So far, I have not commented on the Patrick Kane situation. For those who don’t know, the 26-year-old Blackhawks forward is under investigation in his hometown of Buffalo for a possible sexual assault. This is the latest in a number of times that Kane’s drinking and partying have gotten him into trouble, but this is the most serious offense.
As the father of two girls, there is no stronger advocate of “non means NO” than me. Despite what the GOP says, women are not second class citizens and are the ultimate decision makers on their bodies and what happens to them. Still, we do not know what happened in Kane’s home that night and as of the present time, no charges have been filed by the local prosecutor (who is in the ultimate tough position: he is up for reelection and if he fails to prosecute a rape, he is screwed; but if he brings to trial a highly questionable case, then he is prosecuting a Buffalo hockey idol).
Blackhawk President John McDonough reported went apoplectic when he learned of the situation. McDonough, the former PR head for the Cubs, prides himself on running a model franchise, and now there are stories that he wants to be rid of Kane, one huge piece of the team that has won three Stanley Cups in six seasons. McDonough has every right to be angry with his superstar, who he signed to an $85 million plus contract to match captain Jonathon Toews, especially after Kane promised to stay clean. But Kane has stayed clean since the drunken shirtless pictures on the floor of a Wisconsin bar surfaced a couple of years ago.
My work is firmly in the business world, and there is an old adage that you separate emotion from business, and McDonough should take several deep breaths before he makes a decision that hurts the on ice “product.” If Kane is charged, so be it, you move forward without him and you gain his $10 million salary cap hit. If he isn’t charged (and how long does it take for this DA to make up his mind?), yes, Kane will be the poster boy for bad behavior and some fans won’t like him. That’s natural and appropriate. However, the Hawks will fill seats and have a better chance of winning long term if a “non-charged” Kane is on the ice. Five other teams don’t seem to care – they are lining up to get Kane if the Blackhawks over-react.
Yet again, everyone hopes that Patrick Kane has learned his lesson. If he didn’t do anything illegal, he should be with the Hawks. If he did, then let the wheels of justice turn. He has already lost sponsorship money and he will certainly be under increased scrutiny for the rest of his career.
But John McDonough says that he runs a model franchise. A model franchise makes smart, logical, impartial decisions. The buck stops at the man at the top – make the right decision John.

Once again, a matter of serious consequences has been reduced to a simplistic “us vs. them” argument and I’m tired of it. Many of my FaceBook contacts are people who were coworkers at Andy Frain when we all ushers. A lot of them were cops’ kids, and back then, I became friend with their parents and the other off duty cops who were security guards at the old Chicago Stadium, Comiskey Park, Wrigley Field and elsewhere.
Too many people however are looking at the “Black Lives Matter” and reducing it to advocating targeting cops. They complain that President Obama doesn’t do a press conference every time a policeman gets killed, proving that he’s more sensitive to blacks than police officers. Of course, this is stupidity – if the President, any President including any white one past or future, had a press conference for every murder in this country, he (or she) wouldn’t have any time to do anything else.
What is getting on my last nerve is the concept (perpetuated by the propagandists at Fox News) that this is a zero sum game. Either you’re pro black lives or you’re pro cops (and I’m sorry but the neutral “all lives matter also misses the point). Certainly no one advocates the hunting and killing of police officers – the great majority of officers do their very dangerous jobs with professionalism. But, we all know that there are bad cops out there…
The bigger issue is the de-humanization of poor people and people of color. I admit to being confused at first; when I was coming up, the police were to be respected and if you didn’t do anything, you were generally left alone; but with arrest quotas and for profit penitentiaries, rousting people apparently is standard operating procedure. Now, instead of being generally left alone unless you “looked suspicious,” now police insert themselves into people’s lives much more. If you see those people as inhuman, it’s really easy to do whatever you want to them (and in this case, interjecting the case of Nazi Germany is apropos – Jews were de-humanized, which made them easier to exterminate in the minds of many Germans).
