Weekly Sporties

-Less than a week after manager Terry Francona was fired/quit, the Red Sox were asked by the Chicago Cubs for permission to interview General Manager Theo Epstein for their vacant GM spot. Now, whether or not the Sox give permission will go a long way in determining how they feel about Epstein in the Sox front office. On the one hand you really shouldn't let any employee you value test the waters, because there is the chance they could take someone up on their offer and bolt. Essentially, letting him interview says the Sox don't really care if he leaves. However, not letting them interview could just build feeling of animosity, as if you are holding them back. This could be especially true in the case of Epstein because reportedly the Cubs could offer him the team Presidency as well, something he's not going to get in Boston as long as Larry Lucchino is around. If they deny the Cubs permission Theo could feel like the Sox are holding him back and that's not going to help front office unity, which they're going to need if they want to get the ship righted. But, at least it lets Theo know the Sox think of him as a valuable commodity. In the end, I think the Sox have to let him talk to the Cubs, but if they really want Epstein to stick around they had better make sure they have a counter-proposal ready to go, because I think the Cubs are going to make Epstein a very tempting offer.

-As someone who grew up watching Dan "It's everyone's fault but mine" Marino, I completely understand how annoying it is as a fan to have to watch quarterbacks play your team and hear the announcers slurp all over their every move, even when they screw up. I mean, I totally can see why fans of teams around the NFL get annoyed when ESPN analysts fall all over themselves to praise Tom Brady. However, at least Tom Brady has earned some of it with three Super Bowl victories. But watching the Sunday night game last week I saw Jets quarterback Mark Sanchez fumble two snaps that hit him directly in the hands. The announcers kept trying to say it was the fault of the team's new center, but neither snap looked too bad to me. We always say that if a ball hits a receiver in the hands they have to catch it. I fail to see why that rule shouldn't apply to quarterbacks. I understand that all quarterbacks get more praise than they probably deserves, but they should at least have to win a championship before the analysts start to make them infallible.

-The Internet was buzzing the other day with reports that Madonna is going to be the halftime entertainment for this year's Super Bowl. Honestly, at this point it is like the NFL is antagonizing their fans and looking for the breaking point which will finally cause fans to turn away from the game. Hey, we ruined your summer with a prolonged lockout that did nothing but annoy you. Do you hate us now? No? Ok, well, wait until you see who we plan to book as your Super Bowl halftime entertainment! I can not think of a person I want to see perform at a Super Bowl less than Madonna. Not only can I not stand her music, but she was also played out 3 years ago. And what happened to the whole, "We're going the safe route" after the Janet Jackson/Justin Timberlake incident a few years back? Not only is Madonna's act is tired, but what makes it even worse is she's a tired act still trying to pretend she's risque. I have to imagine she's going to try and come up with some desperate attention-grabbing stunt. Seriously, this could be her last big time in the public eye - she's going to milk it for all that it's worth. It hasn't even been announced yet and I'm already bummed about it. Honestly, I'd rather they just show me a blank screen for 20 minutes.

-Speaking of musical acts which have lasted a lot longer than expected, Hank Williams Jr.got himself into a bit of trouble on Monday when he compared the President of the United States to Hitler. (First off, when are people going to learn that the Hitler analogy is never a good idea? Not only is it lazy, it's extreme. Just because you don't agree with someone's political views it does not make them the worst human to ever walk the Earth.) Anyway, ESPN responded by pulling Williams' traditional "Are you ready for some football?" song from the opening of Monday's Bucs/Colts game and they have since announced that it is gone for good. I'm going to go out on a limb and guess that no one will miss it. Honestly, if they hadn't made an announcement and just dropped it when Monday Night Football switched networks I doubt many people would have noticed. I know that the people in charge of programming would never admit it, because when you pay billions of dollars for something you are never going to believe anything bad which is said about your expensive new toy, but no one gives a crap about that song. Or Faith Hill's song before Sunday Night Football or any other promotional tool that networks have come to believe are somehow vital to the game. I'm not tuning in to see the hoopla before the game (and usually I love hoopla). If the game sucks I'm not clicking over, I don't care who you've got singing.

-On Wednesday Terrell Owens was interviewed by Stephen A. Smith (as you could probably guess, I wasn't watching). Owens was surrounded by his family and started out by telling Smith he was retiring. But after a second Owens broke into a grin, mumbled some attempted joke about wishing it was April 1st and then said he wasn't retiring because he'll be ready to play in a month. Ok, I'm going to leave the question as to why this needed to be on ESPN for some other time. The NFL season is 4 weeks old. Which means by the time Owens is ready to come back he'll have missed half the season. What team is going to bring in a 38 year-old receiver for half the year, especially one as attention-starved and drops-prone as Owens clearly is? No contender is going to want the distraction and no rebuilding team with a young quarterback is going to want to risk having Owens destroy his confidence. He may get a look from some middle-of-the-road squad, but you've got to think that if anyone was interested they would have signed him well before now. There are plenty of cheaper, younger and easier-to-deal with options out there if you need a receiver. It looks like the joke is on Owens - he is retired, he just doesn't know it yet.

-Just one year after announcing they were going to switch conferences and join the Big East starting in 2012, TCU was invited to join the Big 12 and they are expected to accept that invitation shortly. I know a lot of people might think this reflects badly on TCU because they are ditching a conference before they even play a game in it, but the fact remains that the Big East is not the conference it was just 12 months ago. TCU was already going to be the best team in the Big East but with Syracuse and Pittsburgh announcing their departures and UConn and Rutgers expected to follow, you can easily argue that the Big East is going to be weaker than the conference TCU is leaving. Besides all that, TCU never really seemed like a good match with the Big East. Culturally and geographically, TCU is a much better fit in the Big 12. They should have been offered membership the second the Big 12 started losing members a couple years years ago and I wouldn't be surprised to see Louisville follow them in short order. This is likely to be the beginning of the end of the Big East.

-When Tiger Woods was going through all his off-course issues over the last couple of years, none of his sponsors seemed to care. It was only when he was hurt and missing cuts that his sponsors started dropping him like a bad habit. But through it all, there was never much of a doubt that when he started to win again they would come running back. Still, I was a little surprised to see Tiger sign an endorsement deal with Rolex on Thursday. First off, I'm not totally sure what watches have to do with golf. I mean, I'm all about the accessories when I play and even I don't wear a watch. Secondly, wouldn't you want to make sure Tiger was all the way back before signing him to endorse your products? I'm sure he comes cheaper now than ever before and once he starts winning again his price goes up, but the extra money companies would have to pay would probably be worth it just to make sure they are associated with a winner. You know the guys at Rolex were holding their breath all day Friday as Tiger flirted with the cut line at the Frys.com Open. I mean, unless their big marketing strategy is a picture of Woods looking at his Rolex with a caption, "Time for more practice..."