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The Great White Haux

Over the past few weeks there have been stories reported about one of the NFL’s most accomplished and respected players, Peyton Manning. The first story was one about Manning have HGH, an illegal drug, sent to his home under his wife’s name during a time where he was recovering from neck surgery. The second, and far more serious, was a story about Manning and a sexual abuse case while he was the Quarterback at the University of Tennessee.

Also contained in that report was the issue of Peyton plagiarizing two essays and getting caught by the same trainer that accused him of sexually assaulting her. I find it to be quite interesting that in both of these stories, the media has not given it the air to breathe and develop that they did back in 2009 when Cam Newton was being recruited out of Junior College and rampant reports of Cam being brought by one of the universities. They pushed and pushed until they thought they found something to try and punish him and his father for.

We fast forward to the story that came out about Manning and steroids, he comes out with scathing comments and threatens a lawsuit and the point man behind the story retracts it all and the story dies. Manning goes on to win his second Super Bowl title and is poised to ride off into the sunset. Then we have the UT story that comes out and finally a little more breath is given to the possibility that Peyton might not the be the squeaky clean football player he was cast out to be. It seems to be that, he too, made mistakes in college and perhaps in Pro football as well that have been covered up.

But despite all this every commentator and analyst want to give Manning a pass and let him ride off into the sunset. Consider that the steroid use was far more recent and to me, damaging than Cam’s issue in 2009 because using that substance is illegal in the eyes of the NFL and is punishable by game suspensions. Maybe even more investigations would have been done that possibly could have turned up even more stuff. I’m not saying that Peyton isn’t an all-time great QB, because he is. But, it also goes to point out that there is still a huge bias in the NFL.

Cam sulks after losing the biggest game of his career and every one wants to bitch and moan and jump all over the man for his “poor sportsmanship”. They want to say that Brady, Manning and other great QB’s wouldn’t have done that, but, excuse me every time Brady and company lost a playoff game he sulked and bitched. So did his coach. But they get a pass because they’re the epitome of greatness right? Yet, Peyton has legit allegations against him and there’s a blind eye turned to it.

These two comparisons aren’t meant to be the be all end all of this discussion, however, I use these as two of the most glaring points of contention. In every day life the same dynamics play out, just like in Corporate America and all places in between. The Great White Haux is alive and well. Whether we like it or not, being Black still means you gotta prove yourself ten times more than your White counterpart.

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Leave Him Alone

I’ve heard many folks talking today and seen many Sports Columnists talking about Cam Newton’s post game behavior. They’ve talked about how unprofessional and selfish he was. They’ve talked about him sulking and not being very “graceful” in defeat. I have one major question though: When Tom Brady and Bill Belichick are sulking and groping after one of their playoff losses, do we call them poor sports? Do we say their unprofessional? The quick answer is no. We call them passionate about winning. We call them perfectionists who want to always win.

But a 26 year old Quarterback, making his first appearance in the biggest game in his sport, and his team just laid the biggest egg, short of that Atlanta Falcons game, of the season. He played poorly and so did his teammates. My response to all of you bitches is give this kid some damn slack. Fuck, how many of you at 26 were doing EVERYTHING the RIGHT way? I dare you to be honest with yourself. How many times have you thought you were going to get the promotion, only for it to go to someone else, and you sulked? Did someone tell you that you were being unprofessional? Or did they tell you they understood because you thought you earned it?

I get it, the White establishment in Football and in the Media world, want Cam to be this buttoned up guy who is always gracious in winning and in defeat. But have we not learned anything from Cam? He doesn’t play by the rules. He isn’t the Corporate persona on the football, nor off it really. He is still a very eccentric type guy whose passion shows through all the time. If Brady bitches at the media and his coaches, the Establishment call it leadership and accountability. But if Cam doesn’t smile after the biggest loss of his career, somehow, you people think he should be vilified.

As the saying goes, and this will forever be true, the black athlete must preform 10 times greater than his while counterpart and must behave 50 times better. I get it that this is business and sometimes you can’t always let your emotions show. But, the counter to that is the same thing that got Cam to this point is the same thing he’s going to do when he loses.

Give the man a chance to grow up and mature in some of his actions and behaviors. I think that there is no doubt that if Cam and company keep up the work they’re doing now, they will have another opportunity to win a Championship. I wish every one would just breathe a little bit and let Cam continue to just be Cam.

