Mike Leach fired; kids taken over college sports part 2

Another great injustice in college sports as Texas Tech fired football coach Mike Leach over claim "mistreatment" of a player with a concussion. The player, Adam James, claimed Leach confined him to a "dark room" twice. The claim disputable as this is a report about the "dark room"

If its the room Texas Tech made the wrong move and supporting the wrong person. Players, both former and current, have came out in support of Leach and mention James is pretty lazy on the field. Another theory why Texas Tech quickly fired Leach because Adam James father worked for ESPN. Fearing backlash and/or lack of publicity from a "big time" sports conglomerate they quickly unfairly fired Mike Leach. What James did is lie and have his daddy work company do hatchet job putting Mike Leach on a negative light. Shame on Texas Tech, ESPN, and most importantly the shitty James family. First Mark Mangino, now Mike Leach. Kids have taken over college sports once again.

Boycott Texas Tech til Gerald Myers is no longer athletic director. In fact, hope entire football team throw the bowl game. The most exciting pass happy college football team has be destroyed thanks to one spoiled hack college player.

Urban Meyer takes leave

Shocking news in college football as Florida coach Urban Meyer resigns after Sugar Bowl citing health issues. Here's a coach that is going to be missed. In his nine seasons of coaching he been successful from Bowling Green to Utah to Florida. With his unstoppable work-ethic he coached Utah to its undefeated season (2004) and Florida to two National Championships along five seasons of 10+ wins in his nine seasons. Sadly his full speed work-ethic coaching and recruiting dedication took its toll of him. He decided to resign and get his health back in check. Urban Meyer left his post in his prime and will go down as one of best coaches in college football.

UPDATE: Meyer decided to take a leave instead to resign. Offensive coordinator Steve Adazzio takes over til Meyer returns.

What the hell Jim Zorn?

Click on the six screen shot picture and you wonder what was going on Jim Zorn's mind when he made this call. All it got was a Giants interception which Bruce Johnson taking it over 50 yards before finally get pushed and taken down. If it wasn't for two Redskins players it might have returned for a touchdown. You got to give Zorn credit for trying something experimentally. Execution-wise it failed in embarrassment big time.

Brett Fraud shows his true self

The real Brett Favre showed up during the loss against a struggling Carolina Panthers. Despite having a very slim lead he was getting pounded from all defensive sides. Coach Brad Childress wanting to protect his quarterback wanted to pull him out of the game. He refused leading to a huge disagreement with Childress. The result was Panthers destroying the Vikings 26-7 with 20 of the points coming in the 4th quarterback. Favre was ineffective in his start throwing 224 yards and an interception while Panthers QB backup-turned-starter Matt Moore threw 299 yards and 3 touchdowns. It was later revealed Favre been changing Childress playcalling calling out his own audibles. As it turns out his audibles blew when the Panthers defense put a pounding on him. Despite both claim to resolve their issues, the game against the Panthers revealed Favre true self. Favre is in it for himself than the good of a team. This situation had been played out in Green Bay (commitment issues during the offseason which hindered Packers offseason moves) and New York (a "loner" during final weeks of the season). Now he likely becomes a Viking problem this could affect the team especially with the playoffs coming up in few weeks.

Topps redemption is a hit AND miss

I got my redemption cards from Topps today and it was hit AND miss.

First for the hit as it was this:


Not quite bad as it was redeemed on June 2 of this year. It took them half a year to get it out. The card delivered in mint condition. Then comes the miss with this:


It may look normal, but a close up scan show the condition of the card delivered to me.


The card was dinged on the right corner and creased on the lower left corner. Topps sent me a damaged card. Another note this is 2007-08 Topps Finest basketball card. Even the redemption card was passed its due date I still able to redeem it. I redeemed it on September 7 of this year. Another thing this card set was two years ago and already produced yet it took them 3 months to send it. Strange they took a company long to send a card that was already produced two years ago. This is not the first time Topps sent me a slightly damaged redemption card. Here what I received from them last year with two hole marks on the card:


The problem with Topps is the long wait for redemption cards which they need to improve big time. It doesn't look good when they often send damaged cards to collectors who have may wait close to a year to get the cards. Topps needs to overhaul on the redemption cards or else get rid of the idea once and for all.

