Mob Takes a Pass on Rigging Open

What a week in sports! The Open Championship at Carnoustie gave us all the drama we could ever wish for. Tiger lurking, but never quite challenging. A host of major winners on the leaderboard trying to chase down Sergio Garcia. Carnoustie playing “tough but fair” in the words of Woods.
As a sports fan you couldn’t leave your seat for the last two hours of the event, unless you use your Tivo.
And then as you switched your TV from the Golf Channel or ABC to ESPN for more sports news…
“From the NBA, it was revealed that a federal investigation has revealed and indicted a veteran referee for “fixing” games with dubious calls to influence the point spread. Mob influence is feared.” Great. We always suspected more than a little that NBA games were rigged in some form or fashion, now the proof is before our eyes. How does the NBA ever gain back its credibility, which has been in short supply anyway?
On the to the NFL, where the arrest of Michael Vick, the talented QB for the Atlanta Falcons is now under an 18 count indictment. The crime? Running a dog fighting ring! You would think that a guy making millions in dollars to play football, and a very recognizable athlete would figure out that this wasn’t a very good idea, and yeah, someone might oh, I don’t know, blackmail him, put a picture on YouTube? What was he thinking.

Which brings me back to the Open. Did Paddy take a flyer to junk that ball in Barry’s Burn, not once but twice and had a little money on Sergio? And what about Sergio? HE said in the post game interview, that he was “playing more than the field.” What did he mean? Did he have a Cleaner hanging around in the locker room? He sure got awful miffed at those rake guys on 18 during regulation. Perhaps they had a quid or two in their pocket to drive Sergio batty. And that Argentinian kid, Romero, what about him? He didn’t need to shank that shot out of bounds. Perhaps he had a wager down since he knew he wouldn’t win anyway and didn’t want to spoil the party?

No, none of that. In golf you have guys play their guts out with the whole world watching every move in slow motion. And the tears are real.