Weekly Sporties

-I spent all week hoping enough sports news would happen so that I wouldn't have to address the Jameis Winston story but unfortunately that didn't happen. For those of you who may not follow college football, Winston is the freshman phenom on Florida State and the odds-on-favorite to win this year's Heisman Trophy as he is leading the Seminoles to an undefeated season and a shot at the National Championship. A couple weeks ago a report surfaced which said Winston was named as a person of interest in a sexual assault case last December. At the time many people dismissed the story because the suspect was reportedly 5'11" and Winston is closer to 6'4", so they chalked it up to rival schools looking to sabotage Winston's Heisman campaign (the fact that seemed perfectly plausible in and of itself should show you how messed up people's priorities are). Also, the Tallahassee Police had said the case had gone cold because the victim had refused to cooperate with authorities. That was quickly met with a denial from the victim's attorney who said the reason the case went cold is that local police had essentially tried to scare the girl off by reminding her that Tallahassee loves the Seminoles and many people would be angry with her. Meanwhile, late in the week a lab report came back which confirmed Winston's DNA was found in his accuser's underwear, pretty much putting to rest any idea that this was simply a case of mistaken identity. I just want to go on record as saying I hate this story. It exemplifies everything which is wrong with college football, such as the players and teams being put on too high of a pedestal, allowed to act like they are above the rules and the school and local officials look the other way because they don't want to "hurt the program". Now, I am not automatically assuming Winston attacked this girl, but the presence of his DNA (especially where it was found), pretty much confirms that at the very least he was with this girl and can no longer claim ignorance of the situation. But, mostly I am worried about this girl who is reportedly also a student at Florida State. The fact she was made to feel like she should remain quiet about being attacked just because the football team in on a roll makes me sick. FSU has an equal obligation to both her and Winston to investigate this in a timely manner and yet here we are nearly a year later and it is just coming to light. I can't help but feel like we would have heard about this months ago if the Seminoles were in the middle of a 6-3 season, which serves as a reminder that sometimes we all take sports too seriously.

-On a much, much lighter note, last year's Heisman Trophy winner Johnny Manziel has announced that out of respect for Texas A&M he will not leave the school hanging and make sure to announce his draft plans after the season ends but before the team's bowl game. Considering he was tweeting about not being able to wait to leave college before this season even started, I don't think it is a stretch to assume he will be declaring himself eligible for the NFL in February. The only question now is about his future. Opinions on Manziel's ability to thrive at the next level are a source of heated debate. Some think his height (listed at 6'1", most think he's probably closer to 5'11") will make it too difficult to work around lineman who typically stand around 6'4". But the fans of Manziel point out that he's around the same size as a guy like Drew Brees and Brees certainly doesn't have any issues passing from the pocket. In addition Manziel is much more mobile than Brees, so he could always roll out to one side or the other and throw from there. Then there are the issues of his attitude. Between engaging in Twitter feuds with random fans or getting suspended for half a game after the NCAA had a strong suspicion he took money for his autograph and then taunting the NCAA by making the universal sign for money after scoring a touchdown, more than a few scouts wonder about his maturity level. Personally, I think those questions will hurt him a lot more than the physical ones because NFL teams hate the idea of giving millions of dollars to a kid and expecting him to be the face of the franchise, only to be embarrassed by his continued immaturity. Basically, no one wants to draft the next Ryan Leaf and this kid has a few of those tendencies. I'm not saying Manziel is that bad but when you have plenty of other quarterback options in this draft (as many as 9 are expected to go in the first two rounds), teams won't need many reasons to pass over Johnny Football for a guy who may not have as high a ceiling but certainly won't come with the baggage or the higher chance of flaming out. (I actually don't see the big deal about this year's class. There doesn't appear to be a sure-fire quarterback in the group.) Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying he'll fall to the middle of the third round or anything, just that if Manziel is expecting to be the first player with his named called at next year's draft he could be in for a long wait. How he responds to that will go a long way in determining whether he builds on his football legend or simply fades into the distance. I know this much - I'm glad my team doesn't need a quarterback.

