Sup Bro 50 Edition!

All Hail Eddie D!

Eddie DeBartolo, Jr. is known as one of the greatest owners ever. Under his supervision, the San Francisco 49ers quickly went from a perennial also-ran to the greatest franchise in the NFL, quickly. Eddie D’s teams won five Super Bowls in 22 seasons, from 1977 to 1998. DeBartolo had to give up the team in 1998, suspended for one year after pleading guilty to a felony. DeBartolo’s crime? Failing to report that he had been extorted, which is just the most unfair crime I can think of. 49ers fans might tell you that Eddie’s real crime was electing not to return to the team after his suspension, ceding control of the team to his sister, Denise, her husband, John, and eventually their son, Jed. *shudder*

But what many probably don’t know is that DeBartolo treated his employees, not just the players, like family. And this isn’t lip service. This is jumping on a cross-country flight at a moment’s notice to say goodbye to a former player, dying in a hospital room. This is jumping on another plane, in the middle of the night, and again flying cross-country – this time to personally tell a longtime employee and friend that her son, a San Jose Police Department officer, had been shot and killed in the line of duty. This is caring for a former player who had cancer. And I’m not talking paying the guy’s medical bills. Oh, Eddie did that. But Eddie actually drove 40 minutes to take the guy to his chemotherapy appointments, waiting with him, and then driving him home. This is paying a former player, who was injured and partially paralyzed during a game in 1989, a lifetime contract. The team still pays the player $100,000 per year.

I could go on, and the article does. A lot of people donate lots of money to just causes. And that is necessary and great. But there is something special reading about how Eddie DeBartolo, Jr. truly cared about people – his employees really were treated like family. I certainly did not know this side of DeBartolo. I’m glad I now do. -TOB

Source: “Former 49ers Owner Eddie DeBartolo Has His Own Fall of Fame”, Daniel Brown, San Jose Mercury-News (01/29/2016)

PAL: I knew DeBartolo was adored here, and now I have a better idea of why that is. I also didn’t know that he voluntarily gave up control of the 49ers after serving that suspension. Great article.

Is Hosting the Super Bowl Good for SF?

You know what’s great about getting older? You realize what a waste of time it is to be a cynic. At some point, you just stop caring about what’s cool, and not in an ironic way. When someone asks if you mind meeting up in the Marina you respond, “Man, I just want to have a beer and hang out.”

I want you in that frame of mind as we step out onto the thin ice that is Super Bowl 50. Is it a shitshow in our city while happening 45-miles from San Francisco, or is it just the next thing we love to crap on? Is a temporary inconvenience acceptable for an opportunity to highlight this beautiful city, or is the fact that San Francisco ultimately a wonderful place already accepted the world over and needs no further showcase? Berkeley resident and SI writer Chris Ballard puts forth a pretty measured argument here. Ultimately, I don’t really care, but I don’t mind either. It’s the response that ought to terrify 49ers once Super Bowl City circus leaves town. Moving them to Santa Clara just might elicit the same response from the locals in a few short years. -PAL

Source: “It’s one big SB50 party in Bay Area, but many residents want no part of it”, Chris Ballard, SI.com (2/4/16)

TOB: This article touches on a lot of feelings that I have about Super Bowl week. The first is resentment over the 49ers move to Santa Clara. If the 49ers want to play there, then good riddance. But don’t come groveling back to San Francisco now that you need us.

The second is the wasted tax dollars. The SF politicians who ok’d this – at least $5M in unreimbursed expenditures, not to mention all the lost productivity downtown due to road closures, etc., really get me going, too. As I noted, those expenses are not going to be reimbursed by the NFL (unlike those for Santa Clara, which will be). I read earlier in the week that a county supervisor said that promising not to seek reimbursements from the NFL was part of the bid – that the Bay Area would have lost the bid if San Francisco didn’t promise this.

First, so what? Second, it shows complete ignorance of the NFL’s Super Bowl bidding system. The NFL has made a habit of awarding the game to cities that build new stadiums (recently: Indianapolis and New Jersey). Santa Clara was getting its game. So why did San Francisco care so much if Santa Clara got the bid?

Today I read an article in the New York Times wherein the President of the SF Chamber of Commerce said the city would easily make back the money it put in, and then adds that there is further benefit because the Super Bowl is a “worldwide event that will sell San Francisco.” Dude. It’s SAN FRANCISCO. It doesn’t need to be sold. This is not Jacksonville (offense intended). We don’t need the exposure. Frankly, while the hotels may be slightly more full, San Francisco is popular enough that this isn’t a huge boon to tourism. There are always tourists here. Besides, if they held all the events in Santa Clara, most people would still have stayed in San Francisco. So, we gain very little and give up a lot. Seems like a bad deal. Also, Phil and I went to Super Bowl City on Saturday. It was so awful, crowded, boring and dumb and there was nothing to do but stand in long lines for corporate branded events, that we quickly left to drink some beers and play some pool at a nearby dive bar. We had a great time, and I was reminded why I love San Francisco.

If You Didn’t Win Powerball, At Least You’re Not John Elway

Like many people, my family’s (relatively meager) investments took a hit in the early part of 2016. Reading this story made me feel a little better. In 1999, just before his retirement from the NFL, John Elway was offered by team owner Pat Bowlen a 10% stake in the Denver Broncos for just $15M. He was offered a further stake of 10% more in exchange for giving up $21M in deferred compensation. He was also offered right of first refusal if the Bowler Family ever decided to sell its stakes in the team. Elway declined. It wasn’t because he didn’t have the money – Elway had recently sold his auto dealership empire for $82M. Elway instead invested $15M in a Ponzi scheme. Elway lost almost half that investment, the first in a series of failed investments that Elway made in the late-90s and early 00s.

Cry for Elway: “the 20 percent stake he passed on, based on a Forbes 2015 valuation of the team at $1.94 billion, is now worth $388 million, which would have been a 646 percent return on the 1998 investment, adjusted for inflation, had he made it.” Today, Elway is a team executive with no ownership stake. Whoops. Like I said – now I don’t feel so bad. -TOB

Source: “How John Elway Missed Out on a Fortune”, Darren Rovell, ESPN.com (02/03/2016)

PAL: I spoke to Elway on the phone tonight and asked him to comment. His response: “Why you gotta do that, man? You don’t think it’s the first thing to cross my mind in the morning and the last thing I think about at night before I fall asleep? You really think I worry about Peyton Manning? Nah, bro. But, you know…One love, brother. I mean, I’ve accepted it, you know? Seriously, I have. I HAVE, OK.

TOB: Interestingly, I HAVE talked to John Elway on the phone. I was 16. He was in Tahoe for the annual celebrity golf tournament. A friend worked at Caesar’s and told us that he was one of the few celebrities that did not use a pseudonym. So, a friend and I simply called the hotel and asked for John Elway. I was transferred to his room and he actually answered. We chatted a few minutes. I told him he is awesome, he said “thanks” and “dude” a lot. And that was that.

Send It In…Cristiano?

In a week dominated by the Super Bowl, a simple article about the other football had me texting TOB:

PAL: Link:

TOB: Haha. That’s an 8 foot hoop for sure

PAL: Watch the video: 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qQvpYFbUuIo

TOB: Yeah he does have some serious hops

TOB: But that’s still an 8 foot hoop

PAL: But can he dunk?

