Friday, February 06, 2009

Friday Quick Hits

1) The fallout from the Michael Phelps marijuana photograph seems excessive to me and makes us seem like extremely tight-assed nation. Although I can certainly understand why USA Swimming wants to discipline its members, I don’t exactly see why punishing someone for using performance-reducing drugs would really make that much sense. Nevertheless, as a governing body, they expect a certain level of appropriate conduct and that’s fine. And as much as I don’t agree with their decision, Kellogg’s has also chosen to punish Phelps by suspending their sponsorship agreement with him.

My general message to sponsors is that they shouldn’t be so fickle. Stand by your guy. He’s a good kid and the best Olympian in history. Because he didn’t commit a major crime, I’m pretty sure this will blow over in a few months and you’ll be sorry you stood on principle for something that most people just don’t care about. Trust me, cereal sales and public perception of your company will not suffer for this.

What really annoys me about this story is how some spotlight-hogging sheriff in South Carolina is talking about pressing charges. Are you kidding me? You weren’t there so you didn’t witness the crime. The crime itself was totally victimless. The act itself took place nearly three months ago. Is this really that important a charge to pursue? If Phelps weren’t a celebrity, would you really be interested in pursuing this? Good grief.

2) In continuing with the theme of hyper-aggressive law enforcement over petty crimes, I’ll let the far more eloquent William C. Rhoden of the New York Times speak for me. And make no mistake about it, I agree with every word he writes here.

3) I watched the second half of the Lakers-Celtics game on TNT last night and saw Kevin Garnett getting into Lamar Odom’s face. It reminded me of last year, when Garnett suddenly acquired the swagger of a player playing on a good team and suddenly had a foul word or gesture for everyone he played against. Think back to the playoffs if you need to refresh your memory: the throat-slashing, the dirty fouls, the cries of “fucking faggot” to opposing players and fans.

What happened to the KG of old? The guy that was fan-friendly and gave off an aura of being pleasant seems to have been replaced by a cocky, trash-talking bully. ESPN The Magazine writer Chris Broussard tackled this issue late last month and I’m glad at least someone in the mainstream media has decided to poke a stick at the formerly likeable but now loathsome Garnett.

(Note: the KG article is for ESPN Insiders. I don’t know if this link will work or not. If anyone wants to read it, email me and I’ll send it along)

4) Finally, to end on a positive note, pitchers and catchers report to spring training a week from today. Baseball season can’t come soon enough. I really can’t wait!

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