CWAMB would be remiss if we didn’t mention the passing of legendary 49ers coach Bill Walsh Monday. He was 75, and had been suffering from leukemia for several years.

“The Genius” won 102 games with the 49ers, including 10 post-season games and three Super Bowls. He is largely responsible for unearthing the NFL from its “three-yards-and-a-cloud-of-dust” collegiate roots by installing his West Coast Offense into the Niners’ scheme, and placing it in the more-than-capable hands of Joe Montana. The number of current NFL coaches who served under him or played for him is almost uncountable.

Bill Walsh was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1993. (image courtesy of www.allaboutvision.com)

If you love the NFL like I think you do, considering its exponential growth in popularity in the last few decades, you owe this man a debt of gratitude. God Bless, Bill.

Well it’s finally official, Colts Pro Bowl LT Tarik Glenn has decided to hang ‘em up after 10 years in the league (9 protecting Peyton Manning’s blind side). BigBlueShoe at Stampede Blue has a great post on Tarik and his career:

“During his 9 years at LT (his rookie year he played guard), he protected one quarterback: Peyton Manning. Through all the highs (winning the Super Bowl), and all the lows (the o-line choking in the 2006 playoff game against Pittsburgh), Glenn and Manning always protected each other. When morons like Terry Bradshaw and Mike Florio crowed that Manning had called out his o-line after the Pittsburgh playoff loss in 2006, Tarik was quick to dismiss their opinions and tell it like it was. When Colts fans bitched and moaned about Tarik’s annoying false starts, Manning would state right in and say, without hesitation, that he’d only want Tarik Glenn at LT.

It seems like an eternity ago that Tarik was taken #19 overall in the 1997 draft. He was drafted by then-Colts GM Bill Tobin, made famous for putting Mel Kiper Jr. in his place, and essentially cementing Kiper’s career as ESPN’s resident draft hack. Tarik was drafted to protect Jim Harbaugh, but he played the 1997 season at guard while fellow 1997 draftee Adam Meadows played LT as a rookie. Needless to say, Harbaugh took a beating that season and the Colts finished 3-13. The next year the Colts fired Tobin, drafted Peyton Manning, moved Tarik to LT, Meadows to guard, and the rest is history.

Throughout Tarik’s career, he was under-appreciated. He played his college ball at Cal, and while there he was also unappreicated. At the pro level, inferior players like Baltimore’s Jonathan Ogden went to Pro Bowls over Tarik, even though Tarik’s QBs got sacked less and his RBs ran for more yardage overall. It wasn’t until Ogden was exposed as a fraud by Dwight Freeney that Tarik started getting some Pro Bowl love. From 2000-2007, Tarik was the best LT in the AFC. From 2004-2007, he was the best in the NFL. Better than Ogden. Better than Seattle’s Walter Jones. Better than them all. However, because Tarik was invited to so few Pro Bowls, and never made an All-Pro team, he won’t be considered for the Hall of Fame. At Tarik’s retirement announcement, someone asked Bill Polian if Tarik was a Ring of Famer. The answer is yes, absolutely. I personally don’t want to see another player wearing #78. It’s weird enough seeing rookie Michael Coe wear #32. #78 is Tarik’s number, and nobody should ever wear it again in a Colts uniform.”

While I’m not as convinced as BBS about Tarik’s HOF credentials (he’s a borderline HOF guy who should at least get some consideration, IMO) I would love to see Glenn’s #78 retired to the Colts Ring of Honor when the new stadium opens in 2008. Here’s what I said in the comments at Stampede Blue:

He anchored one of the most stable and solid O-lines in NFL history. Not a hall-of-famers-across-the-board o-line, but one when stacked up against others overall should be favorably compared with the best. Tarik was the heart of that. Sadly he won’t get NFL HOF consideration, but the team should honor him for sure. Ideally I’d like to see him and maybe Marshall Faulk both honored when the new stadium opens in ‘08.

It definitely hurts to lose him, and I do expect at least the first half of the season to see more false starts and more sacks given up. Possibly even some shuffling of the line until the find the right guy for the job (Johnson? Ugoh? Someone else already on the line moved to LT?) but I have faith in o-line coach Howard Mudd. if anyone can mold Tarik Glenn’s replacement quickly and well, it’s him.

The future is definitely the key question. Who steps up at LT for the Colts now, one of the most important positions for any team let alone one so dependent on audibles, quick reads and disguising blocking schemes. The candidates?

