Tuesday, March 2, 2010

The New York Jets released RB Thomas Jones just before he was due a 3 million dollar performance bonus.  The last time I checked, a performance bonus was for past work and achievements accomplished -- not future performance!  This is what is heartless about the NFL and should be challenged in court.  They are allowed (through anti-trust exemption) to get away with offering back-loaded contracts with bonus incentives to non-leveraged players (workers) with little power to argue terms when they break into the league.  Players are basically forced to agree to these terms and in the process are signing their own walking papers.  Up-front money is all that matters in the NFL and players would be wise to get as much of it as they can knowing their days are numbered.  Also, with regard to the upcoming and ongoing CBA talks, player union reps should demand that NFL management reduce the number of years a player works in the league to become tenured.  Six years is a good number for management considering the average career in the NFL is 4 1/2 years!  This would go along way to protecting players from being left out in cold with no pension after sacrificing their bodies for back-end-loaded contract incentives that they most likely will never receive!  I understand the NFL is a business, but I never thought of the NFL as a slave-labor camp having no regard for the players that established the league as the money making juggernaut that it has become!   I wonder about the terms of Roger Goodell's performance bonus.
The Olympic hockey experience was one of the more exciting events I have witnessed in quite a long time.  Here are my suggestions to continue the excitement in the NHL.

Make hockey more exciting and fan friendly by:
1. Ban fighting;
2.  Eliminate the icing call;
3. Eliminate the offsides rule;
4. Widen the goal by one foot.

These minor tweaks in the game would go along way to creating a buzz that hockey hasn't seen and desperately needs.

Tuesday, February 23, 2010

Open Letter To Tiger

Dump the lousy "handlers" and mouth-piece lawyers giving you bad advice and go with your natural "killer" instinct that has helped you achieve your peerless accomplishments to this point.  To make yourself appear weak is to concede to all adversaries which will erode the China-like wall of invincibility you have built through your relentless work ethic and "take-no-prisoners" attitude.  Save your apologies for your wife and children --keep it private and get back on the golf course ASAP!  Winning the Masters or British Open will go along way to refocus your audience.  Most people only care about what you achieve on the golf course -- not off the course.  It's time for Tiger to be Tiger!!