As featured on p. 218 of "Bloggers on the Bus," under the name "a MyDD blogger."
Sunday, September 12, 2010
Total Offense
Because this thought doesn't fit on a political news blog...
People are talking about my man Denard Robinson for the Heisman Trophy because of his "total offense" stats. This is a wildly misleading statistic. A quarterback who also primarily runs the ball for his team is going to have very eye-popping stats. Robinson didn't run the ball or pass against Notre Dame on, I believe, 12 plays. 500 yards total offense is pretty impressive in and of itself, but the spread system will generate those kinds of yardage numbers.
Robinson's obviously a good quarterback, but he's a system quarterback who will gain 300-350 yards pretty much by accident every game, simply by virtue of getting the call in the running game 25 times and throwing short outs another 10-15 times.
The Most Unsafe Workplace Watched By 75,000 Screaming Fans
I'm a blogger fellow with Brave New Films on their 16 Deaths Per Day campaign for worker safety. Join us on Facebook.
Tonight in New York City, football executives will change the lives of hundreds of young men at the NFL Draft. Young men from around the country will see their fortunes arrive with the call of their name from the podium. They will be feted with signing bonuses and performance bonuses and endorsement contracts and millions of dollars in salary. And then in the fall, we'll all trudge out to our local stadia to cheer on these same players to victory.
But what will we be watching? Actually, we'll be invited into the workplace of two football teams, a workplace as cruel and debilitating as any in the nation. Over the past several months, members of Congress have investigated the prevalence of concussions and neurological injuries arising from the game of football, and the results have been unsettling.
Are professional football players at greater risk of dementia and other neurological problems?
The question took center stage in Congress on Wednesday during hours of testimony from doctors, retired athletes and National Football League executives. A congressional committee waded through conflicting perspectives on past and current studies, and urged the use of greater precautions to help protect participants in one of America's most popular pastimes [...]
"Surely, an $8 billion a year industry can find it within its budget to make sure players are adequately protected and that any victims of long-term brain disease are fairly compensated," said Michigan Rep. John Conyers, the Democratic chairman of the House Judiciary Committee.
These are "life and death issues. They go to the heart of our nation's most popular sport, and equally importantly, they affect millions of players of all ages and their families."
The New York Times has done a particularly good job of covering this issue. Through their coverage, you can see the NFL first deny, then admit the long-term effects of concussions on their employees; allow the co-chairs of their concussion committee to quit, and select new ones; set new rules on players returning from concussions (they now have to wait longer); and yet continue to deny the magnitude of the problem, rejecting the evidence that concussions and repeated contact can lead to long-term brain damage.
But that evidence is very clear. Take the case of former NFL lineman Ralph Wenzel, now living in an assisted living facility:
The five paper-clipped sheets that were slipped into a wire basket at the Van Nuys State Office Building looked no different from the other workers’ compensation claims filed by welders and cashiers. But this packet was different: it will almost certainly become a test case in considering National Football League teams’ liability for the dementia experienced by retired players.
The claim was filed by Dr. Eleanor Perfetto on behalf of her husband, Ralph Wenzel, contending that his dementia at 67 is related to his career as an N.F.L. lineman from 1966 to 1973... They estimated the case’s potential value at more than $1 million if it reaches its conclusion, probably in two or three years [...]
After watching her otherwise healthy husband begin to lose his mental faculties in his mid-50s and be placed in an assisted-living facility at 64, Dr. Perfetto has become one of the most outspoken voices in football’s dementia debate. She testified at a United States House Judiciary Committee hearing on brain injuries in October and served as a resource for other spouses of former players with dementia; in December 2008 she tried to attend a meeting between N.F.L. Commissioner Roger Goodell and retired players but was turned away.
“Having a judge deem this is work-related would move this forward and keep it very visible,” said Dr. Perfetto, a senior director at Pfizer who holds a Ph.D. in public health from the University of North Carolina. “I think when they look at all the information it will just be undeniable.”
This shouldn't come as too much of a surprise to anybody. The repetitive stress of banging heads with other large men equipped with helmets and pads is bound to take a toll on the body and the brain. Football players are well-compensated for the risks they take, but the cumulative effect of constant hitting is undeniable. And football owners and medical personnel, along with the culture inside locker rooms, keep players in danger and on the field even when they're injured. This PBS story on Hall of Famer John Mackey is simply devastating.
