Thoughts on recent events

Corporate families...

Business owners like to talk about their businesses, their employees, as families. This is no different in professional sports where the last four months have been particularly rough for two franchises; The Denver Broncos and the Boston Celtics.

The Broncos, in the last 60 days, have lost two players (starting corner Darrent Williams, backup running back Damien Nash) under what can only be described as an unfortunate series of events and circumstances. Williams was shot in the neck as he left a New Year's party, while Nash collapsed after a charity basketball game late last week.

Neither player made it to the age of 25.

On the other end of the spectrum, almost four months ago the Celtics lost arguably the greatest coach of all-time and Hall-of-Famer when the 89-year old Red Auerbach died at the end of October. Then again this past weekend, former Celtic (and Sonic) great Dennis Johnson, one of the NBA's great all-time defenders, collapsed and died while coaching one of the NBA's developmental league teams. He was 52.

My condolences go out to both teams and the families of all.

Some thoughts as we move into free agency and past the combine...

Corey Dillon could retire or could seek a job with another team should the Patriots grant his request to be released. He has left both options open. Either way, I wish him well.

Troy Brown has been talking retirement, evidently, for a couple of months - and is still thinking it over. The general belief is that he will probably retire, but that the Patriots all-time leader in receptions is mulling coming back because the team didn't win it all this past season and that he had hoped to go out on a championship. I wouldn't be surprised to see him back next year, but would also not be surprised to hear that he had accepted a position with the Patriots somewhere in the front office.

I'd like to see tight-end Daniel Graham return to the Patriots (I think he's better and more consistent than Ben Watson), but unless a deal gets done before the free agency period beginning on March 2, I think Graham is likely to be in a Jets uniform next year.

I think Ravens Linebacker Adalius Thomas is the crown jewel of the free-agent market this year (and would have been even if Dwight Freeney and Lance Briggs don't get franchised), and the contract he gets is going to reflect that.

The NFL Network broadcast fair bits of the Combine this past weekend. Ultimately, the workouts at the combine are pointless. The usefulness of the Combine comes down to the following;

The ability for teams to meet with players and evaluate character and intelligence in so meeting.

The ability to have the player examined and to review medical histories.

The ability to meet a player in the off-season and see (via the physical) if the player has let himself go, or if he looks like he can go out and play now (gives a good idea about that off-season work ethic and drive to improve).

Useless? Getting times on the 40. Throwing drills. Bench press. Catching the football.

At least somewhat useful...maybe? Vertical leap. Route running...and that's about it.

The problem with the drills comes back to the lack of pads. None of this shit matters if the player can't do it with the armor on, and, quite frankly, if your scouts don't have the player on film doing these things, then it's useless evaluating them without the pads. The history of the draft is littered with workout warriors who helped their positioning with a good combine, but couldn't get the job done when the pads were put on.

Late last week at the combine, players from a number of teams got together for a meeting and proposed to union leader Gene Upshaw that the league adopt a "three strikes and you're out" rule as a solution to the "thug life" attitude that appears to be the hallmark of the NFL's more recent generation of players. Details are still sketchy, but the young players that are still skating through the NFL on their initial deals like the Bengals' Chris Henry, Odell Thurman, and Tennessee's Pacman Jones would likely be done with their NFL careers if this rule were already in place.

The thinking of the players is that they are sick of the masses getting lumped in with the Tank Johnsons, and Pacman Joneses who are repeat offenders, and they want to send a message to these people that playing in the NFL isn't their right - it's a privilege. This is exactly the reason that the NFL is rubber and the NBA is glue.

Rubbing the government the wrong way...

Barry is at it again. Barry Bonds is claiming he can't cooperate with MLB's steroid investigation due to his perjury case. According to the AP -

Barry Bonds and other players under suspicion of using performance enhancing drugs have been asked by Major League Baseball's lead steroids investigator to turn
over medical records and submit to interviews.
A letter urging the cooperation of Bonds and other players tied to the BALCO scandal was sent Feb. 1 by former Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell, who is leading baseball's steroids inquiry. The letter, the San Francisco Chronicle reported Sunday on it Web site, was accompanied by medical waiver forms that, if signed, would allow
investigators to view Bonds' and other players medical records.Members of
Congress have told Mitchell they might intervene if baseball's own investigation
is hampered by lack of player cooperation.
Bonds' lawyer Michael Rains told the Chronicle that Bonds cannot cooperate as long as he remains the focus of a possible perjury indictment. Rains did not immediately return calls from the Associated Press on Sunday night.

For the entire story, click here.

Of course this begs the questions - If Bonds did not perjure himself, then why would turning over his medical records to MLB's investigation be a problem in the Grand Jury perjury case? If the medical records were something that would clear Bonds of the perjury charge, wouldn't it be in the best interest of Bonds and his attorney to turn those over as quickly as possible?

Bonds is in no way barred from turning over his medical records to Major League Baseball, but his lawyer is counting on the ignorance of the masses to believe that as long as the perjury case is going on, that Bonds is not in a position to cooperate with the steroids investigation. That is beyond the pale. Get ready for federal involvement in MLB and steroids, round two.



Manny Ramirez has shown up for Spring Training. Big Whoop-Tee-Fucking-Do.



Don't get me wrong. It's not that I don't like having ManRam's big production numbers in the middle of that line-up, I do. I'm just trying to figure out what's wrong with my Red Sox-rooting brethren.



Jim Rice, Ted Williams, and Carl Yastrzemski, all products of the Red Sox farm system, busted their asses in left field, and got booed...quite regularly by the Fenway Faithful. But Ramirez, who's head obviously pops out of the game from time to time, occasionally plays as if he were totally disinterested, and has repeatedly asked to get out of the Boston pressure-cooker, is roundly and regularly applauded and cheered by the Sox fandom.



That's just wrong. He needs to be held to a higher standard by the fandom, and boo-fucking-hoo if he doesn't like it.

Dillon Hangs 'Em Up

He admits that it might not be a done deal but, as of now, Patriots powerback Corey Dillon says that his NFL career is...well, a done deal, according to a report in the Boston Globe. The former Bengal and sometime Patriot leaves the game as 14th on the all-time list in rushing yardage. No small feat when you consider that his first seven seasons were spent on a Bengals team that went 34-78 during his tenure (and on which he was the only legitimate threat for most of his time in Cincy) and did not make the playoffs.

By contrast, in the three seasons he spent on the Patriots, he was on a team that won 36 games, went to the playoffs all three seasons and won a Super Bowl ring.

You might not like him, he was often truculent with the media, but if you couldn't watch him and appreciate his power and style of play, you probably aren't a true football fan (I hated the Bears growing up, but damn, if Walter Payton wasn't one of the most impressive things to watch on that field...).

Hope the man enjoys his retirement - and thanks for 2004 - that was one hell of a season.

Wish I had written this

Yes...just another case of Manny being Manny...

Stupid is as Stupid Does...

Titans trouble child Adam "Pacman" Jones is in the news again. Evidently Pacman was at a strip club in Las Vegas while attending this past weekend's NBA All-Star activities. The evening, of course, ended with three people being shot, including one of the club's bouncers.

Jones's lawyer claims that Jones is not a suspect, however LV police said they were not at liberty to comment at this time. Jones story is that he left the club as soon as there were problems and that he answered police queries solely as a witness, not a suspect.

NFL.com's Adam Shefter reported a somewhat different story -

PACMAN DETAILS EMERGE
The Pacman Jones story is mysterious, intriguing and unnerving, all at the same time.
Like most stories, this one has two sides, and maybe more. On one side, there is some evidence against Jones, who was involved in a nightclub brawl in Las Vegas that turned into a triple shooting.
Police have been told Pacman bit the ankle of one of the two bouncers who was shot. Also, police took DNA evidence that some think could implicate Pacman. Additionally, the bouncer in question had Pacman in an armlock on stage, seen by at least a dozen witnesses.
The bouncer continued telling Pacman to settle down. When he didn't, the bouncer popped Pacman's shoulder out. Witnesses said Pacman appeared to be experiencing pain in his shoulder as he exited the club.
But what those in attendance didn't know is that Pacman underwent surgery on his shoulder about 10 days ago, and the armlock could have done nothing more than aggravate his injury.
On another side of the story, Pacman claims that, even though he was at the scene, he did nothing wrong. He has cooperated with authorities, answered their questions and believes he has done nothing wrong -- which he feels will be proven over time.
But clearly, the last of this story has not been told.

There is a certain benefit of the doubt, I have to say, that Jones is no longer entitled to. Whenever he goes to a club, it seems, trouble doesn't follow him - it's his date.

Thug life and the NBA -

I read an article not too long ago that asked why the NBA got such a bad rap when NFL teams like the Bengals have so many issues - and the NFL seems to skate by without consequence.

