The Sports Truth

Maria Sharapova made quite a splash at this year’s U.S. Open. Her face was plastered on every billboard, magazine, and TV commercial. Oh, and the 19-year-old Russian also won the tournament.

Young, beautiful and Russian, the temptation is to compare Sharapova to Anna Kournikova. Only Maria can actually play, and clearly has a firm grasp of her priorities, despite an incredible marketing blitz and the throng of photographers she commands at every turn.

Anna was big, but never won a single tournament. Maria, who reportedly will earn $20M this year in endorsements, has 13 titles, two of them majors (the 2004 Wimbledon crown being the other).

Much to Andy Roddick’s agents’ consternation, players rarely dominate on and off the court. Even the great Andre Agassi only evolved into a champion once his image-driven, early-career ad assault fizzled. Incredible and classy as Roger Federer is, he’s low on the buzz index. Rafael Nadal (Spain), Andy Murray (Great Britain) and James Blake (U.S.) are all charismatic, but not established enough.

If Sharapova keeps playing like she did in ousting the two women seeded above her at the Open, Amelie Mauresmo (6-0, 4-6, 6-0) and Justine Henin-Hardenne (6-4, 6-4), we could be witnessing not only a great champion, but the rise of biggest star in the history of women’s tennis.

Overkill.

That sums up week one of the NFL season. Thankfully, with the Manning Bowl in the books, we can all return to our lives. As much as NBC would like you to believe that the meeting of Eli and Peyton Manning was a heart-wrenching experience for the family, and a landmark moment in sports history, it was merely a sloppy football game.

Let me tell you who doesn’t care one bit about the Manning family: Colts and Giants fans.

As a Giants fan, I adore Eli and have no problem with his big brother. But I was ticked off when I saw Colts-Giants on the opening day slate. I knew the spectacle surrounding this lovefest/sob story would be incalculable, but primarily, I dreaded the game because the Colts are good.

Peyton is a perennial MVP candidate leading a team considered to be Super Bowl-bound. That’s the extent to which I care. Giants fans are some of the NFL’s best, and I am confident speaking for most of New Jersey in saying it shared my sentiment. We’re coming off a division title and have high expectations. Eli Manning has to play well this year. Aside from our NFC East rivals, we really don’t care who the opposition is.

Colts fans feel similarly, I’m certain. Coming off another blown chance at an NFL crown last winter, anything less than a trip to Super Bowl XLI will be a bust for Tony Dungy & Co. These two teams squaring off is compelling enough without the bogus family drama. Come on, NBC. Do you think people really feel sorry for Olivia Manning watching her sons compete?

Given that Eli and Peyton both have mammoth contracts, and appeared on 95 percent of commercials aired Sunday night (not to mention those in print, such as the milk ad shown above), they will earn many U.S. dollars this year. They are good guys, to be sure, but they’re cashing in on the supposed “Manning Bowl” every step of the way. Both have an opportunity to own championships and private planes alike before their careers end. There is nothing to get all weepy about.

As near-royalty in the South, the Manning parents realize this. The media, however, does not. I actually feared for Eli’s physical well-being Sunday, and not because of Dwight Freeney’s pass-rushing ability. The throng of photographers enveloping him after the final gun was staggering. Images of the bulls running in Pamplona raced through my decaying brain. Luckily for the Giants, he was not trampled and will likely start this week against the Eagles.

NOTE TO MAJOR MEDIA OUTLETS: There are football games being played this week. Cover them. Enough with the overblown human interest crap. If you’re desperate for real news, or parents with real concerns, profile parents of our servicemen and women in Iraq. Or even the families of the two patients on Grey’s Anatomy who were impaled on that metal pole! The doctors had to choose which one survived! Now that’s drama.

P.S. Eli played well and Big Blue had its chances, but Peyton (above) ultimately led the Colts to a tough 26-21 victory.

The defending national champion Texas Longhorns were dealt a payback blow by top-ranked, visiting Ohio State Saturday night. But don’t blame UT’s loss on lack of effort from the rabid fans of Austin.

Actor and proud alumnus Matthew McConaughey was on hand (along with BFF Jake Gyllenhaal and fellow alum Lance Armstrong) to cheer the ‘Horns on. While we find MM a tad annoying at times, he clearly had his game face (and wristband) on Saturday. See below.

Unfortunately for those in orange, Vince Young is no longer lining up under center. Colt McCoy is. And while you could not possibly dream up a better (read: cornier) name for a kid quarterbacking Texas, he’s a system QB who needs developing. As predicted by the Sports Truth’s resident Pundit, Ohio State proved the better team, heading home to Columbus with a 24-7 win and its #1 ranking secure.

Hopefully, for his sake, McConaughey doesn’t own one of those dumb window flags.

Roger Federer had won eight of nine Grand Slam finals going into Sunday, but the 25-year-old Swiss star said he was particularly nervous.

The same could be said of anyone playing in front of a new friend for the first time. Especially if that friend were Tiger Woods.

