The Sports Curmudgeon

Joe Kapp died yesterday.  He may not make your list of the 10 greatest QBs in history, but he was successful and involved in many aspects of the game.

• He was the QB of the last Cal team to play in the Rose Bowl in the 50s.
• He was in the CFL and won a Grey Cup with the BC Lions
• Later, he was the GM for the BC Lions
• He was in the NFL and made it to the Super Bowl with the Vikes
• He had roles in football movies including The Longest Yard and Two Minute Warning.
• He was the head coach at Cal – – and was on the job for the famous final play against the “Stanford Band.”

Rest in peace, Joe Kapp …

Based on reporting yesterday, the NBA is about to get some bad news once the NFL schedule is released later this week.  Christmas Day in 2023 falls on a Monday; Christmas Day is usually dominated in the sports world by five NBA games on TV from about noon to midnight in the Eastern Time Zone.  Many fans consider Christmas Day to be the de facto start of the NBA regular season after a bunch of meaningless games in November and early December.  [Aside:  I consider March 1^st to be the start of the real NBA regular season but that is a rant for a different day.]

Normally, the NFL plays a Monday night game.  In the past, they have aired a double-header on Christmas Day when it is a Monday.  The rumor is that this year the NFL will broadcast a triple header – – 1:00 PM through about 11:30 PM in the Eastern Time Zone – – and the showcase NBA Christmas extravaganza is going to be buried.

The NFL aired a triple header last year because Christmas fell on a Sunday and the NFL has a triple header every Sunday.  The TV success was sufficiently large last year that the league is rumored to try to make this a calendar fixture.  I don’t know how they might try to do that in 2024 when Christmas will fall on a Tuesday, but we can leave that to the scheduling mavens at NFL HQs.

In addition to Sunday triple headers, the NFL also presents an all-day football orgy on Thanksgiving Day and those games always draw mega-audiences.  I would not be surprised to see a “Christmas Triple Header Tradition” start if the NFL can figure a way to make such a thing happen when Christmas is either a Tuesday or a Wednesday – – days where there is no ”NFL presence” on the sporting calendar.

Moving on …  The EPL season is in the deep stretch.  Sixteen of the twenty teams have 3 games left to play; Man United, Newcastle, Chelsea and Man City have 4 games remaining.  Man City is at the top of the table with a 1-point lead over Arsenal and with a game in hand.  Toward the top of the table, there is a tight battle for 4^th place and 5^th place which means something in English Football.  The top 4 teams are included in the UAEFA Champions League; the top 5 teams are invited to participate in the Europa League; the Champions League is a much bigger deal.

As of this morning, Man United is in 4^th place and they lead Liverpool by 1 point with a game in hand.  Liverpool has been on a run lately winning their last 5 games; Man United has hit a rough patch lately winning two and drawing one in its last 5 games.  Two of the three remaining games for Liverpool are against teams that would be relegated if the decision were made today so the pressure is on Man United.

Of course, here in Curmudgeon Central there is a mandate to focus on the bottom of the table to see which teams will be “sent down” to the Championship next year due to low quality performance this season.

• Southampton is at the bottom of the table with 20 points.  They are not mathematically consigned to relegation yet, but it would take a miraculous turn of fortune for them to stay in the EPL next year.  They have lost 4 of their last 5 games and tied the fifth one.
• Leeds United is next-to-last with 30 points.  They too have lost 4 of their last 5 games along with a draw and two of their final three games are against teams in the top six of the league.  Things look bleak for Leeds United.
• Leicester City is third from the bottom with 30 points but holds the lead over Leeds United based on goal differential.  They have 1 win and 2 draws in their last 5 games but two of their remaining three games are against top-five teams.
• Everton is fourth from the bottom with 32 points.  They are fighting relegation; the last time Everton was in something other than the top tier of English football was in 1951.  Their remaining schedule appears to be softer than either Leeds United or Leicester City.
• Nottingham Forest is fifth from the bottom with 33 points.  [Aside:  Wouldn’t it be great if their goalkeeper was named Robin Hood?]  They have won 2 of their last 5 games giving them a bit of breathing room here and their remaining schedule is not nearly as tough as some others here.

Three of these five teams will be relegated to the Championship next year.  Burnley and Sheffield United will be promoted to the EPL next year; they finished first and second in the Championship this year and are automatically promoted.  The third promotion will be decided by a playoff involving the teams finishing third through sixth in the table for the year.  That playoff begins this weekend; here are the matchups:

• Sunderland vs. Luton Town
• Middlesbrough vs. Coventry

If Sunderland were to win this and gain promotion to the EPL, it would create a situation where Sunderland and Newcastle United would meet twice next year thereby re-establishing a longstanding rivalry known as the North East derby.  Having no other rooting interest here, let me back Sunderland in this playoff round.

Finally, apropos of nothing, let me close with this observation by Douglas Adams in The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy:

“In the beginning the Universe was created.  This has made a lot of people very angry and been widely regarded as a bad move.”

