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Nyjer Morgan goes all “Tony Plush” on Giants fans

July 23, 2011 / Anthony Stalter

During the seventh inning of the Brewers-Giants game in San Francisco on Friday night, flamboyant Milwaukee outfielder Nyjer Morgan ran down a potential hit off the bat of Nate Schierholtz and then turned to fans in centerfield to politely remind them that there were two outs.

Oh I’m sorry, did I say Nyjer Morgan was involved? No yeah, he was being an ass.

Some San Francisco fans have, of course, taken offense to the gesture and some Milwaukee fans have, of course, downplayed the issue. Morgan has flashed his “Tony Plush T” before, so fans in Milwaukee are accustomed to the gesture. But I could see why some Giant fans are ticked off because it looks like he’s giving them a gesture to F-off.

Whatever. I’m sure those Giant fans sitting in centerfield weren’t sharing recipes for homemade clam chowder with Morgan. That doesn’t mean that Morgan should act like a clown after he makes a nice play, but we didn’t hear what those fans were saying to him. Plus, and I cannot overstate this fact: it’s Nyjer Morgan. He has two sides: an entertaining side and a side where he wants to purposely blow up catchers and mix it up with fans. That’s just him. Personally, I’ll take Tony Gwynn and Ozzie Smith any day. They respected the game, their opponents, their teammates and yes, fans in all cities. They were professional at all times and exuded class. But we live in a different day and age now. An age where showing up fans or opponents is deemed as “not a big deal.” It’s now chic to say Morgan was “just having fun.”

What was nice about the days of yore in baseball is that the league used to police itself. It still does to some extent, but not like it used to. MLB has really cracked down on players retaliating and maybe that’s a good thing. I don’t want to see anyone get hurt, but back in the day if you disrespected the game or an opponent you were guaranteed to get a high, hard one in your next AB. It was a different game back then.

There has been some bad blood between the Brewers and Giants before, specifically after Milwaukee’s “bowling ball routine” following a Prince Fielder walk off in 2009. It’ll be interesting to see if emotions boil over again this weekend after Morgan’s performance on Friday night.

External Sports, MLB

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There’s a war of words going on between Nate Jackson and Chris Kluwe

July 22, 2011 / John Paulsen

Deadspin is enjoying the fruits of Nate Jackson’s labor. You see, punter Chris Kluwe took to Twitter to slam four players (Peyton Manning, Drew Brees, Vincent Jackson, Logan Mankins) for being greedy “#douchebags” and Jackson responded with a long, hilarious diatribe about Kluwe and the punter position in general.

The entire thing is worth a read, but this part was particularly funny.

During practice, while the rest of the team does football things, the punter stands off in space with his only two friends, the kicker and the snapper, reciting movie quotes and practicing his golf swing. When his moment finally arrives, and the coach yells, “Punt team!” he takes his place 15 yards behind the snapper and, in the span of 10 minutes, executes five or 10 punts.
After punt team is done, the punter mope-jogs to the sideline where he disappears once more into the protoplasm of his irrelevance. No one knows he’s there. No one would know if he left. And no one would care.

Now the reason Jackson spoke up is because he doesn’t think Kluwe, a punter, has the right to say anything negative about the NFLPA or its players during the CBA negotiations. Kluwe responded in kind.

You talk about me like I’m some kind of disease, like punters are some kind of infection that should be excised for the good of the game and how dare we raise our voices when our betters are talking. According to you, punters should be happy to sit in the corner and be treated like shit because we do something different, something that the other 54 members of the team can’t do.
Wait, let’s parse that last clause for just a second — “something that the other 54 members of the team can’t do.” Huh. Would you look at that. Tell me, Nate, how well can you punt a football? What’s that you say? You CAN’T punt a football?
Then why in fuck would you think that, just because I can punt, my opinion is somehow less valid?

Nate Jackson vs. Chris Kluwe…does it end here?

External Sports, Humor, NFL

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NCAA finds no new violations by Ohio State

July 22, 2011 / Gerardo Orlando

Ohio State got great news today, as the NCAA informed the school in writing that it found no new violations other than those that were reported by the school, and that the Buckeyes would not be hit with a failure to monitor charge. This makes it far less likely that Ohio State will get hammered with new sanctions.

