Please pay attention to former Bear Dave Duerson

I’m sure the Coliseum rocked watching the underdog Gladiators take on the Lions. My violence in sports project in college featured a newspaper picture of a hockey fight right up against the glass. The shear joy on the faces of the fans was remarkable. The 17 car pile up in this year’s Daytona 500 is what many race fans are hoping for. A video of the NFL’s most violent hits is always a huge seller. Let’s face it. Violence sells.

The issue of whether or not kids are influenced by watching or listening to TV, video games, movies and music has been debated for decades. Not so surprisingly, as I have gotten older my stance has shifted to now being concerned about the effects of these media on youth. I heard a psychologist say the issue is that the violence seen isn’t actually taken far enough. You see someone killed for example but never see the consequences of that. You never see the impact on family and friends. The grieving. The fact that the person is actually gone. You see this person die and then the game or show or movie moves on. 

This past week we saw yet another consequence of the violence that attracts so many to the NFL. Former Bears DB Dave Duerson took his own life. He left a note saying he wouldn’t shoot himself in the head because he wanted someone to look at his brain to figure out why he was in such pain and misery. Duerson was 50 years old. Colin Cowherd on ESPN said there is a study that showed that the career with the shortest life expectancy among American males is that of professional football player. Shockingly he cited the study as saying that former professional football players die at an average age of 54 compared to the average male who dies at the age of 75. While I do find it hard to believe that the average age of death of every former football player is 54, there is no questioning the severity of this issue.

NFL players will tell you that game day is like being in a car crash. Most find it difficult to walk until Wednesday or Thursday. Former lineman Mark Schlereth had 29 surgeries during his career. When he hears people say how they would give anything to have played in the NFL, he says no you wouldn’t. It’s a struggle for him to get going every day. Pain every day. I know that this comes as no surprise to the players and that they make the choice to play. Very true.

But I do think that the league needs to be concerned about long term effects of its game on the players. Dave Duerson is not the first player to have this happen Former Steeler Mike Webster’s post career problems have been well documented. Watching the effects of multiple hits to the head on Muhammed Ali is painful for those of us old enough to remember him in his youth.

It’s ignorant to talk about how the game has always been violent and should be played the way it always has been. The people playing football today are incredibly bigger, stronger and faster than players of the past. Cam Newton is about to begin his professional career at 6’6” 260 lbs. That’s three inches taller and 15 lbs heavier than Jerry Kramer. So what? Cam Newton is a quarterback in 2011. Jerry Kramer was a right guard in 1967. The human body is not meant to withstand the violent impact of crashes with men this fast and strong.

I’ve written about my daughter’s battle with the after effects of her four concussions. I’ve seen the consequences. Three years later and she still isn’t cleared to play “contact sports”. Fortunately today she only suffers from the loss of her softball career. She’s great academically and suffers very few symptoms anymore.  I know you can’t legislate the violence out of football. But let’s make it as safe as it can be made within the context of the game.

Cardinals and Pujols. Can it keep going?

It’s so hard to relate to contracts in sports.  I have a contract but in no way can relate to the contract issues of Albert Pujols.

Albert’s contract expires after this season. There is no question that he is the best player in baseball. But how do you structure his contract? How much longer will he be able to put up the numbers that he has in the past? There is evidence that he is already slowing down. So we look at Alex Rodriguez’ $27 million per and begin there. If Rodriguez gets $27 million than Albert has to get more. Really? Albert is 31… or 33…… or 35, hell no one is really sure.

Reportedly he is asking for 10 years and $300 million total. He thinks that the $30 million per is about right. Wow.  Pujols has about 3-4 years left of big numbers and then they will put him in the lower part of the top ten in the game very quickly. And the Cards would still be on the hook for $30 million per? Ridiculous.

I don’t understand why these players think they should be paid forever for performance in the past.  In baseball the union pushes players to get every penny they can out of every negotiation. They don’t want the bar being lowered. Supposedly they were never happy with Tony Gwynn taking less than he could have gotten if he had left San Diego. Most people forget that Alex Rodriguez agreed to be traded from Texas to Boston before he signed a big free agent contract with the Yankees. The union wouldn’t allow it because he would have actually taken less money than he was being paid at the time by the Rangers.

Just because one team overpays for a player doesn’t mean that every team after that has to use that contract as a benchmark. At some point the demands will be such that there will be no bidders. Orioles’ GM Andy MacPhail put it best when he recently said that it’s a game of musical chairs and at some point the music will stop and some player will not have a seat.

SU struggling. Boeheim was right again.

He’s been saying it all season. At 5-0. At 12-0. At 18-0. At that point, his message was drowned out by the big #3 next to Syracuse in the national rankings. We should have listened to him. After all, his name is on the court.

When it comes to all matters basketball, I will defer to Jim Boeheim. He tried to tell us that his Orange weren’t as good as their record. Clearly at 18-0, he was right. What’s happened since? 2-6 and quite a drop in the rankings. Is it the tougher schedule? I don’t think it’s that simple.

The workings of a team are very intricate. It’s much more complicated than looking at the talent of the players. We hear talk of chemistry and intangibles. Sometimes when a team does better or worse than expected, it’s because the “experts” missed on what should have been expected.  In 1969 the Colts were favored by 17 over the Jets in Super Bowl III. After the Jets won it was clear that they were greatly undervalued by the “experts”. So was it really a big upset? The same with the Jets beating the Patriots in this year’s playoffs. Upon further examination, it looks the Patriots might only have advantage over the Jets at head coach and quarterback.

