Headlines

Here are the more interesting headlines from the world of sports along with my thoughts.

NFL

Texans fire offensive coordinator Palmer
The Houston Texans fired offensive coordinator Chris Palmer on Monday following the team's second straight embarrassing loss.
Joe Pendry, the team's offensive line coach, was introduced as his replacement by coach Dom Capers Monday afternoon.
``We have not performed up to our expectations,'' Capers said. ``We needed to make an adjustment to help us move forward in the direction we want to go.''

Okay Dom, where exactly do you think you are going? You have a team that has underachieved for at least the last two seasons and an offensive line that has given up 13 sacks in the first two games of this season. Palmer is nothing but a goat here, and by the end of the season it will be Capers head on the chopping block.

Here is my favorite quote from this story.

Quarterback David Carr said he didn't like the feeling he's had the last two weeks and that he's happy with any change that will improve the team.
``I just want to get back to where we feel good about going out on Sundays,'' Carr said. ``Feel like we have a chance to go out and compete against the teams that we feel like we're just as good as.''

If you don’t like the way if feels when you play then change the way you play. Get better!

Katrina telethon raises $5 million
A fund-raising telethon that featured more than 30 current and former NFL players raised $5 million for the Bush-Clinton Katrina Fund in about 6 1/2 hours.
Monday night's telethon was part of the NFL's ``Hurricane Relief Weekend'' and coincided with a special ``Monday Night Football'' doubleheader on ABC and ESPN. Players such as John Elway, Donovan McNabb, Art Shell and Frank Gifford took turns, 12 at a time, spending between 75 minutes to 2 hours answering telephones and taking donations.
``We appreciate the tremendous response of our fans and everything that our teams and players are doing to support the relief effort,'' NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue said. ``We are going to stay at it because all of America is going to have to stay at it.''
NFL teams and relief organizations have raised approximately $4 million from fans at stadiums for Hurricane Katrina relief, the league said, bringing the total generated by the NFL to $21 million.

Give the NFL a pat on the back for this one. It was a great idea and it goes to a needy cause. The only it could have been better is if they would have found a place that would give New Orleans some sort of home field advantage. Has anyone ever heard of a place called Baton Rouge?

MLB

Red Sox roll to stay atop AL East

Home runs from Manny Ramirez and David Ortiz helped lift Boston past Tampa Bay and stay in first place in the AL East.

Man if you are a Red Sox fan how bad are you freaking out right now? A half game is all that separates the opportunity to win the pennant or possibly stay home for the play-offs. Sox fans have been here before. Has anyone seen Bucky Dent?

White Sox on verge of historic collapse
Leading the AL Central by 15 games on Aug. 1 and on the verge of a runaway, the White Sox find themselves hanging on with two weeks to go, trying to hold off the hard-charging Cleveland Indians.
Chicago is still tops the league in wins, but a 7-5 loss to the Indians on Monday night cut its edge to 2 1/2 games. It was the eighth loss in 11 games for the White Sox and suddenly, instead of the playoffs, there's talk about them blowing the biggest lead ever.

What’s the real story here, the White Sox or the Indians? There is plenty of blame to heap on the Sox here for their self destruction, but tons of credit should go to Cleveland for not giving up and putting themselves in the position to make history.

NBA

Are the Hornets headed to Oklahoma City?
An announcement could come any time on plans to temporarily relocate the Hornets to Oklahoma City.

The announcement has already been made in Oklahoma City. The city and the NBA have reached an agreement to bring the Hornets to the Sooner state. This will be huge for the city and the state. It’s a one year trial for Oklahoma to get out of the minor leagues and also a great opportunity to show off the Ford Center, where the Hornets will be playing.

NCAA Football

Vanderbilt Undefeated

Vanderbilt's is off to it's first 3-0 start since 1984 and first 2-0 conference record since 1956.

It’s a true sign of the end times when Vanderbilt and Baylor have a better chance of winning the BCS Championship than OU does three weeks into the season. Give these teams credit for shaking off losing tradition and beginning their season undefeated. Let’s just hope that they can pick up three more wins and become bowl eligible.

