Weekly Sporties

-All anyone seems to want to talk about this week is the ongoing saga surrounding the Miami Dolphins and the treatment of offensive lineman Jonathan Martin. Martin was the constant subject of taunting and harassment by his fellow offensive linemen, specifically guard Richie Incognito. Reportedly Incognito left him voicemails in which he threaten Martin as well as his family and called him all sorts of racial slurs, then made him pay $15,000 for a trip to Vegas Martin wasn't even allowed to go on. Most people are obviously pointing to Incognito as the bad guy here, but I feel like all of this falls at the feet of head coach Joe Philbin. First of all I have no doubt that the reports coaches asked Incognito to "toughen up" Martin are true and I don't have any problem with their intentions. Football requires a certain mindset and sometimes handling the mental side of the game is more important than having the physical tools. The problem came in the player they picked to lead this particular charge. Richie Incognito has a reputation around the NFL as one of the biggest assholes in football. He had issues while in college then at his first stop in St. Louis. The fact he is a multiple-time Pro Bowler and yet a team devoid of talent like the Buffalo Bills let him walk should tell you all you need to know about what kind of person Richie Incognito is. Apparently he was bullied as a child and rather than decide he would never let anyone else feel that kind of mental torture he went the other way and decided to try and make everyone around him suffer. The fact Philbin picked this sociopath to be the leader of Martin's mental rebuild was an enormous mistake which never should have been made. Either Philbin was ignorant of what kind of person Incognito was or he didn't care - whatever the reason was, it shows a clear lack of understanding the make-up of your team. Also, Philbin is the one who is ultimately in charge of that locker room. I know that a football coach can't be down mingling with his players all the time, but the really good coaches are the ones who can control their players with the very fear they might be coming through that door any second. The fact this spiraled so out of control, proving no one was afraid of what might happen if Philbin found out, shows a real lack of leadership at every level of that organization. Incognito has been suspended from the team and many are saying he will never play for the Dolphins ever again. The more details we learn about how that locker room behaved the deeper my suspicion is that Richie won't be the only one leaving Miami.

-While we're on the subject of out-of-control Florida football coaches, last week I told you about what was going on with Carl Pelini at Florida Atlantic University. For those of you who don't feel like going back the Cliff's Notes version goes like this: Pelini and his defensive coordinator were at a party, smoking pot and allegedly using even harder drugs. Pelini was turned in by his special teams coach and was asked to resign by the school's athletic director in one of those "quit or be fired" moments. He resigned and everyone assumed that would be the end of it. However, that was far from the end because this week came a report that Pelini had gone to the University and asking for his job back. Also, his entire story has now changed because he contends he did not resign after using illegal drugs - he now claims he never took drugs - and he was asked to resign for "failing to control his coaching staff." I have to say asking for your job back with the premise of "I'm not an addict, I'm just incompetent" is not the strategy I would have gone with. Clearly I (along with everyone else) expect this attempt to fail. But the bigger question is why Pelini wants this job back in the first place. I learned a long time ago there is no point at trying to force your way into an organization which has made it clear doesn't want you there. Also, as I said last week, it is not like Florida Atlantic is anyone's dream job. People only use it is a stepping stone to a bigger and better stage, so it is not worth swallowing your pride over. Arkansas is a much better job and you never saw a guy like Bobby Petrino publicly beg for his gig back. This could speak to Pelini's desperation to get a head coaching job but let's remember this is college football, not the NFL - there are plenty of coaching jobs to be had at programs around the country and people are hired and fired every day, so if the job you want isn't open right now just wait a minute and it could open up. Ultimately I assume this is really about money and Pelini's lawyers have advised him this is the best way to recoup the salary he lost when he resigned/was fired. But I have to say if he is trying to come to an agreement with the University as a way to get them to pay him a chunk of his remaining salary I don't like his chances. FAU is not Texas, where the $500,000 Pelini thinks is owed to him would be worth it just to make him shut up. Still, part of me kind of wants Pelini to get his job back, provided the University will put cameras in the coaches' offices so we can see his first meeting with his special teams coordinator. I guarantee more people would watch that than go to Owls games.

