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Will John David give USC the Boot(y)? |
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October 31, 2006 |
 Booty |
 Knicks |
 The Sausages |
Los Angeles, October 31, 2006 – Is it true that USC junior quarterback John David Booty, with a 63% completion rate, 16 touchdowns and only five interceptions as a starter this season, will leave for the NFL after the 2006 season is completed?
He will be 22 years old on January 3rd and has been at USC for four years. Although not spoken of as a first-round draft choice, our sources tell us he’s tired of school, which he sees as more or less an inconvenience on his way to playing professionally, even if selected as a lower-round draft choice, say like Patriots superstar Tom Brady, who was selected in the sixth round.
Moreover, even without Booty, USC seems quite comfortable with redshirt freshman Mark Sanchez as the quarterback of the future, but he will have to face a very tough 2007 schedule with games on the road at Nebraska, Notre Dame, California, Washington, Oregon and Arizona State.
>> The NBA season opens tonight here at Staples Center with the Lakers and Suns teeing it up for the first time since the Lakers exited the playoffs after taking a 3-1 series lead against Phoenix.
But the big winner tonight and every night the Lakers, Clippers and Kings play at Staples sits a couple of blocks away: it’s The Palm steakhouse at the corner of 11th and Flower. General Manager Jonathan Scott says that while an average night might bring in $12,000-$15,000 in business, it jumps to $25-30,000 for the Kings and $30-35,000 for the Lakers. While the Clippers used to be in Kings territory, Scott reports that Clipper fans are feeling good and are edging up on the Lakers in per-check spending. Scott also says the Lakers spending takes a hit when the team is losing, but the Kings and Clippers fans are loyal and show up night after night, both before and after the games.
>> More NBA: has there ever been a team as badly managed as the New York Knicks? What else can you say about a team that owes $62,295,250 to players who won’t even play for the Knicks this season! New York owes $20.7 million to the retired Allan Houston, $16.9 million to the just-cut Jalen Rose, $9.8 million to Maurice Taylor of the Sacramento Kings, $8.5 million to Shandon Anderson and $6.4 million to Jerome Williams, who are both out of the league!
That doesn’t count the just-announced settlement between the Knicks and former coach Larry Brown, who was owed $40 million on the remainder of his contract and who asked for $53 million including attorney’s fees and damages. In case you’ve forgotten, the general manager and now-coach of the Knicks is Isiah Thomas.
>> More NBA: the Lakers might be intrigued by Rose, the 6-8 point guard, who offers more scoring potential and experience that Smush Parker, but coach Phil Jackson told a radio interviewer this morning that the idea was considered but not acted on. But since New York is playing his salary, he could sign with the Lakers for the NBA minimum of $1.2 million for a 10-year-plus player and the club could make room by having guard Aaron McKie come down with a mysterious injury or illness, perhaps poisoning from some Halloween candy . . . how do you like that idea?
>> More Lakers, dropping McKie for Rose causes other problems, however. Consider this: if the Lakers combine the salaries of McKie and center Chris Mihm, both of whose contracts expire after the end of this season, they’d have about $7.7 million in salary to offer under the NBA’s salary cap rules. So, if there was a team out of the playoff race in mid-February looking to lighten their salary load into the 2007-08 season, the Lakers could accommodate them up until February 22, 2007 at 3 p.m. Eastern time. Mark your calendars!
>> Odds check: Lakers opened a five-point underdog to Phoenix in tonight’s game with the over-and-under at 209; translation: oddsmakers expect the Suns to win, 107-102.
>> Last add, NBA, league MVP: PinnacleSports.com has listed its favorites for NBA MVP with Cleveland’s LeBron James the leader at 2-1, Miami’s Dwayne Wade at 9-2, San Antonio’s Tim Duncan at 6-1 and Kobe Bryant of the Lakers at 7-1. Dallas’s seven-foot Dirk Nowitzki from Germany is fifth on the list at 8-1 and two-time MVP Steve Nash is only 13-1 to pull a three-peat.
>> Dancing with the Stars update: the NFL’s all-time leading rusher, Emmitt Smith, is closing in on a Dancing with the Stars victory going into tonight’s show. He’s dancing the Fox Trot and Rumba tonight with partner Cheryl Burke and they’re very good together. Smith told Los Angeles morning show host Charlie Tuna of KBIG-FM this morning that he’s ready, as long as he doesn’t have to do the Tango! He’s getting tired, however and is ready to move on, saying “I’ve got to get back to my business and I’ve got to get back to my family.” Tuna noted that he’s seeing some of the same moves on the dance floor that he saw Smith use on the football field. Smith, ever the gentleman, said “That shimmy there was nothing like any move I ever gave a d.b..” Dancing with the Stars is getting ready to begin a national tour, but Smith will not be participating. He did say that if the tour came through Dallas, he might be able to make a cameo.
>> Odds update, Dancing with the Stars: PinnacleSports.com still lists Mario Lopez and Karina Smirnoff as 5-6 favorites, but Smith and Burke are second choice at 7-4.
>> More NFL: Tom Brady’s sensational performance in last night’s game in Minnesota served notice that the Patriots are going to be a contender for all honors this season, even with all their personnel changes. Brady rarely plays in domes, but he’s now 10-0 in games played indoors, including a win in Super Bowl XXXVI in the Louisiana Superdome in 2002 against the Rams and at Reliant Stadium in Houston in Super Bowl XXXVIII against Carolina.
>> Baseball trick or treat: the Famous Klement’s Racing Sausages will be running through Milwaukee neighborhoods tonight, but they’ll be the ones bringing the treats! The Sausages will be visiting homes and handing out vouchers for free tickets to a 2007 Brewers game, and handing out Brewers souvenirs and Klement’s treats to youngsters they meet on the way. I hope they don’t meet up with any vegetarians . . .
>> More baseball, sponsor watch: Good news for Comerica Bank, sponsor of Comerica Park, the home of the Detroit Tigers. The bank got an estimated $6 million in on-air time during the World Series on Fox, even through only two games were played in Detroit. That’s more than 16 minutes of signage time and explains some of the reasons why the bank was willing to plunk down $66 million for 30 years of naming rights to the new park and the suddenly revitalized Tigers.
>> Olympic news: Olympic gold-medal-winning swimmers from Australia, including Ian Thorpe and Grant Hackett, wrote a stern letter to the International Olympic Committee railing against morning finals in the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing. “We, the Olympic swimmers, concerned about the commercial influence to our sport, aiming at fair competition and great competition results, want to swim finals at night in Beijing.”
Thorpe added, “This one just blew my mind. Anyone else think it’s irritating that NBC is putting pressure on the IOC to change the swimming schedule to only benefit the U.S. prime-time audience? That’s nice, but what about the rest of the planet, who last time I checked, were also involved in the Olympics.” Let the Games begin!
~ Rich Perelman
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