And please tell me no one saw this coming on the missing Ohio State player...

Sounds like we have another probable concussion-related blood sacrifice to the altar of football.

Kosta Karageorge was found dead in a dumpster this morning, near Ohio State University, self-inflicted gunshot to the head.

Went missing on Wednesday when he didn't show up for practice.  Name and picture was put up on the screen Saturday for Senior Day.  He was a walk-on senior who did three years on the Ohio State wrestling team.

Most ominous was that his mother had reported he had suffered concussions and spells of confusion.

His mother also reported that, on Wednesday, Kosta sent her a message apologizing for being an embarrassment and that the concussions were screwing things up badly.

He was 22.

For the fourth week in a row, a Jameis Winston incident...

However, this time, he is the VICTIM of the incident, not the perpetrator.

Playing rival Florida...

Florida reserve freshman lineman Gerald Willis headbutts Winston on the sideline. He's not officially in the play.

Contrary to the video, Willis, though flagged, was NOT ejected from the game -- at least not by the officials.  (Even though one look at the replay indicates that most certainly fell under the NCAA's targeting ejection criteria!)

The Florida coaches, who've had all they can stand of Willis, sent him to the locker room.

Problem is:  Willis is coming back next year -- Florida is getting a new coaching staff.

EDIT:  In fact, outgoing Florida coach Will Muschamp would've thrown Willis off the team then and there.

Turkeys of the Week: Fine Blotter Week 12

Couple more from Week 11:

• Green Bay Packers:  JC Tretter, $16,537 for a leg whip.
• And another one we're seeing almost every week this year:  Buffalo Bills:  Jerry Hughes, $22,050 for abuse of the referee, other than physical.
• Carolina Panthers:  Add Josh Norman for the fight, $8,268
• New England Patriots:  Rob Gronkowski, $8,268 for unsportsmanlike conduct.

Now to Week 12's start.  All these (and the ones above) courtesy of Spotrac:

• Detroit Lions:  Dominic Raiola:  $10,000 for a late hit.
• Baltimore Ravens:  Lardarius Webb:  $16,537 for a horse-collar tackle.
• Minnesota Vikings:  Linval Joseph:  $20,000 for roughing the passer.  TWO-TIME LOSER, same offense, in four weeks.  By league rules, that should be $33,075, if not more!
• Detroit Lions:  CJ Mosely:  $22,050 for the defenseless player rule.  That's a TWO-TIME LOSER for the league, and a THIRD with a one-game team suspension for when he got sent home from London for marijuana!

Reprehensible, But It Was Double Jeopardy

Ray Rice is back in the NFL.

He won his appeal, and can return immediately.

Now, how long before the rest of the Personal Conduct Policy (off- and on-field) is reversed?

Score Update Week 12

All the byes are now over.  All teams have played 11 games.  176 total games.  A 4th neutral game this year because of the snow (BUF-NYJ in Detroit).

• Per-game average for the week normalized most of the way:  45.533
• 11-week per-game average is still down from last year, though:  45.858
• Ten of the fifteen games were competitive into the fourth quarter.
• Three (Oakland's first win over Kansas City, Cleveland beating Atlanta and Dallas besting the Giants) were decided in the last two minutes of the game, more than the three previous weeks combined!  That's now 31 out of 176 for that regard, 17.61%
• A full six of the other games were decided by 8 or less, and one more game which didn't was within that margin during the week.
• Games within a score at some point in the 4th quarter are at 64.77%, down from 68% last year.
• Games within a score at the end of a game are at 46.11%, edging up to the 48% from last year.  Having nine out of fifteen this week helped.
• Over was 7-8 on the week, 87-86-1 with one mixed for the year.
• Home teams were 9-5 for the week, 106-65-1 for the year.
• Home teams were called for more penalties in 5 of the 14 home games.  76/152 for the year.
• Penalties shot up this week (202 in 15 games this week, 148 in 14 last week.)   That's about three more per game.
• Team with more penalties was 8-5-2 this week.  81-82-12 for the year.  There appears to be effectively no difference who commits more penalties.
• PoE:  Team with more Points of Emphasis calls for passing situations was 6-6-3 this week. 59-69-57 this year.
• This included New England.  The winning teams last week combined for five Points of Emphasis accepted penalties.  New England had five ALONE in their win over Detroit.

