Bleacher Report - Articles by Ed Berliner

Why Tiger Woods Owes No One an Explanation

Ed Berliner — Sun, 29 Nov 2009 18:06:10 -0500

The events that transpired in a rather expensive and tony neighborhood near Orlando has left us with one unavoidable question and one irrefutable answer.

Question: Why should anyone care to know the “real reason” behind Tiger Woods lost battle with a fire hydrant and nearby tree?

Answer: Because those (hopefully) few clogging the blogosphere and screaming for Tiger to allow digging around in his personal closet are exceptionally pathetic people taking up valuable land space, and who have little or no real life at all.

Take for instance the local news anchor, almost giddy following up a taped story about the incident. The standard prop was brought out and used to create even more hilarity on the set. A tabloid newspaper/bird cage carpet hawking the alleged “CHEATING SCANDAL!!!” involving Tiger Woods and a reported NYC mistress/waitress/sexting buddy.

Or the NY newspaper, itself considered something more than a little suspect in how they gather and report their version of the news. A noted columnist, who could be viewed seeking to side with public opinion and ride this wave of hysteria to another book deal, coming to the pointed conclusion that Tiger Woods needs to address this story and tell his adoring public what really went on.

No. He doesn’t.

Tiger Woods doesn’t owe anyone an explanation save the local police department, his family, close friends, and maybe a heart-to-heart with his car for having bounced it around like a pinball on the neighborhood bumpers.

In this case, Tiger Woods doesn’t owe you, his adoring fans, one single syllable of explanation.

Granted, there are instances where he can be put on the putting surface carpet and asked to explain himself.

If he puts a wicked slice into his ball on the 18th hole of the Masters and torches that next green jacket. Should he crank up another infantile tantrum when his driver fails to respond as it should. If he uncharacteristically shoves that easy putt three feet to the left and wipes out any chance your “Fantasy Golf” team crushes those of the golf neophytes at your office.

Then, feel free to intrude on his inner most psyche and seek a slice of wisdom.

CLICK HERE FOR THE REMAINDER OF THIS ARTICLE, detailing the kind of people most eager to hear more dirt on the accident, and a suggestion for those who feel a desperate need to know everything that happened.

Only Hypocrisy, Not Proof, Keeps Mark McGwire Out of the Hall of Fame.

Ed Berliner — Sun, 29 Nov 2009 17:55:45 -0500

Did Mark McGwire cheat? Did he use steroids to build his massive home run hitting frame? Is he little more than a liar when it comes to admitting what we all know is the truth?

The collective answer is obvious to anyone taking a step back from the emotional brink.

We don’t know.

And in those three words lie another answer. To the question of whether or not McGwire, the only eligible baseball player in history with over 500 home runs that is not in the Baseball Hall of Fame, should be finally given his place in Cooperstown this year.

It’s a simple answer with not a shred of ambiguity about it, and not one slice of proof to mount a cogent argument.

Yes.

Mark McGwire must be elected to and inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame.

For if he is not, then this hallowed gathering of greats should be immediately torn down and replaced with a much more fitting edifice.

A proper to monument lies, innuendo, favoritism, back door politics, back handed compliments, racism, bigotry, pay offs, rip offs, buffoonery and callous indifference.

In other words, exactly what we have today.

What I think about McGwire being elected into the Hall of Fame is unimportant. What you as fans of any type might think is also unimportant. And more to the point, what voters in this year’s election think about McGwire being allowed to take his rightful place is perhaps the least critical and vital part to this debate.

All of these varying opinions mean exactly the same.

Nothing.

CLICK HERE TO READ THE REST OF THIS ARTICLE, with comments on McGwire's greedy brother, and undisputed evidence based on other players that show why McGwire should not and cannot be kept out of the Hall of Fame.

Josh McDaniels: Better Vocal Leader Than Bill Belichick?

Ed Berliner — Sun, 29 Nov 2009 17:46:02 -0500

Stories like this just make me mad as ****.

Glad that voice-activated typing software was activated. We’ll be issuing an apology momentarily.

When I heard that the NFL Network had issued a public apology for what Denver Broncos Head Coach Josh McDaniels had said on the sidelines this week, I was really *****. Come on, what the **** was so wrong?

I mean, this is the ******* NFL isn’t it? Manly men doing manly things in a manly fashion? Beating the snot (bodily fluids seem to be permissible in this context) out of the ************ piece of **** on the other side of the ******* line.

Isn’t that what this freaking (sorry, slipped on that one) game is supposed to be all about?

Fair to say we’re not really sure what came first in this discussion. The fan’s bloodthirsty (remember the bodily fluids thing here) demand to hear every single last ******* comment made by every one of those ******** on the field, or the TV networks rush to get a little more “up close and personal”.

And doing it without sideline reporters!

Or worse, that ******* annoying Twitter thing.

This is football! Anyone sitting either in the stands or at home knows what they’re getting into here. In America, we curse and we’re better at it than anybody else in the ******* world.

OK, maybe we're still learning form the experts.

Either way, we're **** proud of it. It's a ******* scientific fact.

If you’re going to place a live microphone that close to a group of football players during a game, what do you expect? A bunch of ******* talking about who has the best kept locker stall?

If it would have been the Steelers defense on the sidelines, I could see them waxing poetic on the follicle style of Troy Polamalu. I mean, everyone around the NFL knows why he really wears his ******* hair so long.

CLICK HERE TO READ THE REST OF THIS ARTICLE. How McDaniels has surpassed Bill Belichick, why he owes no one an apology, and suggestions for anyone still unhappy with his choice of language.

Jimmie Johnson: The Most Dominating Athlete of the Decade

Ed Berliner — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 21:59:01 -0500

It remains the most intriguing, entertaining, argumentative, vexing, annoying, time-consuming, time-wasting, useless, and completely necessary debate.

Who is the greatest athlete?

All-time. Single season. Single game. Single play. I’m surprised the debate hasn’t been narrowed down to the certain juxtaposition of astrological signs in relation to the earth's tidal forces and the latest gnashing of teeth from Cubs fans.

With the second decade of the 21st century about to debut, this leaves us with the first “long-term” sports debate of the era.

Who is the single greatest and most dominating American athlete in the first decade of the 21st century?

An excellent argument can be made that this athlete fits the bill on a global scale as well. There is not one single logical discourse to the contrary.

Jimmie Johnson: Driver of the No. 48 car in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series. Winner of four consecutive season titles.

Hands-down. Not even close.

I will not waste a lot of invectives and adjectives here trying to once again convince the non-believers that racers are athletes. No matter how persuasive or logical the arguments are, I have found that there is little that can be done to remove a lifetime of athletic ignorance.

I won’t spend any time at all in noting the hours spent strapped into a bullet, at speeds greater than 200 MPH, taking forces of gravity up to six times the norm, and the incredible stress that places on the human body, both physically and mentally.

Or the physical conditioning it takes to undergo that punishment for up to five hours or more every weekend, not counting the mountain of practice hours spent under those same conditions.

No, I won’t debate that for many athletes, you make a mistake and there’s a shattered bone or two that will more than likely mend to some semblance of normalcy. While meanwhile within a split second mistake on the track can shatter a life and leave friends and families unable to ever find that semblance of normalcy again.

Let’s focus instead on what Johnson has accomplished. In one of the most physically and mentally demanding sports in the world, he has captured the most coveted prize in his sport four times.

Four consecutive times.

And now dear readers, click here for the remainder of the article and the numbers proving Johnson's dominance, which will, of course, start one whale of a debate. Yes, I am wearing my helmet.

Yankees Buy Another World Series, Here Comes Another Round Of Mistaken Whining

Ed Berliner — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 20:17:08 -0500

Three of the most hysterical, knee-slapping, laugh out loud moments of mirth witnessed recently.

1. WAC Commissioner Karl Benson’s statement about the Boise State Broncos: “They certainly have established themselves as a credible, legitimate, bona fide top 10 team.”

— No offense to the coaches, players, fans and the guy who dipped too deep into the mushrooms just before suggesting a blue playing surface, but the day a college football team makes a run at the national title playing such powerhouses as Hawaii, Bowling Green and Tulsa is the day Megan Fox announces her intention to join a convent.

2. Actress Sarah Jessica Parker on life with her two surrogate-born daughters around the house: “I love the smell of diapers; I even like when they’re wet and you smell them all warm like a baked good.”

— A hand up now from the parents of every newborn who wakes in the morning, take a deep breath and immediately thinks, “Mmmmm, croissants!”

3. Sports reporters, writers, commentators, hangers-ons, haters, whiners, weasels, wheezers and geezers falling over themselves to be first in resurrecting the age-old standby about buying a title when a certain team wins the World Series.

— It’s one of those stories always hanging around in the folder marked “Pre-Vacation”. Others waiting to be used when inspiration is lacking include “Pete Rose & The Hall of Fame”, “NFL & Guns: The Case of (Insert Player Name Here)”, and “Best & Worst Sports Movies of All Time”.

And there they were, the very next morning after the Yankees proved they were the best team in baseball by defeating the—as I heard one breathless reporter call them—“the gritty, earthy and tenacious Philadelphia Phillies”.

Hmm. Must have missed one of those story titles in the back of the folder. But I digress.

Yes, the NY Yankees did indeed buy their World Series Championship. They used their considerable fiscal clout to outspend, out hustle, and out promote themselves to every star player they could find as the one team that could win it all. If the Yankees weren’t a baseball franchise, they would be a group of businessmen determined to spend insane amounts of cash in a drunken spree designed to win the fight. And, of course, to prove to detractors and foul enemies they don’t need no stinking permission to keep writing checks paid for by the working-class man and woman.

For some reason I have this urge to book a trip to visit Washington, D.C. Oh well, I digress once again.

To slam the Yankees for buying a World Series title is comparable to chastising lions in the wild. Those feasting on anything too slow, too cumbersome, and lacking in intelligence. The easy prey that fails to learn how to mix intelligence with a better use of their surroundings to either not be devoured whole or, when possible, use what is at hand in the wild to turn the hunter into the hunted.

Let’s put this into baseball parlance.

Why the Yankees can't be blamed by anyone for buying a World Series title, franchises that are more damaging to the game, and the people who should be taken to task when it comes to MLB money. Those comments and the rest of this article available by clicking here. Comments welcome, of course.

The Only Way To Stem the Stench in Oakland Is To Strip Franchise from Al Davis

Ed Berliner — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 22:35:34 -0500

At the end of the day, the National Football League is just another business operating a franchise.

From time to time, every corporation is saddled with a franchise owner who becomes at the very least an embarrassment, at the very worst an insult to the company and it’s customers.

You’ve seen these pigsty purveyors in every walk of life. The fast food franchise, where rats and Roquefort dressing vie for equal counter space. The 24/7 convenience stores, where roaches rival those hot dogs sizzling in the midnight artificial sun. The home maintenance company that promises to deliver “Service, Satisfaction and Smiles” yet succeeds only in having Moe, Larry and Curly show up at the door.

When it comes to dealing with franchises such as these, the Corporate owners promise that these consumer connected clowns either get in line, provide a solid product at the level of excellence promised, or face the hounds of franchise revocation hell.

Taking all this into account, and if the NFL was truly a corporate entity honestly and sincerely concerned with how their product is produced and distributed to the consumer, while at the same time seeking to insure that consumer receives a level of excellence for their dollar, then there would be only one course of action for them to follow.

Strip Al Davis of his Oakland Raiders ownership. Then find someone who isn’t willing to let the fetid stench of mediocrity be combined with figuratively having someone in the kitchen spit in the entrée before it’s served.

Of course, we all know this isn’t going to happen. The NFL isn’t about to publicly embarrass one of their “legacy owners”, despite the fact his time as a franchise owner has been marked by equal parts brilliance and buffoonery.

Some frank comments about Tom Cable and his part in this nightmare, the type of owner even Raiders fans would welcome, and a moment from the Cable hiring press conference that proves Al Davis is a cancer to Oakland football. All featured in the remainder of this comment at "The Examiner" and available by clicking here.

Steve Phillips, ESPN, and Sex: A Bonanza For Rumor-Mongering Lemmings

Ed Berliner — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 15:15:00 -0400

The current story about ESPN analyst Steve Phillips making the rounds is a prime example of what’s truly wrong with this society, and how web sites purporting to report news and instead dealing in little more than salacious gossip pollute the Internet like so much toxic waste.

It’s not about what Phillips did.

Rather about the hysteria in following a story where one thing is inescapably apparent to anyone with a single brain cell firing.

This is not legitimate news worth covering past a one-time notice and nothing more.

This is not something any legitimate news outlet should spend one millisecond digging into, now that the initial story has been noted and documented.

This is absolutely nothing legitimate to waste a single syllable on past this initial reporting.

And therein lies the one word we need to focus on.

Legitimate.

Phillips has been forced to take a leave of absence from ESPN after allegations of having an affair with a much younger female network employee has come to public life. This is not the first time an ESPN baseball analyst has apparently been playing in the company pool, as we learned in the Harold Reynolds incident and subsequent firing.

Let’s take a step back here for a moment and break this down to its simplest form, shall we?

