Since ESPN and the University of Texas partnered in the "Longhorn Network" cable channel, coming to your cable soon very soon, it was common knowledge that this is all about making Texas' pockets much deeper in cash and solidifying the Texas athletic program as all powerful in the slimmed down Big 12 Conference. (Down to 10 teams.)
Down at Texas A&M, Texas' longtime rival, the new money making cable channel devoted to the Longhorns isn't passing the smell test in Aggieland.
The Texas A&M Board 0f Regents had already scheduled a meeting Thursday and Friday however there will be a closed door session with the agenda item to be discussed is "Big 12 Conference."
The executive session is informative only as the A&M Board of Regents want to explore the competitive advantage Texas will have under the 20 year, $300 million dollar deal with the 4 letter and IMG College which also plans to potentially air high school games.
According to a Houston Chronicle insider no action will be taken.
From the outside looking in this doesn't look good for the long term health of the Big 12 (10) Conference. Texas A&M sees a competitive disadvantage to Texas with ESPN money helping to fund the Longhorn program and their is no sugar daddy with that kind of big bucks ear marked for Texas A&M's athletic department.
This makes you wonder talk will begin to surface in College Station and among the Texas A&M alums that "The Hell With Texas" and begin exploring bolting to the SEC again.
Who says David Stern doesn't have a good sense of humor. And after all, isn't the Boy Scout motto "Always be Prepared"?
With that in mind, despite the current NBA Lockout and general view that there will be no season, the league has released their schedule for the upcoming season.
And yes, if you look at the e-mail, the announcement is even sponsored.
We do have to add, they qualified it in the official release by saying "In the event the NBA is able to reach a new collective bargaining agreement with the NBAPA in a timely fashion."
So NBA fan, if you were to be allowed to see your games this year, despite the tension between warring rich people and lawyers, here's what you'd see:
Your season "Would" open with the Champion, Dallas Mavericks squaring off with the Chicago Bulls, followed by the Oklahoma City Thunder playing the L.A Lakers on a T.N.T doubleheader.
Mostly, the release goes on to blather about the games their "T.V Partners" may or may not get to telecast this season. To which we say, "Good for them".
Truly the question is will any of these games actually happen? The answer is, "Who knows?" Much like the beginnings of the NFL Lockout, most everyone is subscribing to the "Sky has fallen" theory, saying they won't play this season and possibly next.
True, the differences here are even more stark than the NFL, the NBA is asking for a pay cut essentially by its players and is pleading poverty. And while we don't necessarily blame the players, the owners are right, the pay scale has gotten way, way out of hand. (Hmmm..., wonder who's fault that is?)
So, you can take this for what it is worth and go check out the website of your favorite NBA team to find out their alleged schedule for the season. And you can then go back to your daily lives complete in the knowledge that you may be looking at a piece of paperwork, that might be worth something one day, because it probably will never happen.
The United Football League may be on its last legs once and for all...
The league, through Commissioner Mike Huyghue, has announced that it will move the start of its season from mid-August to mid-September. The push back will give the league time to finalize television agreements and "other critical business affairs."
Players who reported to training camps this week are returning home at league expense and camps will now open in mid-August.
UFL owner and founder Bill Hambrecht said he and other investors are committed to funding the 2011 season, but Huyghue has said each team had about $1 million in unpaid bills at the end of the 2010 season.
Here's what we're missing in the interim...
Here's last year's title game from Old Rosenblatt Stadium between Florida and Las Vegas where the Locos won the title for the second year in a row...
((HT: theUFL))
The HQ is looking forward to seeing Jerry Glanville and Marty Schottenheimer be coaches again and be answers to trivia questions...
School officials at Montclair College Preparatory in suburban Los Angeles have decided to cut its sports program, grade services, and financial aid incentives. School Director Mark Simpson sent out a letter to the more than 200 students enrolled in the 2011-12 school year notifying them of the changes.
