As expected, he got waived...

Brock Rechsteiner's NFL career is over.

He will spend his six-week steroid suspension as a free agent, cut by the Saints today.

Gee, Brock, trying to tell us something as to your NFL aspirations?

Early NFL Suspension Blotter: And there's a 163 1/3% chance he's not making the Saints roster...

Brock Rechsteiner has been suspended the first six games of the season, but they say no one knows why.

Brock is the son of Scott Steiner.

I think anyone who's seen Scott Steiner the last 20 years or so can figure it out.

ROIDS!!!

EDIT TO ADD:  Confirmed.  PED policy.

Do they have the guts to move the Trump Transphobe Games?

USA Today reports today that the World Anti-Drug Association wants to ban Donald Trump and several major US officials from the Trump Transphobe Games in Los Angeles.  (And possibly the Trump Cup this summer.)

Just before the Transphobe Winter Games, the Trump administration pulled all dues money from WADA with respect to the United States.

Though this battle between WADA and the US does encompass both parties, I think I can safely say that this is a defense of the drug-ladened athlete culture in the United States, up to and including Cocaine Jr.'s (Trump's son Donald Jr.) support of the Enhanced Games in Las Vegas later this year, where cash prizes will be awarded to mostly-drugged athletes.

(I have to say MOSTLY-drugged because there IS, actually, at least one drug-free swimmer who wants to try his luck against the steroid freaks.) 

We can only hope this is a first move to remove the Trump Transphobe Games from Los Angeles and the Trump Cup from the United States and Mexico (let Canada host the whole thing if it can!)... 

Suspension Blotter: Another PED fail...

Well, we probably now know what made this player so reliable for the Colts:

• Indianapolis Colts:  Grover Stewart will have to sit six games, he just got dinged for PEDs.

NFL Suspension Blotter: New Orleans

• New Orleans Saints:  Marcus Maye -- 3 games, substance of abuse.
• Under the policy, this would either be a third offense against a positive test for a substance of abuse or a fourth offense for failure to uphold a treatment program for same.
• This, two weeks after a backup quarterback got 6 games for the PED policy.
• Ronald Jones has been fired from the Cowboys for his two-game PED policy suspension.

One final pre-season Suspension Blotter...

• New Orleans Saints:  Jake Haener, suspended six games for PEDs.
   

And the Cowboys can't keep their house in order again...

• Ronald Jones, two game suspension -- for a diuretic or masking agent, under the PED policy.

Bob Baffert has been permanently banned from Churchill Downs...

... at least until he tells what Churchill Downs believes is the truth about Medina Spirit and the drugs the trainer had him on.

The announcement came today, as the Kentucky Derby racetrack extended Bob Baffert's ban at least another 18 months, to the end of 2024, for continued obfuscation, at least in the eyes of the racetrack, surrounding Medina Spirit and the 147th Derby.

But it is now clear:  Bob Baffert has been permanently banned from Churchill Downs until the racetrack is satisfied as to Baffert taking responsibility for drugging Medina Spirit.

Baffert has trained the last two Triple Crown winners:  American Pharoah in 2015 and Justify in 2018.  He has trained six Kentucky Derby winners.  There is already evidence Justify was on illegal drugs.  He was disqualified provisionally from the win at the Santa Anita Derby in 2020, but the California commission decided that the results were, in fact, consistent with feed contamination.

I have a gut feeling this is no longer about Medina Spirit, or at least Medina Spirit alone.  I think it's clear that the real questions probably extend, at minimum, to American Pharoah and Justify...

My guess:  Bob Baffert will never be allowed to race at Churchill Downs again.

And another piece of evidence as to why:  As of the increasingly convenient death of Medina Spirit, 74 horses in the care of Baffert have died in the last two decades.

The door slams on Bonds and Clemens, probably for the last time.

The Modern Era Committee met today and enshrined Fred McGriff as it's sole inductee.

12 votes were required.  McGriff got all 16.

Q-tard Curt Schilling got seven.

Bonds and Clemens could not get more than three each.

It's time to permaban Bonds and Clemens and strike their records.  They will never be in the Hall of Fame, and the fact is that steroids lengthened their careers significantly and it is openly recognized that Bonds MAY have made the Hall without them (though, with his boorish attitude, I can't say he would've, actually), and Clemens is a flat no.

Bud Selig should be in prison, Donald Fehr his cellmate.  Trafficking.

Assholes, Criminals, and Sporting Excellence...

I was going to do this article already, but Keith Olbermann and his daily new iHeartRadio Countdown podcast (yes, it's back, Republicans...) gives a bit of a precursor.

As a bit of an analogue to a thought I had while laying down and conserving power (100+ and dewpoint 50+ makes for a cranky circuit board) yesterday, Keith gave the Bronze Medal in Wednesday's "Worst Persons in the World" contest to Barfstool Sports' Dave Portnoy.

In response to the incident I just showed you at the Little League Regionals, Portnoy said, and I'm quoting from Olbermann:

"This isn't good sportsmanship. ..." 

And I cleaned that up, apparently this sod can't even recognize sportsmanship as one word!  Probably because he has neither seen nor recognized an act of sportsmanship in his entire sodden life!  

"It's dumb.  You got this kid on the mound.  He's rattled.  Trip to Williamsport [PA -- the site of the Little League World Series] on the line.  You can play 'Patty Cakes' after!  As far as the pitcher goes, that's your plate."

