The Sports Curmudgeon

Earlier this week, the Washington Post reported on the findings of an independent review of the way the NCAA deals with men’s basketball as compared to women’s basketball.  The report recommends “a combined Final Four tournament for men and women”.  You should read the Post article here.

Let me be clear; there is no way to pretend that the NCAA values women’s basketball to the same degree that it values men’s basketball and the ambience enveloping the two tournaments is very different.  Anyone who would try to argue that there is equality or even equivalency in the NCAA’s support and promotion of the two tournaments would be judged to have the mental acumen of a Kleenex.  There is a natural tendency to seek to bring the two events more in line with each other.

Having said that, I doubt that having a co-ed Final Four is going to help all that much.  The way the NCAA handles the men’s tournament calls for a football stadium venue that seats 60,000 or more fans.  [Aside:  I do not like games in such facilities; I greatly prefer to see basketball played in more compact arenas.  Nonetheless, that is how the NCAA stages the men’s Final Four.]  The tickets for the men’s Final Four are hard to come by; there is a scalper’s market for those tickets.

The women’s tournament – less highly publicized and promoted to be sure – often does not fill a basketball arena and I seriously doubt that the women’s Final Four could possibly fill a football stadium even if the NCAA handed out tickets with $20-bills stapled to them.  So, think for a moment about the logistics of a co-ed Final Four.

• Option 1:  Play the women’s games on Friday/Sunday and the men’s games on Saturday/Monday.  Put all the games on TV in prime time.  That is logistically simple; all it requires is for the NCAA to pick a city with a domed football stadium and book the venue for a slightly longer period than it does now.  Here is a problem though…  If anyone wanted to demonstrate the difference in the popularity of men’s college basketball and women’s college basketball, these four nights of television would be Exhibit One.  Friday and Sunday would see the crowd rattling around in the stadium like the proverbial bee-bee in a box car; Saturday and Monday would see a packed house.
• Option 2:  Play one men’s semi-final game and one women’s semi-final game on Friday and the other semi-final games on Saturday as TV double-headers.  Leave Sunday dark on TV and play both the women’s and men’s final games on Monday night.  While there will still be obvious disparities in crowd size and in TV ratings, this option would offer the chance to expose the women’s game to an audience that is receptive to seeing basketball games either in person or on TV.

Putting together a co-ed Final Four would not hurt anything; the venues for the next few tournaments are already set contractually so there might be some difficulty in making this happen immediately, but this is an idea that can be made to happen.  I think, however, that a co-ed Final Four will not address what I believe is the fundamental reason why men’s college basketball is the more popular sport:

• There are only a few very good women’s teams and they do not play one another very often until tournament time meaning that there are too many regular season women’s games that are either blow-outs or games involving “teams that just don’t matter”.

It simply is not entertaining to watch a basketball game where the final score is 90 – 49 and there are far too many such games on women’s college basketball schedules.  Yes, there are non-competitive men’s games too that are nothing but glorified scrimmages for the better team, but there are not as many.  Attendance at a game or tuning in to watch one on TV is generally an act that seeks entertainment; there are too many women’s college basketball games that are not even interesting let alone entertaining to get my primary attention when seeking a period of sports entertainment.

The resolution of the issues in the paragraph above is the key element needed to raise the level of interest in women’s college basketball to a point where a co-ed Final Four would not starkly display the disparate levels of interest in the two sports.  While I am not in the habit of defending the NCAA on any issue, I do not see how the NCAA is going to be able to increase the entertainment value of so many women’s games that lead up to any sort of co-ed Final Four.

The current trend in college football – – the BIG revenue generator for collegiate athletic departments – – is that the rich are getting richer.  If that momentum carries over to women’s college basketball, I doubt that any sort of “urgent action” on the part of the NCAA will be effective.  Getting the generic sports fan out there in Peoria to pay the same amount of attention to women’s college basketball as he/she does to men’s college basketball more likely requires the use of a magic wand and not just a more focused marketing effort and a co-ed Final Four.

Finally, since today’s rant has considered the creation of a co-ed Final Four, let me close with this comment about co-eds by satirist Dorothy Parker:

“If all these sweet  young things were laid end to end, I wouldn’t be the slightest bit surprised.”

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

 

 

If you are old enough to remember Al Capp’s comic strip, L’il Abner, you probably recall one of the recurring characters named Joe Btfsplk.  Joe was the “world’s worst jinx”; wherever he went, there was a dark raincloud over his head and unimaginable tragedy befell anyone and everyone anywhere near him.  Joe himself was so jinxed that he did not have any vowels in his family name.

I mention that character here because Carson Wentz seems to have been hanging out with Joe Btfsplk a bit too much.  Consider:

• In 2017 – his second year in the league –  he was playing so well that some were mentioning him as an MVP candidate.  Then in Game 13 he blew out his knee and had to watch from the sidelines as the Eagles won the Super Bowl.  Before the injury, fans in Philly were suggesting that Pennsylvania needed to be renamed as Wentzlvania.
• In 2019 with an injury-depleted set of pass catchers, he and Zach Ertz basically willed the Eagles to a winning record and a brief appearance in the playoffs.
• In 2020, his game fell apart; he was benched; he and his head coach had a falling out and he was traded to the Colts – to be reunited with his former offensive coordinator.
• In the first day of training camp this year, Wentz was rolling out on a non-contact practice play and injured his foot.  The injury requires surgery and Wentz will be on the shelf for 5-12 weeks.  [Aside:  That seems to me to be an awfully large time range for his recovery; I hope that does not mean folks are not quite sure what the injury is or what the extent of the injury is.]

