http://www.thenation.com/blog/159211/nfl-labor-pains-and-press-release-redefined-chutzpah
Please click on the link and facebook-share and tweet this week's column. The more popular it is on the Nation's site, the more sports articles they will crave.
In struggle and sports,
Dave Zirin
Beyond all the self-pity and spin coming from the offices of National Football League Commissioner Roger Goodell, here is the naked truth. We face the prospect of no football in 2011 because the players made a three word demand that would not have cost the owners a dime: open your books.
DeMaurice Smith and the NFL Players Association wanted 10 years of financial audits so they could see why the most successful sports league on earth was claiming to be financially embattled. They wanted to see how the owners could feel justified to ask for a rookie pay scale and 18% cuts in player compensation. They wanted to see how, despite all we now know about the brutal hazards of the sport, the owners could insist on adding two more regular season games. But the owners refused to open the books, offering instead “a single sheet of paper with two numbers on it.” This single sheet would only be available to the union after being vetted by an independent third-party.
It’s unclear why the owners have made a deal-breaking fetish of financial secrecy. We can only assume that the "books" would not be flattered by the light of day. We don't know whether their private ledgers would provoke the IRS to give the NFL something slightly less pleasant than a body cavity search. We don’t know if the audits would demonstrate that owners leveraged their franchises and then took a bath in the 2008 economic crash. We don’t know if individual NFL owners - like their MLB counterparts - lied to local governments so they could get more taxpayer cash for stadiums. Given the financial state of baseball’s New York Mets, whose owners flushed their liquidity by partnering up with a guy by the name of Bernie Madoff, you’d forgive us for fearing the worst.
The NFLPA also offered to consider all cuts in return for an ownership stake in the teams. The owners responding like the players arrived at negotiations wearing white after Labor Day. NFL lead counsel Bob Batterman reportedly responded, "My clients aren't interested in being partners with your guys." It’s this kind of plutocratic noblesse contempt that’s poisoned the well.
The NFL Players Association, feeling derided and disrespected has now decertified so they can sue the league and forestall the owners from shutting down the sport. Litigation isn't pretty, but going to the courts means that the NFLPA can get an injunction and prevent a lockout. An injunction means we will have football this fall.
The owners have responded by confusingly calling for a return to the bargaining table, while stating their intent to move forward with the lockout. This is like claiming to care about concussions while calling for two extra games a season.
After negotiations broke off, NFLPA leader DeMaurice Smith said, “As businessmen, we asked the owners two years ago to consider two basic tenets to getting a fair deal: financial transparency and the health and safety of our players. Financial transparency would help us reach a compromise. Even until the last moment, we were rebutted. And as for health and safety, that’s a non-negotiable issue. To our players, I will not ever yield on this point. There is no price tag for your arms, legs, backs, necks, shoulders and brains.”
Then the owners released a statement that took the chutzpah scale to new, unimagined heights. They wrote, "At a time when thousands of employees are fighting for their collective bargaining rights, this union has chosen to abandon collective bargaining in favor of a sham 'decertification' and antitrust litigation."
Gobsmacked does not begin to describe my reaction. NFL owners are people who in their personal politics, respect unions about as much as Peter King respects Ramadan (that's congressional Islamaphobic goon Peter King, not Starbucks-swilling NFL writer, Peter King.)
It would be nice to think their press release is simply a respectful tribute to the heroic struggles of the public sector unions. It would be nice to think that even NFL owners have been moved by the plight of Wisconsin's teachers, nurses, and ambulance drivers, but let's be real. The owners are trying to drive a wedge between working class fans and players by portraying the members of the union as greedy, entitled and out-of-touch.
Professional football players average three and a half years in the league. They severely injure their bodies, and die 22 years before the typical American male. Yet the owners would like us to see them as ungrateful, cloistered, creatures of privilege. If the owners really want to see people who match that description, they'd be better off investing in a mirror.
Dave Zirin is the author of “Bad Sports: How Owners are Ruining the Games we Love” (Scribner) and just made the new documentary “Not Just a Game.” Receive his column every week by emailing dave@edgeofsports.com. Contact him at edgeofsports@gmail.com.
Showing posts with label National Football League. Show all posts
Showing posts with label National Football League. Show all posts
Tuesday, March 29, 2011
Thursday, February 10, 2011
Those Non-Profit Packers
Dave Zirin
In a season where N.F.L. owners have steadily threatened to lock out the players next year unless they secure more profits in the next collective bargaining agreement, it’s poetic justice to see the Green Bay Packers, the team without an owner, make the Super Bowl. Actually, it’s not quite accurate to say the Packers are without an owner. They have a hundred and twelve thousand of them. The Packers are owned by the fans, making them the only publicly owned, not-for-profit, major professional team in the United States. The Pack have been a fan-owned operation since the primitive pro football days of the nineteen-twenties, when N.F.L. teams could be won in card games and no one foresaw the awesome power this sport would hold over both the American imagination and the American wallet.
In 1923, the Packers were just another hardscrabble team on the brink of bankruptcy. Rather than fold they decided to sell shares to the community, with fans each throwing down a couple of dollars to keep the team afloat. That humble frozen seed has since blossomed into a situation wherein more than a hundred thousand stockholders own more than four million shares of a perennial playoff contender. Those holding Packers stock are limited to no more than two hundred thousand shares, keeping any individual from gaining control over the club. Shareholders receive no dividend check and no free tickets to Lambeau Field. They don’t even get a foam cheesehead. All they get is a piece of paper that says they are part-owners of the Green Bay Packers. They don’t even get a green and gold frame for display purposes.
The shareholders elect a board of directors and a seven-member executive committee to stand in at N.F.L. owners meetings. But football decisions are made by General Manager Ted Thompson, perhaps the luckiest and happiest G.M. in sports. This structure allows Thompson to execute decisions, even unpopular ones, without an impatient, jittery billionaire breathing down his neck. Since his hire in January 2005, Thompson has made his share of controversial moves. But unlike his G.M. brethren around the league, who carry little or no job security, Thompson has been given the space to see his moves succeed or fail on their own accord. It was Thompson who decided to jettison legendary quarterback Brett Favre in 2008 for the unproven but younger and considerably lower maintenance Aaron Rodgers. Today, Favre is officially (we hope) retired and Rodgers stands at the pinnacle of his sport.
The Packers’ unique setup has created a relationship between team and community unlike any in the N.F.L. Wisconsin fans get to enjoy the team with the confidence that their owner won’t threaten to move to Los Angeles unless the team gets a new mega-dome. Volunteers work concessions, with sixty per cent of the proceeds going to local charities. Even the beer is cheaper than at a typical N.F.L. stadium. Not only has home field been sold out for two decades, but during snowstorms, the team routinely puts out calls for volunteers to help shovel and is never disappointed by the response. It doesn’t matter how beloved the Cowboys are in Dallas; if Jerry Jones ever put out a call for free labor, he’d be laughed out of town.
Here are the Packers: financially solvent, competitive, and deeply connected to the hundred thousand person city of Green Bay. It’s a beautiful story but it’s one that the N.F.L. and Commissioner Roger Goodell take great pains both to hide and make sure no other locality replicates. It’s actually written in the N.F.L. bylaws that no team can be a non-profit, community owned entity. The late N.F.L. commissioner Pete Rozelle had it written into the league’s constitution in 1960. Article V, Section 4—otherwise known as the Green Bay Rule—states that “charitable organizations and/or corporations not organized for profit and not now a member of the league may not hold membership in the National Football League.”
I talked with Rick Chernick, a member of the Packers board of directors, about whether other communities should challenge the N.F.L. constitution and be like Green Bay. Chernick expressed doubt, saying:
"I’m just not sure in today’s day and age a team could follow the Packer way. The cost of ownership is a ton today, thus being almost an impossible task without deep pockets. Green Bay is truly a special, special situation."
Chernick makes a valid point. But there is a strong counterargument as well. It may be exorbitantly expensive to run a team, but people don’t buy N.F.L. teams as a civic service. Being an N.F.L. owner is like having a license to print money. Television contracts alone run in the billions, with the 2006-2011 contracts valued at approximately $3 billion annually, $800 million more than the previous contracts. In addition, N.F.L. teams have received $6 billion in public funds to build the current crop of stadiums. In other words, the public is already shouldering a great deal of the cost and debt for N.F.L. franchises. But these public dollars, through some sort of magic alchemy, morph into private profits that often flow away from the communities that ponied up the dough. In the United States, we socialize the debt of sports and privatize the profits. Green Bay stands as a living, breathing, and, for the owners, frightening example, that pro sports can aid our cities in tough economic times, not drain them of scarce public resources.
Fans in San Diego and Minnesota, in particular, where local N.F.L. owners are threatening to uproot the home teams and move them to Los Angeles, might look toward Green Bay and wonder whether they could do a better job than the men in the owner’s box. And if N.F.L. owners go ahead and lock the players out next season, more than a few long suffering fans might look at their long suffering franchises and ask, “Maybe we don’t need owners at all.” It has worked in Green Bay—all the way to the Super Bowl.
