Jimmy!

New Orleans Saints All-Pro tight end Jimmy Graham reached a 4 year/$40 million ($21 million guaranteed) agreement with the team Tuesday morning. The announcement came just hours before the 3:00 p.m. C.D.T. deadline for Franchise tagged players to either reach a long term agreement with their team, agree to the franchise tender salary for their positions, or elect not to play in the upcoming NFL season. Graham's franchise tender was $7 million, all of which would have counted against the Saints' 2014 salary cap had Graham played under those terms.

This worked out well for the Saints in the short run. They have their big playmaker at a reasonable salary that will not blow up their 2014 salary cap. Jimmy Graham (86 rec., 1,215 yds., 16 TDs in 2013) is taking a calculated risk on himself, a well calculated risk.

This four-year contract is going to either expire at a point of his career - 8 years in - when teams will either overbid for his services or the Saints, perhaps a year prior to expiration, will be put into a position in which they have to overpay because they need to restructure his contract. Either way, Graham comes out on top. This second career windfall would be predicated on Graham remaining healthy and productive, at a level near the top of NFL tight ends.

Thanks to the No Fun League, Saints fans won't be treated to all of Graham's talents next year.

Image from www.espn.com

David Stern Steps Down as NBA Commissioner

Tomorrow, NBA Commissioner David Stern's 30 year reign as league commissioner will come to an end. Currently, the the NBA is second only to the NFL in television ratings. Basketball is the second most popular sport in the world after soccer. NBA players are the highest paid athletes in the world. None of this could be said prior to February 1, 1984, Stern's first day on the job.

YOU'VE COME A LONG WAY BABY

Shortly before Stern's tenure as commissioner began, NBA Finals games were often on tape delay, not live, airing as late as 11:30 pm in some markets. Not all conference finals games were nationally televised. Some first round games were not aired at all.

The NBA suffered from an image tarnished by rapid drug use, particularly cocaine, in the 1970s. Television revenues were a pittance compared to the NFL and Major League Baseball. The NBA was circling the drain prior to 1984. It was in danger of becoming a niche sport in a contracting league.

With some innovation and a little luck in the form of some of the most marketable superstars in American sports history entering the league, Stern rapidly led the transformation of the league's image and fortunes. By the 1990s, NBA superstars were among the most recognizable in the world. The NBA was an A-list league rivaling the NFL and MLB. Multiple games were nationally televised every week. The NBA Finals were a ratings bonanza. Basketball had become a truly international sport.

Stern and the media could sometimes be like oil and water. 1

LOVE HIM OR HATE HIM

Words like "warm" and "cuddly" will not be used when recalling Stern's legacy as commissioner. He was often brash, smug, and obnoxious in dealing with players, the media, and owners. Like all leaders, he often made decisions that ruffled some feathers.

Whether or not you like David Stern the person, if you enjoy the NBA today, his contribution in growing the game into an American entertainment powerhouse is undeniable. Players, coaches, and owners have reaped more lucrative financial rewards from Stern's vision than ever imaginable in the mid-1980s. Simply put, everyone invested in the NBA, directly or indirectly, is better off because of Stern's efforts as Commissioner.

Stern will be replaced by Deputy Commissioner Adam Silver tomorrow. Like every sports league commissioner, I expect that Silver will continue to try to grow the league and make it even better than it is today. Stern started his run as Commissioner with his feet in quicksand. Silver has one hell of a running start.

Replacing Stern is a tall order, but the much taller Silver could probably take him in one-on-one. 2

Don't forget to vote in the fan polls! 

To advertise with The Daily Hat Trick, or to submit a guest column, please contact the editor at eric@thedailyhattrick.info.  

The NBA logo is a registered trademark of the National Basketball Association.
1) Image from www.oregonlive.com
2) Image from http://espn.go.com

That Guy

Chances are that if you took the time to log on to a sports blog, you have your fair share of sports discussions. Perhaps you listen to sports talk radio. If you like sports, watch sports, talk about sports and listen to others discuss sports, chances are you have heard several inevitable clichés that come up during sports discussions.

We've discussed different sports discussion guys in the past. Today, we are going to discuss the different kind of sports cliché guys who arise during sports discussions. Typically, this is a guy who thinks he knows more than he does. Whether it is at the water cooler, the local watering hole, or on the radio, you can count on eventually hearing some of the following guys spouting these clichés.

