Posts Tagged ‘Rants From the Cheap Seats’

Well, in case you hadn’t heard, Phillip Fulmer (a/k/a “the Great Punkin”) has been selected as the 2009 recipient of the Robert R. Neyland Trophy.  Fulmer will be formally presented the award at the East Tennessee Chapter of the National Football Foundation Hall of Fame awards brunch on Saturday morning.  Fulmer will also be honored on the field prior to the start of this weekend’s Orange and White game.  This award, named in honor of General Neyland, has been awarded by the Knoxville Quarterback Club for the last 44 years.

This year’s choice has a few people upset, or at least scratching their heads a bit.

It is hard to argue with Fulmer deserving the award.  The issue for some folks is the the timing, because now Coach Fulmer will be honored immediately prior to Lane Kiffin’s debut as the head coach of the Volunteers—the same team that Fulmer coached up until the end of last season.  One need look no farther than any of the various Tennessee web forums and blogs to see the proverbial “lines in the sand” being drawn by fans on both sides.

Never afraid to make a public statement when called upon to do so, the Blackjack General commented on the matter earlier today :

Coach Fulmer has had a tremendous impact on Tennessee.  He’s the second-winningest coach in Tennessee history behind General Neyland. It’s only fitting that he receives this prestigious award. I hope all Tennessee fans will show up early Saturday to show their appreciation for all he has done for our program, our university and our state.

• Lane Kiffin: Commenting on Coach Fulmer being honored prior to the Orange and White Game | GoVols Xtra

Some will say (or already have) that the timing of Fulmer’s selection was intentional—that this was an orchestrated barb at the athletic department (most pointedly at Smiling Mike Hamilton) from Fulmer supporters on the Neyland Trophy committee.  Others will say that the award amounts to little more than incurable homerism on the part of some who refuse to let Coach Fulmer go.  On the other side, there is the argument that Coach Fulmer was an immensely successful coach and earned the award fairly, and that it is fitting he be receive the award at the first appropriate opportunity—the first year after he leaves Tennessee.  Others still will say that the only reason that some are complaining is because they fired a good coach and they know it.

Either way, it makes for some high drama…

I for one don’t see what the big deal is either way.  Lane Kiffin had nothing to do with Phillip Fulmer’s ouster.  Phillip Fulmer was a great coach for the Vols and remains a loyal Tennessean—I respect the man for what he has done.  Coach Kiffin has had to deal with much worse, as has Coach Fulmer.  There is no reason in this instance why the orange-clad faithful can’t have their cake and eat it to.

In my opinion, the “controversy” over this is nothing more than a few people with axes to grind on both sides of the fence trying to create a storm for/against Coach Fulmer being honored or for / against Coach Kiffin taking “the greensward of Shields-Watkins Field” for the first time.  What I haven’t heard from anyone is this:

The politicization of this event by “factions” does nothing but dishonor the memory of one person: General Robert R. Neyland.

The Neyland Trophy was created to honor the General’s legacy, and to preserve his mark on the landscape of college football.  To try and turn this award into a circus is, to me, repugnant.  To anyone that would add fuel to the fire in either direction and not support both Fulmer and Kiffin, I say “shame on you.” It is bad for the fanbase, it is bad for Tennessee, it is bad for Coach Fulmer, and it is bad for Coach Kiffin.  In my opinion it is wrong.

There is no reason that the fans cannot cheer their former coach for winning the Neyland Trophy and then, five minutes later, cheer their current coach as he brings his team out on to the field.  In the process of doing both, those cheers also honor General Neyland.  I support both Fulmer and Kiffin.  I also support preserving Neyland’s place in the pantheon of the game I love.

More than any of that, however, I support Tennessee first and foremost…

It is not about either man, it is not about making a statement for or against one coach or the other, it is not about using the event as a bully pulpit.  It is about supporting your team, your school, your “family,” and doing what is right.

So, who do you support?

– So it goes…

Yes, friends and neighbors the NCAA Tournament is upon us.  Thus, we all get ready for the mayhem that accompanies that grand old tradition.  For what seems like forever, that has included watching endless hours of basketball courtesy of CBS Sports.  Now, generally, I am a huge fan of CBS Sports, and I favor their web presence when it comes to sports content on the internet. **

All that said, last year’s NCAA tournament almost drove me mad.  Actually it wasn’t the tournament, but the way that CBS covered the tournament on television.  That led me to fire off at the mouth a bit.  Since it is that time again, I figured it would only be appropriate to take a stroll down memory lane and look back on what I had to say about CBS’s coverage.  I do this for two reasons.

