Back at Northwestern, where we had our own issues between coaches and Black athletes, one assumed that it had to be worse at other schools, especially in predominantly white states. I always had a feeling that there were issues at schools like Nebraska and Iowa – the Black players all seemed to group together, you hardly ever saw Black and white players congregating together unless they played the same position.
Turns out, my suspicions were genuine. A number of former Iowa players including defensive back Diauntae Morrow, offensive lineman James Daniels, now with the Chicago Bears, defensive back Emmanuel Rugamba, who transferred to Miami (Ohio), and linebacker Terrance Pryor made comments that mostly centered on strength and conditioning coach Chris Doyle. Morrow, who played 19 games for Iowa in 2007 and 2008 before transferring, tweeted about a specific altercation with Doyle during a team workout in January 2009. Morrow told ESPN he had been fighting a stomach virus and felt dizzy, so an athletic trainer told him he could ride a stationary bike. Doyle reportedly ordered him to return to the workout, saying, “You don’t deserve to be on the bike.” Morrow got off the bike to speak with Doyle, who, according to Morrow, began a “verbal assault, mother-F’ing me down,” and questioning Morrow’s toughness.
Morrow tweeted “We (Iowa’s Black players) never felt welcome, most of us, anyway, whether they would openly say it or not openly say it. We would congregate after practice and just talk about how we felt the program was being ran, and how we felt alienated.” Daniels tweeted, “There are too many racial disparities in the Iowa football program. Black players have been treated unfairly for far too long.” Rugamba alleged two instances involving Doyle in which he mocked Black athletes and, as a result, “made you walk around the football facility on eggshells … and caused anxiety that could be unbearable at times with your dreams and career on the line.” Pryor said Black athletes had to deal with “many racist incidents” during his time there, including an incident with Doyle in which he alleges the strength coach told him, “maybe you should take up rowing or something you know? Oh wait, Black people don’t like boats in water, do they?”
Doyle was the nation’s highest-paid football strength coach, earning $800,000 annually, and had overseen Iowa’s strength program throughout coach Kirk Ferentz’s 21-year tenure, but the uproar at first made the university place Doyle on administrative leave and then fired him. Doyle was praised by many, and not beloved by others. In 2011, 13 Hawkeyes were hospitalized with rhabdomyolysis, a stress-induced syndrome that can cause organs to shut down and even lead to death. An internal investigation by Iowa found that the exercises Doyle was using, not Doyle himself, were responsible for the players’ condition. Later that same season, he was honored as Iowa’s “most valuable coach of the year.”
There was a call last Sunday with the media at which Ferentz was given a chance to speak: “I don’t want to say I was blind-sided, but the bottom line is we don’t want anybody to leave this place not feeling like this was a good experience.” Later on the call, ex-players made comments about the culture and some implicated Ferentz’s son, offensive line coach Bruce Ferentz. According to ESPN, Ferentz appeared sympathetic to the players’ concerns and experiences saying he is the process of assembling an advisory committee of former players to guide future policy.
Still, most coaches know the line between demanding and demeaning. Ferentz has called for a “cultural shift” in the program. Asked what that culture was before the past week, he said, “you could argue, in my mind, it’s been healthy, [but] in the last 48 hours, I learned of things that needed more attention. However you want to break it down, I’m the one who is responsible.”
Worse for Ferentz was the tweet from former walk-on defensive lineman Jack Kallenberger. Fifteen minutes into Sunday’s call, Kallenberger tweeted that he was ridiculed for his ADHD. Kallenberger referenced that a coach wrote his GPA on a meeting room whiteboard to mock him.
Overall, it certainly appears that the culture on the Iowa football team is broken and needs to be corrected. The responsibility rests squarely on Ferentz’s bosses, athletic director Gary Barta and school president Bruce Harreld. If all of the alleged actions were missed, whether enabled or ignored, this is still a matter for the senior management and board of trustees.
