Peter King, Tim Tebow And The Bucs
January 25th, 2010
Joe enjoys reading Peter King even though about 20 percent of what the longtime Sports Illustrated scribe writes drives Joe up a wall.
A couple of items that made Joe reach for a Caybrew upon reading King is his recent, personal, unethical, vicious, two-week long diatribe via SI.com and Twitter at USC coach Lane Kiffin for leaving Tennessee “in a lurch.”
Yet King never applied the same vile anger to Pete Carroll who did the very same thing as Kiffin. Joe suspects King spared Carroll because King’s daughter works in the front office of the Seahawks, who also now employ Carroll.
Joe also wondered aloud why King didn’t unload on South Florida coach Skip Holtz who did no worse or better than Carroll or Kiffin.
Memo to King: This is America where people have the choice to better themselves so long as they are not breaking a law or a contract with their employers.
King’s nonstop rants against Kiffin has led Joe to conclude that Monte Kiffin, Lane’s father, must have spit in King’s training camp dessert once upon a time visiting the Bucs.
Then there was the time two years ago King was beside himself if not outraged that Penn State extended Joe Paterno’s contract. A few months later, Penn State wins the Big Ten and was a field goal away from playing Oklahoma for the national championship.
King also has the gall to scold hotel staffers for bringing him bottled water with room service and not ice water as he specifies. Hey lazyass, most hotels – especially the five-star palaces you stay at – have glasses and ice chests in each room, and ice machines on each floor. Get off your Starbucks-loving derriere and get your own ice water. The nerve!
But some of the things Joe admires about King is how he always writes about the places he visits and the food he eats while covering the NFL, as if flaunting the lifestyle of a bigshot national columnist.
King, naturally, had to cover the NFC Championship yesterday because his adopted son Brett Favre played in the game. Most national writers right away bolt to the locker room of the winning team after a game. Not King, who apparently had to offer a shoulder for Favre to cry on.
King noted that, in the midst of a gambling, drinking and eating orgy on the delicious Cajun fare found throughout the French Quarter, he and a gaggle of reporters had a pool on who will draft Florida quarterback Tim Tebow.
One of the reporters selected the Bucs.
I think you’d have enjoyed the dinner I shared with sportswriter pals and the girlfriend of one of them Saturday night at Emeril’s Delmonico on St. Charles. As FOX Sports’ Alex Marvez said, we never really get to do things like this much anymore. The sportswriting business has changed, particularly for national writers who no longer spend days in town before games. Budget cutbacks and restrictive media policies have diminished the importance of actually getting to a city two or three days before a big game and spending time with the important characters in the game.
Anyway, I rounded up a few writers (some I don’t know well but should) and we had a nice meal … and I proposed a pool for the nine people at the table. Throw $5 in the pool, and pick the team that drafts Tim Tebow… and here it went:
Mike Silver, Yahoo! Sports, Jacksonville
Sam Farmer, L.A. Times, St. Louis
Albert Breer, Boston Globe, Buffalo
Peter King, Sports Illustrated, San Francisco
Jeff Duncan, New Orleans Times-Picayune, Miami
Angela Craig, girlfriend of Jeff, Denver
Alex Marvez, Foxsports.com, Cleveland
Jeff Darlington, Miami Herald, Tampa Bay
Jason Cole, Yahoo! Sports, New England
Joe just cannot see the Bucs drafting Tebow for a variety of reasons, biggest is the mind games this would play on Josh Freeman. Can you imagine all the Gators homers screaming daily for Freeman to be benched for Tebow on sports radio shows, in the newspapers and on the internet?
Look, Joe thinks Tebow is a cool guy and a fantastic human being. Joe has nothing — NOTHING! — against Florida’s favorite son. However…
Could you imagine, if Freeman throws an incompletion or worse, an interception, and all of a sudden the 45,000 Bucs fans in attendance began chanting at full throat “Put in TEE-bow… (clap, clap, clap-clap-clap) Put in Tee-bow… (clap, clap, clap-clap-clap) ?”
Drafting Tebow would absolutely undermine Freeman and it’s a massive distraction if not a headache the Bucs — and Freeman — do not need.
No, Tebow is not coming to Tampa Bay, unless as a visiting player, or if a little Filipino boy in the area needs a circumcision.
January 25th, 2010 at 12:10 pm
Peter King is the worst “sports journalist” on this planet. That fat goblin has absolutely zero knowledge of the sport. It’s really proof that any idiot who spouts off enough shit out of their mouth can get a following. Fuck Peter King and the Sheep who follow him.
January 25th, 2010 at 12:22 pm
Tehre is a difference between Pete C. and Lane Kiffin” Kiffin left after 1 year. Pete completely rebuilt USC into the powerhouse it is now.
