Saturday, 8PM. Are Philadelphia’s fortunes changing? Phillies, then the Flyers? We’ll see…but a Philly sports fan has to be all in now. Ahh, sports playoffs: a desperate path to an off season of elation or misery.

The700Level.com flags PA Governor Rendell lamenting the McNabb trade and predicting a playoff run for the Redskins and a ruined season for the Eagles. He also predicted Hillary over Obama and Specter over Sestak so I am hoping his abysmal prediction rate is preserved.

It’s a great quick and enjoyable read for a football fan check it out here .

So after not one but two Roethlisberger alleged rapes, we begin to her about Bar Room ben, the town hound dawg and bar room blowhard.

A few months after the accident, a reporter and a cameraman for KDKA-TV, the CBS affiliate that broadcasts Steelers games, were driving on I-376 in Pittsburgh when they saw two men on motorcycles and recognized one as Roethlisberger, who was not wearing a helmet. They began shooting footage, which showed Roethlisberger giving them the finger as he sped away, but the video never aired. The station’s news director at the time, John Verrilli, and its current assistant news director, Anne Linaberger, deny that any such tape existed, but several people who saw the video gave SI similar accounts of the tape; sources believe the story was killed out of fear that it would damage KDKA’s relationship with the Steelers. “If we had been the other affiliate [which doesn’t broadcast the games],” says one of the people who saw the tape, “it would have been A-1 news.” (A neighbor who lives near Roethlisberger in a tony section of Gibsonia, Pa., but did not want to be named has also seen the quarterback on his motorcycle. “I’ve never seen him with a helmet,” the neighbor said.)

via AN NFL SUPERSTAR’S REPULSIVE BEHAVIOR, THE ULTIMATE – 05.10.10 – SI Vault.

The sports press, irresponsibly and predictably, still does defer to athletes like the old days, but today its for the lucrative deals the stations have as broadcasters of sports programming with the franchises they cover. Don’t assume that your favorite athlete is a rapist at worst, hound dawg at best like Roethlisberger. Just assume there is more to them then their funny commercials or heroic last minute scores. Steelers fans are really upset about Roethlisberger and who he seems to be after all the truth came out. All of these sudden Roethlisberger truths remind me of Curt Schilling’s childish chest beating as the truth about steroids and MLB unfolded. Schilling argued that stats and awards should be vacated for the sanctity of baseball.

Boston Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling called on Roger Clemens to give up the four Cy Young Awards he’s won since 1997 if he can’t clear his name from allegations that he used steroids to prolong and enhance his career.

“If he doesn’t do that then there aren’t many options as a fan for me other than to believe his career 192 wins and three Cy Youngs he won prior to 1997 were the end,” Schilling wrote Wednesday in his blog, 38pitches.com. “From that point on the numbers were attained through using (performance-enhancing drugs). Just like I stated about Jose (Canseco), if that is the case with Roger, the four Cy Youngs should go to the rightful winners, and the numbers should go away if he cannot refute the accusations.”

via Schilling calls out Clemens on steroids – Baseball- nbcsports.msnbc.com.

Then Schilling found out Manny Ramirez and David Ortiz, his Red Sox teammates, were on the 2003 doping list and all of a sudden, Schilling wasn’t so bully about chopping the Manny and Ortiz records and numbers out of the books. Those two powered the team during their runs to the 2004 and 2007 titles. Schilling also proclaimed that everyone had a sixth sense regarding steroid users. Schilling claimed it was clear that you could look at someone and “tell” who was juicing. Well Ortiz had a classic juicer stat line, going from throw away to Big Papi and back to Ortiz again and Ramirez, a better hitter, was caught again in 2009 using a woman’s fertility drug used as a masking agent by steroid users. Schilling clearly loved those championship teams, and said Ortiz was his personal friend so maybe that explains why his tune was a bit different for his old teammates.

Should any of David’s subsequent accomplishments be judged by this?

