Over the top? Kind of cool? Right in line what this whole recruiting production has become?

Give Kief a 9.5 for use of props and for creativity. The whole DerekKief.com thing, though? Produce first, kid. All that stuff can come later.

We were all young once, I guess.

I started thinking about all the games my dad took me to through the years when I was young — and how leaving early to beat the traffic became his signature move. We never went to a hockey game, but as the Bruins and Blackhawks started that third overtime I started doing a little math. With a little luck, we probably would have been home to catch the game-winner on TV.

Yes, from Chicago back to Akron. That’s how we rolled.

That’s not really how we rolled. We never (grossly) broke the speed limit, and we probably never would have gone that far on a school night.

Unless I really, really whined and threw a tantrum about it. I was pretty spoiled. My dad hated crowds, and traffic, and loud noises and the way I wanted to go from everything from the the USA Basketball team’s pre-Olympic tour to the St. Ignatius-St. Xavier state championship game, but he always took me. I always loved every second of it. And we always left early.

It’s probably not a coincidence that I hate crowds, traffic and loud noises these days. I don’t get to leave early. But I have a damn good gig, so that’s OK.

This borderline-unhealthy sports obsession I’ve had since I was old enough to read was fostered not just by my dad but by mom, too. And all four of my grandparents. And by my friend’s dads who coached us, and by the other kids and dads in the neighborhood, and the list goes on.

Going all the way back even past when I can really remember, my grandparents never missed a game. My dad was almost always my coach. And my mom never really discouraged me from thinking every one of those silly games was the most important thing on Earth that day.

If nothing else, Father’s Day is probably a good time to thank all involved for everything. Thirty-some years into this adulthood experiment, I’m still in need of all the help I can get.

One of the coolest places sports has ever taken me is the College World Series last June to cover Kent State’s improbable run. Father’s Day was a practice day for Kent State, which took a bus about 25 minutes out of Omaha to a place called Bellevue East High School for batting practice and a light workout. Among the onlookers and recipients of the home run balls were several young kids from the neighborhood who had come over to watch practice with their dads.

Down on the field, then-Kent State coach Scott Stricklin had his father in the dugout and got to throw a little batting practice to his young son. I talked to Stricklin this week and brought that up.

He told me he was going to get choked up thinking about.

I remembered sneaking away from the field and calling my dad and both grandfathers, thanking them for everything. As I wrote at the time, there’s a reason a career .117 hitter in the Manchester t-shirt league found himself at the College World Series.

Because I’d been caught up in my last-minute Omaha travel plans, it was really only then that I realized it was Father’s Day and that I was missing our annual friends/family golf Father’s Day golf outing. For probably eight or nine years now we’ve played in a mini-outing with friends and their fathers/grandfathers/uncles, a four-man scramble with some of the worst golfers around.

In some years, I’ve played with both of my grandfathers. What a thrill — and we all learned a lot, of that I am sure.

In other years the roster has varied. My brother was out of state for a while. Divorce court knocked a cousin’s husband off the roster. My grandfathers still love to golf, but it’s a big commitment for them to say they can stick out 18 holes of the Father’s Day Open.

Eighteen holes of golf is a lot. Eighteen holes of me whining and checking Twitter and driving the ball 150 yards while my brother hits towering drives that land 450 yards right of the intended fairway makes 18 holes seem like 80.

It’s raining this morning, but sign us up for all 80.

If you’re going to be spoiled, you might as well be all the way spoiled. You might as well be grateful, too, and I certainly am that.

Thanks, Dad — and all dads — for everything.

Turns out I was incorrect. That’s happened once before, maybe twice.

It wouldn’t be a terrible idea though, right?

Gordon, who will miss the first two games of the 2013 season due to violating the NFL’s substance abuse policy, will not be attending the 2013 symposium later this month. That was confirmed earlier this week by NFL spokesperson Corry Rush, who checked with the powers that be and responded to my inquiries.

The NFL considers the rookie symposium a big deal. It devotes a ton of money and resources to making sure its messages about money, decision-making, career management and substance abuse reach the 200+ drafted rookies who attend. It brings back former problem children to address the next generation. Seems like Gordon would be, in some ways, the symposium’s absolute target audience, no?

When then-Vikings receiver Percy Harvin missed the 2009 symposium due to sickness, there was some dicussion that he’d have to attend the following year. When the time came, the NFL did not require Harvin to attend because “he received the appropriate training during the season at the club level through the Vikings’ player development department.” Presumably, the NFL thinks the same of Gordon.

During the lockout year of 2011, the NFL Players’ Association held its own symposium-like event even though no league-sanctioned event could be held. More than 100 players didn’t show for that, but Terrelle Pryor — who was in that year’s supplemental draft — did.

The symposium is usually held in late June. The Browns selected Gordon in the supplemental draft in mid-July last year so, like Harvin and Pryor, he did not attend.

