SPORTS FOLDEROL

  Wow!  CURT CIGNETTI  made quite a first impression as new  football coach at Indiana U. All bad … The former James Madison U.,  boss apparently didn’t kiss up to reporters … and immediately became  the subject of a scathing column after he apparently became .. ahh,  impatient at a press conference. How dare he?  We don’t know Cignetti, nor do we know what prompted him to be so  snarky so soon … but we do know he was spoiled in Virginia … and  shouldn’t expect such a fawning media anywhere else … What  Cignetti, 61, needs is a  BOB HAMMEL , IU  houseman/sportswriter,  who treated  BOBBY KNIGHT  like he could  do no wrong. In Bloomington they’re writing Cignetti is “a villain in Harrisonburg”  for flipping five high school players who committed to JMU … Might  be a good idea he stays away – permanently – after announcing  Sunday seven more Dukes would follow him (making it nine and still...

 

  Sticking the old, old neck way, way out … but it says here you can forget the over-priced ($2.2 BILLION) plan to move the NHL Capitals and NBA Wizards from D.C., to a new home base in Alexandria. Ain’t gonna happen. Surely state lawmakers will recognize the folly of the whole thing. Sorry, governor. Nice try … but it WILL cost tax payers a lot … and few of Virginia’s roughly 5.5 million care about either team much less attend their games. To call the woeful Wizards “big league” is a stretch of major proportions … If  TED LEONSIS  must move the hockey team, why not to the 17,000-seat arena expected to be built in Henrico County by 2026? That would be two years before re-location anywhere can happen (according to The Washington Post) … I know, I know … it sounds silly to expect hockey to succeed here on any level, much less the highest, after six previous failures …. yet, stranger things have happened. All it takes is someone (someones?) with deep, DEEP pockets, hockey ex...

  Stop the presses! “The World’s Greatest Soccer Coach” is back. Major  League Soccer commissioner  Don Garber  reinstated  Bruce Arena ,  and he’s been talking to D.C. United (where his pro coaching career  began in 1996). You will recall Arena, who led the University of Virginia to five  NCAA championships, resigned as manager of MLS New England in  early September after being suspended by Garber for making  “inappropriate remarks.” Exactly what the always-outspoken Arena  said never was revealed … although there were reports the whole  thing had something to do with  Richie Williams , Rev assistant (and  former Richmond Kicker) who played for “The World’s Greatest” at  U.Va., and D.C. United. Le nding some  credence to Williams’ involvement was a former  teammate, who apparently knew  something , referring to him as ...”that  backstabbing son of a bitch.”  When Arena was put on adminis...