A ruling by a US Court of Appeals panel will now open up a can of worms that was promised to be sealed. The names of more than 100 or so major league baseball players who apparently tested positive for steroids may eventually be publicly revealed despite a promise that the test results of all of those who participated in the voluntary steroid testing program several years ago would remain anonymous.
It makes you wonder what or who is it that federal prosecutors are really after. Are they really pursuing justice? Do they really want to stamp out steroids in baseball and other sports? Or are they simply conducting a witch hunt that they hope will lead to an indictment of Barry Bonds in particular and other players in general? In prosecutors' apparent quest for Bonds, dozens of players who expected privacy have now been betrayed. As of this writing the players union, as expected, is appealing this ruling, but the message is clear. Promises mean nothing. If that promise meant anything baseball commissioner Bud Selig would join the union in objecting to this ruling. After all it was MLB, i.e. the commissioner, that had promised secrecy. As things stand now, why should players ever trust the commissioner and the baseball establishment again?
Troubling to me are the many other silent voices besides the commissioners office. Where is the outrage? It appears to me we are fast becoming a people who seemingly tolerate anything and refuse to stand up to injustice if it suits our objectives. It should not matter where you stand on the steroid problem in sports. In America there is a right and a wrong way to do things and this is wrong!
Our legal system mandates that evidence obtained illegally is thrown out, even if it means the accused goes free. It is a founding principle of our justice system. In this case the seizing of the annoymous test results are the equivalent of illegally obtained evidence. And as such the test results should not be used. Prosecutors should try something else within bonafide legal bounds to make their case.
We can only hope that in pursuit of whatever it is they are after, prosecutors and judges refrain from any abuse of power. So called justice sought and obtained illegally is not justice at all.
Friday, December 29, 2006
Friday, December 22, 2006
Good News for the Holiday Season
We've heard alot this year about athletes that cheat. Stars that spit. Players that get arrested. So much has been said about what and who is wrong that we tend to forget that there were many good and heart warming sports stories this past year and that there are still heroes to worship.
How about LaDainian Tomlinson, the record setting running back for the San Diego Chargers. He is pro football's best player and will probably earn the NFL's Most Valuable Player award. But by all accounts he is more likely an even better person. He is humble and self-effacing to a fault, never one to preen and strut. He is always genuinely quick to share the credit with his teammates and his team first and then only if pressed will he give credit to himself, even as he embarks on what may be the best year a running back has ever had.
What about the George Mason Patriots, the unheralded team from a school just outside of Washngton, DC. They made it to college basketball's Final Four, when just about everyone said they didn't even belong in the tournament. This squad of castoffs and after thoughts fought through the doubts and beat several of the nation's top teams on the way to Indy. The Patriots were a real life "Hoosiers" story which fittingly concluded in the Hoosier state. And although George Mason didn't win the championship, the team captured America's imagination during March Madness and earned our enduring respect.
There is Roger Federer. Some of you may say Roger who? But Federer is the guy who is making it possible to enjoy men's tennis again. He is an exquisite master of the court. Even if you don't know much about tennis and you watch him play you know intuitively that he is simply better than the other men playing today. More importantly he is yet another humble star who doesn't make a fuss about himself. He just plays the game. Sometimes a near perfect game. Better still is the fact that his battered opponents continue to like, respect and admire him even when he takes away all of their hopes on the tennis court.
Tiger Woods. Okay, everybody writes and talks about him. But this year was different. He lost his father and mentor to cancer. Earl Woods helped instill Tiger's unique winning drive. He was also his son's best friend. When Earl Woods died Tiger was devastated. Earl's death may have lead to an unprecedented collapse on the golf course for Tiger when he missed his first cut in years at the U.S. Open. But Tiger rebounded to win an emotional British Open and the PGA and four more tournaments consecutively in the second half of the year. He bravely showed us he was human, breaking down in tears thinking about his late father after winning the British Open. He would soon after show us again with his dominant winning streak why he is probably the greatest golfer of all time.
Yes, there is a danger of being terribly disappointed these days when we lionize athletes and teams, but taking that risk is why many of us have come to love sports. We want to cherish our sports heroes. And why not. They provide us with hours of entertainment and sometimes days and even years of discussion and debate about what we saw and experienced. Alot of good guys and gals won our admiration this year. And that is indeed good news for the holiday season.
How about LaDainian Tomlinson, the record setting running back for the San Diego Chargers. He is pro football's best player and will probably earn the NFL's Most Valuable Player award. But by all accounts he is more likely an even better person. He is humble and self-effacing to a fault, never one to preen and strut. He is always genuinely quick to share the credit with his teammates and his team first and then only if pressed will he give credit to himself, even as he embarks on what may be the best year a running back has ever had.
