The relationship between the NFL and its payers and fans of color continued this week. Colin Kaepernick, the center of the kneeling during the National Anthem controversy and has not played football in over a year, had been invited to work out for the Seattle Seahawks backup quarterback job. That is until Kaepernick refused to say that he will not kneel again.
Keapernick is still young; heled the 49ers to the Super Bowl; he’d be a perfect fit to backup another mobile quarterback, Russell Wilson. The NFL’s owners hate Kaepernick so much that not one team decided it was worth signing the mixed-race QB. The Seahawks, who were close to signing Kaepernick last year have postponed his workout.
For those who may have forgotten, Kaepernick kneeled during the National Anthem quietly to protest the killing of young men of color by police, and the failure to pay for the murders in court. Last year, he committed to stop kneeling, but since then of course, he has sued the league for collusion and some of the owners have been deposed in the upcoming lawsuit. Now, he has changed his mind on exercising his First Amendment rights on the sidelines.
The NFL, the plantation owners who use and throw players away like Kleenex don’t like the Kleenex to rock the boat by speaking up. The Right Wingers have said that Kaepernick’s protest is against everything from motherhood to apple pie to failing to support the troops, which is not at all true. I don’t know if Colin Kaepernick will ever play another game in the NFL, but the owners, already perhaps seeing the future of the sport in jeopardy from the specter of CTE, have a real problem with players of color and their supporters and all of the fans of color.

With the NFL Draft just a couple of weeks away, it’s time to take stock of what players you have, what you need, and who’s available. As I wrote in the Colin Kaepernick story, the NFL is cruel – players get dropped and forgotten. Even superstars get cut, part of declining performance and saving money.
Still, it was a surprise when it was announced today that the Cowboys had parted ways with wide receiver Dez Bryant. The 29-year-old Bryant’s performance has declined over the years, but he was still the team’s top receiver in yardage, but not near the 1,000 yard top of the league receiver that he had been.
Also, Bryant has always been a showboat and a braggart and sometimes divisive personality. I’m sure he will find another job in the NFL, but it is surprising.

I’ve been busy with the Indignant Girls on Spring Break, but I do want to catch up:
• Congratulations to the Loyola Men’s Basketball team. The team brought hope to the entire city who are suffering from bad pro basketball, pro hockey, and the disappointment of Northwestern.
• By the same token, congratulations goes out to Villanova. With 2 National Championships in 3 years, they are now the dynastic program in college basketball. Not Duke, not the one and done Kentucky, not North Carolina.
• I still hate Notre Dame, at least their football team. They can’t lose enough games for my money. However, the women’s basketball team won the final two games of the NCAA tournament on unbelievable last second shots by the same young woman – Arike Ogunbowale. Still, there’s a little part of me happy that ND’s championship was sealed by a black woman. I’m sure there’s some Domers who won’t be outwardly happy with that.
• Baseball season has started and the Cubs have struggled at the start while the White Sox have played well. It could be a very interesting season in Chicago.
• This weekend is The Masters and the buzz is highest its been in years with the sudden resurgence of Tiger Woods. Again, I do not like or play golf, but I bet the ratings with be huge this weekend, especially is Woods makes the cut and is playing Saturday and Sunday. I might even pay some attention.
• Bruins forward Brad Marchand injured another player on a check the other night. Of course, the NHL weaseled out, fining Marchand $5,000 instead of suspending him for a certain number of games. We’re too close to the playoffs for the league to give Marchand the punishment he deserves. It’s too bad because he is a talented player, a great scorer, but he’s a thug, playing hard as the rest of the league tries to clean up its act.
• Talented but hated, we have to say goodbye to the Sedin Brothers (often called the Sedin Sisters by opposing teams’ fans), the twins who have carved out Hall of Fame 17-year careers with the Vancouver Canucks. The two announced their retirement at the end of the season. When the Canucks were the Blackhawks chief rivals in the Western Conference, Most Chicago fans hated them, myself included. The best thing that happened was when the Canucks lost Game 7 at home to the Bruins in the Stanley Cup Finals in 2011. The Sedins will have the numbers and Hall of Fame, but they’ll never have a Stanley Cup.