------------

I just want that to process as I put down a number of (not nearly all-inclusive) situations here.  And I'm not talking just football, though many football names and situations will be here.

• Michael Jordan and illegal gambling.
• Kobe Bryant and an all-but-certain rape they barely covered up.
• Latrell Spreewell choking his coach.
• The entire Malice at the Palace, both players and fans!
• Pete Rose and at least the statutory rape and tax evasion -- though, the more he opens his trap, the more we demand what evidence Dowd had to state he was, in fact, betting against the Reds.   
• Trevor Bauer and all we know and don't know he criminally did.
• Yasiel Puig and whatever drove him out of Major League Baseball...  (including a sexual assault he pretty much had to empty what money he had left to his accuser in a settlement)  For the record, he now plays in Korea.
• Domingo German, who lost the entire 2020 COVID season because he committed domestic violence.
• Ray Lewis
• Todd Hodne
• Deshaun Watson
• Adrian Peterson
• Aaron Hernandez
• Rae Carruth
• Robert Rameses  Those last three, all for MURDER.  
• Henry Ruggs III
• It appears Marshawn Lynch has another DUI to answer for this weekend.
• A litany of Olympic and professional athletes who are taking or have taken drugs openly prohibited by Federal law (Carl Lewis, Mike Powell, Barry Bonds and the entire BALCO regime, just for a few starters...) -- that includes, now, you, Aaron Rodgers...

And I could go on and on and on -- the point is simple:

I have said for a long time that I believe the sport of football, in it's own merit, should be put on trial.  I still believe that.

But now I believe I have come to a more disturbing conclusion.

I am not going to say this applies to all athletes, championships, etc. and so forth and so on.

However, I do have to begin to wonder:

Is the concept of sporting excellence at least partially... if not dependent, at least correlative, to criminality or other lack of boundaries on the part of the athletes.

That, in short, to be a successful athlete (in MANY CASES BUT NOT ALL), is it now necessary that such an athlete have mens rea, a pre-existing "criminal mind" which indicates you are willing to transcend what is considered "limits" or even "acceptable" to gain victory, not just off the sporting field, but on it as well?

Mens rea, for those not clear, is referred to as "criminal mind" in the judicial system -- that not only did the person commit a criminal action, but that the person knew it was wrong beforehand and did it anyway, probably with additional malice or violence.

I am, in no way, saying that sports do not offer and enable these idiots to act out without penalty -- far from it.  We know this is the case.

But I now wonder, ADDITIONALLY, if we are now looking at a feedback loop.  That either:

• These people are so far gone because of their coddling that they are now basically in permanent "criminal mind" and gain sporting advantage from going outside limits, rules, or acceptability on the field

and/or

• They've always been of "criminal mind" (from youth, even far before high school), at which point the coddling offers a feedback loop that their criminality is excused (and, in more than one case, encouraged...), creating more criminality, more coddling, etc.

OK, DUMBASS-12, it's time you shut the fuck up.

Another year, another sabotage by the continuing stooooooooooooory of a quack who's gone to the Packers.

Look, I, like a lot of people, do try to keep an eye on my mental health.

But Aaron Rodgers has stepped in it again.  He announced last week that he has found peace in a psychadelic drug.  DMT (N-dimethyltriptamine), found in ayahuasca tea, to fire when serotonin fails.

That's...  nice.

Except for one problem, Aaron:  Though that form of DMT is not listed in the Banned Substances List of the NFL (at least as of 2020, the last one I could find online)...

Important note:  DMT is listed as a brand name of another drug which IS on the Banned Substances List, that is Desoxymethyltestosterone.

What IS a problem is that ayahuasca is mostly prohibited (except for religious use) as a Schedule I drug in the United States.

So Aaron Rodgers' mouth has probably gotten him, at minimum, in trouble with the league, should they choose to pursue it!

Nice job, shithead.

So what finally did Vince McMahon in, at least to this extent?

So, yesterday, 1:05 Pacific, Vince McMahon tweeted this:

At 77, time for me to retire.
Thank you, WWE Universe.
Then. Now. Forever. Together. #WWE #thankful

— Vince McMahon (@VinceMcMahon) July 22, 2022

Three weeks beforehand, he had told everyone who would listen: “Fuck them.” “I'm going to be here.”, etc.

So the entire discussion of the last, probably, going on 36 hours now has been several-fold:

First, who else is going? Long-maligned producer Kevin Dunn and fitness-model magazine enthusiast John Laurinitis are the first two candidates. (The latter, especially now with HHH/Paul Levesque returning as the head of Talent Relations, announced earlier on Friday.)

Second, what for the future of the company?

I'm afraid that might tie in to the question everyone has been asking most, however:

What has whom uncovered that the other parties in the WWE Board of Directors (the real group, not the “kayfabe” (storyline) group) have found out to force McMahon out so quickly and precipitously?

Let's go over, both in this present sexual-harassment situation and in the past, a not-exhaustive list of what we KNOW Vince McMahon has done in his 40-year reign of terror to either reshape professional wrestling into sports entertainment or kill it trying...

