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Welcome to another edition of The Outsiders Edge, my personal take on Texas, sports, and the world in general. It was an interesting week, so let’s get on with the program.
Women’s College World Series: When you are a non-revenue women’s sport, the fight for recognition is tough to begin with, and when a window of opportunity opens like it has the last two years, you must seize upon it. What you must not do, under any circumstances, is embarrass the fan base on national television. Texas Softball had a fabulous season, winning 50 games and making it to Oklahoma City. What will the casual fans (which most were) take away from the entire year? The Longhorns got run ruled on the biggest stage by the Oklahoma Sooners, who went on to win the National Championship. Absolutely horrific way for the season to end. Rumor has it Connie Clark called up Mack Brown for advice on how to deal with it.
The Flushing Tide: By now most everyone has seen the video of Notre Dame commit and 5 star RB Elijah Hood flushing Alabama recruiting letters down the toilet. He also called out Nick Saban on his perception of Alabama’s poor graduation rates for African Americans. His school (and probably Notre Dame) made him issue an apology. While I’m not sure how bad the rates are, I won’t condemn the kid for doing it. Alabama, for the spread era, is a war machine unlike anything we’ve ever seen, but a war machine built on greyshirts and oversigning, ran like an NFL team under the guise of amateur athletics. They can dish it out, so in my opinion they can take it.
Oh, Dallas…..: Tony Romo signed to a $108 million dollar deal not at OTA’s to have a small cyst removed. (Perception isn’t good even if the timing was the best). Offensive Coordinator Bill Callahan and owner Jerry Jones deciding who would call plays while Head Coach Jason Garrett seems to ignore it. This already has the feel of an 8-8 season. I miss the days when Dallas was truly America’s Team.
NBA Finals: San Antonio wins in 7 games. Chris Bosh cries. LeBron loses another inch of hairline. Skip Bayless takes credit. David Stern executes a referee. Such is life as I foresee it.
Deacon Jones: The leader of the Rams “Fearsome Foursomeâ€, the man who PFW estimated to have a career 194.5 sacks, including what would have still been a record 26 in 1967 when 14 games made a season, died earlier this week. A man who left a permanent mark on the game (and many helmets), Jones will go down as perhaps the greatest defender of all time.
The Cult of Chick-Fil-A: Apparently one is opening tomorrow in Austin, with the promise of free food for a year for the first 100 people in there. Per our man on the spot Wes Crochet, they were already camped out this morning. Which brings up a couple of interesting things to mind:
1) Who loves Chick-Fil-A so much they would camp out in sweaty, subhuman conditions with a bunch of raunchy hipsters for over 24 hours?
2) Why didn’t anyone tell the homeless people in the camp down the road? Seems like this would be a match made in Heaven and a PR bonanza
Houston Fire Fighters: Watched part of the ceremony for the four brave souls who lost their lives last week. For as much grief as Public Safety Professionals take, they are the ones running toward that thing everyone else is running away from. Maybe next time you see one, be it a Police Officer, Paramedic, Fire Fighter, Deputy, etc etc, you should thank them.
Longhorn Network: One of the better games of the year (Ole Miss), and the season opener both stuck on LHN. Hope the next Athletic Director cleans up that mess a bit for all of us.
Parting Shot: Dylan Moses, the incoming freshman (9th grade) stud was at Texas Camp this past week. He looks every bit the part of the man-child. Bigger than most of the kids at his positions. Watching his recruitment play out over the next few years will be interesting.
Until next week, Hook Em!