For the first time in nine years, the Chicago Blackhawks will be watching, not playing in the NHL Playoffs. I had forgotten what it’s like to not have a rooting interest in the playoffs. In the past, I wrote here that when you have a team not making the playoffs, it is freeing – you can just watch the hockey and not have a rooting interest. However, there are teams that you don’t want to win. In my mind, it’s the Red Wings – already eliminated; the Canucks – ditto. Which leaves the St. Louis Blues. With three games left in the regular season, my Blackhawks have two games left against the Blues, and the Hawks know that they can spoil the Blues playoff hopes by beating them. I certainly hope the Blues are at home watching the playoffs with the Hawks.
Part 2 of this post is more serious. The Hawks have not played well this season and a lot of the reason has been poor goaltending once Corey Crawford suffered his mysterious upper-body injury just before Christmas. Reportedly, Coach Joel Quenneville is on the hot seat. Despite 3 Stanely Cup Championships, Quenneville and General Manager Stan Bowman are reportedly not speaking.
It isn’t good to be on the outs with your boss, but Quenneville I assume, has not been happy with the personnel changes Bowman has made. For every astute decision, like drafting Artemi Panerin, there’s two that haven’t worked out, like trading Panerin for Brandon Saad, bringing back too many of the old Stanley Cup Champions like Patrick Sharp, signing Brent Seabrook to a long term contract as his skills deteriorate.
Quenneville, notoriously impatient with young players, giving them a quick hook. Over time, the hooks came fewer and further between, and this season, many youngsters played, made critical errors, turned pucks over, allowed soft goals, but Q stayed with the youngsters, just benching them or making them a healthy scratch. It hurts Quenneville to lose, and this is the first time in 21 years as a head coach hat his team has posted a losing record. Still, he did what no other coach has done – bring a Stanley Cup to Chicago, and Quenneville has done it 3 times, with different players surrounding the core.
Of course, Stan Bowman did make the moves – signing the core, although most of the core were acquired by the previous GM Dale Tallon. Bowman has a powerful hockey pedigree – so of winningest coach in history – Scotty Bowman, who acts as special consultant to the team. From my point of view, Bowman should be on a much hotter seat than Coach Q. After successfully navigating the salary cap for years, his moves, most often done, I hear, without Quenneville’s input have shown more losers than winners.
One thing is certain, every NHL team who will soon be firing their head coach is waiting to see whether Quenneville will be fired. President John McDonaugh and Owner Rocky Wirtz will probably be the final arbiters. Having a civil war in a team’s front office is a horrible thing, but both men need to stay with the Blackhawks, and Wirtz need to sit both men down and make them play nice. Or else.

The first weekend of the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament is made for basketball and gambling. This year, the basketball has been at its usual high level, but for once, the gambling is different. Usually, a safe bet is to pick the number one, two or three seeds, plug them into the finals; pick 12 seeds over 5, and choose a few more upsets and you’ll be fine.
Not this year. I haven’t participated in an NCAA pool in a few years, since I have been bored with basketball for awhile, but tons of friends have had their brackets busted, and they arern’t alone. To me, it started with my old friend Rick Telander. Before the tournament started, he wrote a column that one day, a number 16 seed would defeat a number 1 seed. It had never been done before, number 1 seeds were 132 and 0. Then UMBC knocked off Virginia, the first time in history, and the upsets kept coming. Right now, number 1 seeds Virginia and Xavier are out, as are other big time programs like Michigan State, and North Carolina. Here in Chicago, the big story is the 15th seed in the South Region, the Loyola Ramblers. They have won their first 2 games, reaching the Sweet 16 for the first time since the school won the very first tournament in 1963.
Personally, I think it’s a great thing for the tournament to have more Cinderella teams still alive. There’s still Kentucky and Duke and Villanova and Gonzaga, but besides Loyola, there’s Nevada and Kansas State and Florida State and Syracuse. I have watched some buzzer beaters and the basketball has been, as usual, excellent. The rest of the tournament should be outstanding. As long as you didn’t spend a lot of money on brackets.

