Awwww, Little T Melted Michael Wilbon's Cold, Cold Heart

What can I say? It must be the magic of the holiday season. Michael Wilbon, known Terrell Owens hater, endured a whole segment on PTI yesterday without saying anything negative about T.O. What sparked this glorious occasion? Well, Terrell Owens has written a children's book, Little T Learns to Share (T.O.'s Time Outs). And Wilbon had nothing snarky to say about it. In fact, he praised T.O. for advocating literacy. And he noted how intelligent and polite Owens is on a personal level. The therapy is paying off! Wilbon openly questions why he hates T.O. so much and it's great that Mike is man enough to address his issues. And on a day when the other major stories were Bobby Knight getting physical with a player and Randy Moss whining about how his unhappiness correlates with his lack of productivity, I presume Wilbon was considering Terrell Owens with a little bit of perspective. Kudos, Michael Wilbon. Pay it forward. Many of your colleagues at the Worldwide Leader could learn from your example.

Bobby Knight Pushes Chins? Who Cares?!

Bobby Knight engaged in the chin pushing, chin slapping, chin tugging or some other nonsense of Texas Tech player Michael Prince on Monday night. Neither, Knight, Prince or Prince's parents understand what the big deal is, but, of course, the media is jumping at the opportunity to chastise Knight for his "abuse." Whatever... Everybody criticizing him are the same people who won't sign permission slips for their kids to play dodge ball in school. Most coaches are assholes. What difference does it make if it make whether it's Mike Krzyzewski cursing a guy out or Bobby Knight tugging on guys' chins? Not much. It's all technically abuse. Sometimes so-called "abuse" has a beneficial effect on a person. The players and the parents know what their getting into. It's their choice. It doesn't deserve more scrutiny than that.

Too bad ESPN and the like don't pay too much attention when Knight does something good, like when Knight recently suspended his best player for not meeting the team's academic standards. It's unfortunate when they fail to highlight when Knight is one of the few to value the importance of being a student athlete, and when they fail to see that he is making his best attempt to mold men.