Attention all Laker Haters out there! Here's a tasty brew of freshly made Haterade. A piece from Henry Abbott of ESPN questions the claim that Kobe Bryant is a clutch player, and uses statistics to make that argument:
"Bryant makes crunch-time defense easy for opponents by shooting just about every time he touches the ball (over a five-year period, he mustered 56 clutch shots, to go with one assist).
Fans of his raw machismo howl that such criticism misses the point, but the point is that when Bryant gets the ball in crunch time, it's a virtual certainty that he'll shoot it, and it's better than 2-1 odds that he'll miss...
ESPN Stats & Information's Alok Pattani dug through 15 years of NBA data -- Bryant's entire career, regular season and playoffs -- and found that Bryant has attempted 115 shots in the final 24 seconds of a game in which the Lakers were tied or trailed by two or fewer points. He connected on 36, and missed 79 times.
One shot for all the cookies. And the NBA is nearly unanimous that this is the guy to take it, even though he has more than twice as many misses as makes?"
Abbott lists some of his greatest misses:
"In 1997, he famously air-balled two shots that could have beat the Jazz; instead, the Jazz won the series. In 1999, he whiffed on a 3-pointer at the buzzer that would have tied Game 2 against the Spurs. In Game 4 against the Kings in 2002, he missed a 2-pointer that would have tied the game (before the ball was tipped out to Robert Horry for the winning 3). In Game 7 of that same series, Bryant missed a tip that would have won the game in regulation. In Game 3 against the Timberwolves in 2003, he missed two key shots in the last seconds of overtime, and the Lakers lost.
I'll spare you the entire list, but it's long. In the final 24 seconds of playoff games, Bryant has racked up almost as many air balls as makes, making just below 30 percent of game-tying or go-ahead shots. He hasn't hit such a shot in a playoff game, in fact, since 2008, including key misses in the closing moments against the Jazz and Magic in 2009, and the Thunder and Suns last spring. He made one of his four shots in the fourth quarter of Game 7 of last year's Finals."
Ouch. About the worst thing you can call an NBA player is a choker. But it still beats being called a rapist...
The truth about Kobe Bryant in crunch time
Henry Abbott
1-28-11
http://espn.go.com/blog/truehoop/post/_/id/24200/the-truth-about-kobe-bryant-in-crunch-time
Showing posts with label ESPN. Show all posts
Showing posts with label ESPN. Show all posts
Thursday, February 10, 2011
Monday, December 6, 2010
All Sports To Cease So Skip Bayless Has Nothing To Talk About
http://www.theonion.com/articles/all-sports-to-cease-so-skip-bayless-has-nothing-to,17267/
All Sports To Cease So Skip Bayless Has Nothing To Talk About
April 16, 2010 | ISSUE 46•15
NEW YORK — Expressing regret that joyless, wrongheaded ESPN commentator and attack journalist Skip Bayless could not be dealt with otherwise, commissioners from every major professional sporting league, top officials of amateur athletic associations, and representatives of player unions reached an agreement Wednesday to end the practice of competitive sports in order to forever deprive Bayless of any subject matter.
"It's a shame that it had to come to this, but there's just no other way to stop Skip Bayless than to stop playing sports," Major League Baseball commissioner Bud Selig said in his final statement before forever closing the books on the national pastime. "Ending baseball is a tragedy, but if our sacrifice means Bayless stops spewing his petty, hateful vitriol, it will all be worth it."
"Will we miss football? Of course we will," said NFL Players Association president Kevin Mawae, who confirmed that professional football players would join all other pro athletes in turning in their uniforms and shredding their playbooks by May 1. "It's all most of us know. But for a long time now, there's been a feeling that football wasn't worth playing as long as Skip Bayless was able to take these ridiculously adversarial devil's-advocate stances purely to rile up viewers and get attention. It's better this way."
As part of the universal agreement to silence Bayless, Major League Baseball will discontinue all play Saturday night after Bayless has gone to bed; the NBA and NHL will announce their cessation at an unspecified time this weekend to deny Bayless an opportunity to nastily criticize their playoff pictures; and NASCAR will quietly close down once and for all Friday before Bayless can make some strident but idiotic statement about the sport as if he watched it all the time and were not simply reacting to something he had read that day.
By the end of this month, all high school gymnasiums will be permanently locked up, every swimming pool filled with concrete, and all soccer and baseball fields paved over to prevent anyone from ever trying to hold any vaguely athletic event about which Bayless could possibly make the smallest disparaging remark.
In addition, all related sanctioning bodies, sponsors, and athletic associations have agreed to help stanch the corrosive blather originating from within Bayless by canceling, at every level, all NCAA athletics; Little League Baseball; the Scripps National Spelling Bee; Dancing With The Stars; Scottish Highland games; the Indy Racing League; the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show; the Boston, New York, and Chicago marathons; and soccer's World Cup.
"I love sports," said 85-year-old Brooklyn resident Myron Bell. "I love all the New York teams, and there's been nothing better in my life than sitting at home on a Sunday afternoon and watching the games on television. But by God, this is the best news I've heard in years."
According to sources familiar with the agreement, Bayless is expected to fume and fulminate through the weekend about whatever sports remain. After all athletic competition ceases to be, it is predicted he will rail, harangue, and whine like a spoiled child for several more days, complaing over the fact that sports has indeed ended. However, most say that after roughly a week without an outlet for his disdain and hatred, Bayless will begin to choke on his own bile and be silenced for good, living the rest of his years silently curled around his bone-deep contempt for all that is pleasurable and good.
Officials said that to prevent Bayless from emerging once again to "make that prim little mirthless half-smile he puts on when he pretends to listen to other people talk," all children must burn their baseball gloves, tennis rackets, basketballs, and any sports-related equipment by 2 p.m. next Sunday.
"Sport, of course, should be an exultation of the human spirit, a coming-together of all people, and a celebration of what humanity is capable of—in short, a symbol of what is best in each of us," said International Olympic Committee president Jacques Rogge, who announced that the eternal Olympic flame in Lausanne, Switzerland, would be forever extinguished this weekend. "Unfortunately, the poisonous words and deeds of Skip Bayless have ruined this, for all men, for all time."
Bayless, 58, began his infamous career as a locally hated sports journalist, writing for newspapers in Miami, Los Angeles, and Dallas. After Bayless appeared on ESPN's Jim Rome Is Burning, where he instantly eclipsed Rome as America's least-appealing sports commentator, the network offered Bayless the chance to be infuriating and wrong about sports on a daily basis as a despicable fixture on sports talk show Cold Pizza, which in turn led to loudmouth contrarian stints on First Take and 1st and 10. Soon, the smug, smirking Bayless had made ESPN's daily programming all but unwatchable.
"Frankly, ESPN deserves a large share of the blame. That's why we are shutting the network down as of tomorrow," ESPN president George Bodenheimer said. "We can only hope our sacrifice will be enough. Luckily, knowing Skip, I don't believe he will be able to think of anything to say if he doesn't have sports to denigrate, run down, or throw under the bus."
"I know you are wondering why we employed him in the first place," Bodenheimer added. "And so are we. But I think in a weird way we just felt bad for the guy."
Bayless was not approached for comment.
Friday, October 29, 2010
Boo Ya: United Workers Aim for ESPN Zone
10/25/2010
Dave Zirin
edgeofsports@gmail.com
When the ESPN Zone restaurant-chain shuttered most of its doors last June, eyebrows were raised in the business press. The restaurants had made bank ESPN brand with good food and of course, wall-to-wall sports. But as Rick Alessandri, senior vice president at ESPN put it at the time, "The economy has hit every facet of our country. We weren't immune."
ESPN’s mother-ship, the Walt Disney Company, made the decision to engage in some creative destruction and the ESPN Zones were just part of the fat that was trimmed. This included the very popular locale in Baltimore’s Inner Harbor. But there was one problem with this hard-nosed business decision: the 150 workers in Baltimore, shocked that their high-traffic restaurant closed, were told with less than a week’s notice. Federal law, according to the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act requires 60 days of notice and severance. Instead, the workers at ESPN Zone were given the bum’s rush. Even worse, many didn’t hear the wrenching news through their boss. Instead many found out their jobs were yesterday’s news in the Baltimore Sun or even on Facebook.
Now the workers are fighting back and fighting mad. On Monday, October 25th, the former employee filed a class action lawsuit against ESPN’s parent company Disney to get the Mouse to comply with the penalty associated with violating federal labor law. The penalty for violating the WARN Act requires that Disney pay workers for 60 days at the rate of their last paycheck. The severance that Disney offered, which is shameful, is separate from this penalty. Their attorney, Andrew D. Freeman said, “Disney’s severance payments were inadequate as a matter of law and as a matter of human decency.” The lawsuit also shines a spotlight on the most vulnerable people in today’s economy: people who live day in and day out working non-union, service industry jobs that can be here today and gone tomorrow.
A cook at the ESPN Zone, Winston Gupton, was put out on the street after losing his job. Speaking at a June 30th press conference, Gupton said, “I never thought that a place that I dedicated myself to for 7½ yrs would reciprocate with such disrespect by shutting down with no notice at all. We were stunned. It was like walking through a dream. We were just devastated, and immediately, I had to figure out what I was going to do because I have a six year-old daughter that I take care of. I was even forced to find other living arrangements, because the income I was expecting during this busy summer season was now drastically diminished."
