The Rio Farce, Day -5: And what of THIS???

Perhaps even more disturbing than the Gisele Bündchen article below was a half-discarded statement at the bottom of the article that an explosion due to a suspicious package was set off at the Maracana Stadium (where the Opening Ceremony will be held) shortly after the dress rehearsal on Sunday.

Channel 7 in New Zealand and the New Zealand Herald report that a loud explosion was heard after a robot was sent in to investigate a suspicious package many now believe was a misplaced tool box.

If so, why the explosion?

The Rio Farce, Day -5: You're going to do WHAT at the Opening Ceremony?

Brazilian supermodel Gisele Bündchen (Mrs. Tom Brady) will be in the Opening Ceremony.

It's what they're probably going to do with her that is raising a lot of eyebrows, according to Deadspin.

Here, from the Timothy Burke report, is a Google translation of comments from Brazil regarding the Opening Ceremony, from a dress rehearsal held Sunday:

"Another curiosity was on account of a passage where Gisele Bündchen, parading to the sound of “The Girl from Ipanema”, will be assailed by an actor. In the end, however, the message of this scene will be peace.
[...]Still in the first hour reserved for the performing arts, the flight of a replica of the plane 14 Bis draw the attention of all. Soon after, the course is free for a parade of more than 100 meters from top international Gisele Bündchen. At this time, there will be a simulation of assault and even persecution."

So, if we are to get this straight:  After a 100 meter walk from Gisele, she will be simulatedly assaulted and persecuted in the Opening Ceremony of the Olympic Games, in which billions are expected to watch!!

Needless to say, some aren't happy about it, including Brazilian (I assume) sports law/journalism student Fernanda Karine:

Simulação de assalto a Gisele Bündchen na Abertura das Olimpíadas. Não entendi. Oi? Alô, Brasil? É sério mesmo?

— Fernanda Karine (@fernandakarine) August 1, 2016

Translated with Google Translate:

"Assault simulation Gisele Bundchen at the opening of the Olympics. I did not understand. Hi? Hello, Brazil? Really it?"

As in:

"REALLY, Brazil??  HELLO!!  I don't understand this.  You are going to simulate the assault of Gisele Bündchen at the Opening Ceremony of the Olympic Games!!!"

Other Rio Farce Updates On Day -5

• Thomas Bach, appearing now to be an apologist for drugged athletes (at least from Russia), is preparing to heap blame on the debacle surrounding Russia's participation in Sochi squarely upon the necks of the World Anti-Doping Association.  This is bad enough, worse when you realize Bach is the current President of the International Olympic Committee!!!
• Probably at Bach's direction, a listing of all the athletes caught in recent re-testing of drug samples from Beijing and London will be delayed until the Rio Games complete.  98 such athletes have been caught.
• Speaking of Mr. Bach, he claims to have had no contact with Vladimir Putin during the WADA report scandal.
• The items reported stolen from the Australian delegation included three laptops and clothing.
• The largest project for the Games which is supposed to actually benefit the city of Rio de Janeiro is a subway extension from the Olympic hub to the city center.  Too bad it only is opening four days before the Opening Ceremony, and, even then, only to Olympic-accredited individuals.
• The appointed head of the Refugee Olympic Team has stated desire to field a similar team in four years in Tokyo -- and wants to extend relevant training funds and facilities to do so.
• The London men's doubles champions (Bob and Mike Bryan of the USA) will not defend their titles in Rio, choosing to withdraw over health concerns.  It is unclear as to whether Zika is involved in the decision, but it is largely believed the Bryans have joined a growing list of tennis players to join the golfers in foregoing Rio.

All this news courtesy, again, of Inside The Games.

The Rio Farce: Day -5: Australia needs to boycott. NOW.

DISCLAIMER:  If I have any readers in Australia, this is meant as no disrespect to your Olympians.  (And it certainly is not meant as a threat by me -- now, it IS meant that there is a clear and present danger to the Australian Olympic Team, but that should be public and obvious by now.)

But if there has been any more case for a major Olympic delegation to walk from the Games, Australia has it.

After a Friday fire forced evacuation of the Australian team from the Olympic Village (two days after they moved in three days late due to "uninhabitable" conditions), they returned to find a number of the athletes had been ROBBED.

The fire was supposedly investigated for arson, and the fire alarms at the Aussie Olympic delegation were disconnected.

It's time to walk, Australia.

It's time to go home, before one (or more) of your athletes turn up dead.

It is clear that, for one reason or another, you will not be able to compete at these Olympics safely.

Australia, get out of Rio while all your athletes are still alive.  Rio will not help you.

Updates: The Rio Farce (Day -6) and Otherwise

Olympics first:

• In a blow to the confidence of the Rio Games, the main ramp for the sailing venue has been destroyed.  Sailing events begin in Rio on the 14th of August, should the Games get that far.
• One of the International Broadcast Centers, this one on the world-famous Copacabana Beach, has been flooded -- again!!  (Deadspin for these first two.)
• The Rio Games have placed 630 engineers in charge of making the Olympic Village habitable.  According to a statement from the Games, just ONE of those engineers found problems in over 300 of the high-rise apartments!  (And that was in only five of the relevant buildings!)  (Deadspin)
• And in a move that should make all the athletes rest easy (especially the Chinese hurdler who was robbed after a fake drunk vomited on him), the private security firm the Rio organizing committee hired to protect the Games...  has been FIRED for incompetence!  Rio and Brazilian police will try to keep the peace at the Games.
• The IOC Executive Board has placed a three-member Commission on the final eligibility of individual Russian athletes for the Rio Games.  (Inside The Games)
• Speaking of Russia, the Rio division of the Council for Arbitration of Sport will already be busy dealing with them.  The Russian weightlifters have appealed their blanket ban from the Games, and two of the disqualified Russian swimmers have also gone to the CAS.  (Inside The Games:  Swimmers and Weightlifters)
• To give you an idea of how little faith the world has, even in the face of the IOC's statements and several sports banning the Russians, here's a story from the UK:  Paddy Power, a betting site where betting on the Games is legal, has offered a free bet equal to the losing bet on a gold medal if an Irish or British athlete or team gets silver...  to a Russian.  (Inside The Games)  (I don't know if US sportsbooks take bets on the Games, but I will be in Vegas for part of the first week...)

That's the latest from Rio...

E-Sports next:

• Virtus.pro of Poland defeated the European e-sports powerhouse Fnatic in straight maps today in Atlanta to win the first Turner Broadcasting System E-League of Counterstrike:  Global Offensive.  22 teams split $1.4 million in the first-ever fully-broadcasted e-sports league on American cable television.  Virtus.pro's championship earned them a cool $390,000.  (By comparison, the official world championships for CS:GO only award a $100,000 prize pool.  The DoTA2 Interntaional, long the richest of e-sports tournaments and to be held this and next week (August 2-12) will have a prize pool almost-certainly exceeding...  TWENTY MILLION DOLLARS!  (The total is over $19M as we speak.))
• Yes, I said 22.  At the beginning of the E-League season, I reported a story making the rounds about a contract dispute/tampering/poaching incident involving SK Gaming purchasing outright the entire team of Luminosity Gaming, as the latter won the first qualifying spot for the eight-team playoffs.  SK Gaming would have won the opportunity to play in a Last Chance Qualifier in the seventh week for the final two spots.
• However, E-League officials tossed both teams from the tournament on July 6, but stressed that the disqualifications were only for violations of E-League rules and agreements (and at the behest of six of the other teams), as it had been noted previously that CS:GO does NOT (unlike League of Legends) have rules specifically prohibiting such tampering and poaching.
• Hence, no further known action will be taken against SK Gaming.

