ON THE DL

Dan Steinberg Talks Shanahan, Arenas & DC’s Busy Week in Sports.

Plus Shoals Gives His thoughts on Arenas, Baseball HOF talk and Dave Spadaro’s Spit Take

Lots to get to. Steinberg and Shoals on today. First, a little explanation.

WIth DC the center of the sports world the last few days – with the Redskins hiring Mike Shanahan and this whole Gilbert Arenas situation – we thought it would make sense to get Dan Steinberg of the Washington Post on the show.

During that conversation, Steinz hints at a huge Post story coming out today. But we couldn’t talk about it because he didn’t know all the

particulars. We discuss the entire Arenas situation, up to that point, and talk at length about the hiring of Shanny and how that’s going to be received in DC. Are Skins fans parading down the street? And what about Clinton Portis in all this? Remember that Shanahan was the guy who got rid of Portis in Denver, and that was back when he was still productive. What’s going to happen to Portis now, and if he’s concerned at all about his future in Washington, why would he go on radio and say that his quarterback isn’t a leader? Even if he believes that, why in the world would you rock the boat when you know a guy is coming in who already got rid of you once?

Steinberg brings up some contract issues that may preclude the Skins from just dumping Portis, but does agree that the situation will be interesting to watch, to say the least. And we discuss how two of the most liked athletes in DC – Arenas and Portis – have fallen so far in such a short time.

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Oh, and my question of who will steal the headline in the Post on Thursday? Yeah, Mike Wise wins the day.

Those particulars we didn’t know about when I talked to Steinz. Here they are, per the Post:

Asking Arenas what he was doing, Arenas replied, "If you want to shoot me, I'd just thought I'd make it easy for you." As other teammates laughed, Crittenton crumpled up the paper, tossed one of Arenas's guns across the room, where it bounced in front of a team trainer, and said he didn't need any of Arenas's firearms because he had his own, according to the witness accounts.

Crittenton then drew his weapon, loaded it and chambered a round, the witnesses said.

The term “chambered a round” is not something David Stern needs to see right now.

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Back to Wednesday night, we bring in Shoals to talk about his post at The Baseline wondering why we really have to think of athletes as role models. Yes, the entire sports world always goes back to Charles Barkley’s famous comments. And what will we take out of this whole Gilbert situation? Is he the basketball equivalent to Manny Ramirez? Is Gilbert being Gilbert the new Manny being Manny?

And was Gil being malicious or just being, in his mind, aloof and silly? Is the ‘Gilbert is a bad person’ moniker fair? How much did Peter Vecsey’s report taint the jury pool, perhaps literally, in this situation? If Crittenton pulled a loaded weapon out after Gil was just joking around with his, where’s the line of criminality in this situation? And where’s the line of morality?

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Nick and I talk more about this, wondering what the fallout will be? Is Crittenton done in the NBA? Can David Stern give him the death penalty, so to speak?

Talking Baseball:

We go over the Hall of Fame inductions and snubs. Mostly snubs. I was wrong on yesterday’s show to dismiss the merits of some of the candidates. Roberto Alomar should have gotten in. And he was snubbed and “he’ll get in eventually” doesn’t work for me. More on this at The Sporting Blog.

Inside the Press Box:

Dave Spadaro is an embarrassment to the Eagles and the city of Philadelphia. And I’m not saying that just because he was a CREDENTIALED MEMBER OF THE EAGLES STAFF and decided to spit on the Cowboys’ star, video tape it and put in on the Eagles website. Now, he’s an embarrassment as much for this, as part of his team-mandated apology:

“I admit I get carried away with my love of the Philadelphia Eagles, and if this is a crime, I am clearly guilty. Game days are an incredible experience for me. The will to win is unlike anything I have ever felt. The angst and the tightly-knotted stomach and the ups and downs of 60 minutes of Eagles football leave me thoroughly drained -- win or lose -- and I enjoy having the opportunity to communicate that to the many great Eagles fans who follow this team on a (many-times) daily basis.”

So he loves the Eagles so darn much. That’s why he spit on the logo. The fact that the team pays this guy is a joke. He’s an absolute joke. If you want to be a fan, go be a fan. Pay your ticket and sit in the stands. But if you WORK FOR A TEAM, you should treat your job a little more professionally.

Housekeeping:

Nick met a Nik Tarnowski on Facebook. His online doppelganger. And we finally talk about Bret Hart and Shawn Michaels. Was it a work? And I hope Bret doesn’t make a comeback. Like Iverson in Philly, the comeback was great for one day. After that, nobody really cares.

Thanks for listening.

Thursday, January 7, 2010

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