Everyone's Concerned About Kevin Ware Except Jason Whitlock

Louisville's Kevin Ware suffered probably the most gruesome leg injury in sports history. With less than seven minutes left in the first half, he landed on his foot with such force his leg buckled in several places, resulting in a 10-minute delay as medical personnel tended to him. CBS only showed the replay twice out of respect (SI.com), and everyone showed concern for a young college player who's career could possibly be over. Well, everyone but Jason Whitlock.
Whitlock made his name after being fired from ESPN's Page 2 for calling out Scoop Jackson and Stephen A. Smith,  then promoting himself as someone who doesn't fall into the usual mountain-out-of-a-molehill "journalism" that most other sports writers do. But last fall, he wrote a rushed article about gun control only hours after Jovan Belcher's murder/suicide and before any facts were out, and played the "slave" card with Bill O'Reilly (comments he would've criticized Jackson and Smith over). And he has since followed up with this tweet.

Yeah, because playing through it is not what players do, nor did they play their hearts out to get to Ware's hometown.

Marshall Henderson Goes Out Stone Cold Style

Ole Miss' Marshall Henderson flips the double bird following the loss to LaSalle on Sunday. From NBC's CollegeBasketballTalk.

Is A Current NFL Player About To Come Out?

Former NFLer Wade Davis, who came out in retirement.

Possibly, according to CBS Sports' Mike Freeman, who's been having conversations with current and former players. "I'm told that a current gay NFL player is strongly considering coming out publicly within the next few months -- and after doing so, the player would attempt to continue his career." Although Freeman has not heard a name, he has heard the players concern is not with the locker room, but with NFL fans.

Read more at CBSSports.com.

Image coutesy NBCSports.com.

Towson's Title IX Dump Comes Up Again

Following the axing of baseball and men's soccer at Towson University, the Governor and Comptroller for Maryland have halted construction related to a $25m adjunct campus (Baltimore Sun). Besides the rapid decision, they're not happy that the school president made her announcement flanked by campus police. That, and the issue of Title IX and budget concerns still are a controversy, as Towson is about to open a $62m basketball arena.
Again, the issue of Title IX being used as a scapegoat rears it's ugly head. After dropping baseball and men's soccer, Towson added men's tennis so that they could maintain the minimum number of sports required to stay in D-1. According to the New York Times, Vermont's baseball program cost $600k in 2009. According to a report by the National Women's Law Center, Rutgers cut men's tennis at a budget of $175k in 2006. $175k was also the amount the school spends on hotel rooms for it's football program - for six home games in a on-campus stadium. They also note that on average 80% of FBS budgets are spent on football and men's basketball. And the average losing football program averages $3m in losses, and men's basketball teams are almost $1m in the red.

Inspirational Pregame Hockey Speech

Read more at Puck Daddy.

Louie Anderson's Splash

Deadspin captured Anderson's dive from Splash this evening in Gif form, honestly the only reason anyone would've tuned in tonight.

Royce White Still Thinks He Is Being Discriminated Against

NBA Draft pick Royce White made noise months ago refusing to be sent to the D-League because he suffers from anxiety. Now Royce White thinks the entire NBA is out to get him.

If I was to make an educated guess, I would guess that Adam Silver and David Stern and the Rockets organization, some other owners in the league, GMs, want me gone. And why do they want me gone? Because business is about convenience, not about doing what's necessary. It's about cutting overhead.

Because the fact he's put up 10-5-3 in 26 minutes in 12 starts for the NBDL Rio Grande Valley Vipers shows he's ready for the NBA.

Read more at CBSSports.
Image courtesy House of Highlights.

Big Ten Announces If College Pays, It Will Take Its Ball And Go Home

Big Ten (or the idiotic B1G) Commissioner Jim Delany told SI's Andy Staples that if the Ed O'Bannon case results in colleges and the NCAA having to share revenues with the players, the Big Ten will drop to DIII.
Read more at SI.com.
Image courtesy Verenetta Walker.

Big East Leads NCAA Tournament In Teams, Will Not Exist Next Year

Although there will be a Big East next year, the original Big East goes out with the most teams in the tourney with 8. The Big Ten (or B1G) are next with seven. The Big East, founded for it's basketball, will be killed off for football money.
Read more at NBC Sports.
Image courtesy CBS Sports.

There's No Pleasing Those News Reporters

Either anyone going to trial did a horrible thing, or two rapists being convicted is a horrible thing. Either way, you gotta find something to be outraged about, because ratings. Embrace debate!

Reno Saccoccia Still Has A Job

Deadspin has a detailed piece about the Steubenville Big Red coach still collecting a paycheck despite having two players convicted of rape, possible knowledge of the event, and future criminal charges pending.

Time Magazine Has Found The True Villian In Steubenville: Seth MacFarlane

Yes, Time magazine thinks it's Family Guy and jokes about rape that led to a girl being raped in Steubenville. Because a rape by football players has nothing to do with football, nothing whatsoever.