• The front runner is probably Charlie Johnson, a 2 year vet on the O-line who filled in at RT in the Super Bowl quite well. Even Glenn had nice things to say about him at his retirement announcement: “”I really believe in Charlie. I’ve always thought he was a really good player, a talented player. He’s smart. He’s athletic. He’s competitive. He’ll be able to do the job.” The question is can he make the transition from RT to the infinitely harder (and important to protecting your QB’s ass) LT position.
• 2nd round draft pick Tony Ugoh out of Arkansas. The Colts traded to get the second round pick used on Ugoh, thinking he would be Glenn’s eventual replacement after this season (when Glenn’s contract was up). While this pushes him into the conversation at LT a year earlier than expected, Colts OL coach Howard Mudd has proven to be a master as quickly getting rookies up to speed in the Colts system and getting them playing at a very high level.
• A vet already on the line switching to LT? The first that comes to mind is possibly OT Ryan Diem who has the size but I worry about whether he has the quickness off the snap to play LT against speed rushers. Returning OG Rick DeMulling is also a possibility as he played some LT in college and was a very solid OG for the Colts through 2005 when he signed with the Lions. Re-united with OL coach Howard Mudd should see him get back to his previous level before he went to the cesspool that is Detroit. Whether, again, he has the quickness to succeed at LT is the question.

My guess is we see a platoon of Johnson and Deim at LT with Ugoh getting decent snaps as he learns the scheme. As Ugoh improves he’ll get more snaps until (hopefully) he’s fully up to speed and becoming The Man at LT. I’m looking to see sack numbers go up a bit (thank god for Manning’s quick release and reads), too but hopefully nothing too crazy.

I’m not too worried. You can’t just replace a 9 year vet at LT without any worry, but the coaching of the O-Line and the track record of rookie linemen on the Colts is good enough that it certainly isn’t panic mode.

Thanks for 10 great seasons, Tarik. Enjoy your retirement.

Tarik Glenn’s next task: protect his place in line at the Golden Corral buffet

Finally, someone did the necessary sleuthing to get the proper blacklist filter that will stop that godforsaken video from playing automatically when you go to ESPN.com. This man is a true hero to Blogospheristania.

• First, you need to be using Firefox. Please, if you’re using a PC… just use Firefox. I’m willing to entertain arguments for Safari, but to be using Microsoft Internet Explorer at this point is just… wrong. Objectively wrong. Don’t do it.
• Next, install the Adblock extension (which you should really be using anyway). Adblock, well, blocks ads online. It comes with a huge list of automatically-blocked ads, which is neat, but the great thing about it is that you can manually add other ads to the list. Like, I don’t know… the ESPN Motion video that starts whenever you visit ESPN.com.
• Next (after you restart Firefox to activate the Adblock extension), click on “Tools” in the menu bar. Then click on “Add-ons.”
• Highlight Adblock and click on the “Options” button.
• In the “New Filter” box, enter this: http://sports.espn.go.com/broadband/fpp/*
• Click “Done.”

And that’s it. No more stupid videos advertising “Who’s Now” or WNBA broadcasts or Steven A. Smith’s newest show, “Spittin’ Mad With Steven A. (Brought to You by Cheetos)”. Enjoy.

Major major kudos to Jake for putting this out there. I can finally visit ESPN.com and only be slightly sickened by its horrendous design and cluttery crap. h/t to Deadspin.

Tulsa Drillers first-base coach Mike Coolbaugh was killed last night after being struck by a foul ball while in the coaching box.

Primarily a third baseman by trade, Coolbaugh played professional baseball for 17 seasons, toiling through the Blue Jays, Rangers, Athletics, Rockies, and Yankees’ organizations before landing with the Brewers (and subsequently, their Triple-A club, the Indianapolis Indians) before the 2001 season.

Coolbaugh had to have had a gratifying season that year. He was an International League All-Star, hitting .268 with 10 homers and 50 RBI while playing great defense at third base. He also finally got the call to The Show that year. As a 29-year-old rookie, he hit a single in his first Major League at-bat and a home run in his third. He finished with a .200 average with two homers and seven RBI in 70 at-bats. Indianapolis hosted the All-Star game that year, and Coolbaugh was instrumental to keeping interest in the Indians alive through the summer months. I even remember the local media keeping up with him at the parent club. His was one of the feel-good stories in baseball… the long-suffering, hard-playing career minor-leaguer who finally made it.