Overall, the players tend to have fewer legal issues in the NBA - but you're also looking at a roster that's 20 percent the size of an NFL roster. Many of the big names in the NBA have had issues with the law - Ron Artest (assault), Gilbert Arenas (unlawful possession of a firearm), Allen Iverson (drug possession, unlawful possession of firearm, assault), Jason Kidd (domestic abuse), the list goes on - while in the NFL you only occasionally hear about run ins involving the biggest names (Ray Lewis, Michael "Ron Mexico" Vick, and Randy Moss come to mind), but the majority of big name players are people like Peyton Manning, Donovan McNabb, Carson Palmer, Steve McNair, Curtis Martin - and these are the people that at one time or another have been the face of their franchise.

Additionally, the NFL has never had this sort of thing happen. Crime spiked significantly over the All-Star weekend. If Stern is trying to disassociate basketball from "thug-life," then he's losing the war.

Weight...still holding steady at around 179. Am trying to increase the intensity of my workouts and starting up with speed training to get ready for Aussie Rules season. I figure if I can drop another 12 to 15 pounds between now and mid-April I will be considerably faster and have better endurance for the games, and I'll be the lightest I will have been since college. Aussie Aussie Aussie Oi Oi Oi.

And on a lighter note - my new part time gig? I'm the Maryland columnist for the Mid-Atlantic Brewing News. Nothing like getting paid to go to the bar.

That first question has been answered...partially

Today the Chargers announced that Norv Turner will replace Marty Shottenheimer as the head coach. Is it just me, or is that like announcing that you just replaced your Mustang with a Gremlin?

Cleaning out the cobwebs of the mind...

What are the biggest off-season questions in the NFL? I'm not sure - but I think we're looking at...

Who will take over the Chargers, and will they be the same next year? I'm betting that they'll be good, but not the same.

What does Randy Moss think that being a petulant trouble-maker of a child will get him in the NFL? He has killed his trade value, and most scouts seem to think he's too far gone to be the play maker he once was. I'm sure somebody will take a flyer on him - talent always gets a second chance, but he needs to understand that his next chance is probably his last.

Can Ben Roethlesberger resurrect his career? Honestly, I was never that sold on him to begin with.

Same with Eli Manning who spent the better part of last season regressing.

What does the Patriots brain-trust feel is the biggest problem to address in free-agency? I have been reading a lot of pre-draft about the Pats drafting a line-backer in order to infuse the position with some youth, but that hasn't been Belichick's way. Sure, they have drafted five or six during his time, but none have stuck. They like to convert defensive ends or bring in veterans. My bet is that they make a hard run at Adalius Thomas of the Ravens.

Can the Colts repeat? I think there are going to be too many key free agent losses due to the fact that they have a lot of players going to free agency and not anywhere near enough cap-room to keep them (for example, I have a hunch Dominick Rhodes will be on another team come training camp). They'll make the playoffs, but I would be surprised if they made it all the way to the Super Bowl.

Which coaching change this off-season is most likely to result in a Sean Payton-Saints/Eric Mangini-Jets type of season? I'm guessing the Arizona hiring of Ken Wisenhunt - providing he can straighten out the offensive line woes. Cam Cameron has too may questions at line, quarterback and running back, Mike Tomlin is coming to a team that played .500 ball as opposed to the Cardinals .312. Bobby Petrino also enters a better situation than Wisenhunt, although I believe he Cameron, and Wade Phillips in Dallas are the most likely to backslide by a game or two before showing any signs of improvement.

Trouble in Paradise -

Mariano Rivera is lobbying for a new contract from Boss Hog in New York and the greatest closer in Yankee history is not likely to get it. If there's truth to the rumors that the Yanks are positioning themselves to pursue Francisco Rodriguez in the next off-season, then Mo should be ready to follow up on his threat to play anywhere.

With a starting rotation likely to consist of Mike Mussina, Andy Pettitte, Chien-Ming Wang, Carl Pavano and whoever they can plug in, Brian Cashman has to be sweating a little. Pettitte and Mussina are near the end of their careers, Pavano hasn't been healthy since Montreal and their ace looks like it might be Wang. Not exactly a front four that will put the fear of the baseball gods into most of the American League.

Basketball and the Rainbow Connection -

Tim Hardaway is an idiot. If he wants to be homo-phobic, fine. I don't even mind that he's upfront about it. Hell, I'll be the first to defend his right to be a bigot. But advocating somebody lose their job due to their sexual preference (which he did) is no better than advocating that they lose their job based on their skin color. Way to set the Civil Rights movement back by about 50 years.

For those of you that missed the report, here's a snippet from the AP story -

"You know, I hate gay people, so I let it be known. I don't like gay people
and I don't like to be around gay people," Hardaway said. "I'm homophobic. I
don't like it. It shouldn't be in the world or in the United
States."
Hardaway also said if he did find out that a teammate was gay, he
would ask for the player to be removed from the team.
"His words pollute the
atmosphere," Amaechi said. "It creates an atmosphere that allows young gays and
lesbians to be harassed in school, creates an atmosphere where in 33 states you
can lose your job and where anti-gay and lesbian issues are used for political
gain," Amaechi said.
Meanwhile, the NBA banished Hardaway from all-star
weekend in Las Vegas because of his anti-gay remarks.
Hardaway, who played in
five all-star games during the 1990s, was already in Las Vegas and scheduled to
make a series of public appearances this week on behalf of the league.
"It is
inappropriate for him to be representing us given the disparity between his
views and ours," Stern said.

Super Bowl advertising revisited...

According to a recent Reuters report, the PC Shocktroops are at it again...

Reuters reported that several special interest groups have demanded that certain ads never be shown again. The advertisements included GM's suicidal production line robot, the Snickers ad with the two mechanics ending up in a "Lady and the Tramp" kiss, and the Nationwide ad featuring Kevin Federline working the fries at a fast food restaurant. It also noted an issue that arose from the ad campaign for the new Hannibal movie.

Let's address each complaint:

1. "GM became the subject of sharp criticism when The American Foundation for Suicide Prevention complained about the insensitivity of a commercial by the automaker that showed a factory robot leaping from a bridge after it was fired for a making a mistake.
The group said in a statement the commercial 'is offensive to the tens of millions of survivors of suicide loss nationwide. In its carelessness, it portrays suicide as a viable option when someone fails or loses their job.'"

GM responded by saying that they did not mean to offend anyone, but they will not change the spot.

Is the criticism justified for their spot? Yes - but not by the AFSP. In their complaint the AFSP comes off as the parents that sue MTV or Warner Brothers because they haven't imbued their children with enough common sense to realize that Beavis & Butthead or Wile E. Coyote are cartoon characters. It's a frakkin' robot - and if you can't make that distinction when contemplating suicide, maybe - just maybe - you have a serious mental issue that needs 24 hour care...not an hour per week with a therapist, but serious effing observation...y'know, 24-7-365.

Now employees and the recently unemployed in Detroit's motor industry have a legitimate complaint that the spot is insensitive and in bad taste based on this little snippet reported on February 1 by David Shepardson of the Detroit News, "GM and Ford have lost more than $25 billion since 2006, while cutting more than 55,000 hourly jobs and thousands of salaried jobs. GM wants to close nine plants by 2008, while Ford is in the process of shuttering 14 factories by 2012. GM's accounting is the subject of an SEC probe." For the full story, click here.

Makes me question my desire to ever buy American again.

2. "This year's advertisement by Masterfoods, a unit of privately-held Mars, showed two auto mechanics locked in an accidental kiss while eating a Snickers candy bar, then ripping out chest hair to prove they are 'manly.'

"'The makers of Snickers and its parent company at Mars should know better,' the Human Rights Campaign said in a statement. 'If they have any questions about why the ad isn't funny, we can help put them in touch with any number of Americans who have suffered hate crimes.'"

The ad was pulled the next day.

Justified? Only if they were defending homophobes, because, and let's be honest, this ad made fun of the homophobic, not the homosexual. I guess making fun of prejudice that is without base is off-limits now as well.

Somehow, in light of their faster-than-light-speed we're so sorry to have offended response, I find myself respecting GM for not caving to special interest groups, in spite of the fact that GM had the more offensive ad. If they pulled the ad because they deemed it unfunny, or decided they didn't like it, that would have been one thing, but because you offended a few people? Hell, I do that everyday...usually by the time I've had breakfast.

3. "Even before the Super Bowl aired on February 4 on CBS, drawing the third largest U.S. television audience ever, the National Restaurant Association called an ad featuring Kevin Federline as a fast-food worker demeaning to the industry.

"The commercial by Nationwide Financial Services had not even aired when the group called for it to be dumped."

I won't even ponder whether this one is justified as it is by far and away the most ridiculous of all the complaints - unless the Restaurant Association felt Kevin Federline as a fast-food worker was demeaning to the industry, not the fall from grace that the ad implied (it is my understanding that the music industry does indeed consider it demeaning that people consider K-Fed part of that industry).