PAL: I say yes

PAL: Definitely a soccer ball

TOB: Yeah, I think so. If those photos aren’t doctored.

Who are we talking about? Cristiano Ronaldo. Deadspin ran a very simple story: Can Ronaldo dunk? This was based off of a photo that – I agree with TOB – seems to pretty clearly show Ronaldo dunking on a kids hoop that looks as if it were purchased from the sporting goods aisle at Target.

However, further footage* shows how much of an athletic freak this dude is. This is by no means a great story, but definitely a captivating half-assed investigation. I’ve concluded there is no friggin’ doubt Cristiano Ronaldo can flush it on a 10-foot hoop. -PAL

Source: “Can Cristiano Ronaldo Dunk?”, Greg Howard, Deadspin (2/3/16)

*Yes, TOB, Esq. – assuming these are not doctored photos. I choose to be an optimist. I choose to believe.

TOB: Upon further consideration, he’s 6’1, which isn’t tall but isn’t short. But he’s an unbelievable world-class athlete. The photos are not doctored. Of course he can dunk. He still sucks.  #Messi4Life.

Breaking: NFL Continues to Be the Worst

Quick background: For many years, even once sports became regularly televised, the leagues and the networks lacked the foresight to retain the footage. You may remember our story about how the only footage of Game 7 of the 1960 World Series was discovered in Bing Crosby’s wine cellar after his death. Well, somehow, both the NFL and CBS failed to retain a copy of Super Bowl I, played in 1967 between the Green Bay Packers and Kansas City Chiefs. The game was believed to be lost to the ether, Green Bay’s dominance only visualized in an ever-dwindling number of memories.

Or using images like this, from halftime of that game. Times sure have changed.

Until 2005. That year, a childhood friend of a then-36 year old man by the name of Troy Haupt read a story about how the NFL did not have a recording of the first Super Bowl, and remembered an old box in Troy’s mom’s attic that said “Super Bowl I”. Troy and his mom found the tapes and had them restored. Haupt, through a lawyer, has been trying to sell the tapes to the NFL for $1,000,000. Some might find this greedy – but consider what it’s likely worth to the NFL in advertising once they decide to air it alone. Really, he might be offering them a bargain. But the NFL, of course, sees things otherwise. They believe that, because they own the content, that Haupt cannot sell it to anyone but them, or be faced with a lawsuit. The NFL originally offered Haupt just $30,000, and now claim they are not interested in the tapes at all. The NFL recently even stepped in and killed a deal between Haupt and CBS.

For his part, Haupt says he wants to sell the tapes jointly with the NFL and donate some of the proceeds to charity. The NFL has no interest. As things stand, the tapes remain in Haupt’s possession, awaiting someone to knock some sense into Roger Goodell.

Source: “Out of a Rare Super Bowl I Recording, A Clash with the N.F.L. Unspools”, Richard Sandomir, The New York Times (02/02/2016)

Video of the Week

Damn, Whitney. R.I.P.

PAL Song of the Week: Lord Huron – “Meet Me in the Woods”

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Dog Enters Half-Marathon; Finishes 7th, Proves Owner Wrong

In Alabama earlier this month, a dog escaped from its home and ran over to the starting area of a half-marathon about to begin. When the racers started, so did Ludivine, a 2 ½ year old hound dog. That cute doggie up there is Ludivine. Undoubtedly trying to prove wrong his owner, who called Ludivine “actually really lazy”, Ludivine ran the whole damn race!

Ludivine was able to overcome distractions like dead rabbits on the side of the road, and the need to romp through streams and sniff yards the course passed by during his race. Ludivine finished in 1:32:56, good for 7th place. Good boy, Ludivine. Good doggie. -TOB

Source; “Hound Bandits Half Marathon in Alabama”, Megan Hetzel, Runners World (01/22/2016)

Ciara Deserves Better

Russell Wilson and Ciara (a very hot pop star) are a couple. Russell Wilson thinks he’s a brand – a squeaky clean, god-lovin’, no-humpin’-till-we’re-married, cliche-spewin’, Super-Bowl-winning brand. In fact, no one really likes him. You know what else he is? Lazy with the compliments for his lady. I can deal with the cliches, Russ. As a romantic, I’m offended you googled “how to compliment women”, copied and pasted, posted it on twitter, and no doubt thought, “I’m such a good boyfriend.” Incorrect, fraud! – PAL

Source: “Russell Wilson Googled “How To Describe A Beautiful Woman To Find Something Nice To Say About Ciara”, Barry Petchesky, Deadspin (1/28/16)

TOB: As Phil notes, Russell Wilson sucks. He’s so disingenuous that it raises an interesting question for me: Wilson famously spends many hours each week at Children’s Hospital of Seattle, cheering up kids who are enduring untold suffering. That is without question a great thing to do. But the fact that Russell Wilson is so public about it, and with everything else we know about him – he’s a #Brandbot – it makes me fairly confident in positing that Wilson only goes to the Children’s Hospital so that he can pat himself on the back, and have others pat him on the back, for doing so. In a way, is Wilson expending only his time and then using sick children to further his #Brand? Ugh.

I Was Born For The Theatre!

If All-Star games are truly about the spectacle, which they are, then someone had a very great idea. The McDonald’s All-American dunk and 3-Point competitions, featuring the best high school basketball players in the US and Canada, will be held at a theater!

How cool is this? Very cool. Makes you think of other options for dunk competitions. Have it on an aircraft carrier, have it on on Alcatraz…have it in Rockefeller Center. Time to think even more out of the box for these exhibitions, especially ones as stale as the dunk competition. – PAL

Source: “The McDonald’s All-American dunk contest will be in a real theatre with balconies and stuff”, Rickey O’Donnell, SB Nation (01/28/2016)

TOB: Great find, Phil. That will be appointment television.

Young, Dumb, and In Love

Manny. Manny, Manny, Manny. Manny. You are 23 years old. You’re an amazing baseball player. You’re rich. (Though the five-million dollars you will make this year is pittance compared to most players of your ability, it’s still a lot of money). And I get it – your wife is very good looking. But…man, a HUGE tattoo of her face on your arm?

Manny, Manny, Manny. I don’t want to suggest you WILL regret this one day – but if you ever do, you are going to wonder what in world you were thinking. You can’t cover that up, man! I wish you the best, though. -TOB

Source: “Orioles Star Manny Machado Gets Wife’s Face Tattooed On His Arm”, Jonas Shaffer, Baltimore Sun (01/28/2016)

Video of the Week

PAL Song of the Week:

Nina Simone – The War On Drugs – “Red Eyes”

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Portrait of the Quarterback as a Whining Baby

This story of former Washington State Quarterback Connor Halliday should be required reading for all football players entering college. Halliday was a prolific college QB, as many QBs have been in Mike Leach’s offensive system. But Halliday was hurt late in 2014, his senior year, and went undrafted. There’s a lot to unpack here, because frankly, Halliday comes off as a spoiled brat.

He will not miss 2015. During last spring’s NFL draft, Halliday, who was recovering from a major injury, did not hear his name called. Then, after the Washington Redskins signed him to a free agent deal, he ditched rookie camp. Vanished. Played golf “until the money ran out.” Got married. Was signed by a Canadian Football League team and then cut a day later. Got dumped by his wife.

