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New Year’s resolution and predictions
By GREG MOOREThe Kansas City Star
•Subway is going to go out of business. For some reason, Subway has decided to have Browns backup quarterback Brady Quinn endorse its sandwiches. Quinn completed only three more passes than I did this season. Decisions like this can doom a company.
Colts QB Peyton Manning has no need to worry about Quinn knocking him off the top of the mountain of endorsement money.
•Athletes are going to stop rapping. Instead of overwhelming fans with their underwhelming lyrical skills, this year more athletes are going to be like NBA players Tracy McGrady and Luol Deng, who have used their wealth and fame to draw attention to and try to improve the humanitarian crisis in Sudan’s Darfur region.
It is not mandatory for athletes to publicly support a social or political cause, and they should not be criticized if they choose not to publicly get involved in such matters. However, when athletes do choose to get behind an issue, they deserve to be praised and admired for their courage.
This is the year more ballplayers will recognize that — and act on it.
•Someone somewhere will watch a hockey game. However, that person won’t be a minority. To prove my point, who is Willie O’Ree?
According to NHL.com, the league has had a diversity task force since 1995. O’Ree, who is the Jackie Robinson of hockey if you didn’t know, is director of youth development for NHL Diversity. And NHL Diversity has programs in about 40 cities, but — also according to NHL.com — the league offers no financial support to these programs.
When it comes to success at anything, no finances equals slim chances. Somebody ask NHL commissioner Gary Bettman to cut this program a check.
•The And-1 Mix Tape stars basketball team won’t come to KC. I called the team out this summer. And if it comes back next summer, a squad of KC all-stars will run those guys out of the gym.
Our KC all-stars would be the foot, the And-1 Mix Tape stars would be the behind. But it doesn’t matter, they won’t come.
•Short shorts will not make a comeback. The Lakers wore old-school short shorts against the Celtics on Dec. 30. As a result, I know far more about Derek Fisher than I ever cared to.
And “Semi-Pro” is set to hit theaters Feb. 29. In the movie, Will Ferrell, Andre “Three-stacks” Benjamin and Woody Harrelson will be wearing hot pants.
This constitutes momentum. But John Stockton-esque shorts will remain a thing of the past. And we will all be better for it. Short shorts are proof that change is good.