Did the NFL Use and Lose Michael Sam?

Michael Sam’s NFL career may effectively be over, really before it even began and I can’t help but feel as if it came off as a stunt perpetrated by the NFL. Sam, a defensive end who had a standout career at the University of Missouri and was named SEC Defensive Player of the Year last season, was cut by the St. Louis Rams, the team that drafted him in the final round of this year’s draft, after the Rams final preseason game. Sam played well during the preseason, but the Rams were too stacked at the defensive line position to be able to hold on to him.

The Rams likely knew this the moment they selected Sam late in the draft, much later than he had initially been projected to go, which may prove the move was a hometown discount to score points with Mizzou fans, and make the NFL look like a non-bigoted, more progressive, open league especially on the heels of the Miami Dolphins/Richie Incognito bullying scandal last season.

When it didn’t look like a team would draft Sam and the Rams swooped in last second and saved the day I was immediately skeptical and wondered aloud if the NFL had called in a favor. This is quite the accusation, I know, but one I’d never put past the league and one we’ll likely never know for sure.

Before I get in too deep I should say that I think Michael Sam, as a gay athlete, playing in the NFL would be a great and important thing for the NFL, professional sports and the future of our society as a whole. I was rooting for his success. But, I don’t believe a player should make the NFL on anything but his own skill and merits. So, this isn’t so much a diatribe against the Rams, again stacked at Sam’s position, as it is against the NFL itself.

I knew when the Rams had cut Sam on Saturday, August 30 that he would not be claimed by any other organization in the league. I knew this because of the anonymous general managers who thought he would mean trouble for NFL locker rooms, and Tony Dungy’s dumb comments, and ignorant statement’s by players like Miami Dolphins defensive back Don Jones, and the fact that no other team even remotely expressed interest in Sam throughout this spring’s draft. I knew Sam wouldn’t get a shot in the NFL because NFL locker rooms have more respect for manslaughterers, dog brutalizers, wife beaters, racists, bullies, drug abusers and egomaniacs. Their transgressions aren’t locker-room “cancers,” but a homosexual athlete is just too much.

And, on Sunday, August 31, it was announced that no team had claimed Sam. The Rams still have an opportunity to place Sam on their 10-man practice squad, which would be better than nothing and they might, but it also means that Sam’s dream of becoming a NFL player may never come to light. And, I think that’s wrong because I know Sam is talented enough to play in the NFL. I know this because Sam was considered the best defensive player in the SEC, generally considered the toughest and best conference in college football. *The SEC Defensive Player of the Year should virtually be a lock to make one of the on average 288 roster spots dedicated to defensive lineman in the NFL. For those arguing Sam is too small to play defensive line in the NFL and would have to be a linebacker there are on average 224 linebackers in the NFL and a SEC Defensive Player of the Year caliber athlete should be able to make that switch as we’ve seen it from lesser lauded athletes.

I think Michael Sam was essentially used by the NFL for good press and a profit. He’s been one of the most talked about players in the league since he was drafted and his jersey was the seventh highest selling in the league, according to ESPN’s Darren Rovell.

Some would say the NFL doesn’t need any more press, but when the biggest stories of the last year involving the league have all been negative – concussions, Incognito, Ray Rice, Redskins racist name – don’t you think the NFL wanted a really good story? And, yes, I know the NFL is a billion dollar industry of its own and doesn’t “need” money off of Michael Sam jersey sales, but we also know the NFL is greedy. Why else would the league be asking musicians and pop artists to pay to play the Super Bowl halftime show? 

No, the NFL doesn’t “need” the money, but you’d never know it based on their business practices.

The NFL made a lot of good news and money off of Michael Sam and unfortunately he hasn’t gotten the same out of them; not much more than a glorified 15 minutes of fame. Hell, he didn’t even end up with his Oprah Winfrey Network docu-series– bowing to the fears and requests of the Rams.Yet, the Atlanta Falcons are on television once a week on HBO’s “Hard Knocks.”