This is a story reaching hysterical proportions on a number of web sites carrying with them the tag of being very questionable when it comes to any real journalistic reporting skills. Yet are often taken as bible by more than a few people who disregard facts and checking sources as a necessary part of the reporting process. Most notably these web sites exist for little more than seeking to gloat over the more established and reputable networks. Fabricating and commenting on stories and links used to plumb the depths of rumor, innuendo and personal attacks. Or because they have an ax to grind with ESPN and play childish games.

This is a story focusing on a former baseball player who talks about baseball on a cable sports network.

A former jock tossing out his opinions on the sport he played. On a cable network.

(CONTINUED)

The remainder of this commentary, featuring Phillips history, the ESPN response, and a reference to Bill Clinton's sexual dalliance, is available by clicking here.

NFL Double Standard On Rush Limbaugh Ownership

Ed Berliner — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 16:07:22 -0400

The truth is out there. All you have to do is ask the right questions.

(Q) Can anyone prove that Rush Limbaugh actually said “slavery built the South” and that the “streets were safer after dark” because of it?

(A) No. This is the “quote” that became the lynchpin of every mass media feeding frenzy and the standard line of introduction to the story. However, all of the pseudo-journalists, pundits and media narcissists failed to use the first rule of covering any story. Check the facts. And when it comes to source material, have at least two credible sources to verify the story. There is no substantive proof Limbaugh ever made this statement or anything like it. No one has been able to cite audio, video, print or tarot card it came from.

(Q) Has Limbaugh made statements in the past that could be construed as racist, bigoted, and/or hateful?

(A) Yes. The key word here is “construed”. Those who check facts cannot cite an instance where Limbaugh said he hates people of any race, creed or color. But words are dangerous things, and how they are used and in what context can relay any number of emotions and intents.

One of the more slipshod manners of reporting the news is to use material, whether it’s audio, video, photo or print, out of context. President Barack Obama has certainly learned this first hand when reading some of the words being attributed to him. Here’s where we run into the next issue of fact versus hyperbole.

Limbaugh has been quoted by news reporters and news organizations with the following: “In President Obama’s America, white children get beaten up on school buses by blacks.” However, when one checks the tape of that specific show, this is not what Limbaugh said.

He was, in fact, employing license of his own in commenting about the Newsweek”cover dated September 14th, where a white baby was on the cover with the words “Is Your Baby Racist?” Limbaugh did indeed fan the racial flames during his show by pitting black against white on the political landscape, which was certainly a pointed use of race in making an argument. As with any broadcast or written pundit of any political affiliation, Limbaugh often is viewed as insulting. But as the non-partisan Media Research Center has revealed, quite often Limbaugh’s comments are taken completely out of context.

Read the remainder of this article with comments on the response of NFL African-American players, and the obvious one-sided double standard being promoted by the NFL in the rest of this commentary here.

Dallas Cowboys: The Most Embarrassing Franchise in the NFL

Ed Berliner — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 09:29:43 -0400

There are four winless teams in the NFL this season, and none of their addresses end in Dallas.

When it comes to the monetary ability to select and sign the finest talent, they are among the League elite.

Perhaps no greater sporting palace rises anywhere on the planet.

There are fewer proud American athletic standards to bear, aided by a loyal fan base among the most rabid in professional sports.

All of which can lead to one inescapable conclusion.

The Dallas Cowboys are the most embarrassing franchise in the NFL.

The impetus for this statement came while I was in a somewhat packed watering hole Sunday, the only place I could view the later afternoon games without having to (A) be forced to watch the pathetic local drivel being shoveled thanks to NFL broadcast rules, and (B) view the games without having to be bound and gagged by the fiscal extortion of buying the entire season via satellite in order to view only the really important and interesting games.

Down the field streaks Miles Austin with the game-winning touchdown in OT against Kansas City, and the previously moribund Dallas fans in attendance celebrated as if the recipient of one free beer at the new Texas Stadium, which in some portions of the Lone Star State is worth the same as six months mortgage.

That’s when I noticed one member of the faithful, wearing Cowboys colors and just another dozen serving of fried pickles away from the next triple-bypass, parade around the establishment screaming not words of praise for his team.

Rather a continuous chorus of “F--- YOU” to anyone within spitting distance, accompanied by both middle fingers raised aloft to punctuate a dance soon to be banned faster than the Lambada.

This beer soaked simpleton, and plenty of his conspirators, were giddy and face-shoving those IQ point fingers celebrating a victory.

Over the then 0-4, and now 0-5, Kansas City Chiefs.

A team 29th in Total Offense. 29th in Total Offense.

Committing two turnovers. Thirteen penalties.

Needing overtime to defeat one of the worst teams in the NFL.

Pathetic.

The remainder of this article and the reasons behind how the Cowboys reached this state of embarrassment can be read and commented on here.

The David Ortiz Case: Time To Stop Blaming Everyone Else

Ed Berliner — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 12:03:53 -0400

The time has long since passed to point a finger of guilt at the one person who is truly to blame for the steroid mess that has gripped Major League Baseball.

You. Me, every single loyal fan of the game.

As the story settles in that David Ortiz, one of the most likable and genial players of the game, tested positive for the use of performance enhancing drugs, (or more to the point in this acronym and initialized sensationalist news world we have become drones to, PED’s), blame is running more rampant than the drugs themselves.

And it’s fascinating to watch this theater of trickle down effect as it plays out....again.

Bud Selig is to blame for being a spineless and complicit Commissioner, allowing such a travesty to happen on his watch. After all, he was and remains one of "them", the guys who at the end of the day are living in several mansions and choking down illegal Cuban cigars.

"Them", of course, are the owners. Every single one bears a lion’s share of blame for keeping their mouths shut and wallets open at a time when fans and money were pouring into the pockets like so much manna from baseball heaven.

The media was too busy sucking up to the players and those very owners for their daily game stories and often useless pieces of drivel. All they were doing was filling air time and killing trees with nothing of substance.

I will give you all these points as givens. Inarguable and cast in stone.

But they are all merely matters of convenience. It’s time we as fans shut our mouths and took the heat we so richly deserve and have earned.

Back in the 60’s and 70’s we all knew players were popping those little diet pills to stay awake on long road trips. It was no secret that they were slamming back a few, before the games themselves to put a little extra jack in their step. Former major leaguer John Milner even spoke of getting his "greenies" from Willie Mays and Willie Stargell.

We complained, but we kept buying tickets.

In the 80’s it was as if someone opened the flood gates on nose candy. Players were stuffing anything and everything up their noses, as salaries skyrocketed and arrogance prevailed. Dave Parker, Lee Mazzilli, Keith Hernandez, and Tim Raines just a few of the notable names hauled in front of a Grand Jury investigating rampant drug use.

We screamed about how these role models were ruining our children with visions of being famous and getting away with illegal drug use.

But...we kept buying tickets.

We now know the 90’s and into the 21st century are polluted by the specter of muscle and performance enhancing additives. Steroids became fat contract laden accessories and a necessity if you wanted to succeed. Players were bending over for injections in their derriere, and we were bending, learning how to accept it as just another part of the game.

We are indignant now that not one, but two World Series titles have been tainted. We wonder how such a teddy bear like "Big Papi" could have lased out at drug users one day, and then wind up caught in the PED nets the next.

We watch. We listen. We use sports talk radio as our verbal therapy, slapping blame on players, coaches, trainers, locker room attendants, owners, hot dog vendors, and whoever else happens to be close by.

But we are the ones who buy the tickets, tee-shits, jerseys, hats, overpriced beers, and skyrocketing parking spaces.

We are the ones, whether individually or via another band of corrupt politicians, who green light the building of baseball palaces at the public's expense.

We are the ones who put a sly smile on the face of every owner, agent, players' union representative, TV network official, and Commissioner. The ones who know they can spit in eye of these suckers and cash another check.

We are the ones who give them a very public, very obvious, and very solid "thumbs up" to proceed in any manner possible.

Just give us a winner, a few hours of entertainment, and whatever you do, it’s OK by us.

We are just as complicit in the steroid era as anyone else.

And just like them, we’re all cowards in looking for someone else to blame.

More audio interviews with baseball commentators and reporters on the MLB steroid issue now playing at "Stone Cold Sports".

David Ortiz spring training 2009 interview calling for harsh punishment of steroid users.

Mike Shalin: Everyone is guilty in the steroid era.

Murray Chass: Proof that fans could care less about MLB steroids.

Misquoted and Misconstrued, Brennan Nails It On Andrews Videotape

Ed Berliner — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 17:45:20 -0400

The sports frat house and their cadre of minions who hear only what they want to hear have taken on the wrong person this time.

“USA Today” sports reporter Christine Brennan has been on the front lines of these battles over female sports reporters for almost thirty years, and not even being misquoted or mocked by infantile talk radio Neanderthals will cause her to back down.

I won’t waste a lot of time here rehashing this contrived controversy, rather address some of the more salient points which are, of course, lost amidst the mad media rush to sensationalized judgment.

Brennan’s original opinion posted on her Twitter account was spot-on correct. “Women sports journalists need to be smart and not play to the frat house. There are tons of nuts out there”.

Indeed there are. And those nuts, for the most part, are the ones who not only create but flock like Viagra-starved lemmings to every list of “Hottest Babes” or “Slinkiest Sexy Sportscasters” lists polluting the Internet and radio station web sites.

The ones most sought after by radio and TV advertisers because of their youth, their buying power, desire for things that go fast in the night, and conveniently absent morals. You know the type.

The ones who actually believe that woman in the shower with Danica Patrick would desire their manly ability to name all the hobbits in “Lord of the Rings”. First and last names, of course.

At no time, even reading between the lines with an electron microscope, did Brennan at any time indicate nor even hint that Erin Andrews’ “deserved” to have a video taken of her by some peephole smut merchant that undoubtedly saw either dollar signs or the much coveted “You Tube” hit meter heading north.

Even the hint of such an allegation is laughable and, as is usually the case in these matters, spit out by those who have not a shred of knowledge about the actual situation or the person involved.

I have known and worked alongside Christine Brennan in the neighborhood of thirty years, beginning with our membership in the Miami press corps. Back then, when I was about 12 or 13, we were all squeezed into an Orange Bowl locker room the size of a modern NFL player’s bathroom trying to get those milliseconds of post game brilliance from the players.

Christine was one of the very first female sports reporters in the country to gain access to the all-male football frat house, and the movement could not have been represented better. She stood her ground and was every second a professional as players and even some fellow media members of the male persuasion snickered and joked.

That’s just part of what to this day has kept her held in extremely high regard by everyone in the sports reporting trade. She remains one of the very best this business has to offer, and paid her dues to get there.

There are far too many female sports journalists who believe the road to respectability is paved with push-up bras and snuggling up to athletes with more than an interview in mind. In the same breath, there are far too many TV station and network executives who force female reporters in both news and sports to accentuate their positives, and I don’t mean writing skills.

I have watched from the insider’s perspective as some very good female reporters careers were derailed thanks to consultants and demographics experts who made them repeat the mantra, “Style over substance”, instead of the proper manner in which it was long taught.

Women sports journalists do have be a lot smarter than their male counterparts, though I have encountered more than a few male sports reporters who wouldn’t know the difference between a double-dip and a dipstick. Brennan has remained tireless in her efforts speaking to younger woman and impressing upon them that very same concept, not playing to the “frat house”.

Any of these bellowing Internet ranters who bothered to take a few seconds to look into Brennan’s background will easily discover she has used that phrase for many years, each time in educating a new generation in how to respect not only a profession, but themselves first and foremost.

Christine Brennan is a good friend and a respected journalist. She doesn’t need my help in convincing anyone of her professionalism and devotion to her craft.

She also doesn’t deserve the criticism heaped upon her by the single-digit IQ Internet fraud “journalists”. The ones who use something like this the same way television executives use those young female reporters unfortunate enough to have their job depend on cleavage tape and tight jeans.

Playing to the original nuts in the frat house.

Veteran network sportscaster & journalist Ed Berliner's exclusive interview with Christine Brennan can be heard at "Stone Cold Sports".

ESPN, Ben Roethlisberger, and Betraying a Sacred Trust

Ed Berliner — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 20:51:29 -0400

There are those who will insist that I am about to commit professional broadcast suicide.

I would prefer to think of it as one man’s efforts to convince those in a position of authority to do what is right in the spirit of every reputable news reporting organization and those who believe in what those words stand for.

Report the facts without prejudice, bias, or possible conflict of interest.

ESPN has been for some time, and will remain, the 30,000 pound gorilla in the middle of the broadcast media room. It will sit where it wants to sit, eat when and what it wants to devour, flex its considerable muscle in any way, shape, or form it desires.

There will be no one willing or able to stop it.

Save the will and whim of the viewing public. And in this case, the public should speak loudly and clearly.

Report the news as it happens. Not what you believe your version of it should be. Or in this case, when you believe a version should be told.

Pittsburgh Steelers QB Ben Roethlisberger was recently accused of raping a woman while staying at a Lake Tahoe hotel-casino in 2008. The 31-year-old woman was a VIP host at the hotel and claims Roethlisberger lured her to his hotel room under the pretense of a broken television set, and then proceeded to force him upon her and sexually assault her.

Thru his attorney, Roethlisberger vehemently denies the allegation, as one would expect. The woman, despite more than a few media reports about her alleged mental instability, insists she was raped.

