EARLY HYPE: Redskins fans and flacks are eager to portray their team’s opener against the defending Super Bowl champions as a charge up San Juan Hill. As if the Giants are a juggernaut and weren’t just 10-6 – only one game better than the Skins – going into the playoffs.
Add Skins Look at it this way: Would you rather have your team open against this year’s Super Bowl winner or the Super Bowl-losing Patriots?
Like father If pro football were horse racing, where bloodlines are everything, Virginia’s Chris Long would be the first player taken in the NFL draft. He might still be.
Hoops du jour Don’t want to hear the word “upset” used in connection with the NBA’s Western Conference playoff results. C’mon. Some of the teams came into the postseason separated by only a game or two.
Trash talk Mavericks owner Mark Cuban, on why he’s voting against the Seattle SuperSonics moving to Oklahoma City: “My prejudice is against having a Dust Bowl division.”
Survivor Only one problem with the Spurs-Suns series: One of them will be eliminated after the first round.
Add playoffs It won’t help the TV ratings, either, if Le-Bron James is sent home early. You couldn’t prove it by Saturday’s game, but I think the Wizards have what it takes to do it.
Numbers game Seeing as how Miguel Tejada remains the subject of a federal perjury investigation dealing with steroids, it’s kind of hard for me to get worked up over the discovery that he lied about his age. I mean, it’s not as if he tried to tell us that he had been dodging sniper fire.
Must-see Whenever Boston’s Manny Ramirez is at the plate, I put down the remote and watch. Ramirez with a bat in his hand is the best show in baseball.
No love lost After Ramirez hit two home runs Thursday night at Yankee Stadium, Kyle Farnsworth threw a 97-mph fastball behind Manny’s neck. Good way to put somebody in the hospital. Ramirez seemed to take it in stride but, after the game, a prickly sounding Derek Jeter said, “I get hit all the time. Getting hit hurts. Close doesn’t hurt.”
Bottom line Alex Rodriguez is pulling in $28 million in salary this season. That’s about $6 million more than the Florida Marlins are paying their entire roster.
Word abuse It’s OK with me if Yankees president Randy Levine wants to describe a construction worker who liberated the David Ortiz jersey from underneath the new Yankee Stadium as “heroic.” I just hope he wasn’t within earshot of a New York City firefighter.
Name dropping Lefty Driesell, still feeling the good vibes of Davidson’s NCAA tournament run, told me the other day that he thinks no other college player was more valuable to his team than Stephen Curry. I’m inclined to agree.
Absent With Tiger Woods out four to six weeks after knee surgery, this is a good time for other PGA pros to make hay – and for golf’s TV audience to take up gardening.
Say what? “I’m looking to leave a legacy at UCLA,” Kevin Love said as he went out the door last week. A single-season legacy? Even in our microwave society, that’s a stretch.
Bob Molinaro, (757) 446-2373, bob.molinaro@pilotonline.com