-As I said when it was announced, I would have loved it if cameras were allowed inside the Alex Rodriguez arbitration hearing as he appeals his 211 game suspension from baseball for his use of performance enhancing drugs. That desire only went up on Wednesday when Rodriguez reportedly got so fed up with the proceedings he threw up his hands, fired a few expletives at the people in the room and stormed out, vowing never to return. What has Rodriguez so heated is that the arbitrator ruled Commissioner Bud Selig would not be required to come in and testify about why Rodriguez was given a more lengthy suspension than all the other players names in the Biogenesis scandal (the next-longest suspension was Ryan Braun at 65 games). Alex later went on radio and again denied he did any of the things he was accused of while condemning Selig for being on a witch hunt simply because he doesn't like Rodriguez and wants him out of baseball as well as questioning how fair it was that the man who was in charge of the Biogenesis investigation was also one of the people hearing his appeal. (As messed up as that sounds, you have to remember the baseball players' union, which is one of the strongest in sports, agreed to that format.) Now, normally my standard move is to wait and see what side of the issue Alex Rodriguez is standing on before quickly moving to the other side but in this instance I agree that he is kind of getting railroaded. I understand this isn't a court of law, but when you want to suspend a man for a season and half, costing him nearly $35 million dollars and ruin his career you should have to look him in the eye when you do it. That's the other thing: Commissioner Bud Selig may be the only man in baseball who has a worse reputation among baseball fans than Alex Rodriguez, so this little publicity stunt (and make no mistake about it, that is all this was. I mean, why else would Rodriguez's legal team have a statement ready so quickly?) may have gotten a little momentum on Alex's side. Still, I ultimately expect Rodriguez to miss some time next season and I think he expects it as well. The only question now is how much time because I think this was all about getting his suspension reduced. Now, normally I would expect Selig to cave but not in this case. I think he suspended Alex for that many games because he had a lot of proof to bury him and he doesn't want to budge. But no matter how much he may hate the man this is bad PR for baseball so Selig probably wants it out of the news. That is why I suspect they may ultimately agree to lower the suspension to 100 games. If that happens I think Rodriguez should take it and leave before they change their minds. He certainly can't expect another win in the court of public opinion.

-The baseball offseason has been going on for a couple weeks now and even though most people didn't expect the action to pick up until the end of December and the Winter Meetings, things started off with an early bang as Detroit slugger Prince Fielder was traded straight-up for Texas second baseman Ian Kinsler. Now, on paper this trade looks great for both teams: Detroit can move Miguel Cabrera back to first to lessen the wear and tear on his body, they save money they can later use to re-sign Cy Young winner Max Scherzer and they have a good infield prospect they can now move to third. Meanwhile the Rangers replace some of the production they lost when Josh Hamilton moved to the Angels and they can bring up their infielder of the future, not to mention calm the fears of fans who are worried the team may be regressing after losing in the World Series, then the first round and then missing the playoffs altogether. Now, there is nothing interesting about the fact both teams are happy with the trade - they kind of have to be, if you want to be honest. No GM is ever going to make a trade and then trudge to the podium while saying things like, "Damn, I didn't want to do that. I knew I was getting hosed as soon as I picked up the phone." That's a recipe to be fired. But what I kind of find fascinating is that both fanbases are pretty happy as well. You would expect Texas to be pleased because they are the ones getting the bigger name and the guy who will put up gaudy numbers. However, the Tigers fans are just as pleased, which normally never happens when you trade a big bopper for a middle infielder with limited power. Instead they are looking at the big picture, which I wasn't sure many fans were willing to do. Most of us are terribly irrational people when it comes to our favorite teams, so the fact the Tigers fans were willing to sacrifice a little exciting offense in the name of boring pitching is just another example of why I think this is the golden age of fandom. I honestly think sports are riding a very exciting wave at the moment, one in which most of their fans are willing to sacrifice one ok season for a long stretch of competing for championship. The only thing I can't decide is if this is good or bad for GMs. On the one hand it must be nice to be able to admit you're making a move for the future but on the other, smarter fans means more people telling you why the thing you just did is wrong and what they would have done instead. I guess it doesn't really matter since GMs probably get that no matter how smart or dumb the fans are but I still would imagine it would be nice to be heckled by someone with a valid point every now and again.

-Despite owner James Dolan's proclamation the New York Knicks were ready to compete for a championship, the team has gotten off to a sluggish start. Turns out not doing anything to improve your roster other than allowing the team to get a year older doesn't actually make you better. (Who knew NBA players weren't like wine?) Anyway, there is a small number of people who contend the only way the season can be salvaged is if the team fired coach Mike Woodson. While that group is currently in the minority, the group of people who want to wait things out and immediately make a coaching change after the season is much larger. And, because these are the Knicks we are talking about, the man many fans want the team to hire is current Kentucky coach John Calipari. There are many reasons why I don't expect this to happen, the first of which is that I am not sure Calipari wants to take that kind of paycut. He's making plenty of money at one of the few schools where basketball is still king and reportedly he is enjoying being the big man on campus. Secondly, I am not sure how appealing the Knicks job really is. Sure, you would get to coach a famous team in a major market in the most famous basketball arena in the world but the team is fundamentally flawed, it is debatable just how talented their biggest star really is (or if he will even be with the team next season) and their owner has a reputation of having high expectations and a knack for micro-managing. Meanwhile, thanks to their ability to bring in a fresh crop of new highly-rated freshmen every season, Kentucky is set up to compete for championships year-in and year-out for the foreseeable future. Even if the team stinks one season because the scouts missed on a class they can just bring in new freshmen next year and not miss a beat. The only reason I am not totally dismissing this idea is that Coach Cal has always had a little Pete Carroll to him, by which I mean his poor record coaching the Nets is a very large stain on an otherwise impeccable record. Now that he has won an NCAA title there really is nothing left for him to prove in college, so there is a chance he would take another shot at the NBA just to prove he can win at every level. Plus, Calipari has already turned down numerous overtures from the pros and he has to know that if he says no too many times eventually NBA teams are going to stop asking. Still, Cal is only 54 and probably wants to go to a team which is more ready to compete than the Knicks will be next year. But, hey, it wouldn't be the James Dolan Knicks if they didn't have irrational expectations.

