Author Archives: Kent Sterling

Cleveland Browns Fans Are Trying to Show Chicago Cubs Fans How to Be Pissed Off

by Kent Sterling

Cleveland Browns fans are not smiling after the trade that sent Trent Richardson to the Indianapolis Colts. Cubs fans smile no matter what.

The Cleveland Browns took a page out of the Chicago Cubs managerial handbook yesterday as they traded Trent Richardson – a player capable of helping them win today – for the draft rights to an as yet unselected player that might help in 2014 at the earliest.

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Fans of the Browns are understandably pissed this morning. After all, the season tickets on top of their refrigerator are for the 2013 season. Instead of watching a 22 year-old stud like Trent Richardson carrying the offensive load as the Browns try to win more than five games for the first time since 2007, they will step into an NFL time machine to see Willis McGahee try to recapture some magic. Did Earnest Byner not pick up his phone?

The flag has been thrown in, and Browns fans are being forced to embrace the reality that the next important day on their calendar is May 8th – the date of the 2014 NFL Draft’s first round.

Browns fans have not found a way to accept the kick the can down the street managerial strategy the way Cubs fans have. “We’ll be good in three years!” is not being chanted with the same enthusiasm in Cleveland this morning as it is on Chicago’s North Side.

Here is a sample of the Cleveland Browns message board entries about the Richardson trade:

So what happens when he runs for 1800 yards this year for the Colts and we take a flyer on the 18th pick of next years draft hoping he pans out? Any 35yo QBs coming out of college next year?
This is the dumbest f***ing thing I’ve EVER heard.
2-14. Number 2 pick in draft. Dumbardi lives up to his name. A late first round pick is all you get?
Well, TR might as well punch his ticket to Hawaii now, because he’ll all of a sudden become a pro bowler. Guaranteed. The logisitcs of getting less than value is dimwitted and short-minded. They (the FO) just threw in the towel after week 2. Idiotic.
I hate this… I’m thinking I might just be done. Our Franchise RB- F***ing MORONS@@!@!!!!!
We don’t have a running back on our roster that wasn’t on the street three weeks ago. We are starting a QB with one career start, also off the street, who was cut by three teams last year. I’m sure this will work.

That’s how you get angry at a franchise that throws in the towel early year after year. Browns fans have learned over the generations that losing today to build a champion tomorrow is bad business. Nothing in 2014 or beyond is guaranteed by sending the #3 overall pick a year ago to the Colts.

Cubs fans don’t grasp that losing today has no bearing upon their ability to win in 2016. They act like the deals sending overpaid veterans to other clubs for prospects guarantee victories down the road. There is no doubt that the Cubs will improve over the next couple of years – how could they not?

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The job for the 2014 and beyond Cubs isn’t to improve comparative to the 2013 Cubs, but to close the gap on the St. Louis Cardinals, Pittsburgh Pirates, and Cincinnati Reds. Team president Theo Epstein and GM Jed Hoyer are smarter than their predecessor – without question – but the job is to be smarter than Cards GM John Mozeliak, Bucs GM Neal Huntington, and Reds GM Walt Jockety.

Fortunately for the Browns, the AFC North is a little more fluid, and parity is possible in the NFL. Catching the Steelers and Ravens, who are both backsliding, and the Bengals as they briefly ascend (does anyone really believe Mike Brown won’t screw that up somehow?) is possible with a franchise quarterback. That doesn’t make season ticket holders feel less like buffoons for spending hard earned cash to watch a 2013 team with no chance to win.

It shouldn’t be an easy check to write for Cubs fans either, but Cubs fans keep saying things like, “We’re headed in the right direction!” Media talking heads are leading that chorus. ESPN’s Karl Ravech was a guest with Dan Dakich on 1070 the Fan (Indianapolis) yesterday, and he said the Cubs are “three years away.” I yelled at my car radio, “How the hell do you know!?”

I understand that Javier Baez, Albert Almora, Jorge Soler, Kris Bryant, and other prospects will improve the quality of play at Wrigley Field over the current lineup of journeymen. How those players will compete with a Cardinals team whose farm system is the envy of virtually every organization in baseball is beyond my ability to grasp.

Wait ’til next year rings hollow after a decade, and Browns fans understand that. Cubs fans haven’t figured it out after more than a century of lessons.

Maybe Cleveland sports fans are just a little bit smarter than Cubs fans.

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Indianapolis Colts Trade 2014 First Round Pick to Cleveland Browns for Trent Richardson

by Kent Sterling

Trent Richardson waves so long to Cleveland, and hello to Indianapolis.

Two hours after writing how the Colts were going to be just fine dealing with season ending injuries to Vick Ballard, Donald Thomas, and Dwayne Allen, general manager Ryan Grigson showed his disdain for my opinion by swapping the team’s first rounder in next year’s draft for 2012 #3 overall pick Trent Richardson.