• Before Hulkamania and the national expansion, Vince McMahon's #1 babyface (good guy, crowd is supposed to cheer) was a recently-turned Jimmy “Superfly” Snuka. On May 10, 1983 – about eight months before Vince Jr. used Hogan as his centerpiece to break the territory system – Snuka is understood to have rammed the head of Nancy Argentino, a mistress, to the point where she murdered by the “Superfly”. Almost no one had ever heard of this murder until the podcast era – Vince McMahon openly accessoried after the fact to cover up Argentino's death and continue to “push” (spotlight) Snuka. So much so, Snuka was not finally indicted by a grand jury for the murder until just before his death in 2015. There is even a belief that Vince Jr. brought the proverbial “suitcase of cash” to try to end the investigation – Vince denies this.

• About the same time, Vince McMahon Sr. sold his wrestling company to his son and the Titan Sports conglomerate Jr. was building. The deal was apparently begun in June of 1983. There was significant concern within the halls of the National Wrestling Alliance (though, contrary to the initial story many in the NWA have purported for decades, until the podcast era, it appears that at least two major promoters (Ole Anderson in Georgia, Verne Gagne in Minnesota) were also in the process of doing this) that McMahon would set out to dismantle the territories. Such was the concern that Vince Sr. aided in consummating the deal by handshakes with all of the other NWA promoters this would not happen. Vince Jr. admits, by 1991, that had he not lied openly to his father about his aims, Sr. never would've sold the company.

• The boom of the WWE soon followed, with an eight-year period where the steroids flowed freely and the WWE slayed all in their path, ending the territory system, as Vince wanted. This culminated in the 1992 trial of Dr. George Zahorian. Dr. Zahorian was convicted. Vince and the WWE were largely exonerated – as the general public largely understood the massive behemoths (and the men who you might not expect having taken steroids to handle the road and physical demands!) in the day of 300-350 nights a year...

• A 1993 series of sexual harassment charges followed.

• After a boom period and the infamous Monday Night Wars no-holds-barred brawls with Ted Turner and WCW, a capacity crowd in Kansas City, MO screams in horror as Owen Hart was killed due to negligence in a rappelling stunt from the top of Kemper Arena on May 23, 1999.

• Not only did it appear that Vince had little remorse to the event, the show went on that night – to much criticism from all sane parties.

• A 2014 concussion lawsuit exposing the WWE (and pro wrestling in general) with vicious blunt-object shots to the head for many years was ignored by the courts in 2021.

• Perhaps the biggest recent issue is the WWE and Vince Jr. being in the forefront of the Saudi Arabia “sportswashing” angle, including at least one incident where it appears a money dispute between McMahon and the Saudis caused a touch-and-go kidnapping of nearly Vince's entire relevant roster, which could've ended with every one of them being executed, had MbS had the whim to do so!

• The undisputed nature that the WWF (renamed the WWE after, somehow, they lost a lawsuit on confusion grounds to the World Wildlife Fund) held as the top (if not ONLY) relevant company in the 2000's and much of the 2010's smoothed some of this...

• … though the podcast era, where former wrestlers of the boom periods now hawk their wares and their stories on the Internet, has brought new and fresh problems.

• The largest of these is not the current sexual harassment admissions, but the discussion of The Plane Ride From Hell. It was a trans-Atlantic flight WWF (just before the loss of the lawsuit that week in 2002) talent took, coming home from a European tour and pay-per-view. Alcohol flowed freely. Sexual assaults of several female plane staff led to large settlement payouts to the women – one of them basically literally “exposed the business” of decades-long legend Ric Flair as a complete sex pest pig. Several brawls almost crashed the plane. Several parties were disciplined, no one was rightly fired.

• The complete disregard of the talent (both in- and outside-ring) in the name of Vince and The Show being the centerpiece. Examples are innumerable, but include a couple of “screwjobs” against champions who would not play along, the denigration of longtime WWE voice Jim Ross and his bouts with Bell's Palsy (including a tasteless surgery angle which “heel” (bad guy, crowd boos) Vince acts as if he's extracting a bust of Ross' head from his posterior, telling all that if they are like him, they have their head up their ass...).

• Perhaps culminating, in that regard, in the double-murder/suicide by wrestling talent Chris Benoit in 2007. Benoit, known to push himself beyond all sane limits for the perfection of his craft, was encouraged by WWE to continually leap from the top rope (if not from an extra height of 15 feet in a cage match!) to headbutt opponents – creating massive CTE. Any sane person would now understand that Benoit was so out of his mind with the brain disease, there were three victims that night...

And I could go on and on about just that stuff. Here's some of the stuff we already know about which has felled Vince out of the company, at least as of right now:

• On June 15, 2022, the Wall Street Journal reported a $3,000,000 hush payment to a mistress paralegal, hired by the company in 2019, for a consensual sexual relationship with the CEO in his 70's.

• Three days later, Vince tried to make a play at “stepping back” as the WWE Board of Directors (actual) was investigating.

• Within two more weeks, WSJ reported that, in fact, at least four women had received such payments, going back to at least 2006.

• From what is being reported, it appears this extended to talent, as former “diva” Ashley Massaro has been reported as a victim of Vince's attentions. Which makes you openly wonder if the entire point of the “Diva's Division” and what I called “The Striptease Championship” was to get in Vince's (or the aforementioned talent head Laurinitis') pants!!

• Massaro, we later found out, was passed around like a joint for sexual pleasure of men in a 2016 Middle Eastern tour. She committed suicide in 2019.

