Stricter Punishment Needed For Florida Football Team

My beef today is with the University of Florida football team as well as its coach, Urban Meyer.

This past week, Florida WR Chris Rainey was arrested and charged with aggravated stalking, a third-degree felony. This took place after Rainey sent a threatening text message to a former girlfriend, which reportedly read "Time to die."

I am usually an SEC supporter and admirer of the talent that SEC football has relative to other conferences. I think the impressiveness of a college football program like Florida winning year in and year out is often overlooked just because that's what they're expected to do. That being said, although it's tough for teams like Florida to live up to on-the-field expectations, it shouldn't be tough to live up to off-the-field ones.

Although it's tough to top that story, what this crime is part of may be even scarier. You see, we all know Florida's coach Urban Meyer is one of the top college coaches in the country. In his short five year tenure (going into his sixth year) at Florida, Meyer has managed to win two national titles, almost unheard of in the college game. Still, those two titles pale in comparison to the 30 players that have been arrested during those five years. Yes that's right, Chris Rainey is the thirtieth Florida football player to be arrested under Urban Meyer. Meyer might as well be recruiting all of his players from juvenile detention centers.

Just think about that number for a second; that's almost six arrests per year. There have been DUIs, burglaries, misdemeanor alcohol charges, battery charges, resisting arrest, marijuana possession and purchase, etc. Sounds like the type of guys all fathers want their daughters to marry.

As fans, we don't usually ask much out of our student-athletes (if that term is even applicable to intercollegiate athletes anymore) especially the ones that participate in popular sports like football and men's basketball. Athletes with high GPAs, who go to class and are involved in their community are usually the exception rather than the norm, not that there's anything wrong with that; athletes are on very time-constricting schedules and mostly got into the school they're attending for their athleticism not as much their brains, to play their respective sport first and study on the side. Most football players are just expected to do well enough in class during the week, so that they can participate on Saturdays. That's the way it is, and no complaints or protests are going to change the system anytime soon. But, when a number of a football team's players are arrested and charged with crimes, even if some of those charges are eventually dropped, it's disappointing and aggravating to say the least.

College coaches aren't paid the big bucks to just coach college football. In addition to their football duties, they have to make sure these kids grow into men. It may sound corny and cliche, but it's true. Like most college athletes, many of Florida's players won't be going on to play in the NFL, instead their times of football glory will come to an end, and they'll have to assimilate into the real world, no longer being the demi-gods they used to be. Urban Meyer isn't helping these kids do that. Many people claim that Meyer is trying, but trying doesn't matter in this case unless you get results, and if he was trying, he wouldn't have a problem of this magnitude; it's not as if players at every other powerhouse college football program in the nation are getting arrested.

There's a lot that needs to be done. Meyer has to start coming down on his kids harder than he already has. Just because Tim Tebow was a do-no-wrong player, doesn't mean all of Florida is, and it doesn't mean that Meyer is a strict coach; it just means that Tebow was a devout Christian. Without Tebow, without one single player, Meyer would probably be getting much more flack (which he deserves) for all of these arrests. If it was just one troublesome, misguided player that would be fine, but 30 arrests show that Meyer has to take a lot of the blame, especially when he recruits those players, and can therefore stop a lot of the crime, by just implementing stricter punishments and making examples out of the criminals on the team to show he means business.

The school also has to take action. If Meyer isn't going to do something about cutting down on crime than they have to. The football team isn't a separate entity and shouldn't be treated like it is, it's part of the school and its athletes are the school's students. They represent the school wherever they go and if UF doesn't start cracking down on this 'I can get away with anything because I'm on the football team' attitude that has apparently been instilled in its players, it just sadly goes to show that they're more worried about winning games and profiting off their players than they are with helping these young men become disciplined.

I'm not going to say that the school should put these players on constant watch; they're not babies anymore, they should know how to at least behave themselves well enough, as to not get arrested. What I'm calling for are stricter punishments for those that do break the rules. The best way to prevent someone from doing something, is to take make sure that the costs of the punishment outweigh the benefits of an action. With football players, that thing they love most is playing football. If team management starts suspending these guys for entire seasons, players will start taking notice. But stupid people will do stupid things, and therefore Florida has to start taking more precautions in the recruiting process. Guys with records of causing trouble should mean a big red light for the Gators from here on out. The best way to stop crime is to stop recruiting criminals.

College athletes have to learn that they can't get away with everything. Some of these guys will probably be celebrities in at least the state of Florida in the future, but many of them will just be average Joes after their four years of college are up. There is life after college football, and what these players need to understand is, in the real world, you can't get away with everything.

