Bear Market

While we were intensely focused on football, Cincinnati fired head coach Bob Huggins.

Huggins, who lifted Cincinnati to it's best run of basketball since the graduation of Oscar Robertson.

However, Huggins' low graduation rates were a cause of concern to many Cincinnati faculty, national pundits, and college hoops bloggers. In fact, one rival fan (don't remember who) once said, "They don't need a comedy club at Cincinnati because the basketball teams' graduation rates are enough of a joke."

I can't help thinking though that maybe Bob Huggins understood better than any of us the hypocrisy of the collegiate athletic system. He knew all he had to do was win and he did just that. Unfortunately, he ran into the rare administrator who bought into the "student-athlete" hogwash and was fired.

Strangely, no cause has yet been given for Huggins' termination. Which means that the last of this has not been heard. I would suspect sanctions and/or lawsuits are in the works.

This reciever could be yours, if the Price is right!
(Always have your pets spayed or neutered)

Speculation is that recently cut reciever Peerless Price could land with the Cowboys, where he would reunite with Drew Bledsoe (the QB who helped make Price a hot commodity in Buffalo).

I hope the Cowboys can land him. Price and Bledsoe were great last anyone saw them together and both have floundered since Price signed with the Falcons.

More Commentary: The Cowboy Roundup

Eighth Wonder Of The World gets a second Life.

The Astrodome, which at one time was billed as "The Stadium of the Future" and "The Eighth Wonder of the World" and hailed as a technological and architectural marvel, has seen better days.

It was once host to the "Game of the Century" between Elvin Hayes' Houston Cougars and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar's UCLA Bruins. It hosted tennis's "Battle of the Sexes", the event that put Women's sports firmly in the conciousness of America. It hosted the 1988 NBA All-Star Game. It also hosted some games of the 1986 NLCS, a 7-game epic between the Houston Astros and New York Mets that was probably one of the best league championship series of the 1980s. (Whether it or the ALCS of the same year was the best is a subject still debated).

Nolan Ryan, Joe Morgan, J.R. Richardson, Jimmy Wynn, Craig Biggio, Jeff Bagwell, and a whole host of Astros once played baseball there. Granted, the outfield could fit a 747 and a home run in most other parks was a double or triple in the Dome, but they played baseball there anyway.

Earl Campbell and Warren Moon had stellar careers under it's lucite roof. Eddie George and Steve McNair both started their All-Pro careers there. Andre Ware won a Heisman Trophy playing in the Astrodome.

The Astrodome was also host to the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo, one of the world's largest. The nearby Astroarena was one of the first homes of the Houston Rockets when they moved from San Diego.

Now the Dome sits silent, waiting for the wrecking ball. It's tenants, the Astros, Oilers, Rockets, Cougars, even the Rodeo, have moved on to newer ballparks and arenas.

However, in it's final days, it is getting a chance to hold its best event ever: A home away from home for those fleeing the wreckage left by Hurricane Katrina.

It may be an old-run down relic to most of us sports fans, a reminder of the cookie-cutter, dual-purpose, antiseptic facilities that followed in its wake.

For these evacuees, however, it's means a roof over their heads, a hot meal, and some form of medical care.

Which to them, is more important than some football game, right now.

Anyway, like I said yesterday, I'm off to the rally. Pray no one gets hurt.

Tomorrow: Podcasts