The league allows players to possess guns, but under the collective bargaining agreement, they cannot have weapons at NBA facilities. Arenas hasn’t been charged with a crime, but he could face a league fine or suspension following the investigation.
After CBSSports.com broke the news of the investigation on Christmas eve, Arenas initially said he brought the guns to the arena after deciding that he no longer wanted them in his home after the birth of his third child. His second girl, Hamiley Penny, was born on Dec. 9.
The Wizards released a statement that Arenas had unloaded guns and no ammunition in a lock box in his locker. The statement did not mention Crittenton. Both Crittenton and his agent, Mark Bartlestein, declined comment when reached by telephone.
Outdoor ice hockey is tailor made for HDTV. It didn’t snow on the game at Boston’s Fenway Park this year, but when it does snow, it is stunning. They should make this a double header in two different cities on New Year’s Day, much like the NBA jump starts interest in their season with five games on Christmas Day.
The Winter Classic is a great way to pull in new eyes to a sport seriously damaged by a foolish work stoppage and expansions to non-hockey cities like Tampa, Florida. For a casual fan like me, who only watches hockey when my hometown Flyers get past the 1st round of the playoffs, it is the only must see hockey.
So fitting that the first fight in a Winter Classic occurred between a Flyer and a Bruin.
Even with Bob Costas interviewing an almost always insufferable Curt Schilling, it was still a fun watch.
With two-time champion Boston College dropping out of the rankings this year, Penn State’s Nittany Lions moved up from sharing the number two spot in last year’s ranking to take over the top spot. The Stanford Cardinal, which is making its Academic BCS debut thanks to an 8-4 season, takes the second spot as the only other squad to receive more than 100 points under Higher Ed Watch’s calculation. These two teams are followed by Cincinnati (number four last year) and Boise State (eighth).
Meanwhile, this year’s top football contenders wouldn’t even come close to competing. In fact, the University of Texas, which is scheduled to face the University of Alabama in the title game, again comes in dead last in the rankings. The Longhorns have occupied the bottom rung now for the past two years, and only an appearance by the University of Hawaii in 2007 has kept them from the three-peat. Other poor performers are the University of Arizona, the University of Oregon, and Oregon State University.
As for the current defending champion University of Florida Gators, they will not be competing for the BCS title this year, but they can take some solace from the fact that their score increased 10 points in the rankings, moving them from 21st to 20th in the poll.
Virginia Tech is one of the premier football programs in the Atlantic Coast Conference. They have a loyal fan base and play in a BCS conference, they usually have double digit wins and have been bowl eligible as long as BCS system has existed. So a berth in the Orange Bowl in Miami should provide a cash windfall for the Hokies. Right? Not quite.
Last year, Virginia Tech earned a berth in the Orange Bowl and was required to buy 17,500 tickets at $125 each. It only sold 3,342 of them, leading to a loss of $1.77 million for the university and the Atlantic Coast Conference, records show.
A Hokies athletics official speculated the reason for the weak sales was the weak economy, the expensive trip to Miami and cheaper tickets available to fans on the Internet. “Many Hokie fans bought that way rather than through our ticket office,” Assistant Athletic Director Lisa Rudd said.
Virginia Tech’s expense allowance for the game from the ACC was $1.6 million, but its ticket losses led it to spend more than double that at $3.8 million. The Hokies beat Cincinnati in the game, 20-7.
The five major bowls basically support every one of the other 29 meaningless bowls that fill late December and early January TV schedules. Your prize for not being one of the top 10 teams? As a university, you may or may not break even by allowing your football team to participate in a bowl. The bowl games, which are registered as non-profit entities with the IRS, cover their costs with the ticket guarantee and TV ad revenues. I wonder how this compares to the Football Championship Division (formerly I-AA) and D-III playoff model.
This article on the poor quality of tackling that has become the norm around the NFL by Pro Football Hall of Fame sportswriter Ray Didinger is dead on:
I study tape with NFL Network analyst Brian Baldinger, and he is constantly groaning as he watches one missed tackle after another.
