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False Icons In Sport

Posted by Scipio Tex on February 17th, 2008 under Uncategorized

Sport has always served as a narrative into which one projects their individual hopes and fantasies – and often their prejudices and world view. However, for those who comment on athletics for a living the narrative around certain figures rarely evolves. Specifically with those figures representative of a certain mindset purporting to hold some social significance to their generation.

Usually, it’s harmless enough pablum and the commentary does no real damage outside of the people’s lives it directly impacts – for example, the lazy portrayal of Ted Williams and Joe DiMaggio. Sometimes, it has darker implications. In today’s school of socially significant sports writing – where attendance is mandatory for anyone who wishes to be taken seriously as a journalist; sport is just a vehicle, the reader a passenger, and the destination some meaningful social realization (sometimes worthy). The vehicle is the key piece to all of this and there is a real danger in falsely projecting layer upon calcifying layer of symbolism onto some person or event that is purported to reveal some greater truth about society.

Witness our modern perception and reverence of Muhammad Ali. Critically questioning his actual contributions or how he lived good portions of his life generally qualifies you as racist, harboring militarist sympathies, or generally reeking of the Establishment. To many, he is afforded a reverence on par with Nelson Mandela or Gandhi. These iconic truths are held to be self-evident. At least while the architects of perception still draw breath or possess currency. In turn, our popular conception of historical events and people within the sports world flow from these perceptions and are learned by rote; rejection of these commonly held beliefs risks banishment to, at minimum, an intellectual gulag.

First, the more harmless, but also instructive media portrayal: DiMaggio and Williams. Both are acknowledged as two of the greatest players ever. Yet DiMaggio is exceeded only by Ruth as an iconic figure. Paul Simon doesn’t have the nation turn its lonely eyes to Teddy Ballgame when he sings of innocence and purity lost. As contemporaries, The Yankee Clipper and The Splendid Splinter were set at odds by a media that capitalized on the natural rivalry between the Red Sox and Yankees, a media that also worked to reinforce a false contrast between the two as athletes: DiMaggio The Winner, a classy and graceful team player and model athlete; Williams The Loser, a gifted, surly individualist dedicated primarily to his stat line. Further, each man’s character was reflected in the respective success of their team: a fairly common media device that persists to this day.

Yet, it was all very personal; petty and small-minded, motivated largely by the fact that Ted Williams had a general disdain for Northeastern sportswriters. He found them unknowledgeable but opinionated, lazy, fickle, and frequently pedantic jock-sniffers. Williams also disliked these traits in crowds, though one-on-one with individual fans he was down-to-earth, gracious and attentive. He gave his time and money massively to various charities throughout his life; he lost five years in the prime of his career flying 38 combat missions as a Marine Corps Pilot in WWII and in Korea, and, in unprecedented fashion, he was the first baseball Hall of Fame inductee (in 1966) to use his induction speech to comment on the injustice of the exclusion of Negro Leaguers from the Baseball Hall of Fame. That sparked a debate that led to their eventual inclusion in 1971. He was also crucial in publically accepting Pumpsie Green, the first black Red Sox player (the Sox were the last team to integrate in baseball – 1960 if you can believe it) into the team and Boston community. Without Williams advocacy, it would have turned ugly.

When Williams’ generation of sportswriters passed, the next reflected on him through the prism of a Vietnam era consciousness where his blindly patriotic war service was more damning than inspiring and his contempt for their profession evidence of some right wing suppression of voice rather than his more simple disdain for jock sniffers. It’s only fairly recently that Teddy Ballgame is getting a fair break in the iconic narrative of sport.

DiMaggio, baseball demi-god, famously cold in his dealings with friends and manipulative with anyone who could further his career, given to private clubhouse sulks, obssessed with his media image and portrayal, who served in World War II as a PE instructor where his primary duty was to play baseball exhibitions, and who assidiously avoided comment on anything remotely controversial, was in many ways a harbinger of today’s corporate athlete. But he is imbued with significance, an emblem of a time of purity. His name is still immediately evocative of a certain imagery and positive feeling.

