Josh McDaniels: Better Vocal Leader Than Bill Belichick?

Stories like this just make me mad as ****.

Glad that voice-activated typing software was activated. We’ll be issuing an apology momentarily.

When I heard that the NFL Network had issued a public apology for what Denver Broncos Head Coach Josh McDaniels had said on the sidelines this week, I was really *****. Come on, what the **** was so wrong?

 

I mean, this is the ******* NFL isn’t it? Manly men doing manly things in a manly fashion? Beating the snot (bodily fluids seem to be permissible in this context) out of the ************ piece of **** on the other side of the ******* line.

 

Isn’t that what this freaking (sorry, slipped on that one) game is supposed to be all about?

Fair to say we’re not really sure what came first in this discussion. The fan’s bloodthirsty (remember the bodily fluids thing here) demand to hear every single last ******* comment made by every one of those ******** on the field, or the TV networks rush to get a little more “up close and personal”.

 

And doing it without sideline reporters!

 

Or worse, that ******* annoying Twitter thing.

This is football! Anyone sitting either in the stands or at home knows what they’re getting into here. In America, we curse and we’re better at it than anybody else in the ******* world.

 

OK, maybe we’re still learning form the experts.

 

Either way, we’re **** proud of it. It’s a ******* scientific fact. 

 

If you’re going to place a live microphone that close to a group of football players during a game, what do you expect? A bunch of ******* talking about who has the best kept locker stall?

If it would have been the Steelers defense on the sidelines, I could see them waxing poetic on the follicle style of Troy Polamalu. I mean, everyone around the NFL knows why he really wears his ******* hair so long.

CLICK HERE TO READ THE REST OF THIS ARTICLE. How McDaniels has surpassed Bill Belichick, why he owes no one an apology, and suggestions for anyone still unhappy with his choice of language.

Read more NFL news on BleacherReport.com

The Only Way To Stem The Stench In Oakland, Strip the Franchise from Al Davis.

At the end of the day, the National Football League is just another business operating a franchise.

From time to time, every corporation is saddled with a franchise owner who becomes at the very least an embarrassment, at the very worst an insult to the company and it’s customers.

You’ve seen these pigsty purveyors in every walk of life. The fast food franchise, where rats and Roquefort dressing vie for equal counter space. The 24/7 convenience stores, where roaches rival those hot dogs sizzling in the midnight artificial sun. The home maintenance company that promises to deliver “Service, Satisfaction and Smiles” yet succeeds only in having Moe, Larry and Curly show up at the door.

When it comes to dealing with franchises such as these, the Corporate owners promise that these consumer connected clowns either get in line, provide a solid product at the level of excellence promised, or face the hounds of franchise revocation hell.

Taking all this into account, and if the NFL was truly a corporate entity honestly and sincerely concerned with how their product is produced and distributed to the consumer, while at the same time seeking to insure that consumer receives a level of excellence for their dollar, then there would be only one course of action for them to follow.

Strip Al Davis of his Oakland Raiders ownership. Then find someone who isn’t willing to let the fetid stench of mediocrity be combined with figuratively having someone in the kitchen spit in the entrée before it’s served.

Of course, we all know this isn’t going to happen. The NFL isn’t about to publicly embarrass one of their “legacy owners”, despite the fact his time as a franchise owner has been marked by equal parts brilliance and buffoonery.

Some frank comments about Tom Cable and his part in this nightmare, the type of owner even Raiders fans would welcome, and a moment from the Cable hiring press conference that proves Al Davis is a cancer to Oakland football. All featured in the remainder of this comment at “The Examiner” and available by clicking here.

Read more NFL news on BleacherReport.com

NFL Double Standard On Rush Limbaugh Ownership

The truth is out there. All you have to do is ask the right questions.

(Q) Can anyone prove that Rush Limbaugh actually said “slavery built the South” and that the “streets were safer after dark” because of it?

(A) No. This is the “quote” that became the lynchpin of every mass media feeding frenzy and the standard line of introduction to the story. However, all of the pseudo-journalists, pundits and media narcissists failed to use the first rule of covering any story. Check the facts. And when it comes to source material, have at least two credible sources to verify the story. There is no substantive proof Limbaugh ever made this statement or anything like it. No one has been able to cite audio, video, print or tarot card it came from.

