Too Big To Fail?

Americans are comfortable with a little bit of corruption.  It almost is like we have grown to accept that it is just going to happen and we just need to deal with it.  We have lived through so many different scandals that we have developed a very cynical nature.  There have been so many movies based on government conspiracies that I would wager most Americans believe that there is always some level of conspiracy going on.  It's just how it is.

There are two instances where Americans will no longer deal silently with corruption.  The first is when it starts to affect our life - especially our wallet.  As long as it is someone else's problem, it isn't a problem.  But when it becomes my problem, then we have a problem.  We had an animal living in the pond behind our house.  Well, we have a lot of animals living out there: turtles, fish, ducks, Canadian geese.  But we had this weird animal out there.  I would see it swimming along from time to time.  It looked like a beaver.  I would see it slithering through and diving under the lily pads.  I found out from some of my outdoorsy friends that it was a nutria - basically a giant river rat.  I liked watching it.  Well, one of my neighbors didn't think it was such a cute animal.  Apparently its activities were infringing on my neighbor's happiness.  The rat would come up into the lady's yard and eat her plants.  It would gnaw on the wooden wall constructed to keep water out of the yard.  And the leftovers from its snacks was clogging up our spillway, causing flooding in that yard.  To me, it wasn't an issue.  My yard has a very steep incline, so flooding is not a problem.  I have a fence around my yard, so the rat wasn't going to come up on my property.  But this lady starting making a stink.  She had a few other homeowners on her side due to garden and flooding damage.  She brought it before the HOA Board (which we both are on) and wanted us to pay to have the eradication done.  On top of it all, she was all weird about the animal being killed - which we all knew would be the outcome.  It was going to cost $800 to clear the pond.  I asked how much it cost for a box of bullets.  She didn't appreciate that suggestion.  Now it became my problem.  I didn't want the HOA to spend hundreds of dollars to pull this animal out.  It wasn't bothering me, personally.  I didn't even realize it was a problem at all.   (Things have a funny way of working themselves out.  The rat got run over by a car a couple of weeks later ... before we paid to clear the pond.  I had nothing to do with it.  Promise.)

This is kind of how we approach corruption in the US.  It isn't my problem.  It isn't hurting me.  Don't rock the boat.  But if it encroaches on my comfort, all heck breaks loose.  Look at the investment banking scandal of a few years ago.  Or the Enron/big business scandal.  Or the subprime mortgage collapse.  Or the automaker fiasco.  Those issues had been bubbling for years.  Was anyone surprised that financial advisors were cheating?  I doubt that.  What year did Wall Street come out?  We had been through all of this before, just with different financial elements.  Instead of junk bonds it was Ponzi schemes.  Was the subprime mortgage problem a shock?  How could it be?  How long could banks hand out mortgages to people who couldn't afford to pay for them before the process collapsed?  We know in the back of our minds that things are not always above board with companies, governments, industries, celebrities.  But we turn a blind eye and convince ourselves things may be different this time.  Until it interferes with our life.

The other instance were corruption gets us riled up is when it become blatant.  This is kind of a corollary of the first instance.  Instead of it interfering with our wallets or our lives, it interferes with our comfort.  It makes us feel embarrassed and awkward.   How could we have let this go on?  It makes us look bad.  We frequently see this with celebrities.  We cut actors, musicians, "reality" stars a lot of slack in our country.  It is like we know that they are going to make questionable choices and we are fine with that, as long as it is kept quiet.  If they want to smoke weed, that's fine.  Just don't do it in a park.  If they want to do lines of coke in the bathroom at the Chateau Marmont, that's fine.  Just don't film it and post it on Twitter.  If they want to run a dog fighting ring, so be it.  Just don't advertise the fights.  When those private foibles become public scandals, we throw our hands up in mock indignation.  "How could they do this?!?"  What we are really asking is "how could they be so blatant in their stupidity?"

If you don't think this is accurate, I want you to think back a few years to the Michael Vick dog-fighting scandal.  Vick was going along as a maddeningly erratic and fragile quarterback when we all started to hear about his involvement in a dog-fighting ring.  There were the usual denials, followed by proof of the existence of the ring.  Vick got arrested, tried, and imprisoned for his role in the whole thing.  During the whole process, we heard about how this is a cultural issue.  In the culture that Vick grew up, dog fighting was an acceptable practice.  Vick didn't know that it was a problem.  But it went public and we all went crazy.  Now, think about this.  In the years since Vick's dog fighting ring went public, how many dog fighting rings have you heard about being broken up by the cops?  With the amount of public outrage over Vick's crimes, you would think dog fighting is completely detestable in our country.  And in the dialogue, we kept hearing about how this was cultural - meaning that there are more of these rings going on right now.  Thinking back to how people wanted Vick banned for life from the NFL and imprisoned for a hundred years, shouldn't we have formed some kind of task force to uncover and shut down these dog fighting rings?  We know they are out there, right?  Why aren't there federal agents played by a young Kevin Costner busting into warehouses and backyards across the country, leading dozens of people into paddy wagons?  It isn't happening because it isn't blatantly in our face any more.  It slinked back into the shadows and we left it alone.  As long as Amanda Bynes isn't hurling phones and bongs out of hotel windows, Charlie Sheen isn't showing up drunk for interviews, Justin Bieber isn't racing his silver rocket car through rush hour traffic, these people can be crazy all they want.  Just don't embarrass us with your crazy.  Don't get your crazy on me.  As long as your favorite NCAA team keeps its player payments, arrests, and false test scores quiet, it is fine.  But if it becomes blatant, the team gets blistered.

All of this has come to mind as I observe the NFL.  The National Football League is a mammoth industry that generates gobs of money.  Its influence is not just felt in cities with teams, although those cities certainly do benefit a great deal.  Its presence on television brings huge ratings and advertising dollars to those channels.  Hundreds of companies are intertwined with the NFL: restaurants (McDonald's), soda companies (Pepsi), shoe companies (Nike), computer companies (Lenovo, Microsoft), pizza companies (Papa John's).  It goes on and on.  The NFL took in $1.07 billion from sponsorships last year.  The last television contract was for $8 billion.  That included CBS paying $275 million for the rights to simulcast Thursday night NFL games along with the NFL Network.  They don't have any exclusive rights.  Think about this - CBS is the number one network on television.  On Thursday night they already had the number one comedy show on television.  But they were willing to juggle their entire schedule for the right to run games that were already being shown on another network.  The NFL is enormous.

The spillover effect of the NFL leaves its mark on college and high school athletics.  As technological, medical, and pharmaceutical breakthroughs find success in the NFL, they work their way down the chain.  The same goes for game planning.  And for coaching techniques.  And for desired athlete qualities.  Yes, some things work their way back up the chain like the Nike and Under Armor uniforms from Oregon and Maryland or the wildcat formation.  But for every one innovation that swims upstream, a hundred flow back down.  As the offensive linemen in the NFL got larger and faster, that desirability moved down through the ranks.  As quarterbacks needed to become more mobile, that quality was harvested from below.  In addition to qualities trickling down, so did behavior.  The NFL players make a lot of high risk, high reward plays.  Defensive backs would launch themselves at wide receivers.  Kick coverage teams fly around with reckless abandon.  Running backs put their heads down and bull forward.  Soon college and then high school players began to play the same way.

