NFL drops ball by blacking out Lions game

In the early 1920s, parents in this country would tell their children to “remember the starving Armenians” as a way to remind them that life could be much worse. Almost a century later, it’s scary to think that the present day equivalent to that statement isn’t referring to people in Africa or Afghanistan or Communist China.

It’s referring to the people of Detroit, as in, “we might be broke, but at least we don’t live in Detroit,” or Delaware’s motto: “we might not have a national park, but at least we’re not Detroit.” That’s how rough things are in the nation’s eleventh largest metropolitan area, where the unemployment rate is about to eclipse 30 percent.

And just to kick a beaten man while he’s down, virtually no one in the city got to see the Lions win for the first time since John Edwards and Rudy Giuliani were still Presidential hopefuls. That’s because the NFL blacks out any local market game that isn’t sold out at least 72 hours in advance. It’s a policy meant to punish fans for not supporting the home team enough to purchase tickets. The league thinks of those people as freeloaders, and you can’t make money off people like that.

Except the NFL does. In fact, it just made $4 billion from DirecTV, which locked up exclusive rights to the league’s Sunday Ticket, the package that encourages fans to stay home and watch every game as opposed to actually going out and buying a ticket.

Of course, not even someone willing to pay $299 for the Sunday Ticket could sneak past NFL blackout restrictions. I learned that today when I spoke with a customer service agent at DirecTV. I wanted to know roughly how many people in Detroit were fortunate enough to watch the Lions win over Washington on Sunday and he informed me that the same rules apply to DirecTV subscribers as everyone else in the area.

“If a team can’t sell out, we can’t show their games locally,” the agent said. “The NFL has rules.”

But in a case like Detroit’s, it’s not about how strict the league is. It’s about how out of touch a multi billion dollar industry is with the people who helped it grow in the first place. Almost a third of these folks can’t find a job, let alone come up with the cash to purchase tickets to a game. That’s rent money. Or food money. These people are forced to be freeloaders. Sorry that helping the Lions sell out isn’t a top priority right now.

Some will say the people of Detroit should be thinking more about finding a job than watching Matthew Stafford play quarterback. You think they aren’t? That doesn’t mean they deserve to be shutout completely.

Sports can play a very powerful role in times like these. No, they aren’t helping anyone find a job or put food on the table, but they can unite a region. Ask someone in New England. Or just ask those that followed Michigan State’s magical run to the Final Four last April.

The games do matter.

Just not to the NFL.

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Random Rumblings: I now live in a basement

• I now live in a basement. That’s why I haven’t written in a week. I was moving into a basement studio on the other side of Providence and it took me a little while to come to terms with the fact that I now exemplify the stereotype all bloggers, online poker players, WOW players and consequently single men in their 30’s despise. I now live in a basement. Thankfully, it’s not my parents’ basement, I’m not in my 30’s (I’m just 23) and I’m not into avatars, which I’m pretty sure is a prerequisite of all gamers and internet gamblers.
  
  So there you have it. That’s why I’ve been MIA. I now live in a basement. Luckily, calling a place with no windows home has yet to make me claustrophobic and hasn’t stopped me from reading The Lost Symbol (better than Da Vinci Code and Angels & Demons) and following the world of sports (pretty boring week).
  
  Moving on...
  
  
• The week’s most-used statistic is that since 1988, at least one team that started out 2-0 has made it to the Super Bowl. But here’s a stat that might be more interesting given the teams facing this circumstance heading into week 3: In that same timeframe, only four teams have made the Super Bowl after starting 1-2.
  
  That means that some of the sexiest Super Bowl picks (New England, Pittsburgh, San Diego, Green Bay, and Philly) are essentially playing must-win games this weekend. It should be noted that all five are favorites in Vegas this weekend, but if I was going to pick anyone to lose again this week, it would be the Patriots, who have a difficult matchup with Atlanta.
  
  The truth is, if it were any other team in the league, New England would be an underdog this Sunday. Playing with a still-rusty quarterback, no running back, their leading pass catcher injured and a shaky defense, the Pats are up against one of the best teams no one is talking about in the league. The Falcons have an emerging star at quarterback, a top five running back and made the best move of the off season in acquiring Tony Gonzalez. This is a team that has every right to be thinking about the Super Bowl. Yet because no one is willing to make a Bill Belichick coached team an underdog at home this early in the season, the Patriots are somehow 4 point favorites.
  
