Seriously. The dirtiest cheater ever. Not only was he juicing and doping on his own, he was bribing and paying tons of people in the sport of cycling. the bracelets have a typo, they should read: “Lie Strong”

I love Andy Reid – he just scapegoated the defensive coordinator that he never should have hired in the first place.

— Bill Simmons (@BillSimmons) October 16, 2012

Juan Castillo, who was put in an impossible situation by Andy Reid has been fired by the Eagles organization:

“My job was to bring a championship and I didn’t get it done.

I feel bad for coach Reid, that I didn’t get it done for him, for the city, and for Mr. Lurie.”

You said once, you’d take a bullet for him.

“I’d still do that right now. All we ask in life is an opportunity. And I had an opportunity. And what hurts is you got to take advantage of opportunity, that’s life. That’s what you have to do, and I did not take advantage of opportunity. It hurts my family, it hurts coach Reid, it hurts Mr. Lurie, it hurts the city.”

source: For Some Strange Reason, Juan Castillo Says He Would Still Take a Bullet for Andy Reid, Who F$%@ed Him – Crossing Broad via Castillo: I’d Still Take a Bullet for Reid | NBC 10 Philadelphia.

Barring a miraculous comeback, Andy Reid is done. The last time we made the playoffs and won a game: McNabb was our starter and Kurt Warner, Chad Pennington, Jake Delhomme and Tavaris Jackson were QBs starting for playoff teams. We went to the Super Bowl in the 2004/05 season.

Castillo has been in Philly for years (since 1995). A bit longer than Reid actually, so this is a big big move. I believed from the beginning of the season, the Eagles would be 7-9. This doesn’t give me confidence to reach even 7 wins.

Looking past all the excitement that millionaire Jay-Z took the subway.

Newark leased the Newark Airport and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey for $200m. All of this money was used to build the Prudential Center for the New Jersey Nets and the New Jersey Devils. Now the Nets have up and bolted to Brooklyn.(Prudential kicked in 100m for naming rights for two decades)

Newark is left with a stadium that will be utilized much less and collecting less revenue than expected and a 100m dollar sized hole in their budget.

“No one at ESPN will tell us what happened. Certainly the NBA office isn’t going to tell us what happened. One of the quotes from ESPN in there – we had discussions, but couldn’t agree on a role … as is usual, that’s a bunch of BS from ESPN.

source: Stan Van Gundy rips ESPN in interview | SI Tracking Blog – Tracking MLB, NBA, NFL, NHL, and NCAA On Twitter.

ESPN wants to pretend that their news and broadcasting organizations have some sort of inborn integrity, they don’t. They need to broadcast games and by that they will bend to a leagues wishes. But we knew this from the time ESPN took Playmakers off tv because the show hurt the NFL’s feelings.

The NFL has made a situation where these guys can simply not succeed. Breaking the union can’t be more important than running a sports league with a professional standard.

When an officiating crew’s awful blatant mistake results in 1/4 to 1 billion of gambling winning changing hands, there is no standard.

The refs aren’t demanding much from the $9billion dollar/year business, it should be given before more of these crucial mistakes are made.

It’s not the replacement official’s fault. They are literally amateur level officials. They have no business being NFL regular season officials. They are doing as best they can, and I sincerely applaud them for their efforts to get calls right even as fans boo them.

Instead of grabbing the replacement official, Bill Belichick should grab his boss and ask why he and his fellow NFL team owners aren’t willing to satisfy the NFL referees rather modest demands on the almost $10billion per year business that is the NFL so they can have quality officiating. Goodell and the owners are stupidly betting that they can train the replacement officials (from the lower levels of college football and even lesser watched leagues like the Lingerie Football League) to become competent pro officials in about 6 weeks and then turn to Ed Hochuli & Mike Carey and friends and say: stay out forever. This is the same league where playoff officials normally have to earn their playoff jobs with accuracy of judgement and by properly maintaining the game.

The highest-rated eligible officials at each position are selected to work the Super Bowl. They must have at least five years of NFL experience and previous playoff assignments

source: 2012 NFL Playoffs — John Parry to referee Super Bowl – ESPN.

