2012 in Super Fraud, a year of farce in review

So we finally have achieved the end of this God-forsaken year (Good Riddance!!!), and what have we found?

• January

* Tebow Time in full effect, until the Patriots are given the script to end it and make the Super Bowl.
* Possible shenanigans to keep the 49ers from facing them.
* A 2011 football riot in Georgia leads to exactly zero indictments, since the incident occurred in the jurisdiction of the team which locked the other team out of their locker room (after getting their asses kicked on the field) and almost killed their coach.

• February

* Giants win a Super Bowl marred with questionable play (and decision-making afterward, according to Tom Brady's wife) by New England wide-receivers.
* The NFL gets what it really wanted, a game with the ball in the air at the gun to decide it.
* Brian Tuohy begins to reveal some of the FBI files he was able to obtain on sporting events going back decades, in a lead-up to his 2013 book Larceny Games.

• March

* Bounty-Gate explodes, as the Saints are revealed to have a standing bounty program the year they won the Super Bowl, eventually leading to the fading of Brett Favre, Kurt Warner, and (so we thought!) Peyton Manning.  Penalties announced later in the month -- were a joke in the first place and most of them were rejected by Paul Tagliabue in a decision which basically says the players are complete serfs to their coaches on the field.  (*snork*)
* Syracuse's basketball program, and Jim Boeheim, continued to be protected from any real consequences, as rumors of rampant drug use in the program go nowhere, as did a sexual incident on tape that even ESPN stonewalled a few months before!
* The first week of the NCAA tournament sees unthinkable comebacks (BYU goes down 25 to Iona with El Presidente Brackets watching, wins by six) and even more unthinkable officiating (North Carolina-Asheville openly screwed against Syracuse, Ohio University screwed against North Carolina.)

• April

* The NHL and NBA playoffs spiral out of control, Metta World Peace getting another toss for a flagrant elbow, and the NHL's entire first round or two falling victim to fighting and dirty hits all over the place.
* The NCAA's new darling school, Baylor, gets a 4-year investigation revealed against it by the NCAA.

• May

* In another black eye for boxing, Floyd "Money" Mayerweather is allowed to fight Miguel Cotto, despite the laws of the state of Nevada effectively requiring the Nevada State Athletic Commission to review to revoke Mayerweather's license to fight for his domestic violence conviction, for which he served jail time after the Cotto fight? Why?  Anyone on the road that weekend to Vegas could've told you, as could the record $32,000,000 guarantee Mayerweather got for the fight!
* Junior Seau dies, and a pattern of criminality consistent with too many football blows to the head surfaces.
* An interesting series of events on the final Sunday of the English Premier League season leads to a bizarre sending-off of malcontent Joey Barton (for which he has been shipped out of English soccer completely!) and a late double to give Manchester City an unthinkable (ha ha) Hollywood ending, and a Premier League title.

• June

* In probably the Rig Job of the Year, Manny Pacquiao is "defeated" by Timothy Bradley, noted to take place in the same building in which Mayerweather was "Home" against Cotto a month beforehand.  Pacquiao appeared to win many of the rounds through control of the ring, but the judges came back with bizarre totals, with two judges giving the fight to Bradley by seven rounds to five!  A WBO panel of judges puts the result at more to what I thought it was:  Pacquiao by the same margin, if not further.
* Racism and hooliganism mar the Euro 2012 soccer championships, almost across the board, as the BBC predicted weeks beforehand.
* A testy exchange between NBA Mafia Don David Stern and Jim Rome surfaces, just before Stern gets his wish, a title for the talents taken down to South Beach.  As the year would go on, the Lakers would also assemble a super-team (but with, to this point, much lesser results!).

• July

* Austin Dillon, in the old-school Dale Sr. colors of the #3, fails a pair of inspections within a week on the Nationwide Series.  This probably had a serious hand in him only finishing third in the season series, 24 points behind Ricky Stenhouse, Jr.
* The Penn State situation goes before the NCAA after Louis Freeh details, in a report to the public, a systematic culture of allowance of pedophilia, child rape, and coverups of same at the University.  The NCAA mulls what penalties it can impose.  The NCAA (farcically) attempts to impose penalties worse than the simple removal of the team from the field, in an effort President Mark Emmert calls an effort to change the culture at the university.  It fails uncategorically.  Penn State had the second-best football team in the Big Ten (ironically, the best team in the conference was also ineligible this year (Ohio State)), and then word comes out that a party with inside access to the negotiations which changed the original penalties (which would've been a four-year death penalty) to what they became was none other than The Owners of College Football themselves, ESPN.

• The 2012 Summer Olympics

* An athlete was banned from the Games for betting on a pre-Olympic event he was participating in.
* The efforts to bring social media into the Games lead to the disqualifications of multiple athletes, and a controversy among the US track team (and others) about the promotion of non-Olympic-authorized sponsors.
* Ryan Lochte is more interested in his custom diamond-encrusted tooth grill than actually shutting up and winning gold medals.
* Officiating incidents abounded in the tournament.
* The American professionals in the basketball competition roll up the score mercilessly on Nigeria, winning a game by 83 points.
* Badminton competition implodes when two Chinese teams are part of a match-fixing scandal which eventually fells four teams from the competition.
* Boxing is a complete farce, and I'm not talking the shutout of the US men.  A scandal showing medals-for-cash plans explodes when bizarre decisions appear to indicate that the boxing federation was fully intent on rigging the entire tournament in London.
* The hosts, in one of their premier events, concoct a plan to intentionally crash their cycling bike to force a restart if the start did not go to Great Britain's liking.

• August

*A bizarre plot to kidnap the mother of Hall of Fame baseball player Cal Ripken Jr. surfaces.  Ripken Jr. _was_ an honorary member of Second Mile, Jerry Sandusky front company for pedophilia.
* Buried in the Olympic coverage was a controversy surrounding George Will and an article he wrote about the dangers of football and why no one was interested in seeing them dealt with.
* The state of New Jersey is in court with the major sports leagues over wishing to open sportsbooks legally in their own state.
* A boy in Texas is disqualified from a Pee-Wee football league for being more than twice the 135-pound weight limit for the league.  The mom doesn't like it.
* Lance Armstrong stripped of his seven Tour de Farce ...  err, France... titles.
* A Notre Dame announcer is suspended for comments which indicate he'd like to see more criminals and thugs under the Golden Dome.

• September

* One constant of the 2012 NFL season:  The NFL bettors get fleeced.  Vegas appears to win many games under the replacement referees.
* A close second to Pacquiao-Bradley for Rig Job of the Year, and one which will impact who plays in the Super Bowl:  The Call.  The Fail Mary by the Seattle Seahags against the Green Bay Packers which sent a stadium into hysterics, with the announcers calling an immediate touchdown on the final play of the game, giving the Hags the victory over the Packers.  This, ignoring three facts:  The receiver shoves a Packer defender to the ground openly while the ball is in the air, the officials can't make up their mind on joint possession (or anything else), and anyone who saw the replay knows the situation was NOT joint possession.  No matter:  Controversy creates cash, and the real refs are brought back within 72 hours.  As a result of that call, the San Francisco 49ers get the #2 seed in the NFC.
* You want your team to win in the NFL in 2012?  Hope for a tragedy in the team.  Wins of this ilk benefitted the Ravens, Colts, Cowboys, and Chiefs, at barest of minimum.

• October

* Controversies abound in the Wild Card Game in baseball in the National League, leading to the Saint Louis Cardinals advancing after two questionable calls send Atlanta home.
* A 45 year-old Utah youth football coach decides he's man enough to KO a 13 year-old opponent on the sideline.
* A lawsuit by a Saints fan against the NFL contends that the league has an obligation to allow the "finest players and coaches" to be on the Saints.
* A massive gambling sting in Florida blows the doors off of massive drug, gang, and gambling cultures surrounding youth football in the state -- as ESPN (and this blog) reported a year and a half beforehand.

• November

* Notre Dame is gift-wrapped it's second victory by the refereeing this year, leading to ESPN's Dream Match for the BCS National Championship vs. Alabama.  Pittsburgh is openly denied a win it won on the field with several questionable calls, including an ignored penalty on a missed field goal in overtime which would've given Pittsburgh a first down and effectively certain victory.
* Jeff Gordon wrecks Clint Bowyer out of the Sprint Cup championship, and a fight ensues.  No one is banned.  "Have at it boys!", until someone dies...
* Jeffrey Loria is trying to kill Major League Baseball in yet another city.  It's not enough he killed it in Montreal, now Miami is about to become effectively a minor-league farm team for the rest of the major leagues.
* Ed Reed, in a disturbing precedent which has led to many more incidents since the reversal (including another by Reed himself!) is spared a suspension when an arbitrator reverses a suspension against the Baltimore Ravens' thug.
* Speaking of thugs, Ndokamung Suh of the Lions was at it again THIS Thanksgiving!
* A Division III player scores 138 points in a game, and the entire mechanism of basketball at that university is fairly quickly exposed as an over-produced sham.
* An NFL player claims that one of the performance-enhancing drugs in the NFL is...  erectile-dysfunction drugs, to increase bloodflow during games.
* David Stern throws a fit when Greg Popavich sends most of the starters home for the San Antonio Spurs against the Miami Heat.  Never mind the length of the road trip or the schedule -- this game was on NATIONAL TELEVISION!!!  Roar!!

• December

* In addition to a great many continuances of previous bullet points, an ESPN reporter is suspended for a month for saying that the league's new Great Black Hope, Robert Griffin III, isn't black enough for the ghetto, inner-city culture the league is attempting to promote.

Any idea why I'm glad this year is over???

End of the Season Score Update

So we put a bow on a very confusing regular season where the Fail Mary has impacted, almost certainly, who's going to the Super Bowl (more on that in another post), but here's the final scoring update for the 2012 NFL season.

The final week averaged just over 46 points a game (46.0625), a point and a half below last year and the third-highest since 2001 (2009 was highest).

But another record-breaking year for the NFL (har har), as the average NFL game this year was 45.5 points this year (45.512), a point and a half (almost) above last year's record average.

The average margin of victory was about the same as last year, a tick over 12 points.

I present to you a rigged Week 17 result...

Why?

Because FOX Television tipped off the result of the Minnesota-Green Bay game two plays before Minnesota won it with a game-ending field goal, 37-34.

I was going to avoid the game, but, when I was out doing some screwing around, I saw the game on the outdoor screens at a restaurant.

