The NFL’s New TV Deal

It was about fifty years ago when Willie Nelson sang:

“Mamas, don’t let your babies grow up to be cowboys…”

About 5 years ago, a narrative began that football was going to go the way of the dodo bird because mothers would not let their babies grow up to be football players for fear of CTE. I never bought into that narrative and I think it is now evident that the demise of football in the US is highly unlikely for the next decade or so.  The NFL and its “broadcast partners” – now to include Amazon and other streaming services – have signed a 10-year deal that will drop a total of $113B into the NFL’s coffers.  Those “broadcast partners” do not see the NFL drying up and blowing away, and nor do I.

Moreover, roughly half of the money involved in those TV deals will flow to NFL players per the terms of the CBA between the league and the players’ union.  That means there are significant financial incentives for kids to aspire to be part of the NFL for at least another decade.  If indeed “money talks”, the dollars involved here are most assertive in declaring the continued existence of the NFL and a willing labor force for the enterprise.

These new broadcast deals between the networks and the NFL begin in 2023; analysts say that the new deals cost the networks twice what the current deals cost; I assume that is a correct analysis.  When I first heard that the NFL was going to ask for that kind of an increase, I wondered why the networks would accede to such an increase.  However, the negotiations went smoothly and quickly so the networks must see value there.  Here are data:

  • Eight of the top ten most watched TV programs in 2020 were football games (7 were NFL games and the other was the CFP championship game).
  • The two “non-football programs” on the list for 2020 ranked 7th and 10th.
  • Notwithstanding reports that Super Bowl ratings were down for 2021, the game between the Bucs and the Chiefs had 96 million viewers.  By comparison, The Oscars in 2020 had 23 million viewers.

I have said for years that the NFL and the NFLPA need to work together because their joint mission is to produce the most popular and most lucrative television series ever.  As long as the league and the union keep the wheels rolling, the dollars will continue to flow.  The two sides may squabble over the “revenue split” or over some aspects of “working conditions” but it is hard for me to imagine any single issue on either side of the bargaining table that is worth turning off the spigot there.

So, is there anything new in the broadcast rights deal to justify doubling the cost to the networks?  Here are some of the provisions that have been reported; you make the call:

  • There will be 2 games on the Saturday of the final week of the regular season on ESPN.  That will happen this year before the new deal goes into effect.  Importantly, the NFL intends to put “playoff relevant” games in at least one of those Saturday time slots meaning the NFL is going to flex-schedule games from day-to-day in addition to flexing games from a time slot on Sunday to another time slot on Sunday.
  • Those Saturday games will become a fixture in the new scheduling arrangements for the new TV deals AND there will be flexing opportunities for ESPN and its Monday Night Football package.  Flexing for Monday Night Football was not available in the current deal.
  • ESPN will get three annual Monday Night Football double-headers.  Currently, there is a MNF double-header for the opening week of the season but none to follow after that.  Starting in 2023, there will be three such scheduled events.
  • FOX chose not to bid to continue with Thursday Night Football, but Amazon jumped in with both feet.  FOX will continue through 2023 and Amazon will stream those telecasts as well; then it is all Amazon after that.  I also read a report that said if Amazon grows the Thursday Night Football audience sufficiently, Amazon could claim a wildcard playoff game that would stream exclusively on Amazon.
  • ESPN+ and Paramount+ and Peacock streaming services will all participate to a small extent in the new deals.  ESPN+ will have exclusive rights to one of the NFL’s “International Games”; Peacock also gets an exclusive game for its service.
  • ABC will get 2 Super Bowl game telecasts between now and 2033.  ABC and ESPN are part of Disney Corp; the NFL does not want to put the Super Bowl on a cable network so count ABC’s turn in the barrel here as a tip of the hat to ESPN.

Someone needs to wave a tiny caution flag here.  There is a small measure of danger here involving over-exposure.  Adding Saturday games and adding a 17th game to the regular season and adding Monday double-headers will put more games on as national events.  I use the word “event” there very purposefully.  I believe that one of the fundamental reasons that professional football overtook MLB as the “nation’s pastime” is this one:

  • There are 162 baseball games in a season (2430 games in total) so that any given game is an “occurrence”.
  • There are only 16 NFL games in a regular season (256 games in total), and they are spaced apart by a week meaning that each game is an “event”.

The NFL does not want to over-expose its product and lose the aura of “event-ness” for its regular season games.  The guys in the executive suites need to maintain awareness that every good thing can be overdone.  I am not predicting the demise of professional football here nor am I hoping for such an outcome.  But someone somewhere needs to think about that issue to make sure it never becomes a real issue.

Finally, let me close with an observation made by H.L. Mencken that relates to my tiny caution flag here:

“An idealist is one who, on noticing that a rose smells better than a cabbage, concludes that it will also make better soup.”

But don’t get me wrong, I love sports………

 

 

Connecting The Dots…

Where there is a lack of clarity, people tend to interpolate or extrapolate to fill in the gaps; in common parlance, this practice is referred to as “connecting the dots.”  According to reports yesterday, the NFL has allowed Danny Boy Snyder to borrow $450M to buy out the three minority partners who were suing him.  That confrontation had gotten well into the realm of churlishness with one side accusing the other of “extortion” and the other side responding with allegations of “financial shenanigans.”  Lacking clarity in the matter, I am perfectly willing to believe both sides there.

However, the action of the NFL yesterday to render all that acrimony moot causes me to wonder why the league chose to do what it did and how did the timing come to be.  Lacking clarity in that arena, I need to do a bit of interpolating and extrapolating – – sometimes meaning that I put two-and- two together and come up with five.

There is a second shabby set of circumstances ongoing now regarding Danny Boy Snyder.  It was about 8 months ago that the Washington Post published a report by Washington cheerleaders about sexual harassment and a “toxic culture” in the team Front Office.  Two individuals were fired; the “Communications Guru” chose to retire; more women came forward with additional charges; first the team hired a law firm to “investigate” and then the NFL took over that “investigation”.  That was eight months ago; the report of the investigation is still not “available”.

There has been plenty of speculation about the contents of that investigative report to the point that some have wondered if the findings were so sordid that it would cause the league to force Danny Boy Snyder to sell the team.  As  long-term resident of the DC suburbs, I can assure anyone who is reading this that fanboys around here would prefer Hannibal Lecter to own the team if that could be arranged.  The NFL’s action yesterday not only signals that Danny Boy Snyder will continue to own the team, but that he will own about 81% of the team along with the minority shares belonging to his mother and his sister.

