Showing posts with label football. Show all posts
    Showing posts with label football. Show all posts

  • Deadspin's Greg Howard published a piece on the Richard Sherman debacle. The lede:

    When you're a public figure, there are rules. Here's one: A public personality can be black, talented, or arrogant, but he can't be any more than two of these traits at a time. It's why antics and soundbites from guys like Brett Favre, Johnny Football and Bryce Harper seem almost hyper-American, capable of capturing the country's imagination, but black superstars like Sherman, Floyd Mayweather, and Cam Newton are seen as polarizing, as selfish, as glory boys, as distasteful and perhaps offensive. It's why we recoil at Kanye West's rants, like when West, one of the greatest musical minds of our generation, had the audacity to publicly declare himself a genius (was this up for debate?), and partly why, over the six years of Barack Obama's presidency, a noisy, obstreperous wing of the GOP has seemed perpetually on the cusp of calling him "uppity." Barry Bonds at his peak was black, talented, and arrogant; he was a problem for America. Joe Louis was black, talented, and at least outwardly humble; he was "a credit to his race, the human race," as Jimmy Cannon once wrote.

    All this is based on the common, very American belief that black males must know their place, and more tellingly, that their place is somewhere different than that of whites. It's been etched into our cultural fabric that to act as anything but a loud, yet harmless buffoon or an immensely powerful, yet humble servant is overstepping. It's uppity. It is, as Fox Sports's Kayla Knapp tweeted last night, petrifying.

    No offense, but white Americans have always had this pathological fear of brash, outgoing, confident and yes, even arrogant black men and women, with the nexus of that fear being that such a Negro would never allow any white under any capacity to have authority or control over him. It's one of the world's oldest power plays - keeping those coloreds under control so they don't get any ideas and revolt.

    Humility is always a desired trait for any athlete as far as most people are concerned, but that desire's taken to a whole new level when it comes to black athletes. To avoid threatening and pissing off white spectators and sponsors, black athletes of old had to play the humble, almost contrite role. Today's athletes don't have to worry much about pissing off anyone, but white mainstream culture still gets upset over black athletes - or anyone else who happens to be black and famous - engaged in liberal amounts of braggadocio.

    In the case of Seahawks cornerback Richard Sherman, what we have here is a big, brash energetic Negro scaring a poor white woman half to death with his arrogance and over-exuberance. Nevermind Erin herself reportedly said she wasn't scared - this big buck spooked this delicate white flower and he has to pay. Somehow. So he pays in the rough and tumble world of popular opinion, where any recliner-surfing bigot can call Sherman a "monkey" and a "nigger" many times over while longing for the day Peyton Manning rises up and puts him in his place on the gridiron.

    Not that it should bother Sherman any. Thanks to the whirlwinds of controversy, his name is a household name now, plus he's shown himself to be a brilliant player who can also rattle his opponents with a lot of strategically placed shit talk. His name's blown up on Twitter, Facebook and every other social media outlet imaginable.

    Inevitably, you get a certain segment of blacks who are also scared shitless of the talented, arrogant and black, but for a different reason. These are the same sort of folks who, countless lifetimes ago, would have been scared shitless of the rogue black buck getting the rest of the slavefolk in trouble. Cue Andre Iguodala's response:



    Here's the thing, Andre - no person's behavior sets back an entire group. It can't be done. You don't see white Americans complaining how the antics of their redneck, dudebro or douchebag counterparts somehow sets all of white America back to the age of the pilgrims. It's a stupid thing that needs to die a well-deserved death.

    But it's something that many successful blacks do anyway, because they're scared shitless of how the Richard Shermans of the world will make them look to the white guys and ladies who give them interviews, sign their paychecks and have meetings with. That's also a stupid thing that needs to die a well-deserved death, but that's not gonna happen anytime soon.

    Of course, Sherman had to walk back the braggadocio and assume a more contrite perspective, perhaps as a PR-directed move to quench the flames of controversy. He didn't have to do this and he shouldn't have.

  • With Jerry Sandusky convicted and slated to be sentenced on child sexual abuse charges, all that was left was to address the issue of Joe Paterno and sanctions against Penn State. Joe Pa's dead, leaving the only thing anyone can do is make sure the legacy he left behind was tempered with the acknowledgement of what he failed to do: properly respond to and treat seriously those allegations of child sexual abuse made against Sandusky. Instead, Joe Pa opted to place preservation of the football program and university's reputation above protecting those who need protection most.

