Saturday, January 31, 2015

To prevent sex trafficking from becoming Super Bowl scourge, FBI intensifies law enforcement efforts

(Y Sports) On the Saturday before the Super Bowl, a 23-year-old on the northern edge of this sprawling city scans escort offers on the Internet. There are dozens of listings, many with photos of girls in suggestive poses and little clothing.
This is a huge weekend for football and fanfare – an unofficial national holiday – and it is also a huge weekend for sex. That means it is also a huge weekend for sex trafficking, and this 23-year-old is working long hours on a Saturday to stop it.
She is an agent in the Phoenix division of the FBI.
The Super Bowl is culmination of a months-long effort by the FBI and a task force of local authorities to track down pimps and recover underage girls who are coerced into turning tricks while the world is watching Phoenix but nobody is watching them.
"The Super Bowl, unfortunately, happens to be the largest human trafficking venue on the planet," said Cindy McCain, wife of U.S. Senator John McCain, who has been leading the push for stronger laws in Arizona and elsewhere.
The awareness of this problem has ramped up considerably in the last several years. "It's gone on for decades unchecked," said Special Agent George Steuer, sitting at a conference table in the FBI office before a full day of sting operations. "We assumed it was a voluntary industry."
Advocates like McCain and intensified media coverage have combined to augment attention on this issue. So have instances of girls being recovered with broken bones, branding and other physical injuries.
"When Arizona was awarded the Super Bowl, we had no human trafficking legislation on our books, period," McCain said. "Unless we were going to be racked with a dangerous Super Bowl, we had to get to work."
It has worked, according to authorities. Of the 27 juveniles recovered in the past year, 18 have come in the three weeks leading up to the Super Bowl, the Phoenix FBI reported. That's almost one per day. There have also been dozens of pimps arrested over the past year, along with nearly 200 sex workers who have been offered victims services. While some reports argue there is no empirical evidence of an increase in trafficking during the Super Bowl, Steuer said his office has seen a "definite uptick in activity" and the amount of alerts he has received from the national office over the last several weeks has jumped five-fold.
The recent efforts have come in part from this austere office building, isolated from the buzz of downtown by miles of highway and desert. Steuer, who has worked for the FBI for nearly 20 years, is one of the overseers. The 23-year-old agent scouring the Internet, who would not give her name because of the confidentiality of her work, is one of 20 on Steuer's team. In a main room, there's a map with target neighborhoods and a dry erase board with photos of pimps and underage girls who are thought to work for them. One picture, lying on a desk in a cubicle, is of a girl who the agency is hoping to recover from "the life" as prostitution is often known. Her birth year is listed as 2000.
"It's a serious threat to young people," Seuer said Saturday. "It's tragic and violent. It's modern-day slavery."
Seuer said he has seen cases of girls being befriended at a high school party, raped, photographed, and then blackmailed into working. "There's often evidence of assault and battery," Seuer said. "They are psychologically broken." Seuer has seen a rise in juveniles being marketed over the past several weeks. That suggests it's not just a demand for sex at the Super Bowl; it's a demand for sex with minors.
Yet the task force has been ready. One of the most reliable tools for Seuer and his staff is the "reversal," where agents pose as johns or young girls on social media and then set up meetings. The primary goal is to prevent further harm, so sex workers are often given a chance to defer arrest if they want to escape. Some don't trust cops, and would rather be arrested. But even an arrest can be a way to break the chain of forced labor.
The pursuit is on several fronts: the task force will infiltrate a hotel on one night, then scan a red light district on the next, and then focus on online operations on the third. The pimps are communicating online also, alerting each other where the cops have been spotted, so it's important to change course daily if not more often. There is always a plan for the day, and that plan always changes.
What's different during Super Bowl week, besides the influx of tourists, is the enlisting of other parties to help fight the scourge.
"All the hotels have been trained," McCain said. "They are taught to know what human trafficking looks like and what to do if you see it."
The NFL has also ramped up its efforts in recent years.
"They got into the game late," McCain said, "but they are making great progress."
There will be no more getting into the game late. Santa Clara County, site of Super Bowl 50, has set up a commission to plan the effort for next year. There are bilingual billboards already standing in the Bay Area, promoting awareness. A law enforcement concern that was an afterthought only a few years ago is now a year-round fight.
And while the planet watches the Super Bowl on Sunday, the 23-year-old and the rest of her FBI team will be watching the message boards.

Louisville rally leads to Rick Pitino's first victory over North Carolina

Rick Pitino finally added a win over North Carolina to his considerable resume on Saturday and it came in sweet fashion.
No. 10 Louisville rallied from an 18-point deficit in the second half and won 78-68 in overtime behind a monster effort from forward Montrezl Harrell who scored 22 points and snagged 15 rebounds. Terry Rozier also scored 22 points and grabbed 10 rebounds.
Harrell's day included an impressive ally-oop slam off a fast break during the Cardinals' rally. He caught the ball with one hand high and in back of him and threw it down.
Pitino was 0-6 against the Tar Heels in his career, including a frustrating loss earlier this season in which the Cardinals gave up a 13-point lead to lose in Chapel Hill. Louisville stormed back from 18 down Saturday by grabbing 22 offensive rebounds leading to second-chance points. Harrell provided eight of those offensive rebounds.
The Cardinals fell behind by 11 at halftime by allowing the Tar Heels to beat them in transition. They clamped down in the second half and allowed a total of 32 points in the second half and overtime after giving up 36 in the first half.
Louisville attacked the basket and got to the foul line, shooting 44 free throws. It was the most free throws for a North Carolina opponent since Roy Williams became coach.
The loss snapped a six-game winning streak for the Tar Heels that started with that comeback win over Louisville. North Carolina committed 19 turnovers, including eight in one stretch of the second half contributing to the Louisville comeback.

Lydia Ko falls short of win in LPGA opener, but takes No. 1 in the world

Lydia Ko didn't win the inaugural Coates Golf Championship on Saturday, but she still made a golf first. Ko finished joint runner-up to Na Yeon Choi in the LPGA opener in Ocala, Fla., but the finish was good enough to assure Ko the top spot in the new Rolex Rankings.
The 17-year-old Kiwi will become the youngest player in the history of the game to ascend to the spot of either the Official World Golf Ranking or Rolex Rankings.
Early in the final round, Ko had a four-shot edge through two holes, but Ha Na Jang and Choi caught up over the course of the round. Nevertheless, Ko was tied for the lead with four holes to play. She then drained a 60-foot birdie putt at the 15th to take the lead when Choi bogeyed the same par 3. However, on the 17th hole, Ko made a double bogey, dropping from one ahead to one behind with a par 5 to play.
On the final hole, Ko's second shot wound up short and left of the intended target and left her with a semi-buried lie for her third shot. She expected a chunk shot but caught all ball, eventually getting up and down from the bunker beyond the hole for par and history. Choi tapped in for par and her first win since the 2012 CME Group Titleholders.
Tiger Woods is the youngest man to be ranked No. 1 in the Official World Golf Ranking, which started in 1986. Woods was 21 years, 167 days old when he became No. 1 for the first time on June 15, 1997.
The Rolex Rankings have only been in existence since 2006. Jiyai Shin was previously the youngest women's world No. 1, earning the top spot at 22 years, 5 days old. A year later, Yani Tseng became No. 1 at 22 years, 22 days old.

