Long time readers know that I have very little respect for ESPN college football analyst Kirk Herbstreit. Having played at Ohio State, he is a rabid “homer” who crabbily puts down any change, advancement to his beloved college football. Of course, since he got his notoriety from being a Big Ten QB back in the day and now gets big checks from covering the sport, he has a financial stake in the status quo. Now his ire is aimed at former UCLA basketball player Ed O’Bannon who filed suit against the NCAA for its ability to “own” a player’s image in perpetuity which killed, for now, the NCAA Football video game series from EA Sports
The game was discontinued, or at least placed “on hiatus” after EA Sports settled its portion of the class action lawsuit by O’Bannon, who also filed against the NCAA. The NCAA lost the initial case and is in the process of appealing the decision.
“Ed O’Bannon ruined that for all of us,” Hebstreit told SEC Country. “I’ve never met one player in college football that’s like, ‘They can’t use my name and likeness! I need to be paid!’ ” Herbstreit continued. “They’re just thrilled to be on the game. They love being on the game. It’s like the biggest highlight of their life, is to be on the game.”
The problem here is that Ed O’Bannon wasn’t the first athlete to sue the NCAA – many others including College Football and NFL Hall of Fame great Jim Brown had sued the NCAA earlier than O’Bannon did. But O’Bannon’s case did get publicity and was another nail in the coffin of the current college sports business model, also known as slavery.
At the heart of all of the lawsuits has been over athlete compensation for the use of their likeness in the game. In the various suits, the plaintiffs argued that EA Sports was making millions off a game that was popular because of student-athletes that received no money. O’Bannon’s suit only covered players who had graduated or no longer played college athletics. Other suits filed against EA Sports and the NCAA covering current players were joined with O’Bannon’s suit, but at the behest of the NCAA if I remember correctly. In my mind, without that consolidation, the game could have continued, just without the All-Time teams, while the suit involving current players continued.
What he does not say is that hypocrite Kirk Herbstreit has a stake in the former EA Sports franchise since he was one of three announcers in the game and was compensated for his work. He never heard any ex-players asking for money for their likenesses because he didn’t have to listen to them. He has his television job, who cares about anyone else?
And does Kirk Herbstreit care about gamers? Of course not. He cares even less than EA Sports does, who treats their customers with contempt, teasing a video of a slowly beating heart on their website, which led to people believing that the suits were nearing a conclusion and the game would soon return. EA Sports said that this was not the case at all, but that they were just excited after the conclusion of the playoffs. Right!
I don’t watch College Football Gameday or any other program that has the blond goofball on it. He is almost guaranteed to say something that is either so stupid or so offensive that I would want to throw something at the television. Like Danny Kanell who bemoaned changes in the game for the safety of the players, Kirk Herbstreit wants to make sure that the money train that feeds the NCAA, EA Sports, and ESPN remains intact so that Herbstreit gets his share of the billions.

I am, as you know, a film fan: I watch lots of films, attend the film festival in Toronto each year for fun. I believe that I am a knowledgeable film follower.
I am also African-American, but being of my age, I guess I’m used to not seeing very many black people in movies unless it is Samuel L. Jackson. I admit to not seeing too many films targeted at black people mostly because I am divorced from stereotypical black experience. And, like comedies starring white people, I don’t find tons of rude jokes funny, so I don’t watch any, no matter who is starring or directing. I was somewhat interested in the N.W.A. bio-pic “Straight Outta Compton” but as I was never a gangsta-rap fan, I figured I’d see it one day in the future (a plan that remains in effect).
Ever since the Academy Award nominations were announced, for the second year in a row without any actors or directors of color, there has been talk of a boycott. Jada Pinkett Smith and her husband Will seem to be at the forefront (although Will, the far bigger star than his wife, has been personally silent); but, as usual, Spike Lee is also boycotting. More may be coming although the jokes from this year’s Master of Ceremonies Chris Rock promise to be hilarious and could make a lot of people in the audience very uncomfortable, which is a far greater public embarrassment than a few actors not showing up and doing interviews and press conferences,
The Oscars are a money-grab, as if you can value one performance, one movie, one set of costumes, one song, over all of the others. It’s a competition where there can be no objectivity – everyone has their own opinion and views. This is why so many people don’t like the Academy Awards. But it’s a tradition, and we watch (I watch) to see what happens; who wins; who loses. Some friends and I used to have a pool of the winners, but it lost luster as I seemed to win nearly every year.