-As we saw on Monday night, NFL officials are not infallible. In fact, a recent study revealed the full-time officials aren't all that much better at getting the calls right than the replacement refs everyone screamed about last season. Here's the thing, though: I don't care if you get the call wrong nearly as much as I care about how you conduct yourself on the field. One of my biggest problems with NBA referees and Major League Baseball umpires is that too many of them seem to think we came to see them. They say no one really knows the good officials because we never have to talk about them, so the fact that I can identify multiple NBA refs and MLB umps just by looking at them speaks volumes. Even worse half of them engage the players in some kind of back-and-forth, which seems like the kind of thing they would warn you against on the first day of referee school. Now, one thing the NFL has going for it is that while their officials may occasionally be wrong, very few of them are confrontational. Apparently that doesn't apply to umpire Roy Ellison. Last weekend Ellison was working a game featuring the Washington Redskins and got into a heated debate with offensive lineman Trent Williams. Williams claims he was just engaging Ellison in the normal, everyday player complaining (telling an official you were held, regardless of whether or not you were, is something linemen do after every play out of habit) when Ellison took it up several notches by cussing out Williams. (If you watch the video Ellison clearly said something to get Williams's attention as several member of the Redskins whirled around and stared at him.) Normally you would believe the ref over the player but this was not the first time Ellison was accused of being confrontational, which is why this time the NFL stepped in and suspended him a game. I have to say even though I think being a referee in any sport is a thankless job, I am quite pleased the NFL took this step. Beyond the fact no one comes to see the refs, it is also a tough spot to put players in because the refs have the ability to toss them from the game, which makes the balance of power totally shift in one direction. These players are amped up on testosterone and adrenaline, so you can't very well expect them to make rational decision if they think a ref is challenging their manhood, which is why refs have to be held to a higher standard. I'm sure Ellison is a fine ref but he must have crossed a line and needed to take a week off to chill. But I am also certain this won't happen with Ellison ever again because if anyone should be  able to gain perspective and start respecting the rules, it's an official.

-Throughout the golf season the concept of viewers calling in penalties was a hot-button issue. Sure, the biggest goal in all sports is to get things right, but the application of these penalties seemed to lean quite heavily in one direction. Specifically, it seemed like most people were only calling in to tattle on what they thought were rules violations by Tiger Woods. This is not exactly shocking - Tiger is golf's lightning rod and for all the people who love him there are just as many who hope he never wins again and want to help him fail. Regardless of how you feel about Woods, I am against these called-in penalties because I have always contended it was an unfair issue of air time. Every shot Woods takes from the pro-am on Wednesday to the 18th green on Sunday is going to be on camera. Meanwhile, some middle-to-back-of-the-pack golfer could unknowingly be committing three penalties a hole and no one will be the wiser because he is never on TV. Many people thought the PGA was going to address this issue during the offseason but they have decided to punt the issue of called-in penalties down the road for another day. What they did instead was clarify exactly what could be penalized by replay. Quite plainly, the new rules states that if you can't see it with the naked eye it's not a penalty. I think this is a great rule. Too many times last year we were left staring at replays 10 or 15 times trying to determine if a ball moved one half of one dimple and then rolled back to the same spot. Honestly, when we're talking about a matter of .001 of an inch, does it really matter that much? The new rule more closely resembles something akin to the NFL replay - you have to see clear, indisputable video evidence before you can overturn a call. While it won't shut up the people who spend all day looking for a violation they can call in on every golfer who appears on-screen (I assume these people have this kind of time because no one wants to go to the actual course with them), this should help speed up the entire process should they find one. Also, I like that this puts golf back in the hands of the people playing the game. If a player tells an official that they didn't think the ball moved than those officials will have to take that player at their word, as it should be. When your main initiative last season was in regards to speeding up the game anything which will get debates about rules discussions and incorrect scorecards will be welcome. The amateur rules officials will simply have to find something else to nitpick about in the future. Something tells me they will manage just fine.