Posted on November 16th, 2011
By DERON SNYDER
Members of Maryland’s commission on intercollegiate athletics faced an unenviable task when president Wallace D. Loh brought them together four months ago. They were asked to review the athletic department’s finances and operations and then recommend measures to increase revenues and decrease costs.
But we all knew where this was heading. It’s as if Loh was the patriarch of a family that had grown too large and too costly, and he wanted other relatives to suggest which kids should stay and which should go.
Maryland has 27 “kids,” (i.e. teams) in its athletic department. There’s no way the school can keep all of them without going broke, as it faces a $4 million deficit this fiscal year and more than $17 million by 2017. So regardless of other suggested remedies for fundraising and lowering spending, the committee was destined to recommend the elimination of some sports.
It’s a painful conclusion for those who are affected and those who hate the idea of losing sports — even sports they never follow or support. It forces us to put each sport on a scale and see how it measures up, though each has intrinsic value that makes it the equal of any other.
Women’s acrobatics and tumbling provides as much satisfaction for its participants and fans as football generates for its participants and fans (maybe more this year).
But only six Division I programs have acrobatics and tumbling teams compared to about 250 that have football teams. Throw in the fact that football is a so-called “revenue” sport (though not at Maryland) and, well … the National Collegiate Acrobatics and Tumbling Association likely will be down to five members next year.
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Posted on November 16th, 2011
By DERON SNYDER
NBA players seem to be operating under a few delusions.
Their league isn’t beloved like the NFL, which attracts hordes of devout fans who follow each season with religious zeal. NBA players don’t have a favorable image among many who otherwise might buy season tickets or luxury suites. And the guaranteed money that NBA players are rejecting in labor negotiations isn’t guaranteed to be recouped.
By choosing to change their union to a trade association and file an antitrust lawsuit against the owners — putting the 2011-12 season in severe jeopardy — NBA players illustrate their disconnect with reality. They insist they want a “fair deal” but say a 50-50 split of revenue doesn’t qualify. They’re squabbling over the difference between $5.4 million for the average player or $5 million.
In this economy, where so many ordinary folks have gone from making $54,000 to the unemployment line, homeless shelter and soup kitchen, no one wants to hear NBA players whine that they’re underpaid.
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Posted on November 16th, 2011
By DERON SNYDER
Muhammad Ali was there, his body frail and trembling in the throes of Parkinson’s disease. Fellow boxers Bernard Hopkins, Larry Holmes and Michael Spinks were there, too, among others, including promoter Don King, paying their respects to Joe Frazier at Enon Tabernacle Baptist Church in Philadelphia.
The tributes poured out last week immediately following Frazier’s death from liver cancer at age 67. And they continued at his funeral, with videotaped messages from Mike Tyson, Donald Trump and Mickey Rourke.
But the most stirring came from the Rev. Jesse Jackson, delivering the eulogy and comparing Frazier’s legend to that of Sylvester Stallone’s Philadelphia-based movie character, Rocky, who has a statue at the base of the Philadelphia Museum of Art.
Jackson wondered why city leaders embraced Rocky so much, but not Frazier.
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Posted on November 13th, 2011
By DERON SNYDER
The grunt came from the back as a question was posed after Georgetown’s season-opening victory against Savannah State. Big John Thompson took umbrage at a reporter’s choice of words to describe Monday’s game, the last contest before Georgetown heads to Hawaii for the Maui Invitational.
“Tune-up?” former coach Thompson harrumphed, as the Hoyas’ current coach, John Thompson III, smirked in agreement. Guard Jason Clark was standing on the podium, and he gently corrected the reporter: “We have another game.”
That’s the proper approach, and it’s obviously been passed down with care, from Thompson the Elder to JT3 to the Hoyas’ senior captain. Still, unless UNC Greensboro unexpectedly offers more resistance than Savannah State provided in an 83-54 rout, Monday’s game indeed will be tantamount to a workout. Kansas next week will give us a better indication of where the young Hoyas stand.
Although first impressions aren’t always reliable for making long-term prognoses, there were several encouraging signs.
The most unexpected was senior center Henry Sims, who scored a career-high 19 points and tied career-highs with five assists and three blocks. That outburst caught Tigers coach Horace Broadnax off-guard, as Sims entered the season averaging 2.4 points and wasn’t part of Savannah State’s defensive game plan.
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Posted on November 12th, 2011
By DERON SNYDER
North Carolina coach Roy Williams, Kentucky coach John Calipari and Ohio State coach Thad Matta owe a debt a gratitude to the NBA. Because without the ongoing labor dispute, the coaches likely would have less star power on their teams, currently ranked first, second and third, respectively.
Carolina sophomore Harrison Barnes was projected to be a top three pick, had he entered the draft last summer. Teammates John Henson, a junior, and Tyler Zeller, a senior, would have been first-round selections. The same is true for Kentucky sophomore Terrence Jones and Ohio State sophomore Jared Sullinger.
Barnes, Jones and Sullinger joined UConn’s Jeremy Lamb on the Associated Press preseason All-America team, marking the first time that four sophomores were selected. They’re among other prime-time players who decided that another season on campus was better than gambling on the NBA’s uncertainy.
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Posted on November 10th, 2011
By DERON SNYDER
We’ll never forget that line last March, as the Ohio State football program was unraveling, when president E. Gordon Gee was asked about possibly firing Jim Tressel. “Are you kidding?” he said. “I’m just hopeful that the coach doesn’t dismiss me.”
