Author Archives: Kent Sterling

Indiana Pacers Surprise Everyone – Again – Select Forward Solomon Hill

by Kent Sterling

I wrote earlier today that no NBA mock draft would get the Pacers pick right, and that prediction wound up being as prescient as it was obvious.

Solomon Hill is a versatile player who can do some of everything – scored 13 points per game last season for Arizona, and grabbed 7.7 boards per game as a junior. Hill can hit threes, and as a four-year guy at Arizona, he’s probably a little more mature than many of the underclassmen who came out early.

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What this means to the Pacers is that they pick up a versatile guy to come off the bench. In his re-introductory press conference, Larry Bird said that improving the bench is job 1A, just behind signing David West. Hill will give coach Frank Vogel a versatile tool to use instead of a Sam Young type player – or specifically Sam Young.

At 6’7″, 220 lbs., Hill is a thick three or a thin four, which is ironic because he dropped 25 pounds prior to his freshman season at Arizona after being the 28th overall prospect in America out of LA Fairfax. Not sure what any of that has to do with what Hill will do in Indy, but these are the statistics that people tend to spout when there is little else to write.

The most intriguing bit of insight that I have gleaned came immediately after the selection when ESPN’s Jay Bilas compared Hill to Draymond Green. I loved Green coming out of Michigan State, but the Golden State Warriors didn’t get much out of him as a rookie as Green averaged 2.9 points and 3.3 rebounds per game.

The good news for Hill is that the Pacers bench needs some retooling, according to Bird, and that means opportunity for young and versatile players.

This was not a reach for greatness by the Pacers, and does not qualify as an intriguing selection as Ricky Ledo would have. This was shooting for a role player, and landing one.

The Pacers aren’t reaching for the stars anymore. They’re grabbing role players with a specific purpose in mind.

Chicago Cubs Prospect Jorge Soler Breaks Leg – May Be Out for Season

by Kent Sterling

Cuban defector Jorge Soler broke his shin, hopefully not because of the handiwork of a Haitian voodoo priestess. The Cubs bad luck needs no such help.

This isn’t about some arcane jinx. Young men break before they get to the major league level all the time, and so when people start chirping about how the Cubs will be the best organization in five years, they are putting the cart before the horse.

So when the news broke today that Cubs farmhand Jorge Soler, the 21st ranked prospect in baseball, broke his leg and will be on the shelf for the rest of the season, it wasn’t a surprise.

Through 55 games at High-A Daytona, Soler was hitting .281 with eight home runs and 35 RBIs, and had just been named to the MLB Futures Game.

There is a difference between potential and production, and given the overall dearth of talent throughout the system, losing Soler, Javier Baez, or Albert Almora to injury or not being able sign #2 overall pick Kris Bryant would be disastrous.

Bryant is being advised by Scott Boras, and that means all bets are off as to whether Bryant will sign by the July 15th deadline or return to college for his senior season as fellow Boras client Mark Appel did last year before becoming this drafts #1 overall pick.

Baez, 20 is going yard often with 16 dingers, a .271 average, and an .874 OPS. The 19 year-old Almora is thumping a robust .381 with two homers, 14 RBIs, and an .889 OPS for A-Ball Kane County.

The Cubs youth movement has a long way to climb before getting to Wrigley Field, and when foul balls break shin bones, as happened to Soler, counting 2016 vintage chickens is unwise, regardless of your thoughts on jinxes.

NBA Mock Drafts Are All About Guessing Without Knowledge

by Kent Sterling

Victor Oladipo is going to be drafted second, right after Nerlens Noel, and that will set up Georgetown’s Otto Porter staying home to play for the Washington Wizards. Yada, yada, yada. That may happen, but it probably won’t.

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The guesswork is being done by supposed experts – and that’s everyone reading this, plus everyone they know with an interest in the NBA. With each subsequent pick guessing the draft becomes exponentially more difficult, but speculative journalism is big business, so we sit and complete mock drafts in the same way America completes NCAA Tournament grids.

There are people that all of us like. People from Kansas love Ben McLemore. People from Indiana, including me, love Victor Oladipo. And on and on. We can beat Seth Davis, just as we do in March, so why not play?

Guys like Chad Ford who do this for a living are going to miss far more than they hit. All it takes is one knucklehead GM (and there are several) to depart from the script, and the rest of the mock draft lies in ruin.

