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Category Archives: Sportstime!

Serena Williams Rants While “Fox and Friends” Raves

12 Sep

A thumbs down on Serena's meltdown (and the media's phony outrage).

Serena Williams went off on the chair umpire at the U.S. Open after she had a point taken away from her during her match against Samantha Stosur.

In the end, Stosur’s powerful shots and steadiness allowed her to beat Williams 6-2, 6-3 in a surprisingly lopsided upset for her first Grand Slam title. Stosur left the court as the U.S. Open champion; Williams’ night ended with her facing possible disciplinary action.

A sampling of what Williams said to chair umpire Eva Asderaki:
• “You’re out of control.”
• “You’re a hater, and you’re just unattractive inside.”
• “Really, don’t even look at me.”

Asked at her news conference whether she regretted any of her words, the 13-time Grand Slam champion rolled her eyes and replied: “I don’t even remember what I said. It was just so intense out there. … I guess I’ll see it on YouTube.”

Here ya go, Serena.

Williams was fined $2000 for her outburst as she lost not only her cool, but her title to Stosur.

Chris Chase, author of the Busted Racket blog at Yahoo! sneered at the paltry fine.

For verbally abusing a chair umpire and making a mockery of tennis on its grandest stage, Serena Williams earned a paltry $2,000 fine from gutless U.S. Open officials afraid to rein in the despicable behavior of the game’s biggest star.

She will receive no tournament ban and her probation, which had been in effect since her infamous 2009 outburst at the U.S. Open, has been lifted. To call this a slap on the wrist would be overstating it. The fine was more like an imperceptible shake of the head.

Consider: Serena took home $1.4 million from the U.S. Open, a total which includes the prize money she won for being a finalist and her bonus for winning the U.S. Open hard court series. The $2,000 fine represents 0.14 percent of her total haul.

Way to send a message that such behavior isn’t to be tolerated, USTA. You wonder why Serena keeps humiliating lines officials who make $250 per day? Because your cowardly organization looks the other way every time she does it.

But Fox & Friends upped the ante when host Gretchen Carlson wondered if Wiliams’ hissy fit masked a “racist undertone” and was the expression of a member of the “entitlement generation.”

Friends don't let friends watch "Fox and Friends"

Carlson said after watching Williams’ tirade, “This is what’s wrong with our society today,” she said. “That’s the entitlement generation right there.”

“If you’re not a responsible parent, to constantly say ‘no, you need to take your own personal responsibility,’ you end up saying things like that,” she said. “…And a ‘hater,’ I mean was that a racial undertone? I don’t quite get that.”

The point is not to excuse Serena Williams’ bad behavior, but to point out how the idiots at Fox are trying to turn one athlete’s momentary meltdown into a major racial incident.  Fox feeds off of these stories to whip up a fear and resentment of Blacks or have we forgotten about the whole thing about Common performing at a White House poetry slam.

Letting Fox & Friends off the hook only encourages to continue playing the role of racial arsonists,  Chase has a slightly better argument regarding the USTA’s minimal punishment of Williams, but tennis has loved its bad boys when the acting out was being done by John McEnroe, Jimmy Connors and Ille “Nasty” Nastase.

Some public displays of rage are okay in tennis as The Crunk Feminist Collective observed, “…the USTA loves angry heckling players—as long as they are white men. Early in the tournament, there was a video and interview tribute to Jimmy Connors, a player legendary for his angry outbursts on the court. In the tribute they devoted extended time to showing one of the more famous of these outbursts, in a celebratory manner. White anger is entertaining; Black anger must be contained.”

If a Black person shows anger or dissatisfaction, they are called out based upon their race, not what set them off.  Only fools watch Fox, but for those clamoring for President Obama to publicly go ballistic, take note.

For the edification of the clueless Carlson, Urban Dictionary defines a “hater” as: A person that simply cannot be happy for another person’s success. So rather than be happy they make a point of exposing a flaw in that person.

There’s no situation the brilliant minds working at Fox News can’t spin into a major crisis. A public figure melting down in front of the camera? Gee…that’s never happened before.

"Serena, don't let the haters beat you down. Been there, done that, sista."

 
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Posted by on September 12, 2011 in Sportstime!

 

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R U Ready 4 Some Football? (The 49ers Aren’t)

31 Jul

Alex Smith: Back for another season of Suck.

