The Shit Is Hitting The Fan, and none of it is Super Bowl...

Some updates on how out-of-control things are getting this week:

• Dallas Keuchel has finally become the first person to apologize for the Astros' sign-stealing scandal.
• But the Commissioner of Baseball will not strip the Astros of any championships so earned.

Look, I get the can of worms and Pandora's Box that vacating titles, etc. would bring.

I think we are far past time for an ounce of bravery on the professional end (and I might do a post on titles they could easily vacate, if time and circumstances permit!) and taking away ill-earned championships.

I've been asking the question since all the -Gate stuff was starting with the Patriots:  It all comes down to the question of "What would you do to be called a champion?"

That's the thing.  Any sense of honor, credibility or decency is gone from Major League MAGA-Ball.

And you can bet that the cheating of the last couple or three years is going to run RAMPANT in the game.

Why would I, at this point, want to follow ANY rules of baseball, written or unwritten?

• Antonio Brown turned himself in on a felony robbery with battery charge of a moving truck driver in Florida.
• His bail (on what could put him in prison for the rest of his life) is at $110,000, which he has paid.
• He must surrender his passport, wear a GPS bracelet, and undergo a mental-health evaluation in the next ten days.  He was seen in the hearing early Friday morning in a suicide vest.

If he's guilty, he needs to be put away for his own safety.

Anyone with a view of the last five or six months of Antonio Brown's life would never want this man on an NFL field again.  I think one of the major reasons that Goodell has not permabanned the guy is he's tried to cover up for this guy for far too damn long.

It appears to have come to an end.  Once that mental state and evaluation come out in open court, the NFL should be (once again) put on trial.

This man is BEYOND GONE.

• Kareem Hunt is probably going to be suspended to start next season.  Cited for speeding, marijuana was found in his car.

Will SOMEONE PLEASE investigate the Cleveland Browns organization?

• But none of that, not even the baseball or Antonio Brown, compares to what happened in Lawrence, KS this week.

Kansas handily defeated cross-state rival Kansas State in men's basketball, but no one will care because of this:


This is another one of those incidents where forfeitures (both teams, and Kansas State plural for their players coming off the bench to join the brawl) are the only feasible result.

• The epicenter of this brawl was Kansas' #22:  Silvio de Sousa.

How in the fuck that guy is ever going to be allowed to play college basketball again, much less even attend the University of Kansas, after the stunts he pulled in rapid succession in that brawl, I have no idea.

First off, I am done with all these YouTube jackasses wondering why I want the hammer thrown down on taunting.

THIS IS WHY.

If you can't be mature enough to understand, as a fan, why taunting needs to be illegal with maximum penalty within contests, you openly desire games to end in brawls like this one.

Not only should de Sousa have been T'd up and ejected for taunting as he stood over the Kansas State player, he throws a number of punches, then picks up a courtside stool and damn near brains someone with it before someone picks it off.

For all of this, de Sousa is ONLY suspended the balance of the regular season by the Big XII.

The bidding SHOULD HAVE started with this:

• Disciplinary procedures for expulsion from the University of Kansas.
• A permanent revocation of his current scholarship and complete disqualification from any further athletic scholarship.
• Suspension?  Permanent if possible, but, if not:  All of this season and post-season, all of next season.

Maybe THEN someone will finally get it through to not just players, but fans as well, that enough is fucking enough with all this manhood-testing masquerading as sport.

Other penalties:

• A redshirt junior forward from Kansas State:  James Love, 8 games for probably being the guy in the black shirt who was most instrumental in going after de Sousa.
• K-State freshman forward Antonio Gordon got 3 games.
• Kansas freshman forward David McCormick got 2.

It's clear that the Big XII wants more fighting in it's games, and I don't care whether the conference's commissioner reads this and condemns me saying this.

If I were the commissioner of the league:

• Love's done and referred to the university for expulsion, like de Sousa.
• Gordon gets the rest of the regular season.
• McCormick gets 6.
• Every player who came off the bench gets 1 (and maybe more, as that video would probably get the better part of 4-6 hours of going through).
• Kansas has to forfeit one game, and Kansas State has to forfeit at least one game.

This is the primal behavior of sport.  Taunting -> Fight -> Brawl -> Etc.

And until we decide that we are going to forfeit games (at whatever level -- high school, college, pro...) for this shit, it's going to continue because it is what the fans want and it satisfies the urges of the players.

• And the New Orleans Saints have YET ANOTHER PR nightmare on their hands.

It appears that the Saints may have provided cover for local priests accused of sexual misconduct in the Roman Catholic Church in and around New Orleans.

According to ESPN, 276 documents have been unearthed to state Saints ownership (largely Roman Catholic) has been operating in a damage-control methodology to protect sexually-abusive priests.

Can't say it shocks me.  Roger, you gonna investigate this one???