RF23 - Off The Pedestal

Penn State:   O’ what a tangled web Penn State weaved, when they practiced to deceive..This morning Penn State University was hit squarely in the eyes from the NCAA over the inaction of four or five individuals who put one man, one program on a pedestal and the victims of the cover up, behind the shower curtain with a predator.   By now, you’ve heard the sanctions placed on the school and the wins by Paterno vacated going back to 1998.   I opined earlier that I would be okay with any punishment, which included the death penalty if the NCAA deemed that the inactions of the individuals were so egregious and the total lack of institutional control by those individuals called for the school to lose one or two years of a suspended football season.  

All of the above makes Ohio State’s tattoo issue, USC’s Reggie Bush’s and the pay to play at Auburn so insignificant when it comes to the harming of children on your campus and the ensuing cover up by those of authority that the NCAA should suspend the prior punishments of the aforementioned schools and rethink what infractions it wants to punish.

Next, the sports media can’t have it both ways, you can’t one week ask if the NCAA is going to get involved and agree it should and then three minutes after sanctions are placed on the school, say, what about the kids? They had nothing to do with it and spare me the talk about the welfare sports programs that generate little or no money to its prospective program.   Because no matter how big Pat Summit was, how many undefeated seasons at UCONN and how many years Brittany Griner plays at Baylor. Forbes article    They all depend on football and men’s basketball to put uniforms on them.   So like Penn State football, all other sports programs have to suffer the same penalty, due to the fact they depended on the deity that was Joe Paterno and every year under Paterno, that deity made an average of over $60 million dollars a season.  This does not calculate the bowl dollars, TV deals and sponsorships. 

Today, the word is unprecedented, because what happened this morning to Penn State is and going to be unprecedented, until the next cover up is brought to light and when it does.  Everyone will know the penalty, the question is, like steroids, is getting it now, the price to pay for losing it later.

Golfing:  There is one person in the sports world happy about the sanctions and the breaking news regarding Penn State and that’s Adam Scott, lets make that two people, we can throw Tiger Woods into this as well, because not only did Scott choke, and there’s no proverbial choke, he straight up choked and the more I type, the more I realize that Scott got over before the Penn State sanctions came down, because I’m imagining a good number of Tiger fans picked up the remote, hit the off button, left the house or just played what was on their play list on their DVR because Woods checked out of the British Open on the sixth hole.   And since it’s Tiger’s world, if you think that Tiger was feeling sorry about Scott’s choke job on Sunday, I got two bridges and a dam to sell you.  The thought of this guy winning another tournament with Woods former caddie, Steve Williams and Williams talking trash afterward would have Tiger looking for his nine iron to crack his ‘ol friend in the head with it.   I think Tiger would take his melt down on the sixth hole and eventual loss in a major any day just to see Williams and his golfer look hopeless and try to figure out the right words to get them to sleep Sunday night.  As for Tiger, he slept with a grin.

Insensitive or Idiot:   On HBO’s Boxing After Dark, Adrien Broner was stripped of his Super Feather Weight title for not making weight for his 130 pound bout on Saturday against Vicente Escobedo, but no matter how big HBO tried to make that the story for viewers to watch, it was after Broner’s fifth round TKO of Escobedo that received some conversation.   After the fight, Broner got down on one knee, took his girlfriend by the hand and asked her to.....

brush his hair.

That’s right, Broner faked a marriage proposal for a hair brush proposal, in which I right away thought two things,  one, he’s insensitive or two, he’s an idiot.  And since idiots can’t be geniuses, I won’t give him the benefit of the doubt of being Mayweather like and speaking of Mayweather, Broner had on a blue tee shirt that said “Free Money Mayweather.”  I told you, Broner may not be the sharpest knife in the drawer, although his boxing skills are Mayweather like, with more power, his brain usage is way below Mayweather’s.   I think someone should have pulled Broner to the side and told him Mayweather is not a political prisoner, he plead for this deal and therefore agreed to spend 90 days of his life in county jail, period.   Now if Saturday was day 89 of Floyd’s incarceration, then Broner’s tee shirt would be appropriate, but since it wasn’t, lets just place that in the idiot section.  Oh! memo to Escobedo’s corner, in order to stop your fighter from further damage, you must throw the towel in the ring to stop the azz beatin’, not just stand there waving the dang thing, like you’re a cheerleader.  Now having said that, if you’re the referee and see said fighter getting his azz beat and not protecting himself, feel free to assert your authority and end the doggon’ fight.

More Boxing:  Look if you’re an up and comer, please stop calling out fighters, we all know you can’t beat.  Just because you dropped a tomato can or four to the canvas does not mean fighers like Pacquio or Mayweather are going to.  They’re pound for pound best for a reason and have seen fighters like you before.  Both of them are the reason why Ricky Hatton  and Sugar Free Mosely are out the sport.   Look stick with the talent pool on your end of the pool and let the big boys do what they do..

Just Conversation:  I need more Facebook friends, yesterday, I asked my present group of friends to give football commandments after I posted my own and you know what I got..

two likes...and no commandments.

Memo to friends, I know my takes are likeable!  I wrote them, what I want is your takes and I will over look the misspelled words, just interact with me.  Dang, you would think I started a game of operation, got out the rib bone and everyone is scared to take a turn.