Patriot Games

A federal appeals court recently rejected New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady’s appeal to overturn his four game suspension, effective at the start of the 2016 NFL regular season. Brady was determined to have been involved in the deflation of Patriots footballs before prior to the one-sided 2014 AFC Championship Game against the Indianapolis Colts in January of 2015. The Patriots would advance to and win Super Bowl XLIX over the then-defending Super Bowl Champion Seattle Seahawks.

Brady’s final option would be to appeal the case to the United States Supreme Court. Legal analysts have opined that it is improbable that the Court would hear the case, meaning that Brady will probably miss the first four games of the coming regular season. This would be the final turn in a story with more twists than a pretzel.

IT'S ALWAYS SOMETHING

The Patriots organization is not new to controversy. As far back as the Spygate scandal in which Patriots personnel was caught filming opponents’ sideline signals, the organization has been on NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell’s “naughty radar” for much of the past 10 years. When questionable competitive practices arise involving this team, a common response is, “It’s always something with the Patriots.”

The issues at play include the degree of Goodell’s power in disciplining players and the arbitrary manner in which discipline is handed out for various offenses. In addition, Brady, a player, may be receiving enhanced punishment in the form of a four game suspension (as opposed to a fine for equipment tampering) for the past iniquities of the organization. The Patriots are a regular Super Bowl contender. Losing Brady for a quarter of a season and replacing him with Jimmy Garoppolo, who is high on potential but short on experience, will probably have some substantial impact on the competitive landscape of the AFC race in 2016.

STRANGE BEDFELLOWS

I am no fan of Tom Brady or the Patriots. However, I am more with them than against them in principle. Equipment tampering is a minor offense and is ordinarily punishable by a relatively small fine under league rules. Goodell has said publicly that past indiscretions of the organization play a role in his response to the Deflategate incident.

The far reaching and very un-prescribed disciplinary power of Commissioner Goodell, notwithstanding the fact that the power was ceded to Goodell in the 2011 collective bargaining agreement (CBA) between the NFL Players Association and the league, has been the topic of repeated controversy in player discipline cases. At what point does the far reaching power of a singular individual begin to have a negative impact on America’s pastime of NFL football?

At what point, if any, could Goodell overstep his legal authority in these matters? The current CBA expires in 2021. The possibility of this issue reaching a boiling point and either being addressed in negotiations or via a labor stoppage is not far-fetched. Should that happen, the NFL game and its fans will pay the price felt by the more far reaching price. 

It's just another day in Foxboro.

Image from www.jetsrant.com

Retweet of the Day - February 25, 2013

As I have emphasized several times in the past, the Retweet of the Day is generally intended to take a clever, pithy tweet from a regular guy or girl in the Twittersphere and give that person his 15 minutes of fame for the creativity and entertainment. Every now and then the Retweet will go to someone in the public eye if what that person had to say was so profound or interesting that the content trumps the interest of recognizing a “regular guy”. Usually such a retweet is of a media member or a garden variety athlete.

Rarely is the Retweet of a superstar; it defeats the general intent of Retweet of the Day. However, Los Angeles Lakers guard Kobe Bryant hit the bullseye with a barb fired at Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban via Twitter. I couldn’t justify anything else sports related from the Twittersphere receiving the recognition today.

Earlier in the week Cuban suggested during an interview that the Lakers could free up salary cap room and reduce their luxury tax exposure by applying the amnesty clause of the NBA’s Collective Bargaining Agreement to Bryant. For the 90% of you who probably don’t keep up on all things collective bargaining, this means the Lakers could waive Bryant, while Kobe still gets his money (another team would bid for Bryant’s services and the Lakers would pay the difference) , but the salary (expected to be approximately $30 million next season) would not count against the Lakers’ salary cap or luxury tax totals. In two words: “cut Kobe”.

Cuban later explained that the example was hypothetical. He said that when trying to explain the CBA, often an example is necessary to clarify the explanation. That is completely true. WHY would you choose the Black Mamba as your example leading into a nationally televised game against your team, Mr. Cuban? He’s a colorful character, but has the worst case of Foot-in-Mouth disease of any NBA owner.

