Say It Ain't So Joe

Some of you will remember the line from baseball days a very long time ago, and Shoeless Joe Jackson and the "Black" Sox scandal, but I had to borrow the phrase for a moment.


ESPN is at it again, as are many other so called sports outlets as they are trying their best to put all of this on Joe Paterno and the Penn State Football program when in fact, if you look at the Freeh report and you pay very close attention, this was a gross administrative f-up of mammoth proportions, but not a football issue.  I realize that this will not be a popular statement, and I am not saying that Joe Paterno could not, or should not, have done more as a human being, Joe said that himself, but ESPN continues to conveniently forget that Joe Paterno was not the one in the shower with these boys.  Joe was not the 28 year old, 6' - 4", 220 pound graduate assistant that heard something going on in the shower, did nothing, ran home to daddy, and then decided to speak with Coach Paterno more than 24 hours later.  Joe was not the one in charge of campus security.  He was not at any point in his career a Dean, a Vice President, a President, or a trustee!!  And, oh by the way, he was 75 at the time he was told by Mike McQuery whatever he was actually told.


It is hard for me because I am a 48 year old coach and I know that if I was told this I would have gone and found Sandusky and confronted him, to put it nicely, but by the same token, I am not a head D-I football coach in my mid seventies.  I am guessing that if I were, and I was in my office preparing for the weekend, and someone told me "he thought he heard something that sounded like," especially more than twenty four hours later, I probably would have picked up the phone and called the President of the University, or the State Police, or the Chief of Police on campus.  I do know that at Chico State I got to know the Chief of Campus Police there quite well and he was always my first call regardless of what the issue was, and I know that I have campus security on speed dial here as well.


Let me be clear, I firmly believe that anyone that molests someone, rapes someone, harasses someone, woman, child, whomever, anything other than the rack, tar and feathers, and then maybe stoning, slowly, is too good for them.  Just going to jail is far too easy an answer, the death penalty is far too easy an answer.  This type of behavior makes me seethe, as I know is does many people, but it is also important that we punish the right person, or people, and that in the rush to judgement and blame, which is very natural, that we don't let organizations like ESPN skew the truth and the reality to the point that 120 student athletes that were in middle school when all of this started don't end up the ones that suffer the most at Penn State.


I believe that the majority of the Board of Trustees should be replaced, for two reasons, one because the Freeh report does suggest quite strongly that a large portion of the board, not just the chairman, knew more about this scandal than most, and two, because their handling of this entire event since ESPN set up shop on campus with three games to go has been anything but professional.


Should Joe have done more, yes.  Was he the lead culprit in a "cover-up," if that is what we should call it, no.  Was the football staff, other than McQuery and Sandusky, actively involved in this horrible mess, no.  Does anyone really believe that any of the players, then or now, knew what Sandusky was up to and let it happen??  I do not know if anyone believes that or not, but I do not.  Division I college football players are a bizarre collection of individuals to say the least, and a large percentage of them seem to find ways to make really bad decisions, and act in some pretty awful ways, but I just find it very hard to believe that this was the fault of the players in 1998, and 2002, and I know it was not the fault of the current players, so please Penn State University, fire your whole administration, all of your trustees, interesting that that is what they should be called given this situation, and send Sandusky and the then President, and hopefully Mike McQuery to jail (for criminal negligence, or behavior unbecoming a decent human being), but please don't make this about football, and athletics.


This was about a large number of humans, beginning and ending with Jerry Sandusky, that did not act very human, and did not put the children first.  This was the equivalent of a large group of people in the middle of a city watching a man get mugged because they did not want to get involved, except the victims were far more vulnerable, and far less able to defend themselves, and significantly more valuable.


I just wish someone would go back to making this about these victims and their families getting some measure of justice, not just for what was actually done to them, but for what others allowed.


Thank you ESPN for spurring today's sports thought!!

All Is Definitely Not Lost

Well, it is another day, and as with every day ESPN has done something that has completely boggled my mind.  In this case though I have to say it is not just them, but people all across this country that count themselves as college football "experts," or even "avid" fans.  I think all of the above need to find a dictionary and look up some of these words.

I have to admit that this time last year, having been in Boise just over a year, and having been in Bronco Stadium for Senior Day the previous fall, I was a little curious if Boise State would be just as good as the previous year given all the talent they had lost, but knowing a little something of the history of the program, Junior College National Champs, I-AA National Champs, a full decade of steady climb to the top ten under two different head coaches, with Coach Peterson being the consistent theme in that decade as QB Coach, Offensive Coordinator and then Head Coach.

The result? I believe the 2011 version of the Boise State Broncos Football Program was significantly better.  I believe the win over Georgia in the Georgia Dome proved to be an even bigger win than the previous win over Virginia Tech in 2010.

