(Hat-tip to Brian Tuohy on his Twitter for this one...)
It has been announced that, before Super Farce XLVII, that a children's choir will sing "America the Beautiful".
It will be the children's choir from Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, CT.
*VOMIT!!*
Thursday, January 31, 2013
Hands Inside The Machine: What Sports Integrity Is REALLY Up Against
On occasion, I will read the blog of sports integrity author Declan Hill (The Fix) and his continuing efforts to expose, root out, and eliminate match-fixing in world sport.
Today, he posted an article to his blog stating what he's up against.
It's big. Really big...
He has five words to sum up the war against game-fixing, and gave them in a recent Interpol match-fixing conference in Rome. He has identified a, if not THE, central figure in Asian match-fixing. This is a man who is rumored to have fixed matches (or have had people associated with him do it) on four continents, perhaps five if it got as far north as into North America.
His five words: Dan Tan must be arrested.
In those five words, Mr. Hill identifies Tan as effectively the kingpin of sport, to one extent or another, on 4-5 continents, including fixing matches in no fewer than 13 European countries, including deep involvement in the continuing problems in Italian football.
What Declan is saying is that any match, at any time, can be controlled by Dan Tan or his associates. He runs the show, not FIFA, certainly not the national leagues... Tan has no fewer than three arrest warrants against him, but he's still allowed to continue his operations, because he bases them in Singapore -- which has no extradition agreements.
And, for speaking truth to power, Hill is disinvited from more such forums.
Why?
Because the business of sport demands that the proper ring be kissed, and Dan Tan is basically an acceptable kingpin for sport in the eyes of the likes of Sepp Blatter and FIFA.
Remember, these are the same Asian sports circles which held the farcical 2002 World Cup in Korea and Japan, leading to the complete discreditation of the World Cup due to the officiating benefitting South Korea in the knockout rounds.
These are also the same Asian sports circles in which operate the likes of the badminton scandal which basically brought down the credibility of the sport in the London Olympics.
Anyone who honestly believes that these things happen in a vacuum is the kind of sheep that Tan, Blatter, $tern, Goodell, $elig, Nike, Tiger Woods, etc. and so forth and so on... rely upon!
Hill is very correct in stating that, if Tan is not forcibly arrested and removed from public, that we will lose the war on sports match-fixing. It is naive to think that there is any competition out there in Asia (Hell, last year, they revealed Korean video-game leagues not to be immune from match-fixing -- the very same leagues which populate the Twitch streaming site today!!) that Tan does not have his tentacles in.
And that means power, influence, muscle, and protection. It certainly extends into Interpol -- the actions taken against Declan Hill prove this beyond all doubt. I would openly state that I believe that Tan and Sepp Blatter himself are in collaboration, especially given the number and reach of fixed matches in every conceivable league, on 4-5 continents, plus Blatter's continued stubborn insistence to take actions to even attempt to placate those of us who believe that certain games are officiated in a crooked manner!
(Another piece of evidence to that: Hill states in his blog that he believes that there are powerful people which provide Tan protection and money. This probably means the level of heads of state and almost every conceivable South-East Asian corporate sponsor you can think of!)
Think of this the next time you watch League of Legends on Twitch!
And I think this is far beyond simple political or even sponsor scandal.
Firstly, from what I read in Hill's blog, it appears that Tan may well be getting money funneled to him from FIFA and Interpol themselves. FIFA and Interpol, according to Hill, are opening a $20,000,000 match-fixing education center -- in Singapore! And, next year, Interpol is opening a "Global Complex for Innovation" -- ALSO in Singapore!
Does anyone want to try to convince me that some of this money is not going to Tan for the express purposes of influence, power, and protection? Especially if the metaphorical whistle were blown on Tan, one might have to wonder what his associates might have in mind for a "nuclear option" against the sports events they and Tan have worked so hard to fix!
There's a second reason that I believe this goes beyond simple politics and sponsor money:
From my experience in the United States, the corporate sports machine truly believes that no publicity for the sports is bad publicity. If the people are talking about it, no matter how bad it makes the league look, it makes you tune in next week.
It's "The Honky Tonk Man Effect".
(My name for it. Roy Wayne Farris was a highly-skilled entertainer in professional wrestling. Not the world's greatest or best-looking wrestler, but he took an Elvis gimmick, The Honky Tonk Man, to new heights during his run as the "Greatest Intercontinental Champion of All Time". Honky Tonk Man would often cheat like Hell, lose by disqualification, but would never lose the belt. This made the fans so angry that they paid their money to see him the next time the World Wrestling Federation (now WWE) was in town -- to see him get his ass kicked!!)
I'll give you one example of this to drive the point home: What was Sports Illustrated's Best Moment of 2012?
The Olympics? Nope, it was on US soil.
The Giants winning the World Series? Not Major League Baseball.
Anything to do with their Sportsman of the Year, LeBron James?? Not only not the NBA, but nothing to do with any of the major championships in 2012.
The Freeh Report? Not college sports.
The #1 ranked Best Moment of 2012, as ranked by SI...
The Fail Mary.
(#2 was actually Lin-sanity. LeBron and the Heat were #3, Usain Bolt was #4. The Hollywood Ending of last year's EPL was #8. The World Series was #13, the Super Bowl #11... The release of the Freeh Report didn't even make a list of 112 moments.)
My point is that the corporate nature of sports effectively requires pre-determined outcomes.
Be as pissed-off that you got screwed over week to week, but you'll be back next week to see if YOUR TEAM wins! And that means money -- billions and billions of it.
They don't care that it's dirty cash. It's cash, and spends the same way, dirty or clean!
That's the other reason that Declan Hill is being silenced, much like FIFA's own match-fixing expert being forced out the door.
Declan, if you ever read this: Keep up the good fight. Please. We need more like you.
Today, he posted an article to his blog stating what he's up against.
It's big. Really big...
He has five words to sum up the war against game-fixing, and gave them in a recent Interpol match-fixing conference in Rome. He has identified a, if not THE, central figure in Asian match-fixing. This is a man who is rumored to have fixed matches (or have had people associated with him do it) on four continents, perhaps five if it got as far north as into North America.
His five words: Dan Tan must be arrested.
In those five words, Mr. Hill identifies Tan as effectively the kingpin of sport, to one extent or another, on 4-5 continents, including fixing matches in no fewer than 13 European countries, including deep involvement in the continuing problems in Italian football.
What Declan is saying is that any match, at any time, can be controlled by Dan Tan or his associates. He runs the show, not FIFA, certainly not the national leagues... Tan has no fewer than three arrest warrants against him, but he's still allowed to continue his operations, because he bases them in Singapore -- which has no extradition agreements.
And, for speaking truth to power, Hill is disinvited from more such forums.
Why?
Because the business of sport demands that the proper ring be kissed, and Dan Tan is basically an acceptable kingpin for sport in the eyes of the likes of Sepp Blatter and FIFA.
Remember, these are the same Asian sports circles which held the farcical 2002 World Cup in Korea and Japan, leading to the complete discreditation of the World Cup due to the officiating benefitting South Korea in the knockout rounds.
These are also the same Asian sports circles in which operate the likes of the badminton scandal which basically brought down the credibility of the sport in the London Olympics.
Anyone who honestly believes that these things happen in a vacuum is the kind of sheep that Tan, Blatter, $tern, Goodell, $elig, Nike, Tiger Woods, etc. and so forth and so on... rely upon!
Hill is very correct in stating that, if Tan is not forcibly arrested and removed from public, that we will lose the war on sports match-fixing. It is naive to think that there is any competition out there in Asia (Hell, last year, they revealed Korean video-game leagues not to be immune from match-fixing -- the very same leagues which populate the Twitch streaming site today!!) that Tan does not have his tentacles in.
And that means power, influence, muscle, and protection. It certainly extends into Interpol -- the actions taken against Declan Hill prove this beyond all doubt. I would openly state that I believe that Tan and Sepp Blatter himself are in collaboration, especially given the number and reach of fixed matches in every conceivable league, on 4-5 continents, plus Blatter's continued stubborn insistence to take actions to even attempt to placate those of us who believe that certain games are officiated in a crooked manner!
(Another piece of evidence to that: Hill states in his blog that he believes that there are powerful people which provide Tan protection and money. This probably means the level of heads of state and almost every conceivable South-East Asian corporate sponsor you can think of!)
Think of this the next time you watch League of Legends on Twitch!
And I think this is far beyond simple political or even sponsor scandal.
Firstly, from what I read in Hill's blog, it appears that Tan may well be getting money funneled to him from FIFA and Interpol themselves. FIFA and Interpol, according to Hill, are opening a $20,000,000 match-fixing education center -- in Singapore! And, next year, Interpol is opening a "Global Complex for Innovation" -- ALSO in Singapore!
Does anyone want to try to convince me that some of this money is not going to Tan for the express purposes of influence, power, and protection? Especially if the metaphorical whistle were blown on Tan, one might have to wonder what his associates might have in mind for a "nuclear option" against the sports events they and Tan have worked so hard to fix!
There's a second reason that I believe this goes beyond simple politics and sponsor money:
From my experience in the United States, the corporate sports machine truly believes that no publicity for the sports is bad publicity. If the people are talking about it, no matter how bad it makes the league look, it makes you tune in next week.
It's "The Honky Tonk Man Effect".
(My name for it. Roy Wayne Farris was a highly-skilled entertainer in professional wrestling. Not the world's greatest or best-looking wrestler, but he took an Elvis gimmick, The Honky Tonk Man, to new heights during his run as the "Greatest Intercontinental Champion of All Time". Honky Tonk Man would often cheat like Hell, lose by disqualification, but would never lose the belt. This made the fans so angry that they paid their money to see him the next time the World Wrestling Federation (now WWE) was in town -- to see him get his ass kicked!!)
I'll give you one example of this to drive the point home: What was Sports Illustrated's Best Moment of 2012?
The Olympics? Nope, it was on US soil.
The Giants winning the World Series? Not Major League Baseball.
Anything to do with their Sportsman of the Year, LeBron James?? Not only not the NBA, but nothing to do with any of the major championships in 2012.
The Freeh Report? Not college sports.
The #1 ranked Best Moment of 2012, as ranked by SI...
The Fail Mary.
(#2 was actually Lin-sanity. LeBron and the Heat were #3, Usain Bolt was #4. The Hollywood Ending of last year's EPL was #8. The World Series was #13, the Super Bowl #11... The release of the Freeh Report didn't even make a list of 112 moments.)
My point is that the corporate nature of sports effectively requires pre-determined outcomes.
Be as pissed-off that you got screwed over week to week, but you'll be back next week to see if YOUR TEAM wins! And that means money -- billions and billions of it.
They don't care that it's dirty cash. It's cash, and spends the same way, dirty or clean!
That's the other reason that Declan Hill is being silenced, much like FIFA's own match-fixing expert being forced out the door.
Declan, if you ever read this: Keep up the good fight. Please. We need more like you.
Wednesday, January 30, 2013
SWATS Part _Three_: Alabama and the end of at least one National Title?
This SWATS story is exploding by the day.
Now, from the head of the Sports With Alternatives To Steroids (a known and admitted steroid dealer), comes word that he witnessed five members of the 2011-2012 Alabama Crimson Tide football team (the first of the back-to-back) take The Ultimate Spray (which contains a deer-antler extract which contains IGF-1 (Insulin-Like Growth Factor-1, which it's own website states is a precursor for the production of HGH), an illegal performance enhancer under all relevant American sports associations) under their tongues before the BCS National Championship Game against LSU that year.
Sports Illustrated went into more detail, in that the Alabama players sought out any edge they could find to win the national championship against LSU.
The product is publicly available. It costs about $70.00 a bottle.
(In separate SWATS news, Vijay Singh is an admitted user, and was unaware that the product was, in fact, banned. According to Sports Illustrated, the PGA only took action against the deer-antler extract in 2011, forcing two endorsees to stop their actions regarding the product and company (Mark Calcavecchia and Ken Green.))
One of the players noted to have met with SWATS that night was Quinton Dial, a 300-pound lineman for BOTH of Alabama's national titles.
You know what this means, right??
They prove this (Key is stated in the SI article to have been at the meeting -- it is unknown if he actually took the deer-antler extract), and BOTH titles go bye-bye -- even as Alabama claims (and the truth of this claim is abjectly irrelevant! If the players took the substance without Alabama's knowledge, they become ineligible on the spot.) that SWATS had at least two cease-and-desist letters against them. The players would've taken this action behind the Crimson Tide's back.
In fact, the first of those letters (according to SI's Alabama blog) was from March, 2009! So Alabama has been dealing with these jokers for ALL THREE of their BCS National Championships in this current dynasty.
This could take the entire house of cards down.
Now, from the head of the Sports With Alternatives To Steroids (a known and admitted steroid dealer), comes word that he witnessed five members of the 2011-2012 Alabama Crimson Tide football team (the first of the back-to-back) take The Ultimate Spray (which contains a deer-antler extract which contains IGF-1 (Insulin-Like Growth Factor-1, which it's own website states is a precursor for the production of HGH), an illegal performance enhancer under all relevant American sports associations) under their tongues before the BCS National Championship Game against LSU that year.
Sports Illustrated went into more detail, in that the Alabama players sought out any edge they could find to win the national championship against LSU.
The product is publicly available. It costs about $70.00 a bottle.
(In separate SWATS news, Vijay Singh is an admitted user, and was unaware that the product was, in fact, banned. According to Sports Illustrated, the PGA only took action against the deer-antler extract in 2011, forcing two endorsees to stop their actions regarding the product and company (Mark Calcavecchia and Ken Green.))
One of the players noted to have met with SWATS that night was Quinton Dial, a 300-pound lineman for BOTH of Alabama's national titles.
You know what this means, right??
They prove this (Key is stated in the SI article to have been at the meeting -- it is unknown if he actually took the deer-antler extract), and BOTH titles go bye-bye -- even as Alabama claims (and the truth of this claim is abjectly irrelevant! If the players took the substance without Alabama's knowledge, they become ineligible on the spot.) that SWATS had at least two cease-and-desist letters against them. The players would've taken this action behind the Crimson Tide's back.
In fact, the first of those letters (according to SI's Alabama blog) was from March, 2009! So Alabama has been dealing with these jokers for ALL THREE of their BCS National Championships in this current dynasty.
This could take the entire house of cards down.
Tuesday, January 29, 2013
And in other drug news, a Miami New Times story that could cost someone $100,000,000
Major League Baseball is investigating a Miami New Times story which basically purports that Alex Rodriguez is a serial doper, and has been doping each of the last four seasons.
IGF-1 is also in this story as well, as it is one of several drugs that it is believed are in a notebook denoting a drug regiment Rodriguez has used the last four seasons, AFTER his admissions to steroid use.
Bud Selig could, if he chose, suspend Rodriguez now, and there are now discussions in the Yankees organization to void the last several years of A-Roid's contract, costing Alex over $100,000,000 in remaining salary.
If the league suspends Rodriguez for this story, the Yankees have to do it. Even if they fail in court, they have to -- the guy is washed-up, finished even WITH the roids, and it's clear he cannot take the field without them. The guy probably now needs a full-scale hip replacement, at the rate things are going, and his 2013 is in doubt in any realistic event.
In short, his career is probably over.
IGF-1 is also in this story as well, as it is one of several drugs that it is believed are in a notebook denoting a drug regiment Rodriguez has used the last four seasons, AFTER his admissions to steroid use.
Bud Selig could, if he chose, suspend Rodriguez now, and there are now discussions in the Yankees organization to void the last several years of A-Roid's contract, costing Alex over $100,000,000 in remaining salary.
If the league suspends Rodriguez for this story, the Yankees have to do it. Even if they fail in court, they have to -- the guy is washed-up, finished even WITH the roids, and it's clear he cannot take the field without them. The guy probably now needs a full-scale hip replacement, at the rate things are going, and his 2013 is in doubt in any realistic event.
In short, his career is probably over.