Peter King: DON'T FUCKING GO THERE

Deadspin and my contributor tag-teamed on this one:

This is the biggest indictment of all: The Jets' special teams are worse than the offense.
— Peter King (@SI_PeterKing) November 25, 2014

I just reported Peter King to Twitter for that noise. He HAS since apologized, but OH MY GOD...

Curt Schilling, Do You REALLY Believe In Evolution, Or Is Your Family Trying To Start Some Shit?

Especially after Curt Schilling's missive about the Missouri grand jury, I have to start really wondering if something is up here...

According to Deadspin:  Saturday morning (the day this is being posted), Schilling's son basically tells his dad that he left a fake, toy grenade in his bag.

Well, the TSA wanted words on that one.  And, maybe it's just a kid being a kid and not keeping it in mind.

But you're 12, kid.  You were born after Sept. 11th.  You have to know how STUPID that is.

WOW.

Someone has got to stop Jameis Winston... NOW.

Blatant ejection foul for openly wrestling an official at the line of scrimmage here, and completely ignored by just about everybody?

The ACC, whose video I'm using here, has at least termed it a "collision"...

BULL FUCKING SHIT!



And that's from the ACC YouTube account.  That's not getting removed any time soon.

He literally throws the referee off the ball so he can speed up play.

That's 15, a toss, and a suspension.

That's NOT A FUCKING COLLISION!  That is referee abuse.  And, in fact, in the state of Florida, that's another criminal offense that Jameis Winston just got away with -- on national television!!!

Fine Blotter Week 11

• Seattle Seahawks:  Marshawn Lynch has had his $50,000 fine from last year reinstated and another $50,000 on top of it for continuing to refuse to talk to the media to a level the NFL finds acceptable.

Psst, Marshawn...

Perhaps this might come as a surprise to you, with not only your issues with the league, but with the Seahawks as well...

As long as you are in the NFL, they own you.  They can tell you what to wear, where to go, what to say...

The NFL owns your sorry ass, Marshawn.  Any analogues I could give would be completely unacceptable (think slavery), so we'll leave it at that.

In the dirty-hit department, according, again, to Spotrac:

$10,000:

• Seattle Seahawks:  Ricardo Lockette, striking/kicking/kneeing.

And four $8,268 fines for the big brawl between Atlanta and Carolina:

• Roman Harper of Carolina
• Devin Hester, Roddy White, and Harry Douglas of Atlanta

No, THIS might take the cake, but not at the Worldwide Leader

Meet grocery chain Food Lion...

Now meet several teams' pissed off fans after their latest campaign:  A Super Bowl sweepstakes.

Sounds good, right?

Imagine this:

They took the better part of half a dozen teams in their areas and said their teams would not go to the Super Bowl, but one fan could!!

That might make sense for Washington.

Someone needs to explain the NFC South for Atlanta and New Orleans.

San Francisco??  Oh boy.

Dallas???!??!??  Only if you believe the memes.

Oy.  OY.  OY!!!

This may take the cake for the stupidity of the WorldWide Leader...

(Deadspin and my anonymous friend get hat-tips on this one.)

We've got another ESPN suspension, sort of.

And the details of this one, relayed in this Deadspin report, indicate this could get quite stupid.

Keith Law is (about to be fired from) an ESPN baseball analyst.

The reason I put the parenthetical in is because of the fact that he has been banned from using his ESPN Twitter account.

Deadspin basically reports that it was for defending evolution, which ESPN has now denied.

My guess is that he probably got the old "TO Baby" from Dick Vitale's employer for daring to go up against Republican gamer-idiot Curt Schilling.

It basically started with this exchange:

@gehrig38 @zoowithroy There are hundreds of transitional fossils on record, Curt. http://t.co/cmTiqzhtC5
— keithlaw (@keithlaw) November 13, 2014

So Mr. Gehrig38 -- Curt Schilling -- got exactly what he wanted.

Well, he's a Republican and a shyster (but I repeat myself...), so that wasn't good enough...

Seriously, if someone says evolution is wrong because there aren't fossils between monkeys and men, find a monkey and hit him with it.
— keithlaw (@keithlaw) November 13, 2014

That might be a bit closer to his suspension, though, frankly, a good whock up side the head might well be necessary here.

@gehrig38 @zoowithroy Yes. It's a strong, well-sourced article. Feel free to send refutations of those transitional fossils.
— keithlaw (@keithlaw) November 13, 2014

But it's THIS (unrelated but Deadspin included it) Curt Schilling pipebomb that has me wondering what he really wants to see happen in the next few days...

