Author Archives: Kent Sterling

Indiana’s Tom Crean Throws Lots of Scholarship Offers Around for Few Spots

by Kent Sterling

So far, Tom Crean has caught some big fish with that wide net.

Recruiting basketball players is a tough game for coaches, and there are different strategies for each program. Some cast a wide net, and other are more specific in their targeting.

Over the last couple of weeks, media reports have featured news about Indiana coach Tom Crean offering scholarships to prep star after prep star at a rate that far outpaces availability.

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Weird thoughts like every kid calling simultaneously to accept start to creep into my head each time I read about Indiana offering another kid. I know that the strategy Crean employs is not to have every player with an offer to attend, but with every offer it seems Indiana is like the host who invites everyone he knows to a party and hopes out of that group someone he really likes will show up.

Crean isn’t alone in exercising a plan to issue a lot of invitations for very few seats, but I wondered just how many coaches pursue players in the same way, and how many are a little more discriminating. I put a pen to paper and counted the number of recruits that have reportedly been offered by every Big Ten men’s basketball program, and 10 others. This took a considerable amount of time, and I’m still not sure exactly what the data means.

Here is a look at the number of scholarships each Big Ten program has offered in the 2014, 2015, and 2016 classes, and how many are available at those schools for those classes:

Scholarships offered in ’14, ’15, and ’16 with number available in each year in parentheses:

Indiana – 18 (1), 17 (1), 10 (4) = 45 (6)
Ohio State – 13 (1), 19 (5), and 5 (1) = 37 (7)
Minnesota – 26 (5), 9 (5), 1 (1) = 36 (11)
Purdue – 20 (4), 11 (0), 2 (4) = 33 (8)
Iowa – 21 (4), 9 (3), 3 (5) = 33 (12)
Illinois 14 (1), 12 (4), 3 (1) = 29 (6)
Nebraska – 14 (2), 9 (5), 1 (3) = 24 (10)
Penn State – 7 (0), 12 (2), 1 (3) = 20 (5)
Michigan State – 9 (3), 8 (4), 2 (3) = 19 (10)
Wisconsin – 7 (0), 8 (5), 2 (2) = 17 (7)
Northwestern – 11 (2), 4 (2), 1 (4) = 16 (8)
Michigan – 5 (1), 3 (1), 1 (6) = 9 (8)

Here’s a look at several other high-profile programs:

Arizona – 28 (2), 20 (2), 4 (3) = 52 (7)
UCLA – 29 (5), 15 (1), 5 (3) = 49 (9)
Kansas – 17 (1), 17 (1), 2 (4) = 36 (6)
Georgetown – 19 (0), 12 (6), 2 (3) = 33 (9)
Kentucky – 10 (2), 8 (0), 2 (2) = 20 (4)
Notre Dame – 9 (4), 8 (1), 0 (3) = 17 (8)
Syracuse – 7 (2), 7 (1), 2 (4) = 16 (7)
Butler – 11 (2), 5 (4), 0 (2) = 16 (8)
North Carolina – 4 (0), 7 (3), 2 (4) = 13 (7)
Duke – 8 (3), 4 (1), 1 (5) = 13 (9)

Obviously, not taken into account are the players who will choose to leave early to head to the NBA or transfer, and while the offers have been made to many and accepted by a few, until the letters of intent are signed, none of us really knows a thing.

The boys reporting to their high schools for the first time this week – the class of 2017 – are just too hard to keep track of, but Crean has reportedly offered a few of those too. Why players, parents, or coaches would confirm those offers to the media is beyond my ability to comprehend. Putting a target on a 14 year-old’s back is unnecessary and counter to the kid being able to enjoy fully his high school experience. “When in doubt, stay quiet,” is a damn good rule.

The only programs that top Indiana in sheer volume of offers made are UCLA and Arizona.

Indiana and Michigan finished last season numbers one and two in the Big Ten regular season standings, and they are at opposite ends of the spectrum in their philosophical approaches to recruiting.