Wichita State's 27-game conf. win streak over

At the end of a phone conversation with Ben Jacobson earlier this month, the Northern Iowa coach made a plea on behalf of star forward Seth Tuttle.  
"He deserves more attention than he's getting," Jacobson said. "Boy, he does a lot for us. He's one of the most versatile guys in the country."
Neither Tuttle nor his team will fly under the radar much longer after what they accomplished Saturday in Northern Iowa's most high-profile game of the season. Tuttle scored a career-high 29 points to lead the Panthers to a decisive 70-54 victory over a Wichita State team that had won 27 consecutive league games prior to its visit to Cedar Rapids.
Northern Iowa's victory served notice that Wichita State won't romp to the Valley title the way it did during last year's undefeated season. The 18th-ranked Panthers (20-2, 9-1) and 12th-ranked Shockers (19-3, 9-1) are now tied atop the Valley standings with a potential winner-take-all return match set to take place in Wichita on the final Saturday of conference play.
Winning the first battle of Top 25 Valley teams in a quarter century puts Northern Iowa in great position to return to the NCAA tournament even if it doesn't secure the Valley's automatic bid at Arch Madness this March. Not only do the Panthers have solid wins over Wichita State, Iowa, Stephen F. Austin, Richmond and Northwestern, their only two losses were also in double overtime at VCU and by three at Evansville.
Northern Iowa's reemergence on the national scene is a product of the program rediscovering its identity as a glacially paced team that wins efficient, structured offense and stifling defense.
Whereas last year's team finished with the least wins in Jacobson's nine-year tenure after Jacobson tried to play at a faster tempo with disastrous results. Northern Iowa is the nation's fourth slowest team this season and is limiting teams to below 40 percent shooting. Some of the credit goes to Jacobson spending much of the offseason emphasizing defensive principles. The rest goes to a group of hungry upperclassmen who signed with Northern Iowa on the heels of its 2010 Sweet 16 run yet have not been able to take the Panthers back to the NCAA tournament so far.
"This group of seniors that have been part of the last three years have grown up a lot and they're a much more determined group now," Jacobson told Yahoo Sports earlier this month. "They're working extremely hard to establish themselves as a much better defensive team than what we were a year ago. That's been the biggest change."
Northern Iowa's formula for success was on full display Saturday afternoon in front of a full-throated crowd in Cedar Rapids.
Wichita State fell behind by 13 at halftime and never mounted a serious charge because it could never string together enough baskets. The Shockers shot 35.4 percent from the field because they got nothing from their frontcourt or in transition and stars Ron Baker and Fred VanVleet needed 22 shots to combine for 30 points.
The lack of offense from the Shockers was especially glaring because the Panthers had no trouble breaking full-court pressure and shredded Wichita State's half-court defense once they got the ball across mid-court.
The 6-foot-8 Tuttle scored at will in the paint no matter who Wichita State used to defend him, sinking 9 of 13 shots from the field and 10 of 13 from the foul line. Guard Wes Washspun also torched the Shockers off the screen and roll, adding 16 points of his own.
In assessing how his program has done since its seismic upset of Kansas in the 2010 NCAA tournament, Jacobson said bluntly, "We've been running good but not great."
This season is Northern Iowa's chance to ascend in the national pecking order once more. So far the Panthers appear primed to take full advantage.

Pitt earns its best victory of the season in toppling No. 8 Notre Dame

Pittsburgh's résumé still needs quite a bit of work, but the Panthers took a big step in the right direction Saturday in halting a three-game losing streak with an impressive 76-72 victory over No. 8 Notre Dame.
It was the first victory over a top-10 team for the Panthers in two years and it came at a great time. Pitt was reeling entering the game having lost three straight, including, perhaps, the low point of the season, losing in overtime at Virginia Tech.
Prior to Saturday's victory, Pitt's best win probably came way back in November when it got the best of Kansas State in the Maui Invitational. One top-10 win isn't going to be enough to get the Panthers into the NCAA tournament, but if they can build off this one and keep some momentum, maybe they'll look back on this victory as a turning point.
A three-game stretch in mid-February against Louisville, North Carolina and Virginia will tell us if Pitt has a chance of going any further than an NIT bid in March.
Pitt's five starters were responsible for scoring 71 of its 76 points. Jamel Artis was big in this one, scoring 20 points with eight rebounds and three assists. Michael Young had 16 points and James Robinson scored 15.
While Pitt played like a team desperate for a win, Notre Dame followed up its home win over No. 4 Duke on Wednesday with a rugged outing and likely missed a chance to move into the top-five in the next polls. The Irish still managed to make a run late and take the lead in the final minute before falling.
Jerian Grant was brilliant in the win over the Blue Devils earlier in the week but he didn't seem to show up until the final seven minutes. Grant scored 14 points but didn't grab a single rebound. It was quite a dropoff from the 23 points and 12 assists he produced in beating Duke.
Still, he made enough plays down the stretch once again to put his team in position to win, but Pitt needed this one more.

TODAY IN SPORTS HISTORY - JANUARY 31ST

1914 - Jersey Joe Walcott, Merchantville New Jersey,
Heavyweight boxing champ (1951-52) is born.
1919 - Jackie Robinson, Ga, 1st African American
major league baseball player (Dodgers) is born.
1931 - Ernie Banks, Dallas Texas, "Mr Cub" Chicago Cubs,
Hall-of-Famer (short stop/1st baseman) (d. 2015) is born.
1931 - NHL's Quebec Bulldogs' Joseph Malone scores a record 7 goals.
1941 - Joe Louis KOs Red Burman in 5 for Heavyweight boxing title.
1947 - Nolan Ryan, Refugio Texas, MLB pitcher
(Mets, Angels, Astros) (7 no-hitters, 5,714 Ks) is born.
1952 - Harry Heilmann & Paul Waner elected to Baseball Hall of Fame.
1965 - Pud Galvin elected to Baseball Hall of Fame.
1971 - Dave Bancroft & George Weiss elected to Baseball Hall of Fame.
1974 - McDonald's founder Ray Kroc buys San Diego Padres.
1975 - UCLA wins NCAA basketball championship.
1977 - Joe Sewell, Amos Rusie, & Al Lopez elected to Baseball Hall of Fame.
1988 - Super Bowl XXII: Wash Redskins beat Denver Broncos,
42-10 in San Diego Super Bowl MVP: Doug Williams, Washington, QB.
1990 - 1st ever all-sports daily "National" begins publishing.
1993 - Super Bowl XXVII: Dallas Cowboys beat Buffalo Bills,
52-17 in Pasadena Super Bowl MVP: Troy Aikman, Dallas, QB.

Friday, January 30, 2015

Roger Goodell strong on deflate-gate, weak on issues that matter most in protecting NFL integrity

