I am giving a shout to Chicago Sun-Times columnist Neil Steinberg, who attended Northwestern with me, on this blog. He had the original idea in a terrific article published on Saturday called “What if the shooting means nothing?”, and I’m taking it a little bit further. Thanks Neil – I owe you an e-mail.

The massacre at the movie theater in Aurora, Co. happened, and we have the usual fallout: what exactly happened? Who were the dead and wounded? Which people died heroically? Who saved people amidst the gunfire? And now, what drove this man to kill so many people? Why did he kill? What drove him over the edge?
Neil’s answer and mine is – does it really matter? James Holmes is the latest piece of human excrement to take his sad life and delusions and impose them on the world. How many of these killers get their 15 minutes of fame, and then disappear into the criminal justice system to resurface on anniversaries, and when they come up for parole or face the death penalty after years of appeals.
I’m going to take this further, as I said. Every weekend this hot summer, the local papers give us the grim numbers from Chicago on Monday: how many people died over the preceding weekend, and how many were wounded. It’s a sad litany played out every week.
Like Aurora, if any of these victims were children, out will come the flowers and little crosses placed where they died, or in front of the movie theater in CO. The preachers will preach – we need to stop the violence. The loved ones will grieve. The politicians will make speeches – the logical ones (those on the left) will speak again on the need for gun control. Some looking at the situation in Chicago and elsewhere will propose that the “War on Drugs” is unwinnable and why so many people are dying in the streets.
Of course, the conservatives will push back, saying that gun control is not necessary – in fact, if everyone had been “packing heat,” someone may have shot James Holmes, but, more than likely, this “Gunfight in the Theater” would have led to more people getting shot and perhaps killed because most people can’t fire a gun straight.
And many of these same politicians will fight against stopping the War on Drugs because of a misguided sense of “protecting people from the ills of drugs,” when the situation is – people who want to get high, are getting high – pushing up the price of the drugs and making it worth killing over. “Besides,” they can justify, “it’s just the dark skinned people who are killing each other, and we don’t have any in my district and I don’t care about them anyway, right?”
On and on it goes until next weekend, when someone who could be reading this will die. On and on it goes as some sick little person sees James Holmes on television in is colored hair, and thinks that this is the way to revenge himself on the world and get on CNN as a result. The NRA will go on pushing a Wild West agenda, and nothing will happen until tonight when someone else dies.
Personally, I’m tired of trying to be rational about guns and drugs. Liberals are too weeny to do anything; and the conservatives are too constipated in thought and insecure to allow an idea that challenges their world view to be given serious consideration.
So, we will watch television trying to understand why this inconsequential Holmes person did what he did, and the talking on all sides will continue. And more blood will flow and at the heart of it, unless it’s someone you know or are related to, no one really gives a damn except how it spins on television.

It has been another tough few days for Penn State. Last week, a group purchased a banner that flew over Beaver Stadium saying “Take Down the Statue (of late Head Coach Joe Paterno) or We Will.” Finally, the Board of Trustees ordered that the statue be taken down from the front of the stadium, which was the right decision. But, instead of making it disappear entirely, it was moved inside the stadium. This is a dumb move, but perhaps it should remain somewhere public to remind people of what integrity really is.
Today, the NCAA came down with its own sanctions, and we all knew that it was going to penalize the Penn State football program in light of the Jerry Sandusky scandal, but while the organization did not levy the “death penalty” on the program, it did issue the harshest penalties short of suspension of the program.
The NCAA hit Penn State with $60 million in fines, a 4-year postseason ban, and will cap scholarships at 20 below the normal limit for four years. Most of all, 14 years of Penn State victories have been vacated, meaning that Joe Paterno is no longer the winningest coach of all time in NCAA Division I football. To not punish the players, the NCAA ruled that any current or incoming football players are free to immediately transfer and compete at another school.
The NCAA said the $60 million is equivalent to the annual gross revenue of the football program. The money must be paid into an endowment for external programs preventing child sexual abuse or assisting victims and may not be used to fund such programs at Penn State.
By vacating 112 Penn State victories from 1998-2011, the sanctions cost Paterno 111 wins. Former Florida State coach Bobby Bowden will now hold the top spot in the NCAA record book with 377 major-college wins. Paterno will be credited with 298 wins.
Then the Big Ten added its own sanctions – no appearance in the Big Ten Championship game for four years, and the university will forfeit its revenue from conference bowl games, approximately $13 million, which will be donated to charitable organizations for the protection of children.
Perhaps the biggest sanction is the scholarship reductions. They mean that Penn State is limited to 65 scholarship players beginning in 2014. The normal scholarship limit for major college football programs is 85. This, along with the fact that many current or incoming players may transfer, means that the team is crippled for years, not even counting the reputational damage that may keep young men from being interested in “Pedophile State.”
Again, the former coaches and administrators at Penn State brought this upon themselves and the university, and to their credit, the current administration has accepted all penalties from the NCAA and Big Ten. But my question remains, how many colleges and universities have athletic programs that are more important than educating students? More important than improprieties by the athletes? By the boosters and alumni? More important than protecting the innocent?
I am reminded of the quote from the President of the University of Oklahoma, who said “we want a university our football team can be proud of.” When was that quote, you ask? 1960.