The Indiana Pacers draft 23rd, and everyone in Indianapolis is predicting who might wind up playing in Bankers Life Fieldhouse next season. Last week, the national media liked a variety of people for the Pacers. There was love for Tim Hardaway Jr., Jamaal Franklin, Reggie Bullock, Rudy Gobert, Ricky Ledo, among others.

Today, the consensus pick for the Pacers is Isaiah Canaan of Murray State. What happened to move Canaan to the Pacers in favor of those other guys during the last week? Nothing they or he did. There was someone who thought Canaan made sense, argued it effectively, and drew the rest of the experts to him. That’s the way this works.

Will the Pacers take Canaan? Almost certainly not. The Pacers tend to hold their cards close to the vest, and are not afraid of deviating wildly from the script written by the talking heads.

The magic of drafts is that, regardless of the sport, until they happen, all of us are on the same footing.

For me, I love Dennis Schroeder from Germany. He’s really fast, and I want speed on my team. That’s why I would love for the Pacers to figure out a way to trade for Eric Bledsoe. He’s also really fast. How do I know about Schroeder? I watch highlight reels because traveling to Germany to audit point guards is impractical.

No GM in his right mind is going to draft Schroeder without talking to him and evaluating him by watching him miss some shots too, but what I’ve seen I really like. That and $12 Euros will buy Schroeder a giant hefeweizen.

There is a lot of talk about Ricky Ledo being a terrible human being because the experts heard this or that from different people who recruited him, or knew coaches who dealt with him on a summer team. They say Ledo went to four high schools in five years, and that’s a red flag.

I don’t know the kid. He might be a train wreck of a person, or he could be a great guy. Who the hell knows? You can bet that if the Pacers draft Ledo, people will immediately ask about whether the Pacers overlooked behavioral issues that could poison the camaraderie of the current roster. Based upon gossip and innuendo, the media will immediately judge Ledo’s character.

Mock drafts are a game and nothing more. They make for some fun talk, but should never be taken seriously. Teams will draft who they believe is best, and the Pacers – barring a trade – will grab whomever is at the top of their board after the 22nd pick is revealed. It will be a kid will will likely be unable to help the team next season, and will cause fans to mock the choice until he blossoms.

The bottom line is that there are three people who know what they need to know to make the Pacers pick – Donnie Walsh, Kevin Pritchard, and Larry Bird. The rest of us are throwing chips on the craps table because it’s fun.

I’m not immune, and here are my rankings – not where I think they will necessarily go, but how I would rank them. The only guy I haven’t seen much of is Schroeder, but I really like his attributes. He’s so athletic and long that it’s worth rolling the dice on a kid with some youthful exuberance. Noel drops because of the injury. I limited it to the top 16 because at that point we start wading through international players I haven’t seen, nor have any interest in seeing:

Victor Oladipo
Anthony Bennett
Otto Porter Jr.
C.J McCollum
Michael Carter-Williams
Cody Zeller
Alex Len
Ben McLemore
Nerlens Noel
Trey Burke
Dennis Schroeder
Shane Larkin
Reggie Bullock
Shabazz Muhammad
Kelly Olynyk
Jamaal Franklin

Don’t sleep on Deshaun Thomas and Peyton Siva. If Thomas had returned to Ohio State, he would have needed 828 points to pass Steve Alford to sneak into the Top Five in all-time scoring in the Big Ten. He scored 731 last year, so it would have been within reach. Rick Pitino is going to lobby hard for Siva, and someone will listen before the early 50s, where he is currently projected.

You think I’m an idiot? Well, maybe I am, but you are damn likely to be an idiot too. Until the diminutive NBA czar David Stern calls names, we are all geniuses in our own minds.

Indiana Pacers – Press Conference Shows Larry Bird at His Honest Best

by Kent Sterling

With all the crap that passes as wisdom during press conferences in sports today, it’s a pleasure to watch Indiana Pacers Re-President Larry Bird tell the truth for awhile, even when he divulges very little.

When Bird is asked a question, he answers honestly, even when he doesn’t want to answer the question. There were more than a couple, “I don’t want to talk about that” responses today.

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Among the questions that went unanswered were whether Bird had surgery during his year hiatus to relieve whatever health issue that made his sabbatical necessary, and how long he plans to serve as president of basketball operations. He did say that he plans to work for “Herbie” Simon for the duration of his contract, but wouldn’t say how long a deal that is.

What he did say is that he has no plans to trade Danny Granger, which he would of course say. Why would the head of a franchise tip his hand about the disposition of a $14M player with knee issues heading into the last year of his contract. The way Bird said it though led me to believe that Bird is committed to bringing Granger back as a contributor if he’s healthy.