NFL Has to Consider More Than Just Money

My beef this week is the proposal to expand the NFL Regular Season to 18 games.

Commissioner Roger Goodell and NFL owners have proposed a plan to lengthen the regular season from 16 to 18 games and shorten the preseason from four to two games. The playoff system would be left intact.

If the proposal is accepted by the owners and the players association, the changes would be implemented starting in 2012.

One major sticking point in the effort to convince the players to lengthen the season is upping their average salary.

It seems as if a longer regular season would please fans, owners, players and essentially everyone in football, so why, you might ask, am I raining on everyone’s parade?

Don’t get me wrong, I love me some football. There’s nothing I’d like more than to have football all year-round. But despite my love for the game, and despite the fact that football players get to play a game that they love for monstrous sums of money, the equally monstrous hits that they take can inflict a serious toll on the life they lead after football. 

Many people argue that athletes are in better shape than anybody and that two extra games shouldn’t make a significant physical difference. Sure, two extra games doesn’t seem like a lot, but when you consider that the average star running back plays for about a decade — if they’re lucky — that comes out to 20 extra games that that player is participating in over his career. That’s a whole season and a quarter — a lot of extra wear and tear for a 10-year veteran.

According to a recent story in the The New York Times, a study from the year 2000 surveying 1,090 former NFL players discovered that more than 60 percent of players had experienced at least one concussion in their careers, while 26 percent had three or more concussions.

Another study done by the University of North Carolina in 2007 uncovered that out of the players with three concussions or more, 20.2 percent said they had been diagnosed with depression at some point following their retirement.

It gets worse. A study in 2009 conducted by the University of Michigan showed that Alzheimer’s disease as well as other similar, memory-related diseases were found at a rate 19 times higher in NFL players, ages 30 to 49, than in other men the same age.

It’s not as if the NFL isn’t doing anything to prevent these issues. The league has taken precautions to make football players aware of the risks that they take by playing the sport, including recently putting warning signs in lockers that describe the symptoms of concussions and the long-term risks a football career can pose for one’s health.

Additionally, the NFL is doing what it can to keep players who show signs of a concussions off the field. The major problem is that the league promotes the glory of playing through pain, which isn’t so glorious when you have a serious injury.

One of the best examples of the dangers of football is the life of Mike Webster, who had a 17-year NFL career and is widely considered the best center in football history. But like many football players, he suffered direct repercussions from his playing days during retirement. As a result of his lengthy career, which many doctors liken to the equivalent of suffering 25,000 car crashes, Webster suffered from a brain disease known as chronic traumatic encephalopathy, as well as amnesia, dementia, depression and bone and muscle pain.

For years, he slept in his pickup truck as well as in train stations. When he sued the NFL in 1999 for full disability benefits, he was denied, and as a result went into serious debt. He distanced himself from family and friends and was divorced in early 2002. He died six months later at age 50. Only in 2005 was his estate granted full benefits.

Modern-day players also suffer in retirement from injuries that occurred during their playing days. Former Jets wide receiver Wayne Chrebet, who suffered numerous concussions during his 11-year career, constantly has trouble remembering how to get places — even his own home.

Unfortunately, sometimes head trauma goes unnoticed. Former Bengals receiver Chris Henry died of blunt force trauma to the head after falling out of the back of a moving truck that was being driven by his fiancée. Only after his death did doctors find out that Henry suffered from the same brain disease Webster suffered from. Henry had never even been diagnosed with a concussion.

Thousands of players wake up every morning with blistering headaches, and some like Webster and Chrebet can’t live normal lives as a result. It’s nice to see that the NFL is finally taking action, but the league isn’t even close to where it should be on these matters.

The NFL is notoriously known as having the worst disability and pension plans in sports. Until these plans and equipment safety are improved, the NFL should not be allowed to pursue an 18-game schedule.

Originally appeared in The Hoya on 9/10/2010

Don't Fear, The Jets Are Still Here

My beef today is with almost everything that the New York Jets did last night in their opening game against the Baltimore Ravens.

Everyone around the country seemed excited about this Jets team coming into the season, especially with HBO's Hard Knocks and Rex Ryan's trash talking; some even picked them to be the best team in the NFL this year. Last night the Jets were anything but.

