Wednesday, January 09, 2008

RANDOMIZATION: 01/09/08

What did we miss? The two-week hiatus (was planned to be one, but you know how that goes) allowed us to miss a bunch of stuff here. The NFL playoffs started after New England finished a 16-0 regular season. The NHL played a hockey game outside, allowing cynical media members to get a bunch more ammunition to make fun of the league. The Timberwolves lost a bunch of games. Then they won one.

Oh, and a national television commentator suggested that a bunch of golfers lynch Tiger Woods. We'll start there.

Context matters. I don't know much about Kelly Tilghman. She seems like a rather nice-looking young lady, and she did quickly apologize for her stupid statement.

However, weren't we down this road in April? And didn't everyone scream that Don Imus needed to get fired?

Think about that. In one corner, you have a guy who is paid to try to be funny. He was also being paid to push the envelope and be controversial. In the other, you have a woman who is paid to do play-by-play, and is probably not being asked to push anything or be even remotely controversial.

So why didn't anyone cry that Tilghman should be fired?

Please note: I am not advocating that she lose her job. I thought it was a travesty when Imus got fired, and I would have thought the same had The Golf Channel dropped the hammer on Tilghman. But why is she skating, while Imus was raked over the coals?

(Credit here to Tiger Woods, too. Woods quickly has tried to remove himself from the controversy. Moving on is the best thing to do here. Now that I've made my dumb statements on this, we'll do exactly that.)

NFL playoff quick hits. The Packers don't have a layup on Saturday, but should win. Jacksonville's physicality will only matter if David Garrard is sharper than he was in Pittsburgh last week. Oh, and they're playing the Patriots, so not much will matter if the Patriots are as ready to play as I expect them to be. This isn't the week to look for an upset of that juggernaut. The Colts need a healthy Marvin Harrison to win, but the Chargers may need Antonio Gates more. Too bad Jessica Simpson won't be on hand in Dallas Sunday, as her squeeze is likely to fare better against that beaten-up Giants secondary than Jeff Garcia did. That's fine. Maybe we can arrange for her appearance in some sort of skimpy, Dukes of Hazzard-esque item at the NFC Championship Game.

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