Sez Me \u2026<\/p>\n
Television is not where track and field goes to die. In the United States, it\u2019s already dead on arrival.<\/p>\n
We really care about the greatest sport in this country \u2026 every four years.<\/p>\n
Olympic sprinter Sha\u2019Carri Richardson recently was arrested for domestic violence against her boyfriend. During a blazing international summer of hot times and marks, that has been the biggest story in the world of track and field.<\/p>\n
Scandals, mostly involving drugs, seem to feed the sport more than marks. I wonder how many American sports fans have heard of 2025\u2019s greatest athletic feat, one that didn\u2019t nearly get enough attention?<\/p>\n
His name is Cooper Lutkenhaus. He\u2019s 16. He just became a junior at Justin (Texas) High School and ran 800 meters at the U.S. Track and Field Championships in 1 minute, 42.47 seconds \u2014 the fastest 800 by a 16-year-old in history. It is the fourth-fastest time run by any American, any age, in history.<\/p>\n
More? It is the 18th-fastest 800 in the history of the world.<\/p>\n
Cooper is the Unknown U.S. Athlete of the Year.<\/p>\n
This is incredible stuff. It should be huge news. It should be plastered all over TV. Instead, we\u2019re hearing Paramount will pay $1.1 billion a year for UFC events. That\u2019s mixed martial arts. Bloodsport.<\/p>\n
I imagine this is what the cavemen watched.<\/p>\n
Hey, I don\u2019t expect track to be our No. 1 sport anymore than I do soccer. But doesn\u2019t it have everything we like? Speed, strength and skill?<\/p>\n
It\u2019s individual. There are personalities. Is it better than watching some multi-millionaire who doesn\u2019t even take ground balls anymore bat .230?<\/p>\n
Eugene, Ore., is by far the hottest bed in American track. The U.S. Championships were held there in July, as always, over 10 days. What other city would want it? The high attendance was 4,500, the low 2,500. That\u2019s the number of people who saw Cooper\u2019s 800 live.<\/p>\n
San Diego used to be a terrific track town. Used to be. Why it no longer is, I have no guess. I\u2019ve loved it since Rick Smith was covering the Lincoln High-San Diego High dual meets. It is the greatest and probably the oldest of competitions. But people rarely bleed.<\/p>\n
So I guess that\u2019s it. \u2026<\/p>\n
Do you have a calendar? It\u2019s August. The National League West race doesn\u2019t end this month, no matter how this weekend turns out. \u2026<\/p>\n
I\u2019m sure there have been other 70-yard field goals kicked in practice before that one. \u2026<\/p>\n
I believe we\u2019re getting dangerously close to kickers being forced to use 5-pound balls.\u00a0 \u2026<\/p>\n
Imagine having the ball on your own 35-yard line and playing for the field goal. \u2026<\/p>\n
Jerry Jones on his Cowboys: \u201cIf we\u2019re not getting looked at, then I\u2019ll do my part to get us looked at. I\u2019ll stir it up.\u201d Greatest showman since P.T. Barnum. He can appease the suckers. \u2026<\/p>\n
Jones is alone on the playground, a child left to himself in a huge, fancy toy store. Other owners say nothing. \u2026<\/p>\n
Former NFL offensive tackle Gosder Cherilus has been arrested for urinating on a fellow ariline passenger. The excuse, apparently, was that he couldn\u2019t fit in the bathroom. \u2026<\/p>\n
How can the Raiders win if 70-something coach Pete Carroll can tackle one of his players in practice every day? \u2026<\/p>\n
If Shedeur Sanders never gets a snap in a real NFL game, his fall to the fifth round of the draft still remains the greatest mystery in the history of the lottery. He did nothing to warrant it. \u2026<\/p>\n
Micah Parsons on the current state of his dealings with Jerry Jones: \u201cMy mouth is closed.\u201d So we know one thing: Micah never will go into politics. Unless he\u2019s lying. Then he takes the lead in polls. \u2026<\/p>\n
Did you know Sandy Koufax had two pitches and he tipped them to batters? \u201cStill couldn\u2019t hit him,\u201d said Ernie Banks. Sandy was a Dodger, so I hate saying this, but he was the best and remains the best. \u2026<\/p>\n
Tablets should not be allowed in dugouts any more than smartphones should be OKed for classrooms. I don\u2019t know how getting close-ups of a pitcher\u2019s grip isn\u2019t cheating. And yet, it\u2019s still an Everest climb to get a batter to hit .300. \u2026<\/p>\n
