Observations at Health Clubs

I belong to a pretty large health club, both in terms of membership and offerings.  Here are some general observations, from the bad to the indifferent to the good.


1.  Don't Engage Me in Long Conversations.  I am there to work out, and I am focused on a three-part workout -- some aerobics, some weights, and some flexibility.  You want to say hello?  Fine.  You are a long-lost buddy I haven't seen in a while, we'll talk.  But if you want to vector your political views onto me and vent about something, find someone else and somewhere else to do so.  My time is precious, even more so as I get older.  Let's say hello, a kind word, perhaps something at least mildly amusing, and then get on with our workouts.


2.  Don't Talk on Your Cell Phone Loudly While on an Exercise Machine.  I mean, really, aren't we supposed to go to the gym to get away from all sorts of media save the songs that you can listen to on your phone while you are working out?  I really don't need to hear you counsel your parents, counsel your kids, catch up with a friend who seems to be very needy.  There is a time and a place for that, but, most certainly, not right next to me while I'm trying to work my intervals on an elliptical.


3.  Don't Hog Machines.  Look, I get it, we all have routines and want to do certain machines in a certain order.  But you must not commandeer two machines at once, by leaving a towel and your phone on one of them and then a workout bag or sweatshirt on another.  Dedicated gym devotees tend to respect people's time and space, so there is little chance that someone else will prevent you from doing what you need to do on a machine. 


4.  Work Out Properly.  Now, this one is up to the person, of course, but the Larry the Lolly-gaggers just slay me.  You know the type, they get on an elliptical and stay there for an hour at a very low speed.  I haven't the foggiest what they think they are getting out of this workout other than anesthetizing themselves that they are at the gym and, as a result, doing something to improve their health.  This workout looks like an elliptical workout in slow motion.  Didn't anyone ever tell these people that interval workouts are the way to go, to get one's heart going?


5.  Work Out Properly, Parts 2 through Infinity.    To anyone who concentrates in one area, how do you really feel?  Do those who only lift feel flexible and enjoy good cardio health?  To those who only do yoga have good bone density, have good cardio health and strength?  Do those who only do cardio have good bone density, strength and flexibility?  All three seem to be key to good health.  You don't have to spend a half day at the gym, and there are a bunch of things that you can do at home.   But staying fit requires that you focus on more than one area even if you love that area and don't like the rest.  Listen, you have the gym membership, so you might as well take advantage of everything your gym has to offer.


6.  Don't Insult Me.  I made conversation with a guy who was wearing a college sports t-shirt;  I went to a rival school.  I asked if he went there; he said no, but that his son "played ball" there, as if I knew what ball meant and then he explained football.  Now that school is viewed as one of the most snotty in its conference.  I offered that I went to a rival for graduate school.  Tough-guy dad then assesses me and says, "What, are you a Bernie Sanders supporter?"   Now,  I have not discussed politics on this blog and try to avoid the subject at all costs, and I will not reveal my thoughts on the Senator from Vermont.  What was clear was that this fellow did not mean the question as a compliment, but the way he asked it -- aggressive -- was uncalled for.  It then occurred to me that it wasn't just by chance why his two college-football-playing sons opted to live 3,000 miles away from dear old dad.


All in all, this bill of particulars is not all that terrible, as the good far outweigh the bad and there are so many offerings that I can get a good workout in a variety of ways.  I often say that if the average American halved his/her sugar intake, stretched 15 minutes a day and walked 30 minutes a day 5 days a week the healthcare system and our fellow citizens would be in far better shape.   There is a message in all of this -- instead of griping about the decline of the U.S. healthcare system, do what you can to control avoiding your own decline, as follows:


1.  Eat right. 
2.  Don't drink too much.
3.  Get a good night's sleep.
4.  Try to stay mellow and get away from social media.  People aren't trying to offend you personally or excluded you when they share their thoughts or gatherings.  And if they are, make your world bigger so that it doesn't matter.
5.  Exercise -- weights, flexibility and cardio.  5 days a week.
6.  Don't be lonely, circulate.  A lot.   While smoking and overeating can kill you, so can loneliness.  You might have a nice house with the 60-inch screen, a reclining chair and access to the best of Ben & Jerry's, but get out there and talk with people.  You will be glad that you did.
7.  Try to enjoy life's good things on occasion and celebrate when it is time.
8.  Help others, reach out to those in need.


There are many other adages, of course, and there are many elements to one's physical and mental health.  For sure, you aren't going to look like a CrossFitter or swimsuit model, but who does?  And you aren't going to change your habits in a week or lose ten pounds in a month.  But you have to start somewhere, and there is no time like the present.


Get going!

Reflections on the 76ers

You might like them because they are bold, they have swagger, their ownership knows how to market with "Trust the Process" and "Welcome to the Moment."  For us oldtimers, these are echos of either "We Owe You One" or "Come Buy the Seat You'll Never Sit In," with the latter accompanied by images of great plays by the likes of Dr. J that would have you jumping out of your seat. 


But swagger, sizzle, whatever you call it, only gets you so far.  The teams in the late 70's and early 80's were more mature, more formed, more ready for the big time.  This amalgamation of all sorts of parts has been compelling to watch -- at times -- and frustrating at others.  The bottom line is that if you had told an average 76ers' fan that the team would win 50 games and get to the second round of the playoffs, he would have taken it -- at the season's outset.


But the publicity machine, the hype machine, the huckster machine, could not leave well enough alone, could not be humble, got too big for its britches.  The Boston Celtics have been around for a while, they have an apparently transcending coach and a philosophy for attracting talent that says everyone must be able to handle the rock and shoot it -- inside and outside.  Brad Stevens is the new Greg Popovich, the Celtics the new Spurs -- perhaps.  Suffice it to say that the 76ers are not as good as some thought they were during the 16-game winning streak or as bad as some are saying now.


It would have been nice to see some humility from the organization, more respect for the league and the Celtics and even for the intelligence of the fans.  The owners -- led by Josh Harris -- owe the fans a debt of gratitude for staying with the team during a miserable process and for signing up for tickets when, qujte frankly, there was much more hope involved than a track record of excellence.  Series expose flaws, especially in young teams, and the gap between a 3 seed and a 2 seed seems great.  Pick positive adjectives and then the opposite and assign them to the Celtics and 76ers respectively, and you'll sum up the series, the 76ers' solid game last night notwithstanding.


This is a key off-season for the following people:  GM Bryan Colangelo, head coach Brett Brown, point-something Ben Simmons, swingman Robert Covington, center Joel Embiid and guard Markell Fultz.  Colangelo needs to make the right decisions on the trade and free-agent market, Brown needs to find his coaching voice, align it with those who select the talent, and adapt.  Simmons needs to build a reliable shot.  Covington needs to find the tonic for his disappearing acts.  Embiid needs to get in better shape.  Fultz needs to find his shot as well.


Those are a lot of variables for a team on the rise, a team that some have hyped should be a repeat visitor to the NBA finals. 


They also should tone down the hype machine, manage expectations, add a dose of humility to their cocktail and work their tails off to become more consistent and develop a consistent ability to finish off opponents and to step up and tangle with and defeat the best teams. 


This past season was a good start.


But to get to the elite level, there remains a significant amount of work to do.

Farewell, Arsene Wenger

Most of us cannot choose when we go out.  Do we leave when they love us?  Do we leave too early, as if we know that if we stayed too long we might get exposed?  Or do we leave too early and be missed, only to go to the next place and figure out that we might be exposed?  Or do we stay too late, failing to see the signs, keeping to the old methods, talking about the old days and not enough about the future?  Or, are we just fine, and, well, sometimes those in charge don't see eye to eye with us or we with them?  Departures, then, are a mixed bag.  There are always stories and facts, errors, omissions, the truth of the victors, the complaints of the vanquished, a sense that life is flawed, unfair, decisive, skewed, accelerated, too forgiving, not understanding enough, right, overdue, just plain wrong, or a combination of some or all of the above. 


At the end of the day, Arsene Wenger is leaving Arsenal.  Leaving as a legend after arriving as a relative unknown asked to replace a legend in George Graham.  A manager who made a quick mark on a hallowed club, got them to a high water mark with the Invincibles in 2004, only not to win another Premiership thereafter, not to win a Champions League, a Sisyphian struggle for the Gunners and their fans, still managing to finish in the top four and qualify for the Champions League for 20 straight years, always able to spot and develop young talent, and noteworthy for his steering the club through waffling ownership (the Kroenkes historically have owned their trophies but not done nearly enough to make them win) and finances taxing enough to compel him to sell contracts before he wanted to part with players.  A proud legacy, a successful one, but one that leaves an odd taste in the mouths of everyone involved.


Could it have gone more smoothly?  Could it have happened earlier?  Why did this exist have to be so public and so prolonged?  What are the Kroenkes up to? 


The latter question is the most compelling.  There is a striking parallel to their ownership of American football's Los Angeles Rams, where they were loyal to a head coach (Jeff Fisher) who will be mostly remembered for three things -- his inability to coach offense, his ability to coach defense, and his inability to develop quarterbacks.  Fisher languished in mediocrity so long that he gave rise to the following joke, told in mid-summer.  "Hey, today is Jeff Fisher Day."  "Why's that?"  The punchline:  "It's July 9.  7-9, get it?"  For those across the pond reading this, we Americans list the month first and then the day of it, not vice versa as many of you do.  Fisher's tendency for sub.-500, 7-win seasons drew a lot of notice, none of it favorable.


