Weekly Sporties

-For reasons that don't make a ton of sense, if you looked behind all the Patriots jerseys hanging in my closet, you will see several Cleveland Browns jerseys. I certainly never set out to acquire an abundance of jerseys for a team I don't particularly root for, it just kind of worked out that way. But it because of my tiny allegiance to the Browns that I was very interested when the team traded running back Trent Richardson (the team's first round pick in the 2012 draft and the 3rd pick overall) to the Indianapolis Colts on Wednesday. Mostly I was stunned any trade happened, because the NFL teams rarely make big moves like this during a season. As you would expect many people in professional football circles take dropping Richardson as a sign the Browns are packing up the 2013 season and tanking for a high draft pick (they will have to compete with Jacksonville for that honor). And while this move certainly doesn't make them any better in the short-term, I don't hate it as much as most Cleveland fans. First off, it gives them a lot of assets. I know Indianapolis' pick won't be great (more on that in a second), but it is still a first-round pick in the NFL Draft and teams are always interested in those. Now they have two first, third and fifth rounders in next year's draft which should be enough to either re-stock their roster with talent or trade up should they be a few spots away from the player they truly covet. Of course, that would mean trusting that the team to make the correct personnel decisions which has been a problem for this version of the Browns since they were reborn as an expansion team. Still, I don't see this trade being too tough of a loss for the team. The simple fact of the matter is that whether or not Richardson was on the team they were going to have a tough year. Running backs, even supremely talented ones, are only as good as the offensive line they are running behind which is why you can take a guy in the 6th round and have him get you a 1,000 yards. That means if the team spends a few high draft picks to shore up that part of their team they won't regret trading a first-round draft pick. Lastly, given the way NFL offenses are trending it is far more important to have a good quarterback before anything and this should get the Browns in position to take a quarterback of the future in next year's draft and then compliment him with a good running game later. (Since the Colts already have their franchise QB I love this move for them). I'm not saying it doesn't suck to be a Cleveland fan right now, I am just saying this trade didn't make it suck any worse than it already did.

-One of the guys the Browns were rumored be after during last season's coaching search was Alabama head man Nick Saban, who obviously decided to remain in college. I thought that was a wise decision for him, but a couple days ago we were reminded the question of how long he will stay with the Crimson Tide is just going to keep coming. This week we learned that Saban's agent met with officials from the University of Texas towards the end of last season. Texas was having a bad year and the rumor was coach Mack Brown could be forced to retire, so the University wanted to have a plan in place in case they went that way. Turns out Brown wanted to keep coaching and swayed the University into keeping him so the talks never went any further than that. Well, this year the Longhorns are having another tough season and the rumor mill is heating up that the decision about next year will not be left up to Brown. Coming off two straight National Championships and well positioned for a third, naturally Saban is going to be the target of any school with a large athletic budget and, frankly, they don't come any bigger than UT's. Between the Longhorn Network and several oil baron alums, money stopped being an object for Texas years ago. So, if Saban wants to make an outrageous offer there is no question the school could match it. The only question now is if Saban actually wants to leave. So far he has maintained he has no interest in leaving Alabama but we can ask the fans of Michigan State, LSU and the Miami Dolphins how good Nick Saban's word is. (Don't take that as a knock on Saban either, it's just the nature of the life of a football coach. If a football coach told me the sky was blue I would go to the window and check.) That being said, I tend to believe Saban in this case. Sure, the Alabama program is on cruise-control at the moment and Saban is probably a little bored. Also, no matter what he does he will never be the legend in that state the Bear Bryant is, but I don't think that matters as much to a guy like Nick Saban as it would to a lot of football coaches. Plus, unlike Pete Carroll, I have never gotten the feeling Saban wants to give the NFL another try so why mess with a good thing? As great as Texas is, when it comes to football tradition and prestige Alabama is on the same level, which means it would be more of a lateral move. Seeing as how bad things happen when you lateral in football, I see Saban staying in Alabama for the foreseeable future.

