Weekly Sporties

-So, after days of proposals and counter-proposals being sent back and forth, Chris Paul was finally traded away from the Hornets this week. He still ended up in Los Angeles, though he will play with the Clippers and not the Lakers. Now, if you remove all the raw emotions about how unfair this is to the Lakers and their fans (and it is totally unfair), the annoying fact remains that the Hornets did actually end up with a better group of players and draft picks than they would have gotten in the original deal. I know no one wants to give David Stern any credit at the moment, but it turns out that this was the correct move to make. The Hornets are now set up with a good group of young players and attractive assets for the future that are much better than anything the Lakers and Rockets could have offered. However, that doesn't change the fact that a huge conflict of interest remains in place for as long as the league owns the Hornets. Supposedly all this extra haggling that went on was all done to try and keep the franchise looking good to any potential buyers. Well, now that the deal is done they had better find a buyer fast, because I guarantee this won't be the only deal the Hornets are going to be making this year and I certainly don't want to have to go through this drama again at the trading deadline.

-One of my least favorite traditions in sports is the yearly ritual of college football coaches quitting on their team to take a new job before their current school's bowl game. Now, I don't blame the schools or the coaches - it's the system. There is simply too much time between when the season ends and when the bowls are played. If those coaches want to get a jump on recruiting and building the program at their new school they are almost forced to leave their current team in a bad spot. Also, I'm not going to fault a coach for leaving to take a job with more prestige or money. If we're being honest, you and I would do the same thing. But, if you happen to be a college football coach who is thinking of leaving, please handle your departure better than Todd Graham. Graham has been the head coach at Pittsburgh for less than a year. Arizona State came calling last week and since Graham has family near the school, he asked Pittsburgh if he could interview with the Sun Devils. Pittsburgh, understandably, said no. Graham interviewed anyway and ended up taking the job at ASU. He then texted the Pittsburgh Athletics Director saying he was leaving and asked him to forward that text to all his players. He couldn't even be bothered to text them himself. It's stuff like this that makes the NCAA rule which states players who transfer have to sit for a season such a joke.

-There is a little bit of controversy following last Thursday night's game between the Browns and the Steelers. Late in the game Browns quarterback Colt McCoy took a helmet-to-helmet hit from James Harrison of the Steelers. McCoy got up and was clearly out of it, but made it to the sidelines, was back in the very next series and finished out the game. Afterwards, McCoy's father blasted the Browns saying that Colt clearly had a concussion and should never have been put back in, especially with the NFL's new emphasis on player safety which specifically targets concussion awareness. At the time the Browns said that they followed all the guidelines the NFL had put out and Colt was cleared by the team doctors. A couple days later that all turned out to be bullshit because McCoy was never checked for a concussion. The trainers didn't see the hit, as they were tending to another injured player, and didn't know he had a head injury so they never gave him the concussion tests. They said all McCoy complained about was his hand hurting, which I'm going to guess happened because at that moment he couldn't remember how to say the word concussion. The post-concussion symptoms are still so bad that McCoy isn't going to be playing this week. Clearly, there is a flaw in the NFL's policy because relying on the guy with the concussion to bring it to the trainer's attention is not going to happen. You're lucky if he remembers what team he is on.

-Still, I think the NFL would much rather talk about concussions than what is happening in Chicago. A couple days ago Bears back-up wide receiver and special teamer Sam Hurd was arrested in a drug bust attempting to set up a deal in which he would receive several kilograms of cocaine and 1,000 pounds of marijuana every week. According to the DEA, despite signing a three-year contract with the Bears that would pay him over a million dollars a year, Hurd was one of the cities biggest drug dealers. (In case you were wondering, he has already been released by the Bears, who I think have had just about enough of former Cowboys players this week.) Seriously, you wouldn't believe this story if it was the plot in a movie. But, as bad as that news is, what I'm sure has the league shaking in their collective boots is the rumor that Hurd has a long list of NFL clients that he has been selling to. (For the record, Hurd's lawyer went out of his way to refute the claim that Sam was selling to NFL players because, yeah, that's what he should be focused on right now.) You know, every year the league has a rookie symposium where they try to teach first-year players about the pitfalls of fame and fortune. One of the days is spent reminding the players how important it is to have a plan set up for when their playing days are over. I don't think this is what they had in mind.

-Since we're talking about federal investigations, on Friday former Giants slugger Barry Bonds received his sentenced after being found guilty in May on federal charges of obstruction of justice. Bonds was given 30 days of house arrest, which will be followed by two years of probation. Bonds said he plans to appeal this punishment. Considering Bonds could have gotten 15 month in a federal prison, I think he should take his punishment and shut the hell up. This damn investigation has been going on since 2003 and his appeal could take another two years. If Bonds ever wants to make it to the Hall of Fame (unlikely, but not totally dead yet), he would be smart to just take his sentence quietly and put this whole thing behind him. After all, the main reason Pete Rose has been kept of the Hall of Fame for so long was not that he bet on baseball, but that he refused to admit he bet on baseball despite the mountain of evidence. We live in a forgiving society, but you have to give us a reason to forgive you first. Not to mention, I'm willing to bet that Bonds doesn't exactly live in a tiny studio apartment. I'm sure he'll have plenty of room to move around. Seriously, Barry, you got lucky: do the 30 days and be done with it.

-Now that the new baseball labor agreement has been approved, a few of the smaller details are starting to come to light. One of the more unusual (but fun) clauses hidden in there was the new rule which states that if a player changes his jersey number during the season, he will be responsible for buying all the unsold merchandise with his old number on it from the manufacturers. This was slipped in to protect MLB's clothing and merchandising partners (in case you are wondering, players who are traded are exempt). Now, this isn't a big deal because players very rarely change numbers in the middle of the season. The ones that do are typically the type of players who are bouncing back and forth between the majors and AAA and those guys don't exactly have many jerseys printed up for fans to buy. But, what I want is to see this kind of thing taken a few steps further: how about making players cut a check to anyone who bought their jerseys if they demand a trade one year into a 5-year contract? Or, how about that guy owes me a little something if he winds up being horrible? Seriously, if we could go back and retroactively demand that crappy players compensate the fans who blindly supported them I would be a rich man. I would also have a lot more room in my closet.

-I think my favorite story of the week (maybe the month) came from this week's New York Post. In the article a 'friend' of Derek Jeter revealed that Jeter has a system in place for his one-night stands. Apparently the morning after, the girls leave his apartment and find a limo waiting for them down on the street. (So far, so good.) But inside the limo is a gift basket filled with Derek Jeter memorabilia, including a signed baseball. First off, I need to know if Jeter has a sliding scale. Do the girls get a baseball regardless or can they work their way up to something better, like at a carnival where you can keep earning tickets until you get the radio? Secondly, does he at least take a moment to personalize the ball, or does it have some generic message he writes on all of them? Just know this: I would advise any Yankee fan who gets a signed Derek Jeter baseball from his girlfriend for Christmas to ask just where the hell she got it from, because given some of the rumors floating around the internet, that might not be the only thing she got from Mr. November.