Read more at Time.
Image courtesy Seth MacFarlane's Twitter.

Ray Lewis, Twitter, and Steubenville: Internet Outrage By The Numbers

If you follow anyone sports related on Twitter, you probably learned Ray Lewis officially announced his signing with ESPN Wednesday. You may have found out because that person probably referenced the 2000 Atlanta murder case which saw Lewis plead guilty to Obstruction of Justice. Many feel Lewis was more involved than claimed, so when Lewis retired at the start of January, many felt compelled to bring up the thirteen-year old case.
So how many tweets have there been about Ray Lewis as compared to other recent sports cases, such as Lizzy Seeberg or the Steubenville rape case? Well, by using Topsy, a search engine for tweets that allows you to look up keywords in a select time frame, we can find out.

Terms for Ray Lewis include his name combined with murder, kill/killed/killing, stab/stabbed/stabbing, homicide, knife, blood, Atlanta, and victim. Lizzy Seeberg, and her proper name Elizabeth, were used, along with crossing Notre Dame with rape/raped/raping, sexual, and suicide. Also Declan Sullivan, the young man who lost his life in a sissorlift accident filming a Notre Dame practice in 50+ mph winds was searched, as well as Lizzy Seeberg's alleged assailant who will not be named. The Steubenville search was limited to town name and the two suspects. All searches ended at the end of last Wednesday.

Image courtesy TotalProSports.

Ray Lewis

Ray Lewis' retirement was announced on January 2, with 366 tweets referencing the murders. Starting the next day and leading up to The NFL Today, there were 493 tweets referencing the murder. During his last home game in the AFC Wild Card (Noon-5 ET) there were 442 tweets alone. If you factor in the entire month from the day after the retirement announcement (January 3) to the start of the Super Bowl (6 ET on February 3), there were 6,684 tweets, some of which may have cross-referenced the deer antler spray story. During Super Bowl XLVIII, there were 9,689 tweets, from the 6 ET start to 2:00 AM. That's a combined 16,739 tweets from retirement called to retirement made. And when the ESPN announcement came Wednesday, an additional 128 tweets were released referencing Atlanta.

Image courtesy WNST.

Notre Dame

If you count tweets from the start of the BCS Selection Show to the start of the BCS Title Game (Dec. 2-Jan. 7), there were 120 references to Lizzy Seeberg and/or suicide, and 145 tweets referencing rape or something sexual at Notre Dame. Lizzy's alleged attacker was tweeted about 42 times, and Declan Sullivan was mentioned in 178 tweets. That's 485 tweets for basically December, barely more than Ray Lewis murder tweets during the AFC Wild Card game the day before.
And for the title game, from 8 ET to 1 AM, there were 83 tweets about Lizzy Seeberg and/or suicide, 237 about Notre Dame and rape or something sexual, 31 referencing Lizzy's alleged attacker, and 30 referencing Declan Sullivan. When the Manti Te'o story broke January 16, starting at 3 ET, Seeberg or suicide came up 177 times, her attacker twice, rape or something sexual appeared 106 times, and Declan Sullivan was tweeted about 102 times for a total of 387.
Since the start of September 2010 (when Seeberg was alleged to have been raped) she or "Notre Dame Suicide" have been tweeted about 1,071 times, rape or sexual has been referenced to Notre Dame 1,690 times. Since his death on October 27, 2010, Declan Sullivan has been referenced 1,062 times.
For comparison, for the 24 hours after kickoff of the title game, Brent Musberger was tweeted about 2,115 times, 152 referenced both Musberger and Miss Alabama, and Katherine Webb alone was tweeted about 7,899 times. During the time period after the Manti Te'o story, Musberger came up 296, Webb 516, and the name Manti 24,097 times.

Images courtesy Fighting Irish Thomas and Chicago Tribune, and USA Today.

Steubenville Rape Case

Since the August 22 arrest of the two perpetrators in the Steubenville rape case, there have been 16,610 tweets about Steubenville and rape. That's on average 2,300 to 2,700 tweets a month. That's as many tweets for Ray Lewis in January as Steubenville had in almost 7 months. The two perpetrators have been tweeted about 485 times, and their coach Reno Saccoccia 167 times. Since ESPN's Outside the Lines profiled the case Sunday morning, there have been 548 tweets about Steubenville alone, the two suspects 152 times, and Coach Reno only twice.

Image courtesy Toledo Blade.

Conclusion

It's disturbing to think people were more likely to tweet about a 13-year-old murder case than a rape case that's currently going on, or that Reno Saccoccia's name only came up over 160 times a year after Joe Paterno went down to the Jerry Sandusky scandal. Or that the "internet crusader" culture feels more about reminding people of a case that already went through the court system than a case that stalled in an on-campus police investigation, or one that was nearly covered up by local authorities. The question is, is this a matter of celebrity, lazy journalism, or perhaps even racism?