Allegations such as these must be taken seriously under any circumstances. According to statistics from the “Rape, Abuse and Incest National Network” (RAINN), someone is sexually assaulted every two minutes in America.

Other numbers reveal only 37% of all rapes are ever reported to police, which speaks to the humiliation and time it takes to muster enough strength to even talk about the act. The fact her reporting the alleged attack took one entire year is questionable but not unheard of.

On the other side of this coin, high profile individuals, especially athletes, are easy targets for such allegations. These in spite of the fact more than a few of them are foolish enough to place themselves in situations where events such as these can happen or can be fabricated.

We have seen too often where accusations such as these are nothing more than “shakedown” attempts by very convincing con-artists.

The woman involved never went to the authorities with her story, and has waited until now to file a lawsuit seeking hundreds of thousands of dollars in damages. Thus, police in Nevada have no intention of beginning a criminal investigation at this time.

At first blush, the story does indeed seem more than a little shaky. However, it is still a story, and must be reported as such. This is the job of every legitimate news-reporting organization.

I received a call from a colleague who works for ESPN, informing me there was a strict order from management this story was to receive no airtime on any ESPN program and would not be mentioned on their website.

No exceptions.

As far as ESPN was concerned, the story never happened. Their reasoning was that, according to “reliable sources”, they were told the story was untrue and reporting it would mean airing an erroneous story.

In the scope of reporting the news in a fair and balanced manner, and in the arena of every journalistic ethic, this is very poor and questionable excuse.

The news value here is exactly what was contained in that memo. If indeed ESPN had solid and reliable information that the story was false, that is exactly what every news organization leaps at.

An “exclusive”.

Information refuting a story that was carried on every legitimate news wire service and reporting organization.

I have since spoken with several colleagues at ESPN, and all have expressed the exact same dismay with management. Each one said that without a doubt, this was a solid news story to begin with, and their information made reporting the story with that source material all the more important. As one person said, “we really come off looking like idiots hiding something”.

ESPN finally relented and placed a “status alert” on Roethlisberger’s fantasy stats section of their web offering noting that, according to “the Pittsburgh Channel”, whomever that is, he had been accused of “sexually assaulting a Nevada hotel employee”.

And I am told this note was added apparently only to inform fantasy players that because of this incident, Roethlisberger’s status for Week One of the NFL season might change.

ESPN should now explain itself to those legions of viewers and loyalists. The brand name is one that must be respected, but in this case seriously questioned. ESPN owes not only the viewers, but their own employees an explanation about conflict of interest.And certainly about whether they can be trusted in the future to honestly and without fail tell those stories it may not agree or have a fiduciary connection with.

ESPN and ABC are both owned by the Disney Corporation. Roethlisberger is set to appear on Shaquille O’Neal’s new show, which is carried by ABC.

ESPN is also in a very lucrative arrangement with the NFL, and this could be seen as seeking to contain any damage that might befall Roethlisberger, the Steelers, the NFL, ESPN, and everyone’s bank account.

The excuse remains transparent and poorly handled. The reasoning behind it not sound under any circumstance for any news organization. And the stain it leaves on hard working journalists both in and outside the scope of Bristol, Connecticut is tough to remove.

Are you really delivering the news, or your version of it?

How ironic this happens within days of the death of Walter Cronkite, a broadcast journalism pioneer who always said the most important thing for a news reporter was to be honest and forthright at all times.

Lessons, it would seem, that still need to be taught and learned well beyond his passing.

Veteran network sportscaster Ed Berliner can be heard with exclusive comments and interviews from reporters, commentators and notable sports figures at "Stone Cold Sports".

UFC 100: Damn, P.T. Barnum Would Be Proud

Ed Berliner — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 00:02:01 -0400

When it comes to sports, we are all such a soft touch.

Major League Baseball knew all about steroids and PEDs long before vials of the stuff were found in various locker rooms. They knew that TV ratings-grabbing, attendance increases, and front page headlines blaring home runs were more chemical fabrications than good hand-eye coordination.

And we played right into their hands and helped every owner, while more than a few players grab fat contracts and stuff those bank accounts.

Rubes.

When owners of the LA Galaxy squired Posh Spice and Posh Beckham around town promising a pro soccer title, saying they would be residing among the palm trees and Botox-riddled stars of Hollywood, cash registers were ringing with ticket sales, souvenir jerseys, and monogrammed push-up bras.

Chumps.

When the cable and broadcast networks beholden to and share in the NBA’s cash windfall drilled into our collective skulls, beginning last October, how this was “THE YEAR” and there was “NO WAY HUMANELY POSSIBLE” LeBron James could be denied his coronation as King this season, the roundball experts lemmings dutifully took many a rube on that swan dive into the waters of agreement.

Easy mark.

This brings us to this weekend past and the event heralded as the worldwide hammer being dropped on an unsuspecting populace known as “UFC 100."

A landmark in the evolution of a sport that began in poorly-lit barrooms featuring men, and in some cases women who looked and acted like men, thrown into makeshift rings or steel cages to deliver blows that could (and did in some cases) turn brains into the consistency of warm jello.

Now, though, it's a legitimate sporting event captivating millions around the world. Bare(ly) covered knuckles, precise kicks to the body, leg-driven headlocks, and what at times to the uninitiated looks like two men on the floor in positions that would be better suited for textbooks written by extraterrestrials studying this planet, Mating Rituals of the Terran Biped.

But take nothing away from the UFC, for it has grown exponentially this last decade into a monetary powerhouse, there is perhaps no sports-related organization that has marketed itself more perfectly.

Knowing exactly what the current generation of aggressive men (and women) wants from their sporting dollar, the UFC has delivered in spite of those critics who still insist on calling it "human cockfighting."

Those are the people who harbor a not so quiet and not so secret jealousy of the UFC. Wishing they had tapped into this audience and bought their first island hideaway with cash.

Hell, I wish I had thought of it first.

But like so many other sports events, organizations, leagues, gatherings, you name it, the UFC has now become just like the rest. And in many ways has become exactly what they vowed never to become.

Their top drawing fighter is a former college wrestler, artisan from the wonderfully acted and scripted WWE, “cup of coffee” NFL training camp bad boy in Brock Lesnar. Elevated to the rank of “top ranked contender” with less than a half-dozen fights to his record, Lesnar was and is a marketer's dream.

A money machine with tattoos, a buzz cut, and attitude.

In other words, unlike hundreds of others who once believed they could actually fight their way to the top, Lesnar is a staged maniac with which you can print money at an astounding rate.

And did he ever deliver.

Millions paying anywhere from $45 to $55 for the right to watch the (was that real blood?) flow from the ring in Las Vegas.

And then, seconds after pummeling Frank Mir’s face into something only a lawnmower salesman could love, Lesnar “stunned” everyone with a raucous taunting of Mir. Vulgar hand gestures to the crowd signifying they were indeed his “No. 1” fans, loudly slapping at the official beer sponsor because they wouldn’t pay him for chugging their product.

Even announcing he might have sex with his wife that night. Of course, it was a tad more colorful in real life.

UFC President Dana White is outraged. He backs Lesnar down in a corner after the fight. Severely admonishes his actions. Rips him a new one. Tears into him. Denounces what he did. Apologizes to everyone he could think of, especially that lucrative PPV crowd.

Drowns himself and his beloved sport in sack cloth and ashes.

And makes sure to tell everyone in attendance, around the world, and those who are thinking of shelling out for the next PPV event, “This isn’t the WWE!!!”

Suckers.

Veteran National Sports Reporter Ed Berliner can be heard with exclusive interviews and debates with other notable sports reporters, columnists and athletes at "Stone Cold Sports", where he continues to incite the masses.

Berliner also continues to challenge UFC President Dana White to a "Rock 'em, Sock 'em" robots battle at the next UFC PPV, but White has thus far chickened out.

Why Steve McNair Deserves No Sympathy

Ed Berliner — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 10:47:39 -0400

I have a wealth of respect for what Steve McNair accomplished as an athlete.

No one can take away his obvious football skills, his passion for winning, and his on-field leadership qualities under difficult circumstances.

I have a similar wealth of disdain and a total lack of sympathy for McNair as a husband, a father, and what led to his being murdered.

In light of what has now been revealed by Nashville police, McNair died cheating on his wife, making a decision that will leave his four children without a father and likely believing, as many celebrities and star athletes do, that they are above the laws governing the rest of us.

Sahel Kazemi knew what she was getting into and apparently had no issues dating a married man. Then again, it’s all too often we hear about young girls being wooed by older, mature, wealthier men, who sometimes have a smidgen of celebrity to go along with the rest.

We will never know if McNair was continuously feeding her the classic line about being prepared to leave his wife, if he was honest with her about simply wanting to make the occasional house call, or if flat-out lied about the circumstances surrounding a tryst that began when he was 35 and she was 19.

We also will never know Kazemi’s exact motives for becoming involved with this much older, married man. Completely smitten with his good looks and pro athlete reputation, she may have sought to break up what may or may not have been a marriage on the rocks, or perhaps she just enjoyed the monetary fruits of a relationship that included a Cadillac Escalade sport utility vehicle as a gift.

All of this is speculation, and with both McNair and Kazemi dead, that is for the most part what it will remain.

Of course, we have heard so many eloquent words of heartfelt, genuine pain and sorrow expressed from those who knew McNair as a friend and teammate.

However, here in a world where celebrities and sports heroes are placed on pedestals and often used as those who could inspire us to greater heights, we too often seek to avoid speaking ill of the deceased—believing that now gone, we should focus on remembering the good things he was and what he left behind. These are the things that will make a difference to those who admire him.

Then let us make a real and honest difference here and now with McNair. Let’s ensure that along with his immense ability on the football field, we tell the truth and hope his legacy will make a difference to young athletes, young men, in ways other than being able to run, catch, and throw.

Cheating on his wife—whom McNair apparently lied to so well, she had no idea he was having an affair nor even thought about divorce—he was killed in his sleep by a distraught and apparently jealous girlfriend.

This was a young woman so emotionally unstable that when fearful McNair was dating another woman, she was able to illegally purchase a 9 mm semiautomatic pistol, indicating the intent to kill; who, according to police, told a friend one day before the murder-suicide that “My life is a ball of s**t and I should end it."

McNair placed himself in that illicit relationship. McNair’s actions put him on that couch. There is no one to blame but McNair, who would be alive today if he honored the woman he married, refused to be a liar and cheat, and actually cared about the welfare of those four sons who will now live without a father.

Sons who will also live forever with the knowledge their father died while ignoring the things in life that truly make a man more of a hero than winning games.

Being a loving husband. Being a good father.

In the end, McNair was neither.

Veteran network sportscaster Ed Berliner can be heard with exclusive interviews and commentary at "Stone Cold Sports," which also features links to sports news of note from all 50 states.

Only Fools Will Question The Legacy Of Kobe Or Superman

Ed Berliner — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 22:11:28 -0400

Join me, true believers, as we delve into one specific and fascinating element of the NBA Finals. Past the standard “who will win”, “keys to the game”, and the always scintillating post-game line of questioning that begins with the words “were you surprised when…..?”

Win or lose, this Series will define the legacy of Kobe Bryant.

I thought it best to start this column with the most ludicrously inane statement of the bunch, because you can bet your last aging sneaker it won’t be the last time this one crosses the line of common sense.

It’s easy to tell when the person you’re speaking to or hearing as they call themselves NBA experts or analysts knows little or next to nothing about basketball or even playing a team game at even an average level.

The moment discussion comes up about Kobe’s three previous Title rings and how they count less because of the team around him at the time.

More to the point, because Shaq was the “real” leader of the team and without him there would have been no Championship run from 2000 to 2002.

I cannot tell you how often this line of absurdity makes it into what could ostensibly be intelligent conversation. It’s as if all Bryant did was stand around and polish O’Neal’s MVP trophies.

Try this one on for size. Shaq owes his three Title rings to Kobe Bryant, and to consider he would still be wearing them without Bryant on the roster is like considering Jack Nicholson attending a Lakers game without his sunglasses. Unthinkable.

The basketball twits who insist this would be Kobe’s first “real championship” or one he will have “earned by himself”, both comments I have heard on sports talk mumble within the last week, is moronic at best.

Kobe Bryant’s championship legacy is well set in stone already and is beyond question.

Win or lose, this Series will define the legacy of Dwight Howard.

Win and the NBA’s most underrated player will finally have broken through and led his team to a Title. Lose, and some of those same weekend pundits will spout with an air of superiority how they knew all along Howard could never crack the superstar ceiling.

And again, they would be alarmingly wrong. Should the Magic fall short, the only thing that can said about Howard at this stage of his career is how many more chances he will hopefully be granted to wear that ring. But his legacy will be alive and still rolling.

At 23 years of age Howard is already a 3-time All Star, a Defensive Player of the Year, holds seven records as the youngest ever in NBA History for such mundane marks as nailing 5000 rebounds in a career, carding a double-double, and leading the league in blocked shots.

Oh yes, and he’s also one of the absolute nicest guys you will ever meet. Humble, hard working, endlessly gives back to kids and the community, and looks great in a Superman cape.

