All too often, sportswriters (myself included) write that coaches are akin to used car salesmen: shysters who use and discard players at every level: high school coaches “sell” prospects to colleges by limiting access and other ways; college coaches bring in players then the players get money under the table, or leave college with limited or no education, especially if the player gets injured or doesn’t play pro ball. And the professional coaches and front offices sign then waive, trade or cut players when they are no longer useful.
To hear us, coaches are the sporting equivalent of CEOs. And maybe they are, but like every broad brush, you cover up an exception to the rule.
Eric LeGrand was a defensive tackle at Rutgers who never made it to the NFL until now. LeGrand injured his spinal cord on a kick return tackle against Army on October 16, 2010. The injury left him paralyzed from the neck down. At the hospital, medical personnel told him he he’d be a quadriplegic and would need a respirator for the rest of his life.
LeGrand fought the grim prognosis: he was breathing on his own after five weeks, and today he operates a wheelchair on his own, and he’s been able to stand upright with the help of a metal frame. He says his ultimate goal is to walk again. But he will never play pro football.
LeGrand’s coach, Greg Schiano remained close to the young man, helping him emotionally after the injury. Schiano is now coaching the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, and the team announced this week that they’ve signed LeGrand to their 90-man off-season roster.
Schiano, who joined the Buccaneers this year after more than a decade with Rutgers, offered the symbolic deal to his former player by phone on Tuesday, LeGrand told reporters in a conference call.
“I said, ‘Are you serious? You want to use this on me?'” LeGrand said. “(Schiano) said, ‘It’s the least we can do.’ Honestly, it’s amazing. It really is.”.
LeGrand, who intends to graduate from Rutgers in the fall and hopes to pursue a career in football broadcasting, said the signing is only honorary and no money is involved. The team is sending him a jersey with his No. 52 – expected to arrive at his New Jersey apartment this week – and he already has posted to Facebook a picture of him with a Buccaneers helmet.
Schiano said that heading into last week’s NFL draft, he “couldn’t help but think that this should’ve been Eric’s draft class. “This small gesture is the least we could do to recognize his character, spirit, and perseverance. The way Eric lives his life epitomizes what we are looking for in Buccaneer Men,” Schiano said in a Buccaneers news release.
It is easy, believe me I know, to blast coaches for a lot of things, and many times, they deserve it and are paid very well to take the heat. But I now have to doff my cap at Greg Schiano, and I may actually root for Tampa Bay next season. Except if they play the Bears, of course.

Once the NFL had suspended Saints coach Sean Payton for the 2012 season while levying an indefinite suspension on former Saints defensive coordinator Gregg Williams, who was accused of masterminding the bounty bonus program, and the GM of the Saints for helping to cover it up; it was only a matter of time before the league got around to handing out penalties to players who paid money into the bounty kitty and tried to carry out the program by injuring players on other teams.
The league announced that Scott Fujita, Anthony Hargrove, Will Smith and Jonathan Vilma are suspended without pay for varying lengths of time. Vilma, a linebacker still with the Saints, is suspended for an entire year, and teammate Smith, a defensive end, got a four-game suspension. Fujita, a linebacker now with the Cleveland Browns, was suspended for three games while Hargrove, a defensive lineman now with the Green Bay Packers, got an eight-game suspension.
The league statement said evidence reviewed by the league “demonstrated that from 2009-11 Saints players of their own accord pledged significant amounts of their own money toward bounties, that players accepted payments for ‘cart-offs’ and ‘knockouts’ of injured opposing players, and that the payout amounts doubled and tripled for playoff games.” Vilma was a captain of the defensive unit under Williams and assisted in creating and funding the bounty program, the NFL statement said.
All four players can appeal the suspensions and would be entitled to a hearing and representation by counsel, the statement said, but in a head scratching decision, DeMaurice Smith, executive director of the NFL Players Association, said the organization would help the players fight the suspensions.
I know that the union is paid a lot of money to defend players’ rights. But one has to ask, how much should you support people who were trying to injure other members of your union? Football is a violent sport and everyone who plays knows that they are constantly one play away from severe injury and, since there are no guaranteed contracts, one play away from having the NFL gravy train come to an end.
That is what makes the bounty scandal so heinous. When I played football, there were times that I wanted to wreak havoc on the other team, and I wanted to make them pay for lining up on the other side of the line from me, but I never wanted to hurt anyone for real. What if you’re a new teammate on the Browns or Packers and you know that two guys in your locker room were part of a program to potentially hurt them?

