Sideline views

A couple of football-related conversations with friends in the sports biz, so to speak, lead to the following gems:

In one e-mail conversation where I noted that TCU was improbably ranked higher than LSU in the latest BCS ratings, my friend - a sports editor in Louisiana - noted it was a freshman Texas quarterback (Jarrett Lee) who was pretty much hamstringing the defending national champs. Then he reminded me of this: "In all seriousness, consider this: On signing day 2005, LSU gets Ryan Perrilloux, Texas settles for Colt McCoy. Sometimes even the right decisions give you the wrong outcome."

Good point. A little later, I was talking with another friend - a staffer with a marquee MLB franchise - about the ridiculous postgame tirade from interim San Francisco 49ers head coach Mike Singletary. It sounded like grandstanding to me. You only get to use a couple of those a year and Singletary has already burned through one of his rallying cries, one game into his head coaching career. I'm thinking he's already stamped his ticket out of town.

Anyway, my high school buddy said: "Singletary seems to be overcompensating ... maybe because he lacks x and o knowledge. And (he) thinks he can butt pat players into a Super Bowl."

True.