Fynal wrap

Fynally, a long weekend.

After weeks of sitting around on the couch, we’re getting back to the U this weekend (the I-U) for some tailgating and generally debauchery.

It’s a fairly intense sports weekend, as far as sports weekends go.

You may have heard, college football starts this weekend, we’re pumped about that.

The best game of this first weekend is easily No. 15 Tennessee vs. No. 12 Cal (8 p.m. ET, ABC). Other than that, Indiana-Indiana State is probably your second best bet (all day, ham radio throughout Southern Indiana).

Besides college football, we’ve got U.S. Open tennis (USA and CBS, all weekend) and the second FedEx Cup tournament — the Deutsche Bank Championship (GOLF Saturday; NBC, Sunday, Monday).

Right now, Tiger is tanking, but that could change by the second. One prediction though, if Steve Stricker (above) wins the Cup (2 shots off the lead right now), consider the new PGA playoff toast.

Tiger or Phil or Vijay or a player of their star status has to win this first year. As much as we want to see Stricker win, it’s going to drive casual fans away.

On that note, have a good Labor Day weekend. Peace out.

Ah, rivalries

Sorry for no “Fynal Out” today.

Ms. Cut made us go to an interview for a “real” job. Evidently it pays “money” or something.

Anyway, we came across something interesting over at Deadspin and thought it was worth discussing.

Basically, the UCLA blog bruinsnation.com dug up some skeletons in the closet of USC running backs coach Todd McNair.

It seems McNair was narrowly acquitted on dogfighting charges in 1996, but was convicted on 17 counts of animal cruelty.

The Daily Trojan thought this was awful journalism on the part of the blog (big shocker there), and decided to write an editorial about it.

It goes a little something like this:

BruinsNation took a sports rivalry to an inappropriate level, bringing back McNair’s already public convictions, forcing him to deal with issues that should remain in the past. The site practiced poor journalism as little – if any- good can be done by the resurfacing of McNair’s actions.

All of these statements may be true, but as far as we’re concerned, bruinsnation.com is not a journalistic enterprise. Sure, lots of Bruins’ fans get their news there, but lots of people get their news from The Daily Show, and the people on that show are not journalists. Being able to type does not make you a journalist.

While we do not condone McNair’s previous behaviors, no new evidence of McNair mistreating animals has come to light. BruinsNation’s story is not newsworthy – rehashing a 14-year-old, already settled issue does nothing for readers today. The statute of limitations has expired, McNair has paid his dues to society. Nothing more can be asked of him than to not engage in such behavior again, and there is no reason to believe he has.

We do take issue with this paragraph. It is semi-newsworthy if McNair was involved in dogfighting, even if it was a long time ago. And of course McNair doesn’t want it brought up again! Who would? But he made poor decisions in 1996 and it’s going to stick with him for the rest of his life. We’re not going to want to hear about Mike Vick’s dogfighting charge 10 years from now, but we are willing to wager a free post it will still haunt him.

Doesn’t the Daily Trojan have better/more important/school-related issues to cover in editorials? Not sure about you dear readers, but no matter how many times we read this, it still seems like petty whining by one side of a rivalry.