Colin Kaepernick continues to kneel during the national anthem. He has reported that he has received death threats about his protest. Meanwhile, more unarmed black people have been shot and killed by police officers.
John Tortorella, the coach who believes he has the right to force players to stand during the national anthem, also believes that anyone critical of him should shut up. After the US was eliminated from the World Cup of Hockey, he referred to critics as self-serving. His criticism of them was, of course, perfectly appropriate, and not in the least self-serving. He’s big on saying what he wants to say, not so big on others having an opinion contrary to his.
The Cubs continue to play well and against bad teams. In their last 20 games, they are 12-8. Among those games were ten against the sad sack Brewers and Reds and four against the Giants, who have a winning record despite having the worst record in baseball since the all-star break.
John Stumpf remains on the job and today picked up support from a professor who called for us to stop beating up on poor Wells Fargo and John Stumpf. http://www.cnbc.com/2016/09/22/stop-beating-up-on-wells-fargo-and-john-stumpf-commentary.html He stated “This seems to be a rare case where Wells Fargo unintentionally dropped the ball.” Please Professor, Wells Fargo didn’t drop “the” ball, they dropped over 2,000,000 balls and it was very intentional. That’s a little worse than the hot potato footballs that players are dropping.
Speaking of which — a couple of you think my “ejected from the game and ball on the 50-yard line” proposal is a bit extreme. Of course it is, purposely so. It begets this philosophical question: can it be appropriate to have a penalty that is so severe, so grossly disproportionate to the infraction that no infractions occur.
One example of this is Singapore, where spitting gum on the street or sidewalk carries a $700 fine. The fine isn’t designed to discourage gum spitting, it is designed to eliminate it — and it works. The country does not have the splatters of gum that besmudge so many sidewalks in the US.
My “proposal” (quotes because no person in a position to do anything about it will ever become aware of it) is not designed to discourage dropping the ball before crossing the goal line, it is designed to eliminate it. If the NCAA or the NFL want to get serious about eliminating helmet to helmet hits or targeting, they should consider a grossly disproportionate penalty. In the meantime, we continue to see players get pummeled into concussions because the rules are designed to discourage helmet to helmet contact, not eliminate it.
One of my intrepid friends forwarded my post about Central Michigan forfeiting their win over Oklahoma State to the President of Central Michigan University. He has not responded. But a couple of you did, asking about the rule that should have ended the game. I thought it too complicated to include in the earlier post, but have a little room here, so:
The rules state that when a penalty occurs on the last play of a quarter, an additional untimed down will be played. Oklahoma State had the ball as the clock wound to zero and threw the ball out of bounds. The officials called intentional grounding. Whether that was a good call is irrelevant for our purposes. Because the last play of the quarter included a penalty, the officials allowed an untimed down. They forgot about another rule, which states that the previous rule does not apply if the penalty results in loss of down, which intentional grounding does. The bottom line is that the second rule canceled out the first rule, the game had concluded, and the additional untimed down should not have been allowed.
The President of Central Michigan can still score a public relations coup by forfeiting the game. It would generate so much positive press about the university’s integrity and sportsmanship that CMU would benefit more than it will from the win. The head football coach might beg to differ.
Last – Jerry Rice scored the most touchdowns in NFL history, 208. He also attempted 11 passes and completed three, including one touchdown.
I haven’t heard of anyone getting a $700 fine though.
Finally irked you enough to get a response. Had been wondering if you were tuning in. Any plans to visit the US?