Yes, that Marion Jones. The same Marion Jones who won five medals in the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney and then had to give them all back when she admitted that she had been using performance enhancing drugs. The same Marion Jones who served a six-month prison sentence for lying to federal agents during the BALCO steroids investigation.

Well, it turns out that in addition to being a really fast runner and a felon, Marion Jones is also quite the basketball player. In fact, she played point guard for the 1994 UNC National Championship team and she was drafted by the Phoenix Mercury back in 2003.

Now Jones is back and she will be playing basketball with the Tulsa Shock.

A shock indeed.

[photo: BBC Sport Online]

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But then the Eagles went and picked him as their team’s nominee for this year’s Ed Block Awards, named for the long-time head trainer for the Baltimore Colts who was also an advocate for abused children. Each NFL team designates a winner every year, who supposedly exemplifies sportsmanship and courage.

And when he got it he said that he deserved it because 95 percent of the people in the world have not had to endure the things he’s been through, seriously.

Vick was in Baltimore tonight receiving this award. A number of animal-rights activists showed up to protest. Security was supposedly heavy and the usual practice of guests meeting players and getting autographs was abandoned, which I think is actually one of the most unfortunate things about this.

Organizations like the Humane Society are saying nice things about Michael Vick now and he is working with them on dog fighting prevention activities. He says some words about himself like “humbled” but mostly my ears still hear a lot of self-congratulation, like while he was accepting this award, for instance:

I think I do exemplify what this award stands for. I think everybody has the right to their own opinion. But I feel like I’ve done everything that I said I would do, coming out and moving forward. My peers felt like I was doing the right thing, and that I display courage and sportsmanship and leadership. I value their opinion.

He feels he has done everything that he said he would do, in a year.

And whereas he may indeed be going around to community centers and schools talking to kids and trying to prevent young people from getting involved with dog-fighting and I can certainly think of worse things he could be doing with his time, he was essentially told to do it. It was a condition of his (highly-paid) employment.

And yet, I still can’t think about the things he did and was responsible for without wanting to cry. I will probably  never be able to. And if that makes me ridiculous I am ridiculous. I like to believe in redemption but I also believe in my intuition and what I hear when I listen to Vick talk is not true contrition. It is straight off of a script that is all about how awesome he is and let me tell you, I am not capable by any stretch of engaging in the behavior he signed off on and participated in, but I am capable of doing what I’m told to do within reason if it means I get paid and I stay out of trouble.

But it doesn’t mean I wanted to do it. It doesn’t mean my heart was in it. It certainly doesn’t mean it was courageous.

I suppose it could take courage to walk out onto a field or onto a stage at a press conference when millions of people know about some horrific things you did and are standing there judging you for it, but all things considered, Vick’s return to football was rather warm and fuzzy. And I wonder when picking up the pieces of your poor choices and being allowed to go back to your job as a professional athlete and celebrity on a national stage and doing some of the community service you were basically required to do to save face – and your job – became courageous.

Courage is a big word, or at least, to me, it means big things. And when it comes to this supposedly redeemed Michael Vick I don’t know if it’s that I haven’t looked at the object in the mirror long enough for it to get clear enough or if it’s still too far away.

I don’t have to spend my time or energy hating this man, because that’s just not my thing. I can leave him to himself and the Philadelphia Eagles and the NFL to their choice to re-hire him. But I also don’t think I’m interested in congratulating him for much either, maybe ever, not when there are other people to congratulate who never killed dogs, and who maybe wouldn’t be so quick to acknowledge their own courage in the aftermath of this repulsive behavior.

And it’s really curious to me that so many people are so quickly interested in this kind of congratulating, that’s all.

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This year the Cubs are under new ownership. They are no longer owned by the Tribune Company and are now owned by the Ricketts family. And to commemorate that, they have started a marketing campaign across the City called “Year 1”.

The idea of the campaign is to let us fans know that the new ownership is focused on winning and bringing the World Series (and championship) to Wrigley Field. That, from this point forward, it is a new era.

Well, as a Cubs fan, and a marketing person, I think that it is all well and good. It is a catchy campaign. But this is the CUBS we are talking about. The lovable losers. It has been over 100 years since they have won a championship. New marketing campaigns aren’t going to win us any games.

