53 Players With No Place in the National Football League -- Introduction

A bit of a project I'm doing.

I'm going to come up with a(n approximate) NFL roster of players who have no place in the National Football League -- they should not be in it, nor allowed to be a player in the league.

Some ground rules:

• The player must be in good standing with the league at present.  No Johnathan Vilma, for example.
• The player must either have been on the roster at some point last season (and not retired) or is on the roster now.

That's pretty much it.  So we'll start at the glamour position in the next post.

And just when the NFL couldn't get any crazier this season, enter the state of New Jersey!!!

I've said a number of times that one of the many ways a game can be fixed or rigged is "for the benefit of [Las] Vegas" -- spread considerations, over/under, what have you.

Well, if the governor of the state has his way, New Jersey will flaunt a Federal ban on sports gambling in the other 46 states (Nevada is the only one with books, Oregon, Montana, and Delaware being the other three) and attempt to challenge the ban by instituting sports gambling in the Atlantic City casinos and racetracks in the state.

*facepalm*

Great.  ANOTHER state is going to add it's name to the total.

It's bad enough when one state has casinos which openly influence contests...

Soccer stories: Barton's slap on the wrist totals 12, Webb warns simulation may kill

Two stories of soccer in the brief interval between end of club season and the start of the European championships in about two weeks:

-- The ban is in for Joey Barton:  Twelve matches, says the FA.

The pontification by the FA went as follows:

"The chairman of the regulatory commission stated after the hearing: 'There are rules of conduct that should be adhered to, and such behavior tarnishes the image of football in this country, particularly as this match was the pinnacle of the domestic season and watched by millions around the globe.'"

I'd say.  But twelve matches, for a man with his record,  plus the stature of the match, plus the very ominous possibilities that such anarchy on the pitch could be the undoing of Queens Park Rangers in the Premier League just doesn't sit well for me.

It's as if the FA, knowing it got exactly what it wanted, let this on-pitch hooligan off easy.  Here's what I think he should've gotten:

• Four matches for the red
• Five matches for the kick to Aguero
• Five more for the fact that the kick was after he was served the red card
• Five more for blatant intent to injure
• Six more for the headbutt attempt to Kompany
• Six more than that for the fact that the attempt was after he was served the red card
• and the rest of a season for several "acts which bring the game into disrepute" 

And that doesn't take into account his previous record, the stature of the match, the fact that another QPR player actually advised him to get a Manchester City player sent off (THAT is a 10-12 match offense...) and the situation at hand.  I could give a season for just his acts on the pitch at that moment.

Twelve matches is a JOKE!

On a better note, World Cup 2010 Final referee Howard Webb was asked to speak at a recent FIFA conference and gave the most compelling argument to end the scourge of football that is diving/simulation:

It could quite literally kill somebody!!

Don't believe me?  Webb should know.  He was the referee on the fateful day that Fabrice Muamba collapsed on the pitch during an FA Cup tie.

Webb's quick action was lauded as the basis on which Muamba was allowed to survive his massive heart attack and his heart being stopped for a significant period of time!

So listen to Webb as he talks about the act of simulation in this article:

''If players and if people cry wolf too many times, then there is a possibility that maybe we will not react in the way we need to,'' Webb said. ''If we come under criticism for stopping the games too many times for doctors or physiotherapists to enter the field of play, then referees might be inclined not to stop the game.''

And that would kill somebody.  Period.

They've been looking for a long time to deal with diving and faking injuries.  I think they may finally have found the cure.

If you don't think the NBA still wants to drag the Miami Heat to this and multiple NBA titles...

I have the video of 2 flagrant fouls from Tuesday night to show you.

Now, the Heat certainly won Game 5 with little contest (which should be taken into account when you see the second of the flagrant fouls), but I do have to wonder how much the game would've changed in the second quarter (with Miami only up 7) if the officials had done their supposed job and called this an ejection flagrant-2.

It appears as if, after the foul, the referee is pointing off the court, as if to imply that he was ejecting Udonis Haslem (correctly, IMHO) for his two-hand clobber of Tyler Hansborough.

