Updated:
June 14, 2000
TOP
OF THE WEEK STEVE YOUNG
We raised a very skeptical eyeball when Mr. Young decided to take a Mrs. Young two months ago. Seemed like the must thing to do for a high-profile athlete about to retire. Got to keep a straight-and-narrow public image.
But we must tip our hat to Young's brilliant NFL career: The all-time leader in completion percentage, Super Bowl champion QB and a terrific competitor. The NFL has now lost Young, Dan Marino and John Elway to retirement the past year. Somehow, watching
Jeff Garcia, Damon Huard and Brian Griese just isn't the same.
BOTTOM OF THE WEEK
CHRISTINA FERNANDEZ RICE
After watching her husband get benched in the fourth quarter of Sunday's Lakers-Pacers Game 3, Glen Rice's wife went off.
Christina Fernandez Rice said that if she were her husband, "I would have already been Latrell Sprewell II." She was referring to the incident when Sprewell choked then-Golden State head coach PJ Carlissimo.
Put a lid on it, Frau Rice. We love guys who stand by their guys and women who stand by their man, but the middle of the NBA Finals isn't the time to cause a distraction. There's a good reason Rice was sent to the bench: He can't play defense and was getting lit up by Jalen Rose..
HIGHLIGHTS OF THE WEEK
THE GOOD OLD BOYS
AT SI
Sports Illustrated has always been known as an old boys club: white, male, straight. Under its former editor SI never acknowledged gays, blowing off coverage of such events as Gay Games IV, held in SI's Manhattan backyard and drawing 500,000 people. They have gotten better under new management and ran a great Rick Reilly column a month ago about gay high school football captain Corey Johnson.
But the mag is still pretty sexist, as witness its annual flesh-fest swimsuit issue, where the only athletic things these models have to do is apply mascara.
Two weeks ago SI's cover was on Anna Kournikova, a decent tennis player but not cover material. Except that to straight guys she's a total babe. In a major way, and she's not afraid to flaunt it.
As the article said: "Anna Kournikova is living proof that even in this age of supposed enlightenment, a hot body can count as much as a good backhand."
This paean to bimboism steamed Newsday columnist Johnette Howard, who took SI apart. Some excerpts from Howard's terrific piece this week:
``In the same week the NBA Finals and NHL Finals were in high gear, it's valid to ask why SI would devote a cover story to a female tennis player who's never won a pro tournament in her 4½ years on tour and bombed out of the French Open before last week's issue even hit most newsstands. But in the vapid story, author Frank Deford provides the two-word answer: "She's hot!" You go, dude. ...
"The overheated tone of the article is remindful of a little boy peering through a knothole, or some teenager who just found his dad's copy of Hustler wedged between the sofa cushions and stole off to his room for a longer look. ...
``Kournikova is no more the face of the women's sports revolution than Dr. Laura Schlessinger is. If anything, Kournikova is the same old thing: An attractive woman who's famous because men would like to sleep with her.''
We have one thing to say to Howard: You go, girl!
MOSS DROPPED FROM
PLANE
Only Randy Moss could provide as much entertainment off the field as on it. Who can forget
the Minnesota Viking receiver squirting a ref with a water battle after not getting a PI call against the Rams in the playoffs?
And passengers on a US Air flight in West Virginia won't forget the sight of Moss being tossed from a flight for
allegedly being verbally abusive to a flight attendant. But it seems like Randy might not be
in the wrong on this one.
A female passenger told the Associated Press that it was the flight attendant who acted like a jerk. Imagine that.
According to AP:
"He was a complete gentleman," Patty Garcia said Tuesday from her home in Tampa, Fla. "If there was any instigation, it was by her. I've never seen anyone get treated the way he did. Ever."
Moss' carry on bag was too large to fit under his first-class seat and the overhead compartments were full. He was told he would have to check the bag inside the airport.
Instead, Moss walked to the near-empty back of the plane and removed a few items from the bag, which he placed in an overhead compartment.
Garcia struck up a conversation with Moss, who was flying to Miami.
"[The flight attendant] comes back there and says, 'Do you have a problem?' He says, 'What do you mean?' She said, 'You're sitting back here talking.' He said, 'I'm not showing you any disrespect. I'm sitting back here fine.'
"She must have thought we were speaking about her," Garcia said. "She got on a power trip."
The flight attendant summoned the captain, who allegedly cursed at Moss and said he had "better sit back there and shut up or he would . . . throw him off the plane," Garcia said.
THE JOHN ROCKER
SAGA
When will this end? Just when we thought it was over,
the Braves have started a new chapter. A week after shipping controversial pitcher John Rocker down to
Triple A Richmond, they recalled him on Tuesday.
Rocker was demoted last week after a month of bad performances on the mound, and a day after berating
the Sports Illustrated writer who printed Rocker's homophobic and racist remarks last December. The
recall of Rocker is reportedly in reaction to an injury to Braves pitcher Rudy Seanez. Now, as long as
the Braves can keep all the fags with AIDS, single mothers, and Koreans away from Rocker, he should be
fine.
TENNIS
The French Open limped to the finish line last
weekend. On the women's side, it was no contest as Mary Pierce became the first French woman to win the
tournament in over 30 years. She beat Conchita Martinez, 6-2, 7-5.
On the men's side, the scruffy Brazilian who desperately needs a haircut, Gustavo Kuerten, won his
second French Open (the first was in 1997). He topped Magnus Norman in the final, 6-2, 6-3, 2-6, 7-6 (8-6).
The match wasn't nearly as close as it looks, as Kuerten squandered
10 match points before putting the match away.
NHL
It had two Conference Championships going the full
seven games. It had double and triple and quintuple overtime games. It even had controversy surrounding
another Buffalo loss. And, it may have been the best playoffs of any sport in years.
And nobody watched.
As the New Jersey Devils beat the Dallas Stars in a double-overtime thriller, 2-1, to win the series, 4-2,
93% of the people watching television were watching something other than Game 6. In fact, in the New York
Metro Area, where the Devils are based, less than 3% of all television sets were tuned to the game.