AP/David J. Phillip

I’m talking about the batons that were dropped by both the U.S. Men’s
and Women’s Relay Teams. What is wrong with these people??! This is
the history of U.S. relay teams in the Olympics - it’s been done before
and it surely will be done again.

Why? Attitude. Not just the ability to work together - they have the
ability. Hard work is a given. It’s the commitment to get the job
done as a team - this is what they lack. The rule is simple, don’t let
the baton go until it is taken from your hand. No matter what, no
matter how difficult, no matter what strange position the other hand is
in, no matter what - don’t let the baton go until it’s taken from you.

In the Men’s 4×100 meter relay, Tyson Gay dropped the baton which he
never had. Look, it doesn’t take a brain surgeon to figure out that you
put the baton in your right hand to pass on the left side to an open
hand. Davis Patton came in fast on the wrong side and tried to reach
the baton to Tyson’s open hand. But Tyson’s hand was open and turned
away from Patton. Two mistakes and the baton is dropped.

The Women’s team in the same relay suffered the same fate. Incredible.
Lauryn Williams failed to get the baton, ran off and left it, then went back
and picked it up as she then ran to the finish line. She had
been involved in a baton drop in Athens and she said this time, no
matter what, she had to cross the line with the baton. My take, she
already had been badly burned by Jamaican Veronica Campbell and took
off a little early trying to get the edge. She ran away from the
exchange too soon, causing the baton to drop on the track.

The U.S. Women’s Team hadn’t failed to miss the finals since 1948 - and
the Men’s Team haven’t failed to miss the finals since 1988. Both
dropped batons happened on the third leg. What can you say? Nothing
except that for Olympic relay teams they both looked very sloppy.

A Good Friend of the NFL is Gone.

Gene Upshaw, the NFL Players Association union leader, passed away only
days after being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer.

Gene’s entire life was dedicated to the NFL. First, his entire 15-year
playing career was spent as an Oakland Raider, where he played in two
Super Bowls and seven Pro Bowls. He went on to spend more than 25 years
as head of the players union.

He tenure as union leader was not without criticism. He was once
quoted as saying, “Why should I help the retired players, they don’t
pay my salary, the active players do that.” And the salary he was
talking about was close to $3 mil per year.

Upshaw made great strides for the active players, getting them the free
agency deal and the salary cap. But what was always lagging behind was
improved benefits for the retired players, ie. pension benefits along
with benefits for the disabled. As an NFL retired player, I’m more
aware of the improvements needed to help a great number of retired and
disabled players. Until just this year, you had to be blind, crippled
and confined to a bed or wheelchair to get disability benefits from the
NFL. Players would plead their cases, stating that Social Security
recognized them as being disabled and so should the NFL. But the union
would not budge and went so far as to say that even if Social Security
accepted your disability claims, they would not.

Finally this year a “Plan B” was adopted which reversed those rulings.
If Social Security was paying you disability benefits, it then became
automatic for the NFL to do the same. To the many disabled former
players out there this was great, albeit late, news.

NFL players have a unique camaraderie and we are saddened and shocked
by the sudden death of one of our own. My sincere condolences go out
to his wife, Terri, and their three sons.

Hey, finally, football is in the air. Soon, the weather will change
too. Then we’ll be able to once again say “It’s football weather.”
Translated that usually means cool, crisp and sometimes damp.

I’m tired of baseball. The sports news on TV spends the whole newscast
trying to give an update on the 50 games played yesterday. Enough!
It’s overkill. That’s probably one reason I don’t like baseball - too
many games and too much information. Each baseball team plays over 100
games and then the newscasters try to give us an update on each team,
every day - wow - see what I mean.

The NFL teams combined barely play over 100 games in an entire
season. That gives us an opportunity to take it all in. We can spend
all week thinking about each game, talking the stats and absorbing all
the information about each team.

One thing I haven’t quite gotten used to is the Monday Night Football
change over. It’s different now, and I don’t mean that in a positive
way. ABC did a great job for over 25 years on Monday nights. It’s not
just the announcers, altho’ they’re tops. It was the way they shot the
games. The close-ups were excellent. They always seemed to be in the
right place at the right time.

In all areas they made better usage of the cameras than ESPN does now.
ESPN uses too many overhead wide shots. Very uncreative. The whole
atmosphere of Monday night has changed - but it’s better than Monday
thru Sunday baseball! Thursday night games — don’t like them either.
They’re midweek, not the same as Monday when you need that jump-start
for the week.

The sounds, the grunts, the thuds, the cheers are all almost back.
Can’t wait!

It’s Tiger talk again. We just learned the complete story about
Tiger’s knee, and it’s not pretty. No, it’s serious - no faking, no
rumors. He needs a complete overhaul on his knee. It’s strange to see
that a golfer needs knee surgery since it’s not a contact sport. But,
according to Tiger’s management company, that’s exactly the case. They
put out a release that said Tiger hurt his knee while jogging near his
Orlando home. Dude, that’s a trip, no pun intended. That just goes to
show that you can do something as simple as stepping off a curb the
wrong way and next thing you know it could possibly end your career.