Coincident to the misfortune that has come Wentz’ way over the past 4-5 years, the Colts now find themselves in an interesting situation.  At the time of the injury, here were the other QBs on the Colts’ roster:

• Jacob Eason:  He was a 4^th round pick in 2020 but did not take a snap in a game last year.  If he were a horse entering his first race, a handicapper might note that he has good breeding; his father is Tony Eason who was a starting QB for both the Pats and the Jets.
• Sam Ehlinger: He is a rookie out of Texas.  He played well some weeks and marginally well on other weeks in college.
• Jalen Morton:  He is a rookie out of Prairie View A&M.  I have now told you everything I know about Jalen Morton.

I thought that the great irony would be for the Colts to go out and trade with the Bears to acquire Nick Foles.  Recall that it was Foles who subbed in for Wentz in 2017 and led the Eagles to that Super Bowl win.  And it is not as if Foles is “unavailable”; he is #3 on the depth chart for the Bears behind Andy Dalton and rookie Justin Fields.

The Colts went in a different direction – at least for the moment.  They signed free agent Brett Hundley whose career with the Green Bay Packers was to fill in for Aaron Rodgers in 2017 and to go 3-6 as a starter.  And Philip Rivers has recently said that he might – just maybe – consider un-retiring and coming back to the NFL; and he was the Colts’ starting QB for all of 2020.

The Colts were co-favorites to win the AFC South according to Las Vegas oddsmakers along with the Titans.  The win total for the Colts was 10.5.  If Wentz is “ready to go” in 5 weeks, that means he would likely miss one game and the Colts could still be on track – theoretically – for a productive year in 2021.  Of course, if Joe Btfsplk pays another visit, consider the season flushed down the toilet.

Moving on …  Yesterday in the NY Post, there was a column with this headline:

• What to consider when betting on NFL preseason games

The column was by Matt Youmans who was formerly with the Las Vegas Review-Journal and now is with VSiN.  He has a long history of writing about the nexus of sports and gambling and about picking winners.  Personally, I have zero interest in betting on NFL Preseason Games – or Spring Training Games or NBA Summer League Games or … you get the idea.  However, I think the Post headline writer might have done better by this particular column because my immediate thought when I saw the headline was:

• Don’t do it!

Switching gears …  Here is a stat that I ran across that is interesting.  After the All-Star Game, the Atlanta Braves went 9-9 in their next 18 games; that is not particularly interesting as a whole but how they did that is interesting.  The Braves had 9 one-game winning streaks and 9 one-game losing streaks to compile that record.  Someone with lots of time on his/her hands discovered that is the MLB record for alternating wins and losses.  Someone in the Braves’ marketing department should try to get a sponsorship deal with a company that makes yo-yos…

Finally, #1 son is living and working in Ireland and so, I will close today with two observations about Ireland:

“I showed my appreciation for my native land in the usual Irish way by getting out of it as soon as I possibly could.”  George Bernard Shaw

And …

“ The Irish are a fair people – they never speak well of one another.”  Samuel Johnson

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

 

 

A little more than a month ago, the Tennessee Titans traded for Julio Jones.  The price the Titans paid for a top shelf WR seemed awfully meager at the time even considering that Jones is 32 years old which for most WRs means that he is likely on the downside of his career.  To refresh your memory, here are the details of that trade:

• Titans get Julio Jones plus a 2023 6^th round pick
• Falcons get a 2022 2^nd round pick plus a 2023 4^th round pick.

Jones only played in 9 games last season, but his career numbers are eye-opening.  He has been in the NFL for 10 seasons and has been selected for the Pro bowl 7 times and has been a first team All-Pro twice.  Jones has led the NFL in receiving yards twice and has led the league in yards per touch three times.  The more I looked at the stats, the more I thought the Titans got a great deal here – – absent the injury bug of course.

Then last week, a story broke that might cast a pall over the trade.  Julio Jones and former NFL WR, Roddy White, are partners in a non-football business venture and the two of them are being sued by a company called Genetixs LLC.  The fact of the lawsuit is not of imminent concern; it is the allegation made by the plaintiff that caused me to react:

• The folks who run Genetixs LLC accuse Jones and White of diverting “cannabis products from an otherwise legal cultivation and distribution operation in order to make black-market sales.”
• The suit goes on to assert that Jones and White – – and presumably others – – have sold about $12M worth of “black market cannabis” since March 2021 and have been involved in money-laundering practices to cover the tracks of that revenue stream.

I think  you will agree; that is not your garden-variety civil lawsuit.  I think you will also agree that it is not surprising that legal council for Jones and White says that the claims made in the lawsuit are without merit.  Given the pace of lawsuits through the courts, I would say that there is about zero probability that this case might be heard anytime during this year’s NFL season – – and maybe not even next year’s NFL season.  As far as I can tell, we have not yet even had the pro forma motion by counsel for Jones and White to dismiss the case  without even a hearing because it is baseless and frivolous.

What does present a potential problem is the illegal nature of the actions alleged to have been undertaken by Jones and White.

• Marijuana laws – and cannabis laws – have changed dramatically in the last several years.  But I do not recall reading that  “black market sales” and “money laundering” have been made legally acceptable in any jurisdictions.
• That nexus could bring the NFL’s Personal Conduct Policy into play here.  For better or worse, the NFL has more than a little precedent for handing down punishments to players in matters where no criminal charges were ever filed let alone situations where players were convicted of wrongdoing.

As I said, I have no expectation that this case or any police investigation into matters alleged by the plaintiffs in this case will materialize during this NFL season.  However, Jones’ current contract has him being paid $38.3M through the end of the 2023 season.  This is obviously not something the Titans anticipated as they negotiated the trade to acquire Julio Jones.

Moving on … In yesterday’s Washington Post, Kevin Blackistone wrote a column urging the NFL – and all sports leagues including the NCAA – to lead by example and require COVID vaccinations for all players and fans and – – you get the idea.  You can read this wide-ranging column here.

