Cell phone just the excuse, race is the reason Brady’s suspension upheld

NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell today upheld the four-game suspension of New England quarterback Tom Brady, claiming some claptrap about Brady destroying his cell phone proved beyond all doubt the quarterback was involved in deflating footballs before this year’s AFC championship game. This is bogus. The cell phone was nothing more than the hook Goodell needed to hang his hat on. This is a racially based decision.

Look at the list of all the NFL players suspended at least two games for issues other than using recreational drugs since the hammer came down on Dallas nose tackle Josh Brent, who was suspended for 10 games in September, 2014, for being convicted of manslaughter. Think about that for a moment. Brent suspended for a manslaughter conviction, Brady for possibly letting the air out of footballs. Give me a break. But, I digress. Here’s the list of NFL players suspended at least two games since Brent: Baltimore running back Ray Rice, Miami defensive end Derrick Shelby, Detroit defensive tackle C.J. Mosley, New Orleans wide receiver Joe Morgan, Minnesota running back Adrian Peterson, Indianapolis running back Trent Richardson, Dallas defensive end Greg Hardy. What do they all have in common? They are all African-Americans.

Goodell was under a lot of pressure to inflict severe punishment on a prominent white player and Tom Brady fit the bill.

So Brady gets the same punishment as abuser Hardy. Absurd.

Here’s my problem with this whole deflating the football mess. The footballs allegedly deflated were used during the first half of the New England-Indianapolis title game. On offense, the Patriots played with the footballs it provided and the Colts with the ones it provided. The on-field officials handled those balls after every play and not one of them came forward during the game claiming there was a noticeable difference in the feel between the balls the Patriots used and the ones from the Colts.

But even if they were at different inflation levels, the evidence proves it offered no advantage to the Patriots. New England won the first half — the one allegedly played with deflated footballs — 17-7, but then came back and won the second half — the one played by both sides with regulation footballs — 28-0. This entire issue is bogus. If Brady is guilty of anything, he deserves to be hit with a hefty fine. But a suspension? And suspended the same amount of time as someone guilty of domestic abuse?

But Goodell needs to make an example of a white guy, to appease the growing uproar among black football players in the NFL who were claiming, with justification, that only black players were being punished by the league office, and Brady became the poster boy.

That, however, doesn’t make what Goodell did today right. It wasn’t.

Some thoughts on the Super Bowl and the events leading up to it

I was rooting for the Patriots to win this one. For some reason, I am not a big fan of the Seahawks and the reason was exemplified at the end of the game. No, not the interception, I’ll get to that later. I’m talking about the brawl that occurred when New England got the ball back and Seattle was flagged for unnecessary roughness resulting in one of their players being tossed. The Seahawks have always come across to me as the thugs of the NFL.

What I was really rooting for, however, was an exciting, well-played game and I got that in deluxe fashion. One of the best, most nail-biting Super Bowls ever.

Here’s an interesting statistic that hasn’t received the attention it deserved since the game ended. Five times this year, the Seahawks handed the ball to Marshawn Lynch on the opponent’s 1-yard line and only once did Lynch get into the end zone. One in five, not the greatest of odds, especially on second down. I’ve always thought the smart play in that situation — when everyone in the universe knows for a solid dead certain fact you’re going to run the ball — was to catch the defense completely off guard with a pass. Pete Carroll and the Seahawks have done it several times this year and each time it has worked. This time, however, New England’s Malcolm Butler simply made a great, albeit improbable, interception, just as improbable as Seattle’s Jermaine Kearse’s catch that victimized otherwise excellent coverage by Butler just a couple of plays earlier. Instead of vilifying Carroll — and the numbers argue he doesn’t deserve the criticism he’s getting (especially when Seattle quarterback Russell Wilson could have checked out of the play when he saw how the defense was lining up) — the public should be heaping praise on Butler’s interception.

After this game, is it time to call Tom Brady the greatest NFL quarterback of all time? I will give the nod to the Brady-Bill Belichick as the single greatest coach-quarterback combo of all time, although the Cleveland Browns duo of Paul Brown and Otto Graham is second by only whisker. As far as the greatest NFL quarterback, I still have to go with Johnny Unitas of the Baltimore Colts, not simply because he won three NFL championships, was the league MVP three times and held the record for the most consecutive games with a touchdown pass which was finally broken 52 years later by Drew Brees in 2012, but also because he called all his own plays — he was the team’s quarterback as well as its offensive coordinator.