Puddle Hopping

It looks like all fun and games, don't it?

The Don Cherry Tweet-Tale Of The Day

Don Cherry is a legend. A legendary NHL coach and longtime analyst on Hockey Night In Canada, "Grapes" has always set the standard. So why are we surprised that when Don took on Twitter last year, he wasn't going to do it the same way everyone else did? First off, he's admitted he rarely does it himself: he sends his take into a staffer at the CBC who tweets it for him (which is awesome to think he's got a tweeter on call). Second, he doesn't give a shit about your 140 character limit: when Grapes speaks, he takes as long as he needs to. And third, he doesn't limit himself to hockey (which he sometimes doesn't do on "Coach's Corner"). He's touched on subjects from baseball and foreign aid to today's subject: the sad fate of his goldfish, reminding us that on the inside he's just a big softy.

Don't ever change, Don. Don't ever change.
If you want to follow Cherry's stories yourself, you can find min at CoachesCornerCBC on Twitter, and he also has a daily short podcast on Sportsnet 590 in Toronto.

NCAA Wrestler Trashes Medal

Iowa's Matt McDonough took the silver in his class at the Big 10 tournament this weekend. Or finished second, depending on your point of view. And his was "first loser," which is why he chunked his in the trash bin (later discovered by student journalist Sam Louwagie). Oh well, at least he could earn one in the Oly - oh....

Opinion: Who Was Surprised Darrell Waltrip's Corporate?

Some time ago, someone described Darrell Waltrip as the Muhammad Ali of NASCAR. There's a small problem with that analogy. Muhammad Ali was a controversial fighter whose converted to Islam, refused to fight in Vietnam, and spoke openly during the Civil Rights movement. If you've ever seen "Soul Power," Muhammad Ali speaks of those who don't speak about important issues because they don't want to risk financial backlash.
Darrell Waltrip is one of those: he's a guy from Kentucky who invented a brand to go alongside his racing, making a name for himself as a trash talker. And trash talking is about as much as Darrell has in common with Ali; if anything, he's got more to do with Deion Sanders and his longtime marketing schemes. And Neon Deion at one time was trying to sell hot dog cookers like George Foreman grills. Anyone who thought Waltrip would step up and use his platform to support Denny Hamlin was mistaken. Waltrip's corporate; he's not going to rock the boat.
When Waltrip created his inane "Boogity Boogity Boogity" it wasn't soon after the t-shirts and merchandise started selling. When Waltrip discovered a Randy Nicholson was using the "Mr. Boogity" name, he sued, knowing full well Nicholson had the trademark in Canada first but couldn't afford the legal battle. From Maclean's:

Waltrip’s lawyer, Scott Miller of MBM Intellectual Property Law, describes the basic premise of Waltrip’s complaint as, “Hey listen, the only reason this guy even started his store in association with ‘boogity’ is because of me.”

Nicholson, known locally as “Mr. Boogity,” was “a little upset” when told it could cost a minimum $150,000 to fight (complying with the letter has already lost him $8,000)...
... Yet the irony of Waltrip, a blue-collar icon, using his deep pockets against a rural store owner isn’t lost on Nicholson. “Without the country folk, NASCAR wouldn’t be where it is today,” he says. “You don’t see the three-piece-suit-and-tie guy at the race. It’s the blue-collar guy.”

The sad part is that his "analysis" completely makes you forget he was a three-time champion, 84-time race winner, and the 1989 Daytona 500 champion. His credentials to get into the Hall of Fame were a sure ticket, the only thing was it's only five years old now. So when Darrell didn't get in on only the second ever ballot, he visibly sulked on TV, and sure enough Harry Carson-ed his way into the Hall the next year.
Waltrip always said he based his style on Terry Bradshaw's advice of "be yourself." But Bradshaw's country humor and self-deprecating style doesn't take away from his football knowledge, and he was willing to go out on a limb and criticize Cam Newton and Ben Rothelisberger. Waltrip's brand nowadays is bragging about his own career and never laughing at himself, and has completely run over his play-by-play guy more times than you can count. His catchphrases have gotten old and stale, and were wearing thin when he was using them a year in.
Waltrip hasn't even been the best analyst in his time. When the Fox season ended, fans were excited when the late Benny Parsons appeared on screen, everybody's uncle who's knowledge went hand-in-hand with a relaxed but enthusiastic style. Since Parsons' death, a rising star in Kyle Petty has emerged, with abrasive humor and an ability to speak up when he feels drivers - and NASCAR - have missed the mark. And Dale Jarrett has taken his father's place in the broadcast booth, no schtick and using his career and life in the sport as his credentials. Even Rusty Wallace - who openly criticized the Fox brand of doing things - is finding his place in the ESPN studio.
Waltrip's someone who's time came and went briefly in broadcasting. His driving career was amazing, but his career in the booth has been more of a t-shirt salesman than a broadcaster. At the end of the day, Kyle Petty has only 8 wins to Darrell's 84, but the respect he's earned from fans are lopsided the opposite way. It might be nice if Mr. Waltrip noticed that if he truly believes he's the voice of the sport.

