LET THE BUYERS BEWARE

Monday afternoon, all-Big 12 Oklahoma State running back Chuba Hubbard tweeted his displeasure at a photograph of head coach Mullet “I’m a man, I’m 40!” Gundy wearing a t-shirt bearing the logo of One America News, a fledgling right-wing media enterprise which Gundy had praised earlier this year. 

            Since this is America, and freedom of speech is a right protected by the Constitution, The Mullet can get his “news” from any source he wants. But Hubbard is also allowed to speak out about how it feels to be a young black man playing for a coach who endorses an outlet that has, among other incendiary takes, referred to Black Lives Matter as “a farce.” It wasn’t long before other OSU players took to social media in support of Hubbard, and later that same day Gundy and Hubbard appeared in what looked like a hostage video, during which Hubbard actually apologized for tweeting out his feelings. 

            A day later, predictably, Gundy read a mea culpa designed to demonstrate his newfound appreciation for his players’ concerns. His delivery was as wooden as Roger Dorn’s during the Cleveland team’s American Express commercial in “Major League” and was received well by some. Others weren’t so convinced. Of course, believing that The Mullet had actually changed his feelings after one 24-hour period is simplistic at best and dangerous at worst. This was the guy who back in April said he would be bringing his players back soon to campus, despite the burgeoning pandemic, because he didn’t want to stop the flow of dollars from university or state. 

            The issue here isn’t whether Gundy should be fired for his political beliefs or news channel choices. He shouldn’t be. (NOTE: If the accusations made by former Colorado players that The Mullet used the N-word in a 1989 game between Oklahoma State and the Buffaloes are true, then it’s time for him to go.) The larger question is whether Hubbard’s and his teammates’ posts signal a new dawn in athletes’ activism. As college sports stumble back to life in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, protests continue across the country in response to police brutality and institutional racism, and the NC2A continues to do everything in its power to limit the rights of its athletes in the name of “amateurism”, athletes everywhere are becoming emboldened and could well create a long-needed shift in the power dynamic across the nation.

            Ohio State students were welcomed back to campus this week with a form they had to sign that absolved the institution of any liability should any of them contract coronavirus during their “voluntary” workouts. Athletes at other schools will no doubt have to do the same thing when they arrive on campus. All this to make sure the institutions are protected, even if the kids aren’t. 

            As we move forward while confronting the dueling crises of a pandemic (better get your fill of college sports early in the fall, folks) and substantial civil unrest, athletes and their families should be paying close attention to what schools do to assure students’ safety, how they respond for calls to repair racist activities of the past and present and whether they respond enthusiastically to the opportunity to help athletes profit from their names, images and likenesses. Those who do will be able to make informed decisions about remaining on campus and where they should be committing when recruited. 

            In the past, athletes have chosen their schools based on playing time, facilities, academic programs, coaches’ sales pitches, location, historic success and a host of other criteria, some of which are quite banal. “Golly, Mom and Dad, Clemson’s football building has a sliding board in it. I want to go there!” While some of the reasons will always remain crucial to the final decisions, the behaviors of people and schools during these extraordinary times should offer significant evidence of where players – particularly African-Americans – want to spend four years (or at least one or two before they transfer). 

            Players and their families should start paying closer attention to what coaches believe, what institutions celebrate and whether those behaviors align with their beliefs and what is important to them. If Gundy still wants to watch OAN, that’s his right. But that might be a problem if he wants to convince a four-star African-American quarterback to play for him. If a school wants to become a magnet for players who want some of rights and privileges enjoyed by their coaches – bonuses for success, ability to profit in the community from their exploits and relative freedom of movement between job opportunities – then its president had better not be chairing a committee of fellow big shots who are trying to squelch athletes’ freedoms. 