How is our Attorney General warning POLICE OFFICERS in Ferguson, not to escalate?? How about warning the people that are going to riot?
— Curt Schilling (@gehrig38) November 21, 2014

Somebody wants a race war...

(And somebody might get it...)

The Biggest Problem With Being A Man Is So Simple, A Fourth-Grader Can Get It

Gee, what a shock...

• The table is being set by the NFLPA for an eventual legal challenge which Goodell and the bleating rams (no, not those of St. Louis, Football Nation America instead!) desire:  They have formally challenged the Adrian Peterson ban.
• But leave it to Adam Silver to, once again, trump Roger Goodell.  Jeff Taylor pled guilty to domestic violence, as well as other charges, and was given the Sports God Slap on the Wrist, blah thisandthat counseling and probation and the like.  Without any public to do so (and I thank my friend for pointing this out -- my first reaction was that this penalty was far too lenient and makes the NBA look like the NFL!), Silver banned Taylor for 30% of the season -- 24 games.
• So, what happens today?  The NBPA files an appeal.
• The NHL is next. Slava Yoynov of the Stanley Cup champion LA Kings will be arraigned for a domestic violence charge on December 1, according to ESPN.

And I could go on and on.

The fact is that sports probably do need to be smashed.

Why?

Because sports are all about being a MAN...

And being MAN implies abuse, rape, and other forms of criminal behavior, largely ignored in our society against all but the undesirable.

You want to know how I can say that?

I'll tell you what.  I'll refer you to something I saw on Democratic Underground this week.  And I'll refer you to a class of fourth graders!

This was from a 2012 seminar, in which 50 boys of about fourth grade were asked the question, giving these answers in response:



I really want people to take a look at that list -- and the article linked, which accompanies it! -- and look at the situation in sports and tell me again why we shouldn't just take the whole apparatus, baby and bathwater, and flush it.

Score Update: It's Clear Something Happened To Shake Things Up In Week 11

One of the reasons I'm not falling all over myself about the DEA investigation of several NFL teams after Week 11 games about the painkiller situation is that something happened this week.

And you could see it on the field in the numbers:

• The Week 11 Scoring Average is almost-certainly the lowest I've seen in years.  The 14 games of Week 11 averaged only 37.57 points per game, a full TEN POINTS PER GAME lower than the season average entering Week 11.
• That was so low it took the season-long per-game average and dropped it by eight-tenths of a point, after 11 weeks and 161 games.  The average now is 45.888.  That's now a point a game below last year's 46.91 through 11 weeks, and about eight-tenths below the 46.707 for the full season.

How bad did it get?

• The over-under was 4-10. 80-78-1 for the year -- we'll keep that simple from this point forward.  A couple games actually either were picks or mixed.
• For the second week of the last three, NO GAMES were decided by a score in the last two minutes and overtime.  This extends the streak of prime-time games not decided by such a cliffhanger to that only 2 out of the 34 national prime-time games this year have been so decided.  Only 14 out of those 34 games were even competitive at some point in the fourth quarter!
• On the flip side, seven of the nine games competitive in the fourth quarter ended within a score.
• So, the percentages:  Games decided with a score in the last two minutes and overtime are now down to about 17.39%.  Games within a score at some point in the fourth quarter are down from 68% last year to 62.73% this year.  Games ending within a score are down from 48% last year to 40.37%.

Going a little deeper for a moment:

• The Packers' 53 points against Philadelphia was more points scored than EVERY OTHER GAME ON THE SCHEDULE, both teams combined, save New England's win over Indianapolis Sunday night.
• New England's 41 was more than every game except three:  The aforementioned Packer-Eagle blowout, the Monday nighter, and Kansas City's 24-20 win over Seattle.

The other numbers:

• Home teams were 8-6 on the week.  97-60-1 for the year.
• Home team was called for more penalties in only 4 of the 14 games.  71/158 for the year.  About 44.9%.
• Penalties were WAY DOWN.  Only 148 penalties in the 14 games.  Last week's 13 game slate had 166.
• Team with more penalties was 6-8.  73-77-10 for the year.
• Points of emphasis:  WEEK TEN:  Team with more of those penalties was 4-3-6.  WEEK ELEVEN:  2-6-6.  For the year:  53-63-54.
• The 14 winning teams, combined, procured only FIVE accepted Points of Emphasis penalties.

Adrian Peterson: A Trojan Horse

Goodell finally, at least for the moment, has banned Adrian Peterson from the National Football League.