Let's take a minute to ponder the joke that is the world of, "do you want fries with that?" It is a minimum wage world with a huge profit margin. While employment in the industry is okay in high school, and it is honest work, there is a stigma that goes with working fast food world that is there not because of ads like this, but because of the refusal of mega-corporations like McDonald's and Burger King to raise salaries to living wages in order to keep prices down (in spite of the fact that people at corporate make a very comfortable living off the sweat equity of those in the kitchen making minimum wage).

4. From the ridiculous to the ludicrous, "CBS Chief Executive Leslie Moonves told a conference this week the network turned away millions of dollars worth of ads it deemed unfit for this year's game.

"In one case, he said, the network discussed changing the wording of a film critic's endorsement of the feature film 'Hannibal Rising' to remove the word 'terrifying.'"

When society has gotten to the point that changing a word in the endorsement of a HORROR film (for Christ's sake) from "terrifying" to something else we have gone way too far as a society.

Weighty matters...

Well, I seemed to have plateaued at 179.5 for the time-being. And on to other things, it's been a busy couple of days...

Andy Reid is taking some time off to deal with personal issues. Better too late than not at all in this case.

It was announced this morning that the relationship between Marty Schottenheimer and AJ Smith finally came to a head. With five members of Schottenheimer's coaching staff headed elsewhere for next season (offensive coordinator and strength coach will be in Miami, defensive coordinator in Dallas, tight-ends coach in Cleveland, and linebackers coach is heading up to San Francisco), ownership decided that it is time to end the dysfunction that is the brain-trust of Charger land.

I have to admit to a level of uncertainty in regards to this move. I think it was foolish for the front office to assume that Marty's staff was not going to pursue other openings considering the fact that the Chargers didn't offer Schottenheimer an extension, they offered him an option year (the team's option, not his as I understand it). In essence, the Chargers sent a message saying, "we don't really want you back, but the NFL braintrust has said that it would be an embarrassment if we fired you after taking our team to a 14-2 regular season record. So here's a cosmetic offer to make us look good to the general public."

To give an idea of what the Chargers have done - no coach in the history of the NFL has left a team after a season with a higher winning percentage (.875). That list includes John Rauch of the Raiders in 1968 (.857), Dick Vermeil from the Rams in 1999 (.813), Bill Parcells leaving the Giants after 1990 (.813), and Paul Brown in 1975 when he left the Bengals (.786). All of those coaches won at least 11 games in their final season with their respective teams. His post-season record not-withstanding, I think it's safe to say that there is no candidate currently available with Schottenheimer's cache.

I wouldn't be surprised to see the Chargers make the playoffs next year, but they aren't going to have the best record in football. Learning a whole new system will do that to a good team.

The New York Giants new GM Jerry Reese is wasting no time in retooling his roster. The Giants announced the release of LB's LaVar Arrington and Carlos Emmons as well as T Luke Pettigout. With the retirement of Tiki Barber, that's four players that were either opening day starters, or were expected to be starters when last season opened. Arrington, a former first rounder and one-time pro-bowl pick, is becoming more and more likely to go down as one of the big draft busts from Penn State and is probably never going to get another fat contract like the previous ones that have always been predicated on his physical gifts and not his production.

Beer Me -

Okay, so it seems like Boston's newest headline grabbing athlete is grabbing headlines for the wrong reasons. Daisuke Matsuzaka shot a beer ad in Japan for Asahi Beer while wearing a Red Sox jersey. To call the Dice-man in hot-water over this would be overstating things, but there is some warm water involved and the simmering pot smells of hypocrisy.

Matsuzaka was granted permission from MLB to wear his Sox jersey in the ad (the endorsement deal predates his contract with the Red Sox). In the United States players are not allowed to endorse alcoholic products - however, that little tidbit extends only to the U.S. (for example, if a company in Mexico wanted to shoot television ads for Mexican TV with Nomar Garciaparra endorsing tequila...no problem).

The Red Sox evidently aren't happy about the use of their uniform in the ad and were only made aware of it when it hit stateside on YouTube. My problem? Year in and year out we are bombarded with ads for alcoholic products while watching sports. According to Forbes the four biggest corporate sponsors of both Major League Baseball and the Boston Red Sox include Anheuser-Busch. As a matter of fact, according to Forbes, in 2003 sixty percent of Anheuser-Bush's advertising budget was spent on product placement and advertising during sporting events.

I guarantee that the Sox were a recipient of a fair number of those advertising dollars, so I think it's safe to say that the team needs to get off its high horse in relation to this ad.

And Now For Something Completely Different; The Boston Globe's Dan Shaughnessy for our occassional reality check

Good for Mr. Shaughnessy over at the Globe to remind the rest of us sports-obsessed meat-heads that we are often given to too much hyperbole in our descriptions of athletes.

I try as often as possible to avoid calling these people heroes, or even (the popular amongst the athlete set) warriors. Too often we are given to the hyperbole of war in order to describe the action of the games we watch, and it takes a sobering moment of true heroism to remind us that it's just a game.

To say that what we watch are just games, I will admit, is probably going too far in the other direction, but by comparison that is all that sports is - a series of games that we watch for our own entertainment and edification.

It can be more, much more. It can be a sublime expression of determination and man's will to compete and overcome. In the minds of writers like George Plympton and the Hollywood brain trust it can be metaphorical, lyrical, and even social commentary.

I had a lot of time to reflect on these concepts this past weekend as I drove six hours (round trip) to bury the last of my grandfather's siblings. Salvatore Ricci, my mother's uncle, served in the Pacific theater of operations during World War II and received a bronze star, the nation's fourth highest honor, for his actions. He later supported his daughter who marched against the Vietnam War. He was, to say the least, a man that always was trying to make the world a better place and understood that what might be right at one time, might not be right twenty-five years later.

When our professional sports are looked at next to the actions of Boston firefighter Andrew Lee who brushed off talk of heroism as "just his job", former staff sergeant Sal Ricci who never talked about the war and his sacrifices, and former Arizona Cardinals Pat Tillman who left the NFL because serving the country was something he felt he had to do, I can't help but feel that all the hyperbole needs to go out the window. We need to remember that the sports themselves are not the metaphor - just that they are a tool to make the metaphor work.

I often feel that we look on the athletes and raise them up to the mythological stature of Zeus and Hercules because it's easy (as a sports writer I am admittedly one of the worst perpetrators). We all know about Babe Ruth, Ty Cobb and Joe DiMaggio. We know they were amongst the best at what they did. We look at them and say, "there walked giants." and we eventually brush aside the war heroes because there is something horrible associated with them - death and destruction, and we don't want to be reminded of our mortality, only of the promise of immortality and war is too dark a place for us to go for our heroes. And that is the grave injustice of our society.

The National Champion that is Beginning to Look Like it Never Was...

From an AP report that hit the wires this morning - "Southern California is looking into whether it may have violated NCAA recruiting rules while pursuing highly rated recruit Joe McKnight, a university official said.

"McKnight signed a national letter of intent with USC on Wednesday and made comments during a news conference that seemed to suggest communications involving former Trojan Reggie Bush, who is now with the New Orleans Saints.

"Former players are forbidden from telephoning prospective recruits, their relatives or guardians."

Currently the player and his high school coach are denying any contact with Reggie Bush and that the player mis-spoke, however, according to the report, "During the Wednesday news conference, McKnight said Carroll set up a conference call so he and Curtis could talk to Bush and ease concerns USC might face sanctions."

According to the AP story there are several versions of the story that exist -

1. Conference call with Bush to allay fears. (Violation)

2. McKnight's high school coach, JT Curtis (with whom McKnight lives) stating that according to McKnight, "Coach Carroll was talking to Reggie on the speakerphone and Joe was able to listen and hear Reggie Bush's side of the story." (Which still constitutes a violation)

3. Pete Carroll denies story and - "After being informed of Carroll's denial Thursday night, Curtis called McKnight and later said the recruit never heard Bush on a speakerphone."

4. Following the Carroll denial, Curtis's story sounds like meeting in McKnight in his living room (and Curtis wasn't there?) - "'He said when they came in his house, the discussion was brought up about probation and that's when the conversation came up that they had talked to Reggie, but Joe was not there," Curtis said. "He said, 'I was not on the speakerphone. I never called him and he never called me. I want to make it clear I never spoke to Reggie and he never spoke to me. I just messed it up. I shouldn't have said it that way (at the news conference)."'
"Curtis said McKnight may have been overwhelmed by the attention and scrutiny that accompanied his announcement."

I'm sorry, but describing a conference call is not misspeaking, saying "will" instead of "won't" or calling somebody Tom instead of Ted - that's misspeaking.