Long time readers know that I have no great love for Iowa or Kirk Ferentz. He doesn’t exactly look like a guy who would relate well to young men, especially minority players. He is, like many other football coaches, intense, lacking of a sense of humor, driven only by wins and losses on the field. That said, I did not wish bad things on the program, but I’m not at all surprised that the culture was suffocating to Black players. I have a feeling Iowa will be far from the last.

I remember growing up, during my most rabid baseball fan days – 1970 to 2000 or so, and the time was marked by labor strife. From Curt Flood to Marvin Mitchell to Don Fehr on the one side and the commissioners of baseball on the other, these guys couldn’t agree on anything other than the dishonesty of the other side. The strike in 1972, the 1973 lockout, the lockout in 1976, the 1980 and 1981 strikes, the two day strike in 1985, the 1990 lockout and most famous and ruinous – the 1994-1995 strike that ended the 94 season early and cancelled the playoffs and World Series. It took breaking the Iron Man record and gentle humanity of Cal Ripken, Jr., and the steroid aided 1998 home run record breaking season of Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa to bring the fans back (and no, I haven’t watched the ESPN documentary yet – I plan to soon).
Since then, for 25 years, there has been labor peace. No lockouts, no strikes – a few issues certainly, but no open rancor between the sides. Of course, the membership of the sides have changed – Fehr is gone, Miller is dead; Bud Selig, Fay Vincent and all of the others are long done, either to the great ballpark in the sky, or at least away from baseball. The long national happy dream may be over.
The Covid-19 pandemic has cancelled the end of the NBA and NHL seasons and the first half of the 2020 baseball season. With some improvement in the numbers of people infected and few people dying, cities and states are starting to reopen. NASCAR has started racing to limited crowds; the NBA and NHL have plans to at least have playoffs, not finish the regular season for all teams. Being summer, there’s a lot of people looking forward to baseball; even if they can’t attend ballgames, being able to have a beer and watch baseball would be pleasant to many people (myself included). Alas, the best laid plans of mice and men often go astray…
Major League Baseball and the Players’ Union have been negotiating a way to play a season in 2020; the players have been pushing for a 100 game season; the owners keep pushing for a 50-odd game season. The sides have reportedly reached an impasse; Saturday, the union released a statement from Executive Director Tony Clark “It unfortunately appears that further (negotiations) with the league would be futile. It’s time to get back to work. Tell us where and when.” The league needed to get in the last word, later Saturday evening there was a Tweet – “We are disappointed that the MLBPA has chosen not to negotiate in good faith over resumption of play…” Later, the statement talked about having made three successive proposals that would restart the game.
The hidden story here is that the owners’ proposals were basically the same thing, which the players nixed the first time. The owners are playing hardball again in a way that would make the old hardliners smile. Several players at first said that they wanted entire salaries, a concept that is preposterous. All the while, time’s wasting, the fans are antsy, and if the NBA and NHL start before baseball, a lot of goodwill with the fans will disappear.
I never longed for a return to the “bad old days” – both sides being to blame, with no heroes, no side less at fault than the other; bad feelings from the fans. Obviously, both sides have forgotten what worked all those years. It’s a shame.

I have said many times, here and elsewhere, that I do not follow NASCAR. For that matter, I am not an auto racing enthusiast. As a kid, I used to watch the Indy 500, but I was out of that by the time I was 13 or so.
Over the years, I felt that NASCAR particularly, was the redneck sport – lots of “good ‘ole boys” drinking beer and generally being appalling. Since I didn’t follow the sport, I barely heard of Bubba Wallace. I knew that he was NASCAR’s only black full-time driver. I knew that he has had some success racing, but was not yet at the very pinnacle of the sport, but he’s only 26.
In the midst of the protests after the George Floyd murder, and taking the opportunity to make a statement as racing begins to emerge from the coronavirus shutdown, Wallace took a very bold stand. Last Sunday he wore an “I Can’t Breathe / Black Lives Matter” shirt before a race in Atlanta; the next day, he appeared on CNN and called for the sport to rid itself of Confederate flags, which have long been a staple of NASCAR, flown by fans, worn on shirts and hats, and emblazoned on RVs in parking lots. “No one should feel uncomfortable when they come to a NASCAR race,” Wallace said. “So it starts with Confederate flags. Get them out of here.”