It was an ugly game just like everyone expected, but it certainly wasn't ugly in the way that everyone expected. Sure, you can say both defenses were gritty and tough, but the main reason neither team scored points was the play from their respective horrendous offenses. The Ravens were able to consistently advance the ball but early turnovers cost them. On the Ravens' first drive, Joe Flacco fumbled the ball when he was sacked at his own 20 and a recovery set the Jets up for a field goal. Then on their next drive, they advanced the ball deep into Jet territory, but lost it when the Jets jumped on a Willis McGahee fumble inside the Jets' 20. The last Ravens turnover came right in front of the Jet endzone, when Antonio Cromartie picked off a ball intended for Anquan Boldin and returned it to the Baltimore 24 yard line. Those plays were about the only bright spots for the Jets though.

The big show of the night was the Jets' stagnant offense, and calling it that is being kind. It was more like atrocious, horrific, disgusting, and just downright foul. Yet, I don't fault the players even as close to as much as I fault offensive coordinator Brian Schottenheimer. The play-calling by Schottenheimer was elementary to say the least. I understand that the Jets love establishing their running game, with their ground 'n pound style of play that Rex Ryan has become famous for, but it wasn't finishing the job for them last night. With a defense as talented as the Ravens', especially in their front seven, the Jets needed to combine their big runs, which they did have a few of, with more play-action passes and deep balls from Sanchez.

The Jets also needed to mix up their play-calling. They only passed twice on first down in the entire game, one time was a great pass to Dustin Keller that would have put them on the doorstep of the endzone, but was called back because of an illegal shift by Braylon Edwards. The other was a five yard completion. With 7:07 left in the third quarter, after a big Brad Smith kick return and with the Jets down 10-6, it seemed as if momentum could swing in their favor. Instead they went three-and-out after running the ball three straight times.

Look, I'm a supporter of protecting and developing Sanchez but Schottenheimer just babied him last night, consistently turning to a running game that could only give him so much in return, with a struggling Shonn Greene. Through the middle of the fourth quarter, Sanchez had only thrown the ball a dozen times. Many people criticized Sanchez last night for checking down to his running backs too often, but how could he have the confidence to throw downfield, when his offensive coordinator rarely gave him any opportunity to.

The Jets can ram the ball down the throats of mediocre opponents all they want, but Sanchez needs more opportunities to throw the ball than he got last night against good team like the Ravens, especially when they expected him to step up in a two-minute drill and throw the ball every play. It was like asking a quarterback to come off the bench and lead the final drive all the way downfield, and he could have done it if not for Dustin Keller. On a crucial fourth down with less than a minute in the game, Sanchez found Keller and got the ball to him just short of the first down a few steps from the sideline. Instead of attempting to get the ball past the first down marker he ran out of bounds and the Jets fell a yard short of having the drive live on. So say what you want about Sanchez, but this Jets offense only got six downs, tying them for a franchise worst, as a result of Brian Schottenheimer's boneheaded play-calling.

Then there were the penalties. My God, it seemed like every other play, especially on defense was a penalty. For all of those cocky Jets fans who thought the Jets could do without Revis, just imagine what this game would have been like if only Antonio Cromartie and Kyle Wilson had been playing. The entire Jets squad combined for 14 penalties totaling 125 yards, compared to the Ravens' five totaling 38 yards. The two CBs had a horrendous first half, surrendering a combined four penalties for a total of 60 yards, and then on top of that struggled in the second half to stop the passing game. Revis didn't play often, but when he did, it was easy to see that he was back to being Revis Island, shutting down whomever he covered. Why the Jets didn't use him on the Jet killer Anquan Boldin who ran all over Cromartie for 110 yards, is understandable considering Revis' missing training camp, but still inexcusable in such a close, important game.

There were some positives however. The front seven played like they were possessed by the football gods, getting in Joe Flacco's face and completely shutting down the Raven running game, which only had 49 total yards on a combined 35 carries. Bryan Thomas especially stepped up in Calvin Pace's absence with 9 tackles and 1.5 sacks. Mike Westhoff's special teams also looked wonderful with some great returns and awesome coverage, but that was no surprise considering Westhoff's outstanding track record.

The best thing that I took out of this game was how close it was. Despite the penalties and the terrible, offensive (not in the good way) offensive play, the Jets only lost by one point to a team that many experts have representing the AFC in the Super Bowl. One of the signs of a great team, is that on even their worst nights they can stay with almost anybody. The fact that the Jets were so bad, yet were in the game all the way up to the final seconds, shows me that this team has the potential to win it all.

