Dennis Green (1949-2016): The Sheriff of the Metrodome

At the same time a ribbon-cutting ceremony was held to officially open the new football stadium that's about to represent the present and future of the Minnesota Vikings, word came that a vestige of Vikings Past is no more.  Dennis Green, who coached the team for ten seasons, had died at 67.

When Green became head coach of the Vikings in 1992, he announced that there was a new sheriff in town.  Now the Twin Cities wasn't Dodge City, but his main goal was to restore order to a team that had lost his way.

From 1992-2001, Green won more games (97) than any other Vikings coach besides Bud Grant, won four divisional titles, made eight playoff appearances, and brought them to within one game of the Super Bowl twice.

In the two NFC Championship games Green coached, disaster struck.   In 1999, with a 15-1 team filled with stars, he chose to take a knee with seconds left in a tie game with the Atlanta Falcons.  In overtime, the Falcons kicked a field goal that took them to the Super Bowl.   In 2001, the Vikings were shut out by the New York Giants 41-0.

Clashes with management and some local media members, along with allegations of players quitting on him, led the Vikings to fire Green with one game remaining in the 2001 season.  Assistant Mike Tice coached that last game in Baltimore, then went on to become the team's new head coach.

Green moved on to the Arizona Cardinals, where for three seasons (2004-06) he compiled a 16-32 record.  His most notable moment with the Cards was following a Monday night game in 2006, in which his team blew a 20-point lead and lost to the Chicago Bears.  During a postgame rant, Green shouted, "But they are who we thought they were!  And we let them off the hook!".  Shortly thereafter, his NFL coaching career was finished.

Green was also a trail blazer in becoming one of the first African-American head coaches in the NFL.  Before that, he held the same distinction in the Division I college ranks, having had successful stints at Northwestern and Stanford.  Three of his assistants--Brian Billick, Tony Dungy and Mike Tice--have gone on to coach other NFL teams.  

Dennis Green was a passionate coach who found ways to motivate his players and get the results he wanted, winning everywhere he's been.  Yes, he was a part of the legacy of Vikings Past.  But what he brought to the field should be an inspiration for Vikings Future.

Another Dead End For "The Twins Way"

English: Target Field (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

For the second time since Target Field opened in 2010, a Minnesota Twins team that came off a good season with great expectations goes through a shocking free fall the following season.  Both times they were out of playoff contention by Mother's Day.

The Twins and Atlanta Braves, who played in the 1991 World Series, have two of the worst records in Major League Baseball 25 years later.  The Twins' pitching staff has been decimated by injuries and incompetence.  Offense is literally hit-or-miss.  And the defense has been marked by indecision over which player goes where, and how well he plays his position.

Terry Ryan, who in his first stint as Twins general manager oversaw the talent he collected for the run of division championships in the 2000's, returned to his job after his handpicked successor Bill Smith was fired following the Great Collapse of 2011.  Now, during the Second Great Collapse of 2016, Ryan has been let go by Twins management because the way he did business was no longer working.  Big money contracts for free agents and acquiring players based on their analytics--neither of which the Twins are equipped for--are the new normal in baseball.

Rob Antony takes over as the interim GM.  Despite all the talk about how the Pohlad family (which owns the team) is going to look outside the organization for a replacement, don't be surprised if the job goes to Antony.  Because the Pohlads believe in The Twins Way, which is hiring from within and occasionally shuffling the management deck without actually firing anyone.  Why do you think Ryan, Antony and former manager Ron Gardenhire have stuck around the organization for so long in various capacities?

Besides, any potential GM would have to abide by the Pohlads' one condition should they accept the job:  Paul Molitor stays as manager through the end of his contract in 2017.  Then they'll decide whether or not to renew it.

Molitor isn't the problem.  The players Ryan saddled him with are.  No veteran team leader since Torii Hunter retired.  The constant shuffling of players from the Rochester, NY minor league team.  The development of talented young players who are supposed to be the future of the club, such as Byron Buxton, have yet to pan out.  The signing of a South Korean slugger named Byung Ho Park got lost in translation.  And they've been drafting for hitters, not the pitchers they so desperately need.

The Twins are well on their way to another 90-plus loss season for the fifth time in six years.  Target Field is rapidly becoming a monument to bad baseball.  No matter who the general manager or any other front office employee turns out to be, The Twins Way needs to go in a different direction, or what remaining fans they have will start to go their own way.

Tempest On a T-Shirt

The Minnesota Lynx are sitting in second place behind the Los Angeles Sparks in the WNBA's pecking order going into the Olympic break, having started the season by beating their own record for the fastest start in the league's history.

But nobody cares about that right now.  Following a week in which two African-American men from Louisiana and Minnesota and five Dallas police officers were murdered, the Lynx players made news of their own by sporting black T-shirts during warmups before a recent game at Target Center in Minneapolis.   It bore the names of the shooting victims and the organization Black Lives Matter, which has been responsible for most of the protests in reaction to the police-caused violence in African-American communities across the country.  As it happened, that night's opponents were the Dallas Wings.

