Happy Wednesday everyone, here's my Top 5 for July 18, 2012 from Len Berman at www.ThatsSports.com.
1. Quick Hits
- The Knicks don't match Houston's offer, so Jeremy Lin is now a Rocket.
- And now the Lakers are supposedly pushing to acquire Orlando's Dwight Howard.
- The British Open begins tomorrow with cool and rainy weather expected for the tournament.
2. Linsanity
And so ends a fascinating period in Knicks history. Linsanity, like a comet, raced across the sky and fizzled out. Some fans thought the Knicks should pay for Jeremy Lin no matter what. What's money to the Dolans? But the truth is you can't pin this all on the Knicks. You could look at the flip side and talk about the Knicks saving Lin's career. So how does he repay them? Coming up with an offer that the Knicks could refuse. But no need to pin this on either party. As usual, it was just business. And both sides did what was best for them.
3. Et Tu NCAA?
The most closely watched decision of the year (other than Election Day) will be to see what the NCAA does about Penn State. Some of you feel that the Penn State's child sexual abuse scandal has nothing to do with football. I'm one of those who believe it has everything to do with football... from the heinous use of the Penn State athletic facilities, to the cover-up which was all about protecting the Penn State "brand," which of course IS football. If you've read Joe Nocera's op-ed pieces in the New York Times, he has down a wonderful job of skewering the NCAA over the years. He has taken them apart for the sheer randomness, not to mention unfairness of some of their punitive decisions. Here's what he wrote yesterday. "The N.C.A.A. proclaims that part of its mission is to 'integrate athletics into higher education.' If it really believes that, it will impose the death penalty on Penn State, to send a signal that no school should put football above its own integrity." To its credit, NCAA president Mark Emmert has indicated that all options, including the death penalty, are on the table.
4. Rap Sheet
If you haven't noticed there have been several NFL players arrested in the past week, headed by Dallas Cowboys receiver Dez Bryant's arrested for assaulting his own mother. But Cowboys fans will be relieved to know their team isn't even in the top 5... top 5 of team arrests that is. The San Diego Union-Tribune keeps the unofficial tally of NFL arrests since 2000, and the Cowboys are in 26th place out of 32 with 11. The Minnesota Vikings lead the way with a stunning 39, while the Jets and Rams have the fewest with seven and eight apiece. When Denver defensive end Elmer Dumervil was arrested in Miami the other day for aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, it solidified the Broncos third place position on the arrest scoreboard. As one Denver columnist put it, Broncos fans have become so familiar with the name of lawyer Harvey Steinberg that they should make him the team's honorary 54th member.
5. Perfect 10
OK sports fans, let's see how good you are. Check out Today in Sports below and tell me two reasons why that can never happen again. 1) There's no such thing as a "perfect 10" anymore. There were a couple of 16.275s in Beijing. (Now starring in the movie "16.275," Bo Derek.) 2) The minimum age has been raised for gymnasts. It's now 16. Except, of course, in China.
Happy Birthday: Former Yankees manager Joe Torre. 72.
Bonus Birthday: Actor Vin Diesel. 45.
Today in Sports: 14-year-old Nadia Comeneci from Romania scores the first perfect 10 in Olympic history on the uneven bars in Montreal. (Featured in my New York Times best seller, The Greatest Moments in Sports.) 1976.
Bonus Event: Under pressure from the NFL, Joe Namath sells his interest in the New York restaurant Bachelors III. 1969.
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