In a season where N.F.L. owners have steadily threatened to lock out the players next year unless they secure more profits in the next collective bargaining agreement, it’s poetic justice to see the Green Bay Packers, the team without an owner, make the Super Bowl. Actually, it’s not quite accurate to say the Packers are without an owner. They have a hundred and twelve thousand of them. The Packers are owned by the fans, making them the only publicly owned, not-for-profit, major professional team in the United States. The Pack have been a fan-owned operation since the primitive pro football days of the nineteen-twenties, when N.F.L. teams could be won in card games and no one foresaw the awesome power this sport would hold over both the American imagination and the American wallet.
In 1923, the Packers were just another hardscrabble team on the brink of bankruptcy. Rather than fold they decided to sell shares to the community, with fans each throwing down a couple of dollars to keep the team afloat. That humble frozen seed has since blossomed into a situation wherein more than a hundred thousand stockholders own more than four million shares of a perennial playoff contender. Those holding Packers stock are limited to no more than two hundred thousand shares, keeping any individual from gaining control over the club. Shareholders receive no dividend check and no free tickets to Lambeau Field. They don’t even get a foam cheesehead. All they get is a piece of paper that says they are part-owners of the Green Bay Packers. They don’t even get a green and gold frame for display purposes.
The shareholders elect a board of directors and a seven-member executive committee to stand in at N.F.L. owners meetings. But football decisions are made by General Manager Ted Thompson, perhaps the luckiest and happiest G.M. in sports. This structure allows Thompson to execute decisions, even unpopular ones, without an impatient, jittery billionaire breathing down his neck. Since his hire in January 2005, Thompson has made his share of controversial moves. But unlike his G.M. brethren around the league, who carry little or no job security, Thompson has been given the space to see his moves succeed or fail on their own accord. It was Thompson who decided to jettison legendary quarterback Brett Favre in 2008 for the unproven but younger and considerably lower maintenance Aaron Rodgers. Today, Favre is officially (we hope) retired and Rodgers stands at the pinnacle of his sport.
The Packers’ unique setup has created a relationship between team and community unlike any in the N.F.L. Wisconsin fans get to enjoy the team with the confidence that their owner won’t threaten to move to Los Angeles unless the team gets a new mega-dome. Volunteers work concessions, with sixty per cent of the proceeds going to local charities. Even the beer is cheaper than at a typical N.F.L. stadium. Not only has home field been sold out for two decades, but during snowstorms, the team routinely puts out calls for volunteers to help shovel and is never disappointed by the response. It doesn’t matter how beloved the Cowboys are in Dallas; if Jerry Jones ever put out a call for free labor, he’d be laughed out of town.
Here are the Packers: financially solvent, competitive, and deeply connected to the hundred thousand person city of Green Bay. It’s a beautiful story but it’s one that the N.F.L. and Commissioner Roger Goodell take great pains both to hide and make sure no other locality replicates. It’s actually written in the N.F.L. bylaws that no team can be a non-profit, community owned entity. The late N.F.L. commissioner Pete Rozelle had it written into the league’s constitution in 1960. Article V, Section 4—otherwise known as the Green Bay Rule—states that “charitable organizations and/or corporations not organized for profit and not now a member of the league may not hold membership in the National Football League.”
I talked with Rick Chernick, a member of the Packers board of directors, about whether other communities should challenge the N.F.L. constitution and be like Green Bay. Chernick expressed doubt, saying:
"I’m just not sure in today’s day and age a team could follow the Packer way. The cost of ownership is a ton today, thus being almost an impossible task without deep pockets. Green Bay is truly a special, special situation."
Chernick makes a valid point. But there is a strong counterargument as well. It may be exorbitantly expensive to run a team, but people don’t buy N.F.L. teams as a civic service. Being an N.F.L. owner is like having a license to print money. Television contracts alone run in the billions, with the 2006-2011 contracts valued at approximately $3 billion annually, $800 million more than the previous contracts. In addition, N.F.L. teams have received $6 billion in public funds to build the current crop of stadiums. In other words, the public is already shouldering a great deal of the cost and debt for N.F.L. franchises. But these public dollars, through some sort of magic alchemy, morph into private profits that often flow away from the communities that ponied up the dough. In the United States, we socialize the debt of sports and privatize the profits. Green Bay stands as a living, breathing, and, for the owners, frightening example, that pro sports can aid our cities in tough economic times, not drain them of scarce public resources.
Fans in San Diego and Minnesota, in particular, where local N.F.L. owners are threatening to uproot the home teams and move them to Los Angeles, might look toward Green Bay and wonder whether they could do a better job than the men in the owner’s box. And if N.F.L. owners go ahead and lock the players out next season, more than a few long suffering fans might look at their long suffering franchises and ask, “Maybe we don’t need owners at all.” It has worked in Green Bay—all the way to the Super Bowl.
Thursday, December 2, 2010
“It's bigger than professional football”
http://www.thenation.com/blog/156606/%E2%80%9Cits-bigger-professional-football%E2%80%9D-talking-nflpa-president-demaurice-smith
“It's bigger than professional football”: Talking with NFLPA President DeMaurice Smith
Dave Zirin
This past week, Miami Dolphins owner Stephen Ross showed why many owners choose to let National Football League Commissioner Roger Goodell do their talking for them. Ross spoke out for the logic of extending the current 16 game season to 18 games, saying, "The additional games, the studies show will not really increase injuries. We're still playing 20 games, we're eliminating two preseason games and adding two regular-season games, which is really what helps with the revenues, and make the fans a lot happier and those games will be a lot more meaningful. But in terms of the players, they're still playing 20 games."
The idiocy of this argument is dizzying. Of course more games will mean more injuries. Of course even someone who wouldn’t know Tom Brady from Tommy Tune could surmise the differences in intensity between preseason and an actual football game. It’s like comparing a tofurky to the real deal. These comments were especially galling coming from Ross, whose Dolphins are injury depleted to the point where their starting quarterback is third stringer Tyler Thigpen.
NFL Players Association President DeMaurice Smith wasted no time striking back at Ross. "Comments like that tell me that they just don't get it,” he said. “Their teammates lost two franchise quarterbacks in the same game ... and the message is we shouldn't worry about adding two more games? Men are not expendable and neither are their families." This question about whether to extend the season by two extra games has become one of the great sticking points in the ongoing negotiations aimed at avoiding a 2010 lockout in the country’s most popular sport.
I asked Smith two weeks ago about the owners’ push for an 18 game season and whether it was a deal-breaker in the current negotiations. He said, "Our only strong stance is about signing a new collective bargaining agreement. That's it. I'm willing to discuss anything that guarantees that football continues for our players. There's an 18 game proposal from the NFL that we have looked at - we're going to respond to it,- but there are some things that are inviolate. When I show up at a team meeting and I've got half the guys sitting in a conference room wrapped up in ice, three or four guys already on crutches, well anybody who wants to know how brutal this game is, show up at a team meeting on a Monday morning after a Sunday game where you watch some of the best athletes in the world tip-toe down two steps, where if you want to shake hands, you had better be gentle. So it's not an enhanced season, as the owner's call it. It's two more end of the season games where players are already beat up, nicked up, and knocked out."
It’s this heightened awareness of injuries and the owners desire to throw on two new games without increased compensation that has the two sides in a Buffalo Stance. I asked Smith in May, on a scale of 1-10, what the chances were for a lockout to start the 2011 season. He put it at a 14. When I asked Smith again, he said, "Still at 14... We are still far away from a deal being signed by the deadline in March. Just [five] weeks ago the NFL informed us that they were going to cancel the NFL players and their family's health insurance in March if a lock-out occurs if you're sitting where I'm sitting and you want to know if a lock-out is on the table, I'm not sure that any player in the National Football League would disagree with me that there's a strong likelihood that this is going to happen."
The scheduled canceling of health care benefits for players and their families has been received by the players as a heartless, aggressive act, especially with the recent avalanche of press stories about the physical toll of playing the game. "Our players risk everything on the field," he said. "There's been a lot of media coverage of the helmet to helmet hits, over the last few weeks, and the cover of Sports Illustrated is about concussions...There has been recently a great deal of concern expressed by ownership about it. The thing that we wanted to point out to our fans is that the NFL, right now as we speak, has sued 262 players over their workers comp. It still takes at least a three year NFL career to get any health care after you retire. We had to fight legislation from a team last year to take away workers comp from the players who play the game, being notified in March that their health insurance will be canceled. The players, and likely their families, are saying 'How can you express a concern about health and safety, after watching four hits on Sunday, and then snap your fingers and say that health care is over in March?' It seems both hypocritical and misleading... They put out a press release about larger fines, larger punishments, perhaps suspensions, but oh by the way, ignore the fact that we're going to cancel the health insurance for people who have kids, at least two players whose kids are in need of heart transplants. We have several who have kids on kidney dialysis. Right now we as a union are trying to figure out how to provide supplemental health insurance for the players families.”
Most strikingly, at the end of our discussion, Smith made an open plea to involve fans in struggle to avoid a lockout and made clear that this issue transcends sports. "Fans [who want to help] can go to NFLOCKOUT.com. We will send people to speak at any union meetings or community meetings.... Only the owners make money when there is a lockout, making four billion dollars from the networks and paying nothing in salaries. But everybody else loses. Every city would lose about a hundred and fifty million a year in revenue. Every city will lose jobs. It's bigger than professional football. We all have an interest to avoid a lockout."
Dave Zirin is the author of “Bad Sports: How Owners are Ruining the Games we Love” (Scribner) Receive his column every week by emailing dave@edgeofsports.com. Contact him at edgeofsports@gmail.com.
