Author Archives: Kent Sterling

Criticism of Patriots QB Tom Brady over on-field obscenities shows pathetic thin skin of viewers

by Kent Sterling

I finally have a reason to like Tom Brady – he makes idiot activists angry.

Dropping a series of self-directed F-bombs during a violent football game where lives and fortunes can change with one hit seems to be a reasonable response to adversity.

Tom Brady is one of the marquee players of America’s game, and cameras/microphones are trained on him throughout every game he plays, and when he steps sideways, millions of fans see him do it.

So when Brady explodes in anger once in awhile and uses language few would share with family over Christmas dinner, it should not be a surprise. And yet, three people complained to the Federal Communications Commission when Brady did just that.

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Hunter S. Thompson always said that when people complain about noise, get louder and eventually they will stop complaining. The time has come for Brady and everyone else with access to a live microphone to use it to shout down the easily wrinkled rubes who bitch about obscenities.

The glass half full response to those three complaints is, “Well, only three people out of a few million watching the game were compelled to jump through the hoops necessary to lodge a formal complaint, and that’s less than the number who committed a murder during the same game, so maybe we’re okay.”

I look at it differently because for those three malcontent anti-obscenity zealots, there are likely another million or more who were sincerely offended by the use of a simple if vulgar word that was intended only for Brady’s own ears.

My Dad used to explain his lack of racism by saying that there were a bunch of reasons to dislike a man before noticing the color of his skin. If the biggest problem a viewer of any TV program has is the language audible during the program, there is something seriously wrong with that viewer.

Sadly, some of those who are offended feel so strongly that they believe changing the channel is not enough. They believe it is their right to yelp and crow so loudly it causes the government to prohibit the behavior that bothers them.

Activism is an American tradition with deep roots that has brought cultural changes throughout history – some great and long-overdue like the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Others have been wrongheaded and shortsighted like the Volstead Act that prohibited the manufacture, sale and use of alcohol. The unintended consequence of the Volstead Act was the creation of massive wealth for organized crime.

For whatever reason, people like to think that adjusting the behaviors of others because of their distress is a reasonable hobby. In the area of language, activism is an absurd and bizarre extension of our need to inject our own morality into others.

On HBO, Showtime, Cinemax, the Movie Channel and other pay cable channels, all manner of R-rated emissions spew forth, and our society continues to click along without interruption, but when Tom Brady curses himself on Fox or CBS, people fly to their stationary to fire off indignant missives to the government because, well, it – whatever ‘it’ is – just has to stop.

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Forget that the practical effect of the F-word being used on network television is – well – there isn’t one. Forget that every time Brady is sacked, the entire population of the northeast corridor of the United States yells that word right along with Brady. Forget that the word’s etymology is as an acronym – “for unlawful carnal knowledge,” and has no religious connotation whatsoever.

If Brady yelled, “sexual congress out of wedlock!” the meaning would be exactly the same, and a perplexed public would continue to stare blankly at their TV.

While it’s sad that people allow themselves to become so agitated by a man using the f-word on TV, the overreaction of the federal government to those who are compelled to mollify and endorse the shrieks of the hysterics among us is truly pathetic. The fines associated with the exposure of Janet Jackson’s boob over a decade ago during the Super Bowl halftime show were outrageous.

It’s said that we get the government we deserve. We demand of government a level of behavior that is reactive to us, but at some point our government should shout back a little bit. The FCC should yell at those who complain once in awhile, “Why don’t you just change the station?”

To be a nation of adults, some of us need to be treated as children.

As for Brady, I hope he keeps right on yelling until people stop complaining.

Indiana Pacers & Lance Stephenson – sometimes the best deals are those you don’t make

by Kent Sterling

Pacers fans pining for the return of Lance Stephenson will eventually quiet down and embrace Rodney Stuckey.

Pacers fans hoping for the return of Lance Stephenson will eventually quiet down and embrace Rodney Stuckey.

Watching Rodney Stuckey ring up 20 points, 10 rebounds, and seven assists in a dominating win against Kobe Bryant and the Los Angeles Lakers last night hammered home the notion that trading with the Charlotte Hornets to bring Lance Stephenson back to Indiana is silly.

The Pacers have an improved version of Stephenson in Stuckey. Not as naturally gifted, but Stuckey is not consumed by the notion of his own success and his ability to provide for his family.

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Stuckey is leading the Pacers in scoring, and is a more consistently focused defender, but fans continue to pine for the more charismatic Stephenson – a likable guy unafraid to ruffle feathers in very public ways.

