Burnsy was live in Tucson once again, and once again we were joined by a member of the Arizona Diamondbacks: starting pitcher Dan Haren.  Haren will be on the mound tomorrow in Goodyear, but will not be on the mound in the WBC this spring.  It’s not from a lack of offers, in fact he got an intriguing one from Team Mexico.  Haren, for those who don’t know, is part Mexican.  In the end, though, Haren says the WBC takes a heavier toll on starting pitchers, and he could not justify wearing down in August or September due to this early action.  Actually, wearing down has been a persistent criticism/outcome for Haren, and this offseason he started throwing later in the year to avoid a similar fate.  Haren, of course, also hopes the D-backs avoid a similar fate to the one in 08’.  He believes that they will, and also believes that Manny will be re-joining the Dodgers sometime soon.

Speaking of Manny- Burnsy sees some parallels between the Manny-Dodgers situation and the Warner-Cardinals contract talks.  Warner, who is set to become a free-agent on Friday, is negotiating with the one team that can offer him the most (in every sense), and the Cardinals cannot afford the ghosts of 98’ to return by allowing their franchise QB to walk.  In the end, Burnsy does not think that Warner will.  This despite some tough talk from Warner’s agent.  Sounds familiar, doesn’t it Dodgers fan?

Eddie Johnson also joined Burnsy to discuss the Suns dire situation.  Dire as in the team is beat up, and about to play the following schedule (omitting Toronto, of course):

At LAL

LAL

At Orlando

At Miami

At Houston

At San Antonio

Dallas

Cleveland

I can hear the lottery balls ringing…

 

 Dan Haren [12:39m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (23)

 

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You’ve heard of the “rebound” girlfriend?  Terry Porter was the “rebound” coach.  It was never going to last.

You know what I’m talking about (at least, I hope you do…maybe you’re one of those guys who married your high school sweetheart 25 years ago).  You’re in a committed long term relationship with a woman.  But…it ends suddenly.  Painful divorce, nasty break-up, whatever.

The next person you go out with is the “rebound” girlfriend.  She could be the sweetest, nicest, sexiest gal in the world but because she is just so different from the woman you just spent all that time with, you have a hard time adjusting to her and so does everybody you know.  The success rate of a relationship with the “rebound” girlfriend is what, like 2%?  Everybody knows the “rebound” girlfriend doesn’t work.

So there you go, Terry Porter was the “rebound” coach.  Everyone was in love with Mike D’Antoni.  He was likeable, fun, entertaining and loose.  His basketball teams had quality (they won) and quantity (high level of entertainment every single night).  Following the breakup – and you can blame it on whoever you want – nobody could embrace what Terry Porter was about.  Players, fans, media…nobody.   That was Porter’s biggest problem; he wasn’t Mike D’Antoni.

But don’t you for a second think that because Porter is gone the problem is solved.  Oh, if it were only that simple.  Steve Kerr had an entire month (the time from D’Antoni’s departure to Porter’s arrival) to find the next coach.  His hand picked successor lasted three months.  The fact that Porter lasted only 51 games, to me, is far more a reflection of Kerr than Porter.

Is there a plan?  A sense of direction?  Are they up tempo or slow it down?  Are things going through Shaq?  Amare?  Nash?  How about all those draft picks from the last couple of years – the ones you decided not to sell off – how are those players working out for you?

Do you get the sense the Suns are just winging it right now and have been ever since the Shaq trade?  The day they made that deal they lost their identity.  They’ve been stumbling around in the dark ever since, trying to figure out who they are.

The last time I had this little faith in the future of this team was when they signed Stephon Marbury to a huge contract extension then traded him just a few months later.  By then they had already fired Frank Johnson and promoted D’Antoni.  It made you want to grab Bryan Colangelo by the lapels and yell  “do you have any friggin’ clue what you’re doing?”  Turns out…they did.  They won 62 games the next year after getting Nash.

