Category Archives: NFL

RG III: Holding The Entire Team Accountable

By Savannah Malnar

In the majority of NFL franchises, the quarterback can be identified as the primary leader of the team. Robert Griffin III of the Washington Redskins has been working hard to make his case for that position through a career riddled with injuries and bad seasons.

The current 2014-2015 NFL season has not treated the Redskins kindly; they are currently 3-7 and have been plagued with controversy regarding not only their quarterback situation but also the team name. Fans of the Redskins have put all their hope into Griffin since the team traded away a 6th, 2nd, and two 1st round draft picks to acquire the 2nd overall pick in the 2010 NFL Draft from the St. Louis Rams.

All professional athletes are told how to interact with media in press conferences, but Griffin said some things after a loss to the then 1-8 (now 2-8) Tampa Bay Buccaneers that he probably wishes he could take back.

Griffin started the post game press conference by saying multiple times that the multiple sacks and offensive issues were his own fault, and that he is doing everything he can to play better. He then continued to discuss how he hopes and believes that his teammates will do the same and work to make themselves better.

The sport media pulled one specific quote from Griffin’s press conference: “It takes 11 men. It doesn’t take one guy, and that’s proven. If you want to look at the good teams in this league and the great quarterbacks, the Peytons and the Aaron Rodgers, those guys don’t play well if their guys don’t play well. They don’t.”

On Monday almost all the headlines regarding Washington read something along the lines of “RGIII Throws Teammates Under Bus.” Unfortunately for Griffin, most of these articles in both national and local news took his words out of context for the sake of a story. The authors claimed that Griffin was comparing himself to the great quarterbacks of the era and blaming his teammates for the failure of the team.

If you have the patience, listen through Griffin’s press conference. He is humble in all of his answers, and certainly does not target his teammates at all. He does what a good teammate is supposed to do; he holds his fellow teammates accountable while still admitting his own mistakes. There was no blame placing, just a quarterback admitting that the entire team including himself needs improvement.

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DEA Stages Surprise Inspections of NFL Locker Rooms

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By Nick Muhl

Following a Sunday full of NFL football in mid-November, the sports sections of newspapers nationwide typically highlight the many games with playoff implications. This Monday’s NFL headlines highlighted three surprise DEA (Drug Enforcement Agency) raids of NFL lockers rooms, rather than the games themselves.

The three teams tested were the Seattle Seahawks, Tampa Bay Buccaneers and the San Francisco 49ers. The law enforcement officials for the DEA on site investigated and interviewed all three team doctors and trainers.

John Barr, an ESPN reporter for Outside The Lines, received confirmation from a law enforcement official , that the surprise investigations were linked back to a May 2014 lawsuit that rose concern of the three teams violating the Controlled Substances Act. All three teams fully cooperated with the DEA’s investigation.  According to Sally Jenkins for the Washington Post, the investigation may have had something to do with painkillers and the distribution of them by team physicians outside of their registered practice.

Here is an excerpt from Barr’s article, a statement made by Phil Closuis, one of the attorneys representing retired NFL players in their own lawsuit against the NFL:

“I think it’s great that the DEA is taking this seriously. We alleged back on May 20th that the NFL was issuing these controlled substances and prescription medicines in an illegal manner and nobody has really disputed the factual basis of that claim.”

The fact that many newspapers and other media outlets will lead their NFL coverage with this story is a huge step forward for the NFL and will hopefully improve public relations. It is no hidden fact that the NFL has remained under siege of the media, fans, and others concerning the safety of their athletes and the lawsuits and accusations being made by former NFL players. This investigation is directly related to the NFL changing its enforcement of the safety and health codes it has now put in place in hopes of preventing future lawsuits and keeping the players safe.

NFL spokesman Brian McCarthy commented on the DEA activities Sunday, “Our teams cooperated with the DEA today and we have no information to indicate that irregularities were found.” While the DEA may have surprised the NFL with its investigation of the three teams on Sunday, the NFL fully cooperated and that shows the NFL is continuing its effort to not only protect its players, but repair the league’s damaged image in the eyes of media outlets, and fans.

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Brandon Marshall Challenges Rival Fan to a Fight

By Savannah Malnar

Professional athletes are always expected to have professional interactions with fans of the sport. Whenever an athlete makes gestures or even yells at fans during a game, that gets media attention. But wide receiver Brandon Marshall of the Chicago Bears took interacting negatively with a fan to a whole new level on Thursday.

Many athletes run their own twitters and interact with fans through that social media outlet; it provides an environment for them to respond to fans’ questions and criticism publicly. This can be both good and bad, depending on the athlete’s composure on the site. Marshall lost his, actually challenging a Detroit Lions’ fan to a fight.

The fan tweeted at Marshall a screen shot of his own comments on an Instagram photo Marshall had recently posted. The fan, in these comments, said “Remember when you called Detroit the little brother?”, referencing a comment made by Marshall last season, and then two more comments highlighted with expletives and a personal insult to Marshall’s mother.

