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Bar Chat

01/29/2015

It's the Equipment Guy

Super Bowl Halftime Show Quiz: 1) What two bands appeared at two Super Bowls each, but not together, the first five years of the game? 2) What entertainer with the initials C.C. appeared in two of the first six? Answers below.

Super Bowl – DeflateGate

Yes, we’re all ready for the big game...but first....

“Breaking news: sources tell @FOXSports the NFL has zeroed in on a locker room attendant (with the) Patriots who allegedly took balls from officials’ locker room to another area on way to field. Sources say they have interviewed him and additionally have video. Still gauging if any wrong doing occurred with him but he is strong person of interest.”

TMZ noted the NFL hired Renaissance Associates, “an investigatory firm with sophisticated forensic expertise to assist in reviewing electronic and video information.”

This plays into my theory that we’ll find out the equipment guy knew what Brady liked and that he’d be tipped large at the end of the season for a job well done.

Monday, Coach Bill Belichick deflected all questions on the report about the locker room attendant perhaps having tampered with the ball.

“My focus is on the Seattle Seahawks,” Belicheat said. “And that is where it is going to stay.”

When were you made aware of the new report?

“Right now the only thing I’m focused on is the Seattle Seahawks. That’s all we’re going to talk about.”

Did you or anyone order the locker room attendant to deflate those footballs?

“I appreciate the questions, but I’ve covered everything I can cover, and my focus is on the Seattle Seahawks.”

Belichick did say this about owner Robert Kraft, who defended both the coach and Tom Brady.

“I have a great relationship with Mr. Kraft. I really appreciate the opportunity every day to coach the New England Patriots,” he said. “We have a great working relationship and a great personal relationship.”

Speaking of Robert Kraft, he arrived with the team on Monday and gave a speech proclaiming his support of Belichick and Brady, and that if the NFL’s investigation proves they did nothing wrong, Kraft said he’d “expect and hope the league would apologize to our entire team, and in particular Coach Belichick and Tom Brady for what they’ve had to endure this week.”

“Kraft had better be right here. If he isn’t, the three-time Super Bowl champ is going to be best remembered as one of the sport’s biggest losers.

“Spygate happened on his watch, and now this latest crisis might bleed all the air out of Kraft’s legacy as the Everyman superfan who bought a team and built the sport’s last dynasty.   He called Belichick and Brady ‘my guys’ and ‘part of my family’ and employees who had never lied to him in their 15 years on the job.    Kraft said that he was disappointed in how this story had been handled and covered, that he believed ‘unconditionally’ that his Patriots were guilty of nothing, and that – surprise, surprise – his franchise is actually the home office for game-day integrity and fair play....

“Kraft spoke after GQ published an unflattering profile of Roger Goodell that portrayed New England’s owner as the commissioner’s fiercest advocate, as a supporter who helped land him a compensation package of some $300 million over seven years, and as a public relations adviser who tried steering Goodell through the Ray Rice disaster and who lobbied fellow owners for endorsements when the commissioner was in dire need of them.

“The GQ profile quoted one veteran NFL executive calling Kraft ‘the assistant commissioner.’

“Maybe that characterization inspired ‘the assistant commissioner’ to take the fight to the commissioner for the sake of his own credibility. Maybe Seattle’s Richard Sherman did the trick the day before by calling out Kraft and Goodell for getting cozy at the owner’s house on the eve of the AFC Championship Game. Or maybe it was the Fox story that sent Kraft over the edge on the flight away from the approaching blizzard back home and toward the desert storm that won’t subside until New England faces the defending champs with properly inflated balls (we assume) in Super Bowl XLIX.

“If the NFL finds a staffer did indeed take a walk on the wild side with the Patriots’ footballs and did break the rules by deflating them to Brady’s liking, wow, Kraft will go down as a fool for believing his guys. And let’s face it: If Shakespeare were alive and well as a 21st-century football fan, this would be the kind of tragedy he’d dream up – an organization famous for its Kremlin-like secrecy and paranoia getting caught by the very cameras set up to track the outsiders in its midst.”

Ian O’Connor also had this neat story that I missed regarding American tennis player Tim Smyczek, who almost took out Rafael Nadal in the Australian Open last week. [I knew this was a stressful five-setter for Nadal, but didn’t know the following.]