-One last scumbag coaching story: last December a video was leaked in which Rutgers basketball coach Mike Rice was seen mentally berating his players as well as physically assaulting some of his players by shoving them around and throwing basketballs at them. When the story finally hit the media Rice was ultimately fired from the university (though I still don't know how President Robert Barchi kept his job). Anyway, this week Mike Rice began his rehabilitation tour, appearing in an interview with Robin Roberts which will air on "20/20". Clearly, Rice is trying to show the world he has changed in the hopes of landing a job next spring when programs start to look to rebuild. Now, normally I would say that of course Mike Rice will eventually find his way back on a bench. He'll have to do the usual steps of starting out as an assistant, getting the head job at a smaller school after a season or two and if he won there (a 50/50 proposition considering we still don't know if Rice was a particularly good coach, which is what made him so easy to fire in the first place), he would finally get back to where he was before this scandal took him down. There are just two problems with this: first, Rice doesn't sound all that remorseful. Sure, in one sentence he says he was "an idiot" and regrets what he did but in the very next he maintains he never abused anyone. That kind of attitude would make him a hard sell to a group of alumni. But what really will work against him is that the concept of bullying has really been turned up a few notches since Rice was fired. And for all the heat Richie Incognito is taking in Miami, I actually find Rice to be the much bigger bully because he was in the position of power. There are some people who say Martin could have simply punched Incognito and that would be the end of it. I don't share that opinion but even if you believe that the Rutgers players never had that out. Rice could retaliate against any player who spoke up by cutting their playing time or even revoking their scholarships, so how he acted on those tapes were the very definition of abuse of power and judging from his words it doesn't sound like he has learned to control those issues yet. There is a level where coaching resume trumps personal attitude and he doesn't have the resume to be this aloof. Still, this is the land of second chances, so Rice may still find himself on a court next season but I certainly don't believe his road back is going to be as smooth as he seems to think it will be.

-A few years ago my aunt and uncle were in their respective voting booths for a local election. They saw that there were more open spots on the local town council than people running so, independently of one another, as a joke they decided to write each other's name in as a candidate (great minds think alike). They had a wonderful laugh about it... right up until the next day when someone called to inform them they had been put on the council. I mention this because on Tuesday Boston had it's Mayoral election. Since I am not a Boston resident I couldn't vote but that doesn't really matter as the winner is not as noteworthy to me as the guy who came in third - David Ortiz. Yes, Big Papi got 560 write-in votes for Mayor, the most of any write-in candidate. Given his high level of play during the Red Sox recent World Series run many people were joking Ortiz could have run for Mayor, but I don't think anyone thought he would actually get as close as he did. Normally I enjoy a good write-in vote. If you don't particularly like either candidate I feel it is a much better way of protesting than simply choosing not to vote because it lets people know you care about election process and know that your vote is sacred, but at the same time you are displeased with your choices. On the surface this story is just another layer to the love the Red Sox and Boston clearly have for one another. However, I just worry if this should be considered more like a warning sign. Look, the tradition of writing an athletes name in during an election has been going on as long as there have been pro sports. (I may have written Larry Bird's name in during a Presidential Primary or two.) The thing is, it is no secret that people are becoming increasingly fed-up with the current government and everyone associated with it. I'm just wondering if one day one of these athletes is going to win. All it would take is the right mix of two undesirable candidates (if you know what happened leading up to Virginia's election on Tuesday that feels pretty easy to imagine) and a recent championship win with one clear hero of the day (too many teammates would spread the vote too thin). Think about it - many athletes have chosen a career in politics, they just usually wait until after they have retired first. But since everything is accelerated these days we could be just one long-suffering fanbase finally getting a title away from seeing Senator Adrian Peterson. Of course, seeing some of the people other states have chosen to represent them, an unqualified athlete could be a step up.

-If you asked sports fans to describe the ideal owner for their favorite team most people would describe a person who is passionate about the sport, had money to spend without worrying about a bottom line and was smart enough to know that even though they were successful in one area of life that does not automatically mean they know everything about everything, thus leaving the sports people to do their jobs without interference. Basically, they would be describing the opposite of James Dolan. Dolan is the owner of the New York Knicks and while he seems perfectly willing to spend money (that tends to happen when you inherit it all from your father), Dolan has an issue with letting the basketball people do their jobs as he has a reputation for being a micro-manager. Making things even worse, Dolan apparently has the realistic expectations of your average sports radio caller. Most unbiased observers looked at the New York Knicks and saw an aging team with a few flaws in their roster. Those flaws were not going to be helped by star player Carmelo Anthony announcing in the middle of training camp that he had every intention of testing free agency this offseason, giving the team a distraction to last their entire season. When you add in that reigning 6th Man of the Year JR Smith was going to miss the first few weeks with an injury, you had all the makings of a slow start and a middling season. Even though there is plenty of season left, this has annoyed James Dolan, who thinks the Knicks are ready to win a title now and left his courtside seat during a recent home game to publicly question the team's GM regarding what could be done to make this happen. Apparently finding whatever answer he received to be unsatisfactory, Dolan did the next thing he could think of, which was to benched the Knick Dancers. Yes, Dolan has reduced the number of times the cheerleaders appear per game and has cut back their duties to essentially throwing t-shirts into the crowd. Why has Dolan done this? No one is really sure, but my theory is that Dolan has finally figured out this is the only thing he has any control over. The basketball people certainly aren't going to listen to him and he can't force free agent to sign with the team, so benching a group of girls who have no impact on how the team plays is the only thing he could come up with. (Reportedly, Dolan had major input on the Knick Dancers' uniforms, so perhaps they are his little pet project.) Either way, I know this much - anyone in Miami who was worried about the Heat's slow start can calm down because clearly the Knicks aren't going to be a threat to win the East for as long as Dolan is the owner.