“I had a second interview with an advertising agency the other day,” the handsome, auburn-haired Halliday says. “The interviewer made a big deal about being a leader in the classroom. I told him that my major was leading an offense. That every decision I made in college was designed to get me to the NFL.”

Halliday looks out the window and contemplates why he walked out on the Redskins. “I was so down, and I felt so little,” he says. “I felt so helpless. I have battled through so much, and I have never gotten a reward for this.”

To recap: Halliday spends his entire 5-years in college worried about the NFL, not his education. Then, when he gets hurt, he still gets a shot at the NFL. Instead, he quits, runs home to play golf, and then whines that he has “never gotten rewarded.” Wow. And the article has so much more to make you dislike this guy. Kids, don’t be like Connor Halliday. -TOB

Source: “Connor Halliday Was a Lock for the NFL – Until He Found All the Doors Locked”, John Walters (01/17/2016)

Hit the Road, Hack-a-Shaq

Over the last couple years, a few teams have become quite brazen in their practice of the so-called “Hack-a-Shaq” – fouling horrendous foul shooters like DeAndre Jordan and Andre Drummond away from the ball to force them to shoot free throws. This works as a form of defense. The Rockets, always at the forefront of strategic analytics, took this practice to the extreme this week – fouling Andre Drummond repeatedly at the start of the third quarter. But it worked – Drummond went 5 for 18 from the free throw line in three minutes before the Pistons finally gave in and removed Drummond, a dominant defensive player, from the game. Just look at this god awful play by play:

As Kevin Draper points out – the NBA deserves this. This problem has been growing the last few years, but the NBA declined to tweak the rules to fix this problem last summer. I was watching ESPN’s studio show on Wednesday night, when this occurred, and Jalen Rose and Chauncey Billups said that there doesn’t need to be a rule change because this is only happening to a few players across the league. Well, millionaires, tell that to the fans to pay their hard-earned money to come watch a game and are treated to eighteen rim-breaking free throws in 3 minutes of play (which probably took closer to 30 minutes in real time). I get the argument that the players should just improve their shooting. But the NBA must remember that its main goal is to entertain. That is not entertaining. Mr. Silver, change the rule. -TOB

Source: “The Rockets Just Took Intentional Fouling to Its Logical Extreme”, Kevin Draper, Deadspin (01/20/2016)

PAL: Philosophically, I don’t want this rule to change. I would like to see this play out. Do players like Drummond (and his team) become neutralized because of one major flaw in his game overshadows the advantages is gives his team? Do the teams applying the Hack method have the wherewithal to actually continue to do this, or would individual opinions on this method cause a rift between coaches, management, and players? I’d like to see this play out, but I don’t want to watch it, and that’s the larger point. If this problem persists, I would like to see a rule change after this season.

NFL Coaches Don’t Need Analytics; Just Grade School Math

Last week, the Packers completed quite possibly the greatest drive in NFL history. The Packers started the drive at their own 14, with 1:50 to go and no timeouts, and needing to go 86 yards for the touchdown. Look at this photo, and marvel at the fact that the Packers ended up scoring a touchdown on this drive:

4th and 20. From their own 4. Every receiver is blanketed. Rodgers is scrambling for his season, in his own endzone. That’s about as low a possibility for conversion as you will see. And yet, Rodgers threw up what amounted to a Hail Mary, and completed it, for 60 yards. The Packers were in business, but there wasn’t much time. With 4 seconds left, Rodgers dropped back again, and completed another Hail Mary (his second of the drive, his third of the season), this time as he was falling to the ground, about to be hit by a defender.

The Packers found themselves down 1 and decided to kick the extra point. In the emotion of the moment, I was pleading with them to go for 2. But is that the right call? Well, FiveThirtyEight’s Benjamin Morris uses some simple math to argue that they absolutely should have gone for two. Even more convincingly, he argues that the Chiefs, after scoring a TD to cut the lead from 14 to 8, should have also gone for 2, which coaches have almost never done. Interesting stuff. -TOB

Source: “NFL Coaches Are Getting Away With Crimes Against Middle-School Math“, Benjamin Morris, FiveThirtyEight 01/21/2016)

College Football Team Falls Just Short of Dynasty

And by just short, I mean to say that the team never existed. Here’s an entertaining read about how a guy went from poring over football scores in the sports page to creating an undefeated team with a Chinese-Hawaiian Heisman hopeful.

In the spirit of other great sports hoaxes like Sidd Finch, I bring you the story of The Plainfield Teachers College football team of 1941. – PAL

Source: “The Greatest Hoax in Sports Reporting History (The Times Fell for It, Too)“, Bill Christine, The New York Times (01/15/2016)

TOB: This is great. I really like this passage:

In The Philadelphia Record, Red Smith was still writing about Plainfield in 1956. It was the era of Norman Kwong, a Chinese-Canadian who was a star in the Canadian Football League:

“The China Clipper, as they call him, is reputed to be almost as good as John Chung, the Celestial Comet, whose triple-threat genius put the Plainfield Teachers in the headlines 15 years ago. A minor point of difference between the two: John Chung didn’t exist, and neither did the Plainfield Teachers, except in the imagination of Morris Newburger, who created the college, team and star as a sports page hoax. Chung was the prototype of all the galloping ghosts and flying phantoms that clutter the autumn editions. Kwong is as corporeal as meat loaf.”

Cop Shoots Hoops

This is pretty cool. Some jerk called in a complaint to the Gainesville, FL police about kids playing basketball too loudly. At 5pm. In what looks like a rural area. So an officer responded. Approached the kids…and then shot some hoops with them for a few minutes. He even got them to lower the rim so he could dunk! -TOB

That’s a good cop.

Source: “Cop Responds to Noise Complaint of Kids Playing Basketball by Lowering Rim and Dunking on Them“, Patrick Redford, Deadspin (01/22/2016)

Video of the Week

Student sections take note. The @SheridanStuSect knows how to put on a show. pic.twitter.com/2BW2YH6bv8

— Storied Rivals® (@StoriedRivals) January 20, 2016

This is an excellent free throw distraction.

Bonus Video of the Week

This is why brothers should never compete against each other.

PAL Song of the Week: Willie Nelson – “Buddy”

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Actual caption A-Rod wrote for this pic: “Just another day at ARod Corp – signing baseballs for fans and managing my inbox #OfficeLife“. SMDH.

