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.

Ramble On... no, Rumble On.

Peace on Earth and Goodwill Towards Men.

Don't you wish you had thought of that line?

Well, if you're a law-maker in Seoul, Korea, you might have a different viewpoint and a very different motto.

How about? If I don;t get my way, get ready to RUMMMBLLLLLLLLLLE.

Check this out:



Seems that the gloves dropped after a heated debate about proposed media laws for South Korea. Here's the WSJ take on the story:

SEOUL -- The National Assembly passed three bills to modernize South Korea's media industry, including allowing companies to own both broadcast and print properties. The voting, which took place Wednesday amid fistfights and shouting matches among lawmakers, capped months of acrimony over the measures.

The bills -- which must be signed by President Lee Myung-bak to become law -- set the stage for the government to privatize its media properties, which include three of the nation's four broadcast television networks, the Yonhap news agency and 24-hour cable news channel. The government hasn't announced sale plans.

NEWS ITEM #2: What would Della Wear? "Sports Leagues Sue Delaware"

Just to be sure you saw this one... and please be sure that you realize that this story ran the same weekend that the WNBA was playing its All-Star Game at the Mohegan Sun Resort and Casino - which has a race book, not a sports book AND the USA Basketball Senior National team, composed of ALL NBA players, was training at the sports gambling capital of the world in Las Vegas and staying at The Wynn which was taking action on all sports, including the WNBA, NBA and international hoops. Also, be sure to note the last graph about Montana, too.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The four major pro sports leagues and the NCAA sued Delaware Friday, seeking to block the state from implementing sports betting.

Delaware's sports betting plan "would irreparably harm professional and amateur sports by fostering suspicion and skepticism that individual plays and final scores of games may have been influenced by factors other than honest athletic competition," the leagues and NCAA said in a lawsuit filed in federal court in Delaware.

Congress banned sports betting in 1992 while grandfathering four states -- Delaware, Nevada, Montana and Oregon -- that had already offered it. But the lawsuit argues that Delaware's plan to allow single-game betting would violate the legislation because Delaware has never offered single-game betting before.

Under the '92 law, the leagues and NCAA said, a state like Delaware may only reintroduce the kind of sports betting that it had offered between 1976 and 1990.

They also argued that Delaware's plan is illegal because it allows betting on all sports, going beyond the professional football betting program that constituted the state's brief failed experiment in 1976.

The suit was filed by Major League Baseball, the NFL, the NBA, the NHL and the NCAA. The NFL has led the effort against Delaware's plans, consistent with its long-held opposition to gambling on its games.

A spokesman for Delaware Gov. Jack Markell, Joe Rogalsky, said in a statement that the sports betting plan "will help pay for our core government services like our teachers and police and will also create new jobs in our state."

He said that the state invited the NFL to sit down and share their concerns.

"They decided instead to sue," Rogalsky said.

NFL Vice President Joe Browne said that the league is sensitive to economic issues in Delaware and other states. He said that the NFL wrote to Markell on April 7, telling him the league would be willing to discuss ways to help close the state's budget gap -- "short of using our games as betting vehicles."

According to Browne, Markell responded five weeks later "that he was signing legislation that day which, in effect, uses our games as betting vehicles."

In his statement, Rogalsky also noted that the state asked for an advisory opinion from the Delaware Supreme Court.

In May, that court ruled that the state law allowing sports betting didn't conflict with the state constitution, but the justices also said, "we cannot opine on the constitutionality of single game bets."

State officials hope to have the sports betting in place for this year's NFL regular season in September.

Two of the other grandfathered states have faced resistance on the issue as well.

In 2005, the Oregon Legislature voted to get rid of its state-sponsored sports betting game, in which gamblers place wagers on NFL games, after the NCAA, because of its antigambling stance, had refused to hold basketball tournament games in the state.

Meanwhile in Montana, state and University of Montana officials are working to prove to the NCAA that the state's legalized betting on fantasy sports leagues doesn't violate the NCAA's stance against wagering on the outcome of sporting events. The NCAA has said the University of Montana should not have been allowed to host football playoff games last season because the state allows a form of sports gambling. In a recent letter to the NCAA, the state's attorney general, Steve Bullock, said that Montana's gambling laws prohibit wagering on the outcome of athletic events.

NEWS ITEM #3: Safe Bet?

Speaking of gambling, USA Basketball is on the ground in Las Vegas with their USA mini-camp and the WNBA is making the Mohegan Sun the capital of the Women's basketball world at the casino hotel resort in the CT woods, so you wonder what the opposition is in Delaware, eh?

The next thing you know, they'll be laying odds on who makes the USA team or playing a Connecticut state lottery on the WNBA All-Stars? See this question to Coach K after the second day of the USA mini-camp try-out? "Is Kevin Durant a "safe bet" to make the next USA senior national team?

"Is there a safe-bet in Vegas? I don't know about that. Obviously though, he's world-class talent with a world-class attitude. So a very unique player, a perimeter player at 6-11. I was impressed with his defense yesterday. One thing that we tried to with the last team and going forward is to have length. We may not have all the bulk, but if we have length that's a huge thing for us, and obviously he gives us good length. Q- Many of these players are 20 or 20 years old. Does help create a foundation for USA Basketball past 2012? Coach K: "That's what this is about. It's not just for '10 and '12. Some of these guys are 21, 22 years old. I mean, they might be on the teams in '10 and '12, but certainly they are the future of USA Basketball if you get them indoctrinated into this. Q- Is the talent here at mini-camp an example of USA Basketball regaining its prestige? Coach K: "I think it just says a lot for United State basketball, and the teamwork that the NBA has with USA Basketball I think is critical. It's critical. Jerry with his experience, obviously, on the board of governors and (as an) owner - this is a great growth time while Jerry is in charge. His is the most critical position." Coach K on USA Managing Director Jerry Colangelo: "He gives a certain level, a high level of respect for the program, which, if you are going to allocate resources to a program, you want to know that he resources are going to be well taken care of. And these are the resources of the NBA. When they are with USA Basketball, they need to be well taken care of. The NBA is part of USA Basketball, but obvious the relationship between the two is critical, and that's where he comes in."