Here's the situation:

34-34, inside of 40 seconds left.

Ball is at the Green Bay 38, 1st and 10 to Minnesota, who called their first time out.

FOX then does a Wild Card Weekend promo, a promo with the following four players:

Adrian Peterson
Aaron Rodgers
Tony Romo
Marshawn Lynch

Do I need go further?  Peterson, on the NEXT PLAY, busts it for 25, is carried off the field (9 yards short of the record!), field goal wins it, Packers-Vikings in Lambeau next week for the Wild Card.

(For the record, here's the problem:  Unless Minnesota beats Green Bay, neither Peterson (eliminated) nor Rodgers (Packers get the first-round bye) play Wild Card Weekend.  Romo is playing as I type.  As of posting, it's 7-7 with Washington, and Romo has two picks.)

Not convinced?  Let's back up a couple first downs...

Third and 11, inside the Minnesota 20 for the Vikings.

Christian Ponder goes back to pass.  Packers rush three and drop eight, which I already know is not going to end well.

Then, somehow, a Viking receiver breaks free to about midfield, with about a seven-yard cushion on EVERYBODY around him.  Catch, two feet, first down.

Tell me again the games aren't rigged -- I need a good laugh...

Week 16 Fine Blotter, Part Two: The Rest of the Rogues

• Carolina Panthers:  Cam Newton is actually a TWO-TIME LOSER for his conduct against the Raiders.  In addition to the $21,000 he got against the officiating, he got ANOTHER $10,000 for kicking Raider DT Tommy Kelly.
• Carolina Panthers Fine #3:  Greg Hardy got $25,000 for ending Carson Palmer's season with a dirty shot to the head!  This makes Hardy a TWO-TIME LOSER.
• Carolina Panthers Fine #4!:  Charles Godfrey:  $21,000 for another of those defenseless fouls.  That make Godfrey a THREE-TIME LOSER.  All three players fined by the league for the Panthers this week are multiple-offenders.
• New England Patriots:  Vince Wilfork:  $30,000 for forearming Steve Vallos of the Jaguars in the head.
• Houston Texans:  Kareem Jackson:  $21,000 for a head/neck-shot on Jarius Wright of the Vikings.
• Houston Texans #2:  Daniael Manning: $10,000 for a face mask.  This makes Manning a TWO-TIME LOSER.
• Minnesota Vikings:  Matt Kalil:  $10,000 for a late hit in the same game.  And, yep, you guessed it!  TWO-TIME LOSER.
• Baltimore Ravens:  Michael Oher:  $10,000 for a chop block.
• San Francisco 49ers:  Anthony Davis:  $10,000 for a late hit on Seahag Jeremy Lape.
• Tennessee Titans:  Sen'Derrick Marks:  $7,875 for a face mask against the Packers.

11 players, $229,875 in fines, and SIX multiple-offenders.

That puts the charity total over three million:  $3,063,250

Week 16 Fine Blotter Part One: Two big names, and they BOTH should be suspended!

If you want any idea as to why the Personal Conduct and Player Safety Initiatives are a fucking joke in the NFL, please explain to me why either of these two high-profile NFL players are playing this week...

According to an anonymous source:

• Baltimore Ravens:  Ed Reed has added yet another to his list.  This is now a THREE-TIME LOSER, just five weeks after narrowly dodging a suspension.  This fine is $55,000 for another of those defenseless hits in the head and neck, this one on Victor Cruz of the Giants.
• Carolina Panthers:  Cam Newton.  Yes, CAM NEWTON.  $21,000 for bumping the referee and abusing the official in the game against Oakland.  Not only is he not suspended, he wasn't even tossed -- the ref, reportedly, saying that the bump was not malicious.

Week 16 Score Update and some playoff thoughts

Week 16 average:  42.375 .  Fourth-lowest week of the year, lowest Week 16 since 2004.

16 Week per-game average:  45.475.  About a point and a third over last year.  About a full point over two years ago, the highest since 2001.

And on the Cliffhanger Watch:

New Orleans beat Dallas in overtime.

Cincinnati beat Pittsburgh (and eliminated them) with a field goal late after a Rothlesberger interception which most saw as unbelievable.

I'd like to know what planet you are on.  He threw it right to the Cincinnati defender, 5 yards over AND off line from the intended Pittsburgh receiver.  There are few, if any, players who owe the league more for their thuggish behavior than Ben Rothlesberger.  You got swindled again.

And that's it.  Just 2 - and a total of only 3, I believe, in the last two weeks - decided in the last 2 minutes or in overtime.

--

So let's see what chicanery the NFL probably has planned for us in the playoffs...

(These are predictions as of today.)

NFC:  Seattle-Green Bay.  Put it down, mark it in pen, these two teams are all but destined to play again.  So much damage has been done this season due to The Call (That call singlehandedly has assured Atlanta has clinched the #1 seed, for starters.  Atlanta would have to win or have the Pack tie or lose next week.)

But not only that, I will say this now:  I don't think that the most important game on Week 17's schedule is the game they flexed to the Sunday Night game.  (NFC East title:  Dallas-Washington.)

It's one they flexed to 4:25:  Green Bay at Minnesota.

I'm thinking of a full-on flame post for the obsessives up in Seattle.  Haven't fully formulated it yet, but there's something in the water up there that's making even the Packer fans seem tame.  If the road to the Super Bowl functionally goes through Seattle, they're going to be in it, if not win it.

If Minnesota beats Green Bay, then all Seattle has to do is have the 12th Man run over St. Louis for them to get the #2 seed.

AFC:  Denver-Indianapolis, if not Denver-New England on top of it.  Gotta check my work to make sure that works, but those are probably the two most compelling storylines on that side of the bracket.

And even that comes nowhere close to Seattle-Green Bay -- it's so ridiculous that, over:

• all the championships
• the Olympics
• all the off-the-field news
• the NHL lockout
• etc.

The #1 Sports Illustrated sports moment of 2012 is...  "The Call".

Bah humbug.

Week 15's Naughty (Fine Blotter) and Nice (Scoring Update) Lists

In a week where only three games were settled by a touchdown or less (and only one was an overtime game, much less decided in the last two minutes with a score), the average point-total this week completed was 44.6875.

Well below the last two years, this average puts the season-long average at 45.70 points a game, about a point and a half better than last year's record pace.

--

And Santa won't be visiting these people with anything but sticks and pieces of coal:

• Washington Redskins:  In a move which might portend trouble for the Redskins as far as any potential scripting for a playoff run, Robert Griffin III has chosen to continue his feud with the NFL's Chosen Uniform Company, the Swoosh, and was fined $10,000 for wearing Adidas apparel to a post-game question-and-answer session.
• San Francisco 49ers:  Dashon Goldson needs to be suspended, Mr. Goodell.  According to media reports, several fines have slipped through this list, apparently.  As of last week, I had Goldson down as a two-time loser.  He apparently, from NFL.com's Gregg Rosenthal, is, at least as of Thursday, a THREE-TIME LOSER, with it being possibly as high as FIVE.  The article reports that Goldson has been fined six times in the last two years, at least:  Two uniform violations, a 2011 fight, and three dirty hits this year, including $21,000 for a helmet-to-helmet from week 15 against the Patriots.
• Atlanta Falcons: Chris Hope:  $30,000 for a helmet-to-helmet on Victor Cruz of the Giants.  
• Atlanta Falcons:  Roddy White:  $7,875 for a skirmish during the same game with
• New York Giants:  Corey Webster, who was also fined $7,875.
• Baltimore Ravens got two:  Anquan Boldin, $15,750, making him a TWO-TIME LOSER.
• Baltimore Ravens:  and Cary Williams, $15,750, also making him a TWO-TIME LOSER.  Both fines were for late hits vs. Denver.
• Tennessee Titans:  Jason Babineaux:  $7,875 for a face-mask.
• New York Jets:  Quinton Coples:  $15,750 for roughing the passer.  Coples is a THREE-TIME LOSER, back-to-back weeks for the last two.
• Houston Texans:  Antonio Smith:  $15,750 for a helmet-to-helmet on Andrew Luck.  Dirty hits on Luck have now netted the league over $129,000 in fines.  Smith is yet another TWO-TIME LOSER.
• Chicago Bears:  Brandon Marshall:  $5,250 for one expensive football.  It is known that a player is fined if he chucks one of the game balls into the stands after a touchdown.  Marshall did that, and that is the standard fine for the act.  This and a prior uniform violation make Marshall a very unlikely TWO-TIME LOSER.
• Dallas Cowboys:  DeMarcus Ware:  $15,750 for roughing Ben Rothlesberger.

12 fines, $168,625, SIX repeat offenders.

Total fines for the 2012 season, with two weeks to go:  $2,833,375

Does anyone get how corrupt the Worldwide Leader actually IS?

(Edited 12/31 to correct a bowl-game error.)

Had a thought occur to me, as I found out that Rob Parker's suspension is going to be for a month.

Have a feeling Mr. Parker is going to be finding another place of employment on his own - if he's still employable.  He's had several such incidents in the sports media over the course of time.

The thought is;  Does anyone really get how corrupt ESPN actually is?  Does anyone truly understand how much ESPN is the nexus of this sports machine in this country, from which a number of these frauds I speak about come from?

I'll give you several examples:

• For the final BCS non-playoff contract, ESPN paid $500,000,000 for the rights.  I believe it's like an average of $25,000,000 per game.  Oh, you think ESPN paid $25,000,000 to watch Northern Illinois play in a BCS bowl?  SERIOUSLY???  Of course, this validates the necessity of the "lesser person" teams and conferences (who only really exist to fill ESPN's weeknight schedules in the fall and for the next bullet point in my list) as to that their games are relevant, when they really are not.  This college football season is so screwed up that there is only one of the five BCS games in which the spread is under a touchdown -- and that's Stanford vs. 8-5 Wisconsin in the Rose Bowl (Stanford, last I checked, was - 6 1/2).
• But it's not just the BCS.  ESPN owns college football.  Not only does ESPN have the rights to broadcast all of the bowl games save (I believe) 2 (The Sun Bowl has a long-standing relationship with CBS, and I believe the NFL Network FOX gets one -- the Cotton Bowl.), but ESPN owns and operates seven of the bowls (mostly the ESPN O&Os "feature" those same "'lesser person' teams and conferences").  Under this kind of situation, do you think it any real accident that ESPN would call the shots as to who plays for the national championship?  If you don't, I refer you to my latest Brian Tuohy site effort:  "Cheer, Cheer For Old Notre Dame".
• The NFL itself?  Most anyone who doesn't toe the NFL line is basically marginalized or driven off the network.  Hell (in only the latest example), ESPN might not have disciplined Parker at all for his comments (I still recall "What if Michael Vick Were White?", a couple years after I was banned from commenting on ESPN's websites for roughly asking the same damn question and getting Black users to complain about that I did!) if Roger Goodell hadn't stepped in and slapped ESPN on the wrists!
• The NBA?  They certainly discussed the Donaghy situation at length, but buckled under to the $tern regime.  Why?  Who has the better amount of the NBA TV contract?  ESPN!  (Yes, Turner Networks has a significant part of it, let's not dispute.)
• Major League Baseball?  How many games a week does ESPN get?