Simply due to luck of the draw and depending on such things as free agency, salary caps, and what he wants in life, Dwight Howard may never have the opportunities of a Kobe Bryant.

But anyone who underrates this guy knows as much about basketball as the geniuses who staked their reputations on the knowledge there was no way LeBron and Cleveland could miss on a Finals berth this season.

Dwight Howard’s NBA legacy is well set in stone already and has nowhere to go but up.

Bur fear not. One will lose in these Finals and will be excoriated by the weekend wankers as a fraud, unable to rise to the occasion, or a loser.

Likely the same “insiders” still backing up on the Cavs loss. And being faced with what could indeed be a truly legendary Final.

Or at the very least, one that should be great fun to watch.

Veteran National sportscaster Ed Berliner fears no man, woman or talk show host when it comes to opinions, and is thankful when people read every word before filing snappy retorts. He can be heard along with the widest variety of reporters, writers, columnists and analysts at "Stone Cold Sports".

Stone Hard Opinion. Ice Cold Bias. No Prisoners.

Magic vs. Lakers: Best Finals Possible Despite "Expert" Predictions

Ed Berliner — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 18:23:18 -0400

My favorite time of every sports season. The Final series. Final games. Action packed. Thrill a second. Rollercoaster ride of emotion. Pressure filled environment. "Win or go home." "Never back down." "Give me Liberty or Give me Death."

I seem to have gone just a tad overboard on the sports hyperbole portion of the editorial. Nonetheless, I have fulfilled my quota of “sports editorial clichés” and now move on to more pressing matters.

Prior to the beginning of the NBA Finals between the LA Lakers ("bandwagon") and the Orlando Magic ("upstarts"), allow me to dispense with some of the more ponderous statements, claims, and misrepresentations of sporting fact we are likely to be bombarded with over the next week and change.

Orlando will suffer stage fright due to a roster filled with first time NBA Finals players

After all these guys have been through in the last few weeks, especially defeating the "Anointed One," Lebron James? The first time someone either lays out or takes in an elbow, that nervous twitch is history. The only reason this line stays alive is thanks to media types who have taken sharp elbows only at the dinner table from a cousin third-removed asking the gravy boat.

The only real stage fright in the Finals will be from another in a long line of really bad National Anthem singers destined to step up in one game and butcher the song. Though I’m not sure which is worse, the ones who can’t carry a tune or the ones who try to turn it into a one person, badly acted, badly performed, and badly phrased lounge act. Oh, and by the way, the word is "ramparts." Just trying to help.

Kobe, Phil Jackson, and the Lakers will quickly expose the Magic as a fluke team in these Finals

Undoubtedly stated by someone still either under the magic (pun intended) thrall of hype that surrounded LeBron and his cavalier band of merry men all season long, on LeBron’s payroll as a third-string sock changer who won’t be getting a free trip to the post-game parties, or the cable network that will now have to dispose of all those Kobe and LeBron hand puppets at a discount.

A fluke did not allow LeBron to get his points most of the time but then deny him gutting out the clutch baskets late in a game. A fluke did not stop some misguided writers from comparing LeBron vs. Kobe to MJ vs. Bird. Honestly, someone actually said that. And a fluke did save Orlando from forever being being known not for sports, but for Mickey, Minnie, Spider-Man, The Hulk, and Geritol sold by the discounted case.

With Kobe at the helm, the Lakers have to be big favorites to roll over the poor Magic

So let me see if I have this one straight. The Lakers would have been in for a tough fight against a team with one great player and a very suspect bench than against a team with the most underrated superstar in the NBA, Dwight Howard, and a bench that, unlike Cleveland’s, wasn’t populated with candidate for 15-day contracts?

Again, you are likely to hear this pearl of wisdom from those who picked Cleveland to "make the Magic disappear" or "head for Disney World without the Main Street parade" (yes, I again heard both of these spoken by so-called geniuses), or that same band of network prognosticators who are all getting LBJ and KB puppets for holiday gifts this season. Several pairs.

This series will be better than Cavs-Lakers because it actually features the two best teams in the NBA and not the beneficiaries of schedules, injuries, hoopla, or the Oliver Stone look-a-likes who can waste hours about David Stern and the referees "fixing the Series" to get the best TV matchup.

They didn’t need to fix anything. Not this time. It won’t get any better than this.

Veteran network sportscaster Ed Berliner can be heard debating sports with the widest variety of reporters,commentators,analysts and athletes at "Stone Cold Sports".

John Calipari: Winner, Wildcat, Liar

Ed Berliner — Fri, 29 May 2009 16:13:59 -0400

If we take the evidence into account when forming an opinion, there can only be one conclusion.

John Calipari is a liar.

When we listen to the statements made by school officials and take them at face value, we arrive at that same conclusion.

Athletic department officials who were there during Calpari’s tenure at both the University of Massachusetts and the University of Memphis are liars.

Could we really be expected to come away with any other opinion?

Calipari left Amherst as the second-winningest basketball coach in UMass history. The Minutemen found themselves the No. 1 team in the nation for the first time. Calipari was Atlantic 10 Coach of the Year three times and National Coach of the Year in 1996. He brought them a Final Four appearance.

All of these feats helped drive plenty of sponsor dollars and alumni contributions in building their on-campus basketball and hockey arena.

Calipari also left Massachusetts a couple steps ahead of NCAA investigators, knowing full well the hammer was coming down and it wouldn’t look good on his resume.

The inquest found junior Marcus Camby pocketed $28,000 from two sports agents in a bold breach of NCAA rules. Bold but certainly not unique, as money and gifts are passed between college athletes and outside influences more often than cheat sheets are passed between certain of those athletes and their “advisers.”

UMass was busted for all 35 victories in Calipari’s final season and their Final Four appearance was left tainted forever in the record books. One can only imagine the shame inflicted upon all parties.

I pause here for a few seconds to allow the laughter time to subside.

UMass athletic department officials and mouthpieces shook their collective heads and proclaimed they had no knowledge of any wrongdoing. David Scott, who was chancellor from 1993 to 2001, came forward and assured everyone Calipari knew nothing of any off-court skulduggery. And of course, Calipari denied any cheating took place.

LOL break. (That’s “laughing out loud” for the Internet and text-message challenged).

This as he was signing that fat contract to coach the New Jersey Nets for a disastrous two seasons and change. Of course, those checks all sailed right into his bank account while UMass was punished, and Calipari again went job-shopping.

Nine years at Memphis followed, where Calipari-coached teams won 253 games, achieved nine straight 20-win seasons, and made nine consecutive postseason appearances. Calipari himself netted three more Conference Coach of the Year awards, and another National Coach of the Year kudos.

Unfortunately for Memphis, Calipari would leave more than just wins and titles in his wake.

Hot on the heels of Calipari's ascension to the rarefied air of Kentucky, boom goes the NCAA dynamite again. Former Tigers star Derrick Rose allegedly had someone take an SAT test for him, among other things.

Wait for it.

Memphis athletic department officials and mouthpieces (sound familiar?) knew nothing of any cheating going on, Calipari was blameless, and the NCAA even showed their agreement this time by sending the coach a letter saying he was off the hook.

The time for bemused laughter is over. The time is right to take this all in and return to our opinion based on the evidence.

John Calipari is a liar. Of course he knew what was going on at both UMass and Memphis. Any statement to the contrary could only be accepted as fact by someone with an IQ of seven, or a basketball star who needs to have someone else take an SAT test. They are, as you might guess, interchangeable.

Officials at both schools are liars. Knowing full well and accepting the riches Calipari brought with him to both campuses meant that even if they were caught, that lucre would be in the bank, in the new arena, and spread around selected paychecks.

Do all these people really think we’re that stupid to gather all this evidence and not arrive at the same opinion?

Of course they do. And until someone holds all the liars and cheaters accountable, they will always believe exactly that.

Veteran network sportscaster Ed Berliner joins the largest collection of sportswriters, commentators, reporters and analysts delivering exclusive unedited audio/video interviews at "Stone Cold Sports". Ed's National column can also be read at "Examiner.com".

The Indy 500: Tony George's Scorched Earth Policy Succeeding Nicely.

Ed Berliner — Fri, 29 May 2009 11:04:17 -0400

The verdict is in, and as expected, the wheels continue falling off what was once “The Greatest Spectacle in Racing”.

Once upon a Brickyard time, the Indianapolis 500 was a seminal event every year. It signaled the beginning of summer. The sheer color, excitement, and death-defying laps had a hold on even those who wouldn’t know the phrase "open wheel" from "open for business."

Not anymore. The Indy 500 has become a televised sporting event that, according to the numbers, is losing its appeal faster than the Octo-Mom.

Before the purists start tuning up and seek to have me used as a crash test dummy, let’s examine the evidence.

Overnight Neilsen ratings, which sometimes can be as accurate as balance sheets from General Motors, show a piddling 3.9 percent of TV households tuned in to see what became a fairly compelling story. That’s down 13 percent from last year, and a nightmarish 40 percent from just four years ago.

Placing these numbers in perspective, imagine a Super Bowl halftime show headlined by overseas American Idol singing sensation Susan Boyle.

One counter-argument from IndyCar racing faithful will be those same TV ratings from the NASCAR Coca-Cola 600. Before being rained out and turned into an embarrassing finish orchestrated by NASCAR, a story for another day, the often-broadcasted life-changing overnights showed that 3.5 percent of TV households were swapping view with those swapping paint.

Look deeper into those numbers. While NASCAR’s ratings for the same event were off 20 percent, the numbers over the last five years for stock car racing have been consistently better than anything Indy Car has tossed onto the asphalt.

Numbers don’t lie, unless they’re used by Major League Baseball to downplay the number of players using performance-enhancing drugs. And the numbers are both sobering and alarming.

Outside of those in attendance and the hardcore faithful, the Indy 500 is no longer important in the American sporting landscape.

Even the story lines emerging from this year’s race point to a sport where the focus of attention is more about the racy than the racing.

Danica Patrick became the highest-finishing female at the Indy 500, crossing the line third and proving she’s more than just a pretty face. And a great body. And perfect for swimsuit shoots. And shower scenes in a TV commercial.

Helio Castroneves joined an elite group by winning his third Indy 500. Of course, Castroneves has become more of a household word to non-racing fans recently by appearing on “Dancing With The Stars” and being acquitted on tax evasion charges.

Not that he didn’t show some fairly fancy and intricate moves in both cases, but you won’t be seeing Tony Stewart or Carl Edwards tripping the light somnambulist.

IndyCar racing has been turned into a one-shot spectacle by the palpable greed and avarice of almost everyone at the top of this withering food chain. As CEO of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Tony George’s ego and his use of the race as a bludgeoning tool caused the series to split several years ago and turned the racing from “must see TV” into an excuse for background noise while the burgers are burning.

He is certainly not the only to blame, but was certainly the man holding the dynamite plunger.

NASCAR is far from perfect and at present seems to be in the early throes of self-immolation itself. But those fires will be quickly doused by a loyal fan base that doesn’t have to worry, for the time being at least, about paying the freight for petulant millionaires playing with their passion as if it was Monopoly money.

There will always be an Indy 500, and the loyalists will remain as passionate as ever. There just won’t be as many to return the sport to its once legendary prominence.

Perhaps the Borg-Warner Trophy can be changed from its current shape to that of a prized fiddle. This way Tony George could stand alongside the man who obviously inspired his current leadership style.

The Roman Emperor, Nero.

Veteran network sportscaster Ed Berliner can also be read and heard at "Stone Cold Sports", where the widest variety of sports commentators,analysts,reporters and guests can be heard in unedited interviews.

Stone Hard Opinion. Ice Cold Bias. No Prisoners. Stone Cold Sports.

Absurd Allegations Against John Calipari and Memphis

Ed Berliner — Thu, 28 May 2009 13:35:23 -0400

And here I thought nothing would ever really shock me again.

Drug use. Deadbeat fathers. The passing around of pregnant girlfriends. I mean, we even have coaches and players complaining about the performance of overworked and underpaid referees!

Just when I thought I had seen and heard it all comes this: The NCAA is investigating a major university to ascertain if there were any recruiting violations by their now departed men’s basketball coach.

Go ahead and read it again. Let it sink in.

The University of Memphis is being looked at for possibly allowing and even condoning cheating in a facet of their athletic program.

Allegedly, this was done to skirt the rules of their governing body for the purpose of just getting a few more victories, maybe a shot at the National Title, along with the potential revenue that comes with it.

That in itself is shocking enough, but here’s the really astounding part: John Calipari’s name has been mentioned as a key part of the investigation.

I had the very same stunned reaction that you are experiencing at this very moment.

Thankfully, the NCAA notified Coach Calipari in a personal letter that he is not at risk of being charged with anything in relation to this incident.

I mean, seriously, how could anyone believe for a split second that a head coach, the person charged with not only the athletic, but the academic education of young, impressionable men, could even be remotely connected to something as sneaky, underhanded, and embarrassing as even a minor violation?

After all, these rules are clearly stated in black and white. Well thought out and intended solely to protect the student-athlete. Unambiguous and absent a shred of question with regard to their application and understanding.

Of course, we know from past experiences how frivolous these so-called “major violations” must be. The rules are so clearly defined.

The information age has made it just about impossible to conceal anything from anyone. Having so many people involved in any transgression means you know someone is going to talk sometime.