The NFL lockout is over.  Too bad nobody told the San Francisco 49ers.

I don’t get stoked anymore by free agency.  It’s nice to bring in some sexy stud to make your team look pretty but after the sorry experience of watching Nate Clements punked by Roddy White on a regular basis, I’m glad he took his sorry butt elsewhere.  Unfortunately for me its only 100 miles from Cincinnati to Columbus, so I can smell the stench of him stinking up the Bengals all season long.  Oh, joy.

My bold pre-season prediction is the 49ers will circle the drain in 2011.   I pick them to finish last in the dead zone that is the NFC West.   The pricey wide receiver Michael Crabtree is already on the shelf (what a shock) with a foot injury and will miss his third consecutive pre-season in a three-year career., Gore is holding out for money he probably doesn’t deserve and Alex Smith is back as our starting QB and will be taking snaps from…errr…Eric Heitmann? (nope), David Baas?  (nope)…TONY WRAGGE!

Never mind who snaps him the damn ball, why in the name of all that’s unholy is the supreme El Busto that is Alex Smith back to prove for a fifth consecutive year he can not be a starting quarterback in the NFL?   How many pictures of Jed York and that sheep does Smith have anyway?  It has been proven beyond doubt the 49ers made one of the worst decisions in drafting history in 2005 when they selected Smith as the overall Number One pick over Aaron Rodgers.    Rodgers went on to run Brett Favre ancient ass out of Green Bay and won a Super Bowl.

Six years are forever in pro football and there isn’t another team in the league that has stuck with a quarterback who reeks of EPIC FAIL the way Smith does.  Even the Raiders finally declared JaMarcus Russell dead to them and after they cut his fat ass loose, nobody even brought him in a try-out.   You have to be totally incompetent as a football player to go from a top pick to completely worthless, but Russell did it.   Smith continues to hold on like an embedded tick.

What has Alex Smith ever done except make 49ers weep uncontrollably when they see a Joe Montana or Steve Young highlight on the NFL Network?

The defense will need a new nose tackle, free safety,  cornerback and inside linebacker along with the pass-rushing stud we still don’t have.   I’m starting to think a 7-9 season might be as good as it gets for this team and over .500 would be a gift from the gods.

Oh well, at least we got a new old kicker to replace the old retired kicker.

It’s been said the lockout would hurt teams like the 49ers more than most.  It hurts even more when the Bengals have made more moves than the 49ers.  Yes, they brought in a bust with Ohio State homey Clements, but they improved by canceling the Chad Ochocinco & Terrell Owens “Who’s The Bigger Asshole?”  Show, so garbage in, garbage out.

In life it is said there are people who watch what happens, people who make things happen and there’s the 49ers who get run over by the teams trying to actually put a competitive product on the field and lie there wondering what the hell just happened?

Looks like I picked the wrong time to start getting interested in the season.  The 49ers (ha-ha) brain trust seems to not have gotten the memo the lock out is over.  It’s okay to try to improve your team.

Turn on ESPN and watch the crawl at the bottom of the screen and you’ll see the difference between teams trying to get to the Super Bowl and the ones like the 49ers, Browns and Raiders who can’t get out of their own way.   The Philadelphia Eagles traded a quarterback who couldn’t beat out Mike Vick to Arizona for a starting cornerback and a second round draft pick, then turned around and signed the most coveted free agent available and added Cullen Jenkins, one of the best defensive tackles on the board.

Meanwhile, my older brothers team,  the Raiders,  have done almost nothing, my younger brother’s team, the Browns,  signed a few pieces of scrap and spare parts.  My Niners?  They signed an old kicker to replace the old kicker who just retired.

The NFL is a league where if you want to try to you make smart moves off the field you can reap the benefits on the field.   First things first.   You have to have an ownership and front office all in to win.   The 49ers no longer do.

It’s not even the losing that bothers me so much.  I don’t like it, but I’ve seen so much of over the past 17 years, I’m used to it.   It’s the not even bother to try that drives me nuts.  It  makes me wonder why, besides nostalgia, do I still consider myself a San Francisco 49ers fan?

Gimme some hope.   At this point I’m desperate enough to settle for window dressing.

Nostalgia only goes so far. It's time for results.