There will be some big questions to answer though. With today's news that Kris Jenkins will miss the rest of the season, as he did last year, with a torn ACL, the Jets front seven will need to hang tight as they did last night, with both Jenkins out all year and Pace out for the first few weeks - the Jets' toughest part of the schedule - and back-ups will have to step up as they did last night. There's also the question as to whether Shonn Greene will be able to step into the starting role. Many assumed based on his playoff performance last year that he would be a top back in the league this year, but with two fumbles last night, it's clear that he may need more time to develop and that LT will need to duplicate the great performances he had in the pre-season. If that occurs, more pressure will be put on Mark Sanchez to lead the team. With Revis undoubtedly getting more playing time next week against the Patriots after the secondary disaster this game, the defensive backs shouldn't be worried about too much, and the defense seems like it's still the best in the league even without Jenkins.

As many people predicted, much of the pressure lies on the second year QB from USC, because if the Jets want to be an elite team, which they have the potential to be, they are going to have to learn to play outside of their comfort zone more often, and that involves letting Marky Mark do what he gets paid to do in throwing the football. Hopefully Schottenheimer and Ryan realize that sooner rather than later.

Rex Ryan hasn't been hyping this team up for nothing. People think that he made a fatal mistake in talking the talk, before he was able to walk the walk after one bad game. The truth is, the defense thrive off of his leadership and inspiration and they can and will make the Jets one of the best teams in the league this year. The penalties will float away as the defense becomes more cohesive as a unit throughout the season and the offense will find its rhythm, especially with Santonio Holmes coming back after four games. It's Week 1 haters and worriers, come talk to Rex Ryan and the rest of the Jets in December when they're playoff-bound.

Huntington School District Fiasco

Although this is a sports blog, I'd like to take time out to address an important non-sports issue that's been plaguing my hometown for quite some time now, and that his finally been "solved."

Recently the Huntington School Board voted 4-3 to make all of the elementary schools in the district grades K - 4 instead of K - 3, and to move all of the students that are going into fifth grade and sixth grade at Jack Abrams School to Woodhull Intermediate School. Jack Abrams School, will most likely be used for adult education classes and tutoring, as well as an alternative high school in the future.

Originally - following a sharp rise in violence in the surrounding area of Jack Abrams School (especially a shooting that took place when kids were about to be put onto their buses on March 11) - the School Board had voted to move all fourth and fifth graders to Woodhull and only send sixth graders to Jack Abrams, but after the recent shooting of a 16 year old girl at a party near the school, it was decided that the school wasn't suitable for sixth graders either.

As many of you know, I went to Jack Abrams School back when it was known as Huntington Intermediate School. During that time, Lowndes Avenue, the street which the school was and is located on, was one of the worst streets in the neighborhood. It was gang-ridden, drug-ridden and every single adult and child in the district knew it. But nevertheless, during my three years there I never once felt threatened. The security guards - Ms. Gloria especially - were amazing and always made sure that every single student in the school felt as safe as possible. Ms. Gloria got around that school so fast, that to this day I still believe she can either teleport or that there was some secret shortcut that only she knew about.

During my sixth grade year, an event took place that changed the district forever. A shooting occurred during the school day on Tower Street, which borders the parking lot and the side of the building in which the administrative offices and sixth grade classrooms are located. I was in one of those sixth grade classrooms. The school was put on lock-down and over the PA system we were told to hide in the closets. Thankfully, the school was never put into any extra danger. Even after that day, I always felt safe going to school, a feeling that many adults also still shared.

Since then, I'm sad to say that the town surrounding the school has only gotten worse. Lock-downs have taken place repeatedly since the one I had back in sixth grade. I have numerous friends from the area, many of them who are outstanding, kind, caring people, but the number of bad apples and the magnitude of the violence in the area has only grown.

Originally, I was against moving any of the students from Jack Abrams Intermediate. I figured that I had been fine going there, so why couldn't these kids; it was one of those moments that grandparents have with their grandchildren, where they talk about how easy kids have it these days. I figured it was just a bunch of parents who didn't know the whole story, and were picturing the situation as worse than it actually was (I still feel a lot of parents dramatize the situation in the area more than they should). I mean it couldn't have gotten much worse than when I was there. Then I read about all the recent violence. The six shootings shootings that have taken place in the school's vicinity since March, and the increase in the magnitude of the gang violence there. I understood why more and more parents were deciding not to send their kids to school there.

Do I personally believe that the school is too dangerous for fourth, fifth and sixth grade students to attend? No. I believe that with a little additional security that the school would be safe enough to stay open. But I also feel that you'd have to be naive and overly optimistic to feel that the chance of a child being harmed, injured or even killed because of a gunfight or some type of violence isn't relatively high. Even if the chance of a child being injured or murdered was .001%, the school district would have the responsibility to protect its students.

