May 24, 2013

Scott Raab talks Boston Marathon, Jimmy Haslam, Byron Scott and Phil Jackson – WFNY Podcast – 2013-04-22

April 22, 2013 by 1 Comment

WFNY Podcast LogoIt’s the weekly check-in with Scott Raab with plenty plenty plenty to talk about with the bombings, firings and FBI investigation that all occurred last week.

  • The Boston Marathon news playing out online

  • New York Post and their mis-identified suspects

  • The terror of the citizens of Boston

  • Milking the emotion of the audience

  • Cable news vs. Twitter vs. Reddit for news attention

  • Crowd-sourcing on Reddit

  • False Flag conspiracy theories

  • Personal tweets

  • Jimmy Haslam and his FBI investigation

  • Will Jimmy Haslam own the Browns this time next year?

  • John Compton and his outlook on being replaced

  • In a vacuum, Jimmy Haslam would have been a good owner

  • Phil Jackson is coming to Cleveland!

  • Would you run Chris Grant out for Phil Jackson?

  • Analytics and Mike Brown

  • Who made the call on Byron Scott’s firing?

  • Eric Mangini and history’s look back on him [Read more...]

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NFL News: League hoping to push back offseason schedule

February 23, 2013 by Leave a Comment

In the midst of the start of the NFL Combine, Adam Schefter of ESPN again broke some notable NFL news Friday morning.

The NFL’s new idea: Essentially pushing back the entire offseason schedule by 2-3 weeks. This would move the combine to early March, the start of free agency to early April and the draft to early May.

Schefter reported that the league is pushing this agenda “aggressively” and at least met about it in person in Indianapolis this week. One of the largest likely factors behind the league’s motivation for such a move: More marketing and more money.

As Schefter wrote: “The idea is to lengthen the NFL offseason and make sure football is relevant during a longer offseason period with one big event in each month. It also would create a new revenue stream for the NFL, with each event producing added money for the league.”

Later on Friday, Schefter’s ESPN colleague John Clayton wrote that it’s unlikely the union will ever be in favor of a plan that so drastically delays the start of free agency. They reluctantly agreed to push it back to mid-March already two years ago, but without further trade-offs from the league in negotations, this plan will likely fail. So while this was a logical plan for the NFL to pursue, it just doesn’t make sense in actuality.

Hat tip to Dawgs By Nature for sharing these updates and also breaking down what exactly a revised offseason schedule might look like.

[Related: NFL News: Chudzinski “excited” about Weeden, still needs to see more]

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Goodell Addresses Several Key Issues In State Of NFL Address

February 2, 2013 by 4 Comments

Every year, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell gives his state of the NFL press conference on the Friday prior to the Super Bowl. This year, there was no shortage of issues and controversies in professional football, so Goodell had plenty to address.

First, with the issue of player safety, the commissioner had this to say:

“I’m disappointed, because I think we have tremendous medical care for our players. These are not just team doctors. These doctors are affiliated with the best medical institutions in the world – the Cleveland Clinic, Stanford, Hospital for Special Surgery. The medical care that is provided to our players is extraordinary. Now, we will always seek to improve it. We will always seek to figure out how we can do things better, provide better medical care, but I think it’s extraordinary. And as I talk to players – including one yesterday – they feel the same way, but we’ll have to address that and we’ll have to figure out what we can do to try to improve it. One of those I also mentioned in the opening. We’ll add a neurosurgeon on the field that can be there for consultation, that can be there for another set of eyes on the field, and to support the doctors in making the best possible decisions on the field, and off the field. And I believe our doctors do that.”

Then, after fifteen head coaching and GM openings came and went without a single minority hiring, Goodell replied:

“We want to focus on how do we get to a Rooney Rule, or an extension of the Rooney Rule, or a new generation of the Rooney Rule, that will allow us to do that? There was full compliance with the Rooney Rule. There were, in fact, I believe, a record number of interviews. But we didn’t have the outcomes that we wanted, and the outcomes are to make sure that we have full diversity throughout our coaching ranks, throughout our executive ranks, and throughout the league office. It’s very important to the success of the league to do that, and we’re committed to finding those solutions.”