Smyczek was in the 12th game of the fifth set “when someone in the crowd shouted just as Nadal was about to serve, causing a fault that could have helped Smyczek’s bid for a once-in-a-lifetime upset. Smyczek insisted that the all-time great replay his first serve, and Nadal won the point and then the match before calling the gesture of sportsmanship ‘amazing.’

“Smyczek said by phone that he did for Nadal what any good sport would do, and that his parents taught him long ago that integrity and character were far more important than the score on the board. ‘I don’t know if I know enough about the inflation of a football to give an educated thought on DeflateGate,’ he said, ‘but I guess I’d be able to tell if a tennis ball was 15 percent flatter than it should be.’”

Smyczek, a rabid Packers fan, was informed by Ian O’Connor that Kraft had “unconditionally supported his coach and quarterback in his first public act at Super Bowl XLIX. ‘It reminds me a little of when Ryan Braun told his friend Aaron Rodgers he didn’t cheat with [performance-enhancing drugs],’ Smyczek said. ‘Rodgers was really disappointed when the truth came out, and you hope as a football fan that doesn’t happen here.’”

Kraft, by the way, did not take questions from reporters on Monday.

Meanwhile, back to the aforementioned Richard Sherman, on Sunday he said when asked if Belichick and the Pats crossed the line, “Their resume speaks for itself.

Then Sherman said, “Will (the Patriots) be punished? Probably not. Not as long as Robert Kraft and Roger Goodell are still taking pictures at their respective homes. I think he was just at Kraft’s house last week for the AFC Championship. You talk about conflict of interest.

“As long as that happens, it won’t affect them at all.”

“(Kraft) didn’t stick around long enough to elaborate on the fact he hitched a wagon to his coach’s channeling of Walter White two days earlier...when he spoke about ‘the science of how game balls react in these atmospheric conditions.’

“Like Belichick before him, Kraft wraps this all in the assumption that science had anything to do with it. Forget what Bill Nye the Science Guy has to say about the subject: the fact is neither Belichick nor Kraft has answered (or even attempted to answer) how science and atmosphere and cold weather (even though it was a mild day on Jan. 18) could affect 11 of the 12 balls the Patriots used and zero of the 12 balls the Colts used.

“That’s a relentlessly irritating fact the Patriots, in their bold and aggressive response to this (which is admirable, if illogical) hope will just dissolve like an Alka-Seltzer tablet in water at some point this week....

“Look, commissioners will always have their go-to owners – Pete Rozelle wouldn’t buy a new tie without consulting with Wellington Mara back in the day – but Goodell’s stature and his position are so compromised by what’s befallen his office the past six months there is a perception – and a certain belief – he is a puppet playing on string, operated in the shadows by Kraft.

“And no matter how steeped in reality that is, the perception is impossible to shake. And oh yes: the puppeteer had something to say about his marionette:

“ ‘I’m disappointed in the way this entire matter has been handled and reported upon.’

“Yes, it was quite a show, and you can only imagine how this was received in the commissioner’s office. Robert Kraft, like his coach and QB before him, plays the victim well. Time will tell if it was real or imagined.”

--As for the game itself, it could be more about LeGarrette Blount vs. Marshawn Lynch, rather than Tom Brady vs. Russell Wilson. Talk about two totally unlikable guys...that’s Blount and Lynch.

And as my friend Mark R. said the other day about Blount’s days in Pittsburgh this season, where he was a first-class malcontent who got himself run out of town, you almost wonder if Blount ‘tanked’ so he could go back to New England, where he had had success before.

--The Patriots are staying at the Sheraton Wild Horse Pass Resort & Casino and Shu muses that Bill Belichick is probably a good bluffer at the poker tables.

“I want to dislike Tom Brady, but I can’t. I mean, the guy’s got GQ looks, a supermodel wife and too much success, plus he sells Uggs. But he’s so good, no matter who is surrounding him; every year he wins with receivers and running backs who were working at Radio Shack a month earlier.”

“Seahawks running back Marshawn Lynch is not a statesman. He’s something else. I have no problem with Lynch not talking to members of the media. First of all, have you looked at members of the media lately? Second, I’m not sure Lynch really has anything to say – I base this on his signature touchdown celebration, in which he grabs his crotch (albeit in a classy way).”

