Your Wednesday Morning Roundup: Bobby April III, Lance Armstrong is a Dick, and the Flyers Could Possibly Pay Mike Richards and Jeff Carter Again
Some nonsense for your Wednesday morning as we await Andy Reid’s next evaluation.
– I’m trying to figure out who’s the bigger scumbag, and I’d like your help.
A) Lance Armstrong, who this morning announced that he was stepping down as chairman of Livestrong to shield the charity from any negative impacts stemming from the fact that he’s a phony douchebag. From his statement: [CNN]
I have had the great honor of serving as this foundation's chairman for the last five years and its mission and success are my top priorities. Today therefore, to spare the foundation any negative effects as a result of controversy surrounding my cycling career, I will conclude my chairmanship.
Thanks, Lance.
That announcement – not coincidentally, I'm sure – came just moments before Nike terminated their contract with Armstrong:
Due to the seemingly insurmountable evidence that Lance Armstrong participated in doping and misled Nike for more than a decade, it is with great sadness that we have terminated our contract with him. Nike does not condone the use of illegal performance enhancing drugs in any manner.
Nike plans to continue support of the Livestrong initiatives created to unite, inspire and empower people affected by cancer.
Swoosh smash! Not only did they drop Armstrong, but they’ll also be giving him the Joe Pa treatment by taking his name off their fitness center, according to ESPN’s Darren Rovell.
I’ve always thought that Lance was the biggest phony in existence. Yes, he survived cancer and started a charity. But he also ditched his wife, who stood by his side during his treatment, for Sheryl Crow and, as we’re now learning, was banned-substancing his way to yellow jackets.
B) Alex Rodriguez, who, while having his job stolen by 40-year-old Raul Ibanez* and going 3-for-23 with 12 strikeouts in the Postseason, was busy hitting on women in the stands.
*Literally, this allegedly happened in the eighth inning of Game 1, right after he was replaced by Ibanez.
From the sometimes reliable NY Post:
After being replaced in the bottom of the eighth inning in Game 1 of the American League Championship Series, the highest-paid Yankee openly flirted with a pair of pretty women two rows behind the dugout — even sending them a ball bearing a note asking for their phone numbers, a witness told The Post.
“Alex was holding a pen and wrote a note on a ball which was thrown at the women by a ball boy,’’ the witness explained.
“The girls, who had already caught two balls, seemed bemused at first and tried to hand the ball to another fan, but other fans noticed the note on it and yelled at them to read it.
“The note asked them to write their phone numbers on the ball and throw it back,’’ the witness said.
“One of the girls, with darker blond hair, wrote . . . on the ball and threw it back at A-Rod, who gave her a big smile.”
The proud, down 3-0 New York Yankees!
UPDATE: One was a bikini model.
- Daily News writer Paul Domowitch crushed Andy Reid this morning in his column. I enjoyed it.
I thought Reid had that same kind of loyalty for the people who worked for him. But I was wrong. These are desperate times for the Reid, and it looks as if he will do whatever it takes to hang on to his job, including hanging people out to dry.
Yeah, I know Castillo was in over his head. But Reid set him up to fail. He took a guy who was a pretty good offensive-line coach and gave him a job he was unqualified for. And, now, after only 22 games, he's canning him, because his own butt is on the line.
Some people might call what Reid did Tuesday decisive. He is owning up to yet another mistake he made and is correcting it.
I call it looking for a scapegoat.
– Have no fear about the defense! After promoting Todd Bowles, who reader Joe thinks looks like Seal…
… the Eagles have a need to fill at defensive backs coach, Bowles’ former role. At his press conference yesterday, Reid said that instead of hiring someone new, he will count on Bobby April III (B 4/3, as I’m calling him), the 29-year-old Eagles’ defensive quality control coach and son of awful special teams coach Bobby April.
Reid:
“Right now I think I’m just going to stick with the staff I have. I’ve got Bobby April The Third here and he has secondary background, so he can help out. He’s already been helping out there. He can cover any base that needs to be covered.”
B 4/3’s “secondary experience,” I guess, came during his days as a high school player. His coaching experience before being hired by the Eagles:
The road that would eventually converge with his father's at the NovaCare Complex continued for April III at Louisiana-Lafayette where he worked for the football team as a student assistant. From there, it was on to Tulane, where he was a graduate assistant for two seasons. Then, in 2007, April III became the youngest coordinator in Division I football when he took a job as special teams coordinator/inside linebackers coach for Portland State, where he worked under Glanville.
So there you go. Who needs a new secondary coach when you have the third day in April!
– Finally, the new CBA proposed by the league yesterday may really screw the Flyers. Teams that handed out long-term contracts in an effort to circumvent the salary cap would be forced to pay players on the remaining years of those deals, even if a player retires. And that could apply to players that have been traded away. Broad Street Hockey puts in place the nightmare scenario:
That money would hit the Flyers' cap in the event that Richards and Carter retire before their contracts expire, as far as we're aware from McKenzie's report.
Is retirement a certainty? No, absolutely not. Richards will be 35 when his deal expires, Carter 37, van Riemsdyk 29. But it's definitely a possibility, at least in the cases of the Brothers Los Angeles, and the worst part is that it takes the control completely out of the Flyers' hands. Holmgren, Snider, Luukko and Co. have absolutely no say in what Richards, Carter and JvR do the rest of their careers, yet they are at their mercy.
There’s some uncertainty surrounding those terms, and the union likely won’t accept the deal as it stands, but whatever deal gets put in place will most likely put the screws to teams that signed players to mega contracts.