Upon Further Review . . .

The new NFL logo went into use at the 2008 draft. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The job of an official in the National Football League--or any other league, for that matter--is to go about your business in such an efficient manner that few notice how you did when the game ended.

Through seven weeks of the NFL schedule (four pre-season and three regular season games), that hasn't been the case.  That's how long the league has locked out its regular officials, with the two sides far apart in negotiating a new deal.  So the NFL brought in replacements from the high school and small college ranks (the major conferences declined to let their officials be used), hoping no one would notice the difference.

Unfortunately for them, a lot of people did.  The games have turned into theatre of the absurd.  Blown calls.  Extra timeouts and video challenges.  Numerous and questionable penalty flags.  Confusion over how a play should be ruled.  Players and coaches taking advantage of the inexperienced replacements.  But it all doesn't matter as long as your team wins.  And if they don't . . . well, look out.

The replacements are doing the best they can with what they have to work with.  It's just that they're in over their heads, and everyone knows it.  There's no easy way to decipher the NFL rulebook in just a few weeks.

All this has made NFL commissioner Roger Goodell Public Enemy Number One in the minds of many for letting this lockout go on as long as it has.  Surprising as it sounds, Goodell does not have the power to end the impasse ASAP.  The owners pay his salary, and they are behind him 100%.

It's not as if there's any incentive to end the lockout.  Players and coaches have been told to keep quiet about this, or they'll get fined.  TV ratings are soaring and stadiums are still filled.  People will watch football no matter how badly officiated it is, and the owners know it.

So don't be surprised if replacement officials are used for the rest of the season, and the NFL finds a way to get rid of the referees' union and starts over.  Also, don't be surprised if you're still going to games or watching them on TV.  Because it's football.

UPDATE:  Our long national nightmare is over.  The NFL and the referees' union have agreed to a new deal on Wednesday, and regular officials will be working this weekend's games.  All will be sweetness and light until the next time an official's mistake affects the outcome of a nationally-televised game.

NHL Lockout IV: The Sequel

NEW YORK, NY - SEPTEMBER 13: Don Fehr, executive director of the National Hockey League Players Association meets with the media at Marriott Marquis Times Square on September 13, 2012 in New York City. (Image credit: Getty Images via @daylife)

While you were watching football over the weekend, the National Hockey League has locked out its players for the fourth time in 20 years.  It's the third time under commissioner Gary Bettman.  Notice we didn't say anything about further negotiations.

Remember the last one?  Sure you do.  In that one, the NHL ended up canceling the entire 2004-05 season, then spent the next few years trying to win back fans.  The CBC showed "Movie Night In Canada" instead of "Hockey Night In Canada".

Almost no one thinks this season is a lost cause, but we've seen this movie before.  Owners and the NHLPA (now headed by Donald Fehr) are battling over how to divvy up $3.3 billion in revenues.  Both sides want to reduce the others' portion of the money.  In other words, it's just another labor dispute between millionaires and billionaires.

Players have decisions to make while the lockout is in progress.  They can either (A) go to Europe or the minor leagues if they want to get in any playing time, or (B) keep playing pickup games with whomever they can find at practice rinks.  Such is the price of staying united with the NHLPA.

The regular season is supposed to begin October 11, but don't count on it.  As long as the lockout lasts, teams will be forced to offer refunds for games the NHL cancels.  And some of those franchises that are on shaky ground to begin with (Phoenix Coyotes, Florida Panthers, etc.) simply can't afford that.

Thanks to the lockout, teams like the Minnesota Wild now look like idiots for signing free agents such as Zach Parise and Ryan Suter to expensive, long term contracts.  Which doesn't say much for the teams' ability to pay ordinary players, who make peanuts by comparison.

For you, the hockey fan, there are alternatives.  If you live in Minnesota, the "State of Hockey" boasts plenty of high school and college competition.  If you live elsewhere, please support your local college or minor league team.  If you lack either of those options, there's always You Tube.

Or you can forget hockey and see what's going on in the other sports:  The NFL with its replacement referees screwing up games.  College football, where only teams from the Deep South need apply for the national championship.  Major League Baseball, which threatens to extend its season into winter by adding two more teams to the playoffs.  And then there's the NBA, which just had its own work stoppage last season, and everyone's pretty much forgotten about it.

So who needs the NHL?

Kluwe Not Punting On Free Speech

EDEN PRAIRIE, MN- CIRCA 2011: In this handout image provided by the NFL, Chris Kluwe of the Minnesota Vikings poses for his NFL headshot circa 2011 in Eden Prairie, Minnesota. (Image credit: Getty Images via @daylife)

Chris Kluwe's occupation is punter for the NFL Minnesota Vikings, sent in whenever his team's offense fails to make it past the 50-yard line.  His job is to kick the ball and land it as deep into the other team's territory as possible, without going into the end zone.  Punting is not the most glamorous role in football, unless your name is Ray Guy.

