Money Players

Not so great moments in pretending to be black

By Marc Isenberg

White students at Clemson apparently thought it would be a good idea to party in blackface, drink malt liquor, and generally make big asses of themselves. This was their way to commemorate the Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday. Not that anyone should be shocked. This kind of behavior has been going for centuries, but courtesy of Facebook.com we just have more visual evidence. Let's hope most people at Clemson today do not condone this type of behavior, but the latest incident does not reflect well on the entire school.

The OG fake black party
Clemson has an interesting history of throwing parties that cannot be excused with a simple case of Halloween. From 1970 to 1975, Clemson basketball was coached by Tates Locke. In his book (co-authored by Bob Ibach) "Caught in the Net," Locke recalled his over-the-top recruitment of Phil Ford, Tree Rollins, and other talented black players. Problem: How do you get blacks to feel comfortable attending an almost all-white institution that was slow to integrate? Solution: Set up a fictitious black fraternity. Then hire black students, including females (shocking!), from an historically black university to create the appearance that Clemson was a comfortable place for really good black basketball players. In his book Locke also admits he knew about under-the-table payments booster payments and academic dishonesty. All in all, Locke exhibited predictable behaviorof a coach desperate to stay employed. Pure comedy.

Clemson literati
Can't mention Clemson without invoking one of my all-time favorite comments regarding academic integrity in college athletics. It was said by Clemson titular grad and former NBA player Elden Campbell. When asked if he earned a college degree, Campbell replied, "No, but they gave me one anyway." At least he was honest.

Another great moment in Clemson literary fantasy was depicted in Dan Jenkins's book, "You Gotta Play Hurt." Climpson, as Jenkins calls them, led by center Potatus Fry made it all the way to the Final Four in Atlanta. Potatus Fry (typing his name makes proofing more fun!) majored in Weightroom Management.

© 2007 Marc Isenberg. All rights reserved.

Defending Reggie Bush

By Marc Isenberg

A lot has been written about Reggie Bush's alleged violations of NCAA rules. I have no idea what exactly happened, so I am not going to speculate too much. I will say I am not fan of Mike Ornstein, Reggie Bush's marketing agent. I think Ornstein has unnecessarily fueled the fire, both in the media and between the Bush and Michaels/Lake camps. Also, when it comes to "he said, he said" Ornstein has little credibility. Lake and Michaels don't have much credibility either.

Yahoo! has been looking into the Reggie Bush matter for almost a year. Read all about it. The latest allegations involve Reggie Bush on tape supposedly talking about starting a sports agency and implicating himself regarding NCAA violations. Yahooooooo!

Most information uncovered in the latest Yahoo! investigation comes from attorneys representing Lloyd Lake, who recently was released from prison, and Michael Michaels. The Bush tapes were likely made by Michaels or Lake, which would bolster Bush’s attorney David Cornwell's claim that these guys are trying to extort money.

It is illegal in many states, including California, to record a conversation without consent. This bit of information was not mentioned in the Yahoo! article. Many media outlets picked up an AP story, but none mentioned the potentially illegality of the taping.

Thankfully my research department is more expert in these matters. My wife Debbie Spander is a business affairs lawyer at Comedy Cental. When I brought up the latest development in the Bush case, she responded in quotable fashion, stating, "These recordings might be problematic. In the state of California it is not legal to make audio recordings unless all parties have consented."

She cited Crank Yankers, a show that aired on Comedy Central, which ultimately had to move its (crank) call center from California to Arizona, where it is apparently legal to tape unsuspecting targets without their knowledge.

If a tape of Reggie Bush exists as reported it would still likely be inadmissible in court, other than to support an extortion claim or to bring a criminal claim against Michaels or Lake.

But what about the NCAA? The NCAA is reportedly investigating the matter. If it is determined that Reggie Bush violated his amateur status, USC could face possible NCAA sanctions (e.g. forfeit games, repay money). If it is proven that no USC athletic staff member knew what was going on, they should avoid any major NCAA sanctions (e.g. loss of scholarships, postseason eligibility).

Michaels and Lake are likely to talk to the NCAA, but how credible is their testimony? Bush would be probably well advised to not cooperate. If the alleged tape falls into the hands of NCAA investigators, it will be interesting to see how it treats this information.

The NCAA is not a court of law and not subject to due process requirements of the Constitution. Last year the NCAA hired a high-priced lawyer to declare that "NCAA enforcement, hearing, appeals, and waiver and reinstatement proceedings compare favorably with federal, administrative and state court process." The Bush case will be a good test.

© 2007 Marc Isenberg. All rights reserved.