Through all of this, doctors were concerned about the overall health of younger football players.  Only 6 percent of high school senior players will play in college.  Only 1.7 percent of college seniors will get drafted by the NFL.  That means 0.08% of high school players will ever make it to the NFL.  Out of every 1,000 high school players, not even one will make it to the NFL.  But that allure keeps players striving and aiming to be that one in a thousand.  So, even though there are numerous health risks, players keep going.  Offensive lineman pack on weight to reach the right size, even though they don't do it the right way and are really just massively obese.  Young teens start weight training before doctors would advise that practice.  These students tear up their knees, ankles, backs and doom themselves to a lifetime of pain.  They sow the seeds of drug addictions by using painkillers at a disturbing rate - in addition to other pills like amphetamines and steroids.

Then there is the risk of concussions.  Actually, it shouldn't even be called a risk anymore.  It has basically crossed the line to an occupational hazard.  The numbers are horrifying.  I've talked about concussions before on this blog and there is a ton of research out there telling the truth about concussion dangers.  Players get into dozens of collisions every game that are equivalent to a car crash.  Some players estimate that they get into two to three plays per game that ring their bells and possibly give them a minor concussion.  More and more players are talking about how they already have memory loss.  Bret Favre, who has only been out of the game for a couple years, said he routinely forgets where he is or why he went there.  Former players are committing suicide at an alarming rate.  There are massive health repercussions from ALS to depression to Alzheimer's.

Now we are facing the specter of domestic violence as well.  Ray Rice punches his fiancee out in an elevator and gets suspended for two games.  The NFL reconsidered its punishment after the country lost its collective mind once the video footage hit the airwaves.  Rice's lawyer has complained this is the NFL equivalent of double jeopardy, being tried for the same crime twice.  They actually have some valid arguments there.  There is just too much evidence that the Baltimore Ravens and the NFL knew the extent of Rice's actions and covered it up.  So because they got busted and went into damage control mode, Rice got his contract terminated and his ability to play in the NFL revoked.  Adrian Peterson, one of the biggest stars in the league, beat his four year old son so savagely that he had a dozen open lacerations on his body.  I won't say he disciplined his son because this goes far beyond discipline.  I have kids and understand the concept of punishment.  I also have seen discipline that crossed the line when I was a child.  Peterson was not just punishing his son; he was taking out his anger and frustration on him.  He obviously was not in control in that moment.  And it makes me wonder how many other times that had happened.

At the same moment all of this was happening, several other players were being charged with domestic violence crimes.  The owner of the Dallas Cowboys was being investigated for sexual impropriety - which was largely brushed off because the statute of limitations had expired.  As I watched the reactions of America, it was like it couldn't decide what to do.  This level of corruption and horrific behavior usually would have triggered our offense mechanisms.  But something stopped that.  It was like the fact that it was football and we all love football halted us from going further.  We got angry about Ray Rice and he was punished.  But it stopped there.  Some people were angry about Peterson, but others defended him because it fell under "corporal punishment" and no one wants to step on that issue.  He was deactivated for one game while the investigation started.  But the Vikings actually reinstated him for the next week before a bunch of people lost their minds and the team reconsidered.  In the midst of all of this, the commissioner understandably came under fire for his gross ineptitude.  He scrambled and danced in his press conference and managed to deflect the anger.

To be completely honest, I am fed up with all of it.  I am angry.  I have loved football as long as I have known about sports.  I have great memories watching football: Sunday afternoons with my dad, Super Bowl parties, UCF games, Jaguar games.  But I have reached a breaking point.  This year, I have watched very little football.  I have opportunities.  Last night I was sitting on the couch watching TV and flipping over to the game never entered my mind.  I shuttered my fantasy football league this year that I had run for over a decade.  This isn't just a busy dad finding other things to do.  This year should be the year I want to see the NFL the most.  My favorite team (the Jaguars) drafted a UCF player (Blake Bortles) who is now their starting quarterback.  I know his mom.  She taught both of my sons in preschool.  I remember him as a middle schooler.  I should be glued to the tv during the season.  But I just can't.

I'm not the only one that feels this way.  My favorite sportswriter is Bill Simmons.  I have read his stuff since he first got signed by ESPN.  I love his writing style and his passion for sports.  But I also love the fact that he is a fan first.  He is irate over all of this.  He has been attacking commissioner Goodell for his role in these scandals.  Finally Simmons snapped on a podcast and went off on the commissioner.  He called him a liar - something that the media almost universally has agreed upon.  The end result?  ESPN suspended Simmons for three full weeks without pay.  What!?!  A media member has been questioning the NFL for weeks and finally says what many fans are thinking.  And he gets suspended?  For three weeks!!!  To recap, Ray Rice was originally suspended for two weeks for punching his fiancee so hard she fell backwards and got knocked unconscious.  Then he dragged her out of the elevator like a sack of flour.  Two weeks.  Stephen A Smith, another ESPN personality who is a complete idiot, got suspended for one week for basically saying not to judge Ray Rice too quickly and that the fiancee "may have had it coming."  One week.  Adrian Peterson was originally suspended for one week for savagely beating his four year old.  The other domestic cases originally had no suspensions.  Mike Tirico, another ESPN turd, has been accused of several instances sexual impropriety with no suspensions.  Jerry Jones, owner of the Cowboys, was accused of sexual impropriety with no suspension.  Bill Simmons, tired of all of this bull, went off and was suspended for three weeks.  Why?  Because ESPN is the biggest partner of the NFL and pays $1.7 billion a year to show Monday Night Football.  The NFL told ESPN to get Simmons under control.  You don't believe that happened?  There is precedent.  Years ago, ESPN ran an original series entitled Playmakers that was supposedly based on the NFL.  There was drug use, rape, racism, homophobia.  The NFL threatened to pull out of their relationship with ESPN if the show wasn't cancelled.  Boom.  The show is gone.

I don't get it.  The NFL makes a giant deal about women's issues in October for breast cancer awareness month.  It is the only time players can wear non-uniform elements, as long as they are pink.  But there are players beating up their girlfriends, fiancees, and wives and the NFL does nothing.  And we, as viewers, seem shocked.  Why?  These guys are hopped up on so many supplements and chemicals.  They are in a culture where rage and lack of control is encouraged on the playing field.  How long did we think it would take before that spilled over into their homes?  Didn't professional wrestling teach us anything?  Look at the number of former wrestlers who have died early, committed suicide, attacked their significant others.  One of the saddest stories was Chris Benoit.  He was considered a good guy.  Then he killed his wife, his son, and himself.  Why?  Depression, concussion damage, steroid damage.  "Well that's an extreme case!"  Really?

December 2012.  Kansas City, Missouri.  Twenty-two year old Kansas City Chief player, Javon Belcher, drives to the Chief's facilities.  He shoots himself in front of the head coach and general manager.  It turns out he had murdered his girlfriend earlier.  His body was exhumed last year and last week we found out that his brain showed evidence of CTE - the damage caused by concussions that causes people to lose their memories and control of themselves.  He was 22.  Look at the erratic behavior exhibited by NFL players.  Donte Stallworth is speeding and strikes and kills a man in Miami.  Ray Lewis (doesn't) stab a man to death in a parking lot.  Plaxico Burress shoots himself in the leg.  Josh Gordon keeps failing drug tests.  Jonathan Martin and Richie Icognito have the most unhealthy and bizarre friendship ever, complete with accusations of bullying and racism.  Jadaveon Clowney gets busted for driving over 100 mph down Interstate 77 twice in a week.  There is a laundry list of this stuff.  How long until this boils over?  How long until the corruption is actually bad enough to make us do something?  It is already blatant.  It is already out of control.  But I guess it hasn't affected us personally enough yet.

