Does Brady have anything left?

Does Tom Brady suck? For Buffalo Bills fans, the answer is a resounding “yes.” The New England Patriots quarterback has been giving Bills fans trouble for years—breaking hearts with close calls and the occasional clinic he puts on against the Buffalo secondary. Judging by this year so far, however, that all may begin to change.

Brady was asked prior to the beginning of this season about his timetable for the rest of his career. He responded to this trite question with a simple answer: “When I suck, I’ll retire.”

This begs the question: has Brady begun to suck? Brady is having one of the worst starts in his career—showing a complete inability to throw the ball downfield. Despite a 2-2 record, Brady has a career low 59.1 percent completion percentage.

His throwing mechanics are much different this year than in any previous seasons as his feet have slowed, his eyes have been readable and defenses are collapsing his pocket before he can get settled in his drop back.

The Patriots have been consistently dumping passes and throwing screens this season. This is not a new addition to their offense––it’s their only choice. Brady has no time, no vision and no ability to play like he is expected to at this point.

Through three weeks, the Patriots offense is 21-for-58 on third down conversions, which is 27th in the National Football League. The team has not only gone three-and-out on their opening drives in their first three games, but they have allowed their opponents to score first in every game.

The Patriots made major roster changes this year—vamping up a normally lackluster defense with cornerbacks Brandon Browner and Darrelle Revis. The hope was to combine their high-powered, ever-changing offense with a defense that can get them past the American Football Conference Championship, something they haven’t done since 2012. Unfortunately for New England, the revamp of the defense resulted in losses on offense. They lost veteran guard Logan Mankins to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and running back LeGarrette Blount to the Pittsburgh Steelers.

The Patriots offense has been able to do without other star power next to Brady. He has made players like wide receivers Julian Edelman and Danny Amendola look like world-beaters with excellent, on-the-mark passes that couldn’t be easier to catch. He also has had to deal with the injuries and inconsistency of tight end Rob Gronkowski. Gronk had a disappointing, injury-plagued season last year that caused him to miss a significant amount of time.

The Patriots have relied on Brady for the past 15 seasons. He has proven himself as one of the greatest to ever play the game. He is a prototypical pro-style quarterback who is surrounded by superb coaching and a win-oriented atmosphere.

Whether this is just a cold start or the start of a cold finish, the Patriots are playing awful right now. In a hungry division that has been pushed around by the Patriots for the past decade and a half, Brady and his squad may be in store for a changing of the guard. The Pats welcome in the Cincinnati Bengals on Sunday Oct. 5—a team that has one of the best secondaries in the league. Brady needs to prove to all NFL fans if he is or is not starting to “suck.”

Donald Sterling incident not simply a sports issue

The news of Donald Sterling being racist is not a sports story – it a story about humanity. One man’s racism is at its foundation. It is moot that a basketball team was involved – I think we often forget that when situations such as this arise.

For instance, take the Pennsylvania State University sexual assault scandal. ESPN and other sports outlets extensively covered that when it ultimately has little (a.k.a. zero) ties to the on-field performance of the athletes (a.k.a. what television stations do cover). The media tried to make it a sports story, when it really was about a sick old man’s heinous crimes – he just happened to work at a major sporting institution.

In response to Sterling’s racist remarks, the Los Angeles Clippers players refused to wear the normal Clippers warm-ups and turned the shooting shirts inside-out to hide the team’s logo. The gesture was simple, yet effective. Many people called for the players boycotting the games. The Golden State Warriors claim they had an extensive protest in place had Sterling not brought the lifetime ban hammer down on the bigot. If you ask me, turning the shirts inside out is a perfect response to the situation.

Clippers head coach Doc Rivers said in an interview that he does understand why the victims of racial abuse are the ones forced to respond, and I agree. Why should anyone – an athlete, politician, carpenter, teacher, etc. – let one ignorant person ruin it for everyone? The answer is they should not. And they did not. I have to admit, my knee-jerk reaction was that the players shouldn’t play but after hearing Rivers’ words, I rethought that. The players are out on the court to play basketball and hopefully win a championship.

To reiterate this point, the Miami Heat flipped their shooting shirts inside-out in a moment of solidarity prior to a game against the Charlotte Bobcats. It was a move somewhat scoffed at by the public on the grounds that the self-absorbed Heat can’t resist the limelight.

Why does it have to be about showmanship? Why not acknowledge that it was an act of humility? I took the action as the team recognizing athletes in the same league, but more importantly, because they are decent humans – many of them black – that were disgusted and offended by the words.

Racism transcends sports. So when we have racism in sports, it first and foremost is an issue in society. We often get caught up in the chaos when a social issue takes place in a sporting venue, forgetting that these issues exist every day with little notice from the world. For better or worse – and my opinion is biased, remember – it seems to take sports to gain traction for such heavy social issues. I thought race issues were long gone, but clearly I was wrong.

What Sterling did was reprehensible – no one is denying that. I am just hoping that the next time something like this happens (and it will happen), we recognize the athletes by the color of their skin and not the color of their jerseys or the ball in their hands.

Out of Bounds: Predicting the NBA Finals

Less than a week into the NBA playoffs and things are already exciting. This year’s playoffs are, as expected, a tale of two conferences. In the East, it appears that the Indiana Pacers and the Miami Heat have clear paths to the conference finals. Despite the Pacers’ embarrassing loss to the Atlanta Hawks in Game 1, Indiana is loaded with talent from top to bottom. With forward Paul George and center Roy Hibbert holding down the frontcourt, their defense will be nearly impossible to conquer.

Enter Miami. Despite having the No. 2 seed for the second year in a row, the two-time champs are the clear favorites according to many experts, myself included (I’m an expert, right?). The key for the Heat during this year’s playoffs will be to keep Dwyane Wade healthy. As important as LeBron James is, Wade is the catalyst that makes this team function. Most importantly, he’s averaged 21.3 points per game against Indiana this season.

The other two series, Chicago Bills vs. Washington Wizards and Brooklyn Nets vs. Toronto Raptors, though interesting, are really just mediocre teams fighting to see who gets to lose against Indiana or Miami. None of these teams have the ability to hang with the top teams in the seven-game series.