However, I notice a difference between how the concussion story has played in media and on Capitol Hill versus, well, every other workplace in America. When football heroes are faced with a hazardous workplace, there are multiple hearings, and massive media coverage, and serious pressure on management to fix the problem and make the workplace safer. When your manufacturing plant, or hotel, or restaurant, or other place of business, has an unsafe workplace, there are no cameras, there are no hearings, frequently there are no inspectors. This is the problem that the Protecting America's Workers Act intends to fix.
We don't have spectators at our jobs. We don't make millions of dollars. We cannot expect the kind of pressure on our bosses to fix our problems. Government must ensure safe workplaces for everyone, from the football star to the mine worker. And so we need PAWA to update the rules for worker safety and create the kinds of penalties to make employers change their behavior.
I worry about the stars who will be drafted tonight, and the hazardous work environment they will face. I also worry about the rest of the workers in America. Someone needs to look out for them, too.
Politics fans, indulge me for a second while I rant for a moment about Rich Rodriguez.
There has not been one bit of good news out of my alma mater of Ann Arbor in the 2-odd years since he took over the football team. Instead, we've had arrests, violations, multiple transfers (one guy transferred from U-M to Ohio State - now that hurts) and a 3-9 wreck of a season. Now the remaining players have revolted, telling the press that the team violated rules regarding time spent on workouts and practice sessions (not that it helped last year!). And a couple of them, former cornerback Morgan Trent and the since-transferred wideout Toney Clemons, went on the record. In a successful program, that stuff does not get talked about. There's no question that practically every big-name school encourages their players to devote as much time to football as they can get away with. The only reason the players would go forward is because they can't stand RichRod.
And I'm tending to agree. His non-denial denial was kind of embarrassing. He's obviously alienated the players, and now the whole town. And so the players found an excuse to get him in trouble - a rule that every team in America violates.
The University will do an internal probe. The easy thing to do would be to cut bait. Rodriguez has clearly lost the trust of the team.
In the past, when the Republican Party was riding high, the idea that they had a three-legged stool, with economic conservatives, national security conservatives and social conservatives together in a mutually beneficial truce of sorts, was seen as a positive. I always viewed it as a ticking time bomb. It's basically like having Terrell Owens, Randy Moss, Stephon Marbury, Ron Artest and a malcontent to be named later on your sports team. When you're winning, everyone's happy. When you're losing, forget about it. That accurately describes the chaos we see in the modern GOP. Any time they try to emphasize one leg of the stool, those who inhabit the other issue silos get angry. Here's a perfect example - values voters are angry that the Republican rebranding effort doesn't include their views.
The [NCNA's] priorities, which were unveiled at a pizza parlor press conference, include the economy, health care, education, energy, and national security. Notice anything conspicuously absent? Former Gov. Jeb Bush explained the values void by saying it was time for the GOP to give up its "nostalgia" for Reagan-era ideas and look forward to new "relevant" ideas. (Yes, because that worked so well for Republicans in 2006 and 2008!) Bush ignored the fact that abandoning the array of principles that Reagan espoused is exactly what got the GOP into this mess. [...]
Too many Republicans leaders are running scared on the claims of the Left and the media that social conservatism is a dead-end for the GOP. If that were the case, why are pro-family leaders like Mike Huckabee creating such excitement in the conservative base? The Republican establishment doesn't draw a crowd. Governor Sarah Palin does. Also, take a look at the recent Pew Research poll, which showed overall support for abortion in America has dropped eight percentage points in the last year and support for it among moderate and liberal Republicans has dropped a whopping 24%. Based on that, how can the GOP suggest that life is a losing issue? If there were a road sign for the GOP on this new journey, it would read: Welcome to the wilderness. You're going to be there for awhile.
Another example is this self-pitying, gobbledygook letter from one of the teabaggers describing their "movement" as in a "very disconcerting position at the moment."
Ultimately, what happens with malcontents in sports is that the team finds themselves unable to co-exist with them, and they are either released or traded. Get ready for an explosion of hard-right third parties. The Joe the Plumber Party - coming to a stump near you.
Swing And A Long Drive, Deep Left Field, That Ball Is Outta Here...
RIP to a great broadcaster and also a colleague, Harry Kalas.
