Category: Uncategorized

Let me do a play on one of the closing lines from George Orwell’s dystopian novel, Animal Farm:

• All people are unique, but some people are more unique than others.

The world lost one of its “more unique” inhabitants yesterday; Ted Turner died.  Ted Turner had an impact – – and a lasting legacy – – on society as we know it today.  I’ll get to some of his impact on the sports world in a moment, but just consider that one person accomplished all the following:

• He created from nothing CNN which used to be a 24-hour newscast that covered worldwide news.  Now it covers news as an adjunct to its commentary programs.
• He created CNN Headline News which did news summaries every 30 minutes 24 hours a day.  That network went belly-up after folks realized that not much happens from one 30-minute roundup to the next.
• He created Cartoon Network.  Many parents should thank him for that.
• He bought the MGM library of films and created Turner Classic Movies – – the TCM Channel on your cable system
• He created the satellite-connected TV station – – the so- called “superstation” – – in Atlanta named WTBS Channel 17.
• He created Turner Broadcasting and Turner Network Television which continue to exist today.
• At one point he was the fourth largest landowner in the US and those millions of acres of land were dedicated to remaining as a wildlife preserve.
• He gave a donation of $1B to the United Nations to establish a foundation intended to help refugees worldwide fight disease and clear land mines.

And then there are his legacies for the sports world too:

• He won the America’s Cup race trophy in 1977.  He and his crew were a hardworking and then a hard drinking bunch and at one point he had to write a letter of apology to one of the tony social clubs in Newport RI for his behavior there after admittedly over-imbibing.
• He owned the Atlanta Braves – – which provided a lot of programming time for his “superstation”.
• He owned the Atlanta Hawks – – which provided a lot of programming for his “superstation” when there was no baseball.
• He owned a pro ‘rassling enterprise – – which provided programming for his “superstation” year-round.
• He managed his Atlanta Braves for one game until MLB Commissioner, Bowie Kuhn, ordered him to stop.  The basis for that edict by the Commish has never been clear to me.
• My favorite of his ‘stunts” was when he offered a bonus to his star pitcher, Andy Messersmith, to change his name to “Andy Channel”.  The reason was that Messersmith wore the number 17 and Turner’s superstation was Channel 17 so when Messersmith was pitching his name and number on the uniform would be “Channel 17”.

Finally, the closing thoughts today must originate with Ted Turner:

“Life is a game. Money is how we keep score.”

And …

“My son is now an ‘entrepreneur.’ That’s what you’re called when you don’t have a job.”

And …

“I lost 80 percent of my wealth and then gave away over half of the rest. So, I’m a man of modest means now. But if you budget carefully and watch your expenditures, you can get by on a couple billion dollars.”

Rest in peace, Ted Turner.

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

 

 

My record of meaningless and losing picks in the Kentucky Derby is still intact after Saturday’s race.  One of “my horses” did finish second; the others are still running.  However, there was a minor stroke of fortune with my picks – – or to put it more directly, things could have been worse:

• One of my key horses, The Puma, was scratched.  Therefore, my total of $100 in bets was reduced to $50 making my “loss” less burdensome.

In times of minor travail, my grandfather used to say that we must thank God for our small favors.  Scratching The Puma was a small favor.

Surely you know by now that the trainer of the winning horse, Golden Tempo, is the first woman to train a Derby winner.  Not nearly as widely or as prominently reported is another oddity from the race:

• José and Irad Ortiz are brothers and each had a mount in the Derby.
• The brothers finished first and second in the race.

Golden Tempo won the race at 23-1 and the third place finisher, Ocelli went off at 70-1.   That led to some stratospheric payouts on the tote board at Churchill Downs:

• Golden Tempo (23 to 1): Win $48.24, Place $19.14, Show $11.90
• Renegade (5 to 1): Place $7.14, Show $5.46
• Ocelli (70 to 1): Show $36.34
• $2 Exacta (19 and 1): $278.86
• $1 Trifecta (19 and 1 and 22): $11,250.78
• $1 Superfecta (19 and 1 and 22 and 12): $94,489.95

Moving on …  Gout Gout is an 18-year old Australian sprinter.  Last weekend he broke the record for any teenager running the 200 m dash at 19.67 seconds; what is noteworthy about that feat is that the record he broke had been set by Usain Bolt.  A year ago in Perth, Australia, he ran 100 meters in 9.9 seconds.  Obviously, it is too early in his career to suggest that he will eclipse Usain Bolt in the pantheon of sprinters, but that is a talent that should be watched.  And of course, I have to note that it would not be good for Gout Gout to come down with a case of gout…

