Category Archives: Sports news

entertainment news, legal news, national news, Sports news

O.J. returns — sort of — to the spotlight

OJ

Orenthal James Simpson might be getting out of prison soon.

The Nevada parole board has granted Simpson parole for some of the crimes for which he was sentenced to prison five years ago. He’s going to remain behind bars, though, until he becomes eligible to be paroled for the rest of the crimes.

So, what will he do once he walks out of the slammer?

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/07/31/oj-simpson-parole/2603497/

Here’s a thought: He ought to seek to repay the African-American community that cheered his acquittal in 1995 for the double murder of his former wife and her friend.

Simpson went to prison on charges stemming from an altercation he had in Nevada over some sports memorabilia. I don’t begrudge his becoming eligible for release on those charges.

It’s the double murder and his acquittal of those charges that continue to eat at many millions of Americans.

The jury’s finding of “not guilty” was the result of brilliant defense work by Simpson’s legal team led by the late Johnnie Cochran. That the former football star walked on those charges infuriated most Americans … but cheered a significant minority of Americans, namely, African-Americans who were glad to see Simpson remain free.

More than 20 years later, it remains a fair question to ask: Why cheer this man’s acquittal only on the basis that he, too, is black?

For his entire adult life, there can be no finding of evidence that O.J. Simpson gave back to the community from which he emerged to attain athletic stardom and, to a lesser degree, a level of celebrity as a film actor.

Indeed, I saw something just this weekend about Simpson wanting — get ready for this one — to date Kris Jenner, the former wife of the late Robert Kardashian, another member of Simpson’s superstar legal team.

Eventually, Simpson will walk out of prison. He’ll be free to do whatever he wants — as long as he doesn’t violate the terms of his parole.

He ought to start his road back by giving something to the community that cheered him when — in my view — a jury let him get away with murder.

Then again, he did once vow to look for “the real killers” of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman. Is that pledge still on the table?

 

national news, political news, Sports news

As Dandy Don would say: Turn out the lights, Bernie

Sen. Bernie Sanders, of Vermont,, left, and Hillary Rodham Clinton laugh during the CNN Democratic presidential debate, Tuesday, Oct. 13, 2015, in Las Vegas. (AP Photo/John Locher)

The late Don Meredith had a couple of careers.

The first one was as a football player; he was a pretty good quarterback for the Dallas Cowboys.

The second one was as a football announcer, where he became the folksy voice of “Monday Night Football.” Dandy Don — the pride of Mount Vernon, Texas — was fond of telling audiences during a blowout contest that it was time to “turn out the lights, the party’s over.”

So it is, apparently, with the campaign of Sen. Bernie Sanders.

The party’s over, Bern.

http://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/276935-team-clinton-to-sanders-its-over

Sanders got thumped Tuesday in the New York Democratic presidential primary by Hillary Rodham Clinton.

She took a giant step toward securing enough pledged and super delegates to become her party’s next presidential nominee.

Sanders and his team vow to fight on.

The question, though, is this: to what end?

The Democratic campaign has gotten testy in recent weeks. Clinton and Sanders have exchanged angry accusations. Sanders’ exit from the contest might not be graceful.

Then again, perhaps he could stay the course if only to keep Clinton sharp as she hones her strategy for the upcoming fall campaign against whoever the Republican Party nominates to run against her.

After the thrashing he took from Clinton, though, Sen. Sanders must be realizing his path to the nomination now has more obstacles than he can possibly remove in time for the convention.

It’s lights out, Bernie.

 

Sports news

Meet me in St. Louis …

stlouis-landmark-480x330

It took me a few minutes to digest this little bit of trivia.

Here goes …

The unluckiest and most disrespected professional sports fans in America might live in St. Louis, Mo. You might ask: Why is that?

Consider these tidbits.

The city once was home to the St. Louis (football) Cardinals, which then moved to the Phoenix area in 1987, where they’ve become the Arizona Cardinals.

Then the Los Angeles Rams decided to move to St. Louis in 1994. Beginning this season, though, the Rams are moving back to LA, leaving St. Louis — once again — without an NFL team. That’s a shame. I mean, come on! The St. Louis Rams won a Super Bowl!