Something is not right with the way this recruitment happened and it sounds like both Pete Carroll and Reggie Bush (again) are on the verge of causing problems for USC. It is sounding more and more likely that it is going to be found that Bush accepted improper benefits for at least two seasons which will probably result in USC forfeiting their national title, Bush becoming the first Heisman Trophy winner to be stripped of the award, and sanctions against USC that might include being banned from bowl games, and stripped of football scholarships. And that doesn't include the potential problems of this last issue, which sounds likely to result in further sanctions.

One has to wonder if the Saints braintrust is worried about what Bush might do that will be a problem for them.

How are these guys not on the Bengals?

According to a December article in the Washington Post approximately 35 NFL players were arrested over the previous 12 months – since then there has been at least one more arrest of a Bengal, which means that the Bengals which account for 3.125 percent of the active players in the league account for approximately 25 percent of the arrests.

I would like to propose a rule change: Any player arrested for a felony offense, or on drug charges is to immediately be traded to the Bengals for a player of equal value for tracking purposes. Once there are no players left of equal value without criminal records, then the Raiders will become the new repository for said players.

The following are the folks that I can’t believe that the Bengals personnel office missed on (and these are just the ones I can remember), keeping in mind that some have been acquitted and some are still facing their day in court –

Offense -

Ruben Droughns, RB Browns – Arrested in May 2006 on one count of assault and two counts of harassment. Also acquitted of earlier drunk driving infraction.

Michael Vick, QB Falcons – Repeated links to marijuana including the recent fiasco at a Miami airport when Vick refused to surrender a water bottle to homeland security officials. Also, has a known alias (Ron Mexico) that is linked to a sex-related civil suit.

Koren Robinson, WR Vikings/Packers - Released during training camp after being arrested on charges of drunken driving and fleeing from police.

Randy Moss, WR Raiders – Past links to marijuana use and resisting arrest. Currently doing everything in his power to get traded including yell and swear at his new head coach.

Ricky Williams, RB Dolphins – Drug issues.

Defense -

Joe Cullen, Asst Coach D Line, Lions – Arrested twice during 2006. In August for an alleged indecent and obscene conduct issue at a fast food drive-in. The second at the beginning of September was for alleged drunk driving

Terrence Kiel, S Chargers - arrested by Drug Enforcement Administration agents at the team's practice facility in September on charges of transporting and possessing a controlled substance.

Steve Foley, LB Chargers - Shot and wounded by an off-duty police officer after a high speed chase for which Foley was charged with drunken driving.

Dwight Smith, S Vikings - Cited by Minneapolis police for indecent conduct in a stairwell outside a downtown nightclub with an unnamed woman.

Sean Taylor, S Redskins – As of last January was facing three counts of aggravated assault and potentially faced up to 46 years in prison. Also has had an issue with spitting on other players.

Adam “Pacman” Jones, CB Titans – Arrested for assault for spitting on a woman at a nightclub in October. Also had a previous run in for which he was charged with public intoxication and disorderly conduct.

Ricky Manning Jr, CB Bears - Arrested was arrested for assault with a deadly weapon in April.

Tank Johnson, DT Bears – Arrested several times over the last couple of season for a variety of offenses including felony gun charges, six misdemeanor counts of unlawful possession of a weapon without a Firearm Owner's Identification card and aggravated assault and resisting arrest.

Championships, fans and trashtalk

Trash talk amongst team fan bases is tradition. The more intense the rivalry, the more the trash talk. Of course, as fans, we often get into ruts to prove our points - utilizing facts that had relevance once, but, due to recent developments, no longer have impact.

For example - no Colts detractor can talk about Dungy's or Manning's inability to win the big one...well, they could, but they would come off as petty and in denial, much like most of Barry Bonds's supporters at this point.

As a life-long member of Red Sox Nation, my favorites are the ones that no longer have any impact on Red Sox fans (except for the truly insecure), but are still used by Yankees fans when they're put on the defensive. Such as; "yeah, well the Yankees won 26 World Series." The problem, that Yankees fans don't seem to understand, is that sports is a "what have you done for me lately" world, and the Sox have won more recently than the Yanks, so we really just don't care. While not happy about things like the Buckner gaffe (which wasn't completely his fault - there are plenty of other places to point the finger in 1986), and the 1978 meltdown, a lot of that gets washed away by 2004.

2004 provides us Sox fans with the best fuel of all for not only did we win the series that year, but it gave us the gift that will keep on giving until the Yankees win the series again - the Yankees are now the OWNERS of the WORST MELTDOWN IN POSTSEASON HISTORY. That takes a lot of sting out of just about any trash talk a Yankees fan can try to throw out there.

(Fill in team here) suck! Amusing, but holds no real value for me, but I'm not into trash talking. I'd rather discuss the merits of a team on a head-to-head/player-by-player basis - Would you rather have Brady over Manning/Varitek over Posada/the San Francisco Giants braintrust condoning illegal behavior or the Cincinnati Bengals braintrust condemning it (but having difficulties finding a solution)? You know...that sort of thing. That being said, I have to admit - the Raiders really do suck. Anyone interested, I'm willing to elaborate, but have a hunch I don't need to. Also, hard to argue with someone saying the Atlantic Division in the NBA sucks, but I addressed that earlier.

Unfortunately, not all fans have the good sense to understand that you stay away from certain subjects where death is involved. It is what has prompted players to go into the stands after fans (a couple of years back a pitcher left the bullpen to go after somebody that had the good grace to comment on the pitcher's stillborn son). It is also why I was not disappointed in the final score of this year's Super Bowl, in spite of the fact that I don't like the Colts.

I know the guy pictured above does not represent all Chicago fans, but somebody needed to say something to him - because that sign was not just classless, it was tasteless and it was not the only one of its ilk at the NFC Championship game.

The Weigh In and Super Bowl Advertising...

This morning I was at 179.5 - down 13.5 from the beginning of the little contest, and 14.5 overall. I have a legitimate shot at entering this year's Australian rules football season at about 165, the lowest I will have been in 14 years - might actually mean that I get back some of the speed and stamina that has deserted me in recent years. Woohoo.

Overall I thought the advertising in this year's Super Bowl was kind of weak. Here are what I thought were the best ads that aired (for my purposes, I'll eliminate ads I know I saw before, so T-Mobile's ad with Dwayne Wade and Charles Barkley is out, as is the Coca Cola Grand Theft Auto which has been playing at movie theaters)...

1. Bring our troops home - People that have been supporting Bush and his war in Iraq should pay close attention to this ad. It was powerful and affecting and it featured a whole bunch of veteran's of today's war telling our government to get the troops home. I'm waiting to see if the Republican brain trust is going to dredge up Swift Boat tactics on these people and try to demonize them for speaking out against the war like they did to Kerry.

2. Rock, paper, scissors (Bud Light) - It appeals to the Three Stooges humorist in me.

3. Hitchhiker (Bud Light) - As a horror film fan and a fan of comedies like Airplane, this ad spoke to me. And you have to love the end when the guy with the axe, in a panic says, "dude, he has a chainsaw!"

4. Emerald Nuts Robert Goulet - As I always run out of gas in the middle of the afternoon I felt that this ad explained a lot about the work place and why we're always saying, "I could have sworn that memo was right here."

5. Lady and the Tramp Snickers bar - What can I say, I like twisted humor.

6. Blockbuster I can't get online with this mouse - While I don't condone animal abuse, there is something viscerally funny about what was done to that mouse (besides, why do we laugh at Wiley Coyote's pain anyway?).

6. Doritos crash - What dude hasn't at least almost done this, nearly get into an accident while checking a woman out on the sidewalk? Once again, we descend into the slapstick.

7. Career Builder office jungle series, annual review - Why do we take so much joy in watching other's pain? Is it because of our own, or is it because we like to see others suffer...oh, never mind the deep shit, there's just something comically surreal about someone covered with binder clips. Ouch.

8. GM Carwash - I know in my household I'm in the minority on this one, but I found this damn funny, if not somewhat disturbing.

9. Career Builder office jungle series, jungle fight - I may have worked at this place, I think I knew the deliveryman at the end of the ad.

10. Career Builder office jungle series, volunteer for training/lemmings - Who hasn't felt like this? Hands? Yeah, that's what I thought.

Honorable mention -

Snapple EGCG
Chad Johnson's Super Bowl Party
Bud Light Slapping is In
Coca Cola Happiness Factory
Fed Ex Don't Judge a Book by It's Cover

The Kevin Federline ad was amusing, but not as funny as it should have been, and Garmin's Ultraman ad interesting, but not particularly compelling. I know my wife doesn't agree with all my choices, but I'm sure if she wants to discuss these choices she'll do her own blog posting, or will respond here.

To view the ads yourself, go here.

I Guess Because Ho-Hum Bowl Doesn't Sound as Good...

I have seen better.

Granted, I have also seen worse championship bouts, but this year's Super Bowl certainly wasn't in the top 50 percent of the games played. This was a game in which both teams did their damnedest to give the game away - Chicago just worked a little harder at it.