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ESPN Cleveland: Haden wanted to be in “substance abuse” program

October 8, 2012 by 12 Comments

Tony Grossi and ESPN Cleveland have a report indicating that Joe Haden and his agent attempted an appeal that I suggested just based on common sense. When the rumors swirled that Joe Haden was popped for Adderall in an off-season test, it seemed silly to treat it like a performance-enhancer such as a steroid or growth hormone. Apparently Joe Haden’s counsel agreed.

A league source told ESPN Cleveland that Haden’s argument in his appeal was that his positive test should have been treated as a violation of the league’s policy on substance abuse rather than the policy on anabolic steroids and related substances. A first offender of the substance abuse policy would be admitted to the league’s drug program and not suspended.

All along, it seemed to me while the violation was clearly a stupid mistake on the part of Joe Haden, it never sit right that it was a “performance-enhancing” situation. It seemed that it was clearly a situation of drug or substance abuse more akin to recreational speed use than HGH or ‘roids.

The NFL obviously didn’t flinch on the appeal, but hopefully they revisit their policy going forward, because I think it mis-categorized Joe Haden’s stupid mistake.

[Related: Haden Back, Dimitri Patterson out “a couple of weeks”]

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Let’s talk about money and NFL referees

September 26, 2012 by 41 Comments

Hooters girls offer to ref next game (H/T Busted Coverage)

Everyone has been talking about the NFL replacement referees and the lockout, and I’ve been thinking a lot about it as well. It’s even gone so far that the Hooters girls are offering to ref your next game. It’s such a big issue in such a big league that it is being used for PR stunts. Obviously, they got the wrong call at the end of Monday Night Football. Obviously, the games have been slower as they’ve been less decisive in making decisions, but let’s go beyond the superficial stuff that is easy to scream about and obvious. Let’s talk about the real issue here which is the battle between the NFL referees and the NFL.

The quality of replacement referees has absolutely nothing to do with the crux of the fight between the NFL and the referees over pensions. This isn’t an unfamiliar fight to most Americans as pensions are a dying breed of retirement vehicle all over the country. I don’t want to get too financially technical here, but there are two basic kinds of retirement plans. One is defined benefit, like a pension, that guarantees a certain benefit at retirement. It will frequently be a percentage of the employee’s final salary depending on years served in a career. A defined contribution plan is one that doesn’t guarantee future benefits, but instead guarantees contributions into investments like a 401(k) during employment.  [Read more...]

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PFT: Fujita right to be optimistic about week 1

August 29, 2012 by 5 Comments

It seemed mysterious to everyone when Scott Fujita proclaimed he was optimistic about playing in the first week of the NFL season. Now Mike Florio from Pro Football Talk has come up with a theory that could explain that optimism. He discusses it in his video podcast PFT Live.

What it boils down to is this. Judge Helen G. Berrigan has expressed concerns over the league’s process. She also indicated that she needed to wait for another hearing to be completed and could potentially do something after August 31st. Assuming the holiday weekend, if Berrigan makes a ruling or even just issues a temporary restraining order that allows the players to play while the issue is getting resolved, it does seem likely that Fujita would be able to suit up for the Browns.

I know Florio sometimes takes some heat from around the Internet for his opinions and even some of his reporting, but his deconstruction of legal issues is unquestionably valuable.  Interesting stuff that could impact the Browns, and to their credit, none of this has seemed to be a team distraction as of yet.

[Related: Shurmur: James-Michael Johnson Might Start for Fujita]

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Under pressure, NFL eases TV blackout policy

July 2, 2012 by 1 Comment

Pat McManamon has the story about the NFL dropping the limit to 85 percent.

Instead of requiring all tickets be sold 72 hours prior to kickoff for a game to be televised locally, the league’s ownership has decided that 15 percent of the seats can be unsold. Which is good for the guy sitting home who can’t afford a ticket, but might be concerning for the NFL as it assesses getting people out of recliners to watch games.