In the same post where I wrote that Ballard wouldn’t me missed, I wrote that if the Colts were an anatomically correct doll, Grigson would be the stones. About that, I was right. This trade reveals stones that would require a Ford F150 to haul.

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If the Colts spiral south in the very strange and hard to predict world of the NFL, that pick could be a massive asset in exchange for a running back who seemingly has underperformed in 18 NFL games. Richardson’s per carry average with the Browns is a very ordinary 3.5 years.

That’s not nearly the full story about the former ‘Bama stud.

Let’s get all the bad news out of the way – Richardson graded as 61st of 63 running backs in pass blocking efficiency, according to Pro Football Focus.

The good news is that Richardson is really good at making tacklers miss. He is an exceptionally elusive back. He’s not Adrian Peterson, but he’s tied for the NFL lead in causing missed tackles.

Richardson is kind of a strange duck in that he causes missed tackles, but in almost 300 attempts Richardson has never broken a run for more than 32 yards. His long gain this season in 31 carries is 10 yards. The half full view is that Richardson is a consistent gainer of less than ten yards, rather than a Peterson who will run for 170 yards in 20 attempts because two of his runs totaled 145 yards.

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To this point in his career, Richardson has been a singles hitter, but string together enough singles, and the runs come.

Another strength is Richardson’s ability to catch the ball out of the backfield. He has good hands and also led the NFL in causing missed tackles after the catch last season.

If Richardson’s poor blocking scores are removed from the equation, he’s a top 12 back despite running behind two of the worst run blocking tackles in football with the Browns.

Richardson is a significant upgrade from Ballard, as you might guess given their respective draft positions – Richardson at #3 and Ballard at #170 – and it would seem Richardson will slide into the Ballard side of the two-headed monster in the backfield very neatly. It should be a good fit as Richardson and Ballard are almost exactly the same size at 5’9 1/2″ and 225 lbs.

If the Colts finish 8-8 or better, this will be a hell of a good deal. If the Colts go in the tank and net a top ten draft position, not such a great deal.

One thing is for sure, the 2014 first round pick for the Colts is not going to move the sticks, punch it in from inside the five, or be an asset toward a win of any kind in 2013, and Richardson just turned 22, so there is plenty of wear left on those tires.

As far as the poor grades for pass protection, Richardson was graded as a very good blocker coming out of Alabama. There is a chance the poor assessment during his time with the Browns was due to poor schemes or inadequate work by the guys up front paid to keep Brandon Weeden upright.

Grigson hasn’t been in the Colts GM chair very long, but with this trade he leaves no doubt that he will pull the trigger to improve his team right now.

The Browns get to continue to look toward the future as an NFL version of the Chicago Cubs for whom “win now” appears an impossibility, and the Colts get a running back who erases any concern about depth at one of the three positions where injuries have ravaged their depth.

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Indianapolis Colts – Injuries to Dwayne Allen, Vick Ballard, and Donald Thomas All Survivable

by Kent Sterling

The Colts looked set with two outstanding young tight ends as training camp began. Now, half of that duo is on the shelf.

The Indianapolis Colts weren’t an 11-5 team last year because of the play of their left guard, running back, and tight end, and whatever record they earn in 2013 won’t be because of season ending injuries to Donald Thomas, Vick Ballard, and Dwayne Allen.

They are the gallbladder, spleen, and second kidney of the Colts offense – great to have around, but the host body can live a normal life without them. For lovers of continued anatomical metaphors, Reggie Wayne is a lung, Coby Fleener is the other kidney, Anthony Castonzo is the pancreas, and Gosder Cherilus is the stomach. Andrew Luck is both the brain and heart.

The defense? They are the digestive system because they need to be tough enough to eat nails and crap steel. The balls belong to the front office because Ryan Grigson spends a lot of money, and if that cash doesn’t buy wins, he’ll hear about it on Twitter from the guy writing those massive checks.

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What does any of that mean for the 2013 Colts? They are in a tough spot if one more offensive player goes down. That goes for anyone – not just the starters.

Ranking the importance of the losses on a 1-10 scale is not difficult, but has less to do with the overall talent of the lost player than the gap between the injured and the healthy.

Dwayne Allen (7.5) – Coby Fleener and Dominique Jones are able to block and catch, but if either goes down, that would leave Cathedral High School product Jack Doyle and practice squad member Justice Cunningham to man that post. We haven’t seen enough of Jones to know exactly how good he is, but in camp he appeared solid. The Patriots have lost Rob Gronkowski and Aaron Hernandez, and are 2-0 with Michael Hoomanawanui, Matt Mulligan, and Zach Sudfeld. Allen is a unique athlete and personality whose assets cannot be easily replaced.