Every one by now has heard about the Colorado massacre at last night’s midnight showing of “The Dark Knight Rises.” Twelve people are dead, 38 people reportedly wounded, and a 24-year-old suspect is in custody. It is too early to draw conclusions, but I have two immediate thoughts:
• One of the injured is a 3-month-old child, and I have to wonder who takes a baby to a loud, violent midnight movie? It’s a question I’ve asked recently because when the Indignant Wife and I went to see “Prometheus” there was a family in the theater with two toddlers who had to be under 4 in the film. First, it’s loud, and, even more than TDKR, it was a horror movie. I would never get let my kids go to such a film.
• Second, as sad as this incident has been, I hope that the perpetrator (now reported to be James Holmes, 24 of Aurora) is not a comic geek. We comic fans have enough stereotypes applied to us (and rightly so): living in our parents’ basements; way too involved in the fictional lives of our fictional characters. I hope that they find that this guy is just nuts and not someone who thinks that he is Bane in real life.

The NBA announced today that, along with expanded use of replay during games, jerseys will be allowed to have advertising on it starting in 2013-2014. The jerseys will be patterned after professional basketball and soccer in Europe, and there will be limitations.
Why? Money, of course; this move is expected to generate up to $100 million from the move. A lot of the money would come from the fact that the ads would be included on replica jerseys on sale to fans. I wonder how this will work – will there be a league-wide ad that would be on every jersey? If so, that could cause a problem with individual team advertisers, or player’ advertising agreements. Remember the corporate uproar caused when the original “Dream Team” – the 1992 U.S. Olympic basketball team had warm-ups and jerseys from Adidas, which was a huge deal to Nike main spokesperson Michael Jordan.
It is a bit depressing to see a billion dollar industry need yet ANOTHER revenue stream. And to think that kids will be inadvertently advertising just by wearing the jersey of their favorite player; it’s a bit disheartening.
I would feel better about it if the revenues from the advertising was to be applied to the cost of the tickets, allowing a more affordable fan experience. But we all know that won’t happen.

I apologize, but work and family have kept me away from you for a couple of weeks, but I’m back with a vengeance….
There was one story that I failed to comment on from last week. Baseball Hall of Famer Reggie Jackson told Sports Illustrated that Alex Rodriguez’s statistics were tainted by his admitted use of performance-enhancing drugs. Of course, since Jackson is a special advisor to the Yankees, the team was plenty pissed off. Jackson was reportedly told to stay away from the team (something that Jackson denied), which led to the inevitable apology.
Actually, Jackson said what everyone who cares about the Hall is thinking: do we allow Rodriguez into the Hall of Fame despite using performance enhancing drugs? Does it make a difference that he admitted this fact publically? (It should be said that Rodriguez admitted it only after positive drug tests found their way to the news media, so it’s not like Rodriguez came clean – no pun intended – on his own.)
It is a question that hangs over the sport and the Hall – what do we do with Rodriguez and Rafael Palmeiro, who tested positive, and those who are strongly suspected like Mark McGwire, Sammy Sosa, Barry Bonds, and the recently acquitted Roger Clemens? So far, the Baseball Writers have denied entry to those players even though they meet the time criteria, and on statistics alone, rank with the greatest players in history.
But, are they ducking the issue? Do we just not put any of them in because of the hint of PED use? How many players from this era, like Frank Thomas and others never used them (to our knowledge); should they never be able to enter the Hall either? (Plus, as I’ve always argued, how can the Hall have a morals clause and have Ty Cobb, one of the dirtiest and most hated and hateful human beings be not only in the Hall, but one of the first six inducted?)
Again, I say a blanket amnesty on all players who played before drug testing began for 6 months – come forward and tell what you’ve done and there’s no punishment. Those players are eligible for the Hall of Fame, but any player who used steroids or other PEDs, their plaque has that fact engraved on it.
Where I think Reggie overstepped was when he said that he didn’t see Gary Carter, Kirby Puckett, Phil Niekro, Don Sutton and Jim Rice as Hall of Famers. Of course, Reggie Jackson has never been shy, his battles with Billy Martin were certainly started by verbal altercations. And there is always a discussion as to who belongs in the Hall, and who doesn’t, and Jackson’s opinion has a lot of merit because he is a Hall of Famer whose inclusion is rarely questioned. But to publically question other members of the Hall is petty. Whatever you’re opinion, keep it quiet. If you’re in a club, you don’t have to like or socialize others in the same club, but they’re in; suck it up and get used to it.

