Touring the sports world, here and there …
• NFL kickers attempted 1,183 extra points and missed five of them for a success rate of 99.6 percent. Yes, it’s time to get rid of the extra-point kick. NFL Total Access’s Rich Eisen calls the extra point “the penny of the NFL.”
• So, what to do? Keep the 2-point conversion. For one point, have the kicker try to send the ball through the uprights, from a tee, from the 50-yard line.
• Another sports time-waster is baseball’s intentional walk. Major League Baseball should do what is done in high school – the dugout signals to the home plate umpire that an intentional walk is desired, and the ump immediately sends the batter to first base. No stupid light-toss between pitcher and catcher.
• And when did the free-throw lane violation rule change in pro and college basketball? Don’t players still have to wait until the free-throw shooter releases the ball before they can enter the lane? Now, guys pile into the lane when the shooter exhales before he shoots.
• Two weeks ago in this space we remembered Jerry Coleman, the Yankees World Series MVP, San Diego Padres broadcaster and Marine Corps ace aviator. Research of his life did not produce a single incident of Coleman jumping out of his plane after a successful mission to scream, “Well, I’m the best fighter pilot in the war!”
• This week, we can’t forget cornerback Richard Sherman’s wild postgame interview after his Seattle Seahawks beat the San Francisco 49ers. He was terrific on one of the game’s final plays, knocking a pass intended for Niners receiver Michael Crabtree into the arms of Seattle teammate Malcolm Smith. “Well, I’m the best corner in the game!”
• And you thought “The Tree” mascot embarrasses Stanford.
• Stanford grad Sherman ruined his great moment with his lack of self control, and he is going to pay for it as the Super Bowl approaches. That postgame interview is going to dominate every media interaction Sherman has leading up to the Super Bowl. He will hate it and he will complain about it, but he has only himself to blame for it.
• Of course, plenty of comments attached to Internet sports stories and posted on Twitter about Sherman are racist. Of course, the trolls won’t bother to learn about two African-American men who are finalists for the Walter Payton NFL Man of the Year honor, Thomas Davis of the Carolina Panthers and Charles Tillman of the Chicago Bears. Among their many community endeavors, Davis started an after-school mentoring program and a back-to-school supplies giveaway in Charlotte, and Tillman’s Cornerstone Foundation provides access to iPads and laptops to pediatric hospital patients.
• There is a great Duracell batteries commercial you can find on youtube.com featuring former Troy and UCLA running back Derrick Coleman of the Seattle Seahawks. Coleman lost most of his hearing by age 4, but that did not stop him and that is the point of the Duracell spot. The commercial portrays Troy’s coaches as being unsupportive of Coleman, but the memory here is that those coaches promoted Coleman pretty well.
• Coleman was the target of some interesting college recruiting here in 2007. He committed to UCLA when Karl Dorrell was the coach. When Dorrell was fired by UCLA, USC went hard after Coleman but Coleman honored his commitment to UCLA.
• Coleman is not the only Troy alum playing in the Super Bowl. Denver long-snapper Aaron Brewer, like Coleman, is from Troy’s graduating class of ’08. Ronnie Hillman of La Habra High, which like Troy is in the Freeway League, is a Broncos running back.
• Road playoff records of San Francisco 49ers quarterbacks: Joe Montana, 1-2; Steve Young, 0-3; Colin Kaepernick, 2-1.
• Monday night was a big night for the big guys in the NBA as five players tallied at least 15 points with at least 20 rebounds: Portland’s LaMarcus Aldridge (27 points, 20 rebounds), Memphis’ Zach Randolph (23-20), Cleveland’s Anderson Varejao (18-21), Chicago’s Joakim Noah (17-21) and the Clippers’ DeAndre Jordan (16-21). ESPN, citing the Elias Sports Bureau wizards, reported the last time five players went at least 15-20 on the same day was Feb. 24, 1978 with these five: Artis Gilmore, Elvin Hayes, Moses Malone, Swen Nater and Wes Unseld.
• What ESPN did not report was that Hayes and Unseld were Washington Bullets teammates on that Feb. 24. They beat the Phoenix Suns in overtime.
• At Santa Anita on Sunday, 16-1 longshot filly Spellbound rallied from 17 lengths behind halfway through the race to win the $200,000 La Canada Stakes at 11/6 miles.
• KISS, with its pyrotechnics and other tricks, plays a brief rock show before the Ducks-Kings hockey game Saturday at Dodger Stadium. In a 2003 show at The Forum in which it opened for Aerosmith, KISS did all of its circus stuff and Aerosmith, in pointed response, chose as its opening song “Let the Music Do the Talking.” That is good advice for Richard Sherman.
Contact the writer: sfryer@ocregister.com
