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Bar Chat

05/14/2015

The NFL Brings Down the Hammer

[Posted Wednesday morning...ran out of time...lots more baseball next chat.]

Pittsburgh Pirates Quiz: 1) Name the three to have 230 hits in a season. 2) How many Pirates have hit 40 or more home runs in a season? 3) How many have 300 or more homers in a Pirates uniform? 4) Who is the single-season RBI leader with just 131? Answers below.

Deflategate, Part Deux

The NFL suspended Tom Brady without pay for the first four games of the season, fined the Patriots $1 million, and took away their first-round draft pick in 2016 and a fourth-round selection in 2017, as punishment for deflating footballs in the AFC Championship game.

The league also indefinitely suspended the two equipment staffers believed responsible for carrying out the plan, including “The Deflator,” Jim McNally.

Brady’s camp will appeal the decision, but should the original sanctions stay in place, his return would be against the Colts in Indianapolis, which would be rich.

Pats chairman and CEO Robert Kraft said Brady had the team’s “unconditional support” and that its “belief in him has not wavered.”

“Despite our conviction that there was no tampering with footballs, it was our intention to accept any discipline levied by the league,” Kraft said. “Today’s punishment, however, far exceeded any reasonable expectation. It was based completely on circumstantial rather than hard or conclusive evidence.

“We are humbled by the support the New England Patriots have received from our fans throughout the world,” the statement said. “We recognize our fans’ concerns regarding the NFL’s penalties and share in their disappointment in how this one-sided investigation was handled, as well as the dismissal of the scientific evidence supported by the Ideal Gas Law in the final report.”

Brady’s agent, Don Yee, said “the discipline is ridiculous and has no legitimate basis.”

“And if the hearing officer is completely independent and neutral, I am very confident the Wells report will be exposed as an incredibly frail exercise in fact-finding and logic,” Yee said in a statement.

NFL executive vice president Troy Vincent wrote in a letter to Brady: “With respect to your particular involvement, the report established that there is substantial and credible evidence to conclude you were at least generally aware of the actions of the Patriots’ employees involved in the deflation of the footballs and that it was unlikely that their actions were done without your knowledge.”

Vincent added: “The activities of the Patriots’ employees were thoroughly documented in the report, including through a series of text messages and telephone communications, as well as evidence of a breach in pre-game protocol. In addition, the conclusions were supported by extensive scientific analysis, as detailed in the report.”

In the 2007 “Spygate” issue, the Patriots were fined $500,000 and docked a first-round draft pick, while coach Bill Belichick was fined $250,000 for videotaping opposing coaches as a way to decipher their play signals.

Yee previously suggested the NFL cooperated in a “sting operation” with the Colts, who had alerted the league of their suspicions of the Patriots’ use of underinflated footballs.

Brady’s replacement will be Jimmy Garoppolo, a 2014 second-round pick out of Eastern Illinois who is more than capable.

“Before we predict what happens next in the scandal that has tarnished his Hall of Fame career, let’s pause to remember Tom Brady’s first reaction to this story in January before it became widely known as Deflategate.

“ ‘I think I’ve heard it all at this point.’

“ ‘Oh, God. It’s ridiculous!’

“ ‘I don’t even respond to stuff like this.’

“ ‘That’s the last of my worries.’

“Well, on that last point, I’m guessing it climbed his worry list significantly on Monday night. That’s when NFL commissioner Roger Goodell slapped him with a four-game suspension...and the people laughing now are the ones in Baltimore and Indianapolis and anyone else who thinks superstars shouldn’t be above the rules...even if the rules involve hot air.

“Goodell was right to suspend Brady, and to hit the Patriots with a $1 million fine and take their first-round draft pick in 2016 and fourth rounder in 2017. It doesn’t matter that the offense had no impact on the outcome of the 2015 playoffs.