            If athletes want to affect change at schools and within athletic departments, they can do so by choosing colleges whose officials and coaches care about social justice, rather than just issuing mea culpas when they get caught doing things that upset people. Further, parents, community leaders and others who have influence over young people should be monitoring the those competing for high school athletes’ services. That way, they can provide information and guidance about who is recruiting the youngsters. Nothing forces change in college sports more than poor performances by teams, diminishing revenues and bad public relations. Yes, Clemson may have a beach volleyball court at its football complex. But it also has a building on campus named for Benjamin Tillman, an ardent racist. It’s time to make one of those facts more important than the other when it comes to athletic recruiting. 

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            EL HOMBRE SEZ: It took espn 1:45 of “Long Gone Summer” to mention that Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa might have used some funny vitamins to jack all those homers during the magical steroid summer of ’98. Who makes the decisions to gloss over things like this? Is there a big meeting in which someone says, “Look, these guys looked like Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade floats, but if we talk about their go-go juice usage, folks won’t watch,” and everybody just goes along? It’s ridiculous and yet another reason espn can’t be counted on consistently for truthful programming…Speaking of baseball, it looks like we might have an agreement between players and owners that will allow for a truncated 2020 season. Might. It’s still extremely possible that both sides will screw this up, and that the only ball we’ll see is the Korean League, or the 96^th airing of “Bull Durham.” (Not that there’s anything wrong with that.)…Among the amenities promised NBA players when they bivouac at the “bubble” in Mousetown for the remainder of the ’19-20 season is a manicure/pedicure service. El Hombre is trying to imagine what Bill Russell, Wes Unseld, Maurice Lucas or Bill Laimbeer would have had to say about that.

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            YOU GOT A PROBLEM WITH THAT? News of Eagles guard Barrett Brooks’ torn Achilles tendon has rattled the franchise and its fan base. Now, the team must decide whether to promote a reserve from within to take Brooks’ place, pursue the unwise path of re-signing Jason Peters to play inside, after his glittering career as a left tackle, pick up a cheap free agent or get aggressive and find a front-line replacement. El Hombre votes for the aggressive approach. Although the team is way over the cap for the 2021 season, thanks to a spate of long-term deals, and inking (or trading for) a legitimate starter would stress an already difficult money situation, the team has a great chance to win the NFC East this year and merely patching a major hole in the middle of the line will have significant consequences. Oft-injured QB Carson Wentz needs as much protection as possible, and leaving him vulnerable to A-gap blitzes isn’t the best way to do that. Further, since the Eagles’ receiving corps isn’t made up of 7-Eleven types (always open), Wentz will need more time to find someone who has – perhaps – shaken free of a defender. Putting a turnstile in front of him on the line won’t aid his efforts any. It makes sense to overpay for Brooks’ replacement for this year and perhaps next, since this is his second torn Achilles, and though he showed superhuman courage in coming back so quickly from the first, the body can only withstand so much abuse. NFL teams have no guarantee that contention windows will stay open for more than a year, much less three or four, and sacrificing 2020 for the future is a bad decision.

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            AND ANOTHER THING: As the nation opens up gradually – or, in some places, too quickly – people are beginning to look a bit forward to the idea that college football will defy the pandemic and provide us three months of Saturday entertainment. That’s a nice thought, but it would be wise for fans to temper their expectations. As colleges across the country try to figure out how to return to campus, they are also making plans for a return to the remote educational models that prevailed earlier this year, as states shut down activities, and toilet paper hoarding became the new national pastime. With experts predicting sustained life for the coronavirus, and states experiencing spikes in cases thanks to premature loosening of restrictions, the chances of another widespread national crisis are quite real. Although some states may ignore a growing number of cases and power forward, others won’t. That means campus closures and cessations of college sports. It’s not guaranteed, and it’s not necessarily universal, but everyone should understand that there could well be interruptions as the fall moves forward.

-EH-

PLAY BALL, YOU IDIOTS!

            Rob Manfred, Majoke League Baseball’s tough-guy commissioner who took away the Astros’ dessert for two weeks after Houston cheated its way to the 2017 World Series title, has guaranteed us there will be baseball this year.

