And, stop me if you've heard this one before: Jerry Jones is in even MORE trouble with the NFL.

I said, before this season even started, that the league was going to have to force Jerry Jones to sell the Cowboys.

And now, with the latest announcement, it appears that day might be incrementally closer...

Jerry Jones, once it's decided exactly how much the league had to pay lawyers to defend the Ezekiel Elliot suspension, will tack on that amount (and probably additional millions for "Conduct Unbecoming" -- PFT reports they are two separate situations) in a fine to Jones.

Fact is:  There's no other penalty that's going to work.  There's no other penalty that's going to allow the Cowboys to move forward from all this.

Jerry Jones has been fined the last three seasons (and the last two, the maximum amount allowed of $500,000) for multiple player suspensions under the drug and personal conduct policies.

There was some discussion last year that the NFL could force Jones to sell the Cowboys.

Yes, I understand the owners all make money and no one wants to bust that up -- but there would be a tacit admission on the part of the corporation that is the NFL here:  That the "bad boy" and "druggie" and "thug" image of "America's Team" is the basis on which a lot of the merchandise and other monies the Cowboys make is being made.

And, if you want to go to matters more pertinent to this blog, consider the last three eliminations of the Cowboys, and wonder whether any of them happen in a regime not as permissive as Jones' has been as owner of the Cowboys.

Stay on top of this Alex Guerrero situation. It's got legs...

Curiouser and curiouser, said Alice.

I said, after Super Bowl LII, that I really felt there could be something to this Alex Guerrero situation that would force Tom Brady from the National Football League -- and now, not so much with a farewell ring, either!

This morning, Pro Football Talk has reported that the New England Patriots have demanded that beat writer for the Providence Journal, Mark Daniels, cease reporting on Rob Gronkowski's situation with the team.

It appears, now, that Gronkowski has also picked up the "TB12" method of renowned quack Alex Guerrero.  And Gronskowski told Daniels in the interview that it's working quite well!

And the Patriots don't want people reporting that, and now word that Gronkowski was considering retirement during last year's training camp -- and it's now believed that the Patriots' recalcitrance to "TB12" is the reason.

Which would now mean that:  If Tom Brady is on the gas (and there's still no indication that "TB12" includes any illegal drugs, under the NFL or in general law), so is Gronkowski.

But if neither is on the gas, then why would the Patriots not want people to know?

Statistics like these are why people are giving up football...

Speaking at the Head, Neck, and Spine committee meeting during the NFL Combine in Indianapolis, the NFL got hit hard with some news:

• Reported concussions up 16% year over year.
• 9% of NFL players actually reported concussions this year.
• Reported training camp concussions were up 73%.

Nine per team over the season, etc.

People are giving up football because of this, and there's no way you can make it safer.

None.

The Nuclear Winter Olympics/Nassar/Swimming, Aftermath, Day +3: The CEO of the USOC is out.

Citing health reasons (which, again, even if it is believed he was diagnosed with cancer, I do find a bit convenient a la Paterno), Scott Blackmun, the CEO of the United States Olympic Committee, is out.

Susanne Lyons takes over.

That's one.  We need them all to go, and then the IOC to step in to declare what role, if any, the USOC is to have in the Olympic movement in Tokyo.

The Nuclear Winter Olympics, Aftermath, Day +1: The Suspension Is Over, but there's a big IF....

The suspension of the Russian Olympic Committee is over.

(Inside the Games)

A lot of people are pissed.

They should be.

But there are two major problems, and I already said the first one in why I believed (wrongly, it turned out) the IOC would allow the Russian flag to fly at the Closing Ceremony:

Blame the whole situation of the sexual assault culture of the US Olympic Teams in at least two of the major sports.

You can't keep Russia out and keep the United States in.

You can't.  It's that simple.

The second problem is why I'm not sure people should be THAT pissed...

An association of national anti-drug task forces in athletics said that it took the two positives already given to keep the Russian flag from flying in the Closing Ceremony.  That association is correct.

Though Thomas Bach himself has said that a new case would not extend the ban, there is at least an implicit condition that no further Olympic Athletes From Russia come back with positive drug tests from these Games.

We'll see.

Jonathan Martin is in a lot of trouble, and it's for being RIGHT!

Jonathan Martin was 5150'd in Los Angeles on Friday, according to various reports.

I don't think the Instagram post he made is still up anywhere, because it was deemed threatening to his former high school (where, like the NFL, he has apparently been bullied into persona non grata status), so Harvard-Westlake High School near LA, his former school, was closed on Friday, and he was detained and eventually 5150'd.

For stating that there were only really two ways out of bullying:  Suicide, or the situation that killed 17 in Florida...  And he had that message with a picture of a gun which was apparently in his possession, and put the name of the school on the gun.

He's right.

I know I have caused my old hometown a few upraised and waving hands when I said that the only reason I was allowed to graduate, being bullied myself, was that because "Columbine" was not a word in the American lexicon.

I believe that to be the case.  And I don't I'd have had to say anything.

Because the thing that Martin has learned repeatedly is that he, even as Football Man, is not a Preferred Man -- hence, he has no rights nor powers.

I hope he can get the help he needs before some combination of bullying and CTE brings this to a most predictable end...

Mark Cuban is in a lot of trouble.

And it would not be out of the question that he may, by the time this is all over, have to sell the Dallas Mavericks.

Two stories surfaced on Cuban while we were largely away with the Games, and neither appears to bode well for him:

• On Wednesday, February 21st, the NBA fined Cuban $600,000 for conduct detrimental to the league.  That conduct was because Mark Cuban admitted that, at this point in the season, it is in his and his team's best interests to lose.

Mark Cuban has openly admitted to desiring match-fixing to improve draft position.  That's bad enough!

What came a day or so before was worse.

• Jon Wertheim and Jessica Luther blew open the Dallas Mavericks organization in an explosive Sports Illustrated exposition, calling the organization a "Real Life Animal House".

It starts with Terderma Ussery, then the president and CEO of the team -- a position he would eventually hold from 1997 to 2015, when he left for Under Armour, a post he left after three months (after another sexual harassment incident).

Before a game in 2010, a female member of the support staff was eating dinner and Ussery wanted to join her.

His reputation was such that he had sexually harassed her the moment he entered the room.

And, yes, this is possible.  I spent at least the last year of my first college (and probably a good part of my second) in a state of what I call "universal harassment".  Basically, the moment I enter a room, every female knows of my reputation and the conditions for harassment and sexual harassment are ALREADY MET -- before one word is said.

And this was the case with that Mavericks staffer.

Ussery then confirmed her suspicions, twice stating that the female staffer was going to get gang-banged, if not gang-RAPED.

At least one other female staffer ended her association as a salesperson for the Mavericks after a decade shortly after this incident made the rounds.  At least five others contacted by SI left the realm of sports completely because of this type of culture!

The ONLY sanctuary for many of these women, frankly, WAS the locker room and the players!  Most of the staff (other than, apparently, Cuban!) were fondling, groping, harassing, and covering it up, a months-long SI investigation reported in the linked article.

At 32, Ussery was made Commissioner of the CBA in 1991.

Two years later, he's President of the Nike Sports Management division for agenting Nike athletes -- yep, this probably meant Jordan at his height.  He was there for four years before taking the position with the Mavericks.

Ussery was actually floated as a potential successor to David Stern as Commissioner of the NBA!

Read the linked article.  I'm just throwing Cliff's Notes.  This is devastating -- not only to Cuban and Mavericks, but to the NBA as a whole.  He was a whiff away from being Commissioner of the entire damn league when he was doing this shit!  He basically was Jordan's main agent for about four years.

Mavericks Human Relations actually had to hire someone specifically to prevent Ussery from destroying the corporate franchise.

But this guy was so connected -- see above! -- that there was no way he could be removed.

Cuban retained Ussery when he bought the Mavericks in 2000.  So, to be fair, Cuban did not hire him to the Mavericks.

Earl Sneed is also profiled in the investigation -- a main writer for the official Mavericks website.

Arrested and admitted to domestic assault in 2012, he's banned from Canada.

Another incident is alleged to beating a woman in 2014!

He was suspended from his work with the Mavericks upon this investigation by Cuban.

Cuban's believed role?  None of the women believe Cuban was ever involved or ever even remotely a participant.

But the question which might determine whether Cuban remains owner of the Mavericks is one the women pose:  How could Cuban not have known?

And it's this that the NBA must immediately look at -- and they are.

It's not a question, again, of whether Cuban sexually harassed these women.  He did not.  Cuban is saying all the right things, and, usually, has been up front on everything -- which see the latest $600,000 fine as one example.

But if this situation is this bad, must Cuban (who, additionally, has now been fined for comments regarding one form or another of game integrity, over $2.5 million -- and probably far more!) sell the team?

He's got to answer the question as to what he knew, and then he has to answer the question as to how he could be an effective owner of a sports team and NOT know this was going on.

Your move, Mr. Silver...

