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Monday, February 8th 2010 - Sports Commentary

The golden goose was on full display yesterday in Miami, but golden geese have a habit of becoming an endangered species.  The National Football League's unmatched ability to generate sports revenues was more than evident again yesterday with the buildup to Super Bowl XLIV even before the game itself turned into the biggest money grab on the sports calendar.  No television event commands the dollar figures that are laid out in exchange for the highest profile commercial positioning of the year.  The bang for the buck is astronomical as the NFL and its broadcast partners have incorporated the commercials themselves into the greatest sports show on earth.  There's plenty for everyone, just line up at the trough and wallow away.  But slicing up the payroll isn't enough.  The NFL and its players association are more than willing to slice the heart right out of the goose and they weren't bashful about using the biggest showcase in the game to demonstrate it never was, and never will be about the fans, all the while trying to appeal to those fans who feed that gilded bird.  The players association appears eager to take the game away from the fans, putting at fourteen, on a scale of one to ten, the chances of a work stoppage after the 2011 season, which is likely to go on without a new collective bargaining agreement and without a salary cap, which, of course, will mean fans can expect their pockets to be a little bit lighter every time they pass through the turnstiles or log onto shop NFL dot com.  Commissioner Roger Goodell fired back yesterday morning on the Super Bowl network's "Face the Nation with Bob Sheifer", accusing the union of exaggerating the chances of a job action, saying the owners don't want a lockout, as the players association claims, and saying he's certain there won't be one.  At issue is the slice of the untold riches that ends up in the pockets of the players.  Goodell said the players are contractually guaranteed fifty nine percent of the revenues, correcting Sheifer, who put the figure at fifty four percent, but, he said, the players actually collected seventy five percent last year.  The players used their Super Bowl week forum to renew a call for the owners to open the books and let the world see the losses they claim their absorbing.  It doesn't seem right that Goodell should make such a claim, that the players are taking three quarters of the revenue, without putting those books where his mouth is.  The owners are looking to reduce the players take by eighteen percent, saying that would make the players a partner in the investment of revenues Goodell claims would then make the actual totals of smaller percentages much greater for everyone.  The players claim, whatever the current percentage is, they aren't getting their fair share.  The players claim they are the product, the owners can argue they take the financial risks.  The fans both sides are appealing to are left to stand by until they learn just how much more this newly divided pie is going to cost them as both sides demonstrate it's only about them.  The fans only feed and nurture the golden goose.  The players and owners appear more than eager to kill it.  With a comment from the sports world, I'm Scott Gray.

Tuesday, February 9th, 2010 - Sports Commentary

It doesn't take a lot to turn sports into an economic driver.  Planning, vision and cooperation are three things that come to mind.  In concert they go a long way to revitalizing a state's sports landscape and turning it into a financial win-win for every citizen.  "The benefits are economic", said Capital City Economic Development Authority head Jim Abromaitis, the former UConn basketball star, "And it flows through everyone."  For Abromaitis and the thirty eight other members of an unofficial committee he heads today is a red letter day in Connecticut, a day on which a new foundation in Connecticut economics can be laid.  This morning ESPN commentator Reese Davis moderated a forum in downtown Hartford on "Sports as an Economic Driver".  At twelve thirty this afternoon Abromaitis' committee, the Connecticut Sports Advisory Board, will follow up on many of the ideas presented at this morning's forum when they address the state legislature's commerce committee looking for an official voice in recommending events and venues that would enhance the state's sports profile.  Abromaitis' committee was formed by the general assembly in 2008 to recommend ways to attract more sporting events to connecticut and its makeup brings all sports backgrounds into play with the movers and shakers from all levels in the state involved, high school, college and professional, as well as the managers of the major sports venues across the state.  "Our research shows that locations have a higher likelihood of attracting events when there is a one stop entity that can coordinate efforts with organizers and promoters", reasoned Lynn Carlotto, the general manager of the Arena at Harbor Yard and one of three board members who will address the commerce committee today.  Nobody is looking to bring the Super Bowl or the NCAA final four to Connecticut, but there are many events realistically within our reach that generate excitement and revenue, bringing people to our region who would normally overlook our state.  In four weeks both America East basketball tournaments will be hosted by the University of Hartford, immediately leading into the women's Big East Tournament at the XL Center.  "How about that", responded Abromaitis, tongue in cheek, when it was pointed out to him that for one week it will be virtually impossible to get a hotel room in the area.  Last week Riverfront Recapture announced a deal to bring speed boat races to the Connecticut River this summer.  Two years ago they lost a bid to land a major bass tournament for lack of a million dollar guarantee.  The board is realistic about the state's niches, including various levels of NCAA tournaments, college league tournaments and high school tournaments, all of which bring people and sizzle to a region while enhancing its economic development.  "We're not coming to the table looking for money", Abromaitis said of today's appearance before the commerce committee, "We're looking for the state to endorse a concept, to get everybody in the room."  It's a concept that's already been embraced by twenty five states, all of which are reaping benefits Connecticut has too frequently let get away.  "Begin with a sports authority, take the first steps and build on them", University of Hartford President Walter Harrison, a board member, wrote in a recent Hartford Courant editorial, "The rest will follow, most important, jobs for Connecticut's citizens."  All this committee is asking for is to have an official voice in the room when sports as an economic driver is the issue on the table.  Their combined experience is invaluable.  The message to the commerce committee today is, when they come knocking at the door to that room, let them in.  With a comment from the sports world, I'm Scott Gray.