“It matters that Brady knew the rule, and that there is enough evidence that he was involved in breaking it with a couple of low-level employees, and most of all, that he lied through his pretty-boy teeth about the entire thing. The rebuke Troy Vincent issued was a 92-word slap to Brady’s face:

“ ‘Your actions as set forth in the report clearly constitute conduct detrimental to the integrity of and public confidence in the game of professional football. The integrity of the game is of paramount importance to everyone in our league, and requires unshakable commitment to fairness and compliance with the playing rules. Each player, no matter how accomplished and otherwise respected, has an obligation to comply with the rules and must be held accountable for his actions when those rules are violated and the public’s confidence in the game is called into question.’....

“I want Brady to appeal because I want to hear his side of the story, because despite his public statements so far, there are still so many questions that he hasn’t answered in this affair.

“Why all those text messages and phone calls to low-level employees John Jastremski and James McNally...after the NFL investigators started to ask questions when you had no contact with them before? Why did you give McNally autographed memorabilia before the AFC playoff game against the Ravens? Why didn’t you release text messages and emails as requested? Do you really believe, as your agent alleged, that this was an NFL sting? If so, explain.

“Much sooner rather than later, Tom Brady needs to call the most important audible of his football life. His crime against sport is not in the same ballpark as those committed by Pete Rose, Lance Armstrong and Alex Rodriguez, not even close, so there is no reason to follow their path of endless denial and deceit before finally telling the truth....

“Brady should hit the mute button on Yee and pass on his right to appeal. He should instruct the players’ union to stand down. He should do the right thing here and admit that he knowingly broke the rules, that he was chin strap-deep in the illegal deflation of game balls, and that he deserves a four-game suspension that was always a fitting penalty for his cheating and refusal to cooperate with Ted Wells.

“For all of his royal screw-ups in disciplining players, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell – with an assist from Executive Vice President of Football Operations Troy Vincent – notarized the perfect punishment for the imperfect crime....

“The Colts didn’t do this to Brady by tipping off NFL officials and refs before and during the AFC Championship Game blowout. Brady did this to Brady. He was so desperate to win and to keep proving over and over he should’ve been the No. 1 pick in the 2000 draft, not the 199th pick, that, as the Wells report makes apparent, he conspired with a couple of low-level staffers to doctor game balls to his liking....

“Brady was pro football’s answer to Derek Jeter, the megawinner who was above reproach and who wasn’t even stained by Spygate, the scandal that started and stopped at Belichick’s desk.

“Deflategate changes everything. Brady’s credibility is in tatters now, and he will only hurt his reputation more by continually trying to fake out people who refuse to be deked. Patriots fans will always embrace him. The people who cheered his nonanswers to Jim Gray at Salem State last week will cheer louder when Brady throws more touchdown passes than Rex Ryan’s new AFC East team (the Bills) or his old AFC East team (the Jets) can count.

“But the non-New Englanders around the country who respected Brady as much as they respected any athlete will have trouble ever believing in him again.

“Until he tells the truth, anyway. Monday night, when his agent called the four-game suspension ‘ridiculous’ and ‘predetermined,’ Brady sure didn’t take any steps in that direction....

“This isn’t Pete Rose gambling on baseball or Lance Armstrong and Alex Rodriguez pumping one illegal drug after another into their bodies for a competitive edge. Brady should tell the public that he thought he was merely driving 63 mph in a 55 mph zone, that he didn’t realize taking some air out of the ball was a big deal, and that he now realizes it is a very big deal.

“He should apologize to Kraft for lying to him and for making the owner look and sound like a fool at the Super Bowl. He should apologize to Jastremski and McNally for putting franchise-player pressure on employees in no position to resist it, and for effectively costing them their jobs. And he should apologize to Wells, Goodell, Vincent and, more importantly, to fans everywhere who thought Tom Brady would be among the last quarterbacks to spike the integrity of his sport.”

“It is more than more probable than not that Tom Brady has no one to blame but himself for the earth-shaking four-game suspension hammered on him Monday by Roger Goodell’s NFL.

“It is one thing to be a Super Bowl champion and another to be a champion of lying, cheating and deceit.

“This was arrogance intercepted.

“We expected better from Brady, much better than for him to be exposed as just another chowderhead, and it is sad it turns out that he is more probably than not every bit as ballsy as the diabolical Bill Belichick.

“Spygate, Deflategate...when will these guys ever learn?

