Category: Sports

* Forbes magazine recently released its ranking of the top 30 sports franchises in the world. The Glazers were the only family with more than one team: Manchester United, valued at $2.8 billion, was third, and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, at $1.07 billion, was 30th. For the record, the Glazers bought the Bucs 19 years ago for $192 million.

* These are heady days for SEC football. Its teams have won seven out of the last eight national championships. It leads all conferences in attendance. Next month it kicks off the SEC Network in partnership with ESPN.

As a result, this year’s pre-season media gathering was (a day) longer and (a week) earlier. Some of the media called it a form of “chutzpah.” SEC Commissioner Michael Slive, didn’t disagree and then paraphrased Muhammad Ali. “It’s not bragging if you can back it up.”

Slive, not unlike Ali, doesn’t get it. If you can back it up, rather than letting your accomplishments speak for themselves, it is bragging. And if you can’t back it up, it’s, well, lying. Perhaps the off-putting “swagger” we’re all too used to seeing on the football field has now strutted its way into the commissioner’s office.

Maybe a Spanish proverb would be more appropriate: “Tell me what you brag about, and I’ll tell you what you lack.”

A board of the United States Patent and Trademark Office recently found the Washington “Redskins” name “disparaging of Native Americans.” It consequently canceled the federal trademark registration of that controversial Washington nickname.

I’m not about to defend the National Football League’s “Redskins,” but I do find their history ironic–even as society evolves.

For the record, George Preston Marshall was awarded ownership of the NFL’s new Boston Braves back in 1932. Since the team played in the same facility as Major League Baseball’s Boston Braves, he wanted the same name for his football team.

The following year, Marshall’s Braves moved to Fenway Park. He then changed the name to Boston Redskins. He also brought in a new head coach: Lone Star Dietz, a Native American who seemingly had no problem with the new variation on an Indian-themed name.

But that was then–and this is not.

* This might be a first. At the recent NCAA Division I Track and Field Championships, athletes from Tampa Bay high schools finished first and second in the same event. And not just any event, but the glamour event of any track meet: the 100-meter dash.

Trayvon Bromell of Gibbs High in St. Petersburg (and Baylor University) won it, and Dentarious Locke of Tampa’s Chamberlain High (and Florida State University) finished runner-up.

* Local baseball celebrity Tino Martinez, of Jefferson High, the University of Tampa and New York Yankee fame, has just been accorded another honor. This is big. Last weekend Martinez, a member of four Yankees World Series winners, unveiled his own plaque for placement in Yankee Stadium’s Monument Park. Right there with those of Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Joe DiMaggio, Mickey Mantle and more. Couldn’t happen to a nicer guy.

* Most bowl games no longer sound like bowl games, so it’s no big deal that Tropicana Field’s Beef ‘O’ Brady’s Bowl St. Petersburg will now become the rebranded Bitcoin St. Petersburg Bowl on Dec. 26. Anything but the 1-800-ASK-GARY Bowl.

* These are, to be sure, challenging times in major college athletics–as in football and men’s basketball. TV revenues are in the billions, head coaches routinely are compensated in the multi-millions, and players increasingly are sounding like employees rather than scholarship student-athletes.

Change is coming, with lots of scenarios yet to play out beyond “stipends” and Title IX subplots.

But those recent comments by NCAA President Mark Emmert belied any sense of reality. He said college athletes wouldn’t want to play against athletes who were getting paid. “They want to know the other teams consist of student-athletes just like them,” he reasoned. He also said the main reason fans like college sports is because the athletes are students who play for love of the sport and their school.

This just in, Mark: Either ease up and get flexible, fair and creative about compensating players–or get out in front and lead a major overhaul of major college sports. To wit: Pro-prepping, sham students–who don’t even pretend to be “student-athletes”–can no longer be an athletic-program lifeline. Second, playing a sport–time wise–can no longer be a year-round commitment. Something’s got to give.

* I’m not a soccer fan, but I think that’s immaterial when it comes to the World Cup. It’s about channeling nationalism that doesn’t involve dubious foreign policy or “American exceptionalism” grandstanding. It’s pretty simple. It’s about rooting for your underdog home team.

But starting with that surprise 2-1 win against Ghana, there were a couple of stark reminders of why I will never be a serious soccer fan.

For one, why isn’t the clock stopped for all those times when the game’s action is halted? For substitutions. For injuries. For fake injuries. For posturing. For waiting for the ball to be retrieved when it goes careening off the pitch. Ostensibly, this is made up for at the end of each 45-minute half when the officials add time, which is always an approximation. And then it all ends. Not because the clock precisely shows zero time left, but because an official declares it so. I will never get it.