So, as reported for awhile by numerous sources, the NCAA is finally considering a four team playoff for BCS division football. Big Ten commissioner Jim Delany has been hinting about it for weeks while putting the kibosh on rumors that the Rose Bowl officials were against any playoff.
For the first time, all the conference commissioners and other power brokers who run the sport are comfortable with the idea of deciding a championship the way it should be done – on the field. What would be the immediate benefit – the end of the BCS as it now stands.
The word in that they want to limit it to four teams. That’s fine, I think, but here comes the hard part – the implementation. How the teams are chosen; where and when the games are played; how or if the bowls are included in this, are difficult questions, and considering the fact that the NCAA has blown decisions much less important than this, I have little faith that this will work out smoothly.
One of the major shortcomings of the BCS was that the major conferences and independents got priority status when the BCS bowls were decided. There are vicious arguments now over the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament field, and they are picking 68 teams (counting the play in games). Now some people (or computer program or HAL, or something) is going to pick the four best football teams in the nation to enter the playoff? Objective? I don’t think so. And how much say with ESPN and the networks have over who get picked?
While I definitely am in favor of a playoff, I will be interested to see what plan the powers that be come up with. I know that the dirty little secret is that the players aren’t expected to attend classes, but for those “true” students who do go to class, I wonder if there will be any thought to class schedules, tests, etc., or will it just be about money?
My cynicism at the motives and designs of the people who run college sports knows no bounds.

Last night, your friend and humble narrator looked forward to two Game 7s in the NHL Playoffs and the first round of the NFL Draft. What could be better to sit on the couch in front of the HDTV and watch sports?
But there was one thing that soured this scene a bit. The reaction of some @$$hole Boston Bruin fans. Now, I go to Boston a few times a year for work, and I generally like the town, but there is the old man in me who remembers the riots and protests when the schools were being desegregated in the 1970s. At that time, I thought that Bean Town was the Northern equivalent of Selma, Alabama.
Well, that sentiment returned this week when Joel Ward scored the series-winning overtime goal in Game 7 of the Bruins/Capitals series that eliminated the defending champions. Ward is a Canadian born to parents who emigrated from Barbados, and is dark-skinned. So, the bigots came out of the woodwork.
A Tom Troy (@tomtroy12) Tweeted “The fact that a n_______ scored the winner goal makes this loss hurt a lot more.” Another great mind named Adam Begos (@Begos_8) chimed in “Joel Ward your (sic) a n______. Holtby, get a life. I never wanna see Tim Thomas in a bruins jersey ever again.”
Of course, racism is not gone (you only have to look at the spouting of the GOP to prove that) and the NHL has been facing some incidents of their own; the most recent being during this past preseason when a fan someone in the stands taunted Philadelphia’s Wayne Simmonds by throwing a banana peel that landed directly in his path during a shootout attempt.
Hockey fans may be the least enlightened since the influx of darker-skinned players has just begun, so the players are seeing the types of taunts that black players saw in baseball in the 1940s; or the NFL in the 1960s; or the NBA in the 1950s. But that’s no excuse. I get fired up over hockey games too, and I’ve made a few comments that I’m not proud of, but it’s not because of someone’s race or ethnic background.
Shameful!

Speaking of watching the NFL Draft last night, did anyone else think it was weird that every draftee came on the stage and then had a bear hug from NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell. I’m sure that Goodell has gotten to know many of these young men personally especially after the college season ended, and I’m also certain that on such a joyous occasion, the players are so happy that they are hugging anyone and everyone.
But Goodell? A man who works for the owners, and, while not a bad man in my opinion, one has to ask how much he cares about these guys? Goodell is an attorney who is looking out for the league. Yes, the league is investigating ways of improving safety, and is doing more to help players after they retire when they often suffer debilitating and costly injuries. But how much of what the league is doing is only as a result of public scrutiny over what was not done in the past? And since 60% of pro football players eventually declare bankruptcy, what can and should the league do to help these young men reverse that trend?
So, to see Roger Goodell hugging these young men like family members who they had not seen in years, black and white, seemed strange and perhaps a bit patronizing.

