Before you start typing remarks about how I’m going off topic and why the NFL won’t match college sports, hear me out.

I’m fully aware that the subject matter is somewhat out of the ordinary. I know that college sports have that unique sense of brotherhood and competitiveness that the pros find lacking. I even know that my post might be a bit overdue.

But in the aftershock of yesterday’s press conference, something must be said for one of the greatest athletes, ambassadors, and competitors that the sport has ever known. There never has been, and likely never will be, another football player with that exact same sense of playful glee that #4 embodied in 17 seasons of a distinguished NFL career.

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Turns out, there are things far worse to a college basketball program than Patrick Patterson’s broken foot or a missed NCAA tourney trip.

Try this one: Harvard’s, HARVARD’S, hoops program got caught with its hand in the cookie jar. There are a litany of recruiting violations, including illegal contact with a recruit’s father, an assisstant coach playing illegal pickup games with a recruit, and the signing of players below Harvard’s normally lofty standards.

Apparently, head coach Tommy Amaker, resentful of Boston’s sudden boom in sports success, felt a need to catch up. So he hired Bill Belichik to help him out.

Okay, so I made that last one up. But seriously, Tom, why do it? Messing around at America’s most prestigous college makes no more sense than Tim Tebow trying to imporve his football prowess by taking steriods. In trying to improve something great at the price of excellence, everyone loses.

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Bill Belichick is a name that conjures up many images to many people.  A leader, a coach who has built a dynastic football franchise that is the clear flagship of the NFL.  A controller, a man who obsesses on detail and demand complete loyalty and obedience.  A winner, a man who is all about winning games and will do whatever it takes to acheive that result even to the point of . . .   A cheater, someone who is willing to gain a competitive advantage even to the point of breaking the written and unwritten rules of sport.
 
We know that the Patriots have been caught cheating and we suspect that New England isn’t the only team that has pushed the limits of scouting on opponents.  Sooner or later someone was going to come along and realize that football is a battle between teams and one of the most important facets of the battlefield is information, commonly referred to as intelligence.  In the past, sports espionage has been limited to stealing playbooks or notes and deciphering signals.  To do this you needed what is referred to as HUMINT or HUMan INTelligence.  You needed bodies on the ground to infiltrate your opponent.  Whether you recruited your own people to gather the information or were able to turn someone with access to the information you desired (sometimes referred to as a mole) it involved dealing with people.
 
However, as technology increased football coaches realized the benefits.  The NFL has always been a cutting edge league looking for advantages.  Modern technology has allowed coaches to do much more than could have been done just a decade earlier.  Helmet radios, instant replay, sideline communications, etc, are not common place on football sidelines.  And it only took a matter of time for someone to see the advantage of gathering intelligence beyond the common method of scouting the opponent in games.  With the ease of the flow of information came the vulnerability to modern espionage.
 
Bill Belichick and the Patriots were reportedly caught filming an opposing team.  There are also reports that the Patriots fitted players with microphones on the field to hear opposing calls.  The Patriots head coach is also rumored to have file cabinets filled with information on coaches in the league, information gathered both openly and less scrupilously.  Am I supposed to now believe that this has JUST occured in the past year or so?  Is the American public naive enough to believe that this hasn’t been going on for a long time?
 
Let’s think about the advantages a truly enlighted coach who pushes football espionage to the limit. (more…)

The NFL and football has become the latest battle ground in the racial tension that underlies US Society.  On July 16, Michael Vick, quarterback of the Atlanta Falcons, was indicted by a Federal Grand Jury as part of a conspiracy to breed, train and fight Pitt Bulls on his property in Surry County, Virginia and for cruel and inhumane treatment of losing dogs or dogs deemed worthless because they would not fight.  However Michael Vick isn’t just a typical NFL quarterback, Vick is the “next generation” NFL quarterback and a player who has enormous popularity, especially among young black athletes.  Although his performance and results have been erratic the past few years, no one doubts the excitement he brings to the football field and the amazing highlights he performs on a regular basis.
 
Vick has not been someone who has stayed out of the limelight and criticism and scandal has managed to follow the quarterback over the years.  Michael Vick is a man noted for establishing the Vick Foundation to support at-risk youth after school programs in the Metro Atlanta area and donating to the families of the Virginia Tech Tragedy as well as for his incidents in flipping off the fans of New Orleans and the infamous “Ron Mexico” court cases where he was sued by a woman who accused him of giving her herpes (the case was later settled out of court).
 
