Monthly Archives: November 2014

WNBA Star Brittney Griner Attacked in China

By Savannah Malnar

Random attacks on athletes are thankfully uncommon, but unfortunately on November 3rd WNBA star Brittney Griner was subject to one. Griner is currently playing for the Beijing Great Wall team who plays within the Women’s Chinese Basketball Association. It is her second season in that league. WNBA players commonly go to play for foreign leagues during the offseason to play to stay conditioned and to earn a higher salary.

Griner and her teammates were leaving practice at a gym located in a city called Shenyang where they had a game scheduled the following day. As they were walking towards the bus, a man who had been walking down the street yelling charged them with a knife. The women rushed to the bus but the man also managed to get into the bus and cornered them into the back. Griner said she did not understand anything he was saying, but later her teammates said he was shouting things about how they had supposedly hit his wife and how he was going to kill them. Without reason, the man eventually left the bus without causing any serious harm to the women and later the police apprehended him and took him to a mental institution.

Due to the lack of information immediately following the event, this created a lot of speculation as to the reason the man went after Griner and her teammates. Some people even suggested he was a fan who was outraged because Griner was taking a spot on the team that perhaps another Chinese-born player could have taken.

Griner soon utilized the sport media to eliminate any speculation about the event. She released a long statement giving the full story from her perspective through ESPNW and that allowed other media outlets to provide the public with a much more detailed account of the incident.

Griner’s team decided to play the game the next day and won. Grimer only suffered a very shallow cut on her elbow and her other teammate was sore due to the man attempting to stab her (the two jackets she was wearing protected her).

Through all of this, Griner remained optimistic and lighthearted. In her statement she even joked about how the man damaged her favorite Nike jacket. She also said “The thing I keep reminding myself is that the incident seemed to be random — we were just in the wrong place at the wrong time.”

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Ohio State Making a Case to Crash Playoff Party

By Matt Rogers

Over the weekend there were was certainly was no shortage of important games in college football. None of the outcomes to these games may prove to be more important than #14 Ohio State’s 49-37 victory over #8 Michigan State. The victory for the Buckeyes put them in the driver’s seat in the race for the Big Ten’s East Division crown, and in a promising position in terms of this week’s upcoming College Football Playoff Rankings.

Though the College Football Playoff Rankings have not yet been released, Ohio State has gained a substantial amount of respect from numerous members of the media and from the voters in the Associated Press Poll, jumping into the #8 ranking in the latest AP poll.

The one thing that may be the straw that breaks the Buckeyes’ back is their 14-point loss to Virginia Tech in the second game of the season. This loss is considered by most in the media to be a “bad” loss because the Hokies of Virginia Tech have gone on to lose five of their last seven games since that game. The Hokies have also posted a 1-4 record in the ACC, which most in the media consider the weakest of the Power Five conferences (Big Ten, ACC, SEC, Pac-12, and Big 12).

As far as that loss to Va Tech goes, some members of the media claim that Ohio State should be given a mulligan because the team was only a few weeks removed from their star player and Quarterback, Braxton Miller, suffering a season-ending shoulder injury. The team had to turn to a redshirt freshman Quarterback, JT Barrett, who hadn’t played in a game since the fourth game of his senior season of high school football. Not to mention that the team was also breaking in four new starters on the offensive line. The Va Tech game was only Barrett’s second college start, the first being against what most consider to be an inferior opponent in Navy.

Since that loss, OSU has rattled off seven straight wins and accumulating a 5-0 record against Big Ten opponents. The media outlets, namely ESPN, that are covering the release tonight’s upcoming College Football Playoff Rankings have speculated that the Buckeyes will not only enter the top ten in the new rankings, but will be squarely in the conversation to be part of the four teams that will ultimately be a part of the brand new College Football Playoff that the NCAA has implemented this season.

There are still a few weeks that remain in the college football season. There is bound to be some chaos, as there always is. Only one thing is certain; nothing that the members of the media and the so-called experts say has any bearing on what the 12-man committee will vote. The CFP rankings for this week will be released at 7:30 ET.

