View My Seats

At the Intersection of Sports and Culture

Photo Credit for Header: Alex Foucre-Stimes

Nittany Lyings?

by

As a writer, I am really not qualified to editorialize on the recent allegations surfacing about the Penn State football program and former longtime defensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky. But as a human being, I, like most people, am more than equipped to share my sincere and complete disgust over these reported, and corroborated, acts of repeated sexual assault and violence towards minors. At this point, my only hope is that the victims of these alleged crimes can one day find peace and safety.

Here are some writers/bloggers/former Penn State football players who can all offer much more insight and context to what has become perhaps the saddest most salacious story to ever hit college athletics if not sports in general.*

First, from Spencer Hall, he of @edsbs twitter fame, comes what I believe to be the comprehensive expression of the sadness and genuine anger we are all feeling right now. There are simply no real words to describe the types of emotions these allegations bring to the surface.

Next comes a simple, yet powerful statement from Susan Orlean of The New Yorker, who encapsulates the mesmirizing allure of big time college football and how certain programs can effectively shield themselves from unwanted attention and scrutiny. Did Penn St. and JoePa effectively cover up the crimes Sandusky was committing simply to protect the football program? It’s way too early to tell who exactly is complicit in this mess of situation but one thing is for sure, the legacy of Joe Paterno will forever be tarnished.

Finally, former PSU linebacker, and now radio host, LaVar Arrington shares his dismay and surprise upon hearing such atrocious things about a man, Sandusky, who mentored are cared for the player while in Happy Valley. The fact that this news and information comes as such a shock to the players** who spent such a considerable amount of time with the former d-coordinator, and onetime heir to the Nittany Lion throne, makes this story even scarier and only heightens peoples awareness/suspicions of sexual predators living amongst us.

In the end, more will be written and there will be time for greater reflection. Right now, the details of this story are too sordid to totally comprehend as most of continue to shake our heads at the thought of such evil existing in this world.

*Drew Magary over at Deadspin believes that as of now, the PSU/Sandusky scandal still ranks second to OJ but that could all change depending on what other information, especially if it involves JoePa, is released/exposed over these next few days/weeks/months.

**Matt Millen, another former PSU linebacker now ESPN analyst, literally broke down and started crying this morning in front of a live national audience.

view from Northwestern/Penn St soccer courtesy of @PSUwomenssoccer

Quick Snaps: NFL Week 9

by

Before getting into the Week 9 recap, a quick thanks to Connecticut Light & Power for restoring my electricity Sunday morning just in time for a full slate of NFL games. It was a long week living without power, but I suppose it’s something we in the Northeast are all going to have to get used to now that New England is turning into the Pacific Northwest.

Quick Snaps

Giants 24 Patriots 20 – What is about the #85 for the Giants when they play against the Patriots? First David Tyree saves the day in Super Bowl XLII now Jake Ballard, a tight end unaccustomed to game breaking plays, makes two huge catches on the final drive, including the game winning touchdown. Kudos also to Eli Manning who should be allowed to throw off his back foot so long as he continues to make the kinda plays he did Sunday in Foxboro. It doesn’t look like it is going to get an easier for New England who now travel down to MetLife Stadium next weekend to take on the division leading New York Jets.

Dolphins 31 Chiefs 3 – Congrats to Miami on their first win of the season and for losing valuable ground in the “Suck for Luck” campaign. I had a sneaking suspicion this was going to happen as soon as I took KC in my suicide pool. Maybe the Chiefs are one of those teams – along with the Redskins – that should look into trading for Peyton Manning this offseason if Indy ends up with the top pick and takes Andrew Luck. I’m not sold on Matt Cassel either, but still appreciate his work during the Brady-less Patriots season of 2008.

Falcons 31 Colts 7 – So let me get this straight. Atlanta rookie WR Julio Jones only caught 3 passes Sunday yet somehow gained 131 yards and scored 2 touchdowns. That’s the sort of performance that his alma-mater Alabama could have used Saturday night against LSU. Speaking of the “Game of the Century”, I really wish Tigers coach Les Miles wore these vintage sneaks during the game. Bayou Bengals probably would have scored an extra field goal if he had.