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Posted by on July 31, 2011 in Sportstime!

 

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Taking his talents on vacation: LeBron Lechokes

13 Jun

There can only be one. This year its the Mavericks.

This was supposed to be easy.

LeBron James, the NBA’s greatest player had fallen short of true greatness due to his failure to win a championship.   After seven seasons with the Cleveland Cavaliers he publicly announced in a widely ridiculed interview/slash/performance piece that he would “take his talents to South Beach” and play with the Miami Heat.

The Heat was a shiny BMW to the beat up Dodge the King’s former team.  Dwayne Wade was already there waiting for the King and soon others followed such as Chris Bosh from the Toronto Raptors dead zone, a power forward prone to power outages.  With Pat Riley acolyte Eric Spolestra as the coach/designated ball boy charged with the task of guiding this merger to the first of many championships, The Heat put together a decent, if not devastating roster of journeymen, role players, has beens, and spare parts.  It was enough for King James and his court to survive the grind of the season and crush the 76ers, Celtics and the Bulls in the NBA Playoffs.

Leaving only the Dallas Mavericks, a group of perennial bridesmaids and one superstar, Dirk Nowitzki, a seven-footer from Germany with a sweet jump shot and a reputation for being the worst thing any pro athlete can be.  Soft.  Far too soft to deny LeBron, who had LeGone from the snows of Cleveland to the sun of Miami.

This was going to be easy.  Miami would brush aside the Mavs and LeBron would finally enjoy the glory his nickname as King James proclaimed was his by Divine Right.

Then a funny thing happened.  LeBron turned into LeGone again and then, LeChoke.  He pulled a disappearing act in the championships would make Harry Houdini and Cris Angel jealous as hell.

"You want the championship? You can't HANDLE the championship!"

The underdog Mavs beat the Heat in six games after closing them out with a 105-95 win on the opposing team’s home court.  Nowitzki won the series Most Valuable Player (though he scored no points for good sportsmanship by immediately leaving the floor after Dallas secured the win and declining to shake the hands of James, Wade or any Heat player).

Dallas is a better coached and much more complete team than Miami, but are they a better team? No.  Miami has great players, but Dallas has a great team and like when the Pistons destroyed the 2004 O’Neal/Bryant/Malone/Payton Lakers, great teams beat great players (despite what David Stern might wish).

Dirk didn’t cut and run on the Mavs the way LeGone did with the Cavs. Dirk didn’t hold some arrogant reality show to announce he was taking his talents to South Beach. Dirk didn’t boast how he was going to win “not one…not two…not three…championships.

If I were building a team I’d rather have Dirk Nowitzki than LeGone James.   Not because he would be a better player.  Because he would be a better teammate.

Nowitzki explained bolting from the court when he later told ESPN’s Hannah Storm, “I had to get a moment. I was crying a bit. I was a little emotional. … I actually didn’t want to come out for the trophy, but the guys talked me into it.”

I can’t imagine a guy who just won his and his team’s first championship not wanting to share in the glory and hoist the trophy and I’ll cut him a little slack for not wanting to cry in front of the cameras.  But Dirk, if your teammates can hang on the floor and shake the opposing team’s hand and you are the leader/best player of your team, you can do it too.

That goes for you and LeGone.  Flip the script and if this had been James walking off the court without shaking Dirk’s hand after winning the championship, he would be ROASTED by the press and the fans.

But being a bad sport wasn’t exclusively Dirk’s problem. LeBrick (thanks Facebook friend Merlisa Lawrence Corbett for that one) retreated to Twitter account to say, “The Greater Man upstairs know when it’s my time. Right now isn’t the time.”

It’s never been your time LeChoke. The Greater Man decided it was Dirk Nowitzki’s time, not yours.  One day LeBron James will be a champion, but first he’s going to have to learn a bit about humility. So far, he’s proven to be a slow learner.

Since LeBron lost to Dirk, a German export, here’s a German word for him: schadenfreude.  It means finding satisfaction or pleasure felt at someone else’s misfortune.  There’s a lot of satisfaction and pleasure in Cleveland today.

There can only be one.  Once again, it’s not you, LeChoke.

LeBron is now a two-time loser in the NBA Finals.

 
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Posted by on June 13, 2011 in Sportstime!