It would be comforting to think that the Winston Gupton story is his and his alone: a man who became collateral damage in this particular instance of cold corporate number crunching. But it's a story being told across the country. It is particularly common in the neighborhood where his former place of business rusts: Baltimore’s Inner Harbor. The Inner Harbor is a collection of high brand, national restaurant-chains like the Cheesecake Factory and Phillips Seafood, built to capitalize on tourist dollars and close proximity to the publicly funded Oriole Park at Camden Yards and the home of the Baltimore Ravens, MB&T Bank stadium
There is a movement afoot to turn this tourist zone into a “Human Rights Zone” and it’s being led by the same people who issued the class action suit on behalf the ESPN Zone employees: a group called the United Workers. The UW is an organization of low-wage workers that was founded by homeless day laborers in 2002. Today they have a membership of hundreds of workers trapped in that world between steady work and abject poverty. Their goal is to enter agreement with the restaurant chains to ensure basic human rights standards for workers across the harbor, including living wages, healthcare, and education. When a chain abruptly shuts its doors, like they did at the ESPN Zone, the UW wants to be treated like workers and not disposable equipment. As Debra Harris, a former ESPN Zone cook said,
“We are sending a message to Disney, ESPN Zone and Inner Harbor developers that private gain should not take precedence over human life. Corporate executives think they can break the law and just get away with it, because harbor developers do not enforce any human rights standards, but we are human beings and we have the right to dignity and respect.
Organizing the service industry has proven nationally to be a Sisyphean task for the AFL-CIO. But the independent United Workers have been successful in the past by waging highly visible grassroots campaigns, with the workers themselves in positions of leadership. They also relish taking on powerful corporations with national brands like ESPN and Disney, because they think by exposing the brand, they can get a seat at the table. Every corporation has a bottom line. The United Workers want to make sure there is at least some justice, dignity, and humanity in the process.
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.
Dave Zirin
edgeofsports@gmail.com
When the ESPN Zone restaurant-chain shuttered most of its doors last June, eyebrows were raised in the business press. The restaurants had made bank ESPN brand with good food and of course, wall-to-wall sports. But as Rick Alessandri, senior vice president at ESPN put it at the time, "The economy has hit every facet of our country. We weren't immune."
ESPN’s mother-ship, the Walt Disney Company, made the decision to engage in some creative destruction and the ESPN Zones were just part of the fat that was trimmed. This included the very popular locale in Baltimore’s Inner Harbor. But there was one problem with this hard-nosed business decision: the 150 workers in Baltimore, shocked that their high-traffic restaurant closed, were told with less than a week’s notice. Federal law, according to the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act requires 60 days of notice and severance. Instead, the workers at ESPN Zone were given the bum’s rush. Even worse, many didn’t hear the wrenching news through their boss. Instead many found out their jobs were yesterday’s news in the Baltimore Sun or even on Facebook.
Now the workers are fighting back and fighting mad. On Monday, October 25th, the former employee filed a class action lawsuit against ESPN’s parent company Disney to get the Mouse to comply with the penalty associated with violating federal labor law. The penalty for violating the WARN Act requires that Disney pay workers for 60 days at the rate of their last paycheck. The severance that Disney offered, which is shameful, is separate from this penalty. Their attorney, Andrew D. Freeman said, “Disney’s severance payments were inadequate as a matter of law and as a matter of human decency.” The lawsuit also shines a spotlight on the most vulnerable people in today’s economy: people who live day in and day out working non-union, service industry jobs that can be here today and gone tomorrow.
A cook at the ESPN Zone, Winston Gupton, was put out on the street after losing his job. Speaking at a June 30th press conference, Gupton said, “I never thought that a place that I dedicated myself to for 7½ yrs would reciprocate with such disrespect by shutting down with no notice at all. We were stunned. It was like walking through a dream. We were just devastated, and immediately, I had to figure out what I was going to do because I have a six year-old daughter that I take care of. I was even forced to find other living arrangements, because the income I was expecting during this busy summer season was now drastically diminished."
It would be comforting to think that the Winston Gupton story is his and his alone: a man who became collateral damage in this particular instance of cold corporate number crunching. But it's a story being told across the country. It is particularly common in the neighborhood where his former place of business rusts: Baltimore’s Inner Harbor. The Inner Harbor is a collection of high brand, national restaurant-chains like the Cheesecake Factory and Phillips Seafood, built to capitalize on tourist dollars and close proximity to the publicly funded Oriole Park at Camden Yards and the home of the Baltimore Ravens, MB&T Bank stadium
There is a movement afoot to turn this tourist zone into a “Human Rights Zone” and it’s being led by the same people who issued the class action suit on behalf the ESPN Zone employees: a group called the United Workers. The UW is an organization of low-wage workers that was founded by homeless day laborers in 2002. Today they have a membership of hundreds of workers trapped in that world between steady work and abject poverty. Their goal is to enter agreement with the restaurant chains to ensure basic human rights standards for workers across the harbor, including living wages, healthcare, and education. When a chain abruptly shuts its doors, like they did at the ESPN Zone, the UW wants to be treated like workers and not disposable equipment. As Debra Harris, a former ESPN Zone cook said,
“We are sending a message to Disney, ESPN Zone and Inner Harbor developers that private gain should not take precedence over human life. Corporate executives think they can break the law and just get away with it, because harbor developers do not enforce any human rights standards, but we are human beings and we have the right to dignity and respect.
Organizing the service industry has proven nationally to be a Sisyphean task for the AFL-CIO. But the independent United Workers have been successful in the past by waging highly visible grassroots campaigns, with the workers themselves in positions of leadership. They also relish taking on powerful corporations with national brands like ESPN and Disney, because they think by exposing the brand, they can get a seat at the table. Every corporation has a bottom line. The United Workers want to make sure there is at least some justice, dignity, and humanity in the process.
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.
Sunday, July 25, 2010
Miami in Pinstripes: the New Evil Empire
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/09/sports/basketball/09araton.html
Miami in Pinstripes: the New Evil Empire
HARVEY ARATON
July 8, 2010
In the moment LeBron James uttered the words “South Beach” on Thursday night in front of a national television audience, the country witnessed the birth of an Evil Empire — the Yankees of professional basketball — with that slick-haired hombre, Pat Riley, at the helm.
James and Dwyane Wade have been likeable enough fellows in their various selling poses, including James as a mischievous puppet and Wade as Charles Barkley’s co-star in clever cellphone commercials. But together in Miami, with Chris Bosh rebounding for the superstar wingmen, they have created something fascinating, potentially fearsome and possibly quite loathsome.
Who outside of South Florida wants to root for Miami after the way James walked out on Cleveland and his home territory of northern Ohio in a mercenary reach for championship rings? On the other hand, who won’t want to see the fledgling super team take a big fall?
Had James stayed in Cleveland, he would have had the support of a nation wanting to see The Loyal One rewarded. Teaming up with Wade, Bosh and Darth Riley makes him more anti-hero than hero — but an even stronger marketable commodity for the N.B.A. brand. That loud noise emanating from out West is Commissioner David Stern cheering from his vacation spot in Sun Valley, Idaho.
Bad guys sell tickets, too. In the course of one week, James switched personas, like a professional wrestler, and the way he explained it Thursday night, his mother, Gloria, gave him permission.
“I thought I’d hear a different reaction,” he said of the phone call he made to her Thursday morning. “She felt it was going to make me happy.”
Funny, though. Jon Barry on ESPN said he thought James didn’t look happy. Maybe that’s because the view from the mountaintop of leverage that he carefully constructed to be the springboard to the rest of his career turned out to be something short of breathtaking.
In all directions were shining cities ready to welcome him with open arms and ready checkbooks. But there also were flaws in the windows of James’s lofty perch, cracks that might have been invisible to the eye of the average pro basketball star, but not to the man who envisioned crystal-clear free-agent perfection.
As early as November 2008, James was calling July 1, 2010, “a very big day,” beating the drum for when suitors would come calling, or begging, and all he would have to do was say “eeny, meeny” and then board his chosen starship Enterprise.
Along the way, there were disquieting playoff power outages in Cleveland, no ultimate N.B.A. credential to anoint him as a genuine savior and not a single suitor that could guarantee him a bed of roses to go along with his ransom.
By the time James made his grand announcement, it wasn’t as if he was choosing among the lesser of evils. But if heaven is a playground, it hasn’t yet been granted an N.B.A. franchise, and James’s blatant overreach for attention only intensified the pressure not to beam into a situation that could damage his carefully crafted brand.
Miami lured him with his Olympic team running mates, Wade and Bosh, but he joins them on Wade’s turf, where the latter has already achieved sainthood by winning a championship in 2006. He leaves fans cursing him in Cleveland, where the owner, Dan Gilbert, called his ESPN show “narcissistic,” his departure “cowardly” and vowed — foolishly, no doubt — that the Cavs would win a title before James.
James can also count on rabid booing in New York, where the Knicks assiduously courted him, tanked two seasons for him and created their own bloated market for Amar’e Stoudemire for him.
“It takes courage to play where the lights shine the brightest,” James L. Dolan, the Knicks’ owner, said while introducing Stoudemire Thursday at Madison Square Garden. Was he suggesting that his $100 million power forward had something in his belly that James didn’t, or utilizing his last good bargaining chip, challenging James to be a man by taking on Manhattan?
Losing out to Riley, their former coach and sworn enemy, has to be the worst part of this. The Knicks will have to fill the blanks around Stoudemire, settle next season for low-level playoff contention at best. In Newark, the Nets will dream about better days in Brooklyn. Turns out James didn’t want to be the leader of a basketball renaissance in a great basketball city. The King followed Bosh to Dwyane Wade’s team.
A longtime friend and high school teammate, Dru Joyce III, argued that James’s critics are missing the point. “People always think it always has to be about the one superstar,” Joyce said in a telephone interview. “But I think what LeBron is saying is it’s about the team. He’s going against the grain and it’s hard for people to accept that.”
James made a more grandiose show of free agency than anyone ever has, but he didn’t create the culture of entitlement. He’s just the latest to exploit it, and Joyce was right about one thing: all would have been forgiven had he just told his interviewer, Jim Gray, he was staying in Cleveland, basking in his own stardust.
