Today is another installment of This (Non) Sporting Life, the blog post about sports written by a guy who does not know much about sports. Today's post is centered on the theme of crossing a line. Sometimes we do just one thing more than we should or say one more thing than we ought to and that is what gets us into trouble. Here are a couple of instances of that happening recently in the world of sports.
I've noted in this blog before that I am a fan of the Duke Blue Devils Men's Basketball team and a lot of that is owed to the wise and dedicated leadership of coach Mike Krzyzewski. However, after the recent loss in the NCAA Tournament to #1 seeded Oregon, Coach K got himself into some hot water regarding remarks he made to one of Oregon's players, Dillon Brooks, who capped his night with a three point shot to seal an 82-68 victory over Duke. Both the shot and the overall victory gave cause for Brooks to celebrate but a bit too boisterously in Krzyzewski's opinion. So he shares that opinion with Brooks in the post game handshake between teams.
Typically, I greatly admire Mike Krzyzewski but I gotta call it as I see it and Coach K, that was kind of a dick move. Sorry but it's true. Whatever you thought of Dillon Brooks and his celebratory actions, its not your place to take that up with another team's player. That's crossing a line.
Sadly, in the uproar erupted over this "instruction" of an Oregon player by Duke's coach, Mike Krzyzewski crossed another line by denying that the conversation went down like that despite video evidence to the contrary.
Dude, really.
To his credit, Coach Krzyzewski issued an apology on Saturday, saying "it is not my place to talk to another team's player" and he hoped he "did not create a distraction" for the team. He added that it "took the focus away from the terrific game that Dillon played."
In his apology, Mike Krzyzewski sounded like the Coach K that I've come respect over the last 30 years. But it is disconcerting how uncharacteristic it was for the coach to get into this mess in the first place. Just be cool, Coach K. There are lines that even a legendary all time most winning coach in NCAA basketball should not cross.
By and by, Oregon went on to fall to Oklahoma in Saturday's game.
Perhaps having a reputation of being really good in a sport and winning a lot helps to smooth things over when something does go wrong. Unfortunately, NASCAR driver Danica Patrick does not have that to fall back on after a recent dust up on the track.
I admire the fact that Danica is a groundbreaker, being the first (and I think still only) female driver in NASCAR. However, to date, Danica has not translated her unique status to actually winning races. It may well be that Danica Patrick has opened the door for women drivers in NASCAR but it may have to fall to another woman to actually beat the checkered flag in a race.
Anyway, as it is with these things in NASCAR races, one car made contact with another car, causing that car to spin out and wreck. This happened to Patrick who climbed out of her wrecked race car physically OK but mentally ready to give somebody what for over this accident. So she marched out on to the track to give someone a piece of her mind over this incident.
Apparently this is against the rules. No, not giving someone a piece of your mind but marching back onto the track without a car. Seems being on a racetrack during a race without a car can be unsafe. So Patrick was fined $20,000 and put on probation for 4 races. In this case, the line Danica Patrick crossed was a literally crossing a line that the divides the track from the side of the track.
Another line that has been crossed in the world of sports is using the image of a hot young woman in a low cut black mini dress to promote sports features online.
Like I did here.
I sincerely apologize for posting such a flagrant display of sex appeal in an edition of This (Non) Sporting Life.
Such prurient displays have no place on this blog. You know, displays like this one.
Yes, that is wrong. And I'm sorry for crossing that line.
OK, that's enough for one day. Remember to be good to one another and I'll be back with another post tomorrow.
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