McManamon has some good stuff about what this means for the Bengals and Browns here in Ohio, but the fact remains that I really don’t think the NFL wanted to do any of this. The NFL could be proactively changing their rules in order to stave off further scrutiny from the U.S. government and the FCC. Earlier in the year, we talked about Ohio Senator Sherrod Brown being one of the politicians who signed on to urge the FCC to explore the NFL’s blackout policy.

Brown and company seemed to dig their heels in most because the NFL was blacking out games forcing local fans to purchase tickets to games in stadiums that were largely built, improved and subsidized by their own tax dollars. Of course, the worst thing going for fans who do actually go to games are the TV timeouts surrounding scores with the extra point, TV timeout, kickoff, TV timeout exchange.

Obviously we can’t forget the disparity in market size going on either.

Also consider the geographic disparities pointed out in the letter.  Buffalo has a stadium that seats about 73,000.  Chicago has a stadium that seats 61,500.  Buffalo’s population is nearly four times smaller than Chicago’s at 261,000 vs. 1 million or so.  Yes, Buffalo pulls from a region including Rochester (1 hour away) and Syracuse (about 2.5 hours away) but let’s not pretend the populations are even remotely close to being the same.

[Related: Minnesota stadium deal could ban TV blackouts]

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Fujita: NFL is Engaged in a “Public Smear Campaign” with Regard to Bounty Program

June 25, 2012 by 12 Comments

I’m not saying the NFL is intentionally lying. I’ve been willing to give them the benefit of the doubt that they may have just been working with the information they’ve been given, even though much of that information was inaccurate and lacked credibility. It’s their cavalier interpretation of everything that’s been way off. They clearly proceeded with a public smear campaign with very little regard for the truth.

- Cleveland Browns linebacker Scott Fujita on the latest developments involving the New Orleans Saints bounty program. For his alleged involvement, Fujita has been suspended for the first three games of the 2012 season and continues to be one of the most outspoken opponents of the initial ruling. In response, NFL spokesman Greg Aiello stated that “nothing [Fujita] has asserted in his various public statements undermines the findings of the investigation.”

[Related: Pat Shurmur and the Burden of Proof]

(Source: Associated Press)

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NFL to release “All 22″ game footage to fans

June 15, 2012 by 6 Comments

You have no idea how happy it makes this football geek to know that I’ll be able to deconstruct football games this season using the “All 22″ game footage. When you’re watching on TV and trying to figure out what happened on the backside of a play or in the defensive secondary and you can’t see it because the camera is focused only on the line of scrimmage, it takes a lot of guesswork to surmise who might or might not have been open or missed an assignment. This coach’s film will show us all 22 players on the field at any given time.

The NFL was reportedly nervous about releasing the film because they didn’t want to open up extra criticism to coaches and players who are already under pretty strong microscopes with fantasy football. The NFL doesn’t do everything right, but in this case, they asked the fans who were already paying for the “Game Rewind” service.

In order to gauge the interest in the camera angle among football diehards, the NFL surveyed those already subscribed to the “Game Rewind” service, and Berman said the data showed that “the level of interest in this product among those fans was off the charts, and that goes beyond coaches and sportswriters, where the interest is around 100%.”

What this means is that we’ll finally be able to tell conclusively how many plays receivers were open, but a QB didn’t have the guts to throw it to the spot, preferring to dump off to a relief valve. We’ll know if a safety and a corner aren’t successfully covering their zones or biting on the run fake.

In some circles, I am sure it will lead to a lot more criticism, but I think it will also increase the education about the game. I can’t wait for it, and I can’t wait to be able to pick key plays or sequences and break them down for you next year using MS Paint! 1

[Related: Jim Brown says Mike Holmgren’s Comments “Shows Class”]

 

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  1. Just kidding! I use PowerPoint! Really I use PowerPoint. [back]

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Fujita suspension upheld as Goodell’s standing is confirmed

June 4, 2012 by 7 Comments

The first tactic to try and poke holes in Roger Goodell’s punishment of players for the Saints bounty program has failed. The first order was to try and claim that Roger Goodell didn’t have standing to punish players under the current form of the Collective Bargaining Agreement. Specifically, the players were questioning whether the current CBA gave Goodell standing over actions that took place under prior agreements.