Maybe that was the main selling point in Miami. When the playoff dust finally settles, it won’t all come down on him.
A version of this article appeared in print on July 9, 2010, on page B10 of the New York edition.
Miami in Pinstripes: the New Evil Empire
HARVEY ARATON
July 8, 2010
In the moment LeBron James uttered the words “South Beach” on Thursday night in front of a national television audience, the country witnessed the birth of an Evil Empire — the Yankees of professional basketball — with that slick-haired hombre, Pat Riley, at the helm.
James and Dwyane Wade have been likeable enough fellows in their various selling poses, including James as a mischievous puppet and Wade as Charles Barkley’s co-star in clever cellphone commercials. But together in Miami, with Chris Bosh rebounding for the superstar wingmen, they have created something fascinating, potentially fearsome and possibly quite loathsome.
Who outside of South Florida wants to root for Miami after the way James walked out on Cleveland and his home territory of northern Ohio in a mercenary reach for championship rings? On the other hand, who won’t want to see the fledgling super team take a big fall?
Had James stayed in Cleveland, he would have had the support of a nation wanting to see The Loyal One rewarded. Teaming up with Wade, Bosh and Darth Riley makes him more anti-hero than hero — but an even stronger marketable commodity for the N.B.A. brand. That loud noise emanating from out West is Commissioner David Stern cheering from his vacation spot in Sun Valley, Idaho.
Bad guys sell tickets, too. In the course of one week, James switched personas, like a professional wrestler, and the way he explained it Thursday night, his mother, Gloria, gave him permission.
“I thought I’d hear a different reaction,” he said of the phone call he made to her Thursday morning. “She felt it was going to make me happy.”
Funny, though. Jon Barry on ESPN said he thought James didn’t look happy. Maybe that’s because the view from the mountaintop of leverage that he carefully constructed to be the springboard to the rest of his career turned out to be something short of breathtaking.
In all directions were shining cities ready to welcome him with open arms and ready checkbooks. But there also were flaws in the windows of James’s lofty perch, cracks that might have been invisible to the eye of the average pro basketball star, but not to the man who envisioned crystal-clear free-agent perfection.
As early as November 2008, James was calling July 1, 2010, “a very big day,” beating the drum for when suitors would come calling, or begging, and all he would have to do was say “eeny, meeny” and then board his chosen starship Enterprise.
Along the way, there were disquieting playoff power outages in Cleveland, no ultimate N.B.A. credential to anoint him as a genuine savior and not a single suitor that could guarantee him a bed of roses to go along with his ransom.
By the time James made his grand announcement, it wasn’t as if he was choosing among the lesser of evils. But if heaven is a playground, it hasn’t yet been granted an N.B.A. franchise, and James’s blatant overreach for attention only intensified the pressure not to beam into a situation that could damage his carefully crafted brand.
Miami lured him with his Olympic team running mates, Wade and Bosh, but he joins them on Wade’s turf, where the latter has already achieved sainthood by winning a championship in 2006. He leaves fans cursing him in Cleveland, where the owner, Dan Gilbert, called his ESPN show “narcissistic,” his departure “cowardly” and vowed — foolishly, no doubt — that the Cavs would win a title before James.
James can also count on rabid booing in New York, where the Knicks assiduously courted him, tanked two seasons for him and created their own bloated market for Amar’e Stoudemire for him.
“It takes courage to play where the lights shine the brightest,” James L. Dolan, the Knicks’ owner, said while introducing Stoudemire Thursday at Madison Square Garden. Was he suggesting that his $100 million power forward had something in his belly that James didn’t, or utilizing his last good bargaining chip, challenging James to be a man by taking on Manhattan?
Losing out to Riley, their former coach and sworn enemy, has to be the worst part of this. The Knicks will have to fill the blanks around Stoudemire, settle next season for low-level playoff contention at best. In Newark, the Nets will dream about better days in Brooklyn. Turns out James didn’t want to be the leader of a basketball renaissance in a great basketball city. The King followed Bosh to Dwyane Wade’s team.
A longtime friend and high school teammate, Dru Joyce III, argued that James’s critics are missing the point. “People always think it always has to be about the one superstar,” Joyce said in a telephone interview. “But I think what LeBron is saying is it’s about the team. He’s going against the grain and it’s hard for people to accept that.”
James made a more grandiose show of free agency than anyone ever has, but he didn’t create the culture of entitlement. He’s just the latest to exploit it, and Joyce was right about one thing: all would have been forgiven had he just told his interviewer, Jim Gray, he was staying in Cleveland, basking in his own stardust.
Maybe that was the main selling point in Miami. When the playoff dust finally settles, it won’t all come down on him.
A version of this article appeared in print on July 9, 2010, on page B10 of the New York edition.
Lebron James: The Uncool
http://www.thenation.com/blog/37180/lebron-james-uncool
Lebron James: The Uncool
Dave Zirin
July 8, 2010
There is already a big loser in tonight's Lebron James-ESPN-free agent-jamboree. It's Lebron James. No matter his choice at the end of tonight’s primetime special, he will have a diminished brand, a wounded stature, and a set of expectations there is little indication he can manage. It's one thing when an endlessly ravenous twenty-four-hour sports media leviathan obsesses over the next move for the most valued free agent in sports history. It's quite another when the athlete himself chooses to bathe in the hype to such an embarrassing degree. Within the last twenty-four hours, James has started a Twitter account with the handle "King James," launched a website and made the decision to further enmesh reality television with the world of sports. It's bombastic nonsense for a player who calls himself King even in the absense of a championship crown.
Right now Lebron is acting less cool than Al Gore on Soul Train. He should be treating this remarkable free agent process like the Fonz. Instead the King is being pure Potsie. What would Fonzie do? Let's remember 1995 when Michael Jordan returned to the Chicago Bulls after a season and a half playing minor league baseball. Jordan sent a fax to the media that said simply, “I'm back." We had another Fonzie moment just yesterday when 21-year-old NBA scoring champ Kevin Durant quietly re-upped for five more years with his thrilling, small market squad of infinite promise, the Oklahoma City Thunder.
Durant is trying to achieve the ultimate goal, a goal achieved by only Michael Jordan and Tim Duncan of the San Antonio Spurs before him: take a team with next to no tradition of triumph, and will them into becoming a dynasty. This should be Lebron's goal in Cleveland. Be the man who brings home the town's first championship since 1964 and change the very identity of a city. That’s what legends do. It would have catapulted him beyond Bird, Magic and Kobe, who were part of dynasties in Boston and LA, cities that demand nothing less.
Instead the strong rumor of the day is pure Potsie: Lebron, as is being reported by his reality-TV producers at ESPN, is leaning toward joining superstar Dwyane Wade and prime free-agent signee Chris Bosh in Miami. Immediately, Lebron would be joining Wade’s team. Wade brought Miami a championship in 2006. Wade would have the ball in his hands for many of the offensive sets. Wade would on some nights be the best player on the court. This is Lebron hiding in Miami. It’s the act of someone who doesn’t think he can create his own legacy, but has to ride on someone else’s. Wade would be Jeter, and Lebron would be A-Rod. It’s the worst possible choice because it immediately puts a cap on James’s career and mind-bending potential. He could certainly still change his mind and become the Man Who Saved Cleveland, or the King of New York. But all indications are that he will be hiding in the Heat.
There are those who say that no matter where Lebron chooses to play, he is in fact the great winner in all of this because he completely took control of the process. As Henry Abbott of ESPN’s True Hoop tweeted this morning, "How you feel about LeBron James today is a test of how you feel about fully-empowered athletes." This is completely wrong. There is nothing "empowering" about the full embrace of the media circus. There is nothing “empowering” in trying to claim and max out every last cent of the spectacle that defines celebrity culture. That’s what Paris Hilton does. That’s what Flava Flav does. It’s shouldn’t be the default move of Lebron James. These are the actions of a court jester, not a King.
Lebron James: The Uncool
Dave Zirin
July 8, 2010
There is already a big loser in tonight's Lebron James-ESPN-free agent-jamboree. It's Lebron James. No matter his choice at the end of tonight’s primetime special, he will have a diminished brand, a wounded stature, and a set of expectations there is little indication he can manage. It's one thing when an endlessly ravenous twenty-four-hour sports media leviathan obsesses over the next move for the most valued free agent in sports history. It's quite another when the athlete himself chooses to bathe in the hype to such an embarrassing degree. Within the last twenty-four hours, James has started a Twitter account with the handle "King James," launched a website and made the decision to further enmesh reality television with the world of sports. It's bombastic nonsense for a player who calls himself King even in the absense of a championship crown.
Right now Lebron is acting less cool than Al Gore on Soul Train. He should be treating this remarkable free agent process like the Fonz. Instead the King is being pure Potsie. What would Fonzie do? Let's remember 1995 when Michael Jordan returned to the Chicago Bulls after a season and a half playing minor league baseball. Jordan sent a fax to the media that said simply, “I'm back." We had another Fonzie moment just yesterday when 21-year-old NBA scoring champ Kevin Durant quietly re-upped for five more years with his thrilling, small market squad of infinite promise, the Oklahoma City Thunder.
Durant is trying to achieve the ultimate goal, a goal achieved by only Michael Jordan and Tim Duncan of the San Antonio Spurs before him: take a team with next to no tradition of triumph, and will them into becoming a dynasty. This should be Lebron's goal in Cleveland. Be the man who brings home the town's first championship since 1964 and change the very identity of a city. That’s what legends do. It would have catapulted him beyond Bird, Magic and Kobe, who were part of dynasties in Boston and LA, cities that demand nothing less.