I have no problem with the thrust of Blackistone’s piece; this is not an example of some sort of corporate conspiracy to take over the hearts and minds of everyday Americans.  Taking his encouragement to some sort of end point, what it would do would be to create a situation whereby adults – – players and coaches and referees – – could make a choice about whether they want to be part of the NFL or not.  The NFL is not an entity that would be covered by some sort of Constitutional guarantee; employment by the NFL is not a God-given right nor was it allegorically mentioned in the US Constitution back in 1789.

The second step in reaching a logical endpoint from the column would be that fans would then get to choose whether they want to take in an NFL game in person or not.  Admission to an NFL game is a privilege that one purchases; it is not something guaranteed to every person in the country.

There are two significant barriers to consider regarding why the NFL might not want to be at the sharp end of this “movement”:

1. There might be an attrition of some players from the league but that is probably a minimal problem since there are plenty of people who will gladly step in and take the NFL’s minimum salary for rookies who never played a down in the NFL – – $660K for 17 games.  A much bigger hesitancy comes from the potential for an immediate loss of revenue from fans who would stay away and the unknown factor of how those fans might be willing to “return to the fold” once COVID is but a dark memory.  NFL owners do not like to mess around with their revenue streams.
2. The second barrier is one that I wish Blackistone had acknowledged and analyzed.  That barrier is the NFLPA.  Somehow, I doubt that the union would just sit back and nod their heads in agreement as about 100 of its dues paying members were kicked to the curb as a consequence of choosing not to be vaccinated.  Even if the Commish and the owners thought they would win in the end, does it make sense for them to stir up a controversy with the union – and with fans who might side with the players on this issue – when they do not have to?

Finally, since much of my tone today was pessimistic, let me close with this observation by the French scientist, Jean Rostand:

“My pessimism extends to the point of even suspecting the sincerity of other pessimists.”

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

 

 

As the calendar turns from July to August, let me once again revisit the website that tracks all the MLB players who have been on the Injured List in 2021 and compiles data of the time served, and the guaranteed money earned while “on the shelf” by those players.

As of August 1, 2021, here are the data:

• 653 different players have appeared on the IL between April 1 and August 1.  Some players have been on the IL more than once, but this is the total number of players who have been out of action – – yet being paid – – during the 2010 season.
• 381 of those players on the IL this season are pitchers.
• Those players on the IL have spent a cumulative 29,319 days hors de combat.
• While on the IL, the total amount of money paid to players who could not play for all of MLB was $532,676,768.

The combination of guaranteed contracts and injuries have caused an outflow of money from owners to players of more than half a billion dollars so far this year.  When the negotiations for the next CBA between MLB and the MLBPA bog down and there are thinly veiled advocacy pieces published depicting the plight of the players, remember these numbers.

The next topic for today is either a tempest in a teapot or a huge bleeping deal.  Let me set the stage.  Evander Kane is a forward for the NHL San Jose Sharks.  Kane and his wife, Anna Kane, are obviously having a rough patch in their relationship because – – according to reporting in the Washington Post – – Anna Kane wrote on social media:

“How does the NHL let a compulsive gambling addict still play when he’s obviously throwing games to win money?  Hmmm, maybe someone needs to address this.”

That posting is a serious indictment, but it needs to be put in context because – as I said- it appears as if Evander Kane and Anna Kane are not in a harmonious state at the moment.  In addition to that bombshell message, Anna Kane has also alleged that she was forced to sell her wedding ring so that her husband could “afford his partying habits” and that her husband abandoned her while she was pregnant with their child.  Even without ever being in the same room with either party here, I feel confident in concluding that everything is not lovey-dovey in the Kane household these days.

There is – evidently – some sort of basis for a piece of Ms. Kane’s  charge here.  According to reports, Kane was in hock to a Las Vegas casino to the tune of almost $500K and the casino sued him to collect on that debt.  One would assume that Evander Kane should be able to pay off the casino and to provide more than adequate financial coverage for his family because he just finished the third year of a seven-year contract that will pay him an average of $7M per year with the Sharks.

Forget for a moment if you think these allegations have any of a variety of ulterior motives; the NHL – and the NHLPA – must take these allegations seriously or at least make it appear that they are taking them seriously.  If in fact – – I said “IF” – – the NHL has a player who is betting against his own team and then playing in a manner to make them lose games he has bet on, the league and the union need to figure all of that out and make it go away.  Unless they do that, the NHL runs the risk of becoming viewed through the same lens as pro ‘rassling.  While pro ’rassling – and pro ‘rasslers – are highly regarded by a segment of the sports and entertainment audience, the entire vibe of NHL hockey and the vibe of pro ‘rassling are completely unharmonious.

So far, the NHL has played this story down the middle with the following statement:

“The integrity of our game is paramount and the League takes these allegations very seriously.  We intend to conduct a full investigation and will have no further comment at this time.”

If there has been any statement or reaction from the NHLPA, I have not found it; but if I might offer a suggestion to the mavens there, this would be a good time to do some virtue signaling and say that the integrity of the games – – a key foundation piece in the how and why your members collect multi-million dollar salaries in the first place – – is as important to you as it is to the league itself.  To borrow one of the buzzwords of the day, it would be a “bad optic” for the union to say nothing here  and then to fight the league about the outcome of any investigation IF in fact an investigation were to turn up incriminating evidence.

And speaking of things that a pro league needs to “look into”, consider the reporting from the LA Times saying that LeBron James, Anthony Davis and Russell Westbrook met with one another several weeks before the trade between the Wizards and the Lakers sent Westbrook to LA.  The LA Times is a more than reputable news outlet; the paper may make a mistake in its reporting occasionally, but most of that they put in the paper is factually accurate.  So, on the assumption that this report is accurate:

• How can such a meeting/discussion/chat between those 3 players be construed as anything other than tampering?
• Russell Westbrook was under contract to play for the Washington Wizards at the time of the alleged “meeting of the minds”.  If that  “conversation” had been with the Lakers’ coaching staff or the Lakers’ owner(s), it would be tampering so why do two players get a pass here?

