Starting Five
Um, one cap over to your left next time, Eddie.
1. Eddie VanderGoes
It was Thomas Wolfe who wrote You Can’t Go Home Again, (and it was Horace Greeley who wrote, “Go Westwood, young man”…or did he?) but what if you never leave in the first place? Five-star defensive lineman Eddie Vanderdoes, who signed a National Letter of Intent with Notre Dame back in February, chooses to matriculate at UCLA. Vanderdoes, from the rural near-Lake Tahoe town of Auburn, Calif., will forfeit one year of eligibility and at least three years of Mike Mayock discussing his pad level.
Tweet-wise (from me): “Eddie Vanderdoes doesn’t owe anyone an explanation. And Notre Dame doesn’t owe Eddie a release. Choices, consequences.”
Vanderdoes joins two august lists (in June, no less) with this decision: 1) Elite players who have signed with Notre Dame under Brian Kelly who either never made it to campus or to their sophomore seasons: OL Matt James, DE Aaron Lynch, QB Gunner Kiel, WR Davonte’ Neal and WR Shaquelle Evans (correction: Evans signed with Charlie, but transferred to UCLA after Kelly arrived, in late August), the last of whom was UCLA’s leading receiver in 2012 and will be a redshirt senior this season, and 2) Notre Dame players who have transferred to UCLA: DE Arnold Ale (who saw significant time on the 1988 national championship team), TE Joseph Fauria and Evans, to name a few.
Shaq Evans: Notre Dame has become a wonderful feeder school for the Bruins.
Over at SI.com, Andy Staples calls the NLI the “worst contract in American sports”, but clearly Andy never saw the deal I agreed to with SI On Campus back in 2003.
Pros of UCLA: Weather, the Rose Bowl as your home field, arguably the most sublimely beautiful campus in the USA, Turtle attended there, In-N-Out Burger just off campus, these girls will be at training table, and the greatest college basketball coach of all time.
Pros of Notre Dame: Parking is much less of a hassle, as is traffic; autumn colors; ND is ranked seven places higher academically by the U.S. News and World Report (17 and 24′ yes, SEC alums, that IS seven places); Gordon Gee finds the school relevant, even if Rick Reilly does not; two more visits to a national championship game in the past quarter-century than the Bruins; the greatest college football brand and coach of all time.
Finally, all of this ground was covered in my favorite John Cusack film, The Sure Thing. You’ll remember that Gibby, a freshman, attended a school in a northerly clime while his buddy at UCLA sent him photos of Nicolette Sheridan with the caption, “This is the UGLIEST girl in California.” Gibby, our hero, chose to remain in the Midwest/Northeast and settle for the relatively plain Daphne Zuniga –who was not.
” ‘Nubile’, by the way, is spelled with a ‘u’.”
It is worth noting, however, that Zuniga would graduate and get an apartment on Melrose Place –and date Jake! Also, more relevant, John Cusack is a Chicago native who now resides in a totally rad Malibu beach house (I’ve been there–twice).
2. Good Rod-dance
Major League Baseball is coming after Alex Rodriguez, Ryan Braun, and about 18 others, including former Yankee teammate Melky Cabrera and current Yankee teammate Francisco Cervelli for allegedly using PEDs. Meanwhile, if your crossword puzzle clue “baseball scandal” and happens to be a five-letter word that starts with a “B”, you now must choose between “BALCO” and “BOSCH”.
A-Rod, sporting the “Maverick playing beach volleyball” look, in Central Park a few years ago.
Meanwhile, A-Rod, who has yet to play this season, is still due to earn $114 million between 2013-2017, so you have to think the Yankees hope that MLB does suspend him for 100 games. Or 800 games. How this will affect A-Rod’s ability to hit on Australian bikini models seated behind the Yankee dugout during the playoffs has yet to be determined.
Gut feeling: A-Rod will never play for the Yankees again. I don’t know how, but I don’t think we’ll see him.
3. Career-Wise, He Got the Gee-O-Tine
Gordon Gee “retires” from Ohio State, effective July 1st.
“O-H!”
“I-O…you an apology!”