The single greatest example of a non-story this NFL season has to be the one about the air pressure in the footballs during the first half of New England-Indianapolis playoff game. For one thing, it’s patently obvious that whatever conditions the footballs were in, it didn’t seem to measurably help the Patriots all that much. In that first half, when New England allegedly had this huge advantage because of the inflation of the football, the Patriots outscored Indianapolis 17-7. In the second half, when everything was even, New England whooped the Colts 28-0.

And if there was that much difference between the footballs Indianapolis used in the first half and the ones employed by the Patriots, why wasn’t that fact noticed by at least one of the referees, who touch the balls more than anyone else on the field? I haven’t heard one ref in that game come forward and say anything about the pounds-per-square-inch difference in the footballs used by the two teams.

So let’s just shut up about this entire non-event.

Now, about that Dez Bryant catch … and I do mean CATCH … is the NFL trying to get around explaining its inconsistency in the fact that "the ground can’t cause a fumble" but it can cause an incompletion? Get real! I’m not saying that catch, if it was ruled correctly, changes the outcome of the game. I’m just saying he caught the damn ball and that’s all there is to it. Quit trying to convince me with some arcane rule interpretation that he didn’t.

Sports radio: Excusing the inexcusable

 

I was driving my dog down to the Santa Fe Trestle Trail early this evening so she could join her two best canine friends (and My Hero) for a sundown romp and on the way I was listening to ESPN radio. Usually I play my iPod when I’m in the car, but I was hoping that Chuck Cooperstein was hosting one of his infrequent shows since the Texas Rangers, which normally would be on ESPN at this hour, had a later starting time playing out west in Oakland. Lucky for me, Cooperstein, perhaps my favorite sports radio personality and easily the finest basketball play-by-play announcer I’ve ever encountered, was on the air. Joining him, I think, was someone who identified himself as Tim MacMahon, a name I am familiar with because someone with that name is a writer for ESPN.com. I am going to jump to the conclusion that Cooperstein’s co-host this evening and the ESPN.com writer are one in the same.

The two were discussing the situation of Minnesota Vikings star running back Adrian Peterson and MacMahon had the audacity to excuse alleged Peterson’s child abuse of his son on the grounds that Peterson was raised to discipline children in that manner. Since Peterson’s father used on switch on him, MacMahon claimed, it was going to follow that Peterson would discipline his children exactly the same way.

The pictures above depict the wounds found on Peterson’s child and, remember, these pictures were taken days aftet the wounds were inflicted. That any child is forced is suffer through such abuse is inexcusable. But when did "Two wrongs do actually make a right" become a justification for such abuse? "My dad was a racist so it’s OK for me to be a racist, too." Perhaps some misguided fools actually believe that’s true, but civilized society says that type of thinking is way, way off base.

The Minnesota Vikings suspended Peterson from the team’s game last Sunday, but then this week they said the suspension was lifted and he would play in the Vikings upcoming game against the New Orleans Saints. MacMahon defended the decision on his "My father made me do it" argument. And much to my dismay, Cooperstein didn’t seem to raise a voice in objection. He said only the decision on whether Peterson should play was not the Minnesota head coach’s or even the NFL’s, but the Vikings owners.

Peterson committed an act of domestic violence, much the same as the indefinitely suspended Ray Rice of the Baltimore Ravens did, but because Peterson’s was committed against a helpless child makes it, it my estimation, even more heinous. And it seems Minnesota Governor Mark Dayton agrees. Today the governor said Peterson should be considered innocent until proven guilty in a court of law, but the running back "is a public figure; and his actions, as described, are a public embarrassment to the Vikings organization and the State of Minnesota. Therefore, I believe the team should suspend Mr. Peterson until the accusations of child abuse have been resolved by the criminal justice system."

At least I’m not the only one rejecting "He was just raised that way" argument.

Update: Early Wednesday morning, the Vikings obviously saw the error of their ways (even if MacMahon may not agree).