 

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Buckeyes Were Victims of NCAA Hypocrisy

10 Jun

Pryor and Tressel: both winners and both gone.

(I’m celebrating my son’s 21st birthday today (Hi, Kamal!) and didn’t have to finish the article I was writing.  Fortunately, I am blessed to know and have worked with one of the finest sportswriters I have ever met, Charles Farmer, a contributor to The Columbus Post and other publications.  Charles is one of the best in the business and has forgotten more about Ohio State football, the NCAA and how big money rules over it all than I have ever known.  This is a column he wrote after the Buckeyes victory over Arkansas in this year’s Sugar Bowl).

DESPITE DISTRACTIONS BUCKEYES HELD UP THEIR END OF THE DEAL

By Charles Farmer

There was lots of controversy surrounding the Ohio State Football program prior to the team participating in the team participating in the AllState Sugar Bowl. Most became quite familiar with the facts that included six student athletes being suspended from the football team for violations of NCAA rules. Mike Adams, Dan Herron, DeVier Posey, Terrelle Pryor and Solomon Thomas will miss the first five games of the 2011 season while Jordan Whiting will miss the first game.

The biggest issue for most was why the accused players did not start serving their suspension immediately and who should have made sure that happened? Many people have stated they thought Coach Jim Tressel should have done the morally correct thing and sat the players himself and perhaps are now looking at the coach in a different light. Can we be honest for just a minute, while I cannot speak for Coach Tressel, one thing I do know is he is paid to win ball games and he also probably took in account not wanting to disappoint the members of the football senior class.

These might be considered a lame excuse by some, but I ask while others sit back in their recliners and serve as armchair coaches; who would have taken the stand by his or her self and sat the players despite the opposition they would have faced from the people handling the money? I’m waiting.

The NCAA declared that the players were eligible based on a rule that states they have the authority when to punish student athletes for stated acts and they decided to deliver the punishment later. The organization also stated later that the decision had nothing to do with money, but it did ensure that the Sugar Bowl would be a financial success because the accused players would be able to participate in the game.

While in contrast, the Sugar Bowl Chairman came out publicly and stated how he lobbied for the accused players to be eligible to play in the game. Making these players eligible also allowed the Sugar Bowl, ESPN and Sponsors to make a return back on the initial investment they made into the game. But the $64,000 question remains what would have happened if these players were not allowed to play? What kind of contest would the Sugar Bowl have been without Terrelle Pryor (336 yards of total offense – two td passes and game MVP); Dan Herron (87 yards rushing and one touchdown); DeVier Posey (three catches for 70 yards and one touchdown); and Solomon Thomas (who grabbed an interception late in the game securing a Buckeye win)?

Pryor was OSU's most exciting player in years.

According to Coach Tressel, the accused players had to promise him they would return to school next year, if they wanted to take part in the Bowl Game and all agreed to do so.

The Ohio State University has formally issued an appeal with the NCAA regarding the players’ suspensions and will have a hearing later. History shows that there is a slim chance that the suspension will be reduced, but I wonder how the NCAA can not reduce the players’ sentences when they have clearly used these individuals to make sure that a Bowl Game and its investors received return on their investments.

Perhaps I am too much of a realist but this situation seems a little shaky or wrong too me. I guess we will have our answer when the results of the NCAA hearing are unveiled but this was a clear example of Big Business at work. I thought the focus of this column was to be about college football and student athletics. I digress.

The 31-26 victory was the Buckeyes first against a South Eastern Conference school in ten attempts which dates back to the days of Woody Hayes.

With all the accused players participating, the AllState Sugar Bowl turned into an exciting game and the investors got what they wanted at the players’ expense.

This Bowl game should have sports fans thinking about what is most important, the game itself or what is the right thing to do?

While many have said suspending the players immediately would have taught lessons or even set a precedent for future incidents, but who wanted to deal with the fallout which included being ridiculed by those connected to the money? In this instance cash ruled the day and everything around it, dollar, dollar bill.

The AllState Sugar Bowl needed a great show to take place between Ohio State and Arkansas, and ESPN delivering its television audience a Buckeye team minus Pryor and the others would have been totally unacceptable to those involved with the money.

This postseason the College football bowl ratings were down nine percent, including an 11 percent drop in the national championship game.

