Favre Factor Sells Soap on Big-Time Football

The Sky is Crying, and my yard is very soggy this week. Great song, crummy weather. Takes me back to many of those soggy days in Sacramento when the whole county thought the levees would break and flood a good many areas of the city. I can't complain we need the rain. This week with the bad weather and January in full swing I had NFL football and the WWE on my mind. I remembered my old buddy "Hillbilly Jim" Morris who used to call on me in bygone video days from Coliseum Video selling all those highlight packages of WrestleMania and the like. He always had great stories to tell. "Yep, one big soap opera for big guys and little guys with moms even hanging out. Let me tell you, a lot of those blows were very real. I didn't fake a broken leg and bad back from square dancin' in those arenas."  I miss Jim, and hope he's doing well.

As I watched the Dallas Cowboys getting Napoleoned Blown Apart by the Minnesota Vikings, I was really shocked. I thought for sure the Cowboys were a lock to play in the Super Bowl. I thought the Jerry Jones tribute to the NFL in the form of a giant stadium would be the ticket. Well, the game will not be played at the new Palace de Pigskin in Texas, but with all that money invested in an NFL crown jewel I thought all that tribute investment would be worth something, but I underestimated all that advertising revenue from all those Brett Favre lovers and haters out in television land. The Cowboys were the hot team driving the Eagles out of Texas, and out of the playoffs with more authority than a Roger Goodell suspension on players for bad behavior, but they played like the St. Louis Lambs on the Metrodome turf this past weekend.

Brett Favre sure looked good! 

In the NFL there are so few positive compelling human stories to punctuate the games, only the constant parade of embarrassing indiscretions and violent acts for weekly human interest grist. The exception to this police line-up parade is the soap opera called Brett Favre, which shines so bright as to dim all other stories. Brett has been the golden boy of the game for the past two decades. He has virtually every career passing record the NFL keeps track of. He has been the kid with all that exuberance, determination and flair who gained a championship in the mid 1990s. He has been the middle aged warrior who fought through pain (and pain killers) on less than great teams to soldier on  for that one last championship. He was the son who valiantly played the game of his life two days after his father had suddenly died, and on the national stage for Monday Night Football to boot. He is now the grizzled veteran who still has game, and ponders retirement every off-season for the past six years only to suit up for one last quest. He is Galahad, or Ivanhoe, or Lancelot. He is big money for the NFL.

How 'bout them Cowboys? Brett Favre sure looked good!

Now I'm not saying the games are fixed in the NFL, but most of the big ones sure seem to work out in an unusually preordained fashion. I have been suspicious of big game arrangements since Gary Anderson of the Minnesota Vikings missed a 38 yard field goal in the Championship game in 1999 when the Minnesota Vikings ultimately lost to the Atlanta Falcons.

Consider, Gary Anderson was a veteran kicker, and for the whole season indoors as well as outdoors had not missed a field goal or extra point try up to his kick attempt to win the NFC Championship game. He was indoors at the comfy confines of the Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome. A good kick with 5 minutes remaining seals the deal. It is not as though this kick saves the Vikings from the grasp of defeat with no time remaining, or other imagined big pressure situations that might cause a nerve or two to pinch at an inopportune nanosecond. Well, the story is ancient history, and only comes up in a strange bit of memory haze when you ponder the end of the San Diego Chargers season.

Nate Kaeding definitely moved Gary Anderson off the the old how-in-the-fuck-could-he-miss-that-kick perch football geeks have been pondering for more than a decade now. Nate (the not so great in the playoffs) Kaeding has personally removed the Chagers from the playoffs twice, and both times against the New York Jets.  Could that really be a coincidence?

I also have a hard time believing that either of these two placekickers choked. When you kick at the highest level of the sport, and are considered "money" by everyone in the stadium, choking just does not come into the equation. Nor does money for the player, when you get right down to it. These NFL players are currently paid in the top one percent of all earners in America. Even kickers.

So if these guys make so much money why throw games?

The first thing that might pop into the brain upon reflecting over the above question might be gamblers. If a person got into a very bad situation and owed big bucks to people who really value seeing their money come in on schedule this could be a possibility. But you never see this with players today in the big leagues. Whether it is the MLB players, the NBA players, the NHL players or the NFL players you just don't see them in those circumstances while they are playing. They make too much money to be bought off.

