The Sports Curmudgeon

After Michigan won the football national championship last year, it did not take a whole lot of time for coach Jim Harbaugh to leave Ann Arbor to take the job as the head coach of the LA Chargers.  One of the interpretations for that activity was that Harbaugh had “unfinished business” in the NFL having taken a team to the Super Bowl but not winning that game.  He had shown how to beat Ohio State, and he had won a national championship at his alma mater so what more was there for him to accomplish at the collegiate level.

Well based on reports yesterday, there may have been some other impetus for Harbaugh’s decision; maybe he was high tailing it out of town as a US Marshall was coming to town.

• Recall that Michigan was in the midst of a large NCAA investigation about a “sign-stealing operation” allegedly organized and operated by a grad assistant on Harbaugh’s coaching staff.  That investigation continues to this day, and it threatens the program there – – and some coaches – – with serious sanctions.
• And on top of that, there was that old NCAA investigation dealing with Harbaugh himself improperly recruiting players during a “dark period” imposed by the NCAA during the COVID times.  And yesterday, the NCAA levied a 4-year “show cause penalty” on Jim Harbaugh.  That means if any college wants to hire him for their football program in the next 4 years, they need to show why that hiring decision is in line with approved NCAA policies and practices PLUS there is a suspension subsumed in the penalty that would make Harbaugh ineligible to be involved in any way with a team for 1 full year after his employment began.

So, perhaps the coaching offer from the Chargers was more than an enticement for Harbaugh to leave Ann Arbor for LA.  Maybe it was also an escape hatch allowing him to dodge the gendarmes who were closing in on the football program…

Moving on …  I was reading a couple of reports about Sean Payton and his measured coach-speak with regard to the Broncos’ QB situation in their Training Camp.  Payton had nice things to say about all the QBs in camp as is to be expected when the team has no clear #1 QB holding down the position.  All coaches speak positively about the players on the roster but – – as an example – – there is no doubt who the #1 QB for the Chiefs happens to be on any given Tuesday.  But as I read reports of Payton’s remarks, something dawned on me:

• John Elway has been a loud voice – – if not the loudest voice – – in the choir of folks who have tried to build the Bronco’s roster over the years.
• John Elway was a stone-cold great QB in his playing days.
• John Elway has been remarkably unsuccessful in identifying the elements of a “great QB” that he had brought to Denver.

[Aside:  Yes, he did ”identify” Peyton Manning as having the elements of a “great QB” but so did just about everyone who watched NFL games on TV between the late ‘90s and 2012 when he arrived in Denver.]

Peyton Manning led the Broncos to the Super Bowl twice – – in 2013 and 2015 – – and the Broncos won the game in 2015 whereupon Manning retired.  Since that retirement event, the Broncos have floundered at the QB position; and while all that floundering is not directly the fault of John Elway, it is interesting to see how many folks have traversed the starting QB job in Denver.

• The “succession plan” was for Brock Osweiler to take over for Payton Manning in 2016 but Osweiler signed on with the Texans and the Broncos had to scramble a bit.
• The first trio to seek the starting job for the Broncos was Trevor Siemian, Paxton Lynch and Mark Sanchez.  Ooof …
• Next, Brock Osweiler returned to Denver – – and that solved nothing.
• Case Keenum and Joe Flacco came to town seeking the starting job and nothing positive came of those efforts.
• Next came Brandon Allen who aspired to mediocrity and then there was a glimmer of hope when Drew Lock looked as if he might – – I said might – – develop into a real NFL QB.  That glimmer of hope went out in 2020.
• Teddy Bridgewater was the next guy up but injuries that had plagued Bridgewater’s career from the start returned and rendered him unavailable.
• And then the Broncos traded for Russell Wilson sending Lock and a bunch of draft picks and three NFL players to Seattle allowing the Broncos to sign Wilson to a huge contract.  After two seasons the Broncos have chosen to eat the salary cap hit from that contract and they released Wilson outright making him a free agent.

That is a rather bleak summary of the Denver franchise and its shots in the dark to find a real #1 QB, and it is all the more bleak when you think about the amount of QB-savvy that appears to reside in the Broncos’ front office.  And what is the prognosis for the Broncos in 2024 and in the foreseeable future?

Well, the team now has a certified top-shelf QB-whisperer as the head coach in Sean Payton.  The Russell Wilson Era in Denver was mercifully brief and is now in the rearview mirror and no attention has been paid to the squandering of draft capital and players that it took for the Broncos to experience the Russell Wilson Era in the first place.  And here is the team’s roster situation at the QB position as of this morning:

• Bo Nix:  12^th overall Draft pick in 2024; has had lots of college starts
• Jarrett Stidham: 5^th year in the NFL, 4 starts, 1 victory in those 4 starts
• Zach Wilson:  4^th year in the NFL, 33 starts, 12-21 record in those starts.

Finally, since I mentioned Peyton Manning above, let me close with his description of an ideal QB:

“I think I could describe the perfect quarterback. Take a little piece of everybody. Take John Elway’s arm, Dan Marino’s release, maybe Troy Aikman’s drop-back, Brett Favre’s scrambling ability, Joe Montana’s two-minute poise and, naturally, my speed.”

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

 

 

I am going to step well outside the boundaries of my expertise today; I am not a biologist; the last time I took a biology course was in my senior year of high school – – soon after the completion of Stonehenge.  What follows here is opinion based on a flimsy and time-worn basis of understanding.

