While at a campaign event in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Republican Presidential front-runner Donald Trump confused the crowd of 8,000 by suggesting to bring Joe Paterno back.
Many mock Trump's entreaty, implying that the Manhattan mogul did not know that the legendary former Penn State football coach had been dead for nearly four years, after being ousted in the wake of the Assistant Coach Sandusky pedophilia scandal. What was more likely is that Trump was referring to the statue of Paterno, which was unceremoniously removed from exterior of Beaver Stadium in University Park. What was remarkable was how disjointed and desultory that Donald Trump sounded even when reading from prepared remarks. In addition, Trump types are proud that their leader would be beholden to no special interest. Yet the pathetic Paterno pleading before Keystone voters right before the Pennsylvania primary belies that brag.
Controversy has long surrounded what to call the Denver Bronco's home. Many fans wanted to continue to call the new stadium "Mile High" since it was immediately adjacent to the old complex. But the facility was mostly paid for by local taxpayers and officials wanted to re-cooperate some monies from the big business of sports so naming rights were sold.
When the Bronco's new home was inaugurated in 2001, it was officially known as Invesco Field at Mile High. The Denver Post did not want to include corporate advertising in their sports coverage, so they would just call it "Mile High Field". After several years, the local newspaper relented and included the Invesco name. Nevertheless, Investco transferred the naming rights to the stadium to the Sports Authority in 2011, with the Sports Authority paying the Metropolitan Stadium District $6 million a year. Things may change with the Sports Authority in the process of Chapter 11 bankruptcy. If the Sports Authority is unable to pony up their payment, naming rights may be up for grabs. On April 1st, the news broke that one of the earnest aspirants to buy naming rights is a Colorado cannabis dispensary, Native Roots.
As apropos as it may seem to have a marijuana dispensary label slapped on the "Mile High" complex, it may be mooted by federal law. The federal government considers marijuana a Schedule 1 Controlled Substance under the Controlled Substances Act (84 Stat. 1236), thus advertising would be prohibited. Even though states such as Colorado and Washington (and the District of Calamity) have loosened laws prohibiting recreational use of cannabis, federal laws are still on the books. State laws also put limits on the outdoor advertising of medical marijuana. Additionally, the NFL Commissioner Roger Goddell has reaffirmed a League policy which bans marijuana . Considering how the NFL has a reputation problem with so many athletes getting into trouble that it has been facetiously called "The National Felons League" that it is dubious if the league wants to further agitate straight laced fans by having a stadium named the Native Roots Field at Mile High.
The NFC divisional playoff game between the Green Bay Packers and the Arizona Cardinals was marred by a botched overtime coin toss.
After the referee first tossed the coin, it appeared that the Packers won it as they had called heads. The ref then voided the first toss as the coin had not flipped. On the second attempt, the coin landed tails and the Cardinals took the ball.
Arizona won the game 26-20 in overtime. The Cardinals will be traveling the Charlotte to take on the Carolina Panthers.
During the annual Army Navy game, the Midshipmen will be donning their alternate uniform helmets which are replete with meaning. Each of the seven types of hand painted helmets depict the player's position.
• Linebacker: Cruiser- Provides anti-air defense and packs the biggest punch of Naval surface ships representative of the linebackers on the Navy football team.
• Defensive Back: Destroyer- Known for significant fire power, speed, and anti-missile defense as are Navy's defensive backs.
• Wide Receiver: Submarine- Predominantly utilized as blockers, wide receivers play a key role in driving the Navy rush attack, taking on a stealth-like persona as they blend into the rhythm of the offense but bring significant fire power when called upon, just like a Naval submarine.
• Lineman: Amphibious Assault Ships- Just as a lineman's job is the create a hole for a running back or linebacker, these ships are utilized to establish the "beach head" that enables the invading force to gain access and ultimately accomplish their objective.
• Quarterback: Aircraft Carrier- The QB of the Naval Fleet, the aircraft carrier is the ultimate decision maker; the "quick strike" weapon of the Naval fleet.
• Running Back: Littoral Combat Ship- Like running backs, these fast and nimble ships can navigate through both crowded shallow and deep waters.
• Kicker/Special Teams: Minesweeper- Much like the specific task of the Navy special teams, this small ship has a unique mission of identifying and eliminating mines.
In addition, the rally cry "Damn the torpedoes!" from Admiral Farragut's victory in the Battle of Mobile Bay in 1864 is featured on the player's gloves.
The annual Army-Navy game is the last game of the college football regular season. It is an over a century old rivalry between two military academies.