Super Fraud XLVI: The Ray Lewis Thuggin It Up Appreciation Tour May Have Hit a Fatal Snag
There is a report on Yahoo! Sports that the biggest story of Media Day is something which, like the initial Spygate story, could alter the result of The Big Game come Sunday (whether or not it is actually coming to anything substantive).
Ray Lewis, the central figure (almost certainly) in the surge of the Baltimore Ravens in his final season, could face league scrutiny to play in the Super Bowl. Reports have surfaced that Lewis, to treat the triceps injury which effectively made his decision to retire and to return for these playoffs, went to a group called SWATS (Sports With Alternatives To Steroids).
SWATS is reported to have given a deer-antler extract spray to Lewis. That spray contains a substance called IGF-1, a banned substance by the NFL.
Lewis is reported to have told SI that he may have used the substance, but that he did not tell the Ravens that he had.
This was the transcript of an exchange Yahoo! Sports obtained of a phone call Lewis had with SWATS:
Ray Lewis, the central figure (almost certainly) in the surge of the Baltimore Ravens in his final season, could face league scrutiny to play in the Super Bowl. Reports have surfaced that Lewis, to treat the triceps injury which effectively made his decision to retire and to return for these playoffs, went to a group called SWATS (Sports With Alternatives To Steroids).
SWATS is reported to have given a deer-antler extract spray to Lewis. That spray contains a substance called IGF-1, a banned substance by the NFL.
Lewis is reported to have told SI that he may have used the substance, but that he did not tell the Ravens that he had.
This was the transcript of an exchange Yahoo! Sports obtained of a phone call Lewis had with SWATS:
Ross prescribed a deluxe program, including holographic stickers on the right elbow; copious quantities of the powder additive; sleeping in front of a beam-ray light programmed with frequencies for tissue regeneration and pain relief; drinking negatively charged water; a 10-per-day regimen of the deer-antler pills that will "rebuild your brain via your small intestines" (and which Lewis said he hadn't been taking, then swallowed four during the conversation); and spritzes of deer-antler velvet extract (the Ultimate Spray) every two hours.
"Spray on my elbow every two hours?" Lewis asked.
"No," Ross said, "under your tongue."
Toward the end of the talk, Lewis asked Ross to "just pile me up and just send me everything you got, because I got to get back on this this week."Needless to say, if this gets any degree of legs, the 49ers just got their sixth title.
Friday, January 25, 2013
A Week of Te'o Time: Where are we now?
So this story has made it to a week, and has, at least for the moment, slowed to a simmer.
What have we learned?
OK... I can't say I completely buy it, but I'm willing to do so for purposes of convention.
Because even then, you have a number of questions which no one is willing to ask, much less get answers for...
Eventually, someone is going to blow the whistle. Hard.
What have we learned?
- First and foremost, I think it is clear that Manti Te'o's draft stock has plummeted. How far it will plummet will probably depend on the news cycle and if anything else comes out about Te'o and Ronaiah Tuiasosopo in the next three months.
- It is clear that, if I were an NFL scout or draft-nik, I'd steer far clear of Manti Te'o, regardless of his talent.
- It is clear that he is not the sharpest knife in the drawer,
- has almost certainly, to some level, been taken advantage of,
- and probably to the point where he, in the wrong setting, could be compromise-able or has already been compromised.
- This could make secrets like game schemes and playbooks very difficult to keep secret around people like Te'o and anyone who might wish to compromise him.
OK... I can't say I completely buy it, but I'm willing to do so for purposes of convention.
Because even then, you have a number of questions which no one is willing to ask, much less get answers for...
- When, if ever before the Deadspin article, did Manti Te'o figure out that the dying girlfriend never existed?
- If this was at any point while the story was still going on, how and why did Te'o continue the story?
- If Ronaiah Tuiasosopo, being a failed member of a large athletic family, was scamming Te'o and a number of other athletes in this "catfishing", then who had access to Ronaiah in the days leading up to the BCS National Championship Game?
- If anyone, what did they talk about?
- A side question: Is Te'o still enrolled at Notre Dame? Could this situation place his education into question, even as he retains an agency and prepares for the NFL? (From what I've heard from people I've talked to, it sounds like he is no longer enrolled, but this is important because it would leave him subject to significant disciplinary action from the University if he committed any degree of misconduct as a Notre Dame football player.)
- Why is no one taking a hard look at the possible angle that Te'o, his story (and Heisman season) debunked, may have been ordered (by Tuiasosopo or any associates which would be the answer to #3) to take a dive in the BCS National Championship Game, a game long-hyped by BCS' ESPN as a Game of the Century, but was more than over by the end of the first quarter?
Eventually, someone is going to blow the whistle. Hard.
Thursday, January 24, 2013
Ladies and gentlemen, Howard Cosell... (from 1985)
Brian posted this David Letterman interview on his site, and I will pull out two quotes from part 2, posted below:
(Brian Tuohy put it on his site. Bruce Collins gets credit for finding it, and a hat-tip from me.)
Two relevant quotes:
Cosell was asked about Don Meredith, and bristled at the concept that he had "excoriated" Meredith, feeling he was misrepresented. In explaining himself (about 1:49):
"Philisophically, I had great agreement about the game with Don Meredith. I didn't think the games were very important in the sweep of Life."
(Emphasis mine.)
And then Cosell, as only Cosell can or ever could, went off on Sports Fan Syndrome in Americana -- in words that, frankly, are even more true today than when he said them in 1985...
"I heard some of these people up here [as he began to point at the audience at the (CORRECTION, hat-tip to my anonymous friend) Studio 6A at the RCA/GE Building at 30 Rock that day -- he did not go to the Ed Sullivan until he moved to CBS] boo when I said something adverse to the National Football League. I want you people to listen to me. There comes a point in time when you've got to look at yourselves, every one of you, and you've got to wonder about a country where, on the same day in this great city [New York City], a man could be rendered a standing ovation, after (under immunity) admitting he played the game of baseball snorting cocaine, and got a standing ovation when he came back...
And then, in the same great city, 55,000 more people stood and booed the National Anthem of the greatest nation-friend that this country has ever had, the nation of Canada. And, in both cases, it was motivated by the fans wanting their team to win. When that happens in our country, something's out of whack, and I want each and every one of you to know."
So, predictably, they applaud him -- even though he was just spending the last 45 seconds reaming the sports fans (many of whom within that very same audience in the Ed Sullivan Theatre that day!) a new asshole, as only Howard Cosell could.
(Brian Tuohy put it on his site. Bruce Collins gets credit for finding it, and a hat-tip from me.)
Two relevant quotes:
Cosell was asked about Don Meredith, and bristled at the concept that he had "excoriated" Meredith, feeling he was misrepresented. In explaining himself (about 1:49):
"Philisophically, I had great agreement about the game with Don Meredith. I didn't think the games were very important in the sweep of Life."
(Emphasis mine.)
And then Cosell, as only Cosell can or ever could, went off on Sports Fan Syndrome in Americana -- in words that, frankly, are even more true today than when he said them in 1985...
"I heard some of these people up here [as he began to point at the audience at the (CORRECTION, hat-tip to my anonymous friend) Studio 6A at the RCA/GE Building at 30 Rock that day -- he did not go to the Ed Sullivan until he moved to CBS] boo when I said something adverse to the National Football League. I want you people to listen to me. There comes a point in time when you've got to look at yourselves, every one of you, and you've got to wonder about a country where, on the same day in this great city [New York City], a man could be rendered a standing ovation, after (under immunity) admitting he played the game of baseball snorting cocaine, and got a standing ovation when he came back...
And then, in the same great city, 55,000 more people stood and booed the National Anthem of the greatest nation-friend that this country has ever had, the nation of Canada. And, in both cases, it was motivated by the fans wanting their team to win. When that happens in our country, something's out of whack, and I want each and every one of you to know."
So, predictably, they applaud him -- even though he was just spending the last 45 seconds reaming the sports fans (many of whom within that very same audience in the Ed Sullivan Theatre that day!) a new asshole, as only Howard Cosell could.
Wednesday, January 23, 2013
Just when I thought the NCAA couldn't be big enough of a joke, I get this one...
Mark Emmert needs to go.
He needs to go now.
I said this after the joke of the penalties with respect to Penn State, and this garbage I'm about to report just redoubles it.
For the last 25 years, the University of Miami football program has been the most visibly dirty program in the nation -- on and off the field.
This current set of allegations is so bad that, I believe for the first time in FBS history, a school has decided to bowl-ban itself for two consecutive years to hopefully blunt the sanctions, which, until Pedophile State, should've included the absolute and permanent Death Penalty to the football program.
Well, that ain't happening.
Now, one has to wonder what is... Because, in a new low for the NCAA under Emmert (which I didn't think possible), the NCAA is now left to investigate...
... themselves.
The enforcement team worked with the lawyer for a key figure in the Miami investigation to improperly gain information against the University. The NCAA must now contract an external investigation of themselves to find out the level of damage to the Miami investigation.
And if you think I believe this isn't going to significantly hamper the NCAA's penalties, you're fooling yourselves.
But after the Freeh Report and ESPN's direct intervention to allow Penn State to remain on the field (much less, in my belief, keep their doors open as an educational institution), does the NCAA really want to punish Miami, knowing that there is only one real penalty in can, should, and (otherwise) must impose on the football program?
So this is the NCAA's back door out -- and out from under Emmert, as well. He's pissed, probably should be, but the frank notion is that it is clear that the NCAA has no intention of ever imposing the Death Penalty again -- not in the Corporate College Sports sphere.
So the NCAA enforcement team, in my honest opinion, deliberately commits malfeasance to scuttle the investigation out from under Emmert. Miami can continue to play, probably with some small scholarship reductions and "time served", since the NCAA's investigation is now, almost certainly, irreparably tainted.
Time for Emmert to go.
Now.
The NCAA will follow him if they don't do this.
He needs to go now.
I said this after the joke of the penalties with respect to Penn State, and this garbage I'm about to report just redoubles it.
For the last 25 years, the University of Miami football program has been the most visibly dirty program in the nation -- on and off the field.
This current set of allegations is so bad that, I believe for the first time in FBS history, a school has decided to bowl-ban itself for two consecutive years to hopefully blunt the sanctions, which, until Pedophile State, should've included the absolute and permanent Death Penalty to the football program.
Well, that ain't happening.
Now, one has to wonder what is... Because, in a new low for the NCAA under Emmert (which I didn't think possible), the NCAA is now left to investigate...
... themselves.
The enforcement team worked with the lawyer for a key figure in the Miami investigation to improperly gain information against the University. The NCAA must now contract an external investigation of themselves to find out the level of damage to the Miami investigation.
And if you think I believe this isn't going to significantly hamper the NCAA's penalties, you're fooling yourselves.
But after the Freeh Report and ESPN's direct intervention to allow Penn State to remain on the field (much less, in my belief, keep their doors open as an educational institution), does the NCAA really want to punish Miami, knowing that there is only one real penalty in can, should, and (otherwise) must impose on the football program?
So this is the NCAA's back door out -- and out from under Emmert, as well. He's pissed, probably should be, but the frank notion is that it is clear that the NCAA has no intention of ever imposing the Death Penalty again -- not in the Corporate College Sports sphere.
So the NCAA enforcement team, in my honest opinion, deliberately commits malfeasance to scuttle the investigation out from under Emmert. Miami can continue to play, probably with some small scholarship reductions and "time served", since the NCAA's investigation is now, almost certainly, irreparably tainted.
Time for Emmert to go.
Now.
The NCAA will follow him if they don't do this.
NFL Fine Blotter, Tom Brady Playoff Edition
Tom Brady fined $10,000 for his slide in the AFC Championship Game where he kicked Ed Reed.
Saw the play. He makes any more contact, or in any other sport, he gets tossed, in my book.
$10,000 is light for that. Was thinking more $25,000.
And in the *complete facepalm* department:
Frank Gore of the 49ers was fined $10,500 -- $500 MORE than Brady for...
wearing his socks too low.
What, there a corporate logo we all have to see?
Saw the play. He makes any more contact, or in any other sport, he gets tossed, in my book.
$10,000 is light for that. Was thinking more $25,000.
And in the *complete facepalm* department:
Frank Gore of the 49ers was fined $10,500 -- $500 MORE than Brady for...
wearing his socks too low.
What, there a corporate logo we all have to see?
The NHL: Points for Player Safety, Minus Points for Exploiting Fighting
As I said, occasionally, I have to play fair here.
I may actually bite on the short-season NHL GameCenter Live package for live game video. For all of it's incompetences, the NHL is the closest of the four or five "major leagues", if you consider it one, to actually trying to put together somewhat of a fair and competitive league.
But one thing I have to say definitively: The NHL has, at least to it's credit, been open on trying to increase player safety.
One of it's largest initiatives is to open the process and educate the public on player suspensions for illegal/dirty hits.
NHL Senior Vice President for Player Safety and Hockey Operations (that's a long term for the head of discipline for illegal hits) Brendan Shanahan (long-time NHL fans can insert your jokes here) has a section on the NHL VideoCenter (not the premium) site where, when a player is suspended, Shanahan will explain the exact nature of the play, why the action was taken, and what rules were violated.
Let's look at the first suspension of 2013's season. The video is off of YouTube, but is also on the official NHL site. Brayden Schenn of the Philadelphia Flyers was suspended for one game today by Brendan Shanahan for an illegal hit which Schenn committed on New Jersey's Anton Volchenkov.
Let's look at how the NHL explains it's suspensions.
The first thing that Shanahan does is, as the game video starts, he explains the time and situation in the game. At the time listed in the game, the hit is shown.
In this case (as the replay more clearly shows), Schenn, off a line-change, skates directly down the ice near the boards and launches himself, skates leaving the ice, into Volchenkov, making contact with his head.
It is hoped that the officials in the game are also penalized. Multiple replays in Shanahan's ruling video show that two officials had clear view of the incident, a linesman down the boards and another official (a referee, almost certainly) nearer the goal. The official nearer the goal is looking right at the incident.
Shanahan then explains that a penalty should've been called. Charging, NHL Rule 42. He comes down the ice, leaves the ice, jumps into Volchenkov, and hits him in the head.
The referee has jurisdictionary discretion to determine whether that's a minor or a major. That should've been a major for contact to the head by charging, and Schenn should've been disqualified, as a major for charging carries an automatic game misconduct (and an automatic fine of one hundred dollars for the disqualification).
At the end of the clip, the decision is clearly laid out, point by point, both verbally and by chart.
It's a charging foul, probably should've been a major and a game misconduct for head contact. Another credit to the NHL is that they also examine the injury that the other player might've suffered or did suffer as a result of the illegal hit. In this case, as Shanahan points out, there is no apparent injury on the situation to Volchenkov. The history of the offending player is also laid out -- Schenn, until today, had none, except as a victim of a vicious playoff hit last year. So this is his first Supplemental offense.
Even as a first offense, it is clear that Schenn should've been expelled from the game, so the decision is a one-game suspension.
If more leagues did this, and this transparently, you wouldn't have questionable decisions or even the level of disputes the NFL has degenerated into the last several years.
--
I wish everything I could say about the NHL was good.
I can't.
It appears as if pre-staged fights are part of the modus operandi under which the NHL is going to try to win back fans.
One of the biggest stories from last year, other than the out-of-control Conference quarterfinals in the playoffs, was a large-scale drop-of-the-puck line brawl on a nationally-televised NBC game on April 1, 2012 between Philadelphia and Pittsburgh.
It now appears that at least one game of the young season, between the Islanders and Lightning, started with a two-on-two situation much similar to that ballyhooed brawl.
A second fight had Detroit and Columbus send a player each into the fray off the opening drop on Monday.
Pittsburgh and the Rangers had a third such fight (another one-on-one job) on Sunday.
And, as Sports Illustrated reports and Brian Tuohy picked up on, the fights are most certainly pre-determined.
The staged fight is one way to get the fans back in it, especially on a week's notice between CBA agreement and opening the season.
But what is going to be the line between this and what happened last spring in the playoffs?
