INTERESTING SOURCES OF JOPLIN RELIEF, NFL COACHES TURN THEIR BACKS ON NFLCA, PRYOR GETS HIS LICENSE BACK & BIG ST. LOUIS SHOWDOWN TODAY
Thankfully for the people of Joplin, relief help is coming from all over the map. Saints' backup quarterback & former Mizzou signal caller Chase Daniel led a contingent of players & coaches along with an 18-wheeler stuffed with relief supplies to the Southern Missouri city. The tractor trailer was filled with flashlights, batteries, first aid supplies, Rubbermaid containers & bottled water. The group planned to help residents search thru destroyed homes for personal effects. Another former Mizzou quarterback, Blaine Gabbert, has created a Facebook page to aid in Joplin relief. He is auctioning off an autographed jerseys from Mizzou & the Jacksonville Jaguars. You may also bid on a golf outing with the rookie quarterback for you & two friends. Several autographed pictures are also on the Facebook page. Buffalo Bills punter Brian Moorman played his college football at Pittsburgh State in Southeastern Kansas, his wife is from Pittsburgh & the two of them have done an admirable job getting a lot of donations. Moorman sold an autographed Bills jersey on eBay & convinced his Buffalo teammates to contribute $10,000. He also got the New Era Sports Apparel company to donate 10,000 new pieces of clothing. The folks in Joplin probably aren't fans of the Boston Bruins, Florida Marlins or Seattle Seahawks, but new clothing is needed for those who have lost everything. The St. Louis Blues finally held a clothing & canned food drive on Tuesday altho I have no idea if the team or it's players kicked in any cash. Still nothing from the St. Louis Cardinals, why not?
The Department of Justice received a rather snide reply from the NCAA in response to their inquiry about the lack of a football playoff for Division I. The sanctioning body simply said "if you have a problem regarding the BCS, you should talk to the BCS, we have nothing to do with bowl games." That's true to some extent, but it still didn't answer why there isn't a playoff system in place. The DOJ informed the folks over at the BCS, they want a 2-day sit-down soon. They requested all of the financial records for the BCS bowl games be brought to the meeting. This could be interesting.
The "Old Ball Coach" Steve Spurrier made a lot of noise yesterday suggesting Division I coaches should pay their players, all 85 on scholarship, the tidy sum of $300 per game. He said the players bring in a lot of money & receive nothing in return, which is right. He quickly recruited six of his fellow SEC coaches to agree with his idea. Alabama's Nick Saban, Mississippi State's Dan Mullen, Florida's Will Muschamp, LSU's Les Miles, Tennessee's Derek Dooley & Old Miss' Houston Nutt chimed in with their approval. Let's do the math shall we? If you pay 85 players $300 per game for 12 games it totals exactly $306,000. Each of the coaches mentioned above receive over $2 million annually, so they could afford it. But what about the Division I coaches who don't make a million per year? How do they compete with the big boys willing to shell out over $300K a year out of their own pockets? What about the women's softball team, track or the wrestling team? They don't have to worry about it, the NCAA will never, ever go for this idea. But it does open some dialogue that might eventually lead to players getting something for their blood, sweat & tears as college athletes.
According to The Kansas City Star, the Chiefs lead the entire league in new ticket sales, "by a significant margin."
Got an email from DirecTV today telling me I wouldn't be billed for my NFL Sunday Ticket until the first game is played. Usually the 6-payment billing began in August. No reduction in cost, just a delay in collecting the money.
Michigan supporters are having a field day with the chaos their arch-rival Ohio State is experiencing. Jim Tressel is out as head coach & he beat the Wolverines 9 times in 10 games. Other potential player suspensions & NCAA sanctions could follow as well. Some entrepreneurs decided they could rub it in the Buckeye's face & make money at the same time. They've created three navy blue t-shirts to do just that. One says "Liar, Liar, Vest on Fire" while the another has a tombstone with Tressel's initials & the date he resigned from the Ohio State program, it is titled "Vest in Peace." The third has the famous script Ohio with the caption "Dotting the i in Liar," referring to the tradition of the marching band recruiting a someone to dot the "i" in script Ohio during halftime. Nice to see these rivals have real compassion for each other in times of trouble, right Todd?
We learned last week that the coaching staff of the Washington Redskins was upset they weren't consulted before the National Football League Coaches Association filed a "friend of the court" brief with the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals. The brief basically sided with the players in their efforts to get the lockout lifted. Day by day coaching staffs from all over the league said they didn't get an opportunity to read the 19-page legal brief before the NFLCA filed it with their names on it. Now we're up to ten coaching staffs reputing the filing. Coaches from the Skins, Saints, Rams, Eagles, Texans, Cowboys, Jets, Bills, Bears & Chiefs have said they wanted no part of the document. Here are a few comments from these coaching staffs:
"The Dallas Cowboy coaching staff did not approve of the brief filed with the 8th circuit by the NFLCA. We did not provide Larry Kennan(NFLCA Pres.)with the authority to file such a brief on our behalf & do not agree with the brief's position."