What about the George Mason Patriots, the unheralded team from a school just outside of Washngton, DC. They made it to college basketball's Final Four, when just about everyone said they didn't even belong in the tournament. This squad of castoffs and after thoughts fought through the doubts and beat several of the nation's top teams on the way to Indy. The Patriots were a real life "Hoosiers" story which fittingly concluded in the Hoosier state. And although George Mason didn't win the championship, the team captured America's imagination during March Madness and earned our enduring respect.
There is Roger Federer. Some of you may say Roger who? But Federer is the guy who is making it possible to enjoy men's tennis again. He is an exquisite master of the court. Even if you don't know much about tennis and you watch him play you know intuitively that he is simply better than the other men playing today. More importantly he is yet another humble star who doesn't make a fuss about himself. He just plays the game. Sometimes a near perfect game. Better still is the fact that his battered opponents continue to like, respect and admire him even when he takes away all of their hopes on the tennis court.
Tiger Woods. Okay, everybody writes and talks about him. But this year was different. He lost his father and mentor to cancer. Earl Woods helped instill Tiger's unique winning drive. He was also his son's best friend. When Earl Woods died Tiger was devastated. Earl's death may have lead to an unprecedented collapse on the golf course for Tiger when he missed his first cut in years at the U.S. Open. But Tiger rebounded to win an emotional British Open and the PGA and four more tournaments consecutively in the second half of the year. He bravely showed us he was human, breaking down in tears thinking about his late father after winning the British Open. He would soon after show us again with his dominant winning streak why he is probably the greatest golfer of all time.
Yes, there is a danger of being terribly disappointed these days when we lionize athletes and teams, but taking that risk is why many of us have come to love sports. We want to cherish our sports heroes. And why not. They provide us with hours of entertainment and sometimes days and even years of discussion and debate about what we saw and experienced. Alot of good guys and gals won our admiration this year. And that is indeed good news for the holiday season.
Tuesday, December 19, 2006
The Elephant in the Room
The NBA handed down suspensions yesterday for Friday night's brawl at Madison Square Garden. Fifteen games for the Nuggets' Carmelo Anthony. Ten game suspensions each for J.R. Smith and Nate Robinson. Mardy Collins of the Knicks the instigator, is suspended for six games. Four game and one game suspensions were assessed to others. A total of seven players from both teams will lose significant game checks and court time for their respective roles in the melee.
When NBA commissioner David Stern takes action he comes down hard. Stern is widely considered the most effective commissioner in sports with his near dictatorial powers, 10 million dollar salary and an unmatched ability to keep his players in line when they embarrass polite society.
Stern takes action because he sees clearly the "elephant in the room". He knows all too well that the "elephant in the room" remains race, whether anyone else wants to honestly deal with that fact or not. The NBA's African American players simply cannot make a scene, let alone come to blows without incurring the wrath of columnists, psychologists and anthropologists.
The image of black men fighting - outside of a boxing ring - is just too scary for most of America to deal with. These "thugs" as some would call them are supposedly a threat to the youth who look up to them and a disgrace to a society that barely acknowledges them unless they are in a uniform or on stage providing entertainment. This is why the great sports master - Stern - has intervened to insure his young men act right, talk right and play well with others.
While 2007 looms, nearly seven years into a new millenium, the fears presented by race still linger. We are still impacted by a centuries old lack of compassion and true acceptance.
African American young men remain the nation's least educated, least employed and most jailed group of citizens. They also remain the least understood. Too many of them believe sports and entertainment are the only viable legal options to obtaining the "American Dream". And for too many fans, uniforms and stage gear are the only things that seem to fit the stereotyped notion of what a successful black man should look like.
Thus, the problem is ours - to get over, once and for all. All of us. From the players who act out, to the authority figures who crack down, to the fans who seem to expect nothing better, we all need to acknowledge the elephant in the room. Because until we do we will never be able to deal with it.
When NBA commissioner David Stern takes action he comes down hard. Stern is widely considered the most effective commissioner in sports with his near dictatorial powers, 10 million dollar salary and an unmatched ability to keep his players in line when they embarrass polite society.
Stern takes action because he sees clearly the "elephant in the room". He knows all too well that the "elephant in the room" remains race, whether anyone else wants to honestly deal with that fact or not. The NBA's African American players simply cannot make a scene, let alone come to blows without incurring the wrath of columnists, psychologists and anthropologists.
The image of black men fighting - outside of a boxing ring - is just too scary for most of America to deal with. These "thugs" as some would call them are supposedly a threat to the youth who look up to them and a disgrace to a society that barely acknowledges them unless they are in a uniform or on stage providing entertainment. This is why the great sports master - Stern - has intervened to insure his young men act right, talk right and play well with others.