Let’s review that again…to referee a Super Bowl in a typical year:

“The highest-rated eligible officials at each position are selected to work the Super Bowl. They must have at least five years of NFL experience and previous playoff assignments”

That means no referee you see on TV is a top caliber official by the NFL’s own standard. This a soon to be 10billion/year cartel run by 32 ownership groups who would rather turn their game over to people who they believe cannot do the job to avoid making 10million/year less. The same owners will demand hundreds of millions for stadium construction and upgrades from your local, state and federal governments, continue to benefit from the Personal Seat License market and continue to raise ticket, concession and parking prices. In addition, the owners say they want accountability: they want to be able to pull who aren’t performing up to par. So to prove they love accountability, they are basically putting in a bunch of inexperienced newbie officials into the game, trying to train them on the spot to replace guys with centuries of experience between them

With only 16 games, every game is a big deal. A lost game can cost you home field advantage or a berth in the playoffs. If replacement officials essentially take a game away from a team with a bad call, and that team misses the playoffs, they have to wonder if the official lockout was all really worth it.

 

 

https://twitter.com/VinceYoung/status/248490025837289472

also, “finical losses”. Apparently broke. There have to be some annuities that make sense for these guys that can be recommended by the players union.

A working phone number for Keith Young could not be located. Court records do not show that he has an attorney.

According to public records, Vince Young was one of at least 10 NFL players who turned to Pro Player Funding for cash during the lockout. Loan documents show he borrowed the $1.9 million at 20 percent interest, with $619,122 in interest paid up front, and agreed that a judgment could be entered if he missed a payment.

Young authorized $1 million in payments to Pro Player directly from his Eagles salary during the 2011 season, and his accountant was working this year to have a similar arrangement with the Bills, according to court records. However, when a payment due in May was never made, the loan went into default.

source: Vince Young Money Problems: Quarterback Struggling To Find Team, Finances.

another one.

Report: Atlanta Falcons running back Michael Turner charged with DUI – NFL News | FOX Sports on MSN.

Dallas Cowboys wide receiver Dez Bryant should be cut if team owner Jerry Jones feels Bryan needs to be baby sat and driven to/from work like a toddler going to summer day camp.

The NBA had an ex football player, turned christianity based motivational Tony Gaskins come in and talk to rookies about not having sexy time unless you are married (preferably to your high school sweetheart or 1st girlfriend) forevaaarrr:

Young Sun Kendall Marshall said “I’m turnin my playa card in.”

Blazer top pick Damian Lillard declared: “This man @TonyGaskins is too real. Y’all need to get up on him. He just changed my life. #realrap”

Harrison Barnes, Darius Johnson-Odom, Draymond Green, Jared Sullinger, Andre Drummond and Quincy Acy all tweeted similarly.

[…]

He writes and speaks frequently about relationships, and “embracing manhood.” A recent book is called “Mrs. Right.” His 140,000-plus Twitter followers are mostly women, and he is a life coach to many of them.

[…]

“Scaring them straight” is part of what Gaskins says he’s trying to do. And a surprising number of young players are eager to hear it.

“They see how the world is going,” he says. “They’re searching for something new. They don’t want to see their girl on ‘Basketball Wives’ running their name into the ground.”

What he preaches instead is that a player focus all his romantic effort on his high-school sweetheart, the woman he has always trusted most, taking the much more difficult, but ultimately more rewarding path of building a real marriage.

This is kind of silly being that most people don’t marry their high school sweethearts. Nothing wrong with it, it just isn’t what a lot of folks really end up doing. Also, it’s the fact that people around that age, married and single, have sex.

Instead of telling these young adults to not engage in sexy time unless they met in 10th grade history class, maybe they should give them some relevant advice:

1. use condoms unless your married
2. get a reputable business manager and accountant. And have them audit each other
3. Get the uber app for your smartphone. when you go out, use it
4. Money: 50% of your check is taxes. Save 15 to 25%, the rest is yours.
5. don’t deal drugs.

