This ice cube rapped
THE EARLY REVIEWS are in for the newest mascots off the Olympic assembly line for the 2006 Winter Games in Turin, Italy.
Mascot love? Not quite.
The SportsBusiness Journal took one look at Neve, a female snowball, and the male ice cube Gliz and called them “this uninspiring pair of illegitimate Gumby spawn.”
An editorial suggested that the International Olympic Committee take more control of the mascot-making process. But, until then, the magazine gives a thumbs down to the pair, especially the blue-clad Gliz, which it says “looks more like one of the simple figures that populated pop artist Keith Haring’s works, except his head is a Chiclet with all the color sucked off.”
At least he didn’t wear a net
Actor Austin Nichols, who appeared in the movie “Wimbledon,” said he had no tennis-playing experience in his background.
Nichols trained for the role with former Wimbledon champion Pat Cash, and joked that he already owned one piece of sports apparel.
“I actually have a skirt,” he told GQ magazine. “I went on vacation and bought one just to wear while walking around the beach. Just like a towel.”
Passing grades
The best critics of the new football movie “Friday Night Lights” are obvious ones: football players, of course.
North Carolina center Jason Brown stopped short of saying it was realistic but said he liked the movie. He also told Freedom News Service about his favorite film. “Watching tape of myself,” he said.
Another former football player, movie critic Richard Roeper, said that he played under Friday night lights a long time ago, adding: “This movie gets it all right.”
From one arena to another
It isn’t enough that 17-year-old Erin Feehan-Nelson teaches figure skating, among many other things, in her spare time. She is running for mayor of St. Mary’s Point, Minn., (pop. 350) even though she can’t vote or hold office.
The St. Paul Pioneer Press broke the story, and since then Feehan-Nelson has been all over the place, appearing on CNN. Her younger sister, 8-year-old Olivia, may have had the best line, Erin told the newspaper: “She wants to come (to city council meetings) and say, ‘Erin, your room is not clean.’ “
Hating those hoops
Pac-10 commissioner Tom Hansen, asked which sport has the most officiating controversies, said, “Basketball, by far. Every conference commissioner hates to see basketball season start.”
A million for your thoughts
Regarding Ricky Williams’ desire to return to the Miami Dolphins, Jeff Gordon of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch wrote, “Did Ricky just discover 8.6 million reasons why he loves football again?”
And Troy Aikman, on his Sporting News radio network show, said of Williams: “If I were the quarterback of that team, I would say, ‘Hey, I don’t care if we go 0-16, I don’t want him in the huddle with me.’ “