Out West, there are some incredible first-round matchups. Most notably, the Los Angeles Clippers playing host to Stephen Curry and the Golden State Warriors. Everyone knows Curry can hit a 3-pointer from the other side of the Golden Gate Bridge. That alone gives them the ability to win this series.

What makes this Clippers team different from the one that lost in the first round last year, however, is J.J. Redick. Redick, similar to Curry, can hit any three at any given time.

This is the first season that he has started more than 25 games and his numbers reflect it. He is averaging over 15 points per game and hitting more than 39 percent of his three pointers. Paired with the frontcourt of Blake Griffin and DeAndre Jordan, this could give the Clippers something special.

Another interesting series in the West is the No. 1 versus No. 8 matchup: San Antonio Spurs vs. Dallas Mavericks. A No. 8 seed has only beaten a No. 1 seed twice in NBA history (1994 Denver Nuggets, 1999 New York Knicks), and both of those times were in five game series. If any team can pull it off this year, it’s the Mavericks.

Dirk Nowitzki is the greatest European player of all time and is still amongst the best in the league today. Add in the experience of Vince Carter and Shawn Marion and it is anyone’s series.

The Western Conference is wide open. I didn’t even mention Oklahoma City or Houston – both teams that could make a run to the finals.

My trite prediction: The 2014 NBA Finals will pit Griffin and the Clippers up against James and the Heat with Miami winning in six games.

Bonus prediction: This will be the “Big Three’s” last championship before Wade’s knee explodes and a new team can (finally) get a championship.

Out of Bounds: UConn achieves recipe for success

Over the past 20 years, there has only been one school worth knowing in college basketball: the University of Connecticut. The men’s and women’s teams have 13 championship titles combined in less than two decades – four for the men, nine for the women. That’s a total of 13 possible titles in 20 years. That’s unbelievable. There hasn’t been a stretch of basketball greatness at that level since coach John Wooden’s years at the University of California at Los Angeles. Since the Huskies won their first title in 1999, there have only been three teams to win more than one title in that span: Duke University, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and the University of  Florida – all with two titles to UConn’s four.

Former head coach Jim Calhoun singlehandedly built the program up from nothing into a national power. He arrived there in 1986 and within five years, they were a nationally known team; having reached the Elite Eight in 1990. Throughout the ‘90s their presence was always there, despite never reaching the top goal.

If a team’s quality is determined by the NBA players it produces, then you know that UConn is the real deal. Some former Huskies include Ray Allen, Richard Hamilton, Rudy Gay and most recently, Kemba Walker.

Among women’s basketball teams, UConn has pretty much been the team to beat since the ‘90s. In his UConn career, head coach Geno Auriemma accrued his first title in ‘95 and three Final Four appearances in ‘91, ‘95 and ‘96. Since then, he has come to be revered as one of the best coaches in the game.

Auriemma has won more games faster than anyone else in basketball history. There have only been eight undefeated seasons in women’s college basketball, and the Huskies own five of them. Two of the four wins came in back-to-back seasons, ‘08-‘09 and ‘09-‘10, and saw UConn win an incredible 90 games in a row.

This many games consecutively won holds the record; it’s two more wins than Wooden’s teams ever achieved.

In my lifetime, the Huskies have won more championships than any other collegiate or professional team. Even the programs separately have won more titles than most teams ever have, and that’s only in 20 years.

Let’s just take a look at one year in particular – 2004. That year, the men’s program won the title as a No. 2 seed. One day later, the women took the title of a No. 2 seed as well. Both teams won that same year. That feat was never subsequently accomplished until this year – both of the Huskies’ teams won once again.

It’s pretty amazing to think that if you didn’t know anything about college basketball and had to guess the winner in any season of past 20 years, you pretty much have a one-in-four chance of guessing correctly if you say UConn. Twenty-five percent of the past men’s and women’s titles have belonged to the Huskies. The only comparable feat to this is UCLA’s seven consecutive championships.

Simply put, the show runners at UConn have captured lightning in a bottle. And they aren’t planning on releasing it anytime soon.

Out of Bounds: Remembering Buffalo Bills owner Ralph Wilson, Jr.

It finally happened: Ralph Wilson, Jr. died. I say that with as most a somber tone as can be because it truly did not seem that the day would ever come.

When I was younger, Wilson was just some old guy who owned the Buffalo Bills. I basically only knew his name because family and friends would complain about him in the offseason saying things like, “Ralph, open your pockets and spend some money,” or “Why can’t Ralph just die so we can buy some good players?” It seems insensitive as I have gotten older, but he was just something that existed only in the mouths of fans.

As I got older, the term “Ralph” came to mean so much more. It represented the stadium, the fans, the energy, Sunday, football and the Buffalo Bills, but more figuratively than anything else. Only once I reached a certain age did I understand that the term “Ralph” literally represented all of those things.

I do not even know if I will ever be able to truly grasp how good he was for the NFL. I “know” he was great because I am told he was. And what I am told is that he is an original owner of a start-up football league at the time, a major proponent behind the AFL-NFL merger and arguably the sole reason the Bills have remained in Buffalo.

His legacy goes beyond the limits of Erie County, however. He lent money to financially strapped teams like the Oakland Raiders and – for better or worse – the New England Patriots. He lobbied for gate and revenue sharing to improve a competitive balance across the league. Most nobly, possibly, he was the voice vouching to cancel games after President John F. Kennedy’s assassination, while the rival NFL league played as scheduled.

Within the greater Buffalo area, he brought life and energy. Many people believed that Buffalo was too small of a market to be successful, but he defied that. People often forget that he and the Bills won consecutive AFL championships in 1964 and 1965. Those same people also forget that getting to four consecutive Super Bowls means four consecutive AFC championships – an unprecedented feat to this day.

Maybe Wilson’s stubbornness, rather than the fans, is to be credited with Buffalo’s success. Time and time again, he adamantly refused to leave Buffalo for what seemed to be greener grass.

In 1998, the stadium was named “Ralph Wilson Stadium,” choosing to forgo millions of dollars in revenue by selling the naming rights. Whether this was a smart decision or not, being able to attend the games at “the Ralph” as opposed to “Bank of America Stadium” or “AT&T Stadium” makes the fan experience that much better.

