What's giving you a rash this week?
The out-of-control arrogance in professional sports today? The latest in labor? The price of a lousy stadium hotdog?
An overpaid player? An underhanded agent? An owner who would sell the carpet from underneath his own mother's feet for the right amount of PSLs and luxury boxes?
Where can you get off your chest something boiling inside your belly?
Right here. Right now. Buckshots, a weekly dish-it-out-and-duck feature, is designed to give you, the subscriber, a chance to take your best shot at Ray Buck, national columnist for SportsLine USA.
Agree or disagree, let 'er rip. Sign your name -- if you dare -- and tell us a little about yourself: age, city, state, occupation/student. Just remember, Buck has the last word.
E-mail your comments to buckshots@sportsline.com
E-mails over cocktails -- without any further monkeying around.
"First, we have to cater to every need of every ethnic minority on the whole planet. And now one guy fires a compliment toward a basketball player and all of the sudden he's a racist. C-R-A-P!
"If I were that same basketball player being call a "tough little monkey," nobody would have even batted an eyelash. But if I were anything other than a white male basketball player, then it becomes a controversy. This isn't about racism; this is about equality, issues, and headlines.
"The statement made by Billy Packer was nothing more than a description of well-placed attributes. If you want a whiner, you have to look no further then the player (Allen Iverson) being described!"
BUCKSHOT: The only thing well-placed by CBS basketball analyst Billy Packer was his foot in his mouth. He knew better. Or should have.
"As a black man, I know that a percentage of the white population is thinking what Packer stated anyway -- so why get up about it? We're a race-based society. That the majority of people are able to maintain their sensitivity and not say stupid crap most of the time is enough for me.
"Hell, nobody's perfect, and Packer would be served to call it a slip, apologize and move on. His indignant comment about 'feeling sorry' for the people he insulted was the final insult.
"Hey, Billy, you non-vertical (jumping), hair club for men needing, pink-skinned, bad suit wearing, Cro-Magnon faced moron. I feel sorry for you!"
BUCKSHOT: I think you forgot Billy P's table manners, Ronnie. He's one tough pig at the trough.
"What do you know? I'm white, and so is (Packer). This country has become so P.C. (politically correct) that you actually have to look into the effects words have before you use your freedom of speech.
"Certain words have no place at all in the world, and you know what they are. But all in all, they are just that -- WORDS. When a man says something that in his mind has no meaning, is it his fault that an overzealous activist finds a reason to further his or her agenda?
"No, I'm not a freedom of speech nut or a bigot in any way. Yes, it does anger me that I even have to state that. Think back throughout your life and tell me that you have never said or done something that you thought was harmless and someone else took exception to it. Think about that next time you want to jump on someone like Packer."
BUCKSHOT: Sure, we've all said some hurtful things from time to time. But personally, I try to avoid saying anything incendiary when performing my network TV duties.
"Those 'tough monkeys' at CBS just don't get it either! And Mr. Jesse Jackson, you are a fine example to criticize others after remarks you made a few years back about (Jewish people of) Gotham City."
BUCKSHOT: Everyone knows plenty about sensitivity these days. It's the sensibility that nobody knows about.
"And there's an issue that goes even deeper here. That is one that's really related to power. If I claim the right to decide what language is used to describe you, I'm also claiming a significant form of symbolic power over you. That's why it was so important to feminists that men refer to them as 'Ms.' rather than 'Miss' or 'Mrs.' and any man who refused to respect their wishes was, in effect, continuing to treat women as property. And that's why as an African-American, it's important to me that white Americans call me what I want to be called.
"Some years ago, I had an experience that opened my eyes on this subject. A male co-worker decided that he was really a female in the spiritual sense and started wearing women's clothing, growing long nails with polish, and taking hormones. He also started to insist that everyone address him as "Alice," which some staff members pointedly refused to do. I, personally, found his actions eccentric, if not neurotic.
"But I finally realized that regardless of my opinions, the choice of what name he would go by was his decision to make -- not mine. Henceforth, I called him/her Alice. In the same sense, it's also a person's right to decide what they don't want to be called. When I was younger, I called police wagons 'Paddy wagons' because that's what I'd always heard them. When I learned that the term originated from the stereotype of "drunken Irishmen" being carted off to the tank, I resolved not to use the term again. By the same token, if black people are offended by being called 'monkeys,' it's not Packer's place to defend his use of the term.
