Betting in Sports: NBA Commissioner Silver has a Vision

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By Kaleb Page

February 5, 2015

Sports and betting is almost as synonymous as peanut butter and jelly. Always you are seeing the over/under on a game, the line and other betting points for nearly every game or sport. One sport that has been rocked in the past with sport betting is the game of basketball and not at the lowest levels, but at its highest platform the NBA.

Back in 2007 the NBA was faced with a huge scandal involving then referee Tim Donaghy and betting on games. In ESPN’s column they said it was one of the ugliest gambling scandals to hit a professional sports league since the last two major ones involving the MLB in 1989 and 1919. At the time it hurt the integrity of the league because if an official was betting on games and/or games he was involved in then what is to stop the outcome from being fixed?

As the years passed since that huge incident and formal statements by the league against gambling were released; a new voice emerged on sports gambling. When David Stern retired, he turned the league over to long time associate Adam Silver. Silver assumed the role of commissioner on February 1, 2014 and shortly after taking the position released a op-ed for The New York Times with an interesting stance  on betting.

“I believe that sports betting should be brought out of the underground and into the sunlight where it can be appropriately monitored and regulated.” – Adam Silver

Quite the statement for the new commissioner to make, especially after a relatively short time since a big scandal involving his league and betting happened. However, if you look at the op-ed by Silver his points make perfect sense. He pointed to how so much has changed since laws enacted back in 1992 made it illegal to gamble on sports in all states (except Nevada). One change being that even though the law was put in place, gambling on sports is still there and increasing in popularity each year.

Another great point made was that other countries have made betting on sport a legal and regulated practice that cuts away the dark ambiguous areas seen here in the U.S. with betting laws. For example, in England they have betting kiosks at stadiums that are legal and regulated by the government. With many changes globally, commissioner Silver made the motion toward Congress to adopt their old framework on sports betting. This will hopefully allow sport betting without compromising any integrity of the game at hand.

I think commissioner Silver is absolutely right with his thinking, and with the push to make gambling and sport less of an ‘underground’ practice. It will definitely take someone in the power position that is forward thinking and able to provide a clear vision to make this happen. Silver fits in perfectly with both of those criteria.

I am glad he is the new commissioner of the NBA because he seems to be a leader who gets it. By ‘it’ I mean, he knows he has the power to progress things and make actual change, while also knowing that he needs to be willing to adapt to each situation. If you happen to be a fan of NBA basketball then I think you should feel good about what commissioner is in place for the foreseeable future.

More commissioners I think should look to him (even though he is relatively new in his role) for how to conduct themselves. While in a position of power it is fine to have a personality and speak your mind in an eloquent manner. It will be interesting to see where this goes and if the plan by Silver gains more movement.

Challenge and innovate past the status quo…that seems like the mindset for Adam Silver.

Below is an interview between Adam Silver and Outside the Lines reporter Andy Katz on various NBA topics and issues. If you want to get to the specific talking point of sport betting you can skip to three minutes in the video.

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Did the Media Cover the Wrong Story Following Super Bowl XLIX?

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By Nick Muhl

February 3, 2015

I feel the need to start out my story by saying this: what a fantastic Super Bowl.

It was truly a back and forth game, ending with a 10-point fourth quarter comeback by Tom Brady and the Patriots. Nobody said it was going to be easy, it never is for the Patriots in the big game.

The defending champion Seattle Seahawks did their best impression of the New York Giants, but came up short of repeating as champions and robbing Brady and Belichick of their fourth Super Bowl title.

Seahawks wide receiver Chris Matthews not only caught his first pass of the NFL season, but three more totaling 109 yards and a touchdown. Beastmode did as Beastmode does, Lynch ran for 102 yards and a 4.3 per carry average. The Legion of Boom’s defense held the Patriots to 57 rush yards.

Even then, Brady looked to have solidified his fourth title, joining Joe Montana and Terry Bradshaw with his touchdown to Julian Edelman with 2:02 remaining.

Then came the insane catch by Jermaine Kearse, who was able to pull down a David Tyree-esque catch to bring the Seahawks in scoring range.