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Guard Donald Thomas (6) – Big free agent get for the Colts who was needed to shore up their offensive line, and with him out for the season with a torn quad, the line has a very similar look to the group that allowed the Franchise take 41 sacks and more than 120 hits (more than any other QB in the NFL by nearly 30). Third round pick Hugh Thornton should be ready to go. He was the sixth guard taken, and the sixth best OG in all of college football should be able to exist on the field without causing catastrophic results.

Vick Ballard (3) – As long as Ahmad Bradshaw stays healthy, the running game shouldn’t miss a beat. He’s an excellent blocker, and as we saw Sunday against the Dolphins, picking up a blitz is not at the top of Donald Brown’s list of talents. Bradshaw staying healthy is a crap shoot. In his six previous seasons, Bradshaw has played in every game just one time.

Right now, the Colts are still able to operate because Luck and a bunch of electrical workers could beat Jacksonville twice, and a fully healthy squad would have a tough time with a very angry San Francisco 49ers squad embarrassed in Seattle Sunday night..

The first game that might be effected by the injuries will be against Seattle at Lucas Oil Stadium. The Seahawks are definitely a championship level team at home (8-0) and very beatable (4-6 including two playoff games on the road).

The Colts are going to be just fine as long as the injury gods deem that the Colts offense has suffered enough.

Indiana Football – Kevin Wilson Is Growing Into His Position as Coach

by Kent Sterling

Yesterday, as I watched Nebraska head football coach Bo Pelini whine about Tommie Frazier and then excoriate Cornhuskers fans from audio recorded two years ago, I thought about the way I used to feel about Indiana head coach Kevin Wilson.

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When he was first introduced as the head coach almost three years ago, I thought Wilson would likely flame out or implode as coach. He seemed too tightly wound, and too demanding, as though demanding victory could cause winning. If only it was that easy.

After a two-year sabbatical from day-to-day contact with the Hoosiers program, I returned to Bloomington for the preseason media event where Wilson spoke about the state of the program and his third season leading Indiana Football.

I waited for the petulant side of Wilson to appear. Surely, the guy with such high expectations for himself and the program would be wearing thin after a combined 5-19 record in his two seasons at IU, and he would likely say something in anger that would be pretty interesting.

Aside from a brief expression of dissatisfaction of the attendance at the 2012 Wisconsin game, he was everything I didn’t expect. There was a confidence and patience to Wilson that was nowhere near the surface of his behavior when he first arrived in Bloomington. A spirit of cooperation and fun had somehow found their way into the core of Wilson’s bearing that gave him the aura of an excellent leader.

I didn’t believe what I heard, so I wrote about the mini-rant about the lack of fans at the Wisconsin game. Since then, I have been to every game, postgame interview, and Monday media gathering. If anything, Wilson has taken an additional step or two toward being the coach athletics director Fred Glass says he knew he was going to be 15 minutes after meeting Wilson.

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Coaches at all levels are evaluated based upon wins and losses, but there is a behavior that can help players perform to the best of their ability, and not only does Wilson show it, his players echo it.

Wilson came to Indiana as a guy who could build an offense and a make a quarterback shine. Every time Hoosiers QB Nate Sudfeld talks, I listen because the best way to evaluate a football coach is through the level of play and confidence of his quarterback.

Quarterback knows what he can do to improve and what’s expected of him, and the coach gets a passing grade. Quarterback knows what’s important to his offensive teammates, and leads them, coach gets an A.

Sudfeld not only says all the right things, but he does them too.

There were stories from very solid sources about Wilson’s behavior that provided reason for worry that eventually he would blow his stack and self-immolate as it appears Pelini has, but those issues appear to be in his past.

Building a culture in a team that has been in operation for better than a century is hard work and requires incredible patience. It’s not easy to take pleasure in the small victories that will hopefully lead to on field wins, but it appears that Wilson is proud of the small wins, and secure in the knowledge that those small wins provide the only path to the victories he, his team, and IU fans crave.

Wilson talks about perfection as a goal, but not a possibility. He says that the best he can hope for is that players do the right thing, and learn from the mistakes. He is never too generous in praise or too damning in criticism – at least not publicly. The self-indulgences so routinely apparent in coaches (ill-temper, public venting, entertaining but harmful rhetoric) seems to have been exorcised from his being, and what’s left appears to be a damn good football coach. He takes risks that show confidence in his team. That’s what good leaders do.

There was a clear disconnect between the players and Wilson early on. As the Hoosiers would score and the offense came off the field in 2011, Wilson would reach out to slap the hands of his players. More often than not, they glided by without any acknowledgement that Wilson’s outstretched hand even existed. Not anymore.

The key to being a good leader has less to do with great strategy than getting the most out of employees/staff/team, and it appears that not only is Wilson more successful in getting solid recruits to agree to come to Bloomington, but now is getting a higher level of play out of them.