Switching gears …  A couple of weeks ago, The Athletic had a report that I hoped would be the spur needed to resolve a potential problem for US sports fans.  Here is the headline from that report:

NFL begins onboarding potential replacement refs before negotiations resume

 Sometimes, no news is good news.  In the case of the standoff between the NFL and its officials, no news about a new CBA is not good news at all.  The Athletic says that the league has already completed security background checks on some officials and that physical exams for some potential “replacement referees” are already scheduled.  Here is a paragraph from the report that does not give me a warm, fuzzy feeling about all this:

“The NFL planned to begin conducting training sessions with officials previously employed on the Division I, Division II and Division III college ranks. The plans call for online and in-person sessions throughout May, so the replacements could hit the field on June 1 and begin working offseason practices to continue their training.”

There are new officials added to the NFL cadre every year – – but the league does not replace the entire roster and when crews are assembled, they do not create officiating crews entirely made up of “rookies”.  Without a new CBA with the referee’s union, the league will have every crew made up entirely of “rookies” and we saw how that worked out about 15 years ago.  Go to Google and search on “Fail Mary” or “Inaccurate Reception” to jog your memory of that fiasco.

Finally, Dan Gilbert is the founder of Rocket Mortgage, and he provides today’s closing thought:

“Anybody who dies with money in the bank is a failure.”

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

 

 

 

 

The MLB season is not quite 20% finished for 2026 and already two managers have been fired.  First on the list was Alex Cora – fired by the Red Sox.  Typically, when a manager in MLB is axed, he takes the fall alone, but in Boston this year the club opted for sweeping changes.  Along with Cora, five of the coaches for the Red Sox were put out of work.  I found that interesting because the reports of the blood letting in Boston also mentioned that six other coaches for the Red Sox were retained in their positions.  Frankly, I was surprised that MLB teams had a manager and 11 coaches on the payroll.

Things have gotten very specific in Boston; one of the coaches who was fired was the “Major League hitting strategy coach”.  Seriously.  Here is my first impression of the coaching tips such a coach might impart on his charges:

• Get the barrel of the bat on the ball as often as possible.
• That’s all I got …

When the Sox management pulled the trigger, the team record was 10-17; only four teams in MLB had worse records at the time.  I think one possibility for the firing was that on that date, the Sox’ record was worse than the woebegone Colorado Rockies and the owner could not abide that level of embarrassment.

One of the teams that had had a worse record than the Sox when Cora was fired was the Phillies and yesterday, the Phillies fired manager Rob Thomson.  The Phillies have the worst record in MLB as of this morning at 10-19, but if you put Rob Thomson into some perspective, you might wonder about that decision.

• Thomson’s record in Philly is 355-270 – – win percentage = .568
• The last Phillies manager with a higher win percentage was Arthur Irwin who managed the team in 1894-1895 and had a win percentage of .575.
• Thomson has been with the team for 4 seasons, and the Phillies have been in the playoffs all four years.
• Somehow, he is the reason the team has gotten off to a slow start in 2026 …

[Aside: Before someone checks my stats and finds that a Phillies’ manager in 1960 posted a win percentage of 1.000, I too found that in my research and ignored it because it involved a total of 1 game.  That manager was Andy Cohen – – the Tuscaloosa Terror.]

If you look at the MLB standing this morning for something other than the win/loss records, you will notice something about the Phillies.  They have scored fewer runs than 27 of the other teams in MLB and it is tough to win games when scoring runs is a rarity.  And I am hard pressed to think of many situations where it was the manager who scored or drove in any runs other than player-managers who have not been commonplace in MLB for about the last 40-50 years.

The Phillies have a run differential of minus-47 this morning and the next worst run differential is at minus-25 shared by 3 teams.  So, the manager is not only to blame for the lack of scoring but also for the allowance of runs by the pitchers and the defenders.  Don Mattingly will take over the manager role in Philly with the team 10.5 games behind the Braves in the NL East.

Moving on …  I want to acknowledge the perspicacity of a former colleague here.  In my NFL Pre-Draft analysis, he sent me a note about the QB from UConn who had not thrown an INT in the first 9 or 10 games of the season and told me to include him in my annual rant on prospects.  Well, Joe Fagnano was not drafted last weekend, but he was immediately signed as an Undrafted Free Agent by the Baltimore Ravens.  Let me tip my hat to my former colleague …

Finally, here is a definition from The Official Dictionary of Sarcasm:

Soup: The culinary equivalent of taking a bath in one’s own filth, soup is a way of offering your dinner guests a heaping bowlful of everything in your fridge that was about an hour away from becoming rancid.  Yum.”

