Friday Firings: Derrick Rose, Rays Fan Ejection, UT Slush Fund

With Memorial Day weekend upon us, seems as good a time as any to survey things worthy of pink slips across several sports.

Rose: Definitely not a playoff MVP.

Fire Derrick Rose's Playoff Performance - Bulls G Derrick Rose must be saying: "That. Just. Happened." The reigning MVP had probably the worst 4:31 ever during the 4th quarter of Miami's 83-80 victory last night to close out the Eastern Conference Finals. At the start of Rose's epically bad stretch, his team lead 73-63. Then Rose went down like the Titanic and Miami went on a 20-7 run. Over the game's final 4:31, Rose shot 1-4 from the field, 1-4 from the foul line, turned the ball over twice, and committed 3 shooting fouls. Rose's overall playoff performance was nowhere near that bad (27.1 ppg, 4.3 rpg, 7.7 apg, almost identical to his regular-season stats), but a true MVP does not collapse the way Rose did when the season is on the line. This also shows the drawback of giving out MVP awards without taking the playoffs into account.

Fire the Devil Rays for Ejecting a Fan Who Wore a 'Yankees Suck' Shirt - The Tampa Bay Devil Rays ejected season-ticket holder Melvin Little because he refused to take off his "Yankees Suck" t-shirt while attending a home game against the Yankees with his sons 2 weeks ago. Little said a security guard told him "'Major League Baseball has determined that the shirt constitutes profanity'" so his options were to cover it up/take it off or leave. Even though Little is paying $20,000 for his seats this season, he chose to leave.

Everyone knows that every sporting event in America has its share of a-hole fans saying vile things, most of whom NEVER get removed from the stadium. Little wasn't hurting anyone, and as one of 3 Devil Rays season-ticket holders, he probably deserves a little leeway to wear the shirt. The FCC allows people to say "suck" on television, but the suddenly pious MLB has decided it's not acceptable at a ballgame? Most likely, the Yankees bitched that they didn't want people wearing the shirts, and because Bud Selig will do anything to keep his cash cow happy, he went ahead and banned them. The Devil Rays should have had the guts to leave Little alone, and until the team grows a pair, it should be fired.  

Fire University of Tennessee's Fund to Make Mistakes Go Away - The Volunteers reportedly will spend $9.1 million between 2005 and 2012 to buy out 6 coaches the school fired including 2 head baseball coaches and football coach Phil Fulmer (who will get the bulk of the cash). That doesn't include another $800,000+ for the coaches' former staffers. The school apparently has a special fund set up just to cover these buyouts. While nothing is illegal (or even that unusual here), this absolutely has to stop. The NCAA seems to like regulating things, so it should get a handle on these sort of "whoops" funds. In this case, the state of Tennessee should also be furious that its top public university is throwing away this kind of cash on sports. If the NCAA doesn't stop this, the state should.