Harbaugh’s Comments Highlight Sports Journalism Issue

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By Nick Muhl

Following his team’s win versus the Tennessee Titans, Baltimore Ravens Head Coach John Harbaugh decided in his post-game speech to take a “shot” against their division rival, the Pittsburgh Steelers. The Ravens lost last week to the Steelers in a blowout 43-23, where Steelers Quarterback Ben Roethlisberger threw six touchdowns.

“That was a tough challenge. We have a team coming off a bye week. You had a team in this room off a very physical Sunday night game. You know what I’m saying? Saw what happened on the other part of that, right? Strike that from the record books, ok? Is that NFL? Are you with us or them? Make sure that doesn‘t get…What I’m about to say doesn‘t get talked about, ok? That team beat us last week, okay? All right? Then they went and got their [a-s] kicked this week. This team was in the same game and went and got the job done this week. That’s who you are. That’s who you are. Congratulations” said Harbaugh shortly before he handed out this week’s game ball.

The video of Harbaugh making the comments has since been deleted from the website it was published and from Youtube, but can still be viewed here: http://bleacherreport.com/articles/2262305-john-harbaugh-takes-shot-at-steelers-tells-cbs-not-to-air-comments

Harbaugh’s opinion on the Steelers is no surprise. Without a doubt the Head Coach of a winning football team who beat the Steelers earlier in the year, believes that his Raven’s are the superior team to the Steelers. However, there is a bigger issue at hand with Harbaugh’s comments.

As read in the above quote, and clarified by the Raven’s front office on Monday, Harbaugh’s comments were supposed to remain off the record. As mentioned by Dan Carson, sports writer for Bleacher Report, Harbaugh “made a point of asking the CBS camera crew in the Baltimore locker room not to air the footage.” Clearly though, the coaches request was not met by the CBS crew.

This arises a very popular talked about topic in journalism, especially sports journalism, what is “off the record” and does it really exist?

“Off the Record” is a journalism concept that an interviewee, or any person for that matter, can make a comment or answer a question privately to a journalist. It is common belief that the comment, or quote, cannot be published or in this case aired on TV. From my own personal experiences shadowing Tom Archdeacon, sports writer for the Dayton Daily News, “off the record” is merely a journalists tool to gaining more information.

While shadowing Archdeacon, I observed him use the “off the record” tactic to learn information from one player. He would then take the information he just learned and create a new question for a new player to get him to divulge farther into the topic that was once “off the record.”

Every journalist has their own code of journalism ethics they follow. Archdeacon’s use of the “off the record” followed his own code of journalism ethics. He didn’t necessarily publish what was said “off the record” but he did use the information to his advantage. In Harbaugh’s case however, the journalist filming the post-game speech did not have the same code of ethics as Archdeacon.

The harsh truth to realize, especially for those involved with sports who are interviewed often like Harbaugh, “off the record” does not exist. In today’s society anything you say can and will be used against you, especially in journalism. No matter the time of day or who you are talking to, it is important for those in the sports community to realize that they say can be published by the media. While Harbaugh and the Ravens have every right to be upset that the footage was published, in the age of social media and constant flow of information being posted and read online, the Ravens and the sports community as a whole need to come to realize the “free-for-all” game that is sports journalism.

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Bill Simmons: Shots Fired

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By Kaleb Page

When it comes to talking sports, whether it is with friends or here in this blog, there comes times when we say things that are shock value type statements. These statements typical are a little on the extreme side and yet we all make them. While for us who aren’t in the spotlight these comments only receive a good “are you serious” or “c’mon man.” For those in the spotlight these comments receive way more.

Bill Simmons is a contributor, analyst and personality on ESPN covering the NBA. His style of analysis is one that catches fire from others in the industry. However for me I think sometimes his personal touch on the topics, which he has a massive knowledge for, is something I look for because it breaks up the cookie cutter mundane reading we get from certain columnists.