"As a result of this economy and overwhelming requests for financial aid, we had to restructure," Simpson told the LA Times.
The school will also discontinue grades seven and eight and will only operate as a high school, and the school's financial aid program will also be eliminated.
Founded in 1956, Montclair is known for its notable alumni including Cher, Nicole Richie and Khloe Kardashian.
FOSG Rebecca Hall got to stand out in front of the place...
Well, this should be interesting. Apparently former Texas Tech coach Mike Leach will be making the rounds in Birmingham, Alabama this week at the same time SEC Media Days takes place.
SEC Media Days have evolved from a fairly small meeting of beat writers to a full-fledged media event where 500-plus TV, Radio, Newspaper and Internet reporters all jockey and battle for their 5-minutes with coaches and players.
Having worked the event several times our-ownself, simple words do not describe the craziness of 30-cameras trying to walk room to room through a hotel conference center lobby with a football coach.
Now added to all the craziness, Leach. Leach will be in town on his book tour, the book, flying up the bestseller list thanks unintentionally, the folks at ESPN. He's signing books at a store Thursday, but according to the folks at AL.com, he'll be visiting his coaching brethern at the Wynfrey Hotel.
Read more from Kevin Scarabinsky of al.com RIGHT HERE
Oh boy. Can't wait to see this circus. I kind of wish I was there. Though I don't miss having to jockey for position and getting a word in edgewise at the event.
We know the writers will be all over this, we think some of the TV guys will too. We'd really like to see if Leach could trump Nick Saban's visit. On the Alabama day, it is virtually impossible to move in the Wynfrey conference center as seemingly every writer and camera in the state of Alabama shows up for this.
We laugh at the premise of all this and will be closely watching with the hope someone does a story on it, because if you are a true "Hard-core" sports fan, it will be one worth seeing.
For the few of you not familar with Leach, he actually warranted a 60-Minutes story a few years back:
Really? At least two of the plantiffs in the Brady vs. NFL Lawsuit want settlement money? And they....they want $10 million? Seriously?
That's what Yahoo Sports reporter Jason Cole is reporting today.
As the NFL Lockout nears its end, there are still some remaining issues out there. One of the biggest is tying up the lawsuits associated with it.
Vincent Jackson and Logan Mankins apparently want to be paid and be unrestricted free agents when the dust settles. The reason their agents say, they were both designated "Franchise Players" in February, before the lockout started. And yes, they are part of the group of players on the Brady lawsuit.
This is an interesting story to follow. The consensus is that both will get paid. The big reason being the potential change in the collective bargaining agreement. If you remember, last year they played without one. And it had an impact on those guys. The new agreement changes that.
Really, the part that is hard to digest is the $10 million part of it. While we don't begrudge guys for taking that kind of money if it is offered to them, they'd be crazy not to, we still maintain there is nobody alive doing a job in life today worth $10 million a year.
UPDATE--3:15p.m.---Per PFT, it appears that Mr. Drew Brees and Mr. Payton Manning want to cut a deal for themselves too, potentially holding up the labor agreement/settlement and making the other players...not so happy.
Here's a Tweet from Vikings Punter Chris Kluwe--"Sign, and once again greed is the operative byword. Congrats Bress, Manning,Mankins and Jackson for being 'that guy'. #Douchebags". AWESOME!!
For those of you following the late-last week internet phenomenon of #FreeBruce, otherwise known as Bruce Feldman, we now have, aside from the "Official" ESPN response that Feldman was never suspended, an "Ombudsman" of sorts response.
We'll qualify ourselves a bit by saying we may have been a bit presumptuous in our previous story on this topic, which you can read RIGHT HERE.
But we do stand by what we said.
Now, our friends at the 4-letter, have decided to empower the fine folks at the Poynter Institute to handle their questions of journalistic integrity. And for those unfamiliar with the Poynter Institute, that is exactly what they do. They are the ultimate "Think-tank" for anything journalistic. And they are very, very good at it.
