Cigarettes to cell phones, it's another image uptick for NASCAR.
A macho, turbo biz evolving from unlawful backwoods races among souped cars of post-World-War-II Carolina moonshine haulers keeps pulling away from envious 21st century ownership snobs and their overtaxed marketing wizards in a nation of struggling sports leagues.
It's tacky, though necessary, for historic ventures such as the Sugar or Orange bowls or the PGA Tour's Colonial Invitational to be bought into adding Nokia, Fed Ex or Bank of America to their names. It's a trend that will only escalate.
They're all desperate for money.
My cringes go deep when old stadiums drop names of honored people like Jack Murphy or Joe Robbie, selling out to a Qualcomm or Pro Player or some other business entity.
Surely we're headed for Beenie Weenie Fenway Park or the changing of Lambeau Field to Johnsonville Sausage Place. Can't be sure we're not headed for, instead of Dodger Stadium, an L.A. baseball marquee proclaiming "ESPN Ballpark."
NASCAR hasn't really changed, it has only expanded. From dirt-track generations of Fonty Flock, Tiny Lund and Fireball Roberts, drivers and their machines and arenas have been a barrage of commercialism. They've always worn decals on their underwear. Ubiquitous ads are NASCAR's tradition.
Thing is, a 1950s endorsement of Joe's Garage or High Point Meat Market might've cost $500 a season but that would explode into such flourishing deal as a long, gushing relationship with Winston cigs that is coming to a coughing demise and will be replaced by a 10-year, $700-million agreement with Nextel.
This is a bit like the NFL being the Budweiser Football League or Bud Selig's gang calling itself Ford Major League Baseball. But that somehow seems far more bothersome than seeing the horsepower chaps racing for the Nextel Cup.
Baseball, basketball and hockey are being flogged by sinking TV ratings and crushing expenses. Who is groping for fresh revenue sources? Pro football is rich and stable, but don't think Mal Glazer wouldn't relish altering the franchise name to Outback Steakhouse Buccaneers if the price was ample.
What about the Chase Manhattan Giants or L.L. Bean Patriots? You okay with that? Never say never. NASCAR has all other sports, including golf and tennis, searching for their own $700-mil cell sell.
KUDOS AND CRASHES: Never, sadly, are we apt to see an NCAA final in football or men's basketball to match the baseball conclusion between champion Rice and Stanford, schools where SAT scores of all involved average 1,400-plus, grad rates are above 90 percent and attitudes seem what most of us want to see from our own children. ... Ivan Maisel of ESPN.com lists Oklahoma and Miami 1-2 in his preseason college football rankings, with FSU sitting an uncharacteristically low 15th and the Florida Gators being smacked with an unlisting. ... Do you think, with recent non-contending efforts by Tiger Woods, there might've been something to Phil Mickelson's playful rip of No. 1's golf sticks made by Nike? ... Of course, where has Lefty gone as a major threat?
NOT THROUGH YET: Re: risky business, since the end of college basketball season, 44 Division I schools have changed coaches. ... Good riddance of the week: Colonel Reb, an outdated and nauseating Ole Miss symbol, but can we have new examinations on changing some inappropriate pro nicknames, like maybe the Indians and Braves, but absolutely that misfitting symbol of America's capitol, the Redskins?
SELECT CLUB: Dan Daly of the Washington Times notes that Mike Weir becomes just the sixth golfer to win the Masters and, two months later, finish top three in the U.S. Open (others are a mega-imposing list: Nicklaus, Palmer, Hogan, Faldo and Woods).