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

 

 

Briefly today on the heels of watching basketball tournament games for about 12 hours yesterday …

It is hardly commonplace for a team to score 100 points or more in a tournament game, but it happened thrice yesterday:

• Michigan 101   Howard 80
• St. Louis 102   Georgia 77

What is even more interesting to me is that Michigan and St. Louis will play each other tomorrow and I was interested to see what the oddsmakers were thinking about that game.  Here is the current line which may change dramatically between now and tomorrow:

St. Louis vs. Michigan – 12.5 (161.5):  The Total Line opened at 158 points and has risen steadily since posting that line last night.  I will not be surprised to see it go higher still.

Speaking of that Georgia/St. Louis game, if you ever want an example of a game where both teams wanted to play “helter-skelter basketball”, you need look no further than that game.  At one point in the game, St. Louis led by 40 points and was still scurrying up and down the court on every possession.

AJ Dybantsa is fun to watch in addition to being an exceptional basketball talent.  BYU lost to Texas by 8 points yesterday, but it was surely not his fault; there were times in the game where it looked as if he was playing the entire Texas defense by himself.

If the Duke/Siena game were a horse race, you would say that Duke won by a nose with a furious stretch run.  Early in that game, Duke was playing about as listless a game as I’ve seen by a tournament team; they had all the intensity of an intrasquad scrimmage.  When it seemed to have finally dawned on them that they might actually be headed home in embarrassment, it was like flipping a light switch.  At one point Duke held Siena scoreless for more than 5 minutes down the stretch to eke out a win where Duke was favored by 29 points at gametime.

High Point sent Wisconsin home yesterday.  High Point lives and dies with three-point shooting and up-tempo offense; if they are on, they can play with anyone.  Wisconsin also likes to play fast; so, the game was a track meet to some extent.  One thing about Wisconsin is that they have “team speed” in the sense of getting up and down the court very quickly, but they do not have what I call “defensive speed”.  When an offensive set gets the defense in an unbalanced state, the Wisconsin defenders are not quick to adjust and to re-establish a cohesive defense.  High Point exploited that very well yesterday.

Both Nebraska and Troy had never won an NCAA Tournament game in school history.  Well, Nebraska is officially off the schneid now after beating Troy 76-47 yesterday.

Charles Dickens would have described the TCU/Ohio St. game yesterday as:

• A Tale of Two Halves.

TCU led at the half 39-24 and appeared to be able to put the game on cruise control for the rest of the day.  Not so.  Ohio State dominated the second half and had one last gasp with a three-quarter court shot to tie the game and send it to OT.  TCU moves on … barely.

Penn was outclassed by Illinois; the Illini also posted a triple-digit score in the game winning 105-70.

In the late game, Gonzaga won a nail-biter over a 14-seed in Kennesaw St.  Davis Fogle came off the bench for the Zags and scored 17 points which facilitated the 9-point margin of victory.  The Zags center, Graham Ike, was an interior force in the game scoring 19 points and grabbing 9 rebounds.

I do have one general observation about the games overall yesterday.

• Enforcement of the rules related to traveling was not made a point of emphasis for this season or for this tournament.

Finally, since this weekend will be devoted to wall-to-wall basketball as a sort of gluttony for the eyeballs, I’ll close with this observation by author Julie Burchill:

“Gluttony and idleness are two of life’s great joys, but they are not honourable.”

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

 

 

The numbers are in and they do not necessarily add up in my mind.  The NBA All-Star festivities were on TV over the same weekend and time period as NASCAR’s Daytona 500.  Here are the sizes of the TV audiences for those events from the folks who have managed to come up with a way to make such measurements:

• NBA All-Star Events = 8.0 million
• Daytona 500 = 7.4 million
• Advantage to the NBA by 8.1%

The NBA likes to portray itself as America’s #2 sport bowing to the obvious stature of the NFL while asserting firmly that the NBA has overtaken MLB in the hearts and minds of American sports fans.  Let me put aside the question posed there to point out that neither the NBA nor MLB has the same pull as college football or March Madness and so any argumentation about the positioning for the NBA vis a vis MLB is a question of “who’s in fourth place or fifth place”.

Few would try to argue that NASCAR is positioned to stake a claim on such a lofty perch for itself; and yet, when one of NASCAR’s signature events goes up against one of the NBA’s signature events, the audience difference is a mere 8%.  Here are the numbers that might convince you that – indeed – the NBA is far more influential as compared to NASCAR:

• Media Rights for NBA = $7.7B annually
• Media Rights for NASCAR = $1.1B annually
• Advantage to the NBA by 600%

Or another way to look at all these numbers in toto might be to say that the networks that bought the NASCAR rights got themselves a stone-cold bargain; they got themselves a comparable audience size for a tiny fraction of the cost.  Admittedly, that is far too simplistic a comparison because the value of the NBA rights is not the size of any of its “one-off events”.

