Is there anything jock sniffers love more than hyperbole?
Especially the sports media. If they can rile up the faithful by pissing them off or exaggerating to the tenth power, 9 times out of 10 they’ll rock with it.
Even normally clear thinking dudes like Kansas City Star columnist Sam Mellinger.
Mellinger unleashed a pair of doozies the past week or so, starting by aligning himself with KCC scribe Craig Glazer in grousing that the NFL came down way too hard on the New England Patriots and Tom Brady for cheating.
“Somehow, despite the existence of common sense, there is enough hysteria or schadenfreude that many adult humans are taking this seriously and as just punishment,” Mellinger wrote.
“There was no proof that Brady did or knew about anything that violated the NFL’s rules,” he added.
Seriously, Sam?
The prisons in this country are teeming with people convicted of crimes on circumstantial evidence. Since when did the NFL or anybody else have to have photos of Brady himself letting the air out of the balls or emails from him instructing someone else to do so?
That’s not the only way justice is played out in this country.
Entertainment scribe Bob Lefsetz said it best:
“Take away their Super Bowl victory. That’s right, strip them of their success, show that rules matter…No one can take any responsibility. And when caught, they get on their high horse and deny it…If Brady and the Patriots skate on this no one will be dissuaded from cheating in the coming years.”
Like Craig, Mellinger doesn’t seem to get that.
Instead of zeroing in on Brady and the Patriot’s obvious lying (and cheating), Mellinger prefers to nitpick the severity of the punishment.
You know, armchair quarterback it.
That may be how sports writing and blathering on sports talk radio is conducted, but it’s not how crime, punishment and justice are carried out.
In today’s column Mellinger suggests that were the powers that be at Kansas to agree to play Missouri in basketball and/or football it would be a fireable offense.
Give me a break.
I live here now and can tell you that there’s a ton of unrealistic KU fans who’s cult like devotion and snobbery are out of control.
It’s silly, not to mention petty.
They don’t want to play Wichita State – which KU should – because Wichita is a town full of hicks who have everything to gain and nothing to lose by playing Kansas in basketball.
It’s a total snob thing.
Because of course were Wichita State to win every time or three, KU would effectively be anointing the underclass with its cache and credibility. And nobody here wants to see their ex-wife or girlfriend being bedded by a heathen from lowly Wichita.
But seriously, carrying on for a war and peace length column about not wanting to play Missouri because one of KU’s fans doesn’t like that Missouri was a slave state 150-plus years ago?
Come on, Sam.
And like if KU basketball coach Bill Self agreed to play Missouri he’d be fired…according to numerous unnamed sources.
Look, it totally makes sense that KU doesn’t want to play Mizzou in football – duh – but the time will come, sooner rather than later that the school’s sports rivalry will be renewed.
Time heals all wounds and KU’s recuperated from the fear it might get left behind several years back in the world of major conference affiliations.
Everybody wanted Nebraska, Colorado, Texas A&M and Missouri, but nobody seemed to have the hots for poor KU with one of the worst major college football teams in America.
So what?
Missouri didn’t do anything that any of those other schools didn’t do – or try to – or that KU wouldn’t have done were it to have had the opportunity.
They were all rats deserting what appeared to be a sinking ship, and what rat in his or her right mind wouldn’t try and hop a life raft on the Titanic?
So anyway, we’re to believe that after talking further about all this to some of the KU faithful, Mellinger now gets it. He understands how heinous it would be for KU to renew the Border War.
Well, OK.
And Tom Brady and the Pats should have gotten a wrist slap – I get it. Thank you, Judge Judy.
As a giant KU fan living in Missouri and surrounded by an entire group of friends and family that are HUGE fans of MU, let me clue you in. nobody gives a rip anymore about playing each other. MU would mop the floor with KU in a football game. KU would beat MU in basketball like a redheaded step child. Both sides know this and nobody cares.
Move along, HC. It’s dead. Done. Kaput. Toast.
Journalists and bloggers are the only ones that have any interest in keeping it alive so a cheap/lazy column can be written every few months.
In regards to KU not playing WSU……..pretty sure KU will be OK one way or the other. Once WSU goes back to being mediocre at best, all that talk will die, too.
What’s the next column? Pete Rose to the HOF?
+10000
Agree 100%. Plenty of KU faithful like to laugh at MU’s administration for constantly talking about playing KU again. But as Jim pointed out, they wouldn’t even be talking about it, if the jerkoff lazy media wasn’t constantly asking Mike Alden, Mack Rhoades, Gary Pinkel, and R. Bowen Loftin about it in every damn press conference. LET IT DIE, YOU MEDIA HACKS!
Interesting take, Jim…
Clearly journalists and bloggers remain interested. And you’re spot on as to the likely result of KU-MU football and basketball games.