Four Minneapolis police officers took exception to those T-shirts, leaving their jobs as off-duty security detail for Lynx games.  Bob Kroll, who is president of the local police union, applauded the officers' move.  Minneapolis mayor Betsy Hodges and police chief Janee Harteau did not, and both strongly rebuked Kroll.

The Lynx players deserve credit for bringing attention to an off-the-court issue.  Yes, we know they're professional basketball players, for some of us who wish they would shut up and play.  But they're also women who have had obstacles placed in front of them because of their sex, their race, their sexuality, or all of the above.  They, like the rest of us, have had it up to here with the hate and violence.

The police officers who walked out are another story.  They have tough jobs, no question about it.  But they are also being selfish for reneging on the more than seven thousand fans who came out to the game that night, all because the message on those T-shirts was offensive to them.  Anyone still wondering why the police don't have as much credibility as they used to?

The recent death of Muhammad Ali is a reminder that sports and activism need not be mutually exclusive.  At the height of his boxing career, Ali fought against induction into the military during a divisive war and won.  Today's athletes, with a few exceptions, can't afford to stick their necks out on the issues of the day.  Not unless they want to lose millions of dollars in endorsement deals, player salaries, fines from the league and goodwill from fans and the media.  When you play sports, your First Amendment rights are left at the door.

The leagues these players are employed in have already made their views known.  They couldn't bend over backwards far enough for Our Men and Women in Blue and Khaki.  Photo ops with the players, free admission for military personnel, flyovers, "surprise" homecomings, special game uniforms for military-themed holidays, the seventh-inning singing of "God Bless America", etc.  It's as if George W. Bush (who once owned baseball's Texas Rangers) was still President.

The Minnesota Lynx did not wear those T-shirts before their next game at San Antonio (too close to Dallas).  They might not ever wear them again.  But the point has been made, even if the team loses a few fans in the process.  Change does indeed begin with us.

Pat Summitt (1952-2016): Trailblazer

English: Secretary of the Army Pete Geren takes a photo with head coach of the NCAA championship team, the Tennessee Lady Volunteers, Pat Summitt (far right) and members of the team in his office at the Pentagon, June 24. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Pat Summitt didn't invent women's basketball when she first became coach at the University of Tennessee in 1974.  The passing of Title IX by Congress two years earlier, which mandated that women athletes be afforded the same opportunities as men, brought new life to an idea that was either put on the back burner or banned outright.

In Summitt's 38 years as Volunteers coach, her teams have won 1098 games and lost 208, appeared in 18 Women's Final Fours and won eight national championships.  She has coached future Olympic and WNBA stars including Candace Parker, Chamique Holdsclaw, Tamika Catchings and Kara Lawson.  And every one of her players graduated from school.

Summitt was the kind of coach players feared and respected, yet wanted to play for, and to whom every parent could trust their daughters to.  Because she won and won often.

She had a longstanding rivalry with Geno Auriemma of the University of Connecticut, who eventually passed her in coach the Huskies to eleven national titles, more than anyone else in college basketball history.  They were the two superpowers in the women's game, and then there was everybody else.

Not for nothing does Summitt's name appear on streets and basketball courts all over Tennessee.

Before Summitt's last season coaching the Vols in 2011, it was announced that she was diagnosed with early onset Alzheimers disease.  On Tuesday at age 64, she had died from its complications.

Pat Summitt was more than a coach who helped spread the gospel of women's basketball.  She was a trailblazer for the idea that a woman's place should also be on the field, on the ice, and on the basketball court.  Sports and society in general owe her much ingratitude.

Another Hockey Gamble in the Desert

English: Vector image of the Las Vegas sign. Português: Imagems vectorial da placa de Las Vegas. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

For many years, the city of Las Vegas meant gamblers, entertainers and reputed mob figures brought together in a neon oasis, operating 24/7 in the Nevada desert.  But as the Rat Pack and Wayne Newton have given way to Celine Dion and Britney Spears, alleged mobsters replaced by entertainment conglomerates and high rollers are joined by tourists, Las Vegas is getting more mainstream every day.

So it shouldn't have come as a surprise that the National Hockey League has awarded an expansion franchise to Las Vegas, to begin play in the 2017-18 season.  The ownership group, led by businessman Bill Foley, came up with the half-billion in cash that the league wanted.  Which is way more than what the Minnesota Wild and Columbus Blue Jackets fetched back in 2000, the last time the NHL expanded.

The NFL may be next, with the Oakland Raiders either in negotiations with the city, or simply using them to get a better deal out of Alameda County or sharing space with the Los Angeles Rams.  Major League Baseball and the NBA are also considering Las Vegas for relocation or expansion.