Second and goal following a Lynch handoff and the clock ticking under 35 seconds, Belichick trusted his defense and decided against calling a timeout and giving Brady and his offense another chance at a possible tying field goal.

We all know what happened next. Wilson threw the ball on a goal-line pick play, and Pats defensive back Malcolm Butler picked it off to seal the Pats victory.

Immediately following the electric turn of events, Chris Collinsworth and his fellow NBC Super Bowl broadcasters commented on their disbelief that Seattle Seahawks Head Coach Pete Carroll decided against giving their star running back Marshawn Lynch the ball on a second and one.

Social media, newspaper headlines, online blogs, all giving their input on the terrible job Pete Carroll did. From what I hear, there now crowning it “the worst play call ever”.

As football fans know, you can’t play the “if” game. Well IF this player didn’t get hurt, IF he caught that one pass, IF we had a different quarterback, ect. Consider it an un-written law of football fandom.

Sure, we could look at the play over and over again and wonder why didn’t Carroll run it with Lynch? It could be the fact that everyone thought that was the play call and he wanted to catch them off guard. It could be that the Seahawks have run that play call before during the 2014 season and is a standard inside the five yard line call for the Seahawks.

It could be a lot of things. The fact of the matter is, Malcolm Butler did his homework and the Patriots won the Super Bowl. However, it seems to me all the major media wants to discuss is the “what if” Lynch got the ball. Who says the New England d-line doesn’t claim Super Bowl glory and stuff Beastmode?

That’s the beauty of football.

“Worst Play Call Ever” will continue to be spread and numerous articles will continue to be written all criticizing Carroll’s play call.

Brady and Bellichick’s fourth Super Bowl, Brady’s 37 completion Super Bowl record, Bellichick trusting his defense, there all the second story. After the worst play call ever.

The media covered the wrong story.

And I haven’t even mentioned yet that the Super Bowl ended in a brawl.

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Protecting the Official: A look at a proposed bill

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By Kaleb Page

February 2, 2015

With today’s society in America, the emphasis on sport and getting kids involved from an early age has never been higher. What could also be said about that fact is how the pressures and seriousness taken on by parents, players and fans is even higher as well.

At what cost is all this pressure? Are we all losing the fact that at an early age, while it is good to build skill and be competitive, that the game itself (being played by kids) should be fun? Another thing that should be mentioned as well is that parents are setting some poor examples for their kids at these sporting events.

In the state of Michigan, Senator Morris Hood III from Detroit is sponsoring a bill to hopefully curb this behavior in his state. In a Detroit Free Press article  the bill came to be after refs from lower Michigan came to Hood’s office after an incident where a soccer referee died days after being assaulted. Hood went on to say that the these refs had issues in the past of being harassed during a game and then followed out to their cars (even all the way home).

The bill that is still in the proposal stage will make assaulting a referee a felony. A three-year sentence in prison that could also come with a $10,000 fine. If the bill passes Michigan will join 23 other states that have similar laws like California, Florida, Alabama, Pennsylvania, Texas and Nevada just to name a few.

I think this is a good bill to have. You should not be allowed to go on the field or court of play and go after a referee. Even as a player you shouldn’t even be remotely close to hurting an official. I think as more and more we see the competitiveness of youth sports rise there needs to be more checks on how officials are treated.

Now I know we all do it, we all complain about a call here or there but it doesn’t mean we have the right to go off and assault the official. I remember watching an Outside the Lines report on ESPN about these cases growing in the United States at an alarming rate. It truly is sad to see people ruin a kids game by making a complete fool out of themselves.

I for one have been in games growing up as a kid where we had play stopped as a parent from another team ran on the court to go at a ref and once a coach even got ejected but wouldn’t leave the floor peacefully.

I hope this bill goes through and if anything a bill for all states is made. It is time to put out of control parents, fans and sometimes even players in their place for good. No more should we be having people doing their jobs (officiating just a game) in fear.

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Hockey: A Numbers Game?

By Savannah Malnar

February 2, 2015

Statistics play a large role in sports. People are hired just to analyze stats and make team and player predictions based on simply numbers. For a long time, baseball has been the frontrunner in using more advanced statistics as a part of the game. Whenever a player is up to bat, dozens of numbers appear on your television screen; combinations and decimals all formed from a few swings of a bat. While baseball has embraced this sort of statistical nature, other sports have been slow to adopt it. One of these sports is hockey.