Whether he was snatching rebounds from teammate Roy Hibbert in his nonsensical quests for meaningless triple doubles, blowing in LeBron James ear during the Eastern Conference Finals, or inviting the public to a pool party at his house via Twitter, Stephenson danced to the ragged beat of his own drummer.

I’m not employed by Pacers owner Herb Simon to keep track of his cash, but Stuckey earns $1,227,985 compared to Stephenson’s $9M to provide the Hornets 10.3 points, 7.0 boards, 4.9 assists per game, and a series of headaches that have the team eagerly phoning rival GMs to gauge their interest in the mercurial near all-star.

By the way, can a post about Stephenson ever be written without using the word “mercurial”? If you are not familiar with the word – it means subject to sudden or unpredictable changes of mood or mind. It’s not impossible to write about Stephenson without using the word, but it sure fits him.

Stuckey doesn’t average as many rebounds (3.8) or assists (3.0) as Stephenson, but he leads the Pacers in scoring at 13.2 points per game. Stephenson’s average last season was a very similar 13.8.

While the Pacers are having a tough time stringing together wins with a record of 8-17 as they careen toward the one-third point in the season, the reasons do not include Stephenson’s decision to abandon ship for $26 million less guaranteed money that what was reportedly offered by the Pacers, a team that understood and tolerated Stephenson’s quirks in order to access his massive reservoir of talent.

Stephenson’s decision to leave Indiana was baffling. Less money at a new stop for a team unaccustomed to weirdness in exchange for the chance to opt out in two years as a new collective bargaining agreement is likely to be enacted represents the kind of silliness for which Stephenson became known in Indy.

The Pacers are trying to find a rhythm without Paul George and George Hill, and are trying to get David West back in the flow with a new set of teammates. Stephenson being in Charlotte has less to do with the Pacers rough start than his presence in Charlotte has to do with their 6-18 start.

Talk among fans about bringing Stephenson back is understandable. Lance is a likable guy. He was always a pleasure to talk to – always honest and funny, and oddly unimpressed by his own aura. He was unafraid to show his emotions, and that made him accessible.

None of those are legitimate reasons to pull the trigger on a deal to facilitate his return.

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Without George, the Pacers were going to struggle this season regardless of where Stephenson confounds his teammates. That isn’t changing until 2015-2016. Getting Hill back will help, but if the Pacers finish the season with 40 wins, Simon should have a banner made to celebrate that accomplishment.

Stephenson can continue to find ways to destroy his new team and diminish the value of the career that would have paid him $44 million as he waited for his max contract at the age of 28 in a place that knew him and allowed for his many quirks.

Mercurial – that’s Stephenson. The Pacers need production, not mercurial. That’s Stuckey.

Indianapolis Colts and Indiana Pacers – both ugly but headed in different directions

by Kent Sterling

Hard to tell whether Chuck Pagano deserves credit for the Colts record, blame for their sloppiness, or a substantial helping of both.

The Indianapolis Colts are turning the ball over at a strangely high rate, have enjoyed limited success in any discipline of the game other than throwing the football, and continue to win and win and win and win.

Their major league basketball brethren appear no more lacking in talent, but have now lost eight straight despite getting healthier as the season has worn on.

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Andrew Luck’s vaunted offensive unit has turned the ball over 12 times the last four games, but the Colts have managed to win all four on their way to clinching a ninth AFC South title in 13 years.

Criticizing the Colts for winning seems silly, but expecting success in the postseason as the team squeaks by squads quarterbacked by Tom Savage, Brian Hoyer, Colt McCoy, and Blake Bortles ignores the evidence contained in those victories.

The Pacers began unraveling on a west coast trip prior to the 2013-2014 All Star Break, and despite finding the mojo needed to vanquish two playoff foes before succumbing against the Miami Heat in the Eastern Conference Finals.

“There’s some selfish dudes in here,” was the quote from center Roy Hibbert during the latter stages of last season, and the two guys to whom Hibbert might have been referencing are both gone – Lance Stephenson to Charlotte and Paul George to injury. Yet, the Pacers appear to be a shell of their former selves.

We keep hearing that the Pacers are still within shouting distance of the eight seed in the East, but the truth is that while they are four games out of the postseason, they are also 4 1/2 games out of the cellar in the NBA.

If Pacers president Larry Bird was presented with a reality where the Pacers were led in scoring by Rodney Stuckey, rebounding by Lavoy Allen, assists by Donald Sloan, and steals by C.J. Watson, he would likely guess that 7-17 might be a pretty decent guess as to the team’s record.