So too is Muhammad Ali. To hear it from much of today’s sportswriting world, most recently Bryant Gumbel on Real Sports, Muhammad Ali was a champion against state oppression through his opposition to serving in Vietnam, a vessel of righteous anger against the system, the living embodiment of the struggle for black Americans to achieve dignity – his struggle was their struggle, his eventual triumph mirrored their own. If you’re against Ali, what could you be for? Well, Superman perhaps. As a little kid, I owned a comic book that featured Superman boxing Muhammad Ali in front of aliens. And if I remember correctly, Ali was winning.

Today, no one would find it strange to mention Martin Luther King and Muhammad Ali in the same sentence when discussing the undeniably righteous cause of black America in the 1960’s. Ali is a meme deeply imbedded into our psyche. He lit the torch in Atlanta not as a former Olympian, but as a symbol of racial healing and reconciliation. We had wronged him, as we had wronged a whole people, and his presence was demonstrative of a New South, a New America, the fire symbolized a journey completed. It was powerful, it was uplifting, and it was…wrong. Plainly wrong. Not the very real struggle of black equality during Ali’s lifetime, mind you, but the pervasive notion that Ali is its best or even a passable representative.

Consider the name. The original Cassius Clay was actually a famous 19th century abolitionist, a namesake passed to Ali through his father. The 19th century Cassius Clay was also a fighter: a militant anti-slaver who bravely lived and agitated in the heart of pro-slavery Kentucky where he ran an abolitionist paper known as True American. He survived multiple assassination attempts, took a half dozen serious mob beatings, and was one of Abraham Lincoln’s most trusted friends, refusing to accept a major general position until Lincoln signed the emancipation proclamation. That’s Cassius Clay. Ali, upon his conversion to the Nation of Islam, changed what he called “his slave name” – Cassius Clay – to Muhammad Ali. Taking a name from the only other culture in the world whose black African slave trade exceeded that of Europe. This fundamental and willful ignorance would color much of Ali’s early adult life.

Ali officially fell into the web of the Nation of Islam in 1964 and they provided his marching orders for the next decade. Far from being a racial unifier, Ali consistently preached segregation and separation of the races. Miscegeny was as distasteful to the Black Muslims as it was to a Southern cracker or a Boston Southy. Whites were “the devil.” The Honorable Elijah Muhammad was God’s living prophet and he taught that the black man was the original man and that an evil scientist named Yakub had created whites who then overthrew their rightful overlords and proceeded to erase all evidence of their advanced civilization. That the Living Prophet was also raping/coercing every woman in the NOI he could get his hands on (including an incestuous pregnancy with his daughter) was reasonably troubling evidence against his divinity, but c’est las vie. Ali was under his thrall and his advocacy recruited thousands into the Nation Of Islam.

That part of his life – a significant part of his life – is glossed over considerably in all modern portrayals of Ali. Indeed, if depicted at all, the NOI is portrayed as a sidenote or possibly even a legitimate response to white oppression and systematic disenfranchisement. Dozens of his public statements espousing race hate, denigrating non-NOI blacks, and preaching the total irreconciliability of the races have been bleached from the record like bones on an ancient caravan route. I don’t think Ali was a particularly hateful person deep in his heart, but he was easily led and easily manipulated – generally not the traits one looks for in their heroes.

Similarly, his opposition to serving in the military and to the war in Vietnam is portrayed as a principled stand against a bad war; Ali a symbol of courage and resistance. Whatever your thoughts on Vietnam – the why is as important as the what. As a conscientious objector his rationale was a religious one – or more bluntly, an objection stemming from a half-baked race cult led by a madman – and it came on strict marching orders from Elijah Muhammad. It was not principled, it was not considered, it was not terribly brave. Unless you’re impressed by a marionette on a string. It’s doubtful that anyone would wax poetic if Tom Brady rejected service in Iraq because of his profound belief in the principles of the Aryan Brotherhood. I can hear him now,”I ain’t got not quarrel with them Iraqis, ain’t none of them ever called me Honky.” Although it would be funny if they did.

But Ali, we are told, was an inspiration to black people. All of them. Like some monolith. When Ernie Terrell and Floyd Patterson refused to call Ali by his NOI name – and most black Americans thought that the NOI was completely insane – he purposefully punished them in the ring, not finishing them when they were in trouble so that he could continue to cut them up. Ali taunted Terrell after every punch late in the fight: “What’s my name now, Uncle Tom?” Any black man who didn’t follow the Nation was an Uncle Tom and completely inauthentic.