During the first half of the 20th Century, the Navy Midshipmen and the Army Black Knights were in contention for the national championships. However, nowadays the five year commitments which academy athletes make to their armed service makes professional sports players about as rare as a rocking horse's manure. Yet players give their all for this annual match-up. They are inspired to go the extra mile.
Joe Martel III is a 14 year old freshman who made the Beggs (Oklahoma) High School Golden Demons football team. What makes him unique is that Martel is a double amputee. Martel was born without shin bone. To treat the tibal hemimelia, Martel's legs were amputated at age 1 1/2.
However Martel has never let a couple of missing limbs keep him from his love of sports, especially football. As a pee-wee player, Martel would put Koosies on his stumps as padding while out on the field. When playing games, Martel can put on prosthetic limbs, but in practice, particularly when rushing up and down the stands, he hurls himself up bleachers without them.
Martel's Football coach Lee Blankenship rightly points to Martel's example, not only for overcoming his handicap, but for his work ethic and positive attitude.
So often sports can be diminished into statistics or win-loss records. Joe Martel III highlights how determination, drive and disposition can be inspirational.
To illustrate how Republican Congressional Leadership is acting like the Surrender Caucus in allowing full funding for President Obama's unwise and extra-constitutional actions with Obamacare, Executive Amnesty and the Iran Nuke Deal, Senator Cruz resorted to a football analogy.
Senator Cruz has not endeared himself with his colleagues for calling them out on show votes which are meaningless but letting government growth legislation pass without objection. But if Cruz can successfully convey this Congressional Kabuki show to primary voters, he may score with frustrated populists, Tea Party Conservatives and RON Paulesque "conservatarians".
After representing the Minnesota Vikings since 1994 by entertaining fans at home games, Joe Juranitch found himself at home on game day. However, his forlorn Facebook posting was more than a bit disingenuous. The human mascot who used to ride a purple motorcycle to lead the Vikings out on the field was cut because his danegeld was too outrageous.
Danegeld was a tribute payment by the English and French from the nineth to eleventh century AD to prevent marauding by Vikings. In Juranitch's case, he wanted a 2100% increase. Last year, "Ragnar" was paid $1,500 a game. In Juranitch's renegotiation, he wanted a cool $20,000 a GAME with a 10 year contract. This avaricious offer killed the golden goose.
That would have meant that over the period of the contract, Juranitch would be paid $1.6 million (or $2 million if it included preseason) for being on the sidelines for 90 games. Nice work if you can get it.
Well, the Vikings already had a kid friendly mascot Viktor the Viking. And the team might want to watch their expenses as they are footing $551 million of the $1.061 billion U.S. Bank stadium which will be ready in 2016.
There is a fan based petition drive with 10,000 people in order to reinstate Ragnar to his former place on the sidelines. But I suspect that "Ragnar" will have more time to snowtube during his free weekends in Minnesocold.
While there is nothing new about Welles Remy Crowther's aphorism from his high school yearbook, the way that he put the maxim into action in his life was remarkable.
Welles Crowther was a lacrosse player in secondary school in Nyack New York and later for Boston College's varsity team. Crowther was associated with always wearing a red bandanna, a penchant he acquired as a child. Due to his smaller stature, Crowther was physically overmatched by his competitors, but made it up with enthusiasm and teamwork.
Off the field, Crowther also embodied the heart of a servant. Crowther joined the volunteer Fire Department at age 16. Even after landing a job as a equities trader, Crowther expressed an interest in changing careers to join the New York City Police. In fact, a partially completed application to the NYFD was eventually found in Crowther's apartment
On September 11, 2001, a 24 year old Welles Crowther was at his office on the 104th Floor of the South Tower of the World Trade Center when the first airplane struck the other building. That horrible event prompted him to put his professional pursuits aside and channel teamwork. Crowther was on the 78th floor Sky Lobby of the South Tower when the second plane struck.
Crowther striped to a t-shirt and wore a red bandanna to cover his nose and mouth. Crowther immediately acted as an impromptu team leader to rally the walking wounded to a functioning stairwell. Survivor Judy Wein remembers hearing: "Anyone who can walk, get up and walk now. Anyone who can perhaps help others, find someone who needs help and then head down." Crowther was seen carrying a woman on his back. He led them down to the 61st floor where they were met by First Responders who got them to a functioning elevator on the 40th floor and the rest of the team escaped the towering inferno.
After escorting people down 16 flights of stairs, Crowther ascended the stairwell again to help more "team mates". Crowther's group of First Responders had the "Jaws of Life" and were prepared to lift debris to help trapped victims. According to survivors, Crowther's remains were found with other firemen who were on the 78th floor Sky Lobby when the South Tower collapsed. Crowther's courage and teamwork may have saved a dozen lives.