We have read about the NBA referee, Tim Donaghy, being tied  to the mob over his betting on NBA games that he officiated. And there is plenty of outrage from fans around the country about the obvious favoritism shown to certain teams and stars by the officials in the NBA. Sports Illustrated ran a column by Phil Taylor that makes a good case that the NBA has a very big credibility problem on its hands, but nobody seems to care. Of course, (and I could be wrong) I am not even sure if anyone outside of Los Angeles, Cleveland and Boston even bothers to watch NBA games anymore.

College football and college basketball have been rocked by betting scandals every decade going back to the 1940s. Always with players who earn nothing while packed stadiums, and big money media contracts heap dough on the NCAA and the few select top team schools.

Baseball has had its share of gambling problems in the past with Pete Rose, and a long time ago with the Chicago White Sox- Black Sox fix of the 1919 World Series. But Pete Rose was a manager who gambled on games not fixed them, and players back in the World War I era earned no money to speak of, thus becoming easy targets for the gambling interests to persuade.

Most of the focus over the 2009 MLB playoffs were over a very high number of really bad calls umpires made at critical junctures during several games. Once again, the lowest paid people on the field making their presence known in determining the outcome of big games. In the baseball playoffs and World Series those bad calls might have been simple bargaining leverage tactics in the ongoing contract negotiations between their Union members and the MLB power brokers. 

Refereeing is a huge issue in all sports today because the dollars involved are so great, and the people making the calls earn very little in comparison to the athletes they judge on the respective fields of play. But, looking  back at the NFL playoffs this past weekend the refereeing was really a non-factor in all the games. Yes, the Chargers were penalized twice as often, and for far more yardage than the Jets, but the calls for bonehead Charger player actions were certainly all merited.

Officials could have been in on securing the deal in San Diego, and did just enough to make sure the fair-weather team did not get too far out ahead. It's not as though officials have not recently played a huge role in all but ensuring a victory for the chosen team in the NFL. Two words are all I need to type to bring back the faded memory of one franchise getting the friendly push to the top while the other franchise was getting the not so friendly nudge off the cliff. Tuck Rule. Even with the Tuck Rule fiasco, the officials ruled one way on field before being overturned from the booth.  

When humongous amounts of dollars are at stake it gets harder and harder to believe that many games are on the level these days. When you have a business monopoly the only real goal is to make money for the business. Fairness, ethics, morals and all that other stuff are for people, not corporate monopolies. How do you make more money  when you have the same number of seats to be sold at the same number of stadiums the same number of weeks every year? You need higher television and other media ratings to go after broadcast rights and advertisers for more dollars. You have to make your product compelling and appeal to the markets with the highest density of people with the highest average incomes to match your investment partners targeted audiences.

Which game offers the most must see potential? Colts-Saints? Colts-Vikings? Jets-Saints? No real drama in any of those match-ups. In two out of the three the quarterback match-ups would be fun to watch, but not compelling. From my point of view it has had to be the Jets against the Vikings all along. Did I mention the Jets got into the postseason by winning the regular season final two games when their opponents (Bengals and Colts) didn't bother to play at full strength, and then got to meet them both again to convince everybody those games were legitimate?  

I am not placing any bets this weekend, but as time goes on Roger Goodell and Vince McMahon begin to have more similarities than differences when it comes to managing their entertainment empires of big bodied people.

Have a good time watch Big-Time Football this weekend.

Food For Thought

Okay, I'm old. Not ancient, mind you. Just been around the block a time too many to be called cute, innocent, bursting-on-the-scene, or any other youthful descriptor you might want to apply to a biomass of energy exposed to all the universal elements for over fifty years.

I shave, but jeez  all those little lines seem to be bunker trenches that follicles dive inside of to hide from the artillery blast of the electric razor, and then spring back after the scheduled shock-and-awe of the morning routine to stubble the whole face.

Problems are like those damn hair follicles, just when you think you've mowed them down for good they are back at you scratching your sweetie's face, or maybe some other sensitive areas of bliss, and ruining the whole night.

People and problems are inseparable. Some have a few more than others, but problems are an experience we all share. The biggest problems have always been our own, and were ones that close friends and family got to hear repeated on a frequent basis. What are friends and family for, after all? 

Our daily problems could include being short on cash for the rent, the car payment, credit cards, school supplies, a doctor's bill, drugs, or food. There might have been a relationship problem with a significant other, friend, coworker or family member to chew over regularly. We might fret over deadlines at school, or on the job, or stacked up work with no end in sight and these all heap themselves on the problem pile.

