There’s has been a lot of posturing from both sides in the NFL Labor front. On Friday, the NFLPA decertified so that individual players could sue the owners. Also, this move keeps the litigation before Judge David Doty in Minneapolis (more on this later).
On Saturday, the owners established a lockout against the players. And for the second time, I received an e-mail message from Commissioner Roger Goodell saying how disappointed the owners were with the union’s decertification and pledging that the owners would do all in their power to bring the situation to a conclusion fair to both sides and have the league playing football.
I did try to reply to the e-mail and it looks like it could go, but I didn’t post anything because I was saving it for here (maybe I’ll forward it to the Commissioner, who knows?) The owners have apparently planned on this lockout for at least 2-3 years, with the lockout clause in the television agreement that, Judge Doty has already ruled was not acting in good faith).
As I started to send to Mr. Goodell, owners already have a problem getting fans to go along with them – they are multimillionaires who want concessions from the employees. Despite the fact that players make millions of dollars, the average guy can understand that the owners would like to take as many benefits away as they can (and the Wisconsin state protests and political maneuvering doesn’t make this easier for the owners).
But, the players are very rich as well, and if the NFL owners showed their hands and showed where they were losing money, the average fan could understand and be more sympathetic. But the owners have not shown poverty; in fact, they haven’t given the union a complete assessment of the clubs’ finances, which makes any concessions hard to argue for, much less get the fans behind them.
While the owners lose in the court of public opinion (despite the e-mail missives of the commissioner), both sides look to the real court, that of U.S. District Judge Susan Richard Nelson in Minnesota on April 6. She will decide on the federal antitrust lawsuit filed by players against the NFL, but the players still hope that the case comes before Judge Doty, who has overseen NFL labor matters since the early 1990s.
Judge Doty has consistently ruled against the owners over the years and in last month’s ruling over the lockout money, the judge wrote in his argument a preamble on how he might rule if the antitrust case comes before him, and if it does, it doesn’t look good for the owners.
Any ruling, for either side, might bring the sides together for more negotiations. Since training camps are not scheduled to open until July, that leaves a lot of time for a deal to be struck. The draft will go on as scheduled; the Hall of Fame induction ceremony will come off regardless. The only thing that is effected as of now are the off-season practices, which are now in limbo, but most players don’t like to attend them anyway.
Meanwhile both sides have said that there will be football in 2011. For once, I believe them. As I wrote last week, both sides have seen what labor stoppages have done to Major League Baseball and the National Hockey League and with $9 billion at stake, both sides will do whatever they can to protect that golden goose.

Ohio State coach Jim Tressel came out from under his rock over the weekend – he spoke at a luncheon in Canton, Ohio sponsored by the Pro Football Hall of Fame in front of a partisan crowd of 400. Tressel gave a 40-minute speech in which he apologized several times during a speech that was on handling adversity.
Tressel began his remarks by saying he couldn’t say much about the recent troubles at Ohio State “because of the nature of the investigation, but I can tell you this; I consider all of you a part of the Buckeye Nation. I sincerely apologize for what we’ve been through. I apologize for the fact I wasn’t able to find the ones to partner with to handle our difficult and complex situation.” (He couldn’t find the ones to “partner with?” How about telling your bosses when something illegal happens? How about telling the NCAA? How about talking to the athletes? And, even more cynically – if possible – how about paying the players so they don’t have to sell stuff?)
Tressel continued, “I also apologize because I’m going to have some sanctions. But the mission doesn’t change. That’s the pledge I have to you. The mission I’ve always had is we make sure we help young people change their lives.” (Quotes were on SI.com.)
No Jim, the mission doesn’t change – winning at all costs; filling the 100,000 seat stadium regularly; selling jerseys and other crap to the Ohio State brethren who see nothing wrong with the players not sharing in that money. Those boosters who are just like you – just want to win games and compete for national championships.
That’s the mission. Never mind those mixed moral messages of Jim Tressel making millions of dollars per year on the players’ unpaid (at least over the table) efforts. Never mind that many schools are looking at the professors as the enemy for daring to negotiate their contracts with the universities in a collective fashion while the football and basketball coaches continue to rake in the huge bucks.
The hypocrisy is just galling. These guys actually want us to believe this bullshit?