A Man, A Citibike, and a Dream

This story is kind of amazing. 35-year old Jeffrey Tanenhaus was working an office job he hated. Living in NYC, his one daily joy was riding Citibike – New York’s bike sharing program – to and from work. Tanenhaus loved the concept and the execution. So one day, he quit his job, terminated his lease, got a Citibike, and took off across the country. If you’ve ever used a Citibike (I’ve used the equivalent in SF and D.C.) you understand how amazing this is. Those bikes are like little tanks. They are heavy, not that fast, and they are brutal on hills. On his trip, Tanenhaus made one potential love connection in Tulsa, Oklahoma that he is still in contact with (but he was not using Tinder on his travels. Bro, you gotta get on Tinder. So I hear…) and also was nearly murdered by a crazed-man (not kidding – a man stopped his truck and attacked Tanenhaus, saying that he hates bicyclists. Later that evening the man broke a baseball bat on his roommate’s head and tried to kill his neighbor with a battle axe). It’s not clear yet what Tanenhaus plans to do next. He left NYC in August, and expects to finish his trip next weekend. But at least he’s no longer métro, boulot, dodo, as the French say. Good for him. -TOB

Source: “Everyone Has a Dream. For Jeffrey It Was Riding a Citibike Across America“, Arwa Mahdawi, The Guardian (01/13/2016)

The Flip Side of Kentucky Basketball: Gopher Hockey

We are all familiar with where John Calipari has driven Kentucky basketball. He’s taken advantage of insane NBA rules prohibiting high school players from going directly to the NBA and created a feeder system. Many of the top prospects go to UK with no intention of staying on campus beyond 1+ semesters. Kentucky isn’t the only feeder in college sports. For all of my life, University of Minnesota Hockey was the dream of every kid in Minnesota. A tradition I imagine is similar to that of a storied college football team. They built an NHL stadium – for a college hockey team – and sold the joint out every game. Hell, Herb Brooks – a Bear Bryant figure in hockey – coached there. You want tradition? It wasn’t that long ago that the U of M exclusively recruited Minnesota players while consistently remaining a national powerhouse. Over the past 10 years, the hallowed – and I don’t use that term lightly – program has become a stepping stone. The team is filled with 1st round NHL draft picks. The only problem is the team now sucks. Unlike basketball, two 5-star recruits doesn’t translate to success in hockey. People are pissed, and not just fans. One NHL scout had this to say about players at Minnesota: ‘“If a kid is going to Minnesota,’ says one NHL scout, ‘concerns are openly discussed in our rooms about how it might affect his development.’”

To be fair, the role of college hockey has changed. In this story, Cory Zurowski points out that “A decade ago, roughly 20 percent of NHL rosters consisted of college players. Today, the number is closer to one in three, making the collegiate ranks the fastest-growing path to million-dollar contracts.” That is to say, the Gophers are a mess, but I shouldn’t be surprised. Thanks, Lisa Lang for passing this one along…I still live vicariously through if my niece and nephew if they donned the M sweater. – PAL

Source: “What happened to the University of Minnesota Hockey Program?” Cory Zurowski, City Pages, ℅ Lisa Lang (01/13/2016)

TOB: I have no dog in this Coach vs. Alumni fight. And while some of the excuses make sense (e.g., Minnesota fans are spoiled rotten and need to get used to the fact that there are now 60+ programs competing hard in college hockey, and thus there will be parity; the age difference between the Gopher squads filled with young stars vs. the aged veterans at smaller schools who washed out of semi-pro leagues), Coach Lucia also seems full of it. For example, when defending his offer of scholarships to younger and younger players, some as young as 15, Lucia says this:

“The hard part becomes, at some of these ages, you don’t know when you have to do it,” Lucia says. “Somebody else could come behind the scenes, bring in a kid and offer him and tell him he’s got a week to decide…. All of a sudden he’s gone. He’s off the board. And so that’s sometimes the hard part. Do we have to recruit this kid in 11th grade? Do we have to recruit him in 10th grade? Or do we have to recruit him in ninth grade?”

His excuse is that he’s simply keeping up with the Joneses. But this writer gets something very wrong, and it seems to be coming from Coach Lucia: Minnesota is not “signing” these kids at 15. Players cannot sign until their senior year (and even then, in specific periods of time during the year). Scholarship offers are not binding until that time. But Coach Lucia is acting as though, by being forced to offer young players, he is then tied to them for good. That’s simply not true.

How College Athletes Can Quickly Retake Power

As we’ve chronicled here before, college sports is an absolute mess. This is a great and well-researched op-ed published last weekend, ahead of this past Monday’s college football National Championship Game, by sports agent Donald Yee. Yee argues persuasively that college football players have much more power than they currently wield, and that it would not take much for them to take that power back. Yee argues that a mass protest, such as the players for Clemson and Alabama to refuse to play Monday’s game, would have quickly and convincingly tipped the balance of power in college football back to the players. As someone who does love a little chaos, I would have thoroughly enjoyed this. -TOB

Source: “College Sports Exploits Unpaid Black Athletes. But They Could Force a Change”, Donald Yee, The Washington Post (01/08/2016)

Jimmer: Just Go to Europe, Dude

Jimmer Fredette is just one of those guys: A great college player because of a great, singular talent: He can shoot the rock. But where Jimmer was able to excel in college, he failed in the pros. He was not quick enough, and didn’t have the dribbling ability, to consistently get a clean look at the basket. And he could not defend. At all. So, despite being one of the greatest college scorers of all time, in the NBA, he sucked. Jimmer is back, though. Sorta. He’s now tearing up the D-League, playing for the Westchester Knicks, in front of crowds far smaller than he did at BYU.

Jimmer professes in this article that his goal it to get back to the NBA – to prove he can cut it. But my question is: Why? My other question: Is the stated goal sincere? He kind of seems to be enjoying the heck out of once again being the big man on campus, so to speak. Sometimes in life, we need to accept our fate. Jimmer, you’re never going to make it in the NBA. Go to Europe, shoot twenty-five times a game, and make some good money. Stop riding the bus in Westchester, chasing the impossible. Also, I still can’t believe the Kings took Jimmer over guys like Kawhi Leonard, Klay Thompson, Brandon Knight, Jimmy Butler, Chandler Parsons and Kemba Walker. Holy hell, the Kings suck. -TOB

Source: “Jimmer Fredette is the Steph Curry of the D-League”, David Vertsberger, Vice Sports (01/07/2016)

PAL: In baseball, Jimmer would be what you call a “quadruple A player”. Too good for the minors, not good enough for the majors. And – holy shit – I can’t believe he was taken before that list of dudes in the draft…then looked up who was taken before Steph Curry, including:

• Hasheem Thabeet
• Tyreke Evans
• Ricky Rubio
• Jonny Flynn

Draw Bored

Not so long ago we featured a story about a cool tradition of the Minnesota Vikings (Donut Club). I like stories about weird traditions amongst teams. Thanks to 123 Sports reader, Alex Denny, I had the pleasure to learn a bit more about Hawks’ youthful tradition. The notion of a bunch of millionaires playing Uno on a chartered flight is nothing but great. Al Horford: “…you can only watch so many movies.” – PAL

Source: “For Some Atlanta Hawks, a a Revved-Up Game of Uno Is Diversion No. 1”, Scott Cacciola, The New York Times (01/12/2016)

TOB: This is pretty hilarious. My favorite part is how they pillaged other Uno decks for the Draw-2 and Draw-4 cards, added them to the deck they play with to make their game tougher, and call that “Laying the Heat.” That phrase will now be added to my everyday vernacular.

Video of the Week:

Please don’t let the Browns draft Jared Goff.

PAL Song of the Week: David Bowie – “Changes”

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“Don’t talk! The hot tub is too hot. I flew down here. For the seventh time! I’m not coming down anymore.”

-Zach G.

