Category: Sports

* In the recent Winter Olympics, both the women’s and men’s hockey teams lost to their Canadian counterparts, who went on to capture gold medals. Like any American who watched, I was disappointed. But hardly devastated.

For one thing, it was too early to be in a sports bar cheering for your country. But more to the point, this was Canada. Our neighbor, our friend, our ally. Marty St. Louis plays for them. It’s not like your team is losing to North Korea or the New York Yankees or the University of Miami or whatever team Lane Kiffin is part of.

* We understand that the NFL is under pressure to clean up some of the inflammatory language that is often commonplace on the field, as well as in the locker room. As a result, however, the league is now seriously considering making the “N” word a 15-yard penalty. Good luck with that one.

This is a league, mind you, that is majority black. A league where players take ownership of that onerous word and retool it as a brother-to-brother shout-out. However repellent and hypocritical, its intent is not to demean. That has to matter in the subculture that is the NFL. And, by the way, most of those N-word penalty flags would be dropped by white officials. Good luck on that score, too.

Like a lot of sports fans, I noticed–almost in passing–that Brandon High won a state championship in wrestling recently in Lakeland. Again. For the 14th time in a row. It had seven individual champions. Five of them were undefeated for the year.

Brandon is a national wrestling power that once won 459 matches in a row–the longest such streak of any high school sport. ESPN even did a documentary on “The Streak” a few years ago.

It would be a gross understatement to say that coach Russ Cozart’s program is synonymous with success. It would, in fact, be bigger news had the Eagles, who have won 25 state championships under Cozart, not won another state title in Lakeland.

But here’s what really got my attention. It was a quote of Cozart’s. One that transcended success, even the uncanny, unprecedented version achieved at Brandon High. One that transcended clichés, of which athletics is riddled. He simply noted that “Confidence is part of the sport, but being cocky isn’t.”

How refreshing, I thought. How old school, I reflected. How necessary, I acknowledged.

Maybe there was a time when what Cozart said didn’t have to be said–but now is not that time.

We live in an era where athletes–and it often begins before high school–are routinely lionized and too often encouraged to “play with a chip on their shoulder” or to play with “swagger.” As if they were traits worth emulating.

Mostly we’re talking basketball and football, but it bleeds into other sports as well. Too often coaches, fans and parents have become enablers of all that’s done to pervert exuberance and passion.

At the collegiate–let alone the professional–level, network cameras reinforce every contrived, boorish gesture. “In your face” trash talk? Check. “Look at me” chest-thumping, pointing and strutting? Check. “Celebration” choreography? Check. Cheap lounge-act ambience? Check.

It’s all embedded into the game, which sometimes seems incidental to the “show.”

Muhammad Ali, who was ahead of his time when it came to yappy self-promotion, once said that it wasn’t bragging “if you can back it up.” No, that’s actually what bragging is. If you can’t back it up, it’s lying.

But winning with class doesn’t have to be an oxymoron.

Russ Cozart’s Brandon Eagles are the standard for excellence on the mat, where success has begotten generational success. And where success also begets confidence, which speaks for itself.  If you’re good, as in really, really good, your talent will say it all. Why render it annoyingly redundant?

That’s the part of the Cozart legacy that’s easily overlooked because of his program’s incredible record. Year after year, his wrestlers dominate. They know they’re good–so good that they have no need for “swag” or shoulder “chips.” The proof is on the mat, in the trophy case and in the scholarship offers.

They exude confidence–borne of talent, hard work and discipline–not cockiness. It comes with the program: a winning aptitude, yes, an offending attitude, no.

It can be done. Year after year.

All of the speculation and controversy surrounding Michael Sam, the 6’2″, 260-pound gay defensive end from the University of Missouri and how he could impact the National Football League draft, speaks volumes about the NFL–as well as its testosterone culture and primal priorities.

For context, this country is in the midst of a societal 180 when it comes to gay and LGBT issues and attendant rights. The military has bought in. So has the Supreme Court. States are like falling dominoes in their opposition to gay marriage.

But there’s still the sense of wondering how the ultimate arbiter of gay acceptance, the NFL, will handle it. Drum roll, please.