The Kroenkes were very loyal to Fisher, declaring their public support for him in the 2016 season and even giving him a contract extension.  Then the season ended badly, and the Kroenkes and Los Angeles Rams let him go.  The speculation was that the Rams would recycle a former head coach, the same way many English Premier League teams hire a Sam Allerdyce, Tony Pulis, David Moyes, Mark Hughes for one of their vacancies.  But instead, the Rams made an inspired choice.  They hired the 31 year-old offensive coordinator from the Washington Redskins (far from a good team right now) named Sean McVay. 


All McVay did was turn the Rams into one of the NFL's most dangerous teams, earning him coach-of-the-year honors.  He took a quarterback (Jared Goff) who was a disappointment under Fisher and whom some were already calling a bust into a formidable threat.  His team stood toe to toe with the best of the league and had a great year.


So now let's bring the spotlight back to Arsenal.   There are "dream jobs" in college football and college basketball in the United States, the heralded franchises with great traditions.  The same holds true in international football.  Who wouldn't want to coach at United, Arsenal, Liverpool, Juventus, Barcelona, Real Madrid, as well as the hugely financed squads at Chelsea, City, PSG? 


What will the brain trust at Arsenal do?  Hire the young up-and-comer, or the tried and true veteran.  The speculation abounds.  That said, the pressure on this manager will differ from the pressure that was placed on David Moyes, who was named to replace United's legend, Sir Alex Ferguson, several years ago.  Moyes was expected to win right away.  The new Arsenal manager will be given some time.  The Gunners don't have the talent to compete with the top four teams in the league, but that can change quickly, the same way it did at Liverpool when Juergen Klopp took over.  The comparisons to Wenger will not be nearly as tough as they were for Moyes to Ferguson, as Wenger's teams have struggled under the brightest of lights in recent years.  Those facts, in and of themselves, present Arsenal as even more of an attractive opportunity.


Arsene Wenger deserves many accolades, left a huge mark on the game, the game is better for it, and he will go down in history as an all-time great.  Now it's time for Arsenal to start writing a new chapter, one that evolves its approach and game and makes the first team better able to compete for the top spot in the EPL.

Patience, 76ers' Fans

One (bad) game does not a series make.

Maurice Cheeks and the Hall of Fame

He was ice.  He could penetrate when he had to, hit the jumper when left open, find the open man -- always.  And he had some greats to pass the ball to -- Malone, Toney, and, of course, Dr. J.


And now he is going to basketball's Hall of Fame.  Very much deservedly so.


But what makes Maurice Cheeks so extra special was what he did as a coach.  Oh, he won't be remembered for a whole lot about his coaching, especially when compared to his playing, but on the night when he was coaching his first playoff game, he did something magical.


He did not draw up a great play, give an inspired pre-game speech, even suit up to help his team.  No, he did this.  That's right, in the midst of getting lost in his thoughts about how his first playoff game as a coach would go, a young teenaged girl forgot the words to the Star Spangled Banner.  She knew that she was in trouble with the song, clutched herself, looked sideways, well, to see perhaps if there was divine intervention.  Most of us would have wanted to drop through the floor, cover ourselves and not come out. 


But this young woman was lucky enough to have Maurice Cheeks.  Cheeks walked over to her, looked at her reassuringly, coached her on the words and guided this young person with a very nice voice to complete the national anthem.  It was a Hall of Fame moment, one that will bring tears to your eyes.


Why?  Because in a moment when he had every right to be selfish, to get lost in his own thoughts, to figure out about how he would work match-ups and substitutions and timeouts, Maurice Cheeks thought of someone else -- a young person in dire need.  And he walked over to her and in a most calming and avuncular fashion, guided her through an awful time.


That's what captains of the ship do.  That's what leaders do.  That's what people of great character do.


And that's what Hall of Famers do!


Congratulations, Maurice Cheeks -- we are honored to have you in our lives.

Matt Davidson -- 3 HRs on Opening Day for the White Sox; and Dan LeBatard and His Reaction to Ian Happ's home run

I was in this wonderful fantasy baseball league years ago.  Great group of guys, and normally we drafted before the season began.  That particular year, though, we drafted a few days after opening day (and yes, previous stats would count).  One of the hottest commodities that year was a Cubs' outfielder named Karl "Tuffy" Rhodes.  The reason was that Rhodes homered three times on opening day, guaranteeing to throw his price in our auction out of proportion because owners draft on hope and potential.  He even hit one off Doc Gooden. 


He also ended up with only 269 at-bats for the season, hit only eight home runs, hit .224 for his career and ended up in Japan.  Every year, though, during our draft, his name would come up, more or less in "buyer beware."


That is not to say that Matt Davidson is not a good player, will not be a good player, and will not have a good season.  It's just to say that after one game, it is hard to draw any conclusions at all, unless, of course, you are Dan LeBatard, the ESPN personality and Miami-area sports talk show host.  LeBatard's reaction to Ian Happ's season-opening home run off the Marlins -- on the very first pitch of the MLB season -- is priceless.


The odds are that the Marlins will not be as awful at LeBatard suggests (they could be close, though) or that Davidson will hit 486 home runs (to Giancarlo Stanton's 324). 


There remains a lot of baseball to be played.

We All are Scott Foster

The NHL has a bedeviling problem -- goaltenders who wear down and get hurt before and during games.  So much so that the league requires teams to have pools of goaltenders in tow with one "back-up" in the arena in case something happens to the other two.  The rule derives from an old hockey custom that if the goalie got hurt a team could grab someone out of the stands and have him play goalie.  Fast forward until today, and teams have people who played goalie at some level -- preferably college or junior or in the minors -- and who do something else now, ready for just this purpose.


Typically, these goalies don't see action.  A few have gotten to suit up and sit on the bench when one of a team's two goalies is unable for the game.  One even got to play for the final 7.6 seconds of a game this year. 


Last night, though, something different happened.  The Blackhawks were down to one "regular" goalie and had a thirty-six year old accountant, Scott Foster, who played some goalie in college, on the bench.  With about 15 minutes to go or so, the starting goalie started cramping, and the Blackhawks turned to Foster to finish a 6-2 victory over a play-off bound team.  Foster played flawlessly, drawing the admiration from a grateful Hawks' team, the fans, the league and frankly sports fans everywhere.


Great job, Scott Foster.  You did what everyone dreams of -- getting called upon, suiting up and helping your team win.  Great story!

The Joys of Spring Training

The chalk base lines.


The crack of a bat.


The pop of a ball into a mitt.


The high numbers of the prospects who are trying to make a name for themselves.


The alumni, gathered near a field, swapping stories of the old days.


The optimism of each team, even if the deepest, most thorough analytics tell a different story.


The discussion of the building of legacies.  Can Scherzer win a fourth Cy Young Award?  How will Judge and Stanton fare in the same lineup.  Will Crawford, Kingery and Hoskins be this decade's version of Rollins, Utley and Howard for the Phillies?  Is Mike Trout the best outfielder ever?  Who is a lock for the Hall besides Ichiro and Adrian Beltre? 


The hot stove yields to the warm weather of Florida and Arizona.  Rosters for the most part are in place, usually with only a few spots open.  The union and the owners still joust about an issue or too, this year that the game is too slow in the weather that climate change brings.  The younger fans, to the extent they remain interested, get bored quickly.  Can they speed up the game the way they do in the minors?  Joust they have done, and joust they will continue to do.  They probably fight about the Oxford comma in contract negotiations, such is the history.


Families go to spring training to get closer to the players, who are more wont to sign autographs before the games count. 


It's a wonderful thing, this spring training.  A way to slow down time, reminisce about the good times and speculate about the future. 


Have a hot dog, smell the popcorn, eat peanuts and toss the shells wherever you like. 


Just like they used to do it decades ago.

College Basketball Payola

Anyone and everyone in law enforcement will tell you that just because everyone does it does not make it right.  Which means, of course, that the payoff scandal that has enveloped college basketball will have consequences for schools and coaches with both the NCAA and Federal law enforcement officials.


Major college football and basketball programs are a far cry from what they were even thirty years ago.  There is a lot of money involved, period.  Sure, most DI football programs lose money; those that don't can make a lot of it.  College basketball has so exploded in popularity that networks pay billions to televise March Madness. 


So, there should be plenty of money to go around.  Right?


Wrong.  Dead wrong.


The reason that there is not plenty of money to go around is that seemingly everyone gets to wet his beak save the people ultimately responsible for the product -- the players.  Yes, they receive scholarships, but they are mostly one-year renewable deals, and in many programs they are shuttled into courses and majors that enable them to stay eligible so that they can play.  In certain cases, those courses are not all that rigorous and don't provide meaningful preparation for a life after the sport.  And players need that preparation, for only a very small number go on to play for money (legal money as it currently stands) after college. 


