Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones had a few things to say about pro golfer John Daly (Dardanelle, Arkansas Razorbacks) during an interview last week on the Ben and Skin Show on KRLD-FM 105.3 in Dallas.
Nothing bad, of course. Turns out Jones (North Little Rock, Razorbacks) is a huge fan of the two-time major winner, perhaps because of his up and downs.
“I guess it’s just obvious when you’ve been down and out seemingly as many times as John has been, then you just become endeared to your fans. And that’s happened, with John. And we all know no one’s had more foibles or demonstrated more foibles than John,” said Jones, who admits to having ups and downs of his own. “And so that’s easy for me to identify with John.”
Daly, 49, who made news Saturday when he collapsed at a charity golf event in Mississippi and was taken by ambulance to a local hospital, recovered enough to return to the tournament on Sunday.
That he returned to play Sunday was good news, compared to what happened two weeks ago at the PGA Championship at Whistling Straits.
At the PGA, a tournament he won 24 years ago, Daly threw his 6-iron into Lake Michigan after hitting three balls into the water.
“On the other hand,” Jones said, “I guess it’s from that Dardanelle background in him that is really appealing to me as well. I like the way he plays the game, I like the way he does life.”
Then Jones described, in playful detail, how Daly’s swing says a lot about the man.
“I think his swing, when I’m sitting here and thinking about it with you, I think it’s indicative of what John is about,” Jones said.
“Let’s describe it for a minute. That thing, when he draws back and hits it, he curls all the way around and he’s got that big old belly, he goes completely around and that golf club seems to touch the other toe and he just unwinds and hits that little old ball on the other side of that 360-degree arc.
“Now that’s impossible to do almost. He does it almost every time. But imagine the leverage.
“And that’s the way he hits life, I think.”
Grip it and rip it, indeed.
Rookie move
According to Steve DelVecchio of Yardbarker.com, Los Angeles Lakers fans were outraged last week when DAngelo Russell, their team’s No. 2 overall pick in the 2015 NBA Draft, tweeted that Tracy McGrady may have been the greatest player of all time.
“Honestly Tracy McGrady might have been the GOAT!” Russell wrote in a tweet that has since been deleted.
“By saying McGrady may have been the best NBA player ever, Russell was essentially saying McGrady is better than DAngelo’s new teammate Kobe Bryant,” DelVecchio wrote. “If you know how much Lakers fans worship Kobe, you’re not surprised by their reaction.”
Mark Medina of the Los Angeles Daily News asked him about the tweet over the weekend.
“There’s a lot of spoiled Lakers fans. I wasn’t downgrading Kobe at all,” Russell said. “I was just watching a highlight tape of Tracy McGrady and I got excited. I tweeted and the whole state of California went crazy.”
They said it …
Dwight Perry of the Seattle Times, commenting on Arkansas State running back Warren Wand, the 5-foot-5 freshman from Edmond, Okla., who rushed for 5,085 yards and scored 48 touchdowns in high school: “Wand’s nickname, you have to assume, is Magic.”
Mike Bianchi of the Orlando (Fla.) Sentinel, after the Steelers signed QB Michael Vick on National Dog Day: “The only thing that could have been worse is if the Vikings had welcomed Adrian Peterson back on Father’s Day.”
Sports quiz
When was John Daly’s last victory on the PGA Tour?
Answer
The 2004 Buick Invitational at Torrey Pines in San Diego.
Quote of the day
“I told the players it doesn’t end until it ends.”
Japan Manager Junji Hidaki after Japan rallied from a 10-2 deficit to beat the U.S. in the Little League World Series