EDIT TO ADD 1:45 AM PDT 7/31...

Basketball:

• There will be new rules next year about the "Hack-a-Player" situation.  The "away from the play" "technical" which applies last two minutes of a half or overtime now becomes last two minutes of all periods.  Also, the "jump on the back" foul will now probably be a Flagrant-1.  Also, any foul by the defense before the ball is inbounded (including legitimate attempts to play) will also be a "technical" (not an actual T, but enforced as one:  One freethrow plus the ball.)

The Rio Farce: Day -6: Add the Weightlifting Team To The Disqualified

Had to go to the same website that did the NBC bitch-fest story, Inside the Games, for this update:

Russia's weightlifting team has been disqualified from the Rio Games, being at least the second individual sport to refuse Russian athletes from the Rio Games, announced yesterday by the International Weightlifting Federation.

Some other eye-opening updates from Inside the Games:

• Chinese 20 km race walking champion Liu Hong was suspended in May for a failed drug test, but will now be allowed to compete in Rio.
• Hans William Gäb of Germany was given the Olympic Order in 2006 for his contributions with German Olympic teams.  He has renounced the award in protest of the IOC Executive Board decision to allow non-disqualified Russian athletes to compete in Rio.
• A second issue, a fire, has befallen the Australian Olympic Team after it tried to move into it's Olympic Village housing, three days after schedule.  
• It appears that athletes are already falling victim to the complete non-safety of Rio de Janeiro.  One example given is of a Chinese athlete robbed of his luggage by a party posing as a drunk person in the city.
• Nigeria's 4X400m women's track relay has been sent home because of a failed drugs test.
• In response to the Russian situation, the rugby sanctioning body, World Rugby, has announced that every player in the Olympic rugby tournament will be drug-tested, not just a random sample.

And that's just from Friday!  Here's a sample of some of the other articles they've got on the site, which anyone not watching the Games as a simple flag-waving penis-jocker should get bookmarked on the double!

• One of the athletes caught in the latest round of drug retests was a Belarussian hammer thrower who won the gold medal in Beijing in her event.
• Moon Dae-Sung is no longer a member of the International Olympic Committee after the Korean was discovered to have plagiarized part of his doctoral thesis.
• While Russian weightlifters have been disqualified, the sanctioning bodies of international wrestling, judo, fencing, triathlon, volleyball and cycling have green-lighted the Russian teams in their sports to compete in Rio.
• The seven sanctioning bodies covering all disciplines of Olympic winter sports will meet soon to discuss the WADA report as it relates to the 2018 Winter Games.
• Jamel Chatbi of Italy has been sent home after missing a third drug test.  Chatbi was scheduled to compete in the steeplechase.
• The 2012 Olympic champion in discus, Robert Harting, has accused IOC President Thomas Bach of being part of the doping problem, not in small portion because of Bach's ties to Vladimir Putin -- this is one of the reasons Gäb threw down his Olympic Order.
• The Court of Arbitration for Sport will open a Rio courtroom to directly hear appeals as quickly as feasible during the Rio Games.  On top of the Russian track disqualification, a recent finding tossing Kuwaiti shooters from the shooting events has also been recently heard from the CAS.
• In a non-surprising survey (and one which mirrors several readers of this blog), it is now confirmed that the doping scandals have reduced interest in the Olympic Games.  The BBC World Service surveyed 19,000 people from 19 countries, with nearly three in five stating their interest in the Games had been reduced because of the rampant doping scandals.
• K2 London gold medalist Alexander Dyachenko, former modern pentathlon world champion Ilia Frolov and modern pentathlete Maxim Kustov have all been tossed for their presence in the WADA report.  Three other Russians and Kustov's replacement (Frolov was an alternate) will compete.
• Two Indian athletes, a double-medaled wrestler (Sushil Kumar, who has won medals in the last two Olympics) and the current Asian shot-put champion (Inderjeet Singh) have both tested positive for drugs.  Kumar has already failed all appeals, Singh is in the process of appealing.

Gee, you think we got a problem here?

Thanks to Inside the Games, and I will definitely be keeping an eye on you guys over the next three weeks.

The Rio Farce, Day -9: Here We Go, Fuck Me... SHUT UP NBC!!!!

I had a feeling this was coming.

Deadspin again.

One of the highlights of the Opening Ceremonies is the otherwise interminable Parade of Nations, where all of the athletes who can walk the track and take positions in the center.

When possible (for example, the Chinese "alphabet" has no "order" - I forget what was eventually done), the host country picks their language or one of them, and the 200+ nations (plus a Refugee Team this year) will march into the stadium in alphabetical order, except Greece always leads the procession and the hosts are last.  (When Athens hosted a recent Olympics, the Greeks marched twice!)

In English-speaking countries, this means that most American Olympics flag-wavers television viewers have to wait the better part of a couple hours (the official YouTube video of the London Parade is just under an hour and 40 minutes) of the interminable NBC coverage (in which many lesser nations are skipped for commercials!!) until "USA!  USA!!  USA!!!" marches in.

A Sao Paulo newspaper has reported that NBC is not happy that the Portugese language (only the national language of Brazil) is being used.

Why?

United States of America translates to...

Estados Unidos da America

(not dissimilar to Spanish)

With the obvious result that instead of forcing their Olympic flag-wavers to sit through most of the parade (the London video shows the USA entering at 1:27:44), they would enter quite early in the procession.  Yes, there would be similar reordering of other nations, but, as a guideline, if we inserted "Estados Unidos da America" into the London ceremony, the EUA (Portugese abbreviation for USA) would enter at about 32 minutes (after Equatorial Guinea, before Estonia).

That's 55 minutes of commercials and useless twatter that NBC would not be able to subject many American Olympic watchers to.  And they aren't happy and they are trying to change it.

In fact, Wikipedia has the apparent order of nations on a page cataloging the parade and who will bear the flag for each nation.

The United States will enter 64th, behind the Estados Federados da Micronesia (the Federated States of Micronesia) -- which will almost certainly merit a commercial break after the entrance of Spain (Espanha).  Estonia will enter afterward.  Ironically, the Russian team which is not disqualified enters as Federacao Russia, with only Estonia and Ethiopia separating the USA from Russia.  That COULD be a problem.

In the London Games, the USA entered 195th of the 205 nations.

Other major moves are countries like

• Africa do Sul (South Africa, who now enters 3rd, with only Greece and Afghanistan preceding them)
• Alemanha (Germany, entering 5th, after Albania)
• Arabia Saudita (Saudi Arabia, 10th, after Antigua and Barbuda)
• Catar (Qatar, 39th)
• The country which preceded the USA in London has to make a larger move:  Emirados Arabes Unidos (United Arab Emirates, 57th)
• Eslovenia, Eslovakia, and Espanha (Slovenia, Slovakia, and Spain, 60th, 61st, and 62nd)
• Filipinas (Philippines, 69th)
• First move the other direction is a somewhat minor one: Guiné Equatorial (Equitorial Guinea, 83rd)
• The country 3rd from last in the alphabetical part of English 2012 Parade moves to 88th, Iemen (Yemen)
• All of the "Islands" nations move, as, in Portugese, all of their names start with Ilhas (Cayman, Cook, Marshall, Solomon, US Virgin (Ilhas Virginas Americanas), and British Virgin (Ilhas Virginas Britanicas) are 89th-94th)
• Then we normalize a bit for quite a while, about a third of the total, until we hit Quênia (Kenya, at 151st) and Quirguistão (Kyrgyzstan, 152nd)
• Many of the "Republic" nations also have to move, similar to the Islands:  Their names all start with República (Central-African, (South) Korea, Moldova, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Dominican, (Islamic Republic of) Iran, (People's Republic of) China, (North) Korea, Laos, and the Czech Republic are 153-162).
• Samoa Americana (American Samoa, from 5th to 166th.)