Crowther's story might have been lost in the alluvia of fragmented memories of 9/11. But six months after the atrocity, the New York Times published an account from a survivor who remembered a detail about a mysterious man with a red handkerchief organizing a makeshift triage. This red bandanna memory gave Crowther's grieving parents some solace about their son, simultaneously providing closure and confirmation of their son's solid character.
So often, sports can become base, reduced to a boxscore, vexing whether the home team will make the playoffs or speculating about the latest New England Patriots scandal. But sports can be much more than those pedestrian pastimes.
As we reflect on the anniversary of 9/11, Welles Crowther's exemplary life shows the deep values that can be derived by sports. Welles Crowther's dedication to teamwork was cultivated by coaching on the field but was inculcated into his life. Crowther not only thought of others at a tragic time, but was conditioned to rally and help "team mates" at a test match of life.
While the cynical may smirk at the truism that "There is no 'I' in team", Welles put that principle into practice sacrificing his life for the sake of others. Those are the virtues which make sports meaningful.
In the wake of Attorney General Loretta Lynch pulling out a red card on 14 F.I.F.A officials for an alleged World Cup of Corruption, Russian President Vladimir Putin opined that the Americans were offsides.
To answer why the Department of Justice issued a 47 count indictment over F.I.F.A. corruption, it is worth noting that the plots were hatched in the United States and utilized the U.S. banking system. It is wrong to think that the F.I.F.A. case does not affect American politics either. The United States missed out on winning the 2018 World Cup to the Russian Federation's Sochi bid and the out of the box award to Qatar in 2022. The U.S. would be a natural backup in case either the Russian or Qatari bids fall through.
President Obama, fresh off a Florida photo-op in the Everglades for Earth Day, resumed his role as Celebrity in Chief by greeting the New England Patriots on the White House South Lawn in honor of their Super Bowl victory. Mr. Obama must have been warming up for the Nerd Prom (a.k.a. the White House correspondence dinner) as he tried a few jokes that fell flat.
It certainly is friendly banter to wish that Beantown would allow the Windy City to win a championship or two. Joking that Gronk should keep his shirt on seemed like a hip towel snap. But making a Deflate-gate joke falls flat. This photo op was supposed to honor the victory of the Patriots, yet Mr. Obama threw a pick and forced his guests to react nervously.
It is as rare as a rocking horses manure that a campus screening of a Hollywood major motion picture makes the news, much less the sports section, but we live in interesting times. The University of Michigan in Ann Arbor was scheduled to show "The American Sniper", the 2014 highest grossing motion picture about a Navy Seal who served four combat tours . But the "American Sniper" screening was cancelled because of an open letter published by some U of M Muslim students which claimed that the Chris Kyle biopic ab that the film about the decorated Navy Seal was about “a racist who took a disturbing stance on murdering Iraqi civilians.” Aside from that blood liable, the letter worried that American Sniper "not only tolerates but promotes anti-Muslim … rhetoric and sympathizes with a mass killer.”
So what does the University of Michigan, an institute of higher learning which sports the motto: Artes, Scientia, Veritas, do in a civil clash of ideas. The first instinct of the U of M Administration was to censor the controversial. University officials canceled the showing and apologized for potentially making Muslim students feel unsafe. The University planned to show Paddington instead, no joke.
After the Ann Arbor University Administration suffered from widespread derision over the politically correct pusillanimous decision, U of M backpeddled and promised to eventually show "The American Sniper" but only in a "safe space".
So allow for protests and ideological indoctrination afterwards.
Even this University of Michigan equivocation did not score well with incoming Wolverine football coach Jim Harbaugh. Harbaugh took to Twitter to unabashedly show support to Chris Kyle and "The American Sniper". Harbaugh played college football at "The Big House" of U of M before spending 14 seasons in the NFL then coaching in the NFL, including the San Francisco Giants. Haurbaugh's bold proclamation about Wolverine Football gives the impression that he will not countenance safe spaces on the football field.
An early scene from "The American Sniper" depicts a life lesson given to a young Chris Kyle about the three types of persons in the world.
It is clear that Coach Harbaugh emulates a sheepdog. What remains to be seen is if the team which he inherits, which went 5-7 in 2014 (including a Big Ten 3-5 record), are going to transmogrify into Wolverine Sheepdogs or remain collegiate sheep on the sports field?
A better question is what the University of Michigan learns from this episode.
Typically, the Heisman refers to an award given to the outstanding college football player in the United States since 1935. The Heisman Memorial Award trophy is distinct as it is a lost wax process bronze casting design by well known sculptor Frank Eliscu that depicts a skilled and powerful football player, sidestepping and straight-arming his way to a touchdown.
