EVEN the frenzied race to see who can establish a new low has its boundaries.
You’ve likely seen the new TV commercial for Miller Lite that displays two large-breasted young women ripping each other’s clothes off to reveal inadequate undergarments. This charming ad has lately decorated Sunday afternoon NFL playoff telecasts.
But did you know that you’ve been watching the cleaned-up version? The original ads, which for a time aired on ESPN, ended with one of the women saying to the other, “Let’s make out.”
This final scene has been cut from the ads because it was deemed inappropriate.
*
Now ya see ’em, now ya don’t: ESPN’s Australian Open first-week coverage was darkly comical – and TV typical – as players, while contesting points, regularly disappeared behind a fat “Australian Open 2003” graphic in the upper right-hand corner.
Iona coach and ex-Iona center and NBAer Jeff Ruland last week told MSG’s “College Hoops Weekly” host Bill Raftery that in order to coach, he had to have a college degree. He then completed 70 credits in a year and a half – his proudest accomplishment, he said, “other than my three daughters.”
While we’re on the subject, reflexively-spoken phrases badly in need of re-phrasing are those that equate a college player’s departure with “graduation.” Fox Net’s Steve Physioc, during St. John’s-UCLA last week, told us UCLA lost several starters “to graduation” when we likely know better.
Lookalikes: Submitted by Q-104 FM host Ken Dashow – new Yankee Hideki Matsui and Shemp Howard of the Three Stooges.
Howie Rose, who works ’round the calendar, has been bed-ridden with a virus, missing the last two Islander telecasts.
Last February, Georgetown basketball coach Craig Esherick, writing in the school newspaper, made an impassioned plea for civility among increasingly desensitized and disrespectful fans. Last week, Esherick, as seen on television, made an impassioned, incite-full spew against referees.
Home, James: Seems to me that you can’t, on one hand, claim there’s nothing wrong with high school star LeBron James being in receipt of a new $55,000 Hummer, while on the other hand lament how young NBA stars have rotten value systems, suffer from a perverted sense of entitlement and don’t reside in the real world.
*
But It Sounds Good: MSG “SportsDesk” anchor Curt Menefee is starting to lose us on a semi-regular basis. After the Jets’ and Falcons’ playoff losses, Menefee cited Michael Vick’s 17 career starts and Chad Pennington’s 14 career starts, then said that Super Bowls are the domain of experienced NFL QBs. Really?
Kurt Warner, 2000 Super Bowl MVP in his first season as a starter; Tom Brady, last year’s Super Bowl MVP after less than a year as a starter. And that’s just since the turn of the century.
*
Quote of the Week: USOC boss Lloyd Ward, who suffered only an official scolding after it came to light that he tried to steer USOC-related business to his brother, said, “I wouldn’t call it a lapse in judgment, [but] I’d say today I’d make a different choice.”
That sounds like, “I didn’t do it, and I’ll never do it again.” And this is a guy who’s supposed to be a leader in the new, integrity-enriched Olympic movement.
By the way, as both the USOC and IOC, consistently – over decades – have shown themselves to be loaded with the dubious-to-worse, why does NYC remain eager to romance these organizations – a perquisite to landing the 2012 Olympics?
*
As the curtain closes on another football scamdicapper season, we salute Dan Hampton, ex-Bear defensive lineman and a member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
Hampton last season served as a weekly, picks-for-sale barker on Wayne Root’s PAX TV time-buy con-job show. Hampton would regularly brag how his clients were raking in the dough, bringing bookies to their knees.
This season, Hampton appeared on “Pro Football Weekly,” a show that aired here on FSNY, a show that wasn’t a front for a crooked tout service, a show that kept honest track of Hampton’s picks. And, wouldn’t you know it, he went .500.