While 2007 looms, nearly seven years into a new millenium, the fears presented by race still linger. We are still impacted by a centuries old lack of compassion and true acceptance.
African American young men remain the nation's least educated, least employed and most jailed group of citizens. They also remain the least understood. Too many of them believe sports and entertainment are the only viable legal options to obtaining the "American Dream". And for too many fans, uniforms and stage gear are the only things that seem to fit the stereotyped notion of what a successful black man should look like.
Thus, the problem is ours - to get over, once and for all. All of us. From the players who act out, to the authority figures who crack down, to the fans who seem to expect nothing better, we all need to acknowledge the elephant in the room. Because until we do we will never be able to deal with it.
Monday, December 18, 2006
Another Brawl - And Hypocrisy Reigns
How the NBA honchos hand down penalties and punishment for the brawl between the New York Knicks and Denver Nuggets at Madison Square Garden the other night will go a long way toward determining what they learned if anything from the infamous Pistons-Pacers brawl of two years ago. Let's start from the beginning. The Knicks Mardy Collins fouls the Nuggets J.R. Smith hard as he goes in for a layup/dunk. The ensuing confrontation led to a brawl that quickly got out of hand. But the brawl may have actually begun before the first blows were thrown, when Knicks coach Isiah Thomas allegedly "warned" Nuggets star Carmelo Anthony not to drive the paint. At that point the Knicks were being blown out and embarrased yet again at home with time running out in the fourth quarter while Denver's starters were still in the game.
Athlete fights are always interesting in slow motion review. The replay allows us to opine from on high what really happened and how those angry players should have responded. The replay doesn't take us into the huddle where perhaps the call for retribution for the embarrassment was demanded. What price should Isiah Thomas pay for allowing his players to mete out punishment? And why should Carmelo Anthony get singled out for increased punishment for sucker-punching Mardy Collins, when clearly, tackling and wrestling were going between several other players on both teams at the same time?
If this were ice hockey or major league baseball our view of this brawl might be totally different. In baseball when one player is hit by a pitch, invariably the "code" demands retribution by the opposing pitcher to hit the offending team's first batter. This "code" is understood and accepted as being "part of the game." The code is also sanctioned by the manager. Still bench clearing brawls usually follow despite the code. In hockey an unskilled "goon" is often called upon by his coach to put a "hit" on the opposing star who is scoring too much. Fights and occasional muggings are an accepted part of the NHL culture. Still, when the goon attacks the star usually a melee erupts and benches also clear. In both baseball and hockey though the fights and retribution come to an end and the next day the sun rises and fans return for more.
So what was different at Madison Square Garden? What is the "code" in the NBA? And why do so many people react with apparent shock and horror when basketball players "lose it"? NBA Commissioner David Stern has been tough on the behavior and etiquette of the league's players. Obviously, Stern is keenly aware of the double standard applied to the players in his league. What makes the violence of basketball players so much worse? Its a retorical question. We really know why. Its still hard to take any sort of misbehavior from this still mostly black league. Black men out of control. Its an outrage. Let hypocrisy reign.
Athlete fights are always interesting in slow motion review. The replay allows us to opine from on high what really happened and how those angry players should have responded. The replay doesn't take us into the huddle where perhaps the call for retribution for the embarrassment was demanded. What price should Isiah Thomas pay for allowing his players to mete out punishment? And why should Carmelo Anthony get singled out for increased punishment for sucker-punching Mardy Collins, when clearly, tackling and wrestling were going between several other players on both teams at the same time?
If this were ice hockey or major league baseball our view of this brawl might be totally different. In baseball when one player is hit by a pitch, invariably the "code" demands retribution by the opposing pitcher to hit the offending team's first batter. This "code" is understood and accepted as being "part of the game." The code is also sanctioned by the manager. Still bench clearing brawls usually follow despite the code. In hockey an unskilled "goon" is often called upon by his coach to put a "hit" on the opposing star who is scoring too much. Fights and occasional muggings are an accepted part of the NHL culture. Still, when the goon attacks the star usually a melee erupts and benches also clear. In both baseball and hockey though the fights and retribution come to an end and the next day the sun rises and fans return for more.
So what was different at Madison Square Garden? What is the "code" in the NBA? And why do so many people react with apparent shock and horror when basketball players "lose it"? NBA Commissioner David Stern has been tough on the behavior and etiquette of the league's players. Obviously, Stern is keenly aware of the double standard applied to the players in his league. What makes the violence of basketball players so much worse? Its a retorical question. We really know why. Its still hard to take any sort of misbehavior from this still mostly black league. Black men out of control. Its an outrage. Let hypocrisy reign.