The Nuclear Winter Olympics, Aftermath, Day +1

• Ivanka Trump, heading the Closing Ceremonies USA contingent, DID stand and clap for the unified Korean presence when they entered in the Parade of Athletes.
• Final Medal Count:  Norway wins the table with more silvers, and breaks the record for total from USA in Vancouver with a total of 39.  However, Germany coming a hair's-breadth short in the men's hockey means Canada from Vancouver now stands tied with Norway and Germany in PyeongChang with 14 golds in a single Olympics.
• Germany's run in the sliding events got them second in the total with 31.  Canada was third with 11 gold and 29 total.  USA found itself fourth with a gigantic second week, 9 gold and 23 total.  Netherlands fifth with 8 gold and 20 total.
• The OAR was sixth total, tied with the hosts!  17.  Only two gold, the two expected, for OAR.
• Very youth-oriented high-tech Closing Ceremonies, even with the Beijing presentation, making me wonder if this might be more like a League of Legends championship than the more traditional 2008 Opening...
• Thank you, once again, to the even-handed coverage of both the Olympic Broadcasting System, as well as Inside the Games -- as the latter now heads toward the Paralympics and the Commonwealth Games.
• After the OAR narrowly avoided the German "Miracle On Ice" (the Germans scored with 3:16 to go to seize a 3-2 lead, and it took a shorthanded goal in the last minute to gain overtime before the power-play victor), both OAR players and fans loudly sang the Russian National Anthem over the top of the Olympic Hymn, as a final show of defiance/
• The head of the committee overseeing the OAR sanctions admits that she had to change her Report of Findings so as not to implicate the disqualified Russian Olympic Committee in the two known doping cases already found by OAR in PyeongChang.  (Inside the Games)

The Nuclear Winter Olympics, Day 16, Part 2: The Russian Flag Will Not Fly Tonight

• The decision is nyet.  The IOC has upheld the suspension at least through the remainder of the PyeongChang Games of the Russian Olympic Committee, so the Russian flag will not fly at the Closing Ceremony tonight.

Shocked, but correct.

The Nuclear Winter Olympics, Day 16: The Final Act

• My God, we made it through another one.  Each one more surprising than the last, but it appears that, among other things, unified Korean teams in several sports, as well as the unified Korea walk-in, have allowed us to survive another Olympic Games, as we are now less than 18 hours from the Flame going out and the youth of the world being called to Beijing in four years..
• And no, Americans are not going to give one flying fuck about curling in three weeks.  But that may be one of the biggest upsets in these Games.
• According to Inside the Games, the one major story left in these Games has lain unresolved.  A meeting to determine if Russia's flag will be allowed to fly at the Closing Ceremonies will be an 11th hour one, as a meeting to make the decision broke up without one.  
• Two Canadians were arrested for theft of a car in the Olympic areas of PyeongChang.  One is rumored to be skicross racer Dave Duncan.  (Inside the Games)
• Medal Count:  Two records fell yesterday.  The host South Koreans, to no one's surprise, broke their total medal record, getting their 15th yesterday (and will get #16 on the final day with the women's curling Grand Final).  Norway broke the all-time total record for a single Winter Games with a bronze in the team alpine event being their 38th medal of these Games, breaking the record of 37 by the USA in Vancouver.
• However, it sounds as if the record of 14 golds in a single Winter Games is safe.  Both Norway (women's cross-country marathon) and Germany (four-man bobsled) have a shot in the few medal events left to match the 14.

It's time for the NCAA to go -- we're about to lose college basketball. Completely.

The FBI, I would have to think, is about two or three more steps from taking down college basketball completely, especially given two stories this week, one of them today.

Rick Pitino and the Louisville situation has been confirmed by the NCAA, and the 2013 National Championship has been vacated.

Pitino, defiant, says you can't change history.

Rick...  No uncertain terms...  This is really beginning to look "stalker's paradox" on your part -- "If I can't have it, no one can!"

With Rapelor and Pedo State and Michigan State Sexual Assault Division, it is becoming far harder and harder and harder to defend even the existence of an NCAA in any respect.

But it's clear that either the NCAA has to start shutting down criminal programs, or the FBI will do it for them -- if a Yahoo Sports report released today has any indication.

Yahoo! received documents implicating at lease 25 athletes from 20 high-profile schools, in the FBI investigation of improper monies through an agent and agency for professional basketball players.

• Dennis Smith, North Carolina State, 2016-17, now with the Dallas Mavericks.  $43.500-$73,500 in loans that the agency is trying to recoup when he signed with another agency.
•  Isaiah Whitehead, Seton Hall, 2014-15 and 2015-16, now with the Brooklyn Nets.  Approximately $26,000-$37,000 in loans -- signed with the agency, moved to another, was purported to be setting up repayment.
• Tim Quarterman, LSU, three years, ending in 2015-16, currently in the G League.  $16,000 in loans.
• Diamond Stone, Maryland, 2015-16, currently in the G League.  $14,303 in loans.
• Edrice Adebayo, Kentucky, 2016-17, the 14th pick of the 2017 NBA Draft by the Miami Heat.  $36,500 in what the agency now calls a "bad loan".  He signed with somebody else.
• And here's probably the biggest name of them all:  Markelle Fultz, who, after playing with Washington, was the #1 pick in the 2017 NBA Draft, got $10,000 before he signed with somebody else.
• Kyle Kuzma, three years at Utah ending in 2016-17, now with the LA Lakers, $16,000 in loans.  (Bleacher Report)

And it doesn't end there, not close.

Imagine a March Madness minus these teams:

• Kentucky
• Maryland
• NC State
• Duke
• North Carolina
• Michigan State
• Texas

There are violations in this report regarding all of these teams and twice-more.

NCAA, get off your ass, shut down the criminal programs (you might wish to start with Michigan State, Baylor, and Penn State, for three), or get out of the fucking way.

The Nuclear Winter Olympics, Day 15: Another Russian Busted

• I reiterate what I said earlier.

If the Russian flag flies on Sunday -- Hell, if the remaining Olympic Athletes from Russia are even allowed to participate in the Closing Ceremony at all at this rate!!! -- it's because of the fact that the IOC, recognizing that any consistency forces the disqualification of the United States Olympic Committee from the Olympic movement, must allow the Russian flag to fly.

Another Russian has been caught doping, and this one might be worse than the other - as it appears, at least according to Deadspin, that it was an athlete who felt the need to wear a shirt saying "I Don't Do Doping".

Trimetazidine, a banned heart medication.  Nadezhda Sergeeva, pilot of the women's two-woman bobsled -- finished 12th.

I believe this is the third or fourth positive drug coming out of these Games so far, two of them OAR.

If Russia is to continue to be part of the Olympic movement at all, it's because of the United States Olympic Committee of Sexual Assault.  Period.

• This, on the night the OAR finally wins it's first gold medal of these Games, women's figure skating.
• And the hits keep coming for Russia.  An OAR hockey player, cleared of doping earlier in the Sochi Games, has been thrown out of the Olympic ice hockey tournament.  Anna Shokhina was banned for two international games for kicking in the bronze-medal match.
• Medal Count:  The gold medal count is still tied between Germany and Norway at 13.  However, Norway has tied the United States' 2010 Olympic record with a total of 37 medals.  (Canada set the record for golds at the same Olympics, believed tied with Norway eight years earlier, at 14.)  Canada has 10 golds and 27 overall for solid third.  USA is now fourth with 8 golds and 21 overall.

Someone has to get rid of Rob Manfred... NOW, please!!!

I don't know what the Hell Rob Manfred is trying to do to the sport of baseball.  I and my anonymous friend, a baseball historian who is about to swear off the present game, have had several discussions the last few days about two stories about the rules of baseball:  One that's going to happen starting this year, and something completely out of left field that might soon after...

• The pace of play rules are going to be strengthened this year, against the wishes of the MLBPA.  The main impetus this year appears to be pitching mound visits.  Limit of six for the game, catchers' visits count.

Is it any secret to ANYBODY that Manfred wants pitching to suck to the level of incompetence, so that every game turns into a Home Run Derby-esque Game 5 of the World Series from last year's rigged farce?

Look, I get people don't want games five hours long and all that shit, but the facts are facts:  Rob Manfred has a vision of baseball that is offensive, and offensive to the history and traditions of the game, where offense might get you there, but pitching and defense will usually make the final say on the matter.

• Of course, this might be blown away by a reported discussion about changing the entire situation with respect to the rules of the game.  CBS Sports and the Rich Eisen Show reported yesterday that there are discussions which, if they come to fruition, may allow the trailing team in a baseball game in the 9th inning to bat any three players they want to start the 9th inning. 

WHAT??

And the reasoning is even worse!

"The unbelievably flawed rationale, via a text Eisen received: "No other sport has the best players sitting on the bench in the final minutes of a game. Imagine LeBron [James] or Tom Brady or Sidney Crosby or [Cristiano] Ronaldo watching on the sidelines.""

This IDIOT masquerading as a Commissioner wants to blow up the entire sport, once and for all, and replace it with Home Run Derby.

He knows the regular American has the intelligence of a kumquat, the attention span of a flea, and the perspective of a Pakled.

So he wants to outdo them on all three counts!

Oh...  SHIT.

The Nuclear Winter Olympics, Day 14: Yeah, I was able to skip a day or two...

• But the American flag-wavers had a banner day yesterday:  2 in the men's halfpipe, silver in the women's combined, silver in women's big air, gold in the women's hockey, and Canada beaten in men's curling semis -- by the United States!
• The Russian situation hasn't abated.  The $15,000,000 fine has finally been paid, and Dick Pound is getting battered left, right and center.  Pound has apologized for calling other IOC members "old farts", but the IOC has gone so far as to demand Pound's resignation if that's how he feels about the group.  If the Russian flag flies Sunday at the Closing Ceremonies (and no determination has yet been made), they may get it!  (Three different Inside the Games stories over the last couple days.)

Let's get something straight right now:  If the Russian flag flies Sunday, it's because of the United States Olympic Committee of Sexual Assault.