The Kid: Hall of Famer

Ken Griffey Jr. was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame this week. Few athletes in my lifetime have captured the collective imagination and adoration of the nation’s sports-loving youth like Ken Griffey, Jr. did in the 1990s. It’s not hard to understand why: Griffey was cool as hell.

It was that swing.

It was the defense. Look at this GD catch.

It was the backwards hat at the Home Run Derby (and did I mention that swing?). 

It was the awesome commercials:

Like I said, he was cool as hell. Griffey had perhaps the best first 10 years of any MLB player of all time – as good as Willie Mays. And then…he started to get older. He started to get hurt. There was no late-career surge like many of his contemporaries enjoyed. But he still ended up with 630 home runs, and by all accounts was able to do so naturally. For this, Griffey was rewarded with admission to the Hall of Fame, in his first year on the ballot, with the highest vote percentage of all-time – Griffey appeared on 437 of 440 ballots – 99.3%. Griffey making the Hall of Fame makes me feel old, but also happy. In honor of The Kid, here are the two best Griffey-related articles I read this week. The first is a very personal story by a sportswriter about how Griffey helped the writer, and his family, when they needed it most. The second is a statistical look at Griffey’s amazing career. Enjoy. -TOB

Source: “A Different Kind of Ken Griffey Jr. Story“, C. Trent Rosecrans, Cincinnati.com (01/06/2016); “Griffey In His Prime Was the Second Coming of Willie Mays“, Neil Paine, FiveThirtyEight (01/06/2016)

Why Daily Fantasy Sites Need You to Lose

Jay Caspian Kang, formerly of Grantland, does a great deep dive into Daily Fantasy Sports, from its origins, arising out of the ashes of the now-illegal online poker industry, to its current predicament, facing legal death. Kang outlines the biggest problem with the industry – DFS are completely unfair to small-time players, who serve as virtual ATMs for the sharks. Kang expertly breaks down the key conflict for the DFS sites: The DFS sites are competing for users. To attract users, they must set big jackpots with small entry fees. If you, as a user, can pay $20 to enter a game for $1,000,000 – that sounds great. If a competing DFS site has a similar game for $20 but the jackpot is $2,000,000 – that sounds even better. To be able to pay these jackpots off low entry fees, the DFS sites need users – lots of them. But instead of needing 100,000 users to pay a $2,000,000 jackpot (not to mention prizes for runners-up), the DFS site can accomplish this much easier by not limiting how many entries each player can submit. One player submitting 100 entries gets the DFS company into the black much quicker. So the DFS sites come to rely on these sharks who enter lots of games – so dependent that they have begun changing rules to appease them (as casinos do for whales). Do the sharks want to be able to use third-party software to play hundreds or thousands of entries a night? Sure. Do the whales want to use scripts to allow them to make roster changes to all those hundreds and thousands of entries quickly, just before the deadline to set rosters? Have at it. Because if you don’t let them, they’ll take their money to a competitor who surely will. As Daily Fantasy commentator  Gabe Harber says in the article:

“I believe the major sites are fully aware of these competitive issues, yet they continue to do nothing about them because of the high amount of rake the power users are bringing in for them. As long as they can spend advertising money to bring fresh meat to the table, the power users will eat up the new players extremely fast by using their competitive advantages. No one is saying that better players should not win money off worse players, but it should not be at this rate and it should not be with misleading advertisements that prey on consumer confidence. Everyone does not have an equal chance, and everyone is not playing on the same field.”

There were a few moments back in September, during the deluge of DFS advertising at the start of the NFL season, where I kicked around the idea of trying it out. I’m quite glad I did not. -TOB

Source: “How the Daily Fantasy Sports Industry Turns Fans Into Suckers”, Jay Caspian Kang, New York Times (01/06/2016)

Credit Card Saves Dabo’s Day

Solid feel good story leading into the college football national title game. Clemson Head Coach, Dabo Swinney was a redshirt freshman receiver at Alabama in 1989 (Clemson’s opponent next week). He was late on rent and on tuition, and he was out of options until he went sifting through pizza coupons in the mail. He found a small miracle, with interest of course, that might have changed the course of his life forever. – PAL

Source: “Two Checks, One Path Altered: How A Timely Discover Card Envelope Changed Dabo Swinney’s Life”, Andy Staples, Campus Rush (01/05/2016)

TOB: Dabo Swinney has been on the national scene for nearly a decade now, and his name still makes me laugh. This story finally gave me the motivation to find answers to questions I have: Is Dabo his real name? If so, what the hell? If not, what is his name? And what the hell does Dabo mean? So I checked. Wikipedia shows that his real name is William Christopher Swinney and does give the story behind “Dabo”: “He was nicknamed Dabo as an infant by his parents when his then-18-month-old brother would try to enunciate “that boy” when referring to Swinney.” Da bo! Well, if that’s just not the cutest damn thing ever. Also, watch the man dance.

Dan Haren: Straight Talk

One of the funnier things to read is when former athletes reveal secrets about what went on behind the scenes – something fans never get to see. Recently-retired Dan Haren provided just such an inside view this week, with a series of tweets about what life is sometimes like as an MLB pitcher. The highlights:

Also, solid twitter handle, Danny. -TOB

Source: “Dan Haren Opens Up About Pitching, Bowel Movements, and All Those Dingers“, Samer Kalaf, Deadspin (01/04/2016)

PAL: I didn’t know wine makes it harder to go #2. A lot of great tweets from Haren in here. My favorite: 

https://twitter.com/ithrow88/status/684074173161803776

Story Update: Short-Shorts Trickling…Down.

Back in November, we brought you a story about LeBron James’ transition to shorter shorts than have been worn in the NBA in about 20 years. I wondered how long it would take short-shorts to take hold. Well, it didn’t take long. This week, this photo popped up in my Twitter timeline:

On the left is Ira Lee, a Top-50 ranked high school basketball player for the Class of 2017. And look at those shorts! Those are a few inches above the knee, and that’s with a downward-looking camera angle. The trend has been set. And as I said in November, 1-2-3’s own Phil Lang was ahead of the curve:

.

-TOB

PAL: Let’s be clear – I’m wearing a climbing harness in the picture above, which causes the shorts to ride higher. I’m not walking around in shorts 12 inches above the knee, folks.

Video of the Week:

PAL Song of the Week: Rakim – “It’s Been A Long Time”

Tap for a playlist featuring all of our weekly picks.

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Merry Christmas, everyone!

After the Lights Go Out

If you’ve never read the book Friday Night Lights, Buzz Bissinger’s 1990 book on the Permian High School (Odessa, TX) football team’s 1989 season, you really should. The book, of course, spawned a movie and a television show. But the book is fascinating in the way Bissinger was able to embed himself into the high school football crazed small town of Odessa, TX and chronicle the town, the players and the coaches and how the performance of a high school football team so affects an entire community. If you have read it, you probably remember Brian Chavez. Chavez was one of the stars of the team and the book – an extremely bright, very talented kid who wanted nothing more than to get out of Odessa. Chavez worked hard on the field – he was the first Mexican-American team captain in Permian History – and in the classroom – he earned himself admission from Harvard. Interestingly, the kid who worked so hard to get out of Odessa found himself back there. After graduating cum laude from Harvard and earning a law degree from Texas Tech University, Chavez returned to Odessa to practice law. He led an upstanding life – until one night five years ago when he didn’t. This story chronicles Chavez’ rise, fall, and rehabilitation. If you’re a fan of the book, you will want to read this. But the most interesting passage comes when discussing the high school football worship in Odessa. Chavez makes a point that I had never considered:

No matter what the rest of the world thinks about misplaced priorities or lack of perspective, Chavez, at 45, still believes in the Permian way. It turns out the guy so admired a quarter century ago for not putting all his eggs in football’s basket sees nothing tragic in those who do.