            “I can tell you unequivocally we are gonna play Major League Baseball this year,” Manfred said.

            That’s a pretty definitive statement for someone who is presiding over yet another round of clown college-quality negotiations between owners and players. If it takes an imposition from the top of a 50-game (or 10-game, or whatever) schedule that half the players boycott, Manfred is going to do it. And as the millionaires and billionaire squabble over control of the game and their shares of a smaller – but still substantial – pile of money, the biggest loser in all of this is a sport that is facing an uncertain future, as its fan base ages toward irrelevance with advertisers, and the feast of entertainment options around it lures more and more young people away from it.

            Manfred’s proclamation may have cheered some baseball fans, but the idea of a 50-game sprint to a bloated playoff tournament is as appetizing as a hot dog that has endured eight innings in the brackish waters of a vendor’s tank. Some people may watch. Many won’t, and when baseball tries to reopen fully next spring, it will do so in front of fewer fans and after having taken one more step toward an irrelevance that could have been avoided, or at least prolonged.

            A 2017 study by Sports Business Journal found that the average baseball fan was 57 years old, seven years older than the average NFL fan and 15 ahead of the typical NBA partisan. That was three years ago, and you can bet MLB’s fan base hasn’t skewed younger since then. And since baseball isn’t too keen on filling up commercial breaks with advertisements for Consumer Cellular, Colonial Penn Life Insurance and prostate-care supplements, the graying fan base isn’t too encouraging. Those old-folks promotions don’t generate the same revenue as do ads for cars, fast-food joints and reality shows. 

            According to the study, only 24 percent of baseball fans at the time were under 35. And since Little League participation has dropped consistently since the 1990s, it’s unlikely American youngsters are going to develop into rabid MLB fans in the coming years, thereby increasing that statistic. Baseball can institute robot umpires, seven-inning games, ghost runners on second at the beginning of extra innings and dress its players up like characters from “Stranger Things”, and it still won’t matter. The game’s fan base is aging. Its languid pace doesn’t appeal to our shorter-attention-span culture. So, what’s the absolute worst thing to do in that situation? 

            Piss off the base.

            El Hombre has been quite clear about his preferred side in the ongoing struggle between the owners and players, so he isn’t going to revisit that subject. However, as baseball refuses to find a way back onto the field in a way that will satisfy fans, it risks obsolescence. Had it found a way to return by July 4, the sport could have had an entire month’s head start before the NBA and NHL resumed play and even beaten NFL training camps off the starting line. Further, it would have been played during its conventional window, something the basketball and hockey folks couldn’t have done. It’s still hard to imagine folks getting excited about the Stanley Cup finals in August. 

            Earlier this week, the MLB Players Association presented a counteroffer to the owners that should serve as a basis for responsible negotiations that produce a season that can be considered legitimate, not some 50-game lark. Should the two sides come to an agreement, they will each suffer some short-term pain, in return for a bit of long-term security. Baseball’s aging base may be loyal, but it has a breaking point. If baseball messes up this year, even the old timers won’t be back in the same numbers. Do the math: as the current target audience ages and falls away, and the younger demographic loses interest, the long-term prognosis for baseball isn’t too attractive. That doesn’t mean the sport is doomed tomorrow or even in 10 years, especially since 60 is the new 40 – or at least that’s what El Hombre hopes. But any business that insists on alienating its best customers will eventually wither. If MLB teams don’t get onto the field pretty damn quickly, they will lose the one group of fans on which they have been counting. 

            And remember, there’s a “Rockford Files” marathon on TV next week. That’s a heckuva lot better than a Rockies-Marlins game.

