A terrible referee gambling scandal. A broken playoff system. Serious legal issues for players. All of these things are small potatoes compared to the real problem facing the NBA: TV and radio stations that are not “official NBA stations” are promoting their pre-game and post-game shows.
Media outlets without NBA licensing agreements can’t give away tickets, promote pre- and postgame shows, or engage in other activities that might violate those agreements.
Simmons Media Group-owned radio station 1280 AM The Zone, which offers its own Jazz pre- and postgame shows, has been told by the NBA to stop promoting its shows.
So basically, the NBA is trying to prevent interest in their league. I’m not an expert in business development, but I think unless your company is dumping oil in Alaskan baby seal homes, generally it’s not a good idea to prevent people from discussing your company and product.
That’s not the only problem. If there are no unofficial shows then where are all crazy callers who get banned from the “official” shows going to call in to? The NBA needs to ease up on this.
I’m surprised this hasn’t received more national attention, but Rick Morrisey of the Chicago Tribune has been writing a spoof blog in which he pretends to be Brian Urlacher. The blog is very KSK-esque to say the least, and it does not give a very flattering portrayal of Urlacher. Here’s a snippet.
Many men in Chicago have said they would love to be me, so I thought I’d give you an idea of a typical day.
First, I like to wake up. Jay Glazer, my home slice at foxsports.com, usually calls first thing to tell me how great I am. I got a little suspicious the one time when the phone rang and he said to me, “Osi, you’re great!” I said, not a little angrily, “This is Brian, not Osi Umenyiora of the New York Giants.” Jay had told me he has phone numbers for 1,500 NFL players, coaches and personnel men, so I was little worried he was doling out love in alphabetical order.
Jay assured me he was completely my guy and tearfully said he’d destroy his BlackBerry phone list to prove his unending loyalty to me. I said that wasn’t necessary, but I wouldn’t turn down Britney Spears’ number if he had it. He did, telling me she’s totally misunderstood and a major talent.
OK, then I have my usual breakfast of Vitamin Water, which is all anybody needs to survive. I haven’t eaten a thing in a year. I just drink this stuff and go to the Pro Bowl.
After that, I go to meetings at Halas Hall, watch film of that week’s opponent, get treatment on my aching back and go to practice. By the way, we stink this year. But we’re a well-hydrated bad team thanks to the Vitamin Water.
Then I like to kick back and play Halo 3 until 2 a.m. I’ve got to tell you: Sitting that long is not the best thing for an arthritic back! Try getting up after five hours of that. Sure, you’re a better man intellectually for it, but at what cost?
It’s a little remarkable that a journalist from a big time newspaper would risk alienating a local star athlete with such clear mockery, but I’m all for it. Morrisey just better hope he doesn’t have to interview Urlacher for anything ever again.
Some other stuff that might pique your interest…
–Remember Scott Frost? The former National Championship winning Nebraska quarterback-turned NFL safety is now the linebackers coach at Northern Iowa. His Panthers are the #1 Division I-AA team in country.
–There’s nothing like breaking a bunch of NCAA rules and then leaving your job with a nice little $60,000 severance package.
–Even if you’re a competitive skeet shooter who has been invited to an exclusive Junior Olympic camp, it’s not a good idea to accidentally bring shotgun shells onto school grounds.
Manchester City midfielder Stephen Ireland was very excited about scoring a goal in Monday’s match against Sunderland. He was so excited there was only one thing he could do—take off his pants.
Ireland received only a slap on the wrist for the incident—there was “no formal disciplinary action”, just a hint that it would be in his best interest never to do it again. Meanwhile, Chad Johnson lies in bed daydreaming about the things he could do if he played European football instead of American football.
Hey, Barry Melrose is still around. Despite the fact that his ESPN appearances have dipped from twice a day to twice a month (NASCAR is now on ESPN, the NHL is not), Melrose is still doing things to stay relevant. Things such as insulting the entire metropolitan population of Newark.
In a video segment posted on ESPN.com last week, Melrose described the recently opened arena as a “beautiful new building” but added, “Don’t go outside if you have a wallet or anything else, because the area around the arena is just horrible.”