Instead the strong rumor of the day is pure Potsie: Lebron, as is being reported by his reality-TV producers at ESPN, is leaning toward joining superstar Dwyane Wade and prime free-agent signee Chris Bosh in Miami. Immediately, Lebron would be joining Wade’s team. Wade brought Miami a championship in 2006. Wade would have the ball in his hands for many of the offensive sets. Wade would on some nights be the best player on the court. This is Lebron hiding in Miami. It’s the act of someone who doesn’t think he can create his own legacy, but has to ride on someone else’s. Wade would be Jeter, and Lebron would be A-Rod. It’s the worst possible choice because it immediately puts a cap on James’s career and mind-bending potential. He could certainly still change his mind and become the Man Who Saved Cleveland, or the King of New York. But all indications are that he will be hiding in the Heat.
There are those who say that no matter where Lebron chooses to play, he is in fact the great winner in all of this because he completely took control of the process. As Henry Abbott of ESPN’s True Hoop tweeted this morning, "How you feel about LeBron James today is a test of how you feel about fully-empowered athletes." This is completely wrong. There is nothing "empowering" about the full embrace of the media circus. There is nothing “empowering” in trying to claim and max out every last cent of the spectacle that defines celebrity culture. That’s what Paris Hilton does. That’s what Flava Flav does. It’s shouldn’t be the default move of Lebron James. These are the actions of a court jester, not a King.
Sunday, May 2, 2010
Roethlisberger wasn't a popular Steeler, even before all this
http://sports.yahoo.com/nfl/blog/shutdown_corner/post/Roethlisberger-wasn-t-a-popular-Steeler-even-be
Mon Apr 26, 2010
Roethlisberger wasn't a popular Steeler, even before all this
By MJD
Some former Pittsburgh Steelers teammates are kicking Ben Roethlisberger while he's down, telling ESPN that Roethlisberger wasn't well-liked in the locker room while they were there.
Kelly Naqi did a story for ESPN's "Outside the Lines" over the weekend, focusing on Roethlisberger's image and reputation. She talked to former Steelers running back Najeh Davenport, former Steelers safety about Mike Logan and some other people around the area. Here are some of the highlights.
• Davenport estimated that about 60 percent of the locker room felt like Roethlisberger thought he was "bigger than the team" and not focused on winning.
• Davenport also discussed a time when Joey Porter called out Roethlisberger in a team meeting for being the last one in to practice and the first one to leave. Porter also accused Roethlisberger of not being dedicated to the team and criticized him for not fraternizing with his teammates.
• Mike Logan confirmed the incident where Porter addressed Roethlisberger and said that all the things Porter mentioned were already being talked about in the locker room.
• Someone identified only as "a close friend of a Steelers player" said that the reason Roethlisberger had a bodyguard was because of an incident where a man put a gun to Roethlisberger's head because Roethlisberger was involved with the man's girlfriend.
• Naqi spoke with people who work at Pittsburgh bars and nightclubs, and they described Ben as someone who was condescending to the staffs and rude to other customers. One bar owner said Roethlisberger always expected he and his entourage to be given free food and drinks.
Roethlisberger wouldn't talk to ESPN for the story. Neither would Joey Porter. Roethlisberger did release a statement today about his suspension, though, apologizing to his teammates and fans, and vowing to comply with the terms of the suspension.
This is the kind of report that wouldn't ever see the light of day if there weren't some other dastardly story about the guy. That's not to say that it isn't true -- Kelly Naqi's a fine reporter -- but is it a big deal? Should we care?
After all, no one said anything about Roethlisberger-related locker room troubles when the Steelers were winning Super Bowls. Maybe this is just a mountain-out-of-a-molehill thing that surfaces now because it's convenient and fits the "Roethlisberger as dirtball" narrative.
If there's any practical issue here, I think it's this: If Roethlisberger has to mend some fences in the Steelers locker room, perhaps it'll be even tougher than expected. If someone didn't like him before the sexual assault allegations, it's hard to imagine they'll warm up to the guy now, no matter what he does.
We'll just have to wait and see how that plays out. Locker rooms have been divided over less.
Mon Apr 26, 2010
Roethlisberger wasn't a popular Steeler, even before all this
By MJD
Some former Pittsburgh Steelers teammates are kicking Ben Roethlisberger while he's down, telling ESPN that Roethlisberger wasn't well-liked in the locker room while they were there.
Kelly Naqi did a story for ESPN's "Outside the Lines" over the weekend, focusing on Roethlisberger's image and reputation. She talked to former Steelers running back Najeh Davenport, former Steelers safety about Mike Logan and some other people around the area. Here are some of the highlights.
• Davenport estimated that about 60 percent of the locker room felt like Roethlisberger thought he was "bigger than the team" and not focused on winning.
• Davenport also discussed a time when Joey Porter called out Roethlisberger in a team meeting for being the last one in to practice and the first one to leave. Porter also accused Roethlisberger of not being dedicated to the team and criticized him for not fraternizing with his teammates.
• Mike Logan confirmed the incident where Porter addressed Roethlisberger and said that all the things Porter mentioned were already being talked about in the locker room.
• Someone identified only as "a close friend of a Steelers player" said that the reason Roethlisberger had a bodyguard was because of an incident where a man put a gun to Roethlisberger's head because Roethlisberger was involved with the man's girlfriend.
• Naqi spoke with people who work at Pittsburgh bars and nightclubs, and they described Ben as someone who was condescending to the staffs and rude to other customers. One bar owner said Roethlisberger always expected he and his entourage to be given free food and drinks.
Roethlisberger wouldn't talk to ESPN for the story. Neither would Joey Porter. Roethlisberger did release a statement today about his suspension, though, apologizing to his teammates and fans, and vowing to comply with the terms of the suspension.
This is the kind of report that wouldn't ever see the light of day if there weren't some other dastardly story about the guy. That's not to say that it isn't true -- Kelly Naqi's a fine reporter -- but is it a big deal? Should we care?
After all, no one said anything about Roethlisberger-related locker room troubles when the Steelers were winning Super Bowls. Maybe this is just a mountain-out-of-a-molehill thing that surfaces now because it's convenient and fits the "Roethlisberger as dirtball" narrative.
If there's any practical issue here, I think it's this: If Roethlisberger has to mend some fences in the Steelers locker room, perhaps it'll be even tougher than expected. If someone didn't like him before the sexual assault allegations, it's hard to imagine they'll warm up to the guy now, no matter what he does.
We'll just have to wait and see how that plays out. Locker rooms have been divided over less.
Monday, January 18, 2010
Mark McGwire's Pound of Flesh
http://www.thenation.com/blogs/notion/515740/mark_mcgwire_s_pound_of_flesh
Mark McGwire's Pound of Flesh
by Dave Zirin
In the ten years Brian Williams has anchored the NBC Nightly News, he has never once launched a broadcast by lambasting a public figure. Henry Paulson after the economic collapse? George W. Bush after Katrina? Dick Cheney after everything? All were spared the personal disdain of "America's most trusted newsman." Until yesterday. Williams began his broadcast by going after true evil: Mark McGwire.
As Williams said:
"Good evening. Because this is a family broadcast, we probably can't say what we'd like to about the news today that Mark McGwire -- the home run hitter, the family favorite from the St. Louis Cardinals -- stopped lying today and admitted that he did it while on steroids... He's been unable to get into the Hall of Fame and, apparently -- even for him -- the shame here was too much."
Yes, cue the vultures, for retired slugger Mark McGwire has finally admitted the obvious and told the world he used steroids and other performance enhancers throughout his playing career. He clears his conscience a half-decade after a disastrous appearance in front of Congress, simulcast on C-SPAN and ESPN, where he auto-repeated "I'm not here to talk about the past" to his inquisitors. Monday's admission today, in advance of starting work as the new hitting coach for the St. Louis Cardinals, is a shocker right up there with "Sarah Palin finds work at Fox News." His teary audio confession also further cements McGwire's reputation as the Hamlet of the Steroid Era: tortured, indecisive, self-pitying, and in constant mourning about his own frailties.
For anyone who hoped that McGwire's confession could spark an opportunity to have an honest discussion about how we understand that juiced period in baseball history, from roughly 1992-2006, these hopes were quickly liquidated. Now is the time of the Sunday morning hangover and everyone is a born again zealot, personified by the harrumphing visage of Brian Williams. The media, so happy to cheerlead the home run barrage during the 1990s, now want an apology parade of humbled players swimming in tears and begging for mercy.
Gene Wojciechowski of ESPN penned a piece called, Line of Truth Starts Behind McGwire. He wrote:
"Bonds, Sosa and Clemens owe the game a similar apology. By finally taking the truth plunge, McGwire gives them, and other players, the perfect opportunity to make amends."
Tim Brown of Yahoo Sports went even further. In a column artfully titled McGwire's Feckless Admission is too Late, Brown writes:
"We've become so comfortable blaming Bud Selig and Don Fehr, we forget the real villains in this. They're McGwire, Canseco, A-Rod, Palmeiro, Bonds, every man in the Mitchell Report, every player who put a needle in his body and made the next player choose between that and pumping gas for a living, everyone too cowardly to compete straight up."
If you want to know "how the sausages were made" in the steroid era, read the above passages again. Yes, there is truth in what Wojciechowski and Brown write. But like a sausage, by the time the meat has been transformed it is entirely unrecognizable, and while zesty, entirely unhealthy. As early as 1992, every aspect of baseball management were officially on notice about steroids. MLB Commissioner Fay Vincent sent a memo to every team reading, "The possession, sale or use of any illegal drug or controlled substance by Major League players and personnel is strictly prohibited ... [and those players involved] are subject to discipline by the Commissioner and risk permanent expulsion from the game.... This prohibition applies to all illegal drugs and controlled substances, including steroids..."