I could go on and on and on.  But people keep talking about the lack of ethics at ESPN and all of such.   Is it any real wonder?

• The athlete of the "Mike and Mike" pair admitted on his show that he used steroids during his NFL playing career.  You think he isn't going to have a slanted look at Barry Bonds' Hall of Fame bid?
• Speaking of "Mike and Mike", that whole "roast" thing -- never heard from again after the drunken rant that got Dana Jacobson suspended from "First Take".
• (And do you think it's any accident?  I believe Golic has two sons on the Notre Dame team this year.  I know he has at least one!)
• How about the Syracuse coverup of the basketball program?  Gotta protect Jim Boeheim, right?  The network sat on a molestation tape for NINE YEARS.
• Or a number of on-air personalities getting in trouble?
• Or the nationally-televised high-school football game this last Labor day, when an openly homophobic banner was plastered all over the stands, without a word from the school OR ESPN??
• Their open place observing the whole Penn State death-penalty negotiations, implying that a large portion of why that school even is allowed to retain a sports program, much less a football team and culture, is because of the kinds of stories ESPN can get out of them ad nauseum?

And how much more?

And how much more??

And HOW MUCH MORE???

When you have such a large portion of control over the discourse of sports in this country, it allows you to basically control sports itself.  It's not unlike why the sports leagues don't want the other states to get in on sports gambling:  The more you have to answer to, the more you have to answer FOR.

Is there a growing movement toward racial conflict and culture-based violence in the sports community?

Let that title sink in a bit, and then watch this video, in which Rob Parker of ESPN openly appears to call for RGIII to become "black enough", and then consider what that probably entails:

I do believe he is effectively calling for Robert Griffin III to renounce his white girlfriend and become a violent, misogynistic thug.

Period.  Because THAT, Mr. Parker, is "down with the cause" these days.

This is what gives people the "street cred" that you obviously believe that black athletes today need.

I mean, look at almost any sport today, and the black athletes which have been considered at or near the top of the sports pantheon in there are, at best, brooding assholes -- if not far worse...  Here are several examples:

Baseball:  Barry Bonds -- brooding asshole, steroid cheat, plague to the media

Basketball:  Foolish Jordan (And yes, I will call him that.) -- Basically the harbinger of the Corporate Rigged Sports Era.  Made it mainstream acceptable to be an utter ballhog while his Commissioner protected him because he was the only reason people watched.

Golf:  Tiger Woods -- brooding asshole, and who knows what else this guy has done in his career (other than probably attempted to sleep with half of North America) has done, while his Commissioner protected him because he was the only reason people watched.

Women's Tennis:  Serena Williams -- brooding asshole, probably has threatened more referees and linespeople than what we know about, and is only allowed on the court because her father would raise an even bigger stink on racial grounds, plus her Commissioner protects her because she is about the only relevant American tennis player in this country, of either gender, and hence the only reason people watch!

And that's just four examples of what "street cred" gets you, Mr. Parker.

And it's clear to me that you want RGIII to become a "brotha", a thug...

Parker was suspended from the network for the comments, but only after two reairings of the comments, unedited.

This leads most intelligent people to believe that the White Overlord of An Increasingly Black Game, Roger Goodell, got in the ear of ESPN brass and told them (once again -- Playmakers, anyone?) that the truth hit a little too close to home for their corporate liking.

But this does come down to that The Race Card is being played, and not in a way that is going to be in a flattering light to this reporter, RGIII himself, the NFL, or the African-American Culture at large.

Three comments about the NFL debacles in prime time the last two nights...

1) If anyone doesn't believe that, at the very least, the 28-point comeback wasn't about the Newtown shootings, I've got some swampland to sell you in central Libya right about now.

2) When your quarterback sucks so badly that the game is effectively being openly rigged for him, and he can't make an intelligent pass or hold on to the ball in a key situation, one has to wonder if Mark Sanchez should be arrested for impersonating a professional athlete...

3) And for the one offensive highlight of the night in that Jets-Titans debacle:  Chris Johnson ran for the longest touchdown in the history of the Titans, even going back to the Houston Oiler days.  His shoes had written on them all the names of the victims in Newtown.

Yeah, as I said to Brian Tuohy tonight, I'm THAT cynical!

Week 14 Fine Blotter

• Baltimore's Haloti Ngata was not fined for the hit that took out Robert Griffin III.
• Dallas Cowboys:  Ernie Sims:  $15,750 for another of those "defenseless" hits in the head and neck on Cincinnati's Marvin Jones.
• New York Giants:  Prince Amukamara:  $15,750 for horse-collaring New Orleans' Pierre Thomas.
• New York Jets:  Quinton Coples:  $15,000 for face-masking Chad Henne of the Jaguars.
• Detroit Lions:  Gosder Cherilus:  $10,000 for a chop block versus the Packers.
• St. Louis Rams:  Cortland Finnegan:  $10,000 for a face mask on Buffalo's CJ Spiller.
• Chicago Bears:  Charles Tillman:  $7,875 for a late hit on Toby Gerhart of the Vikings.

And that's it.

All of them.

At least what NFL.com posted this week.

Only six fines and $74,375.

Week 14 Score Update

Week 14 2012 average:  46.5, adding to the average for the season.

Highest per-game Week 14 average since 2002.

14 week composite per-game average:  45.774 points per game.

About 1 3/4 points, now, more than last year's.

--

And, for the Cliffhanger Report:

Ravens-Redskins went OT.

Rams-Bills was won by the Rams in the last minute.

Cowboys-Bengals was won at the gun.

Eagles defeated the Buccaneers at the gun.

So that's another 4 games this week that were decided in the last 2 minutes (in fact, in this case, the last minute) or in overtime.

That's 47 out of 208 games decided in that matter, with 1 such game going the full 75 minutes to a draw.

An unconscionable decision, but hardly a surprising one...

Tagliabue vacated the Bountygate suspensions today.

The joke is (basically) complete.  The NFL now has no power over players who either choose to or follow orders to cripple other players in a systematic (and, hence, a non-systematic) manner.

And, on surface, everyone is going to cheer.  Vilma is going to get millions in his lawsuit, Goodell basically has carte blanche over the other players (current and former) who have the audacity to now understand how much they can be crippled on any play, and the fans want their Roman Colosseum.

This is a disgusting ruling to anyone with a brain.  Of course, to how many people that applies, vis-a-vis the NFL anymore, is a matter of great dispute.

The only thing that probably is going to remain in question is two-fold:

1) Is Roger Goodell going to be allowed to remain commissioner?

If he is, it's the final joke in all of this, and the joke is on us who have rational thought.

Because it will be the final confirmation that this whole Kabuki Theatre was a matter of that he wanted to pass the buck to someone who was "outside the league" enough that enough of the little animal sheeple who prostrate themselves to the NFL shield would be fooled.

I'll get to them in a second.

2) What power does he have to deal with players, on or off the field?

None, and that's what all other parties want.

Let's get two things straight right now:

The NFL players, by and large, have taken too many blows to the head over the course of lower-level, high-school, college, and NFL football to retain much human rationality, compassion, or, really, anything else.  The game drives these "men" to become animals, and many can't shut it off.

And, on top of this, I truly believe many NFL fans would like to see people get killed on the field, and not just that euphemistic "Kill The Bum!!!" we've all yelled out of the stands against an opposing player.

The thing is, to give the fans what they want, the "New Sheriff" needs to be deposed.  Not as a function that Goodell is not an open co-participant in the allowance of on and off the field violence, mind you.  But as a final statement as to what these bloodlust-y animals in the stands really want (and, many would say, that they NEED), Goodell is probably going to have to be tossed as Commissioner to satisfy the fans who aren't smart enough to know he's part of the problem, not that firing him is part of the solution.

The fans openly blame Goodell for the "Pussification of Football", and the Vilma lawsuit (in which he now should get, at minimum, his 2012 salary trebled plus damages) would be a perfect avenue to get it done.

The worst part of all this is that this gives the final piece of the puzzle to all of the thousands of former players who should literally get, between them, billions (and trebled) from this league.  Every claim that the NFL has no regard for their safety is true.  Every claim that they've made that the risks are mis-represented (if not ignored) has merit and value.

They should get every dollar, and trebled.

They won't.

Two reasons.

First is what might as well be a formal legal concept of precedent:  Courts will never rule, even when all the evidence makes it the only rational ruling, in favor of something which will cause massive social disruption.

There is no larger social entity in this country than the National Football League.  To fundamentally change the game to make it safer would be such a massive social disruption that riots would probably result.  So to actually care about player safety may almost be equivalent to cutting off welfare benefits, frankly.

The second reason is the dehumanization, on a very real level, of the players.  The players basically, by the time they get to the pros, are probably mangled in a number of ways to begin with.  That they made it "this far" makes them believe they are truly indestructible.

In this vein, what right do they have to later come back and talk of the risks when the entire culture of football relies that they aren't even really to be considered human in the first place?

That's what is so disgusting about this.  The Player Safety and Player Conduct Initiatives are now not only jokes, even to Goodell, but, on surface, illegal.  The entire concept that the players of this league are to be held to human standards of conduct is a farcical view, since the players are nothing more than inhuman pieces of meat to basically die in the "New Roman Collosseum".

Because that's all what the NFL (and much of football) is -- a "New Roman Collosseum".  Makes you wonder when the weapons are going to come out.