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

 

 

Mage won the Kentucky Derby on Saturday; this year was the 50^th anniversary of Secretariat’s definitive Triple Crown and I would like to put that feat in perspective today:

• Secretariat set the record for the Derby and the Preakness and the Belmont Stakes in 1973.  Fifty years later those three records still stand.
• Secretariat won the Derby in a time of 1:59 2/5; Mage won on Saturday in a time of 2:01.57.  In handicapping, a fifth of a second is considered to be one length on the track; it’s an approximation to be sure, but it is generally accepted as a measurement.  That means Mage would have finished 11 lengths behind Secretariat in an imaginary match race.
• How big is 11 lengths?  Well, the 10^th place finisher on Saturday – – a horse named Confidence Game – – was about 12 lengths behind Mage.  So, watch the replay of the Derby on Saturday and count the horses as they cross the finish line.  When you come to 10^th place, that is the margin of Secretariat’s imaginary victory.

Bob Molinaro of the Hampton Roads Virginian-Pilot had this to say about pageantry over the weekend:

“At the risk of beating a dead horse, the Kentucky Derby continues to recede as an American cultural event. Even the “Most Exciting Two Minutes in Sports” is too much commitment for a short-attention-span society. There is this, though: with the Derby in Louisville and the coronation of King Charles in London, Saturday will be a big day for silly hats.”

Last week, the NFL suspended 5 players for “gambling infractions”.  Two were suspended for 7 games because they placed bets on their phones while they were on the premises of team facilities and that is specifically prohibited in the existing CBA.  The other three players were suspended “indefinitely” and details in those cases are still murky.  However, it should be noted that Calvin Ridley was suspended “indefinitely” when the league found out that he bet on his team to win while he was on injured reserve.  Make of that what you will and consider that Ridley was reinstated after sitting out one year.

There was an interesting tidbit in the reporting that caught my eye.  The NFLPA has alerted all its members via e-mail that the mobile apps on the players’ phones alerted the online sportsbooks to their gambling activities and that it was the online sportsbook apps folks who alerted the NFL of the gambling events.  I think there is a lesson here for everyman and not just for NFLPA membership:

• Online sportsbook apps know who you are and what you are wagering on – – and maybe have sufficiently sophisticated tracking and locating technology to know where you are placing your wagers.
• The folks who own and operate those apps would seem to have no qualms about sharing that information with third parties like the NFL and who knows who else …

Maybe folks should consider these online gambling apps as the technical incarnation of Lamont Cranston – – known as The Shadow.

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

The lesson taught to ne’er-do-wells by The Shadow in every radio episode was:

“The weed of crime bears bitter fruit…”

Another report last week said that the city of Nashville, TN has approved a deal that will contribute $1.25B to the cost of building a new stadium for the Titans.  The total cost of the proposed new playpen for the Titans is $2.1B.  I do not like the idea of taxpayer financing of stadiums where the team owners get to keep most of the revenue generated by the stadium facility; I am also a realist and recognize that city fathers around the country are more than willing to appropriate taxpayer funds to these purposes.  So, I cannot blame leagues and team owners for accepting their largesse.

Here are three recent stadium funding offers put forth by cities:

1. Las Vegas coughed up $750M to get the Raiders to move from Oakland.
2. Buffalo and NY State allocated $850M to the Bills for a new stadium there.
3. Now we have the Titans scoring $1.25B …

Folks, this is a prelude.  Once Danny Boy Snyder sells the Commanders, his toxic presence will no longer overhang any attempt to get a new stadium built in the DC area.  There are three jurisdictions that can aspire to host the Commanders’ new field – – Maryland, DC and Virginia – – and that bidding war will be intense.  I will not be surprised when the public financing for that deal goes beyond $1.25B.

Finally, since I mentioned crime and criminality above, let me close with a few observations on those subjects:

“The common argument that crime is caused by poverty is kind of a slander on the poor.”  [H. L. Mencken]

And …

“I think crime pays.  The hours are good, you meet a lot of interesting people.  You travel a lot.”  [Woody Allen]

And …

“The best of them were the kind of people you’d expect to drive a beer truck. They had no class.  The classy gangster is a Hollywood invention.”  [Orson Welles]

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

 

 

Ralph Boston died earlier this week.  Back when track and field was a much bigger deal in US sports than it is today, Ralph Boston was a dominant figure in the long jump.  He broke the world record held by Jesse Owens for more than two decades.  He won the Gold Medal in the 1960 Olympics in Rome and also earned medals in 1964 and 1968.  He was the first person to jump beyond 27 feet.

Rest in peace, Ralph Boston…

Last year, there were reports that MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred hoped to see MLB expand from 30 teams to 32 teams.  That would make sense from the standpoint of organizing divisions and determining playoff teams.  I do not think it makes a lot of sense in terms of the existence of sufficient pitching talent to add two more teams – – meaning about 24 current minor league pitchers – – to the major leagues.  However, reports say that MLB would target a franchise fee of $2.0 – 2.5B and that is a level of motivation for owners that they will have difficulty resisting.

