Weekly Sporties

-It's kind of hard to believe, but the Winter Olympics are just a few weeks away. Leading up to the games a lot of the talk hasn't been about the sports or the athletes, but Russia's anti-gay laws. You see back in June President Vladimir Putin signed a law prohibiting the promotion of "non-traditional" marriages to children. Because you could make the case that children see just about everything that rather vague set of standards allows the Russian government to crack down on pretty much whatever they want, from gay pride parades to a rainbow flag in front of someone's house. It has caused a lot of friction in the country as well as around the world as many people see this as an infringement on personal freedom. This has especially been a sore subject within the United States and some in the LBGT community have called on the US to boycott the games. The issue of how to balance sports and politics has always been tricky but I think having the United States simply refuse to participate seems a bit extreme. What I like is that instead the US is doing the next best thing, which is sending gay athletes as part of their Olympic delegation and no high-ranking officials from the United States will be attending the Games. I actually think this is the best solution. Simply skipping the games would be the easy way out as it would give Russia cover because they could continue to act as though gay people don't exist. Not only that it would probably turn those athletes and their families against the LBGT cause because they will have worked the last four years for nothing. Even if they are supportive of the issue, they didn't spend all those hours in the gym to be a political pawn. Sending openly gay athletes as representatives will put them front and center, which is the best way to let people know you don't agree with something they are doing. I only have two issues. The first is obviously security because while I don't think the Russian government will do anything there could be some whack job who has a Cold War flashback and goes crazy. The second is the fact that many Olympic sports are done by judging. I can't help but think a few of the Russian judges will be told to be extra critical of the US routines. Even worse there would be no way to know if that was the case because Olympic judging is always such a mess. There is always at least one screwy decision during the Games, so why would Sochi be any different? I guess in some ways it is nice to know that no matter how messed up the hosting country's political landscape is, it certainly couldn't be any worse than the IOC.

-Last week I told you about the drama surrounding the Washington Redskins. The quick recap is that head coach Mike Shanahan and franchise quarterback Robert Griffin III can't seem to agree with one another on how the plays should be called (a job which is performed by Mike's son Kyle). Additionally, the elder Shanahan doesn't like that Griffin is so close with team owner Daniel Snyder because he thinks this personal relationship creates a way for Griffin to circumvent his authority if he doesn't agree with a decision. Allegedly it got so bad that Shanahan was ready to quit last season but held off because Griffin got hurt during the playoffs and didn't want to appear to be abandoning the franchise. However, Shanahan can no longer put up with the drama and wants out, only he would like to still get paid the remainder of his contract, so has spent the last couple of weeks trying to get himself fired. He has begun poking at ownership, going so far as to deactivate Griffin for the last three weeks of the season under the guise of trying to preserve his health going forward. Meanwhile, both camps are leaking information to the local papers in an attempt to win in the court of public opinion. If you don't care about the future of the Redskins it has been kind of fun to watch, in the same way people like to rubberneck at car accidents. I have to say this week's entry was especially juicy as there was a report that Robert Griffin II has been in Snyder's ear and wants the Redskins to hire Baylor coach Art Briles (who coached RG III in college) to be the new coach of the Redskins. I have no doubt this story came from the Shanahans and I have to say, it was a masterful stroke. Seriously, it has all the elements that typically turn sports fans against an athlete - meddlesome parent, unreasonable request and the appearance of wanting control over a franchise after only being in the league for a year. On top of all of that while Baylor has had a very good couple of season there is no reason to believe Briles would be a good coach at the next level (the list of college coaches who successfully jumped to the NFL is a short one). If you just read the story without any of the background context you would absolutely believe Shanahan had the right idea when he said RG III is too close to the owner because even the biggest RG III supporter would concede that his father should not be consulted about who to hire. Mike Shanahan may not have been able to replicate the on-field success he had in Denver but unless Griffin has something up his sleeve for next week it appears Shanahan can at least claim on off-field win.