“It's bigger than professional football”: Talking with NFLPA President DeMaurice Smith
Dave Zirin
This past week, Miami Dolphins owner Stephen Ross showed why many owners choose to let National Football League Commissioner Roger Goodell do their talking for them. Ross spoke out for the logic of extending the current 16 game season to 18 games, saying, "The additional games, the studies show will not really increase injuries. We're still playing 20 games, we're eliminating two preseason games and adding two regular-season games, which is really what helps with the revenues, and make the fans a lot happier and those games will be a lot more meaningful. But in terms of the players, they're still playing 20 games."
The idiocy of this argument is dizzying. Of course more games will mean more injuries. Of course even someone who wouldn’t know Tom Brady from Tommy Tune could surmise the differences in intensity between preseason and an actual football game. It’s like comparing a tofurky to the real deal. These comments were especially galling coming from Ross, whose Dolphins are injury depleted to the point where their starting quarterback is third stringer Tyler Thigpen.
NFL Players Association President DeMaurice Smith wasted no time striking back at Ross. "Comments like that tell me that they just don't get it,” he said. “Their teammates lost two franchise quarterbacks in the same game ... and the message is we shouldn't worry about adding two more games? Men are not expendable and neither are their families." This question about whether to extend the season by two extra games has become one of the great sticking points in the ongoing negotiations aimed at avoiding a 2010 lockout in the country’s most popular sport.
I asked Smith two weeks ago about the owners’ push for an 18 game season and whether it was a deal-breaker in the current negotiations. He said, "Our only strong stance is about signing a new collective bargaining agreement. That's it. I'm willing to discuss anything that guarantees that football continues for our players. There's an 18 game proposal from the NFL that we have looked at - we're going to respond to it,- but there are some things that are inviolate. When I show up at a team meeting and I've got half the guys sitting in a conference room wrapped up in ice, three or four guys already on crutches, well anybody who wants to know how brutal this game is, show up at a team meeting on a Monday morning after a Sunday game where you watch some of the best athletes in the world tip-toe down two steps, where if you want to shake hands, you had better be gentle. So it's not an enhanced season, as the owner's call it. It's two more end of the season games where players are already beat up, nicked up, and knocked out."
It’s this heightened awareness of injuries and the owners desire to throw on two new games without increased compensation that has the two sides in a Buffalo Stance. I asked Smith in May, on a scale of 1-10, what the chances were for a lockout to start the 2011 season. He put it at a 14. When I asked Smith again, he said, "Still at 14... We are still far away from a deal being signed by the deadline in March. Just [five] weeks ago the NFL informed us that they were going to cancel the NFL players and their family's health insurance in March if a lock-out occurs if you're sitting where I'm sitting and you want to know if a lock-out is on the table, I'm not sure that any player in the National Football League would disagree with me that there's a strong likelihood that this is going to happen."
The scheduled canceling of health care benefits for players and their families has been received by the players as a heartless, aggressive act, especially with the recent avalanche of press stories about the physical toll of playing the game. "Our players risk everything on the field," he said. "There's been a lot of media coverage of the helmet to helmet hits, over the last few weeks, and the cover of Sports Illustrated is about concussions...There has been recently a great deal of concern expressed by ownership about it. The thing that we wanted to point out to our fans is that the NFL, right now as we speak, has sued 262 players over their workers comp. It still takes at least a three year NFL career to get any health care after you retire. We had to fight legislation from a team last year to take away workers comp from the players who play the game, being notified in March that their health insurance will be canceled. The players, and likely their families, are saying 'How can you express a concern about health and safety, after watching four hits on Sunday, and then snap your fingers and say that health care is over in March?' It seems both hypocritical and misleading... They put out a press release about larger fines, larger punishments, perhaps suspensions, but oh by the way, ignore the fact that we're going to cancel the health insurance for people who have kids, at least two players whose kids are in need of heart transplants. We have several who have kids on kidney dialysis. Right now we as a union are trying to figure out how to provide supplemental health insurance for the players families.”
Most strikingly, at the end of our discussion, Smith made an open plea to involve fans in struggle to avoid a lockout and made clear that this issue transcends sports. "Fans [who want to help] can go to NFLOCKOUT.com. We will send people to speak at any union meetings or community meetings.... Only the owners make money when there is a lockout, making four billion dollars from the networks and paying nothing in salaries. But everybody else loses. Every city would lose about a hundred and fifty million a year in revenue. Every city will lose jobs. It's bigger than professional football. We all have an interest to avoid a lockout."
Dave Zirin is the author of “Bad Sports: How Owners are Ruining the Games we Love” (Scribner) Receive his column every week by emailing dave@edgeofsports.com. Contact him at edgeofsports@gmail.com.
Tuesday, July 6, 2010
Former Chargers Coach Don Coryell Dies, Was Key in Evolution of Passing
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-07-02/former-chargers-coach-don-coryell-dies-was-key-in-evolution-of-passing.html
Former Chargers Coach Don Coryell Dies, Was Key in Evolution of Passing
Rob Gloster
Jul 2, 2010
Don Coryell, a longtime college and professional football coach whose offensive innovations helped in the evolution of the modern passing game, has died after a long illness. He was 85.
Coryell died yesterday at a California hospital, the National Football League’s San Diego Chargers said in a news release.
“He revolutionized the game of football, not only in San Diego but throughout the entire NFL,” Chargers President Dean Spanos said.
Coryell coached at San Diego State University in 1961-1972, compiling a record of 104-19-2. He led the NFL’s St. Louis Cardinals to two division titles and a 42-29-1 record from 1973-1977 and took the Chargers to two American Football Conference championship games and a 72-60 record while coaching there from 1978-1986. His overall NFL record, including playoffs, was 114- 89-1.
With Dan Fouts at quarterback, the “Air Coryell” Chargers of the early 1980s redefined the passing game by expanding the receiving roles of the tight end and running backs. Fouts set NFL passing records with 4,715 yards in 1980 and 4,802 yards in 1981.
To contact the reporter on this story: Rob Gloster in San Francisco at rgloster@bloomberg.net.
Former Chargers Coach Don Coryell Dies, Was Key in Evolution of Passing
Rob Gloster
Jul 2, 2010
Don Coryell, a longtime college and professional football coach whose offensive innovations helped in the evolution of the modern passing game, has died after a long illness. He was 85.
Coryell died yesterday at a California hospital, the National Football League’s San Diego Chargers said in a news release.
“He revolutionized the game of football, not only in San Diego but throughout the entire NFL,” Chargers President Dean Spanos said.
Coryell coached at San Diego State University in 1961-1972, compiling a record of 104-19-2. He led the NFL’s St. Louis Cardinals to two division titles and a 42-29-1 record from 1973-1977 and took the Chargers to two American Football Conference championship games and a 72-60 record while coaching there from 1978-1986. His overall NFL record, including playoffs, was 114- 89-1.
With Dan Fouts at quarterback, the “Air Coryell” Chargers of the early 1980s redefined the passing game by expanding the receiving roles of the tight end and running backs. Fouts set NFL passing records with 4,715 yards in 1980 and 4,802 yards in 1981.
To contact the reporter on this story: Rob Gloster in San Francisco at rgloster@bloomberg.net.
Friday, July 10, 2009
Steve McNair: A Tribute to The Man
http://bleacherreport.com/articles/212152-steve-mcnair-a-tribute-to-the-man-the-myth-the-legend-rest-in-peace
Steve McNair: A Tribute to The Man, The Myth, The Legend, Rest In Peace
by Isaac Barrow
July 05, 2009
Credit to Bleacher Report Dallas Cowboys community leader James Williamson for help with this article.
On Saturday, July 4th, the world lost a very good man when former Tennessee Titans and Baltimore Ravens quarterback Steve McNair was shot to death behind a market in downtown Nashville, Tennessee. McNair played 13 seasons in the National Football League, 11 with the Titans, and two with the Ravens. In 161 games, he threw for 31,304 yards, 174 touchdowns, and 119 interceptions. He threw for 27,141 yards with the Titans, second most in Titans history, was named to three Pro Bowls, and won 2003 NFL MVP.
McNair was born on February 14th, 1973, in Mount Olive, Mississippi. Steve played many sports early in life, but he knew football was where his future would be. He was an athletic player, but also had an extraordinary throwing arm, which led him to starring as a quarterback in high school. He would often come home with bumps, bruises, cuts, but he seemed to enjoy the pain. Steve entered Mount Olive High School as a 14-year old in 1987. He played four sports (baseball, basketball, football, and track), and even got drafted by the Seattle Mariners and Pittsburgh Pirates, but because he wanted to become an NFL quarterback one day, he refused the offers both times.
As a junior, Steve led Mount Olive to a state championship, and as a senior, broke all of his brother's school records. He played both offense and defense, quarterback on offense and safety on the defensive side of the ball. In 1990, he intercepted 15 passes, and was named an All-American by Super Prep Magazine. Steve was recruited heavily by schools like Florida State, but every school who recruited him wanted him to play safety. However, Steve's dream was to be an NFL quarterback, not safety. Then, his only choice was to go to nearby Alcorn State University, where Steve would accept a scholarship offer.
