Perspective - 1992 Versus 2012 - All About Your Era



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For years now I have argued in vain with others about the greatest running back of all-time.  I grew up watching Jimmy Brown of the Cleveland Browns.  For those who grew up during those years, there is hardly a question that Jim Brown was the greatest.  Then, along came Gale Sayers, Walter Payton, OJ Simpson and Barry Sanders.  The argument ensues.

Similarly, Jack Nicklaus grabbed the mantle of greatest golfer for many of us.  Then came Tiger Woods.  I grew up watching the likes of Oscar Robertson, Jerry West, Walt Frazier, John Havilcek, Wilt Chamberlain, Bill Russell and Elgin Baylor.  Then came Julius Erving, Magic Johnson, Larry Bird and finally Michael Jordan. 

The era in which you grow up defines how you see your heroes and their legend.I will always argue that Jimmy Brown was the greatest football player of all time.He ran the ball with power, grace and speed. I always felt the "Big O", Oscar Robertson, was the greatest until I saw Michael do what he did on both ends of the court.Jack will always be the greatest golfer to me but then I have watched Tiger utterly destroy his competition.

Today, the arguments are reaching a crescendo pitch regarding which team is better.The Dream Team of 1992 or the team representing the United States in the 2012 Olympics.It's a tough argument for either side.Twenty years separate the players of each team and there is no question that today's team has more speed and more athleticism.However, the players like Jordan, Johnson and Bird would have the same if they were playing today.So would Oscar Robertson, Jerry West and Bill Russell.These folks were all competitive in their time and there is no reason to believe that they would not possess the same skills at the higher level of speed and athleticism today.

The match-ups between the two teams are comparable. No question.The bench strength of the Dream Team definitely has the advantage. However, there are great players such as Dwayne Wade, Dwight Howard and others who are sitting out this Olympic year. Unfortunately, there is no way to compare players of the past with the players of today.We all do it but it is only for the sake of argument.My sons will be sharing a similar argument with their children twenty years from today when the new stars of the professional ranks are even quicker, faster and stronger.The cycle never ends.

Many will choose the statistical argument comparing the point spread of victories for the 2012 US team versus the point spread enjoyed by the Dream Team.My guess is that the 2012 team will handily destroy each of their opponents and will do so with convincing margins.They know how big a point difference they need to accomplish the very feat.

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For me, it comes down to the competitive nature of the players who play the game.No one can argue the competitiveness of Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson and Larry Bird. All three were fierce, fierce competitors.They frequently willed themselves and their teammates to victory.All three could put their team on their back and win. All three wanted the ball when their team needed a basket or needed the last second shot.All three demonstrated this competitive desire and unwillingness to lose.

We saw this same type of competitive stance from LeBron James in the 2012 Championship series.He was determined to win.His determination and will to win was indeed the difference.One also would recognize that Kobe Bryant has that same competitive advantage.Yet, I still give the edge to Michael, Magic and Larry, three of the most competitive players to ever wear an NBA uniform.

The beauty of the argument is the argument itself. How great would it be to see all that assembled talent on the same floor.The question really is as simple as teamwork.Will the 2012 team play as a team as the Dream Team did?Will they play as a team or will they choose to play like an all-star team?All-star teams lack the cohesion of greatness.I suspect this 2012 team won't disappoint.The coaching of Coach K and the player leadership will form the team framework they will need to be incredibly successful.

Just Bring Home The Gold!

Odds & Ends - Two Months Till Football

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It is once again that enviable time of waiting and contemplating the upcoming college and pro football seasons now only two months away.  With that in mind, time to weigh-in on what looks promising, what is sure to disappoint and what never changes.  The big news this week is the agreement on a college football playoff.  Long overdue and without a doubt disappointing in that it does not go far enough or start soon enough.  However, it is coming and college football fans for the most part have to be salivating at the prospect of a playoff to determine our national champion.

