And that's it for 2015...

Thank  -- GOD.

Get it out of here, throw it out with the trash, and take Roger Goodell, Sepp Blatter, the referee attackers, Floyd Mayweather, etc. and so forth and so on with you.

Almost the perfect capper for the year of absurdity that was the NFL...

The jokes keep writing themselves.

Yardbarker has this one.  (hat-tip to my external bullshit detector)

The NFL was forced to refile it's appeal of the Deflategate situation...

because their original filing had the wrong color of it's cover.

In a league which fines players more for wrong colored shoes, cleats, and other indications that the players are not slaves to Roger Goodell and the 32 slavemasters owners, it's another joke for the NFL, which racked up a record of non-funny jokes over the course of the year just completing.

And if you need another indication of how sick people are getting of football...

Tonight's Deadspin Targetting Ejection of the Night...

Deadspin has the video of James Burgess getting tossed from the Music City Bowl in Nashville for targeting Damion Ratley of Texas A&M...

ON THE FIRST PLAY FROM SCRIMMAGE!!!

Burgess nails Ratley while another player is trying to tackle Ratley.  As a result of this cheap shot, Burgess injures BOTH PLAYERS (including his own teammate), earning the distinction of being ejected just eleven seconds into his final college game.  The teammate, Shaq Wiggins, returned to the game.  Ratley was out as of the time of the Deadspin report.

AND IF THAT'S NOT ENOUGH...

Here's another Deadspin gem from today:

Memphis' Reggis Ball, after Memphis lost the Birmingham Bowl to Auburn, got into an altercation with Auburn managers when Ball went to the Auburn sideline and stole a game ball from them, flipping them off, and fleeing the field.

You can't make this shit up, people!

Week 16 Score Report

• Week 16 average:  43.3125 PPG
• 16 week average:  45.804 PPG
• Home teams were 11-5 this week, 130-107 (.5485) for the year. 
• Over was 7-9 or 6-9-1 for the week, 3 to 8 games below .500 for the year.
• Favorites were 6-10 against the number, 10 to 12 games below .500 for the year, effectively ensuring a losing record against the spread for favorites in Vegas.
• 211 penalties this week, same as last week.  Oakland was high with 16 in their victory.
• Three Cliffhangers, including the Thursday nighter and the Monday nighter.  Jets over the Patriots was the third.
• Six other games ending within one score, two others within a score at some point in the 4th quarter.
• Cliffhangers for the 16 weeks:  55/240 (22.91%)
• Games ending within one score:  131/240 (54.58%)
• Games within one score at some point in the fourth quarter:  161/240 (67.08%)

Every team? At least three matches in 2015???

Good grief.  This story out of Canada, brought to us by the Twitter account of Christ Celestino from the website Securing the Game, from Vice Sports.

The Canadian Soccer League needs to be shut down.

It's that simple.  There is no other solution.

A report from the international match-fixing watchdog International Centre for Sports Security reported that the Canadian Soccer League, a semi-pro league headquartered in Toronto, had every team in the league involved in at least three suspicious matches in 2015 -- with the watchdog noting that two matches out of every five contested in the league were suspiciously bet.

How bad did this get?  Read the Vice article linked for the full situation, but here's the Cliff's Notes:

The Vice article chronicles closely an October 4, 2015 match between Niagara Falls and Sporting Club Waterloo.

A Niagara Falls player was immediately suspicious, as SC Waterloo was locked into the #4 playoff seed in the 12-team league, and his team was already eliminated from contention.

Noting that one could get 10-1 odds on a drawn match, a second player immediately noticed that Waterloo, with a superior lineup, was not going forward.

A Niagara goal was waved off, then Waterloo scored.  After this, the two players who have spoken up in public in this article both were sent off for continued dissent!  With nine opponents, you think Waterloo would make mincemeat out of this, right?

No.  They stopped attacking immediately, and were actually inviting Niagara Falls to score.

The game was soon tied, but it was now clear to everyone on the Niagara Falls bench that Waterloo was fixing the match, so they arranged for a late-half penalty to attempt to thwart an attempt at spot-fixing the halftime score to be tied.

Waterloo was allowed to score again, as a result, before the penalty could be consummated, and a third Niagara Falls player was sent off -- this one intentionally!

The Niagara free kick was intentionally let in, 2-2 at the half.

The second half, or what was played of it, was abject farce.  Waterloo wanted nothing to do with getting a ball in EITHER NET.  Niagara made several attempts to score an own goal just to screw the fix, but it was thwarted every time - the referee seeing enough at 65 minutes and calling the match.

The Niagara players demanded the referee put the indications of a fix into his report -- he did not.

SC Waterloo ended up hosting the finals, but lost.  Niagara Falls is leaving the league as a result of the situation.

It's basically clear, by what's being reported in this report that, not unlike a number of the Southeast Asian leagues, the Canadian Soccer League, up to it's very organization, has been infiltrated by match-fixers -- whether they are the Southeast Asians or not is unknown at this time.

However, it's clear why there is the frustration of nothing being done:  It's clear that even organizations like Interpol are being infiltrated by these organized crime outfits.

And while I do the Kirk Cousins story, Deadspin has an Al Jazeera bombshell...

Take this with however much salt you need to, but The Huntington Post has picked it up...

Deadspin, sourcing them, claims Al Jazeera will report that Peyton Manning has been receiving HGH and other drugs from an Indianapolis anti-aging clinic, as part of a one-hour documentary about a number of famous athletes in the United States..

The report also implicates Green Bay Packers star Clay Matthews, in taking Percocet and claiming to want to find Toradol, two ultra-powerful painkillers.

The report goes on to name (in various lists) Ryan Howard and a number of other players.

You can see the report here on Deadspin.

It should be of note that the main doctor seen on "hidden camera" is trying to refute everything, but take that with salt too, because the NFL has done a lot to push the likes of Manning and Matthews, so they might be trying to nip this in the bud now.  Manning has already been making the rounds, and at least Howard is considering suing the living Hell out of people for all this.

Stay tuned.  This should get MESSY.

So the NFL follows suit?

Kirk Cousins has the ball on the Philadelphia 6.  No time outs, up six points, six seconds to go in the half.

And then...

Ian Eagle describes perfectly the moment that Kirk Cousins lost his mind pic.twitter.com/F2ONyKsewX

— Deadspin (@Deadspin) December 27, 2015

HE TAKES A KNEE!!!

The Net has predictably blown up on this, knowing that, if Washington wins tonight's game, they win the woeful NFC East and host a playoff game, probably against Seattle or Minnesota.

That said... It also means two fewer relevant Week 17 games for the National Religion. Kirk Cousins was doing his job, but not for the Washington Redskins.

(Bowl Season) And here we go...

The "You're Welcome" to the earlier Miami rig-job over Duke?

Duke was playing Indiana in the Pinstripe Bowl in New York today.

44-41 Duke in overtime, and Indiana needs a field goal to tie.

Griffin Oakes attempts a field goal...



And the referees state that, because the kick was too high over the upright, it COULD NOT BE REVIEWED! Kick no good, Duke wins...

The rule is that the uprights are infinite. It's clearly in line with the upright, but the official said no good -- and it didn't even look like he was looking up there...

Keep believing these games aren't rigged, people.

Lost in the Shuffle: Another reason you need to go see "Concussion"...

Deadspin caught this, or neither I or my External Bullshit Detector might've seen this one...

You really have to see this (s)hit yourself, but if this is not an encouragement to see "Concussion" and understand why the NFL hates the truth, watch this human missile cheap-shot somebody with his fucking head...


Other 31 teams do it too, like your Broncos. That said, this is one of the worst ones we've seen in a while.

Makes you wonder if one of the selling points of this year's playoffs is: WHAT WILL YOUR TEAM DO TO TRY TO WIN THE GOLDEN SUPER BOWL?

(Daily Fantasy) Add Illinois to the list...

Illinois' Attorney General made Daily Fantasy illegal in the state earlier this week.

I just have to wonder this, and this is why I kinda stalled in getting this up (well, that and being way too tired this week -- and cursing Sony for a wonderful present I just got requiring me to buy something for myself):  Why does someone not put one and one (and one and one and one...) together to get that these Daily Fantasy games are nothing more than a modern version of rigged Three Card Monte?

The players you see in the commercial are probably the inside rakes to get the money off the table before the fuzz come in to break the game up, just like in the street-side card game.

What shocks me is that, with so much advertising money and the like coming from the sports leagues to things like Scam Duel and Grift Kings (hattip Deadspin!), why it's even been allowed to get this far in making it illegal...

NFL Out of Control, OBJ Edition, Part Two: Homophobia Alleged

There's another angle, separate from the officiating, that is indicating the wheels are further coming off the NFL, and it also has to do with Odell Beckham Jr.

He can have wild hair, with hair dye, and his touchdown celebrations can be considered a bit over the top.

This, according to Michael Irvin of the NFL Network, has him stating that Odell Beckham Jr. has been the target of homophobic slurs every week for the entire season, according to multiple reports that he told the New York Daily News.  This one is from Sports Illustrated.

This is important for three reasons.