As with the lollipop... The world will never know...
I may actually bite on the short-season NHL GameCenter Live package for live game video. For all of it's incompetences, the NHL is the closest of the four or five "major leagues", if you consider it one, to actually trying to put together somewhat of a fair and competitive league.
But one thing I have to say definitively: The NHL has, at least to it's credit, been open on trying to increase player safety.
One of it's largest initiatives is to open the process and educate the public on player suspensions for illegal/dirty hits.
NHL Senior Vice President for Player Safety and Hockey Operations (that's a long term for the head of discipline for illegal hits) Brendan Shanahan (long-time NHL fans can insert your jokes here) has a section on the NHL VideoCenter (not the premium) site where, when a player is suspended, Shanahan will explain the exact nature of the play, why the action was taken, and what rules were violated.
Let's look at the first suspension of 2013's season. The video is off of YouTube, but is also on the official NHL site. Brayden Schenn of the Philadelphia Flyers was suspended for one game today by Brendan Shanahan for an illegal hit which Schenn committed on New Jersey's Anton Volchenkov.
Let's look at how the NHL explains it's suspensions.
The first thing that Shanahan does is, as the game video starts, he explains the time and situation in the game. At the time listed in the game, the hit is shown.
In this case (as the replay more clearly shows), Schenn, off a line-change, skates directly down the ice near the boards and launches himself, skates leaving the ice, into Volchenkov, making contact with his head.
It is hoped that the officials in the game are also penalized. Multiple replays in Shanahan's ruling video show that two officials had clear view of the incident, a linesman down the boards and another official (a referee, almost certainly) nearer the goal. The official nearer the goal is looking right at the incident.
Shanahan then explains that a penalty should've been called. Charging, NHL Rule 42. He comes down the ice, leaves the ice, jumps into Volchenkov, and hits him in the head.
The referee has jurisdictionary discretion to determine whether that's a minor or a major. That should've been a major for contact to the head by charging, and Schenn should've been disqualified, as a major for charging carries an automatic game misconduct (and an automatic fine of one hundred dollars for the disqualification).
At the end of the clip, the decision is clearly laid out, point by point, both verbally and by chart.
It's a charging foul, probably should've been a major and a game misconduct for head contact. Another credit to the NHL is that they also examine the injury that the other player might've suffered or did suffer as a result of the illegal hit. In this case, as Shanahan points out, there is no apparent injury on the situation to Volchenkov. The history of the offending player is also laid out -- Schenn, until today, had none, except as a victim of a vicious playoff hit last year. So this is his first Supplemental offense.
Even as a first offense, it is clear that Schenn should've been expelled from the game, so the decision is a one-game suspension.
If more leagues did this, and this transparently, you wouldn't have questionable decisions or even the level of disputes the NFL has degenerated into the last several years.
--
I wish everything I could say about the NHL was good.
I can't.
It appears as if pre-staged fights are part of the modus operandi under which the NHL is going to try to win back fans.
One of the biggest stories from last year, other than the out-of-control Conference quarterfinals in the playoffs, was a large-scale drop-of-the-puck line brawl on a nationally-televised NBC game on April 1, 2012 between Philadelphia and Pittsburgh.
It now appears that at least one game of the young season, between the Islanders and Lightning, started with a two-on-two situation much similar to that ballyhooed brawl.
A second fight had Detroit and Columbus send a player each into the fray off the opening drop on Monday.
Pittsburgh and the Rangers had a third such fight (another one-on-one job) on Sunday.
And, as Sports Illustrated reports and Brian Tuohy picked up on, the fights are most certainly pre-determined.
The staged fight is one way to get the fans back in it, especially on a week's notice between CBA agreement and opening the season.
But what is going to be the line between this and what happened last spring in the playoffs?
As with the lollipop... The world will never know...
Super Fraud XXXVII: The voice of the Raider Nation speaks out...
If you really want to see the impact that the kind of rigging (and even the accusation of same) can have on people, I present to you John Tournour.
You may know him better as FOX Sports' Radio's "JT The Brick", a man I've been a fan of since I moved to San Francisco when he had a local show there. I love his passion and energy, though I don't agree, obviously, with everything he says.
In fact, there was a time that I believe he had the better part of half the programming on one of the sports radio stations in San Francisco. He'd have a 2 or 3 hour afternoon show, a 4 hour overnight show on SportsFan Radio Network until he got the opportunity with FOX, and then, when it ended, a replay of several hours of the same show before the morning show took the air on that station.
There is no one in the media who is more "Raider Nation" than JT. He's worked for that team a number of times, including currently.
So it's obvious he'd have an opinion on the Tim Brown story about that he believes that the Raider coach at the time, Bill Callahan, sabotaged (and, hence, rigged/threw) Super Bowl XXXVII. JT was working with the team on Super Bowl XXXVII, including doing a three-hour pre-game show on the San Francisco sports-talk station.
So he obviously has an opinion on the matter, and opened his January 22/23 overnight show with that opinion in this monologue, posted to the FOX Sports Radio site.
This is one of the reasons that I question the sanity of most sports fans. You can tell this man is a very torn man. He fucking bleeds Silver and Black, both on his show and in his other work, including that with the Raiders.
He knows Tim Brown. He's met him on numerous occasions. So he's not going to go off and just impeach the guy's words.
And I can understand how he truly believes, in all the work he did with the Raiders, that he saw nothing to indicate the game was being thrown.
The problem is: This is something which would've been kept very quiet, very secretive, etc. We're talking NFL Security levels.
Why?
Look at the firestorm this story has gotten in the two days since it's been made public on more than just satellite radio. Listen to JT's show, which has several links on it underneath the opening monologue podcast.
If he knew anything, he'd probably tell. I know there's a lot of people I could state could be skeptical of that statement -- so much so, in that it would probably be the end of any association he has/had with the Raiders.
That said, I don't think such a thing could be held back unless it was something that basically never got beyond the coach himself.
Do I believe that game was fixed? You bet I do. I believe every Super Bowl since One Yard Short has been fixed, and many before it.
Do I believe that game to be scripted, or even pre-arranged, with the say-so of Bill Callahan? The evidence has always been there. Jon Gruden and the Buccaneers knew every audible, and Callahan was, at best, negligent in his duties as the coach on that level alone.
So, when Tim Brown comes out and says Coach Callahan deliberately sabotaged/screwed the Raiders out of a Super Bowl because he actually loved Jon Gruden more than he loved the Raiders (and, in fact, resented and hated the Raiders organization), I give it a bit of credence.
When Jerry Rice backs him up, the red flags go berserk.
JT lays the blame, as many media would, with the quarterback and his five picks.
The problem is, JT openly states that Jon Gruden made Rich Gannon the MVP that year, not Callahan. If so, would Gruden not know EVERYTHING about what Gannon was doing (in fact, JT notes that Gruden actually was the scout team quarterback, playing as Gannon, in Buccaneer practice for the game)? Would it not be incumbent on the game plan, through Callahan, to work on that?
I've talked to a number of people, and one common thread in several discussions I've had is questioning that, since the team was so pass-wacky, why go with a running game? That might be an answer -- people forming the plan might've known that Gruden knew everything about Gannon (and the audibles!), and needed to change things up.
And then, all of a sudden, under 48 hours to go, and the whole plan is scrapped?
And I can understand the pain JT's in over all this. Consider: He was held in such high regard with the Raider organization even then that he got a ring that the team got for the AFC Championship.
And he's very correct: That's a Super Bowl ring he gets if the Raiders win that game.
JT then discusses Barret Robbins, who probably sealed the deal by going AWOL less than 36 hours before kickoff, effectively ending his NFL career instantaneously. I agree with JT that I think Robbins threw it all away, but I do have to wonder, especially if the plan was set and then changed so drastically, that, especially with everyone knowing Robbins was a time bomb, how they could let things go down the way they did, especially with all the pressure on him as game time approached?
If they knew how many problems he had, why do you effectively expose him, and to even more, if Brown's story is to be believed?
JT later admits that Bill Callahan didn't get along with a lot of people, but still claims he wanted that ring.
Bill Callahan is the guy that took a nationally-regarded college program in Nebraska and fouled it up SO BADLY that they STILL haven't recovered. I think he's screwed in the head, frankly.
Sorry, I don't buy it. As much as I respect JT, he's still in the business of making the games appear legit. And, as some interesting discussions have stated in the recent past, the games being businesses mean that the franchises work together more than they compete. (Brian Tuohy has an interesting video in "We Sell Fantasy" to that effect on his site.)
And JT makes a good point: Why now, especially with Brown being a Hall of Fame finalist? (Hell, I'll put it on the record: He probably just screwed himself out of a spot in Canton, at least for this year, because of these comments!!!)
But I've always believed, especially since knowing that the Raider audible signals were not changed for this Super Bowl, that the game was probably rigged against the Raiders.
Rigged is bad enough.
But for the head coach of the Raiders to pre-arrange the result, effectively, by screwing over his own team, for the championship of the league which employs him, that's a whole new level of rigging, even over and above the bullshit the National Football League has purported upon us for the last number of years.
You may know him better as FOX Sports' Radio's "JT The Brick", a man I've been a fan of since I moved to San Francisco when he had a local show there. I love his passion and energy, though I don't agree, obviously, with everything he says.
In fact, there was a time that I believe he had the better part of half the programming on one of the sports radio stations in San Francisco. He'd have a 2 or 3 hour afternoon show, a 4 hour overnight show on SportsFan Radio Network until he got the opportunity with FOX, and then, when it ended, a replay of several hours of the same show before the morning show took the air on that station.
There is no one in the media who is more "Raider Nation" than JT. He's worked for that team a number of times, including currently.
So it's obvious he'd have an opinion on the Tim Brown story about that he believes that the Raider coach at the time, Bill Callahan, sabotaged (and, hence, rigged/threw) Super Bowl XXXVII. JT was working with the team on Super Bowl XXXVII, including doing a three-hour pre-game show on the San Francisco sports-talk station.
So he obviously has an opinion on the matter, and opened his January 22/23 overnight show with that opinion in this monologue, posted to the FOX Sports Radio site.
This is one of the reasons that I question the sanity of most sports fans. You can tell this man is a very torn man. He fucking bleeds Silver and Black, both on his show and in his other work, including that with the Raiders.
He knows Tim Brown. He's met him on numerous occasions. So he's not going to go off and just impeach the guy's words.
And I can understand how he truly believes, in all the work he did with the Raiders, that he saw nothing to indicate the game was being thrown.
The problem is: This is something which would've been kept very quiet, very secretive, etc. We're talking NFL Security levels.
Why?
Look at the firestorm this story has gotten in the two days since it's been made public on more than just satellite radio. Listen to JT's show, which has several links on it underneath the opening monologue podcast.
If he knew anything, he'd probably tell. I know there's a lot of people I could state could be skeptical of that statement -- so much so, in that it would probably be the end of any association he has/had with the Raiders.
That said, I don't think such a thing could be held back unless it was something that basically never got beyond the coach himself.
Do I believe that game was fixed? You bet I do. I believe every Super Bowl since One Yard Short has been fixed, and many before it.
Do I believe that game to be scripted, or even pre-arranged, with the say-so of Bill Callahan? The evidence has always been there. Jon Gruden and the Buccaneers knew every audible, and Callahan was, at best, negligent in his duties as the coach on that level alone.
So, when Tim Brown comes out and says Coach Callahan deliberately sabotaged/screwed the Raiders out of a Super Bowl because he actually loved Jon Gruden more than he loved the Raiders (and, in fact, resented and hated the Raiders organization), I give it a bit of credence.
When Jerry Rice backs him up, the red flags go berserk.
JT lays the blame, as many media would, with the quarterback and his five picks.
The problem is, JT openly states that Jon Gruden made Rich Gannon the MVP that year, not Callahan. If so, would Gruden not know EVERYTHING about what Gannon was doing (in fact, JT notes that Gruden actually was the scout team quarterback, playing as Gannon, in Buccaneer practice for the game)? Would it not be incumbent on the game plan, through Callahan, to work on that?
I've talked to a number of people, and one common thread in several discussions I've had is questioning that, since the team was so pass-wacky, why go with a running game? That might be an answer -- people forming the plan might've known that Gruden knew everything about Gannon (and the audibles!), and needed to change things up.
And then, all of a sudden, under 48 hours to go, and the whole plan is scrapped?
And I can understand the pain JT's in over all this. Consider: He was held in such high regard with the Raider organization even then that he got a ring that the team got for the AFC Championship.
And he's very correct: That's a Super Bowl ring he gets if the Raiders win that game.
JT then discusses Barret Robbins, who probably sealed the deal by going AWOL less than 36 hours before kickoff, effectively ending his NFL career instantaneously. I agree with JT that I think Robbins threw it all away, but I do have to wonder, especially if the plan was set and then changed so drastically, that, especially with everyone knowing Robbins was a time bomb, how they could let things go down the way they did, especially with all the pressure on him as game time approached?
If they knew how many problems he had, why do you effectively expose him, and to even more, if Brown's story is to be believed?
JT later admits that Bill Callahan didn't get along with a lot of people, but still claims he wanted that ring.
Bill Callahan is the guy that took a nationally-regarded college program in Nebraska and fouled it up SO BADLY that they STILL haven't recovered. I think he's screwed in the head, frankly.
Sorry, I don't buy it. As much as I respect JT, he's still in the business of making the games appear legit. And, as some interesting discussions have stated in the recent past, the games being businesses mean that the franchises work together more than they compete. (Brian Tuohy has an interesting video in "We Sell Fantasy" to that effect on his site.)
And JT makes a good point: Why now, especially with Brown being a Hall of Fame finalist? (Hell, I'll put it on the record: He probably just screwed himself out of a spot in Canton, at least for this year, because of these comments!!!)
But I've always believed, especially since knowing that the Raider audible signals were not changed for this Super Bowl, that the game was probably rigged against the Raiders.
Rigged is bad enough.
But for the head coach of the Raiders to pre-arrange the result, effectively, by screwing over his own team, for the championship of the league which employs him, that's a whole new level of rigging, even over and above the bullshit the National Football League has purported upon us for the last number of years.
Tuesday, January 22, 2013
Super Fraud XXXVII: Super Sabotage? Tim Brown Thinks So.
Aaaaaaaaaaaand let the Super Bowl interviews begin...
With a very interesting one, hat-tip to Brian Tuohy on Twitter, Pro Football Today reports that Tim Brown felt that his own head coach, Bill Callahan, not only sabotaged Super Bowl XXXVII from his Raiders to the Buccaneers (and former coach and old friend Jon Gruden), but completely changed the game-plan on Friday so that Barret Robbins could not cope, and that was what set off the bizarre psychological incident that effectively ended his football career.
On satellite radio, Brown reports that the plan was to run the ball with the superior bulk of the Oakland offensive line, but, by Friday, less than 48 hours before the game, somebody (Brown thinks it was Callahan, some think it might've been Al Davis...) changed it to a pass-heavy situation.
This basically concerned Robbins, who, as the center, had to completely change the entire way he called the game and got ready for it. He expressed his concerns for the change to Callahan, was blown off, and effectively disappeared into the night, and we all know the rest of that story.
But Brown goes even further:
You still want to swear your fealty to your uniforms, teams, and colors, knowing these games can literally be compromised at the drop of a hat?
With a very interesting one, hat-tip to Brian Tuohy on Twitter, Pro Football Today reports that Tim Brown felt that his own head coach, Bill Callahan, not only sabotaged Super Bowl XXXVII from his Raiders to the Buccaneers (and former coach and old friend Jon Gruden), but completely changed the game-plan on Friday so that Barret Robbins could not cope, and that was what set off the bizarre psychological incident that effectively ended his football career.
On satellite radio, Brown reports that the plan was to run the ball with the superior bulk of the Oakland offensive line, but, by Friday, less than 48 hours before the game, somebody (Brown thinks it was Callahan, some think it might've been Al Davis...) changed it to a pass-heavy situation.
