Over the past several months, there have been reports of the academic scandal at the University of North Carolina. A former tutor turned informer reporting that many athletes were illiterate, didn’t go to classes, or had work done for them. She was met with threats and derision. The NCAA investigated and couldn’t find anything.
Now, an investigation has revealed that at least 3,100 students at the University of North Carolina took fake classes to get fake grades to keep them eligible to play sports and allow them to spend their extra time practicing their sport.
According to CNN, university staff saw so-called paper classes and the artificially inflated grades they handed out “as key to helping some student-athletes remain eligible,” a former prosecutor wrote in an independent report documenting 18 years of cheating. Reportedly, at least four UNC employees have been fired and five have been disciplined in the scandal.
CNN quoted former UNC basketball player Rashad McCants: “as an athlete, we weren’t really there for an education. You get a scholarship to the university to play basketball. The university makes money off us athletes,” McCants told CNN, “and they give us this fake education as a distraction.”
There are some people saying that the university should rescind all of those scholarships, but this creates all kinds of problems. While many of these athletes are playing professionally where a degree doesn’t matter; most of them are in the world, working jobs in which they used their “degree” to get them their jobs. Should they be fired now, even though they may have many years of good service? They have families and children counting on them.
What message did this send? What message does this send now? Like steroids, every University of North Carolina degree is suspect. Certainly, every athlete is under suspicion. Did any players reject these phony classes?
One of the worst aspects of college underhanded dealing is the moral message that it sends to the athletes. As long as you can play, the rules don’t apply to you, until they do. The world doesn’t care about you, especially if you don’t make the pros. What do you do with the rest of your life? How do you earn a living without an education? Colleges and Universities are supposed to be producing thinking human beings who can survive in the real world, not just basketball players who make millions of dollars for the school, then throw them out like yesterday’s paper when they’re injured or use up all of their eligibility.
These young men (and perhaps women) have enough barriers to being successful. Universities are supposed to help these people, not abuse them.

With so many sports options, it seems that the World series isn’t the “must see” draw that it used to be. I remember sneaking a transistor radio in my school bag to check the scores from time to time, and listen on my walk home from school. Of course, I had a very high level of interest in 2005 when the White Sox defeated the Houston Astros.
However, tonight starts the World Series and it is an interesting story. On the one hand, we have the San Francisco Giants who are in their third Fall Classic in five years. The Giants may be the first dynasty of the 21st Century, especially if they win this year for the third time. Manager Bruce Bochy has steadily led the championship runs with strong pitching, timely hitting and good defense. This year’s team is built from the same cloth, and would be a very worth champion.
The Cinderella story is, of course, the AL Champion Kansas City Royals. A non-factor in the race each year since they last won the title in 1985, the Royals also have strong pitching and excellent defense, but they are renowned for their speed and base stealing. The Giants have a bit of an edge because they can play small ball and also hit homers; the Royals have OK power, but their edge is run, run, run.
This year’s playoffs have proven me wrong from a decade ago. There was a lot of talk back then about baseball contraction; there were two many teams that never contended, and I posed that the Royals, the Pirates who have made the playoffs for two consecutive years, and the Milwaukee Brewers, who have been contenders, would be the first teams to be dissolved. The Royals haven’t been in the postseason in 29 years and attendance suffered; the Pirates didn’t draw (the Steelers did) and they hadn’t been in the playoffs for 19 years. New stadiums in Pittsburgh and Milwaukee only delayed the inevitable in my option.
I was wrong. The Pirates are now a more successful franchise; the Brewers are doing OK. And the Royals could be world champions by next week. Usually, I wouldn’t root for a team in the White Sox division like the Royals, just to be contrary and evil, but I admit that it would be a feel good story if the Royals won. The Giants would also be an interesting story as a dynasty.
Let the games begin.

I think that every boxer who feels that he has gotten robbed in a decision has either wanted to keep on fighting the judges and/or the referee. When I was watching boxing actively, I hated to watch the bad referees like Carlos Padilla. A good referee should be seen very little, letting the men fight and coming in only when there was a clinch to beak up. My friend Tony Swanagan coined the name “TV Carlos” because he was always in the mix in order to get on television. He was intrusive and often, we would be sad or even boo if we found out that TV Carlos was doing a fight. I only wished someone would have punched him.
Anyway, one young fighter actually did what so many have wanted to do. At the European Youth Boxing Championship in Zagreb, Croatia, light-heavyweights Vido Loncar of Croatia and Algirdas Baniulis of Lithuania fought on Monday. I haven’t seen the match, but I guess Loncar lost on decision and took it out of the referee. After the announcement Loncar knocks the referee to the mat with a quick combination before repeatedly unloading punches once the official is down. Finally, Loncar was pulled off. As chaos ensues, Loncar appears to run to the dressing room while being chased by a number of people.
There will be punishment, I’m sure, and it will be severe. But there may be a bunch of boxers who smile at the video on You Tube.