Goodell’s Goofs

NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell is taking a lot of heat tonight because it appears a police official sent the league office the nefarious tape of former Baltimore Ravens running back Ray Rice delivering a punch to his wife that knocked her unconscious in an Atlantic City, N.J., hotel elevator back in February. Not only that, the police official has a recording indicating someone in the NFL acknowledged receipt of the tape back in April and indicated the recipient actually viewed it, describing it as "terrible." This after Goodell went on CBS News earlier this week and said absolutely no one inside the NFL had seen the tape until TMZ.com released it to the world on Monday.

But I say Goodell has more than that to answer for and, in my mind, when the NFL received and first saw the tape is the least of his worries. Look, we already saw a rape of Rice and his then fiancée walking into the elevator. A few seconds later, another tape depicted Rice dragging her unconscious body out of the elevator. We saw these tapes back in August. And, if there was any question about what happened on the elevator, Rice answered that by admitting he hit her. So there’s that.

So Goodell responds by handing Rice a two-game suspension, illustrating to the world he doesn’t take violence against women seriously, To give him the only credit he’s due in this entire affair he later admitted, but only after being roundly criticized for his lenient treatment of Rice, that perhaps he made a mistake and announced future offenders would be punished more severely.

But here’s my problem with that. Goodell is still not interested in seeing justice is done or that the truth is revealed in this incident. From Day 1 until right this moment he has only been interested in protecting the brand and, in so doing, he has soiled it.

During his initial "investigation" into the crime, when he interviewed Janay Rice about the what happened in the elevator and the events surrounding it, he talked to her with both Rice and Baltimore Ravens owner Steve Bisciotti in the room, sitting on either side of her. You kidding?

Earlier this week Goodell sent a letter to NFL owners saying "It would have been illegal for law enforcement to provide [the] Rice video to [the] NFL" Look the FBI claims it hired Secret Service and ex-FBI agents to look into this and now Goodell is trying to convince us those aces couldn’t get a copy of the tape but TMZ.com could? You kidding?

Then the NFL had the audacity to claim it was opening an "independent" investigation into how the league conducted itself in this matter and that a former FBI director no less, one Robert S. Mueller III, will conduct the investigation. Here’s my problem with that. At the same time the NFL said this so-called "independent investigation" will be overseen by two other attorneys, John Mara and Art Rooney. Oh, by the way, Mara is also the owner of the New York Giants and Rooney is the owner of the Pittsburgh Steelers. How can that be called "independent" by any stretch of the imagination? That would be like having Dick Cheney heading an "independent" investigation to whether the United States should have invaded Iraq. You kidding?

We are also told that the NFL is getting "serious" about domestic violence and will not tolerate it among their ranks. Sure. Fine. Whatever. San Francisco defensive lineman Ray McDonald was arrested Aug. 31 for felony domestic violence after police were called to his home and discovered his fiancée with "visible injuries." McDonald made three tackles in last week's win over the Cowboys and the team plans to start him this weekend as well. On June 15, Carolina Panthers' all-pro defensive end Greg Hardy was convicted of assaulting a female (his girlfriend) and communicating threats. (To seemed to be a particularly vicious attack, according to the police report and the victim's own account of the incident.) Hardy also played the opening weekend and is scheduled to start again Sunday. You kidding? So much for "zero tolerance."

How many more times will Goodell goof things up in this matter before he finally resigns or is fired? I, for one, have lost all trust in Goodell and the NFL "brand." I honestly believe millions of other Americans feel exactly the same way. How long will the NFL continue to let that trust and that brand corrode?

Hang your head in shame, NFL, then fire it

I don’t need to see an actual video of a member of ISIS decapitating an innocent victim to know that the organization needs to be wiped off the face of the earth. Their bragging about it is more than enough to convince me.

Ray Rice

In February, Baltimore Ravens star running back Ray Rice knocked his then fiancée, Janay Palmer, unconscious in an elevator at an Atlantic City, N.J., hotel. We know that it is true because (1) surveillance video cameras outside the elevator captured on film Rice dragging an unconscious Palmer from the elevator and (2) Rice subsequently admitted in court rendering the punch that knocked her out.

