Contrary to the Irish-Chicagoan stereotype, I don’t particularly care for green beer or corned beef sandwiches on St. Patrick’s Day weekend.
But like many of my Irish friends, I do like sharing a half-baked opinion or two on the sports world, even at the risk of someone telling me what I’m allowed to say on the hallowed ground of the Sunday sports page.
NFL intrudes on another special day
Having already intruded on Christmas and Black Friday, the NFL is now considering scheduling games on another revered day of celebration — Blackout Wednesday. Naturally, the NFL will be referring to it as “Thanksgiving Eve” to be politically correct.
“As Commissioner (Roger) Goodell has said, Thanksgiving and NFL football have become synonymous, and given the continued growth of fan interest around our games on Thanksgiving and Black Friday, looking for additional opportunities tied to this special holiday is exciting for us to explore,” the league said in a statement.
More Top Picks What Is Irlen Syndrome And How Is It Different From Dyslexia
Blackout Wednesday is the time-honored day before Thanksgiving on which college students return home and binge drink with their old friends from high school. It has been a tradition since the 1970s at least. Needless to say, the NFL doesn’t need another day to televise games, and Gen Z college kids deserve the right to embellish their college careers without football as a distraction.
Rethinking the Big Ten Tournament
Small crowds and subpar basketball were the norm for the first three days of the Big Ten Tournament at the United Center, where 14 of the 18 teams played to try to advance to the quarterfinals. The top four received triple byes until Friday.
If the Big Ten insists that every bottom-feeling team deserves a shot at the tournament title, maybe let those 14 battle for four quarterfinal spots in a smaller setting on a designated campus, then send the winners to the quarterfinals in Chicago, Indianapolis or another city. The Big Ten would retain its cherished TV content but avoid the near-empty pro stadiums for three days.
Another option: Make it a real Big Ten Tournament and only invite the top 10 teams.
Chicago’s very own
Michigan guard Nimari Burnett wanted to cry on the bus ride to the United Center on Friday.
“I’m like, what am I crying for? I’ve got a game to play,” Burnett told me after Michigan’s quarterfinal win over Ohio State. “It’s joyful to be here, and brings back so many memories.”
It was almost nine years ago that Burnett, then a freshman at Morgan Park, led the Mustangs to a win over Fenwick in the Class 3A title game in Peoria, hitting six three-pointers in a 24-point night. Burnett took over the Morgan Park offense, which was without All-Stater Ayo Dosunmu, who suffered a broken foot in the Mustangs’ semifinal win.
Dosunmu, who called the UC home for 4½ years before being traded last month to the Minnesota Timberwolves, recently DM’d Burnett on Senior Night in Ann Arbor, Mich. “He’s my brother from another mother,” Burnett said.
The Wolverines beat Wisconsin on Saturday to earn a trip to the title game and could be back in two weeks as the No. 1 seed in the Midwest Region.
Orange Krushed
Illinois coach Brad Underwood enters the NCAA Tournament with another target on his back after the Illini blew a 15-point lead in their quarterfinal loss to Wisconsin in the Big Ten Tournament quarterfinals.
After the loss, one Illini grad wrote to ask: “Are we forever stuck with Underwood — a coach who has mastered lifetime tenure by winning so consistently when it doesn’t matter and losing so consistently when it does? Good opposing coaches pants him every time (Loyola, of course, being a particularly painful example). He is an awful coach by any objective definition, but a great recruiter. The combination of great talent and bad coaching creates nothing more than a Big Tease. It’s so frustrating that I’ve decided to try averting my eyes as long as he’s in charge. I’ve already done enough damage to my heart.”
At least you still have your liver.
Fighting back
Kudos to former NFL players Ryan Clark and Kenny Bell for speaking out against the White House using highlights of crunching hits they made as players in social media posts promoting the U.S. bombing in the Middle East.
On “The Pivot” podcast, Clark called it “disgusting and despicable.” And in an interview with the Washington Post, Bell added: “For (my) play to be associated with bombing human beings makes me sick. I don’t want anything to do with images like that.” Bell also criticized NFL honchos for not objecting to the video: “When people see you just kissing the ring of this administration, the people responsible for the success of these organizations, the players, feel betrayed.”
Well said.
Pearls of wisdom?
Former Auburn coach-turned-analyst Bruce Pearl made a fool of himself recently by saying then-unbeaten Miami (Ohio) needed to win the MAC Tournament to earn an NCAA bid. “Because as an at-large, they are not one of the best teams in the country,” he claimed.
Pearl then did an about-face after Miami’s loss to UMass in their opening game of the MAC Tournament. “In spite of the recent propaganda, I’ve always been a midmajor guy,” Pearl posted on X. “I think a 1-loss Miami of Ohio team should get in! I don’t think they are one of the best 37 at-large teams, but are 1 of the most deserving.”
Propaganda? As Inigo Montoya says in “The Princess Bride:” “You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.”
More Top Picks Best Compression Shirts For Autism
Say what?
Marquee Sports Network created a video quizzing Chicago Cubs players about “Chicago slang.” But the examples they used were “oop,” “dibs,” “LSD,” the “L” and “the Jewels.” These terms are considered Chicago slang only by someone who was born and raised on the North Shore.
Another brilliant idea
Former Navy SEAL Robert J. O’Neill, who was part of the SEAL Team 6 mission that killed Osama bin Laden in 2011, was invited by Team USA to give a pep talk before its quarterfinal game against Canada in the World Baseball Classic.
Maybe MLB can now invite the FBI profiler who helped catch the “Unabomber” to give a speech Sunday before Team USA’s semifinal against the Dominican Republic. Someone needs to remind Team USA manager Mark DeRosa it’s just a baseball game, not life or death.
Let hardwood be hardwood
The Big 12 made an in-tournament audible and changed from its LED glass court to the old-fashioned hardwood kind, citing the possibility of injuries from the slippery surface. A better reason is that they were just plain ugly, making it look like a monochrome background featuring players in bright, colored uniforms superimposed on the screen.
The game of basketball has worked well for more than a century on hardwood courts. Why in the world would highly paid conference officials believe viewers crave an LED court for March Madness?