It seems like the NCAA should just move it’s headquarters to Syracuse, NY; first there were the allegations that an assistant coach fondled players, and now there is another controversy leveled at Jim Boeheim’s program.
The university self-reported possible violations of its internal drug policy more than a year ago and the NCAA is investigating, according to school officials. Yahoo Sports reported this week that the Syracuse men’s basketball allowed ineligible players to compete over the past decade.
The report said at least 10 players since 2001 had tested positive for a banned recreational substance or substances, but according to anonymous sources, all 10 players were allowed to practice and play at times when they should have been suspended by the athletic department, including instances when some may not have known of their own ineligibility. The report did not identify who tested positive.
As I’ve said here more than once, I’ve never felt that Jim Boeheim was a great coach despite the huge number of wins and Syracuse having won the 2003 National Championship. Boeheim always looked like he was depressed or about to cry, and except for the title year, his teams underperformed in the tournament. That said, I was surprised about the sexual abuse accusations – there is such a “macho” attitude among athletes and coaches, I would expect sexual abuse by coaches toward players to occur when the players are younger, like grade school or high school, not college.
But playing ineligible players? No shock at all. And that’s not to accuse only Boeheim – in the win or lose atmosphere of big time college sports, it really is a cesspool out there, although the pressure should be off Boeheim by now since he has been at Syracuse for 36 years, and this year’s Orangemen are the number 2 team in the country and could be a Top seed in one of the regions of the upcoming tournament.
Oakland Raiders’ late owner Al Davis ‘ signature phrase was “Just win, baby.” It looks like Jim Boeheim agrees.

It was big news late last week when it was disclosed that the New Orleans Saints and defensive coordinator Gregg Williams had bounties out on opposing players. In other words, cash for causing injuries. The NFL has announced an investigation even as it comes to light that the Saints weren’t the only team with bounties – the Bills and Titans had them too.
This is frightening news: as we learn more and more about the severity of head injuries; the fact that in football, you really are one play away from being out of the game; and without the financial stability of long-term contracts as in baseball and basketball. It makes one wonder what is going on in these people’s heads? For the coaches, the players are pieces of meat – replaceable parts in a machine. That is reprehensible enough, especially if they once played the game, particularly at the professional level.
But what is in the minds of the players, who are in the same boat as the guys they are trying to injure. That guy has a wife and family too; if you hurt them, it could be a career ender. That could be you in that position, and since approximately 50-60% of professional football players declare bankruptcy at some point, this is critical to their earning power and careers.
Now, don’t get me wrong; football is a tough sport and injuries happen. Hard hits are part of the game. But to go out there trying to hurt somebody is barbaric.
I remember a situation back when I was in college. Some friends and I had an intramural touch football team, but we liked to hit, so playing the line was fun. You could hit to your heart’s content. Of course, on offense, you had to have your hands holding your shirt, but on defense it was balls out! Being bigger than most fo the people on the other teams, I already brought fear to the other team, and I made it worse by “taking off” the first 3-4 plays of the game, lining up off the line fo scrimmage and just hitting the opposing lineman as hard as I could. After that, I pretty much had free reign to go after the quarterback.
Even though we had a tough defense, our offense left something to be desired, but it was good fun. That is until we played a team of graduate students. There was a guy lined up against me who had an enormous knee brace on. Since I have bad knees from my time playing, I knew the drill (no pun intended). I usually lined up on the left side of the defense, and this guy was right in front of me, so I tried to switch with the lineman on the right, but this guy followed me to the other side of the ball.
We started playing; I didn’t do my intimidation routine, just played straight, and this guy was hitting, hard. So, I started coming at him harder and harder. You can guess what happened – after a few plays, I drove him back toward the QB and before we taken a few steps, he was on the ground in a heap, holding his knee. I said I was sorry quickly and he said that he knew he shouldn’t have played. This being football, I walked around like it didn’t bother me, but it did. And I certainly wasn’t doing victory jaunts around the field at that poor guy’s expense.