I’m sure Tiger has the best doctors, but I think he should see the
orthopedic surgeons who specialize in football injuries. They’ve seen
more of these types of injuries and really know which surgery will give
him the best result. This is a football-type injury, not an injury you
see in golf.

All the sports writers are talking about how badly Tiger’s star quality
will be missed on the tour and how much money the networks will lose.
Trust me, this is not on Tiger’s mind. First at the top of his list -
stop the pain - that’s tops on Tiger’s list. Next he’s asking, “Do I
have to change my swing to accommodate an injured knee? And, “if I have
to, I will”, is his answer. Tiger’s thinking only allows him to do
whatever it takes to play and win.

I’m sure he made some swing changes along the way during the Open
against Rocco. The pain was causing him to slice his drives when he
really went after it. Eventually he worked something out to take that
18th hole drive 304 yards down the middle to birdie the hole and win the
tournament. Golf is a game of adjustments. All golfers know this,
that’s why they are constantly working on their swing - including
Tiger. He changed coaches, clubs, and balls to try to find a swing
that consistently works.

Now, once again, the changes begin again. The goal? Big swing, no
pain. That’s what he’ll be looking for. Knowing Tiger, I’m sure he’ll
find it when the time comes.

Yeah, I’m talking about Tiger Woods. What more can you say about the man, the athlete the warrior with the mind of a tiger. Always stalking and watching you. Make a mistake and you’re toast. Play your heart out, and you’re still toast.

If you weren’t watching the Open over the weekend, whether you’re a golfer or not, by Sunday night you were watching highlights on the news with the same intensity as a prime time cliffhanger. Tiger was battling himself first, Rocco Mediate second. Rocco wasn’t really a factor in Tiger’s game, more significant was the battle Tiger was
having playing thru the pain caused by his bad knee.

In the overall picture, it didn’t matter who Tiger was tied with - in this case it just happened to be Rocco - the story was that Tiger battled thru every hole, and came from behind to force an 18-hole playoff today. Rocco’s presence definitely made it a better competition for the television audience. Rocco also gave the bias TV commentators something to build their stupid comments on, such as Johnny Miller supposedly quoting Jack Nicklaus when he said he wondered why other golfers, when they play with Tiger, open the doors for him to win. Is he kidding? It’s like Tiger doesn’t have to hit the ball or make the putts. I’d like to see Jack, even at his prime, play these courses at 7,600 yards - and they legalized the length of these courses to cool down Tiger and his long drives. I think Jack would have retired sooner.

Rocco was good, but the long course was too much for him. Tiger’s bad left knee caused him to hit a lot of tee shots to the right. The left leg is the pivot leg on the downswing, which puts a lot of pressure and pain on that knee. The kind of pain he played through we will probably never know because he’ll never complain or tell you. After receiving the cup Bob Costas asked Tiger if the knee was a factor. Tiger simply said he was “glad that it’s over”. That’s the most he complained. He said he’s shutting down for a while.

This was a good, no make that great win for Tiger - his 14th major. And what we saw was vintage Tiger with eagles, birdies, 300+ yard drives, miracle shots out of traps, and some heart-stopping putts. Tiger was Tiger in spite of his bad knee, the commentators and the gallery - all of whom seemed to favor Rocco. Go Tiger! You are the man.

Jason Taylor: Former Dolphin pro football player, no Super Bowl wins,
2nd place winner on Dancing with the Stars… What does all of this
mean? It means that Jason had better be careful - last week he was
still riding high on television but next week he may have to ride off
into the sunset. Why? Because he’s challenging Bill Parcells and
that’s not good!

Parcells is a powerful man in the NFL, much more powerful than Jason.
A few phone calls with negative information can forestall Jason’s
career, unless he decides to be a pro-dancer!
What you do from this point, Jason, and how you do it, is very
important to your future. Get your football career back on track and
in writing - then go dancing.

Me dancing next? I don’t think so.

Clint Eastwood says Spike Lee should shut his face. Spike Lee says
Eastwood is an angry old man. All of this over Spike’s comments about
Eastwood not casting any black actors in “Flags of Our Fathers”.

Eastwood says that black troops were assigned to munition companies and
didn’t take part in the flag raising moment which is the focus of his
film. Eastwood says that including black actors in that moment would
not be inaccurate. He says about Lee, “This guy has lost his mind. A
guy like him should shut his face.”

Spike retorted by saying, “First of all, the man is not my father and
we’re not on a plantation either. He sounds like an angry old man
right there.”

Spike goes on to say that he’s a student of history and he knows the
history of Hollywood and its omission of the one million African
American men and women took part in World War II. That, however, does
not mean that they took part in the flag-raising moment at Iwo Jima,
which, I presume, is Clint’s point.

