King Sell-Out

Today is a sad day for sports. Why? Lebron James chose to sell-out to the star power of the Miami Heat rather than stick it out in his home state of Ohio. The Cavaliers will now become irrelevant and join my team, the New York Knicks.Maybe I sound harsh, but there is a good reason for it. For years now I have rooted for the Cavaliers second because Lebron was such a likable superstar. He played in his home state of Ohio rather than go to a bigger market team. So when he decided to join Bosh and Wade in Miami, it crushed me. Another of my idols had fallen.

What makes this even worse is that it was done live on national TV. What kind of person goes on national TV to breaks the heart of their fans? Has Cleveland not suffered enough? First the Browns, now this. If you're looking for a good city to be a sports fan in, Cleveland is not it.

Next year the Miami Heat will be the New York Yankees of the NBA as far as I'm concerned. It's sad when athletes sell-out to pay with superstars rather than win championships with the pieces they have around them. Believe it or not, it can be done. Just ask Michael Jordan. It took him seven years to win his first NBA title. He stuck with it. Instead of giving up after six years, he continued to hone his winner's and leadership intangibles. Scottie Pippen, Tony Kukoc, Steve Kerr, etc., were not names when they started with the Bulls. Michael Jordan made them names, because he made everyone around him better. Jordan did it the right way. Lebron should never be mentioned in the same breath as Jordan, because he hasn't done it the right way. Bear in mind this is a tough thing for me to admit. As a Knicks fan I was crushed by Jordan on a regular basis.

When the NBA season starts next year, I will be back to tilting at windmills rooting for the next. The King of Cleveland I used to worship is dead.

Who's Fault is it Anyway?

The Winter Olympics are finally here. Yes, two weeks of hockey, curling, figure skating, snowboarding, is upon us. Normally I look forward to the olympics. I like seeing sports I don't normally get to see and in some cases seeing athletes or teams come out of nowhere to become household names. Sadly, the Vancouver Olympics are not off to the best of starts.

Friday, not very long before the opening ceremonies, tragedy struck the games. Nodar Kumaritashvili, a 21-year-old Georgian luger, died in a training crash. That same day, an investigation by Olympic officials into the crash concluded that the track was not to blame. Really? Why did it allow Kumaritashvil to not only travel up to 90 mph, but also crash into an unpadded, yes UNPADDED pole? Not only that, but concerns about the track have been raised for sometime now. This week there have been more than a dozen crashes leading up to the games on the same course. One left a Romanian unconscious and on Thursday Australian luger Hannah Campbell-Pegg had this to say, "I think they are pushing it a little too much. To what extent are we just little lemmings that they just throw down a track and we're crash-test dummies?'' she said. "I mean, this is our lives."

What are the Olympics to do? Well, the show must go on I guess, even the luge where the men will now start at the same ramp as the women and at lower speeds. Talk about closing the barn door after the horses come home. Hopefully no one else will get hurt and we can enjoy the rest of the games, but given what has happened with the tragic crash and the inadequate reaction of the Olympic officials, that seems difficult.

What alarms me even more is that the excuses being made for the luge course sound like the same excuses that are made for cross country courses in equestrian events. You know the type of excuses I mean: they didn't train properly, it was a freak accident, etc. The bottom line is that there needs to be more oversight in regards to safety issues in all sports. We need to stop putting football players in after concussions, make changes to luge courses that cause upwards of a dozen crashes, and look more carefully at cross country courses that injure and sometimes kill horses and riders. It would be nice to see the powers that be take responsibility for once instead of blaming the victim, in this case Kumaritashvili. What needs to be asked is how many people are going to have to be hurt or get killed on this luge course before changes are made? I guess we can't make any changes because it would cost rather than bring in money, which sadly has become the bottom line and not the Olympic spirit.

Fans Behaving Badly

We continue tonight with our sadly ongoing series "Fans Behaving Badly." Last night during the second half of a men's college basketball game between Pittsburgh and West Virginia, fans starting throwing objects onto the court when Pittsburgh started to rally from a double-digit deficit. You know things are bad when a coach grabs the microphone in the midst of the insanity. Bob Huggins, the coach of West Virginia suggested that if someone sees another person engaging in this behavior they should, "point them out so we can throw them out of here." Bravo for being the voice of reason coach! Sadly, he doesn't go far enough.

Over the past several years there has been an escalation of bad fan behavior. It started with the "malice at the palace" in the Pacers-Pistons game in 2004. In that case it was not just fans, but players as well. That same year saw Frank Francisco of the Texas Rangers throw a chair into the crowd in a game against the Oakland A's which resulted in a woman getting a broken nose in the midst of a fan melee that started when then Texas Rangers pitcher Doug Brocail charged from the Rangers' bullpen to go after a fan, Craig Bueno, who, Rangers' players claimed heckled the Rangers pitcher about his stillborn child. Then in 2007 there was the revelation about the "Gate D" party at Giants Stadium where fans gathered at the spiral columns of the stadium and encouraged women passing by to lift their shirts and engaged in other lewd behavior. No surprise, some were drunk and some threw beer bottles. Notice a pattern here?