Now, Marshall could have ignored the tweet like many athletes often do to rude fans. Some athletes even reply with sarcastic or funny remarks if they feel the need to actually interact with the fan. But Marshall decided to reply with an “offer,” telling the fan that he would give him $5,000 to “get in a ring” with him. He then upped the ante, saying that if he (Marshall) lost, he would pay the fan an additional $10,000. If the fan lost, Marshall wanted him to do 100 hours of community service.

The fan replied asking him to raise the bid to $25,000. Marshall shockingly replied yes, and tweeted shortly after “And you have to apologize to my mom.” The fan never replied, and Marshall tweeted again saying “Deal or no deal bro? This is your chance to back up your talk and make 25k.”

Now, there may be differing opinions by fans on whether this is acceptable behavior by an athlete. But the media’s opinions need to be looked at.

First, both national and local Detroit (where the fan is from) media took it surprisingly lightly. The reports of the words exchanged were written in almost a humorous tone. What was most interesting was the local Chicago sport media. NBC Chicago published a short article on it, and in it was this statement: “There’s no word on whether or not the fight will happen, but in a time when the Bears’ locker room is already suffering from divisions, a lack of leadership, and a coach who is trying to hold it all together, something like this isn’t exactly a welcome distraction.”

Whether the fan knew what he was doing or not, he definitely hit a sensitive spot with Marshall. The underperforming Bears are 3-6 going into Week 11 of the NFL season compared to the Lions surprising record of 7-2.

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The Curse of the Biebs

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By Kaleb Page

Do you believe in curses? Are you one to be superstitious with how certain things have to be? Well in the world of sport, a lot of people and players could say yes to those questions above. This past Sunday a curse possibility was found and yet it has been around for a while.

The Curse of Justin Bieber is something produced by the fan bases who have fallen to the pop star’s black veil cast upon their respective team(s). No different was it in Week 10 of the NFL season where the Steelers fell to the 1-8 Jets 13 to 20. Prompting many Steelers fans to blame the “Bieber Curse” for the loss to what on paper was an inferior opponent. If you didn’t see it Saturday, then now would be the time to fill you in as to how this loss ties in to the “Bieber Curse.”

On Saturday prior to the game the Steelers had a bible study, and guess who just so happened to come along in time to join. For those of you keeping track at home, it would be the one and only Justin Bieber. At the time a lot of Steelers players were happy to have him there as numerous pictures were taken with smiling players next to Bieber. As I saw the pictures on my timeline I let out a huge “nooooooooo” (as a Steelers fan it left me thinking why?; since I know of the curse). Little did they know the curse was planted for it to play out on Sunday.

As the game ended many outlets from CBS Sports, Sporting News, ESPN, etc. were asking is the new victim in the long line of “Bieber Curse” victims the Steelers? Those who covered this topic were quite thorough in their assessment and quite funny as well. Jason La Canfora called it an “ambush” and would be “hard to shake” on the part of the Steelers for the rest of the season. Sporting News did a nice chronological look at the curse so far this year leading up to this past Sunday, showing Bieber was at the Knicks home opener Oct. 29th (Knicks lost) and then the following night he was at the Cavaliers home opener (Cavs lost). Even though these cases are more recent the curse has a line going even further back.

SportsNation sent out a tweet showing a collection of the past victims to the Bieber curse. Like the Chicago Blackhawks who fell victim when Bieber came into their locker room in 2013 to see their Stanley Cup and stood on the teams’ logo taking a picture. Then it could be possible the Heat losing to the Spurs in the 2014 finals had to do with Bieber being court-side at Heat home games wearing Heat gear. Following those pictures, might have been the biggest case of the “Bieber Curse;” Bieber holding a Spain national team jersey. This really had the “Bieber Curse” brewing over this past summer when the previous World Cup champion Spain was destroyed in the 2014 World Cup.

It is interesting to see how people have put this correlation together and make this almost a cult like following to see where the “Bieber Curse” will strike again. For one thing there are those, who after this most recent correlation between the Biebs and the steelers loss, that want to ban the Biebs from their team.

However, undefeated Floyd Mayweather has had Bieber at his past two fights and yet he hasn’t lost. Maybe his time will come too, but for now he is having no effects of the curse.

As to the numerous fans out there nervous to when the “Bieber Curse” will strike their team, don’t look now but he is already visiting your team as we speak.

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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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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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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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Cleveland Rocks Again

By Matt Rogers

It’s a Sunday in November, and the Cleveland Browns are relevant in the NFL playoff picture. At 5-3, this marks the best first half of the season the Browns have had since 2007, when the team finished with their last winning record: 10-6. Thus, making it almost impossible for the national media to ignore the feat. The Browns have earned plenty of mentions on the national networks, lately, What makes this appealing to Browns’ fans is that it’s not because of their futility or for purpose of being the butt of every joke.

Also worthy of mention regarding sports teams in Cleveland is the new-look Cleveland Cavaliers. The Cavaliers had what most will agree to be the best offseason of any NBA team this past summer, when LeBron James released an essay in Sports Illustrated telling Cleveland he was “Coming Home”, after spurning the city and team just four years earlier in gut-wrenching fashion with “The Decision”. It also did not hurt that Kevin Love, who some believe is the NBA’s best Power forward, was added via a trade with the Minnesota Timberwolves for rookie number one pick, Andrew Wiggins, and former number one pick, Anthony Bennett.