Colleges make money in many ways off these players, some of whom are poor.  Sure, they get the scholarship and a miniscule monthly stipend, but that's it.  And if they should get hurt, well, they're gone.  All of the caring that was shown to parents and grandparents during the recruiting process vanishes in one of the ultimate "what have you done for me lately" scenarios.  This is ugly underbelly to that pageantry that exists before, during and after each game.


Some will argue that the NCAA is paternalistic at best and racist at worst.  The reason -- baseball and hockey players -- most of whom are white -- are allowed to have agents while in college and can turn pro right after high school.  Somehow, the basketball and football worlds don't like that; college has become a monopoly, a requirement, regardless of the fact whether some of these great players want to go to college or belong in college.  The racism/paternalism that exists denies them the right to play for money right after high school and compels them to attend a college program for a year.  The silliness of it all is that the colleges have had to go along with it, turning some programs into a peculiarity because, for example, Kentucky this year has no seniors on its team.  It gets so many good prospects that to stay for four years would be a failure.  But why do many of those kids have to go to college in the first place? 


So what's the answer?  One the one hand, you have those who argue that the players should get paid.  It is hard to determine how much they should get paid and who should get paid?  Everyone on the team?  Every college football player, or only those at FCS schools?  Should there be a union (unadvisable, as the NFL's union has not been all that successful) or should each player be a free agent?  Should there be salary caps?  The list of issues is long, and colleges also then would need to worry about their tax-exempt status.  Would just those sports be taxes, or the entire operation?  Some will argue -- eliminate the one-and-done rule and pay the players, and problems will be solved in college basketball. 


But why should the colleges have to bear this burden?  Then again, why should the colleges be in the for-profit business of sports anyway?  Why must players go to college?  Why shouldn't they be able to go pro the way they can in hockey, baseball, tennis and soccer?  And why can't NFL and NBA teams have academies the way international soccer clubs do?  Players sign at an early age, move to near where the club is, get paid, get tutoring so that they can get their education through high school and then focus on honing their craft and just playing?  It seems to work in international soccer, so why not for basketball and football? 


Sure, many in the paternalistic world of college sports won't like it, as it could be the case that many of the top 50-200 players might opt for an academy instead of going to college.  They can focus on their sport and get money for their families, which some desperately need.  This also could mean that the SEC football schools and ACC hoops schools, among many others, might not get the top prospects.  But this also could mean that the sports could return to being interesting and fun extracurricular activities and then some more than big businesses.  I still think that without five-star recruits Nick Saban would be inventive enough to win a national title.  The question would be whether the players who do not go into academies should get scholarships and salaries or just scholarships.  The formation of academies in the pro leagues does not solve the problem over whether college athletes should get paid.


This is a complicated topic with no easy answer.  The current system clearly does not work.  And if you have a system where people feel they need to cheat in order to keep up or tread water, you need to reexamine the system to determine how to change it so that no one has to break the rules.  It's one think to punish the violators; it's another to change rules and the culture that surrounds the sports.  The powers that be need to focus on the problem they are trying to solve -- whether it's to clean up the current mess and keep the rules in place or to clean up the current mess and change the system or the rules so that the integrity of the games, which is on shaky ground -- can be improved and the coach and players inserted into a system that does not provide much temptation to cheat. 


The vote here is to end the paternalism, let all kids go pro out of high school, take a lot of the developmental work away from the colleges, have the NBA and NFL teams form academies, leave college for the ones who truly want to be there, share more revenue with those who go to college, and put in harsh penalties for those who violate the new rules. 

Thank You, Birds!

The buildup to the Super Bowl was excruciating.  Time moved so slowly in the Philadelphia for the two weeks leading up to the big game.  There were stories atop stories about each player's pathway to the game, the Philadelphia-area connections of Patriots' players, the Pats' mystique, whether Tom Brady would lead yet another comeback, the underdog status of the home team, the pundits' selections (75% of them picked New England).  Would Eagles' back-up QB continue with his hot hand or wilt under the pressure of the Super Bowl?  Could the Pats' offensive line protect Brady?  Questions upon questions, theories upon theories.


I think that most Philadelphia fans went into the contest with the belief that the Eagles could win the game.  I am not sure that most subscribe to any "team of destiny" theory, but the facts were that the team had suffered some staggering losses to its roster and healed them.  Losing  starting CB Ronald Darby on the first series of downs in the first game for more than half the season began a cascade of increasingly devastating losses.  Okay, so you might not thinking losing your kicker (Caleb Sturgis) or special teams captain (Chris Maragos) was a big deal, but then in the same game the Birds lost future Hall of Fame left tackle Jason Peters and starting middle linebacker Jordan Hicks, another star contributor.  And then, of course, the team lost starting QB Carson Wentz, who was on his way to an MVP season.  All of those losses aggregated; losing Wentz suggested that perhaps the Eagles' had run their course for the season, that despite some great play all of the injuries would be too much to overcome.


Coaches will tell you that if you give a team an excuse to lose, they'll take it.  Part of the brilliance of head coach Doug Pederson and the teams leaders (among them Malcolm Jenkins and Chris Long) was a refusal to offer or take excuses.  Pederson led a culture that was all about accountability and continuous improvement, topped off with a relentless ability and desire to adapt to changing circumstances.  This Eagles team did this time and time again.  They generated a vibe that said that they could run and hit with anybody, but that their true measure was not what they did when things were going well, but what they did when things were not.  And when things were not going well, they dusted themselves off, picked themselves off the canvas, and turned the disappointment into opportunity.


Naturally, all Eagles' fans were hoping for a win.  Desperately.  Deep down, all fans have their doubts.  Sometimes, teams just don't play well on a given day, or they do, only to lose their focus, take their foot off the gas pedal and lose a big lead.  Very much, all Eagles' fans were hoping for a valiant showing from their team, that if they were going to lose, it would be not because of falling asleep at the wheel, but with guns a-blazing.  The reasons for this have to do with much more than football.


The country treats Philadelphia like a poor, developmentally challenged stepchild at times.  Condescending, patronizing, scolding, demeaning, use whatever verb you want.  New Yorkers disdain Philadelphia because, well, it isn't New York, it isn't open 24-7 and it doesn't have all that New York has to offer.  Philadelphia once was home to the government and the financial world, but that was so far back in the day that the legislators used to have summer homes in what is now the Grays' Ferry part of the city, about a 15-minute ride from Independence Mall.  A series of maneuvers and compromises took the financial center to Manhattan and the government to swamp land south of Maryland that became the District of Columbia.  The city has been the butt of jokes, starting with the comedian W.C. Fields, who wanted emblazoned on his tombstone "On the whole, I'd rather be in Philadelphia." 


The city didn't do itself any favors, either.  Fans did boo Santa Claus (that the version of Santa in question was drunk and slovenly and an embarrassment to the trade gets no mention), throw snowballs at the Dallas Cowboys (led by a future mayor of the city, no less) and get put in a makeshift jail at the old Veterans Stadium (the showboat judge who established the court later got elected to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, only to later resign in disgrace because of a scandal involving the sharing of pornographic e-mails).  We had a tough-guy mayor show up to a riot with a night stick in the cumberbund of his tuxedo, and another mayor who infamously permitted the police department to drop a bomb on a row house to roust a violent disobedient movement from the confines, only to end up torching several blocks of the city.  Industry moved away, first down south and then overseas.  Take a train into Philadelphia from outside the city or from the suburbs and you might think that you are passing a former war zone, the empty, scavenged, dilapidated and graffiti-laden buildings testimony to a time when the city made a lot of things.  A famous writer, it might have been Veblen, once wrote, "Philadelphia, corrupt and contented." 


Put differently, I've never felt that the city and its residents felt as good about itself as they should.  Instead, they sometimes act like they don't belong or that someone else is judging them and that, as a result, they don't measure up.  It also didn't help that the records of the sports teams pale in comparison to the Yankees to the north and to all Boston teams and even to the Baltimore Orioles in comparison to the hometown Phillies.  And there have been some famous blown leads, notably by the Phillies in the 1977 National League Championship Series and the 76ers from the late 1960's through the late 1970's.  And then there were the Eagles, 1-5 in NFC championship games under Andy Reid and 0-2 in Super Bowls. 


Losers, chokers, poor drafters, soulless stadium (the Vet), hockey team with an antiquated way of doing things, basketball team that holds the NBA record for the worst record in a season, baseball team that was the first franchise to lose 10,000 games (we didn't know anyone was counting).  How many times have we heard it?  How many times have we had our faces rubbed in it? 


This game meant a lot more than just a Super Bowl.  It had to do with the overall identity of our home town.  Now, many of us aren't extreme idolators and realize what a good thing we have -- good houses and schools and communities without the taxes and prices of New England, New York and New Jersey.  We get that.  It's not that we don't think that we have a good thing -- locally.  But it's the national image that irks us.  Sure, we can fight with each other and have internal rivalries.  But pick on us, and we'll get our backs up and defend each other hard.  And fight back with you.  Even with that, though, there was this thing -- that we haven't always done our best on the national stage, and people look down on us -- and our city -- because of it.