1) It is complete hypocrisy by a league which says that it was going to penalize -- on and off the field! -- such homophobic taunts.  In reality, it has full place in the No F_____s League, and, in fact, could be used to blackball a player like Odell Beckham, even if he is not actually gay!  One has to believe, especially in driving a credible pro-level player like Michael Sam from the sport, that it's only getting worse, and Beckham's nature and hairstyle have made him a (completely undeserving!!!) target.

2) Michael Irvin, by outing this behavior, has endangered his job with the NFL, because it is the...  You get the idea.

3) Michael Irvin has a reason to do this.  He is one of the few NFL players who is pro-LGBT, because his brother is somewhere within the LGBT community. 

So, once again, the No F_____s League rears it's ugly head again for no fucking good reason.  And one has to wonder why Beckham would continue to put up with it.  Well, they got him suspended for the Minnesota game...

... a game where it would be quite convenient for the Vikings to win!

The officiating in the NFL has gone to criminal conspiracy levels now -- even BEYOND simple game-fixing.

Can't get away from the Odell Beckham stuff even if you tried this week.

Shockingly, the NFL has chosen to uphold the one-game suspension Odell Beckham Jr. received for probably some of the cheapest shots ever done on a football field.  I'll get to where I would've started the bidding later, but there is FAR FAR more to this story -- and the one on the officiating in this farce of a rigged league -- than meets the eye.

For example:  Everybody's been ragging on Beckham -- and yes, he should be! -- for what he did on the field.  But how many people have even remotely attempted to report this gem Deadspin picked up on:  That at least two members of the Carolina Panthers defense came to Beckham in warmups, swinging a baseball bat given to him by a Panthers team official!!!

The player, according to Ian Rapoport, was Marcus Ball, on the Panthers practice squad.  And, no, it does not excuse Beckham's actions during the game at all!  In fact, I'd have started the suspension bidding at the two games remaining in the regular season, any games the Giants play in the playoffs, and the first four regular season games of next year.

In asking a question as to what "team official" may have given Ball the bat, another player was revealed to have threatened Beckham with the bat:  Art Stapleton, a Giants beat writer, said Josh Norman had one too!

According to Jay Glazer and one injured Panther, the bat is actually used as a symbol of "bringing the wood"...

Yeah and fucking right.  Where the FUCK are the seven officials in this game and NFL Security to stop this bullshit before someone (as my External Bullshit Detector put it) brings a knife or even uses a weapon in a pileup or something like that?

This Deadspin article notes the mindset Beckham had:  At least THREE separate ejection-level cheapshots that might rival anything on an NFL field over the last fifteen or so years.  Albert Haynesworth got five games for a singular incident, Beckham should be lucky he's sitting just the one.

That said, any Panther player or employee involved in this needs to be in the league no longer, and the seven officials for the game need to be straight-up fired.  It got so bad, according to Deadspin, that even the mafioso Dean Blandino basically had enough and told one of the officials effectively:  "You know, you can throw somebody out of this game!"

And that kinda gets down to it:  There are really only two choices...

Either the referees are about as competent as a professional wrestling referee in the work...

OR

The referees in the NFL are engaging in criminal conspiracy with one or more parties for the benefit of one or more criminal acts.

And note that I'm not just talking about game-fixing.  (Though that would be relevant, especially given the announcement that, during the playoffs, referee crews will be allowed to talk with the New York bosses on many more things than just instant replay.  This is so bad that Brian Tuohy reports (Week 15 portion) that even former ref head Mike Pereira says this bombshell:

"Basically, what it looks like is that the league office is making decisions on who possibly wins or loses the game,"

To get Pereira to say this, as Tuohy asserts, is huge.  As one of Tuohy's five contests on Facebook for a copy of his new book (all completed before this writing), Tuohy asked what would convince people that the games were rigged.  (The winner said "The apocalypse.")

But it's more than that.  It's more than even becoming part of what is injuring and killing these players.  By their active ignorance or even active wanting these acts to happen in the name of the most HARDCORE GOLDEN SUPER BOWL EVAH..., these referees are endangering everyone in the building.

How many more teams are now going to see it OK to threaten the star receiver/quarterback/sack supplier/etc. with baseball bats, knives, etc. and so forth...

Somebody is going to get a weapon to them, especially if it's clear that it appears OK for the Carolina team to do what they did...

... or are you trying to tell me that Carolina IS the chosen NFC team, NFL?

Score Update for Week 15

I'll get to the 600 pound elephant in the room in a minute.

• Week 15 average:  49.6875 PPG.  Only one game in the 20's and two in the 30's.  (Last year:  Only 36.4375.)
• For the 15 weeks now played:  45.98 PPG (Last year:  45.406.)
• Home teams were 7-9 last week, 119-102 for the year (.538).  (Last year:  9-7 and 130-89-1 (.593))
• Did seem to be a few extra Christmas gifts for the public this week.  Over was actually 10-6 this week.  107-108-9 to 107-113-4 for the year.  (Last year:  3-13 and 105-116-1.)
• Favorites were 9-5-2 to 9-7 this week, depending on where you shopped.  (Jets and Pittsburgh pushed in some places, didn't cover in others.)  100-108-18 to 100-110-16 for the year.
• 211 penalties this week.
• First two games on my list on Sunday went Cliffhanger (Jets and Carolina), no others did.
• Six games decided within one score, only one other game was within one score at the fourth quarter -- SEVEN non-competitive contests.
• Cliffhangers:  52/224 (23.21% -- going down)  (Last year:  16.07% -- only 36.  None in Week 15 last year.)
• Decided by one score:  122/224 (54.46%)  (Last year:  41.51% after another week of 8.)
• Within one score at some point in the 4th quarter:  150/224 (66.96%)  (Last year:  62.05%)

Mike Florio calling a shot here?

Hat-tip to Brian Tuohy and his NFL season page, and he got this from "Dennis", a Minnesota Viking fan, on Twitter.  (The link below is a one-minute clip posted to Soundcloud.)

Mike Florio asserts (as a purported joke) that the league is going to ensure the Vikings lose this weekend.

The initial thought process is that a Vikings win will damage a number of teams in the NFC.

Minnesota is playing Chicago.  The Vikings are 8-5.  One game behind Green Bay, tied with Seattle for the two wild-card spots.  Next non-division winner in the NFC?  6-7.

A Vikings win basically seals them into the playoffs.  (Same goes for Seattle.)

So Florio's assertion that the Vikings winning would damage a number of teams is quite correct.  That and a Seattle win eliminates St. Louis, who basically eliminated Tampa Bay last night.

The Vikings going to 9-7 basically takes out that entire 6-7 mess of the NFC East and Atlanta.  It probably takes quite a number of Week 17 games off the table, even though it might well add Minnesota at Green Bay, especially because Green Bay has to play at Oakland and Arizona the next two weeks.

Then, the discussion turns to this little ditty that a lot of people might want to take a look at in light of this season's far-too-convenient number of close games and Cliffhangers:

Roger Goodell has ADMITTED that he roots for the team which is behind, and this comment is almost two years old now -- leading Pro Football Talk to raise the probability that the blackout at the Ravens-49ers Super Bowl was intentional!

So extrapolate that to Pete Rozelle's vision that every team would have a shot at the playoffs in the last week.

Not going to happen this year, but here's a little look at something:

Week 15, Thursday nighter in.

Every team in the NFC East is in it (yes, even Dallas -- they've basically figured out a singular scenario that can get Dallas to 7-9 and win the division through tiebreakers).

Detroit is eliminated, not sure about Chicago (but Chicago or Tampa Bay WILL be eliminated next week, if they aren't already).

The other three teams in the NFC South probably need Minnesota, Seattle, or both to lose out, because only Atlanta can do better than 8-8.  I do not believe, at this point, until Minnesota and Seattle win, that the other three teams are out, save tiebreakers.

49ers out, St. Louis hanging on.

By my count, barring mega-tiebreaker looks, only two NFC teams enter Sunday of Week 15 out of the playoffs.

AFC:  San Diego, Tennessee, Baltimore, and Cleveland out.

AFC South winner has to get to at least 7, but Jacksonville still in it.

Buffalo dangling, Miami dangling even more.

Oakland dangling as well.

So, Week 15, Sunday, only six teams out of the 32 are out of it.  More may follow, but it does raise the concept of how many of the last games might be relevant.

For the record, here's the Week 17 schedule:

Jets-Bills (Buffalo will probably be out, but the Jets are 8-5 and in the mix, so this one probably is important for the Jets.)

Patriots-Dolphins (Probably home field for the Patriots.)

Tampa-Carolina  (16-0 for Carolina?  Outside flier at the Wildcard for Tampa??)

Saints-Falcons (Last gasp at a wildcard for either, if Minnesota and/or Seattle slump?)

Baltimore-Cincinnati (Bengals #2 seed entering this week, so bye week implications.)

Pittsburgh-Cleveland (See the Jets for Pittsburgh.  Same scenario.)

Jacksonville-Houston and Tennessee-Indianapolis in that mess of an AFC South.  Pretty much about the only way these games lose importance is if the Tennessee-Houston winner this week wins next week and the loser loses again next week.

Oakland-Kansas City (KC is the third team 8-5, and Oakland is still on the outside door of it.)

Washington-Dallas and Philly-Giants in that mess of an NFC East.

Detroit-Chicago -- might be the first game on this list I can slam the door on.

