Category Archives: Sports news

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

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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

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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.

 

 

Sports news

Thanks, Tom, for keeping 'Deflate-gate' alive

Oh, I was so hoping Tom Brady could take the air out of the Deflate-gate story today.

The New England Patriots quarterback didn’t deliver. Instead, he kept this non-story buzzing by refusing to discuss it in front a friendly crowd gathered at a long-ago-scheduled public appearance.

http://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/other/tom-brady-declines-to-go-into-detail-on-wells-report-deflategate/ar-BBjosTF

He came into the hall packed with about 4,000 cheering fans and then declined to say anything about the NFL report that says he “probably” knew something about the footballs that were underinflated prior to the Patriots’ rout of the Indy Colts in the AFC championship football game.

There’s no proof that Brady did anything wrong. No proof that he “cheated.” Nothing that says he watched some mysterious individual deflate the balls to make them more catchable and throwable.

He didn’t deny doing anything wrong. He didn’t say anything.

The story won’t disappear, even though it should.

We can thank Tom Brady’s tight lips for keeping it alive and kicking.

 

Sports news

Deflate-gate non-story re-emerges

Count me as someone who believes the New England Patriots’ “deflate-gate” story is, well, a non-story.

You also can count me as someone who doesn’t believe all-world quarterback Tom Brady should face any serious punishment for what he might have known about the balls that were deflated prior to the Patriots’ blowout win over the Indianapolis Colts in last year’s AFC championship football game.

http://espn.go.com/boston/nfl/story/_/id/12839315/tom-brady-agent-says-wells-report-significant-terrible-disappointment

The NFL lawyer who looked into this mess has determined that head coach Bill Belichick didn’t know anything about the balls. Nor did team owner Robert Kraft.

Brady, on the other hand, “probably” knew that some hanky-panky was going on with the balls, that someone was letting some of the air out of them to make them easier to catch and handle.

Probably knew?

That’s proof of anything? Hardly.

The only way this matter becomes relevant to anything is if the Patriots had won the game on a last-second hail Mary pass that Brady would have thrown to a receiver who couldn’t have held on to a properly inflated football.

That didn’t happen. The Patriots blew the Colts away. As someone once wrote, the Patriots would have won playing with beach balls.

I won’t get into the nuts and bolts of whether Brady should be suspended or fined or both.

Whatever happened to those footballs prior to the AFC championship game had no bearing on the outcome.

There. End of story? Oh, probably not.

Sports news

Boxing has lost its allure

The question came to me today at work from my young friend Travis.

“Are you going to watch the fight?” he asked.

Nope. Not a chance. Zero.

Then I launched into a mini-tirade about the state of professional boxing today. In summary: It’s a joke, but a not-funny one.

“The fight” will be between Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao for the world welterweight championship. Fight fans have been waiting for this one. It’s been called “The Fight of the Century.”

Yeah. Whatever.

My tirade to my young pal consisted of a walk through memory lane and about how pro boxing has developed multiple “champions of the world” in every weight class. Back when I used to watch boxing religiously, you had heavyweight, light-heavyweight, middleweight, welterweight, lightweight, featherweight, bantamweight and flyweight champs. These days you add “super” and “junior” to almost all those weight classes and the number of classifications is multiplied by a factor of 10 … or maybe 20. Hell, I don’t know.

Add to that the number of governing organizations that recognize these champions of the world. You have an alphabet-soup list of organizations claiming their piece of the world championship pie.

It’s a joke.

Back in the day, I told my friend, the heavyweight champion of the world was considered the “baddest man on Earth.” Yep. I refer to Muhammad Ali — who really was the baddest cat on the planet. And he was unafraid to proclaim it. Before him, well, the list is lengthy.

Boxing used to be fun. It is no longer of any interest to me.

Who’ll win “The Fight of the Century”? I don’t know … or care.