In 1991 there was a movie that came out called The Last Boy Scout.  It starred Damon Wayans, Bruce Willis, and Halle Berry.  It wasn't a very good movie.  It took place in the world of professional football with Wayans as a pro player and Willis as a detective or something.  There were tons of scenes that hinted at the excesses in the NFL: drugs, sex, money, ignoring injuries.  But one scene has always stuck with me.  It was one of the opening scenes.  A player was taking back a kickoff and pulled out a gun and started shooting the would-be tacklers until he scored and then shot himself.  It came out that this player was in deep with gambling debts and he felt he had to score to keep his family safe.  I thought that was ridiculous.  What player would shoot other players on the field like that?  Less than 25 years later, would you honestly be that shocked if something like that actually happened?  Chances are, it would be stunning.  But not shocking.  That should show you there is a problem.  If a sport actually has fostered an environment where a murder on the field would not be spin-your-head crazy, that sport is out of control.  My question is if that possible tragedy would even be enough to take down the NFL.

2011 in Review: The Year Sports Imploded

In the coming weeks, you will be inundated with Year in Review posts from every self-obsessed blogger out there, as well as every news, entertainment, and sports site.  So, far be it from me to avoid jumping on the bandwagon.  My seven followers demand no less.  I have always been a sucker for Year in Review stuff.  It was a fun way to go back through and revisit events and remember where I was.  Now that I am older, I often forget what happens on a day to day basis, let alone stuff that went on back in February.  So these recaps are useful for me.  "The Royal Wedding II was THIS year? Man it seems like forever ago."

As I go through these posts, though, I want to do something different than just a recap.  I am not qualified enough to give a thorough rundown of the importance of events.  And I am biased.  Things that don't interest me would not be included - even if the rest of the world think they are important.  Looking at Yahoo!'s top news stories of the year, they had the Casey Anthony trial and the death of Amy Winehouse.  Those may have been notable - but I never would have listed those.  I also don't know how many of these I'll do.  It's like Christmas - surprises around every turn.

I'm going to start with sports.  Again, I don't plan on just recapping who won the different titles.  If it isn't my teams (it's never my teams) then I really could care less once the event is over.  I had to think for a minute to even remember who the title winners were this year.  Instead, I want to look at how sports in general progressed (or regressed . . . mainly regressed) in my view.  This year will be forever remembered (by me) as the year the sports world lost its collective mind.  It also will be the year that, for the first time, my affection for sports was smaller than my disdain for sports.  If I were being polled on if I viewed sports favorably or unfavorably, it is definitely unfavorably.  Here are some of the biggest reasons.

NBA LOCKOUT: Personally, I was more irritated by the NFL labor situation than the NBA one.  But I am putting them in this order so that I can highlight some points.  The NBA lockout was frustrating on many levels.  The biggest is no matter how noble some of the points were, the basic concept of millionaires fighting with billionaires over money still is hard for most Americans to stomach.  But it didn't affect me that much.  I don't usually watch basketball until the All Star break anyway.  I'm too busy with football.  So the NBA starting late didn't bother me.  And the reasons FOR the lockout were somewhat understandable: player salaries are out of control, there needs to be some level of revenue sharing, fans of small teams need some hope.  So I could see that and realize something needed to be done.  What I hate about these labor situations, though, is that the people who get hurt the most aren't the players or owners.  They are the complementary industry people.  Living in Orlando, I was made more aware of stuff like this.  The city paid a LOT of money to open a new arena for the Magic.  There are tons of companies whose existence are completely dependent on the Magic playing.  The city itself was counting on the All Star game.  It was awarded because of the new arena.  And it was constantly threatened.  People lost their income; some lost their jobs.  And for what?  At the end of the day, nothing seemed to change.  Immediately after the new agreement was signed, owners started overpaying players, players in small markets started manipulating the new rules to escape to big cities, and the teams took the opportunity to cut staff.  The Magic had promised they would not cut positions during the lockout.  Immediately after the agreement was reached, the team laid off twenty employees and eliminated twelve seasonal positions that had not been opened yet this year.  Good job, guys.

NFL LOCKOUT: Basically, take the offensiveness of the NBA lockout, remove the legitimate concerns.  There's the NFL lockout.  Where the NBA one at least was somewhat about reconstructing a flawed system, the NFL was purely about money.  It was two sets of extremely wealthy individuals fighting over EIGHT BILLION DOLLARS.  Bill Simmons likened to Scarface, with the giant pile of coke on the table.  Except with this lockout it was a gigantic pile of dollar bills - and there was a gang war over who got the most.  Yes, there were some peripheral issues that were addressed.  But those could have been dealt with during a conference call or small meeting.  The lockout was strictly money.  I don't know about you, but that is extremely hard for me to accept.  The cities are the ones who built the stadiums, who provide the fans, who create the secondary companies.  And they are basically told to shut up and sit on the sidelines while the money is split up.  Lots of people have already forgotten the lockout and moved on.  I'm not like that.  I never really was interested in baseball after their last labor problem.  I can still enjoy a game, but I never have been as invested in.  I have a feeling this lockout (along with #8) will have a similar effect on me.  I rarely check my fantasy lineups.  I only watch games when I'm with my in-laws.  That's pretty bad for a guy whose favorite sport (by far) is football.

COLLEGE FOOTBALL SCANDALS: It seems like scandals have ben a part of college sports for as long as I can remember.  I very clearly recall SMU getting the "death penalty" in football back in the 1980s.  I remember when Florida won the SEC and couldn't take the title.  But this past year seems like it was one of the worst I can remember - not even including #4.  Ohio State sent Jim Tressel packing due to coverups.  USC can't play in a bowl game from numerous issues.  Miami penalized themselves to try to avoid bigger sanctions.  Heisman Trophy winner Cam Newton was surrounded with controversy as he won the national title.  The national title game was jokingly referred to as the battle for which team would earn the right to forfeit the title in five years.  Even my beloved UCF was caught up in recruiting violations all over the place.  Throw in the inappropriate behavior by the Fiesta Bowl officials and the questionable movements by lying head coaches and you have a for a very rotten system.  Of course, that all pales in comparison to the next point.

PENN STATE and SYRACUSE SCANDALS: I wrote about the Penn State Jerry Sandusky scandal when it first surfaced.  And it just seems to get worse.  That is coupled by the accusations that emerged about the Syracuse men's basketball program.  Both schools have many similarities - a small city that is completely wrapped up with the university in question, a long time head coach who seems to transcend other authorities in the area, a long time assistant coach who has almost as much power as the head coach and is shielded by the head coach.  Both are heinous.  Due to the scope and detail of the Penn State case, it is worse.  It seems like just the tip of the iceberg has been discovered, too.  What happened to that D.A. who was investigating and disappeared?  How in the world can Sandusky be so adamant about his innocence?  How many more kids will come forward?  These were two of the "good programs" in college sports.  They didn't deal with the scandals and the negative garbage - or so it seemed.  Instead they were hiding horrific secrets.