What is to be done? In my view there are a number of things we can do to deal with this. First, if fans start acting this way play the next game before an empty stadium. This is not a new, radical concept. They do it all the time in Europe when the soccer fans get out of control. In 2005 fans at a game in Italy started throwing flares onto the field, not just plastic bottles and other objects. If it happens again, make it two games with an empty stadium, and so on, until the message sticks. Additionally, surveillance cameras should be in all stadiums and fans caught engaging in unruly behavior should be banned for the season. If they offend again, they should be banned for life. Finally, and I know I'm going to be unpopular for saying this, alcohol should be banned at ALL, yes, ALL sporting events. Period. I know not everyone is a drunken buffoon, but sadly this is another case where a few idiots are ruining it for everyone else. In far too many of these cases of fan violence have coincided with drunkenness. Since there is no evidence fans can police themselves I say we go prohibition-style. I have nothing against casual drinkers. If you want a beer or two watch the game at home or go the local bar. Then maybe we can go back to enjoying sports instead of having to be in fear for our lives in the stands.

Classy Thy Name is Kurt Warner

In a sports world dominated by divas such as Brett Favre, people like Kurt Warner are a rarity. Today Warner announced his retirement after 12 years in the NFL, a Super Bowl ring, three Super Bowl appearances, and two NFL MVPs. Even though he went out in the divisional round of this year's playoffs, Warner is still leaving on top. He was still being the quietly efficient quarterback he has always been.

Warner not only won a Super Bowl with the St. Louis Rams, he also managed to get the Arizona Cardinals, a team that hadn't made a playoff appearance in eons, to the Super Bowl last year. While the Cardinals lost to the Steelers in the end, Warner just kept at it and it was one of the better Super Bowls in recent memory.

Something to note is that Warner is also leaving after having suffered at least three concussions, one of which came in the divisional round loss to the Saints. It's good he will still have most of his health. As much as I love Steve Young, he stuck around a little too long and took a few too many shots to the head.

The bottom line is this: Kurt Warner was a class act from beginning to end. After 12 seasons, three Super Bowl appearances, a Super Bowl win, and two MVPs, Kurt Warner is a first ballot hall of famer. Kurt Warner, you will be missed.

Pro Bowl Fail

In every league it seems there is an all-star game. It seems to be an unwritten rule. These are games for the fans, by the fans. In the NBA, MLB, and most other leagues these games are usually enjoyable exhibitions. NBA all-star weekend is a huge event complete with everything from the dunk contest (which I'm sure will be a topic on this blog later), to the rookie challenge, to the all-star game itself. The MLB has the home run derby and the game itself determines home field advantage in the world series. All of this seems pretty benign right? Well, that's because the NBA and MLB have a clue how to run these things. The NFL? Not so much.

The NFL Pro Bowl used to come the week after the Super Bowl and almost no players wanted to come. This year, the NFL has a new plan: let's make it the week before the Super Bowl! Not only that, but now players from the Colts and the Saints are being required by the NFL to fly to the Pro Bowl not even to play. No, the high and mighty NFL in all its wisdom is making players who should be getting ready mentally and physically for the biggest game of the year show up at the Pro Bowl just to make an appearance. This is beyond idiotic. The all-star games in other leagues work because they are in mid-season and there is some incentive for athletes to participate. The Pro Bowl is an afterthought and usually not even watchable.

What's the answer? Call me crazy but I think the Pro Bowl should be eliminated altogether. It's a waste of time and it comes after the Super Bowl so it also seems anti-climactic. Let the players who have worked so hard to get to the Super Bowl be with their teams, get ready for the circus of Super Bowl week, and, if necessary, get healthy. The Pro Bowl is a shameless attempt by the NFL to make more money. The NFL is loaded with cash so making players participate in an exhibition game just to please sponsors is absurd. The only thing dumber would be charging fans for pre-season games. Oops! The NFL is already ripping fans off that way too.

Greetings Sports Fans!

Welcome to Sportsmania, my first sports blog. I will way in on stories about all sports (not just NFL, MLB, etc.). I welcome spirited debate but keep it civil and clean. Full disclosure, my teams are the Indianapolis Colts, New York Knicks, Wisconsin Badgers, Milwaukee Brewers, and the Tennessee Lady Vols. I enjoy watching sports from the NFL to the equestrian events (when I can find them). I even like hockey, but prefer it to be college or olympic hockey. I have teams and players that I detest, and that will become more clear as this blogging experiment continues. Let's play ball!