 

The season was over a while ago, but I don’t think our future is ruined. I’m sad to see Victorino walk and Pence was a good a rented player as any, but we have to find some way to replenish the squad going into next year. No matter what Rueben Amaro, Jr. says, that’s what he is doing: building for 2013.

I think Ryan Howard will be fine. Some folks are concerned, but the thing about Achilles ruptures is that they take away your explosiveness and they have to be rebuilt. The fact that he is back playing at all is pretty good sign especially after he had additional complications.

We’re taking longer looks at Dominic Brown and John Mayberry this year and beyond that, the search for the bullpen is on.
Off the top of my I head, I am guessing that the two biggest drop offs from the Championship year (’08) and NL Pennant year (’09) are: fielding and the bullpen. Off yeas for starters happen, but Roy Halladay is dinged up and Cliff Lee has always had weird funks. I think we should be pleased to have them along with Worley heading into next season.

The season’s stunk so far, but it ain’t that awful, as long as it isn’t the new normal.

The 83-point victory is bigger than the Dream Team’s biggest Olympic win, a 116-48 defeat of Angola. It’s early, but through three games, the 2012 version of the Dream Team has been more dominant than the original Dream Team. They are averaging more points and winning by a bigger margin.

source: Carmelo, Team USA dominate record books – TrueHoop Blog – ESPN.

 

Sometimes, all you need is the title and the link: Haters Need to Shut the Hell Up About Gabby Douglas’ Hair (Props to Dodai Stewart)

when a high paid, high profile part time employee is accused of raping or touching kids on campus, “I was cc’ed” or no one told me is not an adequate defense:

Spanier, former chairman of the NCAA Division I Board of Directors and a former member of the association’s executive committee, said he was merely copied on two emails from Schultz to Curley about the 1998 report. “I have no recollection of any conversations on the topic or any other emails from that era sent to me or by me,” he wrote. “It is public knowledge that the district attorney decided there was no crime to pursue. I don’t understand how one could conclude from such evidence ‘concealment’ of a known child predator.”

[…]

Spanier wrote that his knowledge of the 2001 incident was explained in detail to Freeh investigators. During that year, Spanier wrote, “I never heard a word about abusive or sexual behavior, nor were there any other details presented that would have led me to think along those lines.”

source: Graham Spanier wants to set record straight with Penn State Nittany Lions’ Board of Trustees – ESPN.

Spanier is just confirming that there was a lack of institutional control.

Of course, Sandusky didn’t start in 1998:

Three men have told investigators that Jerry Sandusky, the former Penn State defensive coordinator recently convicted of 45 counts of child sex abuse, molested them in the 1970s and 1980s, The Patriot-News of Harrisburg, Pa., has reported, citing sources close to the case.

None of Sandusky’s 10 previously known victims had predated the 1990s, and in his report released Thursday, former FBI director Louis Freeh said his review for Penn State’s board of trustees had not found evidence predating the ’90s.

source: Penn State Nittany Lions — New Jerry Sandusky accusers say abuse dates to 1970s, report says – ESPN.

More power to any victim who comes forward.

But the question should really be, in the face of these new allegations and the aftermath of the NCAA “near death” penalty: how many more McQueary’s and janitors are there?

I can’t believe it was just a couple of PSU janitors, an assistant coach and 4 administrators were all that ever knew about Sandusky.

That’s why I still think single or multi-year suspension plus sanctions were the way to go. We don’t know how many McQueary’s or Janitors thay are.

We do know there are many that have held Joe Paterno up so high they can’t see him any being as low as the fact suggest.

Look at those kids faces when they hear the NCAA penalties. Surprise? Really?

Rick Reilly was part of the faithful (as I was):

What a fool I was.

In 1986, I spent a week in State College, Pa., researching a 10-page Sports Illustrated Sportsman of the Year piece on Joe Paterno.

It was supposed to be a secret, but one night the phone in my hotel room rang. It was a Penn State professor, calling out of the blue.

“Are you here to take part in hagiography?” he said.

“What’s hagiography?” I asked.

