These Guys Want Some Extreme Money Too

Dodd Stocker-Edwards, owner of sportswear company Pump Dog, says extreme athletes “don’t want to be with the Nikes, the Reeboks and the most popular things in American culture like McDonald’s and Chevrolet. It’s ‘I want to be me.”’

Actually, now that they’re big time, extreme athletes are starting to resemble mainstream whiners.

Take the recent ESPN X Games, in which several, who would have been doing their stuff free on the street 10 years before, went off on the All-American subject of prize money.

Skateboarder Matt Dove won the best-trick competition while wearing a T-shirt decrying the “Extreme $ Profit Network.”

“Look at the prizes,” Dove told the Philadelphia Inquirer. “Look at the money they’re bringing in, look at the people that are here. ... We get $400 for last place for the top 20 in the world....

“They’re trying to make money off us without giving anything back.”

Said skateboarder Tony Hawk, “Bowling and surfing, sports that don’t draw near the crowd or the interest ... have at least three times the prize money. [Dove] is absolutely right.”

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Trivia time: Who is the only NHL player to win the Art Ross (scoring), Hart (MVP) and Lady Byng (sportsmanship) trophies in the same season?

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Still going: The San Jose Mercury News’ Tim Kawakami notes that the post-retirement career of ABC’s Keith Jackson has lasted longer than the entire career of many broadcasters.

Jackson, who announced his retirement two years ago, still does West Coast college football games and will do the Rose Bowl, which takes its turn in January as the Bowl Championship Series’ title game.

“It’s like when we lose Joe Paterno or Bobby Bowden,” said ABC commentator Terry Bowden, Bobby’s son.

“You can’t replace someone like Keith Jackson. I don’t see anybody on the horizon who can replace him.”

How about ESPN’s Chris Berman? His trademark “rumblin’, bumblin’, stumbling” call is a parody of Jackson’s down-home style.

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Bear trap: While Chicago Bear Coach Dick Jauron simmers on his hot seat, the team’s new general manager, Jerry Angelo, is busy cutting costs.

Said Mike Wells, an axed veteran defensive tackle: “I can’t mention any names, but there were a lot of guys talking to me about this and you’d be shocked about some of the things they had to say. We were all so optimistic in the spring. Now attitudes have really started to slide. Guys who have been great team players are starting to get bad attitudes.”

Notes the Chicago Sun-Times’ Mike Mulligan: “Jauron twists in the wind as the lamest duck this side of Daffy.”

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Trivia answer: The Chicago Blackhawks’ Stan Mikita, who did it twice.

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And finally: New York Yankee first baseman Tino Martinez on Seattle’s Ichiro Suzuki: “Ichiro is so aware of an opposing pitcher’s strengths and weakness, he’s able to literally hit the ball where he wants to--left, right, ground ball, fly ball, wherever, whenever. So I’m never sure if I should play in or back.

“The only other guy I ever saw who could do that was [Tony] Gwynn.”