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Thankfully, the NFL has a labor deal and we need not worry about all that nonsense for a number of years.  One does have to wonder what the New Orleans Saints are thinking about taking so long to sign Drew Brees.  If you are like me, you must be hoping that a deal will soon be struck with the officials.  Replacement officials just don't work and open the league to all types of problems. 

Wimbledon is now in full progress but I'm not sure anyone really cares.  I did catch a women's match over lunch today and it was enjoyable but not so much that I will carve time out of my day to watch more.  The British Open starts soon and should be a good event this year with Tiger looming.  Of course, we are now only weeks away from the beginning of the London Olympics. 

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This year's Olympics will give us some great competition and will be a nice lead-in to the college and NFL seasons.  I will be looking at purchasing my Olympic viewing ticket to watch everything and anything online.  I loved that about March Madness and the Olympics has a similar appeal to me.  The competition in swimming among the Americans will be something special.  I am also looking forward to the Track and Field events and Basketball.  Look for LeBron to bring home a gold. 

Although I will write more on this as the season approaches, my pre-season pick is Denver to win the AFC Championship.  I believe Peyton Manning and his teammates will hang on in a tightly fought AFC Championship Game against the Cincinnati Bengals.  The Bengals draft coupled with Andy Dalton and A.J. Green make the Bengals a definite favorite. 

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I received great news from my friends Dan and Pam in Ohio who finally have the opportunity to buy season tickets for the Buckeyes.  What a great year to start seeing the Buckeyes every Saturday at home with our new coach, Urban Meyer.  The Buckeyes will be incredibly competitive this year and certainly fun to watch.  I keep reviewing their schedule trying to find a game they could lose.  There are several of course but I maintain that the Buckeyes with their new high-powered offense could very easily run the table. 

The Game is in the Horseshoe in 2012 and Meyer's first go-round with the team up north.  No Big Ten Championship, no BCS game or bowl game in mind, look for the Buckeyes to make the Michigan game a season-maker or breaker in 2012.  Meyer will want to get this series off on the right foot with a big win. 

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The NCAA did come down as expected on UConn's basketball team with a post-season ban for their poor performance in the classroom.  No surprise there.  What did surprise me was to learn the Ohio State Football team ranked in the top five of all universities scoring a 998 out of 1 1000 in the Academic Performance Report.  Urban will have to go some to top that figure. 

Even though I have long boycotted Major League Baseball, I must say that I am delighted to learn that my Reds are clinging to their first-place lead.  It seems difficult to imagine their lead will hold up all season but more power to them.  Finally, the NBA draft comes our way with a very strong underclassmen group.  Those first choices will spell the difference for some very good teams making next year's season much  more interesting. 

Most see this period of time as a hiatus for sports.  I don't think so.  Just a good time to reflect, prepare and dream of the football season to come.      

The Rocket That Cooperstown Should Never Welcome!

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Hail as I do from Dayton, Ohio, I should be proud that one of our native born Buckeyes was one of the greatest pitchers who ever played Major League Baseball.  Pride is not what I feel, however,  when I think about Roger Clemens.   The winner of 354 games, his statistics are in rarified air.  A lifetime E.R.A. of 3.12 with 4,672 strikeouts.  Yes, these stats and the many others he accumulated over the years with the Red Sox, Yankees and Blue Jays should not be enough to earn him a spot or plaque among the many great pitchers that are enshrined at Cooperstown. 

Clemens like Barry Bonds, Mark McGuire, Sammy Sosa and a endless list of big league players who chose to enhance their God-given abilities on the field by artificial means do not stand as tall as the Cooperstown greats.  One only has to visit the small, sleepy community in New York to recognize the hallowed ground that was established to celebrate the careers of these all-time greats. 

The Rocket won the Cy Young Award seven times.  No pitcher can claim such a feat but to put his name next to Cy Young, Sandy Koufax, Whitey Ford, Bob Gibson and dozens of others is not right.  Clemens was an 11-time All Star pitcher, has two World Series rings and was voted American League Most Valuable Player in 1986.  Still, Roger Clemens was a cheater and deserves to be left out come induction time. 