"What also astonishes me about the Packer situation is the pitiful job of damage control. I can't comprehend why the CBS flak didn't feed him something like the following statement: 'Anyone who has ever spent more than 10 minutes with me knows that I'm not a racist. However, I did make a comment, out of ignorance, that some people found offensive. I apologize and promise that it will NEVER happen again. People now know that Billy Packer isn't perfect.'"
BUCKSHOT: Forget the NBC peacock. CBS has become the Ostrich Network.
"It doesn't matter that it's 1996 and people are ultra-sensitive. That's their own problem, and television people like Mr. Packer don't need to tip-toe around every crying, whining super-sensitive person."
BUCKSHOT: Yes, Mr. Buck holds Mr. Packer responsible. Really! And while you're at it, Jared, buy a journalism lesson. Tip-toeing is not the opposite of making an unnecessary comment.
"Hell, (LA Lakers announcer) Chick Hearn never seems to be at a loss for words -- and the proper words, at that. If he can do it, so can Billy P."
BUCKSHOT: Packer is an excellent hoops analyst. He made a mistake, then made another one by not fessing up.
," writes
"Jolo" -- a very wise man and diehard UNLV basketball fan.
"Don't get me wrong, SportsLine has a great writing staff. It's just this one
particular article is what I was grazing on last night.
"It's actually really simplistic: Rick Pitino, right now, is scared. Mr. Superman with a ton of Kriptonite on his shoulders. Big mistake. The last thing you'd want is to lose your conference championship right before the Big Dance. Maybe two weeks ago? But on Sunday less than a week from the most exciting, stressful month of there lives?
"By no means am I a Kentucky basher, but the greatest college basketball team ever? I really don't understand the hype. The UNLV championship team, with, (Larry) Johnson, was light years better than this year's Kentucky Wildcats.
P.S. -- The crooked, evil, spiteful NCAA put us on probation or else we would've dominated for years. And no one wanted that."
BUCKSHOT: You're embarrassing me, Jobo. But now that you mention it ... yes, Pitino will find a way to lose this NCAA Tournament. (Maybe Tark can win the NIT with Fresno State for old time sake.)
," e-mails
John Gluesing, a 27-year-old systems analyst from Iowa City,
Iowa. "Tim Floyd from Iowa State and Penn State's coach (Jerry Dunn) are worthy
of just as many votes.
"Floyd lost 95 percent of his scoring from last year's team and still took the team to a higher conference finish and a higher seed in the NCAA Tourney. Penn State came out of nowhere to tie for second in the Big 10."
BUCKSHOT: Actually, Johnny G, a case can be made for Villanova's Steve Lappas, John Calipari of UMass, Floyd, Dunn and Keady. Anybody but Pitino!
"The only reason Strickland could act like this was because he could afford it. If he were making $27,000 per year (like a lot of other folks) he wouldn't have thought about walking out. He'd been thankful he had a job.
"Pro athletes seem to be living in a different dimension than the rest of us. Is their reality from the X-files? It is too bad that so many citizens are unable to understand the real issues about pro sports. We continue to make heroes out of these guys. If athletes were required to be responsible for their work performance like most of the rest of us are, would we see a change in the way sports operates.
"Strickland doesn't simply belong in the Whine Cellar -- he owns it!"
BUCKSHOT: Actually, I prefer renting it to him, Garry. He doesn't seem to mind throwing his money away.
BUCKSHOT: You are correct, Sir?
"What about rescinding Pete Rose's ban and electing him!!!!!!!!!!"
BUCKSHOT: Niekro and Sutton have to get in, eventually, Gene. As for Rose's rightful place in Cooperstown, you're reading my mind -- except I add a few more exclamation points.
"By the way, I kinda like Wake Forest and Kentucky to play for it all this year. Whadda you think?"
BUCKSHOT: I like Wake to do well in the NCAA Tournament. I also like Kentucky losing to UMass in the Final Four semis . . . with the Minutemen edging the Kansas Jayhawks for the national championship. No April Fools.