“Brady is assailed in a letter to him from NFL Executive President Troy Vincent for ‘conduct detrimental to the integrity and public confidence in the game of football.’

“It is more than more probable than not that Robert Kraft and Patriots fans everywhere feel persecuted, victims of a witch hunt.

“It is more than more probable than not that the Jets, Rex Ryan’s Bills and the Dolphins – or anyone else – will have no empathy for Brady and the Patriots.

“It is more than more probable than not that Belichick will use this as an Us-Against-The-World rallying cry.

“No one – not even our Golden Boy, our four-time Super Bowl champion, Tom Brady – is above the law....

“No one should have expected a mere slap on the wrist for Brady at the end of a four-month investigation that concluded he cheated – and he lied.

“You made the bed, Teflon Tom No More, more than more probably than not covered it up, failed to cooperate with Ted Wells, and left our NFL with no choice.

“If the NFL catches you with your balls in the cookie jar, you will be punished. Records are meant to be broken. Rules – no matter how flawed they may be – are not....

“Brady will end up in the Hall of Fame. He won’t be the first Hall of Famer to go in with a Hall of Shame asterisk.

“And if you believe that the NFL must protect the shield at all costs, then Balls well that ends well.”

“Roger Goodell threw the book at Tom Brady and the Patriots on Monday, full inflated, hard as a rock, even though Brady doesn’t like his footballs that way...These are sanctions as tough as have ever been handed out in the National Football League, all the way back to when then-commissioner Pete Rozelle suspended Paul Hornung, another golden boy of the sport, and Alex Karras for a year for gambling.

“This suspension may get knocked down to something less later. Maybe, if Brady fights this all the way, it may be knocked right out of the park....

“(But) Hornung and Karras got a year from Rozelle back in the 1960s. Sean Payton, the coach of the New Orleans Saints, ended up getting a year taken out of his career for the scandal known as Bountygate, when the Saints were found to be handing out bonuses for laying out players on the other team, and a linebacker named Jonathan Vilma got a year as well.

“But Payton, even as a Super Bowl winning coach, wasn’t the star of the sport that Brady has been, and still is, as big as ever because of the way he played in the fourth quarter of the most recent Super Bowl game against the Seahawks. It was different with Hornung, who was really known as the ‘Golden Boy,’ a Heisman Trophy winner at Notre Dame and then became an NFL champion for Vince Lombardi’s Packers. He was that kind of star when Rozelle removed him from all of the 1963 season.

“But even Hornung was never as big as Brady has been over the last 15 years in football, winning four Super Bowls and playing in two others....

“You simply cannot read this report and believe Brady when he says he didn’t know anything about anything, which is what he started saying last January. This from a guy who when asked if he thought of himself as a cheater last January said, ‘I don’t think so.’ From the start he never acted like someone falsely accused. When the league asked for text messages and emails possibly related to this event, he declined. You go ahead and keep thinking that somehow he was set up here, or railroaded....

“You cannot read the report and believe, truly, that Brady was innocent here, whether Wells described him being ‘generally aware’ of what happened or not. You cannot believe this because Brady never acted innocent, or outraged. Mostly he was a smart guy trying to act dumb, about this dumb a crime.

“Goodell didn’t do this to him, the Colts didn’t do it, the people in the media who blew the whistle didn’t. Brady did this to himself. Even if Brady wins in arbitration, one of the biggest winners in the history of his sport has already lost big here.”

“The close relationship of Kraft and Goodell is likely permanently fractured, and Brady should tell Goodell where he can shove the letter the commissioner sent him on April 16 inviting him as one of 43 players who have won the Super Bowl MVP – Brady has won it three times – to take part in the 50th anniversary celebration of the game in San Francisco next year.

“Brady posted the letter to his Facebook page on April 28. In the third sentence, Goodell praises Brady’s MVP games as ‘an enduring legacy of a great performance on the biggest stage in sports.’ Right above Goodell’s signature, the last line reads, ‘Thank you for all you have contributed to our great game.’

“The letter came as Wells was deep into his third month of investigating the deflated footballs and it was six weeks after Wells had interviewed Brady. One month after the first letter, Goodell had Vincent send Brady another that could adversely impact his legacy rather than celebrate it....