And…cue the apology.
“I was trying to be funny and I’m sorry it didn’t come through that way,” he said by phone from St. Louis. “No excuse. When I talk I don’t want to offend anybody. I love hockey and I want Newark to be a success. I certainly never wanted to hurt the feelings of the people of Newark or the people of New Jersey. There was no malice on my part.”
I don’t blame Melrose if he just assumed nobody watches those annoying videos that blast the ears of unsuspecting espn.com visitors. I would have thought Melrose could appear in a Vick jersey holding a choke chain and a rape stand and nobody would have noticed. I guess I was wrong.
I don’t think the U.S. has an official “sports minister”, but based on the recent comments of the UK’s Gerry Sutcliffe it sounds like it would be fun to have one. Last week Sutcliffe called Chelsea captain Jon Terry’s new contract “obscene”, and he criticized Manchester United for raising ticket prices…again.
Sutcliffe said there was a danger of football losing touch with ordinary fans because of players’ sky-high salaries, and that clubs could price grass-roots supporters out of attending matches.
“Good luck to John Terry but I think it is obscene to be on £150,000 a week,” he said. “People in the street cannot understand salaries like that. Chelsea are £250 million in the red and they may be able to cope with that but it’s not the real world. £250 million in the red is not sustainable.
“This year Manchester United increased their season tickets by 13 percent and said fans have to buy automatically European and Carling Cup games as well and that costs an extra £200. That’s taking the game away from the ordinary grass-roots supporter.
Poor John Terry. Being singled out like that can’t be fun. All he wanted was to get paid $250,000 a week to play soccer, but he can’t do it without some damned politician criticizing him for it. And what’s Manchester United supposed to do? Not raise ticket prices? That’s cooky talk.
I can only imagine what Sutcliffe would say about A-Rod’s new contract or the Red Sox charging the per capita income of a small African nation for season tickets. The guy would have a field day. Maybe the U.S. can borrow him for a couple of weeks. In return we could send Arnold Schwarzenegger to the UK. They love Kindergarten Cop over there.
Good news. It turns out 80% of MLB general managers are able to convince Bud Selig to stop being an idiot. Selig has long been a staunch opponent of instant replay, but after MLB GMs voted 25-5 in favor of exploring its use Selig says he will reconsider his stance.
Well, that’s a start.
Selig is still concerned about instant replay causing a lot of delays. Apparently he enjoys the delays that occur when managers come out of the dugout to argue calls that have no chance of being overturned, but he thinks the much shorter replay delays that actually accomplish something will ruin the game. If replay is eventually used, at the start it will only be for “boundary calls”—which basically means just for disputed home runs calls. Hopefully at some point “safe or out” calls will be added as well.
All of this is good news because it’s insane that there still isn’t instant replay in baseball. What if there had been conclusive evidence that Matt Holliday was out at the plate? Not having replay would have cost a team a playoff birth—that’s basically the worst thing possible. How could Selig defend not using something that prevents that? I guarantee if replays had showed Holliday was out the ensuing PR fiasco would have Selig championing replay as much as possible. So why should he wait for a disaster to happen before taking action?
For right now, the baseball people in favor of replay need to push it as hard as possible and begin working on a plan. It should be fairly easy. Just give each manager two challenges a game. Give him a third if he gets the first two right. Same as football. The only foreseeable problem is that every close but still obvious call in the 9th inning could end up being challenged, but MLB should be able to get around that by finding a way to punish teams for missed challenges. Can you imagine a baseball future with no blown calls? The sports world will be knocked of its axis. It will be like when the NCAA figured out a 64 team tournament would be really easy to gamble on.
Now we know what would happen if Joe Torre and Phil Simms were forced to spend five minutes together talking with the president of a tea company. It’s Awwkkkwaaaarrd.
Apparently Torre offends his Japanese players by not drinking the green tea they give him. Simms, on the other hand, is just a simple man who fantasizes about a decaf tea that will give him a tan.