“What made the Permian program, what’s so great about it, is that in Odessa, as a third grader you idolized the Permian middle linebacker or safety or receiver. That’s who you wanted to be,” he says. “And that’s a goal you can actually attain! How great is that? A goal you have in life is actually attainable! All you have to do is you just keep playing with your buddies and your friends and you actually attain your goals! In Odessa, you can do that! But, you grow up somewhere else, wanting to be Troy Aikman? You’re never going to be Troy Aikman.”

You know, it’s not a bad point. -TOB

Source: “How the Hero of Friday Night Lights Won and Lost His Good Name”, David McKenna, Deadspin (12/18/2015)

UPDATE: Tom Brady, Still a Bimbo (Again)

In our weeks of January 26, 2015 and September 7, 2015 digests, we brought you stories of Tom Brady and how those stories made us think Tom is a total bimbo. Well, here’s another. Sorry, I can’t get enough of this stuff. -TOB

Source: “Tom Brady Is a Hilarious Moron”, Drew Magary, Deadspin (12/18/2015)

Bryant Gumbel Making Bryant Gumbel Look Like Wayne Brady on Chappelle’s Show

This wide-ranging interview with Bryant Gumbel is what happens when a really smart guy, with some years on this planet, and a ton of job security, just decides he does not give one crap about speaking his mind. It’s fantastic. Gumbel speaks on the NFL’s lies and hypocrisy, calls Donald Trump a “shithead”, and non-payment of college athletes. It’s well worth your time. -TOB

Source: “Bryant Gumbel: ESPN, CBS Gave ‘Big Wet Kiss’ to NFL”, Robert Silverman, The Daily Beast (12/20/2015)

PAL Song of the Week: Special TOB Edition: All the Beatles songs, ever, which just got released yesterday on Spotify. But especially Day in the Life, Rocky Raccoon, and Yellow Submarine. Enjoy the Holidays, everyone!

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Christmas is awesome. First of all, you get to spend time with people you love. Secondly, you can get drunk and no one can say anything. Third, you give presents. What’s better than giving presents? And fourth, getting presents. So, four things. Not bad for one day. It’s really the greatest day off all time.

The Only F-Word That Matters (Warning, explicit language below)

“You’re a mother——- faggot. … You’re a f—— faggot, Billy.“

By multiple accounts, this is what Sacramento Kings guard Rajon Rondo said to NBA Referee Billy Kennedy. 11 days following his ejection of Rondo, Kennedy came out as gay. What follows is my hunch – again, my gut feeling –  but I would put money on the following:

• I think there’s a good chance the inner circle of the NBA players, coaches, and referees knew of Kennedy’s sexual orientation. There are 64 NBA referees, and they work in groups of 3 on the court. Kennedy’s been a ref for a long 18 years, working alongside many of these folks for quite a long time.
• Reading what Rondo said, I don’t think these were just frustrated vulgarities; these were personal statements directed knowingly at Kennedy.
• There is a connection between this story and Kennedy deciding to come out. Whether or not it was his way of turning this situation into a positive, I don’t know, but I do believe Rondo’s actions influenced Kennedy’s decision to come out, and that sucks. While I’m sure it’s more common than should be the case, a person’s decisions as to when and how to come out should be on his/her terms. Rajon effin’ Rondo shouldn’t play any part in that decision – that’s for sure.

If my gut feeling is correct, then a 1 game suspension is crap. In a televised game, on the NBA stage, a player attacked someone using slurs in front of a crowd and a television audience. Replace “faggot” with most other slurs, and we’re not talking about a one-game suspension. Donald Sterling had to hand over ownership of his team for making racially insensitive remarks to a mistress. Rondo directs homophobic slurs at an official on the court before a crowd and a television audience, and he’s suspended for 1 game. Come on. – PAL

Source: “Rajon Rondo allegedly berated a gay referee, and the punishment feels too soft”, Clinton Yates, The Washington Post (12/14/2015)

TOB: I don’t disagree with anything you said, but I will point out that Rondo was not mic’d up and no one in the television audience heard what he said at the time. In fact, no one seemed to know what he said until 11 days later when they announced the suspension. At that point, someone in the NBA offices leaked the information, which then caused everyone to turn to the videotape to try to confirm what Rondo said by reading his lips.

Now, this doesn’t at all absolve what Rondo said: it was hurtful and hateful. But I don’t think he truly outed Kennedy. NBA players say things to referees during games all the time that we can’t hear, even when we sit close to the court. Rondo probably expected, as many players do, that no one but those directly around him would hear what he said. And if Kennedy’s sexual preference was an open secret in the NBA, as you surmise and I agree, then I don’t think Rondo had any intention or even any real blame in outing Kennedy publicly. He figured anyone wuo heard it already knew. If the league office had not leaked what he said, which I can’t recall them ever doing, then we aren’t having this discussion. I want to reiterate: that does not absolve Rondo of what he said. It was terrible, and as a Kings fan, it was embarrassing and just one more reason being a Kings fan is the absolute worst.

An All Too Familiar Scene

On a lighter note, this is great. A’s pitcher Sean Doolittle dragged his girlfriend to the premiere of Star Wars: The Force Awakens last night, and the two of them chronicled the events in a series of amusing tweets. Here are my two favorites:

https://twitter.com/EireannDolan/status/677629950694981633/photo/1?ref_src=twsrctfw

Source: “Sean Dolittle Dragged His Girlfriend to Star Wars“, Barry Petchesky, Deadspin (12/18/2015)

Audio Recording of Dr. James A. Naismith on Inventing Basketball

The University of Kansas recently released an audio recording James Naismith, the inventor of basketball, appearing on a New York radio show in 1939, about 10 months before his death. It is the only known audio recording of Dr. Naismith. As a 1939 radio interview, it is everything you’d hope for.

http://exhibits.lib.ku.edu/exhibits/show/naismith150/collections/radio-interview

The host has an almost comically classic radio voice. Even better, Dr. Naismith sounds like a caricature of an old man in the 1930s. On top of  that, it is fascinating to hear Naismith discuss the game he invented nearly 50 years prior (and what a disaster the first attempt was), and marvel at the heights it had reached by 1939. Imagine if he could see the game today. -TOB

Source: “Radio Interview, 1939”, University of Kansas, Released (12/15/2015)

PAL: So…who wrote Dr. Naismith’s script for this? Kidding aside, I love the fact that basketball was invented out of what sounds like a PE teacher thinking, “What the hell am I going to do with these knuckleheads today?”

Can You Blame Them?