“Actually, most people outside of the Pacific Northwest don’t like the Seahawks and most people outside of New England don’t like the Patriots. Frankly, the game is unwatchable. So follow my lead – at your Super Bowl party – radio only!”

College Basketball

AP Poll (Jan. 26)

1. Kentucky 19-0 (64 first-place votes)
2. Virginia 19-0 (1)
3. Gonzaga 20-1
4. Duke 17-2
5. Wisconsin 18-2
6. Arizona 18-2
7. Villanova 18-2
8. Notre Dame 19-2
9. Kansas 16-3
10. Louisville 16-3
14. VCU 16-3...Shaka...Shaka Smart Shaka Smart....
18. Northern Iowa 18-2

VCU then had a solid 72-48 win over a good George Washington team (16-5, 6-2) to move to 7-0 in the A 10, 17-3 overall.

My San Diego State Aztecs advanced to 16-5, 6-2, with a 58-47 win over Fresno State (10-11, 5-3) last night with both teams shooting just 36% from the field.

Wyoming 6-2
SDSU 6-2
Colorado State 5-3
Boise State 5-3
New Mexico 5-3
Utah State 5-3
Fresno State 5-3

I’m now beginning to believe only two teams from the MW get to the Big Dance, depending on the conference tournament result.

--Finally, there is this story about ESPN’s Chad Ford, who provides the network with his ranking of the top 100 prospects in the NBA draft. As Des Bieler wrote in the Washington Post the other day, “Now, it appears that Ford may have gone back and changed some of his past rankings in order to jibe more with how certain players actually fared once they hit the pros – to pad his numbers, so to speak.”

“After reviewing the post on Reddit today, we have found that changes were made manually to Chad Ford’s NBA Draft prospects rankings. We have not been able to determine who made the changes, or when. We have talked to Chad Ford, who strongly denies any involvement, and based on his past work and professionalism, we believe him.”

Reddit found, for example, that some less successful players tumbled from their original rankings, such as Jamaal Franklin, formerly of SDSU and a guy I thought would be a real star in the NBA. The same process was subsequently discovered for Ford’s rankings from 2008-2012.

So who did it? As Des Bieler writes, “It strains belief that anyone else would do this without at least a nudge from the analyst,” i.e., it’s like DeflateGate.

--So you know how I noted the other day the issue with Alex Rodriguez and his home run bonuses, specifically the first one that is up, 660, Willie Mays?

As Brian Costa of the Wall Street Journal wrote on Tuesday, “In a sign of how frayed the relationship between the two sides remains, the team is preparing to fight Rodriguez over a marketing agreement that could be worth up to $30 million.”

Recall, A-Rod earns $6 million for hitting six more home runs to reach Mays’ 660, but the Yankees “are strongly considering denying him the $6 million....Confirming a report in the Daily News, the person said the Yankees will contend that Rodriguez’s repeated performance-enhancing drug use kills any marketing potential for the home-run marks.”

The agreement dates to 2007, when he re-signed with the Yanks for 10 years and $275 million. It also wasn’t until 2009 that he admitted using steroids for a three-year period beginning in 2001. But then he was suspended in 2013 for Biogenesis.

--We note the passing of former pitcher Bill Monbouquette. He was 78. The three-time All-Star pitched in the big leagues 11 seasons, 8 with the Boston Red Sox, and was 114-112 in his career (96-91 with Boston). His best season was 1963 when he went 20-10.

While he never pitched in the postseason, “Monbo” did have two big games for Boston. In 1961 he struck out 17 Washington Senators, a team record that held until Roger Clemens fanned 20 in 1986. Monboquette also threw a no-hitter against the White Sox in 1962.

In the no-no, the New York Times’ Bruce Weber relays Monbo’s interview with the Boston Globe decades later.

“It was Aug. 1, 1962,” Monboquette recalled. “I had (Luis) Aparicio 0 and 2 and threw him a slider off the plate. He tried to hold up, and I thought he went all the way. The umpire, Bill McKinley, called it a ball, and as I was getting the ball back from the catcher, someone shouted from the stands, ‘They shot the wrong McKinley.’ I had to back off the mound because I had a little chuckle to myself.”