On Wednesday of last week, Simmons went on to Colin Cowherd’s radio show. On the show Colin and Bill got on the topic of the Cleveland Cavaliers, and what Bill thought so far. Simmons gave his assessment and further stirred the pot with his comments on LeBron James. Before making his comments Simmons did drop the disclaimer of it is still way too early to make big assumptions. Simmons comments were:

“I don’t know if he’s hurt, I don’t know if the big weight loss has affected his game or whatever. This is not a jump-to-conclusions thing. I have been watching this Cavs team since the preseason games started, and he does not look the same.”

Also Simmons made the comparison of the LeBron move to Cleveland to the Albert Pujols move to the Angles a few years ago. Saying that this could play out to that but he still was holding out on fully committing to that thought.

Now keep in mind that even though Simmons was making these statements that would seem pretty far out there; he did provide solid reasoning and said he was not jumping to this conclusion. Merely he was wondering, with the basketball knowledge he has and what he has seen so far, what is going on with this super-team?

While you keep that in mind, Simmons’s colleagues at ESPN ripped his comments apart and even cut it to not have his disclaimer about not wanting to jump to this conclusion fully. The colleagues in particular are Mike Golic and Mike Greenberg of the Mike and Mike show. The snippet of the segment between Greenberg and Golic can be seen below.

This brings up a key word or phrase that if you watch sports more and more you will pick up on a whole lot. That key word or phrase is “context or taken out of context.” This is a clear showing that when you cut out the important parts said before Simmons’s comments you lose a big piece. Obviously if you frame what Simmons said in the way Mike and Mike did; he will sound like someone who has no idea what he is talking about.

Shots were fired by Mike and Mike but Bill didn’t hesitate to get his in too. Thursday Simmons took to Twitter going on a rant about how he lost respect for the show. He even further went on to say:

“For an ESPN Radio show to pull an interview out of context from another ESPN Radio show, then play the moral authority card, is disgusting.”

There are multiple tweets and things said by Simmons in response to what has happened. Personally, I side with Simmons in that it almost seemed like an attack on his comments. If they really had a problem with his comments, why not have him on to discuss it himself? Instead you just throw it out there to fill air-time and really frame the words said into your favor. Definitely the wrong move by Mike and Mike in my opinion.

It will be interesting to see, since this isn’t the first time Simmons has been at with ESPN or colleagues there, if Simmons will soon leave the organization. It would be tough since he is tied heavily with the organization and it is one of the biggest sports followed networks in the world.

If Bill does leave ESPN, I hope he doesn’t change his ways and he continues on to be the witty, smart and candid sports personality so many of us like to listen to.

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Adrian Peterson’s Nike Contract Termination and Media Involvement

By McKenzie Whiteman

Even people who aren’t avid football followers know of the controversy regarding its supposedly “criminal” players. Many of the NFL’s athletes have found themselves in the middle of legal battles, fighting to keep their contracts and reputations. Few, however, are viewed as receiving fair punishment in the eyes of the general public. NFL players, much like any professional athlete, seem to find themselves receiving a slap on the wrist instead of any harsh punishment. Adrian Peterson, however, found yet another blow to his career.

Peterson served as the running back for the Minnesota Vikings since 2007. However, this past year has caused his career to come to a halt. Peterson faced felony charges for child abuse after witnesses say he struck his 4 year-old son with a tree branch. He rejected accusations to a felony charge, but pleaded no contest to reckless assault, a misdemeanor charge, on Tuesday. While the fate of his career is still in debate, Peterson has already lost a major part of his image, and this can partially be attributed to the close eye the media currently has on him.

According to ESPN’s Darren Rovell, Nike has recently resigned its contract it held with Peterson. Peterson had rejoined its contract with Nike in 2013, only to be suspended in September. While there are no final comments as to why, one can assume that the legal battle and limited positive exposure he’s recently had may be to blame. While his actions are completely at fault, the media can cause a story to go viral. I’m sure this is what Nike fears the most, and why they ultimately decided to end their partnership with Peterson.

Because Adrian Peterson is the high-profile athlete that he is, any detail of this story is immediately spread. Any result of a legal battle, any opinion that is stated, and any rumor that stirs, is quickly picked up by the media and made available to the public. Because Nike is so reliant on high-profile athletes to market its brand, any threat to the company’s reputation is quickly and aggressively handled. This is exactly what happened in regards to Peterson’s future with the company. Speculation of child abuse already threatened his future with the organization. But after pleading no contest to reckless assault on Tuesday, I’m sure Nike felt as its high-profile reputation didn’t include his persona any longer.