Tressel was getting reverential treatment after a mere 10 years at Ohio State. But he would’ve been a peon at Penn State compared to the great and mighty Joe Paterno, who became the Nittany Lions’ coach when Lyndon B. Johnson was in the White House. JoePa acquired so much sovereignty over the ensuing four decades, he was nearly impossible to get rid of until the current child-abuse scandal swept him out.
Hero worship of virtually mythic coaches is a valid criticism of big-time college sports. It’s an example of the skewed priorities that help create the problems plaguing schools and athletic departments.
The reaction from some Paterno supporters and Penn State sycophants was disturbing, whether you call it a riot or unrest. Protesters flipped over a news van, tore down lampposts and threw rocks and cans, prompting police to respond with riot gear and tear gas.
Students at Indiana University were just as angry in 2000, but not quite as violent, when Bobby Knight was (finally) fired for boorish behavior during a 29-year run. Protesters knocked over light poles and burned effigies, including one of president Myles Brand near his on-campus home.
This isn’t to suggest that longtime, larger-than-life coaches are destined to go down in scandal-laced flames like Woody Hayes (23 years at Ohio State) or Lefty Driesell (17 years at Maryland). Dean Smith was known for running a clean program during his 36 years as men’s basketball coach at North Carolina and then left on his own accord. Frank Beamer has spent 25 seasons at the helm of Virginia Tech’s football program with nary a hint of trouble.
Like Beamer, Paterno also had steered clear of controversy, which is fairly remarkable for national powerhouse programs. But if the right combination of wrong circumstances comes up, no coach is bigger than his program or school.
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Posted on November 10th, 2011
By DERON SNYDER
In the end, Joe Paterno lost his perspective and ignored the big picture.
He thought about himself when he should have thought about the school he’d worked for since 1950. About the hundreds of thousands of Penn State students — past, present and future. About the countless child-abuse victims and the message he could send them.
But Paterno didn’t do the right thing Wednesday as the scandal consumed Penn State and his future was debated in the media. Instead the 84-year-old Paterno stubbornly tried to ride out the storm and dictate the terms of his departure.
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Posted on November 9th, 2011
The President and the Coach
By DERON SNYDER
If Penn State coach Joe Paterno and Penn State president Graham Spanier are employed as you begin reading this column, they shouldn’t be by the time you’re finished. For anyone who disagrees, I suggest some additional reading material — the 23-page indictment against former Penn State assistant coach Jerry Sandusky.
Finding the document isn’t hard, though getting through it without your skin crawling and your blood boiling is impossible. Eight victims are listed, and undoubtedly there are more. A potential ninth victim, a man now in his 20s, came forward over the weekend.
Not that we need further reports to conclude that Sandusky is a monster who was enabled by Paterno, Spanier and two former school officials who have been charged with perjury and failure to report suspected sexual abuse.
Victim 2 and Victim 8 are enough to seal the deal.
They should be the impetus for a new era at Penn State, starting with a new football coach and school president. The current office-holders should have resigned by now, on principle alone if common decency wasn’t enough.
From Page 21, detailing alleged events involving Victim 8: “In the fall of 2000, a janitor named James “Jim” Calhoun observed Sandusky in the showers of the Lasch Building with a young boy pinned up against the wall, performing oral sex on the boy. He immediately made known to other janitorial staff what he had witnessed.”
From Page 6, detailing alleged events from March 1, 2002: “As the graduate assistant put the sneakers in his locker, he looked into the shower. He was a naked boy, Victim 2, whose age he estimated to be ten years old, with his hands up against the wall, being subjected to anal intercourse by a naked Sandusky.”
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Posted on November 9th, 2011
By DERON SNYDER
The disgust generated by Penn State’s swirling child-abuse scandal rose another level Tuesday night when Joe Paterno — smiling and laughing — emerged from his house to address a raucous crowd that was chanting his name.
“We want Joe! We want Joe! We want Joe!”
How about wanting justice for the alleged victims of Paterno’s longtime assistant, Jerry Sandusky? How about wanting Paterno to explain why he never followed up on a 2002 report that Sandusky raped a 10-year-old boy in the football team’s showers? How about wanting the Board of Trustees to hold Paterno and school President Graham Spanier accountable for their failure to act and protect future victims?
If that crowd chooses to believe that Paterno did no wrong, swell. If it believes that Spanier and other school officials acted appropriately, fine. If it believes that Sandusky is innocent until proven guilty, OK.
But a grand jury indictment lists eight victims who testified about being abused. A potential ninth victim came forward over the weekend, and there’s a report that the number of victims has swelled to almost 20.
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Posted on November 4th, 2011
By DERON SNYDER
There’s only one fight that every boxing fan wants to see, and it’s not Floyd Mayweather Jr. against fill-in-the-blank. It’s Mayweather versus Manny Pacquiao, a bout that would pit the world’s two top pound-for-pound boxers.
Unfortunately, the Mayweather camp’s recent announcement of a date for his next fight merely intimated that Pacquiao would be the opponent. “We’re looking to make the biggest fight possible, and everyone knows what that fight is: the little fella,” Mayweather adviser Leonard Ellerbe told ESPN.com.
Yes, everyone knows what that fight is. But not everyone believes that Mayweather really wants to make that fight. A few days before the announcement, Pacquiao promoter Bob Arum said that the fight will never happen because Mayweather knows he’d be knocked out. Arum made the comment during media day for Pacquiao’s Nov. 12 bout against Juan Manuel Marquez.
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