NCAA Punishes Ohio State players. Yeah, 10 months from now.

I don’t even know where to begin, other than stating the obvious. The NCAA is a piece of work. There are a million examples, but let’s try and just stick with the mosrecent. Five Ohio State football players were found to have sold various items that they earned and/or were given. This is a clear violation of NCAA rules and the players were punished with a five game suspension. Quite a substantial penalty considering that a regular season consists of 12 games.

Ah, did you catch the fact that I mentioned the regular season? Yeah, that would be because the five Buckeyes will be able to play in the January 4th Sugar Bowl game against Arkansas next month. Yup, the suspension starts next season. As in September of 2011.

Why you ask?  As the famous saying goes, “follow the money”. Tickets are bought, flights are booked, hotels are reserved. How happy do you think those fans would be to find out that the star QB and four other important players would be sitting the game out? And how do you think the conversation would go with Allstate? Yeah, I’m sure the corporate sponsor would be thrilled.

Once again we’re slapped in the face with the cold reality of what major college sports is all about. Money. It’s also interesting to see who gets into this kind of trouble. The guy third on the depth chart at linebacker? I haven’t heard those allegations. I have heard about the Buckeye five. I have heard about Cam Newton. I have heard about Dez Bryant last year. I have heard about Reggie Bush. I have heard about OJ Mayo. It strikes me that there is a common theme here.

It seems to be better players. Why? They have a sense of entitlement. They’ve been pampered and treated as special since they began playing sports. Are they any worse off than anyone else on the team? Don’t have money to go out? Welcome to the world of 95% of college students. Why don’t we hear about backups selling the same items that the star sells? The star thinks he deserves more. He’s special.

I don’t want to get into a discussion of whether or not these kids should be paid. I do think they should but the reality is that they can’t right now. Just because the rule is bad doesn’t mean it can be ignored. If you don’t like it, work to get it changed. But it still needs to be followed. It’s just hard to take these things seriously when the organization that runs things is so hypocritical and messed up. How is it okay for the players to have done something so bad that they are suspended for almost half a season but it’s okay for that suspension to wait? Obviously it’s not.

UConn's Auriemma off base about his team's 89 straight wins.

Last night the UConn women’s basketball team crushed Florida State for their 89^th consecutive win. That’s one more than the previous best streak authored by the UCLA men’s team in the early 70’s. To start this discussion I want to go back to Sunday when it appears that the right side of the bed was blocked and UConn coach Geno Auriemma was forced to get out of bed on the other side. The wrong one.

 Geno was pretty cranky and played the gender card. Saying his team’s accomplishment wasn’t being taken nearly as seriously as it would have been if pulled off  by men.  Am I as interested as I would be if the UConn men won 89 in a row? No I am not. Do I think it would have been more impressive if the UConn men won 89 in a row? Yes, I would.

Do I have to apologize for being sexist? Ok, ok, enough with the questions. I am not going to apologize and in no way am I a sexist. There are two issues here. Interest from fans and perception of the magnitude of the feat. Comparing the women winning 89 in a row to men doing it.

It’s not sexist to realize that women’s sports just don’t have the same appeal as men’s. I’m not interested in Nascar either. It has nothing to do with gender. I like the athleticism and skill of the mens’ game. I just don’t see the same when watching women. That’s not to say that they aren’t great players. And yes, the UConn women could beat a lot of men’s teams. Many pick up teams at the Y. Just not any college teams. It’s foolish to ignore the difference in size, strength and speed between men and women.  There is no way that the UConn women could beat any good high school boys team. The starting frontcourt at my kids high school is 6-10, 6-8, and 6-6. Dajuan Coleman mans the middle at 290 pounds and is one of the top five players nationally in the junior class. How would UConn handle him?

Geno has done an unbelievable Hall of Fame job. Maybe too good. It’s hard to consider the UConn streak as impressive as UCLA’s because of the comparative lack of competition for UConn. Only two of the 89 wins were by single digits. 53 of the wins were by more than 30 points. 89 straight wins is certainly impressive, but it does lose something when there isn’t much of a chance of an upset.  Geno and UConn certainly deserve all the credit in the world for building a program that is so dominant, but there is no doubt in my mind that it lessens the magnitude of the streak.

Should Newton have been allowed to win Heisman? Should his dad have been there?

To no one’s surprise, Cam Newton is the 76^th winner of the Heisman Trophy. No reason to have a discussion about whether or not he deserved to win. Since I’m just a hack sitting in my living room, I don’t have access to inside information. I believe that part of the criteria for voting for the Heisman involves character and integrity. I’m not sure of that. Even so, if voters want to award the trophy to Newton that’s fine.

Let’s address the huge elephant in the room. Should Newton have been declared ineligible? This bizarre story took yet another twist about a week and a half ago when Auburn declared Newton ineligible and then appealed to the NCAA to get a ruling on his eligibility. While it appears that there is no debate about the fact that Cecil Newton did ask Mississippi State for money to sign his son, apparently the NCAA declared Cam Newton eligible since there was no evidence that he knew what his dad had done.

