DUCK SPEEDER WORSE OFF THAN I THOUGHT & LAWYERS......YOU KNOW I LOVE 'EM
The continuing saga of Oregon cornerback, "leadfoot" Cliff Harris, just becomes more bizarre by the day. Harris was stopped, finally, by the Oregon Highway Patrol after being clocked at 118-MPH in a 65-MPH zone. That ticket will cost Harris $1,148 for traveling at over 100-MPH & an additional $427 for driving on a suspended license. But folks that's just the tip of the iceberg. KEZI-TV in Eugene reported tonight Harris has $8,500 in outstanding traffic violations. No doubt remains why his license has been under suspension for over a year. He was cited 11 different times & by failing to appear in court even once, the judge in each case fined Harris the maximum amount in default. The citations were issued in California & Oregon, I'm guessing it will be a very long time before Harris is allowed to drive, legally that is. For his total disregard of the traffic laws in two states as well as their court systems, Harris was rewarded by Ducks' coach Chip Kelly on Wednesday. The very talented corner & punt returner was slapped with an indefinite suspension. That means Harris will absolutely miss the season opener vs. LSU at the minimum. I expect it will get worse once the school's administration gets involved. There was a clarification about the Hertz Rent-a-Car Harris was driving 118-MPH. It was reported Harris & a fellow player convinced a university employee to rent the car for them, not true. She rented the car for herself & before she turned it in, she gave it to these two geniuses for 2 additional days. She claims Harris told her he would not be driving the car. Jeez, who knew he'd lie?
Mike Florio, of NBC Sports & Pro Football Talk, made a great point tonight. The New England Patriots, 3-time Super Bowl Champs, really need to win again....soon. After the Boston Bruins won game seven of the Stanley Cup Playoffs Wednesday night, Boston's other three teams have won their respective league championships since the Pats beat Philadelphia in 2005's Super Bowl XXXIX. The Red Sox, Celtics & now the Bruins, have all won a championship since February of 2005. Beantown has been en fuego the past 10 years haven't they? Three Super Bowl wins, two World Series Championships, an NBA title & now a Stanley Cup.
Lawyers, you know I love 'em. They just make America a better place to live don't they? Attorneys for the NFL & the players are regularly barred from the negotiation table after disrupting talks repeatedly. They were thrown out Tuesday & remained out during Wednesday's negotiations. I love watching Gloria Allred parade one "victim" after another before TV cameras, telling us why we should care, all the while negotiating book, TV, movie & magazine rights that she splits with her "victimized" clients. I respect defense attorneys who throw allegation after allegation, often without any proof, at juries, hoping something will stick, giving them that golden "reasonable doubt" that gives their clients a walk. Yes, I'm a big fan of lawyers & after a case in San Diego, my respect for the legal profession continues to drop.....if it's possible to get any lower. I read about this case in nine different places & the more I read, the more infuriated I became.
On November 29, 2009, a fan(who will remain nameless) of my beloved Kansas City Chiefs was in San Diego at Qualcomm Stadium for a game. The Chargers were pasting my Chiefs & this fan, who was drunk, decided he'd heard enough from the surrounding Charger fans & proceeded to stand up & begin shouting obscenities at the other fans. He also flipped the bird with both hands. When security arrived, they asked the Chiefs' fan(man it hurts me to say that) to leave peacefully. That wasn't going to happen as he began punching the security guards who had asked him to leave. As one officer got a firm grasp of this clod's arm, he was bitten twice. The man was subdued, arrested & charged with two misdemeanors. For years the NFL has operated under the "Code of Conduct" policy, in fact it's printed on the back of your ticket. Get way out of line & you're going to get tossed, not really the legal description, but you get the message. In fact, I thought everybody got the message. I was wrong, the attorney for this goof convinced a San Diego judge, the Honorable Gale Keneshiro, that his client was exercising his rights under the 1st amendment & should be allowed to curse at anyone, anyplace, anytime. The judge bought the entire argument, going a step further by saying the plaintiff was just defending himself from the security guards attempting to throw him out of Qualcomm Stadium. The plaintiff's attorney, Mary Frances Prevost said "you can't print something on a ticket & call it a contract, it's not enforceable. What if the ticket said you had to dance & do 3 cartwheels when you walk thru the door?" Ahhh, common sense, where art thou? Can we get any more hypothetical? Next week Ms. Prevost will return to Judge Kaneshiro's courtroom in an attempt to get her client's arrest record expunged. After all, he was the victim wasn't he?