Sorry, Gordon, not good enough. Gee, who never met a quip that begged discretion, is ultimately undone by his disparaging remarks toward both Notre Dame and the SEC. You have to say something extremely outlandish (read: Stupid) to unite Domers and SEC folk. Congrats, Gordon.
4. Flori-Duh
Don’t blame me. I was watching “House of Cards.”
Guns, intoxication, adultery, alligators, porn/strippers/prostitutes. We’ve seen it all before. But Hitler? Now that is a first. Hitler!
5. King’s Kingdom
This was reported earlier and elsewhere (those six words should be the name of this site…self-induced ZING!) but Peter King will soon have his own site based on his immensely popular Monday Morning Quarterback column.
Five Things I Think I Think About Peter (a former colleague) and the new column:
1) He is SI.com’s 800-pound gorilla, and he knows it. Kudos to him. When SI.com launched and any SI senior writer had the opportunity to embrace the web, it was King and only King who threw himself into it wholeheartedly. While some may have thought, I only write for the magazine, Peter embraced the opportunity to connect with readers on a more intimate level.
2) It shouldn’t try to be Grantland. Do we really need a “Seinfeld Power Rankings”, especially when the sitcom last aired 16 years ago (Holy smokes, are we all so old!).
3) Wonderful guy who brings both the mirth and the girth. I haven’t spoken to him in years, but back in the Nineties he was always the writer who would cheerfully help a fact-checker when you called to ask him where he obtained his information. In that way he was the antithesis of fellow SI NFL writer Paul Zimmerman, alias Dr. Z.
4) Bill Simmons and Peter King: both appear on TV, both were the most popular columnists at ESPN and SI, respectively, and both now have branched out to create their own sites affiliated with the brand. The difference is that Peter spent years as a beat reporter, showing up at the New York Giants practice facility at 5 a.m. so that Bill Parcells would see him when he arrived. Nothing against Simmons, but King amassed his fortune and media empire the old-fashioned way: he earned it.
5) I love that Peter’s initials are the same as the least physical position in the sport he covers.
Why do you think there are so many kids bailing NOW from ND? Did they attend a warm-up ‘show’ by soon-to-be ex-Prez of OSU Gee? Is it the coach? The weather? Nobody’s watching ‘Rudy’ anymore?
Surprised you didn’t mention the Scarsdale housewife/equestrian/pot-growing Queen’s arrest. My fave part is that TheSMOKINGun broke the story. Smokin’.
MLB & PEDs. As a 3 decade cycling fan, this is the funniest story since it was proclaimed baseball’s “steroid era” was “OVUH!” after the isolate/blame/eradication of McGuire. That & when they gave Bonds the ‘Key to the City’ AFTER the BALCO story went into hardcover. But according to the huge majority of baseball fans who called/tweeted/emailed the Mike & Mike show this morning – they don’t give a rat’s ass. THEY just want to be ENTERTAINED. The only thing I would bet on is that Ryan Braun is being measured right now for his scape-coat. Seriously, HOW did any of the sports media ACCEPT that load of manure he offered up as his PED-positive (cough, cough) ‘defense’? You goin down, Ryan as the 1st media pundit to NOW call you a “bully” for that “defense” was heard early this morning.
Why do I think so many kids are bailing from ND? Because it’s hard. Academics is hard. The weather is hard. And it’s a generation that by and large does not like hard. Do I think it’s worth it? I know it’s worth it. But I’m not them.
I think you hit the nail on the head about the current generation. They don’t just want but EXPECT everything easy. But why do they think this? Lack of parental figures sermonizing that the only things in life that are worthwhile are the ones for which you have to WORK HARD? You’d think at least the athletes of this generation would get it as they work & train to constantly get better.
I’d say it’s good for ND but not so great for these young men that they part. Which the latter will eventually realize is their 2nd life lesson.
Surprised by your dig on simmons about earning it. Seems like bartending and writing a free Internet column for years is not exactly getting things handed to you. Bill may have been right guy right time, but he seems to me more like gladwell’s theory of putting in 10,000 hrs into something before getting great. Guy writes columns for yrs gets seen by espn and has made it. Good for him. Maybe if Peter king was starting up today that would have been his career. Bill even says he always wanted to be newspaper guy just didn’t see chance so he did it his way.