The critics are coming out of the woodwork attacking Michael Jordan, as his Charlotte Bobcats achieved the dubious feat of having the worst winning percentage of any team in NBA history. The Bobcats ended this season with a record of 7-59, finishing with an all-time worst 106 winning percentage; taking the title from the 1972-73 Philadelphia 76ers who were 9-73 and had a then record-worst .110 winning percentage. (Of course, due to the lockout shortened regular season, we never will really know how bad they could have been since they played 66 games compared with the standard 82).
So, we have the best player in NBA history, a man who played on the best single season team in history, the 72-10 Bulls, owner of the worst percentage team in history, and people are wondering what Jordan is doing? He seemed resigned to the losing, something that is completely opposite to his nature. What differentiated Jordan from the other gifted players was his complete will to win. If you were competing against Jordan in golf, poker, basketball, or jacks, he was a cut-throat competitor who wanted to win at all costs.
So, this week, even my friend, the Chicago Sun-Times’ Rick Telander was jumping on Jordan for being photographed in a Blackhawks jersey at the team’s final playoff game this week. What was he doing at the United Center (the building he “built” with his championship teams)? Shouldn’t he be with the team, willing them to win and not have the ignominy of being the worst?
Legendary coach Larry Brown, who coached the Bobcats for three seasons under Jordan, blasted his former boss on the radio this week. Brown said that Jordan has surrounded himself with “yes men” who are hesitant to challenge him. “He needs more people around him who he has respect for who are not afraid to tell him what’s right. That’s the one thing I’m disappointed in,” Brown said.
Jordan, who fired Brown as the Bobcats coach in 2010, vehemently disagreed. Jordan said he had planned to rebuild the team and knew that it could be a tough season, but he never thought it would be this bad.
However, I want to say that Michael Jordan has the right to suck at something. Everyone should have known that Jordan was at best a mediocre basketball executive when he was with the Washington Wizards. Even coming out of retirement to play, Jordan’s Wizards teams were lousy, and eventually, the late Abe Polin did the unthinkable – fired Michael Jordan.
It has been rare for superstars to become good coaches, managers and front office executives, for one simple reason – they either assume that more people can do what they once did, or that other players will have the same competitive drive they had. Larry Bird, Magic Johnson, and for a short time, Isaiah Thomas bucked that trend by actually being able to coax the best from players, but Bird is President of the Pacers; Johnson is an entrepreneur and television analyst, and Thomas recently got fired from his college head coaching job.
But as I said, like any other owner, Michael Jordan has the absolute right to mismanage an NBA team. Donald Sterling has mismanaged the San Diego/Los Angeles Clippers since they moved from Buffalo in 1978; until this year when some recent draft picks actually panned out and they traded for Chris Paul and now, they are a playoff contender. But it couldn’t be Sterling, who has been the worst owner in the league for decades (and among the worst in all of sports over that same period). After having Hall of Famer Elgin Baylor as GM, Sterling must have hired a good front office to cause this turnaround.
Will Michael Jordan’s Bobcats suck for as long as Sterling’s Clippers? I would hope not; somehow, I think Jordan has more basketball savvy than Sterling and can learn from his mistakes. But, perhaps not, and that would be interesting to watch.

I am not at all enamored of celebrities, but you can’t avoid the minutiae of their shallow lives, so I’m going to take a dip in the water (but not drink the Kool-Aid)…

• It seems that the divorce of former NFL cornerback and current NFL Network analyst Deion “Prime Time” Sanders and his wife is really prime time news. Pilar, Sanders’ second wife was charged with attacking her husband with a friend in the house they still share despite the fact that Sanders filed for divorce long ago. On further investigation, Sanders was also charged with simple assault.. But this has been going on for awhile: Sanders daughter from his first marriage called the second wife a gold-digger Sounds like it’s headed for the E! Network.
• Speaking of E1 – the Kardashians show was renewed for 3 years. This means that we will continue to have more important news shoved aside to cover these talentless and generally useless women. I long for the day that frozen faced Bruce Jenner, his wife (Lady MacBeth) who has worked to shove them into the collective consciousness, and every Kardashian family member be banished to Elba and never heard from again.
• However, thanks HBO for renewing Bill Maher for two years.
• Unfortunately, Fox News renewed Bill O’Reilly for three years.

We just can’t get a break