Sports notes

There are three NFL teams I have developed a deep resentment toward over the past decade—the New England Patriots, the (Peyton Manning-led) Indianapolis Colts, and the New York Giants. The former two because they are (or were) generally expected to win every time out, especially against your team; as for the latter, it is because they’re not all that great a team, but seem to win at the most inopportune times against better teams. Thus it was a frustrating Sunday of football, when that kicker who doesn’t even deserve a name shanked a chip-shot field goal that would have sent the Baltimore Ravens into overtime against the Patriots, and on a day that Joe Flacco out-performed Tom Brady. In the NFC championship game, it was déjà vu again; like in 2007, a shaky Giants team that got “hot” at the end of the season forced the second-seeded team into overtime, and won. This time, it wasn’t an interception in OT, but a muffed punt in the fourth quarter by someone who doesn’t deserve a name that blew it for the 49ers, the only turnover during regulation. Naturally, it was another turnover in OT that gift-wrapped the Super Bowl slot for the despised Eli Manning and the Giants.

So there are two teams I despise who are Super Bowl bound. Normally I couldn’t care less who wins, but this year I have a particular grudge against the Giants, so I’d like to see Eli with a Super Bowl loss on his ledger in order to put his career in its proper perspective; I mean, a 9-7 team just doesn’t deserve to be that fortunate.

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There seems to be some uncertainty amongst the local media about what exactly Pete Carroll and John Schneider are conjuring up for the future of the Seattle Seahawks quarterback position. Most commentators find it difficult to judge the veracity of Carroll’s apparent love of Tarvaris Jackson, which is at odds with most fans, who find it extremely difficult to envision T-Jack as their quarterback for more than two excruciating years. That belief is not universal, of course; Warren Moon seems to think that T-Jack can still improve, but he likes to root for “underdogs” like Tim Tebow, and himself. Frankly, T-Jack might be better than Tebow, but he will never be a Warren Moon. I was listening to John Clayton’s Saturday show (he was fretting about Fedex delivering his press credentials before he had to catch a flight to Boston), and some local guy (probably for the sake of brotherly solidarity) stood steadfast in T-Jack’s corner. When Clayton asked him if he really thought that T-Jack was the “answer,” the caller withheld his judgment until after all the mini-camps and OTAs were over—as if these would turn T-Jack into a superstar. One assumes that T-Jack also attended mini-camps and OTAs during the five years he was in Minnesota when he was “groomed” to be a starter, but at least one of his teammates (I wrote about this before) criticized his work ethic, such as not showing-up to camp in shape, or spending more time studying game film.

If we take Carroll at his word (and if we don’t, it isn’t exactly appropriate for him to inflate T-Jack more than necessary, is it?), it means that he isn’t looking for a quarterback in the draft who can start right away, but one he can mold in his own vision over time. It also means that Matt Flynn may not be in the picture at all, unless Carroll and Schneider do an abrupt about face and fool us all. If Flynn is signed, he isn’t coming in to “compete” with T-Jack for the starting position—in fact it would be rather insulting to him if the starting job wasn’t his to lose. Some people may have felt ill when three Vikings went down to Mississippi to retrieve Brett Favre in 2010, but it was symptomatic of the fact that the majority of team had no faith in putting their fate in T-Jack's hands after coming so close in 2009.

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Joe Paterno’s sudden passing makes the actions of Penn State’s administrators against him seem rather callous in retrospect. Some people believe that his cancer was treatable, but he simply lost the will to live. According to a story in the Washington Post, Paterno’ s son Scott says his father has been largely “shunned” by the university, and his name removed on campus wherever possible. The Joseph V. Paterno Award, given to coaches who have made a positive impact on society, has been discontinued, and his nomination for the Presidential Medal of Freedom similarly discarded. There is no question that Penn State’s past handling of the abuse allegations, and allowing the abuse to continue, was damning both from a societal and criminal perspective. Anyone and everyone who knew something and did nothing deserves to be jailed, or at the very least censured. But everything is relative; Paterno expressed confusion over the assumption that he was a virtual dictator at Penn State. “Whether it’s fair I don’t know, but they do it,” he said about the school’s dumping him on the street. “You would think I ran the show here.”

Before he died he gave an interview about the Sandusky case, also reported in the Post; he pointed out that his relationship with Sandusky was professional—not personal, or so he said. He had not had a working relationship with Sandusky for several years before the 2002 allegations. The allegations (such as they were communicated to him) came as shock to him, and he didn’t know to respond to them, and left others to deal with it. Paterno said that the Sandusky’s “retirement” from coaching had nothing to do with any knowledge of wrong-doing (he claimed to know nothing of the 1998 incident), but due to frustration that Sandusky was spending too much time at his “ranch” and not enough on football. And Mike McQueary, who witnessed the 2002 incident, admitted that he didn’t go into detail with Paterno, for fear of putting too much strain on the 75-year-old coach.

The media, of course, is primarily responsible for hyperventilating the situation to the extent that a good man was convicted and sentenced before all the facts were in. It remains to be seen if anything of substance emerges that Paterno was more involved than he or others claims, but for the present, it is clear he deserved better than what his last memories were. It may take some years, but I have no doubt that Paterno’s reputation, if not fully restored, will be accorded its proper balance. Plenty of morally and ethically corrupt politicians—like Newt Gingrich—have been accorded as much.

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This is not a football note, or even a sports note, but I just have put in my two bit. Vanessa Bryant, wife of Los Angeles Lakers star Kobe Bryant, filed for divorce, supposedly due to “irreconcilable differences,” even though the couple were photographed together as late as last year all smiles and lovey-dovey. Although there was the rape allegation against Kobe, everything seemed set to rights with his wife after he gave a humiliating public apology, and his wife a $4 million rock. She is receiving three mansions worth $18.8 million, half of Bryant’s $150 million in community property along with alimony payment, and her mother gets to keep her $2.65 million home. The ten-year length of their marriage seemed to be all too convenient, according to Kobe’s stepmom’s ex-husband, who pays her $1,800 a month in alimony—despite her living in grand style without it.

“Her mother taught her (Vanessa Bryant) well to wait for the ten-year mark [before divorcing]. In California … it’s considered a long term marriage and then she gets paid for life or until she remarries … just like her mother is doing to me.”

Vanessa Bryant, who has two children with Kobe, is set for life. Her “occupation,” such as it was before she met Kobe, was “dancer,” and frankly she might be good for nothing else but collecting money and looking beautiful—although I don’t know where it is written that just because you give yourself more credit than you deserve, it doesn’t mean you don’t have to use all that time you had on your hands to learn a trade. Frankly, I think divorce law in this country is an unjust joke; all over the world, civilized countries have a more balanced view of relative input. Paul McCartney’s ex-wife received “only” $33 million of his $800 million net worth after 4 years of marriage; the judge was frankly unimpressed by her claim that she required an extra $100,000 a month to keep herself supplied in wine.

It was said that Kobe’s parents were unhappy that he married someone who was not African-American. I won’t comment on that issue, but I might add one small observation. If I had a lot of money, I wouldn’t marry a self-absorbed Latina with visions of grandeur, especially with only matters of superficiality (as opposed to substance) to back it up. Her next “job” is likely to be some white man’s strumpet; I know, I’ve seen this. Some people will sacrifice self-respect for a little bought social status. If Vanessa Bryant wasn’t Kobe’s ex-wife, she would probably still be trying to shake down some fool and his money with her “measurables.”