Minnesota-Green Bay is probably for the division and most playoff scenarios have the winner hosting the loser in the wildcard round.

San Diego-Denver (Denver's positioning, see Cleveland.)

Seattle-Arizona (only might not mean anything if Seattle clinches in and Arizona can go no further)

Rams-49ers (outside shot for the Rams)

So I've got ONE Week 17 game (two weeks in advance) meaning nothing, and a couple or three which might take a convoluted bunch of scenarios.

This is what Florio is "joking" about.  Maximize the number of relevant games, and the fans will glue to their seats.

One interesting thing Florio tries to use as cover (in speaking facetiously) is "someone would've leaked it by now" if this were the case.

Oh really?  Care to ask the family of Dan Moldea how that might work out, especially after he found FBI evidence as to the rigging of a significant number of MNF games in a 1970's season?

But Florio does say the final bullet point right:  A Vikings win takes most of the wildcard picture in the NFC and clears it.

Week 14 Score Update

• Pretty low scoring week this week.  Average barely broke 40 at 40.0625 PPG.  (Last year:  46.8125.)
• 14-week average down to 45.697.  (Last year:  46.096, two years ago was about 46.7.)
• Home teams 9-7 last week.  Started out well, ended badly.  Season:  112-93 (.546)  (Last year:  6-10 and 121-82-1 (.596))
• Not surprisingly with the score average just touching 40 PPG this week, the over was 4-12!  Season is now 5-10 games below .500 for the over, depending on where you shop.  (Last year:  6-10 and about one game below .500.)
• Pretty good week for favorites against the spread by this year's standards:  9-7.  Favorites still 10 games below .500 for the year against the spread, so Vegas the only winner here.
• 211 penalties in the 16 games, about consistent with recent weeks at about 13 penalties a game.  Second time this year Buffalo has had 17 penalties in a game, they lost both games.  (Year high is 18 by Dallas in a win over Philadelphia.)  
• Only ONE Cliffhanger this week, and it was the Thursday nighter on top of it!
• Seven further games ended within one score, only one further game was within one score at some point in the 4th quarter, seven non-competitive games this week in a very non-characteristic week in the NFL.  Fewest competitive games since Week 8 (8 of 14).
• Cliffhangers:  50/208 (24.03%)  (Last year:  17.3% -- there have been 14 more Cliffhangers this year than last through 14 weeks.)
• Decided by one score:  114/208 (54.81%)  (Last year:  40.87% -- there have been 29 more games in 14 weeks this year than last decided by 8 points or less, an average of more than TWO PER WEEK.)
• Within one score at some point in the fourth quarter:  141/208 (67.79%)  (Last year:  61.54%)

Pete Rose is a goddamned motherfucking liar.

Good to have the external bullshit detector baseball historian in my life, who points out that not only did Pete Rose sign an agreement that one of the conditions of reinstatement was not betting on baseball, but he admitted to Rob Manfred that he had bet on baseball even THIS YEAR!!

So Manfred:  You fucked up.  Pete Rose should never inhabit another baseball stadium again.  I'm not sure how far I could go that would not have me afoul of basic American principles, either...

But the fact is that Pete Rose should never be reinstated, and will never be in the Hall.

SI Gives Lifetime Achievement Award to Serena Williams: Admits No Human Deserved Sportsman of the Year

And NO...

I am not saying that in any form to denigrate Williams, her looks, or her achievements.

American Pharaoh should've won Sports-Horse of the Year (except for one caveat I will apply in a second, as my friend I've talked to on the subject will give).  The winner of the 2015 Sportswoman of the Year was the only relevant American tennis star, Serena Williams.

That said, it's clear that, at least for the second time, Sports Illustrated has admitted that no one (or at least no human being) deserved the award.  So, SI had to default to a second standard it has done at least once before:  A Lifetime Achievement Award which would be workable within the context of the 2015 sports year -- and Serena Williams most certainly qualified under that criteria.  (Brett Favre in 2007 would be the other.)

(Otherwise, would the NBA title and 24-0 or so have been enough for Steph Curry to snag the award?  The cover story actually notes Curry and Pharaoh, but I would have to think Williams' story not the only athlete's of trying to make such a difference as she has -- hence, I have to think the "deepest field of contenders" is more "Hall of Very Good" than Sportsman of the Year level, if we disqualify Pharaoh out of hand.)

American Pharaoh is the first horse to win horse racing's Grand Slam:  The Triple Crown plus The Breeder's Cup Classic.

But my friend points out one very particular point:  Horse racing selects it's "athletes", not the other way around like in human sports.  It is one of the most abusive sports to it's "athletes", and many decry it's very existence as a result.  One has to think that played a factor here, and I have no objection to that if, like my friend, people are honest enough to voice that objection!  Secretariat didn't win the year that horse won the Triple Crown either:  Jackie Stewart of Formula One was that year's Sportsman of the Year.

But I think SI has been DISingenuous in doing so, though, and that's why I think this was basically saying there were a lot of very good candidates, but no one transcended to that obvious level, if we leave it to human contenders.

And somebody needs to be banned from basketball for a long time...

Rajon Rondo, take a fucking hike.

Yahoo! Sports reveals in an exclusive piece this morning two very salient facts why:

• Rajon Rondo unleashed several gay slurs on NBA referee Bill Kennedy after an ejection in a game almost two weeks ago in Mexico City.
• Kennedy, an 18 year veteran of the referee ranks in the NBA, came out as gay to Adrian Wojnarowski on Sunday.

If the comments made on an unconsenting tape of the racism of Donald Sterling (as well as other similar factors) are worth throwing him out of the league, why is this only worth a one-game suspension, especially in the Adam Silver NBA?

For the record, Rondo denies the comments.

And this should be the final word on it: Rose Denied.

Whether or not you agree with it is another matter, but Pete Rose has been denied reinstatement again, and that should basically be the final word on the matter for a while.

I think it's clear to anybody that Pete Rose is certainly not a contrite man -- he wasn't on the baseball diamond either.

According to ESPN's account, Rob Manfred said:

"Mr. Rose's public and private comments, including his initial admission in 2004, provide me with little confidence that he has a mature understanding of his wrongful conduct, that he has accepted full responsibility for it, or that he understands the damage he has caused," Manfred said in his decision.

And those comments mean that should be the last word of it, because, much like many people who waste the state's time in parole hearings which we know will never result in the person's release under any circumstances, he's never going to get reinstated.

I mean, there are legal things I've done on many levels that I would never acceptably, while I'm alive, "understand the damage" in that regard.   There are certain things which a person does that there is no way the person could ever satisfy those conditions.

However, Rob Manfred DID leave one crack open on another discussion on the one important thing which is probably the only reason Pete Rose would be reinstated in the first place:

"In my view, the considerations that should drive a decision on whether an individual should be allowed to work in Baseball are not the same as those that should drive a decision on Hall of Fame eligibility," Manfred wrote. "... Any debate over Mr. Rose's eligibility for the Hall of Fame is one that must take place in a different forum."

However, this decision probably slams that door too.

Whether you agree with the decision is one thing.  I think it's clear this needs to be the final word on reinstatement, at least as long as Rose is alive.

The End of ESPN and Unintended Consequences

Bumped into this article on Karl Denninger's blog -- a political and economic blog I rarely agree with, but at least interests me as reconnaissance of the enemy or somesuch.

This Dave Maney post from Sunday morning at The Daily Beast basically says the whole she-bang of sports is about to implode, and TV and cable are where it starts.

It begins with everything we know going on at ESPN:  The talent reduction, Grantland going poof, and Disney's stock price taking a hit from a seven-million subscriber dip over the last two years -- which was in a required filing by ESPN and Disney to the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Then it basically goes into ESPN's history and what it has been able to do as the centerpiece of American sports for the last 30-40 years...

... so much so that Leo Hindery of Intermedia Partners told Bloomberg that every cable subscriber (sports fan or not) pays $35 to $40 A MONTH on sports channels:  ESPN, Comcast, FOX, all the regionals, etc. 

Think of that:  $400-500 a year just to the sports networks, and you're paying for that even if you don't watch the sports...

When that goes down, it could take the entire non-NFL fabric of sports right down with it:  It is already being estimated in some circles that television money will be the highest source of sports revenue for sports franchises within three years.

It's almost certainly true in Major League Baseball already, where a great television contract can cause teams to spend through the nose, should their owner elect to do so.

So what happens when this all blows up:

• MLB probably heads into the serious contraction the 1994 strike should've forced in the first place.
• NHL, the same after the lockouts.
• NBA?  Well, the Clippers won't be worth $2 billion...
• The NFL has Religion Status anyway.

But the thing is the current model is unsustainable:  One economist, when proposed with a solution for Disney's woes of separating ESPN into it's own service "over the top", estimated that ESPN would have to, alone, sell for $36 a month just to justify it.

But one thing is for sure:  If Maney is correct, you're going to see the end of a lot of teams when this all blows up, and maybe even a league or two.

(Daily Fantasy) Dead in New York, Ruled Gambling (UPDATE: Not so fast!)

Grift Kings and Scam Duel (hattip to Deadspin) are out of business in New York, ruled gambling by a New York judge on the injunction order.

DUH!!!

