February 3, 2011. A important date in North Carolina Tar Heels basketball history.
Larry Drew II left Chapel Hill.
His mother, Sharon, commemorated the anniversary with a Twitter rant this afternoon. Saying today's date will forever be etched "Team Drew Crew" memory. Drew then dropped the hashtags #ThankGod, #FreedomFromEvil, #NoMoreLies, and #PeaceAtLast. For those who don't follow Twitterese, here are her musings in paragraph form:
"When a deceitful person does so many inequities to a person/people & the people finally have had enough~the deceitful one acts like a saint! Scandal, coverups, lies, deceit, evil, & injustice will eventually be exposed. What is done in the dark will soon come to light! The Penn State scandal is such a horrible tragedy! It's pathetic that a group of adults allowed coverups & lies to go on so long. You live and you learn. Enough is enough. You can screw some of the people all of the time & all of the people some of the time but you can't screw all of the people all of the time!"
Wait, did Sharon Drew just compare her son's transfer to the Penn State scandal? Yes, yes she did.
With the Super Bowl only a couple days away it is easy to forget about the real combatants. The 192nd EOD Battalion, home based at Ft. Bragg and currently deployed to Kandahar, Afghanistan, has a shout-out for the big game.
FILE - Indianapolis Colts' Peyton Manning before an NFL football game against the Houston Texans in this Dec. 22, 2011 file photo taken in Indianapolis. A spokesman for Manning's surgeon, Dr. Robert Watkins, sent a one-paragraph e-mail to the media clearing Manning for play late Thursday night Feb. 2, 2012 after ESPN first reported that the Colts' star had been cleared to play. (AP Photo/AJ Mast, File)
...and just when the NFL illuminati started talking about the actual Super Bowl. Leave it to Peyton Manning to bring it back to the dominating story of the week and likely the entire offseason.
Chris Mortenson reported on ESPN that Manning was medically cleared to return to football, subsequently disrupting the shaky harmony between the quarterback and Colts owner Jim Irsay. It didn't take long for Irsay to tweet a response.
"Peyton has not passed our physical nor has he been cleared to play for The Indianapolis Colts. Team statement coming on Friday."
When Irsay labeled Manning as a "politician," it was more of a compliment than an insult. Manning is savvy and knows how to play the media game. This new medical information doesn't really mean anything. Can Manning throw the ball with the same velocity? Can he take a hit? None of these types of questions have been answered.
Manning wants the league and the media that covers it to know that he plans on playing, with or without the Colts. He knows there are plenty of suitors, from Washington to Miami, that are ready to enter their names into the Manning sweepstakes.
I can't imagine the NFL is pleased with this new round of back and forth between Irsay and Manning. Most of the Super Bowl peripheral discussion had fallen by the wayside and the focus was starting to center on the game.
Remember all that stuff I wrote about concerning the entourages of Tim Tebow and Cam Newton? It was amateur hour compared to Madonna, who had had her own secret entrance into the facility. Everything stopped on Radio Row and it took about 15 minutes after Madonna left for it went back to business as usual.
A good way to measure the level of Super Bowl Radio Row guest is by looking at the entourage. The typical guest has one PR contact walking with them and they're easily approachable. The guest has something to promote, the PR person puts your station on the schedule and then hope all the other interviews are done on time.
The high caliber guests reserved only for the national outlets are a different story. They're surrounded by multiple PR handlers and their inner circle. Talking to one of the contacts only leads to having to talk to another. Once you talk to the right person, they're first question is typically "what market?" Obviously, size matters.
Tim Tebow and Cam Newton by far have the largest entourages on Radio Row and create the worst traffic jams in the aisles. It's a mixture of people angling to get with their PR contact and others angling to get a picture. More often than not it's both.
Tebow's run through the circus was precise. He hit the NFL Network set and a handful of the national shows. When he moved between station setups, the crowd that followed was amoeba-like. Everybody pulled out their mobile devices and snapped as many pics as possible.
Newton's entrance was stealthier by comparison. The Panthers quarterback recently signed a mega-deal with Gatorade and was also representing UnderAmour. The NFL Network set was his home base, making it more difficult to figure out the right person to talk to about possibly getting him
It's enough of a struggle to complete those Star Wars Lego sets, so imagine the time and effort put into monstrosity that is Lego Lucas Oil Stadium. Outside of working video monitors, Lego Lucas is constructed entirely out of original bricks.
The media likes to complain. It's what we do best. So when the Super Bowl isn't located at a warm weather destination like Miami or New Orleans, there's a constant whine about how the city is handling the huge event. It's all rather ridiculous, born out of a preconceived notion that only a "big time" city should host the Super Bowl.
Here's what folks are discovering in Indianapolis -- the city is perfect for the event. Everything is centrally located, making it easy for fans to take it all in by just walking a few blocks. It's possible to grab dinner at St. Elmo or at least watch famous people eat there, hit the NFL Experience exhibition and check out the ESPN mobile broadcast headquarter. Just about every block has something going on, whether it's a bar band jamming or people watching at the exclusive restaurants.
After you take all that in, just walk a few minutes at you're at Lucas Oil Stadium.
Miami and New York? Those cities don't provide that level of simplicity. South Beach and Joe Robbie Stadium aren't in the same county. Broadway and MetLife Stadium aren't even in the same state. And Dallas wishes it had the 60 degree temperatures being enjoyed this week in Indianapolis.
More importantly, Indianapolis fans have really embraced the event. Take Raleigh during the NHL All Star Game, where Hurricanes fans and the city made the event memorable because of the enthusiasm, and multiply it by 10. Colts gear is everywhere and the hospitality has
We've seen Blake Griffin jump a Kia, which was awesome, until he absolutely demolished Kendrick Perkins last night during the Clippers win over the Thunder Monday night.
On Perkins' behalf there's not much you can do when someone has hops like that. Perkins didn't stand a chance.
The Carolina Panthers have a new logo. No, it's not just Cam Newton's face plastered on the side of their helmets. Although it does look oddly similar to a certain player's derp-face.
Uni Watch has a comparison of the old logo and font with the new set. The Panther still maintains the silhouette of North Carolina and South Carolina, but has a more cartoonish look. The black and blue border, something that always struck me as basic level Photoshop, has been removed. The contrasting whiskers are also gone.
The most dramatic change is actually in the logo font. While the old font screamed mid-90s cheese, at least it wasn't generic.
As always, fans fear change and will pan the new design. The Panthers can wear Zubaz throwbacks for all I care as long as they win and contend for the playoff.
Typical of the coaching fraternity, Davis and Schiano have a connection. Before Schiano was the head coach of Rutgers, he was the defensive coordinator for the Miami Hurricanes under Davis in the 1999 and 2000 seasons.
Davis also has a connection with new Indianapolis head coach Chuck Pagano, which lead to early speculation that Davis' next gig would be with the Colts. Pagano was an assistant for Davis in Miami and was the secondary coach during Davis' tenure with the Cleveland Browns. Pagano was also Davis' first defensive coordinator at North Carolina.