He also expressed pride in watching the Pacers this year, and singled out Lance Stephenson for the strides he has taken on and off the floor. Bird drew some laughs, particularly his own, as he said that if Reggie Miller rebounded his position like Stephenson did last year, he would have been a “hall of hall of famer.”

Bird was also pretty clear that his only input during tonight’s draft would come if the Pacers engage in trade talks. He said he has not evaluated the potential draftees, but would have something to say about deals for current NBA talent.

As to why Bird came back, he said he wasn’t bored, but does welcome the challenge of taking the Pacers to his goal, which he never articulated as a championship, but left little doubt.

The primary goal this offseason will be signing power forward David West, and then he plans to build a bench that can maintain a lead, or even win a game when the starters falter. That certainly isn’t the case with the roster as it’s comprised today. Bird knows it just like the fans do.

One little behind the curtain issue is the relentless politeness of the media. They wait their turn to ask questions very patiently, and only ask good questions. That separates the media in Indy from the media everywhere else. There is always some idiot willing to ask moronic questions, but here the group behaves like adults. As interesting as Bird’s honesty can be, the media’s lack of willingness to act like morons took a toll on the entertainment quotient of the event.

Whether Bird’s return is good or bad for the Pacers will be determined by whether they take steps forward or back next season and beyond, but there is no doubt that it means getting honest (if not entirely forthcoming) answers to some good questions.

Former Oregon Coach Chip Kelly Issues Ridiculous Apology

by Kent Sterling

“Dear Lord, Please get me another gig before the hammer falls like a feather on the Oregon Football program.” Prayer answered.

It would be great if people who cheat weren’t rewarded. Bankers ruin the economy, and go sailing on their 60-foot Fountaine-Pajot Eleuthera clippers. CEOs burn companies to the ground, and receive an obscene bonus that could feed 1,000 families for a decade. And college football coaches cheat to recruit talent, and run to the NFL for big bucks before the NCAA can penalize them.

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Such is the case for former Oregon Ducks coach Chip Kelly, who can’t coach a college team for the next 18 months, which will make life difficult for him as the head coach of the Philadelphia Eagles in no way at all.

That didn’t keep Kelly from giggling as he issued a statement of apology:

“Now that the NCAA has concluded their investigation and penalized the University of Oregon and its football program, I want to apologize to the University of Oregon, all of its current and former players and their fans. I accept my share of responsibility for the actions that led to the penalties. As I have I stated before, the NCAA investigation and subsequent ruling had no impact on my decision to leave Oregon for Philadelphia.”

The fact that Kelly would lose your job at Oregon had nothing to do with his decision to leave? The very least this boob might have done is throw at least one truth in his apology. He could have earned points by saying, “What a joke! Yeah I cheated, and why wouldn’t I? It worked out great for me!”

Kelly is contrite in the same way Clinton regretted sticking cigars into an intern. To blatantly cheat, get caught, and than receive a pat on the back is an insult to collegiate athletics, and all that is supposed to be good and just in this world.

Don’t waste your time looking too hard for justice in this world, because unless you are at the bottom of the economic food chain, it doesn’t exist.

America has decided that it should steal the attitude of celebrated whack job, the late owner of the Oakland Raiders, Al Davis, and “Just win, baby!” Oregon won as a result of a culture where cheating was the norm. Kelly was offered the chance to coach the Eagles because he won through cheating, and by the time the embattled and ineffective disciplinary arm of the NCAA concluded its two-year investigation, Kelly was no longer available to take his medicine.

We’ve entered a realm in college athletics where it no longer makes any sense not to cheat. Coaches used to laugh, “If you ain’t cheatin’, you ain’t trying!” It’s not funny anymore.

The NCAA has done such a pathetic job of enforcing its idiotic rule book that it has created a culture where cheating is not only accepted, it’s rewarded. The punishment the NCAA gift-wrapped for Oregon was so soft that programs no longer need to fear being caught, as if they ever did.

It’s a tragedy that student-athletes are used to make millions for others while they go unpaid, but then to heap on to the pile the moral debauchery they are exposed to as part of their education adds insult to that injury.

Doing the right thing used to be a priority in our society, and it still can be, but all disincentive for doing the wrong thing has been removed from collegiate athletics.

I’m sure as Kelly heard the penalty for his former employer and learned of the 18-month show-cause order that would keep him from coaching in college football if he didn’t already have a better job, there was a brief moment where he reflected on his actions. Then, he probably laughed while penning his statement.

