- We do have a match-fixing probe in the EPL, sorta... In many European betting parlors and online sites, you can wager on who will have more corner-kicks, fouls, penalties, who will get the first throw-in, etc. and so forth, on almost every match imaginable. Well, this has led to "spot-fixing", where players within the matches will pre-determine such results -- and that's exactly what has been alleged by a 10-year EPL veteran, Claus Lundekvam. FIFA is investigating. (*snork*)
- If I hear one more person talk about that it's ridiculous that I discuss the possibility that Penn State should be shut down completely, I now have a counterbalance. John Infante has done some research and basically has concluded that if Penn State University is not shut down for all this (by no less than the Department of Education for violations which would result in the loss of ALL Federal financial aid for the students), then Penn State is officially Too Big To Fail.
Thursday, July 12, 2012
And some other things Louis Freeh will send under the radar:
Next Freeh Report coming on the Saints?
Deadspin is reporting, as part of it's continuing and significant coverage of the Freeh Report, has an article up stating the next Freeh Report might well be...
BOUNTY-GATE.
And the wire-tapping accused of the Saints GM.
If the Penn State report is any indication, my theory that Goodell might have his NFC Los Angeles team even if St. Louis nor Minnesota nor anyone else moves might have some legs.
BOUNTY-GATE.
And the wire-tapping accused of the Saints GM.
If the Penn State report is any indication, my theory that Goodell might have his NFC Los Angeles team even if St. Louis nor Minnesota nor anyone else moves might have some legs.
SHUT -- IT -- DOWN. _N O W_!!!!
The Freeh report came out today about Penn State.
It's as bad as I first thought -- the entire football program and university overlooked child rape in the guise of Our Holy Obsession With Football.
Mark Schlabach of ESPN is calling for at least a three-year Death Penalty. Specifically, he's calling for the largest sanction ever handed down by the NCAA, and that would out-do SMU's DP from years ago. "And the Nittany Lions should get hammered more than any other school in NCAA history."
Dan Shaughnessy of the Boston Globe says the university needs to shut down the football program.
Christine Brennan of the USA Today echoes those sentiments.
Jen Floyd Engle of FOX Sports thinks the Death Penalty is the beginning of what should happen.
There is a Facebook page, and has been since the incidents were made public, that wants the program shut down, under the guise of the fact that the university is bigger than the football program.
IS IT? Really? In this particular case, is the university bigger than the football program, and should the action not only be taken against the football program, but the university itself, up to and including revocation of accreditation -- which would shut the whole damn campus down!
Consider the findings, according to the ESPN analysis on the subject:
First, "Paterno and others showed "callous and shocking disregard for child victims." "
I am going to quote the first several paragraphs of the ESPN analysis article, because I want to make one simple comment:
ANY PERSON WHO ALLOWS THIS UNIVERSITY TO CONTINUE TO FIELD A FOOTBALL TEAM -- BE THEY UNIVERSITY, SANCTIONING BODY, CONFERENCE, TELEVISION NETWORK, OR SPONSOR -- ACCEPTS THIS CONDUCT.
"One night during the autumn of 2000, a janitor cleaning Penn State's Lasch Football Building observed Jerry Sandusky, then 56 years old, in the showers with a 12-year-old boy pinned to the wall. The janitor saw Sandusky performing oral sex on the boy. Later that night, another janitor saw Sandusky and the same boy in the showers, and later watched the two leaving the locker room holding hands.
The janitors' supervisor asked the men if they wanted to report what they had witnessed to the police.
"No," one janitor said, "they'll get rid of all of us."
"I know [football coach Joe] Paterno has so much power," the other janitor recalled about the incident, "if he wanted to get rid of someone, I would have been gone." He predicted that Penn State's leaders would do everything possible to protect the school's vaunted football program.
"Football runs this university," the janitor said."
If you don't think that open child rape is not grounds for the shutting down of entire athletic programs, if not entire universities, then either you are enabling to the conduct, or you are in the camp that you believe that you cannot sufficient punish Penn State, for doing so would impact people not involved.
Second, "Evidence shows Paterno, Spanier, Schultz and Curley did know of 1998 investigation and Paterno "failed to take any action."
Hence, Paterno commits perjury in front of a grand jury when he said otherwise.