And did I mention fake injuries?

* A New York Times/YouGov study looked at the World Cup allegiances of 19 countries and came up with some interesting results. Almost everybody predicted a Brazil champion. The three exceptions: Argentina, Spain and the USA. Argentines predicted Argentina as the winner; Spaniards opted for Spain; and Americans picked the USA. Two of those made sense.

The intriguing part is which teams countries are rooting AGAINST. For Argentina, it’s England. For France, it’s Algeria. For Greece, it’s Germany. For Russia, it’s the USA. Can you say Falklands War, post-colonial immigration, EC austerity leader and Vladimir Putin?

* This might be a first. At the NCAA Division I track and field championships last Friday, athletes from Tampa Bay high schools finished first and second in the same event. And not just any event, but the glamour event of any track meet: the 100-meter dash. Trayvon Bromell of St. Petersburg’s Gibbs High–and Baylor University–won it, and Dentarious Locke of Tampa’s Chamberlain High–and Florida State–finished runnerup.

* The perfect storm continues for the Tampa Bay Rays. Devastating injuries, disappointing off-season signings (notably Grant Balfour and Logan Forsythe) plus sub-par performances by virtually everybody. Then Fernando Rodney, now of the Seattle Mariners, returns to the Trop.

Yes, he saved two of the three Mariner wins, but he also brought along his shtick: the cocked hat and the arrow-shooting theatric. It’s the sort of thing–the latter, especially–you tend to overlook, even though you shouldn’t, when it’s the home-team guy.

But when it’s the visiting team, it’s seen for what it is. A look-at-me, juvenile stunt that is part personal celebration, part opposition taunt. Especially in THEIR house, which used to be YOUR house. It’s that kind of a season.

* Speaking of Grant Balfour, the high-profile, free-agent closer has now been demoted. It’s enough to make you wonder about bringing in a guy who had just failed a physical with another team (the Baltimore Orioles) in the off-season.

A sports agent acquaintance told me that when a team wants to get out of a deal–for whatever reason–it can always resort to the “failed” physical gambit. An old, irrelevant minor league injury, for example, could be cited, and no one will question it.

In other words, the Orioles had their reasons. That’s noteworthy when it’s pointed out that Balfour’s fast ball is still several miles-per-hour shy of what he was throwing for Oakland.

For those of us USF fans still disillusioned that Bulls’ football has yet to make it to the next–major bowl game–level, here’s a sign to look for if that upgrade is finally imminent. It will be the day one of the most nationally coveted, home-grown prospects decides to stay right here after graduation and signs to play for USF. Such signings have ripple effects.

According to Rivals.com, Hillsborough County is home to the 2014 No. 1 football recruit in the country: Armwood High’s defensive end Byron Cowart. Reportedly his top four schools: Florida, Alabama, Oregon and USC–and no sign, so far, of USF.

* Boston Wrong. The Rays and Red Sox have history. The kind that periodically clears benches and warrants ejections. Earlier this month the Rays won a doubleheader in Boston. This past Sunday at the Trop, the Sox dropped two more. They lost a game and then lost their composure to a team with half their payroll. Some things $160 million can’t buy. And, yeah, if I were the Rays, I’d play a little “Sweet Caroline” after the game too.

And speaking of winners and whiners, the Rays and Sox play another series this weekend in Boston. Look for an historical update.

* Grant Balfour, the Rays’ closer, didn’t like being booed the another night after a blown save against Oakland. He went public with his reaction–not exactly the approach Joe Maddon was looking for. Some advice for “Ball Four”: If you don’t like being booed, well, don’t be boo-able. In fact, in this market, be glad the fans, however vocal, are there. Be glad they care enough to voice, literally, a legitimate concern–one shared by the non-booing fans.

* Much was made, rightly so, over who didn’t make the U.S. World Cup soccer team: Landon Donovan. For many Americans the 32-year-old, who holds the national team record for goals and assists, is the face of American soccer.

But look who did make the squad: Tampa native Julian Green, 18. He was born at MacDill AFB. His dad, Jerry Green, works in admissions and community outreach at Eckerd College.

A lot of folks who are not pro football fans know about Michael Sam. He’s the first openly gay player to be drafted by an NFL team–specifically the St. Louis Rams. The defensive end from the University of Missouri was the 249th player selected out of the 256 drafted.

He already has pioneer and, of course, celebrity status. As well as marketing clout. His jersey, for example, is the number two seller, right behind Heisman Trophy winner Johnny Manziel’s, on NFLShop.com. He has already done a national TV ad for Visa. He agreed to a “documentary” show, since delayed, on Oprah Winfrey’s network.

