Seven Stories While You Were Gone Fishin'

(This column appears as part of my regular contributions to The Daily Payoff)

By Terry Lyons, Contributing Columnist for The Daily Payoff

@terrylyons

Gone Fishin' (Photo by Andrea P. Martin)

There are several sure signs that summer is coming to a close. In the eastern USA, it’s getting dark at 7pm, not 8:30pm, the TV networks have concluded their endless broadcasting of meaningless NFL preseason games and, for you Steely Dan fans out there, the Wolverine is on its way towards Annandale. There’s been plenty of news posted on The Daily Payoff during the past two months but maybe, like me, you’ve been preoccupied, reading those trashy paperback novels, listening to the sounds of summer at the beach or watching the Red Sox stumble to another last place finish.

To be sure you’re up-to-speed, I’m shaking the sand out of the beach chair and my reporter’s notebook to review a few important occurrences which took place during the past two months while we were all Gone Fishin’.

1. Triple Crown winner American Pharoah took the track at Monmouth Park for The Haskell and did not disappoint a NJ record 60, 983 horse racing fans who turned out to see the horse continue his winning ways after a 58-day lay-off from the historic win at the Belmont Stakes. Pharoah then was saddled up for The Travers at Saratoga and the track’s reputation as the “Graveyard of Champions” remained intact as longshot "Keen Ice” upset the triple crown winner.  On October 31, all eyes will be on American Pharoah at the Breeders’ Cup Classic at Keeneland which is expected to be the colt’s last race before heading out to stud and a cool $150,000 per pop. What a horse! What a life!

2. The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) declined jurisdiction over the plight of Northwestern University football players seeking to register as a union. The unanimous decision by the NLRB avoided involvement in the hot potato of “student athlete” rights as they pertain to the NCAA, but it noted the ruling pertained to State run universities and did not address private schools. The issue of paying collegiate players to play remains a possibility and the case it likely to be appealed to Federal Court.

3. Speaking of Federal cases, DeflateGate was resolved, at least temporarily, when Judge Richard Berman of the US Federal Court, Southern District of New York vacated Tom Brady’s four-game suspension while taking the NFL to task on various procedures of their flimsy Wells Report and subsequent hearing before “Cop-Judge-Jury” Commissioner Roger Goodell. Remember, it all began on January 18, 2015 and could have been resolved by January 20 with some foresight by the NFL and the Patriots. Overall, the entire process has been a colossal waste of time and, ultimately tax-payers money. While it’s now subject to the NFL’s appeal, the entire ridiculous fairytale was possibly a giant smoke-screen left to cover the NFL’s more problematic player image headlines, like Ray Rice and several other domestic violence cases.

4. Although dozens of popular and admirable athletes, executives and administrators have passed away in 2015, some taken far too early, it’s important to recognize the passing of former NY Giants star Frank Gifford, known to so many as the chiseled and competent anchor of Monday Night Football from 1971, MNF’s second year, to 1998. Gifford passed away from natural causes on August 9th, a week before his 85th birthday. He was lauded for his pioneering role in transitioning from athlete to broadcaster. Rest in Peace to Giff.

5. Before the 2015 NFL season kicks-off, the two industry leaders of Daily Fantasy Sports, Draft Kings and Fan Duel, will have spent a combined $110 million dollars - just on TV ads, with a reported $86.2 million attributed to Draft Kings, according to combined reports by ispot.tv and Kantar Media. Those figures do not - repeat NOT - include the millions spent on radio, digital and traditional billboard and print advertising deals. As the popular and DFS friendly NFL season kicks-off on September 10 and continues with its full schedule on September 13, the barrage of advertising done by Draft Kings and Fan Duel, already ubiquitous, will reach spending levels only approached in prior years by the beer companies. Jason Robbins, CEO of Draft Kings, and Nigel Eccles, the head of Fan Duel, can both be crowned as the most powerful men in sports in 2015.

6. On August 25, the Third US Circuit Court of Appeals ruled against the State of New Jersey to upheld prior verdicts that NJ’s plans to authorize sports betting were a violation of the federal law, the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act. The court’s ruling points any future movement in the legalization of sports betting to Congress. Vocal NJ State Senator Ray Lesniak will need to ramp up efforts at the Congressional level, not via his own’s state government, to make any further progress. In the past, NBA Commissioner Adam Silver, who opposed the efforts in NJ, has written that he and the league support a federally legislated and regulated law to allow sports gambling. The late August ruling will shelve the issue for years to come, unless you believe Congress can actually get something done?

7. Boston 2024 is no longer. Since I dedicated an entire column to the issue on July 8, I will spare readers from past details of Boston’s inept bid and the politics surrounding every decision. Instead, I must note the lost opportunity of hosting an Olympic Games has most Boston and Massachusetts residents singing “Hallelujah,” while some of us wonder if our generation will accomplish anything of significance or just continue to complain about everything and do nothing? The US Olympic Committee and the City of Los Angeles quickly moved forward and have plans to nominate LA as a potential host of the 2024 Games, but the City of Angels will face very stiff competition from the likes of Rome and Paris for the IOC’s blessing to host the youth of the world in 2024. My money is on Paris.

DeflateGate: Is it time?