  
• Gilbert Arenas is the classic example of why NBA franchises shouldn’t just hand out $100 million dollar contracts to their most marketable players. Arenas became a national star more for his goofy personality than his ability on the court, and now the Washington Wizards are paying for it.
  
  That’s not to say that Arenas isn’t a great scorer. But why would any team want an injury plagued, shoot first, second and third point guard leading the way?
  
  
• Let’s call these little scuffles between the Kansas men’s basketball and football teams exactly what they are: Kids being kids. It wasn’t about gangs or hip hop’s negative influence on young people. It wasn’t a bunch of thugs pretending to be college students. It was a few fist fights, the type of altercations that take place every day, in every neighborhood, all over the world.
  
  In other words, the situation was no big deal.
  
  
• Give Joba Chamberlain credit for this: While the Yankees have been using him as a guinea pig for the past two years, he has stayed quiet and accepted his role no matter what. There probably aren’t many guys with that much ability that would be willing to be this flexible.
  
  
• I consider Gilbert Arenas to be one of the most delusional men in sports, but if there is one guy topping him, it’s Floyd Mayweather. Mayweather may very well be the greatest fighter of the decade, but it took his opponent admitting that he drinks his own urine to get people to buy their fight on pay per view last week.
  
  
• The biggest concern for college football right now is that one side of the National Championship Game is pretty much locked up by Penn State, who is going to be on cruise control following a victory over Iowa tonight.
  
  Why is that bad? Because the Nittany Lions are going to be a two touchdown underdog against any team they play in January.

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Jordan disappoints during crowning achievement

This past weekend taught us once and for all that if we’re going to expect celebrities to be more than they are, we better be prepared to be disappointed. Kanye West, a man convinced he’s the voice of a generation, proved that Sunday night when he decided to embarrass Taylor Swift at the VMAs. Serena Williams proved it when she made a fool of herself at the U.S. Open, acting like the spoiled country club brat she was never supposed to be. And worst of all, there was Michael Jordan, the greatest basketball player in history, proving that’s all he’ll ever be.

On the surface, what Jordan did at his Hall of Fame induction doesn’t compare to Kanye humiliating a wide-eyed teenager in front of the world or Serena’s childish antics on her sport’s biggest stage. But then you have to remember that West and Williams don’t ever belong in the same sentence with Jordan. Kanye is a successful musician. Jordan is the Beatles. Serena is a world-class champion. Jordan is Sampras and Federer combined.

We expected the most from Jordan. We got the worst.

I couldn’t wait to watch MJ’s induction speech Friday night for one reason: Of all the great memories I had of him, the one thing I didn’t remember was his voice. By the time I became a big sports fan, Jordan had already turned his back on most of the media. He didn’t need ‘em. He had established a brand bigger than any newspaper, much less some reporter or columnist. So, like Babe Ruth did 70 years before, he hand-selected the people he was willing to talk to and they pledged their allegiance to him.

What we were left with was Jordan in cuts. 30 seconds here, some commercial there. But never any substance. His motto became, “never piss off someone who might write you a check,” something that has become commonplace in sports today.

That wasn’t the case in Springfield, where Jordan decided to deliver a resentful, bitter-sounding speech that would have left a lot of people embarrassed had it been someone else speaking. Instead, most in attendance, including Michael Wilbon of the Washington Post, summed it up in two words: “That’s Michael.”

Jordan uncensored took shots at the high school coach who didn’t pick him for varsity and the player who was selected over him. He blasted Jerry Krause and Bryon Russell and suggested that he still hasn’t gotten over Dean Smith not allowing him to be on the cover of Sports Illustrated his freshman year at North Carolina.

If that was Michael, we’ve all been duped.

If that rant was fueled by anything but a few too many drinks, then we should all be disappointed in the man we made our hero.

More than anything, it proved that basketball is all Jordan will ever be defined by. We remember Ruth for more. We remember Ali for more. But Jordan is the epitome of what William C. Rhoden calls the $40 Million Dollar Slave, though he made much more than that in his career. He was controlled by the people at Nike and Gatorade every step of the way, no matter how often it appeared otherwise.