Third, "PSU let Sandusky retire in 1999 "not as a suspected child predator, but as a valued member of the Penn State football legacy," allowing him to groom victims."
And this was largely suspected by Mark Madden back when this was first being reported. I wonder how he has to feel about all this now.
Fourth, " PSU "concealed critical facts ... to avoid consequences of bad publicity.""
I can understand why, given this. You're talking no less than the death of the entire football program, if not the University.
Fifth, "Paterno "was an integral part of this active decision to conceal" and his firing was justified"
I begin to wonder if his death is not just a little bit convenient, not unlike the disappearance of the District Attorney who was looking into this (even though a Huffington Post blogger states the police don't think so -- to which I say YEAH and RIGHT).
Remember, "Football runs this University.", and Happy Valley was a college town.
I have had several passionate discussions with friends who do not believe that the Death Penalty can be given on the latter ground, and I have nothing to say to them to dispute their beliefs, and I believe that only those who intelligently come to the conclusion (as those friends have) that you just cannot impose the sufficient penalty without impacting the uninvolved have the right to say that.
God help the rest of you.
God help the rest of you for literally standing by and considering this one of the "good" college programs.
God help the rest of you for what you did to those kids in the name of Our Holy Obsession With Football.
Without the institution of football to give this pedophilic monster absolute reign over these children, literally as altar boys to a priest with Paterno as pope, this doesn't happen.
Our Holy Obsession With Football, and the fraud that it is, raped these children as much as Jerry Sandusky did, and we have no less than Louis Freeh to verify this.
They knew.
They lied.
They raped these kids to give them access to the one and only thing which mattered in Happy Valley, Pennsylvania.
They must pay the ultimate penalty. I would go so far as removing accreditation. Shut down the whole damn college.
The janitor said it himself that night he witnessed it: "Football runs this university."
It's as bad as I first thought -- the entire football program and university overlooked child rape in the guise of Our Holy Obsession With Football.
Mark Schlabach of ESPN is calling for at least a three-year Death Penalty. Specifically, he's calling for the largest sanction ever handed down by the NCAA, and that would out-do SMU's DP from years ago. "And the Nittany Lions should get hammered more than any other school in NCAA history."
Dan Shaughnessy of the Boston Globe says the university needs to shut down the football program.
Christine Brennan of the USA Today echoes those sentiments.
Jen Floyd Engle of FOX Sports thinks the Death Penalty is the beginning of what should happen.
There is a Facebook page, and has been since the incidents were made public, that wants the program shut down, under the guise of the fact that the university is bigger than the football program.
IS IT? Really? In this particular case, is the university bigger than the football program, and should the action not only be taken against the football program, but the university itself, up to and including revocation of accreditation -- which would shut the whole damn campus down!
Consider the findings, according to the ESPN analysis on the subject:
First, "Paterno and others showed "callous and shocking disregard for child victims." "
I am going to quote the first several paragraphs of the ESPN analysis article, because I want to make one simple comment:
ANY PERSON WHO ALLOWS THIS UNIVERSITY TO CONTINUE TO FIELD A FOOTBALL TEAM -- BE THEY UNIVERSITY, SANCTIONING BODY, CONFERENCE, TELEVISION NETWORK, OR SPONSOR -- ACCEPTS THIS CONDUCT.
"One night during the autumn of 2000, a janitor cleaning Penn State's Lasch Football Building observed Jerry Sandusky, then 56 years old, in the showers with a 12-year-old boy pinned to the wall. The janitor saw Sandusky performing oral sex on the boy. Later that night, another janitor saw Sandusky and the same boy in the showers, and later watched the two leaving the locker room holding hands.
The janitors' supervisor asked the men if they wanted to report what they had witnessed to the police.
"No," one janitor said, "they'll get rid of all of us."
"I know [football coach Joe] Paterno has so much power," the other janitor recalled about the incident, "if he wanted to get rid of someone, I would have been gone." He predicted that Penn State's leaders would do everything possible to protect the school's vaunted football program.
"Football runs this university," the janitor said."
If you don't think that open child rape is not grounds for the shutting down of entire athletic programs, if not entire universities, then either you are enabling to the conduct, or you are in the camp that you believe that you cannot sufficient punish Penn State, for doing so would impact people not involved.