NBA PLAYER MOVEMENT:  One of the biggest stories of last year was LeBron James stringing along the people of Cleveland (and New York) before bolting to Miami to join Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh to form a "super team." One of the biggest stories of this year was James choking the Finals as the Heat lost to the Mavericks for the NBA title.  At least, that is the story to average people.  To NBA stars, it showed that James' plan to bolt and partner with his buddies instead of making a career in one city worked.  Remember, this was the FIRST YEAR in Miami.  They didn't even figure out how to make all those egos work until half way through the year.  They will probably run roughshod over the league this year, now that they have had time to work together.  It was like the floodgates opened.  Now, big shot players started to force their owners' hands to allow them to leave for bigger markets.  Carmelo Anthony held Denver hostage until they sent him to New York to partner with Amare Stoudemire.  Deron Williams did the same thing in Utah, ending up in New Jersey.  So, one of the big sticking points in the NBA lockout was finding a way to keep these big name players tied to their teams - even if it was in a small market.  So, what happened?  The agents had figured out a way to circumvent the process before it was even started.  A player could sign for far more money with their current team than any other in free agency.  So, instead of playing out their contract, now these players are forcing trades a year early so they can resign with their dream team.  It is dirty pool.  Chris Paul did it the Hornets.  Then David Stern went completely bananas and voided the trade with NO GOOD CAUSE.  It was perfectly legal.  Stern was just ticked that the players were able to go around the rules so fast.  Now Dwight Howard is about to do it Orlando.  These guys all want to team up and, in effect, create a handful of "super teams."  You'll have superstar jammed teams in Boston, Miami, Chicago, L.A., New York (which includes the Nets now).  Then the other teams will basically be the farm system to the big teams.  It is going to turn into baseball.  The small teams draft and develop talent, get a few years out of those players, and watch them leave to win titles.  As a Magic fan, I detest this.  I know all the fans of big teams love it.  Yet another reason to not care a whit about basketball.

MLB PLAYER MOVEMENT: For years, I have hated how the Yankees, Red Sox, Angels, and Phillies poach big name free agents from the smaller teams.  I have learned to really like the Tampa Bay Rays.  They play in a division with the two richest, most loaded teams in the sport.  Yet, they still make the playoffs on a regular basis.  They have a payroll that is a third as big as the Red Sox, but they eliminated Boston from the playoffs last year.  The problem is, they can't keep up.  The Rays had an amazing team a few years back - one that easily could have won a World Series if it had five years to play together.  But they got one shot.  Then they got poached.  The thing is, those players that flee for bigger paychecks seem to be disappointing more often than not.  Take Carl Crawford.   On Tampa he was the big dog - making all the right plays.  He was a legend.  In Boston, he's getting booed.  He's just another overpaid player who isn't reaching the impossible to reach expectations.  It is the perpetual question for these superstar athletes.  If they stay with their original team, they will become legendary.  But they will probably leave money on the table and may only win one title (or they may never win one).  If they leave, they COULD become one of the biggest stars ever.  Chances are they won't, but they will at least be rich. Look at A-Rod.  If he had stayed in Seattle his whole career, he would have been seen as the greatest of all time.  He probably would have one ring at the end.  Now, though, he is seen as the flagship example of the overpaid athlete.  He's widely mocked and ridiculed.  He still could be the greatest of all time, but no one likes him.  And he still has just one ring.  My hope had been that things would be different with Albert Pujols.  He was so synonymous with the Cardinals.  He is such a nice guy and good model.  I hoped he would be willing to buck the trend.  Instead, he listened to his horrible jerk agent (seriously, go read about that guy) and signed with the Angels.  Now he's just another big name on a big team.  Another owner trying to outspend the rest for a title.  Pujols will be richer.  But he'll never be as loved or legendary as if he had stayed.

COLLEGE CONFERENCE INSANITY: Boise State is in the Big East.  That is all you really need to know to understand just how stupid this whole conference realignment process has been.  It was a mad scramble to consolidate power.  No one wanted to be left out of the big money.  And, like with the lockouts, no one wanted to share.  The big teams don't want to see other teams develop and enter their ranks.  They want to keep the other teams down.  If big schools had their way, they would pare down their own conferences and just have a mega conference with only the elite schools.  Instead, we had a massive reshuffling of the deck.  Syracuse and Pitt are in the ACC?  Nebraska is in the Big 10?  Colorado is in the Pac 12?  Rivalries, histories, allegiances.  All of those went out the window.  All that mattered was getting a piece of the pie.  Texas and Texas A&M aren't in the same conference any more.  Neither are Nebraska and Colorado.  Then the Big East, the weakest and most vulnerable of the BCS conferences, had to find some way to survive.  So they pulled in two Texas teams, one California team, probably one Colorado team, and Boise State.  It was all about getting Boise State.  And for the Broncos - the team with the best record in the nation over the last five years - they got tired of watching the big paydays from their dorm rooms.  So they needed a seat.  As a UCF fan, I'm not going to lie and say I'm not excited to be in the Big East.  I will now get to see a real rivalry with USF develop.  I will be able to watch some of the best college basketball teams in my own backyard.  And I'll have the chance to watch the incredible Boise State Broncos play my Knights.  I just hate the machinations that happened to get things there.  And I realize that for those teams left on the outside looking in, their hope to ever play for something significant is basically dead.

FOOTBALL CONCUSSION PROBLEMS: The concussion issue has been bubbling at the surface for a few years now.  The studies have been out there.  The arguments have been starting.  But it seems like in 2011, things accelerated.  The NFL had enacted measures last year to try to avoid concussions and help players who had suffered them.  But this year we watched as players who obviously had experienced a head trauma go back into the game.  We saw multiple retired players die unexpectedly and under suspicious circumstances.  We also saw college and (especially) high school players get seriously hurt - or even die - from head injuries.  Football has become a sport that is on the verge of improving itself to death.  The rules that were enacted decades ago do not take into account how fast and strong modern players have become.  The human body is not built to take that much damage.  And if we see athletes from the 80s dying due to complications from head injuries, how much worse is it going to be with modern players?  (The same thing goes for professional wrestling.  How many wrestlers have to die in their 40s or start to act completely irrationally before we realize there is a serious problem?)  I have not been able to enjoy football anywhere near as much since I started reading about concussions.  And with every story like Dave Duerson's, I get detached a little bit more.

There were some great sports moments.  But it seemed like this year had more than its share of negative ones:  Dan Whedon dying in a wreck and the Oklahoma State coaches dying in a plane crash, the idiotic riots in Vancouver when they lost the Stanley Cup, the attack by Dodger fans on the Giants fan.  It used to be that sports was an escape from the ugliness of the news.  Instead, it has become just another source of disappointment and stuff I don't want my kids to hear or see.  And I am less and less interested in it.  I think there is a larger divide between sports and the common person.  I can't relate.  I don't understand why it is necessary to squeeze every dollar out of a contract.  Isn't $220 million enough?  Why does it have to be $250 million?  I don't see how it benefits colleges to screw over other colleges.  I can't understand how you can turn a blind eye to children being abused or players knowingly getting seriously hurt or your own employees suffering.  There are certain qualities I find important in my own life.  And I find that those are less and less represented in the world of sports.  I know there are people out there who will cry, "You are so old fashioned!  You can't impose your values on other people!  Wouldn't you take a higher paying job if you could?!?"  I am old fashioned.  I miss being able to cheer for a player and know they will spend their career with one team.  I believe in loyalty.  I have taken less money (or no money) to work at a place I believed in.  More than anything, I guess my love affair with sports has ended because we just grew apart - like Kim Kardashian and Kris Humphries did.  Sports and I don't want the same things.  We have irreconcilable differences.  It has been this way for a while.  I suppose this year was the one where I couldn't take it any more.  Sports just went too far.  It wasn't one moment; it was a lot of moments.  That's what I'll remember about 2011 when I think of sports.  It was the year it went nuts.