Monbo fanned Aparicio on the next pitch for the final out.

--Phil W. first alerted me to kind of an interesting item, not that it has anything to do with our lives for five years...by which time I hope the Jets have found a quarterback, but I digress.

North Carolina and Wake Forest reached an agreement on a home-and-home nonconference series for 2019 and 2021.

Well, since they are in separate divisions in the ACC, they don’t play each other annually and they’ve met only four times since 2004, even though this has been a terrific rivalry going back 125 years.

Wake and Carolina play a conference game in 2015, but weren’t scheduled to play again until 2022. So this means by playing a nonconference game, they are each adding a Power 5 opponent to the schedule. I think it’s a great idea. Hopefully Wake isn’t scheduling anymore La.-Monroe-type opponents down the road. We should be playing the likes of Army, Navy and Air Force out of conference. East Carolina (if we had the guts to). And now that Appalachian State has gone big time, we’ll be scheduling them again.

--Two former Vanderbilt football players were convicted of raping a former student in a 2013 attack. They face decades in prison.

The details of this case are beyond disgusting. A major black mark on the Vanderbilt program and as I wrote at the time, for the life of me I didn’t understand why Penn State then hired Vandy’s coach, James Franklin, given what the Nittany Lions’ program had just been through.

For the men...

Novak Djokovic vs. Stan Wawrinka
Tomas Berdych vs. Andy Murray

[Berdych defeated Rafael Nadal in three sets in the quarterfinals]

And for the women...

Serena Williams vs. Madison Keys
Ekaterina Makarova vs. Maria Sharapova

[19-year-old American Keys beat Venus Williams in the quarters.]

As for the missing tooth, on Tuesday he revealed the gap has been filled. He also told the press that he had indeed been hit by a camera at the World Cup ski event he attended that knocked out one tooth and chipped another.

In the crowd at the victory stage where Lindsey Vonn was celebrating her win, Woods confirmed what his agent, Mark Steinberg, said at the time.

“The photographer changed positions and I got hit,” Tiger said. “It was an accident...And yes there was blood everywhere. All good now.”

But race officials and witnesses continue to dispute Tiger’s account. Woods said he flew home and had dental work the following morning.

Back to golf....or maybe not. We have the issue of Robert Allenby, who also held a press conference on Tuesday in an attempt to explain his actions at the Sony Open, where he claims he was kidnapped, robbed and beaten.

Allenby is playing in the Phoenix Open and in an opening statement said:

“There is an investigation going on to what did happen on that Friday night. The authorities are doing their absolute best. They’re hoping in the near future that something will be reported. ...There’s definitely been a lot of confusion, but I think the No. 1 thing that you all should remember is that my story has stayed exactly the same as the way I told it. I told you what I knew and what someone told me. I never lied to anyone.

“From that, the media have decided that they are the most amazing experts at investigations. There’s a reason why detectives in Honolulu are some of the best in the world. I’d really appreciate it if maybe we can let them do their job. ...What has been blown out of proportion is that I was the victim and all of a sudden you’re putting all the blame on me.

“From about 11:06 to 1:27 a.m., I have no memory in my brain....

“The police will come out with the right story, so please let them do their job...”

Allenby went on to insist “There’s no way in the world that what I drank could do what I had done to me.”

As for the story he ran up a $3,400 bar tab at a strip club the same night, he says he doesn’t remember.

But the Golf Channel has compiled a timeline and, as recorded on a CCTV camera at the Amuse Wine Bar, Allenby was approached by two men and a woman.

Allenby paid his bill with his American Express card and left the bar with the three unknown people at 11:06 p.m., the channel claims, citing the footage.

Minutes later, an unknown man bought two bottles of tequila with one of Allenby’s credit cards at a nearby liquor store. The amount of fraudulent purchases has since risen to more than $20,000, Allenby said.

About 11:30 p.m., two homeless men said they found Allenby passed out on the corner, across the road from the Amuse Wine Bar. He was not injured at the time.

They then saw him again almost two hours later, at 1:15 a.m., and found him passed out on the road. He had fallen and injured his face when he fell face-first onto a rock.

In between, Allenby allegedly went to the strip club.

