ESPN: The World Wide Leader In Hypocrisy

Hey, remember when a bunch of ESPN talking heads, including Michelle Beadle, Kirk Herbstreit, Jay Bilas, and Colin Cowherd went on a moral crusade against Joe Paterno for not doing more upon learning that Mike McQueary witnessed Jerry Sandusky in the shower behaving beyond inappropriately with a boy in the shower?  Good times, wasn't it?  Now, in a cruel twist of irony, the shoe is on the other foot, and then some.  While we do not know what Jim Boeheim did or did not know in terms of the Bernie Fine allegations at Syracuse, but we do know who did know of these allegations back in 2003.  That's right.  The Worldwide Leader, themselves.  ESPN knew.

ESPN did nothing.

What am I talking about, exactly?  It goes back to the Syracuse allegations against Bernie Fine.  Released today on Outside The Lines, a recorded telephone conversation former Syracuse ball boy Bobby Davis had with Bernie Fine's wife, Laurie in regards to Bernie Fine's behavior.  Due to the disturbing nature of this conversation, I will not post any quotes here, but if you want to read it so you have, click here to read excerpts of the conversation between Davis and Laurie Fine.

One slightly major issue.  The conversation in that transcript took place in 2002.  ESPN obtained a copy of the audiotape of that conversation in 2003.  Sporting News summarizes what ESPN did with the conversations (bold emphasis mine).

Davis, now 39, shared the tape with Syracuse police after Outside the Lines reported that allegations Nov. 17. He had given ESPN the tape of the recorded conversation in 2003, but ESPN did not report that accusations because it didn’t have enough information to back up Davis’ allegations.

 At least Joe Paterno went to the AD and the head of police, even though all he had to off of was hearsay.  ESPN had tapes from Bernie Fine's wife essentially implicating him in child molestation.  ESPN sat on these tapes.  They claim there was not enough evidence to go public, but they did not turn over the conversation to authorities for further investigation.  Is this beginning to sound familiar to anyone?

Now this is likely something that Michelle Beadle, Kirk Herbstreit, and other ESPN talking heads knew nothing about, but, it is worth pointing out that they are not directing anger at their own company.  Shocking.  Beadle has turned from mud-flinging at Paterno to "Monsters are everywhere," and "Focus on cleaning up" abuse at universities.  Amazing.  I know.

But instead of continuing on my moral high horse on the hypocrisy of some at ESPN, I'll just ask one question.

Is this too a conspiracy of cowards?

Hypocrisy By Brooks

Sometimes I feel like it is best to take a deep breath and just ignore Sports By Brooks.  After all, he is nothing more than a sleazy sports gossip writer with about as much dignity as the people that feel the need to follow Lady Gaga everywhere she goes, including stalking the drainage system she empties her bodily waste in to examine her poop to see if the feces reveal anything about a sex scandal.  And then sometimes it is best to stoop to that very level of depravity yourself just because, well, actually it is not for the best it is fun for me to expose how much of a hypocrite someone is.

I am not going to link any tweets, but if you take a look at Sports by Brooks's timeline you will see the sports gossip columnist has ceased to be a sports gossip columnist and has turned into a full time Penn State gossip columnist since the Penn State flattery.  In this timeline, you will see a bunch of tweets about rumors, speculation that Jerry Sandusky will be acquitted by a jury of his peers in Centre County (?), and several tweets perched atop his moral high horse as he uses mental gymnastics of the amazing kind to equate a vote in support of Joe Paterno and Joe Paterno's legacy as a vote in support of child molestation and this tweet of what can only be described as pure insanity.  Even if Sandusky does shockingly get acquitted, to suggest something of the nature this early on in the process is nothing short of insanity.

Here is the graphic, 23-page, grand jury report.  This is what is known, both in terms of what Sandusky did and what McQueary and Paterno knew and did.  You can try make heads or tails of comments and actions from the early 2000s to try and infer more about what was known and who knew it, but I won't get into that.  If you choose to believe the interview Sandusky gave last night and the interview Mike McQueary is giving tonight then we know that too.  But outside of that, everything else is opinion disguised as fact, or moral high horse rantings disguised as opinion.  Rumors/reports from a gossip columnist are unfounded at best and trolling for followers/pageviews at worst.

But, SbB is indeed that.  I said as much above, and I think Brooks might even say as much.  It is his job to do this.  But I am writing a post because there is a catch.  The point of this post is not to chide someone for having an opinion.  You do not need me to tell you that this Penn State scandal has elicited some violent opinions.  Brooks is not the first person to espouse such opinions on this issue and he damn sure will not be the last.  But what makes Brooks a special case is that everytime he tweets something from his moral high horse on the Penn State scandal, he is setting in a glass house, trying to throw stones.  Now as far as we know, Brooks does not have a history of pedophilia, but I can confirm he has a perverted history of ephebophilia.  Behold, the hypocrisy of Sports by Brooks!

Yes.  You saw that link correctly.  That is Brooks.  Unabashedly ogling at a 17-year old's breasts.

The patron saint of Morality, everyone!