Kelly McBride of the Poynter Review Project took a look at the handling of the Feldman issue and the 4-letters handling of Mike Leach in general, the results were interesting if you are into such things.
Among the items she raises: She was less than complimentary of ESPN's vetting process and handling of the Feldman issue. She believes them when they say Feldman wasn't suspended, he just needed to "Lay low". If he didn't lose any pay, then yeah, you've got an argument, but it still sounds like semantics.
She chastises our pal Brooks at Sports by Brooks for being incorrect. Though we don't have her insight or details, it appears on the surface, he wasn't totally wrong either. The question seems to be more the use of the words "Suspended Indefinitely".
She also is very harsh on ESPN for their handling of the Mike Leach versus Adam and Craig James story. And that we 100% agree with. And that is the root of this whole problem. It appears they took sides with the James's in it, and that under any circumstance, is wrong.
And she mentions that Feldman is not without fault. And she's right. While we have the utmost respect for Feldman and what he does. He should have been more proactive with his concerns over what Leach said in his book about his employer. Right or wrong, there is no way they or any other employer would have looked at that and not questioned him.
The issue of reporters co-authoring books with people they cover is touched on as well. And there really shouldn't be much debate here, as much as the paycheck is nice to have, you can't do it. By the nature of teaming up, you lose some of your objectivity. And it opens you up to having it questioned. Doing a book yourself about a subject...that's a little different.
For his part, she mentions that Feldman is petrified of coming out of hiding, fearing he is not going to be able to move forward from this. And he's not wrong. Though in a perfect world he should be able to move forward, he's now going to be questioned about it and looked at differently.
We, for what it is worth, agree with a lot of what McBride says here. This story got a bit ahead of itself. One big problem, which she touched on, but didn't elaborate is that there is a growing mistrust in both the internet/blogging community and the Sports Journalist community over what the 4-letter does. They seem to want things both ways when it comes to covering sports and to be an objective journalist, you just can't be "Entertainment" and "Journalistic" at the same time. And they want to be the ones controlling the message. It doesn't work like that.
The Leach story is the perfect example of this mistrust and they've done nothing to change that belief since then. That is why so many outlets immediately assumed the Feldman story was what we thought it was. And the lack of a response from the 4-letter just made it worse.
There is a balance the folks in Bristol need to find and while sometimes they do it, sometimes they don't and when they don't, it tends to get really ugly, really fast.
The HQ has known about people retiring on the air or some things like that... getting the chance to say good-bye to an endearing audience...
But we think this is the first time that someone has gone ahead and quit on the air, and of course, it was in the minor-minor leagues...
In something called the "North American Baseball League" ((Which we found out was a merger from the Golden and United Baseball Leagues of years past)), the North Division Lake County Fielders had their manager quit and had 11 players not play since they hadn't been paid yet...
All that was left was the play-by-play guy to head out the door...
((HT: youtube))
Qumar Zaman, we don't think, will be out of a job soon...
The Lake County Fielders rival Atlanta Spirit for their futility as an ownership
Hey, did we tell you that we wrote some books...???
All of this is according to the arrest affidavit...
A former roommate of Cincinnati Benglas running back Cedric Benson, according to police reports, was standing at a street corner in Austin, Texas talking on his cell phone around 5 a.m. Saturday night/Sunday morning when he was approached by a “hostile and aggressive Benson” who told him they “needed to talk about their problems.” The former roommate said they began talking about their living arrangements when “all of a sudden he was struck on his face with a closed fist throw by Benson.”
The man said Benson continued to punch him all over the face, "resulting in severe injury."
The affidavit also said the former roommate was bleeding from the mouth and complained about “possible loss of teeth and massive swelling of the left cheek.”
Benson's attorney, Sam Bassett, was the one who talked when Benson was released from jail Sunday afternoon... "Mr. Benson has been charged with misdemeanor assault arising out of a conflict with a former male roommate. The two had difficulties resulting from Mr. Benson asking the former male roommate to leave his home a few days prior to this incident. The conflict became physical early this morning and we intend to fully investigate. There is not enough information available at this time for further comment."