Frontofficesports.com now reports that several cities are getting their ducks in order in anticipation of a solicitation by MLB for bids to acquire two new franchises.  Here they are in alphabetical order lest anyone think I have prioritized them in any way:

1. Charlotte:  Atlanta is about 250 miles away so there is a natural rivalry situation there but would a team in Charlotte cost Atlanta attendance?  I have thought for several years now that MLB should consider a franchise in North Carolina – – but in the Raleigh/Durham area closer to halfway between Washington and Atlanta.
2. Las Vegas:  Obviously, Las Vegas comes off this list if the A’s move there.
3. Montreal:  The city supported the Expos for years even though they had to play in the stadium built for the Olympics there and that stadium would politely be described as a White Elephant.  With teams in NY, Boston and Toronto, adding Montreal would make for a nice regional set.
4. Nashville:  The city fathers there just approved plans to bankroll a new stadium for the Tennessee Titans to the tune of about $2B.  Is there room in the exchequer to build a baseball stadium too?
5. Portland:  This city is always on any list when it comes to expanding any US sport or as a potential site for a franchise in a newly forming league.  The geography makes sense, but no one ever seems to pick Portland as a final destination – – save for the Blazers in the NBA.
6. Salt Lake City:  This is the newest entry on the list.  It would fill in a geographic slot where there are no MLB teams assuming that Las Vegas does not get a team either by expansion or by the A’s moving there.

MLB showed over this winter that it is willing to tinker with parts of the game that were considered to be sacrosanct in the past.  It seems as if the pitching clock and the larger bases and banning the shift are producing a better entertainment product.  So — might the folks running MLB be willing to consider radical change such as …

• Do an expansion of 2 teams ALONG WITH significant franchise relocations and divisional alignments?

Maybe this is an opportunity to fish or cut bait with the folks in the Tampa/St. Petersburg area when it comes down to getting attendance where it ought to be for a team that has been as successful as the Rays have been for the last 10 years or so.  As of this morning, the Rays rank 23^rd in attendance in MLB at 16,200 fans per game.   Is it finally time for the folks there to decide if they want the team to stay there or not?  As a yardstick, the Rockies – a team that has not been nearly as successful as the Rays over the past decade – are averaging 27,097 fans per game this year.  That is 67% greater than the Rays’ attendance and that makes no sense.

Maybe this is an opportunity for MLB to rectify the mistake it made in putting a franchise in Miami in the first place.  The Marlins – whether you list them as the “Miami Marlins” or the “Florida Marlins” – have never been successful at the gate.  This year, the Marlins average 12,942 fans per game.  Hold your breath, but that attendance is UP from last year at this time when the Marlins only drew 11,919 fans per game.  The Miami franchise has churned through ownerships and team presidents and GMs over the last 30 years; it has won the World Series twice in that time; and yet, there is not significant support for the team.

• [Aside:  Remember back in 2000 when young Elian Gonzales was ruled to be too young to be granted asylum in the US and that he had to be returned to his parent in Cuba.  There were demonstrations of 20,000 –  25,000 people in the streets protesting this act and Federal authorities broke into a residence and took custody of young Gonzalez at gun point.  At the time, I suggested that the Miami Marlins should bring Gonzalez to their stadium every night because it would give them their largest crowds ever.  Obviously, the team did not take that advice…]

If MLB were to think about moving existing franchises along with expansion, then maybe they would also be willing to shake up longstanding division and league affiliations.  With 32 teams, eight divisions of four teams makes a lot of sense.  So does the organization of geographically tight divisions that can foster rivalries.  For example, why not a division of:

• Mets, Nationals, Orioles and Phillies – – and – –
• Yankees, Red Sox, Blue Jays and Montreal – – and – –
• Pirates, Guardians, Reds and Tigers – – you get the idea.

Finally, I realize that what I have suggested here represents radical change for MLB.  So, let me close here with these words from economist Milton Friedman about why proposals for radical change are important:

“It is worth discussing radical changes, not in the expectation that they will be adopted promptly but for two other reasons. One is to construct an ideal goal so that incremental changes can be judged by whether they move the institutional structure toward or away from that ideal.

“The other reason is very different. It is so that if a crisis requiring or facilitating radical change does arise, alternatives will be available that have been carefully developed and fully explored.”

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

 

 

Whilst I was on holiday, two monumental soap operas came to the end of their crushing boredom.  Naturally, I refer here to:

1. The Aaron Rodgers Saga – – Theme song could be “Aaron and the Jets …”
2. The Lamar Jackson Epic – – Time to read Poe’s “Sonnet – To Silence”?

At various stages of the drama created by these folks over the past 10 weeks or so, various folks pointed out that either or both could opt to do something other than play QB in the NFL for the 2023 season.  While such a decision by either party would not have violated any of the fundamental laws of physics, both would have acted against their best interests in making such a choice.  Both men would forego the opportunity to earn tens of millions of dollars if they watched the games on TV this year.