While it’s becoming more and more often that professional athletes are finding themselves in legal troubles, it’s the media that will hurt them in the end. Whether what they report is true or false it affects how the general public views them as ambassadors to their team and sponsors. Companies involved don’t want to be dragged through the self-inflicted troubles that their athletes are going through. The fate of Peterson’s career will be based on how much the NFL and other involved parties are willing to endure the media hits and persona that come along with his charges. Hopefully other athletes take these incidences into consideration before they find themselves in the same predicament.

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Toronto’s Carter Ashton Suspended for Illegal Substance Use

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By Savannah Malnar

Hockey is not a sport in which performance-enhancing drugs (PEDs) have ever been a large problem. In fact, up until Thursday, only two players since 2006 had been suspended for violating the National Hockey League’s PED policy. That number is now three, thanks to Toronto Maple Leafs forward Carter Ashton. And it’s an unusual story why.

Ashton tested positive for the use of the illegal substance Clenbuterol. The substance was originally developed as an asthma treatment, but since has been banned for its overuse by athletes as a fat-burner and muscle-definer. But Ashton claims he was not even aware he was using a banned substance; instead, he puts the blame on a borrowed inhaler.

Ashton states that he experienced an asthma attack while exercising in preparation for the upcoming NHL season and borrowed his training partner’s inhaler to remedy it. He was not aware there was any kind of PED or banned drug in the inhaler. In a statement released through the NHLPA, Ashton admitted to using the borrowed inhaler one more time during training camp while still unaware of the contents. In this statement he also said, “Unfortunately, I incorrectly assumed that there were no problems associated with the use of this inhaler and I used it without checking to see whether its contents were permissible under the NHL/NHLPA Performance Enhancing Substances Program.”

It truly seems believable that Ashton had no idea he was doing anything wrong. The media sees this and in multiple outlets can be found questioning the automatic 20-game suspension that has been issued under the NHL’s strict drug policy while at the same time admitting he made a mistake in taking an unknown medication (twice).

Hockey fans and writers are swarming to twitter about this topic. Unfortunately, a lot of Toronto fans are joking about this event. Ashton had only played in 3 games for the Maple Leafs this season with no points. The fans and some bloggers have made comments such as “Ashton was on PEDs? He should get his money back.” And, from an esteemed baseball writer with over 26,000 twitter followers, “Carter Ashton also tested positive for cooties after using his friend’s inhaler.” While there is a time and place for everything, making these joke on the day of the questionable suspension is in bad taste.

The lesson to be learned by Ashton and other NHL players is to be careful about the medication they take. Nicklas Backstrom of the Washington Capitals was almost denied his Olympic silver medal due to a similar event with allergy medicine while in Sochi. The lesson learned here by the media and fans alike is to treat something as unlucky as this with more respect than jokes directed at the player’s performance.

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Is the gap growing between the “Power” and “Non-Power” Conferences?

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By Alex O’Connor

Marshall has had a historic football season, where they currently sit at 9-0 and are the clear frontrunners in Conference USA. Marshall is also one of three undefeated teams left. As conferences have been realigning rapidly not only in football, but basketball, there has been an increasing concern that the “power” conferences are getting more powerful each time there is a new alignment. NBCSports has noted that Marshall’s streak is special, but there is a large amount of hesitancy on whether or not it will matter if they finish undefeated.

Currently, Marshall is ranked twenty-first in the country, according to the latest AP Top 25, and they are notably unranked in the College Football Playoff Rankings. With the addition of the new playoff system, the twelve committee members are using new statistics to measure the quality of the eligible schools. The most notable new statistic is “FPI”, which stands for the Football Power Index. Per ESPN.com, FPI is a measure of team strength that is meant to be the best predictor of performance going forward for the rest of the season. Given the opponents Marshall has faced in and out of conference, there is no indication that they are anywhere near the top four teams in the country. The establishment of FPI has only furthered the gap between power and non power conferences.

