Category Archives: Sports news

Sports news

ESPN to honor Caitlyn Jenner … for what?

Bob Costas is a smart sports journalist who goes far beyond who gets the most hits, scores the most touchdowns or sinks the most three-point field goals.

He’s been known to offer opinions on a wide range of issues beyond the field of competition.

He often is spot on.

I think he’s on target with his assertion that ESPN’s plan to honor Caitlyn Jenner with a special courage award, named after the late tennis great Arthur Ashe, is an attempt to exploit Jenner and boost the network’s ratings.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/06/10/bob-costas-caitlyn-jenner-arthur-ashe_n_7555508.html

This likely will be the final thing I’ll say about Jenner, whose sex changed from man to woman. Jenner once was Bruce Jenner, Olympic decathlon champion who turned into a reality TV personality; he married Kris Kardashian and became the foil for his former wife and her daughters.

Then Bruce became Caitlyn.

I’m not sure about the “courage” it took to do such a thing. Jenner always has struck me as someone who craves publicity. She’s getting a ton of it now.

The Arthur Ashe Courage Award is named after the tennis great who died of AIDS complications in 1993. He announced to the world that had contracted HIV through a tainted blood transfusion. It broke the hearts of a sports nation that had admired him for his talent on the tennis court and his courtly, gentlemanly demeanor.

Caitlyn Jenner earning an award in memory of Arthur Ashe? It just doesn’t feel right.

There. I’m out.

 

Sports news

How odd? I don’t like horse-racing, but am thrilled today

Someone has to explain this one.

I’m not at all nuts about watching horses running around a track with a mini-man perched on the saddle.

However, I do excited when a horse wins the first two legs of the Triple Crown. And then I get really excited when the same horse wins the third one.

http://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/horseracingspecial/american-pharoah-becomes-1st-triple-crown-winner-in-37-years/ar-BBkMGCO

That was my state of mind this evening as I watched American Pharoah win the Triple Crown, becoming the first horse since 1978 (Affirmed) to accomplish the feat. It’s the longest stretch between Triple Crown winners in Triple Crown history.

Secretariat remains the gold standard for horse-racing excellence. What’s more, Secretariat won the 1973 Belmont Stakes by 31 lengths. Jockey Ron Turcotte ever laid a land on his steed. In fact, he was unaware of the distance between his mount and the next one until they turned down the stretch and Turcotte said he couldn’t hear any other horse sounds: hooves pounding or horses snorting.

This one was good. American Pharoah led from the gate and took it all the way home.

However, consider this: It comes from someone commenting on a friend’s Facebook post about which horse is the best in history. This fellow said Secretariat’s winning time in the Belmont Stakes would have put him 15 lengths ahead of American Pharoah.

Still, the newest Triple Crown winner joins some heady company.

Well done.

 

entertainment news, Sports news

It’s settled: IOC says Jenner keeps the gold

It didn’t take long for the International Olympic Committee to settle this issue.

The 1976 Olympic gold medal in the decathlon will remain awarded to Bruce Jenner, an American athlete who won the event in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.

https://celebrity.yahoo.com/blogs/celeb-news/international-olympic-committee-responds-to-petition-seeking-to-revoke-caitlyn-jenner-s-gold-medal-160628464.html

Responding to an online petition asking that the medal be revoked because Bruce Jenner is now Caitlin Jenner, the IOC said: “Bruce Jenner won his gold medal in the 1976 Olympic Games and there is no issue for the IOC.”

There you have it.

The petitioner is from Fort Worth. Jennifer Bradford said she is standing up for transgender rights.

My own view is that she’s standing up only for her own quest for publicity.

The IOC occasionally has had to deal with athletes whose gender has been questioned. There have been instances where female medal winners have been stripped of their medals because it was determined they possessed male DNA, giving them an advantage over their fellow female competitors.

That’s not even close to the issue here.

Bruce Jenner won the gold medal as a man. He’s now a woman.

Let’s move on to something else, shall we?

 

medical news, Sports news

End the Jenner gold medal idiocy

Can we please stop, cease, terminate this ridiculously idiotic notion launched by a Fort Worth woman to revoke the gold medal awarded to the winner of the 1976 Olympic decathlon?

Jennifer Bradford has launched an online petition that seeks revocation of the gold medal awarded to Bruce Jenner after he won the decathlon at the Montreal Olympic Games.

Why, you ask?