The Eagles' victory over the Patriots changed all that.  The Birds played aggressively throughout, charged hard at the defending champs, the dynasty with the best QB ever and the best head coach over and outplayed them.  They even ran a trick play that people will be talking about forever, one that they ran on fourth down and one at the opponents' goal line right before the first half ended that increased the team's lead.  And they kept on coming and coming.  They did so without their starting QB, without their future HOF left tackle, without their starting middle linebacker.  They did so not because one person stepped up above all others, but because they all stepped up, did their jobs, helped each other and took the game away from the Patriots. 


They made a statement.  To be the best you have to beat the best, and they did. 


And, in so doing, they hit the re-set button for an entire region.  Yeah, you can pick on us and make fun of us and talk about how our area stinks.  Most of you who do that have never been here and don't understand what makes the place special in so many ways.  We have heard it all; there's not much more you can say that we haven't already heard, and what there is will not hurt us.  Why?  Because we've been slammed with it for years, and each and every time we shake it off, carry on, move on and stand up strong.  But what the Eagles' did -- overcoming the adversity that they did, staying together and holding true to a common belief that they could achieve what no Eagles' team had done in the prior 52 years -- makes a statement that blankets and elevates an entire region and entire group of people.


We can win the big one in the biggest sport on the biggest stage. 


We are winners.


We always thought we could do anything we set our minds to.


But now we have shown everyone we can.


And made believers out of them.


Thank you, Eagles, for this most special of victories. 


In flying proudly, you have elevated all of us to fly with you. 


And it feels really good.

The Questions that the Michigan State Affair (and Others) Raise

Penn State.



Baylor.



Michigan State.



The Sandusky affair, the blatant disregard for sexual assault and the blatant disregard for sexual molestation and assault are stunning, troubling and horrifying.  Imagine, also, if your kids were the victims.  How would you feel?  And, if they're not, how do you feel?  Why should this type of behavior be enabled, tolerated and covered up at these schools?



But there are two other compelling questions that must be raised.  Are we naïve enough to believe that these are the only institution with these problems?  Are we now cynical enough to believe that every institution has this type of problem and that there are two types of colleges -- those that have been caught and those who have not?  Which school is next?  And what will the Michigan State do to amateur athletics, college athletics, high school athletics and college administrations in general?  Is the Michigan State affair just the tip of a huge iceberg that is about to surface and ram itself into each and every college?



The second question, equally compelling, is why these patterns of behavior seem to go on an not get hit head on with a sledgehammer and stopped?  Why don't people want to stand up and take on the odd behavior of a Jerry Sandusky, the sexual assault culture at Baylor, the molestation/assault culture at Michigan State?  People saw the behavior, they saw the signs, they knw things were going on and yet, they did nothing.  Or not enough.



Why?



I have given this some thought and posit that it takes a lot of courage to stand up because of a few factors.  First, you don't know if you will be believed.  Second, you don't know if you will be retaliated against (look into what happened to Mike McQueary at Penn State) or whether you will be committing career suicide, because who wants to hire a whistleblower?  Third, you don't want to risk losing all the trappings of your job -- the 401(k) or 403(b) match for your retirement funds, the defined contribution that a university makes to your retirement account, the tuition support for your kids' tuition, your tenure and rank at the institution.  Or you think that taking a stand is above your pay grade -- it is for someone else to do.  Or you think that others must know and are looking into it.  Finally, most people hate conflict, like going home to their comfortable chair, big-screen television and ice cream at night.  They like being comfortable, and raising an issue this serious is very uncomfortable.  And for some, there is no safety net, no safe landing space. 



All of these factors are plausible.  Many institutions try to build in mechanisms for people to raise complaints.  Hotlines can be very useful if people feel uncomfortable to raise questions in real time and in person.  But hotlines have some baggage -- the reporter at times only wants to go so far and many times does not want to meet with the investigators.  As a result, incidents reported on hotlines can be unsubstantiated, especially if they occur in isolation.  That said, were Michigan State to have gotten numerous reports about Larry Nassar, the odds would have increased dramatically that Michigan State had a Larry Nassar problem and that Larry Nassar had big problems.  Have one person make a claim that investigators cannot substantiate, and, well, it's an unsubstantiated claim.  Have ten people make claims in a concentrated period of time, and most likely there are enough dots to connect and dominos to fall that the likes of Nassar get outed, fired and prosecuted.


There are many great minds in higher education and law enforcement, and they need to partner to figure out solutions so that these affairs do not happen again.  There will be occasional bad incidents -- it is hard to avoid them -- but the goal would be to knock out patterns of behavior before they come patterns and tsunamis of crime to occur before they even become a two-incident trend.  Cultures must change; the money must not corrupt an institution and institutions need to realize that they need to hit incidents head on to protect their reputations as opposed to avoiding them because no one wants to deal with a scandal.  Deal with an incident head on and dispatch with it, and you'll get a reputation for an accountable institution that does things the right way.  Let things go because you don't want to do the right thing or bring embarrassment to the university, well, look at Michigan State right now.  Their brand is damaged, their proverbial ship is listing mightily.  And why?  Because despite many opportunities, no one in authority did anything.  And no one -- not Tom Izzo, not Mark Dantonio, not Larry Nassar -- should be bigger than the institution.  And in this case, MSU let Nassar and his "global" reputation become bigger than the institution to the point where no one would believe that such a legendary figure could be such a predator.  Everyone is accountable; the bigger the name, the higher the standards they should be held to and hold themselves to.  Why?  It's called leadership.  It's called accountability.


So how much of this remains out there?  The examples are not limited to pedophilia and sexual harassment, either.  For example, before privacy laws came into effect in the U.S. regarding healthcare, employers had free rein to examine which employees were biggest users of their healthcare plans, who had AIDS, and who suffered from mental health issues.  My guess is that the landscape is littered with busted careers because those who ran companies -- through their human resources departments -- scanned these records.  After all, who wanted someone making $40,000 a year in a clerical job using up $200,000 a year in AIDS medicine or who wanted a nut case working for them because the company knew that the rising star went to see a psychiatrist and might have gotten a prescription for a sedative?  I wrote the previous lines pejoratively, because, needless to say, that type of managerial behavior was deplorable.  Lord knows the billions in damages people suffered -- not to mention the damage to their reputations -- because of the speculation that must have swirled about them because of the peek into the healthcare records.  The privacy laws ended those "look ins" but the damage was done.    The AIDS patient was not evil, and neither was the person who was aware enough to get some help for his mental health issues.  Oddly, the evil was in the acts of the management, who wanted to sanitize anything and not give one rat's rear end about others' lives or a sense of community.  Compassion?  That obviously was for someone else. 


My guess is that Penn State, Michigan State and Baylor cannot be the only ones.  North Carolina and Louisville had scandals regarding phony classes and strippers/payments to players, respectively.  The laws that require the reporting of sexual assaults on campus can make any parent worry; it stands to reason that more reports of systematic neglect and aggressiveness against victims will surface, big-name coaches will be involved, and whole administrations might continue to fall.  Put different, the odds are that similar scandals are brewing at between 15-20% of the schools in the Power 5 conferences.  Which means, then, that there might be half a dozen more schools that have serious issues. 


I used to comment on these pages that I didn't want my kids to go to a college where any coach makes more than the university president.  My reason for saying this is that I want the schools to have their priorities in order -- not the bread and circus that can mollify the masses of students that go to the big places -- but an emphasis on learning, community and skills needed to graduate with confidence and become a productive member of society.  While I like sports, I could care less whether the schools' teams win the majority of their games or whether the school has to expel a star because despite what he means to the team he committed an act of violence.  Yes, as the Duke lacrosse debacle taught us, everyone is entitled to a defense, and I don't want to paint athletic administrations, coaches and players with a broad brush, but schools need to deal with acts of aggression or molestation -- against any student, not just an athlete -- with compassion and dispatch.  The accused must be afforded their rights too -- we cannot go overboard with trials by media or angry student groups because an incident happened the night before and tensions are running high.


Lastly, the NCAA is not the organization to deal with this issue.  Oh, it will jump in the way it did against Penn State because there was a huge public hue and cry and because the powers that be -- including the now-questioned Mark Emmert -- figured that they had to do something.  I am not sure that the NCAA has jurisdiction or that it should step in.  Law enforcement seems to be all over the case, as it should be.  That said, I think that the powers that be in the State of Michigan should realize the huge culture problem they have in East Lansing and take decisive measure to change the culture and make sure that they have their priorities in order. 


Something went really, terribly, horribly wrong.  My heart aches for all the victims and their families.  This is a huge crisis, and Michigan State must turn it into an opportunity, so that no person who walks on the campus walks in fear or walks concerned that if she has any concerns about her well being, that she will not be able to raise them and get a good, fast response.  That should not be too much to ask, but, apparently, on many college campuses, it is right now.

The Philadelphia Eagles

Team trades for shutdown corner and loses him for 9 games after first series in first game.


Team loses very versatile, veteran, savvy do-it-all running back/return man early in the season, along with its kicker.


Team loses top special teams player not that long thereafter.


Team loses future Hall of Famer/left tackle and very good starting middle linebacker in the ninth game.


Not long after that, phenom QB, en route to an MVP season, tears ligaments in his knee, done for the season.