-Two summers ago the Houston Rockets tried to make a splash in free agency when they signed center Omer Asik. Coming off a good playoff run with the Bulls, Asik was seen as the kind of defense-first big man the team would need if they were going to get past the Lakers, who had just acquired center Dwight Howard. Well, a funny thing happened just one year later when the Rockets signed Howard in free agency. Some thought the two would combine to make one of the best frontcourts in all of basketball but Asik quickly saw the writing on the wall and asked for a trade. Initially the Rockets refused because they were going to try and change his mind but once they saw that was going to be too hard of a sell they agreed to try and get him out of town. However, they didn't want trade rumors hanging over them and distracting the rest of the team, so the Rockets self-imposed a deadline of December 19th to get a deal done. On the 18th it looked like a deal was in place with the Celtics but it fell apart. [Sidebar: I'm actually glad the trade never went through. I like Asik for a team which is on the verge of competing for a title but with the Celtics in quasi-rebuilding mode he wouldn't be a good fit here. The whole point of hoarding all these assets (first round picks, expiring contracts, ect.) is to use them to get a really good player who just needs a change of scenery, not a center who can't score. Unless this team plans to deal Rajon Rondo (unlikely) they need to make sure they get back some scoring in any trade because Rondo has always been a streaky offensive player. The whole reason Kendrick Perkins was traded was because the team didn't want to go forward with him and Rondo as the offensive since neither can hit free throws down the stretch. Also, the only way the Rockets got Asik in the first place was through some very creative contract math, which means he will make a ton of money in the next two years. He would be a cap nightmare, especially since having the cap space to make a trade is only way the Celtics will get any talent. Asik would have been a nice addition in 2010 but in 2013 he doesn't make any sense.] But getting back to the Rockets, the problem with this story is that there really wasn't a deadline. They can make a trade up until the NBA's deadline in February and I have a hard time believing they wouldn't listen if someone called to make them a really good offer. It is not like Asik has changed his mind about getting traded now that the 19th has passed. If anything, refusing to negotiate with teams beyond the 19th has only served to guarantee the team will be going through the same issues in February when even more teams will call about Asik. But hey, at least they can claim they stuck to their guns, even if those guns weren't actually loaded.

-Since I just mentioned Kendrick Perkins, his new team, the Oklahoma City Thunder, are on an impressive win streak at home. They have currently won 13 games in a row there, including a win early this week against the Chicago Bulls. Now beating the Bulls without Derrick Rose is not quite the accomplishment it used to be which is why the game was more noteworthy for what happened afterwards. Bulls forward Joakim Noah and Kendrick Perkins got into a yelling match when Noah came to visit a former teammate Thabo Sefolosha in the Thunder locker room and the two continued to lob insults at one another all the way to the team buses, to the point NBA security had to get involved. Now, there are many who are saying Perkins needs to chill but I'm on his side in this one. (Before we get too far into this story I guess I should reveal my biases: I always liked Perk when he was in Boston and find Noah to be one of the most obnoxious players in the NBA. I would be naturally inclined to take Perkins's side in any dispute between those two but I promise you, my feelings on this issue would be the same even if the participants were different.) Look, I know this is how the NBA works now - half of these guys were teammates on AAU teams before they ever got to the NBA and with so much player movement (especially for the guys at the middle and backs of rosters), summer leagues, international competition, shared trainers and guys coming together for charity events the old days of players hating anyone who is not on their team are long gone. I'm not saying rivalries are dead - there are always going to be teams which plain just don't like each other - only that with the way professional sports now work the fans are always going to be more invested than the players. That being said, a locker room will always be an extremely personal place and it should be off-limits to players from other teams. It would be one thing if Noah had previously played for the Thunder or the game was in Chicago and he wandered into the visiting locker room but neither of those things apply here. Players visit with former teammates all the time but they do so by waiting outside the locker room until those guys come out to them. Call it professional etiquette and even though Perkins was probably taking his role of team tough-guy a little too far (he has to do something to justify his massive contract and it won't be through scoring), Noah was in violation of that unwritten rule and he admitted as much a couple days later. That's too bad because I was kind of hoping these two would continue to chirp at each other and build up the bad blood. It wouldn't be the best reason for a rivalry to get started but it would be better than no rivalry at all.

-As the price of going to games continues to rise and the ability to watch all sports on television from the comfort of your own home continues to improve, professional sports teams are fighting a battle to get people to come out to the games. One of the ways they are trying to get people to shell out their money is to give them more interesting seating options. If you have watched the NBA for an extended period of time you have probably noticed that over the last few seasons the area which used to be reserved for the press has continued to shrink considerably in favor of extremely expensive courtside seats which practically put spectators on the bench with the team. I'm sure it makes the arena a couple extra thousand dollars a game, which is why I was hardly surprised to hear that the NHL is trying to figure out where they can add seats for their games. The problem is a rink is much larger than a basketball court, so they don't have nearly as many ways to get creative about this problem. Los Angeles Kings coach Darryl Sutter thinks has a solution - remove the penalty boxes. Now, at first glance this seems like a really good idea because the penalty box takes up two rows of prime location and it goes unused for roughly 95% of every game. But the reason I can't get behind this idea is because of that other 5% of the time. I mean, where are the players who commit penalties supposed to go? Someone suggested sending them off the ice to an area behind the bench for the two to five minutes they are serving their time but I am not sure that would work, logistically. I mean, wouldn't that add time as they were walking back to the bench? (You ever try walking in skates? Even hockey skates, which have a wider blade and are more stable, are not great for moving quickly anyplace but on the ice.) Besides, this is messing with tradition. People have been sitting the the penalty box since hockey started. It is part of the sports lexicon. How are we supposed to explain to future generations where they are to sit when they get in trouble? At the end of the day removing the penalty box is only going to add six or eight seats to every arena, which doesn't seem worth it to me. Of course, those six or eight seats will probably sell for a couple hundred bucks each and over the course of a 41-game home schedule that will add up quickly. By now every sports fan is cynical enough to know any tradition can be sold for the right price and the price is never as high as we think it should be. With that in mind I am almost surprised the penalty box has survived this long.