It is often said that a dog takes on the traits of its owner, and I think that is precisely the case in Buffalo. Wilson always had high expectations and wanted the best. With him, “next year” was always the year.

As a die-hard Bills fan, I know full well how blinded our fan base often is, and I blame it on Wilson.

The discussion of the Bills’ future is inevitable, especially now with him gone. It is not a concern of mine at this moment, however, because I am finding too much joy in reflecting on the memories. Not of him as a man but of what he provided to Buffalo.

I said earlier that I do not know if I will ever be able to truly grasp how great he was – and I mean that. Nonetheless, if the feeling I get every time I am at the Ralph watching a game is any inclination of his greatness, then he was an incredibly special and powerful man.

Thank you, Ralph Wilson, Jr. Rest in peace.

Out of Bounds: Superstitions shame Syracuse fan

I want to apologize to any Syracuse University Orange fans out there because I am the reason the No. 1 college basketball team in the country is no longer undefeated. I take full responsibility for the crash of a legendary season, but the real question is: How did I affect the outcome? It’s simple. I went to the game.

On Feb. 19 the Syracuse Orange (25-0) faced the Boston College Eagles (6-19) in the Carrier Dome. ESPN did some fancy calculations and determined that the winning probability for Syracuse was 99 percent. I consider myself a fairly logical person, but when it comes to sports, I am the most superstitious person ever. The 1 percent chance it had to lose was determined by my attendance of the game.

Bud Light is currently running an ad campaign with the slogan “It’s only weird if it doesn’t work.” The ads feature fans going through great lengths to make sure they follow a superstition that they believe will let their team win. For example, one features a man repeatedly playing the same song on the jukebox at a bar, even though it resembles “figure skating music,” because every time it comes on, there is a big play in the game.

Personally, my superstition is one that makes being a huge sports fan quite difficult and confusing. I cannot watch my team play a full game of its sport. When a game comes on television, I will only watch in five-minute intervals and then spend 10-minute breaks doing something else before returning to the game.

The superstition started at a young age when I would watch Mets games but be too embarrassed to watch them get humiliated night after night. Many times, however, I would turn off the game halfway and then they would come back and win the baseball game. From then on, I convinced myself that any team would just do better the further I stayed away.

My theory came into play on Feb. 19 as I traveled to Syracuse to attend my first game of the season. I had been to games in previous years and had seen them lose and win games at a pretty even ratio. The second I sat down in my seat, my favorite college basketball team was doomed. I was stuck there the whole game, trapped with no way to escape or not watch except for physically leaving the venue and driving away in my car; I was forced to watch the entire game. Long story short, Syracuse lost in overtime and saw their perfect season slip away because I watched every minute.

I had gone all year being a casual viewing fan. I am a huge supporter and loyal follower, but when it came down to watching a game straight through, I refused all season. This began the greatest beginning to a year in Syracuse basketball history. I had it down to a system in that I would watch various parts of the game but never the end. When I felt like it was safe to check the score, I would put on the channel basically knowing in my mind that Syracuse would have the victory. Then I had to go and screw everything up.

The biggest regret I have in life is not taking to heart the Stevie Wonder song that graces those Bud Light commercials. “Superstitious” should be the mantra in my sporting life. So if you have a crazy superstition, please stick to it. I can tell you firsthand that it’s hard to live with the guilt knowing you cost a team a crucial win.

Out of Bounds: A breakdown of Sochi’s medal count

With only a few days left in these 2014 Winter Games, let’s take a quick look at the medals table to see how everyone stacks up. I’m going with the overall medal count because I think that best illustrates the total quality of a country’s athletes, as opposed to just counting gold medals, which shows how many superstars a country has.

After trailing overall for much of the Games, the United States has taken a one-medal lead over host Russia with 23 total medals. The Russians have definitely been riding the momentum that hosting the games often brings: They already have seven more medals than they did in 2010 at Vancouver. Rounding out the top five in total medals is the Netherlands in a tie with Russia, Norway (which also boasts the most gold medals with nine) and Canada with 18 total medals.

But because this is America – the greatest nation on the globe – we have to be first in something. How does happiness sound?

According to a study by the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, bronze medal recipients come in second at the Elation Olympics, with silver medalists being the most disappointed. And look! The U.S. leads the pack with 11 bronze medalists, 18 when gold and bronze are both accounted for.

It makes sense, really. Gold medalists are obviously the happiest since they proved themselves the strongest among the field, silver medalists are disappointed to be the first loser (see: McKayla Maroney in London) and bronze medalists are happy to have medaled at all. Go America.

How about a hand for Belarus and Poland? While Belarus only has six medals, five of them have been gold, while all four of Poland’s medals have been of the first-place variety.

Darya Domracheva has been tearing it up in the biathlon events for Belarus, accounting for three of the golds for her country, with Anton Kushnir and Alla Tsuper taking the others in freestyle skiing aerials competitions. Poland’s golds have come for Kamil Stoch in ski jumping, cross-country skiing thanks to Justyna Kowalczyk and speed skating, for which Zbigniew Bródka won the 1,500-meter race.

Finally, let’s give some love to medal winners from the Southern Hemisphere. From all the way down under, Australia has come up with two silver medals and one bronze in Sochi, with Torah Bright taking second-place in women’s snowboarding half-pipe and David Morris and Lydia Lassila taking silver and bronze in the men’s and women’s freestyle skiing aerials competition.

So congratulations, Australia: The rest of the world may not think of you as a Winter Olympics country, but you’ve proven that you can hang with some of the best. Now, if only you could assemble a winning bobsled team consisting of a kangaroo, koala, platypus and an emu … Maybe in 2018?

Out of Bounds: 2014 Olympic Games in Sochi offer a time to celebrate

We’ve all seen them: the articles listing all of the things wrong with the athlete’s dormitories. The stories of “very dangerous” water. And the pictures of everything from a busted-through bathroom door to not-quite five Olympic rings.

In short, we’ve all had our fun with Sochi and mocking Russia’s attempt to host the 2014 Winter Olympics. And what I’d like, more than anything else, is for everyone to stop and just concentrate on what we’re supposed to be doing: coming together as one to celebrate through the magic of sports.