Team finishes 13-3 and is going to the Super Bowl.


Got all that?


Many pundits predicted that the Philadelphia Eagles would go 8-8, perhaps 9-7 at best with this year's team.  Among the question marks going into the season were depth at running back, the ability of a new receiving corps to out-produce last year's group, whether center Jason Kelce could recover from a bad season, and whether the oft-criticized defensive backfield could at least become average.  Atop that, there were worries about the age of starting left tackle Jason Peters (35) and the natural concerns -- nothing elevated, of course -- that Carson Wentz would continue to progress because despite all of the hype, the last half of the 2016 season didn't go all that well for the ream.  The concerns were marked going into the season and became magnified with the personnel losses that occurred during it.


What no fan could have predicted was the quality of work done in the front office (where once-maligned head of football operations Howie Roseman made few mistakes and should be everyone's executive of the year and head coach Doug Pederson, who, quite frankly, few were excited about when Roseman hired him, adjusted well with the personnel he has and coached the team most ably, weathering the losses).  What resulted by the season's end were the following -- a very much "plus" receiving corps, a vastly improved back-up TE in Trey Burton, a defensive backfield that became a big asset with depth, a starting QB who looks like the next great one, a back-up who looks like he might be in demand for a trade and several good running backs.


Teams need a lot of things to go right to get to the Super Bowl.  First and foremost, it goes without saying that they need to play well.  But more than that, they need to adjust their plans for the personnel they have and need to have sufficient depth, because it's a given that key players will get hurt for periods of time.  The Eagles have played well, and they have adjusted for changes to their roster.  The last result underscored the strength of the depth and the team's ability to insert new players and new schemes and take care of the opposition.  It has been impressive to say the least.


The City of Philadelphia remains giddy after the team's convincing win over the Vikings.  That same giddy group probably was in despair after the Vikings scored the game's first touchdown, but now they are starting to focus on the fact that the Eagles have never won the Super Bowl and must defeat a dynasty to hoist the Lombardi Trophy. 


This is a very solid team, replete with good leadership, an esprit de corps that screams "attack" when you see them walk into a stadium, lines that are good at pushing the opposition off the ball and a variety of skill players who can find the end zone.  The Patriots, deservedly so, are the favorites.   Until someone takes the crown from them, they have the right to wear it.  They can continue to burnish the reputation of an already-established dynasty and add luster to their far-reaching shine. 


And the Eagles can finally get to the top of the hill. 


Were they to do so, the City of Philadelphia will party perhaps like no championship has ever partied before.  Yes, the Phillies drew great crowds in 2008.  Fun time.  But if the Eagles were to win the Super Bowl, the parade and parties that will ensue will make the Phillies' celebration look like a toddler's birthday party at Chuck 'E Cheese's. 


As a lifelong fan, it would be fun to watch that explosion.


Fly, Eagles, fly!

Jalen Hurts: A Lesson in Character

It has been said that sports don't develop character -- they reveal it. 


Last night, Alabama trailed Georgia at the half.  While the entire team didn't execute well, the focal point of that execution became the Crimson Tide's quarterback, Jalen Hurts.  It just wasn't Hurts who wasn't playing well on offense for the Tide -- his blockers had their mistakes and his receivers had trouble gaining separation.  But Hurts didn't do as well as he normally did, and the Georgia defense did a good job of frustrating Alabama and its running game. 


So, if your running game isn't working, you have to pass the ball.  Well, Hurts isn't known as the best passer in the world, and the Alabama coaches had a decision to make -- stay with the guy who is a team leader and had gotten you this far, or call a huge audible and replace him with a freshman who hadn't played a down of consequence in his career.  That freshman, though, is better at throwing the ball, and the Alabama coaches thought that the change was justified.  We all know what happened afterwards -- the change further cements Nick Saban as a coaching legend, and the freshman substitute had a fairy-tale like game that climaxed with a flawless TD pass on fourth and long at the end of the second overtime to give Alabama its sixth national championship in nine years.  All of that has been written about a lot and many stories will continue to focus on this exciting game and the coaching of Nick Saban.


But suppose you're the quarterback who won 25 games in two years, including a national title as a freshman, played in the national title game last season and then gets benched.  Ironically, his name is Hurts, and there is nothing more than can hurt the psyche of a young man then to be yanked from a game -- the national championship game -- before a live audience of millions of people and with family and friends in attendance.  Yes, that has to hurt.  Young men could get angry, feel frustrated, humiliated, disappointed, upset that they were not getting a chance to redeem themselves, could question themselves, their coach's loyalty to them, the fairness of it all and whatever other emotions could boil over at such a critical juncture in their lives.


Jalen Hurts didn't.  He remained engaged on the sideline.  He remained supportive of this team and very much encouraged his back-up and gave pointers about different coverages.  Jalen Hurts did not play the role of the wounded turtle and retreat to his shell.  He stood tall, summoned the strength and emotional fortitude to know that he is part of a team and something bigger than himself, that a starting position is not an entitlement, and a whole bunch of other thoughts and emotions that went into the algorithm in his head that instructed him, "you are a leader, you have been a leader on this team, your team needs you to continue to lead, especially when the team is behind.  Stand tall, be supportive and continue to lead.  You might not be the quarterback on the field right now, but you are still a leader."


Alabama could have wilted after the half or after it found itself down 20-7 with six minutes and change left to go in the third quarter.  But the Crimson Tide had one more high tide left in them and kept finding the energy and determination to overcome disappointments within the game (an interception tossed by the back-up, a missed field goal at the end of regulation that would have won the game for them) to win the game. 


Jalen Hurts, the quarterback, was not on the field for almost all of that time, save one play where he ran the ball to set up the field goal attempt at the end of regulation.  Jalen Hurts, the leader, was all over that field in spirit, helping his team win in any way he could.  Sure, Jalen Hurts did not throw the game-winning touchdown pass, but he emerged a winner in multiple ways last night -- as a person of tremendous character, and with his second national championship ring.  Okay, so he didn't play at his best level last night, but it would be hard to imagine that he ever has led any better or revealed aspects of his character any better than he did last night.


Alabama wins for a reason.  Sure, the Tide can recruit with the best of them.  Other schools recruit well too.  But it's the culture of maturity and accountability that distinguishes the Crimson Tide from any other program out there.  The Tide have about eight players who will leave early and get selected in the early rounds of the NFL draft.  Jalen Hurts will not be one of them, and it's unclear right now what his future in football will be -- as a quarterback at Alabama, as a quarterback somewhere else or playing another position at Alabama.  And most people will not remember how he took his disappointment on Monday night; they will remember how his back-up -- a freshman from Hawaii -- took over in the second half and helped lead the team to victory.  But deep down, the person to whom Jalen Hurts has to answer -- himself -- should know that how he acted last night was extraordinary.


It's fun to watch exciting games with theatrics, lead changes and dramatic endings.  It's even more rewarding to watch them when you see young men dig deep and reveal a part of themselves that is truly amazing.  Jalen Hurts did that last night, and the Alabama nation should be thankful for it.

Rick Carlisle is Just Plain Wrong

If Rick Carlisle had his way, any network that pays the NBA big bucks to support the private jets, the high salaries, the nice locker rooms and the amazing practice facilities has zero right to provide any content that might stir up a controversy for a team or, heaven forbid, one of his fellow coaches.  That, in essence, is what Carlisle offered in a pugnacious, dismissive style yesterday at a press conference.  Put bluntly, he was trying to intimidate the sports media from doing its job.


The cause of Carlisle's anger is the NBA's current court jester, LaVar Ball, who can provide some compelling flavor in a professional sports world that is too full of sanitized quotes and teams who prevent access to star players.  Should Ball be the story?  In many cases, not really, because he is an attention hound.  That said, he also is the father of the second pick in last year's NBA draft, and that player is a member of one of the league's highest profile franchises, the Los Angeles Lakers.  On most days, Ball is a side show, and the media has come around to treating him as such, someone who is famous, like Paris Hilton and the Kardashians, for being famous.


But that doesn't mean that LaVar Ball cannot provide compelling news.  His quote the other day that the Lakers' players were unhappy and that head coach Luke Walton has lost the locker room is, whether Carlisle likes it or not, news.  That quote compels beat reporters to dig in and discern whether this is LaVar Ball's opinion, whether LaVar Ball is relaying his son's opinion, or whether LaVar Ball is relaying his son's report that other players have come to the same conclusion.  Yes, a lot of the above is hearsay, but that is why beat reporters dig in, cover the story and report. 


Many have criticized the media over this story, and Carlisle is not the only one.  There are those who offer that the media should not be listening to LaVar Ball or giving him an audience.  There are those who want to disqualify Ball automatically because his acts like a court jester and seems to say something almost daily that will draw him a headline.  And then there is Carlisle, who offered that ESPN should do whatever it can to make the league look good. 