Where do you think the Atlanta Hawks used to be play pro basketball in the National Basketball Association? Yep. You guessed it. St. Louis, man. The St. Louis Hawks moved to Atlanta in 1968.

Let’s go way back, shall we? The Browns used to play Major League Baseball in St. Louis. They moved to Baltimore in 1954 to become the Baltimore Orioles.

OK, so it’s not all gloomy for some St. Louis sports fans.

The St. Louis Cardinals have played big-league baseball since the beginning of time and the Cards’ fan base there is as loyal as any in the MLB.

The St. Louis Blues were among six franchises added to the National Hockey League in 1968 and they don’t appear to be headed anywhere.

I’m willing to bet real American money as well that if the NFL wants to put yet another team in St. Louis that the city leaders likely will jump at the opportunity.

If I were among them, though, I’d need some assurance that their fans’ hearts won’t be broken yet again.

And that, sports fans, is my contribution for the day to your glossary of useless information.

local news, Sports news

AA baseball may come to Amarillo … and that’s a bad thing?

baseball

I’ll admit to sitting in the peanut gallery these days while events swirl around Amarillo City Hall.

Thus, I am not privy to many of the details to all that is happening in our city in transition.

The news out of San Antonio, though, has piqued my curiosity about the future of Amarillo’s pending downtown project. I refer, of course, to the multipurpose event venue, aka the MPEV and/or The Ballpark.

I understand the San Antonio Missions are departing that city, which is going to welcome a little better grade of minor-league baseball. The Missions play AA ball; San Antonio is recruiting a AAA team to relocate to South Texas.

Now, as I’ve read in the local media, Amarillo is the only place the Missions are considering as a new home. Amarillo Mayor Paul Harpole has said something about the “stars lining up” to lure the Missions here.

The prize being dangled in front of that franchise? The prospect of the team playing in a shiny new ballpark downtown, next to City Hall, across the street from a new convention hotel, and just blocks from Polk Street, which is being reconfigured into an urban entertainment district.

The price tag on the MPEV/ballpark has escalated past the $32 million price tag hung on it when it went to the voters this past May in a non-binding citywide referendum. Voters said “yes” to the MPEV and plans are proceeding to develop a firm design and cost for the project.

Yet I keep reading on social media and hearing some gripes around town about the deal.

I’m trying to understand why the lure of a minor-league baseball franchise affiliated with a Major League Baseball organization is somehow a bad thing for Amarillo.

The Thunderheads — the independent team formerly based exclusively in Amarillo — is going to play half of its home games this season here and in Grand Prairie. The games they’ll play in Amarillo will take place at the rat hole/dump formerly known as the Dilla Villa next to the Tri-State Fairgrounds.

The way I see it, if the city can maneuver itself into building a first-class baseball venue downtown and then link it to an arrangement with a AA franchise that will play some good old-fashioned hardball, then it looks to me as though the city has scored a significant victory.

So, again I ask: Why is that a bad thing?

 

local news, Sports news

Parents have the real ‘skin in the game’

20060912-25

Let’s chat some more about that proposed West Texas A&M University football stadium that has been endorsed by a fraction of the student body at the Canyon campus.

Some social media discussion centers on whether Moms and Dads are actually footing the bill for the stadium, which WT officials say will be paid for partially with student fees.

The plan is to assess an additional $152 per-semester fee for students enrolling at WT. School brass said that WT will use reserve funds that have accrued as well to help with the cost.

But who actually pays the money?

Yep, it’s Mom and Dad.

I don’t have a dog in this particular fight. My sons graduated from college in 1994 and 1995. Our older son graduated from Sam Houston State University, the younger son from the Art Institute of Dallas. We moved to Amarillo from Beaumont in January 1995, so our college obligation was all but completed by the time we got here.

I do recall, though, discussing student fees with both of our sons as they were working their way toward obtaining their degrees.

So, is it possible, then, that WT students could have had similar discussions with their parents as this football stadium idea got kicked around at the campus?

This looks to me like a fair and equitable way to help finance construction of an athletic facility at WT.

Furthermore, it shouldn’t come as a surprise. WT President J. Pat O’Brien — who’s retiring at the end of the current academic year — laid out a fairly ambitious concept near the beginning of his tenure at WT to update the athletic infrastructure. The aim, I recall him saying, was to create a recruitment tool to lure students to WT.