“System Arbitrator Stephen Burbank upheld the commissioner’s authority under the Collective Bargaining Agreement to impose ‘conduct detrimental’ discipline on players who provided or offered to provide financial incentives to injure opponents,”  the league explains.  ”He also upheld the commissioner’s authority to impose such discipline against players who obstructed a league investigation.  The System Arbitrator thus confirmed the commissioner’s authority to suspend Mr. Fujita, Mr. Smith and Mr. Vilma.  He invited the commissioner to clarify the precise basis for his discipline of Mr. Hargrove who, among other things, was found to have lied to the league’s investigators and obstructed their investigation.”

So the first path that Fujita and his fellow players have taken appears to be fruitless. We’ll see if they have any other ideas up their sleeve to get relief from the punishments handed down by Roger Goodell and the NFL.

Fair or not, it appears that short of suing the NFL in real court, Scott Fujita might just have to accept that he is subject to the whims of the Commissioner.

[Related: Browns fans shouldn’t pay for Saints bounty program]

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NFL News: Browns’ Scott Fujita Appeals 3-Game Suspension

May 7, 2012 by 4 Comments

As expected, Cleveland Browns linebacker Scott Fujita has appealed a three-game suspension which had been handed down from NFL commissioner Roger Goodell as a punishment for the player’s role in the New Orleans Saints bounty program.

Fujita, along with former teammates Johnathan Vilma, Will Smith and Anthony Hargrove, were all given punishments of various lengths roughly one week ago. Via the appeals, the players, their representatives and their union will continue to argue that the decision is not Goodell’s alone despite this exact item being collectively bargained during last season’s work stoppage.

“I disagree wholeheartedly with the discipline imposed,” Fujita said in a statement. “I’ve yet to hear the specifics of any allegation against me nor have I seen any evidence that supports what the NFL alleges. I look forward to the opportunity to confront what evidence they claim to have in an appropriate forum. [...] I have never contributed any money to any so-called ‘bounty’ pool and any statements to the contrary are false.”

Fujita, 33, has amassed 101 total tackles, four sacks and two interceptions over the past two seasons in Cleveland. In the event that the three-game suspension is upheld, it will cost Fujita  $644,118. He can participate in off-season and preseason activities, including games, with the Cleveland Browns.

[Related: Getting to know your new Cleveland Browns: Brad Smelley]

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Tim Couch, Courtney Brown join concussion lawsuits

April 24, 2012 by 29 Comments

The NFL hasn’t been very lenient with regard to the New Orleans Saints and the bounty allegations. Most assume that it has everything to do with former players health concerns, namely concussions. The lawsuits are forming and now include a couple of guys who could still be members of the Cleveland Browns had they not washed out of the league due to injuries.

The newest claim includes two former No. 1 overall picks of the Cleveland Browns: Tim Couch (pictured) and Courtney Brown.

Other plaintiffs include recognizable names like Fred Taylor, Kevin Bentley, Ladell Betts, Gilbert Brown, Ken Dilger, Olandis Gary, Nick Greisen, Willie Middlebrooks, Will Poole, Ike Reese, Joel Smeenge, John Welbourn, Roy L. Williams (the man after whom the horse-collar rule was named), Marcel Shipp, Adewale Ogunleye, and Charlie Frye.

That’s right. Charlie Frye is in now too. This is going to be ugly for the NFL. Expect it to drag out a very long time and be especially inclusive of the time period where the NFL is negotiating and signing new TV deals.

It makes sense too, as the effects of concussions can be – and frequently are presumed to be – ongoing. It will be interesting to see how it all plays out because the NFL is almost definitely going to be found at least partially liable. Simultaneously, based on my unscientific research it seems like the general public also feels as if players should take some responsibility for knowingly taking on some risk for large contractual rewards.

We’ll see how the courts decide.