On Friday night, he finally got the chance to send a message. And he did. Just not the one we were looking for.

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NFL 2009: 25 thoughts, questions and predictions for the season

I’ve never claimed to be an NFL expert. In fact, I fully admit that I only enjoy watching pro football because of fantasy and the fact that it’s the easiest sport to gamble on. So if you’re looking for more accurate previews, go here, here and here. But of course, I like to try to hold myself accountable, so the following is 25 very random thoughts on the season. It was written following the Steelers win over the Titans, but includes nothing about Troy Polamalu’s injury. Go figure.

1) Given what’s expected, the New England Patriots will be underwhelming. If any other team in the league had a quarterback who missed all of last season, a running back by committee system and a run defense that would be mediocre in college, it would hard to call them a .500 team. People need to stop predicting a repeat of two seasons ago and call the Pats what they are: An average team playing in a division that will allow them to win 11 games.

2) We really need to make up our minds when it comes to the importance of coaches. When it’s convenient, we like to treat football like this sport where only the most intelligent people can survive, but then when it comes to Baltimore, the fact that the team lost Rex Ryan means nothing.

3) AFC East predicted order of finish: New England, New York, Miami, Buffalo.

4) Carson Palmer is going to reclaim his spot as one of the top quarterbacks in the league, and while he still won’t get the Bengals to the playoffs, chances are he’ll get your fantasy team there.

5) Everyone forgets that Cleveland was the sexy pick to make the playoffs last year. Same thing happened with the Detroit Tigers in baseball this season. The Browns have a strong offensive line, a quarterback who, by all accounts, is ready to break out and one of the best receivers in the league. That’s another thing everyone forgets. Don’t take that drops stat too seriously with Braylon Edwards. Drops are more subjective than assists in the NBA. The Browns will be a Wild Card team.

6) AFC North predicted order of finish: Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Baltimore, Cincinnati.

7) The two most frustrating teams in the league are San Diego and New Orleans. Both should be favorites to get to the Super Bowl, but always seem to find a way to screw it up. At least the Chargers make it to the playoffs. The Saints have only gone over .500 once in the last six seasons, yet they always seem to be a sleeper pick.

8) Here’s the question no one has asked about Michael Vick: How do the guys in the league, teammates and opponents, actually feel about him? We’re talking about married men who have children and probably own dogs. How do they explain man-hugging a puppy killer to their families?

9) AFC South predicted order of finish: Indy, Houston, Jacksonville, Tennessee

10) This will be the make-or-break year for Vince Young. He’ll start in at least five games for the Titans, whether it’s because of an injury to Kerry Collins or because the team will be out of contention by week 12.

11) There are at least nine teams (Detroit, Tampa, St. Louis, San Francisco, Oakland, Kansas City, Denver, Cincinnati and Buffalo) that have a chance to be the worst team in the league. The more difficult prediction is which of these will overachieve and go .500 (this is inevitable). I say the Bills.

12) AFC West predicted order of finish: San Diego, Denver, Kansas City, Oakland

13) The NFC South will be the most exciting division in the league this season. Atlanta, Carolina and New Orleans couldn’t be more different in the ways they get it done, but all have a shot to win the division.

14) The Washington Redskins are the Minnesota Twins of the NFL. No team is more consistently mediocre than the Skins.

15) NFC East predicted order of finish: Philly, Dallas, New York, Washington

16) Amidst overwhelming media pressure, the NFL will change its local blackout rule, which will affect about a third of the league this season.

17) How can Minnesota be the consensus pick to win the NFC North? They’re starting a quarterback who skipped training camp and whose teammates aren’t sold on him. Everyone just assumes Brett Favre will go along with a run-first offense, which is just as silly as the Detroit Pistons assuming Allen Iverson would be fine taking a backseat to Richard Hamilton.

18) NFC North predicted order of finish: Green Bay, Minnesota, Chicago, Detroit

19) The Arizona Cardinals are the favorites to win their division. Say that aloud. This can’t possibly go right, can it?

20) Top five quarterbacks in the league by the end of the season: Drew Brees, Peyton Manning, Carson Palmer, Aaron Rodgers and Donovan McNabb. Brees will be the MVP, but McNabb is the one getting to the Super Bowl.