Indiana Football has been a train wreck for 20 years, meaning there is not a single student at Indiana University who can remember when the football team was any good. That kind of legacy leaves a mark on a program, and winning fans in large enough number to fill Memorial Stadium is still a far-off dream, but for the first time in a long time, there appears to be a light at the end of the tunnel that is not an oncoming locomotive.

Unless there is an unforeseeable reversal in Wilson’s demeanor, the biggest problem for Indiana Football is not going to come from a Pelini-esque outburst, it will be how to keep him in Bloomington at the end of his seven-year contract.

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Six Months After Leaving St. Louis – Six Lessons Learned by Kent

by Kent Sterling

Sure, I lived in this building in St. Louis, but it was never home.

Six months ago today, I packed and came home. The job as program director at 101ESPN wasn’t enough to keep me happy, and just as important it wasn’t enough to keep my wife happy.

Many of the people at 101ESPN were wonderful, and I’m looking forward to seeing many of them this weekend, but home is home, and you don’t mess with home.

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I made some mistakes both in how I moved to St. Louis and in how I lived there. They might be instructive for others who contemplate a similar move, so I thought the lessons that I learned might be worth listing.

1 – When one moves, everyone moves – The first lesson I learned from my Dad when I was 14, and for financial reasons, I ignored it. Trying to outsmart life is always a mistake, and money is so often the motivation. When I was offered the job in St. Louis, I told Julie and we decided to to sell the house and move together. Then a reasonable alternative was proposed by Julie’s boss and longtime family friend, and we decided that Julie could continue to live here, she would drive the St. Louis on the weekends, and we would be a two income/two home family. On paper, it looks great. I’ve seen other families torn apart by doing this, and it’s to Julie’s credit that after almost two years, we were still solid. My Dad accepted a job offer when I was in the eighth grade that took us from our hometown, and I was more than a little pissed for a while. It was the right call because if family isn’t the top priority, it won’t be around for long.

2 – Understand where home is – The second to last straw in my decision to return to Indianapolis was during the NFL Combine. I took the week off to come back to help two members of the 101ESPN staff get some things done in Indianapolis. Tony Softli would work the Combine, and Bob Ramsey was to call the Saint Louis University vs. Butler game Thursday. The guys didn’t really need my help, but I enjoyed showing off the Emmis Building where they would use a studio on several occasions. When I brought them in, people were very friendly, and reminded me that this is home. Hugs mean something to me, as silly as that sounds, and I got a lot of hugs from old friends and co-workers. Walking around the halls, I remember thinking, “I haven’t worked here is three years, and people treat me like an old friend. After almost two years in St. Louis, there are still pockets of people who wished I had never shown up.” Many of the people in St. Louis were wonderful and generous, but others were not. That week, it dawned on me that Indy is home.

3 – Shoot a hostage – Everyone, and I mean everyone, with whom I discussed managerial strategy prior to leaving Indy for St. Louis told me the first thing to I should do is fire someone. There is a weasel on every staff, and that person needs to be found and dispatched. I thought that was a bad attitude to have walking into a building. If I couldn’t be a manager who served as an ambassador for each member of his staff until he exhausted all resources and options before taking the final step, what was the point in moving? While the humane thing to do, it was a waste of time. I was still smarting enough from my own firing at Emmis that I didn’t want to bring that level of unpleasantness to somebody else – at least not until I was sure. I knew exactly who the guy I needed to punt was from the first meeting, and should have acted immediately. If you need any help figuring out who to fire if you are in a similar position, the first person who welcomes you once you walk into your office on the first day you are on the job is a great bet.

4 – Jump into the pool, don’t dip a toe in – I worked for two guys as PDs who moved to Indianapolis in very different ways. Bobby Hatfield did the weekend commuter thing from Columbus, Ohio. Jon Quick bought a house immediately, and moved his family when he began working for Emmis. Bobby made it almost 10 months, and Jon lasted 12 years. There is a correlation. This is similar to tip #1, but it involves making the call to buy a house immediately, which Jon did. I thought he was a madman given Bobby’s short tenure, and the abrupt departure of Ed Lennon within 10 weeks of Emmis buying the station. When the seller found out what Jon did for a living, he bumped the earnest money requirement. Jon and his family made Indy home very quickly, and that’s the way to do it. I lived in a hotel for two months, and then we rented an apartment downtown. If you aren’t willing to buy a house immediately, don’t make the move.

5 – Release the past – While past work experiences helped mold me into the person hired in St. Louis, bringing them into meetings as alternative strategies is a mistake. Nothing drove me crazier than people coming into Emmis and talking about what they did here or there. It conveyed an arrogance, as though we had been incapable of seeing those alternatives as options prior to their arrival. I caught myself doing that a lot in St. Louis, and should have seen that as evidence of discomfort. We had a strategist who would come in every now and again to help us build plans, and every time I walked into those meetings, I wished that I was headed into the kind of meetings we used to have at Emmis with Gerry Tabio. That attitude did not help me take full advantage of what these meetings offered.