Second, "Evidence shows Paterno, Spanier, Schultz and Curley did know of 1998 investigation and Paterno "failed to take any action."
Hence, Paterno commits perjury in front of a grand jury when he said otherwise.
Third, "PSU let Sandusky retire in 1999 "not as a suspected child predator, but as a valued member of the Penn State football legacy," allowing him to groom victims."
And this was largely suspected by Mark Madden back when this was first being reported. I wonder how he has to feel about all this now.
Fourth, " PSU "concealed critical facts ... to avoid consequences of bad publicity.""
I can understand why, given this. You're talking no less than the death of the entire football program, if not the University.
Fifth, "Paterno "was an integral part of this active decision to conceal" and his firing was justified"
I begin to wonder if his death is not just a little bit convenient, not unlike the disappearance of the District Attorney who was looking into this (even though a Huffington Post blogger states the police don't think so -- to which I say YEAH and RIGHT).
Remember, "Football runs this University.", and Happy Valley was a college town.
I have had several passionate discussions with friends who do not believe that the Death Penalty can be given on the latter ground, and I have nothing to say to them to dispute their beliefs, and I believe that only those who intelligently come to the conclusion (as those friends have) that you just cannot impose the sufficient penalty without impacting the uninvolved have the right to say that.
God help the rest of you.
God help the rest of you for literally standing by and considering this one of the "good" college programs.
God help the rest of you for what you did to those kids in the name of Our Holy Obsession With Football.
Without the institution of football to give this pedophilic monster absolute reign over these children, literally as altar boys to a priest with Paterno as pope, this doesn't happen.
Our Holy Obsession With Football, and the fraud that it is, raped these children as much as Jerry Sandusky did, and we have no less than Louis Freeh to verify this.
They knew.
They lied.
They raped these kids to give them access to the one and only thing which mattered in Happy Valley, Pennsylvania.
They must pay the ultimate penalty. I would go so far as removing accreditation. Shut down the whole damn college.
The janitor said it himself that night he witnessed it: "Football runs this university."
Tuesday, July 10, 2012
Couple of catch-ups and question marks as we head into the slowest day of the year
- Joey Barton will remain with Queens Park Rangers, but not as it's captain. One more breach will end his tenure there. His offenses against Man City will cost him a half-a-million pounds (555,000, to be exact -- six weeks wages (480;000 pounds) from the club and 75,000 to the FA). He's already suspended a third of next season, and word is that the manager is NOT planning to name him to the squad for the Premier League. (So when's the bloke getting paid next -- circa January? Suspension runs through a match on November 17th, and then six weeks from that, plus effectively a seventh for the FA fine... Yep, next paycheck for the bloke -- if he stays straight -- is in January, 2013!!)
- Ray Allen to the Heat... If there's any doubt that they are constructing a 70-ish-win Super Team in Miami to minimum repeat-for-as-many-years-as-LeBron-and-Wade-can-coexist, that should be the nail in the coffin right there.
- Hope Solo failed a drug test for Canrerone earlier, the US Anti-Doping Agency has reported. So why does she get off with only a warning? It's not as nefarious as you think. They did a full research and realized that a doctor-prescribed medication Solo was legally taking had the substance (which is why the substance is a "Specified Substance" under WADA/USADA rules), and publicly warned her (probably to change relevant medications), but that no further action was required, and she remains on the US Olympic Soccer Team. In a related matter, the chief of WADA has openly urged all drug cheats to withdraw from what he calls the most tested Olympic Games in history. (Part on Solo is valid, part on the WADA chief... Hardy har har har)
- Speaking of drugs, at least IMODO, a local Southern California swimmer has thrown Michael Phelps under the bus, saying that Phelps does not share his example or ethic for hard work. (Why not just come out and say that he believes Phelps is dirty? I will go on record to state that I believe Michael Phelps used steroids four years ago in Beijing, and the musculature he showed in one of the famous celebration photos is not standard for a swimmer.)
- And another black mark for the Nevada State Athletic Commission. Only a "stiff warning" for Anderson Silva for his deliberate shoulder at the face of Chael Sonnen before their middleweight UFC 148 title bout last Saturday - he could've been fined or stripped of his license, the latter would've cancelled the fight. So why is this another bad day for the NSAC? Easy. The fight was allowed to take place only because it was the largest MMA gate (ticket money) in the history of the state of Nevada! (Money talks, bullshit walks. Right Mr. Kizer?)