Tight end coach John Garrett
"We were surprised by the filing & do not support it in any way."
Eagles' head coach Andy Reid
"Our coaching staff didn't approve the contents of the brief filed by the NFLCA. The brief didn't reflect the views of our coaching staff. We support our organization."
Texans' head coach Gary Kubiak
"Not one coach on our staff had any knowledge of this brief before it was filed. We don't support it anyway."
Jaguars' head coach Jack Del Rio
"In talking to each of our guys, there was a great deal of surprise that this was filed on behalf of our coaches."
Chiefs' head coach Todd Haley
Before you start hammering me in an email, it is possible ownership made it clear to their coaching staffs to disavow this legal brief. NFL coaches are the only people still drawing paychecks during this lockout, the owners & players have no revenue other than endorsements. One thing you should remember, NFL assistant coaches don't get long term contracts & many barely make $100K, much less than the players. I've told you repeatedly I'm not rooting for either side in this fight, I just want my NFL Football come August. I had a very bad experience as a member of the teamster's union. They sold out me & a lot of the people I worked with at Pepsi many, many years ago. Working in management in Las Vegas, rumors kept floating about the casino dealers wanting to form a union. I was required to attend multiple "anti-union" meetings run by senior management & their legal hired guns. So I'm not one to side with either of the parties involved in this labor strife, mostly because of my personal experiences.
Federal Judge Arthur Boylan has conducted secret meetings in Chicago the past two days between several NFL owners, DeMaurice Smith & a few players. No lawyers in the room other than Smith. Patriots' owner Robert Kraft said "if we can keep it to small meetings between businessmen & players while making the lawyers stay outside, we might get something done." I think he's right, at least the part about keeping lawyers away from the bargaining table.
Friday will bring the presentations by both sides in front of the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals in St. Louis. Each side will be given 30-minutes to present their case before a 3-judge panel. Then we will wait for 3-4 weeks for their decision. The players are attempting to get the court to agree with Judge Susan Nelson who ruled the blackout should be lifted back on April 27th. The league wants 8th Circuit's stay of the lockout made permanent. After reading the opinions of four appellate scholars, I can tell you, they all believe the NFL is a clear favorite to win a permanent stay. The fact this appeal is being heard by the same three judges who gave the NFL a temporary stay last month doesn't bode well for the players. Here are some of the points they made in their opinions:
1. If the owners win, it could cause immediate dissension among the players.
2. If the owners win, the players have two choices, go along with most of the current sticking points in the negotiations like the 18-game schedule & a rookie wage scale. Their alternative will be to sit out part or all of the 2011 season, forfeiting all pay, medical treatment, seniority & a year closer to being vested in the league's retirement fund.
3. If the players win, the owners will most likely move to sign a new CBA ASAP. They will have to sacrifice one or two of the sticking points in these negotiations.
4. This decision will most likely be the tipping point. Labor negotiations are all about leverage, whoever wins this appeal will have it in spades.
There is an outside chance the current meetings will produce a new CBA. If either side gets an indication of how this appeal will shake out from the questions asked by the judges, that side could pursue an agreement before a decision is reached. I sincerely hope this is what happens, neither side tagged as a loser. With $9-$10 billion to go around in 2011 & even more in the following years, no one wants see money flushed down the drain. They could make a deal very soon or we could be waiting for months. Let's hope for the former.
One last item to address. I get a lot of email here & I've been called a lot of names, you know like "F'n idiot?" I don't let it bother me too much, I understand people are passionate about their football teams & often don't like my opinion. I get that, but tonight I got an email that actually angered me. After reading my posts on the Ohio State mess, a unnamed reader sent me an email that read:
"I'm not an Ohio State fan, in fact I'm a Sooner since birth, but I have to tell you I think you're a racist. You briefly talk about Jim Tressell getting fired & then get very personal about Terrelle Pryor, his mom & their financial business. What F'n right do you have to criticize Pryor or members of his family? You don't know them, you don't live in Columbus, you didn't attend Ohio State, what the hell do you know about this? Just what you've seen on ESPN is my guess, another racist media outlet. This isn't the first time I've noticed your racist tendancies."