I can’t help but feel Sam got used and in some ways those fans hoping for something a little different from the NFL did too. Maybe to show that the NFL isn’t that greedy or that they weren’t just profiting off of Sam they should offer all those snookered into buying Sam jerseys a refund or exchange. It may sound crazy or ridiculous to refund jerseys when the fans knew Sam might not make a NFL roster, but we’ve recently seen precedence for doing just that when the Cleveland Cavaliers offered fans refunds or exchanges for Andrew Wiggins jerseys after drafting the collegiate star first overall in the NBA Draft and then trading him months later for superstar Kevin Love.

It may seem simple for the NFL and the Rams to give some money back for Sam jerseys, but it would also go a long ways in saying it wasn’t just a rouse for attention and money.

That would be a step in the right direction, but it still wouldn’t do anything in giving hope to any gay athletes hoping one day to make it to the biggest stage of professional sports. 

*Here are the last 10 SEC Defensive Players of the Year and the round they were drafted in ...

Michael Sam (7th), Jarvis Jones (1st), Morris Claiborne (1st), Patrick Peterson (1st), Rolando McClain (1st), Eric Berry (1st), Glenn Dorsey (1st), Patrick Willis (1st), Demeco Ryans (2nd), David Pollack (1st)

Too Much Preseason NFL On My TV

Well, NFL fans are you tired of football yet? 

Enjoy watching this guy while you can!

I had someone say to me recently that they were already fatigued with NFL coverage this year. My response to them was that the season hadn’t even started yet, but I knew why they were tired of the game already. It’s because they’ve had meaningless preseason football games, and a lot of them at that, already shoved down their throat. 

Sports media overdoes football coverage, which is very obvious to people who consider something other than the sport of football to be their favorite, but it’s almost as if it’s starting to become ludicrous, ESPN, after all, did air multiple high school games over the last weekend. There has been at least one, many times more, preseason NFL games on a major television network almost every day since the preseason started. This greatly outnumbers the type of preseason programming shown for other sports and frankly almost exceeds the amount of regular season games you see broadcast of certain sports on these same networks. 

I know that football is so much more popular than the next most popular sport in this country, but I don’t understand the asininity of broadcasting, watching and talking about all of these meaningless games. Do you really care that much about who’s going to win the third-string quarterback gig for the Dallas Cowboys or seeing players that won’t play two downs all season long show their stuff for an entire half? 

You won't be seeing this guy play either!

I’m a football fan, though it might not sound like it from this admitted rant, but part of the reason why preseason football coverage bothers me so much is that I feel late season baseball division races get shafted by networks, specifically ESPN, for stuff that doesn’t mean anything as soon as the NFL regular season begins. I understand that you’re excited about a new football season, believe it or not, I am too, but by networks airing so much preseason football and by you watching so much preseason football all you’re really doing is spoiling the appeal and excitement of that first game of the regular season.           

Remember Andy Griffith with 'What it Was, Was Football'

A true American legend died today. Andy Griffith left this world behind at age 86 with so many memories, stories and laughs that it would take a good week to remember or go through all of them. 

Everybody knows Griffith from his iconic television role as Sheriff Andy Taylor of the little North Carolina town of Mayberry, but many don’t realize that Griffith was discovered by Hollywood for his stand-up comedy routines that feature great wit mixed with homespun humor. In fact, Griffith’s wonderfully creative mind has given the world some of the greatest comedy monologues of all time. The comedy monologue that introduced Griffith to America and quickly made him a star was a bit called “What It Was, Was Football” that was released almost 60 years ago in 1953. The piece is the tale of a country bumpkin’ seeing the strange sight of football for the very first time and not having a clue what is going on. If you’ve never listened to this monologue than it’s a must hear, so click HERE to do so. 

