Smith cooked; Sooners win; Pujols ticked

Forget all the heroic talk coming from Broncos wide receiver Rod Smith about working to come back to play.

His hip is a disaster area, worse than originally thought after the surgeons found a mess.

Rod Smith is done as a pro football player.

Oh, he'll kill himself trying to make it back, as the man is a warrior, evidenced by his climb from nobody to star pass catcher and rugged blocker, but Smith is still human and his body is cooked.

Game over.

Smith is one of the amazing Broncos stories of all time and also a tremendous success period. In the end, father time or injury gets every player. This is Smith's sunset.

Sooners intimidate NCAA

When is OU going to rename the ground it plays on Rhett Bomar Field? Interesting announcement by the NCAA Wednesday, which loves to go dictator on member schools, making the Sooners cough up eight victories from the 2005 season for rules violations.

Like how does that truly affect a school for the worse?

Does a recruit in 2007 say, "man, no way I'm going there now!"

How you man up and punish a lawbreaker is hit him where it hurts -- you make OU sit home for three bowl seasons, even if they win big each year, or yank five scholarships for two years.

What the big, bad, fire-breathing NCAA did to OU was lose it's nerve when it came time to stand up and be taken seriously or not even show up.

Maybe the NCAA got weak in the knees in the moment because it realized it was picking on someone bigger than it. Easier to punk Outpost U. but not so easy to knock out a blue blood school.

Bad dreams

Would the Rockies dip into the pail of lessons unlearned and trade for Marlins lefty Dontrelle Willis, a 22-game winner in 2005 but now no better than a no. 3 pitcher (19-19 in his last 38 decisions)?

Sure, Colorado would beg to have an arm of that caliber but the question is -- at what cost?

Willis is expensive at the bank and the prospects that would leave the organization as payment would be too steep.

Bad idea all the way around.

Nixed!

Pujols has legitimate beef

St. Louis Cardinals star Albert Pujols was shocked he never played in the All-Star Game, especially considering the man who made that decision was Pujols' regular manager, Tony La Russa.

La Russa tried to play it off as strategy in the event the game went into extra innings

The dirt is Pujols is Pujols -- he should have played and he prepared himself to play. That he didn't was wrong but anyone who knows the Cardinals skipper knows that while he is a big-time winner he is also not adverse to running over people.

It seems stupid, it says here, to hack off your superstar player heading into the second half of the season.

Pujols was embarrassed. La Russa is the one who should be.

Playing king

Super agent Scott Boras is living his second childhood or either he believes Bud Selig died and made him commissioner.

First, Boras shares his idea on a best-of-nine World Series and now he is all amped up for how the Home Run Derby should be -- a neutral site in the off-season for prize money.

When it comes to squeezing every last dollar out of an owner for one of his players, Boras is tops but he's letting the perception of his power go to his head. He's delusional. Not saying he can't throw out ideas but to Major League Baseball's front office, Boras is just like you and me -- a fan who's vote doesn't count.

Boras just makes a little more lettuce than us and has a bigger imagination on the playground.

Smith getting bagged

Former CSU standout big man Jason Smith, drafted by Miami and traded to Philadelphia, apparently already has his pro critics, and it's only summer.

Apparently, it looks like Smith believes summer is for vacationing, not playing ball.

The assertion that Smith looks disinterested is inaccurate. He's trying to find his way with new teammates and against better competition. He'll be o.k.. To judge him as not caring is merely jumping to conclusions based on a small sample of evidence.

No fast forward necessary

Air Force is going to run a lot of no huddle this season. Now if we can only get some more teams to adopt that strategy. Yes, it takes direction to coordinate something good but how about doing that at the line of scrimmage and thus, create more plays too.

Mumbles

Alex Rodriguez should dump the Yankees. They want him, they want him not, now they want him again. Take the money and run, A-Rod, all the way to history.

Darko Milicic is reportedly getting $ 21 million for three years -- for being a draft bust. How much you make, amigos?

Matt Holliday and Brian Fuentes were the Rockies All-Star Game selections this season. How many more of those affairs will each play in and for what team?

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