Why is it that some of the most talented people in the world, can be complete jerks? Actually, I guess there are as many jerks among the talented as in the regular populace, just the talented get more press.
Which bring us to Terrell Owens; he has been elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame but this week he told the Hall of Fame Committee that he will not attend the ceremony. He would rather celebrate with friends and family (of course, he could have just brought the friends and family with his to Canton, like everyone else does). His entire career, TO was undoubtedly one of the great receivers, but he made more headlines with his antics:
In 2000, while playing for the 49ers, Owens ran to the center of the field at Texas Stadium to plant an imaginary flow on the Cowboys’ star. Another attempt to do that got him tackled by one of the Cowboys.
In 2001, Owens accused then 49ers head coach Steve Mariucci of protecting friend Dick Jauron after the 49ers blew a 19-point lead and lost to Jauron’s Bears in OT.
In 2004, in a Playboy interview, Owens hinted that ex-teammate, quarterback Jeff Garcia was gay.
The list goes on and on.
There had been considerable discussion in the past about whether wide receivers, except for the very best, deserved HoF consideration. This is why there are many fewer receivers in the Hall than the other positions. That attitude seems to have gone away (finally) leading to a lot of great receivers getting their due.
Owens certainly belongs – he was one of the best receivers of his era and his persona, as aggravating as it was, did captivate the NFL audience. One would think, glory hound and attention whore that he is, the HoF induction ceremony would be the perfect place to get in front of the cameras again. Often, players make Hall of Fame speeches that impact their legacy. The one major time I remember this happening was not in football but in baseball. Ryne Sandberg, to some, a controversial selection and a person known to be shy (honestly, when I was working at Wrigley while he was playing, I thought that Sandberg wasn’t just shy, I thought he was a bit dim). Sandberg got up on the rostrum and gave one of the great Hall of Fame speeches, addressing PEDs among other things.
I don’t think Owens is capable of giving such a speech; in fact, I think it would turn into a brag-fest and perhaps, a chance to blast the owners, coaches, front office people and players whom he either dislikes/disrespects, or those he think did him wrong. Owens’ speech could have been a cringe-worthy event memorialized on YouTube forever. It could have been stirring, but I doubt it.
So, Terrell Owens skipping out on his own Hall of Fame induction saves us the agony, and that’s fine

Always a bridesmaid never a bride seemed to be the situation for the Washington Capitals, who have been a power in their division and in the Eastern Conference for years, but always came up short in the playoffs. With goal scoring wizard Alex Ovechkin, mush was expected, but hockey purists (myself included) thought of Ovi as one dimensional. Just 4 seasons ago, Ovechkin had his usual 50+ goals, but he had a -35 Plus/Minus (for those who don’t know, a player gets a plus every time they’re on the ice for their team’s goal and a minus for every time they were on the ice for an opponents’ tally). It was amazing that one player could score over 50 goals by himself and still have been on the ice for 85 opposing scores.
As a one dimensional player, I was alright with him never having been on a Cup winning team although not a player a rooted against in the playoffs like Phil Kessel or Rick Nash. Unlike other seasons, there were a lot of very strong teams in the league – the Capitals did not win the Presidents’ Trophy this season for being the team with the most points in the regular season. They were just another one of many very good teams, but I and most others thought the Caps would lose in the playoffs again, especially since they played their nemesis, the Pittsburgh Penguins in the playoffs again this season.
Ovi has since found a better two-way game, he has lots of star help like Nicklas Backstrom and T.J. Oshie and a top flight goalie in Braden Holtby, and last night, the Washington Capitals won their first Stanley Cup Championship in franchise history, defeating the upstart, expansion Las Vegas Golden Knights in five games. The 2017-18 Capitals showed somethings that previous teams lacked – grit, toughness, determination. Add to that, a Cup for Coach Barry Trots, known as one of the truly great people in the game, and all of the stars aligned for the Capitals.
(And once again vindicated me – I have long said that Marc-Andre Fluery is a great regular season goaltender, but not a very good playoff one. He won a Cup with Pittsburgh as the number 1 net minder back in 2009, but while being a solid cog in the Penguin Cup Championship teams the past two seasons, he was replaced as the number 1 goalie by Matt Murray. Fluery is reportedly a great teammate and person, and he was great in goal this season and the early rounds of the playoffs for Vegas but to my mind, he isn’t a great Cup goaltender.)
So, I’m happy for Ovi; I’m happy for the other players, the City of Washington D.C. Enjoy everyone – you deserve it.