Now on to some “dot connecting”.  I cannot believe that the NFL would have cleared the way for that situation to obtain if there was even a 1% chance that the findings of that investigative report suggested that Danny Boy Snyder be forced to sell the team.  The NFL can be ham-handed and stubborn, but the NFL is not stupid.  As I understand the NFL Bylaws, the league can force an owner to sell his franchise if that owner engages in “conduct detrimental to the league.”  Here is the important aspect of that provision to force a sale:

  • The way the determination is made regarding “conduct detrimental to the league” is to have 75% of the owners vote to force a sale on that basis.

So, my first extrapolation here is that the investigative report which has not been available to the public is known to the higher-ups in the NFL if not in full at least to the point that the major findings have been summarized there.  The league mavens have counted heads and are certain that there are not nearly the required 24 votes to force a sale of the Washington Football Team.

That first extrapolation leads to another question that lacks clarity at the moment.

  • What circumstances have led the owners’ votes to fall out the way that is indicated here?

I can think of 3 possibilities; I am certain there are others:

  1. The findings of the report indicate to a sufficient degree of certainty that Danny Boy Snyder is not guilty of anything more than mismanagement of his “Front Office toxic culture” and that the allegations made can be resolved.
  2. The other owners are looking at the newly negotiated broadcast rights deals and cannot see how the 8 months of bad publicity surrounding this situation has done any degree of “detriment to the league”.
  3. The other owners would not want themselves to be under microscopic scrutiny with regard to the behaviors of male team employees regarding female team employees over the past several decades.  And if there were such scrutiny applied, the other owners would not like to have a “forced franchise sale” on the books as a precedent.

All three of these conclusions require “dot connecting” meaning there is uncertainty in all of them.  The first one can be confirmed or denied with the release of the investigative report with only minimal redactions.  I will be surprised if the NFL does that.  I suspect that the NFL would not want to take the chance that there is a demonstrable error of fact in that report which would cast doubt on its findings and reopen this issue(s).  The NFL is not in the business of risk taking and that course of action carries a risk with it.

The second possibility above is very real.  Broadcast rights have – according to reports – just about doubled for the next 10 years or so.  When the last team sold, the reported price was approximately 50% higher than the value of the franchise as estimated by Forbes.  The owners can easily convince themselves and their minority partners – if there are any – that things are looking up.

Regarding that third possibility, my gut tells me that some other owners saw the allegations made against the Front Office of the WTFs and thought to themselves:

  • There but for the Grace of God, goes our organization.

Just about the only aspect of this situation that does not require any extrapolation or interpolation is the fact that the allegations made by women to the Washington Post were published a little more than 8 months ago – – and the clock continues to run…

Finally, regarding the issue of sexual harassment – – allegations of which set in motion much of what I have discussed today – – here is an interesting assessment from Senator Amy Klobuchar (D- MN):

“I have a dream that, one day, maybe we’ll have more women in the Senate than there are victims of Harvey Weinstein’s harassment.”

But don’t get me wrong, I love sports………

 

 

RIP Elgin Baylor

Elgin Baylor died yesterday.  He was a great collegiate and NBA player in the late 50s through the early 70s; he had the misfortune of playing in the NBA at the same time that Bill Russell and that Celtics dynasty was alive and kicking.  After his playing days, he was the GM of the Clippers for almost 20 years.

Rest in peace, Elgin Baylor.

Before I get to specific game comments from yesterday’s second round Tournament games, let me insert something here that I should have mentioned yesterday.  When Abilene Christian upset Texas in the tournament over the weekend, it had to be a doubly bitter pill for Texas fanboys to swallow:

  • The Longhorns were a 3-seed and got  bounced by a 14-seed.
  • The loss came to a poor-relative school in the State of Texas.

There has been ample evidence over the past 10-15 years that Texas alums hold football coaches on a short and tight leash.  The recent firing of Tom Hermann exemplifies the demanding nature of that impatience on the part of the deep-pocketed boosters.  Because of that impatience, I wonder if this embarrassing basketball loss to Abilene Christian might incite an uprising among Texas alums against coach Shaka Smart.  I think that would be a big mistake – – but when fanboys with deep pockets start to feel that they are not getting what they feel entitled to, there is no telling what might happen next…

Having watched tons of basketball games over the past several days – – total immersion would be a good description – – let me say that I love to watch college basketball on TV, but it does need some rule changes:

  • Teams have too many timeouts.  Look, there are 8 television timeouts built into every game.  This is not a rec league with a “coach” who knows far less about the game than he thinks he does.  Each team should have 1 timeout per half that they may call on their own; the rest of the stoppages will be for TV timeouts.
  • Rules that require the officials to read minds are bad.  Therefore, change the rule on flagrant fouls to the discretion of the individual; the current difference between Flagrant 1 and Flagrant 2 fouls needs amicus curiae briefs to be filed and analyzed on the fly.
  • Another discretion rule that needs changing is the “hanging on the rim after a dunk” rule.  Is it OK or is it “excessive”?  Here is my rule; if a player dunks the ball and grabs the rim for ANY REASON, the basket does not count, and it is a technical foul on the dunker.  No need for much interpretation here.  Coaches will take care of teaching that aspect of the game very quickly taking the need for officiating judgement off the table in one off-season.

I have always had my doubts about college sports “Selection Committees” and their ability to deliver a quality product.  I must admit that I did not watch nearly as much college basketball this year as I have in the past, so I had no basis to quarrel with much of the Basketball Selection Committees’ seedings this year.  But seriously…?  Do you believe that all the members of the committee spent enough time WATCHING these teams play – as opposed to watching YouTube highlights and reading accounts of the games?  If so, how did some of these monumentally erroneous seeding come to be?  The problem here is simple; the Committee is made up of too many people who have regular day-jobs that keep them busy 40 hours a week or more; it is not that they do not want to do a good job; they do not have the time to devote to this committee assignment to be able to do a good job.

