So, North Carolina, how much more stupid you wanna get?

You now have all three major college basketball coaches slamming your transphobic bullshit, by the way...

ESPN reports this morning that Mike Krzyzewski called the HB2 anti-trangender bill "embarrassing". 

This statement even made more clear as Albany University, with respect to a New York ban on all non-essential public-funded travel to North Carolina, cancelled the November 12 matchup with Duke, which probably would've resulted in a significant payday to Albany (to lose by dozens of points) for the Basketball Hall of Fame Classic.  Marist University of New York is seen as an alternate, but, as a private school, they are not affected by the governmental ban.

Neither is ACC partner Syracuse, for the same reason.

Other comments from the ESPN report:

Duke AD Kevin White:  "It's most unfortunate. As an institution, if not personally, we have gone on the record indicating that our state position on this [HB2] is very troubling, if not embarrassing."

Mark Gottfried, coach of North Carolina State:  ""I'm against any law that allows discrimination, whether that's based on race, gender, sexual orientation," Gottfried told USA Today Sports. "I don't understand how someone can support this. I think the people at NC State, we believe in inclusion. Being a resident of the state, for me and my family, it's been frustrating.""

Gottfried has also all-but-admitted that HB2 has cost him recruits from outside North Carolina.

Roy Williams, though not quoted, is also opposed to the bill.

Russia's Track and Field IS Banned From The Rio Games.

Just came across the wire in the overnight.  (Was about to go to bed, and found this on Twitter before I went.)

Probably about 3:15 AM Pacific this morning, the Council for Arbitration of Sport has rejected the Russian appeal, ending the Russian track and field team for the Rio Olympics.

The immediate after-effect is obvious:  The decision now means that the IOC Executive Committee appears to have the legal right to expel Russia completely from the Rio Games.

Ben Bloom from the Telegraph now believes the IOC has no choice but to ban Russia from the Games:

Huge pressure on IOC after ban upheld on Russian track and field athletes. Surely they have no option but a blanket Russian ban for Rio now.

— Ben Bloom (@benbloomsport) July 21, 2016

I fully agree.  But I see two major problems that have me believe Dick Pound might be right and the rest of the Russian team (with still rowing and weightlifting considering bans of the Russian team) competes:

The first problem is, really, the obvious reality that most of the major athletes, especially in track and field, are juicing.  If anyone can find one clean American track and field medalist from these Games, I'd like to know about it.

Note I did NOT say "pass a drug test".  I said "Clean".

Now, that said, there's a difference between "institutionalized" and "state-sponsored".  The only reason USA Track and Field is still accredited (even after a threat a number of years back they would be tossed!) is that they did not cross that line.

That said, this leads to the other problem, which needs a slight degree of background on exactly what Vlad Putin is trying to do here:

I would need to remember the term I saw in a previous article about Putin and the drug-fest at the Sochi Homophobe-lympics.

Let us make no secret:  Vladimir Putin wants to restart the sporting Cold War, and turn it into a Hot War on other international fronts:  Against LGBT's, against uppity former states of the Soviet Bloc, etc. and so forth and so on.

Putin's performance around and the Russian performance at the Sochi Homophobe-lympics gave Putin a fair degree of carte blanche to go into the Ukraine and attempt to squash human rights at home.

His strategy is to use these international events to galvanize the homefront.  I just forget the term they used for it.

The second real problem is a very simple one:  I do not, at this time, believe the Rio Games will complete.  I do not believe the Closing Ceremonies will take place.  I believe there will be a sufficient amount of incidents to fell these Games.

And banning Russia may give Putin provocation to do just that.  It is clear that Vlad Putin has no regard for the Olympic movement, except for political ends through sporting terrorism - Hell, see the open support for Russian hooliganism at Euro 2016!  (You may make the case that the amount of American dirty athletes makes the same case here -- I won't stand and argue.  The only difference I would state is institutionalized drug culture vs. a state-sponsored drug culture.)

Do I believe a Russian Olympic expulsion would be followed by a Russian terrorist attack on the Rio Games?  I consider it very possible, yes.

This is the main reason I cannot discount Dick Pound's comment that he does not believe the IOC has the spine to pull it off.

We should find out within one week.

It's Clear that the Rio Games Have To Be Cancelled, Part MMMDCCLXVIII

Late development on the WADA front, and this does not have anything to do with the Russians specifically:

Deadspin reports tonight that WADA has "reinstated" the drug facility which is SUPPOSED TO be the testing facility for the Rio Games starting in two weeks.

A month ago, WADA pulled the accreditation to the "Brazilian Doping Control Laboratory", but never said why.

Whatever the issue was, it has been declared cleaned up.

They really had no choice:  The only other two options would be for the competition to go without testing, or for all samples to go to the nearest accreditated lab...

... in Bogota, Colombia!

... which itself was suspended three years ago.

The Absolute Hypocrisy of Football Nation America

If you thought that the football fans and sports fans of this country were a bunch of heartless brutes, have I got a survey to back up that mentality...

Deadspin is still around for the time being, and reports today on a recent survey (May 31-June 6 of 2016, 1,000 people surveyed) by the Center for Public Opinion at the University of Massachusetts in Lowell.

This survey showed attitudes and beliefs of the polled participants on sports, concussions, and specifically their role in football.

The findings damn a nation of bloodlusty football fans as branded hypocrites....

• Two-thirds of the respondents believe that concussions and head injuries are a major problem and public health concern.  Only 6% deny this reality.
• 85% believe there is at least probable truth (half polled believe this, a third on top of it believe it is absolutely true) that football can cause CTE.
• 87% believe CTE and the brain damage resultant is a serious public health issue.
• In what may be a very telling statistic, though:  Only SIX PERCENT of those polled actually know someone with CTE.  This may speak volumes of the resultant hypocrisy, since I would have to think, if more people could experience what CTE does to people by knowing people with the ailment, they may have very different attitudes about the sport of football (and anything else which causes CTE).
• A majority of all polled, including across all demographic sub-polls, state concussions are a major problem. This includes men (almost 3 in 5), parents (63%), and two-thirds of all people who watch sports on TV twice a week or more.
• Three-quarters of all polled believe that tackle football should not be introduced under the age of 14.  One in five would like to see tackle football abolished, never introduced.  Another one in five would like to remove high-school tackle football, and only introduce tackle football at age 18.
• Almost two-thirds of those polled believe it is a lie when they are told that tackle football is a safe activity for kids pre-high-school.
• The same statement on high-school football is effectively a 50-50 split, with only a small majority believing it the truth.
• Pop Warner Football is not seen in a positive light in this survey.  Taking only about the 41% of those polled who know about Pop Warner Football, three in five of those surveyed believe Pop Warner, as an organization, has not done enough versus head injuries and concussions.
• Taking into consideration soccer, three in five believe it is a lie to say a header in soccer is a safe activity before high school.
• Two in five surveyed say they do not watch sports on television much at all, if ever.
• Almost 1/3, 29%, say they watch two days a week or more, and their responses on the organizational actions on head injuries, CTE, and concussions are striking.
• Two in five do believe the NFL takes appropriate action vs. CTE and concussions.  There's the hypocrisy in a nutshell.  There is no way over 100,000,000 people routinely go to High Mass every First Sunday in February with some of these numbers if the NFL's LIES on the subject are not believed.
• A slight majority believe the NFL has not taken such appropriate action.
• The numbers for the NCAA and NHL (especially with fighting) are similar.
• For those who do believe they know on the high-school and USA sport levels whether or not appropriate actions are being taken, it's a 2-1 split against the sports sanctioning bodies on whether they do or do not.

Wow.

That's a damning piece of survey right there.

Read the highlight at the link above, as I just paraphrased their work for you.

I am routinely (and, quite often, correctly!) criticized for de-emphasizing the human injury element of the American sports machine (especially football) versus the rigging of games.  I have, in the past, attempted to say to these people that it adds the element that not only are these people dying, they are doing so for a manufactured lie.

The fact is, and these numbers point it out, that the fact these players are injured and dying basically must take forefront, and probably abolish one or more of the pillar sports upon which our entire society exists.

In this vein, there is at least one more interesting down-the-table result that the Deadspin article delves into:

• African-Americans actually were more likely to declare tackle football dangerous and not want their children to play.  In fact, the most likely demographic to want their children to play tackle football?  White middle-income ($30-100K) Americans with some college education.

If you wish, you can juxtapose two frightening realities:  The first being that many people hold a very low opinion of the rank-and-file football player, but (the second) believing the ESPN Hype that it is all about the quarterback.  Basically, White Johnny and Jane want their son to be the star quarterback, with all the perks.  Many African-Americans, however, know their son would be destined to be some kind of a battering ram.

Just think of that when your Packers and Patriots and Broncos and Crimson Tide and Trojans and Badgers and Blue Devils and Cardinals and Hilltoppers take the field this fall...

Or will you?

The IOC: If We Can Toss Russia, We Will

Been a bit of a hectic week, so the IOC's response to the WADA recommendations fell through the cracks a moment.

The IOC released a statement yesterday outlining it's response to WADA's recommendations in the state-sponsored sports terrorism through doping scandal in Russia.

It appears that the IOC is prepared to expel Russia from the Rio Games, but there are legal hurdles which must still be surmounted.

“The findings of the report show a shocking and unprecedented attack on the integrity of sports and on the Olympic Games. Therefore, the IOC will not hesitate to take the toughest sanctions available against any individual or organisation implicated,” IOC President Thomas Bach said. 

The current actions are as follows:

1) A five-person committee has been immediately impaneled to discuss sanctions against individuals, including those in the Russian Ministry of Sport, for the findings in the WADA report.   

This is for individual sanctions.

2) Here's the key one, and I will quote this from the report:

With regard to the participation of Russian athletes in the Olympic Games Rio 2016, the IOC will carefully evaluate the IP Report. It will explore the legal options with regard to a collective ban of all Russian athletes for the Olympic Games 2016 versus the right to individual justice. In this respect, the IOC will have to take the CAS decision on 21 July 2016 concerning the IAAF rules into consideration, as well as the World Anti-Doping Code and the Olympic Charter. 

It appears to me, that, with this and other actions taken in the report, the message is simple:  If we can, we will.

First off, the Council for Arbitration of Sport has been called by Russia to appeal the track-and-field disqualification, and their decision comes tomorrow.  Obviously, should Russia win the appeal and be able to compete in track and field in Rio, the IOC's hands are probably tied.

Second, at that point, the WADA Code, Olympic Charter, and the concept of "individual justice" would be brought to the fore.

The WADA situation should be clear:  WADA has, in fact, called for full disqualification.  WADA believes it is within the Code for the IOC to remove Russia from the Games.

The Charter (now a 110-page document -- you can see the .PDF file here) does give the IOC "Last Resort" power over the Games.  (By-Law 58)  By-Law 59 covers disciplinary resources of the IOC, which specifically mentions the World Anti-Doping Code, the WADA Code.

Section 1.4 does give the IOC Executive Committee the power to suspend, and do so on a case-by-case basis, for violations of the Olympic charter so involved.

So it does appear the only question remaining is whether Russia can be disqualified under the report (the appeal of the IAAF decision, CAS ruling tomorrow) and the concept of "individual justice".

3) The IOC has also:

• Disqualified Russia from any hosting or recognition of IOC-level events, including the 2019 European Games.  This would mean that the European Olympic Committees would have to find a third host for the event, as they provisionally chose Russia in November 2015 to host the event after the Netherlands pulled out.
• No member of the Russian Ministry of Sport or anyone else implicated in the report will get credentials for the Rio Games.
• A second Disciplinary Commission will report on all Russian athletes from Sochi, and their true drug status from the event.  At this point, only after such a Commission meets might medals be stripped or reassigned.
• The IOC is calling for a full freeze of all high-level international sporting events in Russia until Russia is found drug-code-compliant, and to look for other locations.  This means you, FIFA and World Cup 2020 -- among others.
• Each individual sport is asked for relevant inquiries and sanctions going forward.

4) Russia has now officially lost the right for it's athletes to be determined "innocent until proven guilty" with respect to drug usage, and this has been affirmed by this decision -- and the actions to demand universal and non-tampered testing of the entire Russian Olympic Team (and if and only if they are forced to allow them to compete in Rio!) will continue, on a sport-by-sport basis.

5) The IOC wants the names of athletes implicated as having their positives tampered or removed - this was not in the original mandate of the report, and the IOC is now asking WADA to expand that mandate.

6) Once the Disciplinary Committees (the one against officials of Russian Ministry of Sport and the one about the Sochi athletes) complete their work, their findings go to WADA and the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).

7) It is agreed that the fight against doping in sports has failed.  The IOC joins the call for WADA to convene an "Extraordinary Conference on World Doping" in 2017, and will meet in another doping summit in October of this year to refine this call.

This is basically all-but-short of a request for apartheid-level sanctions against Russia:  Effectively, to make Russia a pariah in sports until it's state-sponsored terrorism through sports doping is taken care of, much in the same recognition as South Africa when apartheid was in force.

This makes the next move simple:  If the IOC Executive Committee can legally expel Russia from the Rio Games, they appear fully-prepared to do so.  They appear to have the authority, and the backing from WADA.  They now need to wait for the CAS decision tomorrow, and carefully weigh the decision against what clean athletes Russia MIGHT field to Rio if they are allowed to do so.

LATE DEVELOPMENT:  Dick Pound of the IOC (and formerly of WADA as well) does not believe the Executive Committee has the spine to pull off the blanket ban, even if the IAAF disqualification is upheld.  (The Guardian)

Great, NFL: You're going to make the problem WORSE???

I know there are many more important things to talk about, especially it still being July.

That said, though, there are some things that are done that are such head-scratchers (and lead to such obvious results) that something needs to be said.

Like this Yardbarker article about the new interpretation of the NFL's infamous rule that retired Megatron, the Calvin Johnson Rule...

The new rule, at least as best we can understand it, now adds a third condition to the old interpretation:

You must catch the ball, you must have two feet in bounds or equivalent, and you now must (if possible -- otherwise you can't score a catch on your back) be able to become a runner.

Basically, when in doubt, wave it off as incomplete.

So you now, effectively, need FOUR feet in bounds (the two to gain the catch, and two to become a runner), or you risk having the catch waved off.

Gee, someone might want to ask the mafioso running the referees Mr. Blandino about the Super Bowl XLIII winning catch by Santonio Holmes.  There's no way, under the current interpretation, that could be a catch!

WADA Calls For Full Russian Disqualification

Anyone who's followed the story basically knows the drill by now, and the damning report against Russian sport has been released to WADA.

It, among other things, details over 300 falsified tests to allow drug-positive Russian athletes, not only through their Sochi Homophobe-lympics "triumph", but at least through last year's World Swimming Championships.

The report alleges any positive test would be reported to Russian governmental officials, and the results falsified.  Three-quarters of these falsifications occurred in track and field and wrestling.  The Russian track and field team has been disqualified from the Rio Games already.

And this wasn't even the methodology they used at Sochi, the report continues.  Russian officials actually broke into the drug area and swapped clean urine from the athletes with the dirty urine during the competition.

The Deadspin report does not outline possible suggestions, but another report on the situation does.

At least ten countries, including the United States (har har, that's a laugh!  The only difference between the USA and Russia is that the government is probably not directly involved here.), have either already sent the IOC this suggestion or were considering it:  The World Anti-Doping Association has called for full Olympic disqualification for Russia.

In their statement, WADA asks:

1. For the complete disqualification of all Russian athletes from the Rio Games.
2. For each individual sport to consider further sanctions as appropriate.
3. Russian governmental agents are not to be allowed at international sporting events, including the Rio Olympics.
4. The Russian Anti-Doping Agency, already declared non-compliant, to remain as such.
5. A process of accreditation of a drug-testing lab in Moscow is to be halted.
6. An investigation by FIFA (soccer athletes are involved, as is at least one member of the FIFA Executive Committee).
7. Additional investigatory actions be completed by the authors of this report, should the money be found to allow them to do so.

The IOC meets tomorrow in an extraordinary session to discuss this report.