When Notre Dame made it’s second-to-last ill fated hire, Athletic Director Kevin White said that George O’Leary was straight out of “central casting.” He was Irish, Catholic, had an O and an apostrophe in his name and it was his dream to coach at Notre Dame.
Two hires later, the Irish have hired a guy also straight out of central casting. If you were planning on remaking Sling Blade. But you know, this ain’t a beauty pagent. Thank God for that. Charlie Weis has been a good football coach everywhere he’s been. He won a Super Bowl on the Giants’ staff in 1991, and he’s won two as the offensive coordinator of the Patriots.
If you’re worried he won’t be able to recruit, how about the fact that if the Patriots go to another Super Bowl, he’ll be on TV (with Phil Simms circling him on the telestrator) every week? What’s more impressive, a college coach eating your mom’s Christmas cookies and watching football with you in your living room, or watching a guy actually coach on that same TV in the NFL playoffs?
Granted, Notre Dame’s need for a head coach was due to a completely botched process which included the Cardinal Sin of firing a guy without knowing who you were going to hire, having an employee shave her head in protest, and the annual ritual of every college coach in the country calling a press conference to announce he’s no longer a candidate for a job he never was a candidate for.
So how is Weis’ hire any different than when half of the country said no to Nebraska and they hired Bill Callahan? Well, Callahan’s a dope. So this is better.
Ty Willingham landed on his feet and he’ll take his umbrella and flee lovely (racist) northern Indiana and actually go enjoy himself while coaching football. Notre Dame’s treatment of Willingham is a complete embarassment. Was he a great coach? No. At least not what we saw. But they fired him with no real plan to replace him. They thought, through sheer arrogance, that they could talk Urban Meyer into jilting Florida for them, and when he didn’t, they were completely screwed. Think about it. Had Willingham stayed at Stanford instead of bailing their asses out after the O’Leary fiasco, who would have been a likely hire this time around for Notre Dame?
Tyrone Willingham.
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The Bears decided they’d heard enough playoff talk, so they went out and did something about it. They ended their playoff hopes. Sure, there are scenarios you can come up with that still give the Bears a chance, but it would include winning their last three games, and since they decided not to block anybody yesterday, what makes you think they can win three more games?
Chad Hutchinson had another solid game, his interception came after he dropped a snap and then went all Henry Burris on us and just lobbed the ball down the field. He got sacked FIVE times and the Bears have now surrendered at least four sacks in nine straight games. Just to clarify, that’s not a good thing.
The Jaguars didn’t seem too keen on winning the game either, but unlike the Bears, they awoke from their coma just in time. Now that was some inspiring football.
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A windstorm took out the power yesterday leaving me to sit in the dark and listen to the second half of the late NFL games on the radio while the temperature in the house dropped precipitously. Here’s how prepared I was for a power outage. I had to use my cell phone as a flashlight to find a candle so that I could light that and use the light from the candle to help me find the batteries for my flashlight.
I feared that after two hours the power would never come back on, so I began to break furniture in an attempt to make a big bonfire in the living room. Just as I got the bonfire lit, the power came back on. After two hours of panicked decision making that resulted in a big mess, I knew what it was like to work in the Yankees’ front office this offseason.
So far the Yankees have signed Tony Womack, Jaret Wright and an Alyssa Milano-less Carl Pavano. Womack can’t play, Wright flunked his physical and Pavano has a career record of 57-58 and his name, translated from Italian to Spanish is Javier Vazquez.
But my favorite offseason so far has been the New York Mets’. It started with Omar Minaya coming close to finalizing a deal of Cliff Floyd for Sammy Sosa. Then he backed off and decided he would rather try and sign Carlos Delgado or Richie Sexson and Moises Alou. Sexson has signed with the Diamondbacks, Delgado is leaning towards signing with Baltimore and then last night Peter Gammons threw out this little nugget on Alou.
“Moises Alou isn’t interested in signing with the Mets, because his father-in-law was murdered in New York.”
How did we not know this? We know that Paul Bako’s real name is Gabor, that E-ramis Ramirez’s middle name is Nin and that Chip Caray used to take his acoustic guitar on the team charter, but we didn’t know that Moises’ wife’s dad was murdered in New York?
How did this slip through the cracks?
