Wednesday Night Beer: Casey Martinez Fesses Up

Casey Martinez, who's son Taylor has been the subject of rumor after rumor in recent weeks, opened up to the Los Angeles Times today about what happened after Taylor went to the locker room with a first half injury. He confirmed the conventional wisdom out there that he initiated phone calls to the medical staff as well as to his son, and that his son returned the call, thus violating team rules and incurring the wrath of Bo Pelini when he returned to the field.

So now we know the story, but what we don't know is how this situation should evolve.  Bo Pelini knows (and even freely admits) that he should have handled it a little later. But what about everyone else? The medical staff probably should have held off on the discipline issue until halftime rather than distract the coach while the game was underway.

As for Taylor and his father, I'm not sure what the point of talking to the Los Angeles media about this is. If Taylor wants to be a quarterback in college football (and possibly beyond), he needs to open up himself with the local media first.  This is one of those lessons that a young college student sometimes has to learn the hard way. Martinez is a unique and special athlete who's going to need to be molded into a college quarterback by Pelini and his staff.

I'm also questioning why Casey would reopen this can of worms a day before the Holiday Bowl. Just what everybody needs, another distraction.

It's going to be a full 20 hours of local sports action starting tomorrow evening.  At 6 pm, the UNO Mavericks return to the ice to face 8-9-1 Quinnipiac.  After the last holiday break, the Mav hockey team returned sluggish, and were swept by Bemidji State.  Doesn't sound like that's the case this week, and that should set UNO for a good run in the second half of the season. These out-of-conference games against teams from the East don't necessarily impress the casual sports fan in Omaha, but are huge for helping set UNO's ranking for potential post-season action.  That game should end about 45 minutes before the Holiday Bowl ends; hopefully this year, the Music City Bowl will be over to allow us to see the opening kickoff.

Then at 11 am the next morning, the Mavs face off against Quinnipiac for the series finale. Considering many local sports fans will be sleeping in, it could be hockey on the radio during breakfast.  Sounds like the local weather is going to be nasty, so it'll be a good day to sit around the house with hockey on the radio and bowl games on the TV.