COMMENTARY
Reed’s role a vital one in offense
Updated: 08/25/08 6:54 AM
Fast food for thought . . .
• Josh Reed’s three first-quarter receptions against Indianapolis on Sunday night underscored the important role he’ll play in Turk Schonert’s offense. Reed’s career numbers are unspectacular. He’s never evolved into anything more than a possession receiver, and an inconsistent one at that. But he pulled in 51 passes last year, the second most of his career, and his experience is vital to a productive passing game while rookie James Hardy acclimates to the NFL.
It’s doubly encouraging that two of Reed’s receptions came on third-down passes and resulted in first downs.
• Perhaps you read last Tuesday’s column on Ken Rawe, the 85-year-old Brookfield Country Club golfer who had shot his age or better 149 times. No. 150 came the next day, when Rawe carded an 83 at Transit Valley.
• No doubt some of China’s female gymnasts look like they rushed to the arena after grade school commencement ceremonies. Not that it bothers me. Age should be irrelevant. If you’re good enough to compete against the best in the world, then you belong in the Olympics. Who drew up the criteria, anyway? David Stern?
• Speaking of Olympic gymnastics, NBC analyst Tim Daggett and the bombastic Bela Karolyi continually cited the downfall in the rule that makes judges ineligible for the competition if their country has a participant. I get their point, but it’s too bad the same logic doesn’t apply for announcers. Daggett and Karolyi lost credibility with their continued whining over how the American women had been slighted by the less experienced judges. I would have welcomed an assessment from someone without ties to the U. S. gymnastics scene, someone without compromised objectivity.
• Kudos to NASCAR for coming down hard on the Joe Gibbs team for skirting the rules in the Nationwide Series. Integrity’s everything in sports these days, and not easily maintained, especially in NASCAR, where skirting the rules has been raised to an art form.
• Let’s face it. The IOC dumped baseball because the major leagues wouldn’t clear the way to allow their stars to participate.
• Am I the only one who thinks NBC went overboard on its coverage of Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh? Exactly when did we become a country head-over- heels for beach volleyball? It’s an interesting sport and I appreciate the athletic ability it requires, but come on. Meanwhile, the network shamelessly dragged out the pole vault final with Fredonia’s Jenn Stuczynski. By the time NBC finally showed the final jumps the competition was more than 12 hours old.
• If Hank Steinbrenner is going to make his mark, then CC Sabathia’s headed for Yankees pinstripes. The new stadium arrives next year, further rendering the luxury tax nothing but a minor financial imposition to baseball’s revenue leader.
• It’s of little concern to the Bills if Toronto papered the house for the preseason game. The Bills’ interest is in the corporate potential created by its tie-ins with the city. In fact, one could argue that the poor seat sales is a positive sign for the team’s future in Buffalo.
• It’ll be interesting to see how New Zealander Danny Lee’s career evolves from here after he birdied 13 of 32 holes in Sunday’s U. S. Amateur final to unseat Tiger Woods as the event’s youngest champion. The win gives Lee invitations to next year’s Masters, U. S. Open and British Open, raising the likelihood of him remaining an amateur into July. That’s a good thing. The golf world is littered with players who turned pro early and then struggled with the grind of playing for a living.
