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.