San Diego City Attorney Jan Goldsmith, armed with a supporting affidavit from the NFL, will contest Prevost's motion to get the record expunged. Seems reasonable but what's done is done, Judge Kaneshiro has overturned the misdemeanor convictions & now it's all about message. San Diego & the NFL will go to bat trying to keep the peace in stadiums thruout the league. The successful appeal was bad enough, but now if they can erase the arrest record all together, it's like this fool's horrid behavior never happened. He's become the victim, the people he cursed & flipped off, men women & children, have no rights. Can you imagine the precedent this might set? It could allow drunken idiots to rule stadiums & arenas all over this country. How does a security guard react to people behaving in this manner? Do you just leave your children at home, go to the game, have some beers & prepare to fight? Not a pretty thought is it? Whatever happened to the exception to the 1st Amendment, you know, can't yell "fire!" in a crowded theater? Isn't this the same thing? By allowing people to shout obscenities at other fans, flipping them off etc. aren't we inviting some senseless violence? Tho I think Shakespeare went too far when he said "kill all the lawyers" I might be more in favor of beating some sense into a few of them. It might change this abhorrent behavior from many of the parasitical, ambulance chasing, non-stop billing opportunists in our legal community. But I'm just sayin'.
Got a comment? Please leave it here or by email at rich@richsfootballreport.com
Mike Florio, of NBC Sports & Pro Football Talk, made a great point tonight. The New England Patriots, 3-time Super Bowl Champs, really need to win again....soon. After the Boston Bruins won game seven of the Stanley Cup Playoffs Wednesday night, Boston's other three teams have won their respective league championships since the Pats beat Philadelphia in 2005's Super Bowl XXXIX. The Red Sox, Celtics & now the Bruins, have all won a championship since February of 2005. Beantown has been en fuego the past 10 years haven't they? Three Super Bowl wins, two World Series Championships, an NBA title & now a Stanley Cup.
Lawyers, you know I love 'em. They just make America a better place to live don't they? Attorneys for the NFL & the players are regularly barred from the negotiation table after disrupting talks repeatedly. They were thrown out Tuesday & remained out during Wednesday's negotiations. I love watching Gloria Allred parade one "victim" after another before TV cameras, telling us why we should care, all the while negotiating book, TV, movie & magazine rights that she splits with her "victimized" clients. I respect defense attorneys who throw allegation after allegation, often without any proof, at juries, hoping something will stick, giving them that golden "reasonable doubt" that gives their clients a walk. Yes, I'm a big fan of lawyers & after a case in San Diego, my respect for the legal profession continues to drop.....if it's possible to get any lower. I read about this case in nine different places & the more I read, the more infuriated I became.
On November 29, 2009, a fan(who will remain nameless) of my beloved Kansas City Chiefs was in San Diego at Qualcomm Stadium for a game. The Chargers were pasting my Chiefs & this fan, who was drunk, decided he'd heard enough from the surrounding Charger fans & proceeded to stand up & begin shouting obscenities at the other fans. He also flipped the bird with both hands. When security arrived, they asked the Chiefs' fan(man it hurts me to say that) to leave peacefully. That wasn't going to happen as he began punching the security guards who had asked him to leave. As one officer got a firm grasp of this clod's arm, he was bitten twice. The man was subdued, arrested & charged with two misdemeanors. For years the NFL has operated under the "Code of Conduct" policy, in fact it's printed on the back of your ticket. Get way out of line & you're going to get tossed, not really the legal description, but you get the message. In fact, I thought everybody got the message. I was wrong, the attorney for this goof convinced a San Diego judge, the Honorable Gale Keneshiro, that his client was exercising his rights under the 1st amendment & should be allowed to curse at anyone, anyplace, anytime. The judge bought the entire argument, going a step further by saying the plaintiff was just defending himself from the security guards attempting to throw him out of Qualcomm Stadium. The plaintiff's attorney, Mary Frances Prevost said "you can't print something on a ticket & call it a contract, it's not enforceable. What if the ticket said you had to dance & do 3 cartwheels when you walk thru the door?" Ahhh, common sense, where art thou? Can we get any more hypothetical? Next week Ms. Prevost will return to Judge Kaneshiro's courtroom in an attempt to get her client's arrest record expunged. After all, he was the victim wasn't he?
San Diego City Attorney Jan Goldsmith, armed with a supporting affidavit from the NFL, will contest Prevost's motion to get the record expunged. Seems reasonable but what's done is done, Judge Kaneshiro has overturned the misdemeanor convictions & now it's all about message. San Diego & the NFL will go to bat trying to keep the peace in stadiums thruout the league. The successful appeal was bad enough, but now if they can erase the arrest record all together, it's like this fool's horrid behavior never happened. He's become the victim, the people he cursed & flipped off, men women & children, have no rights. Can you imagine the precedent this might set? It could allow drunken idiots to rule stadiums & arenas all over this country. How does a security guard react to people behaving in this manner? Do you just leave your children at home, go to the game, have some beers & prepare to fight? Not a pretty thought is it? Whatever happened to the exception to the 1st Amendment, you know, can't yell "fire!" in a crowded theater? Isn't this the same thing? By allowing people to shout obscenities at other fans, flipping them off etc. aren't we inviting some senseless violence? Tho I think Shakespeare went too far when he said "kill all the lawyers" I might be more in favor of beating some sense into a few of them. It might change this abhorrent behavior from many of the parasitical, ambulance chasing, non-stop billing opportunists in our legal community. But I'm just sayin'.
Got a comment? Please leave it here or by email at rich@richsfootballreport.com
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