Blog

Tom Brady and the fatal flaw of hubris

August 1, 2015

Tom Brady has lost home-field advantage.

The NFL Players Association had sought to have a union-friendly Minnesota court hear its suit against the NFL over its four-game suspension of Brady. But Judge Richard H. Kyle said, Not so fast. Where’s the jurisdiction?

Uh, precisely. Deflategate took place in Gillette Stadium in Foxboro, Mass. The NFL is headquartered in Manhattan and the union, in Washington D.C. This is an I-95 corridor issue.

As it was, the judge kicked it back to New York where the NFL filed its own suit to validate commish Roger Goodell’s right to suspend Brady. So the NFLPA lost whatever chance it had to have its case for an injunction heard in a receptive venue. The thinking was that Adrian Peterson’s case – he was suspended for taking a switch to his 4-year-old – was overturned in Minnesota. So why not go there? But Peterson plays for the – pause for effect – Minnesota Vikings. And anyway, his case turned not on his being disciplined by the NFL but on his being disciplined twice for the same thing ...

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Russell Wilson ‘Passes the peace’

March 29, 2015

It’s been a quiet offseason thus far for the NFL – particularly given the fireworks of the regular season and playoffs (everything from Ray Rice to Deflategate).

But quiet isn’t necessarily a good thing. The NFL still has to decide what to do with Minnesota Viking Adrian Peterson, who pleaded no contest to taking a switch to his 4-year-old; and Carolina Panther Greg Hardy, who had his conviction for domestic abuse overturned; not to mention Deflategate.

Let me make a bold prediction: Peterson and Hardy will be back, and Deflategate will be swept under the rug, because basically the NFL prefers what Simon and Garfunkel would call “the sound of silence.”

One person who is not remaining silent is Seattle Seahawks’ quarterback Russell Wilson. On The Players’ Tribune site started by Derek Jeter, Wilson, who describes himself as “a recovering bully” despite his “Goody Two Shoes” image, wants to talk about domestic violence and then do something about it. ...

Colin Kaepernick, Roger Goodell and a lack of leadership

December 1, 2014

Am I going to have to hop on a plane for San Fran to straighten out my Niners? Because I gotta tell you, I’m ready, willing and able to do it. They are foundering. Their 19-3 loss to their arch-nemesis, the Seattle Seahawks, on Thanksgiving night proved that the biggest turkey wasn’t the one on the table. Geez, Louise. Although Thanksgiving football is its own curse. Remember the Jets’ game against the Patriots, in which then- Jets’ quarterback Mark Sanchez had his head up some player’s butt?

Sanchez is now part of the winning Philadelphia Eagles. So there’s hope, Colin Kaepernick. If you’re a regular reader of this blog, then you know that I’m a huge fan of the 49ers’ QB. But I love my favorites with a view. Colin failed to score a touchdown Thanksgiving night after scoring at least one in each of the previous 18 games. He was intercepted twice. Worse, he cemented the notion that he can’t win against his archrivals, can’t close the big game, with the Hawks looming again on the schedule.

The wrap here is that he’s making too slow a transition from being a galvanizing running QB to a traditional pocket passer. Transitions take time. But in the meantime, he needs to become more of a traditional team leader. Don’t wait to be told to address the team before the game. Speak up. Lead by word as well as deed.

This isn’t a hopeless situation. It’s a work in progress and I believe progress and success will be the end result. ...

Adrian Peterson gets his day in (NFL) court

November 26, 2014

The NFL, which suspended Minnesota Vikings running back Adrian Peterson for the rest of the season for taking a switch to his 4-year-old, will hear his appeal Tuesday, Dec. 2. I must admit that I feel sorry for Peterson. It’s a terrible thing to be deprived of your livelihood, of doing the thing you’re good at, maybe the only thing you’re good at. It’s particularly terrible when you realize that Commissioner Roger Goodell – who seems to be making up punishments as he goes along – came down hard on Peterson, because he initially didn’t come down hard enough on former Baltimore Raven Ray Rice after he cold-cocked his wife in a casino elevator.