You might think that the major sports leagues have been avoiding Vegas until now because of its unsavory reputation as a city where games are wagered on, and because teams and players are routinely punished for betting on their sports (see:  Pete Rose).  But we've become so used to point spreads, fantasy leagues and casinos in nearly every state that it's almost hypocritical for professional sports to suddenly decide that it's now OK to operate in America's gambling mecca.

The NHL has been adding teams since 1967, either through expansion or merger.  In recent years, the league has gone to places where you don't see much ice, if at all.  The most notable failure thus far is the Arizona Coyotes, who keep threatening to leave because of bad attendance and the lousy arena deal they have.  And the NHL wants to put another team in the desert?  Where next?  Dubai?

las vegas does not have a large population or TV market, so it will be interesting to see if the new NHL team gets any kind of fan support beyond the high rollers who already secured their season tickets.  If it does, then other leagues will want to set up shop here.  If not, the franchise won't be the first (or last) to leave Las Vegas wearing only a barrel.

Cleveland Is Championship Land

Cleveland Cavaliers logo (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Cleveland, Ohio.  The "mistake by the lake".  Punch line for generations of comedians (Bob Hope grew up here).  The place where radio DJ Alan Freed coined the phrase "rock and roll", and where its Hall of Fame now stands.  Home of this year's Republican National Convention.  Now the city has become known for something else . . .the home of the new NBA champions.

The Cleveland Cavaliers beat the Golden State Warriors 93-89 at Oakland Sunday to win Game 7 of the NBA Finals, and the championship series four games to three.  LeBron James, who returned to Cleveland after winning two titles in Miami, accomplished his mission of bringing one back to his hometown.  He scored 27 points in the final game, and was the recipient of the playoff MVP award.

The Cavs, who had marched through the Eastern Conference playoffs with little or no resistance (Detroit Pistons, Atlanta Hawks and Toronto Raptors), became the first team in NBA history to win the title after trailing three games to one.  The Warriors, who had won a regular season record 73 games, fought tooth-and-nail during the Western Conference playoffs (Houston Rockets, San Antonio Spurs and Oklahoma City Thunder) just to defend their league championship.

Except for the final game, this was not the most exciting series to watch with blowouts being the rule than the exception.  But then the NBA decided to suspend the Warriors' Draymond Green for Game 5 on account of one too many flagrant fouls.  Some would say this was a turning point in the series, others decried the league for the timing of the suspension.  What it really accomplished was that Cleveland won the next three games.  And thirty million viewers watched Game 7 on ABC.

The city of Cleveland had not won a major men's pro sports championship in 52 years.  The original Browns (now the Baltimore Ravens) won the NFL championship over the Baltimore Colts (now based in Indianapolis) on the pre-Super Bowl afternoon of December 27, 1964.  Cleveland's baseball team last won the World Series in 1948.  The Cavaliers joined the NBA in 1970.  Their teams' defeats in the big game had names attached:  "The Drive", "The Fumble", "The Shot" and so on.

After over five decades of ineptitude and heartbreak, the fans of Cleveland have suffered enough.  Thanks to the prodigal son who came home, it's time to go celebrate that elusive championship.

Penguins Chill Out Sharks to Win Stanley Cup

Sidney Crosby (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

In the first 25 years of the San Jose Sharks' existence in the National Hockey League, the Pittsburgh Penguins have won three Stanley Cups (1991, 1992, 2009).  Sunday night, the Pens won their fourth Cup on the Sharks' home ice, also known as the Shark Tank (minus Kevin O'Leary, Lori Grenier and Mark Cuban).

Pittsburgh won Game 6 with a 3-1 victory over the Sharks to take the series four games to two on goals by Brian Dumolin, Kris Letang and Patric Hornqvist.  Logan Couture scored the only goal for San Jose.

Sidney Crosby, who has won just about every major championship in his career including a Stanley Cup and an Olympic gold medal, didn't score a goal in the Finals.  But he did make enough of an impact to win the Conn Smythe Trophy as playoff MVP.  For Phil Kessel, who was hounded out of the pressure cooker that is the Toronto Maple Leafs, winning the Cup was vindication for him.  He joins his sister Amanda, who won an NCAA women's ice hockey championship with the University of Minnesota this past season.

Having survived a lousy start to the regular season, injuries to key players and a midseason coaching change (Mike Sullivan for Mike Johnston), the Penguins made it through the Eastern Conference playoffs with series wins over the New York Rangers, Washington Capitals and Tampa Bay Lightning.  Oh, and having a hot goaltender like Matt Murray didn't hurt, either.

The Sharks made it to their first Cup Final in franchise history after years of not meeting their playoff expectations.  Under the leadership of Joe Thornton, Logan Couture and goaltender Martin Jones, they got past the Los Angeles Kings, Nashville Predators and St. Louis Blues to represent the Western Conference in the finals.

The Penguins may have deserved their Stanley Cup victory, but the Sharks have shown that they were more than happy just to make the final round with the way they played.  We don't think it'll be another 25 years before they have a chance to hoist the Cup themselves.