“The study of saints,” he said. “You’re going to be just like the rest, aren’t you? You’re going to make Paterno out to be a saint. You don’t know him. He’ll do anything to win. What you media are doing is dangerous.”

[…]

It gets worse. According to Freeh, Spanier, Schultz and Curley were set to call child services on Sandusky in February 2001 until Paterno apparently talked them out of it. Curley wasn’t “comfortable” going to child services after that talk with JoePa.

 

Before I start, a disclaimer:

I grew up right outside Harrisburg, Pa (one hour and a half from PSU and an hour forty five from Philly). My school bus, classrooms and recesses were electric with excitement after PSU beat Miami for the national championship at the Fiesta Bowl in ’87. I went to Drexel (instead of my other choice PSU) for it’s co-op program and city life (RIP Drexel Football 1973), so I root for Pennsylvania’s university football teams. I’ve had friends from various times in life who’ve played and/or worked for PSU, Pitt, Temple, Villanova or Penn’s football programs. I was fully for Joe Pa staying as long as he wanted because of graduation rates, the donations to PSU, his advocacy for philanthropy and because of his old school stubborness. When the Nittany Lions used a modified “Veer Offense” to win the Big 10 and then beat the Florida State University Seminoles, I watched the whole game and all the overtimes. I went to Temple football games before Al Golden turned the program around. I’ve been a PA taxpayer and resident for my entire life. I pull for my state’s institutions to succeed.

I think for the overall good of Pennsylvania State University and it’s athletic programs, football should be suspended for a year. I think Mark Emmert should give PSU football the “Death Penalty”.

Joe Paterno’s statue was removed today after it became painfully clear that he and fellow PSU administrators actively covered up former PSU player and assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky’s molestation of boys for a over a decade. Sandusky brought his victims to team practices, bowl games and campus even after Paterno, former President Graham Spanier (a powerful figure and near legend in his own right to PSU alumni), VP of Business and Finance Gary Schultz and Athletic Director Tim Curley knew Sandusky had been seen raping children in campus facilities. Sandusky attended football games with luxury access as late as Fall 2011. Many understand that victims surely do not want to see statue lionizing a man who did nothing to report child rape as to protect his legacy. Penn State Football is the real monument here.

Punishments will always hurt more than the just guilty. And they should. People against suspending a season of PSU fooball say we should not look to punish students and businesses that depend on PSU games for revenue. Not having top tier BCS college football as a class break is not the students being “punished”. It’s a penalty for the program, but class will still be held. Degrees will be awarded and research will still be funded. In this case, since players are not accused of wrong doing there will be other programs willing to accept their transfer. Getting kicked out of school is being punished. Not being allowed to go to school is being punished. This is temporarily removing an extra curricular program and then allowing it to be rebuilt from scratch. As far as businesses, tell me what other business (and college football is a business) we should protect when it’s leaders choose to actively harbor a child rapist for their own gain? Punishments are just that. A criminal gets locked up and their family and loved ones suffer. The people they supported suffer. We can’t ask justice to bend to prevent discomfort.

Even under sanction, reputation can be upheld by loyal true believers. Also, for formal sexual assault allegations against individuals on college campuses, many of us prefer swift and final sanctions. Go back and look at college athletes who have been formerly accused of sexual assault: They are quite often immediately investigated and can easily be dismissed from teams and campuses. Remember the Duke Lacrosse players? Penn state was the extreme analog of that fiasco. Paterno, Spanier, Schultz and Curley didn’t immediately expel or even investigate Sandusky. They didn’t seek out the victim assistant coach and PSU alum Mike McQueary saw being raped in the shower. Instead, they decided treat Sandusky, the child rapist, humanely and not take any action. They did everything wrong in the face of child rape for about 14 years.

Most importantly college athletics are proxies for pride and ego around the nation. Penn State is the rule, not the exception. The reputation at the heart of “We are Penn State” is that athletics are an integral part, not a supplement to University life. It was a reputation that kept recruiters from competing schools from even having a shot with players in Pennsylvania and let PSU recruiters sit down with parents of blue chip recruits nationwide and tout morality as a perk. It was a reputation that kept PSU on TV even in down years. It was a reputation coveted by the Big Ten in 1990 when PSU became a member institution of the expanding conference. The value of this football program to PSU’s reputation needs to be changed.