Given Gordon’s college troubles and his latest issue — and that the symposium is now held in Cleveland — maybe someone inside the Browns’ organization could give Gordon a nudge or a whisper about voluntarily attending? Per the CBA, it probably can’t be more than a nudge.

There is precedent. Another talented but troubled player, Nick Fairley of the Detroit Lions, showed up at last year’s symposium after being drafted during the lockout in 2011.

If Gordon showed up, he might win some goodwill and some PR points. More importantly, something there might stick with him. And he might learn from past offenders that it’s best to straighten up before it’s too late.

Charlie had a minute for everybody.

Charlie Coles stories provided laughs for days and years.

He wasn’t well, which led to his retirement just over a year ago. It positively stinks that he didn’t get more time to enjoy his retirement, but I’m absolutely certain that he never got cheated while he was here.

This is a guy who died on the court once — really — before medics brought him back. That was 25 years ago.

He kept coaching, kept cracking jokes, kept telling the truth. Kept entertaining everybody he encountered.

I knew when I wrote this in the winter of 2012 that it was an obituary of sorts at least terms of his coaching career, and that it didn’t do Charlie justice. I just read it myself a few minutes ago and I laughed. I’d have started to cry, but I pictured Charlie laughing.

And making faces like he did after that famous Kentucky game.

And getting all red-faced like he did with officials.

Read (and heed) the beer-buying offer at the end of the story. That was Charlie. He meant it.

I’ll toast one him this weekend. Charlie Coles was truly one of a kind.

Because that world revolves around LeBron, this is a big deal. Really big. And I think this makes it a good time for me to share where I stand on LeBron.

In what’s not exactly shocking news, LeBron doesn’t care what I think. And you might not either. But I’ve been watching, and tweeting, and trying to be objective between flops and moments of breathtaking dominance that I think we sometimes take for granted. Today just felt like a good day to write about LeBron — just, you know, in case the Pacers somehow win tonight — and I thought this was the best way to do it.

Over the last few weeks I’ve been accused (via Twitter, mostly) of being bitter about LeBron leaving Cleveland in 2010. I’ve been accused of sticking up for LeBron because he’s from Akron. I’ve been accused of not knowing much about anything of relevance when it comes to the NBA. I’ve been accused of stirring the pot regarding a possible LeBron-Cavaliers reunion next summer or in a summer that soon follows.

To some extent, all are true.

Clearly, LeBron James and I have a complicated relationship

Clearly, LeBron and I have a complicated relationship.

In truth, LeBron and I share nothing but an area code on our cell phones and an affinity for Swenson’s burgers, but there is a connection — if connection is the right word. That “Welcome to Akron” sign is so close to my house that I could walk there. I wouldn’t recommend anybody doing it, but that’s for a different day.

I write columns and tell Twitter jokes for a living; if you’ve ever clicked through this space before you know that some, in both categories, turn out better than others. I’ve seen hundreds (thousands, possibly) of LeBron’s games going back almost 15 years now. I’ve written about LeBron in glowing terms and in scathing ones.

Mostly, I’ve been amazed. He’s the best basketball player in the world. He’s the best athlete in the world. He’s an irresistible force and a dynamic superstar capable of doing things mere mortals can not in the open floor. He might truly be an immovable object in the post, too, but we don’t really know because of all that damn flopping.

Tonight’s Heat-Pacers Game Seven is absolute must-see TV, but the same is true for just about every game LeBron plays. If he’s taken for granted and over-scrutinized, it’s because he’s the rare megastar who’s exceeded all hype. He plays — literally and figuratively, to an extent — by his own set of rules.

When he left the Cavaliers in July 2010 I was shocked. And to an extent, saddened — for selfish career-related reasons, mostly. When LeBron was here, every Tuesday night game vs. Sacramento was a global event. When he left, the Cavaliers traded for Ramon Sessions and Ryan Hollins.

LeBron made a tremendous mistake in trusting his buddies to put together The Decision (and the clown show of a week leading up to it) in the manner it was put together and executed. He made a tremendous mistake in publicly counting the number of titles he assumed the Heat would win on the first day he was there, and those miscalculations led to him dealing with real scrutiny and criticism — most of it warranted — for the first time in his career.

He lived in a pretty nice bubble here. In 2010-11 in Miami, I think he let negativity control him. He had nobody to blame but himself, but he was in a bad place. He was trying to swing back at everybody who had taken shots at him and, well, that was going to be a lot of swinging. Even by LeBron’s ridiculously high standards.

Personal feelings aside, I maintained at the time of The Decision that LeBron had made a huge mistake. Given that the Heat are suddenly old and thin and vulnerable, it looks at this very second like I might be right. There’s also a chance that LeBron will be good enough to win tonight, and to beat the Spurs in the Finals, and that will make two straight titles with a third very possible because LeBron really might be that much better than the Eastern Conference and that much better than the second-best player in the world.