On to Monday’s games:

  • Iowa/Oregon:  Both offenses were fast, effective and efficient in the 1st half; there were 102 points on the board at halftime.  The Oregon defense was even more impressive than the Oregon offense which scored 95 points for the game.
  • Oklahoma/Gonzaga:  Oklahoma finished 7th in the Big 12 in 2021 regular season; how did that happen?  Could not keep up with Gonzaga but there is no shame in that.  Lots of bad calls by officials on blocking/charging situations in this game.
  • Ohio/Creighton:  With 7:19 to go in the 1st half, the score was 19-19.  The announcer said after a made basket, “Whoo, there’s some shooting going on …”  Not really.  Ohio could have been one of the Tournament Cinderellas, but they coughed it up.
  • Abilene Christian/UCLA:  The Bruins won this game hardly breaking a sweat…
  • Michigan/LSU:  The first half was an evenly matched contest.  The second half was a series of runs by both teams.  In the last 5 minutes, the shot selection by LSU was awful.
  • Florida St./Colorado:  This was a grind-it-out game in the first half by both teams; the Seminoles led 24-20 at the half.  My note from the second half was, “What is a good antonym for ‘intense?”

[Aside:  Thesaurus.com suggests “bland”, “dull” and/or “mild” as possible antonyms for “intense”.  Those are good descriptors here…]

  • Maryland/Alabama:  This game was a blow-out.  One question that kept coming to mind was, “Why does Maryland think it is a good idea to take 3-point shots with not a single Maryland player within 15 feet of the basket to try to rebound a possibly missed shot?”
  • Kansas/USC:  Kansas looked like a 15-seed in the first half and trailed by 19 points at the half.  Then things went all to Hell for the Jayhawks in the second half…

Finally, Brad Dickson – – formerly of the Omaha World-Herald – – must believe that the Governor of Nebraska has been glued to the TV during March Madness:

“Breaking: Apparently after watching too many sporting events, the Nebraska governor is about to announce that businesses can reopen ‘at 110% capacity.’ ”

But don’t get me wrong, I love sports………

 

 

Forty Games In Three Days …

In a previous life, I worked with a woman – – not even remotely a sports fan – – who said she could always tell when her husband was watching a basketball game because of the “squeaking sneakers” she could hear from as far away as another room.  I was reminded of her “observation” over the weekend when I spent tens of hours in front of a TV set listening to “squeaking sneakers” – – and mostly enjoying the Tournament games.  Let me spend today transcribing – – and editing – – some of the notes I took as I watched various games.

  • Texas Southern/Mount St. Mary:  Texas Southern plays at a frenetic pace; lots of motion but little comes from all that motion.  If this were a regular season game between these two teams, I would change the channel quickly.
  • Drake/Wichita St:  Ho hum …

Great to see that Capital One will bring us a new set of ads featuring Charles Barkley, Samuel L. Jackson and Spike Lee.  They have added Larry Bird, Magic Johnson and Jim Nantz – – so far – – to the ads.  These ads are an entertaining addition to the games.

  • Va Tech/Florida:  Excellent game; hotly contested start to finish.
  • Colgate/Arkansas:  Colgate is surprisingly good; expected them to shrivel up against better athletes.  Game is still close after 30 minutes.  Brendan Haywood is doing color here and his praise for the players and the game goes beyond effusive and enters “verbal orgasm territory”.  Cut back on the caffeine, man…
  • Ohio St./Oral Roberts:  Ohio St. is a top team in the Big 10?  The conference should be ashamed.
  • Georgia Tech/Loyola-Chicago:  Two evenly matched teams that put on a very entertaining game.
  • Oregon St./Tennessee:  Oregon St. dominated the first half and won the game on cruise control.
  • Illinois/Drexel & Baylor/Hartford:  Gigantic mismatches.  Clear from the start these were not meaningful games.
  • Oklahoma St./Liberty:  in the first half, Liberty was the better team on the floor, but OSU took over in the 2nd half.  Cade Cunning ham does a lot of traveling…
  • UNC/Wisconsin:  Wisconsin dominated the game.  I cannot ever recall so much 1-on-1 offense from a Wisconsin team.
  • Purdue/N. Texas:  Purdue looked sluggish for the first half and for the first 8 minutes of the second half.  They woke up enough to force OT but lost in the extra period.
  • Villanova/Winthrop:  The first half was close and exciting; not so much in the second half.  If Jeremiah Robinson-Earl (a freshman) stays at Villanova for four years, the Wildcats are going to be very good in 2024.
  • Rutgers/Clemson:  The first half was as ugly a game as I can recall in the Tournament.  The final 6 minutes were interesting if not exciting.
  • Georgetown/Colorado:  Patrick Ewing was a great player; Patrick Ewing is a mediocre in-game coach.  Hoyas were dominated in the first half and no adjustments to offer.  Georgetown cannot shoot and all they did was 1-on-1 offensive basketball.  This was a train-wreck.
  • Fla St./UNC-Greensboro:  Quickly saw that Fla St. was bigger AND faster than UNCG so I figured there was no need to watch this game – – but every time I checked in the score was close.
  • Kansas/E. Washington:  Both teams play in overdrive.  Score at half time was 46-38; the scoreboard operator was likely in shock.
  • Michigan/Texas Southern:  Stat at the beginning of the game said that Tex. So. is the worst team in the country in 3-point shooting percentage.  That means they have NO chance against an opponent with superior talent.  Indeed…
  • Alabama/Iona:  Rick Pitino made the game slow and ugly and ‘Bama only led by one point at the half.  Superior talent prevailed in the second half…
  • UCSB/Creighton:  This game was close from start to finish.  How was this a game between a #5 seed and a #12 seed?
  • USC/Drake:  Drake was competitive in the first half – – but the game has two halves…
  • Iowa/Grand Canyon:  No drama or mystery here…
  • Maryland/UConn:  The Terps were clearly the better team on the floor.
  • Ohio/UVa:  Cavs have recently lost to a #16 seed in the Tournament and won the National Championship and now have lost to a mediocre team from Ohio U.  Who writes these scripts?
  • Gonzaga/Norfolk St.:  Never in doubt …
  • Abilene Christian/Texas:  Frenetic defense by Abilene Christian and dismal shooting and discipline by Texas created this massive upset.

