Sport-Blog.com

Each year the sports world yields some great one liners, sentences that are humorous for a wide variety of reasons. Sometimes it is because they are so poignant, others time so prescient, still others because they are proven to be so blatantly false.

We begin with the last category, a quote by a man that I revere as a coach. It comes from Larry Brown. Says the NBA coaching Maverick, "I'm not going to coach anywhere but Detroit. It's my last pro coaching job." It would be a scant five months later that Brown would sign a contract to coach the New York Knicks.

Then of course there was the same type of line from a man many were just beginning to give due after years and years of strong hitting. The quote came from Rafael Palmiero at a congressional hearing. Said the slugger, "I have never used steroids. Period." A few months later, the Orioles hitter was suspended by Major League Baseball for a positive steroid test. By season's end, Baltimore had essentially told the slugger not to bother to come to work.

On the prescient side there is that of football's Terrell Owens. Said Owens, "No one gave me a chance in the world to play - except me," after playing in the Super Bowl despite being sidelined for three weeks. Unfortunately for Owens he ruined any chance of receiving credit for his hard work by proceeding to verbally trash the Philadelphia football organization.

Teammate Donovan McNabb responded with less prescient words. "With T.O., I think we can do a lot of great things. Without him, I still think we can do a lot of good things." Five months later, when Owens is thrown off the team for his antics, the Eagles' run of playoff appearances ends as the season falls apart.

In one of the more curious, there was Red Sox pitcher, David Wells, commenting on Kenny Rogers who got fined for physically abusing a TV cameraman. Said Wells, "I'm glad he did that. He needed to vent. I'm fine with it." Boston is trying their best to trade Wells back to the West Coast despite a strong season, perhaps statements such as these help solidify that trade decision.

On the poignant side, how about Dan Shannon of PETA, commenting after the news that baseball Hall of Famer, Wade Boggs, had been recognized by the Safari Club for having killed a lion, a leopard, a buffalo, a hippo, and a crocodile in Mozambique. "It takes a real 'chicken man' to shoot defenseless animals," said Shannon. Boggs was of course known for his game day superstitions that had him eating some form of chicken every day.

Perhaps more on the poignant side are the words of a child. After the Patriots released long time wide receiver Troy Brown because of salary cap restrictions, the Patriot was offered the chance to sign for better money with other teams. Brown would eventually resign with the Pats, perhaps in part due to the words of his son, Sir'mon Brown. "No, daddy, I want you to play for the Patriots."

The handsome Theo Epstein, who relishes his privacy had much to say about a request from Playboy to do an interview. Said Epstein, "Playboy wanted to do an interview with me. I turned it down. My buddies in the office were saying, 'You can't say no. What if they let you in the Playboy mansion?' So I told them, 'OK, I'll do it if you bring me and my 10 buddies from the office to the Playboy mansion and let us have a party there.'." We never heard if he got his wish but after failing to sign on with the Sox for 2006, the former general manager may get a great deal of privacy over the next year.

In the realm of the world that he just doesn't get it, the world that houses the likes of Terrell Owens and Ron Artest, we can now add Barry Bonds. As questions about steroid use erupt in spring training, Bonds tells reporters, "This is old stuff. It's like 'Sanford and Sons.' It's almost comical, basically. Are you guys jealous, upset, disappointed, what?" Many of course speculated that Bonds stayed off the field most of the season to fully cleanse his system from years of steroid use.

And again on the poignant side, there was former Red Sox first-baseman Doug Mientkiewicz, he of the World Series final out ball dispute. Said Mientkiewicz, now with the Mets, upon receipt of his World Series ring, "Mine's not made out of cubic zirconia, is it? Because of the World Series [ball] thing?"

And in the world of some form of reality, there was former Boston College linebacker and NFL All-Pro Bill Romanowski, confirming that he had indeed taken steroids in his career. Said Romanowski, "I pushed that envelope ethically and morally because if I could take something that would help me perform better and it wasn't on the list, I was going to take it." Romanowski proves a breath of fresh air and makes Barry Bonds look like a child behaving as he does.

And the President of the United States, as the New England Patriots were honored for the second straight year with a visit to the White House. Bush, the master of miss-steps got it right this time when he said simply, "Well, welcome back."