Sculptor Frank Eliscu and the Heisman Trophy
Recently, when former Governor Jeb Bush (R-FL) was interviewed by Hugh Hewitt, the undeclared Republican Presidential hopeful invoked the Heisman when surveying the 2016 political playing field. Jeb Bush was asked about all of chaos in the Middle East which the Obama Administration's foreign policy precipitated (namely Libya, ISIS and an inchoate Arab nuclear arms race). Governor Bush responded that:
"I think she can’t do the Heisman on the first four years of the Obama
foreign policy. She’ll try. I mean, she’s going to, look, this is very
Clintonian, I think, to figure out a way to get out of a mess."
Bush invoked the image of the Heisman stiff arming opposition before striding into the end zone for a score. Certainly, the big bench of talented GOP Presidential candidates will seek to stop Hillary from side stepping opposition blocking her way to the South Lawn of the White House despite screens from the Lamestream Media.
It should be remembered, however, that the Heisman Award is an honor given by sportwriters (journalists) through a beauty contest vote. There is concern about the Heisman curse that designated winners often do not perform well the big game or during their careers in pro football despite the honor and the hype of the Heisman. Certainly, parallels can be made to Hillary's proto Presidential campaign and presumed coronation at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.
Atlanta Falcons fans have had little to cheer about over the last couple of seasons as the team went 3-5 at home during the 2013 and 2014 seasons. The Falcons organization sought to fire up their fans by playing an audio file with fake crowd noise to make it sound louder in the Georgia Dome.
After an investigation by the NFL, it was determined the Falcons faux fan noise was a direct violation of league rules. Falcon's owner and chairman Arthur Blank issued a mea culpa which admitted to the forbidden practice.
The Atlanta Falcons are in the process of constructing the New Atlanta Stadium to replace the Georgia Dome, which has been the Falcon's home since 1992. The NFL ought to ensure that the $1.4 billion pinwheel roof stadium does not have a sound system like Spinal Tap's Nigel Tufnel which "goes to 11" .
Wonder if the First Lady of the Outdoors who stars in the Sportsman's Channel's show "Amazing America with Sarah Palin" is suggesting politically hunting for RINOs with deflated balls.
However, in the run up to the NFC Championship game against the Green Bay Packers, Socialist Alternative Councilwoman Kshama Sawant railed against the restrictiveness nature of Seattle Seahawk season tickets preventing many unprivileged WeHawk fans from seeing the game in person.
Sawart organized some street theater to illustrate the divide between the Seahawk fans have and have nots with a "13th Man Initiative". The socialist rally on Capitol Hill gathered hundreds of blue and lime clad workers chanting "No justice, no beast". During their march to Pioneer Square, protesters carried signs reading "We are the 13" and "12th Man, aka Bequeathed Mode".
“With 3 million people in the Seattle metro area, that’s about 44 people
per seat. After this weekend, the Hawks will have
played 10 home games, or 41 quarters (remember the overtime versus the
Broncos). If you subtract infants and Sounders fans, that comes out
almost perfectly to one quarter per person."
It is a pity that rabble rousers and progressive political animals continue to use sports as a platform for forcing their politics into sports rather than allowing the teams to build unity among the community. Alas the 13th man initiative is the odd men as the are people who can not root for their team without playing victim (for not having tickets), "raising consciences" and politically dividing the Seahawks fan base.
In the fourth quarter of the last game in the regular season between the Detroit Lions and the Green Bay Packers at Lambau Field, Lions Defensive Tackle Ndamukong Suh seems to add injury to insult to the opposing quaterback. As Green Bay Packers QB Aaron Rodgers lay on the turf after being tackled by Suh, Suh seems to take two steps backwards to step on the quarterback's ankle and calf.
Although Fox Sports Commentator Mike Pereira (who previously was an NFL VP of Officiating) was skeptical if Suh's bad steps were intentional, that is not the view of the powers that be in the NFL. Suh was suspended for one game, which happens to be the NFC wild card matchup between the Detroit Lions and the Dallas Cowboys.
It may not have helped Suh's initial cause that his aggressive playing style has caused him $216,875 from four incidents (including one stomping) over his five season pro career. Suh has the right to appeal but they can go to the videotape.
The Lions have not won a playoff game since 1991, when they defeated the Dallas Cowboys. While the Lions have a vaulted defense this season, they may have to make due without Suh.
Suh is a free agent after this season. Will teams be willing to pay be bucks only to have their star tackle unavailable due to league discipline issues?