There's irony in the Benson arrest in that he was supposed to have his previous issues looked at in court Monday morning before this one came up all by itself...
Police in the southern Indiana city of Huntingburg are saying that Dominic R. Petrino of Fayetteville, Arkansas was arrested at 12:06 a.m. Monday morning/Sunday night. He was charged with driving while intoxicated, possession of marijuana, illegal possession of prescription drugs and possession of paraphernalia.
The coach said in a text message that he and his wife won't comment further about the incident.
Here's the full text of the statement:
"Nick is our son, he is not a member of the Arkansas football team. As such, this is not a University of Arkansas issue. Instead, it is a family matter and a legal matter. My family will trust and respect the legal system and will not comment outside that process. Becky and I ask that you appreciate and respect the private nature of this issue and understand our lack of further comment."
A police report says Petrino was stopped after weaving off a roadway. Police say a blood test showed the presence of marijuana and prescription opiates. He was released on $1,000 bond.
He was booked into the Dubois ((IN)) County Jail, and when asked, a local jail officer didn't know if he had an attorney.
The Herald newspaper of Jasper, Indiana reports Petrino had been a backup quarterback in his time with the Razorbacks. He had transferred from Georgetown ((KY)) and had won back-to-back state titles with Louisville-Trinity as a junior and senior in high school when his dad coached at the U of L...
Former University of Toledo football player Harvey "Scooter" McDougle Jr. appeared Monday in Detroit federal court and pleaded guilty to working with Gary Manni- who allegedly placed bets on Rockets football and basketball games. He says he accepted more than $5,000 in exchange for information about the Rockets in 2004-05.
He ended up pleading guilty to "conspiracy to influence sports through bribery."
McDougle is the third former Toledo athlete to plead guilty. Ex-football player Quinton Broussard returns to court for a guilty plea August 3rd.
The government doesn't allege that McDougle altered his performance to suit gamblers, but their suit says he played a key role in recruiting basketball players to consider shaving points.
And we nearly have reached the end. Yes, it is true, an end to your NFL Lockout is fast approaching. No, it isn't here yet, be we and most everyone else fully expect it to be done by the end of the week.
Let's update the comings and goings at stately Wayne Manor:
The NFLPA (not a union) will be holding meetings in Washington D.C Monday morning ahead of more face to face meetings with legal teams and the owners themselves. The lawyers for both sides (who are making a fortune off this), met most of the weekend to peruse and agree to the language the parties have agreed to (??). And our pals, the Jolly Roger (Goodell) and DeMaurice Smith spent their Saturday hanging out together too.
According to reports, the agreement, for the most part is complete with only a few allegedly minor details to hammer out.
Among those: The use of a Franchise tag, settlement of the Brady anti-trust suit, Workman's comp issues and the TV. damages case.
Roger Goodell/File
They will all get together on Tuesday for "Group Mediation" with Judge Arthur Boylan and at that point is where the belief is they'll agree to agree. From there, the hope is the players will vote on the agreement Wednesday, the Owners on Thursday in Atlanta and the doors begin to open Friday.
Supposedly, internal free agents will get to negotiate with their current teams Friday, and a week from today, (Monday the 25th), we have Free Agency and camps opening later in the week.
According to ESPN's Chris Mortensen, major progress was made when owners conceded that there won't be any more 2-a-day practices and limiting OTA's or Organized Team Activities, something that had been created over the past 6 or 7 years, which essentially were mini-camps under a different name.
What does this mean? It means were almost done. It's amazing to here what some of the idiotic arguments were about, but for the players sake, we're glad to here they got some concessions on some of them. The OTA thing was crazy, most players hated them, but had to come.
The interesting thing is going to be how teams install systems in a short period of time. Training camps will start almost immediately and we'll be playing exhibition football within a couple of weeks. Because if you look at the calendar, the NFL season is only about 45 days away.