And, if you are being rousted for “driving while black” or “walking while black,” the attitude of inferiority is inserted into your face at every turn – it’s no wonder that people are angry and easily upset when they get approached by the police or when minority men get shot when they have their hands up, or women get thrown to the ground for no apparent reason. You cannot say that a full grown man, trained for a dangerous profession, heavily armed, is “threatened” by a man with his hands up and surrendering?
But it isn’t one way or the other. If you want to talk about defending the police, let’s see you talk about their attitude. “Black Lives Matter” is not a hate group, but they are angry (which is often the same thing to white society). They have a reason to be angry, and I’m sorry, but you need to understand and no longer engage in knee-jerk thinking.

The University of Illinois has been bombarded by allegations of misconduct in its athletic program over the past several months. Black players on the women’s basketball team are suing the university because coaches allegedly favoring white players and setting up a hostile environment.
At the same time, the Chicago papers have interviewed players on the football team who complained that the coaching staff deterred injury reporting and tried to influence medical decisions, thereby pressuring players to avoid or postpone medical treatment and continue playing despite injuries.
The “independent” report of the women’s issues gave the program a clean review, which caused the players and their parents to sue the school. This is what you usually expect from such “internal investigations” – a law firm or private investigator is hired to review the program and is paid to whitewash the incident and, most important, keep the school from getting sued. So, I have to admit surprise that apparently, the investigation of the football program wasn’t just a cover-up.
The University of Illinois fired Head Coach Tim Beckman one week before the start of the 2015 football season. Athletic Director Mike Thomas fired Beckman after receiving preliminary results of an external review into allegations involving the program. Thomas said he learned of the injury issues and that some student-athletes were treated inappropriately with regards to whether they could remain on scholarship during the spring semester of their senior year if they weren’t on the team.
“Both of those findings are unsettling violations of University policy and practice and do not reflect the culture that we wish to create in athletic programs for our young people,” Thomas said in a statement. “I expect my coaches to protect players and foster their success on and off the field.” As a result, Beckman will not receive the $3.1 million remaining on the last two years of his original five-year contract or the $743,000 called for if his contract had been bought out, according to the university.
Bill Cubit, who joined the Illini coaching staff as offensive coordinator in 2013, has been named interim head coach for the 2015 season. Beckman had been on the hot seat for the last couple of years due to the poor performance of the football team, but two late wins over Penn State and against Northwestern in Evanston got the Illini to 6-6 and bowl eligibility. They ended the season 6-7 after losing to Louisiana Tech 35-18 in the Heart of Dallas Bowl (the old Cotton Bowl). Many fans were upset that Beckman kept his job, but Beckman has been his usual optimistic self at the Big Ten Annual Coaches’ Luncheon and other events.
Of course, the team, already fighting uphill after a mediocre 2014 season, now faces an entire season with a new head coach. (Will NCAA penalties follow?) Coaches have taken over programs in the past, but rarely one week before the start of a season. The bigger question is whether Cubit, who was of course a Beckman assistant, will continue the same antics that got Beckman into trouble.
One has to wonder if this type of behavior on the men’s side and perhaps the women’s side are normal for other big time universities or if there’s something about Illinois? At the other Big Ten schools, they are the most popular sporting events around or there’s only one professional franchise to compete against, but they do alright because of winning and tradition. However, Illinois does not have a winning tradition, and there are plenty of other things to do in Illinois. Seeing 100,000 people in the other Big Ten stadiums and few sellouts in Champaign puts extra pressure on the school’s athletic department?
Regardless of the outcome on the field, let’s hope that the athletes are treated better for injuries than under the Beckman regime. As for Beckman, I think his head coaching prospects are limited at best.

Last week, the Indignant Family and I were on vacation to Alaska, and the bus we were on passed through a notorious place..Wassila, Alaska. We passed within ½ mile of the home of a certain dimwitted former governor/vice-presidential candidate (I couldn’t see Russia from there), and I fought off an urge to wonder if the collective IQ of the people on the bus declined substantially when we were passing through Wassila only to get better once we left (but I said nothing – there were quite a few old people on our bus – many of them may have been Republicans).
