Phil Mushnick
NFL
equal time
One day, if it’s not too late, Roger Goodell will stand up and do what’s right for the NFL and its consumers, for no better reason than it’s the right thing to do.
In the meantime, don’t lose anticipation over highly improbable events.
Last week brought the most dysfunctional and criminal franchise under Goodell’s irresponsible watch, the Las Vegas Raiders – a repeat producer of astonishingly misanthropic first-round picks, one recently convicted of vehicular homicide, another for having brandished illegal weapons – named ex-Giants. linebacker Antonio Pierce as temporary head coach, likely with Goodell’s approval.
A wiser, more cautious general manager would not have allowed this, and the Raiders, knowing Goodell would never indulge in this, would not have even tried it.
After all, Pierce’s NFL biography reads more like an indictment than an endorsement.
Another bad hire from ESPN immediately following Pierce’s retirement in 2010, one of his first assignments as an NFL national television analyst was to provide a week of behavioral advice to young players about to participate in their first Super Bowl.
Above all, Pierce advised civilized, mature, sober and game-oriented conduct.
Pierce’s conduct during Super Bowl week in 2008, when he was in Arizona for the Giants’ victory over the undefeated Patriots, was left unsaid.
Pierce wasn’t a rookie at the time.
He was 30, but apparently not old enough to realize that blatant neglect of pets is both revolting and criminal.
He had abandoned his two pit bulls at his home in New Jersey to take care of them, food and all.
It was only when neighbors alerted police that her two pit bulls were loose and unsupervised at her home that animal control arrived and learned that neither had been vaccinated against rabies and that one of them was sick and malnourished.
Coach Pierce, as he will be identified during Sunday’s game against the Giants, pleaded guilty to animal neglect and paid a $1,300 fine.
Back when the Giants were playing the Pats in the Super Bowl, Pierce was making almost $5 million — not enough to pay anyone to care for his dogs.
Maybe I haven’t lived long or been around bad people, but I have yet to know anyone accused of animal neglect. You?
Later that year, Pierce was with teammate Plaxico Burress at a nightclub early on a Saturday morning when Burress shot himself with the .40 caliber Glock he was carrying illegally.
Pierce’s actions, from this point on, again seemed designed to arouse deep astonishment and suspicion.
He did not call an ambulance – immediate medical attention for Burress – but chose to drive him to the hospital, where Burress was registered under a false name, and then Pierce allegedly left the hospital with Burress’ gun hidden in his car.
The doctor who treated Burress would be suspended for failing to report a gunshot wound. A few days later, according to reports, the cops must have found Pierce, not the other way around, looking for that gun.
And the Giants played a game in Washington the next day.
Once again, I can only follow my values, my sense of right and wrong.
But I can’t remember the last time a coworker of mine committed suicide while at a nightclub early in the morning the day before our biggest day at work, so I’m not sure of what I would have done.
But unlike ESPN and now the NFL’s Raiders, I wouldn’t have put Pierce on my payroll in any capacity, much less as head coach.
Yet on Sunday he makes his debut as head coach of the Las Vegas Raiders under the $70 million-plus supervision of Roger Goodell.
Bad choice for player of the week
If Roger Goodell’s NFL has become difficult to digest, the NFL Players’ Association, long responsible for defending the most blatantly indefensible players after they have been fined and/or suspended for assaults on the field against fellow trade unionists, offers no respite.
Last week, the NFLPA named Giants defensive end – sometime – Kayvon Thibodeaux its Player of the Week. for meritorious service to the NFL community.
Wondering what his union teammate Nick Foles thinks about this?
Last season, Foles, as the Colts’ QB, was sacked from behind by Thibodeaux.
Foles, visibly injured, lay motionless while Thibodeaux, lying right next to him, began a prolonged and excessively immodest “snow angel” routine — 11 of them.
Of course, CBS’ “Hollerin'” Kevin Harlan ignored Foles in favor of Thibodeaux’s attention-hungry act. Who knows, Harlan might still be screaming for his own pleasure with his head empty.
After the match, Thibodeaux apologized for not knowing that Foles, who would soon be taken to the hospital, had been injured, while performing his self-approval skit.
But moments later on the sideline, after it became clear that Foles was seriously injured, Thibodeaux was seen on the sideline laughing, making gestures to put him to sleep.
That’s the most consistent standard in the NFL under Goodell’s watch: There are no standards.
Goodell, in agreeing to a contract extension through 2027, said it best: “It’s not going to change the way I approach my day-to-day work, and it hasn’t yet.”
Yes, there is a lot to say and tens of millions to pay for negligence.
ESPN ripping quotes from the past is a shame for Dame
Does everything now have to be a scam, no matter how pointless it may be?
Not that it would shame him for putting honesty above cheap and fleeting self-promotion, but ESPN was caught cheating and lying last week.
Again …
ESPN featured a “current” interview with new Bucks star Damian Lillard, who said, “Dame didn’t come to Milwaukee to waste his time. »
An audio clip included Lillard saying, “I told you when I first got here. I said, “I didn’t come here to waste my time.” »
But this whole package has been tampered with – “confused” in modern media terms – to appear as same-day content. In fact, that was when Lillard played for the Trail Blazers.
We have repeatedly reported such fabrications on ESPN.
In 2003, after the Japanese Little League team won the World Series, she was featured as a guest of the Mets in a sequel.
And when Mets Japanese infielder Kazuo Matsui scored, the kids were seen that night on “SportsCenter” with spontaneous joy.
Small problem: these children had left the stadium a long time ago.
I even participated in an ESPN scam, appearing in a video to give my opinion on an issue.
But this video was taken from an older interview that had nothing to do with this topic.
And when ESPN began to come under fire for its cheap and dishonest practice of taking all or part of the credit for stories broadcast outside of ESPN – a sickening practice that has become widespread – an ESPN ombudsman issued a memo to staff that basically said, “Although we never do that. We have to stop doing that.
This latest fake trap with Lillard was handled with misleading doublespeak from an ESPN spokesperson:
“We sometimes look to connect sporting moments from the past with contemporary images and storylines as part of our social content. While it was never our intention to misrepresent anything to fans, we fully recognize how much confusion this instance has caused. »
Just another form of “believe what we say, not what you see.”
