Author Archives: Kent Sterling

Indy’s Morning Sports List – Top 10 reasons the STL Rams are moving to LA and the Indianapolis Colts did not

Rams owner Stan Knoenke answers questions about why his team will move immediately to Los Angeles from the town that embraced them for 21 mostly mediocre seasons.

Many NFL franchises have floated the threat of a move to Los Angeles to motivate their current cities to at least partially fund new digs.

When St. Louis blinked at a Rams proposal to stay, owner Stan Kroenke decided Los Angeles would be his team’s new home.

A similar scenario played out in Indianapolis 14 years ago when owner Jim Irsay decided the RCA Dome was not a sufficient building for his Colts. The deal to build Lucas Oil Stadium was crafted soon after.

Why did Indy do what was necessary to keep the Colts stay while the Rams are now packing for the move to LA?

Here are 10 reasons:

10 – NFL wanted Los Angeles vacant until franchises in need of a new stadium got one. There have been dozens of overt and veiled threats by teams – including the Indianapolis Colts in 2002 – to move to Los Angeles in an effort to leverage funding for new or renovated stadiums. With most of the NFL team’s facilities upgraded, Los Angeles’s use as financial lever expired. Finally, an owner with the cash and stones to build a palace came along, and so the rights to LA now belong to Kroenke and the Rams. Continue reading →

Indy’s Morning Sports List – Top 10 reasons Brad Stevens should come back to college basketball

Brad Stevens speaks to the media about Andrew Smith.

We were tragically reminded yesterday of the bond that continues to exist between Brad Stevens and the players he coached at Butler University prior to his accepting the job as coach of the Boston Celtics.

Brad visited Andrew Smith last week to say goodbye, and spoke of his passing with eloquence and raw emotion in a pregame press conference prior to yesterday’s Celtics vs. Knicks game.

Brad’s love for a former player and his family brought to mind the need for more collegiate leaders to profoundly connect with students as they evolve into adults.

10 – Losses in back-to-back NCAA Championship games left a mark. Brad’s Bulldogs were less than an inch from a National Championship upset for the ages when Gordon Hayward missed a buzzer beating three-pointer from half court against Duke at Lucas Oil Stadium. That leaves some business undone for Brad. Coming back to college to right that wrong might be a silly reason to leave the Celtics, but combined with the next nine reasons, maybe it swings the balance. Continue reading →

Indy’s Morning Sports List – Top 10 reasons IU’s Fred Glass made right choice to extend Kevin Wilson’s deal

Kevin Wilson doubled his pay for the next six years by getting Indiana to a bowl in 2015.

Kevin Wilson has done the impossible by earning a contract extension at Indiana. After 20 years of shuttling one coach after another through Bloomington, it seems Indiana has settled on its long-term solution.

Worth $2,550,000 per season, the extension sets Wilson up through 2021 as the architect of a program that has slowly progressed over his five seasons from terrible to okay.

This is the first time I have ever written about Indiana extending the contract of a football coach. No coach since Bill Mallory has survived beyond his first contract, and Mallory was fired after the 1996 season.

Whether Wilson is the longterm solution to take Indiana on the next steps toward becoming a good Big Ten team will take another few years to assess, but here are 10 reasons why Indiana athletic director Fred Glass did the right thing in extending Wilson:

10 – Wilson has built a Hoosiers brand on explosive offense. It takes time to build a brand, and under Wilson for the last five years, Indiana has become a very friendly outpost for those talented offensive players who crave an opportunity to shine. Indiana players on the offensive side of the ball have a chance to go to the NFL. Conversely, the defense has been putrid for all five years under Wilson, but you have to start some place. Indiana has staked its claim on offense.
Continue reading →

Indy’s Morning Sports List – Top 10 things I’ve learned from Andrew and Samantha Smith

Andrew and Samantha Smith continue their fight this morning to steal a few extra moments. We can learn a great deal from them.

By all accounts, Andrew Smith is dying. His death “is imminent”, according to the latest post from Samantha Smith, Andrew’s wife, on her website.

