Titan's coach Jeff Fisher vs QB Vince Young: Who will win?

We will get to Vince Young. I promise, I’ve talked about how facing adversity makes us stronger. About my daughter Emily’s 18 month battle to overcome the symptoms of her fourth concussion.  How does the saying go? Adversity doesn’t build character, it reveals it? Something like that.

That fourth concussion ended Emily’s softball career. I certainly didn’t realize it at the time, but all during that season Emily showed the character that allowed her to beat that last concussion.

Her coach that year was tough. Hanging that season with the parents was interesting as some found him passionate and some found him mean. I heavily leaned on the passionate side.  And it’s not because he didn’t get tough with Emily. There was the throwing of his hat on the ground when she popped an attempted bunt up. And he could be heard yelling “that’s embarrassing” when Emily and the pitcher, Avery, looked at each other and let a pop up drop between home plate and the pitcher’s mound. And the benching when he thought she didn’t get after a wild pitch fast enough.

Ok, we’re getting to Vince Young. Emily’s reaction to Coach Ormond’s passion? She played harder. She played better. She told me after one practice that he complimented her on showing character by playing better and not sulking. “Oh great, now he’ll yell at me all the time”, was her concern. He didn’t.

I am in no way advocating yelling and abuse by youth coaches. But I am advocating holding kids responsible and teaching them to go hard and overcome adversity. Let’s talk about Young now. Young’s unbelievable physical talent has most likely allowed him to skip the whole adversity thing. He has always been the best player and probably by a large margin. And I am willing to bet that his coaches weren’t too quick to criticize uber talented Vince.

Now Vince gets to the NFL and guess what? While very talented, he’s not head and shoulders above everyone anymore. At the first sign of tough times, Vince sulks and shows unbelievable immaturity and lack of accountability. Sunday he acted like a total child. Throwing his equipment in the stands and storming out of the locker room yelling at Coach Jeff Fisher.

Fisher has been the Titan’s coach for 17 years and is one of the best coaches in the NFL.  He is also regarded as a coach who has always gotten along with his players. In other words, if you have issues with Fisher, it’s probably on you. Young was thrown out of the Titan’s practice facility this morning and it certainly looks like Fisher will tell owner Bud Adams that it’s Young or him. Adams apparently loves Young and all Texas players. He holds a grudge against the state because he thinks Houston shafted him, forcing the move to Nashville. Yeah that seems like a good reason to gives baby Vince millions and choose him over a great coach.

We will see how this story plays out. Last year Adams told Fisher to play Young. I think if he does that next season, Fisher will refuse. Adams will then either allow Fisher to have his way, or fire him. At which point Fisher will be unemployed no longer than 30 seconds.

No question where I stand. Goodbye Vince, don’t let the door hit you on the way out.

Cam Newton: Should he win the Heisman?

Cam Newton. That name is so polarizing right now, with so many angles to the story. “Remember Duke lacrosse!” That comes mostly from the Auburn faithful. From the other side? “Where there’s smoke, there’s fire!”

Innocent until proven guilty? That’s in a court of law, not the court of public opinion. Should we try to get all of the facts and be patient before forming an opinion? Yes, of course.  But people do have every right to form an opinion. Like most situations, only the few people involved really know the indisputable facts. The rest of us have to base an opinion on what we can find out.

Did Cam Newton’s dad, Cecil, tell schools that it would take more than a scholarship to sign his son? I don’t know. Did he specifically ask Mississippi State for between $100-180,000 for Cam to sign to play in Starkville? I don’t know. Did Auburn meet Cecil’s asking price? I don’t know.

All of those are alleged by people supposedly involved in the recruiting of Newton by Mississippi State. Why did this come out now? Because this is when it came out, perhaps planted by a rival SEC school to ruin Auburn’s magical season. If so, well welcome to big boy college football in the conference that looks like old time Chicago politics. And instead of focusing on why now, Auburn nation should be focusing on whether or not it’s true.

Auburn coach Gene Chizik has done a laudable job of trying to deflect from the story. Praising Newton as a model student/athlete. Hmmmm. During two years at Florida, Newton was accused of cheating three different times. He bought a computer at such a great price that the police paid him a visit to ask about it. While they were at the door, Newton threw it out the window. That one is fact. Hearing now that Newton’s decision to leave Florida for a junior college may have been strongly suggested by the administration at Florida.

We don’t know if these things are true. However, when the list of allegations is this long, certainly it’s more than reasonable to have doubts. Clearly things have happened in Cam Newton’s past. Does that mean he has not been a model citizen at Auburn? No, it doesn’t. And if he has been as Chizik has said, that’s great. I admire him turning things around.

But that doesn’t mean that things in the past should be ignored. When we hear now that Vernon Davis of the 49ers violated NCAA rules by giving a player at Maryland $20 and that Hakeem Nicks violated them by treating some North Carolina players to dinner, we laugh at the NCAA for dealing with these which seem so insignificant. But where is the line? If Nicks spending $3300 is okay, then is $5000 ok? $10,000? If buying a kid a burger is ok, how about a steak? Lobster? Suit? House?   Where do we draw the line?