When it comes to hockey, most fans have only wanted to know three things on a player-to-player basis: goals, assists, and penalty minutes. As for teams, they just want the points and maybe some fact mentioned by their Fox Sports announcer about a winning or losing streak. But that has been slowly changing over the past few years.

Analysts have emerged themselves in the sport of hockey taking advantage of and perfecting some of the more “fancy” stats that have always existed. The most predominant being corsi and its variations. For being an advanced stat, corsi is extremely simple (and maybe that’s why it’s become attractive to the hockey community): blocked shots + missed shots + shots on goal. Usually shown as a percentage or a decimal compared to total shots in a game and is the best available statistic to measure puck possession. Mess around with the numbers a little and you can calculate individual corsi, team corsi, and see how it changes in different stages of the game.

Now with that sliver of context, it’s time to ask: why does it matter? And the answer is an honest one, it hasn’t, at least to the league. Until now, these stats have been calculated and distributed by fans. Some coaches and players have said they pay attention and use them, some had no idea what they meant. But fans have a growing desire of a better understanding of the game past the “score goals and maim the other team” mentality, and the NHL has decided to cater to that. The league has promised a revamp to their website’s stat page, and it will include corsi and many other statistics that seem ridiculous to the casual fan but craved by the diehard fan.

This news isn’t getting much coverage. Yahoo! Sports and NBC Sports both featured a short article about it, but that was it. No local media from any team picked up on the fact that the NHL is finally accepting that the game is moving towards a more statistical standpoint thanks to a fan-based push for it. This should be a much bigger deal, it shows just how powerful the fans of any sport can be in determining how it is analyzed and, eventually, coached and played across professional leagues.

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Super Bowl XLIX Halftime Review

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By Kia Tyus

February 2, 2015

An exciting first half to Super Bowl XLIX has been completed. The halftime crew starts of talking about some stats that happened during the first half. First, Tom Brady has tied Joe Montana with 11 touchdown passes thrown in the Super Bowl.

The crew then begins to discuss the struggles of the Seattle Seahawks. First point made, Seattle was having major matchup problems. After a great interception by cornerback Jeremy Lane, he ended up hurting his wrist and will not return. To replace him, Tharold Simon replaced him.

Right away, the Patriots took advantage of this and scored on their next drive.

On the bright side for Seattle, Chris Matthews scored his first career touchdown. And with 36 seconds left in the first half, Seattle marched down the field to tie the game up at 14-14.

On the other side, the halftime crew pretty much praised the play of the Patriots. Saying that the Patriots were out playing Seattle despite the score. The crew also talked about an interesting stat, that being that the Patriots scored 66 points total during the duration of the NFL season with less than 2 minutes in the first half.

After a recap of each team, the crew discussed how the Seahawks need to continue to run the ball on offense and their defense needs to get things going. The Patriots on the other hand need to continue to take advantage of mismatches and they cannot give up big plays.

The NFL also showed Bobby Sena for NFL 60 made the NFL ball hand off at the beginning of the game.

To close out the half, the crew talked about how New England out played Seattle but the game is still tied. They also stated how no expert had a clear-cut winner for the game. At the ending of the game may very well be decided by the field goal kickers.

All five of the Patriots Super Bowl games have been decided by four points or less.

To end the Toyota NFL Half Time Show, they showed the first half highlights.

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The Ongoing Battle of Marshawn Lynch vs. the Media

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This piece is written by Alexx Klein. She was a journalism major at Indiana U with a sport marketing and management concentration. Currently she serves as the Athletic Communications GA where she is the primary SID for cross country and swim/dive. Previously, she worked as the media relations intern in the IU athletic department, as well as the PR intern for the Washington Mystics. This summer she will further continue her WNBA experience and serve as the PR intern for the Indianapolis Fever. 

The saga began in last year’s Super Bowl with “I’m just ’bout that action, Boss.”