The value of the NBA is that it provides inventory to the broadcasters; the NBA regular season consists of 1,230 games each of which will comfortably fill a 3-hour time slot for a network.  That is almost 3700 hours of programming and NASCAR cannot come close to that level of programming inventory.

And since I mentioned in passing the NFL above, let me put in perspective the size difference between the audiences under discussion here and the audience size for the Super Bowl this year – – proximal on the calendar to the NBA All-Star events and the Daytona 500:

• Super Bowl Audience = 124.9 million

Moving on …  The NBA continues to attract European fans to its product.  Like the NFL, it stages regular season games in Europe to “grow the game” and to plant seeds of fandom there.  About a month ago, the Magic and the Grizzlies played one game each in London and Berlin and the Managing Director of NBA Europe – yes, there is such an organization – said that the NBA and FIBA continue to explore the possibility of a European Basketball League that would rival the existing EuroLeague.  [Aside:  FIBA is the international governing body for basketball sort of like FIFA is the international governing body for soccer.]

I cannot pretend to be a follower of the EuroLeague, and I was surprised to read that pro basketball in Europe is not represented in many of the major metropolitan areas of the continent.  From what I have read, there are no permanent teams in:

• Berlin
• London
• Paris
• Rome

I have no idea what sort of “European NBA” entity the planners might have in mind, but I am confident that population centers of the size of those cities would be prime locations for new franchises.  Moreover, the NBA should find it easier to get a foothold in Europe with a new league than the NFL might.  For one thing, it would be a new league with a self-contained schedule and identity.  For another, there is some infrastructure in Europe for youth basketball as a talent developmental pathway; there may be a few American football clubs in Europe but not many.

I think the big question is not the viability of a pro basketball league in Europe; one is already there.  I think it will be important to see how or if the existing EuroLeague might co-exist with the concept of a “European NBA”.  This story has a long way to go …

Finally, I shall close today with this observation from Tiger Woods:

“Hockey is a sport for white men. Basketball is a sport for black men. Golf is a sport for white men dressed like black pimps.”

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

 

 

Surely, you have read or heard about Jerome Tang being fired by Kansas State as the head basketball coach there.  Just a quick reset … K-State was playing at home against a mediocre Cincy team and lost by 30 points; after the game, Coach Tang made a bunch of comments about his team and the players not giving full effort and that the ones who had been nonchalant would not be back next year.  I watched the replay of those comments and have a couple of personal observations:

• That was not a “rant”; Coach Tang was obviously upset – even angry – but he was in control, and he was not ready to accept that kind of play from his players any time in the future.
• It seemed to me that he put some of the blame on himself for recruiting/bringing in the players who had exhibited the sort of play he was denigrating in his comments.

Clearly, what Coach Tang did was out of the ordinary; coaches rarely unload that directly on their players; the typical “coach-speak” after a bed-wetting performance like that is to put the blame on the head coach and his staff saying they had to do better.  Not this time…  And I think it is that unusual nature that caused as much commentary in the press and on ESPN in this instance.

The AD and the university administration decided to fire Jerome Tang as is their right as his employer.  Here is where things get dicey; they decided to say they were firing him “for cause” meaning the school would not owe him approximately $18M for the balance of his contract.  The “cause” they cited was “embarrassment”; reportedly, the language in the contract that was cited references any behavior that causes “public disrepute, embarrassment, ridicule” to K-State.

Coach Tang has retained counsel; but as of this morning, he has not filed a lawsuit seeking his “buyout money”. That leads me to believe that the two sides are working on a settlement that might avoid a public trial where “embarrassment” is likely to be heaped on both parties.

For the record, were I a juror on this case given only what I know now I would vote for the plaintiff – Coach Tang – in this matter.  Sure, the school can fire him any time they want to do so; but if “embarrassment” is to be the “cause” then the embarrassment brought to K-State by the act of firing him is at least equal to if not measurably worse than anything arising from his postgame “rant”.

And speaking of possible embarrassment, Tony Clark surprisingly “stepped down” as the Executive Director of the MLBPA earlier this week.  Clark was a player in MLB and has been in that position with the Players Association since 2013.  Clark is 53 years old; so, when I read about his decision I wondered if he was fighting some dread disease; that is younger than retirement age for most folks.