And here's the thing:  When is someone going to finally blow the whole she-bang up and expose it as a RIGGED gambling situation?  This is why you won't see the groups made legal -- because doing so would remove any incentive for them to do business in the first place.

Any layman individual who has put money into these "games" has just been asking for it (and more!) to get taken from them.  Anyone who has paid an ounce of attention to all this can only come to one conclusion:  Draft Kings and Fan Duel were created to scam the sports fan of America out of money and funnel it into it's employees as clandestine players within the system.  Period-fucking-end.

If this were not the case, then relevant levels of safeguards would've been put into the processes to ensure fair play.  Since they aren't there, it's pretty clear they never were meant to be.

UPDATE 2:25 PST:  Stay has been granted by the Appeals Court in New York.  Daily Fantasy continues in New York for now.  Word is this will give until at least the end of the year, which means they probably get the football season...

Score Update after Week 13

Had another crazy week, just like Week 13-14 interim last year.

Anyhow:

• Week 13 average:  47.625 PPG (Last year:  48 even.)
• For the 13 weeks (192 games):  46 1/6 PPG  (Last year:  46.036)
• Another crappy week for the home sides:  5-11 this week for 103-86 for the year.  (.545)  (Last year:  115-72-1 (.614) after 9-7)
• Decent week for the over at 9-7.  Couple of games either side of .500 for the year, meaning Vegas wins on the 9.09% juice.  (Last year, basically the same)
• Favorites were 9-5-2 for the week and 82-94-16 for the year.
• 214 penalties in the 16 games.  13.5 a game.
• Biggest news:  SEVEN CLIFFHANGERS.  Thursday nighter, Monday nighter (3 times over on that one), Carolina's 12th win, Jets over the Giants with two Cliffhanger scores, more putting over Jameis Winston, San Francisco winning over Chicago, and a first since I started covering this 2-3 years ago:  A Cliffhanger that actually ended outside one score!  Buffalo got ahead of Houston with 1:53 to go in the game, so it was a Cliffhanger.  They scored again, though, to win 30-21 to win by nine.
• Three games other than the six other Cliffhangers ended within one score (9 total) and one other game other than any mentioned was within one score in the 4th quarter (11 total).
• 49 Cliffhangers out of 192 games.  (25.52%)  (Last year:  17.71%)  Meaning that the number of games decided with at least one score in the final 2 minutes or overtime is up by a factor of 50%!
• 106 games out of 192 decided by one score (8 points or less).  (55.21%)  (Last year:  41.67%)  Meaning that the number of games decided by one score is up by about a factor of a third.
• 132 out of 192 games within one score at some point in the fourth quarter.  (68.75%)  (Last year:  61.46%)  But this is about the only number somewhat normalized -- the total percentage of this for two years ago was 68%.

Something which would never happen today, and fuck Football Nation America for it...

35 years ago tonight...

The Patriots are playing the Dolphins in a close game on Monday Night Football.  But something going on in the booth is even more urgent, at least to a close friend of a victim of an unfolding tragedy.

(That piece was done for Outside the Lines five years ago today.)

Starting at about 8:00 of the clip, it shows the decision-making process in the booth.  There are 40 seconds left and the game is tied.  It is going to be an NFL Cliffhanger, and Cosell does not know whether the game situation will allow him to get the news in, knowing that he has just lost a friend he idolized (and had on Monday Night Football a number of years earlier).

As Cosell said, he would let the next play be called by his partner Frank Gifford, and then get the news in.

Imagine, in the Cliffhanger-driven NFL, this unfolding on your television sets in the closing seconds of our National Religion:

As the Dolphins are lined up after that play in the hurry-up offense, Cosell attempts to get it in and cannot...

Cosell:  "But it's suddenly been placed in total perspective for us...  I'll finish this -- they're in the hurry-up offense."

Gifford:  "Third down -- four [yards to go]."

[The play is then run, an off-tackle run to center the ball for the upcoming field goal.]

Gifford:  "[Chuck] Foreman [the former Viking]...  It'll be fourth down."

Gifford then sets the play situation, as New England calls a timeout with few seconds left to allow a last-second field-goal attempt to be the game-winner, or so New England hopes.

The timeout allows Gifford to throw it to Cosell for the tragic news...

Gifford:  "Three seconds remaining.  John Smith is on the line, and I don't care what's on the line [emphasis mine], Howard, you have got to say what we know in the booth."

Cosell:  "Yes, we have to say it.  Remember, THIS IS JUST A FOOTBALL GAME. [emphases mine], no matter who wins or loses.   An unspeakable tragedy, confirmed to us by ABC News in New York City.  John Lennon, outside of his apartment building on the West Side of New York City -- the most famous, perhaps, of all of the Beatles...  shot twice in the back, rushed to Roosevelt Hospital...

Dead -- on -- arrival.

Hard to go to the game after that news flash."

Can you imagine any death subsuming that kind of a situation on the field in today's NFL?

No?

Then fuck Football Nation America for that truth!  Howard Cosell had a goddamned conscience and knew the world needed to know.

And the mob boss decides to try to defend the officiating...

Dean Blandino, the mafioso overseer of NFL officiating, actually tried to the defend the NFL officials by saying that they only made mistakes on an average of 4.3 plays out of an average game of 160 plays.

That's almost 3%.

So, let's consider:

In a sport that this country swears absolute fealty to:

• On average, 3% of all scores are erroneous.
• 3% of all penalties, on average, same.
• And, on an average, this would mean that, out of a 256 game NFL season, 7-8 games a year would be an acceptable number of games fucked up by the refereeing so badly that the result of the game is changed.

Yeah, Dean.  Twirl the pinky-ring some more.

You know it's bad when Brian Tuohy starts early...

He's already about five paragraphs into the Week 13 NFL season page post after last night's rig-job/scripted production.

Several points:

• Tuohy points out that, even if the face-mask was the wrong call, putting your hand up toward the head to aid in a tackle will probably get you 15 anyway.
• Two Lion defenders were defending the flat -- at about MIDFIELD!!!
• And here's another smoking gun:  (Aaron) Rodgers and (Richard) Rodgers were actually practicing THAT EXACT THROW before the game -- "for fun".

Keep swearing fealty to the NFL, people.   The corporations love that level of stupidity.

(Oh, by the way:  Green Bay was a 2.5 - 3 point favorite, so the TD has them cover.)

ONCE AGAIN: The NFL buries the real situation under a sexy lead.

Third Cliffhanger in a row.  All three prime-time games this calendar week ended in Cliffhangers.

Everyone is talking about the face-mask penalty which extended Packers-Lions by the one play and the 15 yards to Rodgers-to-Rodgers the chance to win the game.

Sorry, that one is actually a good call.  (.GIF from Deadspin)



That's a face-mask, people.  Unlucky on Taylor?  Sure.  No problem, but he does get the thumb in there.

That's not the one you need to be looking at.

With thanks to a Deadspin article on how ridiculously high Rodgers' Hail Mary was (it damn near hit a beam in the stadium!), this is what I believe you should...

(Source:  Twitter of Joe Robinson, who works in the Brewers front office.  Quick Fact:  He's a Seahawks fan!)

PHOTO OF THE NIGHT: Richard Rodgers moments before catching the game winning TD pass from Aaron Rodgers. pic.twitter.com/FsQhRATsgp

— Joe Robinson (@JoeDRobinson4) December 4, 2015

And here's two of the responses to explain the whole thing:

@JoeDRobinson4 Six defenders vs four receivers and the catch is still made. Well done.

— Jesse (@anacanapana) December 4, 2015

@JoeDRobinson4 @JayScottSmith no lions player within 5 yards of Rodgers. Ridiculous

— Harold Shelton III (@TOWN1212) December 4, 2015

And yet you still want to tell me there were no shenanigans? But the whole talk of it is going to be a face-mask call that was actually CORRECT!

Keep believing these games are legit. You're being laughed at, America.

And Brian Tuohy found this gem about the game last night too. Vegas won handily, even though the Packers are one of the better public teams in the NFL: (Source: David Pane Purdum of ESPN Chalk.)

Ticket count is 2-1 in favor of Packers @LVSuperBook, but 3 times more $ has been bet on Lions, per @sportsbookrandy.

— David Payne Purdum (@DavidPurdum) December 4, 2015

Several Updates

• More arrests in Switzerland as more top FIFA officials are arrested for the growing number of bribes endemic in the organization.  Two of the arrested are the heads of CONCACAF and CONMEBOL, meaning now that Western Hemisphere soccer has no official head at this point. It is becoming more and more clear with each passing day that FIFA itself will not survive this, that FIFA and the match-fixers are in bed with each other and run world soccer together.  The only way anything close to the present situation would hold court is like what chess had a couple decades ago -- two rival world sanctioning bodies, the match-fixers holding on to the remnants of FIFA, the rest of the world going with somebody else.
• Under South African law, the prosecution can appeal a conviction if it feels errors were made that would gain a greater conviction.  Oscar Pistorius is probably heading back to jail, the appeals courts in South African now ruling he was guilty of full-scale murder, rather than what we would probably equivocate to manslaughter.
• Continuing problems at BYU, as the dirty play doesn't appear to be just in football.  The Mormon university had a player ejected last night for a cheap shot to the head.  BYU had it's rivalry game with Utah, and BYU's Nick Emery decked Utah's Brandon Taylor with a shot to the head and was looking for more when he was tossed!  It really is beginning to make me wonder -- it has been said that BYU's sporting events double as Mormon religious events.  One has to think that the hate endemic in Mormon culture is rubbing off on the athletes of BYU.
• Brian Tuohy with an interesting theory on his NFL page, as people like Skip Bayless believe the first New England loss of the year -- to Denver Sunday night -- was a rig-job.