One would think that NASCAR would “consider the issue,” or use some other PR/stalling tactic, but with the rising tide of worldwide protest, corporations are making statements and donations against white supremacy, it only took NASCAR two days to announce that it had banned Confederate flags at its events. (I should mention that while it’s nice to see, I’m getting tired of emails and ads stating that a company stands by diversity. Actions speak louder than words.) “The presence of the confederate flag at NASCAR events runs contrary to our commitment to providing a welcoming and inclusive environment for all fans, our competitors, and our industry. The display of the confederate flag will be prohibited from all Nascar events and properties.”
Just hours after the NASCAR announcement, Wallace raced at Martinsville Speedway in Virginia on Wednesday in an all-black #BlackLivesMatter car and pulled off his best-ever finish (No. 11) at the course. He called it the “biggest race of my career.” As expected, the fallout has been bubbling under the surface. The first person to speak up was Ray Ciccarelli, a NASCAR Truck Series driver, who posted on Facebook that he will leave the sport after the 2020 season because of NASCAR’s decision: “I don’t believe in kneeling during Anthem nor taken ppl right to fly whatever flag they love. I could care less about the Confederate Flag but there are ppl that do and it doesn’t make them a racist all you are doing is fu**ing one group to cater to another and I ain’t spend the money we are to participate in any political BS.” The announcement was met by a collective “who are you” and “who cares” to a resignation of a man who has never finished better than 31st in any race he’s been in.
Jason Beam, owner of a helmet manufacturer called Beam Designs says that he is against the ban because he is in defense of “preserving history,” (a history of a war that was lost 155 years ago and a sign of systemic racism) and calling Wallace’s Black Lives Matter car “garbage.” In a powerful show of solidarity Wallace and other NASCAR Cup Series stars Jimmie Johnson, Ryan Blaney and Kyle Busch have all respectively severed ties with Beam.
As I mentioned above, all of these symbolic gestures mean nothing without action, but I do have to give out some credit to a number of people. First, I give credit to NASCAR, which could actually offend a good portion of their customer base. Usually, companies don’t want to risk losing customers, especially favoring customers who make up such a small percentage like minorities. At this point in history, NASCAR and the other companies and corporations may find the long term benefits of taking such a stand outweigh the short-term pushback. Second, I give credit to the other drivers who have severed ties with an upset vendor. Finally, we must give credit to Wallace (as my friend Tom Watson called him – “the Colin Kaepernick of NASCAR”). While he has not as yet seen his livelihood disappear like Kaepernick’s has, he is risking his career, and sponsorships. It’s not like he is a superstar on the circuit, so it could be said that his livelihood is more precarious, but he stood up anyway.
I’m still nervous about the redneck response, which is bigoted, ignorant and often violent.

Hello from a new world. The events of the past week have thrust the United States and the World into truly uncharted waters. A movement has gained ground, at the cost to more lives and damaged property. I had planned to post a story on the potential return to the NHL season and whether the Blackhawks should be among the 24 team tournament and whether, as a fan, I should be happy about this, or realize that the team’s season does not merit inclusion. While where there’s life there’s hope and the NHL is happy to have the popular Hawks in the postseason, will fans be happy if the Hawks play like they did and get bounced early.
The world has changed: protests over the death of George Floyd and others and the daily indignities that black people face, during a global pandemic, brought many people to a breaking point, leading to riots, looting, a horrid response from the White House, and far-right attempts to start a race war. In light of what’s happening, it was a bit thoughtless for me to write about sports especially with no games happening, but in America throughout the 20th Century and into the 21st Century, sports has brought racial issues to the forefront of discussion and changes in sport forcing change in the greater world.