Yes, Russia and Sochi should have been more ready for the Games. They’ve had what, seven years? And they still couldn’t manage to get the sewage hooked up right? Even I agree that’s pretty bad. But sometimes contractors, to paraphrase the late author Douglas Adams, seem to love the “whooshing noise” of deadlines flying over their heads.

Trouble with building companies isn’t confined just to Russia, either. We’ve had a pretty good taste of that at Geneseo, where that nice stadium that was promised to be completed by spring 2014, but doesn’t look like it’ll be finished for years.

Enough complaining – let’s talk about the three reasons why we hold the Olympics in the first place. First and foremost, in my sports-obsessed mind, we want to see the best athletes in every possible sport leave it all out there on the field, track, ice, sand or court. There are certain points during the Games that you will remember for the rest of your life.

For instance, I remember getting home after a practice, walking through the door and immediately seeing Zach Parise at the Vancouver Games tie the gold medal hockey matchup between the USA and Canada in 2010. Yes, it was a short-lived celebration (damn you, Sidney Crosby), but it was epic nonetheless. That’s what this is all about, from a spectator’s perspective: creating moments and memories through sports and ath0letics.

Secondly, the Olympics are about bringing the world together to celebrate. While there has always been a tendency to get political and boycott versions of the Games just to make a statement, doing so is not its original purpose.

One of my favorite elements of the Olympics, besides sniggering at the reports of how much drinking and sex goes on in the Olympic Village, is the way in which people that would never have met otherwise meet and interact. In 2008 at the Beijing Summer Olympics, it seemed as if every single athlete from Asia was taking a picture with American basketball star Kobe Bryant. Stories like that seem to be common and not just for American athletes.

Even better than viewing this on TV would be going as a fan to the Games. Just think: You can conceivably meet people from at least half of the world’s countries – even more if it’s the Summer Olympics. As someone who is fascinated by different cultures, this would be better than a dream for me, and I hope I get to go to the Games someday so I can become best friends with someone from Bhutan or Uruguay or wherever. If you really think about it, athletics is simply the vehicle the Olympics use to foster these beautiful ties between cultures, binding us forever closer and stronger.

Lastly, the Olympics are a great way to learn in-depth details about the host nation. What did I really know about Russia before the Games outside of the facts that they used to be communists and Vladimir Putin likes to take his shirt off about as much as Taylor Lautner? Nothing, really.

Maybe this one isn’t for the casual fan who turns on curling for some background noise, but the host countries do the best they can, especially during the opening ceremony, to show what their country is all about. It’s one of my favorite parts of the Games because I get to see all of my favorite athletes, I get treated to a pretty cool theatrical performance with a fireworks display, Bob Costas’ voice soothes my worries away and I learn about the host country. In addition, it’s always interesting to hear the stories about the host country’s athletes who otherwise would never get a shot to take part in the world’s ultimate athletics competition.

My fear with so much criticism being, admittedly somewhat rightly, lobbed at Sochi, is this: Coming to Russia only a couple of decades out from the fall of the Soviet Union was a risky move by the International Olympic Committee in the same way going to Beijing was in 2008. These places weren’t the established sites that have hosted a few times, like London and Rome; they were unproven. And while I can’t recall any huge complaints about those 2008 Games, I’m sure that some people will remember Sochi as those Games where Russia really embarrassed itself. What if the wrong people remember that and stop taking risks with putting the Games in new and exciting places?

Hosting the Olympics is a matter of national pride that should not be reserved only to Western countries that have established themselves as competent Games hosts. If there’s an up-and-coming city or country that wants to put itself on the global stage and can prove that it will be done well, I say we let them have it. Their bids will have to be just as good as anyone else’s, but assuming that happens, there is no reason not to let the rest of the world share in the joy of hosting the Games that literally bring the world together.

I would like people to settle down and enjoy these Olympics. Russia got mostly everything right and only screwed up a relatively small amount down the stretch, and yet it’s all anyone talked about in the couple weeks before the Games. It’s time to focus on what matters most: intense competition, creating goodwill with our fellow human beings and watching the Canadians cry when we win gold in hockey.

Bama fan's reaction to Iron Bowl

I hate Auburn University with every living fiber of my being. I hate head coach Gus Malzhan, I hate quarterback junior Nick Marshall and I hate everything about that “cow college” – as former head coach for the University of Alabama Paul “Bear” Bryant so eloquently put it many years ago. Needless to say, I am an Alabama fan, even a previous student. Roll tide. That being said, the 2013 Iron Bowl was the greatest football game I have ever seen.

Auburn is coming off a season where it was the laughing stock of the Southeastern Conference. That season ended with a 49-0 loss to Alabama, a game I attended. There were supposed to be dark days ahead for the Tigers.

Then came Malzhan.

Malzhan was the offensive coordinator when quarterback Cam – also known as “Scam” – Newton was at Auburn. In Newton’s only season with the Tigers, they won the Bowl Championship Series National Championship over the University of Oregon. Still, no one was expecting Malzhan to win many big games in 2013.

But then Auburn started winning those big games. The only blemish on the Tigers’ record was a loss at Louisiana State University.

That almost changed against rival University of Georgia – almost.

With just half a minute to go, down 38-37 at home, fourth-and-18 from the team’s own 27-yard line, Marshall threw up a prayer of a pass that deflected off two Georgia defenders – into the outstretched hands of wide receiver sophomore Ricardo Louis. The Tigers won 43-38 in what was dubbed “The Prayer at Jordan-Hare.”

It was a one-in-a-million play.

Still, Auburn was a big home underdog to two-time defending National Champions Alabama. Not only is Alabama the winner of the past two titles, it has won three out of the last four. The year Alabama didn’t win it, the title went to – you guessed it – Auburn.

The Iron Bowl game was a thriller the whole way. The Tigers hung on throughout the game, tying it at 28-28 with just 39 seconds left on the clock.

Alabama was not about to concede into overtime. Running back sophomore T.J. Yeldon put the Tide in a position to attempt a 57-yard field goal to win with just a second left. Head coach Nick Saban sent out redshirt kicker freshman Adam Griffith to attempt the mammoth kick – after three failed attempts earlier in the game by kicker senior Cade Foster.