The bottom line is that there is enough in the reports to demand the USOC be disqualified and thrown out of the Olympic movement, and it's also clear that the Russians should remain disqualified.  Unfortunately for those of us who care about fair play, it's clear that both are going to have to be gone.  And since it's pretty clear, for money reasons, the USOC is going to stay, it's also pretty clear that the Russian flag will have to fly going forward.

• Add to this fact that the Russian mixed-doubles curling team has, now, been disqualified for the male using meladonin, as previously reported.  (Inside the Games)
• Medal Count:  Norway is probably going to win the total table, as they have 35 medals to Germany's 25.  The Olympic standard table, on golds first, etc., is less clear, as both have 13 gold medals.  Canada is third with 9 gold and 24 total.  The ship finally came in for the USA, as they are now a solid fourth on the table with 8 gold and 21 total.  The Netherlands has 7 gold and 17 total for fifth.
• Jocelyne Larocque caught criticism last night -- the Canadian women's hockey player cast off her silver medal the instant it was put around her neck, on camera!!

OK, people...  Stop.

She's pissed and disappointed -- and, frankly, she should be.  Canada let off the accelerator and was dominated for 40 minutes of the Grand Final last night and the USA, as much as it makes me groan sometimes, deserved the victory in the shootout.

Call me in two weeks or a month and we'll see if Larocque makes peace.  I think it was a gesture made in a moment of extreme disappointment, and that, to me, is the end of it.

As I said last night -- even with the most fixed result in Olympic history, it's far more disrespectful to the process about some other silver medals -- which still lay in a Berlin vault...  since 1972.

The Nuclear Winter Olympics, Day 11: More Russian Drug Issues

• The B sample for curler Aleksandr Krushelnitckii has been confirmed for meladonin, so he's gone -- the question now that the OAR team is posing is to how it got there, and they are launching a criminal investigation.  This is because the OAR team claims that Krushelnitckii has a negative test from January, as well as all the necessary tests needed to clear him for these Games.
• That said, the current fourth-place team from Norway wants a special medal ceremony to be awarded their bronze medal.

OK...  Stop.  If you were silver and graduated into gold, I could see it.  Hold that in Norway.

• Alina Zagitova of the OAR was unable to complete her final run-throughs for the women's skating competition yesterday -- for a drug test.
• Richard Pound has been told by the president of the Council for the Arbitration of Sport (and an ally of IOC chief Bach) John Coates  that he does not deserve to be recognized by the IOC as a doyen for his comments about Russian doping -- up to and including questioning the IOC actually investigating any of this before the Closing Ceremony.

All of those are from Inside the Games -- the Pound/Coates repartee is an exclusive for the site.

• Ziga Jeglic has become the third failed drug test of the Games -- the Slovenian ice-hockey player blaming an asthma medication for the failure.
• Medal Count:  A German sweep of the Nordic Combined event has allowed them to tie Norway with 11 gold medals.  Norway tops the Olympic standard, though, with 10 silvers to Germany's 7 -- and the total, 29 to 23.  Canada is third:  8 golds, 19 total.   The Netherlands is fourth:  6 golds, 14 total.  France is fifth:  5-4-4, 13 total.  USA is now sixth on the table, 5-3-4.  OAR has 11 for seventh on the table.  Austria and Japan have 10 each total.

Someone needs to stop Rae Carruth from getting released...

Yep, he's back in the news:  The NFL's first high-profile convicted murderer sent a letter to the grandmother of his son recently, wanting a relationship with him.

You know, the son many accounts have of the death of his mother that he wanted killed too!!!

Someone needs to stop this fucker from getting released, for one part because he's dangerous to all around him -- and will be permanently, just by the nature of what he's done...

For another, there's no guarantee in anyone's mind that he wouldn't go after somebody on the outside -- partially because the guy's a complete unemployable in any capacity...

19 (more correctly, through WBTV, 18-24) years was not enough, because it was pretty clear this wasn't Murder Two or whatever.

Only question in my mind is whether he wants to mentor the kid to kill or try to kill the kid again (or the grandmother)...

Scheduled to be released this fall, please don't!

The Nuclear Winter Olympics, Day 10: Oh. My. GOD. What the FUCK??

• And no, I'm not talking about the ice-dancing wardrobe malfunction.  It happened, it's all over the Net, all that stuff.
• I'm talking about this farce of an Olympian, and especially because it's an American Olympian (apparently competing for Hungary, but she's from Oakland, CA now):  Elizabeth Swaney, and this was her excuse for a waste of time at the Olympics in the ski halfpipe...

The HELL??

Eddie "The Eagle" Edwards at least had some skill.

So did Pita Tautafoua and Madrazo...

This was a joke.  OK?  Swaney probably isn't even fit to be a warm-up skier now, and, because of the system of skiing events being still flawed in some of the X-Games sports, she's in the Olympics with THAT...

Swaney never attempted, in any of her runs, a trick above the deck.  She used and manipulated the qualification system (in both country -- Hungary through her grandparents -- AND in the system, beating enough skiers who crashed out to place highly enough) to get to Korea...

Freestyle skiing judge Steele Spence is saying that's not going to happen again.  PLEASE!

(Yahoo!)

• Deadspin may have the best headline:  "The Winter Olympics Feature 2.951 of the World's Greatest Athletes, And Also This Woman..."
• And we have the first proposed Russian doping scandal of these Games:  But in CURLING??? (Inside the Games)  Aleksandr Krushelnitckii -- mixed-doubles, and it would be a medal nullification (bronze).  Meldonium, the same drug that got Maria Sharapova banned.
• It is still undetermined (but the Krushelnitckii situation won't help) as to whether the Russian flag will march in Sunday's Closing Ceremony, but the $15,000,000 fine to the IOC must also be paid -- before we even get to any other considerations.  (Inside the Games)
• If you've been watching the world feed, you've been seeing something called the "OBS", the Olympic Broadcasting System.  Well, it's head, Yiannis Exarchos, says that sports like sports climbing, big-air snowboarding, and 3-on-3 basketball (all making debuts in PyeongChang or in Tokyo 2020) are examples of sports for urban and youth cultures, and the IOC should be making more room for them, as the sports are not in the vein of the 19th-century British countryside.  Greeeeeat...  E-sports in the Olympics, here we come!  (Inside the Games)
• Skateboarding, surfing, and BMX racing will also feature in Tokyo for the first time.
• Medal Count:  Germany and Canada tied at the top of 2-man bobsledding to wrap yesterday.  Norway tops the table with 28 total and 10 gold.  Germany now has 9 gold and 20 total for second.  Canada is third with six gold and 17 total.  The Netherlands, with six gold, has 13 total.  As of the moment (see above), the OAR is next on the total with 11 -- no gold, EIGHT bronze.  The USA, with their total of ten, is tied with  Austria and Japan for sixth in total.

The Nuclear Winter Olympics Day 9 Part 2: The Last Thing the USOC Needed Right Now

It's been reported before, and no surprise that perverts with the power of selection have done this.

But the scale to which the Orange County Register's exclusive investigation, reported also by Deadspin, has gone to indicates that it appears that, much like USA Gymnastics, who won medals for USA Swimming and who didn't might well have been decided by which girls and women accepted groping, fondling, and rape -- and which said no.

And it needs to be said like that to properly put responsibility to these men who have all but assured that the USOC needs to be disbanded and whatever athletes not involved (in any and all sports for America) compete in Tokyo independently.

The Register article includes a speech by then-USA Swimming President Ron Pool, trying to urge this shit to stop.

This was 2005.  According to documentation the California paper has collated, it has not only not stopped, it's gotten worse -- up to and including underage prospects, Olympians, etc.

The executive director, Chuck Wielgus, who thankfully is no longer with us, with how much is alleged he may have been the ringleader of this with respect to USA Swimming, was not touched by it in the least, and, five years later in a deposition, said nothing had been done.

Well, something needs to be done:  The complete disqualification of the USOC for a systematic ignorance of, at minimum, state winked-and-nodded sexual abuse -- to the level the IOC needs to step in and create an Independent Athletes designation for 2020.

You really need to read this shit.  Money was involved -- grants for facilities, money for a world-renowned coach who was sexually assaulting his charges...  Any insurance local affiliated clubs had was through USA Swimming -- which basically required they allow this kind of bullshit!!!

USA Swimming paid almost $80,000 to try to stop a law allowing women and girls to sue their coaches and sanctioning bodies through California law!

At least 250 different coaches of nearly 600 different girls and women have been arrested in the time Wielgus was executive director.

It's time.  The USA has got to go after PyeongChang.

ESPN: Please do not piss off our advertisers, you will be buried...

ESPN has been caught by Deadspin yet again!

Mike Rodak wrote an article about the Buffalo Bills' Preston Brown, the leading tackler in the National Football League last season -- and the improvements he made to get there.

Sounds like a sensible story.

Brown told Rodak that one of the ways he did so was to take all the fast food he used to eat at Wendy's out of his diet.

Sensible, but it got the story buried and the headline changed!

Why?  You can guess it.  Wendy's is an ESPN sponsor, and we just can't have that!!!

A Facebook post, a reference to the Wendy's changes in the ESPN NFL Twitter, and all reference to the omission of Wendy's from his diet was removed from the article!