6 – Negotiate a user friendly lease – It cost us nearly eight grand to break our lease. That is the kind of dumbass financial event that leaves a mark. I was pretty smart getting some concessions when I moved in, but should have been much more aware of the cost of moving out – especially when we renewed after the first 12-months.

Distance is important in assessing the pros and cons of a move, and six months out, I have a much clearer view of what I did well and what I did poorly. I have no regrets – either in moving to St. Louis (to the extent I did) or in leaving. I left St. Louis with more friends than I had when I arrived, came back to a city that I had learned was home, and knew exactly what I was supposed to do and how to do it.

I’m more fulfilled than I have ever been – writing and hosting radio are endlessly challenging. Talking about why things happen in sports, searching for the truth, and telling the unique stories of the athletes makes me happy. As in sports, perfect is a goal that can never be realized, but striving for it is a daily motivation.

Julie is happier than ever. Ryan is in law school. The sun comes up every morning presenting new challenges.

Nebraska Football – Bo Pelini Audio Pipe Bomb May Doom His Career at Nebraska

by Kent Sterling

There should be a buffer between powerful people who can’t keep their inner-thoughts from spilling from their mouths. Rolling tape on a volatile person when they don’t know they are being recorded is classless.

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None of that excuses Nebraska head coach Bo Pelini from going off anywhere near a microphone in the way he did about journalists and fans two years ago prior to his postgame interview on the network broadcast of a game against Ohio State, but people deserve an opportunity to say something ridiculous once in awhile without it being posted online or broadcast.

Deadspin released the recording of Pelini’s comments that a disgruntled Cornhuskers fan had stored away since 2011 as an audio pipe bomb designed to get him fired. After the loss to UCLA last Saturday, the source pressed send, and now we can all hear the profane venting of a coach pissed off at the world.

And people wonder why coaches cheat to gain an advantage.

Pelini says his comments “were spoken in a private room following the Ohio State game,” but there should never be an expectation of privacy when smart phones might be present. They are also exceptionally adept recorders, and the audio can be shared on social media immediately after recording stops.

The only thing that keeps people from being humiliated by their own words each day is the trust that what we say won’t be shared, which for public figures is becoming a pretty dumb notion.

The recording won’t be the reason for the firing, but it will be the reason he can’t be saved.

Gotcha media is the stuff that Deadspin profits from, and that’s a shame. People like it when the curtain is peeled back to reveal authenticity, and visiting Deadspin is a very economical way to do get a fix. The conscience that used to guide coverage has been destroyed by websites like Deadspin that care nothing about people, just profits and page views.

The hunger our society has for hearing and seeing people act like boobs is shrinking the world, and is making it very difficult for anyone to have a private conversation. People are in constant fear of sounding like idiots and losing their jobs, and as a result spend a lot of time talking without saying anything.

For instance, hear is the statement Pelini released through the university:

“I want to sincerely apologize for my comments from two years ago which became public today. I take full responsibility for these comments. They were spoken in a private room following the Ohio State game. I was venting following a series of emotional events which led to this moment. That being said, these comments are in no way indicative of my true feelings. I love it here in Nebraska and feel fortunate to be associated with such a great University and fan base. I again apologize to anyone whom I have offended.”

The mistake people make in releasing their apologies is they are never as compelling as the statement or action for which the apology is necessary. What Pelini is really means is, “These bastards who put out the audio from a private conversation are gutless weasels, and I would say the whole thing again under the circumstances. It’s a damned impossibility to do the job here with the constant din of sniping by the media and fans.”

Nebraska Chancellor Harvey Perlman statement:

“I am aware of the publication of Coach Pelini’s comments, I am disappointed and in discussions with Shawn Eichorst about addressing the issue.”

What Perlman means is, “I’m going to lick my finger, stick it in the air and see which way the wind is blowing, and then act accordingly. Like all administrators, noise annoys me, and I will do what it takes to silence it. If it stops on its own, Pelini will still have a job. If this chaos doesn’t pass in 48 hours, which is the standard threshold for administrative pain. All bets are off if I get a call from Warren Buffett.”

Nebraska AD Shawn Eichorst’s statement:

“I am disheartened and disappointed by the 2011 comments published today attributed to Coach Pelini about our dedicated and passionate fans and supporters. I have spoken with Chancellor Perlman and I have addressed the situation with Bo and expressed our deep concern.”

What Eichorst means is, “As soon as I heard the audio, I immediately ran to the chancellor to find out how he would like me to act because I do not want to be the next Tim Pernetti (the AD from Rutgers who was fired over his handling of the Tim Rice scandal despite doing nothing wrong other than following the specific instructions of Rutgers counsel). What the chancellor says goes, and I will stay happily out of the line of fire.”