Whether fishing for players with dynamite is fair and reasonable depends upon what’s communicated to the recruits’ families. If Minnesota recruits in the 2014 high school class are aware that there are only five spots for 26 guys, and that the first to jump get spots, there’s nothing wrong with that.

If there are kids who have offers that can’t be fulfilled by a school and the coaches neglect to tell the player, that’s shady.

The metric for success in recruiting is who reports for duty each summer, and so far it’s impossible to argue with the quality of recruiting classes put together by either Crean or Michigan coach John Beilein.

Different strokes for different folks.

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Rick Venturi Breaks Down Colts Strengths/Weaknesses and Assesses NFC West Opponents on Colts Schedule

by Kent Sterling

More than four decades coaching gives Rick Venturi a level of understanding of the NFL shared by only a handful.

You want to know something about football – something unique that you can take to conversations about the NFL and sound like you know what the hell you are talking about – listen to former Indianapolis Colts and New Orleans Saints head coach Rick Venturi for a few minutes.

He sees the game differently from fans and media. We focus on match ups. Rick sees all 11 matchups at once, and how they all work to create the result of each play. Combine that with his faculty to explain the game in a way that normal people can understand, and he is one of the best analysts of America’s game.

He’s spent the last week at both Colts and Rams camps, and offered listeners to “Ahead of the Curve on 1070 the Fan in Indianapolis a look at the strengths and weaknesses for the Colts, and how they will matchup during the four games they will play against the Rams, San Francisco 49ers, Seattle Seahawks, and Arizona Cardinals.

Rick was generous enough to spend some time with Fox 59 Sports Director Chris Hagan and me this morning, and you’ll be a smarter fan for listening to his perspective.

Former Troubled Young Gun Todd Marinovich Talks About Johnny Manziel

by Kent Sterling

What took Todd Marinovich from stud quarterback to artist who painted this self-portrait is a story Johnny Manziel should hear.

Once upon a time, there was a Sports Illustrated cover story about a high school phenom who was said to have been built as a quarterback by a doting father. Sports Illustrated published a piece, “Bred To Be A Superstar,” that pealed back the curtain on the young stud.

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His dad was one of the first strength and conditioning coaches in the NFL, and he exposed much of his son’s life to the nation in that article.

Nowhere to hide, Todd Marinovich turned to “self-medication” to escape. The downward spiral included some ups and downs at USC, a three-year NFL career, and then drug induced escape, and a young adulthood spent on a skateboard.

This week, ESPN the Magazine published a behind the scenes look at the family life of embattled Texas A&M sophomore quarterback Johnny Manziel by Wright Thompson.

Paul Manziel exposed some raw nerves that has nothing to do with Johnny Football, and everything to do with a spoiled 20 year-old to whom no one has ever said no. Paul told Thompson that he believes Johnny drinks to deal with the stress.

According to the media, one dad never said yes, and the other can’t say no. The two kids suffered as a result.

Marinovich has said the same thing – that drugs provided an escape. He told us today on “Ahead of the Curve” on 1070 the Fan in Indianapolis, “That shit works.”

Thompson has also said that Manziel is a very likable guy, and so was Marinovich when he took some time to talk about the struggles of being in a fishbowl with no place to hide.

He’s mostly unplugged from the national sports news, but once he was up to speed about Manziel and the Thompson piece, his thoughts were insightful and honest.

If you have the inclination to support a great guy with a wife and two kids (ages 2 and 4), go to toddmarinovich.com and buy a print or original.

Ahead of the Curve on 1070 the Fan at 11a – Rick Venturi, Luis Scola, Todd Mainovich and More

by Kent Sterling

I can’t wait to get to the studio today to spend two hours with Chris Hagan to talk sports. This should be a very busy and fun day on 1070 the Fan.

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We’ll talk to one of the defensive geniuses of football, Rick Venturi about the Colts and their matchups with the NFC West. Rick spent the last week at Colts and Rams Camp, and spent the last several years either coaching or covering the Rams and NFC West and their is no one better to break down the Colts and their four games against arguably the toughest division in the NFL.