Mike Coolbaugh turns two on Charlie Greene and the Padres during the 2001 season. He appeared in three games as a shortstop in his career, and 31 as a third baseman. (image courtesy of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel)

His stint in MLB didn’t last long. After a 1-for-12 stint with the Cardinals the next year, he was out of the majors for good. He played in the minors with the Phillies, Astros and Royals organizations before taking on the job in Tulsa this year. Coolbaugh hit .260 blasted 268 home runs and drove in 1,007 runs in over 1600 games for his minor-league career.

He had the Drillers job for all of three weeks before Sunday’s accident. He leaves behind a wife, two children, and a third on the way, as well as older brother Scott Coolbaugh, who was a MLB third baseman with the Rangers, Padres and Cardinals.

It’s too often that the Mike Coolbaughs of the game, the guys who make up its very backbone, get shuffled to the background and only tragedy brings them to the surface. For every player that makes it big, there are thousands who never come close. The solace we can take from this is at least Mike Coolbaugh got to come close, and he died doing what he loved.

What we need is a man on the inside. Find me a dirty NBA ref. No, not ALL of them! One will do.

NBA officiating sucks and may even be dirty! Is there anyone who watches the NBA to whom this is any sort of shocking revelation that we never would have expected?

The FBI is investigating allegations that a veteran NBA referee bet on basketball games over the past two seasons, including ones in which he officiated.

According to a law enforcement official, authorities are examining whether the referee made calls to affect the point spread in games on which he or associates had wagered.

I’m shocked and awed. Next you are going to tell me Larry Johnson’s 4-point play against the Pacers in the ‘99 ECF might have been bullshit.  (If that was continuation, I’m the Queen of France. No, I’m not still bitter at all.)

This is nowhere near as funny as CJ’s entry in the Vickoblogosphere Sweepstakes, or as serious as my last post about hockey, but…. daaaaaamn ESPN, could you choose a more unfortunate set of words for your Vick headline on your front page?

Ummm yeah. The ony ones fighting for their lives were the dogs Vick and his employees tortured into fighting, or the ones that didn’t make the cut and were put to death at his own hands. *cough*allegedly*cough* of course. I’m surprised the lead text for the story didn’t read “Above all else, expect the legal battle to be a dogfight.” ESPN writers, you so clever! What next, alliteration? “Vick Vociferous: Vows Vengeance”

OKay so I’m normally not one for conspiracy theories (unless I’m listening to Coast To Coast AM and laughing my ass off), but the following post at The Situationist* really has me scratching my head and wondering… and it starts right off with something I somehow missed from the ESPN Ombudsman ( a laughable position, but I digress).

Negative Press: Is ESPN Killing the National Hockey League by Influencing Public Attitudes?

ESPN’s ombudsman, Le Anne Schreiber, felt compelled to examine hockey coverage on the network. In an article last month, she confirmed that hockey coverage has indeed diminished 28% on Sportscenter over the last three years and that hockey-oriented shows such as NHL 2Night were cut altogether since ESPN’s loss of NHL rights.

The reduced exposure on ESPN can only be harmful to the NHL. By minimizing coverage and highlights, the network is effectively reducing the imprint of the game on Americans’ collective sports consciousness. Worse still, several ESPN writers and commentators have gone out of their way to emphasize the demise of hockey. Le Ann Schreiber recently noted that during the NHL’s regular season, hockey was only mentioned on-air if there happened to be “some egregious brawl” or if it was being “dissed” for its invisibility and irrelevance.

28% decrease in coverage? Say what you will about the popularity of hockey in the United States, but not even ONE nightly show dedicated to hockey verges on ridiculous - especially with the number of ESPN networks approaching the highly desired The Ocho. And what will Barry Melrose do now?

It ain’t cheap to look this good.

But back to the seriousness. It’s obvious to anyone who watches ESPN that hockey coverage has become fewer and far between and when it is covered it’s usually about something bad or with a tinge of “yeah, but hockey’s in a bad state of things.”