Bradford said she wants to support the “transgender community” because Bruce Jenner is now Caitlyn Jenner. Bruce the man has become Caitlyn the woman. The petition was posted to a website called change.org and Bradford is asking the International Olympic Committee to revoke the gold medal.

http://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/more-sports/online-petition-wants-ioc-to-revoke-jenners-gold-medal/ar-BBkFJDg

Give me a break. Pardon me while I mince no words.

This is about as stupid a notion as I can imagine.

Bruce Jenner was fully a man when he won the decathlon, becoming the “world’s greatest athlete.”

His transition to womanhood only has occurred with the past year or so — give or take.

The petitioner argues that the only way the petition would be invalid would be if it can be proved “that Bruce Jenner and Caitlyn Jenner are two entirely different people.”

Um, Ms. Bradford? I’ve got news for you. They are.

Now, please return to your anonymity and stop making a spectacle of yourself.

 

medical news, Sports news

Video is funny … and also tragic

This video popped up on YouTube.

The first time I saw it, I laughed out loud.

I’ve seen comedians impersonate Muhammad Ali. Billy Crystal’s perhaps is the most famous. But then I watched this brief snippet, featuring the late Jerry Quarry, a former heavyweight fighter — and a very good one at that.

So help me, I didn’t know Quarry had that kind of wit and charm.

Then my thoughts turned to what happened to Jerry Quarry. He became terribly disabled because of the profession he chose to pursue. Quarry won a lot of fights during his fighting days. He also lost some fights. And in all of them he took a lot of punishment. To the head. The result of that punishment resulted in Quarry’s death.

He suffered complications from something called dementia pugilistica. He was punch drunk. He suffered irreparable brain damage.

Another YouTube video, which is attached to the link shown on this blog, shows Quarry being inducted into the Boxing Hall of Fame. He didn’t understand the event where he was being honored. He needed help from his brother to dress, to feed himself, to do anything.

I once was a huge fan of boxing. I once couldn’t get enough of the Friday Night Fights. I cheered for Jerry Quarry and occasionally against him, such as when he fought Muhammad Ali twice — in 1970 and again in 1972.

The price that these men pay saddens me. Yes, I know they choose to do this for a living.

Seeing this video and knowing how it all ended for the man it features offers a serious lesson to anyone who wants to take up this line of work.

 

Sports news

Now, let's go for the Triple Crown

4 Comments

17preakness-master675

Hey, what’s going on here?

I usually don’t watch any of the Triple Crown legs until the Belmont Stakes comes up. And then it’s only if the same horse has won the Kentucky Derby and the Preakness Stakes.

So, what did I do today? I sat down with my wife and watched American Pharaoh win the Preakness.

What’s more, the horse won it going away … in the slop … in a downpour.

It was impressive.

Now I’m going to watch the Belmont Stakes for sure to see if this horse can become the first Triple Crown winner since 1978, when Affirmed beat another great horse, Alydar, in the sport’s greatest two-horse duel over the course of all three races.

I’m pulling hard for American Pharaoh to win the Belmont.

But if you want to see the sport’s greatest exhibition of equine dominance, take a look at this:

Sports news

Brady probe needs independent judge

1 Comment

Did I hear this correctly? National Football League Commissioner Roger Goodell — who administered the punishment against Tom Brady over the Deflate-gate matter — is now going to hear Brady’s appeal of the four-game suspension?

I am not going to defend the New England Patriots quarterback over this, but the NFL Players Association has a legitimate argument: Goodell should recuse himself and let an independent judge determine whether Brady’s four-game suspension stands.

http://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/nfl/with-tom-brady-appeal-ted-wells-could-be-defending-himself-again/ar-BBjMz4W

I’ve said all along the story is overblown. Perhaps the punishment is as well. The NFLPA says it is. Brady’s agent says so, too.

What’s even more interesting is that the report issued prior to the sanctions being leveled cleared the team and head coach Bill Belichick of any complicity in deflating the footballs prior to the AFC championship game — but then the league fined the Pats $1 million and took away two draft picks in year’s draft.

What’s up with that?

Brady, though, is getting hammered — hard — for his probable involvement in the football deflation.

Goodell should step aside in favor of an impartial judge who can look at this case without the bias that the commissioner has demonstrated already.

 

Sports news

Rice got two-game suspension; Brady gets four?

Let’s see if we can sort this out for just a moment.

