Violence, Salary Caps, and Ugly Shirts: While We’re Waiting…

Happy Tuesday WFNY!

I missed you guys last Tuesday. I don’t know if anyone noticed or not, but last week, for the first time since we reformatted While We’re Waiting, there was no new edition of WWW on a business day. So what happened?

Well, let me pull back the curtain on the WFNY re-design just a bit. We originally had planned to launch the new layout on Monday night. In addition to just having we a new layout, we have also switched to a new web host as well. So Sunday we started to export our site from our old host. Well, as it turns out, when you post new content daily for over six years, your site accumulates quite a bit of data. By Monday night, the site was still exporting. It became clear we weren’t going to be able to switch over to the new server that night. So we made a plan to launch the new layout Tuesday evening.

I woke up Tuesday morning to an email from our designer/new host and it turned out he busted his tail to get everything ready for us. We were ready to flip the switch to our new server that morning. So Tuesday morning, our new layout was live. Unfortunately, in all the chaos of trying to keep an eye on everything to make sure everything was running smooth as well as figuring out a few on the fly changes/updates that needed to be made, I wasn’t able to write my edition of WWW.

So after two weeks, I am happy to be back writing my Tuesday edition of WWW. And when it comes to the new layout, I’ve been communicating with some of you in the comments, but I just wanted to publicly thank everyone here for all the great feedback we’ve received. We’ve heard you and we’ve had countless discussions behind the scenes prioritizing updates. Some changes have been made already. Many others are still coming. Some of the changes are obvious, others are more subtle. But it’s a fluid on-going process that will continue to preoccupy most of my thoughts over the coming weeks.

So with all of that out of the way, let’s get our hands dirty with some sports. Or, well, at least some scandals surrounding sports, anyway.

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Violence and Video Proof

By now I’m sure most of you have seen the Ray Rice video. It was everywhere yesterday. I saw the video shortly after TMZ released it on their website. It was somehow both shocking and unsurprising. After watching it once, I was hoping I wouldn’t have to see it again. But I saw it numerous more times throughout the day. It was everywhere. It was on the news, on ESPN, on websites, etc, etc, etc.

There was a lot of justified outrage yesterday. People were very angry after seeing the video. They were angry with Ray Rice, with the Baltimore Ravens, with the justice system, with Roger Goodell, with the NFL as a whole. But what I found myself wondering was why did it take seeing a video to make people so angry?

Prior to the video’s release, here’s what we knew. Rice and his wife both walked into an elevator. When the elevator doors opened, his wife was unconscious and he was dragging her out of the elevator like a piece of trash that held no value to him. I wonder what people thought happened to her before they saw the video?

Did they think she had slipped and fallen and hit her head? Seems odd that Rice would drag his wife out of the elevator in the manner he did if her condition was the result of an accident. Why do people need to physically see abuse toward women happen in order to be outraged by it?

There’s a saying that there’s never a wrong time to do the right thing. The Ravens did the right thing in releasing Rice and the NFL did the right thing in suspending him indefinitely. But why didn’t they take this action from the start? Why did they have to see it on video to understand how gruesome and violent any abuse toward women is?

It’s digesting that this case is the watershed moment that has forced the NFL to enact policy changes. I would have thought when Kansas City Chiefs player Jovan Belcher brutally murdered his girlfriend (the mother of their three month old baby) before killing himself that the NFL would realize they had to do more to take a stand against off field violence, particularly against women.

Yet in 2013, Seahwaks linebacker Leroy Hill was charged with assaulting his girlfriend and kept her in the house against her will. This was following his 2010 domestic violence charge. And while the prosecutors dropped the charges the NFL also decided not to discipline him. There was no video of him assaulting his girlfriend.

In 2012 Brandon Marshall was accused of hitting a woman outside of a club in New York. Again, there was no video. So Marshall wasn’t charged and the NFL suspended him just one game. The list goes on and on. Player after player charged or accused of domestic violence only to see the charges dropped (i.e., there was no video) and the NFL would give the players a slap on the wrist one or two game suspension.

According to this 2012 Slate article by Justin Peters, in the 2012 season 21 of the 32 NFL teams had at some point that season employed a player with a domestic violence or sexual assault charge on their record. Where has all the outrage been before this? Why do we need video?

Of course, the issue is probably even deeper than just seeing the evidence. Last year when Ohio State running back Carlos Hyde was accused of hitting a woman in a club, there was video. Yet plenty of Ohio State fans were quick to make excuses for Hyde, to lob unsubstantiated accusations blaming the victim, and to root their hearts out for him in the 2013 season. Of course, the video is grainy and poor quality, and it’s not as crystal clear what actually happened as in the Ray Rice case. But still, it’s video of a serious incident for which there were no consequences.

Beyond sports, we have the Chris Brown and Rihanna incident. There wasn’t video of Chris Brown savagely beating Rihanna, but there was photographic evidence of the aftermath. And just in the last year Brown has been charged and plead guilty to assault charges for hitting  someone outside a Washington DC hotel. And yet, for the most part, Chris Brown has seen no real consequences. A short stint in jail here, a court-ordered rehab stint there, and some mandated community service, but really, Brown’s career hasn’t been affected too much.