Fortunately, the Baseball Writers Association, the ones chosen to vote yea or nay on former greats have already weighed in on candidates who cheated themselves and the game.  They have voted no each time so far and one can only hope that they continue this stance going forward.  The greats enshrined in the Hall of Fame deserve better teammates.  Not to say that many who are on the plaques of Cooperstown were outstanding men, many were not.  They did not cheat though.  They earned their way into the Hall of Fame by playing by the rules.

Many believe that Pete Rose has been shafted by the Baseball Writers for not being inducted into the Hall of Fame.  Pete Rose violated the rules of Major League Baseball by betting on baseball games.  What about Shoeless Joe Jackson who was part of the Chicago Black Sox scandal where players accepted money to change the result of World Series games.  These two great players of the game violated Major League Baseball rules and are not enshrined at Cooperstown.  Neither one of them were cheaters.

Clemens only made matters worse for himself when he lied to Congress.  Sure, he was exonerated of these charges but everyone knows the truth.  I truly believe being excluded from the Hall of Fame will surely be the best punishment for the Rocket as any the court could devise.  It has been for Pete Rose.  The baseball fan has to hope that the steroid era of Major League Baseball is a thing of the past.  What must not be forgotten is that these steroid-aided players do not deserve the same recognition of their peers who played the game fair and by the rules.    

Time To Embrace LeBron James!

Sports fans and sports radio talks hosts hardly ever change their mind but look for some of them to finally embrace Lebron James as the NBA Finals finish up.  Miami's 3-1 advantage over the Thunder is too tall a task to overcome for Kevin Durant and the Thunder.   Either Thursday, Sunday or next Tuesday will see the crowning of the Miami Heat and LeBron James as NBA champions.   It hasn't been an easy road for King James. 

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Last year's championship run was filled with ridicule, criticism and the like for LeBron James.  Very few folks had anything nice to say about him and for the most part, it has followed him into this year's season and run for the championship.  Unwilling to take critical shots, always looking to pass and not clutch have all been hung around his neck by the sports pundits who need something to talk about on their shows.   

Very little of the criticism has been warranted and for the most part, greatly overstated.  Almost all of it resulted from his center stage announcement two years ago announcing to the world on ESPN that he was leaving Cleveland in hopes of winning a championship in Miami.  It is understandable that the good people of Cleveland would be upset given that his move left them without hope of winning.  The fans and commentators should have been far more upset with Cleveland ownership for not surrounding James with players capable of putting the team over the top. 

Lebron's performance throughout the playoffs and especially in The Finals has been extraordinary.  To find fault with his performance and his leadership of his team should be falling on deaf ears.  Last night's Game 4 was one more example of the type of player James is.  Drawing the double team throughout the game and dishing one pass after another to his hot-handed teammates was the recipe for victory and a sterling example of his leadership of this team.

James has averaged 42.6 minutes over these four games with the Thunder.  He has averaged 29.2 points per game along with six assists, almost 2 steals and 10 rebounds per outing.  On top of that he has guarded the NBA scoring champion of the last three years in the likes of Kevin Durant.  James will most certainly win the NBA Finals Most Valuable Player Award.  His performance should all but silence his critics.

It still will come down to the manner and fashion he left the Cavaliers.  The gaudy and less than mature announcement of his choice of leaving Cleveland and moving to Miami will always stick in the crawl of some guys.  Those who are most critical of James should remember back to their youth of 25 years old and reflect if they had the maturity level and experience to know better than to make such a circus out of the announcement.  Certainly ESPN did and LeBron's agent. 

It's time to embrace LeBron James as the good guy and not the guy in the black hat.  He has answered his critics and has done so in a professional and exemplary effort on the basketball court.  Congratulations King James.        



U.S. Senate - Will Boxing Debacle Be Investigated?

