Darren Rovell can be a polarizing figure and has a pretty casual relationship with fact-checking. But he is the preeminent sports business reporter in the United States, and I've noticed something interesting since I have taken over the Sports Central Twitter feed (or more accurately, editorial control of the Sports Central Twitter feed), his tweets are just constant, and usually very interesting.
Indeed, he tweets an average of just over 40 times a day to his 786,000 followers. The tweets are largely not Rovell's opinion's; rather, just sort of "look at this interesting photo/news piece I found." So I guess I'm not really "deconstructing" here, but I wanted to comment on the more interesting things he's brought to the Twitterverse's attention lately.
https://twitter.com/darrenrovell/status/676818152244846592
An old "got milk?" ad featuring Joe Torre, Pat Riley, and ... Jeff Fisher. This was during Fisher's heyday as the long-tenured Tennessee coach but, seriously, how many NFL head coaches must've said no before they settled on Jeff Fisher? Riley and Torre have a gazillion championships between them. As a coach, Fisher has one: he was a 27-year-old defensive assistant on the '85 Bears. Since then, he's only had one other Super Bowl appearance, the famous just-a-yard-short loss to the Rams.
https://twitter.com/darrenrovell/status/676618951091224576
"Dolphins have a talented business team. Take tonight as a cue. Ditch new logo. Go back to old traditional unis," he says. So there's an opinion.
But, there is noooooo way they are ditching the new logo in just its third year. Longtime readers of my column know I'm a logo junkie, and I can't think of a team at any level that reverted to an old logo after just a few years of a new one. That would make the new logo, and all the merchandise that goes with it, a sunk cost. I'm surprised they even brought it back as a "retro night" thing so soon (if the Dolphins do another retro night, the players should wear the orange M helmet the dolphin used to wear).
But why should they, anyway? It's not like the Dolphins overhauled their logo, they just tweaked it. It's still a jumping dolphin with the sun as a backdrop. It's a heavy tweak, I'll grant Rovell, but it's not fundamentally different enough to make this an "timeless iconic" vs "crappy modernistic" argument.
As a side note, as a little kid looking at the Dolphins logo, I didn't realize that was the sun. I thought the dolphin was jumping through a hoop. Never mind that he covers the sun on both sides.
https://twitter.com/darrenrovell/status/676586559307513857
So, the Bucks are giving away the game ball they used to defeat the Golden State Warriors this weekend, and that's just awesome. I wish I could honestly claim Bucks fandom (and live in Wisconsin, a requirement for the prize) to try to get this. For one thing, the Bucks are essentially offering a fan $10,000, since that's how much the ball would go for at auction according to the ESPN article.
Second, it's got to be tough being a Milwaukee sports fan in general. Not only have neither the Bucks nor the Brewers won a championship in over 30 years, and their putative football team is two hours away, but they have to live in Chicago's sports shadow. So my hat is off to the Bucks, who not only are doing a giveaway like this one, but they successfully engender team spirit among their players.
https://twitter.com/darrenrovell/status/676560614425272320
"This will be the 11th consecutive year that Pete Rose has spent more than 180 days signing autographs at a store in Las Vegas."
Jesus Christ! Charlie Hustle, indeed! That was my first thought, anyway. My second was, how does he not get carpal tunnel syndrome?
My remaining thoughts on the matter are not so charitable. Why am I giving him credit for doing this a whopping 180+days a year? If you have a full time job and take three weeks vacation and six sick days every year, and get all weekends and holidays off, including the rarer ones like Good Friday, Columbus Day, and the day after Thanksgiving, you have still worked 227 days.
Second, Rose must be doing this regarding it as the world's easiest money. Sign, sign, sign all day, get paid. Don't have to think. I don't think Pete Rose likes to think.
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