Pay for play

Brian Leonard played in today's Under Armour Senior Bowl. He has lost 20 pounds preparing for the NFL draft with the hope that NFL scouts will see him more as an I-Back rather than as a fullback. Dick Vermeil, who was broadcasting the game for the NFL Network, thought that's a mistake. Vermeil's broadcast partner mentioned that Leonard is a "good, but not great blocker." Responded Vermeil: "You become a better blocker the more you get paid."

I previously wrote about Leonard's decision to return to Rutgers for his senior year.

Any college hoops on tonight?

By Marc Isenberg

College sports is about the student athletes, about the connection between academics and athletics, and all the values sports teaches. That's what we're reminded of over and over. It's true...until a network exec calls with a better offer.

The Pac 10 Conference probably does the best job of any conference when it comes to not allowing their basketball schedules to be dictated by television. Pac 10 men's basketball plays its games Thursday night and Saturday. No Big Monday, Super Tuesday, Wacky Wednesday, etc. Since the Pac 10 is comprised of two teams each in 5 areas, all legimately in the area implied by its name, travel is minimal and so is missed class time. But the times are changing. The Pac 10 now routinely plays one game Sunday late afternoon. This week it is UCLA/Stanford at 5pm. So UCLA leaves on Wednesday and returns home late Sunday night.

This week it was also announced that next season USC and Arizona State will play its football game on Thanksgiving afternoon.

Here's what one former (out of touch?) basketball coach said on the subject of missing class time due to travel:

"In basketball, I would permit no games before the third weekend in November, schedule all games on weekends or when school is not in session, and permit no travel that would require missing more than one day of school in any week."

John Wooden wrote this in his book, "They Call Me Coach." Good thing no one listened to Coach Wooden. Otherwise, how would athletic departments fund the athletic arm's race?

Thursday Night Hoops

By Marc Isenberg

Wife Deb was out on the town Thursday night, so I spent most of last night watching hoops. Haven't been home to watch much basketball this season, so I was looking forward to a night of hoops heaven. Started with the second half of the Duke/Clemson game (much more on game later), then my friend Jeff Fellenzer came over to watch the UCLA/Cal game. Also kept switching to the Bulls/Dallas game...Bulls pulled a big upset). Deb came home to watch her Stanford Cardinal destroy USC. Finished up the night with the UW/Oregon game.

Here are few of my general observations...

Hoops on TV sucks
But hoops on HDTV is incredible. The Duke/Clemson game was broadcast on ESPN HD. We then switched over to FSN, broadcast in lo-lo-def, for the UCLA/Cal game. Thankfully UCLA brightened the screen with stellar play, particularly from Arron Afflalo (Sporting News editors: Note the spelling).

West Coast Rising
I am UCLA fan, I admit. I also root for west coast teams in general since I know many of the players and coaches. Plus I do think the west coast is underappreciated. But the conference is getting its just due at the moment.

Look at how many Pac 10 teams are in this week's AP Top 25 rankings.

Pac 10 5
Big 10 3
ACC 4
Big 12 3
SEC 1 (Kentucky is ranked 25 in the AP Top 25)

Duke/Clemson comments
Freshman Jon Scheyer is a phenomenal shooter. And he's from the North Shore (outside Chicago), where I grew up. He is unquestionably the next in line to carry on the tradition of most hated Dookie, an illustrious list that includes Christain Laettner, Bobby Hurley, Chris Collins, Wojo, and JJ Redick.

As most of you know, Duke won with a buzzer beater at the end of regulation. The  game ended with 7 points scored by both teams in 5 seconds. Almost as impressive as Scheyer scoring 21 points in 75 seconds in high school.

Let's go to the video
I rarely complain about officiating. Bad calls tend to even out over the course of entire games, although what happens at the end is magnified. But in this situation, it's not the official who had a (literal) hand in a crucial end-of-game call. Clemson was down 5 points, less than minute. Clemson scores 2 points with 5 seconds to draw within three. Duke's Josh McRoberts errant inbound pass ends up in a Clemson player who quickly knocks down a three pointer to tie the game. Point six seconds quick. After conferring with the clock operator and watching the replay, the officials set the clock at 4.4 seconds. The replay clearly shows the clock did not start until after Clemson player released the ball.

Watch the play.

According to ESPN's Jay Bilas, "SportsCenter put a real-time clock on the sequence and determined that 2.6 seconds had elapsed, which would have left Duke with 2.4 seconds for its final possession."

I have no doubt the referees wanted to make the correct call. The question they wanted to know was, How much time was on the clock when Clemson scored? What they failed to consider was the clock operator's slow hand. Game over. Duke wins. Time to move on.

