HONOLULU, HI – Normally, Wednesday’s are angry days on MT,M courtesy of Angry Ward but today I’m here to let off some sports-related steam. The NFL is making my blood-pressure rise as if I had just eaten a package of hot dogs and washed them down with beer. Forget the NCAA hypocrisy that super-fan jgclancy has been known to lament – the NFL has that governing body beat by a wide margin. As the saying goes, “It starts at the top,” and the top banana is Commissioner Roger Goodell.
Absent since Ray Rice mistook his wife’s head for an Everlast speed bag, the commish needs to resurface amid all things Deflate-gate. The Man can levy a substantial fine for Marshawn Lynch’s unapproved and unofficial foot attire but can’t make a statement about the process and investigation relating to the amount of air in footballs used during the AFC championship game?!
I’m not asking for the owners’ millionaire to hand down a suspension to the Patriots franchise or Bill Belichik or Tom Brady or whomever… Just say some frogging thing to let the public know a come-uppance for New England’s cheaters is forthcoming. Waldo, the red and white stripe-clad character, was way easier to find then football’s chief executive who has turned into a caricature of himself.
We can’t say S—- Bowl because the NFL wants to get paid. Church fund-raisers using the Big Game trademark without expressed written consent is prohibited and punishable by law, provided the $5M fee is not forked over. The NFL can stick their roman numerals where the sun don’t shine.
The bye week’s hype leading up to the first Sunday in February isn’t normally worth a true football fan’s time and this year that time has been made teeth-grinding, chalkboard-scratching, unbearable since all anybody is talking about is Deflate-gate. I’m am done with it.
One other thing to gripe about is the NFL Pro Bowl and the NHL All-Star games. This is not to distinguish these games from what MLB and the NBA also peddle… The NFL All-Star game isn’t really all that when you have players falling over each other not to play in this game. Case and point, the eighth-alternate at QB, Andy Dalton, will be playing.
Further ridicule of these two games center around a fantasy-like draft to field opposing squads.
Thankfully, the NFL doesn’t have a skills competition but can it be far behind? We all know how gifted these players are on a game by game and season after season basis. I don’t need a slap shot velocity contest no more than I need a home run contest or a dunk contest (so passe) or any other ridiculous competition.
One thing the professional sports league’s have in common is the greed to sandwich the game around window-dressing on a winter weekend in hopes the masses will spend money hand over fist. If offered a free ticket/weekend to one of these spectacles, I would pass.
Here’s to hoping I’ll be in a better mood next week.
West Coast Craig, tomorrow.