(AP) Roger Goodell was in over his head when it came to an issue that gravely impacted real people. But something innocuous like deflate-gate? That's right in the commissioner's wheelhouse.
The backbone Goodell lacked in dealing with domestic violence and concussions showed up instantly when he was asked in his annual state of the league news conference about the relatively trivial topic of football air pressure.
"This is my job," he announced on Friday. "My responsibility is to protect the game."
It was an appropriate retort to New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft's assertion that the league apologize if no chicanery is found in the NFL's investigation of deflated footballs in the AFC championship game. Goodell is right: he has nothing to apologize for. The rules are the rules, and even if no advantage was gleaned, illegal is illegal and should be punished. Even if the deflation wasn't intentional, this is worth investigating.
"I have to pursue that aggressively," Goodell said.
Of course Goodell is nowhere near that convincing when his promise to "protect the game" is subbed out for "protect the humans involved in the game." The league's real crisis isn't footballs, it's the football community, and Goodell is still fighting to regain credibility as a leader in that area. He was better on that topic on Friday than in the past, mentioning his visits to domestic violence shelters and describing the fear he sensed in speaking to victims, but it's still unclear how his league is going to help alleviate that fear when a spouse or loved one is beaten by a player in his league and then becomes frightened that larger powers will cause further anguish to those who ask for help.
The Super Bowl will bring a powerful and effective TV ad depicting a domestic violence victim calling 911 and terrified to tell her real story because the abuser is in the room with her. For victims of professional athletes, the terror is augmented because there is an unseen menace protecting the interests of the abuser. Mitigating that fear is where Goodell needs to do his best work.
Goodell has launched what seems like a million investigations, but the deflate-gate inquiry is needed and right. He farmed it out to Ted Wells, known for his work on the Miami Dolphins' 2013 bullying scandal, and the findings that come from that should be credible. The Patriots and their fans are upset and feel attacked, but equipment fraud is a historic problem in all sports – everything from spit balls to hockey stick curvature to pine tar – and Goodell must look into it even if the advantage gleaned was negligible. If nothing is found and the Patriots are innocent, it's still better than looking the other way.
That's because looking the other way has been the major failure of the Goodell era. The commissioner is charged with ignoring the concussion crisis and the domestic violence problem that still threaten his league and legacy. His reputation is for being too close to well-heeled parties and too ignorant of the needs and concerns of players and their families. Even on Friday, when he could have and should have started with some words about domestic violence, he spoke of changes to officiating crews before he spoke of changes to the conduct policy. It was disappointing but hardly unexpected.
Goodell is right to aim for something noble: football as a beacon for society. It's to his credit when he said, "it's on us" to realize and embrace the chance to do good. But it's still clear that he's so much stronger between the lines than he is on issues that matter. It's easy for him to talk about Marshawn Lynch and the privilege of speaking to fans through media. It's easy for him to push back against his buddy Kraft. It's harder for him to fix the league's most sinister problem: that the brute force of the game and the league make professional football seem like a bulldozer that will run over real people without even noticing.
Goodell is great at driving the bulldozer. He's not very good at slamming on the brakes.
Asked about butting heads with Kraft, Goodell said, "Since he knows me so well and he knows I wouldn't do anything to compromise the integrity of the league, I think he has no doubt I'll do the right thing for the NFL."
That sounds a lot more convincing when he's talking about air pressure rather than domestic violence victims. The integrity of the league has indeed been comprised. There is real doubt he'll do the right thing for the NFL.
So even though it's easy to think deflate-gate is a headache for the league in terms of timing, it's quite the opposite. Deflate-gate is perfect for the league during Super Bowl week. It's a diversion from the real crisis and something that everyone can discuss and joke about. The Patriots can seem proud and indignant, and the commissioner can seem strong and active. Both sides will win when the TV ratings are off the charts and the NFL comes out with an outsourced investigation that gives it a free news cycle in the weeks between the Super Bowl and the NFL draft.
Goodell was good on deflate-gate on Friday. He defended the shield. He appeared proactive instead of reactive. He boomed, "It's my job" with clarity and conviction.
That is a battle he can win. But there are much bigger problems that are still unsolved, and that is the war Goodell is still losing.

Tiger Woods shoots 82 in Phoenix Open for worst round as a pro

Tiger Woods has never scored worse as a pro than he did on Friday at the Waste Management Phoenix Open.
Woods shot and 11-over 82 at TPC Scottsdale for his worst-ever round as a professional, worse than the 81 he shot in the third round of the 2002 Open Championship. It was raining on that day, too, at Muirfield, but gale-force winds didn't whip up at TPC Scottsdale.
His second round was like the first but with more lighter fluid. The same things plagued Woods on Friday: cluenessless with the driver and a complete mental block in his short game.
The first four holes weren't good, but a good-enough 1-over-par start. Then he took an unplayable lie after his drive at his fifth hole, the 14th after starting on the back nine, leading to a double-bogey 6. Woods followed with a duck hook into the water at the par-5 15th, the total opposite of where his drive went on Thursday. Triple bogey.
When Woods made a 20-foot putt to save par – par! – at the par-3 16th, the roar from the crowd made it seem like a birdie. It was almost as if they were trying to will him to something better.
Then Woods couldn't get up-and-down in three from 40 yards away at the drivable par-4 17th. Deflated, Woods came up short from the fairway with his approach at the 18th. Bogey, why not. The outgoing 8-over 44 tied his worst-ever score for nine holes as a professional, equaled in the third round of the 2013 Memorial Tournament.
At that point, what was Woods to do? He wasn't going to shoot a back-nine 26 to miraculously make the cut.
"Just keep fighting," Woods said after the round. "Just keep grinding over each and every shot."
He deserves credit for that, taking the turn and not walking directly toward his jet and flying home. He played the back nine, and it was equally ugly, even if the score was six shots better. At the par-3 fourth, Woods skulled a chip shot from back of the green into a bunker in front of it, leading to a double-bogey. Woods birdied the fifth, the hardest hole on the course for the second day in a row, then dropped shots with a bad bunker shot at the sixth and a three-jack at the seventh. Another birdie at No. 8 gave a glimmer of hope that he'd have a chance to avoid a historic low, but a limp effort at the ninth locked up history.
Tiger Woods has played over 1,000 rounds as a professional. He now has two rounds in the 80s.
"We all have days like this," Woods said. "Unfortunately, mine was in a public forum. We take the good with the bad."
Woods again blamed changes in his technique and his lack of trust in them for the debacle. This was mental. This was mentally jarring. Woods isn't sticking around for the Super Bowl on Sunday, instead flying home and practicing before he flies cross-country on Monday for the Farmers Insurance Open.
Woods' peers have repeatedly said on Twitter that the 14-time major winner looks great on the range. It's taking it to the course that's the problem. Perhaps that means Woods needs to play more to work through the mental flubs that are worse than the physical skulls, blades and chunks.
The classic advice from wise investors is to buy low, at rock bottom if you can. But you'd be hard pressed to find someone right now that would buy stock in Woods – that is, except Woods.
"I was player of the year only a year ago," Woods said. "Got to keep things in perspective."

Peyton Manning not sure yet about coming back for 2015 season

Whatever happens, Peyton Manning isn't going to turn his possible retirement story into something that drags out for a long time.
For one, it can't. In early March his 2015 salary of $19 million becomes guaranteed. The Broncos need an answer before then.
Manning said he will let them know soon. But he doesn't know now. He was honored as the Bart Starr Award recipient and New York Newsday's Bob Glauber tweeted his comments.
"I’m not interested in making this a lingering thing," Manning said. "I’d like to make a decision soon."
There are some moving parts and Manning addressed many of them, via Glauber. He said he thinks he'll pass his annual physical in March. That's always a bit of a question because of his history with neck surgeries.
He hasn't met yet with new Broncos coach Gary Kubiak because of NFL rules. He made it sound like he still wants to play ("I don’t think it ever leaves anybody’s heart," Manning said), but he's still evaluating. His decision on whether to come back for another season at age 39 won't be based on the Broncos' tough playoff loss to the Colts, in which Manning struggled.
"If I were to stop, that last game wouldn't be a factor," Manning said, via Glauber.
Most indications are that Manning will return for another season, although that's clearly no guarantee. The Broncos have promised to not pressure him either way, although they clearly are anxious to know.
"I am giving him his space right now," Broncos receiver Demaryius Thomas said on Friday. "He’s been doing this for a long time. I’d rather let him contact us — or me — and I’ll reach out to him after the month of February once football is over with and he’s had enough time to get away and let his mind relax a bit. I don’t want to go at him like, ‘Are you going to come back?’ He’ll let us know if he will or he won’t."

DeMarcus Cousins added to West All-Star team

NBA commissioner Adam Silver chose Sacramento Kings center DeMarcus Cousins to replace injured Western Conference All-Star guard Kobe Bryant for the All-Star Game on Feb. 15 in New York.
It is Cousins’ first All-Star selection, and he is the first Kings player to earn the honor since 2004. The fifth-year player ranks fifth in the NBA in scoring at 23.8 points per game and third in rebounding at 12.3 per game. Cousins, 24, was selected over Portland Trail Blazers guard Damian Lillard, Memphis guard Mike Conley and Houston Rockets center Dwight Howard.
The Los Angeles Lakers recently lost Bryant for the remainder of the season because of shoulder surgery. Golden State Warriors coach Steve Kerr, who earned the right to coach the West squad because the Warriors clinched the best record in the conference through games played Feb. 1, will determine who replaces Bryant in the starting lineup. Likely candidates include Rockets guard James Harden, Warriors guard Klay Thompson and Oklahoma City Thunder forward Kevin Durant.