First, this seems relevant as we all get ready to become couch potatoes for a month.  This may be minimized a little bit due to the fact that CBS will be broadcasting all games online free of charge once again, but the fact remains a big flat screen is infinitely better than even the best computer monitor.

Second, I have been so busy that I haven’t yet gotten a chance to finish up my thoughts on the Oklahoma State Cowboys…

Thus, without further adieu, we go back in time to my post entitled simply:

CBS = Complete Bull Sh*t

The following is an excerpt from an archived post on Gate 21 which originally appeared on 31 March 2008.  To continue reading the original post in its entirety, simply click the title above, or the “Continue Reading” link at the foot of this post

I intentionally waited a few days before airing this complaint, mainly because I didn’t want my vitriol to be mistaken as nothing more than “sour grapes” over the BasketVols loss to the Louisville Cardinals.

Trust me, this has nothing to do with Tennessee, Louisville, or any other specific team…

For the past … well, it seems like quite a long time, now … CBS has been the exclusive home of the NCAA Tournament. I vaguely remember ESPN covering first and second-round games during the 1990s, but CBS is all we have had for a while. Either way, CBS has held a stranglehold on the Final Four since Billy Packer conned James Naismith himself into signing over the rights some time during the 1920s — back when Billy Packer was in his 50s.

First of all, I do want to applaud CBS Sportsline — CBS Sports’ internet division — for their ambitious decision to broadcast every tournament game for free on the web. Similarly, the CBS “Game Center” on the internet for each game — displaying myriad stats and information in real time — is amazing. It is as artful as it is impressive. Any fan can get up-to-the-second information on every facet of the game — including points, fouls, assists, shooting trends, whether a player is taking bribes to throw the game, which boosters the cute little cheerleader next to the basket is sleeping with, and so much more — via one of the best interfaces I’ve ever seen for statistical information of that kind.

Despite the minor fact that the bandwidth draw for the “March Madness on Demand” service has been so obscenely high that it has — at times — nearly crashed massive trunk lines on the web, I salute these efforts of CBS’s internet division. For reasons which will become clear in a second, in the future I may choose this as the only way I’ll watch the tournament — even if it is in a 5″ x 5″ low resolution streaming window.

Continue Reading >>

**Disclosure: While lawvol is a voting member of the CBS Sports Football Blog Poll and the CBS Sports BasketBlog Poll, neither this site, its editor, nor publisher receives any payment or other compensation of any type or kind in return for participation. Furthermore, neither Gate 21 nor lawvol received any benefit of any kind for this article, which was neither requested nor solicited by CBS Sports. This article represents the actual opinion of the author (for what that is worth) and was in no way influenced by any other person(s).

I’m not going to complain, however.  I just really thought a new header was in order (you may have to hit refresh a time or two for it to appear).

No, the new graphic has no correlation with Tennessee’s performance in the game today.

None whatsoever. I wouldn’t lie…

– Go Figure …

» Updated: 20 September 2008 — 10:25 pm

I changed the header back to my standard look, but for those of you who would like to see what it looked like, you can view it by clicking here.

Wow … all I can say is “Wow.”

We all knew it was bad when the Mitchell Report came out naming Roger Clemens as a doper, but I figured there was more to the story — a more complete telling, if you will. It got worse when Brian McNamee started waving around dirty syringes and old beer cans, but I assumed – at least to some extent — it was simply a ploy for attention by McNamee in hopes of deflecting the pressure that was coming down on him like a ton of bricks. It got downright embarrassing when Roger decided to “clear his name” before Congress. I assumed that was about as bad as it could get.

You know what, I was wrong…

Mindy McCready

Roger Clemens, has now passed from the uglier side of sports into the completely absurd, as revelations have now emerged regarding Roger Clemens alleged (and I use “alleged” because I am a lawyer, and I firmly believe that everyone has the right to refute charges leveled against them … oh yeah, and because Clemens has lawyers too) ten-year affair with Mindy McCready.

Don’t get me wrong though, I am not purporting to judge Clemens for supposedly having an affair. If he did he would hardly be the first or the last. People are human; people make mistakes — even athletes. Far be it for me to act like some moral inquisitor on the issue of another person’s love life.