That’s for you to decide. It seems to be an area of immense debate, but I am not sure how this could/should/will be resolved. Whatever you do you need to do it for anyone now, and if you do do something, make sure there is some detriment for anyone caught going forward. Given that so many people live on their accomplishments or stats, taking one or both away would be a decent way to deter some guys, I think.

Should any of the Sox’ accomplishments in ‘04 or ‘07 be judged differently because of this?

This makes me laugh. I have already seen the bandwagon fans start the *04 and *07 threads and remarks, people with teams who are far deeper into this than most other teams — as if this makes it all OK. Every team going back 10-15 years needs an * if you want to consider giving it to anyone. The hard part is that it’s turning into a situation where we are seeing every single GREAT player in the past 10 years caught, and they’re dragging what we thought were the majority, and are now turning into the minority, down with them.

via 38 Pitches » Questions and answers on the David Ortiz news.

We aren’t the only ones sold on overriding virtue of man borne of athletic excellence, but teammates and fans alike should be wary. Alyssa Rosenberg thinks we should love them anyway.

It all went to hell, of course. Shaughnessy is right that the 2004 split was dreadful, though he’s wrong that we shouldn’t forgive, and seek reconciliation. But that’s what growing up is. The people you love most hurt you worst. Promising careers get destroyed by injury rumored to be caused by steroid use, or at least overtraining. But athletes are perhaps the best training for a mature kind of love. You start out blind, you learn to see, and you have to figure out how to adore them even after your vision has cleared.

via Alyssa Rosenberg: Youth.

I would disagree that loving athletes is training for any kind of maturity in love. It is training to love as a fool. The only thing you should love about athletes, unless you are personally linked to one of them, are their great moments in the games the play. Not what you want to love in addition to that: not the storybook life, not some storied work ethic that produced the championship season, not the press conferences full of swagger and definitely not the promises made to fans of “returns to glory”. Just the moments. If you try and love anything more about sports, your vision may never be cleared and even if everything is plain as day, you’ll just prefer to see the athletes you love as a person that deserves the affection. And that will just make you a hypocrite or a fool. Just ask Schilling.

Roger Goodell has a huge problem concerning questions posed to NFL Prospects during the NFL Combine. For anyone not familiar with the NFL Scouting Combine bka the Combine, it is a four day testing (medical, athletic and mental), interview and try out for hundreds of the top college football players who are NFL hopefuls. The combine is run by National Football Scouting, Incorporated (NFS Inc) which is an organization that is independent of the NFL but collects dues from all 28 NFL franchises to run and fund the combine. From NFS Inc’s homepage:

…in 1985 all 28 NFL teams decided they would participate in future National Invitational Camps with the goal of sharing costs for the medical examinations of draft eligible players. […]

As football and the art of evaluating players has evolved, so has the NFL Scouting Combine. While medical examinations remain the number one priority of the event, athletes will also participate in a variety of psychological and physical tests, as well as, formal and informal interviews with top executives, coaches and scouts from all 32 NFL teams. NIC is the ultimate four day job interview for the top college football players eligible for the upcoming NFL Draft.

via History | NFL Scouting Combine.

The problem with this job fair is that the interviewers don’t seem to follow any type of guidelines for their lines of questioning and they also can’t seem to keep confidential information to themselves. Take the questions and comments from various NFL teams thrown at Toby Gerhart. Gerhart is now a Minnesota Vikings RB who starred at Stanford University but at the combine he was asked if he thought he was a “poster child for white running backs?” and was even told “If you were black you would have gone in the first round”.

Former Oklahoma state WR Dez Bryant now a Dallas Cowboy was asked if his mother was a prostitute.

Another player was asked about his sexuality.

Bengals fourth-round pick Geno Atkins said one club, he couldn’t recall which, asked him about his sexual orientation.

“The only unusual question I got was if I was straight or gay,” said Atkins, a defensive tackle from Georgia whose father, Gene, played 10 seasons in the league. “And that was about it.

via Dallas Morning News | News for Dallas, Texas | Texas/Southwest.