Saints 27 Buccaneers 16 – Josh Freeman is one of the players that everyone says is going to be a star in this league for a very long time yet whenever I sit down to watch him play he usually looks like a very pedestrian quarterback. I was expecting a bit more Sunday against a previously porous New Orleans defense.

49ers 19 Redskins 11 – When the Jets/Bills turned into a laugher, I switched over to Fox and watched the final 10 minutes of this game and boy, Washington has easily one of the worst offenses in the league. I understand they are injured and don’t really have a reliable quarterback but you would still think Shanahan could conjure up a little more magic. Or maybe the SF defense is just that good. One of the biggest games of Week 10 will be when the NY Giants visit Candlestick to take on the 7-1 Niners. This game is going to bring back such found memories of Mark Bavaro, Leonard Marshall, Tom Rathman, and John Taylor – not to mention Joe Montana, Roger Craig, Jerry Rice, Phil Simms, and LT.

Packers 45 Chargers 38 – The most shocking thing about this game wasn’t the final score but rather that it was played in the rain. I thought that never happened in San Diego. At least that’s what Ron Burgundy always told me.

Broncos 38 Raiders 24 – And while most are going to focus on either the Raiders falling to 0-2 with Carson Palmer OR Tim Tebow bringing an end to the very humorous yet somehow inappropriate > Tebow, maybe what everyone should be talking about is how with this win the Denver Broncos are now unbelievably only a game out of 1st place in the AFC West.

Cardinals 19 Rams 13 – Does this mean Arizona QB John Skelton gets to keep his job for at least one more week? Also, the Cardinals should wear those black jerseys for every home game.

Texans 30 Browns 12 – So much for a Texas homecoming for former Longhorns QB and now Browns signal caller Colt McCoy. When you’re the former face of one of the most recognizable college football programs in a city, Austin, known for its music, food, and nightlife, it’s tough to imagine your life getting any better especially when you now spend your afternoons on the shores of Lake Erie. (No offense to the Great Lakes. I love the Great Lakes. In fact if I had to rank my favorites Great Lakes I would go: Ontario, Michigan, Superior, Erie, and Huron.)

view from Heinz Field courtesy of @GrantGurtin

If Gambling Were Legal: NFL Week 9

by

Atlanta (-7) over INDIANAPOLIS –  If the Colts were to trade away Peyton Manning this offseason and start fresh with Andrew Luck, what teams would be interested in acquiring the services of a 35 year old veteran QB with a cronic neck issue? Early favorites include Redskins, Browns, and – gulp- Broncos.

Tampa Bay (+8) over NEW ORLEANS – If I hear one more person in Connecticut comparing Snowtober to Hurricane Katrina I’m going to drive my Volvo wagon into their gazebo and let my two black labs take a crap on the front lawn. (Note: I don’t own two black labs or a Volvo wagon but I think you get my point.)

HOUSTON (-11) over Cleveland – The Texans burned me 4 years ago when I took them in week 1 of my suicide pool. Which is why I tremble like a leaf at the thought of a Browns upset in Houston this weekend.

BUFFALO (-2) over NY Jets – Is Ryan Fitzpatrick really worth all this money? I guess it’s nice that the Bills now have a franchise quarterback in place for the next 5 season. That hasn’t happened in Buffalo since the days of Jim Kelly and Frank Reich. For the Jets, why are NY fans so upset at Joe Namath for calling Rex Ryan “fat”? Broadway Joe has always been a straight shooter and I’m sure Rex would be the first to tell you that he can afford to drop a few lbs. But the Jets head coach also seems like the kind of guy who doesn’t really give a crap what other people think, including Namath, so don’t look for his appearance on the sidelines to shift all that much over the next couple of weeks.

KANSAS CITY (-4) over Miami – One of the greatest single revelations from Ungaurded, the Chris Herren documentary on ESPN, was hearing about all the support he received from teammates during his rookie season with the Denver Nuggets. On the BS Report with Bill Simmons, Herren talked about how one teammate in particular, George McCloud, was incredibly involved in keeping the troubled guard clean. He told the story about how on a night in Miami, McCloud found Herren essentially passed out in a South Beach strip club and proceeded to drag him by the scruff of his neck back to the hotel. That’s the kind of leadership that Herren could have used when he bottomed out playing in places like Tehran, Iran.

