A whirl around the wide, wide world of sports.....
Perhaps the most stunning news in sports this past week was the surprise announcement that Indy Colts QB Andrew Luck was retiring at the age of 29. Yet another injury and the facing of yet another long and laborious rehab process caused Luck to reach this decision. Equally stunning were the reactions of both the fans of the Colts and of the (too) numerous ex-jock talking heads that populate the (too) many sports networks that have too much time to fill. How dare Luck do such a thing? Everything from his dedication, his courage, and his very manhood was questioned by these neanderthals. It was kind of distressing, actually.
From what I know and have read about Andrew Luck, he is an intelligent guy, and he would not have come to this decision lightly. I hope he does well in whatever his future endeavors are, and that he can take every opportunity possible to tell the Steve Beuerleins of the world to go pound salt.
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When the circus that comprised much of the Steelers off-season came to a merciful end this past winter with the free agent signing of a former RB by the New York Jets and the trade of one of their WR's to the Oakland Raiders I made comments in this space to the effect that I won't ever have to write about the two guys again, and I have pretty much kept to that. Events over this training camp season and reports out of the Raiders camp have only reaffirmed that decision of mine, and it seems that everyone surrounding the Steelers would be well served to do the same. In fairness, the Steelers themselves have pretty much adopted that stance. That changed this past Sunday night when Ben Roethlisberger was interviewed by Michelle Tofoya on NBC and the subject of said wide out was mentioned. I thought Ben took a high road and handled it well, but, of course, it brought up the idiotic tweets out of Oakland, and some idiotic comments by, among others, Shannon Sharpe.
Enough already. That should be the last time anyone connected to the Steelers agrees to have anything to say about the guy who was last seen in Pittsburgh walking out and quitting on his team during the last game of the season.
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How about those "Players Weekend" uniforms worn by all MLB teams last weekend? Without doubt, the ugliest and most stupid idea ever. Whomever in the high echelons of MLB came up with the idea for those monochromatic monstrosities should be fired immediately.
Earlier in the week, I made a post on Facebook and asked if anybody, anybody at all, actually liked them. All I got were more comments saying how much everyone detested them.
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Earlier in the year, Steve Blass got into a bit of a jam when he made an old-man-yelling-at-the-clouds comment about the excess amount of jewelry being worn by some opposing player. The comment was seized upon by some as being racist and Blass was branded as such. Now, you can say that Steve Blass is many things, a cranky old guy being one of them, but one thing that he is definitely NOT is racist. His entire body of work in his sixty year association with the Pirates and MLB makes such a notion absurd. Blass is also smart, or he certainly was in this case, because he chose to ignore the entire kerfuffle. Never responded to any of the changes, and inside of a week, the entire story deservedly went away.
I mention this only to suggest a path for those associated with the Pittsburgh Steelers to follow whenever the subject of a certain Oakland Raider comes up for discussion.
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One of the more distressing bits of news amidst the crashing and burning of the Pittsburgh Pirates in the second half of the 2019 season was the news that Jameson Taillon underwent Tommy John surgery for the second time in his career, and that he would be lost not only for the rest of 2019 but for the entire 2020 season as well.
Taillon was the second player selected overall in the amateur draft in 2010, and it hasn't been an easy road for him. Tommy John surgery and surgery for a sports hernia cost him parts of two seasons in the minor leagues and delayed his debut in Pittsburgh. He also was a cancer victim a few seasons back. He seemed to turn a corner in 2018 and it looked like he was going to become the ace of the staff that the Pirates expected him to be when they used that high draft slot to select him. This second TJ surgery on his pitching arm certainly throws his future and career in doubt.
Of course, shortly after his surgery, Taillon tweeted out the above photo of himself with the message that he knows what lies ahead, and that he will do the work necessary to get back to where he belongs. Nobody really knows what our sports heroes are really like in real life, but Jameson Taillon has given every impression that he is as he seems: hard working, strong, and, mainly, a good guy.
Here's wishing him nothing but the best as he heads down the long path of rehab.
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