The Colts turned the ball over three times on offense (twice from the game's MVP), missed an extra point and a field goal. The Colts high-powered offense accounted for 22 total points on a rainy night.

Unfortunately for the Bears, their offense could manage only 10 points and Rex Grossman was responsible for three of the team's five turnovers (two interceptions on poorly thrown balls and one fumble on the center exchange) - two coming at a time late in the game when the Bears still had an opportunity to pull ahead on touchdowns. Grossman had a later fumble on the exchange that he recovered himself.

It was a sloppy game with few exciting moments (I am not saying this because I am a Patriots fan - I still feel that the Giants-Bills game in January of 1991 is amongst the best ever, the conflicts between the Steelers and Cowboys are epic - except for a mediocre game in the mid 1990's, and the 49ers-Bengals game was special - and I don't like either of those teams).

As for the game MVP - I think the selection of Manning was weak, and probably based more on sentiment than what he actually did to win the game. Let me qualify this by adding that I don't necessarily feel as though there was a clear cut candidate.

His game wasn't horrible, but it wasn't "Most Valuable Player" quality either (Hell, Rex Grossman completed as many touchdown passes to Colts as Manning did). I think that Dominick Rhodes was just as deserving for his ability to keep the Bears offense on the sidelines and to wear out the Bears D while racking up 113 yards and a touchdown on 21 rushing attempts.

Another option would be safety Bob Sanders. Granted he had only two tackles, but also forced one of the Bear fumbles and had an interception (returned 38 yards) and a pass defensed. And a final, although unlikely candidate - Adam Vinatieri. He accounted for 11 points, and after the initial kickoff, kept the ball away from the dangerous Devin Hester.

The Prince of South Beach -

Ah, Prince and the half-time show...It was one of the better halftime shows that I have ever seen, but I have to admit to some surprise at the lack of outrage from middle America about the sexual suggestiveness of the shadow-theater at the tail end of the mini-concert (see the Reuters picture above).

Racial Barriers -

This morning on ESPN's Mike & Mike radio show Mike Greenberg made a big deal about "racial barriers" being broken. It is, at its core, a ridiculous sentiment that implies that there was someone, or some group of someones in control of the NFL that have consciously been trying to hold back black head coaches.

If Tony Dungy were the ONLY black head coach in the NFL right now (he wasn't even the only one in the Super Bowl), I would concede that this Super Bowl win was about a racial barrier that has been broken, that his win would probably mean that other black coaches would get shots at more of the top spots, but this is a guy that's been a head coach for a decade and he's not alone as a black head coach in the NFL.

Here's the real trick - name a Latino head coach. Asian? Hell, try for assistants - outside of Ron Rivera of the Bears, it's pretty hard, isn't it?

Should They be Nervous?

Bengals wide receiver Chad Johnson was questioned by Miami police in regards to the shooting death of a Miami man. According to a statement released by the Bengals to the Associated Press, "Chad has confirmed to the club that he cooperated with Miami Police earlier this week as part of an investigation. Police have characterized this as a routine procedure and have stressed that Chad is not a suspect or even a person of interest in this case."

The AP report states that the man, Curtis Tavares Dopson, "was shot near the doorway of a duplex he moved into about four months ago." The report was unclear as to whether it was a duplex that Dopson had moved into or that it was one that Johnson had moved into.

Johnson was questioned as to what his relationship might have been with the deceased and what connection he had in relation to the shooting.

While I'm sure that the Bengals are happy that the police are saying that Johnson isn't a suspect, or person of interest, recent player behavior might dictate concern for the team's front office. If this shooting happened in Johnson's doorway and he knew the deceased, management has to be concerned that new evidence could quickly change the status of their star receiver.

Given the last year's worth of off-the-field issues, I can't imagine that the Bengals brain trust is happy about this report.

I can almost hear the hands wringing in Cincy from here.

Black History Month and the Super Bowl

During the course of the 2006 NFL campaign five AFC teams were piloted by black head coaches - Cincinnati (Marvin Lewis), Cleveland (Romeo Crennel), Indianapolis (Tony Dungy), Kansas City (Herm Edwards), and Oakland (Art Shell). In the NFC, there were two - Arizona (Denny Green), and Chicago (Lovie Smith). Shell and Green have since been fired and Mike Tomlin hired in Pittsburgh to replace Bill Cowher.

This is the first post-season in NFL history that will feature a black head coach, and as the dominoes fell this post season, it will feature one on each sideline. What does this mean in the grand scheme of things? Absolutely nothing. Is it progress? Yes.

However, as long as we pay attention to black versus white in the coaching carousel - we in the press, in the executive suite, and as fans - do an injustice to those coaching on the sideline.

Is it historically important? Probably not. From a color barrier standpoint, there are a number of others that came before in the athletic arena that led the way. It's unlikely that during the two week press whirlwind that is the time between the division championships and the end of the Super Bowl that we'll hear a reporter repeat a paraphrase of the ignorance that Redskins quarterback Doug Williams was subject to over 20 years ago with the question of, "How long have you been a black quarterback?"

Lovie Smith and Tony Dungy are unlikely to receive the hate mail and threats received by Hank Aaron almost 35 years ago when he was on the verge of breaking Babe Ruth's all-time home run record.

The NFL will not have to switch hotels in Miami, or pull the game from the city like the American Football League pulled its 1965 All-Star Game from New Orleans and moved it to Houston due to the way that 23 black players were being treated in the city.

The coaches will not be forced to seek out separate accommodations for themselves or their black players from those of their white teammates like the coach for Jackie Robinson did.

Players today seldom, if ever, have political agendas such as Muhammed Ali, Jim Brown, and Olympians Tommie Smith, and John Carlos.

Do problems still exist with the system? Sure. This season past season saw seven teams with black coaches, and if the Cowboys hire a white coach then next season will have only six black men in charge of teams in a league where more than half the players are black. Are there more than six qualified candidates? We won't know until the candidates get the opportunity.

However, Green gave us three losing seasons in Arizona, and Shell presided over the NFL equivalent of A Comedy of Errors, then again, Mike Singletary's name has been looming large as a soon to be hot commodity.

While the interviewing rule changes proposed by the Rooney family, owners of the Pittsburgh Steelers, has helped, the genesis of these changes and the really important changes go back years.

It goes back to coaches like Hank Stram, and Joe Gibbs who gave blacks chances at positions that most believed they were incapable of playing. It goes back to owners in the old AFL, like Al Davis, who listened to the complaints of the players who were confronted by racism. It goes back to Brown, Ali, Smith, Robinson, and Carlos, who weathered the early social and legal violence that went with being popular symbols in a fight for racial equality during a time when teams couldn't even stay in the same hotel and fans often were not allowed to utilize the same facilities at a stadium just because of the color of their skin.

It goes back earlier to Jesse Owens putting the punctuation mark on the joke of the Aryan Master Race and to a son of a slave that laid the ground work for the Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. - Paul Robeson .

According to the online archive at Rutgers, "Robeson was awarded a four year academic scholarship to Rutgers University in 1915, the third black student in the history of the institution. Despite the openly racist and violent opposition he faced, Robeson became a twelve letter athlete excelling in baseball, basketball, football, and track. He was named to the All American Football team on two occasions. In addition to his athletic talents, Robeson was named a Phi Beta Kappa scholar, belonged to the Cap & Skull Honor Society, and graduated valedictorian of his class in 1919."

Robeson was an outspoken proponent of equal rights in the 1940's, but faced censorship from the House Committee on Un-American activities. For more information on Robeson and his importance to sparking the Civil Rights Movement, click here.

A Taste of My New Gig

I recently was invited to write for Bitterfans.com. Here's a little taste of what I'm doing over there...Hopefully the amount of content here won't suffer for it.

Any Hall, The Problems Faced by Voters in the big Four

The recent Hall of Fame vote for the Major League Baseball Hall of Fame had me pondering the problems inherent in the rules and the processes put in place for voting. Every year there is some sort of controversy associated with the voting process - whether it's an argument over who didn't make the cut to this year's hot-button topic; steroids...but more on that later.

Each of the various Halls have their own arcane rules, typically lost in the translation when the voters try to explain, because they're usually making an attempt to put their own take on how voting should be done.

There exists a minority of voters, for example, voting on the future Hall-of-Famers for Cooperstown who will not vote anyone in on the first vote, because no one has ever been a unanimous choice. This reasoning is difficult to fathom. The argument placed before the public here essentially amounts to the following, "just because previous voters failed in their assessment of the likes of Ty Cobb, Babe Ruth and Ted Williams, we should continue to do things wrong."

With few exceptions, it is difficult to understand why a player is hall-of-fame caliber one year, but not the previous year. The statistics haven't changed.