The NCAA has notified Ohio State University that it will not face charges of failing to appropriately monitor its football team as part of a memorabilia-sales scandal that brought down former Coach Jim Tressel.
The NCAA has not uncovered any new, unreported violations during its investigation and agrees with Ohio State that Tressel was the only university official aware of violations by his players and that he failed to report them.
“Other than (two redacted player names) and (Ted) Sarniak, there is no indication that Tressel provided or discussed the information he received … with anyone else, particularly athletics administrators,” the NCAA reported in an enforcement staff case summary.
In the summary that was delivered to Ohio State yesterday and released today, the NCAA again stresses that Tressel failed in his duty to report the violations and knowingly fielded at least two ineligible players.
The NCAA will not hammer Ohio State with its worst-possible findings of loss of institutional control or failure to monitor, which would bring significant punishment.
“Considering the institution’s rules education and monitoring efforts, the enforcement staff did not believe a failure to monitor charge was appropriate in this case,” the NCAA informed Ohio State.
The NCAA also reported that it investigated a Sports Illustrated report that identified nine additional players as selling OSU memorabilia to tattoo-parlor owner Edward Rife and interviewed the athletes, but confirmed only one as dealing with the man who is soon to be sentenced on marijuana-trafficking charges.

Will SI apologize to Ohio State and the eight students who were named in their story but ultimately cleared by the NCAA? I doubt it. SI reported the story today with a brief AP report.

As stated above, this is big news for the Ohio State program and it might just let them get a fresh start in 2012 without more sanctions. At the very least they should avoid crippling sanctions like those imposed on USC.

This changes nothing with respect to the mess in college football. We’ve seen a top coach lose his job and a premiere player run off to the the NFL over a bunch of tattoos, while an entire season was vacated, erasing the hard work of all the other players. The entire episode is absurd.

It’s also a warning sign that people shouldn’t jump to conclusions. Other programs clearly have problems as well, and some of them will be hit hard, but we have to wait and see how investigations play out.

The NCAA needs to do some soul searching and reconsider its outdated rules and the absurd notion of having schools vacate wins.

College Football, External Sports

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NFL Lockout Update: Players won’t vote until Monday

July 22, 2011 / Anthony Stalter

ESPN’s Adam Schefter reports that the players aren’t planning to vote on the owners’ proposed CBA settlement until Monday now.

From Rotoworld:

A previous “high-ranking source” told ESPN that a vote was possible on Saturday. Schefter confirms two sides have had “constructive dialogue” since Thursday night, which is a good sign. However, the players want to do a vote “on their own terms,” and one of the biggest obstacles is the demand of Chargers franchise player Vincent Jackson to either receive monetary compensation or unrestricted free agency as part of the CBA. At this point, we don’t anticipate any NFL transactions before the middle of next week. The tentative target date for full-blown free agency may be two Sundays from now.

Hey, I’m all for anything that delays this process even more. It’s not like these past five months haven’t been nauseating or anything…

There was a report that came out this morning from NFLLabor.com that stated teams could begin negotiating with restricted, unrestricted and college free agents starting on Saturday. Hopefully there’s truth to that report because it would at least allow the free agent process started. Teams couldn’t sign players of coursed, but if they were at least able to contact free agents then maybe once the CBA is signed everyone can hit the ground running.

That said, the six people who have read my columns this week know that I have my doubts regarding whether or not teams have already been contacting players during the lockout. They’re not supposed to, of course, but I have a hard time believing that teams have been sitting back patiently waiting for the new CBA to be signed. I have a feeling that we’re going to see a mass frenzy of signings right after the lockout is lifted next week. Granted, that doesn’t prove that teams have been in contact with players but it’ll at least grow my suspicions.

External Sports, NFL

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NFL Lockout: No deal coming until weekend?

July 22, 2011 / Anthony Stalter

ESPN’s Chris Mortensen reported this morning that a player vote on the owners’ proposed CBA settlement appeared likely for Friday. But he is now backing off that claim and says a deal may not wrap up until sometime this weekend.

Rotoworld.com has the details:

ESPN’s Chris Mortensen has backed off an earlier report that a player vote “appears likely” for Friday, now suggesting an agreement won’t come until this weekend.
NFLPA boss DeMaurice Smith is at the funeral of Patriots owner Bob Kraft’s wife Myra in Boston Friday. Negotiations on outstanding issues will hit the back burner while player reps review the owners’ proposal. Should the vote be delayed until Saturday or Sunday, the proposed free agency process also figures to be pushed back.

First and foremost, I was sorry to read about Bob Kraft’s wife. That certainly puts this lockout situation into perspective and is a reminder that there are much more important things in life than football. According to the Boston Globe, Myra devoted her time to “numerous causes,” including the Boys and Girls Clubs of Boston. I am sorry for the Kraft’s loss.

In related lockout news, NFLLabor.com is reporting that the proposed CBA approval allows for teams to begin negotiating with restricted, unrestricted and college free agents this Saturday. That said, teams can’t actually sign another team’s free agent before next Wednesday, so no actual free agent movement will occur until then.

Whether it’s Friday, Saturday, Sunday, or sometime early next week, it appears that the NFL lockout will be over with soon.