It’s time, once again, for our Annual Turkey Awards. That time of year when we recognize the biggest “Turkeys” from the world of sports. So, here we go: GOBBLE! GOBBLE! GOBBLE!
The NCAA. I know, I know. That is a “Well, Duh” pick. They do enough Turkey things to make it to our table every year! Heck, we could fill out the entire awards show with just them. For this edition they make the top of the list for their lack of movement, lack of decision making, on Kansas basketball recruit Chiek Diallo. He is not the only collegiate athlete that is still waiting, waiting, waiting on the NCAA to rule on their eligibility. Wisconsin has been waiting all year. Ditto for Georgetown and others. The NCAA has known about KU’s Diallo since early summer and STILL can’t make a decision. They are slower than Obama trying to decide how to respond to ISIS! Soon, the school year will be over and they won’t have to make a decision!
Major League Baseball. A big Turkey Award here for their lack of afternoon games during the playoffs and World Series. If God had wanted night baseball he would have given us all night vision goggles! Seriously, the Gods of Baseball are abandoning young people with their late-night telecasts. Young people, the fans of tomorrow, ARE NOT, up late watching these games. Can’t we have just a few afternoon games?
The University of Kansas Administration. Pass a drumstick to these folks. They allowed former athletic director Lew Perkins to destroy football at Kansas with his heavy-handed decisions-mostly bad-that decimated what was a program on the rise. The firing of Mark Mangino and the subsequent hiring of Turner Gill sent the Jayhawks into a tailspin that they haven’t been able to recover from. Worse yet, Perkins still resides in Lawrence. They have tar and feathered people for less. I wonder how Perkins would look in Turkey feathers?
The KSHSAA. This governing body of Kansas high school athletics is a slow-moving ship that is difficult to make turns and move in a new direction. They’ve created WAY too many classes to determine football champions. Eight of them. EIGHT! A trophy for everyone!
South Carolina Football Coach-Steve Spurrier. The long-time “Ball Coach” resigned in mid-season thereby depriving all of us of his caustic quips and one-liners, especially digs at Georgia and LSU. We’ll miss the coach in the visor!
Denver Broncos Fans. A greasy Turkey tail bone for the fans that booed Peyton Manning during the loss to the Chiefs last week. Manning did not have a good game but he wasn’t playing defense, the defense the Chiefs trashed. Manning is a Hall of Famer. Broncos fans aren’t!
Offcials at the University of Missouri. A Turkey wing because they seem to make decisions by “winging it”. They let students, including the football team, dictate school functioning and policy. Get some Turkey backbone folks!
Larry Brown and Rick Pitino. These two Hall of Fame basketball coaches have got their schools into trouble with the NCAA. Again. They ought to know better. Then again, they say “practice makes perfect” and these two have perfected the art of flirting with illegality in college basketball. As Allen Iverson so succinctly put it, “Practice, Practice, Practice. I mean, I’m, talking practice.”
Again the NCAA. A double helping of Turkey for these dudes for not stepping in when all of the conference re-alignment was going on over the past several years. They should have held a high-level summit meeting aimed at establishing conferences that maintained old rivalries and made geographic sense. While they cannot dictate these conferences, they could have supplied some leadership, some reason to all of this. West Virginia in the Big 12? Really?
GOBBLE. GOBBLE. GOBBLE