Week 13 Fine Blotter

• Chicago Bears:  Brian Urlacher is a TWO-TIME LOSER, consecutive weeks, same offense:  $21,000 (which is a downgrade from the usual fine, after further review) for a horse-collar on Seahag Leon Washington.  That might be Urlacher's last game of the year, though -- he got injured later in the game.
• New York Giants:  Linval Joseph:  $7,875 for a fracas in which he pulled the leg of...
• Washington Redskins:  Will Montgomery, who got a $10,000 fine for kicking Joseph in the balls as a result.  NFL.com:  "The financial disparity shows us that, while it's not prudent to yank on a man's legs, it's outright villainous to assault the space between. Glad that's settled."
• Detroit Lions:  Nick Fairley adds to the Andrew Luck parade:  $15,750 for a horse-collar on Luck.  That's over $113,000 in fines on players on actions against Luck.
• San Francisco 49ers got two:  Navorro Bowman:  $10,000 for unnecessary roughness against the Rams.
• San Francisco:  Dashon Goldson:  $7,875 for roughing the passer on Sam Bradford, making him a TWO-TIME LOSER.
• Green Bay Packers:  Tramon Williams:  $21,000 for striking Toby Gerhart of the Vikings in the head or neck.
• Minnesota Vikings:  Everson Griffen:  $15,750 for roughing the passer on Aaron Rodgers.  The on-field penalty wiped out a Minnesota interception, and also makes him a TWO-TIME LOSER.
• Minnesota Vikings:  Jasper Brinkley:  $7,875 for a face-mask.  With that fine, Brinkley becomes the first THREE-TIME LOSER in the NFL this year.
• Denver Broncos:  Von Miller:  $25,000 for roughing the passer below the knee on Josh Freeman of the Buccaneers.  This makes Von the second THREE-TIME LOSER in the league this year.
• Jacksonville Jaguars:  Jason Babin:  $21,000 for more head/neck contact.  This makes Babin a unique THREE-TIME LOSER.  After being cut by the Eagles, the Jaguars picked him up, and that's his third offense of the year.
• Baltimore Ravens:  Paul Kruger:  $5,250 for a uniform violation -- you could see the bottom of his shoulder pads.

$168,375 this week.  (so far)  Source is NFL.com article linked above.  Nearly $2.6 million for the year.

12 fines this week, 6 of them multiple offenders, including 3 three-timers.

Early Monday edit:  And this doesn't even count a $200,000 fine on Darrell Dockett of the Cardinals for insubordination and the like.  That was a team fine, and is being challenged by the player to the NFLPA.

Speaking of "more of what sports SHOULD BE"...

From Yahoo, without further comment:

Middle School Wrestler Lets Boy With Cerebral Palsy Win Match

Week 13 Scoring Update -- WAY DOWN

3rd lowest scoring week of the year in Week 13:  41.69 points per game.

Only 2001, 2005, 2006, and 2008 were lower for that time frame.

13 Week per-game average:  45.713

Still the most, but now by only about 1 point a game over 2008.

Scoring up nearly 2 points a game over last year.

--

Two games went overtime -- the rematch of the tie between St. Louis and San Francisco, and Seattle's upset win over Chicago.

Indianapolis defeated Detroit at the gun.

Pittsburgh defeated Baltimore at the gun.

So four of the 16 games were decided either at the gun or in overtime.

That makes 43 out of 192 games either decided in the last two minutes or in overtime -- with one tie.

The bullshit needs to fucking stop.

I was going around, listening to something Bob Costas said -- and, though I do not agree with everything, this weekend (for a lot more reasons that just sports) has left a very bad taste in my mouth.

Four tragedies took place this weekend.

First, Rick Majerus, long-time basketball coach of Utah and, until his health condition no longer allowed him, coach at St. Louis, died Saturday of a heart condition.  Even though it does not talk of the farce sports have become on so many levels, I believe not mentioning him in this article would be an egregious omission.  He was 64.

Second, an anonymous Cleveland Browns grounds crew member committed suicide today at the team's practice facilities.

But it's the dual tragedies which impacted the Kansas City Chiefs that I feel the need to discuss here.

Jovan Belcher added his name and that of his girlfriend to the blood sacrifices to American corporate sport today.  A domestic dispute ended in his girlfriend's (Kasandra Perkins') death yesterday, then Belcher went to the Chiefs' facilities and, with the coach and GM watching, killed himself.

That was the tragedy which led Jason Whitlock to write the following today for FOX Sports:

"In the coming days, Belcher’s actions will be analyzed through the lens of concussions and head injuries. Who knows? Maybe brain damage triggered his violent overreaction to a fight with his girlfriend. What I believe is, if he didn’t possess/own a gun, he and Kasandra Perkins would both be alive today.

That is the message I wish Chiefs players, professional athletes and all of us would focus on Sunday and moving forward. Handguns do not enhance our safety. They exacerbate our flaws, tempt us to escalate arguments, and bait us into embracing confrontation rather than avoiding it.

But we won’t. We’ll watch Sunday’s game and comfort ourselves with the false belief we’re incapable of the wickedness that exploded inside Jovan Belcher Saturday morning."

He's so right, Bob Costas said this at halftime of tonight's Sunday night game:

I want people to take particular note of this statement Costas made, in the vein of the fourth tragedy to occur this weekend, and the second involving the Belcher murder-suicide:

"Well, you knew it was coming.  In the aftermath of the nearly unfathomable events in Kansas City, that most mindless of sports cliches was heard yet again, 'Something like this really puts it all in perspective.'  Well, if so, that sort of 'perspective' has a very short shelf life, since we will inevitably hear about the 'perspective' we have supposedly again regained the next time ugly reality intrudes upon our games."

"Please, those who need tragedies to continually recalibrate their sense of proportion about sports will seem to have little hope of ever truly achieving perspective."

(And anyone who needs to grab that quote to slam it in the face of the people who swear fealty to football and to the type of people who play it can do so gladly.)

I have friends of mine who have largely sworn off sports because they have had "friends" dispose of their friendships when the very life and death of either the athletes or the people in their lives have no merit to these people who swear so much fealty to "the game" that they make Howard Cosell's statements from I Never Played the Game even more poignant:

"The fan is sacred, even as sports are. He pays the freight, thus he is an entitled being. The media people tell him this every day. Therefore, once within the arena, his emotions whetted by the Sports Syndrome, the fan adopts what John Stewart Mill found to be the classic confusion in the American thought process, the confusion between Liberty and License—a natural and probable consequence of which is fan violence.

….The essential point is that sports are no longer fun and games, that they are everywhere—in people’s minds, in conversation, in the importance we attach to it—and that they can affect the basics of our lives (to wit, the part of our taxes that may be directed to supporting a sports franchise, without our ever knowing it). Once I bought the Jimmy Cannon dictum that “Sports is the Toy Department of life.” I don’t now and never will again."

Hence, the fourth tragedy of the weekend:  That a sporting event between the same Kansas City Chiefs, at 1-10, and the Carolina Panthers, at 3-8, was allowed to take place at all, less than 24 hours after this murder-suicide.

That we are so corporately-tied to this "sport", largely a "fantasy" which the people running it would tell you if you chose to listen to that -- I'll have an article about a very interesting video Brian Tuohy posted to his site to this very effect when time and RL chaos allow -- that you allow the lives of these people to be more worth wringing your fucking hands over than lives which are causing people who should be your friends and families to cower in grief...

... that's part of what Bob Costas was talking about tonight.

That's part of what Howard Cosell said 40 years ago.  When the "Toy Department" is poisonous crap from suicidal workers at Wal-Mart, is that still good enough for you?

Really??

This is the anger I put into this blog.  I see people like that every day.

I'd love to enjoy sports, but weekends like this expose to me again that this, largely if not completely, a complete fraud used to mask, if not totally avoid, the realities.

Make no secret of this reality:  I make no secret that I had better NEVER be allowed to touch a gun in my life -- else it be used as it truly is intended...  an instrument of death.

You see, I accept that I am capable of that wickedness Whitlock talks about.  I've been adjudged so in a New York court to someone I would've laid my life down for, as much as she did for me.  Did time for it too.

So please forgive me if I don't see the hand-wringing, except for (as few will) Costas and Whitlock themselves.  Though not perfect, they at least get that sports should be far less of what they are, and far more of what they should be.

Catch-up -- Week 12 Scoring.

Week 12 average, aided by a 202-point Thanksgiving:  46.31

2nd-highest Week 12 since 2001  (2008 was over 52 points a game)

12-week average:  46.08 points a game this year.

About a point ahead of 2008, though that year goes flat in the last 5 weeks.

About 2 1/4 points ahead of last year.

--

And the one more thing:

Texans-Lions went overtime on Thanksgiving.

Dolphins-Seahawks was won by Miami on a field goal at the gun.

Ravens-Chargers went OT.

So 3 of the 16 games had the game-winning score inside the last 2:00.

39 out of 176 through 12 weeks, with one game going to a tie.

NFL Fine Blotter Week 12

(Source:  NFL.com)

Time to break out the rant.  This almost certainly breaks the record from Week Two.  If you don't think the suspension reversal from Ed Reed didn't have on-the-field ramifications, take a look at THIS Fine Blotter from Week 12!

