April 8, 2013: Rick Pitino's Corrupt Second Act

In 1932, F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote an essay, "My Lost City," saying, "I once thought that there were not second acts in American lives, but there was certainly to be a second act to New York's boom days." The quote has been misinterpreted -- indeed, contradicted -- as, "There are no second acts in American lives."

Many people have proven that to be untrue. And some have done so unfairly.

April 8, 2013: The University of Louisville wins college basketball's National Championship. It was their 3rd title, and the 2nd title for their coach, Rick Pitino.

The union of UL and Pitino seemed to be a match made in Heaven. It turned out to be a deal with the Devil.

Pitino was born on September 18, 1952 in Manhattan. He was a point guard at the University of Massachusetts. Not good enough to be drafted by a team in either the NBA or the ABA, he went into coaching.

He was head coach at Hawaii in 1976, an assistant to Jim Boeheim at Syracuse, head coach at Boston University from 1978 to 1983, an assistant to Hubie Brown on the New York Knicks in the 1983-84 and 1984-85 seasons, then was named head coach at Providence College, which he took to the Final Four in 1987. He was immediately hired to coach the Knicks, but left after 2 seasons, in 1989, because couldn't resist the chance to rebuild the scandal-ridden program at the University of Kentucky. He led them to the National Championship in 1996, and back to the NCAA Tournament Final the next year.

Then he got another offer he couldn't refuse, coaching the NBA's most successful franchise, the Boston Celtics. But he failed there, because management wouldn't bring better players there. Fans complained, and he said, "Larry Bird's not walking through that door," and naming some other team legends that weren't walking through the door. He was fired in 2001.

But Louisville offered him a lifeline, and the chance to be the head coach of Kentucky's arch-rivals was yet another offer he couldn't refuse. He got them to the Final Four in 2005, his 4th season there. He got them to the Elite Eight in 2008 and '09. In 2010, their new downtown arena, the KFC Yum! Center, opened, replacing the aging Freedom Hall, and giving them an arena more modern and up-to-date than UK's Rupp Arena in Lexngton.

In 2012, he got them to the Final Four, at the Superdome in New Orleans. But they lost to Kentucky in the Semifinal, 69-61. Kentucky then beat Kansas in the Final. It was the biggest disgrace in UL basketball history. Little did they know that worse was yet to come.

In 2012-13, Pitino guided Louisville to a 26-5 regular season, with All-American Russ Smith, Big East Conference Scholar-Athlete of the Year Peyton Siva, and Big East Defensive Player of the Year Gorgui Dieng. They lost to Number 5 Duke by 5 in an early-season tournament in the Bahamas; then 3 straight in January, by 2 at home to Number 6 Syracuse, by 9 to Villanova in Philadelphia, and by 2 to Georgetown in Washington; and finally by 3 in overtime, away to Notre Dame.

They breezed through the Big East Conference Tournament at Madison Square Garden in New York, avenging their defeats to Villanova, Notre Dame and Syracuse. They marched through the NCAA Tournament, beating North Carolina A&T and Colorado State, on Kentucky's floor at Rupp Arena, no less; then beat Number 25 Oregon and avenged their defeat to Duke, now Number 6, in Indianapolis to reach the Final Four, at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta. Cinderella-minded Wichita State gave them a scare in the Semifinal, but the Cardinals won, 72-68.

That set up a Final against Number 10 Michigan, a team with 2 sons of NBA stars, Tim Hardaway Jr. and Glenn Robinson III. Trey Burke of Michigan scored the game's 1st 7 points, but then picked up 2 fouls and had to sit some time out, to preserve his eligibility. Louisville closed to within 38-37 at the half. Luke Hancock came off the bench to score 22 points, including 5 3-pointers, to become the only non-starter ever to be named the Final Four's Most Outstanding Player. Louisville went on to win, 82-76.

This gave Louisville a 3-0 record in NCAA Tournament Finals, and Michigan a record of 1-5, and that 1 win coming in overtime. For the Cardinals, and for Pitino, it was a very sweet moment: The man that Tony Kornheiser of The Washington Post and ESPN's Pardon the Interruption had dubbed a "preening schmo" became the 1st man to coach college basketball National Champions at two different schools. Each other's arch-rivals, no less.