It’s hard to be reflective without rancor about the death of a 25-year-old, but Samantha has been so courageous and eloquent about the fight she and Andrew continue to wage that it’s worth a shot at trying to see what wisdom can be wrung from this tragic loss of life but never love.

Lessons learned through loss are hard-earned. Here are ten of them that I have been reminded of during Andrew’s battle and Samantha’s lovely chronicling of this incredibly difficult time.

10 – Character is not defined through victory, but in how courageously the battle is waged. I’m sure the original source of that oft used reflection on loss came from a military leader who had recently seen his soldiers die as they valiantly battled insurmountable odds, but it applies here. Andrew and Samantha did everything they could, left no stone unturned, and continued the fight with grit and love. They didn’t win in trying to steal additional years together, but in their fight, they inspired all of us. Sometimes the spoils of defeat are more valuable than those of victory. Continue reading →

Indy Morning Sports List – Top 10 reasons I revere former Butler coach Brad Stevens

Brad Stevens is a good man – a really good man.

Yesterday afternoon we heard Boston Celtics coach Brad Stevens would miss his team’s game last night to tend to a personal matter in Indianapolis. We know now that he came home to visit Andrew Smith, one of his former players who is battling cancer.

Stevens would prefer no one knows why he is in Indianapolis, but there is no stopping the media from getting the answer to a question like why a coach is taking a game off.

If you are lucky, you might meet five truly good people during your life. Some people are very smart, many make us laugh, others are strong, a few are superior athletes, but very few are simply good. Continue reading →

Indy’s Morning Sports List – Top 10 reasons I called for Indy sports media cease fire

Fed up with mudslinging among Indy sports media, I announced a moratorium on mudslinging. We’ll see if it holds.

Friends of mine in media were fired yesterday, and while I’m certain each will be fine once the dust settles in their emotional minds, it occurred to me that people on the precipice of career ruin at the hands of media managers incapable and unwilling to accurately appraise value need to be a little bit nicer to one another.

Most members of the Indianapolis sports media (and in all major league sports cities) have families, work hard, and try to tell the truth to their readers, listeners, and viewers the best they can.

We don’t have to love each other, but its a hell of a lot more fun than tearing each other down.

In that spirit, I called a cease fire to the acrimony that has recently blossomed and metastasized in Indianapolis as sports journalists raced to break news of Colts coach Chuck Pagano’s removal, and then the contract extension that followed rumors of his ouster.

It was all done in fun, but here are 10 reasons why it’s really not such a bad idea to be nicer to each other:

10 – Competence abounds in Indy. There are media people in other markets who are lazy and uncaring. I’ve seen it, worked next to it, and I’ve fired people because of it. I know mailing it in when I see it. In Indianapolis, the bar among media members for responsibility is set pretty damn high. There are some better than others at communicating their thoughts, but the level of effort to get stories right is relatively high. There are some who take sources at their word without corroboration or allow the entity they are trusted to cover to place positive content, but for the most part, the effort is made to do responsible work and get the story right. Continue reading →

Indy’s Morning Sports List – Top 10 Colts screws ups that led to recent organizational chaos

This threesome recently tried to fix issues, and put the past behind them. It all could have been avoided.

The Colts celebrated a return to reason Monday night as owner Jim Irsay, general manager Ryan Grigson, and coach Chuck Pagano showed a united front in announcing contract extensions for Grigson and Pagano.

Firing leadership that brought the Colts 44 wins (including playoffs) in four seasons seemed a tad bizarre to fans as well as Irsay, and the reported contentiousness that existed between Grigson and Pagano was quickly healed by a mutual craving for continued employment.

While Monday’s negotiations led to a seemingly satisfactory end to a year long drama and smiles all around, if a series of blunders had not occurred, the entire melodrama could have been avoided.

Here are the top 10 missteps that led to Monday’s madness:

10 – Decision to build through free agency. Filling a roster with veteran free agents is a tough way to build a champion because even the best GMs miss on FAs more than they hit, and bringing in names fans know raises expectations beyond a team’s ability to deliver. Andre Johnson is a great example. He’s nowhere near the player he was five years ago, but it’s what fans remembered when he signed. The response to the signing was a vision of playing in the Super Bowl. His ordinary production frustrated fans who wanted Johnson circa 2009. Continue reading →

Indy’s Morning Sports List – Top 10 unanswered questions from Colts press conference

Ryan Grigson, Jim Irsay, and Chuck Pagano announce they together will continue to work toward a championship during the next four years.