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            EL HOMBRE SEZ: The eight rotten NBA teams that have been left out of the playoff hunt – for darn good reason – are upset that playing no games this summer will create a huge layoff that will hurt them next season. Here’s a news flash: the lack of competition won’t be the major culprit; their awful rosters will be. But since El Hombre is a generous soul, he proposes the NBA stage The Crap Tournament, which pits the eight roundball disasters against each other. Only there should be one catch: the losing teams advance in the best-of-three series. That way, fans will know who the true worst squad is. Put everything you have on the Knicks…In other NBA news, the league has floated the concept of a condensed 2020-21 season that would start Dec. 1 and squeeze all 82 games into a time period that would allow for an ending close to the traditional conclusion of the season, and one that would allow for players to compete for the U.S. in the Tokyo Olympics, now scheduled to begin July 23 of next year. That would lead to more back-to-backs. There might even be some back-to-back-to-back gauntlets for teams, or as the Knicks fans will refer to them, “stink-stank-stunk.”…Now that NASCAR has banned Confederate battle flags from its racetracks, the big question is how stridently the racing organization will police its new edict. Should it apply the same zero-tolerance policy that it does to those who try to sell bootleg apparel, it will do just fine. One more thing about the flags: They represent a rebellion against the United States that failed. When you lose a war, you don’t get to keep your symbols…Michael Jordan and his team landed a massive, 442.3-pound marlin during a $3 million fishing tournament off the coast of North Carolina. Alas, the creature wasn’t heavy enough to win Jordan any money, and rumor has it the Bulls legend immediately christened it “The Scott Burrell of fish” and lambasted it for not doing enough to help him win…Duke AD Kevin White is concerned that new legislation allowing college athletes to pursue compensation for their names, images and likenesses will force schools to “abandon a model” that has been successful. Let’s hope so. That “model” has allowed colleges – along with coaches and ADs like White – to reap tremendous financial rewards from their athletes’ exploits, while sharing none of the largesse with the athletes. Sure, there is a chance certain schools will establish protocols to ensure some recruits will be able to have more endorsement opportunities than others, but since Duke has hired an outside firm to help it manage the new path, it’s unlikely the Blue Devils will be at a disadvantage. Here’s an idea: When White and his AD friends receive bonuses for teams’ successes at their schools, perhaps they could funnel the money to the players, instead of profiting personally. Think that will happen? Naaahhhh!!!

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            YOU GOT A PROBLEM WITH THAT? Once the NBA season re-starts, the Sixers will be counting heavily on Ben Simmons for any playoff success. That’s not good news. Even if Simmons is completely healthy – and a back injury forced him out of action before the league ceased operation due to the coronavirus – he remains an extremely unreliable leader, thanks to his skill set and attitude. The first and most obvious trouble is Simmons’ refusal to develop a reliable outside shot, which makes him more guardable, particularly in playoff settings, when open-court fun evaporates and teams must negotiate the halfcourt. Without a jumper from outside 15 feet, Simmons makes it easier for top teams to contain him in tight confines. Worse is the fact that by not developing the shot, Simmons appears to think his development is complete and that he doesn’t need to improve. That’s no way for a leader to behave, and it raises significant questions about whether he can become the type of player capable of lifting a franchise to the top of the NBA. Simmons has remarkable skill and talent, but it’s imperative that he becomes more complete, or the Sixers will never win a title with him on the roster. 

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            AND ANOTHER THING: It will be extremely interesting to see whether the NFL’s Invisible Man, who last week released a video expressing contrition for not listening more closely to players’ complaints about racism and for not respecting their protests – which included taking a knee during the playing of the national anthem – will stick by his new stance once the games start this season and team members kneel, raise fists or do something else in protest. Roger Goodell sounds as if he has developed a greater understanding of the issues about which players are angry. But there will be considerable pushback from plenty of populations, including Mr. Twitter himself, who has already weighed in, and some of the NFL owners, who approve Goodell’s salary and who have shown themselves to be no fans of protest, particularly if it upsets fans, political figures or media outlets. Forget that the protests are about police brutality and are not against the flag or armed forces, as those who dislike the activists insist. Goodell will have to make a big decision come exhibition game time, and it’s a good bet he will bow to external forces and outlaw kneeling. It may make his bosses happy, but it will infuriate the players, 70 percent of whom are black and who are fed up with brutality. The Invisible Man looks good now, but he’s like a rookie who shines during mini-camp. Once the real action starts, things get a lot tougher, and the spring star wilts.