The Baseball Hall of Fame allows the members of the Baseball Writers Association of America (BBWAA) to vote for up to ten players on a ballot in a given year. Amongst the exceptions that must be considered are players under scrutiny for other reasons. Rule number five that voters for Cooperstown are expected to adhere to - "Voting shall be based upon the player's record, playing ability, integrity, sportsmanship, character, and contributions to the team(s) on which the player played."

Granted, Ty Cobb by all accounts was a racist bastard known to sharpen his spikes before a game, and Gaylord Perry has admitted to the occassional KY ball, but recent events have openned a whole new can of worms.

Mark McGwire, implicated as much by Jose Canseco's book Juiced as he was by his refusal to answer questions before congress, sits in limbo.

McGwire's proponents say that without any hard evidence, Big Mac deserves the benefit of the doubt, often throwing in the idea that, "we all knew players were doing it then and we didn't do anything about it."

On the other side, the others point at the fact that McGwire has 14 years of remaining elegibility left and if they put him in now, and it comes out down the road that he was definitively using the substance, then they can't take him back out of the Hall. The consesus, however, is that McGwire would have been in on the first ballot had there been no doubt about how his numbers were achieved.

This begs a separate question; if McGwire didn't do anything, then are his numbers really Hall worthy?

Through 16 seasons Big Mac put up the following numbers - .263 BA, 1626 hits, 583 HR, 1414 RBI's, 1167 runs, 1596 strike outs in 6187 career at bats.Former Red Sox slugger Jim Rice, who has perennially fallen short also played 16 seasons and put up the following numbers - .298 BA (edge), 2452 hits (edge), 382 HR, 1451 RBI's, 1249 runs, 1423 strike outs all in 8225 career at bats.

So, in more career at bats (all during the "Dead Ball Era"), Rice, considered by enough writers to be unworthy of enshrinement that he still is on the ballot with little time left, had a considerably higher average, over 800 more hits, 40 more RBI's, 82 more runs scored, and struck out 123 fewer times.

McGwire won the Rookie of the Year, one Gold Glove and three Silver Slugger awards, Rice won the 1978 MVP award, and two Silver Sluggers. Six times Rice finished in the top ten in batting average, a feat McGwire never accomplished.

Peter's Friends...

For all the moaning about the "mistake" the Patriots made in letting Deion Branch go in the trade, it is interesting that Peter King at Sports Illustrated had this to say in this week's Monday Morning Quarterback column -

"10. Seattle (10-8). Just a guess, but my feeling is the Seahawks would rather have the 22nd pick in the draft, plus the $7 million-a-year cap dollars it paid Deion Branch, back right now. Instead, New England sits there with two first-rounders, the rich getting richer, and Seattle is out of the draft business until late in the second round come April."

That's kind of a backhanded way of saying, "maybe we (the press) were wrong about Branch's impact."

Down to 181.5. aiming for 179 by next monday and 170 by the end of February.

Considering the results of last year's trades (Hanley Ramirez, Cla Merideth, etc.), I think it's wise of Theo Epstein to nix a trade with any team looking to plunder the Sox top prospects in order to unload an aging superstar with a bloated contract. I mean, the Sox don't really want to become the Yankees, do they?

I don't even really follow basketball, haven't in years. I look at the standings now and then, but there isn't really a team out there I root for. That being said, this year the Atlantic Conference in the East is bad - I mean really bad, like on a biblical level sort of bad. Currently the two best teams in the AC, New Jersey and Toronto are each a game under .500 with only 22 wins with less than half a season left to play. To put that in perspective, in the East alone Detroit, Chicago, Cleveland, Indiana, Washington, and Orlando all have better records.

In the West - Utah, Denver, Minnesota, Phoenix, The Lakers, The Clippers, Dallas, San Antonio and Houston all have better records. In a 30-team league, there are 15 teams with better winning percentages.

If division winners were not automatic locks to get into the playoffs, if playoff contenders were based on record alone it could be feasible that both teams could miss the playoffs as Golden State is only a half game behind the Nets and Raptors and Miami, Portland, and New Orleans are all within five games.

And another Bengals update...

Troubled Bengals receiver Chris Henry is trading in his tiger stripes for prison stripes for two days. According to an AP report the receiver "was sent to jail for two days on Thursday after pleading guilty to allowing minors to drink alcohol in his hotel room last spring."
Henry appears to be the Bengals' teflon player, having avoided significant jail time while pleading guilty in three previous criminal cases.
In the lastest case, according to the report, "Henry originally was charged in Covington with three counts of unlawful transaction with a minor. Police said he brought alcohol for three females -- ages 18, 16 and 15 -- in a Covington motel room April 29. One of the three, Monica Beamon, 18, was charged with murder in Cincinnati last September."
Lovely company he keeps.
Henry was sentenced in this case to 90 days, but the judge suspended all but two. For his repeated transgressions on this as well as drug and weapons charges combined he has been sentenced to a total of 120 days, only two of which he is spending in a jail, two years probation, and 100 hrs of community service, the equivalent of 12.5 business days working a standard eight hour shift.
Meanwhile a 20 year old man is serving ten years (see last post) in a Georgia prison for having consensual sex when he was a minor with another minor. Something isn't right here

I'm not normally political here, but for this I'll make an exception...

In decision after decision the Supreme Court of the United States has held that the implication of the statement, "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights," from the Declaration of Independence applies to all United States citizens regardless of race or gender. It has, in the past, been used as reason to grant asylum to those seeking refuge from religious and political persecution in their own country in the name of Justice.
It's a shame we can't get it right in our own country.
Let me start by saying, free Genarlow Wilson NOW.
Wilson a former star high school football player and honor student in Georgia is now two years into a mandatory ten year prison sentence with no chance of parole for child molestation for receiving oral sex from a 15 year-old girl when he was 17. The girl, in every account, including the account given by the girl's mother to the court in Wilson's case, was the one who initiated the action. Film even exists of the act.
Read the article on Wilson - it details some serious inequities that have been perpertrated by the state of Georgia, including the following; "The position of Barker and the district attorney, McDade, who refused to comment, is that Wilson is guilty under the law and there is no room for mercy, though the facts seem to say they simply chose not to give it to Wilson. At the same time this trial was under way, a local high school teacher, a white female, was found guilty of having a sexual relationship with a student -- a true case of child molestation. The teacher received 90 days. Wilson received 3,650 days."
Somehow I have a hard time believing that this is fair and equal treatment under the law. The Georgia Supreme Court called him, "a promising young man," and left him languishing in jail. I have a hard time reconciling their statement with their action.
The prosecutor in the case would be willing to let Wilson walk if he pleads guilty, thus relegating Wilson to a brand and national database that are a disservice and an inaccurate classification of the young man. The database is meant as a resource to inform parent of a menace to their children. That is not Wilson.
While I commend ESPN for writing this article, with the resources that the company has at hand I would like to think that the world wide leader in sports coverage is going to give this story more than ink. I think this story demands air time.
If ESPN could give a self-serving reality show to bore such as Barry Bonds, isn't then the socially and journalistically responsible thing to do to give Wilson some of that same self-serving air-time. After all they are a member of the Fourth Estate - the unofficial branch of the government that is supposed to be the watchdog that keeps things like this from happening.


On a somewhat related note, I would hope that if Wilson's lawyer, BJ Bernstein, can get him off, that the colleges that were once recruiting him will keep their offers open.

T.O. - A Blogger's Best friend and other thoughts on the week

Ah, the idiot club-house cancer speaks again.

According to MSNBC Owens made the following comment to the Fort Worth newspaper, “I am just hoping his retirement brings promise to what the team has to offer,” Owens said. “This past year was a big letdown. On paper we were as good as anybody we played against every week. The end result didn’t show that. Our play was not indicative of what we could have done. What we should have done. Hopefully, the owner will hire a coach to take the team to the next level.”

Nice to see that the receiver that was thrown to as much as if not more than any in the league, and led the league in dropped passes has accepted culpability in his part in guaranteeing that the Cowboys had to be on the road for the playoffs. For the dim and the slow, yes, that was sarcasm.

While I often have blogged here about Parcells record without Belichick - which is about .500, I have to put this question out there - How many rings do you have T.O., because the last time I checked, Parcells has two?

I've said it before and I will say it again - Owens will never win a ring, he causes too many problems in the locker room and believes he answers to no one.

Here is a list of the Coaches and teams who have given up on him -

George Seifert/Steve Mariucci - 49ers
Andy Reid - Eagles
Bill Parcells - Cowboys (and if you don't believe that Owens factored into the decision to retire, then listen to the recent ESPN radio interview with Parcells's buddy Bobby Knight).
The Ravens (see Owens escape from San Fran)
The Patriots (more trouble than that team would put up with)
The Jets (putting together a team in the manner of the Patriots, Mangini will not deal with the distractions)

Those are just the ones that have made preferences known. I wouldn't be surprised if that number were much higher - and that also doesn't include teams like Arizona that wouldn't pony up the kind of money that Owens believes he deserves.