Luis Scola joined the Indiana Pacers last week, and he’ll join Chris and I today for a little chat about coming to the Blue and Gold. Larry Bird searched for the final piece of the puzzle, and he just might have found it by dealing a a couple of spare parts and a draft pick to get him. Scola for Chuck ’em, Smiles for Miles, and what should be a late first round pick is the best trade since Jermaine O’Neal for Roy Hibbert, and Scola is a very interesting guy as well as a productive player.

More Pacers news was released yesterday as Chris Copeland underwent knee surgery to clean out a loose body. I heard from Chris last night, and we share what he had to say about the surgery.

Of course, we’ll talk a little bit about ARod, Tiger, the fleeting mass interest in soccer, Tony Romo not playing in tomorrow’s Hall of Fame Game, and hey, Greg Oden! But the coolest part of the show will be an interview with former quarterback stud Todd Marinovich. The more I read about Johnny Manziel, the more Todd popped into my head. I’m looking forward to hearing what Todd would tell Manziel if he had the chance.

Todd is sober now, with a successful career in art (check out toddmarinovich.com to see his outstanding work), but 20 years ago the pressures of being a gifted quarterback proved too much and he sank into a spiral of drug use that crippled his development as a QB and a man.

We all hope that the Manziel story doesn’t have a second act that mirrors Manziels, but the discomfort with fame and expectations is something the two seem to share.

“Ahead of the Curve” with Fox 59 sports director Chris Hagan and I airs live from 11a-1p on 1070 the Fan (107.5 FM) in Indianapolis, and can be heard everywhere at 1070thefan.com.

As always, all interviews will be posted to kentsterling.com shortly after the end of the show.

Riley Cooper’s Mess Might Be Society’s Gain – Conversation Can Yield Wisdom

by Kent Sterling

Sorry isn’t going to turn back the clock on this one.

Riley Cooper did himself no favors when he threatened a black security guard while using the N-word at a Kenny Chesney concert in June, but the dialogue prompted by his idiocy is a very good thing.

I’ve heard more intelligent dialogue about racism over the last 36 hours as a result of the viral video of Cooper’s hateful and drunken shrieks than I have over the last 10 years.

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Racism is as moronic an impulse as humans are capable of attaching themselves to, and we aren’t terribly bright as a species, so some subscribe to it. And despite popular theories to the contrary, it’s still widespread.

The difference between today and 40 years ago is that racism exists only among clusters of racists in the shadows. There aren’t any David Dukes out there anymore talking about the absurd concept of white supremacy Where the misplaced pride in believing one race or another is superior is gone, the belief is still there among many, and the evolution that relegated racism to backrooms and closets makes racists both idiotic and cowardly.

Cooper, a wide receiver for the Philadelphia Eagles, has left the team to attend a franchise mandated dose of sensitivity training. Let’s be honest about why. It’s not so he learns to become more sensitive. Cooper is gone because the silence prompted by his removal might diffuse the issue.

The media is a fickle beast, and what happens from month to month tends to fade as the next story of an athlete gone awry bubbles into the public’s consciousness, this mess will bubble right out. That won’t happen for teammates, who will never look at Cooper the same way again.

And they shouldn’t.

All day today on 1070 the Fan, people wanted to talk about the racism that Cooper’s rant represented. Some talk about the difference between ending the n-word with an ‘a’ and an ‘er’. Some feel the the interpretation of the word is a generational issue. Those who remember the teachings and assassination Martin Luther King and Medgar Evans, the lynchings of blacks and civil rights workers in Mississippi, Rosa Parks refusal to step to the back of the bus, and the segregated drinking fountains and restrooms throughout the south understand the n-word as one thing. Younger people have a different historical perspective, and fail to allow the word to die.

The n-word might be the most evocative word in the English language. The effects of its use cannot be undone. For almost anything else in life, there is the possibility of sympathy and forgiveness. The use of a word that drags with it such a historical virulence is inexcusable and unforgettable.