In July, the NFL handed Rice a two-game suspension, displaying to the whole world how little it regarded the seriousness of domestic violence. In the wake of the ensuing uproar among all decent individuals, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell backtracked, admitting the suspension was way too lenient and adding that from henceforth and forevermore any NFL player found to have committed any form of domestic violence (i.e., causing bodily harm to a woman) would be faced with a five-game suspension.

Janay Palmer

Today, TMZ.com, which discovered the initial video, released a copy of the above
video taken from a camera positioned inside the elevator in question, graphically showing Rice delivering the blow that knocked Palmer out. Baltimore Ravens officials said they were so aghast at the video that they were thowing Rice off the team and the NFL announced it was suspending Rice indefinitely.

What???? Just because you now see the video of the actual incident? How does seeing it change anything? You already knew exactly what happened inside that elevator on that day? And what happened has not changed simply because you can now see it for yourself.

The latest Roger the Dodger

Plus I am convinced the NFL is lying – that’s right, lying – when it claims that today was the first time they had seen the video from inside the elevator. ESPN’s Chris Mortensen said he spoke to NFL officials who had seen the tape and who had told him what happened inside that elevator "wasn’t pretty." On July 29, Sports Illustrated NFL guru Peter King wrote:

There is one other thing I did not write or refer to, and that is the other videotape the NFL and some Ravens officials have seen, from the security camera inside the elevator at the time of the physical altercation between Rice and his fiancée. I have heard reports of what is on the video, but because I could not confirm them and because of the sensitivity of the case, I never speculated on the video in my writing, because I don’t think it is fair in an incendiary case like this one to use something I cannot confirm with more than one person. I cannot say any more, because I did not see the tape. I saw only the damning tape of Rice pulling his unconscious fiancée out of the elevator.
The NFL has acted shamefully in this matter. It is, without question, the most embarrassing moment in the history of the league. And Ray Rice should not be the only one punished because of it. Roger Goodell must go. He must tender his resignation immediately. Then, and only then, will the NFL be able to begin to remove the tarnish it applied to itself today.

It’s how the team was named that matters

Eugene Talmadge, the governor of Georgia from 1933 to 1937 and again from 1941 to 1946, was an overt racist. Although the unemployment rate for blacks in Georgia was twice as high as it was for whites, Talmadge refused to allow blacks to go to work for the Civilian Conservation Corps in Georgia. He fired University of Georgia regent Walter Cocking when the latter raised questions about the disparity between black and white schools in Georgia. When the rest of the regents overrode Cocking’s firing, Talmadge fired three members of the board and replaced them with three of his cronies.

Eugene Talmadge

Talmadge often bragged that the African American boys called him "mean Lugene." Talmadge said that he liked the "nigger" well enough in his place, and his place was at the back door, with his hat in his hand and saying, "Yes, Sir." Talmadge confessed to having flogged at least one African American. On his death bed, he told his Baptist preacher that the black race was created inferior by God. He said the white race was on top, the yellow race next, then the brown and red races, and at the very bottom, the blacks who were created to be servants to all other races.

Talmadge acted aggressively to enforce Jim Crow. His response to two federal court orders decided in 1946 illustrates his attitudes. In Morgan v. Virginia, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that racial segregation on busses engaged in interstate commerce was unconstitutional. Talmadge pledged that there would be no more interstate bus travel in Georgia, only intrastate. Passengers would have to get off the bus before entering Georgia and buy a ticket good only for transit through Georgia. When they had crossed Georgia, they would get off and buy a ticket to the other state.

On March 8, 1946, the federal district court ruled in Albright v. Texas that political parties could no longer exclude African American voters. Admitting African Americans, about a third of the state's population would begin the end of total control of state government by Talmadge and other white supremacists. Talmadge announced plans to call a special session of the state legislature to overturn all the state's election laws. His plan was thwarted in part because eliminating all election laws would also eliminate the county unit system, a convoluted voting scheme that allowed him to remain in office even though he might not win the most popular votes in an election. Instead, he ran for governor on a platform of white supremacy.

I could go on, but you get the idea.

One of Talmadge’s closest running buddies was a fellow by the name of George Preston Marshall, who shared Talmadge’s racist beliefs. In fact, when Marshall died in 1969, his will directed that the bulk of his estate be set up as a foundation that bore his name. He attached, however, one firm condition: that the foundation, operating out of Washington, D.C., should not direct a single dollar toward "any purpose which supports or employs the principle of racial integration in any form."