All of these were enough to keep the headache medicine business booming, but now when the macro problems of the credit markets, the job markets, unemployment, the housing crisis, the health care system, the education system, the never-ending wars at home and abroad, the energy crisis, global climate change, and with every-other-disaster-waiting-to-be-broadcast-into-your-home life today seems to be all about problems, which must be what all those anti-depressant scrips are all about.

Why can't we solve problems today? It feels like our petty little individual problems now seem like small droplets in the ocean of problem scum. The government today has no power over the forces that have made a ruin of the economy and our total society. We live under giant corporate rules where the decision makers are loyal not to people, not to governments, not to any religious or philosophical tenet but only to the word money. Money emerged these past three decades as the reigning theology for the world.

There is a fascinating documentary on the subject of corporations and this new religion, or fierce devotion to all things money.  The Corporation is a documentary of extraordinary breadth and intelligence, and is based on the book by Joel Bakan. The Corporation: The Pathological Pursuit of Profit and Power. It has a Who's who cast of major thinkers and protagonists that range from Milton Friedman to Michael Moore and every point of view in between. The DVD comes not only with the excellent documentary, but also includes on a second disc a fabulous interview collection with all the major people who spoke in the film.

Problems need to be understood in order that we may solve them. We have been misled for too long on the nature of our biggest problem, and we must start to retake our culture and our rights back from those who truly have co-opted them under the guise of a legal system the people now cannot afford to participate in as advocates. What the big companies never told the world was that when they cut out the middlemen they cut  out most of  the people. The Corporation is truly essential viewing for anyone who seems perplexed by our rapid loss of personal liberty amid a dysfunctional and impotent set of governments. 


 

Only Size Matters in the Economy of Scales

In my past life I was an executive at a great entertainment retail company. The people at the top of the company never viewed themselves as executives, really. The company ran with records guys and gals, books guys and gals, videos guys and gals, advertising guys and gals, warehouse people, accountants, supervisors, and clerks of all stripes who all shared a passion for music, reading, art and film. Most in-house conversations were about selling more of what we had experienced, either very recently, or at some juncture of our peculiar life's time-line. Shared diverse experiences in the stores and head offices were shared with an eager and intelligent growing vendor and consumer base, which made it a perfect fit for two decades of commercial and personal success.

Those days are gone. Not only within the former industry where I worked, but in so many other industries throughout the world of commerce. At the end, the company, like so many others in a few short years time, had become overwhelmed by global forces too powerful to withstand. Size, and the subsequent scales of efficiency,became all that mattered in the business world. Small companies went bye-bye.

For years, I spent useless hours wondering what actions I might have taken to save my little business world and those that inhabited it, but finally realized immutable forces at such a high level were busy transforming business into something not seen since the the end of the 19th Century. Globalism, under the benign term, free market, had reduced the multitude to the handful, and had brought about the same horrific factory working conditions to the labor force that existed a century ago.

Globalism is simply a new word for Colonialism. The only difference is that conglomerate corporations now dominate the world markets instead of the imperial dynasties that ruled governments in the past. However, many of the same families who ruled nations as sovereigns in that age now simply rule through corporate boards of directors within a labyrinth of shell organizations, trusts, foundations, banks and businesses. I must say one has to really tip one's hat to the remarkable change of guise that the ruling class has made for itself these last sixty years, and particularly these last three decades.

In my former life, I used to watch every movie I could lay my hands on. It was my job, and I was up to the challenge. I have seen the same plots reworked, the same explosions filmed, and the same obligatory music interlude to promote the latest soundtrack entrant more times than I have made keystrokes on all the keyboards I have ever pounded on in my lifetime. I don't watch that many commercial movies these days, and those that I do view need to be pretty special in there own quirky or spectacular way. I do, however, watch as many documentaries from small independent or publicly funded film-makers as I can get my hands on.

Recently, I watched a tremendously informative PBS documentary called Commanding Heights: The Battle For The World Economy. This documentary is based on a book by Pulitzer Prize winning authors Daniel Yergin and Joseph Stanislaw. This film gives the viewer great background information on the struggles of economic ideas, movements and history while providing startling detailed accounts of our current financial crisis and the warning signs of how this collapse came to happen. It is a very pro-capitalist pro-globalist look with a late 1990s view, although the film does include a brief 9/11 account and the potential financial impact this would have on the markets.

The title for the book and this filmed translation and update comes from a famous line Vladimir Lenin delivered on his "New Economic Policy" for post war Russia. Commanding heights refer to those segments of the economy that dominate the field, much like any good commander will utilize the high ground for advantage on the battlefield.