The AllState Sugar Bowl was down four percent from last year, but ESPN said the title game received the highest audience rating ever on cable. The BCS cut off 15 million homes that do not receive cable or satellite by shifting all BCS games to ESPN for the first time, the result of a four year deal vaulted by Sports Business Journal at $495 million.

 (Charles Farmer is a sportswriter and contributor to The Columbus Post newspaper)

Pryor will now take his talents to the NFL.


 
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Posted by on June 10, 2011 in Sportstime!

 

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A Man On A Mission

27 May

Like it or not, nothing can stop LeBron now.

The NBA Playoffs don’t take forever.  It just feels like they do.  Truth be told, there have been some halfway decent basketball played.   Problem is, it’s almost all been in the Western Conference where teams get out and run the ball instead of grinding it out in the half court and lockdown defense. 

Between the Dallas Mavericks and the Miami Heat, I can’t guess which team David Stern would like less handing over the Larry O’Brien Championship Trophy to.   It’s a choice between his nemesis among team owners, Mark Cuban, or the most despised team in the NBA, the Miami Heat, led by two superstars in LeBron James, Dwayne Wade and an occasional one in Chris Bosh.

These may not be the two best teams in the NBA, but they’re the only two who made it all the way. Sorry for all you Celtics, Lakers, Magic and Spurs fans.  Now it’s just a matter of who gets to hoist the championship banner when it’s over.

If I were a betting man I’d put it on the Heat.   The Mavericks have the talent to get the job done, but LeBron is on a mission.  He’s not going to let Dirk Nowitzki stand between him and the chance to finally shake off the rap that’s dogged him for eight seasons now:  LeBron is the greatest player since Michael Jordan, but Jordan won six.  Lebron hasn’t won anything.

That’s all going to change within a week or so.. Sure, D-Wade and Bosh want to win a championship too and Nowitzki would like to shake that “soft” label he’s been saddled with once and for all, but nobody wants this like Lebron.  He needs this is a way they don’t.  

Despite Jordan’s former caddy, Scottie Pippen having a senior moment and saying LeBron is greater than M.J. nobody will ever take that assessment seriously until James starts putting together a string of championships like Jordan did.   It’s possible he could, but it’s just as possible some other team like the Knicks or the Lakers will bring in a Dwight Howard or a Chris Paul and upset the balance of power all over again.  The Heat have demonstrated you can put together an instant contender with three stars in their prime and a bunch of role players along for the ride.  

The Mavericks are the last obstacle standing between LeBron’s long-awaited glory and they aren’t going to have enough to stop him from getting it.   The Heat take in it six games.  But I wouldn’t be surprised if Lebron put the rest of the team on his back and tried to sweep the Mavs even if he personally has to play one-on-five to do it.

LeBron and the Heat know they’re the bad guys here and more people want them to lose than to win.  They know everybody hates them and it hasn’t killed them.  It just made them stronger. They feed off of  it.  That hate will give them the motivation that’s going to lead them to the title.   

You can’t stop an idea whose time has come and it’s Lebron James time. 

They know you hate them. They just don't care.

 
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Posted by on May 27, 2011 in Sportstime!

 

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From Lakers to Fakers

09 May

Nowitzki has been called "soft." Soon he might be called "champion."

There’s no shame in losing.  Everybody does.  It’s how you handle the loss that matters.  The Los Angeles Lakers being blown out and swept in four by the Dallas Mavericks means there will be a new champion this year.   It’s just too bad the Lakers decided simply playing terrible in being a lopsided 122-86 massacre wasn’t enough.  They had to humiliate themselves and legendary coach Phil Jackson in what was likely his last game.

Even more remarkable to me was this was the first time I can recall in many years sitting in a room full of family watching a NBA playoff game.   I’m not a Laker hater, but I have grown tired of them.   As I settled into a chair in my brother’s living room I said I expected the Lakers to stave off elimination and win at least one game to send the series back to L.A.

The Mavericks had other plans and executed them to perfection.

Nothing could save the Lakers.  The Mavs strafed them from the outside and penetrated the paint at will as the Lakers’ big men flailed helplessly at the streaking guards.   They looked old, old, old and slow playing lethargic, ugly basketball.  Even Kobe Bryant seemed to know there was no point in trying.