For the past couple of weeks, there has been a lot of talk about the return of the NFL to Los Angeles. It was reported earlier this month that the NFL plans to move one or two teams to Los Angeles within the next two years. Los Angeles has not had an NFL team since the Raiders and Rams left the city following the 1994 season. The Raiders went back to Oakland and the Rams returned to St. Louis after several decades.
All of a sudden, there are reports that the NFL will announce a team in LA within the next year. Of course, there’s only two ways for there to be a team: either expansion, which would need to have a second team created to keep the schedule viable; or a current team moving. It would appear that there are only a couple of teams who are weak enough financially to merit a move. And, I have long said that teams who have supportive fan bases that sell out games should not be allowed to move because the ownership/management are too greedy or are too incompetent to make money.
This week, speculation is focusing on the possible teams that could be packing their bags, and according to these reports, we can, in the immortal words of Claude Rains say “round up the usual suspects.” Pro Football Talk reports that the St. Louis Rams are the team the NFL considers most likely to move to Los Angeles. Rams’ owner Stan Kroenke’s purchase of a 60-acre plot in Inglewood, Calif., could be used as the site for the team’s stadium. This isn’t the only possible location for a new stadium next to the L.A. Convention Center. Last week, Anschutz Entertainment Group received a six-month extension to identify a team for a proposed NFL stadium at the site.
The Rams may be in play since the team’s lease at their current stadium, the Edward Jones Dome, expires after this season, but the St. Louis Post Dispatch reported last week that local officials could soon unveil plans for an open-air stadium in St. Louis. Writer Brian Burwell also wrote that he has heard “informed local rumblings” suggesting a relocation of the Rams is not as imminent as some reports suggest.
So, if not the Rams, then who? The other teams reported as candidates to move to L.A. include the San Diego Chargers and Oakland Raiders. For the Raiders, it would be another chapter in the yo-yo of the franchise between Oakland and L.A. However, the Raiders have a very rabid fan base who have supported the team for decades. However, as a more blue collar, low income neighbor to more prosperous San Francisco, Oakland does not have the philanthropists and the tax structure to build a new stadium, which may drive the Raiders out for a second time.
I am surprised about San Diego, however. They have been playing at the same stadium for years, which could be limiting revenue growth. But the fans are there, as is the tax base. More likely to me are the reports that the Chargers could oppose another team moving to Los Angeles for economic reasons, but a source said that the issue likely would be ironed out and noted the possibility of the Chargers getting a bigger percentage of the relocation fee than other teams.
Three-quarters of team owners would have to vote in favor of a team relocating.
I would think that Jacksonville would me more likely to move. The Jaguars have suffered hard times over the past few years, and that area has been particularly hard hit by the 2008-2009 recession. The Bills would have been another possibility after the death of owner Ralph Wilson, but new ownership plans to keep the Bills in Buffalo. One would think that Arizona is a candidate simply because teams in that state are always candidates to move elsewhere.
I also wonder if Los Angeles will really support a team. It certainly has a large enough population, but with all of the other things to do, being the home of the movie industry with fewer “fans” and more people who want to be seen, will they really support the NFL. They “marginally” support the Dodgers and Angels, more when they’re winning; the same can be said for the Kings.
It is always an interesting time for those of us whose franchises are not going to move; for fans in some of the cities mentioned above, it is nerve wracking. One has to wonder if this is just another round of civic extortion; wanting taxpayers to spend money that could be used elsewhere for new stadiums? In any event, it appears that the NFL is coming to La La Land, whether it likes it or not.