KU football has been beyond pathetic and UMKC spanked Missouri in basketball this past season…UMKC!
At least the KU football team hasn’t been beaten by Rockhurst yet.
All of that said, college sports are kinetic and things don’t stay the same indefinitely. Not that long ago, Missouri was giving KU all it could handle on any given day in basketball.
In 2012, the last year the teams played they split, Missouri won at home and KU won at home and both teams were in the top 10.
In 2007 when KU and MU played in football, KU was ranked No. 2 in the nation, with Mizzou ranked 3rd.
Missouri’s football team didn’t look like much in its first year in the SEC and there were rumblings about firing coach Gary Pinkel. They went 5-7 that year (2012).
Look at them now.
The very next season they went 12-2 and won the Cotton Bowl.
So it’s unrealistic to assume MU will always be bad in basketball and KU in football.
K-State football was a joke for my entire childhood and young adulthood and look at them now.
This is an historic rivalry and even in down years, on school or the other has risen to the occasion and beaten the higher rated team.
You can shoot the shit with friends and family till you’re blue in the face, this topic is not going away and they will resume the rivalry.
You see this is where you’re missing Jim’s point, Hearne. I’m telling you, Mizzou fans as a whole (of course there are ancient outliers who can’t give up the past, but are in the smallest of minorities) aren’t discussing renewing the KU rivalry AT ALL. The only time it becomes a topic is when the lazy-assed media brings it up. Missouri is looking forward towards the future and forming new rivalries with their SEC brethern. Trust me, the Arkansas games are about to heat into a boiling cauldron of hate between the two fanbases. As far as the KU fanbase goes, I’ll let Jim speak to their mindset.
Spot on, Guy. The narrative is always that MU fans want the rivalry in the worst way but ‘ol KU won’t allow it to happen because they are still hurt over MU’s departure. This is such crap. MU has had wild success in the SEC during it’s short tenure. (both athletically and financially) The overwhelming majority of their fan base has moved on and looking towards even more success in the SEC. KU has also put the “old” Big 12 in its rear view mirror and are moving forward. The most accurate word for BOTH fan bases in regards to the “rivalry” is……….wait for it………..APATHY. You can write about it all you like, but you can’t change reality. ‘Dem days are dead.
Everybody wanted Missouri? I don’t recall the Big 10 wanting Missouri.
That’s because you have selective memory. The Big 10 offered Missouri the junior member status, and Missouri balked at that. Nebraska took it and ran.
Thanks for the refresher course, Guy
There was plenty of talk and plenty of interest in Nebraska and Mizzou.
Far less so Kansas
Jesus hearny, you speak of Wichita as though it was Topuka. I would take living in Wichita any day of the week over living in Lawrence if forced to choose.
Pete Campbell seemed to like it, he got full access to a Lear jet of course.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m well aware of the fact that Wichita blows Topeka away.
Criminy, I lived in Topeka for three months and have spent enough time in Wichita to know better.
What I was saying is that a number of the KU basketball fans look down on Wichita as being just a bunch of hicks. I wasn’t agreeing with them, just passing that along.
I think that logic is bogus and speaks more to the insecurity of the people here in Lawrence who subscribe to that thinking.
OK, I will let it slide this time. But next time I will wag my finger at you very sternly like Iowans driving on the highway.
Hearne,
Please, for your own sake, don’t write about sports. It’s embarrassing.
I’m glad you feel for me so, Gerald…
Good thing you don’t attach your real name to your comments or you’d really be embarrassed.
I’ll take your advice under consideration.
You should watch Belichick’s video from Saturday the 24th. If you listen to him with a sympathetic scientific ear instead of focussing on his manner or trying for gotcha malapropisms, you will understand what he was trying to say.
Basically, the Patriots, as any other team can, prepared their balls by breaking them in by friction, kneading, etc. This would naturally raise the temperature inside the ball, and hence the PSI. This is what BB meant when he said that, during their Jan 22-23 experiments, they found the internal pressure to be raised by 1 psi (Bill Nye, pay attention to this). As a matter of general practice, they ask the refs to bring the pressure to 12.5 PSI, as Tom prefers them at the lower end of legal inflation. Whether the refs ACTUALLY measured and recorded the PSI, or whether they measured how much pressure they took off, has been unreported by the NFL, although the NFL definitely measured and reported measurements made at half-time. Reports from others around the league apparently suggest that referees frequently skip actually taking PSI measurements before approving game balls.
However, if NFL refs did drop pressure to a measured 12.5 PSI, this would be for a football at a temperature elevated even above room temperature due to the breaking-in process. Bringing them outdoors would easily result in a loss of PSI as they equilibrated to <50 F over the first half.
Secondly, you have to account for the effect of moisture on the ball. Getting the footballs soaking wet will cause the leather to expand, further reducing internal pressure.