Finally, apropos of nothing and because I have served on 3 juries in my lifetime, let me close with this observation by H. L. Mencken:

“The penalty for laughing in a courtroom is six months in jail; if it were not for this penalty, the jury would never hear the evidence.”

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

 

 

In the last NBA offseason, the Washington Wizards made news with a blockbuster trade.  John Wall went to the Houston Rockets in exchange for Russell Westbrook.  The repercussions of that swap were pretty feeble; Wall was injured yet again, and the Rockets finished with the worst record in the league at 17-55; Westbrook played just well enough to get the Wizards to the play-in round of the playoffs before being unceremoniously escorted to the sidelines in the first round.  That is exactly the worst place to be in the NBA:

• Not nearly good enough to have any meaningful shot at “making a playoff run” with a regular season record of 34-38 – – and – –
• Not nearly bad enough to have a realistic chance to get a “Top 3” pick in the Draft.

I do not like the Wizards/Lakers trade from the standpoint of the Wizards.  They traded a “star player” and got back three “players”.  Supposedly, the trade gives them “financial flexibility” to sign another “star player”; but if I were a “star player” looking for a place to land, the current Wizards’ roster is not exerting any sort of gravitational pull on my body to get me to sign on there.  Another aspect of the trade that leaves me cold from a Wizards’ perspective is that the Wizards are a bad – not mediocre, bad – defensive team.  Let me be polite and say simply that none of the guys they got from the Lakers is a threat to get votes for the NBA All-Defensive Team at any time down the road.

For me, the most interesting aspect of this trade is the effect that Russell Westbrook is going to have on the Lakers – – and I do not mean his obvious on-court talent.  Russell Westbrook’s history is that he shows up to play every night.  Last year, he missed 7 games; the year before that, he missed 3 games.  Last year, Anthony Davis missed 36 games.  In addition, Russell Westbrook does not merely show up for a game; when he plays, he plays at full speed for the entirety of his time on the court.  And if history is to be a judge, he will play about 36 minutes per game for the Lakers at full speed.  I will find it interesting to watch the Lakers to see if Davis and/or LeBron James will be able to keep up with Russell Westbrook…

I was a bit surprised to see that the Sixers did not trade Ben Simmons as part of the NBA Draft process where teams are focused on re-engineering their rosters.   Simmons is a special talent in an overall basketball sense; but he has never been a good shooter and despite the protestations of the Sixers’ PR staff, I doubt that he has ever worked hard to develop a shooting stroke.  His offensive disappearance in the playoffs this year have been well displayed and I think he cannot be part of the Sixers going forward.  Fans in Philly are not kind and gentle; this is not Washington where if an athlete puts on the jersey of a local team, he/she is just wonderful.  Fans in Philly are going to eat him for lunch if he is back next year; the Sixers need to move him, and I think the rest of the league knows that very well.

The other major local “trade news” is that the Washington Nationals cleared out the established players on their roster and set about a total rebuild.  Gone in a whirlwind of activity are:

• Max Scherzer
• Trea Turner
• Kyle Schwarber
• Brad Hand

In addition, reports say that Daniel Hudson, Josh Harrison and Yan Gomes could be moved prior to the trade deadline later today.  What did the Nationals get in return?  Well, if you are a minor league baseball maven or junkie, some of the names here might mean something to you, but I believe that Riley Adams coming to town from the Blue Jays in the Brad Hand deal is the only player coming with real –  albeit meager – MLB credentials.  Adams is 25 years old and has appeared in 12 games for the Jays this year.  He is 3-for-28 at the plate with an OPS of .345.

There is one other MLB trade rumor that bears watching.  Various reports say that the Colorado Rockies are in negotiations with the Blue Jays, the Mets and the Rays regarding shortstop, Trevor Story.  Story is 28 years old and has been an All-Star twice in his career.  Last year, the Rockies had Story and Nolan Arenado as anchors on the left side of the infield; Arenado was traded over the winter to the Cardinals and now, maybe, Story will be gone too.

About 50 years ago, the A’s owner, Charlie Finley, tried to trade off/sell off all his star players because he realized he would not be willing to pay them what they were going to command in free agency.  The Commissioner at the time was Bowie Kuhn; let me be polite and say that Kuhn was hardly a force majeure in the history of baseball.  Nonetheless, Kuhn stood up on his hind legs and negated all this nonsense saying that he was acting “in the best interest of baseball” which he correctly identified as the premiere objective on his job description.

The Nats sold off assets that brought a World Series victory and several years of serious contention to Washington.  They are trying to rebuild.  The Rockies appear to be selling off players who simply would cost too much to retain in Colorado – – but I will be gobsmacked if I found out that Rob Manfred was even aware of the optic presented here.

And … Terry Francona is “stepping away from managerial duties” with the Cleveland Indians for the rest of the season.  Francona has had health-related issues over the past year or so and this move is to allow him to focus on health issues.  Last year, Francona missed a good part of the season with blood clots that had him in the ICU for a period of time.  Asked about the possibility of his coming back in 2022, Francona refreshingly and intelligently responded:

“I’ve got to get healthy, or I can’t do this job. So, one step at a time.”

Finally, let me close today with an observation by H. L. Mencken:

“It is impossible to imagine the universe run by a wise, just and omnipotent God, but it is quite easy to imagine it run by a board of gods.  If such a board actually exists it operates precisely like the board of a corporation that is losing money.”

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

 

 

The NBA Draft happens tonight.  There has been a lot of opining that this year’s draft is deep in talent; I admit that I saw less college basketball than usual in the previous season, but I did watch more games than the average bear.  [Hat Tip to Hannah-Barbera and Yogi Bear.]  What I saw were good players but few if any outstanding players.