    Ironically, that practically insured that his own reputation and that of the program and school would pay dearly. For example, take a look at the memorial created in honor of Paterno's coaching. Leaving it up would have satisfied die-hard Penn State fans still in denial over what has happened, but it would have flown in the face of countless victims who suffered under Sandusky's predations and Paterno's inaction. Chances are it would have been vandalized sooner or later. Now, it's a bitter reminder of how covering up a scandal can cause tremendous pain and suffering to the victims, their families, fans and the program itself.

    I'll disclose right here and now that I'm not a big college football fan, despite coming from a state where "Go Tigers!" and "Roll Tide Roll" are almost religious mantras, with Jordan-Hare and Bryant-Denny serving as the sacred altars upon which any Auburn or Alabama fan worth his or her colors pay reverence upon bended knee. I can't say the cult-like following surrounding Joe Paterno and the Nittany Lions is exactly comparable to Alabama fans' slavish devotion to all that is Bear Bryant, but I'll go out on a limb and ask myself this question: would Alabama fans and officials react the same way if Bear knew about similar allegations against his assistant coach and did nothing about it?

    As a result of this scandal and in addition to an ongoing DOE investigation for violations of the Clery Act, the NCAA considered sanctions against Penn State, one of which happens to be the infamous "death penalty." Here's a quick primer on what the "death penalty" entails:

    The death penalty is the popular term for the National Collegiate Athletic Association's power to ban a school from competing in a sport for at least one year. It is the harshest penalty that an NCAA member school can receive.

    The NCAA has always had the power to ban an institution from competing in a particular sport. However, in 1985, in response to rampant violations at several schools, the NCAA Council passed the "repeat violator" rule. The rule stipulates that if a second major violation occurs at any institution within five years of being on probation in the same sport or another sport, that institution can be barred from competing in the sport involved in the second violation for either one or two seasons. In cases of particularly egregious misconduct, a school can also be stripped of its right to vote at NCAA conventions for four years. The severity of the penalty led the media to dub it "the death penalty," and the nickname has persisted to this day.

    It's called the "death penalty" because the sanctions often leave college football programs sucking wind, if they remain in existence, far beyond the ban period. Penn State fans have good reason to worry.

    The NCAA didn't issue the dreaded "death penalty." Instead, the organization opted to hand down sanctions that have plenty of their own far-reaching repercussions:

    1. Penn State faces a $60 million sanction, equivalent to the average gross annual revenue of the football program. Those funds go towards an endowment for outside programs preventing child sexual abuse and helping victims of such abuse. Penn State cannot use those funds for programs at the university.
    2. Penn State's football team is banned from postseason play and appearances for four years.
    3. All of Joe Paterno's wins from 1998 through 2011 were vacated, meaning he officially has no wins under his name from the time he became aware of and ignored child sexual abuse allegations to his firing in late 2011.
    4. Penn State must reduce 10 initial scholarships, plus 20 total scholarships each year for a four-year period. In other words, Penn State loses 90 scholarships for the full period and 90 chances to woo football prospects with full-ride scholarships. As CNN explains it:
      That means the football program can only offer the equivalent of 15 full scholarships to incoming freshmen or transfer students per year for four years beginning with the 2013-14 academic year and can only offer 65 full scholarships total each year beginning with the 2014-15 academic year. Scholarships may be divided among players as partial scholarships.
    5. The Big Ten Conference added its own sanctions. For starters, Penn State is banned from playing in the Big Ten conference title game during the four-year ban. The university won't be able to share in the conference bowl revenues, either. Instead, the $13 million in revenues it would usually see will instead go towards children's charities.
    6. NCAA President Mark Emmert gave Penn State players card blanche to transfer to other universities if they wish, without losing their eligibility. Other colleges can take these players, but only if they dock themselves the same number of players they accept next year.

    So, what does this all mean? For starters, it means Penn State's chances of recruiting good players just turned to shit. Current players who are NFL material might not stick around, either. Penn State football's revenues will also be in the toilet for the next four years, making recruitment and athletic scholarship funding that much harder. The swift kick to the pocketbook also insures that other universities think twice about sweeping serious crimes under the rug. In a way, it means that instead of administering lethal injection to the football program, the NCAA effectively sentenced the football program to 25 to life, with possibility of parole.

    The only silver lining for Penn State is that it might have a chance years afterward to make a smashing comeback, but I doubt Sandusky's victims give a damn about any of this, nor should they. By all means, the program should have been killed stone dead, but then the narrative would shift from making sure colleges don't cover up sexual abuse to the NCAA being "petty" and "vindictive" by shutting down Penn State football. That's the last thing anyone needs.