Ali’s dealings with Joe Frazier were also interesting. Frazier was born in absolute poverty in rural South Carolina, where he picked cotton in searing heat and endured racism and petty indignities that Ali’s largely middle class youth never saw. He fled to Philadelphia and fought his way up – as an overachieving 5-11 heavyweight. When Ali was suspended for refusing service, Frazier gave Ali financial assistance. Upon reinstatement, Ali began to deride and mock Frazier as “the gorilla”, “the black monkey”, and “dark black and ugly” while Ali always made a point of contrasting himself – fair and light-skinned – as “pretty.” I won’t spell out the bitter hypocrisy here. Frazier never forgave him. Proving that no act of charity goes unrewarded.

You can argue that Ali’s beloved status is a function of his heartbreaking Parkinson’s disease, his modification of his views over time, or even the incredible guts and skill that he showed in the ring and, though all undeniably true, that’s sidestepping the issue. Today, Ali is held up as an American icon with vast social significance to anyone who is not a Strom Thurmond devotee; and the courage he is said to possess has nothing to do with his disease or his boxing acumen. He is said to possess a deep moral courage, though how this has ever been substantively demonstrated is a mystery. He left the NOI for Sunni Islam in 1975 – the same time as the group’s schisming allowed it, several years after they’d assassinated Malcolm X and long after Elijah’s horrific corruption had been revealed. His historical iconization mocks real black achievement and Ali the symbol, not the man, represents the worst face of the sports media’s smugly insistent, equally ignorant, false social conscience.

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33 Responses

  1. TaylorTRoom said:

    February 17th, 2008 at 4:44 am

    I’m 44, and remember Ali as a significant sporting figure. In a blue-collar army neighborhood on-post, he was no positive icon. In fact, he was demonized and actively rooted against. I think his subsequent lionization is due to him becoming a champion again with most of America actively rooting against him.

    In my experience, this was the case. This was one of my first tests of critical reasoning. I had to admit that he really may have been”the greatest”. Although I never adopted him as a role model outside the ring, I did have to reject my cross-spectrum negative characterization of him.

    His current iconic status may be due to the pendulum swinging too far the other way. He was a hell of a fighter. I always appreciated his ability to be vicious in the ring (and he was; you need to see the footage of the British heavyweight he popped in the head as he was falling to the mat, already unconscious), but “normal” outside; something Tyson never accomplished.

  2. George Chuvalo said:

    February 17th, 2008 at 5:23 am

    Wow.That hits harder than he did.
    Nice essay

  3. Soldier of Orange said:

    February 17th, 2008 at 5:24 am

    Brilliant analysis.

  4. Uncle Teardrop said:

    February 17th, 2008 at 9:16 am

    I find it interesting that whenever a story about the courage of Jackie Robinson pops up, there is a blantant omission of his politcs. Why is Ali’s viewpoint relevant while the man that broke the color barrier in our national pasttime is not?

  5. Objective Aggie said:

    February 17th, 2008 at 10:24 am

    Bloody brilliant. It’s really a shame that no one will publish that.

  6. Horn Brain said:

    February 17th, 2008 at 10:46 am

    Great piece. Loved it, and learned from it.

  7. Crown & Coke said:

    February 17th, 2008 at 11:05 am

    I really enjoyed/appreciate the perspective. I’m in my early 20’s and have been reared to blindly accept the inclusion of Ali within the pantheon of American courage.

    I had no idea how shameful the media portrayals of both Frazier and Ted Williams truly were. Thanks again for the analysis.

  8. Doperbo said:

    February 17th, 2008 at 11:26 am

    Very well done.

    I also now suspect my hatred of Skandar Akbar and The Iron Sheik may have been lacking in substantive clarity. I feel used.

  9. Catfish said:

    February 17th, 2008 at 11:56 am

    I wish somebody in the “real media” would have the guts to print something like this. I nearly vomited when he lit the Olympic Torch

  10. Musburger said:

    February 17th, 2008 at 12:05 pm

    Excellent piece as usual.

  11. srr50 said:

    February 17th, 2008 at 12:31 pm

    Icons, by rule cannot be flesh and blood, or else they are useless as icons.

