Grambling Strike: My thoughts



My eyes can't stop looking at the shoulder pads.

There are other bad images if you watch the ESPN video story on the Grambling Football Team's strike this past week. The floor tiles in the weight room coming up. The mildew on the walls and the ceiling tiles in the locker room.

But I can't stop looking at the shoulder pads.

Those are touching someone's body every day.

In a letter to the athletic department (that was obtained by Pedro Gomez of ESPN) the football players outlined exactly what they believe was wrong with the current state of affairs. Among their concerns were:

Maybe Officials Aren't The Problem

I am still trying to wrap my head around exactly what happened at the end of the Arizona State/Wisconsin game on Saturday night. I made an attempt to do so in my impromptu game recap (since I thought I was done writing before that hot mess ensued) so I don't want to waste time going through things again here.

I do, however, want to expand on something that has been kicking around my head for a while now. It's more attuned to something I think about when I hear fans and/or media bitching about blown calls or teams getting jobbed or robbed.

I feel that we, in sports, have unrealistic expectations of everyone involved.

We expect and demand perfection at a level that I do not think is realistic.

Now, before you start to dismiss this line of thinking out of hand, my college team was involved in two of the more controversial finishes in history (video of said finishes after the jump):

Jason Collins's Coming Out is a Step in the Right Direction

 



Jason Collins came out as gay today. It's not very often that a career NBA journeyman (best season: 2004-05 with the New Jersey Nets, when he averaged 6.4 points and 6.1 rebounds in 80 games played) can make news that causes you to go, "What?"

But that's what I did when I heard on the radio this morning that Collins had written a beautiful first person piece for Sports Illustrated.

Over the course of the day, I've tried to think about where this ranks. Is this a big deal, small deal, or no deal at all?

It can't be no deal. Collins is the first active athlete in one of the three major league team sports in the United States to come out. That means something.

He's not a superstar or an indispensible cog; he's a bench player. He only played in 38 games this past season. That's a lot of DNP-CDs. He is 34 years old and is a free-agent come July 1, so he might have been a long shot to make a roster in the NBA next season anyway.

The natural inclination is to say that this is a small deal, but it would have meant more if, say, a superstar NFL player were to come out—someone who was a household name from coast to coast. That's what would cause a greater commotion. That would have more significance.

Hogwash.

Even the little earthquakes can have great meaning.

Even the smallest breaking down of the closet door in the lockerroom can have a lasting impact.

The Orioles and MLB Should Tell the NFL to Shut Up

The overinflated ego of the National Football League is rearing its typically ugly head again, asking for nonsense that it has no business asking about.

The issue at hand is that the NFL has had its Super Bowl Champion play on Thursday nights to open the season since 2004. It's been less than ten years; it's not like the Masters or even the Kentucky Derby in its association with this midweek opening.

Last year, the New York Giants opened their season on a Wednesday night because of the Democratic National Convention. The convention wasn't taking place in New York, by the way; it was in Charlotte. But okay, fine. A move for politics makes sense so it doesn't take attention away from the business of the country. I guess.

But this year, the NFL wants the Baltimore Orioles to move their Thursday game against the Chicago White Sox (September 5) to a day game because the NFL wants to put the season opener featuring the Ravens on Thursday night. Wednesday is not available because it is the start of Rosh Hashanah.

The crux of the problem is that the two teams share a parking lot due to the proximity of the two stadiums. Here's a view of M&T Bank Stadium (Ravens) and Oriole Park at Camden Yards (Orioles):

 

Julia Robertson/AP Photo



The joint parking lot makes it impossible to have games at both fields. The religious holiday precludes the NFL from putting the game on Wednesday. The Orioles have night games scheduled Friday and Saturday as well.

So why is the NFL set on having the game on Thursday move?

Why not ask to have Friday or Saturday moved?

Or, better yet: Why not just play the damn game Sunday night?!

NFL, you do remember Sunday night, right? It's where you have your signature game every other freaking week of the regular season? You know...THAT night!

Oh, and guess what? The Orioles have a day game on Sunday. Starts at 1:35pm. Works perfectly.