First of all, it's tendencies. Spellcheck is a wonderful thing, try it sometime. I spend many long hours every single day scanning over 300 newspapers, websites, blogs & anywhere else I can glean information from which I can bring to you. If I got all my stories from ESPN, I would have zero following, you could see the same stuff on your own. Just tonight I read four legal opinions on the appeal for today. Talk about dry, but I strive to give you the best information I can.
He went on to promise revenge for Mizzou beating OU last year & reminded me the Tigers weren't sh*t compared to the Sooners. What that had to do with me being a racist I don't know. He finished with this:
"Don't bother replying to my email, it's a one-time thing, I'll catch the chickensh*t explanation on your lame-ass blog, if you have the guts to post one."
Chickensh*t???? You have the bravery it takes to send an anonymous email from a fictional email account, accusing me of being a racist & you say I'm chickensh*t?????? This is a all-time low in gutless emails.
You said I "briefly talk about Jim Tressel getting fired?" If you believe that, you haven't read more than a couple of days worth of news here. Every single word of the more than 2.5 million I've written here are in the archives on the left side of this page. Please take the time to read thru some of the many posts I've written about Jim Tressel, you would know I thought he should have been out as the Buckeye coach last fall. I think he's a hypocrite of the worst kind. He preached faith, integrity & honor all the while violating everything he professed to stand for. He did the same thing at Youngstown State, which I've said several times. My beef with Terrelle Pryor has absolutely nothing to do with race. Terrelle Pryor is all about Terrelle Pryor, if you can't see that, you're not looking hard enough or being very honest. I did not blame the university's woes on him, I blamed Tressel, A.D. Gene Smith & compliance officer Doug Archie. Read a few posts, it's there. I said the university would most likely throw him under the bus with Tressel, that's racist? I do believe Pryor to be somewhat of a parasite, a selfish teammate & a young man who has a lot of growing up to do. The only thing I said about his mom is that she bought a car from Aaron Kniffin, which is a fact. Today his mother showed loan papers on the 2007 Nissan 350ZX & Terrelle produced proof of insurance so he could get his license reinstated. Don't you think driving to a team meeting in front of local media knowing all the time you don't have a driver's license shows arrogance or immaturity? Just because I believe he's a knucklehead kid doesn't make me a racist.
The selective misuse of the word racist is rampant right now, am I not allowed to criticize any minorities? I've leveled the same kind of language & criticism at white players, coaches & owners. You haven't read enough here to know it or it helps your argument to ignore the facts. Craig & Adam James, Lane Kiffin, Bo Pelini, Pete Carroll, Jerry Jones, Ben Rothlisberger, Matt Millen, Jay Cutler, Brett Favre, Mike Shanahan, Dan Snyder, Al Davis, Mike Brown, Art Modell, Jim Irsay & many, many more white men have been ripped up one side & down the other on these pages.
Before sending such an uninformed, gutless email, make sure your agenda & the facts are aligned. I'd be careful about calling someone racist or chickensh*t anywhere but on the internet, I doubt you're capable of backing up those bold words in person. I've known a bunch of Sooners over the years & they don't talk sh*t like this. But the Sooners I know don't spend 23 hours a day locked in Mom's basement writing vulgar emails & spankin' it. Have a nice day.
The Department of Justice received a rather snide reply from the NCAA in response to their inquiry about the lack of a football playoff for Division I. The sanctioning body simply said "if you have a problem regarding the BCS, you should talk to the BCS, we have nothing to do with bowl games." That's true to some extent, but it still didn't answer why there isn't a playoff system in place. The DOJ informed the folks over at the BCS, they want a 2-day sit-down soon. They requested all of the financial records for the BCS bowl games be brought to the meeting. This could be interesting.
The "Old Ball Coach" Steve Spurrier made a lot of noise yesterday suggesting Division I coaches should pay their players, all 85 on scholarship, the tidy sum of $300 per game. He said the players bring in a lot of money & receive nothing in return, which is right. He quickly recruited six of his fellow SEC coaches to agree with his idea. Alabama's Nick Saban, Mississippi State's Dan Mullen, Florida's Will Muschamp, LSU's Les Miles, Tennessee's Derek Dooley & Old Miss' Houston Nutt chimed in with their approval. Let's do the math shall we? If you pay 85 players $300 per game for 12 games it totals exactly $306,000. Each of the coaches mentioned above receive over $2 million annually, so they could afford it. But what about the Division I coaches who don't make a million per year? How do they compete with the big boys willing to shell out over $300K a year out of their own pockets? What about the women's softball team, track or the wrestling team? They don't have to worry about it, the NCAA will never, ever go for this idea. But it does open some dialogue that might eventually lead to players getting something for their blood, sweat & tears as college athletes.