Cade Cunningham is expected to be the first guy off the board going to Detroit.  I have read pieces that compare him to James Harden as a scorer.  I did not see anything close to that assessment.  I am not suggesting that Cunningham will be a bust at the top of the draft á la LaRue Martin or Anthony Bennett; I think Cunningham will be a productive player in the NBA for quite a while, but to compare him to James Harden seems like a huge stretch to me.

Another player who draws comparisons that astound me is Evan Mobley.  Yes, he was the best big man I saw in college basketball last  year and I think he too will have a productive NBA career – – but someone said he might be the next Anthony Davis.  Wow…

I believe the reason the NBA Draft does not generate the same level of fan involvement as does the NFL Draft is the lack of familiarity with many of the players who will be taken tonight.  There are 3 players who are mentioned as first round picks who did not play college basketball last year but spent their “year-after-high-school” in the NBA’s G-League and – – as has been the case for the last decade or so – – there are players from other countries (Australia, Lithuania, Serbia, Spain and Turkey this year) who are mentioned as players to be selected tonight.  I watch a lot of college basketball and I have never seen any of these guys play; that distinguishes the NBA Draft from the NFL Draft where virtually every player taken has played college football and is familiar to some segment of the Draft audience.

In any event, the NBA Draft should be entertaining tonight if only for the fact that it puts on display for NBA fans the substance of a line from a poem by Alexander Pope:

“Hope springs eternal in the human breast…”

The proposed movement of Texas and Oklahoma from the Big-12 to the SEC is generating lots more news than merely the realignment of college football conferences.  Let me just hit some of the highlights:

• Oklahoma State officials criticized Oklahoma for a “lack of transparency” in plotting to leave the Big-12 and applying for membership in the SEC.  [Puhleeez…]
• Texas A&M officials have been less-than-happy about the Texas move since the Aggies have been the sole focus of SEC football in the State of Texas for the last decade.  Of course, the reason that has been the case is that Texas A&M switched conferences from the Big 12 to the SEC back in 2012 – – but let us not bring that up now.
• The Big-12 Commissioner’s lawyers sent a cease-and-desist letter to ESPN saying that ESPN had lured the two schools away from the Big-12 thereby doing harm to the conference and the other schools in the Conference.  I assume the ESPN lawyers are drafting a response that is the legal and more genteel version of, “WTF are you smoking?”

There has been a ton of publicity about college athletes now being able to profit off their name, image and likeness; sponsorship deals with athletes are coming out of the woodwork everywhere.  While that is a sea change for college athletes, I think the changes that are in progress for college conference alignments is much more important and much more “game-changing”.  I am not going to pretend to know how all the movement will shake out but from my vantage point, I think the vector heading is this:

• There will be 4 “major conferences” with 16 teams in each of those conferences.
• Football will drive the alliances and the affinity; basketball and the other sports may follow along or may create single-sport alliances.  The big money comes from college football, and it will be the big money that calls the tune.
• The football-driven realignments will be virtually independent from the NCAA.  Whatever oversight the “major conferences” set up for themselves will take care of college football; the NCAA can continue to put on March Madness and presumably can continue to be the “adult in the room” when it comes to college basketball.  But the status of the NCAA will diminish.

Even in a sea of entropy, there can be islands of order and stability.  [Aside:  A thermodynamicist will tell  you that the end of time will be the entropy death of the universe where all energy has been degraded to heat energy and the temperature of the universe approaches absolute zero.]  For college athletics, the islands of stability for the next decade or so will be in Division 1-AA and Divisions II and III.  I will go out on a limb here and predict that you will not see any action by the Patriot League to poach a team or two from the Ivy League – – or vice-versa.

I have advocated for years that schools and their athletic departments should be divorced from each other.  Particularly in football and basketball, it would make sense for the model to be a “minor league/feeder league” for the professional leagues where revenues and cooperative agreements with the pro leagues pay the freight.  The minor sports – in the sense of revenue production – would become more minor and play more on a regional basis where cost control is dominant.  Those minor sports may reside under the “supervision” of the schools or the separated athletic departments; I have no strong preference there.

That solution is logical and pragmatic – – meaning it will never make it to any meeting agenda where the future of intercollegiate athletics will be discussed.

Finally, I mentioned above a positive view of “Hope” by Alexander Pope, so let me close with a darker view offered up by the German philosopher, Friedrich Nietzsche:

“Hope is the worst of all evils, because it prolongs the torments of man.”

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

 

 

I think there has been too much discussion about and dissection of the motivations involved in Simone Biles’ withdrawal from the women’s team gymnastics competition at the Olympics.  Simone Biles is not obligated to participate in any event; she competes because she is competent enough at her skill to be worthy of Olympic competition and she competes for whatever internal forces drive her.  As far as I am concerned, that says it all.  Therefore, if she chooses to withdraw from an event, the decision is hers and ought not be subject to scrutiny – – unless someone believes somehow that the withdrawal involved some sort of criminal or heinous action.

Simone Biles has earned her position and her recognition within her sport by her performance(s) over the years.  She does not owe anyone an “explanation” for her decision(s); she is an adult and a very competent adult.  I will not criticize, speculate on or prognosticate about why she chose to do what she did.  If she ever feels like telling the world about her thinking that led to her action here, I will be an interested listener.

The Tour de France is over; and it was won by a Slovenian rider, Tadej Pogačar.  This is the second year in a row that he has won the race and joins a list of 13 riders who have won the race in successive years.  The first Tour de France was in 1903 and the only years that did not have a race were the years when Europe was involved in two World Wars.

Congratulations are in order for Tadej Pogačar.

I know that times change and that people change their minds and their priorities, but sometimes the changes are so stark that it makes me wonder how sincere they were in previous stances taken.  For years, the NFL was opposed to gambling on NFL games – – notwithstanding the fact that betting on NFL games helped to fuel the sports’ rise to prominence/dominance in America.  Commissioners testified passionately before Congressional committees about the assault on the integrity of the games and the league itself posed by “gambling interests”.

