Seattle Sportsnet

Love ‘em or hate ‘em, we’re done with these stories. Some are good, some are bad, but all are yesterday’s news. With the departure of 2008, we can leave these sports stories behind us and cherish their memories as we move into a new year. Without further ado, and in no particular order, on to the stories.

Michael Phelps wins eight gold medals. You can’t deny the accomplishment: simply amazing, a feat that will likely go unmatched for years. Likewise, you can’t deny that you don’t care anymore. After about the one-millionth news segment on Phelps’ size 14 feet, 100 billion calorie a day diet, and mom Debbie, we knew more about Michael Phelps than we did most of our family members. Sure, we might love the guy for what he’s done, but that doesn’t change the fact that we’re sick and tired of hearing about him.

Sports Illustrated named Phelps “Sportsperson of the Year” and if you actually read the article that recapped the articles that recapped the champion, then you yourself deserve eight gold medals just for perservering through what you already knew. Like watching the TBS version of Rudy for the tenth Saturday afternoon in a row, you couldn’t pull yourself away from an overcooked, watered down tale of heroism that had been played out one too many times in sugar coated fashion. Which is why we’re here to help you let go. It’s ok to let go.

Boston Celtics win NBA championship. Nobody likes Boston to begin with, which made hearing about this story all the more unbearable. We had to hear about how Paul Pierce was now and forever the next great Celtic legend, how Ray Allen finally validated a career on the outside looking in, and how Kevin Garnett thought “ANYTHING IS POSSIBLE!”

All an NBA championship means is that fans of 29 other teams hate your guts, while only one team’s fans get the opportunity to celebrate. If you want to become the most reviled sports story of most people’s year, just go ahead and win yourself a championship of some kind.

Brett Favre is (un)retired. The one thing most people took away from the whole Brett Favre retirement saga is that the people’s quarterback is actually kind of a jerk. The man who announced he was hanging ‘em up on national TV, in front of our very eyes, with tears streaming down his cheeks decided he didn’t want to quit after all. He manipulated a Packers organization, who had rolled out the red carpet in the direction of Favre’s couch, into taking him back. Then, he told them he would only play as a starter, despite the fact that the franchise had already bestowed that distinction upon Favre’s ex-understudy, Aaron Rodgers. After that, he pulled strings and forced Green Bay to kowtow to the wishes of Brett Favre, master puppeteer. By bluffing on an empty hand, Favre did his best to get his former employers to ship him off to a nearby division rival in Chicago or Minnesota. When those plans fell through, the future Hall of Fame quarterback seemed content upon landing in Tampa Bay. Instead, lo and behold, Broadway Brett became a New York Jet.

Away from the security of small-town Green Bay, Favre was spotlighted in the city that never sleeps, a city that is more anti-Favre than perhaps any other. Here, he appeared to emote displeasure with his surroundings and will cap off an up-and-down season this Sunday with no chance at making the playoffs. How the mighty have fallen.

Yep, we’re done with the Favre drama of 2008. The Favre drama of 2009, however, is just around the corner.

Honorable mention: Tiger’s gimpy U.S. Open victory; Plax shoots himself in leg; McNabb unaware that games can end in ties.

We asked you to vote on your favorite Dawg Pack moments, as well as your favorite sportscaster and the results have been tallied. We’ll start with the Dawg Pack Moments, and keep in mind this was done over two polls:

Favorite Dawg Pack moments, Poll 1 of 2
Fast food night, 47% (19 votes)
Adam Morrison Soap Day, 17% (7 votes)
Poli cheech miyaya, 15% (6 votes)
Stegosaurus Nick Young, 12% (5 votes)
Dawg Pack Road Trips 7% (3 votes)

Favorite Dawg Pack moments, Poll 2 of 2
Mexican Heritage Night, 56% (13 votes)
Frye’s phone number, 17% (4 votes)
Bennett flips off Pack, 13% (3 votes)
Hernaaaaaandez, 8% (2 votes)
Arizona upset 2004, 4% (1 vote)

And of course the sportscaster poll, with the overwhelming winner being ESPN’s Erin Andrews. The results:

Favorite local sportscaster (plus a national wildcard)
Erin Andrews, ESPN, 77% (42 votes)
Eric Johnson, KOMO, 9% (5 votes)
Paul Silvi, KING, 7% (4 votes)
Dan Devone, Q13, 3% (2 votes)
Angie Mentink, FSN, 1% (1 vote)
Gaard Swanson, KIRO, 0% (0 votes)

Sumner High School offensive lineman Grant Cisneros is upset. The University of Washington verbal commit has been told that his scholarship may in fact not be honored by the new coaching regime headed up by Steve Sarkisian in the coming year. Cisneros, who was destined for Montlake, is now in limbo as he awaits the decision on his academic and athletic fate. Rightfully, the high school senior is angry.

Unfortunately, anger doesn’t change the fact that the new coaching staff has zero commitment to Cisneros or any of Tyrone Willingham’s other recruits. If they want to pull Cisneros’ scholarship offer, they have every right to do so. If any school wants to pull any kid’s offer, they reserve the right to do that at any time, so long as the athlete in question hasn’t signed a letter of intent. The process works both ways, of course. Student-athletes reserve the right to de-commit from a verbal pact at any point as well, with the one caveat again being the almighty letter of intent.

It’s not like Cisneros couldn’t see this coming. He committed to a dead man, a lame duck. Word came in that Grant Cisneros wanted to attended UW after Tyrone Willingham had already been terminated by the university. That’s like investing in a company that just filed bankruptcy, or purchasing a car that just had an accident. You have to understand what you’re getting yourself into, and if an 18-year-old kid is dumbfounded as to why his poor choice has led to this result, then he has much bigger problems than where he’ll play football next year.

As fans, we should be glad that the Sarkisian regime has the balls to make these decisions. Towards the end of his tenure, Paint-Dry Ty and his Band of Jovial Stooges were pulling in some iffy prospects for a team they wouldn’t be coaching much longer. Grant Cisneros is a one- or two-star recruit according to most of the experts who evaluate these sorts of things (and I realize that to many of you, those ratings don’t mean much, but for the purposes of this article they are our only reference tool), meaning he’s a fringe Division-I player at best. The fact that he has zero scholarship offers from any other D-I school should tell you all you need to know about the kid: he’s just flat-out not good enough to be considered for this level of play. Does that mean he should give up the dream? No way. But does that mean he should expect to play football for the University of Washington? Probably not. More than likely, he’s destined for a D-II school like Western or Central Washington, a place where he can expect to start and possibly improve himself through repetition. Should he end up at UW, it is very likely that he’ll simply be a body on the depth chart who possibly sees time on special teams. That shouldn’t be his goal, but it’s the reality of the situation.

It’s not fair to rip on high school kids for making choices such as the one Cisneros has made. But when they demand public attention for a situation that is ultimately out of their control, they become targets for scrutiny and evaluation, no matter how fair or unfair that may be. Grant Cisneros may very well be the next great University of Washington offensive lineman. Whether he ends up getting the chance to prove that may or may occur. The one thing we need to realize as fans is that by entrusting a guy like Sarkisian to run our program, we are likewise standing behind the decisions he makes. Grant Cisneros’ mom and dad may not like those decisions being made, but you have to appreciate the tough decisions being made by a new coach who is anything but what the hold coach was. The more ties we can sever from the Ty Willingham era, the better. If that means guys like Grant Cisneros have to be cut, then go ahead and point them towards the door.