But until Kerr does something…anything to make me believe he can pull the same kind of a rabbit out of the same kind of a hat, I won’t believe it.  There just isn’t any evidence to support it.

I feel like a twister just tore through the sports department and left the whole place in shambles.  Two bombshells went off within about an hour of each other.

And we went from “I can’t believe he said that” to “I can’t believe they did that”.

Let’s start with the most recent big boom….the I-can’t-believe-they-did-that move of the day.  The Cardinals fired Defensive Coordinator Clancy Pendergast.  On the same day their Offensive Coordinator Todd Haley accepted the job as Head Coach in Kansas City.  So five days removed from losing Super Bowl 43, the Cardinals have now removed, or have had removed, both of their top assistant coaches.

Had the Cardinals season ended when most thought it would – after a first round loss to Atlanta – this move would have not surprised a soul.  The defense was awful the last month of the season.  Under performing, under motivated, and under heavy fire.

But they played at a level that few, if any, thought was possible in the playoffs.  While most praised Pendergast for the work done during the postseason, in some ways wasn’t that an indictment of Pendergast?  Where was that effort during the final month of the season?  They were clearly capable of it, they proved it during the playoffs, but got complacent and shut it down in December.

Plus, I have to think the Haley departure had something to do with this.  He’s looking to build a staff now that he’s the Chief in Kansas City.  I bet that there was someone he had in mind for his Defensive Coordinators position and the Cardinals were worried he was going to steal that guy from them.  Perhaps somebody who is already on the Cardinals defensive coaching staff?

We go from the I-can’t-believe-they-did-that to the I-can’t-believe-he-just-said-that bombshell of the day.

Did Amare Stoudamire really say this?

“Me being the All-Star….one of the leaders, you know, so, I think half the time it’s pretty much on me.   But I’m not a Captain.  So you can’t put too much of the blame on me.  It’s not my job to rally the troops and get everybody on board.  It’s the Captain’s job to do that.”

He did, just listen to it right here.

Steve Nash and Grant Hill are the “captains” of the Suns.

Calling out the captains?  Passing responsibility to others like it’s some kind of toxic waste dump that you don’t want in your backyard?  I thought he wanted to be the man.  Thought this was supposed to be his team.  I thought the Shaq trade was supposed to liberate him and motivate him.  And now I hear….it’s not my job?

Let’s be honest.  Nash hasn’t had his best year and he clearly misses Mike D’antoni.  And I’ve come to question just how motivated he is.  But you don’t see him dropping these not-so-subtle references in public about who is to blame and who is not.

And you don’t hear him saying…..it’s not my job.

Amare is either incredibly bright (by doing this now he’s trying to create a locker room dynamic that forces the Suns to trade him or Nash).  Or he’s incredibly dim (by not realizing that what he said, when he said it, would cause a stir).

Either way, is this the young superstar you want leading your team?

To all of you out there who treat Letter Of Intent Day like it’s some kind of national holiday, or worse still, one of the Holy Days of Sports…I laugh.

I hate LOI day

LOI day to me is like all the paperwork you sign when you buy a house.  Totally necessary, very important and so boring.  Just give me the keys already.

Of course the process of restocking your college football team is important.  I get that.

Oh, but these national ranking services (run by guys who live in their parents basement), projecting who won and who lost.  Who did well and who didn’t.  And the fans running around thumping their chest because their coach landed some highly sought after 18-year-old.

Last time I checked, half the 18-year-olds I come across can’t get my order right at In-N-Out Burger.

This time of year fans will say “(insert team here) got 10 Super Prep All-Americans, yea team!”  But unless you as a fan have spent the last two months breaking down all the tape of these 10 Super Prep All-Americans, what do you really know about them?

Jack Squat, that’s what.  You know what they tell you and all they tell you is the good stuff.