We now know that general managers assessed whether they thought a player was juicing when they made trades. We know that trainers and their lackeys helped the players score a wide variety of performance enhancers. We know that the Dominican Republic, where Major League Baseball invests millions to develop talent on the cheap, has steroids available over the counter with next to no oversight. Even with all of this knowledge, the media still demands little more than seeing a parade of players sob in front of the cameras while owners retreat to the shadows. It's hard not to see parallels in the absence of public accountability among the banking titans of Wall Street. For the powerful, profits mean never having to say you're sorry.
It's long past time we reframed the question and asked: what did the owners know and when did they know it? Why have no owners had to speak in front of congress? Why have owners been allowed to keep every penny from the big money, big bopping 1990s, while players have been put through the thresher? How have no owners even been threatened with punishment for allowing steroids into their locker rooms? And how in the blue hell does Bud Selig still have a job? In response to McGwire, Selig said, "The so-called "steroid era" -- a reference that is resented by the many players who played in that era and never touched the substances -- is clearly a thing of the past, and Mark's admission today is another step in the right direction." Here's another step: Bud Selig joining the ranks of the unemployed.
Dave Zirin is the author of the forthcoming “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 .
Mark McGwire's Pound of Flesh
by Dave Zirin
In the ten years Brian Williams has anchored the NBC Nightly News, he has never once launched a broadcast by lambasting a public figure. Henry Paulson after the economic collapse? George W. Bush after Katrina? Dick Cheney after everything? All were spared the personal disdain of "America's most trusted newsman." Until yesterday. Williams began his broadcast by going after true evil: Mark McGwire.
As Williams said:
"Good evening. Because this is a family broadcast, we probably can't say what we'd like to about the news today that Mark McGwire -- the home run hitter, the family favorite from the St. Louis Cardinals -- stopped lying today and admitted that he did it while on steroids... He's been unable to get into the Hall of Fame and, apparently -- even for him -- the shame here was too much."
Yes, cue the vultures, for retired slugger Mark McGwire has finally admitted the obvious and told the world he used steroids and other performance enhancers throughout his playing career. He clears his conscience a half-decade after a disastrous appearance in front of Congress, simulcast on C-SPAN and ESPN, where he auto-repeated "I'm not here to talk about the past" to his inquisitors. Monday's admission today, in advance of starting work as the new hitting coach for the St. Louis Cardinals, is a shocker right up there with "Sarah Palin finds work at Fox News." His teary audio confession also further cements McGwire's reputation as the Hamlet of the Steroid Era: tortured, indecisive, self-pitying, and in constant mourning about his own frailties.
For anyone who hoped that McGwire's confession could spark an opportunity to have an honest discussion about how we understand that juiced period in baseball history, from roughly 1992-2006, these hopes were quickly liquidated. Now is the time of the Sunday morning hangover and everyone is a born again zealot, personified by the harrumphing visage of Brian Williams. The media, so happy to cheerlead the home run barrage during the 1990s, now want an apology parade of humbled players swimming in tears and begging for mercy.
Gene Wojciechowski of ESPN penned a piece called, Line of Truth Starts Behind McGwire. He wrote:
"Bonds, Sosa and Clemens owe the game a similar apology. By finally taking the truth plunge, McGwire gives them, and other players, the perfect opportunity to make amends."
Tim Brown of Yahoo Sports went even further. In a column artfully titled McGwire's Feckless Admission is too Late, Brown writes:
"We've become so comfortable blaming Bud Selig and Don Fehr, we forget the real villains in this. They're McGwire, Canseco, A-Rod, Palmeiro, Bonds, every man in the Mitchell Report, every player who put a needle in his body and made the next player choose between that and pumping gas for a living, everyone too cowardly to compete straight up."
If you want to know "how the sausages were made" in the steroid era, read the above passages again. Yes, there is truth in what Wojciechowski and Brown write. But like a sausage, by the time the meat has been transformed it is entirely unrecognizable, and while zesty, entirely unhealthy. As early as 1992, every aspect of baseball management were officially on notice about steroids. MLB Commissioner Fay Vincent sent a memo to every team reading, "The possession, sale or use of any illegal drug or controlled substance by Major League players and personnel is strictly prohibited ... [and those players involved] are subject to discipline by the Commissioner and risk permanent expulsion from the game.... This prohibition applies to all illegal drugs and controlled substances, including steroids..."
We now know that general managers assessed whether they thought a player was juicing when they made trades. We know that trainers and their lackeys helped the players score a wide variety of performance enhancers. We know that the Dominican Republic, where Major League Baseball invests millions to develop talent on the cheap, has steroids available over the counter with next to no oversight. Even with all of this knowledge, the media still demands little more than seeing a parade of players sob in front of the cameras while owners retreat to the shadows. It's hard not to see parallels in the absence of public accountability among the banking titans of Wall Street. For the powerful, profits mean never having to say you're sorry.
It's long past time we reframed the question and asked: what did the owners know and when did they know it? Why have no owners had to speak in front of congress? Why have owners been allowed to keep every penny from the big money, big bopping 1990s, while players have been put through the thresher? How have no owners even been threatened with punishment for allowing steroids into their locker rooms? And how in the blue hell does Bud Selig still have a job? In response to McGwire, Selig said, "The so-called "steroid era" -- a reference that is resented by the many players who played in that era and never touched the substances -- is clearly a thing of the past, and Mark's admission today is another step in the right direction." Here's another step: Bud Selig joining the ranks of the unemployed.
Dave Zirin is the author of the forthcoming “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 .
Thursday, December 31, 2009
Big Ten Expansion Will Hit College Football
http://bleacherreport.com/articles/308523-big-ten-expansion-will-hit-college-football-like-a-tidal-wave
Big Ten Expansion Will Hit College Football Like a Tidal Wave
Pete Misthaufen
December 14, 2009
ESPN reported recently that Wisconsin athletic director and former head coach Barry Alvarez told the Wisconsin athletic board that the Big Ten will soon make a big push for a 12th member.
The idea of the first Big Ten expansion since 1993's addition of Penn State is looming very large, indeed, and the impact will be felt in more than the Big Ten and the Big East or Big 12 when they lose a team.
Indeed, a Big Ten expansion (with maybe a change in name to the Great 12 or something) will set off a chain of events that will largely reshape the college football world.
First off, since Notre Dame will most likely not agree to membership in the Big Ten (and I will leave it others to discuss that relationship), it leaves the Big East and Big 12 as likely targets.
The Big 12 has Iowa State, Missouri, and Nebraska, while the Big East has Pitt, Rutgers, Syracuse, and West Virginia. This is a good discussion of the Big Ten expansion possibilities.
The name of the game is television, and increasing television market share will be a key factor at hand.
The First Wave: The Big East Scenario
If the Big Ten goes east, then the Big East will again be looking to raid Conference USA (or maybe even the MAC).
In its last expansion, the Big East grabbed one good football and basketball school (Louisville, which has since declined greatly), one good basketball school (Cincy, which now plays good football), and one geographic school for Florida recruiting (USF, which has never finished in the final polls).
So, the Big East's targets will most likely be schools like Memphis (which recently hired former the former Big East commissioner as a consultant to get Memphis into an AQ conference), East Carolina, Marshall, Central Florida (jilted by the Big East last time), Temple (a Big East member only a few years ago), and Buffalo (the only SUNY school with a FBS football team).
Given its situation with its eight non-FBS playing schools, the departure of Rutgers or Pitt may actually force a resolution of the Big East's supersized nature, freeing the Big East to expand to 10 or 12 teams.
CUSA most likely would then invite Louisiana Tech as well as a Sun Belt team or two to join the rebuild the conference.
With a Big Ten expansion to the East, the first wave would most likely end there, with no other immediate consequences for the conferences further west like the Big 12, MWC, and Pac-10.
The First Wave: Big 12 Scenario
If the Big Ten decides to go south instead, Missouri would be the most likely new addition.
As such, the Big 12 would need a new school to fill a void in the Big 12 North.
The MWC is the most likely conference target for the Big 12, and three schools are really the most logical possibilities.
BYU is a large university with a large stadium and a three-decade history of playing on the national stage in college football. BYU has a lot of alums and followers throughout Big 12 country and could actually bring pretty good-sized crowds to away games (BYU brings about 10,000 or so fans for games at TCU, for example, and brought 15,000 or so to the game against Oklahoma at Cowboys Stadium).
Colorado State is a decent sized state school, but would bring little to the Big 12 it does not already have.
TCU would seem a prefect fit, but it will not happen.
First, Baylor, Texas A&M, and Texas Tech would all strongly object. They have already fallen way behind TCU and would only be hurt more by having to lose to Frogs every year.
Second, a divisional realignment would need to take place. While this could be solved by having Tech or Oklahoma State move to the Big 12 North (where either team would have a much easier time winning), it still would not be a simple matter.
Third, the Big 12 already owns the Dallas-Fort Worth media market. While some have argued that this is changing, the Big 12 still believes it does not need a team in the region in order to dominate one of the largest media markets in the country.
Fourth, adding a fifth Texas school would really hurt the Big 12 North schools with their Texas recruiting.
Now, Utah could also be a target, but the Utes are looking most likely looking west for their move. Plus, the Utes lack the large number of travelling fans.
So, if BYU went to the Big 12, the MWC would immediately invite Boise State into the conference.
The WAC would further decline in relevancy but could do nothing about it.
So, again, the first wave would be over with no impact on schools in the south or east.
The Second Wave
With the Big Ten expanding to 12 teams, the pressure will increase on the Big East and Pac-10 to also go to 12 teams.
First would be the direct pressure. Already Big East schools have the easiest path to a BCS game, needing only to play seven conference games to get there.
Of the eight Big East schools, only Pitt, Syracuse, and West Virginia have anything that resembles even a decent football tradition, with the other five schools looking largely like jumped up CUSA schools (oh, but most of them are...).
There are already rumors of pressure being applied to the Big East to expand to 12 football teams and such will increase.