The Death of Sports

I'm not sure exactly when it happened.  It probably was a gradual thing.  But my love for sports is dead.  I came to this realization the other day.  It was sad, but I think I saw it coming.  I have been disappointed with sports for a while now.  This blog has seen its share of my complaints over the years.  I always assumed those were like disagreements between friends - something that could be worked out over time or ignored for the sake of the relationship.  Not any more.  This is a full fledged break up.

I have always loved sports.  Not playing them, mind you.  I loved watching them, reading about them, talking about them.  I never quite went as far as some kids - where they become walking encyclopedias of every little sport fact.  I had friends like that and they annoyed me.  "Hey, you know how many doubles Dale Murphy hit off left handed pitchers on road trips while the moon was in its second phase?"  I liked to follow stuff, know who was leading categories, cheer for my teams.  I had football and baseball cards.  I always watched the playoffs for just about everything - except hockey.  Even as a kid, I always read the Sports Section (and the comics) in the paper.  We got both the morning and evening papers, so I would check to see if there were new stats or transactions.  I loved transactions - trades, injury reports, stuff like that.  [Side Note: Do you remember when there were two different papers?  Was that just a West Palm Beach thing?  I loved it.  The Palm Beach Post came in the morning and The Evening News came at dinner.  It was shocked to find out they were the same company.]  I read Sports Illustrated and Inside Sports.

Sports was one thing my dad and I connected on.  I used to watch football with him on Saturdays and Sundays.  We would watch Atlanta Hawks basketball on Superstation TBS at night.  We avoided Braves games, because we both hated the Braves.  My grandmother was a big fan of them, though.  We always watched the MLB playoffs and World Series.  The Super Bowl was a big deal at our house - as I've mentioned on here before.  So were the Thanksgiving day games and New Year's bowls.  We didn't cheer for the same teams.  In fact, our house was a conglomeration of fan bases that hated each other.  My dad rooted for the Bears, Celtics, and Hurricanes (I don't know who he liked in baseball - he didn't like baseball).  And he hated the Dolphins, Notre Dame, and Braves.  My brother went for the Redskins, Lakers, Expos (they trained in WPB), and USC Trojans.  I was a fan of the Cowboys, Hawks, Yankees, and Georgia Bulldogs.  So we had our share of arguments and loved ridiculing each others' teams.  To this day, I still find it hilarious that Dallas' one win in 1989 was over the Redskins.  Haha.

So I loved sports.  I have blogged on this site 46 times about sports.  On my Darth Fatso site, I blogged about the Super Bowl and how my eating changing affected that event.  I have an entire other blog about my fantasy football league.  (See, I DO spare you from inane writings sometimes.)  But now, I just can't do it any more.  I can't pretend.  I have tried over the years to make it work.  But each sports has, in turn, just done irreparable harm.  What's it called?  Irreconcilable differences.

MLB: Baseball didn't have to do much.  I never really loved the sport.  It was kind of the thing I watched while the real sports were on break.  As I got older, I got less and less interested.  But there were some things about it that were undeniably attractive.  First, the teams trained down in Florida.  This meant that it was easy to get to watch baseball in person.  Second, the tickets were cheap.  If you wanted to go to a Marlins or Rays game (Why would you, when I lived there?), you could do it for under ten bucks.  But, when the 1994-1995 strike happened, that put the sport on life support.  I had put up with work stoppages in other sports and figured you just deal with it.  But this one cancelled the World Series - the only thing of redeeming value in baseball.  I was just about through with them.  I, like many Americans, got sucked back in during the McGwire/Sosa home run race.  As a Yankees fan, I loved their emergence again as a dynasty.  But the final blow came with steroids.  It seemed like nothing good that happened since that strike was real.  Every big name guy was on drugs.  And the Yankees were the worst offending team.  I broke with them after the Mitchell Report fingered TWENTY-SIX players on that team.  I have enjoyed how the Tampa Bay Rays have built their team.  But the way the big money teams raid the small money ones still irks me.  I go entire seasons without watching a game.

NBA: I think the first blow was when Shaq left the Magic.  I really connected with that team while I lived in Orlando.  I went to a few games.  I watched most of them.  My close friends were all Magic fans.  And the team was a good one to like - upstanding guys (for the most part), nice management, lucky lottery picks.  They should have been a dynasty.  But Shaq was a selfish jerk and I realized just how toxic the Orlando media was (and still are - just wait until they shove Howard out of town.  They aren't happy unless they are mad at the Sentinel.)  I had rooted for Jordan and loved watching him play.  I got over the Shaq betrayal and got up for the next Magic run when they signed Grant Hill and T-Mac.  Whoops.  I picked myself back up when they got Dwight Howard and make a title run a few years ago.  But something happened when LeBron James bolted for Miami.  Something broke in the NBA.  It has always been the most selfish of the leagues, when it came to players.  It is the one where one player has the most clout over a team.  One player can make a difference, sell tickets, push a team into the spotlight.  But one player can't do it all.  In one player could have done it, it would have been LeBron.  He tried and almost did it.  But he wasn't strong enough.  And he got tired.  So he bolted to Miami.  (To be fair, we have seen other guys do this too - Garnett, Barkley, Drexler.  James was just the most blatant.)  Since then, Carmelo moped his way out of Denver and Deron Williams griped his way out of Utah.  It was like players realized they truly had the full control now.  I know Dwight Howard is going to leave.  If I was him, I would.  He can't carry that franchise and the management is too stupid to get him help.  Plus, the NBA is headed for a lockout this summer anyway.  I just can't put up with it.

NFL:  This was the heartbreaker.  I always thought I would have the NFL.  They were my favorite sport.  It is the league I am the most invested in.  I've been to more NFL games than any other sport - except maybe UCF football.  I watch the most NFL.  My kids even recognize this.  I handled my transition away from the Cowboys to Tampa and Jax okay.  I even put up with labor issues before.  Free agency?  Okay, we'll deal.  Obnoxiously high prices?  Punk players?  I'll overlook it.  But two things did it for me.  The first was the concussion issue.  I really read a lot about this over the last year.  I was reading the early stuff, too - not just after the NFL started to try to cover their butts.  It is scary.  People are literally killing themselves to play this sport.  And the worst part is how it affecting kids and teens.  The attention is all on the NFL.  They have players dying in their 40s with massive brain damage.  But think about these kids who are playing like their professional idols.  How bad is it going to be for them?!?  I honestly can see a day where football as a whole gets shut down due to safety hazards.  The NFL is walking a dangerous line.  They are addressing the issue without admitting they knew anything was wrong.  What happens when we find out they had access to these studies years ago?  How many lawsuits are going to hit from families of former players?  How will colleges justify offering this sport?  The second fatal problem was the current lockout.  It isn't that the sport is suffering.  As Bill Simmons explained on ESPN the other day, this whole battle is two guys trying to decide how to divvy up an enormous pile of money.   Eight billion dollars are on the table.  And these sides are fighting over who gets what.  Not trying to split up fifty bucks.  EIGHT BILLION DOLLARS.