What message do the NCAA and colleges and universities send to young people when professors who have a “lab” session on sex pay a higher price than football coaches? You know that’s what will happen when Northwestern gets around to punishing Professor J. Michael Bailey, he that had the exhibitionists doing a live sex act in a class while Ohio State football coach Jim Tressel gets a slap on the wrist.
The coach gets a two game suspension and is fined $250,000 for the offense. Two games? The players involved got a five game suspension and they will play far fewer games in their college career than Tressel has left to coach. And a $250,000 fine? That’s not much for a man making many times that amount.
Tressel could have been fired by the University for failing to notify the school for eight months that players including star quarterback Terrelle Pryor sold memorabilia to the owner of a tattoo parlor. Tressel’s contract with the university states in bolded and underlined type that the coach is to report all incidents of wrong doing that he becomes aware of, but he didn’t because “an attorney” asked him via e-mail to keep the matter private so he would not interfere with a federal investigation. The investigation eventually did not to involve the players. Asked him to keep quiet? Who was this attorney? F. Lee Bailey or Barney Fife?
“Obviously, I’m disappointed this happened at all,” Tressel said at a news conference on Tuesday night (quoted by the Chicago Tribune). “I take my responsibility for what we do at Ohio State tremendously serious.” I’m sure he does – his responsibility to win football games at all costs is what he takes seriously (and the word is “seriously” by the way you who are supposed to be a leader to young men).
Tressel said he never considered resigning, and athletic director Gene Smith said Tressel would not lose his job over the incident. “Wherever we end up, Jim Tressel is our football coach,” Smith said. “This case in my view does not warrant (termination). There’s no question in my mind his decision was from the heart.”
The heart of what – the boosters who pump money into Ohio State and demand a winner? Let the comments come raining down, but Ohio State University, THE Ohio State University alumni call it, stinks like a cesspool at low tide and will as long as Jim Tressel is the coach there and as long as athletic directors like Gene Smith are employed there.

I’m not very religious. I was raised Methodist and I can’t say I’m much of a believer anymore. So, I’ve spent most of the day calling today the “Annual Dirty Forehead Day,” since, being Ash Wednesday. I’m not Catholic but as I walked around at lunch today, I could see the people with the smudges on their foreheads and I thought of what I would give up for the 40 days of Lent if I believed in such?
Diet coke? No Way – I’d be crabby beyond belief. Some food or drink? Nope. I thought of what I really could do without and I came upon something I would gladly give up, not just for Lent or for any definite period; something I would give up for the rest of my life. However, I can’t give it up alone – I would need the rest of the world, or at least that portion of it that interacts with me, to go in on it.
So, I would like to give up Bullshit for Lent. No more hawking things for me to buy. No more calls to my home trying to separate me from my money. No more people in my neighborhood who really don’t like me or don’t want to be around me to give me a wide berth. I can do the same thing for them.
I feel like John Lennon – Imagine – no bullshit for 40 days. How about a day? Fifteen minutes?

The local Chicago media is making a big deal of the titillating trial of Marni Yang, who is standing trial for murdering pregnant Rhoni Reuter, both of whom were having relationships with former Chicago Bear safety Shawn Gayle.
Ms. Yang , 43, is accused of killing Reuter out of jealousy over Reuter’s relationship with Gayle. Reuter was pregnant with Gayle’s child when she was shot in her Deerfield condominium on Oct. 4, 2007.
The big story is that Ms. Yang had sex with Gayle the night before Ms. Reuter was shot. That made the front page of the Chicago Tribune, which always likes to show black men on its front page if it can make hay with the suburban audience that either never deals with black men (except in some subservient position) or is deathly frightened of us.
The basic story is – who cares about who Shawn Gayle sleeps with and when? Professional athletes are not know for their fidelity, and with all of the women who are willing to throw themselves at the athletes, it’s no surprise that someone like Shawn Gayle took advantage. Chicago sports icons like Walter Payton, Michael Jordan even coaches like Doug Collins were found out to be sleeping all over town.
What is important is whether Ms. Yang killed a woman and her unborn child. That is much more important than Shawn Gayle’s sex life.