WASHINGTON (+3.5) over San Francisco  – Upset Special!!!! Upset Special!!! And because I have nothing more to say about this particular game, let’s all watch Washington Capitals star forward Alex Ovechkin drop a f-bomb on head coach Bruce Boudreau during the 3 period of a recent game vs the Anaheim Ducks.

DALLAS (-11.5) over Seattle – Funny how Jessica Simpson and Tony Romo’s wife Candace are both pregnant because as you know, the pop star(?) and Cowboy QB were once an item. I’m not trying to imply anything other than sometimes competition works in strange strange ways.

OAKLAND (-8) over Denver – Tim Tebow is the most polarizing public figure since Charles Foster Kane. The latest > Tebow ESPN controversy, perpetuated by Deadspin, is just the most recent in a long line of Tebow-centric gags. I’m still waiting for SNL to memorialize the Broncos QB in a game show sketch pitting him against Mother Teresa, Gandhi, and George Bailey.

TENNESSEE (-3) over Cincinnati – It could be that we will look back at the end of the regular season and say that this was the game that determined the final playoff spot in the AFC. Shocking, I know.

St. Louis (+2) over ARIZONA – I wouldn’t watch this game even if I were a Fordham University graduate.

NY Giants (+9) over NEW ENGLAND – What’s the over/under on number of times during the Fox broadcast that Joe Buck and Troy Aikman reference Super Bowl XLII: 25, 35, or 100?

Green Bay (-5.5) over SAN DIEGO – How dare people continue to blame Philip Rivers’ recent poor play on his 6 kids. Any parent knows that it is much easier playing zone than man-to-man.

PITTSBURGH (-3) over Baltimore – For fantasy purposes, I would really appreciate it if Steelers coach Mike Tomlin told us before 12pm Sunday whether or not he plans to have Ben Roethlisberger throw the ball 50 times again like last week against the Patriots.

Chicago (+8.5) over PHILADELPHIA – When the Eagles and Bears meet Monday night how can you not think about the Fog Bowl in 1988? For me it brings back such fond memories of Randall Cunningham and Buddy Ryan. Too bad this game is being played in Philly and not Connecticut where, due to all the power outages, there is enough wood smoke and emergency generator emissions to create a low lying brown haze.

Last Week 5-8 (Overall 61-55)

view from Chestnut Hill courtesy of @RichAberman

 

 

Unguarded But Not Untouchable

by

After watching Unguarded I felt like I should have known more about Chris Herren before sitting down to watch the ESPN Films documentary. After all, Fall River isn’t too far away from New Hampshire and he did only graduate from Durfee 3 years before my senior year of high school. If Al Gore had invented the internet back in 1994 I would have been able to follow his meteoric rise and humiliating descent with a bit more regularity. But I rarely read the Boston Globe and wasn’t ever invited to travel on an AAU basketball team with the likes of Scoonie Penn, Wayne Turner, and the Curley brothers.

I first remember hearing the name Chris Herren when he started his amazing run at Fresno St. Back then, the Bulldogs were featured quite prominently on ESPN2 primarily because of their famous coach Jerry Tarkanian and also because the WAC monopolized the 12am tipoff like they worked for the power company. Tark’s Fresno State teams always felt like they had a little Running Rebel in them, impart because their star guard Chris Herren had tattoos before Chris Anderson and bleach blond hair before Eminem.

I can remember talk of Herren being a high draft pick but that there also being concerns of baggage related to earlier run-ins with the law and drugs. When he was traded to the Celtics in 2000 it barely registered with me but mostly because Boston was in the midst of the Rick Pitino years and as we can all remember “Larry Bird is not walking through that door”. And then, more trouble and drugs and eventually Herren moved his game overseas and became somewhat of a footnote or a cautionary tale on the price of small town fame and addiction. It wasn’t until watching Unguarded that Chris Herren’s life came in to focus and I can now truly appreciate his story.