For more context, this is, after all, a league that enabled the vicious, racist, bullying sub-culture of the Miami Dolphins. A league where a thug ethos easily morphed into a pay-for-dirty-play, New Orleans bounty program. A league where a star player, New England’s Aaron Hernandez, could wind up on death row. A league where a lionized, Hall of Famer to be, Ray Lewis, pled guilty to obstruction of justice and walked away from that notorious Atlanta murder case. A league with more Darren Sharpers than Ronde Barbers. A league entirely too familiar with police blotters and plea bargains.

The NFL, ironically, should be grateful for scandal diversion, one that could position it to look like it is welcoming a publicly-acknowledged gay player–and Sam is that as well as a consensus, early-round draft prospect. The NFL, frankly, should welcome the opportunity for conversations about gays–not gangstas. The NFL, which knows a thing or two about marketing coups and enlightened self interest, could actually score one for society absent the most noble of motives.

* It’s hard–no, impossible–to root for the New York Yankees. The playing field is always tilted in their deep-pocketed favor. But it’s always been easy to root for Derek Jeter, the Yankees’ perennial All-Star shortstop. Not unlike the recently retired Mariano Rivera before him, Jeter, 39, is the epitome of class. He has announced his retirement at the end of this season.

Here’s hoping he goes out more like Ted Williams than Willie Mays or Hank Aaron, who hung on too long. Williams hit .316 with 29 home runs for the Boston Red Sox in his retirement year of 1960. And that 29th homer came in his literal last at-bat.

May Jeter, who has never been tainted with scandal–even in the glare of New York media– homer in his last at-bat too. Unless, of course, it’s against the Rays.

And, by the way, the Yankees are reaping all they can from Jeter’s farewell. His final home game is Sept. 25. The average ticket price has climbed to more than $800. They are still the Yankees.

* Olympic athletes, collectively, are a hybrid group, to be sure. They’re all uber competitors, and they’ve all worked hard to reach the ultimate arena in their sport. But it’s hardly an egalitarian grouping. You think a gold medal in women’s figure-skating isn’t marketing manna in the multi-millions? You think a curling gold medal has a huge commercial upside?

For the record, while no non-hockey-playing American Olympian makes what NHL stars do, the ranks of snowboarders and alpine skiers  do include some with seven- and eight-figure net worths–mainly attributable to endorsement deals. The top five: snowboarder Shawn White, $20 million; alpine skier Bode Miller, $8 million; alpine skier Ted Ligety, $2 million; snowboarder Hannah Teter, $1 million; and snowboarder Lindsey Jacobellis, $1 million.

* This year there are 98 Winter Olympic events. As recently as 1992, there were only 57.

* How appropriate that Derrick Brooks, the third Buccaneer inducted into the NFL Hall of Fame, made it on the first ballot. It’s no less noteworthy that, along with the late Lee Roy Selmon, Brooks became the second ex-Buc in the Hall who was also a Hall of Fame person. The third Buc Hall of Famer is Warren Sapp.

* The weather, those $4 million TV ads and Peyton Manning’s legacy weren’t the only subjects given a good airing before that Super Bowl mismatch. Another hot topic: the economic impact of this biggest of big games. One New York politician estimated that revelers would generate between $550 million and $600 million for the local economy. A lot of local lemmings nodded assent.

Critics called such numbers myopic, insane or fraudulent. Among the more experienced naysayers, our own Philip Porter, the outspoken economist from USF. Porter wasn’t buying any part of that half-billion-dollar, economic-impact projection. His estimate: “zero.”

“The people who come to these events,” he told the New York Times, “aren’t buying what the local economy sells.”

* For USF football, the Bulls will take all the harbingers of better times to come that can be mustered. Fortunately, the recent recruiting effort prompts legitimate optimism. The Bulls had the consensus best recruiting class in the American Athletic Conference.

But more to the point, this 28-member class features a strong local contingent. Nearly half the players are from the Tampa Bay area.

Those familiar with USF’s football fortunes over the years know it’s been a sore point that the Bulls haven’t taken advantage of their home-turf talent. Tampa Bay is a football hotbed.