“The Deflategate rulings have already created more action than 12 rounds of Mayweather-Pacquiao. This is the real Fight of the Century. And, thank goodness, there’s plenty more arguing and insulting to come.

“Brady has until the close of business Thursday to file his appeal and then it must be heard within 10 days. My feeling is Goodell gave him 25% of the season off for the shock value and to send a message to every player that no matter who you are, nobody is allowed to cheat.

“Ultimately, I think Goodell gave him four games to create wiggle room for the suspension to be knocked down to two games, which means it will be reduced from utterly ridiculous to somewhat justifiable.”

As for Ted Wells, he defended his investigation.

“All of this discussion that people at the league office wanted to put some type of hit on the most popular, iconic player in the league, the real face of the league, it just doesn’t make any sense. It’s really a ridiculous allegation. What drove the decision in this report was one thing – it was the evidence.”

Yee, in a statement on Monday, said he was present during Wells’ interview of Brady, kept verbatim notes, and “[f]or reasons unknown, the Wells report omitted nearly all of Tom’s testimony, most of which was critical because it would have provided this report with the context that it lacks.”

Wells countered by challenging Yee to make the notes public.

“There’s nothing, I guarantee you, in those notes that would have made any difference to my decision,” Wells said. “So he should publish the notes and stop acting like there’s some secret in the notes.”

Wells said that Brady was “totally cooperative” in the interview but declined to make his texts and emails available.

“I told Mr. Brady and his agent I was willing not to take possession of the phones,” Wells said. “I said, ‘I don’t want to see any of your private information.’ I said, ‘You keep the phone. You, the agent, Mr. Yee, you can look at the phone and you can give me the documents that are responsive to this investigation, and I will take your word that you have given me what’s responsive.’ And they still refused.” [Los Angeles Times]

As I noted last time, the Jacksonville Jaguars were obligated to negotiate in good faith with first-round pick Dante Fowler Jr., even after he tore his ACL one hour into his first minicamp.

So the two sides did agree on a contract, with Fowler receiving $23.5 million fully guaranteed over the four-year deal, including a $15.3 million signing bonus, even as he misses the entire 2015 season.

--Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.) took to the Senate floor Tuesday and said this:

“I find it stunning that the National Football League is more concerned about how much air is in a football than with the racist franchise name that denigrates Native Americans. I wish the commissioner would act as swiftly and decisively in changing the name of the D.C. team as he did about not enough air in a football.”

As the New York Post editorialized, “What’s bizarre is that one of the nation’s top lawmakers doesn’t give a damn about...cheating.

“What makes Reid’s indifference more remarkable is that he used to run the Nevada Gaming Commission – the outfit set up to keep Vegas casinos on the up-and-up.”

NBA Playoffs

--The Rockets defeated the Clippers 124-103 behind James Harden’s triple-double (26-11-10) to stave off elimination, Tuesday, the series now standing at 3-2.

Also on Tuesday, Cleveland defeated the Bulls 106-101 to take a 3-2 lead heading back to Chicago for Game 6 Thursday. LeBron James had 38 points, 12 rebounds, and zero turnovers.

Meanwhile, Golden State evened their series against the Grizzlies at 2-2 in Memphis on Monday, 101-84, as the Warriors hit 42% of their threes, 14 of 33. Steph Curry had 33.

And Atlanta evened their series against John Wall-less Washington, 106-101, with Jeff Teague leading the way...26 points, 8 assists.

--The New Orleans Pelicans fired head coach Monty Williams, even though the team made the playoffs for the first time since 2011. Williams was 173-221, with two playoff appearances since becoming head coach in 2010.

Ball Bits

--Mets fans have to be concerned with pitcher Jacob deGrom’s lousy stretch after a terrific start to the season. True, his ERA is still a solid 3.46, but its 5.65 his last four.

But on Tuesday, 22-year-old Noah Syndergaard made his debut at Wrigley Field and the Mets’ righty had a memorable debut, shutting the Cubs out his first five innings before tiring in the sixth and suffering a 6-1 loss, Syndergaard giving up three runs in 5 1/3, walking four and striking out six.

