Adam Gold
Adam Gold, a Maryland graduate, has been talking sports for more than a decade in the Triangle. He is the co-host of the afternoon and evening show on 99.9 FM The Fan ESPN Radio.
By Adam Gold
Jun 13, 2013
Special teams lines up during No. 1 and reigning National Champion Alabama's 62-13 win over Duke on Saturday, Sept. 18, 2010 in Durham.
Is it college football season yet?
No? Man, it's too hot already outside, and I'm jonesing for the start of the season so we can finally see how this new playoff is going to work.
What? Oh, we're still a year away from that. That's right, we've got one more year under the old Bowl Championship Series. Next year is when everything changes for the better.
Yeah, not so much, I'm afraid.
The four-team College Football Playoff goes into effect after the 2014 season and will NOT dramatically alter the college football landscape. In fact, it will be very hard to notice a tangible difference at all, unless you're the third and fourth teams in the final standings. In theory, the two teams that will be the next-best in this year's final BCS rankings would slot into a semifinal matchup were the system already in place. So, it's not really a playoff at all, it's just an extra game.
I can't think of a playoff that starts in the semifinals.
However, it IS better than the system that we have because we've yet to figure out a way to honor more than two major conference undefeated teams.
Auburn was denied a national championship shot in 2004 in spite of an undefeated season and an SEC title. No way on this, or any other, planet that would happen today, but it did nine years ago. The best part of the four-team system is that it is highly unlikely that this will ever happen again.
The next best part of the "playoff" is that there will be a
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By Adam Gold
Jun 5, 2013
Jacoby Brissett (12) throws during the NC State Spring Game on April 20, 2013 in Raleigh, NC.
The Atlantic Coast Conference released their inter-divisional schedule rotation for football through 2024 yesterday amid exactly zero controversy and even less conversation. And, while that might be fine on one hand, the lack of serious discussion is awful on the other. College football has always thrived, even feasted, on loud debates surrounding rankings, schedules, fairness, etc. If you don't think those water cooler arguments are a big reason that the game has turned into a multi-billion dollar business, you probably don't miss Keith Jackson on fall Saturday afternoons.
Woah, Nellie!
College football almost operates in a parallel universe in that controversy and unfairness are good -- no, GREAT -- for business. While the most important element in the successful grab for attention will always be the quality of the football, the spice that those angry discussions provide is the difference between a dish of vanilla ice cream and a hot fudge sundae.
There are two things missing from the neat little schedule rotation the conference PDF'd to the league's media; logic and sizzle. Unfortunately, if you added those factors to the equation you'd also be including imbalance and inequity.
So what. The time for fairness should have gone the way of your old, Jack Kramer wooden tennis racquet. We're in the composite age now and it's time to start acting accordingly. Here's what John Swofford should do, actually, what he HAS to do with regards to the football schedules.
1)
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By Adam Gold
May 30, 2013
It all began with a simple, yellow, rubber bracelet you could buy for a dollar. Over time, it grew into a multi-million dollar movement, bringing hope and inspiration to millions of people effected by cancer. But finally, wrapped in the 202-page report from the United States Anti Doping Association, came the evidence that unraveled the truth behind Lance Armstrong's dominance on a bicycle. Now, with Nike announcing that the company will cease production of the Livestrong brand of athletic apparel, this fraudulent yet inspirational story comes to a close.
Did the ends justify the means? On a personal level, Armstrong's severe allergy to ethical behavior clearly doesn't justify it because he's no longer officially recognized as a seven time Tour de France champion, he stands to lose more than $100 million in various lawsuits and he's essentially an outcast in virtually all elements of his public life. But, you could make the argument that the good accomplished by his foundation, Livestrong, was well worth his cheating, lying and boorish personal conduct because those little, yellow symbols provided the cancer community with a target at which to aim.
To continue the fight. To not give in to the pain and suffering. To win.
If there's a more complicated, tragic saga tied to American sports, I'd love for you to point me towards it.
