Today is one of those days where I have a lot of catching up to do on notes I collect during my readings that I think deserve more than a nod. So as you begin to wonder how much longer can the snow and ice hold off, here are some topics that cause me to think more than I should:
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Gloria Raye, who heads the Knoxville Tourism and Sports Corporation, is under a harsh glare after it was learned she was paid in excess of $410,000 in the last fiscal year. A former women’s athletic director at the University of Tennessee, she is also paid $75,000 a year as a member of the board of trustees at Blue Cross-Blue Shield of Tennessee.
David Duncan, the chairman of the group, said one reason for the large salary was because, as the Knoxville News-Sentinel reported, “state figures that show visitors on average spent $717.2 million a year in Knox County from 2002 to 2010, compared to $672.5 million in Hamilton County.”
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John Gagliardi, the 85-year-old football coach who has guided the Division III football power St. John’s for the past 59 years in Minnesota and has 484 wins with the Johnies to prove it, was a huge Joe Paterno fan and just before the Penn State coach was buried Tuesday, Gagliardi had some words for those who pass judgment:
"That whole firing business, I thought that was a group of people who were acting like modern-day Pontius Pilates … the way the board handled it," the coach told the St. Paul Pioneer Press.
"I've always admired Joe Paterno, and always will.
“I don't know why he even should have been connected to that thing (scandal). It's sad he's attached to that thing. I don't know all the (facts),” said the coach. “He wasn't the guy, the culprit. I really feel pretty saddened about it. I wish I could say I was a close friend. The amazing part is, we were both born in 1926, a month apart, and both our ancestors were from southern Italy.”
Asked is Paterno’s death gave him pause, Gagliardi – who is still going strong – told the newspaper, “I've thought about that for a long time. I've attended a lot of funerals, and every time I've realized, ‘My God. This is the end of another life.’ It's hard to believe sometimes. I always kidded about there's no way I can coach for another one or two more decades. Now I have to run that down to one or two more months,” he laughed.
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There is a heart-wrenching article in the February issue of GQ Magazine on Terrell Owens, the guy who once played football and basketball for UT-Chattanooga, and in it he blames everybody but himself for squandering $80 million he made in pro football. Now 38, T.O. claims he’s broke and “I don’t have no friends. I don’t want no friends. That’s how I feel.”
According to the magazine, his mortgages run about $750,000 a year, his alimony payments to four different women are $44,600 a month and it is doubtful he’ll ever play pro football again. Owens signed with UTC out of Alexander City, Ala., and was picked in the third round of the 1996 NFL draft by the San Francisco 49ers.
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This may be a first. Chester Brown, a 6-foot-5, 340-pound offensive lineman from Hinesville, Ga., committed to the University of Georgia but suddenly backed away for the Feb. 1 signing date this week, citing “personal reasons.” Now it has been learned the high school football player may have “immigration issues” that will not pass the university’s new policies established by the Board of Regents.
The son of Samoan immigrants, Chester even had the day he committed to the Bulldogs – July 15, 2012 – tattooed on his arm.
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San Francisco 49er Kyle Williams has been getting death threats and heavy abuse from fans since fumbling twice to the Giants in Sunday’s 20-17 overtime loss in the NFC Championship to the New York Giants but get a load of this!
Jim Litke, a marvelous writer for the Associated Press, recently quoted a couple of Giants players. Jacquian Williams, who caused the second fumble with a hard hit, said, “The thing is, we knew he had four concussions, so that was our biggest thing, was to take him outta the game.”
Teammate Devin Thomas, who recovered both loose balls, added, “He’s had a lot of concussions … We were just like, ‘We gotta put a hit on that guy.’”
That said, the NFL has such a greater awareness of concussions and head injuries that it just announced seven institutions that will house its Neurological Care facilities for former players and Morehouse School of Medicine in Atlanta is one of them. Others are Tulane Medical Center in New Orleans, Inova Memory Center, Falls Church, Va., Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York, University of California in San Francisco, University of Southern California in Los Angeles and Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.
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Somebody told me that a tourist couple was at Rock City watching the falls at Lover’s Leap and asked one of the kids who was working there, “What’s that water made of?” The kid, taken aback, paused before he said, “Two parts hydrogen and one part oxygen ... I guess.” At that, the woman popped her husband on the shoulder and yelped, “See! I told you it wasn’t real!”
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