Part of me wants to think that the NFL just doesn't seem to understand how baseball works. The Orioles and the White Sox are both coming in from playing other teams. The Orioles have a night game in Cleveland on Wednesday before they come back to Charm City. The White Sox have a shorter trip since they'll be in the Bronx playing the Yankees. Both of those games are night games.

Now, Steve Bischotti, the owner of the Ravens, has said that he is willing to make the Orioles whole, covering any lost revenue that the Orioles would incur for, you know, basically doing his team a solid and moving the game because, hey, we're the NFL team and we won the Super Bowl and you know, civic pride and blah, blah, blah NFL.

But as Katy Feeney of Major League Baseball put it to the Baltimore Sun (and she knows since she's the VP for, um, scheduling), a change of this magnitude involves more than the Orioles:

The White Sox would take a broadcast revenue hit, and the O's would take a broadcast revenue and attendance hit. And there is a baseball operations impact. Conceivably both teams could be in playoff contention, so it wouldn't be fair to them to make them play a day game after both teams played a night game and traveled the night before. We make accommodations in our scheduling in the postseason. We work with the NFL. But this was something that was brought to us as a possibility just three weeks or a month ago. We always want to work with whoever wants to work with us, but why should these teams be punished?"
 

Also, according to an ESPN.com story, there is a rule at play:

The Orioles are scheduled to play the Indians in Cleveland on Sept. 4 at 7:05 p.m. Under baseball's collective bargaining agreement, getaway games are not to be scheduled or rescheduled to start later than 5 p.m. if either club is required to travel for a day game, scheduled the next day, between cities in which the in-flight time is more than one and a half hours.

The rule can be waived by a vote by the players on the team it affects, in this case the Orioles. 

There are a lot of moving parts here. Because I think that moving the game in Cleveland would also affect the Indians, and the point about broadcast revenue being hit would affect Cleveland as well if their game was moved. So now you have three teams affected by this. The flight time from NYC to Baltimore is less than 90 minutes, so they are not affected the same way. Also, their game starts at 6:05pm so they would have an hour head start on the Orioles.

Look, I get that the NFL is supposed to be king, and that all are expected to bow down and worship the almighty shield. But this is bull of the highest order.

It's a difficult situation, and I guess that there is honor in being made to feel special by getting a primetime game. It certainly helps NBC's bottom line, since the network languishes in fifth place right now and their primetime schedule, outside of a couple of shows, needs all the help it can get.

But the NFL should not have to prop up a network's schedule. Furthermore, baseball's schedule was set and out a long time ago. The NFL schedule, outside of two games, operates on a rotational matrix; if they want to get out in front of things, you could release the schedule a helluva lot further out and have spent a LOT more time working on this. You knew the Ravens were Super Bowl champs on February 3; get on the phone February 4 with all of the potentially affected parties and start to figure out the logistics at that point to see what accommodations, if any, can or need to be made.

To come in now, though, is arrogant and preposterous. It's not quite at the "Lack of planning on YOUR part is not MY responsibility" level, but don't act like having the Super Bowl champion playing on Thursday night is some kind of sacrosant tradition that must be preserved at all costs or society is going to crumble in a heap; that the seas will start to boil and the ground will be rent asunder; that cats and dogs will start living together and mass hysteria will ensue.

Don't say, "Oh, I guess the Ravens will have to go on the road. Boo hoo hoo."

Open them at home on Sunday night against Pittsburgh. Open the Seahawks at home against the 49ers on Thursday. There's your big national television game involving one of the participants from last year's Super Bowl that will get a big number. Done.

Just don't pretend, NFL, like you don't have options. Exercise them and think about things. Stop throwing your weight around and acting like a spoiled child and get creative about solutions.

Rick Reilly Doesn't Want To Tell Colin Kaepernick What To Do. Except He Kind Of Does

It was called "The Best Story of Super Bowl Week!" by the New York Giants Pat Hanlon.

It's been decried by others.

Yep. It must be Rick Reilly's music.

This week, Reilly wrote about Colin Kaepernick's family. Well, not exactly. Mr. Reilly wrote about Colin Kaepernick and the fact that he doesn't want to meet his birth mother. Kaepernick was adopted when he was about five weeks old. His mother gave him up for adoption as a 19 year old single mother.