This gets at the crux of my problem with professional sports.  I know there are other issues at play like medical care for retired players and licensing stuff.  But the real issue is this money pile.  I have a hard time watching that and not getting furious.  Did you know that teachers in Florida are about to go on a merit based pay scale?  These woefully underpaid individuals - the people who we are trusting to educate future generations of adults - are now going to have their income determined by student performance.  BUT, the catch is, this performance is on some stupid wacky unfair standardized test.  The test does not take into account cultural background, learning style, test taking style.  It has no consideration in it for the individual student or class.  Everyone must take the same stupid test.  The instructions for it are actually counterproductive for students to do well on it.  It is geared to auditory learners.  And schools monkey around with the scheduling of it so they have enough time for make up testing due to rampant absences during test week.  So, these teachers who are barely making enough to justify taking this job, are now going to see their pay cut if their students don't do well enough on this test.  Oh, that is in addition to having to pay for supplies and snacks and rewards out of their own pocket. All of this so the state can save some money?!?  And then we have a group of people fighting over EIGHT BILLION DOLLARS while my daughter's excellent superior amazing teacher is wondering if she can afford to keep teaching.  Fury.  And, yes, this is more a problem with society than with sports in general.  But that certainly doesn't mean I have to continue supporting that flawed societal decision.

COLLEGE SPORTS:  My last refuge had been college sports.  I love UCF.  I cheer for their teams and watch their games.  I get excited when they start to do well and realize their potential.  They have started to get some bigger named athletes.  Their recruitment is improving.  Their facilities are top notch. Bowl appearances, bowl wins, national rankings.  It is all finally happening.  So I have something left to hold on to.  Sure, college sports seems dirty at times.  There are recruiting violations all over the place.  Players are getting arrested.  Coaches bail on their teams for bigger pay days.  But those are bigger schools.  UCF doesn't do that.  Ok, fine, they've had their share of players cheating and dying and stuff.  But that was under old leadership.  These new coaches and administrators are clean and above board.  the UCF football team had one of the highest graduation rates in the NCAA - right up there with Stanford and the Ivy League schools.  They had one of the lowest arrest rates.  Good place.  I even started to admire George O'Leary after consecutive winning seasons, reading about the grad rates, and the recruitment.  So what if Ohio State is now shown to be dirty?  So what if we know that in a few years UConn will have to return the title hardware and Auburn will forfeit every game Cam Newton played in?  Who cares if the BCS is so stupid and corrupt that it makes the national title an annual joke.  UCF isn't like that.

Except they are.  After the biggest recruiting year ever at UCF - national praise for both football and basketball classes - the whole thing starts to stink.  Turns out some guy from Chicago that is tied to basketball players is not who he says he is.  He's tied to an agent.  Suddenly UCF's Chicago pipeline is called into question - including how we got Marcus and Jeff Jordan and the big name guys this year.  The top notch QB we signed from Louisville tries to back out of his letter of intent.  O'Leary won't let him.  Things start to look murky.  It was then that I knew that UCF had really hit the big time.  They were dirty just like everyone else.  When I talk about this with my friends, they all say the same thing.  "You know, all the team do it.  They all cheat.  It really comes down to who cheats less and who covers it up better."  So why am I supporting this?  I am teaching my kids to play fair, not lie, not steal, not cheat.  I am trying to make them good citizens who follow the rules.  And then I am supporting an institution that is about who breaks the rules in the least obvious way?

Sports is always about getting an edge.  This drug isn't technically illegal - yet.  Try to squeeze in one more offseason workout.  Text one more recruit ten more times.  Hire this guy to put you in touch with this coach.  Keep it under the table.  Get together with other players to plot out your free agency so you can play together - three years before you are actually a free agent.  The whole thing is dirty.  We have gotten to where we assume everyone is dirty.  Lance Armstrong?  We know he cheated.  The mounds of evidence point to that.  Worse, it points to a massive conspiracy to keep it quiet.  Will you be stunned if he is proven to be a doper?  No, you probably will be to know he wasn't.  Is there a single athlete that would surprise you to be revealed as a user?  Is there a single college team that would be a shock if it came out they cheated?  I know that I risk sounding like a bitter old man, but there was a day when sports pointed us to something good.  It showed us heroes who went above and beyond, who trained their bodies to the peak of human skill.  It gave us lessons on the triumph of the human spirit.  It offered hope to millions who saw it as a way to escape their lives of poverty and desperation.  At times, it unified the country behind powerful community experiences - the World Series after 9/11, the first Monday Night Football game in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina.  Now, though, it is hard to even imagine feeling that way about sports.  In fact, it seems a little silly that we ever attributed such a high place to something like sports.

At this point, the entire industry is ridiculous.  The whole thing is dirty.  It's all about money and power and none of it is about fun or the game.  I have intentionally NOT pushed my kids towards sports.  It used to be that you had kids get into sports to teach them about teamwork and hard work and loyalty and all that good stuff.  Now, I keep them away because I'm afraid of what they'll really learn.  How long before they are pushed to play through an injury, to take some kind of enhancement?  How long before my daughter's life would be taken over by gymnastics practicing?  How many games before my son gets his bell rung and is told to get back out there?  I just don't think I can do it any more.  How bad is my apathy?  The NHL and NBA are both in their playoff runs.  Baseball is in full swing.  And I have spent the last week watching my Burn Notice DVDs and playing Monster Dash on my iPhone instead of watching a single sporting event.  Last night, I checked ESPN.com and saw that the Heat and Bulls were tied with under a minute left in the fourth quarter.  Instead of putting on the game, hoping to see something amazing, I went to bed.  I didn't care at all.  Isn't that what you always hear?  You know a relationship is dead when you don't even fight or argue or scream any more?  You just don't even care?  That's me.  The dashboard of my blog is littered with half written posts griping about sports that I never even finished.  They just get to be "I've already written this.  What's the point."  It's over.  That's not to say the old feelings will never be tapped into again - with some special game or exciting season.  But I don't think it will ever be the same.  I always heard that sports helped to show us the best mankind had to offer.  Honestly, now it merely shows us the worst.  That sounds like a toxic situation to me.  It's time to move on.

Changing Face of Sports

The Super Bowl is coming up in a little over a week.  This is the biggest single sporting event in the country.  Some would argue for March Madness - but that is spread out across weeks.  The Super Bowl is just a mammoth day.  It is treated the same as a holiday.  Stores put on Super Bowl sales - mainly electronics, food, and electronics stores.  Non-sports news devotes significant time to covering it.  It is just huge.  In fact, the hype surrounding the game has basically dwarfed the game.  Rarely does the game itself measure up or carry the same interest as the concept of the game.  Sure, some years like the Patriots/Giants matchup a few years ago and Saints/Colts last year can actually hold our interest.  But, for every game like that there is a Steelers/Seahawks that doesn't.