In regards to the media, there is always a desire to find an underdog, or a team that can come out of nowhere to shock the bigger teams. This is especially prevalent in college football. fbschedules.com noted that Marshall going undefeated in this new playoff format will be a true determination if the non-power conferences are actually playing for that grand prize.

A recent example of a small school having major success in the previous format was Boise State. In 2006, Boise State won all twelve of their scheduled games. Though they were and still are in a non power conference, (WAC) they were still slotted into a major BCS Bowl Game which was the Tostitos Fiesta Bowl. They ended up winning that game by one point over Big 12 powerhouse Oklahoma. For the time being, Boise State gave smaller schools at the glory of a big college football bowl game. Now that only four teams compete for the National Championship and the former big BCS bowl games will have considerably less attention than the final four teams. The new playoff system has only made it harder for non-power conference teams to break into the national spotlight and the balance of authority is shifting heavily towards the power conferences.

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College Hockey: Skating in the Right Direction

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By Ellen Chlumecky

Hockey has never been the most important or popular sport in the United States. While all leagues of hockey have their large fan bases, but the NHL, college hockey, high school hockey, and youth leagues are still barely making the top of the list for most popular sport in the United States.

While hockey is still barely at the top of the list, they have been making head way in the past couple years. As I previously stated in an earlier article, the 2014 NHL season has started to make a huge splash in different media outlets other than just the NHL Network. While ESPN still rarely shows hockey video clips, NBC Sports Network has been devoted to showing hockey games even more than any other network in the United States.

The most recent addition to the NBC Sports Network family is NCAA college hockey. Last year, NBCSN only showed the NCAA Frozen Four, which is the championship, and a few games here and there. While very important to all college hockey programs to make this huge step, the championships are only just one important part of the season. Which is why it is such a big deal that NBCSN is now showing college hockey regularly now. While so far they have only shown Boston College and Notre Dame, two of the top ranked teams in the NCAA Division I, but for them to regularly start showing college hockey games is something that was unimaginable a couple of years ago. A couple of years ago, the only way you could go see some college hockey games was to attend the game in person or if you lived locally you might be able to catch the game on a local sports television show. For the college hockey programs across the United States this is a huge step especially when college football and basketball tend to take a lead when it comes to ESPN and other larger sports networks.

I am not saying that the NBCSN has perfected the spread of college hockey yet. NBC Sports Network has still yet to add a college hockey tab to their website. While they do still have college hockey clips to watch on their website, they are far from making it a big deal. The college hockey season is only about ten games in so I believe that NBCSN can blow college hockey up and make hockey a true contender in that list and a game that people are excited to watch.

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49ers’ Aldon Smith to Pay to Play in 2014

By Matt Rogers

It was reported on ESPN today that Aldon Smith, San Francisco 49ers’ All-Pro Outside Linebacker, will be paying the 49ers to play in the team’s last seven games of the season rather than returning early, as he reportedly had hoped. Smith is currently serving a 9-game suspension for separate violations of the league’s substance abuse policy and personal conduct policy. For this reason, Smith will be ordered to pay the 49ers for forfeiture of a signing bonus that was agreed to when Smith was drafted by the team in the 2011 NFL Draft.

The amount that Smith will be ordered to pay is determined from his salary, which was $525,000 for the final seven games of the season, and the signing bonus valued at $661,000 . This is substantial because nothing like this has ever happened before in any of the major sports leagues, at least in the United States. This occurrence sets a precedent that athletes, at least in the NFL, will be held more accountable for continuously ignoring not only the policies agreed up by the players’ union and the league owners, but also ignoring the laws.

Smith has had at least two DUI charges that have been reported, which lead to his substance abuse suspension. What lead to his suspension for going against the personal conduct policy was what essentially lead to  such a harsh punishment to be handed down on Smith. It was reported in April 2014 that Smith was detained for allegedly becoming belligerent with airport officials, eventually that he had a bomb in his possession. This is a crime that is taken extremely seriously, especially after the tragic events that occurred on September 11, 2001.