We had a coronavirus “intervention” when VCU had to forfeit its game against Oregon based on the COVID-19 protocols in place.  I seriously hope that is the only time the virus will get any sort of billing in this Tournament…

Then came the Sunday games to winnow the field down to the Sweet 16.  [Aside: If anyone here says they had a perfect bracket after the Round of 64, I want to see a notarized copy of that bracket dated prior to the Tournament tipoff.]

  • Illinois/Loyola-Chicago:  Officials certainly “let ‘em play” in the first half and Loyola led 33-24 at the half.  There were a few “ticky-tack calls” in the second half, but Loyola was the better team in that half as well.  Illinois was outplayed and outcoached.
  • Wisconsin/Baylor:  This game pitted a team that wins with fundamentals against a team that wins with its athleticism.  The disparity in athleticism was most evident comparing the 2 defenses.

The announcing teams do this in almost all the games but somehow it seemed to be a running narrative in this one.  There is no great insight in telling viewers that the team trailing in the game “has to get  some stops” if they are going to be successful in catching up in the score.  That is self-evident and announcers have made it a cliché,

  • Syracuse/West Virginia:  Syracuse led by 6 at the half even though Buddy Boeheim only had 3 points.  Bad omen for the Mountaineers…
  • Arkansas/Texas Tech:  Two evenly matched teams.  Arkansas has better athletes and Texas Tech uses a swarming defense to disrupt opponents.  This game has more contact than a football game.
  • Rutgers/Houston:  Houston is the master of the unforced error; how did that team get a #2 seeding from the Selection Committee?

Here is another announcing trope that needs to be retired.  When a team is trailing, it is vacuous to say that its star player “needs to get involved”.  Of course he does; any dimwit knows that; tell us what he needs to do differently so that his “involvement” is more productive.

  • Oral Roberts/Florida:  Florida has the better players and more of them – – but Florida committed a ton of turnovers [turns out it was 20 turnovers] and managed to lose the game.  Oral Roberts never gives up…
  • Villanova/North Texas:  N/ Texas led 21-13 and then the ceiling fell in on them; it wound up 47-27 in favor of Villanova at the half.
  • Oregon St./Oklahoma St.:  Two schools referred to as ‘OSU” meet here.  Oregon St. went on a tear in the first half and led by 14 at the half.  Beavers won comfortably.  After seeing Cade Cunningham twice this weekend I wonder if he has been over-hyped just a bit.

The Tournament this year has had more upsets than usual and some of the traditionally strong conferences have come up short.  The Big-10 has not been covered in glory with the way Ohio St. and Illinois were sent home.  As of this morning, the only ACC team in the Sweet 16 is Syracuse – – hardly a team with a long history of representing that conference.  Sunday was a bad day for the Big-12 even though Baylor won and will represent the conference in the Sweet 16;  Texas Tech, West Virginia and Oklahoma St. all lost on Sunday.

As things stand now, there could be a Final Four game between Oral Roberts and Loyola-Chicago.  How is that a step on the way to “normalcy”?

Finally, Dwight Perry had this item in the Seattle Times last weekend:

“The NCAA is challenging a group of Virginia urologists for using the term “Vasectomy Mayhem,” claiming it might “result in confusion” with the college organization’s March Madness nickname.

“To which we say, if you don’t recognize the vas deferens — er, difference — you probably don’t have any business buying basketball tickets.”

But don’t get me wrong, I love sports………

 

 

Returning To Normalcy?

It had been 2 years since I was able to watch the NCAA basketball tournament – – the event that I believe is the single best annual sporting event in the US.  The fact that what I had access to last evening were the play-in games was suboptimal, but it was still the win-or-go-home basketball tournament environment and I was in front of my TV set from tip off until the end of the overtime in the fourth game of the evening.  Let me make a couple of general observations:

  • The officials in the UCLA/Michigan St. game may have been auditioning for jobs in the NBA.  They certainly ignored enough traveling violations last night to demonstrate to the NBA mavens that they have that part of their officiating duties down pat.
  • Appalachian St. is the Sun Belt Conference Champion and Norfolk St. is the MEAC Champion.  If those are really the BEST teams in those conferences, then maybe the NCAA needs to re-examine the concept of “automatic bids” to the tournament.
  • Notwithstanding the fact that two of the four games yesterday were 1-point games and another went to OT, there was not a lot of quality basketball on display.  The fundamental reason it was good television is that the games were close and they had tournament finality attached to them.

Earlier this week, a report on The Dan Patrick Show, said that the Chicago Bears had offered the Seattle Seahawks three first round draft picks plus a third-round draft pick plus two starters (The individuals were not identified.) in exchange for Russell Wilson.  The Seahawks dismissed that offer.  Let us assume for a moment that report to be 100% accurate:

  • That offer – and its rejection – sets the market for a Top-tier franchise QB in the NFL.  Wilson still has years of productive play in him to a degree that a couple of other Top-tier franchise QBs cannot project.  The message sent by the Seahawks here is that it will take some sort of offer on a galactic scale for them to consider trading away Russell Wilson.
  • There have been reports that Wilson is “miffed” with the Seahawks’ organization and he indicated that he wanted to be traded to either the Bears, Cowboys Raiders or Saints.  Of those 4, three have resolved their QB situation for next year in free agency; the Raiders might seek to upgrade from Derek Carr to Russell Wilson – – but the Raiders now know the sort of price tag such an upgrade will carry.
  • Russell Wilson is under contract to the Seahawks through the end of the 2023 season; at that time, he will be 35  years old.  He will earn a total of $70M – plus possible incentives – over the course of his existing contract.  Theoretically, he can be a free agent going into the 2024 season absent the Seahawks placing a franchise tag on him.  What that tells me is that he and the Seahawks’ organization need to find a détente sometime soon because they are going to be in a co-existence paradigm for quite a while.

Two other NFL QB “situations” moved to completion in the last week that might be interesting.  Ryan Fitzpatrick signed with the WTFs and seems to be the leader in the competition for the starting QB job there.  This will be Fitzpatrick’s 9th NFL team; that made me wonder if any other player had been with more NFL teams.  They have:

  • JT O’Sullivan and Josh McCown have both suited up for 12 different NFL teams.
  • Fitzpatrick will turn 39 in mid-season this year, so it is not impossible for him to perambulate around the league to 3 other teams before hanging up the jockstrap for good…

[Aside:  Kevin Glenn has been a QB in the CFL since 2001.  He holds the distinction of having been on every team in the CFL during that time.  In fact, he has been on the Saskatchewan Roughriders three times and on the Winnipeg Blue Bombers for two different stints.  If Kevin Glenn has not yet been named Man of the Year by Royal Canadian Van Lines, he certainly should be.]