In the Paris Olympics, there is an Algerian woman boxer, Imane Khelif, and she is causing a controversy.  I could have put the word “she” in the previous sentence within quotation marks because it is her gender that came under question.  In her opening bout, Khelif won by a TKO in less than a minute when her opponent gave up.  Here is a thumbnail of the backstory:

• Khelif has participated in international boxing competitions in the past.  She competed in the women’s division and was assigned “female gender” at birth.
• Khelif has been banned from competition sanctioned by the International Boxing Association (IBA) for having failed a “gender test.”  That test has been characterized as a “DNA test” which sounds authoritative to someone like me who has no background in biology.
• The IOC ruled that she was eligible to compete in women’s boxing this year because her birth certificate and her passport say that she is a female.  That seems fair enough – – until you recall some of the Bulgarian and East German “female competitors” whose documents said the same thing about 50 years ago.
• Normally, the IOC defers to the sanctioning bodies of individual sports on questions of rules and eligibility and matters of that sort.  However, there seems to be a longstanding and simmering “feud” between the IOC and the IBA that could play a part here.  Boxing as a sport is a hotbed of corruption; the IOC is hardly a paragon of virtue as an institution; it seems to me that the situation at hand is “Corruption-squared”.

My bottom line here is simple and straightforward:

• I do not know if Imane Khelif is a female or a male – – but it is important for someone somewhere to make that determination based on scientific evidence.

Months ago, when I ranted about Lia Thomas dominating women’s college swimming after transitioning from a male to a female post-puberty, I explained that there is a biological anisotropy that exists between mature men and mature women.  Men – on average – are larger, stronger and faster than women.  There is no bias or profiling in that statement; that is simply based on observations and data.  Consider athletic achievements at the top level of sports for men and for women.

• Men run faster.  The men’s 100-meter dash record is 9.58 seconds.  The women’s 100-meter dash record is 10.49 seconds.
• Men run faster longer.  The men’s marathon record is 2 hours and 35 seconds.  The women’s marathon record is 2 hours 11 minutes and 53 seconds.
• Men are stronger.  The men’s shotput record (16 lb. lead ball) is 77 feet, 3.5 inches.  The women’s shotput record (8.9 lb. lead ball) is 74 feet, 2.75 inches.
• Men are stronger.  The men’s javelin record (800 grams or heavier) is 98.48 meters.  The women’s javelin record (600 grams or heavier) is 72.28 meters.

Here’s the point.  If a male who has gone through puberty and then trained to become an elite athlete is allowed to compete against females who have gone through puberty, the male will have a clear and distinct advantage.  In the case of swimming or running or field events as noted above, the “injury” to the women competitors is that they are trying to beat someone who has an advantage not available to them.  We can acknowledge that is unfair and that it conveys frustration upon the women, but that is the extent of the injury.

In boxing, the stakes are higher.  Boxing is properly characterized as a “combat sport”; the entire objective is for each competitor to try to render the opponent senseless for a period of 10 seconds or more.  There have been some famous Olympic boxers in the past whose names will ring bells with sports fans even if they are not boxing fans:

• Muhammad Ali
• Oscar de la Hoya
• George Foreman
• Joe Frasier
• Sugar Ray Leonard

The thought of watching any of those men in a serious boxing match against a woman is frightening and repulsive.  That is why someone, somewhere needs to determine if Imane Khelif is a man or a woman and then that someone somewhere needs to apply that standard to every person who seeks to compete in boxing.  I would prefer it if that same determination based on that same evidence applied to other sports such as swimming or track and field, but it seriously needs to apply to boxing.

Recall my description of this situation as “Corruption-squared”.  Even if I had in hand the definitive test that was accepted by biologists, medical practitioners, feminist groups and sports fans everywhere, I think there would still be reluctance at best and refusal most likely by one or both of the IBA and/or the IOC.

Finally, these words from author Robert Kiyosaki:

“Life isn’t fair.  It never will be.  Quit trying to make it fair.  You don’t need it to be fair.  Go make life unfair to your advantages.”

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

 

 

As the NFL Exhibition Season revs itself up, I want to take a moment to look at seven head coaches who enter the 2024 season on a hot seat.  In a “high-turnover year”, the league might see as many as 8 coaches get fired (25% of the guys in that head coaching fraternity); this year there are indeed 8 new head coaches – – counting Antonio Pierce who was held over after taking over the team in mid-season last year – – meaning that 25% of the coaches in the league pretty much get a pass for a year.  Nevertheless, there are coaches who need to have their teams perform well to assure they remain in position in 2025.

Let me be clear; I am not “rooting for” anyone to lose their job.  This is just an attempt to “take the temperature” of the environment for several NFL teams.  My list is in alphabetical order and not as a prioritization of any kind.

