Weekly Sporties

-In what was kind of a surprising development, late Friday afternoon came word that the suspensions of current and former New Orleans Saints players who had been implicated in a money-for-big-hits bounty scandal had been overturned on appeal by a three-person panel. The arbitrators ruled that NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell didn't have the authority to act as both the judge and the person in charge of appeals in the case. I think the fact that this surprised me should speak to the power of the NFL. In any other walk of life, one person having all that power would be seen as insane, but in the NFL it was just kind of accepted. Also, there were rumbles that this decision was going to come down in favor of the players, but the panel had hoped the two sides would come to some sort of compromise, mostly to save the Goodell some face. Again, if that doesn't tell you how powerful the NFL is than nothing will. Mostly I want to give the players all the credit in the world, specifically Jonathan Vilma. Everyone told this guy to shut up and take his punishment weeks ago, but he wasn't going to be convicted when he didn't think he committed any crime and he was ultimately vindicated. Despite that, I can't help but feel there is a little 'Ryan Braun' vibe to this story. The Brewers slugger beat the MLB drug test, but mostly on a technicality which made it feel like he got away with cheating. Here it feels like the players' suspensions weren't overturned because they were innocent, but more because the NFL over-reached on its power. Had Goodell had a third party hear the appeals there is a chance the players suspensions would have been upheld. That cheapens the victory, even if it is just slightly. Either way, I'm just hoping this is the last we have to hear about this story.

-The entire point of bounty-gate was supposed to send the message that the NFL was serious about stopping people from going after opposing player's heads. I don't know why the rest of us are so concerned about players' safety anyway, because they certainly aren't. In the days leading up to Wednesday's season opener between the New York Giants and the Dallas Cowboys, Cowboys' tight end Jason Witten was listed as 'out' after suffering a lacerated spleen during the preseason. He had begun to get better and wanted to play, but still couldn't get medically cleared. On Tuesday report surfaced that Witten was so determined to play he was willing to sign a waiver absolving the Cowboys, their medical staff and the NFL of any liability if he was seriously injured from a hit during the game as long as it got him on the field. It never came to that as Witten finally got a doctor to deem him fit enough to play just hours before the game (convenient timing). Now, I understand that a spleen is not a vital organ and the chances Witten was going to suffer a serious injury were slim but it still doesn't seem like a good idea, especially since this is just the first game in a long season. You would think the smarter course of action would be to let it heal completely and not risk one hit causing him to miss a large chunk of the season. Still, this example just proves that no matter how safe people try to make football, it will always be played by people who are slightly crazy and there is no way to make any activity like that totally safe. I'm not saying give up, I'm just saying they need more realistic goals.

-Even college football's attempts to look as though they care about player safety only go so far. During last weekend's season kickoff the NCAA's new helmet rule came into play often. Basically, the rule states that if a player's helmet is knocked off during the course of normal play that player is forced to sit out the next play. If his helmet is ripped off during a penalty than he can remain in the game. On the surface this seems like a fine idea, as it gives the medical staff an entire 25 seconds to see if a guy who was hit hard enough to make his helmet pop off has been dinged or not. (Seems like plenty of time.) However, because this is college football, all it actually resulted in was guys trying to rip off the opposing player's helmet on the bottom of piles to make them miss the next play. I'm not sure extra strain on the neck was what the NCAA had in mind. Still, that wasn't even what the media was griping about. They seemed to think this rule was stupid because kids today don't have enough air in their helmets or keep their chinstraps on tight enough and the helmets come off far too easily. To them all this rule was doing was causing good players to miss big plays in crucial moments due to operator error. While that may not even be wrong, it was comical to me to hear all these guys who scream about concussions in the NFL Monday through Friday suddenly see the attempt to screen them (however misguided it may be) as an annoyance. It was the height of hypocrisy. Apparently, we are only supposed to care about the safety of the professionals and not make sure the 90% of kids who aren't talented enough to go pro aren't scrambling their brains.

-Every year the first couple of weeks of college football feature some incredibly lopsided scores. With no preseason available to them, many schools use week 1 as a warm-up game by scheduling inferior opponents. You are probably wondering what is in it for the punch bags. The answer is the same as it always is with college athletics: money. For example, last week Savannah State got paid nearly $400,000 to let Oklahoma State roll them 82-0. Since that apparently wasn't enough punishment, this week the Tigers are getting paid almost $500,000 to travel to Florida State, where they go in 70 point underdogs. (Even sadder? That's not even that much money. Most teams get close to a million for these kind of arrangements. So, not only is Savannah State a doormat, they are a cheap one as well.) Clearly, Savannah State needs the money to keep its program going. Also, there is the Cinderella factor, because if they were able to pull off the upset it would do more good for their program than money ever could. For example, just last week Division 1-AA Youngstown State was paid $400,000 to travel to Pittsburgh and ended up beating the Panthers, so they got money and positive exposure. That is what every team which signs this kind of deal dreams of doing. However, the chances of that happening are really low so all these teams are really doing is damaging their program's reputation. What they really need to recognize is that at some point they are going to do more harm to their recruiting efforts than money can buy.