[Related: Report: Goodell will “drop the hammer” on players involved in bounty scandal]

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Report: Goodell will “drop the hammer” on players involved in bounty scandal

April 24, 2012 by 41 Comments

According to the NFL Network’s Dan Hanzus, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell has decided punishment of individual players associated with the Saints’ ‘bounty’ program is warranted.

“In an appearance Tuesday on “The Rich Eisen Podcast,” NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said “evidence was clear that the players embraced it” in regard to the Saints’ pay-for-performance scheme.

Goodell added: “I don’t think they are absolved from responsibility.” Translation: Prepare for the hammer drop.

Goodell said player discipline will be coming “soon” and rejected the defense that those involved were “just following orders” of Gregg Williams.”

The Browns have two players- Scott Fujita and Usama Young that played for the Saints during that time period. Fujita, has gone on record as saying he contributed to extra incentive payouts as a member of the Saints, though he denies ever contributing for intentionally injuring another player.

It is hard to imagine a situation in which Fujita isn’t part of the discipline handed down by Goodell.

[Related: Fujita on the NFL and player safety "The hypocrisy infuriates me"]

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Cowboys and Redskins to have hearing in May

April 18, 2012 by 8 Comments

PFT is reporting that the Redskins and Cowboys will have their grievance heard in May. The grievance is over the issue of the NFL forcing them to take salary cap hits for player contracts they front-loaded in the uncapped year.

The league contends that the Cowboys and Redskins violated the “spirit” of the salary cap during the uncapped year of 2010, even though the NFL approved all contracts submitted by the teams containing payments in 2010. The circumstances suggest that the NFL tried to impose restrictions on spending that didn’t exist in the labor deal, which would constitute collusion in the uncapped year.

I will be watching this one anxiously. I’ve discussed the topic at length already. I am of the opinion that the league didn’t actually punish either of the teams. In the end, the NFL forced the clubs to account for salaries that they were obligated to pay out anyway in a different manner. A punishment in my mind would have been to dock them draft picks or force them to take an actual penalty amount above what they were forced to move.

The Redskins didn’t have to pay a dime more than what they had agreed to pay Albert Haynesworth. They just weren’t allowed to dump it all in one year like they tried to do. The only thing in my mind that could be made to look punitive is the fact that other teams have an extra $1.6 million in cap dollars that the Redskins and Cowboys don’t have available.

I keep coming out on the minority side in this issue if I am taking the pulse of the public correctly. So, we’ll see.

[Related: Explaining the cap penalties on the Redskins and Cowboys]

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Baseball needs a taste of the NFL’s collusion

April 3, 2012 by 24 Comments

I continue to chuckle when I see pundits get angry about the NFL colluding and forcing the Cowboys and Redskins to pay for their players the way the contracts were originally designed. In the end, I take some umbrage with the use of the word “punishment” when the NFL just forced the Redskins to pay for Haynesworth’s deal over the course of a couple years. A punishment would have been adding on a penalty on top of it in my point of view. Regardless, to think that there’s something wrong with this collusion in professional sports is laughable when looking at Major League Baseball. In the end, the Cowboys and Redskins tried to use their deep pockets to gain an advantage over other teams. They tried to buy their way out of bad contracts they signed. In Major League Baseball there is no need for such shenanigans. Baseball could use a bit more collusion if anything.

Before you accuse me, I am not defending MLB owners. These guys make their own beds. Nobody forces teams to sign guys to ten year deals for fractions of billions of dollars. In many cases these deals seem to strike themselves without multiple bidders. Maybe it just goes to show the power of baseball agents. No matter. I am not defending baseball owners. I couldn’t care less what’s best for them and their checking accounts except where it impacts me as a Cleveland Indians fan. In this case the Dolans aren’t an ownership group with funny money. [Read more...]