Jackson has earned just over $30M in his five years with the Ravens; he is not ”hurting” economically and would be able to have food and shelter even if he were to sit out 2023.  But the non-exclusive franchise tag on him guaranteed him $32M just to play in 2023; so, if he opted out of playing for that number, he was turning down an annual contract that would have doubled his career earnings to date.  Not likely …

Rodgers has earned over $300M over the course of his career.  Clearly, he does not need the money; $300M will brew a whole lot of ayahuasca tea leading to as much purging of emotional baggage as one might accumulate over several lifetimes.  But leaving football would also leave Aaron Rodgers out of the social conversation and it seems to me that he enjoys being able to sit on the sidelines and coyly tell the world, “Hey, look at me over here doing nothing…”

So, let me look at the two deals that brought these stories to a close – – at least for now.  Jackson got a bigger deal than Deshaun Watson did – – as he should because he is a better QB and a better person than Watson – – but his contract is not nearly “fully guaranteed”.  If the previous reporting that said that fully guaranteed money was a critical element of his demand, then he lost the negotiation; if that reporting was “less than fully accurate”, then Jackson is the winner.

Jackson gets 5-years and $260M with – reportedly – $186M fully guaranteed.  That is almost $30M more than Watson got and it is just a tad more than Jalen Hurts got just a week or so ago.  Jackson will make an average of $52M per year through the 2027 season and the Ravens can point to the fact that yet another star QB signed a deal that was not “fully guaranteed” making the Watson contract even more of an outlier as opposed to a precedent setter.  Both sides got something they wanted/needed out of the deal.

The resolution of Rodgers’ situation required a trade agreement between the Packers who have Rodgers under contract but do not want him on their team and the Jets who do not have a decent QB on their roster let alone a good QB on the roster.  After weeks of posturing and “leaking” – –  making the story appear to be kabuki theater – -, here are the terms of the deal:

The Jets get:

• Aaron Rodgers.  That’s it; that’s the deal.

The Packers get:

• 2023 Draft pick swap in the first round.  The Packers moved up two spots to #13 and the Jets moved down to #15.  This is something but it is not seismic.
• 2023 Draft pick #42 (second round).  High second round picks are usually considered valuable draft capital.
• 2024 Draft conditional second round pick.  This pick converts to the Jets’ first round pick next year if Rodgers plays only 65% of the snaps in 2023.  Unless he breaks a leg, he will surely do that given the rest of the Jets’ depth chart at QB.

I do not understand exactly how or why this is also a fallout from the deal, but various reports say that the Packers also get “cap relief” to the tune of $60M from the deal.  I put it here only for the sake of completeness.

So, who “won the trade” between the Jets and the Packers?

• The Jets now have Rodgers under contract for 2023 and 2024 with options that could take him out to the end of 2026.  Rodgers would be 43 years old at the end of the 2026 season.
• The Packers want to begin the “Jordan Love Era” in Green Bay and can now do so without any of those dreaded distractions that Rodgers would surely bring if he still belonged to the team.
• The Packers drafted LB, Lukas Van Ness (Iowa) with the swapped first round pick, and TE, Luke Musgrave (Oregon St.) with this year’s second round pick from the Jets.  And … the Packers have what looks to be a first-round pick coming to them in 2024.

Both sides got what they needed from the deal which is to say Aaron Rodgers now plays in NY and not in Green Bay.  Both teams must think they are better today than they were a week ago.  Fans surely give thanks that they do not need to hear any more about the backing-and-forthing of these trade talks.

Finally, having mentioned Edgar Allen Poe above, let me close with one of his observations that applies to the fanbases of just about every NFL team in and round “Draft Time”:

“Man’s real life is happy, chiefly because he is ever expecting that it soon will be so.”

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

 

 

I returned late on Monday from an enjoyable change of scenery to find this headline on a story in Monday’s Washington Post sports section:

• “Eagles soar, Lions stumble during chaotic draft weekend”

Obviously, this was one of six bazillion articles/columns written at the time grading each team on their selections in the NFL Draft.  And since it takes – in the real world – at least two years and more likely three years to get an in-depth assessment of the team’s selection(s), these articles are as bad if not worse than the six bazillion “Mock Drafts” that fill space and contribute to the entropy death of the universe.  Anyone who reads “Mock Drafts”, and instant draft analysis should be struck by the fact that there is an interplay at work there:

• The person writing the “instant analysis” is often/usually the same guy who published the “Mock Drafts”.  So, his yardstick for how well or how poorly a team did is his ratings of players he told you about in the “Mock Draft” pieces.
• If he rates a player as a first-round pick and a team drafts him in the third round, then that team gets lots of bonus points for finding this hidden gem.
• The only thing that is certain is that not a single player drafted has ever taken a single snap in an NFL game.  Only time and direct observation will reveal which teams acquired the most assets and which acquired the fewest assets in the 2023 NFL Draft.
• Reading about the “Draft Grades” the day after the Draft written by the same folks who have been hawking “Mock Drafts” for the last 4 months is like buying a self-eating watermelon.

And along the same lines, the folks on TV who are covering the Draft need to examine their language choices too.  Instead of saying that Joe Flabeetz has “fallen in the draft”, they might – just occasionally – – say something along the lines of:

“Wow!  Here we are in the middle of the fifth round and Joe Flabeetz is still on the board.  I had him going in the second round.  Man, did I ever get that one wrong?”