The Nuclear Winter Olympics, Day 9: The USA Medal Count Is Like California

• When the drought mitigates, it only mitigates some for the United States.  Yes, they got their first medal in over 48 hours on the short track last night (John-Henry Krueger snared silver, only the fourth non-gold medal for the USA), but their total of nine (with a very non-promising day and night upcoming Sunday in Korea) leaves them an increasingly-distant tied for fourth on the total table with Austria, Japan, and the Olympic Athletes from Russia.
• We appear to be headed for another "split title", as Germany leads under the Olympic table standard of golds with nine, but Norway (7 golds) has a significant total medal lead with 22 to Germany's 17.  Canada (5 golds, like the USA) has 15 total medals.
• Seventeen countries have won gold medals, seven more and the Olympic Athletes from Russia (even though they are tied with the USA, Austria, and Japan at 9 total, they have the opposite situation as the USA.  USA is 5-2-2.  OAR is 0-2-7!) have medaled.
• As of present reckoning, 21 countries (including Russia, who still tops the table) won gold medals (Russia and Norway are now considered tied with 11 golds after four Russian medals (two gold, two silver) have been so far yanked.  Five more countries medals, for a total of 26, one more than right now for PyeongChang.
• No country, as of yet, has won their first medal in a Winter Games in PyeongChang.
• Speaking of the USA and OAR, the "Cold War" with the OAR athletes continues, as the largely KHL OAR team reasserted itself as favorites to win the men's hockey gold with a 4-0 schooling of the USA (which I'm surprised wasn't worse!!) -- and the sportsmanship of the OAR was brought into question.  (Yahoo!)  Psst...  Hey, Americans...  They're PISSED.
• Many Trump-Humpers got LOL's at Lindsey Vonn's expense after she became the latest high-profile USA crash-out of these Games in the giant slalom.  Made me wonder:  As hard as these people have worked -- could we actually be seeing some of these athletes losing their edge because they are not 100% committed to representing Trump's America?
• Thomas Bach has announced the IOC will aid North Korea in appearing at the Tokyo Games in 2020.  (Inside the Games)
• And let's keep pouring gasoline on the fire, United States!  Next week, the Helsinki Commission, an independent European security agency of the US government, will tackle issues raised by the Russian doping scandal.  (Inside the Games)
• Elise Christie of Great Britain had to be stretchered off the ice last night when she took a skate from a Chinese skater to the leg -- and SHE was the one disqualified!  (Yahoo!)

The Nuclear Winter Olympics, Day 8, Part 2: Mark these words and call me crazy...

The USA is now well over 48 hours without a medal -- and at least another 24 on the horizon, as Day 9 does not look to be particularly promising either.

With half the events over, the USA is on pace for a medal total of sixteen, it's lowest since Nagano.

With Vonn, Shiffrin (in one event), Jacobellis, Chen, and others falling well short, the "America First" crowd is going to call for the USOC to be answerable.

That and the Dr. Nassar stuff will have Trump ordering heads -- probably ALL OF THEM.

A complete flush of the USOC is probably going to be done shortly after these Games.  And though it may be couched in Dr. Nassar, it's not going to get that far.

Under the SI medal count projections, a medal count of 16 would finish seventh, and probably lower because of the success of other countries.

The USA (8 current) could be outmedaled in total by the Olympic Athletes from Russia (8), the Netherlands (13), France(7), maybe Austria (9), Canada will (13), even Japan after the figure skating today (9)...

With no real hope of medaling tonight in more events, the USA, as of the time of writing, stands tied for seventh with the Olympic Athletes of Russia for the total of eight.

A lot of the people who have mocked this prediction already on Olympic discussions underestimate...  People are now beginning to report and discover:  This team, across the board, is not very good.

There is at least one high-profile big-money Olympic gold medalist who should be sent home and disqualified.

There is now a real case for the removal of the United States of America from the Olympic movement.

This is NOT going to stand -- not in "America First" of God-Emperor PussyGrabber I.

The USOC had best start preparing mass resignations, dated probably about the 26th of February.

The Nuclear Winter Olympics, Day 8: Take That Pence. (And Trump. And NBC. And Amero-Centric People.)

• Just keep trying to piss off Adam Rippon, homophobes.  He'll just come back and really start having fun on your asses.  He doesn't have the jumps to compete with the Asians, but he's seventh and almost certainly will be the top American male finisher after the free skate tonight.
• And that might not be the only thing pissing off the "America First" crowd.  The United States athletes had a very bad night on a night a number of the top names were seen to cash in.  Jacobellis, 4th in the snowboard cross.  Shiffrin, 4th in the slalom (her best event).  Nathan Chen shows he probably didn't belong here.
• Of course, you could be Canada right now, asking questions about your 0-3 women's curling team.
• But, on the other side of the ledger, there is this!!

That was the back end of the men's 15K cross-country race.

German Madrazo of Mexico finished last in the event.  And no surprise in that -- he was one of a number of skiers (who came to congratulate him and hoist him as the winner came by to send his regards!) who took up cross-country skiing and tried to see if they could finish the Olympic course.  (And yes, that guy in the red is the "Shirtless Tongan", Pita Taufatofua, competing in his event!).

When Madrazo came into the arena where the start-finish line was, he was greeted with a warm welcome, and a Mexican flag to take over the line with him.

• And, according to Taufatofua, he's now going to try to qualify for a water sport for Tokyo.  (Deadspin) 
• I usually don't think of posting comments unless they're completely idiotic, but I have to do this one:  "Dr. Emilio Lazardo" on Deadspin notes, about Taufatufua's finish:  "To be fair, he is probably exhausted from having more sex than any of the 113 men who finished in front of him."
• A possible scare of Mikaela Shiffrin that might have larger implications than just the loss last night:  She was known to have been vomiting before her first run yesterday.  She said she might have come down with something.  And now, news this morning that the norovirus outbreak has hit the skiers -- two Swiss freestyle skiers have been confirmed with the virus.  (MSN)
• One of the two was Fabian Boesch, who became a social-media sensation when he posted a picture of himself goofing off, hanging off the outside rail of an escalator.
• There is much concern as to some of the attendance figures of events in the Games in Korea.  The MSN article gives seven reasons this could be happening:  
• The fact that organizers have tailored the scheduling for prime-time television in different targeted regions of the world (leading to figure skating being held in the morning to cater to USA audiences -- and some of the cross-country very late at night to cater to Europeans!) is one.
• Another:  Nobody's buying even walk-up tickets available for every event -- including the men's short program -- yesterday!
• The continuing Cold War between the Olympic Athletes From Russia (and their fans) and...  pretty much everybody else!!! ...  has caught the ire of the IOC.  Gunilla Lindberg of the IOC Executive Board is blasting athletes isolating the OAR for violating the Olympic spirit in and of themselves.  (Inside the Games)
• And don't think this isn't lost on OAR athletes.  Just ask Slovenia's men's hockey team, who is checking for the license plate number of that truck that scored five goals in 12 minutes and ran them out of the building 8-2 last night!
• And, and United States?  You see that same team tonight, for first in the group!
• HOORAY BEER!!!  Red Stripe Beer has bought a new sled for the Jamaican women's bobsled team to assure they will compete at the Games.  (Inside the Games)
• Medals:  Norway has pulled ahead of Germany in the total.  Norway has 19 total medals, Germany 15, the Netherlands and Canada 13 each.  Germany heads the Olympic standard table with nine gold medals, the Netherlands and Norway with six each.  The USA was completely shut out yesterday on a day many thought several medals could've come their way, as they stand with five gold medals (fourth on the Olympic standard), but a distant tie for fifth in the total with eight (with Austria and the Olympic Athletes from Russia).

The Nuclear Winter Olympics, Day 7: IOC Member Sent Off

• Adam Pengilly, a British member of the IOC, has been expelled from the Games and sent home after an incident with a security guard in which Korean officials claim Pengilly may have knocked down a security officer who ordered Pengilly, even after his credentials had been presented, to leave an area Pengilly thought he was entitled to be at.  (Inside the Games)
• A Russian bobsledder is claiming that, even with all of the different stories about Russians flaunting in the face of the OAR restrictions, that Russian athletes are on course to march as Russian athletes in the Closing Ceremony.  (Inside the Games)
• To that end, Dick Pound is accusing the IOC of letting Russia "shoot the messenger" about all this, and it appears as if the IOC has no merit in actually enforcing it's edicts against Russia.  It is believed Pound is boycotting the Closing Ceremony because of the Russian controversy -- and it's also believed that the IOC is trying to undercut Pound about his protest.  (Inside the Games)
• Perhaps a lot of this is happening because of regret at the Russian disqualification, now knowing they would have to do the same to the United States if they followed any kind of similar criteria?
• Sixteen people have been injured by the damaging winds which have wreaked havoc on Gangneung Olympic Park -- biathlon events have been postponed as well as the complete rewrite of the Alpine skiing schedule.  And, one afternoon and evening, the entire park was cleared due to concerns the whole shebang might come down or something.  (Inside the Games)
• The International Paralympic Committee has registered a Russian neutral team (a "Paralympic Athletes From Russia") for the Paralympic Games next month.  (Inside the Games)
• Medal Count:  Though NBC is happy about another featured American athlete gaining gold, as Mikaela Shiffrin won the women's Giant Slalom yesterday, the Germany-Norway battle lines are being drawn.  Germany now has nine gold medals to top the Olympic standard table, and 15 total.  Norway leads the total, however, with 17.  Canada, with four golds, is third in the total with 13.  The Netherlands have 12.  And even though the United States has five gold medals so far, they have only three others, for a total of eight -- fifth in the total by an increasing distance.

The Nuclear Winter Olympics, Day 6: How many more of you jerks going to get fired?