All the media are probably reporting it correctly:  Citing a complete lack of remorse (and, if you understand the many backdrops which have come out since, you can understand why this piece of motherfucking shit (and this PoMS is Peterson, though the term applies to Goodell as well), Goodell suspended Peterson for at least the rest of the regular season without pay.

Basically, what he has done is effectively said that Peterson needs a program, in place by December 1, and then there will be a hearing after April 15.

Any further violations of league rules, and the banishment becomes formal.

--

I'd like to say that Adrian Peterson is done with the National Football League, but I am really getting a sinking feeling here.

As I commented to JT The Brick on his Facebook comment on the situation:

"You cannot have the NFL brutality and intensity without changing the type of man, changing the mentalities completely, of the insane animals who are loosed for our entertainment on Sunday."

These are not men.  These are bloodsport gladiators who simply are put out there for our entertainment and to loose our own violences on the world.

Football cannot exist without abuse.  I do not say that to justify either:  It is perhaps the crux and backbone of the perversion which basically forces one to understand that this rigged sport has no future in a civilized society.

And, given that, I think this, and especially the Ray Rice scenario, are the means for the National Football League to finally scuttle ALL efforts to control these inhumane bastards that pollute the sanity of at least fans who are in conflict over the garbage, if not ex-fans who just can't take it anymore.

Adrian Peterson should be incarcerated -- and, frankly (and I know this from witness experience), there's a good chance that the only reason that fucker is still alive today is because he's a football God.

You can say a lot of things about incarcerated criminals, and more the longer they have to be locked up.

But a child-abuser will be killed in jail if the house gang and the CO's give them enough rope.

Just sayin', Adrian.

Fuck you.

But Not All the Drama Today Was ON the Field...

The DEA finally went to an NFL stadium today, and wanted a look-see while they were at it!

According to Jim Litke with the Associated Press:

"Federal drug enforcement agents showed up unannounced Sunday to check at least two visiting NFL teams' medical staffs as part of an investigation into former players' claims that teams mishandled prescription drugs.

There were no arrests, Drug Enforcement Agency spokesman Rusty Payne said Sunday. The San Francisco 49ers' staff was checked at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey, after they played the New York Giants. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers' staff was checked at a Baltimore-Washington International airport after playing the Redskins.

The operation was still ongoing, and other teams may be checked later Sunday, Payne said."

"'Curiouser and curiouser', said Alice"...

And Fuck Harvick Too...

Or, should I say, Fuck Nextel Sprint Cup Champion Kevin Harvick.

I guess pussies can be champions too, right Kev?

Roger Goodell Wants Someone Killed, Part How Many Now?

(As known as:  Fine Blotter, Week 10, Part Deux)

$30,000, and only this fine, for the following, which FOX Sports has now called the NFL Cheap Shot of the Year:

Tennessee Titans TE Chase Coughlin is the target of a pass which is picked off by the Baltimore Ravens.

Coughlin makes no effort to go after the interceptor.

He instead completely makes a beeline to the Baltimore sideline and LEVELS an assistant Baltimore coach.

--

And more bloodlust for America -- massive brawl, Falcons-Panthers.

Looked like at least eight players involved, with Atlanta's Devin Hester leading with his helmet to try to do something to one of the Panthers.

Another point-shaving for Rapeis Winston?

Gee, that doesn't look suspicious after the Incarcerated Bob story went public now, does it?

16-0 and 23-7 down to Miami, Florida State rallies again to win 30-26???

Nah, nothing to see here, move along...

*sarcasm*

Fine Blotter For Week 10, Led By Rex Fucking Ryan

• New York Jets:  Rex Ryan, fined as a repeat offender, $100,000 for an obscenity.  It is PRESUMED, according to ESPN, that it was at one of the officials.

Now, let's see if the actual dirty hit parade can actually meet that total...

$8,268

• New York Jets:  Michael Vick, taunting.
• Arizona Cardinals:  Paul Fanaika, late hit.

$10,000

• Detroit Lions:  James Ihedigbo, at least a TWO TIME LOSER, fined in week 8 for a late hit.  This one was a face mask.

$11,025

• Tampa Bay Buccaneers:  Austin Seferian-Jenkins, excessive celebration.  Football as a prop.  He said he didn't know -- been a penalty and a fine for several years now.

$16,537

• New York Jets:  Third one of the week.  This one a late hit.