Don’t expect to hear such an exclamation from any of the TV gurus any time before Godot shows up …

Having said all that, I want to focus on one pick in this year’s Draft that looks like a “boom-or-bust” situation.  That was the overall #4 pick in the Draft:

• Anthony Richardson QB – Florida – taken by the Indy Colts.

In my Pre-Draft rant, I said he was definitely worth a high pick and that he reminded me of Randall Cunningham in terms of his athletic gifts.  My knock on him was that he was not an accurate passer – – he completed less than 55% of his throws last year at Florida – – and he would need coaching and development to improve that sort of performance significantly.

Here is the interesting – at least to me – part of this situation.  Shane Steichen is the new head coach for the Colts; his last job was as the Offensive Coordinator for the Eagles where just a couple of years ago, he had Jalen Hurts as his pupil.  Hurts is very fast and very athletic, but he too was not an accurate passer, and his pocket mechanics were politely described as “random”.  That was two years ago; last year, Jalen Hurts led the Eagles to the Super Bowl and even though the Eagles lost that game, Hurts was not overshadowed by Patrick Mahomes.

Obviously, Jalen Hurts learned a lot from Shane Steichen, and he learned it rather quickly.  In any “student/teacher situation” a critical element for success is the willingness of the student to take direction and develop the skills taught by the teacher.  In football terminology, they like to say that the player is “coachable”.

Prior to the Draft, teams and analysts try to pretend that there is some sort of science involved in creating a team’s draft board.by measuring and recording numerical data of all the players.  Fans eat that stuff up; fans will “favor” one player over another because the 40-yard time for the “better player” was 4.33 as opposed to only 4.35 for the “lesser player”.  Notwithstanding the silliness of that over-indulgence in details, there is a need for every team to have a very good idea about how “coachable” are the players they take.  And there is no reliable objective measure for that critical characteristic.

If Anthony Richardson is similarly “coachable” as was Jalen Hurts, then the Colts and Shane Steichen have star-potential in their locker room.  If Anthony Richardson is not coachable – – let’s call him possibly a “meathead” – – then the Colts wasted a significant draft opportunity.  I think we will have a very good handle on Richardson’s coachability/meat-headedness index sometime around Christmas 2026. Until then …

Finally, let me close today with a story about Bum Phillips – Wade Phillips’ father – who was the coach of the Houston Oilers around 40 years ago.  At the start of training camp, the training staff had all the players run a mile; they had set time objectives for various positions and once players met that time objective, the players were not subject to certain fitness drills.  The Oilers had a star running back, Earl Campbell, who not only did not meet the standard for running backs, he could not finish running the mile and just “dropped out”.

Someone asked Bum Phillips after the practice if he was concerned that his all-world running back could not run a mile, Phillips demonstrated the proper attitude toward Making decisions according to the numbers:

“Well, I guess whenever it is third-and-a-mile, I won’t hand him the ball.”

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

 

 

I hate to keep harping on this but something new came up.  Remember that the Dallas Mavericks tanked their final game of the regular season intending to miss the playoffs and retain their first-round lottery pick for this year.  NBA Commissioner, Adam Silver responded to this situation by fining the team $740K which is a pittance to owner Mark Cuban whose net worth is estimated at $5.1B.

Something analogous happened in the Chinese Basketball Association (CBA) playoffs.  The situation there is complicated so I will provide this link for those who want to decipher why the following situation obtained:

• It was advantageous for both teams to have a specific team win and the other team lose a playoff game.

The two teams involved were the Shanghai Sharks and the Jiangsu Dragons; there would be a benefit to both teams if the Dragons lost.  In the second half of the game, the Dragons committed five consecutive turnovers in the final two minutes to assure a victory for the Sharks. The CBA Commissioner is a familiar name to US sports fans; his name is Yao Ming.  Unlike Adam Silver who administered a slap on the wrist, Yao Ming chose to call the activities of the Jiangsu Dragons and the Shanghai Sharks “game-fixing”.  Wow!  That puts a different slant on what happened as compared to “tanking”.  So, here is the sanction handed down by the CBA Commissioner:

• Each team was fined the Chinee equivalent of $727K – – very close to how much the Mavs will have to pay.
• The Sharks’ coach and GM were each given a 5-year ban from the CBA.
• The Dragons’ coach and GM were each given a 3-year ban from the CBA.

Here is what Yao Ming said when the sanctions were announced:

“For sports games, the most important thing is reputation, rather than ability. Credit is what everybody, every team, the league, and the association is based on. We need to draw a profound lesson from this and change some things in the future to make what we have paid for valuable.”

Adam Silver always holds a press event during the NBA Finals.

1. Wouldn’t it be great if some member of the media asked him to compare and contrast the punishments handed down in these two situations?
2. And wouldn’t it be great if someone asked him to differentiate between “tanking” and “game-fixing”?

