July 29: Stephen A. Smith suspended from ESPN for his rant, capping a week of continuing stories on how sports covers up domestic violence, from baseball's Chuck Knoblauch to a victim almost run out of Oklahoma University for fear of her safety by Sooner fans.
August 2: Dustin Johnson is suspended from the PGA for a failed drug test, NOT his first offense. Other stories surface that Johnson might not only be on drugs, but also womanizing on the PGA Tour.
August 3: An Inspector General is called to investigate the Air Force football program for all the usual suspects: Parties, (non-consensual) sex, and drugs (to facilitate the second -- MDMA).
August 4: A UFC press event at the MGM Grand dissolves into chaos when Jon Jones and Daniel Cormier apparently have a legitimate fight on their hands. Their main event is postponed due to an injury -- to tonight!
August 5: Anthony Bosch of Biogenesis is finally arrested on drug-trafficking charges.
August 7: The NCAA, in it's dying throes, finally allows the five money conferences effective autonomy to make their own rules. The first proposals should be in meetings this month. I gave it one calendar year before a non-money-conference school gave up.
Four days after becoming bowl-eligible, Conference USA's Alabama-Birmingham dropped football on December 2, not four months after this decision.
August 9: A fatal accident involving Tony Stewart on a short-track in New York state kills Kevin Ward Jr.
August 14: Rob Manfred is promoted from COO of MLB to the new Commissioner of the league. This is also with Bud Selig, later in the year, staying on as a "Commissioner Emeritus". Meet the new boss, same as the old boss!
On the same day, the NFL announces it will re-examine penalties for domestic violence.
August 15: In the latest example of football thuggery, Oklahoma star recruit Joe Mixon is charged with homophobic slurs to a person, a female friend of whom stands up to them. For this, she gets smashed in the face, four broken bones. He is banned from the program for the year soon after.
In December, he received a penalty of... 100 hours community service. He is expected to be back with Oklahoma next fall.
By August 22: Under the old drug policies, at least six NFL teams would've had to send money to the league for having multiple players suspended in the off-season.
August 23: In a pre-season full of defensive penalties, Ndamokung Suh (for at least the third pre-season) is brought under scrutiny for a borderline hit. No fine or suspension is given.
Around the same weekend: A Cameroonian soccer player was killed in Algeria by a rock thrown at his head by one of the spectators.
... or at least that was the story then. Further tests have indicated a struggle may have been involved, and that his injuries may not have been consistent with such a projectile. The team has been banned from African tournaments for two years and ordered to play all home matches in empty stadia.
D.J. Swearinger concusses Wes Welker for the third time within a year with a borderline hit. No fine for the hit, but Peyton Manning is fined for taunting Swearinger soon afterward.
August 25: The disgrace to football and humanity, Richie Incognito, has his suspension ended. He did not, however, play in 2014.
August 26: ESPN is caught attempting to disseminate a meme in which players are uncomfortable showering with Michael Sam, who was having a quite-credible pre-season with the St. Louis Rams.
The next day, Jeff Fisher explodes on ESPN for trying to manufacture the story.
Three days after that, ESPN wins: Michael Sam is cut from the Rams. He is not placed on the practice squad, ends up on the practice squad of the Cowboys until it is convenient, and is soon-thereafter cut.
August 29: Aldon Smith is suspended nine games for his misconduct.
August 30: Oklahoma State students and fans unveil a racist anti-Indian banner, aimed at the Florida State Seminoles, on ESPN's Gameday, which often had demeaning such acts this season -- again!
September 1: After a lesser attempt to revamp the NFL's domestic violence policy, Ray McDonald of the 49ers is arrested for domestic violence. Though coach Harbaugh SAID he wouldn't be welcome on the team anymore if he did it, it takes until the piece of shit is accused of RAPE on top of it in Week 16 before he is finally cut!
September 2: Jim Irsay is banned from ownership activities of the Colts for six weeks and fined a half-million dollars for his March 16, 2014 DUI situation.
On the same day, Wes Welker is suspended four games for violation of the NFL's drug policy, for an incident at the 2014 Kentucky Derby, involved the crystallized form of the active ingredient of Ecstasy!
September 6: The NASCAR race is brought to a caution when a drunk idiot climbs on top of the catch fence in turn four!!!
And then, just as we are about to wrap up Week One in the National Religion of the NFL, Sports Gone Insane begins and ALL HELL BREAKS LOOSE:
September 7: The Atlanta Hawks' owner, Bruce Levinson, decides to divest his stake in the Hawks after e-mails surface racially denigrating Luol Deng and the demographics of the crowd at Atlanta Hawks games. As of yesterday, January 2nd, the entire 100% of the team is now up for sale, with the NBA's blessing.
September 8: Ray Rice is released from the Ravens after a weekend where TMZ found the REST of the story regarding that night in Atlantic City, and showed the world Rice knocking his wife unconscious in the elevator.
The NFL suspends Rice indefinitely (over the top of the 2-game suspension earlier), claiming it did not have knowledge of the video, but Adam Schefter and most NFL insiders do NOT believe Roger Goodell.
On the same day, Mark Emmert officially voids most of the remaining penalties against Penn State for Jerry Sandusky, et. al., effectively admitting any effort to make life more important than football there has gone to failure. Penn State immediately responds by becoming bowl eligible in the 2014 season.
September 9: Janay Rice effectively covers for her husband, in a case of Stockholm Syndrome.
Keith Olbermann begins a season-long campaign for the expulsion of Roger Goodell as Commissioner. He, obviously, failed.
September 10: The Associated Press reveals the NFL was lying in it's comments that it did not have the full video of the Ray/Janay incident.
Goodell announces Ray Mueller, the former FBI head, will head an "independent" "investigation" of the NFL's handling of the issue.
Congressional Democrats in both House and Senate try to involve themselves, to no avail.
September 11: On a day when the Ravens are playing on Thursday Night Football, it is revealed through "sources" that Roger Goodell did believe Janay was responsible for the incident.
Bill Polian is interviewed by SportsCenter on ESPN about the procedures in the NFL office regarding such matters and whether it would be possible that such as what the NFL claims happened could have happened.
He gives what appears to be a more truthful answer, but is soon cut off. He is brought back 20 minutes later, and gives a much more NFL-friendly answer.
At the broadcast, Rihanna's song for the NFL Network/CBS broadcast was pulled (soon permanently!), and James Brown, the host of the studio show, has a statement on the manner. Leave it to Jim Nantz to try to cover for the league's poster boys, though.
Half a world away, Oscar Pistorius is found responsible for the beating of his wife, not to intentional murder, but to culpable acts resulting in her death. On October 21, the Blade-Runner was sentenced to five years in a South African prison.
September 12: In an admission that the NFL is a bunch of drug-ladened freaks, the NFL rewrites it's drug policies in such a manner such that most of the monetary penalties, and some of the suspensions (including Welker's) are reversed.
All of this, almost including Ray Rice, pales in comparison to the child-abuse allegations which sprout on the 5:00 news against the NFL's favorite homophobe running-back, Adrian Peterson. After using a switch to nail one of his sons on about every part of the body imaginable (he was 4!!!), it should be still in question as to whether the son who was killed (ostensibly by the mother's boyfriend) was not involved in a similar incident.
I'm going to have to make a third, and perhaps a FOURTH, part to this.
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