Under the rulebook of the NBA (from a list of all the 2011-2012 flagrant fouls (.pdf file):

A Flagrant-1 is called when "unnecessary contact [is] committed by a player against an opponent".  This is what eventually was called -- two shots and the ball.

A Flagrant-2 is called when the contact is not only unnecessary, but additionally excessive.  That's an ejection on top of two and the ball.

So will someone -- ANYONE -- outside of a Miami Heat fan explain to me why that contact with two hands was not, by definition, excessive?

Yeah, the game was in Miami.

Yeah, the crowd was supportive of the hack job.

But it's clear that the foul was unnecessary and excessive and Haslem, as the announcers point out, is a needed player in the absence of Chris Bosh.

Or are we all supposed to accept this because Miami has all the remaining star power on the floor and will be the only team people are going to want to watch play Boston in the Eastern Conference Finals (or is the league going to get rid of them to clear the road?  Game 7 against Philly Saturday night)?

But the whole situation dissolved into ridiculous when the second of the flagrant fouls occurred.

Dexter Pittman, with the game 115-78 in favor of Miami in the last minute, literally forearms to the ground Lance Stephenson.  Hits him square in the neck!

Another Flagrant-1.

At least the NBA gets this right:  Haslem and Pittman have both been suspended.  Haslem for Game 6, Pittman for Game 6 plus two more!

I'll make a prediction right now:  There will be violence in Game 6.

Uh, yes, Mr. Goodell, there was collusion...

Your penalties to cripple the Redskins and hamstring the Cowboys indicate that there was an agreement to hold salaries down, and that's collusion.

An uncapped year is an uncapped year.  Period.

And you got caught, and rightly taken to court on it today by the NFLPA.

I mean, we all know the real reason you're doing this, other than holding salaries down, is to force new ownership in Washington and get Jerry Jones to think real hard about changing his ways in Dallas.

But what you've done is far too obvious.

Is the EPL trying to make money off of "Hollywood Sunday", or are we getting censored here?

Ah, the perils of trying to show evidence to the world, so they can draw their own conclusions.

The EPL article I and others wrote for "The Fix is In" has been having a serious problem:  We seem to be going through highlight clips about as quickly as the FA and the EPL can pull them down.

I think we're at least on #3 or #4.  So, as I was looking AGAIN for Brian today, I noticed something:

I went to Sky Sports' website, and I noticed they had the highlights of the game, but only if:

1) You PAID FOR THEM on a subscription service

and

2) If you lived in the UK or the Republic of Ireland.

So, are we trying to hide the evidence or make money off the drama, English Premier League?

The first Bounty-Gate lawsuit is on the table!

And Roger Goodell is a Defendant.

OK, that's not much of a shock.  I think the NFL has done enough to enable this kind of stuff.

But ESPN reports tonight that Jonathan Vilma, suspended for a year by Roger Goodell for his role in Bounty-Gate, has SUED Goodell for defamation:

"Suspended Saints linebacker Jonathan Vilma filed a defamation lawsuit Thursday against NFL commissioner Roger Goodell, claiming the league's top executive made false statements that tarnished Vilma's reputation and hindered his ability to earn a living playing football."

Let that process...

Let it process hard...

May I be the first to openly say (and this is where the visceral anger comes out that cannot go on my collaborative work if Brian needs me again!):

FUCK YOU JONATHAN VILMA!!

On his Twitter:

"Vilma wrote on his Twitter account that, "As I've said before..I NEVER PAID, NOR INTENDED TO PAY ANY AMOUNT OF MONEY, TO ANY PLAYER FOR INTENTIONALLY HURTING AN OPPONENT."

If this is true, then not only does Goodell need to be fired, but the Player Safety Initiative scrapped.

You're either lying, dangerously delusional, or have a case to bankrupt Goodell.  He's got 50,000 pages of evidence, he's suspended you for a year -- and, if true, should make you basically unemployable on and off the field, because your ass needs to be in prison, boy!! -- and you have the unmitigated gall to sue him...

May he counter-sue to take your team off the field -- PERMANENTLY.