Mickey Rourke's Thursday News and Views

by:Matt Jones09/15/10
rourke Today we celebrate the life of a person who has lived one of the stranger lives in modern celebrity, the somewhat quirky Mickey Rourke. For you young people out there, Mickey Rourke was once the "it" star of his generation, a talented and handsome actor that people thought would become the next Marlon Brando. He had a couple of top-notch roles early in his career and seemed headed down the Brad Pitt/George Clooney path, when drugs and general weirdness hit him and caused a massive downfall. He spent the 90s and early 2000s in B level movies, taking steroids and doing drugs, and generally watching his life spiral out of control. But last year he made a comeback, and his performance in "The Wrestler" is still one of the best I have seen on film in a decade. Playing a washed up wrestler looking for redemption, Rourke mirrored his own life on film and the performance won him a Golden Globe. He now is back in the movie business, playing bad guys in action movies and creating a comeback where none seemed possible. If you havent seen it yet, rent "The Wrestler" and throw one back for Mickey Rourke...his plight even gives Lindsey Lohan hope for the future. To the news: (1): The story of the day continues to be the ongoing questions about what will happen with the Eric Bledsoe situation. The stupendously awful Pete Thamel wrote an "Analysis" article in the NY Times that blamed all of this on Calipari, an absurdly ridiculous position that even the biggest Coach Cal hater has a hard time defending. Rick Bozich did a video show with Eric Crawford (watched by literally dozens of people) in which he also blamed Calipari, while not explaining his miraculous decision to take 2 weeks of vacation time during the EXACT TWO WEEKS that the Karen Sypher trial put his friend Rick Pitino in the news. Those shots by media members have also been met with a couple of Calipari defenders, including the guys from PTI, but what we are mostly left with is a waiting game. The Alabama High School investigation is now being pushed back to next week and what will come of the Bledsoe transcripts is still up in the air. Step one of the process is to see if the Alabama folks find wrongdoing...if they dont, its over. If they do, then the NCAA must decide if it will take a position, causing this to drag on further. All in all, for UK fans one just has to hope it will end soon...but if we have learned anything from the media this summer, it is that nary a week will go by without putting Calipari in the news. recruit (2): Enes Kanter was granted a waiver to practice with the UK team by the NCAA a few weeks ago and is participating in fall workouts with the Cats. AT UK, the Cats are allowed to practice two hours a week and do individual workouts, all of which are including Kanter. Whether he will see the court at the end of the time is still up in the air (more on that in a minute), but as of now, he is still considered part of the team and is taking part in team pictures, etc. One has to think UK is confident in his future to continue to make him part of the group to such a high degree, and at least as far as the NCAA is concerned as of today, he is allowed to be a member of the UK team. (3): A reporter from the MSG Network in New York, Jon Rothstein has the UK media all buzzing with his tweet that sources told Rothstein that Kanter will be eligible to play this year. I dont know Rothstein and I certainly dont know his sources. However I havent heard anyone that is close to the situation express such confidence publically or privately and unless Rothstein has a beeline to the folks at the NCAA office making the decision, I would look at the report skeptically. I do think Kanter likely ends up playing some amount of time, but honestly that is more a guess based on feel than any inside knowledge. EVERYONE I speak to about the issue, and there are lots of folks, say that they dont really know for sure. My guess is that is because at this point, it hasnt been decided. (4): There was some bad news for former football Cats today as Micah Johnson was waived by the Miami Dolphins. The Linebacker had been on the roster for the first game, but was let go today going into Week 2. IF he is not picked up by another team, he can be put on the Dolphins Practice Squad next week and there are some reports that could be the plan. We hope Micah can stick on in Miami or some other team soon. His quickness will always be an issue in the NFL, but he has a strong desire to succeed and here is hoping he makes it happen. (5): Finally, two guys who have put in a lot of work and have improved more than virtually anyone else on the team, Luke McDermott and Matt Roark were rewarded by the UK football staff by being named game Captains this week against Akron. The game against the Zips (who are REALLY bad) is a chance for these two young men to get a spotlight that is well deserved. McDermott went from walk-on with little hope of seeing the field to a starter who is getting bigtime minutes and making an impact. Roark has all the physical tools but seemed a step behind the last two years, but is now hitting his groove at a time that the team needs his development at the WR position. Both have done well and both now get attention for their impact on the team. We will have more all day and have a big day coming. Evan Daniels of Scout.com is in studio on the radio and the Birmingham writer covering the Bledsoe story is on the phone on the radio show this morning from 10 am to noon. Plus Jeff Goodman of Fox Sports will be on to let us know his thoughts on all the Calipari stories from the summer. IT should be a big day...and if you have missed the other shows from this week, listen below or better yet, subscribe here on iTunes. More later....

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