There was no denying the Mavs who essentially gave star player Dirk Nowitzki the afternoon off.  Nowitzki finished with 17 points, but it was the bench players who carved up the non-existent Lakers “D.”  Peja Stojakovic was 6-for-6 in dropping three pointers, but even his perfection took a back seat to Jason Terry’s monster 32 points and 9 out of 10 daggers from deep.   The Lakers never seriously threatened to make the game close and even if they had, they were totally outgunned by the Mavs shooting 60 percent.

The Mavericks not only won, they SWEPT the defending champions!   The Fakers kept saying they let the Mavs off the hook in Games Two and Three.  Pride goes before the fall.  The Mavs  were OFF the hook in Game Four and nobody more so than Jason Terry and J.J. Berea.   If they weren’t stroking sweet threes from the outside, they were slicing up the soft interior of the Fakers in the paint.

Terry shocked the Lakers and shot them right out of the playoffs.

Andrew Bynum’s cheap foul was a punk move and deserving of a nice long suspension and fine next season (if there is a next season.  Pau Gasol played small.  Ron Artest was garbage and Derek Fisher is ancient.   He shouldn’t be a starting point guard anymore.  The bench is garbage.

Kobe needs to hang a “Help Wanted” sign outside the Staples Center.   This team has gone as far as it can go.  Nobody’s scared of the Fakers anymore.  Well, unless they’re afraid of catching a stray elbow somewhere it might hurt.

I watched the game in a room full of people including some kids and we were ALL disgusted by  Bynum’s thuggery and the sore loser cheap shot from Odom.  Apparently, whatever crazy pills Artest takes (suspended from Game Three after he clotheslined Mavs pesky point guard J.J. Barea), he shared a few with his buddies Odom and Bynum.

Los Angeles was already getting embarrassed by the way the Mavs exposed them as old, slow and soft.   Then they upped the ante and decided they could embarrass themselves even more.

I watch pro ball to see a good game and it WAS a good game if you enjoy watching a guy like Jason Terry get in the zone and impose his will upon a game. Unfortunately, Terry’s great game was overshadowed by Bynum’s bitch move.

I call them “the Fakers” because REAL champions exhibit grace (and class) under pressure and when they’re losing.  Anyone can be classy when they win.

Phil Jackson’s Lakers and Chicago Bulls teams won 11 championships and Jackson never had a losing season as a coach.  He’s going straight to the Hall of Fame as arguably the greatest coach in NBA history, but Sunday he got completely outcoached, his team was outplayed, and the organization outclassed as the Lakers unraveled into dirty goon ball.

The saying goes “Sports doesn’t build character, but reveals it.”  Andrew Bynum, Ron Artest,and Lamar Odom revealed they have no class.   That makes them not just losers, but fakers.

Throwing an elbow and then walking off like a punk is something a first-class organization like the Lakers should not tolerate and I bet they won’t.

The Lakers lost their cool, their championship, and their coach.   Nice way to start what’s likely to be a long and difficult summer.

Jackson is a winner, but went out as a huge loser.

 
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Posted by on May 9, 2011 in Sportstime!

 

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The Black Mamba Who Had Anger Management Issues

16 Apr

 

Don't make Kobe homophobic. You won't like him when he's homophobic.

After Kobe Bryant dropped a profane double-F bomb on referee Bennie Adams following being assessed a foul, I wasn’t expecting anyone could find a justification for Bryant’s ugly idiocy.   I should have.  It seems there is nothing that can be said anymore that somebody can’t be an apologist for.

In this case it came from David Kaufman writing in The Root, (a publication I contribute to as well).   Kaufman said:

Although Bryant’s word choice is certainly unfortunate, equally worrisome is the near-instant racial — and racist — overtones now permeating this debate. At its core is the comparison of the word “faggot” with “nigger,” a comparison that has become emblematic of the LGBT movement’s unabashed co-option of the African-American struggle. In this case, reader comments on blog after blog repeatedly invoke the word “nigger” in their Kobe takedown as — in the words of Joe.My.God reader “beeblmeyer” — they “wonder how Mr. Bryant would feel if someone said, ‘Fucking nigger.’ “

The real wonder here is how folks could think there is anything to compare in the first place. Without a doubt, Bryant uttered the epithet in anger, but in a fit of homophobia? Not necessarily, at least until we know for certain whether referee Bennie Adams is gay.