All this because a Cornhuskers fan with some damning audio decided the timing was right to press send.

“The System” Releases Today; Shows College Football as It Is – Educational, Corrupt, Wildly Popular, and Enabling the Wretched

by Kent Sterling

There are stories of people readers will really like in “The System.” Lane Kiffin is not one of them.

The disconnect between reality in college football and the pie in the sky ideals enforced upon the NCAA by university presidents show a disconnect that can only be explained by the fear of potential financial loss.

Forget morality and the sanctity of amateurism as motivation for the NCAA (and by the NCAA, I mean the university presidents who comprise the membership of the organization), it’s about money. It’s always about the money.

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“The System” is above all else a very entertaining book about what really happens on college campuses to and for college football players. Jeff Benedict and Armen Keteyian gained the trust of the players, families, coaches, boosters, and support staff. They tell their stories. My wife even loved the book, saying each chapter was just like reading an episode of “Friday Night Lights.”

For those who have grown fatigued by the constant din of allegations that college football is corrupt – like last week’s series by Sports Illustrated on Oklahoma State and Yahoo Sports report on payments from agents to Alabama’s D.J. Fluker, Mississippi State’s Fletcher Cox, and three other SEC players – this will be a welcome respite.

This book is not filled with allegations of rule breaking, it’s about the people who are a part of the fabric of an immensely popular game governed by rules that are impossible to enforce – by coaches, compliance officers, or the NCAA. Rules are broken, but outing the corrupt is not the mission of “The System.”

Where there is value, payment is made, but “The System” is about people, not rules.

NCAA President Mark Emmert spoke at Marquette yesterday, and said, “One thing that sets the fundamental tone is there’s very few members and, virtually no university president, that thinks it’s a good idea to convert student-athletes into paid employees. Literally into professionals. Then you have something very different from collegiate athletics. One of the guiding principles (of the NCAA) has been that this is about students who play sports.”

Emmert knows as well as the university presidents, or anyone who reads this book, that players get paid. Families are offered cash, and sometimes accept it. Agents pay athletes. Autograph brokers pay athletes. Coaches are railroaded. Hostesses break rules. Punishment follows honesty.

The book isn’t an exhaustively researched academic tome, but a well told series of stories about some very interesting people. Some do bad things, and others have bad things done to them. It shines a very bright light on well-known episodes that have made the news in college football, but it’s not an unfair light.

There is way too much money at stake for everyone to have a level playing field enforced by a set of rules so difficult to interpret that a school like Ohio State has a compliance office staffed by 12 well meaning experts, according to the book. Coaches want to coach. Players want to play. Boosters and hostesses want to help. And everyone wants to get paid.

The stories of Jim Tressel, Mike Leach, a Tennessee hostess, T. Boone Pickens, tutors at Missouri, and many more are told in “The System.” Some of the stories are surprising, some heartbreaking, all compelling.

Each chapter is a tile in a mosaic that paints a very accurate picture of the culture of college football.

It’s fascinating, horrifying, and always powerful.

There are problems within college football that we are all aware of, but this book gives them names and faces. The narratives within “The System” make the book impossible to put down, and will inform debate among fans and administrators for generations.

Trying to control college football players is like herding cats, but the current financial environment and complex labyrinth of rules don’t serve to help. “The System” helps us understand why.

Someone Needs to Answer for the Chicago Cubs Relentless Losing – and His Name is Tom Ricketts

by Kent Sterling

Cubs fans, If this charlatan offers to shake your hand, go ahead, but hold on tightly to your wallet.

Including the game tonight against the Milwaukee Brewers, the Chicago Cubs have 13 games remaining in this very unpleasant season. If they lose 10-of-13, the Cubs will have amassed more losses than in any three-year period in their woeful history.

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Digging deeper into the bedrock of Cubs misery than any owner, GM, or manager ever has is not easy for the team that has heaped more of it upon its fans than any other sports franchise in world history. It required selling off any asset for whom another team offered anything resembling a reasonable price.

As bad as the Cubs have been historically, only once in their 137 seasons have they met or exceeded 90 losses for three straight seasons (1960-1962). If the Cubs can manage four more losses in the last 13 games that wrap this death march is a drab black bow, they will join those three terrible teams led by Charlie Grimm, Lou Bourdreau, Elvin Tappe, Charlie Metro, Lou Klein, Harry Craft, and Vedie Himsl.

Why did the Cubs have so many managers in a three season period? If you have never heard of the College of Coaches, I will spare you the explanation of the logic behind one of the most infamous failed experiments in the history of sports leadership.

Whether the team is headed toward a winning record as soon as 2015 is debatable, but even if Cubs president Theo Epstein and general manager Jed Hoyer are building depth within a farm system left bare by efforts made by former GM Jim Hendry to save his job by acquiring mediocre veterans for young talent, this potentially unprecedented level of poor results is unacceptable.