The Kaepernicks, who had two children and had lost two others to heart issues, were more than willing to take Colin in. His adoptive mother sent letters and pictures for a while until his birth mother asked them to stop.

She did send Colin a letter for him to open when he was 18. He opened it but has not gone on to establish contact with her.

When Reilly pressed the issue, Kaepernick told him that he was not curious about meeting her.

Apparently, this puzzled Reilly. He regales us with the story about his own adopted daughter and the journey that she undertook. This was a piece that he wrote for Time Magazine in 2000 about his daughter going to South Korea to meet her birth mother, who was 18 when she gave her daughter up for adoption.

That is a wonderful story. Good for the young Ms. Reilly that she was able to make that journey.

Here's the problem though. It seems that because of his own family's narrative, Mr. Reilly wants to apply that same set of circumstances to Mr. Kaepernick.

NCAA Needs To Be Reformed From The Bottom Up And From The Top Down

 

"I have been vocal in the past regarding the need for integrity by NCAA member schools, athletics administrators, coaches and student-athletes," Emmert said. "That same commitment to integrity applies to all of us in the NCAA national office.

(From an ESPN.com story yesterday.)

One of the things that Dr. Mark Emmert, the current president of the NCAA, is big on is integrity and accountability. Remember, this is the person who unilaterally punished Penn State University for the institutional issues that plagued the upper university administration in their mishandling and covering up of the Jerry Sandusky situation on campus.

So it is safe to say that Emmert is a big believer in responsibility and making sure that the right thing is done in all circumstances. After all, as he said yesterday, the NCAA has to act with integrity.

in·teg·ri·ty

/ɪnˈtɛgrɪti/ Show Spelled [in-teg-ri-tee]  noun

1. adherence to moral and ethical principles; soundness of moral character; honesty.

 

The NCAA has long been a punching bag and a punchline. I've been known to rip the NCAA in some of my writing, although I've never gone as far as calling the organization a parasite. I do think it is a severely flawed organization, with a bloated rule book that is in desperate need of a re-do. Not tweaking. Not editing. It needs to be completely torn apart and rebuilt with an eye towards the 21st century and the role that intercollegiate athletics does play in the current paradigm of higher education.

 

It needs to be grounded in reality, not in some idealized, fetishized notion of amateurism that has become totemic.

 

Look, if the expectation going forward is that coaches are to be held accountable for the actions of their subordinates, then isn't it fair to expect that the head of the NCAA be kept informed of the actions of one of his most visible arms, the enforcement department?

 

I realize that there are a number of investigations taking place at institutions all around the country, but the University of Miami investigation was the most high profile of the open cases out there. If you don't believe so, then re-read Charles Robinson's initial report and tell me that this wasn't a priority case.

 

The NCAA has been investigating "The U" for the last two years. Apparently, if reports are to be believed, the investigative arm of the NCAA was ready to deliver notices of allegations very, very soon.

 

And then, all of a sudden, the NCAA has to backtrack and investigate itself because the attorney for Nevin Shapiro, somehow became involved in the investigation. The NCAA does not have subpoena power, and so the information that was gained by Shapiro's attorney during a deposition during the bankruptcy hearing for Shapiro, and provided to the NCAA, cannot be allowed.

 

Supposedly, this is only a small part of the overall case. However, the NCAA needs to see just how compromised the case is at this point in time.

 

I believe that it will be hard to move forward on this case because a cloud of suspicion will hang over the entirety of the case. Even if only one small part is tainted, I think it becomes difficult excise just the "tainted" parts and say that the rest of the case is hunky-dory.

 

Furthermore, coming on the heels of the Shabazz Muhammed situation, where the boyfriend of an NCAA investigator was called out for discussing the details of the case with a third party and essentially saying that a finding of Muhammed's guilt was decided before all of the information was actually, you know, collected and analyzed, it appears that the enforcement arm of the organization is a mess.

 

Right now, enforcement looks like they are jumping to conclusions, deciding guilt before thoroughly completing an investigation, and are willing to use any means necessary to gather evidence, even if it goes against their own rules.

 

How can you expect institutions to act with integrity and follow the labrynthine rules when the people that you have hired to enforce the rules, investigate violations and prosecute the offenders are committing violations themselves?