Then, his blatant disregard for the media, and the NFL’s rules surrounding it, continued through to this season. Seattle Seahawks running back Marshawn Lynch has been putting on a spectacle with the media all year, which has now carried into the Big Game.

According to an ESPN article, in the 2014-15 season alone, Lynch “had been threatened with a $500,000 fine by the NFL if he skipped media day and has accumulated $131,050 in fines since the start of the regular season for violations of the league’s media policy as well as on-field conduct” (Marshawn Lynch, 2015, para 12).

Likely fearing harsher fines and punishment from the league, Lynch honored (some of) the regulations of the Super Bowl interview sessions and attended. He did, however, wear apparel from his line Beast Mode, which will undoubtedly earn him a decent sized fine.

Lynch got creative this time around, adding some variety to his Super Bowl Media Day press conferences. In his defiant refusal to give the media the information they were looking for, Lynch stuck with the phrase, “I’m just here so I won’t get fined,” for five straight minutes at Tuesday’s session. Wednesday it was, “you know why I’m here.”

However, it was after Thursday’s Media Day session that it became apparent why he was behaving the way he was, and it’s because he genuinely does not care about the media, or anything they stand for. On Thursday, he gave shoutouts to his hometown, his family, his teammates, his charity and his hat- all things that he is passionate about and that carry great importance to him. At the end of the day, he cares what his family and his teammates think of him, not how the media want to portray him to the sports fans of the world.

As a current member of the media, it is often frustrating when athletes do not allow you to easily do your job. However, taking a step back from my profession, I have come to a conclusion that I never thought I would in a situation like this.

It’s brilliant. And I respect it.

He stood true to what he believed in, and despite criticism from the media around him, never backed down. Washington Redskin’s safety Ryan Clark said it was “the perfect end to what he’s done with the media all season.” He finally let us in to his thoughts, what drives and motivates him, and what his perspective was on all of this.

Before last year’s Super Bowl, a profile on Lynch was done by Michael Silver. This profile explains why Lynch reacts the way he does to the media. He said, “Football’s just always been hella fun to me, not expressing myself in the media. I don’t do it to get attention… I’m not as comfortable, especially at the position I play, making it about me. As a running back, it takes five offensive linemen, a tight end, a fullback and possibly two wide receivers, in order to make my job successful. But when I do interviews, most of the time it’ll come back to me” (Marshawn Lynch’s, 2014, para 36 and 38).

I agree with Clark, Merrill Hodge and all of the other commentators who have praised Lynch for his behavior this week. This is not to say that I condone breaking league rules and policy, but hey, he warned the media early on: he is not interested and does not appreciate the attention. He was upfront and nobody respected his wishes.

On Thursday he told reporters he was here to prepare for the game, now let’s see if preparation pays off.

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From Goalie to Front Office: Always a St. Louis Blue

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By Ellen Chlumecky

January 29, 2015

Playing as a goalie for the New Jersey Devils and the St. Louis Blues for almost 24 years, Martin Brodeur has decided to retire. While he has only played about seven games with the St. Louis Blues, his time with the New Jersey Devils was anything but short or ordinary. In his career with the New Jersey Devils he lifted three Stanley Cups, has won two Olympic gold medals, and several other medals with Team Canada in other international competitions. He is currently the NHL’s all-time leader in regular season wins. He is also the only goalie in NHL history with eight 40-win seasons.

Martin Brodeur will be hanging up his skates and his goalie pads and will be stepping into a suit as he becomes the assistant general manager for the St. Louis Blues. Brodeur has developed a positive relationship with the Blues since his started as their replacement goalie. It seemed only reasonable to take a front office job with them, right?

While it may have seemed to be a smart move, most Devils fan are left scratching their heads. Brodeur spent about 21 years with the Devils. He still stays in contact with their general manager, Lou Lamoriello. He left on great terms with them, as well. Why wouldn’t he take a job with the front office of the Devils?

Lou Lamoriello made a public statement saying that Brodeur has a position with the company, whenever he decides that he wants the job. Lamoriello said, “he’ll be back here, in my opinion, as long as he wants.” Lamoriello sounds pretty confident that he knows where Brodeur’s loyalty lies. He believes that Brodeur is only taking the job because he doesn’t want to leave having bad blood with the Blues.