What a shame. Yesterday, was the day the NCAA finally threw in the towel.

Larry Bird Coming Back to Indiana Pacers Monday

by Kent Sterling

Indianapolis Star columnist Bob Kravitz has reported that Larry Bird will return to the Indiana Pacers in his former role as president of basketball operations. Current general manager Kevin Pritchard will be the number two guy, and Donnie Walsh will slide into a role as consultant.

This is good news for Pacers fans who like the direction of the team as the current roster was almost entirely built by Bird through drafts and a series of shrewd trades.

Bird left the Pacers one year ago tomorrow to take care of some personal business and deal with a physical ailment.

I love the way Bird talks about himself like the Colts under Bill Polian used to talk about player injuries, and it will be fun to have him back. There is an accessibility, humor, and self-knowledge about Bird that I enjoy.

Tomorrow night’s draft will belong to Walsh and Pritchard, and then Bird will be in the office starting on Monday.

There are very few people who kind of get to work at whatever the hell they want to whenever the hell they want to, and you have to admire Bird for being one of those guys.

The Pacers will hold a mostly unnecessary press conference tomorrow at 10a at Bankers Life Fieldhouse to announce the return.

Aaron Hernandez Charged with First Degree Murder; Prepare for Another O.J. Trial Circus

by Kent Sterling

Former New England Patriots tight end Aaron Hernandez was charged with first-degree murder this afternoon, and was subsequently denied bail. That means an unpleasant and lonely period of waiting for Hernandez, and a worse time for sports fans who would rather talk sports than forensics.

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The media has provided saturation coverage of every non-move that Hernandez has made since he was identified as a person of interest in the June 17th “execution style” slaying of Odin Lloyd.

Expect to know a hell of a lot more about Lloyd than the two facts of which we have been made aware – that he was a semi-pro football player, and that he apparently was dating the sister of the woman Hernandez was living with.

Even nine days after the murder, I could pick out Hernandez’s house if I drove by.

Every detail of Hernandez life will be unearthed as we find out why everyone who writes or talks about Hernandez (minus his neighbor, who enjoyed getting ice cream with him) says he’s a bad guy in a way that connotes he did more than gossip about friends.

Ohio State football coach Urban Meyer was Hernandez’s coach at Florida. There will be stacks of media requests for him. Patriots coach Bill Belichick will get requests, but he always ignores those. Bob Kraft will feel compelled to speak at some point, as will NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell, even if only to say that he has nothing to say about an open criminal case.

ESPN is all Hernandez all the time right now (what good fortune for Oregon Football and the NCAA, who gave the Ducks a total pass), and it will likely more closely resemble Court TV than a sports network while three of the four major league sports leagues are enjoying their off-seasons.

Dateline NBC’s Keith Morrison is likely prowling North Attleboro (which is also spelled North Attleborough) for personal interest anecdotes that will either paint Hernandez as a misunderstood and fatherless victim or a brutish man child whose sociopathic tendencies were evidenced in the way he ordered countless double lattes at Erin’s Perfect Cup on North Washington, and in his tequila fueled arguments at Ninety Nine on South Washington.

Whatever you thought you knew about Hernandez, forget it. Until the appetite of courthouse junkies is satisfied, we will be fed more minutia about America’s newest favorite accused murderer.

Guilty or innocent will probably take 18 months to decide, and until then, it’s alternating between Roger Cossack, Greta Van Susteren, Nancy Grace, Gloria Allred, and every other former lawyer cashing in on niche fame.

“Juror number three traveled to Barbados where she tended to an abrasion on Rihanna’s knee,” or something like it will be uttered by both ESPN’s John Buccigross and CNN’s Anderson Cooper.

Aaron Hernandez won’t enjoy the time between today and the trial, but it won’t be much fun for sportsfans either.

NCAA Shows its Hand as Ducks Duck Penalties While Ohio State Football Continues to Burn

by Kent Sterling

NCAA President Mark Emmert is paid to do a lot more than keep competitive balance in college football, and that’s a good thing.

The NCAA showed its hand today in meting out penalties to Oregon Football. Those penalties serve more as an affirmation for Oregon’s policies in violating NCAA rules than an admonition, so the question the begs to be asked is why did the punishment for Ohio State Football so badly outweigh that of Oregon?