This basically concerned Robbins, who, as the center, had to completely change the entire way he called the game and got ready for it. He expressed his concerns for the change to Callahan, was blown off, and effectively disappeared into the night, and we all know the rest of that story.
But Brown goes even further:
- It has largely been believed that Callahan never changed the signals for the audibles from the old Gruden setup. Brown claims that, in fact, Callahan hated the Raiders organization, and only went there as a favor to old friend Gruden. Given that Callahan never liked the Raiders (to the point at which Brown claims that, as an assistant, Callhan walked off the field on the team during a couple of games), Brown believes that sabotage, through a strong word with respect to the Super Bowl, well could have happened.
- The team knew they had already lost the game before they even came out of the tunnel.
- That the team knew Robbins was unstable, and that everyone was more angry at Callhan for what he might've done to set that whole situation off.
You still want to swear your fealty to your uniforms, teams, and colors, knowing these games can literally be compromised at the drop of a hat?
Monday, January 21, 2013
Mr. Mickelson, are you trying to tell us something? Are you trying to lose your fanbase??
Phil Mickelson is beginning to sound like a one-percenter piece of shit.
After so many years of being The People's Champion -- the people's answer to The Corporate Whore, Tiger Woods, it sounds as if Phil has turned to the Dark Side.
Phil was speaking after an appearance at an early-season tournament, and basically put his foot in his mouth.
"If you add up all the federal and you look at the disability and the unemployment and the Social Security and the state, my tax rate's 62, 63 percent," he said. "So I've got to make some decisions on what I'm going to do."
OK, Phil... Stop.
If you are seriously paying 62-63% of your income in taxes, there's several problems:
1) I am a believer in a maximum income. You may well be running afoul of that situation.
2) (More likely) Your accountant is either an incompetent yutz or is ripping you off of millions.
But here's the thing:
"There are going to be some drastic changes for me because I happen to be in that zone that has been targeted both federally and by the state and, you know, it doesn't work for me right now," he said. "So I'm going to have to make some changes."
Perhaps either you should simply get your ass off the Tour and give your spot to somebody else (having more money than you will probably ever need), or understand that, if the rich aren't forced to actually pay some semblance of taxes, they won't have their golf tournaments to go to.
Kind of hard to have a PGA Tour with rioting in every major US city due to austerity cuts.
Asshole.
After so many years of being The People's Champion -- the people's answer to The Corporate Whore, Tiger Woods, it sounds as if Phil has turned to the Dark Side.
Phil was speaking after an appearance at an early-season tournament, and basically put his foot in his mouth.
"If you add up all the federal and you look at the disability and the unemployment and the Social Security and the state, my tax rate's 62, 63 percent," he said. "So I've got to make some decisions on what I'm going to do."
OK, Phil... Stop.
If you are seriously paying 62-63% of your income in taxes, there's several problems:
1) I am a believer in a maximum income. You may well be running afoul of that situation.
2) (More likely) Your accountant is either an incompetent yutz or is ripping you off of millions.
But here's the thing:
"There are going to be some drastic changes for me because I happen to be in that zone that has been targeted both federally and by the state and, you know, it doesn't work for me right now," he said. "So I'm going to have to make some changes."
Perhaps either you should simply get your ass off the Tour and give your spot to somebody else (having more money than you will probably ever need), or understand that, if the rich aren't forced to actually pay some semblance of taxes, they won't have their golf tournaments to go to.
Kind of hard to have a PGA Tour with rioting in every major US city due to austerity cuts.
Asshole.
Sunday, January 20, 2013
Watch Today Very Carefully, Especially the NFC Game
Michael Crabtree is under investigation for sexual assault after the 49er win over the Packers.
Watch today very carefully, as a result. The less which goes on to screw the 49ers, the less they have on him.
Watch today very carefully, as a result. The less which goes on to screw the 49ers, the less they have on him.
Friday, January 18, 2013
Te'o Denies Everything to ESPN, But Off Camera
A 2 1/2 hour off-camera interview, done tonight by Jeremy Schapp of ESPN has revealed that Manti Te'o (just how do you spell that first name?) has denied any involvement in the scam, seeming to lay all the blame at the feet of Ronaiah Tuiasosopo.
He does, however, admit to lying to his father about the whole thing, saying to him that the two had met.
It is also claimed in the Schapp interview that the first time Te'o and Tuiasosopo met was only after the regular-season finale win over USC on November 24, 2012.
Deadspin has a photo of Te'o with Ronaiah Tuiasosopo's younger sister (reportedly named Pookah) on it's site.
It is known the two knew each other for quite some time, but it is, as yet, unconfirmed as to how they met or whether the USC meeting was, in fact, the first time the two had met face to face.
He does, however, admit to lying to his father about the whole thing, saying to him that the two had met.
It is also claimed in the Schapp interview that the first time Te'o and Tuiasosopo met was only after the regular-season finale win over USC on November 24, 2012.
Deadspin has a photo of Te'o with Ronaiah Tuiasosopo's younger sister (reportedly named Pookah) on it's site.
It is known the two knew each other for quite some time, but it is, as yet, unconfirmed as to how they met or whether the USC meeting was, in fact, the first time the two had met face to face.
Te'o Time Day 3: Drug Deals? Confessions? Another Notre Dame Cover-Up? What the Hell is Going On Here???
I think Yahoo! said it better than I could this afternoon.
ROUND ONE:
"And we're officially off the rails."
I'll let them explain this one:
"The Honolulu Star-Advertiser posted a story Friday saying Te’o's fictitious girlfriend, Lennay Kekua, called Te’o on Dec. 6 and told he she faked her death to evade drug dealers."
Uhhh, what?
Are we even remotely serious, at this point?
Consider the following: If this is the case, then wouldn't someone, quickfastandinahurry, want some words with Manti Te'o... Now?
Eligibility concerns?
Perhaps concerns for his safety?
Perhaps concerns for the veracity of the BCS National Championship Game which was to be played by him and his team in a month's time?
Perhaps concerns that he may, in fact, be involved with same drug dealers? Criminal situations?
This is the kind of stuff that I have seen in the "darkest corners" theories, in which someone who "knew something on Te'o" could pressure him into throwing the BCSNCG.
ROUND TWO:
Ronaiah Tuiasosopo has been claimed to have confessed the scam to a friend.
We know Ronaiah appears desperate for fifteen seconds of fame. Everything from exploiting the car crash he had (which might've inspired the hoax's car crash) to attempt (and fail) to get on NBC's The Voice to the fact that Ronaiah is probably one of the few male members of his family not to enjoy professional sporting success, this Ronaiah is coming across as a freaking slimeball, as one might expect.
But here's the stupid part... If I'm Notre Dame or a lot of other people right now, I want to know where Ronaiah Tuiasosopo was in the days and (even more recent) weeks leading up to Alabama vs. Notre Dame.
The story that appears to be coalescing around Ronaiah as the "Ronaiah was behind it and successfully duped Te'o for quite some time, but it fell apart about a month before the BCSNCG." camp would lead me to believe that Ronaiah was in possession of information that a lot of people, with a lot of money, and a lot of money on the line, would like to know about, ifyouknowwhatImean.
Would I put it past Ronaiah, at that point, to not only use the information, but also to blackmail his friend into silence about it, with the implication that he needs to throw the BCS National Championship Game (knowing that everything behind Notre Dame's participation in it was a farce in the first place!)?
Hell No!
Ronaiah Tuiasosopo, probably in bad need of money at that point, could definitely have used the cash and influence. (Especially if Te'o played along with the situation, rendering him vulnerable to manipulation, to aid his Heisman chances, the Notre Dame 2012 Story, and his pro draft status!)
ROUND THREE:
And could we be seeing the beginnings of a major unraveling in yet another traditional hotbed of abuse and coverup?
Just on the heels of the Te'o Time fiasco comes this ditty which I have to give a hat-tip to one of my closest friends for alerting me to.
The Huffington Post and Tyler Kingkade report a story about a suicide by Lizzy Seeberg after she was reportedly raped by a current Notre Dame player in late August of 2010 in his room.
The story appears to indicate a similar "Football Over Everything" motif as was exposed at Pedophile... erm... Penn State University.
The responses after she reported the incident to police (she was a student at a nearby college, not Notre Dame itself, and reported the incident in writing to the police) are awfully Penn State-esque...
"Messing with Notre Dame football is a bad idea."
That in mind, she killed herself instead, within two weeks. The rape reportedly took place August 30, 2010. She was dead by September 10.
Not only were no charges filed, but Seeberg's story was discredited by the local prosecutor (*what a shock*) as conflicting to accounts of two other students who were with them that night, as well as the reported perpetrator.
This runs awfully counter to the University which:
Hasn't what happened at Penn State proved none of this is sacred?
I have to sit on a story right now about another football situation because there is very real possibility that the people covering it up are openly threatening everybody from the media to Anonymous to keep the football and thug culture in that locality alive -- with a lot of beef (and maybe some very scary implications) behind it.
I don't like to have to do that, but is nothing short of death itself required to defend some of these sacred cows?
Let's remember the very real possibility that Penn State and Paterno got the district attorney who "disappeared" whacked because he was investigating the Sandusky Scandal a little too closely and not within the parameters of The Most Powerful Man in the State of Pennsylvania.
How about this lady, if Notre Dame is already down the same road to that their football Gods can get away with whatever they want, and any problems be "fixed" along the way?
Maybe it's time we "Mess with Notre Dame Football".
ROUND ONE:
"And we're officially off the rails."
I'll let them explain this one:
"The Honolulu Star-Advertiser posted a story Friday saying Te’o's fictitious girlfriend, Lennay Kekua, called Te’o on Dec. 6 and told he she faked her death to evade drug dealers."
Uhhh, what?
Are we even remotely serious, at this point?
Consider the following: If this is the case, then wouldn't someone, quickfastandinahurry, want some words with Manti Te'o... Now?
Eligibility concerns?
Perhaps concerns for his safety?
Perhaps concerns for the veracity of the BCS National Championship Game which was to be played by him and his team in a month's time?
Perhaps concerns that he may, in fact, be involved with same drug dealers? Criminal situations?
This is the kind of stuff that I have seen in the "darkest corners" theories, in which someone who "knew something on Te'o" could pressure him into throwing the BCSNCG.
ROUND TWO:
Ronaiah Tuiasosopo has been claimed to have confessed the scam to a friend.
We know Ronaiah appears desperate for fifteen seconds of fame. Everything from exploiting the car crash he had (which might've inspired the hoax's car crash) to attempt (and fail) to get on NBC's The Voice to the fact that Ronaiah is probably one of the few male members of his family not to enjoy professional sporting success, this Ronaiah is coming across as a freaking slimeball, as one might expect.
But here's the stupid part... If I'm Notre Dame or a lot of other people right now, I want to know where Ronaiah Tuiasosopo was in the days and (even more recent) weeks leading up to Alabama vs. Notre Dame.
The story that appears to be coalescing around Ronaiah as the "Ronaiah was behind it and successfully duped Te'o for quite some time, but it fell apart about a month before the BCSNCG." camp would lead me to believe that Ronaiah was in possession of information that a lot of people, with a lot of money, and a lot of money on the line, would like to know about, ifyouknowwhatImean.
Would I put it past Ronaiah, at that point, to not only use the information, but also to blackmail his friend into silence about it, with the implication that he needs to throw the BCS National Championship Game (knowing that everything behind Notre Dame's participation in it was a farce in the first place!)?
Hell No!
Ronaiah Tuiasosopo, probably in bad need of money at that point, could definitely have used the cash and influence. (Especially if Te'o played along with the situation, rendering him vulnerable to manipulation, to aid his Heisman chances, the Notre Dame 2012 Story, and his pro draft status!)
ROUND THREE:
And could we be seeing the beginnings of a major unraveling in yet another traditional hotbed of abuse and coverup?
Just on the heels of the Te'o Time fiasco comes this ditty which I have to give a hat-tip to one of my closest friends for alerting me to.
The Huffington Post and Tyler Kingkade report a story about a suicide by Lizzy Seeberg after she was reportedly raped by a current Notre Dame player in late August of 2010 in his room.
The story appears to indicate a similar "Football Over Everything" motif as was exposed at Pedophile... erm... Penn State University.
The responses after she reported the incident to police (she was a student at a nearby college, not Notre Dame itself, and reported the incident in writing to the police) are awfully Penn State-esque...
"Messing with Notre Dame football is a bad idea."
That in mind, she killed herself instead, within two weeks. The rape reportedly took place August 30, 2010. She was dead by September 10.
Not only were no charges filed, but Seeberg's story was discredited by the local prosecutor (*what a shock*) as conflicting to accounts of two other students who were with them that night, as well as the reported perpetrator.
This runs awfully counter to the University which:
- would actually have grounds to discipline/expel the student, even if the sex was consensual, as I reported yesterday (on top of every school's situation to go after rapists, as long as it's convenient for the school to do so!)
- suspended one of their announcers for Notre Dame's 2012 game in Ireland against Navy for even implying that the thug culture which has permeated much of football would probably be welcome at Notre Dame if it brought a few more victories
- would probably be seen as "the next hallowed tradition" to fall once Penn State was defrocked (at least to what degree ESPN allowed that to happen!), and should damned well have been more careful
- actually went to the wall for Te'o as much as they have in the last week publicly, and far more privately.
Hasn't what happened at Penn State proved none of this is sacred?
I have to sit on a story right now about another football situation because there is very real possibility that the people covering it up are openly threatening everybody from the media to Anonymous to keep the football and thug culture in that locality alive -- with a lot of beef (and maybe some very scary implications) behind it.
I don't like to have to do that, but is nothing short of death itself required to defend some of these sacred cows?
Let's remember the very real possibility that Penn State and Paterno got the district attorney who "disappeared" whacked because he was investigating the Sandusky Scandal a little too closely and not within the parameters of The Most Powerful Man in the State of Pennsylvania.
How about this lady, if Notre Dame is already down the same road to that their football Gods can get away with whatever they want, and any problems be "fixed" along the way?
Maybe it's time we "Mess with Notre Dame Football".
Thursday, January 17, 2013
And The Hits Just Keep On Coming: Lance Armstrong Tells Oprah He's a Fraud
Well, if there's one person who MIGHT be happy at this whole Te'o Time stupidity, it's Lance Armstrong, who just undid the rest of his legacy by admitting in an Oprah interview that his entire relevant cycling career was on the juice.
Two quick comments:
1) We are supposed to be shocked... WHY? This is the Tour de Farce... err, France!
We must now conclude this race cannot take place outside of the influence of performance enhancing drugs -- probably the only thing is that the domestiques probably don't get the full dosages.
You are asking people to race several thousand miles across Europe over the course of about three weeks (last year's "race" was 2,173 miles in 23 days).
Does anyone believe, in the day and age of Steroids, that acceptable and marketable athletic performance is possible on that duration without steroids?
Seriously?
Please...
2) And what of the United States Postal Service's role?
Hell, if we really want to get funny: Could this be the straw that finally breaks the back of the financially-strapped Postal Service, where enough rancor against them is gained through the cover-up of all this that the USPS could be in bigger trouble than they are already in?
Two quick comments:
1) We are supposed to be shocked... WHY? This is the Tour de Farce... err, France!
We must now conclude this race cannot take place outside of the influence of performance enhancing drugs -- probably the only thing is that the domestiques probably don't get the full dosages.
You are asking people to race several thousand miles across Europe over the course of about three weeks (last year's "race" was 2,173 miles in 23 days).
Does anyone believe, in the day and age of Steroids, that acceptable and marketable athletic performance is possible on that duration without steroids?
Seriously?
Please...
2) And what of the United States Postal Service's role?
Hell, if we really want to get funny: Could this be the straw that finally breaks the back of the financially-strapped Postal Service, where enough rancor against them is gained through the cover-up of all this that the USPS could be in bigger trouble than they are already in?
One more Te'o Thing To Keep In Mind Tonight...
Manti Te'o may not be answering questions to the media.
He may first have to go before his University.