In sharp contrast to the treatment of the NHL, ESPN favorites such as NASCAR face little scrutiny and massive hype. Once a niche sport with limited appeal, NASCAR is ESPN’s new hot property and has found itself to be the chief beneficiary of the network’s downgrading of hockey. Northwest News Group columnist Kevin Kaduk notes that since ESPN’s purchase of NASCAR broadcast rights, the network has been force-feeding the sport to its readers via its various news outlets. Indeed in January 2007, ESPN senior vice president Jed Drake explicitly promised as much. Unlike its coverage of the NHL, ESPN has shown remarkable patience with NASCAR as evidenced by its burying or putting a positive spin on negative NASCAR news such as that of falling TV ratings for the sport.

What? Falling TV ratings for NASCAR? Honestly I hadn’t heard that. Thanks ESPN for not reporting the news! If they made as big of a deal of falling NASCAR ratings as they consistently do falling hockey ratings, we’d be hearing about it all the time. Alas…

To make matters worse, such informational social influence can translate into normative social influence, which is born of the need to “conform to the rules of other people.” If it seems that a growing number of people dislike hockey or that being a hockey fan exposes one to ridicule, many will hide, ignore, or lose their affection for hockey.

Thus, the network’s negative portrayal of hockey is very likely causing a profound two-fold effect on the viewing public by prejudicing their perception of the facts and by affecting their feelings for the game.

Indeed. The more ESPN’s talking heads and faceless writers (or God Damnit I WISH They Were Faceless Writers) say hockey is failing, the more people will feel the need to believe that as well because ESPN is so ‘respected’ among the casual sports fan. So now hockey has yet ANOTHER hill to climb - fighting the biggest and in some areas ONLY source of sports-centric news into giving their sport as much credibility as even Arena Fucking Football.

Speaking of the Arena League, I was a brief fan when there was a team in Indiana, but finding news of that league on ESPN was like looking for a live dog in Michael Vick’s backyard: if you were lucky enough to find it, you probably would have been happier if you hadn’t. But then the AFL gets on ESPN (after ESPN buys a stake in the league), pimps out John Elway and Jon Bon Jovi, and suddenly I’m awash in AFL playoff highlights at the same time that hockey highlights are reaching the frequency of Jonathan Ogden stops Dwight Freeney highlights. Maybe it’s just me, but ESPN owning part of a sports league screams of conflict of interest.

When he’s not selling cars he’s desperately trying to get you to care about an obscure indoor sport that languished in the fringes of American minor-minor leagues until ESPN bought part of the league. Look, Jon Bon Jovi!

But reports of hockey’s death are greatly exaggerated. Professional hockey is doing relatively well in both its traditional and non-traditional markets. Financially speaking, the NHL’s has rebounded since its disastrous lockout during the 2004-2005 season. Television ratings may be down nationally but the NHL’s attendance figures are still relatively strong with record crowds attending games this past January. Indeed, the NHL’s attendance figures, while lower, are somewhat comparable to those of the NBA - a league widely hailed as successful by sportswriters. In addition, franchise values have gone up markedly since the lockout allowed league owners to break the players’ union (the NHLPA) and implement a favorable new collective bargaining agreement which included, among other features, a hard salary cap. As Eric McErlain details on Off Wing Opinion, prospective owners such as Jim Balsillie and an ownership group in Kansas City have been chomping at the bit to introduce hockey to new markets via re-location of struggling franchises after paying a hefty premium for the privilege.

Amen and hallelujah! It’s something that doesn’t really get mentioned by ESPN - while ratings may be down attendance is doing great. Something I didn’t realize - the NHL’s attendance is on par with the NBA. When are we going to get the “NBA is failing!” stories - something I’d be more prone to agree with (falling talent levels, a boring one-on-one focused game, no fundamentals.. but that’s another post).

As the author of that column states, all is not indeed well with the NHL. Versus as a network can barely be found on cable networks that actually carry it and the league has far over-expanded. I would have loved to have seen the NHL contract some teams during the lockout. I would have loved to see them trim down the schedule and make it harder to get into the playoffs than it is to predict the result of a coin toss. Can fixing these negatives and the existence of the positives of the game outweigh a negativity campaign by the bully in the sports world that is ESPN? I doubt it.

Now here’s the big question that The Situationist doesn’t seem to get in to - why? What interest does ESPN have in knocking hockey down to the level of curling and inclined extreme chair bowling? My guess is that it’s not so much a dislike of hockey - hey, The Worldwide Leader is full of sports fans and I’m sure there are a good number of hockey fans, being in New England and all - but a love of the STORY of a once proud league falling and falling fast. What makes a better story, a league suffering a lockout but stumping the critics with a successful comeback or the failure of an entire sport?