As I write this, I am in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, a lot closer to Penn State than Chicago, and among the people I have talked to, they seem to be stunned after the Freeh report on the Jerry Sandusky cover up was made public.
For those of you who have been on vacation, the report stated that Head Coach Joe Paterno, the Athletic Director Tim Curley, and President Graham Spanier showed a callous disregard for the safety of young men in Sandusky’s Second Mile organization by not reporting incidents to the autprities. The President and AD are facing criminal charges of protecting Sandusky and lying to a Grand Jury. The Freeh report makes it appear that Paterno, the previously highly respected coach, was actively part of the cover-up, which would have led to potential criminal charges if he hadn’t died last January. Further, it was reported last week, Paterno struck a secret deal with some, but not all of the members of the school’s trustees for an additional $5.5 million payout and other concessions.
The question now is what further charges will come against the university? Will the NCAA inflict the death penalty on the football program? What other sanctions may come? And, should the university take down the Paterno statue in front of the stadium and consider taking Paterno’s name off the stadium? (The students have already changed the area where they camp out for tickets from “Paternoville” to “Nittanyland.”) Finally, should Penn State try to recoup some of the money they paid Paterno?
When I saw the report, I wasn’t surprised, unfortunately, but instead of thinking about what happened at Penn State, I thought that a similar attitude about the football program and/or coach was evident at a number of schools. At how many schools does the football coach or generally protecting the football program, would serious charges be covered up? Alabama, Ohio State, Texas, USC – we have seen lesser indiscretions occur and sometimes covered up. Former Arkansas Coach Bobby Petrino had a motorcycle accident with his mistress on the back of the bike, but lied to say that she was just a bystander who happened to be in the area at the time.
I have followed college football for decades, and am an avid Northwestern fan and season ticket holder, and while we at NU believe that we are a paragon of virtue in the cesspool of college athletics, but we have had gambling scandals, a player died in summer practice and there were vicious lawsuits that reflected poorly on the university.
It seems like each time some new scandal hits the media, I find myself wondering as to whether I am contributing to the filth? Players paid under the table because the NCAA used to prohibit the athletes from sharing in the billions of dollars that the universities take in from the revenue sports. Former players who are not getting paid for the use of their likenesses in video games by the NCAA. Academic dishonesty; grade changing; people taking tests for athletes; players selling memorabilia; it’s all just dishonest on so many levels.
However, none of the dishonesty and hypocrisy matches the extent and severity of the Penn State scandal. Tens, dozens, hundreds, who knows home many young men and boys were sexually assaulted by an assistant coach; and no one went to the authorities because of fear of the implications on the football program and its “sainted” head coach. “Callous disregard” for the safety of young people; it’s the most serious scandal because young people had their innocence taken from them, and they are scarred for the rest of their lives. No game is more important than that.
More and more, my passion for college football is waning. That universities seem more concerned about a playoff and the money generated from it, than their mission, which is, I would assume, educating young men. When the NCAA adds more games, does anyone mention how that effects the players’ studies? Or is dangling the prospect of an NFL career enough of a payment to these young men? (And what about the statistic that 50% of NFL players will file bankruptcy, so money that, to the average person, should be enough to live on for life, often doesn’t last much longer than their careers?)
Are my sports dollars helping young people get an education, or is it just adding to the moral morass that is perpetuated by the university presidents, athletic directors and coaches; padded by the big money alumni and donors; and teaches young men about insincerity amid the big money?
I can’t answer that question, just like I can’t answer whether Penn State should get the death penalty. Since almost all of the parties to the cover up are no longer in Happy Valley, and who is hurt most – the players, who had nothing to do with it. Do we punish the whole of Penn State for being overzealous in their reverence and love of football when there are plenty of other universities where the devotion to the sport is just as rabid as Penn State? What does the Penn State tragedy say about college athletics and the fans’ slavish devotion?
Is this the last straw for college football? Should it be?

Trust me, with a wife who is Taiwanese and children who are, of course, half Chinese, I enjoyed the emergence of Knicks guard Jeremy Lin. He took the NBA by storm last winter and was a marquee player for the Knicks until Carmelo Anthony returned from injury and Lin got hurt himself.
Lin became a restricted free agent at the end of the season, and recently, the Houston Rockets, who, incidentally once had Lin and cut him, signed the Chinese player to a 3-year, $25 million back loaded contract, and the Knicks have until midnight tonight to decide whether to match the offer. Not only is it a lot of money, but it would put the Knicks into Luxury Tax land for signing one of its own players and placing them over the salary cap. I don’t really care about the Knicks one way or the other, but I think they should let Lin head for Texas.
Lin had a great couple of weeks, but then, the other point guards in the league went out of their way to show Lin’s weaknesses, and Lin was fairly pedestrian thereafter. As I said above, the Knicks played poorly when Anthony returned. It appears that, at least, it would take a ton of work to get these two players to learn to play together. Mostly, Anthony would have to give up the ball sometimes to allow Lin to work, but that isn’t Anthony’s game and Anthony makes a ton more money than Lin (and is considered the franchise player).
So, is Lin a good player – sure; and I’m rooting for a Chinese player from Harvard. But even the Knicks may not want to pay that much money for a player who is not the centerpiece of the franchise, may still have nagging injuries, and who won’t get the ball back from Carmelo Anthony.