Interesting state of affairs

Last week the SEC media days took place at the Wynfrey hotel in Hoover, AL. This is usually a time where you can bridge the doldrums of the summer into the start of fall practice. This year would have its share of story lines and crazy fans. It started on Monday with an Alabama graduate oddsmaker from Mobile making a huge accusation on the Paul Finebaum (Jerry Springer of sports talk radio) that the NCAA has found a "bag man" in the Cam Newton case and is trying to get him to come forward and admit he gave the Newtons money. This oddsmaker, Danny Sheridan, said he had two sources in the NCAA giving him this info. Really Danny? An oddsmaker that has two sources with inside knowledge of an ongoing case that will just willingly give up this info to you so you can spread it around? That makes alot of sense. Finebaum relies on people calling his show and listening to boost ratings so he doesnt care what lies he tells or who he ticks off to get those ratings. Well, he got Sheridan to boost ratings for media days. Apparently, Sheridan realized what a mistake he had made and started backtracking as soon as he started getting killed in the national media. Too late, though. He looks like a big idiot and now his credibility is shot. Wow, sounds a lot like other members of the media who have tried to lie and deceive their way to a big story only to make themselves look foolish (cough, cough, Thayer Evans, cough, Pete Thamel). Alabama has also had a story in the news, although since they are the chosen ones, not as big as AU in the news. A couple players have been seen signing merchandise and posing for pics and going to dinner with/for the owner of T-town menswear. This is an NCAA violation. Bama has sent a cease and desist letter to the store and the compliance dept has said no benefits have been received. But that doesnt matter because a student athlete cannot provide services (autographs, pics, etc for money or advertisement) for a retailer. I dont think anything will come of this, nor do I think that they should get in trouble, but what bothers me is the media will downplay this just like they do for everything else that bama does. Remember the text book scandal? Yeah, I remember when it first broke and the compliance dept from bama and the media downplayed the heck out of it and guess what happened? Yeah, it was a little bigger than and more serious than they made it out to be. I know this is a different situation but it amazes me that the media is still hanging on to this Newton story so hard after 9 months and after the NCAA has numerous times stated that they have found nothing to implicate Auburn in anything. I guess I should just expect the media to do this b/c apparently AU doesnt belong in the elite of college football. Oh well, this is what happens when you are on top... unless you are bama.
Next post I will talk about the deep sea fishing trip I and some guys from work went on.

Lockouts, Cam, Pageants and the Beach

Hi everyone,
Its been a while since my last post, but we have been very busy. This past weekend, my daughter was in the Little Miss Alabama state pageant in Huntsville, AL. She participated in this because she won a prelim pageant and had her entry fee paid. Anyone could be in the pageant but there were only 7 girls in my daughter's age group. There was a sports wear and gown section involved. Addi did really well! In fact, she won. She got a huge trophy as you can see in the picture and the crown that she is wearing is not the one she will get but very similar. An interesting fact, the crown is imported from Hong Kong and costs about $150! No wonder the entry fee is so much. A friend of Addi's, Ashton, was also in the pageant in the age group just younger than her's. She got first runner-up, but in my biased opinion, she should have won. Addi, Ashton, and Ashton's sister Ally all got to spend the night in a hotel the night before (with the moms of course) and get pedicures and eat ice cream and have a great time. They all had such a good time and I'm so glad they got to do that. My sister lives close to Huntsville and the rest of the family got to spend the night with her and visit. We all had a great time. After the pageant, we drove to the beach. We spent about a week there and had a blast. We played on the beach, went to Gulf World, rode the SeaScreamer and saw tons of dolphins, played in the pool and built sandcastles. This was the first beach trip the baby has been on. He absolutely love the water! A friend from work was staying close to where we were so we were able to spend the morning playing with his kids. The weather, for the most part, was great and not too hot.

The NFL and NBA are now officially locked out. This is great. I can't imagine a more petty and stupid reason to lock out and not play a freakin game than over money. I know, I know it's about more than that, but let's be honest. The bottom line is this is about money and how much money people can get and they call it "revenue sharing." Look, I could care less about the NBA and I have made that clear, but I know there are a lot of people that do like it, so for the fans, please come to an agreement and stop being so freakin greedy. Same for you NFL. It's never about the fans, but money. No, you say? How many times have the prices been lowered on tickets or food and drinks at the game in comparison to them raising the prices? How about ease of access to the players for autographs and such. I understand the need for security but a designated time and place for autographs would be very awesome. Also, with the gigantic salaries these guys are making, you would think that they would be a little more accommodating to the fans and act in a professional manner, but you can polish a turd but in the end it's still a turd.

As far as the Cam saga goes, Auburn's compliance director went on record yesterday for the first time describing, in detail, the events of Cam's eligibility issues last fall. But I thought you couldn't talk about that until the NCAA is finished with its investigation. You do the math. So, I hope all the haters out there will shut their pie-holes. There will be no games evacuated, forfeited or likewise. The National Championship will count and Cam will get to keep ALL his awards (as i say this I feel like doing the X across the lower half of my body, but i digress). Now, the NCAA, I'm sure, is interested in pursuing more info regarding the HBO 4, but, still to this date, no official letter of investigation has darkened Auburn's compliance door. Until then, no other word will be spoken of it (unless new developments occur).