George Preston Marshall

Marshall, born in 1896, became financially successful through his ownership of a chain of laundries in Washington, D.C. In 1932, he and three partners were awarded an NFL franchise for Boston and he named his team the Boston Braves because the team shared a stadium with the old Major League Baseball team, Boston Braves. Marshall’s partners sold their interests to Marshall after one season and, thus, in 1933 he moved the team’s home to Fenway Park so he could name them the Redskins. He thought Redskins was funny, just as he thought the war paint and feather headdress he made the head coach wear were funny.

This is a man who proposed to his wife against the backdrop of a group of black performers he’d hired to croon "Carry Me Back to Ol’ Virginny" as he popped the question ("Massa and Missus have long since gone before me / Soon we will meet on that bright and golden shore"). Who ordered the Redskins marching band to play "Dixie" right before "The Star-Spangled Banner" prior to every game — up into the 1960s. And who reportedly instigated the banning of black athletes from the NFL from 1933 until 1946.

I say "reportedly" because the league’s owners at the time always kept it a deep secret, but Thomas G. Smith, who wrote a 2011 book about all this, got as close as a person could get to putting Marshall at the center of the ban. The league had blacks before 1933 only because people didn’t care much about pro football then, not nearly as much as they did about baseball. But in 1933, at someone’s instigation, the owners got together and agreed on the ban. Certainly, Marshall was the biggest racist of the bunch.

Most famously of all, Marshall was the last owner to accept a black player — fully 15 years after the ban was lifted. And his team drafted an African-American then (in 1961) only because it was forced to by the government — the then-new stadium that later becamel RFK Stadium was built on Department of Interior land, which permitted the Kennedy administration to order the lessee (the team) to adhere to federal nondiscrimination policies. In other words, Marshall wasn’t merely a standard-issue racist of the time, like H.L. Mencken or countless others. He, like his buddy Talmadge, was diseased. He seethed with hatred of nonwhite people. And "Redskins" is his handiwork.

In the ongoing debate on whether the team’s name should be changed, the argument should be framed around the name’s origin and the racist who decided to attach the moniker to his franchise. When seen in this light, a name change is long overdue.

This week's best football games

There's a good number of college football games, including some that will decide who plays for the national championship, on the bill of fare for this final weekend of major college action. As a public service for all fans of the game, I have offered this ranking of the best games of the weekend, along with the time they will be played and the local channel on which they will be televised.

For those with the NFL Package on your satellite or cable TV package, I have provided the same service for this weekend's NFL games as well.

THIS WEEK'S TOP COLLEGE GAMES
1.  Stanford at Arizona State, 6:45 p.m., ESPN
2.  Auburn vs. Missouri, 3 p.m., Channel 11
3.  Michigan State vs. Ohio State, 7 p.m., Channel 4
4.  Oklahoma at Oklahoma State, 11 a.m., Channel 8
5.  Texas at Baylor, 2:30 p.m., Channel 4
6.  Duke vs. Florida State, 7 p.m., Channel 8

THIS WEEKEND'S NFL LINEUP
Tier 1 Games
1.  Seattle at San Francisco
2. Carolina at New Orleans (Sunday night)
Tier 2 Games
3.  Dallas at Chicago (Monday night)
4.  Detroit at Philadelphia
Tier 3 Games
5.  St. Louis at Arizona
6.  Miami at Pittsburgh
7.  Tennessee at Denver
8.  NY Giants at San Diego
9.  Kansas City at Washington'
10. Indianapolis at Cincinnati
Tier 4 Games
11. Buffalo at Tampa Bay
12. Minnesota at Baltimore
13. Oakland at NY Jets
Off-the-grid Games
14. Atlanta at Green Bay (no Aaron Rogers)
15. Cleveland at New England (can anyone name the Browns' starting quarterback?)