Enrollment has grown. The campus has prospered.

The parents of the students currently enrolled at WT have gotten a good return on their investment.

local news, Sports news

WT student body speaks: Let’s build it

wt stadium

Can’t we just once settle something without discussing the validity of the vote?

West Texas A&M University’s student body — or a small fraction of it — has voted narrowly to endorse the construction of a new on-campus football stadium.

WT enrolls about 9,000 students; of that total, fewer than 1,600 of them cast ballots on the idea. What’s more, it passed by 68 votes. Hardly a smashing mandate.

Hey, there’s no rule that said it had to pass by a larger margin among a larger pool of voters. Correct?

One of the issues appears to be the timing of the construction and the notion that current students will be exempt from the proposed $152 per-semester fee increase that will be levied on future students to help pay for construction of the unnamed stadium that’s estimated to cost about $26 million.

No worries, says retiring WT President J.  Pat O’Brien. The school will use reserve funds that comprise fees contributed by current WT students. Thus, he said, the current student body has “skin in the game.”

I want to applaud the university for asking the students to decide whether to support this idea. It’s going to be their financial burden to bear and it is only right to ensure that the school has the support of the student body before proceeding with construction.

I also lament the lack of turnout among the student body. I get that students are busy. They have lots on their minds, particularly the upperclassmen and women who are planning their post-university lives.

However, the size of the turnout really doesn’t matter. We elect presidents of the United States of America often with barely more than half of those who are eligible to vote.

As for whether today’s student body has “skin in the game,” that’s an unavoidable circumstance. Today’s students cannot be expected to hang around longer than they need to just to pay for a major construction project.

My hope now is that the Texas A&M University System Board of Regents signs off on the project and that the school can build a stadium that will make the students proud.

 

business news, local news, Sports news

MPEV remains worth the city’s investment

MPEV

This is a bit of a non-surprise to many Amarillo residents.

The price of the proposed downtown multipurpose event venue/ballpark has come in a bit greater than originally thought.

Is it cause to toss the idea into the crapper? Not even close.

I’ll admit that I didn’t quite buy into the notion that the MPEV would cost more than the $32 million price tag attached to the non-binding referendum that voters approved in November 2015. I had some faith that the cost would hold up. It hasn’t, according to consultants who have delivered a $48.4 million price tag to the City Council to consider.

What’s the city going to do to cover the cost?

That is the $48.4 million question that the council has asked the Local Government Corp. to figure out. The LGC has received the directive and plans to deliver a report in April to the council.

The increased cost presumes that the city will hook up with a Double-A minor-league baseball team affiliated with a major league franchise.

Suppose the city does land an affiliated minor-league team for the city. Suppose as well that the city builds the MPEV for $48.4 million. Then let’s suppose what might occur if the baseball team fills up the MPEV with thousands of baseball fans every day or night.

Mayor Paul Harpole believes — and I think he’s correct — that the boost in sales tax revenue likely could more than offset any potential property tax increase that residents would have to bear.

“That regional money that comes into our city through sales tax has helped us keep property tax down,” said Harpole. “It’s important that we keep that growth as long as we can, but it has to make economic sense. It has to be something where it doesn’t put the city in too much debt. So we’ll look at that and see what it is and get an answer back and see what we’re going to do.”

Let’s not look askance at the job growth and economic impact created by the MPEV. The consultant that made the report to the City Council, Brailsford and Dunleavy, projects an estimated 341 permanent jobs associated with the MPEV and about $25 million pumped annually into the Amarillo economy.

Does the city issue certificates of obligation? Does it submit a bond issue to the voters, asking residents to approve it? Are there economic development grant funds available for the city to seek?

LGC officials and City Council members have committed to proceeding with exploring this issue thoroughly.

Count me as one Amarillo resident who maintains an abiding faith that the MPEV — even with its inflated cost — can bring a much greater economic return to the community than what it is likely to spend.

 

International news, national news, political news, Sports news

Obama still went to a ballgame …

NC_obama_baseball_07_mm_160322_12x5_1600

President Barack Obama has been second-guessed — big surprise there, right? — about his decision to attend a baseball game in Havana in the aftermath of the terror attacks in Brussels.