Steve felt comfortable signing on with ASU because head coach Cardell Jones had all the confidence in him, and McNair would be able to flourish in a shotgun offense. As a freshman, he did just that, as he gained 3,199 yards of offense, and posting a record of 7-2-1, exceeding even Jones' expectations for him. As a sophomore, he broke out, throwing for 3,541 yards and 29 touchdowns, and showed his athleticism, running for ten more scores. The Alcorn State Braves finished 7-4, but McNair was certainly a bright spot. By this time, McNair was already earning high praise from NFL draft analysts.
In 1993, the Braves finished 8-3, and McNair threw for over 3,000 yards and tossed 30 touchdown passes, and his draft status was getting higher and higher each day. Despite being at a little-known Alcorn State school, he was a Heisman Candidate, finishing third. In Steve McNair style, he played the season through mental pain, as his grandmother Hattie had died. He dominated in his senior year, and NFL scouts had seen enough. Teams were intrigued by his toughness - mental and physical - athleticism, and great character. The team most interested? The Houston Oilers. The Oilers took him with the third overall pick of the 1995 draft, and signed him to a seven year, $28M contract.
In typical Steve McNair fashion, the first thing he did with the money was buy his mother a new house. The house was at the same location in which she picked cotton as a young girl. As a rookie, he didn't play very much at all, appearing in four games, going 41-of-80 with 569 yards, three touchdowns, and one interception. He was playing behind Chris Chandler, who threw for 2,460 yards and 17 touchdowns in 1995. The Oilers coaching staff admired his ability to handle being a backup and not complain. The staff wanted him to get chances, and he threw for nearly 1,200 yards in 1996, along with six touchdowns and four interceptions.
Following the team's move to Tennessee in 1997, McNair became the full-time starting quarterback. He had a respectable season in '97, throwing for 2,665 yards, 14 touchdowns, and 13 interceptions. He not only didn't throw many interceptions, he ran for 674 yards along with eight touchdowns, and the future looked up for "Air" McNair. The following year, Steve and the Tennessee Oilers made names for themselves. Steve threw for 3,228 yards and 15 touchdowns, had 289 completions, and led the newly-named Titans to an 8-8 record. While it wasn't elite, the future was clearly looking up for Steve, and the team as a whole.
In 1999, the future officially arrived. Steve battled through 11 regular season games, throwing for 2,179 yards, 12 touchdowns, and eight interceptions. He led the Titans to a 13-3 record, and helped the Titans to playoff wins over the Bills (also known as the Music City Miracle), Colts, and Jaguars. In the Super Bowl, he fell to the NFC Champion St. Louis Rams, but had a solid game, going 22-of-36 with 214 yards, and running for 64 yards on just eight attempts. He even threw a complete pass with seconds left to Kevin Dyson, but the wide receiver was tackled by Rams linebacker Mike Jones, thus ending the game. His great effort in the Super Bowl gave the Titans reason to give him a new contract, signing him to a six year, $47M deal. In 2000, the Titans picked up where they left off, finishing the year 13-3 again.
McNair didn't have a dynamite year, throwing for 2,847 yards, 15 touchdowns, and 13 interceptions, but he was 12-3 as a starter, and made the plays when needed. He could make them through the air or on the ground. The Titans again fell short in the playoffs, losing to the Baltimore Ravens in the divisional round, 24-10. A McNair pass to running back Eddie George was bobbled - into the hands of Ravens linebacker Ray Lewis, and that sealed the deal on the game. However, McNair was having quite a start to his career. He didn't have especially flashy career statistics after the year was over (12,685 yards, 65 TD's, 49 INT's), but had a record of 41-23, and that's the statistic that matters most.
The next year, McNair made a name for himself as a truly solid passer. For a disappointing 7-9 Titans team, he threw for 3,350 yards, 21 touchdowns, and 12 interceptions, his best statistical season to date. However, the Titans were just 7-8 under McNair, and his job description was to lead the Titans to the playoffs, and he was eager to do that in 2002. That he did. McNair didn't miss a game, throwing for 3,387 yards, 22 touchdowns, 15 interceptions, leading the Titans to an 11-5 record and AFC South division crown. He led the Titans to one playoff win, but they were crushed in their second postseason game by the Oakland Raiders, 41-24.
The next year, he had his best campaign to date, throwing for 3,215 yards, 24 touchdowns, and seven interceptions. The 2001, 2002, and 2003 seasons showed why the Titans tabbed him with the third overall pick in 1995. The Titans won the AFC South again, but yet again, fell short in the playoffs. After the year, McNair took home his own award, winning NFL MVP for the 2003 NFL season. The next year was a very disappointing one for Air McNair and the Titans as a whole. McNair, as usual, battled injuries, starting just eight games, winning three of them, and following a string of successful years, the Titans finished 5-11 in 2004.
That's when things went downhill between McNair and the Titans. The Titans went 4-12 the next year despite McNair throwing for 3,161 yards and 16 touchdowns, and following that season, the Titans traded McNair to the Baltimore Ravens, ending a very storied 11-year marriage. McNair made an instant impact in Baltimore. Despite coming in late and having to adjust to the playbook, McNair led the Ravens to a 13-3 record, throwing for 3,050 yards, 16 touchdowns, and 12 interceptions. He didn't have the legs to make plays on the run anymore, but still had the intelligence of the game.
McNair wasn't able to get anything done in the playoffs, going 18-of-29 with 173 yards and two interceptions in a 15-6 divisional round loss to the Colts. His counterpart in that game, Peyton Manning, had kind words to offer after the passing of McNair. "Steve McNair was one of the greatest competitors I've ever played against. I'll always remember playing against him. Many of our defensive players always talked about what a huge challenge it was having to play against him. He and I had some great battles against each other."
The next season, McNair battled injuries yet again. In six games, he was 133-of-205 with 1,113 yards, two touchdowns, and four interceptions. After the season, he elected to retire. But it was no façade. He said he wanted to retire to spend time with his family. He did just that.
McNair is known for his toughness, both mental and physical, and I would bet any amount of money he fought as hard as he could to survive the gun wounds. “The football thing was one thing and I remember his playing days, but just the human being. He brought so much joy to so many people. He was a consummate pro and he was a gentleman. He was a great father. He raised his boys very well, they are well behaved. His legacy will live on,” former teammate Eddie George said.
Steve didn't deserve what he got on July 4th, 2009. Rest in peace, Steve "Air" McNair. You made Titans fans happy. You made Oilers fans happy. You made Ravens fans happy. You made NFL fans happy. And most of all, you made your family happy. My thoughts go out to them.
After passing, ESPN ran a feature on him, and Jeremy Schad had some very fine words to offer. "McNair lived his entire life under the spotlight, but was decidedly uncontroversial. He was basically the model athlete, which makes his violent death all the more incomprehensible.”
R.I.P. Steve McNair.
Steve McNair: A Tribute to The Man, The Myth, The Legend, Rest In Peace
by Isaac Barrow
July 05, 2009
Credit to Bleacher Report Dallas Cowboys community leader James Williamson for help with this article.
On Saturday, July 4th, the world lost a very good man when former Tennessee Titans and Baltimore Ravens quarterback Steve McNair was shot to death behind a market in downtown Nashville, Tennessee. McNair played 13 seasons in the National Football League, 11 with the Titans, and two with the Ravens. In 161 games, he threw for 31,304 yards, 174 touchdowns, and 119 interceptions. He threw for 27,141 yards with the Titans, second most in Titans history, was named to three Pro Bowls, and won 2003 NFL MVP.
McNair was born on February 14th, 1973, in Mount Olive, Mississippi. Steve played many sports early in life, but he knew football was where his future would be. He was an athletic player, but also had an extraordinary throwing arm, which led him to starring as a quarterback in high school. He would often come home with bumps, bruises, cuts, but he seemed to enjoy the pain. Steve entered Mount Olive High School as a 14-year old in 1987. He played four sports (baseball, basketball, football, and track), and even got drafted by the Seattle Mariners and Pittsburgh Pirates, but because he wanted to become an NFL quarterback one day, he refused the offers both times.
As a junior, Steve led Mount Olive to a state championship, and as a senior, broke all of his brother's school records. He played both offense and defense, quarterback on offense and safety on the defensive side of the ball. In 1990, he intercepted 15 passes, and was named an All-American by Super Prep Magazine. Steve was recruited heavily by schools like Florida State, but every school who recruited him wanted him to play safety. However, Steve's dream was to be an NFL quarterback, not safety. Then, his only choice was to go to nearby Alcorn State University, where Steve would accept a scholarship offer.
Steve felt comfortable signing on with ASU because head coach Cardell Jones had all the confidence in him, and McNair would be able to flourish in a shotgun offense. As a freshman, he did just that, as he gained 3,199 yards of offense, and posting a record of 7-2-1, exceeding even Jones' expectations for him. As a sophomore, he broke out, throwing for 3,541 yards and 29 touchdowns, and showed his athleticism, running for ten more scores. The Alcorn State Braves finished 7-4, but McNair was certainly a bright spot. By this time, McNair was already earning high praise from NFL draft analysts.
In 1993, the Braves finished 8-3, and McNair threw for over 3,000 yards and tossed 30 touchdown passes, and his draft status was getting higher and higher each day. Despite being at a little-known Alcorn State school, he was a Heisman Candidate, finishing third. In Steve McNair style, he played the season through mental pain, as his grandmother Hattie had died. He dominated in his senior year, and NFL scouts had seen enough. Teams were intrigued by his toughness - mental and physical - athleticism, and great character. The team most interested? The Houston Oilers. The Oilers took him with the third overall pick of the 1995 draft, and signed him to a seven year, $28M contract.