This season, the Colts have beaten the Jaguars and Texans twice each, Tennessee, Washington, Cleveland, Cincinnati,Baltimore and the NY Giants. Losses have come at the hands of the NFL’s elite – New England, Pittsburgh, Denver, and Philadelphia. Their -4 turnover margin ranks 21st in the NFL and suggests that the Colts should be sporting a far more mediocre record, but they keep winning despite themselves.

So how do the Colts keep winning regardless of their obvious flaws and proclivity for committing damaging turnovers that lead directly to opponents’ points scored? Andrew Luck makes plays when aggressively attacking a defense, the defense with Vontae Davis in the lineup is functional (and sometimes better), and the special teams have been spectacular.

Adam Vinatieri has yet to miss a single kick this season, and Pat McAfee has been a positive field position machine as both the punter and kickoff specialist.

If the Colts were any good at all at holding onto the ball, they would be in a position to be feared as a potential Super Bowl participant. Yep, greatness from special teams, Andrew Luck, Vontae Davis, and T.Y. Hilton, plus solid work from Mike Adams, Jerrell Freeman, Coby Fleener, and Anthony Castonzo is enough to win the AFC South.

No such luck for the Pacers, who are in no position to be feared, respected or successful.

Stephenson screwed the pooch by trying to overthink the obvious decision to stick around at the place where management had his back and tolerated his quirks, and George was the victim of some bad luck in suffering his broken leg.

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Lance’s signing with the Hornets represents one of the few times when a free agent leaving hurt everyone involved. The Pacers aren’t as good without Lance. The Hornets are furiously working the phones to move him. And Lance, who thought he was very clever in negotiating the mutual out after two years in his three-year, $27 million deal (which as a result is actually a two-year, $18 million deal), is playing his way into exile.

These two teams have suffered a simultaneous backslide, but the negative results have only befallen the Pacers.

Interesting times in Indianapolis sports.

Kobe Bryant verbally rips teammates in practice and nobody steps up to challenge him

by Kent Sterling

Someone needs to give Kobe Bryant a smack. That no one did at yesterday’s practice showed why the Lakers are 6-16.

Why the Los Angeles Lakers are 6-16 came very clear yesterday as video of Kobe Bryant was released showing the future hall of famer mocking, ripping, and demeaning his teammates during practice.

Bryant was as ruthless with his words as he was with the basketball in his prime as a player, “You m—–f—— are soft like Charmin in this m—–f—–. God damn, is this the type of s— that’s going on in these practices? Now I see why we’ve lost 20 f—ing games. We’re soft like Charmin. We’re soft like s—.”

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At Jeremy Lin, he yelled, “This m—–f—– don’t got s—. He ain’t got s— right now. Shoot! Shoot!” When Lin missed his shot, Bryant barked, “I talked his ass right into that bulls—. I talked his ass right into that bulls—.”

When practice ended, Bryant continued his tirade to team general manager Mitch Kupchak, “I’m supposed to practice and get better, Mitch. I’m supposed to practice and get better. These m—–f—— ain’t doing s— for me.”

The reason the Lakers continue to suck has nothing to do with Bryant’s incessant yammering, and everything to do with the response – or lack of response – from teammates. That no one had the balls to try to shut Bryant up is a tragedy of manhood lost.

Allowing another man to demean you in front of peers in the way Bryant did yesterday to Lin and Nick Young shows a lack of competitiveness that leads to abject failure on the court – or in business.

I’m not an advocate of throwing haymakers in conference rooms, but if a man treated you in the way Lin was, you would either act immediately to shut him the hell up – or you would face a future in your workplace where you felt and would be seen as emasculated. And if it happens at a time and in a place where physical contact in the heat of battle is encouraged (like a basketball court), it’s go time.

As unpleasant as it can be to risk getting your ass kicked, there are times when that risk is the only option.

What a man does not do, especially on a team of men who are supposed to compete at the highest level in the world, is allow a teammate to get away with making you look weak, pitiful, and ashamed.

You take shots, and you are likely to receive some. Maybe you take a beating, but you can’t allow anyone – especially a teammate – take your manhood. If that sounds like caveman-speak that’s fine, but allowing a teammate to damage your self-respect and make you look weak in front of your team is not an option.

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Not fighting back when bullied by Bryant shows a spiritual weakness that will cost wins when games are on the line against real opponents. That Bryant is a legendary arrogant ass is beyond dispute, but he wasn’t in the wrong here.

We all would enjoy being part of a group that supports and loves one another. Teams like that can revel in their togetherness and succeed, but in the face of a challenge to manhood, some guys run and some guys hide. Teams filled with players that hide start seasons 6-16.

