Two Overblown Kerfuffles

Briefly today …  I want to comment on a couple of issues that bubbled up to the surface recently and caused commentators/writers to rush to their keyboards to fill up space on the Internet and in a variety of print media.  The first one is the revelation that all is not peaches and cream with regard to members of the Tuohy family and Michael Oher.

• I tried to understand the differences between an “adoption” and a “conservatorship”.  All I understand is that they are not the same thing and so I cannot begin to understand why the Tuohys chose that mechanism for their relationship.
• Oher claims he got next to nothing as a financial reward for the movie The Blind Side.  The production company for that movie says they paid Oher and the Tuohys the same amount.  Seems to me that ought to be easy to track down.
• Michael Oher made more than $50M in salaries while in the NFL.  If the Tuohys milked that revenue stream for their own gain, that would be slimy behavior.
• Some of the details asserted in Michael Lewis’ book, The Blind Side may not be “fully factual”.  Is that a shock?

The more I try to read about this situation and how it might be resolved, the more engulfed in ennui I become.  It seems to me that the civil litigation system in the US is where this matter should be taken for resolution; as of this morning, the civil litigation system in the US has begun the processes to determine right versus wrong here.  While that process plays itself out, it appears to me that no third parties or fourth parties here stand to be harmed in any significant way.  Therefore:

• Let the processes play out.  Treat any and all news about this matter short of a final resolution as news that is not important and is only of interest to voyeurs peeking into the process to see if a celebrity with a name they recognize is “Winning” or “Losing”.

Moving on …  The other story of the moment that has received more attention than it deserves is the trade of Trey Lance from the Niners to the Cowboys for a fourth round pick next year.  There is a “trainwreck aspect” to this story since the Niners traded away 3 first round picks plus a third-round pick just to move up in the NFL Draft and take Lance with the #3 overall pick.  That storyline might keep this item afloat for 24 hours – – but not much more.  This story line has legs because it allows people to perform mind reading exercises on Cowboys’ owner, Jerry Jones:

• Why trade for Lance when the Cowboys have Cooper Rush as their backup QB?  Rush has started 6 games for the Cowboys in his career and the team record in those games is 5-1.
• Does this trade indicate that Jones has lost faith in Dak Prescott?  There is no way to know the answer here, but it seems to me that acquiring Lance and putting him in the #3 position of the depth chart is hardly a clear indicator of anything like that.

Here is my thinking about why the Cowboys made this deal. Two years ago, the Niners had Lance evaluated as a “top of the Draft talent”.  Two years of injuries have obscured that and the Niners are now ready to go forth with Brock Purdy and Sam Darnold at the QB position.  The Niners let it be known they would take offers for Lance and the balance of his rookie contract.  Paying a fourth-round pick for someone with Lance’s “potential” seems like the kind of “speculation” that Jerry Jones is comfortable with.  The trade makes sense to me without reverting to clairvoyance.

Finally, The Blind Side confrontation may need a jury to resolve the issue(s).  So, here is a view of a jury by H. L. Mencken:

“Jury:  A group of twelve men who having lied to the judge about their hearing, health and business engagements, have failed to fool him.”

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