SportsLink: Some things just seem wrong
Is it just me or does it seem wrong that …
“ It took so long for the nation to realize how well this Washington State men’s basketball team is playing? The Cougars may have one bad loss on their resume – though after seeing what Virginia did to Gonzaga, the WSU loss to Utah didn’t look as bad – but wins against the Zags, at USC and a close loss to UCLA should have triggered some type of alarm around the nation.
“ The Seahawks are still playing? Not because most fans around here want them to, but because, after all the injuries they’ve suffered, after all the lackluster games they’ve played, they are in the NFL’s elite eight. And they are only two wins from a return trip to the Super Bowl. Of course, it took a little luck for it to happen, which brings us to our next item.
“ Tony Romo should be raked over the coals for dropping the ball? Most teams don’t use their starting quarterback as the holder. Some use the backup, which Romo was at the beginning of the year. Some use their punter. But the starting QB? Not in the NFL. While the referee reviewed the spot of Jason Whitten’s catch, through a Hawks timeout, Romo stood on the field talking with Bill Parcells, sans gloves, waiting for play to resume. No wonder his hands didn’t work exactly right.
“ College football’s national championship game followed on the heels of two incredibly lackluster bowl games, something called the International Bowl on Saturday and the GMAC Bowl, between Southern Mississippi and Ohio, Sunday night? Shouldn’t it be played closer to December than to Martin Luther King Day?
“ Gonzaga can play one of the toughest non-conference schedules in the nation, defeat the No. 1, No. 24 and No. 28 teams in the coaches’ poll and not receive any votes? And that Washington, which has lost just two fewer games than GU – including a blowout loss to the Zags – and has defeated just one ranked team, remains in the coaches’ Top 25?
“ Head football coaches can take millions of dollars to skip from school to school or to the NFL and back, and their players are stuck, not even able to transfer to a comparable school without sitting out a year? Shouldn’t there be some mechanism in place to open doors for the athletes whose blood and sweat was the foundation of the coaches’ success?
“ USC didn’t play in the championship game? After watching the Rose Bowl it’s obvious the Trojans are as good as any team in the nation. And it’s become a habit for them to be in the title game. But at least it seems right the loss that kept them from a showdown with Ohio State was to their archrivals.
“ The best bowl finish came while most of the nation was asleep? Boise State’s we’ve-got-nothin’-to-lose comeback was so late in the East the only people in Ohio and Florida who got to see it were either insomniacs or Tivo owners.
“ Your car doesn’t start on days when you need it the most, to get to school and work, but runs fine on the days when all you need to do is drive to the store for doughnuts?