“Poor fundamentals,” he says. “No discipline.”
For generations, every football player from the Pop Warner league to the NFL was taught the same tackling technique – drive the shoulder into the opponent’s midsection and wrap the arms around his legs to take him down. That was the classic tackle, but you rarely see it anymore.
The overtimes, records broken, the lead changes, the big plays the game winning catches, the power rushing touchdowns, big hits, the playoff births clinched, the wild card races log-jammed, the streaks extended. My favorite non Eagles player is Josh Cribbs.
He is having the best kick returner season in history, but he is also a play-maker on offense out of the wildcat personnel set. Every one of the Browns should give that half of their game check for everyone on of their three wins. He is a great player on a truly awful team. He would be wise to push for a monster contract in the coming uncapped year.
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Cincinnati Bengals wide receiver Chris Henry died Thursday, one day after falling out of the back of a pickup truck during what police said was a domestic dispute with his fiancee.
Charlotte-Mecklenburg police said Henry died at 6:36 a.m. He was 26.
“We knew him in a different way than his public persona,” Bengals owner Mike Brown said of the player who was suspended five times during his five-year NFL career. “He had worked through the troubles in his life and had finally seemingly reached the point where everything was going to blossom. And he was going to have the future we all wanted for him. It's painful to us. We feel it in our hearts, and we will miss him.”
Watching Hard Knocks: Training Camp with the Cincinnati Bengals, I was surprised Chris Henry showed up at the wedding of his teammate, rookie Fui Vakapuna. Being that Vakapuna was a rookie, Henry probably got to know him during off season voluntary training which meant, for once, Henry had actually been diligent with his off season workouts and the reports of him getting it together were probably true. Henry was making the Bengals’ last ditch effort to work with him worthwile.
Some people say they saw an untimely demise coming for Henry. Some, like Bengals coach Marvin Lewis had given up on Henry after 5 arrests in under 3 years. Others, especially some who were fans of the Bengals gave him a fifth or sixth chance to fly straight right along with Owner/GM Mike Brown. There’s only one chance to get life right and Henry made a very bad choice during the argument with his fiancée.
The picture of the man with his fiancée and three kids is just rough.
Update: Bengals presser after Henry’s death is here courtesy of NFL.com.
I get why the mayor of Pittsburgh wants to do this, but I don’t get why he or the City Council believes this is a good idea.
Pittsburgh Mayor Luke Ravenstahl has given local colleges and universities an ultimatum: Offer a plan to provide $5 million a year in support to the city, or the City Council will vote next week on his proposed 1 percent tuition tax, The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported. The plan for the tuition tax has been opposed by college leaders and students, and is being watched closely by colleges nationwide. There has been some hope that the idea might be shelved if college offered support in other ways. But the mayor’s latest statement does not seem to be going over well in higher ed. Duquesne University President Charles Dougherty, in a statement on behalf of the Pittsburgh Council on Higher Education, said: “Asking universities to fix an underfunded pension fund in return for taking an illegal, counterproductive, and unprecedented tax off the table is unreasonable.”
Maybe they should review the books of the baseball franchise that just had to have a state of the start stadium on the tax payer dime and yet produces an entertainment product that no one wants to watch. Maybe they should tax gate receipts at college football and basketball games as opposed to making college a more expensive proposition for anyone who is considering going to school in Pittsburgh.
Andy Reid has established the Eagles as one of the model franchises in the NFL, and he will guide them for at least four more seasons. Reid has signed a three-year extension that expires following the 2013 season; his previous deal ended after next season.
Reid, who was hired in 1999, has won more regular season games (105) and playoff games (10) than any coach in team history. His .611 winning percentage (playoffs included) is also a franchise record.