Carlisle is a good coach and a bright guy; he didn't get a degree from the prestigious University of Virginia for nothing.  His point also has some logic to it, namely, that if ESPN plays big money for the rights to the NBA and wants to offer an outstanding product to viewers, it should endeavor to make the league look as good and robust as possible, presumably, even though Carlisle didn't say it, to make the league look more attractive to fans, who will tune in more, which, in turn, will make the product more compelling to advertisers, who will drive up rates, which will help ESPN's revenues, enable it to pay more for rights in the future, which will enable the teams to make more money and, accordingly, pay the Rick Carlisles of the world more, all the while giving them fewer headaches in the form of the self-appointed and by far best quote in the NBA this year.  Got it?


Good, because the logic is as good as far is it goes.  Look, I think that ESPN is not pure journalism, and it's original name, the "Entertainment and Sports Programming Network" suggests that it is more entertainment and less journalism.  But the journalism is there -- in E60, Thirty for Thirty, "Outside the Lines" and other stories that they cover.  And so long as it is there, they have the right, and perhaps even if in their at times conflicted role (whose Achille's heel Carlisle's comments tweak) to cover a story for which the main source is none other than LaVar Ball.  


That said, ESPN has put itself in this awkward position -- paying big bucks for the rights but also positing itself as the premier provider in the U.S. of sports news  along with content.  It has tenacious reporters who love to be the first source for a story, including Seth Wickersham, Adrian Wojnaroski and many others.  So, it stands to reason that if something is rotten in the Lakers' locker room, ESPN should be covering it.  And U.S. coaches and managers have it relative easy compared to soccer coaches/managers around the world, where the journalistic competition is fierce to break the hot story about what currently is making or breaking a football squad.  You might need to have a thick skin in the U.S.; in Europe, you need cast-iron underwear.


Reporting is a critical aspect of our society, and the better and more thorough the reporting the better off we all are.  Tremendous, withering criticism has been sent the media's way because of the way it has covered certain events (or not covered them) over time.  Emotions are high; allegations of "fake" news abound, even when the news is real and the accuser wants to deflect attention away from himself or the issues that are bedeviling him.  The press isn't perfect, and neither are the sources.  But it stands to reason that a credible person can be wrong on occasion and someone viewed as an abject nut case can be right.  And that is the journalist's job to figure out -- is LaVar right, or is he spouting off again, the NBA's version of "Old Faithful."

Riflery and the Process

When I was a kid, I was a pretty good shot.  My day camp had riflery, and I shot .22's, pretty well, too.  I remember the range master and how he ran the range.  You were given a rifle, and the first round was for practice.  Correcting for bad sighting was easy if, for example, your first five shots ended up in the upper right hand quadrant of the target.  He'd tell you to adjust your sight two clicks to the left and two clicks down.  Then, when you shot your next round, presumably you would place your bullets in the area of the bulls eye (which actually happened much more often than not).

Contrast that with the shooter who misses the target or places shots in each quadrant.  That shooter is so inconsistent he probably is not controlling his breathing, is jerking the trigger and has no idea whether he will hit the target or not.  The problem is so bad if so fundamental that it is hard to correct.  You need to tell the shooter to control his breathing, but not to stop it, and not to jerk the trigger, etc., etc., etc.  The point being that it is much harder to correct this problem because the problems are manifested all over the place.

And that leads me to the Philadelphia 76ers.  The good news, if you can call it that, is that the team's problems are consistent, analogously in the same quadrant.  They are the following:  1) Ben Simmons right now is either unable or unwilling to shoot the ball enough and well enough to take over a game, for all of the hype behind him; 2) the team has a penchant for blowing big leads in the second half; 3) the team turns the ball over too much; 4) the team has too many one-dimensional guards and cannot guard another team's star guard; and 5) it still does not know whether for all the money they are paying him they can have a healthy and in-shape Joel Embiid on the floor for 75 games a season.

The bad news, if we go back to the rifle range analogy, is that the range master could be dealing with a shooter with an out-of-date gun or bad eyes, as the problems the team is dealing with, while fixable, are pronounced, especially for a team that is in year 5 or so of "The Process."  Problem #6, if there is one, is that there have been a lot of misses in the draft, for all of Sam Hinkie's stockpiling of draft picks (and, to his credit, Hinkie warned that not every move would work).  Michael Carter-Williams was a miss, as were Nerlens Noel and Jahlil Okafor, the latter somewhat glaring because the league has almost totally morphed away from needing the type of player Okafor is, which is a throwback to the days where you couldn't win without a center who could dominate in the low post.  And it is hard to say right now what the team has in Simmons, who admittedly missed a season in his formative years and has shown signs of brilliance, and this year's first overall pick, Markell Fultz, whose grade must be an incomplete.

So, how to fix things?  As for #1, Simmons needs to spend the summer working on his jump shot.   His 103 or so touches a game, which the last time I looked were 20 more than the next guy, seem excessive when you consider his overall production.  Kyrie Irving, LeBron James, and Russell Westbrook he is not.  To me, the more touches a player has, the easier it can be to defend his team.  So, patience has to be the watch word.  As for #2, part of that is personnel, part of that is leadership and part of that is coaching.  Robert Covington and Embiid are defensive stoppers; the team has no such stopper at guard and seems to present an opportunity for an opposing guard -- the other night it was Shabazz Napier because the Trail Blazers were without Damian Lilliard -- to show his stuff.  But given that this is a persistent problem, coach Brett Brown, for all of his positivity, has to be held accountable too, as does the front office.   If for no other reason, get a guard who can come off the bench and given  you 15-20 minutes a night of the type of pain-in-the-neck defense that helps define a winning team.  That could help the team prevent some awful skids in the second half.

As for #3,  that's a hard one, but it seems like there are certain players for whom this problem persists -- Embiid, perhaps because he is not in optimal shape or because he has yet to fully realize that backing in and putting the ball on the floor can be problematic and shooting guard J.J. Redick, who the team signed to a one-year, $23 million deal to shoot better than he has, turn the ball over less and defend better than he has.  Again, this has to be a matter of concentration and having the players become more familiar with one another more than anything else.  Coaching figures into this too -- there just are too many mistakes for a team that should make the playoffs but right now does not look like it is going to.

#4 seems like one of the biggest problems.  The guard corps simply does not defend well.  That's why the team drafted Fultz, a comprehensive guard whom they hope can bring the mojo the way the elite guards in the league do.  Teams salivated over him, and it seemed clear from mid-season last season that he was the consensus #1 pick.  But he has missed a lot of time, and other guards in the draft (think Donovan Mitchell) have distinguished themselves, as has Celtics' forward Jayson Tatum, who can flat-out shoot the lights out.  So, the pressure mounts, and given some of the things that manifested themselves when the team shelved Fultz only a few games into the season, you have to wonder what is ailing him.  This ownership group is notoriously non-transparent about player issues, so is it just Fultz's shoulder or did his machinations in trying to play in pain create a hitch in his shot that the team has struggled to correct?  Many questions are out there, but presumably if the team were to get the Fultz that they thought they drafted, they would have an outstanding piece who could help cure some of their core woes -- well-rounded back court play.

As for #6, the team cannot afford the magnitude of mistakes it has made with its top draft picks.  As they go forward, they need to find the right pieces to fit in with some potential superstars.  The future still has a bright tint to it, but now that the misses seem to be consistent and falling into a pattern, they should be easier to correct.  Each and every one of them presents a unique problem.  Fixable?  Sure, but the fixes for some require some depth and consideration in approach and do not suggest that they can be quick.  Are they possibly quick enough to turn around this downturn and enable the team to make the playoffs?  Perhaps yes, perhaps not.

The Process has hit a bump in the road.  The team is not as good as people thought it could be at the season's outset or when the team when on a good run in the early fall.  That said, it is not as bad as its recent play has suggested and the schedule seems to get easier in the second half.  Optimists suggest that the process still has a way to go and that fans should be patient.  Right now, that is all that they can be; they have no choice.

Should the team go on a run, Simmons assert himself more, Fultz become healthy, Embiid stay healthy and the team go on a roll, all will be rosy, the team will make the playoffs and things will be looking up.  And the team might have another key draft pick and will have the most money to spend on free agents, who, presumably, will be willing to come to Philadelphia and help forge a squad that can make a deep run in the playoffs.

Should Embiid's back continue to balk and he miss games, Fultz look more like Carter-Williams and less like a potential Harden or Westbrook or Irving, the team continue to blow leads and the team spiral into a sub-.500 season, perhaps significantly so, then the picture will be different.  Will the fans -- who clearly bought into the hype -- return to the level they upped for season-ticket packages this year?  Will Simmons and Fultz project out to be more than starters, even if pretty good ones?  (The team needs stars, absolute stars -- to contend for at title).  And will Embiid end up on the list of big men who could have been something and could have contributed heavily to a contender but for persistent maladies?  That is the nightmare scenario.

The stakes are higher.  The pressure is greater.  The shine is off.  Potential means, as Michigan State football coach Duffy Daugherty once said, "that you ain't done it yet."  The clock keeps on ticking; other teams do not stand still.  With each game, the scrutiny intensifies, the patience diminishes.  The Process once was cool, funky, mysterious, intriguing, in vogue.  Right now, it is a bit like yesterday's fashion hit, the car of the year a couple of years back.  Still cool, but neither the latest nor the greatest.