• Dennis Allen has been the head coach of the Saints for 2 years; his record with the team is 16-18-0 with no playoff appearances.  This is Allen’s second go-round as a head coach in the NFL; previously he was the head coach for the Raiders where his record was 8-22-0 meaning he does not have a glorious past to help him maintain his position.  The NFC South has been one of the weaker divisions in the league the past two years and the Saints have not been able to cash in on that weakness.  I think the Saints need to make the playoffs this year – – which probably equates with winning the division – – in order to retain Dennis Allen in the job.
• Todd Bowles has been the head coach of the Bucs for 2 years; his record with the team is 17-17-0 but the Bucs have made the playoffs in both of those two seasons and advanced out of the wild-card round with a playoff win last year.  On one hand, his record is one game better than Dennis Allen’s; on the other hand, his teams have been in the playoffs every year that he has been in charge.  Like the situation with the Saints, Bowles may be in a position of being judged as not accumulating a winning record in a weak division thereby generating agita in the owner’s suite.  I think the Bucs need to make the playoffs again this year – – which probably equates with winning the division – – in order to retain Tod Bowles in the job.
• Brian Daboll has been the head coach of the Giants for 2 years; his record with the team is 15-18-1 with one playoff appearance.  In his first year in NY, Daboll made the playoffs, won a wild-card game and was named the NFL Coach of the Year.  Last year, the wheels fell off the wagon; the Giants were 6-11 and were not competitive in more than a couple of those losses.  Indeed, there were injuries last year including an injury to starting QB, Daniel Jones, that had him miss more than half the year.  There were some rough interactions between Daboll and defensive coordinator Wink Martindale last year, but that problem has been eliminated with Martindale being fired and replaced with Shane Bowen late of the Tennessee Titans’ defense.  I think there are 3 dimensions to Brian Daboll keeping his job in NYC:

1. 1. 1. The team needs a break-even record or better.  That may not be enough to get to the playoffs, but it will show improvement over last season.
      2. Every team has a bad game here and there, but the Giants cannot be “uncompetitive” in more than one of their losses.
      3. There needs to be “coaching harmony” within the staff; no more sniping at one another among the coaches and the assistants.

• Matt Eberflus has been the coach of the Bears for 2 years; his record with the team is 10-24-0 with no playoff appearances.  The Bears were 7-10-0 in 2023 which is a marked improvement over the 3-14-0 record posted in Eberflus’ first season in Chicago.  Moreover, the Bears have added Caleb Williams to the roster for 2024 and the expectation is that Williams will be the Bears’ best QB since Sid Luckman hung up his jockstrap in 1950.  The Bears have three strong division opponents making their schedule a lot dicier than is the situation in either New Orleans or Tampa Bay; so, I don’t think a playoff appearance is mandatory for Eberflus to keep his job.  I think he needs a break-even year with competitive losses plus observable growth on the part of Caleb Williams into the job of “franchise QB”.
• Mike McCarthy has been the coach of the Cowboys for 4 years; his record with the team is 42-25-0 with 3 playoff appearances and 2 NFC East championships.  Why is that a hot seat?  Well, it is the Cowboys – – where unrealistic expectations are born and raised; plus, this is the final year of McCarthy’s contract with the club.  As noted here, McCarthy’s teams have been in the playoffs 3 times in the last 4 seasons, but they have been unceremoniously dismissed from the playoffs without winning any games there.  I think the Cowboys need a playoff win in January 2025 for McCarthy to keep his job.
• Nick Sirianni has been the coach of the Eagles for 3 years; his record with the team is 34-17-0 with 3 playoff slots, 1 NFC East championship and 1 Super Bowl appearance.  Why is that a hot seat?  Well, the Eagles as a franchise are not averse to changing coaches and “changing cultures”.  Remember they fired Andy Reid after a couple of sub-par seasons; they hired and fired Chip Kelly when it was pretty clear that was not working out; they fired Doug Pedersen two years after a Super Bowl victory; the Eagles are not afraid of coaching changes.  So, here are Nick Sirianni’s parameters for 2024:
  • • The Eagles started the season 10-1 last year and then lost five of their last six games in an epic collapse.  Nothing close to that sort of performance is permissible; in fact, if the team looks like they are in a funk during the season, there could easily be a coaching change in mid-year.
    • I dismiss the “stories” about friction between Sirianni and QB, Jalen Hurts; but the fact is that Hurts did not play well during “the collapse”.  Jalen Hurts cannot continue to regress in his performance this season.
    • Sirianni had hired two new coordinators last year; both were fired after that dismal collapse; he has played the “fire the coordinators card” already.
    • The new coordinators in Philly have solid NFL reputations and that sets the expectations at a high level in a city where failing to meet expectations is not a pleasant experience.
    • The Eagles need to make the playoffs as a minimum in 2024.
• Robert Saleh has been the coach of the Jets for 3 years; his record with the team is 18-33-0.  Last year was supposed to be a “turnaround” year for the Jets with the acquisition of Aaron Rodgers to play QB for a franchise that has not had an above average starting QB since Joe Namath left town in 1976.  Unfortunately, Rodgers played 4 snaps before his Achilles tendon snapped and the Jets were back to square one trying to win without a reliable passing game.  Rodgers is back at age 41 and expectations among Jets’ fans are lofty.  But I sense that all is not peaches and cream between Rodgers and Saleh.
  • • When Rodgers missed the Jets’ “mandatory mini-camp”, Saleh said that the absence was “unexcused” and left it at that.  I interpret that as a message to Rodgers that the coach is not happy and that the coach is the one in charge not the player.
    • Rodgers explained that he misunderstood the Jets’ schedule and that things had been different during all his time with the Packers.  Maybe so … but everyone else on the roster understood the schedule and showed up.  I interpret that as the star QB challenging the coach to do something about it.  Aaron Rodgers is an intelligent man; how might he have misunderstood the meaning of the word, “mandatory”?
    • Saleh held a press conference last week and said that even though Rodgers is not limited in what he does in practice, the Jets will not be playing him in the opening Exhibition Game.  No big deal there; that is standard stuff.
    • Rodgers told the press that it was news to him and that he and Saleh had not had any conversation about him playing or sitting and that he was happy to do whatever he was told to do.  Passive-aggressive behavior is not a good look during NFL Training Camp times…
    • I think the Jets need a winning record in 2024 for Robers Saleh to keep his job.