• KNBR has fired Patrick Connor, the guy who made the sexually-suggestive comment about underage gold-medalist Chloe Kim.  No word yet on Barfstool... (Yahoo!)
• If my memory serves, this is at least the fourth KNBR employee to be fired for on-air comments.
• The coach of the women's Jamaican bobsled team has quit.  It is possible this may mean they will be unable to compete.
• Medals:  Germany now leads in the total (12) and golds (7).  Netherlands is second on the table with 5 golds and a total of 11, the total matched by Norway (but they only have 3 golds).  Canada has 10 total.  Japan and the USA have 7 total each, but the USA's 4 golds puts them third in the Olympic-standard table.

The Nuclear Winter Olympics, Day 5, Part 3 and Last: There's a growing case for a dual disqualification from Tokyo and beyond...

I've already made note of the situation with the Russians violating what agreement may have been made with the IOC for the "Olympic Athletes From Russia" to compete in PyeongChang -- and the very real plausible situation they will NOT be allowed in Tokyo.

Well, this Shaun White thing being the latest, but there's a growing body of evidence that indicates that the USA may need to join them in expulsion from the Olympic movement.

Travis Waldron of the Huffington Post, through Yahoo!, makes a compelling case for the immediate removal of the United States from the Olympic movement.

I've always said that one of the major differences between what we all know is a bunch of drugged USA athletes and the Russian Sochi incident is that, at most, it appears the American one is, at best, a wink-and-nod -- and even Waldron understands and concedes that whatever programs might allow the American athletes to have drugged advantage is privatized.

However, he believes it so prevalent, and the USOC divorcing itself from the issue (including to the chagrin of former Olympic swimmer Nancy Hogshead-Makar) that it needs to be declared state-sanctioned.

There can be no doubt:  If the International Olympic Committee ever reaches that conclusion with the USOC regarding American drugged athletes, they're out.

And then you get to the Nassar situation, as well as associated cases involving at least swimming as well.

He has a compelling case.  He has openly asked the IOC to throw the United States out of the Olympic movement -- and this incident yesterday should add more fuel to the fire for this.

One has to look 2 1/2 years hence and wonder something:  What would a Tokyo Olympic Games look like minus Russia...  AND THE UNITED STATES???

The Nuclear Winter Olympics, Day 5, Part 2: Do we now have TWO GROUNDS on which to DQ that gold medal out of Shaun White's hands?

• I had written a different post here on the Shaun White flag controversy -- but when, upon review, I see that White also stepped on the flag as well in disregard, now we've got a serious problem...

Methinks it's time for the USOC to sit down and take some very real stock as to whether that gold medal needs to go back on that point alone.

I had not seen, upon first and live viewing, that he did any more than take it to ground (which, in and of itself, is a huge violation of the Flag Code).  But stepping on it as well crosses the line into "conduct unbecoming" territory, regardless of the circumstances.

At minimum, it's grave disregard.  The USOC needs to consider immediate disqualification on that ground alone -- and then he's got more problems once he gets home...

• The sexual harassment/#MeToo stuff?  That's something else -- and if that's part of this griping, separate the two, please!  A lawsuit alleges he sexual harassed and threatened Lena Zawaideh, a former drummer in White's band.  Penis pictures, unwanted hardcore porn, probably forced her to drink alcohol underage...  (Yahoo!)

If we're going to go there, and there's no reason not to:  You must then state that, should these allegations be true, White must be disqualified post mortem.  There's no other solution for this -- especially because he became more hostile (it is alleged) to Zawaideh after failing and finishing fourth in Russia four years ago.

He has admitted, I believe, the penis shots, but nothing else.

But this is going to have to be settled, one way or the other.  And if Zawaideh is right about everything, Shaun White needs to lose that gold medal he just won today.  As in full-scale DQ, because he had no business representing the United States or anyone else...

So we now have two possible disqualification avenues for Shaun White.

• And Barstool Sports is at it again.  Chloe Kim has now been officially declared "a little hot piece of ass" by one of the misogynistic idiots at Barstool.  (Yahoo!)

Patrick Connor, a co-host to Dallas Braden's show on Barstool's Sirius XM channel, made the comment.

And he's another KNBR host too.

When are people going to realize that Barstool Sports is "Get it out and jack it off..."?  Seriously...

The Nuclear Winter Olympics, Day 5: The Russians don't like us...

• If we get out of these Olympics without a war with Russia, it may be a miracle.  Not only are their fans making a fair mockery of the IOC's "Olympic Athletes From Russia" limitations (Yahoo!), but Russian and American skeleton riders are not on speaking terms at all in the practice runs, a rarity in such events.  (Yahoo!)
• Of course, it could be worse...  You could be Pita Taufatofua.  The "Shirtless Tongan" had a scare at the PyeongChang Games.  His family and country had to deal with a Southeastern Asia cyclone which damaged about 40% of the buildings in the country and destroyed it's Parliament building.  His family is safe, and he may look for ways to attempt to raise awareness and funds during the Games.  (Yahoo!)
• As I'm reading of some of the stories on Yahoo! here, I'm noticing a number of the comments indicating very little of Yahoo!'s coverage is about the actual events!  Should stand to reason...  Since many American viewers of the Games go backstory-driven...  Right?
• Of course, it could probably even be still worse than Taufatofua.  Kim Boutin of Canada is facing threats from the South Korean fans.  Why?  Boutin won bronze, largely because of a call by the short-track 500m final jury that Choi Min-Jeong infringed her on the ice.

Judge for yourself:

It is so unfair that @kimbtin of Canada got a bronze medal instead of Choi Minjeong of Korea. Kim pushed Choi first, and Choi was pushed so hard that she could even be injured. @Olympic @pyeongchang2018 should reconsider Choi's disqualification.
pic.twitter.com/Af4WoPF3zk

— Vera 🐢 (@ritxian01) February 13, 2018

• A Chicago television station goofing around with the Olympics stepped in it hard this weekend reporting the Russian alternative Games for their banned athletes.  Instead of the normal PyeongChang Olympics, a similar logo on several Games stories had it called the "P.F.Chang 2018" Games, with a four-ringed representation of the Olympic Rings.

ABC 7 had this to say, according to the Deadspin report on the incident:

"Jayme Nicholas, a spokesperson for the ABC affiliate in Chicago, told Inc. that the goof was the result of a mix-up. The graphic was created for a different “satirical piece” put together on Friday by sports anchor Mark Giangreco in which viewers were encouraged to invent their own Olympic sports, but it was mistakenly also used for the serious news story read on Saturday by weekend anchor Mark Rivera, Nicholas said."

(hat-tip to my anonymous friend for that one)

• A homophobic jackass on Twitter slammed gay American skater Adam Rippon on Twitter for the crime of who he is.  Rippon has become one of the American stars of the Games, on the basis of a crackling performance in the men's long program of the team competition and his infectious personality.  The only reason I'm going to dignify GrumpyGrampa22 and his right-wing idiocy is that he's REALLY AN IDIOT!!!  In sending a vitriolic homophobic rant (though he didn't say it directly, read the Kotaku article and you're pretty clear of his intent), though the recipient of his rant was Adam Rippon -- it was Adam Rippon, a 37 year-old game designer from the Bay Area!!!  This IDIOTIC MOTHERFUCKER couldn't be arsed to do an ounce of research or looking around!
• I'm not exactly sure why this is an "admission", but IOC head Thomas Bach stated that the deal to allow both Koreas to march unified at the Opening Ceremony was a last-minute success.  I mean, this is a very deeply political situation, and a very tender subject for all parties involved.  Let's not criticize the timing -- let's praise that it got done!!  (Inside the Games)
• "But no one was FORCED to..."  This is the FIS statement on the slopestyle debacle.  REALLY???  (Inside the Games)
• Whoops!!!  Now even the International Ice Hockey Federation can't get it right.  Someone might want to send the Canadian women's ice-hockey coach to them -- as, on at least four occasions, the Olympic Athletes From Russia have been represented with the Russian flag.  (Inside the Games)
• Medal Count, to wrap this one up:  Germany won the women's luge last night -- their leading fifth gold medal of the Games.  Norway leads the total with 11, Canada and the Netherlands have 10, Germany has nine.  USA is fifth on the table with three golds, one silver, and two bronze for six total.

Will someone PLEASE shut LaVar Ball up before something tragic happens to one or more of his sons?

This bullshit with LaVar Ball has to end.  NOW.

LaVar is trying to strongarm the Lakers into signing his other two meal-tickets (I'm sorry to the two men -- they are not LaVar's children, only moneymakers to the "Big Baller".), when LaVar said that Lonzo (who, by the way, is locked to the Lakers for another season with two more years as team options, LaVar!!!) will leave the Lakers next year if the other two aren't on the team.

Someone has got to shut this fucker up.  Forcibly, if need be.

I think we all know how this story ends, especially because it really appears that none of these three are THAT GOOD...

Shut this fucker up now, or at least one of them might pay the price once they are declared failures and the "Big Baller" can't get anything from them.

The Nuclear Winter Olympics, Day 4, Part 2: So you really want to host the Olympic Games?

Sounds to me like PyeongChang and Korea can get a hold of Montreal just about any time now.

Reports (Yahoo! reported it this evening.) from CNBC indicate that Korea will lose $10.5 BILLION by hosting the Games.

That pentagon-shaped stadium you saw?  $109 million, and it might get TWO uses.

Sounds a bit like Montreal, don't it?

• We have our first doping hit of the Games.  Speed-skater Kei Saito of Japan failed a pre-event drug test for a masking agent.  He's going home.  (Yahoo!)   Saito is, in fact, the FIRST ATHLETE in Japanese Olympic history to fail a drug test.
• The IOC may demand new helmets for the goalies on the USA hockey teams.  The IOC has provisionally declared The Statue of Liberty to be a political statement, and the IOC does not allow those.  (Yahoo!)
• Who knows, knowing Deer Leeduh, maybe Trump himself, in opposition to Lady Liberty, believes she is also Fake News...