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My guess is that staffers for some United States Senator are already putting together a case for the United States Senate to have a full-blown investigation of boxing thanks to the controversial Manny Pacquiao, Timothy Bradley fight this past Saturday Night.  The split-decision favoring Bradley has been rebuked by anyone and everyone that witnessed the championship fight.  Conspiracy theories, the fix, a rematch have all been bandied about looking for answers.  Even Bob Arum, Top Rank Promotions, who promotes both fighters has called for an investigation. 

How can something so appealing and delicious be refused by some U.S. Senator.  It has all the makings of great publicity.  Not only the national news but around-the-clock coverage by ESPN.  Great television - great reelection possibilities for someone looking to grab some national attention and exposure.  The real question, however, does anyone really care?  Is boxing mainstream enough for senatorial attention? 

I believe the U.S. Senate should hold hearings and force all involved in boxing to create standards for their sport.  There should be one overriding governing body for boxing, all weight and class divisions.  The state commissions can be maintained but the sport needs an international governing body that establishes rules, safety, promotions, refereeing and judges only to mention a few key areas of concern. 

Boxing has always been a great sport in this nation but always under a cloud of suspicion.  Promoters are seen as near-mobsters and there is little to discredit those long-held beliefs.  There have been periods of time when the fight game seemed to be above board and moving in the right direction.  No longer.  It is time for the game be managed again in a safe, consistent and professional manner. 

Such leadership of the fight game might rekindle the sport to days gone by.  Most in my generation and my parent's generation remember all the heavyweight fighters of our day.  All of us remember the Olympic glory that so many of our heavyweights brought to our nation.  Moving from the Olympics to the professional fight game, the list of great fighters is endless. 

Where are the days of Joe Louis, James Braddock and Rocky Marciano?  Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier?  Structure, standards and fair play all above reproach would bring the fight game back to a position of stature in the American sporting world.  Ali captured the attention of the world with his stunning work in the ring and his out of the ring humanitarian efforts.

Forcing the hand of those involved with boxing  to clean-up their act and produce a real, honest-to-goodness product is indeed worthy of the United States Senate.  Notify C-Span, CNN and ESPN.    

Tiger Lost Me At The Masters!

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At first, I was reluctant to embrace Tiger Woods.  I was always afraid that my childhood golf heroes, Arnold Palmer, Gary Player and Jack Nicklaus would be diminished by Tiger's prowess on the golf course.  Tiger was breaking all their records and chasing after Jack's major record.  At some point though, I climbed aboard the Tiger Train and was supportive of his play and his quest for Jack's record. 

His game was incredible.  His swing was a thing of beauty.  He could do anything on a golf course and if he chose to win, he won.  Sunday golf was all about Tiger and the only surprise week-in and week-out would be who he would defeat to take home the prize.  The PGA was enjoying ratings the likes of which had never seen when Tiger was playing on the weekend.  All was great with golf. 

Then the bottom fell out for Tiger with all the off the course issues.  Still, I didn't forsake him as all men are flawed in significant ways.  Although I wasn't supportive of Tiger's off the course problems, I understood them.  Everyone makes mistakes and high-profile superstars are not exempt from making them.  As most people did, I put all the personal stuff aside and only wished him well as he struggled to put his life back together. 

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Only a few weeks back, I was delighted when he won on the tour again.  Finally.  All of a sudden, Tiger was once again favored to win a major golf championship.  It was a pretty exciting week going into the Masters knowing that Tiger not only would be competitive but had a better than average shot of winning another major championship.  The fervor leading up to Thursday's opening round was pretty exciting. 

Opening day on Thursday saw no major miscues on Tiger's part coming into the clubhouse at even par.  Certainly an acceptable start.  Friday, his game fell apart.  "Certainly, I'm frustrated at times and I apologize if I offended anybody by that," Woods said.  "But I've hit some bad shots and it's certainly frustrating at times not hitting the ball where you need to hit it." 