Cooper’s Eagles teammates may forgive, but they will never forget. For eternity, he will be the guy who lost control of the dark part of his heart, and expressed a bitter hatred so cold that his performance recalls the very worst our memories can conjure of a time when hate was rampant and a significant and loud group in the south felt that blacks were subhuman.

With radio hosts as wise as Scott Van Pelt, Herm Edwards, Michael Grady, Dan Dakich, and Chris Hagan, today was a very good day for listeners looking for reasonable dialogue about a subject that can be flammable and divisive. Radio can provide a community forum unlike any other medium.

The day will come where conversations about racism will be relegated to history classes, and that day will come because of days like today when those with a minuscule residue of hate in their hearts – and that’s most of us – listen to those who state the obvious – that racism is a moronic concept – in a new and persuasive way.

Cooper wasn’t briefly an idiot whose departure from reason was sadly caught on video. He’s always been an idiot whose systemic hatred had never been betrayed. The response will take us another step toward reason, but it will likely cost Cooper his career.

Johnny Manziel Believes Negative Press Due to Jealousy – Needs to Stop Talking

by Kent Sterling

Immaturity flows from Johnny Football’s mouth like Cuervo on the beach in Cabo.

It’s hard to fathom that Johnny Manziel believes what comes out of his own mouth, but he seemed pretty sure of himself in comments to Sports Illustrated yesterday.

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“I probably rubbed people the wrong way in some cases, but at the end of the day, people are mad at me and people are upset at me because I’m doing everything they want to do.

“I’m adapting. I’m learning. I’m trying to learn from these mistakes. But I’m not going to change who I am because the media wants me to be this, this or this. I’m not going to do that. . . . You love me when I’m running around being dangerous and a loose cannon. What makes me special on the field is what people don’t like off the field. I’m still learning how to put that into perspective.”

Manziel, as we would expect, misses what is driving this story from day to day – the fascinating spectacle of watching a kid with everything misbehave his way back to the unruly pack.

He’s not envied by the media or anyone else. Johnny Manziel is a car wreck people can’t stop watching, and he won’t hit the brakes or turn the wheel to avoid the cliff that he’s rushing toward.

He needs to understand is that you don’t satisfy the appetite for information by feeding it. The media and those who consume it must be starved. If Manziel wants a normal life, like he claims, the road is through silence. Don’t say a word to anyone in the media and stay the hell off Twitter. A total media blackout will send people to the next idiot who steps on his crank in public.

But that won’t happen because Manziel doesn’t believe he’s doing anything wrong. He’s indulging every impulse because no one in his life has ever told him no. His parents are available for interviews where they happily air family laundry, and the dad reportedly brings boxes of swag to be autographed by Johnny for family and friends.

Normal can’t be found in the same area code where Manziel lives, and no one near him is willing to introduce him to it.

Two quotes from the same interview are so diametrically opposed in their tone and content that the confusing battle for this kid’s soul is in full view:

“That probably is what’s getting us in trouble—wanting to be normal. We want to be just like we’ve always been, where none of this is a big deal.”
“When we look back 20, 30 years down the road, we’re going to sit there and be like, We pretty much hung out with the f***in’ Beatles. We pretty much did everything we wanted to do.”

What he’s saying is, “I want to be normal, but being special is way too much fun!”

The shame is that Manziel could make a conscious choice to be either special or normal, but can’t.

By admitting he’s special, he moves beyond the life he has always enjoyed. By embracing the life he has always led, he denies himself the fruit of his amazing talent.

Manziel can’t have it both ways. He will either choose, or his behavior will choose for him.

Instead of talking to rap stars like Drake about how to cope with fame, he should talk to Todd Marinovich, whose life as a stud quarterback was a nightmare. He’s now a very talented artist having left football and all its trappings behind.

Manziel can be what he wants to be, but the plug must be pulled on the sideshow he’s created. His choice should be none of our business, but with every tweet and interview he creates more interest in the train wreck his life is becoming.

