As the Truth sees it…

Often when athletes retire, the majority of them fade into the sunset. While some get jobs on TV or appear in commercials or movies, the majority go on to try and live normal lives. The only time you hear about these former athletes is when they try to make a return to their sport or something tragic happens.
Sadly, Randall Cunningham has become one of those in the latter. After great years with the Philadelphia Eagles and Minnesota Vikings, the trend setting quarterback left the limelight for the solitude of family life in Nevada with his wife, Felicity and their four children.
That life was turned upside down Tuesday when Cunningham’s two-year old son Christian drowned in a hot tub at the family’s home. Christian was the youngest.
Las Vegas police Officer Marcus Martin, said the death appeared to have been an accidental drowning, but authorities were still investigating.
Cunningham, 47, was out of town Tuesday when the accident took place, according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal.
There is nothing in Cunningham’s career than could prepare him for this. I can only hope the limelight that had avoided him for all these years will have the courtesy to allow the family time to grieve.
Michael Kinney

Monday the conformation hearing for Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan began. But if you listened to the Republican Senators who questioned her, it was Thurgood Marshall who was on trial.
The former Supreme Court judge’s name was mentioned 35 times as they questioned Kagan, who clerked for Marshall in the 1980s.
“Kagan wrote a tribute to Justice Marshall in which she said in his view it was the role of the courts and interpreting the Constitution to protect the people who went unprotected by every other organ of government,” Senator Jon Kyl stated. “The court existed primarily to fulfill this mission. And later, when she was working in the Clinton administration, she encouraged a colleague working on a speech about Justice Marshall to emphasize his unshakable determination to protect the underdog.”
Alabama Senator Jeff Sessions took it even further.
“She clerked for Judge Abner Mikva and Justice Marshall, each a well-known liberal activist judge,” Sessions said.
Marshall was not only the first black judge to sit on the Supreme Court, but he was the winning lawyer in the Brown v. Board of Education case which overturned Plessy v. Ferguson and outlawed segregation. So it doesn’t make too much sense why the GOP would be attacking the judicial Icon through Kagan’s confirmation.
One of Marshall’s statements the senators attacked was “you do what you think is right and let the law catch up.” In their eyes that somehow is tantamount to revolution. But I hope it is a statement Kagan takes to hear if she is confirmed.
Michael Kinney

For three weeks America has taken an interest in soccer like never before. Even I found myself watching a full game, that I wasn’t covering, for the first time in my life. That included today when the USA lost to Ghana 2-1.
Like most Americans who know little to nothing about the world’s obsession with soccer, I was under the belief that the US had a chance to win the World Cup. But we saw today, that there is still a gap between international players and Americans.
However, for three weeks the USA team made soccer popular in America. That is something I thought would never happen. Now the big test is whether it will continue to grow here. In the past, it has not happened. But anything is possible in this new age, I guess.
Michael Kinney

Watching Game 7 of the NBA finals. It’s nights like this that make it tough to be a fan.
An athletic contest should not have the power to change your emotions, but it does. I wouldn’t change being a die-hard fan, but it must be nice on nights like this to have no preference. I am envious, until I remember how good it feels to be a fan when your team wins.
Go Lakers.