Can you imagine the horror and awful misfortune of an innocent child dying during an episode of violence when all along, the district knew how poor of an area the school was in? What about if the kids were on the playground, and a gun went off on a bordering street. Can you believe the madness that would ensue even if no one was hurt. The district would never be the same and would receive terrible publicity for its lack of caution and responsibility. Numerous parents would immediately transfer their kids to private schools, and even move out of the district. No new families would want to move into Huntington for at least another decade with such a terrible mishap. Would you want your kids in a district where another child had just been shot or even harmed in any way. It's obvious that the district and town would go into a major rut.

The agony and misery that would spread across the town would be too much for anyone to handle, but on top of the emotional pain a death, injury or even harmful situation like that would cause, imagine what else would come out of it. It'd be one helluva lawsuit against the school district, and one lawsuit the district wouldn't be able to win. Where do you think the money for the loss in that lawsuit will come from? Have fun with that taxpayers.

The one problem that many say with moving all of the kids to one school is the concern about a possible increase in class sizes throughout the school district. With all of the moves taking place, the average class size for grades 1-6 would probably be around 30 kids, an extremely high number, especially with such young children. If classes bloated to that size, many parents would take their children out of the district and put them in private schools with smaller class sizes. Although the district would still be losing students, that number would be smaller than had the board voted to keep sixth graders at Jack Abrams. Bigger class sizes are also a small price to pay for the safety of students in the district.

People suggest the most positive solution to the problem: improve the neighborhood. People have been calling on town leaders to improve Huntington Station for years now, but now more than ever, people are pleading with the town to do something about the increasing violence.

It's a great solution for everyone; the school stays open, and the town gets the help it needs to root out violence. What's better than that? But although it certainly would be the best way out, it's also the most idealistic and therefore most unlikely solution. Although I think of myself as an optimist, I'm also a realist, and one of the main things the town would need to improve Huntington Station is time, and lots of it. Well guess what? That's exactly what the town doesn't have. The school year starts in just over a month, and based on the lack of improvement or help that Huntington Station has received over the past five years, it's tough to believe that the town and/or county would be able to snap their fingers and fix everything. Town and county leaders have done an awful job in Huntington Station in the past, and it's naive for anyone to think that they'd start taking the hands on approach that the town needs immediately.

There's nothing I'd like more than to see Huntington Station's streets become safe, to see gang violence disappear, to see gang members put in jail, and to see my old school that I love so dearly to be saved; but all of that change is far away. For now however, the parents of Huntington have to be reassured that their children can learn in a safe environment. With numerous threats from parents to pull their children out of the school system either temporarily or permanently, the school board needed to take action, if not to save themselves, then to save the school district and the town of Huntington itself. The school board waited as long as they could to make this change, and hopefully when Town Hall decides to take more action and clean up the streets of Huntington Station, then and only then, will Jack Abrams School once again be rightfully known as Jack Abrams Intermediate School.

Revis Island Tough To Get To

Everyone just take a deep breath in. Now out. Now in. Now out. Are you relaxed? Good.

I'm here to try and reassure all of you that the Jets will work something out with Darrelle Revis sooner rather than later. You want to know why? Because the Jets need Darrelle Revis and I don't believe that Revis is crazy enough to miss a season of football.

Jets owner Woody Johnson has been less than optimistic about signing the Jets' top player Darrelle Revis. When Johnson was asked whether he thought Revis would be signed before the season started, his response was simple; "the answer is no."

But here's the thing; without Darrelle Revis, the Jets have absolutely no shot at a Super Bowl, and have to be underdogs to even win the division. You can try to tell me how good Antonio Cromartie and Kyle Wilson are but I'm not buying it. Cromartie is still riding on his rookie Pro Bowl year which he had a mind-blowing 10 picks. He's been mediocre since, only able to pull down five picks the last two seasons combined. Then there's Kyle Wilson. Wilson looks like a great rookie, but remember the key part of that phrase is rookie. It's extremely difficult to learn the tendencies of receivers your first year in the league no matter how good you are. If Revis is out, Wilson would most likely be splitting time with Dwight Lowery, who has had a mediocre career so far. The word is however, that Lowery may move to safety in order to make room for Wilson. Sure, that's an alright cornerback situation when you're going against most teams, but when the Jets play teams like the Colts or the Patriots, it won't do. The Jets will need Revis to step up and shut down the top dog, or else there would just be too many different receivers to worry about. To put it simply, the Jets need Darrelle Revis in the secondary.