• Detroit Lions:  Ndokamung Suh's fine for cleating Houston QB Matt Schaub in the balls was $30,000.
• And also from the Lions:  Stephan Logan, $7,875 for a face mask.
• Houston Texans:  JJ Watt:  $15,750 for striking Lions' QB Matthew Stafford in the head.  No penalty was called.  Had the penalty been called, the Lions might well have won the game, as that play was late in the 4th quarter and the penalty would've set the Lions up for a game-winning field goal.  Hmmmm...
• Another one for the Texans, the fourth from this game:  Brandon Harris:  $21,000 for hitting a defenseless punt returner illegally, the aforementioned and fined Stephan Logan.
• Chicago Bears got quite a number in their game against the Vikings:  Jay Cutler:  $10,000 for taunting.
• Bears:  Eric Weems:  $7,875 for a late hit.
• Bears:  Brian Urlacher:  $15,750 for a cheapie on Adrian Peterson
• Bears:  Henry Melton:  $7,875 for another cheapie on Peterson.
• And the Vikings got one too in this game:  Jared Allen:  $21,000 for a blindside block against Chicago's Lance Louis.  This makes Allen the 11th TWO-TIME LOSER this year in the NFL.
• Washington Redskins make it #12:  DeAngelo Hall is now a TWO-TIME LOSER -- two in the same game.  $20,000 for a horse-collar tackle, and another $15,750 for a late hit on Dallas' Dez Bryant.  $35,750 total.  Will someone please explain me why anyone committing two fouls of that level is not ejected from the contest?
• Dallas Cowboys:  Mike Jenkins:  $7,875 for a late elbow on Washington's Pierre Garcon.
• So the same week I laud the Raiders for cleaning up their act (somewhat), they have to get in a fight with the Cincinnati Bengals and get four players fined:  Desmond Bryant, Lamarr Houston, Tommy Kelly, and Matt Shaughnessy.  And these fines weren't small ones:  $26,250 apiece! Houston and Kelly were tossed for their roles.  And, shockingly, no suspension for Kelly, even though the referees ruled he left the bench to join the fight.  That's a 10-game suspension automatically in the NHL, the moment you step on the ice!
• And Cincinnati got one fine:  Andrew Whitworth:  $26,250 for same.  He was also tossed.
• Kansas City Chiefs:  Welcome to the NFL, Donald Stephenson.  Now give us $15,750 from your first game check for unnecessary roughness against the Broncos.
• Baltimore Ravens:  Anquan Boldin:  $7,875 for a late hit against the Chargers.
• New Orleans Saints:  Brodrick Bunkley:  $20,000 for kicking a downed San Francisco 49er in the helmet.  That's only worth 20K and not a suspension?  A multiple-game one??
• Green Bay Packers:  Jerron McMillan:  $21,000 for head contact with a defenseless New York Giant, Martellus Bennett.
• St. Louis Rams:  Chris Long:  $15,750 for roughing the passer in the head, Arizona backup Ryan Lindley.
• Carolina Panthers:  Mike Tolbert:  $21,000 for an illegal blindside block. 
• Seattle Seahags/Seahawks:  Earl Thomas, same penalty as Chris Long, this one to Ryan Tannehill of the Dolphins.

23 players from 15 teams.

FOUR HUNDRED TWENTY-NINE THOUSAND ONE HUNDRED TWENTY-FIVE DOLLARS.

That's over $2.4 million, over $200,000 a week, for the 12 weeks.  $2,421,050 -- AT LEAST.

When are we going to get the idea that the league has no interest in player safety, nor misconduct on or off the field.

This is on you, Roger Goodell (and on your fans who swear fealty to this bullshit debacle! -- but this rant's on you for being forced to cave on the Ed Reed suspension).  This is almost certainly a snapback on the Ed Reed reversal, and, frankly, it's an indication that the thug-and-violence bread-and-circuses culture of the National Football League is alive and well.

To the grave detriment of everything around it...

And David $tern proves once again why he is the Mafia Don of the NBA

So what sanctions are you going to put out, Mr. $tern?

For those who didn't find out, Greg Popovich decided to be a basketball coach last night, in direct controvertion of TNT's and David $tern's wishes that Popovich whore out the older Spurs to lose to Miami in a nationally-televised game last night (which the Spurs reserves almost won anyway!!) will be met with "unprecedented sanctions"...

Popovich sent home four of his five starters to rest them from a game in Miami against the Heat, the fourth game in five nights on the annual "Rodeo Roadtrip", and the second straight back-to-back.

Oh, really, Mr. $tern??  Why not just admit that your "sport" is a scripted farce punctuated with the occasional street-fight (like what happened earlier this week in Boston), and eventually leading to Lakers (probably out of the 7 or 8 seed) vs. Heat to showcase the only relevant stars of the league -- your allowed super-teams?

Greg Popovich was trying to conserve his stars' energy because of the annual long "Rodeo Roadtrip", and we're real damn sorry that the last game of that roadtrip was in Miami for national TV. 

Wah.

Freaking wah.

Most people don't even consider the NBA to really have started until your Christmas Day television slate of games (which I now think number FIVE?) anyway!

But that's right -- this is NBA ENTERTAINMENT now, isn't it?

Maybe that proposed steel cage match between Vince McMahon and David $tern wouldn't be such a bad idea now.

EDIT TO ADD:  Minutes after I posted this article, the penalties were announced:  The Spurs franchise was fined a quarter-million dollars for the unmitigated gall of actually considering the health and safety of their players over the entertainment dollars the league makes from their nationally-televised matchup.

Fine Blotter Collation Through 11 Weeks

Been doing a bit of updating of past posts to include two-time losers, any appeals I found successful on the Net, etc. and so forth.

So here's what we have so far, through 11 weeks (nothing from the week just concluded has been added):

I have been able to locate 131 fines the NFL has given out in the 2012-13 season.  (This does not include pre-season fines, nor game checks lost from suspensions.

The NFL players (and several coaches, and a referee) have given up effectively TWO MILLION DOLLARS of their salaries in NFL fines.

The total is a staggering $1,992,875 -- we will go over $2,000,000 with the Suh fine this week.

Though there have been no three-or-more time losers, there are ten players who have already been fined twice by the league:

• Ed Reed of the Ravens
• Aaron Curry of the Raiders, all in his first game back and his third offense with the league in two years
• Jerod Mayo of the Patriots
• Jasper Brinkley of the Vikings
• Michael Griffin of the Titans
• Charles Godfrey of the Panthers
• Robert Quinn of the Rams
• Jason Babin of the Eagles
• Joe Mays of the Broncos
• and, technically, Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie of the Eagles

There's two other things I look for at this point in the season:

The team fined the most times, and any team or teams that have not been fined at all by the league.

The rogue's gallery is led by two surprising teams:  The Denver Broncos and New England Patriots have been fined eight times each by the National Football League.  The Baltimore Ravens have been fined seven.

By contrast, the league's reputed dirtiest team for many years, the Oakland Raiders, have only drawn three fines from the NFL this year.

And every team in the National Football League has been fined at least once this year.

So THAT'S why I see all the Erectile Dysfunction ads around NFL games...

It all started with the embarrassed parents having to explain to their children exactly what erectile dysfunction is and what Cialis and Viagra and all the other drugs being advertised on NFL games (and other media) were all about.

Well, now, today, we apparently learn that players appear to be using at least one of these drugs as a performance-enhancer, possibly for that reason, but probably for another very big reason.

The Bears' Brandon Marshall claims that some players (a few) are actually taking Viagra to get the blood flowing more in their bodies.

And this article shows he may have a point.

Writes Jere Longman:

Viagra, or sildenafil citrate, was devised to treat pulmonary hypertension, or high blood pressure in arteries of the lungs. The drug works by suppressing an enzyme that controls blood flow, allowing the vessels to relax and widen. The same mechanism facilitates blood flow into the penis of impotent men. In the case of athletes, increased cardiac output and more efficient transport of oxygenated fuel to the muscles can enhance endurance.
"Basically, it allows you to compete with a sea level, or near sea level, aerobic capacity at altitude," Kenneth Rundell, the director of the Human Performance Laboratory at Marywood, said of Viagra.

Two pieces of NFL absurdity -- and the BCS finishes the job on Notre Dame!

Three pieces of football absurdity.

• Ndakumong Suh will not be suspended for his kick in the family jewels from Thursday.

OK, someone has to explain to me, then, why I don't draw the immediate conclusion that the NFL will, at the very least privately, abandon it's Player Safety Initiative at some point when it's convenient for Goodell to do so.

• And a little note for my favorite Seahags bitch...  err, FAN, that's it.  The team that you basically throw everything else under the bus for just had BOTH it's starting cornerbacks suspended for performance-enhancing drugs.

Gee, on a Pete Carroll team no less.  Like to see you defend that...

Of course, the real question, as an ex-NFL fan friend of mine has been asking for some time, is when does it come out that there are labs providing these drugs (and masking agents) to the better part of the league.

• And from the NCAA, the BCS, and ESPN:  Notre Dame finished the job at USC, is going to the BCS National Championship Game with the win, and there's several questions I have about the fourth quarter of that game.

First off, what the Hell was that time out for on the second-to-last drive?   With about ten minutes to go in the fourth quarter and USC trailing 19-10, third and goal at the Notre Dame 4.

All of a sudden, it appears as if a time out has been called to ice the backup USC quarterback -- by USC!!  No one can figure out why.

Next play, incomplete pass, settle for the chip field goal, 19-13.

Then this sequence on the next and final meaningful USC drive, down 22-13 after Marqise Lee, on back-to-back plays, took the kickoff about 40 yards and then hauled in a pass that went almost the rest of the way.  First and goal, at the Notre Dame 2.

1. False start on USC, first and goal at the 7.
2. McNeal for 3 yards to the 4, second and goal at the 4.
3. Pass interference on Notre Dame, first and goal at the 2.
4. ANOTHER pass interference on Notre Dame, first and goal at the 1.
5. QB sneak, nothing.  Second down.
6. QB sneak, nothing.  Third down.
7. After a USC timeout, rush into the line, NOTHING.  Fourth down.
8. Incomplete pass.  Turnover on downs.

I will need to find video, but this is getting awfully suspicious, with all of what was on the line here.  8 tries from the 2, effectively, and you get NOTHING?

Including two QB sneaks that everyone could see coming, and you couldn't just do the old Madden thing:  "Get in behind the center and guard, and keep pushing and pushing until they're putting six points on the board..."?

There might well be another article on this.

Fixed Event/Point Shaving/Scripted Event: That 138-point game was a sham, and the NCAA needs to end a program over it

I assume most of you have heard of the 138-point "performance" that a Division III player put on -- one so "incredible" that even the likes of LeBron James and Kobe Bryant tipped their proverbial hats.

Now comes word the entire game was an utter and complete sham, and the NCAA needs to pull the plug on the basketball programs of the coach and school involved as a result.

This is point-shaving to the point that it was, according to Deadspin's Barry Petchesky, a completely scripted enterprise by Jack Taylor and the Grinnell College Pioneers, with the participation of their opponents, Faith Baptist Bible College.

Real Godly for that school to take part in such a scam, too, while we're at it.

And, according to Petchesky, this is not the first time that Grinnell College has concocted a sham sporting event to get media attention onto itself! 

"It is just the latest incarnation of Grinnell's decades-old strategy of seeking media attention for records achieved through a complete bastardization of basketball."

And it all starts with the current coach and his modus operandi for the Grinnell program:

"David Arseneault is the man behind the plan. Since becoming Grinnell coach in 1989, Arseneault has focused less on putting together a successful team and more on getting his players' names in the record books. And, not incidentally, selling books and videos touting his innovative "system." At least three separate times a Grinnell player has set the D-III single-game scoring record, and each one has gotten national attention. In 1998, Jeff Clement went for 77 points, and received a story in Sports Illustrated. Last season Griffin Lentsch scored 89 points, and got a feature on ESPN.com. Today, Taylor's 138-point game is everywhere."