I am, however, judging him for supposedly starting the affair when he was 28 and McReady was 15 years-old. It’s one thing to be unfaithful to your wife (bad though it may be), it’s an entirely different thing to commit statutory rape.

If all of this is, in fact, true, then Roger Clemens has just passed into legend. He has just won the all-time award for bad behavior by an athlete … ever. He has cemented his place in the Lecherous Idiot Hall of Fame. He has earned the All-Universe Trophy for Excellence in Dumbassery. He has won the gold, silver, and bronze medals at the Celebrity Career Suicide and Flame-out Olympics.

Oh yeah, he may have also earned himself 15 to 20 years in the service of the state…

I have never personally witnessed — forget me — the World has never witnessed such an absurdly meteoric and apocalyptic meltdown of a figure in the public eye … ever. Forget all the others, Clemens has so raised the bar on crashing and burning that there are no words to even describe it

Even Ron Artest knows you don’t hit babies. Even Eliot Spitzer knows you have to check their age before you pay them. Michael Vick never threw puppies into the pit.

Still, it is hard to believe that a few months ago, Roger Clemens was doing cell phone commercials. Now he is untouchable.

A few public figures, however, have commented on Clemens’ downfall:*

Joe Namath said:

Poor Roger, everything down the toilet … I wanna kiss you.

Harold Reynolds chimed in stating:

Look what he’s done, and they fired me? All I did was hug the b**ch!

Martha Stewart offered a bit of advice:

Well, I just hope Roger understands what prison life can be like. If it hadn’t been for my award-winning recipe for making Jailhouse Hooch, it would have been tough.

Pete Rose probably summed it best by saying:

Those are some pretty long odds to gamble on … so can I get in the Hall of Fame now?

From this day forward, anytime anyone in the public eye gets themselves in trouble for something insanely stupid, for something violating the code of sportsmanship, gets caught breaking the law … hell … gets caught doing pretty much anything they shouldn’t …

… they will be said to have “Pulled a Clemens”

Hopefully, this is the end of the fall for Roger Clemens, not because I feel particularly sorry for him, but because the situation keeps getting more ridiculous. I mean what could possibly come next, tying Clemens to Al Queda?

Osama Bin Clemens

Either way, Clemens will forever be emblematic of the select few amazingly talented people who just pissed their lives away.

When it comes to destroying your entire life, everything you have worked for, Roger Clemens is truly the greatest…

– Go Figure …

*Disclaimer: As if it were not completely obvious, the quotes in this article are complete crap and are purely a creation of the unbalanced mind of the author. The quotes above (along with all images bearing the “Gate 21″ Logo contained therein) are fictional humorous depictions (a/k/a “Farks”), intended as satire, of Roger Clemens and others, and do not reflect the views or position of the the individuals named herein. Neither this posting, those who created it, nor this blog are in anyway affiliated with Roger Clemens, or any other individuals mentioned hereinabove. So please don’t have your lawyers send me a bunch of nasty letters…

I intentionally waited a few days before airing this complaint, mainly because I didn’t want my vitriol to be mistaken as nothing more than “sour grapes” over the BasketVols loss to the Louisville Cardinals.

Trust me, this has nothing to do with Tennessee, Louisville, or any other specific team…

For the past … well, it seems like quite a long time, now … CBS has been the exclusive home of the NCAA Tournament. I vaguely remember ESPN covering first and second-round games during the 1990s, but CBS is all we have had for a while. Either way, CBS has held a stranglehold on the Final Four since Billy Packer conned James Naismith himself into signing over the rights some time during the 1920s — back when Billy Packer was in his 50s.

First of all, I do want to applaud CBS Sportsline — CBS Sports’ internet division — for their ambitious decision to broadcast every tournament game for free on the web. Similarly, the CBS “Game Center” on the internet for each game — displaying myriad stats and information in real time — is amazing. It is as artful as it is impressive. Any fan can get up-to-the-second information on every facet of the game — including points, fouls, assists, shooting trends, whether a player is taking bribes to throw the game, which boosters the cute little cheerleader next to the basket is sleeping with, and so much more — via one of the best interfaces I’ve ever seen for statistical information of that kind.

Despite the minor fact that the bandwidth draw for the “March Madness on Demand” service has been so obscenely high that it has — at times — nearly crashed massive trunk lines on the web, I salute these efforts of CBS’s internet division. For reasons which will become clear in a second, in the future I may choose this as the only way I’ll watch the tournament — even if it is in a 5″ x 5″ low resolution streaming window.

