Entries from September 2003 ↓

Suspended Ohio State sophomore running back Maurice Clarett has filed suit against the National Football League to allow him to enter their 2004 draft. The suit argues that a league rule enacted in 1990 prohibiting players from entering the draft until they have been out of high school for three years, violates antitrust law and harms competition.

The NFL counters that the rule was adopted because owners and coaches don’t believe younger players are physically ready for pro competition.

Clarett, who ran for 1,237 yards in route to leading Ohio State to the national championship as a freshman last year, got into this predicament after an investigation determined he broke NCAA bylaws concerning benefits for athletes and that he later lied to investigators.

There’s more to this story than meets the eye.

First, while I’m no lawyer, precedent seems to be in favor of Clarett. The same arguments that allowed college underclassmen and high school players to enter the NBA, and the fact that baseball and hockey routinely draft high school athletes, seems to suggest that anyone who wishes to pursue work in professional sports cannot be arbitrarily disallowed.

The NFL has always used college football as its minor league system, and their reasoning is somewhat disingenuous. They don’t want to have a deluge of underclassmen entering their draft and devaluing the college game as has happened in basketball, where players lacking the fundamentals, leave college early and then take several years to develop fully in the pros. All while costing teams huge sums of money.

But I have to agree with the league on the issue of physical preparedness, as well as other factors.

Football is not basketball. Basketball is a physical sport, where big men push each other around the court and occasionally bump into one another. Football is a violent game, where great big men try to hit each other with all the force they can muster, where broken bones and concussions are an accepted part of the game, and most players retire with some ailment that will haunt them the rest of their days.

No 18 year old belongs in that world. If you are a parent with a football playing son, you don’t want him on the same field with Warren Sapp, Michael Strahan or Jevon Kearse. His still forming physique would get mangled and broken. Seriously.

Football is not basketball in other respects. They only play a 16 game regular season, and there really isn’t time for a youngster to develop. Training camps are 6 weeks long, with as many as 80 players invited to camp, before cut down to rosters of 53. Coaches don’t have time to “teach” football fundamentals. And the difference between a pro playbook and a college one is like comparing the assembly instructions for a model airplane to the blue prints for an F-15. A player with one year of college or less cannot realistically expect to grasp the intricacies of NFL offensive and defensive formations.

NFL owners are not like their counterparts in basketball and baseball. They collectively wrote the book on how to run a successful sports industry, when they all agreed to revenue sharing more than 40 years ago. Every franchise is making money, regardless of market size; they have labor peace (if not in fact acquiescence) and there will be no rush to cook the goose that annually lays the golden eggs. Clarett may get his wish to enter the draft, but even Heisman Trophy winners have been known to go in later rounds. Don’t be surprised if there is no rush to pick him, just to set an example for all those who might follow.

Maurice Clarett created his own problem. Last year there were hints he was less interested in the “student” part of being a student-athlete, and this year’s trouble seems to bear that out. If he’s as good a player as he was last year, a pro career will be there. With the average career span of an NFL running back at 5 years, he would do well to stay in school and get an education. A college degree holds a far more lasting promise than a football career started at age 20.

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BASEBALL

The American League playoff situation is set. The Yankees and Twins will face off on Tuesday, while Oakland and Boston start their action the following day.

The National League picture is still incomplete. Florida has clinched at least a tie for the wildcard spot, while the NL Central remains undecided.

And in a game that means nothing in the standings, Toronto Blue Jays first baseman Carlos Delgado (one of my baby daddies), joined a very exclusive club, hitting four home runs in one game, only the 15th player in Major League history to do so. His first on the night was also his career 300th, making him the 98th player ever to reach that mark.

The Blue Jays beat Tampa Bay 10-8.

I love food. With few exceptions, I will eat just about anything. I am adventurous in that regard; culinary sameness gets old fast. There are delicious tastes to be savored in just about every cuisine known to man. I don’t like to be limited in my thinking or my dining experiences.

It is most fortunate then to live in a city with so many options. There are close to 3,000 eating establishments in New York–from 5 star restaurants to neighborhood bistros to greasy spoons–enough to eat at a different one every night of the week without having to eat at the same one twice for about 8 years. I like the challenge of picking a place purely on spec and seeing what they have to offer. Sometimes you find a dud, but there’s always the possibility you’ll come across a new place none of your friends have heard of and you get to be the first one to talk about it.

I’m a passable cook too thanks to Mom, and like her, can whip up a nutritious meal in minutes. (All too often it’s just for one, but that’s a whole nother other.) Work doesn’t always allow me the time to express my kitchen creativity, but I keep promising myself that one day, possibly soon, I’m gonna get serious about it.