“This is the best day of my life,” is how Chuck Pagano described the day that started with him likely to lose his gig and ended by announcing that he will be paid for four years to continue to serve as the head coach of the Indianapolis Colts.

The resolution of the uncertainty surrounding Pagano’s future with the Colts was certainly to his liking, but the drama surrounding it throughout the 2015 season couldn’t have been.

Lost in the joy that accompanied the announcement of Pagano’s extension is that Grigson was extended too – for three years beyond the upcoming year so Pagano and Grigson’s deal are synchronized to expire at the same moment.

It’s all water under over the dam now, but there are questions that went unasked and unanswered by owner Jim Irsay, general manager Ryan Grigson, and Pagano at the press conference. These questions will linger as the relationship of Pagano and Grigson continues to be scrutinized – which is likely to be a long time given the obvious strain that has existed between them.

Here are the top 10:

10 – How the hell did Pagano survive all this tumult to earn a four-year extension? The same way the Colts rebounded to win that playoff game against the Chiefs after being down 28-points in the third quarter. He never stops fighting. When Pagano told the media last week that he would “work his ass off” to keep his job, he wasn’t kidding. He got the team to fight without a rational reason Sunday against the Titans, and he won a few meetings today when his future was being decided. One sure way to lose is to quit, and Pagano does not quit. Continue reading →

Indy Morning Sports List – Top 10 reasons Colts should keep Chuck Pagano

Chuck Pagano is awaiting word of his fate. I hope he is back for the 10 reasons below.

It is exceptionally likely that Chuck Pagano is going to pack his belongings today and leave the Colts practice facility for the final time. Because his contract has expired, the Colts don’t need to fire him. They just have to tell him thanks and goodbye.

I would like that to not be the case.

Winning is supposed to be the name of the game in the NFL, and only one coach has led the team he currently coaches to a higher percentage of wins than Pagano.

Until this aberrant season where the wheels fell off the cart and then rolled off a cliff, Pagano’s Colts had posted three consecutive 11-5 records and advanced to an additional level of the playoffs each postseason.

Pagano successfully battled cancer in his first year, and while that doesn’t win football games, it did build a bridge between fans and Pagano the human being that will be impossible to recreate with the next coach. Continue reading →

Indy’s Morning Sports Top 10 – Fascinating moments for Colts, Pacers, Hoosiers, Bulldogs, and Boilers this weekend

It’s worth watching a meaningless Colts game because it’s likely Chuck Pagano’s last. A good man and coach, showing him love is entirely appropriate.

Weekend after weekend, we sit in front of the TV for hours and hours watching sports. How fortunate are we in central Indiana that there is so much drama ahead this long holiday weekend?

The Colts, Pacers, Hoosiers, Boilermakers, Bulldogs, Fuel, Cardinals, Jaguars, and all the great high school basketball teams in the area thrill and frustrate us. Most are playing exceptionally important games this weekend, and I can’t wait to watch them all.

[ed. note – If you are looking for insight about the CFP semifinals tonight, this is not the place. I am disgusted with the corruption of that level of college football, and since the playoff is bereft of teams I regularly follow, I have no interest in whether Oklahoma, Michigan State, Alabama, or Clemson wins tonight. Mike Dantonio, Nick Saban, Bob Stoops, and Dabo Sweeney are all the same guy to me – overpaid, self-important, self-promoting, arrogant men who believe they are great leaders because they are able to game the system best.]

10 – When will Butler’s Kellen Dunham snap out of his shooting slump? Over the previous four games, Dunham has missed his last 16 three-point attempts, and is seven-of-46 overall. Because Butler is a team and not Kellen and the Four Puppies, they won all four of the games in which Dunham struggled. At some point, Dunham will start knocking down shots in bulk again, and the Bulldogs will need him to. Hopefully, that switch flips beginning today against Providence at Hinkle Fieldhouse.

