Sportsfrog.com

It is just about as bad as you can imagine for a town. The brief rundown:

1. King of the sports scene is Memphis Tigers basketball. Which is currently fighting the NCAA to retain the right to keep a banner flying from their choke against Kansas a few years back. And is dealing with the aftermath of John Calipari. And that’s the good part.

2. Memphis Grizzlies. Well. Yeah. Hasheem Thabeet broke his jaw on Zach Randolph’s head last night. Seriously.

3. Memphis Tigers football. Always the last in interest, in no small part because they generally suck. And even when they don’t (Deangelo Williams years), not enough of a vision to build on his competence.

It is that last part that has Memphis on the 24-hour sports cycles at the moment, as pieces of fired coach Tommy West’s rather on-point rant are getting air play from ESPN. West, among other items, told the Memphis administration to either support the program or give it up. And, he’s right. The Tigers have among the worst practice facilities in the country for an alleged big-time program and play in the off-campus crypt that is the Liberty Bowl. A few years back when some of the big money donors who actually care about the campus and the program came up with a reasonable plan for a genuine on-campus stadium of the appropriate size (35,000 – 40,000), the Memphis President and AD went out of their way to kill the idea. Why? I have no clue. Few do. Incompetence? Laziness?

At any rate, Memphis still retains RC Johnson as their AD. He was last seen fucking up the end of the John Calipari era, fucking up the handling of the NCAA investigation into Derrick Rose, bumbling through the hiring of Calipari’s replacement, is now tasked with replacing West and articulating a vision for the program. And he is woefully overmatched. Why? Incompetence? Laziness? The theme returns. Be that as it may, Johnson has provided one of the truly comical moments you could ever hope to get from a bumbling fool, after he followed West to the podium following West’s rant. I will let Geoff Calkins, Memphis Commercial Appeal columnist pick up the thread:

That’s right. West said Memphis should do away with the program rather than continue it as it has been. Wonder how that is going to play with potential candidates to replace him? Or with the guy who preceded him at the lectern? If West came out in favor of massive changes, RC Johnson seemed to prefer — you sitting down for this? — more of the same. He didn’t outline a larger vision for the program. He didn’t say he planned to change anything but the coach. “I shared with him I wanted our program to go in a different direction,” Johnson said. “What direction?” came the natural follow-up. “I don’t know if there’s a specific that I can give you,” he said. Is anyone out there surprised? Johnson didn’t say he had a plan to transform facilities. He didn’t say he understood Memphis would have to be much more aggressive in the coming years. He said, “I think this is a good situation.” Er, why? “I just think being in a populated area gives us a head start on some people,” he said. Riiight. Because big cities are known for their college football teams.

“We have a great airport,” Johnson continued.

Yes, indeed, he really said that. Coaches can’t take private planes to get recruits, see. So Memphis is going to put its dramatic airport-advantage to work. Let Tennessee and Ole Miss show recruits their indoor practice fields, massive scoreboards and on-campus stadiums. The new Memphis coach can show them Terminal B. “And if you come play at Memphis, young man, you, too can smoke cigarettes at Maggie O’Shea’s!” It was pathetic, honestly. It’s the reason West gave the speech he gave.

That’s just pure wonderful. The airport. It is the Memphis airport that makes the one of the worst jobs in college football attractive. And you know what’s even better? The Memphis airport sucks. Truly.

The incompetence and laziness from RC Johnson, it burns. It burns bad. At the least, the airport bizarreness has unleashed the funny in a lot of people. Peter Edmiston, co-host of the Memphis sportstalk morning show on 560 WHBQ had a series of tweets in the aftermath of that which were choice, including this:

During the toughest times in my life, there were only one set of footprints – because #memphisairport had been carrying me all along.

Heh.

As for Memphis football, Memphis basketball, Memphis “pro” basketball, well, beyond sad. A wasteland of despair and pain.