    I never considered Ali a hero or a villian. He was an outstanding fighter who was like any other American Icon — a mirror that reflected back to the viewer whatever they wanted to see.

    As a child of the 60’s I am convinced that the turbulent times demanded that the icons be on the extremes. Muhammed Ali — Eugene “Bull Conner.

    Malcolm X — George Wallace.

    It was almost as if the two polar opposites had to scream for our attention before any kind of real consensus could be reached. Martin Luther King tried to be the voice of reason, and was assasinated for his trouble.

    I have always thought that 1968 was the culmination of all the violent and angry extremes that were percolating in America. It was a horrific year, and it effected my generation down to its core. We are still dealing with the ramifications of that time as my generation slowly leaves the positions of power on the national stage.

  12. CrazyJoeDavola said:

    February 17th, 2008 at 2:10 pm

    “Misogyny was as distasteful to the Black Muslims as it was to a Southern cracker or a Boston Southy.”

    I think you meant “miscegeny” (or rather, miscegenation). Those groups were/are kinda OK with misogyny.

    Copy editing aside, I appreciate the iconoclasm.

    On a related point, I do believe that the world will be a better place when the fucking Baby Boomers shuffle off their mortal coils already. No offense to individual members of their generation (that means you, srr50, you are a gentleman and a scholar).

    Never has a group of people congratulated itself so profoundly while actually not accomplishing all that much except utterly gorging on the cultural, economic, intellectual, spiritual and physical resources of the planet. They’ve developed and honed a mind-boggling blend of bottomless cynicism and utter credulity. We’ll be cleaning up their mess for a very long time.

    I will give them this: Their capacity for self-serving mythmaking rivals anything done by medieval Catholicism, 1930s Germany, and current Islamic fundamentalism.

  13. EyesOfTX said:

    February 17th, 2008 at 2:19 pm

    CJD – I am a baby boomer, and I fully agree with your assessment of the generation that has taken more and given back less than any generation in this country’s history.

  14. Soldier of Orange said:

    February 17th, 2008 at 2:37 pm

    Another boomer checking in to agree with CrazyJoe.

  15. Princeton Horn said:

    February 17th, 2008 at 5:18 pm

    It is possible one had to be there. Few athletes have combined his charisma, grace, and beauty. Both DiMaggio and Williams were brooding sorts, but Ali was an extravert and had a kind of ignorant eloquence that was very quick, clever, and acerbic.

    In a room filled with black superstars, including Bill Russell and Jim Brown, he outshone them like a diamond among dull paste.

    A great man, no. He was childlike and foolish. He submitted to authorities and was easily manipulated. Great athletes often are not great men. So what.

    One thing that made blacks love him was that most whites loathed him. And he told them where to put it.

  16. Parlin Hall said:

    February 17th, 2008 at 6:09 pm

    Nice piece–the reason the Internet exists, for my money. Can you imagine seeing something critical of Ali on ESPN?

    My old man (may he rest in piece) continued to refer to him as
    “Cassius Clay” well into the Reagan administration.

  17. Spawn of Cthulhu said:

    February 17th, 2008 at 6:21 pm

    Don’t know if you’ve seen this blog yet, but Ali is probably going to be there.

    http://stuffwhitepeoplelike.wordpress.com/

  18. caradoc said:

    February 17th, 2008 at 8:46 pm

    Cassius Clay was a hero of the counterculture. He took on the establishment and came out on top. He was beat down and came back. I resent that he is now revered by people who would have reviled him in his time.

    Hard as this must be to imagine by recent generations of self indulgent conformists, there was a sizable segment of the baby boomer generation that took a different path. It wasn’t just drugs, sex, and rock & roll. We also gave you environmentalism, racial integration, and cybernetics. Ali was our hero and always will be.

  19. SizzleChest said:

    February 18th, 2008 at 7:29 am

    Doperbo,
    Whither Abdullah the Butcher?

  20. EyesOfTX said:

    February 18th, 2008 at 8:23 am

    “We also gave you environmentalism, racial integration, and cybernetics.”

    Really? You sure about that?

    Rosa Parks was a baby boomer? That’d be news to her, as it would to MLK, Thurgood Marshall and Lyndon Johnson.