The Sam story, of course, needs to reflect more than cashing in on asterisk identity to be fully impactful. He needs the public to be buzzing about something other than the celebratory smooch he laid on his boyfriend.

The NFL is, to say the least, an uber macho enclave. So, Sam’s historic drafting is societally significant. But the NFL is also a meritocracy–and most 7th-rounders don’t make it.

Some good advice for Sam right now would be to play down the cause, crusade and celebrity and concentrate on impressing the Rams with his ability as a player and his collegiality as a teammate. No matter how progressive the Rams have proven, their foremost priority is winning football games and whether Sam can advance that ultimate bottom-line cause.

Put it this way: Marketing an historic draft choice isn’t nearly as rewarding as marketing a player that the public–in all its persuasions–will see every Sunday in the fall.

* What’s a university to do? In the case of FSU, why not discipline Jameis Winston, the Heisman Trophy winner with the penchant for, uh, bad decisions, in a fitting fashion? Why not suspend him from baseball and make him concentrate on being a STUDENT-athlete? Maybe even take some speech courses in case he wins another Heisman.

* I love the Joe Maddon way of managing the Rays. On and off the field. And that includes those periodic, let’s-not-take-ourselves-too-seriously, thematic road trips. The most recent one was this week’s Woodstock-era dress-up to Seattle. Only problem: There can be a thin line between what is fun and camaraderie-enhancing and what is silly and reality-avoiding. It’s a matter of how the team is playing before they don those bell bottoms, love beads and Afro wigs. In this case, the Rays had just lost five of six home games before jetting out.

* Speaking of Maddon. Not unlike most coaches and managers, he gives a shout-out for players giving their all. Most recently: “If we weren’t playing until the last out, I would be concerned,” he said after that disappointing 1-5 home stand. “If you saw guys giving up, that would be my concern. But I don’t see that at all.” I get that, but it’s also setting the bar rather low. Professional athletes are paid too well to be backslapped for not giving up.

* The whole issue of student-athlete compensation and unionization is as tricky as it is controversial. But we all should be able to agree on this much.

First, those who have their names and images marketed–from jerseys to network hype–should be paid. Think Texas A&M’s Johnny Manziel didn’t sell tickets and sponsorships?

Second, a university is no place for sham student-mercenaries.  For legitimate STUDENT-athletes, most of whom will never make a living at their sport, compensation typically suffices in the form of free tuition, books and board plus priceless networking for post-campus opportunities. Modest “stipends,” however, are in the mix.

Third, is it really necessary to put THAT much time into a sport?

Fourth, contact-sport participants could use help getting, say, long-term disability insurance.

* The Lightning’s season ended in disappointing fashion–and not just because my wife and I were primed for a big Game 5 date. But the disappointment of a 4-game sweep has already been replaced by optimistic perspective. Nobody thought a team so young and inexperienced, so unproven in goal and so blindsided by critical injuries and a key defection, would even qualify for the playoffs.

That they did and the next season can’t come soon enough–when those 10 rookies will be rookies no more. Marty who?

* This much is evident with the Rays. They’ve gone from the best 5-man starting rotation in MLB to one where 3/5 is comprised of guys named Odorizzi, Bedard and Ramos. Long season looming. Stuff happens.

But there’s another kind of stuff. Closer Grant Balfour (“Ball four?”) has had some control problems. Too many walks and too many rants. His personality, odd among ice-water-in-the-veins closer types, is beyond animated. It’s annoying, unprofessional and, well, totally un-Ray like. Last Friday against the White Sox, he lost the game in a 9th-inning meltdown before departing with a string of loud F-bombs. Hard to make an excruciating loss worse, but he did.

Manager Joe Maddon is known for running a relatively loose ship, but Balfour could steer it into late-inning shoals if he doesn’t improve his command and, more notably, his composure.

* Can you believe Los Angeles Clippers’ owner Donald Sterling actually urged his mistress  not to bring black people to his team’s games? While this racist audio recording may have been a one-time public outing on TMZ, there have been previous incidents and allegations of racial and gender discrimination against the billionaire bigot. Such that the NBA has fined and banned him for life.

But here’s what’s no less inexplicable. In a couple of weeks Sterling, the longest-tenured team owner in the NBA, was to receive a life-time achievement award from the Los Angeles chapter of the NAACP. Say what? Maybe employing lots of black basketball players over three decades qualified him, but the NAACP, which has now rescinded the award, has some explaining to do.