The
View From the Couch - Odds & Ends
In
a week that was very predictable in the world of sports
– even I went four for four in the wild card games
- two stories struck me as being suitable candidates for
and odd and an end type
column.
First
off, golf, that most staid of sports that is the least of
all likely candidates for being odd, was.
It
was the season opener in Hawaii. The Mercedes Championship
is a chance for the previous year’s champs to strut
their stuff on the Plantation Course at Kapalua. It gives
the opportunity for the PGA to highlight their best golfers
in paradise and to rub our, the shivering masses, noses
in it.
The
best golfers were showcased except for Tiger and Phil that
is, who took an extended break skipping Hawaii altogether
because they remain too popped from playing golf - a month
ago.
But
maybe they were onto something because paradise turned out
to be anything but golfing wise.
Of
all the major sports, golf is the only one regular folks
can appreciate on a participation level. We have no idea
what it’s like to be an NFL QB. Now even a lineman.
Who knows what it’s like to drive to the hoop in the
NBA? Or to take a faceoff at center ice. Yet most of us
have teed up a ball in a tournament and can at least conceive
of what it’s like to play professionally. We all know
we never could ‘cause those guys really are that “good,”
but at least we have an inkling.
So
it was refreshing to see the best of the best (almost),
play a lot like, well, us.
Kapalua
has new greens this year and fierce trade winds were blowing
all week.
Paradise
lost.
Along
with some tempers.
Kenny
Perry whined big time. "It's a little unfair. Everyone
has to play it, but I don't think it's golf, in my opinion.
Who wants to shoot 75 or 76 when that's the average score?
I tell you what, it's shot my confidence."
David
Toms was outright pissed off. “To see pros in the
teens over par starting the season? That's not a lot of
fun."
Sure
it is.
Perry
was so flustered that he said he would consider not returning
next year if he was eligible. At this year’s tournament,
were there is no cut, last place paid $70,000.
Golfers
are odd.
Now
for the End:
Marcus
Vick, the younger brother of the Atlanta Falcon’s
Michael Vick has had a busy month of January hasn’t
he? Previously suspended for the entire 2004 season at Virginia
Tech for assorted crimes –-some drug charges and three
counts of contributing to the delinquency of a minor, which
is never good— Marcus has now ramped up the fun.
Last
Friday he was kicked off VT permanently. Not for his leg
stomp in the Sugar Bowl, but instead for driving with a
suspended license. The same day he was going to announce
he was turning pro. How did he react to getting the boot
from college?
"I'll
just move on to the next level, baby."
Unfortunately
for him, the next level could be maximum security. Reportedly,
he’s ramped up the criminal ante and is now into gunplay.
After dining at McDonald’s, Vick pulled a gun on three
teens in the parking lot who he thought had insulted his
girlfriend. She told him that somebody had called her a
“bitch.” So naturally, he went to his car and
got a gun. Brandishing the weapon, he went over to the kids
and said, “Which one of y'all called my girlfriend
a bitch?"
The
kids said they didn’t, and Vick, in a remarkable display
of disciple for him, didn’t shoot anyone. Instead,
he peeled out in his car - which he apparently is still
driving.
How
did his teammates react?
Jeff
King, Vick’s favorite receiver this season, was surprised.
“That
sounds a little out of character of the Marcus that we know,”
King said Monday.
Another
teammate, Aaron Rouse, was shocked.
“That
can’t be. I just can’t believe that. I really
don’t know what to say.”
I
do.
Now
that all this is out, his NFL draft prospects are really
going to be hurt. He might drop all the way to the second
round.
Cheers
- Gavin
McDougald – AKA Couch