I've written about the Super Bowl several times on this site.  I've examined how the Super Bowl gains and loses interest based on how many national/regional/local teams are involved.   I've talked about how important the event is to me.  I've even looked at how the Super Bowl contributed to my eating problems over on my Darth Fatso blog.  This year, I wanted to look at the matchup - along with a little on the issue of loyalty in today's sporting world, especially when it comes to the Super Bowl.

For most of the fans of the other 30 NFL teams, you probably don't really care too much about the outcome of this game.  Sure, Browns fans hope the Steelers get annihilated.  The same goes for Vikings and Bears fans with the Packers.  But your average Dolphin fan or Cowboy fan or Rams fan (are there those?) probably doesn't really have a rooting interest.  [If you are gambler, of course that is thrown out the window due your financial interest.]  This year's contest has two very popular teams - ones who have a long history, many Super Bowl wins, a huge national fan base.  They are two of the six or eight truly national teams - franchises that have large groups of fans all over the country.  So, for the NFL, this is a great matchup.  People have a knowledge of the Packers and Steelers.  The game sounds important.  It has a Super Bowl aura about it - unlike something like Jaguars/Seahawks or Chargers/Lions.  Those games don't have the regal sound like this one does.

The really strange thing about this matchup, though, is that it shouldn't work.  Yes, there is a ton of history and everything.  But leagues always are hoping for matchups between big market teams.  You know, the LA and NY and Chicago and Dallas teams.  They want the ratings those teams bring - between their huge population and former residents.  Green Bay and Pittsburgh hardly qualify.  They are "small market" teams.  In every other sport, Pittsburgh is always in danger.  The Pirates are horrible.  The Penguins nearly disappeared a few years ago.  They don't even have an NBA team.  Green Bay is known for freezing weather, cheese, beer, and Brett Favre - and the legacy of an old team.  Basically, the city's entire identity is wrapped up in this team.  Without it, that city is just another Duluth or Lansing - a frigid northern city.

Leagues also want to showcase their super duper megastars.  They want Kobe and LeBron and Jeter involved.  They want Sid the Kid and Peyton/Eli Manning in it at the end.  In today's sports culture, the superstar is more important to the league than the team.  Free agency has seriously eroded team loyalty.  It used to be a team would sign a player and he would play there his whole career.  They went hand in hand. Think of the great players and you immediately think of their team.  Now, though, players jump ship all the time - even the big name guys.  Look at LeBron to see this demonstrated the best.  He should have stayed in Cleveland forever.  Those two should have gone together - with kids growing up as Cavs AND James fans.  Instead, he left for Miami.  Overnight, there were a ton of "Heat Fans."  Team loyalty isn't there.  It's hard.  You get attached to a team, then they trade half the team.  I'm a Magic fan.  I like the way the organization is run.  So I follow the team, and develop a fan relationship with the players.  You get to know them and connect with them.  Then they don't get resigned.  Or the team trades them away and takes on some head case (Arenas).  Shaq is the poster child for this.  Easily one of the ten best players ever - and he's played on SIX teams (and counting).

But the Steelers and Packers aren't jam packed with these stars.  The biggest name is Big Ben Roethlisberger - someone with a seriously damaged reputation.  Aaron Rodgers, while one of the best QBs in the NFL, still isn't a "name" player yet.  Troy Polamalu and Clay Matthews are both stars, but not on the same plane as the big names (Brady, Brees, Manning) - largely because they are on defense.  The rest of the roster is filled with guys doing their jobs without the fanfare.

The thing is, these are actually easy teams to root for.  They are doing things right.  The Packers are not owned by some mega-billionaire software developer or former Russians mobster.  The team is owned by the fans - people who bought shares in it years ago.  How cool is that?  Back when I was a child picking teams, I didn't care about that stuff.  I just hated the Packers because they had ugly colors.  Then they kept messing around with the Cowboys and Bucs.  Now, though, as I get more and more disgusted with the business end of sports - something like the Packers' ownership situation would get me to root for a team like that.  The Steelers are a family-owned team from the old days of the league.  They don't overpay for big name free agents.  Frequently they lose players to other raiding teams (Randel-El, Santonio Holmes).  But they just rebuild and challenge again.  They are loyal to their players and coaches - but they don't tolerate idiocy.  (Proof of that was when they seriously considered cutting Roethlisberger during his scandal this year.)  They have only had three coaches in the last 40 years  (Wha!?!?) - Chuck Noll 1969-1991, Bill Cowher 1992-2006, Mike Tomlin 2007-present.  And, with the way they treat coaches and how well Tomlin has done (and how young he is), he could be there for another thirty years.

The Steelers and Packers both have so many positives.  They have two of the best stadiums in the NFL - legendary Lambeau and the beautiful Heinz Field.  Their uniforms are two of the best in the league.  The Steelers are 6-1 in Super Bowls.  The Packers are 3-1.  Together they hold 20% of all Super Bowl titles. They have likable coaches, players, owners.  And both are located in hard-working cities with hard-working citizens who "deserve" something to rally behind.

This is why I find it so hard to believe an adult can stick with one team their whole life.  It may be different for someone who grows up in an area with a rabid fan base - like New York or Boston (shudder) or St. Louis.  But for most Americans who are trying to pick a team, how do you stay loyal?  Things change over time.  People change.  I don't like the same things I liked as a kid.  Why would I like the same teams?  I used to eat fern leaves and paint from off the chair in our living room.  I don't do that now.  I used to think the Flinstones were the funniest thing ever.  I owned albums by Nelson and Color Me Badd.  I had big round glasses.  Times change.  People change.  I'm older with a family.  I struggle financially and have a hard time having tons of sympathy for "financially strapped billionaires."  Different things are important to me.  When I was younger, something like uniform color or the team having the same name as my street (Georgia Avenue - UGA) could sway things for me.  Now, though, other things matter.

I used to have a complete set of NFL pencils.  They all laid there in a tray - each one painted solid in the team colors, with the team name written in the secondary color.  Later, I got another set with fancier markings - the logos, mascots.  I never used either set.  I just would arrange them in the order that I liked the teams.  Dallas was always first.  Washington was always last (biggest Dallas rivalry, also as a way to tick off my brother - a Redskin fan).  The Dolphins were always second to last - actually last, but the whole brother thing kept them from really going where they deserved.  Things in the middle would change over time.  But the bottom ten or so never changed much.  Washington, Miami, Oakland, Jets, PACKERS, STEELERS, Giants, 49ers, Broncos.  Without fail, those teams were in my bottom tier.  I hated those teams.

So imagine my surprise when I was watching the championship games last weekend.  Jets, Steelers, Packers, Bears.  I couldn't care less about those teams.  The Bears was the only team I never "hated" - largely because my dad was a huge Bears fan.  Yet, I found myself rooting for the Packers and Steelers.  As I thought back, I realized this was not the first time, either.  I remember rooting for Pittsburgh against the Cardinals two years ago and the Seahawks in 2006.  Why was I rooting for the Steelers?!?  And why in the world was I wanted Green Bay to win?  That was a new thing for me.  I realized that my total hatred of them really disappeared when Favre did.  Now, I admired those teams.  I had positive feelings for them.  That can't happen, can it?  If you hate a team, hate it forever.  Sure, if Pittsburgh was playing Jacksonville, I would have been rooting for them all to have their legs fall off.  But in this case, I actually found myself aligning with former enemies.