On to other tidbits -

Here is an article on Tennessee coach Bruce Pearl showing up at a Lady Vols game with some of his players in a show of support for coach Pat Summit in a game against the top ranked Duke team. On Pardon the Interuption Wilbon and Kornheiser debated the concept of whether or not it was appropriate for the Volunteers Men's Coach to be shirtless with a giant V painted on his chest so that he and his players could spell out "Vols."
The debate is ridiculous. Not only was it appropriate, but its the show of support and solidarity that more coaches should show their colleagues on the collegiate level, particularly in regards to women's sports that are often treated as the bastard step child by athletic directors.
I, for one, commend Pearl for such an unabashed and enthusiastic show of support for the Lady Vols.
Keep it up Pearl, women's athletics could use more fans like you.

Well Mike Nifong...it was a blast;


Best Stories in the NFL this season? For my money, and in no particular order...

The Saints run into the post-season giving the Gulf Coast something to root for.

Detroit receiver and former arena league and Rams defensive back Mike Furrey's success in his first full year as a receiver - 98 receptions, 1086 yards. Not bad for a guy playing on one of the worst teams in the league.

The returns from what could have been career ending injuries for Drew Brees (shoulder), Chad Pennington (shoulders), and Rodney Harrison (knee).

The season of rookie sixth round pick Marques Colston out of Hofstra. The youngster played like a veteran catching 70 balls for 1038 yards - and for my money, Rookie of the Year.

In spite of wearing my Patriot blue on my sleeve, Tony Dungy getting over the hump and into the big game. I find it hard to feel the same for Manning, just because the ad campaigns, while intended to paint him as "just one of the guys," come off as obnoxious - I'm sorry, but the only thing missing in the Sprint ad where he has 70's porn-mustache is the bad funk music while Peyton "The Hedgehog" Manning is talking. But I digress...

Mangini's miracle turnaround of a Jets team that many people thought would be the worst in the AFC East.

Jeff Garcia's run of success with the Eagles, showing that in the right system, he can still get it done.

A final word about the Saints

Before I start on the Saints - this morning's weigh-in - 182.5, down 10.5 pounds from the beginning of the contest. Aiming for 180 by next Tuesday...we'll see what happens there.

The title of this post links to an excellent article about the Saints and the post-Katrina impact on New Orleans. It covers this weekend' post-game reaction more eloquently than I ever could without being there. I still would like to make a comment.

Often times the press and Hollywood portrays sports as something bigger than it is.
Who can forget James Earl Jones as writer Terrence Mann in Field of Dreams and his speech that ends with this statement; "The one constant through all the years, Ray, has been baseball. America has rolled by like an army of steamrollers. It has been erased like a blackboard, rebuilt and erased again. But baseball has marked the time. This field, this game: it's a part of our past, Ray. It reminds of us of all that once was good and it could be again. Oh... people will come Ray. People will most definitely come."
As reporters we once wrote about how Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa helped bring the fans back to baseball, making too much out of a homerun race. If it wasn't them, something else would have brought the fans back, it just would have taken longer.
Games are typically just games, and the fans moods often affected by the results of the games - but often its temporary.
As a Sox fan I was often disappointed in the early to mid 1990's when I lived in the shadow of Fenway Park, because, let's face it, the Sox weren't a good team then. But the well-being of the region didn't suffer for the suffering of the fans.
This year's Saints team was different.
The team has been a visible metaphor for the region. Last year homeless and helpless, relying on another region to house them, the league to support them. And watching them, you could see they were having trouble getting their legs under them.
This year they started new; new coach, new quarterback, new receivers in a renewed dome.
The new stars, Drew Brees and Reggie Bush, adopted their new company's home as their own, and have done what they could to aid in the rebuilding efforts.
Like the team's season, the rebuilding of the Crescent City is incomplete. The Saints marched as far as they could, and a journey that began in the swamp and flood of post-Katrina New Orleans, now two seasons ago, ended in the mud of a snowy field in Chicago.
The team, metaphor to the outsiders, was something much more to the people of the region. They were more than just one of the best stories in the NFL this year. They did something that every NFL team does for their fans at the beginning of every season, but they did it on an entirely new level; they offered hope.
This was more than hope for a championship.
This was about the renewal of a region. With a team so perennially bad as the Saints have been ( so bad that sports reporters called them the 'Ain'ts, me included, and fans once wore brown bags over their heads so they can't be identified) can get this close to the Super Bowl, closer than the team has ever come, then maybe the seemingly impossible task of rebuilding the city isn't as impossible as it seems.
To get a real sense of the team's importance to the region, click on the link above and read the ESPN article. If you're not touched by it, you're not human.
And a final note to Saints owner Tom Benson. Benson, as most avid sports fans know, has talked about moving the Saints for a number of years to locations where he believes the team will be more profitable. Built in the 1970's, the Superdome lacks some of the ammenities of newer stadiums that drive revenues higher such as the luxury suites and seat licenses. Because of this, Benson has flirted with Los Angeles and San Antonio as destinations for his franchise.
However, Benson is not hurting, as there is no NFL franchise right now that's losing money. For him to move the franchise from that region now would be unforgivable.

Arrested Development

Marvin Lewis has gotta hate his job right about now.

During Lewis's tenure as head coach of the Queen City's football franchise approximately 20 percent of his players have displayed a preference for prison stripes to those of the majestic Tiger for which the team is named. I only bring this up because it has been reported that cornerback and first round draft pick from last year Jonathan Joseph has been arrested on drug charges, adding him to eight others that have been arrested in the last twelve months, and at least the tenth in the last two and a half years.
According to the AP report, Coach Lewis stated "We've tried to allow guys to both mature as men and mature as players. But the thing we continue to find is they've got to be constantly coached, policed and corrected so that at times of adversity, we can do the right things."
Considering that most of these guys had well documented problems in college that made it to the local press, there really is no excuse for Lewis to be easy on these guys (another statement he made to the press). Can he be watching over them 24/7? No. But he certainly doesn't have to be playing them, and it is within the team's purview the fine the buggers for this sort of behavior.
In the regular season the roster has 53 players, 47 of whom are active on Sunday. Ten arrested is then over 21 percent of the active roster.

I would call the following a roll call, but rap sheet seems more appropriate (keeping in mind, I am only listing arrests, not convictions);

Justin Smith, DE, 1st Round - DUI 10/2004
*Odell Thurman, LB, 2nd Round - DUI 9/2006
Erich Steinbach, G, 2nd Round - Boating under the influence 8/2006
Matthias Askew, DT, 4th Round - Resisting arrest 8/2006 - release did nothing to send a message to other Bengals trouble children.
Deltha O'Neal, CB, DUI 12/2006
AJ Nicholson, LB, 5th Round - Burgalury, grand theft 6/2006
Frostee Rucker, DE, 3rd Round - Spousal Battery, vandalism 6/2006
*Reggie McNeal, WR, 6th Round - Resisting Arrest, drug charges 12/2006

The last is a one man rap sheet...the following is just a sample as Henry has been arrested four times since the end of/late in 2005...
*Chis Henry, WR, 3rd Round -
12/2005 - pulled over in Northern Kentucky for speeding and marijuana was found in his shoes. He was also driving without a valid driver's license, and without auto insurance.
1/2006, he was arrested in Orlando for multiple gun charges including concealment and aggravated assault with a firearm. He was reported to have been wearing his Number 15 Bengals jersey at the time of his arrest. Henry pleaded guilty to in both cases and avoided jail time in both cases.
Cincinnati media reported in 5/2006, that Henry is being investigated by Covington police in connection with a sex crime, which allegedly occurred in a hotel room in Covington, Kentucky early on April 30, 2006. No charges have yet been filed, and on May 24, 2006, Covington police reported that there is no proof anything happened and that the alleged victim might now face charges for filing a false police report.

* It's just interesting to note that when Thurman was nailed for his DUI, he was serving a 4-game substance abuse suspension and in the vehicle with him were McNeal and Henry.

One Helluva Football Weekend...

Wow.
The clock struck midnight yesterday on the Cinderella Saints as Chicago overcame a rough start by Grossman to lay down a serious spanking on New Orleans. While it ends possibly the most compelling story in the NFL this year. It opens up a different, yet compelling storyline which I will touch on momentarily.
First - the marquee match up of the weekend; Colts-Pats.
I heard a lot of people last week questioning how the Pats were going to keep pace with the Colts in the Dome, but I kept saying that this was going to come down to the last possession, and it did.
Brady made an uncharacteristic mistake in the last minute of a game, and the colts DB, unlike the Chargers DB did the smart thing after intercepting Brady. He sat down, eliminating any possibility of a game-changing turnover that would give the Patriots another chance.
Yesterday we watched two AFC teams play in a hard fought game that was really a tale of two halves.
The Patriots dominated the first thirty minutes and the Colts the second. Unfortunately, from my standpoint, the Colts made one more play than the Patriots did when it counted.
I commend the Colts for making the necessary adjustments to get the job done.
However, I do have to say, I have heard a lot of talk about how with a win in this round Manning gets the monkey off his back. I disagree with that. The knock was that Manning couldn't win the big one...he still hasn't. That happens in two weeks. A lot of pundits sound like they're ready coronate the Colts as the winners of the Super Bowl, and while I think that's likely, I also know that in 2001 everyone was ready to coronate what appeared to be a more talented Rams team as the Super Bowl winner. I'm not quite ready to discount Chicago.