    The environmental movement as we know it today came into fruition in the late 1960s, when the oldest baby boomer was 23. The Endangered Species Act and Clean Water Act were passed during the Nixon Administration. I doubt any member of congress or key advisor to Milhouse qualified as baby boomers.

    Per Wikipedia, “Contemporary cybernetics began as an interdisciplinary study connecting the fields of control systems, electrical network theory, mechanical engineering, logic modeling, evolutionary biology and neuroscience in the 1940s.” The first baby boomer was born in 1946.

    A completely unjustifiable narcisissm is a very common malady among baby boomers.

  21. IntheHallsofOldUT said:

    February 18th, 2008 at 8:29 am

    “That part of his life – a significant part of his life – is glossed over considerably in all modern portrayals of Ali.”

    Except in the 2001 movie “Ali,” where Muhammad Ali winds up looking like a punch-drunk jerk and all-around cult-moron? Except for that modern portrayal?

  22. PatronSaint said:

    February 18th, 2008 at 8:54 am

    You mention that Williams is getting his due, but DiMaggio is still viewed as an iconic all-American.

    I’m a 20-something, and I’ll say that I have different opinion of DiMaggio. It seems to me that it is common in the newsworld today that DiMaggio was a Nixon-esque asshole who trusted no one around him and ended friendships as soon as anyone had the gall to ask him if he’d “autograph a baseball for my son.” If nothing else, he is certainly not viewed with “a positive feeling.”

    It seems that history is starting to move back to the center on both of these guys — which, although not very pertinent to the point of your article — seems interesting given history’s tendency to reduce every figure to two or three words.

  23. NBMisha said:

    February 18th, 2008 at 11:36 am

    Damn, I liked my iconic Ali. I wouldn’t argue against your depiction at all.

    On the other hand, images do count, such as your example comic book cover. I was a middle school kid during the war, and Cassius/Ali’s draft issue. I lived on a military base and at that point we were all still pro war. But here Ali said “I ain’t got nuthin’ against no Viet Cong”. Of course I was ignorant to all the NOI matriculation you reference, but in that sentence Ali spoke the truth to this particular kid. I became a sceptic.

    Further, I thought, selfish little white trash I was, that I just plain wouldn’t risk my world champ status with draft dodging. Just wouldn’t. Now, you say his motivations were not all that, and I don’t argue against it. Just saying, the impact on me was as real anyway. Being against the war was something “worth” giving things up for, for some people. I had never considered that up to that point.

    Besides his athletic achievements, his impact on society was hardly all or mostly bad. No doubt this is also part of his lingering image. Again, not to disparage any of your points.

    I still like my iconic Ali. Sort of like, would you still like Shakespeare if others actually wrote those plays. I’d kinda like the idea of Shakespeare.

  24. WhoooTex said:

    February 18th, 2008 at 5:49 pm

    Astonishingly incisive. Put into words something I’ve felt for a long time but been unable to articulate. Passed this along to all of my friends, liberal or conservative, as it should at least be deeply though-provoking whether the reader agrees or not.

    Scip, at the risk of sounding like a fanboy, I am a huge admirer of your writing and can’t imagine why someone would spend 50 cents a day to read Kirk Bohls or Mike Lupica when your stuff’s available for free. It is free, right? I’m not paying if it’s not and I take back the nice things I said if I like owe you a check or something now that I’ve read this. You’re not getting dime one from me!

  25. An Honest Piece on Sports Icons « Last Row said:

    February 18th, 2008 at 10:14 pm

    [...] An Honest Piece on Sports Icons Published February 19, 2008 Entertainment , History , Politics , Sports Tags: Athletes, Boxing, Heavyweight Boxing, Joe DiMaggio, Media, Michael Jordan, Muhammad Ali, Opinion, Ted Williams Stumbled across this piece from a writer over at our friends at Barking Carnival, “False Icons In Sport”. [...]

  26. Scipio Tex said:

    February 19th, 2008 at 2:35 pm

    Stuff White People Like is my favorite new site. Thanks for that.

