STARTING FIVE
Wright overcame the Fire Swamp, an evil daddy and Sean Penn to win a Golden Globe.
1. All Wright, All Wright, All Wright!
Princess Buttercup, Wooderson, Jordan Catalano and Dr. Timothy Watley were among the winners.
Best line occurred during the Tina Fey and Amy Poehler monologue: “Gravity is the story of how George Clooney would rather float away in space and die than spend another minute with a woman his own age.”
That dude from Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros won. So did the dude who directed that Weezer video. And so did this guy. However, this song should’ve beaten him/them.
Jacqueline Bissett is still talking. Or pausing. Or both.
Aaron Paul gave us one final, “Yeah, bitch!”
Tina Fey’s intro for Leo DiCaprio sent the NBC sensor into a tizzy, apparently.
Jim Carrey got about 45 seconds, made a joke at the expense of Shia LeBoeuf (and who can ever be against that?) and flashed that trademark mischievous grin. His flicks are uneven, but I miss seeing Jim Carrey. One of the funniest ad-lib humans alive.
E!, during its red carpet show, used a “Fun Fact” graphic noting that Michael J. Fox was diagnosed with Parkinson’s in 1991.
Robbie: Loves to do cross fit in Buenos Aires.
Also during the E! telecast, host Ryan Seacrest tells the lovely Margot Robbie that it’s nice to meet her, but she reminds him that they met “in a gym in Argentina.” How do you forget meeting Margot Robbie?
2. Tony Montana, Meet Tony Bosch
It was Tony Montana who once said, “I always tell the truth. Even when I lie.”
Illicit drugs. Death threats. Miami. Associates in Colombia. It was all there in the “60 Minutes” piece last night as Tony Bosch, the founder of Biogenesis, provided a detailed account of how he provided PEDs for his client, Alex Rodriguez.
A day earlier an arbitrator had ruled that A-Rod will serve a 162-game suspension, as Bud Selig laughed maniacally and said, “Say hello to my little friend.”
I’m still not sure how Michelle Pfeiffer figures in all of this.
So, last January Lance Armstrong ‘fessed up to Oprah. This January A-Rod does not ‘fess up — in fact, he’ll probably blow another year’s salary in legal fees fighting this decision –but he must disappear from Major League Baseball for a year. So maybe he’ll play for the Astros.
3. NFL Final Four
Harbaugh, Carroll or Belichick: Who is the NFL’s premier coach?
San Francisco at Seattle.
New England at Denver.
These are the match-ups everybody wanted to see. These are the NFL’s four elite teams.
Denver trailed New England 24-0 at halftime of a Sunday night contest on November 24 and recovered to win. San Francisco and Seattle split their divisional home-and-homes, with the Seahawks putting a collar on the Niners, 29-3, when they met at CenturyLink Field. Of course, that was mid-September.
The AFC championship is the story of two of the greatest quarterbacks of all time: Peyton Manning will win his record fifth NFL MVP award this season. He and Tom Brady have the two most prolific single-season TD pass records in league history (55 and 50 TD passes, respectively).
Their NFC counterparts, Colin Kaepernick and Russell Wilson, are on the cusp of brilliant careers. Honestly, how would you rank these quarterbacks 1-4 for next week? For the sake of argument, at this point in their careers, I think I’d go Manning, Wilson, Kaepernick and Brady. You?
The NFC game, though, will also focus on coaches Pete Carroll and Jim Harbaugh, whose mutual enmity pre-dates the “What’s Your Deal?” game by two seasons, when Harbaugh took a poor Cardinal team into the L.A. Coliseum and shocked a USC team that was 41-point favorites. That Stanford team was so bad that it would end the season with a home loss to the worst Notre Dame team (3-9) in almost 50 years, but it still defeated top-ranked Southern Cal.
Two years later Harbaugh would hand USC its worst loss ever, 55-21, again at the Coliseum. The following season Carroll was up in Seattle. You can say that Jim Harbaugh, if he did not exactly chase Carroll out of L.A. (the NCAA did that), at lease ended USC’s hegemony in the Pac-12.
4. Hire Lane Kiffin
Nick Saban has a terrific sense of humor, hiring The Man Who Nobody Likes, Lane Kiffin, to become his offensive coordinator at Alabama. Is this Nick’s way of coming off as the good cop? Now there’s talk that Coach O may be headed to Tuscaloosa as well, and someone on Twitter suggested that Saban should go all in and hire Mack Brown. Do I hear Rick “Punting is Winning” Neuheisel as special teams coach?
Of course, some in the media want to convince us that this is a good hire because Kiffin’s resume is so strong. Is it? Yes, he has held some terrific jobs: head coach for the Oakland Raiders, Tennessee Volunteers and USC Trojans, and he still is under 40. Do you hear many ex-players of his praising him, even a fraction of the amount that Orgeron was praised in November and December?