How did the Mamba respond? Bryant put on a clinic, grabbing 12 rebounds, dishing out seven assists and scoring 38 points, including a perimeter jumper in the final minute to give the Lakers a two possession lead en route to a much needed win over the Mavs. Bryant (@kobebryant), who is new to Twitter, wrote two words that spoke volumes.  Those two words are today’s retweet.

"Amnesty THAT"

Do you really want Kobe to have something to prove when he plays you?

Image from http://sports.yahoo.com

Oatmeal Is Better Than No Meal

Labor negotiations need to maintain a degree of confidentiality, even one as public as the ongoing collective bargaining agreement between the National Football League owners and players. Still, key nuggets are going to be divulged to the public, intentionally or unintentionally. If one reads between the lines of what is revealed to the public, one can draw some broad conclusions with a relative degree of certainty and accuracy.


Labor Negotiations: As pleasant as going to the dentist for a root canal. 1

 NUTS AND BOLTS

ESPN, yesterday, released some details of the agreement being proposed to the owners in the latest talks. Just looking at the bullet points, I think the players can breathe a collective sigh of relief. The owners were determined to roll back some of what the players had and ask for more out of the players. That was done, but players did not get hammered, more like an inconvenient pinch.

The following are some of the details of the proposed agreement, reported by ESPN, which will likely be a part of the final agreement.

Players get 48 percent of “all revenue” – According to NFL Players Association Executive Director DeMaurice Smith, players, after off-the-top expenses, were receiving about 53 percent of the revenue. Many of the reports I had read said that the players could have lived with a 50/50 split. I would call this, under the circumstances, a “win-win”.

Teams required spending close to 100% of the salary cap – That is a win for the players. I do not pretend to have any more knowledge of NFL labor conditions than the average football enthusiast. However, to my knowledge, I am unaware of any minimum salary expenditures that clubs faced in the past. This is a big win for the players, any way one slices it.

Rookie wage scale part of the deal – There are still details to be ironed out, but this is a “win-win” for everyone involved, except for rookies. Owners can save money spent on rookies and spend that money on proven veterans without succumbing to the pressure of an otherwise unencumbered free market for rookie players.

You probably would not like going to your office and seeing this! That is probably how veterans feel when a rookie comes in and gets $60 million guaranteed. 3

Four years needed for unrestricted free agent status – This is another “win-win”. In the absence of a collective bargaining agreement extension in 2010, players had to wait six years (instead of four), well beyond career expectancy, for unrestricted status and owners had no salary cap protection.

18-game regular season designated only as negotiable item and at no point is mandated in deal – Hallelujah! This is a “win-win-win”! The players, obviously win; they wanted no part of an extended schedule. Most fans, expressed through talk shows, Internet polls, scientific polls, and other media, expressed no interest in extending the season. And while the owners may have wanted an 18 game regular season schedule, this condition, should it be agreed upon, may help save the owners from themselves. The Daily Hat Trick has run multiple articles explaining why this was a bad idea. For the fans, this may be the biggest win.

I don't think this is the image the NFL would want after an 18 game regular season. 2

New 16-game Thursday night TV package beginning in 2012 – I have yet to read any details of the thinking and motivation from each side that went into this part of the deal. I am going to take an educated guess and say that this is a win for owners, TV Networks, and fans. This is probably not as much of a win for players (or coaches). Playing a game on Thursday night significantly reduces the rest and preparation time available before a game, 4 days instead of 7 or 8 days for a game played on a Sunday or Monday.

Retirees to benefit from improved health care, pension benefits as revenue projected to double to $18 million by 2016 – This is a win for the players and, besides that, I think it is morally right. Football is a brutal sport that brings fans a lot of entertainment and makes a lot of money for a lot of people. When a player’s career is over, the benefits continue for everyone else, so I think the players responsible for making the great game what it is should be taken care of.


ARE YOU READY FOR SOME FOOTBALL?

Let us all keep our fingers crossed and hope that the recent goodwill and progress continues. Maybe, just maybe, training camp will start on time and the looming threat of lost activities will turn out to be little more than a scare. I am ready for some football! Are you?

