Hot Reads: Tom’s farewell party
Randy York has the details on “A Tribute to Tom,” the Mar. 9 send-off for Tom Osborne in Omaha, and it’s shaping up to be perhaps the most surreal retirement party in recent memory.
Barry Switzer, Bill Snyder, and Barry Alvarez will be there. So will a dance company from Florida. Chris Fowler will host and Holly Rowe will be there “looking to go table-to-table for updates and analyses.” Johnny Rodgers, Irving Fryar, Eric Crouch, Scott Frost will also be in Omaha for the festivities.
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I honestly have no idea how that’s all going to come together but 1) I’m dying to find out and 2) It’s fun for a good cause. All the proceeds from the event will benefit The TeamMates Mentoring Program and the Nebraska Athletic Research Lab.
You can find ticket information here.
BARRY ON BRET >>> Well here’s something interesting: Wisconsin Athletic Director Barry Alvarez hasn’t spoken with ex-Badgers coach Bret Bielema since he left for Arkansas according to a story in the Wisconsin State-Journal.
In fact, it doesn’t seem like Alvarez is in any hurry to reconnect with his old head coach, though he says he will “someday.”
“You’re a head coach and you leave for what people perceive as, at best, a lateral move,” Alvarez said. “It’s like a slap in the face to them.”
Alvarez has found a laudable replacement in former Utah State coach Gary Andersen, but Alvarez still seems pained by the experience of having Bielema leave like he did. Alvarez used the word “ambushed” to describe it.
“I’ve moved on,” Alvarez declared. “He left. I know the business. I don’t have any problem with that.”
Oh, really?
“I just didn’t like some of the things that went down afterwards or how he did it,” Alvarez said, citing Bielema’s public complaint regarding salaries for assistant coaches. “You made the decision to go to Arkansas. Go to Arkansas. Good luck. You don’t have to take any swipes. I just didn’t appreciate that.”
Touche, Barry.
THAT STORY THAT EVERYONE IS TALKING ABOUT >>> If you’re reading this you’re on the Internet. If you’re on the Internet, odds are good you’ve read this Mant’i Te’o story. If you haven’t, the Internet might read like a foreign language at the moment.
I’ve struggled all morning to come up with an appropriate response to that story and I don’t have one at the moment. Not to get too grandiose, but my goal in everything — be it statistical analysis, reading a news story, or just existing in society — is to at least try to find out “what is true here.”
The Te’o story offers no such harbor at the moment, so I’ll wait.
But definitely read the story if you haven’t. It’s mind-blowing.
1 Comment On This Topic
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January 19, 2013 at 7:49 am
To me, it doesn't really matter what is true about that. What I know is true is good enough. He is young. He is a very good athlete. As it stands in the grand scheme nobody is really hurting from it except him.. and maybe some of the people who actually care about him.
This kind of fraud is nothing new. It happens every day. I was farther down the road than that kid when I got my first computer. I corresponded with a "female" for a couple weeks only to find a porn site. The feeling was excruciating. I felt humiliated in my own space…nobody to see it but me. I would not want to admit to the world? I was that gullible… Not if I was a kid… And not if I was A KICKASS LINEBACKER.
So I say, thank you for your patience, not so quick to judge.
Let it go. let the boy become a man…and let us talk ball!