The Oscars are a reflection of the movies themselves and, I think, since the election of Barack Obama, the mainstream media has retreated in being too forward with black people in non-black pictures or roles. The same types of films aimed at black people are still being made (except for the blacksploitation films of the 1970s – I think a tough black man tearing up things might make too many white people nervous/scared). In light of the police killing young black men all over the place, serious films would either be too controversial for Hollywood, or do poorly with black audiences who see enough drama/trauma in their regular lives.
Are there black actors deserving of nominations? Of course – Idris Elba in Beasts of No Nation, Jackson in The Hateful Eight, several of the ensemble in Straight probably are deserving, but it’s very easy to be liberal in public and more conservative when making your Oscar vote. Are Oscar voters too old, too white, too conservative? Yes, yes, and probably yes. The bigger point is that there still aren’t enough quality roles for women and people of color. And black films are easier to ignore than white films and comedies, even great ones, never get serious Oscar votes. The big distinction is when black actors are cast in roles written for white actors. To be honest, having a woman and a black man cast as the stars of Star Wars – The Force Awakens, is a serious first step in the process. There needs to be more colorblindness in the industry and then you will see more great performances from black actors.
An Oscar boycott is futile, and I’m only mildly hopeful for the future.

So, we’re now down to the last four teams in the NFL and there are, as usual compelling story lines that the newspapers and television stations will be commenting on until Sunday.
First, we have the NFC Championship Game between Arizona and Carolina. First off, this is historic since this is the first time that two number one overall picks will be facing each other in a championship game: Carson Palmer for Arizona and Cam Newton for Carolina. While both were first picks, both have had ups and downs. Palmer was always a questionable overall number 1 to me, I always thought he was decent in a good situation at USC, not necessarily the best player in college or the best future pro. He was drafted by Cincinnati where he had some success but injuries and lack of playoff success got him shipped off first to Oakland and then to Arizona, where his career has really flourished under Cardinals Head Coach Bruce Ariens.
Newton was a backup at the An Old Rivalry, And A New One?

So, we’re now down to the last four teams in the NFL and there are, as usual compelling story lines that the newspapers and television stations will be commenting on until Sunday.
First, we have the NFC Championship Game between Arizona and Carolina. First off, this is historic since this is the first time that two number one overall picks will be facing each other in a championship game: Carson Palmer for Arizona and Cam Newton for Carolina. While both were first picks, they have had ups and downs. Palmer was always a questionable overall number 1 to me, I always thought he was in a good situation at USC. He was drafted by Cincinnati where he had some success but injuries and lack of playoff success got him shipped off first to Oakland and then to Arizona, where his career has really flourished under Cardinals Head Coach Bruce Ariens.
Newton was a backup at the University of Florida, left for junior college where he showed his skills as a runner and a passer, and reportedly got himself and his family paid over $100,000 to come play at Auburn (never proven and there was never an NCAA sanction against Auburn). After a rookie of the year season after being chosen the overall first pick, defenses learned to cope with the running quarterback and he had a sub par year two. But he’s improved year by year, and this season, with a good defense, Carolina was only defeated once this season. Instead of getting weaker, the Panthers came out and surprised everyone, they stomped the then red-hot Seattle Seahawks 31-0 last weekend.
Both teams are very good, both are playing well – it could be a game for the ages.
Then we have another in the long rivalry of Tom Brady vs. Peyton Manning. Yes, it’s the Patriots against the Broncos, but the story will be the umpteenth game between the teams of the two Hall of Fame to-be quarterbacks.
Manning has led the Colts and now Broncos to multiple MVP seasons but his team’s can’t beat Brady’s; Manningis 5-11 against New England, and this time, Manning is on the downside of his career, making this game a real mismatch. Manning was injured but he was also benched late in the season, which is the first time that Brady is by far the better player and, with the game in Foxboro, the Patriots are the prohibitive favorite.
With the Packers defeated and at home, this leaves me without a rooting interest except for my dislike for the Patriots and Bill Belichick, cheaters extraordinaire, but I think that this game has the makings of being a blowout of epic proportions.

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I admit that I don’t understand many hackers – breaking into computer systems just to prove you can is immature braggadocio. I do understand the hackers for money, and I do also understand sports fixers. It’s all about money, but like hackers, I do wish they’d go away.