The issue of white privilege is at the forefront of discussion, protest, governmental response, in the US and around the world. Once again, sports is not immune from what’s happening in the society at large. What is obvious to people of color is that white people don’t understand privilege because it doesn’t happen to them, or they cannot understand how they benefit. This week, we have had three instances of sports figures, all white, who have made statements that were insensitive at best, stupid at worst.
Coaches, football coaches especially, appear to be fairly stupid. Wins and losses, blocks and tackling are the only things they seem to be concerned about. So, it is of no surprise to me that former Chicago Bear defensive coordinator, current Denver Broncos Head Coach Vic Fangio made comments that show how painfully blind he is. He told reporters “I don’t see racism at all in the NFL, I don’t see discrimination in the NFL,” “I think our problems in the NFL along those lines are minimal. We’re a league of meritocracy. You earn what you get, you get what you earn.” In a league where Colin Kaepernick was run out of the league and there will be fewer head coaches of color on teams – so much so that even before all of the protests, there were efforts to improve the “Rooney Rule” that says teams must interview one coach of color. Fangio walked back his comment within 24 hours saying he “should have been more clear.”
The Chicago Cubs are owned by racists. Joe Ricketts, the father supported Super PACS that kept alive birther rumors about former President Barack Obama, and also supports Donald Trump. Racist emails were leaked from the old man before the 2019 baseball season, making the kids try to distance themselves publicaly from their father’s statements. Tom Ricketts, the principal owner and ownership face of the team is working with Trump’s campaign to raise money. Brother Pete Ricketts, who is governor of Nebraska was at first reported using the term “you people” at a meeting he had this week with black pastors and community leaders in Omaha on Monday. Later recordings show that Ricketts did not use the specific term, he used the words “you guys,” but he did not seem to make a distinction between the two, apologizing for it anyway.
The biggest sports name to show his white privilege is a bit of a surprise. New Orleans Saints soon-to-be Hall of Fame Quarterback Drew Brees has done wonders for the people of New Orleans, especially POC. After Katrina, he stepped up to help with time and money to bring the city back. Asked about Colin Kaepernick’s kneeling during the National Anthem, he said “I will never agree with anybody disrespecting the flag of the United States of America or our country, Brees said. “Let me just tell you what I see or what I feel when the national anthem is played, and when I look at the flag of the United States. I envision my two grandfathers, who fought for this country during World War II, one in the Army and one in the Marine Corp. Both risking their lives to protect our country and to try to make our country and this world a better place. Every time I stand with my hand over my heart, looking at that flag, and singing the national anthem, that’s what I think about, and in many cases, it brings me to tears, thinking about all that has been sacrificed,” Brees said. “Not just those in the military, but for that matter, those throughout the civil rights movements of the ’60s, and everyone, and all that has been endured by so many people up until this point. As soon as the comments became public, Brees was blasted by some black teammates and even elite QB Aaron Rodgers. A day later, Brees also apologized.
Were these apologies genuine? Fangio has numerous black players on his team but Denver has only 10% African-Americans, a lower percentage than many other cities. Brees has a big task ahead trying to convince his black teammates and the fans that he isn’t a racist, just stupid. One has to wonder if for the first few games, opposing black defensive players might enjoy hitting Brees just a little harder than normal given the chance. Finally, I predict that the Ricketts family is “Most Likely to have a Donald Sterling racial rant/comment.” (Although I found it extremely ironic that there was a picture in today’s Chicago Tribune of the sign on Wrigley Field saying “End Racism.” I think they should start in the Ricketts’ homes.)
It is long past time for serious discussions about race and for a lot of people to take a long look in the mirror and see White Privilege staring back.

I think that the world is ending because of greed. No one, certainly rich people, can’t have enough. Enough money, enough stuff, and always it seems at the expense of poorer, weaker people. There is no group of people greedier than sports owners and often, players. One of the hardest hit industries in the pandemic have been sports. The lack of games, the lack of programming have had a huge negative impact on the bottom line. (Of course, there’s so much money in the industry that its not like restaurants, retail and other small businesses which are facing closing.) Fans are also suffering because they have nothing to watch, nothing to cheer, no one to boo.
