The NFL has ruled: New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady has been suspended for four games. The Patriots are going to lose a first-round draft choice and will fined a million dollars.
Gregg Rosenthal, NFL.COM -- The NFL announced Monday that Tom Brady has been suspended without pay for four games for violating the NFL policy on the integrity of the game. This news comes less than a week after independent investigator Ted Wells found that it was "more probable than not" that Brady was "at least generally aware of the inappropriate activities" regarding the deflation of Patriots game balls used in the AFC Championship Game against the Colts.
This is a horrible idea and couldn't see college hockey adopting this silly rule. a rule like this would cause big ticket recruits to do to Major Junior and bypass college hockey altogether.
I think this is a horrible idea for football and basketball as well.
Adam Rittenberg, ESPN.com -- The Big Ten is seeking feedback from its members about the possibility of making freshmen athletes ineligible for competition as they adjust to college life.
In a statement to ESPN.com, the league says it is gauging interest from its members about a "national discussion regarding a year of readiness for student-athletes."
The league has provided background to its members about such a step but has made no official proposal at this point.
The Big Ten has provided background to its members about the possibility of making freshmen athletes ineligible for competition as they adjust to college life but has made no official proposal at this point.
The Diamondback, the student newspaper at Maryland, reported Thursday that the Big Ten is circulating a document titled, "A Year of Readiness," which explores making freshmen in football and men's basketball ineligible for competition.
This is the commercial that got me thinking about the awfulness known as domestic violence. It made me start thinking. No, I'm not going to criticize the commercial or the people who appear in it. It's actually quite a good commercial. The problem is: the message isn't going to get through... at least to the finality that it states.
Why?
Because, though it doesn't say much directly, domestic violence is a problem that men subject women to...even though it isn't.
You see, this year is the year of domestic violence with Ray McDonald, Greg Hardy, Ray Rice, and Johnathon Dwyer (all NFL players) getting accused of domestic violence. All mentioned are suspended indefinitely by the NFL. They have been vilified by the media and by social media. Alright, I get it. But there's a problem:
But that's not why I'm not 100% behind this campaign and will not openly support it. Though the commercial is right on, the reality is that it isn't handled that way at all. It is handled specific to gender trending in statistics. In other words: it only matters when it is a man beating a woman. Yes, I know that a VAST majority of domestic violence is in this vein. However, not all of it is.
Case in point? Hope Solo. As we speak, Hope Solo has been accused of domestic violence. There was one article on ESPN.com about it. That's it. No outcry. No suspension. No condemnation of any entity. Heck, I'm not even sure that there's even been any condemnation of Hope Solo personally, despite the allegedness of the claims. Why is that? Is it because she's just a soccer player?
Well, she's not the beer league soccer player... she does have the honor of representing this country in soccer in world tournaments like the World Cup... but perhaps since the World Cup isn't going on right now, she's not relevant?
Or maybe it is gender stereotyping again. "Aw, comon, man! Put your big boy pants on. Can't take it from a girl? Shoot, she was probably just into rough foreplay!"
I cannot take vilifying men charged with domestic violence charges as long as women aren't treated equally whenever they are charged with the same crime.
It's a lot like sexual misconduct. Look at all those sickening sex scandals between a male teacher and a female student. Sickening, for sure, but they are found guilty and sentenced to around 20 years in prison. Now flip the genders and what happens?
It's all based upon statistical likelihood of occurrence. Men most often are the defendents in domestic violence and sexual misconduct cases, therefore, they're the culprits. It's sad. It's like saying "Black people were behind the riots in Ferguson. Therefore all black people are the cause of public disturbances and rioting." I don't have the stats in front of me, but I'm fairly certain that this "claim" is false.
So, rewatch the commercial. If domestic violence is bad, and we need to make a big public ordeal behind each occurance among our celebrities and pro athletes, then we need to make sure that ALL occurrences get such treatment, not just the "usual" suspects.
If/When Dwyer, Hardy, Rice, MacDonald see their court day (or plea session) and a judgment is reached, if it is guilty, I hope they rot. However, if they are innocent (no matter how unlikely it may seem), then play on fellas and good luck on the field.
This article was linked on Sioux Sports today, I thought it was worth a look. It would appear that the NFL's Washington Redskins are getting pressure to change their Redskins nickname by the US Senate.
WASHINGTON — Fifty members of the Senate have signed a letter to the N.F.L. to urge its leadership to press the Washington Redskins to change the team name in the aftermath of tough sanctions against the owner of the Los Angeles Clippers for racially charged comments.
