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The Debriefing is a column that runs every weekday at 9:00 a.m. here on FanHouse. It goes deep into one issue and then bounces around to a plethora of smaller ones ... and does it all in a way that will make you feel like the prettiest girl at the cotillion. Bookmark this page, and visit daily.



When the East Carolina Pirates trot out onto the Lane Stadium field on Saturday, they're going to hear something they'd have thought to be quite unlikely when the game was originally scheduled.

No, it's not going to be a "WE'RE PROUD OF THE VICK BOYS!" chant from the Hokie faithful (although that would certainly qualify as unlikely) ... it's going to be a smattering of applause for the visiting team in purple and yellow. The Virginia Tech administration is encouraging Hokie fans to cheer for the Pirates when they take the field, and I find this to be very unnatural and disturbing.

ECU is one of the schools that really reached out to support Virginia Tech after the tragedy this spring that took the lives of 27 students and five faculty members. Before the game, there will be almost 10 minutes worth of ceremonies, including a video tribute, a fly-over by F-15's, and the presentation of $100,000 from ECU to the Hokie Spirit Memorial Fund.

And Tech wants to show ECU some appreciation, which is nice ... but send them a thank-you card. A singing telegram, a lovely fruit basket ... something private. Don't cheer for them. If I turn on the TV Saturday, and see an opposing team being cheered in Lane Stadium ... it just won't feel right. It's just not what Virginia Tech fans do. It won't feel normal. And normal should be what we're pursuing here.

(Also at the bottom: I hope Mike Mussina hasn't committed suicide at the time this is posted ... Charles Barkley has reason to be afraid ... Friday Night Lights is out on DVD ... the last time I checked, Notre Dame defensive tackle, sexual favors were not on the McDonalds Dollar Menu ... and if you try to give the Steelers any non-Heinz ketchup, they will see to it that your legs are broken ... )

I'm not one of the people that believe sports can heal a community. Sports can pleasantly and harmlessly distract a certain segment of the community, and that's certainly a good thing. That's a valuable service, if you happen to be a sports fan. If you're more into knitting, though, you're going to be left out of the healing process on Saturday. Sorry.

I'm of the opinion that actual healing is going to require a little bit more than an Xavier Adibi sack and camouflage-wearing fans making turkey noises.

I feel some similarities between this weekend's VaTech vs. ECU game and the first game the Saints played back in New Orleans after Katrina. It was an emotional atmosphere, and it was fun to watch the Saints play so well, and it was good to see the fans get so excited about it. But ...

At the end of the day, was it anything more than a pleasant, temporary distraction? People smiled for an evening, even people who had their lives washed away and were living in the Astrodome ... but did it rebuild any houses? Did it do much for the 9th Ward? Did it rebuild New Orleans' infrastructure? ESPN acted like it did, but it didn't.

And Saturday's game at Lane Stadium, with the pre-game memorials and ceremonies, and the patches on the jerseys ... is it going to do much to heal the pain of those who lost friends or family members in the shooting?

I wish it could. Maybe it's me being overly skeptical, but sometimes I feel like these memorials and things are more for the benefit of those who weren't directly stricken by the tragedy. I know that all the people at Virginia Tech, in Blacksburg, and in fact, people all across the country, were, on some level, wounded as a result of what happened.

But the parents, brothers, sisters, boyfriends and girlfriends who lost someone special in their life ... I don't know that there's anything that we can do for them during a Saturday football game.

To move on with their lives, what they might need help with is getting things back to normal.

What happened back on April 16th ... it's not like it can be forgotten, and it's not the kind of thing that can be healed, even a tiny little bit, by a football game. And what's happening on Saturday, no matter how much we'd like it to be something more, is still just a football game. Wounds that horrific can be healed only by the passage of time, and by trying to get things back as close as possible to the way they used to be.

East Carolina University, as a neighbor and friend to Virginia Tech, owed Tech their support in a time of tragedy. Virginia Tech, in return, owes East Carolina University their gratitude and respect.

But the ECU Pirates football team ... what they owe the Virginia Tech Hokies football team is something completely different. They owe them their best effort on a Saturday afternoon.

They owe it to the Hokies to try to beat them, and to probably fail. That would be a step towards getting things back to normal ... and right now, that's about the best thing anyone could give Virginia Tech.