It’s not anger and jealousy fueling the interest in his life – it’s his inability to turn off the spigot from which this drama flows.

Motivational Poster Racket Debunked – Not Only Don’t They Work; Most Don’t Make Sense

by Kent Sterling

If this poster fills you with hope, you’re a moron.

Hyper-simplified phrases that are supposed to be empowering are revolting. People who need those phrases to motivate themselves to be something other than what they are should spend their time exercising, cobbling, or doing the things those phrases tell them to do because they are good ideas, rather than because a poster told them so.

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Dan Dakich spent some time on his 1070 the Fan show talking about the phrases he most hates. Some of those phrases are here, and I added several of those I loathe.

Here are the ten most offensive of the phrases meant to inspire hope, and why you should ignore them:

10 – The difference between try and triumph is a little umph. I’m sure the person who wrote this is quite proud of his or her work. It’s clever, but wrong. All of these phrases assume the playing field in our society is level, but anyone who has been to a WalMart knows that some have the ability to succeed, and others are destined for humanity’s scrap heap. It’s not their fault, and in no way do I take pleasure in the consistent failures of those incapable of success, but all the platitudinous posters in all the world aren’t going to help 40% of Americans from relentless failure.

9 – When you shoot for the moon and you come up short, you still end up among the stars. Notwithstanding the astrological idiocy, uttering this phrase should be enough to get a man committed to an asylum. I’m not sure what the hell it means, but I do know that people who subscribe to it are irretrievably nuts.

8 – He who is not courageous enough to take risks will accomplish nothing in life. I’ve seen a lot of people at a craps table who take risks and are going nowhere fast. Conversely, I know people who are opposed to anything but a rigged game, and they appear to do exceptionally well.

7 – You’re never a loser until you quit trying. You’re a loser when you lose. Losers try just as hard as winners most of the time. They just aren’t as talented. The myth that our desire to win affects the result is poppycock. Talent wins. Those without talent are losers. If you are untalented, sorry.

6 – If you can believe it, the mind can achieve it. This is what all great athletes believe because they achieved what they believed. Without their great athleticism, there is not a chance in hell that anyone becomes a professional athlete. All outstanding professional athletes believe they have triumphed over great odds to reach the pinnacle of their sport because of tremendous will. Total nonsense.

5 – A trophy carries dust. Memories last forever. This saying is especially mystifying. Why can’t the people who win a trophy keep it dust free – either through a daily regimen of dusting, or by keeping it in a case? And memories only last until the person who remembers the event dies. Then the memory is gone, but many times the trophy is still there. Old Tom Morris has been dead for 105 years, but the Claret Jug remains. Maybe Mary Lou Retton meant, “Memories fade, but a trophy is forever”. Gymnasts are well-known for being confused.

4 – The difference between the impossible and the possible lies in a person’s determination. This is a lie. The impossible is by definition not possible. No amount of determination can make the impossible happen. That is what makes it impossible. Let’s move on.

3 – Football doesn’t build character, it reveals character. Can’t football both build character and reveal character? The phrase could also just as easily be, “Football doesn’t destroy character, it reveals a complete lack of character.” Look at Michael Vick, Riley Cooper, Donte Stallworth, O.J. Simpson, Aaron Hernandez, Pacman Jones, and Plaxico Burress – what character did they reveal on the football field. I never looked at those guys and said, “Hmm, I’ll bet that group of guys will kill people, kill dogs, shoot themselves in the leg, have people shot, and use the n-word in public.”

2 – One man practicing sportsmanship is far better than 50 people preaching it! Knute Rockne offered this gem. Are those the only two options? Everyone should practice sportsmanship. Is there a band of weirdos talking about sportsmanship while cheating and violating game protocol? The more I read about Knute Rockne, the more I think he was the Robin Williams of football coaches. We laugh at Williams until we read the words in his act, and then realizes it’s gibberish performed by a frenetic lunatic. Rockne = Williams.