The first “revelations” about that act involved an investigation by the Feds into some financial irregularities that may have existed in a couple of initiatives sponsored by the MLBPA and perhaps Tony Clark might have had a hand in activities there.  Given the overhang for the players union upcoming at the end of the 2026 season that “stepping aside” made some sense.

The current CBA for MLB and the MLBPA will expire around Thanksgiving, and all indications are that this negotiation will be acrimonious at best; more than a few commentators say that a lockout is likely and that it might cost us an entire MLB season in 2027.  Obviously, any sort of Federal investigation into the union’s Executive Director would create one of those dreaded distractions.

However, this morning the reports on what motivated this “stepping down” changed.  USA Today reports that an internal investigation by the union turned up an “inappropriate relationship” between Clark and his sister-in-law who is a union employee.  As of this morning, USA Today is calling the personnel action a “forced resignation”.

Obviously, this is only Act 1 of this drama; the Federal investigation is ongoing and the alleged dalliance of Clark with his wife’s sister is sufficiently salacious to entice reporters to keep an eye on anything that might be a “scoop” there.  If you want to read what I think is the most thorough exposition as of this moment, here is a link to a story in the NY Times from today.

Finally, I think this comment by Akio Morito, the co-founder of Sony, is relevant today:

“When I find an employee who turns out to be wrong for a job, I feel it is my fault because I made the decision to hire him”.

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

 

 

It should be clear to anyone who reads these rants that I am a big fan of NFL football; I am not someone who thinks the league is evil or exploitive.  Having said that, the NFL has suffered two recent setbacks in two different courtrooms, and I am happy to see those events.

Jon Gruden is suing the NFL for a variety of things including defamation and job loss.  Back in the days when Danny Boy Snyder was fouling the air with sexual harassment stuff, there was a side issue going on.  The Skins’ former team president somehow got into an email exchange with Gruden about “stuff” and some of the content in those emails was “inappropriate”.  One other side issue, subsequent to those email exchanges, the former team president and Danny Boy Snyder had a major falling out and wound up in court with each other.  And don’t you just know it, those email exchanges with Gruden leaked and Gruden lost his job as the Raiders’ head coach.

Let me be clear, I don’t know all that was exchanged in those emails and I do not condone that sort of behavior among professional adults.  But the fact is that Gruden believes he has a case and took it to court.  And the league’s position was that it had to be handled under Arbitration as described in the CBA.  Here is why Gruden and his legal team fought that:

• The Arbitration proceedings are private.  There is no public record.
• The arbiters are chosen by the league (a party to this grievance) and the players union (who does not represent coaches or GMs or team presidents).
• The final decision-maker after all is said and done is the NFL Commissioner who even under the most benign interpretation of events cannot be considered “impartial” in this case.

At the moment, the existing court ruling is that the case will be tried in open court in Nevada and according to a recent ESPN.com report, Gruden’s legal team will seek to have the Commissioner testify – or at least be deposed – as part of the plaintiff’s case.  A recent filing by Gruden’s lawyers told the court that discovery could take the rest of this year and that they would seek information from Goodell along with:

“… longtime former NFL counsel Jeff Pash, former Washington Commanders owner Dan Snyder, Raiders owner Mark Davis, Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones and New England Patriots owner Bob Kraft.

“Gruden’s list also includes designees of the New York Giants, Seattle Seahawks, New York Jets and Miami Dolphins. In addition, the filing names Roc Nation CEO Desiree Perez, several attorneys with Washington law firm Reed Smith and former NFL Players Association executive director DeMaurice Smith.”

I have no desire to see the NFL damaged by this process, but I am glad that it will happen in open court just the way any other “wrongful termination” or “character assassination” claim would be handled.  The NFL is the “King of Sports in the US”; that does not give it any special privileges when it comes to resolving legal allegations against it.

The second “courtroom sack” for the league involved the Brian Flores allegation of racial discrimination.  Flores along with Steve Wilks and Ray Horton claim that they were denied coaching opportunities based on their race and – as in the Gruden affair – the NFL claimed that it had to be handled by the Arbitration process spelled out in the CBA.  According to Adam Schefter, last week a court ruled that the case would proceed in court and not in the closed Arbitration process.  The attorneys representing the plaintiffs here summed up my sentiments very well:

“The court’s decision recognizes that an arbitration forum in which the defendant’s own chief executive gets to decide the case would strip employees of their rights under the law.  It is long overdue for the NFL to recognize this and finally provide a fair, neutral and transparent forum for these issues to be addressed.”