    Meanwhile, Joe Paterno's legacy gets hit with a huge asterisk and deservedly so. For over a decade, this man decided that quietly ignoring his assistant coach's pedophiliac behavior and the pain suffered by his victims was a small price to pay for preserving the football program. For many people, these sanctions are just the tip of the iceberg as far as punishment is concerned.

    Meanwhile, many Nittany Lions feel that zeroing out Paterno's wins also unfairly punishes the players and staff that wasn't involved in the scandal. Well, life isn't fair and I'm pretty sure both Sandusky and Paterno knew their actions would have far-reaching consequences for the program, players and fans.



    No, Paterno did. He lost every college football game he ever coached when he turned a blind eye to sexual abuse back in 1998. It's a shame the players have to be caught up in the wreckage, but again, life isn't fair.

    For Sandusky's victims, none of this can ever make up for the pain and suffering he caused. It never will. At least no one will be able to pretend that these crimes never happened, as much as no one can pretend that the monument to Joe Pa never existed.

    By the way, with Paterno's wins vacated, it means late Grambling State University coach Eddie Robinson is once again the winningest coach in Division I football.
  • "UAB is a national and world leader in many fields," St. John wrote. "The hospital and medical school are points of pride for everyone in our state. But in the last 10 years UAB has faced increasing challenges. In health research funding, UAB's national ranking has declined significantly over the last 10 years. The cancer and cardiology programs are no longer nationally ranked. Changes in health care funding will require intense focus and leadership to maintain the excellence we expect from UAB. I would hope that everyone who cares about UAB and the people it serves will encourage UAB to make these matters of crucial importance to its students and the state of Alabama its highest priority."

    The above is University of Alabama System trustee Finis St. John telling the University of Alabama at Birmingham to stay in its lane. Nevermind that UAB wants its own on-campus stadium to expand and further support the Blazers football team. Or that UAB is financially well-positioned to fund its construction. Or the fact that Birmingham mayor William Bell supports the effort, as do the alumni, students and prominent business figures. No, UAB has its position to play, and the folks in Tuscaloosa will be damned if they left one of their offshoots do anything to take shine off the Crimson Tide football program.

    This is about the egos lurking within the main Tuscaloosa campus wanting to be the end all/be all when it comes to college football. It's a huge and nasty turf battle that stands to stunt UAB's growth and lock it into an idea of what the T-Town trustees believe it should be instead of what it could be. It's bad enough that UAB only has minimal representation on the Board of Trustees, while UA-Huntsville appears as a mere afterthought.

    There's always Legion Field.

    A 70,000-seat stadium located miles away from the campus that's in desperate need of upgrading (or rebuilding, in my humble opinion). The Gray Lady's seen better days. In contrast, the new on-campus stadium features a more modest 30,000 seats and will most likely be better equipped than Legion Field.

    If you build it, they still won't come.

    Lack of use and lack of support, two arguments used for almost any city or county venture. It was the same talk used to discourage the city from building the infamous domed stadium. It's a general "why bother?" attitude that helps hold the city back and allows it to stagnate.

    Meanwhile, other cities in the state are allowed to grow as they see fit. It's only the Birmingham/Jefferson County area that's bitch-slapped every time it decides to grow beyond adding a few new restaurants in the Highland/Five Points South area.

    There are a lot of people out there who want to see the city of Birmingham crumble and have Tuscaloosa or Montgomery take its place. And there are a lot of people who want UAB to "play its position" and cease their silly notions of their silly football team who, mind you, is currently coached by a guy who only got his position because he was buddies with Paul "Bear" Bryant's son. And that guy has a losing streak that's a mile wide and a mile deep:

    UAB fans and boosters have long felt that Alabama Trustees were not in favor of the decision to build a football program in 1996. That suspicion gained strength in 2007 when UAB began conducting a search to replace football coach Watson Brown. UAB likely could have hired one of the hottest young coaches in the country to run the program; then-LSU offensive coordinator Jimbo Fisher. A few influential UAB boosters proposed that they would assist with donations to help cover Fisher's $600,000 salary, but the Trustees stepped in and squashed the hire, claiming "financial considerations." On its face, that argument appeared bogus. Again, UAB supporters suspected that a few paranoid Trustees feared that UAB might wind up with a better coach than Alabama and that some members of the Board overstepped their boundaries and handpicked another coach, Neil Callaway, which has turned out to be a sub-standard hire.

    The reception to Callaway's hire from UAB fans was cool—and with good reason. Five years later, Callaway's record is 16-41, and for 2011, his record is a disappointing 1-8.

    He's a veritable dud. But that dud knows Junior, and Junior won't let him go anywhere. The Board of Trustees should stop playing Fiefdom Lords to the serfs in the UA system.
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