He became America's answer to Brian Clough, the manager who won English Football League titles with both Derby County and their arch-rivals, Nottingham Forest, in the 1970s. Minus the drinking (as far as we know), and plus a lot of hair-care products and a bit more ego. Clough, himself possessor of a considerable ego, had he ever met Pitino, would have said he isn't the most egotistical man he's ever met, but he's "in the top one."

Over the next few years, for Louisville and Pitino, the sweet moment soured. In 2015, Katina Powell published a book titled Breaking Cardinal Rules, in which she described how she was used as a prostitute to encourage high school stars to come to UL from 2010 to 2014. This reminded people of Pitino's own sex scandal, in which a woman he'd fooled around with in 2003, and paid for an abortion for her, was convicted in 2010 of trying to extort him.

The University tried in inoculate itself from serious penalties from the NCAA, by willingly withdrawing from consideration for the 2016 NCAA Tournament. But further allegations came out, and UL had to fire Pitino in 2017. It wasn't enough: On June 25 of that year, the NCAA vacated all of Louisville's wins in the 2011-12, 2012-13 and 2013-14 seasons, including both Final Four berths and the 2013 National Championship. Officially, there is no National Champion for 2012-13: They did not award it to defeated Michigan.

Many college sports scandals have resulted in the stripping of titles, but the 2012-13 University of Louisville basketball team remains the only team ever to be stripped of an NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Tournament Championship.

Louisville have not won a Conference title, either regular-season or Tournament, or reached the Sweet Sixteen since. In 2018, Pitino was hired by Panathinaikos of Athens, Greece, one of the top sport clubs in Europe, known for its soccer and basketball teams. He led them to 2 titles in Greece's basketball league. In 2020, he was hired as head coach at Iona University, a Catholic school in New Rochelle, New York.

In 2012, his son, Richard Pitino, got his 1st head coaching job, at Florida International University. After 1 year there, he went to the University of Minnesota, winning the 2014 NIT. In 2021, he was hired at the University of New Mexico.

UPDATE: In 2023, Rick Pitino was hired at another Catholic school, St. John's University of Queens. He led them to the Big East Conference title in 2025 and '26. In 2025, Richard Pitino left New Mexico to become the head coach at yet another Catholic school, Xavier University in Cincinnati.

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April 9, 2013, as the day of the NCAA Tournament Final tends to be, was a Monday. These games were played in Major League Baseball:

* The New York Yankees beat the Cleveland Indians, 11-6 at Progressive Field in Cleveland. Hiroki Kuroda was the winning pitcher. The Yankees got 2 home runs from Robinson Canó, and 1 from former Cleveland star Travis Hafner.

* The New York Mets beat the Philadelphia Phillies, 7-2 at Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia. Matt Harvey outpitched Roy Halladay. John Buck hit a home run.

* The Boston Red Sox beat the Baltimore Orioles, 3-1 at Fenway Park in Boston. David Ortiz did not play. I guess his steroid delivery didn't come in that day.

* The Atlanta Braves beat the Miami Marlins, 2-0 at Marlins Park (now LoanDepot Park) in Miami. How many Brave pitchers does it take to pitch a 2-hit shutout? This time, 2: Paul Maholm (1 hit and 3 walks over 7 innings), Eric O'Flaherty (a perfect 8th) and Craig Kimbrel (a hit and a walk in the 9th).

* The Milwaukee Brewers beat their arch-rivals, the Chicago Cubs, 7-4 at Wrigley Field in Chicago.

* The Cincinnati Reds beat the St. Louis Cardinals, 13-4 at Busch Stadium in St. Louis.

* The Kansas City Royals beat the Minnesota Twins, 3-1 at Kauffman Stadium in Kansas City.

* The Texas Rangers beat the Tampa Bay Rays, 5-4 at Rangers Ballpark in the Dallas suburb of Arlington, Texas.

* The Pittsburgh Pirates beat the Arizona Diamondbacks, 5-3 at Chase Field in Phoenix.

* The San Francisco Giants beat the Colorado Rockies, 4-2 at AT&T Park (now Oracle Park) in San Francisco.