The fans are waiting for it to break out, to yield the harvest that was predicted for it, even if those doing the predicting were those doing the hyping in order to create some magic beyond the fellows who do amazing things with drums during timeout at the Wells Fargo Center.  The place is festive, and there are moments of brilliance.  But that's all they are -- moments.  Not win streaks, not seasons, not eras.  Moments.  The fans like the moments, to be sure.  But they are waiting for what was promised -- the momentous and, ultimately, monuments to those who win championships.

Moments help sell tickets for a season.

The momentous lasts forever.

The Big Ten and Bowl Games

No knocking the results.  That said. . .

The SEC has two teams in the playoff.  The Big Ten has none.

Which means one of many things:

1.  The Big Ten from top to bottom is the better conference.
2.  The SEC is top heavy (see #1).
3.  The SEC is overrated.
4.  The Big Ten is underrated.
5.  The entire system needs a reboot.
6.  The playoff should have eight teams in it.
7.  Those who run the playoff should not whine that the playoff takes the kids away from classes and that adding another round would add to that distraction when there usually is a gap of a month between the end of the (regular) season and the bowl games anyway.
8.  There is so much money involved that the players are getting exploited and that a scholarship is not enough compensation for the (unilateral) commitment they make in that a) scholarships are not for four years but renewable on an annual basis; b) kids have to sit out a year if they transfer to a BCS school, c) kids in the current program can get penalized for the sins of a past program in that they might not be able to go to a bowl game or have an inferior team because their team is not able to award the same scholarships as an unpenalized team and d) coaches can leave at any time for anywhere and not have to sit out a year, but players cannot leave without penalty if a coach does.
9.  Americans are unique people who fixate on this sort of thing when the rest of the world is focused on its professional soccer leagues and the World Cup, which is set for June and July in Moscow.
10.  Saquon Barkley is an amazing football player.
11.  Urban Meyer's lustre might be fading.
12.  Paul Chryst knows a few choice words.
13.  It's hard to win consistently at Vanderbilt.
14.  Wisconsin does not get a lot of respect.
15.  If Alabama's football program were a country, its revenue would put it in the top 50 in the world.
16.  If Alabama's football program were a country, the United Nations would try to sanction it for unspeakable crimes against humanity.
17.  Nick Saban is the [name the dictator] of college football.
18.  People still do not know who Kirby Smart is.
19.  People in the Northeast still think "Securities and Exchange Commission" when they first hear the term SEC mentioned.
20.  How many people care about bowl games except those who sponsor them and those whose schools participate in them, if only because there are so many.  Back in the day, when there were only 7 TV channels in a major city and entertainment options were scarce, as a sports fan you cared and you watched.  But when options abound -- for example such DI stalwarts as Cornell and Harvard were on TV last night on the road (on ESPN, no less) playing basketball at SEC schools, well, if you could tune into that why watch Wisconsin take on Miami, for example, for forego watching a Harry Potter marathon on your cable channel?

Happy New Year!

The Marlins' Fire Sale

Why should you go to a game if you are a Miami Marlins' fan?  Your team just traded its stars, and I would have said bankable stars but new CEO Derek Jeter recently spoke of netting a gain of $265 million by shedding the long-term contract of uber-slugger Giancarlo Stanton.  His premise is that the Marlins will not win with Stanton because they are lacking too many other pieces, so why shell out that money for him?  In other words, fans need to trust the process with business decisions like that so that the Marlins can re-tool the team the new-fashioned way -- through draft picks, the signing of foreign players and analytics.


The Marlins are an obvious choice to pick on, but so are perennial also-rans in many other leagues with the exception of the National Football League, where parity is such that many of last year's good teams have fallen off, only to be replaced this year by teams who were not all that good last year.  That's great for the NFL, which has some serious issues to deal with, first and foremost of which is the long-term health of its players.  But in Major League Baseball, it has to be hard to root for the Marlins now or the San Diego Padres almost ever.  In the English Premier League, it has to be hard to root for a team not named City, United, Chelsea, Liverpool, Tottenham and Arsenal, although admittedly it can be tough to be a fan of those teams too.  That said, with the exception of Leicester's catching lightning in a bottle a few years ago, why would anyone spend a lot of emotional energy to root for anyone else.  True, money does not buy you a title, but it is necessary to spend a lot to get your team into the top six.  And with the NBA, well, it has to be hard to be, among other things, a fan of the Brooklyn Nets or the Phoenix Suns. 


Circling back to the Marlins, they just jettisoned the key players.  Yet, they're asking season ticket holders to renew and new people to subscribe to season tickets.  I'll put it to you another way.  Give me the Astros and the worst sales force in the world or the Marlins and the best one, and I'll bet on the Astros' sales force to sell more tickets than the Marlins' sales force any day of the week.  I only can imagine the sales pitch being made to Marlins' fans.  Among the possibilities are "come see the other team" and "invest in the future of professional baseball in Florida."  As to the former, years ago the Nats and Pirates advertised in the Philadelphia market to draw Phillies' fans to their teams road series in Washington and Pittsburgh.  Could the Marlins do the same?  As to "trusting a process," well, you need some future stars to watch now in order to make that pitch compelling.  The 76ers had amazingly talented Joel Embiid available last year.  By comparison, who do the Marlins have?


After the 2008 season, the Phillies had waiting lists for their full- and partial-season ticket plans.  Because they were not forward-thinking after 2008, the team consistently regressed to the point where they are today, where the team is trying to sell hope to the fans, whose experience is that the team more often than not has not been that good.  Today, you can buy single-game tickets in any section of the ball park, including the section right behind home plate.  I suppose that the business owners and plaintiffs lawyers stop subscribing if the team does not provide a compelling product on the field.  And Philadelphia has been a baseball town.  Sure, it's an Eagles' town, but it also has plenty of baseball fans.  Even then, the team's average attendance has been way down.  The once electric atmosphere at Citizens Bank Park now reflects the current of a third-world island whose power remains constant for about one-third of a day and sputters the rest of the time.


Loneliness is a killer.  Remember "That Natural?"  The New York team that Robert Redford played for and Wilfred Brimley managed played to an empty stadium, where you could hear foul balls clatter off empty bleachers in the midst of a hot summer's day.  The Marlins' broadcasters will be able to hear individual conversations from the stands and distinguish the call of the lonely hot dog or beer vender in the seats near their perch.  Fans will go, some out of habit and some because their dads took them and they feel obligated to take their kids.  But people will not come close to turning out in big numbers, perhaps for a long time.  It doesn't help that the new owner has all of the personality of someone who just underwent a colonoscopy without anesthesia.  Even Derek Jeter does not seem to believe in the product he will be putting on the field come March.  The stadium will be empty; the experience at the ball park worse than loneliness, because encroaching upon a fan's solitude will be awful play juxtaposed against not-so-distant memories of the champions of 1997 and 2003.


The omnipresence of the media offers numerous entertainment alternatives.  It seems like Marlins' fans will save money and at the same time find more joy in something other than baseball, for this season and years to come.  Derek Jeter, if he has not already, will realize quickly that the magic he brought to the playing field does not have any sway in a town where, if anything, its fans footed for him to fail.  Now they need him to succeed -- and in a hurry.

Kareem is Right

Basketball is the sport of the future. 


In the 1970's, the five most popular spectator sports were in no particular order baseball, football, basketball, horse racing and boxing (and I could be wrong, as auto racing might have been better attended than basketball despite a mostly regional appeal because the salary wars between the NBA and ABA were diluting the quality of play and bankrupting teams).  Horse racing at the time was the only place you could place a legal bet; fast forward to today and you have lotteries, casinos and places to make legal bets all over the place.  Boxing had its day, and there were some awesome fighters back then, so much so that when you watched the summer Olympics, you cared most about the US men's basketball team, the US track teams, the swimmers and the boxers, and, again, not in that order.  I would submit that in '76 we cared as much about the fate of Sugar Ray Leonard as anyone on the US Olympic team.  But too many shady deals, bad decisions and the brutality of it all have caused boxing to drop way down on the list (although MMA is up). 


Fast forward to today.  I don't know what the top five are, but it stands to reason that football, baseball and basketball are among the top five, and I would suggest that on a global basis so is soccer (and soccer might be #1 because of how widespread it is played).  Hockey fans will scream, kick and shout, and while I appreciate their passion I still doubt how widespread the appeal is.  Football has major issues, and it stands to reason that the game that is played 10 years from now will be dramatically different from the one that is played today, much more like flag football, lacrosse or Greco-Roman wrestling.  The hitting will be all but gone, and the sport will be different.  And, if it were to become like flag football, will it be watchable.  I would submit, and have to incur many howlers, that lacrosse in its present state is not all that watchable.  The reasons are specialization, that you cannot see the players faces, and that there is an exaggerated importance on the faceoff.  A lot of the plays that end up in goals just look the same.  The average age of a baseball fan is 55, and the MLB game is not moving any faster.  I went to minor league games over the past couple of seasons that took a couple of hours to play; sadly, MLB games take over three hours to play, with too much time between at-bats, pitches, innings, you name it.