In typical Steve McNair fashion, the first thing he did with the money was buy his mother a new house. The house was at the same location in which she picked cotton as a young girl. As a rookie, he didn't play very much at all, appearing in four games, going 41-of-80 with 569 yards, three touchdowns, and one interception. He was playing behind Chris Chandler, who threw for 2,460 yards and 17 touchdowns in 1995. The Oilers coaching staff admired his ability to handle being a backup and not complain. The staff wanted him to get chances, and he threw for nearly 1,200 yards in 1996, along with six touchdowns and four interceptions.
Following the team's move to Tennessee in 1997, McNair became the full-time starting quarterback. He had a respectable season in '97, throwing for 2,665 yards, 14 touchdowns, and 13 interceptions. He not only didn't throw many interceptions, he ran for 674 yards along with eight touchdowns, and the future looked up for "Air" McNair. The following year, Steve and the Tennessee Oilers made names for themselves. Steve threw for 3,228 yards and 15 touchdowns, had 289 completions, and led the newly-named Titans to an 8-8 record. While it wasn't elite, the future was clearly looking up for Steve, and the team as a whole.
In 1999, the future officially arrived. Steve battled through 11 regular season games, throwing for 2,179 yards, 12 touchdowns, and eight interceptions. He led the Titans to a 13-3 record, and helped the Titans to playoff wins over the Bills (also known as the Music City Miracle), Colts, and Jaguars. In the Super Bowl, he fell to the NFC Champion St. Louis Rams, but had a solid game, going 22-of-36 with 214 yards, and running for 64 yards on just eight attempts. He even threw a complete pass with seconds left to Kevin Dyson, but the wide receiver was tackled by Rams linebacker Mike Jones, thus ending the game. His great effort in the Super Bowl gave the Titans reason to give him a new contract, signing him to a six year, $47M deal. In 2000, the Titans picked up where they left off, finishing the year 13-3 again.
McNair didn't have a dynamite year, throwing for 2,847 yards, 15 touchdowns, and 13 interceptions, but he was 12-3 as a starter, and made the plays when needed. He could make them through the air or on the ground. The Titans again fell short in the playoffs, losing to the Baltimore Ravens in the divisional round, 24-10. A McNair pass to running back Eddie George was bobbled - into the hands of Ravens linebacker Ray Lewis, and that sealed the deal on the game. However, McNair was having quite a start to his career. He didn't have especially flashy career statistics after the year was over (12,685 yards, 65 TD's, 49 INT's), but had a record of 41-23, and that's the statistic that matters most.
The next year, McNair made a name for himself as a truly solid passer. For a disappointing 7-9 Titans team, he threw for 3,350 yards, 21 touchdowns, and 12 interceptions, his best statistical season to date. However, the Titans were just 7-8 under McNair, and his job description was to lead the Titans to the playoffs, and he was eager to do that in 2002. That he did. McNair didn't miss a game, throwing for 3,387 yards, 22 touchdowns, 15 interceptions, leading the Titans to an 11-5 record and AFC South division crown. He led the Titans to one playoff win, but they were crushed in their second postseason game by the Oakland Raiders, 41-24.
The next year, he had his best campaign to date, throwing for 3,215 yards, 24 touchdowns, and seven interceptions. The 2001, 2002, and 2003 seasons showed why the Titans tabbed him with the third overall pick in 1995. The Titans won the AFC South again, but yet again, fell short in the playoffs. After the year, McNair took home his own award, winning NFL MVP for the 2003 NFL season. The next year was a very disappointing one for Air McNair and the Titans as a whole. McNair, as usual, battled injuries, starting just eight games, winning three of them, and following a string of successful years, the Titans finished 5-11 in 2004.
That's when things went downhill between McNair and the Titans. The Titans went 4-12 the next year despite McNair throwing for 3,161 yards and 16 touchdowns, and following that season, the Titans traded McNair to the Baltimore Ravens, ending a very storied 11-year marriage. McNair made an instant impact in Baltimore. Despite coming in late and having to adjust to the playbook, McNair led the Ravens to a 13-3 record, throwing for 3,050 yards, 16 touchdowns, and 12 interceptions. He didn't have the legs to make plays on the run anymore, but still had the intelligence of the game.
McNair wasn't able to get anything done in the playoffs, going 18-of-29 with 173 yards and two interceptions in a 15-6 divisional round loss to the Colts. His counterpart in that game, Peyton Manning, had kind words to offer after the passing of McNair. "Steve McNair was one of the greatest competitors I've ever played against. I'll always remember playing against him. Many of our defensive players always talked about what a huge challenge it was having to play against him. He and I had some great battles against each other."
The next season, McNair battled injuries yet again. In six games, he was 133-of-205 with 1,113 yards, two touchdowns, and four interceptions. After the season, he elected to retire. But it was no façade. He said he wanted to retire to spend time with his family. He did just that.
McNair is known for his toughness, both mental and physical, and I would bet any amount of money he fought as hard as he could to survive the gun wounds. “The football thing was one thing and I remember his playing days, but just the human being. He brought so much joy to so many people. He was a consummate pro and he was a gentleman. He was a great father. He raised his boys very well, they are well behaved. His legacy will live on,” former teammate Eddie George said.
Steve didn't deserve what he got on July 4th, 2009. Rest in peace, Steve "Air" McNair. You made Titans fans happy. You made Oilers fans happy. You made Ravens fans happy. You made NFL fans happy. And most of all, you made your family happy. My thoughts go out to them.
After passing, ESPN ran a feature on him, and Jeremy Schad had some very fine words to offer. "McNair lived his entire life under the spotlight, but was decidedly uncontroversial. He was basically the model athlete, which makes his violent death all the more incomprehensible.”
R.I.P. Steve McNair.
Thursday, October 25, 2007
Beast of the Month - September 2007
Beast of the Month - September 2007
Michael Vick, NFL Quarterback
"I yam an anti-Christ... "
John Lydon (aka Johnny Rotten) of The Sex Pistols, "Anarchy in the UK"
"Where have you gone, Joe DiMaggio?
Our nation turns its lonely eyes to you.
What's that you say, Mrs. Robinson?
Joltin' Joe has left and gone away."
"Mrs. Robinson,” Simon & Garfunkel (from the film The Graduate)
All you sports fans out there who have a problem with Barry Bonds, you might as well get over it. It's time to accept the fact that the most cherished sports record in the USA, career Major League home runs, is now owned by a blatant cheater. Live with it, and just be glad that someone as dishonest as Bonds isn't, say, President of the United States.
Besides, as the era of 756* begins, its clear that more is amuck with professional athletics than Bonds roiding up. Consider the following:
* In the MLB, Bonds isn't the only dude that's on the juice all by his lone gunmen self. Jason Giambi (2000 AL MVP) and Rafael Palmeiro (he of the 500 HR and 3000 hit club) are two of the more noted players whose careers have been tainted by evidence of steroid use. (Former slugger Jose Canseco has claimed, perhaps with some hyperbole, that 85 percent of all major leaguers are on the stuff.) As for Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa, while there is no "proof" that they cheated as well, their unconvincing testimony before Congress in 2005 on the issue has led to Mac being shut out of the Hall of Fame after becoming eligible this year - something which will likely happen to both Sosa and Bonds as well.
* In cycling, the Tour de France has had evidence and allegations of doping that far exceed those of baseball. In 2006, the four runner-ups in 2005 to retiring seven-time champ Lance Armstrong (Ivan Basso, Jan Ullrich, Francisco Mancebo and Alexandre Vinokourov) all did not compete in the race due to evidence of doping. (Though Vinokourov himself was not charged in 2006, five of his teammates were, forcing him to withdraw. In 2007, he was personally busted during the race.) The eventual "winner" of the race, American Floyd Landis, was caught with banned substances in his urine samples and will likely lose his title after appeals. The 2007 contest was rife with arguably even more doping controversy, culminating with race leader Michael Rasmussen being removed for lying about his reasons he missed three drug tests. The eventual winner, Alberto Contador, was a prime suspect in the 2006 doping scandal. Meanwhile, though there is no firm evidence linking Armstrong to doping, widespread allegations cloud his storied career.
* In the NBA, a league already with an increasingly bad public image due to thuggish behavior of the post-Jordan playing crop, a gambling scandal involving referee Tim Donaghy threatens the basic integrity of the game. Though the scandal only involves Donaghy at this point (as petty tyrant David Stern repeatedly insists in his "bad apple" defense) the idea that other NBA refs may have been compromised by mobsters is not implausible, especially considering the league's lackadaisical response to evidence that something was fishy. Anyone who saw Game Six of the 2002 Lakers-Kings playoff series (where the Lakers "won" following officiating that looked like a Florida election involving a member of the Bush family) should have little trouble believing a conspiracy of refs involved in the rigging of important games.
* The good news for the NHL is that they're even deemed worthy of mention, after commissioner Gary Bettman's self-destructive reign has removed ice hockey from the quartet of American major league sports. (Memo to Mr. Bettman: real sports leagues have cable TV contracts with ESPN, not the Outdoor Life Network.) Still, if missing an entire season due to an owner lockout wasn't enough to discredit the NHL, an illegal gambling ring which may have included the Great One Wayne Gretzky himself should do the trick.