I grew up listening to Kalas on Phillie games, but when I worked for a year at NFL Films, I got to work with him on Inside the NFL. The voiceover system at NFL Films could be best described as primitive; you would sit in the booth with Kalas, and when the VO line needed to be read, you would tap him on the shoulder. I remember the very first time I had to go into the booth with him, and it was another dreary September for the Phils, and I asked him who was pitching that night, and in his signature style, he intoned, "That would be that Mike Grace." Just perfect if you knew Harry and his voice. I didn't have a long working relationship with him, but I'll certainly miss him.
Before I sit down to another orgy of American football excess, I wanted to note this weird story claiming that the NFL is getting away from using military metaphors to describe the sport.
In a little-discussed shift in recent years, the NFL has moved away from depicting its games in military terms. While the league continues to embrace the military as an entity, inviting Gen. David H. Petraeus, the head of Central Command, to make the Super Bowl's opening coin toss and having the U.S. Air Force Thunderbirds perform a pregame flyover at Raymond James Stadium, the NFL no longer endorses using military terminology to describe its contests.
It is inappropriate, league officials say, to do so at a time when American forces are fighting two wars halfway around the globe.
"It's a matter of common sense," NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said as he stood outside the stadium the other day.
The same is true at NFL Films, an arm of the league that perpetuated for decades the image of football as controlled warfare by producing movies glorifying the game's violence with phrases like "linebacker search and destroy." In recent years the company's president, Steve Sabol, ordered all allusions to war be removed from its new films.
"I don't think you will ever see those references coming back," he said. "They won't be back in our scripts, certainly not in my lifetime."
Speaking as (in all likelihood) the only person in the political blogosphere who has worked for Steve Sabol and NFL Films, I can say unequivocally that he's full of shit. He never read a script in the time I was there, let alone make changes, and I'm virtually certain that continues today. Plus the script (which Sabol is probably lying about) is immaterial and inescapable; most of the combat-like terminology is embedded into the language of football (offense, defense, blitz, ground game, long bomb, etc.) It's the way in which the games are filmed, in super slo-mo with low angles, that glorifies and mythologizes and provides the lizard brain connections to war.
On a related note, do read Marcy Wheeler's great post about an actual warrior and former Arizona Cardinal, whose death was used by the military as a propaganda tool through deliberate lies. This is Pat Tillman's Super Bowl.
In addition to the Bernie Madoff scheme being a testament to the failure of free market fundamentalism and "fund manager knows best" economics, it's really impacting the Jewish community. I know that our local Jewish charity out here in Los Angeles lost about $60 million off their endowment, and the names that keep popping up - Steven Spielberg, Mort Zuckerman, Frank Lautenberg - are all members of the tribe.
However, indulge me in a little schadenfreude for a moment. Norman Braman is on the list. This guy make my childhood and adolescence absolutely miserable when he owned the Philadelphia Eagles, hiring one bum after another and refusing to shell out for the one or two players needed to put us over the top. I can't say I'm angry to see him lose a lot of money - he made it off of the misery of me and my fellow Philly sports fans to begin with.
This has been the obligatory monthly sports post/financial industry post.
So the legend goes that the last Washington Redskin home game before the election is a predictor of the winner on Tuesday. It worked for 17 straight elections until 2004. When the Redskins win, the party in power stays in power. When the Redskins lose, the party out of power wins.
I'll get to Obama's infomercial in the morning, but for now a tip of the cap to the Phillies. The last time they won a championship I was 7. I remember the fireworks going off while I was sitting in bed. When I called home to the folks tonight, the M-80s were going off again.
Philadelphia revolves so much around sports, and they've been continually frustrated and disappointed for a quarter-century. Good to see the local boys win for a change. Although the biggest point of concern for the fans going into the evening was whether or not beer sales would be suspended after the 7th inning, since it was the resumption of a suspended game. But hey, they deserve it.
I actually admit that I thought the Sarah Palin puck drop at the Philadelphia Flyers game wouldn't go this badly. Flyers crowds are very white and the tickets are very pricey, so even though Philly's a Democratic town I thought there might be a healthy about of Republicans there. But, um, no.
Because of the OC Register, I hate being alive. I hope they're happy.
In a column from last week that would have escaped me if Jesse from Pandagon hadn't seen it, Hank Adler decides that the best way to attack Barack Obama's spending plan is to remind everyone what professional athletes will lose out of the deal.
