Friday The Thirteenth …

Greetings to all on the only occurrence of “Friday the Thirteenth” in 2021.  Let us hope that the Fates choose to let us of easily today instead of dropping an entire year’s worth of misfortune on the world today.

Earlier this week, racehorse trainer, Jorge Navarro, got a personal dose of bad news.  Navarro pleaded guilty to charges involving a scheme to give horses performance-enhancing drugs.  The Federal prosecutors in this case say that Navarro and about twenty other folks were an international cabal that used drugs to speed up horses for specific races.  The plea entered here was part of a plea deal and there is one aspect of that deal which has me scratching my head:

• Navarro agreed to pay restitution of $25M “reflecting winnings obtained through doping”.

That is a lot of restitution to be sure, but to whom will it be paid?  There is no way to identify the bettors who lost their wagers to the souped-up horses that Navarro put on the track.  If the idea of “restitution” is to compensate victims of the criminal activity, I wonder how that $25M is going to be split up…

Another bit of dirty laundry seems to have come out of the washer with far less dire consequences than one might have imagined.  Recall the sexual assault incidents at Baylor that went unreported, uninvestigated and covered up between 5 and 10 years ago.  That is the set of circumstances that made coach, Art Briles radioactive and cost him the job there.  Well, the NCAA finished its investigation into the matter having taken a leisurely track through the miasma there.  Here are the salient results from the investigation:

• While the NCAA found the actions at Baylor to be ”unacceptable,” it also found that none of the sexual assaults or interpersonal violence incidents violated any NCAA rules.
• The NCAA report signals that Briles’ radioactivity has not completely decayed over the past 5 years saying, “The head coach failed to meet even the most basic expectations of how a person should react to the kind of conduct at issue in this case.”
• Evidently while meandering around in the muck and mire here, the NCAA super-sleuths found some other minor infractions that led to Baylor football being fined $5K, serving 4 years on probation and undergoing some recruiting limitations.

I see this result as a mirror image of another case where everything seems to be reversed.  In short, this case involves behaviors that are criminal but not violations of any NCAA rules.  At the end of the day, the attorney representing Art Briles could and did issue a statement claiming that his client was “completely exonerated” and that the report “cleared the way for Mr. Briles to return to coaching college football.”  Wow…

Now recall the cases where federal prosecutors found violations of federal law in the practice of paying basketball recruits money under the table.  Those actions were violations of NCAA rules, but the Feds convinced juries that the payments to recruits were actions that defrauded the universities where the recruits enrolled.  Talk about mirror images…

Having spoken of Art Briles and his days at Baylor, that leads me to note that one of his major recruits there was RG3 who won the Heisman Trophy in 2011.  Griffin has just signed a contract with ESPN to be a football analyst and reports say he will be part of ESPN’s coverage of both college and NFL football.  Throughout his playing career in the NFL, Griffin has shown himself to be bright, telegenic, and enthusiastic with a sense of humor.  He has all the elements it takes for success on TV; now the trick will be for him to develop those talents into a desirable persona on camera.

When I read about his signing with ESPN, the first thing that came to mine is that ESPN televises a lot of Big-12 games; and as a Baylor grad, RG3 might be a natural addition to the broadcast booth for Big-12 games.  Now, after reading about the NCAA report, I am rethinking that position.  Griffin was at Baylor when some of the alleged assaults happened meaning some of his teammates were perpetrators.  To be sure, there have never been any allegations that Griffin engaged in any of those activities in any way, but I now wonder if putting him in the booth to be part of a Baylor football telecast so soon after this NCAA report hit the streets is a good idea.  It will be interesting to see what ESPN does there.

Griffin spent his early career in the NFL with the Washington “NFL Team That Shall Not Be Named.”  He is not the only QB from that franchise who is embarking on a broadcasting career this week.  Alex Smith has also signed on with ESPN according to reports and the network plans to use him in studio as an NFL analyst on various ESPN programs.  Using as a guide their on-camera presence and demeanor during playing days, I would say that Griffin and Smith are totally different.  Smith has always been measured and analytical when on the microphone.  The similarity of their background as QBs in Washington and their proximal signings with ESPN will make for interesting comparisons as they pursue their broadcasting careers.

One more broadcasting note, this morning…  Nate Burleson is leaving Good Morning Football on NFLN to be part of CBS This Morning.  Burleson will continue to do small bits with Good Morning Football as well as appearing on NFL Today on CBS on the weekends.  One report said that if James Brown were to retire, Nate Burleson would be the betting favorite to replace him on NFL Today.  But Burleson’s major line of work will be CBS This Morning which is a mainstream news program and not a sports show.

I have liked Nate Burleson from the first time I saw him on TV about 5 years ago.  I think he and Phil Simms carry NFL Today and their contributions are far more insightful and more cogent than the mostly predictable offerings from Bill Cowher and Boomer Esiason.  I have not read any reports about who will replace Burleson on Good Morning Football or even if NFLN will continue to have four people as co-hosts on the program.  Personally, I think RG3 would be a good fit for that program – – but he is part of a different network as of today.

Finally, I shall close today with a comment about actors and casting by Alfred Hitchcock:

“Disney, of course, has the best casting.  If he doesn’t like an actor, he just tears him up.”

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