The world’s top golfer attended the U.S. Open final as Federer’s guest, sitting in the front row of his personal box. Federer did not disappoint (he rarely does), besting ninth-seeded American Andy Roddick, 6-2, 4-6, 7-5, 6-1, for his third straight Open crown.

Federer said despite all the pressure surrounding the final in and of itself, he was aware of Woods’ presence.

“You get that feeling. It’s like maybe the first time your parents see you do something special, or somebody comes to you, you really maybe look up to,” Federer said. “For me, it’s like when I go out there and I see Tiger sitting there, it’s like, I try to play well, you know? I try to kind of get my act together and focus and get off to a good start.”

Federer achieved that and then some, taking the first set in 29 minutes to set the tone. While the American battled gamely, taking the second set and pushing Federer to the brink in the third, there was little doubt who would prevail. He demolished Roddick in the fourth and final set, allowing the bewildered opponent only 13 points as he clinched his ninth Grand Slam.

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As The Pundit sat back today and ruminated (can one of The Pundit’s fan start a stat tracker for use of unnecessary and superfluous big words? Oops, there The Pundit goes again… can that same fan get a third person usage stat tracker? Thanks! Holla back!) on the first week of college football, he has to admit to being disappointed with a somewhat boring showing.

Pretty much all the teams that were supposed to win big did so in convincing fashion. There wasn’t much in the way of high drama or noteworthy upsets, unless you count Colorado being dumped unceremoniously by a I-AA team.

Due to this normalcy, The Pundit finds himself without any hot button column ideas but will proceed anyway. The Pundit would never want to deprive his hungry legions of followers of his most important ramblings.

THE PUNDIT’S POWER FIVE

1. Notre Dame. Okay, Charlie. Are you seriously trying to make The Pundit look like an a$$hole in the first week? You are being left with the top spot only because Georgia Tech is a known giant killer and your tailback is not a biyatch.
Next week’s opponent: #19 Penn State
Prediction: Penn State will be tough match, but their offense can’t go TD for TD with the Irish. It will be a good game but The Pundit takes the Irish by 14.

2. Ohio State. They jumped Northern Illinois and cruised to an easy victory, as they should have. Watch Garrett Wolfe in coming weeks if you were a Dave Meggett fan back in the day.
Next week’s opponent: #3 Texas
Prediction: This game made the Longhorns’ year last season and should be just as good this fall. I like the Buckeyes in OT, by a field goal, because Texas doesn’t have that magical playmaker named Vince Young anymore. Early candidate for game of the year.

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The Pundit lives in an area of the country that is consumed by SEC footbal on weekends. Tennessee, Georgia, and Alabama all have huge fan bases and The Pundit is stuck right in the middle of it. Normally, it is not a bad thing for The Pundit to be sitting in ground zero of a zealous college football lovefest, but one habit of these SEC looneys has to go.

Window flags.

Driving to work the other day, The Pundit counted 10 cars with Vols flags whipping in the wind. He also took note of a few Bulldogs fans and a Crimson Tide admirer. All in a stretch of five miles! This is some serious bullsh!t and has to stop. The Pundit can live with all the trappings of serious fan idolatry (beer holders, flags flying in front of houses, even babies wearing jerseys), but not window flags.

There is nothing more annoying than seeing some jacka$$ flying down the highway sporting his Tennessee/Georgia/Alabama flag as if the vanity plates and bumper stickers weren’t enough to advertise his/her football allegiances. Okay, so you’d give Phil Fulmer a hummer in a heartbeat or take in the can from Mark Richt or toss Mike Shula’s salad if given the opportunity — WE GET IT, ALREADY!

Take the f&!@ing flag off your car! The Pundit supposes he could live with the flags if they were only flown on game day, but people are starting to leave them on all season long. Enough already, people! Be a crazy fan and bleed your school colors, but the window flags are annoying and you know it!

In sports, there are athletes that inspire us (see Agassi, Andre) and athletes that amuse us (see Johnson, Chad).

Then, there are athletes that make us so mad our blood boils hotter than a Kristin Cavallari picture.

Michelle Wie is just such an athlete. The 16-year old FEMALE missed yet another cut at a men’s event this week - by a monumental amount. She shot a 15-over at the European Masters.

Unfazed, of course, Wie claimed she had to keep working on her male game.

“My view is that to get better on the men’s tour and to be a better player, I have to keep playing men’s events. If I just play women’s events, I only get better at women’s events. I feel I have a good balance now,” Wie actually said.

It’s true. She has a great balance of losing and losing excessively. Wie has never won a single event on the supposedly inferior LPGA Tour; yet she constantly feels the need to play against the physically more capable gender.

It’s like a sixth grader who gets brushed aside like gnat every time he steps onto an NBA floor … yet refuses to try out for his high school team.

Because, yes, Wie is losing that badly to the men. Forget about sniffing any trophies, she’s made one in ten cuts. Unless she’s competing with Danica Patrick admirers for who can set the women’s movement back the most dramatically, it’s difficult to determine Wie’s mission in all this nonsense.