"What if Peyton Manning isn't really injured? Sure, his foot is in a walking boot, but as mentioned above, I never saw the man limp despite a torn tendon/ligament in his foot. What if the Broncos - and by extension, the league - is protecting him for the time being? The Broncos are already playoff bound, so why not put old man Manning on ice for a while and save him for when the games really count again? Osweiler appears to be the odd backup QB that can actually play NFL football...at least enough to keep the media asking questions about who should start, is Manning going to be traded, or retire, blah, blah, blah. But what if it's all a ruse intended to build suspense and interest until Manning's return for that final Super Bowl push?" 

NFL Week 12 Score Update

Thanksgiving brought the first full slate of games since about Week 3, and here's what happened:

• Per game average for Week 12:  45.69 points per game.  (45.533 last year)
• 12 week average:  46.03 points per game. (45.858 last year)
• Home teams went 9-7 last week, 98-75 for the year (.566)  (Last year:  9-5. 106-65-1 (.619))
• Six of the last seven games on the table went over after six of the first eight went under.  The over went 8-7-1 this week, anywhere from 84-83-9 to 84-88-4 for the year.  (Last year:  7-8 and 87-86-2.)
• Favorites against the number actually had a good week:  10-6.  You'd have to go back to WEEK THREE to find the last week Vegas players has a winning week against the number in the NFL.  Last week was the best week of the year against the number for the public, breaking Week 1's 9-6-1.  (73-89-14 for the year)
• 216 penalties in the 16 games, 13.5 a game, going down, as it does later in the year.
• Three Cliffhangers, and two of them were in the national games Sunday night and Monday.   Denver's besting of the Patriots, which is increasingly believed to be rigged, was in overtime, and Double Cliffhangers on Monday, a tying touchdown for Cleveland, only to have a game-winning field goal blocked at the gun and returned for a game-winner for Baltimore.  Also, Oakland's victory came with a TD at 1:21.
• 5 more decided by one score, 3 more than that at one score at some point in the fourth quarter, 5 non-competitive games.
• Cliffhangers This Year:  42/176 (23.86%)  (Last year:  17.61%)
• Games Decided By One Score:  97/176 (55.11%)  (Last year:  46.11%)
• Games Within One Score At Some Point in the 4th Quarter:  122/176 (69.32%)  (Last year:  64.77%)

As usual with the NFL, it's not the lead...

Pete Morelli has been thrown out of Sunday night's Indianapolis-Pittsburgh game, as has his entire team.

The officials for the game have been reassigned or screwing up rigging the Arizona victory over San Francisco.

And when you see the Carson Palmer sack that was called roughing the passer on Quentin Dial, which you see the NFL's own video on the Yahoo! blog article here.  (The NFL does not allow direct embeds.)

I was even willing, on first look, to possibly see head-to-facemask contact, but the last replay shows that sack was clean as a whistle!

15 yards, first down, and the Cardinals held the ball 4 1/2 more minutes and scored the game-winning touchdown on the drive.

There was also a missed delay-of-game penalty and some down confusion, at least the former benefitting the Cards as well.

But it's not just the lead that Morelli and crew have been barred from the heavily-bet (and the blog article makes this point too!!!) Sunday-night game.

But it's where they landed:  Philadelphia-New England!!!

The jokes write themselves.

There are times I am happy I have an Expert Bullshit Detector lying around...

My anonymous friend, who also acts as my Expert Bullshit Detector, was talking to me about the refereeing piece and was offended, or seemed such, that my takeaway from the Packer game Thursday night was the Mike McCarthy complaints on offensive pass interference.

There was a reason for this I did not know until I was told.

As most people DO know, this was Brett Favre Night, the night all was forgiven for most, if not all, Packer fans.  One of the highlights of Favre's #4 being retired was an on-the-field moment with Packer legend Bart Starr...

Too bad Starr probably doesn't remember a thing about any of it!

Making the rounds as Starr was preparing to appear at the number retirement (and a story much earlier in appropriate circles on the concept of elder memory loss like this one), Bart Starr revealed he has lost much of the memory of his career.

Yes, he IS 81.  But how many knocks to the head did Starr take to become that Packer legend many of us in Wisconsin effectively revered?

He began sliding in memory about five years ago, and now can't even recognize himself in old media clips and footage.

Yes, he is elderly, but do not excuse the number of headshots he took in his years in football.

NFL Officials: Not Only Rigging Games, But Injuring Players: Fire the Whole Damn Lot!!!

I hope you enjoyed your NFL tripleheader Thursday.

I really do, because none of those games should've taken place.

That the NFL continues to even play at the concept (even on a pro-wrestling level) of legitimate competition after the debacle it threw us in Week 11 is beyond any sense of my personal comprehension.

If there even was the remaining illusion that the NFL even wanted to attempt to make the ignoramuses (ignorami?) of this country believe the games and the league (on balance) are on the up and up, they would've halted all play and fired every NFL referee after last week, especially Monday night.

Let's go back, first, and talk about NFL vice-president of officiating/league mafioso Dean Blandino. On Thursday of Week 10, before play began, Blandino was in the media attempting to cover for the league's asinine call allowing Odell Beckham Jr.'s touchdown catch to be disallowed, or a Golden Tate catch which was initially ruled a Bears interception, but, according to Pro Football Talk:

“Also, he wasn’t going to the ground until after he got two feet on the ground with possession of the ball. By then, the play was over because it was a catch and a touchdown. “

Now wait a cotton-picking second here: Isn't this the exact same as Odell Beckham Jr.? He got the ball, grasped it in his hands, got two feet down and turning, and wasn't going to ground. Touchdown, New York, right, Mr. Blandino???

The ONLY way you could actually say otherwise is to actually make a claim that no player has possession of the football until he brings the ball into his body – of course, that would disallow various other circus catches, including a couple famous Beckham catches and that famous David Tyree Super Bowl catch against his helmet!

Of course, the far more devastating comment that Blandino made in this press situation was this doozy:

“There’s always going to be that subjectivity to it,” Blandino said in his weekly officiating video. “The rule, the way it’s written, is clear, but we are going to have subjective judgments and debates on how long is long enough, was he going to the ground, was he a runner, and that’s just part of the deal.”

By this statement, Dean Blandino just admitted to anyone with an ounce of paying attention that the games are rigged.

The rule used to be simple, and “long enough” used to be very clearly defined: You either needed to get two feet down in bounds, get a body part down in bounds which would indicate you had been downed, or be pushed out of bounds when the referee would feel you would've otherwise fulfilled one of those conditions.

Because if you are going to get especially into the “was he a runner” bullshit, you get exactly to the comment that at least one person put into the comments on that article: That the catch rule, going back to Megatron, has been used to rig close games to ensure certain outcomes for various reasons. Period.

This year, it seems like the egregious number of erroneous referee calls and controversies thereto are designed to do several things, two of which are to pump the Patriots to 19-0 and to make as many other teams relevant for Week 17 as humanly possible.

Want proof? Let's go to Monday night.

Score is 10-10 in the third quarter, and Tom Brady throws a pass near the sideline to Danny Amendola, and the whistle sounds before he catches the ball.

Under the rules, the ball is dead, because of the inadvertent whistle. (Similar to other sports.)

The problem is that the referees ruled that Amendola had caught the ball, when you can hear that there was no way he did!
The ball was clearly in the air when the whistle went, but they gave Amendola the 14 yards – which would only have been correct had Amendola caught the ball and THEN the whistle goes. Rex Ryan being Rex Ryan and an idiot, he was walking in front of another official when the situation was going on and got 15 more on that (correctly).

In this case, at least, it didn't seem like it had anything to do with the outcome, simply because of the fact that the Patriots could not get any further on that drive and a long field-goal was missed.

And then we get to the last play of the game, Patriots up 20-13, Bills with the ball and probably need two plays to get a shot at a tying touchdown. Five seconds left.

Pass to Sammy Watkins at the Buffalo 47, would've been at least close enough to fire a Hail Mary, so, with two Patriots charging in on him, he rolls off the field, untouched.

The head linesman rules a “surrender” move, winds the clock, game over.

Well, that only establishes that one of two things took place: Either the referees rigged the game for the Patriots (by ensuring their victory with an erroneous call – which is what most referee experts said afterward, at least that the call was an error), or Watkins rigged the game by ensuring the result (not unakin to that otherwise-inexplicable playoff play on the last play of Seattle-New Orleans).

And then here's the kicker: The official admitted he erred because he actually applied the COLLEGE RULE (where if you go down, you're down and don't need to be touched). Are you motherfucking kidding me???

If this were simply about on the field stuff, this would be nothing new for anybody. I mean, have we had ONE WEEK this season which has gone without at least one game-changing admitted error by the NFL with respect to it's referees???