This documentary is truly must see TV for our age. If people want to understand how this dreadful economic circumstance came to be this decade, people need to understand who and what is behind this reality. This is a great first step in finding clarity. It's good for the soul.

Sports Porn The Golden State of Football

The NFL regular season ended last Sunday. The NFL Playoffs got off to some boring blow out action for three games, and one game to remember for a long time in Phoenix, AZ.

Here in California (the lost coast for football in America), the big pigskin news finds Pete Carroll leaving the University of Southern California for the Seattle Seahawks. As I write this blog post there is no official word yet that the deal has been done, but enough chatter from every outpost of football conversation to suggest the deal is done. For years Carroll has always maintained he was not interested in going back to the NFL unless he was granted the type of control over a team he currently enjoys at the college level. However, times and circumstances can change a dynamic. Like NCAA violations that put your program in big jeopardy. The USC program over the past several years has been on the NCAA radar for Reggie Bush allegations, just had their basketball program bulldozed by the O.J. Mayo affair, and must deal with the Joe McKnight SUV episode.

The intriguing issue regarding Pete Carroll, and his potential new job in the NFL, is the Rooney Rule. This is the NFL Affirmative Action Clause, which stipulates minority candidates must always be interviewed for any open coaching slot among the NFL's 32 teams. Teams do not have to hire a minority candidate, but they always have to interview one. In this case, the one guy appears to be the Minnesota Vikings Defensive Coordinator, Leslie Frazier, as the obligatory minority candidate. How this plays out could make for some interesting chat room discussions over the NFL off-season.

Off-seasons are what passes as interest for the remaining old fart fans, and the fantasy gamblers of pro football in California. I've followed the NFL for more than 50 years and can never recall any lengthier period of time when California mattered so little to The League. The NFL today promotes a small collection of teams in the upper Midwest and Northeast portion of the country. The NFL is no longer a national league. It has become a very regional league. Look at the eight division cumulative season records for the decade.

AFC
New England (112-48)      Pittsburgh (103-56-1)
New York Jets (80-80)     Baltimore (95-68)
Miami Dolphins (79-81)    Cincinnati (68-98-1)
Buffalo Bills (66-94)          Cleveland (57-103)

Indianapolis (115-45)         Denver (93-67)
Tennessee (91-69)             San Diego (85-75)
Jacksonville (76-84)           Kansas City (70-90)
*Houston (49-79)              Oakland (62-98)

NFC
Philadelphia(103-56-1) Green Bay (95-65)
New York (88-72)       Minnesota (84-76)
Dallas (82-78)              Chicago (81-79)
Washington (70-90)      Detroit (42-118)

New Orleans (83-77)    Seattle (82-78)
Carolina (79-81)           St. Louis (71-89)
Tampa Bay (79-81)      San Francisco (68-92)
Atlanta (75-84-1)         Arizona (62-98)

Cumulative records do not tell the whole story, just a part of the story. It is curious to note in this decade that the Colts with the best overall record have only one Super Bowl appearance and victory to show for all the excellence. New England has made four trips to the Super Bowl with three wins to their credit. However New England's best team, and maybe the best team the NFL has ever seen with a perfect record going into a championship game, was beaten by an average New York Giants team. The Steelers have two wins in two Super Bowls this decade, but the Eagles have only made the Big Dance one time and were beaten by the Patriots. The teams in the South and the West have been chumps in both Conferences this decade.

This trend started when Los Angeles lost their pro football franchises back in 1994. That 1994 season was the only time in NFL history when two teams from California met in the Super Bowl for the Championship. The 49ers pummeled the San Diego Chargers 49 to 26 in Miami, Florida on January 29, 1995. With the season done the Rams upped and moved to St. Louis for some quick cash infusion, and the Raiders did the same by moving back to Oakland, and getting a sweet stadium deal done at the Oakland Coliseum Stadium complex. The League gave a reluctant thumbs up to the Rams move back to a former NFL city (St. Louis) thinking the Raiders would stay in Los Angeles. Al Davis, always a contrary poke-in-the-eye-kind-of-guy to the NFL, bargained with a desperate city of Oakland for a bunch of cash and left the NFL without a team in the second largest media market in the nation.