One can sort of admire your drive, Michelle, but you’re just 16 and have yet to taste a drop of professional victory. Perhaps you it’s time you realized that drive isn’t enough.

You also need better putting, chipping, iron play and mental toughness.

We’re no different than any American with a heart: we love Andre Agassi. The talented, drives, ageless, admirable wonder finally said goodbye to the tennis world this week when he lost in the third round of the U.S. Open.

Before exiting the court, however, Agassi gave thousands of fans in the stadium, and millions watching on TV, a final reward for their loyalty. He delivered as genuine a speech as any athlete could ever muster.

So move over, Lou Gehrig, we’ve transcribed the adieu word for word below. It should be required reading for all athletes.

The scoreboard said I lost today, but what the scoreboard doesn’t say is what it is I have found. Over the last 21 yesar, I have found loyalty. You have pulled for me on the court - and also in life.

I have found inspiration. You have willed me to succeed, sometimes even in my lowest moment. And I have found generosity. You have given me your shoulder to stand on, to reach for my dreams. Dreams I could never have reached without you.

Over the last 21 years, I have found you. And I will take you and the memory of you with me for the rest of my life. Thank you.

Another season of college football is here at last! If you are anything like The Pundit, you have been waiting for this moment since the final gun sounded at the Texas-USC slugfest in the Rose Bowl.

What a game! The Pundit has been pretty hard on the money-grubbing, soul-sucking farce known as the Bowl Championship Series in the past, but they finally got it right last year.

The Rose Bowl featured Reggie Bush of USC and Vince Young of Texas, the two best players in the country, dueling to the end with one breathtaking play after another. It was easily one of the best games of the year, with USC-Notre Dame and Texas-Ohio State also standing out.

So what does the 2006 season hold?

Will it be able to stack up to 2005’s high drama? Will it have another championship game for the ages or a shared national championship clusterf—? Exciting late-season conference races or one-horse shows? Huge, spread-busting upsets or just the status quo?

The Pundit doesn’t really know the answers (or how to talk in the first person, for the matter) but he will offer up his insights regardless. So sit back, hold onto your butts, and prepare for The Pundit to drop some knowledge on you! Let’s begin with a critique of Sports Illustrated’s preseason Top Five…

1. Ohio State: This offense will be nuts, but with the defense might not hold up after losing so much talent to the big dance. The Buckeyes will be good, but some Big 10 team will burn them.

2. Notre Dame: I think SI has this team too low (not that they can go much higher). As with Ohio State, the offensive pyrotechnics from Charlie Weis & Co. should be impressive with the Irish returning all of their skill players. The difference for the Irish, however, is that almost their whole starting defense from last year is back as well. They were blasted several times by more athletic teams in ‘05, but Weis won’t let that happen again. The big negative? A brutal schedule every week of the year (except for Army, of course).

3. Texas: Mack Brown has built the ‘Horns into a perennial top program with tons of talent. Only USC can rival his stockpiling of NFL level talent over the years. However, can anyone be expected to replace Vince Young? He was the reason for the national title. End of discussion.

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He did it again. It took five sets, 3 hours 48 minutes, and a ton of physical and mental anguish, but Andre Agassi got it done. In a match he had wrapped up in the third and fourth sets, then appeared to have let slip away in the fifth, Agassi prevailed through sheer will.

He won because he would not let Marcus Baghdatis beat him. Because his body was the less weakened of the two, and because the New York crowd would not allow this legend to go quietly into the morning. Agassi had to prevail in this match somehow. He just had to.

He did, prolonging his career at least two more days, and one more match. The score of Agassi’s epic win over eighth-seeded Marcos Baghdatis in the second round of the U.S. Open last night reads 6-4, 6-4, 3-6, 5-7, 7-5, although that doesn’t begin to tell the whole story.

Neither does what follows below, but here’s a quick rundown of the sequence of events transpiring at Arthur Ashe Stadium, August 31-September 1…

• Agassi takes the first set, 6-4, aided by a lengthy point in the eighth game in which Baghdatis took a spill and hurt his left wrist.
• Playing his prototypical game, using clean and efficient groundstrokes and just enough first serves Agassi conserves energy and rolls to another 6-4 set. John McEnroe uses both “tight” and “loose” to negatively describe Baghdatis, who is obviously off his game, either playing tentatively or going for way too much.
• Andre has a break point at 3-3 in the third set, prompting McEnroe and his announcing counterpart, Ted Robinson, to discuss how he was about to finish the Cyprus native off in an hour and a half.
• Baghdatis holds serve, then capitalizes on a rare weak service game from Agassi to break for a 5-3 advantage. He serves out the set handily and is right back in this thing. We learn that a person from Cyprus is called a “Cypriot!” Who knew?
• While he overcame whatever mental bloc afflicted him earlier, Baghdatis can’t stop spraying the ball. Clusters of unforced errors land him in an 0-4 hole to start the fourth set, as Agassi fans prematurely celebrate a second time.

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