Doug Armstrong, general manager of the St. Louis Blues, confirms this suspicion. He had spoken to Lamoriello because he didn’t want to appear to be “stealing” the star goalie away. He will continue the job for the rest of the year and see where he stands after that. Lamoriello stated he’d be very surprised if he stayed there longer than that.

Brodeur has always been a dedicated player and I believe that he applies that to his business personality as well. He won’t leave without finishing out the season and I believe that’s what he’s doing with the Blues. Brodeur has been named one of the best goalies of all time, can you blame the Blues for wanting him to stay? Maybe getting him at the end of his career was the smartest move they could’ve made.

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Medical Marijuana Receives Endorsement From Former NFL Players

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By Nick Muhl

January 29, 2015

What was once a somewhat taboo conversation topic, is now a hot debate among american citizens – Marijuana Legalization. Whether it’s local news talk radio, Nancy Grace on HLNtv, or at the family dinner table, the issue of marijuana legalization, recreational and medical, is now being discussed by practically every type of media, corporation, and american household.

The National Football league is no exception.

Earlier this week, three former NFL Players – Marvin Washington, Scott Fujita, and Brandon Ayanbadejo, published a joint article in the Huffington Post titled, “The NFL Needs to Rethink Marijuana”. In the article, the players call for Roger Goodell to begin supporting and allowing players to be prescribed and use medical marijuana. All three players are former Super Bowl Champions and published their joint statement just days before Super Bowl XLIX takes place in Arizona – a state where medical marijuana is legalized.

As mentioned in the article, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said in a brief statement last year, that he was willing to consider the medical use of marijuana by its players where it is legal. The players call to action for Goodell comes at a time when the league continues to search for solutions to the deteriorating health of players after their careers end.

The league is also facing additional pressure from many players and fans regarding the same issue after the suspension of such players like Cleveland Browns wide receiver Josh Gordon and New England Patriots running back Legarrette Blount who have been suspended for “simply smoking a joint”. Last February, while live on ESPN, former Pittsburgh Steelers safety Ryan Clark claimed many of his former Pittsburgh Steelers teammates and many other players he knows, smoke pot both during and after the NFL season for multiple different reasons, health being the number one. Click here to see Ryan Clark’s Interview last February on Numbers Never Lie

Fujita, Jackson and Ayanbadejo cite the compound in marijuana known as Cannabidiol (CBD), which has the “scientific potential to create a neuroprotectant for the brain.” With the NFL and its players frantically searching for solutions to the head trauma players receive throughout their careers, many scientists agree that marijuana is the perfect solution to the NFL’s problems.

According to Dr. Barth Wilsey of the University of California San Diego Center for Medical Cannabis Research in a 2014 article with Men’s journal, “There are five studies that were congruent in finding smoking cannabis alleviated neuropathic pain, or pain due to nerve injury.” Wilsey believes that the compound known as THC found in marijuana, in addition to CBD, can relieve the neuropathic pain NFL players continue to have during and after their playing careers.

Almost half of the states have now legalized medical marijuana, and according tot the Drug Policy Alliance about 70 percent of Americans support the reform. HBO’s “Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel”, which was cited in the player’s article, reports that between 50-60% of players currently use marijuana legally, most of them for the therapeutic effect.

Recently, President Obama has suspended much of the federal enforcement of marijuana policies in states that have legalized. The Commander-in-Chief also predicts many more states will pass legalization of medical marijuana within the next few years, “The position of my administration has been that we still have federal laws that classify marijuana as an illegal substance, but we’re not going to spend a lot of resources trying to turn back decisions that have been made at the state level on this issue. My suspicion is that you’re gonna see other states start looking at this.”

It will be interesting in the next few months and years to see if the NFL will adjust its marijuana policy as more and more states continue to pass legalization. While the issue is still in hot debate across the country, there remains the strong possibility that the NFL will become the first professional sports organization at its level to allow players to use medical marijuana. With commissioner Roger Goodell not shying away from the topic thus far, continued media coverage and pressure on the NFL’s stance could push them to make a final decision on the topic, sooner than later. In the eyes of Fujita, Washington, and Ayanbadejo and many other players and fans, the NFL shouldn’t squander it’s opportunity to become a leading activist and take a stance in supporting and improving the medical treatment of its current and former players and others who can medically benefit from its legalization.