Right now, Kluwe is the most famous punter in America, and not for anything he's done on the field.  He's stepped into the gay marriage debate by writing a letter to a Maryland state legislator named Emmet C. Burns, Jr, a Democrat representing Baltimore County who also happens to be a minister, defending the right of Baltimore Ravens player Brendon Ayanbadejo to speak out in favor of it.  Burns, who doesn't support gay marriage, wanted the Ravens to request that the team find a way to silence Mr. Ayanbadejo.

The Deadspin web site published Kluwe's profanity-laced missive (read it at www.deadspin.com, or just scroll down to the bottom of this blog), and it got a lot of attention on social media.  Ellen DeGeneres, the noted talk-show host and sometime gay activist by virtue of her being lesbian, praised Kluwe's letter on her TV show.

If you're wondering why more athletes don't speak up about the issues, we have a couple of theories as to why they tend to check their First Amendment rights at the door:

(1) Hey, It Must Be The Money.  Team owners and corporations (most of whom tend to support Republicans) lavish millions of dollars in contracts and endorsements on players to give them the kind of lifestyle they otherwise wouldn't have had.  So why would they want to offend those who buy the tickets and the products they advertise on TV?

(2) Sports Leagues Have an Image to Protect.  They want to be seen as family-friendly entertainment, to be enjoyed by Mom, Dad, the kids and their grandparents.  That's why they spend so much time sucking up to The Troops, or splash pink on nearly everything to raise "awareness" about breast cancer.  That's why bad forms of sportsmanship such as steroid use, bounties on certain players and end zone touchdown dances aren't tolerated.  It's too bad the average family is usually priced out of these "family-friendly" events.

(3) "Out" Is Out of Bounds.  How many gay athletes there are, we don't know.  We've come to accept, however grudgingly, the fact that there are lesbians in women's sports.  We know about gay athletes who came out of the closet, but only after their playing days are done.  What's going to happen when a currently active player on a pro sports team makes his sexuality public?  Will he make his teammates nervous?  Will opposing fans shower him with various forms of verbal abuse, and (sometimes) death threats?  Or will there be (gulp) acceptance?

In Minnesota, where Kluwe plies his trade, voters will soon decide whether the state constitution should include an amendment banning same sex marriage.  Never mind that there already is a law prohibiting two men or two women from getting hitched.  That's not likely to change no matter how the vote comes out.

Chris Kluwe, an employee of the National Football League, has yet to be reprimanded by commissioner Roger Goodell for not toeing the company line when it comes to social causes that don't involve their favorite charities.  If that's so, then it's a positive sign that not all athletes are willing to trade their brains in for money.  If it's not, then Goodell has just signaled that in the NFL, at least, tolerance is a one-way street.

Related articles

• "They Won't Magically Turn You Into A Lustful Cockmonster": Chris Kluwe Explains Gay Marriage To The Politician Who Is Offended By An NFL Player Supporting It [Nfl]

NFL 2012: Questionable Calls

Peyton Manning (Photo credit: Jeffrey Beall)

The National Football League is the most popular and most powerful in pro sports.  That much is obvious.  But as the 2012 season opens, some cracks are growing in the facade of Commissioner Roger Goodell's lucrative fortress.

(1) The league has been locking out its onfield officials due to a contract dispute, and it looks like that will continue into the regular season.  Replacement referees, cobbled together from various college and semi-pro leagues, have been universally criticized during the pre-season for their sloppy performance.  The last time this happened was in 2001, but back then nobody was concerned about the safety of the players due to concussions as they are now.

(2)"Bountygate", in which some New Orleans Saints players and personnel have been fined and suspended by the NFL for allegedly targeting certain opposing players with deliberate injury for a fee, has been losing steam.  Some of the Saints players have been appealing their suspensions with some success.  And the team doesn't appear to have been too damaged on the field, despite the loss of coach Sean Payton.

(3) Follow the bouncing ball:  Number one draft pick Andrew Luck replaces Peyton Manning at quarterback with the Indianapolis Colts.  Manning goes to the Denver Broncos and replaces Tim Tebow, who takes his "Tebow-mania" act to New York playing backup for the Jets.  Robert Griffin III becomes the Washington Redskins' latest quarterback savior.  Donovan McNabb, Chad (Ochocinco) Johnson and Terrell Owens are all out of football.

(4) Two changes to your TV schedule:  Sunday doubleheader games will now kick off at 4:25 in the East (3:25 in the Midwest), ten minutes later than usual.  Which guarantees that the entire CBS prime time lineup will be delayed by at least 45 minutes, because games almost never end on time.  Also, "Thursday Night Football" on NFL Network will now be on every week, with the exception of Thanksgiving night.  That one goes to NBC.