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Here are the Ohio State penalties (in some cases the NCAA added to Ohio State’s self-imposed penalties:

Postseason ban following the 2012 season
Forfeiture of nine scholarships over three seasons
Three years probation through Dec. 19, 2014
Five-year show-cause penalty to former head coach Jim Tressel for “unethical conduct” when he failed to report that some team members improperly sold memorabilia and for knowingly allowing ineligible players to compete throughout the 2010 season.

Ohio State received those penalties because Tressel responded with indifference to being notified that players sold or bartered swag including Big Ten Championship rings, autographs, and practice gear.

Oregon committed these major violations:

Oregon paid booster Willie Lyles for $35,000 for multiple recruiting services between 2008-11 that the NCAA found to be improper.
Between 2007-11, the NCAA has found that Oregon is guilty of making 730 impermissible phone calls to recruits and their high school coaches.
Between 2009-11, the NCAA found Oregon to be guilty of having one too many coaches involved in recruiting.
The impermissible calls led to the NCAA finding that Oregon football suffered from a “lacked an atmosphere of compliance.”
Oregon handed out impermissible levels of apparel to recruits and calling high school players and coaches.

Oregon received today news that they will receive the following penalties:

Public reprimand and censure.
Three years of probation from June 26, 2013 through June 25, 2016.
An 18-month show cause order for Chip Kelly.
A one-year show-cause order for the former assistant director of operations.
A reduction of initial football scholarships by one from the maximum allowed (25) during the 2012-13 and 2013-14 academic years (imposed by the university).
A reduction of total football scholarships by one from the maximum allowed (85) during the 2013-14, 2014-15 and 2015-16 academic years (imposed by the university).
A reduction of official paid football visits to from 56 to 37 for the 2012-13, 2013-14 and 2014-15 academic years.
A reduction of permissible football evaluation days from 42 to 36 in the fall of 2013, 2014 and 2015 and permissible football evaluation days from 168 to 144 in the spring of 2014, 2015 and 2016.
A ban on the subscription to recruiting services during the probation period.
A disassociation of Lyles.

In short, Ohio State missed out on a BCS National Championship bid while Chip Kelly will be paid millions to coach the Philadelphia Eagles. That’s fair in only the eyes of the NCAA.

The differences in the violations is this – Ohio State looked the other way as players were paid, while Oregon committed violations while recruiting that included buying the influence with recruits of a booster who runs a “recruiting service.”

The inference a reasonable person would draw is that the NCAA takes far more seriously infractions involving a player getting a little scratch than it does outright cheating by a coaching staff paid to educate young men about life and football.

The fundamental difference between those two very different transgressions is that Ohio State’s could initiate a bidding war among schools for players, and the other is just a simple violation of trust leading to competitive imbalance.

The NCAA member schools do not want to pay players, even by looking the other way as memorabilia is swapped for tattoos or cash with third parties, any sooner than they have to. BCS universities will tolerate or even endorse through nonsensical levies the offenses involving recruiting violations.

The overall message to coaches by the ludicrous 18-month show cause order against Kelly is to cheat their asses off to earn a sweet NFL gig, and as long as you bolt before the assessment, you are a big winner.

Anyone looking for morality in college football or the organization founded to oversee it should feel quite stupid today. For those who have understood since the NCAA was founded that its existence in the realm of creating an even playing field among participants is a charade whose sole purpose is to create a public perception of fairness that in reality does not exist.

More respect would be due to the NCAA if President Mark Emmert brought the rule book to the front steps of NCAA headquarters in Indianapolis and set it ablaze while declaring, “It’s open season on recruits! Call, pay, doctor grades, hire former pros as old looking players, and work the student athletes like indentured servants.”

It would be the first honest moment there since the doors opened.

The NCAA as a disciplinary institution should be disbanded as a sign that morality in athletics exists. That would be the most generous educational offering made to student-athletes in its history.

Oregon Football Skates Without Meaningful Penalty Despite Significant Violations

by Kent Sterling

The punchline to the joke the NCAA just told isn’t funny. Two years of investigating, and nothing to show for it.

Five years ago, Indiana University Basketball was eviscerated due to several impermissible phone calls, but Oregon Football somehow manages to avoid any meaningful penalties after making payments totaling $25,000 to a recruiting service with ties to recruits who committed to Oregon and making 730 phone calls that are similar to those made by Rob Senderoff and Kelvin Sampson at IU.

Ohio State Football got hammered for athletes receiving tattoos in exchange for swag, but Oregon gets a free pass for a lack of institutional control in it’s football program?