He’s grown up since that whole mess. He realized some of his mistakes. Over the last 18 months or so, he’s put together a stretch of basketball that might eclipse any stretch by any other player, ever, and one we might not see again.

Almost three years later, his past, present and future still loom over every move the Cavaliers make or might make. In no way, shape or form do I believe the Cavaliers’ best strategy going forward is to hope and pray for a LeBron return in the summer of 2014, but if you come up with a better one let me know.

In this new, self-assured and dominating LeBron, we’ve seen maturity meet greatness. Over the last week or so we’ve suddenly seen what was supposed to be a SuperTeam need its Superman more than ever. I think he’s up to the task; more than that, I think it will be as fascinating as it’s always been to watch and find out for sure.

Where do I stand with LeBron? As soon as he got his NBA title, I dropped every ounce of lingering hate. He was bound to get one, and he’s a lock to get more. He has a chance to carve out as unique a career path as we’ve ever seen. Maybe, eventually, he’ll be The Greatest. That it’s a discussion on some level right now says that it might happen.

I tell jokes about going to LeBron’s wedding this fall, but in reality I’m neither invited nor do I own enough pastels. I tell jokes about his butchering of the English language on Twitter. I tell jokes about his whining and flopping because he should be better than that. I love when he barks at Mario Chalmers like a father scolding an unruly son because, we’ll, it’s just really funny.

And watching LeBron play — if you can take a step back and enjoy it — is usually worth every second.

I truly believe he’s coming back to Cleveland, eventually. But that’s for another day, and another discussion or set of discussions altogether. This has been about the past but it’s really about now, and if you’re still reading you now know exactly where LeBron and I stand. At least until 11:30 or so tonight.

Quarterback Braxton Miller heads six Buckeyes on the first team. Six more made the second team, and five others are either on the third or fourth team.

Other Ohio State first-teamers were cornerback Bradley Roby, safety Christian Bryant, linebacker Ryan Shazier and offensive linemen Jack Mewhort and Andrew Norwell. Roby, like Miller, will be on just about every major preseason award list throughout the summer.

Wisconsin linebacker Chris Borland, a native of the Dayton area, was on the first team. Ohio State’s Adolphus Washington and Curtis Grant were on the second team, and both are interesting projections because they’ll be in totally new roles this season. All four of Ohio State’s returning offensive linemen were represented in Steele’s four-tier projections.

Steele is based in Cleveland. His annual magazine — the absolute annual college football encyclopedia — will be released later this month.

View the full list here on Steele’s site

The Rockets have added three quarterbacks since February: Freshman Logan Woodside of Kentucky, freshman Michael Julian of South Carolina and now Alabama transfer Phillip Ely, a native of Florida.

Think this mid-week TV exposure thing is working for the Mid-American Conference?

Toledo won nine games in Matt Campbell’s first season as head coach last year. The Rockets turnaround started under Tim Beckman, who rode two years of success to the job at Illinois following the 2011 season. Toledo hasn’t been able to get past Northern Illinois to win the MAC West but the Rockets have played in three straight bowl games following a five-year drought.

Another good season could be on the horizon, though the Rockets open the season at Florida and at Missouri. If they can survive that SEC double with their starters healthy and intact, they’ll be right in the mix in the MAC West again, likely with Northern Illinois and Ball State.

According to this AL.com article, former Toledo coach Nick Saban helped Ely find a new home.

Multiple reports last month said the MAC is working on extending its mid-week TV deal with ESPN, a deal that would be good for both sides and is crucial to the MAC’s continued growth and sustaining last year’s success. SportsTime Ohio remains the league’s Saturday TV partner.

I work on Sundays in the fall, usually, and when I don’t and I’m in Columbus I usually go to a bar and watch 18 football games at once.

Rough gig. Somebody has to do it.

Anyway, the Browns, like all teams, send press releases so people will talk about them. And after I read it, I started thinking about something, and then started thinking about writing something about what I was thinking. That’s how these blogs often work.

And here’s what I think: It would be in the best interest of the Browns to try to matter in Columbus as this latest new group tries to build a brand, have success and sustain it. I’m not alone in my thinking.

“Columbus is an extremely important market to the Browns,” new team president Alec Scheiner said in a statement announcing the deal with 95.5 FM. “This addition to our network will allow our fans in this region to follow all of our games as well as other team programming.”

We know the only way the Browns are going to grow their fan base and visibility is to win on the field, and we know that’s 100 times more important than any marketing deal or radio announcement. But in just a few months on the job the new leadership group has already done a new radio deal in the home market and made several big-money hires in areas pertaining to winning (read: profiting) off the field even if the team isn’t winning on it.