There are no secrets anymore, so why would anyone even want to attempt subterfuge of any kind?

Wait, there’s more. The NCAA accuses the University of Memphis of knowing all about the fixing of an SAT score for one of their players and also doing nothing to stop someone taking university funds to pay for the travel expenses of that player.

Now this is where the story goes off in so many directions that we know it has to be a mistake. Why would any dedicated student-athlete, in this case allegedly former Tigers star Derrick Rose, not be ready to take a simple SAT test on his own?

It’s always about an education first and the athletics second. Every player knows that.

And even the mere inference that this player got the school to pay for a friend’s travel expenses is preposterous.

One has to feel for John Calipari.

Dogged by these same outlandish type of reports and media hyperbole at the University of Massachusetts and now Memphis. Everybody knows he had nothing to do with Marcus Camby getting money from an agent.

The man has shown an unwavering dedication to his players and the school first, his own desires a distant second.

So fear not, true believers. The job of major colleges ensuring the life skills and education of their student-athletes will continue in the same impeccable fashion it has for decades.

Coach John Calipari will once again be exonerated and proven to be a man of high integrity and humble considerations. These allegations of cheating will be just that, nothing more than rants from those trying to stir an empty pot.

Next thing you’ll be telling me that professional baseball players are taking steroids.

Yeah, right.

Veteran network sportscaster Ed Berliner can also be read at "Examiner.com", and joins the largest and most varied collection of reporters, analysts, commentators, and guests every day at "Stone Cold Sports", where interviews are in audio and video.

Stone Hard Opinion. Ice Cold Bias. No Prisoners.

Falling Hook, Line, and Sinker for LeBron James and the Cavaliers

Ed Berliner — Wed, 27 May 2009 14:41:14 -0400

After four games of the NBA Eastern Conference Finals between Cleveland and Orlando, one thing has become exceptionally apparent.

We got suckered.

From the real experts to the faux versions, hardcore fans to the ones who wear the hats and jerseys because it’s cool, people who love the NBA to those who wouldn’t know it from the NRA.

Snookered. Hosed. Hoodwinked. Fooled. Pick your verbal poison and swallow hard.

This has been the coronation season for LeBron James. Even former Lakers great Jerry West was recently quoted that James has surpassed Kobe Bryant as the best player in the game. Of course, this comment could have been due to the fact there’s a nasty rumor going around that Kobe’s silhouette was being prepared to replace West as the symbol for the NBA.

I made that last one up, of course. But seeing as we live in the age of completely fabricated and unsubstantiated stories floating around the web like so much verbal excrement I didn’t think it would harm anyone to cause a moment of gasp and awe.

I digress.

This season would see LBJ, (the player, not the former President of course, for I doubt Lyndon Baines Johnson had much of a dunk to begin with), stand side-by-side with Michael Jordan as the most exciting, thrilling, captivating, stupendous, (wait, let me get out that book of hyperbole to see if there are any more to add here), nasty, awe-inspiring, legendary, (OK, that ought to do it), human being to ever lace up sneakers on a wooden floor.

There was even talk about LeBron going right from the NBA Title game winner to the Indians roster and save another dismal season of the “Dolan Disaster”, thus proving anything MJ could do, he could do better.

Of course when it comes to baseball that would mean getting more than two base hits in a week.

Rumor thing again. Don’t panic.

The only time that MJ-LBJ comparison yarn becomes a story is when the sports media hits a down day with nothing controversial to note, thus reaching into the bag of topics sure to always generate discussion and phone calls.

Pete Rose and the Hall of Fame. Best and worst plays in a franchise season. Megan Fox or Kim Kardashian on the “Which one would you hit first?” list. That sort of thing.

LeBron did his part and delivered a season for the ages. Single-handedly lifting the Cavaliers into title contention despite being surrounded by players in supporting roles that, without their fearless leader, would have been working on a series of 15-day contracts beginning in March.

Sweeping the Pistons and Hawks: an indication of greatness? Yeah, we bought into that one as well.

The Pistons were about as dangerous and effective as the GM Board of Directors. The Hawks were less intimidating than a Friday night in the club section of Buckhead, Ga.

Along comes the Orlando Magic. Orlando? Home of Mickey, Minnie, Shamu and more rednecks than a Jeff Foxworthy concert? Are you serious?

You bet your frozen Walt Disney ass. A real team from roster top to bottom. A head coach who has to work and scheme instead of waiting for one player to run the show. The most underappreciated player in the NBA in Dwight Howard.

Sure, I understand LeBron and mates can rally and win three consecutive games to retake their title as “The Team That Cannot Miss” this NBA season.

However, a moment of pause as I quote the great philosopher Roger Daltrey.

We don’t get fooled again.

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Michael Vick. No Sympathy. No Second Chance. No NFL.

Ed Berliner — Wed, 20 May 2009 00:11:28 -0400

The time has come to draw a permanent, solid, definitive line in the prescription athletic turf.Michael Vick never plays another down in the National Football League.As Vick is released from prison and begins his term of home confinement, the debate will only pick up speed as he inches ever closer to his meeting with Commissioner Roger Goodell, and what will undoubtedly be a scheduled and well-choreographed public self-flagellation before a packed house of media. This of course the pack of scheming vultures and self-serving NFL apologists all yearning to be the first person to ask that question, which will send Vick either over the edge in anger or into tears of remorse.Michael Vick is a killer, and one who took great pride in his bloody work. He took personal funds and invested them in the maiming and violent deaths of intelligent, caring and social animals. This was done under the heading of “entertainment” and “sport”.Sixty-six dogs were rescued in April 2007 after they were found living in squalid conditions on properties owned by Vick. Tied tightly with chains to trees, savage injuries untreated, and blood stained carpets were just a few examples of the inhumane treatment given to these animals.During the investigation, Vick had a chance to come clean and admit what he did was wrong. One sentence spoken as an adult, one taking responsibility for these heinous actions, is all it would have taken to set him on the road to forgiveness.He never uttered a single word.After being arrested, Vick had yet more opportunities to address the general public and admit his complicity in dog fighting, a felony in all but two States. Either admission would very likely have lessened his sentence and drawn sympathy from those seeking something, anything that might have been construed as regret.By this time it was too late. Certainly his lawyers knew he was guilty and ordered his silence. After being convicted, the obligatory press meeting was held where Vick spoke in low tones and apologized to everyone his handlers could think of. As has been the custom for too many of those caught and convicted for any number of crimes, the words “role model”, “young kids”, “deepest apologies”, and a reference to divine intervention were used.The NFL carries it’s own weight of shame, having allowed Leonard Little to resume playing after being convicted of manslaughter in 2001. Little was almost three times over the legal limit and got a mere 90 days in jail despite killing a woman in an accident. Six years later, arrested again for speeding and driving while intoxicated. He escaped with a misdemeanor.Playing in the NFL is not a right. It’s a privilege, supposedly granted to those who deserve it both on the field and off. At least, that’s what the PR machine tells us.The NFL continues to insist they are a family sport, concerned about their players and employees presenting the proper image to their fans and to the general public.We hear from the NFL and every other organized sport dependant on fans and sponsor dollars about how important it is to think about a person’s character, as much as their athletic talent.There is no time like the present. Start right now. No excuses. No backing up. Set a standard for others to follow.Michael Vick is allowed and encouraged to resurrect his life. Speak out and make amends. I sincerely hope he lives and long, happy and prosperous life.Not in the National Football League.

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Manny Ramirez, A-Rod: MLB Must Strip All Records

Ed Berliner — Tue, 12 May 2009 12:35:35 -0400

Manny Ramirez and Alex Rodriguez must be stripped of any records or accomplishments set during the known time using MLB banned substances.

The next step is to determine the years both players started using these drugs and then revise the record books. At the very least, every book and collection carrying MLB records from this point forward must contain a notation that these records stand alone as being set by someone who broke the rules and cheated.

Manny Ramirez and Alex Rodriguez must now be held and used as the poster boys for what happens to any professional athlete caught cheating.

MLB and every sport, professional, amateur, college, high school, Pony League, or volunteer, must now point to Ramirez and Rodriguez as the embodiment of one who knowingly cheated and was caught. They are both now and forever the example of what happens when a player makes a potentially fatal career decision.

There is neither no sympathy here for either player, nor for any other who is caught in the drug dragnet, as in the case of disgraced track and field star Marion Jones. These are grown men and women with, at the very least, a modicum of intelligence who are warned time and time again about what will happen if they are caught.

At this stage of the cheating game, there are no such excuses as, “they were prescribed by my doctor”, “I was told they were legal supplements”, “my agent forgot to tell me”, or “my dog ate the warning papers I got in the mail”. Zero tolerance must be followed by every sport under every circumstance.

The Baseball Hall of Fame must now amend their procedures for listing players and teams affected by the use of these performance enhancing drugs.

Any time a player or team is proven to have used or employed a player caught using any banned substance, a codicil must be attached to the names and achievements of both the player and the team.

This now becomes part of what MLB and every sport must do from this moment forward, and that is to thoroughly investigate every charge, every rumor, and every conviction to determine when these drugs were used.

There can be no stone left unturned and no whisper left without an exclamation point where one is deserved.

The LA Dodgers' 2008 season must now be permanently marked as one where their Western Division title is forever in question. Their NL Division Series sweep of the Chicago Cubs and yes, even though they lost to the Phillies in the NL Championship Series, must also carry forever the mark of a suspect series of games.

MLB must strike Manny Ramirez’s 43 home runs from the 2008 and 2009 season from his individual stats and those of all-time home run hitters. The same for his 139 RBI in that span of time, and any other notes of achievement; a notation must be placed explaining that while these things certainly did happen, they are not considered part of his lifetime achievements.

For Alex Rodriguez, the exact same measures must be taken immediately for the '01-'03 seasons. All records involving Rodriguez and the team must carry notations or, if you wish, asterisks.

MLB, the Players Union, and every franchise must now fall under the heavy thumb of zero tolerance. Other sports should take note and follow suit.

Cheating affects everyone, and everyone is held responsible.

And as for those who call this the “darkest day in baseball history” or some other such needless hyperbole, they could not be more wrong. This is a watershed moment in the sport and hopefully for others. This is indeed the dawn of a new era.

We will catch cheats. We will punish everyone involved. We will maintain the credibility of our sport.

No matter who is guilty.

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Steroids, Scandals, Cheats, & Liars: MLB Doesn't Need To Change a Thing

Ed Berliner — Fri, 08 May 2009 22:49:08 -0400

The time has come to come clean about Major League Baseball, the use of steroids and other performance enhancing substances, and how the game must immediately change in order to deal with this scandal of gargantuan proportions.

Step one is to admit that if we take into consideration every single shred of circumstantial and proven evidence, there is no doubt professional baseball is and has been for some time rife with the use of steroids, HGH, hormone therapy, uppers, downers, cocaine, banana peel, little diet pills, you name it.

The baseball used in every logo should be amended to have the word “Upjohn” stamped on both sides.

Step two is to admit that dating back to the very first instant one baseball player slipped something other than a shot of whiskey or cold beer past his lips, the holy statistics have included something more than mere talent. Modern chemistry in every era helped to hit home runs, on and off the field.

Step three is to realize professional baseball players and, to a greater extent their fellow athletic brethren, are just like the rest of us. Everybody lies, some better than others.

They will look you in the eye and swear on the souls of their children and/or mistresses they have never taken anything stronger than a breath mint knowing full well they would qualify for a pharmaceutical pad of their very own.

And the final step would be to realize the single most important factor when it comes to bringing about the sweeping change baseball obviously needs to clean up the game once and for all, preserving the historical integrity of the American pastime.

Do. Absolutely. Nothing.

This maddening and hysterical hyperbole over drug use in baseball must stop once and for all. Screaming headlines demanding someone be held accountable and the game must be cleaned up need to be stuffed into a time capsule.

No more bubble-headed bleach-blonde news or sports anchors trying desperately to pronounce the medicinal name of banned substances.

The logic is impossible to argue with. No matter how many big name players are caught, no matter how many time we hear players professing their innocence only to be nailed by either real evidence or the court of public opinion, and no matter how many hallowed records are brought into question, one truth remains.

The average baseball fan doesn’t care. Just look at how attendance has been increasing steadily in these steroid years. Souvenir sales are up. Regional TV ratings have improved considerably. An obvious signal that no matter how many cheats there are and how many records are soiled, the public will still show their tacit approval by shelling out the cash.

The media, once charged with being the conscience of their viewers, readers and listeners, rarely report what they hear inside the locker rooms despite seeing pill bottles and hearing players whisper.

Most are honest people who do it because to turn investigative could cost them their job, thanks to team reps charged with deciding only those who help the lies along get to keep their press pass. Others are just too happy to stick a tape recorder in the face of their boyhood hero to tell the truth.

And baseball itself could care less about doing anything to honestly clean up their game. Why clean up something that remains so lucrative and is given such a wide berth from the truth?

Cleaning something up is only necessary if it’s dirty, AND someone really wants to wipe away the grime and slime.

Thus, hasn’t the evidence proven the game is just fine the way it is?

