SO you tell me, where is the aloha in the Aloha Stadium practice of searching people to make sure they don't bring food or drinks into the Halawa rust bucket during Rainbow football games? Hold it, where are you
going with that cereal?I can understand curtailing the security risks involved when folks take in booze, get drunk and become destructive to those around them. No one wants to get hit with a bottle or can -- or some knucklehead's fist.
But people tell me they've seen the friendly folks at the gates refuse to let, say, a parent take in a small bag filled with cereal for his young child.
That's not minimizing trouble or maximizing profits from concessions, that's just flat out dumb-spirited crapola.
The stadium already rips off the University of Hawaii by charging it rent to play games there. I guess it's not enough to hijack people three bucks for parking, four bucks for a beer, a couple bucks for a hot dog and dictate that a swap meet of all things takes time preference over football games. They're gonna get your Cheerios, too.
The NBA season sure started with a bang, and I'm not talking about the Celtics beating Michael Jordan and the four airballs. I'm talking about Chuck and Shaq.
It was pretty funny to see the national media jump all over Charles Barkley telling them he was thinking about retiring. Gee. Again? I guess you really can fool most of the people all of the time. Barkley seems to yank most basketball writers around pretty good. First he was going to retire from the Suns. Then he claimed he was going to run for governor of Alabama. And everyone just lapped it up.
I wish Barkley would never retire. He's the most refreshing voice in sports. Want a straight opinion? Ask the guy a question. Can't handle the answer? Then don't ask another.
Shaquille O'Neal, on the other hand -- open hand, I assume -- is a different story. I'm not sure the guy ever says or does anything that's not scripted by his sponsors.
Makes me wonder if that slap he laid on Greg Ostertag of the Utah Jazz was brought to us by Pepsi or Reebok. Hey Shaq, whatcha gonna do before practice?
"Be young, have fun, drink Pepsi and slap the daylights out of some guy who got the best of me in the playoffs last year."
Shaq got a one-game suspension and a $10,000 fine for his altercation.
Cuff Greg Ostertag?
Why?
Shaq was already sitting out the game due to a strained abdominal muscle. If he really wanted to show some mettle, maybe he could play through something like that.
If he was so upset that he got Ostertagged last spring, wouldn't it be better to lay 40 points and 20 rebounds on the big white boy on opening night?
The Lakers won anyway. Elden Campbell sat out the game, too. Had "neck spasms." Either of the two highest paid players on that team could easily play the Tin Man if someone in their courtside seats ever decides to remake "The Wizard of Oz."
If anyone still doubts that Bill Parcells is the best coach in the NFL (Drew Bledsoe, perhaps?), heaven help him or her. Parcells took the New England Patriots to the Super Bowl last year, ditched them to take over the Jets and has taken the Jets to first place in the same division as the Patriots.
The Jets were a laughingstock last year. One win and 15 losses. Dissension. Sloppy play. You name it, they were awful.
In steps Parcells and they look like AFC East champs.
To paraphrase Bum Phillips, who once used the following lines to describe Don Shula:
"He can take his'n and beat your'n.
"And he can take your'n and beat his'n."
Not even Barkley could have said it better'n that.