If, as a football player, he committed such acts of dishonesty as would be implied if he were involved, he would be subject to expulsion from the University, if deemed serious enough.
THEN, you have the real possibility that the University would be forced to declare Te'o retroactively ineligible.
Guess what? At that point, 2012 Notre Dame Football Season Vacated and Nullified.
LATE EDIT: An explanation is probably in order here.
Under the Notre Dame General Standards of Conduct:
"The following actions and behaviors are clearly inconsistent with the University’s expectations for membership in this community. Depending upon the circumstances, violations of these behavioral standards will call into question a student’s continued full participation in the University community:"
Te'o, if he were involved, could be charged with violations of the following two General Standards:
7. Dishonesty, forgery or taking advantage of another.
and
12. Actions which seemingly affect only the individual(s) involved but which may have a
negative or disruptive impact on the University community and/or concern a student’s
personal and academic growth.
And they would apply here, because, under Notre Dame's Applicability of Student Life Policies:
"The University reserves the right to address offcampus misconduct or violations of law. Judgments about these matters will depend on the facts of an individual case. The following factors are among those that will be considered:
Then, if "convicted" and removed from the University (which is one of a number of punishments which could be considered), then the University would have to determine if Te'o revoked his status as a student in good standing at the point of his "conviction", or with the commencement of the actions which brought this about.
If the latter, THAT is where ineligibility comes into play.
And if Te'o is not involved in this and Notre Dame's current story proves true, then none of this is in play at all.
He may first have to go before his University.
If, as a football player, he committed such acts of dishonesty as would be implied if he were involved, he would be subject to expulsion from the University, if deemed serious enough.
THEN, you have the real possibility that the University would be forced to declare Te'o retroactively ineligible.
Guess what? At that point, 2012 Notre Dame Football Season Vacated and Nullified.
LATE EDIT: An explanation is probably in order here.
Under the Notre Dame General Standards of Conduct:
"The following actions and behaviors are clearly inconsistent with the University’s expectations for membership in this community. Depending upon the circumstances, violations of these behavioral standards will call into question a student’s continued full participation in the University community:"
Te'o, if he were involved, could be charged with violations of the following two General Standards:
7. Dishonesty, forgery or taking advantage of another.
and
12. Actions which seemingly affect only the individual(s) involved but which may have a
negative or disruptive impact on the University community and/or concern a student’s
personal and academic growth.
And they would apply here, because, under Notre Dame's Applicability of Student Life Policies:
"The University reserves the right to address offcampus misconduct or violations of law. Judgments about these matters will depend on the facts of an individual case. The following factors are among those that will be considered:
- whether the conduct occurred at an event sponsored by the University
- whether the student involved was acting as a representative of the University
- whether the conduct has a negative impact on the University community or interferes with the pursuit of Notre Dame’s mission
- whether the conduct has a negative impact on the local community."
Then, if "convicted" and removed from the University (which is one of a number of punishments which could be considered), then the University would have to determine if Te'o revoked his status as a student in good standing at the point of his "conviction", or with the commencement of the actions which brought this about.
If the latter, THAT is where ineligibility comes into play.
And if Te'o is not involved in this and Notre Dame's current story proves true, then none of this is in play at all.
This Te'o thing is far larger than anything that I think we know about... yet.
I've had a chance to talk to a number of friends since I posted the article last night.
I do have to be careful -- it is not 100% proven yet that Manti Te'o is actually involved in the scam.
But I think it's clear that people are going to get to the bottom of this, and the potential damage, and the dark possibilities, are almost endless:
1) What if it's Te'o himself, or with individual co-conspirators?
This, frankly, at BEST, decimates his draft stock -- if not blackballs him from the NFL entirely.
It's the "Why?" that comes into play here that determines just what is going on.
Because there's really only three options I can think of that he would do this (stressing for all who read: If he's doing this on his own or with non-affiliated individuals)?
a) He's an attention whore. This, on surface, would make him fit perfectly in the Roger Goodell NFL.
The problem with that is: He could not be trusted, with anything. Not a playbook, a defensive scheme, or anything. It's all got to go through him, and he's especially vulnerable to, as they say in professional wrestling, "go into business for himself".
b) He has a "professional" impropriety. (I'm using these words to parallel with option c).)
In so many words, he was not (NCAA) eligible, for some reason, to play at Notre Dame, and concocted this story to deflect as much of that as he could.
Not particularly likely, but we cannot discount that possibility.
c) He has a "personal" "impropriety".
He went to Notre Dame.
He is a Mormon.
It is said, though I can't find it proven, that certain lifestyles are harshly frowned upon in his Samoan culture.
Though the Internet is often very quick to label anything they don't like to be "gay", that is the predominant belief that seems to be orbiting the Internet is that he and Tuiasosopo are actually involved with each other, and used the fake girlfriend to literally save Te'o's neck.
Consider: He's discovered to be gay, and he's probably not only out of the NFL (one of the most homophobic organizations in the United States), but he almost certainly would be expelled from Notre Dame.
Yes, homosexuality is (implied as) a disciplinary offense at Notre Dame. I'm not kidding.
In fact, any sexual activity outside of marriage is a disciplinary offense at Notre Dame.
"The University embraces the Catholic Church’s teaching that a genuine and complete expression of love through sex requires a commitment to a total living and sharing together of two persons in marriage. Consequently, students who engage in sexual union outside of marriage may be subject to University sanction."
It would not be, then, out of the question to assert cleanly that, if Te'o were involved in any homosexual relationship, he would be kicked out of the University of Notre Dame as soon as the process could allow for it to happen legally.
On top of that, he could be excommunicated from the Mormon Church, of which he is a member.
If he's outed, he loses everything. He's probably left to limp along in the CFL, and may well never see the millions he felt he was destined to.
But there are other options...
2) What if this is some fucking Internet jerk who just hit the jackpot?
It's not out of the question that this is just some independent asshole (and, yes, whoever is responsible for all this is a sick fuck, an asshole, and a jerk who, if not criminally actionable, should at least be taken out back and beat the crap out of...) who started this, was very conniving, and got it done with.
I have extensive experience with trolls who desire death, destruction, and mental suffering of all who are not their like. Would I put it past somebody to basically target a famous athlete and troll the Hell out of them to destroy everything they've worked their lives for?
In a New York Minute I wouldn't put it past these Internet assholes.
In fact, a former Arizona Cardinals fullback, Reagan Mauia, has said he's actually met the (now declared fake) girlfriend of Manti Te'o, while she was alive.
This would almost assert that whomever was responsible for this has at least harassed a second such victim.
This would indicate the scam goes far beyond Notre Dame, and may well actually be someone who has a fetish/hard-on/psychopathology to fuck around with Samoan-heritage American-football players.
Ooooooooooooooo... kee.....................
3) What if this was Notre Dame, independent of any outside media before the outside media actually began latching onto this story during the 2012 season?
We know this went on for quite some time (even before the 2012 season), if we are to believe as publicized within the Notre Dame community.
What if Notre Dame concocted this as not only a function to advance Te'o (they appeared to have quite the shameless campaign to get Te'o the Heisman this year!), but also to help advance the program (felt to be "good" this year) to the BCS National Championship Game?
Consider: Who actually has a voice in determining the BCS National Championship Game, before we factor in any rigging, manipulation, etc.?
1) A USA Today-cultivated poll of 59 FBS coaches. (For the record, the ratio of BCS schools to non-BCS schools is actually pretty close to correct.
2) 115 former players, coaches, administrators, and current and former members of the media who make up the Harris Poll.
3) Six secretive computers using algorithms (which are believed to be manipulate-able).
Consider what such a story might do in a human situation in which 2/3 of the determining factor is human polls...
Just a thought.
4) What if this was someone at, say, ESPN, "creating news"?
We know, now, they do it.
The next question would be "Why?"
If you took a look at this college football season (and some of the chicanery I've already discussed -- even though, as of this writing, the Pittsburgh game video has been taken down (*cough*I wonder why!*cough*)), one has to wonder if the Owners of College Football -- ESPN! -- took one look at this college football season and saw that so much power has concentrated in the Southeastern Conference that someone had to actually be manipulated into the national championship picture just to have a non-SEC team in the national championship picture?
The SEC had six of the top 12 teams in the country, even with Florida's flipping-off of the Sugar Bowl in losing (more like "throwing") the game to Louisville.
You'd have to think this was common knowledge to ESPN, who is in the second-to-last year of a $500,000,000 contract to air (and effectively control) the Bowl Championship Series.
Look at this year's BCS, other than the scripted bringing-about the Championship Game.
NOT ONE COMPELLING MATCHUP.
Not one EVEN REMOTELY compelling matchup. (One of them was a "Directional A&M U" mid-September matchup!)
Closest game was six points, and, keeping track of that game, the result was never really in doubt in that game either. The rest were routs.
So would I not put it past ESPN to try to recoup it's investment by manufacturing, as well as rigging, a barnburner BCS Championship Game matchup (which lasted about five minutes until Jim Ross' Government Mule Syndrome kicked in)?
5) And then there's the REAL dark possibilities...
Most of these are bad enough! Consider a couple of others, somewhat related to some possibilities above:
a) Someone knows something on Te'o, and blackmailed him into throwing the BCS National Championship Game to forestall this announcement (for whatever purpose the "relationship" had) for gambling or result purposes.
b) Someone knows something on Te'o, befriends him, decides to aid and abet all this, but then pulls the rug out from under him (and Notre Dame -- it is now clear that Notre Dame knew about this last week -- which almost certainly means they knew of this over their heads during the BCSNCG and it's preparations), making tons of money in Vegas from the result.
EDIT: I had thought Deadspin had deleted a comment of mine proposing one of these possibilities. They had not. They're just notoriously difficult to find.
Also: Deadspin has six possibilities that at least one blogger is forwarding on this story.
1) He was openly defrauded, not involved, never caught it.
The official story. For now...
2) He was openly defrauded, not involved, caught on to it, but held off until after at least the Heisman voting, figuring the story might help his chances.
At that point, with what can he, still, be trusted?
3) The story was made up by Te'o and Tuisasosopo with the direct intention of winning the Heisman.
This may be true, but the Evidence Against is the most damning against it -- as, if he ever comes clean to Notre Dame at all on the subject, he's not only subject to expulsion from the University, he risks, as I said in the article I posted between the original posting of this article and the edit here, the entire 2012 Notre Dame football season be nullified.
4) The story was made up by Te'o and Tuiasosopo to cover up a gay relationship.
Addressed. Sounds like a prominent proponent of this argument is a Washington, DC morning sports show starring former Redskins star Lavar Arrington.
5) Maui'a's story checks and this is NOT a hoax.
Someone better talk real fast in that case!
6) Deadspin is the hoax here.
In which case, they'd be in one heap of trouble with a lot of people.
I do have to be careful -- it is not 100% proven yet that Manti Te'o is actually involved in the scam.
But I think it's clear that people are going to get to the bottom of this, and the potential damage, and the dark possibilities, are almost endless:
1) What if it's Te'o himself, or with individual co-conspirators?
This, frankly, at BEST, decimates his draft stock -- if not blackballs him from the NFL entirely.
It's the "Why?" that comes into play here that determines just what is going on.
Because there's really only three options I can think of that he would do this (stressing for all who read: If he's doing this on his own or with non-affiliated individuals)?
a) He's an attention whore. This, on surface, would make him fit perfectly in the Roger Goodell NFL.
The problem with that is: He could not be trusted, with anything. Not a playbook, a defensive scheme, or anything. It's all got to go through him, and he's especially vulnerable to, as they say in professional wrestling, "go into business for himself".
b) He has a "professional" impropriety. (I'm using these words to parallel with option c).)
In so many words, he was not (NCAA) eligible, for some reason, to play at Notre Dame, and concocted this story to deflect as much of that as he could.
Not particularly likely, but we cannot discount that possibility.
c) He has a "personal" "impropriety".
He went to Notre Dame.
He is a Mormon.
It is said, though I can't find it proven, that certain lifestyles are harshly frowned upon in his Samoan culture.
Though the Internet is often very quick to label anything they don't like to be "gay", that is the predominant belief that seems to be orbiting the Internet is that he and Tuiasosopo are actually involved with each other, and used the fake girlfriend to literally save Te'o's neck.
Consider: He's discovered to be gay, and he's probably not only out of the NFL (one of the most homophobic organizations in the United States), but he almost certainly would be expelled from Notre Dame.
Yes, homosexuality is (implied as) a disciplinary offense at Notre Dame. I'm not kidding.
In fact, any sexual activity outside of marriage is a disciplinary offense at Notre Dame.
"The University embraces the Catholic Church’s teaching that a genuine and complete expression of love through sex requires a commitment to a total living and sharing together of two persons in marriage. Consequently, students who engage in sexual union outside of marriage may be subject to University sanction."
It would not be, then, out of the question to assert cleanly that, if Te'o were involved in any homosexual relationship, he would be kicked out of the University of Notre Dame as soon as the process could allow for it to happen legally.
On top of that, he could be excommunicated from the Mormon Church, of which he is a member.
If he's outed, he loses everything. He's probably left to limp along in the CFL, and may well never see the millions he felt he was destined to.
But there are other options...
2) What if this is some fucking Internet jerk who just hit the jackpot?
It's not out of the question that this is just some independent asshole (and, yes, whoever is responsible for all this is a sick fuck, an asshole, and a jerk who, if not criminally actionable, should at least be taken out back and beat the crap out of...) who started this, was very conniving, and got it done with.
I have extensive experience with trolls who desire death, destruction, and mental suffering of all who are not their like. Would I put it past somebody to basically target a famous athlete and troll the Hell out of them to destroy everything they've worked their lives for?
In a New York Minute I wouldn't put it past these Internet assholes.
In fact, a former Arizona Cardinals fullback, Reagan Mauia, has said he's actually met the (now declared fake) girlfriend of Manti Te'o, while she was alive.
This would almost assert that whomever was responsible for this has at least harassed a second such victim.
This would indicate the scam goes far beyond Notre Dame, and may well actually be someone who has a fetish/hard-on/psychopathology to fuck around with Samoan-heritage American-football players.
Ooooooooooooooo... kee.....................
3) What if this was Notre Dame, independent of any outside media before the outside media actually began latching onto this story during the 2012 season?
We know this went on for quite some time (even before the 2012 season), if we are to believe as publicized within the Notre Dame community.
What if Notre Dame concocted this as not only a function to advance Te'o (they appeared to have quite the shameless campaign to get Te'o the Heisman this year!), but also to help advance the program (felt to be "good" this year) to the BCS National Championship Game?
Consider: Who actually has a voice in determining the BCS National Championship Game, before we factor in any rigging, manipulation, etc.?
1) A USA Today-cultivated poll of 59 FBS coaches. (For the record, the ratio of BCS schools to non-BCS schools is actually pretty close to correct.
2) 115 former players, coaches, administrators, and current and former members of the media who make up the Harris Poll.
3) Six secretive computers using algorithms (which are believed to be manipulate-able).
Consider what such a story might do in a human situation in which 2/3 of the determining factor is human polls...
Just a thought.
4) What if this was someone at, say, ESPN, "creating news"?
We know, now, they do it.
The next question would be "Why?"
If you took a look at this college football season (and some of the chicanery I've already discussed -- even though, as of this writing, the Pittsburgh game video has been taken down (*cough*I wonder why!*cough*)), one has to wonder if the Owners of College Football -- ESPN! -- took one look at this college football season and saw that so much power has concentrated in the Southeastern Conference that someone had to actually be manipulated into the national championship picture just to have a non-SEC team in the national championship picture?
The SEC had six of the top 12 teams in the country, even with Florida's flipping-off of the Sugar Bowl in losing (more like "throwing") the game to Louisville.
You'd have to think this was common knowledge to ESPN, who is in the second-to-last year of a $500,000,000 contract to air (and effectively control) the Bowl Championship Series.
Look at this year's BCS, other than the scripted bringing-about the Championship Game.
NOT ONE COMPELLING MATCHUP.