While the NCAA Men’s and Women’s Basketball Tournaments in full force, it is tempting to enjoy the festivities and forget about the bigger problems the NCAA has. An ongoing FBI investigation has discovered that players from more than 20 Division I men’s basketball programs have possibly broken NCAA rules. Schools identified by Yahoo! as having players who possibly violated NCAA rules include Duke, North Carolina, Texas, Kentucky, Michigan State, USC and Kansas. At least 25 players are linked to impermissible benefits, including Michigan State’s Miles Bridges, Alabama’s Collin Sexton and Duke’s Wendell Carter.
Documents obtained by Yahoo! Sports report that former NBA agent Andy Miller and his agency, ASM Sports between 2015 through 2017 — show cash advances as well as entertainment and travel expenses paid for college prospects and their families. ESPN previously reported that as many as three dozen Division I programs, including many of the sport’s traditional powers, might be facing NCAA sanctions once the FBI releases information it acquired during its investigation. A source familiar with the investigation — which includes more than 4,000 conversations intercepted through wiretaps and financial records, emails and other records seized from Miller’s office — had told ESPN’s Mark Schlabach that many of the sport’s top coaches and players might be implicated, calling Miller’s records “the NCAA’s worst nightmare.”
It already looks as though the NCAA has tried to distance themselves from some of the schools that couold be named in the investigation. Last week, ESPN’s Hall of fame analyst Dick Vitale was among the pundits who complained that Oklahoma and its star Trae Young made the tournament despite Oklahoma not winning a road game in 2018, and losing most of their home games over that time as well. Who didn’t make it? Oklahoma State, who had a better record, defeated Oklahoma twice, but didn’t make the tournament because they are reportedly one of the schools that the FBI is investigating.
College sports have been dirty since the 1880s (yes, I wrote the 1880s). The latest scandal may finally rock the NCAA to its knees. The organization has always been an anachronism: dedicated to making the schools money by keeping the status quo/unpaid student athletes but at the same time investigating and punishing those same schools, their coaches, athletes and entire programs. It is an institution that needs to be destroyed and rebuilt.
Perhaps this will be the beginning of true change. We can only hope this is the time.

There are sometimes stories that make one shakes one’s head in disbelief. No, this is not a political diatribe; there are enough of those already. Because it’s Winter Olympics time, we get to join in the pageantry and artistry of sport. Since it’s the Winter Olympics, not the Summer ones, the U.S. ends up doing respectably well in the Games, but not the top country, and that’s OK. Men’s hockey isn’t the same without the NHL players there, but that’s ok too, the NHL season is nearing its end, when things really start to get interesting (but not for my Blackhawks, alas).
One thing that is never far away from one’s mind at any Olympiad is the spectre of cheating: performance enhancing drugs, urine tests, scandal. Before the current South Korean Games even began, Russia was thrown out of the Olympics for a program of systemic doping that was last seen during the Cold War. The IOC backed away a little bit, allowing Russian athletes who had passed drug tests to appeal to the body to allow them to compete. Many of them have petitioned and won and are participating as “Athletes from Russia” or some such moniker, and when they win, the Olympic anthem is played.
Back when I wrote for The Sportswriters, there was a poll of Olympic level athletes asking if they would take a drug to magically make them the world’s best in their sport, but it would trim 10 years from their lifespans, and approximately 90% of the 1990s athletes said that they would take the drug. Athletes from all over the world doped, but it seemed like the Eastern Bloc countries: Russia and East German were pumping out steroidal supermen and superwomen. (I’ll never forget the cover of National Lampoon that had a very butch looking woman on the cover wearing an East German track suit but the woman had a very distinct male bulge in the crotch.) For Russia, it was the opportunity to prove superiority in all things – athletics, government, ideology. Of course, the Cold War is over, but not for Russian strongman Vladimir Putin, who longs for those days when Russia was the very best, and used every chemical advantage to get there. This is a major reason that Russia was ousted from the current Games.
Still, it seems that people are willing to try and get an advantage and a Russian is at the center of the current controversy. Last week, Alexander Krushelnytsky won a bronze medal in the mixed doubles competition with his wife. With the positive test, his medal could be forfeited. Moreover, the IOC was apparently considering allowing the Russian athletes to enter the Closing Ceremonies under the Russian flag and anthem, but that chance seems to be over with the latest failed test.
In curling! Shuffleboard on ice with a large stone with a handle drilled into it. And with the most frantic domestic people in the world sweeping in front of the sliding rock to try and reduce resistance. It is the wackiest “sport” in the world; a big hit in Canada, but overall, quite silly. So silly I’ve wondered if it really is a sport, much less deserving of Olympic attention. Not to insult curlers out there (writing that I couldn’t help but see a woman with curlers in her hair), but it is kind of a silly game. But then again hitting a little white ball with a stick in order to walk behind it and try to knock it into a small hole hundreds of yards away is also rather absurd.
But who cheats at curling? Something that even networks with millions of hours of programming to fill don’t show, or when they do, its late at night on tape delay. While I am not for doping, to do so as a figure skater, or hockey player, or skier, or even luger or bobsledder has potential financial upside. A few endorsements; a couple of commercials, and you can have a very decent living. I just can’t see a curling team on the front of a box of Wheaties.
It’s unbelievable. It’s too silly.