Other notes:
-Why did TB12 not notice the difference? Simply put, when taking into account atmospheric pressure, he would have been asked to notice a 7 percent difference between normally inflated and 2 psi underinflated balls.
Tests indicated that this was not reliably possible in controlled conditions, let alone in the scrum of a football game. Further, why would he even think to notice it? He had already filed away "ball feel" for the day, having addressed it hours before the game, and having much more important things to focus on. A 1 psi difference was completely undetectable.
It is a shame that notable scientists cannot provide a consensus explanation of the consequences of the Ideal Gas Law. So let’s breakdown the science and see if their is REASONABLE doubt as to whether this could all be coincidental. Assuming a background absolute air pressure of 14.7 PSI, an initial relative pressure of 12.5 PSI and a halftime ball temperature of 51F, an initial gas temperature of 70.6F results in a 1 PSI drop, an initial gas temperature of 80.7F results in a 1.5 PSI drop, and an initial gas temperature of about 90F results in a 2 PSI drop. Other dynamics may cause other changes in the pressure.
Mr. Nye:
Would you mind summing up your comment in a single sentence for those of us who have been wearied and worn down by having to slog thru too many endless harley comments?
It was all great information, Bill Nye. Thanks for sharing. Unfortunately, a large percentage of commenters, ( and possibly readers) here, disdain science. 🙂
Brady got jacked for spitting on the sidewalk, he should have come clean and said yes I had a standing instruction to lower air my balls, as do all qb’s..for me its been 12 years..so all of a sudden its a no no when everyone knew we did this..WTF..so I didn’t order it that day it was a standing order..I think that is accurate. No there should be little punishment, its not cheating, its one of 1000 rules that have been overlooked on purpose Hearne now its an issue? What.
Prison, really, they set aside the punch out that Ray Rice committed today. He’s not guilty Tom is…
you more than anyone should understand the consequences of completion of a pre trial diversion program.
Easy there, Scribe…
To quote a former gym teacher of mine, don’t get your bowels in an uproar
Pretty sure you should have “Stranger Danger” that gym teacher….creepy
I totally agree with you, if Brady was guilty. But I am not convinced that he is guilty. Science aside, how many CEO’s have been caught up in a scandal because a subordinate did something they shouldn’t have to help the CEO and didn’t tell them to maintain plausible deniability? Even if Brady did it intentionally, I agree with you that it is WAY overblown. This was not an off-the-field offense, like PED’s and substance abuse violations. This was an on the field act. Is the NFL now going to go back and review footage of all plays and punish all CB’s that commit holds beyond 5 yards? Those types of rules violations effect the outcomes of games far more than deflated balls.
Fact is, Roger Goodell ever since he embraced his moniker as an authoritarian, has repeatedly shown his incompetence. From Ray Rice to this to AP to [insert your example here]. He should lose the “macho man” image and realize that in order to “protect the shield” you have to act fairly.
fairly and LEVEL HEADED.
Hey Bill Nye:
The people charged with investigating this mess – not guys like you, me and Craig sitting around playing pocket pool with very limited information, think the Pats and Brady were guilty.
Obviously, right?
It’s like when the judge or the people on the jury convict someone based on specific – often circumstantial evidence – that’s how the game of life is played.
And people read an abbreviated story about what happened, or catch a few soundbites on the news and completely disagree.
I’m going to default to the experts who spent months investigating this rather than you and Craig who spent maybe a combined 20 minutes – if that – reading or hearing about it.
Sorry
this bill nye guy, well, (to borrow a phrase), I like the cut of his jib.
Maybe you can look him on on Match, mike…
You know, and take a closer look at his main sail
That Wizard of Oz pic is a fairly bad photo shop. Looks nothing like Bill Self’s real hair.
What “real hair,” Rage?
You mean the stuff on the sides and down low in back?
KU sports fans, even KU basketball fans, are no different than the sports fans of any other major college, Hearne. You just happen to live in Lawrence. If you lived in Lincoln or, God forbid, Columbia you’d hate their fans, too. The only difference is that you would call them “bug eaters” or “slavers” instead of “snobs.”
Point taken, Hot Carl
kansas continues with delusions of grandeur. Same old story. Fans are rude, self centered, and arrogant believing in fake birds.
I guess with the only big thing in the state is a big ball of twine and a hand dug well life must be pretty bad.
no rocks, no chalk
A list of big things in the State of Kansas should also include the budget deficit.
See where Mizzou alum Michael Sam getting another shot — in the Canadian football league…him and his Mizzou BF headed north.
Also , the LGBT activist engineer that went off the Amtrak rails doing 100mph in a 50 zone in Philly killing 8 recently?
yep — Mizzou grad..
starting to be a pattern here about Mizzou “males”…
Hearne, why are you the one who is mostly commenting on this blog?