Speaking of the NFL, a commentary: The whole thing with the Saints is going to be a cloud over this entire season for the NFL. The entire Player Safety Initiative and probably the very future of football (especially the NFL with the lawsuits) may depend on how this plays out.
One interesting thing which I believe may (though no one else has played this angle on it) be a side effect of this: Goodell, a week or two ago, sent a letter to the teams basically outlining how any 2013 Los Angeles move would be able to be pulled off. What if no NFC team comes up willing to move? Could the NFL, knowing that Saints owner Tom Benson cooperated with the investigation, give Benson a golden parachute on the current (decreased) value of his franchise to take the franchise under temporary NFL ownership and move them to Los Angeles, where we all know Goodell openly wants both an NFC and an AFC franchise in "Farmer's Field", which could be downtown right next to the Staples Center!
Something to think about.
Friday, July 6, 2012
Again, Dillon? Are we sensing something nefarious here?
If you've watched any ESPN at all over the last several weeks, you've seen heavy promotion of Austin Dillon in a Dale Earnhardt Sr-esque #3 car in their Nationwide Series commercials.
Well, last week, he won the race in Kentucky. He also failed inspection there too, costing him, I believe, six points.
He's done it again! DISQUALIFIED from the pole position qualifying (which he would've otherwise won) and ordered to start in the back of the field for this week's race in Daytona for an open cooling hose in the cockpit to boost aerodynamics, according to ESPN.
So why is he being allowed to run at all? Well, with Danica not doing as well as a lot of sponsors and TV-hypesters might've wanted, ESPN has gone with the Dale Sr.-esque car angle, I guess.
It's clear somebody (at least on Dillon's crew) is trying to fix the races here. Once is an anomaly, two consecutive starts talk of a pattern. And, before the penalty, he was the points leader after Kentucky.
Anybody want to start looking at inspection papers for all the other Nationwide races as well?
Well, last week, he won the race in Kentucky. He also failed inspection there too, costing him, I believe, six points.
He's done it again! DISQUALIFIED from the pole position qualifying (which he would've otherwise won) and ordered to start in the back of the field for this week's race in Daytona for an open cooling hose in the cockpit to boost aerodynamics, according to ESPN.
So why is he being allowed to run at all? Well, with Danica not doing as well as a lot of sponsors and TV-hypesters might've wanted, ESPN has gone with the Dale Sr.-esque car angle, I guess.
It's clear somebody (at least on Dillon's crew) is trying to fix the races here. Once is an anomaly, two consecutive starts talk of a pattern. And, before the penalty, he was the points leader after Kentucky.
Anybody want to start looking at inspection papers for all the other Nationwide races as well?
Thursday, July 5, 2012
Various Odds and Ends, July 5, 2012
- Thank God July 4 is over. Our neighborhood sounded like a war zone, and, given people I've read from sea to shining sea, we were not alone.
- Nash to the Lakers... Gotta agree with Brian, but not as far as Mike Greenberg and JT The Brick want to go. I think it's clear that, with San Antonio aging, the NBA needs another Western Conference team. In the East, to give Miami a little show, you have Chicago and, depending on free agency, Boston. In the West, past the Lakers and the Spurs this year, you had... You had... My point exactly. Do I think this is enough for the Lakers to get back and win another title or two? No. Not unless someone on the Heat throws a homophobic slur at someone publicly or somesuch. I think this was done to keep the Lakers relevant and get better ratings as Oklahoma City's foil.
- The NFL, today, announced that all replays that the lead official is seeing will be broadcast to the fans in attendance at that game. Hey, Brian: Shall we begin a count as to how many of these calls go to the home team, regardless of the truth of the matter here? Bad idea! It would be better to go with rugby's model of a known TMO (Television Match Official) in the booth, and to have the referees fully mic-ed, even when just talking to the players, not just announcing the penalties. Besides increasing integrity, you can sometimes get some very funny exchanges when the refs tell the players who actually is the boss around here!