We have seen scandals in most sports over the years: basketball, boxing, soccer, even football; so I guess it’s to be expected that there would be people trying to get an edge on tennis too. As the first Grand Slam of the year, the Australian Open, begins there was more talk about an investigation by BuzzFeed News and the BBC that said that certain grand slam winners were among a group of 16 players “who have repeatedly been reported for losing games when highly suspicious bets have been placed against them.” The report said that one top-50 player at the Australian Open is “suspected of repeatedly fixing his first set.”
The investigation centers on documents reportedly handed over by whistleblowers, that allegedly show gambling syndicates in Russia and Italy profited by betting on games believed to have been fixed. Tennis’ governing bodies comprised most notably of the men’s ATP Tour, women’s WTA Tour and the international ITF, “absolutely reject any suggestion that evidence of match fixing has been suppressed for any reason,” it said in a statement released in Melbourne, at the Australian Open.
While there have been match-fixing scandals in soccer and even cricket, there have been no major cases that have led to penalties in top-tier tennis. ATP head Chris Kermode stated that there have been 18 “convictions,” and six lifetime bans stemming from the Tennis Integrity Unit, which was formed in 2008. The highest profile investigation conducted by the ATP revolved around a match played a year earlier in Sopot, Poland, between former world No. 3 Nikolay Davydenko and Martin Vassallo Arguello. Despite suspicious betting patterns, neither player was formally charged.
“A year-long investigation into the Sopot match in 2007 found insufficient evidence,” Kermode said in a press conference prior to the statement. He added: “The investigators hit a brick wall and it just wasn’t possible to determine who the guilty party was in relation to this match.”
Indeed, players under investigation are under no obligation to hand over potentially incriminating evidence.
“We can demand their phones and laptops and iPads,” said TIU director of integrity Nigel Willerton in the press conference. “Obviously they have to consent to give them.” One player who didn’t co-operate, Ivo Klec, was given a two-year ban last year.
Top-ranked men’s player Novak Djokovic said an approach was made to his team by match fixers in 2007 but was immediately rejected. He called some of the report “speculation.” Djokovic confirmed that his support team was offered $200,000 for him to lose a first-round match in St. Petersburg almost a decade ago — but he did not play at that tournament. “I was approached through people that were working with me at that time, that were with my team. Of course, we threw it away right away,” the Serbian said. “It didn’t even get to me — the guy that was trying to talk to me, he didn’t even get to me directly. There was nothing out of it.”
I think that I agree with Paul Annacone, the former coach of Roger Federer and Pete Sampras, who told CNN.com that he believes elite players didn’t need to participate in match fixing to make good money. “I would be shocked if it was prevalent with top players because they are earning such a good living and making their professional progress so well that why would you risk that much?” Djokovic pocketed $21 million in 2015, while world No. 100 Daniel Gimeno-Traver of Spain made $350,000.
Ordinarily, I wouldn’t think it happens in Grand Slams because of the attention, and the fact that a win or two can bring you a lot of attention and money, but this investigation has one of the top 50 players in the world reportedly throwing sets, if not matches. This makes me think that those players should go and find something else to do.
The problem is exacerbated on the smaller tournaments, especially those not televised around the world and in distant and remote locations. I believe that, the temptation may be greater, especially if its only one set out of five. Even the authorities admit that due to the sheer volume of matches in professional tennis, it’s difficult to catch everyone. Players in the second-tier Challenger system and third-tier Futures may be targets because of how little they make. The BuzzFeed and BBC investigation said players could be offered $50,000 or more per fix.
There will be more on this of course. I don’t think we have any concern watching the major tournaments or the major players, but I think there’s dirt about to come out.

The fairy tale that you get from the NFL is – young man from bad home/troubled background is given the chance to play college football, excels, is drafted by the NFL, becomes a big star and lives happily ever after. Of course, the happy ending hardly ever happens: the majority of NFL players go bankrupt after they leave the league, there is the possibility of drug and alcohol dependence issues, and most chillingly, the shadow of brain damage from CTE lurks in every former player’s brain.
However, there are stories of failed brilliance that transcend sadness. Such is the story of Lawrence Phillips. Phillips was found dead in his California prison cell early Wednesday, and officials said they suspect suicide. Guards at Kern Valley State Prison found Phillips, 40, unresponsive in his cell shortly after midnight. He was taken to an outside hospital and pronounced dead about 1:30 a.m., the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation said. Phillips had been housed alone in a segregation cell since April 2013 after he was suspected of killing his cellmate, and a Kern County judge had ruled earlier this week that there was enough evidence to try Phillips in the death of Damion Soward, 37.