It fell short.

It fell into senior Chris Davis’ hands nine yards deep in the end zone.

No one touched Davis for 109 yards. He scored. Alabama 28, Auburn 34. Final.

It was a one-in-a-million play. Again.

The win gives Auburn a chance to extend its season even further. The Tigers will play the University of Missouri on Saturday Dec. 7 in the SEC Championship. From there, the winner could go on to play in the BCS National Championship, pending the results of a few other games.

If Auburn wins the National Championship, it would truly be defying odds. If you put $10 on the Tigers to win the championship last January, you would stand to make $2,000.

I hope Auburn loses to Missouri by 50. I hope Marshall’s former teammates at Georgia press charges against him for stealing their money. I tip my cap, however, to a great comeback season. I tip my crimson-and-white cap to the Tigers for grasping victory from the tightly clenched jaws of defeat – twice.

Congrats on the victory, Auburn. The Tide will see you next year.

Out of Bounds: why pay for play is bad for college sports

  College football and basketball are sports that get a lot of hype. College football is arguably the second most-watched sport in America behind the NFL, and March Madness is a giant basketball conglomerate we glue our eyes to in the spring.

With viewership like this, one can only imagine the type of money the NCAA rakes in. Well, it is as much as we think, $871.6 million in revenue in 2011-12.

With this amount of money, the question always asked is: “Should we be paying these athletes?” My short-answer is “No.”

I understand that the athletes are the product and no one is making the money without them, but I see nothing wrong with players volunteering their time to play at the next level.  First and foremost, they are students – as the title goes, “student-athletes” – and playing a college sport should be viewed as a privilege; mind you, we’re talking Division I athletics. If you are at a university, whether on scholarship or not, school should be the priority.

The long answer is still generally “no,” but there’s some wiggle room in there. Should the players receive pay from the school? Absolutely not. That would be an abomination to the entire system.

I cringe at the thought of a high school recruit being offered a contract to go to school. Plus, the student-athletes already get money for food on away trips, and many of them also have work-study stipends.

But let’s say this pay does come from the school. Now is everyone on the football team getting the same pay, or does the NCAA pay the athletes? What about the football teaam and women’s soccer team or an SEC school and an Atlantic 10 school? Is everyone making the same, or are the amounts different? Is this a fair allocation? There are so many issues, so many sides to be had, that the practicality of the whole scenario is nauseating.

Where I “wiggle” is from outside the confines from the school, which involves the stupidity of the NCAA. I am so annoyed by athletes – especially basketball players getting suspended by the NCAA for playing in charity events or pro-am tournaments.

The classic example in defense of the athletes is this: If an art student is allowed to sell works without consequence, why can’t an athlete playing basketball do the same? And I agree with that. If I am a Division I athlete and I win a tournament with a cash prize, why is it the NCAA’s job to say I can’t have it?

I think if the NCAA would loosen its grip on college athletics, the argument for paying the athletes would go by the wayside. The NCAA acts as a big brother to sports rather than as a supplement to them, and it makes for a tense environment.

You need not go any further than the fact that – and this is real – the NCAA views providing cream cheese for school-funded bagels to be “pampering.” Yeah.

One quick, Band-Aid solution to this whole conundrum is to let athletes go to the pros right out of high school. This isn’t any rule of the NCAA but rather the professional leagues. The NBA’s rule is gray, but generally, it requires a year of college before the next step. The NFL requires three years after graduating high school regardless of whether or not the player attended college.

Eliminating this stipulation solves everything. The athletes who are going to go pro otherwise, and likely will be a problem for the NCAA, are gone, and the only students playing in college are using that as a stepping stone, not a roadblock.

I fear the worst is coming: that players will be paid in the near future. There are a lot of advocates for them being paid, more so than for the converse argument.

The day that a college athlete receives a paycheck for scoring some points is the day that college athletics loses a fan in me.

How far is too far? NFL hazing may have crossed the line

Hazing happens. There is no reason to try to dispute this fact. Whether it is in sports, the workplace, fraternities or sororities, hazing has been going on for decades. Some rookies understand the rite of passage as a new member to the league but once the player becomes offended, no matter how trivial the event, the line has been crossed.

Cue Miami Dolphins lineman Jonathan Martin. Martin was a two-time All-American at Stanford University and was drafted in the second round of the NFL Draft in 2012. Similar to pretty much every rookie in the NFL, he was initiated, and there were no reported problems.

Entering his second season, Martin was named the starting left tackle for the Dolphins, arguably the most important position on the offensive line. The fun and games should have ended. Football should have been the main focus.

Unfortunately, some of his teammates saw reason to treat Martin like a rookie again.

The situation reached a climax on Oct. 30, when Martin stormed out of the Dolphins lunchroom after allegedly being bullied by several players. The person at the helm: Dolphins captain Richie Incognito.

Incognito has been a problem for every team that he has played for. While in college, he was kicked off of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln football team. A few weeks later, he transferred to the University of Oregon, where he was kicked off of the team within one week.

He did make it to the pros, however. In his last season for the St. Louis Rams, Incognito head-butted an opposing player, resulting in a $50,000 fine from the NFL. He was subsequently released by the Rams and signed by the Buffalo Bills, where he did not make a huge impact. In 2012, Sporting News named him NFL’s second-dirtiest player behind Detroit Lions defensive tackle Ndamukong Suh.

His impact with the Dolphins will be remembered. The NFL, the Miami Dolphins organization and ESPN reporter Adam Schefter accessed a voicemail that Incognito left on Martin’s phone in which, Incognito calls Martin various profanities, and said that he wanted to “shit in his fucking mouth.” He ended the voicemail by saying, “Fuck you, you’re still a rookie. I’ll kill you.”

This voicemail caused Martin to leave the team and the Dolphins to suspend Incognito indefinitely. According to a source inside the Dolphins organization, “[Incognito] will never play another game here.”

Incognito, instead of keeping his head down, decided to try to publicly defend himself on Twitter. On Sunday, he tweeted at Schefter, “Enough is enough. If you or any of the agents you sound off for have a problem with me, you know where to find me #BRINGIT.” Besides trying to pick fights with members of the media, he also said that he wanted his name cleared.