But let's take this NFL refereeing situation even one step further and state openly that the supposed “incompetence” of these referees is openly endangering the players.

Week 10: Rams-Ravens Case Keenum goes back to pass, and gets sacked. The sack was OK, but the problem was his head smacked off the turf and led to an apparent concussion which may have aided in a game-changing fumble a couple of plays later.

So where does this come into the officiating? A 2015 new rule, according to CNN, an “independent certified athletic trainer” (you may insert your laugh track here) from the league is supposed to spot players who were concussed and they have the power to stop the game and force people to look at the player.

And then people railed on the Rams (and looked at the possibility of sanctions) about it – WHEN THE LEAGUE SHOULD'VE DONE IT IN THE FIRST DAMN PLACE.

It's enough to talk about “being a man” and “rubbing some dirt on it”, but this is not the team this time – it's the league itself, who we know doesn't give a damn about the players, but this is now outright endangerment.

I mean, it's bad enough that “incompetence” affects on the field results, we've now got “incompetence” (and your mileage may wildly vary on that!) which is also affecting the ability of the players to play even as safely as the animals on the sidelines will allow them to.

The league obviously uses officiating errors to justify to the populace that the games are legitimate, when they clearly use these errors to shape the games (scoring, margin, spread, result...), but these errors are also being used to injure these players.

So they really needed just to fire the entire fucking lot, postpone the games, and get some real referees.

But they won't! Why?? Because they need results to go certain ways and a nice narrative to keep the NFL in the news 169 hours a week. And doing so is verifiably physically hurting these players!!

Don't believe me? Ask Mike McCarthy, who wants words with the league over an offensive pass interference call from Thursday night's loss to the Bears – on Brett Favre Night!

(Said because usually, when something like that happens, the home team usually gets the gift win... Pro Football Talk seems to indicate it was a good call on a “pick play”, but how many times do players get away with that these days?)

And how about a nice slice of blood with your Thanksgiving football?

It's official:  Frank Gifford had CTE.

Revealed Wednesday.  As my friend said:  How many of you will be moved by this sacrifice to football?

(My answer:  Only those moved to the refrigerator.)

Just before Thanksgiving, here's the Score Update...

Before a week of NFL games which, now, should not exist at all (and I'll get to that in an extensive article sometime Thursday), here's the score update as things presently stand.

• Week 11 average for the 14 games:  42.07 PPG  (Down about where last week's was.  Last year was 37.57)
• All teams have now played 10 games, so the season average for 160 games is 46.068 PPG.  (Last year:  45.888  Two years ago:  46.707)
• Still haven't checked on the disastrous Week 10 for home teams.  Week 11, the home team was 8-6, for 89-68 (.567) for the year.  (8-6 last year and 97-60-1 (.617) through the first eleven weeks of last year.)
• Over was 5-9 for the week, 76 overs and anywhere from 76 unders and 8 pushes to 81 unders and 3 pushes for the year.  One thing is for certain, betting the over is now only winning FOR Vegas.  (Last year:  4-10 for the week, 80-78-1 for the year, about the same.)
• Very interesting week for favorite-watching.  Three games ended up pushes basically up and down the line.  Baltimore was a 3 point favorite over St. Louis (16-13) Denver -2 with Chicago (17-15), and New England's ridiculous rigged Monday night referee fiasco, they were 7-point favorites.  (20-13)  But we also had one game that depended on where you got it and no favorite could be determined:  Green Bay-Minnesota was basically anywhere from Green Bay -1 to Minnesota -1, depending on where you looked.  So I'll call that a toss-out pick and favorites were 5-5-4 for the week, 63-83-14 for the year.
• Penalties basically even this week from last, 187 penalties this week in the 14 games.
• Three Cliffhangers this week (Arizona, Baltimore, and Indianapolis, the last creating a rather embarrassing Twitter for an Atlanta newspaper).
• Five more games decided within one score, two more within one score at some point in the fourth quarter, four non-competitive contests by the time 15 minutes remained.
• Cliffhangers for the season:  39/160 (24.375%)  (Last year:  17.39%, as no Cliffhangers occurred in Week 11 (or in Week 9) last year.)
• Games decided by eight points or less:  89/160 (55.625%)  (Last year:  40.37%)
• Games within or at eight point margins at some point in the fourth quarter:  111/160 (69.375%)  (Last year:  62.73%)
• Interesting footnote:  Chicago, this week, committed ZERO accepted penalties in their game.  They become the first team in almost two years to go an entire NFL game without an accepted penalty.

One of my darkest 2015 NFL predictions almost came true tonight...

(Disclaimer:  Except we are not sure at this point the motive or reasoning behind the incident.  Another incident in Florida, so, especially there, gangs or almost anything could be a factor and the fact the man shot was an NFL player may have nothing to do with it.)

I said at the beginning of the year that I felt an NFL player might be killed off the field and football be the cause.

The disclaimer above applies, but suspended St. Louis Rams wide receiver Stedman Bailey, suspended four games for a substance abuse violation, is in a hospital in Florida tonight with two gunshot wounds, one to the head and one to the hip.

Unbelievably, the wounds do not appear to be life-threatening.

The same cannot be said for the driver of his car, who shielded two young relatives of Bailey.  He has many gunshot wounds, and his prognosis is grim.

Obviously, in 2015, we cannot rule out that this would be some crazed fan/fantasy football player.  That said, that is only one of a myriad of possibilities.

There is one very disturbing thing about this.  It is clear that Bailey's car was riddled with many, many bullets, between the two shots Bailey himself took and the more than a few the driver did.

So it's almost clear there was some degree of targeting here.  Just why?  We don't know yet.

Buckeyes Lose, Player Throws Fit And Declares For Pros

I'm shocked to see that Michigan State has beaten Ohio State and now holds the keys to the Big Ten championship in their pocket.

That said, I am not surprised to find Ezekiel Elliot throwing a fit afterward on social media:  He not only slams the coaching for not getting him the damn ball more, he also announces he is turning pro.

Sounds like Cardale Jones is as well, as things are not as they seem at THE Ohio State University.

Stay classy, Badger Fan...

God, has Wisconsin gone to shit in the almost 20 years since I left on that bus to get arrested...

It's bad enough they've elected Scott Walker at least three times to be Governor, but yesterday's loss to Northwestern indicates Badger Fan has as much Football Syndrome as anyone else, it seems.

Never mind that Wisconsin is the most overrated FBS-I program in the country, but no one wants to admit that.

Yesterday's fan-led atrocities can be attributed to snow, and lots of it.  Comes almost at the perfect time for deer-hunting season...

Too bad a bunch of the fans at the Badger-Northwestern game yesterday turned it into either Badger Cheerleader hunting season or Referee hunting season.

The Badger cheerleading squad had to be led up the tunnel for a part of yesterday's game when the student section turned on them and made them a shooting gallery of snowballs!

A later report added to the original Deadspin report indicates the referees were also not immune, especially after the referees overturned three apparent Wisconsin touchdowns in the 13-7 loss.

More Dodged Bullets on the Blood Fields This Week

Just a small listing of what I could find:

• Luke Falk, quarterback for a Washington State team doing better than they have for years, had to be carted off after a hit caused his head to ricochet off the turf -- concussion.
• Justin Forsett, broken arm.
• Joe Flacco, ACL.
• Case Keenum, a few plays later, replacing Flacco, suffered a concussion, but nobody made any moves to remove him from the game... a game which the key play was a fumble he committed a couple plays after that.

That's just a cursory listing from Deadspin over the last couple days.  I don't know about you, but is this basically what you are willing to accept in your "sport"?

(Especiallyonethatsalie...)

I thought hitting a referee was Game Over...

I really did!  I really thought that making physical contact with the official in such a manner to fight the ref was a forfeiture offense, but we seem to be getting a lot of that in today's football.

Yesterday's perpetrator:  Virginia Tech's Dadi Nicholas, who bumped the outstretched arm of Ron Cherry while he was announcing a penalty against Nicholas, and that drew Nicholas 15 more yards.

It's this kind of intimidation that just feeds upon officials skewing calls.  For even those situations some are skeptical of actual game-rigging, I do get told of situations that the referees, instead, are making calls to simply get out of there alive.

I can see that, but the amount of players getting abusive with the officiating has definitely taken an apparent upturn this year.

(Daily Fantasy) New Documents Indicate Scope And Rigging of Daily Fantasy

This is the cost of getting rammed into court -- your dirty laundry becomes public record.

Deadspin reports a couple of interesting finds today in the current legal action to shut down Daily Fantasy in New York (and probably elsewhere!) once and for all...

First was a report that FanDuel employees could go and play on other sites...  "just don't win too much"...

That's usually the equivalent of saying one of you is the right hand and the other of you is the left.  It basically shows that it appears all of the companies are effectively one and the same at some level, and that the game is rigged.  Period.

Second was some of the numbers involved...

• $25.6 million in New York in 2014 in entry fees, second in states only to the $34.3 here in California, bet on DraftKings.
• At least $286 million nationwide in 2014 -- probably far more this year.
• Draft Kings rakes about 10%.

I'm shocked these websites have made it to pro Week 11.  But that shows you how big they are, in that they would've failed and been jailed weeks ago if they hadn't been already.

(High School FB) We knew it was coming...

