May 21, 2013

While We’re Waiting… Sugar Bowl Dilemma and Pro Bowl Snubs?

December 30, 2010 by 16 Comments

While We’re Waiting is your first cup of Cleveland sports coffee for the day. Sip on these WFNYish pieces from around the net while your first our first post finishes cooking. Seen something you think we should feature here? Send it to our tips line- tips@waitingfornextyear.com.

Great piece here- “I made the point that anything that could be done to preserve the integrity of this year’s game, we would greatly appreciate it,” Hoolahan said. “That appeal did not fall on deaf ears, and I’m extremely excited about it, that the Buckeyes are coming in at full strength.” Did you catch that? The “integrity” of the game has been upheld by allowing five players who sold their championship rings and other memorabilia in violation of NCAA rules to participate?” [Hooley/FSO]

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I’m confused. The Browns are severely lacking in talent…but should have more pro-bowlers?- “Winning teams are always going to have more players, which makes sense, and you’ll always have players like Ed Reed or Ray Lewis making it on reputation, but it seems as if the Browns should have received a little more love on the offensive side.” [Red Right 88]

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Tribe minor league skipper Mike Sarbaugh was named Baseball America’s manager of the year. His response? “You sure they got the right guy?”. Awesome. [Baseball America] [Hat tip- Let' s Go Tribe]

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How the NCAA violations will affect the Sugar Bowl- “There are two ways to view this situation. The scandal can either hurt the Buckeyes in the bowl game by remaining a distraction, or it can serve to unite the team closer together in pursuit of ending 0-9. Nobody knows for sure how this will play out, not even the team, as the Buckeyes take the field for their final practices in the Woody Hayes Athletic Center before heading down to the Big Easy this week. It’s time to take a look at both sides of the situation, and come to a verdict of what will happen on January 4 in regards to “The Tatgate Effect”. [Eleven Warriors]

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ESPN anchor steals a piece from a piece from a journalist, gets caught. [Orange County Register]

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  • http://www.redright88.com Titus Pullo

    You can still have individual success on a team with a losing record.

    Vickers is a beast at fullback; Hillis is statistically better than Jones-Drew; and screw the Steelers, Mack is better than nancy-boy Pouncey.

    See, it all makes perfect sense!

  • Chris

    ‘Eh, I’d like to see Hillis but I think the guy needs to put up similar numbers next year to get in… and cut down on the fumbling.

    I could see Vickers, but he doesn’t get the fan vote because he doesn’t get any carries, so no one knows who he is. Aside from those two, I can’t think of any offensive pro-bowlers.

    I think Reggie Hodges got cheated, though. He’s having an awesome year. Possibly the best punter in the league.

  • MattyFos

    Reggie Hodges is the best punter in the league. He’s also our best Running Back.

  • Haas

    Then tell me how the Patriots, who have the 27th ranked defense, ended up with the most defensive players in the Pro Bowl?

  • http://216sports.wordpress.com Chris

    I don’t understand why people keep throwing “gate” after every scandal. Watergate had absolutely nothing to do with water. Why does this keep happening?

  • C-Bus Kevin

    The Buckeyes are in a lose-lose situation if you ask me. If they win the game, it’s a win with a bunch of players that should be suspended. If they lose the game, they just lose.

    I think the only answer at this point is to sit those guys out.

    As for the Sugar Bowl official…those comments are priceless. Apparently, if you want to run a major bowl game, the first step is to throw your integrity out the window. What a joke!

  • Jack

    People who write for the public to read should learn how to read themselves and understand how words can refer to very different things in different contexts.

    Yes, the integrity of the game has been preserved. Of the game, not the integrity of morality or ethics or professionalism. But the integrity of the game is, thankfully, intact.

  • Jack

    Might we remind that “integrity” does not refer to “being moral and honest,” but comes from a root that means “a whole, or complete entity.”

    So, allowing the Buckeyes to play with their starting QB, #1 wideout, and starting RB certainly promotes integrity, or wholeness, or completeness of entity.

  • http://www.waitingfornextyear.com Andrew

    Couldn’t agree more, Jack. I love how people act surprised that the Sugar Bowl and their sponsors want the players to play. Of course they do! Why wouldn’t they?? They have a product to sell. They’re not in the business of telling kids how to act, feel, or do. They’re simply in the business of putting together the best football game they possibly can, and selling said football game to sponsors. They have nothing to do with “integrity” or any other kind of absolute morals.

    It’s obvious what the Sugar Bowl representative meant in the context that he used the word ‘integrity’. But Hooley, in typical Hooley fashion, treats us like we’re idiots and don’t understand what anyone means or what they’re talking about. He twists the guy’s words around and makes it into something that it’s not. But hey, fans eat this stuff up like crazy and Hooley has made a long career out of this kind of stuff. He’s a complete hack, but a very successful hack. Good for him.

  • C-Bus Kevin

    Protecting the integrity of the product (Sugar Bowl).

    I love amateur sports…

  • http://www.waitingfornextyear.com Andrew

    I love that people think college football is an amateur sport.

  • http://www.waitingfornextyear.com Andrew

    I just think fans would be a lot happier if they would stop lying to themselves and just admit that the NCAA is a business and that college football is about making money and providing a big tryout for the NFL for the kids.

    Not a single player who accepts an athletic scholarship to play football at Ohio State thinks to themselves “Oh, cool, I’m going to go get a good education”. Maybe they say it to the press because that’s the kind of stuff fans like to hear. But that’s not their first thought. Every single one of them is thinking “I get to go to Ohio State where I will have the opportunity to show my talents and abilities on the field and try to get into the NFL”.

    There’s an antiquated notion that college football is somehow supposed to be something that it’s not. And as a result, fans get hurt and angry over strange things like this.

  • C-Bus Kevin

    @ Andrew…you could have saved your typing. I was attempting to be ironic. You’d have to be pretty naive at this point to believe that College Football and College Basketball at major programs are amateur sports.

    However, I will say that the majority of athletes that play college football, basketball, and all other sports are, in fact amateurs that are playing a sport in exchange for a free or discounted education. The OSU’s, LSU’s, Florida’s, etc. of the world are the exception…not the rule. They’re just much more visible.

  • 5KMD

    Talking of Pro Bowl snubs, I live in pittsburgh and the folks here believe their entire defense should have been selected. And Heath Miller, and Mike Wallace.

  • http://www.waitingfornextyear.com Denny

    @ Chris – it’s pretty well-known that Watergate is named after the fact that President Nixon tried to sell the Panama Canal to the Germans. These “water gates” were, in fact, the only thing left between German auto dominance and the Eastern world.

  • Believelander

    @Rick/that first article: since the NCAA regulations/enforcement have rules/precedent for allowing players with impending suspensions to play in Bowl games, yes, the (honesty) integrity of the organization is sustained.