No one knows that more than Woody Johnson. That's exactly why he's telling the public that Revis won't be playing. He knows that fans are more likely to side with the team's best player than the owner, so he's trying to get the fans on his side, citing Revis' selfishness. Another thing he's trying to do, by telling the media that there's no chance he'll sign Revis or bow down to Revis' commands, is getting the upper hand in negotiations and not showing any weakness early on. No owner or GM is going to accept an athlete's first proposal, and with a number like $16 million floating around for probably around 10 years, there will be some strict negotiations. Johnson is just negotiating publicly and trying to get Revis to move down just a little.

Personally, I think that a deal is going to get done. But it'll be the Jets that will have to cave a little bit before Revis does. Darrelle Revis is the best cornerback in the NFL and arguably the best defensive player in the NFL. This is no bum asking for a raise, this is the best player on the team asking to be paid, quite frankly, the money he deserves. The Jets need Darrelle Revis more than Darrelle Revis needs the Jets. With so much hype surrounding the team this year, and all the Super Bowl talk, if the Jets don't sign Revis soon, then further into the season, both the team and the fans will regret it, when the Jets don't have the secondary to take on the giants of the AFC.

Is it at least a little bit selfish that he is sitting out of camp? Yes. Is a 10 year deal for $160 million a little too much to ask, as opposed to a shorter, smaller deal? Arguably. But I have no problem with Revis telling Jets ownership that with all that he does for the team, he deserves a pay raise, and quite frankly, deserves to be the top-paid corner in the league. Although the $16.5 million annual salary that he's asking for is a bit steep, so is the price the Jets pay by losing him. Revis shut down T.O. twice last year (T.O. had 13 and 31 receiving yards in two games against Revis), he shut down Randy Moss twice last year (Moss had 24 yards and 34 receiving yards in two games against Revis), he shut down Chad Ochocinco (Ochocinco went without a reception in one game against Revis), he shut down Andre Johnson (Johnson had 35 receiving yards in one game against Revis), he shut down Steve Smith (Smith had 5 receiving yards in one game against Revis) and he shut down so many more. Do you get the picture? No one gets past this guy. Revis knows that better than anyone else, and he knows that the Jets take a big hit without him, so the Jets shouldn't be expecting him to reach out to them anytime soon.

In football, one of the tougher sports around, contracts are not guaranteed and therefore if you get injured there's no way for you to make money. More and more players are getting contracts with some of their money guaranteed up front, but still, the whole contract is never guaranteed. Revis is trying to protect himself in case he gets injured, in asking for guaranteed money, something which the Jets have reportedly offered him none of so far. It's tough to tell if Revis will be willing to take his number down a bit if a substantial amount of his contract is guaranteed, or if he would be willing to go for a shorter deal because he has shut all media out, but it's tough to see him missing the season, when he could be getting paid $12 million a year.

Last time I checked, the Jets were a 9-7 team that lost to the likes of the Dolphins (twice), the Bills and the Jaguars last year. Sure they had a great playoff run, but until I see them play in the regular season I'm cautiously optimistic. I've said before that this team has the potential to win it all, but the team's management shouldn't start thinking that they're hot stuff too soon. You gotta walk the walk before you can talk the talk. I certainly hope and believe that Woody Johnson and Mike Tannenbaum are just trying to get Revis to back down a tad, but if they're actually serious about letting Revis sit out the season then they're in for a world of hurt. Once the team starts struggling, the New York media and fans will be on them like white on rice, and Revis will immediately have a huge upper hand in contract negotiations. So, Woody Johnson and Mike Tannenbaum are not only doing a favor for Darrelle Revis, the team and the fans by giving Revis the money he wants, they're also doing a favor to themselves.

The Two Stooges

I have lots and lots of beef today and it's with who else? The New York Knickerbockers?

Really Knicks? Really James Dolan? Really?!?! Why in God's name would you ever let Isiah Thomas work in any capacity with the Knicks? Don't you remember that he is responsible for the tragic mess that was the Knicks for most of the decade? Remember those deals for Stephon Marbury, Eddy Curry and Steve Francis, and all of the great draft picks that were lost in the process? Remember when he spent $30 million each on Jared Jeffries and Jerome James? How about when Thomas and Madison Square Garden were sued by Anucha Brown Sanders for sexual harassment in October 2006, and had to pay Sanders $11.6 million, money which could have been used to sign another mediocre basketball player. Not ringing a bell, huh? He is the main, if not the sole reason for the Knicks' woes, barring James Dolan's idiocy.