Take ASU for example.  This linebacker Vontaze Burfict.  Everyone says he’s all that.  I guess he has some kind of special You Tube video that shows him blowing up a bunch of 17-year-old kids.  You know, where the playing field isn’t level and he is a man among boys.  Is that an indicator of success?  Of the smarts it takes to play college football at the highest level?  Of being able to grasp the concepts the defensive coordinator preaches?  Will he stay out of trouble?

Think of it in terms of Major League Baseball.  How many can’t-miss-prospects….miss?  A whole bunch that’s how many. And LOI day is the same way.

It’s important to get good talent.  I get that.  And certainly the premier programs do well for themselves by getting as much of it as they can, knowing full well that some of the kids will work out and some won’t.

But blow-out-the-budget coverage dedicated to a day for which the results won’t be known for literally two years?

And don’t compare it to the NFL Draft either.  With the draft, I can watch a college kid play five times a year if I want and get an idea of whether he’s any good or not.

And one more thing;  I don’t think there is anything in sports I hate more than the cocky-18-year-old-who-has-three-different-college-football-caps-in-front-of-him-which-one-will-he-choose press conference.

Just what we need, empowering a bunch of kids to think the world revolves around them

Maybe it will happen when I wake up on Monday. Maybe it will happen in a day or two. Or a week or two.

At some point I expect to appreciate the greatness that I saw on Sunday night. I expect to appreciate what a great year, what a great postseason and what a great Super Bowl it was. I’ll be proud of the way the Arizona Cardinals fought back and were this close.

Or maybe…….I won’t. Maybe this will haunt me in the way John Paxson’s three pointer against the Suns still haunts me to this day. The way Joe Germaine’s touchdown pass to David Boston haunts ASU football fans.

After all, the Arizona Cardinals were 2 minutes and 37 seconds away from winning the Super Bowl. How often are you going to get to say that in your life?

So right now, I just don’t know. I could go either way.

After a game of this magnitude, and this emotion, it’s difficult to put it into perspective. There are a jumble of thoughts going through my head. In no particular order, I’m thinking about:

• 11 penalties for 106 yards. What a sloppy, undisciplined mess.

• The James Harrison touchdown at the end of the first half. Why they didn’t throw a jump ball to Larry Fitzgerald. Why no one, not one Cardinal, could tackle him before he went end zone to end zone.

• The greatness of Larry Fitzgerald and his six catches for 115 yards in the 4th quarter alone. The records he smashed in these playoffs. How there was just too much time on the clock when he scored.

• That catch by Santonio Holmes. Was it better than David Tyree’s a year ago?

• How I underestimated Ben Roesthisberger. He is amazing, but only when he absolutely has to be.

• The future of Kurt Warner. He committed to nothing after the game. The future of the Arizona Cardinals. Let’s be honest. It’s murky. They’ve got issues to address (Anquan Boldin, Warner, Karlos Dansby, Darnell Dockett, Todd Haley)

• Two possessions for the Cardinals in the second quarter, one started at the Steelers 43, the other started at the Steelers 34. The Cardinals got points from neither.

• It would’ve been the biggest comeback in the history of the Super Bowl.

And I guess that’s the one I keep coming back to. They were down 20-7 going into the fourth quarter against one of the best defenses in recent memory. And they didn’t stop, didn’t quit, kept fighting, kept playing. NBC flashed a graphic that put it all into perspective. Since 1988, when leading by 11 points ore more, the Steelers were 142-1-1 in the regular season, and 10-0 in the postseason. And yet, they were 2:37 away from changing all that. They showed toughness that they never displayed before.

They just couldn’t finish it.

In the context of a 60 minute football game, the Cardinals failed when they could have succeeded. Lost a game they should have won. Can’t celebrate that. Won’t. The whole thing makes my stomach turn just thinking about it.

But if you view the game the context of a 20 plus year history, this postseason has been a gift. Four games that redefined how an entire community – how an entire league – views the Cardinals. A huge success.

I just don’t know how long it’s going to take for me to actually believe that.