The Nuclear Winter Olympics, Day 4: Blown Away

• 26 female Olympians got screwed without lube yesterday -- no, that's not a joke.  They decided to go ahead with the slopestyle competition yesterday, even though the weather was in no condition to do so.  Of the 52 runs, only maybe about 8 or so made completion -- and an 83.00 was all that was needed to win gold.  Most everybody, even the eventual winner, was pissed!!! (Deadspin) 
• In what has to be described as the ultimate in hubris, the Russian Foreign Minister has actually come out and said that the reason the Russian Olympic Committee is disqualified is that the United States can't beat them fairly.  (Chicago Tribune)
• The medal table is fairly even at the top in the total, but the USA is not in that top group.  Germany still tops the table on Olympic standard with 4 golds, but Norway has nine medals, while Germany, the Netherlands, and Canada have seven apiece.  The USA, with two golds, has four medals.
• Dmitry Medvedev, the Prime Minister of Russia, has decreed there shall be an alternate Games for the banned athletes only.  Oh brother...  (Inside the Games)

The Nuclear Winter Olympics, Day 3, Part 2: Mother Nature takes another Alpine gold medal...

• The weather continues to wreak havoc on the schedule in the outdoor skiing events.  Winds at gale force are preventing a safe environment for Olympic competition.  Now, both the ladies' giant slalom and the mens' downhill will be run on Thursday (Wednesday our time).  The womens' slopestyle competition, compressed into one finals today instead of qualifications yesterday, then finals, is still postponed -- the hoped-for morning consistent weather has not surfaced yet!
• As should be expected, reports now have it that NBC has fired Joshua Cooper Ramo from the coverage for his comments on Japan and Korea at the Opening Ceremony.  He was _supposed to be_ an expert on Asian relations.  Who gave reference?  Donald "I Want To Nuke Rocket-Man" Trump?? (Yahoo!)
• A sign in Korea:  "It's Koreezing Out Here!  (Be Thankful You're At Home)  (Inside the Games)

The Nuclear Winter Olympics, Day 3: Shaddapayaface

• The PyeongChang Olympic Games were the site of a cyber hack, officials have been forced to admit.  Shortly before the Opening Ceremony, the official site went down, the stadium's wi-fi went down, and the Internet at the International Broadcast Centre was compromised.  Rumors abound that it was a Russian counter-attack for the disqualification and banishment of the Russian Olympic Committee.  Officials aren't saying.  (The Guardian)
• Much of the discussion on the first weekend centered around the Russian doping and reactions to it:
• Yelena Isinbayeva, a Russian pole vaulter, said she believed the Russians will actually do very well BECAUSE they are pissed-off. (Russia Today -- and for the issues some have with that as a news service, I think that one would be appropriate here.)
• Canada made a point of slamming the Russian team (excuse me, Canadian coach Laura Schuler, the team from the Olympic Athletes From Russia (she made the point to correct that to a reporter!)) last night -- first on the ice hockey, as a women's team losing six members to the IOC disqualification was run up on by Canada 5-0, and then with the aforementioned correction.  (Yahoo!)
• The Canadian Olympic Committee apologized for the comments.
• Two more cases of the old song "Shaddapayaface" have surfaced this weekend, the first surrounding the doping:  The IOC is now investigating an OAR medal-winner in speedskating for comments made after he got bronze in the 1500m short track event.  Semen Elistratov (no jokes, that IS his name!) may get the Russians banned further for these comments made last night, according to the USA Today article on the incident:

“I have difficulties to hold back my tears,” Elistratov said. “I am incredibly happy that I did it, in spite of all the circumstances around Russian sport. I dedicate this medal to all guys that have been excluded from these Games in such a hard and unfair way. This medal is for you.”

• OAR are not to represent Russia in any way, shape, or form.  It would appear that Elistratov could be disqualified and might even be stripped of his medal for the incident, as well as further sanctions for the Olympic Committee of Russia, pending a review that IOC official Mark Adams spoke of. 
• Elistratov was one of the athletes who was banned two years ago, but was somehow exonerated.  Any action at this point would be simply a question of his comments, given the restrictions placed on the Olympic Athletes From Russia.
• And #NBCFail again.  Opening Ceremony.  Josh Cooper Ramo, in trying to help viewers understand the culture of the Opening Ceremony better, stepped into it hard when he noted Japan occupied Korea from 1910 to 1945 -- a situation which had such abuses, it led to the split of Korea to this day.  That, and making light of it, given the technical advances in Korea, has landed Ramo in extremely hot water and forced NBC to apologize.  (Yahoo! -- and is anyone fucking surprised as the #NBCFail?)
• Germany lead the table, but lost a huge medal opportunity when two-time defending men's singles luge champion Felix Loch committed an error in his final run, costing him any medal after an insurmountable lead otherwise in the first three runs.  They have only three medals, but they all being gold mean they lead the table under Olympic standard.  A Norwegian sweep in the mens' skiathlon has led the way to Norway leading the total with 8, three more than the Netherlands.
• The USA actually lost a chance at a shocking second gold medal in that luge event, but did up the first medal they've ever gotten in that event with Chris Mazdzer getting silver.  David Gleirscher of Austria is the new Olympic champion in men's singles luge.
• 12 events have been completed, 9 different countries have won gold medals.  14 different countries and the OAR have won medals.
• In response to the Nassar atrocities, an IOC member (Prince Feisal bin Hussein of Jordan) has said it could take sports at least 10 years to eradicate the problem -- and that's if they start now!  (Inside the Games)
• And swimmer Ariana Kukors is the latest to reveal sexual abuse at the hands of coaches and the American Olympic movement.  A lengthy blog post pre-Games makes her yet another swimmer to reveal sexual abuse.

The Nuclear Winter Olympics, Day 2, Part 3: OUCH!!!

• I honestly do believe that, if the USA medal count falls short of what have to be admittedly low expectations, that Donald Trump will have negative repercussions for the athletes and the USOC...

That said, the display by the Netherlands speed skating fans can't have pleased Deer Leeduh...

Reported by Yahoo!, they had a message for Trump after the Netherlands swept the podium in the women's 3000m last night:

The Nuclear Winter Olympics, Day 2, Part 2: Pence Gets Slammed Again At the Opening Ceremony

• I don't think this Tweet will need further comment, as to it's message or it's target.  Kensworthy (who later threw "Eat your heart out, Pence." on his Instagram) is a freestyle skier on the US Team, and is also openly gay.  (CBS Sports)

We're here. We're queer. Get used to it. @Adaripp #Olympics #OpeningCeremony pic.twitter.com/OCeiqiY6BN

— Gus Kenworthy (@guskenworthy) February 9, 2018

• But Kensworthy is wrong on one regard.  To eat his heart out, Mike Pence would have to HAVE one.  And, if he did, there'd be no need for this situation.
• Well, there goes the USA shutout -- with four Norwegians and three Canadians in the final field of 12 with a damn-near-unwatchable number of falls in at least one of the qualifying groups yesterday, American Red Gerard can expect calls from about every corporate and television outlet who will take him:  Olympic Gold Medalist today in the Men's Snowboard Slopestyle event.  Canadians Max Parrot and Mark McMorris finished second and third.
• Jean-Claude Killy, an honorary member of the IOC, did not believe the McLaren Report and supporting data represented significant enough evidence to throw the Russian team and Olympic Committee out of the Olympic movement.  (Inside the Games)
• The men's downhill has been postponed due to high winds at the top of the course.  This is not uncommon -- the women's downhill at the Olympics I attended was postponed at least once.
• The PyeongChang Olympic Organizing Committee has apologized to Iran for not giving them the special-edition Samsung telephones they were otherwise entitled to as an Olympic team.  It was stated yesterday the snub was due to sanctions against the country, but it's clear that was not the case now.  (Inside the Games)
• The Iranian athletes will receive and be allowed to keep their phones.

The Nuclear Winter Olympics, Day 2: The America Firsters Aren't Going To Like This...

• Within the space of about 60 seconds, two speedskating events ended, and the Netherlands won 4 of the 6 medals contested, including a sweep of the women's 3000m long-track event.
• In something which will not please the "America First: crowd:  The United States was not one of the eight countries which won medals in Day 1.  Germany tops the Olympic table for having won two gold medals in Day 1, but the Netherlands and Norway won four medals apiece to top the total.  Korea and Sweden also took gold on the day, with the Czech Republic, Finland, and an Olympic Athlete from Russia getting on the podium.
• There was significant controversy regarding the flag-bearer for the United States, and when Shani Davis didn't eventually win the coin toss to bear the flag for the Opening Ceremony to Erin Hamlin, Davis protected his Twitter account and chose not to attend at all.  Given the country's current environment, I would not be surprised that Davis being Black was not a factor, given Vladdie Lite in the stands.
• Korea's unified women's hockey team made headlines late last night with their debut in the women's competition.  Politicians from both Koreas stood together to cheer them on.  Unfortunately, they lost.

More later.

The Nuclear Winter Olympics, Day 1, Part 2: Also Part 2 of What Trumpies Voted For

Let's talk the Second Asshole In Chief here...

Mike Pence, Vice-President of the United States, head of the American delegation to last night's Opening Ceremonies...

This Dominionist fuck has already committed two major affronts, because of his homophobia and extreme right-wing and America First beliefs, against these Games..