Sugar Bowl will not be in New Orleans
The Sugar Bowl will be played in either Baton Rouge, La., or Atlanta, GA. Sugar Bowl officials said Tuesday they will know in about three weeks whether Louisiana has recovered sufficiently to keep the game in the state where it has been played every year since it was established in 1935.
Tiger Stadium on the LSU campus holds almost 92,000 and would make an adequate game site, but the city of Baton Rouge has insufficient hotel rooms and infrastructure to host an event that would attract thousands on Jan. 2.
That means New Orleans would need to be ready to house most of the fans, participants and media going to the game.
``We are going to continue to talk with city and state officials, everybody who will need to be involved in this process,'' Sugar Bowl executive director Paul Hoolahan said in a teleconference from Chicago with BCS officials. ``This is totally about New Orleans.''
Atlanta already has given Sugar Bowl officials the OK to use the Georgia Dome, which hosts the Southeastern Conference championship game in December. That made Atlanta an obvious and convenient choice as a temporary home for one of college football's longest-running and most recognizable events.

The Sugar Bowl is one of my favorite bowl games; I was there in 2004 when LSU won the Championship. it doesn’t matter where they move it to, it won’t be the same. I think it’s important to mention the millions of dollars that New Orleans is going to lose by not hosting this game. If it goes to Atlanta, and I think it will, there should be some sort of pay out to the city of New Orleans.
The question is also there now, If the Sugar Bowl leaves the state of Louisiana will if ever come back? What do you think?

NASCAR

Rough start

With a number of intentional wrecks and retaliations, what was supposed to be the start of NASCAR's shining moment – its 10-race Chase – wound up being one of its ugliest races in a long time, the exciting finish between winner Ryan Newman and runner-up Tony Stewart notwithstanding.

NASCAR has done such a good job at marketing themselves that this will even boost ratings more, because now WWE fans will tune in. Here is the series of events that unfolded on Sunday.

First we saw Michael Waltrip ram Robby Gordon – Waltrip said it was an accident, Gordon said otherwise. Then we saw Gordon try to back up his mangled car into Waltrip's No. 15 when he passed by on the next lap. Failing to do that, Gordon got out of his car, waited for Waltrip to come by again, played chicken with him by standing in front of Waltrip's car and then wildly heaved his helmet at the No. 15 car as Waltrip passed by.
"Everyone thinks Michael is a good guy," Gordon said. "He's not the good guy like he acts like he is. The caution was out and he wrecked me. He's a piece of [expletive]."
Then there's Kasey Kahne. In the midst of a difficult sophomore season, Kahne once again tangled with another driver, this time rookie Kyle Busch.
After the initial wreck, Kahne limped his damaged car along the bottom of the track until he saw Busch in his rearview mirror. Then, just when it looked like Kahne was heading to pit road, he made a quick move to the right, forcing Busch to hit him and causing damage to Busch's car.
There were the two other incidents of note. First, on just the second lap, Scott Riggs slid into Kurt Busch, sending the defending Cup champ into the wall. Busch stormed out of his car, walked the entire length of pit road to talk with Rodney Childers, Riggs' crew chief.
"We've had issues in the past and this isn't where you want to repay anybody," Busch said. "The 10 got into us. He just got loose. He was a car on the bottom side and needed to give more room to guys on the high side."
Busch did make some derogatory remarks toward Riggs, who wouldn't back down after the race.
"That same thing happened at Indy to us," he said. [Busch] got into us when we were running in the top 10 and he didn't think it was necessary to come over and apologize to me, so I don't feel like I owe him an apology."
There also was Jimmy Spencer, who got turned into the wall by Rusty Wallace. Mr. Excitement waited until Wallace passed by on the next lap, but instead of doing a Gordon- or Kahne-like retaliatory move, simply smiled and waved – and that was the end of it.
A friendly driver is a safe driver.

I really believe we have the beginnings for the first NASCAR Royal Rumble. It could be a pay-per-view event. Just remember it was my idea.