Thirteen and one half years ago, we moved into our house here in Skokie. We met a lot of the neighbors, they were and are wonderful people.
It’s been a long time now, but I don’t remember how we met our neighbors at all he end of the block. You couldn’t help but notice the house, a little Hobbit looking hut with unusual trim. Eventually, we found out that our neighbor was a 6’7″ black man who I had seen playing parties while at Northwestern, Eddy “The Chief” Clearwater. I saw him and Johnny Johnson many times at NU, dancing alone and with others in a down home blues euphoria.
I remember being a bit intimidated meeting him, a blues legend who knew and played with all of the greats: Muddy, Buddy, Lonnie Brooks, Luther Allison, so many more. Here was a living history of Chicago blues music. I approached him as a legend, but he would have none of that. I was his friend; hugs were plentiful; and he always kindly answered my questions about his friends and times on the South Side, when my parents and grandparents were young and in that crowd.
He had a birthday party at Evanston Space every January, and we would go and bring a lot of people with us. He loved seeing his neighbors up front. (He and I share the same birthday month, and one year, the concert was on my birthday – a Saturday. Man, I was very well served that evening.)
No matter what, I was always amazed by his energy on stage – in his 70s and 80s, he may have looked tired off stage, but once he got up there, he was rockin’. I was always amazed at one additional fact – the Chief was left-handed, but back when he learned to play, he learned on a right handed guitar. Even after he had enough money to buy left handed guitars, he still played guitars for righties. Most amazing however, was the fact that Eddy played the guitar still strung for a right handed player, so he played the blues, Grammy winning albums, Blues Hall of Fame membership, playing the guitar upside down. (As someone who can barely play a right handed guitar and I’m right handed, it’s astounding.)
So, my friend Lisa Holton had the unfortunate duty of forwarding a link that said that the Chief passed today at 83. The sky is crying as the song goes. We will miss his music. We will miss his grand good humor. A large piece of blues history is gone. But I will miss my friend, the legend who never acted like one. The man who loved when my youngest, Elizabeth would bring him a plate at our annual block party, a party he enjoyed because he could just be himself, no one would ask him to play. He could just relax.
So long Chief – I know we were friends, but it was an honor to know such a great and kindly man and musician.

The NFL has announced a rule change that would penalize any team whose players kneel for the national anthem At first, the reports were for a team be assessed a 15 yard penalty. However, this plan had a major flaw – players talking to one another or looking across the field and see players from one team kneeling. Simple tactic – players from the other team start kneeling – 15 yard, offsetting penalties against both teams.
So, the league has instituted a rule that all players on the field must stand for the anthem. However, players can choose to not be on the field for the anthem, either in the locker room or in the tunnel leading to the field. I have not been able to determine how much money would be the potential punishment and if this could be passed along to the player. In any event, the Players’ Union is reviewing the rule to determine if it follows the rules of the collective bargaining agreement.
Again, we have old, rich, white men trying to legislate the behavior of young, predominantly young black men because the protest is hurting the feelings of many “snowflake” right wing zealots who want their football violent and pure. There’s no need to go into the free speech and civil rights implications, nor do we need to rehash the Colin Kaepernick protest and collusion lawsuit, but if the NFL believes that they can sweep the protests under the rug and hope that no one notices, they’re wrong. Many NFL players have been emboldened by Kaepernick and his inability of getting a job in the league because of his political beliefs. Besides, NFL attempts to blunt controversies regarding plaayers’ head trauma issues and violence against women have not fared too well. Why does Roger Goodell suddenly think that this will work?
For a very rich executive, Goodell and the NFL office don’t do a very good job.