Republican presidential candidate John Kasich said if he was president, he would have packed up his gear and returned to D.C. immediately to take charge of the U.S. response.

That’s fine, governor. Except that you aren’t the president. The man who’s in the hot seat now says quite clearly that the terrorists’ aim is to disrupt the lives of everyone in the world — and he would have none of it. As he told ESPN: “The whole premise of terrorism is to try to disrupt people’s ordinary lives … it’s always a challenge when you have a terrorist attack anywhere in the world.”

Indeed, let’s look back at what President Bush said in the wake of the 9/11 attacks. Didn’t he say quite the same thing, that we should go about our daily lives without fear? Didn’t say something like, “Go shopping”?

Barack Obama offered the nation’s support to the Belgians who are reeling in the wake of this horrific attack. He has dispatched military and intelligence officials to assist and help coordinate the pursuit of the monsters who did this deed.

As has been noted here and elsewhere, the president of the United States is never disconnected from the world.

So what if he went to a ballgame?

I’m pretty sure the state-of-the-art intelligence apparatus we all pay for is on the job.

 

medical news, Sports news

‘Dr.’ Jerry Jones issues his diagnosis on CTE

jones

Jerry Jones engenders fairly strong emotions among those who follow professional football in the United States of America.

He bought a team in 1989 and then fired the only coach the team ever had, the iconic Tom Landry. Then he decided to forgo hiring a general manager and he took over the job himself. He made some comment at the time about getting involved in “everything, including washing jock straps.” (I know it’s not a precise quote, but it’s close enough.)

How have the Dallas Cowboys done since then? Well, they’ve won some and lost some. Yes, they have won three Super Bowls since Jones took over as owner. Still, the team, it’s safe to say, has fallen far short of the expectations its brash new owner set for it.

The word on Jones ever since he bought the team, though, is that he’s not necessarily a good “football guy.” Brilliant businessman, sure.

Now he’s popping off about the effect of the sport in which he participates on a brain disorder called chronic traumatic encephalopathy.

The good “doctor” says there’s no connection between gigantic men colliding full-force into other men, knocking them senseless and then being afflicted with CTE. He calls assertions linking football to CTE “absurd.”

Jerry Jones needs to have his own head examined.

He said the National Football League lacks sufficient data to suggest the existence between CTE and the collisions that occur on the football field.

I do believe Jones is seriously — and tragically — mistaken.

Thus, I should recommend that Jones watch a brilliant PBS documentary that got the nation’s attention a couple of years ago. “Frontline” broadcast “League of Denial” that chronicles a gripping series of cases involving men whose lives were shattered by CTE.

What did these men have in common? Every one of them played competitive American football.

“Frontline” peeled the skin off a disorder that has shattered many lives. Insufficient data? It’s out there, Jerry. Really.

The NFL acknowledges it. So should the owner of the Dallas Cowboys.

 

entertainment news, legal news, media news, national news, Sports news

Hulkster gets what? $115 million?

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Hulk Hogan is no Erin Andrews.

Yet the two celebrities share something in common. They’ve both received mammoth jury awards after they sued for invasion of privacy.

Andrews’ award has been universally hailed after a jury granted her $55 million in a suit against a hotel chain; she was video recorded in the nude in her hotel room. The ESPN reporter was embarrassed to tears during the trial over the incident — in which the video went viral.

Hogan’s case is quite a bit different.

Gawker.com video recorded Hogan — the well-known former professional wrestler — having sex with his best friend’s wife. That video, too, went viral. Hogan — whose real name is Terry Bollea — sued for invasion of privacy.

A St. Petersburg, Fla., jury today gave the Hulkster $115 million. More than twice the award Erin Andrews got!

I offered a view about Hogan’s suit in an earlier blog.

I backed his lawsuit because his case also seemed to be as legitimate as Andrews’.

However, I just cannot muster up the level of sympathy for the Hulkster as I can for Andrews. I mean, come on! The guy was engaging in some truly disgusting behavior when someone recorded him.

Maybe the St. Pete jury was trying to send some sort of message to would-be stalkers and gawkers. It is that even celebrity pro wrestlers have a level of privacy that shouldn’t be breached.

Whatever the case, I’m not going to cheer this verdict the way I did the earlier one.