The position embraced by half of the Senate, and the willingness of the lawmakers to sign a formal request to Commissioner Roger Goodell, escalated the fight over the name and represented an effort to put increasing pressure on the league, which receives a federal tax break, and the ownership of the team.
“The N.F.L. can no longer ignore this and perpetuate the use of this name as anything but what it is: a racial slur,” said the letter, which was circulated by Senator Maria Cantwell, Democrat of Washington, and endorsed by Senator Harry Reid, Democrat of Nevada, the majority leader. “We urge the N.F.L. to formally support a name change for the Washington football team.”
Here's what Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid had to say on the matter.
“I have 22 tribal organizations in Nevada,” Reid said. “They are not mascots. They are human beings. And this term Redskins is offensive to them.”
It's going to be interesting to see how this turns out.
Thoughts on the UND Football team getting run out of the building 55-17 by the Montana Griz. Vikings defense looks brutal today as well. Is it time for a change? Does UND football need to fire the head coach? UND nation is not happy today after UND's loss last night.
“@UNDfootball: Watch the highlights of UND's Saturday night loss to Montana" Was there a contractual obligation to tweet this?
— Josh DeMorrett (@joshdemorrett) September 15, 2013
English: A faceoff in the New York Islanders' first game of the 2009-10 NHL season, against the Pittsburgh Penguins. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
I don’t know about this? I think that when an athlete plays a contact sport they assume a certain amount of risk and that participant should have to sign a waiver to play.
The Globe and Mail — Like the NFL, the NHL had had its feet held to the fire in recent years over the manner in which it deals with the incidence and severity of head injuries, both their prevention and monitoring. The Boston University Centre for the Study of Traumatic Encephalopathy has found evidence of CTE (chronic traumatic encephalopathy) in the brains of several former players. CTE is a degenerative disease caused by repeated brain injuries.
Several high-profile players, including Sidney Crosby of the Pittsburgh Penguins, have missed large amounts of playing time with concussions and the league has rewritten rules and changed their interpretation in response.
Frank Brown, a spokesman for the NHL, said the league would not comment on the settlement.
The NFL, which generates an estimated $9-billion in annual revenue, will not be compelled to share internal documents that would indicate how much the league knew about concussions and when it knew. That is one reason why Paul Echlin, a Burlington, Ont.,-based sports-medicine specialist and an expert in the field of concussion research, said the NFL settlement serves the economic interests of each side without having much of an influence on the bigger picture.
In sports like racing, hockey, football, MMA, you’re playing in a sport that the next play could be your last. It’s not outside the realm of possibility that you could suffer a fatal injury and be killed. I do have a problem with football players turning around and suing the NFL, especially the ones that have made a lot of money to play a kids game. That doesn’t mean I don’t feel for their plight if they’re injured in a questionable play.
My dad sent me an account of a Gopher fan’s experience at Ralph Engelstad Arena this past weekend. Was I sitting in a different arena this past weekend?
Sioux Gophers and idiots on both sides.
I was at the Sioux/Gopher hockey games this weekend. The games were in Grand Forks and I was wearing Gopher gear on Friday night. Our tickets were also in the student section. We sat on the very far side of the student section. There were some Gopher fans in front of us who were clearly from the U. They were receiving a bit of heckling, and for the most part it was all in good fun, but there were a few weekend warriors” that went over the line from the UND side of things. They were invading some personal space and getting face to face with the kids from the U. Lots of you are a bitch. and you suck balls. Luckily for everybody involved where I was at, the Gopher kids stayed very chill about the
The UND kids clearly had had way too much to drink. The problem was they kept coming back trying to instigate more and more each time. It could have turned bad pretty easy. Check out the story below. On Saturday night we also had student section tickets. I was not looking forward to the abuse again.
The night before there was a very drunk kid behind us who fell into our seats a few times. We were standing each time, but my wife got kicked once. He’s lucky he did not catch the 4 year old girl with a foot. So we got lucky Saturday nights, while we were waiting in line to get into the game some kids from the U said they had normal tickets but wanted to sit in student section. I overheard this and we traded our 4 student tickets for their 4 normal tickets. It was a much better game Saturday and we did not have to get kicked by drunk 19 year olds. All around a better experience.
