No room for a "Lady" in college sports anymore
My Sunday best …
News that most of the women's sports teams from Tennessee will be dropping "Lady" from their Lady Vols moniker became a hot topic again this week when push-back from fans and alumni resulted in a petition to stop the change.
Sorry to hear it.
I've always found the "Lady" adjective a bit, oh, condescending. "These men here are the default team, these women here are the (insert whisper) 'ladies.' "
No. These are the products of Title IX.
Equal treatment. Equal opportunity.
One university. One athletic department. One nickname.
Male. Female. They are athletes. All of them. And they are more alike than different.
Let's stop the verbal segregation.
News broke two weeks ago that Tennessee was making the change as part of a brand restructuring that is happening at a time when the athletic department is changing its apparel provider from adidas to Nike. Only the women's basketball team will remain the Lady Vols in deference to former coach Pat Summit and her accomplishments.
That's fair, although in time, that, too, will feel dated. For everyone else, it needs to go away.
Most have. Kentucky stopped using "Lady Kats" in 1995. Newspapers sometimes used it to differentiate reports of men's and women's games, and I found a reference to "Lady Sun Devils" as recent as 2007 in an Arizona Republic article. That was definitely the exception, however, and not the norm.
Call me a Lady-killer, but it needs to go away. All of it.
College cha-ching
A database of college football coaches' salaries by USA Today revealed an interesting nugget: ASU's Todd Graham and Arizona's Rich Rodriguez are Nos. 1 and 2 in the country, respectively, for maximum bonuses that could be paid out.
If Graham meets a variety of incentives, he could make up to an extra $3.491 million. Rodriguez could make up to $2.125 million.
Entering Saturday's game against Washington State, Graham already is in line to receive a $50,000 bonus for eight wins. That number increases with each victory. He won't be landing the biggest prize of all this season: $1.25 million for winning the national title.
The highest-paid coach? That's no surprise: Alabama's Nick Saban, at $7.16 million.
Appalachian State's Scott Satterfield is the lowest-paid at $225,000.
Not a single Pac-12 coach was in the top 10. Washington's Chris Petersen was highest among his peers and 13th overall at $3.682 million.
Talking turkey
Despite what San Francisco 49ers coach Jim Harbaugh might suggest, this is not a bunch of "gobble gobble gobble turkey from jive turkey gobblers." This is a good thing.
On Tuesday, my friends Dan Bickley and Bruce Cooper will square off again for the Turkey Tuesday challenge.
The two are competing to see who can collect the most turkeys for St. Vincent de Paul's annual drive to feed the less fortunate.
It lasts from 4 to 7 p.m. azcentral's Bickley will be at the Bashas' at 7586 W. Thunderbird Road in Peoria. Channel 12's Cooper will be at a Bashas' at 4940 S. Gilbert Road in Chandler. Special guests, including sports stars, will drop by.
Cooper won last year, but I hear Bickley plans to take down the sports anchor this season.
Relocating
News that the NFL would be moving the Jets-Bills game scheduled for Sunday to Detroit on Monday because of a massive snowstorm made me wonder about other times in the modern era that games were played in a different location because of weather or natural disasters.
One will be familiar to Valley residents. In 2003, the Chargers and Dolphins played at Sun Devil Stadium after fires in Southern California resulted in the parking lot of Qualcomm Stadium being used as an evacuation site. The bad condition of the air plus the challenges facing local department of safety officials also prompted the Monday night game move.
In 2005, the Saints' entire schedule was played away from home after the Louisiana Superdome was damaged by Hurricane Katrina. In 2010, the Vikings couldn't play two games in the Metrodome because a snowstorm resulted in the roof collapsing. And an earthquake in 1989 forced the 49ers to delay and move their game against the Patriots from Candlestick Park to Stanford Stadium.
Stat of the day
One. The number of teams in the Pac-12 North with a winning record.
Quote of the day
"Chipotle for sure. Picazzo's (Organic Italian Kitchen) on Thursdays." — Cardinals quarterback Drew Stanton, on where he and his veteran teammates are sending rookie "errand boy" Logan Thomas to get food.