That leaves professional basketball.  The purists will argue with some merit that it is more entertainment than high art, and they will try to wax eloquent about the joys of the college game.  The problem right now with the college game is that teams with the most talent (which include players who will leave after a single season) aren't seasoned enough normally to win a national title.  Plus, there are timeouts every four minutes, as it the key strategy sessions held during the timeouts will fundamentally change the way the game is played.  As Charles Barkley said yesterday, everyone on a pro team is a very good player.  The talent is amazing, you can see the players faces, and the scoring opportunities -- while not as varied and dramatic as in soccer -- are still compelling.  The game appeals to fans of all ages and races; by far the most diverse crowds attend professional basketball games.  Put simply, basketball is fun to watch, it moves, there is a lot of scoring, and there numerous stars.  Quod erat demonstratum. 


Unless, of course, you were to look globally.  Soccer is king and should continue to be so for a while.  Basketball is popular, no doubt, and could gain in popularity should it attempt to go more global (the NBA that is; there are many leagues in many countries other than the United States).  People play pick-up soccer anywhere, and it seems that each town in every European country has a team in some sort of league.  I just don't think that basketball will overtake soccer in terms of popularity, although basketball's popularity might grow at a rate faster than soccer's.  Creating a champions-league concept like they have in soccer might help the NBA's international appeal.  That would be quite compelling. 


All that said, Kareem is onto something.  And if people are angry with what he said, it's because they are in denial and do not want to admit that it has a good chance of happening.

Thoughts on 76ers-Lakers Last Night

In no particular order:


1.  The 76ers are in a bit of a rut.  Losing to Phoenix on Monday and the Lakers last night, the above-.500 76ers lost to two teams who are collectively playing around .333 basketball. 


2.  The sign of a young, inexperienced team is that it can be absolutely brilliant and absolutely frustrating -- in the same game.  Name the game, name the frustration.  The team blew a 24-point lead against the Warriors and a big lead at home against the John Wall-less Wizards, only to have that gave devolve into a hack-a-Ben-athon that caused the last five minutes to take 40 to play.  Last night, the Lakers got out to a ten point lead -- but the game was not that close, only to see the purple and gold push the lead out to 16 in the second half, and then have the 76ers storm back to tie it up, only then to turn the ball over twice in the last ninety seconds (Embiid once, Reddick the other) and then to have a chance to tie again but to fail to make the shot.  If you're a fan, all you can say is "aargh!"


3.  The team is exposed defensively at guard.  At one point, the 76ers had Reddick, T.J. McConnell and Jarrod Bayless on the floor at once.  That defensive combo scares absolutely no one, and the Lakers took advantage of it.  That's not to say that Lonzo Ball was a shooting threat -- he isn't -- but Jordon Clarkson had a tidy 16 off the bench in not that many minutes and others (Kentavius Caldwell-Pope comes to mind) shot well enough to help give the Lakers the win.  The 76ers need the advertised Markell Fultz to return in a hurry. 


4.  The team missed Dario Saric last night.  I joked that the team was in a fog because of the news that they traded Jahlil Okafor and Nick Stauskas to the Nets earlier in the day.  And while those guys had good friends on the team, the team did miss the grit of Saric, who was out with what was reported as an eye laceration.  Saric does the dirty work, battles for the offensive boards, and does everything pretty well.  That's not to say that the team would have won with him in there -- the game admittedly would have been different, but the rebounding differential that existed for a lot of the game would not have been there.  As it was, back-up center turned power forward at least for the night Richaun Holmes had what might have been a career game for him, coming up with many clutch buckets as the team stormed back to tie it up.


5.  Joel Embiid is a beast.  No one can guard him, and it's hard to figure out how to run any inside offense when he's in there.  He's foul-prone now, but that's bound to change as he gets more experience.


6.  Ben Simmons had another interesting/potentially awesome stat line with some great plays, yet. . ..  12 points, 13 boards and 15 assists is pretty terrific, but he had some defensive lapses and needs to assert himself more.  He is good, but does he know how much better he can be or how good he is?  Until he gets more assertive, teams won't have to commit the resources on defense that they have to commit to, among others, James Harden and LeBron James.  While he might never shoot as well as those guys, he still can do things most players cannot. 


7.  Lonzo Ball showed everyone something last night.  He played within himself, he rebounded well, defended well enough, made some great passes and scored in the double figures.  He is very composed out there.  His shooting -- if possible -- is worse than that of Simmons, but he made a strong contribution last night.


8.  Brandon Ingram really improved in the off-season.  Last year, he looked like the overmatched skinny guy without the strength of Durant or skills more than that of a stationery shooter.  This year, he looks stronger, like he put on some good weight, and he really worked on his ability to create shots.  He had a very nice night last night.


9.  Obligatory word about the officials.  Admittedly, officiating basketball might be the hardest game to officiate, although diehard fans of other sports will argue to the contrary.  The one thing I noticed is that while hand-checking per se is called, what the officials increasingly do not call are the following -- 1) when a defender puts a forearm on the back of a player who has his back to the basket and 2) when a dribbler wards off a defender with a forearm, pushing him away.  Both teams did the former last night, and Ingram's signature move is to push off with his left forearm.  That's not to say he's the only one or that the lack of calls on him (or anyone else for that matter) cost the 76ers the game or gave it to the Lakers.  The Lakers played better, and the 76ers did not do enough to win.  It's just that it's hard to figure out where the consistency is among officials in making calls.

Thoughts on Arsenal-Manchester United on Saturday

Arsenal was on a roll.  It took it to visiting Tottenham a few weeks ago at Emirates Stadium, going up 2-0 by halftime and then was in control the rest of the way.  The Gunners went up 1-0 mid-week on Huddersfield, and then pushed the throttles hard in the second half, winning 5-0.  Those two results should have given Arsenal a ton of confidence going into its home match versus visiting United and its coach, Jose Mourinho. 


But a funny thing happened on the way to the rout.  Mourinho coached a "rope-a-dope" game, which would have been noted for its brilliance but for the fact that Arsenal dominated all but the first 11 minutes.  Mourinho sensed individual cracks in the Gunners' back line, and its forwards caused otherwise steady defenders Koscielny, Mustafi and Monreal (who was woefully out of position on United's first score) to make mistakes early.  The result -- United was up two nil after eleven minutes. 


After that, it was all Arsenal.  The Gunners ended up scoring right after half and took 33 shots in the game, with 15 of them on goal.  It was as if there were a garage door covering the net, at least in the form of United keeper David DeGea, who played an outstanding match, so much so that his coach told him after the game that he is the best keeper in the world (he is certainly atop the conversation; experts will argue and win that Bayern Munich keeper Manuel Neuer is the best keeper in the world, with DeGea and Juve's Gianluigi Buffon right behind).  DeGea was here, there and everywhere, making save after save and in the process tying a modern Premiership record for saves in a contest.  You would expect that a besieged keeper on a team staving off relegation would hold that record, not someone from the elite 6 teams in the league. 


Was this Mourinho's strategy?  To pressure Arsenal early, get his scores and the park the bus?  If so, it was brilliant, but it's hard to say whether that was the strategy or not.  True, Mourinho gets accused of parking the bus after getting a lead, but if United parked the bus this time, it was not near the croquet club and its senior citizen's tea but in a lot on the wrong side of town where people have the ability to break in and steal the bus.  Because that's precisely what happened.  Arsenal clawed and kicked and stomped near the goal, with DeGea's signature save being sticking out a foot to thwart a follow-on shot by Alexis Sanchez that would have tied the match at two and surely put the momentum squarely in Arsenal's favor.  That foot told Arsenal simply, "not today."  Yet the Gunners kept on coming, but it was shortly after that amazing save that United went on a counterattack and went up 3-1. 


You would have figured the game was over then, around the 77th minute or so, but then United start center midfielder Paul Pogba got sent off on a straight red and the Gunners' continued to threated.  The real disappointment for Arsenal, other than failing to score, was a missed call of a penalty inside the United box at the 85th minute.  Referee Andre Mariner didn't see the play as a penalty; all the commentators did.  Had Mariner called the infraction and Sanchez converted the free kick, the game would have been tied at 2-2 with a compelling five minutes to go and an added five minutes of stoppage time.  As it was, Arsenal kept pouring it on, but to no avail.


The commentators offered that it was the game of the season in the EPL, and there is no debating that here.  It's a shame for Arsenal, who was on enough of a roll that a win versus United might have suggested there is more to this team than winning a few only to lose a big one that reminds its fans of the talent gap between it and the elite teams.  And now it looks as though they might lose Alexis Sanchez, the engine of the team, either mid-season or on a free transfer after it, and that would be a devastating loss.  They also might lose center attacking midfielder Mesut Ozil, who is unparalleled when his game is on but who disappears too often to be considered among the top ten at his position in the world and command a commensurate salary.  Ozil might need a chance of scenery, but the Gunners need Sanchez to stay for a while.  If both were to leave, Arsenal is in a rebuilding mode.


But not to detract from the match -- it was compelling, it was fervent, it was action-packed, and if you told Arsenal fans before it that their team would have 15 shots on goal and control possession 75% of the time, they would have signed up for those stats.  They weren't, however, enough for their team to win the match. 


Odd, delightful, compelling match it was, with DeGea's performance one that will help define his career and delight Spanish fans as to their possibilities in the World Cup.