Former coach Skip Holtz tried to make it happen, but failed. In his three recruiting classes, the Bulls signed a total of six Bay Area players. Head Coach Willie Taggart just signed a dozen last week.

* It’s now official. Derrick Brooks is now a first-ballot NFL Hall of Famer. Along with the late LeRoy Selmon, he becomes the second ex-Buc in the Hall who was also a Hall of Fame person. The other Buc Hall of Famer is Warren Sapp.

* Weather, $4 million TV ads and Peyton Manning’s legacy weren’t the only subjects given a good airing before Super Bowl XLVIII. Another hot topic: the economic impact of this biggest of big games. One New York politician estimated that revelers would generate between $550 million and $600 million for the local economy. A lot of locals nodded assent.

Critics called such numbers myopic, insane or fraudulent. Among the more experienced naysayers, our own Philip Porter, the outspoken economist from USF. Porter wasn’t buying any part of that half-billion-dollar, economic-impact projection. His estimate: “zero.”

“The people who come to these events,” he told the New York Times, “aren’t buying what the local economy sells.”

There’s a reason I won’t be watching the Super Bowl this Sunday, and it’s only in part because the Bucs, for the XIth consecutive year, won’t be in it. And it’s only in part because there are still a couple of pre-Oscar movies I want to see, and a Sunday with thinned-out traffic is enticing.

The overriding reason is this: The Super Bowl is more over-the-top, show-biz spectacle–and mid-winter, party excuse–than football game. Network cameras are under obvious orders to follow the antics after the action so that not a single preening, strutting, smack-talking swagger-head is ignored.

It probably annoys Peyton Manning too, but nobody would dare ask. Least of all the personality- shtick crowd of talking heads too busy with their clichéd references to winning “the battle in the trenches” and “making the fewest turnovers.” Oh, and “special teams could be the big difference maker.”

Also, America’s No. 1 sporting event, for all of its Roman-numeraled pretension, TV-ad debuts and fortnight of hype, is still anti-climatic. It’s in February, closer to April Fools Day than Thanksgiving.  Florida State won the collegiate national championship a month ago.

And then there’s this: It’s the National Football League. It doesn’t come much more arrogant than this $9 billion industry. Its mantra: “We are the NFL. We know you will watch.” And it’s continually reinforced in ratings. It’s why advertisers pay obscene amounts for a 30-second spot.

It’s why the NFL and its Meadowlands-enamored commissioner, Roger Goodell, cavalierly awarded this game to northern New Jersey. And, yes, playing an incentivizing role in the building of the $1.6 billion MetLife Stadium was hardly incidental.

Such scenarios mattered more than the fact that it was OUTDOORS. It speaks volumes that Arctic variables prodded the NFL into contingency-plan mode. The big game could have been switched at virtually the last minute to Friday, Saturday or Monday. Can you say travel logistics from hell?

But the NFL, to be sure, is confident that these same VIPsters would still pay to say they were there, travel inconveniences and awful weather be damned. The party-hardy, early crowd could just order out and make do on cachet. All metropolitan hotels have lounges. Enjoy.

How’s that for catering to your fan base?

And last but hardly least, down here we all know that it should be Tampa hosting Sunday’s internationally-televised event. This city was a close runner-up to East Rutherford, N.J. in 2010. It has a track record for delivering–four times. We have no need for snowplows and highway salting.

But the sheer comfort of fans and the sheer integrity of the game–will it be decided by better players or bitter elements?–was not the NFL’s top priority. How hypocritical. Besides, the NFL knows the same millions of viewers will still be watching while the cameras focus in on juvenile end zone dances, boorish gestures and the increasingly popular dreadlock competition.

And one more thing. Those in-stadium fans so prized by the NFL will have more than a pricey souvenir program, ticket stub and receipt for price-gouged parking to take home. They will also receive a weather-buffeting kit that includes ear muffs, hand warmers and lip balm.

* Jameis Winston, the Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback from Florida State, was back in the headlines last week. No, it had nothing to do with football matters or legal issues. The headline read: “Winston turns his focus to baseball.”  He also pitches and plays the outfield at FSU.

Frankly, it would have been better had it read: “Winston turns his focus to academics.” Instead, he’ll devote more time to athletics and probably leave for the NFL–ala Johnny Manziel–after his red-shirt sophomore year next season.