As I said above, I am as big a football fan as anyone; I follow the game closely.  However, I am an even bigger fan of the Fourteenth Amendment of the US Constitution which guarantees everyone “equal protection” under the law.  And the imposition of the Arbitration provisions of the NFL’s CBA in both cases seems to me to be “unequal protection”.  Let the trials begin when the parties are ready…

Finally, I shall close today with some observations by US Supreme court Justices:

“The remedy for speech that is false is speech that is true. This is the ordinary course in a free society. The response to the unreasoned is the rational; to the uninformed, the enlightened; to the straight-out lie, the simple truth.”  [Justice Anthony Kennedy]

And …

“Most of the things worth doing in the world had been declared impossible before they were done.” ­[Justice Louis Brandeis]

And …

“Like other human institutions, courts and juries are not perfect. One cannot have a system of criminal punishment without accepting the possibility that someone will be punished mistakenly.”  [Justice Antonin Scalia]

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

 

 

Sonny Jurgensen died last weekend at the age of 91.  Jurgensen is in the Pro Football Hall of Fame and was one of the best pure passers I ever saw.  He was drafted in the fourth round by the Eagles in 1957 – one round later than one of his favorite targets, Tommy McDonald.  After the 1963 season, the Eagles hired a new coach who almost immediately traded Jurgensen to the Skins in exchange for Norm Snead; it was one of the most lopsided single player exchanges ever in sports.  Jurgensen played on some bad teams in Washington such that his overall starting record in the NFL is below .500; nonetheless, he is deservedly in the Hall of Fame

Rest in peace, Christian Adolph (Sonny) Jurgensen.

I saw on one of the sports news feeds this morning that Rick Pitino passed Roy Williams for third place in all-time wins by a men’s college basketball coach.  Congratulations to Coach Pitino for that accomplishment.  And that got me thinking about college basketball and Rick Pitino and the renaissance of St. John’s basketball under Rick Pitino.  As my mind wandered over the old Big East basketball days – – before NIL and even before “one-and-done” – – I remembered some of the St John’s games in that conference.  Back then, when St. John’s played UConn, it was Louie Carnesecca on one bench and Jim Calhoun on the other.  For those of you who are too young to have seen any of those games, let me just say that neither coach was a shrinking violet on the sideline.

Fast forwarding in my imagination made me realize that St. John’s and UConn are in the same conference this year meaning they will play each other and that game would showcase Rick Pitino on one bench and Danny Hurley on the other.  That pairing should equal if not exceed the histrionics level routinely presented by Carnesecca/Calhoun games in the past.  So, just for giggles, I went to see when that game might happen – – hoping that it was not already in the books.  So, circle this date on your sports watching calendar:

• February 25^th at 7:00 PM ET

Both teams are currently ranked in the Top 20, which should make the game on the court interesting.  I am confident that the two coaches will present an exciting show off the court as well.

And while my mind is on the subject of college basketball, this will be the final year for St. Francis (PA) being a part of Division I college basketball.  When the season is over, the Red Flash will drop down to Division III and compete in basketball at that level.  According to reports the impetus for that move is money.  In order to compete in today’s college sports environment, schools need NIL money and St, Francis (PA) does not have any.

The Red Flash compete in the Northeast Conference along with the likes of Long Island University, LeMoyne and Wagner.  St. Francis won the conference tournament last year putting them in the NCAA Tournament field as the conference champion; that placement was in spite of an overall record of 16-17 in 2025 but as conference champs …

After that cameo appearance in March Madness for 2025 – – St Francis lost a play-in game by 2 points – – the school announced its decision to drop down to Division III.  As you might suspect, that created an exodus of the players from that team with remaining college eligibility and in their final Division I season, St Francis now sits in 8ith place in the ten-team Northeast Conference with an overall record of 6-18.  Last year, the Red Flash won its final 6 games including the conference tournament to make it to the “Big Dance”.  The odds weren’t in their favor last year and they certainly are not in their favor now, but you never know …

That overall record of 6-18 may be deflated a bit because St Francis has played road games against top teams around the country as a way to fund its program; top teams pay small schools to come and take a drubbing at the big boys’ homes using those games to enhance their records and as entertainment for their fanbase.  Already this year, St. Francis has lost to Oklahoma, TCU, Xavier, Temple and Florida; there was no way the Red Flash was going to win any of those games and indeed the smallest margin of defeat in them was 22 points (loss to Xavier).  But that is what small schools need to do just to stay afloat these days.

This is yet another unintended consequence of the basic concept of paying collegiate players straight cash instead of reimbursing them with scholarships, education expenses and educational opportunity.  I have been – – and I remain – – fully in favor of players getting NIL money.  At the same time, I can feel bad for smaller schools like St. Francis who may need to drop their Division I status to “stay in business”.