This is something that the league should end PDQ. Coaches should be suspended and fined, as should the players. There is just no place for this in professional sports.

For years, I have been waiting for radio propagandist, misogynist and misanthrope Rush Limbaugh to go away. His racist, anti-women sphiel has been on so long, I thought only the completely brain dead still listened, but while Limbaugh’s audience is declining, they are still the highest in radio.
But, by now you know that his comments about Sandra Fluke whom Rush labeled a “slut” and “prostitute” for at first being refused from testifying to a House panel on women’s reproductive rights issues and later testifying before Democratic members of that same committee. Instead of backing down, Limbaugh took the invective further each day, causing the Republican candidates for president and members of Congress to lightly “reprimand” the radio host for a poor choice of words, but Democrats have had a field day, including President Obama who called Ms. Fluke and gave her words of support. (I’m surprised he didn’t tell her to join his club; anything he does, down to going to the bathroom is subject to some comment from the radical Right.)
Eventually, Limbaugh apologized over the weekend in another “non-apology, apology.” In his “apology” Limbaugh admitted his “choice of words was not the best, and in the attempt to be humorous, I created a national stir.” He defamed this woman’s character on the public airwaves and he is only sorry for his choice of words? On top of it, Rachel Maddow called Limbaugh “a dummy” because he obviously doesn’t know what birth control really is. Limbaugh’s comments that people want to be paid to have sex and other fallacies showed that he believes that a woman has to take a pill every time she has sex, instead of the reality that it is a once-per-day pill no matter how much sexual activity ensues.
This hateful piece of human excrement has gone too far, and perhaps the advertisers are finally the ones to bring him down. So far seven advertisers, including AOL Inc., Sleep Number and The Sleep Train, and companies that assist small businesses like Citrix, LegalZoom and QuickenLoans.
According to CNN.com, one company, Carbonite, a data backup service, said feedback from customers led to the decision to remove advertising from Limbaugh’s show. Which brings up the point that people as different politically from one another like Ms. Fluke and Ron Paul have both said that Limbaugh’s apology was solely under pressure from advertisers, which makes sense. Once his offensive first comments were aired, he could have retreated, at least a little, but instead, he went on the attack. Until the advertisers at first told him to apologize, and still started leaving in droves.
To every rise, there is a fall, and perhaps this is finally Limbaugh’s last stand. But, like the caged rat that he is, I somehow think he will survive with his popularity among old white men only strengthened. But, after this, how any woman could listen to his show is beyond me.

Readers of this site know that I think that Tim Tebow is a sanctimonious, untalented quarterback, who will soon be exposed by the rest of the league and soon riding the Denver Broncos’ bench. But he did a very good recently, and I felt I should say so.
Tebow went on a date with 10-year-old Presli Collins. Ms. Collins suffers from neurofibromatosis, which forms tumors in the brain, spinal cord and under the skin and has undergone numerous excruciating surgeries, according. This disease reportedly affectsapproximately 1 in every 3000 people, and can lead to blindness, bone abnormalities, cancer, deafness, disfigurement, learning disabilities, and excruciating and disabling pain.
Tebow found out about the young girl and her condition, he invited her to the Cartoon Network’s Hall of Game Awards. The dream date was arranged through the football star’s W15H Program. Reportedly, the pair spent the evening meeting celebs and took a stroll to the chocolate fountain. According to a Fox News reporter (which ordinarily would make me question its veracity under ordinary circumstances but Fox LOVES Tebow), the young QB “treated Presli like a princess, made her feel like she was the star, which was just amazing.”
He also gave the young lady an autographed football, a huge smile and a pretty big compliment. “Thank you for being an amazing date.”
Nice job Tim.

Last week, Milwaukee Brewers leftfielder and reigning National League MVP Ryan Braun became the first player to have the 50-game suspension for a positive drug test overturned by a strange arbitrator.