The other NFL QB situation that seems to have resolved itself last week was the signing of Cam Newton by the Patriots.  The first reports said that the deal was for 1-year and $12M which seemed outrageous to me.  As more details of the contract were reported, that $12M figure is attached to a load of team and personal incentives; should they all be achieved, the Pats would be happy to deposit $12M in Newton’s bank account.  It seems that about $5M of that $12M is what is guaranteed.

My surprise here is that it never appeared to me in watching the Patriots last year that Cam Newton’s strengths as a QB fit into the offense that the Pats like to run. Frankly, I thought the Pats would make a run at Ryan Fitzpatrick if they were in the market for a QB on a 1-year deal or for Andy Dalton if they wanted to sign a veteran who could play a couple more years.  Maybe this means the Patriots are going to change their offensive “philosophy”?  We shall see…

Finally, consider this NFL-related observation by Dwight Perry of the Seattle Times:

“Technology? They don’t need no stinking technology.

“’Thanks to GPS, they can identify the location of your phone within one inch of anywhere on the planet,” noted comedy writer Alex Kaseberg. ‘But the NFL still measures first downs with two sticks and a chain.’”

But don’t get me wrong, I love sports……..

 

 

Let The Tournament Begin …

          The NCAA Tournament swings into action this evening with its 4 play-in games.  Even before the first layup line takes place, there has been a COVID-19 angle to the event in Indianapolis; the NCAA had to send home 6 of the officials who were selected to officiate the games.  A positive test for one of the officials disqualified him and contact tracing protocols revealed close contact with the “infected official” by five other officials.  The NCAA had anticipated the potential for officials to become infected and had invited 4 “spare officials” to Indianapolis to cover for any that might need to be sent home.  According to tournament organizers, those 4 officials will now be put in the regular rotation and that they will not be inviting any other “spare officials” to Indianapolis.

Originally, the NCAA had planned to have 4 teams waiting in the wings just in case one of the tournament teams cannot make it to their opening game due to pandemic protocols.  The idea was, if that happens, one of those 4 stand-by teams will be substituted into the bracket.  That was to apply only to the first game in the bracket; after that round, if a team could not put 5 eligible players on the court for a game, the opponent would be declared the winner and would advance.

Yesterday, the NY Times reported that the NCAA had reversed course and that there would be no “substitute teams” even in the first round of the tournament.  At some point, someone somewhere is going to use this ”disappointing circumstance” to justify a call to expand the tournament beyond 68 teams.  I will take this opportunity before the fact to label that “justification” as BALDERDASH!

In the tournament field this year, there is a team that arrives with a record that I have never seen in normal times.  The Colgate Red Raiders are seeded #14 in their bracket and will face the Arkansas Razorbacks tomorrow.  Here is the oddity of the Colgate schedule and record:

  • Colgate is in the Patriot League and the conference schedule was altered in response to COVID-19.  They played no out-of-conference games.
  • Colgate is 14-1 as of today.  However, they have only faced 5 opponents.  Colgate is 5-0 against Boston University, 4-0 against Holy Cross, 3-1 against Army, 1-0 against Bucknell and 1-0 against Loyola.
  • Colgate is a high-scoring team – against Patriot League opposition.  In 5 of their 15 games, they have scored more than 90 points and in two games they scored more than 100 points.

Colgate and Arkansas meet tomorrow at 12:45 PM EDT.  The game will be on truTV.  I will use that game as one of my anchors during that time slot because I want to see how Colgate can stand up to an SEC team that had a 22-6 record this year.  If you want to check out the game, you probably should spend a moment today to find truTV on your cable system.  I have not watched any truTV programming since the NCAA Tournament two years ago and I had to “re-discover truTV” and it whereabouts…

Indianapolis is also the scene for sports news in a different sport today.  Now that the trade for Carson Wentz from the Eagles to the Colts is official, there will be an introductory press conference in Indy organized by the Colts.  These sorts of introductory press conferences are not unusual and rarely if ever produce anything other than unbridled optimism and total joy on the part of all participants.  I cannot recall a new player or a new coach saying at his introductory press conference that he would rather be just about anywhere else.  However, there is a wrinkle in the press conference scheduled for later today:

  • The Philly press that covers the Eagles is not invited; and if they show up, they will not be allowed to ask any questions according to one of the Eagles’ beat reporters from the Philadelphia Inquirer.

This is not a good “optic” notwithstanding the fact that the press in Philly can be dogged and aggressive in their questioning.  Here is the issue:

  • Whether or not this was reality, there were reports that part of the schism between Wentz and the Eagles’ coaching staff was his unwillingness to take “tough coaching”.
  • Staging his inaugural event in Indy as one where “tough questions” would be avoided simply by precluding anyone who might be predisposed to ask a tough question plays into the “doesn’t like tough coaching narrative”.
  • In defense of the Colts’ decision here, Carson Wentz’ departure from Philadelphia involved a rupture between the team and the player AND it also involved a rupture between the player and the local media.  Carson Wentz was benched at halftime of a loss to the Packers in the first week of December.  He refused to speak to anyone in the press in Philly since then.  It is not unreasonable on the part of the Colts’ communications mavens to anticipate the potential for a suboptimal circumstance there.

Finally, speaking of NFL QBs and staged press events where the world is viewed through rose colored glasses, consider this point made by Bob Molinaro in the Hampton Roads Virginian-Pilot:

Straight talk: Ron Rivera’s disclosure that he was afraid to play Alex Smith last season for fear the Washington Football Team quarterback would injure his surgically repaired leg again — ‘I struggled with that every day’ — is as honest and human a response as you’ll hear from an NFL coach.”

But don’t get me wrong, I love sports………

 

 

The 2021 Olympics in Japan Come July

The 2021 Olympic Games – – which were supposed to be the 2020 Olympic Games – – are slated to begin in about 4 months in Tokyo.  There remains some uncertainty about the Games, but the IOC has said that if they need to be postponed in 2021, the Games will be canceled, and all future IOC energy will be focused on the Games scheduled for 2024.  So, what is the current status?