Wednesday, February 3rd 2010 Sports Commentary

It's a big week for sports culture.  In the NFL the way in which teams are accustomed to using the injury list has been very much in evidence.  The list can be whatever coaches want it to be, a reflection of their own personalities.  When Patriots coach Bill Belichick was caught fudging his injury list, or was called out for being late in producing one, he put out a document listing all of his players as questionable for the next game.  The culture stems from the military mindset of the NFL, that every piece of information is a matter of national security.  The NFL, which doesn't like to acknowlege the gambling that is a huge part of it's culture, does acknowlege it by making injury lists mandatory to keep outsiders from getting inside betting information.  The Indianapolis Colts were wrapped up in the culture of the injury list this week when they insisted that All Pro defensive end Dwight Freeney suffered just a mild ankle sprain in the AFC Championship Game and, despite his absence from practices the last two weeks, he was listed only as "questionable" for Super Bowl XLIV.  Only after close confidants of Freeney's informed the Associated Press the injury was more serious did the Colts, through Freeney, admit he suffered a torn ligament, which will seriously affect his availability.  The New York Jets wanted to develop a culture of their own when they hired Rex Ryan as their head coach and they got just what they paid for.  Ryan's job was to instill a vocal, sometimes vulgar, attitude that the Jets are a trash talking, swaggering force to be reckoned with.  They got just what they paid for when Ryan made an obscene hand gesture at heckling fans at a mixed martial arts event in Florida last Saturday.  The Jets took some of their money back yesterday when they fined Ryan fifty thousand dollars.  Apparently they didn't want that much culture.  The culture of college basketball is about to move to the forefront, after the NCAA formally opts out of the remaining two seasons on its network television contract with CBS.  ESPN, with a stable of networks that can offer more national forums than the four broadcast networks combined, is ready to outbid the world for the men's NCAA tournament, with one stipulation.  The tournament will expand from the current sixty five team format to ninety six teams beginning next season.  The expansion of the NCAA tournament will ring the death knell for the NIT, once the more prestigious of the two.  But the culture of college basketball is dictated by the coaches, and there's never been a coach who settled for an NIT bid who wasn't convinced there was at least one team in the NCAA field who's inclusion had cheated him out of a berth.  The only thing the coaches will lose with the new configuration is that argument.  It will also mean the end of the early season NIT, but not the early season tournament that gives coaches other coveted perks, the schedule exemption that comes with playing in it and the expanded control over the campus lives of their "student athletes".  The tournament will remain intact with a new name and a new format.  The final four of the new "First Four" will no longer be played at Madison Square Garden, it will be played at the site of the previous NCAA final four.  Every sport has a culture, this has been a week for putting them on display.  With a comment from the sports world, I'm Scott Gray.

