John Paulsen and I were recently interviewed for Hey! Nielsen’s “Ask A Blogger” feature. If you care to read our opinions (and really, why wouldn’t you care to read our opinions?) on this year’s Olympics, Manny Ramirez’s haircut fiasco and what we would do to add or change current sports network programming, then click on the link below.
Read Hey! Nielsen’s “Ask A Blogger” feature on The Scores Report.
Last night, NBC aired the finals of the pole vault competition and American Jenn Stuczynski, who has only been vaulting for four years, captured the silver medal. She lost to Russian pole vaulting phenom (and world record holder) Yelena Isinbayeva.
The fact that Stuczynski won the silver after only having pole vaulted for four years is amazing. But what is even more amazing is the post-competition speech delivered by her (ponderously) mic’ed up coach, Rick Suhr. Here’s the transcription (update: video link below):
It’s the same old same old, you’re losing takeoff at the big heights. (shrugs) Whaddaya gonna do? (shrugs, looks away) Gotta learn to keep takeoff. You got caught at that meat grinder. I did not – and I told 10 people – I didn’t wanna be caught in a meat grinder between 65 and 80. You had to, though. You weren’t on, your warmup didn’t go well. You were at 55. You got caught up in that meat grinder. Whaddaya gonna do? (shrugs, looks away) Whaddaya gonna do? (shrugs, looks away) Didn’t have the legs. Her legs are fresh. Hey, it’s a silver medal. Not bad for someone that’s been pole vaulting for four years. (looks down at his blackberry)
As you can see from the picture, it appears Stuczynski walked away from the interchange dejected that she only won a silver.
Regular readers know I played basketball for current Wisconsin head coach Bo Ryan, so I’ve been on the wrong end of my fair share of tongue-lashings. But one thing Ryan always did – once the season/milestone was over, he was always positive.
Coach Suhr, your athlete just won the silver medal. That means that, after just four years of training, she is the second best pole vaulter in the world. Sure, Isinbayeva is kind of annoying and I’m sure you really wanted to beat her, but she’s probably the best pole vaulter ever and in the grand scheme of things, Stuczynski’s accomplishment is amazing. She doesn’t need to be lectured about what she did wrong on national television. Let her enjoy her Olympic moment for a minute. She deserves your support and a pat on the back. Don’t be such a dick.
Thanks to Steve Rudniki who provided this link to the video. You have to watch a commercial first, but it’s worth it.
8/22 Update: I think we’re dealing with two sets of extremes here. One side wants to hang the coach (or at least wants her to fire him) while the other says that clip was taken totally out of context and that Suhr is not at fault for any of this.
The truth is somewhere in between. You can’t take his body language out of context and you can’t take the fact that he was not encouraging or congratulatory (at all) out of context either.
The right thing to do there – even if she asked (or says she asked) him what she did wrong – is to give a brief overview (if that) tell her that she did a good job and to enjoy her silver medal moment. Then, when the dust settles and you get back to the States, you break the competition tape out and go through everything that kept her from winning the gold.
That’s my $0.02 and I’m sticking to it.
9/7 Update: Here is an interview that ESPN did with Jenn Stuczynski where responds to the controversy. In short, she says that she asked Suhr what she did wrong, that he was texting someone to tell them that she got the silver, and that she wasn’t looking down in dejection when she walked away. (She was trying not to trip.)
Rotoworld.com (via Chris Mortensen on ESPN’s Monday Night Countdown) states that the Miami Dolphins could part ways with running back Ronnie Brown before the start of the regular season.
Huh? Mortensen is probably Bill Parcells’ mouthpiece here, and the Tuna may be trying to drum up interest. Brown has struggled in the preseason after ACL surgery, but is only 26. While Ricky Williams supplanting Brown as a starter is possible, we wouldn’t expect any trade. We would expect Brown’s precarious fantasy value to take a hit as his stock in the organization is dimming.
I would be shocked as well. It’s never an ideal situation when a running back has to bounce back from ACL surgery, but given Brown’s age and productivity before his injury, there’s no reason for the Dolphins to dump him now. It’s an interesting rumor though.
Update: Coach Sparano said there was no chance that the Dolphins would trade Ronnie Brown.
According to the Arizona Republic, the Cardinals have denied wide receiver Anquan Boldin’s request for a trade.
Drew Rosenhaus made the first request in the spring, although Boldin denied asking for a trade. Team officials, however, confirmed that request, and sources close to the situation said Rosenhaus recently asked them again to trade Boldin or allow Rosenhaus to shop for a deal.
The Cardinals’ stance remains unchanged, according to a team spokesman. They have no intention of trading Boldin and are hopeful of signing him to a contract extension.
Rosenhaus declined comment, but a source close to negotiations said Boldin is unhappy, does not talk to coach Ken Whisenhunt and wants out of Arizona. It’s possible Boldin could walk out of training camp, the source said, even though he is under contract for three more years and subject to fines of $15,000 a day.
Boldin said he believes Whisenhunt became too involved in negotiations.
“At this point we have no relationship, and I don’t see that changing,” Boldin told NFL Network on Monday. “It’s just gotten to a point where I think lines were crossed. If you ask me, coaches should be coaches, management should be management, and I don’t think those lines should be crossed. But when you cross those lines, you put yourself in position for things like this to happen.”
Even though he’s dealing with a hamstring injury, Boldin’s situation might open the door for rookie Early Doucet, who runs excellent routes and has good hands. Of course, Doucet would be more effective in the slot with Boldin and Larry Fitzgerald on the outsides.
It’ll be interesting to see what the conclusions will be to Boldin and Rams’ running back Steven Jackson’s contract situations. Both cases look rocky right now.
Bengals.com thinks there’s reason to believe that Chad Johnson’s shoulder injury is worse than first believed after the team re-signed troubled receiver Chris Henry.
A signing indicates that Chad Johnson’s sprained shoulder is serious enough that they look to be preparing for the possibility that Johnson could be sidelined for several weeks. Although Johnson insisted Monday night he’ll be back for the opener.
But that’s not the only injury that has clouded the receiver picture in the last 48 hours. There is also rookie receiver Andre Caldwell’s sprained foot and T.J. Houshmandzadeh’s hamstring. He’s 50-50 at best to play in his first preseason game Saturday night against the Saints, and the Bengals could be forced to sign a receiver in addition to Henry.
Not good. The usually explosive Bengals’ offense not only has injury concerns at wide receiver, but the running back position is also unsettled with Rudi Johnson, Chris Perry and Kenny Watson all battling for the starting job. Throw in a below average defense and the Bengals could be in for another down year.
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