By TERRY LYONS, DigitalSportsDesk

(This was previously posted to my general sports columns and contributions on Huffington Post and Digital Sports Desk):

Some roads are paved by an overnight construction crew with a slab of blacktop. Some roads are paved brick-by-brick, by skilled workers who toil for hours on end to be sure each piece of stone is laid perfectly in unison with the next, all cemented in a pavement that will last for generations to come. Today, there is a new road being paved from Park Avenue in New York to Foxboro, Massachusetts. It might be cheap asphalt or it might be everlasting cobblestone. Only one thing is for sure, New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady is the foreman on the job.

Over the course of more than 100 days, the National Football League and the New England Patriots have been on far opposite ends of a legal tango trying to uncover the facts behind a relatively stupid aspect of league rules involving the proper amount of air in a game ball. While airing that controversy out, the NFL has cautiously detoured, carefully dictating the road that Brady will soon walk down.

This week the NFL, via a team of hired-gun lawyers and investigators, handed down a 243-page report, authored by an independent sleuth but powered by NFL league counsel Jeff Pash's checkbook. The Wells Report, camouflaged with legal mumbo jumbo, uncovered and delivered a "more probable than not" scenario to implicate two New England Patriots game-day employees for their role in tampering with game balls and deflating them to illegal levels of PSI (pounds per square inch) much to Brady's liking for an NFL playoff game contested on a cold, damp winter evening. The report also stated that Brady "was, at least, generally aware" of the incident. Although the Wells Report left "reasonable doubt" for a level of proof mandatory in a court of law, the investigation left little to the imagination in the all-important court of public opinion.

Tom Brady of the New England Patriots (Getty Images).

Why is this crazy incident and the Wells Report so important?

On one side of that document, the newfound Magna Carta for NFL integrity because of the fact the alleged perpetrators tampered with the GAME BALLS, is a model sports franchise, model owner and model quarterback with a (real) supermodel wife. The New England Patriots are not only the reigning Super Bowl champions for the NFL, the most powerful, profitable and influential sports league in word history, but they also represent the sport in nearly every fraction one can imagine.

On the other side of the document, the NFL is practically accusing its model citizens of cheating.

The team owner has been the foundation of that franchise, etched into the New England community for rescuing a football club that nearly moved down I95 to, god forbid, Hartford, Connecticut. But, more than that, Robert Kraft, along with a very small handful of other NFL team investors, is the face of NFL ownership with visions of man hugs dancing in our heads, even after contentious labor negotiating sessions when Kraft was portrayed as the savior of the NFL back when a labor stoppage threatened the 2011 season.

The team's head coach, Bill Belichick, has carved his own legacy in stone as he is certainly on the Mt. Rushmore of the NFL's greatest coaches ever, alongside Lombardi, Halas, Shula and Landry. Belichick out-smarts, out-prepares, or simply out-coaches his opponents on a scale unimaginable in the modern-day era of salary cap and free agency. His legacy, while secure, was tarnished severely back in 2007 when the NFL levied a $500,000 fine for an unfair videotaping incident known to all as "SpyGate." But, he surely endures.

The team's quarterback and leader, Brady, is amongst the greatest quarterbacks to ever play the game. Period.

Off the field, Brady fast became the poster boy for what the NFL likes to portray as its typical All-Pro player. Brady's good looks, his storybook romances and media-friendly demeanor are fed to sports fans on a weekly basis every autumn. Most importantly, on the field of play, Brady has backed it up with his winning ways, complete with IV Super Bowl Wins and III Super Bowl MVPs. With it all, Brady has enjoyed endorsements, fame, glory, good fortune and extremely positive public relations throughout his career.

As the Patriots camp reacted to the Wells Report, the model team owner put out his statement, noting, "to say we are disappointed in its findings, which do not include any incontrovertible or hard evidence of deliberate deflation of footballs at the AFC Championship game, would be a gross understatement." Then both Brady's agent and his father took similar positions to put up a smoke screen of plausible deniability, all using Nixonian-like phraseology, while failing to come out and plainly state -- "We didn't do it."

As fate would have it, Brady was booked at a Salem State University speaking series, where he had the nerve to helicopter in to sit alongside media maven Jim Gray for a show right out of Inside the Actor's Studio. On that set, Brady smugly glossed over the news of the day, claiming he hadn't had time to fully digest and read the account that will undoubtedly be attached to his lifelong resume, nevermind (potentially) negatively impact the 2015 New England Patriots season, depending on yet-to-be prescribed NFL discipline via fine or suspension.

Brady's continuous, ill-advised steps, from his initial press conference just days after the Deflategate controversy broke to his disingenuous remarks told at Salem State, place Brady in a precarious position, both in terms of fighting the NFL on the discipline and in the all-important court of public opinion.

While his actions can not be properly compared to the utter depths of sports malpractice, orchestrated somewhat recently by Alex Rodriguez, Barry Bonds or Lance Armstrong for cheating their sports and fellow competitors by constant denial of utilizing performance enhancing chemistry, the fall-out on Brady might be as impactful were it not for the mountain of goodwill he had previously built up.

Says sports media guru and former White House Director of Communications Kevin Sullivan: "While it's still unclear what exactly Brady's role was, he has too much personal goodwill in the bank and too much success on the field for this to seriously damage him. Deflategate will be part of his legacy, but more likely as a footnote than a headline."

With that in mind, it might be time for Brady, Belichick, Kraft and the New England Patriots to 'fess up. Even if they have ballboys Jim McNally and John Jastremski text it to us.