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Plaxico, Jay Cutler, Allen Iverson, Michael Vick, and Tiger: Five for Fighting

Ed Berliner — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 23:53:01 -0400

Too often we sling words and phrases about like so much mud in order to criticize our teams, players, games, cheerleaders, you name it.

However, in this edition of "Five For Fighting", allow me to deliver much needed kudos to the following for doing everything that is right in the games we love.

Of course, there are those who will not exactly expect what they are about to receive.

NEW YORK GIANTS

Congratulations for cutting Plaxico Burress and shedding yourselves of a fine example of an arrogant professional athlete who believes there is no punishment for someone so famous.

Burress carried a handgun into New York City despite being old enough to know exactly what he was doing and supposedly smart enough to know this would rank high on the list of stunningly mindless things to do.

Burress is guilty and should be slammed hard for this felony gun charge. Yes, I am aware I have just circumvented the judicial system. However, the only people who could or would for a single second believe him innocent are the same Mensa candidates who found OJ Simpson not guilty.

MIAMI DOLPHINS

With NFL apologists and inveterate gamblers everywhere wringing their hands with glee anticipating the return of Michael Vick, the Dolphins made it clear they will have no interest in the convicted dog-killer.

Don't expect Miami to get a lot of company, at least publicly. Someone will take a shot with Vick and give him a job despite the fact the man has blood on his hands.

Playing in the NFL is a privilege, not a right. Vick tossed his lifetime pass away when he took glee in animals ripping each other apart for his and his friend's enjoyment.

This sadist should never play in the NFL or any other league again. Period.

JAY CUTLER

Standing his ground after new Broncos head coach Josh McDaniels publicly lifted his leg on one of the few bright spots in the Broncos' 2008 season, Cutler got his wish to get out of the pigskin clown act Denver has become.

The Broncos' offense was the only reason they stayed in playoff contention for any length of time, and that draws a direct line to Cutler. Without him the Broncos would have been as powerful as a castrated pony.

Denver's defense is a dreary joke with no reason to be optimistic about 2009. Certainly they can get better in the draft and will make an attempt at rebuilding, but McDaniels already has people trusting his judgment the same way Napoleon trusted his aides when they said his boat ride to Elba was for the purpose of evening his tan.

The Broncos deserve to be mere nags this season. I might even root for the Bears at times this season. At times.

ALLEN IVERSON

Nothing could have been finer than to see A.I. take his whiny game and exit with a pout on his puss.

Iverson is a wonderful player and has the numbers to prove it. But before the revisionist historians start tossing around the word "great", the most overused and in many instances useless word in sports, ask one simple compound question.

How many championships has he won, and more importantly, how many locker rooms has he improved with his scowling "me first" visage?

The answers are, of course, none and none. Iverson backhanded a 76ers organization that put up with his arrogance, hoping his immense talent could cover up his attitude. Which it didn't.

Lauded on his arrival in Denver, Iverson took no time at all to bring the mental level of the team down to his low level watermark. Ask anyone who covers that team and they'll tell you how much better life is there without A.I. Notice how they've become a better team and a playoff contender without him?

And then there's Detroit, convinced they could extract that talent without having to worry about Iverson's poison. When his grousing and game started to go south, the Pistons said he would be going more to the bench. He tossed a fit, the team labeled him "injured," and he's been deactivated.

Detroit may actually have a shot in the playoffs now. And Iverson is neither a great player nor one who should even be on a Hall of Fame ballot.

TIGER WOODS

For being a professional athlete who doesn't use steroids, cocaine, marijuana, alcohol to excess, Oxycontin, cigarettes, or HGH.

Who hasn't fathered a single illegitimate child, been behind the wheel driving drunk with a chance to kill a pedestrian, or carried a loaded handgun anywhere, much less into a city looking to increase his machismo in front of a "posse."

Who doesn't need to open his mouth and "call someone out," "announce his presence with authority," or stand up for fellow athletes who bring new meaning to the word "knucklehead."

And who lets his game do his talking, not some bloated mouthpiece. Who carries himself with grace and style, not with dozens of swinging gold chains or baseball cap worn backward "for effect."

Who loves his wife and children, respects the history of his game, never makes a comment that could be taken as an insult, and who actually smiles when approached by a member of the general public.

And who is indeed the greatest athlete of his generation for all these reasons and more.

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John Calipari Gets the Kentucky Cash, Athletes Again Get the NCAA Shaft

Ed Berliner — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 22:53:08 -0400

A constant and palpable lust for power. Greed barely satiated by the promise of untold riches. Egocentric tendencies the likes of which would keep psychologists busy for generations.

A lawless nature that speaks to the black heart concerned only with personal accolades. Secure in the knowledge that superiority over others is assured despite any allegations of impropriety.

But enough about Bernie Madoff, Simon Cowell, Madonna, Lindsey Lohan, and a certain gaggle of unnamed politicians. This is a story about college athletics and the men who will settle for nothing less than championships, at the expense of anyone who dares to interfere with their plans and schemes.

The NCAA is the single greatest dichotomy in athletics this side of the duplicitous and confounding International Olympic Committee.

Of course, no matter what the NCAA does it will still finish second to an organization that spouted fairness and unity among athletes and nations, yet was once run by a former Nazi sympathizer.

Go to the NCAA’s web page, which states the purpose of this grand and well-meaning organization, and you will find the following words: “…committed to the best interests, education and athletics participation of student-athletes.”

Honorable. Laudable. Succinctly stated. Exactly what one would expect from a multi-billon dollar Association charged with putting the student-athlete’s concerns and best interests above everything and anything else.

But not quite accurate.

Saint Bernard of Clairvaux, who was commissioned by the Pope in 1145 to preach against heresy, could have been a forebear of NCAA ideals when he said, "Hell is full of good intentions or desires."

For the NCAA may have good intentions toward their cash cow, I mean, their student-athletes, but their all too zealous and misguided actions can only stoke the fires and eventually torch the ones they are charged with serving.

John Calipari’s departure from Memphis and coronation as the next revenue, I mean Men’s basketball, savior in Kentucky is just the latest example of how the NCAA fails their meal ticket, I mean, student-athletes, miserably at every possible turn.

Calipari is a man of unquestionable basketball coaching talent. He is conversely a man of questionable morals and ethics when it comes to creating his hard court aura.

Despite his many innovations and likely heading for the 500 victory plateau, Calipari is more often tolerated than liked by those who cover the game and even many of his peers.

He successfully skirted the rules with the grace of a “Three Card Monte” dealer in 2001 when he got the best high-school player in the country to sign on at Memphis, and not long after made DaJuan Wagner even happier by giving daddy Milt Wagner a job in University Basketball Operations.

DaJuan’s college career lasted one season, his Dad’s six years.

Calipari is also fondly recalled for his NBA stint with the New Jersey Nets, where he was busted $25,000 by the league and forced to issue a very public and humbling apology to Newark Star-Ledger reporter Dan Garcia.

This after not caring for a line of Garcia questioning and comments, calling him a “[censored] Mexican idiot”. Add in a few more unsubstantiated but widely discussed NCAA rules “accommodations”just for good measure.

But this doesn’t make Calipari any more of a scoundrel than thousands of his fraternity peers past, present and most certainly future. The man is a proven winner, still chasing that National Championship brass ring and certainly capable of putting Kentucky right back in play to cash more network televisions checks.

I mean, of course, contend for a Title.

This speaks on a more pertinent level to the fraud long perpetrated by the NCAA when it comes to big name, big money, and big revenue generating coaches at big programs.

Calipari has been at Memphis since 2000. The Tigers have gone undefeated in Conference the past three season. His teams have danced Sweet 16 once, Elite Eight twice, and runner-up just last year.

He is the reason why so many young men, whether they be nothing more than academic frauds or true student-athletes, decided to attend and play basketball at Memphis.

Those players earned scholarships at Memphis and signed on the dotted line to get their education, basketball or otherwise, under the guidance of a man who could lead them to perfect attendance, good grades, and a potential multi-million dollars NBA deal.

More than a few, like so many before them, gullible enough to believe Calipari when he promised, intimated, or winked that he would be there for their entire careers. Remember, despite the fact you and I both know it’s a promise made with all fingers crossed, some of those who buy into these lines are not exactly Rhodes scholars.

More likely to be living in Rhodes, Greece before being handed that sheepskin.

But Calipari is allowed to, and rightly so, bolt one campus for another overnight and instantly start uttering classic lines such as, “[Fill in name of school] is the only place for anyone to be a college basketball coach”, or “[Fill in city where school is located] has always been the heart of college basketball and where my heart has always wanted to be”, or my favorite, “Where does a man cash really big checks here in [fill in name of city or state where school is located]”.

Players from sports other than basketball are, on the other hand, allowed no such freedoms. Despite being the backbone of a multi-billion dollar revenue system, they are held accountable for their agreements in spite of those being signed under what many times amounts to false pretenses.

The days of amateur athletics are memories comprised of dust, and they now should correctly be called employees of the University. The National Labor Relations Act should be the law here, not the NCAA.

More often than not, these are poor athletes who are used, abused, and tossed aside, like so much paper wrapping for money bundles.

When they are taken advantage of by coaches and boosters snapping rules like so many brittle twigs, it’s the athlete who bears the brunt of punishment in suspensions, sanctions and expulsions. Schools recover all too quickly anymore from something as menial as loss of scholarship.

Those TV and Bowl revenue dips don’t often last very long, certainly not long enough to force University Presidents and Athletic Directors into lining up for lunch at the training table.

Player’s careers are forever ruined by illicit and illegal deeds not of their own making.

Not to mock all of them, but let’s not kid ourselves that some of them, quite often the heavily recruited “franchise” players, are mostly large and powerful kids who quite often see new sneakers maybe once a year and call heading to the corner store a “road trip” for most of their lives.

Find one 17 year old who understands even the preamble to the NCAA Constitution, much less one who knows all the confusing recruiting rules and obfuscations.

As for those who may claim that coaches must break those draconian NCAA rules in order to create a winning program that will benefit these kids, you are excused from these logical proceedings.

You are obviously either part of the coache’s family, one of those fat belted boosters, a fan who remains in school-colored face paint while sleeping, a closet gambler, or an escaped test subject from the campus drool lab. Suffice to say, you are an apologist at best, everything that is wrong about being a fan at worst.

The vast and overwhelming majority of coaches who break rules without a care have no trouble finding their next six-figure port of call. Sanctions and punishment never follow them to their new digs.

Sure, we’re told the NCAA will “watch them much more carefully now” in light of their transgressions. In the same manner those automobile manufacturer ledgers were watched after more than one bumbled bailout.

Major college coaches are better labeled major business mercenaries. And they are absolutely allowed to do exactly what they are doing, seeking a better job, a better salary, a better way of life.

That is exactly what one is allowed to do in a society built on hard work, individual effort and capitalism.

We are still a capitalistic society, yes?

But to be allowed an escape for cheating, lies, fabrications and the ruining of more than a few young lives? Abhorrent, and flies right smack in the face of the tenants the NCAA was supposedly built upon. Players are punished for weeks, months, and sometimes years.

Entire athletic programs are forced to knuckle under financially due to the scurrilous actions of one or two people. And this is being “…committed to the best interests, education and athletics participation of student-athletes”?

I’m sure the NCAA will assure themselves it is.

Right at the moment they cash all those checks from the 2009 Basketball Tournaments.

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Tiger Woods: The Greatest Athlete of This Generation

Ed Berliner — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 21:42:36 -0400

Here are some great matchups and potential discussions: Muhammad Ali vs. Mike Tyson, Henry Aaron vs. Barry Bonds, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar vs. Shaquille O'Neal, Richard Petty vs. Jeff Gordon, Bobby Orr vs. Wayne Gretzky, Joe Montana vs. Tom Brady, Coke vs. Pepsi, MASH vs. Seinfeld, Superman vs. Batman, South Park vs. Simpsons, Carmen Electra vs. Megan Fox, and Viagra vs. Cialis.

Take it from one who knows.

Whether it's experts debating on Stone Cold Sports.com, a group of people discussing last night's game while eating lunch at a neighborhood diner, or a gaggle of six year olds pondering their true calling in life while deciding who gets to pet the puppy first, nothing captures our attention, creates a dialogue, or brings warring factions together only to split them apart, than the debate about who or what is “the greatest of all time.”

In each discussion, there are so many variables to be considered: the benefits of modern equipment, better physical conditioning, schedule changes, night games vs. day games, and more powerful and game-altering drugs.

Also, these others variables can enter the discussion, such as the invasive and often times moronic questions posed by a sensationalistic media corps, the difference between team and individual efforts, players arrest records, and so forth. You get the idea.

Rare indeed and, perhaps, impossible at one time, to even remotely consider we would be able to put our finger squarely on the mark of just one athlete, call that person the best ever, and do so without a single doubt.

It is unlikely to be able, and some might even say foolish, to mark that athlete as the best of an entire generation.

Those who cry sacrilege are those who either cannot or refuse to see the overall scope of one athlete’s athletic achievements when compared to every other sport, every other discipline, and every other sporting condition.

However, it would be foolish to not acknowledge what we are witnessing.

Excellence. Grit. History. Greatness.

Tiger Woods is, without a doubt, the greatest athlete of this generation. With performances—such as his victory on the 72nd hole at Bay Hill—he sets a new standard for generations of athletes, in every sport, to follow.