(h/t @AvalonBryan and the essential @zoowithroy)

Tim Howard: World-Class Hypocrite

Let me be perfectly honest. I hope Bob Bradley gets sentenced to a lifetime of coaching soccer in northern Siberia. But through it all, there are still a few players on Bob Bradley's U.S. Men's National Team that you sort of like. For me, one of those was Tim Howard.

Here is one story ESPN, Alexi Lalas, John Harkes, and the rest of those butt-fucky schmucks not named Ian Darke will not tell you.

Tonight, the Philadelphia Union played a club friendly against English Premier side Everton. Now Everton are in their pre-season, so not everyone is going to play 90 minutes. I think everyone knows that. But for the Union's standpoint (because the game is being played at PPL Park), a major selling point of the match was Tim Howard. Unfortunately, at the last minute, Everton and Tim Howard announced that he would not be playing in the match.

Now normally, this slight mis-communication could be understandable. While still a nuisance as the Union used Tim Howard as a major selling point to this match, we must understand this is Everton's pre-season and they may not want to waste their goalkeeping fixture in a meaningless match in Philadelphia.

The problem comes in when Tim Howard decides to lie about the whole thing. This is what Tim Howard told ESPN today in regards to not playing tonight in Philadelphia.

Those decisions are obviously made jointly, but unfortunately, they were made quite a long time ago. They don’t get made this week. Those types of things are discussed amongst ourselves months and months in advance.

Upon hearing of this statement, Philadelphia Union CEO Nick Sakiewicz told the following to Philadelphia Union writer Chris Vito.

"We're really surprised. One of the reasons we entertained Everton's phone call was because of Tim Howard and we were under the impression Tim Howard was playing."

Now why on earth would Sakiewicz get the impression Tim Howard was playing if the decision not to play Tim Howard was made months ago. Well, when this friendly was first announced back in April 2011, Tim Howard had the following to say.

“Philadelphia Union is a fantastic club and I’m really looking forward to playing against them,” said Howard. “Nick Sakiewicz brought me through the ranks when I was younger, I’m friends with members of their coaching staff, and one of my best friends, Danny Califf, plays for them. It's a club whose results I always look out for and hope they do well.

“It will be a tough game for us. They're going to be in the mold of their manager, Peter Nowak. He's a tough, hard-nosed former Polish international who doesn't back down. I know for a fact from being very close to him that he expects nothing less from his team as well.”

Tim Howard: World-Class hypocrite.

(h/t The Brotherly Game)

The 2011 Stanley Cup Finals: Enough With The Hypocrisy And Self-Righteousness

Never before in my memory has a Stanley Cup Finals been so charged with emotion over "clean" and "dirty" play between the teams. Bruins fans see the Canucks as whiny divers. Canucks fans see the Bruins as complainers and hypocrites. It goes both ways. I could devote a whole series of posts to fan behavior and perceived fan behavior, but I will avoid the generalizations that come with that. Instead, I will focus on the hypocrisy of this whole thing.

I have said it multiple times now that both teams have players with dirty tendencies. Thanks in large part to a Twitter pal of mine (now @TheGreatDane36, though knowing him that will change very shortly) I have some videos which illustrate exactly what I am talking about. Hopefully this sheds the light on what I am talking about. This is not a pro-Canucks post. This is not a pro-Bruins post. This is not an anti-Canucks post. This is not an anti-Bruins post. This is calling it right down the middle. It's the way it is with these two teams. Love it or leave it. Follow the jump for videos and examples of members of both the Canucks and the Bruins partaking in less than clean activities.

Marc Savard: Classless Hypocrite (UPDATED WITH VIDEO)

Seeing as I work tomorrow and won't be around until the night, I want to get this up as soon as possible, even if it is without the video that I would love.

So here is what happened: Mike Richards hit Savard with a borderline cross check against the boards. The refs could have called a minor penalty and no one would have complained. Instead of trying to further draw the penalty, Savard gets up and proceeds to cross check Mike Richards in the face and then continue to beat on him while Milan Lucic joins the beatdown of Richards. Thankfully Gagne arrived a few seconds later to put an end to the madness. Savard, Lucic, and Richards all got roughing penalties and the Flyers were given a PP.

After the game, Savard gave this quote.

“I just got fired up. I got one the other night in Philly from behind [which was called boarding against Darroll Powe], and then I was facing the glass again in the same situation and then I look back at [David] Booth, [David] Krejci, those guys … I mean, enough’s enough. I mean, I don’t know. That’s all,” said Savard after the loss, which sends the series back to Philly for Game 6 Wednesday night.

Savard was then asked if he was accusing Richards of trying to injure players by referring back to the concussion-causing hit on Booth earlier this season and the hit that broke Krejci’s wrist in Game 3 of this series. Of course, Savard had a similar beef with Matt Cooke of Pittsburgh for a hit that caused a concussion March 7.

“I mean, I don’t know. That’s the way he plays. It’s part of his demeanor. He’ll never change. So I don’t know,” said Savard.

Wait a minute? You are going to play the sympathy card for dangerous plays and head shots all the while delivering a head shot to Richards on your own? What the fuck is this?