Arian Foster says he took $40k-$50k in college, then denies it

Houston Texans' Arian Foster wears street cloths before an NFL football game against the Cincinnati Bengals, Sunday, Nov. 23, 2014, in Houston. (AP Ph...Former Tennessee running back Arian Foster put the Vols and the NCAA back into the spotlight on Thursday when he told The Dan LeBatard Show he received between $40,000 and $50,000 throughout his career at Tennessee.
This wasn’t the first time Foster, now a running back with the Houston Texans, had claimed he was paid in college. Back in 2013, Foster told Sports Illustrated he had been “getting money on the side” while in school, but he did not specify how much.
“You have people help you out here and there,” Foster told The Dan LeBatard Show. “Boosters and alumni and ex-players, they all know how it is, man. It's hard living check to check when you don't have enough money to go out to the movies or any kind of leisure activity. And you're not allowed to get a job. Especially when I was in college, they were a lot more stringent on those rules, so at any given chance I got the opportunity, I took a free handout. Absolutely.”
Foster also claimed he met his wife, Romina, through an agent. He said the agent was trying to sign both students as Romina was singing in a girl’s group. Foster said the agent took the two out on a boat in Chattanooga to “wine and dine us. It was definitely illegal by NCAA standards.” Foster did not end up signing with that agent.
However, on Friday, one of Foster’s former teammates, linebacker Ryan Karl, linked to Foster’s interview on his Facebook page and called out his former teammate.
“So Arian Foster I gotta call you out here,” Karl wrote. “You’re my boy, but you did not get $40-50k from boosters while at UT. Shoot, you were as broke as me in college driving a crap car living in a crap apartment - like us all. Also, these claims of being wined and dined by agents is a big stretch too. You are a baller now but at the time, you were a risky pick with who ended up being a free agent. Quit trying to grab attention while throwing your school under the bus.”
Not surprisingly, Foster even started to backpedal on his comment, claiming on Twitter that he never received the amount of money he claimed.
Whether Foster was joking or not, it is important to note that Foster has stuck with his story since 2013, even if he’s not being entirely truthful about the amount.

TODAY IN SPORTS HISTORY - JANUARY 30TH

1936 - New owners of Boston Braves ask newspapermen to pick a new nickname.
1943 - Davy Johnson, baseball manager (NY Mets) is born.
1955 - Curtis Strange, Norfolk VA, PGA golfer (1989 US Open) is born.
1957 - William Payne Stewart, Springfield MO, PGA golfer (1983 Walt Disney) is born.
1958 - Baseball announces players & coaches rather than fans pick all stars.
1971 - UCLA starts 88 basketball game win streak.
1978 - Addie Joss & Larry MacPhail elected to Baseball Hall of Fame.
1983 - Super Bowl XVII: Wash Red Skins beat Miami Dolphins,
27-17 in Pasadena Super Bowl MVP: John Riggins, Washington, RB.
1994 - Super Bowl XXVIII: Dallas Cowboys beat Buffalo Bills,
30-13 in Atlanta Super Bowl MVP: Emmitt Smith, Dallas, RB.
2000 - Super Bowl XXXIV: St. Louis Rams beat Tennessee Titans,
23-16 at the Georgia Dome Atlanta MVP: Kurt Warner, St. Louis, QB.
2009 - Ingemar Johansson, Swedish Heavyweight professional
boxing champion of the world (b. 1932) is born.

Thursday, January 29, 2015

Josh Gordon pens open letter to critics: 'You don't even know me'

In an open letter to his most vocal doubters, Cleveland Browns wide receiver Josh Gordon addressed his alleged sixth violation of the NFL's substance abuse policy, which could cost him the entire 2015 season.
Responding on Medium.com to, among others, ESPN personalities Stephen A. Smith and Cris Carter as well as NBA on TNT's Charles Barkley — who respectively said, "I harbor no sympathy for him whatsoever," "my concern is his well being," and "Gordon is going to die if he keeps going on this road" — the 2013 All-Pro dismissed those who cast aspersions, if only because they do not know him.
I failed myself when [I] started using marijuana regularly as a young teenager. I failed myself when I ruined a once-in-a-lifetime chance to be Robert Griffin III’s running mate during his Heisman Trophy-winning season at Baylor. I failed myself when I didn’t check with the league office to ensure that my doctor-prescribed, codeine-based medicine was allowed under NFL guidelines. I failed myself when I was arrested for driving a motor vehicle with a blood-alcohol level over the legal limit. I failed myself when I missed a team walkthrough late in the season and was suspended for the final game of the year.
But you know what, Charles, Stephen A., Cris and everyone else? I also have succeeded.
I succeeded by escaping a youth riddled with poverty, gang violence and very little in the way of guidance or support. I succeeded by narrowly avoiding a life of crime that managed to sink its clutches into almost all of my childhood friends. I succeeded by working tremendously hard on my craft and my body to even have a chance to play professional football for a living. And, contrary to popular belief, I succeeded by overcoming my longstanding relationship with weed — because I knew I was risking my future over it.
While questioning the motives of media members whose words are sometimes louder than their actions, Gordon details his experience growing up with two brothers in a single-parent home in a poor Houston neighborhood where drugs, alcohol and guns were prevalent — a childhood to which both Barkley and Carter can relate all too well. He also claims to have not smoked marijuana since before the Browns selected him in the second round of the 2012 supplemental draft despite an alleged positive test.
The letter juxtaposes Gordon's acceptance of his own faults and the excuses he offers for them. He says a blood-alcohol content only .01 above the legal limit led to his DUI charge, second-hand weed smoke caused his positive drug test and a few drinks on a flight to Las Vegas five days after Cleveland's final game unknowingly violated his agreement to abstain from alcohol for the rest of this NFL season. Even taking Gordon at his word, he's still violated the league's substance abuse policy multiple times.
If you're the type of person who wonders how anyone with Gordon's talent could risk a lucrative career for such seemingly minor infractions, you still cannot put yourself in his shoes, and he does a nice job of explaining why that's the case. By the end, though, you just feel bad for a 23-year-old kid who hasn't quite figured it all out yet, and that's OK. It all seems to be part of his process, whatever that may be.
What I do know is the following: I am not a drug addict; I am not an alcoholic; I am not someone who deserves to be dissected and analyzed like some tragic example of everything that can possibly go wrong for a professional athlete. And … I am not going to die on account of the troubled state you wrongly believe my life to be in. I am a human being, with feelings and emotions and scars and flaws, just like anyone else. I make mistakes  —  I have made a lot of mistakes  —  but I am a good person, and I will persevere.
In the court of public opinion, only Gordon's ability to avoid further off-field incidents will sway the jury in his favor, but here's hoping he's telling nothing but the truth, so help him God.