Not one EVEN REMOTELY compelling matchup. (One of them was a "Directional A&M U" mid-September matchup!)
Closest game was six points, and, keeping track of that game, the result was never really in doubt in that game either. The rest were routs.
So would I not put it past ESPN to try to recoup it's investment by manufacturing, as well as rigging, a barnburner BCS Championship Game matchup (which lasted about five minutes until Jim Ross' Government Mule Syndrome kicked in)?
5) And then there's the REAL dark possibilities...
Most of these are bad enough! Consider a couple of others, somewhat related to some possibilities above:
a) Someone knows something on Te'o, and blackmailed him into throwing the BCS National Championship Game to forestall this announcement (for whatever purpose the "relationship" had) for gambling or result purposes.
b) Someone knows something on Te'o, befriends him, decides to aid and abet all this, but then pulls the rug out from under him (and Notre Dame -- it is now clear that Notre Dame knew about this last week -- which almost certainly means they knew of this over their heads during the BCSNCG and it's preparations), making tons of money in Vegas from the result.
EDIT: I had thought Deadspin had deleted a comment of mine proposing one of these possibilities. They had not. They're just notoriously difficult to find.
Also: Deadspin has six possibilities that at least one blogger is forwarding on this story.
1) He was openly defrauded, not involved, never caught it.
The official story. For now...
2) He was openly defrauded, not involved, caught on to it, but held off until after at least the Heisman voting, figuring the story might help his chances.
At that point, with what can he, still, be trusted?
3) The story was made up by Te'o and Tuisasosopo with the direct intention of winning the Heisman.
This may be true, but the Evidence Against is the most damning against it -- as, if he ever comes clean to Notre Dame at all on the subject, he's not only subject to expulsion from the University, he risks, as I said in the article I posted between the original posting of this article and the edit here, the entire 2012 Notre Dame football season be nullified.
4) The story was made up by Te'o and Tuiasosopo to cover up a gay relationship.
Addressed. Sounds like a prominent proponent of this argument is a Washington, DC morning sports show starring former Redskins star Lavar Arrington.
5) Maui'a's story checks and this is NOT a hoax.
Someone better talk real fast in that case!
6) Deadspin is the hoax here.
In which case, they'd be in one heap of trouble with a lot of people.
Wednesday, January 16, 2013
DeadSpin Does It Again: Te'o Inspirational Story A Hoax?
Could the whole BCS "Cheer, Cheer For Old Notre Dame" scam be coming down as we speak?
The #1 Trending Story on Twitter right now is an exploding scandal on the part of the sports media, once again brought about by the anti-ESPN site Deadspin:
The entire story about Manti Te'o, the Heisman Trophy finalist from Notre Dame, where it was so inspirational that he played through the death of his girlfriend (shortly (six hours) after learning of the death of his grandmother) has been now shown a hoax.
Basically, as Sports Illustrated would want you to believe, Te'o was on the phone all night with his girlfriend (who had not only been diagnosed with leukemia, but also was in a major car accident). After learning of her death and the death of his grandmother, The Show Must Go On, and he led the Notre Dame defense in a Triumphant and Inspirational Victory three days later against Michigan State...
(A victory which aided Notre Dame into a clearly-fraudulent BCS National Championship Game trip against Alabama, where -- their use having been fulfilled -- they promptly got woodshedded, just like the rest of the country outside the SEC in college football.)
The day of her supposed funeral, Te'o and the Fighting Irish are playing Michigan. He sends the casket, supposedly, white roses, and two interceptions he has in the win over Michigan. (Football more important than your girlfriend's funeral? That should've been tip-off #1!)
Everyone was getting in on the story -- her, a Stanford student, falling in love with the Fighting Irish player after meeting him after the game...
(Are we ready to vomit just yet???)
Well, the grandmother half of that is true.
The girlfriend, basically, never existed. Deadspin did everything from check the Social Security Administration (which is the way they verified the grandmother's death) to calling up Stanford to checking local death records to police records...
The woman appears to have never existed.
The photos, including one CBS posted to go along with the story of how he played against Michigan, appear to be of someone else, who DeadSpin contacted.
Am I to say Te'o is at fault? If so, he's as big a hypocrite as Mitt Romney, for similar reasons!
And it appears he is. He has a verified Twitter account, and is purported to have sent a love Tweet to the girlfriend October 10, 2011 (even though they were purported to have met in 2009!!), they became a Twitter couple, and, then, all Hell broke loose.
Deadspin contacted the woman whose pictures were being used in the middle of all this (she's given a pseudonym in the article), and she told of a classmate of hers, Ronaiah Tuiasosopo. (Yes, for those watching, he is related to a number of NFL players in his family -- he's cousins with Navy (LA Rams), Marques (Oakland), Manu (Seahags), and the late Fred Matua (several teams).)
So how does he enter all this? He's a musician, as well as a lot of other things, and actually was promoted by Te'o after he heard a 2011 single. They are apparently close friends, and saw each other, at the least, on the weekend of the BCS-clinching win by Notre Dame over USC.
Tuiasosopo HAD been in a car accident a month beforehand, about the time this story began to take flight.
----
So why all this fuss?
Several things, really.
The first is that it is another facet that speaks of an increasing scam -- media and corporate-driven -- to promote Notre Dame back to #1 (only to get served like the bitches they really appeared to be, when you saw them on the field, when their use was exhausted!).
Second, it appears to be another scam to put up football as larger than life and death itself.
And we really need to get the Hell over ourselves on that garbage before it actually does kill more people, as in that it will kill people who believe that their lives have been subjugated for The Almighty Touchdown Jesus, Golden Dome, and National Religion of Football.
Yeah, I'm talking to the Seahags fan in San Diego who throws away friendships like they are old receipts.
I'm talking to you, Manti.
Who else am I talking about here, it seems? The whole media? It that important that we have to have a story so that we have even one relevant non-SEC team that we basically have to invent shit now, in the guise of Rocky Balboa?
REALLY??
It's now being believed that one common friend believes Monte and Ronaiah were, with 80% certainty, in on it for the publicity.
Do you have even the remotest idea of how this shit impacts real people?
People outside the scope of football?
Or do you not care, because that's how we "roll" these days?
Obviously, Te'o is trying to focus on the NFL Draft, but I have a feeling he's going to have a lot of questions to answer before his draft stock starts plummeting.
Perhaps some of the questions should also be pointed at Notre Dame, and perhaps the sports media, if not the BCS itself!!
The #1 Trending Story on Twitter right now is an exploding scandal on the part of the sports media, once again brought about by the anti-ESPN site Deadspin:
The entire story about Manti Te'o, the Heisman Trophy finalist from Notre Dame, where it was so inspirational that he played through the death of his girlfriend (shortly (six hours) after learning of the death of his grandmother) has been now shown a hoax.
Basically, as Sports Illustrated would want you to believe, Te'o was on the phone all night with his girlfriend (who had not only been diagnosed with leukemia, but also was in a major car accident). After learning of her death and the death of his grandmother, The Show Must Go On, and he led the Notre Dame defense in a Triumphant and Inspirational Victory three days later against Michigan State...
(A victory which aided Notre Dame into a clearly-fraudulent BCS National Championship Game trip against Alabama, where -- their use having been fulfilled -- they promptly got woodshedded, just like the rest of the country outside the SEC in college football.)
The day of her supposed funeral, Te'o and the Fighting Irish are playing Michigan. He sends the casket, supposedly, white roses, and two interceptions he has in the win over Michigan. (Football more important than your girlfriend's funeral? That should've been tip-off #1!)
Everyone was getting in on the story -- her, a Stanford student, falling in love with the Fighting Irish player after meeting him after the game...
(Are we ready to vomit just yet???)
Well, the grandmother half of that is true.
The girlfriend, basically, never existed. Deadspin did everything from check the Social Security Administration (which is the way they verified the grandmother's death) to calling up Stanford to checking local death records to police records...
The woman appears to have never existed.
The photos, including one CBS posted to go along with the story of how he played against Michigan, appear to be of someone else, who DeadSpin contacted.
Am I to say Te'o is at fault? If so, he's as big a hypocrite as Mitt Romney, for similar reasons!
And it appears he is. He has a verified Twitter account, and is purported to have sent a love Tweet to the girlfriend October 10, 2011 (even though they were purported to have met in 2009!!), they became a Twitter couple, and, then, all Hell broke loose.
Deadspin contacted the woman whose pictures were being used in the middle of all this (she's given a pseudonym in the article), and she told of a classmate of hers, Ronaiah Tuiasosopo. (Yes, for those watching, he is related to a number of NFL players in his family -- he's cousins with Navy (LA Rams), Marques (Oakland), Manu (Seahags), and the late Fred Matua (several teams).)
So how does he enter all this? He's a musician, as well as a lot of other things, and actually was promoted by Te'o after he heard a 2011 single. They are apparently close friends, and saw each other, at the least, on the weekend of the BCS-clinching win by Notre Dame over USC.
Tuiasosopo HAD been in a car accident a month beforehand, about the time this story began to take flight.
----
So why all this fuss?
Several things, really.
The first is that it is another facet that speaks of an increasing scam -- media and corporate-driven -- to promote Notre Dame back to #1 (only to get served like the bitches they really appeared to be, when you saw them on the field, when their use was exhausted!).
Second, it appears to be another scam to put up football as larger than life and death itself.
And we really need to get the Hell over ourselves on that garbage before it actually does kill more people, as in that it will kill people who believe that their lives have been subjugated for The Almighty Touchdown Jesus, Golden Dome, and National Religion of Football.
Yeah, I'm talking to the Seahags fan in San Diego who throws away friendships like they are old receipts.
I'm talking to you, Manti.
Who else am I talking about here, it seems? The whole media? It that important that we have to have a story so that we have even one relevant non-SEC team that we basically have to invent shit now, in the guise of Rocky Balboa?
REALLY??
It's now being believed that one common friend believes Monte and Ronaiah were, with 80% certainty, in on it for the publicity.
Do you have even the remotest idea of how this shit impacts real people?
People outside the scope of football?
Or do you not care, because that's how we "roll" these days?
Obviously, Te'o is trying to focus on the NFL Draft, but I have a feeling he's going to have a lot of questions to answer before his draft stock starts plummeting.
Perhaps some of the questions should also be pointed at Notre Dame, and perhaps the sports media, if not the BCS itself!!
Saturday, January 12, 2013
A comment that I feel I must make here...
In my experiences as a sports conspiracy theorist, days like today, and complete misses on both sides of the ledger like my playoff scenario, are going to be thrust in my face as evidence that the games are legitimate.
I make no mincing of this point: San Francisco, as a specific example, is the best team in the 2012-13 NFC, and it's NOT close. This could well be the coming out party of the Next Great Forty-Niner Dynasty.
The retirement of Ray Lewis might well present the NFL with an opportunity to honor the player which took the game from the supposedly family-friendly confines of previous eras into the urban, inner-city thug era which mirrors most of it's major players today.
But make no mistake: The only real difference between events like this and what I proposed is that I missed what the actual storyline is. I have no real clue as to what it, now, is (though Lewis does present a very real opportunity to "honor" the player which mainstreamed the culture which is now dominant in the NFL over the last 10-15 years or so).
Green Bay is on the way down. There is nothing which can be said to deny it. They do not have the defense to defeat an elite team (and, no, I do not think Houston is an elite team either!). The offense was not as potent this year.
Factually, even with the one win taken from them by the officiating (which would only have changed the venue of the defeat, not it's opponent nor magnitude), 11-5 was probably flattering. San Francisco pummeled them twice, the Giants have their number, I still think the loss at Minnesota was somewhat scripted, the Colts got one for their coach, and well, you know the rest...
Peyton Manning is a wonderful story, but, sans the one year, he still hasn't accomplished that much in the playoffs, and one has to wonder if just getting through the year without his neck getting snapped was the real prize!
So, what now?
I make no mincing of this point: San Francisco, as a specific example, is the best team in the 2012-13 NFC, and it's NOT close. This could well be the coming out party of the Next Great Forty-Niner Dynasty.
The retirement of Ray Lewis might well present the NFL with an opportunity to honor the player which took the game from the supposedly family-friendly confines of previous eras into the urban, inner-city thug era which mirrors most of it's major players today.
But make no mistake: The only real difference between events like this and what I proposed is that I missed what the actual storyline is. I have no real clue as to what it, now, is (though Lewis does present a very real opportunity to "honor" the player which mainstreamed the culture which is now dominant in the NFL over the last 10-15 years or so).
Green Bay is on the way down. There is nothing which can be said to deny it. They do not have the defense to defeat an elite team (and, no, I do not think Houston is an elite team either!). The offense was not as potent this year.
Factually, even with the one win taken from them by the officiating (which would only have changed the venue of the defeat, not it's opponent nor magnitude), 11-5 was probably flattering. San Francisco pummeled them twice, the Giants have their number, I still think the loss at Minnesota was somewhat scripted, the Colts got one for their coach, and well, you know the rest...
Peyton Manning is a wonderful story, but, sans the one year, he still hasn't accomplished that much in the playoffs, and one has to wonder if just getting through the year without his neck getting snapped was the real prize!
So, what now?
- Clear the decks for Seattle, their fandom, and how much people are willing to throw away for a championship?
- Ray Lewis?
- One more for Brady and Belichick?
- Houston finally takes the stage?
- Niner Dynasty III?
- or Atlanta?
And now it's completely up for grabs...
Goodbye Peyton. Goodbye The Call II. Goodbye to basically every storyline the league had going into these playoffs save The 12th Man and Ray Lewis.
Two divisional thoughts...
1) I get real afraid if I'm New England or Houston. This league may actually decide to give Murderer Ray Lewis a going-away present, in at least an AFC title if not a Super Bowl.
2) 118 points in a game and a half. Gee, you think that's a coincidence?
2) 118 points in a game and a half. Gee, you think that's a coincidence?
Thursday, January 10, 2013
Jayson Stark, known Barry Bonds Steroid Apologist, calls for the Waaaaaah-mbulance...
(Hat tip to a historian friend for the title.)
Jason Stark has thrown an Official ESPN Hissy Fit.
What should the Hall of Fame be, Mr. Stark?
Well, let's go through your list and see what the Hall of Fame should NOT be!
In Stark's opinion: "Do we really want to look up, 10 or 20 years from now, and find we've constructed a Hall of Fame that doesn't include:"
• The all-time home-run leader (Barry Bonds)?
Hank Aaron is the all-time home-run leader. Barry Bonds is disqualified on two bases: The use of anabolic steroids and the central point of this article. In the sport of baseball which is to be enshrined in Cooperstown, New York, Barry Bonds hit somewhere in the order of 411 home runs. (It is believed that Barroids began juicing in response to all the attention Mark McGwire gained for the first illegal assault on Roger Maris' record for a single season. That number is according to baseball-reference.com and indicates everything through 1998.)
A steroid-ladened freak which showed up in 1999, in a sport which only in field dimensions was baseball, which was actually something else, hit the other 351.
• The pitcher who won the most Cy Youngs in history (Roger Clemens)?
Roger Clemens won, at maximum, four Cy Youngs -- and probably only three.. Somebody else playing another game won the other three or four. Randy Johnson is the pitcher who won the most Cy Youngs in history, and that's if you believe his wins in 1999-2002 were legitimate. If not, it's a tie between Steve Carlton and almost-certain 2014 Hall of Famer Greg Maddux, with four.
• The man who broke Roger Maris' storied home-run record (Mark McGwire)?
No one has broken Roger Maris' storied home-run record, legally and playing the game of baseball. And, frankly, I doubt anyone ever will. As has been evidenced time and again with spurts of power over the course of years, to even approach 61 home runs in a season requires durability (usually, then, requiring illegal enhancement) and an ability to, by the end of the season, deal with seeing maybe one or two meaningful pitches a game (which see Barroids' walk totals).
• The hitter who had more 60-homer seasons than any player ever (Sammy Sosa)?
There have been only two 60-homer seasons in the history of baseball. No one has done it multiple times.