Every year, the Philadelphia Eagles manage to dominate our DVOA numbers, yet struggle to make the playoffs and/or be taken seriously as a championship contender. Last Sunday, watching Andy Reid stumble through another late-game clock management mishap before calling for two power runs despite not having a power back on the roster, it became that much harder to resist blaming the coaching staff for the Eagles’ perpetual underperformance. This KCW goes to Reid, and for Mike Tanier’s sake, we hope this is the last one we send to Philly this year.
What the guys at FO know: the Eagles have no excuse not to be as decorated as the Colts, Pats, Steelers in this era, and they have the players and make enough plays to win, but in close games poor game management, predictable play calling, stupid player mistakes and or clock/timeout management ends up losing this team games.
Needs to be renamed Joe Buck Professes his Unconditional Love for Athletes and Celebrities. From the same television station that brings us Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel, Costas Now and the 24/7 Golden Boy produced boxing previews its just awful. I tried to give him the benefit of the doubt. Twice. Its him raining unconditional, effusive syrupy wet kisses of praise on his guests. Its awful and worthless television.
Its pretty evident that the Rooney Rule, an affirmative action program that the late Johnnie Cochran and Jesse Jackson pushed for and came about because of Dan Rooney ‘s relationship with former Steeler’s assistant Tony Dungy, has benefited NFL football. As always, some people see “affirmative” before the word “action” as “reverse racism”, but this ignores the reality of the rule. The rule says a team should simply interview a candidate who is a person of color for a coaching job before an opening is filled aka coaches are given a chance to win over a potential employer. Its a minimal expenditure to interview a minority candidate. This was recently expanded to include senior franchise positions (GMs and VPs), by majority ballot of NFL franchise owners in June of this year. College football still has a paucity of black coaches and this quote caught my eye:
Asked whether the situation in the college game represents institutionalized racism, Dungy said, “The numbers would tell you that it is.” After the 2006 season, Dungy recommended then-Vikings defensive coordinator Mike Tomlin for the head coaching position at a BCS school. Tomlin didn’t get an interview. A month later, the Steelers hired him as their head coach, and within two years he led them to a Super Bowl win. “That’s the difference between the NCAA and the NFL right now,” Dungy said. via Tony Dungy: Lack Of Black College Coaches ‘Disgraceful’.
There are more black assistants in college football than previous years, but in a sport where a majority of the big program rosters are filled with black players, those same teams are seldom helmed by black coaches. College football is not really suited for a national top down Rooney Rule type mandate. Boosters and select administrators hold amazing sway over college football and even more over big time high school football hiring (another feeder for college football coaching candidates). They are key to recruitment and program funding, especially for schools that do not make a bowl every year. NCAA Football is non-profit cartel for licensing and marketing controlled by member universities (mainly the big time BCS conference schools), not the other way around, so they aren’t a source for developing an interview process that promotes diversity. The real entry point for affirmative action programs that provide opportunity access may be at the state level. College football coaches are quite often the highest paid state employees and therefore subject to hiring laws passed by state legislatures. The state of Oregon has become one of the first states to implement a Rooney Rule for all coaching and athletic director jobs at all of the state funded university athletic programs. I hope this includes candidates of color and maybe even women for some male teams. A devil’s advocate query would be: what is the appropriate number of black coaches? Thatis of course impossible to answer. Should the percentage of black coaches be the same as the number of black players in the NCAA? Should the need be satisfied when the percentage of black coaches matches the percentage of black people versus general population? (the NFL has already met this second threshold). What about for other peoples of color? Quite often, at this level of coaching, a job not won in an interview by a candidate can result in a recommendation to another program who may love that same candidate. Hopefully implementations of this smart, low cost affirmative action can result in hiring of more qualified candidates, better college football teams and little or no need for affirmative action in the future. This still doesn’t address the real problem with college football, basketball and baseball: the abysmal 4 to 6 year graduation rates.
Before Superman’s cape came off, Scarborough poked fun at Danielson for how much he loves Tim Tebow. Someone had to.