I could tell you half of the things that one of them will say without being able to hear them. 2

“THE COACH IS TOO NICE” GUY

This guy cracks me up. This is the sports fan who thinks that by the head coach yelling and screaming, foaming at the mouth, and cracking the whip, the team will magically and miraculously improve, win more games, and/or score more points in the second half of a game in which the team is trailing.

This is all but certainly someone who never played organized sports at the high school level or above. The solution to his team’s woes aren’t rooted in training, preparation, scheme, personnel, injuries, matchups, or offsetting external factors like travel fatigue or home field advantage. Nope. The coach just needs to knock over the water cooler, put his foot through the chalkboard, curse like a sailor, and THEN his team will get the message and respond.

All coaches at the major college or professional level got as far as they got because of their general personality. They aren’t changing. They may adjust their approach to their players, do a little more of this and a little less of that, but the general coaching philosophy isn’t changing. The yellers and screamers, former NFL coach Mike Ditka, University of Alabama football coach Nick Saban, and University of South Carolina Men’s Basketball Head Coach Frank Martin come to mind, are wired to yell and scream. They will yell and scream when they are up 21 points near the end of the game but a player ignored a command. It is who they are.

Much like the yellers and screamers aren’t changing, neither are the “laid back” guys who do not blow their stacks. Losing one’s cool is simply not in the DNA of the cool, calm, and collected coach. It cannot and will not work for them. Their players know their assignments and know the consequences for failure equally well and the screamer’s players. While the Type A coach may be more entertaining for us to observe during his antics, it doesn’t make him more effective. For examples, see Tony Dungy, Dick Vermeil, Mike Tomlin, Les Miles, and Mike Krzyzewski.

I'm at my best at work with some asshole bellowing in my ear, too. 1

“IF I DID THAT AT MY JOB” GUY

Athletes are known for their off the field activities as well as their on-field actions. While there are countless anonymous acts of community service and charity by athletes, the acts of a handful of miscreants such as arrests and anti-social behavior in the locker room tend to produce the most sensational and attention grabbing headlines.

Inevitably, someone will bring up in the conversation a point to the effect of, “If I did that at my job, I would get fired,” or “If I spoke to my boss like that, I’d get demoted.” This completely cliché and unoriginal insight also has the disadvantage to the speaker of being completely irrelevant. Assuming we are discussing professional athletes, this just in, the “if I did that at my job” guy can be replaced in a week or two, perhaps a day or two if that guy is a laborer.

Those talented enough to be pro athletes make up a very tiny percentage of the population. They don’t grow on trees. Most starters are not immediately replaceable and most replacements for reserve/backup players are a step down from the incumbent. In games that are decided by inches with intense public pressure to win, unnecessary personnel turnover is costly and undesirable.

So remember, your services at Jiffy Lube can be replaced by anyone with a pulse. Your crap is not worth the trouble of tolerating. A wide receiver who runs a 4.3 forty is hard to find and most coaches will tolerate just about anything but hard time if the productivity at “the office” is good enough.

If they toss this guy out of the door, it won't cost them a second round draft pick. 3

“I WOULD DO WHATEVER THEY ASKED ME IF THEY PAID ME THAT MUCH” GUY

This guy is in a similar vein as “If I Did That at My Job,” guy. This is the guy who believes that, because athletes are paid much more money in a season than he might see in ten years, athletes shouldn’t speak or think and just function as zombies or robots on command.

Mind you, this is probably the same guy who complains about something in the break room or his lack of a parking space with regularity. This is the guy who probably mumbles under his breath when he’s asked to lift an extra bag of soil at the Wal-Mart at which he works. But, suddenly this guy would clean the bathroom for the customers with a smile if there were a few more zeroes in his paycheck?

You wouldn't do whatever if they paid you that much, because you CAN'T DO ANYTHING that someone would pay you that much to do. Kobe Bryant could tell his (former) coach, Mike Brown, to kiss his ass because he is Kobe freaking Bryant, future Hall of Famer. They pay him that much because he’s worth that much. And in the end, Bryant effectively fired Brown, not the other way around, and rattled off an “Amnesty THAT” blast at another league owner. I don't think Kobe is worried about being in trouble for smarting off to the boss man for another team in the league. 