True, the history-making runs of Tiger Woods and Roger Federer in golf and tennis are inspiring tales, but all in all, the pickings for sport heroics are pretty slim right now. Indeed, the only sports of late to have any good news are lacrosse (where the Duke team members were proven to merely be drunken racist preppies, instead of drunken racist preppies who rape strippers) and soccer (although The Konformist doubts a preening overrated metrosexual with a self-absorbed diva wife will popularize a boring sport in America if Pele couldn't.)
Still, with all due respect to all the other scandals, the sports league with the biggest PR disaster of late would have to be, hands down, the National Football League. Some would say it's a long time coming. After all, for all the outrage that has followed the revelations and allegations of steroid abuse in baseball, few would argue that steroid use in the MLB is even comparable to that in the NFL. Likewise, while the hip-hop gangsta style of new NBA stars has given rise to a korporate unfriendly "thug life" image, pro football, with it's inherently more violent style of play, clearly attracts more dangerous and borderline personalities.
Why has the NFL gotten such a free ride for so long? Primarily, it's about money. Since the NFL-AFL merger and the rise of the Super Bowl in the 70s, football, not baseball, has really been America's pastime. The korporate media has avoided tarnishing the reputation of the largest multi-billion dollar sports-entertainment empire known to man (not to mention the most successful "Reality TV" series ever, culminating in the four major TV network conglomerates having current contracts with the league.) The obfuscation of NFL scandal was aided by Pete Rozelle and Paul Tagliabue, two sharp businessmen and charming salesmen during their historic reigns as commissioner.
There's a new sheriff in town now, however, and at the very least, Roger Goodell believes the writing is on the wall. If the NFL didn't clean itself up, even worse scandal would soon follow. Before this summer, Goodell had already delivered the following suspensions for bad behavior:
* Chris Henry of the Cincinnati Bengals was suspended for eight games after numerous incidents involving law enforcement, with allegations of crimes ranging from drunk driving, assault with a deadly weapon, and assault of a minor.
* Tank Johnson of the Chicago Bears was also suspended for eight games for his misdeeds, with alleged crimes ranging from drunk driving, assault and various weapon charges. His best friend and bodyguard, William Posey, was shot to death following a bar fight last December.
* In perhaps the most notorious case, Pacman Jones of the Tennessee Titans was suspended for the entire 2007 season for his troubles with the law, which has led to five arrests and questioning by police eleven times. Due to his penchant for troublemaking at nightclubs and strip clubs, he has been charged with assault, battery, felony vandalism and obstruction of justice. In his most infamous altercation, a strip club argument (during which he allegedly grabbed a stripper by her hair and slammed her head) in Las Vegas during All-Star weekend ended when one man in Pacman's entourage allegedly returned to the club and fired shots into the crowd. One bullet paralyzed former pro wrestler Tommy Urbanski, and two hit a security guard whose life Pacman had coincidentally threatened earlier that evening.
All of this bad behavior makes one long for the start of the 2006 season, when the biggest bogeyman in the NFL was Terrell Owens, whose disgraceful acts were wanting more money and dissing his quarterbacks.
This summer, however, even Pacman's troubles were eclipsed by Michael Vick, The Konformist Beast of the Month. Vick's problems received more airplay than the others, in part, because Vick, unlike the others, was no mere role player. As quarterback for the Atlanta Falcons, he was a three-time Pro Bowler in football's most high profile position, who was given the prestigious honor of being the cover athlete for Madden Football 2004. Vick came up only one game short in 2005 from playing the Super Bowl. And though 2006 had been a disappointing year for him in passing (he completed only 52.6 percent of his throws during the season) he became the first QB to rush for over 1000 yards in a year.
Of course, the other reason Vick's legal issues received more airplay was the grotesque nature of his activities. While drunk driving, assault and shootings that lead others to be crippled are hardly minor crimes, being involved in the cruel "sport" of dogfighting shows not a momentary lapse of reason, but a premeditated plan to participate in the torture and death of man's best friend. And as bad as forcing canines to participate in a battle to the death may be, perhaps even worse is personally killing Fido in a gruesome fashion, such as by drowning, hanging, electrocution, strangulation and gunshots. These were the charges that Vick faced, charges he plead guilty to after his co-conspirators did the same and began to provide more evidence against him. As it stands, he likely faces one year to eighteen month in federal prison over his crimes.
In retrospect, there were warning signs that Vick was a trouble case. In 2005, he was sued by a woman who claimed was given genital herpes by him. (According to her, he received treatments for the disease under the alias Ron Mexico, which led to the Vick-based character "Mike Mexico" in the videogame Blitz: The League.) Last November, he gave the finger to fans booing him in the Georgia Dome after a home loss. In January, he was caught in Miami with a water bottle with a hidden compartment that contained a "small amount of dark particulate" and an odor consistent with marijuana, according to a police report. (Dubiously, lab tests found no evidence of pot, which many suspect was not due to science but rather NFL pressure to silence the controversy.) Granted, none of these activities is in the same ballpark as training pit bulls to fight to the death, and far be it that The Konformist staff condemn a man for having STDs, giving people the finger or carrying pot. Still, it should have raised NFL eyebrows that Vick was no mere Organization Man.
As is sometimes the case when pro athletes get into legal trouble, the question of race is part of the mix, as Vick is an African-American. It's hard to completely dismiss the possibility that if, say, Peyton Manning or Brett Favre (not to unfairly link either man to such criminal conduct) had been involved in illegal dogfighting, the whole thing would've been covered up. (Then again, many suspect that Vick had already used his "Get Out of Jail" card at Miami International.) On the other hand, some of the defenses for Vick seem like embarrassing apologetics. The worst example came from the lips of actor Jamie Foxx (who admittedly was great as a black QB in the Oliver Stone football flick Any Given Sunday.) As Foxx put it, "It's a cultural thing, I think. Most brothers didn't know that, you know. I used to see dogs fighting in the neighborhood all the time. I didn't know that was Fed time. So, Mike probably just didn't read his handbook on what not to do as a black star." Of course, the idea that Africa-Americans can't be expected to understand that training dogs to kill each other (and then viciously executing underperformers) is barbaric behavior, well, that's a sentiment we'd more expect to be uttered by Bill O'Reilly than an Oscar-winning actor. (A tip to Jamie: stick to your Ray Charles impersonations.)
Of course, not all African-Americans leaders reflexively jumped to Vick's defense. Hip hop mogul Russell Simmons, an animal rights supporter, quickly urged Nike to pull its sponsorship of Vick after the allegations surfaced. Joining him in condemning dogfighting was Revered Al Sharpton, hardly a guy who critics would allege is above playing the race card. And though the Atlanta chapter NAACP leader R.L. White sounded a bit like Foxx over the controversy, NAACP president Dennis Courtland Hayes bluntly declared that Vick "is not a victim... He absolutely must account for what he has done."
Indeed, looking at the evidence in the Vick case, it could be compellingly argued that rather than act improperly or show a rush to judgment, the feds went by the book and fairly targeted the man who deserved it, the guy who financed the whole dogfighting operation. Bad Newz Kennels started in 2001, not-so-coincidentally when Vick had just signed a multi-million dollar contract with the Falcons and entered the NFL. All of the participants in the dogfighting scheme, including Vick, concede he almost exclusively bank-rolled the entire operation.
The NFL, at this point, knows all this. They also know that part of Vick's confession (and the other participants' guilty pleas) was that Vick provided most of the money for gambling on the dogfights. As any sports fan will tell you, illegal gambling is the cardinal sin of pro sports, as it opens the door for mobsters to control compromised participants and fix games. It is perhaps just as much for the gambling aspects as the repulsive cruelty to animals that Goodell has suspended Vick from the NFL indefinitely.
In the end, Vick is a symbol of the coarsening of American culture during the zeroes. You don't have to be Bill O'Reilly to concede hip hop is no longer exposing injustice with the gangsta style but rather glorifying violent nihilism because it sells millions. (Indeed, Russell Simmons aside, hip hop has been central in glorifying dogfighting, with rapper DMX using dogfight lingo and imagery in his album covers, videos and songs. Coincidentally, DMX's Arizona home was raided on August 24 in another investigation involving dogfighting.) And you don't have to romanticize the "good old days" to think there's something wrong when sports most popular athletes include guys like Michael Vick, Barry Bonds and Kobe Bryant. And you don't have to be a conspiracy theorist to think that there may be a link between such a grim culture and what is happening at Abu Ghraib and Camp X-Ray. Where have you gone, Joe DiMaggio, indeed.
In any case, we salute Michael Vick as Beast of the Month. Congratulations, and keep up the great work, Mikey!!!
Michael Vick, NFL Quarterback
"I yam an anti-Christ... "
John Lydon (aka Johnny Rotten) of The Sex Pistols, "Anarchy in the UK"
"Where have you gone, Joe DiMaggio?
Our nation turns its lonely eyes to you.
What's that you say, Mrs. Robinson?
Joltin' Joe has left and gone away."