Was he such a winner? His record at those three stops is 40-36. And as for being USC’s offensive coordinator, he only had three Heisman Trophy winners to work with from 2002-2006. You could argue that he turned them into that. I’d argue that there was a ton of talent on those offenses.
Kiffin may have a strong hire, but getting hired isn’t an achievement. Especially when your father carved out a niche for the family name. No, succeeding at the job is what matters. It’s like what Seinfeld used to say about rental car reservations.
Speaking of which…
5. Jerry Seinfeld Has a Pit Crew?
Seinfeld adores Superman, but like Batman he drives a vehicle (and has a pit crew)
Watch this episode of “Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee” in which Jerry’s DeLorean breaks down soon after he picks up Patton Oswalt. That’s going to hurt DeLorean sales. Wait, what?
Oswalt: “Is a talk show panel story better than a bit?”
Seinfeld: “Nooo. Nothing is better than a bit.”
Reserves
Quite the transformation.
More McConaughey. His HBO series with Woody Harrelson, “True Detective”, made its debut last night. Here are two A-List Hollywood actors doing TV (so they now sit at the back at the Golden Globes?) about a 17-year hunt for a serial killer. This one has plenty of promise.
By the way, I pretty much agree with what McConaughey’s character, Rust Cohle, says about us as a species and self-awareness and extinction in his first big monologue. Does that make me bad?
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“The armor? It’s a hand-me-down.”
The Season 4 trailer for HBO’s “Game of Thrones“, which is just 83 days away. Kingslayer got a haircut. And, “If you want justice, you’ve come to the wrong place.” You tell ’em, Tyrian.
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Notre Dame photographer Matt Cashore posts his favorite shots from 2013.
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Oregon’s De’Anthony Thomas may have worn a Rolex during pre-game warmups at the Alamo Bowl. That’s swag.
The most interesting stock of 2014? Intercept Pharmaceuticals.
Last Wednesday Intercept (ICPT) closed at $72.39,
Overnight came news that there had been successful testing with one of their drugs for chronic liver disease.
On Thursday ICPT opened at $231 per share and closed at $247.
On Friday it opened at $373 and reached $484 (almost a 700% jump in two days) before landing at $445. It was like holding a lottery ticket.
And today it has plummeted $77 on news that the same drug that brought this bounty may be linked to higher “bad cholesterol” levels.
That’s quite a wild ride.
The Bank
Balance: $964
Last: Took the Heat in Brooklyn minus-5, thinking “There’s no way Miami loses to a pair of bum teams on consecutive nights before a four-day break.” Well, I was wrong.
Record: 4-4
Tonight: Since the Rudy Gay trade, the Raptors have won their four home games by 15, 13, 21 and 16. Toronto is a 12.5 favorite versus the NBA’s worst team, Milwaukee. I know I should probably take the Bucks because of all that, but I’ll play the percentages. Toronto, $40.
Remote Patrol
No. 1 UConn (17-0) at No. 7 Baylor (14-1)
ESPN2 7 p.m.
Buy this book. Feed a sportswriter.
The Bears own the nation’s longest home win streak, 69 games. The Huskies own the longest home win streak in women’s hoops history, 99 games. No one has come closer than 22 points against the Fighting Auriemmas since Thanksgiving, and as much as I like Kim Mulkey, I don’t see the Bears coming within 10 of the Huskies tonight. But who knows?
When I 1st saw the crawl about Kiffin’s hiring, I thought it HAD to be a mistake. Now, I think it’s kinda “brilliant” – Saban has a built-in fall guy now, someone NObody likes already & as a new OC, he & not Saban will take the blame. That, or he has incriminating photos of Mr Grumpypants. (BTW, that guy on ESPN’s NCG coverage was surely the “good twin”! He was actually jovial & dare I say “charismatic’!)
My Heaters. Sigh. Well, when I heard that 3 (THREE) of their starters would not be playing let alone starting, I almost marked in the red ‘L’ on my Game Schedule/Results BEFORE tip-off. But I didn’t ’cause they still had Sweet Baby James, who might have pulled off the win if his jersey had been sporting MY nickname for him. 🙂
About MM – when will he gain the weight/muscles back? It is PAINFUL to look at that guy these days. I’d read he was great in that movie, but didn’t they shoot it over a year ago? Hope he’s ok.
I’m back to even with my NFL playoff picks! Picked all 4 this time. Before the regular season was over, I thought it’d be Broncos & Seahawks at the big dance, but I’m not quite as sure now. There could be an upset in 1 of the Conf champ games. Need to ponder.