Major League Baseball was upset with the ruling; the Players’ Union lauded the call. You could almost hear them saying “Yippee – all you guys who are juicing just have to stall your drug tests until the weekend when FedEx isn’t open. The chain of evidence, even if it was locked in a deep freezer in Bud Selig’s house, is enough to get off scot-free.”
I have never understood the union’s stand, except being against anything the owners suggest (like Republican’s in Congress about Obama). First, it is detrimental to the health of your members. Second, it causes a schism between those who are juiced and those who don’t want to. Third, it casts a cloud of the game that it was just about successful is cleaning, even if it was just a coat of white paint over the stain (but could still be seen under the coat of paint).
But I just want to mention to Ryan Braun, you are now the poster boy for cheating. You made a statement over the weekend at spring training that he was innocent and vindicated. Again, for those of you not following this, Braun’s sample was taken on a Saturday, and it could not been sent to the drug lab until Monday. As far as we know, the sample was kept in a refrigerator, and when opened, the seals were untouched and lab tests on the sample showed that it had not degraded. Braun’s sample was found to have three times the normal level of testosterone, and that it tested positive for synthetic testosterone.
So, Ryan, you enjoy your “victory,” but welcome to the Barry Bonds land. Fans like those in the Wrigley Field bleachers; in Philadelphia; in New York will have some very interesting signs and cheers for you when you come to town. (One of the best I remember from working at Wrigley was when Former Mets pitcher Dwight Gooden had his first start after rehab. The right field stands started a chant of “just say no” while Gooden was warming up. Unfortunately, they probably just pissed him off – he went out and pitched a 4-hit shutout.)
And also, don’t you think that the drug testing folks have your picture on the bull’s-eye of their dart board? Do you think you will get any leeway from the drug folks now that you’ve won? Another memory – the NCAA tried so many times to punish UNLV when Jerry Tarkanian was Head Basketball Coach, that often it felt like a vendetta (plus, he did run a shady program).
Ryan, even if you never fail another drug test, the stain is there. And if you ever test positive, Major League Baseball is going to throw the book at you, and the fans will just think you’re another cheat. Which is what most of us think already.

I have followed professional football for almost all of my life, and at least since I wrote for The Sportswriters, I have advocated research on the injuries players accrue playing the game; reviewing the long-term implications on athletes’ health; and better equipment to protect the athletes. And this was before we learned the existence of and damage caused by concussions.
But I can’t understand the rational behind Dave Duerson’s kids suing the NFL and Riddell, the company that provides helmets and other pads and protection to the league. Yes, Duerson committed suicide last year by shooting himself through the heart so that research could be done on his brain and the results were that he had CTE (Chronic traumatic encephalopathy).
The headline in today’s Chicago Sun-Times was Tregg Duerson’s quote “The NFL Killed My Dad.” A bit misleading – playing football certainly had an effect, but Dave Duerson killed himself. Roger Goodell, or Paul Tagliabue, or even Virginia McCaskey, the owner of the Bears, were not in Duerson’s condo on that fateful day.
The lawsuit accuses that the league and Riddell of knowing the harmful effects of repeated concussions but concealing them from the players. My friend Rick Telander wrote a column published today suggesting that the defendants situation was similar to the tobacco companies knowing and misleading consumers on the harmful and addictive attributes of nicotine.
While I think that more has and should continue to be done in the area of concussion protection, it wasn’t until 2002 that Dr. Bennet Omalu, a forensic pathologist and neuropathologist found CTE in the brains of former NFL players Mike Webster, Terry Long, Andre Waters, Justin Strzelczyk and Tom McHale. The fact that the symptoms can also be attributed to other illnesses, and the fact that CTE can only be conclusively diagnosed in brains of the dead, makes this dubious. Were there earlier studies to prove CTE? Did the NFL and Riddell know about them? I guess we’ll find out. Is this a real lawsuit or just a money grab? That is a huge question.