As for the Minnesota Vikings, it shouldn't stretch the imagination too much that they have replaced the Detroit Lions as the worst team in the NFC North.  Christian Ponder is still a question mark at quarterback.  Adrian Peterson is recovering from his injury, and one wonders if he'll ever be the same player again.  The defense, outside of Jared Allen, leaves a lot to be desired.  Put that together, and you have the Vikings finishing with a 4-12 record.  Well, at least they're not going to Los Angeles.

Finally, our division and wild card picks:

NFC EAST  New York Giants
        WEST  San Francisco 49ers
         SOUTH  New Orleans Saints
         NORTH  Green Bay Packers
         WILD CARD  Atlanta Falcons and Detroit Lions

AFC EAST  New England Patriots
         WEST  Denver Broncos
         SOUTH  Houston Texans
         NORTH  Baltimore Ravens
         WILD CARD  Pittsburgh Steelers and Kansas City Chiefs

Lance Armstrong: The All-American Fraud?

Lance Armstrong at the team presentation of the 2010 Tour de France in Rotterdam (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Up to now, Lance Armstrong's career has consisted of seven Tour de France cycling titles, dating singer Sheryl Crow and actress Kate Hudson, and setting up an organization dedicated to his fight against testicular cancer.  Armstrong's spent almost as much time fending off allegations that he took illegal substances to enhance his cycling performance.

That all came to an end Thursday when Armstrong he would no longer fight charges made by the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency about his alleged use of those substances, while once again declaring his innocence.  In turn, the USADA took away 14 years of Armstrong's accomplishments, including those Tour de France victories from 1999 to 2005 and the bronze medal he won at the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, Australia.

This continues sports' new policy of "you didn't really see that", video evidence to the contrary.  As in, because of recruiting violations and sex and drug scandals, Marion Jones and Ben Johnson didn't really win all those Olympic medals.  Joe Paterno is no longer the winningest coach in college football history.  Reggie Bush didn't really win the Heisman Trophy.  And Hank Aaron, not Barry Bonds, is Major League Baseball's all-time home run king.

While Armstrong was being set up as this hero who beat the odds in a sport few Americans cared about, there have always been hints and allegations (as Paul Simon once put it) in the drug-riddled cycling community about his supposed blood doping activities.  And always, Armstrong would come back with his claims that he's been tested and re-tested, and came up clean every time.  Until his former competitors and teammates started ratting him out, most people took Armstrong at his word.

Because of Armstrong's now-tainted accomplishments with a bicycle and the well-known fact that he's a cancer "survivor", he was also able to sell millions of those "Livestrong" wrist bracelets as a way to raise "awareness" for research.  According to the Associated Press, the Lance Armstrong Foundation has raked in half a billion dollars since it started.

With the prospect of future sanctions to come from various governing bodies, Lance Armstrong's legacy is now that of a man who manipulated his way into the record books with a little help from performance enhancing drugs.  Just like all those other athletes who thought the same thing, and tried to get away with it..  To paraphrase the title of a book Armstrong wrote, it never was about the bike.

UPDATE:  It gets worse for Lance Armstrong.  Days after the USADA reported evidence that he had been at the center of a conspiracy to use PED's and come out with negative drug tests, as well as to intimidate anyone who got in his way, seven of Armstrong's sponsors--including Nike, Anheuser-Busch and Radio Shack--have dropped him.

Armstrong has chosen to resign from his position as chairman of the Livestrong Foundation, but will remain on its board.  Maybe Livestrong needs to go away because, whether Armstrong is still involved with the organization or not, he's casting a huge shadow over it.

This may not be the end of the investigation.  We have yet to hear from the international bodies that govern cycling and drug testing about Armstrong's fate.  Most of all, Armstrong has yet to admit to any wrongdoing..

The Twins on KTWN: Keeping It In The Family

Gulf Coast League Twins (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

To absolutely no one's surprise, KTWN-FM (96.3) will become the new radio home of the Minnesota Twins starting in 2013.  They join the Vikings, Gopher football and the Wild in moving from the AM dial to FM (on KFXN 100.3).  Which leaves the Timberwolves stuck on WCCO-AM.

The Pohlad family, which owns both the Twins and K-TWIN, have long wanted to get their games on static-free FM as well as to keep whatever revenues there are to themselves.  KSTP-AM (also known as 1500 ESPN), which has been running Twins games for six seasons, has long been ripped by critics and fans alike for its static and for its lack of signal strength, despite having 50,000 watts of power.

Yes, FM will do wonders for the sound quality of Twins games.  But K-TWIN's signal isn't as powerful as 100.3 The Fan, which has the maximum-allowed 100,000-watts.  Maybe the Twins need to add more stations to its radio network, just to cover the Twin Cites metro area.