Goodell right, Cowlishaw wrong

In a column on the front of the sports page of today’s Dallas Morning News, Tim Cowlishaw mistakenly writes that NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell’s punishment handed down to the New Orleans Saints surrounding the "pay-to-permanently cripple" program was too harsh. (I would inlude a link to the column, but because the News makes people pay to read it, you might as well use that money to purchase an entire paper or, even more nourishing than that, use it to buy two tacos at Jack in the Box.) It appears Cowlishaw also thinks former President Richard Nixon was impeached because of the Wartergate break-in.

Cowlishaw's opinion
a real head-scratcher

Of course, that’s not the reason Nixon was driven from the White House. His crime was the systematic cover-up implemented to hide his administration’s involvement in a series of election dirty tricks.

By the same token New Orleans Saints head coach Sean Payton was not only punished for overseeing his reprehensible bounty program. Goodell came down hard on him because on two different occasions Payton sat down with the commissioner and outright lied to him about any knowledge Payton had about the affair. He was the caretaker of the program and then he tried to cover it up. At least twice.

I have already expressed my admiration for Goodell’s correct handling of this incident. And, fortunately, the News has an expert on all things NFL and other sports, Rick Gosselin, who also applauds Goodell (although Gosselin’s more reasoned column is buried inside the sports section). Someone needs to educate Cowlishaw before he makes himself look even more wrong-headed on this issue.

Goodell done good

NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell

NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell’s harsh punishment against the New Orleans Saints — a one- year suspension for head coach Sean Payton, the loss of second round draft picks the next two years and more — was appropriate for a reason that many are overlooking.

Yes, it does make it incredibly more problematic that the Saints will be playing in a Super Bowl in their own stadium at the end of the upcoming season,. Heck, it even makes it problematic the Saints will win their own division.

But the most important message Goodell sent — and the one I’m sure has been received loud and clear by every single team in the league — is this type of bounty program will never, ever, happen again in the NFL. And that’s the most important thing Goodell accomplished.

Nice going, commish.

Manning’s future

Peyton Manning and the Indianapolis Colts will file for divorce today. To me, there hasn’t been a player departure from a team this significant since Joe Montana left San Francisco for Kansas City. And, no, I’m not forgetting Brett Favre.

The entire story has an ironic twist. Manning is leaving because the Colts are set to draft his replacement, Andrew Luck. But if Manning had not been injured this past season, the Colts would have come nowhere close to claiming the first-round draft pick. Manning would have led them to too many wins.

So where does Peyton go from here? The way I see it, there are only three NFL teams — the New York Giants, the Green Bay Packers and the New Orleans Saints — who should have absolutely no interest in Manning whatsoever. All the rest are in play. I keep hearing talk about Washington and Miami, but I think Manning wants to win too much to go a team where his chances of winning are much less than they were with Indianapolis. I also keep hearing talk about the New York Jets. That would be a great destination for more reasons than the fact that Peyton could take that team to the Super Bowl. Imagine both the Manning Brothers in New York? Now that would be fun for all concerned, including fans.

But I gotta tell ya, if I’m with the Steeler organization, I would take Manning over Ben Rothlisberger. Manning could take that team to even grander heights. Manning makes the Steelers instant Super Bowl favorites.

He could have the same dramatic impact with the Cowboys. Tony Romo wouldn’t want to stay here, playing behind Manning, so Jerry Jones would have to trade his former starting QB. But he should be able to get significant defensive help in such a trade, probably with some future draft choices thrown in. Instant upgrade to Super Bowl contender. And I imagine Manning would relish a helmet with a star as much as one with a horseshoe.

The Cutler Affair

The conspiracy theorists are out in force on this one and once again they have it wrong.

There is one supreme boss on a football team. That boss has the title of Head Coach (regardless of how Jerry Jones feels). What he says during the course of a football game goes. If the head coach wants to go for it on fourth and inches, it's up to the offensive coordinator to come up with a play that will be successful on fourth and inches. And if the coach wants the fullback to take a direct snap on the play, that's what's going to happen.

I bring all this up because it was Chicago Bears head coach Lovie Smith who told his quarterback Jay Cutler to get off the field at the start of the second half of Sunday's Bears-Green Bay Packers NFC Championship game. That makes the extent of Cutler's injury irrelevant. If the head coach says you're not playing, you're not playing. Same thing happened to Cutler's replacement, Todd Collins, although Smith pulled Collins from the game in favor of Caleb Hanie for entirely different reasons than he pulled Cutler for Collins. But the reasons are just as irrelevant as Cutler's injury. What the coach says goes. So get off it, conspiracy theorists. If you're dumb enough to think Cutler should have "gutted it out" and played the rest of the game, then blame Smith, not Cutler.

