Hmmm... Could We Have Something Here in the NHL?

Interesting story, in what is not being said (by the league) is more important than what's being said.

From Yardbarker:

The National Hockey League, last week, suspended referee Tim Peel for a meeting with Greg Wyshynski, a major hockey blogger at the Puck Daddy blog on Yahoo! Sports.

Peel thought Wyshynski was out of line for saying something on his blog, and decided, when the time was available, to take him out for a drink.

I've had that offer with more than a couple of people (not on this blog).  Usually, I'm so angry about a subject when it gets that far, though, that it takes a while for things to calm down, or things get so completely out of control, I'm thrown in the slammer!

So that's what the league told us.  Awful Announcing's Matt Yoder (Awful Announcing is where Yardbarker picked this up.) does a better job of explaining the real problem than I could about what the league DIDN'T tell us:

It seems more likely … and this is just a best-guess and intuition … that the NHL wasn’t too fond of Peel opening up about the relationship between the referees and league office and sat him for a game. It’s not a good look for the league that referees are only given two shirts and are responsible for washing them both in every city. Further, the league probably would rather not have certain emphases given to their refs aired and discussed in public. And most of all, the league really doesn’t want to see refs publicly comment and validate sentences like this one from Wysh, “In talking to Peel, you start to see a pattern: The NHL asks its officials to manage the game a certain way, and they have to do it.”

HMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM.....

Took Less Than 12 Hours For the First NFL Family Offseason Arrest

Well, that was quick...

About 7:15 or so last night, the Patriots were cradling the trophy.

7:00 this morning, Warren Sapp of the NFL Network was arrested in Phoenix for soliciting a prostitute and assault.

Not even 12 fucking hours, NFL.

The NFL Network fired Sapp today.

On top of this, two domestic battery arrests since 2010...

No More, right, NFL?

Super Bowl XLIX, The Cheats Win: I Hope You Enjoyed That, America, Because You Deserved That Disgrace...

Wow.

I'm glad I took the notebook, because it's going to take me a couple days to process all this shit.

Let me start with the obvious, and go backward:

• Either Russell Wilson actually believes he has the Hotline to God or that pass PROVED Super Bowl XLIX rigged.

Let's see.

2nd and goal, 1 yard from probably back-to-back titles.  So, instead of running Beast Mode for his second TD (and a probable MVP at that!), Russell Wilson throws a pass on a slant into the middle of the field near the goal line.

PICKED!

Read someone's vandalism of Pete Carroll's Wikipedia page, from Deadspin's comments:



Either Russell Wilson, buying completely into the "quarterbacks win it or lose it" hype, felt God would get him the win, or the call proved the #SuperBowlRally (the first from over 7 points down in the last period, by the way) rigged.

Oh, and that quarterback?

• Can NBC get off Tom Brady's jock sometime before the opener next year?

"No."  "Next question..."

God, if that didn't make it obvious with all the Brady-jocking...  We're giving it about 48 hours before someone big declares him the GOAT.

• Several things that may have went under your radar on the game itself...

First, on the Baldwin touchdown, NOT on the celebration penalty...

Using the ref for a pick was not by accident. It's designed to work exactly like it played out on Doug Baldwin TD.
— Brian Billick (@CoachBillick) February 2, 2015

Second, if you can get that 3rd and 7 from the first Seahawk touchdown drive, are we not certain that Belichick should've challenged that spot?

Third, first play of the Seattle drive up 24-21, after getting one first down in the previous two drives up 24-14, a fairly blatant hand-on-foot trip on New England went wanting a flag.

Fourth, that, on the first punt, WAS roughing the kicker.  According to almost everyone who talked about it with any officiating acumen, hitting the plant leg with any intensity IS roughing.

I'll have more with another look...

• Couple of commercial comments...

1) Oh, so showing LGBT people in good lights is too political, but taking money from Xur and Kor-Dan Armada (otherwise known as the "Church" of Scientology) isn't?  And for the third year in a row?  And just after the No More domestic-violence lie?