$22,050

• Chicago Bears:  Teddy Williams, Helmet to Helmet.  (Saw the hit in Vegas.  That was a deliberate headbutt cheapshot!)
• St. Louis Rams:  Lance Kendricks, Blindside Block

Since one of the fines was for taunting and one for a ball as a prop thing, NO, the dirty hit fines did not make it to the Rex Ryan fine.

Jackie Speier is right, but it doesn't matter anymore.

NASCAR has a problem.

His name is Kurt Busch.

On September 26, the Dover, Delaware police department received word from Busch's then-girlfriend that she was drilled into the wall three times by Busch, among other allegations.

Yep, MORE domestic violence.

Today, NASCAR's chairman, Brian France said that, while Busch is still being investigated, NASCAR will take no action against him.

Jackie Speier, a Democrat from San Francisco in Congress, has called him out on this, according to MSN:

"NASCAR would rather let Mr. Busch drive for the remainder of the racing season than take a stance on violence against women. While he rounds the track, the legal processes for his domestic violence charges race forward as well. Until his legal proceedings end, NASCAR should put Mr. Busch's car in park. The charges are horrifying, and NASCAR's inaction sends a clear signal to drivers that owners do not take these violent actions seriously."

I'm about to catch a lot of shit for what I'm about to say, but this is how bad things are in sports today, and Speier should know this after the Santa Clara County situation with Ray McDonald:

Number One:  Remove violence against women (and others considered lesser than athletic gods), and you have no corporate sports left.  

I'm not going to justify their actions, nor am I going to say that every player or owner or the like does this.

Number Two:  If you haven't figured out yet that NASCAR is more about the 43 sets of billboards going around the track than anything to take violence against anyone seriously, you haven't been following NASCAR at all.

I could count several incidents just with Kurt Busch.  I could probably also count a number more with just about any other.  If there is a professional sport that cares less about the sanctity of it's sporting events than NASCAR, they'd have to be run by Roger Goodell at this point.

If we were actually to give Damn #1 (much less Damn #2) about the sport's sanctity, there'd be at least FOUR drivers parked last week, and one of them is racing for the championship after winning in Phoenix, a little bitch named Harvick who decided to stir the pot against a hated driver by pushing him from behind in the middle of a fracas to start a bigger one.

Congresswoman Speier, remember what NASCAR still is, even with it's attempts to go national:  A Southern redneck sport.  

Number Three, and this is probably the one that's going to get more people pissed than anything:  Domestic violence, be it against wife, child, or property, has become a central part of the sports experience in this country.

And that's why you're not going to get anything changed, though you are right, Congresswoman Speier.

The (perceived) right of people to kick the shit out of anything in their way over sporting events (and this would probably apply here, Busch was apparently pissed at yet another poor qualifying performance at Dover before the incident) has become part of the sports experience.

It, effectively, is the American sports hooliganism.  Since most teams are not in the same cities with ethnic or religious backdrops like soccer often has, people resort to this.

Have we learned nothing from Rapeist Winston, Ray "Wifebeater" Rice, and Adrian "Child Killer(?)" Peterson???

The Perils of Social Media

The New England Patriots have one million Twitter followers.

It is believed that they may be the first sports franchise to reach that total, and, for that, they wanted to celebrate.

Every Patriots fan that was following the team on Twitter could retweet a celebratory tweet and receive one in return from the Patriots, as well as a digital uniform of the team with their Twitter handle on it.

All fine and good to this point!

That is, until some JACKASS cracker KKK member/troll (and it's one or the other!) did the same.

So imagine the Patriots embarrassment when they tweeted thanks to Twitter handle IHateN*****s and gave that piece of shit it's own digital Twitter jersey.

The team has since apologized.

And why not another blood sacrifice to football?

Another, gone way too soon.

Former Minnesota Viking safety Orlando Thomas, NFL leader in interceptions in 1995, dead at 42.

ALS!  Lou Gehrig's Disease.

Tell me that's normal for someone that age.

Tell me he knows THAT risk!!!

The One Thing I Learned In Vegas

“Modern Americans behave as if intelligence were some sort of hideous deformity.” -- Frank Zappa

 (Hat-tip to my anonymous friend for pointing out the perfect quote to sum up a weekend of football I finally got to watch.)

He died over 20 years ago, and, yet, gives the perfect quote for American society today.

And, if this weekend was any indication, it's a perfect analogue for our football.

I saw SO MANY STUPID PLAYS this weekend and so many teams and players who belie any degree of intelligence or "higher education" that I really have to wonder how much of the helmet-hit-ladened dementia has already filtered into these guys.