Clint mentioned that when he made “Bird” in 1988, the cast was 90%
black because that was historically correct. Even then, Clint says
that his production was criticized by Spike Lee, who complained why
would a white guy be making that picture? Clint’s reason? Because I
was the only one who made it. Spike could’ve made the picture, but he
didn’t.

Eastwood’s next film is about Nelson Mandela. Entitled “The Human
Factor”, it tells the story of Mandela’s fight against apartheid in
South Africa. Vowing to stay true to the story, Clint said, “I’m not
going to make Mandela a white guy.”

In an AOL poll out this weekend, the question was asked whose camp are
you in, Clint’s or Spike’s. When I last checked, 91% of the people
voting are in Clint’s camp. Whatever that means, there it is.

Big Brown, the Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes winner is being offered fifty million bucks to perform stud service at Three Chimneys Farm in Midway, Kentucky. Dude! Just think how much Wilt Chamberlain could have made with his self-proclaimed stud service to thousands of women. Wow! Too much to add up - he’d have been a cazillionaire or more.

Also, let’s not forget the Bears linebacker, Lance Briggs, who allegedly has fathered three kids with three different women in two years. And he’s still young with plenty of time for more.

Put it in a bottle and sell it, Dude. You, too, may get an offer of stud service.

Hollywood’s gone completely baby crazy, married or not. “I don’t want to get married, but let’s have a baby” appears to be the Hollywood pitch, and mostly it’s coming from women.
I don’t want to name names, but they (and you) all know who they are. They want walking, talking, peeing, pooping, dolls. Forget about motherhood - most pay someone else to handle those responsibilities. They want to dress up and show off their little human toys, then hand them back to the nanny.

Hey, remember back in the day when getting pregnant out of wedlock was a big no-no? It was down right bad, not acceptable at all. Hollywood has totally reversed that idea. They make the pregnancy announcement - but won’t name the father. “It was a hit and run thing and I didn’t get the license number!”

At the Cannes Film Festival they screened the documentary, “Tyson”. At
the end Mike Tyson was given a long standing ovation by the viewers.
I’m not at all surprised. I’ve long experienced the fans in Europe and
once you have worked hard to elevate yourself from an “also ran” they
will always show their respect for your celebrity status. The
acknowledgment is there without judgment. In this case, they love Mike
as a heavyweight champ of the world - at one time feared by all.
However long ago it was, it was. They will always remember and they
will always show their admiration.

This is one big difference from the way Americans treat celebrities.
Americans put the celeb on a pedestal, then they start looking for the
next star they can use to knock the present star off their pedestal.
In America, no matter whether you’re a sports star or a movie star, your
only as good as your last slam dunk, touchdown, or hit movie.

Musicians go to Europe, especially jazz musicians. When the audience
cools in America, musicians have known for a long time that they’ll
have a warm audience waiting in Europe along with an opportunity to
continue exploring their creativity. They know they aren’t controlled
there by “what’s new” and “what’s in”. The appreciation level is so
much higher.

I remember when we lived in Rome and went to see the Ink Spots only a
few years ago. They are long forgotten here but drew standing room
only crowds at a huge venue in Rome. Years ago Marvin Gaye went to
Europe to renew himself and came back stronger than ever with so many
great hits.

What am I saying? In the U.S., those who drive a Ford strive to drive a
Mercedes. Those who drive a Mercedes, want a Rolls - and those who
drive a Rolls usually feel that the Rolls makes them important and they
can buy anything. Sometimes I think the values are placed on the wrong
thing . It should not be the result of the hard work, but respect the
hard work itself. Respect the bumps and bruises it took to get there.
Respect can never be taken away after all the glitz and glamour is gone.

The NFL is in meetings concerning the rules and regulations of the
upcoming season. I have a couple of ideas that I think they should
seriously consider:

First, I’m a former Marine, did my duty, served my country, love the
flag and certainly will fight for what it stands for. Now, having said
that, let me relate my unyielding patriotism to this country and talk
about some football.

Before a game, the locker room is full of anxious
players ready to do battle, and after hearing a “Knute Rockne” speech
by an inspirational coach, they run outside ready to take on the enemy.
Then suddenly we stop, gear ourselves down a notch, and sing the Star
Spangled Banner. I’m most definitely okay with the anthem, but wonder
why it needs to be played at this time? Why not play it after the
players are finished warming up? It’s damn hard to regain that high
energy you had when you first ran onto the field from the locker room.

Second, football is supposed to be a contact sport. The 5-yard contact
rule should be extended to 10 yards. The rule says you can’t bump or
touch a receiver after he goes past 5 yards, but I say make it 10 yards
and give the pass defender an even chance. When I played, you could
bump the receiver all over the field prior to the ball being thrown.
Once the ball was in the air, you couldn’t touch him. There was an
even chance between the receiver and the defender. This no-bump rule
strongly favors the receiver, so 10 yards makes it more interesting.