All my praise for CBS stops at the web. While the geek squad over at CBS Sportsline has managed to push the delivery of live sports content to the next level of innovation, the senior production staff at CBS Sports television division have opted to take gigantic steps backward. The CBS Sportsline staff deserve a substantial raise, the television production staff should be drug out into the street by their hair, tied to a post, tarred and feathered, and then put on display outside the Alamodome for tournament-goers to poke and prod.

I generally like the CBS stable of announcers and personalities. I mean, how could you not just want to pinch Verne Lundquist’s cheeks every time you see him. Furthermore, between Bill Raftery and Gus Johnson there have been a bevy of quotable lines which are absolutely hilarious, even if they are ridiculous. What infuriates me to no end, however, is CBS’s apparent belief that the average viewer is a vapid, mouth-breathing fool who lacks the sense or the ability to decide which game they actually want to watch during the tournament.

Now, where I live, our CBS affiliate has been one of CBS’s primary testing grounds for new ideas. Our affiliate is always trying to do new things to make the viewers’ experience better. Thus, when tournament time rolls around, they make arrangements with all of the cable providers in the area to have numerous additional channels so that all the games are being broadcast at all times. Thus, despite the fact I live in the bowels of the ACC, I can still see the SEC games. I appreciate that.

What I absolutely hate is the fact that the powers that be at CBS Sports in New York feel that they are much wiser than I — and the millions of other fans — when it comes to deciding what is worth watching. Thus, they constantly insist on cutting away from the games to show other games due to the fact that they are more “exciting“.

If I see Greg Gumbel’s face pop-up on my screen one more time to tell me that “we are now going to Souix City where the No Teeth State Water Buffaloes have comeback against the Alaskan State School of Veterinary Medicine and Applied Mechanical Engineering, and the score is currently tied at 6 with 1:00 to go…” I will be forced to take up voo-doo and put a hex on him and his family.

CBS, it is a simple concept: if I have already spent 2 hours watching a game, and there are only 2:00 minutes to go in it, I want to see the end of it.

I don’t give a damn how one-sided the game I’m watching is, or how boring it has become to the CBS front office. I want to watch the game I have on. If I wanted to watch the UCLA game, I’d have turned it on. If I really cared how close the Western Kentucky vs. San Diego game was, I’d have flipped over to it. If I gave two shits about what game you thought was more interesting, I’d have asked for your opinion.

So leave the damn game on so I can watch the end of it!

It is obvious that CBS has never heard of the 1968 game between the New York Jets and the Oakland Raiders, generally known as the “Heidi Game,” but perhaps they should check it out. They might learn that, as a result of that debacle by NBC, that network learned that it is not a good idea to cut in on a game and switch to something else — people get really pissed-off when you do. This is especially maddening considering that they are already displaying all the scores in their ticker. Furthermore, if anyone at CBS had ever looked at what any of the other networks are doing, they would realize that in the modern era, if there is something of interest going on elsewhere, they can use a split screen or something of that nature — all of the other networks seem to have figured that out. I guess that would be asking too much of CBS…

The most galling thing about all of this, is — as I mentioned above — my local CBS affiliate has gone to great lengths in my area to ensure that all of the games are televised on the local cable systems. Thus, during the early rounds of the tournament, there were as many as 6 different channels showing games in my area at the same time. When the morons in New York decided that they had a better idea of what we really should be watching, however, they would cut away to “the hot game“. Thus, instead of being able to switch over if I wanted to see that “hot game” CBS cut in on the one I was watching … and on the ones that others were watching.

Thus, I had the amazing — and enviable — ability to watch the same game on 6 different channels!!!!!

The level of rank incompetence by the senior production staff at CBS during this tournament is bordering on legendary. Even though we are now into the final rounds of the tournament, I’m sure that CBS will find a way to keep it up: I imagine that during the Final Four, they will cut in to show the great deals available on home electronics over at QVC, and during the championship game, we will go live to the scene of Survivor to see the results of the latest tribal challenge.

This is ridiculous, and CBS ought to fire who ever made the decision to keep making these constant cut-aways. This sort of heavy-handed approach has ensured that, in the future — if given a choice between CBS and any other broadcaster — I will never watch anything on CBS unless absolutely necessary.

CBS has completely dropped the ball, and I hope their advertisers — the only thing that really matters to them — realize this.