I understand the guy wants to protect himself as he is coming back from his nasty concussion, but cross checking someone on the face and ganging up on Mike Richards is not going to accomplish anything. The only message it sends is that you are scum and are willing to stoop to dirty levels, thus, inviting the Flyers to do the same. Was Richards hit on Savard questionable? Absolutely. Should his 2-minute minor have been for that and not a phantom roughing penalty from that scrum? Yes. Is it classy to retaliate a minor penalty questionable hit with suspension worthy actions? Hell no.

No video is up on YouTube and NHL.com conveniently has nothing posted on this (gee....I wonder why), but if something is up tomorrow night when I get home, I will post it and you can judge Richards' initial hit and Savard's retaliation and subsequent hypocrisy for yourself.

Update: Here's the video.

What Makes Keith Brooking And Whiny Cowboys Fans Hypocrites?

Complaining about running up the score when the other team is up 24 points and they throw the ball. That's what.

We all know the story of what happened yesterday when the Cowboys were down 24 to the Vikings yesterday. The Vikings threw a pass on 4th down and it was caught by a wide open Visanthe Shiancoe in the endzone for a touchdown. Subsequently, Keith Brooking stormed the Vikings sidelines and allegedly called Brett Favre classless to his face. Now whether or not that was the case, we don't know, as Favre was too busy winning that game to listen to Brooking complain, but regardless, that is what has been alleged and he may have even had some choice words for the other coaches on the sidelines. We don't know exactly what was said, but Keith Brooking did have some choice words during the post game press conference. Via ESPN.

Cowboys coach Wade Phillips said the Vikings ran up the score, and Brooking agreed.

"I thought it was classless," Brooking said. "I thought it was B.S. Granted, we get paid to stop them, but we had zero timeouts left. I didn't think there was any call for that."

Now we can go back and forth on the classless part of it all day long and not get anywhere. My views on this are somewhat tainted because I despise the Cowboys, but when an you are crying over something you tried to do 2 weeks ago, then it quits being a discussion of classlessness and turns into an argument of hypocrisy.

What on earth am I talking about, you ask? Sheil Kapadia of Philly.com points out this little looked over fact from the Week 17 meeting between the Eagles and the Cowboys

With about 2:30 left in that game, the Cowboys faced a 4th-and-2 from the Eagles' 35-yard line. They were up, 24-0 (the exact point differential in yesterday's game before the final TD). Dallas could have easily taken a knee and given the Eagles' offense the ball back with 2:20 left, but Romo dropped back and looked for a receiver before getting sacked by Juqua Parker.

Sheil also goes on to point out that at no point afterward was Keith Brooking spotted on the sidelines yelling at his coaches telling them they were being classless.

Like I said, you can go back and forth on what is or is not classless here, but who on earth are you to talk to storm the other team's sidelines and whine and complain like a 9-year old about them "running up the score" when your team attempted to do the same damn thing 2 weeks ago.

I guess my true views on this are pointed out when I tell you that I had thought nothing of it when Romo did attempt that pass in that game and in fact, up until Sheil and JasonB of Bleeding Green Nation pointed it out, I had completely forgotten about Romo and Week 17. So maybe it is not as classless an act as Cowboys fan would have you believe.

Thank you, former Eagles offensive coordinator and current Minnesota Vikings head coach Brad Childress, for giving me the greatest sports moment in 2010.

(Hat tip to Bleeding Green Nation)

The Eagles Continue To Mystify Me

So the Eagles just got rid of Brian Dawkins, their 35-year old Pro Bowl safety. It's time to bring someone into the defensive secondary, for after Quintin Mikell, our next starting safety is Quintin Demps, who based on his performance at safety last year, may not quite be ready. On the other side of things, the Eagles seem strong at corner with Asante Samuel and Sheldon Brown the starters and Joselio Hanson, a proven nickelback and back-up cornerback. So naturally, with all that said above, the Eagles hosted 34-year old cornerback Shawn Springs for a visit. Seriously. 34-years old. Cornerback. From Bleed Eagles Green

The latest news from Eagleville is that CB Shawn Springs is in town for a visit. Big relief as I had thought the Eagles' invites to Free Agents were getting fire walled.

Springs, is it just a visit or is there a contract awaiting his signature? I guess time will tell. I guess time will also tell what this move truly means. Are there plans to move Sheldon to Safety? Are there plans to move Sheldon via trade? Are there doubts over the ability and progress of Jack Ikegwuonu? This fan is curious.

I really wish I was making this up. You get rid of your 35-year old Pro Bowl safety, and you bring in a 34-year old back up cornerback, a position that is not on a concern of the Eagles at all.

BEG does bring up a good question. Is the answer going to be to have Springs play full safety? Or will Sheldon Brown be moved? Or would it be Asante Samuel? Or will they throw some 5th round pick schmuck?

Look, I have nothing against Shawn Springs, I think he is a really good player and if the need at corner arised, I would love to have him on my team, but for goodness sakes, a 4th cornerback is not the Eagles' primary concern. Nor is it their tertiary concern. And if they are planning on moving someone to the full safety position, whomever he is, he better be ready to fill the shoes of one of the greatest Eagles of all time.