-EH-

NOW DO YOU SEE WHY HE TOOK A KNEE?

            If anyone in the U.S. doesn’t understand now why Colin Kaepernick took a knee during the national anthem four years ago, he or she just isn’t interested in comprehending the quarterback's intent. 

            It wasn’t to disgrace the flag.

            He wasn’t being anti-American.

            He was protesting the brutal police treatment of black Americans. Period. 

            Oh, and the flag that all his critics wrapped themselves in was the shield that protected his protest. Kaepernick was protesting exactly what happened in Minneapolis last week. And in countless other U.S. cities over the past decades and centuries. You can spew jingoistic outrage about how you support our troops, but you cannot deny – if you are at all interested in being an honest and thoughtful person – that Kaepernick’s anger was justified. 

            As sports tries to stir from its coronavirus-inspired hibernation, its players, coaches, executives and fans are grappling with the fact that the racism problem in this country is real and widespread. Some are speaking out. Others are supporting those who have to fight the fight every second. Many are listening. And learning. Talking. Those are good things. They are necessary things. But they aren’t enough. If they are not backed up by action, we won’t ever progress from where we are today.

            Nothing is more about tribalism than the world of sports. My team can beat your team, which by the way, stinks. My school is better than your school. My quarterback is better than yours. We arrange ourselves in tribes based on allegiances to our favorites. It’s natural for humans to seek out people with like interests and backgrounds. In sports, that means Eagles fans will back each other in any confrontation, sometimes to the detriment of civilized society. There is nothing wrong with supporting a team or school and bonding with others allied with the same squad. 

            But our connection with tribes of all kinds must not be based on hatred and intolerance. It’s one thing to root against the Cowboys. It’s another to foment distrust and animus against another race. Or gender. Or sexual orientation. (Those are topics for another time.) Colin Kaepernick didn’t take a knee to disrespect our armed forces. He wasn’t agitating for the overthrow of the government. He wanted to make everyone aware that some members of the law enforcement community were and had been treating black people violently and without care. 

            He chose to do it during the national anthem because it generated awareness. And he did it because he was protected by a Constitution that guarantees free speech. As the anger mounted against him, his message became distorted by those trying to use him for political, social and just plain hateful purposes. 

            The amusing thing about all of this is that spending the couple minutes it takes for the anthem to reach its first-verse conclusion out on the concourse of a stadium or arena reveals hundreds of people showing no respect at all for the anthem. They are talking, buying food and drink, searching for their sections, going to the bathroom and doing just about anything other than standing at attention, with their hats removed, and singing along. But because those folks are law-abiding Americans, they get passes. 

            The killing of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer has triggered fury that has been simmering – and often reaching a boil – for centuries. It has spawned protests, but what it must do now is catalyze honest discussion throughout the country about what it really means to be a black person in America. 

            A few years ago, El Hombre spent a couple hours interviewing a black minister in Wilmington, DE, about race and that city’s efforts to emerge from poverty and violence. El Hombre asked the minister what would happen first if the two of them had the opportunity to solve the nation’s problem with racism.

            “That would require a conversation in which you would have to hear some very uncomfortable things,” the minister said.

            “But what if you hear some things you don’t like?” El Hombre asked.

            The minister laughed.

            “I’ve already heard them,” he said.    

            He’s right. He had heard it all, and El Hombre hadn’t heard enough. Kaepernick tried to open our ears, but his silent power was no match for the cacophony of those unwilling to look past their own biases. As sports return – we hope – those involved will be speaking out again. Before fans dismiss them, they should find somebody who looks different than they are and have that uncomfortable conversation. Listen. Learn. They may not change their minds completely, but they will gain some knowledge. That’s a great start.    