What's surprising about the switch is that K-TWIN is keeping its low-rated (and critically-reviled) adult contemporary music format, instead of changing it to talk or sports.  Since the Pohlads' Northern Lights Broadcasting bought the station, they've gone from hip hop (as B96) to contemporary hits (as 96.3 Now) to today.  They're also looking for a new morning host, having let go of Tony Fly.  And there have also been questions as to whether the Pohlads really want to be in the radio business, surrounded by giant chains such as Clear Channel, Cumulus and CBS who own stations in this market.

There's a reason why most flagship stations of pro sports teams (AM or FM) tend to be either news/talk or sports.  Its typical audience is usually older, male and politically conservative.  Music stations generally have audiences that are more younger and female.  Do you really expect them to sit through a baseball game when they could be listening to Adele?  On the other hand, guys would rather listen to post-mortems of the game they just heard (or watched) instead of another rendition of "Call Me Maybe".

KSTP, which won't have games to carry next season, gets to keep such lovely parting gifts from the Twins as "The Ron Gardenhire Show" on Sunday mornings.  And they'll still have Gophers men's hockey and basketball, along with national coverage of the NBA Finals and the World Series.  But what is 1500 ESPN's future?  People there say the format is going to continue, but how?  Their ratings have taken a hit since The Fan moved to FM.  Why is Joe Soucheray still allowed to do a political talk show in afternoon drive?  Is it time to go back to news/talk, or should the Hubbards sell AM 1500 to some religious or Spanish outfit?

So the Pohlad family has two struggling properties under one roof:  KTWN, a radio station trying to get its act together, and the Minnesota Twins, a baseball team trying to stay out of last place.  Whatever happens next season, at least baseball will sound better.

The 2012 Games: Women Rule

LONDON, ENGLAND - AUGUST 11: Sanya Richards-Ross of the United States celebrates as she crosses the finish line to win gold in the Women's 4 x 400m Relay Final on Day 15 of the London 2012 Olympic Games at Olympic Stadium on August 11, 2012 in London, England. (Image credit: Getty Images via @daylife)

As the 2012 Summer Olympics draw to a close in London, more women athletes have competed here than at any other time in history.  They even came from countries that have previously banned women from participating.

Forty years after Title IX was passed into law, creating gender equity in sports, American women have dominated the podium at the Olympics.  They have helped win the medal count for the United States with a total of 104, 46 of them gold.

NBC must love this because it plays right into their demographic wheelhouse for the Olympics (and for network TV in general), which happen to be women.  That's why they can charge top dollar to advertisers for tape-delaying footage in prime time of marquee sports that women just happen to compete in.

Everywhere you looked, there were American women winning medals:  Allyson Felix and Sanya Richards-Ross on the track, Misti May-Treanor and Kerri Ross in beach volleyball, Missy Franklin in the pool, Alexander Raisman and Gabby Douglas in gymnastics, the water polo team and the women's basketball team were just some of those who took home the gold.

This isn't to say American women were perfect in London.  Some examples:

• After Lolo Jones finished fourth in the women's 100-meter hurdles, she appeared on that national soft shoulder called the "Today" show and tearfully blamed the media for slamming her for her looks instead of her performance.  Excuse moi?  Posing nude in magazines?  Bragging about being a 30-year old virgin?  Wow, talk about style over substance, woman.
• Morgan Uceny stumbled and fell on the track during the finals of the women's 1500-meters, resulting in a DNF (did not finish).
• McKayla Maroney put on quite a display during the gymnastics competition, revealing to the world that she has but one facial expression.  Or did NBC edit her that way?
• The women's soccer team won the gold medal once again, but only after benefitting from a couple of questionable calls in the semifinal against Canada.  Then after defeating Japan in the finals, the team appeared at the medal ceremony in "Find Your Greatness" T-shirts.  We thought we were watching Team USA, but what we really got was Team Nike.
• The heavily-favored volleyball team ended up with silver, losing to Brazil in the finals.

We should mention that the men won a few medals of their own.

• Usian Bolt strutted and preened his way to world records for Jamaica in the men's 200-meter and the 4x100-meter team relay.  Bolt may be the greatest active sprinter there is, but his attitute is more reminiscent of Terrell Owens than Jesse Owens.
• The U.S. men's basketball team won its 14th gold medal in a (relatively) close 107-100 win over Spain.  With all that NBA talent at the Americans' disposal and a competition that hardly challenged them, commissioner David Stern is lobbying for an age limit in future Olympics.

The next Summer Games are in Rio de Janiero in 2016.  By that time, it should become clear that women have earned their place at the athletic table, if they haven't already.  But we shouldn't forget that women compete in almost every sport imaginable year-round, not just every four years.  It shouldn't take an Olympic gold medal to acknowledge that.