* The Seattle Mariners beat the Houston Astros, 3-0 at Safeco Field (now T-Mobile Park) in Seattle. How many Mariner pitchers does it take to pitch a 7-hit shutout? This time, 4: Joe Saunders (6 hits over 6 1/3rd innings), Carter Capps (1 over 1 1/3rd), Charlie Furbush (1 batter, a strikeout) and Tom Wilhelmsen (a perfect 9th).

* And the Chicago White Sox, the Detroit Tigers, the Los Angeles Angels, the Los Angeles Dodgers, the Oakland Athletics, the San Diego Padres, the Toronto Blue Jays and the Washington Nationals were not scheduled.

Football was out of season. No games were scheduled for the NBA. There were 9 games played in the NHL:

* The New York Islanders beat the Philadelphia Flyers, 4-1 at the Nassau Coliseum.

* The Washington Capitals beat the Montreal Canadiens, 3-2 at the Bell Centre in Montreal.

* The Pittsburgh Penguins beat the Carolina Hurricanes, 5-3 at the PNC Arena (now the Lenovo Center) in Raleigh, North Carolina.

* The Tampa Bay Lightning beat the Ottawa Senators, 3-2 at the Tampa Bay Times Forum (now the Benchmark International Arena) in Tampa.

* The St. Louis Blues beat the Nashville Predators, 1-0 at the Bridgestone Arena in Nashville.

* The Columbus Blue Jackets beat the San Jose Sharks, 4-0 at the Nationwide Arena in Columbus.

* The Dallas Stars beat the Los Angeles Kings, 5-1 at the American Airlines Arena in Dallas.

* The Chicago Blackhawks beat the Minnesota Wild, 1-0 at the Xcel Energy Center (now the Grand Casino Arena) in St. Paul, Minnesota.

* And the Winnipeg Jets beat the Buffalo Sabres, 4-1 at the MTS Centre (now the Canada Life Centre) in Winnipeg.

January 30, 2000: The Greatest Show On Turf

January 30, 2000: The franchises I grew up knowing as the Los Angeles Rams and the Houston Oilers play each other in Super Bowl XXXIV, at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta.

But the Rams moved to become the St. Louis Rams in 1995, and the Oilers to Memphis in 1997, then to Nashville in 1998, and finally changed their name to the Tennessee Titans in 1999.

In midseason, the Rams, coached by former Philadelphia Eagles coach Dick Vermeil, replaced starting quarterback Trent Green with Kurt Warner, and the result became known as "The Greatest Show On Turf." Warner could throw passes to receivers Isaac Bruce, Torry Holt, Az-Zahir Hakim and Ricky Proehl, and to running back Marshall Faulk, who, in this 1999-2000 season, maybe have become the best all-around player in the game. Tackle Orlando Pace was then the best offensive lineman in the league.

It wouldn't have mattered much if they didn't also have a good defense, with tackles Ray Agnew and D'Marco Farr, ends Kevin Carter and Grant Wistrom, linebackers Lendon Fletcher and Mike Jones, and cornerbacks Dré Bly and Todd Lyght. So while the Rams had 9 games of at least 34 points, they also had 11 games of allowing 14 or fewer points.

They won 13 of their 1st 15, clinching the top seed on the NFC side of the Playoffs, before a meaningless loss away to the Philadelphia Eagles in their season finale. In the Playoffs, they won a 49-37 shootout over the Minnesota Vikings, and went the other way in the NFC Championship Game, winning a defensive struggle over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, 11-6.

The Titans struggled in their 1st 2 seasons, as the Tennessee Oilers. But in their 1st season under the Titans name, their 1st season at the Adelphia Coliseum (now Nissan Stadium), coach Jeff Fisher's men were embraced by Nashville fans. The embracees included quarterback Steve McNair, running back Eddie George, receiver Kevin Dyson, tight end Frank Wycheck, center Bruce Matthews, defensive end Jevon Kearse (known as The Freak), safeties Blaine Bishop and Anthony Dorsett (son of Hall-of-Famer Tony), and ageless placekicker Al Del Greco.