The odds of two African American coaches meeting in the Super Bowl and college championship

By Marc Isenberg

As an MBA grad and co-author of "The Truth about  Gambling," I enjoy examining the odds of pretty much everything...sports, gambling, investing, decision making, and life. Now that the Super Bowl matches two teams coached by African Americans, I started thinking about the odds of this event taking place.

Is this a statistical anomaly or predictable occurrence? Given 6 African American NFL head coaches out of 32 teams (at the start of the 2006 season), the odds of two African American coaches meeting in the Super Bowl were actually better than your favorite team making it. The event of two African American NFL head football coaches meeting again in the Super Bowl is likely to occur for the second time in the next 25 years. So how many years is it probable that two African American college coaches will meet in the national championship game for the first time? Based on today's numbers, this event should occur by 2475 A.D., hopefully a little sooner.

The Probability of Two African American Coaches Meeting in Super Bowl

Number of NFL African American head coaches at start of the 2006 season: 7

NFC
Lovie Smith
Dennis Green (fired)

AFC
Tony Dungy
Herman Edwards
Romeo Crennell
Marvin Lewis
Art Shell (fired)

At present, there are five African American AFC coaches (now that the Steelers hired Mike Timlin) versus only one in the NFC. Wonder if this has anything to do with fact that AFC is comprised mostly of old AFL teams, which was the "upstart" league? Also would be interesting to look at length of ownership and diversity of city to see if there's any correlation.

Chance of one African American head coach in Super Bowl: 21.88%
Chance of two African American head coaches in Super Bowl: 3.9% (Note 1)
Number of years it would take (assuming everything is held constant, including number of teams and number of African American head coaches) to have two black head coaches again: 25.6 years (Note 2)

Given that there are fewer African American coaches at the collegiate level, I thought it would be interesting to make the same calculations.

Number of African American D1-A head coaches: 6
Number of D1-A teams: 119
Chance of one black head coach in D1-A "championship game": 5.04%
Chance of two black head coaches in "championship game": .2136% (Note 3)
Number of years it would take (assuming everything is held constant, including number of D1-A teams and number of African American head coaches) to have two African American head coaches meet in the championship game: 468.2 years! I was taught to use exclamation points sparingly, but in this case it's appropriate!! (Note 4)

As the number of African American college football coaches increases so does the likelihood that two will meet in the championship game in the 21st century.

Calculations
Note 1: Since only one team represents each conference, the calculation is (2/16) * (5/16) or 3.9%.
Note 2: 100/3.9 = 25.6
Note 3: (6/119) * (5/118) = .002136
Note 4: 100/.2136 = 468.2

Payton's so-so career as a Chicago Bear

No, not the great Walter Payton. Sean Payton, the current New Orleans Saints coach.

Just prior to the Bear-Saints NFC Championship game, Fox did a feature on Sean Payton's short stint as a replacement player during the the 1987 NFL strike season.

ESPN.com's Gene Wojciechowski also wrote about Sean Payton's short Chicago Bear career.

While time heals many wounds, replacement players have always been a touchy subject in professional sports labor issues. After the 1995 MLB strike, a few replacement players went on to become full-time players. Unions have not treated the replacements kindly. Replacement players are  prohibited from joining the Major League Baseball Players' Association, although they can still receive pension benefits.

In 1987 replacement players were used by NFL management to weaken the players and their union. While the product was diminished by not having regular players on the field, as long as teams suited up 45 players, teams received television revenue.

The 1987 NFL players strike was over a critical  issue -- free agency.

Prior to 1976, the NFL had free agency, but it was essentially meaningless because of the "Rozelle Rule," which awarded compensation to the team who lost a player to free agency.

Paul Staudohar analyzed the 1987 strike in the August 1988 issue of Monthly Labor Review and discussed the NFL's slow progress toward establishing a free market for players:

"In December 1975, however, the players' association won the Mackey case...the Federal Courts ruled that the Rozelle Rule was an unreasonable restraint of trade under the Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890, because it acted as a deterrent to player movement in the NFL.

"With the decision in Mackey, NFL players could become free agents by playing out their option with the barrier of a compensation penalty to their team no longer in the way. However, in 1977, the union bargained away the rights won in the courtroom and agreed to method of determining compensation payments for signing free agents.

"The rationale for negotiating away free agency won in court is that fee agency may not be as meaningful in football as it is in other sports. The players gained increased pension and other benefits for giving up free agency, and felt it was a wise trade off."

Sean Payton was not the only current NFL head coach to make news during the 1987 strike. Then Kansas City Chief linebacker Jack Del Rio (now Jacksonville Jaguars head coach) got into a nasty fight with former Chief star Otis Taylor, who worked for the Chiefs as a scout. Taylor was escorting replacement players to practice.