During the night Allenby was robbed of most but not all of his credit cards, about $800 in cash and his phone. [Megan Levy / Australian AP, Sydney Morning Herald]

--Alexander Khoroshilov became just the second Russian to win a World Cup slalom on Tuesday at the classic Schladming, Austria event, which is held at night. Khoroshilov is nearly 31 and his win came 34 years after Alexander Zhirov won four races in 1981, becoming a Soviet hero, only to die in a plane crash two years later.

--The New York Islanders are the story in hockey this year, 32-14-1, and seem on a collision course with the Rangers, 27-14-4, in the first or second round of the playoffs. But the Islanders defeated the Rangers on Tuesday, 4-1, and are 3-0 against them this season, outscoring the Blueshirts 13-4. The intense rivalry is back...a playoff matchup would be special.

--How good has Atlanta’s Kyle Korver been shooting from three-point land this season? As Ben Cohen of the Wall Street Journal observed, he has made 53.3% of his 246 shots from downtown, meaning he could become the first to ever hit more than half for a full season (min. 250 attempts).

Dana Barros, 46.4%, is the best thus far when he was with the 76ers in 1995.

Overall, Korver is hitting 51.6% of his shots from the field and 92.2% of his free throws. Only one other player in league history is a member of the 50/50/90 club...Steve Kerr (1995-96...but he only had 237 three-point attempts).

--We note the passing of figure skater Toller Cranston, 65. Cranston won six consecutive Canadian men’s figure skating championships in the 1970s, plus a bronze in the world championships and an Olympic bronze, 1976 at Innsbruck. He was more of an ice dancer, you’ll recall, but he was lackluster in the compulsories which cost him in world competitions even though he’d often win the long program.

--I failed to note last time that Jason Brown won the U.S. Men’s Figure Skating Championship, your editor being more focused on the women, you see. Brown has been criticized for still not attempting a quadruple jump in competition, which, as Philip Hersh of the Los Angeles Times writes, guarantees he has zero chance of winning a medal at the world championships or the Olympics.

--NASCAR is keeping its new championship format which created a winner-take-all final race among four drivers. I’m totally on board. It worked well last year as Kevin Harvick captured his first title.

Sprint, though, is not renewing its contract after this coming season but said it would honor the remainder of the deal.

--This one I don’t quite understand. Sam Smith paid Tom Petty songwriting royalties for Smith’s song “Stay With Me,” due to its resemblance to Petty’s 1989 hit, “I Won’t Back Down.” As noted by many sources, including NBC News and the New York Daily News, it has just come to light that there was an October out-of-court settlement, with Smith paying Petty 12.5% of the song’s profits and giving Petty writing credit.

“NBC Nightly News” put the two side-by-side and of course they seem very similar, but I don’t know. I wish I knew what Smith’s attorneys were saying on behalf of him during the process.

I think more curious is how Pharrell Williams got credit for his ‘unique’ hat when the lead singer for Jamiroquai, Jay Kay, wore it like 20 years earlier. [I’ve been YouTubing Jamiroquai a lot recently...fun group.]

Top 3 songs for the week 1/26/63: #1 “Walk Right In” (The Rooftop Singers...this one hasn’t aged well...) #2 “Hey Paula” (Paul and Paula) #3 “Go Away Little Girl” (Steve Lawrence)...and...#4 “Tell Him” (The Exciters) #5 “The Night Has A Thousand Eyes” (Bobby Vee...great tune...) #6 “My Dad” (Paul Petersen...Mouseketeer and “Jeff Stone” on the “Donna Reed Show”...) #7 “Two Lovers” (Mary Wells) #8 “Telstar” (The Tornadoes... eegads...) #9 “It’s Up To You” (Rick Nelson...another excuse to say he was so underrated and this tune is easily in my top 50 all time...) #10 “Limbo Rock” (Chubby Checker...awaiting British Invasion...)

Super Bowl Halftime Show Quiz Answers:

1967 – University of Arizona, Grambling marching bands
1968 – Grambling marching band
1969 – Florida A&M marching band
1970 – Carol Channing
1971 – Florida A&M marching band
1972 – Carol Channing and others

Next Bar Chat, Monday...let’s all hope for a great game Super Sunday.

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