This decision reaffirms the belief many hold that the NCAA is in over its head in policing the big business of college sports, and is better suited to monitor those schools who operate outside the BCS sphere.

The very light tickle of a slap from the NCAA to Oregon Football includes three years probation, reduced official visits, coach Chip Kelly’s 18-month show cause penalty, and one scholarship reduction over the next three years.

The show cause penalty is especially meaningless as Kelly has moved on from Oregon to become the head coach of the Philadelphia Eagles. As long as the professional leagues serve as an outpost for wayward coaches dumb enough to get caught cheating, there is no meaningful disincentive whatsoever in breaking the rules. Kelly will serve the penalty while earning more than he did at Oregon.

The Eagles job serves as an affirmation that Kelly’s cheating was the right decision, and the show cause, which requires a member institution to show cause as to why a coach should be hired despite his past indiscretions, is nothing more than a bad joke revealing the NCAA as toothless.

This show cause is a de facto ban that will keep Kelly from accepting a job he does not want.

Until there is a penalty that makes coaches stand up and take notice, there will be no respect paid to the rules. A lifetime ban might be enough to command that attention.

Until the NCAA puts out a rule book that is easily understood and comes with a set of punitive measures that will serve as a significant disincentive, the NCAA will continue to be more a laugh track than an operation dedicated to leveling the competitive playing field for member schools.

Ahh, member schools, you know what that means? Universities belong to the NCAA, and the NCAA is governed by its own members. In other words, the fox is in the hen house.

If the NCAA goes too far in investigating its members, there is every likelihood that the schools will resign from the NCAA to form its own oversight organization with rules and penalties they like better.

With the Ed O’Bannon lawsuit moving forward to a likely conclusion within the next two years, the argument could be moot anyway. Long story short, if the suit over improper licensing of athletes’ likenesses to the NCAA is granted class action status, all hell could break loose, and the NCAA as we know it might vaporize under the pressure of massive financial pressure.

There is no justice nor potential for justice as long as the NCAA refuses to stand up and make cheating hurt. The lesson to student-athletes is that cheating makes sense, and given the way the world works make just be the most valuable piece of wisdom they receive in college.

Aaron Hernandez Arrested – the Patriots Release Hernandez – Let the Debate Begin

by Kent Sterling

New England Patriots tight end Aaron Hernandez has been arrested by the North Attleboro Police and released by the New England Patriots.

Many will say that the Patriots have acted prematurely, having released Hernandez without even knowing what charges are being brought against their tight end, but this the right move at the right time.

There is no resolution to this story that would allow Hernandez to return to the Patriots as anything but a distraction that would cast the franchise in a very negative light. Whether the charge is murder or obstructing justice in the murder of Odin Lloyd, Hernandez has no place as an employee of a respectable business.

Evidence needs to be vetted, presented, and argued in a court of law to determine guilt or innocence. Employers are not held to a burden other than whether an employee belongs in the workplace, and Patriots owner Robert Kraft is the guy who ultimately makes that decision.

Whether people believe the Patriots have acted appropriately will depend upon their level of trust for the work of the media and law enforcement. Believe in the media, you think Hernandez at the very least is complicit in destroying evidence. Distrust the cops and media, and you trust in the good nature of humanity and believe Hernandez is being railroaded.

While the media waits to hear what the charges are during Hernandez’s arraignment this afternoon, there will be speculative statements about the perp walk to the police car – do the handcuffs mean that the charges are something other than obstruction of justice?

The discussion has been in hypotheticals since jump street because there was no meat to report, but the public is still very curious about what the hell happened in North Attleboro, Massachusetts, early on June 17th.

Now, instead of deciding whether we trust the media, we’ll make the call as to whether we trust the law enforcement folks is charge of this investigation and the lawyers who will attempt to prosecute or defend Hernandez.

If Hernandez is charged with murder, this will likely turn into the O.J. Simpson murder trial revisited. People will line up on one side or the other based upon whose narrative they believe, and the long trial will engage the entire country until half are thrilled and the other half are outraged.

The victim will be nothing more than a sidebar, just as Nicole Brown Simpson was. The people who cheered the innocent verdict in the O.J. trial were likely not considering the Brown Family, or how Nicole was virtually decapitated. Who Odin Lloyd was will only hold attention if that information becomes relevant in this narrative.

Justice tends to be viewed by Americans as a John Grisham novel. Odin Lloyd’s life is a chapter in the book that the editor will delete because it’s unnecessary exposition.

Whatever the disposition of the case, Kraft and the Patriots have seen enough.