-When Nathan Harries returned from his Mormon Mission his basketball skills were feeling a bit rusty (after all he hadn't played hoops in the two years he had spent spreading the word of God). So when his local pastor called and told him their Church basketball league didn't have enough people for the games that night Harries saw an opportunity to get a little work in before he left for Colgate, where he would be a freshman on the basketball team. He played two games one night and one game the next night, mostly against guys in their 50s, thinking the level of competition didn't matter - it was just good to play. That was until the NCAA revoked a year of eligibility from him for playing in an "organized" league, which is against the rules for any player more than a year out of high school. You see, this rule is in place to prevent college amateurs from appearing in summer leagues backed by well-funded boosters or shady coaches who are just shells for agents and sneaker companies. And while I like the premise, the execution could use a little work. Now, if this story sounds familiar that is because a couple of months ago a similar thing happened to a football player who had been a part of his base's league while deployed. (I don't think it was a coincidence that in both of these stories the players were attending small athletic programs, because those are exactly the kind of schools the NCAA loves to lay the hammer down on to advance their narrative about student athletes while the major college programs sign massive TV contracts.) In that instance the NCAA dug its head out of its ass long enough to right the wrong and allow the solider to play and the good news is that it appear to be making the right decision here as well, as there was a late report Harries's eligibility would be reinstated. But, here's the thing that bugs me about this story - Harries original appeal was denied, as was the one filed by Colgate. It was only after the national media got a hold of it that they finally took action, which makes me wonder what would have happened if these guys didn't find that one reporter to tell their story or if it was never picked up by the big news outlets. It is unnerving because it would be ok if the public happened to notice a flawed rule and forced you to correct that mistake once and for all, but even after the first media storm the NCAA did the same thing a few months later and apparently just hoped we wouldn't notice. That means they don't think anything is wrong with the rule or how it is enforced and will only fix the problem after a prolonged, public outcry. The news media can't be everywhere at all times, so I worry that this is happening more frequently than we know and those kids are just falling through the cracks. Looks like we are going to have to pay more attention to the Ivy League box scores and our local rec leagues from here on out.

-If you were making a list of all the thankless jobs in sports professional caddie would have to be near the top. Sure you make good money (maybe, depending on your deal with your player and how that guy performs that week), but unless you are a high-profile guy like Steve Williams or Bones Mackay (who are seen as equal teammates to their golfers) you also get 100% of the blame when things go wrong and none of the credit when things go right. Plus, I would imagine it would be quite a tease to be so close to the extravagant lifestyle many pro golfers enjoy without being able to touch it for yourself. Apparently that came to a head at this year's Barclays Tournament when several Tour caddies were gathered in a tent during a weather delay and a security guard came barging in, demanding to see everyone's badges and ended up throwing several family members out into the rain. (A rent-a-cop abusing his power? I refuse to believe that story.) Convinced this wouldn't happen in the players' tent, about 100 PGA Tour caddies got the idea to band together and demand better treatment. As a result they are forming the Association of Professional Tour Caddies (APTC). While the name clearly needs work I like the concept. What is rather shocking is that the demands the caddies are making are the kind of thing you kind of already assumed they had. They aren't asking for a standard pay rate or anything financial - basically they just want basic amenities such a couple extra tickets, better parking, food vouchers as well as the chance to buy group health care or buy into a retirement account. Additionally they would like some say when the PGA Tour decides to make a rule which directly impacts them, such as when officials decided to put a stop to the famous "Caddy Races" at tournaments such as the Waste Management Open. None of that sounds very unreasonable. As of right now there has not been any word on whether the PGA Tour plans to acknowledge the APTC or how much they plan to involve them going forward. Personally, I think it would be in their best interest to form a relationship with the Association simply because these caddies are not only some of the most visible people on Tour many of them have great sway over their players. They could easily influence them to skip a tournament which doesn't treat the caddies well in favor of one that does and if we have learned anything from the season in which Tiger Woods was going through is slump it is that the strength of a tournament's field matters to viewers. Therefore it is better to have them with you than against you. And here most PGA officials probably thought the worst a caddie could do was give them a bad yardage.