So, “Caribou Barbie” Sarah Palin hasn’t gotten enough attention lately (stolen by Donald Trump – so much so, she is reportedly interviewing “The Donald” somewhere soon), so she had to spout off on ESPN amid the Curt Schilling controversy and suspension. On Facebook, Palin called the network “whimpering” and “intolerant” for suspending Curt Schilling for a tweet comparing radical Muslims to Nazis.
Palin accused ESPN of buying into terrorist propaganda and advancing “liberal global politics.” (Schilling re-posted a meme that read: “It’s said only 5-10% of Muslims are extremists. In 1940, only 7% of Germans were Nazis. How’d that go?” The text was emblazoned over a red-tinted photo of Adolf Hitler, with Schilling adding, “The math is staggering when you get to true #’s.”)
ESPN suspended Schilling from coverage of the Little League World Series over the incident (and reportedly is reducing his profile on “Baseball Tonight” amid calls for his firing – which I agree with, I posted the other day saying that Schilling should be fired.
Palin “authored” a statement of titled “ESPN IS A JOURNALISTIC EMBARRASSMENT,” Palin’s post tore into the sports network, charging “ESPN what happened to you? Your intolerant PC police are running amok and making a joke out of you!” “ESPN reacted about as fast as a Schilling pitch,” she wrote, calling the statement of suspension by the network “whimpering.” Palin then trashed ESPN over an incident in 2011 in which she was involved.
“One, there’s been crude, rude bile spewing from the once-great sports network for years now,” she argued. “Trust me. I know. My name and reputation’s been in it. One ESPN affiliate’s on-air rant featuring their misogynist, animalistic ‘analysts’ grunting and giggling through an entire x-rated celebration of violence against women didn’t even draw a chirp from ESPN’s wussified leaders.”
Palin was referring to a September 2011 interview on ESPN radio affiliate KWWM, based out of Las Vegas, in which famed boxer Mike Tyson made crude and offensive remarks about a spurious relationship between Palin and former NBA star Glen Rice.
After ripping the ESPN for its handling of that incident, Palin pivoted to defending Schilling and his tweet. She wrote, “Two — Schilling — was he wrong? No! In fact his stats were too generous is estimating Muslim’s attitudes.”
Saving her most severe condemnation for last, Palin blasted ESPN saying, “By denying the accuracy of Schilling’s tweet, ESPN shows its weakness as it buys into the propaganda of ISIS and other terror organizations.” She then accused ESPN of having liberal sympathies before firing this parting shot: “ESPN — you are awful in this. Stick to sports.”
I try very hard not to quote the mentally defective here on evilopinion, but I had to post what this idiot is saying, but once again, she is showing her extreme stupidity. One would think that a Republican would understand the motivation of extreme greed. No matter your personal opinion, a major network does not want to lose money based on the ravings of a wacko (unless you’re peddling wacko like Fox News). ESPN does not want to insult anyone and Muslims, like everyone else, have sports fans in their numbers. Money trumps all (no pun intended) and ESPN is definitely in the business of making money. They certainly don’t want to jeopardize one dollar for the likes of Curt Schilling.
I am no great fan of the “journalistic integrity of “the Worldwide Leader” but if they are making enemies of Sarah Palin, I do like them better.

The happiest man in Bristol, CT this week is Cris Carter. The NFL analyst who told rookies in 2014 to get “a fall guy” when they ran into the law; got one of his own, and he doesn’t even have to pay him.
Former MLB pitcher, ESPN baseball analyst and noted right wing kook and conspiracy theorist Curt Schilling posted a video to his Twitter and Facebook accounts comparing Muslims to Nazis. The video itself is reportedly unintentional high comedy (I have much better things to do than watch a video like this; in fact, I don’t follow Schilling on Facebook and I’m not on Twitter). The video is supposedly filled with conspiracy theories predicting the world will be drowned in fire by next fall and it’s all because America isn’t in the Bible and of course, it’s all President Obama’s fault.
