You know it's bad...

when you agent is also throwing you under the bus for your yearly retire from or return to the NFL saga. Check out this quote from a Men's Journal Interview of both Favre and his agent, Bus Cook.

“Brett talked to goddamned Ed Werder at ESPN, says he needs ankle surgery. Now why did he do that? I’ve got Childress calling. I’ve got reporters calling all damn morning. Goddammit, why does he have to be such a goddamned drama queen? Play, don’t play, goddamn, people are getting sick of it. I’m getting sick of it! Why does he have to talk to these people? What good does it do? Ed Werder at ESPN! What’s he ever done for anybody other than say, ‘Look, look, Mommy, I got this first, ain’t I special?’ You got problems with surgery, talk to your wife. Why talk to goddamned Ed Werder?”

The rest of the article seems to touch on a lot of stuff that you hear about Favre every offseason (retiring, Mississipi stuff, etc.). In my opinion, Favre totally redeemed himself in the interview when he told Stephen Rodrick of the Men's Journal that earlier in the day he shot two possums on his Mississipi property because they had been "acting weird" and may have had rabies. For those of you who haven't seen one in person before, just Google image "possum." They are basically gigantic rats.


Photo by Jim Wright, Men's Journal

The NCAA's High Horse

For once, don't blame Facebook. The Orlando Sentinel reported today that the University of Florida football program faces secondary sanctions because coaches posted messages on a recruit's Facebook wall. According to Orlando Sentinel, Facebook walls are considered "open forums" in which coaches cannot send messages to their prospective recruits. If, however, the coach wanted to send a private message via Facebook, this would be permitted because it's similar enough to the private nature of an email.

In an attempt to defend the policy, the NCAA's associate director of communications, Cameron Schuh, claimed that "NCAA member institutions maintain concern over the level of intrusiveness the recruiting process can create for a high school student who is a prospective student-athlete."

Reducing the level of intrusiveness? Really? Can NCAA officials really say that is something they are really concerned about? I'm sorry, is this the same NCAA that has and continues to increase the number of bowl games almost every season? Didn't they also just increase the number of teams and games in the NCAA basketball tournament? The NCAA isn't really concerned about the instrusiveness that bowl games and NCCA tournament games have on student-athletes' education when they are bringing in sweet cash.

Lastly, if private communications between coach and prospective athlete are permitted, then why is text messaging banned? That's a private form of communication. The NCAA just arbitrarily makes disciplinary decisions and pretends to care about their "student-athletes." I'm guessing they believe that if they crack down on minor improprieties it helps prop up their image as an organization that promotes higher education and intercollegiate athletes. If you believe that though, you also probably think the horse in the picture is real. Also, best of luck to the NCAA if they want to try to keep up with the privacy policies of most social networking sites. It'll be tons of fun to adjust their rules against the rapidly changing nature of social networking.

Replacing Riley

Replacing QB Riley Skinner will be no small challenge for redshirt junior QB Skylar Jones. Cutting to the chase, there really isn't any way that Jones could possibly be a better passing quarterback than Skinner. Skinner, who is now competing to be Eli Manning's back-up on the Giants, left Wake Forest with 17 school records and 31 career victories. Last year Skinner threw for over 3,100 yards and passed for 25 tds while throwing just 12 ints.

In my opinion, the best case scenario is that Jim Grobe returns to a misdirection run-based offense that could take advantage of both Skylar Jones's athletic ability as well as Wake's veteran backfield. While Jones might not be the passer that Skinner was, he is certainly more athletic. According to the Wake Forest website, Jones has run a 4.33 40 yard dash and has a 35-inch vertical leap. Did anyone else notice Skinner's 40 yard dash time (5.07) at the NFL combine? Yikes that's slow. Jones's ability to run may give the Deacons a refreshing change of pace at the QB position. If Jones can throw on the run, then they could really give some ACC defenses fits.

In my opinion, this year's Wake team will look a lot more like Jim Grobe's teams from early on in his tenure at Wake. I expect to see a more run-based offense with lots of misdirection. I think Wake will finish the year around .500 with the possibility of sneaking into one of the smaller bowl games.

Sound Advice

Georgia Athletic Director Damon Evans resigned following a very public DUI charge in which police noted that Evans had a pair of red panties on his lap when he was pulled over.

Evans should have totally listened to this guy's advice:



In other DUI news, Arkansas freshman offensive tackle Anthony Oden, who, at 6'8'' 328lbs, was expected to compete for a starting position, was recently charged with driving while intoxicated and without a license. Seriously! Why is it so hard for good athletes to have their driver's licenses on them??? Of note, Anthony is the brother of NBA player Greg Oden.

What the Faulk did he just say?

Just read an interesting article by Jim Moore in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. While the article mainly focuses on recently fired Seattle Seahawks head coach Jim Mora, there is an extremely interesting section at the end of the article concerning Marshall Faulk. Faulk, who was attending a celebrity golf tournament hosted by Jim Mora, took a few minutes to answer some of Jim Moore's questions. Typically, athletes are second only to politicians in their ability to provide illogical non-answers to an interviewer's questions. Faulk, however, does not fall into this category.

When asked by Moore how Faulk thought the Seahawks would fare under new head coach Pete Carroll, Faulk admitted that he really did not know how the Seahawks would perform, but noted he was disappointed that coaches such as Pete Carroll could leave college programs like USC behind when they faced sanctions. Oddly though, Faulk did not seem to have a problem with the fact that Pete Carroll and USC were cheating, he only objected that the players were the only ones being punished. Interestingly, Faulk even lauded some of the finer aspects of cheating:

"Here's my thing -- it's well-documented that if you're not cheating, you're not trying in sports. Some of the best things that are done in sports are illegal. You work around the rules and try to get things done."

Later, when asked whether he was offered money during his time at San Diego State, Faulk offered this gem:

 "Nah, I went to San Diego State, other than good weather, they didn't have much to offer me, unfortunately. I wish I'd gone to a bigger program and had them slide me some cash to take care of my family, but that wasn't the case."

Overall, I don't view the NCAA as some holy institution that operates to best to serve the interests of their "student-athletes," as they certainly don't. However, I highly disagree with Marshall Faulk's statements. He's a made man. He dominated in the NFL and is a lock for induction into the Hall of Fame. He basically has nothing to lose. College players taking money today risk their college career and any future pro-career by accepting illegal money from boosters. For example, the only sin former Oklahoma State University stud WR Dez Bryant committed was failing to disclose that he had hung out with Deion Sanders and had him pay for his lunch. What did that get Bryant? How about a season-long suspension from Oklahoma State. Granted, NFL teams were so enamored with Bryant that the Cowboys still took him 24th pick in the first round of this year's NFL draft. Even though Bryant's situation has worked out well for him, I think it's safe to say that he would have gone much sooner in the first round if teams didn't have any "character" concerns with him.