Hogs Fans Ignorant to Back Bobby Petrino

Most sports fans (and do note that I said “most” and not “all”) can never be objective about their favorite sports teams and at times this leads to extreme ignorance. This is something that is in full display right now among most fans of the University of Arkansas Razorbacks football program during the current Bobby Petrino scandal. Just hours after University of Arkansas athletic director Jeff Long announced that Petrino was being put on paid administrative leave a local television network poll here in Arkansas showed that 76 percent of Arkansans were 100 percent behind Petrino. Arkansas fans don’t care what their football coach is doing if he’s winning ball games and Petrino has done a lot of winning since joining the team in 2008, after he cowardly quit on the Atlanta Falcons in the NFL.

I said on both my Facebook and Twitter accounts on Thursday night that “I swear the head coach of the Razorbacks could rape and kill babies and puppies and most Hogs fans would still be 100 percent behind him” and I stand by that. That doesn’t put a good image on fans of the Razorbacks or sports fans in general, but the sad thing is sports fans don’t care. The win-loss column is all that matters to them. Fans around here don’t even have enough sense to care about the fact that Petrino looked into cameras at a press conference and lied right to their faces. If they don’t have enough sense to be offended about their leader lying to them than I don’t believe there is anything that can save them. Coach Petrino did two separate things that should get him fired. He participated in an affair with an employee that he recently hired and more importantly he lied about the affair to his boss, his fans and the media. Bobby Petrino should be fired and if he isn’t athletic director Jeff Long isn’t adequately doing his job and if you have a problem with that open your damn eyes and stop being so hyper fanatic toward “your” team.  

Why I Feel Bad for the Houston Texans ...

I don’t typically feel bad for sports teams. There’s very rarely any reason to feel bad for them as they mostly make their own destiny through winning, losing, good and bad decisions and the like. However, as we’re on the verge of the NFL Playoffs I can’t help but feel really bad for one franchise … and that’s the Houston Texans.

For 10 years that franchise has struggled through many bad seasons, only posting a winning record prior to this season in 2009, and has never made a trip to the playoffs. This season they were set up to own their division thanks to a Peyton Manning-less Indianapolis Colts and a weak Tennessee Titans and Jacksonville Jaguars teams, and they did. They posted their first division title with a 10-6 record and it was made all the more impressive by the fact that they were without their best defensive player Mario Williams for most of the year, their best receiver (and maybe the NFL’s best receiver) Andre Johnson for most of the year and their star quarterback (and a vastly underrated one at that) Matt Schaub for a good portion of the season to end the season. 

The Texans with all their pieces together would’ve been a threat to win the AFC and I’m not joking in the least when I say that. And, that’s why I feel bad for this team. They’ve waited 10 years for this moment and they finally get there and could’ve really done something and they stand absolutely no chance of going deep into the playoffs, in fact, they very likely will lose to the Cincinnati Bengals in the first round this weekend. That absolutely sucks.   

Baseball has just as much action, downtime as football

I’ve always wondered why a regular season NFL game would draw more viewers than a tight, postseason Major League Baseball broadcast or even more preposterous why a televised NFL preseason game would out draw a regular season MLB game.

The answers that sports fans have always given me have never seemed fulfilling. The answer is usually as simple as: “football is just better.” Every now and then, I’ll receive the more elaborate: “football is more exciting and just has more action than baseball” or “there is too much stoppage time in baseball or time when nothing is happening.”

Well, the facts are that football honestly doesn’t have any more or less action then baseball. There also isn’t any more stoppage time or time when nothing is occurring. This is going to sound either funny, stupid or too philosophical to some, but each sport has action except for when there isn’t any.

What I mean by this is that the action in baseball starts with the pitch, which means there is constant action once the pitch is made, even if the ball isn’t batted into play. The action in a football game begins with the snap of the football. The time between the pitch in baseball and the snap in football is what I’m referring to as stoppage time and the amount of time in between the two is roughly the same. In between the pitch and the snap are mind games being played between the pitcher/catcher and batter in baseball and the offense and defense in football, which leads to a different action.

If any argument could be made as far as having less action, it could be made that there is actually less constant action in a football game, because in football you have halftime, which is roughly 20 minutes long, as opposed to the mere two to three minutes in between baseball innings.