The Lakers suck, and they will continue to, but the reason is not Kobe Bryant being an egomaniacal boor. It’s that no one on the Lakers has the balls to challenge him. Because if Young and Lin aren’t willing to challenge Bryant in practice, what the hell are they going to do in games?

Indiana Basketball and Football – Hoosiers fans need to take a deep breath and see the big picture

by Kent Sterling

Fred Glass is going to evaluate and act – as good leaders should. Demanding immediate satisfaction for mediocrity is just silly.

There is a sect of people who simply don’t like Tom Crean, and others who don’t care much for Kevin Wilson. Or, they are big fans of the rule that consequences should follow mediocre results.

People want a level of scorched earth comeuppance for the leaders of Indiana’s two marquee programs that I can simply not abide, and so I am being hammered on social media and in comments to earlier posts on this website.

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I have been called a “Tom Crean apologist” so many times, I have stopped being baffled by it. Talk to people at Indiana about whether they think I’m a staunch Crean advocate. They might laugh. They might curse. I’m not sure.

But because I’m not willing to say that Crean needs to be taken into the sub-basement of Assembly Hall and waterboarded, somehow I’m soft. Because I want to allow this season to play out in its entirety before casting judgment on who the leader of what once was one of the most respected basketball programs in America, I’m not capable of letting go of Crean’s out-turned pocket.

Here are a series of facts often ignored by those who want Crean to be replaced immediately by Brad Stevens, Archie Miller, Shaka Smart, or the unearthed remains of Clair Bee or Henry Iba:

Michigan has lost to Eastern Michigan and Division One’s lone independent – the vaunted Highlanders of the New Jersey Institute of Technology – in the past week. Nebraska lost last night to Incarnate Word. Purdue lost to North Florida. Indiana’s loss to Eastern Washington is hardly the only hiccup for a Big Ten team this preseason.
Before losing to Louisville by 20, the Hoosiers led in the second half. They showed an ability to score the basketball that projects to potential success in the Big Ten. Granted, the defense was lousy, and substitution patterns wobbly, but that isn’t unusual in December.
IU AD Fred Glass is not going to change coaches in December unless the safety of the players or NCAA violations demand it.
While banners are not hung for an APR of 1,000, it’s still a great accomplishment to lead a program where athletes are bona fide students – and successful ones at that.

Call for Crean to be canned for the arrests, positive drug tests, and injury to Devin Davis if you like, but declaring this season lost basically before it starts is rash and premature.

Even if you dislike Crean or find him odd, give this group of kids the latitude to sink or swim before declaring them incapable of making it to shore – or condemning Crean’s leadership as ineffective.

As for Wilson, Indiana has sucked at football since time began – minus a magically successful run in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Rebuilding a program from nothing at a place without a single positive brand identification is not an easy gig. Was Wilson the best candidate to be a head football coach in the Big Ten when Glass hired him? Of course not, but who in his right mind would take that job? Let’s count the jobs the previous seven Indiana head coaches got after spending more than one year at IU.

Lee Corso (1973-1982) coached again for one year at Northern Illinois and one more for the USFL’s Orlando Renegades. Sam Wyche (1983) moved to the NFL after one quirky season. Bill Mallory (1984-1996) never coached again. Cam Cameron (1997-2001) one disastrous year as the head coach of the Miami Dolphins. Gerry DiNardo – none. Terry Hoeppner (2005-2006) – passed way after two seasons. Bill Lynch (2007-2010) is at DePauw.

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Indiana is not a launching pad for great coaching careers. Wilson isn’t an idiot, and knew what he was getting into, and Glass isn’t an idiot either, and knew in what pond he might be able to catch a fish.

Wilson is a much better coach and leader than he was when he arrived in Bloomington, and blowing him out right now would serve no purpose than to restart the clock on success. Maybe Wilson never gets over the hump, but you can be damn sure that no one who is or will ever be considered a great head coach is going to come to Bloomington to replace him.

I like Wilson as a coach, and believe he is going to succeed eventually.

Indiana’s mediocre (I’m being kind) heritage in football and recent undistinguished off-court behavior and on-court play are tough to stomach for anyone associated with Indiana University, but being circumspect and reasonable, if not patient, shouldn’t be too tough to muster for a fanbase that has waited this long.

Chicago Cubs sign Jon Lester, and suddenly relevance returns to Wrigley Field

by Kent Sterling

The rebuild of the Chicago Cubs jumped into hyperdrive just before 2:00 a.m. today when postseason ace Jon Lester decided that six years (with a vesting option for a seventh year) and $155 million was enough to lead the starting rotation for a team expected to slowly mature and contend for a playoff berth beginning in 2016 at the earliest.