I don’t live in Columbus — at least not on a full-time basis — but I see a lot of Steelers gear when I’m there. And a decent amount of Colts gear, too. And the Bengals are on the rise, and they’re only 110 or so miles away.

Columbus is far and away Ohio’s largest city. In the profit and TV viewer-driven world of the NFL in 2013, it’s a very valuable battle ground.

On Sundays at 1 p.m. in the fall, the Columbus CBS affiliate often has a tough decision to make on which game to show, Bengals or Browns. The way I understand it, showing the Browns almost always used to be the relatively easy call. The results of the last couple years when both teams play in the same window have changed that thinking. The bottom line is, if the Bengals are playing significant games in the back half of the season, the Bengals are going to be on TV.

In that case, Browns fans are going to have to go to the bar (they’re undefeated at that) or to the radio. And over time, the team that’s on more TVs is generally going to both gain and keep the most fans.

Additionally, I don’t know if NFL teams are still going to be leaving town for training camp very often anymore now that the new CBA has eliminated two-a-days and so many teams have so many amenities in their own, full-time buildings. But Browns CEO Joe Banner comes from the Eagles, who always went out of town for camp. And if that’s something the Browns ever explore, Columbus is not only going to be on the list of places to explore but probably at the top. More people equals more money and more buzz, and training camp remains one of the few things in today’s NFL that teams are selling on their own.

Columbus is very much a football town, and there’s every reason to believe it’s going to be home for the next several years (at minimum) to a championship-level football team that plays (almost always) on Saturdays. NFL scouts will be flocking to Ohio State, and it can’t hurt the Browns to make an effort to sell themselves around the city. Whether it’s riding the wave or starting a new one doesn’t matter. Keeping and gaining fans there does.

The NFL reaches its fans 12 months a year these days. The league and its 32 teams like when fans reach into their wallets.

Mostly, this is something to blog and talk about. But with Andrew Luck, the Steelers and the Bengals sharing that 200 or so mile radius, the Browns have a battle on their hands to regain Columbus. It will be interesting to see if they can.

The Memorial announced Monday that 14-year-old Chinese amateur sensation Tianlang Guan has accepted an exemption to compete next week at the 38th edition of Jack Nicklaus’ event at Muirfield Country Club in Dublin.

Tianlang became the youngest player to make a cut in a major championship in PGA Tour history at The Masters last month. His invitation to the first major of the season came by way of his victory at the 2012 Asia-Pacific Amateur Championship, and since the Masters has played in two additional PGA events.

“I am very excited to accept the invitation to play at the Memorial Tournament,” Tianlang said in a statement. “It is Jack Nicklaus’ event, and the same as all the golf fans out there I have very high respect to Mr. Nicklaus, not just as a golf legend, but also as a great person. He has been actively involved in the development of golf in China, and junior golf development worldwide, and as a junior golfer myself I appreciate what he has done to help us grow. My parents and I got the chance to meet him in person at the Masters, and that was one of the highlights of my week at Augusta National. I appreciate a lot the Memorial Tournament for having me there, and it is going to be a great week.”

Said Nicklaus: “I have had the fortunate pleasure of spending time with Guan and his family, and I have found him to be mature beyond his years and very passionate about his development in the game. The performance of this young 14-year-old—who, mind you, is just an eighth-grader—in making the cut at the Masters and then in New Orleans was fantastic. Winning the Asia-Pacific Amateur was a great achievement in and of itself, but his maturity, composure and competitiveness in these two significant events sends a message that this young man has a wonderful future. For the growth of the game internationally, he is a role model for all aspiring Asian amateurs, as well as young boys and girls around the globe, so it is only appropriate to give him another opportunity to compete on a world-class stage.”

Abell, a 6’4 guard out of Louisville, Ky., played two seasons at Indiana and will have two more at Xavier after sitting out the 2013-14 season.

Also on Friday the school announced the addition of 6’8 Bulgarian forward Aleksandar Vezenkov, who’s played for his country’s junior national team and as an amateur in a Greek pro league. The 17-year old Venenkov is eligible to play next season.

With essentially a whole lineup of five players either concentrating on academics or playing elsewhere last season, a relatively young Xavier team took its lumps and missed the postseason but still finished 17-14. If Jalen Reynolds and Miles Davis get eligible and are ready to contribute for this season, the Musketeers will be in position to take a leap.

Joining Vezenkov in this summer’s incoming freshman class are 6’5 forward Kamall Richards and point guard Brandon Randolph,a  four-star prospect by Scout.com rated as the nation’s 15th best point guard prospect. Big man transfer Matt Strainbook (Cleveland/Western Michigan) will also be eligible this season.

Xavier already has two commits in the class of 2014, from four-star power forward Melvin Swift of Houston and three-star guard Edmond Sumner of Detroit. With Semaj Christon as the likely centerpiece for the next three years, the future for Xavier could be very bright.