Opening statements begin in Aaron Hernandez trial

Even as his former team prepares for the Super Bowl, Aaron Hernandez is now on trial for the murder of Odin Lloyd. Opening statements in the trial began Thursday.
Hernandez has been charged with first-degree murder in the June 2013 death of Lloyd, a semiprofessional football player and an acquaintance of the former New England Patriot. At the time of his death, Lloyd was dating the sister of Hernandez's fiancee.
Lloyd's body was discovered in an industrial park in North Attleborough, Mass. Hernandez has pleaded not guilty. Hernandez's associate Ernest Wallace Jr. is also charged with the murder. Another associate, Carlos Ortiz, was charged with being an accessory after the fact.
The case is unfolding in Bristol County Superior Court under the eye of Superior Court Judge E. Susan Garsh. Eighteen jurors were seated, of which 12 will decide Hernandez's fate and six will serve as alternates.
Hernandez has also been charged in the June 2012 deaths of two men in Boston following an incident in a nightclub. However, Garsh has ruled that jurors will not be permitted to hear the details of the Boston case in this particular trial.
The following information is comprised of reports from media members inside the courthouse.
Opening Statement: Prosecution
• The prosecution began by seeking to humanize Odin Lloyd, to present him as more than simply a name and a statistic. Many of Lloyd's family and friends were in the courtroom gallery wearing wristbands of support.
• Bristol County Prosecutor Patrick Bomberg spent a significant amount of his opening statement demonstrating the links between Lloyd and Hernandez, saying Lloyd worked hard and loved his girlfriend.
• According to Bomberg, Hernandez masterminded the murder of Lloyd, and contacted his associates more than 40 times in two days.
• The prosecution will use cell phone triangulation to demonstrate that Hernandez's phone was in close proximity to Odin Lloyd during the night in question. In addition, the prosecution will show that DNA tests revealed Hernandez's DNA was present on a shell casing found in the car driven that night.
Opening Statement: Defense
• Hernandez's attorney Michael Fee attacked the prosecution's case as circumstantial, pointing to the fact that there is no murder weapon and no one who saw the shooting take place. "There will be evidence that Aaron was with his friend Odin Lloyd before he was killed," Fee said. "But no evidence he killed his friend Odin."
• Fee called prosecutors "sloppy and unprofessional," saying they zeroed in on Hernandez's celebrity, and that police bullied and intimidated witnesses into providing the kind of testimony they wanted. "Once prosecutors learned Lloyd was a friend of Aaron Hernandez, it was over." He dismissed the prosecution's series of events as "just a story, and untrue."
• Fee contended that Hernandez had absolutely no motive to kill Lloyd; Hernandez was at the top of the world, both professionally and personally, and would not risk that. "In June of 2013," Fee said, "Aaron Hernandez was planning a future, not a murder."
• As a counterpoint to the prosecution's humanization of Lloyd, Fee reminded jurors that Hernandez "played for our hometown team, the New England Patriots," and helped the Patriots reach a Super Bowl. He termed Lloyd a "blunt master" for his use of marijuana, and noted that Lloyd and Hernandez were friends.
• In addition, Fee launched a pre-emptive attack on the science-based evidence, telling the jury that "prosecutors will flood you with meaningless facts."
Opening statements concluded shortly after 1:30 p.m. ET. Once both attorneys concluded their statements, the judge reminded the jury of Massachusetts' "joint venture" law, which allows for an individual to be convicted of murder even if they are simply involved with the act and did not do the actual killing ... if, for instance, someone was present at a murder but did not actually perform the deed. This is critical in cases of circumstantial evidence, as the Hernandez trial is.

Three Atlanta Hawks lead 2015 NBA All-Star reserves

Get ready to voice your opinions of the deserving and snubbed. The squads for the 2015 All-Star Game in New York City have been set.
The 14 All-Star reserves from the Western and Eastern Conference were announced Thursday night in a pregame special on TNT. This list of players follows the 10 starters revealed last week. Coaches from each conference voted for the players, following the fan vote for the starting lineups.
Take a look at the full list of reserves below:
 
WESTERN CONFERENCE
Guard: James Harden, Houston Rockets, 3rd selection
Guard: Klay Thompson, Golden State Warriors, 1st selection
Guard: Russell Westbrook, Oklahoma City Thunder, 4th selection
Guard: Chris Paul, Los Angeles Clippers, 8th selection
Frontcourt: Kevin Durant, Oklahoma City Thunder, 6th selection
Frontcourt: LaMarcus Aldridge, Portland Trail Blazers, 4th selection
Frontcourt: Tim Duncan, San Antonio Spurs, 15th selection
 
EASTERN CONFERENCE
Guard: Jeff Teague, Atlanta Hawks, 1st selection
Guard: Kyrie Irving, Cleveland Cavaliers, 3rd selection
Guard: Jimmy Butler, Chicago Bulls, 1st selection
Guard: Dwyane Wade, Miami Heat, 11th selection
Frontcourt: Al Horford, Atlanta Hawks, 3rd selection
Frontcourt: Paul Millsap, Atlanta Hawks, 2nd selection
Frontcourt: Chris Bosh, Miami Heat, 10th selection
 
Yahoo's own Adrian Wojnarowski and ESPN's Marc Stein reported many of the selections on Twitter prior to the announcement.
The reserves join West starters Stephen Curry, Kobe Bryant, Blake Griffin, Anthony Davis, and Marc Gasol and East starters Kyle Lowry, John Wall, LeBron James, Carmelo Anthony, and Pau Gasol.
As usual, most of the post-announcement discussion involves who didn't make the team rather than who did. Plenty of worthy players have been left out of the game, but most of these cases can be explained by a surfeit of options, especially in the stacked West. That group includes Trail Blazers point guard Damian Lillard (who said he'd be "pissed off" if he didn't make it), Sacramento Kings big man DeMarcus Cousins, and Hawks shooter Kyle Korver. On the bright side, commissioner Adam Silver will have to name at least one replacement All-Star to fill in for injured Los Angeles Lakers icon Kobe Bryant, who was voted in as a starter in the West (Harden will likely replace him in the starting lineup). Wade could also miss the game after declaring himself out for an indefinite period of time with a hamstring injury.
For now, though, the teams look pretty strong. The West squad is full of the league's best players for what seems like the 26th season in a row, with two members of the NBA-leading Warriors (Thompson and leading vote-getter Curry) leading the way. But it's the East-leading Atlanta Hawks who boast the most total All-Stars of any team with three (Teague, Horford, and Millsap). Head coaches Steve Kerr and Mike Budenholzer will lead the West and East squads, respectively.
The Thunder (Westbrook and Durant), Clippers (Griffin and Paul), Cavaliers (James and 2014 All-Star Game MVP Irving), and Heat (Bosh and Wade) also have multiple players in the game. Apart from the Lakers and Knicks, both of which saw selections through the fan vote, the Thunder are the only team not currently in playoff position with any All-Stars.
The All-Star Game itself will be played on Sunday February 15 at Madison Square Garden in New York City. Expect the usual fill of alley-oops, shaky defense, and risky passes thrown into the sixth row. When it's over, we probably won't think much about who was snubbed.

Dismissing Rasheed Sulaimon further weakens Duke's defense

NCAA Basketball: Boston College at DukeAlready in jeopardy of falling out of ACC title contention before Valentine's Day, Duke also lost a key member of its rotation Thursday.
Coach Mike Krzyzewski announced he has dismissed guard Rasheed Sulaimon from the program for being "unable to consistently live up to the standards required to be a member of our program." Sulaimon remains in good academic standing at Duke and is expected to finish the spring semester.
“It is a privilege to represent Duke University and with that privilege comes the responsibility to conduct oneself in a certain manner," Krzyzewski said in a strongly worded statement. "After Rasheed repeatedly struggled to meet the necessary obligations, it became apparent that it was time to dismiss him from the program.”
The abrupt dismissal of Sulaimon ends the Duke career of a player whose freshman season portended so much promise but whose ensuing two seasons with the Blue Devils proved to be a letdown. Sulaimon averaged 11.6 points and 3.4 rebounds per game as a freshman, but his playing time and production diminished as other talented wings eclipsed him in Duke's rotation.
Krzyzewski left Sulaimon on the bench for an entire game against Michigan last season, cryptically telling reporters afterward, "He has to play better than the guys who played tonight." Sulaimon's playing time has not yo-yoed as much this season, but he did tie for his fewest minutes of the season in Wednesday night's loss at Notre Dame. He logged only 12 minutes and finished with 3 points on 1-for-6 shooting.
A former elite recruit like Sulaimon would be a coveted transfer if he opts to go that route, especially if he were to be able to get his degree by the end of the summer and transfer without having to sit out a year at his destination. If that's not an option, it's certainly possible he could attempt to turn pro, whether in the D-League or overseas.
The loss of Sulaimon leaves Duke with only eight scholarship players and deprives the Blue Devils of one of their few capable wing defenders. Sulaimon and Justise Winslow were Duke's only two perimeter players who were adept at defending dribble penetration and the junior was a more capable off-ball defender at this stage of his career than the freshman is.
Without Sulaimon, it will probably mean more minutes for Matt Jones off the bench, more pressure on Winslow to fill the role of perimeter stopper and perhaps an increased role for freshman Grayson Allen. Duke has enough depth at wing to survive this, but if perimeter defense was the primary weakness of the Blue Devils with Sulaimon, his dismissal certainly won't help.