Now Kellen is gone, and Douggie Martin is gone, and a whole bunch more, but this is a great "program," and I am sure, no confident, that Coach Peterson has a shelf in his office with quarterbacks stacked up like cord wood and when he needs one he just goes in there and picks one.  Do I think this year's version of Bronco Football will be just as dominant and just as amazing?  No idea.  Do I think they are deserving of a national ranking, and even a top 15 ranking?  Absolutely yes!!

Alabama graduates a Heisman Trophy winning running back and they are still in the top of the poll.  USC graduates a Heisman Trophy winning QB and they are still in the top 10, and oh by the way, the next quarterback wins a Heisman.

Coach Peterson and his staff are great at what they do, and it is not just Xs and Os.  They have built a program that is a national program and deserves all the same respect as LSU, Alabama, USC and the like.  I truly would have loved to have seen Kellen and the boys against Alabama at the end of last year!!  Great offense against great defense!!  That would have been a fun, exciting game to watch, unlike "the rematch," which was unbearable to watch.  Who has been better than Coach Peterson at managing the five weeks off before bowl games the past five or so years.

Mark May is a complete moron by the way...just saying.

Thank you ESPN for spurring today's sports thought!!

Favre Too Much ESPN

They have done it again. I guess they almost have to at this point, or at least they can't help themselves, but it is amazingly annoying, aggravating, or down right frustrating that these people contiue to get away with creating stories.  They may even turn out to be right this time, although they are wrong more often than right, but we are half way through day two of non-stop analysis, discussion, and reflection on Brett Favre's career, and impending retirement, without any announcement from Favre or the Minnesota Vikings.

On top of simply creating  the story, there are also no shortage of opinions on whether this "decision," and I use the term very loosely, was a good decision or bad, was good for Favre or bad, fair to the Vikings or not!!  Who at ESPN is truly qualified to speak to any of these questions at all.  There are a couple of folks, but not many, and the ones that are ex-NFLers do a great job with this "story," the only problem is that it is not even an actual story yet.  The least qualified of all of these folks, who shall remain nameless because I don't want to give him that much credit, now has his own bus.  There is no way that anyone other than Madden, Jaws, or Mike and Mike should have their own buses.

It would just be nice to see ESPN cover actual sports NEWS, as opposed to creating, and covering, sports gossip!!

Thank you ESPN for spurring today's sports thought!!

Miss Universe

"Imagine if you go there to see Miss Universe and you end up having Miss Iowa, you might get those kind of boos. But it's OK," he said. "They had to understand that as an organization we have to make sure the kid is fine."

The quote above came from tonights emergency starter for the Washington Nationals, Miguel Batista, or Miss Iowa, I guess. Batista pitched tonight because rookie "phenom," Stephen Stasburg, Miss Universe, had inflammation in his pitching shoulder.

Now, it is easy to understand what Batista meant, and it is even easy enough to see how maybe you could use this as a good comparison, sort of, but my question is why on earth did he pick poor Miss Iowa, and more importantly how must she be feeling right now.

Maybe I am wrong, and maybe nobody will be offended, but I will be very surprised if that is the case. How about saying it would be like coming to see the President of the United States and you end up seeing the Mayor of DC. After all, they are the Washington Nationals, and they do play in Nationals Stadium, and call it a hunch, but I have to believe it would be hard to offend almost anyone if you compared seeing them to seeing the President, but Miss Iowa??

This one just struck me as funny and felt I had to share!!

Thank you ESPN for spurring today's sports thought!!

Layup

"Not everybody agreed with ESPN's decision to air LeBron's live TV event. ... it ultimately undermined the network's journalistic integrity and spun out of control."

This one is not tough, what journalistic integrity?

ESPN will write, print, show, air whatever they need to in order to keep the masses coming, to keep them entertained. ESPN has become the Barnum and Bailey of Sportscasting. Yes they have some good reporters out there in the field, but the percentage of "journalistic integrity" at ESPN versus not has actually had me writing the occasional email to ESPN writers that do write a great story, or cover a story with sensitive content in a classy way.

ESPN is no different than our society in this way, unfortunately, but it is true that there is no so little "journalistic integrity" that the rare appearance of such is what catches the eye, rather than a lack thereof.

The Lebron James "Decision" show was simply a manifestation of Lebron and all his ills and ESPN's lack of journalistic integrity all coming together in one place. The perfect storm of US sports absurdity.

It is time that ESPN, professional sports, professional athletes and US sports in general get back to the basics to clean up our act in this country.

Here is the real question, if Lebron had stayed in Cleavland, and that whole show had been a celebration of that fact and of Cleavland and Cleavland sports, would ESPN be admitting any error in judgement at this point?? And yes that was a rhetorical question.