Take one game I lost money on this week:  LSU, getting 6 1/2 at home against Alabama.

Tie game, they'd just recovered a fumble inside the Alabama 10, about one minute to play.

First play, skirmish afterward, LSU lineman gets a STUPID unsportsmanlike conduct penalty, back to about the 20, down counts because it's dead-ball, settle for a field goal.

Then the kickoff, about 45 seconds left, no time outs for Bama...  OUT OF BOUNDS.  First down to Bama at the 35.  They drive (for the only time in second-half regulation) for a field goal.

LSU wins the toss and does the ONLY THING they could lose the spread on, elects to go on defense, gives up an easy TD, and doesn't move the ball off the 25 and loses 20-13, as if pre-planned.

Here's another:  Utah, getting 10 at home for Oregon.

7-0 Utah, Utah wide receiver gets pass, breaks free, scores touchdown...

Except he not only drops the ball at the 1, it stays in bounds and Oregon picks it up and goes the ONE HUNDRED YARDS for the TD themselves!

Utah falls apart in the fourth quarter.

How about that last fumble in the Auburn game?  How does that happen with a guy with any real intelligence whatsoever?  (actually won that one)

Marginal push-off, but a push-off nonetheless, costs the Saints.

The Bears REALLY still suck.

I mean, this is what football has devolved to?  No wonder we need to get rid of it!

Score Update Week 10

Another 13 game week with the third and final London matchup.

• Week 10 scoring average:  45.38
• 10 week per-game average:  46.680 -- just a hair under the year total for last year.
• Only 8 of the 13 games were competitive into the 4th quarter, a couple only barely.  None of the national prime-time games were competitive into the 4th.
• Two games were decided in the final two minutes and overtime.  The controversy in New Orleans with the Niners winning.  (Why?)  And Detroit again, getting a late TD to best Miami.  Rate has fallen to 19.05%.
• Games within one score at any point in the 4th are down to 62.59%.  Games within one score at the end of the game are now at 39.46% -- it was 48% last year.
• Over was 7-6, basically a perfect Vegas week with 13 games.  76-68-1/70-67-9 for the year.
• Home team was 7-5, including the last two late games and both Sunday's and Monday's prime-timers.  89-54-1 for the season.
• Home team was called for more penalties in NINE of the 12 games.  67 of 144 for the year.
• Same number of penalties as two weeks ago (the other 13 game week), problem was winning teams had seven more total, and losing teams seven less -- about a full penalty more for the winners than the losers.
• Team with more penalties was 7-6.  67-69-10 for the season.

The Points of Emphasis stuff has been delayed.  Little too much chaos right now.

Fine Blotter for Week 9

Hey, a more normal week this week!  From spotrac.com:

$5,512:

• New England Patriots:  Julian Edelman, Illegal Souvenir, Ball Into Stands

$8,268 each:

• New York Jets:  Marcus Williams, Horse Collar Tackle
• Pittsburgh Steelers:  Vince Williams, Taunting
• Baltimore Ravens:  Albert McClellan
• Baltimore Ravens:  Jeremy Zuttah, both for unsportsmanlike conduct
• Baltimore Ravens:  Terrell Suggs, Late Hit
• St. Louis Rams:  Eugene Sims, Late Hit

$16,537 each:

• Washington Redskins:  Keenan Robinson, Roughing the Passer
• Minnesota Vikings:  Linval Joseph, Roughing the Passer
• Carolina Panthers:  Thomas Davis, Helmet to Helmet

And then:

• Baltimore Ravens:  Courtney Upshaw, the fourth Raven to get fined, $20,000 for Roughing the Passer.
• Washington Redskins:  Darrel Young:  $22,050 for a Blindside Block
• San Diego Chargers:  We seem to get one of these every week now!  Seji Ajirotutu, $27,562 for getting tossed for getting physical with a referee.

An Open Letter to Bill Simmons (soon to be formerly) of ESPN...

Bill Simmons is (now WAS) pissed at Mike Golic.

Golic basically took issue with something Simmons said about LeBron James on Colin Cowherd's show.

It was a comment Simmons made that James' early struggles this season are a sign of permanent decline. Golic called him effectively clueless.

This is known as "time filler" in the business.

Simmons basically called Golic out and asked to be on the show to explain his side and felt it unprofessional to do otherwise, blah blah blah...