In 2015, the NFL called a halt to a Fantasy Football Convention scheduled to be held in a Las Vegas casino that was to be headlined by Tony Romo and would have involved about 100 other NFL players.  Fantasy Football was OK with the league; remember at the time there was an actual debate ongoing about whether Fantasy Football was gambling or not.  [Aside:  It was gambling then, and it is gambling now.]  Here is what the NFL said at the time about this event:

“Players and NFL personnel may not participate in promotional activities or other appearances at or in connection with events that are held at or sponsored by casinos.”

A mere six years ago, players or coaches or GMs or scouts could be fined or suspended for taking part in a promotional event sponsored by a casino.  Here we are in 2021 and this is the state of play for the NFL:

• Caesars Entertainment – – owner of places like Caesars Palace, Harrah’s, Lady Luck Casino, Horseshoe Casino – Baltimore, Bally’s, The Flamingo, Paris Las Vegas, Rio, Planet Hollywood, Circus Circus and you get the idea – – just bought naming rights for the New Orleans Saints’ stadium for $138M over the next 20 years.

If that “change of thinking” over a meager 6-year stretch of time does not bring your thinking up short, let me just remind you of an old street adage:

“Money talks and bulls[p]it walks…”

The “NFL Insiders” would have had us believe about 6 months ago that Russell Wilson would never play for the Seahawks again and that DeShaun Watson would sit out if the Texans did not trade him.  [Aside:  To be fair, those “Insiders” were pontificating before any of the myriad sexual harassment/assault allegations against Watson materialized.]  Nonetheless, Wilson remains in Seattle; Watson is being shopped around without takers by Houston and that brings me to Aaron Rodgers who was supposedly never going to play for the Packers ever, ever…

If we are to believe the latest soothsaying regarding the Aaron Rodgers/Green Bay Packers “disconnect”, Rodgers is about to report to training camp on time and will play QB for the Packers in 2021.  At the end of the season, the team will “reconsider his position with the team” – – whatever the Hell that might mean – – and thereby facilitate his departure from Green Bay to somewhere else in the NFL.

If indeed this is a correct assessment of the state of play, all the reporters who were positive that Rodgers would never again suit up in the Green-and-Gold were dead wrong.  If indeed this is a correct assessment, all the reporters who had “sources” telling them that Rodgers would sit out the year were dead wrong.  And even if these latest reports are totally correct about the 2021 season, there are still some details hanging out there to dry such as:

• After Rodgers plays for the Packers this season, the team will deal with him in a way that allows him to play elsewhere.  What does that mean?  He is under contract until the end of 2023 with the Packers.  Has the team agreed to release him for nothing, or have they agreed to find a way to trade him to a place where he wants to play?
• The “next team” to get Rodgers would get a Hall of Fame caliber QB along with Hall of Fame caliber passive-aggressive behaviors.  What is that worth on the trade market?  Aaron Rodgers is 38 years old; he is not a “kid”; his passive-aggressiveness is not a phase he will “grow out of”.

Let me put an unsensational and a totally uninvested perspective on all this:

• Until and unless I know the fine-grained details of what the Packers and Rodgers have agreed to as a way to handle the next NFL offseason, I will not pretend to be able to project what is likely to happen.  My guess is that both sides will keep much of those details under wraps meaning that most of the “reporting” over the next 4 months or so will be a lot closer to “speculation” than it is to “reporting”.
• One fact remains inviolate until I read a credible report that it has been changed by Rodgers and the Packers.  Aaron Rodgers is under contract to play NFL football for the Green Bay Packers – – and no other team – – through the end of the 2023 season.  He may want out of Green Bay to play elsewhere – – but he cannot trade himself to any other team.  That contractual “fact” must change if Rodgers is to “take his talents” elsewhere; and it is logical to ask what the Packers might want to receive in exchange for their part in altering that “fact”.

Finally, since I dealt with issues related to gambling above, let me close with this pronouncement by the Irish playwright, George Bernard Shaw:

“Gambling promises the poor what property performs for the rich:  that is fundamentally why the bishops dare not denounce it fundamentally.”

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

 

 

The MLB team in Cleveland will assume a new name starting in 2022.  I never agreed that the name “Indians” was racist, but I could see clearly how the tam mascot, Chief Wahoo, was seriously offensive to many Native Americans.  So, the team set out on a 2-year quest to find a new name.  In its press releases along the way, the team said it had considered 1200 possible names.  Now, if that statement is true, I have a question:

• How did  you wind up with a team name as lame as the Cleveland Guardians?

Seriously, if I woke you up from a dead sleep at 2:00 AM and asked  you to give me all your free association thoughts that go with “Cleveland”, would you have gotten to “Guardians” any time before 6:00 AM?  The explanation offered is that the team is named in alignment with 4 large statues on a bridge in Cleveland and the statues are known collectively as the “Guardians of Traffic”.  It took almost 2 years and 1199 other possible names to come up with that.  Well, OK then…

There will be a test next season to see if anyone in the MLB scheduling department has even a shred of a sense of humor.  Clearly, the Guardians should open the season at home; Opening Day with the new team name and the new logo should be a big deal.  And MLB can contribute to the upbeat feeling if it schedules the Angels to be the opponents that day.  It would be the Guardians versus the Angels.

Complicating matters for the moment is the fact that Cleveland Guardians is already an amateur roller derby team in the city.  I have to believe that an amateur roller derby team could be induced to sell that team name to the MLB team for an amount of money that would be pocket change to the baseball team and manna from Heaven to the roller derby team.  Nevertheless, stay tuned…

The Tokyo Olympics are in progress and the viewing of the events on the myriad NBC “platforms” is about as inconvenient as can be.  Meanwhile, there was an announcement from the IOC that has gotten only marginal reporting and commentary:

• The Summer Games for 2032 have been awarded to Brisbane, Australia.