CBS Sports is reporting that Florida State quarterback and Heisman Trophy winner Jameis Winston will declare for the 2015 NFL Draft “no matter what happens in the second half of the season.” Jason La Canfora of CBS Sports reports (reported by SI.com) that Winston is not considering dropping out of FSU amid investigations into both a sexual assault case from 2012, allegations of yelling an obscene comment on campus this year, and the authenticity of over 2,000 Winston autographs.
Until recently, Winston was reportedly torn about his future and whether he wanted to enter next year’s draft or spend another season in Tallahassee. The quarterback reportedly loves playing both football and baseball in college and would only have declared if the Seminoles were “undefeated deep into the season” and if he was having a “superb season.”
Now however, Winston is virtually certain to declare for the draft due to an “adversarial relationship with school officials,” not including Head Coach Jimbo Fisher. Considering the legal problems and potential NCAA violations that Winston has brought on FSU, it shouldn’t surprise him that members of the administration aren’t exactly being chummy with him. Sexual assault isn’t funny, and considering that Winston may have been cleared due to police incompetence or misconduct. And, being cynical, if Winston is getting money under the table, why is he risking his college career signing autographs? And if he isn’t getting paid any money and the NCAA is investigating anyway, it shows how corrupt the business model actually is.
Like many other athletes before him, Jameis Winston has to ask a question – do I have any reason to stay? Is my value at its highest right now, and am I risking injury to continue playing college football, compared with making millions in the NFL now? One has to look no further than Winston’s predecessor as Heisman winner, Johnny Manziel. Also hit by allegations of taking money in return for autographs, end bolted for the NFL.
I’m not surprised Winston is certain to declare – I’m just surprised it took him this long to decide.

Earlier this week, Sports Illustrated online published an except of a longer interview of soon retiring Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig, asking the question “How we will we remember Bud Selig?”
The article asked if we will remember him as the bumbling commissioner who oversaw a canceled World Series, the rise of the Steroids Era and a tied All-Star Game? Or as the business visionary who keyed important reforms and oversaw unprecedented growth for the nation’s pastime?
The owners answer is simple – he has been an unmitigated success. Baseball’s revenues have risen from $1.2 billion to close to $9 billion under Selig’s stewartship. The one thing that I will give him credit for is in the over 20 years of labor peace between the owners and the Players’ Union. Plus, drug testing has increased and the testing has been worked out with the union at every step of the way. Is it foolproof? Of course not; but it is better than the nothing we had when Mark MacGwire and Sammy Sosa and Barry Bonds were breaking baseball records with steroid induced home runs and Roger Clemens was pitching extra years on the juice.
Selig said in the article regarding any regrets, he says, “I don’t really have many of those” as former Chief Operating Officer Rob Manfred readies himself to step into the Commissioner’s spot.
To me, Selig has been a horrible commissioner. He had his head in the sand on steroids until forced to do something about it, and the price of the years of labor peace was a strike that cancelled the 1994 World Series. His incompetence shows most notably with the All Star Game. First, we had a tied Game because Selig couldn’t come up with an acceptable solution, we had a tie game.
His silliest idea (and one I hope Manfred will end immediately) was Selig’s idea of making the All Star Game meaningful by giving the League winner of the game home field advantage during the World Series. Historically, the League home field alternated between the leagues for decades, which was OK, but then baseball made a good move, giving the team with the best record during the regular season home field. That way, the team who played the best over the long season gets a reward for it.
Bud Selig is a former used car salesman who picked up the Milwaukee Brewers for a song. Since then, he stepped in as the first Commissioner in history who was an owner/former owner. This of course, meant that his loyalties were even more skewed than previous commissioners, who were of course paid by the owners, but did make unilateral decisions that didn’t go the owners’ way, and ultimately cost them millions of dollars under the “good of the game clause.” Selig never invoked that because he was an owner.
Overall, I’m very glad Selig is retiring. It should have happened 5 years ago. Im any event, the minuses far outweigh his successes.

Speaking of Florida State and young Mr. Winston, there was quite a long article in the New York Times on Sunday that detailed how the local police department handled FSU athletes very differently from other students and non-students. The article detailed a pattern that validates the lax investigation of criminal sexual assault charges against Jamaeis Winston last year.
For those of you who have forgotten, Jamias Winston was accused of sexually assaulting a young woman last year, but the police dragged their feet, and eventually, the charges were dismissed. But there’s a young woman and her family who have been victimized by the system. Who speaks for them?
The article mentions other incidents of violence and possible sexual misconduct, but the local police are either star struck by the program, or are rabid fans, or don’t want the gravy train of money flowing to the university and area businesses to end. Considering the surrent stories of cops killing young black men; tazering suspects, hurting or shaming pregnant women, this is not a good time for the reputations of police departments. It’s like the predominantly white cops are the hit squads in the culture wars – let’s get back at minorities and women who are “spoiling America” for white men.
I have often said that I feel for athletes – often they are given leave to do damn near anything, until they go too far. And the people who they look to as moral guides are often the ones winking at the transgressions. They learn that the rules don’t count for them as long as they score touchdowns, or make baskets. Of course, when the career is over, they are often left nearly bankrupt, uneducated, and often with children who need support. As a father of two girls, I would like to believe that f someone did hurt my girls, the girls wouldn’t be put on trial for what they wear, or how they looked, and if an athlete was involved, he would be prosecuted appropriately.
That’s certainly not the case in Tallahassee, Florida apparently.