Friday, December 15, 2006
Memo to T.O. - Just Shut Up and Play Football
At some point we will all get it. Eventually we'll have no doubts that T.O. is poison. But in the meantime we still hope its not as bad as it seems. But here's the latest.
As the Cowboys fight to make the playoffs Terrell Owens insists that the spotlight shine on him. In his most recent lunatic utterance T.O. laments that someone inside the Cowboys is a "snitch" for disclosing his behind the scenes foolishness, which he suggests has contributed to the passes he's dropped and his overall lack of focus. He also says that he doesn't pay attention to what Coach Bill Parcels is saying. And on and on and on. I usually wonder what the hell T.O. is talking about. I also question why I'm even listening. But I do listen and I do look. T.O. is the ultimate human car wreck.
Everywhere Terrell Owens goes he complains and whines as if someone owes him something. I say all the Cowboys owe T.O. is his multi-million dollar contract. What Owens owes the Cowboys is an adult and professional attitude - something he has seemingly yet to comprehend. Why such a gifted athlete needs to act out this way is a mystery. I doubt even he knows what's troubling him.
Why should we care? I'm having a tough time justifying that myself. Despite his poisonous actions and foolish talk I still believe most fans, myself included, want to appreciate Owens' unique skills. But we also want him to just shut up and play football.
As the Cowboys fight to make the playoffs Terrell Owens insists that the spotlight shine on him. In his most recent lunatic utterance T.O. laments that someone inside the Cowboys is a "snitch" for disclosing his behind the scenes foolishness, which he suggests has contributed to the passes he's dropped and his overall lack of focus. He also says that he doesn't pay attention to what Coach Bill Parcels is saying. And on and on and on. I usually wonder what the hell T.O. is talking about. I also question why I'm even listening. But I do listen and I do look. T.O. is the ultimate human car wreck.
Everywhere Terrell Owens goes he complains and whines as if someone owes him something. I say all the Cowboys owe T.O. is his multi-million dollar contract. What Owens owes the Cowboys is an adult and professional attitude - something he has seemingly yet to comprehend. Why such a gifted athlete needs to act out this way is a mystery. I doubt even he knows what's troubling him.
Why should we care? I'm having a tough time justifying that myself. Despite his poisonous actions and foolish talk I still believe most fans, myself included, want to appreciate Owens' unique skills. But we also want him to just shut up and play football.
Monday, December 11, 2006
Trust What You See
The final score: Tennessee Titans 26, the Houston Texans 20 with a thrilling overtime finish capped by THE RUN. The game was an emphatic statement for Houston native Vince Young who is earning more and more believers every week. Even though he was wearing Tennessee's blue, Young electrified his homecoming crowd with a closing 39 yard sprint for the winning touchdown that will hopefully shut up Young's nay sayers.
Vince Young is on a roll. He’s led the Titans to four straight victories and has won five of the last six games. Most of them come from behind thrillers. Yes, in only his 10th game as a starter he is already building his NFL legend. Young is enhancing the legend he crafted in college when he won the national championship last winter.
The problem is there never should have been doubters. The doubts crept in when Young allegedly earned a low score on the NFL’s “Wonderlick” intelligence test last winter. The doubts grew when many said he didn’t have the proper throwing motion to succeed as a top level pro passer.
But what I saw then and what I see now is a superb athlete and a gifted leader with rare motivational skills - the same skills that allowed him to lead the University of Texas to the National Championship in the Rose Bowl. What I saw was a uniquely skilled football player with an uncanny knack for making the right play at the right time. What I saw then was the greatest performance a college quarterback has ever had when the chips were on the line on the biggest stage. What I still see is a magical athlete who barring injury will thrill football fans in Nashville and around the country for years to come. I trust what I see. I hope you do too.
Vince Young is on a roll. He’s led the Titans to four straight victories and has won five of the last six games. Most of them come from behind thrillers. Yes, in only his 10th game as a starter he is already building his NFL legend. Young is enhancing the legend he crafted in college when he won the national championship last winter.
The problem is there never should have been doubters. The doubts crept in when Young allegedly earned a low score on the NFL’s “Wonderlick” intelligence test last winter. The doubts grew when many said he didn’t have the proper throwing motion to succeed as a top level pro passer.
But what I saw then and what I see now is a superb athlete and a gifted leader with rare motivational skills - the same skills that allowed him to lead the University of Texas to the National Championship in the Rose Bowl. What I saw was a uniquely skilled football player with an uncanny knack for making the right play at the right time. What I saw then was the greatest performance a college quarterback has ever had when the chips were on the line on the biggest stage. What I still see is a magical athlete who barring injury will thrill football fans in Nashville and around the country for years to come. I trust what I see. I hope you do too.
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