- … The ESPN suits zap ANOTHER Swagger favel…. A local media hack upsets folks … Larry Coker “cracks down” at Miami … ‘Canes shine for charity … BobLee issues his annual pre-season warning that most will, alas, ignore to their everlasting detriment. Reaction to “the Hate column”.
- Reader reaction was strong with our “Hate” column. We had three “unsubscribes” in the first hour then the “Atta Boys” started rolling in and rolling in and …. Picked up twelve newbees and a LOT of stories about growing up in the South in the 50s-60s. It was an “edgy” column to be sure but we felt you guys could handle it … we were right … you could. The BEST reader audience on the Internet!
- You may not want to wear your “I’m A BobLee Buddy” t-shirt in public. In Sunday’s column I praised Harold Reynolds as “the best thing EVER at ESPN”. Less than 24 hours later HAROLD WAS FIRED. No explanation given … just “Fired”. This makes two folks I care about who have been “banned from Bristol”. The abruptness and harshness of ESPN’s actions indicate an ugly possibility! We sure hope not … but….UPDATE … Worst fears realized … Harold Reynolds involved in a “sexual harrassment incident w/ a young production assistant“. No further details but “not good” for Harold. ESPN has all the ingredients for a hot bed of such possibilities … lots of nubile interns and lots of ex-jocks … KABOOM!
- More kudos to the Carolina Hurricanes. Yours truly was with The 2006 Stanley Cup
Champions on Monday at a Jimmy V fund raiser. As fine a bunch of players and administrators as ever came down the pike. I chatted with GM Jim Rutherford confirming to him that “Good Things do happen to Good People!” - Local ABC-11 info-babe Barbara Gibbs and BLS exchanged info on a mutual friend but that must stay in the NTK file and you folks don’t NTK about that.
>>><<<
- BobLee’s Annual Pre-Season Warning: I try to make it an on-going feature here, but I can always tell when you normally level-headed adults start peeking into the “Loonie Bins”. Those of you who “have real lives and families” start getting interested in college football about now. Like rubbernecking at roadkill along the highway, you turn off your “better judgement” shield and say “I’m just going to peek at (Name of Message Board) to see what’s going on in recruiting and what (Name of Team) is looking like for this season”.
…. You invariably get the bejeebers scared out of you and immediately write to BobLee with some version of …. “Yikes, BLS, what’s this crap I just read about (synopsis of wild-ass rumor about my team or hated rival).”
I calmly write back “Its stoopid crap you read on a freakin’ message board. Say three “BLS Knows Best” and go back to making a living and loving your family.”
Well I had to do that fourteen times in the past three days so that tells me you need a pre-season slap upside your heads.
#1 “Oh My Gosh” for UNC fans this week is Eddy Landreth’s latest column about a UNC recruiting situation. Swagger Rule Violation #1 – DO NOT pay attention to recruiting (aka “sports porn”). Shame on you. …. Swagger Rule Violation #2 – The key word here is “Eddy”.
Eddy, bless his heart, has, over the past fifteen years, worked for every quasi-media operation within twenty miles of He’s Not Here. Several he has worked for more than once if there was a change of ownership and prior employment records were lost. His goal is to be Gregg Doyel when he (Gregg or Eddy) grows up. Enuff said.
The area legit media used to give out “The Eddy” to whoever asked the most inane question at a UNC sports press conference. The
y discontinued the award after Eddy won it twenty-seven times in a row.His specialty is provocative tabloid hand grenades targeted directly at the howler monkey faction. His “raw meat exposes” can get the rabid loons cannibalizing each other within ten minutes. He has done it once again.
There is just enough “truth” in his report about the recruiting of Ike Oglesby’s son to avoid him losing his UNC media pass (and access to the buffet!). There is also enough innuendo and speculatio
n in it to warrant the usual “Eddy does it again”. Not to worry Tar Heel fans. Coach Bunting and his staff are NOT insensitive galoots who live in a bubble. BLS went “deep inside Kenan” and “got the facts”. It’s OK … I’d tell you if it wasn’t.Burly John has tripped, stumbled and fallen a few times over the past six years and we give you our opinion when he does, and will continue to, despite openly admitting to our longtime friendship with “the burly ex-linebacker”.