Oh yeah. I'm ready! Good thing the NFL cheerleaders aren't locked out. 4

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1) Image from jonesview.wordpress.com
2) Image from corkrunning.blogspot.com
3) image from ourteamrocks.com
4) Image from endzonebuzz.com

Bud Selig: “Inexorably” Ineffective

Those of you that read regularly know my stance on Major League Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig. If you got a chuckle out of my article comparing Roger Goodell’s handling of the NFL lockout to the Michigan J. Frog Merrie Melodies animated short, then you would have found my comparison of Bud Selig to Fred Flintstone to be a knee slapper!

Selig's usual reaction to...anything. 1

If You Can't Say Anything Nice....

I rarely say many positive things about Selig because I rarely think that he makes any decisions that improve the game of baseball. In fact, I’ll do a happy dance the day he steps down, after the 2012 season, according to Selig. This is the man who made great strides to make sure baseball would not expand instant replay by the start of the 2011 season, in spite of a comedy of umpiring follies in 2010, including ruining a perfect game for Detroit Tigers pitcher Armondo Gallaraga and hanging the contrite umpire, Jim Joyce, out to dry. This is a man who has never seriously put the idea of a salary cap on the table, in spite of the glaring lack of parody among clubs in free agency. The list is as long as the day.

I will also give credit where it is due. The best move Selig made in his entire career, in my opinion, was facilitating the expansion of the playoffs to include a wild card team and a divisional round. MLB, prior to 1995, had 28 teams with only 4 qualifying for postseason play. This resulted in some dull Septembers (and some Augusts) for the majority of teams’ fans. Doubling this number to 8 was a huge step in the right direction without completely reinventing the MLB postseason wheel.

Since then, there have been two more teams added to the league. With only 8 teams reaching the playoffs, Major League Baseball, by far, has the lowest percentage of teams, among the four major team sports, reaching the playoffs at 27%. In contrast, the National Football League sends 38% of its teams to the second season. The National Basketball Association and the National Hockey League send 57% of their teams to the playoffs. It still suffers with the problem of too many teams, by modern standards, having very little to play for at the end of the regular season. In contrast, the drama and suspense for most teams in the other three sports begins to peak in the final month of their regular seasons.

The possibility of expanding the MLB playoffs from 8 to 10 teams, by adding two more wild card teams and a wild card round, was suggested in the media late last season. Last Thursday, Commissioner Selig, last week, announced that he thought MLB was moving “inexorably” toward adding two more playoff teams. Hallelujah! Bud “Flintstone” Selig finally sees the light on something (that the rest of the sporting world saw years ago)! Finally! There will be a little more life injected into the MLB regular season. Good for you, Bud! I knew you couldn’t be incompetent 100% of the time!

Selig six days ago.... 2

♪♪ “Back to life. Back to re-al-i-ty. Back to the here and now, yeah!” ♫

Bug Selig came through only like Bud Selig could: (risking) screwing up a good idea! In order to expand the playing schedule, it must be agreed upon in MLB’s collective bargaining agreement with the player’s union, which expires after this season. While there are no signs that the MLB collective bargaining process is a threat to be the cluster that has become the NFL’s CBA process, there are no guarantees and there are always details to be smoothed out. Players union chief Michael Weiner said that “it’s just too early” to treat the issue of expanding the playoffs as if it is a foregone conclusion.

There is always a story behind every story on any potentially contentious issue. The fact that Selig spoke with confidence, to the point of signaling an agreement on the issue was all but inevitable, six days ago only to be countered by a union head saying, “slow down,” tells me that the “inexorable” result of expanded playoffs may have gone from “inexorable” to a “bargaining chip”.

I have no idea what words were exchanged or ideas were floated between Selig, Weiner, or any of the owners since last week. However, the notion that a key decision maker in this process could tip his hand, ever so slightly, to the public and make the mere suggestion that a no-brainer change, a significant improvement to the game and the fan experience, such as expanded playoffs may not be implemented, in spite of the support of the Commissioner, is yet another unflattering reflection on Selig’s tenure as commissioner.

He had ignored the inexorable need for improvements in game play, he has ignored the inexorable need to improve basic fan safety, and he appears oblivious to the inexorable need to further level the playing field between large and small market teams. Now, the “inexorable” process of expanding the playoffs is not as inexorable as it was about a week ago. Bud Selig’s ineffectiveness as commissioner is inexorable.

Two days ago.... My frustration with this man is "inexorable". 3

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1) Image from yabadabadoo.wordpress.com
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