Thank you ESPN for spurring today's sports thought!!

MJ Speaks

Very simply put, MJ finally said what so many have thought and said, and in so many ways, but thankfully, as usual, MJ said it with many fewer words, and from a perspective that no one else on the planet could ever have, and with a class that he carries because of his father, those he played with and against, Magic, Bird and Pippen primarily, and because of his respect for the game.

Lebron has made a fool out of himself, he has made himself rich, and he has given himself a much better chance to win a championship than he had in Cleavland, maybe, but he has done so in such a way that not only has it all become a circus, but Lebron has become the clown.

So many people said it today, and I firmly believe it, sports, and athletes, are simply not the same anymore. It has all lost something. I blame it on Facebook.

Thank you ESPN for spurring today's sports thought!!

Are You Kidding Me

The Cavs fans are backing their owner, that I believe and am happy to see. Some of them have offered to pay his fine, I will come back to this, but the Cavs owner Dan Gilbert has asked that the money they would use to help pay the fine go to the Cavs Youth Fund instead, a classy move!!

OK, you better sit down, the NBA has fined Dan Gilbert $ 100,000 for his comments about Lebron's decision to leave, and at the same time the Commish has slapped Lebron on the wrist, barely, by saying that his decision to make his announcement on the ESPN show the Decision was in poor taste.

I'm sorry, I must have missed something, Lebron gets a slap on the wrist for what was at the least collusion, and at the most significantly worse than anything Pete Rose ever did to baseball. Lebron orchestrated the building of his own team from the ground up in Miami, which now has four significant all-stars on it and more to come. All Dan Gilbert did was tell the truth!!

Anyone that watched the Boston series with the Cavs, or even just the highlights, knows that Lebron gave up. He quite on his team, and there was no doubt about it. Also, you could tell by his body language that he know he was done as a Cav, so how do you now say that what he has done since then has been OK, and that Dan Gilbert was wrong??

Our society is upside down!!

Thank you ESPN for spurring today's sports thought!!

Worst Three Days In Sport

For the absolute sports fan, not just baseball fan, but sports fan this is definitely the worst three days in sports, right now. From three days starting today, there is nothing to watch. This is true every year, but with this being a World Cup year, ended yesterday, and with Lance effectively done, it is so much worse.

Want to know how much worse? ESPN has found almost nothing to write about, and that is saying something. I am sure they are sitting back in their offices in Connecticut hoping that another University of Tennessee football or basketball player will do something else that defies all logic and intelligent thought of any kind, but if not there is just nothing going on. Maybe they should have paid Lebron a little more for his hour to move it to this week.

Hockey finished up a while ago, basketball just a couple of weeks ago, football, well aside from a very brief and uneventful Brett Favre sighting, nothing to report there, and baseball had a few guys swing for the fences tonight, which entertained the beer drinking, own fart smelling baseball fan, and tomorrow night is the All-Star game, the best young pitcher in baseball won't be there, that would have made me watch, and no matter what the managers do, this game still ultimately means very little.

Thursday the New York Yankees and Tampa play, and The Red Sox welcome Texas and their newly acquired Cy Young candidate, and The Open Championship begins, please Tiger, please!!

Thank you ESPN for spurring today's sports thought!! or lack thereof!!

Criminally Absurd

Rev. Jackson: Cavs owner put LeBron in danger.

When you read a headline like this you realize that the world, or at least our piece of it, has gone spinning completely off its axis!!

There are two points of absurdity here, one, Cavs owner put Lebron in danger?? and by the way, are we really supposed to care about one of the richest, and most spoiled, athletes on the planet??

These two thoughts are obviously directly connected. Lebron James made his decision, plus had it televised in an hour long special, plus had the decision made many moons ago while playing with his fellow "Dream Team" pals, so how is anyone else responsible for the millions of people now wishing ill against Lebron. You live with the choices you make in this life, all of them, and even if mommy says do what will make you happy Lebron, I am sure she also reminded him that he, and he alone will have to live with the consequences!!

There is so much here that is crazy it is somewhat hard to think clearly, but no, the white man did not put the poor helpless black man's life in danger by speaking his mind, Reverend Jackson has taken this way too far, Lebron is a big boy now, spoiled, uneducated, selfish, but big. Our society has made it VERY ok to be selfish, to have no loyalty, to take the expression "look out for number one," way too far, and as usual the media, especially ESPN, will "print" anything as long as it is sensational enough to sell!!

Thank you ESPN for spurring today's sports thought!!