So rejoice NFL fan, your stupid legal issues are all but resolved. Hope you put some money away over the summer, because while your ticket prices won't go up this year, they most certainly will next....
Here's your accompanying video, to be played while you read this story:
This is part opinion and part scoreboard. By now, most Sports fans...and other fans know the U.S Women's Soccer Team lost in the World Cup Finals Sunday afternoon to Japan in what could only be described as an "Incredible" game. Tied 1-1 after regulation, both teams scored in the 30-minute overtime period, bringing the game to a battle of penalty kicks. Japan won the shootout, and the World Championship.
As an observer of most things sports, there were some utterly fascinating things borne out of this soccer tournament, the biggest being that people actually watched and paid attention. We here at the OSG Satellite HQ monitor Sportswriters and Sports Personalities from all over on places like Twitter and Facebook and it was absolutely incredible to see just how many "Professional Sports Journalists" were into this game.
From the Sportswriters at Yahoo Sports, to Dick Vitale, and so many others, if you were watching the Live Twitter Stream, you would have been amazed.
((ed.note--Per Darren Rovell of CNBC--Twitter reports over 7,100 tweets per second at the end of the game Sunday afternoon, breaking a record for them))
Soccer for the most part in the U.S has been considered a bit of a fringe sport, certainly not anything close to the scale of Football, Basketball, Baseball or even Hockey or Golf. But yet, the most seasoned of observers were living and dying with every Megan Rapinoe cross, Alex Morgan attack and Abby Wambach header attempt.
We aren't going to go out on a limb here and say this is a "Turning Point" for soccer in the U.S. Sure, the ratings we suspect are going to be awfully good for ESPN, they should be. The men's team garnered similar attention during their World Cup. But, to be totally honest, there are still an awful lot of "Mainstream" Sports fans who just laugh at the mention of soccer. They shouldn't.
We here at the Satellite HQ and the home office offer a hearty congratulations to the Women's World Cup teams, heck, considering everything their country has gone through, what the Japanese women pulled off by winning is nothing short of miraculous. Watching the gutsy performance of the U.S team also reminded us what the purity and strength of our Sports system is when done right.
There are precious few "Pro-Athletes" who could do what these women did. There are even less that would want to. We got a collective headache just watching Wambach flinging her head around at flying soccer balls. But to see the unrestrained joy and effort they put forth was to us, unbelievably inspiring and we have a sneaking suspicion that it had a similar or bigger affect on a country full of 8-14 year old girls looking for some good old fashioned Sports heroes and Sports drama.
So, to the U.S Women's Soccer team we say thank you. To the Japanese and the Brazilians and the French and everyone else, we salute your bravery and effort. And most importantly to all you high minded Sports Journalists from the high-powered Newspapers, magazines and websites, we say thank you for the enthusiasm, let's carry it over and get rid of the cynicsm that we always seem to fall back on.
Cincinnati Bengals running back Cedric Benson is in trouble with the law in Austin, Texas...again.
Benson was arrested early Sunday morning for what was essentially called "Beating up a family member". He was booked on misdemeanor assault charges just before 7 a.m Sunday morning.
**Note**--The article doesn't say it, but Benson has been released from jail.
Cedric Benson is very familiar to those who follow the Athlete versus Police blotter. He is due to begin a trial on an Assault incident at an Austin area bar from June of 2010. After that incident, he paid NFL Commish Roger Goodell a visit and whatever he told the commissioner, it was enough to avoid disciplinary action.
Benson is technically going to be a free agent when the NFL Lockout ends this week and we'll be curious to see what happens. The Bengals desperately need his services and there's no guarantee he won't end up in the principal's office again for this incident.
If he is, we suspect the punishment may be a bit more severe.
Consumer investigator Jim Strickland was thrust into the middle of a story that, some wished, already had an ending...