Likewise, rumors of a Pac-12 in 2011 have been going around already. With the Big Ten going to 12, the Pac-10 would most likely follow suit as well, finally get around to its long discussed expansion.
The most likely targets are Colorado and Utah, for reasons that have been discussed elsewhere.
Poaching a MWC and Big 12 team would again cause immediate changes to the football world, as both conferences would again scramble to maintain status.
Realigned Football World
So with three BCS automatic qualifying (AQ) conferences expanding in 2011, the results will reshape the college football world.
The MWC and CUSA would be the most directly impacted, as both conferences would be gutted of some of their top schools.
The ripple effects could completely devastate the conferences, along with the Sun Belt, MAC, and WAC.
A 12-team Big East would most likely invite schools like Central Florida, East Carolina, Marshall, and Memphis from Conference USA and Temple or Buffalo from the MAC as mentioned above.
As such, Conference USA would lose most of its Eastern Division.
But that would not be the only impact on CUSA, as the MWC would attempt to rebuild the conference in order to continue at its near BCS status.
And if they wanted to maintain that status, it is likely that they would need to also go to 12 teams, which might be particularly hard after losing three programs.
A large-scale MWC expansion would hurt both the WAC and CUSA's West Division. Both conferences would likely drop down to further irrelevancy after these raids.
Possible conference realignments:
Big East
Memphis, Central Florida, Marshall, and Temple
North division: UConn, Pitt, Rutgers, Syracuse, Temple, and Marshall
South division: Central Florida, Cincy, Louisville, Memphis, South Florida, and West Virginia
Big Ten
Missouri
River division: Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, Ohio State, Penn State, and Purdue
Lakes division: Iowa, Michigan, Michigan State, Minnesota, Northwestern, and Wisconsin
Big 12
BYU and Colorado State (both going to the Big 12 North)
Big 12 North: BYU, Colorado State, Iowa State, Kansas, Kansas State, and Nebraska
Big 12 South: Baylor, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Texas, Texas A&M, and Texas Tech
MWC
Add Boise, Fresno, Houston, Nevada, SMU, and Tulsa
West: Boise State, Fresno State, Nevada, New Mexico, San Diego State, and UNLV
East: Air Force, Houston, SMU, TCU, Tulsa, and Wyoming
Pac-12
Colorado and Utah
South division: Arizona, Arizona State, Cal, Stanford, UCLA, and USC
North division: Colorado, Oregon, Oregon State, Utah, Washington, and Washington State
Fallout on Non-AQ Conferences
With these expansions, conferences such as the WAC and CUSA will be especially hit hard.
A 12-team Big East will essentially be WV, Pitt, and a bunch of former CUSA teams.
The rebuilt MWC 12 will grab from both CUSA and the WAC.
The remaining teams of the WAC (Hawaii, San Jose State, New Mexico State, Idaho, Utah State, Louisiana Tech) would be hard pressed to stay together, as Louisiana Tech and New Mexico State would likely go with the remaining CUSA schools (Tulane, Southern Miss, East Carolina, UTEP, UAB, and Rice).
CUSA would then add a few schools from the Sun Belt (Arkansas State, Louisiana Lafayette, Louisiana-Monroe, Middle Tennessee State, North Texas, and Troy are all possible invites) to rebuild the 10- or 12-team CUSA.
As such, the four remaining WAC schools would either need to go independent or consider dropping down to FCS level.
The Sun Belt could restock with some of the schools looking to move to FBS status in Texas, such as UT-San Antonio and Texas State.
Will the MWC Survive?
For the MWC and TCU, it will be challenge to maintain its bid for BCS automatic qualifying status.
But it would be, in essence, the only realistic source for a non-AQ BCS at-large bid, even if it did not become the seventh BCS AQ conference.
Some might even argue that the MWC could be the conference to lose out in the case of these conference realignments.
Given that the MWC appears to be ready to invite Boise State this offseason to begin play in 2011, the WAC will already have lost its best team well before some of these other realignments occur.
Even if BYU, Colorado State, and Utah leave the MWC, a conference with both TCU and Boise State will be a real contender. Add in Houston and Fresno, and the conference may come out okay in the end.
TCU, unfortunately, will be a victim of circumstances beyond its control again. After being left behind by the demise of the SWC and the Big East raid of CUSA, TCU finally has a home. It would be unfortunate if the Frogs were left behind again.
Sure, TCU might find a spot in the Big 12 instead of Colorado State or BYU.
However, the Rams looks like the necessary team for the Colorado market, one of the top markets for the Big 12 currently, and one that will assume increased importance if Missouri goes to the Big Ten.
BYU has a much bigger following and a much bigger name than TCU, besides bringing in a new market for the Big 12.
Conclusion
Any Big Ten expansion will have serious, long-term consequences for the world of college football. We will see a lot of realignment and maybe the end of certain conferences.
A move to 12 teams by the Big Ten, Big East, and Pac-10 would mean seven more schools would receive BCS status.
If a 12-team Mountain West Conference received the coveted seventh spot among BCS conferences as well, then 19 schools currently on the outside would receive the BCS gold star of quality.
At 85 BCS conference teams, it is likely that the spot for non-AQ schools will disappear.
With 85 teams, there should also be a serious move at dividing the FBS in two as well, just the 1978 division that created I-AA (now known as FCS).
The tidal wave of Big Ten expansion will completely reshape the college football world.
Big Ten Expansion Will Hit College Football Like a Tidal Wave
Pete Misthaufen
December 14, 2009
ESPN reported recently that Wisconsin athletic director and former head coach Barry Alvarez told the Wisconsin athletic board that the Big Ten will soon make a big push for a 12th member.
The idea of the first Big Ten expansion since 1993's addition of Penn State is looming very large, indeed, and the impact will be felt in more than the Big Ten and the Big East or Big 12 when they lose a team.
Indeed, a Big Ten expansion (with maybe a change in name to the Great 12 or something) will set off a chain of events that will largely reshape the college football world.
First off, since Notre Dame will most likely not agree to membership in the Big Ten (and I will leave it others to discuss that relationship), it leaves the Big East and Big 12 as likely targets.
The Big 12 has Iowa State, Missouri, and Nebraska, while the Big East has Pitt, Rutgers, Syracuse, and West Virginia. This is a good discussion of the Big Ten expansion possibilities.
The name of the game is television, and increasing television market share will be a key factor at hand.
The First Wave: The Big East Scenario
If the Big Ten goes east, then the Big East will again be looking to raid Conference USA (or maybe even the MAC).
In its last expansion, the Big East grabbed one good football and basketball school (Louisville, which has since declined greatly), one good basketball school (Cincy, which now plays good football), and one geographic school for Florida recruiting (USF, which has never finished in the final polls).
So, the Big East's targets will most likely be schools like Memphis (which recently hired former the former Big East commissioner as a consultant to get Memphis into an AQ conference), East Carolina, Marshall, Central Florida (jilted by the Big East last time), Temple (a Big East member only a few years ago), and Buffalo (the only SUNY school with a FBS football team).
Given its situation with its eight non-FBS playing schools, the departure of Rutgers or Pitt may actually force a resolution of the Big East's supersized nature, freeing the Big East to expand to 10 or 12 teams.
CUSA most likely would then invite Louisiana Tech as well as a Sun Belt team or two to join the rebuild the conference.
With a Big Ten expansion to the East, the first wave would most likely end there, with no other immediate consequences for the conferences further west like the Big 12, MWC, and Pac-10.
The First Wave: Big 12 Scenario
If the Big Ten decides to go south instead, Missouri would be the most likely new addition.
As such, the Big 12 would need a new school to fill a void in the Big 12 North.
The MWC is the most likely conference target for the Big 12, and three schools are really the most logical possibilities.
BYU is a large university with a large stadium and a three-decade history of playing on the national stage in college football. BYU has a lot of alums and followers throughout Big 12 country and could actually bring pretty good-sized crowds to away games (BYU brings about 10,000 or so fans for games at TCU, for example, and brought 15,000 or so to the game against Oklahoma at Cowboys Stadium).
Colorado State is a decent sized state school, but would bring little to the Big 12 it does not already have.
TCU would seem a prefect fit, but it will not happen.
First, Baylor, Texas A&M, and Texas Tech would all strongly object. They have already fallen way behind TCU and would only be hurt more by having to lose to Frogs every year.
Second, a divisional realignment would need to take place. While this could be solved by having Tech or Oklahoma State move to the Big 12 North (where either team would have a much easier time winning), it still would not be a simple matter.
Third, the Big 12 already owns the Dallas-Fort Worth media market. While some have argued that this is changing, the Big 12 still believes it does not need a team in the region in order to dominate one of the largest media markets in the country.
Fourth, adding a fifth Texas school would really hurt the Big 12 North schools with their Texas recruiting.
Now, Utah could also be a target, but the Utes are looking most likely looking west for their move. Plus, the Utes lack the large number of travelling fans.
So, if BYU went to the Big 12, the MWC would immediately invite Boise State into the conference.
The WAC would further decline in relevancy but could do nothing about it.
So, again, the first wave would be over with no impact on schools in the south or east.
The Second Wave
With the Big Ten expanding to 12 teams, the pressure will increase on the Big East and Pac-10 to also go to 12 teams.
First would be the direct pressure. Already Big East schools have the easiest path to a BCS game, needing only to play seven conference games to get there.
Of the eight Big East schools, only Pitt, Syracuse, and West Virginia have anything that resembles even a decent football tradition, with the other five schools looking largely like jumped up CUSA schools (oh, but most of them are...).
There are already rumors of pressure being applied to the Big East to expand to 12 football teams and such will increase.
Likewise, rumors of a Pac-12 in 2011 have been going around already. With the Big Ten going to 12, the Pac-10 would most likely follow suit as well, finally get around to its long discussed expansion.