Despite what gay, black ex-NBA player John Amaechi might have said in today’s USA Today, calling someone a “fucking nigger” has an entirely different historical meaning and context. A black person is called a nigger precisely and exclusively because he is black. Period. And the core of the word’s offense — and racism — stems from this sheer conspicuousness. I’ve been called a nigger more than once, and there’s no doubt it was because of the color of my skin, not because I’d pissed someone off.

Anger management class?

Like Kaufman, I’ve been called a nigger too and more often than not the person doing the calling was Black, not White.   It hurt less, but it offended more because you would think someone Black would know better.  Too often they don’t because they mistakenly believe it’s okay when it’s used within the race.  But even Richard Pryor learned how wretched a word “nigger” really is.  To suggest it hurts a gay man less to be called a “faggot”  is absurd.  

Sometimes I can go weeks and months without calling my wife or kids niggers. I can kiss my lovely wife on the cheek in the morning without saying, “Hello, nigger.” When my daughter comes home from high school, I almost never ask, “Hey, nigger! Learn anything useful today?” When my son drags himself home from a lousy day at work rarely do I greet him at the door with, “Nigger, why didn’t you take the trash out this morning?”

I don’t use the word “nigger” as a commonplace word and I’m weary of the suggestion “all Black people do.” Not in my house they don’t. I’ve been Black for some time now and I deleted it out of my lexicon once I figured out I people I admired like Nikki Giovanni, Muhammad Ali, Malcolm X, Martin Luther King or Shirley Chisholm’s were nobody’s niggers.

I do get offended by the casual and thoughtless way the slur is tossed around. If it’s wrong for a White fan at a NBA game to shout from the cheap seats, “Pass the ball and stop jackin’ up shots, nigger!” it’s equally wrong for a Black power forward to scream at the Black point guard on his team, “Pass the ball and stop jackin’ up shots, nigger!”

“Nigger” always was a slur and always will be. Ignorant words don’t become acceptable merely because ignorant people mistakenly think it’s fashionable.

That includes calling someone a “fucking faggot” after you get whistled for a foul. Even if you don’t believe you fouled anyone. David Stern should have doubled the fine and given Kobe a game off without pay. Sure, he’d be out $259,298.00, but he probably wouldn’t have to result to collecting tin cans by the freeway to make up the difference.

Is Kaufman saying there’s nothing homophobic in what Bryant said unless we know referee Bernie Adams is gay?  What about the gay fans who heard Bryant?  What about all the players, coaches, trainers and anyone else within earshot who might be gay?

Once we start choosing ”this word you should be offended by, but that word we’re going to let slide” we say this kind of bigotry and prejudice is okay because it affects me, but others are okay because they don’t.   Contrary to what Mr. Kaufman might think straight Black people do not have the exclusive rights on suffering. 

I don’t question the fact Kobe is one hell of a basketball player who can single-handedly impose his will on a game, but his greatness is no excuse for his brain-dead behavior.  Bryant is also a pampered, entitled brat who scowls, sticks out his lip like a perpetually pissed-off teenager and seems to lose his mind when a referee has the audacity to assess a foul on him.

Kobe’s constant scowling gets on my nerves. The Black Mamba seems to think it makes him look tough. I think it makes him look like an irate two-year old with a fully loaded pull-up.

The ref should have shot back, “I’m not a fucking faggot, Kobe Bean Bryant, but you are a fucking dick.”

Kobe needs a class in sensitivity training and apparently a few of us do as too.   Mr. Kaufman, take your seat.

"I did NOT call a foul on you. You're not even in the game!"

 
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Posted by on April 16, 2011 in News & Views, Sportstime!

 

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The NFL’s Labor Woes: Sudden Death, No Overtime.

12 Mar

Back to the picket line for the players in 2011?

Are you ready for some football?  Well, that’s too bad.  You might have to wait a bit longer than usual before you see any.

After weeks of negotiation, talks broke down between the National Football League Players Association (NFLPA) and the league.   The key issue is the same one it usually is in these kinds of situations:  money.   The NFL wants to change the way it’s divvied up with more going to the owners and the players want to keep the things as they are.   There are other issues including a rookie pay scale, more benefits for retired players and the elimination of two pre-season games and expanding the regular season to 18 games.