During the Alabama beat down of Florida last Saturday, Danielson and Lindquist couldn’t help but call a scramble by the then dominant and later victorious Alabama QB Greg McElroy “Tebowesque”. It’s odd when heroic sports titans born of our wild imaginations and survivor’s bias die and all that is left is a human being, especially for the titan! Tebow, an avowed devout Christian, writes the book, chapter and verse number of a bible quote on his eye black each week.
His tears as final minutes expired and the Gators hopes of a repeat SEC championship hopes were dashed, his tears ran past “John” under his right eye and “16:33” under his left:
“I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But, take heart I have overcome the world.”.
Kind of ironic when crying over a football game.
Still, Tebow has been fun to watch and in the end he is a big f*cking barely adult and your college years are forever. I have to believe Alabama pounds Texas’ lights out in the BCS Championship game. Honestly, I don’t think Texas could beat Alabama or Florida. I hope I am right. Every bad, blowout BCS title game would just be more proof that a 16 team playoff is the way to go. The top 16 this year would leave you with 5 undefeated teams, 1 one loss team, 6 two loss teams and 4 three loss teams all squaring off to for a national playoff for a real championship.
1 Alabama 13-0
2 Texas 13-0
3 Cincinnati 12-0
4 TCU 12-0
5 Florida 12-1
6 Boise State 13-0
7 Oregon 10-2
8 Ohio State 10-2
9 Georgia Tech 11-2
10 Iowa 10-2
11 Virginia Tech 9-3
12 LSU 9-3
13 Penn State 10-2
14 Brigham Young 10-2
15 Miami (FL) 9-3
16 West Virginia 9-3
——————————-
17 Pittsburgh 9-3
18 Oregon State 8-4
19 Oklahoma State 9-3
20 Arizona 8-4
21 Stanford 8-4
22 Nebraska 9-4
23 Utah 9-3
24 USC 8-4
25 Wisconsin 9-3
Check the matchups:
‘Bama v WVU
Texas v The U Cincy v. BYU TCU v PSU Florida v LSU Boise v Va Tech Oregon v Iowa Ohio State v Georgia Tech
All of those would garner high ratings and strong travel. In addition, the ones I have put in bold, I think would have the highest probability of being closely contested, exciting games. Beamer Ball vs. Boise’s bag of tricks? Florida/LSU rematch?
But no. Instead, we have this sham title game. Ah well, they know I’m going to watch half of the bowls anyway. So let’s go bowling.
“Once removed for the duration of a practice or game, the player should not be considered for return-to-football activities until he is fully asymptotic, both at rest and after exertion, has a normal neurological examination, normal neuropsychological testing, and has been cleared to return by both his team physician(s) and the independent neurological consultant.”
This rule is very long overdue. The player’s union not pushing for this kind of basic rule was a major failing of late NFLPA head Gene Upshaw’s tenure. I remember watching Jets Wide Receivers Al Toon and Wayne Chrebet have their careers brutally ended by series of concussions in two different eras. It was pretty clear the player’s well being was not being protected watching Toon and Chrebet being trotted out on the field concussion after concussion, until they couldn’t function.
[Pittsburgh Steelers Wide Receiver Hines] Ward insists he wasnt interested in engaging in “a war of words” with Roethlisberger, wasnt dividing the team and wasnt questioning his manhood. But the more he tried to explain himself the more you wondered what exactly he was trying to say, especially after Ward pointed out that he played through concussions and lived to talk about it.”We needed him out there,” he said of Roethlisberger. “We wanted him. This is a big game.” I understand that, too. But I also understand its only a game. Were talking about someones career here, someone who suffered four concussions since 2006, and, Im sorry, I defer to the experts — not Hines Ward. So does Tomlin, telling Roethlisberger on Saturday that he wasnt playing and that backup Dennis Dixon — a guy who had thrown one pass in his pro career — would take his place.“Its simply this,” Tomlin said. “He passed neurological tests throughout the week that we gave him repeatedly. He had headaches with exertion, which is a symptom of post-concussion deals. It persisted throughout the week. We didnt feel comfortable allowing him to play.”