Contrary to what "that guy" might think, with the work ethic it takes to become a star athlete, I think Dwight Howard would make a better shoe salesman than 'that guy" would make an NBA Center. 4

Don't forget to vote in the fan polls!

To advertise with The Daily Hat Trick, or to submit a guest column, please contact the editor at eric@thedailyhattrick.info.

The Daily Hat Trick is sponsored by Sports N Stuff. For great deals on jerseys, shirts, cologne, and other guy stuff, visit http://www.sportsnstuff.biz/.

1) Image from www.bradlaughs.com
2, 3) Images from www.visualphotos.com
4) Image from http://unlocked.footlocker.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

The Love of Money Is the Root of All Evil...Player Lockouts

123

The popularity of the National Football League is at an all time high. The majority of NFL stadiums are sold out every week. Television ratings and advertising revenues are at an all time high. The most recent Super Bowl, the New Orleans Saints victory over the Indianapolis Colts in Super Bowl XLIV in Miami, was the highest rated television program of all time, higher than any other Super Bowl, even higher than the last episode of M*A*S*H. 

Conventional wisdom would dictate that life must be very good for anyone who is a part of the NFL. Player salaries are higher than ever. Ticket revenues rise on an annual basis. However the pursuit of collective interests of the two parties that must come together to make America's great gridiron game possible, players and owners, threaten to derail present-day America's pastime. 

In any collective bargaining agreement, there is never one simple panacea. There are always multiple issues and multiple moving parts, all of which, directly or indirectly, influence the other moving parts. However, the issue that is most frequently raised in the mainstream sports media is the possibility of an 18 game regular season schedule.

The basic arguments have been positioned to the public. The fans do not like preseason. Season ticket holders do not like paying for two preseason games at the same cost of regular season tickets. Players will contend that football is a physically brutal game. Increasing the number of games by 11% will shorten careers and water down the product on the field due to the increased probability of injury. Owners will contend that by removing two preseason games and making them regular season games, the players will not be committed to any additional obligations to their teams and the fans will be more satisfied. 

As a fan, from my vantage point, the only winner I see in this entire equation, with two games being added and no subsequent concessions, is ownership. NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell has often positioned the possible 18 game schedule as a change in the best interests of the fans. Quote ESPN commentator Lee Corso, "NOT SO FAST MY FRIEND!". 

The USA Today published a poll this summer asking fans if they supported an 18 game schedule. Nearly two thirds of the respondents did not respond favorably to this change. Perhaps the average fan thinks with more depth than, "I want more football! Football's good!" Perhaps the reality that there will be more meaningless games later in the season, more injured players (resulting in less skilled players on the field more often), and individual regular season games carrying less meaning, is not lost on the average fan. And while the average person may not be able to empathize with the finances of player earning a minimum salary of over $300,000 per season, anyone should be able to empathize with a human being not wanting to do more work for the same amount of money. 

  

                                                 5

What the average fan may not know is that most players earn closer to the minimum salary than the seven and eight figured salaries that many of the elite stars of the game earn. The average fan may not realize how short the average player career is. MSN recently ran an article citing the average NFL career at three years. 4  I personally have heard estimates on talk radio closer to four years. Regardless, it takes the average NFL player longer to prepare for the NFL, playing college football, than that player will be able to play in the NFL.

     6

Taking these career metrics into account, the life of an NFL player sounds like it may be good while it lasts, fun while it lasts, and may give young men the opportunity to start their lives with a healthy financial foundation, but it is far from buying a winning lottery ticket. So how can players and owners reconcile their conflict of interests?

If It Ain't Broke, Don't Fix It

One may think that I am living in a land of candy canes and gumdrop forests if I think that owners will simply back away from their idea of an 18 game schedule. Just because the present 16 game model, in place since 1978, has been immensely successful, many fans are cool to the possibility of an 18 game schedule, and Roger Goodell, who has played the role of consummate innovator in the interest of growing his product,  has made it clear that he wants an 18 game schedule does not mean that is is an inevitability, right?

WRONG! Roger Goodell, from my vantage point, appears to have the full support of ownership in nearly all of his initiatives What Sheriff Goodell wants, Sheriff Goodell usually gets. So barring a miraculous visit from a muse, inspiring Goodell to do what is in the best interests of the quality of the game (according to the views of fans and players), the solution is not to fight the 18 game schedule, but to gain the most from agreeing to play the longer schedule. 