(Deadspin)

And no real surprise it came out of Florida...

Florida playoff game in Miami was halted after gunshots rang out.

Miami Central was leading Carol City 36-8 with about three minutes to go when gunshots rang out in the stadium.

Multiple gunmen were in the stadium (an initial report had them near the Carol City bench!!!), several taken into custody.

My God, I can only imagine what went down here, but I guess it had to come to it, didn't it, Football Nation America???

European Terrorism: Germany-Netherlands Match Targetted For Apparent ISIS/Copycat Attack

One or the other, but it appears as if a terrorist attack was thwarted yesterday when the Germany-Netherlands match was cancelled, because, according to German broadcaster DW Sports (through Deadspin):

BREAKING: Hanover chief of police: "There was a device intended to be detonated inside the stadium." #GERNED

— DW Sports (@dw_sports) November 17, 2015

Week 10 Score Report: One of the wildest weeks in history...

Three MAJOR storylines played through this week other than the two openly rigged end results.  We'll get to those in a bit.

• Lowest week of the year at 41.64 points per game.  (45.38 last year)
• Per-game average for the 10 weeks down to 46.452.  (46.680 last year)
• 186 penalties in the 14 games this week (a little more than 13 a game, and it's coming down)
• Cliffhangers:  3 (the two openly rigged ones in the post below (NE and Jacksonville) and Tampa with a touchdown late by...  Jameis Winston.
• 5 more decided by one score, and 2 more than that were within one score at some point in the fourth quarter.
• For the season:  Cliffhangers:  36/146 (24.66%)  (Last year:  19.05%)
• Decided by one score:  81/146 (55.48%)  (Last year:  39.46%)
• Within one score at some point in the fourth quarter:  101/146 (69.18%)  (Last year:  62.59%)

Now, for the three big stories of the week, and I do have to think any one of these could be historic, but all three???

• Only THREE home teams won in a fourteen-game schedule.  It's probably going to take some research to find out, and no one is saying -- but I would be shocked if that's not a record for a 14-game schedule that the home team only goes 3-11!  That puts the home team season record to 81-62 (.566).  (Last year:  .6215)
• Only TWO favorites covered:  Pittsburgh covered a touchdown against Cleveland.  Carolina was gifted one, only favored 3.5 over Tennessee.  That 2-12 record may be the best week ever for Vegas against favorites (and one possible reason for it, if you are inclined to believe like I sometimes am, is books recovering money from people betting Holly Holm at 10-1 vs. Ronda Rousey when the former KTFO'd the latter).  This means favorites, now, are running 20 games under .500 against the spread:  58-78-10.  That means, if you bet 1 unit on every favorite this season, you'd be -25 1/4 units at this point, or about an average of 2.5 units lost every week.
• Similarly, betting the over was also costly this week:  Only THREE games went over (Chicago-St. Louis, Washington-New Orleans, and Arizona-Seattle on Sunday night).  Two or three more pushed, depending on where you could get them, and they were all late games.  Minnesota-Oakland and Kansas City-Denver both pushed directly.  New England-New York Giants was under at a good number of places and pushed at the rest.  That 3-8-3 or 3-9-2 pushes the season to somewhere between 71-67-8 to 71-72-3 for the over, depending on where you shopped.

Two rigged NFL games decided on late mis-calls...

And SURPRISE, SURPRISE, one of them was New England's comeback win over the Giants on Sunday for 9-0!!

Odell Beckham got a bad call late in the Giants' loss when it appeared he scored a touchdown on this play...

(And this is the ACTUAL NFL YouTube account, so it's not coming down! But the NFL will NOT allow me to embed it into my blog!)

(Play is at 2:12.)

24-23 Patriots, just before the two-minute warning...  Manning throws the fade route to the far side, Beckham catches it in the end zone, two feet down, is turning, so he's made the football move before the defender gets hands in and strips the ball.  He's not in contact with the defender, so going to ground with possession of the ball is not the issue.

Ruled on the field a touchdown, reversed upstairs...  why?

Are we going to get to rugby here, where you actually have to catch it and "touch down" in the end zone?  Because the way this rule is openly used to rig games is just fucking maddening.

That led to a field goal, which was responded with Ye Royal Cliffhanger At The Gun, and the Patriots steal one in New York.

That one, the NFL did not admit to.  Another one, they did.

The other game which was altered by referee *cough*"error" was Jacksonville-Baltimore.

On the last play of timed play, Baltimore was called for a facemask, and, under the new rules, the 15 yards gave Jacksonville a field-goal try for Ye Royal Cliffhanger After The Gun.

Mike Greenberg of ESPN said on Sunday:

Is there any way #Jaguars got that snap off and were lined up legally?

— Mike Greenberg (@Espngreeny) November 15, 2015

That play never should've happened, the NFL now admits. Jacksonville didn't get set.

The left tackle was not set.  Under the rules, the requisite 10-second runoff would've elapsed the game, Baltimore wins.

But, Baltimore is 2-6, and Jacksonville might actually still be relevant in a shitty AFC South. It's all about keeping as many teams relevant in Week 17.

It's all going down in Europe now...

Two bad soccer stories in the wake of the Paris terrorist attacks indicate soccer in Europe may be in serious danger going forward:

• The explosion heard on that video was a suicide bomber at the Paris stadium.  That he was denied entry may have saved hundreds or thousands of lives, but one of the attackers blew his vest when he was denied entry into the France-Germany match...
• ... and the following German friendly match with the Netherlands was cancelled today after a bomb scare!  (And the two are related, the German head of state was planning to attend this match.)  France did play their next friendly, in England, with numerous statements of solidarity before and during the match.

Something tells me, given the rather rambunctious nature of European soccer on a normal basis, this is FAR from over.

Suspension Blotter: Still Not Enough

• Oakland Raiders (the only team stupid enough to sign him on the day of the incident which gets this):  Aldon Smith:  Banned from the league for at least one year for another substance abuse incident.

This was for arrest #5 since 2012.  August 6, 2015:  Hit and run, vandalism, etc.  He has pled not guilty in the incident which was the final straw for the 49ers.

Minnesota Championship Game Marred By Eye Gouge

(Deadspin)  (Video at the link)

Oh, you had to know it was coming when Aqib Talib did it so blatantly, but the Minnesota State High School League wants words with Antwan Cobble of Minneapolis North, who decided to use a late-game tackle to use three fingers to try to take out the eye of Minneota's Isaac Hennen.

The coach said he doesn't teach that stuff, and he's probably right:  THE NFL DOES!!!

If we had real laws in this country, that'd be enough to send Cobble to jail, for a long time.  We have a crime called "mayhem" here in California where, if you try to take somebody's eye out, that's pretty much it for you.

But in a year that's completely out of control for high-school football, you had to know that a championship game (and that was that division's state title game, part of the day-long Prep Bowl of seven such contests) would bring out the worst in Football Man.

Only the cameras caught it -- the refs missed it completely.  As I said, the state sanctioning body wants to talk to Cobble, but no word yet on any further punishment.

Today Was Not A Good Day, Part Four: Russia expelled from track and field!

Just four days after the World Anti-Doping Association stated that the successor to the KGB used intimidation and bribes to cover up and state-sponsor doping by Russian athletes (you can read the actual WADA report here), the International Amateur Athletics Federation -- the overseer of Olympic-level track and field -- has disqualified Russia from all IAAF-sanctioned track and field events until WADA declares otherwise.

This means no Olympic track athletes for Russia.  In fact, one of the authors proposed outright across-the-board Olympic disqualification for Russia until they comply with WADA anti-doping guidelines.

Now, my first impression was to the threats of similar penalties to the United States a number of years back, which got as high as threatened about one step away from throwing the United States out in a similar manner.  It appears the only difference here is there appears to be actual governmental interference involved and proven.

Today Was Not A Good Day, Part Three: Paris Terrorist Attack Rattles Soccer Match

At least 40 dead (ESPN's report on what I am about to tell you about puts the minimum at 150!), and probably more than 100 once it all gets totalled, in a series of Muslim-led terror attacks across Paris, in retaliation for European cooperation in anti-ISIS efforts in Syria.

One of the scarier scenes was at a friendly soccer match, France vs. Germany, when, in the twentieth minute, this was heard:

The stadium was a target, also because the President of France was at the game.  The match was allowed to complete, even so!  The pitch, soon afterward, was flooded with spectators, as certain exits were forbidden and the fans were only let out in small groups.

Today Was Not A Good Day, Part Two: Pinkel resigns at Missouri.

There's more to this Missouri football situation than meets the eye.

It really appeared the entire program (and, in fact, the entire athletic department) was behind the prepared strike by the Black football players which has led to the resignations of the school president and chancellor.

Now add the head football coach to that growing list.

For the record, it appears, at least at first glance, that Gary Pinkel is resigning because of concerns over the return of his non-Hodgkin's lymphoma he's been suffering from, but I can't think the timing is going to help matters at that embattled school.

Today Was Not A Good Day, Part One: Pedophile Pension

Somebody is going to have to make good on any prison threats to Jerry Sandusky - and, if so, they're probably going to have to do it soon.

The Penn State "football over everything" culture is, now, about three or four steps from the complete whitewashing of their football program, a major charity, and much of life in Happy Valley being a front for pedophile ex-coach who raped kids because he could.