And that's just a completely non-exhaustive list of what we KNOW. Now dig a bit deeper:

• Owen Hart's mother still believes that Vince deliberately killed Owen. After hearing what Owen believed may happen to him in Kansas City (he had that “bad feeling”) and the Dark Side of the Ring episode on Owen's death, I agree – and believe Owen was killed for the ultimate crime in Vince Jr.'s eyes: Wanting to leave WWE and have a life of his own.

• It is almost a certainty that any woman of any degree of attractiveness within the WWE company was being groped, assaulted, harassed, and more by SOMEBODY within the company – as an expectation of employment.

• A long-standing coverup of Pat Patterson and his relationship with some of the ring crew flared up briefly.

• And the big question...

What has been found out in the last 3-4 weeks which has forced Vince McMahon to publicly declare (you can make your jokes, etc. about whether it's actually happening) retirement as the head of the company?

It is clear that there is more sexual harassment, and a LOT MORE sexual harassment. I think it is clear that a condition of being employed by Vince that someone was going to have you sexually, consensual or not.

I have one suspicion, and it involves what I believe to be the darkest “rumor secret” in the annals of WWE.

That rumor (and I must stress – everything here is rumor and innuendo and NOTHING IS PROVEN) involves new CEO and Vince Jr.'s daughter Stephanie.

One of the darkest urban legends in all of professional wrestling involves Stephanie McMahon and a purported underage sexual relationship with the late “Macho Man” Randy Savage.

It is believed that Vince McMahon fired Savage for having sex with Stephanie in 1994 or 1995, when Stephanie was 14 years old.

I am going to go out on a limb. Everyone knows that Vince McMahon is a misogynistic Trumpian pig. So that, of it's own merit, does not, in any way, explain Friday's action (or why didn't this happen ten years ago?).

But what if one of the following scenarios occurred:

• McMahon actually pimped his daughter to Stephanie, and Savage refused? We know that there was a boob job done for Stephanie during her Attitude Era/Alliance run in WWE, both babyface and heel.

• What if, regardless of other Vince involvement, he's been covering up such an act for the last almost 30 years, and it's finally been found out?

• And then the real dark one: What if Vince has been doing it to his daughter himself, like a good Trumpian bitch?

The Current NFL Suspension Blotter As Camps Open

Ah yes, the smell of the clean grass before men's brains get splattered all over them.

And the smell of a clean trainers' room before the drugs get injected...  Oops, some of these people got CAUGHT...

Now, again, it appears that a lot of time is being taken to determine how long the NFL dares attempt suspend DeShaun Watson.  I've heard life ban (come back in a year to reapply), I've heard 4-6 games.  I've also heard a lot of shove-back on the basis of the NFLPA, which should tell you what the NFLPA really believes is part of being Foobaw Man.  If there was a case for such a rape, pillage, and plunder being life-bannable from the league, it's right here.

• Atlanta Falcons:  Calvin Ridley is still life-banned for being caught gambling on the NFL.
• May 2, 2022:  Arizona Cardinals:  DeAndre Hopkins banned six games for PEDs.  It's a stiff one:  The lost salary is almost five and a quarter million dollars.
• June 2, 2022:  Buffalo Bills:  Andre Smith banned six games for PEDs.  About a $300,000 hit for the former 7th rounder.
• June 13, 2022:  New England Patriots:  Daniel Ekuale has been suspended two games.  The reason is undisclosed, so it's not sure if this is the league or Belichick or both.  I'd have to think it's NFL, or they'd have probably cut the guy for him to be suspended like this in June.
• June 17, 2022:  New York Giants:  Justin Hilliard, two games for PEDs.  About $100,000 lost.
• July 18, 2022:  Los Angeles Rams:  Bobby Brown, six games for PEDs.  About $338,000 in lost salary.

Suspension Blotter: Scrub the Cardinals off the list

• Arizona Cardinals:  DeAndre Hopkins, six games, PEDs, anabolic agent.
  

Might explain the Brown trade.  Could see Hopkins cut at the end of the suspension.

Might also explain why Hopkins felt his rehab was ahead of schedule too.

The Winter Olympic Virus: Day 15, Part One, The Dark Aftermath Continues

• Somebody for Slate almost got it:  In stating the United States is an Olympics coward, Justin Peters quotes this Tweet from Tom Schad of USA Today for finally explaining why the Olympics is so fucked up:

So, if I understand correctly:

-- IOC said it has to follow CAS ruling
-- CAS criticized anti-doping agencies/flaw in rules
-- WADA blamed RUSADA for not fast-tracking sample
-- RUSADA cited COVID issues at Stockholm lab
-- Bach (and others) point finger at Valieva's entourage

— Tom Schad (@Tom_Schad) February 18, 2022

Let's go through this:

1. There is a grave misconception that the International Olympic Committee runs the Games.  It, at best, administers them on a full-event basis (the individual sports are, in fact, run by the individual world amateur sport sanctioning bodies (the IIHF for ice hockey, FIS for Alpine skiing, ISU for figure skating etc. and so forth) -- and, even then, under limited circumstances, as has now been demonstrated by the drug regime of the New Soviet Union/Putin's Russia for the last eight years running now.  It must follow at least some baseline law, with respect to international arbitration...
2. Which enters the only reason Russia is even allowed Olympic athletes in the first place, the Council for the Arbitration of Sport.  It is CLEAR, after Bach's extraordinary comments on Friday's press conference, that, if the IOC had THE final say, no Russian athletes would be allowed in the Olympic movement (not even as independents) -- AND that this would've been in force since RIO!
3. The Council for the Arbitration of Sports has nullified most of the penalties from the McLaren Report.  All but three of the Sochi medals have been restored.  All eligibility penalties past 2018 have been revoked (even for the two stripped medalists the CAS HAS let stand -- the third was done by the International Biathlon Union).  The procedure for the independent athletes from Russia from Rio (assuming drug-guilt and the athletes had to prove otherwise) AND the full-team track and field/athletics disqualification from the IAAF have also been nullified.
4. The final gavel-decision regarding medals IS the CAS.  Meaning that the Council for the Arbitration of Sport IS the final authority on the Olympic Games, vis-a-vis medals, drugs, competition, etc. and so forth.  The IOC must defer to them.
5. The CAS has basically told WADA to literally pound sand on international athlete-drug enforcement twice now with respect to the Russian drug/doping regime:  After the IOC tried to give proper penalty after the McLaren Report, and here.
6. ANYONE who doesn't believe this started at Vlad Putin and the Russian government is either a fool and idiot, or a pro-Russian troll, the likes of which are also operating under same.  Vlad Putin is old-school USSR.  He UNDERSTANDS, whether you like it or not on this side of the Atlantic, the propaganda power of world athletics, the Olympic Games in particular.  It's one of the reasons he attempted, no uncertain terms, the world's largest doping attempt to rig an Olympic Games since the fall of the Berlin Wall eight years ago on home soil.  And, because of that one and same CAS, he has, for the effective record, SUCCEEDED.
7. ANYONE who doesn't believe that sample was slow-balled to ensure it wouldn't get anywhere in time is a similar fool or Russian troll/agent.
8. And the people who are saying "She's underage!!" are yelling for the right premise, but the wrong reason:  You don't think Valieva hasn't been drugged since age...  ten?  eight??  six???  FIVE???  YOUNGER????  Putin knows the rules and he knows how to break them.  He knew he had the future of figure skating in his government/Olympic program, and knew he could win four gold medals with that girl by suppressing her growth and making her not unlike the Chinese gymnasts who attempted to appear at the Summer Beijing Games underage!
9. And HE KNEW that if Valieva did not reach the WADA age of consent with respect to drug doping, no one could realistically touch her, even IF she was found dirty.
10. RUSADA is fucking lying, full stop.
11. And Valieva's entourage is all but certainly some form of agents or agency of Putin's government.  Full stop there as well.

Even OUTSIDE the legal ability for Russian athletes to fly their flag and anthem, massive governmental interference with the Olympic movement vis-a-vis a state sponsored drug regime in the country CONTINUES.

There is one, but one, and only one penalty:  Full disqualification, RETROACTIVE TO RIO.  All of it.

I have said repeatedly, with respect to the United States Sexual Assault Committee (the "USOPC"), that the USA should be thrown out of the movement as well.  But if we can't deal with this blatant of a fully-extended middle finger to the entire process with Russia, a decade or more in going in THIS iteration and 6-7 years after being EXPOSED AS SUCH in the McLaren Report, how in fucking Hell are we going to deal with the Games' major financial backstop and the sexual-assault and sexual-harassment nature of the selection of many female athletes (and probably more than a few of the men as well -- see some of the track stories which have come out...)?

THAT is the cowardice, and it's not the United States'.  It's that Council for the Arbitration of Sport.  In fact, if there's a non-Russia nation who does NOT want this enforced, it's the USA -- because if we ever do get to the point that the IOC grows a spine, the USA is next and deservedly so!!!

So let's see what Peters' premise is on what the USA COULD do, much less should:

You have one problem with Thomas Bach, Mr. Peters.  You claim the buck should stop with him -- the thing is, it is my belief, especially with the IOC prepared to effectively void two different skating competitions in this program, that Bach and the IOC, given the choice, WOULD expel all Russians from the Olympic movement if the CAS would allow it -- WHICH THEY WON'T.   

He does not have the final authority, as much as that might surprise you.

Peters appears to wish to pressure the USA to depart the Olympic movement voluntarily, using that as a final threat to force the IOC's hand.  He cites the diplomatic boycotts as a full abrogation of leadership -- and he's somewhat correct, redoubled by the rise of the Omicron variant of COVID in the last 6-8 weeks.  We shouldn't be there, and neither should anyone else.

Right now, however, Joe Biden appears to recognize the United States is neither the "greatest country in the world" nor it's most powerful -- and he's right on both ends, if he does so recognize.  China's got us beat on at least one of those fronts, and it's for THAT reason we're at these Games.

Then he goes into the Sha'Carri Richardson whataboutism.

Here's the problem, Mr. Peters, and maybe I need to spell this out for you:

The Council for the Arbitration of Sport has ALL BUT LEGALIZED state-sponsored government-backed doping of Olympic athletes as propaganda instruments of said state and government.

Richardson in her marijuana use , and all American athletes in their doping for decades now, have been doing it wrong!  It's like Sports Bribery in the United States under Mayer vs. Belichick, New England Patriots, and NFL:  It is illegal for an athlete to take a bribe to throw a game on an independent basis.  It is LEGAL for a sports league to demand such throwing of a game.  (And what we may find out eventually in the Brian Flores situation is either where the line is drawn or where the two conjoin.)