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Is The Hate that Bad

So, I saw a tweet Stephen A Smith posted a couple days ago regarding fans of the Dallas Cowboys. To paraphrase Mr. Smith, he basically said that fans of Americas team are delusional and don’t have a real sense of reality when it comes to Professional Football because we support a team that is struggling to break through. Because we believe in the Quarterback who has had more success in Dallas than other QB since Aikman retired in 2000. And I know that’s not saying a whole lot, but the truth also is there are only about six QB’s in the league I’d take over Romo.

I understand that Smith is paid to be belligerent and have an opinion, but damn are you that much of a hater that you really have to call Cowboys fan ignorant, for lack of a better word? I know that since you’re a born and bread New Yorker that you are naturally predisposed to “hate” the Dallas Cowboys, but your line of commentary at times is a bit over the damn top. Maybe I’ll complain about your constant slurping of Aaron Rodgers nut sack. Or maybe how much he is in love with LeBron James. It’s kind of pathetic that Mr. Smith’s antics are pretty pedestrian and predictable. He laments how much he despises Jerry Jones and the Cowboys all the time.

He eats up Aaron Rodgers like he’s won three championships and been the best thing ever invented at the QB position. He treats LeBron James like he is the King of all King’s every time he talks about him. I think maybe we should question Stephen A and just how much he can be unbiased in his opinions when “his guys” are playing. He is staunch in his opposition to weed smoking because it’s banned in Professional Sports, but he seems to be ok with allowing a woman beater, Greg Hardy, to return and play in the league.

I mean listen, I think that every one deserves a second chance, but just don’t think that just because you said so, or because you defended the person, that it must be so. I happen to like Stephen A Smith, because a lot of times he does have a very insightful opinion on some of today’s modern topics in Sports, but when I see some of things he’s said about Hardy and the Cowboys nation. Sorry Stephen, just because your Giants have fallen on hard times, the Yankees can’t win a title without buying all of baseball and the Knicks… well, they’re the Knicks.. that doesn’t mean you should just release all your anger on folks that have nothing against you.

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Black is still Whack..

As anyone who has read my blogs will tell you, I’m not very hesitant to call a spade a spade. When I first decided to write this blog I was going to solely keep it focused on the imbalance in the NFL with the disparity between Head Coaches and Top Coordinators that are Black and White. Watching an episode of ESPN’s Outside the Lines, brought back many thoughts and conversations I’ve had regarding this matter. But because of those thoughts I want to expand it more broadly.

The interesting thing to me in this country is that Republicans and to some extent Democrats, love to say that they want equal opportunities for all citizens in the United States. And Republicans love to say that their party is inclusive, but when you look at the policies they mostly pass it’s for the Rich Elite, mostly White, class of Americans and they leave Middle Class families to keep humping it just to try and make it out of their current situations.

Look at Corporate America. Companies are quick to hire Black folks to be Entry level workers and Middle Mangers, but tell me how many of these companies are quick to give a Black person CEO, COO, CFO titles? That same dynamic is ever present in the NFL. Of the 32 teams, there are only 6 Black head coaches in the league. Of the 48 Offensive and Defensive Coordinators there are only 13 Black ones. But you look at the numbers of players and it’s roughly 75 to 80 percent.

If you want to expand it even further look at the United States Senate. You can count on one hand how many Black people are sitting Senators and if I’m not mistaken there have only been 5 or 6 Black Senators in American history. We’re currently at the end of the first Black President’s term in the United States and his treatment by the opposition has been completely disgraceful. The amount of respect shown Black people in this country, to me, is still at an unacceptably low level.

We’ve gotten in the door just a little bit, but lets be real, it damn sure ain’t enough to say we don’t need Affirmative Action as some on the Right, and in the Supreme Court of the United States, would have you believe. There is still a significant wealth gap, education gap, judicial gap between the now non-majority White Americans and Black Americans. Yes I completely agree that all lives in this country matter, but Dammnit Black Lives Matter just as much.

At some point in time I would like for everyone in this country to realize that we need to do more to make sure the playing field continues to be level. I’m not saying pass anyone over for opportunities just to add the token Black person, cuz lets be honest that’s happened too. But what I do want is for the chances to be equal and fair. I know that’s asking for a whole lot from the White folks that control hiring and some of those Black folks who want to be White or feel they need to be tougher to prove their equal. But maybe at some point in our future we will realize that when we give every one a fair shot, this country does even better than when a group is marginalized.