Upper Deck redemption card a success

Look what came in the mail today! It's 2009-10 Upper Deck basketball draft edition Jrue Holiday Jordan Brand Classic game-used redemption card. How long did it took to come in after redeeming the card online? 28 days which is much faster than Upper Deck 45-day redemption card goal. After too many horror stories of redemption cards at least I have success on this. Good job to Upper Deck for getting this out within 45-day time frame. It's a damn good card as well

How not to sell tickets: Promote a famous name and have a look-a-like instead

Owner of NBDL team Utah Flash pulls a fast one in selling tickets. For the Flash home opener they promote Michael Jordan vs Byron Russell in a 15 minute one-on-one charity game at halftime. To promote it the owner sent a Jordan look-a-like all over the Orem (home of the Flash) on the day of the game with "late breaking news" of Jordan "sightings" to even put up a video on YouTube of "him" eating at a restaurant as you can see below:

It resulted of 7,500 fans showing up at the home opener hoping to see him. Byron Russell showed up, but when the Jordan look-a-like showed up the fans booed with free t-shirts tossed on to the court.

The owner was apologetic and offered fans with tickets of that Monday's game free tickets to a future game. Advice to any owners never make claims of a big name player to show up to sell more tickets and bring out a fake.

More sources:
http://www.heraldextra.com/news/local/article_d623c5d8-e36c-11de-937a-001cc4c03286.html

Another bad break for Greg Oden

Greg Oden's luck took another turn for the worst. He fracture his left kneecap after colliding with Rockets' player Aaron Brooks and will miss the rest of the season. It's been injury-plagued career for the former number one overall pick. He missed entire rookie season after having microfracture surgery on his right knee. He bounced back to played 61 of the 82 games in his second season. This season he played all 21 of the team's games showing glimpses of potential star before the freak injury happened forcing him to miss entire the season. Sadly there will be talks of him being compared along the lines of a former Trail Blazers high pick from the past: Sam Bowie. Bowie, a second overall pick in 1984, had injury riddled career hampered with leg troubles. The player picked after Bowie end up becoming NBA legend name Michael Jordan. Thus Bowie known as a big NBA draft bust and the Blazers looking like idiots despite the fact Blazers already have Clyde Drexler at short guard. Same thing happened to the Blazers when they got the 2007 first overall pick. The team stacked at guard position with Brandon Roy and LaMarcus Aldridge leading the way and in need of a big man. Greg Oden became Blazers big man and one of the faces of the organization. The Sonics (now Oklahoma City Thunder), with the second overall pick, took forward Kevin Durant. He end up being a top caliber player putting up All-Star like numbers and the face of the franchise. When Oden bounces back from this injury next season let's see if he can still be everyday starter putting up respectable number or end up continually fragile. If the injuries pile up watch in ten years the sports journalists and media will unfairly blow up Greg Oden is a big NBA draft bust. Good luck in recovery Greg!

Mangino out at Kansas; parents and kids have taken over college sports

Coach Mark Mangino is out at Kansas after reaching financial settlement. This stems from some current and past players over his verbal treatment. Let me say it's official the parents and student athletes are taking over college sports. Most of these athletes are getting a free ride on scholarships and are lucky to be school in the first place. Instead using it to better themselves they get their parents involved demanding forms of "special" treatment. Mangino did what any coach do: yell and scream to get the players motivated. Instead some of the players went crying to their parents and the media what a horrible man he is. It's pathetic that student athletes rather be babied instead becoming a real man/woman. Bob Knight used this approach and so did the late Bear Bryant did. The current crop of student athletes wouldn't last in the 50s, 60s, and 70s where coaches demean and fault over every mistakes. I'm glad former and current Jayhawks players stuck up for Mangino and credited him for making them a better player and person. Here's a coach that took a football program from the toilet and built it up to have the best season in the program. Now I hope Jayhawks football program goes down the drain along with the new stadium upgrades because they deserve to after siding with the crybaby athletes and parents. What happened in Kansas football will likely happen to any college sports as parents taking over their kids' roles in college sports than coaches despite getting a free education.

Topps gets exclusive minor league baseball card licensing rights

The Cardboard Connection reported Topps secure multi-year exclusive minor league baseball card licensing rights starting January 1, 2010 with a release of Topps Pro Debut set in March. This is potentially good for prospect collectors. Could this be what Topps needed to reinvent Bowman which was known as the home of the rookie card?