- In sports, you always hear about so-called coaching trees, wherein a successful head coach has a group of protégés who coached as assistants on his or her staff at some point and went on to become head coaches with a different team or school. It’s especially true in football, where guys like Bill Parcells and Bill Belichick have seen multiple former assistants go on to become head coaches at prominent schools or with other NFL teams. This next story may be the first time that I’m going to openly advocate breaking out a metaphorical chainsaw and cutting down a coaching tree, then tying a heavy chain around the stump and yanking it from the ground, roots and all. Bill Snyder was the head coach for a long time at Kansas State and based on the success he had in taking the Wildcats from perennial doormats to a winning program on an annual basis, he’s esteemed highly around college football. That is going to start changing quickly if his former assistants (allegedly) keep punching players in the face. First, Kansas coach Mark Mangino was put under the microscope for his alleged mistreatment and physical abuse of players. Mangino publicly denied any such behavior, but a university investigation into his methods ended with his resignation, so draw your own conclusions from that. Still, one bad apple isn't enough to indict Snyder for being a bad influence on men who eventually became head coaches after serving under his leadership. That’s where University of South Florida football coach Jim Leavitt comes in. Leavitt, the only coach the USF program has ever known in its short lifespan, is now being investigated by the school following a report that he struck one of his players in the face during halftime of a game last month. The report surfaced a few days ago and is based on claims from the player's father, high school coach and five USF players who were not identified. All of these individuals alleged that Leavitt grabbed Joel Miller by the throat and hit him in the face twice of a mistake the sophomore walk-on made on special teams. The incident occurred at halftime of the Bulls' game against Louisville on Nov. 21, a game the Bulls won. "The University of South Florida is aware of the story and will review the matter promptly," USF vice president communications Michael Hoad said in a statement. "We're committed to ensuring due process for everyone involved. To ensure fairness, the university doesn't comment during a review." To be fair to Leavitt, he has already gone on the record to deny the allegations and profess his innocence. “All that's on there is absolutely not true," Leavitt said. "A lot of things that are out there are very untrue. I'll have my day to explain it further. Today is not that day." That’s certainly not the story that Joel Miller’s father Paul, was selling when he fumed that, "You do something like that [on the street] you put them in jail. Somewhere [Leavitt] crossed the line." All of the witnesses in the case spoke on the condition of anonymity because they feared discipline by Leavitt or dismissal from the program for speaking out, a fear that Joel Miller clearly had as well. It was Paul Miller who encouraged his son to come forward about the alleged assault. Joel Miller told his father, teammates and staff members he went to Leavitt's office to talk about the confrontation two days after it happened. His account of what happened in that meeting is more than a little disturbing, as he recounts a scene wherein Leavitt cut him off as soon as he began speaking and menacingly stated, "Before you say anything, just know I am the most powerful man in this building." Yet in spite of that meeting or perhaps because of it, both Paul and Joel Miller appear to be backpedaling from their allegations with Usain Bolt-like speed. Asked over the weekend to comment further on the matter, Joel Miller declined and his father didn’t do much better. “I stand behind the university and coach Leavitt 100 percent. I truly believe there was no malicious intent to hit anyone. He grabbed his shoulder pad, but it was like a motivational thing," the father explained. "After talking with Joel, he was satisfied there was not a slap, not at all." I’m sorry, but your son, the supposed victim, was satisfied that what he saw happen and spoke about at length suddenly was different after the matter became public and the coach was put under the spotlight? Sounds fishy to me. People who are participants in an event should not later need to be convinced of what actually happened in said event. The story here may not be clear, but what is clear is that it may be time to start asking just what coaching lessons and wisdom were being imparted to the assistants on that staff at KSU on which Mangino and Leavitt both served………….