As bad as the video was, few people even got that far, most saw the link’s preview picture; most were offended by the link’s preview picture: a Photoshopped meme of Adolf Hitler adorned with “statistics” about Muslims and Nazis. “The math is staggering when you get to true #’s,” said the meme. After facing immediate backlash from his followers, Schilling backed off the post but not completely -.he’s not the one saying it; he’s just saying the numbers are haunting: “i (sic) didnt say anything. If its anywhere true its terrifying in number”
Once word of the posts got around, Schilling quickly deleted the posts. “ my apologies. That didn’t come across in any way as intended or interpreted.” Later he tweeted “that was purely on me, my mistake.” A third comment followed “going to have a life of its own no matter what. Gotta own the fallout but no need to keep it alive that way.” On and on it went: “Gotta own the times you go off the rails.” (“Go off the rails?” I understand that everything I post on evilopinion and Facebook is subject to scrutiny by God knows how many people. I have made mistakes, people have caught inaccuracies and I own up to them all. But I have never “gone off the rails.” Maybe it’s because I read what I write to try not to insult anybody. Besides, I don’t hate people because of their color or sex. Racists I do hate, but they have to prove their racism in word or deed before I start on them.) Turns out the video was produced by a right wing group called “BREAK UP the IRS.”
Eventually, Schilling issued a public apology, but not before “The Worldwide Leader” distanced itself from Schilling and removed him from his duties on the Little League World Series. ESPN public relations representative Josh Krulewitz released a statement via Twitter: “Curt’s tweet was completely unacceptable, and in no way represents our company’s perspective. We made that point very strongly to Curt and have removed him from his current Little League assignment pending further consideration.”
This is not the first time that Schilling’s right wing paranoia has made the media. In 2014, he went on a five hour rant attacking evolution, and of course, in Rhode Island, he is reviled fro getting the state government to invest in a video game company that went bankrupt taking the state’s investment and much of Schilling’s personal money with it.
Schilling will always be a Boston area legend because of the bloody sock World Series game, but he isn’t such a great analyst that he couldn’t be replaced by any number of retired baseball players. I think the only reason that ESPN hired him in the first place is because it is so New England-centric with its headquarters in Bristol, CT, it still believes that the whole nation is just a suburb of New York and Boston.
Curt Schilling has every right to have crazy opinions. Technically, he has the right to spread his nauseating drivel on social media. However, as a public figure, we have every right to cringe in disgust at his comments and take it out on whoever employs him. I think it long past time for ESPN to give Schilling his walking papers.

This time of year, the training camps are open in preparation of another NFL season, and there are some truths that are unassailable: preseason games are nothing more than profit grabs for the owners to whet the fans’ appetites; there are too many preseason games; and players get hurt in these “meaningless” games. And, as sure as ever, there are calls that the preseason is too long and some other way should be found to get teams ready.
The cause this time especially was a season-ending knee injury suffered by Green Bay Packer all pro wide receiver Jordy Nelson. In a game last weekend, Nelson suffered a severe knee injury, a torn ACL (anterior cruciate ligament if you don’t know the jargon). Nelson’s main partner QB Aaron Rodgers said that it is ridiculous to lose Nelson in ”a meaningless game.” Packer nation has been yelling and screaming since Nelson got hurt.
Now, as a Bear fan, watching the Cheesehead faithful go nuts is nothing new and kind of funny, although I am NOT celebrating Nelson’s injury. I hate the Packers sure enough, but I would never root for someone to be injured. However, there are a number of players who get hurt all the time – in practice, in games, even off the field. Football is a dangerous sport, especially now with players so big and so fast, every block or tackle is like trying to get up from a serious car accident.
Numerous players, including quarterbacks, running backs and wide receivers have suffered serious injuries in exhibition games, which is why it takes some luck to be a playoff team or Super Bowl participant. A team needs to avoid serious injury (no team can avoid all injury in this violent game) to make it to the Super Bowl. Talent is important, coaching is important, but the best teams have found ways to not get hurt, or have key players get injured early in seasons and be able to return.
Instead of bitching and moaning, let’s hear solutions NFL fans. We admit that the players need to work themselves into game shape, including getting used to hitting and being hit. Should there be fewer exhibition games? Probably; do coaches need four games to know who they’re going to keep and who they’re going to cut? No. In fact, most of the time, the starters never play much of the final exhibition anyway, so why not eliminate it?