I have spent 3 weeks in Australia but none of that time was spent in Brisbane.  However, let me relate a story from that trip.  We had an excellent trip leader for those three weeks and as we were having a glass of wine to say goodbye to him, I said that I would like to come back to Australia one day to see three cities that we had missed on this trip – – Perth, Darwin and Brisbane.  Matt – our trip leader – looked at me quizzically and asked:

“Why would anyone want to go to Brizzy?”

According to the IOC and officials in “Brizzy”, the cost of staging the Summer Games there is expected to be $3.2B.  Anyone who believes that also believes that an outpatient is someone who fainted in a doctor’s waiting room.  The Tokyo Olympics running now were “budgeted” at $7.5B and when the final tally is done thoroughly, the cost is going to be closer to $20B than it is to $15B.  Remember, Tokyo already had some of the facilities needed to stage these Games and it ran up costs that will be more than double the estimated cost plus the original budget was already twice as much as the announced figure for Brisbane.

Brisbane will be the third city in Australia to host the Summer Games.  Melbourne was the host city in 1956 and Sydney was the host city in 2000.

• Quick Quiz:  No Googling or Binging…  Other than Australia, only the US has hosted the summer Games in 3 different cities.  Name the three US cities that have hosted the summer Games?
• The answer is below…

I mentioned above that the TV viewing for the Olympics this year is inconvenient.  I understand that the inconvenience is caused by the fact that there is a 13-hour time difference between my locale and the Game venue.  [Aside:  Just so you know, the time difference for those Brisbane Games in 2032 will be 14 hours.]  But the “inconvenience of the hour” is only the beginning of the overall inconvenience:

• There is an innumerable quantity of ads – – and these are not simple little 10-second ads saying that this isolation camera shot is presented by National Veeblefetzer.  These ads seem to have the same duration as the break in an NFL game to give you the 2-minute warning.
• There is no pace or rhythm to the coverage I have tried to watch.  The program keeps jumping from an event to a sidebar story to a bunch of studio talking heads and back to an event seemingly at the whim of someone in a control booth somewhere.
• So far, I have tried to get involved with events in sports that I like to watch – – such as basketball, soccer and some of the track and field events.  If I am feeling inconvenienced/frustrated by the presentation of those events, can it be any wonder that I am not excited to tune in to see a sport that I do not care about such as skateboarding, rhythmic gymnastics or kayaking?

Answer to the Quick Quiz above:

1. Los Angeles (1932, 1984, 2028) and
2. Atlanta (1996) and
3. St. Louis (1904).

Finally, since golf is part of the ongoing Olympic Games this year, let me close with this view of golf expressed by H. L. Mencken:

“If I had my way, any man guilty of golf would be ineligible for any office of trust in the United States.”

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

 

 

I have two things to chat about today, and I think the one that has the potential to be the biggest long-term story is that Texas and Oklahoma have taken the first steps necessary for the two schools to leave the Big-12 Conference.  There are reports that the other schools in the conference are working on ways to retain Texas and OU, but the way I read things, this is the situation:

• If 11 of the 14 current SEC schools vote to admit Texas and OU, that is where they will go voluntarily.
• If 11 of the 14 current SEC schools do not vote to admit Texas and OU, there are going to be some extremely hard feelings to overcome in Big-12 country.

So, what might become of the rest of the Big-12 when – I think it is going to happen – Texas and OU depart for the SEC?  Are the other Power 5 Conferences ready to expand and scoop up any of the remaining Big-12 teams?  This is totally off the top of my head, and I have only thought about Power 5 Conference moves; in games of musical chairs, some folks never find a seat:

• Baylor:  Maybe the PAC-12 but nowhere else
• Iowa St.:  Big 10 is the only one that makes sense
• Kansas:  Nowhere; the program needs to be downgraded not promoted
• K- State:  Geographically, the Big-10 but not a real fit anywhere
• OK St.:  Nothing sensible comes to mind
• TCU:  PAC-12 fits
• Texas Tech:  PAC-12 or nothing
• W. Virginia: ACC makes more sense than Big -12 did.

The other important item on the menu for today is the NFL very pointedly – and yet subtly – taking a pro-vaccination position.  The NFL announcement that it would not be nearly so accommodating to rescheduling for teams that suffered COVID outbreaks this year had a couple of barbs in the message:

• This year, there will be forfeits if rescheduling is difficult.  Forfeits not only mean a loss for the affected team but it also means – according to the CBA – the loss of a game check for ALL players on BOTH teams.  A game check is 1/17^th of the contract value for the year – not counting things like roster bonuses and workout bonuses.  So, if a player’s base salary is $2M, a forfeit will cost him about $118K in lost wages.  Think that might ramp up a bit of “peer pressure”?
• Getting down to final cuts and deciding on who the fifth wideout or the seventh defensive lineman will be, might coaches give the nod to a vaccinated player as opposed to a vaccine resistor?  Remember the old saying that the most important “ability” in the NFL is availability…

There appear to be – already – some coaching changes being effected by teams in light of the new stance by the league.  The Vikings and Rick Dennison – who was their offensive line coach and running game coordinator – have “gone in different directions”.  Dennison had not been vaccinated; reports say he was offered the vaccine and refused to take it; he is no longer with the team.  No one is saying he was fired for that refusal – – but no one is denying it either.  I went to look up Dennison’s history as a coach and found:

• He has been an NFL assistant for 26 seasons
• He has been with teams that made the playoffs 13 times.
• He has been with teams that won their division 5 times.
• He has been with teams that won 3 Super Bowls

In a similar situation, the New England Patriots and Cole Popovich have parted ways.  Popovich had been with the Pats since 2016 in a variety of assistant coaching positions and this year would have been his second as the co-offensive line coach.  Even prior to the recent announcement by the NFL regarding game forfeits, the league sent a notice to all teams that all “Tier1 staff are required to get the vaccine in order to be on the field, in meeting rooms, or have any direct interactions with players”.   “Tier 1 staff” is defined as:

• Coaches
• Front office execs
• Equipment managers
• Trainers
• Scouts

The NFL edict had an out for unvaccinated Tier 1 staff in the case that they provided a valid medical or religious reason for not taking the vaccine.  With training came about to begin, unvaccinated people in those “Tier 1 positions” become significantly less valuable to the teams.