The Cubs don’t really need to woo fans. We have Wrigley Field. The games sell out every day in the summer, regardless of how the team is doing. People go for the atmosphere. Our season ticket waiting list is like 40,000 people deep. I know. I’m like number 28,837 on the list, and I signed up over three years ago. They have continually raised ticket prices every year and yet, it doesn’t matter. They are never hurting for revenue. We are a sports town with a drinking problem!

My question is, though, what happens next year? Or what happens in Year 17? Are we going to keep this up until we win a championship? How silly are you going to look when you don’t win the World Series this year? And what about the last 100-plus years the team has been in existence? Those years, which included some great teams and Hall of Famers, mean nothing? Isn’t that a knock to the storied history of this franchise? Aren’t you basically saying that everything that happened before this year is crap?

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I haven’t won 71 anything in a row, ever, excluding managing to get out of bed 71 days in a row which I have to admit is sometimes a little iffy. Have you?

The Huskies have won every game – every game – since March 11, 2003, by double-digits – specifically an average of 32.5 points. Melanie Jackson at ESPN listed some of the most memorable games in the streak.

Coach Geno Auriemma says it’s good for their sport.

“You know, there’s people talking about women’s basketball now that wouldn’t be talking about it this time of year because of what we’re doing,’’ he said. “We have a way here at Connecticut of making everybody around the country talk about women’s basketball. We’ve been known to do that for a long time.’’

Auriemma keeps the Huskies, including star players Tina Charles and Maya Moore, focused on the championship, downplaying the milestone celebrations. I guess this is understandable, because what happens when you finally lose, if you ever do? Who wants to think about that?

They certainly don’t, but I’m sure the team that hopes to beat them does. Congratulate these players in the meantime. They may not be allowed to celebrate, but even this Maryland fan will give them a round of applause today.

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Ron Artest has lost a bet, his mind or both.

[photos via The Big Lead]

Our baby doesn’t play any sports right now, unless you consider peeing for distance a sport. I haven’t seen any sports all week other than the eight-dollar Cavaliers game I watched while we were in the hospital. (Yes, “non-basic” TV was eight dollars a day in the hospital room.) And I only kind of watched it whilst in the haze of new parenthood.

Oh, I did hear that Zydrunas Ilgauskas will rejoin the Cavs after having been traded last month at the deadline. “Z” was/is the longest-tenured Cavalier. And I never noticed it before but he kind of looks like a baby – a giant, Lithuanian baby. Amazing.

Please don’t mention that to my wife for at least another three months.

I haven’t read any news stories, seen any blogs or heard any sports talk radio. As a matter of fact, I haven’t really thought about sports at all, other than to contemplate which professional sport our sure-to-be super baby will pursue. And whether Brett Favre will retire! I can’t take the suspense! When will we know?

So, I fear I don’t have much to add to the conversation this week.  Hopefully once we’ve adjusted a little more to our new bundle of joy I will be able to sit down and, you know, watch a sporting event. Until then I’ll have to be content with long-distance peeing, infant division.

Jake Delhomme was released from the Panthers today. There were tears shed and hands wrung by General Manager Matt Hurney and John Fox when they faced the press this morning.

Hurney  got choked up during the press conference, saying it was the hardest decision he’s ever had to make. I seriously doubt it was the hardest, but it’s a good sound byte for the press.

“It’s really hard to describe how hard this was,” he said. “It’s hard not to get emotional when you talk about it because he epitomizes everything we want. He’s been an excellent player for us.”

It’s hard to let a good guy go, especially when there is all that money to think about.

We all know that Delhomme had a rough season last year. I mean come on, there was interception after interception after interception. If he were to stick around for next season, there would be a tremendous amount of pressure. I don’t know if anyone deserves that. Oh wait, he’s getting paid millions of dollars to do his job. Yes, he deserves it.

Coach John Fox said: “He’s done some great things for this team. Two (NFC) championship games, a Super Bowl, all those comeback victories. I’m not sure I’ve had any more respect for an NFL football player than Jake Delhomme.”