Today, that piece of shit Jerry Sandusky got his pension back, with interest, in a court act of state-sponsored sports terrorism.

And that's what it is.  If Jerry Sandusky was not an assistant coach at the only thing that matters in that part of Pennsylvania, the prisoners would only need one chance to execute him before trial.  (And take it from someone who's been on the inside:  They don't wait.  There is no presumption of innocence in the joint.  You even get ACCUSED of fucking a kid, and your life is in imminent danger at any time!)

Yes, his actions were as a part of Second Mile, but if you think that had nothing to do with his time at PSU, you're a bigger fool than you believe I am.

So when's the piece of shit getting out?

When are PSU supporters simply going to hunt down the victims and finish the job?

Because football over everything, right, Pedophile State?

Asian Match Fixing and the US Courts: But the biggest part of this story might be buried...

Today on ESPN, ESPN the Magazine had an article about the arrest and prosecution of the "world's biggest bookie" at the 2014 World Series of Poker in Las Vegas.

For anyone who's been following the work of Declan Hill, it is hard not to draw the conclusion that Borneo's Paul Phua was a major player in the fixing of numerous sports as part of his role in the huge underground betting syndicates of East Asia.

Phua basically acted as a mega-bookie for top-end bettors, many of whom could not bet on events to the extent they so wished legally -- if they could actually legally bet at all!

Phua, it is alleged, had over $400,000,000 of bets on this year's World Cup, and was operating out of a villa at Caesar's Palace when he was raided and arrested four days before the Final.  Ironically, his arrest would come one day after what I believe to be the largest-scaled fixed sporting event in the history of the world:  The Brazilians falling 7-1 to Germany on home soil in the World Cup semifinal.

And, if you follow Hill's work, it would be hard to believe that Phua is not a major player in the fixing of sporting events, as I said before.

Click the link above and read of the work of this story, interviewing over 80 people in trying to bring together the case against Phua, and the people he hung with.

And it's that I want to bring to fore here.  In giving a biography of Phua, ESPN reveals that controversial poker player/believed and accused casino card cheat Phil Ivey sprang for $2.5 million of the $50 million bail set for Phua, due to his flight risk.

The ramifications of such a prominent player in the poker ranks being involved (especially because many of these players bet on other events (either themselves if they are allowed or through "beards" (proxies) if they are not!), legally and illegally) in the United States are mind-boggling.  One of the things Brian Tuohy always tries to state, often in his Twitter account, is that "it can happen here".  In my own personal opinion, it would be impossible for such a huge-scaled match-fixer like Phua to operate with prominent ties in the United States without many of the other tentacles of East Asian match-fixing coming with him.

In fact, in his biography, one of the first steps into the betting syndicates was learning how to set the lines of soccer matches -- often, the bread and butter of the match-fixing for the East Asians.

Phua became involved in an 1997 English match-fixing incident called the Floodlights Affair, where three men were arrested (two of them Malaysian, all paid by Phua) to knock out the lights at a pair of Premier League matches to fix the results with respect to Phua's growing betting empire.  Unlike in England, once a match reached halftime, the house rules where Phua was operating forced the result to be paid as it stood if a match were abandoned.  It is believed Phua was bankrupt at the time.

(Blogger's note:  Think of that in the context of the Baltimore-San Francisco Super Bowl in New Orleans, as just one example!!!)

He would use the money he won from that fix to take his empire to an unheard-of level, expanding into many fixed horse races with a prominent race-fixer from Hong Kong. 

Officials believe that Phua's company, IBCBet, has a $60,000,000,000 handle in the betting underworld of East Asia, of which the company gets 1% of that rake.  Phua owning 70% of the company means Phua himself is worth over $400,000,000!

He was busted by police on the day of the Euro 2004 final, but simply fined about the price of a cheeseburger to him ($8,000) and sent to the airport.

By this time, Phua had ties to the exploding casino scene in Macau (again, read the story for the extent of it!), and had no problems showing it!  You would think drawing this type of attention as a known match-fixer and crook would be dangerous to him, but Phua had several bodyguards and probably an army's worth of chips to cash in if he needed them!

Then, the story moves to Phua's (and others') ties to players like Phil Ivey, starting in 2010.  After the shutdown of all the poker sites on Black Friday, most of the world's professionals looking for high stakes cash games went to Phua.

Phua's associate got good enough that, by 2012, he made the final table at poker's first $1,000,000 buy-in tournament:  the World Series' charity event, The Big One for One Drop.  Phua himself would win a $1,600,000 prize in London on 100,000 pounds bought in.

It was now clear that the resurgence of poker, after Black Friday, was due to a massive infusion of cash from (and eventually back to!) a large-scale sports match-fixer!

In fact, in the early portion of this decade, it appears that a significant portion of table game handle was being made in Las Vegas on baccarat, and much of that illegal money.

(Blogger's Note:  As a person who occasionally dabbles in Las Vegas at extremely low stakes in comparison, I can at least give a nod to the descendence of table games there.  If you want stakes at my level, you're effectively playing a "video game" table instead.)

Which all leads to his arrest in Las Vegas in 2014.  By this time, there was a belief that Phua was making ten figures at every World Cup.  They loaded up their villas with every manner of technology to make a mint right out from under Caesar's Palace.

The arrest in Las Vegas would not be Phua's first in that World Cup:  He was arrested in Macau on June 18 and perp-walked after a similar illegal book had already taken in so much money, the president of China had taken notice and wanted him stopped!!!  As a result of this arrest, he is no longer welcome in Macau.

The American arrest came as a result of Caesar's Palace officials getting a look at the villas at which Phua and his associates were staying -- something which should've been obvious, realizing that there could be $10,000,000 of furnishings in the villas, and Caesar's would take periodic inspections at times which would not be intrusive to the guests!

After a failed attempt to start a similar room in London, the FBI moved in...

Phua used his US poker connections to get a high-profile attorney who argued cases before the Supreme Court!  By December, Phua's associates and the hopelessly corrupt frameworks of southeast Asia were working full-tilt to free Phua, questioning ties to the organized crime syndicates with no less than the minster of home affairs in Malaysia's government.

The next major players to defend Phua are even more shocking, and might explain much of the frustration Declan Hill has had in trying to make headway against match fixing:  The former secretary general and general counsel of Interpol!

The Asian match-fixers have penetrated the highest levels of Interpol, making any such policing of their actions basically impossible!!!

And Phua won, being freed when the Federal courts declared the search warrant unconstitutional.

Anyone with any idea of the scope Phua's operation --  the money involved, the match-fixing, the amount of influence curried, etc. -- would know this is the ultimate "Too Big To Fail, Too Big To Jail" moment.

I've said a number of times that I no longer believe international soccer exists anymore in most countries without these books.  And, considering the number of American influences in the situation, it's clear it's here.  The question then becomes whether some of these underground books (remember the big Floyd Mayweather bet on Game 7 of the Eastern Conference Finals (Miami-Indiana) that one year and the reverberations that had around Vegas?) are in league with the power-brokers of sports, if not the leagues themselves!!!

Week 9 Score Report as we begin Week 10

Almost let this go all the way through...

Anyway...

• The 13 games of Week 9 averaged 50.30 points per game.  (Last year:  48.23 PPG)
• The 132 games through 9 weeks have averaged 46.96 PPG.  (Last year:  46.806)
• Home team was 9-4 for the week, 78-51 (.605) for the year.  (Last year:  8-5, 82-49-1 (.625))
• Over was 8-5 for the week, 68 overs for the year, 59-63 unders, depending on circumstances.  (Last year:  7-4-1 and 69-62-1/63-61-9)
• Favorites were 6-7 for the week, 56-66-10 for the year.  A one-unit bet on every favorite would now be -15 units on the year.
• 172 penalties in the 13 games.  One of the lowest averages of the year at 13 1/4 per game.
• 4 Cliffhangers for the week (Tennessee and Philadelphia with overtime TDs, Minnesota with an overtime FG, and Pittsburgh with a field goal at 2 seconds)
• 5 other games within one score at the end, and 2 more within one score at some point in the 4th quarter.  Only 2 non-competitive games for the week!
• Cliffhangers:  33/132 (25%)  (Last year:  29/134 (19.4%))
• Within one score:  73/132 (55.3%)  (Last year:  40.3%)
• Competitive at some point in the 4th quarter:  91/132 (68.9%)  (Last year:  62.69%)

Only a matter of time, it appears...

... until the entire University of Missouri becomes Ground Zero for a race riot.

The resignation of the school president has done nothing to quell racial tensions at the university, and now it appears that it may be WHEN, not IF, the school literally starts burning.

Several death threats have permeated social media, with at least one person arrested for threatening African-American students at the school.  And, of course, the "threats are free speech" people are out to defend him, it appears.

As I've said before on the subject:  The entire damn state of Missouri is a racial tempest and has been for years.  The state's population is going to become the centerpiece for what is about to happen.  The University of Missouri is teetering on a "unable to proceed" moment, a term used by colleges to determine serious dangers (usually individual) by stating that if the danger were to be allowed to remain on the campus, the school would be unable to grant a safe education to the other students.

At least one professor demanded his students attend classes anyway, even with the threats on the table -- he has since offered his resignation.