-A reoccurring theme on the Weekly Sporties has been how thin-skinned the NFL can be even though they are the most powerful organization in sports right now. This week we heard about another example of that, as the NFL has apparently been going after rapper M.I.A. for $1.5 million ever since she flipped off the camera during her appearance with Madonna in the 2012 Super Bowl halftime show. Admittedly I don't remember this incident at all but that is par for the course because I don't remember much about the Super Bowl halftime shows (I tend to worry about the actual games) and I'm not a Madonna fan so I was probably in the bathroom. I vaguely remember it was a scandal for a half-second but given the number of channels in which you can show the middle finger and it doesn't even have to be blurred I wouldn't have thought this was that big a deal. Also, after the Janet Jackson/Justin Timberlake incident you would think the NFL would have some money stashed away for any fines which may get levied as well as language written into the performer's contract. (It turns out M.I.A. wasn't paid her appearance fee, so that last guess is probably true.) But, here is what makes this story truly crazy to me - neither NBC nor the FCC had any issues with M.I.A. giving the world the finger and it is only the NFL which is going after the money. Apparently the League has concerns this could tarnish their wholesome image which, as was pointed out by M.I.A.'s lawyer, is laughable when you remember the game's inherent violence, the League's neglectful stance on concussions and players getting arrested for various off-the-field incidents. But more than this suit's hypocrisy I think I am annoyed at the NFL appearing as though they want to be the arbiter of good taste for all of America. Frankly, they need to remember where they came from and if they need any more proof of that they should just look to their friends in NASCAR. For years it was the fastest-growing sport in America thanks to its rabid and loyal fanbase of Southern good 'ole boys. But, they started to get a little too corporate, take themselves too seriously and now many races feature entire sections which are devoid of fans and teams are struggling to find sponsorship deals. Everyone already knows it is better to watch the NFL at home, so if fans feel they are going to be subject to some kind of "good taste" police before being allowed to enter the gates they may just avoid buying tickets altogether. I don't care how great their ratings may be, it is awfully hard to sell your games to advertisers when the teams are playing in front of half-full stadiums. All I'm saying is the NFL shouldn't forget they are in the business of sports and sports are supposed to be fun.

-Speaking of bad audio from a couple years ago, on Monday a tape was leaked to the website Deadspin from 2011 in which Nebraska head coach Bo Pellini can be heard cursing his program's fans up and down, accusing them of only supporting the team when things are going well and leaving games early at the first sign of trouble. My first thoughts upon hearing the audio was that Pellini is probably just saying what a lot of college football coaches think. However, there are many people in and around the Cornhusker program who do not think this was funny and feel the tape could be grounds for dismissal. What makes this tricky is that while NFL coaches are not expected to be warm and cuddly, college football coaches are often called upon to make a lot of public appearances, shake a lot of hands and schmooze with a lot of donors so the fact that Pellini has such public disdain for these people is going to cause many of them to close their checkbooks. As we know college athletics is all about the money, which is what I really think could end Pellini's time at Nebraska. (If you need proof look no further than Charlie Weis at Notre Dame would probably would have been able to survive another couple seasons if he had just been a little nicer to the alums.) Also, the fact someone held on to this audio for two years and leaked it after a particularly bad loss to UCLA shows that someone around the team already has it out for Bo, which can't be good. As you would expect Pellini came out and apologized the day after the audio was leaked, saying it was heat-of-the-moment frustration. He also said they he expects Nebraska fans to forgive him and they would all move on from this together. I am not so sure Pellini can count on that. If there is one thing fans hate above all else it is to be called fair-weather. Nothing is more insulting to a sports fan than insinuating they lack loyalty. (I will say this though, you know who really takes their hatred of being called fair-weather to the extreme? Fans who really are fair-weather.) It will take more than an apology to make this right, which means Pellini needs the ultimate scrub-all for a sports scandal - winning. How the team finishes the season will be what ultimately determines if Pellini stays at Nebraska and seeing as how the team is not off to a great start that doesn't look like it will save him. But, at least for us non-Cornhuskers fans we can look forward to one hell of an interesting farewell press conference.

-Last Sunday the Red Sox said good-bye to longtime rival Mariano Rivera prior to his last game at Fenway Park before the closer calls it quits on his Hall of Fame career. As with nearly every other final visit to a city the Yankees have made this season the Red Sox decided to honor Rivera with a pre-game ceremony. They had the members of the Boston Symphony Orchestra play "Enter Sandman", the music which plays when Rivera enters a game and gave him gifts such as a seat from the stands and a piece of the Green Monster. Everything was going well until the Sox decided to play a video for Rivera. Some in the Yankees organization thought the video was a little too focused on the 2004 Red Sox and the saves Rivera blew in that year's ALCS, likening it to a tribute of that team more than celebrating the career of Mariano Rivera. These people need to shut the hell up. Now, I will admit to not having seen the video but given all the history between the Yankees and the Red Sox you had to expect a little more friendly jabbing. For example, of course the ceremony between the Yankees and Royals was going to be more subdued - the Royals haven't been competitive as long as Rivera has been in the league. There is simply too much history between these two teams since Rivera has come into the league for it to be like every other stop on his retirement tour. The Red Sox even said the video was going to be "more roast than toast." But, the larger issue here is that the Yankees seem to be forgetting that the Red Sox were under no obligation to do anything for Rivera in the first place. Sure, it would have appeared petty if the team had done nothing when even teams Rivera barely played against were lining up to celebrate his storied career but the Yankees still don't have the right to complain about this like a Bridezilla who is upset someone dared to buy her something which wasn't on her registry. Most importantly, Rivera has yet to say that it bothered him, which is all that matters. He seems to have a sense of humor about not only the video but the rivalry in general. I know the Yankees feel especially protective of guys like Rivera, Andy Pettitte and Derek Jeter but they may be overreacting on this one. Besides, if they didn't want that defeat rubbed in their faces they could have not blown a 3-0 lead in the first place.