You know the story. Guy on a bike, diagnosed with testicular cancer, spreads throughout his
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By Adam Gold
May 21, 2013
To the surprise of exactly no one the Royal and Ancient Golf Club and the United States Golf Association enacted a new rule (14-1b) Tuesday banning anchoring the club against the body when making a golf stroke. To even further simplify what I've already attempted to dumb down, if you use a long putter and press the butt-end of the handle into your stomach, sternum, thigh or chin, you have until January 1, 2016 to figure out a new way to miss that 5-footer -- sorry, I meant "make" -- in your weekly $2 nassau.
To be clear, the new rule doesn't prevent anyone from using a "belly" or "broom handle" putter, it only deals with the manner in which it is swung. In fact, the rule guarantees that the club will be freely swung with the arms and hands as opposed to operating around a fulcrum (stomach, sternum, chin, etc.). It's also guaranteed a lengthy, heated debate among touring professionals, golf's governing bodies and all those from Tiger Woods down to the sport's beginners because this change in the rules effects everyone.
Doesn't it?
Well, not really.
Around the world, less than 5% of players, from the top pros down to the rankest of amateurs, use something other than a conventional putting stroke. In other words, almost everyone who plays the game, regardless of level, is unaffected at all. So, why all the gnashing of teeth -- on both sides?
Because this is about the livelihood of the big money power brokers of the sport. The club manufacturers
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By Adam Gold
May 13, 2013
I can't wait for Father's Day.
Before you accuse me of marital jealousy coming on the heels of a beautiful Mother's Day enjoyed by my wife, let me explain. For me, Father's Day has always been about the United States Open. As far back as I can remember, those Sundays were spent with my father watching his favorite golf tournament.
Making it even more special, now that I'm in my (cough) forties, is that we exist in the era of the most dominant major championship performer in the history of the sport -- well, at least until a few years ago. But, there are a lot of positive signs that we might, once again, be treated to a revival.
In the spring of 2000, even without a win at the Masters we could feel it coming. Tiger Woods was coming off a year in which he won nine times, including eight of his last 11 starts. That August, he held off a hard charging 19-year old from Spain named Sergio Garcia to capture his second major championship and opened the following season with three wins and three second place finishes before The Masters.
While Woods' 7-under par weekend at Augusta National was nice, it wasn't enough to keep up with Vijay Singh, who won his second major championship by 3 shots over Ernie Els. While Tiger's 5th place finish was pretty good for a guy who opened with a 75, it didn't take a thorough investigation to see what was about to happen next. A month and a half later, Woods defended his title at The Memorial Tournament, lapping the field
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By Adam Gold
May 3, 2013
Tim Tebow at Super Bowl Radio Row
When I was a kid, I used to love it when the circus came to town. The clowns, the white tigers, the cotton candy, the high-wire daredevils and the Flying Wallendas were all a part of my youth. Then I grew up and the smell hit me.
I mean, that is one aggressive, beastly odor, and it sticks with you long after you leave the arena. Later in life I discovered that the proprietors weren't always the nicest to the elephants, and it soured me even more.
Somewhere in there, there has to be a euphemism for what Tim Tebow brings to a football team, and even if they take the elephant out of the room, I'm not sure an NFL team is going to bite on giving him a third crack at making it in the league.
College and professional football look a lot alike to the untrained eye. They're both played on fields with identical dimensions (120 x 53.33 yards). Well, not in Canada. Their field is longer and wider, maybe because of all the wide open tundra. They're both beautifully green. Well, not in Boise, ID and Cheney, WA, where those universities have chosen blue and offensively bright red as the field color of choice.
But what I'm really getting at is that the games look the same. They both have 11 players on either side of the ball, both allow four downs to gain 10 yards and both use the same system of scoring – again, save for our friends to the north who favor one fewer down, one more player and include a "single," or "rouge," officially, when a ball is kicked
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By Adam Gold
Apr 26, 2013
For those of you who thought the NFL Draft was already a little over-the-top, wait until you hear about what happened AFTER the first round Thursday night.
Geno Smith, the quarterback from West Virginia University thought by most to be the top available passer, spent the entire night in the "green" room, waiting to hear his name called. Unfortunately, that never happened and it led to the most humiliating occurrence in NFL Draft history. Imagine, having television cameras focused on you, periodically, for a period of almost four hours, and as each selection passed your frustration and embarrassment multiplied.