After losing their first game, in what was a highly covered game because it was the first game of LeBron James’ homecoming season, the Cavaliers won their second game. Both of these games were televised on national networks, after only having a handful of nationally televised games over the last four years without LeBron.

It is sure to be a year to remember in Cleveland because of the buzz that these two teams are creating. The buzz will only get louder, and louder, and louder as the season goes on because of the excitement that being relevant within the NFL and NBA brings. Cleveland fans are usually regarded as some of the most passionate fans in the NFL, NBA, and MLB. There may be times that the Cleveland fans are not the most loyal, but every city has fans that are guilty of the same. Anyone would be hard pressed to find a city more deserving of a winner, after waiting 50 years, and counting, between championships. This includes losing two World Series in 1995 and 1997, and suffering through what was LeBron’s first ‘Decision’. It is about time that Cleveland teams give their fans something to consistently cheer about rather than showing glimpses of a breakthrough only to have any hope ripped away with another losing season.

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Colt McCoy Pulled From the Spotlight, Literally.

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By Kate Roth

Washington Redskins quarterback Colt McCoy proved that he is more than just a third string bench warmer this Monday night as he led his team to victory over the Dallas Cowboys. McCoy, who has been the backup to RGIII and Kirk Cousins, threw for 299 yards and finally got his chance to shine, well at least on the field.

After the game McCoy had been engaging in interviews with many different reporters to discuss his performance along with the performance of the team just as any quarterback would do after a big win. While McCoy was about to answer a question from ESPN Deportes reporter John Sutcliffe he was physically yanked away by Tony Wyllie, the Redskins Senior VP of Communications.

Colt seemed to be enjoying his time in the spotlight and even looked a little confused when Wyllie pulled him away from the interview. Normally we would see communications directors try to encourage their team members to cooperate with the media and conduct these interviews, so it was a bit unexpected to say the least to see Colt being pulled away from the media when he looked very willing to talk.

Wyllie later stated that the reasoning behind his actions were that Redskins head coach Jay Gruden was about to give his post game speech and he wanted Colt to be able to hear it.

I understand that Wyllie was just only doing his job, but was it necessary for him to grab McCoy by the back of jersey and yank him away from the interview unexpectedly while screaming, “NO MEANS NO” at the reports? I think the clear answer to this is no.

Yes it is important for Colt to be with his team and hear his coach’s speech after a big game, especially with the role that he had in the win, but Wyllie could have simply told him it was time to go and the interviews could hold off until after the team meeting.

Players being interviewed right after the game is something that has been going on for a long time, especially when they have a performance like Colt did on Monday Night. Wyllie has to be aware that this is part of the business and find a new way to handle situations like this instead of making a scene over such a small issue. Not only did he seem to catch the reporters off guard, but his own player he is out there to protect as well.

I must say that this ranks up there with the Richard Sherman incident as one of the most interesting post-game interviews I have every watched. I hope that Wyllie has seem the video of himself pulling Colt away and realizes that he needs to find another way to handle this type of situation without causing such a scene. And even next time maybe just let the guy have his moment in the spotlight, after all he deserves it.

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Michael Vick Gets the Start

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By Kia Tyus

Frank Schwab wrote a great article on the quarterback woes of the New York Jets.

Schwab started the article off by discussing how the play of Geno Smith simply isn’t cutting it. Schwab wrote that the Smith isn’t a valuable option for the Jets. Schwab picked apart Smith’s play and rightfully so since he opened the game this past Sunday versus the Buffalo Bills throwing three picks in the first quarter alone.

Schwab continued to rip apart Smith by using critical stats. As a starter, Smith has a miserable 19 touchdowns and pitiful 31 interceptions. Clearly, like Schwab stated, Smith has not learned from him rookie mistakes. Currently, the Jets have one of the worst records in the NFL sitting on a 1-7 record. Which promoted the quarterback change for the Jets.

Schwab shifted the article toward the coach decision. Rex Ryan is probably one of the most indecisive coaches in the league in my opinion. Schwab helped back up my thought by writing about how Ryan still has hope for Smith this season. How Ryan isn’t worried about any other game except for the one this week. How this isn’t a long–term deal for the Jets. Ryan has failed to realize that in the system the Jets run, Smith simply doesn’t pull through.

Michael Vick use to be an elite quarterback in the NFL for the Atlanta Falcons before his poor choices off the field interfered. The aging quarterback who will be turning 35 is now the starting quarterback for a team that needs a major confidence boost.

Schwab made good points when it came to Vick and the quarterback future of the Jets. Vick is an older quarterback who granted has had some remarkable moments since reentering the NFL, but he has failed to really show that he can consistently make those necessary plays for his team on a week-to-week basis when given the chance.

Schwab ended the article stating that Vick obviously is not the franchise quarterback but at this point in time starting Vick over Smith is the smart move and I agree.

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