Image courtesy All Left Turns.

This Is Why Baseball Players Are Cool

Thanks to the folks at MLB GIFS for this great reminder of why baseball players are so much fun. Even in the middle of an international tournament, Team Italia takes time to have fun with their ball boy. The funniest part is the umpire taking a moment to think if he should say something or keep along with the joke.

Towson Uses The Title IX Card To Kill Baseball And Soccer

Image courtesy NBC.

Towson University finally cut baseball and soccer from it's athletic programs yesterday, after announcing the move last year claiming budget concerns and Title IX (Baltimore Sun). Campaigns from parents and alumni tried to keep the sport going, but even a recount of athletes showing it might actually hindered Title IX numbers couldn't keep the executioner at bay. Towson Baseball will finish off this season, and the team played with black tape over their uniforms yesterday in protest.
Title IX is often used by universities to reroute funds to high-dollar football and basketball (and in some states, just football). The SEC itself only sanctions nine men's sports and twelve women's sports: there is no men's soccer, gymnastics, or volleyball. That means the SEC only sanctions 20 of the 84 NCAA championship sports (the NCAA does not award a championship for FBS [D-1A] football).

Opinion: NASCAR Leadership Failing Fast

Image Courtesy Autoweek.

Since the end of last season, the anticipation of NASCAR's 2013 season was rising fast. A more stock-looking car, more web access, two solid rookie contenders, and a champion whose stark honesty and blue collar roots was a blast from the past. Daytona Speedweeks was such a thrill ride, not even a horrific accident could slow it down.
Now, at the start of the third race weekend, all that momentum has stopped like a car hitting a concrete wall head on. Instead of anticipation over what's to come for the next nine months, we're discussing topics such as censorship and labor relations. And NASCAR has no one to blame but themselves.
It all started inconspicuously when Brad Keselowski, who grew up in the sport, was called to the principal's office for saying NASCAR had to do a better job getting all parties involved in the sport working together. Then the tragic crash in the Nationwide series race when Kyle Larson's car hit the crossover gate in the catchfence. 28 fans injured, 2 critically, and the entire motorsports world held it's breath. When a fan uploaded his video of the horrific accident, NASCAR swooped in and had the video banned. The moved caused outrage itself over this level of censorship, even from YouTube itself. Was the fan inappropriate in uploading the video so quickly without knowing the status of the victims? Probably, but NASCAR can't decide that themselves; when a figure can decide how it has itself viewed, that's a dangerous power to have.

