May 17, 2008
The Flip Side
Dropped ball
Florida tight end recruit breaks trophy, can't get away from bump coverage
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So here's a new recruiting tactic: Let a potential player get close to your national championship trophy during his campus visit, then when he knocks it over and breaks it, tell him, "No biggie, dude," and he'll commit to your school out of guilt.
Maybe that's not the plan at Florida, but a recruit did end up bumping into the Gators' 2006 championship trophy -- a crystal football -- and busting it.
The Tampa Tribune reported that tight end Orson Charles, who will be a senior at Tampa's Plant High in the fall, was bending down to pose with Tim Tebow's Heisman Trophy when he inadvertently nudged the championship ball.
"If you were outside the stadium, it was so loud, I think you would have heard it shatter," Charles told the Tribune.
The coaching staff told Charles not to be worried. Florida had a duplicate trophy on hand and also had insurance that will play for a replacement.
(Tip of the Flip to SI.com.)
Victoria's secret
You might think they like their hockey in upstate New York. But perhaps not as much as they like their makeup.Ken Schott of Schenectady's Daily Gazette wrote in his blog that he was watching the Minnesota Wild- Colorado Avalanche playoff game Saturday night -- it sounds like his life is just as exciting as Mr. Flip's -- when at midnight the coverage on Versus switched off and was replaced by an infomercial for Victoria Principal makeup.
And even more unsettling, when Schott finally gave up trying to watch the game, he found that Patrick Duffy was in his bathroom taking a shower.
(Tip of the Flip to deadspin.com.)
Vote for Chuck
Charles Barkley is apparently considering a run for mayor of his hometown, Leeds, Ala., an 11,000-population city 18 miles east of Birmingham.Should he go ahead and run -- and the editor of the local newspaper called Barkley a "shoo-in" -- he hasn't exactly laid the groundwork for a good relationship with the City Council. Appearing on The Tonight Show recently, Barkley said the Council was full of "crooks."
But then, Barkley has never been afraid to speak his mind, whether it's saying the Washington Wizards are "the dumbest team in the history of civilization" or saying he will run for governor of his home state because "Alabama needs my help. It's like 1977 there."
Count ESPN.com's Gene Wojciechowski among fans of Barkley the potential politician.
(Completely off-topic aside: Mr. Flip once worked on the sports copy desk at the same newspaper as Wojciechowski. On occasion, he would create havoc by filing on deadline and not typing in his own byline.)
"Barkley is a much wider version of Chris Rock. He is Warren Beatty in Bulworth. Robert Redford in The Candidate. But much funnier, and more poignant," Wojciechowski wrote.
Compiled from wire and Web reports by Mr. Flip, who isn't as funny as Barkley but only a few doughnuts short of being just as wide.
Mr. Flip's rant
Experts kill joy in draft
Mr. Flip likes the NFL. He was going to say he likes the NFL as much as the next guy, except then he got to thinking that the next guy might be the kind of NFL fan who hangs on every word of the overblown coverage that the draft gets.
Oh, how Mr. Flip longs for the days when Mel Kiper Jr. was the only draft expert on the planet and a second-round pick wasn't worth more than a three-time Pro Bowl linebacker.
But now we have expert after expert, "war rooms" where draft strategy is plotted and much time put into fooling everyone about whom you want to pick.
But for all of this pseudo-science, Tom Brady still ended up being selected in the sixth round.
Mr. Flip will just read the lists in the newspaper the next day.
Mr. Flip's tube tips
Running
Boston Marathon
9:30 A.M. [VERSUS]You know, a bunch of people from Maryland run in this every year. Which maybe kind of makes up for all of those Red Sox fans at Camden Yards.
NHL playoffs
Capitals@Flyers
7 P.M. [CSN, VERSUS]It's Game 6, and Washington trails 3-2 in the series. That means for the Caps, there's no tomorrow. Of course, the same was true of Game 5. And yesterday was "tomorrow." Hmm, maybe they need to hear that song from Annie.
NBA playoffs
Wizards@Cavaliers
7 P.M. [CN8, TNT]That LeBron guy is pretty good, huh? Hey, DeShawn, if you're not too busy, could you get Mr. Flip his autograph?
Copyright © 2008, The Baltimore Sun
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