With the Iowa caucus upon us this week, w.went looking for candidates who would be dipping into the sports arena for meetings, photos and good will to garner support in the polls. With Mitt Romney's Salt Lake Olympic experience, John McCain's tremendous love for the outdoors, and Rudy Giuliani's love of the Yankees, we anticipated that some candidates would be dipping into the rich field of high school or collegiate athletics (nothing bigger than Iowa wrestling this time of year) for some meet and greets. Alas, the only, and best link between politics and sports came from Sports Illustrated, who scored a great coup with Barack Obama hooping it up with Scott Price in the latest issue (along with photos on si.com). I asked a well connected political operative his thoughts on why there weren’t more sports related stories or content in Iowa or New Hampshire so far, and he provided some interesting points.
1- The photo op has got to show it will drive voters:2- The issues for voters toda.do not revolve around athletic issues or crisis at this time:3- No time to get outside the environment:Janet Rae-Dupree's piece on innovation in the Sunday Times is worth bookmarkin.?…Jeff Goodman on foxsports.com had a nice New Year's piece on Andy Kennedy and the job he has done at Ole Miss to rebuild his reputation and a long-lagging program…and a couple of historical boll pieces of note were the Kansas City Star's Brad.McCullough's look at the 1969 Orange BowlJerry Crowe's look back at the 1942 Rose Bowl in the LA Times.