Bo Ryan, head basketball coach at Wisconsin, retired right before the start of Big 10 conference play after back-to-back Final Four appearances. For lack of a better term, “tenured” coaches have been doing this a bit more often as of late, most recently Steve Spurrier at South Carolina. Jim Calhoun bounced 6 weeks before the start of the season at UConn, as well. One possible factor for these abrupt retirements: leverage. By checking out in the middle of the season, the coach gives his top assistant coach an opportunity to earn the job as the replacement. Although Wisconsin is likely a top-15 job in college basketball, it’s not going to hire from the outside in the middle of the season:

“Everybody knows, it’s no secret. Every head coach would like their top assistant to be the head coach,” Ryan said. “I wanted to give Coach Gard plenty of time to get the guys ready and to get them into the position where, as a head coach, he has a chance, as every former head coach for their top assistant says, ‘to take a run at the job’. That’s the way this business is, and we accept it.”

I understand. Gard’s been with Ryan forever, and Ryan wants to give his guy a chance. It’s absolutely worth noting that Gard’s father was diagnosed with cancer and passed away in November. It seems likely that Ryan held the spot until Gard was ready.

Here’s the thing: The next head coach at Wisconsin is not Bo Ryan’s call. Hiring coaches is the job of the Athletic Director and the university. If Ryan retires at the end of last year, the school has time to put together a wish list. Interview outside candidates. With a mid-season retirement, the school has to – you know – worry about the next game and the immediate season. I get it – and I think I’m fine with it – but it’s a bit overstepping on Ryan’s part. – PAL

Source: “Ryan didn’t quit on Wisconsin; the timing of retirement was calculated”, Rob Dauster, NBCsports.com (12/16/2015)

TOB: When Mike Montgomery began coaching at Cal, I was very excited. He’s a great coach who always gets the most out of his players. He had the most success at Cal as any basketball coach in decades. But he brought his son, John, along as an assistant coach. From early on, there were many rumblings that Mike was only planning to coach a few years and wanted Cal to hire Mike as his successor. I have to say, I would have been pissed. And if I was a Wisconsin fan right now, I’d be pissed. As a basketball coach, you have a job – to coach the team as well as you can. You should not be able to shape the program for years to come. In the law, there’s a concept called the Dead Hand – when you die, you are not allowed to control your assets beyond a certain time. The same should be true of college coaches.

Mom Knows Best

This is short, but funny. A UMass basketball player had been playing poorly – so his mom turned off his cell phone service. In his very next game, he went off for 40 points. Good job, Mom. -TOB

Source: “What Motivated UMass Guard Trey Davis to Score 40 Points Wendesday?: ‘My Mom Turned Off My Phone’”, Daniel Malone, MassLive (12/16/2015)

PAL: Imagine his numbers if she cut his WiFi…

Video of the Week

Mom with great hairdo takes a half court shot for her daughter’s tuition, thinks she misses it, somehow makes it on the bounce, goes wild.

PAL Song of the Week: Will Ferrell & John C. Reilly  – “Peace On Earth/Drummer Boy”

Check out our entire playlist here. Not as good as Monica Lang’s breakfast rolls, but – hey – it’s not bad either.

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Geeze, I think the Royals fans were excited about winning the World Series.

The Making of a Rivalry

Hey, alright! The NBA is back! I love to play basketball, but in the last couple of years I’ve entered a phase of life where I need a reason to watch the NBA. Watching a random game on a Wednesday just to see John Wall is not enough for me. But a rivalry? A real rivalry? Where the players legit dislike each other? That is something I can get into. Enter: Warriors/Clippers, which has turned into an extremely heated rivalry over the last three years. In this article, one of my favorite NBA writers, former Kings beat writer Sam Amick, details the origins and key moments that gave rise to this rivalry. He peppers the article with videos, gifs, and quotes. Highly entertaining. If you missed it, Steph Curry did Steph Curry things and the Warriors beat the Clippers Wednesday, as they do. -TOB

Source: “Warriors vs. Clippers, Three Years of a Heated Rivalry“, Sam Amick, USA Today (11/04/2015)

NFL Referees Are Not Unbiased. Shocking.

I have often thought about how ridiculous the football ritual of measuring for a first down is. Consider this: At the end of each play, a referee who is approximately 30 yards from the play attempts to determine where the ball was located when a player is touched down. It is a rough estimate, at best. But when the ball is too close to the first down marker to eyeball, from the same distance, whether the first down has been achieved, we march out the first down sticks and measure it to the centimeter. Isn’t that odd? You’re empirically measuring something that was subjectively marked. This article tackles a different but related subject: How accurate is a referee’s ball placement? The stats show: not very. Take a look at this graph, which shows the frequency of a ball being placed at each yard line:

The 20-yard line is an anomaly because of touchbacks after punts/kickoffs. But notice the other, smaller peaks – those all occur on each 5-yard line marker. Why are referees more likely to place a ball at each 5-yard marker? Because that is where the line is painted across the field. It’s pretty fascinating, and the entire article is worth reading. Shoutout to 1-2-3 reader/my brother Pat for passing this article along.  -TOB

Source: “Are NFL Officials Biased With Their Ball Placement“, Joey Faulkner, gutterstats (11/03/2015)

Mamas, Don’t Let Your Kids Grow Up to Play Football

Below is a sad interview with former NFL player Kyle Turley, where he talks about years of contemplating suicide as a result of the long-term use of medications he needed in order to play football.

I of course could not help think of my son. On Saturday, we were in Berkeley at a new taqueria (seriously, go to Sinaloa) before the Cal/USC game and we talked to two middle-aged guys who were there. One of them mentioned his son plays football for a local high school and that his son wants to join the Marines, but they are concerned the Marines won’t take him because of shoulder injuries he’s suffered playing football. In the next breath, he looked at my son, who is a thick little dude, and said, “He’s gonna be a linebacker.” I laughed and agreed, because I didn’t want to offend the guy. But I could not believe that he had just told me his son might not be able to do what he wants to do because of football, and it doesn’t even appear to give him pause that maybe his son shouldn’t have played. I don’t know where the future of football will go, but I just cannot stand the thought of anyone I love playing this violent game. -TOB
Source: “Kyle Turley Speaks About the Benefits of Medical Cannabis“, Highly Questionable (11/05/2015)

Video of the Week

The 1985 Buffalo Sabres made an anti-drug music video and it is everything you hope it would be. There’s a lot of great flow, bad moustaches, and some of the worst dancing you’ve ever seen. Be fair to yourself and watch.

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-Eli Cash

Dirk Nowtizki. You rang?

Thing We Already Know: The NFL is Awful, Evil

Working PR for the NFL must be a nightmare. The latest example came this week when the NFL fined Steelers players William Gay and DeAngelo Williams for uniform infractions. Their crime? Gay wore purple shoes during a game for domestic violence awareness in honor of his mother, who was shot and killed by his step-father when Gay was 7-years old.

Williams wore eye black with “We Will Find a Cure” and the breast cancer awareness ribbon printed on them, during Breast Cancer Awareness Month, which the NFL heavily pushes to its own massive profit (from the breast cancer awareness products it sells, the NFL donates only 5% of proceeds to the American Cancer Society, pocketing 90% as profit).