- Shocker. If I told you that a Jamaican reggae star had been arrested for a crime in Florida, what would your first guess be as to what the crime was? I’d give most of you about four-tenths of a second before you blurted out something drug-related and of course, you’d be right. This is not a racial thing, mind you. It really has nothing to do with the man I’m about to mention being Jamaican and everything to do with him being a reggae star. Outside of Phish and the Grateful Dead, reggae is neck-and-neck with hip-hop for the most hippie lettuce/drug-laden musical genre, bar none. Willie Nelson probably envies reggae stars for the amount of the chronic they smoke. When Jamaican reggae singer Buju Banton was arrested on a charge of conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute more than five kilograms of cocaine, it was less a question of why and more a question of why it took so long. Banton, whose real name is Mark Anthony Myrie, has been sitting in U.S. federal custody in Miami since Thursday, although the charge against him stems from a DEA case in Tampa. Now I can’t say for sure what impact this arrest will have on Banton’s career, but I know what it will do to his status in the reggae community: elevate it substantially. Tell me that the rest of the stoners who love reggae music will stop playing hackey sack, take off their knit beanies and set aside their Rastafarian ways long enough to say so much as one critical word about Banton for this incident and I’ll laugh in your face. Look for sales of his ninth album, "Rasta Got Soul," to go through the roof. The album is already nominated for a Grammy, so odds are that it’s selling well at this point anyhow, at least be reggae album sale standards. One group that is clearly not a fan of Banton’s music is the The Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, which launched an online petition protesting the nomination, saying some of Banton's earlier lyrics have advocated violence against gay people. Having never heard a single second of dude’s music, I can neither confirm nor deny those allegations. But hate speech or note, the only speeches Banton will be giving in the next few days will be to judges and law enforcement officials, perhaps to his attorney as well. I look forward to the next drug-related reggae story rolling my way any minute now, so at least Banton won't be the primary headline in this area for long……….
- Big things going on for NASA this holiday season, I have to say. Now that they are done crashing space probe’s into the moon and finding water there, the space agency is shooting more things into space to help us learn just what’s out there. NASA launched a new telescope into space on Monday to scan the cosmos for undiscovered objects, including asteroids and comets that might threaten Earth, which certainly sounds important. The cleverly named Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, or WISE, spacecraft will employ an infrared camera to detect light- and heat-emitting objects that other orbiting telescopes, such as the Hubble, might miss. Again, it sounds very important and hopefully it is. The WISE launched Monday at 9:09 a.m. ET aboard a Delta II rocket from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, postponed from postponed from Friday because of a problem with the motion of a booster steering engine. Then again, it wouldn’t be a NASA launch if it wasn’t delayed or postponed in some way, so no big deal there. For the next nine months, the unmanned WISE will orbit 326 miles above the Earth, mapping the universe in infrared light. Its amazing lens will cover the whole sky 1½ times during its stint in space, snapping a picture every 11 seconds. "The last time we mapped the whole sky at these particular infrared wavelengths was 26 years ago," said Edward "Ned" Wright of UCLA, the principal investigator of the mission. "Infrared technology has come a long way since then. The old all-sky infrared pictures were like impressionist paintings -- now, we'll have images that look like actual photographs." That may be the first time I’ve heard space exploration likened to impressionist art, so big ups there. Then again, when you have a solar-powered space explorer, I guess you can draw most any parallel you want. Mission leaders expect WISE to asteroids and comets with orbits that come close to crossing Earth's path and determine their size and composition by measuring their infrared light. It turn, that data that may help astronomers scare the crap out of “sky is falling types” who stockpile supplies and head to their underground bunkers with their loved ones every time there is a predicted strike for a hurtling asteroid crashing into the Earth. “We can help protect our Earth by learning more about the diversity of potentially hazardous asteroids and comets," said Amy Mainzer, deputy project scientist for the mission at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. The WISE also will be searching for dim stars called brown dwarfs and millions of distant galaxies that are cloaked in dust and often can't be seen in visible light. The explorer will sent its data by radio transmission four times per day to computers on Earth, where that data will be combined into what should be an interesting map of the entire celestial sphere. Keep up the good (and expensive) work NASA, and keep shooting things into space after delayed launches………
