In the Kingdom of PSLs, the most stunning element of Jets’ WR Robby Anderson’s 2:15 Friday morning arrest is that such reports are no longer stunning.
It seemed impossible, nearly 25 years ago, that Lawrence Phillips, Nebraska’s sensational running back, could not overcome, let alone survive — he died in prison in 2016 at age 40 — his inclination to commit crimes, especially violent assaults of women.
Yet, such impossibly impossible athletes are now as common as illegal motion flags.
Anderson had proven, this season, that no matter how murky his past — why he went undrafted out of Temple — he was a keeper, perhaps even a star. Thus, if there was ever a time to go straight, clean it up, grow up, it was now.
Yet, based on his arrest report — driving 105 mph in a 45 zone, ignoring Florida police car sirens and lights, threatening to rape the arresting cop’s wife — he may be finished, no matter how many second chances NFL teams provide the talented.
Anderson already had a court date in Florida — March 19 — charged with violently resisting a police officer, a felony.
Thus Anderson may join a swelling march of young, extremely talented college men — JaMarcus Russell, Aldon Smith, Johnny Manziel, Greg Hardy, the late Chris Henry, Tank Johnson, to name only a few — who were unable to distinguish or choose right over wrong, smart over unfathomably stupid.
Our Div. I colleges now regularly mill full scholarship “student-athletes” who are more socially bereft than when they entered. Many universities are infamous for annually recruiting and/or producing criminals, yet nothing changes because, well, you know, whatever it takes.
Temple seems late to that party, but as its football fortunes rise, it’s a strong bet that its compromises have, as well.
In 2015, Temple went 10-4, went to a bowl game and even beat Penn State for the first time since 1941, after 40 tries. Anderson, lean, fast, sure-handed, caught 70 passes, that season, his senior year.
But what else did Anderson do at Temple? What else did Temple do for Anderson? Was he provided a legit college education? Unlikely. Did his social skills improve, mature? Highly unlikely.
College students are supposed to leave college more prepared and able to live upwardly mobile, productive, lawful lives than before they entered. How is it so many Div. I football players depart college in worse social condition?
We witnessed Anderson’s sense of the here and now — his self-awareness — on Nov. 26 after he caught a TD then, with the Jets still losing to Carolina, he looked into a microphone-attached sideline camera and said, “Hey, will ya’ll vote for me in the Pro Bowl, man? Please.”
FOX’s Chris Spielman wasn’t afraid to say that Anderson’s in-game priorities were misaligned: “How about we worry about outscoring somebody in the fourth quarter and you focus on this game instead of campaigning for Pro Bowl votes? Let’s try that first.”
The next day it was Spielman — not Anderson — who was trashed on cool-dude websites for trying to throw cold water on Anderson’s “harmless fun.” Yep, at 52, Spielman was just another grumpy old man.
Now, it seems Spielman was prescient. The Pro Bowl? That likely went from the top of Anderson’s worry list, to the very bottom — if he knows enough to worry.
And plenty more Robby Andersons to come. Mind-blowing.
Romo again strong in booth
Sure, he was, as usual, overly chatty, but CBS’s Tony Romo, Sunday, was terrific.
He perfectly anticipated what the Jags’ offense had to do, and did, to take a 14-3 lead: Mix it up — left, right middle; bursts, play-actions, screens, passes to the flats — but keep it simple!
When the Jags got away from that, the Pats rallied. On New England’s defense after a third-quarter sack of Jags’ QB Blake Bortles: “You want to send a receiver 30 yards down field? [Then] we’re gonna make the ball come out of your hand in two seconds.”
And he had fun, busting CBS’s chops for a misplayed replay, and, after the Jags scored to take a 7-3 lead in the second, he prefaced a cut to commercials and foretold a tight game by saying to Jim Nantz — but more to us — “Oh boy, Jim, oh boy!”
‘Foul’ ending from poor strategy
Big-time basketball coaches, although paid millions, continue to mystify as they insist on losing games with a non-strategy strategy.
Saturday, there was a timeout with 11 seconds left, Oklahoma up, 73-70, at Oklahoma St. ESPN’s Jason Benetti and Robbie Hummel discussed what OSU had to do, ignoring what OU coach Lon Kruger might/should do.
Kruger chose to allow OSU to tie it, six seconds left, with a 3-pointer, rather than give a foul to force OSU to perform a miracle — make the first, miss the second, rebound and score at or near the buzzer just to tie. OU lost in OT.
St. John’s similarly lost, Saturday, when Georgetown tied it at the end of the first OT when allowed to shoot and hit a 3 with four seconds left.
St. John’s lost in the next OT.
And they’ll do it over, and over.
Pete Gillen, who coached DI ball for 20 years, said he always gave the foul in such cases — his teams practiced when and how — and never lost a game that way. Saturday, two DI teams lost by not doing so.
A) On CBS, Saturday, a West Virginia player accidentally knocked a Texas player to the floor. That WVU player reached down to help his opponent to his feet. The helping hand was accepted.
B) A WVU player hit a 3, to which he was seen immodestly gesturing that he’d just hit a 3.
Now which of these two moving images did CBS choose for slow-motion emphasis en route to commercials? Correct, B. That’s what TV has relentlessly, shamelessly helped do to our sports.
As seen Saturday on CBS, Arizona is paying Sean Miller $2.3 million per plus perks to behave like a deranged, blood-vessels-on-burst lunatic — not that anyone on TV would speak such a clear, repetitive and disturbing truth about the coach of student-athletes.
Michigan St.’s beloved Tom Izzo knows where his sneaker bread is buttered. Friday on FS1, against Indiana, the green-and-white — but only since 1899 — wore Nike black uniforms.
Heard Saturday during a commercial break in a game, within a commercial for the psoriasis drug Otezla: “Don’t use Otezla if you’re allergic to Otezla.” Guess there’s one way to find out.
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