I have listed 7 coaches here who face challenges in 2024 that their teams need to overcome if the coaches are to be in the same position in 2025.  Every year, a situation develops during the season that is totally unexpected and so I want to mention one other name who might feel some heat during the season:

• Dave Canales is the new head coach in Carolina; it is his first time as a head coach in the NFL; he takes over a team that was 2-15-0 in 2023 so it would not take a Herculean effort to “show improvement” there.  Why am I mentioning his name?  The Panthers’ owner is David Tepper who had owned the team since 2018; in those 6 NFL seasons, the Panthers have already had 6 head coaches counting interim head coaches who took over in mid-season.

Finally, here is an observation about coaching and getting fired from Lou Holtz:

“Coaching is nothing more than eliminating mistakes before you get fired.”

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

 

 

When I was a kid, one of the must-see TV shows was Perry Mason; I loved it when Perry got to cross examine Lieutenant Tragg.  I also got to the point where I thought every murder case could be handled in about 50 minutes with a couple of minutes left over so that the victors – – Mason and his team of course – – could celebrate.  Such is not the case in reality as we shall see today in three lawsuits involving the NFL.

For the last several months the NFL has been sued over some arrangements it had with a TV provider for “Sunday Ticket”.  I never subscribed to that service nor had any interest in it so I never began to understand what the lawsuit was about; I might read the lead paragraph of a story about it and then move on; that is why I have not mentioned it in these rants until now.

Ignoring the underlying issues in the case, the NFL lost Round One when a jury ruled for the plaintiff and assessed damages to be paid to the plaintiffs of $4.7B – – clearly not an award of “chump change”.  Reports said that at least some of the plaintiff’s allegations involved anti-trust violations; I know that in some situations anti-trust cases can involve treble damages; I do now know if any or all that $4.7B judgement might be subject to tripling because the detailed reporting is well beyond my level of understanding.

The bottom line is that the NFL lost big-time at the trial level and vowed to appeal the situation but before they even did that, the NFL petitioned the judge to set aside the assessment of damages.  And earlier this week, the judge did just that.  As I understand it, he did so because the jury did not follow his instructions in calculating the damage assessment.  So, the status of this case raises several questions to this legal illiterate:

• If the judge has a method of calculating the damage award that he communicates to the jury, why have the jury do it in the first place?  Why doesn’t the judge thank the jury for its verdict and announce the damage assessment by himself if he knows what the calculation should be?
• When he sets aside the damages in the case, does that set aside the verdict too? 
• Can the plaintiffs here appeal the part of the ruling that set aside the damages and leave the verdict intact so the judge can do the calculation himself?

Perry Mason would have this one solved by recalling one witness – – if it please the court…

I had no dog in the fight over “Sunday Ticket”, but I do have at least a “rooting interest” in the other two cases involving the NFL that I want to discuss today.  The first one involves Brian Flores and a couple of other plaintiffs who are suing the NFL and a couple of specific teams alleging racial discrimination in hiring.  The status of the lawsuit is that a Federal judge has ruled that this case must go to trial and the NFL has appealed that ruling saying the dispute should be handled by arbitration which is controlled by NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell.  In this case, I am rooting hard for Flores et. al. to have their case proceed in Federal Court with evidence presented for everyone to see.

Obviously, a claim of racial discrimination in hiring by the NFL and/or some of its teams should not be heard in a secret tribunal controlled by the NFL if the outcome of that trial is to be considered fair and equitable to all the parties.  But over and above that issue, the evidence presented by the parties in the arbitration process is not available for public view and that presents two “problems” for me:

1. No matter the ruling, there is no way anyone outside the people who heard the evidence presented in the case can possibly assess the fairness or the righteousness of the decision.  Any such conclusion by anyone from a legal ignoramus like me to the Dean of the Law School at a prestigious university is nothing but speculation.
2. If the outcome of the arbitration process is in favor of the NFL and its teams, there is no way to dispose of the reality that the NFL is the defendant AND the judge with no jury involved in the arbitration process.  Caesar’s wife had to be above suspicion; this arbitration process should adhere to that standard and the way it is set up it cannot.

Moreover, racial discrimination accusations are serious business – – far more serious than any sort of suspension or fine might be.  If indeed Flores and his co-plaintiffs can make a case to prove racial discrimination, they should be given a level playing field to try to do so.  If they have such a level playing field – – trial in a Federal Court – – and they lose the case, so be it.  Of course, if Flores et. al. have hired a real-life Perry Mason, they won’t lose their case…

The third case involving the NFL for today is the Jon Gruden suit against the NFL who alleges “tortious interference” with his contract to be the head coach of the Las Vegas Raiders.  Gruden alleges that Roger Goodell or someone aligned with Goodell leaked copies of racist, misogynistic and homophobic emails to the Wall Street Journal and the NY Times that Gruden had written long before he was the coach of the Raiders and was a football analyst for ESPN.   Gruden’s suit alleges that such “tortious interference” cost him about $60M in lost wages from the Raiders plus endorsement deals that he may have had as a result of his position with the team.

Once again, the league wants the case to go to arbitration which it controls.  Gruden won the right to an open trial at the Nevada District Court level but lost on appeal to the Nevada Supreme Court where the judges said that he had accepted the settlement of disputes via arbitration as part of his contract with the Raiders.  That ruling was a 2-1 decision in favor of the NFL; Gruden has now appealed to the Nevada Supreme Court for an en banc hearing of his appeal meaning the whole Nevada Supreme Court would hear the case.  Reports say this is quite a longshot on the part of Gruden’s lawyers, but any port in a storm, I guess.