2) How many big cars and trucks do we need to see before you tell us "REAL MEN HAVE MONEY"?  (You actually did that with the Chevy Colorado ads!!)

3) Hated the "dead kid" insurance ad.  Liked the "Cats in the Cradle" ad, unlike most people.

• And the perfect end of this season of child abuse and domestic violence and dirty play:  A near-Florida International/Miami fight and the first Super Bowl ejection in history.

But there were several Patriots and a couple more Seahawks who should've been thumbed with #51 Seattle (who did start it and get in the biggest tussles, yes!).

So that should've offset.

More later.  Gotta go wash the taste out of my mouth.

Super Farce XLIX, The Cheats: YOU CAN'T HANDLE THE TRUTH!

Surprised it took two weeks for this to become public.

The reporter who broke the DeflateGate story, Indianapolis' Bob Kravitz, has, according to Yardbarker...

... received death threats from some Patriots fans.

As for the Colts themselves, in an interview, Kravitz said that the balls almost-certainly could not have been a sole factor, but they're waiting to see where this goes.

Super Farce XLIX: I Own You Too, Bob Costas! Love, Roger Goodell.

In the six-hour NBC pregame, Bob Costas had to come on and explain that Roger Goodell refused to answer any questions on DeflateGate, Robert Kraft, domestic violence, player safety, and other relevant subjects.

(Source:  Deadspin.)

Wait, WHAT, NFL? THIS is worth losing a draft pick, but dirty hits aren't?

Mike Greenberg, this morning, on his Twitter...

#Falcons may have been using artificial crowd noise to gain an edge. Could lose a draft pick. Prediction: Evening news won't lead with that.
— Mike Greenberg (@Espngreeny) February 1, 2015

Oh, that's right, it's ATLANTA.  No 12th Man Cult, no Associate Commissioner...

That's right -- nothing to see here, move along...

The NFL, Domestic Violence, and Deadspin: THAT Escalated Quickly

I saw this headline this morning on Deadspin, and would love to save them a lot of time.

"Do the NFL's Anti-Domestic Violence Initiatives Actually Even Exist?"

I could save them time and say "No."

The Deadspin article looks into what's actually been done -- and it's not a lot.

You have the PSA today.

You have the bluster of Herr Goodell.

Your executive committee is... a bunch of corporate organizations, half of whom appear to be ad hoc and almost-certainly totally made up.  ("Men Can Stop Rape" -- but don't really want to because it costs them much of their societal power...  *cough*)

Goodell, several times on Friday, brought up outside consultants, so they looked into it, and found one of the three people the league brought in...

.... was brought in as a consultant in the matter of "crisis management".  In short:  C.  Y.  A.

They talk about the money the NFL pledged to the National Domestic Violence Hotline (which, over five years, might pay Marshawn Lynch's salary for the next two), but the NDVH, when contacted, couldn't tell you exactly how much of the first year's money they'd received!

The National Sexual Violence Resource Center got a million, but not much direct help for shelters, so that's just bluster too.

And we've already discussed the "harsher punishments for players" part:  Since football players across this nation at all levels are Protected Men who can rape and abuse basically whoever they want without consequence, any real "harsher punishments" would have to come outside the Constitution, and are, hence, void -- as Goodell designed it.

Bad men doing bad things to bad men...

And none of this addresses the actual presentation of the games either.  One can only wonder, in about *does math* 8-9 hours how many Seattle/New England fans' wives/girlfriends are going to get the shit beat out of them because their men got left at the proverbial NFL altar, as it were.

One NFL player's wife said it would take no less than "cleaning up NFL culture" which would be "about way more than the issue in front of us", according to the Deadspin piece.

She's right, and because of the Real Manhood of Football, it WON'T.

It CAN'T.  The entire culture of the SPORT (not just the NFL) makes it the most violence-friendly construct this country has.

Remember THAT in a little more than five hours, Football Nation America.