Like many Mets fans, though, I was hoping manager Terry Collins would have taken Noah out after five scoreless so he could leave with a good taste in his mouth. Syndergaard, after all, had to deal with third baseman Daniel Murphy’s 35th bonehead play of the season when he lollygagged a toss over to first in the third, allowing Kris Bryant to beat the throw, which ended up prolonging the inning 18 pitches.

For the Cubs, rookie phenom Bryant had a triple and home run. He’s already must-see television, that rare player where you won’t want to miss his at-bats, whether you’re watching at home or at the ballpark.

--Yogi Berra turned 90 on Tuesday. When he was called up to the Yankees late in the 1946 seasons, as Josh Peter wrote in USA TODAY, “he was ridiculed for his looks – described as an ape by one sportswriter, deemed unfit for Yankee pinstripes by others and even insulted by an umpire who reportedly told Berra he was the ugliest player he’d ever seen. Berra shrugged off the insults in signature fashion.

Dave Kaplan, the director of the Yogi Berra Museum, related the following in the Wall Street Journal.

“Everyone enjoys a good Yogi-ism, or has a favorite Yogi Berra story – whether or not it’s actually true. Here’s mine: One spring, when Yogi was managing the Yankees, a streaker darted onto the field in nothing but a pair of sneakers and a paper bag. Asked later whether the streaker was a man or woman, Yogi purportedly replied, ‘I don’t know, they had a bag over their head.’”

Yogi isn’t in the best of health these days and it’s not likely he’ll be able to make Old-Timers’ Day at Yankee Stadium next month (June 20), though hopefully I’m wrong.

--Baseball America College Poll (May 11)

1. LSU
2. UCLA
3. Louisville
4. Illinois
5. TCU
10. Missouri State
11. Dallas Baptist
12. UC Santa Barbara
24. Radford!

More on Rickie Fowler’s Win

“Has anyone ever silenced his critics in more dramatic fashion than Rickie Fowler in winning The Players Championship? He was accused of being all style and little substance. He was the Anna Kournikova of golf, a crowd-pleaser, a brand name that could sell orange, flat-brimmed hats, sign every autograph and sing off-key with the golf boys. But his resume was short on wins, let alone winning a big one.

“Here’s the thing about being labeled: there’s usually the ring of truth and it can be difficult to escape a reputation. But not impossible. Payne Stewart was once known as Avis because he finished second so many times. Tom Watson was soft until he won a major and went toe-to-toe with Jack Nicklaus. And Fowler was overrated in the minds of many until he played the final six holes of regulation, a three-hole aggregate playoff and sudden-death at 17 at TPC Sawgrass in 8 under for his final 10 holes to outlast Sergio Garcia and Kevin Kisner. Fowler did so with the perfect blend of substance and style, with the type of victory that can redefine an image....

“Much of Fowler’s superstar persona as shaped in the media doesn’t always seem to match the man. Yes, he’s charismatic but he’s also humble and so nice that some wondered if he lacked the necessary mean streak to be a winner on Tour. You also wondered if the glow of stardom was beginning to fade.

“Fowler courted those comparisons to Kournikova, who won only once in her professional career, because he, too, wasn’t living up to the hype. That Fowler won dressed in a shirt with pink, rather than orange, did not go unnoticed. Maybe Fowler will become more like another recent star of the tennis world, Andre Agassi, whose ‘image is everything’ catchphrase defined an era before becoming a beloved public figure that his opponents regarded with reverence. Agassi reinvented himself by winning major titles.”

--Game 7...Rangers vs. Washington...Madison Square Garden...tonight. It doesn’t get any better than this.

The Rangers have won a record nine straight playoff elimination games at home. But you won’t find one Rangers fan who is calling this one a sure thing.

And as the Wall Street Journal’s Michael Salfino noted:

“Incredibly, since 1991, teams in the situation the Rangers now find themselves – coming back from 3-1 down, winning Game 6 on the road and playing Game 7 at home – are just 7-6 in those Game 7s. That includes the Chicago Blackhawks last year, who seemed to have the Los Angeles Kings on the ropes only to lose Game 7 in Chicago. The Kings went on to beat the Rangers in the Finals.”