 

Maybe the problem is not just with enforcement. Maybe the problem just isn't with the rules.

 

The problems appear to go straight to the top.

 

As Jay Bilas of ESPN put it:

 

 

Isn't NCAA making head coaches, those in charge, responsible for assistants' actions? Uh, Mr. Emmert, about this happening on your watch...
— Jay Bilas (@JayBilas) January 23, 2013

 

In the two years plus that Emmert has been in charge:

 

• There was a shambolic investigation into Auburn and the recruitment of Cam Newton that ended with Newton being suspended and reinstated in about 25 minute because Cam didn't commit the violations, but his father did.

• There was the allowing the Ohio State football players who had sold their gold pants to play in the Sugar Bowl (aka the "Tattoo Five") because to not allow them to play would have hurt the Sugar Bowl somehow, so they were granted a special waiver to be allowed to play.

• Former USC assistant Todd McNair, the fall guy in the Reggie Bush case, was able to get a court to admit that the NCAA investigators violated their own rules in handling the investigation into McNair. The judge refused to throw out a lawsuit that McNair has filed against the NCAA.

• Emmert himself unilaterally decided to punish Penn State's football program for the crimes committed by Jerry Sandusky and the inaction of former Penn State football coach Joe Paterno, former athletic director Dr. Tim Curley and former president Dr. Graham Spanier. The punishment meted out by Emmert, the harshest given to an insitution since the death penalty placed on SMU, was for a perceived lack of institutional control. The problem is that Emmert used powers that, well, upon a reading of the rules, don't really seem to exist.

Yes, investigators have been fired. The investigator from the Muhammed case referenced above has been relieved of duties, as has the person who apparently retained Shapiro's attorney from the Miami case.

Although on the heels of the latest trumpeting of change in the NCAA enforcement arm, in which coaches are to be held accountable for the actions of their subordinates, isn't it fair to hold Emmert to the same standard?

NCAA's Emmert: "In my 2+ years I've certainly never seen anything like this, and don't want to see it again." Boy, he sure says that a lot.
— Jay Bilas (@JayBilas) January 24, 2013

Given the spate of Level I and II violations that the enforcement arm seems to be committing of late, maybe a zero based review of the rulebook is not enough.

Sometimes, you have to blow it all up and start over. A mass change needs to occur, and that change should probably start at the top.

Appreciate the Beauty of Gray

I’m going to start this piece off right now by doing something I normally don’t like to do. I’m going to make a blanket statement about people.

When it comes to sports, people prefer things to be black and white.

(I’m not talking about race, because based on the vitriol that Bomani Jones and Michael Silver were dealing with in re: NFL coaching hires, people can’t stand talking about black and white. But that’s another column.)

Dualities are simple: there is a right and a wrong. A hero and a villain. A winner and a loser. It’s clean and easy.

The Manti Te'o Hoax Story Is Not Cut-and-Dried

(From Dictionary.com)

hoax

ʊks/ Show S[hohks] Show IPA

noun

1.

something intended to deceive or defraud: The Piltdown man was a scientific hoax.

verb (used with object)

2.

to deceive by a hoax; hoodwink.

---

Origin:
1790–1800; perhaps contraction of hocus

Synonyms
1. deception, fraud, fake, imposture, humbug.

"It is a capital mistake to theorize before one has data. Insensibly one begins to twist facts to suit theories, instead of theories to suit facts."

~Sherlock Holmes, A Scandal in Bohemia

 

 

I am not Manti Te'o.

 

I mean that in every sense of the word, as far as having his heritage, his youth, his skill, his physique or his faith. In most (if not, all) instances, I am the antithesis of Manti Te'o.

 

Which means that the perspective I am writing from is going to be from an outsider's place. So keep that in mind as we wander through the minefield that his life must surely feel like right now.

 

I cannot imagine the emotions that have to be running through him right now, and I think it depends on what role he played in the farce that his life has been over the course of the last day (and month, if you want to go back that far).

 

Deadspin reported on Wednesday that Te'o's girlfriend, Lennay Kekua, who supposedly died on (or about) September 12 was not, actually, dead.

 

In fact, to be fair, there is a chance that she never existed.