There is, at this moment, no other athlete who so owns their sporting vocation. The PGA Tour was a mere shell of a mere shell, while Woods was absent.

No disrespect meant towards any of the other golfers on Tour, such as, well, they know who they are, but Xbox golf loyalist would get more attention paid to it, if Tiger wasn’t there.

Seek and ye shall not find another athlete at any level who maintains such a stunning level of play.

Taking 2009 out of the mix, for obvious reasons, Tiger has been a top four money winner for 12 straight years—eight of those as the one to beat. That’s 12 years of competing directly against and smiting every single “next great challenger.”

Woods was fourth in 1998, when he played in three fewer events than No. 1 David Duval. Even the great ones find themselves needing to step up or out from those they rely on for advice, and while a great in his own right, swing coach, Butch Harmon, may have tinkered a bit too much with young Tiger’s game.

After all, Woods had already become the world’s No. 1 player in a record-setting, 42-week stretch.

He gets a mulligan for being, perhaps, the fastest growing star in the sports firmament since Bobby Fischer. He certainly had a better set of mental marbles to deal with it.

He was second, in 2003, playing in fewer tournaments than all but two of the top 20. Ernie Els and Nick Price were those other two, and they were way back in the weeds.

Tiger also wound up second, playing in nine fewer stops than top cash dog, Vijay Singh. That earlier rift with Harmon had grown to a full-blown canyon.

Plus, when a global superstar marries a stunning woman and finds something a bit more important than driving off the tee, he is allowed a career sidestep.

Two-hundred sixty-four consecutive weeks as the world’s top-ranked player buys you another well-earned understanding.

He slipped to fourth again in 2004, the year Singh was able to actually strike that deal with the devil and blow away the field with over $10M in earnings.

A little-known fact, Beelzebub lost big in several wagers taking the field against Tiger and wanted to level off before things got out of hand. Woods also didn’t do himself any favors believing in his own indestructibility and playing with a repaired left knee.

Of course, there’s his disappointing second place, fiscal finish in 2008. Let’s forget the fact that he didn’t play a single round after the middle of June and still managed a runner-up finish—a major career disaster.

Great athletes are those who play with a combination of physical excellence, mental toughness, strength of will, the ability to overcome diversity, and the reputation of striking fear into the heart of any competitor who dare to believe they can play in the same rarefied air—all without thinking twice or even considering the need to think.

It just happens.

Tiger Woods has single- handily taken the PGA Tour out of the beer-bellied days of the 19th hole and chain smoking over hill and dale.

A chiseled frame that would excel in any number of faster and greater contact sports, has forced any aspiring pro to make time for the gym—instead of the strip club. Physically speaking, Woods is the beginning of evolution.

The only sport that comes close to needing the same amount of mental toughness, as golf, is tennis—another singular sport where every competitor is cast onto an island of performance with no one to rely on but themselves for assistance.

However, therein lies the only similarity. Win a tennis match and you get a few days to relax, re-tune, and regroup.

At the PGA level, it’s four consecutive days of changing conditions, shifting emotions, fans and fanatics mere steps away at all times, and no locker room or dugout to escape into for wailing away on the nearest unsuspecting water cooler.

No other sport makes such mental demands.

Every great athlete can will themselves into creating memorable shots, game-winning decisions, and even turn average teammates into something special.

It doesn’t always take a legend to overcome adversity, but it does mean there is a unique element present that merely needs desire to turn it into reality.

We can all think of several hundred great athletes who, by strapping on the helmet, lacing up the sneakers, or walking to the blocks, bring “icicles to the spine” fear into the competition.

However, to have all three of those elements available at the flick of a switch, for more than a decade, and in a sport that relies on no one but yourself every single second of every single event, is amazing.

Before you start tuning up about the importance of caddies, remember they give advice and not orders. Even in tennis the best players will often do as they are told by coaches.

Race car drivers follow orders or face the possibility of putting florists to work. Addressing that ball on the tee, fairway, forest, beach or slate, there is no one else to take accolades or blame.

History believes the loneliest profession on this marble is a lighthouse keeper. Compare being a professional golfer standing on the final tee of the Masters either up or down by one stroke to every night watching the horizon for ships as if it is New Years Eve in Times Square and you are trying to dodge several thousand of your new best friends desperate to find a restroom.

There is no lonelier athlete.

What about that field goal kicker with :01 on the clock in Super Bowl OT to win or lose the game? No contest. He’s not the only one to touch the football, and that deafening stadium din is enough to wrack even the best psyche.

Try doing everything yourself. In complete and cemetery-like silence. The only thing you hear is your brain working, your tendons contracting, the rustling of grass blades, and your entire life rolling by in Hi-Def milliseconds.

From the moment he puts one toe onto a practice tee, Tiger Woods is the tournament champion.

The instant he addresses that first tee shot, every set of eyes believes they are about to witness a moment they will tell their grandchildren.

The second that putter draws back from anywhere within a distance viewable by the Hubble telescope, you prepare your escape of air to coincide with his fist pump of clutch victory.

And while they would be loathe to admit it, every golfer he faces wakes to a new day with the knowledge Tiger can make up a 10 shot deficit with one hole to play.

Tiger Woods will never throw even one no-hitter. His multi-touchdown effort will be recorded only via video game.

He’ll never have to worry about nailing that last gate before the finish line, and there will be no opportunity to wear all his gold medals for a magazine shoot.

All of those accomplishments and so many more are awe-inspiring, legendary, and historic for the supremely talented athletes who author them.

Don’t be surprised, however, if deep down so many of those athletes would relish the chance for just one day to be Tiger Woods.

The greatest athlete of our generation.

Veteran network broadcaster Ed Berliner covers the games and issues at "Stone Cold Sports" (http://stonecoldsports.com).Viewers and readers are encouraged to comment on this article on the "Stone Cold Sports" web site: http://stonecoldsports.com/2009/03/telling-it-like-it-ismarch-30-2009-the-greatest-mantle-rests-perfectly-on-tigers-shoulders.html

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Alex Rodriguez: Steroid Recants & Retribution

Ed Berliner — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 19:38:45 -0500

"The only thing I ask from this group today and the American people is to judge me from this day forward."

Alex, you ask and we will deliver. Understood, you screwed up and admitted it. You took your public media beating, as soft and kid-gloved as it was from the so-called "tough baseball media corps", and it is indeed time to move on. But before we do, let's close a few doors here.

You never used the word "liar" in any of your statements, which was the wrong thing to do. You did. More than once. In more than one forum.

You never would have been at this press conference nor in any forum admitting what you did if it didn't come out via the "Sports Illustrated" story. So don't try to sell me or anyone else about your now telling the truth. You were caught. Red handed. With nowhere else to run nor turn.

Your statements were very well choreographed and practiced. Call me cynical, but I've been around the block with these types of public admissions many more times than you, and I like so many others can smell prepared answers. We understand. It's part of the game and you played your role exceptionally well.

As expected, you begged forgiveness and understanding. What you did certainly ranks exceptionally low on the sports criminal scale. Consider Michael Vick taking joy in the killing of living beings able to experience emotion and suffering.

Leonard Little's drunken vehicular killing spree. Derrick Thomas leaving behind eight children from five different mothers without a single thought as to their care or well-being. Plaxico Burress playing cowboy in a crowded city. Matt Jones cutting coke in a car. Just to name a few.

What you did was, to some, the most heinous crime of all. Knowingly and purposefully spitting in the eye of the game and cheating your way to fame and fortune. Laughing about it along the way. Casting a permanent stain on the numbers and feats that define every sport for generations to come. Cashing in while knowing you were making a mockery of every fan that pays to see you perform at your athletic best and doing it sometimes by artificial means.

Let us pause for a moment and realize you are not the first to use underhanded means to reach your peak performance in baseball. Gaylord Perry and others openly cheated and have been rewarded for lathering up a baseball with bile. Sammy Sosa is still looked upon as a friendly figure despite those little rubber balls that came bouncing out of his bat one day. Sharpened spikes in one era. Amphetamines in another. Steroids in yet another. So many judgments left to be delivered.

In the end, what you did does not measure up to the crimes against society so many athletes are now famous for.

But it does expectorate right in the eye of generations that played the game cleanly, honestly and without a desire to cheat. Because for every injection, every spike, every spitball and every pill popped, there are thousands who will continue to live with the knowledge that while they were giving it everything they had with natural talent, you and so many like you were liars and cheaters.

We must be a forgiving society, for that should be our nature. Second chances are given to many more who have snapped rules worse than this. Reprieves and pardons handed out to some with real blood and lives on their hands.

You are forgiven, to a point, for your mistakes. You are and deserve to get another chance. To try and make amends for your transgressions. To perform palpable good deeds in trying to insure others learn from the error of your ways. And make no mistake, we will be watching to note if you are indeed remorseful.

But don't ever expect us to forget. Now or when your career is over. You must remain forever tainted and help as an example of what happens when you try to succeed by something other than athletic talent. In an arena where that must be the first, foremost, and only manner of judging.

Make the most of this second chance. You will not be granted another.

Veteran sportscaster Ed Berliner can be read daily and exclusive sports interviews heard at "Stone Cold Sports". Cold Bias. Hard Opinion. We Don't Play Favorites.

http://www.stonecoldsports.com

College Football Disgrace: Blackmail & Extortion in the ACC

Ed Berliner — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 11:10:55 -0500

There perhaps can be no greater examples of the duplicitous nature of college athletics than current issues at the University of Miami and Boston College.

In Miami, head coach Randy Shannon didn't like the attitude (among other things, according to sources) of once highly-recruited QB Robert Marve. The kid wanted out of his scholarship for academic, athletic, and personal reasons and Shannon was happy to oblige.

But there was a catch. Marve could leave only after he agreed to not transfer to any school in the ACC, SEC, or in the state of Florida.

Let's for a moment forget all the jaw-dropping questions about why, if Shannon indeed decided Marve could not help his program, he would forbid this young man to play for another college which could come back to haunt and perhaps defeat Miami at a later date. Let us also put aside the stunning complicity of the UM athletic director for even allowing such an obviously illegal and punitive deal to be considered.

Instead focus on the blatant and obvious blackmailing of a kid who has been told to get lost and wants to have the best chance possible of both an academic and, likely more important, athletic career. And how Shannon wanted to forbid him from doing both.

Shannon has already proven himself to be something of a questionable head coach with more than a few raised eyebrows left in his wake. Already there are those who believe that should Miami not win at least nine games, preferably 10 or more next season, Shannon could be the first legacy head coach at the school to be dismissed in disgrace.

But what Shannon did here was both vindictive and reprehensible. There's no reason to be shocked to find the NCAA has no power (nor desire) to become involved in this case. Or that even the ACC seems to be sitting on their collective wallets with nary a shred of indignation.

In transferring, Marve would already be hit with an NCAA mandatory one year seat on the sidelines. Should he go to an ACC school rules there already call for an additional one season. Two years for wanting to attend and play for another school to chase a dream. A career. A job, plain and simple.

Don't try to see the argument about kids moving at their whim from school to school selling their wares. It doesn't wash. Every school already makes a marketing dollar off their players, and that doesn't include broadcast rights and ticket sales. Certainly the players gets a scholarship worth something, but when you figure in what the school is awarding them adds up to pennies on the dollar, these kids are working cheap.

And make no doubt about it. They are working for the university. They are taking their talent and helping the university make money. That's called a job. Everywhere, of course, but in the NCAA.

We haven't even mentioned yet the fact coaches can spend weeks and months recruiting these players, promising them a dedication to their vocation and their needs if they just attend their school.

And when these coaches break their agreement and move on to a bigger and better job for bucket loads of more money, do they have to sit out one or two seasons as punishment? Certainly not. They won't miss a single paycheck and are out rolling in new lucre as soon as possible.

In one misguided stroke, Shannon delivered a simple and straight forward message to every single potential recruit. We want you to become part of our family here at Miami, yet be prepared to be cast off as a football orphan if you anger the man in charge. Your future is not and will never be as important as that of the program.

After being publicly outed by Marve, his father and the media (though interesting to note there was barely a whimper of notice or comment from those who cover the Hurricanes on a daily basis), Shannon called the audible and revised his stance.

Marve could now transfer to any SEC school save for Tennessee, LSU, and of course the rival Florida Gators. Yet the complete restriction remains for every school in the ACC and all Florida schools. In other words, nothing more than a token change.

To be sure there are things we don’t know behind the scenes being both whispered and spoken aloud at the University of Miami. Marve was involved in an off-campus issue that brought down the suspension hammer from Shannon.

Yet it took Shannon eight months to deliver said punishment. For eight months Marve was left twisting in the South Florida breeze wondering when and if judgment would be delivered. It would take Helen Keller to miss the fact Shannon fell out of gridiron love with Marve and sent him a very obvious and public message he was no longer wanted.

When Marve took Shannon up on his offer, it would appear he decided there was one final twist of the knife left to play. Infants fighting over a new toy have shown better restraint. The time may be right for the Hurricanes' marketing department to see about landing that official diaper sponsor.

While on Chestnut Hill just outside of Boston proper, Boston College finds itself entangled in what would appear to be yet another case blackmail and blackballing directed at football head coach Jeff Jagodzinski.