People always use the phrase “put your money where your mouth is.”
For Bill Gates and Warren Buffett, I hope they have pretty big mouths.
The two richest men in America have put the rest of the country’s billionaires on notice. They have launched a campaign to get the rest of the billionaires to donate at least half their wealth to charity.
If the members on the Forbes 400 list of richest Americans pledged half their net worth to charity, the total could amount to as much as $600 billion.
Say that with me again, $600 billion.
Imagine the amount of food, medicine, school books, clothes and homes that cash could buy.
Gates (worth $53 billion) and Buffett ($47 billion) have been trying to pursue others for the last year to donate their wealth, either during their lifetime or at the time of their death. Only a few have gravitated to the idea, so far. They include Los Angeles philanthropists Eli and Edythe Broad; Silicon Valley’s John and Tashia Morgridge and venture capitalist John Doerr of Kleiner Perkins.
If the dynamic duo are successful, they could literally change the world. They have labeled their efforts “The Giving Pledge” and have set up a website, givingpledge.org.
“The Giving Pledge is an effort to invite the wealthiest individuals and families in America to commit to giving the majority of their wealth to the philanthropic causes and charitable organizations of their choice, either during their lifetime or after their death,” the website states. “The Pledge is a moral commitment to give, not a legal contract. It does not involve pooling money or supporting a particular set of causes or organizations. While the Giving Pledge is specifically focused on billionaires, the idea takes its inspiration from efforts in the past and at present that encourage and recognize givers of all financial means and backgrounds. We are inspired by the example set by millions of Americans who give generously (and often at great personal sacrifice) to make the world a better place.”
This could be a transformational idea. One that would rival the Internet, fire and the car.
But, the more interesting question is, how many of the richest people in the country actually will make the pledge and promise to give half of what they have worked to gather.
I want to be optimistic and believe it will be done, but it’s hard to envision.
How many of you would go that far if you were asked to? I know I would have to think about it.
Michael Kinney

One of the highest grossing movies of the year was Iron Man 2. While it wasn’t as good as the first installment, it had its moments.
But there was one scene in the film that resonates strongly with what is going on today on the college football landscape.
It came during an exchange between bad guy Ivan Vanko, played by Mickey Rourke and Robert Downey Jr.’s Tony Stark, AKA, Iron Man.
“If you could make God bleed, people will cease to believe in Him,” Vanko said. “There will be blood in the water, and the sharks will come. All I have to do is sit here and watch, as the world will consume you…”
If you replace Vanko with Texas president William Powers Jr., then you have the position in which the Longhorns put Big 12 commissioner Dan Beebe. Now UT may be on the verge of pulling off one of the biggest rope-a-dope since Muhammad Ali on George Foreman. But this time it will be on the entire college football landscape.
According to several media outlets, after week’s of leaning toward joining the Pac-10, the Longhorns are now seriously considering staying put in the Big 12. And what has brought about this amazing transformation in thinking? Money and power, of course.
Texas could possibly earn between $20 million and $25 million annually in television revenue, including money from its own network, in the reworked deal, according to Orangebloods.com.
From the very beginning the Longhorns have been wanting their own network deal. One they would be able to cash in on and keep for themselves.
So when talk of the Longhorns heading to the Pac-10 came about, we should have known it was a diversion. The Pac-10 has been planning to create its own conference network in which every member would split the revenue between themselves. UT could have had that deal in Big 12 long ago, but it blocked every effort to create a conference network.
What Texas did instead was show Beebe they were open to leaving the league. That set off a firestorm which has already seen Nebraska and Colorado break ranks.
This forced Beebe to come to Texas president William Powers Jr. with a special deal. Texas and Oklahoma would each receive at least $20 million annually from a new Big 12 TV contract, according to a report. If Texas A&M decided to also stay, they would join the Sooners and Longhorns in the $20 million bracket. Oklahoma State, Iowa State, Baylor, Kansas, Kansas State, Missouri and Texas Tech stand to make between $14 million and $17 million.
But the clincher came when Beebe relented and will now allow schools to pursue their own distribution and network deals. This would enable Texas to create the Longhorn network which could net them up to an additional $5 million annually.
This entire plan seemed to be put together over the weekend. And it didn’t take long for Texas to all of a sudden see that the grass is not greener on the coast.
Monday evening, Powers told Pac-10 commissioner Larry Scott they were staying put.
“University of Texas President Bill Powers has informed us that the 10 remaining schools in the Big 12 Conference intend to stay together,” Scott said in a statement. “We are excited about the future of the Pac-10 Conference and we will continue to evaluate future expansion opportunities under the guidelines previously set forth by our Presidents and Chancellors.”
Like dominoes, the rest of the teams fell into place. In a span of 30 minutes, the Aggies, then Sooners both agreed to also keep the Big 12 intact. OSU followed later in the evening.
“The decision to stay in the Big 12 represents a consensus position which resulted from a collaborative effort with our colleagues in the conference,” Oklahoma president David L. Boren and vice president and director of athletics Joe Castiglione said in a joint statement. “We value the strong working relationship that has been reaffirmed during this process among the conference members. We intend to work very hard to make the conference as lasting and dynamic as possible. We appreciate the respect and interest that has been shown to OU during this process.”
I am glad the Big 12 is still alive. I always thought the conference was too big to be swallowed up by an inferior league.
However, the way the whole thing went down is what bugs me. Oklahoma, Oklahoma State and Texas A&M helped the Longhorns get their prized deal by allowing themselves to be used as pawns in Texas’ threat. And the conference lost two programs that it didn’t need to.
As of now, it looks like the Big 12 would will stay at 10 teams, with everyone playing each other. It would also do away with the Big 12 championship game because the NCAA says a league must have at least 12 teams for a title game. This will not make Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones very happy.
But all of that was secondary to keeping Texas happy. Beebe stated his goal was to keep the conference intact, no matter what. That meant giving Texas exactly what they wanted.