The Japanese oversight organization for staging the Olympic Games had been headed by Yoshiro Mori who used to be the Prime Minister of Japan.  He found it necessary to resign from that post after making a sexist comment saying that he thought women talk too much in meetings.  Interestingly, he was replaced in that leadership role by a woman – – Seiko Hashimoto – – who had previously represented Japan in the Olympics as a speedskater.  Sports organizations internationally do not have large representations of women in leadership roles; Japan is not the only venue where males dominate the top spots.  There is some sentiment that if Ms. Hashimoto leads these games through to a smooth and safe end point, it will strike a blow for women who seek to advance along that career path.

In that sense, I sincerely hope that Ms. Hashimoto wins the day.  If she does, she will do so with more than the normal burden of organizing and control associated with a “normal” set of Olympic Games.  The COVID-19 pandemic will not be history by July 2021, but it will be better than it was last July and better than it is here in mid-March 2021.  Vaccine availability and vaccination rates get better by the week in developed countries and in the developing world.  The trend is in a positive direction; the unknown is what the status will be in July…

Some countries have placed a priority on getting their Olympic athletes vaccinated; if that were to happen nearly worldwide, that would make the Olympic Village and the events themselves safer by no small margin.  And that leads to a potential ethical question for the IOC and the Japanese hosts:

  • What to do with an athlete who is not vaccinated?

An even thornier question might be:

  • If Athlete A is not vaccinated because vaccine was unavailable in his country, should s/he be treated in the same way that Athlete B is treated if Athlete B was presented with the vaccine and refused to take it?

To my mind, any and all of the logistical and ethical questions involving the athletes pale in comparison to the questions about spectators for the Games.  On one hand, it is the presence of spectators – and the money they will bring with them and spend in Japan – that will reduce the economic burden created by the costs associated with hosting the Games.  If history is any guide, the Japanese taxpayer will not break even on this deal even if there were to be no travel or social restrictions come July.  However, with every restriction that is put on attendees, the amount of red ink will increase.

Obviously, I have no idea what sorts of regulations may be in place in Japan in July, but it would not shock me to learn that there could be limitations placed on capacities at hotels and restaurants and bars in addition to capacity limitations on the events themselves.  Might the immigration authorities demand that visitors from countries where the pandemic is “less controlled” show proof of vaccination?  Will every spectator need to submit to a COVID-19 test prior to entering the event venue?  This is not going to be walk in the park for the Game organizers.

Keeping a good thought here, let me assume that things break right, and thousands of athletes arrived in Japan ready and able to participate.  There will be the normal contingent of Olympic events including track and field, swimming, gymnastics, equestrian events …  In addition, there will be 5 “new” sports on display this time:

  1. Baseball/Softball:  These events return to the Olympics for the first time since 2008 when the Games were in Beijing.
  2. Karate:  Evidently, people have advocated for karate to be part of the Olympics for several decades; I did not know that.  Since the original Olympic Games were intended to demonstrate various skills associated with warfare and combat, karate seems like a good fit to me.
  3. Skateboarding:  Believe it or not, there are two variants of skateboarding.  One is referred to as “street skateboarding” where the course emulates a street with steps and handrails and curbs.  The other variant is “park skateboarding” where the course itself presents hills and slopes and complex obstacles.  [Aside: even with this new information, I shall not be spending any time watching even a moment of this competition.]
  4. Sport Climbing:  Athletes here will scale a vertical wall.  I guess this is like the hundred-meter dash staged at right angles to one another…
  5. Surfing:  I would watch Skateboarding before watching surfing.  ‘Nuff said…

Just for perspective here, there used to be an “Dueling pistols” event in the Olympics more than 100 years ago.  In one incarnation, contestants fired actual bullets at plaster dummies at distances of 20 meters and 30 meters.  In the other incarnation, contestants fired wax bullets at each other.

Finally, since  today has been about the 2021 Olympic Games, let me close with a comment by Scott Ostler of the SF Chronicle about the opening ceremonies at the 2012 Olympics in London:

“They should’ve had Keith Richards light the Olympic flame by flicking a cigarette butt.”

But don’t get me wrong, I love sports………

 

 

Rest In Peace Marvelous Marvin Hagler

Marvelous Marvin Hagler (that was he legal name) died last weekend at the age of 66.  He was the undisputed middleweight boxing champion from 1980 to 1987.  There have been great middleweight boxers over history and Marvin Hagler belongs in the pantheon of those great fighters.  In 1985, Marvin Hagler and Thomas Hearns met for Hagler’s championship; that fight has come to be knowns as “The War.”  The first round was a slugfest from bell to bell; Hagler suffered a severe cut in the second round as both fighters continued to punish each other.  In the third round, Hagler finally knocked Hearns down; the referee stopped the fight when Hearns collapsed into his arms as he wiped off the gloves.  It was the best boxing match that I remember seeing.

Rest in peace, Marvelous Marvin Hagler.

Last week, I mentioned in a rant that the NCAA Tournament Final Four had taken place in Madison Square Garden seven times the last being in 1950.  I received a detailed message from the reader in Houston over the weekend which allows me to “revise and amend my remarks.”  [Hey, if those gasbags in the US Senate can do it, so can I.]  The reader in Houston is the unchallenged champion of sports history in these parts, and here is the pertinent part of his email to me:

“Please note that from 1939 through 1950, there were only eight teams in the NCAA Tourney and to call it a “Final Four” for those years is almost ludicrous compared to the current terminology where a team has to win numerous rounds to get to the “Final Four”, making “Final Four” sound prestigious to say the least. (On a side note, I never heard of a reference to the “Final Four” or “March Madness” until the 1970s when the tourney went mainstream on the networks when Brent Musburger first used the terms on air. Before then, we always used the term “semi-finals” for what now is known as the “Final Four”.)

“Back in those days, the “Final Four”, as we refer to it today, was not held in the same city. There was an Eastern Regional consisting of four teams and a Western Regional of four teams with each regional in a different city. The Regional winners would then meet at the designated site for the championship game several days to a week later.

“Over the early years, Eastern Regionals were held in cities such as Philly (1939), Indy (1940), Madison, WI (1941), New Orleans (1942), and New York City (1943-1950) with the Western Regionals being held in San Francisco (1939) and Kansas City, MO (1940-1950).