So I don't want to hear this shit, NBC.  I really don't.

If you want cover something really important that might actually mean something positive this night if it is allowed to complete without a terrorist attack, I will be glad to provide you one right at the end of the line, just before Brazil...

The last non-Brazilian team to enter is the first-ever Atletas Olímpicos Refugiados :  The Refugee Olympic Athletes Team. Ten athletes.  Six in track and field, two in judo, two swimmers.  Five of the six track athletes escaped from South Sudan and the civil war in Sudan.  The two judo athletes both escaped from the Democratic Republic of the Congo.  The two swimmers are both Syrian.  The sixth track athlete is a marathoner who escaped Ethiopia.

If you really want to do something positive:  GIVE THESE MEN AND WOMEN A FUCKING MOMENT!

And don't worry, you can hype the flag and the torch and the cauldron (I'm almost willing to bet money it's Pele to light it!).

But as for the USA being "too early" in the Parade of Nations, shut the fuck up.

Current, To Date, NFL Suspension Blotter

Source:  Spotrac

With word today that the Dallas Cowboys have triggered the NFL's Club Remittance Policy for having three suspended players, maybe it's time to continue to show how stupid the NFL is for allowing the conduct, culture, and idiocies associated with The National Bloodfeast to continue.

This, according to compilation site Spotrac (which I now use after the NFL decided it was not only going to fine far fewer players for dirty bullshit hits, but not publicize it) is a long list of players suspended by the league (with an assist by a similar Wikipedia page on the subject):

Starting with the non-drugs suspensions (and if I find more on a Google search or something, I'll add)

• Cincinnati Bengals:  Vontaze Burfict:  3 game suspension for a repeated amount of dirty hits.  He, to my knowledge, is the longest-suspended player for actually having a record of dirty hits, and has well earned the "privilege".  With a salary of $2,850,000 for his dirty bullshit in 2016-17, the forfeit is $502,941.  He will not play in any capacity until Week 4.
• New England Patriots:  Tom Brady:  4-game suspension, Deflategate.  Now he's done a very interesting end-around on his contract, according to his page on Spotrac.  I don't know if this is with the suspension in mind, but I think it is.  His base salary each of the next two years is $1,000,000.  It's all signing bonus ($28,000,000) and the last two years (2018, 2019) are $14,000,000 each.  That's legal????  If that is legal, his forfeit is $235,294.
• New York Jets:  Sheldon Richardson:  1 game suspension for personal conduct and his role in a drag race.  With a $1,776,000 base salary, Sheldon forfeits $104,470 for his little 143 MPH stunt in July 2015.  And his contract was not voided...  WHY?

Now the drug list:

• Atlanta Falcons:  Jalen Collins:  4 games:  PEDs.  Forfeiture is $290,257.
• Baltimore Ravens:  Nick Boyle, suspended in December for the last 4 games of the 2015-16 season, has been banned the first 10 games of 2016-17 for a second round of PEDs.   As of right now, he is not cut, but many in Baltimore believe he should be.  Should be serve the suspension, he forfeits $308,824 of his $525,000 salary.
• Baltimore Ravens:  Darren Waller:  4 games, substance abuse.  Forfeiture is $123,529.  The team situation at tight end might make it very easy (and the fact that another suspension means a sizable check to the league on top of the forfeitures!) that Waller has probably played his last in Baltimore.
• Buffalo Bills:  Karlos Williams:  4 games, substance abuse.  Forfeiture is $136,197.  Williams is having problems getting in shape in Buffalo on top of the suspension -- he may be gone.
• Chicago Bears:  Jalen Saunders, a member of the practice squad, was also suspended twice, originally for four games, extended to 10, for a drug of substance abuse.  He'd been in the league two years, and the Bears were his SIXTH team -- he'd been drafted by the Jets, signed for four years and $2.7 million.  There is no word he's been cut by the Bears, nor how much money he's further lost for forfeiting from his 2016 salary.  If he plays, he has four games to serve.
• Cleveland Browns:  Armonty Bryant:  4 games, PEDs.  Forfeiture:  $158,823.   And probably more coming:  Drug possession conviction in court on the 28th of July.  Additional forfeiture determined upon further suspension, but he may be done.
• Cleveland Browns:  Josh Gordon:  Reinstated to the league after his hearings, but banned 4 additional games of the 2016 season upon being reinstated for his long record of violations of the drug policies.  If he stays clean to game 5, it would be his first game since 2014.  2016 forfeiture is $251,389.
• Dallas Cowboys:  Randy Gregory:  4 games to start from February, more coming.  That was for his FOURTH failed drug test (probably marijuana at that level, anything more serious and he's probably already in one-year banishment territory). And we now apparently have #5, and he's been ordered into rehab yesterday.  Forfeiture for the first suspension is $143,154.  One article says another suspension would be a half season on top of it, add another $286,308 to that number.
• Dallas Cowboys:  DeMarcus Lawrence:  4 games, PEDs.  That's a forfeiture of $353,367
• Dallas Cowboys:  Rolando McClain:  On the same day the NFL announced Lawrence's suspension, McClain was banned 10 games for another round of substance abuse drugs.  Base Salary:  $1.25 million.  Forfeiture:   $735,429, plus, if he's not released by the Cowboys, McClain has to give back the $750,000 signing bonus on his deal, but that's money to the Cowboys and not the league.  (And word comes that might happen.  He is officially Did Not Report to the Cowboys training camp when it opened.)
• As a result of these three suspensions, the Dallas Cowboys will be fined once the 2016 Club Remittance Policy is finalized.  It appears as if the fine will be the cap for three suspensions, at least $250,000.  An additional Gregory suspension may increase this number.
• Green Bay Packers:  Mike Pennel:  4 games, substance abuse.  The Packers have no plans to cut Pennel, so his forfeiture is $141,176. 
• Green Bay Packers:  Demetri Goodson:  4 games, PEDs.  Forfeiture:  $147,243.
• Indianapolis Colts:  Arthur Jones:  4 games  PEDs, and this one is costly.  Five year, $33 million contract in 2014, has played 9 games with the Colts because of an injury since then.  Sounds like a renegotiated base salary of $2,500,000 for 2016, meaning the forfeiture is $588,235.
• Jacksonville Jaguars:  Aaron Colvin: 4 games, PEDs.  Forfeiture:  $167,833.
• Oakland Raiders:  Marcel Reece:  4 games, PEDs.  Three games to serve, and he was thrown out of the 2016 Pro Bowl, his fourth consecutive selection.  $816,079 is the total forfeit, of which 3/4 of it ($612,060) applies to 2016.
• Oakland Raiders:  Aldon Smith:  1 year, PEDs plus personal conduct, November 17, 2015.  He is ineligible to play until at least Nov. 17, 2016 -- and that's if a recent video which he allegedly posted possibly smoking marijuana does not end his career.  Base 2016 salary, if he ever sees any of it, is $1,250,000.  (Of the $11M in his contract, over half is roster bonuses.)  Forfeiture, pending a Nov. 17 reinstatement (misses 9 games of the 2016 season):  $661,765.
• Pittsburgh Steelers:  Martavis Bryant, banned minimum 1 year, strike three with substance abuse.  The GM of the Steelers said days later in March Martavis would not be cut, so the forfeiture is his entire 2016 salary:  $709,805. 
• Pittsburgh Steelers (yes, it hasn't taken place yet, but it's pretty certain it will):  Le'Veon Bell:  4 games for missing a drug test -- it is being appealed.  This would be his second round with the drug suspensions, as he was banned for a 2014 DUI and marijuana situation for two games (down from three) in 2015.  If he's banned the 4 games, Bell forfeits $227,506.
• San Francisco 49ers:  Aaron Lynch, 4 games, substance abuse.  Forfeiture:  $152,824.
• Tennessee Titans:  Andrew Turzilli:  4 games, PEDs.  Forfeiture:  $123,529, if he makes the Titans roster.  It is not hard to understand this one.  Titans previously cut him and the 49ers only had him on the practice squad.  Probably needed the juice to make the league.
• Washington Redskins:  Silas Redd:  Tossed out of the league indefinitely for repeated violations of substance abuse policies.  Forfeiture is the full $525,000 of the final year of his contract.
• Free Agent:   Frank Alexander:  1 year, marijuana strike three, November 24, 2015.  Ineligible until at least Nov. 24, 2016.  Alexander was last with the Panthers, contract expired.  Out until past Thanksgiving, his only hope of seeing the field in 2016 is a reinstatement plus probably injury needs late in the season.
• Free Agent:  Taylor Mays:  4 games, substance abuse.  Doubtful he forfeits anything.  Like Saunders, Mays has bounced around the league seriously, getting cut in the 2016 training camp by the Bengals (his second stint after four years with the team) after losing his job with the Raiders (and with trips to Minnesota, Detroit, and San Francisco sprinkled in).
• Free Agent:  Nick Moody.  4 games, substance abuse.  Three games last year with Seattle after getting cut in San Francisco.  Contract expired.
• Free Agent:  Will Hill:  10 games, substance abuse -- HIS FOURTH NFL DRUG SUSPENSION.  Immediately cut by Baltimore in March when this went down, he was suspended THREE TIMES in New York with the Giants.  Four games for PED's, four and six games for substance abuse, the third suspension finally got his ass cut by the Giants.  It is now largely believed his NFL career is over.
• Free Agent:  Bernard Pierce:  2 games for a 2015 DUI that got him cut from the Baltimore Ravens.  Pierce is the subject of an interesting story.  He was picked up by Jacksonville later in the year, and was the player who accidentally blocked his own player on a kickoff return after suffering a concussion.
• Free Agent:  Jace Davis, 4 games for a DUI that got him cut from the Denver Broncos.
• Free Agent:  Johnny Manziel, 4 games for a massive list of misdeeds, some of which involved drugs of substance abuse, that got him cut from the Cleveland Browns.