According to The Kansas City Star, the Chiefs lead the entire league in new ticket sales, "by a significant margin."
Got an email from DirecTV today telling me I wouldn't be billed for my NFL Sunday Ticket until the first game is played. Usually the 6-payment billing began in August. No reduction in cost, just a delay in collecting the money.
Michigan supporters are having a field day with the chaos their arch-rival Ohio State is experiencing. Jim Tressel is out as head coach & he beat the Wolverines 9 times in 10 games. Other potential player suspensions & NCAA sanctions could follow as well. Some entrepreneurs decided they could rub it in the Buckeye's face & make money at the same time. They've created three navy blue t-shirts to do just that. One says "Liar, Liar, Vest on Fire" while the another has a tombstone with Tressel's initials & the date he resigned from the Ohio State program, it is titled "Vest in Peace." The third has the famous script Ohio with the caption "Dotting the i in Liar," referring to the tradition of the marching band recruiting a someone to dot the "i" in script Ohio during halftime. Nice to see these rivals have real compassion for each other in times of trouble, right Todd?
We learned last week that the coaching staff of the Washington Redskins was upset they weren't consulted before the National Football League Coaches Association filed a "friend of the court" brief with the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals. The brief basically sided with the players in their efforts to get the lockout lifted. Day by day coaching staffs from all over the league said they didn't get an opportunity to read the 19-page legal brief before the NFLCA filed it with their names on it. Now we're up to ten coaching staffs reputing the filing. Coaches from the Skins, Saints, Rams, Eagles, Texans, Cowboys, Jets, Bills, Bears & Chiefs have said they wanted no part of the document. Here are a few comments from these coaching staffs:
"The Dallas Cowboy coaching staff did not approve of the brief filed with the 8th circuit by the NFLCA. We did not provide Larry Kennan(NFLCA Pres.)with the authority to file such a brief on our behalf & do not agree with the brief's position."
Tight end coach John Garrett
"We were surprised by the filing & do not support it in any way."
Eagles' head coach Andy Reid
"Our coaching staff didn't approve the contents of the brief filed by the NFLCA. The brief didn't reflect the views of our coaching staff. We support our organization."
Texans' head coach Gary Kubiak
"Not one coach on our staff had any knowledge of this brief before it was filed. We don't support it anyway."
Jaguars' head coach Jack Del Rio
"In talking to each of our guys, there was a great deal of surprise that this was filed on behalf of our coaches."
Chiefs' head coach Todd Haley
Before you start hammering me in an email, it is possible ownership made it clear to their coaching staffs to disavow this legal brief. NFL coaches are the only people still drawing paychecks during this lockout, the owners & players have no revenue other than endorsements. One thing you should remember, NFL assistant coaches don't get long term contracts & many barely make $100K, much less than the players. I've told you repeatedly I'm not rooting for either side in this fight, I just want my NFL Football come August. I had a very bad experience as a member of the teamster's union. They sold out me & a lot of the people I worked with at Pepsi many, many years ago. Working in management in Las Vegas, rumors kept floating about the casino dealers wanting to form a union. I was required to attend multiple "anti-union" meetings run by senior management & their legal hired guns. So I'm not one to side with either of the parties involved in this labor strife, mostly because of my personal experiences.
Federal Judge Arthur Boylan has conducted secret meetings in Chicago the past two days between several NFL owners, DeMaurice Smith & a few players. No lawyers in the room other than Smith. Patriots' owner Robert Kraft said "if we can keep it to small meetings between businessmen & players while making the lawyers stay outside, we might get something done." I think he's right, at least the part about keeping lawyers away from the bargaining table.
Friday will bring the presentations by both sides in front of the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals in St. Louis. Each side will be given 30-minutes to present their case before a 3-judge panel. Then we will wait for 3-4 weeks for their decision. The players are attempting to get the court to agree with Judge Susan Nelson who ruled the blackout should be lifted back on April 27th. The league wants 8th Circuit's stay of the lockout made permanent. After reading the opinions of four appellate scholars, I can tell you, they all believe the NFL is a clear favorite to win a permanent stay. The fact this appeal is being heard by the same three judges who gave the NFL a temporary stay last month doesn't bode well for the players. Here are some of the points they made in their opinions:
1. If the owners win, it could cause immediate dissension among the players.
2. If the owners win, the players have two choices, go along with most of the current sticking points in the negotiations like the 18-game schedule & a rookie wage scale. Their alternative will be to sit out part or all of the 2011 season, forfeiting all pay, medical treatment, seniority & a year closer to being vested in the league's retirement fund.