21) NFC South predicted order of finish: New Orleans, Atlanta, Carolina, Tampa

22) Without a big time receiver, Eli Manning will prove to be the biggest waste of money this off season.

23) Houston and Seattle seem to be everyone’s picks to make the make the jump into the playoffs this season. The Texas feels too much like the Browns last season, but I’m on board with Seahawks, who were the most injured team in the league a year ago.

24) NFC West predicted order of finish: Seattle, Arizona, St. Louis, San Francisco

25) AFC Championship Game: Chargers over Colts 24-21 NFC Championship Game: Eagles over Packers 27-21 Super Bowl: Chargers over Eagles 26-23

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Iverson should be remembered for whole career

So this is the thank you Allen Iverson gets. This is what it has come to for the most influential athlete of my generation, the guy who proved you didn’t have to be named Jordan to be immensely marketable. He’ll end his career with the Memphis Grizzlies, but that’s not the story here. It’s about the complete lack of respect being given to one of the most exciting players in the history of basketball.

It’s ironic, really, that Iverson would receive this kind of treatment. He was once the face of the new NBA, the controversial, outspoken, incredibly talented and wildly popular player who bridged the gap between Michael Jordan and today’s league. Yet the same people who grew up watching basketball simply because they worshipped A.I. are the ones comparing him to Brett Favre today, ridiculing him for not wanting to give it up just yet.

They’re mostly 20-somethings (like me), just finishing college and entering the workforce, more likely to have blogs and tweet regularly, and also more likely to focus on the present with little regard for the past.

That’s what knocks Iverson from his pedestal. You could argue that he entered the league at the perfect time, an outlier of sorts, when the fans needed a new hero, David Stern needed a superstar and franchises were willing to dish out insane contracts to anyone who could put up 20 points a night. But now he’s on the downside of his career in the 24/7 media era, when more people have the ability to witness his eroding abilities than ever before. Makes you wonder how Ali would have been treated if he were fighting today. Or Willie Mays. Even Jordan got a pass.

No one has had a more difficult time stepping away than Iverson, whose fall from grace has been uglier than any off-the-court incident he’s ever been involved in. He’s probably the first superstar athlete of this generation to have the entire world watch his game deteriorate. At least Favre had a playoff team interested in him. Iverson had the Clippers and Knicks and ended up in Memphis.

This isn’t how we should remember The Answer.

If you became a sports fan in the mid-late ‘90s, you’ve watched Iverson closer than any other athlete. You’ve criticized him for acting a fool. You’ve been amazed by his ability. You’ve realized that while Shaq might get hacked, AI gets decapitated. Yet he continues to get up. You respect him for that. ESPN’s Rick Reilly once wrote that if there was one player he’d pay twice the ticket price to watch, it would be Iverson, who really makes you think twice about cheering for someone like Manny Ramirez.

But for all he’s one done in the game, his impact off the court might be what truly defines him. He’s been called a thug for always speaking his mind at a time when you can’t buy a quote from a great athlete – see LeBron, ARod and Tiger. Seemingly cut from the same cliché, those three will never reach people quite the way Iverson did. If you think about it, he and Eminem probably did more to bring two completely different cultures together than any celebrities in history. For awhile, his sneakers, jersey and crossover gave every sports fan something in common.

Iverson’s legacy stretches well-beyond basketball, which he was as good at as almost anyone at any time. It’s about his place in popular culture. It’s about his impact on fans of the NBA and even today’s players, like his new teammate, Mike Conley.

“I'm excited," Conley told the Associated Press. "He’s a guy I always watched growing up.”

We all did. Let’s not forget that.

(Full disclosure: Some of this was copied from a piece I wrote about Iverson last season)

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Melanie Oudin is the best story of the summer

Leave it to the best to make the finest point when it comes to teenage tennis sensation Melanie Oudin:

“She's beaten great players on the way now and it's nice for a change that somebody's coming up we haven't heard about much before. I think this is very exciting and very much needed on the women's side.”

That was Roger Federer, one of the greatest to ever play, talking about the kid from Marietta, Ga. who has stolen the U.S. Open from him, from the Williams sisters and from anyone else who felt like this might be their time. It’s all about Oudin, no matter what she does, from here on out.