31 players.

8 free agents, 14 teams.

On top of the Cowboys already having to cut a check:  The Packers, Browns (one of the reasons they finally shit-canned Manziel, who would've been #3??), Raiders, Steelers, and Ravens are all one more suspension from having the same. 

And, for those who want to think the NFL gives a motherfucking shit:  There are precisely ZERO known players now suspended for domestic violence.

Yeah...  Sure...

The Rio Farce, Day -10. Add Argentina to the List.

Latest reports have Argentina preparing to re-house it's athletes off-site -- and either a translation error or a very strong statement inferring their neighbors to the north have nothing but sabotaged the Olympic Village with all of the travails already reported.

And to all of the idiots in the Deadspin comment section of the report indicating:  "They've worked all their lives for this!"...  Does that extend to being willing to die to consummate it?

Australia, Great Britain, New Zealand, Argentina...  and we're still 10 days from the Opening Ceremony.

And, Abby Johnston of the US Diving Team has but one problem, and it's not the facilities...

She can't play Pokemon Go.  #FirstWorldProblems

The Rio Farce, Day -11: So how many athletes do you want to die in your Olympic Village, Rio?

Good God...

Deadspin reports tonight that only 12 of the 31 buildings which are supposed to be the Olympic Village for Rio de Janeiro passed any sort of a safety inspection (false, rudimentary, or otherwise).

Reports, in addition to the reported problems with the Australian Olympic Team, now include a small fire in the Village.

Add the Netherlands and Italy to the growing list of countries either refusing to stay in the Village or demanding money to do so!  The latter has even brought in their own construction team to finish the rooms themselves!

I'm giving it til some time Thursday (which is when organizers SAY they'll sort things out by) before one of the countries just up and leaves.

North Carolina Transphobia Update: Onus on the PGA, and on Adam Silver...

First, from Deadspin:

It appears we will be getting a new owner (or Michael Jordan consolidating his stake) in the Charlotte Hornets.

Felix Sabates sent this as a portion of an e-mail to the other owners of the Hornets.  I can't think that Adam Silver is going to allow Sabates to retain his stake in the team for very long!

“What is wrong with a person using a bathroom provided for the sex the were born with, if you want to change your gender so be it, we are a free county, but don’t force 8 years old children to be exposed to having to share bathroom facilities with people that don’t share the organs they were Bourne (sic) with, this is plain wrong, this could cause irreparable damages to a children’s that don’t understand why they have to see what God did not mean for them to witness, we have some very confused business as well as political humans that frankly have made this a political issue rather then (sic) moral issues, SHAME ON THEM.”

Donald Sterling got thrown out of the league for less than this.

Team and NBA refused to comment.  That appears to continue through today.

And the PGA of America has a controversy on it's hands that it refuses to properly address.

As the PGA prepares for the 2016 version of the PGA Championship (played early to accommodate the Rio farce), the 2017 PGA Championship is scheduled for Quail Hollow...

... in North Carolina.

And the PGA has decided (with one eye toward one having to wonder how much of it's white clientele actually agrees with this bullshit) that the 2017 tournament stays.

*sigh*  Two steps forward...

The Rio Farce, Day -11: Aussies Boycott The Village

Aaaaaaaaaaand I see we're off to a roaring start...

It's about two weeks to the Rio Olympics, and there's already going to be a major problem before the Opening Ceremony.

Some of the hotel rooms, booked years in advance, are being taken by the Australian team.

Why?

Because the Australian Olympic Team took one look at the Rio Olympic Village and declared it officially uninhabitable.  It appears Great Britain and New Zealand are about to follow suit, according to the Sydney Morning Herald.

(You can read it all here from Deadspin)

Now, on surface, this is no surprise to anyone who has followed this entire boondoggle, with police saying they cannot protect the city, the city declaring financial emergency and stating they are not going to be able to honor all commitments (to the Games or to the populace!), and the Games already being over $1,600,000,000 over budget.

"A New World" indeed.  Yeah, if that world is The Third World, sure.

When toilets were flushed, water streaming down the downstairs walls -- strong smells of gas -- and exposed wiring.

And, according to Wyre Davies, the South American BBC correspondent:

Rio mayor responds to Team #Australia criticism of athletes' village by offering to "put a Kangaroo there to make them feel at home"#Rio2016

— Wyre Davies (@WyreDavies) July 24, 2016

--

In other Olympic updates:

• Davies also reports seven Russian swimmers will not be making the trip to Rio due to failed drug tests.  With the IOC failing to do it's job for fear of terrorist retaliation, it is up to the individual sports to toss the Russians.  According to Yahoo! Sports, three of the seven won bronze in London.
• FISA, the international rowing sanctioning body, will probably announce tomorrow which Russian rowers, if any, will be eligible to compete in Rio.
• The International Weightlifting Federation is still looking into things and will announce any further disqualifications upon relevant evidence to do so or not to do so.
• The FIG, The international gymnastics federation, is doing the same.
• United World Wrestling will allow 11 Russian wrestlers to compete in Rio.  There is no indication at this time that any further action is pending against the 11.

