- From the "Flem File" on ESPN.com... A headline which made for an obvious click for someone like myself: "Otherworldly damage to the helmet of a Browns rookie lineman tells real NFL story"
If the OUTSIDE of the helmet is that damaged, what's to make of the head which was INSIDE it?
From David Fleming, who says it better than I can:
"All in all, I counted 15 different marks of every shape, size, depth and direction, including: a horizontal tear on the gray facemask; a thick, weird smudge near the right temple; two long tire skid marks that dead end into a deep tear of the brown stripe decal that runs down the center of the helmet; a cavernous divot of plastic near the Browns nameplate; a shooting-star gash above the right eye that looked like the work of an expressionist painter; and on and on and on. And when you begin to think about the shear amount of force, torque and close-quarter violence needed to carve such a strange script into such a strong material, McDaniel's helmet becomes almost mesmerizing, like an orange crystal ball.
Ultimately, though, it was those other-worldly Freddy Krueger-like claw marks down the right front side of the helmet -- the ones that reminded me of the equipment guy in Green Bay, who said that after good games Clay Matthews' helmet looks like it had been attacked by a rabid pack of bobcats -- that spurred me to track down McDaniel. Turns out, the guy with a 2013 criminology degree from FSU was just as fascinated as I was by the football forensics left behind on his helmet. Really, that's why he tweeted out a picture of his helmet. It tells a story. His story."
Took two plays for a helmeted collision with an opposing guard.
Later in the first drive, another facemask-to-facemask shot.
The hits are so violent, the screws on opposing helmets gouge into each other's helmets.
But some of the best evidence the game needs to be shut down comes from McDaniel's own mouth:
""Naw man, I don't worry about my brain," McDaniel insists. "That helmet shows I went out there and did my job. That's all. When I posted the picture, a bunch of people from back home [in Madison, Florida] said, 'Hey, that's exactly what your helmet used to look like in high school.'""
McDaniels was returned to Cleveland's practice squad after the 24-6 loss.
- The report on academic fraud at the University of North Carolina is so damning that it's not just the football program or basketball program which might have to be shuttered, but try the entire damn university.
Eighteen years of fraudulent classes in the African-American Studies Department (1992-2009).
Over three thousand students involved -- prominently, though not completely, from the football and men's basketball programs.
The semester after the fraud who was running the A-A Studies Department retired, the average GPA of the football team was barely eligible at 2.12, and a decade-long low.
When Roy Williams became men's basketball coach, he actively, seeing what was going on, tried to get his academic people to get his players out of that major, according to the USA Today report.
The NCAA has reserved comment.
Man, from Penn State, to Florida State, to North Carolina. Where next? College sports (especially football) are a complete joke.
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