Random ramblings

I've been busy putting the El Dorado section of our football tab together. Ever try to fill 15 newspaper-sized pages on one high school team? It's not easy but, thankfully, it is finished. Perhaps I won't be leaving the office at three in the morning again for a few weeks. Since I've been focused on football, I've sort of skimmed the sports world recently. There were a few things that caught my attention ... briefly. 1. Okay, Johnny Manziel gets off with a 30-minute suspension (imposed by Texas A&M and not the NCAA) for selling his autograph? When it first happened, several media members expressed their outrage that the rule even existed. I found this odd. Low-income student athletes lose their eligibility when they exchange complimentary tickets for pizza money but a rich kid sells his autograph so he can buy rims for his Mercedes Benz and that's when the media says the rule stinks? 2. Whoever designed Victoria Azarenka's tennis dress for the U.S. Open should be whipped on the legs and buttocks with thorny branches. 3. Bret Bielema brought the Razorbacks' football program back to SEC-caliber. No, I know they're not a championship contender. But, the style is what I'm talking about. It's a lot more smash-mouthed than Bobby Petrino and a lot more high-flying than Houston Nutt. It's football and I don't care what the record ends up being, if the Hogs keep trying to run the ball and throw it smartly, I'll be happy. 4. WWE superstar Darren Young recently announced to the world that he was gay. I don't know if this is real or a wrestling stunt but Young, who lost nearly every match before his announcement, has won nearly every match since he said he was gay. I guess times have changed. The last time Vince McMahon had a gay wrestler, they made him wear pink trunks and a feather boa. 5. Speaking of ... San Antonio Silver Star (that's a WNBA team) Sophia Young recently announced she was for some sort of local legislation that was anti-gay. I don't know the details but the team's website, which I am a member, sent me an email saying they were changing the name of the site from Silver Star Nation as long as Miss Young was a member of the team. I don't know if she deserves credit or ridicule for taking such a public stance. Being anti-gay in the WNBA is like being a vegetarian in a butcher shop. Okay, that analogy was terrible. I'm sorry. I'm not at my best.