Stop The Madness

OK, so we all know I am not exactly a Lebron James fan, in fact I firmly believe that if Lebron were to join the Heat is would be the third best player on that team, but I need to continue here for a moment tonight. This is not really about Lebron, but about sports in this country period, it is just that Lebron is the most obvious and visable symptom.

A one hour special to announce a decision as to where he is going to play basketball next year?? Yes, it is great that he will help the Boy's and Girl's Clubs of America, but does anyone really buy that they are the only reason he is doing this special?? Not to mention the "whores" that ESPN have become...OK we will come back to that one at a later date because they do give me something to write about every day.

We have youth sports in this country that has gotten so bad that I actually saw a player, in a youth game, under elevens mind you, shove a coach!! Yes I said shove a coach. Now, I give the coach, parent helping out as a coach, a great deal of credit for not losing it on the player, and in fact he stayed patient with this young man, and I use the term as loosely as humanly possible,and gently made his point before leaving him on the end of the bench for the rest of the game to rot. But, this kind of behavior is not the exception at this point, it is the rule.

It started, I guess, with the spike in football, and then the Icky shuffle, and now it has reached a point hat college players in the major sports celebrate and taunt routinely, and as it works it way down, none of the work ethic, respect for coaches, respect for teammates, opponents, the games themselves, or even competition exists anymore and so you simply have spoiled, entitled little "shits" running around believing they rule the world, and then we wonder why we have had to use "professional" athletes, and I use that term loosely as well, for all the team sports in the Olympics.

Take a look at the teams, the countries, the different sports that all of sudden everyone is getting good at, and look at the United States. Look at the World Cup and the countries that were suddenly competitive. We have lost control of youth, athletes, and sports in this country, and we have definitely lost control of youth sports. People will tell me well it is because we don't have enough good coaches at the youth levels, or the high school levels, the sport is simply growing too fast. Well maybe we should take some control over how we grow the sports we grow in this country and maybe the people that want to help should do a little more than just show up, and if we do that, if the "grown-ups" take responsibility and ownership of educating themselves about that which they are trying to teach, including the sportsmanship and respect components, then maybe the youth players will take their lead.

What a novel concept, coaches leading players by example, glad I thought of it!!

Thank you ESPN for spurring today's sports thought!!

Who Cares

It is amazing to me how much attention NBA free agency is getting, and specifically the "Lebron watch." Who cares really??

Obviously people in Cleavland and Ohio in general care, and I can understand that because this is the closest they have been to good in a professional sport in a while, but when you look at it, what has Lebron really done for the Cavs except not win when it matters. I am a huge Celtics fan, but if I were a Cavs fan I would not even want Lebron back after he essentially mailed in the back half of that series.

Lebron is going to get paid some absolutely obscene amount of money for someone that has never delivered, and is definitely NOT the best player in the league, or number two, or even three. The Cavs got rid of their coach because it obviously couldn't be Lebron's fault right?

I think Dwayne Wade is a classy, talented basketball player that deserves to get paid well for what he does, and I hope he stays with the Heat becasue seeing him out of that uniform would be like seeing Micheal out of a Bulls uniform, or Kobe out of a Lakers uniform. The rest of this is just noise.

There are so many more players in every professionally sport that bring more to work every day, to their teams, to their cities, and to their sports, that it simply amazes me that so many seem to care so much. If Derek Jeter were looking at other options that would matter, but Lebron...please!!

Thank you ESPN for spurring today's sports thought!!

CC - See What

I have had this debate many times over the past couple of years, and now that ESPN has listed CC Sabathia as one of their possible starters in their "who should start the all-star game" poll I guess it is time to have the debate again.

Not much of a debate here really, CC Sabathia is constantly considered as an all-star, or worse, as a Cy-Young contender when the facts are pretty simple, if he didn't play for the Yankees, and that amazing offensive line-up they put out there every day he would not even get noticed.

At the end of last season he was thought to be a "finalist" for the Cy-young, and the question here is why?? At the end of last year CC had an ERA that was no less than a full run higher than everyone else being considered. At this point in the season this year the same is true. CC has one ten games, but it has taken him 17 starts to get that done while it has taken Clay Bucholz 15, and the whole world knows that the Red Sox offense was for shit in the month of April.

If you look at ESPN's own stat page for MLB and compare AL pitchers you will see that CC does not even rank in the top ten in ERA. He is always going to be there in wins as long as he is in the 3s with ERA and playing for the Yankees. Put CC on one of the anemic offensive teams, or even the Red Sox, a now decent offensive team, and he has maybe six wins, maybe.

The Yankees are a great team, with the emphasis on team, and they play in a big ballpark with an amazing offense and gold glove defense, especially up the middle. CC should buy all of those guys cars for allowing him to be so average and win so much!!

Thank you ESPN for spurring today's sports thought!!