Trying to evaluate college teams depends on the performance of 19-21 year olds. It’s not just that their play can be inconsistent, it’s also that we’re forecasting on potential more than we are performance. Case in point is SU freshman Fab Melo. He was chosen as Big East pre-season freshman of the year and can barely get off the Orange bench.  

On the court, this year’s Orange were relying on three players new to their situation We just discussed Fab Melo’s struggles. Last year Kris Joseph was national sixth man of the year. While he has had a decent season, he has found out that it’s different when the focus is on you. I’ve watched Brandon Triche since he was in third grade. He has always been a distributor, even though he could have scored virtually at will. This year he is asked to play shooting guard and be a little more selfish. While he is really coming on, there have been times that he has needed to look for his shot a little more.

The bigger issue with this year’s Orange might be what was such a strength of last year’s team. Chemistry and intangibles.  Leadership. Something seems off with this year’s team. From day one they have struggled offensively and now the defense has been porous. Defense is effort and that’s been lacking. We’ve seen issues with Dion Waiters, James Southerland and now Fab Melo as far as losing playing time. Does this year’s team get along as well as last year’s? Having never been in the same room as these guys, I can’t say. But something seems off.

Can this be turned around? Sure. Who knows, the Hall of Famer might just have us all where he wants us.

NFL Offseason. Football? Not so much.

Now that the Super Bowl is over, welcome to the NFL off season.  Draft preparations? Free agent evaluations? Off season team activities? Mini camps? No no. Welcome to the 2011 off season. CBA. Rookie wage scale. Longer season. Yeah, real x’s and o’s stuff.

I know, I know. You don’t care about any of this stuff, you just want to talk about the (fill in the blank)’s back up left guard. Knock yourself out. But stop reading now.

I know it seems crazy that millionaires have a union to help them deal with billionaires. It is crazy, but it’s also reality. So on March 3^rd the current CBA expires and it appears that the owners will lock out the players at that point.  The first win came for the owners about a week ago when a judge ruled that as of March 3^rd the players’ health insurance will indeed lapse and the owners have no responsibility to continue payments. Think that’s no big deal? Hmmm, think again. First of all, not all players are making millions of dollars. The sage words of Patrick Ewing come to mind regarding the wealthy players. Yes, we earn a lot, but we also spend a lot. Lots of these guys have spent most of their money. Obviously football players spend a lot of time visiting doctors and doing rehab. It will hurt many of them to have to pay out of their pocket. It will be interesting to see if players put some pressure on the union to get this settled to help them save on their medical expenses.

There are plenty of issues to be worked out. The owners seem intent on cutting two pre-season games and adding two regular season games. More is not always better. I think they should leave the schedule as it is. The more games at full speed the more injuries. To compensate. rosters will be expanded, which just means a bunch of players in the league that can’t make the league right now. More is not always better.

It also looks like a rookie wage scale will be implemented. This makes all the sense in the world. It’s crazy to pay rookies way more than veterans. How psyched are the Raiders about that first draft pick a few years ago? Yeah, Jamarcus Russell took his $31 million to the bank. And Taco Bell. And McDonalds. And Burger King.  Everywhere but the practice field.

Another sign of the off season? Players pissed off about being tagged as franchise players. Instead of the long term contract they want, they get a one year deal. At the average of the top 5 players at their position. Yeah, real disrespectful.  I can’t stand players complaining about this. Their union agreed to this in the CBA. Live with it. You don’t like, try and get it changed. But until then, suck it up and accept it along with the millions that came your way from that same CBA.

Sorry. I know that these are things that many of you would rather not discuss. I get that. But I also live in the real world. And this is part of it.

Rodgers elite. Packers amazing.

It’s 10:30 and I just exhaled. What a Super Bowl. As a Packer fan, all I could think of was sitting in the end zone where the Steelers scored on the last play of the game last year to beat Green Bay. Then I thought of the Super Bowl two years ago when they beat Arizona late. And I assumed that would happen again. Instead the Packers hung on.

I can’t say enough about Aaron Rodgers. When he needed to, he directed the Packers on a drive that sealed the game in the fourth quarter.  We have just seen the elite quarterback club add a new member. Perhaps their most impressive one.

There was talk that he might be the number one pick in the draft six years ago. Instead he sat and waited until being taken 24^th by Green Bay. The same Green Bay that had a quarterback who seemingly would play forever.  So, unlike recent top picks like Sam Bradford and Matt Ryan, Rodgers sat. And sat. And sat.

There was no mentoring of Rodgers by Favre. I’m not criticizing Brett for that, just stating the fact. He wanted to play and didn’t want to help the next guy take his job. I’m not a fan of Favre, but no problem with that. After three seasons of sitting, credit coach Mike McCarthy and GM Ted Thompson for knowing that Rodgers was worth waiting for.

Rodgers’ chance to finally play came with a circus that neither Bradford, Ryan, or any other young QB I can remember had to endure.  Rodgers handled himself with amazing class. On top of that, his play on the field has been unbelievable.

The Packers had 16 players, 8 starters, on IR this year. They were 8-6 and faced with having to win their last two regular season games to make the playoffs. So, in order to bring the Lombardi Trophy back home, they had to win 6 straight win or go home games. And they did.

Green Bay is the second youngest team in the NFL. It’s very cool to be a Packer fan right now.