Tiger's apology was for his club kicking incident on Friday when a shot didn't go where he wanted it to.  Friday was the day when I decided I was no longer in Tiger's corner.  Kicking a club in disgust at Augusta is not something anyone is accustomed to seeing.  There have been great players who have had far worse experiences at Amen Corner or at the finishing holes and did not kick clubs, throw clubs or even utter obscenities.  His behavior on Friday was less than acceptable and deserved a more sincere apology than he offered.

More often than not we cut huge breaks to our heroes and superstars because they thrill us with their grand performance on the athletic field or movie screen.  I am unwilling at this point to be supportive of his childlike behavior.  It's one thing for the Sunday golfer or duffer to throw or kick a club.  It's an entirely different matter for Tiger Woods.  I'm sorry but you just don't kick a golf club at The Masters. 

Jack's place is once again elevated in my mind.  Jack Nicklaus was not only a champion but a class act on the golf course.  Maybe Tiger will eclipse Jack's major wins record, perhaps not.  What Tiger will never be able to attain is the stature that Jack brought to the game.          

Goodell Drops The Hammer!

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The New Orleans Saints received the equivalent of what the NCAA calls the death penalty yesterday when Roger Goodell, NFL Commissioner, unleashed the penalties for what has become known as Bountygate.  For the last three years, the Saints have placed bounties on opposing team players funded by voluntary contributions of team members.  The bounty program was directed by the Defensive Coordinator, Gregg Williams, who has since moved on to join the staff of the St. Louis Rams.  His penalty has followed him.

Williams was suspended indefinitely from the NFL, effective immediately.  Saints Head Coach Sean Payton has been suspended without pay for the 2012 NFL season, effective April 1.  Saints General Manager Mickey Loomis has been suspended for the first eight regular-season games of the 2012 season.  Additionally, Assistant Head Coach, Joe Vitt has been suspended for the first six regular-season games of the 2012 season without pay.  The organization has been fined $500,000 and will forfeit their selections in the second round of the 2012 and 2013 NFL drafts.

By all accounts, these are the stiffest NFL penalties ever assessed an NFL team.   The suspension of Head Coach Sean Payton is a first in NFL history.  No coach has even been suspended for even one game.  Gregg Williams who was suspended indefinitely will receive a review of his suspension at the conclusion of the 2012 NFL season.  All of these penalties are specific to the organization and management of the NFL Club.  The other shoe which will surely drop soon is player penalties and suspensions. 

John Vilma will certainly be one of the players receiving significant penalties.  Vilma, the Saints defensive captain, offered $10,000 to any player who knocked Brett Favre out of the NFC Championship Game in 2010.  Similar bounties were placed on quarterbacks Aaron Rodgers, Cam Newton and Kurt Warner.  The front office and coaching staff were informed by the NFL to stop the bounty program on several occasions as early as the 2010 season and yet the program continued. 

Commissioner Goodell stated in his report, "We are all accountable and responsible for player health and safety and the integrity of the game.  We will not tolerate conduct or a culture that undermines those priorities.  No one is above the game or the rules that govern it.  Respect for the game and the people who participate in it will not be compromised."

Goodell further stated, "A combination of elements made this matter particularly unusual and egregious.  When there is targeting of players for injury and cash rewards over a three-year period, the involvement of the coaching staff, and three years of denials and willful disrespect of the rules, a strong and lasting message must be sent that such conduct is totally unacceptable and has no place in the game."

I believe Roger Goodell's stern and forceful action in penalizing the team, management and coaches was appropriate.  Severe for sure but I really believe the penalties are in the best interest of the game.  Most folks have always respected the NFL for maintaining higher standards than other professional sports.  Significantly better than Major League Baseball and much stronger than the NBA.  The penalties crush the Saints and will damage them significantly for at least two-three years going forward.  I believe as the commissioner stated, these actions by the Saints and their coaches were egregious.   They should be severely punished.

The penalties coming to the players who were involved will seal the deal.  Look for fines and game suspensions.  The message the commissioner is sending is a clear one.  Bounties in the NFL will disappear and the game that has come to be the favorite of most Americans will continue forward in a positive light.  Congratulations to Roger Goodell for doing the hard but right thing.