If the United States of America had such a state-sponsored Olympic doping regime, it would probably be declared legal under this Council for the Arbitration of Sport.  If you wish to declare cowardice, in any form, by the USA, have the nerve to pull THIS card -- because it's about the only card you can pull vis-a-vis American cowardice.

And AGAIN, I point to the rampant epidemic where many, if not most, of the female athletes chosen to represent the United States in the Games in any capacity have been one or more of sexually assaulted, sexually harassed, or raped outright AS A CONDITION FOR THEIR SELECTION TO THE SQUAD.

The United States is in NO POSITION to exact morality in the manner you state, Mr. Peters -- short of leaving the movement entirely and voluntarily.  

So stop.  Just stop.

• Word late-Friday evening US time:  Kamila Valieva has returned to home soil, to cheering fans in Moscow.
• I'm not exactly sure WHY, but at least the US has appealed for some sort of team-event medals ceremony in Beijing, even though there's no assurance as to what medals they'd get at the end of all of this.  I'd figure they'd refuse, 1972 basketball style!   

The Winter Olympic Virus, Day 14, Part One: The Dark Post-Mortem Begins

Most of this material is from Inside the Games:

• Images of Kamila Valieva bawling after her falls have a lot of people condemning those who put her in that position.
• One Russian figure-skating star has written a letter urging Valieva not to quit the sport.  I'm verklempt.  For what she has been put through, she has no place in sport -- and the only technical "fault" of her own is it's her body that's been drugged and pushed, etc.  That said, last night had to be a devastating result for her, as well as Mother Russia.  It's one thing to drug an athlete where the only criteria is speed and/or power.  In a sport, however, where one false move and there goes the gold medal when you hit the ground... 
• The American and Japanese skaters from the team competition will receive Olympic torches from the IOC, as we await the CAS to fully weave it's way through this mess.
• It appears as if the Olympic silver medalist, Alexandra Truskova, has RETIRED ON THE SPOT because of the whole debacle:

What was also possible to hear in the broadcast:

Trusova: “I will never go on the ice again in my life! I hate this sport, I hate it! You can't do it this way! You can't do it this way! Everyone has a gold medal, but not me. You knew everything!"#figureskating #Beijing2022

— FS Gossips (@fs_gossips) February 17, 2022

• An opinion slamming all of us:  (Forgetting, of course, that the only way to prevent something like this is not having Russia in the movement at all -- Valieva is a minor and underage, but it's the RUSSIAN POWERS AROUND HER committing the abuse for gold and propaganda...)  

Child abuse under the guise of Olympic Sport An entire Olympic Movement and the IOC stood by and allowed a 15 year old child to be physically ,mentally and emotionally abused and publicly humiliated . Hatred and or Fear of Russia was more important that child welfare . No shame

— Brian Anthony Courtenay Lewis (@briaclew) February 17, 2022

• (And, for what it's worth, Mr. Lewis, blame the CAS more than the IOC -- if the CAS hadn't stepped in on the McLaren Report, Russia probably isn't even IN the Olympic movement, AND -- at minimum, Valieva never skates in the individual competition.)   
• The CAS has annihilated the anti-doping community in their full verdict allowing Valieva to complete, and completely ignores the all-but-certain means WHY the situation was so delayed in the first place.
• And WADA has condemned the CAS for what it calls "rewriting the code" regarding doping.  You mean legalizing it, under the right circumstances and parameters, do you not, WADA?
• IOC President Thomas Bach has condemned the Russian regime and Olympic Committee for placing such stress on Valieva that she finally cracked last night.  He also has little confidence it's going to get any better for her.
• And the Russian Deputy Prime Minister has condemned Bach for his comments.  No surprise, given the abject contempt the Russians have for the IOC and everything it stands for.
• Bach points out that the moment Valieva fell, the entire entourage (and probably her Russian dopers) gave her the fucking cold shoulder.  Oh gee, what a motherfucking shock.  It may take an appeal from the likes of that one ex-skater to keep her from Siberia.  At FIFTEEN!  And I'm NOT joking!!!   
• Bach had to deal with controversies and problems with the Beijing Games for at least a half a solid hour of today's (Friday Beijing time) press conference.

The Winter Olympic Virus: Day 12

• In what has to be the LEAST surprising news of the entire Games, Kamila Valieva won last night's short program by over two points.  The top six consist of three Russians, two Japanese, and a Korean.  Russia is favored to sweep the women's event on Thursday.
• A Finnish skater won the drug wildcard spot awarded by the IOC into the free skate.
• Jarl Magnus Reiber has to be heartbroken today -- leading the Nordic Combined large hill competition by 45 seconds, he somehow went the wrong way on the cross-country course.  As a result, fellow Norwegian Jorgen Graabak won the gold medal.

Olympic TV ratings Friday and forward, per Sports Media Watch.  (All comparisons are to Pyeonchang coverage):

• Friday:  4.6 rating, 8.57 million viewers.  -51% ratings, -48% viewers.
• Saturday:  4.4 rating, 8.24 million viewers.  -46% ratings, -43% viewers.
• And now to show the power of the Super Bowl.  One of the most prime spots for any television program is the first program after the post-game coverage of the Super Bowl.  This year, because of the unique quirk that the Olympics and Super Bowl were on NBC, the primetime coverage for Sunday was that prime spot.
• As a result, the small primetime coverage window drew a 9.8 rating and 21.28 million viewers, which were increases on Pyeongchang, obviously.
• In what probably is the most shocking number from Sunday:  USA Network actually drew a rating for the portion of it's 24/7 (yes, with the lack of NBC Sports Network, USA Network is showing either live or reran coverage of the Games all day every day until the cauldron goes out next Sunday!) coverage during the Super Bowl, an 0.52 rating and just over 900,000 viewers.