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9 – Indiana travels to Nebraska Saturday for what should be an easy win. If Hoosiers fans learned anything watching Indiana win against Rutgers, they learned no cupcake is sweet enough for the Hoosiers to dominate. Focus lacking, the Hoosiers turned the ball over 23 times and allowed way too many open looks to a bad team. Anything can happen, and despite the Cornhuskers six losses (one against Samford), the expected cake walk might end with baked goods all over Indiana’s face.

8 – Frank Gore gets 1,000 yards rushing. If Gore runs for 109 yards against Tennessee Sunday, he will be the first Colt in 56 games to crack the century mark, and the first in eight years to run for 1,000 yard for the season. No Colt has run for 1,000 yards since Joseph Addai in 2007, and none has run for 100 yards since Vick Ballard on December 16, 2012. The goal for the Colts is to win the game, but without a game-ready quarterback who has been on the roster for more than a week, Gore might be the best chance to both win and crack those two milestones.

7 – Purdue hosts Iowa Saturday. The Hawkeyes are coming off a huge home win against top-ranked Michigan State, and the Boilermakers beat Wisconsin in Madison, so this sort-of non-sexy game between two black & gold teams should be a knock down drag out fight to the end that is worth the price of admission.

6 – Assuming Monday as the final day of the holiday weekend, the Colts Complex should be worth watching then. Chuck Pagano’s job is in dire jeopardy, and the ax could fall Monday. Owner Jim Irsay has enjoyed a chat with Bill Cowher, so who knows who might walk into the media room as the new boss. If the next coach demands control of the roster, current GM Ryan Grigson will become expendable. Not sure what will happen Monday, but the weeks to come should be drama filled.

5 – Pacers play two at home against teams they should beat. Frank Vogel leads the Blue & Gold against the Bucks tonight and Pistons Saturday before rolling out for nine of their next 11 on the road. The difference between second and tenth in the Eastern Conference is a slim three games, and every win now provide a little cover for those tough nights in far away and hostile environments. Beating the Bucks and Pistons with more than half the season left doesn’t seem imperative, but come April, these two games will loom large.

4 – Tom Crean needs to limit turnovers and increase defensive pressure for the Hoosiers. As fans evaluate the Hoosiers, it’s not so much the wins and losses against lesser teams in the Big 10 they pay attention to, it’s the level of play that matters most. Against Rutgers, Indiana looked alternately competent and lost. This season is a referendum on Crean’s future, although the more we hear from Bloomington the more precarious Crean’s job seems. Indiana needs to look like something different than they have the past two seasons for Crean to be trusted with the keys to the program for another year.

3 – Butler starts conference play with two monster games. This afternoon, the ninth-ranked Bulldogs host #12 Providence, and then Saturday they play at #6 Xavier. As impressive as Butler has been and will likely continue to be, they could easily lose both and still feel like they didn’t shame themselves. Watching Butler under any circumstance is fun because they are relentless on both ends, but games against two top 12 teams in 48 hours will be incredible.

2 – Can Paul George clear his head and play like he is capable. Last night’s finish to the Pacers vs. Bulls overtime game showed the difference of where George believes he belongs and reality. With 1.2 seconds left in a tie game, the Bulls Pau Gasol threw a lob to teammate Jimmy Butler. Butler tipped it in over George’s outstretched hand. On the other end, the Pacers tried to answer with a similar play. George could not convert because of Butler’s defense. If George wants to be where the game’s greats are, he is going to have to be able to get beyond where Butler is first.

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1 – A quarterback Colts fans have never seen play for the Horseshoes will lead them Sunday. Josh Freeman had his moments at Tampa, and Ryan Lindley has started six games in a mediocre NFL career. Neither were on the Colts roster four days ago. One (or both) will take all the live snaps in what most believe will be Chuck Pagano’s last game as the coach. Coaching for your job with a quarterback he needed to be introduced to less than a week before won’t be a lot of fun for Pagano, but it should be fascinating for us.