T.W.I.S.T. for July 18-24

This week wasn’t  nearly as bad as last week, when we were forced to talk about baseball. Here’s the week in sports tomfoolery:

College Football

USC got what was coming to them this summer. The school cheated, or at least turned their backs on the cheating at hand, their way to the top, and now they’re paying for it. ESPN says, “USC is cleaning house in its tarnished athletic department, throwing out much of what got the school in severe NCAA trouble. Athletic director Mike Garrett and Reggie Bush’s Heisman Trophy are the first two items to go.”

Correct me if I’m wrong, but didn’t Bush have his biggest games against nobodies? Meanwhile, Vince Young had his biggest games on the biggest stages, and single handedly took down the big powerful USC team that Bush played for in the National Championship game. Vince Young should’ve won the the Heisman that year, that’s all there is to it.

The best line I’ve heard about this story was on twitter: “You know things are messed up when USC cuts ties with Reggie Bush, but they’re still all good with OJ Simpson” Now that’s a school that has it’s priorities straight!

Now that USC got their punishment, the NCAA is really cracking down on all the big dogs, as there are current investigations in Florida and Alabama, and Nick Saban is pissed about it!

More after the jump.

NFL

Relax Tennessee Titan fans, Chris Johnson has agreed to a restructured contract and will report to camp. There has been some tense moments leading up to this agreement,  and it was believed that Johnson was willing to sit out, needless to say, the Titans can’t afford NOT to give this guy whatever is necessary to get him on the field.

MMA

Dana White was able to swipe one of the best fighters from his competition as Jake Shields has signed a multi-fight deal with the UFC. Shields will debut as a welterweight against Martin Kampmann at UFC 121: Lesnar vs Velasquez.

NBA

Kevin Durant didn’t quite make the squad for the Redeem Team at the Beijing olympics, but it looks like he’ll be the face of the next team. I like Durant, he led the league in scoring this year, at the ripe old age of 21, he scored 25 or more points in 29 consecutive games — the longest such streak by any active NBA player. And when given the chance to get his big contract, he didn’t have an hour long special about his decision on ESPN like a certain someone, instead he announced his contract extension with the Thunder via his Twitter account. The league needs more guys like him, and I can definitely root for a Team USA with him at the core.

NHL

Ilya Kovalchuck received a ridiculous 17 year contract to stay with the New Jersey Devils, and then the league promptly rejected it. Valued over $100 million, if he had played the length of the contract, he would’ve become a free agent at the age of 44. In 17 years, my 4 month old son will be close to graduating high school… this is nuts. This is what ESPN had to say about it:

The contract was rejected because years of low salary at the end of the contract were added for the sole purpose of lowering the cap hit, a person familiar with the issues raised told The Associated Press. The person added that no side believes Kovalchuk will play the final years of the deal at those terms.

…”The person added…” I love how ESPN quotes ‘sources’ so often. People can practically just make up news these days and ESPN runs it as “A source says blah, blah blah…”

Misc

• Perhaps one of the most attractive athletes of all time, Jennie Finch is set to retire next month and bring an end to a 10-year career in which she helped the sport of women’s softball blossom in the United States. She’s one of the only reasons I’d ever consider watching women’s softball.
• Tiger Woods topped the list of the top 50 highest earning athletes this year, too bad he’s only going to keep half of it after the divorce settlement. The half that his wife gets would still make her #5 on the list.
• I’m kind of surprised by this, but Texas Longhorns journalists have proven this offseason that they are almost as bad, if not worse, then the actual Texas Longhorns school administrators and coaching staff. From the drivel made up by Chip Brown during the Big 12 shifts this summer, to this ridiculous article from Mike Blackwell… they’ve really got their heads shoved… well, it’s where the sun don’t shine, let’s say it that way. There are so many factual errors in that article, I don’t even know where to begin. But, that’s the way it goes in Texas I guess, facts aren’t important as long as you’re bigger and better than everybody else, at least in your own mind.