--

So the real question now, between the Olympic village and the Russian decisions, is:

Who's going to be the first country to get to Rio, take one look at the place, and withdraw?

I'm giving it...  72 hours.

There Is No Law: Ridiculous Decision by the IOC Shows Putin Still Holds The Cards And Wins

Russia WILL be allowed to compete (in the sports in which it is not disqualified) in Rio.

And Yahoo!'s Dan Wetzel sees right through it:  As the Sochi effort was a full-scale state-sponsored sports terrorism motif (in the use of the Olympics to justify Russia's rampant homophobia and nationalistic violence (the latter especially against it's former states such as the Ukraine)), it is thought that Vladimir Putin could blow up the entire Olympic movement by exposing it's corruption, as it relates to the naming of Sochi as the 2014 host city (and *Cough* Salt Lake City in 2002... *Cough*).

Unfortunately, let's call a spade a spade:  I always thought of that "blowing up" as a far more literal event.

As in, Russia allies with ISIS or some other wack-job and blows up the Opening Ceremony or something to that effect.

I believe Russia is only being allowed to compete so The Show Must Go On at all -- punishing Russia might inflame Putin to the point the Olympic Stadium literally burns with thousands dead in 12 days.

This is the capability of the man and the nation he has rebuilt into a terrorist power.  And he used the Sochi Homophobe-lympics as a political ploy against the world -- using the medal-count victory as a political pawn to kill gays in the country and Ukranians there.

And he gets away with it.

Why?

Because he holds the cards.

More Olympic Drug Failures Out of the Woodwork

Reports today indicate we have more failed drug tests coming out of the last two Summer Olympics.

Reexaminations of samples taken for drug testing (probably with new testing now available) have nailed nearly 100 athletes in the London and Beijing Games -- the latest spate is 45 athletes, half of them winning medals in the Games.

One has to wonder if any clean medalists will be left at this rate.

NBA Pulls All-Star Game From Charlotte!

Does Adam Silver read this blog?

Seriously...

Adam Silver and the NBA made it official today:  Transphobia will cost you the All-Star Game.

The NBA, today, pulled the All-Star Game from Charlotte.  Well, technically, it appears they are in the process of finding a replacement, but North Carolina's recalcitrance regarding the bill making transgenderism illegal in the state (and that's what it does, I want no arguments here) has basically moved the goalpost from trying to convince them otherwise to finding an alternate city.

New Orleans appears to be the first choice, but other cities are lining up.

The finality of pulling the game should come within a week.

I guess this does eventually beg the question:  If North Carolina refuses to rescind HB2, would the NBA actually force the Bobcats to move?

So, North Carolina, how much more stupid you wanna get?

You now have all three major college basketball coaches slamming your transphobic bullshit, by the way...

ESPN reports this morning that Mike Krzyzewski called the HB2 anti-trangender bill "embarrassing". 

This statement even made more clear as Albany University, with respect to a New York ban on all non-essential public-funded travel to North Carolina, cancelled the November 12 matchup with Duke, which probably would've resulted in a significant payday to Albany (to lose by dozens of points) for the Basketball Hall of Fame Classic.  Marist University of New York is seen as an alternate, but, as a private school, they are not affected by the governmental ban.

Neither is ACC partner Syracuse, for the same reason.

Other comments from the ESPN report:

Duke AD Kevin White:  "It's most unfortunate. As an institution, if not personally, we have gone on the record indicating that our state position on this [HB2] is very troubling, if not embarrassing."

Mark Gottfried, coach of North Carolina State:  ""I'm against any law that allows discrimination, whether that's based on race, gender, sexual orientation," Gottfried told USA Today Sports. "I don't understand how someone can support this. I think the people at NC State, we believe in inclusion. Being a resident of the state, for me and my family, it's been frustrating.""

Gottfried has also all-but-admitted that HB2 has cost him recruits from outside North Carolina.

Roy Williams, though not quoted, is also opposed to the bill.

Russia's Track and Field IS Banned From The Rio Games.

Just came across the wire in the overnight.  (Was about to go to bed, and found this on Twitter before I went.)

Probably about 3:15 AM Pacific this morning, the Council for Arbitration of Sport has rejected the Russian appeal, ending the Russian track and field team for the Rio Olympics.

The immediate after-effect is obvious:  The decision now means that the IOC Executive Committee appears to have the legal right to expel Russia completely from the Rio Games.

Ben Bloom from the Telegraph now believes the IOC has no choice but to ban Russia from the Games:

Huge pressure on IOC after ban upheld on Russian track and field athletes. Surely they have no option but a blanket Russian ban for Rio now.

— Ben Bloom (@benbloomsport) July 21, 2016

I fully agree.  But I see two major problems that have me believe Dick Pound might be right and the rest of the Russian team (with still rowing and weightlifting considering bans of the Russian team) competes:

The first problem is, really, the obvious reality that most of the major athletes, especially in track and field, are juicing.  If anyone can find one clean American track and field medalist from these Games, I'd like to know about it.

Note I did NOT say "pass a drug test".  I said "Clean".

Now, that said, there's a difference between "institutionalized" and "state-sponsored".  The only reason USA Track and Field is still accredited (even after a threat a number of years back they would be tossed!) is that they did not cross that line.

That said, this leads to the other problem, which needs a slight degree of background on exactly what Vlad Putin is trying to do here:

I would need to remember the term I saw in a previous article about Putin and the drug-fest at the Sochi Homophobe-lympics.

Let us make no secret:  Vladimir Putin wants to restart the sporting Cold War, and turn it into a Hot War on other international fronts:  Against LGBT's, against uppity former states of the Soviet Bloc, etc. and so forth and so on.

Putin's performance around and the Russian performance at the Sochi Homophobe-lympics gave Putin a fair degree of carte blanche to go into the Ukraine and attempt to squash human rights at home.

His strategy is to use these international events to galvanize the homefront.  I just forget the term they used for it.

The second real problem is a very simple one:  I do not, at this time, believe the Rio Games will complete.  I do not believe the Closing Ceremonies will take place.  I believe there will be a sufficient amount of incidents to fell these Games.

And banning Russia may give Putin provocation to do just that.  It is clear that Vlad Putin has no regard for the Olympic movement, except for political ends through sporting terrorism - Hell, see the open support for Russian hooliganism at Euro 2016!  (You may make the case that the amount of American dirty athletes makes the same case here -- I won't stand and argue.  The only difference I would state is institutionalized drug culture vs. a state-sponsored drug culture.)

Do I believe a Russian Olympic expulsion would be followed by a Russian terrorist attack on the Rio Games?  I consider it very possible, yes.

This is the main reason I cannot discount Dick Pound's comment that he does not believe the IOC has the spine to pull it off.

We should find out within one week.

It's Clear that the Rio Games Have To Be Cancelled, Part MMMDCCLXVIII

Late development on the WADA front, and this does not have anything to do with the Russians specifically:

Deadspin reports tonight that WADA has "reinstated" the drug facility which is SUPPOSED TO be the testing facility for the Rio Games starting in two weeks.

A month ago, WADA pulled the accreditation to the "Brazilian Doping Control Laboratory", but never said why.

Whatever the issue was, it has been declared cleaned up.

They really had no choice:  The only other two options would be for the competition to go without testing, or for all samples to go to the nearest accreditated lab...

... in Bogota, Colombia!

... which itself was suspended three years ago.