By the way, St. Francis’ basketball program has produced some top-shelf basketball players for the NBA including:

• Maurice Stokes – – He played 3 seasons in the NBA; he was Rookie of the Year in 1956 and an All-Star in all three seasons.  His career was cut short by a fall on the court that knocked him out, sent him into a coma and rendered him permanently paralyzed.
• Norm Van Lier – – He played 10 seasons in the NBA; his calling card was defense.  He made the first or second “All-Defense team” in 8 of those 10 seasons.
• Kevin Porter – – He played 10 seasons in the NBA; he led the league in assists four times and in the 78/79 season averaged 13.1 assists per game.

Finally, it seems proper today to close with these words from St, Francis of Assisi himself:

“Blessed are those who suffer persecution for justice’s sake, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven. He who has persevered to the end will be saved.”

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

 

 

Two days ago, many folks commemorated “The Day the Music Died” – — the plane crash that killed Buddy Holly, Richie Valens and The Big Bopper; today we should contemplate and come to terms with the death of the Sports Department at the Washington Post.  According to reports some of the sports staff will be reassigned to other sections of the paper; the rest are free agents in sports parlance.

Many folks outside the DC area probably think of the Post in terms of its investigative reporting like Woodward and Bernstein breaking the Watergate miasma; as a subscriber to the paper for the last 56 years, I recognized that the sports staff there was as good if not better than just about anywhere else in the country.  In addition to beat writers for local teams and folks who covered leagues or sports via a synoptic view, the Post sports section had great columnists – – and I mean great in the literal sense of the word.  Over the years I have been reading it, the Sports Section has had contributions from the likes of Shirley Povich, Tony Kornheiser, Michael Wilbon, John Feinstein, Tom Boswell, Norman Chad, Sally Jenkins, Christine Brennan, Jerry Brewer, Ken Denlinger, Dave Sheinin – – and probably another half dozen or so that do not spring to mind right now.  In case you are not familiar with the work of those people, let me assure you they were all informative and entertaining.

Recently, the NY Times eliminated its sports department and sports section in the paper, but the Times replaced it with The Athletic which does not provide “beat coverage” for local sports but does provide coverage and commentary at a more general level. There is no indication that there will be a similar “replacement” offered by the Post.  The NY Times seems to be surviving its sports shutdown, but before concluding that the Post will come out of this time in a positive direction, let me offer a cautionary note from right here in the DC area.

If you do not live in this part of the world, you may not know that there is another daily paper in the area – – the Washington Times.  About fifteen years ago, the Washington Times shuttered its sports section and offered no replacement coverage.  That shutdown was brief indeed lasting about six months before the Times started it up again and it was back to approximately what it had been in less than a year.  The reason for that was reported to be a precipitous drop in circulation numbers for the Washington Times.  Back then, the Post had a vibrant sports section and its dominance of the local market was magnified by the absence of any competition at all from the Times.  The current situation is the mirror image of about fifteen years ago; it will be interesting to see if the Post suffers significant subscription cancellations and if the Times sees an increase.  Stay tuned …

I mentioned The Athletic in passing above; there was a report there last week saying that the Athletic Department at Rutgers University lost more than $70M last year AND that was the third time in the last five years that the deficit had been of that magnitude.  I am not surprised that Rutgers runs a deficit athletically; I cannot think of a sport where Rutgers is a “must see” team today and it has been decades since Rutgers was a major participant in college basketball.  Here is why this is surprising to me:

• Rutgers is part of the Big-10 and therefore gets its share of the fat media rights package that comes from Big-10 football even though Rutgers is not much more than a football doormat.
• So, with that revenue inflow, how does Rutgers run up that big a deficit while remaining irrelevant in Big-10 athletics?

Moving on …  When the results of the Super Bowl next week are recorded, the New England Patriots will take the lead in one NFL statistic no matter what the outcome of this year’s game might be.  As of today:

• Most Super Bowl Wins – – Pats 6 and Steelers 6
• Most Super Bowl Losses – – Pats 5 and Broncos 5

            Ergo, as of next Sunday night, the Pats will either hold the record for most Super Bowl wins or most Super Bowl losses.  Take it to the bank …

Finally, here is an interesting perspective by author Ambrose Bierce:

“History is an account, mostly false, of events, mostly unimportant, which are brought about by rulers, mostly knaves, and soldiers, mostly fools.”