In addition three top NFL prospects had information from their alledgedly confidential answers regarding marijuana usage leaked in 2007. Not only was this information leaked, these prospects were asked about drug use.

Three of the most highly regarded prospects in the upcoming NFL draft—Calvin Johnson, Amobi Okoye, and Gaines Adams—admitted in interviews at the combine that they have used marijuana. Nevertheless, all three are considered to be free of the kind of dramatic character problems that have plagued the NFL recently.

via Draft Prospects Admit To Smoking Pot – NFL GMs hope to encourage candor, won’t punish drug use.

Chris Mortenson, NFL insider for ESPN has the best solution for all of these awful interview questions.

Bottom line: The question never should have been asked.

…

The truth is, every personnel director and coach in the league suspects that more than 50 percent of the players smoke or have smoked marijuana during high school or college. It’s why the NFL does not randomly test players for street drugs such as marijuana because, as one league official says, “We don’t want to be the police. That’s the job of law enforcement.”

The league tests players once each year during a three-month window before training camp. A player is only tested randomly for street drugs if he has given reasonable cause, such as providing a positive sample during precamp testing, or having a run-in with law enforcement. Then he enters the substance-abuse program. (Don’t confuse this with performance-enhancing drugs that are randomly tested for year-round without cause).

[…]

It was preventable. Don’t ask the question. Now, three honest young men have their reputations stained in some form during a time that should be a great celebration for them and their families.

via NFL should be embarrassed – NFL – ESPN.

But Mortenson’s guideline doesn’t address the issue of confidentiality. All this information was leaked from confidential interviews and even Wonderlic intelligence test scores have been leaked. The most notable leak was Vince Young’s information in 2006.

Vince Young’s horribly low score on the Wonderlic intelligence test — reportedly 6 of a possible 50 — has given teams at the top of the NFL Draft plenty of extra work to do. It also might end up changing how the picks fall at the top of the first round.

[…]

Going into the NFL Scouting Combine, the junior quarterback from Texas looked certain to be one of the top four picks. But after scoring so poorly on the Wonderlic, Young’s status as a top-5 or even top-10 pick could be in jeopardy.

ProFootballTalk.com broke the story of Young’s score Sunday, and several NFL scouts confirmed it. Any score less than 15 is extremely low for a quarterback, and most teams want players at that position to score at least a 20.

“It raises a huge red flag,” said Jeep Chryst, a former NFL assistant attending the combine as an at-large scout.

The NFL did its best to silence talk about Young’s test. Combine officials said the score of 6 was inaccurate. Titans GM Floyd Reese said he’d heard the first test had been administered or graded incorrectly. Texans GM Charley Casserly also disputed Young’s score Sunday, saying it was inaccurate.

Young took the test again — on Sunday — and made a 16.

via USATODAY.com – Will Wonderlic cause teams to wonder about Young?.

Each of these incidents is a “last straw” moment and yet, every year brings yet another major violation of a player’s privacy and rights to a fair interview. New NFL Union boss DeMaurice Smith needs to jump on this in the upcoming CBA. NFL teams should be equally responsible for each on of these violations being that they contract NFS Inc to run the Combine.

Even though Cole Hamels is back to being a killer again and Carlos Ruiz hit his second walk off homer, we have to hear about this:

Another idiot fan ran onto the field last night. But this fan ran onto the field at the worst possible moment — just as Hamels was about to throw his first pitch in the ninth inning with a shutout on the line.

Cardinals right-hander Adam Wainwright put it best: “That was tired, that was bad. You know what? The Phillies fans should be mad at that guy because he might’ve gotten in the way of Cole’s mojo he had going. That’s terrible timing. And if you don’t want to get Tased, don’t go on the field. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with getting Tased if you’re on the field.”

via The Zo Zone: Hamels Looks Like Hamels ’08.