Alot of coaches pack up and leave for greener pasture, but to do it after one year the way Lane did… it just seems wrong. The NCAA should really look into doing something about it. Maybe make every single head coaching positiion a MINIMUM of a 2 or 3 year contract on both sides or face legal ramifications. Of course there could be medical exceptions.
I completely agree on the Tebow thing. No way they should draft him. They have ALOT of other needs. If they want some Gators for ticket sales, go get Spikes, Haden, Wright, etc…
January 25th, 2010 at 12:25 pm
Dave:
Here’s Joe’s take on Lane Kiffin leaving after one year:
If Tennessee didn’t want him to leave so soon, why did the school agree to include a buyout clause (for only $800,000) in his contract after his first season?
Joe wouldn’t even mind seeing Riley Cooper in pewter and red.
January 25th, 2010 at 12:54 pm
For the life of me I can’t believe how Freeman is being treated like such a p****y. If he is that f****n delicate he is in the wrong business. This guy couldn’t handle the weak Bucs offense from the beginning of the season. Don”t rush me, don’t put me under too much pressure, the offense is complicated, I need my binkey. Looks like another season of pre season games as Rah likes to call them.
January 25th, 2010 at 2:01 pm
Never mind all that sports stuff…. Who’s the honey in the pic with Tebow. Almost makes one forget about Rachel Watson… Almost.
January 25th, 2010 at 2:12 pm
@small axe
You talk as if you were on the team with Freeman. How do you know what his mindset is or how he would feel about the Bucs drafting another QB? You don’t know how tough or delicate he is so don’t ASSume you do and calm down. Joe’s article wasn’t stated as fact. It was Joe’s OPINION. I happen to agree with Joe, I don’t see the Bucs drafting a QB and it would be a distraction in the locker room. You sound like an angry Gator fan who is throwing a tantrum that Tebow won’t be sporting the pewter & red.
January 25th, 2010 at 2:20 pm
Vorblaw:
Let’s not get carried away. 🙂
January 25th, 2010 at 2:48 pm
Tommy-we need a tutor, we can’t change our pathetic offensive coordinator, we need to simplyfy the game plan, we don’t want to rush him because it might hurt his psyche or is that p*****y, come on this guy is a numbnut. You are right I am a Gator fan, however I don’t think Tebow will make it as an NFL quarterback. Joe has his opinion I have mine, you have yours, great how that works out. One more thing-who is that chick.
January 25th, 2010 at 2:58 pm
Joe, we finally agree on something. I said as the season went bumbling along that we needed to start Freeman to see if we really needed Tebow in Tampa. When Morris got the call in England and told to bring Freeman in off the bench he impressed me with his size, mobility, but most of all he seemed to have a good fill for the pocket. Not to mention he has a rocket for an arm. I think we need a run stopper first and I hope that is the “direction” we go in.
January 25th, 2010 at 11:30 pm
Naw Vorblow, that chick doesn’t come close to making me forget our beloved Rachal!
January 25th, 2010 at 11:51 pm
I don’t mind King. Sometimes he does write things that baffle the mind a bit. I will defend him on the bottled water incident. You didn’t really get the story right. He ordered just plain water and the hotel employee tried to stick him with bottled water which he didn’t order. So he corrected them over the phone and they brought the right thing and he wasn’t charged. I don’t think it is too much ask to get the order right to begin with. I think his irritating travel tales are interesting because most people can relate to them.
I do find fault with his Favre coverage. He is way too fawning of the guy. He is not objective at all. And his politics should not ever enter his column, but it does (I wish Roger Ebert would follow this advice as well). I never did like the soccer coverage of his daughter. But I just skipped over that area when he did that.
Carroll was at USC for 9 seasons. He built the program up after it was mired in mediocrity. I do think he earned the right to leave for the pros if he wanted to. Holtz was ECU for 5 seasons and he was ready to move up to a bigger conference. He left the school in good shape. Kiffin just seems like a snake oil salesman. He says whatever he wants and doesn’t think of consequences. The guy was at Tenn. for just 1 season and he was trying to get his Tenn recruits to come to USC. That’s what I call slimy. I guess you can say that he moved up in the move, but the conference is so much weaker than the SEC. So it was more of a lateral move. I don’t begrudge King at all for slamming Kiffin. I am not even a big fan of Carroll, but it just isn’t the same situation as Kiffin.
There is no chance of the Bucs drafting TeBow. Miami is not going to draft him either after they reached for the WVU QB this past draft. And do we really need advertisements in the stories themselves? I hope that practice stops in the future.
January 26th, 2010 at 1:35 am
Eric:
Oh, Joe enjoys King. But sometimes he’s way, way off base.
Joe just can’t wrap his arms around ordering plain water for room service. Christ, what do you think the glasses and ice chest are there for? Joe’s sure the college kids working the hotel were equally confused.