Now, factor in that you're a young man, already nervous on one of the most important and anticipated nights of your life, then add the uncertainty and self-doubts that naturally creep into the situation. If you feel as though you could handle those circumstances as though it was just another safety blitz, I salute you and your ignorance to the realities, and emotions, of growing up.
So, when someone asked Smith if he intended to return to the players' holding pen Friday night, when the draft's second and third round would take place, you could understand it if he'd have rather been anywhere but Radio City. What did you expect him to say, "no problem, governor, if you'll just get me a sleeping bag I'll bunk right here tonight", is that what you were looking for?
Why didn't Smith get the same treatment afforded Brady Quinn six years ago when
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By Adam Gold
Apr 23, 2013
ACC Commisioner John Swofford during a post-game celebration honoring Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski, following the 82-69 Duke victory over Davidson on Friday, November 18, 2011 (Photo by Jack Morton).
A decade ago the Atlantic Coast Conference drew the ire of so many in the college sports media for firing the first shot in conference realignment. It was the ACC, they said, that triggered what turned out to be the out-of-control, rapidly accelerating expansion/destruction of conference affiliation. Never mind that it had been less than ten years since the Big 8 became the Big XII, and a mere 13 since the SEC lured Arkansas away from the now-defunct Southwest Conference.
The Atlantic Coast Conference, just past it's 50th birthday, was supposed to be different. It was thought of as a gentleman's league, known for great basketball and legendary coaches, not football and cutthroat business decisions.
However, all of that was about to change after league commissioner John Swofford orchestrated a midnight raid of the Big East. Swofford and his nine outlaw university presidents looted and pillaged the quiet, sleepy basketball-centric league, wrestling the University of Miami and Virginia Tech away, against their will and forcing Boston College to follow -- no question in an attempt to rescue the Hurricanes and Hokies, Entebbe-style -- a year later.
The "new" ACC. A collection of Gordon Gekkos. A conference born of greed. Vicious, ruthless, corporate killers, who cold-heartedly sought to destroy the Big East five and dime.
That's not reality, but that's how it was received, so we'll all just have to deal with it.
I guess, that would make it very
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By Adam Gold
Apr 13, 2013
Tiger Woods plays by a different set of rules.
In life and, as was confirmed by Augusta National Golf Club, at The Masters.
Woods came to the Par-5 15th Friday in a tie for the lead at 5-under par, and that's where the fun began. His third shot nearly went in the hole on the fly, but instead caromed off the bottom of the flag stick and spun back into the water fronting the green.
An awful break, and Woods did well to save a bogey on the hole.
PGA Leaderboard
Only the real problem was just beginning. According to rule 26-1, if your ball lies in a water hazard you have two options.
You can either drop the ball as near as possible to where it was just played, or you can keep the position from where it last crossed
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By Adam Gold
Apr 11, 2013
"The Masters; a tradition unlike any other."
(Thank you, CBS, for ingraining that phrase, as well as the holistic spa, elevator music into my brain.)
It's far more than just the first of the four major golf championships of the season. In many ways, it's the unofficial start of the golf year. The green jacket also serves as sort of an international symbol for the sport similar to the claret jug.
Only, it's so much more complex.
The claret jug is the most famous trophy in worldwide golf, given to the winner of each year's Open Championship. It's the world's Open, uniquely inclusive and accessible to all. Or, in many ways, exactly the opposite of The Masters.
While the Open Championship is golf in the raw, contested over courses shaped by the effects of nature and the erosion of time, Augusta National is a heavily-controlled, highly-manicured, man-made cornucopia of colors. But, one man's "Valley of Sin" is another man's "Amen Corner," and both are special and sincerely interested in moving the game forward.
It's just a little harder to pin Augusta National Golf Club down as to which direction they're going to take.
Augusta National and its incredible tournament are exclusive. Not all are welcome and that's been the case since the club and the Invitational began in 1934. It wasn't until 1990 that the club invited and accepted an African American member. In fact, it wasn't until 1975, more than a decade after the PGA Tour's "whites
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