The other, more troubling aspect in this and the litigation of other players against the league is that no one forced them to play football. The players played of their own free will and often were paid very well for doing so. That’s not to say that the teams often rushed players back onto the field before they should have, but that is a different issue to my mind.
Just look at all of the young men playing in college, high school, grammar schools, with the intent of playing professional football. They are not thinking of the dangers (or even the dangers of repeated head trauma being inflicted in schools all over the country); they see the money and the fame. They don’t understand that 60% of all players declare bankruptcy, no matter how much they made playing the game.
There was a poll back in the 1980s or 1990s (I don’t remember exactly), but Olympic athletes were asked “if there was a pill that could make you the very best athlete in your chosen field, but it would shorten your life expectancy by 10-20 years, would you take it?” The response was like 99% said yes.
There is something unique to the athletic mentality. Yes, part of it youthful exuberance and feeling of invincibility. But it is also somewhat the “live fast, die young, leave a pretty corpse” mentality. Future tomorrows are too distant to worry about; sports is a way of improving today and the near future. If you have limited opportunities (real or perceived), sports is your way out; a way to riches and fortune.
Too many are willing to put their lives on the line chasing that dream. Dave Duerson was a very smart man, I knew him for a few years in the 1990s after he did a “Back Table” show with us. His life and death were tragic and I feel for his family. But he made a decision to play football.
If the league was doing absolutely nothing about concussions and CTE, then I would be 100% on the players’ side. Are they doing enough? Probably not. Should the game be safer? No question. But progress IS being made, and the men that play the game decide to play and they have to be held accountable for that decision.

I didn’t write anything last Fall when Milwaukee Brewers leftfielder and reigning National League MVP Ryan Braun was assessed a 50-game suspension for a positive drug test. I don’t have much of an opinion on Mr. Braun, except that he is a terrific player for the Brewers and had a fantastic season, but when Braun’s sample was found to have an elevated level of testosterone, and that it tested positive for synthetic testosterone, I just though he was another cheater.
But Braun has always proclaimed his innocence and earlier this week, Braun won his appeal to overturn a 50-game suspension, becoming the first major-leaguer to win an appeal of a positive test. SI.com reported that the issue stems on Braun’s sample failing to get to FedEx the day the sample was taken. The sample was taken on October 1, the same day the Brewers played Arizona in the playoffs, a Saturday.
The sample was not delivered to FedEx for shipping to a World Anti-Doping Agency-accredited lab in Montreal until the following Monday afternoon. The Joint Drug Agreement between the league and players’ association specifies, “Absent unusual circumstances, the specimens should be sent by FedEx to the Laboratory on the same day they are collected.”
According to the Anti-Doping Agency, it is not unusual for doping control officers in a wide array of sports to hold onto a sample, often refrigerated, if shipping is not immediately available. There is some question in the chain of evidence, but a source told SI.com that the seals on the sample were unbroken when it arrived at the lab, and that standard lab tests on the sample showed that it had not degraded. Braun’s sample was found to have an elevated level of testosterone, and that it tested positive for synthetic testosterone.
The decision was announced by Major League Baseball and the Player’s Association because of a media leak that made public the result of the test before the appeal had been heard. The process is that baseball and the union vote on the outcome of the appeal, but an independent arbitrator makes the deciding vote. As one would expect, Major League Baseball voted to go forward with a suspension for Braun, while the Player’s Association voted against a suspension, with the arbitrator casting the deciding vote. He has 30 days to complete a written decision.
I can’t wait to read this opinion. Sure, the test couldn’t be sent immediately to the lab, but if it was refrigerated, there’s no way that the three times higher than normal and the highest level of testosterone would have degraded over a weekend. Also, there’s no way that the synthetic testosterone would be gone over that time period. If the seals weren’t broken, I can’t understand the ruling. Braun is able to play (over baseball’s strong dissent), but this weakens the sport’s drug policy and the players who are doping feel safer and those considering starting using performance enhancing drugs just got the OK to rev up the needles. Weird.