Super Bowl No. 1

It's not so much that the very first Super Bowl was played on this date 44 years ago that I find interesting. It is the fact that the most expensive tickets for the game in the Los Angeles Coliseum were $12. And even at that, the game was not close to being a sellout. The 63,036 who attended filled about two-thirds of the stadium.

Actually, Goodell doesn't get it

NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell miused the time between the end of the regular season and the start of the playoffs to send out a letter concerning the state of the league's labor negotiations. Or at least that's what he claimed it was. Actually, it was another pro-owner, anti-player missive designed to create irritation in the fans over those "greedy football players." In the letter, Goodell wrote:

"The NFL is great because fans care deeply about it. Economic conditions, however, have changed dramatically inside and outside the NFL since 2006 when we negotiated the last CBA. A 10 percent unemployment rate hurts us all. Fans have limited budgets and rightly want the most for their money. I get it."

No, Roger, you don't get it. If you got it, you would be demanding that owners lower ticket prices, reduce the cost of concessions at games, etc., and not demanding that players work harder for no additional pay (the 18-game season) and, in the cases of first-year players, work harder for less money (a rookie wage scale).

Until Goodell does get it, I hope the players don't cave to public pressure to sign a Collective Bargaining Agreement that doesn't force some concessions on the owners.

C'mon Jackie, get over it

"Hey, keep chillin'. You know who we are? We're associates of your business partner Marsellus Wallace. You do remember your business partner don't you? Let me take a wild guess here. You're Brett, right?"

--Jules (Samuel L. Jackson) in Pulp Fiction

Dallas Morning News columnist Jacqueline Floyd simply needs to "keep chilin'." Just about everyone else has.

My Top 10 NBA, NFL Teams

(Last week's rank in parenthesis)
NBA
1.  San Anonio Spurs (1)
2.  Boston Celtics (2)
3.  Dallas Mavericks (3)
4.  Miami Heat (4)
5.  Chicago Bulls (7)
6.  Los Angeles Lakers (6)
7.  Utah Jazz (5)
8.  Orlando Magic (9)
9.  Oklahoma City Thunder (8)
10. Denver Nuggets (UR)

NFL
1.  New England Patriots (1)
2.  Atlanta Falcons (2)
3.  Pitsburgh Steelers (3)
4.  Baltimore Ravens (4)
5.  Chicago Bears (7)
6.  New Orleans Saints (8)
7.  New York Jets (6)
8.  Philadelphia Eagles (5)
9.  Kansas City Chiefs (9)
10. Green Bay Packers (UR)

My Top 10 NBA, NFL Teams

(Last week's rank in parenthesis)
NBA
1.  San Antonio Spurs (1)
2.  Boston Celtics (2)
3.  Dallas Mavericks (3)
4.  Miami Heat (5)
5.  Utah Jazz (7)
6.  Los Angeles Lakers (4)
7.  Chicago Bulls (8)
8.  Oklahoma City Thunder (6)
9.  Orlando Magic (UR)
10. New Orleans Hornets (9)

NFL
1.  New England Patriots (1)
2.  Atlanta Falcons (2)
3.  Pittsburgh Steelers (3)
4.  Baltimore Ravens (5)
5.  Philadelphia Eagles (6)
6.  New York Jets (7)
7.  Chicago Bears (9)
8.  New Orleans Saints (4)
9.  New York Giants (8)
10. Kansas City Chiefs (UR)

The fate of Jason Garrett and other NFL coaches

I'm betting Jason Garrett will have that interim tag removed from his title at the end of this season. Garrett is 4-2 as the "interim" Dallas Cowboys coach and those four wins include two victories over division rivals (the Giants and the Redskins). Now Cowboys owner Jerry Jones can pat himself on the back and say he was right about Garrett all along.

