Denver Post sports columnist Woody Paige posts Woody’s Mailbag on Thursdays.
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Woody – Selection Sunday is just around the corner, and that means college basketball will really start to take over (thank goodness). I want to jump the gun and ask: Who will be in the Final Four this year?
— John Mosman, Rexburg, Idaho
John – Thanks for putting me on the spot. OK, I’ll tell you, but keep it to yourself. I don’t want everybody in the media stealing my picks. Jorge Nunez, Danny Gokey, Alexis Grace and Allison Iraheta are my Final Four picks on “American Idol” this year. Book it.
Oh, you mean the other Final Four, basketball.
I like the four top seeds to be North Carolina, Pitt, Louisville and , although I want Kansas and Memphis to be in the final repeat. Bill Self has done an incredible job retooling the Jayhawks immediately. And Memphis, with Tyreke Evans replacing Derrick Rose, has the longest winning streak in the country. I’d like Memphis (and everybody knows I’m a homer here because I grew up in Memphis and used to listen to the Tigers on the transistor radio under the covers after my mother ordered me to go to the sleep) to do well, and I’m picking the Tigers to be a Final Four team again.
North Carolina will win it all. Tyler Hansbrough is a sensational college player, but I like Ty Lawson even more. Pitt is tough, like the Steelers, and beat UConn twice, of course. The Huskies will lose in the Big East Tournament, and I’m declaring them dead. Don’t sleep on Western Kentucky to win a couple of games in the tournament.
Want a sleeper? Getting it, anyway. I think Boston College will make a run, and don’t dismiss UCLA. Wake Forest will contend, and Gonzaga will thrill us again. But, in the end, I’m going Memphis, North Carolina, Michigan State (Big Ten had the No. 2 RPI) and Pitt. Those are teams that can have an off night in the tournament and still win. And I’ve already told you the Tar Heels.
Danny Gokey and UNC. Do you want my Powerball lottery numbers, too?
Woody – Maybe you can help an out-of-state Broncomaniac make sense of . Why on earth would the Broncos’ supposed braintrust of Josh McDaniels and Brian Xanders even consider it?
— Corbin Davis, Berkeley, Calif.
Corbin – McDaniels wanted Matt Cassel. That’s all there is to it. Josh told me several weeks ago in a phone conversation, as I sat in my car and took notes on napkins and Burger King sacks, that he and Cassel connected last year, that Cassel was probably responsible for him getting a head coaching job, that Cassel had studied hard for four years to be a starter (as McDaniels studied hard to become a head coach), that Cassel was ready to go when called on and had a strong work ethic, understood the game and the New England offense and got better and better as the season went on.
McDaniels loves Cassel and saw a chance to get him. The word I heard from somebody I’d trust with my ATM password was that New England shopped Cassel around, and Denver was on the list. McDaniels said no, then rethought the possibility. Detroit and Tampa Bay came into the mix, and Tampa Bay really wanted Cutler. Cassel’s salary-cap number is way higher than Jay’s. The Bucs would offer two high draft picks to New England, they would get Cutler, and Denver would get Cassel.
However, on that Friday night, Bill Belichick did a deal with his old friend and ex-GM, Scott Pioli in Kansas City. The Bucs and the Broncos didn’t know there was a deal in place, so Tampa Bay kept pursuing. Then they found out, and that was that. The problem for McDaniels was when other teams got involved in a three-way possibility, it was going to get out, and he didn’t know that. Rookie mistake.
Some insight: A former president/general manager in the NFL was one of my closest friends when we were younger. We used to hang out all the time. Nobody really knew we were friends because I had moved to Denver and he was in another city. When Dan Reeves was the Broncos coach and he made cuts, he would announce them to the press, because sometimes he would pull them back if another team wanted them. I’d call my buddy GM, and he would read me the waiver wire, and I would write exactly who the Broncos cuts were, and Reeves would call me all (ticked) off. He went to every person at the Broncos demanding to know who was telling me the cuts. To this day, I’ve never revealed it was an executive with another team.