Just think about it

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Enough Already!

It’s no big secret that I can’t stand how much ESPN sucks the dick of the South Eastern Conference during College Football season, and most specifically the Alabama Crimson Tide. I get it, they’re back at their pinnacle again with Nick Saban as the maestro of the program. And I also understand that the historic run the conference has been on winning I think 8 of the last 10 National titles. But let me also be clear, there is no doubt in my mind that some that had to do with ESPN’s incessant desire to push the SEC above all others on their television programming during BCS era.

Let me simplify and clarify for you. When the Associated Press and Coaches Poll, and later Computer polls determined which two teams would play for the National Championship each year, ESPN seemed to flex its influence on the sport by crowing the SEC the greatest Conference on the face of the planet ever. They anointed Alabama the best team in history and used the other top heavy schools as the reason this conference should always have a seat at the Championship table. It was soo bad that one year they actually had an All SEC title game.

Again, I will freely admit that I have enjoyed watching some of the games in that Conference and Alabama, LSU, Florida, to a lesser extent lately, Georgia, to a lesser extent, and most recently Ole Miss have been the heads of this conference. But let’s not forget all the teams in the middle and lower end of this conference that haven’t challenged for anything in decades. This conference is not the dominant powerhouse that ESPN makes it out to be. And the kissing of the ring bull shit that they’ve done with Alabama is just sickening.

I hope that as parity continues to rein and the ACC, Big Ten, PAC 12, Big 12 and maybe Notre Dame continue to show that they can go toe to toe with the “Mighty” SEC, we can get more even coverage and Programs like Clemson, Florida State, Oregon, Ohio State and others that have proven over the past 5 years of so to be equal to the Tide on the gridiron. One can only hope!

 

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Did He Really Act Like That?

Even though Odell Beckham Jr. has burned my Dallas Cowboys a lot during his brief NFL career, I have to admit that I am a huge fan of his. That took a major hit Sunday when I saw his childish and unsuperstar behavior on the football field. Now there are conflicting reports about what happened during the pregame warm-ups and if anything was said to him. I will be the next to say that if the rumors are true that the Carolina defense was hurling anti-gay comments his way, then they got what they deserved.

The only thing that makes me question that is because those rumors didn’t get talked about until after the punishment for Beckham Jr. was handed down. Does that mean they’re false? No it doesn’t, but it also doesn’t mean he isn’t looking for an automatic Get Out of Jail Free card either. Odell, you must understand that you can’t just take things into your own hands. You can’t go out there and intentionally make plays that could cause injury to your fellow NFL brothern.

I’m all for hard play and physicality because that is actually what the NFL is based upon. But I really want him to understand you aren’t the judge, jury and executioner of player conduct. Now as I’m saying all of this, I have to also be fair to the young star of the league and say that I have absolutely seen worse actions on the football field and certainly more deliberate actions also, so I’m not going to really overreact to the situation.

The League also must take a punitive action against that referee crew as well. Because lets be honest, they should have ejected him out of the game well before the peel back, helmet crack happened. Both of the players were playing with recklessness and I would have been ok with both players being tossed for their actions. It’s like in the NBA when there is a heated contest between teams and the officials blow the whistle tight in the game.

It established control of the game and lets the players, teams, and coaches know that there won’t be any dumb ass shit happening that shouldn’t. The NFL officials need to use the power of the yellow hankie and penalty yards to take command of NFL games.

 

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Tarheel Pride

Watching the Tarheels play basketball over the past couple of games the narrative that gets written about is the same: When this team is focused and gives max effort on the court, nobody can beat them. I saw this team play, what right now, the game of the year against Maryland. It was an absolute masterpiece between two teams that look to be playing late into March looking for the title. I saw them in games before and after that where I saw similar moments of brilliant basketball from this team and then moments where they truly looked uninspired.

The other narrative that has come out of Chapel Hill is that the teams of late of lacked a total aggressiveness and toughness to win the tough games. They like to play pretty and don’t like to get too dirty as they say. I would agree with all of the assessments because as a true Heels fan I have seen some really head scratching performances from the over the years since their last national title run.