Thanks to his familiarity and friendship with Brett Favre, Jagodzinski was contacted by the NY Jets and invited to interview for their vacant head coaching position. While insiders don’t expect him to make the final list, this is what success breeds in sports.

Making a name for oneself in the college ranks and then being considered for the professional chair. Much like Robert Marve, Jagodzinski will view this as a move upward in both career and lifestyle.

Jagodzinski has been the boss at BC for the past two season, keeping the lightweight program atop the ACC Atlantic Division both years. Thus we understand why AD Gene DeFillippo doesn't want to lose the man who in maintaining a winner allows BC to count on more money from the football program. After all, even those minor bowl games have a tidy little payout.

But instead of allowing him to further his career, BC immediately lowered the Chestnut Hill boom and told Jagodzinski he would be fired if he went ahead with a planned interview for the job. As of this writing the coach was planning on going through with the interview despite being threatened with termination.

I can already hear cries of "double standard" with my argument, after earlier pointing out how coaches become money mercenaries when they sniff a better job with a fatter paycheck. And, in this case, declaring Jagodzinski has every right to chase another position without fear of being fired.

However, coaches are employees of the university and as such may have clauses calling for punitive damages should they break their contract. When another job comes along, they are aware of what it may cost them in penalties and expect to be docked. But to be threatened with firing for simply talking to another employer? I sincerely doubt there's any language in the BC contract with any such wording as any attorney or agent worth his silk suits would strike that down in milliseconds during negotiations.

Certainly both schools want to protect their investments and fear their former employee comes back to haunt them in some professional form. But that does not give them the opportunity to deny someone the chance for advancement in their career and life in general.

In Marve's case he's unwanted and even being tossed out the door. In Jagodzinski's case the school would like him to stay yet uses threats instead of realizing what they have and making it worth his while to remain.

Every school knows that with success comes suitors for coaches, and their recourse is to forge a new deal to retain their employee or allow him to leave. Break out that fiscal punishment, but don't make it in the form of a very public threat.

Both cases reveal the scope of inequities in college athletics for both players and coaches. How powerful schools get away with blackmail, extortion and threats to get what they want.

It's vindictive, pathetic, damaging to the schools both in reputation and recruiting, and possibly even illegal.

However, don't expect the NCAA, the supposed governing body of all things athletic in college to get involved. Nor the Atlantic Coast Conference. Because along with UM and BC, they all stand to cash in more millions every year from the BCS, broadcast contracts, ticket sales, logo-bearing clothing and key fobs.

And he who has the power gets to make the rules. No matter how questionable and embarrassing their outcome may be.

Veteran national sportscaster Ed Berliner can be read and heard daily at Cold Hard Sports (www.coldhardsports.com) along with the widest variety of commentators and reporters on the Internet. He can also be heard at "790 The Ticket" in Miami.

Charles Barkley: Round Mound of Self-Serving Fraud

Ed Berliner — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 04:46:35 -0500

It is time to stop cozying up to Charles Barkley, treating him as if he was some warm and fuzzy teddy bear of a former athlete we would all like to have a drink with. Shoot a game of "HORSE" against. Wander through a casino to be close as women and men shower him with adulation. Be entertained by his promotional commercials as he tears into the American political machine.

Charles Barkley is a self-serving narcissist who cannot live without the glare of media attention. He is an egotist who believes his opinions should be taken as those from the mouth of one educated in the ways of the world off the basketball court.

Charles Barkley is a fraud. A dangerous fraud. Charles Barkley has a big mouth, carries a big stick, and uses it to bludgeon the public into seeing things his way or have your motives branded as something more sinister than simple dislike.

There is no doubt questions need to be raised in the wake of Auburn hiring former Iowa State coach Gene Chizik as their new head football coach. As Barkley, and so many others have pointed out, former Nebraska quarterback and 2007 MAC Coach of the Year Turner Gill was available and certainly has credentials.

But I have always been skeptical of those who blurt out knee-jerk reactions to decisions they don't agree with by branding them as racist, racially motivated, bigoted, or based on the hatred of another group. This has a tendency to injure everyone within eyesight of the eyesore.

Let us be clear about one thing. I also have no doubt that a good number of black coaches have been passed over in recent years simply because of their color. The Black Coaches Association has been at the forefront of trying to rectify this and should be lauded for its efforts.

And I also have no doubt that beyond the athletic directors and university presidents, fat-walleted boosters have much more to do with the hiring of a coach in any sport. Especially in this economy, schools will take the cash wherever and whenever they can while turning down no opportunity to find a little more.

And make no mistake about it. Right next to ticket sales, apparel sales, and contracts from the TV networks, boosters are dead center in the decision making process. And at the major universities, I have seen first-hand the heavy hand placed on such calls by mostly older and lily-white boosters determined to install their favorites at any cost.

But at the same time, those old boys (and girls), are thankfully dwindling in their numbers and en route to becoming fossils. Not fast enough, mind you, but certainly on the way. And they need more than a few subtle pushes on their way out the door.

And while black coaches receive short shrift at the Division I-A level, what is being done to encourage their tutelage at the lower division schools? Why do we not hear the success stories of those black coaches already rising in the ranks insuring their legacy is continued and improved upon? Why are they not held up to the same scorn as their larger brethren?

And why do we not see and hear more prominent black athletes and coaches standing tall in the glare of a media spotlight intelligently and rationally decrying this injustice? Where is their righteous indignation? Why are they not taking a public stand?

Could it be fear of losing their status, their coach’s shows, their endorsements and their contracts? Fiscal fear and blackmail have always been a solid motivating factor.

Why aren’t the local and national media paying attention to noting and solving the problem instead of leaping onto the back of people like Barkley only when a decision is made that creates juicy talk show fodder or phony "breaking news"? Where is the use of their substantial power for change?

What makes Barkley such a massive fraud is his use of the bully pulpit and then lack of follow-up in actually helping to create a new direction.

Instead of forging another opportunity to bolster his public image, when has Barkley worked behind the scenes at Auburn to enact real and substantive change?

Other than barking like the mad verbal dog he is, when has he taken out his wallet to start a foundation or endowment at Auburn that has at it's core the object of ensuring there is a fairer and better shake given to black coaches? When has he volunteered to work for the Black Coaches Association in making personal appearances and rational statements to force a more even-handed examination and solution to the problem?

Well, Charles?

His TNT bio lists "numerous donations to the Auburn University Foundation," among others. How much of that has Barkley insisted be directed toward ensuring more opportunities for young black coaches in every sport? What is his personal legacy in working toward the goal of real equality in college athletics?

Where is the real evidence of putting your substantial funds where your bellowing mouth is?

Well, Charles?

Barkley is dangerous because, instead of working with groups such as the BCA, or the Center for the Study of Sports in Society at Northeastern University in Boston, he plays the race card in everything he spews.

It's easy to play this card, and exceptionally convenient. But when tossed aside so casually, it becomes a magnet for even more hate and disdain from the racist Neanderthals who still exist. These the ones who read a comment such as this and bellow, "See, what did I tell you about these people and their constant whining?"

Intelligent conversation. Meaningful dialogue. Carefully thought out and enacted plans. These are what carry the day in a debate such as this.

Not the egotistical and self-serving rants from one who finds it easy to point out a problem, make noise about it, and then scurry into the background and hide from taking a real and substantive role in solving the problem.

Those talented and deserving young black coaches fighting and scrapping for every inch of respect they get need someone to lead the effort. Someone famous who can draw attention to a rational and meaningful argument.

Not someone whose first objective is to draw attention to himself.

Network TV and radio sportscaster Ed Berliner can be read daily at "Cold Hard Sports" (www.coldhardsports.com) along with interviews from National commentators, analysts, reporters and guests.

Sean Avery: Sloppy Comment, Sloppy Handling, Sloppy Excuses

Ed Berliner — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 16:05:43 -0500

At the risk of inciting the wrath of Gary Bettman, Yukon Cornelius, Mister Freeze (the Otto Preminger version, not the one played so ham-handedly by the Governator), Glenn Close still holding that ice pick in "Fatal Attraction", and any other PC brainwashed yahoos who inhabit frozen climes...

Allow me to seek the least offensive words in describing my reaction to the chill directed at Sean Avery and his dining choices.

I honestly don't know whether to have a personal moment of relief or wind my watch. And that's after several bouts of uproarious laughter at all the hand-wringing over what he said and how it will affect civilization as we know it.

Fitting it comes near the close of a week that has provided more visual and choreographed entertainment than anything Hollywood could visualize. And that's if they were armed with a special-effects budget to rival the ransom being paid to the bloated internal combustion clowns in Detroit.

For the appetizer, six guys are busted after chowing down on diet pills at the table of "No one told me they were banned substances".

The main course consisting of one guy busted after feasting at the buffet line of "I need to protect myself because I'm a famous jock in public and I didn't know a loaded concealed weapon was illegal in New York State, Officer".

And for the dessert course, a heaping helping of sloppy seconds, dished out with loving care to a media feeding frenzy that would chow down on "breaking news sawdust" if it meant not having to dig into what was said, how it was said, and what the impact really is.

Sit down. Pull in your chair. Tuck in your napkin. Let's make sure you get some meat this time instead of gristle.

What Sean Avery said is not surprising. Nor is it shocking, incendiary, misguided, accidental, bone headed, disdainful, threatening, life-altering, bone chilling, or even worthy of a mild raising of the eyebrow.

It's completely expected. Matter of fact, look how well it was delivered by Avery himself. Making sure the media all gathered around to hear every heart warming syllable, every ounce of that loving cup aimed at his former paramour.

The guy is an athlete. A professional athlete. A cocky, veteran, well-paid and celebrated professional athlete. What were you expecting? Bon Mots for the fair and former squeeze?

The roaring thunder of sound bites heard across the depth and breadth of North America is by now standard operating procedure. The blubbering indignant and shocked tone of bad actors still thinking they're real news journalists is all too familiar. Look into the camera. Wave your hands a few times. Puff up the chest, (unless it needs no additional puffing), be sure to appear righteous and PC in pandering to your audience.

But if you filter out all the background noise, you can dig into this meat-substitute meal of alarm and find one honest issue to be discussed. Not that you'll hear much about it, because it's not explosively sexy enough for the rooftop screamers and posers who never look below the surface because it might interfere with their face time.

Noting the blatant sexual nature of Avery's comment and how offensive it rightfully is to women everywhere, a friend said to me, "that certainly isn't something I would want my daughter to hear".

And therein lies the real problem. Why so many hackles are raised every time someone merely says something instead of taking any actually harmful action.

When words are used as swords and responders have to bring out the nuclear tipped arsenal. When adolescent sayings snap into place like switchblades and the insulted call out the laser-guided national media corps.

These are words. Just words. Hurtful, indeed. Wrong to say in public, absolutely. Insulting, to be certain. Sexist, crude, and vile, no doubt.

But in the end, just words. Two words, to be precise. Four syllables. Thirteen letters.

George Carlin was more than a brilliant comic, but a masterful wordsmith. He rose to fame with "Seven Words You Can't Say on Television." I think that list is down to five by now, but his point was simple. These are just words. However they are used, they can only hurt those who allow themselves to become enraged and vindictive without taking proper steps to insure the next time they are used, their impact is either lessened or one day completely ineffective.

I wish for every daughter to hear Avery's comments. And every son. On tape. In living audio color exactly as they were delivered. Not watered down by bleeps or cute duck quacks being placed over the naughty bits. Not foreshadowed by news readers who put on the phony mask of warning.

And let's not wait for them to hear it on their own. Boys giggling and snickering when they hear it from the older kid at school and then make it part of their daily lexicon. Girls offended and lashing out in anger at everything with a penis because they see their parents react in the same vulgar manner.

Let's sit them down in front of a TV or computer screen and play it for them. Volume up. Several times.

And right next to them is their mother, father or someone who cares about them and isn't looking to always pop a vein in anger. Instead, take a turn at something much more difficult, much more time intensive, and for some parents often impossible.

Talk to them.

Rationally, calmly and intelligently explain exactly what was said. What it means. How it's used to insult and degrade. Why plenty of people were laughing when he said it.

And why it's wrong to say in the first place.

It's too late to have these types of conversations with the addled, set in their ways believing athletes should carry concealed weapons, should be judged by a second set of rules after using dogs for blood sport because they can sling a pigskin (talk about karma), athletes using steroids has no real affect on kids, jocks fathering multiple children by multiple partners is OK as long as they pay the freight, the list of excuses never seems to end.

As I have noted before, suspensions and fine do nothing to deter neanderthals like Avery from doing this again in private. It does zero to invade the sub-human sub culture in locker rooms, office buildings, school yards and shopping malls that quietly revel in the degradation of easy targets. It never addresses the issue at it's very core.

Make him stand in front of a classroom filled with fifth and sixth graders and swallow his pride. Order about a year's worth of personal appearances at high schools where the worshipping of these players as Gods begins. Make him apologize to Elisha Cuthbert. In person. In front of the same TV cameras he called over to hear him gleefully take a public slap at someone not their to answer back.

Make him act like a man. And not a coward. Which is exactly what he is.

And what we are for not being intelligent in how to react to words used as weapons.