Phillips played for the St. Louis Rams before being released in 1997 for insubordination. He also played for the Miami Dolphins and San Francisco 49ers, but Phillips was once one of the top U.S. college football players at Nebraska. He was a punishing runner who rushed for over 3,100 yards in just three seasons in Lincoln, a 6.1 yard-per-carry average. But Phillips came from a tough life before football. He was born in Little Rock, Arkansas but moved to California when he was young, where he grew up in numerous foster homes. He showed potential on the football field and eventually got recruited by Nebraska, which was also chosen in great part because he would be far away from the troubled environment of California.
However, it wasn’t easy to be a black student on a predominantly white campus in the early 1990s (wasn’t easy in the 1970s or 1980s, I can tell you, and all you have to do is look at Missouri and Yale to tell that it isn’t easy today either). Philips felt isolated according to stories that I’ve seen, and he got into trouble for hitting his girlfriend, a player on the women’s basketball team, but he wasn’t immediately thrown off the team, which was controversial because people said that Phillips would have been expelled if he hadn’t been a superstar, again, an issue that we deal with today.
He was only able to be a productive pro player occasionally, but injuries, especially concussions dogged and eventually shortened his career to three years. Even then, during his stint with the 49ers, Phillips wasn’t really into playing football. Like other running backs such as Barry Sanders and Robert Smith, both of whom walked away from football in their prime, Phillips was disinterested.
In interviews that I saw with him, it seemed that Phillips was like a very sensitive man-child who didn’t really like to play football, but it was the only thing that he did well, and the only thing that validated his humanity to many people. The final stint with the Rams ended because he left camp, perhaps he was tired of football; maybe he saw through the fiction that players weren’t discarded like yesterday’s trash once they were no longer effective on the field.
Much has been said about Phillips life after football. Phillips was sent to prison in 2008 to serve a sentence of more than 31 years after he was convicted of twice choking his girlfriend in 2005 in San Diego and of driving his car into three teens later that year after a pickup football game in Los Angeles. He was sentenced for inflicting great bodily injury involving domestic violence, corporal injury to a spouse, false imprisonment and vehicle theft.
If I remember correctly, Phillips continually asked to be housed away from the approximately 3,900 other inmates in the prison about 80 miles south of Fresno in California’s Central Valley. Other inmates challenged the former superstar football player. His last roommate was Soward who, according to Phillips was continually abusive until the day in Spring 2013, when Soward turned up dead in the cell they shared; the cause of death was strangulation and Phillips was the chief suspect.
In the story from a few years ago, Phillips looked forward to eventually getting out of prison, but if found guilty of murder, he would never get out. Even if it was self-defense, I guess it was too much for him (I can understand)
So ends the story of a man who grew up in difficult circumstances, knew violence, used that violence to become a great football player, but football, money and fame weren’t able to soothe the troubles. The tender soul inside of Dr. Jeckyl also had the Mr. Hyde side, hurting people who got too close. There are no winners in the story of Lawrence Phillips: not the players who played for and against him; not the coaches who won games with him; not the fans who cheered him; not the people Phillips hurt; not the kids he fathered; not the ex-wives and girlfriends; not the reporters and broadcasters who covered him and interviewed him.
All that remains is sadness.

Not The Reaction I Would Have Expected

As I wrote last week, it was inevitable that some NFL franchise was going to be moving to Los Angeles, it was just a matter of who and how many. St. Louis, Oakland and San Diego all applied to leave since all three cities refused to pay the extortion money and give the teams a new stadium. Of the three, only the City of St. Louis had actually offered a plan to build a stadium, but Rams Stan Kroenke not only didn’t like the deal, but he decided to urinate all over the city and its offer at the same time. The cultural descendant of Art Modell.
As I wrote last week, the Rams filing said that the St. Louis market is a dud and attendance is bad despite “significant” investments in the team, and St. Louis failed to keep a big promise they made to lure the team from Los Angeles in 1995 – to provide the Rams with a “first-tier” stadium in St. Louis.
“St. Louis is not a three professional team market,” the application states in a bold heading, referring to the city’s baseball Cardinals, NHL Blues and NFL Rams. “Compared to all other U.S. cities, St. Louis is struggling,” the team states in its application. It cites studies that demonstrate that “Los Angeles is a strong market with great opportunity, while St. Louis is a market that will in all likelihood be unable to sustain three professional sports teams.”