(Q) Has Limbaugh made statements in the past that could be construed as racist, bigoted, and/or hateful?

(A) Yes. The key word here is “construed”. Those who check facts cannot cite an instance where Limbaugh said he hates people of any race, creed or color. But words are dangerous things, and how they are used and in what context can relay any number of emotions and intents.

One of the more slipshod manners of reporting the news is to use material, whether it’s audio, video, photo or print, out of context. President Barack Obama has certainly learned this first hand when reading some of the words being attributed to him. Here’s where we run into the next issue of fact versus hyperbole.

Limbaugh has been quoted by news reporters and news organizations with the following: “In President Obama’s America, white children get beaten up on school buses by blacks.” However, when one checks the tape of that specific show, this is not what Limbaugh said. 

He was, in fact, employing license of his own in commenting about the Newsweek”cover dated September 14th, where a white baby was on the cover with the words “Is Your Baby Racist?” Limbaugh did indeed fan the racial flames during his show by pitting black against white on the political landscape, which was certainly a pointed use of race in making an argument. As with any broadcast or written pundit of any political affiliation, Limbaugh often is viewed as insulting. But as the non-partisan Media Research Center has revealed, quite often Limbaugh’s comments are taken completely out of context.

Read the remainder of this article with comments on the response of NFL African-American players, and the obvious one-sided double standard being promoted by the NFL in the rest of this commentary here.

Read more NFL news on BleacherReport.com

Misquoted and Misconstrued, Brennan Nails It On Andrews Videotape

st1\:*{behavior:url(#ieooui) }

The sports frat house and their cadre of minions who hear only what they want to hear have taken on the wrong person this time.

“USA Today” sports reporter Christine Brennan has been on the front lines of these battles over female sports reporters for almost thirty years, and not even being misquoted or mocked by infantile talk radio Neanderthals will cause her to back down.

I won’t waste a lot of time here rehashing this contrived controversy, rather address some of the more salient points which are, of course, lost amidst the mad media rush to sensationalized judgment.

Brennan’s original opinion posted on her Twitter account was spot-on correct. “Women sports journalists need to be smart and not play to the frat house. There are tons of nuts out there”.

Indeed there are. And those nuts, for the most part, are the ones who not only create but flock like Viagra-starved lemmings to every list of “Hottest Babes” or “Slinkiest Sexy Sportscasters” lists polluting the Internet and radio station web sites.

The ones most sought after by radio and TV advertisers because of their youth, their buying power, desire for things that go fast in the night, and conveniently absent morals. You know the type.

The ones who actually believe that woman in the shower with Danica Patrick would desire their manly ability to name all the hobbits in “Lord of the Rings”. First and last names, of course.

At no time, even reading between the lines with an electron microscope, did Brennan at any time indicate nor even hint that Erin Andrews’ “deserved” to have a video taken of her by some peephole smut merchant that undoubtedly saw either dollar signs or the much coveted “You Tube” hit meter heading north.

Even the hint of such an allegation is laughable and, as is usually the case in these matters, spit out by those who have not a shred of knowledge about the actual situation or the person involved.

I have known and worked alongside Christine Brennan in the neighborhood of thirty years, beginning with our membership in the Miami press corps. Back then, when I was about 12 or 13, we were all squeezed into an Orange Bowl locker room the size of a modern NFL player’s bathroom trying to get those milliseconds of post game brilliance from the players.

Christine was one of the very first female sports reporters in the country to gain access to the all-male football frat house, and the movement could not have been represented better. She stood her ground and was every second a professional as players and even some fellow media members of the male persuasion snickered and joked.

That’s just part of what to this day has kept her held in extremely high regard by everyone in the sports reporting trade. She remains one of the very best this business has to offer, and paid her dues to get there.

There are far too many female sports journalists who believe the road to respectability is paved with push-up bras and snuggling up to athletes with more than an interview in mind. In the same breath, there are far too many TV station and network executives who force female reporters in both news and sports to accentuate their positives, and I don’t mean writing skills.

