ESPN commentator Kirk Herbstreit apologized Sunday to Baylor and Terrell Burt after accusing the senior safety of faking an injury during the Bears' loss to Oklahoma.
Herbstreit's apology came in a series of three posts on his Twitter account.
"I'd like to apologize to @BUFootball & Terrell Burt. Last pm I thought he had faked an injury and I was DEAD WRONG," Herbstreit wrote.
With the No. 7 Sooners lining up for a play with 9:44 left in their 44-34 victory Saturday night, Burt bent forward and rolled over onto his back, prompting an injury timeout.
"I've never seen anything like that in my life," Herbstreit said during the ABC broadcast. "That is awful. Now he's going to fake a limp. I mean that is bush league. I don't get that. ... This is football. That's unethical. You don't do that."
What was unknown at the time was that Burt had sprained his right ankle on the previous kickoff and had stayed on the field for two plays until a teammate forced him to sit down to get treated.
Baylor trainer Mike Sims said Sunday that Burt's ankle "is sore and swollen today."
"I saw what I saw at the time and didn't realize he had tweaked it earlier. I take full responsibility and apologize sincerely to Terrell," Herbstreit posted.
Price of success
It was a good season for Chicago Cubs fans.
Wrigley Field got a fresh coat of paint, the Cubs won 97 games and the team got to play for an NL pennant for the first time in 12 years.
Next season could be just as good, based on promises from the team's front office. Unfortunately, baseball is a business and all this success means the Cubs are in demand. That's not good for ticket prices.
The Cubs, who already had the third-highest average ticket price in the majors this past season, behind the Boston Red Sox and the New York Yankees, are planning to raise the price even more for 2016, in some cases by as much as 10 percent, the largest increase since 2010.
"We've clearly seen an increase in demand, so that helped factor into an increase in our prices," said Colin Faulkner, the Cubs' senior vice president of sales and partnerships. "Our goal is to remain competitive for the long term and provide value to our fans for a competitive baseball team, but also [value] in their tickets."
It could be that the Cubs are taking this in the wrong direction. The Kansas City Royals had the 11th-highest average ticket prices, while the New York Mets checked in at No. 18.
Then again, maybe you get what you pay for.
Potty time
Arizona Cardinals deep snapper Mike Leach has a new business venture.
The 15-year NFL veteran and father of two, along with his wife, Julie, has developed a a complete potty training system that uses stuffed animal characters, a story book and a chart reward system for kids.
It's called Potty Pals.
The Leaches came up with the idea years ago when they were trying to potty train their own kids and thought it might provide a little relief for other parents dealing with what can be a confounding task.
"For the first couple of years, to be honest with you, we went nowhere fast with it," Mike told KNXV-TV, the ABC affiliate in Phoenix. "Business was so new to us."
With a little boost from the NFL's Consumer Products Boot Camp, which helps current and former NFL players start new businesses and get products to market, the Leaches' new business is off and running.
The Potty Pals system is available on Amazon and on the Leaches' website, PottyPals.com.
Once they get on a roll, the Leaches could be flush with cash for years. They could wipe out the competition. Here's hoping it doesn't tank.
Sorry. Sometimes these things write themselves.
Sports quiz
Where did Arizona Cardinals deep snapper Mike Leach play college football?
Answer
Leach played at William and Mary in 1998--2000
Sports on 11/16/2015