Just Buy Me A Winner
Thomas Boswell writes in the Washington Post that the Redskins are trying to purchase a Super Bowl.
“After adding Deion Sanders, the bill for their latest haul comes to $127 million, including Jeff George, Bruce Smith, Mark Carrier, Adrian Murrell and much-sought defensive coordinator Ray Rhodes.
“We can now assume the Redskins will be reviled as the most recent example of Everything That Is Wrong with sports, free agency, new money.
To which, as a native Washingtonian, I can only say, `It’s about time.’ … The Redskins can work on a new motto: `Greed is Good.”’
Point and counterpoint
If Olympic glory is not motivation enough, athletes competing from Uzbekistan at the 2000 summer games could also have a big payday.
President Islam Karimov signed a bill Friday promising any athlete who brings home a gold medal from the Sydney games a bonus prize of $100,000, an enormous sum in the poor and remote country. Silver medalists will receive $50,000 and bronze medalists $25,000.
Uzbekistan excels in boxing, wrestling and trampoline.
The reported average monthly salary in Uzbekistan, a former Soviet state in Central Asia, is about $20.
His kind of place
Tom FitzGerald in the San Francisco Chronicle:
“John Rocker was sent down to Triple-A Richmond and now it all seems to fit.
“The Braves are in first place, but Rocker’s new team has the worst record in the International League. At least he can console himself that he’s in the city that used to be the capital of the Confederacy.”
Come one, come all, bring money
Michigan State University trustees have approved surcharges of $100 per seat for some seats at Breslin Center, where the Spartans will defend their national basketball title.
The surcharges will reach $200 a seat for some lower-bowl seats at the arena in the 2001-2002 basketball season, and $300 the following season. The plan does not affect upper bowl or bleacher seats in the 14,659-seat arena.
The surcharges are expected to raise $600,000 a year in the third year of the plan - money that would go to Michigan State’s athletic department, which has an annual budget of $24 million a year.
The last word …
“In the last two weeks, Shaq has abused more foreigners (Arvydas Sabonis and Rik Smits) than John Rocker.”
- Peter Vecsey, writing in the New York Post.