1 – Dance like no one is watching! Do you know why men don’t normally dance like no one is watching? Because people are watching, and everyone looks like an idiot when they dance. When I was in junior high, we had dances. There was a group of us who played bumper pool upstairs rather than dance. People thought it was because we were afraid of girls. No, no. It was because the guys who did dance looked like spastic tools, and playing bumper pool beats bouncing sporadically to the soundtrack from Saturday Night Fever.

Use of the N-word Needs to Stop – for Everybody – Not Just Riley Cooper

by Kent Sterling

Eagles WR is sorry for using the n-word, and I hope someone makes that point very clearly and painfully to him.

We do what we see, and we say what we hear. That’s true when we’re two, and it’s true when we’re 25 – just like Philadelphia Eagles wide receiver Riley Cooper did at a Kenny Chesney concert when he was denied access to the backstage area and told a security guard, “I will jump that fence and fight every n****r here.”

The N-word doesn’t deserve to be. What it defines represents the most base and vile line of thinking toward a group of people who did nothing to deserve it.

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It’s existence is an insult to humanity, and no one who uses it should be excused because with every utterance, its being is prolonged just that much further.

And Cooper shouldn’t be excused for using it, regardless of his contrition or attendance in the sensitivity training the Eagles have mandated. I doubt it will be.

Regardless of my color, bringing a very painful consequence on the football field to a man who used that word would be very appealing to me because the hateful must be penalized.

For those who have not embraced the thought that treating each other with respect is what we owe each other because it’s the right thing, a physical lesson in morality is perfectly acceptable. Cooper goes over the middle, and a Michael Vick pass requires him to stretch, I would put my head into his liver.

There endeth the lesson.

That word is horrible, and I understand why the people it has harmed over the centuries want to make it their own. If it’s theirs, it cannot hurt them anymore. I get that, but energy spent making its use acceptable should be applied to eradicating it from the language like “alabandical.” It passed from our lexicon in 1775, but I may try to revitalize it, because it sounds just like what it describes.

Back to the N-word. I used it once when I was six years-old. I was on a school bus on my way home from school for lunch, and some fifth graders were chanting “Tommy is a n****r!” I had no idea what that meant, but the other guys seemed to be having fun chanting it again and again, so I joined the chorus. Tommy was not an African-American. In fact, in the town where I grew up, there were exactly zero blacks. The only contact I had with blacks was with Alphonse, the elderly gentleman who worked at the grocery store, and always asked if I wanted to attend a meeting at the First National Bank, and athletes like Ernie Banks and Gale Sayers.

I never had any thought that blacks were different other than in the their color.

Our bus driver was a man named Reggie, and he was a black man. The bus screeched to a halt, and Reggie told the kids who were chanting to get off his bus, and that we were not allowed back on it – ever.

I walked home, and told my Mom I was sick. I crawled into bed, hoping she wouldn’t ask any questions. Of course, she asked, and after a couple of ill-conceived attempts to lie, I told Mom the truth. She explained what the word meant, and why Reggie was angry.

When the bus came around a half-hour later to pick us up, Mom walked with me to the bus and told Reggie I had something to tell him. I apologized for using the word, and promised never to use it again. I haven’t used it since.

If my bus driver had been a white lady named Barb, I might never have learned that lesson. I didn’t learn much in the first grade, but I learned about the way that word made Reggie feel, and that was enough to convince me of it’s heinous power.

Racism is not just hurtful – it’s idiotic. Treating people with a lack of respect reflects an ignorance about the way we should use of lives, and that word is the worst of all of them.

Lenny Bruce would say the n-word over and over and over again to show that it is just a noise, and if we don’t apply context to it, it’s meaningless. There is some truth in that. If we refuse to be angered by it, the power it wields vanishes. True enough, but if it doesn’t exist at all, people don’t need to build the callouses necessary to deflect the rage that exists in all of us when confronted with hate.

No one should have the right to utter that word under any circumstance until we all just forget it ever meant anything, but until Cooper learns that what he did was hateful, I hope someone makes him reflect on his stupidity in a very personal and painful way.