• In the days leading up to the Games, a conflict erupted between Pence and gay American Olympian Adam Rippon, as Gawker site Splinter reported.  Two days before the Opening Ceremony, it was announced Rippon refused to meet with Vice President Pence.

Two flailing Tweets later, almost as if Pence were attempting to read from a script and fake support for athletes such as Rippon, when we all know that Vladdie Putin Lite would gladly deny Rippon far more than just the opportunity to compete for the country if he were given the chance.

And Rippon's mother isn't buying it either.  As Splinter reported, Kelly Rippon said the following about Pence and more "FAKE N00Z!!!111!!" bleating from the White Straight Right on CNN:

"I just think that that — that when people keep saying that word “fake news” over and over again, it implies that you can do things and you can never be held accountable for them because you just say that it’s fake. That repetition of that term, I don’t think, is good."

Chris Cuomo, who interviewed Mrs. Rippon, brought up the facade of "religious freedom" as a means to oppose LGBT people by Putin Lite, and Kelly wasn't having any of that either:

"…Protection for equal rights for people isn’t to give any group or marginalized community an advantage. It’s to try and level the playing field. And I think that, you know, as a mom or as a citizen or just as a human being, we don’t want to see anyone be treated, guilted or shamed into feeling that they’re less than who they actually are."

• And as if that weren't bad enough, Mike Pence made a COMPLETE ASS OF HIMSELF at the Opening Ceremony this morning (US time)...

Splinter again:  As I did in an earlier catch-all post, one of the most poignant moments of the Opening Ceremony was the unified Korean team marching in under a unified Korean flag.

Every dignitary in the VIP box saluted this move.

Except for Mr. America First, Vice President Mike Pence and Second Lady Karen.

You.

FUCKING.

ASSHOLES.

I'll say it, and it's the main reason I believe something's going down in the next two weeks (and why I title the posts for these Games as I do):  I believe Trump, Pence, and Putin would gladly work together for an attack on these Games to support the agenda the three of them, together, believe...

The double-standard is frightening, and I would have to begin to wonder if, between non-conciliatory acts such as this and the Nassar situation, if an OAU team would happen in two years in Tokyo...

The Nuclear Winter Olympics, Day 1: Korea unites, the CAS says Russia may still have a state-sponsored doping program

• Watched the Opening Ceremony live this morning on the world feed, without announcers (NOT the NBC edit you will see tonight if you watch it!).  Very unique ceremony, very high tech (Augmented Reality is a large part of this performance, as the center circle of the unique pentagon-shaped stadium was used as a large screen for numerous special effects, and the stadium seats had lights next to them to simulate the old-school cards, and to allow that effect throughout the entire ceremony).  A comparatively simple cauldron-lighting completed the ceremony, by the party largely expected to light it, Olympic champion figure-skater Yuna Kim.
• One of the most poignant moments of the Ceremony was the final team to enter, a unified Korean team under one flag.  Also, the enigmatic sister of North Korean tyrant Kim Jong Un shook hands with the President of South Korea, in a badly-needed show of Olympic goodwill.  The President of the IOC, Thomas Bach, in his remarks at the Ceremony, put the unified Korea moments on par with the Refugee Olympic Team in Rio as inspirational to the Olympic movement.
• In a puzzling move, given the conciliatory nature and the unified Korean front for these Games, however, North Korean television did NOT show the Opening Ceremony.
• Bach also made pointed remarks about competing drug-free, and he might as well have named Russia directly, as obviously as those statements were in his remarks.  This comes as the Council for the Arbitration of Sport, in it's full finding, rejecting the appeals of 45 Russian athletes to compete at the XXIII Winter Olympiad.  The findings are the first statements by the CAS, admitting a state-sponsored drug regime in Russia to rig the Sochi Olympics.  Roughly 20% of the Olympic places allotted to Olympic Athletes from Russia were not filled.  (Inside the Games)
• The whistleblower for the McLaren Report, Grigory Rodchenkov, told CBS' 60 Minutes he still is the target for assassination by Vladimir Putin for so blowing the whistle. (Inside the Games)
• I really want to know how the guy did it!  The "Shirtless Tongan", Pita Taufatofua, who got the NBC female commentators drooling on mic in Rio took up cross-country skiing, and succeeding in making it into the XXIII Winter Olympiad.  He celebrated by carrying his country's flag, shirtless and covered in oil -- just like in Rio.  How I'd like to know how he did it?  The temperature, rumored to be below zero a few days ago, was warmer...  But only into the 20's Fahrenheit!
• The Pride House, for LGBT athletes at the XXIII Winter Olympiad, will be directly affiliated and hosted, for the first time, by a national Olympic Committee, Canada. (Inside the Games)

Is there going to be any idea yet that THIS SHIT is what you voted for, Trumpies?

The University of Nebraska has a student to expel.  I agree with protests on the campus.

In protest, the Nebraska men's basketball team almost forfeited a match to Rutgers.  It was in response to Daniel Kleve, describing himself as "the most active White Nationalist in the Nebraska area" and discussed (though apparently only discussed) violence.

Saying that the Founding Fathers had no regard for the opinions of Blacks or Indians (which, if he takes the damn racism out of his own attitude, he's not that far wrong -- it's saying that as an avowed White Nationalist that's the problem here), Kleve has become the target for protests and for expulsion from the University.

The players will, instead, wear "Hate Will Never Win" shirts to the warmups.

(ESPN)

This is what 60 million people voted for.  Just keep all that in mind.

Nuclear Winter Olympics: Day 0: CAS throws out 45 Russians.

• The last-minute appeals of 45 Russian athletes for the PyeongChang Games have been dismissed.
• The United States Olympic Committee announces it will put all of it's resources to hosting the Los Angeles 2028 Games, ending plans for a 2026 Winter Games bid.
• A Canadian team member has caused a team-wide warning after a verbal exchange with an Olympic Athlete From Russia.
• Those Olympic Athletes From Russia will march between Austria and Kazhakstan, with an Olympic volunteer carrying the Olympic flag.  They will be 55th of the 92 teams to march, and the order is the Korean alphabet.

Again, thank you to Inside the Games for the neutral information.

• From Deadspin, probably the most important news of the day:  The USOC has commissioned an independent inquiry into the sexual assaults and the like by Dr. Larry Nassar.  One might have to ask, eventually, whether a similar disqualification for USOC denial and allowance of Nassar's (and others') misconduct might be in line for Tokyo 2022 and onward...

Tonight's Parade of Nations will begin with Greece, and then a quirk of the Korean alphabet...  Three African nations will be next.

Medal-count rivals Norway and Germany will march sixth and ninth in the Parade.

To the chagrin of NBC, the United States will march 26th, about a quarter of the way into the Parade.

You're about to find out just how big a fan Donald Trump is of Vince McMahon...

In one of the least surprising developments of the last couple of weeks, Vince McMahon has been made part of the #MeToo situation.

Granted, it's a 2006 situation that did go through law enforcement and the like, but anyone who's watched WWE for what must be almost 30 years running now has to know that Vince McMahon is a misogynistic pig.

And now, Deadspin wrestling analyst and wrestling podcaster David Bixenspan had a long report that appears to indicate Vince used his power to get out of a criminal offense that it is believed by the local relevant police he did commit.

His article today appears to indicate that a witness stated Vince continued to harass one of his accusers by staring at her for over 45 minutes at a Boca Raton tanning salon.

This eventually (as Vince has the want to do) led to an angle, where a male stalker was going after Trish Stratus and Mickie James...

Anyone who's been a pro wrestling fan as long as I have has to know that it's an almost-certainty that the allegation is probably true, and is probably the basis for who he chooses to associate with and who he doesn't -- it'd be straight out of God-Emperor Pussygrabber I's playbook.

Wrestling in general and the WWE in particular would be better off without him, so, hopefully, this gets further play.

The Nuclear Winter Olympics, Day -1: Freeze-Out

• Greeeeeeeeat.  Donald Trump wants a military parade.  Can we please have at least one regiment or whatever break into "Do Wah Diddy Diddy" or something to make a fool of this jackass masquerading as President?
• The CAS will announce it's decision to appeal the bans of over three dozen Russian athletes tomorrow.
• Competition actually begins tonight our time, with mixed-doubles curling.   The curling and skating programs have so much to do in their different disciplines that the events now have to start two days beforehand.
• The IOC has announced no new winter sports for the next Winter Olympics in Beijing (should we survive these...).
• The 2024 Paris Games have been moved up a week.
• Temperatures for the open-air Opening Ceremonies have been revised upward...  to between -2 and -5 with wind chills of -10!

Thank you to Inside the Games for that list.

A couple others this morning...

• The norovirus outbreak could be a major issue in these Games, with the number of confirmed cases now up around 90. (ESPN)
• The International Paralympic Committee is allowing clean Russian athletes the same right to complete in the Pyeongchang Paralympics as their Olympic counterparts on the Olympic Athletes From Russia. (ESPN)

The Nuclear Winter Olympics, Day -2: This is getting sickening...

• Plunge Protection Team had to stave off another 600 point loss in the Dow video game score this morning.
• The headline is quite literal.  Deadspin reports this morning that over 1,200 security workers in Korea have been sent home, days before the start of the Games, with norovirus.
• According to Inside the Games, reporting from the IOC convention:  There is talk Russia may be allowed to march as their own country in the Closing Ceremonies in PyeongChang.
• Russia was a huge subject on the first day of the IOC meeting, but the USA Gymnastics scandal was not spared.  It does not appear, though, the IOC will do enough to force reforms on USA Gymnastics, as a lot of that discussion appeared to be useless hand-wringing.
• Sports Illustrated is telling Americans who wish the USA at the top of the medal table to save their breath.  Their projections have the USA a distant fourth on the medal table, Canada actually defeating them both in total and in Olympic criteria (golds first, silvers and then bronzes to break ties).  The skiing events have Norway their projected table-topper, and by a fair distance, with the sliding events aiding Germany to second. 
• CNN's projections have the USA a distant third to Germany and then Norway.