Here’s why Joe doesn’t have a problem with what Kiffin did whatsoever aside from the fact the school agreed to a small buyout clause:
Tommy Tuberville arguably did more for Auburn than Shug Jordan, certainly more than Tie Dye. His reward? He had one losing season since his first when he got to Auburn in 1999 and was fired.
Tennessee arguably had its finest years under Phil Fulmer since General Neyland was around. Fulmer had one losing season, and he was fired.
Then, Bobby Bowden builds Florida State into a football power from a girls school. His feat may never be matched again. He hadn’t had a losing season in 34 years. After putting that school on the map, both athletically and academically, filling its coffers with hundreds of millions of dollars over the decades, the old man wanted one more year. One.
His reward? He was kicked out the door.
Kiffin had to see this in the past two years and think to himself, “If those schools run those guys out of town they won’t blink if I have another losing season.”
Loyalty is a two-way street. Loyalty in college football was dead before Kiffin bolted for USC.
Joe doesn’t blame Kiffin one iota. More power to him. If he didn’t look out for No. 1, those crazies at those schools sure as hell won’t.
January 26th, 2010 at 2:20 am
from what i heard, yes they did bring peter king his water…but it was toilet water with ice…..he needs to learn to never mess with the people who serve his food…..
also i hear he is a real cheap guy always trying to get things for free….so when i heard the story about everyone putting down 5 bucks to pool up for the lunch bet on tebow, i bet that money (approx. 50 bucks) went in his trouser pocket and he said he will hold it and send it to the winner….as the story claims he hardly new some of those people…so i think he just figured by the time the draft finally happens, his pooled money bet will be old news and everyone else will be bombarded with tons of other assignments that they wont have time to focus on weather or not peter king is sending them there winning score….(as if he took all there addresses as well at lunch so to send the winner the pot)…..as you know peter just kept it as to cover his end of the meal….basically he ate for free as everyone chipped in 5 bucks each to cover his portion of the check…he is sending no one anything 3 or 4 months from now…especially people he hardly knows…he figures he was the big cheese at the table and everyone should be honored to be in his presence…the only thing big at the table is his mount rushmore sized noggin bobbleheading around on his new al roaker like tube tied skinny little body….eat all you can petey pete because after appetizers your new stomach tells you “im full, im full”….but dont forget to wash down those tasty apps…..just ask the waiter to send over another glass of iced toilet water!…lol….adam from ny
January 26th, 2010 at 7:04 am
Joe, you had a typo in the article. You wrote “45,000 Bucs fans”-I’m sure you meant 4,500.
January 26th, 2010 at 12:19 pm
Kiffin shouldn’t have been so grand in his pronouncements when he came to Tenn last year then. The guy is just not a classy individual. Leaving after 1 year with all the stuff he said and did just seems not right. He must have seen how hard it would have been winning big at Tenn and so he bailed. I just don’t see the situations between him and Carroll the same.
As an Auburn alum, I can speak with some knowledge on Tommy’s situation. I do think Auburn should have handled it a bit better. Another year may have been wise. But I wasn’t Tommy’s biggest fans. The guy did something stupid practically every game without fail. I still remember him doing a fake punt at his own 20 against Florida in Florida. Of course the thing failed and the rout was on. You have to realize that 2008 was an abysmal season. I hated watching the team at the end of the year. It was that bad. I think people were getting tired of 8 and 9 win seasons. Yes they are nice, but consistent double digit totals are better. And he only reached the SEC Championship game twice in 10 seasons. Tommy was a mediocre recruiter. If you can’t recruit in the SEC, you might as well go home. Gene C is going to have the best recruiting class since the Dye days. To compare Tommy to Shug and Pat Dye is absolutely asinine. Shug built the program and gave Auburn their only National Championship. They named the stadium after him for crying out loud. Pat Dye won 2 SEC Championships outright and was Cochampion 2 other times. He rescued the program after Doug Barfield practically ran it into the ground. I truly hope you are not an Auburn alum if you really think Tommy was better than Pat or Shug. No comparison.
I will concede the water point for King. It does seem a bit silly when you could just get water inside the room. But I still do see his point when hotels try to give you something that you didn’t order. I think that was his whole point.
January 26th, 2010 at 1:14 pm
Eric:
On face value, Kiffin shot off his mouth way too much, totally agree. But you know what, kids (recruits) and to a slightly lesser degree, boosters just eat that crap up. The kids just love it.
For example, James Coley, an FSU assistant and Joe believes is FSU’s recruiting coordinator, Twitters the most vapid, cliche-ridden, empty bulls(p)it jibberish you’ve ever read. It borders on retarded and, at best, is silly. But kids just love that crap. Joe knows a former Bucs player (an SEC alumi BTW) that thinks Cooley’s BS is actually cool.
Bear Bryant, Joe Paterno, Vince Dooley, Tom Osborne and John McKay would never think of doing the aforementioned. (Barry Switzer, maybe) Eh, times have changed.