Hey Bud! Ban Alex Rodriguez for Life, or Be Doomed

by Kent Sterling

Just because Bud can’t hear, doesn’t mean he shouldn’t listen to fans who want this PED story to end.

Can Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig pour a cup of coffee without consulting an attorney? Does he need Alan Dershowitz to call his cardiologist to negotiate an extra pack of sugar or dollop of creamer?

It’s time for Bud to sack up and lead, or get the hell out of the way.

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Did ARod absolutely use PEDs? Did he deal with BioGenesis? Did he try to buy the evidence that damns him as a cheat. Media reports answer those questions – yes, yes, and yes. That fact is that we don’t know exactly what the hell happened, or continues to. If the Yankees are trying to twist public opinion toward a resolution that absolves them from the need to pay an innocent ARod the $86 million he is owed from 2015-2018, the franchise should be dissolved.

Let’s assume that ARod is as guilty as everyone, minus ARod, seems to agree he is.

Leaders do the right thing and worry about the fall out later. The right thing is for Selig to ban New York Yankees third baseman Alex Rodriguez for life right now for his relentless use of PEDs, and worry about the legalities later.

All negotiations lead to the middle, and that’s why PEDs have continued to be the game’s biggest problem for a decade. The middle is where the Ryan Braun settlement ended. Braun earned a contract with the Milwaukee Brewers worth over $120 million by playing chemically enhanced baseball, and was penalized $3 million for getting caught.

If that’s indicative of the level of punishment players can expect for a positive test, or evidence showing PED use, there will be lines of ballplayers that wind around the block as they wait for their HGH or whatever new untraceable strength building dope comes next.

Baseball needs to bring down a hammer with real consequences to stop the cheating that has been the story du jour in the national pastime for the past decade. A lifetime ban would get the attention of the cheats. So would the automatic invalidation of a player’s contract upon a positive finding for PED use, but let’s confine this chat to ARod and the lifetime ban he is due.

Baseball insiders continue to extoll the virtues of Selig’s reign as commissioner, and I have no idea why. Attendance is down. Interest is down. The same solution to the game’s biggest problem is proffered by Selig with the exact same lack of effect, and the eyes of fans turn away.

Where have you gone, Peter Ueberroth, a nation turns its lonely eyes to you – woo, woo, woo.

Doing the right thing has taken a back seat to doing the non-actionable thing. All terminations, punishments, suspensions, divorces, and disputes are negotiated through attorneys, and so it is with the ARod mess.

The clean players are left to wonder why they have made the decision to not use PEDs as the consequence never outweighs the benefits of the crime.

That is Selig’s legacy – endless discussions with batteries of attorneys to find the middle ground that results in a lack of change to the flawed status quo. How long has the PED issue dominated discussion about baseball? And how many times has Selig told fans that the steroid era is over?

Sure, steroids are gone, but they have been replaced by other more insidious PEDs that corrupt the ability of clean players to excel.

It’s time for the commissioner of baseball to do the right thing. That’s his job. Then let the lawyers sort out the fallout. That’s their job.

ARod should be banned because he has no business playing baseball against clean players ever again. It’s an insult to the majority who prepare to play the right way to share the field with an unapologetic sociopath. His presence on the field is an insult to the game itself.

How Could Johnny “Football” Manziel Be Any Less Screwy Given His Dad’s Feeble Efforts?

by Kent Sterling

This will likely be the high point in the life of Johnny Manziel as he careens through life.

You want your kid to become a solid adult capable of making his or her own decisions. All parents do, and it’s not too tough. To borrow a phrase from 1070 the Fan and ESPN’s Dan Dakich, you “sack up” and make some unpopular decisions.

If the piece in ESPN the Magazine by Wright Thompson is an accurate portrayal, Johnny Manziel’s Dad is little more than an enabler for a troubled kid’s desires and behaviors – no matter how dangerous or addlepated.

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The kid wanted a Mercedes, Daddy got it for him (no kid on the planet deserves a Mercedes). The kid wants a beer or a Crown and Sprite, Daddy gets it for him. The kid indulges his bad temper on the golf course – a temper that makes daddy sick to his stomach – Daddy forgives it without a word.