A few other quick observations from Unguarded:

1) Who knew scoring drugs was so easy? It’s one of the scarier realizations in the entire film. If you want to catch a fix, the dope is going to find you. Some of us would probably end up looking like Larry David in Curb Your Enthusiasm when he buys some “medicinal” marijuana for his father who is suffering from glaucoma. But the way Herren describes the process makes it seem like such a simple endeavor.

2) Antonio McDyess and Nick Van Exel, two of Herren’s teammates during his rookie season with the Denver Nuggets, were legit team leaders. I always thought Van Exel was a hothead and was therefore quite surprised to hear Herren describe how these two basketball veterans lived good, clean lives off the court so as not to tempt their addiction addled rookie point guard. Couldn’t see Kenyon Martin or Carmelo Anthony doing this today.

3) Chris Herren is an impressive public speaker. He has a resounding presence and credibility when he stands before a group of kids and recovering addicts. I would not be surprised to hear or see his career as a public speaker/coach take off after more and more people watch this documentary.

Finally, as Herren said, being a recovering addict is a day to day proposition. By the end of the documentary, as he was staring into the bathroom mirror, I got the sense that it would much easier for him to fall back into a life of drugs than it is for him to stay sober. I hope Chris Herren keeps clean and continues to share his message with others. It’s an important story, one that we can all learn from and appreciate.

view from Hinkle Fieldhouse courtesy of @shmos 

 

Quick Snaps: NFL Week 8

by

When people go on and on about climate change, melting ice caps, and displaced polar bears, they always seems to focus on the doom and gloom that goes along with the end of human existence but fail to focus on all the good stuff like more snow days for kids, and tons of fresh powder at the New England ski resorts. So while I could be upset about the fact that the power company has yet to respond to my multiple phone calls indicating a downed line laying across the driveway, instead I’ll choose to focus on how great it was that the electricity stayed on long enough Saturday night into Sunday morning to watch the end of the USC/Stanford* football game. In the future, I’ll be fine with “evolving” weather patterns so long as it doesn’t interfere with my sports consumption.

*A few observations about this 3OT instant classic in the Pac12. 1) Some people are saying that Andrew Luck did not improve his draft stock with his performance against the Trojans. But when you were already the presumed top pick in the 2012 draft, isn’t it impossible to improve your position? 2) Matt Barkley is going to be a very good NFL quarterback someday. 3) USC defensive coordinator Monte Kiffin looks like the kind of guy who enjoys wearing boat shoes. I can totally see him sitting up in the coaches booth wearing a nice new pair of Sperry’s just wishing he were on a boat off the Florida Keys fishing for blue marlin.

Quick Snaps

Rams 31 Saints 21 – Just look what throwback uniforms will do for you. St. Louis decides to don the old school Eric Dickerson yellow and royal blues and ends up putting an absolute hurting on Drew Brees, Sean Payton, and the rest of the New Orleans Saints. I would also like to thank Steven Jackson for single handedly ending any chance I had at winning my weekly fantasy matchup. Finally, a quick congrats to David Freese, Albert Pujols, Tony La Russa, and all the St. Louis Cardinals. Game 6 of the 2011 World Series was one of the most memorable baseball games in recent memory, perhaps even surpassing the drama of 1986 with Mookie and Buckner.

Ravens 30 Cardinals 27 – I wasn’t able to watch the 1pm games, but tried to follow along on my phone as best I could. Needless to say, when Baltimore trailed Arizona by a score of 24-3 I figured it spelled the end of my 2011 gambling season. Luckily, Ray Rice decided to place the team on his broad shoulders and preserved my spot in our weekly suicide pool.

Steelers 25 Patriots 17 – My knee jerk reaction is that New England is months, if not 5 defensive backs, away from being able to compete for a Super Bowl. The Patriots haven’t had a genuine pass rusher since Willie McGinest and BB’s “bend but not break” defensive scheme allows for a ton of yards. You can’t outscore your opponent when don’t control the time of possession.

Lions 45 Broncos 10 – For the record, I still believe “tebowing” is here to stay. Also, do you think there is silent majority within the Denver organization that secretly wants Tim Tebow to fail? Couldn’t you see John Elway just hoping the Broncos are bad enough this season to be in position to draft Luck, Barkley, or Landry Jones?

view from Lincoln Financial Field courtesy of @Danie_stars