It was fortunate for Tiger that his most-recent U.S. Open win occurred in 2008. Under twin tax proposals from Obama to 1) remove the "cap" from Social Security taxes for individuals earning over $250,000, a plateau Tiger has long since surpassed in 2008, and 2) eliminate the "Bush" tax cuts, thereby raising the top marginal federal income tax rate to 39.6 percent, Tiger's taxes on his winner's check would have increased to approximately $776,000, a boost of almost $190,000. Instead of Tiger keeping 57 percent of his earnings and the government taking 43 percent, under the twin Obama tax proposals, Tiger's federal and California taxes would have amounted to 57 percent of his winnings, leaving Tiger with just 43 percent.
I know when California families are deciding between air conditioning or meat, when they muse about using a rickshaw to get to work because gas is as out of reach as gold, they are actually upset because they know Tiger Woods is being deprived of $190,000 out of the eleventy billion in his bank account. What, his new baby has to get silver-plated starter clubs now instead of the expected gold? Can you look yourself in the eye and say that doesn't eat you up inside?
Adler continues:
Prefer baseball to golf?
The New York Yankees have a 2008 payroll of approximately $208 million. Under the twin Obama tax proposals, the 24 Yankee players would be hit with an aggregate increase in federal income taxes of just over $22 million, with slugger Alex Rodriguez single-handedly getting dunned with $2.6 million in additional federal taxes.
The owner of the Yankees would owe an additional $7.5 million of federal taxes. Ticket prices would need to be increased by about $65 million so that the owner and players could have the same after-tax income as before. The increase in ticket prices would amount to an average $16 per ticket. Given that the least-expensive ticket in Yankee Stadium currently is $14, this would more than double the cost of a seat in the bleachers.
Adler hit upon the two most sympathetic characters in all of sports, maybe all of Christendom, to single out as martyrs: Alex Rodriguez and George Steinbrenner. Incidentally, with the Yanks 7 1/2 games out of first, I don't think anyone's going to feel too bad about them losing money. Then there's the part where Steinbrenner is entitled to his after-tax earnings and simply must fleece the hardworking fans, because the Yankees have no other revenue streams to speak of.
You can go on to dispute Adler by mentioning the top-level tax rate in 1960 (it was 90%), the tax rates under Clinton which Obama would restore and how that affected business (the largest peacetime expansion in history), etc., etc. But someone with the insight to use the plight of enormously wealthy ballplayers to rally the middle-class public to his cause isn't really worth the time. Only the mockery.
So the fundamentalist American Family Association has a news site that filters every AP story, changing the word "gay" to "homosexual," because... well, I don't really know, but in their twisted minds using the word "gay" is hiding homosexuality.
This is how we got headlines like this today on their site. The track and field star being discussed in these headlines is named Tyson Gay.
Sigh. Days like today really make me want to stick my head in a bucket of cold water for a month. The stupid does burn so.
I have to say I've been somewhat captivated by the US Open golf this weekend. You're only supposed to have one of these two storylines available in any major tournament - either you get the old pro who comes out of nowhere to win it, or the warrior who fights through injury to win it. This time we have both, and they're the only two left on the course today in an 18-hole playoff. Right now Rocco Mediate has a one-shot lead on Tiger Woods with 3 holes 2 holes to play. Jason Sobel is liveblogging for ESPN here.
18 is a birdie or even an eagle hole, so it'll come to that.
This is the obligatory monthly sports post. Just to fit all things sports into one, the Lakers can't play defense and Paul Pierce will win Game 6 on his own.
...two pars on 17. It's coming down to the last hole, a par-5, with Rocco in front by 1. No doubt Tiger will try to put it on in 2.
...Tiger birdies, Rocco pars, they both make classic choke putts, and we're tied after 90 holes. Now it goes to the sudden-death playoff we could have seen on Sunday.
...and it was too much to ask of Rocco to go toe-to-toe that long. He blew the 1st playoff hole and Tiger collects another major. OK, I'm done with golf for another few months.
Also, Chris Dodd Is Considering Suspending His Preisdential Bid
Back when I was producing, I did an interview with Steve Grogan, formerly of the New England Patriots, and the talk turned to the 1986 Super Bowl, when Chicago crushed the Pats 46-10. He recounted a story about Raymond Berry, the deadpan coach of the Patriots. The last two points of the Super Bowl came on a safety, when Henry Waechter sacked Grogan in the end zone. Grogan came off the field and approached Berry, saying "If you want me to keep throwing the ball, Coach, I'll do it, just tell me the game plan."