The media and fans in Chicago seem content to buy the five-to-seven year plan blather being proffered by Cubs ownership and management as though losing now is required to eventually win. I can’t find any evidence from the free agency era to suggest that losing begats winning. There is no moving toward creating an NFL-espue parity among the 30 franchises. Losers lose, and winners win in baseball.

The refrain is consistent, “We’re headed in the right direction.” How in the hell does anyone have any idea whether that’s true. The people making that claim have likely never seen Javier Baez or Jorge Soler play in person. I haven’t either, but I’m a little more reluctant to vote them into the 2016 All Star Game before they put on a major league uniform.

There is no doubt the bottom line in headed in the right direction. Minus the dubious decision to overpay pitcher Edwin Jackson through 2016, Ricketts has liquidated every asinine and bloated contract Hendry entered into, and has spent with caution that would make Dave Ramsey envious.

Until last year’s idiotic decision to hire Bobby Valentine as manager, the Boston Red Sox – which Epstein famously rebuilt into World Champion before jumping to the Cubs – had not lost 90 games a single time since 1966. The Yankees have posted winning seasons back to 1992. Conversely, the Kansas City Royals have lost 90 or more in 12 of the last 17 seasons.

A return to the corrupt Hendry model of overpaying for mediocrity over many years is not what anyone in his right mind would campaign for, but the relentlessness of selling parts for the castoffs of successful organizations is an insult to the people buying tickets to see a major league product. The starters tonight are Castro ($5M), Valbuena ($930K), Rizzo ($498K), Schierholtz ($930K), Sweeney ($1.75M), Lake ($498K), Castillo ($503K), and Barney ($562K). Ticket prices in 2013 dropped 2%.

The time has come for fans to tell these profit mongers to eat it and renounce the rights to renew their season tickets. Owner Tom Ricketts showed himself to be a liar when he threatened to move from Wrigley Field if the city didn’t approve the upgrades he demanded. There was no chance at all that the Cubs would or could leave the Friendly Confines. When he told the media that the approval would result in a championship, the group of saps should have arisen as one and carried this twit on to next #22 bus, pants him, and mussed his hair.

The Cubs are years away from being competitive, but the propaganda will continue to be spread by the gutless media so afraid of telling the truth that they are de facto members of the team’s media relations staff (minus Sun-Times Cubs beat reporter Gordon Whittenmyer, who appears to have a reasonable handle on the truth).

The truth is that the Cubs suck, and that there is no evidence at all that those currently employed to teach players how to behave on a major league diamond can cause the result they are paid to achieve. How many Cubs, minus the weird outliers like Donnie Murphy, have become better baseball players at Wrigley Field. Castro has seen a slight increase in fielding percentage from .950 to .961 to .964, and now .970 in 2013. Simultaneously, Castro’s offense has wandered south. Power is down, strikeouts are up, and OPS is an rancid .620. His WAR is currently a -0.8, which means the Cubs should expect a shortstop off the street to out perform Castro.

When I was a child, I dreamed of picking up my season tickets to watch the Cubs at Wrigley Field. Now, I dream of being a season ticket holder so that I could tell the salesperson given the sad and unenviable task of securing my renewal that it’s the turn of some other moron to stuff Ricketts’ pockets with cash for the right to watch the Cubs lose 90+ games, “The play is to win in 2016? Give me a call then.”

That would be the first smile the Cubs provided me in five years.

Indiana Football – Kevin Wilson Has More Respect for Mizzou Than Missouri Has for Indiana

by Kent Sterling

This picture of a fan and his girlfriend at Busch Stadium was used in a St. Louis webstie to describe what a “Hoosier” is.

When I moved to St. Louis a couple of years ago, I was unaware that people in Missouri use “Hoosier” as a derisive and mocking term to describe white trash or a hayseed. Some there aren’t even aware that Hoosiers is also the name for those from Indiana or the nickname of the teams and students from Indiana University.

I learned it very quickly, and loathed it. I’m not originally from Indiana, but the “Wow, he’s so Hooz (prounounced like “rouge”) got old in a hurry.

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Hopefully, this weekend, people from Missouri find out exactly what a Hoosier is. I try not to get emotionally involved in contests between two teams because it tends to cloud my vision and keeps me from judging play based upon a viewpoint that is just.

I’m suspending that emotional boycott for this one game. I want the Hoosiers to beat the living hell out of the Missouri Tigers this Saturday night for a variety of reasons, but chief among them is the oddly haughty attitude people in the Show Me State display toward those from Indiana.

If you think the recent dust-up over the use of Redskins by the NFL team based in Washington DC shows an ugly side to how callous Americans are in depicting Native Americans, they have nothing on Missourians’ disdain for all things from Indiana.