NFL to air domestic violence PSA at Super Bowl

“I will reserve judgment until five years go past.” Former Minnesota Viking Chris Kluwe is going to wait to decide on the effectiveness of the NFL’s latest efforts to combat a scourge of domestic violence incidents among its ranks. Kluwe made the comment when asked about a new ad set to appear before an estimated 100 million Americans on Super Bowl Sunday. The clip, part of the NFL’s partnership with the group No More, features a series of shots from inside an empty home shown as viewers hear a woman speak to a 911 operator. The woman is heard ordering a pizza, which the 911 operator quickly realizes is her way of saying she needs help but cannot say more with her possible assailant within earshot. The ad ends with the text, “When it’s hard to talk, it’s up to us to listen.” The clip is generating a great deal of buzz online, but it’s raised an important question: Is the NFL really listening enough? While delivering this powerful ad to viewers, is the NFL really doing enough to combat the epidemic of domestic violence carried out by many of its players? Yahoo News and Finance Anchor Bianna Golodryga tackled that subject with Kluwe; Anne Glauber, one of No More’s founders; and Eric Adelson of Yahoo Sports.
Glauber said the ad was produced entirely by the NFL for No More. “It really delivers our message, which is domestic violence and sexual assault is happening around us all the time, every day, unseen and often unheard.” No More, founded in 2009, is an anti-domestic violence advocacy group. The NFL partnered with No More to produce a series of public service announcements. Broadcast during a game, a PSA reaches approximately 16.6 million people per airing.
But former Minnesota Viking Kluwe, while agreeing that the new ad is very effective, criticized the NFL for taking so long to look at the issue. “Hopefully the NFL is actually looking at this like ‘We want to make a legit change’ and not as ‘We have a bad PR moment and we need to gloss this over until people forget about it.’” After video surfaced of NFL star Ray Rice hitting his then fiancée, and the arrest of former Vikings MVP Adrian Peterson on charges he abused his young son, the Associated Press called the league’s domestic violence problem the biggest sports story of 2014.
Yahoo Sports' Eric Adelson added that the subject of domestic violence was almost nonexistent among the media throng covering Sunday’s big game. He said the fact that the subject was not broached with players shows that the league may still have a problem on its hands. Both he and Kluwe said the league and reporters would rather discuss topics like deflate-gate than delve into the sometimes difficult but always important topic of domestic violence. Adelson said, “It’s disappointing because deflate-gate, it’s a victimless crime. It doesn’t really affect people, whereas domestic violence affects our entire society, and we had a huge platform to talk about this and No More is talking about it, we’re talking about it. But it’s still very hard for players to talk about it, for the media to bring up, and in that way I feel an opportunity was missed.”
Adelson went on to say, “On these big sport nights, that’s often when the violence happens in homes ... the fact that this ad is going on when potentially there is going to be violence in these homes during or after the game ... I think the timing of this ad can’t be understated.”

Dwyane Wade has 'no idea' when he'll return from latest hamstring injury

The Miami Heat suffered a potential blow to their playoff chances on Thursday, when star guard Dwyane Wade announced his latest hamstring injury will prevent him from playing for the foreseeable future.
At an impromptu press conference called a day before the Heat host the Dallas Mavericks on national TV, Wade told The Miami Herald's Joseph Goodman and others that the right hamstring he pulled against the Milwaukee Bucks on Tuesday will keep him out of the lineup for a minimum of 2-3 weeks.
“I won’t be seeing y’all for a little while, so take a good look at this face.” [...]
“You can’t put a time on it,” Wade said. “You can’t look at the hamstring and say you’re going to be out this amount of games. Like many muscle strains, you’ve got to go day-by-day.” [...]
“Where this thing has me is frustrated and where I stand I have no idea,” Wade said. “It’s just the second day of a pulled hamstring."
Even after losing LeBron James to the Cleveland Cavaliers over the summer, the Heat were expected to comfortably settle into a middling playoff seed this season, but instead they find themselves having to hold off a handful of teams within five games of their current seventh-seed status in a dismal Eastern Conference.
Three weeks leaves Wade on the bench for a span of just eight games between now and Feb. 20 — thanks to an eight-day layoff for the All-Star Game, which the former Finals MVP would be forced to miss should he be named a reserve — and that still gives Miami plenty of time to circle the wagons. Plus, games against the Minnesota Timberwolves and New York Knicks (twice) in that time span should help them stem the tide.
Still, the Heat have to be weary of that three-week timeline, since this latest ailment marks the third leg injury Wade has suffered this year, including a right hamstring pull that cost him seven games in November. And that doesn't include knee ailments that have plagued him since winning his first title nearly a decade ago.
The Heat (20-25) are currently 15-20 in Wade's 35 appearances this season and 5-5 in his absence, but that number's a bit skewed by injuries to Chris Bosh, Chris Andersen and Josh McRoberts, among others. In fact, only point guard Mario Chalmers has appeared in all 45 games for Miami in 2014-15.
At full strength, the Heat are still a dangerous playoff team, particularly since Hassan Whiteside's emergence, so for the sake of the sport — and an Eastern Conference void of exciting first-round matchups — here's to a speedy recovery for Wade, one of the game's greats at picking himself up off the mat.

TODAY IN SPORTS HISTORY - JANUARY 29TH

1900 - American League organized in Buffalo, Chicago, Cleveland,
Detroit, Indianapolis, Kansas City, Milwaukee & Minneapolis.
1936 - 1st players elected to Baseball Hall of Fame: Ty Cobb,
Babe Ruth, Honus Wagner, Christy Mathewson & Walter Johnson.
1948 - Commissioner Happy Chandler fines the Yankees,
Cubs, & Phillies $500 each for signing high school players.
1951 - Baseball signs 6 year All-Star pact for TV-radio rights for $6 million.
1964 - Most lopsided high-school basketball score 211-29 (Louisiana).
1964 - NBC purchases AFL 5 year (1965-69) TV rights for $36 million.
1967 - Branch Rickey & Lloyd Waner elected to Baseball Hall of Fame.
1980 - NBA-Cleveland Cavaliers beat LA Lakers 154-153 in quadruple OT.
1981 - AL approves sale of White Sox to Jerry Reinsdorf & Eddie Einhorn
for $20 million, & 80% of Mariners to George Argyros for $104 million.
1982 - Old Dominion ends Louisiana Tech's women's basketball 54-game win streak.
1982 - Wayne Garland, baseball 1st millionaire free agent, waived by Indians.
1985 - Jari Kurri of Edmonton Oilers scores 100th pt of season in game 39.
1989 - Game-winning RBI, official statistic dropped after 9 years
of use NY Mets Keith Hernandez is the all-time leader with 129.
1994 - Ulrike Maier, olympic skier, breaks neck during world cup skiing at 26.
1995 - Super Bowl XXIX: SF 49ers beat San Diego Chargers,
49-26 in Miami, MVP: Steve Young, San Francisco, QB.
2002 - Dick "Night Train" Lane, American football player (b. 1928) dies.
2007 - Barbaro, American thoroughbred racehorse (b. 2003) dies.
2010 - Tom Brookshier, American football player and sportscaster, dies of cancer at 78.