For fans of Oklahoma and the Big 12, the past two weeks have not been easy. With rumors about conference demolition and moving to the PAC-10, SEC or Big Ten have differed every day. This much false information and rumors have fans going crazy with anticipation just for the truth to come out.
My prescription for good health is to not pay attention. Sadly, regardless of what fans think or want, the schools involved are going to make their decisions based solely on what’s best for them and not the people who follow the programs. So there is no need to worry yourself sick.
However, that is easier said than done. The Big 12 conference is not officially dead, yet. But it is on life-support. Officials involved are saying they are trying to save the league, but with Colorado and Nebraska already begging out of the Big 12, there is not much holding the conference together.
According to reports, we will find out for sure Tuesday what will happen as Oklahoma, Texas, Oklahoma State and Texas Tech supposedly will announce their future home. Whether that is just another rumor or the truth, we won’t know until it happen. Until then, just wait and relax.
Michael Kinney

After more than four years of investigation, the NCCA finally handed down its findings and penalties to USC. A two-year bowl ban and a loss of more than 20 football scholarships are among the sanctions that the NCAA has levied on Southern California. They also will have games from their 2004 National Championship season taken away.
But that doesn’t mean Oklahoma will benefit from USC’s loss. It will be up to the Bowl Championship Series to decide if they will strip the Trojans of their BCS title. Then there is still no promise it will be handed down to OU, who USC destroyed in 2004 title game.
Even then it will be up to the Sooners to decide if they even want the trophy and title after the way USC dismantled them.
There are still a lot of questions that need to be answered before OU can lay claim to eight national championships.
Michael Kinney

Since 1994, Oklahoma fans have had it easy. No matter where their conference game was played, they were within driving distance of any destination. From Austin, to Lawrence, to Columbia to Lubbick, they were a simple road trip away from seeing the Sooners play every Saturday.
That may change starting in 2011. According to several published reports, the Big 12 is going to be raided by the PAC-10. As many as six Big 12 teams could be invited to join the PAC-10 to form one mega 16-team conference. It’s supposed to make the Big 8/Southwest Conference collaboration 14 years ago look like a tea party. And it seems no one has the power to stop it.
Michael Kinney

In my lifetime, I have had three favorite baseball players. Darryl Strawberry, Barry Bonds and Ken Griffey Jr. The first two have been have out of the game for a minute. Griffey joined them today when the Seattle mariners announced his retirement today.
During the 1990s, there was no more exciting player that Griffey. Not just in baseball, but in all sports.
He has long past his prime and many have forgotten just how great he was. His 630 homers in 22 seasons does not top the all time list, but did it without any controversy or hint of scandal.
It will be hard for people to decide where Griffey will rank compared to the all-time greats. He never won or even played in the world series. While he dominated the 90s, but injuries left him human during the 2000s when he went to Cincinnati.
Griffey will undoubtedly be a Hall-of-Famer, but he will not be mentioned with the likes of Hank Aaron, Babe Ruth, Willie Mays and Joe Dimazio. And that’s a shame.
Michael Kinney