18 Games? Okay! PAY ME!

NFL players exist in an extremely competitive work environment with absolutely no job security. Players should consider the possible 18 game schedule as an opportunity to gain some or all of the following concessions in exchange for a longer regular season.

Guaranteed Salaries

The NFL, far and away, is the most popular of America's four major team sports, football, basketball, baseball, and hockey. Yet its players, on average, earn much less than the players in any other sports and are the only professional athletes of this group without guaranteed salaries. Now I do not have any fancy degrees (well, actually, I have an MBA, but I digress), but most "contracts" involve a service and terms of that service for a specified period of time. The party providing the service is committing a fixed period of its time in exchange for compensation and, if terminated without cause prior to the end of that time, it is entitled to collect payment for the entire committed period, less any earnings during that period, collected in a good faith effort to mitigate the damage of the early termination. In short - you fire me; you PAY me!

The NFL works a little differently. Players commit their services for a fixed period of time. They receive an irrevocable signing bonus, usually a fraction (less than half) of the total value of the contract, provided the player performs as dictated in the contract. No matter what a player does to uphold his end of the bargain, owners may terminate that player at any time for any reason and not pay another dime. Players may resign at any time also, but they are on the hook to pay back a prorated portion of their signing bonuses. Sounds fair, doesn't it?

The owners stand to gain substantial revenues from an 18 game schedule. They appear to want it badly. Agreeing to this extended schedule appears to be the players' best bargaining chip to gain the long coveted financial security of guaranteed salaries.

Increased Roster Spots

One may think, "Guarantee roster spots? If I am a current NFL player, how would that benefit ME?" The answer is: "plenty". The three year average career of an NFL player is short for a number of reasons. Injuries, in such a violent game, are certainly a major cause of career brevity. However, in the hyper-competitive NFL workplace, younger, faster, bigger, and stronger rookies are brought into NFL training camps every year. The man who caught a break and got to live out his boyhood dream three years ago now has to enter the real world. While increased roster spots will provide a number of benefits to players (such as reducing the risk of injury because more players can be rotated in during certain game situations) the greatest benefit is more total job openings, resulting in more opportunities to continue a playing career.

Premium Across-the-Board Salary Increases

The owners' response to players' concerns about salaries with an 18 game regular season may be to increase current salaries proportionately. However, the risks that players assume to their long term health and football career prospects, to me, would be exponentially greater than 11%. Bodies experience more ware and would seem more vulnerable to injury with each game played, without an extended period of rest. An across the board annual salary increase of 20%, for example, on existing player contracts would be a welcome windfall for players and a morale preserver for owners. Such a premium, whatever such a premium would be, seems like a small price to pay in exchange for transitioning to a new, more lucrative, regular season schedule in the long run. Most players contracts will be completely expired and up for negotiation within a few years and only the most elite players have the negotiating leverage to build upon a premium salary increase. The vast majority of players will have to accept relatively little more than the league minimum salary for their corresponding years of service. Of course, bargaining for an increase in the minimum salary levels may also be incorporated into salary increase negotiations. 

Just Play Ball!

At the end of the day, the players, owners, and fans all want to see the highest level of professional football. Almost everything in life is a trade off. Anyone, even wealthy and powerful, billionaire franchise owners, have to give something of value if they expect to receive anything of value in return. The average fan may not be able to relate to an NFL player because the player is an elite physical specimen in a high paying glamor job that almost anyone that fan will ever be acquainted with will never have an opportunity to experience. However, players are human beings. They are not robots. They share the same goals that fans have of providing as much for their families and themselves as they are able to. If all parties involved play ball and give a little to get a little, so to speak, then everyone can win: players, owners, and fans. 

1) Image from http://willybova.com/FatCat.jpg

2) Image from sutterstock.com
3) NFL shield is a trademark of the National Football League image from http://thecapitalsportsreport.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/nfl-logo.jpg
4) http://moneycentral.msn.com/content/retirementandwills/escapetheratrace/p100986.asp
5) Image from http://news-libraries.mit.edu/blog/wp-content/uploads/2008/01/money.jpg
6) Image from http://www.happynews.com/living/livingimages/how-safe-football.jpg