So why ever bring a guy like that back to your organization? It's like if this country had brought back George W. Bush for a second term (oh wait that really happened ... did I say that out loud?). It's like if Benedict Arnold coming back to fight for the United States. It's like if the Apostles accepted Judas back into their group. Thomas may have not been a traitor like the least two (or three depending on your political views) but the way he managed the team certainly made it seem as if he had a vendetta against the Knicks. I mean, this is Isiah Thomas we're talking about, Knicks Enemy #1.

I'm convinced that this is the work of the Devil, who also goes by the name of James Dolan. Dolan has tormented Knicks fans since he was given an increased role in running the team in 1999. Guess when the last time the Knicks had a winning season or won a playoff game? The 2000-01 season. Not much of a coincidence, considering that according to numerous polls, Dolan has been voted the worst owner in the NBA. Two years before Isiah came, Dolan signed 30 year old Knick legend Allan Houston to a max contract which paid Houston $20 million a year over six years. Although Houston deserved a contract, no other team would have even thought of paying him three-quarters of that. The aging Knicks star broke down over the next few years, missing 32 games during the 2003-04 season, 62 games during the 2004-05 season, and then retiring on October 17, 2005 - all due to a knee injury - with $40 million left on his deal.

Then there was the hiring of Isiah Thomas in 2003, followed by the signing of Larry Brown as head coach after the 2004-05 season to a 5 year, $50 million deal. Brown was fired after one year, the rest of his contract being bought out for $18.5 million, on top of the $10 million he made the first year. $28.5 million for one season in which your team finished 23-59 record, not too shabby.

But let's get back to Thomas' blunders which are a bit more interesting. His executive career started in 1994 with the Toronto Raptors as part owner and Executive Vice President. Thomas was relatively successful there, proving his sharp eye for talent by drafting players like Marcus Camby and Tracy McGrady. In 1998, Thomas left for a short stint as a broadcaster on NBC. Then the fun sets in. That same year, Thomas bought the 54 year old Continental Basketball Association for $10 million. It only took him two years to send the league into bankruptcy, forcing the league to fold and declare bankruptcy in February 2001. The collapse was accelerated by the creation of the NBA Development League in 2000, and the use of that league as the official developmental league for the NBA as opposed to the previously used CBA. Still, many owners blame the league's folding on Thomas.

Following his stint with the CBA, Thomas found a job coaching the Pacers, but was unsuccessful in bringing up the young talent that the team had, as the Pacers were eliminated in the first round of the playoffs all of the three years that Thomas was coach. Thomas was fired following the 2002-03 campaign. And then begins the saga with the Knicks.

I'm not saying that Thomas doesn't have an eye for talent. He's drafted guys like David Lee and Nate Robertson while with the Knicks, both of whom played integral parts on the team and Tracy McGrady and Marcus Camby with the Raptors, both of whom developed into phenomenal players. He's also drafted Trevor Ariza, Channing Frye and Wilson Chandler all of whom have developed into solid players in the league. But, he was one of the main components in the downfall of the Knicks. I don't blame him for accepting the job as much as I blame Dolan for offering it to him. Dolan has time and time again proven his incompetence and here he's doing it again.

The NBA has the opportunity to stop the deal from occurring however, as since Isiah Thomas is a college basketball coach (at Florida International University), many of the teams in the NBA view it as an unfair advantage for the Knicks in the recruitment of young players. As a college coach, Thomas would be talking to both high school and college players, possibly persuading players to be less than enthusiastic about playing for anyone other than the Knicks. And we all know how persuasive Thomas can be, he got James Dolan to keep him around for five years, and now he's getting Dolan to once again make him a part of the Knicks organization.

How Much Can Athletes Get Away With?

Alex Rodriguez became just the seventh man to hit 600 home runs the other day, but possibly more importantly, A-Rod is now the third man on that list to have used steroids.

Coincidentally, my family and I have been talking about legacy lately, and the fact that especially with athletes, the first thing that comes to people's heads when they think about someone is almost all that matters. For example, when you think of Michael Jordan, you think of the fact that he's the best ever, when you think of Babe Ruth, you think home runs, when you think of Joe Montana, you think championships. Those few words define an athlete's career. The problem is however, negative aspects of a person are usually accentuated in our minds, at least when we are talking about people in the present day. It's human nature to think about the negatives rather than the positives in people, because humans always want to be better than others, and one of the easiest ways to do that is to focus on the negative attributes of others. Why do you think celebrity gossip magazines are so popular? People want a way to prove to themselves that celebrities are no better than the average person, or that they themselves are just as good as celebrities. That's why we hear about the times when celebrities have legal troubles or party too much, as opposed to when they give millions to a charity.