Slide that timeline forward a year.

Gone are the days of losing in the bidding of a top free agent on purpose – did you really think Masahiro Tanaka seriously considered the Cubs offer a year ago, or that the Cubs didn’t know they had no chance?

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Gone too are the days that Cubs fans will happy fork over the third highest ticket prices in baseball for the privilege of watching middling talent play badly while drinking overpriced Old Style or Bud Light.

Under the radar, the Cubs made another deal yesterday, peddling a couple of lower level prospects to the Arizona Diamondbacks for all-star catcher Miguel Montero. He can hit, and as we have heard from anyone with access to fangraphs.com, he is among the best pitch framers in baseball. The Cubs were among the worst in that discipline in the 2014 season.

And so hope returns to the Friendly Confines. My own odyssey as a Cubs fan has evolved and morphed over the years into a malaise that I believed was driven by wisdom gained through decades of having dreams of a World Championship crushed at some point every season since the year my grandmother (who would be 112) enrolled in first grade. (You believe the pain of being a Cubs fan began at birth? No, it begins in either 1908 regardless of your age.)

I thought it was over – that I would never again allow myself to embrace the vulnerability that hope invites – but there I was early this morning watching the MLB Network’s coverage of Baseball’s Winter Meetings awaiting word of Lester’s decision like some deranged stock broker on a coke fueled all-nighter watching the Asian markets.

When word leaked that Lester agreed to join the Cubs, I woke up my son to share the news. The last time I woke him up for anything was during the night of the presidential election in 2000 when it looked like the damn thing might end in a tie and deranged CBS News anchor Dan Rather yelped that we should wake our kids. Sounded as reasonable then as Lester believing he can end 106 years of futility last night.

Not only did I wait up last night, and then have trouble falling asleep later, a month ago I received a postcard from the Cubs informing me that after eight years, my name finally bubbled to the top of the season ticket waiting list and I was eligible to buy tickets.

This was roughly a week prior to Joe Maddon agreeing to become the Cubs manager, and once that became a realistic possibility, I pulled the trigger to buy a nights and weekend bleacher package of four tickets for $9,320. That’s a lot of cash for me, and it represents the kind of ludicrous hope that has caused me so much grief since that joyous then dreadful summer of 1969.

With Lester, Montero, and the kiddie corps of Arismendy Alcantara, Jorge Soler, Kris Bryant, Addison Russell, Javier Baez, Kyle Hendricks, Hector Rondon, Pedro Strop, and whomever else team president Theo Epstein and general manager Jed Hoyer decide to add to the party, my investment of cash and dreams might actually be fulfilled this time.

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That’s a frightening concept – kind of like Red in The Shawshank Redemption trying to adapt to freedom after he was paroled – because “five outs to go,” Steve Garvey, the black cat at Shea, Don Young, Brant Brown, and Leon Durham have conspired over the years to ingrain the belief that it is just not meant to be.

Well, it seems Lester doesn’t give a damn about that. He’s ready to go to work, and after six years of cursing the Cubs and my allegiance to it, I’m all in too – again.

Being a sports fan hoping for a championship is tough – and Jon Lester is the latest answer to Cubs fans’ dreams

by Kent Sterling

Jon Lester will have over $150 million reasons to smile when his head hits the pillow tonight – or tomorrow night – or the night after.

I’m not from Cleveland, so I don’t know what it’s truly like to know the misery unique to sports fans in that inhospitable city.

But I did grow up in Chicago – a Cubs fan because my Dad was one, and likely his dad before that. Chicago has had eras of great play in every sport but baseball. One championship since 1917 for the White Sox, none for the Cubs back to 1908 with their last World Series appearance coming two months after the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima in 1945. If there was ever a factory of sadness, Wrigley Field is it.

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The Blackhawks were stellar when I was little and then again recently. The Hull Brothers, Tony O, and Stan Makita were so close so many times in the early 1970s. Jonathan Toews, Patrick Kane, Duncan Keith and others have brought the Stanley Cup back to Chicago twice.

The 1985 Bears became icons as they won Super Bowl XX with Walter Payton, Mike Singletary, the Fridge, Richard Dent, and so many memorable guys that listing them would be redundant. You know them.

Michael Jordan led a run of six NBA Championships in eight years during the 1990s before the Chicago Bulls regressed to the mean for the past 16 years.