“During the early years, the finals were held in Evanston, IL (1939), Kansas City (1940-1942), and New York City from 1943 through 1950, except for 1949 when the finals were held in Seattle, WA.

“In 1951, the tourney was expanded to 16 teams and the rest is history, as it increased over the years to the current number. Because of the college point-shaving scandal of 1950-51, Madison Square Garden was no longer used as the home of the championship game, although in subsequent years earlier rounds of the tourney were held at the Garden.

“So to say that the “Final Four” took place seven times in MSG is incorrect, though in 1946, 1947, 1948, and 1950, the runners-up at the two regionals did meet in a National Runner-Up game for third place prior to the championship game at the Garden.”

I enter a plea of “Guilty” to the charge of presenting a glib and insufficiently researched point last week, Your Honor.  Thanks to the reader in Houston for this clarification and expansion.

A high school football coach in Georgia may have erred to the point of blasphemy.  Rush Probst is the head football coach at Valdosta High School and a You Tube video that appears to be Probst, the person says that the University of Georgia pays recruits to come to Georgia and pays certain star players to remain at the school.  Valdosta Georgia is in the heart of “SEC Territory” where college football is taken as seriously as anywhere else in the country.  Georgia’s fans are as rabid and as committed as any in the SEC; they will rise to the defense of their school if an outside accuser makes such a charge – – but to have one come from a school in the State of Georgia is not something to be expected.

Allegedly, Coach Probst said that Georgia coach, Kirby Smart< is aware that Georgia boosters pay “up to $150K” for players and very specifically that Nick Chubb received three payments of $60K to sign on with Georgia and then to stay at the school as opposed to declaring for the NFL Draft.  Obviously, Georgia is investigating the situation because if they do not investigate, the NCAA will.

Let me be clear about several points here:

  • I have no idea if Coach Probst is the person speaking on that You Tube video.
  • I have no insight into how recruiting is done at Georgia or any other college football program.
  • IF what Coach Probst says on that video is true and can be shown to be true, it will represent a tectonic shift for college football’s image of amateurism.
  • Coach Probst names a person as the “handler” – the intermediary – between Georgia coach  Kirby Smart and the player.  It will be interesting to see/hear from that person on this matter.

One thing I am rather certain about regarding this situation is that Coach Probst is not planning to apply for an assistant coaching position at an SEC school any time soon…

Finally, the remarks allegedly made by Coach Probst reminded me of a statement by the Greek Philosopher, Plato:

“Wise men speak because they have something to say. Fools because they have to say something.”

But don’t get me wrong, I love sports………

 

 

Random Ruminations Today …

I read recently that ESPN had offered Skip Bayless a 4-year contract at $8M per year to return to ESPN when his contract with FOX Sports runs out in July – – and that Bayless turned that down and will stay with FOX.  Supposedly, ESPN’s plan was to reunite Bayless with Stephen A. Smith on the First Take concocted-debate program.  Ever since Bayless left ESPN for FOX in 2016, Stephen A. Smith and Max Kellerman have been the faux antagonists on First Take.

In staying with FOX, Bayless will continue to argue with Shannon Sharpe every weekday morning on a show that is strangely named Undisputed given that the two hosts argue about everything.  Sharpe’s contract with FOX also expires in July but there has been no announcement regarding his status.

However, there is a report that Skip Bayless may expand his presence on FS-1 beyond the mid-morning Undisputed wrangling.  Supposedly, Bayless would be cast in the role of a “debate judge”.  He would listen to the argumentation presented by other sports yakkers on FS-1 and declare a winner in the concocted debate.  If such a program were to come into existence, FS-1 would be inundated with debate format programming; there could not possibly be enough controversial sports topics worthy of discussion to fill four to six hours per day five days a week.  The lineup would include:

  • Undisputed with Skip Bayless and Shannon Sharpe for 3 hours in the morning.
  • Speak For Yourself with Marcellus Wiley and Emmanuel Acho for 2 hours in the late afternoon.
  • Whatever They Call This New Skip Bayless as a Debate Judge Show for some period of time 5 days a week.
  • The only place to find enough controversy to fill that amount of time with blather that is only sometimes relevant would be in the two houses of the US Congress…

[Aside:  I mentioned Emmanuel Acho above.  He delivers his arguments with the force and verve of an evangelical preacher even if the content of his remarks is no more controversial than a weather report.  Sometimes I begin to laugh when he is “making his points” because of his delivery and I miss out on the content.]

The ACC basketball tournament has been contaminated by the coronavirus twice in the past couple of days.  Duke had to withdraw from the tournament earlier this week when there was a positive COVID-19 test within the Duke basketball program; early this morning, UVA had to withdraw from the tournament and forfeit its semi-final game to Georgia Tech because there was a positive test for a player on the UVA team.

Duke is an unlikely at-large entry into this year’s March Madness.  If they do get an invitation, it will be a basketball equivalent of a “Lifetime Achievement Award”; this year’s Duke squad is not nearly as powerful as the ones that fans have come to expect for most of the Mike Krzyzewski Era in Durham.  Virginia is another story…

Virginia is going to get an at-large invitation and should wind up with a solid seeding in the national tournament.  However, reports say that the positive COVID-19 test in the UVA case was a player who participated in the Cavaliers’ last game on Thursday against Syracuse, so the team could be down an important player for the NCAA tournament games.  The NCAA protocol for COVID-19 and the teams arriving in Indianapolis for the games requires all players, coaches and staff traveling with the team to have seven consecutive negative COVID-19 tests before they arrive in Indianapolis.  Tournament games begin next Friday, and UVA has at least 1 player who may not be able to meet that criterion to go with the team to Indianapolis for the first-round games.