“The parties have not achieved an overall achievement, federal mediator George Cohen said, “nor have they been able to resolve the strongly held competing positions that separated them on core issues.   No useful purpose would be served by requesting the parties to continue the mediation process at this time.”

In other words, get out of my office.  You both screwed up. 

Following the breakdown in talks the NFLPA moved to decertify as a union meaning all the players are now non-union workers.   The advantage to the players is it allows them to file lawsuits against the league to prevent a lockout.   The owners of the 32 franchises would be in violation of antitrust laws if they attempted to lockout the players.  Sports Illustrated has a good breakdown of what comes next (hint: it involves a lot of lawyers getting paid).

There’s a lot of legalese involved in all the maneuvering between the NFL owners and players and nobody benefits from this mess but the attorneys.  Both sides will wage a propaganda war in the media with both blaming the other side for  the stalemate and both swearing up and down how much they love the fans and want to get this resolved so we can all get back to playing the games next fall.

Two guys fighting over how to slice up a pie.

Don’t believe a word of it.   The players want to get the best deal for themselves and the owners are the same way.  Neither one cares that much about the fans.  There are no games being played in March.   The fans are irrelevant to the labor impasse between the league and the players.

Whose side am I on?  The only side I have a rooting interest for and that’s my side as a fan of the NFL.  Like 99.9 percent of the fans, I just want to see pro football next September.  That’s all.  I don’t care  how the deal gets done as long as it gets done. 

The standard line has been this is a fight between billionaire owners and millionaire players.  Even President Obama repeated this riff when he replied to a reporter’s question, “You’ve got owners, most of whom are worth close to a billion dollars,” the president said, “You’ve got players who are making millions of dollars.  People are having to cut back, compromise, and worry about making mortgage payments…the two parties should be able to work it out without the President of the United States inventing…For an industry that’s making $9 billion a year in revenue, they can figure out  how to divide it up in a sensible way.

The thing is this isn’t a fight between billionaires and millionaires.  This is a fight between a few billionaires and a lot more millionaire owners vs. a few millionaire players and many other guys pulling down six figures.   The average NFL player makes under $1.8 million, but less than a quarter of the  1,800 players make that much and less than half make a million dollars per season.  The élite players of the leagues like Peyton Manning, Tom Brady and Drew Brees make the millions, but that doesn’t mean every other guy in the huddle with them are.

That’s really not the point though.  Whatever the average players makes it’s still a lot more than the average fan does.   There’s probably more sympathy for the players now than the owners, but it this thing drags on into the fall with no resolution in sight, that sympathy will turn into hostility pretty quick.

The last time the NFL went on strike, while the regular players walked picket lines, the league played continued on with replacement players (a.k.a. scab football players) who wore the uniforms of the teams, but mostly played some pretty awful imitation football.   I don’t know if that is a strategy the owners will repeat to feed the habit of football starved fans, but I know I didn’t get the NFL Sunday Ticket package to watch the San Francisco Scabs vs. the St. Louis Strikebreakers.  

Fool me once, shame on you.  Fool me twice and that means I’m a damn fool and I won’t get fooled again into watching a bunch of scrubs, wannabees and washouts lumber through what’s being peddled as professional football on a Sunday afternoon.  Later for that.

From the fan’s perspective, none of this labor unrest means much.  Not now at least.  College basketball is nearing its most exciting time with March Madness, the NBA (which has even bigger looming labor problems than the NFL) is lumbering through the last few weeks of its dreary regular season with the playoffs right around the corner and their already warming up for the start of another baseball season for those of you who like that sort of thing.  Hockey?   Who gives a shit about hockey?

There’s still plenty of time for the NFLPA and the NFL to kiss and work this thing out.  Nobody’s fantasy football draft has been effected yet. But pro football is a big deal in this country.   Baseball may be the national pastime, but football is the national sport.   It’s the engine that drives a billion dollar machine and a lot of  others businesses from sports bars to bookies depend on the NFL to make a living.

There’s no pressure on either side to work out their differences quickly and they probably won’t.  But if by the time the leaves start turning brown comes around and there’s still no football in  sight, I wouldn’t be the least surprised if you don’t see Congress and even the president, making unmistakable noises to the NFL and the players, to “get a deal done or we’ll help you get a deal done.”

 
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Posted by on March 12, 2011 in Sportstime!

 

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