 

She was a figment. A fake. A fraud. A humbug. She was apparently never real, although there are sources that state otherwise. Actually, I'll let Timothy Burke and Jack Dickey's words speak here:

 [T]here is no SSA record there of the death of Lennay Marie Kekua, that day or any other. Her passing, recounted so many times in the national media, produces no obituary or funeral announcement in Nexis, and no mention in the Stanford student newspaper.  

Nor is there any report of a severe auto accident involving a Lennay Kekua. Background checks turn up nothing. The Stanford registrar's office has no record that a Lennay Kekua ever enrolled. There is no record of her birth in the news. Outside of a few Twitter and Instagram accounts, there's no online evidence that Lennay Kekua ever existed.

The photographs identified as Kekua—in online tributes and on TV news reports—are pictures from the social-media accounts of a 22-year-old California woman who is not named Lennay Kekua. She is not a Stanford graduate; she has not been in a severe car accident; and she does not have leukemia. And she has never met Manti Te'o.

 

Whatever the case, we are facing one of the weirdest stories we've seen in sports in quite some time.

Are Coaches Acting More Assholish On Purpose?

I was stunned when I heard that Tommy Tuberville was leaving Texas Tech for the Cincinnati job, especially given the destabilization and demolition of the Big East conference. Comparatively speaking, the Big 12 was a stable place.

Of course, Tuberville at Texas Tech never really made sense, and seeing as how the season ended there for him, I guess I can understand the need to get out of dodge.

But then my mouth gaped open when I heard about Tuberville's alleged dine and dash with recruits that Texas Tech was hosting when he took the Cincinnati job. Of course, Tuberville and Cincinnati denied the allegation. I mean, it's not the kind of thing that a coach with any semblance of a brain is going to admit to.

However...it appears that the Texas Tech prospects are not the only ones to get shafted by good old Tommy boy, as two athletes who had verbally committed to Cincinnati are apparently not going to go there and have been told by the new coaching staff that it's time to look elsewhere.

To Herbstreit, ESPN and the other Anti-NIU whiners...

In the preseason polls, Northern Illinois received one vote in the AP Top 25, and two votes in the USA Today Coaches poll, ranked behind such illustrious teams as South Florida (3-9), Virginia (4-8), Missouri (5-7), Southern Mississippi (0-12!), Utah (5-7), Arkansas (4-8) and Auburn (3-9).

After losing to Iowa in Week One, Northern Illinois did not receive a single vote of any kind in those polls. In fact, the Huskies did not receive any votes in either major poll until week eight of the USA Today poll, when they finally started getting votes again.

The margin of error when you are from a non-AQ conference is beyond slim; the line is so razor thin it is nearly imperceptible. That's not really an opinion; I can take it one step further and say that even within the AQ leagues there is a perception of difficulty, and if you are from the SEC or even the Pac-12 this year you will get more leeway for certain kinds of losses than a school from the ACC and the Big East would.

Northern Illinois doesn't have that luxury, and everyone wants to point to the fact that they lost to Iowa in week one as an excuse to validate the argument against leaving the Huskies out of the Orange Bowl. Fine. It was a one point loss in the last two minutes. Show me all of the other undefeated teams that there are in the country. Oh, wait, there's only one—and they'll be playing in Sun Life Stadium on Monday night, anyway.

Northern Illinois, who apparently even the Orange Bowl doesn't want, are there because of a rule that was instituted years ago. It's not like Northern Illinois rigged the system. They are the beneficiaries of a rule that was put in place that, quite frankly, the powers that be probably did not expect to ever be trigged at its lowest threshold like it was this season.

If a team from a non-AQ conference finished in the Top 16 of the final BCS standings, and finished ahead of a team from a BCS conference, then said non-AQ school would take up an at-large slot.

Blame the Big East for being the home of putrid football. Blame Rutgers for not taking care of its own business, although I wonder if it would've made a difference, given that Rutgers and Louisville were both not ranked in the next to last BCS standings. Blame the FBS for being such a hot mess, with a bloated disgusting postseason that is rife with payola, favoritism and corruption with an emphasis on the almighty dollar.

Just don't blame Northern Illinois for a rule that they simply managed to trigger by doing what we all ask of our teams—winning.