While this weekend I didn’t see a lot of this stuff going on, I have witnessed this type of behavior first hand in the past at venues like the Final Five at the Xcel Energy Center. Who uses this type of language when talking to another fan from a different team in front of young children? These people should have their mouths washed out with soap. That does cross the line of what is considered acceptable behavior at a sporting event. If I brought my two year old daughter to the game I don’t want her to have to listen to this kind of vile stuff. Just because you’re a college student doesn’t give you the right to act like an ass. There is no birthright to sit in that seat at the arena; if you can’t behave, I am sure the REA management can sell that prime seat to someone will be able to conduct themselves in an acceptable manner.
Not to pick on the college students there are many examples of adult fans, both Sioux and Gopher fans, getting out of hand and acting like imbeciles as well. I heard from a friend that a female Gopher fan who happened to be pregnant was heckled and jostled at the arena this past weekend. Who the heck does that kind of a thing? Imagine your girlfriend, wife or mother having this happen to them.
In yesterday’s Grand Forks Herald there was a letter to the editor in which a person described an experience where someone dumped a beer on a Gopher fan’s head from the upper deck. That kind of behavior is unacceptable and only a moron would defend behavior like this. People like this are going to ruin it for the rest of us that like to enjoy a beer without having the game ruined by drunk, belligerent idiots. I can foresee a time where the REA might ban beer sales to college students and or everyone.
These types of incidents do not paint a positive picture of Grand Forks, ND, the University of North Dakota, the University of Minnesota or the WCHA. As fans collectively we must behave better, we don’t want to look like a bunch of knuckle-dragging Neanderthals.
I know, call me old-fashioned, but some of the stuff that happened this past weekend seems to be borderline criminal or at least anti-social behavior and should be deemed as inappropriate and unacceptable. None of us should have to be a witness to this type of crap. To top off the weekend, we had an incident between two fans that could be classified as felonious with one person ending up in the ICU wing of Altru Hospital. There is nothing about this series that should lead any of us to start throwing punches at each other.
I am as pro-Fighting Sioux hockey as they come: I am all for a loud arena and an intimidating atmosphere, but some of this stuff is atrocious behavior and unfit for television. My boss who is new to the area went to a Sioux hockey game for the first time and I am sure she was impressed with the F’ the Gophers cheer, way to go UND. Remember there is friendly acceptable back and forth banter and then there is crossing the line. I also have friends that are Gopher fans, and some of them won’t even come up to Grand Forks anymore based on the type of treatment they have received from our fans.
I have to wonder if it is time for college hockey to institute a fan code of conduct for its fans like some NFL teams have. Eventually the University of North Dakota is going to have to address the behaviors of its fans at the REA.
Fan code of conduct
“The National Football League and its teams are committed to creating a safe, comfortable, and enjoyable experience for all fans, both in the stadium and in the parking lot. We want all fans attending our games to enjoy the experience in a responsible fashion. When attending a game, you are required to refrain from the following behaviors:
» Behavior that is unruly, disruptive, or illegal in nature.
» Intoxication or other signs of alcohol impairment that results in irresponsible behavior.
» Foul or abusive language or obscene gestures.
» Interference with the progress of the game (including throwing objects onto the field).
» Failing to follow instructions of stadium personnel.
» Verbal or physical harassment of opposing team fans.
“Event patrons are responsible for their conduct as well as the conduct of their guests and/or persons occupying their seats. Stadium staff will promptly intervene to support an environment where event patrons, their guests, and other fans can enjoy the event free from the above behavior. Event patrons and guests who violate these provisions will be subject to ejection without refund and loss of ticket privileges for future games.”
Like another hockey fan suggested from DU, I like the NFL fan code of conduct policy and I am all for this if being enacted at REA. If you’re an unruly fan and you can’t act in an acceptable manner, your ticket should be taken from you and you will no longer be allowed to be able to attend events in the arena. Attending college hockey is a privilege, not a right. If you can’t act like a member of the human race, do not bother coming to the arena. Someone else will gladly pay a handsome fee for that ticket and act in a respectful manner in your place.
Image via WikipediaFormer Fighting Sioux tight end Jim Kleinsasser weighs in on the Fighting Sioux logo issue. Like I have said in the past, as soon as today's meeting is over between the NCAA and the North Dakota delegation I think we will see a move away from the Fighting Sioux logo because UND can not jeporidize their membership in the Big Sky Conference.
Minnesota Vikings tight end and former University of North Dakota standout Jim Kleinsasser has been keeping up with the ongoing debate that has been swirling around the campus he once roamed, and though he was always proud of the nickname, the 1998 team captain stated that it might be time to turn the page.
“It’s sad to see it go and I wish it wasn’t,” said Kleinsasser regarding his alma mater’s nickname. “But if it’s going to keep us out of the Big Sky, then we just have to move on and go with it.”