Other news and thoughts:

• To give you the current sorry state of the US Alpine skiing program:  There are 88 scheduled runners in today's men's slalom competition.  The United States has the same number as vaunted Alpine nations like Puerto Rico, Pakistan, San Marino, East Timor, Lebanon, Cyprus, Hong Kong, Thailand, the Philippines and all the other nations which took only ONE such skier.
• It is official.  The IOC will *NOT* recognize Kamila Valieva as an Olympic medalist -- if the Russian finishes in the top three, the results of the entire competition will be declared "provisional", awaiting a full trial on the full merits of the case, probably before WADA, and then the CAS.  I've heard a number of people criticize the IOC -- it's not the IOC, and probably never was, back to the McLaren Report.  It's the CAS you have to worry about.   

The Winter Olympic Virus: Day 11

• I just want these Games to be cancelled now.  It's clear this whole thing is going to eventually blow up.  If not somehow on the ice or whatever, the Russian trolls are going to get it done.
• I've had to deal with quite a number of those the last several days (and wondering what non-zero number of them have taken to the States in support of Drumpf).
• Valieva is now saying her grandfather's medication (probably for a heart condition) tripped the positive.  Failing to answer at least two questions:  Why, as a world-level athlete who HAS TO KNOW you are being tested for drugs at almost all times, are you taking anything that isn't either legal or a therapeutic exception?  Secondly, why are you taking THAT medication at all???    
• Yeah, I think it's fucking bullshit, and I think it's coming from upstairs, if you know what I'm saying.  A lot of the people defending Valieva as underage don't get the problem that this makes that problem WORSE.     
• To give you how ridiculous it is that this ruling holds from the CAS, the IOC has made an additional provision -- if Valieva finishes in the top 24 of the short program (Hint:  She Will), a 25th skater will be advanced into the free skate as well.

Medal Table:

• Norway pretty much clinched the #1 spot for the Games with three golds today so far, making 12.  Germany has 8, USA 7, Austria, the Netherlands, and the hosts from China 6 each.  The 2-man bobsled is left, so Germany will have 9 by the end of the night.

The Winter Olympic Virus: CAS Decision Snuffs The Cauldron

Anyone who's delved into this situation regarding Russia, the IOC, WADA, and the CAS knew this decision was coming today.

Anyone who's understood that Vladimir Putin is the most powerful man in the world over the course of the last 8+ years knew this decision was coming today.

The Council for the Arbitration of Sport completed what it started when it nullified most of the athlete penalties for Sochi:  Doping's legal in Olympic sport.  You just have to "do it right".

I'll get to the two major American ramifications of that, before anybody thinks I'm letting the US doping situation or the United States Sexual Assault Committee off the hook.

WADA has already condemned the Russians for the utterly deliberate act of not marking the relevant samples as urgent enough to get proper testing done from their national championships on Christmas before the Games.

Valieva is underage, and has apparently been getting cycled off the drug program so she tests out for the first part of the mission of rewriting figure skating in the Russian image.

All of these are deliberate acts, and they come from the propaganda arm of the Russian government and Vladimir Putin.

Anyone who wants to tell you otherwise is not only ignorant of the truth, ignorant of the history of this entire affair over the last eight years with the CAS, and ignorant of the same situation rising in Russian agents in the United States such as IQ45 Donald Trump, Marjorie Taylor Greene, and the entire Alternate Facts crowd.

A lot of people have asked each other how the Russian athletes are allowed to compete under any flag, that the entire exercise is a farce and a slap in the face to the Games...

There's an answer to that, and a lot of it goes to how many medals have actually been annulled from the Sochi Games of the Russian drug regime.

The IOC, after the McLaren report, disqualified over 40 Russian athletes from the Olympic movement.  The appeal to the CAS not only restored the eligibility of over two-thirds of that number, and all of them after the Sochi Games...

... but reduced the total medal nullification total from 13 of the 29 Russian medals in the event down to just THREE.

What the CAS has now ruled, a second time, is that you can absolutely dope in world sport -- you just need to do the right tap-dances and the right screwing around to ensure that no fair result can ever be achieved in the world court of the CAS.

This means there's no feasible way, unless you go to the sloppy American method of an inherent wink-and-nod athlete-by-athlete basis, to police doping.  Vlad Putin is a lot of things:  STUPID IS NOT ONE OF THEM.  As the old song goes, he knows all the rules and he knows how to break them...

(And once the QSA takes hold int he next 1-3 years, I fully expect to see a similar program instituted here by the Russian agents who will run the show for the next foreseeable amount of time.)

The other problem:  This now renders impossible any large-scale outside investigation disqualifying the United States from the Olympic movement for the pervasive sexual assault and harassment of athletes as at least an inherent condition of selection to the team.

The United States Sexual Assault Committee is now just as legal as the Russian doping.

Good luck, world.  At minimum, they need to shitcan the remainder of the figure skating -- and I would not blame Athlete One for leaving Beijing now.

The Hall of Fame does the right thing on Bonds and Clemens. Now it needs to force MLB to do the rest.

Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens have had the door permanently slammed.

Today, they were denied their tenth and final opportunity at the writers' ballot, and there's no real chance, it is believed, through the Veterans' Committee.

Barry Bonds and Sammy Sosa become the second and third members of the 500 Home Run Club to be denied because of steroids.  Mark McGwire was the first.

Gary Sheffield has two years left, Manny Ramirez has four, A-Rod just went on the ballot and was about 40% public ballots.  They all will also be denied for steroids.

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SO WHY IN THE FUCKING HELL ARE WE PUTTING DAVID ORTIZ IN THE HALL?

Yep, they elected Ortiz and him alone:  77%.

And I fucking wanna know why.  It's clear that word has been coming out that Rob Manfred has been trying to stump for Ortiz, claiming his name on the initial positive test list of 104 was possibly a false test, and it never should've been publicized anyway.

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ESPN is fucking caterwauling on the concept that the Hall should tell the story of the game.   (To wit my baseball-historian friend immediately thinks of Pete Rose and Shoeless Joe Jackson -- exonerated from the Black Sox Scandal after many years.  As well as Hal Chase, also banned for throwing games in other respects.)

Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens, Sammy Sosa, Bud Selig (who should be thrown out of the Hall), and Donald Fehr should all be in Federal prison for their roles in taking (and in the last two cases, TRAFFICKING) steroids through the National Pastime at least from the resumption of play after the 1994 strike to the intervention of Congress.

And the BBWAA and the Hall are not blameless:  I said ten years ago that none of these roidies should be on the ballot.  (And my baseball-historian friend points out that Fred McGriff probably gets in from a clean era, but because of the fact we've skewed the numbers because of rampant drug-fueled match-fixing, he's never going in.)

The fact is that Bonds and Clemens should be on the Disqualified List, as should all others involved in steroids.  The reason we don't do it is simple:  There was AT LEAST a ten-year period in which the power of Major League Baseball trafficked these drugs not only to the athletes directly, but to the fans as a concept that "Steroids Saved Baseball".

And that is up to and including the then-Commissioner of Baseball, probably the head drug-pusher through the home run derbies of the late 90's and early 2000's.

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And now, for the first time, the Baseball Writers Association of America has inducted a KNOWN steroid-user.  David Ortiz, one of the 104 names in the initial list, just went in -- and on the same ballot that slams the door to two steroid users far more "deserving" than him for the final time.

There are four people who need to be thrown out of the Hall for either participation in or sufficient suspicion in such:

1. Bud Selig, Commissioner, who should be in Federal prison for drug trafficking rather than in the Hall
2. Mr. "Thirty Pounds of Meat A Day" Jeff Bagwell, that statement alone all but confirming he was on the gas.
3. Ivan Rodriguez -- long believed to be using steroids and rumored (not confirmed like Ortiz) to be on the original list of 104.
4. Mike Piazza, for whom it appears steroids are one of the worst kept secrets of his career.

----------------

But, even so:

YOU MAKE A PRODUCTION NUMBER, BBWAA VOTERS, OF KEEPING OUT THE STEROID CHEATS.

You now have THREE members of the 500 Home Run Club denied induction -- the first three in the history of the game -- because they used.

You have three more who will be similarly denied for the same reason.

At what point do you demand that Major League Baseball, because of the overwhelming evidence against the home run records of Barry Bonds, strike the records from the books for his obvious use of steroids and that there would be no way he would be at 600 home runs (Fainaru-Wada, if I recall, said his non-steroid ceiling was just into the 500 HR Club), much less 756 or 73 in a season?

At what point do you demand that Major League Baseball put together a group of players, owners, and fans (no Congress!) to demand something real and actionable be done against the steroid cheats?

Because now you have two problems:

1. You have a KNOWN roidie in the Hall.  This isn't speculation like Bagwell or Piazza or maybe I-Rod.  This one's known.
2. And you do it the same year you deny Bonds and Clemens.

You've now opened the door two bad ways:

1. You now may have to throw out a number of voters, starting next year.  Because you have a certain percentage of voters who will take one look at the remaining people and do the same thing to them they did to McGriff -- and ballots may be starting to get blanked as a result.
2. You all but basically have affirmed that being affable to the media is more important than even the integrity of the game.

ORTIZ USED STEROIDS.  PERIOD.

And then you're going to deny Bonds and Clemens.

HYPOCRISY.  You've now got five to throw out!!!!

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Bonds got to 66% in his final year.  Clemens, to 65.2%.

The temper tantrum by right-wing fuck Curt Schilling dropped him to 58%.  (But we note:  Only for the temper tantrum, at least for about 10-12% of the voters.  Not for the bigotry, etc. -- though it would be correct to state Curt Schilling will not see the Hall, but through the Veterans' Committee, because of his political beliefs...)

A-Roid got 34.3% in his first year.

Scott Rolen appears to be the next inductee, if he can get another 12% from his 63.2% he got in his fifth year.

Sosa fell to 18.5%.

I'd say Rolen has a decent chance, and history indicates that Todd Helton and Billy Wagner have good shots at about 50%.

But you take a look at those names and compare them to the names who are out and who will be out -- and then understand you have a KNOWN steroid user (no longer supposed, like Piazza, Bagwell, etc.) in the Hall.

I could easily see this group McGriffed.  There are going to be some ANGRY voters next year.  You watch.