The Mets could have done a deal for Sammy, but they thought they could land Pedro Martinez and didn’t want Sosa’s contract on their books. But Pedro’s on his way back to Boston.
Now the Mets are trying to convince the Red Sox that Mike Piazza and Kaz Matt Suhey would be a fine exchange for the best righthanded hitter in the American League (World Series MVP Manny Ramirez) and Doug Eyechart. I’m sure this is going to happen. And I’m sure the Boy Genius isn’t just so grateful to Minaya for driving Pedro’s price up, too.
You know what’s going to happen, don’t you? In about a week, Omar Minaya is going to have to pick up the phone, call Jim Hendry and ask, “Is that Sosa guy still available?”
Washington GM Jim Bowden says he wants Sosa, but only if he doesn’t have to pay any money for him. Gee, is that all? You want the Cubs to buy you a car, too?
The Orioles could be in the the same boat as the Mets if Delgado signs with Anaheim. Free agents are avoiding them and now they are interested in talking to the Cubs about Sammy.
Phil Rogers had a good premise, but tried to explain it in a convoluted way, today. Basically, Phil says that Scott Boras’ asking price on outfielders like Carlos Beltran, JD Drew and Magglio Ordonez is driving the market so high in dollars and years that suddenly Sosa’s deal (especially if he can drop the automatic trade kicker for 2006) is starting to look appealing to other teams. Why take on an injury risk like JD Drew for four years when you can test drive Sammy for one, or with an extension, two? Why give Beltran 10 years? But really what’s happening is that salaries are getting nuts everywhere. Richie Sexson’s arm fell off in a game against the Cubs last year and he’s going to get $10 milliona year. Steve Finley is FORTY and he’s getting $10 million a year. The Diamondbacks are giving huge money to Troy Glaus even though they didn’t need a corner infielder and they’re $80 million in debt.
Suddenly it’s gone from, “Can the Cubs get anything for Sammy” to “Can the Cubs get enough for Sammy.” Look, you and I both know that the Cubs don’t want to bring Sammy back for 2005. They would rather eat a plate of broken glass than have him give his, “Hello America! I’m in the house!” speech in Mesa in February (or March, or whenever he shows up). One Mets official said, “The Cubs aren’t showing enough panic to get a deal done for Sosa, right now.”
Maybe that’s because if they wait another week, the Mets will be the ones with the panic symptoms?
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If you enjoyed penalties and punts, well the Bears and Jags was your kind of game.
Big Brian’s hurt again. See you in Bourbonnais, big fella.
Charlie Weis gets $2 million a year? Didn’t the Irish offer Urban Meyer about 60 percent less?
The Patriots aren’t allowed to talk about Charlie. Is that in the Patriot Act?
The Cubs aren’t going to move Kerry Lee Wood to closer.
Kenny Williams can’t find anybody to trade with. Hey, just go sign Dustin Hermanson again. That was fun.
Groucho says Mark Cuban’s moves help other teams more than the Mavs.
Mariotti puts down the doughnut to proclaim the Bears’ season over. Gee, ya think?
Mike Kiley says everybody loves Sammy!
Moron Kerry not closing.
Walt Harris (the creepy, unblinking college coach, not the former Bears’ toasted corner) is leaving Pitt for Stanford, and Pitt’s going to let him coach in the Fiesta Bowl. Screw that. I’d kick his ass right out the door.
Bruce Miles gets optimistic that Sammy might get shipped.
Karl Malone has no moves with the ladies. Just pathetic.
Peter King says Bill Parcells is mellowing. Yeah, have you seen him, he’s marshmellowing. He’s got like size 64 pants.
Newsday thinks Manny to the Mets might happen. Sure. Whatever.
Pedro may sign with Boston as early as today.
The Dodgers and A’s still haven’t traded Tim Hudson and Edwin Jackson.
This Randy Johnson to the Yankees thing just needs to get over with already.
The Red Sox can’t sign Edgar Renteria until they figure out how much they’re on the hook for Pedro and Jason Varitek.
The Tigers want Edgar Renteria and/or JD Drew.
The Marlins are shopping AJ Burnett.
Matt Clement to the Angels?
The D’backs are signing both Craig Counsell and Royce Clayton? What, Augie’s not available?
The Giants are so happy with AJ Pierzynski that they’re signing Matt Matheny.
Bernie Kerik was getting more ass than a Port Authority toilet seat.
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