Then after the huge popular success that was the Daytona 500, NASCAR banned Jeremy Clements for "comments" and told no one why. A poor choice, considering without knowing, it led to rampant speculation. And then we all discovered it was something heard between only three people, one being a "journalist" who was a "Guy Code" blogger who works for a network that produces 16 and Pregnant. And now he's suspended, going through a rehab program, as if he was as much a danger as a driver who shot dope before driving 200 MPH. Then came Thursday: Denny Hamlin gets fined for what were completely innocuous comments. He was actually positive, reinforcing that it would take hard work for the car to be competitive.
It goes beyond being thin skinned: NASCAR has now made Mt. Kilimanjaro's out of three molehills, creating controversies where none needed to be. It's a problem that Keselowski hit right on the head: NASCAR has no clear leadership. It was obvious after the Daytona crash: 28 fans injured, 2 critical, and the whole world watching Daytona. When did Mike Helton, Brian France, or Lisa France-Kennedy take a podium and address the situation? Never. When the sport they're in charge off potentially faced it's darkest hour, did they face the onslaught of questioning? No, they trotted out Joie Chitwood and Steve O'Donnell, a competition director and the guy responsible for making sure concessions has enough popcorn. When Clements was banished from the kingdom, when did Mike Helton stand up and explain his sport's position on the topic? Never, and silence ended up causing more harm than any good they hope to achieve. And on Thursday as drivers and media either cried foul or spoke in confusion as to what was illegal speech nowadays, did any of these three come out to explain why NASCAR took such an overreaching action? No, they forced poor Robin Pemberton out to carry the party line; a man who knows exactly what Hamlin was saying, having brought the '98 Ford Taurus up to speed back in his Penske days.
For all those touting the talents of Dana White and what he has done for MMA, remember: Big Bill France was the original Dana White. He saw the potential in his sport, and took control. He made changes to further it's potential, took risks that he felt would make it bigger, and tried to create an atmosphere that helped both drivers and tracks find success in a pastime. When his son took over, he advanced the corporate opportunities. Bill France, Jr., brought in a solid series sponsor, and spread the sport from coast to coast and even dipped into Japan for a while. Brian? He's pissed off fans and gotten more press for DUI's and divorces in only his first ten years. He wasn't even given the presidency: that was given to Mike Helton, who can appear presidential, but does struggle, such as when NBC Sports revealed that NASCAR didn't even require helmets and firesuits six months following Dale Earnhardt's death. And Lisa France-Kennedy now runs the tracks side of the operation, but instead of expansion and growth, ISC has killed off numerous tracks and continues to loose fans and revenue. They bought a popular track in prime real estate in Colorado, then killed it, thinking they could just build another one closer to Denver. They failed, and now Colorado has neither national NASCAR racing or even Pike's Peak International Raceway to fall back on.
The choice to hide in the shadows casts NASCAR's leadership in the worst possible light. Bud Selig, David Stern, and Gary Bettman make a triumbrant of hated commissioners. What if a foul ball hit into the stands, a knocked over basketball goal, or a falling sheet of plexiglass slicing into the front row, were to injure or even kill fans? You can bet any of these three men would stand at the podium and face the music, defend their sport where it needs it and admit what could've been done better. NASCAR didn't even address whether the crossover gate caused the car to disintegrate. They told Steve O'Donnell to address Bob Ley, probably more concerned with making sure James Franco and 50 Cent enjoyed themselves.
Both Bill France's ran their sport in a way that unions were not needed; a refreshing thought as MLB went from the unfair Reserve Clause to self-interested Donald Fehr. But Helton and Brian's NASCAR unfortunately now needs organized labor. There's no guarantee the competitors' needs are met. They're subject to decisions made recklessly, and without any fair process. Teams are forced to spend themselves broke, and drivers forced into start-and-park situations when they wish to compete. SMI and the independent tracks try in vain to keep themselves healthy, as the monopoly that is the ISC-NASCAR marriage does little to help any other track in the sport; actions that contradict Bill Sr.'s goals from the start. And crew members are kept as anonymous as possible, so that they won't earn the high dollar contracts they deserve for their work as cars speed by at interstate speeds. And now with Hamlin's suspension, hopefully drivers take it upon themselves to simply thank their sponsors and leave, and do as little as possible in their obligations to a media that will completely understand. And it's going to be interesting as NASCAR now tries to control sports car racing: those big factory teams aren't going to take to being told what to do, and I doubt the A.C.O. will take orders from an American nepotistic organization that can't even figure out how to build a decent spec car.
NASCAR better consider it's actions as the year unfolds. Gregg Doyel of CBS Sports identified it at the same level as UFC: a niche sport that peaked years ago. But let's be fair: no one doubts Dana White knows what he's doing.

How Weird Is The Music Biz Nowadays?

We now have a remix of "Istanbul, Not Constantinople" by Milan & Phoenix. Yes, really. And it's actually The Four Lads, not They Might Be Giants.

NASCAR Still Has Issues With Things People Say

Video courtesy ESPN.

NASCAR fined Denny Hamlin $25,000 for saying he didn't feel NASCAR's much-hyped "Gen-6" cars were easier to pass with than the last generation following the car's only second race at Phoenix last Sunday. From USA Today:

"This is more like what the Generation 5 was at the beginning. The teams hadn't figured out how to get the aero balance right. Right now, you just run single-file and you cannot get around the guy in front of you. You would have placed me in 20th place with 30 (laps) to go, I would have stayed there -- I wouldn't have moved up. It's just one of those things where track position is everything."

NASCAR claimed the comments "denigrated" the product, and Vice President of Competition Robin Pemberton said the comments crossed a line:

"Constructive criticism is one thing, but there are different statements people make that are damaging. We won't tolerate those types of things."

Hamlin said he refuses to pay the fine, even if NASCAR suspends him. But he also said he's no longer talking about competition; he'll only talk about wins and his 2-month old daughter.

The incident follows a Daytona Speedweeks that saw NASCAR's suspension of Jeremy Clements for using a racial slur that it said was in an interview (although only two people heard it), the pulling of a fan's YouTube video of the grandstand accident at Daytona, and a closed door meeting with defending champ Brad Keselowski after he spoke about how NASCAR needs a closer relationship between tracks, sponsors, and drivers.

It's also not NASCAR's first controversy over it's media and free speech policies:

• Last year, NASCAR refused to allow golfer Bubba Watson to drive a "General Lee" from The Dukes of Hazzard to a track, which he had recently purchased at auction.
• ESPN reporters were not allowed on track property from 2001 to 2006; it was also not allowed to use race footage.
• In 2004, the PTI-knockoff "Pit Bull" on Speed was cancelled after one season, with many saying NASCAR was not happy with it's critical content.
• In October 2004, NASCAR penalized Dale Earnhardt, Jr., 25 championship points for saying "shit" in Victory Lane. 

• In 1999, NASCAR pulled the licenses of two motorcoach drivers over an incident involving one confronting a black motorcoach driver with a sheet over his head like a Klansman. Ray Labbe, who was not wearing the sheet, said in an rpm2night interview he was actually penalized because of a name he called someone at a private party a year before while intoxicated. He claimed to be so intoxicated, he could not remember saying the word, or even apologizing a minute later.