"Mrs. Robinson,” Simon & Garfunkel (from the film The Graduate)
All you sports fans out there who have a problem with Barry Bonds, you might as well get over it. It's time to accept the fact that the most cherished sports record in the USA, career Major League home runs, is now owned by a blatant cheater. Live with it, and just be glad that someone as dishonest as Bonds isn't, say, President of the United States.
Besides, as the era of 756* begins, its clear that more is amuck with professional athletics than Bonds roiding up. Consider the following:
* In the MLB, Bonds isn't the only dude that's on the juice all by his lone gunmen self. Jason Giambi (2000 AL MVP) and Rafael Palmeiro (he of the 500 HR and 3000 hit club) are two of the more noted players whose careers have been tainted by evidence of steroid use. (Former slugger Jose Canseco has claimed, perhaps with some hyperbole, that 85 percent of all major leaguers are on the stuff.) As for Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa, while there is no "proof" that they cheated as well, their unconvincing testimony before Congress in 2005 on the issue has led to Mac being shut out of the Hall of Fame after becoming eligible this year - something which will likely happen to both Sosa and Bonds as well.
* In cycling, the Tour de France has had evidence and allegations of doping that far exceed those of baseball. In 2006, the four runner-ups in 2005 to retiring seven-time champ Lance Armstrong (Ivan Basso, Jan Ullrich, Francisco Mancebo and Alexandre Vinokourov) all did not compete in the race due to evidence of doping. (Though Vinokourov himself was not charged in 2006, five of his teammates were, forcing him to withdraw. In 2007, he was personally busted during the race.) The eventual "winner" of the race, American Floyd Landis, was caught with banned substances in his urine samples and will likely lose his title after appeals. The 2007 contest was rife with arguably even more doping controversy, culminating with race leader Michael Rasmussen being removed for lying about his reasons he missed three drug tests. The eventual winner, Alberto Contador, was a prime suspect in the 2006 doping scandal. Meanwhile, though there is no firm evidence linking Armstrong to doping, widespread allegations cloud his storied career.
* In the NBA, a league already with an increasingly bad public image due to thuggish behavior of the post-Jordan playing crop, a gambling scandal involving referee Tim Donaghy threatens the basic integrity of the game. Though the scandal only involves Donaghy at this point (as petty tyrant David Stern repeatedly insists in his "bad apple" defense) the idea that other NBA refs may have been compromised by mobsters is not implausible, especially considering the league's lackadaisical response to evidence that something was fishy. Anyone who saw Game Six of the 2002 Lakers-Kings playoff series (where the Lakers "won" following officiating that looked like a Florida election involving a member of the Bush family) should have little trouble believing a conspiracy of refs involved in the rigging of important games.
* The good news for the NHL is that they're even deemed worthy of mention, after commissioner Gary Bettman's self-destructive reign has removed ice hockey from the quartet of American major league sports. (Memo to Mr. Bettman: real sports leagues have cable TV contracts with ESPN, not the Outdoor Life Network.) Still, if missing an entire season due to an owner lockout wasn't enough to discredit the NHL, an illegal gambling ring which may have included the Great One Wayne Gretzky himself should do the trick.
True, the history-making runs of Tiger Woods and Roger Federer in golf and tennis are inspiring tales, but all in all, the pickings for sport heroics are pretty slim right now. Indeed, the only sports of late to have any good news are lacrosse (where the Duke team members were proven to merely be drunken racist preppies, instead of drunken racist preppies who rape strippers) and soccer (although The Konformist doubts a preening overrated metrosexual with a self-absorbed diva wife will popularize a boring sport in America if Pele couldn't.)
Still, with all due respect to all the other scandals, the sports league with the biggest PR disaster of late would have to be, hands down, the National Football League. Some would say it's a long time coming. After all, for all the outrage that has followed the revelations and allegations of steroid abuse in baseball, few would argue that steroid use in the MLB is even comparable to that in the NFL. Likewise, while the hip-hop gangsta style of new NBA stars has given rise to a korporate unfriendly "thug life" image, pro football, with it's inherently more violent style of play, clearly attracts more dangerous and borderline personalities.
Why has the NFL gotten such a free ride for so long? Primarily, it's about money. Since the NFL-AFL merger and the rise of the Super Bowl in the 70s, football, not baseball, has really been America's pastime. The korporate media has avoided tarnishing the reputation of the largest multi-billion dollar sports-entertainment empire known to man (not to mention the most successful "Reality TV" series ever, culminating in the four major TV network conglomerates having current contracts with the league.) The obfuscation of NFL scandal was aided by Pete Rozelle and Paul Tagliabue, two sharp businessmen and charming salesmen during their historic reigns as commissioner.
There's a new sheriff in town now, however, and at the very least, Roger Goodell believes the writing is on the wall. If the NFL didn't clean itself up, even worse scandal would soon follow. Before this summer, Goodell had already delivered the following suspensions for bad behavior:
* Chris Henry of the Cincinnati Bengals was suspended for eight games after numerous incidents involving law enforcement, with allegations of crimes ranging from drunk driving, assault with a deadly weapon, and assault of a minor.
* Tank Johnson of the Chicago Bears was also suspended for eight games for his misdeeds, with alleged crimes ranging from drunk driving, assault and various weapon charges. His best friend and bodyguard, William Posey, was shot to death following a bar fight last December.
* In perhaps the most notorious case, Pacman Jones of the Tennessee Titans was suspended for the entire 2007 season for his troubles with the law, which has led to five arrests and questioning by police eleven times. Due to his penchant for troublemaking at nightclubs and strip clubs, he has been charged with assault, battery, felony vandalism and obstruction of justice. In his most infamous altercation, a strip club argument (during which he allegedly grabbed a stripper by her hair and slammed her head) in Las Vegas during All-Star weekend ended when one man in Pacman's entourage allegedly returned to the club and fired shots into the crowd. One bullet paralyzed former pro wrestler Tommy Urbanski, and two hit a security guard whose life Pacman had coincidentally threatened earlier that evening.
All of this bad behavior makes one long for the start of the 2006 season, when the biggest bogeyman in the NFL was Terrell Owens, whose disgraceful acts were wanting more money and dissing his quarterbacks.
This summer, however, even Pacman's troubles were eclipsed by Michael Vick, The Konformist Beast of the Month. Vick's problems received more airplay than the others, in part, because Vick, unlike the others, was no mere role player. As quarterback for the Atlanta Falcons, he was a three-time Pro Bowler in football's most high profile position, who was given the prestigious honor of being the cover athlete for Madden Football 2004. Vick came up only one game short in 2005 from playing the Super Bowl. And though 2006 had been a disappointing year for him in passing (he completed only 52.6 percent of his throws during the season) he became the first QB to rush for over 1000 yards in a year.
Of course, the other reason Vick's legal issues received more airplay was the grotesque nature of his activities. While drunk driving, assault and shootings that lead others to be crippled are hardly minor crimes, being involved in the cruel "sport" of dogfighting shows not a momentary lapse of reason, but a premeditated plan to participate in the torture and death of man's best friend. And as bad as forcing canines to participate in a battle to the death may be, perhaps even worse is personally killing Fido in a gruesome fashion, such as by drowning, hanging, electrocution, strangulation and gunshots. These were the charges that Vick faced, charges he plead guilty to after his co-conspirators did the same and began to provide more evidence against him. As it stands, he likely faces one year to eighteen month in federal prison over his crimes.
In retrospect, there were warning signs that Vick was a trouble case. In 2005, he was sued by a woman who claimed was given genital herpes by him. (According to her, he received treatments for the disease under the alias Ron Mexico, which led to the Vick-based character "Mike Mexico" in the videogame Blitz: The League.) Last November, he gave the finger to fans booing him in the Georgia Dome after a home loss. In January, he was caught in Miami with a water bottle with a hidden compartment that contained a "small amount of dark particulate" and an odor consistent with marijuana, according to a police report. (Dubiously, lab tests found no evidence of pot, which many suspect was not due to science but rather NFL pressure to silence the controversy.) Granted, none of these activities is in the same ballpark as training pit bulls to fight to the death, and far be it that The Konformist staff condemn a man for having STDs, giving people the finger or carrying pot. Still, it should have raised NFL eyebrows that Vick was no mere Organization Man.
As is sometimes the case when pro athletes get into legal trouble, the question of race is part of the mix, as Vick is an African-American. It's hard to completely dismiss the possibility that if, say, Peyton Manning or Brett Favre (not to unfairly link either man to such criminal conduct) had been involved in illegal dogfighting, the whole thing would've been covered up. (Then again, many suspect that Vick had already used his "Get Out of Jail" card at Miami International.) On the other hand, some of the defenses for Vick seem like embarrassing apologetics. The worst example came from the lips of actor Jamie Foxx (who admittedly was great as a black QB in the Oliver Stone football flick Any Given Sunday.) As Foxx put it, "It's a cultural thing, I think. Most brothers didn't know that, you know. I used to see dogs fighting in the neighborhood all the time. I didn't know that was Fed time. So, Mike probably just didn't read his handbook on what not to do as a black star." Of course, the idea that Africa-Americans can't be expected to understand that training dogs to kill each other (and then viciously executing underperformers) is barbaric behavior, well, that's a sentiment we'd more expect to be uttered by Bill O'Reilly than an Oscar-winning actor. (A tip to Jamie: stick to your Ray Charles impersonations.)