3. If the players win, the owners will most likely move to sign a new CBA ASAP. They will have to sacrifice one or two of the sticking points in these negotiations.
4. This decision will most likely be the tipping point. Labor negotiations are all about leverage, whoever wins this appeal will have it in spades.
There is an outside chance the current meetings will produce a new CBA. If either side gets an indication of how this appeal will shake out from the questions asked by the judges, that side could pursue an agreement before a decision is reached. I sincerely hope this is what happens, neither side tagged as a loser. With $9-$10 billion to go around in 2011 & even more in the following years, no one wants see money flushed down the drain. They could make a deal very soon or we could be waiting for months. Let's hope for the former.
One last item to address. I get a lot of email here & I've been called a lot of names, you know like "F'n idiot?" I don't let it bother me too much, I understand people are passionate about their football teams & often don't like my opinion. I get that, but tonight I got an email that actually angered me. After reading my posts on the Ohio State mess, a unnamed reader sent me an email that read:
"I'm not an Ohio State fan, in fact I'm a Sooner since birth, but I have to tell you I think you're a racist. You briefly talk about Jim Tressell getting fired & then get very personal about Terrelle Pryor, his mom & their financial business. What F'n right do you have to criticize Pryor or members of his family? You don't know them, you don't live in Columbus, you didn't attend Ohio State, what the hell do you know about this? Just what you've seen on ESPN is my guess, another racist media outlet. This isn't the first time I've noticed your racist tendancies."
First of all, it's tendencies. Spellcheck is a wonderful thing, try it sometime. I spend many long hours every single day scanning over 300 newspapers, websites, blogs & anywhere else I can glean information from which I can bring to you. If I got all my stories from ESPN, I would have zero following, you could see the same stuff on your own. Just tonight I read four legal opinions on the appeal for today. Talk about dry, but I strive to give you the best information I can.
He went on to promise revenge for Mizzou beating OU last year & reminded me the Tigers weren't sh*t compared to the Sooners. What that had to do with me being a racist I don't know. He finished with this:
"Don't bother replying to my email, it's a one-time thing, I'll catch the chickensh*t explanation on your lame-ass blog, if you have the guts to post one."
Chickensh*t???? You have the bravery it takes to send an anonymous email from a fictional email account, accusing me of being a racist & you say I'm chickensh*t?????? This is a all-time low in gutless emails.
You said I "briefly talk about Jim Tressel getting fired?" If you believe that, you haven't read more than a couple of days worth of news here. Every single word of the more than 2.5 million I've written here are in the archives on the left side of this page. Please take the time to read thru some of the many posts I've written about Jim Tressel, you would know I thought he should have been out as the Buckeye coach last fall. I think he's a hypocrite of the worst kind. He preached faith, integrity & honor all the while violating everything he professed to stand for. He did the same thing at Youngstown State, which I've said several times. My beef with Terrelle Pryor has absolutely nothing to do with race. Terrelle Pryor is all about Terrelle Pryor, if you can't see that, you're not looking hard enough or being very honest. I did not blame the university's woes on him, I blamed Tressel, A.D. Gene Smith & compliance officer Doug Archie. Read a few posts, it's there. I said the university would most likely throw him under the bus with Tressel, that's racist? I do believe Pryor to be somewhat of a parasite, a selfish teammate & a young man who has a lot of growing up to do. The only thing I said about his mom is that she bought a car from Aaron Kniffin, which is a fact. Today his mother showed loan papers on the 2007 Nissan 350ZX & Terrelle produced proof of insurance so he could get his license reinstated. Don't you think driving to a team meeting in front of local media knowing all the time you don't have a driver's license shows arrogance or immaturity? Just because I believe he's a knucklehead kid doesn't make me a racist.
The selective misuse of the word racist is rampant right now, am I not allowed to criticize any minorities? I've leveled the same kind of language & criticism at white players, coaches & owners. You haven't read enough here to know it or it helps your argument to ignore the facts. Craig & Adam James, Lane Kiffin, Bo Pelini, Pete Carroll, Jerry Jones, Ben Rothlisberger, Matt Millen, Jay Cutler, Brett Favre, Mike Shanahan, Dan Snyder, Al Davis, Mike Brown, Art Modell, Jim Irsay & many, many more white men have been ripped up one side & down the other on these pages.
Before sending such an uninformed, gutless email, make sure your agenda & the facts are aligned. I'd be careful about calling someone racist or chickensh*t anywhere but on the internet, I doubt you're capable of backing up those bold words in person. I've known a bunch of Sooners over the years & they don't talk sh*t like this. But the Sooners I know don't spend 23 hours a day locked in Mom's basement writing vulgar emails & spankin' it. Have a nice day.
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