Federer’s comments were spot-on because he pointed to both the sport’s biggest flaw and its greatest attraction. There are only two great players in the men’s game (Federer and Rafael Nadal) and the top players on the women’s side, the Williams’, treat the game like a boyfriend who can’t quite get over them, dismissing it and then returning to it as they please. There is no sport in need of a change as much as tennis.

Enter Melanie Oudin.

From out of nowhere comes this young American, showing all the ability and toughness and genuine enthusiasm Venus and Serena displayed a decade ago. No other sport can match this. We generally know who the next great ones will be in the major sports. They light up the minors or the college ranks and so they’re pre-packaged stars by the time they reach the professional ranks. That’s not the case with Oudin.

You’ve never heard of her because she’s the 70th ranked player in the world and chances are you don’t know 65 of the players ahead of her. The girl barely had a Wikipedia a few days ago. But there she was, stunning Elena Dementieva and Maria Sharapova and Nadia Petrova to become the best story in sports.

Women’s tennis will always draw eyes for the same reasons Sports Illustrated puts out a swimsuit edition. There’s a massive market for blondes with nice bodies. But that’s not why we should all be glued to our televisions to watch Oudin. She’s a kid, only a few years older than the boys who play in Williamsport, winning on the biggest stage there is. With that comes the excitement and energy of a teenager, as well as the unmistakable passion. That’s the best part. Kids aren’t good at hiding their emotions, so everything we see with Oudin is real.

And that’s what makes the Melanie Oudin story so refreshing. Win or lose.

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Kevin Youkilis' big mistake

Could Kevin Youkilis have picked a worse time to call out the people of Boston? In the same week that an icon who spent his entire life in the public eye passed away, there was Youk whining about how fans are too negative nowadays. It felt like he was playing the us-versus-them card. It sounded like he doesn’t appreciate a city that puts the Red Sox above all else, including its favorite family.

It was all wrong.

And you just know that right now, Ted Kennedy is somewhere sipping his gin and tonic and wishing Youk would suck it up.

Athletes, of course, are not elected; in places like Boston, they’re actually more like royalty. And aside from Tom Brady and Dustin Pedroia, there might not be anyone more revered by fans than Youkilis. The man is a walking cliché – he’s a grinder, someone who plays every game like it’s the World Series, a guy who gives it all up for the team.

He’s the type of player all kids should model their game after. Except, you know, for the tantrums. No one wants to see their child throwing his helmet after every poor at bat. And no one wants to see their favorite Major Leaguer do it either. Youkilis is to the current Red Sox what Paul O’Neil was to the Yankees in the ‘90s. He’s the guy you want at the plate with the game on the line, but also the guy most likely to throw the water cooler into the crowd when he screws up.

That’s what gets to Sox fans. Youkilis said he feels like he’s portrayed wrongly by the media. But you don’t have to watch a game on NESN or pick up the Globe to find out what piece of equipment broke this time (in fact, he’s probably protected by those outlets a lot of the time) all you have to do is attend a game and it’s all there on display.

He calls it intensity. We call it insanity.

He probably doesn’t know it, but he sounded a lot like Ted Williams when he told Dan Shaughnessy that the thing he loves most about Boston is “from 7 o’clock until the last pitch is thrown.” That’s about the only time Williams felt comfortable in the city as well. He despised the press only slightly more than the fans, who he often compared to a pack of wolves.

But Williams had it much worse. There were seven daily newspapers in the city during his playing days. And they covered sports the way the media in the ‘80s covered Kennedy, always looking for dirt, waiting for the next slipup. They attacked the Splendid Splinter every chance they had. And, you’ll remember, he never won a World Series.

Youkilis already has the ring Williams never won. He’s playing at a time when the fans have never been as loyal and the media has never been as friendly to the team. Hell, the Sox control most of the media. There are probably 20 popular Red Sox blogs and you’ll almost never find any of them criticizing the team. It’s a cakewalk for Youk.

Now Kevin Youkilis has broken the cardinal rule, the one Kennedy never did and the one Williams never cared about: Never turn on the people who want to accept you. Something tells me the rest of his season will be spent more like a politician than a ball player.

In full recovery mode.

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