In Indiana, fans have enjoyed the Indianapolis Colts 13 trips to the postseason in 15 years, but only won championship, and the Pacers tantalized us with relentless solid play through the mid-to-late 1990s as well as the two trips to the Eastern Conference Finals in 2013 and 2014.

Purdue hasn’t made a run to the Final Four since 1980, and has played in one Rose Bowl (2001) since Indiana played in their only Grandaddy of Them All in 1968.

As for Indiana University Basketball, one Final Four and Big Ten Championship since 1993 have broken the relentlessness of mediocrity.

Notre Dame Football played for a National Championship a couple of years ago, but awakening the echoes prior to that was last done by Lou Holtz in 1988. As for basketball, the Fighting Irish are always good and never great under Mike Brey.

And so we invest hope that Colts quarterback Andrew Luck continues to develop and GM Ryan Grigson hits the jackpot in another draft. We dream of a return to health for Paul George and the Pacers, and wonder whether Tom Crean will ever tap into the potential that lies in the Indiana high school basketball players who choose to leave the state to win elsewhere. Will Purdue ever be tough again like they were under Gene Keady, and can Chris Holzmann reignite the success The Butler Way brought to Hinkle Fieldhouse in 2010 and 2011?

Lots of questions, and for the answers, we wait. And wait.

Today, Cubs fans are waiting for word from Jon Lester and his agents whether he will choose to pitch in Wrigley Field, and lead the charge as the rebuilding from the worst four-year run in the history of a franchise famous for bad runs gains momentum.

If Lester signs with the Cubs, the passion for this moribund team will reignite, and “Wait till next year” will become, “Let’s go win a World Series right the hell now!”

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So we sit in front of the television, watching the MLB Network hoping that Ken Rosenthal’s face pops up on the screen and announces which team wins a bidding war that could reach $180 million for seven years of work. Because Lester will pitch a maximum of 33 times each season, he will cash a check for roughly $780,000 each time he takes the ball if he remains healthy through those seven seasons – but I digress.

Lester may make his decision today, or tomorrow, or the day after. And so we stare at the TV and follow ESPN-Chicago’s Jesse Rogers, the Chicago Sun-Times Gordon Wittenmyer, ESPN’s Buster Olney, and MLB Network’s Rosenthal.

Sports fandom is about hope, the most painful of all human emotions. Sports fans feel hope acutely because each season supplies a fresh start. The slate is wiped clean as soon as the previous season’s champion is crowned. It’s how we would like to live our lives, but can’t – or choose not to. No matter how bad 2014 was, 2015 allows for us to dream.

So Cubs fans wait and hope for Lester to decide whether to help their dream come true. Championships don’t come around very often for a team and its fans, but the time for someone to shove his chips into the middle of the table and push the Cubs over the edge is long overdue – and Jon Lester has a chance to be that guy.

Big 12 exclusion from College Football Playoff is University of Texas’ fault

by Kent Sterling

Big 12 commissioner Bob Bowlsby is under fire for Baylor/TCU being snubbed, but fans should point fingers elsewhere.

What was former Big 12 Commissioner Don Beebe supposed to do, let the Big 12 unravel after Texas decided to shift to the Big Ten or Pac-12?

Beebe played the only card available to him, which was to allow each member school to form its own network. This wasn’t the best solution because only Texas had the rabid booster base to make a network lucrative, but it was the only option available to him to keep the fragile Big 12 together. Of course, Texas stood to benefit the most from that freedom, and the Longhorn Network would create an inequity that rendered the Big 12 a less than positive environment for schools with options.

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The Big Ten, SEC, and Pac-12 created networks of their own from which members equally shared new found wealth. Conference networks allow the paupers to continue to compete with the princes, and equal rewards. The Longhorn Network turned the Big 12 into the Big One and Little 11, but not for long.

Colorado bolted for the Pac-10 (soon to become Pac-12). Nebraska left for the Big Ten. Missouri and Texas A&M hopped to the SEC. TCU and West Virginia filled vacancies in the Big 12. As a result, the Big 12 fell to ten teams – below the NCAA mandated 12-team threshold for a conference championship football game.

That was a key element in the exclusion of both Baylor or TCU in the College Football Playoff pairings announced yesterday.

Forestalling the dissolution of the Big 12 is a righteous goal for those employed by the conference, particularly current commissioner Bob Bowlsby who is paid just less than $2-million for his services. But until there is economic equanimity among its members, the Big 12 will be a port of last resort for schools like BYU, Cincinnati, and Boise State looking for a more stable and lucrative home.

Texas sharing it’s bounty evenly among the Big 12 members is as likely as the New York Yankees and Los Angeles Dodgers allowing Major League Baseball to institute true revenue sharing.