I have watched from the insider’s perspective as some very good female reporters careers were derailed thanks to consultants and demographics experts who made them repeat the mantra, “Style over substance”, instead of the proper manner in which it was long taught.

Women sports journalists do have be a lot smarter than their male counterparts, though I have encountered more than a few male sports reporters who wouldn’t know the difference between a double-dip and a dipstick. Brennan has remained tireless in her efforts speaking to younger woman and impressing upon them that very same concept, not playing to the “frat house”.

Any of these bellowing Internet ranters who bothered to take a few seconds to look into Brennan’s background will easily discover she has used that phrase for many years, each time in educating a new generation in how to respect not only a profession, but themselves first and foremost.

Christine Brennan is a good friend and a respected journalist. She doesn’t need my help in convincing anyone of her professionalism and devotion to her craft.

She also doesn’t deserve the criticism heaped upon her by the single-digit IQ Internet fraud “journalists”. The ones who use something like this the same way television executives use those young female reporters unfortunate enough to have their job depend on cleavage tape and tight jeans.

Playing to the original nuts in the frat house.

 

Veteran network sportscaster & journalist Ed Berliner’s exclusive interview with Christine Brennan can be heard at “Stone Cold Sports”.

No Sympathy for Steve McNair

I have a wealth respect for what Steve McNair accomplished as an athlete.

No one can take away his obvious football skills, his passion for winning, and his onfield leadership qualities under difficult circumstances.

I have a similar wealth of disdain and a total lack of sympathy for McNair as a husband, a father, and what led to his being murdered.

In light of what has now been revealed by Nashville police, McNair died cheating on his wife, making a decision that will leave his four children without a father, and likely believing as many celebrities and star athletes do that they are above the laws governing the rest of us.

Sahel Kazemi knew what she was getting into and apparently had no issues dating a married man. Then again, it’s all too often we hear about young girls being wooed by older, mature, wealthier men, who sometimes have a smidgen of celebrity to go along with the rest.

We will never know if McNair was continuously feeding her the classic line about being prepared to leave his wife, if he was honest with her about simply wanting to make the occasional house call, or if flat out lied about the circumstances surrounding a tryst that began when he was 35 and she was 19.

And we also will never know Kazemi’s exact motives becoming involved with this much older, married man. Completely smitten with his good looks and pro athlete reputation, she sought to break up what may or may not have been a marriage on the rocks, or perhaps just enjoyed the monetary fruits of a relationship that included a Cadillac Escalade sport utility vehicle as a gift.

All of this is speculation, and with both McNair and Kazemi dead, that is for the most part what it will remain.

Of course, we have heard so many eloquent words of heartfelt, genuine pain and sorrow expressed from those who knew McNair as a friend and teammate.  

However, here in a world where celebrities and sports heroes are placed on pedestals and often used as those who could inspire us to greater heights, we too often seek to avoid speaking ill of the deceased. Believing that now gone, we should focus on remembering the good things he was and what he left behind. These are the things which will make a difference to those who admire him.

Then let us make a real and honest difference here and now with McNair. Let’s insure that along with his immense ability on the football field, we tell the truth, and hope his legacy will make a difference to young athletes, young men, in ways other than being able to run, catch and throw.

Cheating on his wife, whom McNair apparently lied to so well, she had no idea he was having an affair nor even thought about divorce, he was killed in his sleep by a distraught and apparently jealous girlfriend. A young woman so emotionally unstable that when fearful McNair was dating another woman, she was able to illegally purchase a 9 mm semiautomatic pistol, indicating the intent to kill. Who according to police told a friend one day before the murder-suicide that “My life is a ball of s**t and I should end it”.

McNair placed himself in that illicit relationship. McNair’s actions put him on that couch. There is no one to blame but McNair, who would be alive today if he honored the woman he married, refused to be a liar and cheat, and actually cared about the welfare of those four sons who will now live without a father.

Sons who will also live forever with the knowledge their father died while ignoring the things in life that truly make a man more of a hero than winning games.

Being a loving husband. Being a good father.