-But if you are looking for a team that doesn't know how to celebrate, perhaps you should look west. Specifically look to the NL West, which the Dodgers clinched last night with a win in Arizona and then took a celebratory dip in the pool the stadium allows fans to lounge in during games. As you would expect the Diamondbacks are none to pleased with how the Dodgers appeared to go over the boundaries of good taste and LA is taking quite a bit of heat from baseball purists. For once I have to say I agree with them. First off, I wonder if all these clubhouse celebrations are a little over the line considering the circumstances. You want to go crazy after you win the World Series? Sure, it'd be weirder if you didn't. Want to celebrate after winning a League Championship? Go ahead, you earned it. But acting like it's V-J Day because you won a mediocre division by 9 games? Seems a little excessive. (Sadly, I feel like as a Red Sox fan I have to take some of the blame for this. Those Wild-Card winning Red Sox teams were allowed to get away with anything, even though winning a Wild Card is like receiving a trophy for honorable mention. We should have called them out on this way back then.) Anyway, it is entirely possible I am being a little harder on the Dodgers because of who they are. The Dodgers have always been seen as one of the classiest organizations in baseball and the extreme way they went crazy last night seems to be beneath them. Act like you've been there before, because you have. In fact, the Dodgers were there recently. This isn't like the Pirates, who haven't finished above .500 in 20-plus years - the Dodgers won this division back in 2009. Also, the Dodgers basically did what they were supposed to do. They currently have one of the largest payrolls in the majors and a slew of All-Stars, so this division title was hardly a shock. I get that baseball has an extremely long season and this was more an emotional release than anything, but that doesn't mean they had to go as crazy as they did. Pop a few bottles, have a couple drinks and then get ready for tomorrow because soon enough the important games are going to get started. In the meantime I guess we should just be happy the Dodgers weren't playing in Tampa last night, because their outfield pool has stingrays in it.

-One of the reasons I have gotten away from boxing over the last couple of years is that I simply could no longer take all the bad decisions. It seems like every year there is at least one terrible judge's decision in every weight class and even more annoying is no one does anything about it. Half the people involved think of it as the cost of doing business because the sport's history is littered with bad decisions, which is bad enough, but the other half insults my intelligence by trying to act like these things are a result of a poorly-trained official even though we all know the judges were probably bought off. And that's the bigger problem - right now boxing has a credibility issue because even if every judge on the panel isn't corrupt casual fans assume they are. If we wanted to watch something where the outcome is pre-determined we would go back to pro wrestling because the PPV costs are lower. Last weekend there was a split decision in the fight between Floyd Mayweather and Canelo Alvarez, even though most experts though Mayweather won the fight rather easily. The lone dissenting vote came from judge CJ Ross, who scored the fight as a draw. This was her second straight questionable decision, as she was also involved in the Manny Pacquiao-Timothy Bradley fight which many boxing experts thought was one of the worst decisions of the last 20 years (and, as we just discussed, that is saying something). This time it didn't cost the Champion the title, but for the first time I can remember we may have finally reached a breaking point. The backlash over Ross's scorecard was so loud that early this week she stepped down from the Nevada State Athletic Commission. (Ok, if you want to be technical Ross was scheduled to meet with the state boxing commissioner to review her license later this year for renewal and instead said she would allow it to expire. It is close enough to a firing and I will take what I can get.) Now, I'm not taking any personal glee in someone getting fired because I don't know the woman so she could be perfectly lovely. I'm just saying that at some point even the most hardcore boxing fans have to say enough is enough and demand someone make these people accountable. Perhaps a few of them should even end up in front of a real judge at some point in the future and see how they like being on the wrong end of decision they don't agree with.