I’m going to use this space to talk about food, eating, dining out and other related topics. I might eat out at some place interesting and want to comment on it, or come across a recipe I want to share. Maybe, we can have a meal together?

To say I am less than enthusiastic about the new tv season would be an understatement. Thank God I sprung for DTV and now have a couple hundred cable channels to choose from, because what�s being recycled and rehashed by the broadcast networks leaves me bored to tears�and it just started! I�m not the only one who thinks the new fall lineup is a snoozer.

I take comfort however in knowing that a critically acclaimed series that many folks slept on will begin re-airing its first season starting Friday, September 26. The Wire , HBO�s simply brilliant examination of a drug investigation as viewed by both police and dealers, turns the whole cop show genre on its head. Baltimore newspaper reporter turned television producer David Simon, creator of Homicide: Life on the Street and The Corner, sets this series on the westside of his hometown, and quite deliberately and effectively blurs the lines between good guys and bad ones.

The show reads like a good novel, unfolding chapter after chapter with each episode, building in intensity toward season�s end. Don�t look for simple storylines or a formulaic treatment of issues. You have to pay attention to this show or you will miss the depth of it all. And please don�t try to form an opinion by watching one episode.

Characterizations are rich and fully textured, and unlike any we�ve seen before on television. Most notable are gay characters on both sides of the law, Black lesbian Narcotics Detective. Shakima Greggs (Sonja Sohn) who with her partner, is in a loving relationship, and Omar (Michael K. Williams), a badass homothug drug-robber to upset all the stereotypes we�ve ever seen of Black gay men.

The series� second season ended just last month, and if HBO runs true to form, the re-airing of season one will precede season two repeats, probably leading us right up to season three. If you haven�t check out this show yet, now is your chance to find out what everyone else is talking about.

You know it. I know it. Certainly our now former allies overseas know it. George Bush is a big fat liar.

He spews lies like a busted sewer pipe. He lied about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. He lied about ties between Saddam Hussein and the Al-Qaeda. He continues to lie about how long servicemen and women will be stationed in both Iraq and Afghanistan and how much it will cost to rebuild a country that wouldn�t have needed rebuilding at all if he hadn�t unnecessarily attacked it.

He is the symbol of a morally bankrupt administration that will stop at nothing to subvert the constitution and deliberately misuse this country�s economic, military and political resources to the direct benefit of his personal friends in the oil industry.

Republicans staged a witch hunt against Bill Clinton for screwing an intern. Bush is fucking over the entire country and we don�t hear a peep about its immorality.

He must be stopped. Part of our task must be to stay on top of his lies. A wonderful new website keeps track of his daily deceptions. I highly suggest you visit and tell your friends.

While you�re at it, take a look at this article.

I live and die every Sunday with the New York football Giants. I have, every year since about 1965. It’s a wonder I haven’t suffered a heart attack yet, because in all this time, I can recall very few pretty wins. Instead of winning games they are supposed to win handily, they always make me sweat, swear, pace the floor, throw things, grind my teeth, seeth, curse the Gods and raise my blood pressure to dangerous levels.

This should have been a blow out. After spotting the Skins 3 points early on, they scored 21 unanswered points on drives of 74, 80 and 57 yards, with touchdowns to Ike Hilliard twice and Amani Toomer, to go into halftime 21-3. Washington looked out of synch, they made mistakes including several stupid penalties, and if the G-men just continued what they were doing, this should have been a rout.

But the Giants just refuse to win easily. They came out of the locker room like they’d stolen the Skins playbook. Flat and unenthusiastic as if they wanted to let them back in to make it interesting. It was 21-10 end of the third, then Washington scored 11, including a touchdown and two point conversion to tie it at the end of regulation. The Giants had a chance to put 24 on the board before it got that far, but kicker Matt “squib-kick-out-of-bounds” Bryant pulled it wide left.

The luck of a coin toss and a solid ball control offensive attack in OT set Bryant up for redemption, and the rest is now history. With identical records, the Giants are in first in the NFC East by virtue of this tie-breaker win over a divisional rival. They’ve beaten Washington now 5 of their last 6 times going into a bye next week. Let’s hope they rest up and develop a killer instinct before playing Miami on Oct. 5.

JETS NOTES: Gang Green lost to New England 23-16, and continue to have problems in the running game. Vinny Testaverde is not the problem with this team, although there is clearly a different rhythm and energy from when Chad Pennington is in there. At 0-3 and Pennington not due back until November, this season may be a wash already.