I've changed.  The league has changed.  Teams have changed.  Things that used to be important aren't now.  I loathe the Cowboys.  They used to be my team.  I had so much Dallas Cowboy stuff.  That was true through college.  But at some point, I just couldn't take them any more.  I got tired of the signing of guys of poor character.  I couldn't stand Jerry Jones and his weasel act.  Their ego and overinflated view of themselves just got to be too much.  Now, they have dropped into that bottom tier.  And a couple other teams have crawled out.  I'm excited for this game.  Either way, a good team will win.  The teams seem to match up well.  It should be a fun watch.  And, of course, the commercials and movie trailers will make up for it if the game is a snoozefest.  I just find it humorous that a matchup that would have sent me to the movie theater a decade ago actually has captured my interest.

The Bizarre Case of Mike Vick

With the NFL playoffs starting this weekend, there is a new rash of articles about whether or not we should be cheering for Mike Vick, quarterback of the Philadelphia Eagles.  For those three of you who don't know what this is all about, Vick was the superstar quarterback of the Atlanta Falcons.  Back in 2007, it was shown that Vick was in charge of a dog fighting ring - and was personally involved in the torture and killing of dogs.  He then was sentenced to 23 months in prison.  He served about 18 months of that sentence.  Then he returned to the NFL.  His first stint was as a backup and "wildcat" quarterback for the Eagles.  This year, though, he worked his way into the starting job.  And, over the course of this year, he has frequently shown the brilliance he used to exhibit, with a more mature temperament.  The Eagles won the NFC East and are a scary playoff team.

Back in 2007, there was much uproar about Vick's wrongdoings.  People came up with all sorts of suggestions for him.  They wanted him stripped of endorsements (which happened), penalized for his signing bonus (also happened), banned for life from the NFL (didn't happen), and beaten and treated like a fighting dog (uh, I don't think this happened).  Shoot, even I weighed in on the issue with this Pulitzer Prize winning post.  I went back and read it and the following quote stood out from all of the other stellar points:

My hope is that Vick and his buddies get a fast fair trial (supposedly in October). I hope that if they are truly involved in this, they are found guilty. And if they are, I want them to get the maximum sentence (six years in prison, huge butt fine). And then I want Mike Vick to be stripped of every endorsement he has. I want him to be banned from football for life. I want Nike and Powerade and the Falcons to sue him to get back signing bonuses and contract money. And then I want THAT to be the precedent for the other NFL athletes who decide to get involved in despicable actions. That would send a nice clear message.

It was a pretty high and mighty position to take.  But, what happens when Vick does something we don't expect?  Instead of remaining that arrogant evil supervillain we all had gotten used to seeing, he actually seemed to change.  He was a backup.  He supported the started. He said all the right things - and seemed to really genuinely mean them.  He created Public Service Announcements speaking out against dog fighting.  He made donations to help protect animals.  He has openly stated in interviews that he was wrong.  And it wasn't that simpering apology we are used to with stars.  He was explicit in stating his wrongness.  He has apologized.  He served his time.  He worked his way back up to the top.  And, when he got a second chance, he seized it.

Normally, we here in America are complete suckers for a comeback story. We love it when a player hits bottom and then scrapes their way to the top again. Shoot, we don't just feel that way about athletes - we feel that about all kinds of people. Robert Downey Jr, Mickey Rourke, and Sandra Bullock are all examples of this. They were down professionally, and then we embraced them once they finally got their talent to match their opportunities - while not shooting themselves in the foot. Donald Trump went from an egomaniacal billionaire to a bankrupt egomaniacal former billionaire to a beloved egomaniacal billionaire again. George Foreman was more loved on his second run at the heavyweight championship, and turned himself into a multi-million dollar industry.

In sports, we have awards like "Comeback Player of the Year." We celebrate players who can make it back from bad years or injuries. It is part of the sports culture. We do the same thing with teams. Would the Saints have been so supported last year if they had not always stunk and if the city hadn't been underwater? We love stories like that - overcoming the odds to reclaim success. So why is Michael Vick still so hated?

His crimes were heinous. That much is true. Injuring and killing animals is depraved and shows a major moral deficiency. He did his time. He was reinstated. He worked hard to get back in shape - mentally and physically. And he was willing to take a secondary position.  And he still has to deal with booing fans and newspapers running headlines like "Michael Vick: Top Dog." There are still fans who think he never should have been allowed back into the league.

It is bizarre. There are other players who have been suspended and brought back. Few have met the open hostility Vick has. Bret Favre has battled both painkiller and alcohol addiction issues - and scandalous accusations of his sexual impropriety while on the Jets.  Ray Lewis stabbed a man to death (allegedly). Donte Stallworth killed a pedestrian. Jamal Lewis ran a drug ring. Manny Ramirez and multiple others did steroids. And that is not to mention the countless drug using arrests, DWI arrests, domestic abuse arrests, holdouts, and halfheartedly played games. So, why is Michael Vick getting the short end of the stick?

It comes down to the fact that there are two things you can't do in this world - hurt a kid and hurt a dog. Think about it. In the movies, that is how you really know a villain is a SUPER villain. They are willing to hurt a dog. I remember watching Independence Day in the theater when it came out. There was a scene after the aliens started to attack. Fire is boiling down the streets of Manhattan - destroying everything in its path. A small group of people race into an alleyway. Their dog is chasing after them. The whole audience was terrified the dog wasn't going to make it. Now, mind you, like five million PEOPLE had just been crispified. The White House was destroyed. All over the world, complete devastation. But, dang it, if that dog had died, it would have been too much to take.

I think that is the kicker. He hurt dogs. They are cute and innocent. And, according to Vietnamese people, quite tasty. That is not to minimize his crimes. But it is to remember that they were animals. he was sentenced. He did his time. He is allowed to come back. Good for him if he does well. Why should he be denied the opportunity to earn a living? Vick would have been better off running a real life Fight Club or a human trafficking ring than a dog fighting ring. Then, he would have probably already have earned redemption.

As for me, I have changed my view.  I am glad that he was reinstated.  And I am glad for him that he has made the most of his opportunities.  Isn't that what our prison system is supposed to be all about?  Isn't the goal to rehabilitate people?  To teach them the right way to do things?  So, by all accounts of everyone who knows Vick, that happened.  He turned his life around, saw the error of his ways, and made a life change.  Is he supposed to be punished forever?  I don't think that is something that America stands for.  As a Christian, I know that does not mesh with my beliefs.

I don't have a team in the playoffs this year.  My Jaguars choked away their chance (shocking, I know).  The Bucs were kept out of the playoffs by the powerhouse 7-9 Seahawks "earning" a spot.  I have a soft spot for the Saints, because I like Drew Brees and I know Heath Evans - the Saints' fullback.  (Oh, I'm sorry.  I'll pick up that name I dropped.)  And, even though the Patriots are annoying, I am very impressed with how that organization operates.  But I will be cheering for Vick.  I want him to do well and to succeed.  That will give him an even bigger pulpit to speak out and teach others - and to show people that second chances do exist.  I don't like what he did.  But I like what he has become - and what lessons that can teach.