The most likely targets are Colorado and Utah, for reasons that have been discussed elsewhere.
Poaching a MWC and Big 12 team would again cause immediate changes to the football world, as both conferences would again scramble to maintain status.
Realigned Football World
So with three BCS automatic qualifying (AQ) conferences expanding in 2011, the results will reshape the college football world.
The MWC and CUSA would be the most directly impacted, as both conferences would be gutted of some of their top schools.
The ripple effects could completely devastate the conferences, along with the Sun Belt, MAC, and WAC.
A 12-team Big East would most likely invite schools like Central Florida, East Carolina, Marshall, and Memphis from Conference USA and Temple or Buffalo from the MAC as mentioned above.
As such, Conference USA would lose most of its Eastern Division.
But that would not be the only impact on CUSA, as the MWC would attempt to rebuild the conference in order to continue at its near BCS status.
And if they wanted to maintain that status, it is likely that they would need to also go to 12 teams, which might be particularly hard after losing three programs.
A large-scale MWC expansion would hurt both the WAC and CUSA's West Division. Both conferences would likely drop down to further irrelevancy after these raids.
Possible conference realignments:
Big East
Memphis, Central Florida, Marshall, and Temple
North division: UConn, Pitt, Rutgers, Syracuse, Temple, and Marshall
South division: Central Florida, Cincy, Louisville, Memphis, South Florida, and West Virginia
Big Ten
Missouri
River division: Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, Ohio State, Penn State, and Purdue
Lakes division: Iowa, Michigan, Michigan State, Minnesota, Northwestern, and Wisconsin
Big 12
BYU and Colorado State (both going to the Big 12 North)
Big 12 North: BYU, Colorado State, Iowa State, Kansas, Kansas State, and Nebraska
Big 12 South: Baylor, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Texas, Texas A&M, and Texas Tech
MWC
Add Boise, Fresno, Houston, Nevada, SMU, and Tulsa
West: Boise State, Fresno State, Nevada, New Mexico, San Diego State, and UNLV
East: Air Force, Houston, SMU, TCU, Tulsa, and Wyoming
Pac-12
Colorado and Utah
South division: Arizona, Arizona State, Cal, Stanford, UCLA, and USC
North division: Colorado, Oregon, Oregon State, Utah, Washington, and Washington State
Fallout on Non-AQ Conferences
With these expansions, conferences such as the WAC and CUSA will be especially hit hard.
A 12-team Big East will essentially be WV, Pitt, and a bunch of former CUSA teams.
The rebuilt MWC 12 will grab from both CUSA and the WAC.
The remaining teams of the WAC (Hawaii, San Jose State, New Mexico State, Idaho, Utah State, Louisiana Tech) would be hard pressed to stay together, as Louisiana Tech and New Mexico State would likely go with the remaining CUSA schools (Tulane, Southern Miss, East Carolina, UTEP, UAB, and Rice).
CUSA would then add a few schools from the Sun Belt (Arkansas State, Louisiana Lafayette, Louisiana-Monroe, Middle Tennessee State, North Texas, and Troy are all possible invites) to rebuild the 10- or 12-team CUSA.
As such, the four remaining WAC schools would either need to go independent or consider dropping down to FCS level.
The Sun Belt could restock with some of the schools looking to move to FBS status in Texas, such as UT-San Antonio and Texas State.
Will the MWC Survive?
For the MWC and TCU, it will be challenge to maintain its bid for BCS automatic qualifying status.
But it would be, in essence, the only realistic source for a non-AQ BCS at-large bid, even if it did not become the seventh BCS AQ conference.
Some might even argue that the MWC could be the conference to lose out in the case of these conference realignments.
Given that the MWC appears to be ready to invite Boise State this offseason to begin play in 2011, the WAC will already have lost its best team well before some of these other realignments occur.
Even if BYU, Colorado State, and Utah leave the MWC, a conference with both TCU and Boise State will be a real contender. Add in Houston and Fresno, and the conference may come out okay in the end.
TCU, unfortunately, will be a victim of circumstances beyond its control again. After being left behind by the demise of the SWC and the Big East raid of CUSA, TCU finally has a home. It would be unfortunate if the Frogs were left behind again.
Sure, TCU might find a spot in the Big 12 instead of Colorado State or BYU.
However, the Rams looks like the necessary team for the Colorado market, one of the top markets for the Big 12 currently, and one that will assume increased importance if Missouri goes to the Big Ten.
BYU has a much bigger following and a much bigger name than TCU, besides bringing in a new market for the Big 12.
Conclusion
Any Big Ten expansion will have serious, long-term consequences for the world of college football. We will see a lot of realignment and maybe the end of certain conferences.
A move to 12 teams by the Big Ten, Big East, and Pac-10 would mean seven more schools would receive BCS status.
If a 12-team Mountain West Conference received the coveted seventh spot among BCS conferences as well, then 19 schools currently on the outside would receive the BCS gold star of quality.
At 85 BCS conference teams, it is likely that the spot for non-AQ schools will disappear.
With 85 teams, there should also be a serious move at dividing the FBS in two as well, just the 1978 division that created I-AA (now known as FCS).
The tidal wave of Big Ten expansion will completely reshape the college football world.
Friday, February 27, 2009
The US v. Barry Bonds
The US v. Barry Bonds
By Dave Zirin
This is a story about garbage. There's the actual garbage overzealous federal investigators examined in their efforts to prosecute a surly sports celebrity. There's the shredding of the Bill of Rights, crudely ignored by the government in the name of obsession and ambition. Finally, there's the thorough trashing of people's reputations, not to mention the game of baseball. Welcome to The US v. Barry Bonds ; please disregard the stench.
The trial to prove that slugger Barry Bonds perjured himself in the Bay Area Laboratory Co-operative (BALCO) steroid investigation begins March 2. Yet after seven years of investigation, millions of dollars in work hours and countless ruined reputations, the US Attorney's Office will arrive in court with virtually no leg to stand on. Judge Susan Illston struck down most of the prosecution's case, a move ESPN legal expert Lester Munson called a "devastating" setback for prosecutors. The ruling was an indictment of not only the government's case but its entire approach toward Bonds from day one.
John Ashcroft's Justice Department always seemed irrationally determined to prosecute Bonds. It was as obsessive as the fisherman Santiago attempting to bring home the great marlin in Hemingway's The Old Man and the Sea . The embodiment of this obsession was IRS agent Jeff Novitzky. He broke open the BALCO case after spending a great deal of time, to the adulation of the press, literally sifting through the company's garbage and sewage.
Novitzky was given the green light by President Bush and Ashcroft to go for the jugular. In 2004, accompanied by eleven agents, he marched into Comprehensive Drug Testing, the nation's largest sports-drug testing company. Armed with a warrant to see the confidential drug tests of ten baseball players, he walked out with 4,000 supposedly sealed medical files, including every baseball player in the major leagues. As Jon Pessah wrote in ESPN magazine, "Three federal judges reviewed the raid. One asked, incredulously, if the Fourth Amendment had been repealed. Another, Susan Illston, who has presided over the BALCO trials, called Novitzky's actions a 'callous disregard' for constitutional rights. All three instructed him to return the records. Instead, Novitzky kept the evidence...."
It was a frightening abuse of power, all aimed at imprisoning a prominent African-American athlete. Yet despite the landfills of trash, the government's case always rested on a flimsy premise. Bonds's contention under oath was that anything illegal he may have ingested was without prior knowledge. The only person who could contradict Bonds was his trainer and longtime friend Greg Anderson. The government pressed Anderson to give testimony. He refused, citing a promise made by the feds that he wouldn't have to testify after pleading guilty to steroid distribution and money laundering in 2005. The feds stuck him in jail for thirteen months to soften him up, but he didn't crack.
Anderson has remained firm even though in January, twenty FBI and IRS agents raided the home of his mother-in-law and threatened to punish her for tax evasion if Anderson didn't spill. Similar threats have been made against his wife. Mark Geragos, Anderson's attorney, told Yahoo Sports, "It's such a blatant and transparent attempt to intimidate Greg. They're acting like the Gestapo. Even the mafia spares the women and children." Without Anderson, the state's case was always weak. But now itis on serious life support. Illston ruled most of Novitzky and the government's case inadmissible, for good reason.
The prosecution wanted to submit a surreptitiously recorded statement from Anderson as well as notations on what it calls his "drug calendar," even though he would not testify to authenticate any of the evidence. Illston, to her credit, said no dice and declared those items inadmissible. The government has raised the specter of jailing Anderson again, but Illston remarked in a "raised voice" that jailing someone twice for refusing to testify would be beyond the pale.
The government is hinting that it will appeal Illston's ruling, but that would indefinitely delay the trial. If the US Attorney's Office does continue the case, it has made clear its next line of offense: it will have Bonds's former mistress, Kimberly Bell, testify in detail about the alleged "shriveling" of Bonds's testicles. Jeff Novitzky should be proud.
It's way past time to say enough is enough.
Whether or not you are a Barry Bonds fan, or consider him to be just a step above a seal-clubbing, pit bull-fighting bank executive, every person of good conscience should be aghast at the way the Justice Department has gone about its business. Barry Bonds, Greg Anderson and maybe thousands of others have had their rights trampled on, all for the glory of a perjury case that looks to be going absolutely nowhere. Attorney General Eric Holder and President Obama have strongly indicated that the government is getting out of the steroid monitoring business. That is welcome, but after so many years, so many tax dollars and so many reputations destroyed, it all feels positively Pyrrhic.
At the end of The Old Man and the Sea, when Santiago finally returns to shore, his 18-foot catch has been reduced to a skeleton. A crowd gathers to gawk and imagine what the magnificent marlin once was. Santiago completed his journey with nothing, but he felt purified for the battle and slept deeply and proudly. As we pick through the bones of Barry Bonds, I can't imagine Jeff Novitzky feels the same.