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

 

 

The NFL coaching game of musical chairs has come to an end.  No Black candidates filled any of the ten openings; so, now we will go through a short cycle of racial analysis of the entire NFL’s owners’ thinking.   According to the reports I have read, there are no allegations that any of the ten teams seeking new leadership on the sidelines violated the Rooney Rule meaning that all ten hiring teams interviewed at least two Black head coaching candidates.  So, how can that be?

First, as you read or hear from any of the commentators who will cite this situation as prima facie evidence of systemic racism, please note that one of the coaches hired in this cycle is an Arab-American of the Muslim faith.  Robert Saleh is now the coach of the Tennessee Titans and that biographical data does not fit squarely with the portrait of bigoted white owners assuring the purity of the photo that might be taken of all their head coaches.  I mention it here because it will not be a prominent part of the mind-reading exercise that will be forthcoming.

There is a Black head coaching candidate out there who can easily be held up as a victim in this hiring cycle.  However, the Brian Flores situation has extenuating circumstances.  One can easily make the case that Flores should not have been fired by Miami in 2022; he had been on the job for 3 seasons and had posted a winning record in the two seasons prior to his being fired.  Nonetheless, he was fired and in the hiring cycle of 2022, Flores alleges he was the victim of racial discrimination and has sued the NFL and three specific teams for redress of that grievance.

Two of the teams as defendants in Flores’ lawsuit are the Giants and the Dolphins.  Those two teams – – both seeking new coaches in this cycle – – specifically have more than sufficient reason not to hire Flores as of this date and the other eight teams looking for new sideline leadership might have a basis for seeing him as an antagonist at the moment.  I believe that Brian Flores would be a good head coach for an NFL team, but I understand how he might be starting at a disadvantage in his interview processes based on his legal allegations just as easily as that disadvantage might be due to his skin color.

I think this situation is set up to be an annual occurrence.  There is no reasonable mechanism one could impose on the NFL owners to maintain a specified level of minority coaching representation around the league; hiring and firing decisions are going to reside with each team.  And in that case, analyzing individual hirings requires knowing what is in the minds and hearts of the individual owners.  At this point, what springs to mind is the introduction to a radio program from the 1940s, The Shadow.  Each mystery episode began with:

“Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men?  The Shadow knows…”

Unfortunately, “The Shadow” is a fictional character, and we cannot avail ourselves of his fictional insights and abilities.  When you hear or read declarative statements about how this hiring cycle proves that race is the key factor in NFL hiring decisions, please remember that “The Shadow” is a fictional character.

Moving on … The “scoop-du-jour” this morning is that – – like Bill Belichick – – Robert Kraft will also not be revealed tomorrow night as an entrant into the Pro Football Hall of Fame.  As with the coaching debate from above, this report will conjure up some natural discussion points.

• Is this a “league sanction” levied because of Kraft’s alleged dalliance in that “massage parlor” incident?
• If Belichick was being “punished” for the scandals that occurred in his time with the Pats, is Kraft being similarly “punished”?
• Is this all being orchestrated by the NFL to assure that Belichick, Kraft and Tom Brady all go into the Hall of Fame in the same class since they were together atop the NFL for more than a decade?
• You get the point …

Here is another area where too much analysis and assertion depend on abilities reserved for “The Shadow”.  And in my mind, it obscures another topic that might be interesting on its own:

• Other than the owners who founded the NFL and persisted with the league long before it became an economic behemoth, why are modern owners even in the Hall of Fame?
• Other than raise a lot of money to buy a franchise with the intent of making a ton of money once installed as the new owners, what do current owners do that is “Fame-worthy”?

I think the gatekeepers for the Hall of Fame – – in all sports not just in pro football – – have two equally important mandates:

1. Enshrine worthy candidates as soon as possible – – AND – –
2. Keep unworthy/marginally worthy candidates out forever.

Only when those two mandates are enforced together will the Hall of Fame in question be a tribute to “greatness”.  There may be years when no one is considered worthy of induction and there may be years when the floodgates swing open.  That’s OK if it preserves the Hall of Fame as a bastion of “greatness”.  The very fact that there is a predetermined number of potential candidates in any given year means that “greatness” – – at best – – is on an equal footing with other criteria for induction.  Moreover, allowing a decade or so of eligibility for induction also speaks to the downgrading of “greatness”.  Think about it; after a player retires for 5 years and then is on a Hall of Fame ballot for 10 more years, he has done nothing to enhance or detract from his worthiness for enshrinement.  All that has been known for what seems like “forever”.

Finally, a closing thought today comes from author, Nelson Boswell:

“The difference between greatness and mediocrity is often how an individual views a mistake.”

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