In a moment of all-time weak-ass fathering, Daddy expresses his frustration over reckless behavior to a sportswriter rather than dealing directly with Johnny.

In exchange, Daddy gets to bring boxes of crap for the 20 year-old to sign for family and friends. When Johnny half-asses an autograph, Daddy traces over it.

When the family goes out to dinner, they sit in a private room so Johnny can drink unmolested. Daddy doesn’t approve of Johnny’s drinking, so he quit. Yep, the Dad quit. That’ll show Johnny!

That’s the level of garbage parenting that has caused this kid to run off the rails as he swapped life as he knew it for a Heisman Trophy.

Manziel’s football coach at Texas A&M hasn’t been much better, according to media reports. The kid gets arrested for having a fake ID after a bar fight, and the planned suspension never materializes.

If anyone watching this story smelled the presence of a consequence for Manziel as he continually acts like an idiot, please point to it for me. Without the possibility of consequence, all is lost. There is no reason to stay sane if crazy is allowed. Indulging in crazy is a whole lot more fun that maintaining some level of societal sanity.

Everyone loves allowing their id to run the ship. Whatever you enjoy, you do. Woo-hoo! That’s not the way life works – at least not the way it works best.

My son is a great kid – best I know. There has never been a moment that I wasn’t thrilled to have him as my son. When he was in high school, he would ask to go to a friend’s house. I would ask him when he planned on being home. He would tell me, and if he showed up a minute late, a disproportionately severe consequence was meted out because late is late.

I never told him what the consequence would be because when I was a kid, my Dad always told me what would happen if I screwed up. That gave me the power to decide whether the bad act I was considering was worth the penalty. It’s unnecessary to give a kid that knowledge. The unknown is always more frightening.

There was never a curfew for Ryan other than those he set for himself. I would have been happy for him to stay out until midnight, but he never gave himself a time later than 10:30p. I sure wasn’t going to argue.

By the way, he was two minutes late one time.

I wasn’t some genius dad, but I knew all the tricks, and that gave me a leg up in making sure Ryan didn’t stray toward embracing his id. (The id is the part of the brain that reflexives heaves great ideas “at the time” into your consciousness. “Let’s do some shots!” is your id talking. “Let’s drive all night to New Orleans for Mardi Gras!” is another. Your superego tells your id to get back in its cage and shut the hell up – like a parent, which Johnny obviously lacks. Who says I wasn’t listening during Introductory Psych at Indiana University?)

Manziel’s Dad shrinks from the superego-esque discipline that helps shape mature adults, and that’s why the kid is a total mess. If kids are allowed to control their own lives, many would wind up making the same choices Manziel has. That doesn’t make Manziel a bad kid; it makes him an untethered kid, and untethered kids screw up.

Someone needs to fill that void, but Daddy’s too busy being Johnny’s buddy to crack the whip, and at this point Manziel could tell him to go to hell with immunity. Sumlin could step in, but the potential penalty for driving Manziel out of College Station might be a pink slip.

But you know what? Any coach that would value his gig over doing what’s best for a kid is a sad pox upon the profession, and there are plenty of those who bend over backward to accommodate an immature but talented player.

It’s pathetic that no one is capable of putting the Manziel Express back on the rails, but that’s the state of big time athletics among the weak.

Someone with the ability to strip privileges from Manziel needs to step up and push that button, but it might be too late in the game to have that resonate.

If you’re a parent, what should you do? When you say no, mean it. Don’t threaten a specific punishment because that gives a kid the power to make an informed decision, which is bad for you. If a rule is broken, bring down a consequence so massive the kid doesn’t forget. More than anything, be a parent, not a friend. You have enough friends, and so does your kid.

Manziel is the only example you need to show you the way not to parent, and if you haven’t read the Thompson piece, do so. When in doubt, do the opposite of what Thompson reports Paul Manziel does. You’ll be just fine.

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