Years ago, in the midst of the Maurice Clarett incident at Ohio State, I wrote that head coach Jim Tressel had to have known about Mr. Clarett’s lack of educational experience and his penchant for trouble, but rode his young running back to the school’s first national championship then dropped him like a hot potato when he got into trouble with the law.
At the time, I wrote that Ohio State might have been the dirtiest program in the Big Ten. Boy did I get the hateful e-mail! “How dare you,” they wrote; “you’re just jealous being from Northwestern.” However, from that point, I always felt that Tressel was dirty, and now, we may have proof.
Yahoo! Sports reported that Tressel knew that some of his players had sold memorabilia to the owner of a tattoo parlor more than eight months before the school said it was made aware of improper transactions. According to the account, an unidentified source said that Tressel received information as early as April 2010 that players were selling items to Edward Rife, who owns Fine Line Ink Tattoos in Columbus
The timeline as we know goes as follows: on December 7, 2010, the U.S. Attorney’s office notified Ohio State Athletic Director Gene Smith that some of its players were selling items such as jerseys and championship rings to Rife at which time, the school opened an investigation and informed the NCAA of the possible rules violations.
On Dec. 23, quarterback Terrelle Pryor was among five players suspended by the NCAA for the first five games of the 2011 season as a result of the allegations. It created quite a stick (that I think remains hanging over Columbus) when all the players involved were allowed to play in Ohio State’s 31-26 victory against Arkansas in the Sugar Bowl.
If it is proven that Tressel knew about the possible NCAA violations and did not inform Smith or the compliance office, the coach and the program could face more NCAA sanctions even as the university has appealed the previous penalty with the NCAA. If Tressel knew, it could be the biggest firestorm an Ohio State head football coach has faced since Woody Hayes punched an opposing player at a bowl game. Tressel, who basically had a job for life with Ohio State, could be ousted if the reports prove true.
I know the argument that a head coach can’t know all of what his players are doing and on that basis can’t be held accountable, but that’s crap. These coaches are making millions (as teachers and their unions are being assailed for cutbacks) and as such, should be held accountable. They are the moral authority for these players – they should have regular meetings to remind the players of what is permissible and what isn’t.
Then again, they are so busy raking money in like pigs at a trough they can’t pay attention to what the players are doing. And the players are watching this greed-fest – what message are they getting? Should we be surprised when they try to get some of that money for themselves?

I haven’t followed basketball is quite a few years, mostly because I now find the sport boring, but, I have paid more attention recently with the Chicago bulls being better than they have been in a long time. (That’s not to say I’ve watched a game, but, unlike other years, I have actually watched a couple of minutes of a few games, which is more than I’ve seen in over a decade.)
The other reason for interest has been to root against the Miami Heat. Ever since last summer’s wooing and courting of LeBron James, Dwayne Wade and Chris Bosh when actually, the fix was in because the three players had arranged a deal with Miami so they can play together, I, like many others, sincerely hoped that the Heat wouldn’t walk off with the NBA Championship.
Well, we might not need to worry. The Heat have lost four games in a row including a Sunday game against the Bulls at home, after which Heat head coach Erik Spoelstra said that some of the players were crying in the locker room afterward.
Crying? Really? After losing a one-point game in early March, they were crying? Since the Heat have a 1-9 record this season against the league’s elite teams, they may want to have lots of Kleenex available.
And the James Gang deserves it. You can’t just take three superstars and put them on the same team and expect that they will just steamroll their way to a title. It takes an entire team to win championships. Michael Jordan didn’t win until he had Scottie Pippen, Horace Grant and the others playing with him. The only time stocking a team with more than 2 superstars at a time ever worked was the Olympic Dream Team with Jordan, Pippen, Magic, Bird, and that group, and it worked because 1) the US was trying to send a message to the rest of the world that we remain the power in the sport internationally, 2) they had a team with superstars that could pass as well as shoot (Bird and Magic), and 3) Michael Jordan doesn’t want to lose at anything.
I did see a bit of LeBron’s last playoffs games in Cleveland and the owner had a point – James didn’t look like he showed up to play and that’s why he can’t be labeled with the all time greats. So, he tried to “stock the pond” with Wade and Bosh, and it doesn’t look that that will work.
Good !