An Advanced Degree In Cheating …

Yesterday, I wrote about the growth in popularity of women’s sports.  Well, with increased popularity comes increased incentive to excel in almost any activity and women’s sports seems not to be immune,  The Canadian women’s soccer team had two of its coaching staff members sent home and their head coach will not be on the sidelines for the team’s first game against New Zealand after it was discovered that one of the coaching staff was flying a drone over the New Zealand practice session.

Oh, did I mention that the Canadian women’s soccer team won the Gold Medal in the 2020 games in Tokyo?

Moving on …  I ran across a report about someone I had not thought about for at least a year.  Whatever happened to Max Kellerman?  In a short reset, he was removed from his position as a “debate opponent” for Stephen A. Smith on ESPN’s First Take a couple of years ago but stayed with the ESPN Radio network as part of the morning drive time show and as the host of an afternoon show called This Just In …  About a year ago, he was let go when ESPN did a purge of radio personalities, and I lost track of Max Kellerman at that point.

As to what is he doing now, the answer is:

• Nothing.

Kellerman’s long time boxing co-announcer at ESPN – – Brian Kenny – – said that Kellerman is alive and well and is enjoying doing nothing.  Kellerman’s contract was such that when he was let go, he was let go with money still guaranteed to him on the deal.  So, he is getting paid and doing nothing.  Not a bad gig if you can get it.  So, what sort of compensation has he gotten since being asked to stay home about a year ago?

• Kellerman’s contract with ESPN was reported to be $5M per year and that contract will expire in late 2024.
• Not a bad “severance package” …

After reading this report about what Max Kellerman is doing, I wonder if he might be someone who would go to FS1 to work with whomever as an update to Undisputed if the rumors about Skip Bayless leaving that network sometime this summer are in fact true.  Kellerman has experience in the direct debate format with Stephen A. Smith on ESPN and he was the first host on ESPN’s Around the Horn program about 20 years ago.

I enjoy Kellerman because even when he takes a position that I think is bordering on outrageous, he does so without screaming and with some explanation as to why he thinks what he does.  There used to be a sports radio program here in the DC area hosted by a guy named Ken Beatrice.  He was a ‘know-it-all” who could – and did – annoy plenty of area sports fans.  However, his mantra was:

“I will give you my opinion; and then, I will give you the reasons why that is my opinion.  That is all you can ask of me or anyone else in my position.”

Yes, I know …  That is annoyingly arrogant.  At the same time Ken Beatrice was more right than wrong on that point.  Now Max Kellerman does the same thing without hitting you over the head with the magnanimity of his justification for taking an outrageous stance.

By the way, Kellerman has some history with FOX Sports.  After leaving Around the Horn, he hosted a program on FOX Sports that went head-to-head with Around the Horn where he was an active participant in the debates not just the one deciding on the score to give the debate participants.

Next up …  Here is one more baseball statistical oddity sent to me a couple weeks ago by #2 son:

• The MLB record for “Most Grand Slams in a Season” is 6.
• That record is shared by Don Mattingly (1987) and Travis Hafner (2006).
• Hafner hit 12 grand slams in his career between 2002 and 2013.
• Mattingly hit 6 grand slams in his career between 1982 and 1995; his entire “career Grand Slam output” came in the 1987 season.

Finally, I began today with the report about spying/cheating related to the women’s Olympic soccer competition; so, let me close with this from management “expert” Stephen Covey:

“The more people rationalize cheating, the more it becomes a culture of dishonesty. And that can become a vicious, downward cycle. Because suddenly, if everyone else is cheating, you feel a need to cheat, too.”

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