Wednesday, January 28, 2015

Kobe Bryant undergoes shoulder surgery, likely ready for next season

When will we see Kobe back in uniform? (Photo by Harry How/Getty Images)When Los Angeles Lakers icon Kobe Bryant announced that he would undergo surgery to repair the torn rotator cuff in his right shoulder, the question wasn't if he would miss the rest of this season — that was a given — but whether he would return in time for opening night of the 2015-16 campaign that tips off next fall. We now have an estimate on that return, if not a definitive answer.
Bryant underwent successful surgery on Wednesday morning, roughly a week after he sustained the injury (and continued to play) in a game against the New Orleans Pelicans. The Lakers announced the news and set a hopeful return date in a press release:
Los Angeles Lakers guard Kobe Bryant, who injured his right shoulder in last Wednesday night’s game against the Pelicans in New Orleans, underwent a successful surgery this morning to repair a torn rotator cuff. The approximately two-hour procedure was performed by Dr. Neal ElAttrache and Dr. Steve Lombardo at the Kerlan Jobe Orthopaedic Clinic in Los Angeles. Bryant, who is expected to make a full recovery, will be out for approximately nine months.
“I expect Kobe to make a full recovery and if all goes as expected, he should be ready for the start of the season,” said ElAttrache.
Head coach Byron Scott spoke to reporters on Wednesday, as well. From Bill Oram of the Orange County Register:
“In my mind right now,” Byron Scott said, “he’s coming back next year unless he tells me something different.” [...]
“Told him again that I would say a prayer for him today,” Scott said. “Hope everything goes well, that his recovery would be speedy and we’ll see him again soon.” [...]
“As long as you guys (the media) are saying he’s done,” Scott said, “then he’s going to come back. That’s the biggest thing with him. I think he proved his point this year that he still has a lot left in the tank. He’s still one of the best players in this league.” [...]
“All I know is it’s pretty painful, from what I heard and the rehab is long,” he said.
The nine-month rehab estimate is longer than many had anticipated, but it's also possible that that mid-to-late October date was set simply because it coincides with the start of the next NBA season. Bryant made an extremely quick return from the torn Achilles tendon that ended his 2012-13 season, and he played just six games after suffering a tibial plateau fracture in his left knee. Kobe is famous for his very high tolerance for pain, but it would seem prudent to be conservative in estimating his recovery time.
Whenever Kobe does return to an NBA court, on-lookers will be curious to see not just if he can play at a star level (a very debatable issue these past few months) but if he even resembles the no-doubt Hall of Famer who ranks among the best players in the history of the sport. Bryant is famous for doing things his way, which at times has caused him to look as if he doesn't understand that he is a 36-year-old veteran, if also a very capable one. Will things change in his 20th season?
Regardless of Kobe's level of play, it's likely that he will be joined by at least one notable newcomer to the roster. The Lakers sit at 12-34 (fourth-worst in the NBA) and have lost nine games in a row, which suggests that they are well on their way to a high lottery pick in June's draft. (The pick would go to the Phoenix Suns as part of the 2012 Steve Nash sign-and-trade if it falls outside of the top five.) L.A. also appears to have long-term salary cap flexibility due to Kobe's massive 2016 expiring contract. This injury news isn't great for Kobe, but it could open up some possibilities for next year's club.

Tom Brady battling a cold amid Super Bowl preparation

If New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady's voice sounded a bit strange on Media Day, it wasn't because he's cracking under the deflate-gate pressure. The two-time NFL MVP is battling a cold.
"I've had it for four or five days," he conceded during Wednesday's media availability. "My kids got sick, and then my wife's pretty sick right now, so I brought it, unfortunately, to Phoenix. But I'll be fine. I'll be good."
While folks who wonder why Brady hasn't won a Super Bowl since his blind date with Gisele Bundchen in 2006 can now add this to their list of reasons for believing in the supermodel's curse, the three-time champ doesn't expect his sniffles to hinder his ability to battle the Seattle Seahawks come Sunday.
"I'll be at 100 percent," Brady added. "Yeah, I'll be great. I'm not worried about it all."
Likewise, Patriots offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels helped quell concerns about his quarterbacks ailment. "I know he's sick," offered McDaniels, "but he's watched more Seahawks tape than anyone."
Brady said he's using "old remedies" — including a garlic-heavy diet — to get over his cold, which should be good news to those conspiracy theorists, since the resulting bad breath should help keep Gisele at bay.

J.R. Smith thinks he's successful as a Cav because 'there's no going out' in Cleveland

JRStop12815.jpgThe flashy New York Knicks dealing noted nightlife enthusiast J.R. Smith into the dreary Cleveland winter is a script idea so hacky that it would have been laughed off of the table two decades ago. Starting with the unfortunate move that sent Knicks legend Walt Frazier to Cleveland in 1977, the idea gained silver screen immortality when the "Major League" franchise gave credibility to the trope that Cleveland was the major league city that no athlete wanted to work in.
J.R. Smith actual life, it turns out, is a living and breathing B-movie idea. Traded from the Knicks to the Cavaliers on Jan. 7, he has indirectly aligned his nightlife-less existence in Cleveland with his solid start to a career as a Cavalier.
From an interview with NBA.com’s David Aldridge, who asked what Smith felt he needed to work on upon coming to Cleveland:
"Being more consistent. Consistency has been something that ... I wouldn't say lacked, but it's just been stints where I get hot, and then you go cold for two, three games, whatever the case may be. Just staying consistent, and that involves staying in the gym. So for me, I got my brother here with me, so we're in the gym every night, playing one-on-one, or whatever the case may be, as well as me getting my rest. I think this is the best situation for me, 'cause there's nothing but basketball. There's nothing you expect but basketball. There's nothing, there's no going out, there's no late nights. There's video games, basketball and basketball. So it's a great thing, 'cause I go back to where I came from. When I grew up, I never, I wasn't allowed to go out."
(Knicks fans? They would say that Smith lacked consistency.)
Upon first click, one would rightfully deduce that Smith was producing more of the same in Cleveland. He shot just a tick over 40 percent with the Knicks this season, same as last season, and he’s just a tick below 40 percent in Cleveland after 11 games. His per game numbers are up, but only because of a minutes increase – per-minute, Smith’s scoring marks with the Cavs are right in line with what he brought in New York this year, the year before, and the year before that.
Take away his bookend games with the Cavs, his ohfer five debut and 2-11 clank-fest from Cleveland’s win over Detroit on Tuesday, and Smith is shooting 43 percent from the floor with his new team. And, as our Dan Devine noted in a great piece on Tuesday, Smith is rightfully being encouraged to act as a volume scorer as a starter with Cleveland, and until Tuesday’s 1-for-6 showing against the Pistons, he’s responded with a killer touch from the outside. His most recent performance dropped his percentage down to 37 percent from long range, about average, but that’s not going to stop the man.
As Dr. Devine pointed out, Smith is pulling off some historic stuff from behind the arc – after 11 games as a Cavalier he’s already 59th on Cleveland’s all-time three-point attempts list. He did that in three weeks!
Aldridge, after noticing Smith’s quotes about the lack of nightlife in Cleveland, attempted to get J.R. to open up a bit more as to what he got from enjoying the City That Never Sleeps:
Me: Did you find that exploring that life, because you could, wasn't all it was cracked up to be? I can spend whatever I want, and at the end of the day, it really doesn't mean anything?
JRS: Especially from the standpoint of making me better. I always made myself better by staying in the gym. When you replace that with stuff off the court, then you're taking away from what made you who you are, or what got you to a certain point. It was kind of pulling me down in a sense, of not getting enough rest, not doing things you're supposed to be doing, things you're used to doing. So when you start missing those shots you're supposed to make, especially wide-open shots, it was like, alright, what's going on, what's going on? Instead of looking at what it is, you're reverting to that even more, instead of going back to the basics. So I think that's the greatest part about being here.
Smith deftly slid away from that one, but one can’t ignore Smith’s history. His miserable showings in the 2012 and 2013 playoffs were blamed on excessive late night jaunts in New York and Miami, with no less than Rihanna calling the guy out via social media.
Taking things even deeper, Grantland’s Jason Concepcion did a bit of research and found that Smith’s shooting percentage dropped from 42 percent overall to 39 percent on Sunday, with the presumption that Smith was still hurting from a Saturday night out even mid-afternoon on Sunday.
Spurred on by those findings, Harrison Chase at Harvard Sports Analysis Collective, in a great piece you should really all go read, decided to create a “Party Score” to see where Smith ranked amongst all Sunday players dating back to 1974 (when Prohibition was lifted, or when Basketball-Reference.com started charting all NBA stats).
Here’s his description of how he came to his findings:
“ … using these stats, I tested the null hypothesis of same shooting percentage against the alternative hypothesis of different shooting percentage and calculated a z score for each player. I then multiplied that number by -1 (so that a highly significant partier would have a high number) and then made that number a player’s ‘Party Score.’”
Unhappy with Smith’s middling ranking amongst all Sunday players, Chase decided to only use players that had worked in and shot in a significant series of Sunday games. Here’s where Smith came out:
(Courtesy HarvardSportsAnalysis.org)
 