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            EL HOMBRE SEZ: When El Hombre gets his three wishes from Jeannie, one of them will be for the Almighty’s imagination, just so he can dream up something like what happened in a New York courtroom Monday. A judge dismissed Lenny Dykstra’s defamation suit against Ron Darling on the grounds that Dykstra had already defamed himself so thoroughly with his actions that no one could do any more damage to his reputation. Darling had written in his autobiography that Dykstra had hurled a string of vile epithets at Boston pitcher Oil Can Boyd during the 1986 World Series, and Dykstra claimed the book had harmed his rep. We’re at the point where if someone referred to Dykstra as Joe Stalin, the Soviet Man of Steel’s estate might sue…Uh-oh, Dookies: A Florida State Court judge ruled Monday that Zion Williamson has to answer questions about whether he accepted cash and prizes from Durham Community College to play ball for Saint, er, Coach Mike Krzyzewski. The imbroglio stems from a lawsuit brought against Williamson by his former marketing manager, who claims she was wrongly replaced. Williamson’s attorneys – and one would imagine Duke fans everywhere – will appeal. But this puts us one step closer to finding out that the Blue Devils weren’t attracting all those five-star recruits just because Krzyzewski is such a great guy. Wouldn’t that be a sin?...The NBA is hoping to start its season again by July 31, with the Finals’ concluding by Oct. 12, a time period that will bring a satisfactory conclusion to the season but will also put the league up against the NFL and (El Hombre hopes) the MLB’s pennant chase and post-season. Anyone expecting fans to spend August and September watching roundball is wishing and hoping and dreaming. But such is life in a pandemic. And if the 2019-20 season ends in mid-October, when does the ’20-21 campaign commence? Strange times, indeed…At this point, the math seems pretty simple: MLB players want to play 114 games, and the owners want 50. The players want 50% of their salaries guaranteed, and the owners want to pay 40%. So, how about 82 games and 45%? Makes sense, doesn’t it? Get on it!

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            AND ANOTHER THING: With minor leaguers facing highly-uncertain futures, and the entire farm system model at risk, thanks to the cratered economy and Majoke League Baseball’s attempt to gain control (read: cut costs) of the bushes, huge credit should go to David Price and Sean Doolittle for stepping up and promising to pay salaries of players in their teams’ systems. Price is paying the 200-plus players in the Dodgers’ system $1,000 each this month, while Doolittle convinced the Nationals’ big-league players to pick up the balance of the weekly $400 stipends the minor-leaguers were scheduled to receive, before the franchise cut them. Doolittle’s advocacy – and his teammates’ generosity – shamed the Nats’ owners into coughing up the full amount. Price is due to make about $31 million this year, so it’s not like he’s going to be eating beans for dinner or anything, but $200,000-plus is no joke, so he is to be commended. So are the Nationals. As for the owners, El Hombre hopes they won’t have to serve cut-rate caviar on their yachts this summer. 

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            YOU GOT A PROBLEM WITH THAT? Fans often wonder what NFL players say to each other on the field, when the pressure mounts, and the action is at its peak. This week, Eagles wide receiver DeSean Jackson suggested TV networks make up for the lack of fan noise on broadcasts by putting microphones on players and airing their banter, comments, insults and trash talk. It’s a great idea. In theory. But do the players – and especially the NFL – want to expose the public to what is really said? El Hombre doesn’t think so. Forget about the bad words and how creatively the players use them. Think about the wildly politically incorrect things that are said on the field. The NFL sure doesn’t want that in the public record. And how about momentary flare-ups between coaches and players that get settled almost immediately after they start? That’s not good for business, either. Fans would love an inside look like that, but the league can’t afford to provide it. About the only person in the league capable of wearing a microphone is Colts’ QB Phillip “Goshdarnit” Rivers. Or, maybe someone could arrange for full access to a BYU scrimmage. But an NFL game? [Expletive] no!

-EH-