Advertisement
It was signing day in the most corrupt part of the sports world that doesn’t involve the World Cup or Olympic competition on Feb. 1. For those unfamiliar, this means high school athletes went on national TV to tell southerners and/or alumnus what team they’d be playing for, ostensibly for free. That LeBron did the exact same thing and got heat for it, pardon the pun, speaks to the fait-accompli corruption of college athletics, but this was a more perverse week than usual, bringing the best single moment of the week in sports—better than the Super Bowl or Blake Griffin’s dunk. And it is this: an Alabama linebacker recruit decided against going to a college in South Carolina because “they had no Chick-fil-A on campus," even though there was a Chick-fil-A on campus. Pranked!As for college hoops? Nothing much, just a team getting penalized for providing books to athletes. Makes sense?Baseball:
Josh Hamilton, Texas’ best hitter, who is also a recovering drug addict and alcoholic, and who has full sleeves, was seen drinking in Dallas on Tuesday. While it’s likely that being in Dallas on a Tuesday in January drove him to drink, the thinking man’s consensus is that it was a cry for help—why do it in public? Hamilton, who has a minder (babysitter) during the regular season but doesn’t have one now, explained things and apologized in a news conference on Friday. In light of this, his second relapse—he’s been clean since 2007, but slipped in 2009—his team has tabled contract extension talk. Please note that this relapse happened after the contract of Texas’ best pitcher, who is straight-edge and has more of a metal-head-Orange County vibe than a giant jock or freegan dumpster diver, was not renewed.Basketball:
In basketball news, the Knicks remain terrible. For a team with an incredibly cool logo—witness it here—they are a real rough collection of athletes and there’s no sign they’re going to get better, though it’s worth mentioning that their new point guard is a Harvard graduate, so there’s that. In other NBA news, Greg Oden, who was born in 1988 but looks older than my dad, will have his fourth knee surgery since being drafted first overall in 2011.Hockey:
The NHL All-Star Game was last Sunday—not sure what happened here this week, but the Oilers’ uniforms remain very Knicks-ish and outstanding. The Oilers, unlike their blue-and-orange brothers in New York, can boast no Ivy Leaguers, though there are a few in the NHL. But like most Ivy Leaguers, many NHL players have no teeth.@samreiss_