The Titans weren't flashy, but they won 7 of their last 8 games, saving their biggest offensive outputs for their last 2, a 41-14 win over the Jacksonville Jaguars at home, and a 47-36 battle away to the Pittsburgh Steelers. A last-minute kickoff return, featuring a lateral from Wycheck to Dyson, beat the Buffalo Bills in the Wild Card Round, becoming known as the Music City Miracle. They beat Peyton Manning and the Indianapolis Colts away, 19-16, and then went to Jacksonville and beat the Jags again, 33-14, for the AFC Championship.

For the Rams, it was their 1st trip to the Super Bowl in 20 years, and they were looking for their 1st World Championship in 49 years, since Los Angeles beat Cleveland in the 1951 NFL Championship Game. For the Oilers/Titans franchise, it was their 1st trip to the Super Bowl ever. They had won the 1st 2 AFL Championships, in 1960 and '61, and also made it to the AFL Championship Game in '62 and '67. But except for back-to-back trips to the AFC Championship Game in '78 and '79, their NFL experience had been a bust. Until now.

For St. Louis as a city/metro area, there had not been a World Championship in over 17 years, since the Cardinals won the 1982 World Series. They had lost 2 World Series and a National League Championship Series in the interim. The NFL version of the Cardinals had moved to Arizona after the 1987 season. The NHL's Blues hadn't reached the Stanley Cup Finals since 1970. And there was no NBA team.

For Tennessee, this was all new. They'd had teams in "rebel leagues" like the ABA, the WFL and the USFL, but until now, with the NHL also adding the Nashville Predators for the 1997-98 season, they'd had nothing in the major leagues.

Vermeil had gotten the Eagles into Super Bowl XV, but they lost it. Before Super Bowl XXXIV, he got phone calls from many of his Eagle players, telling him they were pulling for him.

The Rams were favored by 7, possibly because the game would be played on artificial turf, which they usually played on at the Trans World Dome (now The Dome at America's Center), while the Titans played their home games on natural grass.

The 1st half was a defensive struggle. The Rams went 3-for-4 on field goal attempts, the Titans 0-for-1, and neither team could get into the end zone. The half ended with the Rams up, 9-0. On their opening drive of the 2nd half, the Rams blocked a Titan field goal attempt.

Finally, "The Greatest Show On Turf" took over, and Warner got the Rams going, leading to a 9-yard touchdown pass to Holt. It was 16-0 St. Louis. The Titans answered with a touchdown drive of their own, ending with a 1-yard run by George. They went for the 2-point conversion, but missed, and it was 16-6 Rams as the 3rd quarter ended.

The Titans forced the Rams to punt on their next drive. McNair took advantage of this by taking his team 79 yards in 13 plays, concluding with George running it in from 2 yards out. The Titans were now within 16-13, with 7:21 to go. The Titans forced the Rams to put again, and they got close enough for another field goal attempt by Del Greco. With 2:12 left, the game was tied, 16-16.

This was the 1st time a team had a lead of 16 or more points in a Super Bowl, and blown it. Could the Rams recover? Yes: On their next play from scrimmage, Warner threw a bomb to Bruce, who took it 73 yards for a touchdown. With 1:54 left, the Rams led, 23-16.

The Titans' last chance began at their own 12-yard line with 1:48 left. They were aided by a pair of dumb defensive penalties by the Rams, putting the ball on the Ram 40 with 59 seconds to go.

On a 3rd & 5, McNair escaped what looked like a sure sack, and passed to Dyson for a 1st down and the Ram 10. With 6 seconds left, the Titans called their last time-out. At this point, there had never been a Super Bowl go to overtime. Of course, if the Titans scored, and went for 2 instead of 1, there would be no overtime.

Fisher's plan for the last play (at least, of regulation time) was to have Wycheck run straight up the right side, as a decoy, to lure Jones away from Dyson. Dyson would then slant left through the middle and be open at around the 5-yard line. McNair would then pass to him for the touchdown that would make it no worse than 23-22.

It didn't work. Jones saw Dyson getting ready to catch the ball. Jones ran toward Dyson, and wrapped is arms around Dyson's legs to tackle him, less than 3 yards short of the goal line. But Dyson knew he was not yet down, and he reached out with his arm, holding the ball, hoping to have it break the plane of the goal line for the touchdown. But the way that Jones tackled him, his shoulder hit the ground, ending the play, and the ball was still about one full foot away from the goal line.