The highlight of the video comes at the 4:50 mark when Torre begins telling a completely random and arbitrary story based on a quote from the most recent Rocky movie. It doesn’t make much sense, but I guess if I had to motivate Kyle Farnsworth and Ron Villone to pitch better, at some point I would just give up and start spewing Rocky quotes. That’s probably why the Rocky thing was fresh in Torre’s mind.
One would think that giving away free tickets has to lead to a win-win, positive PR, good feelings-all around kind of situation. That sort of thing is just hard to screw up. Nevertheless, the Toronto Argonauts were up for the challenge.
The Argos, with sponsors such as Rogers Cable and 7-11, offered free tickets to the last four games of the season. According to the Argos, several thousand cashed them for earlier games. But many more apparently saved them for Saturday’s home finale against Winnipeg, overwhelming ticket sellers.
“Unfortunately, because of capacity and attendance last game going over 40,000 we ran out of room,” said Argos spokesperson Beth Waldman.
“There aren’t enough adjectives to register my disgust at the callous way that all of us were treated,” says Warren Dalton, one of an estimated 1,000 football fans holding free ticket vouchers that proved worthless Saturday.
The team is calling it a “best-case worst-case scenario”, which sounds a lot like what happens when Jonathan Papelbon starts dancing. The team will make it up to fans who were turned away by giving them a ticket to a playoff a game or one of next year’s regular season games.
While the Argos weren’t able to please all their fans, they’re already the envy of the Devil Rays, Hawks, and Royals. Those teams are still trying to figure out how to get people to use the free tickets they give away.
Oh, the things kids will do to escalate a high school football rivalry. There’s stealing the other team’s mascot, spray painting lewd and profane insults on the front door of their school, sleeping with their quarterback’s girlfriend, and last but not least, stabbing their players during the post-game handshake.
A 17-year-old Blake High School football player cut a Magruder High School player Friday night as players of the dueling teams were shaking hands during the postgame lineup, Montgomery County police said.
The Blake student pulled a small folding knife from his pocket, cut the hand of a rival team member and attempted to cut a second player, said Cpl. Jimmy Robinson, a police spokesman.
What ever happened to the good old days when kids just spit or urinated in their hands before lining up to congratulate their opponents? That’s how you’re supposed to secretly humiliate your opponents.
The most shocking thing about all this is that somebody got stabbed in a post-game handshake and it wasn’t Bill Belichick. What were the odds of that?
…Priest Holmes is about the be the center of a lot of media attention.
…The Vikings fake toss/reverse kickoff return (:30 mark). Is there some reason teams don’t try this kind of thing more often? It almost always works.
…TwoFalcons veterans got ready for this week by going far away from the team both mentally and physically. Jimmy Carter later cheered them on.
Jason Elam Owes Antonio Cromartie Big Time
When Jeff Reed attempted a 65-yard field two weeks ago in Denver it may have been the last time Jason Elam’s 63-yard field goal record will ever be in jeopardy (well, maybe except for Sebastian Janikowski). Antonio Cromartie (and Ed Reed before him) have made it clear that it’s too risky to attempt a field goal that could come up short—those kicks are just too easy to return for touchdowns. The kicking team has 11 guys on the field who run like Bengie Molina and none of them are prepared to chase around a frenetic defensive back. If you look at the video of Cromartie’s return all of the Vikings lineman are just standing around and one of them even has his hands raised in an “it’s good” sign. Uh, it’s definitely not good. Unless 60-yarders start becoming routine, Elam’s record is going to be safe for a long time.
Another Bill Belichick Lesson on How to Be Bland, Insincere, and Hackneyed
Here is what the Patriots coach had to say after his team’s win:
“It was a real good win for our football team. I was really proud of the way the guys played. We played 60 minutes, which you have to do against the Colts. They’re tough. They make you work for everything. But I thought our guys stepped up and made some big plays, especially in the second half and 4th quarter when we needed to, and all the credit has got to go to the players. They worked hard for this one—had a good week of practice, and they played hard today, and just made a few more plays than the Colts did.”