(And, as of about three hours ago, as of the time of eventual posting, Golic and Simmons did sit down and talk about the situation, and the issue has been resolved.)

That said, I'd like to pen a very strong open letter to Mr. Simmons, which I will then tweet the link of to Simmons' Twitter and see if he reads it.

I'll let you know if he does.

--

Mr. Simmons:

It's time to walk.

In fact, it's probably now about 2-5 weeks past time to walk from ESPN, and take Grantland and your other exploits with the network with you.

First, let me be another to say that I disagree with nothing you said on the podcast which got you suspended.  roger Goodell is a liar, a mafioso, and the mastermind of a criminal enterprise unparalleled in American history.

However, your suspension is yet another in a long list of incidents in which it is proven that, beyond question, The National Football League and The National Religion of Football has ESPN as their BITCH.

Playmakers, anyone?

But, in light of your (now resolved) dispute with Mike and Mike in the Morning's Mike Golic, I have to jump in and say the following:

It's quite easy for an former NFL player like Golic to jump on someone who, because of the NFL, now has zero remaining credibility left to talk about sports without getting himself instantaneously fired.

Mr. Simmons, your rant said that, had you gotten in trouble for calling the Commissioner of the NFL a liar, you were going to name names and call people out.

That rant was published in "The BS Report" on September 22nd.

You were suspended for that rant on September 24.

That means you were reinstated on October 15 or so.

It has been the better part of three weeks now, and we've heard NOTHING.

And anyone with a brain knows why:  Your silence against that "threat" was probably a condition of your continued employment with ESPN.  You were told to shut up about that threat to out who consummated you being in trouble, or you'd be fired so fast, your desk would be emptied before you got back to it.

So it's not hard for me to believe that, regardless of the subject, no one at ESPN really has to take you that seriously anymore, especially if they are former NFL players like Golic.  They can do what he did earlier simply because you're fired the moment you make good on anything you've (very correctly, may I say!) threatened or challenged.

So it's time to either man up and do that calling out you said you were going to do (and get fired for it) or resign from ESPN and go somewhere where you can be considered credible (by the staff, more than anything!), even if it's that long-awaited project you've been considering.

Michael Falkner

And Another Reason the NCAA Has To Go -- MORE Jameis Winston

Two Jameis Winston notes this week:

First, the defending Heisman Trophy winner will have his Title IX sham trial misconduct hearing with Florida State University on November 17.

Second, we dig deep into the underground again, as a rec.sport.football.college poster has found another note from Incarcerated Bob, who claims to have sources with ties to a former high-school teammate of Winston's, who is working with an underground bookie in the state of Alabama.

Before he gets to the meat and potatoes of the matter, he is all but implicating that Jameis Winston actually was shaving points in the first half of their showdown match one week ago tonight with Louisville.

"In what has been an already difficult season for the Seminoles, with it's star player/starting QB Jameis Winston having his character questioned almost weekly, the crab legs and the "rape" controversy in the summer and the game suspension for yelling obscene words ... Things seemed to quiet down this past week, after that great comeback in 2nd half vs Louisville (keyword: 2ND HALF) as Jameis was brilliant and kept Florida St undefeated this year."

According to Incarcerated Bob and his sources:

• Winston, through this illegal bookie and the HS teammate, is betting on baseball, basketball, and football (pro and college).
• The teammate came to the bookie and asked for a $5,500 bet on the first half of Florida State-Louisville.  (The normal limit the bookie gave the teammate was $1,000 in total wagers a week and $400 per game.)
• The bookie asked for the $5,500 up front, got it, and allowed the bet.
• The bet was a first-half bet betting Louisville +1.  Meaning that Louisville would be either be tied or leading at halftime.
• Louisville was leading 21-7 at the half.

It was three days after the game (on Sunday) when the bookie learned of the ties between the two high-school teammates.  He's refusing to pay the bet.

Incarcerated Bob is working on it, and is getting the runaround in Tallahassee.

NCAA Was Bluffing On Penn State -- Time To Shut the NCAA Down Too

I guess, really, this one should not be a surprise.

But, yesterday, it was finally revealed that the NCAA was trying to bluff with Penn State, and many didn't even know if the NCAA had jurisdiction at all, according to a Deadspin report.

I'm sorry.  I'm going to stop you right here.