Heck, Kyrie Irving has no problem posting Instagram photos with Chris Brown with the hashtag #family and tweeting a Happy Birthday message to his “brother” Chris Brown with the hashtag #FreeCB

Happy birthday to my brother @chrisbrown #FreeCB

— Kyrie Irving (@KyrieIrving) May 5, 2014

As if we’re all supposed to be so impressed with Irving’s friendship with a violent pop star who was such a tough guy that he punched his girlfriend’s face to a point beyond recognition. Yeah, #FreeCB you guys!

And that’s the thing. There’s something about sports that seems to trivialize violence. There’s definitely an alpha dog mentality and pop culture isolation that distorts the reality of what is going on. Only when we see crystal clear video of an athlete knocking out his fiancé does the public outrage reach such a furor that the team and league are forced to act and other players actually speak out against the violence.

There are no winners here whatsoever. Just a bunch of losers with varying degrees of blood on their hands. Fans included. The social media led Outrage Brigade cycle is often misguided. It lacks the nuance to equally outraged when a news report comes out as it does when a video of an incident leaks. But the women and victims of these crimes remain as voiceless today as they were the day before the leaked video. By tomorrow, the Outrage Brigade will have moved on to the next scandal and victims of domestic abuse will be right back in the shadows. And that’s something we should all be outraged by.

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NBA Salary Cap Is About to Blow Up

When LeBron James signed a one year deal with the Cavaliers, some people were understandably uneasy with the arrangement. Yet many were quick to point out that it was merely a smart business move for LeBron, what with the new TV contracts coming up and all. It made sense that LeBron would want his share of the increased revenues.

But we don’t know how much of a difference that will make. However, we’re starting to get an idea. Currently ESPN and Turner combine to pay just under $1 billion annually for the NBA’s TV rights. That number is about to go up significantly.

According to a report in the Sports Business Journal, that number is going to go up well past $2 billion in the new deals. So what does that mean for NBA teams and the salary cap? It means teams could potentially have a lot more cap room to play with in the near future.

According to Dan Feldman’s post for Pro Basketball Talk, these figures would represent a $16 million jump in each team’s salary cap. Well, sort of. Maybe. The math checks out, but the NBA isn’t necessarily keen on letting teams ramp up spending overnight. The league wants to smooth out the increases rather than letting a massive spike occur.

That will all be decided in the future, but the point remains. This is exactly why LeBron wants to be on one year deals. As Jacob Rosen pointed out for WFNY earlier this summer, LeBron’s contract flexibility has always been about maximizing his earnings when the new TV deal money hits the salary cap.

Obviously, a $16 million increase would be enormous for the Cavaliers. Even if it doesn’t happen in one year, a multi-year increase could give the Cavaliers to actually be free agent players for more than just aging ring-chasing veterans. This is going to be something to keep a very close eye on over the next year or two.

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Anderson Varejao, Life-Long Cavalier?

HoopsHype’s Raul Barrigon recently secured an interview with Anderson Varejao. There’s nothing too earth shattering in there, and most of it we’ve heard before from Andy this summer. But still, as a Cavs fan who thinks the world of Andy and desperately wants him to play out his career in Cleveland, there were some choice quotes in there:

Now that Kevin Love is your teammate, will your role change?

AV: I don’t think it’s going to change. I played with LeBron for six years and what I did was playing defense, setting screens for everybody, fighting for every rebound and being ready on the offensive side when I get the ball.

[…]

The title is the goal.

AV: We can talk about that now. We’re going to fight for the title no doubt. I think if we all stay healthy this season, it’s going to go down to that. This season San Antonio won because they got hot at the right time and now I think we really have a good chance to win the ring.

[..]

You’ve played 10 seasons in the NBA, all of them in Cleveland. You will be in a contract year this season. What do you expect?

AV: I want to stay in Cleveland, I really don’t think about that. They know what I want to do, they know I want to stay.

Would you like to retire in Cleveland?

AV: I want to.

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This Shirt Should be Part of the #SeasonOfHuh

Oh, Kevin….what on earth is that shirt???

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New Music Release of the Week

Finally, we have our new music release of the week. Overall, this is a really strong week for new music. I had several albums I was considering for my pick, but I went with the album that is ten years in the making, Death From Above 1979’s “The Physical World”.

A couple years ago when Death From Above 1979 announced they were reuniting and would finally be releasing a follow up to 2004’s brilliant “You’re a Woman, I’m a Machine”, I guess I was excited. I wouldn’t say I was jump out of my chair excited, though. Maybe I was more intrigued than excited.

For those unaware, DFA1979 is a Toronto two-piece dance-punk-ish band who released one amazing album, and then shortly after disbanded and went their separate ways. So when they announced they were getting back together, I definitely wanted to hear what a follow up to “You’re a Woman, I’m a Machine” would sound like.

I certainly was not disappointed. DFA1979 haven’t lost a step. They continue to write incredible pop hooks with driving, distorted, danceable rhythms and beats. In every way this album feels like a logical progression. Is “The Physical World” better than their debut? Probably not, but it’s different enough that it feels equally important. I expect this one will finish pretty high on my year-end list.

Other albums of note this week include:

• The Tea Party – “Ocean at the End”
• Ryan Adams – Self-titled
• Robert Plant – “lullaby and…The Ceaseless Roar”
• Interpol – “El Pintor”

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That’s it from me this week. Hope everyone has a great week and lets all hope we have more favorable football outcomes this weekend.