--Did Tiger Woods cheat on Lindsey Vonn? Was that the cause of the breakup? That’s the rumor. That he had a one-night stand in February, with an anonymous woman, somewhere in Southern California after he played in the Farmers Insurance Open at Torrey Pines. 

--According to preliminary figures released by Showtime and HBO, more than 4.4 million pay-per-view telecasts of the Mayweather-Pacquiao fight were purchased in the U.S., generating more than $400 million in revenue; more than double the previous records for both PPV buys and revenues.

--Bayern Munich defeated Barcelona in their second leg of the Champions League semis on Tuesday, 3-2, but Barcelona is headed to the title round on aggregate, 5-3.

Real Madrid trails Juventus 2-1, as these two square off in their second leg on Wednesday in Spain.

--According to Fox Sports’ Bruce Feldman, former Notre Dame quarterback Everett Golson cannot transfer to any school on Notre Dame’s 2015 schedule, with Georgia and South Carolina now said to be potential landing spots.

--Last time I noted former Duke guard Rasheed Sulaimon still had a year of eligibility left and that Maryland would be a good place for him. Well, that’s who he ended up choosing. You know he’ll have a good attitude, having a chance to play for a national title contender.

“The wife of a man who died when he was bitten multiple times by a shark in New Caledonia says she ‘lost the man of my life tonight.’

“Yves Berthlot, 50, was on a sailing weekend with his wife, Anne, and a group of friends in the south of the Pacific Island archipelago when the tragedy occurred.

“Mr. Berthelot, a French national, was snorkeling in the shallow water just meters from his catamaran on Saturday when he was bitten at least twice by a bull shark, reported Les Nouvelles Caledoniennes, a daily French-language newspaper in the territory.

“ ‘Most people on board were health workers, the first aid given was significant but the injuries were such that unfortunately there was not much that could be done,’ a military police spokesman told local radio on Sunday.

I didn’t realize New Caledonia, off north-eastern Australia, boasts the world’s largest enclosed lagoon.

--Once again, ‘Man’ shows his true colors as someone “plucked a kangaroo joey out of its mother’s pouch and stole four baby goats from a Wisconsin zoo, keepers said.

“The five tiny infant creatures vanished from Greenville’s Special Memories Zoo overnight Tuesday. Without their mothers, the babies could die, head zookeeper Gretchen Crowe told WGBA.” [New York Daily News]

This is beyond pathetic, so the board of directors of the All-Species List lowers ‘Man’ to No. 323, which Johnny Mac says places us below ‘Blobfish,’ who actually deserves better. When you look up the poor guy, no doubt he catches a lot of grief from his fellow fishes. 

Top 3 songs for the week 6/6/70: #1 “Everything Is Beautiful” (Ray Stevens...great entertainer...younger folks have to understand what crappy times these were to understand how this one could become so popular...) #2 “Which Way You Goin’ Billy?” (The Poppy Family) #3 “Love On A Two-Way Street” (The Moments)...and...#4 “Up Around The Bend” (Creedence Clearwater Revival) #5 “Cecilia” (Simon & Garfunkel) #6 “Get Ready” (Rare Earth) #7 “The Letter” (Joe Cocker) #8 “American Woman” (The Guess Who) #9 “Make Me Smile” (Chicago) #10 “The Long And Winding Road” (The Beatles...jumped to #1 following week...their last hit, aside from re-releases...)

Pittsburgh Pirates Quiz Answers: 1) 230 hits: Paul Waner, 237 (1927); Lloyd Waner, 234 (1929); Matty Alou, 231 (1969). 2) 40 or more home runs: Ralph Kiner (54, 51) and three seasons of 40+; Willie Stargell (48,44). That’s it. 3) 300 HR: Just Stargell, 475, and Kiner, 301. Roberto Clemente is third at 240. 4) Single-season RBI leader is Paul Waner, 131, in 1927. Ralph Kiner had 127, twice. I’m always amazed how low this RBI mark is given the history of the franchise.

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