Some of the best examples in sports of negatives overriding the positives are Tiger Woods and LeBron James. Tiger Woods was and is on track to be the greatest golfer of all time. For so long, that was his identity and now, after recent developments concerning his Las Vegas extra-curricular activities, the first thing people think of when they think of Tiger is adultery. Then there's LeBron James. He's had such a tremendous career - as much success as he could have had in Cleveland - and has always been a man of tremendous character who stayed out of trouble, but the free agency madness ruined his reputation. The infamous "Decision" changed the view people had of him from a loyal, even-keeled, great player to an egotistical, self-absorbed prick. The main question is however, whether those negative views will survive and override the positive views when all is said and done.

Although humans like to think about people in a negative aspect for the most part, in the end, the positives usually end up shining though. Although we like to take down celebrities and athletes when they're actually working, when it's all said and done we actually like to glorify them. That is, unless they've cheated us, the fans. For example, the example I always like to use is the accusation of sexual assault against Kobe Bryant back in 2003, which is very similar to Tiger Woods' situation. Although the assault cause was dropped, a civil lawsuit had to be settled. Kobe Bryant may not have been guilty of a crime, but he did have to admit to adultery. Nevertheless, Bryant fought back to build up a solid reputation, and was successful, as today the assault case is merely an afterthought, if even a thought at all, when people talk about Kobe Bryant.

Can we expect the same treatment of Tiger Woods when all is said and done? Although Tiger's adulterous acts were to a much greater extent, like Kobe, Tiger's actions never affected the public. He always won fairly, and has given us great golf to watch so far. Maybe that's why in a recent poll done by Harris Interactive, Tiger still topped the list of America's favorite athletes. But, he had such a huge fall, from the world's premier athlete to this lowlife, that it's tough to tell whether he'll be remembered as a golfer or an adulterer. If he comes out of this catastrophe and ends up taking over Jack Nicklaus as the major wins leader in golf, it will be interesting to see what people's perceptions of him are decades down the road.

But the same can't be said for those whose actions cheat the fans, with the most popular example of those actions being steroid use. Steroid use in baseball has tarnished the reputations of almost every baseball player that played during that era in some way. Whether a player's name has ever been connected with steroids or not, people assume that most players were using steroids, and therefore the question of whether a player did use or not is constantly looming.

It seems rare that any player can or ever will escape the seemingly humongous shadow that steroid use casts. Barry Bonds is rarely seen as the true "Home Run King," by fans because of his steroid use. When we think of Bonds, we think of a juicing, selfish jerk rather than a great home run hitter. The main reason for this is because Bonds cheated the fans, and his decision to use steroids affected the fans tremendously. As the records set in that game were proved phony, and the players that had been glorified as heroes were exposed to the public as the villains that they were, the sport of baseball fell apart. Steroid users essentially took baseball away from the game's fans for about a decade with their actions.

Step back to the original story: A-Rod's 600th homer. A-Rod became the youngest player to reach the milestone with his hit, and he certainly appears to be on pace to be the Home Run King by the time he hangs up his cleats. The question is, as it is with Barry Bonds, if he'll ever be able to shake off the fact that he used steroids, and be viewed as a great home run hitter as opposed to a doper and a cheater. After A-Rod hit 600, the papers and media outlets jumped on him for his steroid use, so it'll be tough to imagine them not going hard on him if he ever reached 762.

The only reason that the view of A-Rod would be more positive than the view of Bonds - if A-Rod were to actually eclipse Bonds' record - is because Rodriguez confessed. Both are known as self-absorbed, although Bonds is more-so, and the only main difference between the two would be a confession, and possibly A-Rod's shorter time using PEDs. Although his confession came two years after he had told Katie Couric that he had never used PEDs, and was sloppy to say the least, A-Rod at least eventually admitted to doping, unlike Bonds, who doesn't seem like he's ready to admit his supposed wrongdoings any time soon.

Fans are willing to forgive and even sometimes forget, if athletes are willing to admit to their wrongdoings. Steroid use however, has been a touchy subject, and one that many fans may never forget. As much as fans like to look at athletes as demi-gods, sometimes even despite their wrongdoings, I just don't see A-Rod - whose problem wasn't just an individual one, but part of a larger problem that plagued and ruined America's pastime for so long - ever being seen as the Home Run King above Steroid User.