Anyone who has watched ESPN the past two days may have saw Florida quarterback and Heisman Trophy winner Tim Tebow not only granting ESPN reporter Erin Andrews an interview during a basketball game, but giving the ESPN College Gameday crew a "pep talk" as they prepared for their telecast. It's hard to argue against Tebow's overall talent, and his statistics during the 2007 season made him a logical selection for the Heisman Trophy. However, is ESPN taking advantage of the popularity of Tebow (a student-athlete) to gain a ratings bump? Let's examine the situation further...

Make no mistake, the media love athletes who are open and willing to grant an interview at anytime. Brett Favre, Jeremy Roenick and Shaquille O Neal are just some examples of media friendly athletes who have used their positive "Q" media scores to advance their publicity. The key to those athletes is the word professional. Tebow is a college athlete who has been made larger than life in large part due to major media outlets like ESPN. Tebow is what media folks call a "good story", with a solid foundation built around the three "F's", family, faith, and football. From all accounts, he is a solid young man who has been blessed with a talent for football that few have ever realized.

Tebow has several similarities with former Notre Dame and Washington Redskin quarterback Joe Theismann. While at Notre Dame, Theismann saw his name pronunciation go from THEEZ-man to rhyme with Heisman. While the name pronunciation came from students at Notre Dame, the “new” name was able to stick thanks in large part to the media. Theisman also broadcast Super Bowl XIX for ABC while still an active player with the Redskins. After his career ended with a broken leg, Theismann entered the broadcast booth for good and spent 20 seasons in the booth on ESPN's NFL broadcast. Theismann cashed in his media friendliness for his life after football, becoming a member himself.

Tebow appears like a bright young man and he may very well win another Heisman Trophy in 2008. However, what would happen if he struggles next season and doesn't have huge numbers like in 2007? The same people who are proclaiming him as the second coming may be asking "What is wrong?" Let's hope Tebow's story ends happily, both with the media and in football. College athletes are not professionals, but the media will treat Tebow as one if he continues to let them gain as much access as they have had in his early career. If for some reason Tebow’s career doesn’t pan out, he should shove most of the blame into the face of those who proclaimed him the second coming. Here’s hoping Tebow pulls a Theismann (minus the broken leg of course).

Everyone knows the love- hate relationship that UK fans with Tubby Smith during his last few years at Kentucky.

In fact many fans blame the current state of the program on coach Smith when they look down the bench and can't count more than four players that he recruited that could even play Divsion I basketball.

What a difference a change of scenery and expectations can make for someone in Tubby's position.  Smith was harshly criticized for not winning a title with his recruits but many forget the number of SEC titles he won in addition to leading UK to an undefeated SEC regular season.  Only the third time it had every been accomplished.

Now Tubby finds himself in Minnesota where expectations are so low coming into the season that if his team won more than 5 games it would be more than the past two seasons for Gopher fans.  Well don't look now but the Golden Gophers are 12-4 with two of their losses being a 6-point loss to Michigan State and a 5-point loss to Indiana.  Yeah, I know bitter UK fans say "Minnesota hasn't played anyone" and to those fans I saw be very careful.  UK lost to Gardner Webb and San Diego at Rupp Arena so people with glass houses shouldn't throw rocks.

Keith Bogans, Tayshaun Prince, Erik Daniels, Chuck Hayes, Kelenna Azubuike, Rajon Rondo are all in the NBA.  All players who Smith recruited as was accused of ruining with his style of offense.  Apparently he was good enough to get them to the NBA.

Enjoy the ride Gopher fans, Tubby Smith is a class act and a great human being.  He will do your program proud.

This is hardly in my wheelhouse and outside the normal subject matter of the website, but in a Wide World of Sports way it deserves some attention.  I know it seems weird, but there was a time that chess was actually considered a sport, and most of that credit has to go to Bobby Fischer.

If you didn't grow up in the 70's or early 80's, it's hard to understand the general attitude of Americans towards the former Soviet Union.  For many reasons, be they political differences, social differences, or just general wonder that we didn't know what the heck was going on over there, Americans felt equal parts hatred and fear of the "Russian" people in ways that social studies textbooks simply can't convey.  Americans truly felt that the U.S.S.R. was becoming their equal, and the fear of the Communist giant made us want to beat them in every way possible.  Given that the U.S.S.R. had been dominant for over 20 years in chess, having a grand master like Bobby Fischer was just what America needed to beat them at their own game.

When Fischer defeated world champion Boris Spassky in 1972, it gave the United States a victory that, while not nearly as large of an upset as the 1980 U.S. Olympic hockey team's victory over the U.S.S.R., was galvanizing for the country.  The match, which lasted from July through September, was also set against the background of the U.S./U.S.S.R. Olympic basketball finals, easily the greatest travesty in modern sports history.  This win helped ease the pain somewhat of that defeat.

Sadly, Fischer dropped off the international radar soon after his victory and spent the rest of his years in relative obscurity.  His later years were marked by fits of erratic behavior, anti-semitic statements, and a bizarre falling out with former friend Dick Schaap (which led to Schaap's statement that Fischer "did not have a single sane bone remaining in his body").  This was punctuated by his confrontation with Schaap's son, Jeremy Schaap, at a press conference welcoming him to Iceland.

Fischer died Thursday of kidney failure at age 64.  The chess world, in many ways, blames Fischer's indifference to the sport for its fall from popularity in the mid-70's.  With the kinds of activities that ESPN passes off as sports in the 21st century, we'll never know if we could have been watching the World Series of Chess, rather than poker.

The Reds came in ridiculously cheap on their arbitration offer to Brandon Phillips. Phillips is eligible for arbitration and filed his expected salary, which in the context of the inflated salaries of the sport, was very reasonable. The Reds filed $2.7 million for Phillips while his agent filed $4.2 million. The $4.2 million would still make him the 6th highest paid player on the team. Why not lock Phillips up long term at that $4.2 million per year amount. It would be a bargain considering BP was only the team's second 30/30 guy in team history. Griffey's salary will be gone (not really off the books) after this season, maybe Dunn's as well. In baseball terms, $4.2 million for a guy who plays marvelous defense in the infield, hits for power and contact and steals bases, well that to me seems like a no brainer. Maybe the Reds offer was just part of the arbitration game, but it sure seemed like a move from the Carl Lindner era to me. Castellini was able to sign Harang and Arroyo to below market value long term deals. Why can't he do the same with BP?

The Reds are also going to arbitration with pitcher Matt Belisle, but they are "only" $650,000 apart with Belisle filing for $1.65 million and the Reds countering with $1 million. I think the Reds could win this case.