"We're getting closer."  The contemplative reply from University of Connecticut football coach Randy Edsall when, after unveiling a twenty player class on national letter of intent day, he was asked if he had yet to experience that magic moment when a highly prized recruit happened to be a young man who's dream was to play at UConn.  Any one who's ever recruited at Notre Dame, Ohio State or Southern Cal has experienced that moment, legendary programs built by legendary coaches that led to armies of young football players with Saturday sandlot dreams, some of whom actually got to make those dreams come true.  "We're getting closer", said Edsall, not there yet, but, "That's coming a long way."  The day may not be too far away.  Tebucky Jones Jr. grew up in Connecticut but State U. didn't enter his radar screen until late in his high school career, after his dad got to know Randy Edsall and tour the new state of the art facilities at Rentschler Field in East Hartford and on campus in Storrs, facilities that didn't exist when Tebucky the elder selected a college.  "He told me", Edsall said of his conversation with Jones Sr., "'If UConn had all this when I was in high school I would have gone to UConn.'"  Jones went to Syracuse before launching a successful NFL career.  Tebucky Jr. mentioned the way Edsall handled the Jasper Howard tragedy this past season and said it definitely impacted, not only his decision, but his family's decision as well.  "I think it showed some of the parents what we think of our kids here and how we handle them", said Edsall, who doesn't compromise in that treatment, a practice that has elevated his teams in the classroom, with one of the top ten graduation rates in the country.  "We're going to recruit kids who can help us win and can also get it done here academically", said Edsall.  "First and foremost we look for young men who can help us win a Big East championship", which the Huskies have done, while taking four trips to bowl games in their short division 1-A history, "Then there are three other criteria.  Academics.  Do they fit the criteria at UConn and do they want to get a degree?  Work ethic.  You're not going to get anywhere in life if you're not going to work for it.  There are no free lunches in this program.  Character.  I'm big on character.  Who are the kids and the families that are going to make a committment, then stand by it?  You shake my hand, you give me your word, your word is your bond."  For Edsall, the criteria beyond football ability narrows the recruiting field considerably and he isn't always dealing with players at the top of the recruiting lists.  But Randy doesn't put much stock in those lists.  "It's all very stupid", he says, "For anyone to rank classes and rate thousands and thousands of seventeen and eighteen year old kids.  It's not where you are when you come in here, it's where you end up."  Spoken by a man who heads a program that last year turned out four first day NFL draft picks from a class devoid of top one hundred recruits going in.  About the only thing left is "that magic moment".  It's just a matter of time, a few more success stories away.  The kid who grows up dreaming of playing at the University of Connecticut.  It's easy to be a salesman when you have a product that sells itself and, as Randy Edsall says, "We're getting closer."  With a comment from the sports world, I'm Scott Gray.

Friday, February 5th 2010 - Sports Commentary

"The Twins have a plan for Jeff Smith and he's on the fast track."  That was how New Britain Rock Cats General Manager Bill Dowling introduced his new manager yesterday.  At age thirty five most ball players are thinking about their last contract.  Jeff Smith, however, enters his sixth season as a member of the Minnesota Twins minor league coaching fraternity, the last two years spent as manager of the Fort Myers Twins of the Florida State League.  His playing career was cut short by three knee surgeries, the third, in his second season with the Texas Rangers, leaving him to face one of the realities of baseball life.  "I realize how fast this game can be taken away from you", Smith said at yesterday's gathering in Hartford, adding that it gives him a unique perspective as he deals with young prospects, "I want every kid to get to the big leagues, but you want them to realize how fast it can be taken away and have that kind of focus.  It was hard to take off that uniform, but it made me a better person and a better manager."  Smith spent parts of seven seasons as a catcher with the Rock Cats and he and his wife, who frequently during those stints worked the concession stand at New Britain Stadium, became part of the community.  To Smith coming back to New Britain is like coming home.  "I see a lot of things in the Rock Cats that I see throughout the Twins organization", he said, "Longevity.  I come back with the same six or seven core people who were here when I was a player, people who have a passion for baseball."  Smith won't know for about six weeks what the makeup of his team will be but, after two years in Fort Myers, he'll be very familiar with his players and he says the Twins will give him what he calls a blueprint for success in the minor leagues, "Good starting pitching and good team chemistry", chemistry being the more important ingredient.  "I try to build a comfortable environment for team chemistry.  You've got to trust your players and make the clubhouse their home.  If you make them feel like it's theirs, that builds chemistry in itself."  Smith knows the job of a minor league manager keeps him from making promises about winning and losing, development being job one.  There he does make a promise, "Our guys will play as hard as they can, our guys will have fun playing the game, our guys will be out in the community."  Having played with many of the players who today make the Twins a perennial contender in the American League Central division Smith understands that winning is a by-product of the promises he will make and, while he doesn't downplay the fact that, like the minor league players the goal of a minor league manager is to get to the majors, he's going to make the most of his time getting there, summing up what it is that makes the journey as satisfying as the destination, "I love teaching this game of baseball."  That Rock Cats fans will see for themselves.  Just the look on his face tells of his love of the game.  It will be on full display at New Britain Stadium all summer long.  With a comment from the sports world, I'm Scott Gray.