* It’s no secret that the Bucs would like to make a big, signal-sending free agent score in the off-season. A pass-rushing end would be a coup. The best available–by far–is Jared Allen, recently of the Minnesota Vikings. The Bucs have a shot at the 6’6″, 270-pound sack specialist. Allen has tremendous respect for Leslie Frazier, the Bucs’ defensive coordinator who was Allen’s head coach at Minnesota. Allen also has some business connections here.

Word is he wants to finish his career–and improve his Hall of Fame chances–with a bona fide Super Bowl contender. Money, coach, scheme and city matter, but Allen, 31, really wants a ring at what is likely his last NFL stop.

If he signs with the Bucs, it will speak highly for the selling job done by new general manager Jason Licht, head coach Lovie Smith and defensive coordinator Frazier. It will also mean that Allen likes the Bucs chances of turning this thing around in a hurry.

* So far this offseason, the New York Yankees have paid out $450 million for seven free agents.    That’s an obscene figure and another blunt reminder–especially to Rays’ fans–of the unconscionably uneven playing field that is Major League Baseball.

* Nice shout-out profile in Sunday’s New York Times on Tampa Bay Lightning rookie head coach Jon Cooper, 46. The piece, which included high praise from Hall of Fame coach Scotty Bowman, underscored that Cooper definitely is “in the conversation for coach of the year.”

* Maybe the National Football League will dodge a bullet, and the weather for the Feb. 2 Super Bowl in East Rutherford, N.J. will merely be uncomfortably cold–and not polar vortex frigid. Regardless, playing the biggest football game of the season–and one of the largest sports and entertainment spectacles in the world–outdoors in February in northern New Jersey is still ridiculous.

No matter how much incentive Super Bowl XLVIII provided in the building of MetLife Stadium. No matter that the cachet crowd will still pay upwards of $3,000 a ticket. What they’ll likely be watching are players likely not at their best because of the elements.

* Even if you understand the salary reality of the parallel universe that is Major League Baseball, this is hard to fathom. No, not what the Tampa Bay Rays will pay starting pitcher David Price this season. He’s an elite player and a former Cy Young Award winner. But what another Rays’ starting pitcher Jeremy Hellickson will make this season.

Hellickson had an acknowledged off year in 2013. He was 12-10 with an earned run average that ballooned to over 5.00. That’s not good, especially on a team that is overly reliant on pitching. After trading James Shields, the Rays were relying on Hellickson to help make up the difference. He didn’t.

But he still made $503,000 last season, hardly chump change.

This year: He will make $3.65 million –or more than seven times that amount. Imagine if he actually had a good season last year? Or this year?

* This is still mind-boggling. This will be Rays’ senior adviser Don Zimmer’s 66th year in pro baseball. He broke in with the Brooklyn Dodgers organization during the Truman Administration.

Call him the gold standard. Call him the embodiment of class. Call him a Super Bowl winner. But also call him the elephant in the press-conference room.

That would be Tony Dungy. His was a non-literal, contextual presence last Monday at One Buc Place, when the Bucs orchestrated the introduction of Lovie Smith as their new head coach. Among those prominently and publicly thanked by Smith: Dungy, who gave him his first pro job back in 1996. He also gave the Glazers a glowing recommendation of Smith’s abilities.

Dungy was actually Smith’s mentor, showing him that even in the uber-macho world of pro football, there was a place for Christian nice guys who knew their stuff–and commanded respect accordingly. It was under Dungy that Smith learned what it would take to build a winner. And what it would take ultimately to win a Super Bowl. Smith would later leverage his Bucs’ experience into building a nine-year winner as head coach of the Chicago Bears.

The affable Smith seems like such a good fit because he’s, well, so much like Dungy, one of the finest NFL coaches of his time. Dungy’s winning percentage (62.4), it should be noted, is higher than 12 of the 18 coaches (who won at least 100 games) now in the NFL Hall of Fame. He’s now on a HOF path–along with former Buccaneer players Derrick Brooks and John Lynch.

And then there is this: The Bucs eventually fired Dungy.

Good luck, Lovie.