Many people on online message boards have been calling Martin soft for leaving the team because of this. The thought process amongst these people is that you should never abandon your team, no matter what.

Still, what Martin experienced was over the top. The locker room is supposed to be a safe haven for players. They do not have to deal with fans or opposing players. They are supposed to feel safe with their teammates.

Another notable point is that Martin stands 6 feet 5 inches tall and weighs in at 312 pounds. With the culture that is surrounding American children today, this goes to show bullying can be damaging to anyone at any age.

It is far-fetched to try and eliminate hazing from the NFL or life in general, but it needs to be moderated. When someone can no longer function because of harassment, something needs to change. There is no place for the kind of hazing that Incognito did in the world.u

Out of Bounds: A weird World Series

This World Series between the Boston Red Sox and St. Louis Cardinals has been peculiar. Game 3 ended on a walk-off obstruction call and Game 4 closed on a pickoff at first base. If you aren't privy to the events, in the bottom of the ninth with the Cardinals up to bat, a ball was hit to Red Sox second basemen Dustin Pedroia, who threw it to catcher Jarrod Saltalamacchia tagging out Cardinals catcher Yadier Molina running home from third. Immediately after, Saltalamacchia threw to third in an attempt to get out Cardinals first basemen Allen Craig sliding into third. The ball slipped past Red Sox third basemen Will Middlebrooks, and Craig took off for home. He tripped over the diving Middlebrooks and was unable to beat the throw home.

The Red Sox thought they had gotten the out, but home-plate umpire Jim Joyce determined, correctly, that had Middlebrooks not obstructed his path, Craig would have made it home safely.

What an unconventional play, let alone an ending to a championship game. This was the first time a World Series game was decided by an obstruction.

If you watch the video, and I suggest you do, the call seems like it could go either way. But based on the official MLB rule, it was absolutely the correct call:

OBSTRUCTION is the act of a fielder who, while not in possession of the ball and not in the act of fielding the ball, impedes the progress of any runner. Rule 2.00 (Obstruction) Comment: If a fielder is about to receive a thrown ball and if the ball is in flight directly toward and near enough to the fielder so he must occupy his position to receive the ball he may be considered “in the act of fielding a ball.” It is entirely up to the judgment of the umpire as to whether a fielder is in the act of fielding a ball. After a fielder has made an attempt to field a ball and missed, he can no longer be in the “act of fielding” the ball. For example: an infielder dives at a ground ball and the ball passes him and he continues to lie on the ground and delays the progress of the runner, he very likely has obstructed the runner.

By this description, the right call was made, something that seems to be rare among umpires these days.

This alone was enough to make everyone scratch their heads, but the weirdness continued into Game 4.

In the bottom of the ninth, St. Louis' Kolten Wong was put in as a pinch runner with two outs to go. A pinch runner's job is easy: Don't get out, and get in scoring position. Wong did neither.

With a 1-1 count, Red Sox pitcher Koji Uehara threw to first, catching the leaning Wong. This was the first time a game ended on a pickoff in the October Classic.

Although this series wasn't pegged as an exciting contest, the way it played out has made it sensational - certainly one for the history books.

Out of Bounds: Defending the Chiefs bandwagon

Guys, the Kansas City Chiefs are still undefeated. We’re approaching the ninth week of the NFL season and yet, somehow, Kansas City’s still not getting the attention it deserves.

I get it, though. I’m probably the lone Chiefs fan in Geneseo, maybe even Western New York. I’m probably even the only person in the region who cares about the Midwest team’s success. Because really, why would any New Yorker cheer on the Chiefs?

Before you judge my taste in sports teams, let me explain; I didn’t have a choice. I spent last summer in Kansas City writing about sports for a newspaper. It made me a devoted Kansas City fan – Chiefs, Royals, Sporting KC, you name it.

Whether you understand or agree with my allegiance to the Chiefs doesn’t matter. Just understand how amazing this season is.

Jets fans, you can relate, as you’re loyal to a team that’s not so used to winning ways. Imagine if the Gang Green was graced with this kind of start. I bet you would jump up and down with joy, too, like I do with each win.

So, let me have this moment – er, column.

Week after week, the Chiefs have managed to defeat everyone they’ve faced: the Jaguars, Cowboys, Eagles, Giants, Titans, Raiders, Texans and Browns. No, those teams aren’t the best within the NFL, but Kansas City still routed stronger teams, including the Dallas Cowboys and the Houston Texans.

This isn’t an early-season streak anymore. The regular season is already halfway over, and Kansas City has proven to be a true contender within the NFL.

No longer are the Chiefs the No. 1 pick that only won two games in the 2012-2013 season. These Chiefs could even take the Lombardi Trophy. Alright, I may be getting ahead of myself, but wouldn’t you?

The coaches should receive the bulk of the credit for the remarkable turnaround from the Chiefs’ previous 2-14 season.

At this point last year, the Chiefs were becoming a “civic embarrassment” as Sam Mellinger, columnist for The Kansas City Star, said. Season-ticket holders no longer felt the same pride and prestige for their team, and even the coaches began to fight and shove each other during practice, Mellinger found. The Chiefs weren’t in a good place to say the least.

And then came Andy Reid.

His hiring was full of doubts. He was fired after a 14-year career in Philadelphia. The 55-year-old is certainly considered a veteran, the fifth in the league, but as former NFL general manager and NFL Network analyst Charley Casserly expressed to The Kansas City Star’s Randy Covitz, what about Reid’s motivations?

“The key when you hire a coach like Andy Reid, is does he still have the fire in the belly?” Casserly said. “Does he still have that burning desire to win, or is he looking for another payday? Does he have something to prove?”

Through the eight weeks, Reid has proven something, though. The lone 8-0 record says enough. The triumphant start means everything because even if the Chiefs are winless in the second half of the season, it won’t define their season. The undefeated record doesn’t just go away.

The Chiefs have made a name for themselves for the rest of the season. Soon you’ll see, New York fans. KC takes on the Buffalo Bills at 1 p.m. Sunday Nov. 3 at Ralph Wilson Stadium, and like every team, they’ll want to be the one to squash the Chiefs’ record.

The Chiefs success … It’s now a problem for New York.