SI Out, Blogs In

For twenty years, the SI brand was included with everything from HBO Sports to CNN. Reporters were on air for the NBA and NASCAR on Turner Sports. CNNSI gave the magazine it's own short-lived sports network. Wednesday, Time Warner announced it will be sending off Sports Illustrated with it's spinoff of Time, Inc., less than seven months after acquiring Bleacher Report.

Read more at Deadspin. 

The Weird But Folksy Face Jugs of Lanier Meaders

There are two aspects of Appalachia that you might find surprising: a long tradition of pottery, and the folk art of face jugs. Lanier Meaders of Cleveland, Georgia, was the second son of a potter, and at age 50 took over the family business in 1967. When a film crew from the Smithsonian came down, they asked for some face jugs that Lanier sold for $2.50.  Demand became so high for his "whimseys," he made over 10,000 of pieces that he honestly wasn't so crazy about. A 1983 NEA National Heritage Fellow, Meaders died in 1998, which is probably why his face jugs are now worth anywhere from $1,000 to $3,000.

FolkPottery.com has a small gallery, or you can see one of his pieces on Antiques Roadshow, or you can just do a simple Google image search.

 Image courtesy PBS.org.

NRA 500 might cost NASCAR drivers their guns

Although the tradition of the race winner putting on a cowboy hat and shooting two six-shooter cap guns will continue for the other race weekends, Texas Motor Speedway might not have the celebration for it's upcoming April weekend. Following Monday's announcement, track president Eddie Gossage said he expects no fallout from the sponsorship, but did say "We have to be sensitive to that, so we'll let the team owner make the call."

Read more at USA Today. 

Regis to Fox Sports?

Fox is expected to announce Tuesday their jump into all-sports cable with Fox Sports 1, which will be a rebranding of Speed (originally a motorsports-based channel whose programming is now limited to "Are You Faster Than A Redneck?" and reruns of "Pimp My Ride"). Among the new shows that Fox will use to take on the ESPN giant? Regis Philbin hosting a new morning show described as "The View" with guys.

Read more at HuffPo.

Student Journalist Tweets False Story From A Message Board

Deadspin has the story of a student journalist who not only used a message board as a source in a false story about Les Miles, but because he used the words "allegedly" and "rumors," thinks he did a good job.

NRA To Sponsor NASCAR Race

Reports are Texas Motor Speedway will announce today their spring race will be sponsored by the NRA. Sports Business Daily reports NASCAR was concerned word would get out during Daytona Speedweeks, when Micheal Waltrip raced a car to raise money for Newtown charities, an idea conceived by NASCAR president Mike Helton.

 

Image Courtesy MySanAntonio.com.

Is Chivas' roster racially motivated?

In 2004, Major League Soccer added Chivas USA in Los Angeles, a team related to the famed Mexican team Chivas del Guadalajara. At the end of last season, the owner of Guadalajara bought out the other shareholders of Chivas USA, and the team immediately started making player moves.  They shipped out 14 players and brought in 11, but only one of the incoming players was not born Mexican or of Mexican decent, compared to only one outgoing player who was. While the club denies the moves are racially motivated, Chivas Guadalajara has had a policy of only playing Mexican players since 1906. Beyond the racial controversy, some see this as a way of using Chivas USA as a farm team, and four players were sent to the L.A. team for more playing time this season. Saturday night, Chivas USA's home opener had an official 7,000, although television pictures looked even worse (for comparison, LA Galaxy's opener in the same stadium the next day had over 20,000).

 

Image courtesy NBC's ProSoccerTalk.

Gary Busey Has A Hobbit's Foot

It's a widely accepted fact that Gary Busey is now nuttier than squirrel shit. But now he has a hobbit's foot, and you don't.

NASCAR Suspends Driver For "Insensitive Remark" That No One Knows About

NASCAR Nationwide driver Jeremy Clements has been suspended indefinitely for violating NASCAR's Code of Conduct policy. Senior VP of Race Operations Steve O'Donnell said "During the course of an interview, Jeremy Clements made an intolerable and insensitive remark," which occurred some time last Saturday. Only problem is, no one knows what he said: it wasn't mentioned in the press release, no one can find an article with it, and Twitter right now is a mix of fans asking reporters what they know and reporters admitting they don't know anything. All that is known is Clements will have to go through some kind of "recovery" program before he can return to the track, which by that time we hopefully will know what was said...

Read more at ESPN.