I have neither animus nor admiration for Jon Gruden, but I have a voyeuristic interest in this matter.  There were reports that the “leaked emails” were culled from a mass of about 600,000 emails that were exchanged with Gruden and various NFL folks at various levels in the league.  Totally unrelated to the outcome of Jon Gruden’s case, I would love to see – and download – that body of emails to get a peek behind the curtain that hides from view some of the NFL’s inner workings.  Gruden needs Perry Mason here to be allowed to “recall a witness” for the en banc Court to hear…

Finally, the obvious person to quote at the end of today’s rant is Erle Stanley Gardner – – the creator of Perry Mason:

“After you’ve written a story, the thing to do is sell it. Sounds simple, and it is, if one will follow certain basic principles of salesmanship.”

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

 

 

Remember that “warm-up game” between the US men’s Olympic team and the South Sudan men’s Olympic team?  The one where the US team needed a basket in the final 20 seconds of play to eke out a 101-100 victory?  Well, the two teams happened to be in the same Group in the Olympic competition meaning that they would necessarily play each other at least one more time – – and that mandatory meeting took place yesterday with the outcome being more in line with “basketball normalcy”.  The US won convincingly 103-86.

Bam Adebayo had himself quite a game for the US side:

• 18 points
• 8 for 10 shooting from the field
• 7 rebounds
• 2 blocked shots
• 1 steal.

Moreover, Adebayo did all that in less than 21 minutes of playing time…

Two other team stats from this game stood out to me relating to how the US team can play together dominantly:

1. The US team made 37 field goals in the game and 29 of those field goals came off an assist.
2. The US team recorded 13 steals and 7 blocked shots in the game; they were playing aggressive defense in addition to efficient offense.

Moving on …  I read a report that I would hope is completely wrong.  According to this report, the NFL – as part of its deal with its “broadcast partners” – will require each team to provide its head coach for an in-game interview with the sideline reporter in every game.  The report said there would be one interview in each half.  What a humongous waste of time, energy and neurological connections those interviews will be!

Sample interview:

• Q:  Coach, what did you tell the team they needed to do at halftime to overcome the 21-point deficit you faced?
• A:  I told them to make plays and score more points.  *grunt*
• Thanks, Coach…

Other than reporting on injuries that occur during a game, sideline reporters generally offer unadulterated banality over the airwaves.  So, now the NFL and the networks have concluded that it would be a good idea to make unadulterated banality a mandatory part of every telecast.  It’s no wonder those folks make the big bucks…

Switching gears …  One of the recurring storylines of this NFL offseason has been about the Cowboys’ needing to deal with Dak Prescott on a contract extension.  Here is a quick reset of the situation:

• Prescott’s contract is up at the end of this season.
• His existing contract has a no-trade clause.
• His existing contract forbids the Cowboys from using the franchise tag or a transition tag on Prescott at the end of this deal.
• Due to several “restructuring actions” on the contract, IF Prescott plays out the deal and becomes a free agent, the Cowboys will have to accommodate a $40M salary cap charge in 2025.

There are three other factors involved in this situation:

1. There is no other QB on the Cowboys’ roster who is a threat to be a starting QB in the NFL.
2. The “market price” for starting QBs has exploded with a half dozen QBs now earning an average of more than $50M per year – – with $60M per year in plain view.
3. The Cowboys also need to reach agreement on contract extensions with two other star players – – WR, CeeDee Lamb and LB, Micah Parsons.

In any situation like this one where two sides are in contentious negotiations, there is always the possibility that one side will overplay the hand dealt to them.  Right now, it sure seems to me to be that Prescott has the upper hand and I think he recognizes that to be the case because he said this to a reporter from ESPN:

“I have an obligation to the NFL, to other quarterbacks and to my teammates when it comes to what I get paid and what I accept. That’s where sometimes I leave it to my agents.”

So, maybe Dak Prescott will be the guy who breaks the $60M per year average salary in his next contract.  And if that is the case, let me say this before the fact:

• In 2020, Patrick Mahomes signed a 10-year contract worth $450M – – an average annual salary of $45M.
• If Dak Prescott is deemed to be worth $60M per year by the Cowboys or any other team in the NFL, Patrick Mahomes deserves at least $70M per year.

Finally, an observation by Albert Einstein:

“If you can’t explain it simply, you don’t understand it well enough.”

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

 

 

The folks who read these rants and take the time and energy to provide me with addenda to the rants are – – at the very least – – Honorary Curmudgeons.  Maybe they are ready to step in and take over the reins here should I “shuffle off this mortal coil” any time soon?  Yesterday, I pointed out that this year’s Chicago White Sox have a chance to be inept at a historical level.  As of yesterday, the White Sox record was 27-82 for a winning percentage at the time of publication of ,248.  After making that point, I got two emails from readers regarding the White Sox status.

The first was from the “reader in Houston” who for the record grew up in the NY City environs.  Here is his commentary on this year’s White Sox:

“It seems that every so often, there is a team that you can project to lose 120 games, but that record will always belong to my 1962 Mets, at least in our lifetime. With a number of weak teams each year in both leagues with full interleague play, even the worst team in the bunch couldn’t be as incompetent as the expansion Mets.

