As the Truth sees it…

It’s amazing the things that bring back a flood of memories. It’s usually a smell, a photo or a song .
On Tuesday it was the name Skandor Akbar that took me back in time. Skandor Akbar AKA Jimmy Saied Wehba died Monday in Garland. The Wichita Falls native was 75.
For those who do not recognize the name, then you would not be considered an old school wrestling fan. Skandar Akbar was a wrestler in the 80s with World Class Wrestling. He wasn’t famous or a superstar. He was a mediocre villain at best. But he was part of a wrestling troupe that many young people in Oklahoma and Texas grew up on. I remember staying up late with my father and brother watching WCW on cable TV and going to the live shows at the Myriad and the Lawton Coliseum. I spent a good portion of my childhood watching WCW and trying to decide what my nickname would be when became a member..
When the news of Wehba’s death hit Facebook, stories of those who remembered World Class Wrestling started to fly. Names such as The Free Birds, The Von Erichs, Kamala, Kabuki, Jimmy Superfly, Dusty Rhodes, etc.. I literally could go on forever.
Michael Kinney

It was less than three weeks ago that the football world went crazy with Brett Favre mania after 40-year-old quarterback supposedly sent teammates a text telling them he was retiring. ESPN dedicated nearly an entire day of broadcasting just toward whether he was retiring or not.
However, after Favre announced a day later he had made up his mind, ESPN did some soul searching. They admitted to possibly going overboard with the coverage of rumors hearsay.
The soul-searching didn’t last very long. After it came out that the Minnesota Vikings sent three players to Mississippi to beg Favre to come back for another year, they reverted back to their old ways. It seems like if ESPN has a chance to go overboard on anything to dealing with L Favre, they will take it.
Instead of talking about other NFL teams preparing for the season, the race for the postseason in baseball or college football cranking up, they sent reporters to an airport to wait on Favre to arrive.
I don’t understand their fascination with a quarterback who has won one Super Bowl and is the all-time leader in interceptions.
ESPN has turned itself into Favre Network.
Michael Kinney

The most ignorant argument I have heard this summer took place last week when First Lady Michelle Obama was criticized for taking a vacation to Spain with her daughter, Sasha. Fox News and other conservative news outlets covered it like Watergate.
“For a couple that has sharply criticized former President George W. Bush so widely, they could stand to follow his example for once and select a more low-key locale, as Bush regularly did in his Texas vacations,” Andrea Tantaros wrote in the NY Daily News. “Instead, Michelle Obama seems more like a modern-day Marie Antoinette – the French queen who spent extravagantly on clothes and jewels without a thought for her subjects’ plight – than an average mother of two. While she’s spent her time in the White House telling parents they should relieve their chubby kids’ dependency on sugar and stressing the importance of an organic veggie garden, hopping a jet to Europe to meet with Spanish royalty isn’t the visual the White House probably wants to project.”
While Tantaros has no problem using the Bushes as examples as what is decent and pure in this country, she fails to mention the 879 days they spent at Camp David on ‘vacation.” That comes to 30 percent of his time in office.
And that’s the actual President. Not his wife. No one cared what Laura Bush was doing or where she went during the eight years they were in the White House. Now all of a sudden people want to find fault with the First Lady and her family enjoying the perks that come with her husband’s position.
Yes, I know we are in the middle of a terrible jobs market and economic turmoil. But we as a country are always in the middle of something bad. But we don’t stop living our lives because of it.
If these same people had made these arguments when Bush or Reagan were in office, I wouldn’t have a problem. But they didn’t. It makes you wonder why it’s different now?
Michael Kinney

Oklahoma’s football season kicks off today with Meet the Sooner’s Day. Thousands of fans are expected to stand in line for hours in 105 degree heat waiting for autographs at the Rugby Fields.
I have covered this event the past three or four years. Each time I’m somehow surprised with how hot it gets.
If you come out there, make sure you stock up on water and large hats. And if you see me, make sure I’m doing OK and not walking around in some heat induced daze. It is just that hot.
Have fun.

I pretty much had little respect for Brett Favre before yesterday. Now, a day after the news of him text messaging teammates saying he was retiring hit the airwaves, my respect level has dropped to zero.
The only person in the NFL who may deserve less respect is Minnesota Vikings coach Brad Childress for allowing Favre’s drama queen antics to get bigger and bigger every season.
And how do the Vikings respond to all of this retirement-not-retirement talk? They have offered Favre a raise that would push his salary, with incentives, this year to $20 million. While I don’t think it’s about the money, I wouldn’t put it past one of the most selfish players the league has ever seen to be allowing this circus to continue for a few dollars more.
But, the reason I think Favre has not come out and made a single statement that would quash the rumors one way or another is because he loves the attention. Players like Terrell Owens and Chad Ocho Cinco have nothing on the attention seeking quarterback diva from Mississippi.
In a perfect world, other Viking teammates like Adrian Peterson would stand up and say “Either you are with us or you are not. We plan to go to the Super Bowl whether you are on the team or not. Stop playing games and be a man. Make a decision.”
But, we will never see a current player on the Vikings or in the NFL say that, because they are scared of the Brett Favre media backlash. You can’t talk that way about the reincarnation of mom’s apple pie and the American flag all rolled up into one man without getting branded a traitor.
Supposedly, Favre may be making a statement today after he finishes practicing with a local high school team. Regardless of what he announces, he is a day late. He put his team, coaches and fans through unnecessary drama. But, that’s exactly how he likes it.
Michael Kinney

I’m at the WPBA US Open championship at the Riverwind Casino here in Norman. A little girl runs up asking for an autograph. Without even wondering why she would be asking me for one, I pull out a pen to sign the book she had in her hand.
To my astonishment, she reaches past me hands the book to two-time U.S. Open winner Karen Corr. As I tried to play it off, the little girl then took my pen and gave it to Corr to use.
If my ego wasn’t so big, that might have stung.