With this huge opportunity – captive audiences clamoring for something to watch, something to do even if they can’t go to games physically. The sports owners, broadcasters would love to fill that void and recoup some of the lost revenue. Hockey and basketball are trying to find a way to finish. Football is hoping that the worst will be over by the time we reach fall. Baseball is the main sport that hasn’t been able to start because of COVID-19, but they are trying to find ways to get started.
The owners have come up with a proposal to start an 82-game season in July, in effect ½ of the season and part of the proposal that will soon be made to the Players’ Association that the players take a 50% haircut of their salaries. MLB and the union have had over 20 years of labor peace, but this may be the end of that harmony. The MLBPA is expected to reject that element of the proposal and counter that a March agreement between the parties guaranteed players a prorated portion of their salaries.
Ordinarily, I am always on the players’ side. The owners make billions while the players do the playing, keep themselves in shape all year round for most of them, and suffer the injuries and the rehab. During labor stoppages, both sides end up getting blamed, and sometimes for good reason. The latest poster boy for hating the players is Tampa Bay Rays ace and former American League Cy Young Award Winner Blake Snell.
Snell said he will not play this season for a reduced salary, especially because the risk of contracting the coronavirus is “just not worth it.” “Y’all gotta understand, man, for me to go — for me to take a pay cut is not happening, because the risk is through the roof,” Snell said while answering questions on his Twitch channel. “It’s a shorter season, less pay. No, I gotta get my money. I’m not playing unless I get mine, OK? And that’s just the way it is for me. Like, I’m sorry you guys think differently, but the risk is way the hell higher and the amount of money I’m making is way lower. Why would I think about doing that?
Snell, who was scheduled to make $7 million in 2020, said that he “love(s) baseball to death” but that he is unwilling to accept multiple reductions of his salary. “If I’m gonna play, I should be getting the money I signed to be getting paid. I should not be getting half of what I’m getting paid because the season’s cut in half, on top of a 33% cut of the half that’s already there — so I’m really getting, like, 25%.
First off, I think Snell needs to bone up on his mathematics skills, because I don’t understand exactly where he’s getting his figures. Second of course, one half of $7 million is $3.5 million which should be enough to keep food on the table.
I understand being worried about the virus – that’s real and deadly. While I see that injuries in baseball are up, especially for pitchers, to me its much less debilitating and potentially life threatening as injuries in football and hockey. Plus, baseball salaries are guaranteed; if you get injured in the NFL and get cut – bye bye.
Snell says that he’s willing to sit out the 2020 season mostly due to fear of the virus, but if there’s baseball in 2020, he would be forgoing the $3.5 million. If money is your primary focus, $3.5 million is much better than $0. Snell also says that he doesn’t care about the publicity and reputation for being a greedy schmuck come from his comments, but to the average fan, who would play the game for a lot less money if they had the talent, to hear one of the best in the game saying that $3.5 million for ½ of a season is not enough will make him a target of fans for a very long time especially when and if games are played and fans are in the stands. If he thinks that fans will forget, he should have a discussion with Alex Rodriguez.
No matter what he believes, Blake Snell needs to learn that brutal honesty, especially in a job where people are paying to see him play, may not be the wisest thing to do.

With the Coronavirus pandemic and most of society slowed if not stopped, this has been a time of great change in sports. The NHL shut down, maybe returning in July; the NBA season still in limbo; college football in limbo; the NFL hoping to go on as planned in the Fall; and baseball looking to an 82 game, half-season schedule starting in July. In each instance, games may be played in front of empty stadiums to significantly reduce the possibility of spreading the virus.
Baseball is very involved, and one item that may be instituted is the Designated Hitter in the National League. The American League has had the DH since 1973, but the National League has resisted all this time, despite almost continuous efforts to make the two leagues identical, but it now may be happening.