The Absolute Hypocrisy of Football Nation America

If you thought that the football fans and sports fans of this country were a bunch of heartless brutes, have I got a survey to back up that mentality...

Deadspin is still around for the time being, and reports today on a recent survey (May 31-June 6 of 2016, 1,000 people surveyed) by the Center for Public Opinion at the University of Massachusetts in Lowell.

This survey showed attitudes and beliefs of the polled participants on sports, concussions, and specifically their role in football.

The findings damn a nation of bloodlusty football fans as branded hypocrites....

• Two-thirds of the respondents believe that concussions and head injuries are a major problem and public health concern.  Only 6% deny this reality.
• 85% believe there is at least probable truth (half polled believe this, a third on top of it believe it is absolutely true) that football can cause CTE.
• 87% believe CTE and the brain damage resultant is a serious public health issue.
• In what may be a very telling statistic, though:  Only SIX PERCENT of those polled actually know someone with CTE.  This may speak volumes of the resultant hypocrisy, since I would have to think, if more people could experience what CTE does to people by knowing people with the ailment, they may have very different attitudes about the sport of football (and anything else which causes CTE).
• A majority of all polled, including across all demographic sub-polls, state concussions are a major problem. This includes men (almost 3 in 5), parents (63%), and two-thirds of all people who watch sports on TV twice a week or more.
• Three-quarters of all polled believe that tackle football should not be introduced under the age of 14.  One in five would like to see tackle football abolished, never introduced.  Another one in five would like to remove high-school tackle football, and only introduce tackle football at age 18.
• Almost two-thirds of those polled believe it is a lie when they are told that tackle football is a safe activity for kids pre-high-school.
• The same statement on high-school football is effectively a 50-50 split, with only a small majority believing it the truth.
• Pop Warner Football is not seen in a positive light in this survey.  Taking only about the 41% of those polled who know about Pop Warner Football, three in five of those surveyed believe Pop Warner, as an organization, has not done enough versus head injuries and concussions.
• Taking into consideration soccer, three in five believe it is a lie to say a header in soccer is a safe activity before high school.
• Two in five surveyed say they do not watch sports on television much at all, if ever.
• Almost 1/3, 29%, say they watch two days a week or more, and their responses on the organizational actions on head injuries, CTE, and concussions are striking.
• Two in five do believe the NFL takes appropriate action vs. CTE and concussions.  There's the hypocrisy in a nutshell.  There is no way over 100,000,000 people routinely go to High Mass every First Sunday in February with some of these numbers if the NFL's LIES on the subject are not believed.
• A slight majority believe the NFL has not taken such appropriate action.
• The numbers for the NCAA and NHL (especially with fighting) are similar.
• For those who do believe they know on the high-school and USA sport levels whether or not appropriate actions are being taken, it's a 2-1 split against the sports sanctioning bodies on whether they do or do not.

Wow.

That's a damning piece of survey right there.

Read the highlight at the link above, as I just paraphrased their work for you.

I am routinely (and, quite often, correctly!) criticized for de-emphasizing the human injury element of the American sports machine (especially football) versus the rigging of games.  I have, in the past, attempted to say to these people that it adds the element that not only are these people dying, they are doing so for a manufactured lie.

The fact is, and these numbers point it out, that the fact these players are injured and dying basically must take forefront, and probably abolish one or more of the pillar sports upon which our entire society exists.

In this vein, there is at least one more interesting down-the-table result that the Deadspin article delves into:

• African-Americans actually were more likely to declare tackle football dangerous and not want their children to play.  In fact, the most likely demographic to want their children to play tackle football?  White middle-income ($30-100K) Americans with some college education.

If you wish, you can juxtapose two frightening realities:  The first being that many people hold a very low opinion of the rank-and-file football player, but (the second) believing the ESPN Hype that it is all about the quarterback.  Basically, White Johnny and Jane want their son to be the star quarterback, with all the perks.  Many African-Americans, however, know their son would be destined to be some kind of a battering ram.

Just think of that when your Packers and Patriots and Broncos and Crimson Tide and Trojans and Badgers and Blue Devils and Cardinals and Hilltoppers take the field this fall...

Or will you?

The IOC: If We Can Toss Russia, We Will

Been a bit of a hectic week, so the IOC's response to the WADA recommendations fell through the cracks a moment.

The IOC released a statement yesterday outlining it's response to WADA's recommendations in the state-sponsored sports terrorism through doping scandal in Russia.

It appears that the IOC is prepared to expel Russia from the Rio Games, but there are legal hurdles which must still be surmounted.

“The findings of the report show a shocking and unprecedented attack on the integrity of sports and on the Olympic Games. Therefore, the IOC will not hesitate to take the toughest sanctions available against any individual or organisation implicated,” IOC President Thomas Bach said. 

The current actions are as follows:

1) A five-person committee has been immediately impaneled to discuss sanctions against individuals, including those in the Russian Ministry of Sport, for the findings in the WADA report.   

This is for individual sanctions.

2) Here's the key one, and I will quote this from the report:

With regard to the participation of Russian athletes in the Olympic Games Rio 2016, the IOC will carefully evaluate the IP Report. It will explore the legal options with regard to a collective ban of all Russian athletes for the Olympic Games 2016 versus the right to individual justice. In this respect, the IOC will have to take the CAS decision on 21 July 2016 concerning the IAAF rules into consideration, as well as the World Anti-Doping Code and the Olympic Charter. 

It appears to me, that, with this and other actions taken in the report, the message is simple:  If we can, we will.

First off, the Council for Arbitration of Sport has been called by Russia to appeal the track-and-field disqualification, and their decision comes tomorrow.  Obviously, should Russia win the appeal and be able to compete in track and field in Rio, the IOC's hands are probably tied.

Second, at that point, the WADA Code, Olympic Charter, and the concept of "individual justice" would be brought to the fore.

The WADA situation should be clear:  WADA has, in fact, called for full disqualification.  WADA believes it is within the Code for the IOC to remove Russia from the Games.

The Charter (now a 110-page document -- you can see the .PDF file here) does give the IOC "Last Resort" power over the Games.  (By-Law 58)  By-Law 59 covers disciplinary resources of the IOC, which specifically mentions the World Anti-Doping Code, the WADA Code.

Section 1.4 does give the IOC Executive Committee the power to suspend, and do so on a case-by-case basis, for violations of the Olympic charter so involved.

So it does appear the only question remaining is whether Russia can be disqualified under the report (the appeal of the IAAF decision, CAS ruling tomorrow) and the concept of "individual justice".

3) The IOC has also:

• Disqualified Russia from any hosting or recognition of IOC-level events, including the 2019 European Games.  This would mean that the European Olympic Committees would have to find a third host for the event, as they provisionally chose Russia in November 2015 to host the event after the Netherlands pulled out.
• No member of the Russian Ministry of Sport or anyone else implicated in the report will get credentials for the Rio Games.
• A second Disciplinary Commission will report on all Russian athletes from Sochi, and their true drug status from the event.  At this point, only after such a Commission meets might medals be stripped or reassigned.
• The IOC is calling for a full freeze of all high-level international sporting events in Russia until Russia is found drug-code-compliant, and to look for other locations.  This means you, FIFA and World Cup 2020 -- among others.
• Each individual sport is asked for relevant inquiries and sanctions going forward.

4) Russia has now officially lost the right for it's athletes to be determined "innocent until proven guilty" with respect to drug usage, and this has been affirmed by this decision -- and the actions to demand universal and non-tampered testing of the entire Russian Olympic Team (and if and only if they are forced to allow them to compete in Rio!) will continue, on a sport-by-sport basis.