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Lance Armstrong Drops Bold Statement

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By Kaleb Page

January 29, 2015

Back in January 2013 a confession was made that not only rattled the cycling community, but also rattled fans around the world for this mega-star cyclist. That athlete being none other than U.S. cycling legend and seven time Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong. A man who so many gravitated to, even if they didn’t know anything about cycling, now sat on Oprah confessing he had been using performance-enhancing drugs.

In his first interview on television since that time in 2013, Armstrong had an interesting sit down with BBC Sport.

Now at age 43 and no longer the holder of a record seven Tour de France titles; Lance had this to say:

“If I was racing in 2015, no I wouldn’t do it again because I don’t think you have to,” Armstrong said, “If you take me back to 1995, when doping was completely pervasive, I would probably do it again.”

Quite the answer to hear from Armstrong after so many years out of the spotlight and having such the fall from grace that he did. This part of the video interview below shows Armstrong shedding light on the past. From what I could see, this was a man being honest as well as someone who looked to be serving the time to reflect on what they did.

I think this was good reporting by BBC Sport and a great piece in the works as the full documentary set to come out this Thursday on BBC News. This allowed for an update on what is happening since the last time we saw Armstrong in 2013 and how his demeanor has changed since then as well.

Another thing that struck me about this interview was something Armstrong said. He mentioned that even though what he did was wrong, at the same time the things associated to him saw growth that they had never seen prior. Whether it was his bike supplier, charity foundation or even the sport itself; Armstrong knew he made a big and helpful impact. Posing this question about all the good he did pretty well:

“Do we want to take it away (the growth/charity awareness)? I don’t think anybody says ‘yes’.” -Lance Armstrong

Is Armstrong going to be another one of those second chance stories we see all the time here in America? It still is too early to tell especially with a lot more legal battles to go between Armstrong and numerous other parties. I do see it happening where as time passes and the wounds heal Armstrong is placed back in the public eye.

For now it looks like he must wait for his chance at redemption. A chance I think he desperately wants and needs.

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Deflategate: Another Patriots Scandal

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By Kia Tyus

January 29, 2015

By now everyone in the sports world is aware of the current scandal with the Patriots. Just in case you don’t know, the NFL launched an official investigation on the New England Patriots to determine if the Patriots were using deflated footballs. The NFL concluded that indeed, 11 out of 12 footballs used on the Patriots side of the field during the AFC championship game were deflated.

You may be wondering why is that such a big deal? In fact, it has been said on ESPN that if the ball is deflated it makes it easier for players to grasp and catch the ball.

The Patriots are denying their claims to have had any knowledge of deflating footballs. Finally, Patriots owner Robert Kraft is sticking up for Bill Belichick, Tom Brady and the Patriots organization.

Originally, people felt that the Patriots would not be punished because of Kraft’s relationship with Roger Goodell. But, after Kraft addressed the media, it is clear that his relationship with Goodell is not intact.

Dan Wetzel wrote an in-depth article about how Kraft felt about how the NFL is handling the matter. Apparently, Kraft feels like the professionalism in the NFL is lacking majorly. Kraft feels that there are too many leaks within the NFL and that leaves for major assumption with the public.

Kraft is tired of people trying to make a big deal out of something that he feels the Patriots have nothing to do with. And Kraft wants a formal public apology from the NFL when the Patriots are cleared of all allegations.

Kraft also feels that the public is assuming that the Patriots deflated the scandal because of the Spygate case of 2007.

I personally feel that someone within the Patriots organization deflated the football. Someone with power instructed someone who works with equipment to deflate footballs. I just don’t believe that the Patriots had nothing to do with the scandal; that is just hard to believe. Obviously, the Spygate case will play a factor when it comes to the public’s opinion of this current scandal. Many such as myself believe that if you cheat on such a big scale you can surely do it again.

I enjoyed reading this article because Wetzel goes in-depth about how Kraft flat out feels disrespected by people who he thought were his friends.

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