There is a pro sports executive in town who leaks league information all the time to a national TV commentator. In return, the commentator talks about this executive in a good light on TV several times a year. I was talking to a person in football I trust, and he told me he had an e-mail in front of him that said “Cutler will not be traded” after all the dust settled. I know that e-mail was from somebody in the Broncos organization. Long-winded answer.
I never heard Brian Xanders was involved in any way in a possible trade, so you got to wonder what his role is out there at Dove Valley. He hasn’t spoken once publicly about the trade. Isn’t a general manager supposed to let the media and the fans know? These guys are like Bush. They never hold press conferences.
And after , we know the situation hasn’t improved. The conflict rages on. We’ll find out more next week when the Broncos have “”voluntary” meetings.
May we refer to him henceforth as Josh McDenials?
— Rob, Rye, N.Y.
You can, Rob. I prefer Kid McD. I almost moved to Rye when I lived in New York a few years ago. But too many people who came up with cute nicknames and talked funny. I was a catcher when I played ball. If I had moved to Rye, would you have called me Catcher In Da Rye?
Ha! You nailed New England on “Around the Horn” today. I am from Massachusetts — 25 years here — and you’re 100 percent right; (most) New Englanders DO have the attitude problem, a high-horse thing going on. After traveling the country, I am now aware of this, and it cracks me up because you’re my favorite person on the show. Except when Lil Wayne was on.
— Nate, Boston
Nate – Lil Wayne can’t hold my jock. I do want to thank the rap star, who won four Grammys, for coming on “Around The Horn” and later saying on his blog that “Woody Paige may be the funniest person in America.” For you Paige detractors, there’s your opportunity to rip me. But it meant a lot to me.
For those millions of you who didn’t see the show Nate’s talking about, I said people in New England have an “attitude,” which could mean almost anything. I’ve spent enough time up there to know that those people think they know everything about sports and politics and everything else, and the rest of us can suck the fumes from their automobile-exhaust pipes. My college roommate moved to a Boston suburb, and people wouldn’t accept him because his ancestors didn’t come over on the Mayflower.
Red Sox fans, everybody knows. Red Sox Nation. You throw a tea party, and you win a couple of World Series, and you think you know anything. When the Broncos played there last year, my daughter and I went out to Lexington and Concord to learn more about the Revolution, and when I asked the guide a few questions, he acted like I was an idiot. Maybe I am, but please be courteous. We went to Walden Pond to check it out, and I bought a sweatshirt from a New Englander, and he treated me as if I were stuff on the bottom of his shoe.
New Englanders do have an attitude. Come on, people. We’re people, too. We’re all in this together. I actually found New Yorkers to be nicer than New Englanders. There. And maybe I’m still (ticked) off about the Monday night game and the World Series with the Rox. But, then, I’m just a silly old fool from the South.
Woody – Nice to see you on ESPN on Sunday at . I guess besides you and Irv Moss (whose stories I read on the tournament), nobody else in the Denver-area sports media cared to cover or report on a professional sport hosted by the city of Wheat Ridge. Why do you think such little coverage on a controversially formatted tournament?
— E Norman Western, Longmont
Never trust a man who puts an initial at the beginning of his name. I love bowling, E. I used to bowl in a league. My parents bowled in leagues. I covered a pro bowling tour event in Denver in 1975. I’ve visited the Pro Bowling Hall of Fame/Museum in St. Louis when I’ve been there for Rockies/Cardinals game. I know I should get a life. But some people collect butterflies.
I told the head of the Pro Bowling Tour they do a lousy job of promoting the sport. I didn’t even know there was a tournament until a few days before it started. He said they have a limited budget. That’s no excuse. It’s tough out there in the sports world. I get e-mails all the time saying, “Why don’t you write about lacrosse?” and “soccer” and “local swimming” and “rugby in Glendale” and “bowling in Wheat Ridge.” People want to hear about Jay Cutler and Josh McDaniels and Carmelo Anthony and Troy Tulowitzki. I couldn’t even find time to go to a CU basketball game and write about why they were so bad this year.
We have writers writing about every subject, but with four pro sports teams, everything else seems to get pushed down and back. I think The Post website is the solution for the future. There should be entire sections devoted to, forgive me, minor sports and teams. Maybe if all of you wrote to the editor of The Post, Greg Moore, and the assistant managing editor/sports, Scott Monserud, and told them that there should be more emphasis on bowling, etc., they might listen and devote more space on the Internet or in the sports pages. But sports sections are losing space, and newspapers are losing people, and it’s difficult to write about everything.