Finally, since much of the current vaccination debate devolves to principles, let me close today with this observation by Oscar Wilde:

“I like persons better than principles and I like persons with no principles better than anything else in the world.”

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

 

 

Well, today is the start of what were supposed to be the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo.  COVID-19 stands out as an example of how even the most meticulous plans can be thwarted.  The Japanese Organizing Committee began planning for these Games more than 10 years ago when they began to pull together the Japanese bid to the IOC.  All the reports from last year said that the folks in Tokyo were ahead of schedule in terms of construction and housing and protocols for the sporting events – – and then all of that planning and execution went down the drain about 5 months before the Opening Ceremony when a “novel coronavirus” made itself known on the planet.

The Games will start today and while there will be athletic drama in the events and while there will be concocted drama created by TV networks as they present the games to the world, these Games will look and feel different.  The coronavirus is still spreading in Japan and the government there – not the IOC or the Organizing Committee – has declared a state of emergency meaning that there are government rules and protocols in existence that add onto any and all of the procedures that the Olympic officials had put in place for these Games.

• There will be no spectators.
• The movement of athletes from housing to venues will be strictly regimented.
• Volunteers’ interactions with athletes will be regimented.
• Visitors – athletes, trainers etc. – will not be allowed to take any form of public transit.

Nonetheless, the expectation is that approximately 11,000 athletes from around the world are expected to be in Tokyo to participate in these Games.  For sports fans who have been watching their favorite sports on TV for the last year, the fans will notice that the Olympians will have learned from successful techniques employed by those other sports:

• Mask wearing – except for athletes during their competitions
• Interviews at a distance

It may “look the same” to folks at home but there must be a different vibe for the athletes and for the people in Tokyo.  One aspect of the original plans for these Games – from a decade ago – was to provide citizens of Tokyo and visitors without tickets public venues where the events could be watched on giant screens.  That is not going to happen in 2021 under a government mandated state of emergency.

Barring another problematic and unforeseen intervention – say an invasion of space aliens – these Games will conclude on 8 August.  All that is left for the organizers and the government officials to do is to navigate the next 16 days calmly, efficiently and effectively.  Easy for me to say…

One of the things I will have in mind as I watch various Olympic events that in the US, many Olympic sports use college competitions as part of the “training ground” for athletes.  In 2020, many of the collegiate competitions in those sports did not happen; so, I will be looking to see how that affects the performance of US athletes in things like track and field, wrestling, fencing, swimming, etc.

Switching gears…  Starting in March 2022, the USFL plans to return to the menu of sporting endeavors in the US.  The USFL was a Spring football league that survived for 3 seasons back in the 1980s and organizers hope to use that success to launch this rebirth.  Back in the 1980s, the USFL aspired to become a co-equal with the NFL as a purveyor of football to the public.  It appears that the new league’s aspirations are more modest; it appears that the reincarnated USFL has two objectives:

1. Stay economically viable  [The league has a TV deal with FOX which is a plus.]
2. Exist as a feeder league/minor league for the NFL.

In recent years, we have seen the AAF – the Alliance of American Football – try to achieve those same objectives and fail.  And last year we saw the relaunch of XFL 2.0 that succumbed to the “novel coronavirus”.  Now we can look forward to a differently structured USFL next year and then – theoretically – a restart for XFL 3.0 with its new owners in the Spring of 2023.  Where those new leagues are going to find enough players, who can put out a product that will be watchable remains to be seen.  Yes, there are plenty of people out there who play football and who obviously like to play football; but just as an example, games equivalent to Ivy League football are not going to sell on TV on a weekly basis.  This will be interesting to watch…

In case you think the continued viability of Spring football leagues is problematic, let me tell you now that a professional golf league could also try to become part of the sporting cosmos in 2023.  The Premier Golf League has the backing of “Saudi interests” and Phil Mickelson said that he was “intrigued” by the idea.  Other recognized golfers such as Ernie Els and Dustin Johnson have expressed similar feelings.  Let me give you a thumbnail sketch of the idea:

• The League would have 48 players assembled in 12 teams of 4 players each.  [Aside: What happens if a player is hurt and cannot play in a match?  Is there a league-wide taxi squad?]
• The League would play 18 matches a year from January to September.  Ten matches would be in the US and the other 8 would be elsewhere in the world.
• Matches would be 54 holes long with no cut line.  One of the foundation points for the League is that the best players should be seen playing as often as possible so having a cut line simply eliminates good players from public view.
• Total prize money is theoretically going to be about $240M.  Where the revenues to cover that and other expenses will come from remains “cloudy”?

If this sounds like a bit of “pie in the sky”, consider also that the PGA Tour does not take kindly to the idea of the Premier League.  The PGA Tour has hinted strongly that a player who takes part in the Premier League would be exiled from the PGA Tour.  That fact alone tells me that the folks who run the PGA Tour see something in the Premier League that needs to be squashed like a bug.  Stay tuned…

Finally, since much of the stuff covered today has TV money as part of its backdrop, let me close with this observation by NY Times theater critic, Clive Barnes:

“Television is the first truly democratic culture – the first culture available to everybody and entirely governed by what the people want.  The most terrifying thing is what the people want.”

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