Cheap Seats
Why didn’t he think of that?
To the surprise of no one who had been paying attention, Howard Schnellenberger is a college football coach again, this time at age 65.
Greg Cote of the Miami Herald saw this coming a little more than a year ago, when he visited Schnellenberger after the former Miami Hurricane boss was put in charge of starting the program at Florida Atlantic. That included choosing a coach.
Fourteen months later, Schnellenberger made the hire.
Himself.
“FAU’s Owls putting Schnellenberger in charge of finding their first head coach,” Cote wrote after thinking back on that visit, “was like asking a pit bull to guard the hamburger.”
Barry Barry sneaky
New reports have NFL superstar Barry Sanders retiring from the Detroit Lions today. It will be the first time the media has heard from him in quite some time.
“ … (My) boss was asking for the impossible, which is nothing new,” writes Terry Foster of the Detroit News.
“That is why he is the boss.
“ `Hey, why don’t you find Barry Sanders,’ he said.
“And why don’t I fly to Kalamazoo for an interview with Elvis Presley?”
Ironman is a wimp
Karen Smyers of Lincoln, Mass., is a star in the grueling sport of triathlon, someone who has competed in the invitation to pain that is the famous Ironman in Hawaii and is regarded as the best American woman these days.
That’s nothing. Try being in labor for 48 hours, as she was last year before giving birth to a daughter.
“Only a small percentage of people in the world can do the Ironman,” said Smyers, who was chosen to carry the U.S. flag in Friday’s opening ceremony of the Pan American Games in Winnipeg, Canada. “Fifty percent of the people can do labor, and let me tell you, labor is harder. You don’t have a choice when you go into labor. You can’t drop out.”
Beauty in the eye of beholder
The Denver Nuggets may not have much of a following in this country, but Saudi Arabia is another story.
One of the losing bidders Monday for Ascent Entertainment’s Denver sports empire was Saudi Princess Thara Baselia Saud, who had recently announced, “I have followed the Denver Nuggets for a long time and believe they are a very viable franchise with tremendous potential yet to be realized.”
The Nuggets won 21, 11 and 14 games in the last three seasons. Distance must enhance their charm.
The last word …
“Half-year down, 4-1/2 years to go, so don’t fight it and show me some love!!! AB.”
- The normally speechless Albert Belle, in a note to the media.
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