* At the end of ESPN’s telecast of USF’s win over East Carolina, one of the booth commentators said, “There is something going on that we don’t know.” He left it at that and signed off. He was referring to the fact that USF, with the game in hand, 38-22, still had its key players on the field and was airing it out trying to score again with only a few seconds left.
Most observers thought it was a classic case of trying to run up the score on a defeated opponent. Bulls head coach Willie Taggert said there was no bad blood or pay-back going on with ECU, it was simply a matter of “trying to score points. … We needed to finish the ballgame.”
I get the point where it’s the defense’s job to stop the offense, not the offense’s job to stop itself, to paraphrase Steve Spurrier. But with only a few seconds left, it’s time for the game’s unwritten rule to kick in. Show some class in victory. Or is sportsmanship as old school as tossing the football to the ref after a touchdown without a hint of lounge-act prep. The Bulls opted for swagger, as if we need any more on our athletic fields and courts.
* Another sign of U.S.-Cuban rapprochement: The U.S. national men’s soccer team recently played an exhibition (appropriately called “friendlies” in international soccer parlance) in Havana against their Cuban counterparts. It was the first such Cuban-American exhibition since 1947. BTW, the U.S. won, 2-0, and one of the goals was scored by Tampa native Julian Green, 21, who was born into a military family at MacDill AFB.
* The Lightning will retire Marty St. Louis’ number–26–on Jan. 13. It’s a classy move by the Bolts. St. Louis was the face–and heart–of the franchise for years, most notably 2004 when Tampa Bay won the Stanley Cup. The Lightning is saying all is forgiven for that classless divorce orchestrated by St. Louis to finish out his career in New York. He scapegoated Bolts’ general manager Steve Yzerman, undermined team morale while his soap opera scenario played out and then finished up with the Rangers.
The Lightning are doing the right thing: Honoring a gritty, great player who always gave his best on the ice. They have forgiven. But nobody is forgetting what they are forgiving.