So, we don’t like exhibition games; alright, so do we just have teams practice together? The teams get less revenue of course, and the television stations get less programming. Does anyone really think that players, playing for well paying jobs, are going to ease up and no one will ever get hurt? If you believe that, I want to know what color is the sky in your world.
Again, Jordy Nelson’s injury is bad – he’s a great player and reportedly a very nice guy. It’s going to be tough for the Packers to regroup without Nelson. But that’s what every team does every year, risk injuries to get prepared for the season; its what every team has faced since there’s been an NFL.
It sucks, but it’s part of the game.

When we were at Northwestern, my friend Tony Swanagan and I said that if we ever got rich and famous, we had to have an entourage. Besides the drivers, friends and various go-fers, we joked that we would have to have a scapegoat to blame everything on and probably a whipping boy to slap around. The whipping boy was a concept we probably adapted from the old Bennie Hill Shows when Bennie had a little bald cohort who he would slap on the head when something went wrong.
Once again, the “Two Tonys” were ahead of their time, except that I always envisioned the scapegoat to be the guy to be blamed when something like a restaurant reservation went wrong; I never thought far enough. Leave it to former NFL wide receiver, Hall of Famer and ESPN analyst to have taken our humorous idea and taken it to its logical conclusion.
When surprise 49er Chris Borland retired, he was interviewed on the suprising decision, and he mentioned that he had been told at an NFL rookie that one person said that the rokies should have a “fall guy” to take the blame if the player and his “posse” got into trouble with the law.
It didn’t take long for the video to appear. One year ago at the Rookie Symposium given by the NFL Carter told incoming players that they should have a “fall guy.” The comment may have escaped notice, but of course, someone videotaped Carter’s comments: “just in case y’all not going to decide to do the right thing, if y’all got a crew, you got to have a fall guy in the crew.” Carter said that the player can just bail the fall guy out if need be; of course, what if its a serious criminal offense – do you send the guy to jail in place of an athlete?
Carter has been a controversial analyst on ESPN and elsewhere – sometimes making good points on difficult subjects like race and sports, bounties on players, injuries and head trauma. Other times, he has made comments tat have you scratching your head, ESPN stepping away and the NFL playing damage control, which is exactly what happened this time.
“We completely disagree with Cris’s remarks and we have made that extremely clear to him,” ESPN said in a statement. “Those views were entirely his own and do not reflect our company’s point of view in any way.” In a statement, the NFL said: “This was an unfortunate and inappropriate comment made by Cris Carter during the 2014 NFC Rookie Symposium. The comment was not representative of the message of the symposium or any other league program.”
Carter has himself apologized also on Twitter, “Seeing that video has made me realize how wrong I was. I was brought there to educate young people and instead I gave them very
bad advice. Every person should take responsibility for his own actions. I’m sorry and I truly regret what I said that day.”
Of course, Carter only saw how wrong he was once he saw the video. Shouldn’t he know that this was a boneheaded thing to say to young athletes? Shouldn’t the older players give athletes solid advice? And the bigger question is – why didn’t someone say something to Carter or the audience at the time the comment was made?
I have said many times in many venues that I feel for the modern athlete – they don’t know who they can actually trust other than themselves, which is an awfully lonely place to be. People want to “get next to you” for attention, money, notoriety, and even family members cannot be completely trusted many times. Plus, with millions of little cameras attached to every smartphone in existence, the chances of getting away with anything, especially if you happen to be rich and famous, is next to nil. Which makes Carter’s situation more amusing; Carter should have discussed the proliferation of phone cameras, meaning that you can hardly ever outside of the range of a cell phone.
More important, even professional athletes have to be responsible for their actions. As much as I empathize with them and their situation (despite them making millions of dollars more than I, I still can sympathize with a young kid with lots of money and no one to really trust). As I try to raise the Indignant Daughters, they are a lot like I imagine athletes must be – blame someone else, just don’t take my money (athletes) iPad, television or toys away (the daughters).
I have some time to try and make responsible citizens out of my girls. Cris Carter only had an hour or so and he wasted what time he had.