Say it’s a good win–check. Say you’re proud of your team—check. Use the phrase “60 minutes”—check. Give credit to your opponent—check. Mention “big plays”–check. Give credit to your players—check. Talk about how practicing hard is important—check. The only thing Belichick forgot was to mention how “all 53 guys on the roster” contributed to the win.
Shrewd Moves of the Week
Mike Holmgren
It didn’t work out, but Holmgren made the right decision when he went for it on 4th and 1 from the Browns 44-yard line early in overtime. A first down likely would have given Josh Brown a chance to win the game, and the way the Seahawks defense was playing they probably wouldn’t have stopped the Browns even if they pinned them deep. Holmgren might face some criticism for the move, but going for it was the smart and aggressive thing to do.
Joe Gibbs
I didn’t even know Gibbs knew what onside kicks were, but his decision to try one while trailing 17-6 was quite shrewd. After an easy recovery the Redskins went down the field and added another field goal.
By the way, on the onside kick the Jets carelessly had the usual alignment of five players standing at the 45-yard line. With mid-game onside kicks now en vogue in the NFL shouldn’t teams be making a bigger effort to defend them? Would it really hurt their kick returns that much to bump their front line up the 40-yard line or add a 6th or 7th guy? There is not good risk-benefit analysis going on.
Bonehead Moves of the Week
Tony Dungy
There wasn’t one specific bad decision Dungy made, but right from the start he seemed to be playing not to lose (by settling for field goals) instead of playing to win (by going for touchdowns). On the Colts 2nd drive they had 3rd and goal from the Pats 3-yard line. They should have ran the ball up the middle with the intention of running it again on 4th down—the Colts expected a shootout and they needed 7. Instead, Manning threw an incomplete pass and the Colts settled for a field goal.
Then on their next drive the Colts had first and goal from the 6-yard line. Dungy and Manning should have been thinking about four straight runs for a touchdown. Instead Manning threw an incompletion on first down and the Colts ended up settling for another short field goal.
Dick Jauron
Don’t kick field goals on 4th and short in the red zone!! It’s that simple. The Bills had 4th and 1 from the Cincy 11-yard line and Jauron sent out the field goal team. He ended up with three points instead of seven, and the Bills gave up 19 yard of field position when the Bengals got the ball at the 30 after the ensuing kickoff.
Nonsensical Penalty of the Week
Late in the first half Packers defensive back Atari Bigby was flagged for a very questionable pass interference call in the back of the endzone. On the play Chiefs receiver Samie Parker actually caught the ball…a good two yards out of the back of the endzone (and the interference didn’t affect Parker not being in bounds). Now here’s my question—doesn’t the fact that Parker caught the ball out of bounds mean that the pass was uncatchable? Parker physically caught it, but the pass was still incomplete. Is that not concrete evidence the ball was uncatchable?
Intentionally Taking Penalties is Bad
A few weeks ago I vowed to call out any coach who intentionally takes a delay of game penalty in order to “give their punter more room” for a pooch punt. (This is idiotic because the key to downing the ball inside the five isn’t the punt, it’s getting your gunners down the field—and being closer to the endzone is generally better for that.) Along those lines, I’d like to point my finger at Joe Gibbs for taking a delay of game penalty at the Jets 42. Derrick Frost proceeded to shank a 27-yard punt, giving the Jets the ball at the 20-yard line. Eric Mangini tipped his cap and said “thanks for the five yards.”
It’s an Eagles Celebration!!
I don’t know who’s in charge of the Lincoln Field pyrotechnics, but it might have been a good idea for them to hold off on the fireworks when the Eagles scored their final touchdown. Not only did cutting the Cowboys lead to 38-17 seem like an inopportune time to celebrate, but because there were only about 70 people left in the stadium the fireworks were extremely (and hilariously) loud. I know that fireworks prices are enticingly low these days, but next time the Eagles might just want save them for another week.
Stat O’ the Week
22. The number of kickoffs that have been returned for touchdowns this season. That’s a lot.
European Football Goal of the Week
Seydou Keita gives Sevilla the lead in Saturday’s win over Real Madrid