While this season has a long way to go and this team certainly has a lot left to prove, I would definitely be willing to say that they have brought in a lot more to the idea of bringing their lunch pale’s to the arena. Maybe it’s the pending NCAA punishment looming. Maybe it’s the senior leadership of Marcus Paige and Brice Johnson. But this team has a different look more often than not. They look like a team that has it’s eyes set on the long term goal of winning coach Williams his third title and the Tar Heel program it’s sixth national title.

This teams makeup looks practically identical to other two national title teams Williams had. They have great senior leadership, big men who can dominate, explosive talent from their point guard, reserves who could start on any other team and streaky three point shooting that seems to come right on time. This group will have games to come down the line where all of this talent and potential will get to display itself, so lets just wait and see if the crown will be a shade of Carolina Blue when all is said and done. But one thing I know for sure, Roy won’t let up as long as this team continues to buy into the message: Bring your A game all the time.

 

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Finally Something New

I will freely admit that I am man who loves the male soap’s that is WWE Wrestling. While my loyalty to this brand has been tested over the past couple of years because of stale writing, predictable storylines, horrible character build-up, mismanagement of talent and other reasons, I must say that FINALLY last night WWE mixed it up and got it right!

If you’ve been watching over the past year and a half or so, The Shield has been torn apart and each of these wrestlers have embarked upon singles careers that were at different heights. Seth Rollins made the biggest leap, by becoming a heel and joining the Authority, first to become the World Heavyweight Champion and carry the banner for the company. But Roman Reigns and Dean Ambrose were not to be left behind. Both men were in the Championship title picture and Roman was getting an enormous push from the company.

Only problem with that was, nobody really knew how dynamic Reigns could be or if he had the mike skills to be the top dog of the company. These questions didn’t exist for Rollins and Ambrose because as smaller wrestlers, they had to go out night after night and lay it all on the line. Reigns is more of the thoroughbred that WWE loves and could destroy people at will. Well, unfortunately the WWE Universe realized this and they didn’t take to kindly to Roman’s quick ascension.

WWE was still living in the John Cena era and were really failing and properly packaging, advertising and pushing the Samoan Warrior. Despite big league promos from his cousin, The Rock, Roman still struggled to get over with the people. That is until WWE started to truly invest in Reigns and let him show his natural ability and a few of his one-liners on the mike. Last night was truly the culmination of all of this hard work and they couldn’t have chosen a better running mate to put him over than the boss himself..Vincent Kennedy Mcmahon.

Say what you want about Vinnie Mac, one thing you must give him credit for is that he knows how to put a superstar over and get the crowd behind him; and boy did it work! The buildup to the title match, the belt versus career hype. All of it was what WWE use to be known for. Vince cheating as he use to do to Stone Cold and others. The deck stacked, the heels brothern rushing to try and save him. The challenger fighting with all his might to overcome the odds and win the gold and save his “career”.

If you’ve watched as of late you thought you might have known what the outcome was gonna be based on history. Reigns loses and is “fired” only to get reinstated and get vindication. But damn it they finally did the twist that every one was hoping would happen. Finally the title switched hands on television and not just on Pay Per View. Finally they put the title on Reigns after the buildup hit a peak last night.

Vince didn’t screw Roman, Roman fucked the Mcmahon family last night and it was awesome. His actions at the Pay Per View Sunday and his performance last night won a lot of fans over and now.. maybe, just maybe Reigns can take his place and the support of the crowd. It was a great finish to the match and I was so happy that this was the ending. I stayed up glued to the t.v. eating up every bit of the match. I was hanging on every inch and this really felt like old school Raw. Good guy has the deck stacked and the Villain thinks he’s gonna win but the good guy finds a way.

I don’t know how this will play out over the next few weeks and months but if the company can continue to write with a twist up and down their wrestling card the company might can pull out of the ratings dumb they’ve been in over the past few months. Time will tell but damn it I was excited to see that ending last night.

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Sports Media Hyprocracy

I will be completely honest and say that I love the Dallas Cowboys. They have been my favorite football team since I began watching Professional football. No, I don’t care that they’ve struggled off and on the past decade I don’t and won’t turn on my team. I know that we’ve had a dumb ass GM (The Owner) but there have been some really smart football moves made for this football team over the past few years. To not acknowledge that, even for the most ardent hater of the Cowboys, is to say that you really don’t know football you just want to hate a franchise.