The proposal had not finished dumping on St. Louis: “the current Rams ownership’s investment in the on-the-field Rams team has been significant,” the Rams’ application states. “The Rams have consistently spent to the salary cap in each year under Stan Kroenke and have significantly increased the coaching and scouting budgets. … Despite these investments and engagements, Rams attendance since 2010 has been well below the league’s average. The combination of low attendance and the lack of pricing power … has consistently placed the Rams in the low fourth quartile in gross ticketing receipts generally between 60% and 70% of the NFL average per game for the regular season.”
Of course, the proposal doesn’t mention that the Rams have not had a winning season since 2003 after finishing this season with a 7-9 record, and has had four winning seasons out of 20 since the team left Los Angeles. Of course, the Rams lured the Rams from L.A. in the first place, so it’s kind of appropriate that California took them back. Also, the fact that Kroenke had purchased land in Southern California and was building a new stadium there regardless meant that he already had a leg up on anyone trying to break into that market.
However, the future of the Rams is not guaranteed. I think the team has two seasons of honeymoon: next year when the team is brand new to the area and in 2019 when the new stadium is finished. Those two years, the team will rake in baskets of money, but in the years between those events and after the new stadium is built, the Rams had better win. L.A. Is a fickle market – with constant warmth, plenty of activities to occupy residents, and no apparent yearning for NFL football, the team had better be consistently good to make huge money every year.
In addition, the Chargers can still move to L.A. if they can get their act together before 2017, which means that San Diego has one more year to come up with/break ground on a new stadium or the Chargers are history. As a traditionalist, I think the Chargers should stay in San Diego, but the Chargers have been playing in what is now called Raymond James Stadium since 1967. Money aside, perhaps they do deserve a new home?
However, the civic blackmail continues; a team moves; another game of musical teams/Russian roulette; another fan base is let down, and the owners line their pockets with tons of dough.
To show you that it is truly all about the money Dolphins owner Stephen Ross said “Everybody won,” To which someone asked, well, what about St. Louis fans. Ross replied “Well, somebody has to lose.”
That’s as cold-blooded as you will find. Par for the course for the owners of the NFL.

I didn’t watch more than a couple of plays this past Monday night of the FBS National Championship football game. I did check my iPad occasionally to see what the score was, but it certainly wasn’t “must see television.”
This is surprising considering the fact that I have clamored for a playoff system for years. The old system of counting on votes, or, even worse, the old BCS computer generated system led to arguments about who the best team was; while that is fun to argue about in a bar, it’s no way to determine the championship of a sport.
To the dismay of the NCAA, I wasn’t alone. The game on ESPN drew an average of 25.7 million viewers, a 23 percent drop from the 33.4 million who watched last year, when Ohio State beat Oregon. Among the explanations for the smaller audience includes: because the title game was no longer the novelty it was last year; because it was a matchup of two Southern teams; or because Clemson is not as well known to a national audience as Alabama or either of the teams that played last year. However, it should be noted that streaming of the title game on WatchESPN rose 38 percent from last year.
Some pundits may suggest that the drop in viewership for the title game is a trend since the semifinals, which were played on New Year’s Eve, took an estimated 40 percent tumble in their audience. I’m certain that viewership was down on the semis because it was New year’s Eve and people either started their celebrations early, or were preparing to go out. In 2015, the semis were on New Year’s Day, the traditional day for college football.
Why didn’t I watch? I had time; the girls were home – I could have watched, but I wasn’t that interested. First of all, while Clemson was the number 1 team and undefeated all season, I never watched any of their games and I don’t have much of an interest in the Atlantic Coast Conference. Back when I cared about basketball, the ACC was huge with North Carolina, Duke and NC State as national powerhouses. Now, however, I’m not as big a fan. And I have no great love of Alabama football or Nick Saban. They have become the “evil empire,” four national titles in 6 years; a dynasty from the SEC, a conference that is honestly known as much for its football than its academics. And despite what my more avid college football fans say, Saban just seems dirty to me. There’s nothing to prove it, but this level of success in college football can’t be completely legit. Another factor is that there are just too many bowl games. Yes, I said it. Back when I was single, I eat up as much sport on television as I could, but of course, that was before the ways one could see anything increased exponentially. I think I would have eventually gotten bowl overdose regardless. So, I watched Northwestern until their beating became too much to watch and I watched some of Ohio State beating Notre Dame, since I love watching ND get beat. Other than that, I was less than enthused.