-While we're on the subject of using unique locations to market sports, this week it was announced that Notre Dame and Boston College are going play to a football game in Fenway Park in 2015. It will be the first football game in Fenway in almost 50 years and should make for quite the spectacle. I am sure I will find it visually stimulating while I watch it from the comfort of my couch. Normally I am in favor of these marketing strategies. I continue to think the NHL's winter classic was a stroke of brilliance and the decision to hold a Tennessee football game at a NASCAR track could be awesome. However, I am just not sure this specific location is going to work all that well. First off, I think it could be too small. Normally the reason these events work is because they are put into places which able to hold larger-than-normal crowds. For example, this year's Winter Classic in Ann Arbor is expected to have 100,000 people at it, an insane number of people for a hockey game. On its best day Fenway can hold about 45,000 spectators. That was fine when the Bruins played there because they only get around 18,000 at the Fleetcenter. But, that is roughly the same size as the stadium Boston College plays in now and is only half the capacity of Notre Dame Stadium. I know making it a tough ticket to get will only help to drive the price up but even if the tickets are sold for twice their face value it won't make as much money as putting the game at a place like Gillette Stadium would. Plus, I can't help but wonder how the field dimensions are going to work, remembering that Northwestern and Illinois tried to play in Wrigley a couple years back and ended up having to play in one direction since the field ended too close to the wall and it became a safety issue. Additionally, I am sure the two teams will have to split the gate, which makes me wonder why BC would do this. The few occasions in which Notre Dame visit Alumni Stadium are the only guaranteed sell-out they have. (If you don't believe me, go on Craig's List looking for tickets for BC football during a season in which the Irish are coming to town. They all say the same thing: "Every game for sale, except Notre Dame.") Boston College could play anyone in Fenway and have a sell-out, which makes this feel like a wasted opportunity. On top of all that there is the normal issue at Fenway, which is that I out-grew that place when I was 12. All of this is added up to make the game more an oddity than an attraction and there is a big difference. Still, I guess it would be nice to sit in the stands and have those seats which directly face the wall come in handy for once.

-For as much as I enjoy playing golf, there is one common aspect of the game I have never been willing to embrace - the gambling. I know putting a dollar or two down on each hole is quite common but I have never been too enthusiastic about that idea, probably because I am still so bad at the game. But while I am not about to risk my paycheck on my putting skills the low handicappers on the Tour are confident enough in their skills to not only wager with each other, they do it for big money. What I have always found interesting is that the PGA not only admits gambling happens on Tour, they openly discuss it. While the NFL and MLB refuse to acknowledge the very existence of gambling (which is especially hypocritical on the NFL's part considering it is one of the reasons the sport is watched across the country) the PGA Tour will hand out press releases detailing the high-money games which happen between players during Tuesday's practice rounds. It is because they seem so comfortable with the idea that when two high-ranking officials from the Japanese wing of the PGA Tour had dinner and played golf with a member of the Yakuza crime family I didn't expect it to be a big deal. Sure, they probably shouldn't be openly associating with mobsters but it is not like they did something really heinous, such as refuse to admit a ball rolled forward roughly a third of a dimple. However, I got this one way wrong as the hammer quickly dropped and the two officials resigned. But that was hardly the end of the story because not only did they leave, they took everyone down with them as a string of resignations followed. All told, 91 other representatives including 20 board directors and 4 vice chairmen resigned. I know looking guilty and being guilty are two very different things but I have to say this story makes me wonder just what the hell was going on over there. My first thought is that the Yakuza were buying off officials to make bad calls (which happens all the time in soccer), but considering golfers are expected to call their own penalties I am not sure how that would work. The next scenario to come to mind is that the PGA is very bullish about expanding to the Asian market and wants any hint of something shady gone before they will commit to the Japan Tour full-time. I'm not sure if all these resignations should fall under the category of leaving before you are asked or simply getting out ahead the posse to try and save your reputation. Either way, if you were struggling to find a job with the PGA and don't mind a little travel it appears there are a few openings to be filled.