If the goddamned National Collegiate Athletic Association doesn't have jurisdiction to discipline (more like ELIMINATE) an athletic program (Hell, try the entire damn SCHOOL!!) when a football coach has been using the football program to enable his pedophilia and commit child rape, I've got a goddamned motherfucking program allowing said National Collegiate Athletic Association to have jurisdiction on ANYTHING ELSE!

I'm sorry, but there was one proper penalty, and the NCAA probably couldn't enact it, but they should've pointed it to someone that could.

Emails were retained as part of a lawsuit against the NCAA, one of which actually went so far as to question "competitive advantage"...

THIS PROGRAM WAS HOUSING A FUCKING PEDOPHILE AS A MAJOR ASSISTANT COACH FOR HOW MANY FUCKING DECADES????


Don't give me this shit about fucking "competitive advantage" or anything else -- if you are so fucking limp-dicked as an organization (and what's happened since has shown the Football over Everything culture at Pedophile Pennsylvania State University has uncategorically WON -- and, hence, so should their lawsuit) that you can't shut the football program completely upon proof of Sandusky's misconduct, you have no business sanctioning collegiate athletics in this country.

NONE.

SHUT IT DOWN.

Fifteen games... for THAT???

Three, at least, today.  The first two courtesy of Deadspin and my anonymous friend.

I'm all for throwing the hammer down on people and all that stuff, but the Ontario Hockey League, one of the if not the premiere junior-hockey leagues in Canada, has suspended two players for fifteen games apiece.

For what, you may ask, did these two players draw a suspension which is about a quarter of their sixty-eight game schedule?

These two players, in a league where the players are aged 15-20, were suspended for 15 games each when they got into a pissing match on the social site Tinder, with the following results:



OK, "Chad" (Heffernan) and "Greg"(Betzold), that was over the line.  The OHL suspended Betzold and Jake Marchment (who admitted to responsibility for the messages on Chad's side of the ledger, I guess) for violations of their sensitivity policy.

OK, then I have two more pieces of advice for the OHL, effective immediately.

1) BAN ALL PLAYERS FROM USING SOCIAL MEDIA.

These are 15-20 year old men.  If this is going to draw a fifteen-game suspension for violations of league inclusiveness and sensitivity, then the Ontario Hockey League needs to ban all their players from using social media.  I would bet real money that the vast majority of the players in your league are, at the least, this insensitive, if not far worse.

2) THE REFEREES NEED TO STEP UP ON-ICE CONDUCT HARDCORE.

Again, if this is a 15-20 game suspension, I can absolutely guarantee you there will be language and conduct far worse than this on the rinks of Ontario this weekend.

Now to the lesser news, Score Update, blah, blah, blah...

So, Week 9 in the books.

Will be in Vegas this weekend -- almost zero money to gamble with, though.  Might happen upon some stuff to look at and all of such, and will have Internet all weekend, so, if I see anything...

• Week's scoring average was 48.23
• 9 Week scoring average is now at 46.806, almost a tenth of a point over last year's full-season.  Last year's was 46.84, so we're pretty much even to last year.
• Thirteen games this week, only seven were competitive into the fourth quarter.
• A week after we had six games decided in the final two minutes or overtime, this week had...  NONE!!!  26 of 134 this season, that puts the percentage back down to 19.4%.
• Games within one score at any point in the fourth quarter were at 62.69%, down from the 68% last year.  Games decided by one score are now at 40.3%, down from 48% last year.
• Over was 7-4-1 this week, and that is precise.  One game finished right on the number (ARI-DAL was at 45 at most of the books, Arizona won 28-17).  69-62-1 for the over this year, but if you take into account some indecision, 63-61-9.
• Home team 8-5.  82-49-1 for the year.
• Home team was called for more penalties in six of the 13 games.  58 of 132 for the year.
• About a half-penalty less per game this week than last.  This week was 12 3/4, and the exact same total number of penalties were called on the 13 winning teams than the 13 losing ones.
• 86 penalties on the home teams this week, 80 on the visitors.
• Team with more penalties this week was 5-6-2.  60-63-10 for the year.
• Team with more Points of Emphasis penalties was 3-6-4 this week.  47-54-42 for the year.

FUCK ADRIAN PETERSON!!!

Yeah, I said it.

Shithead is going to be able to plead out to a misdemeanor, get community service and the like, and that's the end of it.

I'd lay money he's back on the field for the Vikes within a week or two.

-

I know this from experience on Riker's Island:

If that piece of shit wasn't a professional football player, he's probably DEAD.

The only question is whether he gets to trial first.

Even criminals don't take well to people who fuck up kids.