SEC: Sports Editor’s Choice

This archived article was written by: David Osborne Jr.

It has been an excellent couple of weeks in the fabulous world of sports. The National Football League started its regular season. Fans are enjoying the love of college football, along with the occasional heartache of a loss. Tennis crowned a new winner at the U.S. Open and some colleges are looking for new mascots.
5- Admiral Ackbar, really?
Since the 2003 season, Ole Miss hasn’t had a mascot on the field. Perhaps that is why quarterback Jeremiah Masoli has had such a hard time with his switch from the Oregon Ducks to the Ole Miss Rebels. In all seriousness, having a Star Wars’ character as your mascot on the field? I can understand that the city of Oxford, Miss., doesn’t have much to offer in the sense of mascot ideas, but you don’t have to resort to an orange, catfish-looking-squid creature as your mascot. Take advantage of your Southern history folks, come up with a real rebel and leave Lucasarts alone.
4- A storm that
was just perfect
The Storm, the Women’s National Basketball Association located in Seattle, Wash., won the WNBA Finals for their second title. Not only did the team win the title, but they did it rather soundly. Winning every game that they played at home this past season, going undefeated in the playoffs and making it even better, they brought the city of Seattle a little ray of sunshine that they don’t have very often.
The other teams in Seattle, including the Mariners, and Seahawks, may not be bringing home championship trophies anytime soon, but the Storm, at least for a couple more years, may have satisfied the coffee-loving people of Seattle for a couple of years.
3- No 2005 Heisman Trophy winner
Reggie Bush decided that the best way to smooth things over and move on would be to simply give back his 2005 Heisman Trophy. This comes after reports of Bush accepting money from sports agents while playing for the University of Southern California. The interesting fact is that Bush said that even though he is giving the trophy back, it is not in anyway admitting his guilt. You know if I won something as prestigious as the Heisman Trophy, I wouldn’t be giving it back just to “smooth” things over. The only way that I would give it back would be if they completely and utterly proved that I did it and told me that they would be taking it back.
Wait, the NCAA has done all of that so there should be no smoothing things over on Bush’s part. He should just be happy that he has to give the Heisman back and not suffer the consequences that the University of Southern California is now.
2- Move over
Redeem Team
For a team dubbed as the “B” team, it sure didn’t look they were the NBA’s “B” team. The team, and their coach Mike Krzyzywski couldn’t be much happier with their performance in the FIBA world basketball tournament last month. The U.S. International Team claimed their first FIBA title since 1994.
With this win, the U.S. team clenched an automatic berth in the 2012 Summer Olympics. This poses a question for Coach “K” though. Who is he going to put on his 12-man team with an unprecedented 24-man arsenal; the “A” team that during the 2008 Olympics was known as the “Redeem” Team, or the “B” team that looked better than the U.S. team has in a long time.
1- Joining the elite
Rafael Nadal can now add a new trophy to his already extensive trophy collection, that of the United States Open. Nadal can claim that he does have a spot among the tennis elites; after all he completed the career Grand Slam, winning all four major titles in one year. He joins Roger Federer, Andre Agassi, Rod Laver, Roy Emerson, Fred Perry and Donald Budge as one of the few to complete the Grand Slam. To complete the Grand Slam, Nadal beat Roger Federer, at the Australian Open; Robin Soderling, at the French Open; Tomas Berdych, at Wimbledon, and concluded his run by beating Novak Djokovic at the U.S. Open.