Cobbling together the wretched refuse from other middling conferences is no way to compete with the Power Four conferences, and the evolutionary drift to four 16-team leagues will continue, if very slowly.

The relative imbalance caused by the existence of the Longhorn Network was pronounced in 2012, with Texas leading the nation in athletic revenue – $163 million. Iowa State brought up the rear with just over $55 million. Spending per athlete varied from Texas ($249K) to Kansas State ($97K).

That differs from the business model of the Big Ten. While Big Ten athletic departments with robust football ticket sales like Ohio State and Michigan clearly cause profitability that Indiana and Purdue cannot duplicate, the Hoosiers revenue would place it in the top half of the Big 12’s public institutions.

Commissioner Bowlsby is being hounded by fans from all Big 12 schools who are furious over the snub by the College Football Playoff committee that left Baylor and TCU in the unenviable position of being ranked fifth and sixth among candidates for invitations to a four-team party.

The physics are clear, four conferences – each with one invite. Want an eight team playoff? The conference championships for the Big Four served very nicely this season. A lack of upsets in those games cleaned up the potential chaos that would have ensued, and the uncertainty of the committee’s behavior earned college football a level of excitement and enthusiastic media coverage that would not have been available otherwise.

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None of the blame for what transpired yesterday should land in Bowlsby’s lap. He inherited a leaky ship that stopped being seaworthy in 2010 when Texas decided to get greedy and Beebe was powerless to compel them to act otherwise.

Bowlsby will look at adding schools previously deemed unworthy of an invitation by the Big Four as well as the Big 12 in the past, or applying for a waiver so the Big 12 is allowed to hold a championship game with only 10 members. Either way, the Big 12 will be diminished, but not nearly to the extent it would be through the continued branding as the fifth wheel on a vehicle that works best with four.

Dissolution is the logical outcome for the Big 12, so victory for Bowlsby is now defined by how long the conference survives in its current form, not if it survives. Yesterday’s decision by the committee did nothing to cause the Big 12 damage – it simply reflected a harsh reality.

Indianapolis Colts jump to #3 in AFC playoff seed because of hideous, but beautiful 25-24 win at Cleveland

by Kent Sterling

The Cleveland Browns didn’t deserve to lose like that, but in the NFL as in Unforgiven, deserve’s got nothing to do with it.

Clint Eastwood said it best in Unforgiven, “Deserve’s got nothing to do with it.”

Games are played and occasionally the undeserving team wins. That was the case today for the Indianapolis Colts in Cleveland. They were sloppy, unfocused, and unworthy of a 25-24 road win against a 7-5 team.

That happens in the NFL from time to time. Teams go through the highs and lows of a season, and the good ones manage to win the games they should while the great ones find a way to win games they shouldn’t. The Colts made their case for great because they were able to win a game they shouldn’t have against a good team.

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Quarterback Andrew Luck looked baffled until it mattered most. Reggie Wayne appeared to age before our very eyes like Alec Baldwin and Geena Davis in Beetlejuice. And beleaguered cornerback Josh Gordy wrapped up the game with an interception. Weird game.

Nine times out of ten, the Colts would lose this kind of game. Four turnovers – two for touchdowns, and one that led to a field goal – are a lot for any team to overcome. The Colts defense was stout against the flawed game management and wayward long throws of quarterback Brian Hoyer, but because they maintained a lead for the majority of the game, Johnny Manziel was never asked to put down his clipboard to provide a needed dose of unpredictability.

Luck led the Colts in rushing again, and minus the eerie second half excellence of T.Y. Hilton that vexed the Browns (how hard is it to cover a team’s most dynamic weapon?), the offense was virtually inert. Hilton caught nine balls for 142 and two TDs in the second half, and that brought home a much needed winner against a team they don’t want to have to play again in January.

Quibbling about math after a win like that the Colts enjoyed today seems petty, but coach Chuck Pagano deciding to go for two while down 21-16 with over four minutes remaining in the third quarter represented some questionable strategy. Rolling dice that led to the Colts being down five rather than four was silly, and thankfully caused nothing negative for any but those who bet the Colts -3.

The win could prove a great advantage for the Colts, who are on the brink of another AFC South title, and need wins to improve their seed for the playoffs. With games left at home against the Houston Texans, and road tilts versus the Dallas Cowboys and Tennessee Titans, the Colts have a chance to slide up beyond the #3 slot they currently occupy due to their win and the Cincinnati Bengals loss.