“In recent years, the A’s, Tigers, O’s, and D-Backs were projected to be on their way to that number, but they somehow squeezed out a few extra wins in the second half of the season to avoid being the “worst”, as they came close, but no cigar.”

The “reader in Houston” is right.  Interleague play pits the worst teams in both leagues against each other which is a potential benefit that did not apply to the 1962 Mets.  Moreover, the economics of MLB now favor big market teams and individually wealthy owners more than it did 60+ years ago.  But I can still hope for a new standard of ineptitude, can’t I?

The second email came from a former colleague who has been reading rants since before they ever saw the light of day on the Internet.  He did some math that I wish I had done yesterday.

“You mentioned the two losing streaks the [White] Sox have endured this year.  Forget those 29 games in those two streaks.  If those games never happened, the White Sox record would be 27-53 or a win %-age of .338.

“That win %-age is still the worst in MLB in 2024.  The worst team other than the White Sox this year is the Rockies whose win %-age is .355.  That means the White Sox are more than 29 games worse than any other MLB team.  To use your favorite expression, ‘Yowza!’”

I tip my cap to my former colleague and accept the smudge on my Curmudgeon Credential for failing to do that math.  As Tony Kornheiser says at the end of every Pardon the Interruption episode, “We’ll try and do better the next time.”  So shall I …

And the mention of PTI provides a natural segue to the next item of business for today.  For more than the last 20 years, the lead-in show to PTI has been Around the Horn and for a while Around the Horn attracted daily audiences in excess of 500,000 viewers that presented Tony and Mike with momentum as their program began.  Such is no longer the case and according to reports, Around the Horn may not have a long-term presence on ESPN.  One report says it will dry up and blow away in 2025.

For years, Around the Horn and PTI were standard parts of my daily schedule but my interest in Around the Horn has waned significantly in the last couple of years.  When the show began, the “panelists/debaters” were sportswriters and commentators of note.  Some of those early folks were the likes of:

• Tim Cowlishaw
• Jay Mariotti
• Jackie McMullen
• Woody Page
• Bill Plaschke
• Bob Ryan

Every day, at least two of those folks would be part of the show and they brought some gravitas with them because sports fans everywhere knew who they were even if they did not see them or read them daily.  It was a place to go to hear from some heavyweights in the business.  Such is not the case today.  Yes, every once in a while one of the heavy hitters shows up on screen, but far more often than not, I get to hear welterweights at best.

My mother used to say that there is a time and a place for everything; I think the time and place for Around the Horn is in the past.  Sad…

Finally, this observation by Napoleon Bonaparte:

“Glory is fleeting, but obscurity is forever.”

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

 

 

Driving home last weekend, we ran into a traffic slowdown; turns out it was about 5 miles long moving at 10-20 mph and the cause was an accident on the other side of the Interstate.  It was a 5-mile rubbernecking delay.  People love to look at accidents/disasters; check your local news at night; the lead story will almost always be either a fire, a shooting or a transportation disaster.  In the TV news business, there is an adage:

• If it bleeds, it leads!

Here in Curmudgeon Central, I am not immune from a fascination with failures to the point that I like to see if I can find potential prodigious failures before they go into the record books.  If that sounds a bit ghoulish to you, rest assured you are not the first person to think about me that way.  And that leads me to my focusing attention on the Chicago White Sox in the 2024 season.

As of this morning, the Sox record is 27-82.  We are not quite into the month of August and the White Sox have already guaranteed that they will finish the season below .500.  To achieve this level of ineptitude, the Sox are on a current 15-game losing streak AND they endured a 14-game losing streak earlier in the season.  The MLB record for consecutive losses is 23 losses in a row set by the Phillies in 1961; that mark of futility seems to be in little danger – – for now.

However, if we do some projecting, the White Sox final record in 2024 would be 40-122 and that would be historic.

1. The record for the most losses in a single season belongs to the 1962 Mets; their final record was 40-120; two obviously meaningless games were not made up that year.
2. The Mets’ winning percentage that year was .250.  That is not the lowest win percentage in MLB’s modern era; that ignominy belongs to the 1935 Boston Braves whose record in 153 games was 38-115 for a win percentage of .248.
3. The White Sox in 2024 have a win percentage as of this morning equal to .248.  That is not the sort of history a team seeks to make…

Moving on …  The Green Bay Packers and their young QB, Jordan Love have come to agreement on a contract extension of 4 years and $220M with a $75M signing bonus.  Jordan Love is 25 years old; when he plays out his current contract and then the extension, he will be 30 years old and can be a free agent for another bite of the apple.  Yum …

The Packers have been on a QB high for more than 30 years:

• In 1992, the Packers acquired Brett Favre in a trade with the Falcons.  Favre played 16 years in Green Bay before he was traded to the Jets for the 2008 season.
• The Packers had drafted Aaron Rodgers in 2005 and turned over the QB job to Rodgers when Favre was sent to NY.  Rodgers was the QB in Green Bay for 15 years when he was traded in 2022 to the Jets.
• The Packers had drafted Jordan Love in 2020 and gave him the QB job in 2023 with the departure of Rodgers.  If you make a linear projection, Jordan Love should spend the next 16 years in Green Bay until he is traded to the Jets sometime around 2039.