And in Blacksburg on a Saturday ... there's nothing more normal than outright, hostile, loathing towards anyone who plays against the Hokies. That's what I'd like to see.





I'm going to give this gentleman the benefit of the doubt and assume that his luggage was lost or stolen on the way to New York, and that he was forced to raid the local YMCA's lost and found to find something to wear.






Charles Oakley. Oak was the guest for Five Good Minutes on PTI yesterday ... for me, finding this out was like waking up and having someone tell me that today was Christmas Day. I couldn't have been happier.

Oakley, if you haven't heard, is considering an NBA comeback. It's probably not going to happen ... I just hope that, the more appearances he makes like this on PTI, the more he realizes that he should be behind a microphone somewhere.

You can find the clip from yesterday's PTI here, but before you do, you should be aware of the history between Oak and Charles Barkley. I wrote this back on my now-rapidly-decaying website in 2003:

According to Peter Vescey of the New York Post, Oak slapped Barkley at a union meeting during the lockout and told him, "Every time I see you, I'm going to slap you." In a later game, Oakley threw Barkey to the floor just three minutes into the first quarter, and Charles got up swinging. After the game, Clyde Drexler, a teammate of Barkley's at the time, called Oakley a dirty player. Told of Drexler's comment, Oak said, "He can b--- me."

Anyway, Mike Wilbon passed this quote on to Oakley, from Barkley: "People forget why these guys retired in the first place ... it's because they weren't any good anymore." Oak's response:

"Well, you know, Barkley was a great player, but now, he talk more now ... he didn't say nothin' when he played the game, now he can talk because young guys don't care, don't really know Barkley.

But you know, he's just a cat -- he couldn't come back right now, he about 450 ... couldn't fit through my car wash ... so he know, when he said my name to the press, when he see me, we'll talk about that personally, me and him. So when he hears this interview, he know. (couldn't understand a few words here, something about an antenna). So when I see him, he gonna go the other way."

And then Tony Kornheiser asked him how much this comeback had to do with Oakley's upcoming book.

I'm missin' a couple chapters, so I think Barkley just took one of them. And the comeback'll be two of them. So if I don't come back, I will finish the book soon, and get it out and let everybody read it for themselves. Hey, the book'll be so funny, there gonna be a part two, like a movie.

And I think that, uh, it's gonna be so funny, gonna need a vacuum cleaner to clean all the dust off, like it goin' through my car wash, you know, Barkley might be there. I'mma give him a full service car wash, but I'm not gonna vacuum his car out, cuz I know a lot of donut boxes and everything in the backseat."

I have great respect for Charles Barkley ... but if I'm ever in the area, I'm definitely going to patronize Oakley's Car Wash. I owe him that.



Mike Mussina. Did you catch that interview Mussina did with the YES Network, lamenting his recent struggles? Guys on death row have given more cheerful interviews. I don't think Owen Wilson's that depressed (by the way, I do sincerely hope that Owen's okay, and that he didn't paint his face red and yellow again, and then drive over Ari and Uzi's new dog).

Anyway, in his last three outings, the Moose has totaled 9.2 innings, and he's allowed 19 runs. Over the past seven days, he has an ERA of 25. In a move that could only be considered merciful, Joe Torre's going to talk to him about moving to the bullpen.

Quoth the Moose:

"Two weeks ago, I felt really good about the way I was throwin' the ball, I felt good about what was happenin'... I think we all did, as a team, felt like we were playing some of our baseball. Two weeks later, it's completely at the other end of the spectrum, and um ... I really don't feel like I can do much of anything right.

I haven't helped us at all in the last three games I've pitched. It's disappointing, and you know, and probably the last nine innings, are the worst nine innings I've pitched in my career, in a row. It's tough to take. I don't even know how to describe it, because I've never had to deal with it before."

Let's keep the Moose away from all sharp objects for a while.



Deserving Of Your Full Attention ...

9:00, ABC. NASCAR in Primetime. This was on last week, too. I have no idea what it is.

Other Stuff ...

7:00, USA. Tennis. U.S. Open, Men's First & Women's Second Rounds.
7:00, ESPN2. MLB. Boston Red Sox @ New York Yankees.
11:00, ESPN2. Basketball. FIBA Americas Championship, Second Round.