Supper Bowl Shuffle 2007

The Bears beat the Saints 39-14 in the NFC Championship.

Sorry to see the Saints' magical season come to end, but they had a great run.

I don't consider myself a rah rah sports fan...except when it comes to the Bears.

I was in high school the last time the Bears were in the Super Bowl. Can't believe it's been twenty one years! I went to every game but one in 1985, including the Super Bowl. Hopefully I will go to one game this season. Miami, here we come.

Bear down.

Super Bowl Shuffle video

Response to NCAA diversity article

I got a thought-provoking response to my article supporting more agressive approaches to address the low numbers of African Americans and woman in collegiate athletics. This illustrates another dimension of the problems facing young coaches entering the profession and institutions interested in diversity.

Here is his response:

I am a veteran FAR at a major DI university with a top sports program:

I don't have any solutions to the diversity problems, but I do know one serious problem that you haven't addressed. With the introduction of e-mail, text messaging and other instant means of communication many coaches are literally on duty 24/7/365. That is why I hope each sport will have something like a one month "truly dead" period where coaches cannot do anything. This "no life" situation is particularly unappealing to any woman who wants to both coach and "have a life" and a family. The NCAA can hire women staff members and they work reasonable hours. While this "no life" situation is not a diversity issue per se, it is driving good people out of coaching including men—but of course this affects women more than men.

As for minorities, the NCAA can hire minority staff and pay them just like anyone else in a similar position. In coaching I doubt that institutions pay minorities less for similar positions, but the first coaching jobs are often very low paid positions. A young person with family financial support can afford to take such a position, but how many under-represented minorities can?

I haven't done a survey, but my feeling from being the FAR over a decade is that none of our women coaches strongly encourage their athletes to go into coaching. I definitely know some of our highest profile women coaches who discourage their athletes from coaching because of the life style and the fact that these athletes have more appealing alternative careers.

You have an MBA so you can relate to this—especially for the non-revenue sports. If you are going to have the equivalent stress and work the same hours as an investment banker, why would you do this for a salary that is probably 75 percent less (and sometimes much less) than what an I-banker makes?

All of this is a long winded way so saying that unless the compensation for the typical entry level coaching positions changes and unless the "no life" aspect of many head coaching positions changes, Rooney rules and other such "mandates' are not going to do much to change the current demographics in coaching.

New feature: On the Mark*

A few articles I think are worth reading.

* I spell my name with a "c" so, no, I am not being narcissistic.

Pre-1977 NFL player benefits
John Lopez of the Houston Chronicle writes about the inadequate NFL pension benefit plan covering pre-1977 players. Since former players have no standing in the NFLPA, there is little they can do beyond making a reasoned, well-thought out case that they deserve improve benefits. As the Chronicle article points out, "The NFL built its $6 billion a year industry on the likes of Ollie Matson, Dick Butkus, Ted Hendricks and some 1,400 other pre-1977 players whose heroics are featured in grainy NFL Films productions. It was 1977 when the NFL was found to be violating antitrust laws, and benefits improved." Diverting money to the old timers who were paid very little may be the right thing to do, but current players are fighting their own battles with owners over salaries and benefits -- every dollar (or million) that goes to former players is a dollar that comes out their pocket. Something needs to be done. The problem pits current and retired players are pitted against each other.

The economic rewards of ain't misbehavin'
Sam Smith, Chicago Tribune NBA writer and author of often misunderstood The Jordan Rules, wrote a good analysis why NBA players don't fight old-school style, despite a few high-profile incidences. The fact is, there aren't many dirty players in the NBA anymore because it's too costly to be dirty. Writes Smith, "Heck, guys used to be proud of being dirty players. The Pistons' Laimbeer especially, though he was the face of NBA evil and well beyond being respectably dirty, like Rick Mahorn and Jeff Ruland, known as McFilthy and McNasty when they played for the Washington Bullets and opponents finished layups on their back. Old school, they called it then, and there was a difference, as in all sports today. Players weren't as big and strong, and they didn't work out like they do now, so the collisions weren't as violent."

Taunting the right way
LaDainian Tomlinson was not happy about the Patriots postgame celebration of its upset victory over the Chargers. But, as ESPN.com's Mike Kriedler points out, LT argument collapses when you consider that he's defending Shawne Merriman's spasmodic sack dance. Writes Kriedler, "Let's be clear about Sunday. What the Chargers (LaDainian Tomlinson in particular) got so angry about was Patriots players doing a mocking version of the dance that  Shawne Merriman does every time he records a sack -- which is to say, the Chargers felt disrespected by someone doing an imitation of something that can be viewed as disrespectful every single time Merriman does it."