I don’t know whether Kevin Wilson is as blissfully unaware of the lack of respect people in Missouri reserve for Hoosiers as I was, but his assessment of Missouri’s strengths and coaching staff was borderline reverent. That’s how Hoosiers act. They give credit where credit is due, despite the Tigers 5-7 record last season.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J87L_0FL9l4

I’m sure Mizzou’s Gary Pinkel will blow kisses toward Indiana and Wilson during his remarks to the media, but if the reality mirrors the perception within a few miles of the Ozarks, they will walk into Memorial Stadium without believing for a second that Indiana has any chance to hold serve at home.

Yes, Mizzou has James Franklin, which could work in Indiana’s favor, and the supremely talented and enabled Dorial Green -Beckham. James and DGB, come meet the Hoosiers. I hope your stay is miserable.

Indianapolis Colts 24-20 Loss to Dolphins Will Hurt Come December, and Pep Hamilton Will Have to Answer for It

by Kent Sterling

Colts OC Pep Hamilton isn’t smiling this morning, and neither is anyone else in Indianapolis.

The Colts were rolling down the field, appearing to have the number of the Miami Dolphins defense. On the Miami 34 facing second-and-one, Colts offensive coordinator Pep Hamilton took a shot deep to Darrius Heyward-Bey down the left side followed by another throw to DHB on third-and-one. Drive stalls, Adam Vinatieri knocks a long field goal attempt off the upright, and the offense left the field with zero points.

There were plenty of other reasons for the Colts losing yesterday – including a strange illegal shift penalty against Reggie Wayne that turned an Andrew Luck touchdown strike to tight end Coby Fleener into a Vinatieri chip shot. Seven points becoming three is a pretty good explanation for a four-point loss.

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So is a defense that showed up at 1:30p for a 1p kick, so it isn’t all on Hamilton’s calls and Luck’s execution, but it’s what kept ringing in my head as the game unfolded.

With a 16-game season, holding serve at home against mediocrity is essential, especially with a trip to San Francisco looming this weekend. The 49ers are not likely to be hospitable hosts as they lost badly against the Seattle Seahawks in a divisional matchup that is likely to be of huge importance as the teams who are said to be the two best in the NFL will battle for the NFC West crown. With 1-2 staring the Colts in the eye, this game needed to be successfully negotiated.

The Colts took the opening kick, and effectively moved the ball chunk by chunk into Dolphins territory – first a gain of three on a Reggie Wayne catch, then an Ahmad Bradshaw nine-yard run, followed by a five-yard reception by Stanley Havili, a 20-yard catch by T.Y. Hilton, and finally another nine-yard gashing by Bradshaw. Then, the Colts got greedy without reason, and the Dolphins responded with a six play, 58-yard drive that looked more like part of a non-contact workout at Colts Camp than a September Sunday effort in front of 65,406.

It appeared that the Colts had so many ways they could advance the ball successfully that offensive coordinator Pep Hamilton had trouble choosing, and when he chose the deep ball, the result was to put the Colts in a tough spot. There is no telling how the game might have unfolded had the Colts continued that opening drive that looked so promising until reaching the end zone, but those risks on second and third and one sure appeared to be unnecessary.

Fans don’t know exactly what workload Bradshaw’s foot injury allows, but to have Donald Brown on the field late in the game when it was a virtual certainty that the Dolphins would blitz and Bradshaw is acknowledged as the best blocking back in the NFL was strange and resulted in a Philip Wheeler sack of Luck that effectively ended the game. I kept thinking of the great highlight clip of Peyton Manning screaming “Goddammit, Donald!” a couple of years ago when Brown whiffed on a block that forced Manning to run for his life as Brown was embarrassed by Wheeler.

Former NFL head coach and master defensive coordinator Rick Venturi says a lot of smart things, and one he credits to his dad who was a hall of fame coach in Illinois, “First, you have to outcoach the fans.” There were situations yesterday when Hamilton did not outcoach the fans.

There is no question that there were other issues that caused the Colts loss that dropped their record to 1-1, but the meandering and unsure offensive gameplan was one of them.

Just as surely as a quarterback needs time to adapt to the unique challenges presented by the NFL compared to those faced in college, so it will be with Hamilton as an offensive coordinator. He’s done time with NFL teams as a quarterbacks and wide receivers coach, but this is a little bit different as the architect of the offense.

Having a quarterback is talented as Luck presents challenges too. He can do it all, so the difficulty becomes in selecting which of those things to ask of him – throw deep, throw short, roll him out, play action, or turn him loose on a designed run or two.

The loss hurts today for fans, but the potential exists for it to be a massive regret come December, and as you look down the schedule, losing games that are very winnable have a serious price. Yesterday’s game could keep the Colts out of the playoffs, and those calls on second and then third-and-one early in the first quarter might stand as the difference between the Colts advancing to the playoffs and going home early.