In the end, McNair was neither.

Veteran network sportscaster Ed Berliner can be heard with exclusive interviews and commentary at “Stone Cold Sports”, which also features links to sports news of note from all 50 States.

 

No Sympathy, No Second Chance, No NFL for Michael Vick

/* Style Definitions */
table.MsoNormalTable
{mso-style-name:”Table Normal”;
mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0;
mso-tstyle-colband-size:0;
mso-style-noshow:yes;
mso-style-parent:””;
mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt;
mso-para-margin:0in;
mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt;
mso-pagination:widow-orphan;
font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:”Times New Roman”;
mso-ansi-language:#0400;
mso-fareast-language:#0400;
mso-bidi-language:#0400;}

The time has come to draw a permanent, solid, definitive line in the prescription athletic turf.

Michael Vick never plays another down in the National Football League.

As Vick is released from prison and begins his term of home confinement, the debate will only pick up speed from this moment on as he inches ever closer to his meeting with Commissioner Roger Goodell, and what will undoubtedly after that be a scheduled and well-choreographed public self-flagellation before a packed house of media.

This of course the pack of scheming vultures and self-serving NFL apologists all yearning to be the first person to ask that question which will send Vick either over the edge in anger or into tears of remorse.

Michael Vick is a killer, and one who took great pride in his bloody work.  He took personal funds and invested them in the maiming and violent deaths of intelligent, caring and social animals. This was done under the heading of “entertainment” and “sport”.

Sixty six dogs were rescued in April 2007 from property and a home owned by Vick, living in squalid conditions. Tied tightly with chains to trees. Savage injuries untreated. Blood stained carpets. The remains of those who didn’t live up to the expectation of Vick and his fellow sadistic killers.

During the investigation, Vick had a chance to come clean and admit what he did was wrong. One sentence spoken as an adult, one taking responsibility for these heinous actions, is all it would have taken to set him on the road to forgiveness.

He never uttered a single word.

After being arrested, Vick had yet more opportunities to address the general public and admit his complicity in dogfighting, a felony in all but two States. Either admission would very likely have lessened his sentence and drawn sympathy from those seeking something, anything that might have been construed as regret.

By this time it was too late. Certainly his lawyers knew he was guilty and ordered his silence. 

After being convicted, the obligatory press meeting was held where Vick spoke in low tones and apologized to everyone his handlers could think of.

As has been the custom for too many of those caught and convicted for any number of crimes, the words “role model”, “young kids”, “deepest apologies”, and a reference to divine intervention were used.

The NFL carries it’s own weight of shame, having allowed Leonard Little to resume playing after being convicted of manslaughter in 2001. Little was almost three times over the legal limit and got a mere 90 days in jail despite killing a woman in an accident.

Six years later, arrested again for speeding and driving while intoxicated. He escaped with a misdemeanor.

Playing in the NFL is not a right. It’s a privilege, supposedly granted to those who deserve it both on the field and off. At least, that’s what the PR machine tells us.

The NFL continues to insist they are a family sport, concerned about their players and employees presenting the proper image to their fans and to the general public.

We hear from the NFL and every other organized sport dependant on fans and sponsor dollars how important it is to think about a person’s character as much as their athletic talent.

There is no time like the present. Start right now. No excuses. No backing up. Set a standard for others to follow.

Michael Vick is allowed and encouraged to resurrect his life. Speak out and make amends. I sincerely hope he lives and long, happy and prosperous life.

Not in the National Football League.

More comments about Michael Vick and his possible return to the NFL can be heard at “Stone Cold Sports”.

The widest variety of reporters, commentators and analysts anywhere on the web delivered in audio and video.

Stone Hard Opinion. Ice Cold Bias. No Prisoners.

NFL Sport Channel Latest

• Just How Far Would You Go?
• Sorry Rex, But It Isn’t Happening
• Super Bowl Predictions: Five Stat-Free Reasons Why the Eagles Will Reach The Super Bowl
• Seahawks Attempt to Turn Corner With Heavy Pursuit of Pete Carroll
• Bill Cowher Unlikely to Coach in 2010