5) The IOC wants the names of athletes implicated as having their positives tampered or removed - this was not in the original mandate of the report, and the IOC is now asking WADA to expand that mandate.

6) Once the Disciplinary Committees (the one against officials of Russian Ministry of Sport and the one about the Sochi athletes) complete their work, their findings go to WADA and the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).

7) It is agreed that the fight against doping in sports has failed.  The IOC joins the call for WADA to convene an "Extraordinary Conference on World Doping" in 2017, and will meet in another doping summit in October of this year to refine this call.

This is basically all-but-short of a request for apartheid-level sanctions against Russia:  Effectively, to make Russia a pariah in sports until it's state-sponsored terrorism through sports doping is taken care of, much in the same recognition as South Africa when apartheid was in force.

This makes the next move simple:  If the IOC Executive Committee can legally expel Russia from the Rio Games, they appear fully-prepared to do so.  They appear to have the authority, and the backing from WADA.  They now need to wait for the CAS decision tomorrow, and carefully weigh the decision against what clean athletes Russia MIGHT field to Rio if they are allowed to do so.

LATE DEVELOPMENT:  Dick Pound of the IOC (and formerly of WADA as well) does not believe the Executive Committee has the spine to pull off the blanket ban, even if the IAAF disqualification is upheld.  (The Guardian)

Great, NFL: You're going to make the problem WORSE???

I know there are many more important things to talk about, especially it still being July.

That said, though, there are some things that are done that are such head-scratchers (and lead to such obvious results) that something needs to be said.

Like this Yardbarker article about the new interpretation of the NFL's infamous rule that retired Megatron, the Calvin Johnson Rule...

The new rule, at least as best we can understand it, now adds a third condition to the old interpretation:

You must catch the ball, you must have two feet in bounds or equivalent, and you now must (if possible -- otherwise you can't score a catch on your back) be able to become a runner.

Basically, when in doubt, wave it off as incomplete.

So you now, effectively, need FOUR feet in bounds (the two to gain the catch, and two to become a runner), or you risk having the catch waved off.

Gee, someone might want to ask the mafioso running the referees Mr. Blandino about the Super Bowl XLIII winning catch by Santonio Holmes.  There's no way, under the current interpretation, that could be a catch!

WADA Calls For Full Russian Disqualification

Anyone who's followed the story basically knows the drill by now, and the damning report against Russian sport has been released to WADA.

It, among other things, details over 300 falsified tests to allow drug-positive Russian athletes, not only through their Sochi Homophobe-lympics "triumph", but at least through last year's World Swimming Championships.

The report alleges any positive test would be reported to Russian governmental officials, and the results falsified.  Three-quarters of these falsifications occurred in track and field and wrestling.  The Russian track and field team has been disqualified from the Rio Games already.

And this wasn't even the methodology they used at Sochi, the report continues.  Russian officials actually broke into the drug area and swapped clean urine from the athletes with the dirty urine during the competition.

The Deadspin report does not outline possible suggestions, but another report on the situation does.

At least ten countries, including the United States (har har, that's a laugh!  The only difference between the USA and Russia is that the government is probably not directly involved here.), have either already sent the IOC this suggestion or were considering it:  The World Anti-Doping Association has called for full Olympic disqualification for Russia.

In their statement, WADA asks:

1. For the complete disqualification of all Russian athletes from the Rio Games.
2. For each individual sport to consider further sanctions as appropriate.
3. Russian governmental agents are not to be allowed at international sporting events, including the Rio Olympics.
4. The Russian Anti-Doping Agency, already declared non-compliant, to remain as such.
5. A process of accreditation of a drug-testing lab in Moscow is to be halted.
6. An investigation by FIFA (soccer athletes are involved, as is at least one member of the FIFA Executive Committee).
7. Additional investigatory actions be completed by the authors of this report, should the money be found to allow them to do so.

The IOC meets tomorrow in an extraordinary session to discuss this report.

Another Drug Bust in the UFC? This, the biggest of all???

In a move that, if true, would surprise pretty much NOBODY...

The UFC and USADA are reporting that Brock Lesnar MAY have failed a June 18, 2016 drug test before his fight with Mark Hunt.

This, of course, has massive ramifications across the board.

As VERIFICATION ONLY, no credit to me, all credit to Brett Okamoto from about 20 minutes ago:

The UFC has announced that USADA has informed Brock Lesnar of a potential anti-doping violation stemming from an... https://t.co/jGhSSHRbeI

— Michael Falkner (@darkstar7646) July 15, 2016

There Is No Law, Penn State Edition: More Documents, More Horror

I guess I get to start here.  What a fucking shock.

I'm almost certainly going to get, at some point, to the genesis of this series, which has it's basis outside of sports.  However, today's revelations concerning the child rape at Penn State and the NCAA's continued coverup of allowing Pennsylvania State University to exist continues to boggle the fucking mind.

WHEN IS SOMEONE GOING TO EXACT VIGILANTE JUSTICE HERE?

That's a serious question, when you see the next spate of abject horror from court documents unsealed today (as the insurance which covers lawsuit payouts is not wanting to reimburse Penn State, and Penn State is trying to recoup their losses):

• Paterno, through court documents, had the sexual abuse of children reported to him in 1976.

That was one of the victims who testified in 2014 (Deadspin), anal sexual abuse through penetration.

• Three other new victims were revealed in that first set of documents today.  One in 1987 and one in 1988, both witnessed by assistants, and another in 1988, referred to the AD.

You know, one would ask where the police was in all of this, until we are reminded of the investigator who was disappeared and made presumed dead, almost-certainly murdered by either Paterno or someone loyal to him.

• In a statement which would surprise no one, even more assistant coaches were testified to have known of Sandusky's child rapes. (Deadspin)  Both have denied the report.

Mike McQueary, who was the one who finally began to blow the whistle, testified in a deposition that Greg Schiano and Tom Bradley knew.  Joe Sarra and Kevin O'Dea were the assistants in the 1980's incidents revealed today.

Schiano is now the defensive coordinator at Ohio State.  Bradley holds the same position at UCLA.

Sarra died in 2012.  O'Dea now is the special teams coordinator for Tampa Bay in the NFL.

Why do I say this?

Because this is a FOOTBALL CRIME.  It is a heinous sexual crime against children -- there is absolutely no denying this.  But this is done under the color and protection of football, over the course of what now appears to be over THREE DECADES -- only the last part of which encompasses the National Religion Era of the sport.

• Timothy Curley pleaded the Fifth Amendment repeatedly in his deposition, including pleading the Fifth on whether he was the Athletic Director at Penn State between 1993 and 2011.  (Deadspin)

I guess this would stand to reason, since the entirety of his duties as AD were probably criminal in nature by that point!

I reiterate my question above:  Given the nature of the events which are coming out, especially at Penn State, when is someone going to have a set and basically decide that principle is more important than their own lives and that of the NCAA, who is complicit in this coverup through the ineptitude and perhaps participation of one Mark Allen Emmert?

I said this back when the first allegations were hitting the public table:  THERE IS NO SUFFICIENT PENALTY.  Yes, the title "There Is No Law" doesn't quite apply here as it applies in other places:  Criminal and civil penalties have been sought and received.

But the fact is:  Penn State football, the only reason for the life and existence of this sorry-assed "university", needed to be shut down, and by the most violent means legally possible, by the NCAA, by the state and federal government, whoever had the brass nuts to get it done.

Now, the NCAA has NO RIGHT -- NONE! -- to administer college sports in any capacity whatsoever.