Some fans also make the argument that baseball games are longer than football games and that baseball doesn’t fit into the increasingly small attention span of most Americans.

Sure, a baseball game doesn’t have a game clock and could essentially last all day long if it had too, but in most cases a baseball game is three hours long, which is also roughly the same length of a football game with the halftime, timeouts and commercial breaks thrown in.

This probably seems like a lot to think about and many sports fans don’t want a whole lot of thinking thrown into their sports. However, these reasons seem better to me than the ignorantly cliché “football is just better” statement.

When it comes down to it the two sports are similar in the amount of action that actually occurs during the timeframe of the event. This brings back the question: why do more people prefer meaningless, regular season football games over important, postseason baseball games?

The answer would seem to be a subjective one: the majority of sports fans just prefer football over baseball. Each fan will have their reasons why or why not, but one thing is certain in my mind: “just because” just doesn’t cut it.

My 2011 NFL Season Predictions

AFC

East

1. New England Patriots 13-3

2. New York Jets 12-4

3. Buffalo Bills 4-12

4. Miami Dolphins 3-12

North

1. Pittsburgh Steelers 12-4

2. Baltimore Ravens 11-5

3. Cleveland Browns 7-9

4. Cincinnati Bengals 2-14

South

1. Houston Texans 9-7

2. Indianapolis Colts 8-8

3. Tennessee Titans 7-8

4. Jacksonville Jaguars 5-11

West

1. San Diego Chargers 11-5

2. Kansas City Chiefs 7-9

3. Denver Broncos 6-10

4. Oakland Raiders 5-11

Wild Cards: Jets, Ravens

NFC

East

1. Philadelphia Eagles 11-5

2. Dallas Cowboys 10-6

3. New York Giants 8-8

4. Washington Redskins 5-11

North

1. Green Bay Packers 12-4

2. Detroit Lions 8-8

3. Minnesota Vikings 8-8

4. Chicago Bears 7-9

South

1. Atlanta Falcons 11-5

2. Tampa Bay Buccaneers 10-6

3. New Orleans Saints 9-7

4. Carolina Panthers 2-14

West

1. St. Louis Rams 8-8

2. Arizona Cardinals 7-9

3. San Francisco 49ers 6-10

4. Seattle Seahawks 5-11

Wild Cards: Buccaneers, Cowboys

Super Bowl: Patriots vs. Packers

How Chris Johnson Screwed Over My Fantasy Team Before the Season Even Started

There are a lot of players in the NFL that I don’t care much for … most of the players that I don’t like have always been of the Terrell Owens, Chad Johnson, Randy Moss nature because I feel like they talk too much and think of themselves first and their team second.

Then you have guys like Mike Vick who I don’t like for things they’ve done off the field.

Well, last week a new player joined my list of NFL stars that I can’t stand and for a different reason, one that probably shows a little selfishness on my part.

That player is Tennessee Titans star running back Chris Johnson, who last week finally ended his preseason long hold out when he and the Titans agreed to a new deal.

You see a few weeks ago my Yahoo Sports fantasy football league held its draft. I had a middle pick in the first round of the draft and figured that I’d select Johnson in hopes that he could maybe have another MVP type season. I took him knowing that he was holding out, but players hold out all of the time and I figured it wasn’t serious.

Well, then I started hearing that it was getting pretty serious and that it seemed more and more likely that Johnson would at least miss a few games. It finally looked so bleak that I offered Johnson up to another competitor in the league for Dallas Cowboys running back Felix Jones, despite Johnson being ranked much higher. I figured a decent back like Jones would be better than nothing and that the other guy would be the one taking on the risk.

A week after I completed that fantasy trade, Johnson finally ended the hold out. Sure, it turns out that I probably worried far too much and ended up making a bad trade that essentially waste my first round draft pick and could severely hurt my chances to win the league. However, it’s a deal I feel Johnson forced me into … so I sure won’t be rooting for his success this season.