Ultimately, Smith was not charged, but he was still subject to a lengthy suspension under the NFL’s personal conduct policy. The suspension that was handed down was the aforementioned 9 games, which was a result of the multiple DUI charges and the incident that occurred at the airport in April.

Though Smith was suspended, he was not suspended for a whole season, making him eligible to return in the 49ers’ Week 11 matchup against the New York Giants. This would mean that Aldon Smith be paying to play in the final seven games rather than sitting out the entire season and still paying the team back the signing bonus.

A precedent like this is something that professional league’s should definitely adopt in the future because when a contract is signed, and a signing bonus is agreed to, there are certain parameters that are also agreed to by both sides. It was also interesting that this was reported on national TV, especially during a year where the league has seen two of its highest profile players, Ray Rice and Adrian Peterson, facing criminal charges for domestic violence and child abuse.

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Where is Boxing? Hopkins Claims Race is the Issue

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In an interview this past weekend, light-heavyweight boxing champion Bernard Hopkins was quoted as saying the reason his story in boxing goes un-avoided in the media is because he is black. This Saturday Hopkins 55-6-2 (32 KO’s) takes on Sergey Kovalev 25-0-1(23 KO’s) in a light-heavyweight championship bout in Atlantic City, NJ.

“It’s because I’m black. What do you think if my name was Augustine, Herzenstein, Stern? Cappello? Marciano?…If I was any of those names of any other background, I’d be on every billboard and every milk carton and every place to be. If we’re talking ‘American Dream,’ here’s a guy who almost threw his life away and he took this great country’s great attributes and used it — do for self, work hard and be a law-abiding citizen. I’ve done that for 26 years.”

Hopkins, who has the record for the oldest fighter to win and defend world titles, will only be 2 months away from turning 50 years old this Saturday. Hopkins was released from prison in 1988 after serving over 4 years before he began his boxing career.

It’s not an unknown fact that boxing’s popularity has taken a hit in the recent decade. Despite new marketing approaches, campaigns and TV commercials, boxing has struggled to make money in pay-per-view events that do not include Floyd Mayweather Jr.’s name.

What happened to the excitement of the 20th century boxing fight? The trash talk of Sugar Ray Leonard, the pre-fight antic of Muhammad Ali, the posters around every major city advertising the title fight? All of these things are missing from boxing today.

So is race really the reason, Hopkins story and his fight v. Kovalev goes unnoticed in the media or is it just attributed to the lack of popularity towards boxing? Not in my opinion. This isn’t the first time Hopkins has made media headlines for something controversial he has said to the media.

See here. Oh, and here is this.

I’m not here to personally attack Mr. Hopkins. I just don’t put much into his claims of race being the issue his story in boxing isn’t covered, when the largest superstar in his sport is of the same ethnicity. However what Hopkins does point out is that boxing lacks the media attention it once had. The even harsher truth is that boxing has a serious problem coming ahead for them when Floyd Mayweather retires fall of next year.

Mayweather is the perfect example of why race is not the issue at hand. Mayweather, an african-american, is the most popular fighter in the United States. In a sport that lacks the demanding respect and popularity it once did during the 20th century, Mayweather is even known by people around the world by people who have never even seen him fight.

While boxing has always had its media superstars like Muhammad Ali, Mike Tyson and currently Mayweather as mentioned, there is yet to be a boxer anywhere near comparable to Mayweather’s media-attention level.

The UFC is also to blame for the unpopularity of boxing today. The UFC (Ultimate Fighting Championship) and other Mixed Martial Arts leagues like StrikeForce and Bellator now dominate the youth demographic. The sport, which includes boxing, also adds the excitement of Judo, Wrestling, Jit-Jitsu and other forms of hand combat which is a main factor in its popularity rise over boxing. The sport is faster paced and includes increased brutality compared to boxing which can also contributes to the excitement that has drawn fans in.

The United States has a great history in the sport of boxing. However, in our modern-day the United States may not even be the best country in boxing anymore. For the sake of the sport, and the future of it here in the United States, the boxing community as a whole will need to evaluate and make changes for the betterment of the sport.

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