These fines for Gay and Williams came on the heels of the NFL fining Steelers linebacker Cameron Heyward for writing “IRON HEAD” on his eye black in honor of his late father, the great NFL running back “Iron Head” Heyward, who died a few years back from brain cancer. Just what the hell is the NFL’s problem? Seriously. I get it – if you allow some messages, then players will begin to push the line. So what. As long as nothing is inappropriate, political, or an advertisement, why do they care? Because they’re the NFL and they are evil and they do. Roger Goodell is an idiotic, heartless human being. I wish he would just go away. And I feel sorry for the PR professionals working for the NFL who have to spin this – they must hate their job. For their part, Gay and Williams asked that their fines be donated to support their respective causes. Good for them. -TOB

Source: “William Gay Wore Purple Shoes for Domestic Violence Awareness, Got Fined”, Josh Alper, Pro Football Talk (10/28/2015); “NFL Fines DeAngelo Williams For Raising Breast Cancer Awareness During Breast Cancer Awareness Month”, Ben Rohrbach, Yahoo! Sports, 10/28/2015

PAL: I have nothing more to add on the NFL. As I said last year – I’m just out. Granted, I’ve never been a huge football fan, but the NFL sucks so consistently that they’ve lost me as a casual sports fan. Baseball is too good. The NBA is too good. The NHL playoffs are too good. Soccer is getting way better. What the hell do I need the NFL for, anyway? They can no longer see the forest for the trees. When common sense is involved, the NFL is incapable of making the obviously correct call. I’d love to hear Susan O’Brien’s take on this (TOB’s wife), as she’s got 10 years experience in the PR industry and is as good at her job as anyone I know.

Careless Omission: Tadich Grill

Terri Upshaw – widow of deceased football great Gene Upshaw – is the daughter of Steve Buich, the owner of Tadich Grill, 160+ year-old SF restaurant. When she was 23, she met and fell in love with Upshaw. Earlier this week, she told the Washington Post that her family disowned her because Upshaw was black.

“Her parents, now in their early 80s, and siblings have never met Upshaw’s sons, 28 and 25. She says they didn’t reach out when her husband died. She says that she has tried over the years to make contact with her family — that they ignored her at her grandmother’s funeral. When her oldest son was 3 months old, she says, she took him to her parents’ house and was ordered to leave.”

However, The Washington Post article leaves out one detail, and – according to Steve Buich, it’s the most important detail: Gene Upshaw was married when he and Terri started dating. Per the SF Chronicle: “[Steve Buisch] says that his decision in 1983 to disown daughter Terri Upshaw, who was 23 at the time, had to do with the fact that she’d begun a relationship with a married man — pro football player Gene Upshaw, who was 38 at the time, recently retired from the Oakland Raiders, and in the process of getting a divorce.”

Here’s the deal: regardless of where your gut might fall on this issue, isn’t it extraordinarily careless of the Washington Post to publish this without at least noting that Upshaw was married at the time the relationship with his future wife took place? I’m not siding with either version of the story here, and my bet would be there’s probably some truth to both versions of the story; however, you’d think the Washington Post might want to mention that there may have been other factors at play before positioning this story as a father disowning his daughter because she was in love with a Black guy. – PAL

Source (initial story): “Terri Upshaw says she had to choose between family and love”, Loanne O’Neal, The Washington Post (10/25/15)

Source (follow-up): “Tadich Grill’s ex-owner: This wasn’t about race”, C.W. Nevius, San Francisco Chronicle (10/28/15)

TOB: Phil said pretty much what I thought – but let me add this: When the story was first reported by the Washington Post, users who had never been to the Tadich Grill flooded the Tadich Yelp page with 1-star reviews. It shouldn’t, but this drives me insane. Yelp is useless when people do things like this. I JUST WANT TO KNOW HOW THE FOOD TASTES. Driving down the rating of a restaurant because you don’t agree with what may or may not be the personal beliefs of an old man who hasn’t run the restaurant in 20 years defeats the purpose of Yelp.

C.R.E.A.M.

The New York Times covered a class at my alma mater, UC Berkeley aka Cal, regarding an independent study class aimed at student-athletes with promising professional careers ahead. The class is entitled “Personal Finance and Brand Management in Professional Sports” and it is taught by Stephen Etter, one of the founding partners of Greyrock Capital Group. Etter developed the class after meetings with then Cal football player Nnamdi Asomugha in 2002. Asomugha would go on to do great things, both in the NFL and off the field. Featured in this article is Etter’s current pupil, Cal quarterback and possible 2016 #1 NFL Draft pick Jared Goff, but past students include former Cal athletes Marshawn Lynch and decorated Olympic swimmer Missy Franklin. Etter teaches his students about how to deal with the massive amount of money they are about to be handed, and how to think about money in general. It seems an invaluable resource – I may not have millions, but I sure wish I could take that course. -TOB

Source: “Before Student-Athletes Earn a Penny, a Course in How to Manage Millions”, Karen Crouse, New York Times (10/23/2015)

Innocent Doing Work

This one hits real close to home. I’ll try to paint the picture. Como is an offshoot of St. Paul, and it’s mostly blue collar sprinkled with some nicer homes close to downtown (I always thought of it as a neighborhood where University of Minnesota professors lived). Como Lake was the location of my grade school’s annual “marathon” (translation: get neighbors to pledge x amount per mile that you ran/biked/rollerbladed around the lake). The fact that this incredible story takes place in Como makes me smile, and the budding Cross Country refugee at the heart of the story – Innocent Murwanashyaka – is a reminder to never complain. This kid kicks ass in all ways – Cross Country, holding down a job at Menards (think Lowe’s, but Minnesota, with the best commercial jingle ever), and bursting at the seams to go to college. 100% feel good. You can have the phenoms; I want more stories reminding me of the true American Dream. – PAL  

Source: “Innocent Is Independent: The Story of A Cross Country Runner”, Sarah Barker, Fittish (10/25/15)

My Favorite Website: Baseball-Reference.com

Here’s a short, neat article on my favorite website: baseball-reference.com. Baseball Reference is amazing. It has every conceivable baseball statistic for every player who ever played, including stats from the minor leagues. It has statistics as far back as 1871, when Lip Pike of the Troy Haymakers led the National Association with 4 home runs. I routinely get lost, diving deep into weird statistical wormholes. Finding names like Lip Pike are one of the true joys of a baseball-reference visit. One time I wanted to find the time my Grandpa took me to an Angels game when the Angels scored 4 runs in the 9th to beat the Brewers. With a little educated guesswork and some sleuthing, I found the game – it was Thursday, July 25, 1996. JT Snow led off the 9th with a home run, and light-hitting shortstop Gary Disarcina hit a walk-off 3-run jack to win it. My Grandpa had tried to leave after the Top of the 9th – but I wouldn’t let him. Another time I found the date this photo was taken:

Saturday, April 20, 1991: My first game at Candlestick Park. Bud Black threw a complete game, 5-hit shutout against a stacked Astros team (Biggio, Bagwell, Caminiti, Steve Finley, Luis Gonzalez). If you love baseball and have never perused Baseball-Reference, do so now. You’ll find lots of great stuff. -TOB

Source: “The Sublime Simplicity of Baseball-Reference.com”, Michael Weinreb, Rolling Stone (10/28/2015)

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Maybe I’m spending too much of my time starting up clubs and putting on plays. I should probably be trying harder to score chicks.

-Max Fischer