The HQ knows that, hopefully, the folks at True North Sports and Entertainment will give the team formerly known as the Atlanta Thrashers a good home. But the ownership group that sold the franchise, Atlanta Spirit (a group lacking in representation of both), is apparently holding season ticket deposits as long as they can...
From the WSB report: Strickland also discovered the team's former owners, Atlanta Spirit LLC, haven't posted an update on the Web for weeks.
According to the website, before fans can get a 100 percent refund for next season, the NHL governors still need to approve the sale.
That happened nearly a month ago.
June 21st, to be accurate... Remember...??? Apparently, Spirit has conveniently... ((HT: Sun News Network/JHendrix70))
The rationale is easy to figure- other than the major idea that the ownership group is looking to grab any kind of interest-bearing payment they can to improve their bottom line- which, really, is business...
Plain business... it's selfish, boorish, and completely unprofessional in a market where the NBA franchise is still owned by what's left of their coffeurs...
But it's business...
The HQ gets it... but any kind emotional capital they thought they had left (which, really, wasn't much) may be out the window...
Enjoy that lockout... which, being business, will mean Spirit won't have to spend any money on any level...
Pretty much, every fan of the sport of golf knows the back story of Northern Ireland's Darren Clarke...
Lost his wife in a two-year battle with breast cancer five years ago... took time off his golf game to take care of his two sons afterward...
Now, in his 20th attempt on an Open Championship, Clarke plays skillfully to win at Royal St. George's by three strokes over American Dustin Johnson. It had been a decade since he was top ten in any major for the 42-year-old...
Clarke is now engaged to Allison and is enjoying life having moved back to his native land- playing golf out of Royal Portrush...
Here's how FoxSports Robert Lusetich set up the final round... ((HT: FoxSports.com))
Tiger Woods was one of the masses to send congratulations... From his Twitter feed...
Anthony Calvillo set the new record for passing TD's in the CFL last night knocking Damon Allen to Number Two on that list...
"You play for a long time for a great team and these things are going to happen," Calvillo said. "I'm going to enjoy the moment."
The answer to the trivia question is: Eric Deslauriers in the back of the end zone 10:11 into the first quarter for his 395th TD pass, one more than Damon Allen threw in 23 seasons. Calvillo is in his 18th year...
Here's the catch... it survived a review... ((HT: CFL on TSN/youtube))
AC isn't, or correction, shouldn't be done with his record-setting this season... Allen's marks for completions (5,158) and career passing yards (72,381) are still out there for the taking. Calvillo needed 4,220 to catch Allen going into the season and already has 1,038 in the first three games this season.
He added TD pass 396 later in the game- a 40-17 win over Toronto...
To give you an idea, Brett Favre has the NFL record at 69,329 yards passing. Calvillo should pass that yardage next week. Favre has 497 TD passes in his career. Calvillo should overtake Dan Marino's second place of 420 this season. Favre also has 6,083 completions in a career. Calvillo will finish comfortably in second place there as well...
They just can't escape trouble in athletics, can they...???
After their opening round-first game loss in the Women's World Cup, the entire world learned why their game short-circuited... their team bus was hit by lightning three weeks prior and they couldn't recover properly in time...
Here's that version of the story, thanks to our friends at ABC15 in Phoenix...
Now, that they're out of the tourney on the whole, the HQ has found out that five of their players were busted for steroids...
Two players were caught during the tournament, and FIFA tested the rest of the North Korean squad and found three more positive results.
"This is a shock," Blatter said at a news conference. "We are confronted with a very, very bad case of doping and it hurts."
He's kidding, right...??? No... and neither is the excuse from the Koreans...
The steroids were accidentally taken with traditional Chinese medicines based on musk deer glands to treat the players struck by lightning...
Since ESPN and the University of Texas partnered in the "Longhorn Network" cable channel, coming to your cable soon very soon, it was common knowledge that this is all about making Texas' pockets much deeper in cash and solidifying the Texas athletic program as all powerful in the slimmed down Big 12 Conference. (Down to 10 teams.)