Thus, I encourage all of you to get your “March Madness on Demand” passes early next year, because that is the only place you can avoid the constant cut-outs. Of course given the idiots driving the ship at present, I imagine next year CBS will make sure and do the same on the internet …

… because after all, what do the fans actually know?

• If you’d like to send your thoughts to CBS, you can do so through their website, at the following link: CBS Corporation: Contact Us.

– Go Figure …

Images Courtesy of: CBS • Radiers.com

Okay, I admit it — this is a completely irrational rant, but I can’t help it. If any of you SEC fans out there happen to live in the heart of another conference’s “territory” then you may understand. Either way, I am unapologetic about this little rant…

I live in Raleigh, North Carolina, which is generally a really great place to live — except when it comes to college sports. My house and office are about 5 miles from NC State University. Considering how shitty the Wolfpack generally is in pretty much every sport other than Tiddly-Winks, that isn’t so bad. Widen the arc just a bit more, however, and things get decidedly more annoying. Dook (a/k/a Duke) is about 15 miles up the road, and Tarhead State (a/k/a UNC) is about 9 miles beyond that.

I live in the bowels of ACC Country…

Now, during football season, things aren’t all that bad — basketball season (especially the month of March), however, is a different matter.

There are few things that I dislike more than Tarhead fans. The self-righteous “Whine & Cheese” Smurfs of Chapel Hill have to be some of the most annoying fans in the sports world. Of course, the UNC crowd would claim this is unfair — they would argue that the Dookies are worse. In some ways they might be right — the Dookies are terribly obnoxious, arrogant, elitist, and (on the whole) annoying fans — the key point, however, is that the Dook fans acknowledge that they are this way and, in fact often wear that fact as a badge of honor. UNC fans, on the other hand are generally so elitist that they refuse to acknowledge their elitism.

Duke may be the “University of New Jersey at Durham,” their fans annoying as hell, and a former employer of Steve Spurrier, but I’d still take them over the Tarheads any day — after all, they hired David Cutcliffe…

Oh yeah, did I mention that I am an alum of both the University of Tennessee and the University of North Carolina — UNC School of Law, Class of 2001…

This is not to tout my resume (like anyone would care…), but rather to point out that I have earned my bitching license. UNC is a great school, and I got a fine education there, but I hate the Tarhead fans. I am just so tired of hearing all the Tarhead talk and all the “ACC is the King” crap that I am about to puke…

Read the rest of this entry »

Once again the sports world is abuzz about the start of spring training, and yet another Major League Baseball season. Baseball has a long list of issues on its plate as the season gets rolling along. All of the off-season chatter has centered on the problems arising from the Mitchell Report, Roger Clemens, Barry Bonds, Bud Selig, Brian McNamee, Bob Uecker, Pedro Cerrano, Ebby “Nuke” LaLoosh, Rick Vaughn, and Crash Davis. Those last five names actually have nothing to do with the controversy swirling in baseball, but I threw them in just for the hell of it — after all, the more the merrier.

Anyway, I am sure that the powers that be in baseball simply cannot wait to get the 2008 season going so they can put all of this ugliness behind them — “move on” as it were. There are only 2 problems with this line of thinking:

1. The start of the 2008 season is not going to put the steroid issues that have been plastered all over the media for the last 6 months “behind” baseball, not even a little, and
2. Even if it did cause millions of otherwise reasonably informed Americans to suddenly forget about a story that has been covered with more nauseating detail and intensity than the war in Iraq, that forgetfulness would only be the result of the fact that increasingly fewer people in this country give two shits about Major League Baseball anymore anyway.

I think baseball has a very tough road ahead of it…

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I’m sure that Phillip Fulmer knew that things were not going to be easy when he found out that rising-Senior Britton Colquitt was arrested for DUI and fleeing the scene of an accident on Sunday. I doubt even Fulmer thought they would be this difficult.

I, along with many others, have come out publicly to decry the fact that Colquitt was not dismissed from the team. I stopped just short of saying that Fulmer should resign or be fired as a result of the off-field incidents which have plagued the Tennessee Volunteers football program over the last five weeks.

The Knoxville News Sentinel’s John Adams did not stop short.