(Links in the quote are the same links from the Deadspin article.)

Now, someone has to explain to me something:  This guy effectively has a PRODUCTION COMPANY?

A production company...  So he basically up and admits that NCAA contests under his purview are nothing but produced events for the consumption of the Worldwide Leader, should and when he elect to do so!

And this guy has been coach for 23 years now??  And no one has brought this idiot to task for what he has done to his college and the integrity of the sport of DIII college basketball?

This is the guy's philosophy of coaching, in one equation:

94S + 47 3's + 33%OR + 25SD + 32 TO's = W

First off, he wants his team to take at least 94 shots in a game.  A 40-minute game no less.

Half those from the 3-point line (47).

Of the ones that are missed, Arseneault expects the team to offensive rebound a third of them.

His team is expected, in each game, to take at least 25 more shots than their opponents (SD = Shot Differential).

And his team is expected to force 32 turnovers.

This is Loyola Marymount from the Bo Kimble/Hank Gathers days on steroids!!

Now the philosophy isn't exactly a problem if the games are kept legitimate.

The problem with Jack Taylor's "performance" comes as follows:

According to a former Grinnell player who took part in one of those record-setting games, the gameplan is designed from the outset to get a specific player the scoring mark, even at the expense of making a mockery of the game. The player told Deadspin:

"The strategy was to use a full court press after a made basket, with the caveat that [the player seeking the record] would not cross into the defensive side of the court. So, after our opponents broke our press, we were essentially playing four-on-five, which enabled the other team to take quicker shots and fall into our game plan.
"The rationale is to essentially trade off a quick two or more attempts at lower probability 3-point shots. Given the high pace required for the system, Grinnell shifts in five players every 30 to 45 seconds. Within each shift there is a primary shooter who will take the bulk of threes (or shots) during the shift."

And this is where I openly accuse of game-rigging and point-shaving -- although I guess "shaving" might not be the right term here.

The entire game plan is to take the game into such an insane tempo that no team could ever hope to keep up with it.  Basically, the team almost substitutes players like it were a hockey shift!  Essentially, the entire system is designed so that one player just breaks the records and the game gets national and ESPN attention and that's where Arseneault truly wins.

Taylor took 108 shots alone.  He took 71 shots from the three-point line.

So what happened, really...  Tyler Burns watched the entire sham again on tape.  The thought process is obvious!

"There were a LOT of possessions where Taylor would chuck up a shot, miss, and his teammate would get the rebound wide open under the basket. Instead of putting it back up, he would look for Taylor again and pass it out so he could chuck another three. There were many possessions where this happened three times each. Six three-point attempts in two trips down the court.

Literally 75% of [Faith Baptist's] points were full court heaves to get it over Grinnell's press, then a wide open layup on the other end. Oh, and David Larsen's "impressive" 70-point effort? Hardly. They were 90% wide open layups. He maybe took a handful of jump shots."

Basically, no effort was made to play defense, once the ball crossed through the press.  They literally were rigging the game to go to such a ridiculous extreme that no team could hope to keep up.

And Taylor? ZERO assists.

This wasn't basketball.  This was, at best, Ballhog-ball, if not a straight-up rigged enterprise by a production company (not really a "basketball team") to get ESPN attention.

(David Larsen was the main beneficiary for Faith Baptist, nearly matching the pre-1998 record.)

And here's a real fun act of sportsmanship for you:

"The announcer actually said that Grinnell will look on their schedule for their weaker opponents and do everything they can to run up the score and break records. This is all within the game plan. One tactic the announcer mentioned was called "The Bomb Squad". If Grinnell's opponent gets into the double bonus, Grinnell will sub in five freshmen players, foul their opponent immediately once the ball is in play, send them to the line, then sub the freshmen players out to put their scorers back in on offense. This takes almost no time off the clock, giving their starters as many offensive possessions as possible."

This Arse-hole's "basketball program" is a sham and needs to be forcibly terminated.

Fine Blotter, Week 11, and a probable suspension for Week 12

I knew he couldn't last the season without getting in trouble again, and this one might cost him the season.

Ndamukong Suh appears like he's going to be suspended again for another Thanksgiving Day kick.  (Good Lord, send him to New York with the Rockettes and the high-school bands and college drill teams if he's that desperate to kick.  The Macy's Parade could use him!)

This time, he got Houston Texans quarterback Matt Schaub...  below the belt.

And the NFL has said they will consider his past history in coming up with punishment.

So why are the first reports I'm seeing saying he might get one game, when he got two last year for his indiscretion?

To me, if his history is going to be evident here, that's got to be at least what Albert Haynesworth got, and that ends Suh's 2012 campaign.

--

Well, we'll find out more next week.

Here's this week's roundup of money-losing, courtesy of NFL.com:

• New York Giants APPEAL SUCCESSFUL:  Wipe out Kenny Phillips' $30,000 fine from Week 2.
• Cleveland Browns:  T.J. Ward:  $25,000 for a helmet-to-helmet on Dallas's Kevin Ogletree.  Being appealed.  The hit eventually gave two players other than Ward concussions.  One might wonder if part of the fine is not that he forced Ogletree's helmet into somebody else's.
• Baltimore Ravens:  Ed Reed, TWO TIME LOSER:  $50,000 for hitting a defenseless player, appealed down from a one-game suspension.  Reed is still not happy.
• New England Patriots:  Kyle Arrington:  $21,000 for a cheapie on Andrew Luck.  Illegal hits on Luck alone have netted the league nearly $100,000 in fines.  If you don't believe SOMEBODY in this league is not trying to take Luck out, I'd like to have a word with you.
• Jacksonville Jaguars:  Dawan Landry:  $21,000 for a headshot against Garrett Graham of the Texans.  Memo to Roger Goodell:  That's the fifth TWO-TIME LOSER in two weeks, this one back-to-back weeks.
• New York Jets:  Garrett McIntyre:  $15,750 for a helmet-to-helmet on the Rams' Sam Bradford.
• Carolina Panthers:  Thomas Davis:  $21,000 for striking a Tampa Bay Buccaneer in the head and neck, a penalty which went a long way in tying the game and sending it to overtime.
• Tampa Bay Buccaneers:  Ted Larsen, $7,875 for a late hit.
• Green Bay Packers:  Brad Jones:  $15,750 for roughing Matthew Stafford of the Lions.

$177,375 this week, but then net that minus $30,000.

NFL Scoring Update: After 11 Weeks

As you get to settle down to the Tryptophan Tripleheader today, here's the Score Update for Week 11

2012 Week 11 averaged 46.71 points per game, with the 59-24 New England rout of Indianapolis being the second-highest scoring game of the season and another game (Houston 43 - Jacksonville 37) the third-highest.

That, since 2001 is the highest Week 11 average, by over a point over 2010.

2012 still is on record-scoring pace, the average NFL game now going over 46 points a game at 46.05, effectively two full points over last year.

--

Last week, I said I would examine something Brian pointed out:  The number of games decided in the last two minutes and overtime.

Through Week 9, Brian noted that 31 out of the 132 games played to that point had the winning score during either the last two minutes of the 4th quarter or the game went to overtime and had a winner.

In Week 10, we had a game go to overtime with no winner (49ers-Rams).

As for games which would qualify, out of the other 13: 

Bills-Patriots did not, though the Bills had the ball for most of the final 2 minutes, down 37-31.

The only game to qualify that week was the other overtime game of the week, the Monday nighter between Pittsburgh and Kansas City.  So through 146 games, 32 were won in the final two minutes or overtime, with one game going overtime to no decision.

Week 11: 

Green Bay-Detroit qualifies.  The winning touchdown started before the 2:00 warning, but the play ended after the clock went under 2:00 (Rodgers to Cobb)

Carolina-Tampa Bay and Cleveland-Dallas both went to overtime to decisions, so they count.

Houston and Jacksonville went to overtime, and, with the new rules, may well have set a record in the NFL with the maximum THREE overtime scores before Houston was finally able to win 43-37.  Matt Schaub nearly broke the NFL record for passing yards in a game.  (A field-goal by the team winning the toss no longer wins the game automatically then and there.  A touchdown still does.)

So, of the 14 games in week 11, 3 went to overtime to winners and a fourth had it's game-winning score in the last two minutes of regulation.

Hence, through 160 games, 36 were won in the final two minutes and overtime, and a 37th went to overtime and went to no winner.

And it's up: New article on Brian's site:

Luck o' the Fighting Irish

I am fully aware of one immediate edit that is probably a reversal of a Brian-edit.  The Stanford team name is singular Cardinal.  I think I had it right in my draft, but, however it went down, it'll get changed.  He's got a couple more cleanups and a link to this site to add to the post.

I really want people to take a look at this situation.  If you really want to believe that sports are legitimate, you really have to tell me how so many things can go one team's way over the course of a season and not have it be a given agenda.

Videos of all the plays are embedded on Brian's page, and, as usual, he's done a very good job of doing so.

Watch and judge for yourself, especially on a numbering penalty which should've been called and you can clearly see the foul on the NBC telecast on the missed field goal which would've had Pittsburgh defeat Notre Dame.

Thank you, once again, to Brian, for allowing me on his site to do this project, while Brian has other non-sports projects on his plate before his 2013 release of his second book on this subject, Larceny Games.

Suspension Blotter (Reed's Lifted Nov. 20), and a BCS Article Announcement

EDITED with new information 11/20.

Ed Reed of the Baltimore Ravens was suspended for one game for his third violation of hitting defenseless receivers.

My take:  I can understand people thinking it's harsh, but it's his second this season and third in two years for this same act.  League has to take action to be taken seriously (HAR HAR HAR) on the subject.  We'll see what the arbitrators rule -- the appeal will be heard by two arbitrators, one paid by the league, one by the players' union, and will be heard to make his eligibility for the next game clear (Sunday vs. San Diego).

His appeal was successful, and Reed will play Sunday -- however, he becomes a TWO TIME LOSER with a $50,000 fine for his second offense.

*

I have several articles I've been a bit behind on, but blame some of my other writing (and not just on other blogs -- I'm a Nanowrimo participant as well), Real Life, and screwed-up November for that.

But an article which will probably be my second on Brian Tuohy's website goes to the front of the line.

I'm going to be taking a look at the new #1 BCS team, and three calls which might well have allowed the BCS and ESPN to "Cheer, Cheer For Old Notre Dame" right to the bank -- and to a classic matchup of two classic powers for the BCS National Championship...