(Please note a pattern here.)
• The greatest hitting catcher in history (Mike Piazza)?
Piazza is an interesting case. It is widely believed that Piazza was on steroids as a power-hitting catcher. But, of all the cases, he might well have the least against him, at least as far as interviews or anything else.
Today, Craig Biggio spoke out in stating that he truly believed he should've been a first-ballot Hall of Famer, and that only the indirect "asterisk" I spoke about in the last article on this subject denied him -- that he is now assumed, because of the Steroid Era, to be at least under sufficient suspicion that he, too, was using.
(For the record, he is correct -- and that's why, even if he goes in and even if he is completely clean, there are so few players believed to be clean (which is the main reason we're going to get a number of these null classes in the Hall of Fame over the next 10-15 years) that he will have an invisible "asterisk" next to his plaque, rightly or wrongly.)
• One of four hitters with 3,000 hits and 500 home runs (Rafael Palmeiro)?
3,000 was under the juice directly. It is almost certain that Palmerroids juiced (and perjured himself to Congress during it!) for the sole purpose of getting to 3,000 hits. So that's dead too.
• And -- aw, what the heck, might as well throw him in there -- the all-time hit king (Peter Edward Rose)?
Frankly, the ONLY reason Rose should be recognized as The Hit King (if he even is to be recognized as such at all, and his status as "banned from baseball" might force this discussion anyway!) is that, unlike all the other players on this list, his actions came off the field, not having any direct consequence to the record-breaking hit total.
But the fact is that all of the others on the list (perhaps except Piazza, and that's debatable!) should be banned from the game for life to prevent their inclusion in the Hall.
Add Sosa, add all the other roidies.
If that's not satisfactory to you, then maybe Cooperstown needs to close it's doors longer-term. That is, no one gets elected, at all, for 5-10-15 years.
Because there's one central point that a lot of the apologists do not understand.
So many players juiced, and the results were so obvious, the entire game was not "baseball".
This "Roid-Ball", as I will call it to give it a name, was a separate and distinct entity from the traditions and honorability of baseball which Cooperstown attempts to laud and honor.
Stark: "Do we really want a Hall of Fame that basically tries to pretend that none of those men ever played baseball? That none of that happened? Or that none of that should have happened?
Hey, here's a bulletin for you: It happened.
The '90s happened. The first few years of the 21st century happened. I saw it with my very own eyeballs. So did you.
It all happened, on the lush green fields of North America, as crowds roared and cash registers rung. It … all … happened."
Mr. Stark: It may have happened, but it was NOT Baseball, and, hence, has no place in Cooperstown.
It was NOT the sport of Aaron, Ruth, Mays, Gehrig, DiMaggio, etc.
It was NOT the sport of Bench, Schmidt, Brett, Munson, Fernando, etc.
It was NOT baseball.
It was "NOT Sport".
It should not have taken place at all. Under the RICO Act, Major League Baseball itself should've had it's assets seized for across-the-board commission of racketeering.
(And, yes, it would've qualified under both Drug Trafficking, which was rampant in the locker rooms of MLB, making the teams and franchises culpable, because only an idiot would not believe the franchises knew and accepted rampant drug use in the 1990's and 2000's, but also Obstruction of Justice. Two such offenses would qualify parties involved of being prosecuted for Racketeering under the RICO Act.)
What scares me is that I could openly see ESPN open, on their own dime, a "Modern Baseball Hall of Fame" to include all the steroid cheats.
But it's not Cooperstown, you crybabying twit.
And the problem is, now, one has to question including ANYBODY else, under the guise that, even as many are intelligent to draw the line, what if they get one wrong?
Just one...
And in that, when Craig Biggio gets the call, it will have an asterisk, whether or not he ever deserved one.
Jason Stark has thrown an Official ESPN Hissy Fit.
What should the Hall of Fame be, Mr. Stark?
Well, let's go through your list and see what the Hall of Fame should NOT be!
In Stark's opinion: "Do we really want to look up, 10 or 20 years from now, and find we've constructed a Hall of Fame that doesn't include:"
• The all-time home-run leader (Barry Bonds)?
Hank Aaron is the all-time home-run leader. Barry Bonds is disqualified on two bases: The use of anabolic steroids and the central point of this article. In the sport of baseball which is to be enshrined in Cooperstown, New York, Barry Bonds hit somewhere in the order of 411 home runs. (It is believed that Barroids began juicing in response to all the attention Mark McGwire gained for the first illegal assault on Roger Maris' record for a single season. That number is according to baseball-reference.com and indicates everything through 1998.)
A steroid-ladened freak which showed up in 1999, in a sport which only in field dimensions was baseball, which was actually something else, hit the other 351.
• The pitcher who won the most Cy Youngs in history (Roger Clemens)?
Roger Clemens won, at maximum, four Cy Youngs -- and probably only three.. Somebody else playing another game won the other three or four. Randy Johnson is the pitcher who won the most Cy Youngs in history, and that's if you believe his wins in 1999-2002 were legitimate. If not, it's a tie between Steve Carlton and almost-certain 2014 Hall of Famer Greg Maddux, with four.
• The man who broke Roger Maris' storied home-run record (Mark McGwire)?
No one has broken Roger Maris' storied home-run record, legally and playing the game of baseball. And, frankly, I doubt anyone ever will. As has been evidenced time and again with spurts of power over the course of years, to even approach 61 home runs in a season requires durability (usually, then, requiring illegal enhancement) and an ability to, by the end of the season, deal with seeing maybe one or two meaningful pitches a game (which see Barroids' walk totals).
• The hitter who had more 60-homer seasons than any player ever (Sammy Sosa)?
There have been only two 60-homer seasons in the history of baseball. No one has done it multiple times.
(Please note a pattern here.)
• The greatest hitting catcher in history (Mike Piazza)?
Piazza is an interesting case. It is widely believed that Piazza was on steroids as a power-hitting catcher. But, of all the cases, he might well have the least against him, at least as far as interviews or anything else.
Today, Craig Biggio spoke out in stating that he truly believed he should've been a first-ballot Hall of Famer, and that only the indirect "asterisk" I spoke about in the last article on this subject denied him -- that he is now assumed, because of the Steroid Era, to be at least under sufficient suspicion that he, too, was using.
(For the record, he is correct -- and that's why, even if he goes in and even if he is completely clean, there are so few players believed to be clean (which is the main reason we're going to get a number of these null classes in the Hall of Fame over the next 10-15 years) that he will have an invisible "asterisk" next to his plaque, rightly or wrongly.)
• One of four hitters with 3,000 hits and 500 home runs (Rafael Palmeiro)?
3,000 was under the juice directly. It is almost certain that Palmerroids juiced (and perjured himself to Congress during it!) for the sole purpose of getting to 3,000 hits. So that's dead too.
• And -- aw, what the heck, might as well throw him in there -- the all-time hit king (Peter Edward Rose)?
Frankly, the ONLY reason Rose should be recognized as The Hit King (if he even is to be recognized as such at all, and his status as "banned from baseball" might force this discussion anyway!) is that, unlike all the other players on this list, his actions came off the field, not having any direct consequence to the record-breaking hit total.
But the fact is that all of the others on the list (perhaps except Piazza, and that's debatable!) should be banned from the game for life to prevent their inclusion in the Hall.
Add Sosa, add all the other roidies.
If that's not satisfactory to you, then maybe Cooperstown needs to close it's doors longer-term. That is, no one gets elected, at all, for 5-10-15 years.
Because there's one central point that a lot of the apologists do not understand.
So many players juiced, and the results were so obvious, the entire game was not "baseball".
This "Roid-Ball", as I will call it to give it a name, was a separate and distinct entity from the traditions and honorability of baseball which Cooperstown attempts to laud and honor.
Stark: "Do we really want a Hall of Fame that basically tries to pretend that none of those men ever played baseball? That none of that happened? Or that none of that should have happened?
Hey, here's a bulletin for you: It happened.
The '90s happened. The first few years of the 21st century happened. I saw it with my very own eyeballs. So did you.
It all happened, on the lush green fields of North America, as crowds roared and cash registers rung. It … all … happened."
Mr. Stark: It may have happened, but it was NOT Baseball, and, hence, has no place in Cooperstown.
It was NOT the sport of Aaron, Ruth, Mays, Gehrig, DiMaggio, etc.
It was NOT the sport of Bench, Schmidt, Brett, Munson, Fernando, etc.
It was NOT baseball.
It was "NOT Sport".
It should not have taken place at all. Under the RICO Act, Major League Baseball itself should've had it's assets seized for across-the-board commission of racketeering.
(And, yes, it would've qualified under both Drug Trafficking, which was rampant in the locker rooms of MLB, making the teams and franchises culpable, because only an idiot would not believe the franchises knew and accepted rampant drug use in the 1990's and 2000's, but also Obstruction of Justice. Two such offenses would qualify parties involved of being prosecuted for Racketeering under the RICO Act.)
What scares me is that I could openly see ESPN open, on their own dime, a "Modern Baseball Hall of Fame" to include all the steroid cheats.
But it's not Cooperstown, you crybabying twit.
And the problem is, now, one has to question including ANYBODY else, under the guise that, even as many are intelligent to draw the line, what if they get one wrong?
Just one...
And in that, when Craig Biggio gets the call, it will have an asterisk, whether or not he ever deserved one.
Two prominent NFL rigged-storyline quarterbacks may both be at the end of very brief careers, and the ugly truth on Junior Seau is obvious...
This has not been a good week or so to be a quarterback and be one of the Great Hopes the NFL has tried to shove on us the last couple of years.
The guy's not even fit for an NFL roster -- at any position. "Slash" does not work in the NFL either. He's not a full-time running back, wide receiver, tight end, or anything else.
The only thing is I can't say that on the basis of criminal record - the fact is, he sucks and the only reason the 2011-12 Denver Broncos went 9-7 and not 3-13 is because of the fact that the league continually plungered down our throats this concept that the Holy Two-Minute Drill of God would win literally at will, even with games that everyone should've seen coming as scripted!
He's basically a Christian revival in a very secular/sacreligious NFL. He is not of the caliber to be one of the 1500 or so players on NFL rosters these days. That's why he sold the jerseys in Denver last year. That's why the league wanted him in a bigger market this year.
Fact is: He makes too much money and has too much a ministry for the right-wing NFL for either him to stay at the Jets (now) or for someone to pick him up and make the mistake.
But, to respond to this from Jason Cole:
"Now all of this will lead to plenty of sarcastic responses from Tebow critics, including snarky remarks about how Tebow's career is over..."
The only reason that Tim Tebow's NFL career is not OVER -- right now -- is because of his ministry and his right-wing beliefs fitting in with the league office. Someone will try to ram him down our throats again.
And here's the kicker: The NFL is receiving official complaints as to the condition of Fed Ex Field in Washington -- AND the Players' Association thinks coach Mike Shanahan might've circumvented his medical staff and forced RGIII to continue playing in the playoff game against Seattle, leading to him tearing both his ACL and MCL.
A decision on an official complaint on that end is expected from the NFLPA this week. It's not expected to lead to much.
He's looking at possibly 7-12 months to see if he is ready, but he has one benefit: Adrian Peterson tore an ACL late in the 2011 season and almost broke the single-season rushing record in leading the Vikings to the playoffs this year.
--
- Tim Tebow is NOT going to Jacksonville, at least not if the new GM (who promptly fired the head coach two days after he was hired) has anything to say about it. "I can't imagine a scenario where he would be a Jacksonville Jaguar," [David] Caldwell [the new Jaguar GM] said.
The guy's not even fit for an NFL roster -- at any position. "Slash" does not work in the NFL either. He's not a full-time running back, wide receiver, tight end, or anything else.
The only thing is I can't say that on the basis of criminal record - the fact is, he sucks and the only reason the 2011-12 Denver Broncos went 9-7 and not 3-13 is because of the fact that the league continually plungered down our throats this concept that the Holy Two-Minute Drill of God would win literally at will, even with games that everyone should've seen coming as scripted!
He's basically a Christian revival in a very secular/sacreligious NFL. He is not of the caliber to be one of the 1500 or so players on NFL rosters these days. That's why he sold the jerseys in Denver last year. That's why the league wanted him in a bigger market this year.
Fact is: He makes too much money and has too much a ministry for the right-wing NFL for either him to stay at the Jets (now) or for someone to pick him up and make the mistake.
But, to respond to this from Jason Cole:
"Now all of this will lead to plenty of sarcastic responses from Tebow critics, including snarky remarks about how Tebow's career is over..."
The only reason that Tim Tebow's NFL career is not OVER -- right now -- is because of his ministry and his right-wing beliefs fitting in with the league office. Someone will try to ram him down our throats again.
- Robert Griffin III's NFL career may be over after one season. The week after the Redskins were eliminated, Griffin had literally reconstructive knee surgery to repair tears in both his Anterior and Medial Cruciate Ligaments.
And here's the kicker: The NFL is receiving official complaints as to the condition of Fed Ex Field in Washington -- AND the Players' Association thinks coach Mike Shanahan might've circumvented his medical staff and forced RGIII to continue playing in the playoff game against Seattle, leading to him tearing both his ACL and MCL.
A decision on an official complaint on that end is expected from the NFLPA this week. It's not expected to lead to much.
He's looking at possibly 7-12 months to see if he is ready, but he has one benefit: Adrian Peterson tore an ACL late in the 2011 season and almost broke the single-season rushing record in leading the Vikings to the playoffs this year.
--
- And, in a piece of news that should surprise abjectly NO ONE: Junior Seau's testing on his brain revealed significant CTE injuries.
Wednesday, January 9, 2013
Ladies and gentlemen, I submit to you indisputable proof that games can be and are fixed...
(Hat Tip: Brian Tuohy)
2012 Sun Bowl
USC vs. Georgia Tech.
1st quarter of the game, no score.
USC field goal attempt...
This ensues...
The officials, SOMEHOW, have the unmitigated gall to call that field goal good when EVERY CAMERA IN THE STADIUM can show you it wasn't, the announcers knew it was bad, and the coach of Georgia Tech almost wants to throw something at the idiot that called it.
I mean, SERIOUSLY... I know it looks like the Sun Bowl (the one CBS bowl game, by the way) is played in front of about 15 people in El Paso, TX, but, dear for the love of God, at least TRY to make it look legitimate!!
(Catch #48 for USC at about 1:40 of the clip. "The previous play is being reviewed! The ruling on the field is that the kick went inside the upright." #48: "Not a chance...")
The ruling on the field has been reversed, Georgia Tech won 21-7.
---
And that wasn't the only one...
One has to wonder where the referees for the Outback Bowl were for New Year's Eve. It is clear that these officials were clearly intoxicated by the fourth quarter of the contest between South Carolina and Michigan (one of several Hangover Bowls early on January 1 pitting SEC and Big Ten schools).
This fun ensued!!
Michigan, up a point, fakes the punt...
It is demonstrable that, even after the measurement, the line-to-gain was not gained, and yet this referee, having far too much to drink (HA!) on New Year's Eve, calls the first down for Michigan??
Seriously?
You're joking, right?
That thing is so far from the first down that the entire connecting link of the chain itself to the post (which would be a first down) is clearly visible (1:14) that it's NOWHERE CLOSE.
Well, let's just say that there can be some karmic justice on the football field...
Except for the fact that Clowney did another of those helmet-under-the-head jobs, but if the refs can't see a first down or a field goal, a helmet-to-helmet hit is far too complicated for these jokers.
South Carolina won the game 33-28.
2012 Sun Bowl
USC vs. Georgia Tech.
1st quarter of the game, no score.
USC field goal attempt...
This ensues...
The officials, SOMEHOW, have the unmitigated gall to call that field goal good when EVERY CAMERA IN THE STADIUM can show you it wasn't, the announcers knew it was bad, and the coach of Georgia Tech almost wants to throw something at the idiot that called it.
