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Friday Rundown: Shady Recruiting Practices In College Football? Get Outta Here!

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• Hardwood Paroxysm sat down with Dan Reed, the president of the D-League, for an interview that’s definitely worth checking out. I’ve always found the NBDL to be oddly compelling…not because of the actual competition in the league or because I watch any of the NBDL’s games, but because the D-League offers a seemingly endless line of players with extremely compelling stories. In fact, one of the more memorable sports television series I’ve watched in the past several years was called “Down Low: Life in the D-League.” It captured the strange position the young NBA hopefuls of the NBDL find themselves in — they’re playing in a lowly minor league, yet they’re still only one step away from the glory of the NBA.
• The 700 Level brings us the most disturbing thing I’ve read in quite some time — Charlie Manuel, the Phillies manager, discussed his first trip to Japan, and shared an account of receiving an invitation from his translator to “come take a bath.” Let’s just say that the story begins with Manuel relaxing in a large bath…and takes a rather abrupt turn, as Manuel finds himself surrounded by 50 nude Japanese prostitutes. No, I’m not making this up, and I’d suggest you move to the next bullet point now, as the scene of Manuel with tons of Japanese hookers is far too gross/sick/just plain wrong to even imagine.
• Bad news: Awful Announcing informs us that NFL Films is in financial trouble, as there have been significant employee reductions for the phenomenal production company. As a HUGE fan of NFL Films, I certainly hope it doesn’t end up getting axed — I absolutely love the “season in review” series they do for each team after every season, and as a kid, I used to watch the bloopers programs they made. Here’s hoping that NFL Films makes a speedy recovery from its financial woes.
• Brahsome reports some shocking news: Big-time college football programs use questionable tactics to land top recruits. In the article, you’ll find a picture of Clemson recruit Kenneth Page (a four-star offensive lineman) holding an enormous stack of $20 bills. The use of shady recruiting practices to woo players is surely an accepted part of college football, so the sight of a highly-regarded recruit holding a huge stack of cash isn’t terribly surprising. Indeed, the most surprising part of this story is that Page was dumb enough to post that picture on his MySpace.

This entry was posted on Friday, March 28th, 2008 at 9:34 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.