Daily Round up- Saturday, January 31st

NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell addressed the media in his state of the league address and talked about several things. The bigger things he addressed is the assertion that the union’s profits have been going higher, which the commissioner denied. This is of course more games being played before the Players Union and the owners meet to discuss a CBA.

While the NFL is the most profitable league in domestic terms, the Commissioner is staring down the barrel of a cap-less year in 2010 and reaching a CBA is not going to be easy. A few things that I thought was interesting about what he addressed:
He wants a team in L.A., which isn’t news, because if you are trying to maximize your profit potential for a league, you need a team in L.A.. But Roger wouldn’t mind hosting the Super Bowl in 2016 in Los Angeles on the anniversary of the first Super Bowl being hosted in the Coliseum.
The Raiders and the 49ers sharing a stadium? Interesting, but you are talking about two different fan bases and I just don’t see that happening.
Overtime rules may be looked at. This is good news for those that hate the current system where one team may get it and score leaving the other offense helpless and unable to respond. I’m curious to see what kind of system they will adopt.

Another major festivity of the Super weekend is the election of the newest members of the Hall of Fame. The Hall of Fame Committee get in a room at 7:30 in the morning the day before the Super Bowl and 6 or 7 hours later return with a list of names. The St. Petersburg Times’ writer Dave Scheiber goes into detail about what happens in that room.

In that room, plenty of players will have their names called and presentations made on their behalf. Some names that are getting some attention are “Bullet” Bob Hayes, Paul Tagliabue, Derrick Thomas and Richard Dent. A few writers have already went out of their way to make cases for two of the names on this list. First, Bullet Bob Hayes has both Jean Jacques Taylor from the Dallas Morning News and Clarence Hill Jr. of the Fort Worth Star Telegram making the case. Joe Posnanski makes the case for Derrick Thomas (AGAIN) and Brad Biggs of the Chicago Sun Times makes the case for Richard Dent. At least Rod Woodson isn’t sweating it out according to the New York Times Karen Crouse. Here’s the complete list of finalists.

The fact is, this morning is probably one of the most nervous mornings for anyone waiting to hear his name called. As a person who has done his job for a long time, you want to be recognized for your accomplishments and this is the highest honor afforded any player in any sport. Being immortalized in your sports hall of fame is something no person can take away from you and just like you now call Barack Obama, President Obama, you would add Hall of Famer to each sentence when referring to that player.
If you look at all these players on this list of ifs and maybes, the case against them grows with the time they don’t get elected as opposed to the belief that the case for them grows as time develops. Legends do sometimes grow as times go on and people’s skills get blown out of proportion like the assertion that Bullet Bob Hayes revolutionized the wide receiving position by bringing in the new wave of speed burners. That’s absolutely ridiculous and if it wasn’t just one segment of the population’s belief about that, then he would be in the hall of fame.
Growing up, I watched Derrick Thomas and was always impressed by how well he played. When he died and Neil Thomas went to the Denver Broncos, its like they had broken up what could have been the best pass rushing duo. When I started thinking about it, I made the strange comparison of Derrick Thomas and Notorious BIG. Biggie is known as a top 5 MC while ONLY having 2 full albums to his credit, yet everyone swears by him. Derrick Thomas died at 33 having played a good number of seasons yet never playing enough to warrant selection apparently. It can’t be because of the stats. His 126.5 are good for 11th on the all-time list and his 45 forced fumbles is still a record. Oh, and he had the most number of sacks in a single game with 7 and he’s also tied for second place on that list with 6 in one game. But his off field transgressions are what’s holding him back and unfortunately some people can’t blind themselves from the fact that the qualifications end with what happens on the playing field. Hence, why the discussion for Lawrence Taylor was so iffy.



For those of you in the New York area looking for a place to party with a certain team’s fan base, well the Daily News got your back and hooks you up with a few bars in the city that serve your unique football flavor.

If this doesn’t show you how many transplanted fans there are in New York, nothing will. There’s a part of the city for every single fan, no matter what team they like.


Not only are the Knicks winning recently, they are doing it very impressively and well some people have taken notice. It appears that the Knicks aren’t so hopeless after all and it may persuade some big name free agents to come over and help continue the New York revival. The Knicks beat writer Marc Berman spoke to one of those guys, Dwayne Wade, on that subject.

This article just made my day. I know you have to take whatever’s in the Post with a grain of salt, but still, this gets me so juiced, it has me saying things like getting juiced. First of all a Dwayne Wade Lebron James anchored team would be off the Richter. But let’s be realistic, the Knicks may only be able to afford one of those guys unless Uncle Dolan is willing to go above and beyond the call of duty (read: Salary Cap) to ensure that the Knicks will be a legitimate enterprise.


As many times as I make fun of this guy, here’s a pretty endearing article about my favorite sports broadcaster and yours Emmitt Smith by Joe Henderson of the Tampa Tribune.

I was reading this article and I couldn’t help but think what would happen years later when he joined the Cowboys and how he was depicted as this me first guy. The great ones when they are young are so hungry just to play that they will do whatever to get a chance to make the field. Stories like this make you understand what it is about a sports player that makes him special to those around him.

We tend to look more closely on the big 3 (sorry Hockey you’ve been removed) and no other sport. They don’t have the licensing of its products and their players aren’t nationally recognized celebrities and we’re not just talking about one guy (like in swimming). So if one of their biggest players are called into question, the sport faces the risk of it being called into question too, which poses a bigger threat. Bill Livingston of the Cleveland Plain Dealer looks at Doug Logan, USA Track and Field Commissioner who is facing the problem of Performance Enhancing Drugs head on as opposed to addressing the issue once Congress gets involved like other sports.

Frankly, it is tougher for sports not mass marketed like the big three to get any leeway with the American public if one of their stars are found to be juiced. If Michael Phelps or Lance Armstrong were found to be cheaters, then coverage of both those sports would be drastically affected to the point that a majority of the population just would not care. Although Mr. Livingston wouldn’t agree, I do tend to go with the view that sports like baseball and basketball can afford to have one or two of their stars convicted. Their sports are part of Americana and won’t go away. Sports like hockey that really haven’t had a drug problem per se, basically lost its window into the American public when the strike happened. Now, you have to have the Versus channel just to see a hockey game every night. The tight rope that these sports walk is a tough one and kudos for a commissioner that takes a strict stance against these law breakers.


Finally, here’s a link to an old story of one of the most underrated sports players in his generation. Why is he underrated, well when you read this Joe Posnanski piece you may understand. Enjoy the guy with probably the best and most simple nickname in all of sports Stan “the Man” Musial.

I don’t know too much about Stan Musial but that piece made him look like an angel. Perhaps he was and if so, let me be the first to say wow. His numbers jumped out at you and his understated presence seems to be one of a kind. The thing about not being from one of the bigger cities like New York or Boston sometimes do leave players like Stan the Man out of many discussions about who’s the best and it’s a shame. Guys like Stan represent yester-year. Years before the press made the star and before the star realized that it was what they did that made the writers write the stories and thus created this look at me attitude. I don’t know if Stan would get much consideration these days, but hey, let’s be glad that from time to time, there are stories like this to remind us that great players could also mean that they were great guys too.