It’s one thing to say the rules stink and to work to change them. Another to say they stink and disregard them. And I don’t think anyone thinks that a father demanding $100-180,000 for his son’s commitment is insignificant. So what should be done? Auburn has clearly decided that they are going to take this magical season as far as it can go and worry about consequences later. They insist Newton is eligible. I can’t blame them. If it comes out later that he wasn’t, well we all know they won those games and maybe a championship, no matter what the NCAA says.

What about the Heisman Trophy? The voters will have to make their decision before any resolution to this. Do they vote for Newton? The NFL Hall of Fame is very clear, only on field performance is to be considered by voters. The Heisman Trophy is not so clear. I believe it talks about integrity. Should a kid be punished solely by allegations? No. However, it’s more than reasonable to look at the body of allegations here and believe that something doesn’t smell right. I wouldn’t vote for Cam Newton.

Sports: Dont be naive

I would worry about dating myself, but that ship has long ago sailed. You know what Virginia, when it comes to sports there just may not be a Santa Claus. Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain? ESPN, Twitter, Facebook and the like have made that impossible.

I love sports, I really do. When I was a kid there was one major league baseball game on each week. Saturday at 2pm on NBC. That was it. No nightly highlights and yapping by a panel of a dozen former players, coaches and front office execs. Music and news were the only things on the radio. No sports talk. Al Gore had not yet invented the internet. Old timers will tell you that players played for the love of the game. Unlike the selfish players of today.

Well things change. There was a time that neither women or blacks could vote. Thankfully things do change. Some change is great and some not so much. Generally that’s a matter of opinion.

 There are a multitude of games on every night now. Entire television and radio networks devoted to sports. All of that information has pulled the curtain down and completely exposed the man behind it. We now know everything that goes on in sports. On and off the field of play.

All of that has also greatly increased the interest in sports. That interest has also generated billions of dollars for the sports industry. Yes, I see my beautiful girlfriend Tina rolling her eyes and hating the day that I ruined sports for her by exposing too much.

Sports are not fun and games anymore. Old players played for the love of the game? Well yeah, there was not much else to play for. There was no free agency or arbitration. Once you signed with a team, you were property of that team forever. Even after your contract ran out. It was up to that team to then offer you another or trade you. Ralph Kiner won the NL home run championship and was offered a pay cut. The Pirates’ owner’s explanation? We finished last with you, I’m pretty sure we can do that without you. He either accepted that contract or left baseball.

All of the money filters down and effects every level of sports. Please don’t be naïve and think that college athletes are there to play for the honor of State U. It’s about getting to the next level. That’s starting at about age 10 with jockeying to get on the right travel team.  Then fielding offers from private high schools to convince you to go there instead of the public school whose district you live in.

Then it really gets crazy if you are in the hunt for a Division I scholarship. Did someone really offer Cam Newton’s considerable football skills to Mississippi State for $180,000? I don’t know. Does that happen? Supposedly then Southern Cal basketball coach Tim Floyd’s recruitment of OJ Mayo consisted of Floyd cutting a check to the “street agent” who offered Mayo to USC.

I’m sorry to break it to you, but sports is a huge multi billion dollar industry. It is that because we the sports fans have chosen to make it such. And that’s ok if that’s what you want. But you have to be realistic about it and understand what it is. It is not a bunch of kids playing on a sandlot. It’s an industry and to the people involved it’s their profession, which they take very seriously. Don’t for one second think that the old players would have been any different than today’s if they had the same financial opportunities available to them. It’s a completely different world. Accept it.

   

Yankees Mickey Mantle: superstar. Joe Pepitone: not. Randy Moss:?

Mickey Mantle. Joe Pepitone. Two players on the NY Yankees in the early to mid 60’s. They roomed together one spring training and were not known for early bed times. One very late night led to the two waking up very late, with a spring training game scheduled that morning. Mantle, with a lot of experience in these matters, arranged for a limo and the two arrived in style at the field. Well, until the door opened and the two stumbled out, falling on the ground as they tried to dress.

What happened next you ask? Mantle got the day off, dozing his hang over off on the bench. Pepitone? Yeah, not so much. A full nine innings in the hot sun at first base.  The difference? Mantle hit 536 homeruns in a Hall of Fame career. Pepitone hit 219.

Superstars have always gotten preferential treatment. And this isn’t just in sports. The top sales rep in the company gets away with the same things that get the guy in the mail room fired.

Fast forward to October 29, 2010. A bonding team dinner for the Minnesota Vikings.  Gus Tunicci was probably thrilled to be chosen to cater the weekly dinner for the Vikes. Until Moss sauntered up to the buffet. “What the ****! Who ordered this ****? I wouldn’t feed this ****ing **** to my dog”.

Life is looking at upsides and deciding if they are worth the downsides. In sales being over quota and over budget was accepted. Under quota and over budget? Didn’t go over nearly as well. Successful people get some chips to use, favors to call in.

Did Moss get waived by the Vikings because of his rant showed him to be a complete jerk? No. Moss got waived because his feeble performance on the field didn’t give him enough chips in his pocket to be a complete jerk. Once upon a time his pocket was filled with chips that convinced his employers to look the other way. No chips, no job. Moss found out what it’s like t