With a #2 seed, the Colts earn a first round bye which this group could use, given the effort being exerted to handle their business against the Browns – now a likely observer come January for the 15th time in the 16 year existence of this incarnation of the NFL’s most historically woebegone franchise.

Reggie Wayne’s streak of consecutive games with three or more receptions ended with a thud today, but he tied Peyton Manning for the Colts record in all-time games played with 208 and wins with 141. While it’s sad to watch how the skills of the once great Wayne have eroded, no Colts fan is going to have a lasting memory of what Wayne looks like today, and they shouldn’t. Wayne is doing everything he physically can to play at the highest level he can, and should be admired, not admonished for his Sunday efforts.

Luck passed Manning’s records for passing yards and completions through three seasons in Colts history. He now has 12,501 yards to Manning’s 12,287, and 1,19 completions to Manning’s 1,014.

The Colts will need to do a better job of protecting Luck if he is going to continue to eclipse Manning’s records, and more importantly to take another step forward in the postseason.

But first thing’s first – with three games left, a trip to the playoffs is not assured.

Dallas Cowboys RB DeMarco Murray is entering dangerous but lucrative territory as carries pile up

by Kent Sterling

DeMarco Murray is smiling now, and he should. But if history is any guide, that grin won’t last long.

Take water from a well too often, and it runs dry. Call a running back’s number too often during a season, say goodbye to longterm productivity.

DeMarco Murray had 41 touches last night for the Dallas Cowboys in their 41-28 win at Soldier Field in Chicago over the self-immolating Bears, and the 32 rushes of those 41 touches put Murray on pace for 395 carries in 2014. That’s a lot of bucket dipping into a shallow well.

There are six running backs in the history of the NFL who have carried the football 395 times or more. They are Larry Johnson (2006), Jamal Anderson (1998), James Wilder (1984), Eric Dickerson (1986), Eddie George (2000), and Gerald Riggs (1985). Other than Dickerson as an outlier, the other five never had another season that measured up to their busiest, and four of them never came close.

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Former Atlanta Falcons Riggs and Anderson managed to shake off the rust once more each to eclipse 1,000 yards rushing, and Wilder of the Tampa Bay Bucs saw his productivity decline each year for the final six years of his career. George managed to gut out three more 1,000 yards seasons, but never approached the 1,509 yards of his busiest year.

Factor in Murray’s 53 catches through 13 games which projects to 66 for the full season, and Murray may finish the season second all-time in touches – behind Wilder’s 492 total touches in 1984.

When you look at the all-time leaders in rushing attempts for a career, the top eight names are Emmitt Smith, Walter Payton, Curtis Martin, Jerome Bettis, LaDanian Tomlinson, Barry Sanders, Edgerrin James, and Marcus Allen. Not surprisingly, none are in the top six in single season rankings.

Smith’s highest single season ranking was 19th. Payton’s was 15th. Martin’s was 26th. Bettis – 21st. Tomlinson – 25th. Sanders – 66th. James – 12th. And Allen 16th. Longevity favors a reasonable pace.

If Murray can up his per game rushing average 10 yards over the last three games of the regular season, he will become the eighth player in NFL history to rush for 2,000. If Murray maintains his 154 yards from scrimmage average, he will finish with 2,460 – the second highest total in NFL history, just 49 yards short of the all-time mark set by Chris Johnson of the Tennessee Titans in 2009.

This is the final year of Murray’s rookie contract, and regardless of the number of times he touches the ball he will earn just short of $1.6 million. The Cowboys will either overpay next year for a player who is virtually guaranteed not to eclipse his 2014 numbers and productivity, or someone else will. That’s economics for running backs in the NFL – underpaid through their first contract, overpaid for the rest of their careers – if they make it to a second contract.

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With running backs like Murray, the game is to get the most out of them while tread remains on the tires, and Murray is providing great return on investment right now for the Cowboys.

The margin between success and failure for running backs in the NFL is razor thin, and needs to be harvested while it’s ripe. Murray appears to be on target for a comet-like career similar to Johnson, Anderson, Wilder, George, and Riggs who were wrung virtually dry during their singularly great seasons.

Running backs are like spectacular wines. They need to be consumed at the right moment, and Murray’s time to shine is right now.

What he’s going to do with the rest of his life is not Cowboys owner Jerry Jones or coach Jason Garrett’s concern. Getting him the ball often enough to mitigate Tony Romo’s mediocrity is the game right now for the Cowboys as they try to qualify for the playoffs for the first time since 2009.

Use ’em up, and let ’em go. That’s life in the NFL.

I just hope Murray knows to enjoy the magic while he’s got it.