Dave Zirin is the author of “A People’s History of Sports in the United States” (The New Press) Receive his column every week by emailing dave@edgeofsports.com. Contact him at edgeofsports@gmail.com .
By Dave Zirin
This is a story about garbage. There's the actual garbage overzealous federal investigators examined in their efforts to prosecute a surly sports celebrity. There's the shredding of the Bill of Rights, crudely ignored by the government in the name of obsession and ambition. Finally, there's the thorough trashing of people's reputations, not to mention the game of baseball. Welcome to The US v. Barry Bonds ; please disregard the stench.
The trial to prove that slugger Barry Bonds perjured himself in the Bay Area Laboratory Co-operative (BALCO) steroid investigation begins March 2. Yet after seven years of investigation, millions of dollars in work hours and countless ruined reputations, the US Attorney's Office will arrive in court with virtually no leg to stand on. Judge Susan Illston struck down most of the prosecution's case, a move ESPN legal expert Lester Munson called a "devastating" setback for prosecutors. The ruling was an indictment of not only the government's case but its entire approach toward Bonds from day one.
John Ashcroft's Justice Department always seemed irrationally determined to prosecute Bonds. It was as obsessive as the fisherman Santiago attempting to bring home the great marlin in Hemingway's The Old Man and the Sea . The embodiment of this obsession was IRS agent Jeff Novitzky. He broke open the BALCO case after spending a great deal of time, to the adulation of the press, literally sifting through the company's garbage and sewage.
Novitzky was given the green light by President Bush and Ashcroft to go for the jugular. In 2004, accompanied by eleven agents, he marched into Comprehensive Drug Testing, the nation's largest sports-drug testing company. Armed with a warrant to see the confidential drug tests of ten baseball players, he walked out with 4,000 supposedly sealed medical files, including every baseball player in the major leagues. As Jon Pessah wrote in ESPN magazine, "Three federal judges reviewed the raid. One asked, incredulously, if the Fourth Amendment had been repealed. Another, Susan Illston, who has presided over the BALCO trials, called Novitzky's actions a 'callous disregard' for constitutional rights. All three instructed him to return the records. Instead, Novitzky kept the evidence...."
It was a frightening abuse of power, all aimed at imprisoning a prominent African-American athlete. Yet despite the landfills of trash, the government's case always rested on a flimsy premise. Bonds's contention under oath was that anything illegal he may have ingested was without prior knowledge. The only person who could contradict Bonds was his trainer and longtime friend Greg Anderson. The government pressed Anderson to give testimony. He refused, citing a promise made by the feds that he wouldn't have to testify after pleading guilty to steroid distribution and money laundering in 2005. The feds stuck him in jail for thirteen months to soften him up, but he didn't crack.
Anderson has remained firm even though in January, twenty FBI and IRS agents raided the home of his mother-in-law and threatened to punish her for tax evasion if Anderson didn't spill. Similar threats have been made against his wife. Mark Geragos, Anderson's attorney, told Yahoo Sports, "It's such a blatant and transparent attempt to intimidate Greg. They're acting like the Gestapo. Even the mafia spares the women and children." Without Anderson, the state's case was always weak. But now itis on serious life support. Illston ruled most of Novitzky and the government's case inadmissible, for good reason.
The prosecution wanted to submit a surreptitiously recorded statement from Anderson as well as notations on what it calls his "drug calendar," even though he would not testify to authenticate any of the evidence. Illston, to her credit, said no dice and declared those items inadmissible. The government has raised the specter of jailing Anderson again, but Illston remarked in a "raised voice" that jailing someone twice for refusing to testify would be beyond the pale.
The government is hinting that it will appeal Illston's ruling, but that would indefinitely delay the trial. If the US Attorney's Office does continue the case, it has made clear its next line of offense: it will have Bonds's former mistress, Kimberly Bell, testify in detail about the alleged "shriveling" of Bonds's testicles. Jeff Novitzky should be proud.
It's way past time to say enough is enough.
Whether or not you are a Barry Bonds fan, or consider him to be just a step above a seal-clubbing, pit bull-fighting bank executive, every person of good conscience should be aghast at the way the Justice Department has gone about its business. Barry Bonds, Greg Anderson and maybe thousands of others have had their rights trampled on, all for the glory of a perjury case that looks to be going absolutely nowhere. Attorney General Eric Holder and President Obama have strongly indicated that the government is getting out of the steroid monitoring business. That is welcome, but after so many years, so many tax dollars and so many reputations destroyed, it all feels positively Pyrrhic.
At the end of The Old Man and the Sea, when Santiago finally returns to shore, his 18-foot catch has been reduced to a skeleton. A crowd gathers to gawk and imagine what the magnificent marlin once was. Santiago completed his journey with nothing, but he felt purified for the battle and slept deeply and proudly. As we pick through the bones of Barry Bonds, I can't imagine Jeff Novitzky feels the same.
Dave Zirin is the author of “A People’s History of Sports in the United States” (The New Press) Receive his column every week by emailing dave@edgeofsports.com. Contact him at edgeofsports@gmail.com .
Sunday, January 25, 2009
Jeff Monson charged with mischief
http://sports.yahoo.com/mma/blog/mma_experts/post/Jeff-Monson-charged-with-mischief-ESPN-not-an-a?urn=mma,134737Thu Jan 15, 2009
Jeff Monson charged with mischief; ESPN not an accomplice
By Maggie Hendricks
Jeff Monson is either really dumb or really smart. I'm leaning towards the latter.
The fighter, who last appeared in the Mixed Fighting Alliance, winning over Ricco Rodriguez in December, has a warrant against him for defacing the Capitol building in Olympia, Wash. This warrant was issued after pictures of him painting an anarchist symbol on the building appeared in ESPN the Magazine.
See, Monson is an outspoken anarchist. He has said many times that he wants to do away with the social hierarchies that govern our world. The best way for Monson to share these theories is through the mass media, so publicity is his friend.
Is Monson so dumb that he would expect ESPN to not use photographs of him committing a crime? Of course not. This is a man with a Master's degree in psychology. He understands the ramifications of civil disobedience. If he didn't want attention brought to his cause, he would have asked ESPN to photograph him sitting at home, enjoying dinner.
Monson was charged with first-degree malicious mischief, a crime that carries a maximum penalty of a $20,000 fine and 10 years in prison. ESPN did not do him a favor by running that picture, but it's not their job to protect athletes. It's their job to cover them, a fact which Monson has used to make sure that everyone is discussing his cause today.
Thursday, December 18, 2008
Arena Football League cancels 2009 season
http://www.sportingnews.com/yourturn/viewtopic.php?t=497237
Arena Football League cancels 2009 season
December 15, 2008
Sporting News staff reports
The Arena Football League will suspend the 2009 season as it tries to improve its long-term economic model, the league's board of directors announced Monday.
"Every owner in the AFL is strongly committed to the league, the game, and, most importantly, the fans," said acting commissioner Ed Policy. "Owners, however, recognize that, especially in light of the current unprecedented economic climate, the AFL, as a business enterprise, needs to be restructured if it is to continue to provide its unique brand of this affordable, fan-friendly sport."
A source told the Cleveland Plain Dealer that the "deal-breaker was ESPN saying it would not televise a six-, seven- or eight-team league." The league, which has been operating since 1987, had 16 teams in the 2008 season. The owners of several teams said they wanted to leave the league unless its financial model was changed.
"We, the owners of the Arena Football League, realize we have the most fan-friendly, affordable and accessible sport anywhere," said Jon Bon Jovi, co-owner of the ArenaBowl champion Philadelphia Soul. "These are trying economic times. The revamping will ensure that the AFL continues to provide value to its fans and not only survives but thrives in the years to come."
Two players told the Plain Dealer that they doubted the league would come back if the 2009 season was scuttled, but owners strongly disagreed.
John Elway, co-owner of the Colorado Crush, said, "Although it is disappointing to suspend the 2009 season, the Arena Football League and its owners feel it is essential to reevaluate the current business model to ensure the livelihood of the AFL in the future."
The arenafootball2 league, the official development league of the Arena Football League, will play in 2009. The af2 operates entirely on its own and is not directly affected by the AFL's current situation.
Arena Football League cancels 2009 season
December 15, 2008
Sporting News staff reports
The Arena Football League will suspend the 2009 season as it tries to improve its long-term economic model, the league's board of directors announced Monday.
"Every owner in the AFL is strongly committed to the league, the game, and, most importantly, the fans," said acting commissioner Ed Policy. "Owners, however, recognize that, especially in light of the current unprecedented economic climate, the AFL, as a business enterprise, needs to be restructured if it is to continue to provide its unique brand of this affordable, fan-friendly sport."
A source told the Cleveland Plain Dealer that the "deal-breaker was ESPN saying it would not televise a six-, seven- or eight-team league." The league, which has been operating since 1987, had 16 teams in the 2008 season. The owners of several teams said they wanted to leave the league unless its financial model was changed.
"We, the owners of the Arena Football League, realize we have the most fan-friendly, affordable and accessible sport anywhere," said Jon Bon Jovi, co-owner of the ArenaBowl champion Philadelphia Soul. "These are trying economic times. The revamping will ensure that the AFL continues to provide value to its fans and not only survives but thrives in the years to come."
Two players told the Plain Dealer that they doubted the league would come back if the 2009 season was scuttled, but owners strongly disagreed.
John Elway, co-owner of the Colorado Crush, said, "Although it is disappointing to suspend the 2009 season, the Arena Football League and its owners feel it is essential to reevaluate the current business model to ensure the livelihood of the AFL in the future."
The arenafootball2 league, the official development league of the Arena Football League, will play in 2009. The af2 operates entirely on its own and is not directly affected by the AFL's current situation.
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