laughs at Horatio Sanz: he’s also pretty decent at video games. So when the two played a match in Times Square yesterday over three holes at a virtual Bethpage Black course (with commentary by Scott Van Pelt and Kelly Tilghman, who avoided any impulse to offer to “lynch Tiger” on behalf of Fallon), Tiger was in for a surprise as he was summarily throttled by the “comedian“.
However, you can now express your joy in the NBA’s second season with your own SPORTSbyBROOKS NBA playoff matchups in convenient chart form:
Eastern Conference
#1 Cleveland We’ll Be Shouting ‘BOOBIE!’ as Much as Possibles vs. #8 Detroit Ballast Jettisoners
#2 Boston Can We Borrow a Dead Guy’s Knee for KG Like We Did for Curt Schillings vs. #7 Chicago Sixteen Guards and Whaddya Gets
#3 Orlando Dwight Hasn’t Figured Out a Costume Change to Make Him a Point Guard, Toos vs. #6 Philadelphia So Glad We’re Paying Elton Brand $18 Million in 2012-2013s
#4 Atlanta Name Three Players vs. #5 Miami Name Twos
Western Conference
#1 Los Angeles Kobe Clubs Baby Seals with Portuguese Water Dogs Wrapped in Veals vs. #8 Utah Deron Williams Falls Asleep Every Night Clutching a Copy of His Tear-Stained Contract After Failing to Find an Out Clauses
#2 Denver You’ve Got to Be Kiddings vs. #7 New Orleans Seriously, Aren’t These in the Wrong Orders
#3 San Antonio Flashbacks vs. #6 Dallas Hey, At Least We Haven’t Traded for Shaq Yets (Note: the above series has been moved to CBS and the Hallmark Channel as per FCC regulations around programming for the elderly.)
#4 Portland Maybe Next Years (But Don’t Tell Joel Przybilla’s Grandma We Said So) vs. #5 Houston There’s Also a Regression Analysis to Prove Shane Battier Makes the Best Damned Mojitos in Texas
As always, it’s the gift you didn’t even have to ask for. Or didn’t want to.
Major League Baseball tried yet again yesterday to provide another round of gifts to Jackie Robinson, who has been feted nearly as often as Frank Sinatra since his death. Yesterday, every player in baseball wore number 42 in his honor to avoid the embarrassment of 42 wearer infighting last year.
Ian Kinsler followed up on this attempt with his own success: 6-6 at the plate with a cycle attached. If the opposing team last night (the Orioles) happened to be your sleeper team this year, you may want to check just how deep that sleep is.
Speaking of deep sleep, former Illinois governor (and current Illinois chew toy) Rod Blagojevich apparently didn’t feel it necessary to stop at meddling with the affairs of Tribune Co. when he didn’t get his way. He also sent a note to Cubs manager Lou Piniella to recommend a lineup change in 2007.
S’funny; we don’t remember Blago being so receptive to a lineup change at the state level earlier this year. Perhaps he isn’t a big fan of having his moves micromanaged by impotent whiners who never held the position dictating his actions from afar when they’ve never been in the trenches, y’know?
Kobe Bryantand Elmo beatboxing. Look… to misquote David Mamet, that’s why they call it ‘video’:
Congratulations on playing all 82 games this season, Grant Hill. Also, congratulations on getting your wife, Tamia, a spot at All-Star Weekend and various local charity events in Arizona. Strong season all ’round.
Now that the WALL STREET JOURNAL has a sports section, expect to see sabermetric notions exposed to a larger audience. That might explain why the guy in the cubicle next to you suddenly wants to talk about batting the pitcher eighth.
We suspect the last time an angry bear was used to sell hockey tickets involved Bruce Vilanch and the Los Angeles Kings, but this isn’t so bad, either:
Fare thee well to Merle Harmon, an itinerant broadcaster for the Milwaukee Brewers, Texas Rangers, New York Jets (during Super Bowl III), and baseball in general. He died Wednesday at age 82.
Now that Michael Strahan’s playing days are over, the Giants sackmaster is looking to dominate in another field - late night TV talk shows.
USA TODAY’s Michael Hiestand hears that Strahan is quite ready to fill in any gaps of football TV programming. In fact, agent Maury Gostfrand claims that his client could be signed up by a network “within a week”.
But Michael’s ultimate goal is to become the next Leno or Letterman:
