April 30, 2008
The Latest Roger Clemens Story
There were a lot of rumblings about the story in the NY Daily News that Roger Clemens had a longstanding “relationship with a country music singer. If/when the entirety of this story becomes known, I will be happy to take a position on its importance. For the moment, I have only a couple of simple comments:
1. How this can be used by the defense in Clemens’ suit against Brian McNamee for defamation is not obvious to me. McNamee’s alleged defamation related to Clemens’ alleged use of steroids/HGH not about his marital fidelity.
2. If this relationship were actually sexual in nature, the important part of that would be the age of the young woman when the relationship was “consummated” in the Biblical sense. She would have been 15 when they met; he would have been 28 when they met; a sexual relationship at that time would have been more than inappropriate.
3. If there are specific allegations of a sexual liaison between Clemens and this young woman, might he offer as a defense that all he ever injected her with was Vitamin B-12? [Sorry, I couldn’t resist that one cheap shot…]
Similar numbers of rumblings occurred around the story of Caleb Campbell (S, Army) being drafted by the Detroit Lions meaning that he can indeed play NFL football if he makes the team and can fulfill his Army tour of duty obligations by working in recruiting and community outreach positions. I have heard all the arguments for and against the rule that will allow him to do that. But that is the rule that was extant when he signed on to go to West Point and play football. All he is doing is abiding by that rule which he did not instigate or implement. For those who have a gripe here, your gripe is with the Army/DoD and not with Caleb Campbell.
I have read speculation in several places that the rapidity of the first round of the NFL Draft on Saturday (it took 3 hours and 31 minutes) could lead to holding just the first round of the draft on Friday night next year in prime time from 7:00 to 11:00 PM EDT. I can see that happening for one very simple reason. NFL Network – wholly owned by the NFL – needs programming and during the off-season, they just do not have a whole lot of original programming to offer up. A move like this can help NFL Network so I do not think it will have a lot of trouble being approved.
When the NFL schedule is analyzed and parsed to levels of detail that don’t make all that much sense, you often hear about teams that the league has been unkind to with regard to travel burdens. Well, for the 2008 season, the travel burden fell pretty unkindly on the New England Patriots. In October the Pats play consecutive West Coast games against San Diego and SF; then, in December the Pats go to Seattle and Oakland on consecutive weekends.
When the Raiders drafted Darren McFadden with the fourth overall pick on Saturday, they created a logjam at tailback. Obviously, the Raiders will sign McFadden eventually and he will be in camp and on the team. Already on the roster were – in alphabetical order – Michael Bush, Adimchinobi Eschemandu, Justin Fargas, Lamont Jordan and Dominic Rhodes. That logjam got a little less congested yesterday when the Raiders released Dominic Rhodes.
Two seasons ago, Rhodes played a big part in the Indy Colts’ win in the Super Bowl over the Chicago Bears. He cashed in with a lucrative deal in Oakland despite a DUI incident proximal to that signing. The NFL suspended Rhodes for four games; he then became part of the Raiders’ backfield and now he is gone. It will be interesting to see where/if he signs on next…
There is yet another idea afloat to put an NFL team in Los Angeles. The NFL has made it abundantly clear that this is not going to happen absent a new spiffy stadium in LA and that the city fathers can continue to try to come up with ideas to make the LA Coliseum into something less awful than it currently is but that will be insufficient. Now comes forward billionaire developer, Ed Roski. He has a plan to build a stadium in the City of Industry, which is about 35 miles east of LA and where the funding for the city comes almost entirely from sales tax. The City of Industry is zoned 92% Industrial and 8% commercial; there are only a handful of permanent residents but there is good transportation to the city and it is near LA.
This plan is different from most of the other “plans” that have been proffered in the recent past. The key element here is that Roski already controls the land needed for the stadium and he claims to have in hand all the environmental impact statements needed to move forward with a stadium. There is some tug-of-war ongoing with the State legislature in California over use of a portion of this sales tax revenue for the stadium; I don’t pretend to understand all of that but if that were the single stumbling block to getting a stadium and an NFL team back in LA, I think the votes could be rounded up to make that happen.
Another factor in favor of this new proposal is the longstanding relationship between Ed Roski and Roger Goodell. The commish says that he has known Roski for a long time and that Roski is a “credible man”. That cannot hurt…
The whole story on this – at least the whole story from Mr. Roski’s position – can be found at www.losangelesfootballstadium.com. If you go there be sure to click on the options so you can see the design for the stadium itself. It is a unique design concept…
Finally, Mike Bianchi summed up much of a current sporting situation with this single line in the Orlando Sentinel recently:
“New motto for The Players Championship now that Tiger Woods will skip it while rehabbing after knee surgery: ‘We buried our ratings at wounded knee.’ ”
But don’t get me wrong, I love sports…
I believe the Mc Cready/Clemens issue is that he has repeatedly told people how he was such a fine upstanding man of good character. If he is looked at as a child-abusing adulterous slimebag, calling him a drug cheat is really not ruining his reputation.
Ed:
I agree with your logic. Nevertheless, I still don’t see how a judge will allow that line of “evidence” to be entered in a trial where none of the charges in front of the court relate to defaming Roger Clemens as a “family man”.
Now, if in a deposition of Ms. McCready there is some reason to believe that she and Roger Clemens exchanged words relative to steroids/HGH, that would be a different story.
By the way, if Clemens contests the defense’s subpoena of Ms. McCready, there is a possibility - not a certainty to be sure - that the judge will not allow the subpoena to go forward meaning that a deposition would only happen if she volunteered to be deposed.
LOTS of legal wrangling still to come…
Mr.Curmudgeon,
Hope all is well. If a team starts in LA, who will miss out? i.e. surely there won’t be 33 teams in the NFL…
I watched the video, it looks really impressive. Is that a hotel attached onto the side though? Corporate boxes galore!
And I like the note that it holds 75,000, except it can be increased to 80,000 for superbowl gameS! Looks like they will be expecting a few of them!
Also, may I suggest that Beckham and Donovan’s presence in that LA team may BE the reason their team-mates are so pathetic… Theres only so much money to go around. Also I think for MLS standards, Beckham is quite easily a ‘top-shelf player’.
Andy
Andy:
If the NFL were to put a team in LA anytime in the next two or three years, I have to think it will be a relocated franchise. The NFL suffered through a year with an odd number of teams and it wasn’t something they would want to repeat. For symmetry, the next “expansion” would almost have to be from 32 to 36 teams and there are not four more markets in the US that will support NFL football.
Maybe that argues for the NFL expanding to places like Mexico City and/or a Canadian city? I don’t know.
But putting a team in LA would probably mean moving a team from somewhere else.
Minnesota would be a candidate if they don’t get a new stadium deal done there. Same goes for San Diego.
Buffalo would be a candidate if the team ever changed hands.
New Orleans might be a candidate.
Oakland would be on the list but only if Al Davis no longer controls the team; as long as Al Davis is in charge, there is no way the NFL would give him that benefit after the grief he caused the league.
Curm - note Buffalo will be playing some games in Toronto - that is probably the only Canadian city that would be an option - but I think they could make it.
Curm - Mc Cready could get called as it is a suit about character - not about criminal use of drugs. If they reduce his credibility and perceived character…
Ed:
Toronto might be a potential site for an NFL team in Canada. I wonder if Vancouver might not also work…
Frankly, I think the NFL’s fascination with Mexico City is a fool’s errand but that’s just me.
If the NFL asked my advice as to where to put four new franchises today, I’d probably say LA, Portland, Vancouver and Orlando. I doubt that the Bills would survive for long if there were a franchise in Toronto so I’d have to pass on that one for the moment.
With regard to the Clemens/McNamee lawsuit:
If Clemens is thinking with his brain and not with his glands, he’ll drop this lawsuit NOW and forget all about depositions and discoveries and more lurid stories coming out. I doubt he’ll get that advice from his legal team because that would dry up the tsunami of billable hours…