Suh puts in a good word for incoming Nebraska basketball coach

The Nebraska Cornhuskers ended their search for a basketball coach when they hired Tim Miles from Colorado State. Miles led the Rams to their first NCAA tournament since 1998 and would've been considered a favorite for the Mountain West title next season.

Miles will now head up a rebuilding job in Lincoln. Athletic director Tom Osborne was impressed by the way Miles has built programs at his previous stops. But it helps when you have former players of the football program  helping you get the job.

Detroit Lions defensive tackle, Ndamukong Suh reportedly was one of three Nebraska supporters that recommended Miles for the job.


Miles said he and Suh have a mutual friend who put them contact this week.


Osborne joked (we think) that he wasn't about to ignore the Detroit Lions defensive tackle's recommendation.


"When Ndamukong calls, I always listen. And if I don't listen," Osborne told the Omaha World Herald, "he'll break my neck."


I guess when you donate $2.6 million back to your alma mater, that your opinions on who gets hired around there matters.

Lem Barney wishes he never played football

For all the success Hall of Fame NFL player Lem Barney had, he wishes he never played football. Those are strong words from someone who excelled at every level of the sport.

Barney still is in relatively good health for his age (66), but says that if he had been presented with a different choice he never would've played football.

"I call it blessed," Barney said. "It's that type of game. It's a lethal game. Again, as I tell people, 'Do you miss the game, Lem?' And sincerely, I don't miss the game."


"If I look at the game now and I look back on it retrospectively, if I had another choice I'd never played the game, at all, in my life," he said. "Never. Never. From all-city, all-state, all-conference, all-American, seven times All-Pro, I'm in eight Hall of Fames, it wouldn't be. It would be golf or tennis. I'm serious. Very serious."

His reasoning behind that. Concussions. Back when he played the league or doctors didn't diagnose concussions like they do now. Barney never knew how many he had until he went to visit a doctor when his playing days were over.

"(He) told me that he saw where I had at least seven or eight concussions," Barney said. "One (spot) was as large as a silver dollar, and he said, 'You were out for a long time.' And there was about 30 minutes that I was out -- down at Tiger Stadium playing against the Bengals. It was just amazing.


"And then the other ones that he saw -- I can remember them. The ones I remember fondly was big Rufus Mayes from Ohio State, 6-9, 290, and he put his right knee right in the right temple when I came up to cut him down on a sweep. Next thing I know, it's like la-la land. Was out for a long time.   


If you were knocked around back then, you cleared the cobwebs and went back to playing.

"I related concussions to boxers," he said. "I didn't put one and two together. You get KO'd on the football (field) like getting KO'd in the damn ring, it's a concussion. I didn't put that together because, again, no doctors from middle school through high school through college through the league called them concussions. They all called them dingers and stingers." 


He does have some advice for current Lions running back Jahvid Best.


"If he wants to play again, God bless him, but if he can come back and still be comprehensible and still be able to understand things and still live a real good life," Barney said. "I would tell him, if he's going to play, they've got to get some kind of special helmet for him because it's not going to take much longer if he keeps getting those dinger, stinger and bell-ringers as the boxers used to call them, or even the concussions, that he's going to be around here.


"I would tell him to maybe look at doing something else rather than coming back again after having those back-to-(back) concussions. It's a dangerous game. Like I said, I don't have anything against it, I just don't have anything for it now."


For fans that thought Barry Sanders quit on the Lions now you can see why. The man wanted to walk away with his health.

Jim Buss wants Kobe to be a Laker for life

While the Los Angeles Lakers made some deadline day moves to compete for another championship, Lakers exec,Jim Buss says he wants Kobe Bryant to be a Laker for life. That's a shocker. Who in the Lakers front office wouldn't want Kobe to remain with the team until he calls it quits?

The problem is placating Kobe and putting a competitive team around him. I guess Buss has it all figured out.

"I think about a lot of things to improve this team, to figure out how to manage the finances of it," said Lakers executive vice president of player personnel, Jim Buss, as a guest on the "Mason & Ireland Show" on 710 ESPN on Friday. "One thing I haven't thought of is Kobe being somewhere else. I don't know why that question has ever come up and I'd like to squish that one."


While it's hard to imagine Bryant in another uniform, it's had to say that Bryant will be able to compete at an elite level for the duration of his career. A caller on the show Buss appeared on went as far as saying that Bryant and the Lakers had a short window of opportunity to win a sixth championship. Buss thinks that Bryant has a lot left to give and won't sell him short.

"I might disagree with you that Kobe only has three or four years left, but we'll see," Buss said. "As you see, we make trades and our whole focus isn't to win a sixth (championship). I'm not sure I would stop there for Kobe; I would go to seven or eight if we can. ... I think Kobe is going to be a Laker for life and I'm pretty sure he's not going to hang them up after two years."    

