I am going to be bouncing around today so let me start with a recent report from the FIFA Independent Ethics Committee. It is actually difficult to input those words via a keyboard without giggling, but that is indeed an existing committee and it would appear as if it ,might be taking its responsibilities semi-seriously. Anyhow, this entity has something called the “adjudicatory chamber” which may be akin to the Court of the Star Chamber or may be an incarnation of dunking folks to see if they are witches or not. This “adjudicatory chamber” has handed down a ruling that bans FOR LIFE any involvement in any “football-related activity” for a former President of the Costa Rican Football Association.
The investigation leading up to this decree began in May 2015; in October 2016, the individual who has been banned FOR LIFE pleaded guilty to:
- Racketeering conspiracy
- Wire fraud
- Conspiracy to commit wire fraud.
Unless I do not understand the calendar system in use by most of the world, those guilty pleas were entered about 6 months ago. So, I wonder if it is fair to ask what took the FIFA Independent Ethics Committee so long to figure out that this dude was up to his earbrows in stuff closely related to bribery and shake-downs and other stuff that is of a similar nature. I guess that only someone who thinks that the FIFA Independent Ethics Committee is no more powerful or effective than the Trilateral Commission would wonder how 6 months could have passed before the FIFA Committee decided to do what it chose to do.
I want to take a moment here to talk about a variety of injuries that have befallen some quality MLB players already this season. I do not think there is some sort of cosmic message contained in all of this, but there have been some strange happenings so far this season.
- Noah Syndergaard – NY Mets: He was “scratched” from a start and then he refused to undergo an MRI exam – – which is his right under the extant CBA. Then he started against the Nats and had to leave the game very early with a “partial tear in his lat”. A subsequent MRI – which Syndergaard chose to undergo – showed some muscle/ligament damage that could put the pitcher on the shelf for 10-16 weeks.
- Yeonis Cespedes – NY Mets: He “tweaked his hamstring” about 2 weeks ago but instead of the Mets putting him on the newly established 10-day DL, the team chose to keep him active and to play games with only 24 players physically ready to perform. When he was put back in the lineup, one of the worst things happened – – he aggravated the injury – – and now the Mets have to put him on a longer-term DL.
- Adam Eaton – Washington Nats: Eaton had been performing about as well as anyone could have expected at the top of the Nats’ batting order until he came down with a torn meniscus and a high ankle sprain from trying to leg out a play at first base.
- Madison Bumgarner – SF Giants: His is a self-inflicted wound; he injured his shoulder while riding a dirt bike. Shoulder injuries are always tense situations in MLB; a shoulder injury to the pitching shoulder for a top-shelf pitcher has to be cause for a reaction closer to panic than to laissez faire.
Lots of other teams have suffered early-season injuries; listing these four is not an attempt to demean any other player who may not be able to participate so far this year.
With the Raiders poised to remain in Oakland for the next two seasons – and perhaps beyond that depending on the speed with which the new stadium in Las Vegas can be built. Roger Goodell decreed that the team is indeed the Oakland Raiders now and going forward until such time that the franchise can move to Las Vegas and play home games there. That sounds simple and straightforward until you think that the marketplace for selling “Las Vegas Raiders” gear might not be a legal potion until 2020. Meanwhile, it is not difficult to imagine that the market for “Oakland Raiders” gear might be drying up.
Each NFL team gets to market its own “stuff” which seems like a fair arrangement. However, in this case, the Raiders need to be able to acknowledge that the franchise is in a temporary locale for now but will “settle down” in the Nevada desert once construction details are ironed out. If the Raiders cannot sell LV Raiders gear until near the start of the 2020 season, the team will miss out on a meaningful revenue stream. Getting fans in Oakland to buy Raiders gear over the next couple of years will not be trivial; in fact, it may be a final exam question in a course labeled Marketing 505.
Finally, Brad Dickson had this comment in the Omaha World-Herald about the support shown for Nebraska University football:
“The announced turnout for the Red-White game was 78,312. Picture a Creighton home baseball game only with 78,300 more people.”
But don’t get me wrong, I love sports………