Of course, not all African-Americans leaders reflexively jumped to Vick's defense. Hip hop mogul Russell Simmons, an animal rights supporter, quickly urged Nike to pull its sponsorship of Vick after the allegations surfaced. Joining him in condemning dogfighting was Revered Al Sharpton, hardly a guy who critics would allege is above playing the race card. And though the Atlanta chapter NAACP leader R.L. White sounded a bit like Foxx over the controversy, NAACP president Dennis Courtland Hayes bluntly declared that Vick "is not a victim... He absolutely must account for what he has done."
Indeed, looking at the evidence in the Vick case, it could be compellingly argued that rather than act improperly or show a rush to judgment, the feds went by the book and fairly targeted the man who deserved it, the guy who financed the whole dogfighting operation. Bad Newz Kennels started in 2001, not-so-coincidentally when Vick had just signed a multi-million dollar contract with the Falcons and entered the NFL. All of the participants in the dogfighting scheme, including Vick, concede he almost exclusively bank-rolled the entire operation.
The NFL, at this point, knows all this. They also know that part of Vick's confession (and the other participants' guilty pleas) was that Vick provided most of the money for gambling on the dogfights. As any sports fan will tell you, illegal gambling is the cardinal sin of pro sports, as it opens the door for mobsters to control compromised participants and fix games. It is perhaps just as much for the gambling aspects as the repulsive cruelty to animals that Goodell has suspended Vick from the NFL indefinitely.
In the end, Vick is a symbol of the coarsening of American culture during the zeroes. You don't have to be Bill O'Reilly to concede hip hop is no longer exposing injustice with the gangsta style but rather glorifying violent nihilism because it sells millions. (Indeed, Russell Simmons aside, hip hop has been central in glorifying dogfighting, with rapper DMX using dogfight lingo and imagery in his album covers, videos and songs. Coincidentally, DMX's Arizona home was raided on August 24 in another investigation involving dogfighting.) And you don't have to romanticize the "good old days" to think there's something wrong when sports most popular athletes include guys like Michael Vick, Barry Bonds and Kobe Bryant. And you don't have to be a conspiracy theorist to think that there may be a link between such a grim culture and what is happening at Abu Ghraib and Camp X-Ray. Where have you gone, Joe DiMaggio, indeed.
In any case, we salute Michael Vick as Beast of the Month. Congratulations, and keep up the great work, Mikey!!!
Thursday, August 23, 2007
N.F.L.’s Vick Accepts Plea Deal in Dog-Fight Case
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/20/sports/football/20cnd-vick.html
August 20, 2007
N.F.L.’s Vick Accepts Plea Deal in Dog-Fight Case
By MICHAEL S. SCHMIDT
RICHMOND, Va., Aug. 20 — Michael Vick, the star quarterback of the Atlanta Falcons, has accepted a plea offer from federal prosecutors in a criminal case stemming from a dog-fighting ring that was run from a property Mr. Vick owned.
Mr. Vick will probably face a sentence of at least a year in prison under the deal. His future in the National Football League appears bleak.
Mr. Vick is expected to formally enter his plea on Aug. 27. The United States District Judge overseeing the case, Henry E. Hudson, announced the agreement at a status hearing in the case this afternoon.
Billy Martin, one of Mr. Vick’s defense lawyers, said in a written statement: “After consulting with his family over the weekend, Michael Vick asked that I announce today that he has reached an agreement with federal prosecutors regarding the charges pending against him. Mr. Vick has agreed to enter a plea of guilty to those charges and to accept full responsibility for his actions and the mistakes he has made. Michael wishes to apologize again to everyone who has been hurt by this matter.”
Mr. Vick has been barred by the league’s commissioner, Roger Goodell, from appearing at the Falcons’ training camp since the league began its own investigation of the matter on July 24, a week after Mr. Vick was indicted in the case.
The N.F.L. said today in a written statement: “We are aware of Michael Vick’s decision to enter a guilty plea to the federal charges against him and accept responsibility for his conduct. We totally condemn the conduct outlined in the charges, which is inconsistent with what Michael Vick previously told both our office and the Falcons. We will conclude our own review under the league’s personal conduct policy as soon as possible. In the meantime, we have asked the Falcons to continue to refrain from taking action. pending a decision by the commissioner.”
The government, in their prosecution of the case, put tremendous pressure on Mr. Vick to accept a plea deal and not take the matter to trial.
On Friday, two of Mr. Vick’s co-defendants pled guilty in the case and agreed to testify against him. A third had pled guilty last month and agreed to testify, and prosecutors said they had three other cooperating witnesses.
The charges in Mr. Vick’s indictment carry a possible maximum sentence of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine. The plea deal probably calls for prosecutors to recommend a lighter sentence as long as Mr. Vick cooperates with the government’s investigation.
The two men who entered pleas on Friday, Purnell A. Peace and Quanis L. Phillips, signed lengthy statements which outlined Mr. Vick’s involvement in the dog fighting ring.
Mr. Phillips said that he, Mr. Peace and Mr. Vick killed about eight dogs that did not perform well by hanging and drowning them at a facility that Mr. Vick owned in Surry, Va., in April.
Both confirmed that the enterprise, Bad Newz Kennels, and the gambling associated with it were “almost exclusively funded by Vick.”
They also described numerous times when all four co-defendants traveled across state lines to sponsor dogs in fights.
Their pleas, along with that of Tony Taylor on July 30, prompted widespread speculation that Mr. Vick would accept a plea agreement.
Mr. Vick was believed to have been given until last Friday morning to agree to accept the plea deal, but that deadline passed without an announcement from either side.
The Falcons’ owner, Arthur Blank, told The Associated Press on Friday night, “It seems to be a pretty clear indication there will be some sort of plea entered.”
The government’s criminal case might not be on the only one Mr. Vick has to worry about. Gerald Poindexter, the state prosecutor for Surry County, told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution on Friday that he plans to bring charges on Sept. 25 against Mr. Vick and others alleged to be connected to the dog-fighting ring.
August 20, 2007
N.F.L.’s Vick Accepts Plea Deal in Dog-Fight Case
By MICHAEL S. SCHMIDT
RICHMOND, Va., Aug. 20 — Michael Vick, the star quarterback of the Atlanta Falcons, has accepted a plea offer from federal prosecutors in a criminal case stemming from a dog-fighting ring that was run from a property Mr. Vick owned.
Mr. Vick will probably face a sentence of at least a year in prison under the deal. His future in the National Football League appears bleak.
Mr. Vick is expected to formally enter his plea on Aug. 27. The United States District Judge overseeing the case, Henry E. Hudson, announced the agreement at a status hearing in the case this afternoon.
Billy Martin, one of Mr. Vick’s defense lawyers, said in a written statement: “After consulting with his family over the weekend, Michael Vick asked that I announce today that he has reached an agreement with federal prosecutors regarding the charges pending against him. Mr. Vick has agreed to enter a plea of guilty to those charges and to accept full responsibility for his actions and the mistakes he has made. Michael wishes to apologize again to everyone who has been hurt by this matter.”
Mr. Vick has been barred by the league’s commissioner, Roger Goodell, from appearing at the Falcons’ training camp since the league began its own investigation of the matter on July 24, a week after Mr. Vick was indicted in the case.
The N.F.L. said today in a written statement: “We are aware of Michael Vick’s decision to enter a guilty plea to the federal charges against him and accept responsibility for his conduct. We totally condemn the conduct outlined in the charges, which is inconsistent with what Michael Vick previously told both our office and the Falcons. We will conclude our own review under the league’s personal conduct policy as soon as possible. In the meantime, we have asked the Falcons to continue to refrain from taking action. pending a decision by the commissioner.”
The government, in their prosecution of the case, put tremendous pressure on Mr. Vick to accept a plea deal and not take the matter to trial.
On Friday, two of Mr. Vick’s co-defendants pled guilty in the case and agreed to testify against him. A third had pled guilty last month and agreed to testify, and prosecutors said they had three other cooperating witnesses.
The charges in Mr. Vick’s indictment carry a possible maximum sentence of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine. The plea deal probably calls for prosecutors to recommend a lighter sentence as long as Mr. Vick cooperates with the government’s investigation.
The two men who entered pleas on Friday, Purnell A. Peace and Quanis L. Phillips, signed lengthy statements which outlined Mr. Vick’s involvement in the dog fighting ring.
Mr. Phillips said that he, Mr. Peace and Mr. Vick killed about eight dogs that did not perform well by hanging and drowning them at a facility that Mr. Vick owned in Surry, Va., in April.
Both confirmed that the enterprise, Bad Newz Kennels, and the gambling associated with it were “almost exclusively funded by Vick.”
They also described numerous times when all four co-defendants traveled across state lines to sponsor dogs in fights.
Their pleas, along with that of Tony Taylor on July 30, prompted widespread speculation that Mr. Vick would accept a plea agreement.
Mr. Vick was believed to have been given until last Friday morning to agree to accept the plea deal, but that deadline passed without an announcement from either side.
The Falcons’ owner, Arthur Blank, told The Associated Press on Friday night, “It seems to be a pretty clear indication there will be some sort of plea entered.”
The government’s criminal case might not be on the only one Mr. Vick has to worry about. Gerald Poindexter, the state prosecutor for Surry County, told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution on Friday that he plans to bring charges on Sept. 25 against Mr. Vick and others alleged to be connected to the dog-fighting ring.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