It's become known as "The Tackle" and "The Longest Yard." The Titans had fought bravely, but were one yard short of, at the very least, being tied at the end of regulation of the Super Bowl. The Rams had blown a 16-point 2nd half lead in the Super Bowl, but were still World Champions. They also became the 1st team to win NFL Championships in 3 different cities: Cleveland in 1945, Los Angeles in 1951, and St. Louis in 1999-2000.

Warner's story of being a supermarket bagger and an Arena Football League quarterback in Iowa to winning the Most Valuable Player award in a Super Bowl was made into the recent movie American Underdog, starring Zachary Levi. And Dick Vermeil, once again crying tears of joy after a big win, finally got his ring.

After failing to repeat, the Rams got back to the Super Bowl in the 2001-02 season, but lost to the New England Patriots on a last-play field goal. Soon, "The Greatest Show On Turf" broke up, and the Rams became a mediocre team again. Warner went, ironically, to the former St. Louis football team, now the Arizona Cardinals, and got them into Super Bowl XLIII, but lost.

St. Louis lost interest in the Rams, and when they moved back to Los Angeles in 2016, there wasn't much of a fuss over it. The Rams got back to the Super Bowl in the 2019 season, but lost. They're back in it this season, and will play the Cincinnati Bengals in Super Bowl LVI in their new home, SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California. (They had previously played Super Bowl XIV in the Rose Bowl, 14 miles from their home at the time, the Los Angeles Coliseum, but lost it to the Pittsburgh Steelers.)

The Titans reached the AFC Championship Game again in the 2002 season, but lost it to the then-Oakland Raiders, They were still a Playoff team as late as 2008, but fell apart. They have rebuilt, making the Playoffs in 4 of the last 5 seasons, including another AFC Championship Game in the 2019 season, which could have set up a Super Bowl rematch with the Rams, but they lost to the Kansas City Chiefs.

In 2019, a poll ranked this game 16th on a list of the 100 Greatest Games of the NFL's 1st 100 years.

UPDATE: On February 13, 2022, the Rams beat the Cincinnati Bengals, 23-20, and won Super Bowl LVI.

Rams Aeneas Williams, Kurt Warner, Marshall Faulk, Orlando Pace, Isaac Bruce, D'Marco Farr, Kevin Carter, Mike Jones, Torry Holt, head coach Dick Vermeil and assistant coach Mike Martz have been elected to the St. Louis Sports Hall of Fame. Vermeil, Bruce, Trent Green and Grant Wistrom have been elected to the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame.

The Titans have a Ring of Honor: Its inductees include:

* From their previous tenure as the Houston Oilers: Founding owner Bud Adams, 1960s quarterback George Blanda, 1960s safety Ken Houston, 1960s punter Jim Norton, 1970s head coach O.A. "Bum" Phillips, 1970s receiver Billy "White Shoes" Johnson, 1970s defensive end Elvin Bethea, 1970s linebacker Robert Brazile, 1980s running back Earl Campbell, 1980s guard Mike Munchak, 1990s general manager Mike Holovak, 1990s quarterback Warren Moon, 1990s guard Bruce Matthews.

* From their Titans era: Adams, Matthews, head coach Jeff Fisher, quarterback Steve McNair, running back Eddie George and tight end Frank Wycheck.

Adams, Fisher, McNair, George and safety Blaine Bishop have been elected to the Tennessee Sports Hall of Fame.

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January 30, 2000 was a Sunday. There were, of course, no other football games on this day. And baseball was out of season.

Traditionally, in order to avoid competing for TV viewers even with the interminable pregame programming on Super Sunday, the NBA avoids scheduling many games for the day. This time, they scheduled 2: The New York Knicks beat the Sacramento Kings, 120-111 at Madison Square Garden. And the Houston Rockets beat the Los Angeles Lakers, 89-83 at The Summit in Houston. (The arena has since been converted into the Central Campus of the Lakewood Church, Dr. Joel Osteen's "megachurch.")