... a matchup between two teams who have not played each other for 25 years now.

Catching up again... Score Report Week 10

As Week 11 wraps up, here's the Score Report for Week 10:

48.57 was the average for Week 10 2012.

2010 was almost 52 a game, but no other year since 2001 was higher than this year's Week 10.

10 week average:  45.993 -- the average NFL game this year averages almost 46 points a game, end of last week.

That's nearly two full points ahead of last year, and a point and a half ahead of any year through 10 weeks 2001 and since.

--

And a little additional point from Brian Tuohy's season page:

As of the end of Week 9:  31 out of the 132 games played had the game-winning score in the final two minutes or in overtime.

I'll check Week 10 myself if I can, but that should tell you the other part of all this...

Week 10 Fine Blotter: And the (Dirty) Hits Just Keep On Coming

• Houston Texans:  Tim Dobbins:  $30,000 for putting Jay Cutler of the Bears on the shelf with a concussion for a helmet-to-helmet hit.  (Cutler is out for Chicago vs. San Francisco)
• Oakland Raiders:  Aaron Curry is a MULTIPLE-TIME LOSER this week, a total of $23,625 for multiple actions against the Baltimore Ravens.  It's his third run-in with the league office in 13 months, and came in the first game Curry played this season.
• Denver Broncos:  Von Miller:  $21,000 for trying to take out Cam Newton of the Panthers below the knees.
• Denver Broncos:  Kevin Vickerson:  $15,000 for horse-collaring the same player.  Someone was trying to eliminate Cam Newton for a few weeks.
• San Francisco 49ers:  Ray McDonald:  $21,000 for a shot to the head in the tie against the Rams.
• Indianapolis Colts:  Jerry Hughes:  $21,000 for a late hit against Jacksonville.
• New England Patriots:  Brandon Spikes:  $25,000 for roughing the passer during a sack against Buffalo's Ryan Fitzpatrick.  TWO TIME LOSER for Spikes as well.
• New England Patriots:  Alfonso Dennard:  $7,875 for a late hit against Fitzpatrick.  Someone was trying to take him out too.
• New England Patriots with a third:  Jerod Mayo, $10,000 for a late hit against C.J. Spiller of the Bills.  The third TWO-TIME LOSER of the week.
• Miami Dolphins:  In a fine that should surprise nobody, the second-dirtiest player in the league, Richie Incognito:  $10,000 for a late hit against Tennessee.
• Cincinnati Bengals:  Ray Maualuga:  $15,750 for unnecessary roughness against the Giants.
• Jacksonville Jaguars:  Dawan Landry:  $10,000 for a late hit in the Indianapolis game.
• Jacksonville Jaguars:  Terrance Knighton:  $25,000 for a late hit against the Colts.
• Minnesota Vikings:  Jasper Brinkley:  $21,000 for a shot to the head against the Lions.  That's a total of four TWO-TIME LOSERs this week.
• And a referee even!!  Tony Corrente lost his game check (about $9,000) for swearing into an open mic.

Footballsfuture.com forums the source.  (ESPN on the ref one.)

14 players (and 1 referee), about $265,250.

So far.

And you guys really want me to buy the "player safety is important" initiative...  REALLY...

Hey, $elig, you jackass! $teroid$ still pay well, apparently!

Someone explain how this goes down without him being on the gas, and for what appears to be much longer than with the Giants?

Melky Cabrera is gone.  Various reports have him signing with...  The Toronto Blue Jays.

Gee, the Blue Jays are getting involved in their share of smarmy stuff.

But here's the thing, Mr. I'm Cracking Down on Steroids Bud $elig:

How does this guy get 2 years and $16,000,000 unless he was on the gas last year to "win" (before the rules were thankfully changed) the National League batting title?

I mean, don't get me wrong:  Anyone who knew anything knew Melky was done with the Giants.

But how does this guy get $8,000,000/year off a 50-game drug suspension, and NO ONE bats an eyelash at how he got that batting average?

Collusion, Bribery, and Extortion: The Latest MLB Fraud

Meet Jeffrey Loria, the owner of the Florida/Miami Marlins AAAA "major league" baseball team.

Meet one of the biggest assholes in baseball.

The guy just oozes "asshole", and he's already been responsible for the literal death of baseball in one of the two Canadian markets Major League Baseball has penetrated, Montreal.

He was the owner that basically fire-saled a team which could've been relevant in the beginnings of the Steroid Era (it had the best record in the majors before the strike in 1994! -- 3 1/2 games better than the mighty Yankees), leading to the eventual farce that was the Puerto Rico Expos for a period of time (leading to an absurd, though beautiful for the park, traditional doubleheader for the Giants that was necessitated because they could not reschedule one of the Expos' Puerto Rico games which was rained out!) and, eventually, the team fleeing to Washington.

It is clear that Jeffrey Loria has no regard for the fans, other players, or anyone but his smarmy fuck of an art collector self.

And this shithead got a World Series ring with the Marlins, and then promptly firesaled that!

Then he screams for a new stadium, extorts it out of the taxpayers, and says he'll make the team competitive again if and only if he gets the new stadium.

That lasted...  about a third of a season.

The final straw has apparently fallen on the relevance of the Miami Marlins.  This "trade" with the Toronto Blue Jays:  Basically all their remaining star players (and most of the salary) for a cup of coffee, a malcontent, and some prospects.

A friend of mine who's a baseball historian has actually heard estimates that Jeffrey Loria is actually going to try to trot out a team with a payroll of about $35 million next year, if Loria can unload any salaries he finds too expensive and too constrictive to the creation of the new Jeffrey Loria Art Museum or somesuch folly.

I mean, it's so bad, and anyone watching ESPN that first home game could've seen it.  His idea of a "first pitch" was to bring out Muhammad Ali.

Now, God bless Ali and he's still The Motherfucking Greatest and will be For All Time.

But the Parkinson's and the like is advancing at a frightening rate, and what was supposed to be a wonderful feel-good moment (and Ali certainly deserves that, and none of what I say is to be taken one iota of fault of his!) turned into a pathetic display of a physical shadow of a man.  The fans were so saddened to see how he was doing that they couldn't even rouse a cheer, and the PA announcer was left to try to force an "Ali!  Ali!  Ali!" chant out of the crowd.

On the Opening Night of the stadium...

On ESPN...

And this motherfucker basically extorts what could be hundreds of millions out of the taxpayers to pay for a minor-league baseball stadium, because this shithead is going to pocket the revenue-sharing and profit from this sham of a team.

Speaking of "credible sanctioning bodies" as I have before, where the fuck is Bud $elig on this one?  This is in the Best Interests of Baseball to literally watch a man repeatedly gut a team to the point that no one wants to come and watch, even when they ARE good?

If I were $elig, he either fields a competitive team, or, since he has no interest in doing so, either must sell the team or it dies, under BIoB.

Fuck Jeffrey Loria.  Fuck his smarmy ass.  And if that's not good enough for him, he can basically take his minor-league traveling show elsewhere, as far as I am concerned.

If you ever need another indication of how NA$CAR is run, I submit to you the end of this past weekend's race...

Sometimes, the farce just becomes so obvious that who won and who lost become basically irrelevant.

Take last weekend's NASCAR race in Phoenix.

What most YouTube clips won't show is an incident with about four laps to go in which Clint Bowyer rubs Jeff Gordon into the outside wall, popping his tire and ending what very easily could've been a good run.

This was, apparently, the last fucking straw in a season full of this shit for Gordon, who, though black-flagged because he could not be up to speed, elected to stay on the track and TAKE OUT BOWYER.  (right at the start of the clip)

Then Gordon saunters to the pit road, where he is immediately summoned to the race officials' truck.

All Hell breaks loose before he gets there.

You see, in wrecking Bowyer intentionally, Jeff Gordon eliminated Clint Bowyer from the season-long championship.  Brad Keselowski is about to win his first such championship, barring a blown engine or something like that in the last race in Homestead, FL.

But no one is going to care!

The first controversy that should've been handled (but, again, no one cared about) is that had race leader Kevin Harvick (who _did_ eventually win) taken the white flag, the race ends there.  Since they "withdrew" the white flag before he got it, apparently, for Gordon taking out Bowyer (and Joey Logano and a third car), we got one of those Green-White-Checkered finishes.

But, again, no one cared because of what happened the moment Jeff Gordon made it to the infield.

The moment Gordon gets out of the car at about 1:26, Bowyer's crew is waiting for him, and a mass brawl erupts!

At 2:18 of the clip, Clint Bowyer gets out of his car, and enacts at least a 300-yard sprint for blood.  He has to be held back by several NASCAR officials as the melee continues to be cleaned up in the garage and the race (purportedly for the material on the track, but I think, more, for the melee) was stopped!

So, basically, the brawl goes on, everybody is summoned inside, and these are the penalties:

• Instead of being thrown out of the final race at Homestead for deliberately wrecking someone out of the championship, Jeff Gordon was simply fined $100,000, docked 25 points, and is on NASCAR's "probation" for the Homestead race.  (Technically through December 31)
• Rick Hendrick, for being the owner, docked 25 owner points.
• The crew chief, Alan Gustafson, is now on probation until December 31 for failing to control Gordon.
• Brian Pattie, Bowyer's crew chief, fined $25,000 for getting into the fight and probation until December 31st.
• And Brad Keselowski fined $25,000 for carrying a cell phone (illegal under rules basically covering computers and the like), but nothing for a profane press conference slamming the media for his apparent actions in Texas while all this garbage is going on.

I have been one of the biggest critics of NASCAR's "Boys, have at it!" philosophy.

This is why.  This incident pretty much did in the 2012 championship, barring something with Keselowski this week.

But here's the doubling of the problem:   You have a deliberate take-out, a mass brawl, and NO ONE GETS THROWN OUT FOR NEXT WEEK...

If there were ever a case that it's simply 43 billboards running around the track and that the sponsors run this sport, there it is.

And now everyone is going to expect Round2 either at Homestead or 2013 Daytona...

Week 9 Fine Blotter: A couple interesting ones here...

• Pittsburgh Steelers:  The team was fined $35,000 and Emanuel Sanders $15,000 for faking an injury to gain an extra time-out in their game against the Bengals.

If this is verifiable, how Sanders was not suspended and the Steelers docked far more (and 15 yards) is beyond me.