Wow. Let’s start with whether or not we think Cam knew that his dad was pimping him out. This isn’t  a court of law, so don’t worry about innocent until proven guilty. This is the court of public opinion. Ours. While it seems unlikely that a son wouldn’t know that his dad was asking schools for money, I do think it’s possible. However, I find it hard to believe that the NCAA says that the player’s eligibility relies on whether or not he knew what a family member or street agent was doing. They nail someone for giving a kid $20 for a hamburger but it’s okay for a dad to ask for $200K for his son’s signature?

How are we really to know if the kid knew? How is the NCAA really to know? It’s crazy. Not to mention that a Mississippi State assistant coach says that Newton called to apologize for backing out of his verbal commitment to MSU and said that his dad chose Auburn cause the money was too good.

Too much smoke for there not to be fire.  And a bad precedent for the NCAA to set. All that said, as a dad I found it sad that Cecil Newton was not at the Heisman Award ceremony. I hated missing any of my kids’ games, I can’t imagine missing that. Even with everything,  he should have been there to celebrate with Cam.

Never Mind Cam Newton Winning Tomorrow Night. The Heisman has already been awarded.

There’s so much to write about right now. The Albert Haynesworth suspension, the first time evidence that Peyton Manning is human, the Jets failing to walk after so much talk, and of course the Cam Newton controversy.

I don’t want to write about any of that. Nothing negative right now. I need to talk about something positive. Yesterday the William V. Campbell Trophy was awarded. Never heard of it? Me either. And that’s a shame. It’s the academic Heisman.

The winner? DE Sam Acho from Texas. Never mind his on field accomplishments. Sam is a Community Health major with a 3.55 GPA. He has made numerous medical mission trips to Nigeria.

I’m tired of hearing all the negatives in sports all the time. No more Heisman candidates being pimped out. No more Heisman winners thinking his parents living rent free in a great house is ok. No more running backs driving a new car that he claims belongs to his girlfriend. I’m tired of it all. Here’s where you assume I will tell you that while those players I just mentioned will end up in the NFL, the Campbell Trophy finalists will end up benefitting society. While for the most part that is true, guess what? It is possible to do both. Yup, Just ask the 1997 winner. Tennessee’s Peyton Manning. Or the 1999 recipient. Marshall’s Chad Pennington. Or last year’s winner. Florida’s Tim Tebow.

It’s clearly possible for great athletes to be great students and humanitarians at the same time. Shouldn’t we set that as a standard? Let’s let athletes know they are so much more.

It’s important the rest of the field get notice too. I feel like such a slacker:

*OT Anthony Castonza-Boston College: Biochemistry with a 3.45 GPA. Visits children at the Franciscan Hospital for Children and Camp Harbor View in Boston.

*QB Ben Chappell-Indiana: Accounting with a 3.70 GPA. 2010 AFCA Good Works Team. Organized team visits to Riley’s Children’s Hospital and the Boys and Girls Club.

*LB Alex Gross-Columbia: Sociology with a 3.58 GPA. Volunteered at the St. Francis Youth Center, collects for Toys for Tots, and delivers meals to the Padre Pio Homeless Shelter.

*FB-LB Owen Marecic-Stanford: Human Biology with a 3.47 GPA. Donates hair to Locks of Love to benefit cancer patients. Did a cardiothoracic surgery laboratory internship.

*QB Greg McElroy-Alabama: Business Marketing with a 3.83 GPA. Volunteers with Read Across America, Habitat for Humanity, the West Alabama Food Bank, and Hospice of West Alabama.

*LB Mike Mohamed-California: Business with a 3.43 GPA. A Sage Mentor for children in Berkeley and Oakland. Serves meals at a drug rehab center.

*LB Travis Nissley-Bucknell: Mechanical Engineering with a 3.96 GPA. Toys for Tots volunteer and youth football coach.

*RB Isaac Odim-Minnesota-Duluth: Mechanical Engineering with a 3.85 GPA. Vice President of the Tau Delta chapter of the Mortar Board National Honor Society. Corresponding secretary of the Tau Beta Pi engineering honor society.

*QB Christian Ponder-Florida State: Finance with a 3.73 GPA. One of the ACC’s Top Six for Service Award winners. Volunteers with the United Way, American Cancer Society, Relay for Life, and the Children’s Miracle Network.

*OT Derek Sherrod-Mississippi State: Business with a 3.54 GPA. 4 year member of the student-athlete community service organization. Participated in the Sudduth Elementary School’s Kid’s Fair.

*OT Nate Solder-Colorado: Biology with a 3.51 GPA. Participated in the Read with the Buffs elementary school program. Helped rebuild homes in Italy. Spent time with children in a Guatemalan orphanage.

*OG Chris Stewart-Notre Dame: History with a 3.54 GPA. Currently in Law School. Helped with relief efforts in Haiti. Volunteers at the South Bend Youth Center. Visits local children’s hospitals.

*QB Scott Tolzien-Wisconsin: Consumer Affairs with a 3.50 GPA. 2010 AFCA Good Works Team. Visits elementary schools and has befriended a young cancer patient.

*RB Ben Wartman-St. Thomas(Minn): Finance with a 3.89 GPA. Coordinated the UST Football for Haiti initiative that raised $1500 in four days.

*OG Stefan Wisniewski-Penn State: Secondary Education with a 3.91 GPA. 2010 AFCA Good Works Team. Made two mission trips to the Dominican Republic.

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.