Silver is never going to use the term ”game-fixing” lest the gambling interests that provide lots of funding for the league get very antsy.  People hate to lose money gambling, but they will hate it a whole lot more if they find out – – or even suspect – – that the game was “fixed”, and they were not “in on the fix”.  But this is an issue that sports leagues must deal with when they dip their beak into the fountain of cash that can come from the myriad gambling sites out there today.  The English Premier League (EPL) seems to have recognized the potential dangers here; the EPL has voted to ban teams from having logos or names of gambling companies on the fronts of their jerseys.  This is not a total ban; logos and names can appear on the jersey sleeves and throughout the stadiums, but this is a step in a direction toward control by the league officials.

Currently eight of the twenty teams in the EPL have some form of sponsorship on the fronts of their jerseys that represent gambling interests.  Currently in Britain, the government is considering new gambling legislation; perhaps the EPL is simply trying to get ahead of some issues that will arise in that process; perhaps this is an indication that the league officials want to be more firmly in control.  Time will tell on this.

To accommodate current sponsorship deals and avoid litigation, this new regulation will take effect in 2025.  As is always the case when political campaigns and issues are advanced, there is an advocacy group involved here called The Big Step.  That group would like to see all gambling sponsorships banned completely including stadium sponsorships.  Obviously, they like the announcement by the EPL even though it does not go nearly as far as the group would prefer.

Finally, since today has been about gambling and gambling companies and game fixing, let me close with these words about problem gambling from comedian Artie Lang:

“You know you have a gambling problem when it’s 4:00 AM at The Mirage Sports Book and you’re walking around going, ‘Hey, you get the lacrosse scores?’”

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

 

 

The loudest buzz around the US sports world today comes from the announcement around mid-day yesterday of a new contract extension for the Eagles’ QB, Jalen Hurts.  For the moment he is the highest plaid player in the NFL with an average annual salary of $51M assuming it all plays out to the end.  That is not bad at all for a second round pick – – #53 overall – – in a draft class that provided the NFL with some significant QB talent.  There were four QBs taken before Hurts was selected in that draft:

1. Joe Burrow – – Overall #1
2. Tua Tagovailoa – – Overall #5
3. Justin Herbert – – Overall #6
4. Jordan Love – – Overall #26

Because Hurts was a second round pick, the Eagles did not have a fifth-year option they could exercise in his contract; that art form goes to players taken in the first round.  So, this was going to be Hurts’ “walk year,” but the Eagles decided to push that situation back 5 years.

Here are a few particulars in the Jalen Hurts deal:

• Guaranteed money at Signing = $110M
• Total guarantees that are relatively easy to achieve = $179M
• Total contract value = $255M over 5 years
• No-trade clause

I think Eagles/Hurts deal benefits those four QBs taken in the first round of the 2020 draft.  Surely, Burrow and Herbert will use the deal as a benchmark in their opening set of contract demands.

• Joe Burrow should get a deal comparable to the one Hurts just signed.  His situation is complicated to some degree by the fact that the Bengals will also need to find cap room for JaMarr Chase on the heels of Burrow’s deal.
• Tua Tagovailoa’s injury history makes his situation “dicey”.  In three seasons, Tua has missed 14 games – – but last year playing in only 13 games got him named as an All-Pro.
• Justin Herbert – – and his Chargers’ teammates – – have not had nearly the same level of success as either Joe Burrow or Jalen Hurts.  But it would be unfair to pin all the blame for that on Herbert; he is the first QB ever to start his NFL career with three consecutive seasons with 4,000 or more yards passing.  [Aside:  In 2021, his passing total was more than 5,000 yards.]
• Jordan Love is a pure mystery.  The Packers have a year to decide if they want to invest big money over the long term with Love.  To a certain degree, he is facing a “show-me year.”

At the same time, I think this deal is not good for Lamar Jackson.  Let me start with an obvious disclaimer.  I have no inside information about the negotiations between Jackson and the Ravens; I feel like Will Rogers here; all I know is just what I read in the papers – – or on the Internet.  Reports have said that Jackson wants at least what the Browns gave Deshaun Watson – – 5 years and $230M fully guaranteed.

Russell Wilson’s mega deal with the Broncos was signed after the Watson deal and was not fully guaranteed; neither was Kyler Murray’s extension with the Cards.  Now Jalen Hurts has a contract signed after the Watson deal and it only guarantees 70% of the total possible value for the contract.  Jackson was previously able to point to the Watson deal and tell the Ravens that he has been a more productive QB than Watson has been, so he deserves similar terms.  Jackson cannot make a similar claim about superior productivity when it comes to either Wilson or Hurts.  So, if reports are correct that his demand for a fully guaranteed contract has been a sticking point, his position today is less tenable than it was 48 hours ago.