"No," said Berry, "just run out the clock. I think that last safety clinched it."
Grogan stared at him for a second in a bit of disbelief, then noticed Berry cracking a knowing smile.
Brett Favre Draws 75,000 For Afternoon of Pigskin-Throwing!
This photo of Obama speaking in front of 75,000 Oregonians in Portland is inspiring, but it's a photo you can see about 100 times every football weekend from September to December - and those people pay to show up!
I'm not saying that this isn't some amazing feat, or that we all must shun football games and fun, but the fact that we're all marveling over something replicated over and over again shows our priority order in this country. I HOPE we're on to something different where people will crowd around by the tens of thousands to hear someone speak. Actually we'd be headed back to the future. They had 15,000 people at the second Lincoln-Douglas debate in Freeport, Illinois, and it wasn't even amplified!
While today's Game 1 win against the mighty Detroit Pistons was admittedly the first Sixers game I watched all year, I'm on the bandwagon and proud of it. Not even really sure how they pulled it off with Iguodala and Dalembert looking so lost, though their supporting cast was very solid and Andre Miller basically owned the fourth quarter. I really liked the addition of Reggie Evans when they got him, and he was a difference maker today with 11 points and 14 boards.
Nice blogiversary present. I don't think they can take the series unless AI learns how to play against Tayshaun Prince, but I'll take the 1-0 lead for now.
This has been the obligatory monthly sports post, though if the Sixers keep winning it may be more than monthly.
OK, despite the fact that I have no more stakes than a $10 office pool, and that I haven't seen a college basketball game the entire year, let me just say that I'm a huge Davidson and Drake fan right now.
5.7 seconds left... don't give it to Brazelton... OK, who's Brazelton... wow, that was a nice finish. 30-footer to win, nothing but net?
OK, my bracket's busted, I'm done...
This has been your obligatory monthly sports post.
The House of Representatives passed its annual resolution honoring the winner of the Super Bowl, in this case, the New York Giants. It passed 412-1. The lone vote. The representative from my home area of Bucks County, PA, Patrick Murphy.
This is exactly the kind of leadership we need. Bucks County’s U.S. Rep. Patrick Murphy won’t budge on his allegiance to the Philadelphia Eagles, even when high-hogging it on Capitol Hill. Turns out Murphy was the lone dissenter in a House resolution proposed on Wednesday congratulating the New York Giants on winning this year’s Super Bowl and “completing one of the most remarkable postseason runs in professional sports history.”
Murphy wouldn’t sign it. Not a chance. The scrappy congressman, who was a former 700-level security worker, told the Bucks County Courier Times: “I couldn’t, in good conscience, vote for the New York Giants. The only thing worse would have been a resolution honoring the Dallas Cowboys.”
I told this to my Eagle fan dad and he said, "He has my vote for life." There's a draft Murphy for President movement on one of the Eagle blogs.
Murphy is officially unbeatable now, as ridiculous as that sounds.
I sympathize with this lament about the absurdity of Congress spending hours' worth of hearings trying to discern whether or not Roger Clemens injected steroids into his ass, really I do. And I agree that it should be the last thing on any Congressional agenda.
But clearly the reason it was scheduled in the first place is that it's one of the only hearings in the last several years that was televised live on all the cable networks. I mean, you've got the 9/11 Commission, confirmation hearings for Supreme Court justices, and steroids. They televised the Rafael Palmiero one live, too. More than anything, Congresscritters want face time to show that they're doing the people's business. So I don't necessarily fault Henry Waxman for holding one hearing on this among the hundreds of others about waste, fraud and abuse in Iraq and the federal government. I fault the cable networks for picking this one to highlight.
Also, any hearing that can get Mike and the Mad Dog to come out against a Republican has at least some residual benefit.
Mad Dog: "Here's the thing about Shays. I'm gonna go out of my way in November. We're gonna get him the hell out of Connecticut. We're gonna get Himes in there."
A lot of Connecticut voters listen to the 'FAN on their commute.
The thing is, what should you root for - high ratings, so that the execs decide that Congressional hearings are good theater and cheap to produce, and they'll show more of them, or low ratings, so that the incentive to show meaningless Congressional hearings is taken away? I'm not sure.
I am a film and video editor, stand-up comedian, and blogger. My editor resume is here. A sample of my stand-up is here. The blog is what you're reading right now. Wasn't that easy?
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