The new compelling, yet-not-quite-as-compelling storyline in the NFL. Only because Chicago played earlier in the day yesterday, Lovie Smith became the first black head coach to reach the Super Bowl. With the Colts victory, Dungy became the second black coach to make the big game - one that will be played during the first weekend of February - Black History Month. Somehow appropriate, I think. I will address more on this later, including some important points about professional sports and its roll in the Civil Rights Movement.
A brief note on my conscious choice to not call Dungy and Smith African-American. It is a silly PC term for the overtly sensitive, and not terribly accurate. I had a professor in college, Jenny Shute, who was born and raised in Africa, yet was paler than Bill Belichick. She was arrested and exiled from her home in South Africa for fighting to end apartheid.
While I claim Irish and Italian heritage, in the end I am American. Not European-American, not really Irish-, or Italian-American either (though I do prescribe to those terms for simplicity's sake). But the fact is neither of my parents were born or raised anywhere other than in the United States, and technically, that makes me nothing other than American. We have a need to classify ourselves and to belong to groups, but, unless somebody is trying to offend (and I could get into some very Klan oriented language here to make my point, but won't) being offended about being called black as opposed to African-American is just silly.

Parcells has resigned - with Terrell Owens coming back, is that really a surprise.

JD Drew clarification - I think what you're likely to hear, probably this week, is that Drew was signed for the previously agreed on $70 million. However, what will be downplayed is the medical language/clause that will allow the Sox to get off the hook for a significant portion of that money should Drew's health become an issue.

Happy trails Christopher Trotman Nixon and good luck in Cleveland. Right field won't be quite the same without you...and don't take this the wrong way, I enjoyed watching you play, but realistically, right field hasn't been the same since Dwight Evans headed for Baltimore.

Two weeks from today we enter what I call The Black Time. It is the time between football and baseball when all there is left is basketball and hockey. I don't think basketball has been all that entertaining since about 1994 (however, I did enjoy the finals three years ago between Detroit and Los Angeles) when the game became less about team than it did about finding a star with just a bunch of guys. Hockey...well I never thought much of hockey from a broadcast perspective in spite of playing street hockey for eight seasons growing up. During The Black Time, I will be looking at some of the sports that I believe deserve more attention than they're getting, and speculate on some of the reasons that these sports are struggling.

A Few Quick Observations

Calling all NFL General Managers - if you can get Ricky Williams and Michael Vick on your team you can have your very own NFL-version of Cheech and Chong...I'm just not really sure if Williams is more Cheech or more Chong.

People have talked this week about how Belichick failed in his plan to take away LaDanian Tomlinson, but I think that's presumptuous. I think Belichick took away the weapon he planned on - Antonio Gates. I think Belichick thought that if the Chargers offense could beat his team relying solely on Tomlinson, then so be it. Gates had one catch in the game.

Pundits are citing the vulnerability the Patriots showed last week against the Chargers as the reason the Colts will win this week. I wonder how closely they watched Manning try to give that game away in Baltimore? Also, Baltimore has a better defense than the Chargers and the Chargers have a better defense than the Colts.

Others cite the home game - of course overlooking that the Colts blew that advantage last year, that Brady is 10-0 in domes (including 2-0 at Indy, and 2-0 in Super Bowls), that Brady has a passer rating of 105 in domes, and that only one team in the NFL gave up fewer points than the Patriots this season. Also, I keep hearing about how the Colts are 9-0 at home...I remember hearing something about the Chargers being 8-0 at Qualcomm. I think I'm missing something...

Shawn Merriman saw the Light last weekend...Matt Light. Working primarily one on one with the Chargers' performance-enhanced pass rusher Light held Merriman to two tackles and one sack for no yards lost. A week after everyone was saying that there was no way Light could contain Merriman, now they're talking about the same with Dwight Freeney who was held without a sack by Light in the regular season meeting.

This is going to be a good weekend for football and I expect two close games in which any of the four teams could win.

Barry Bonds apologists - give it up already.

So, here's my theory on the JD Drew signing...I think the Red Sox came to a preliminary agreement with Drew, a Scott Boras client, in order to foster some goodwill with Boras and get Matsuzaka in the fold knowing that they had an out because of Drew's medical issues. I think it's possible Drew will be in a Sox cap come spring training, but not at anything near the price previously agreed to.

I am so tired of the Clemens thing. He will not have a 2.50 ERA pitching in the American League and the Sox already are shaping up to have some serious competition for the starting rotation. They don't need another geriatric in there. Heading into spring training these are the pitchers looking for a spot -

Schilling - will start
Papelbon - will start
Beckett - will start
Matsuzaka - will start
Wakefield - likely to start

Fighting for spot as a swingman or starter or trade bait -

Clement
DiNardo
Lester
Snyder
Gabbard
Pauley
Pineiro

The Weigh In and poor sportsmanship...

Well, down to 185.5 in the contest - 7.5 pounds overall. And on to the playoffs...

It was one hell of a weekend - and the closest series of contests I can recall. And before I really get into it, let me say that none of the teams looked particularly sharp, but boy was it competitive.

Colts 15, Ravens 6

Neither team looked good on offense and eventually the Ravens just looked tired on defense when they needed to come up with the big stop. On the other hand, one has to wonder A) Where Peyton Manning has been for the playoffs and B) Where their run defense was during the season, because the return of one player should not have an impact on how the rest of the team tackles.

Saints 27, Eagles 24

The Cinderella story came to an end in Philadelphia pretty much when Deuce McAllister dragged the entire Eagles defense into the endzone from five yards out. Sure, the Eagles still had a chance - but when one player just wants it more than the 11 he's dragging...well that's just a statement.
McCallister against Urlacher is going to be compelling football next week.

Bears 27, Seahawks 24

There were times that Seattle's offensive play calling puzzled me, but not as much, when the game was on the line, taking out Grant Wistrom on a third and long in overtime when they needed a pass rush.

And the controversial one...

Patriots 24, Chargers 21

The Patriots did not play well, and they won this game. They were out rushed almost 3 to 1, the Pats had 18 first downs to San Diego's 21, overall New England garnered 25 fewer total yards and lost the time of possession battle. That being said, I'm hearing a lot about how the Chargers gave the game away - and they did make mistakes at crucial moments, however, Roosevelt Colvin's interception of Philip Rivers was not like the interceptions Brady tossed into the chests of the Chargers defenders. Colvin made a highlight reel play to force a turnover. Vrabel strip sacked Philip Rivers. Shawn Merriman was supposed to terrorize Brady all day - he got to him once.
All that said, I do agree with the following from Sports Illustrated's Paul Zimmerman, "Talk about dumb, out-of-control teams. The Chargers lost to the Patriots mainly because New England was more professional, i.e., they didn't play idiot ball, as San Diego did. I don't need to go into the litany of stoopids the Chargers were guilty of, the "attitude" penalties, head butts, bumps, grinds, shoves ... the dropped balls, the fumbles, all of which cost dearly. Simply unprofessional, which was kind of surprising for a team at this level.
"A big thing was made out of some Patriots imitating Shawne Merriman's Lights Out sack dance after the game. Merriman ran down Brady for a zero-yards pursuit sack in the fourth quarter, but aside from that, he was practically invisible. Hey, pal, if you're gonna turn a spotlight on yourself, be ready for its heat as well as its light."
Tomlinson, who by all accounts is one of the classiest players in the league has managed to come off as a petty, and sore loser, but he got really bone-headed yesterday when he made the following comment, "and what message do you want to send our kids?"
So - Tomlinson would condone an 8 year old kid in a peewee game doing a sack dance? Sorry, but that's not really cool. Not to mention that a choreographed sack dance isn't a spontaneous celebration of a big play, it is meant to set a player apart and, no matter what anyone says, is taunting the other team. This doesn't take into account Tomlinson's use of setting an example for the kids as his defense for a teammate who was caught using steroids (and for the Merriman defenders, look up what he was caught using - the likelihood of that substance tainting a supplement that the chances of it tainting the supplement are virtually nil). Great example for the kids there, huh?
Do I condone the Patriots actions? No. But do I have a problem with someone pointing out how classy he is while defending a teammate's dance and refusing to shake hands after a game? Yes. You're football players, not Bob Fosse. You want to dance and not get mocked? Try out for the Met.