.
 
J.R. Smith, the NBA’s second-biggest partier over the last 41 years!
Right?
Eh.
Reggie Miller also ranks highly on that list, and he spent his Saturday nights in Indianapolis, where they don’t let you sneak spiced rum into the booth at Steak and Shake past 10:30 (I’ve tried).
Rasheed Wallace ranks highly on that list, he was once caught in a truck with Damon Stoudamire that was full of marijuana and (seriously) Mike’s Hard Lemonade bottles. Tim Duncan, crusher of several Diet Dr. Pepper cans, ranks just behind Rasheed, though.
Patrick Ewing makes an appearance, as he did frequently at Atlanta’s Gold Club late some evenings, but so does Avery Johnson. That is to say, “ordained minister, Avery Johnson.”
This isn’t to dismiss Chase’s findings (which, again, you really should read), he did great work here, but we can see what’s clear. From December onward Sunday games are mostly either playoff games, or nationally televised games. Yes, the NBA averages plenty of nondescript regular season contests on Sundays, but once the April-through-June contests are tossed in the mix and the ABC games start to pile up following the Super Bowl, things tilt toward scads of games played between two very good basketball teams.
Smith, who played on many very good teams in Denver, and a few good teams in New York, was going up against some of the best that the NBA had to offer on his Sunday appearances. And because of his proximity to both Allen Iverson and Carmelo Anthony in Denver, and his time spent with the Knicks, he was scheduled for quite a few nationally televised contests on Sunday that perhaps his team didn’t deserve, as the NBA trolled for ratings.
J.R. Smith admits to loving the nightlife, and he’s at least currently hoping that Cleveland’s supposed lack of nightlife (which we all know is bogus, you can get into as much trouble in Cleveland as in any other big town) influences him to regain the gym-led muscle memory that made him a consistent contributor prior to his time in New York.
Of course, J.R. Smith has never been a consistent contributor, at any stop. He’s even shot 6-for-27 in his last two games with the Cavaliers. He’s always run hot and cold, and that’s just fine – because the hot gets so hot. The Cavs will take him, and possibly win it all with him, warts and all.
Most importantly? The idea that players don’t want to go to Cleveland remains hack. Those days are over.

Phil Jackson confirms that NBA teams have been deflating basketballs for decades

As with most things related to the NFL, especially around the time of the Super Bowl, discussions centered on the New England Patriots’ role in “Deflategate” turned out to be a pointless and rather stupid exercise. The Pats may have deflated footballs before a playoff game. We think, not sure. And the NFL probably won’t punish the Patriots for breaking the rules because the league’s commissioner is good pals with the New England owner, as if every member of the league’s crew of One Percenters hasn’t already broken bread on a club sandwich lunch together prior to leaving a one percent tip for the server.
In the NBA, this practice has been going on for years. Teams routinely push the limits of the 7.5 to 8.5 pounds of pressure per square inch mark that the league insists upon. Squads either deaden basketballs or pump them to the limits in hopes that the referees won’t find out, the opposing players won’t complain, and to ensure that the ball suits their particular strengths as a club.
That’s their hope, at least. Whether any of this works is up for discussion. There really isn’t a whole hell of a lot of difference between 7.5 and 8.5 PSI, but things may have been a bit more cavalier in the past.
On Wednesday, Todd Radon found this bit of trivia, as penned up by Sam Smith – then of the Chicago Tribune. He was talking with Phil Jackson, in the years that Jackson was known as “former Knick player, Phil Jackson,” and before he came assistant and then head coach of the Chicago Bulls:
For those that don’t want to squint, Mike Prada at SB Nation tracked down the original article in full:
"To help ensure that, we'd try to take some air out of the ball. You see, on the ball it says something like 'inflate to 7 to 9 pounds.' We'd all carry pins and take the air out to deaden the ball.
"It also helped our offense because we were a team that liked to pass the ball without dribbling it, so it didn't matter how much air was in the ball. It also kept other teams from running on us because when they'd dribble the ball, it wouldn't come up so fast."
Those Knicks were slow and undersized even by the standards of their era, but the team overcame that on the way to two championships by utilizing superior passing, touch and timing.
Unnerved by the idea that he would possibly be linked to an execrable type like Bill Belichick, Phil Jackson hopped on Twitter to defend his team’s practices.

As noted above, the rules call for a 7.5 to 8.5 PSI count, and not 7 to 9. We don’t know if things were different in the early 1970s, pre-inflation (holy cow, that’s funny), but by today’s standards Phil’s lucky “7” would be out of legal line.
From there, then we got to chortle on about things that were never proven. Because sports, that’s why.
As coach of the New York Knicks and Miami Heat, Pat Riley was rumored to insist upon over-inflating basketballs because he wanted to encourage long rebounds. This seems a bit odd, because while his Knicks and Heat team featured great and bruising rebounders, they weren’t the sort of athletes that made their living off of chasing down massive caroms some 15-20 feet away from the rim. Add in the knowledge that those teams sometimes went ice cold from the perimeter, and you’d wonder why Riley would keep up the practice he also supposedly used while coaching in Los Angeles – where Magic Johnson was rumored to like a highly-inflated basketball because it helped him with his high dribble.
Then again, we’ve also heard rumors that Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (working with Riley’s Lakers), preferred a deadened ball.
This was also tossed around:

 
 
John Stockton certainly had a relatively high dribble, but he was also six or seven inches shorter than Magic (the ball didn’t have to travel as far after bouncing back up) and working with massive hands while he orchestrated the Jazz offense.
Mike Prada also busted out his copy of Sam Smith’s ‘The Jordan Rules’ to find this gem, with Phil Jackson once again going on record:
"Like that night in Miami in the 1989-90 season. Jackson always tests the poundage in the game balls before the game. The balls that night in Miami were well below the required 7.5 to 8.5 pounds. An innocent oversight? Unlikely. With a softer ball players can't dribble as fast and the game slows. It was what a less talented team like Miami wanted against a running team like the Bulls. Jackson got the balls pumped up and the Heat were deflated.
It works the way other, too; Jackson has caught the Lakers trying to sneak balls with 15 to 17 pounds of air into the game.
Come on, 15 to 17 pounds? Basketballs are pretty damn bouncy at 8.5, Phil is telling Smith that the Lakers doubled that mark? That’s akin to saying you measured Mickey Mantle hitting a home run 900 feet at an outdoor exhibition game in the middle of Oklahoma. Hitting it 450 feet is impressive enough, guys.
We’ll never be able to agree on who did what, for what reason, and if any of this actually worked.
What we can all agree on is that this is all so incredibly stupid. Watch the Puppy Bowl instead.