  27. billw said:

    February 19th, 2008 at 8:42 pm

    Great article! Contrary to how many “journalists” try to portray Ali as unpopular with whites, he was hugely popular with most of the people in his era. I for one was not one of them. I don’t like rigged fights as was done against Sonny Liston. Liston took a dive from a punch that has been shown on film to never have landed. Liston was truly as good as we all thought that Tyson was going to be. Joe Frazier gave him Parkinson’s from the Thriller in Manila. Ali “won” the fight, but who was in the hospital with his head swollen twice its normal size after the fight? That would be Ali. Then when he beat George Foreman he ducked him to keep from losing. Rope a dope was only going to work once.

  28. bad boomer said:

    February 19th, 2008 at 9:22 pm

    caradoc is the only lucid poster here.
    Fuck all you boomer bashers and limp wristed boomer self bashers.

    Our parents may have been the greatest generation during the big war, but afterwards they installed a suffocating socially stagnant culture in te 50’s.

    what was that caradoc said? something about “recent generations of self indulgent conformists?” You little pricks dont want to back there. You wont like it.

    Elvis, Kerouac, Bruce and Ali, et al, were our tickets out of it. It wasnt all about who Ali really was. It was about his impertinents, irreverence, his disdain for the status quo “authority.” Something the creators of this blogsite should appreciate, Tex included.

    Reading all these corn cob posts makes me want to think maybe this generation hasnt come that far. NOooooooo……!

  29. Sasha_Is_A_Longhorn_Dog said:

    February 28th, 2008 at 8:26 am

    I’ve been reading the articles on this site for the past few weeks and I have been more impressed with each passing day. This article, in particular, was very well written. It is nice to get a different perspective on historical figures than the one I have been taught in school and by society (as I am in my mid-20s).

    Keep up the good work! I look forward to reading more!

  30. marshall stack said:

    March 6th, 2008 at 11:39 am

    You’d have a point with your revisionist history if Ali happened in a vacuum. Your opinion and amen choir are not fully appreciating the hell being caught by blacks during this time in this country. You are quick to point out all the negative aspects of the NOI, but you again fail to paint an acurate picture of the conditions that helped create a need for a redemptive organization like the NOI.

    The premise of this article wrong on so many fronts and all of it stems from your lack of understanding or full appreciation of the historic and present hell black folks were catching during and before Ali’s time period.

    Add to that an unpopular war and a draft, then you can understand and maybe even appreciate how Ali became such a folk hero.

    To many of the voiceless, his defiant speech and rhetoric was redemptive. To many of the powerless, his ass kicking dominance was a source of pride. Ali was not who you or established white america pre approved as an exceptable hero for blacks. That in itself was empowering.

    Again, your mini book report on the NOI and Islam movement in america at that time with out clearly pointing out the sicking conditions that created these movements is intellectually dishonest.

    It’s real easy to sit back and pass judgement and pick apart a persons life when you cannot even fathom what it would be like to exist under the dehumanizing conditions of racism, segragration, Jim Crow, lynchings, fear, and intimidation with no recourse through the law for justice.

    What was the real reason for this article other than you felt like regurgitating some crap you read in book you got from the right wing weekly reader.

  31. Sal the Stockbroker said:

    March 6th, 2008 at 11:54 am

    Easy there Marshall. Scipio is blacker than Wesley Snipes.

  32. Scipio Tex said:

    April 16th, 2009 at 10:03 am

    Looks like HBO has decided to revisit this topic and they’re not “a right wing weekly reader.”

  33. George Patton said:

    April 23rd, 2009 at 10:27 pm

    “What was the real reason for this article other than you felt like regurgitating some crap you read in book you got from the right wing weekly reader.” — Marshall Stack

    Scip’s a right wing nut and military man. Ted Williams was a right wing nut and ace fighter pilot. Ali refused to serve. End of story.

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    SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: ””, url: ”” });

  • admin commented on the blog post Why Wildcat fans should be supporting the Gators on Thursday   8 hours, 28 minutes ago

    Awesome stuff. Really looking forward to seeing how you and the Baylor guys do. Big expectations, small pedigrees. Rooting for our Big 12 brethren.

    And I have always felt the Olive Garden bottomless bowl of salad and bread sticks were very underrated for a college student.

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  • Sailor Ripley commented on the blog post New Recruiting Feature on March to March: Weekly Whispers   9 hours, 20 minutes ago

    Cool. Whither Cory Joseph?

