THURSDAY • MARCH 22, 2012
D2 Take 2
D4 Scoreboard
D5 Basketball
D6 NCAA bracket
JETS FINALIZE DEAL TO ACQUIRE TEBOW
Tim Tebow
reacts
after
scoring
a touchdown in
the fourth
quarter
last season
against
the Jets,
now his
new team.
Jaguars try to horn in on trade when hangup occurs, but Denver, New York work out money
DENNIS WASZAK JR. • AP
Tim Tebow is coming to New York. Really.
After a big false start, the New York
Jets pulled off a Tebow-like comeback
Wednesday night, getting the quarterback who turned the Denver Broncos
from an also-ran into a playoff team last
season and became the NFL’s most talked-about player — for fourth- and sixth-
round draft picks.
Now, Tebowmania is opening on Broadway.
And, there’s sure to be plenty of drama
— just as there was from the moment the
Jets pulled off the deal. Or thought they
did, that is.
“I’m thankful they stuck with me
through this whole crazy process,” Tebow
said during a call late Wednesday night,
repeating several times that he was “ex-
cited” to be a member of the Jets.
Eight hours after initially agreeing to a
trade, the teams completed it after it was
hung up when the Jets balked at repaying
Denver more than $5 million for a salary
advance due Tebow. The two sides agreed
to split that cost, and Jets General Manager Mike Tannenbaum said the team was
“comfortable with the compensation.”
He said there was a disagreement
BARRY
GUTIERREZ
AP
SEE TEBOW • D3
SAINTS’ SINNERS
Goodell’s unprecedented punishment
for bounties is harsh, but warranted
Vikings quarterback Brett Favre is
helped off the field during the NFC
title game against New Orleans. AP
Heavy hand
The following penalties were issued
Wednesday by NFL Commissioner
Roger Goodell against the New Orleans
Saints; all suspensions are without pay:
Head coach Sean Payton:
Suspended for one year,
effective April 1.
General Manager Mickey
Loomis: Suspended for first
eight games of 2012 regular
season.
Defensive coordinator
Gregg Williams: Suspended
indefinitely, but for at least
one year; now with the Rams.
Assistant head coach Joe
Vitt: Suspended for first
six games of 2012 regular
season.
Saints organization: Fined $500,000.
Stripped of second-round draft picks in
2012, 2013.
With the flick
of a whip, Roger
Goodell became
Judge Roy Bean,
the law west and
east of the Pecos.
The NFL commissioner WednesNICK
day lined up all
C A N E PA
the important
Saints who had sinned, tied them
to his high horse and dragged them
through the chaparral.
Roger Goodell is a hard man,
man. Making his decision on The
League’s Bounty Inquisition, he
made the perps step into the dock
and gave out one big haircut after
the other, shattering the reputation
of the not-so-long-ago-proud New
Orleans Saints.
What Goodell did was unprecedented in the NFL and perhaps the
harshest punishment handed down
in American team sports since
the Black Sox Scandal. Everyone
knew the Saints were going to pay
dearly for bounties paid to players
for big hits and taking opponents
out of games, and the commissioner
didn’t disappoint the bloodthirsty.
This was a great day — if you’re a
vampire.
Saints head coach Sean Payton,
who runs the team’s football operations, was suspended without pay
for the 2012 season. It will cost him
around $8 million. Warranted.
Saints General Manager (in title
only) Mickey Loomis was suspended
without pay for the first eight regular season games. Should have been
worse. He was ordered to clean up
the mess and disobeyed.
The man with the dirtiest hands,
former Saints (and now Rams) defensive coordinator Gregg Williams,
was suspended indefinitely, at least
through 2012, when Judge Goodell
will review the case. He doesn’t
deserve to get lucky.
Saints assistant coach Joe Vitt
has been suspended six games and
fined $100,000. He must have done
something bad. What, was he was
the bagman?
The Saints have been fined
$500,000. A po’ boy sandwich to
Saints owner Tom Benson. But
Goodell has taken away the team’s
second-round draft choices in 2012
and 2013, and that hurts more than
SEE CANEPA • D3
Reports indicate New Orleans head coach Sean Payton (foreground) and former Saints
defensive coordinator Gregg Williams were not forthright during the NFL’s probe. AP
WIE FINALLY JOINS THE ‘REAL WORLD’
LPGA Kia
Classic
When: Today
through
Sunday
Where: La
Costa Resort
and Spa,
Carlsbad
TV: Golf
Channel
(live); today
through
Saturday,
3:30-6 p.m.;
Sunday, 4-6
p.m.
With degree finished
at Stanford, she can
focus on golf game
Sweet 16 an exercise in power conferences,
with Ohio, Xavier as only exceptions, sort of
MARK ZEIGLER • U-T
TOD LEONARD • U-T
CARLSBAD
Michelle Wie put down the
pen on her last final exam at
Stanford last Friday and wandered over to the book store
for one last, bittersweet visit.
On the wall, she looked at the
diploma frames and Cardinal license plate holders, the
mementos people buy when
they’re saying goodbye.
It was beginning to sink
in: After 4½ years of juggling
homework and late-night cram
SEE LPGA • D2
WHERE ARE THE CINDERELLAS?
Michelle Wie insists she has the
desire to win. SCOTT ALLISON • U-T
Cinderella isn’t wearing a
ball gown this year. Maybe
something more like a black
cocktail dress.
Or a witch costume, or a pirate or a vampire. Batman or
Darth Vader.
ANALYSIS
Ohio University, situated in the rolling hills and shade
trees of the state’s southeastern corner, is the nation’s ninth
oldest public university. It also
is its No. 1 party school according to the most recent edition
of the Princeton Review, re-
nown for an annual Halloween bash that regularly draws
20,000 revelers to the streets
of Athens and, in 2003, featured flaming couches.
That’s your Cinderella in the
2012 NCAA men’s basketball
tournament.
Just when we thought
March was really getting mad,
when Virginia Commonwealth
reaches a Final Four, when
Butler has the audacity to
play in consecutive finals, we
get a Sweet 16 with the Ohio
Bobcats … and 15 bluebloods
that have combined for 33 naSEE NCAA • D5
NCAA
Tournament
TV
Today’s games
4:15 p.m.
Syracuse vs.
Wisconsin, Ch. 8
4:47 p.m.
Michigan St. vs.
Louisville, TBS
6:45 p.m.
Ohio State vs.
Cincinnati, Ch. 8
7:17 p.m.
Marquette vs.
Florida, TBS