Afternoon Pressbox RIP

In a radio landscape scarred with wannabe Cowherds, Romes, and Patricks, 560 AM's "Afternoon Pressbox", hosted by Bill King and Joe Biddle, was a rare sonic beacon of hope when it came to the sports talk scene. With a cast of call in regulars that rivaled the Andy Griffith show, listening to the Pressbox every afternoon was comfort food for my ears and brain. Bill King, while a native of Middle Tennessee, is one of the nation's top college recruiting gurus, a one man encyclopedia of decades worth of NCAA lore and statistics. His morning show on Rivals radio is reason enough to subscribe to Sirius. Joe Biddle meanwhile has been a fixture of the Nashville sports media for decades, and his columns for the Tennessean are a mixture of wry Southern humor and invaluable perspective. The best thing about the Pressbox was its avoidance of all the usual cliches and tired mechanics that seem to drive most contemporary sports talk programs, ie tabloid style gossip, sophomoric humor, sound bite props, and most importantly, antagonism to callers. Bill and Joe offered calm and humorous commentary on current sports happenings, always more concerned with anecdotes and statistics than the latest garbage about Tiger, Favre, the Jets, Lebron, ad nauseam. And they weren't SEC apologists, another thing that's pretty rare in these parts. Bill and Joe could put Vols and Wildcats fans in their place, sometimes give Commodore fans a little comfort, and they always had time to indulge a starved Big 10 or Big 12 fan. Oh, and they also didn't feel the need to wave Predators or Titans flags like the other corporate cheerleaders that seem to hold sway on Middle Tennessee's airwaves.
As refreshing a set of ship captains as Bill and Joe were, they always had an admirable set of call in contributors to their radio land "McHale's Navy". Preeminently was the Knoxville regular "Cosby", who called in every day from a pay phone to vent about something Vols related, usually sounding like he was halfway through a case of light beer and with a diction that recalled Goober. Or maybe he was a one man incarnation of the Fun Girls from Mount Pilot. Truth be told, none of us as loyal listeners really knew the score.
On Friday, Bill announced on air that he and Joe had mutually decided to call it a day. Bill has his plate full with Rivals, and Joe wants to have a bit of time away from radio to focus solely on the world of print. I would like to think that the fans of the Pressbox constitute a kind of "silent majority" (i was always a silent part of that group, having never called in to the show) who long for sanity, etiquette, and informed commentary when it comes to the world of sports media. Let's hope someone can pick up the torch.

Mental Assasin

I vowed to never repost anything Jim Rome related when I started this blog back
in January, but this is just too good. It's pretty hard to leave Rome in the dust, usually because he hosts in a very home field advantage fashion a la Letterman or Fox News. Still, the Beard manages to do it.

Broncos, 49ers relegated to revamped NFL Europe

Let's hope Tim Tebow doesn't drink too much on the way over to Wembley...

Derek Dooley now teaching European history at UT

Wow. This guy is definitely out there enough to coach in the SEC. Move over Les, Nick, and Robbie.

Jay Cutler apparently unaware that guys on the other team wear different colored jerseys

From today's Washington Post...

Yeh, yeh, go ahead and beat up on Vanderbilt alums. It's a good week for it.


The DeAngelo Hall-Jay Cutler feud has a back story, dating to September of 2008, when the Broncos whipped the Raiders on Monday Night Football and Eddie Royal had an enormous debut. The then-rookie recorded nine receptions for 146 yards and two touchdowns, "most of it against Hall," according to reports. Here's a note from the Denver Post that week:

"With Broncos star receiver Brandon Marshall missing the opener to serve his one-game suspension, Mike Shanahan built his game plan around Royal beating Hall. Afterward, Hall said the Broncos outschemed the Raiders - a term that points a finger at the coaching staff. Cutler scoffed at that notion. "We played one-on-one football with them; we didn't outscheme them," Cutler said. "Eddie Royal beat DeAngelo Hall time after time after time. That's what happened.""

Other reports indicated that Cutler laughed while saying this. Then this week, after Hall tied the NFL record for interceptions against Cutler, the quarterback remained unimpressed, saying "if we had to play them tomorrow, I'd go at him every time, if we could."

During a late-morning appearance on SportsCenter, that clip was played for Hall, who laughed in turn.

"You know what man, Jay's a little bit, he don't really understand, I guess, the game, the game of football," Hall said on Monday. "And in the game of football, you're gonna see guys several times in their career. You know, he completed four passes against me when I was out in Oakland and he was in Denver on a Monday Night Football game, and I knew leading up to the game he was still feeling good about that. He made some smart, snide comments about that after that game, so I knew definitely he was gonna try to come out there and try me, and it didn't work for him."

Later, Hall was asked about the Bears' offensive personnel.

"They've got some great players, they've got some great players," he said. "They've definitely got some players out there, man....Jay's a good quarterback. He has that swagger and that confidence that you like out of your quarterback. If he's on your team, you love him to death, you'll ride or die with him. if he's not on your team, he's a guy that's gonna get into it with almost everybody on the field....They've got the weapons. They've got the weapons, man. But I guess our scheme and our guys just wanted it a little bit more that day."

SEC Showdowns, 10/23

The leaves are dropping around the Southeast, and thankfully so are the thermometers. This is the time of the year when college football gets really interesting, especially in 2010. Florida is a powerhouse no longer, Alabama has suffered a defeat, the SEC West looks wide open at the top and the SEC East looks wide open at the bottom. In the crazed dazed word of SEC football, this is the stuff we live for. Here are a few of my predictions.