FAU Owls' Stadium Name Has Become A Controversy

Last Tuesday, Florida-Athletic University sold the naming rights to it's on-campus stadium for $6 million to the GEO Group. The GEO Group, run by CEO George Zoley who earned his bachelor's and master's from FAU, is a company that operates private prisons around the world. If you've been to their Wikipedia page, you'd see they've also gotten a lot of controversies over the years. Unless, of course, you visited the day of the announcement, when the "Controversies" section was replaced with more positive comments with "our" and "we" in the sentences. The changes were first done by an "Abraham Cohen," who just happens to share the name with a GEO spokesperson (who was also at one time an FAU student body president and on the Board of Trustees), and later changes were from an anonymous account with a GEO IP address. The same day, a petition started to remove the name from what was now being nicknamed "Owlcatraz." And Monday, a student group calling themselves the "Stop Owlcatraz Coalition" held a sit-in with 40 students in President Mary Jane Sanders office. Sanders agreed to a one-hour meeting with students this Friday, defending GEO but admitting "I don’t know everything about this company."

Is Manti Gay? The NFL Would Like To Know

According to ProFootballTalk.com's Mike Florio, GM's and coaches were as interested in Manti Te'o's sexuality as his 40-yard dash at this past weekend's combine.

From an interview on The Dan Patrick Show: "Here's the elephant in the room for the teams and it shouldn't matter, but we have to step aside from the rest of reality and walk into the unique industry that is the NFL. Teams want to know whether Manti Te'o is gay. They just want to know. They want to know because in an NFL locker room, it's a different world. It shouldn't be that way."

Florio said the hard part has been figuring out how to ask Manti delicately.

More at CBS Sports.

Full interview on YouTube courtesy The Dan Patrick Show.

Slides for Grown-Ups?

Oh, those crazy Brits and their "football" ideas. Relegation, meat pies, adult playgrounds...

Read more at Sky.com.

What effect does Danica have?

Perhaps a lot, considering the overnight TV figures show Fox got a 10.0 rating with a 22 share for the Daytona 500, which means nearly a quarter of markets measured so far tuned in to see Danica become one of only 13 human beings to ever lead both Daytona and Indy. That's the most since 2006, when NBC got an 10.1/20 with a 2:45 start sandwiched between Torino Olympics coverage. That's also 30% higher than last year's rain-delayed Monday nighter. On the radio side, Motor Racing Network claimed as many as 140,000 listeners to their free online stream alone.

For comparison, since Danica left after 2011, Indycar ratings have fallen as much as 27% last season. Besides the Indy 500's 4.3, ABC's season opener got only a .9, and NBC Sports Network could only get a .25 on cable, worth about 200,000 households. 

Kalamazoo Speedway could be shut down by township

Alamo Township in Michigan could be shutting down Kalamazoo Speedway if it passes a noise ordinance Monday night. The ordinance will fine anyone $500 for each violation, which is 82 dB during daylight or 55 db at night. (For comparison, most road traffic is around 80 dB, lawn mowers are about 100 dB, and a conversation is around 50-60 dB). The speedway says this will pretty much put them out of business.

The situation in Alamo Township is a growing trend for racetracks across the country. Suburban expansion puts housing where racetracks already were (in Kalamazoo Speedway's case, they've been around 64 years). The suburbanites who move out there, knowing there was a racetrack there, then start legislating them out of business. Mesa Marin Raceway in Bakersfield fell to this eight years ago, and recent battles with residents may kill off Nashville's Fairgrounds Speedway, a track steeped in NASCAR history. 

The Paterno Reports Out

The Paterno clan made good on their promise to try and find the real conspirators in the Jerry Sandusky scandal (we're still waiting, OJ). Their report's main job is to try and poke holes in the college-sponsored Freeh Report. It starts with the report's title: "Critique of the Freeh Report: The Rush To Injustice Regarding Joe Paterno." The main report was written by Wick Sollers, an attorney with the Paterno's law firm. For those not wishing to sift through almost 250 pages of horse shit, here's a summary:

Pg. 1 - First line: "Rank speculation. Innuendo. Subjective opinions. This rhetoric, not objective facts and evidence, forms the core of the Freeh report’s conclusions regarding Joe Paterno."
Pg. 11 - The report says Paterno could not understand McQueary's report of what happened in the showers, as he was "a 72-year-old football coach who was untrained in the complicated, counter intuitive dynamics of child sexual victimization and who came from a traditional background where even consensual sex was not discussed."
Pg. 16 - The report picks apart an e-mail from Curley with the subject line "Jerry": "Anything new in this department? Coach is anxious to know where it stands." Thornburgh says its possible it's referring to a proposal by Sandusky (who the report reminds us is a "coach") to start a football team on Penn State's Altoona campus, and the Freeh Report should have considered this.
Pg. 22 - The report claims Paterno telling his superiors showed he did the proper action, and was not trying to cover-up the allegations.
Pg. 23-24 - The report focuses on another e-mail from Curley: "After giving it some more thought and talking it over with Joe yesterday - I am uncomfortable with what we agreed were the next steps." The report claims no one could know what they were talking about, and to assume Paterno wanted a cover-up was speculation. The report then speculates Paterno might have even suggested they take it to child welfare, or that there was no such discussion, or that Paterno wanted it kept to University procedures. pg 23-24
Pgs. 27-29 - The report uses the cases of Rashard Casey and Curtis Enis to show Paterno's innocence. In 2000, starting quarterback Rashard Casey was arrested for assaulting a white off-duty police officer because he was walking with a black woman. Paterno started Casey for the upcoming season, despite criticism to the contrary. In the end, the grand jury did not indict Casey. Also, in 2005, Paterno suspended running back Curtis Enis over taking impermissible benefits. Standing up for Casey and dismissing Enis are two incidents that apparently show Paterno's character was so impressive he could not have covered up for Sandusky.
Pg. 31-32 - The report focuses on a janitor who witnessed a sexual assault by Sandusky, but did not report it because he and his superior felt the football program would "close ranks" and protect the program "at all costs:" "Consider the irony. The janitor does not report to university police what he actually saw, and Mr. Freeh describes him compassionately, but Joe Paterno does report to his superior(s) what he heard second hand, and Mr. Freeh vilifies him and treats him as a pedophile protector." pg. 31-32
Pg. 32 - The report, sanctioned by the Paterno family to exonerate their patriarch, claims the Freeh report is biased.
Pgs. 36-38 - The report accuses the Freeh Report of not respecting Paterno's legacy. Not only does it include funds raised and charitable efforts, it lists his football accomplishments including BCS poll finishes and NFL job offers he did not take. One piece of evidence is how he handled his firing: when he was reading the press release for his "retirement," Paterno had an issue with a phrase "I have come to work every day for the last sixty-one years..." commenting he had taken some sick days for himself and his children. "Joe Paterno was honest even in the final moments of his career — and indeed of his life — and Mr. Freeh ignores this and many other examples, such as his philanthropy, his success with honor philosophy, and the academic success of his program. We detail relevant facts in each of these categories that the Freeh report ignored."
Appendix A, Pg. 33 - Former Attorney General Dick Thornburgh disputes the janitor's claim that he could have been fired for reporting to police. He adds: "Mr. McQueary did report what he claimed he saw one year later and not only was he not fired, but he later received a full-time position as a coach for the Penn State football team." McQueary did not report to police, but instead to Joe Paterno.
Appendix B, Pg. 2 - In the introduction to his report, former FBI expert Jim Clemente makes the claim: "I was told the Paterno family wanted to know how Sandusky got away with it. They wanted to understand what actually happened at Penn State, so they could help prevent child sexual victimization in the future." Most of his report focuses on how Sandusky being such a nice guy made it hard for Paterno to believe he was a pedophile.
Appendix B, Pg. 30 - Clemente asserts his proof that Paterno could never conceive someone being a child molester: "After all, he would not allow his children to use the pencils he brought home from work because, he said, 'that’s university property.' However, what is less discussed, but well known by those close to Paterno, is that he was a prude; he was extremely uncomfortable with private and sexual matters. The Paternos rarely watched television except for The Wonderful World of Disney on Sunday nights. According to his children, Paterno found the television series Love Boat to be too racy...Paterno was even put off by the word 'fart.'"
Appendix B, Pg. 55 - Clemente defends Sandusky showing with young boys: "However, even if Paterno had known about this practice, adult coaches showering with boys after sporting or exercise activity is not wrong unless there are nefarious or sexual intentions. This happens every day across the United States and around the world in gyms, locker rooms, and YMCA’s. In fact, Paterno’s own son showered with Sandusky and other coaches on many occasions."
Appendix B, Pg. 57 - Clemente defends Paterno for not telling facility staff to keep Sandusky out if he brings in another minor, because somehow that could lead to a defamation suit.
Appendix C, Pg. 11 - Dr. Fred S. Berlin, the founder of The Johns Hopkins Sexual Disorders Clinic, ends his report on the subject. Pages 12-45 are a list of books, seminars, and television appearances he has contributed to.

High School Recruit's Signing Day Delayed By Mom

Although National Signing Day for college football was relatively calm this year, Alex Collins' plan to commit to Arkansas was not. After announcing his plans on Monday, he cancelled the signing ceremony at his Florida high school Wednesday morning. ESPN later reported his mother had ran away with his National Letter of Intent, reportedly because she wanted him to sign with the Miami Hurricanes. As of Wednesday Night, Arkansas is waiting to see if he can find his father to sign his NLI. Collins' doesn't live with either parent, hampering his efforts.

The NCAA does not require a National Letter of Intent to play sports; it is a document that states you have committed to a school, and other schools should no longer recruit you. However, the NCAA does require a parent or guardian's signature for anyone under the age of 21 (which is basically every recruit). Also, if for whatever reason you decide not to play at the school, you are ineligible for all sports for one year.

Elsewhere, Florida State has posted a four-hour video of their signing day "War Room." However, unlike the NFL Draft, college football war rooms are basically athletic staffers sitting around for the fax machine to fire up.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7QMua_oZ3O8