For the record, Virginia is the reigning NCAA Men’s Basketball Champion going back to 2019 given the fact that the coronavirus shut down the 2020 tournament completely.  That gap in crowning a champion is the first one since the NCAA basketball tournament came into existence in 1939.  The tournament began with 8 teams and stayed at that number from 1939 until 1950.  The field went through continuous expansion and reached 64 teams in 1985 and has been set at 68 teams ever since 2011.  Here are a couple of “fun facts” about the basketball tournament:

  • UNC has had a #1 seed more often than any other school.
  • Play-in games began way back in 1984 when there were 52 teams in the tournament and the top 16 teams were given Byes.  That left 36 remining teams requiring 4 play-in games to cut that “remaining field” to 32 teams.  The 32 teams would then cut to 16 teams and meet the teams on a Bye.
  • The lowest seeded team to win the National Championship was Villanova in 1985.  That is the year the Wildcats beat Georgetown with Patrick Ewing in a major upset; Villanova had been an 8-seed in that tournament; Georgetown was a 1-seed.  Georgetown was a 9-point favorite in that game and lost by 2 points.
  • Only once has the Final Four been made up of all the #1 seeded teams – since the expansion to 64 teams in the field.  That was in 2008 and the schools were Kansas, Memphis, UCLA and UNC.
  • The Final Four has taken place 7 times in Madison Square Garden in NYC but the last time it was there was in 1950.
  • Naturally, here in Curmudgeon Central we look for frustration factors whenever possible.  There are schools that have never participated in the NCAA tournament but for teams that have been there, Dartmouth has the longest stretch between appearances.  Dartmouth was in the tournament in 1959; they have not been there since then; they will not be there again this year because the Ivy League canceled its entire basketball season.

Finally, with the basketball tournament virtually upon us, consider this observation by Dwight Perry in the Seattle Times:

“Think there might be a future Baskin & Robbins endorsement for Oklahoma State basketballer Ferron Flavors Jr.?

“Looks like he’s banking on it: Flavors wears jersey No. 31.”

But don’t get me wrong, I love sports………

 

 

Added Football Upheaval At Kansas

Two days ago, I wrote about the firing of Les Miles as the head football coach at Kansas after an investigation at LSU – the last school where he was the head football coach – found some disgusting behaviors on his part.  I said at the time that Miles deserved to be fired for what he has allegedly done even though it was long ago and at a different school AND THAT Kansas fans and alums ought not to expect much in the next selection of a coach because it is the same folks doing the searching/interviewing/hiring.

Well, now maybe the fans/alums at Kansas have a glimmer of hope.  The school announced yesterday that the AD who hired Les Miles and who missed the boat twice – – he missed the disgusting behaviors and he missed by hiring a new coach who went 3-18 in his two years on the job  – – has also been fired.  I have no idea if there is anything “untoward” in his time at Kansas that would merit the firing of Jeff Long from the AD job, but I do know that his record of seeking and hiring college football coaches is less than laudatory.

  1. He hired Bobby Petrino.  Good coach; not so good husband; not nearly so good at lying to cover up his improper behaviors.
  2. He hired Bret Bielema.  Decent coach; not so good working with administration and alums; now involved in a civil lawsuit with the school that Long represented when he hired Bielema.
  3. He hired Les Miles.  Had a good coaching run at LSU and a miserable time at Kansas; his off-field behaviors at LSU were disgusting at best.

As is customary today, truth seems never to be front and center when people make statements in the midst of these sorts of events.  Here is what some of the Kansas Chancellor had to say about the newly fired AD, Jeff Long:

“I want to wholeheartedly thank Jeff for his service to KU. When we hired Jeff, he was charged with modernizing our athletics department and ensuring our coaches and student-athletes continue to have the resources they need to succeed. This was no easy task, and he far exceeded our expectations.

“Jeff guided Kansas Athletics to progress in student-athlete healthcare, diversity and inclusion, and student-athlete academic achievement, all while managing significant challenges not of his own making.  Most important, Jeff was unwaveringly dedicated to students, coaches and staff, and he represented KU with integrity and compassion. For that, we thank him, and we wish him the very best.”

If all that were absolutely true, Jeff Long would still have a job at Kansas.  It is as simple as that…

Moving on …  Pro Football Talk.com reported that the CFL and the XFL may find ways to “collaborate” in the future.  Both leagues are in “less than robust condition”.  The XFL exists only because it was purchased at a bankruptcy sale by a consortium led by Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson; the CFL lost its 2020 season to COVID-19 and hopes to start its training camps in May 2021 – – but there are still public health issues that could make that impossible.  The XFL holds no such aspirations for 2021; the XFL will not have a 2021 season and has characterized its 2022 season as “on hold” as of now.  Both the CFL and the XFL face existential crises now; presumably, some of the folks who make strategic decisions for these leagues believe that come sort of “collaboration” can benefit both entities.

Here is part of an upbeat statement on this subject by Randy Ambrosie, Commissioner of the CFL:

“Canada has an exciting game and devoted fans, and our discussion with the XFL provides a tremendous opportunity to build on that strong foundation.  We look forward to exploring how we might work with one of the most innovative sports brands in the world to grow the game, engage fans in new ways, and reach new audiences. We look forward to seeing what possibilities our discussions might uncover, and to sharing those with our fans as the process unfolds.”

I like to watch the CFL version of pro football.  The CFL game is quite different from the NFL game in terms of pacing and game strategy while the essential elements of the CFL and NFL games remain the same.  The XFL has sought to carve out a niche of its own in terms of the product on the field seeking not to be simply “NFL- Lite”.  Perhaps, there can be ways for the two leagues to “collaborate”.

However, I must signal a cautionary note here:

  • In the mid-90s, the CFL tried to expand into the “Lower 48” of the US.
  • That foray lasted all of 2 seasons.
  • Let me just say that throngs of fans here in the US do not turn out to mourn the day that their CFL team dried up and blew away.
  • [Aside – and for the record:  I journeyed to Baltimore to see the Baltimore Stallions play during their brief existence.  I enjoyed the game; Ienjoyed the CFL in the US.  I do not mourn the demise of the Baltimore Stallions.]

I have no idea what it might mean for the two financially troubled leagues to “collaborate”.  History tells me one mode of their “collaboration” is not likely to work for very long.  On the plus side of this potential “collaboration”, Dwayne Johnson was once part of the CFL; he was a defensive end for the Calgary Stampeders for a short time before the CFL tried its “Southern Expansion”.  It will be interesting to see how this story continues and grows – – assuming that it does either of those two things.

Finally, consider this item from Dwight Perry of the Seattle Times.  This represents a way for the XFL and the CFL to avoid as they seek to emulate the success of the NFL.

“NFL teams are required to provide three-dozen sliced oranges for visiting teams, The Athletic reported.

“Players’ parents, however, are not allowed to accost coaches over their kids’ playing time.”

But don’t get me wrong, I love sports………