Regardless, Peterson did a terrible thing. And the fact that he and his supporters don’t really get that is troubling, not only because it perpetuates childhood violence but because it shows that there is a segment of our society that doesn’t think clearly.

Understand that this is first and foremost about the protection of children, which all of us in society have a hand in. Whether we have children or not, or even like children, we as members of a civilized society have an obligation to see the next generation come to healthy, happy fruition. No one’s trying to mind Peterson’s business. No one’s denying that different cultures have different ideas about child-raising and that traditionally taking a switch to a child in black culture may have been a “cruel if only to be kind” way of keeping a rebellious child from suffering worse at the hands of white authority.

But choices have consequences. And private choices often have public consequences, particularly when you’re famous. ...

Michael Phelps, Adrian Peterson and the money game

November 12, 2014

The roster is set for the U.S. swim team that will take on the world in Kazan, Russia next summer and one name is, of course, conspicuous by its absence.

Michael Phelps is in rehab and serving a six-month suspension from the sport, following his second DUI arrest. His court date has been postponed until Dec. 19.

When Ryan Lochte, who’ll lead the American men at the world championships, said Phelps’ DUI “sucked” for swimming, this is what he meant. Of course, this is an opportunity for other swimmers to step up on the blocks and shine. But there’s no question, too, that the team would’ve been stronger with him than without him, and his arrest throws into jeopardy his competing in the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janiero, because it’s all about the build-up of training.

Yes, yes, yes, of course, there are more important considerations here, like addiction, like the possibility of a drunk driver killing or injuring someone. But those concerns are somehow buffeted by the games men play when elite athletes are concerned. ...

The NFL, Colin Kaepernick and the R-word

October 21, 2014

Well, thank God Peyton Manning and the Denver Broncos beat Colin Kaepernick and the San Francisco 49ers on “Sunday Night Football,” with Manning breaking Brett Favre’s record for most touchdowns thrown (508). All’s right with the universe – the universe that sees Colin Kaepernick as such a threat, that is.

All last week we had to hear how Manning, legend, is an elite pocket passer who knows how to read the field when he throws to receivers while Kaepernick, overrated upstart, is a hybrid QB – part running back, part major league pitcher – who may be excitingly unpredictable and talented enough but no Manning.

That may very well be the case, but what grates is that the argument seems to extend beyond football to the realm of the personal where race and sexuality intersect.

Let’s stay with football for a moment, shall we? In three seasons thus far, Kaepernick has put up numbers comparable to the first three seasons of the Niners’ last great quarterback, Steve Young, who was also a running QB. Indeed, Kap was about the only one who kept his injury-riddled team on the field at all in the abysmal 43-17 loss to the Broncos. So he’s the real deal.

But he’s not the real deal in a traditional way. He’s a QB who’s a brilliant runner in a sport where “running quarterback” is code for “black” (Michael Vick, Russell Wilson, Robert Griffin III, Cam Newton) and “elite pocket passer” is code for “white” (both Mannings, Peyton and Eli, Tom Brady, Aaron Rodgers, etc.) ...

On the field, without a playbook

September 19, 2014

It’s getting harder and harder to tell the proverbial players without a scorecard in the NFL as the rules keep changing daily, the scandal widens and the hits (to those off the field) keep coming.

First Adrian Peterson (running back, Minnesota Vikings, felony child abuse charge) was deactivated, then reactivated and now he’s on something called Commissioner Roger Goodell’s permission/exempt list, which sounds like a good thing but is a good/bad thing, because he can’t play (altogether now, awwww!) yet still gets paid, which, as we know, is the most important thing.

Joining Peterson in the lucrative timeout corner is Greg Hardy (Carolina Panthers, defensive end, appealing a conviction of domestic abuse). Will Jonathan Dwyer (Arizona Cardinals, running back, charged with aggravated assault involving his wife and toddler) be far behind? For now he’s been deactivated, but, as we’ve seen, anything can happen. ...