All those glorious California connections of playoff games and East/West, North/South rivalry match-ups have evaporated over the 15 years of NFL silence in the City of Angels. For the most populous portion of California it was lights out, and no young fans to cultivate. The state moved on without the NFL, and the NFL in a snit decided no stadium in California now measured up to Super Bowl standards and told the three owners of California based teams, and every major city in the state, that California was out as a host city for any future Super Bowls. This occurred at the 2003 Super Bowl in San Diego, California. This was the last time a team from California appeared in the Super Bowl. The 2002 season also marked the last time both the Oakland Raiders and the San Francisco 49ers had a winning record in an NFL season.

Yes, California still has a team in San Diego, but as good as that Chargers team has been these past few years they have made no impact on the national football scene. They still employ a potential Hall of Fame running back, although given where most football writers live and work, and who vote on who gets into the Hall of Fame, LaDainian Tomlinson might not get enshrined until his later years, if at all. The Chargers have an identity problem. Since they are on the West Coast they have no identity.

The winds of change may shifting within the NFL. This is still the bully league, or as Mark Cuban might say the Ugly American Syndrome League , but California still has roughly 35 million to 40 million sets of eyeballs that corporate sponsors want to target and lie to every week. And the lack of competition in the state exacts a toll every year in declining interest out west.

There has been more conversations of an established team moving into Los Angeles these past few months than at any other time in this 15 year absence. Several teams are actually being considered as Angelo possibilities from the Jacksonville Jaguars, Minnesota Vikings, Buffalo Bills, San Diego Chargers, and the Rams or the Raiders again. All this talk has been fueled by the Collective Bargaining Agreement set to lapse after next year. There will be no salary cap for 2010, and major revenue sharing agreements with smaller market teams are set to end this year as well. Teams on the edge could find this set of circumstances the most compelling reason to move to Southern California within a couple of years.

The real caveat to relocation in Los Angeles is the California economy, which has suffered like no other state in the country with tremendous financial losses this decade. California is on the brink of becoming Argentina, with a two class population in shambles overburdened with monstrous debt and no government to govern. The public in this state is also very disinclined to pay for a billionaire's stadium. Some real creative financing will need to come into play on the stadium deal.

I believe the test for a team to move in SoCal soon will be indicated by a teams in the Super Bowl this year. With all the money Jerry Jones spent in building the new Cowboy Stadium I believe the Cowboys are a near certain Super Bowl contestant. If the Chargers prevail in the AFC I think that is the signal the move will be on. If the Colts or Ravens are the match-up against Dallas it will be a big billboard endorsing all quiet on the western front.

Enjoy the playoffs if you can.

Celebrate Reform and Get None

I still keep an eye out for the mail these days. The summaries from Medicare and my dad's other insurance carrier have slowed down to a crawl these past few weeks. The "estate" might be in the clear. Estate is such a grand term to describe a few thousand dollars. I love the word. It so elevates my every day reality.

As the mail carrier drops another small load of paper products into the box, I scurry out with dog in hand to check the day's haul. Mmmm, a notice from CitiGroup, but not the monthly statement and bill.

"What insurance are they selling us now, Darby-doo?"

My-my, this is not an insurance offer, but a complete change of terms on the existing credit card agreement. Oh my, it looks like 24% as the new annual rate. Hmmm, that works out to an interest rate increase of more than two and half times the interest terms I currently pay CitiGroup. So much for the value of a credit rating of over 800, and being a valued customer for many years.

Wait.........

I can have a special rate locked in as a valued long time cardholder with stellar credit. Oh yes! Sounds good to me.

Wait......

I need to transfer at least $3,000 in current card debt from some other card company to my Citi card to qualify for this fabulous offer that actually raises my interest rate a full point more than my current agreement. Hmmm. That does not sound so good, Darbs.

My only option with this company is apparently to opt out, which reduces my already pretty lean credit lines. Is this what our fabulous legislators had in mind when they put a band aid on another one of America's crooked industries and called it reform? What was all that hoopla over back in May of 2009 when all the media announced the big Credit card reform act?

It simply should be against the law to be allowed to charge outrageously high interest rates on credit cards, or for the privilege of cashing a check in this country. When did we actually legalize loan sharking in America?

It doesn't take a rocket scientist to understand that this wonderfully promoted credit card reform bill reformed nothing. As we watched our millionaire Senators take apart the Health Care Reform House Bill that offered Americans some hope with a potential public option, it is clear the plutocracy of wealthy elites in the Senate feel the American voters are so inept and splintered at this juncture in time no fallout will occur over another failed act to solve any problem for working people and the unemployed stuck in this third world nation.

Can't wait to experience health care reform now.