Actually, not really embarrassment for the league, but certainly for many of the coaches and general managers in the league. The first true expansion team to make the Stanley Cup Finals, the Las Vegas Golden Knights has won the Western Conference title and will face the winner of tomorrow night’s Tampa Bay Lightning/Washington Capitals game 7. The only other expansion team to play for the Cup were the 1968 St. Louis Blues, but that doesn’t really count since after expansion, one of those franchises were guaranteed to play in the Finals.
Already, the league could just give Executive of the Year and Coach of the Year Awards to George McPhee and Gerard Gallant, men who targeted the kind of players they wanted who were available either as direct picks in the expansion draft or players who could be acquired in trade or in agreements to not take other eligible players. Only 2 players were well known and the first was only to avid fans: James Neil had won Cups in Pittsburgh but became expendable as the two-time defending champion Penguins had their own salary cap issues. Also in Pittsburgh, Marc-Andre Fluery was redundant with the development of the younger and cheaper Matt Murray in goal. Long time readers know that I feel that Fluery is a great regular season goalie, but runs into problems in the playoffs, but that hasn’t happened yet.
The entire roster took the way they were acquired with a chip on their collective shoulders. Everyone picked them to be lousy, but by picking fast aggressive players to match Gallant’s style, the Golden Knights got off to a great start and rode that wave throughout the entire season, finishing on top II of their division and among the top teams in points. The “conventional wisdom” was that they would suck, but they didn’t listen to the wisdom and success would break through the first year curiosity factor and may have helped build a nice fan base in Sin City.
However, long time hockey men are pissed off, especially the front offices of teams who either have never won the Cup or those who haven’t won it in a very long time. Heading that list are two leading Original Six Canadian franchises: the Toronto Maple Leafs and the Montreal Canadiens. The Leafs are still suffering from decades of mismanagement under former owner Harold Ballard, and the team has not won a title since 1967, the longest active draught. Things are certainly better – they have made the playoffs the past two years, and they have break out superstar Austin Matthews, but they are still young and they have a Stanley Cup winning coach Mike Babcock and Brendan Shanahan as President, so they have hope.
Which is more than can be said for Les Habitants. The Canadiens failed to make the playoffs this season, and haven’t won a Cup since 1993, an unheard of streak for the team that still holds the record for most Stanley Cups – 24. Canadien fans’ patience has been sorely tempted as GM Marc Bergevin has not done a very good job in crafting the team, highlighted by the trade of defenseman P.K. Subban to Nashville for fellow defenseman Shea Weber. Both are top blue liners, but Weber is 7 years older and nearer to the end of his career. Coach Claude Julien was brought into this mess after taking the blame for not enough wins in Boston despite leading the Bruins to the 2011 Stanley Cup Championship. So, it’s really not his fault that the team has no identity, not enough scorers, and many feel are wasting the prime years of one of the best goaltenders in the game – Carey Price.
It will be interesting to see what the rumblings will be in Toronto and Montreal and among other teams with long Cup draughts and high expectations (Rangers, Capitals in they lose game 7, Blues, Wild among others). For now, however, the Vegas castoffs have turned the hockey world on its collective ear. That’s always fun to see.

There has been a big deal over the weekend regarding Major League Baseball and Cubs’ infielder/outfielder Ben Zobrist over footwear. One might ask: is he wearing orange cleats, or stiletto heels or maybe 1970s era Gene Simmons KISS platform monster shoes? As it turns out, Zobrist wears black cleats, he says as a tribute to previous era players.
MLB obviously has nothing better to do other than count its money, so the league reportedly contacted Zobrist because there’s a rule that shoes must be predominantly in the player’s team colors. For the Cubs, this is, of course, blue. Now, I would think that no one really makes that big a distinction between blue and black, and while I don’t really see Zobrist’s wearing of black shoes being a significant tribute, who really cares? (Yesterday, teammates Kyle Schwarber and Steve Cishek wore black cleats in protest along with Zobrist.)
Again, if Zobrist wanted to wear pink shoes (not on Mother’s Day like yesterday) or wear camouflage shoes or something ridiculous, baseball should say something. But Black vs. Blue – I think there’s better use of time, effort and money.

Truly, I knew that this day was coming; the U.S. Supreme Court ruled today that Federal Law prohibiting sports gambling were unconstitutional. According to the 6-3 ruling (I haven’t read which of the “liberal bloc” voted with the conservative justices), states can make their own determinations on the issue.
Actually, does this really have any significance? Draft Kings and the other online betting websites have been operating for years, set up I believe, outside of United States territorial boundaries. Of course, sports books are legal in Nevada and a few other states already.
So, what does this really mean? To me, it just means that local gambling casinos can get in on the action, meaning more revenue for states and municipalities. It’s another sin tax, and one that people will participate in gladly. The old fears that gamblers would try to access players, coaches and referees to try and throw games or shave points still exists, and in fact, is probably a bigger risk than ever. However, with the major sports leagues and the NCAA allowing and even putting out betting lines in every newspaper and on dozens on online sites, that horse has long left the barn.
The only thing I can see getting hurt are office pools. If you can bet legally online or locally, with the chance of winning thousands of dollars, what do the office pools have other than bragging rights? And perhaps the illegal bookmakers may suffer, but maybe that’s a plus?
I’m sure that there are pundits on ESPN even now spouting fire and brimstone bromides that this will be the end of sports as we know it. It won’t – people who want to bet, are going to bet. Now, people can get their bets in and the government gets tax revenue.
I’m OK with that.