I also have a feeling that the high-priced coaches-in-waiting -- Bill Cowher (pictured) and John Gruden -- will still be waiting next season because the teams most likely to make coaching changes -- Denver, Cincinnati, Carolina, San Francisco, Cleveland and even Tennessee -- are not likely to pay the big bucks Cowher and Gruden will demand. That means jobs for the in-demand coordinators. The one exception is the Houston Texans, a team that has underperformed this year, after winning four of their first six games. Owner Bob McNair has the deep pockets, but he also is someone with the reputation of being slow on the trigger. If I were McNair and had read that the Texans were one of the three teams Cowher would like to coach, I would roll the dice and make a change, especially since it has been the Texans defense that has let the team down this year. But McNair said just last week he thought his team was heading in the right direction and that he had heard from other NFL owners how impressed they were with his team. So McNair might just stick with coach Gary Kubiak.

“We’ll review everything at the end of the year, and, will we make some changes? I’m sure we will make some,” McNair said, according to the Texans' Web site. “But we’re very, very close to having the kind of team I think that we can all be proud of.”

The other two teams Cowher said he would coach are the Miami Dolphins and the New York Giants, both of whom have the resources to hire the Super Bowl-winning former coach.. I can't see Miami making a coaching change although the word is out that the Miami braintrust believes the Miami Heat is syphoning off fans and will need to add marquee names (read that "Cowher") to counter the Heat's star-studded lineup. There are those clamoring for Giants coach Tom Coughlin's head following Sunday's monumental collapse against Philadelphia, but I'm convinced if the Giants make the playoffs as a wild card, his job is safe,

My Top 10 NBA, NFL Teams

Last week's rank in parenthesis

NBA
1.  San Antonio Spurs (1)
2.  Boston Celtics (2)
3.  Dallas Mavericks (3)
4.  Los Angeles Lakers (6)
5.  Miami Heat (9)
6.  Oklahoma City Thunder (UR)
7.  Utah Jazz (4)
8.  Chicago Bulls (10)
9.  New Orleans Hornets (7)
10. Denver Nuggets (8)

NFL
1.  New England Patriots (1)
2.  Atlanta Falcons (2)
3.  Pittsburgh Steelers (3)
4.  New Orleans Saints (6)
5.  Baltimore Ravens (8)
6.  Philadelphia Eagles (9)
7.  New York Jets (4)
8.  New York Giants (10)
9. Chicago Bears (5)
10. Green Bay Packers (7)

My Top 10 NBA, NFL Teams

(Last week's ranks in parenthesis)
NBA
1.  San Antonio Spurs (1)
2.  Boston Celtics (3)
3.  Dallas Mavericks (2)
4.  Utah Jazz (7)
5.  Orlando Magic (5)
6.  Los Angeles Lakers (4)
7.  New Orleans Hornets (6)
8.  Denver Nuggets (8)
9.  Miami Heat (UR)
10. Chicago Bulls (9)
Dropped out: Oklahoma City Thunder

NFL
1.  New England Patriots (1)
2.  Atlanta Falcons (2)
3.  Pittsburgh Steelers (4)
4.  New York Jets (3)
5.  Chicago Bears (6)
6.  New Orleans Saints (7)
7.  Green Bay Packers (8)
8.  Baltimore Ravens (5)
9.  Philadelphia Eagles (9)
10. New York Giants (10)

My Top 10 NBA, NFL Teams

(Last week's rank in parenthesis)
NBA
1.  San Antonio Spurs (2)
2.  Dallas Mavericks (6)
3.  Boston Celtics (5)
4.  Los Angeles Lakers (3)
5.  Orlando Magic (4)
6.  New Orleans Hornets (1)
7.  Utah Jazz (10)
8.  Denver Nuggets (UR)
9.  Chicago Bulls (7)
10. Oklahoma City Thunder  (8)
DROPPED OUT: Miami Heat

NFL
1.  New England Patriots (1)
2.  Atlanta Falcons (2)
3.  New York Jets (3)
4.  Pittsbugh Steelers (4)
5.  Baltimore Ravens (6)
6.  Chicago Bears (8)
7.  New Orleans Saints (9)
8.  Green Bay Packers (5)
9. Philadelphia Eagles (7)
10. New York Giants (UR)
DROPPED OUT: Tampa Bay Buccaneers