The latter, obviously. We’ve seen the former before. Baseball made its comeback. The NFL survived a strike to become the dominant sport in the country. Basketball has been strangely labor-trouble free and just sort of… stagnant since the Magic-Bird-Jordan era. But Hockey! ah! Only those weird Canadians watch that, and a story about that league failing so spectacularly - now THAT is news. It’s almost like ESPN was expecting the league to fold during the lockout, and when it didn’t, when it actually succeeded in fixing the problems that led to the lockout, they had to scramble for a storyline instead of reporting the one that was there.

It really ties into the idea that ESPN is becoming less about reporting sports news and more about making sports news, with their handling of hockey just another sad example.

Ageless badass Chris Chelios has something to say to anyone who disses hockey.

*While not a sports blog, The Situationist does seem to be a pretty interesting read for those into “a forum for scholars, students, lawyers, policymakers, and interested citizens to examine, discuss, and debate the effect of situational forces – that is, non-salient factors around and within us – on law, policy, politics, policy theory, and our social, political, and economic institutions.” If you’re into that sorta thing. And apologies for liberally quoting so much of the column but it was very good and I couldn’t do it justice.

Michael Vick has been indicted for his… extracurricular activities.

McGruff says “You’re mine now, Vick!” (picture courtesy UVA)

Something tells me Roger Goodell is going to have something to say about this as well.

UPDATE: The Smoking Gun has a copy of the indictment, and it’s as disgusting as you’d expect. HT: Outside The Beltway.

UPDATE: From Jason -  how long until the NFL Shop bans this like they did jerseys with Mexico on the back?

“Ookie”… that’s your a/k/a, Vick? Ookie?!

… to Gary Sheffield. Obviously.

What a terrible world we live in, that allows a man to become a multi-millionaire for his ability to hit a baseball, despite his complete lack of likability, couth, or social grace. We shouldn’t expect our athletes to be great thinkers, but Sheff’s latest rant about Joe Torre being a racist cements him into the Idiot Hall of Fame.

Let’s think about that for a moment… Joe Torre. The man who caught for Bob Gibson. The man who protected Hank Aaron in the lineup. The man who manages Alex Rodriguez, Mariano Rivera, and Derek Jeter. A racist.

Where are you hiding your white robes, YOU BASTARD?!?!?!? (image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons)

Riiiiiiiiiiiiiight.

Look, I don’t know Joe Torre. I’ve never even met someone who knows Joe Torre. I’m gonna go out on a limb, though, and say that if any one of the athletes that I’ve mentioned had thought Joe Torre was a racist, we’d have: A) heard about it by now, as the man’s been involved with Major League Baseball for about fifty years; or B) watched him get punched out on national television (”Bob Gibson option” only). And yes, I’m aware that Sheff actually said that Torre has “issues” with race but wasn’t actually a “racist.” This, as Buster Olney points out on his blog, is garbage. I’ll take it a step further and add that Sheff is just too much of a coward to actually stand by his statements, and needs to add disclaimers to not seem like such a bad guy.

Sheff gets called out in team meetings, so it’s got to be a racial issue. I wonder why no one’s asking Paul O’Neill about this? Oh, wait… Paul O’Neill is a man, not a crying little baby who can’t handle hearing that he screws up sometimes. In front of other people, no less! Torre, you brute!

“Sheff DEMANDS strained peaches! …racist.” (image courtesy of NY Times blogs)

I bit my tongue when Sheffield criticized the treatment of black and Latino players (despite the fact that he unilaterally characterized black players as malcontents and Latinos as uneducated submissives) because he was defended by decidedly non-moronic players like teammate Carlos Guillen and Twins outfielder Torii Hunter. Gents, I hope you think a little bit harder about who you defend next time.

Sheff, you’re a miserable human being. I’ve never rooted so hard for a career-ending knee injury in my life.

During its All-Star Game on Tuesday, MLB unveiled a new series of commercials featuring comedian Dane Cook expounding the virtues of the National Pasttime.

Dane Cook takes a break from his masturbatory diatribes on how much he loves his fans to pose for a photo. (image courtesy of mediavillage.com)

Maybe they’ll make my dreams come true and tie it in with an inane movie preview… maybe Employee Of The Month 2 is coming down the pike.

The lingering question here is: Why does baseball hate me?