In fact, I do have to wonder:  Given the scope and time frame of these allegations -- and the fact that it was reported the worst-kept secret in college football that Sandusky was raping kids -- could the NCAA, ESPN, and all other enablers be sued into the ground as well?

Short of that, it may be time to consider less polite options.

There Is No Law, The Brewing Race War: Black Lives Matter, And Sports Don't Wanna Hear That

(Time adjusted, as I periodically do, to put a larger story above.)

Two increasingly-disturbing stories regarding the current situation where the lack of the Rule of Law is beginning to disintegrate it's way into sports even further:

• Four freelance cops decided to show they were racist crackers in Minneapolis Monday night -- walking off the job at the WNBA Minnesota Lynx game after four players held a press conference trying to condemn police violence (both by and against!), and the entire team wore warmup jerseys saying:  "Change starts with us.  Justice and accountability."  (Deadspin)

So what the fuck is your problem, coppers?

I'd say that was an incredibly even-handed gesture (on both the press conference and the shirts!) by the Lynx players.  They not only condemn the actions by the police when they cross the line (justice), but they also call for the stuff against the police to stop (accountability).

Or is that part of the lack of Rule of Law?  It seems like this situation has mushroom-clouded since our next President, The Treasonous Rigged-Electioneer In Chief, got off scott-free with espionage through the FBI and because the Establishment and Wall Street (of whom she's a high-grade hooker -- at least in the political sense!) need to keep the money train going as long as they can.

But that's another article.

• Some Canadian baseball fans are pissed tonight.  "The Tenors" were in San Diego tonight, singing "O Canada" for the All-Star Game tonight.  They changed some of the lyrics, video at Deadspin through Bill Cooney of Toronto:

Second part of the main verse is usually:

"With glowing hearts we see thee rise
 The true North strong and free."

This was changed, by a soloist among The Tenors, to:

"Where all brothers and sisters
 All lives matter to the great."

And while doing so, according to the CBC, he held up an All Lives Matter sign.

"All Lives Matter" is seen as a White Power rejection of the Black Lives Matter movement -- The Tenors are all Caucasian.

IS SOMEBODY TRYING TO START THE FUCKING RACE WAR?

This is probably the one and only time it might actually have done Fox good not to air a national anthem in a space like this.  Normally, it would be shameful to Canadian baseball fans in this context.  Here, it might've saved people's necks.

UPDATE 11:25 PM PDT 7/12:  The member of The Tenors who did this is, at minimum, suspended, if not FIRED!

pic.twitter.com/3rHG1e1Akf

— The Tenors (@TenorsMusic) July 13, 2016

It's Official: Warriors Super-Team An NBA Problem

(Moving it below the two higher stories.  Posted about 11:45 tonight.)

And we can now say that two ways...

First, Adam Silver has officially expressed concern about the creation of "super-teams", after Kevin Durant has joined the Golden State Thugs Warriors.

Silver, tonight, stated concern that the CBA may need to be changed (one or the other side has until Dec. 15, 2016 to opt out, effective end of this upcoming league year, for a deal currently scheduled to go until 2021) to create more competitive balance between the teams.

Adam, you are probably right.  It's been said pretty openly that the situation is bad.

But it's the conduct of the Warriors since that's getting REAL BAD.

It's now clear that the NBA is going to have a new Most Hated Team -- the Golden State Thugs Warriors are, at the least, going to take a page out of the 90's Knicks, if not the Bad Boy Pistons, to tell the fans to go fuck off.

How so?

• Kevin Durant nearly doubles the price of his shoes, saying "I'm not an $88 player."  (USA Today)  Durant will be in Rio.
• Draymond Green, arrested for assaulting a fan -- apparently a defensive back for Michigan State football -- over the weekend.  (Houston Chronicle)
• Steph Curry and his camp in Hawaii.  Or the prices thereto.  $2,000 a day, another $250 if you need to stay the night.  (Yahoo! Sports)
• Then he slaps people who can't afford it in the face by saying his brother Seth's camp is only $200 a day...

WHO THE FUCK DO YOU THINK YOU ARE?

Oh, I know...  Bay Area thuggin', eh?

Maybe this attitude is something that Mr. Silver may be concerned about by the time the season starts around November 1st.

Several Updates

Sorta kinda hibernation time for the blog...  Do have a few things...

• More than a few people a bit unconvinced by Brock Lesnar's return to the Octagon, given he's still under WWE contract.  Would need to see last night's fight with Mark Hunt to know more, though...
• And someone just needs to investigate UFC as a whole and Dana White in particular.  Jon Jones now will be banned two years for a failed drug test that nearly scuttled the landmark card, and forced White to find Anderson Silva on 72 hours notice to "fight" Daniel Cormier to at least justify Cormier's existence on the card.
• One of the more iconic images of the night was Connor McGregor standing during a fight he probably was supposed to be in -- look for that to command big money for McGregor...
• How big?  Consider this:  Brock Lesnar's base pay for UFC 200 was $2.5 million.  The main event's two fighters (a women's bantamweight title bout) got $600,000 -- the former champion Tate got $500,000, the new champ Nunez got $100,000.  In fact, the rest of the main card only made $2.91 million in their purses (Lesnar's opponent Hunt got the next most at $700,000.)
• I'm looking at a major project for the blog between now and the start of the National Bloodfeast Religion (known as football):  There Is No Law.  And it may, at least in one case, seriously deviate from the sports nature of this blog, but will certainly encompass a MAJOR Super Fraud.
• Well, they survived the Euro 2016:  Portugal defeated the hosts with an extra-time goal to win the title 1-0, in what may well have been the major-tournament swan song for Cristiano Ronaldo.  (Insert your conspiracy theories here.)
• And a frightening scene as the match was starting:  Within eyesight of the stadium, tear gas deployed to restore order at the official Euro 2016 Fan Zone for the Final.
• The Russia Report from WADA is supposed to drop on Friday the 15th, three weeks before the Opening Ceremonies of a Rio Olympics now $1.6 billion over budget and the police cannot ensure anyone's safety at the Games.  
• The Russian men's quad sculls team has been disqualified from Rio for a drug violation.  Their weightlifters may also be banned, but retests must be confirmed by the IOC before that sport's sanctioning body will determine that result.

Not Your Place, Ballhawk Boy

Well, another one from last night's military game...

The tickets were supposed to go by lottery to military and their families. No problem with that whatsoever.

So now we are getting word that noted ballhawk Zack Hample decided to crash the party and hawk balls there.

So who IS Zack Hample?

Well, he's gotten a lot of attention lately for bragging that he is now the "hawk" of about 9,000 Major League Baseballs (including a dozen or so specially marked for last night's game).

He'd already been getting some negative attention for his grandstanding, and last night sent it over the edge.

Here's the response to his bullshit, from no less than the Twitter account of the 82ND AIRBORNE DIVISION:

Delete your account. https://t.co/DHYwUuRHbL

— 82nd Airborne Div (@82ndABNDiv) July 4, 2016

Time to do more than that.  Since this guy is simply going to be be a grandstanding jackass, it's time for him no longer to be welcome at baseball ballparks.

Ban his ass, because this is not a baseball fan...

MLB Swings And Misses

Almost got it right, and then the location screwed you up...

MLB, Sunday night, in honor of the Independence Day weekend, decided to hold the first MLB game on a military installation.

That makes sense.

Which one they picked, did not.

Right in the middle of Transphobia, USA -- they put the game in Fort Bragg, North Carolina.

Once again, MLB gets it wrong.  Maybe you need a lesson or two from Adam Silver!!!  Latest word, as of a month ago, the NBA All-Star Game WILL be moved from Charlotte if the law is not changed.