The only way Kobe leaves Los Angeles is if the Lakers are in so much disrepair that he doesn't want to stick around for a rebuilding job. His competitive juices will keep him in the game for as long as he desires.

Joakim Soria undergoing Tommy John surgery

The Kansas City Royals bullpen took a big hit, because closer Joakim Soria opted to have Tommy John surgery. This won't be his first time under the knife as he had the surgery back in 2003 while he was in the Los Angeles Dodgers organization.      

Soria sought the opinion of three doctors before finally deciding that surgery was his best option.

Plans call for Dr. Lewis Yocum to perform the surgery April 3 in Los Angeles. The typical recovery period ranges from 10-14 months. 


Soria definitely will miss this season and will possibly miss the early part of the 2013 season.

Soria, 27, was one of baseball's best closers from 2008-10, but he had a down year last season. He closed 28 games in 35 chances with a 4.03 ERA, 1.28 WHIP and 60 strikeouts in 60 1/3 innings. He looked like a good bounce-back candidate heading into this season. Instead, he'll have to hope for a good second half in 2013 before he hits free agency at the conclusion of that season.

This will hurt the back end of the Royals bullpen as Jonathan Broxton, Greg Holland, and Aaron Crow will have their roles shuffled with Soria out.  

Marion Barber calls it a career

The writing must've been on the wall for Chicago Bears running back Marion Barber after the Bears signed Michael Bush to be the backup to Matt Forte.

After a few subpar seasons Barber has decided to retire. There was no reason given and at age 28 it's pretty mysterious since he probably could've still been a productive short yardage/goal line back. But with his hard running style maybe his body took more of a pounding than any other back at that age.

He finished last season with 422 yards on 114 carries with six touchdowns.

"I want to thank everyone who gave me the opportunity to play, and I’m very thankful to have had the chance to suit up for two of the NFL’s most storied organizations,” Barber told Chicagobears.com.


"I want to thank everyone who helped me become a better player,” Barber said. “I owe a lot to a lot of coaches, and am also very grateful to the owners and organizations I played for. Last but not least, I want to thank the fans for the support and inspiration they gave me.”


For some reason I don't think this is the end for Barber. Injuries do happen and teams will be looking for a proven running back at some point. I'm sure his phone will be on during the season.

St. Paul Saints to have a bounty promotion

Minor league baseball teams are always cooking up some kind of comical gimmick and the St. Paul Saints are no stranger to it.

Their latest brainstorming session has resulted in the Saints coming up with a "bounties for big hits" promotion for their Sept. 1 game against the Wichita Wingnuts. It's clearly a shot at the New Orleans Saints and the "bountygate" scandal, but it's all in the name of charity so I do see some humor in it.


On Saturday, September 1, the one year anniversary of Minnesota’s youth concussion law going into effect, the St. Paul Saints will be gunning for the opposition and plan to PAY a TON of money for a worthy cause. For each bone crunching hit the Saints will collect a bounty and the bigger the hit, the larger the sum: a single is worth $100, a double $200, a triple $300 and a home run is worth $400. For every pitcher the Saints “knock-out” another $50 will be collected. Each time a Saints pitcher “punches out” an opposing hitter, $10 will be donated. At the end of the night all the money collected from the bounty system will be placed in a LOOMIS armored truck and taken to Children’s Hospitals and Clinics of Minnesota and donated to their new concussion research program.


The first 1,500 fans entering the game that night will receive a football helmet piggy bank with the Saints logo on one side (the S will be in the shape of a $) and the Children’s Hospitals and Clinics of Minnesota logo on the other. It should be a BREEZE for fans to fill it up with their own bounty and they can take the piggy bank to the Children’s (either the Minneapolis or St. Paul hospital locations) to donate the money to concussion research.


Since this is in the Twin Cities, the locals will have a good time with this one, since it might've been some of the Saints' (New Orleans) dirty play that made Brett Favre a bit gimpy and possibly ruined their shot a t a Super Bowl.

Mike Leach wants a 64 team college football playoff

Inevitably college football will be heading toward a playoff. All the talking heads have to agree upon is how many teams will in the derby. If it were up to Washington State coach Mike Leach he would have it just like the NCAA tournament and have 64 teams in a playoff.


"The minimum should be 16 teams,’’ he said. “I think 32 is better than 16, but I think 64 would be ideal," he started to explain to me, without taking a breath.


"You could cut the regular season down to 10 games, but guarantee everybody 12 games. In the end, the champion would play 16 games."


Don't bring up school workload to him as an argument. "That's a bunch of foolishness," he chided, in a nice, polite tone.


"Basketball players go to school, volleyball players go to school, baseball players go to school and they play a lot more games than football [players do]."


Although I do support a playoff, this is a little insane, but Leach always seemed to be in his own world anyway. I'm with him about the "school" part. The talking heads believe that it would take too much class time away from the "student-athelete". Everyone knows that's a load of bull.