Now all that said lets talk about this lunacy that I heard yesterday on t.v. and what’s been generally considered the consensus among sports pundits about Jerry Jones’s recent comments about his coaches and the amount of losses the team had while Tony Romo was out of action the first time with an injury.

Jerry said that we was completely dissatisfied with the job his coaches did in the seven games Romo  missed earlier in the season and that he didn’t understand how his team didn’t win any games while Tony was out. That makes perfect sense to me. As a Cowboys fan I was truly pissed to watch them find a way to blow games late in the fourth quarter after playing well. Look at the Falcons game, the Seahawks game, the Bucs game. Those three games alone, the Cowboys were leading in the fourth quarter and late in the fourth in two of those games, only to lose all three.

Dallas found ways to give games away when they were there to be won. So while that exciting end of game win over Washington kept them in the picture, the reality is they should be leading this division. Look at the second Giants game as well. They were in all these games and couldn’t find a way to get the W. And Jerry was right, that win Monday night was not because the Cowboys out coached Washington, it was because that team refused to quit.

Now I will give head coach Jason Garrett credit for that because it takes the right mindset instilled by your head coach to never quit when things never seem to go your way. But Jones was right, this staff should and could have done a much better job to get W’s on the board in earlier games. Imagine if they had closed out the Tampa, Seattle and Giants game. Instead of being 4-8, they would be 7-5 two games up in the division and looking to put it away down the stretch.

Reference my first paragraph, I don’t agree with a lot of what Jerry Jones has done or said since 1996 as the General Manager of the Dallas Cowboys, but I don’t get these Media slobs. When Jerry says his team is the best in the league and they should win, they say he’s crazy and you can’t take him seriously. When he makes bone head moves you tell him to fire himself. But when he has a solid and sensible draft and makes good football decisions you give a little pat and quickly pivot to the past.

When he tells the truth about his coaches the suck ass job they did in game preparation and execution, the Media says Jones doesn’t know what he’s talking about. But you let ESPN Analysts or Fox Analysts critique the team and they would say the same thing. Sometimes you just have to give the devil his due. Jerry Jones, for once, took a step back after a big win and admitted the truth: This team should not have lost all seven games without Romo. They should have been at worst 4-3 and most likely 5-2. The Carolina and New England games were the only two where they really had no chance.

Be real out there and give him his credit, Jerry may actually be wising up a little…Or maybe Stephen is actually, finally putting his imprint on this franchise and it’s noticeable. Hope it continues.. Go Cowboys!!!

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The Jordan Effect

Funny thing happened yesterday, Nike decided to give a lifetime  contract, worth more than $500 million dollars to LeBron James. Listen, while the rest of America is trying to figure out they can their wages to increase even 5%, this cat just got a deal that will pay him more money than 85% of Americans will ever make.

Can we not stop and take stock of that for a second? I’m all for Capitalism and spending your dollars to promote your brand, but damn is he really worth that kind of money? Then I have to remember that the other superstars of this era have signed enormous contracts in that general ball park over the past  offseason or two.

LeBron, KD,  Big Game James and others you can thank one man for those kinds of deals on shoes.. Michael Jordan. Yes, the king of the court was really the man who set the explosion of shoe companies trying to grab players and give them these max deals. He was the man who made  brand and has kept that brand popular, relevant and extremely profitable for the past 30 years.

Yes, think about that for a minute. Since 1984 His Royal Airness has been making shoes that have made people go crazy for three decades and there appears to be no slowing down of folks buying his shoes. He even has Russell Westbrook and Chris Paul in their own customized Jordan shoes. How much of a mogul and smart businessman must he and his people be?

He owned an NBA franchise, continues to have a partnership with a company that makes him money hand over fist and in my mind, someday will be the face of the NBA with his moniker being the NBA logo. Michael was the revolutionary for basketball.

Yes, there have been folks who helped to contribute to the popularity of basketball athletes, but there really can be no mistakes that from 1984 until his retirement in the 2000’s Michael Jordan was really the NBA. While others in the league made their namesake and built their legacies, he was cementing his and laying the foundation for his next chapter.

While he has yet to achieve the same success as an Owner and executive right now, I’m reminded back to when Jordan came into the league. Early in his career he could score better than anyone, but without the proper support system he was an early exit from the playoffs or a nonplayoff team all together. Once he got the right coach and cast he became the best in the game and the rest is history. I truly believe that he will figure it out and while he may not win 6 rings, he will win a few during his tenure.