- In a decision which should surprise no one reading this blog and my previous exchange with Nevada State Athletic Commission Executive Director Keith Kizer, the Attorney General of the State of Nevada officially determined no crime was committed in the fixed decision in which Brian Bradley defeated Manny Pacquiao. If we need any more confirmation that the state of Nevada is protecting their boy Floyd for if he has a career after his time in the joint, there it is! Between the arrogance of Mr. Kizer and the fact that the "investigation" involved interviewing precisely none of judges involved in the fight, it's clear to me that any fix for the fight originated officially within the boxing organization of the state of Nevada, as I've suspected since they allowed Floyd to fight May 5.
- ESPN's John Clayton reports an interesting fact: The two easiest schedules in the NFL next year are for the New England Patriots and the Green Bay Packers. (Question about 2/3 of the way down the page.) So who do YOU have going to the Super Bowl?
- Michael Johnson has officially played the race card, as he went Jimmy the Greek on a pre-Olympic interview. The Daily Mail Online reports this from Johnson: "Over the last few years, athletes of Afro-Caribbean and Afro-American descent have dominated athletics [track and field] finals. It's a fact that hasn't been discussed openly before. It's a taboo subject in the States but it is what it is. Why shouldn't we discuss it?"
- To this end, studies are being made to see if evidence persists, as believed, that slave-owners actually bred slaves to be more athletic (to perform the tasks required, killing the rest off as unfit -- since they were not seen as human beings by many slave-owners. So much so that one ship to Jamaica had 170 passengers starting in Africa for slavery in the New World. Only SIX completed the journey.), leading only a more athletic gene-pool to come down through the generations of Afro-Caribbean and Afro-American descent. So much so that all eight of the 100-meter finalists in 2008 in Beijing were of such descent: Three from Jamaica, including champion Usain Bolt, two African-Americans, two from Trinidad and Tobago, and the one European was an Afro-European from the Dutch island of Curacao.
- Every word true. The domination of Black athletes in almost every sport cannot be denied, so why do we not discuss at least why this is true? And that leads to the "urbanization" of many sports cultures, and everything which results. The reason we don't discuss it is that it is believed to be racist to state it. So is it any less racist when one of the most prominent African-American runners of our time says it, rather than an old white Vegas-guy of the 70's that the NFL probably wanted rid of anyway when it was clear that he was putting CBS NFL broadcasts too close to the then-truth about the NFL?
Sunday, July 1, 2012
I love it when someone so obviously admits it, they have to extract their foot from their stomach.
Brian Tuohy has a "News of Note" column, where he basically has ongoing discussion of current events which either are or may well be articles about (potentially) rigged events.
ESPN gave me a DOOZY to send to Brian on Saturday.
Speedway Motorsports Inc. chair Bruton Smith basically wants the entire scope of racing changed to a multi-tier tournament/shootout concept like the All-Star Race.
Mandatory cautions, double-file restarts...
But here's the rub, Bruton: Everything that comes with it. Cautions breed cautions for a REASON.
You want crashes. No problem in admitting that the public usually watches these races to see people get wrecked.
The problem is admitting it so cleanly, as in the money quote of this entire article:
"If you have one [mandatory caution] every 20 laps, I don't care," Smith said. "It adds to the show. Someone once said we're in show business. Well, if we're in show business, let's deliver that show. Right now, we're not delivering it.
And if you want to take it that far, ensuring certain drivers (*cough*the 88) win the title would not be that far off, would it, Mr. Smith?
ESPN gave me a DOOZY to send to Brian on Saturday.
Speedway Motorsports Inc. chair Bruton Smith basically wants the entire scope of racing changed to a multi-tier tournament/shootout concept like the All-Star Race.
Mandatory cautions, double-file restarts...
But here's the rub, Bruton: Everything that comes with it. Cautions breed cautions for a REASON.
You want crashes. No problem in admitting that the public usually watches these races to see people get wrecked.
The problem is admitting it so cleanly, as in the money quote of this entire article:
"If you have one [mandatory caution] every 20 laps, I don't care," Smith said. "It adds to the show. Someone once said we're in show business. Well, if we're in show business, let's deliver that show. Right now, we're not delivering it.
And if you want to take it that far, ensuring certain drivers (*cough*the 88) win the title would not be that far off, would it, Mr. Smith?
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