I may be the lone Kansas City fan, but at least, come Sunday, it’ll be nice to be on the other side. That is, the winning side.

Signs emerge that Washington Redskins racist mascot to be removed

Sports mascots are weird. They are just the household name that no one really thinks about. What is a “Bill”? Or a “Knick”? You never really question where these titles came from or if there is any historical context to the name. For one organization, however, the masthead that represents it has roots in bigotry. That team is the Washington Redskins. I’ll admit, for the longest time I never thought about that name or the mascot donning the 50-yard line and helmets. It was simply a distinguishing factor of the team that plays in the nation’s capital.

Now I see absolutely clear as day how truly offensive this is for Native Americans. We took a group of people and completely objectified their entire existence. We compared the suffering and enslavement of humans to a sport that exists solely for entertainment.

Sadly, stereotypes relating to the skin colors of other races exist, but no one would ever allow a sport mascot to be named after them. How did it take so long for this name to be questioned? It is equally offensive as any other racial epithet, and it’s thrown around all over ESPN.

A quick history lesson about the team’s organization: George Preston Marshall, at the time the NFL’s “leading bigot,” brought the team to Washington in 1937, according to The Washington Post. Some teams began to sign African-American players in the ‘40s, but it wasn’t until 1962 that Marshall agreed to sign an African-American. So not only was he 20 years late to the party, he had to be forced to sign a non-white player by none other than President John F. Kennedy. Kennedy threatened to relinquish the 30-year lease the team had with the city if he kept refusing to sign African-American athletes.

What you should gain from that information is that the team’s name was fully intended to be racist. So it’s not as if people only recently became offended by the word, it was just as bad back then.

Thankfully, that was more than 50 years ago when civil rights were a new thing. Surely the organization has come around and realizes the egregiousness of the mascot? Wrong.

The scariest part of the entire situation is the conviction that current owner Daniel Snyder has toward the name. His exact words, according to USA Today, were, “We will never change the name. It’s that simple. NEVER – you can use caps.”

The support for a name change has increased over the past few years. Fans have been protesting the team when it comes to their home city and there is even a website, changethemascot.org, dedicated to the removal of the racist mascot and name.

One thing important to mention is that I am not condemning the athletes, coaches or personnel operating the organization or even the fans. Those working for the Washington D.C., team are just trying to earn a living and essentially have no control over the name change. It also wouldn’t make sense for a person within the organization, apart from Snyder, to protest the name change because something like that takes significant planning. Robert Griffin III is out there to play football, not be a martyr.

This is the same with the fans. Although it is admirable to protest the team until the name changes, you could argue that the support for the team would be equal to the same team with a different name. So for that reason, fans are absolved.

Right now there are some suggestions for what the name could be like the Renegades or Warriors, but probably not the latter because it has received some flak for being offensive to war veterans.

Whatever the new name may be, you can be sure that there will be at least one man trying to keep the current name in place. That man, Snyder, might as well get “I’m racist” tattooed across his forehead.

At long last, Bud Selig announces his retirement

1998 began a dark time for MLB; it was the year Bud Selig was hired as the Commisioner of Baseball. Fortunately for everyone, he just announced his retirement. You knew things were going to bad when you hear how he got the position. He was on a board of five members who were determined to oust Fay Vincent as Commissioner of Baseball - and the board did so. Selig emerged as the next Commissioner of Baseball during the middle of the steroid era, a critical time for baseball. Instead of doing what was right and putting a stop to all of the steroid use, he sat back with his hands in his pockets and shook his head in disappointment.

Selig has taken multiple actions against players who were found to use performance-enhancing drugs. The way that he went about handling most of these issues, however, was not discrete. He waited at least a decade before cracking down on PEDs. He knew about it during the '90s, but did not institute a drug test until 2003. Selig could have easily avoided the steroid era, but he chose not to, proving he was not willing to do what was best for the game of baseball.

Selig is notorious for handing out suspensions to players who never failed any drug tests. Most notably, his recent suspension of Alex Rodriguez for 211 games has made headlines nationally. Handing down a suspension of this amount of time, with no hard evidence linked against Rodriguez and the fact he has never been suspended before for using PEDs, is foolish and irresponsible. It seems he has to make an example out of players for using these drugs.

Another controversial topic with Selig is not lifting Pete Rose's lifetime ban on baseball. Pete Rose, considered to be one of if not the greatest hitter of all time, received the ban after he was ousted for gambling on his team as a coach. Selig's refusal to lift Rose's ban, while not banning Barry Bonds for his use of steroids, is outrageous.

Besides steroids and other PEDs, Selig is most notable for his opposition of instant replay in baseball. He is very against bringing it into the game because it will “ruin the game of baseball” in his eyes. Instant replay is around in every other sport, and there are many instances in which it would have been very helpful in deciding a call. One notable instance is umpire Jim Joyce's blown call of Armando Gallaraga's perfect game in 2010, which Selig could have overturned himself but decided not to.

Selig, who scammed his way into commissioner power in the first place, was clearly not the right man for baseball. He could have single-handedly saved baseball. Instead, he sat back and did nothing, proving his tenure as commissioner a complete failure.

The NHL is back but are rules hindering the sport?

Hockey is back! Hooray! Yahoo! OK, now that I’ve managed to calm myself down, the NHL is back in action and for kids across this campus, that’s going to mean a rapid decrease in classroom productivity. That’s a risk we all take when we choose a school in Western New York.

Since our government shut down this week, let’s discuss some of the new rules the NHL has rolled out.

Commissioner Gary Bettman and the Department of Player Safety have been hard at work for a couple of years now, rewriting the rulebook to ensure a safer playing environment for a sport that becomes more dangerous every year. Some of these efforts have been well intended. For example, blatant flying elbows to the head should be suspended. No argument here.

Nonetheless, when a player skates across the middle with his head down and gets laid out, is that the defenseman’s fault for not “pulling up”? When I was a kid, and I put my head down across the middle and got leveled, I learned a lesson not to do that.

I always wonder how an NFL quarterback can throw high over the middle, a safety can lay a hit on that receiver – with his shoulder, of course – and instead of talking about a poorly thrown pass, we’re talking about a “hit on a defenseless receiver.” Because it’s a defensive player’s responsibility in any sport to make sure his opponent is paying attention. That makes sense.