Long-time readers of this column know that I think of myself as a traditionalist; I look back fondly on sports of my youth and even though the DH started when I was 13, the world didn’t come to an end like the teenage me believed at the time. For many years thereafter, I was against the DH in the Senior Circuit. I like having the home team determining whether the DH will be used; I like the difference between the two leagues and the strategic issues that confront AL managers in NL parks and vice versa.
As one gets older, you are supposed to change, and I am grudgingly falling into line. So, I’m all for the DH in the National League. I used to say that pitchers batting is more “pure;” there’s more bunting which is a nearly lost skill; and the cat-and-mouse of pinch-hitters was another aspect to the thinking part of the game that was interesting. However, honestly, why have the pitchers at the plate? With a few exceptions, pitchers can’t hit, never could hit, and now, they can’t bunt either. Having DHs in the NL will standardize the game; pinch-hitters will now become DHs. Pitchers won’t face potential retaliation when batters get hit by pitches. The game which is already home run crazy, will have more home run opportunities.
In short, I think the time is right for the designated hitter in both leagues. There’s now netting all the way down the foul lines to protect fans from foul balls (when fans are allowed to return); why not have the DH?

One would think that I would take great joy in throwing mud on a Green Bay Packer great, but this story is nothing but sad on so many levels. It was reported last week that Hall of Fame quarterback Brett Favre took over $1 million in speaking fees for events that Favre did not even attend. One would think that there would be more coverage from the media and more outrage from the public, but so far, silence…
Many people just think that now caught, the fact that Favre is paying back over $1 million to the state of Mississippi: $500,000 immediately, with $600,000 more coming in installments. This story was reported in the USA Today (where I got this information), and elsewhere. Still, Favre doesn’t face criminal charges (yet), and he hasn’t even commented on the situation up to now. File this under “good ‘ole boy gets caught, but he’s paying the money back. The problem is that the money came from the state’s welfare budget – money that is supposed to go to feeding and housing the poor, and we’re talking about Mississippi, one of the poorest states in the Union – a state that probably should be providing as much money as they can instead of paying Brett Favre?
The latest “payments” were revealed as a result of a state audit which revealed numerous questionable costs that came out of the state welfare budget. However, this isn’t the only trail of possible fraudulent activity involving the state and the quarterback and the press has had the story. The magazine Mississippi Today reported that the Mississippi Community Education Center, a nonprofit that gets most of its funding from the state welfare fund, had spent $5 million renovating the volleyball stadium at the University of Southern Mississippi.
The average person may have 2 main questions on this story: first, how does a new volleyball stadium help people who are on welfare; and two, what has this to do with Favre? First, Favre is a graduate of the University of Southern Mississippi, and his daughter is on the volleyball team there. In an interview with the Associated Press, Favre talked about how much money he had raised to build the stadium. We can be certain that some money came from individual donors, but $5 million came from the state’s welfare budget. But wait, there’s more…
Mississippi Today also reported that the Mississippi Community Education Center gave over $2 million of state welfare money to a company called Prevacus, which does concussion research and makes medical devices. According to Sports Illustrated, Favre is an investor in Prevacus and he sits on the company’s advisory board. Should welfare funds be going to a company investigating concussions? A worthy thing to investigate, but how does that feed, house, or clothe anyone?
The stereotype is that corruption is the norm in the South and football stars never get old – they only become legends, which gives them a free pass to all kinds of behavior. However, here we have a Mississippi native son, someone who made millions in football and endorsements, living in the poorest state where he wouldn’t have far to go to see real poverty, third world level poverty and he has gotten at least $6 million personally and for his alma mater (and where his daughter attends, playing the very sport that got the stadium) from poor people.
There’s a lot of people who could have improved their lives with $6 million. Using 2018 population data, 19.7% of the state’s population are in poverty according to the Census Bureau, which means almost 586,000 people living below the poverty line. Can someone, anyone, make sure Favre’s money (and maybe Mississippi State repaying for the volleyball stadium) gets where it’s needed?