I mean, SERIOUSLY... I know it looks like the Sun Bowl (the one CBS bowl game, by the way) is played in front of about 15 people in El Paso, TX, but, dear for the love of God, at least TRY to make it look legitimate!!
(Catch #48 for USC at about 1:40 of the clip. "The previous play is being reviewed! The ruling on the field is that the kick went inside the upright." #48: "Not a chance...")
The ruling on the field has been reversed, Georgia Tech won 21-7.
---
And that wasn't the only one...
One has to wonder where the referees for the Outback Bowl were for New Year's Eve. It is clear that these officials were clearly intoxicated by the fourth quarter of the contest between South Carolina and Michigan (one of several Hangover Bowls early on January 1 pitting SEC and Big Ten schools).
This fun ensued!!
Michigan, up a point, fakes the punt...
It is demonstrable that, even after the measurement, the line-to-gain was not gained, and yet this referee, having far too much to drink (HA!) on New Year's Eve, calls the first down for Michigan??
Seriously?
You're joking, right?
That thing is so far from the first down that the entire connecting link of the chain itself to the post (which would be a first down) is clearly visible (1:14) that it's NOWHERE CLOSE.
Well, let's just say that there can be some karmic justice on the football field...
Except for the fact that Clowney did another of those helmet-under-the-head jobs, but if the refs can't see a first down or a field goal, a helmet-to-helmet hit is far too complicated for these jokers.
South Carolina won the game 33-28.
The Hall Slams The Doors
Don't wait up for a 2013 Baseball Hall of Fame induction ceremony.
They might as well not even technically hold one, except for the families of three deceased Veterans' Committee inductees.
No living person, for the first time since 1966 (the last time the writers' ballot went empty, before today, was 1996 -- but Earl Weaver was inducted by the Veterans' Committee that year), was elected by either the writers' or Veterans' Committee ballots.
The Hall of Fame elected no one today. The writers repudiated the careers of known steroid cheats Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens (both of whom got under 40% of the vote, well short of the 75% needed for induction), and probably stopped Craig Biggio (#1 vote getter in his first year of eligibility -- 68.2%) from getting in on the first ballot.
Some thoughts:
1) None of the Steroid Era Cheats are getting in. This pretty much should slam the door on all of them. This means up to and including Alex Roidriguez.
2) It's beginning to look VERY VERY LEAN in the years to come, as the Steroid Era is going to have to flush through the process. It is quite possible that, on two hands, we could probably name all of the living players to get into the Hall in the next 10 or so years. Biggio probably is getting in eventually. Maddux and Glavine, Ken Griffey Jr., Ichiro, and maybe Jack Morris or Frank Thomas or the like. That's about it. There are going to be a lot of null induction classes going forward.
3) Baseball has to step in, and not how the enablers at ESPN would like. The entire Steroid Era has to be wiped from the books as much as humanly possible. The Commissioner needs to ban Barry Bonds and all known steroid cheats from the game and Hall of Fame, wipe out their records and statistics, and nullify every Championship from 1995 to about 2007 or so, depending upon when it can be accepted that steroids finally did not permeate the game to the point of absolute contamination.
Baseball was contaminated beyond all repair for the better part of at least a dozen years, and that depends on how many years BEFORE the 1994 strike end up that contaminated. You now have, at best, a wounded game with a "dead-bat" era (is it any conceivable wonder that, in the three years where it is believed (and only believed) that steroids have been cleaned, we have had 16 no-hitters and, last year alone, for the first time, three perfect games.).
(There have, in fact, been only 23 perfect games in the history of baseball in the US at the top level. FIVE have occurred in the last three years, and the first two times in the history of the game, in 2010 and 2012, that multiple perfect games have been thrown in the same year.)
But you have a wounded game with a Balkanized fanbase (ever watch the World Series numbers, people?) where one has to question everything coming out of the Office of the Commissioner.
Is it any wonder that the only real relevance Baseball has is the carrying of tradition and the fact that the season does a very nice job of bridging one football season to the next?
4) Two major questions, basically, remain.
a) How do you answer questions like the one posed in today's ESPN Apologist Chat on the situation from a commenter named "Tim":
And that's a very good question. It deserves the fullest of answers.
I) The games don't count anymore. All of the championships and standings of the Steroid Era are nullified. The more which comes out about the Steroid Era, between "speed" and steroids, the more that Canseco's claim of 4/5 of all the players being dirty actually sounds low.
II) If anyone's stats count from the Steroid Era, then they cannot have any suspicion of use. Period. This is why there are about six living players I see getting in (unless I forgot somebody, and I'm sure I will have) in the next 10-12 years or so. USA Today has said today is the eighth time in the history of the ballot that no player got in. In the next 12 years, I see that number doubling.
But the fact is that so few players are probably clean (Biggio is believed to be, then you get the two Atlanta pitchers, Thomas, etc.) that the entire era is forever contaminated. Even the clean players will, effectively, have asterisks next to their plaques.
III) Remove the memorabilia. The games never, functionally, took place. We must leave a ~15 year gap in the history of the game for deterrence of future generations to even think of contaminating the game to this level (or, probably, given enhancements, far worse, if that can be conceived!!).
IV) There must, once and for all, be a criminal investigation against Bud Selig. At minimum for obstruction of justice, if not far more. Even if he is never jailed due to his age, he must be repudiated as the Commissioner of a flawed sport.
This is the result of 15 years of rigged games. Perhaps not rigged directly for result with respect to a scripted end, but rigged nonetheless (and almost certainly with the full blessing of MLB) to "bring the game back" after the 1994 strike.
Selig must be held culpable to these acts.
b) The second question which must be answered is one that a lot of people have skirted around:
Has there been a cheat already put into the Hall, and, if so, what is to be done?
I think part of the justification that these ESPN Bonds-heads are saying as to put Bonds in the Hall is that, as a couple stated in the chat, there is a steroid cheat already in the Hall -- we just don't know who it is yet.
I, frankly, think, that might be the straw which breaks the camel's back, and the Hall puts in policies to remove players. That could become a very interesting discussion vis-a-vis even some very old inductees.
As it is, I think Biggio waits two years: Next year is Maddux, Glavine, and Frank Thomas. The two pitchers almost certainly get in first-ballot, Thomas might have to wait, because I would not be certain that there won't be voters who won't try to nullify Thomas' achievements through anabolic steroids -- though the only stuff he probably took was anabolic cheeseburgers... (What am I saying? One historian friend of mine said it best: "He's from Chicago. Deep-dish pizzas!!").
The problem is, since no person even got 70% of the vote, you could easily see Biggio snowed under by the two pitchers and possibly Frank Thomas next year, and Biggio might not get in at all -- or have to wait the better part of a decade to do it.
But there is one final scary thing which must be admitted.
Anyone who gets into the Hall who substantively played in the Steroid Era (~1995-~2009, give or take) is going to have an asterisk on their plaque, whether that asterisk is visible, and whether or not the player is actually clean.
This is unavoidable.
They might as well not even technically hold one, except for the families of three deceased Veterans' Committee inductees.
No living person, for the first time since 1966 (the last time the writers' ballot went empty, before today, was 1996 -- but Earl Weaver was inducted by the Veterans' Committee that year), was elected by either the writers' or Veterans' Committee ballots.
The Hall of Fame elected no one today. The writers repudiated the careers of known steroid cheats Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens (both of whom got under 40% of the vote, well short of the 75% needed for induction), and probably stopped Craig Biggio (#1 vote getter in his first year of eligibility -- 68.2%) from getting in on the first ballot.
Some thoughts:
1) None of the Steroid Era Cheats are getting in. This pretty much should slam the door on all of them. This means up to and including Alex Roidriguez.
2) It's beginning to look VERY VERY LEAN in the years to come, as the Steroid Era is going to have to flush through the process. It is quite possible that, on two hands, we could probably name all of the living players to get into the Hall in the next 10 or so years. Biggio probably is getting in eventually. Maddux and Glavine, Ken Griffey Jr., Ichiro, and maybe Jack Morris or Frank Thomas or the like. That's about it. There are going to be a lot of null induction classes going forward.
3) Baseball has to step in, and not how the enablers at ESPN would like. The entire Steroid Era has to be wiped from the books as much as humanly possible. The Commissioner needs to ban Barry Bonds and all known steroid cheats from the game and Hall of Fame, wipe out their records and statistics, and nullify every Championship from 1995 to about 2007 or so, depending upon when it can be accepted that steroids finally did not permeate the game to the point of absolute contamination.
Baseball was contaminated beyond all repair for the better part of at least a dozen years, and that depends on how many years BEFORE the 1994 strike end up that contaminated. You now have, at best, a wounded game with a "dead-bat" era (is it any conceivable wonder that, in the three years where it is believed (and only believed) that steroids have been cleaned, we have had 16 no-hitters and, last year alone, for the first time, three perfect games.).
(There have, in fact, been only 23 perfect games in the history of baseball in the US at the top level. FIVE have occurred in the last three years, and the first two times in the history of the game, in 2010 and 2012, that multiple perfect games have been thrown in the same year.)
But you have a wounded game with a Balkanized fanbase (ever watch the World Series numbers, people?) where one has to question everything coming out of the Office of the Commissioner.
Is it any wonder that the only real relevance Baseball has is the carrying of tradition and the fact that the season does a very nice job of bridging one football season to the next?
4) Two major questions, basically, remain.
a) How do you answer questions like the one posed in today's ESPN Apologist Chat on the situation from a commenter named "Tim":
"The thing i don't understand is, the games
counted. The stats count. Other memorabilia from these players sits in
the Hall. How can I go to the museum one day and tell my kid that these
players aren't part of it?"
And that's a very good question. It deserves the fullest of answers.
I) The games don't count anymore. All of the championships and standings of the Steroid Era are nullified. The more which comes out about the Steroid Era, between "speed" and steroids, the more that Canseco's claim of 4/5 of all the players being dirty actually sounds low.
II) If anyone's stats count from the Steroid Era, then they cannot have any suspicion of use. Period. This is why there are about six living players I see getting in (unless I forgot somebody, and I'm sure I will have) in the next 10-12 years or so. USA Today has said today is the eighth time in the history of the ballot that no player got in. In the next 12 years, I see that number doubling.
But the fact is that so few players are probably clean (Biggio is believed to be, then you get the two Atlanta pitchers, Thomas, etc.) that the entire era is forever contaminated. Even the clean players will, effectively, have asterisks next to their plaques.
III) Remove the memorabilia. The games never, functionally, took place. We must leave a ~15 year gap in the history of the game for deterrence of future generations to even think of contaminating the game to this level (or, probably, given enhancements, far worse, if that can be conceived!!).
IV) There must, once and for all, be a criminal investigation against Bud Selig. At minimum for obstruction of justice, if not far more. Even if he is never jailed due to his age, he must be repudiated as the Commissioner of a flawed sport.
This is the result of 15 years of rigged games. Perhaps not rigged directly for result with respect to a scripted end, but rigged nonetheless (and almost certainly with the full blessing of MLB) to "bring the game back" after the 1994 strike.
Selig must be held culpable to these acts.
b) The second question which must be answered is one that a lot of people have skirted around:
Has there been a cheat already put into the Hall, and, if so, what is to be done?
I think part of the justification that these ESPN Bonds-heads are saying as to put Bonds in the Hall is that, as a couple stated in the chat, there is a steroid cheat already in the Hall -- we just don't know who it is yet.
I, frankly, think, that might be the straw which breaks the camel's back, and the Hall puts in policies to remove players. That could become a very interesting discussion vis-a-vis even some very old inductees.
As it is, I think Biggio waits two years: Next year is Maddux, Glavine, and Frank Thomas. The two pitchers almost certainly get in first-ballot, Thomas might have to wait, because I would not be certain that there won't be voters who won't try to nullify Thomas' achievements through anabolic steroids -- though the only stuff he probably took was anabolic cheeseburgers... (What am I saying? One historian friend of mine said it best: "He's from Chicago. Deep-dish pizzas!!").
The problem is, since no person even got 70% of the vote, you could easily see Biggio snowed under by the two pitchers and possibly Frank Thomas next year, and Biggio might not get in at all -- or have to wait the better part of a decade to do it.
But there is one final scary thing which must be admitted.
Anyone who gets into the Hall who substantively played in the Steroid Era (~1995-~2009, give or take) is going to have an asterisk on their plaque, whether that asterisk is visible, and whether or not the player is actually clean.
This is unavoidable.
Tuesday, January 8, 2013
Updates: Final NFL Fine Blotter, Rob Parker Fired, and my take on a legitimate decision last night.
First off, the Week 17 NFL Fine Blotter:
Not much that final week, according to the NFL:
Or, better, that's _a_ fine!
No joke. There was so much fighting between Raider Fan and Charger Fan that the entirety of an upper-deck section was cleared by the police.
$60,375 for 7 players, including the season's final multiple offender.
The final regular-season fine take for the league:
THREE MILLION, ONE HUNDRED TWENTY-THREE THOUSAND, SIX HUNDRED TWENTY-FIVE DOLLARS.
That $3,123,625 translates to nearly $200,000 a week.
More on this in another post.
--
Today, the news came down from Bristol that, to the surprise of no one, except disgust as to how long it took ESPN to wake up, Rob Parker's suspension from the network is now permanent.
He was fired today.
Technically, his contract was up during the suspension, and they refused to renew it.
--
And how'd everybody like that manipulated BCS Championship last night?
Any doubt left that Notre Dame didn't belong in the same state as the title game??
42-14 was FLATTERING to Notre Dame. They got things done to them which were very unpleasant.
That's 7 in a row and 8 of the last 9 recognized champions for the SEC, 3 of the last 4 to Alabama.
They're either going to have to rig the last BCS final (next year in Pasadena -- the four-team playoff starts in 2014-15) to exclude the SEC outright, or the SEC is rolling here too. I fully expect Johnny Football to have another Heisman and a title before he turns pro.
Not much that final week, according to the NFL:
- San Francisco 49ers committed three fine-able offenses for two fines, both for the same thing: Michael Crabtree and Frank Gore decided to throw memorabilia, in the form of the balls they had just scored touchdowns with, into the crowd. Crabtree actually did this twice. Both were fined the mandatory $10,500. (Crabtree's fine was not, erroneously, doubled.)
Or, better, that's _a_ fine!
- Washington Redskins: Sav Rocca, fined $7,875 for tackling a Dallas Cowboy punt returner by the face mask!
- Green Bay Packers: Tramon Williams: $7,875 for an unnecessary headshot in the Viking-Packer second meeting of three. This makes Williams' a TWO-TIME LOSER in the last five weeks of the season!
- Cleveland Browns: Phil Taylor: $7,875 for some shenanigans away from the play against a Pittsburgh Steeler.
- Oakland Raiders: Takeo Spikes: $7,875 for some pleasantries with
- San Diego Chargers: Mike Goodson: $7,875.
No joke. There was so much fighting between Raider Fan and Charger Fan that the entirety of an upper-deck section was cleared by the police.
$60,375 for 7 players, including the season's final multiple offender.
The final regular-season fine take for the league:
THREE MILLION, ONE HUNDRED TWENTY-THREE THOUSAND, SIX HUNDRED TWENTY-FIVE DOLLARS.
That $3,123,625 translates to nearly $200,000 a week.
More on this in another post.
--
Today, the news came down from Bristol that, to the surprise of no one, except disgust as to how long it took ESPN to wake up, Rob Parker's suspension from the network is now permanent.
He was fired today.
Technically, his contract was up during the suspension, and they refused to renew it.
--
And how'd everybody like that manipulated BCS Championship last night?
Any doubt left that Notre Dame didn't belong in the same state as the title game??
42-14 was FLATTERING to Notre Dame. They got things done to them which were very unpleasant.
That's 7 in a row and 8 of the last 9 recognized champions for the SEC, 3 of the last 4 to Alabama.
They're either going to have to rig the last BCS final (next year in Pasadena -- the four-team playoff starts in 2014-15) to exclude the SEC outright, or the SEC is rolling here too. I fully expect Johnny Football to have another Heisman and a title before he turns pro.
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