The truth is that the NHL follows NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell’s lead, taking precautionary steps to change the game in the name of safety that, in reality, do more to complicate the jobs of the players than promoting their safety.

The addition of hybrid icing will eliminate collisions in races for icing touches, making the game safer for defensemen while not really affecting the outcome of games. Realistically, this alteration won’t change the results of these plays one way or another. This rule change is fine by me.

Then again, what about fighting? What about the fact that general managers and owners are talking more and more about removing fighting from the game, when practically zero players are voicing the same concerns?

That’s because players know there is an intrinsic value to fighting. Call it momentum; call it accountability; call it whatever you want. The point is that, more often than not, it isn’t a sideshow, a point increasingly made in a cap era NHL where the “goon” is nearly extinct and fighters actually need to contribute to other areas of the game. This is why fighting occurs even in leagues in which it is outlawed and with players who don’t consider themselves fighters.

GMs and owners, on the other hand, are concerned with player safety, or more accurately, “I’m paying money for this guy; stop punching him!”

So while they discuss a ban to fighting, and likely won’t achieve it, it hasn’t stopped them from regulating it with a new rule: Players who remove their own helmets during a fight will get an extra two minutes. The idea is to reduce concussions on players hitting their heads falling to the ice.

It’s a nice idea that has little effect on players who don’t wear visors, but those who do wear visors most often remove their own helmets. Why? Because it is riskier to get punched in the face through a sheet of plastic than it is to maybe hit your head if you fall backwards. But the NHL would rather those fists fly with those visors on, risking the shards of plastic inches from the face or slicing your hand.

This point was made opening night when Mark Fraser of the Toronto Maple Leafs fought Travis Moen of the Montreal Canadiens. The two actually discussed whether or not to take off their helmets, which they ended up doing. This is the cost-benefit analysis the NHL is forcing on players: my safety versus the good of the team. That’s not fair and not necessary.

Oh, and in addition, players are no longer allowed to tuck in their jerseys because it will apparently help fans with player recognition.  You know, the fans that can’t read the names plastered across the shoulders in giant letters.

The NHL is slowly moving down the road of overregulation of its players, of a game that is a better product than at any time in the last 30 years. Let’s not let a Big Brother mentality unnecessarily hinder players from doing their jobs.

That’s the kind of governing that needs a shutdown.

Jets' QB issues getting out of hand

“We know the fan base would like to see Geno Smith out on the field. The reality is, Geno might not be ready. Now [Mark] Sanchez might not be ready,” Joe Namath, arguably the greatest player in New York Jets history, said regarding the Jets quarterback situation. At this point, Broadway Joe could probably lace up his spikes and compete for that job himself because it doesn’t seem that Jets head coach Rex Ryan is overly eager to give it away to any of his current options.

With the Jets set to kick off their season on Sunday Sept. 8 against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, it appears Ryan will have little choice, but to give the starting job to rookie Smith. The Jets drafted Smith out of West Virginia with the 39th pick. Some blame Smith’s immaturity and pre-draft diva attitude as the main reasons he fell out of the first round.

That diva, who threw three picks in the only serious preseason action he was given, now appears to have the keys to a Jets vehicle that is speeding toward a cliff.

And even though Ryan still hasn’t stood behind the podium and endorsed a leader for his team, that hasn’t stopped the Jets from making moves to improve the position, adding Brady Quinn earlier in the week – wait, Brady Quinn?

Quinn threw eight picks in 10 games with the Kansas City Chiefs last year, which means he’ll fit in just fine with the other Jet quarterbacks.

Quinn arrives only a week after New York writers were praising Matt Simms for asserting himself as a legitimate contender to be the Jets third-string quarterback. Sanchez bruised his shoulder and appears to be out for another month, making Smith the de facto starter and opening a window for Quinn.

So, the Jets quarterback situation has become so underwhelming that we are now discussing the competition for the third-string job? Ryan will do his best to convince fans that the organization has added depth to its quarterback pool, but the truth is that the water is shallow and the Jets are still drowning.

Of course, it is entirely possible that it doesn’t even matter who the Jets put behind center when there’s just as little confidence in who is catching the ball. Santonio Holmes is injured to start the season and appeared on the verge of mutiny at the end of last year’s disappointing campaign. Stephen Hill is returning for his second season after an injury-ridden rookie campaign and can’t be relied upon as a game-breaker, while Jeremy Kerley serves best as a possession receiver.

And even receivers that Sanchez managed to develop some chemistry with over the past five seasons won’t be back. Braylon Edwards’ second stint in green was cut short when the Jets released him in August. Dustin Keller, Sanchez’s favorite target, left for Miami, where he wasted no time promptly getting hurt again. But wait, Sanchez isn’t the quarterback anymore; right Rex? Rex?

The running game isn’t any more comforting, with Bilal Powell serving as one of the preseason’s few bright spots. Besides Powell, Chris Ivory is averaging two yards per carry in the preseason.

Offseason acquisition Mike Goodson hasn’t had impressive stats either, with one arrest for weapons and drug possession and a four-game suspension for violating the league’s substance abuse policy. Now, Powell really does seem like a bright spot by default.

But this is exactly the Jets that we expected going into the draft. There is no true leader, no player ideally suited for the role he’s being handed and no position that can honestly be identified as a strong point.

Ryan had success in New York with a strong running game and arguably the best defense in football. But now he is without either and is being exposed for what he really is: a very good defensive coordinator with no solutions on offense and a knack for exacerbating any delicate locker room situation.

There is no strength on which Ryan can lean, and that’s why at the end of this season, he and the Jets will be parting ways, and likely, Mark Sanchez will be leaving with him. A losing season will essentially guarantee that this quarterback controversy will be the last of Ryan’s many controversies in New York.

If only there were a way to spice up this quarterback competition even more – to bring in a player truly qualified, who’s won at every level, with experience in New York and a “unique skill set” to take the Jets to the next level. But where can we find such a person?

Wait, the New England Patriots released Tim Tebow? He’s available? That might be crazy enough to work.

In reality, prayer may be the only thing that can help the Jets this season.