According to a poll by the Atlanta Journal Constitution 45.9% of Georgians believe the Atlanta Falcons should release Vick while 45.7% believe they should keep him until a verdict is rendered.  But looking closer at the numbers shows that 54.4% of whites felt Vick should be released compared to 26.6% of blacks.  65.6% of blacks felt the Falcons should wait until a verdict while only 36.7 of whites felt the same way.
 
The Kansas City Star states that Mike Vick had deliberately maintained his “street cred“, aka his credibility amongst urban youths, by being involved in the hip hop culture.  Hip-hop culture is defined as one that glorifies negative behavior and attitudes to the detriment of the historically positive reputation of previous black athletes.  Jason Whitlock, the author, states that despite his financial security he felt compelled to participate in a hobby that had no reward other than his personal reputation among his friends and family.  LINK 

Some folks question why the federal government put so much energy prosecuting dogfighting when so many crimes against people go unpunished.

“They need to be over in Newport News where the kids are shooting each other,” said Reginald Evans.  “What do you think is more important?  A dog or a child?”  LINK

Others feel like Vick was targeted specifically because he is a famous black athlete.

“So what’s the story here?  Plain and simple, the government wants to make an example out of a high-profile sports figure.  And since they can’t seem to snag Barry Bonds, Michael Vick will have to do.”  LINK

Despite the racial divisions emerging in the opinions regarding this situation, it seems likely that no matter how this ends it won’t end well for either Vick or anyone associated with him, including the Atlanta Falcons.  For someone who once had a brilliant and promising sports career ahead of him, it looks now as if Vick’s legacy might not be football related at all but rather as a cautionary tale to future athletes of the benefits of avoiding these types of situations and predicaments.  And if that turns out to be the case then perhaps this will all have a positive ending after all.

Unless, you have been on Mars, you know of the NCAA recent twist with blogger Brian Bennett who took issue with his live blogging. The NCAA believes any statistic that takes place during one of its athletic competitions is property of NCAA, and reporting it in a live game thread is a breach of proprietary information it claims it owns.

Well, its curious why at this point the NCAA has decided to take issue with this. As, any person with a computer can provide game updates either being live at the sporting event, or from the comfort at home while watching on tv, listening on radio, or even while its broadcast over the internet. I know I have been guilty of providing web updates of live events previously.

Well, there is a precedent that says that this claim the NCAA claim will not hold up. In the book The Numbers Game by Alan Schwarz (page 183) he mentions how the NBA came after John Dewan of STATS for supplying AOL and Motorolla with game statistics and game updates to their subscribers. The NBA claimed that STATS was infringing on their intellectual properties. In the battle of STATS vs NBA, Judge Preska ruled that providing game updates such as real time data was in essence providing a simultaneous rebroadcast of the game. Basically, by her ruling its was stating that STATS was stealing the NBA data unlawfully, even though STATS was simply providing game facts. STATS fought back and filed an appeal. In the appeal, they ruled that public-domain information can’t be considered private property. A HUGE win for STATS and this ruling will pave the groundwork to show that the NCAA claim is bogus, and the Brian Bennett’s of the world will be allowed to continue their work.

Although Floyd Keith, the director of the Black Coaches Association (BCA), was happy to see watch the first Super Bowl with black head coaches on the sideline in the NFL the college coaching landscape has essentially remained whitewashed.  Only 6 out of 112 Division one coaching positions are currently filled with black coaches.  The lack of movement towards a more “diverse” and representative landscape may force Keith to “take legal action” against the NCAA to force an increase in “minority hiring”.  It was the threat of an anti-discrimination lawsuit by Johnnie Cochran that helped force the NFL to implement a diversity program.
 
In an article on blackathlete.net entitled “The NFL has it right, but the NCAA is dragging its feet”, Gary Norris Gray notes that while the NFL has continued to improve the coaching opportunities for black coaches the NCAA has failed miserably.  While the NFL is at 17% (5 out of 30) and a work in progress, Gray claims that there are only 5 black head coaches for 217 Division I-A schools (although this conflicts with Keith’s numbers and there are not 216 D1A schools in football, my own research seems to suggest 119).  Gray also accuses Notre Dame of firing former Irish Coach Ty Willingham due to a racist double standard.  Gray states, “It was never stated but the race factor also played a part in this case.” and “Weis and Willingham have the same record after three years.  This double standard continues to plague the NCAA.” 

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