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Once again, the Tennessee Volunteers are in the news for bad behavior, and once more it is a member of the Tennessee football team that is responsible for the bad press that the university and the athletic department is garnering.

govolsxtra.com/news/2008/feb/17/ut-punter-charged-dui-leaving-scene-accident/”> According to GoVolsXtra, Tennessee punter Britton Colquitt was arrested and charged with DUI and leaving the scene of an accident. According to the police, Colquitt was arrested near Knoxville’s Old City District after driving his SUV into a parked car and then leaving the scene of the accident. The arresting officer indicated that Colquitt smelled strongly of alcohol, failed a field sobriety test, but later refused a breathalyzer or blood test.

This represents Colquitt’s fifth alcohol-related incident …

In response to the arrest and charges, Coach Phillip Fulmer announced on Sunday that Colquitt will be suspended for the first five games of the 2008 football season, will lose his scholarship, and will be required to undergo alcohol counseling, along with other undisclosed “internal punishments.” Colquitt was previously suspended for an alcohol-related event in 2004.

Colquitt’s arrest is the most recent in a seemingly unending string of off-the-field incidents involving Tennessee Football players. Since 11 January, six members of the football team have been charged by police, one other player (Vince Faison) was also charged with DUI, less than two weeks ago.

Read the rest of this entry »

Alright, I admit it, this rant has been building up for a while now … about 23 years.

The first time I saw Ted Valentine officiate a basketball game, I was a kid, and it was the Southern Conference Basketball Tournament which used to be played in my hometown of Asheville, North Carolina. Up until that point in my life, I never really gave much thought to the referees and their role in a basketball game.

Ted Valentine made sure I never neglected to think of the officials ever again…

From the moment that game began, it became obvious that Valentine wanted everyone in the Asheville Civic Center to realize that he was there, and he was in charge. He wanted to make sure that no one forgot him. Even to this day, I can hardly remember the name of any of the players in the game, but I still remember Valentine.

Since that game, I’ve probably seen Valentine officiate close to 20 games in person, and who knows how many on television. How do I know that? In every game Ted Valentine calls, he goes to great lengths to make sure that no one in a game ever forgets him, whether they be players coaches or fans. When Ted Valentine is on the floor, he makes it clear that the players get to compete at his pleasure. His overly-aggressive and antagonistic on-court persona dominates. When Valentine is officiating, it is about him — God forbid the actual game get in the way of his opportunity to strut.

Now, don’t get me wrong, I know that officials do have a difficult job. They are charged with overseeing the collision of, often legendary, drive, strength, and egos — and that’s just the fans in the seats. I know they get a lot of lip, and very little credit — when they do their job right, no one realizes they were there. They are supposed to be cool, objective, and dispassionate. They have to deal with mad coaches, jacked-up players, and fanatical boosters. I know this because my father used to referee high school basketball, and a close family friend is a college official. Still, that is what they sign up for; it’s not like a person is required to serve as a basketball official.

Ted Valentine has never been accused of being cool, objective, or dispassionate. He has had run-ins with the coaches of almost every major school in the country. Don’t take my word for it, a quick Google of “Ted Valentine“ will yield a litany of rants and raves — some from respected journalists. Even I must admit, however, that Valentine is some kind of genius.

Valentine is the only person I’ve ever seen that, the worse he did his job, the more rapidly he moved up the ranks…

In my opinion, Valentine has no business officiating any basketball game. Of course no one cares what I think, and the SEC, Big Ten, ACC, Big XII, NCAA, and numerous other conferences continue to give Valentine choice assignments — including the NCAA Final Four.

So why am I writing all of this now? Valentine officiated the Tennessee vs. Florida game, and yet again he managed to make himself known. In this instance it was a technical foul called against J.P. Prince immediately after getting hammered to the floor by Florida’s Dan Werner.  As he slammed Prince to the ground, Werner was immediately called for an intentional foul by one of the other officials. Prince got up — admittedly — angry, yet no shoving occurred. Valentine, however, ran all the way across the floor and immediately called a technical against Prince.

Now, I wasn’t standing there. I cannot say that Prince didn’t earn the technical honestly (Yeah, I know that’s an odd way of putting it…). In fact, I can guarantee you that — most likely — Prince did earn the foul — I’d have been pissed too if I had just taken an elbow drop the way he did. I have to give all of that to Valentine.

Still, sometimes, as an official you have to exercise a little discretion. Sometimes, you have to balance a “technical” violation of the rules against the intent and purpose of the rules. As every official I’ve ever spoken with has told me, you could call a foul on every single play, but that’s not what the referee is there for. You have to let the players play the game.

That is, unless you are Ted Valentine…

– Go Figure …