- See everyone, MTV is not just a network filled with crappy reality shows about ‘roided up and surgically enhanced wannabe actors living in tricked out mansions or the occasional music video from a poseur hip-pop artist with as much street cred as Mr. Rogers. No, the network is also capable of ripping off the concept of ‘80s movies and turning them into what should be a thoroughly regrettable and forgettable television series. That movie would be “Teen Wolf,” the 1985 hit starring Michael J. Fox and the subsequent sequel starring Jason Bateman. MTV is taking the “Teen Wolf” franchise and turning it into a series designed to be equal parts drama and buddy-comedy, written by "Criminal Minds" creator Jeff Davis and starring Tyler Posey, who is best known for his roles in "Lincoln Heights" and "Brothers & Sisters." Posey will fill on the role of Scott McCall, that Fox made famous, gaining all sorts of strange new powers after being attacked by a wolf. Other members of the cast will be Tyler Hoechlin ("7th Heaven"), Crystal Reed (MTV's "Hard Times") and Dylan O'Brien. But don’t expect the series to be an exact replica of the movies, not according to MTV. "It has a fresh take and is very different from the original," MTV Senior Vice President Liz Gateley said. Gateley didn’t comment on what role basketball would play in the series, but the on-court action was definitely a key component of the movies and it would be good to see it incorporated into the TV series, even if I’m predicting that the series will be off the air before the end of its first season. There is no announced premiere date for the series, but stay tuned for more news on what should be an eminently missable addition to the MTV programming lineup……….
- While many companies have suffered in the sagging worldwide ecnomy, how has one non-descript, bargain-basement beer managed to thrive? That’s the story of Pabst Blue Ribbon beer, which is going strong and beer is up almost 30 percent in dollar sales in the U.S. for the 52 weeks through October at retailers like supermarkets and drug stores. That’s well above the beer category's overall 1.1 percent increase, raising the question of what’s behind PBR’s success. Those selling the beer to consumers have a logical theory: says some drinkers are trading in high-priced beers for $1.65 PBRs. PBR’s gain is clearly other beer makers’ loss, as Budweiser and Corona Extra are down about 7 percent and 8 percent, respectively. At the same time, PBR has also managed to cultivate a reputation as an offbeat, anti-establishment beer that is an alternative to big, mainstream brands. That dichotomy is on display at the annual Great American Beer Festival in Denver, where the always cheers loudly any time Pabst wins awards but often boos when the so-called “major” brands garner recognition. What’s ironic about all of this is that PBR isn't actually the cheapest beer on the market. It costs at least $1 a case more than Busch Light and Keystone Light, so PBR fans are actually paying more than they need to for the image of being anti-establishment in their beer consumption. Something else that could generate additional support and interest for PBR is the fact that the company is now up for sale and one potential offer has emerged with a unique, Green Bay Packers-esque twist. For the unfamiliar, the Packers are the lone professional sports franchise owned entirely by fans, who own shares of stock in the franchise. Michael Migliozzi -- managing partner of advertising agency Forza Migliozzi – has a similar idea for PBR. Although his idea started out as a joke, Migliozzi is attempting to crowdsource the purchase of Pabst by creating buyabeercompany.com, a joint venture with ad agency the Ad Store that will allow over 21 to pledge a minimum of $5 toward the reported $300 million sales price for Pabst. The concept has taken root quickly and so far, beer lovers have pledged more than $20 million in about a month. If the drive raises enough money, Migliozzi says contributors will get enough beer to match their pledges and ownership in the company. All in all, this is quite a turnaround for a company that bottomed out in 2001 and was moving less than 1 million barrels per year at that point. Portland, Ore. was the epicenter for the brand’s resurgence and after dispatching representatives to the city to determine why, PBR learned that it was “the hipster crowd, the music crowd" who liked the brand “because it didn't have a lot of advertising behind it." The company seized upon that image and to this day, continues to do minimal marketing. One exception is Pabst’s annual art contest giving fans a chance to win beer for a year and a cash prize when they enter their Pabst-inspired. It’s a decidedly backwards approach to business in this day and age, but clearly it’s working and as long as it continues to work, Pabst shouldn’t change a thing………
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