Brett Favre is in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.  Aaron Rodgers will join him there about 5 years after Rodgers retires from professional football.  If that is the career trajectory for Jordan Love, the fans in Green Bay must have done something to please the football gods …

Next up …  I found this comment in Bob Molinaro’s column about 2 weeks ago in the Hampton Roads Virginian-Pilot:

“In NIL news: Arch Manning, the backup quarterback for the Texas Longhorns, reportedly received between $50,000 and $60,000 to promote a college football video game. Imagine how much he could have made if he were first-string. Or how little if he wasn’t a Manning.”

Switching gears …  There is an article at ESPN.com with this headline:

“Why Suns’ Bradley Beal should come off the bench”

The article makes some rational points based on stats and suggested player fits given the Suns just signed a free agent to play point guard there in Tyus Jones.  Here is a reason to believe that Bradley Beal will not be coming off the bench:

• Bradley Beal’s contract with the Suns has two years left; he will make $104M in those two years – – guaranteed.
• After that, Beal has a “player option” for one more year at a guaranteed salary of $57.1M.  From my perspective, the only way he will not exercise that option is if he is abducted by aliens and taken to play in the Galactic Basketball League.
• So, the Suns will pay Beal $161M over the next 3 years – – and they are not likely to pay that to a guy “coming off the bench”.

Finally, much of today has dealt with sports providing lots of money to various folks; so, let me close with this view of wealth by H. L. Mencken:

“Wealth – any income that is at least one hundred dollars more a year than the income of one’s wife’s sister’s husband.”

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

 

 

I read recently that Thom Brennaman will be returning to the sports world after a banishment of about 4 years.  Brennaman was the play-by-play announcer for the Cincinnati Reds in MLB and he held down a play-by-play slot for FOX Sports’ coverage of MLB games and for their college football telecasts.  In 2020, he did not realize that a microphone was on in the booth, and he was caught on-air making a homophobic comment:

• [San Francisco is] “one of the fag capitals of the world”.

Naturally, he apologized for that remark; but 2020 was a time when the “cancel culture” was going strong.  No apology would be sufficient, and Thom Brennaman lost both of his play-by-play jobs; he was deemed to be unworthy of public interaction.

Brennaman has continued as best he can at his profession over the last 4 years broadcasting games for the Roberto Clemente League in Puerto Rico for a year and for an audio streaming platform called Chatterbox Sports after that.  Chatterbox Sports does high school games in the Cincinnati area.  Meaning no disregard to Chatterbox Sports or to high school sports, that represents quite a come down from doing MLB games on radio and TV.

The story has an element of redemption to it now.  It seems that Thom Brennaman has been hired by The CW to be their leading play-by-play announcer for coverage of ACC football starting this Fall.  His first appearance on the national airwaves will be on August 31^st when Idaho State visits Oregon State in Corvalis, OR.  [Aside:  Yes, I know that Idaho State and Oregon State being telecast as part of the Atlantic Coast Conference is a bit of a stretch…]  He will also do some ACC basketball games this winter after the football season is over.

I liked Thom Brennaman as an announcer; I remember him teamed with Joe Girardi as the color analyst and thought that pairing was very good.  I am glad he has the opportunity to take this job and resume what was a productive career.  To be sure, his comment was wrong and not justified; to be equally sure, his 4-year sentence to the hinterlands of US sports seems sufficient punishment.

Moving on …  There was another element of “cancel culture” back about the time Thom Brennaman was deemed to be a non-person.  In 2021, a woman accused Trevor Bauer of sexual assault.  Police began an investigation and the LA Dodgers backed away from him very quickly removing any merchandise linked to Bauer from their team store at the stadium and online.  Subsequently, two other women made similar allegations and Bauer was suspended from baseball for a year and a half.  [Aside:  That suspension was reduced on appeal, but you get the idea that MLB was not pleased about this in the least.]  And just for icing on the cake, a fourth woman accused Bauer of impregnating her as a result of yet another sexual assault.

Bauer denied all these accusations; but like Brennaman he was not welcome to continue with his employment.  However, the police investigation never led to any charges against Bauer let alone any convictions at trial.  He sued the woman who made the original claim against him for defamation, and she sued him for sexual battery in a civil action.

As these and other related cases made their way through the legal system, Bauer continued to play baseball but in Japan for a year and then in a Mexican League.  Recall that Bauer won a Cy Young Award while still involved with MLB, so it should not be a surprise that he pitched well in Japan and again in Mexico.  As of today, it seems that all the legal entanglements are over; Bauer and the woman suing him for sexual battery both dropped their suits prejudicially; investigations led to no charges in the other cases and for the woman who accused him of impregnating her, charges were levied against her for defrauding Bauer with her claims and collecting money from him that was unwarranted.

But there is no element of redemption in this saga.  Notwithstanding Trevor Bauer’s Cy Young Award and his pitching success since being banished from MLB, no team has found a way to bring him back to MLB.  Indeed, the allegations against Bauer are stark; at the same time, none of those allegations have been shown to be based on facts that can be independently corroborated.  And it is not as if there is a surfeit of starting pitching talent in MLB today.  Just to pick one team looking to make the playoffs this year who have “starting pitcher question marks”, look at the Atlanta Braves:

• Spencer Strider has missed all of 2024 with an elbow injury.
• Max Fried is on IL now and will miss at least another week.
• Arguably, those two pitchers were the “top of the rotation” for the Braves in April.

So, why the big difference in the two situations mentioned here?  Both men demonstrated high capability in their professions.  Brennaman did something that was clearly wrong; he apologized and spent about 4 years shunned by the national sports world; he now has a path to return to some level of prominence and recognition in his field.  None of the allegations against Bauer have been proven; in the legal sense, he has done nothing wrong although one must recall the adage about smoke and fire.