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Browns fans shouldn’t pay for Saints bounty program

March 27, 2012 by 20 Comments

As the New Orleans Saints scramble to make plans for Sean Payton’s year off from the game (possibly by talking to Bill Parcells) the players who played with the Saints from 2009 – 2011 wait for punishments to be handed down. As is the case with Scott Fujita and the Browns, they have to wait to pay the piper for sins that occurred under a completely different organizational umbrella. While Scott Fujita is a man who made choices and presumably earned some form of punishment, it seems rather odd that that punishment could end up being felt in Berea and all around the country wherever Cleveland Browns fans choose to roam.

So, is there a way for the player to be punished while not punishing the fans of a new team in a new organization that presumably had their house in order, at least with respect to bounty programs? I think there is. [Read more...]

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Punishment fits the crime in Saints case

March 22, 2012 by 54 Comments

When the “bounty” program that the Saints were running came to light, I was one of the first ones to wonder what the big deal was. I would never claim that a bounty system is legal or even ethical, but in a game where it is a defense’s primary objective to use physicality to stop the opposing offense from moving the ball, it just didn’t seem all that crazy to me. I didn’t know the full story. What the Saints did was far worse than just running a bounty system that rewarded players for big plays and injuring opposing stars. They lied about it in order to keep their illegal system going long after the NFL first started investigating.

The cliché is that the cover-up is worse than the crime. I don’t even necessarily agree with that, because covering up your crime is a pretty natural defense mechanism. Again, I am a pretty understanding person and ultimately we are talking about a game that is violent by nature. The bounty system is over the line, but I’m not going to pretend like I am outraged or that I don’t understand. Where I finally started understanding Roger Goodell is that the Saints kept their bounty program going even after it was first investigated. In the end, this seems to be what drew the level of punishment that the Saints received. In my mind it is the thing that ultimately justifies the NFL’s actions as well. [Read more...]

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Collusion is good for the NFL

March 17, 2012 by 16 Comments


I was happy when the NFL came down on the Redskins and Cowboys, because it seemed like they gained an unfair advantage in the uncapped 2010 NFL season. It is a complex scenario though, and some of the people angry about the NFL penalizing the two teams make some good points. Still, I couldn’t help but think the Redskins and Cowboys were trying to get away with something and create an unfair advantage.

First of all, is it collusion? Absolutely. Of course it is collusion, but let’s not pretend like it isn’t a delicate balance between running a league with rules that everyone has to follow and a league that is so unique in terms of standard businesses that it requires special anti-trust exemption. That being the case, you can’t really compare it to any other kind of business. And with that being the case, it sometimes looks a bit messy if you don’t put it in the vacuum it normally lives in. [Read more...]

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Explaining the cap penalties on the Redskins and Cowboys

March 13, 2012 by 41 Comments

I was very confused when I learned yesterday that the NFL would be penalizing the Redskins and Cowboys for contracts they re-worked in the uncapped year. It seemed very strange because the NFL seemingly lets teams re-work deals all the time so that they can free up cap space. So what was so different about what the Redskins and Cowboys did that got them into trouble?

First of all, most teams normally use restructuring to free up cap space. The NFL seemingly knew that an uncapped year could be used by teams to circumvent future salary caps by dumping as much salary as possible into 2010 as the uncapped year. They warned teams against doing it a reported six different times with letters from the front office. Those letters apparently warned teams that they risked being punished under the rules of the new CBA if they engaged in activities that would lead to circumventing the re-established salary cap. The Redskins and Cowboys gambled, and if the NFL’s penalty holds up, they will be punished.

Still, what, exactly did they do that broke the rules? [Read more...]

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Sherrod Brown signs letter to FCC attacking sports blackout rules

February 15, 2012 by 45 Comments

In Cleveland it has been a source of pride for many that no matter how bad the Browns have stunk that no games have been blacked out on local TV.  Some of you Clevelanders may not know this, but if you can’t muster up enough fans to go to a home game and make it a sellout, then the local TV broadcast is blacked out and you can’t watch it.  From the letter.

There were 16 blackouts in the 2011 NFL season. There were 23 in 2010, and 22 the year before. These blackouts are ruining the experience of rooting for the home team and are unjustly hurting fans. That many of these stadiums were constructed or remodeled using taxpayer dollars underscores the disservice done to fans by blackouts. [Read more...]

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