No, tasing isn’t necessary and thankfully this jerk wasn’t TASERed. (and fucking with my Phillies versus a NL rival pushes my liberalism as much as anything does). They are police officers, they should be trained along with security to tackle the idiots no need to use a technology that isn’t as safe as we are normally told. Prosecute the idiots, fine them, ban them from the stadium, but exposing them to a potentially lethal method of apprehention is not justified in my opinion. Heaven forbid an officer pulls out a gun accidentally and shoots at the trespasser. Unless its the playoffs…then they can call in a CIA drone and blow their ass up. (kidding. sort of)

“We had a president that couldn’t get there on time a lot, Bill Clinton,” Jerry said, addressing Dez Bryant’s punctuality problems in bizarre fashion. “Seriously.

“But boy, when he got there, he brought the wood.”

via Jerry’s bizarre Clinton-Bryant comparison – Dallas Cowboys Blog – ESPN Dallas.

I hate that the Cowboys have Bryant. With Jasen Witten, Miles Austin, Patrick Crayton and now Bryant, I don’t count Roy Williams…he is bad by choice, they have 4 big play-making receivers that are just physically imposing. They will be tough for Eagles to defend. Couple that with a backfield with Felix Jones, Tashard Choice and Marion Barber its just a lot of weapons for a defensive coordinator to scheme against.

Eagles safety Quintin Mikell explains the Philadelphia Eagles purge of veterans after the 2009-2010 football season.

Mikell, the Pro Bowl safety and now the team’s senior position player, said the dramatic roster changes the Eagles have made this offseason were necessary to rid the team of a negative element that had infiltrated the locker room.

“There were some things I had never seen before since I’d been here,” Mikell said after a recent workout at the NovaCare Complex. “There were guys who were more concerned with their own individual accomplishments than going out and playing as a unit.

“When we lost, instead of looking at themselves and asking what they could have done better, there were some guys who were questioning the coaches and the game plan. But you can’t bring that negativity to the team, especially when you have a young locker room like we have. Because then the young guys hear it and it spreads, and you can’t have that and be successful.”

via PhillyBurbs.com: Mikell: Eagles’ moves have been for the better

Sounds like the Eagles veterans suffered from a deficit of leadership. Those veterans would include Mikell.

The Hopkins-Jones, Jr. bout last Saturday from the Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas was a sad display: Two old fighters, shadows of themselves, cheap shotting , holding and scrapping through 12 rounds.

Although both fighters often appeared to be shadows of their former selves, the 45-year-old Hopkins (51-5-1, 32 KOs) dominated nearly every round of a light heavyweight fight filled with wily veteran tactics and fueled by obvious mutual dislike.

Hopkins punctuated his dominance with a stirring rebound from the 41-year-old Jones’ punch behind his head and the ensuing in-ring fracas late in the sixth round at the Mandalay Bay Events Center. Hopkins was hit behind the head twice and below the belt at least once during the bout, leaving him with spots before his eyes in the final rounds.

“It was definitely worth it, and it was sweet revenge,” Hopkins said in the ring before collapsing. “It was really rough in there. He’s a good fighter, and he tried to rough me up. I tried to tough it out, but I was seeing spots from the sixth round on.”

Hopkins also said he would love to fight heavyweight champion David Haye next. After recovering from his collapse, Hopkins shook off doctors who wanted to transport him to the hospital on a stretcher, dressing himself and walking into the ambulance. Jones also was taken for evaluation and possible treatment for a cut near his left eye.

via Hopkins Gets Long-Awaited Revenge Against Jones.

At 45 years old Hopkins is looking to go up a weight class and fight WBA heavyweight champion David Haye. This is insanity. A few years ago I saw Hopkins fight southpaw Joe Calzaghe in Las Vegas, Hopkins lost the fight by decision and deservedly so. Hopkins, ever the strategist, had a winning strategy, he just wasn’t quick and agile enough to execute the strategy vs. a younger, faster Calzaghe.

A decision against a fighter far out of his prime (Roy Jones Jr) who has lost all of his legendary speed should be of no comfort to any of those in Hopkins camp. The loss to an over the hill Hopkins, ones 7th loss in his last 12 bouts, should be equally as discomforting. It’s well past time for both of these greats to hang up the gloves.