As regards any/all future “Yikes, BobLee, I just read such and such crap……… What’s the deal?” NEVER HESITATE to write us about ANYTHING regardless of which cyber garbage can you drag it out of. BobLee will zap you with his little Taser of Truth and you’ll be just fine.
>>><<<
Those of a red-hued persuasion, with way too much time on their paws, are working themselves into their annual pre-season jihad. As usual it’s “the national media conspiracy against America’s most maligned rising football superpower”. The various gridiron prognosticators are failing to see much improvement in either UNC or NCSU for 2006, based on 2005 and changes.
A word in defense of “the normals” in WuffNation … a national magsite derided the Pack for their football attendance over the past few seasons. THAT is crap. Kudos aplenty for the incredible support that Pack fans have shown and continue to show their football program.
- Remember I touted www.statefansnation.com as a good site to visit for normal adult info about NC State athletics. We’re not pulling the Swagger Seal of Acceptability just yet but putting SFN on notice that they seem to be going for “the bottom-feeder reader” lately. Reinstall the “No Shirt – No Shoes – No Access Rule. Once a website attracts the head lice crowd it’s time to flush it.
Still a top-quality Pack Fan site is www.redandwhitefromstate.com Excellent stuff from AlphaWolf and his staff. www.tarheeltimes.com the pre-eminent site for Carolina Sports stories. James even has a strong Euro-Heel following, well-deserved.
A big ol’ BobLee HUZZA to Miami’s Larry Coker. Coach Coker says he thinks it’s a bad idea
“for his players to have guns”.!!! WOW! And you thought he was running a “sleeper cell” down there! What’s next Larry … going to suggest “going to class” and “don’t be beating up girls unless they REALLY deserve it”? oh … and LB Willie Williams aka The Poster Boy For All Thats Wrong With College Football, is “disgruntled” and wants out of Coral Gables. Suggestion To Willie … carve a gun out of a bar of soap and tunnel under the wall, you felonious moron.After Larry’s big announcement, a reporter asked Tommy Bowden’s daddy about FSU’s gun policy. Bobby said they “probably had one” but he didn’t know much about it.
Up in HooVille, former NY Jets Head Coach Al Groh reported EIGHT of his incoming recruits failed to qualify academically. He sent them to Hargrave where they will major in “taking the SAT” for the next six months.
Speaking of Hargraves we bid farewell to yet another of Carolina’s infamous “Hargrave Four” … despite being counted in not one but two “highly-rated” recruiting classes, this ill-fated quartet has now lost yet another member. Marcus Hands never showed up, opting for ECU … Terry Hunter got lost somewhere in cyber space and was last seen playing dominos with Elvis at a rec center in Rolesville. Now Khaliff Mitchell’s locker has been cleaned out apparently a victim of UNC’s pesky academic progress requirement. Kenny Price is the lone survivor.
Whatever his future may hold … Khaliff’s past will ALWAYS include stopping TA on the six-inch line in 2004. For that play alone, give the boy a sideline pass to the Rutgers game and a couple of BeefMasters.
- There have been “a few” success stories from “Hargrave kids” but the general rule of thumb is “play’em quick cause they won’t be around too long”. It is not a coincidence that no Nobel Prizes for Quantum Physics have ever be won by a Hargrave “student”.
>>><<<
Which Major League team did Harold
-
begin his career with?
-
>>><<<
-
BLS sez…. -
If your mother-in-law wears a toe ring …
-
she probably cusses too …
-
>>><<<
Derm police officers, including two directly involved in The Great Nifong Embarrassment, have been implicated in a parking lot fracas at a Rawlee sports bar. As usual … Ho#2 (Kim The Embezzler) was not there and might not have seen anything. The Idiot Nifong has asked the Supreme Court for all the leftover nachos from the sports bar. ….. and the dum beat goes on and on and on in “the Bull City”.
A-Rod has agreed to donate $1,000,000 to charity for each error he commits the rest of the season. …. Not really, but wouldn’t that be cool if he did.
Kudos to BLS VIP PAL Matt Roberts. The former Mayor of Tar Heel Town has received a promotion in Norman and is now a high-ranking exec in The Sooner Club.
- I still LOVE Ol’ Roy despite what some Billy Blue Chip might decide.
Brenda Vaccaro was Joe Buck’s only “client” in Midnight Cowboy.
Want to e-mail BobLee? You can …