Yet they are still letting him go.

Delhomme was, according to his teammates, a great team leader. Left tackle Jordon Gross said, “It’s tough. As a friend and a teammate he was always someone you could count on and did things the right way and was a leader and a family man. I’m glad to have him in my life and it’s hard when you learn that he’s not going to be around anymore.”

It almost makes me feel bad for the guy. Except of course for that $12.5 million left on his contract that he’s guaranteed.

Replacement Matt Moore took over for Delhomme in Week 13 last season and ended with a 4-1 record. Michael Vick and Donovan McNabb have been suggested additions to the roster for depth on the bench.

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Ashton Gibbs

I thought last night’s game against Providence was over. Brad Wanamaker was unable to secure the tie-breaking shot and then fouled. After they were able to pull ahead by 1 with 3.5 seconds to go, I left the room in disgust. I was in the kitchen when I heard my husband yelp, “HUH HO! OH MY GOD!” I ran back in asking what happened and he could only answer, “GIBBS!”

I watched the replay in disbelief. Gibbs took the ball, made several inhumanly long strides to just past mid-court, and just milliseconds before time ran out, drained a 3-pointer that seemed to come directly from heaven.

The win secured them a double-bye in the Big East tournament and maintained their chance to be seeded #2. They also vindicated themselves against Providence, who beat Pitt last season. Awesome game and incredible fodder for the highlight reel. Video of the amazing moment is here.

Seriously? Didn’t anyone tell the state legislators that it’s 1990? How could they let this happen? How could they sit and let this disparity in their state university system exist? Easy, explained my car companion, “They blame the alumni, claiming Grambling alums don’t donate to their school while Tech alumni donate big bucks for upkeep.”  As we drove the highway home to Shreveport/Bossier-passing the  David Duke campaign billboards along the roadside, I felt as if our car had become a time machine and it was quite possible these two universities were stuck in 1901.

I was therefore floored when I found out that Louisiana legislators supported the opening of the Eddie G. Robinson Museum right on the campus of GSU and approved an unprecedented  3.3 million dollars be allocated to make the museum a state project.  And the museum opened only three years after Eddie Robinson passed away. That’s fast in Louisiana, and especially fast for Grambling.

Those of us who graduated from GSU understand the college began as the North Louisiana Agricultural and Industrial School and boasted 500 students. Though it enrolls 10,000 students presently, when I was there in the early nineties it still operated as if it only had about 500 students. Nothing moved quickly, almost everything on campus was still completed face to face, not electronically.  I remember when I was getting my paperwork together to graduate, I had to wait three hours for a staff member to return from lunch to sign off that I had never lived in the dorm because “She’s the only one who signs that paper.”  I’ll admit, when I first arrived on campus this kind of thing drove me crazy, but after being a Grambling student, I just learned to bring along a book.

But this type of educational experience was pure Grambling. Despite the slow pace and the low tech operation my professors cared about me in ways I couldn’t imagine at any other university, even calling me at home to check on me when I was sick and missed class!  On the day of my graduation the Grambling Marching Band circled around all of the graduates and played a special performance just for us.  This send- off put into motion the school motto “Where everybody is somebody” and encouraged us all to “Go and be that somebody we’ve cultivated, march to your beat, have integrity and represent!”  Coach Rob lived and breathed this message to his players.

Eddie Robinson played it that way too, only his instrument was his 57-year coaching career at Grambling. While he was most famous for his football record of 408 wins, he initially began his career at Grambling coaching men’s and women’s basketball. At least 200 of the football players Robinson coached during his tenure went on to the  NFL.  Coach Rob, as he was known on campus, was a different breed of coach. He not only cared about how his players performed on the field, he was invested in seeing them succeed academically. Eighty percent of his players went on to graduate from college, and he promised parents their sons would come out of Grambling and be productive young men.  Coach Rob could have gone on to be an NFL coach, but he chose to remain at Grambling. He is oft quoted as saying, “I have one wife and one job.”

And now he has one helluva history and a museum to house it.

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Barncastle left the game with a broken nose.

See?

It would appear that women are totally ready to play in the NBA.