I try to go to prep championships, and I’ve told the rugby people I would come out and do a column, but I (sincerely) missed the lacrosse all-star game, and I would have loved to write about that. We now have a third sports columnist, , who came over from the Rocky, and maybe we can do more. But I promise you that if you go to , you’ll find that this mailbag will be the No. 1 most-read thing on the website, and a Denver Broncos player stubbing his toe No. 2, and the Nuggets losing No. 3, and the president signing a new important bill No. 47. When I write about the Avalanche or Tiger Woods, even, people tend not to read as they do if I write about McDaniels or the Broncos’ new long-snapper.
How can I justify making the trip to Coors Field to see the Rockies this year? I need some help with that one.
— Anthony Vallejos, Los Alamos, N.M.
Anthony – Good question. What I always tell people, including my mom, who is a big Rockies fan (and I got her a Rox jersey for Christmas), that you go out to enjoy a baseball game, sit in the sun or under the moon, eat a hot dog, keep a boxscore, enjoy yourself, talk to the people around you and soak it all up.
Hey, if the Dodgers come to town, go watch Manny Ramirez. If you grew up as a Cardinals fan, go out and watch the best player in the game. From New York, see the Mets. From Los Alamos, come to Denver for a long weekend, go to a play, see the mint, eat a great steak at John Elway’s and walk the 16th Street Mall and hang out for a while at ESPN Zone (blatant plug for my other boss). Go up in the mountains and then catch a game. Doesn’t matter if the Rox stink. It’s baseball.
When my dad used to take me to St. Louis on the train to see the Cardinals on the weekend, it was all about he and I being together, eating at Steak ‘N Shake, talking about baseball stuff and watching batting practice. The Cardinals stunk then, but it didn’t matter. We had a great time. That’s how you justify a trip to Denver to see the Rockies. Sure, they’re a bigger bomb than the one you guys made at Los Alamos, but just smell the grass, watch the ball, see a home run or two and eat the Rocky Mountain oysters. Forget the last part. There’s still nothing like a day at the ballpark. Buy some peanuts and Cracker Jack, and don’t care if you ever get back.
Hello, Woody. Playing “what if,” what would it take to drop Baylor and ISU from the Big 12, move Missouri to the South Division, and invite Utah and BYU into the Big 12 North? We know it won’t happen, but I’m curious as to what the necessary processes would be. Thanks.
— Greg Hadden, Arvada
Greg – It would take an act of Congress. Why not just invite Utah and BYU to join the Big 12 and make it the Big 14? You’d have seven teams in each division. Play all the division teams and three from the other division. That certainly would solve Utah and BYU having a chance at the BCS, but it certainly would ruin the Mountain West, and we care about the Mountain West.
I like it as is. And Air Force, Colorado State and Wyoming do, too, and they’re our teams. Go, Pokes. And where’s Baylor and Iowa State going? I like Iowa State. Those Maid-Rite hamburgers. Baylor I don’t care so much about.
The process, really, would be that Utah and BYU apply to join the Big 12, and the conference members would vote to accept or reject them. You may not be that old, but Arizona State and Arizona went hand-in-hand to the Pac 8 and asked to join, and were accepted.
That’s the best news the Broncos defense has had all year. Is Dawkins gonna be the guy who turns the D around?
— Brad Dabler, Chambersburg, Pa.
No. Good safety. But old. It’s going to take a middle guard who can stand up the middle of the offensive line, a strong pass-rushing defensive end, a defensive end who can stop the run, four good linebackers with speed to cover and blitz, a return to form of Champ Bailey, help on the other side and TWO — count ’em — TWO safeties, not one. Dawkins doesn’t turn around the defense, but he can be a major contributor. Did you see an Eagles employee got fired because he went on Facebook and complained about the Eagles letting Dawkins go? Maybe the employee should join the Broncos.
Woody Paige first joined The Denver Post in 1981 as a sports columnist. , or . Also, .