LSU vs Auburn
Auburn quarterback Cam Newtown is a favorite for the Heisman, and LSU coach Les Miles is a favorite for the Funny Farm. On one hand, you have a team in Auburn that is being carried largely on the shoulders of Newton's spectacular play, and with last week's stunning victory over Arkansas (the highest scoring game in SEC history), this pack of Tigers proved they are the real deal. On the other hand, you have the boys from Baton Rouge, who despite lacking a true starting quarterback or any sort of consistent offensive strategy, are still undefeated. Les Miles has a baffling style of syntax but something he is doing is working. Granted, the LSU Tigers also possess arguably the SEC's best defense.
Either way, this will be a fun game to watch. It will be rowdy, loud, and no doubt provoke some guffaws from Vern Lundquist. I am picking Auburn in this game, but underestimating Les Miles is like underestimating a voodoo priest.

Alabama vs Tennessee
If the Vols pull this one out of the bag, it will be the biggest upset in college football all year. As much as I would love to see it go down, I just don't smell it. These teams are too mismatched, and it would take Tennessee's best day against Alabama's worst day. I think it will be a close game though. Remember that last year, Tennessee was a blocked field goal away from victory, and that was in Tuscaloosa.

Ole Miss vs Arkansas
Arkansas is not the powerhouse they appeared to be a few weeks ago. Ole Miss is not the bag of feathers they appeared to be in weeks one and two. This could be a very interesting match, but I have to pick Arkansas in this one.

Mississippi State vs UAB
UAB generally plays SEC teams with a good size chip on its shoulder. That said, Mississippi State is looking like the real deal, especially after last week's upset of Florida. I am taking State by at least two touchdowns.

Vanderbilt vs South Carolina
Steve Spurrier and the Gamecocks will be sorely missing Marcus Lattimore this week, even against the Commodores. This is a homecoming game for Vanderbilt, and coming off an absolutely embarrassing rout at the hands of Georgia, I think they will be playing scrappy today. I have a feeling that Robbie Caldwell has been a little less Jerry Clower in the locker room this week and little more like Arthur Jensen. I am taking the Gamecocks, but I think the ever exasperating Commodores keep it close.

Georgia vs Kentucky
I know that it's basketball season all year long up in Lexington, but this year, the Wildcats actually have a shot at winning the SEC East. Granted, South Carolina would need to lose a couple of games down the stretch, but in last week's surprising victory over South Carolina, the Wildcats looked like a team that needs to be taken seriously, and Joker Phillips is getting it done as the skipper. I am picking Kentucky in this matchup, because I smell another unlikely victory for Kentucky. I think Georgia has buoyed itself with a little bit of false confidence in the last couple of weeks beating up on two different Tennessee squads.

Shooting Dirty Pool

There has been a lot of hoopla in recent days over Pittsburgh linebacker James Harrison and his perceived dirty hits, specifically one on Josh Cribs in Saturday's Pittsburgh-Cleveland matchup. I have always felt that the Steelers get away with plenty of dirty plays, in part due to their high profitability as a franchise. Still, we could see a sea change in the future, and I think it's worth remembering this perhaps forgotten play from Super Bowl 43.

From the archives of Bleacher Report:



I know it's the biggest game of the year and on the biggest stage. I know that this is a Man's game and a physical game. But did Harrison have to take it to that level? And, why was the act ignored?

Did the refs not want to be the one to kick someone out the Super Bowl? Would it have been an unprecedented toss? I truly don't know if a player has been kicked out of the Super Bowl Game or not.

Harrison makes one of the most exciting plays in Super Bowl History. The longest interception return for a touchdown in Super Bowl history. At that point the whole stadium, the whole world was impressed. He ran down that field in undeniable fashion.
All he had to hope for was that the penalty was not against Pittsburgh and that he could quickly get to the oxygen. He is the hero of the first half. He has the admiration from every Steeler past and present.
In the second half though the play is over and not in his vicinity: he pushes the Cardinal player to the ground, then holds the player down and punches him, pushes him again, shoves him to the ground again and then for final good measure he shoves him backwards.
Again, what were the Refs thinking? Half the distance to the goal line was not good enough. Even John Madden said, "he should be thrown out for that." The Cards got cheated gaining only a few inches for what was clearly bad sportsmanship, bad judgement by the player, and bad non-action by the refs
Now I personally think the Steelers overall play is very dirty and they did things all game and all season that were unreal. But, I am told that is the nature of the game. And, for most NFL games that I watch that holds true. I also know that hits come late and players play outside the lines.
I actually thought the Steelers v Ravens game was the most physical game I have ever watched. I can appreciate a physical game, a physical team, and a physical player. But this action went overboard. For this infraction, he should have been tossed. No questions asked and no hesitation.
Now they pose this to Jerome Bettis in postgame and he skirted around it. He never answered it. As I am sure all Steeler players would and Steeler fans. But he deserved to be escorted out. And if he had been tossed, how would that have changed the complexity of the game?
Would that have made a difference with the performance of the Cardinal O-line in the final quarter? I don't know...None of us will ever know.
But, I do wonder will Goodell have a look at this play? Will he and the League Office assess it and make some recommendation for some games suspension in 2009?
Harrison definitely deserves a hefty fine and game suspension. He should also be ashamed of himself and publicly apologize today for his action.