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  • Luke wrote a new blog post: Why Wildcat fans should be supporting the Gators on Thursday   9 hours, 54 minutes ago

    I am still afraid of Syracuse and that zone, but that’s still just a potential matchup that seems a long way away.

    We’ll have to deal with three days between games next week, so there will be plenty of time to analyze that matchup if both teams are still alive next week. For now, let’s focus

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  • Kevin Berger wrote a new blog post: New Recruiting Feature on March to March: Weekly Whispers   9 hours, 57 minutes ago

    March to March is excited to announce the addition of a new weekly feature called Weekly Whispers from a source with intimate knowledge of the college basketball recruiting landscape and specifically the AAU circuit. The information will be nationwide and not school specific.

    In an effort to maintain anonymity, our source will go

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  • jc25 commented on the blog post Bracket Anaylysis: Monsters of the Midwest   10 hours, 2 minutes ago

    Good write-up. I almost had this one going chalk but went the following directions:

    1. San Diego St over Tennessee. Granted, I’ve never seen SDSU play, but from what I hear, they’re pretty well coached and always manage to sneak into the tourney. Tennessee, without Tyler Smith, is simply not that talented. Oh sure, they can

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  • SizzleChest commented on the blog post Beat the Barkers NCAA Tourney Bracket   10 hours, 29 minutes ago

    Did someone say table dance?

  • dick commented on the blog post Beat the Barkers NCAA Tourney Bracket   10 hours, 29 minutes ago

    Utah St is decent, ags had one impressive win at 10 seed Mizzou this year. That being said, Ags will cover that.

    You can win a 2011 Infiniti M if your bracket is the best one in the galaxy. My BC tote bag would look sharp in that car.

  • Scipio Tex commented on the blog post All Signs Point to March Madness Expanding to 96 Teams   10 hours, 58 minutes ago

    Horrendous idea.

  • RRR wrote a new blog post: NIT Preview – Seton Hall   11 hours, 2 minutes ago

    Sorry for the hiatus. It started with disgust as I watched us mail in the conference finale in Boulder.  I didn’t have anything to say about that game.  Then work got in the way and I missed the redemption game in the first round of the conference tournament.  The Kansas game, too.  I’m a rotten fan.

    But

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  • dick commented on the blog post All Signs Point to March Madness Expanding to 96 Teams   11 hours, 2 minutes ago

    Our goal for next year will be to make it to the 2nd round of the tournament.

  • Texoz commented on the blog post All Signs Point to March Madness Expanding to 96 Teams   11 hours, 19 minutes ago

    Why stop at 96? Let’s bump it up to 192.

    Bigger is not always better, says the midget hooker.

  • Art Vandelay commented on the blog post As if we didn’t already like Traylon Shead enough…   11 hours, 20 minutes ago

    Traylon turns to Rick and says, Texas
    Rick says what?
    Traylon says, Texas
    Rick says what?

    Perry says “I’ve got to get out of here”

  • admin commented on the blog post All Signs Point to March Madness Expanding to 96 Teams   11 hours, 25 minutes ago

    When asked to comment, Rick Barnes said “Phew”.

  • Sailor Ripley commented on the blog post All Signs Point to March Madness Expanding to 96 Teams   11 hours, 25 minutes ago

    When asked for to comment, Rick Barnes said “Phew”.

  • dick commented on the blog post All Signs Point to March Madness Expanding to 96 Teams   11 hours, 25 minutes ago

    i hate this idea

  • srr50 wrote a new blog post: All Signs Point to March Madness Expanding to 96 Teams   11 hours, 53 minutes ago

    Perhaps as soon as next year. The NCAA has an “opt out” clause in its $6 Billion contract with CBS this summer and they have already asked for a Request For Proposal from any and all networks interested.

    The current contract with CBS is backloaded — the network owes the NCAA $2.3 Billion over the next

  • Patrick Bateman commented on the blog post Bush Paves the Way for Henderson?   11 hours, 53 minutes ago

    Big Booty Ho’s!

    BigDuke,

    You, as usual, are correct about the ACT score. However, that he decided to continue with his commitment to USC this late in the process and this close to an anticipated NCAA ruling is probably the bigger story. He had an out and still decided on USC. Just wondering aloud