And the Boney Goes To....

Since 1993, ESPN has given out its jock-Oscar, the ESPY, to athletes, sports teams and coaches

Oscars and ESPYs give positive reinforcement to actors and athletes for jobs well done. But at Oscar time every year, we also see the Razzie awards given out to the worst films of the year. The ESPYs didn’t have a Razzie equivalent—until now.

These awards, which I call The Boneys, will go to the athletes and sports officials who go far past the dumb jock stereotype by being totally boneheaded.

Baseball: Youth Baseball League of New Haven. The 3-year-old league in Connecticut decided to disband one of the teams this summer. Not because they were using a kid who was older than the league limit allowed, not because the players were using something out of Barry Bonds’ medicine cabinet, but because the team’s star player Jericho Scott was too good a pitcher. Scott, 9, has a 40 mph fastball, and parents on the other teams got their panties all bunched up and started whining to the league about the possibility of their little hitters getting beaned. The league told coach Wilfred Vidro that Scott could play any other position, but that he couldn’t take the mound. When Vidro put him on the mound two games later, the opposing team forfeited and the league disbanded the team.

Seriously, New Haven, that isn’t cool. Sure, Vidro should have listened and I see the parents concerns about batters getting beaned—to a point. Most kids that age already get the whole concept of trying to avoid getting hit by something. Plus with childhood obesity being such a problem in our nation, why in the world would you want to discourage kids from taking part in sports?

Football: Tatum Bell, running back recently waived from the Detroit Lions. As if it wasn’t bad enough that Bell didn’t make the cut with the perpetually cellar-dwelling Lions, he decided to steal the luggage of running back Rudi Johnson out of revenge.

Seriously dude, is that the best revenge you could think of? Is grand theft suitcase really better than the classic itching-powder-in-the-jock-strap move? And why take it out on Johnson? His signing and your dismissal were decisions made only by the higher ups.

Basketball: Spain’s national team. During the Beijing Olympics, a photo of the team posing with them slanting their eyes was leaked to the public. They said it was done as a joke, and there was no malicious intent. People stopped talking about it, and the crisis went away.

Still, it doesn’t mean it was a good idea. Spain got off lucky. If it were a U.S. team posing in that picture, there would have been a bigger backlash. Political correctness or not, it just wasn’t very sportsman-like.

The final award of the evening goes to a legend. This legend has had a storied career and a bunch of awards under his belt. The Boney for Bonehead Athlete of the Year goes to new Jets quarterback Brett Favre. Despite being a St. Louis Rams fan, I had respect for Favre. The guy’s a great football player and has had to play in generally crappy weather conditions in Green Bay. I also get how hard it is to be away from sports as I still go nuts every spring because I’m not playing softball. But Favre made that decision after toying with retirement for several years. Favre could have gone and coached somewhere so he could still be part of the game, but no, he had to be a big baby and come back. Once the Packers said no, he should have given up on his comeback. Running off to another team, especially just to get a championship and retire or to squeeze out a few more career stats out of one more season is my biggest sports related pet peeve. Because of this, Favre has completely lost my respect—but he has earned the biggest Boney I dole out.