Not since mighty Mexico Poly in 1966 has Aztecs football faced a tougher challenge in an opener than theirs with\u00a0 Stony Brook, which I believe was named for former San Diego sports broadcaster Jim Stone.<\/p>\n
Seriously, I believe SDSU could have scored 200 points on that Mexico team. Don Coryell, who completely let up (it was a 45-0 joke), wanted a rematch, but Poly politely declined. \u2026<\/p>\n
It appears Texas will be the first No. 1 in the preseason football poll to be an underdog in its opener (Ohio State). Damn. And here I was starting to believe in preseason rankings. \u2026<\/p>\n
Texas is one of the historic football programs, and yet, even with a screwed up poll system, it never has been a preseason No. 1? \u2026<\/p>\n
Of course, most poll voters see more of teams during the preseason than they do in real games (when they\u2019re working with no chance of seeing everyone play). \u2026<\/p>\n
The Longhorns\u2019 Arch Manning is being touted as a generational quarterback, although he\u2019s really done little outside of being born with a football name. I don\u2019t know if America can stand it. I don\u2019t know if I can stand another Manning. \u2026<\/p>\n
But, much to my delight, I saw a list the other day naming the 10 most overrated NFL players of all time. No. 1: Eli \u201cJughead\u201d Manning. I\u2019m no fan of most lists, but that was a great one. \u2026<\/p>\n
Matthew Stafford\u2019s back is out front. Biggest story of the preseason. \u2026<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m not going to buy my kids an encyclopedia. Let them walk to school like I did.\u201d \u2014 Yogi Berra, who, along with Churchill, said most of the important things that have ever been said.<\/p>\n
China is testing a vacuum train that can travel 1,000 mph. The biggest problem is that even first-class meals are fast food. \u2026<\/p>\n
I\u2019ve been to Alaska twice. A beautiful place we\u2019ve yet to totally screw up. But how dense am I? I didn\u2019t know everyone was speaking Russian. I thought it was an accent. \u2026<\/p>\n
I\u2019m not going to jump on the \u201cCaleb Williams is a bust\u201d bandwagon. A major talent. \u2026<\/p>\n
I wonder when the D.C. Crimebusters are going to do something about real bad stuff, such as millions being blown on bike lanes? \u2026<\/p>\n
Josh Allen admits he drank beer when he was 12 years old. He was raised on a cotton farm. So maybe you expected Dom Perignon? \u2026<\/p>\n
Got it. If you find yourself in a sticky situation, build a beautiful ballroom. \u2026<\/p>\n
You know what I\u2019ve always found? There are people better at things than you think you are. \u2026<\/p>\n
I didn\u2019t know there was anybody in this country smart enough to rig an election by 7 million votes. Shoeless Joe Jackson no longer is around.\u00a0 \u2026<\/p>\n
There\u2019s a new cure for baldness? I thought there already was one. It\u2019s called a hat.<\/p>\n
Originally Published: August 16, 2025 at 1:49 PM PDT<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sez Me \u2026 Television is not where track and field goes to die. In the United States, it\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":151484,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5134],"tags":[5229,1582,276,1370,3549,7264,62,2632,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-151483","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-diego","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-california","11":"tag-latest-headlines","12":"tag-san-diego","13":"tag-sandiego","14":"tag-sports","15":"tag-sports-columnists","16":"tag-united-states","17":"tag-united-states-of-america","18":"tag-unitedstates","19":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","20":"tag-us","21":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115040594539265698","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151483","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=151483"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151483\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/151484"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=151483"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=151483"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=151483"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}