The logical conclusion I can draw here is that Trevor Bauer is not seen as a positive addition to an MLB team other than on those days when he is the starting pitcher.  Remember, he was once so frustrated by the circumstances of a game that he took a ball, turned to center field and threw the ball over the center field wall.  Managers and coaches seek to “limit distractions”; that act cannot be described as anything but a “distraction”.

Like I said, it is only a conclusion on my part completely unsupported by evidence…

Finally, today has been about redemption so let me close with this comment by New England Pats’ owner, Robert Kraft:

“While I believe in second chances and giving players an opportunity for redemption, I also believe that playing in the NFL is a privilege, not a right.”

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

 

 

NFL teams have reported to their Training Camps; just as a robin redbreast is seen as a harbinger of Spring, NFL Training Camps are a sign that football season is imminent.  So, let me spend some time today dealing with some football issues other than on field accomplishments/failures.

Reports say that the NFL and the NFLPA are having “serious discussions” related to expanding the schedule from 17 games to 18 games.  Just a few years ago when the schedule expanded from 16 games to 17 games, the vote by the union members to adopt the rule was by a razor-thin margin; many players said that the wear and tear on their bodies by adding a game to the regular season schedule would have deleterious effects when their playing days were over.

At the time, more players voted for expansion than against it probably looking at the expanded TV revenue that would come to the league and therefore would be added to the annual salary cap figures for the 32 teams.  I suspect there will be a similar balancing act in the minds of the players this time around.

The motivation for the owners to seek expansion is the same now as it was before; more games to offer to the various presentation platforms equates to more revenue flowing into the league and half of that added revenue (approximately) goes directly into the pockets of the owners.

So, how to accommodate differing perspectives here:

• If you add an 18^th game, get rid of one of the Exhibition Games.  That addresses the scheduling issues facing teams but not necessarily the “wear-and-tear” issue because most of the players who will make the various teams and play significant numbers of snaps in the regular season only make cameo appearances in Exhibition Games if the play in them at all.
• If you add an 18^th game, give each team 2 BYE Weeks during the regular season.  That would tend to stretch the complete NFL schedule and if there is a need to restrain it to the length that exists now, eliminate the “dead week” between the Conference Championship Games and the Super Bowl.  Otherwise, just start a week earlier than at present or kick the Super Bowl game one week later into February.
• In fact, if you add an 18^th game, I would be happy to see any or all of those accommodations above instituted by the league.

According to reports, when the NFLPA members ratified the expansion of the schedule from 16 games to 17 games, the owners agreed to increase the percentage of “national revenues” that would go to the players in the form of salary cap calculations.  That bump in the percentage going to players was from 47% to 48.5% of “national revenues”.  I would expect that the players would seek another uptick in their share of added revenue if these talks get down to serious negotiations.

Moving on …  People who cover Training Camps for the NFL have a difficult job in the sense that the sorts of things that they can write or talk about do not vary much from year to year or camp to camp.  One mainstay storyline at the time of the year is when Joe Flabeetz is under contract to a team, but Joe is not happy with his recompense and either wants a new contract or a trade to another team who is willing to give him a new contract.  This year, one of the players in this situation is Niners’ WR, Brandon Aiyuk.  He and the Niners have not been able to agree on a contract extension at a significantly higher salary nor have the Niners made any real attempt to trade Aiyuk.  He is not in a happy place about now.

Here is the contract situation.  As a first-round pick in 2020, Aiyuk is under contract this year as part of the fifth-year option that is part of every first-round pick’s “rookie contract”.  The finances involved in that option year are formulaic and this year Brandon Aiyuk would make $14.124 million to play WR for the Niners.  He thinks he deserves to be paid more than that because he believes he is comparable to some of the WRs in the league who have gotten deals well north of $20M per year. Brandon Aiyuk is indeed a very good WR; I don’t know if I agree that he is as good as some of the WRs who have set the new market cap for the position, but I agree he is underpaid.

Having said that, Brandon Aiyuk is under contract and that contract runs for one more year; if he wants to earn $14.124 million to play football, he will do it with the Niners unless the Niners choose to trade him or cut him.  That sounds harsh, but it is reality.  Brandon Aiyuk can fuss and fume until the Twelfth of Never, but Brandon Aiyuk cannot trade Brandon Aiyuk; only the Niners can trade him and if the Niners decide that they want/need him for the 2024 schedule, then that is where Aiyuk will have to play to make any money playing football.

The “good news” for Aiyuk is that if he plays for the Niners in 2024 – – banking about $785K per game for doing so – – and if he plays to a level that approximates his perception of his talents, then he will be an unrestricted free agent in 2025 – – OR – – the Niners will have to use the franchise tag on him meaning he will get paid a guaranteed salary comparable to the top WRs in the league which seems to be his objective.

I cannot see the Niners trading Aiyuk at this point; the Niners made it to the Super Bowl last year and hope to repeat that this year.  What most suggested trade offers include are future draft picks which could be fair compensation but of no use to the Niners in 2024.  If I am correct, then the best thing for Aiyuk to do is to swallow hard and play just as hard for the Niners in 2024 so that he does not paint himself as a malcontent which is not a way to increase his desirability around the league.  The only “good news” here is that people writing about Training Camp stuff will get a few more bites from the apple on this saga.

Finally, closing words today from H. L. Mencken:

“If a politician found he had cannibals among his constituents, he would promise them missionaries for dinner.”

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