• San Diego Chargers:  Team fined $20,000 for failure to comply with a game official.  It was believed that illegal stick-em was on some of the towels that the team had used, and the officials wanted them confiscated.  It was determined that the charge had no merit.
• Baltimore Ravens:  Dannell Ellerbee fined $10,000 for striking a defenseless Cleveland Brown (Trent Richardson) in the head.
• Philadelphia Eagles:  Michael Vick (yes, THAT Michael Vick) was fined $7,875 for a low block on a pick-six end-to-end return of one of his interceptions in the loss to the Saints.
• Tennessee Titans:  Michael Griffin:  $20,000 for a horse-collar vs. the Bears.  That makes him a TWO-TIME LOSER.
• Tennessee Titans:  Matt Hasselbeck:  $15,750 for another horse-collar.  According to the NFL.com article sourced at the Vick fine link, he's appealing.
• Carolina Panthers got two as well:  Haruki Nakamara, $21,000 for striking a defenseless player in the head and neck.
• and Greg Hardy, $15,750 for roughing the passer, Robert Griffin III of the Redskins.
• Oakland Raiders:  Tyron Branch, $15,750 for another horse-collar against the Buccaneers.
• Green Bay Packers:  Ryan Taylor, $21,000 for a blind-side illegal block.
• Arizona Cardinals:  Same game, Quentin Groves, $15,750 for, you guessed it, a horse-collar tackle!
• Indianapolis Colts:  Cassius Vaughn, $7,875 for a late hit on Miami's Reggie Bush.

Four horse-collars, several defenseless player fouls, that's $220,750 down the tubes.

And another no-shit moment for the NFL...

A couple weeks ago, SI released a poll which indicated that Tim Tebow was the most overrated player in the NFL, and his starter, Mark Sanchez, was second.

Well, during my trip to Las Vegas, we found out that Rex Ryan has completed the trifecta.

A second survey, this one done by The Sporting News, of 103 players, has found Mr. Animal House to be the most overrated coach in the NFL, and by a similar wide margin to the overrated-players survey.

One surprise:  Bill Belichick was rated second on the most overrated coaches poll.

And getting the scoring caught up: Week 8 and Week 9

Finally getting the rest of this caught up:

Scoring Update:

Week 8's 14 games averaged 41 1/2 points exactly.

Since 2001, only 2001, 2003, and 2007 had fewer points on average for Week 8.

Week 9's 14 games averaged exactly five points more than Week 8:  46.5 exactly.

Since 2001, 2007 was higher by a small fraction, 2009 lower by a similar small fraction, and only 2004 was sunstantially higher.

For the 9 weeks, the average NFL game scored 45.72 points.

This is about 1 1/3 points higher than last year's record.

OK, been a bit lax... The last two weeks' Fine Blotters...

Was in Vegas this weekend.  Had great time until the little shit on the Greyhound trip home (and the bus breaking down on the way over and the fire which caused a 25-mile traffic jam (2 hour delays each way!) on the way back...).

Will have an article about that in a bit.

But some stuff I have to catch up on.

Week 7:

• Chicago Bears with two uniform violations for $10,500 each for orange cleats:  Brandon Marshall and Earl Bennett.
• Arizona Cardinals:  Rashad Johnson, $21,000 for an illegal blindside block against the Vikings.
• St. Louis Rams:  Cortland Finnegan:  $7,875 for a facemask on Jordy Nelson of the Packers.
• Baltimore Ravens:  Bernard Pollard:  same fine, same penalty, against the Texans.
• Detroit Lions:  Alphonso Smith:  $15,750 for a horse-collar of Chicago's aforementioned Brandon Marshall.
• Ndokamung Suh was NOT fined for his hit on Jay Cutler.  (Nor, IMODO, even with Suh's reputation, should he have been.)
• Carolina Panthers:  Charles Godfrey:  $7,875 for a chop-block against the Cowboys.  This makes Godfrey a TWO-TIME LOSER.
• Washington Redskins:  Tyler Polumbus:  $7,875 for a leg-whip against the Giants.
• San Francisco 49ers:  Dashon Goldson:  $7,875 for taunting the Seahags.

A couple I had to add from NFL.com...

Week 8:

• Earlier in the season, it was announced that week that the Rams were fined $20,000 for not disclosing Stephen Jackson's injury against the Redskins.  (Gee, after a weekend in Vegas, I wonder why???)
• New York Giants:  Chris Canty:  $15,750 for roughing the passer (Tony Romo of the Cowboys).
• Oakland Raiders:  Richard Seymour:  $15,750 for roughing the passer (Matt Cassel of the Chiefs).
• Chicago Bears:  Chris Conte:  $21,000 for a hit to the head on Carolina's Brandon LaFell.
• New York Jets:  Marcus Dowtin:  $15,750 for roughing the passer (Matt Moore of the Dolphins).
• Tennessee Titans:  Mike Martin:  $15,750 for...  you guessed it!!!  Roughing the Passer!  (Andrew Luck of the Colts).
• Miami Dolphins:  Jonathan Martin:  $10,000 for excessive chipping and clipping against the Jets.
• Minnesota Vikings:  Jared Allen:  $7,875 for fighting...
• Tampa Bay Buccaneers:  Donald Penn, who got the same fine.
• Pittsburgh Steelers:  Antonio Brown:  $10,000 for taunting, as he ran the last 25 yards (last fine of the list has an animated GIF of it, and, again, that forum is the source for these lists, Footballsfuture.com NFL News Forums) of a touchdown punt return backwards.  The return was nullified with another penalty.

And a follow-up to last year's article about the drug and gang money betting on little-kid football in Florida...

Please stop me if you're shocked about this AT -- ALL...

In May of 2011, ESPN Outside the Lines reported upon (and I posted it here) a widespread practice of drug and gang overlords betting on youth football games in Florida.

Well, it appears as if at least some of this has come to the light of the authorities and the arrests have begun.

Six months of investigation led ESPN to the report referenced in the post linked above.

The authorities tacked another year's-worth on to that, and, yesterday, arrested nine coaches/associates in a massive gambling sting.

Let's understand this:  These "men" are well-versed with the gang-types in Florida, and often would pay players to join their teams so they could be involved in betting on the games in what the ESPN article yesterday called a "system of rampant, elaborate and high-dollar gambling on little league football."

Basically, not only was drug and gang money being funneled into this crap, but, on top of it, you basically now have had kids, in the state of Florida, who've been playing professional football since the age of what?  12?  10??  YOUNGER???

Six of the nine coaches have felony records of their own.  This should not be surprising, after a short investigation of the coaches involved with the attack on the Florida youth football referee...

BUT WHAT IN THE HELL ARE THESE GUYS DOING AROUND KIDS?

IN ANY CAPACITY??

Do we have NO upstanding citizens who are willing to be coaches here?

If not:  No leagues, no games.  Period.

The Fort Lauderdale Hurricane had five coaches/associates arrested.

You gotta get a look at what ESPN uncovered on these guys...  (.PDF file)

Brandon B Bivins:  The Head Coach and President of this team...

• Two aggravated assaults with weapons in two years (1994 and 1996)
• One guilty on carrying a concealed firearm (1996)
• Twice on possession of cocaine -- with intent to deliver in 1996, without in 1999.
• 2002, uttering a forged instrument.  (Probably a forged check)
• and Grand Theft TWICE, 1999 and 2002.

For the dear love of God, what is this guy doing on the outside at all?  Yeah, I know it has been ten years since the last one they found, but this guy should well since have been three-struck for 25-to-life if Florida had such a law, or aggravated well beyond maximum by the time of, oh, his EIGHTH major felony or so??

Apparently, Bivins, through a classic barbershop of this culture, was running a back-room gambling ring with everything from youth games to the NFL!!

Darren Jerome Brown:  At least he's had nothing felonious since 1992, but I still question why he didn't do about 15 or so in the can for these three felonies:

• Grand Theft in 1989.
• Dealing Stolen Property the next year
• Delivery of Cocaine two years after that!

Vincent Gernard Gray:  Again, nothing since 2002, but STILL...

• Grand Theft in 1991 AND 1995.
• Uttering an altered instrument in 1995.  (Probably another rubber check.)
• Habitual Traffic Offender in 2002.

Here's a real trip:  This next one is on probation for a 2010 battery on a police officer!  Brad Donte Parker:

• Grand Theft in 1997
• Habitual Traffic Offender in 2006.
• Possession of Marijuana with Intent to Distribute in 2007.
• Battery of and Denial of a Communications Device to a Law Enforcement Officer in 2010.

The fifth Hurricane, an "affiliate" named Brandon Marlon Lewis, has no felony record.

But you have four men, on the same team, involved in this shit and they ALL had Grand Theft felonies, two of them TWICE, and NO ONE is going to bat an eyelash that these "men" are trying to mold kids into being better football players and better men...

The other four charged:

Darren LaShawn Bostic, Coach of the Deerfield Packer Rattlers and Dave Constantine Small, Coach of the Lauderhill Lions:

• Neither has a previous felony record.

The other two coaches are from the Northwest Broward Raiders:

La Taurus Tarmayne Fort:   If I had to guess, "La Taurus" was probably added to his legal name either in the joint or in his gang ties...

• All four felonies are for drugs:  One for cocaine use (1998), two for cocaine trafficking (2000 and 2010), and one for possession of marijuana with intent to deliver (2003).

Again, how is this guy not doing 20 or so for the second trafficking offense?

Willie Tindal:  OK, not since 1994, but that's an Armed Robbery...

---

Will someone please tell me why the police, and the other authorities as well who took part in this investigation, aren't simply shutting these leagues and teams down?

PLEASE...  And I don't want to hear this shit about protecting the children, especially after a cursory investigation (which anyone can do -- those records are available publicly, and I accessed them on the coaches in the referee attack!), with THIS KIND of malarkey going on.

I mean, SERIOUSLY...

A detective source said that a rivalry game involving seven of the nine men charged (Hurricanes vs. Raiders) had $20,000 of action on it, and the latest word on league championship action?  $100,000 ...

Basically, all the ESPN attention from May, 2011 did was take the underground action down several floors.

The coaches are setting the damn lines in multiple leagues!  This almost certainly implies massive match-fixing across the board in Florida youth football.

And if they're doing this in youth football, just think what they might be doing when they are being illegally recruited to many Florida _high schools_!!

It's time to invoke the Gordon Ramsay Philosophy on all of this youth football in Florida bullshit:

SHUT IT DOWN!!!