The Nuclear Winter Olympics, Day -3: The Dow Jones Video Game Score Plummets

I don't usually go full economics here.

And, yes, I do understand there was a significant legal action in which the government has frozen the market size of Wells Fargo, the third largest bank in the country, to end-2017 levels, a significant action which has dropped the stock itself 10%, and probably more to come.

But still...

About 2 Eastern this afternoon, market was only off about 350 points.

I say "only", because by 3:10, the market was off over 1,400 points.  (For the record, they were STILL a thousand points from a circuit-breaker shutdown!)

On the close on January 26th, the Dow 30 was at 26,616.71.

Today, after losing 1,175 points today (and 830 or so of them in the last 2 hours, in which the market went from down 350 to down 1400 to about 700 down to about 1,200 down to a final loss of 1175 for the day at 24,345.75.

That's 2,275 points or so since the 26th, about 8 1/2%.

Why am I going through all this on a sports conspiracy blog?

Well, it'd be one thing to find out that the Patriots' dynasty had a lot of money in the stock market, and they know what happened and all...  That'd be almost comedic to what I think this is...

Wells Fargo this is NOT.  It'd explain maybe part of today's 1175, but you not only have 1000 more to account for, but there's a lot more to be said.

What I think this is is what I've feared for this next month, only accelerated after the Hawaii false missile scare:  Something's going down in PyeongChang.

And I think it might make Berlin 1972 tame in comparison.  This Olympic movement has dodged numerous bullets (literal and figurative) in the last 20 years or so.

You now have a Russian puppet as American President, with a Russian dictator pissed off that a state-sponsored doping situation to rig an entire Winter Olympics has his government disqualified from the Olympic movement.

This ain't ending quietly -- and, like "Bettor X", I think people know about it.

Super Bowl LII(E), For The People: Forgot About This Little Sideplot

Malcolm Butler has certainly played his last game for the New England Patriots.

Distraught in the post-game, saying he felt he could've changed the result, both he and the NBC commentators (who mentioned this at least twice!) are wondering why Butler was not in the defensive scheme at all for the game, and only played in one punt.

Bill Belichick said it was not a disciplinary situation, and that it was a matter of putting the people out there who could win.

The Patriot defense could not stop water last night.  Something is badly wrong here, and I can't think any intelligent person is buying the public line here.

Butler, for those of us who remember, was the recipient of that classic goal-line interception that finished off the Seahawks three years ago.

Belichick's line was the classic "We put the people out there who gave us the best chance to win." stuff.  It was a deliberate coach's decision, and announced as such.

That's the kind of decision that screams, in normal parlance, that the coach has lost all confidence in the player and wishes rid of him -- NOW.  That he said or did something and is done with the New England Patriots.  NOW. And that it's Belichick's decision.

So this might be the first post-Super Bowl subplot to watch.

One Deadspin commenter is thinking a hooker might be involved.

I'm wondering if Butler wasn't going to go along with the company line and lose to the Eagles.

Super Bowl LII(E), For The People: A Circus With An Unexpected Result

For two weeks, I had deliberated whether I wanted to do my annual tradition of an upscale sports bar to watch the game, for respect of friends of mine near where I live who have disowned football.

I decided, about 45-60 minutes before kickoff, to do so.

I'm glad I did -- had I not, there'd be about a mile-wide crater where my jaw dropped.

Vegas has just shit itself.

• Only one favorite covered this playoffs.  (IIRC, it was the Patriots in the division round.)
• Eagles won.
• Game went over well before the end of the 3rd quarter.

I can't believe I'm about to say this:  The NFL finally rigged a game for the people.

This NEVER HAPPENS.  But it happened today, as a nation finally sick of all the Patriot hype finally got one, and the league made sure it was a circus that the one-time viewers of the NFL would not forget.

• Last Chance Miss:  Hail Mary to tie it at the gun fails.
• Ends within one score, but no Cliffhanger.
• An NFL record for the most yards in ANY GAME -- regular, post, or Super Bowl.  (1,152)
• If the Eagles didn't get smart and run seven minutes off the clock for the winning touchdown drive in the fourth quarter, Tom Brady would've broken Norm van Brocklin's record for passing yards in a game, any game.  He was at 403 yards, 3:23 to go in the third, and 457 9:22 in the 4th.  I think he ended with 503.

And I'm sure I already have people saying that this proves it's not rigged.

You have three questions to answer me then:

• Why was the hit on Brandin Cookes which eliminated him from the game not penalized?  First play of the drive after New England got away with a defensive pass interference (which they got several of those no-calls in the game, let's be honest here -- they got away with a lot of nit-and-pick, but there are three calls that decided the game for the Eagles that raise serious questions...). Cookes catches for 23 yards, turns to look up field, and is helmet-to-helmet ANNIHILATED by Malcolm Jenkins.  Out for the rest of the game, head injury -- Brady's biggest deep threat gone.  No call, no penalty, and Cris Collinsworth trying to cover it up as a non-defenseless situation.  That was a penalty, and, if the league rumors are right, next year it's a toss!!!
• How is that Zach Ertz touchdown a touchdown in Minneapolis, but Jesse James in Pittsburgh was not?  This is the call that basically clinched it for me, once everything had happened, that the league actually was handing one to the general public and to the Eagles.  Two and a half minutes to go, 33-32 New England, 3rd and 8 on the New England 12.  Foles to Ertz, Ertz clearly gets three feet down field of play, then is taken to ground, but the ball pops out, far more obviously than James' "no catch" did.  After lengthy deliberation, touchdown to Philadelphia.  Now, don't get wrong:  The call was right.  But how is THAT a touchdown in the Super Bowl and James' was not in the game which might well have made Pittsburgh Philly's opponent today???  
• And, for the record, that was not the only Philadelphia touchdown which Cris Collinsworth felt ran afoul of all the Calvin Johnson chicanery either.  (The Clement touchdown in the third quarter was also similar -- but, also, to my failing eyesight, a touchdown.  The Ertz one was far more obvious, though.)
• And then, lastly, one which might get under people's radar.  NBC showed a replay of the Hail Mary, as the celebration began for the Eagles.  If you can find it again, watch the ground-level replay of a New England receiver on the play getting completely WIPED OUT of the play at about the 35.  No illegal contact??? (The camera is following Gronkowski, obviously, but the fact is that you can see, I think it's #17 or something for New England just get ERASED from the play illegally.)
  
• There was, in fact, an additional huge no-call in the Ertz TD drive for the Eagles as well...  2nd and 9, about midfield, completed pass for 10 by Foles, but only because James Harrison was being MUGGED in the open field.

EDIT TO ADD:  Why I did the overstrike above:  Someone found it and posted the still on his or her Twitter:  It was #15, Chris Hogan...

I’m more concerned about @ChrisHogan_15 getting talked 15 yards down field on the final play. #rigged pic.twitter.com/SSWHUraA7T

— Chris Howell (@NDgolfpro) February 5, 2018

As Brian Tuohy well pointed out, they were setting the table for you -- there were a number of questionable no-calls benefiting the Patriots...

• The Defensive Pass Interference on the Philly drive early 2nd quarter on 3rd down, where Foles also could've run for the first down on the same play!
• A forearm to the head by Steven Gostkowski on a kickoff return at the 2 minute warning of the first half.
• That whole reverse to wide receiver pass to Foles thing would not have been necessary if the pass interference on the 3rd down play was called (made no difference -- they got the six anyway).
• Possible intentional grounding on Brady 2nd and 6 at the Philly 22 on the first drive of the 2nd half.
• For the record, both defensive holding calls which aided drives for the Patriots were good calls.
• A bad pass-interference on the last 2 point conversion to keep the lead five.

At the end of the day, though, the NFL actually went with the public and made Anti-Patriot Nation happy.

So I'm now left with three questions of my own:

• First, to "Bettor X", who has another $10 million or so to collect:  What do you know, and who do you know?  Between that World Series and this Super Bowl, you're somebody who has the inside info on the major events.  It's clear that you have pre-information as to who's going to win and all after some of this chicanery.  You can bet (pun intended) a lot of people are going to continue to watch you in the future!
• Secondly:  Why the reversal?  The clearest answer would be to whipsaw the conspiracy theorists such as myself.  I'd agree with this to a certain extent, until you look at the three defining no-calls of the game all going to Philadelphia in a game in which one call could make the entire difference.
• And finally, and what might turn into the biggest sporting event in years:  Does the NFL have information on Alex Guerrero?  As I have said for a number of weeks, it would've taken something huge for the NFL to change off the Patriots, especially after how obviously the Patriots were installed as favorites after the debacle in Pittsburgh.  Lacking a #MeToo, it appears the cleanest route to it is that the league has information it chose not to disclose on Tom Brady's doctor Alex Guerrero which indicates Brady is not clean.  I do, however, still believe that this has been Tom Brady's last game, and I now believe that Brady's dirty and the NFL knows it.

I mean, be happy, NFL Nation...  This doesn't happen every day.  The underdog babyface usually does not win in the Roger Goodell National Religion Era.  So be happy, but understand, this was a change -- and the real news may come if we ever find out why...