Adam Schefter previously reported that the Ravens had offered Jackson the following terms and Jackson turned them down.  Assume for a minute that Schefter’s report is perfectly accurate and compare a couple of the reported terms to the deal Hurts just signed:

• Total Value for Jackson = $250M     For Hurts = $255M
• Guarantee at signing for Jackson = $133M     For Hurts = $110M
• Total Guarantee over contract for Jackson = $200M     For Hurts = $179M

Jackson has refused to sign the franchise tag the Ravens used on him and has requested a trade from the Ravens.  The team has no obligation to honor such a request; but even if it did, a trade would be difficult to effect. The non-exclusive franchise tag that exists on Jackson means that he can sign with any other team – – and then the Ravens have a couple of days to decide between one of two options:

1. Then can accept the terms of the contract offered by the other team and keep Lamar Jackson as their QB – – or – –
2. They can say “Vaya con Dios” to Lamar Jackson and receive two first-round draft picks from the team that signed him.

That means any team dealing with the Ravens to acquire Jackson would have to start the bidding at two first round picks; and at the same time, the team seeking to trade for Jackson would have to be willing to offer him contract terms to his liking.  Any team willing to trade for Jackson should already have made him the kind of contract offer he wants if they thought he was worth that plus two first round picks.  Jackson has been free to negotiate with other teams for weeks now and there have been no reports of “action”.

Finally, since I mentioned Will Rogers above, let me close with two of his great observations:

“Why don’t they pass a Constitutional amendment prohibiting anybody from learning anything?  If it works as well as Prohibition did, in five years Americans would be the smartest race of people on earth,”

And …

“The only difference between death and taxes is that death doesn’t get worse every time Congress meets.”

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

 

 

Last week, I suggested that Adam Silver as the Commissioner of the NBA should strip the Dallas Mavericks of their first round pick this year and next year as punishment for purposely and purposefully losing a regular season game.  Well, we can now measure the degree to which Adam Silver values the integrity of his regular season games.

• The “punishment” for tanking that game is a fine of $740K.

Mavs’ owner, Mark Cuban, has an estimated net worth of $5.1B.  So, let me present to you the degree to which this “punishment” might deter any similar future behavior.

• Imagine you had an IRA with $100K in it.
• If you were fined an equivalent fraction of that $100K, you would owe a total of fourteen dollars and fifty-one cents.

You showed him, Mr. Commish …

Switching sports …  There were two interesting personnel moves in the NFL last week.  The Falcons got CB Jeff Okudah from the Lions for a fifth-round draft pick this year.  The reason that is interesting is that Okudah was the overall #3 pick in the 2020 NFL Draft.  Okudah has had difficulty with injuries; in three NFL seasons he has only appeared in 25 games, but his stats for 2022 seem to demonstrate his talents when he can stay on the field.  Last year he played in 15 of the 17 games; he had one INT (which he returned for a TD), defended 7 passes and forced a fumble.  Okudah is going into the fourth year of his rookie contract; so, the Falcons will need to decide if they are going to pick up the fifth year option that goes with a first-round pick’s contract.  According to Spotrac.com, that option for 2024 would cost the Falcons $11.5M

The other interesting personnel move was the signing of Odell Beckham, Jr. by the Ravens on a 1-year contract worth $15M.  Like Okudah, OBJ has had injury issues recently.  He has been in the NFL for 8 years; he was named as an All-Pro in his first three seasons but the last time he had 1000+ yards receiving in a season was in 2019.  And, he missed all of 2022 rehabbing from knee surgery.

Paying a WR $15M for a season with that recent history of injuries is interesting.  Many have speculated that this move by the Ravens was done as an olive-branch offering to Lamar Jackson in an attempt to get Jackson either to sign the franchise tag or to return to the negotiating table hopefully leading to a long-term contract with the Ravens. If signing Beckham sets in motion a series of events that moves the Ravens/Jackson standoff in a positive direction, then it will be money well-spent.  If not, the Ravens at least will have acquired a WR with the potential to be their #1 WR for 2023. As of now, the “Top 4” WRs on the Ravens’ roster would be:

• Nelson Agholor
• Rashod Bateman
• Odell Beckham, Jr,
• Devin Duvernay

Moving on …  Back in 2021, the folks who run women’s tennis severed ties with China and boycotted any events there based on allegations by tennis player Peng Shuai that she had been sexually assaulted by a high ranking Chinese government official.  Last week, that boycott ended with these statements from the head of women’s professional tennis, Steve Simon:

“The stance that we took at the time was appropriate. And we stand by that. But 16 months into this, we’re convinced that our requests will not be met. And to continue with the same strategy doesn’t make sense … So, we needed to look at a different approach.

“With this, our members believe it’s time to resume the mission in China, where we believe we can continue to make a positive difference, as we have for the last 20 years, while at the same time making sure that Peng is not forgotten. By returning, hopefully more progress can be made.”

Allow me to translate this for you:

• Well, that did not work at all.  Peng Shuai has not been involved in tennis since her accusation and none of the “tennis officials” have been able to meet with her to see if she is alive and well.
• The “different approach” here can best be described as “follow the money”.  Participating in events in China means more revenue for the tour and for the players.  So … having virtue-signaled our support for Peng Shuai, it is now time to let economics play the dominant role in our decision making.

In case you think I am being too harsh, let me insert here what Mr. Simon said about the importance of the boycott back in 2021:

“ … the one thing that we can’t do is walk away from this, because if we’re walking away from the key elements — which is obviously not only her well-being, but the investigation — then we’re telling the world that not addressing sexual assault with respect to the seriousness it requires is OK, because it’s too difficult. And it’s simply something that we can’t let happen.”