The National Football League suspended former Baltimore Ravens running back Ray Rice for two games after a video showed him punching his then-fiancée — and now his wife — in the face, knocking her out cold in an Atlantic City, N.J. elevator. It then elevated the suspension to “indefinite” status, meaning he would be unable to play pro football in the NFL probably forever.

Rice then appealed his suspension and had it overturned by a federal court. The NFL sought to send a message that it wouldn’t tolerate domestic violence.

http://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/nfl/how-will-the-patriots-fare-without-tom-brady/ar-BBjFpZS

It’s the two-game initial suspension that got everyone up in arms. It wasn’t enough, they said.

Now we have New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady getting a four-game suspension. For what? An NFL report says he probably knew something about the deflating of footballs prior to last season’s AFC championship game, which the Pats won by 38 points. There’s been no proof that he did anything wrong. Just a lot of circumstantial stuff.

He’s out four games. Without pay.

The message here? I’m betting the NFL wants to say that it won’t tolerate cheating, so they’re going to make an example of an All-Universe athlete.

But have you noticed Brady’s public demeanor during all of this? He’s looked a bit smug, as if he’s not taking this very seriously.

As my late mother used to say when she scolded me, “Wipe that smirk off your face or I’ll wipe it off for you!”

My hunch is that the NFL is seeking to wipe Brady’s smug look off his face.

Mission accomplished? I think so.

 

Sports news

Non-story about footballs becomes … a story

Man, oh man. I’ve been all over the pea patch on this “Deflate-gate” story.

I’m still believing the story has been overblown, overhyped and oversold as a “scandal.” Now the National Football League has suspended superstar New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady for four games next season, fined the Pats a million bucks and taken away two draft choices as punishment …

… for something that “probably” happened.

The “probably” is that Brady might have known something was going on when someone deflated those footballs prior to the AFC championship game the Patriots won by 38 points against the Indianapolis Colts. The deflated footballs were easier to throw and catch, supposedly, as if it mattered in a game that the Patriots won in such convincing fashion.

http://espn.go.com/nfl/story/_/id/12867594/punishments-handed-tom-brady-new-england-patriots-deflategate

I could see fining Brady a lot of money. He can afford to pay whatever the league would levy against him. I can see the team paying a fine. Suspension? Loss of draft picks? I don’t know.

I get that the league is trying to dissuade future cheaters from doing something improper. It’s sending a message of some sort around the NFL.

The NFL report alleging Brady’s “likely” complicity in the deflating matter is full of qualifiers that make it seem at best circumstantial. If only the league could prove what it has alleged, then I could accept the punishment as delivered.

Then again, if only Tom Brady had been more forceful in his previous denials about the matter, then I could believe fully that he did nothing wrong.

Still, I’m left wondering how this story got so huge in the first place.

 

Sports news

Reading Tom Brady's body language

My wife isn’t a football fan, per se.

She doesn’t care so much about the details of the game, or even the men who play it.

However, she’s an astute reader of body language. She’s told me this about New England all-Universe quarterback Tom Brady, who’s been accused of having general knowledge that someone deflated those footballs prior to the Patriots’ game with the Indianapolis Colts.

“He looks like someone who was spoiled by his mother and has gotten away with everything he’s ever done,” she said. Does that mean Mrs. Brady actually spoiled little Tommy, or that my wife has inside knowledge of such? No. She said only that he looks like the type. “All he has to do is smile,” she said.

That was her takeaway from Brady’s appearance the other day in which he refused to answer questions about the deflated football story that has a lot of NFL fans in a tizzy these days. He looked “too smug,” she said.

https://www.bostonglobe.com/sports/2015/05/09/reality-not-looking-good-for-tom-brady-and-patriots/IGT3myWkYdZagI4FCzkHKJ/story.html

The rumor mill is churning out stuff about the National Football League getting ready to suspend Brady for at least part of the next football season. Some reports say he might have to sit the entire season out if NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell decides to drop the hammer.

I don’t particularly care one way or the other whether Brady sits or plays. I don’t think there’s that much of a story there about what Brady knew about the balls’ air pressure and when he knew it. I mean, the Patriots clobbered the Colts that day.

However, if my wife’s intuition is correct — and she is the very definition of “woman’s intuition” — then the all-world QB is likely to receive the shock of his life when the NFL commissioner decides to punish him for breaking a simple rule.