There may be enough players, administrators and staff in the program that will stay during the lean years caused by sanctions without suspension that insist, and believe like PSU alum, and NFL football great Franco Harris, that the allegations against Joe Paterno just can not be true:

“People down deep know the truth: that there would no way Joe would be involved in a cover up, conspiracy or anything like that..uh(sic)…dealing with these children”

Franco Harris is one of the football greats and PSU grads who considers “Joe Pa” their second grandfather. He is also a prime example of why PSU football needs to be taken away for a year and then be sanctioned and penalized going forward for 4 or more after that. This element of loyalty beyond standard needs to be rooted out. The element where a janitor sees a boy get raped, knows its wrong and fears that him reporting it to his superiors will only result in retribution against him because the rapist is the best damn defensive coordinator in school and college football history needs to be rooted out. The element where an assistant coach reports a child rape to the head football coach, then remains on staff even as the child rapist continues to be paid and honored as coach emeritus by the program. Is he the only employee or staff that looked the other way or kept quiet? Will we ever know?

A year suspension, aka The Death Penalty, will force the university to outgrow these true believers. Without a year off the stands will be full of families cheering on PSU. Penn State football fans will keep box office receipts healthy, especially if the sanctions pull games off of TV. The students, alumni, staff and fans that cheer and believe: “We Are Penn State” will know they have to go to games to see the team they love built by the coach they loved. Even if fines are levied, alumni and lifelong PSU fans will begin to tithe for the program with a fund raising spike every home Saturday. When the Nittany Lions travel, look for even greater groups of PSU fans road tripping to support this legacy. A school that has Dance Marathon (the largest student run philanthropy in the world) has no problems turning out bodies and cash in support of a cause they believe in. The believers in Joe Pa, have already started to rally:

Penn State students recently changed the name of the area where they camp out for tickets the week of home football games to “Nittanyville” from “Paternoville.”

Without a year off, alumni like Franco Harris will show up on PSU sidelines this fall to become a group of living surrogates for Joe Pa’s legend. The returning players will maintain their scholarships as scholarships to practice and play football even if replaced with scholarships from the university, they’ll see themselves as the last of Joe Pa’s recruits. The players who enrolled this year will be the neophytes of that group and they will form a gestalt of players for a legacy. They will train, practice and play harder than ever to prove that the program Joe Pa built is of unimpeachable integrity and make us forget . They will strive to be an enduring symbol of Paterno in the face of all opposing teams game after game.

They will prove they can’t readily deal with the aftermath of these crimes to committed to protect football with football being played. Not because they are bad people, or because they don’t care that kids were raped, but because “Joe Pa” was no nickname or persona, he was family to them, and many of us support if not protect our family in the face of the most heinous evidence instead of trying to cope with what the evidence means about the people we care about. Joe Pa’s legacy doesn’t need any more protectors. It needs to be stripped away so that people begin to look at what they really had and have. What they do have is an athletic program run by people who decided the legacy of a football team was more important than jailing a child rapist, preventing further injury to children or finding justice for children who had been abused.

A death penalty would be painful antiseptic and ultimately right. This talk of unprecedented penalties is welcome, but not enough. Some of the players will stay no matter what, but if football is taken away by NCAA President Mark Emmert many will take their get out of Happy Valley free cards if football is gone for a year. The players that stay, would never be convinced that things needed to change, but they will already be just students for a year by the time they return. They’ll have to adapt. The coaches who I would guess most likely to stay in the face of football under the weight of extreme sanctions without suspension are coaches who have long ties to Penn State and Paterno the idol. There would be no clean house, no clean accounting of idolization as a gateway to rationalizing an idols machinations as good and right. Under suspension, there would be no program for them to run to bolster Paterno’s image. Everyone would have to leave and acknowledge that Joe Paterno’s monument, the football program, was rotting from the inside out and the rot began with Sandusky and was allowed to fester by Paterno, Spanier, Schultz and Curley.