You make the call…

Finally, I’ll close today with this assessment of tennis as a sport by Billie Jean King:

“A perfect combination of violent action taking place in an atmosphere of total tranquility.”

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

 

 

There was no joy in Mudville when mighty Casey struck out.  That is not the situation today for sports fans in the Washington DC area.  According to reports late yesterday, Danny Boy Snyder has agreed to sell the Washington Commanders to a group led by Josh Harris.  Let me be clear; Josh Harris is simultaneously unknown in this area and welcomed as a conquering hero.  Washington fans have a very short list of people who would be less attractive as the Commanders’ owner than the incumbent; the fact that Harris is not on that list makes him outstanding.

The reported final price for the franchise is $6B; that is a lot of motivation to sell.  Notwithstanding that bid for the team, I think there is a bit more to it.  After years of fighting and resisting investigations related to the Watergate break-in and the subsequent cover-up, President Nixon got a visitation.  Senator Goldwater and a contingent of Senators who had supported Nixon told the President that he would be impeached and convicted by the Senate; the President pre-empted that act and resigned.  In the case of the Washington Commanders – far less important and consequential than a Presidential impeachment – I wonder if something similar happened.

Sportswriters have excoriated Snyder for about 2 decades; he has been investigated, sued and declared persona non grata by the politicians in the area where he wanted help to build a new stadium.  If those actions/reactions really hurt Danny Boy Snyder, he hid it very well; he gave an Oscar-worthy performance for at least the last 15 years.  I believe he was happy to be an NFL owner; he was making a tidy sum annually by being an NFL owner; he was in the public spotlight; he probably would have been happy to continue on that path until his demise.  [Aside:  Daniel Snyder is only 58 years old; so, his “demise” is likely decades into the future.]

The only real threat to his status as an NFL owner is the existence of a mechanism whereby he could lose his franchise to the league.  That is a draconian action by the other owners which has never been implemented – – but it does exist.  I have said in the past that the other 31 owners would only use that draconian mechanism if/when Snyder’s actions had some sort of negative affect on their annual profits and/or on the valuation of their franchises.

Obviously, I have no inside information here and could not begin to prove the following speculation:

• I wonder if an influential NFL owner or three found a way to get a message to Danny Boy Snyder on his super yacht at sea to let him know that his support among the owners for continuing to be an owner has eroded and by selling the franchise he can avoid a messy and embarrassing situation down the road.
• I am not suggesting anything that is “Godfather-like”; I think it may have been much more somber and matter-of-fact.

As ecstatic as Commanders’ fans are this morning, this is not yet over the finish line.  According to reports, a deal has been reached but not signed yet.  That has to happen before the final legal and financial statements are submitted to the other 31 NFL owners for their approval.  The owners met at the end of March and should meet again in another two months or so; that might be a logical point for them to take up this matter – – assuming all the paperwork gets to them in time for their review.  Moreover, there is still a potential cloud in the sky for the franchise:

• Mary Jo White continues her investigation of “financial irregularities” that may have occurred in previous years.  The NFL has said that the results of this investigation will be made public.  This could be a tempest in a teapot, or it could be something that leads to litigation and embarrassment galore.

Once the sale is completed – – and I have every expectation that it will close by the time training camp opens in mid-July – – it will be interesting to see how local and state politicians change their tune regarding the team’s overtures to build a new stadium.

Let me start at the beginning here.  The previous owner, Jack Kent Cooke, could not get support to put a stadium that he would build himself until he purchased the land and put it up on his own.  He wanted it done before he died so it was basically thrown together; when it opened, it was called Jack Kent Cooke Stadium and it had all the charm and elegance of a reinforced-concrete mausoleum.  It has undergone facelifts and cosmetic “enhancements” over the years but here is a paraphrase of a remark by one of the local sports radio hosts about 20 years ago when the Vet in Philly closed:

• This is a sad day for Washington football fans.  As long as The Vet was in operation, Washington did not have the worst stadium in the league, but now it does and it’s less than ten years old.

I have not been to all 32 NFL stadiums, but I have been to FedEx Field and the biggest compliment I will pay to it is:

• It isn’t horrible; it is merely a dreary place lacking any semblance of comfort or class.

Danny Boy Snyder was basically shunted off to the side by state and local politicians in Maryland, Virginia and DC regarding construction of a new stadium.  The team needs a new one and now that the owner of the team is not toxic, it will be interesting to see the attitudes of the pols change from aloof to engaging.

Josh Harris and his partners in this purchase are heroes this morning.  When they close on the deal and the other NFL owners approve the change of ownership, they will face the task of cleaning up the image of Commanders’ ownership; and that task will not be pleasant, nor will it be easy.  I wish them only good fortune in those endeavors.

Finally, I said above that the new owners are being welcomed as conquering heroes this morning.  Therefore, I believe these words by playwright, Bertolt Brecht are the way to close today:

“Unhappy is the land that needs a hero.”

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