-One last college item: apparently Texas Tech coach Billy Gillispie checked into a hospital early in the week with an undisclosed illness. Well, he had better stick around for a while because reports are flying that the Texas Tech basketball coach is going to be fired as soon as he is out of the hospital after CBS released a story which stated that Gillispie had broken all kinds of NCAA rules about practice. College basketball teams aren't supposed to go more than 20 hours a week, but according to that story Gillispie once had the team go 8 hours in one day. It go so bad that as a result of the lengthy practices one kid got a stress fracture in his foot and reports are that Gillispie was trying to make him continue practicing anyway. On top of that players and other basketball staff have been leaving the program in droves - some 30 people in the year and half that Gillispie has been in Lubbock. Now, under normal circumstances Gillispie may have been able to survive this kind of charges by saying they are claims made by people no longer with the program and who have an ax to grind against him. However, there are three things working against him: the first is that he had previously had some off-court run-ins with the law. That probably put him on thin ice to start. Secondly (and, let's not fool ourselves, more importantly), he was 8-23 this year. Lastly, he needs to remember that Texas Tech is a football school first and foremost. They don't need drama coming from a program they aren't that invested in to start with. If I were Gillispie I would make sure whatever sent me to the hospital was totally under control before I left, because I get the impression he won't have employer-provided health care for much longer.

-On Tuesday, American Ryder Cup Captain Davis Love III made his four wildcard picks to fill out the American roster. Two of the choices were pretty expected, as both Steve Stricker and Dustin Johnson are playing well and solid players. Plus, this year's competition will be held at Medinah, a bomber's paradise, which bodes well for Johnson and the Ryder Cup is all about putting, which means Stricker was a natural pick. There was no drama around those two picks. Brandt Snedeker was a little bit more of a surprise since he only popped up on the radar about a month ago. But he is playing well and you want to make sure you pick guys who are playing well going into it. (Of course, this is golf, so there is no guarantee he will still be playing well at the end of the month.) However, it was the pick of Jim Furyk which I didn't see coming and that is not because the man he was picked instead of, Hunter Mahan, happens to be my favorite golfer. I know Mahan hasn't played well the last couple of month, ever since his second win of the season, but at least he was playing well enough to win twice this year. Furyk hasn't won since the 2010 Tour Championship. And if you are picking in terms of performance in Ryder Cups, he has a losing record in that format. I feel like that was based far more on reputation than on merit. Still, the great thing about golf is that you control your own path. Mahan had two years to earn one of the eight automatic qualifier spots and didn't get it done.  He's got no one to blame for being left off the team but himself. I just hope he uses this as motivation to never miss another Ryder Cup.

-After a horrible west-coast road trip the Sox have stumbled home to play out the season and maybe act as a spoiler going forward. Due to their play of late I don't even think there is much of a discussion anymore concerning the fate of manager Bobby Valentine. His goose is pretty much cooked and I think he knows that. Instead, I want to talk about one of the people rumored to replace him, John Farrell. Farrell, the current manager of the Toronto Blue Jays was with the Sox as a pitching coach from 2006 until last year and a lot of people point to his leaving as the reason the pitching staff had such a bad year. While that may be true it means Farrell is a good pitching coach, not a good manager. In two season in Toronto he is under .500 and he has another year on his contract, which means the Sox would have to trade for him. And here I thought they were done paying extra for things other teams didn't really want. On top of that, Farrell was Terry Francona's pitching coach. You know, the same Terry Francona ownership ran out of town and then smeared in the local papers. What makes you think he would be in any great hurry to come back here? Also, it doesn't exactly send a message of continuity when you fire one manager and a year later are looking to bring in one of his lieutenants to take his old job. They were old teammates so there is a good chance they manager the same way. If Sox ownership was disgusted with the way Francona managed than bringing in a guy who will operate in much the same way doesn't seem like a smart move. If they want to make a change than they should make an actual change and not just a change for change's sake. Otherwise the performance on the last couple of seasons is just going to keep happening.