The NHL scheduled 3 games. The Montreal Canadiens beat the Carolina Hurricanes, 3-0 at the Molson Centre (now the Bell Center) in Montreal. The Washington Capitals beat the Philadelphia Flyers, 2-0 at the MCI Center (now the Capital One Arena) in Washington. And the Chicago Blackhawks beat the Vancouver Canucks, 3-1 at GM Place (now the Rogers Arena) in Vancouver.

January 30, 1994: The Fourth Fall of Buffalo

January 30, 1994: The Dallas Cowboys beat the Buffalo Bills in Super Bowl XXVIII, 30-13 at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta. That's 2 straight wins for the Evil Ones, and 4 straight losses for the Bills. At this point, the people of Western New York have got to be thinking, "What does a team have to do?"

Actually, they looked for a while like they might do it. Early in the 2nd quarter, Thurman Thomas scored a touchdown, to take a 10-6 lead. On the last play of the 1st half, Steve Christie kicked a field goal. The Bills went into the locker room up 13-6. They were 30 minutes away from victory, from a championship, from redemption.

But less than a minute into the 3rd quarter, Thomas had the ball stripped from him by Leon Lett. There's the redemption for the day: Lett had made a fool of himself against the Bills in the previous year's Super Bowl, though the Cowboys still won big; and had also blundered on national TV on Thanksgiving Day 2 months earlier, costing the Cowboys a game against the Miami Dolphins. James Washington picked the fumble up, and ran it 46 yards for a game-tying touchdown.

It was still only 20-13 Dallas after 3 quarters, but the Bills never scored again. They had 4 more possessions, the 1st 3 ending in punts, and the last with them turning the ball over on downs deep in Dallas territory, and if they had scored, they still would have needed 2 more scores.

The Bills had been to 4 straight Super Bowls. That had never been done before -- although the Cleveland Browns went to 6 straight NFL Championship Games from 1950 to 1955, winning 3. Through the 2021 NFL season, it hasn't been done since.

In 2015, as part of its 30 for 30 documentary series, ESPN premiered The Four Falls of Buffalo, telling of the Bills' history, focusing on those 4 AFC Championship seasons of 1990, 1991, 1992 and 1993, and how they each ended with a Super Bowl loss.

The Bills won the AFL Championship in 1964 and 1965, the last 2 before the AFL Champion would face the NFL Champion in the Super Bowl. They lost the 1966 AFL Championship Game, and didn't get to face the Green Bay Packers in what was retroactively named Super Bowl I.

They're still looking. No Buffalo-based team has ever won a World Championship, and the last team from Western New York to do so remains the 1955 NBA Champions, the Syracuse Nationals.

In 1999, The Sporting News released their list of the 100 Greatest Football Players. Emmitt Smith was ranked 68th, and Troy Aikman 95th. For the Bills, Bruce Smith (no relation to Emmitt) was ranked 58th.

In 2010, the NFL Network released their list of the 100 Greatest Players. Emmitt Smith moved up to 28th, Bruce Smith to 31, Aikman to 80, and, not having made the previous list, Michael Irvin was ranked 92nd, and Larry Allen 95th.

Jim Kelly and Thurman Thomas were not ranked either time. If the Bills had won just 1 of those 4 Super Bowls, they would have been. As Joe Namath, who did win 1 Super Bowl, would say, I guarantee it.

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January 30, 1994 was, like all Super Bowl days, a Sunday. Baseball was out of season. Bowing to the likelihood of poor TV ratings, the NBA scheduled only 2 games for the day. The New York Knicks beat the Portland Trail Blazers, 103-93 at the Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Portland. And the Boston Celtics beat the Phoenix Suns, 106-94 at the Boston Garden.

There were 3 games in the NHL:

* The Montreal Canadiens beat the Philadelphia Flyers, 5-4 at the Montreal Forum. Guy Carbonneau scored the winning goal with 2:31 left in overtime.

* The Washington Capitals beat the Detroit Red Wings, 6-3 at the USAir Arena (formerly the Capital Centre) in the Washington suburb of Landover, Maryland.

* And the Florida Panthers beat the Buffalo Sabres, 3-2 at the Buffalo Memorial Auditorium.