Goodell and Smith are in an epic staring contest...
                                                 Both have superglued their eyes open

Now starts the long winter of our football-less discontent.  From now until August this is a football free America.  Get used to it because come the end of next season it will be even longer.  There are columnists and sports reporters out there saying that the chances of an NFL lock out are zero.  They will tell you that there is too much money to be made and that the owners and players both have it too good to ruin the fantastic run that the NFL has received over the years.  They are wrong.  The NFL owners want a lock out.  They want to break the system.  Why?  Because they are tired of giving 59% of all revenue to million dollar players like Vince Young, Pacman Jones and JaMarcus Russell.  They don’t mind paying Donavon F. McNabb, Peyton Manning, and Tom Brady but it must absolutely kill them when they have to pay the thugs that are all over the league that don’t respect the system.  Watching sixty cents of every dollar you earn walk out the door gets old; even if you count dollars in billions. 

The Collective Bargaining Agreement between the parties was strategically designed to avoid the system that will take effect on March 5, 2010.  The owners agreed to end the salary cap beginning in 2010 and the players agreed to regressive free agent terms that locked players down in the cities they played in 2009.  Both of these were to be a bitter pill that would ensure a new agreement before the 2010 season.  Those bitter pills seem to be going down pretty easy today.  The NFL even protected itself by ensuring revenue in the event of a lock out by getting TV dollars even if games are not broadcast.  Couple that with the NFLPA instituting a 25/25 system for players by having them hold back 25% of their salary during the past two seasons and you can see that both sides are mobilizing for war.  The NFLPA even upped dues from $10,000 annually to 15K.  Lockouts are expensive. 

Goodell and NFLPA president DeMaurice Smith are at impasse.  The parties met on Saturday before the Super Bowl and neither side moved according to reports.  What makes anyone think that their positions will be any different by this time next year?  I predicted ten months ago that the NFL would not have a deal by today. That was an easy prediction.  I also predicted that the NFL and NFLPA would not get a deal done in time to save the 2011 season.  Is there anything that has happened over the course of this season that has made you think that the NFL will not lock out the players?  The economy still stinks, the owners are still refusing to open their books to the players, the owners are still saying that the current CBA is too beneficial to the players, the players are still saying that once the salary cap is gone it ain’t coming back, and Jerry Jones and Dan Snyder are still salivating at the chance to spend money like there is no tomorrow (because there really isn’t a tomorrow!).

Gene Upshaw said it and now Smith is saying it.  Once the salary cap is gone, it is not coming back.  When a union takes a position like that you have to believe it.  The salary cap does not help players.  It is a means by which owners can create predictability in the number one cost of doing business, players’ salaries.  In a baseball like salary cap free system the players could demand much higher salaries across the board.  Is it worth it to players to remain locked out for one year in order to lose the cap?  Abso-freaking-lutely!  Why would they come back to work with one after the start of next season?  With the lack of a salary cap owners can dump players (who do not have guaranteed contracts) without the penalty of taking a hit to the cap.  The “It is cheaper to keep him than dump him” rule is out.  Players can be dumped with impunity.  The only loss is the signing bonus.  Players and owners are not going to work this out without a serious change in how the system of acquiring and distributing talent is changed in the NFL.  That likely means the end of financial parity.  

Financial parity is what creates parity on the field.  If the NFL wants to look like baseball then they are nearly there.  Parity on the field is what has made the NFL what it is.  All that is gone.  The people who are telling you it will never happen are only saying so because they 1. Don’t understand how sports as a business works and 2. Because they are really scared that it will happen so they just pretend like it can’t happen.

It will happen and you will hate the NFL for doing it to you. 

Thanks for coming and suckling on Daddy’s Sugar Ball…

Bearcat

                                        

Join the Daddy's Sugar Ball editors on our latest podcast...Bearcat, ZJ, and Max Power had a lively beer-fueled discussion regarding the current sports and popculture landscape.

The topics included in our sixth podcast were:

Intro
Super Bowl (0:45 min mark)
Bearconomics (5:25 min mark)

Download | Duration: 00:19:51

WVU Mountaineers Fans:
                                        
                                 
                                                    This is the face of child abuse...

Why they are Jerks: Let me make this perfectly clear.  WVU fans are amateurs.  During college I was thee fanatical basketball fan.  I waged mental warfare within the band box gymnasium that was the home court for my small liberal arts college stuck in a corn field.  I sat at half court and played cerebral assassin to the visitor.  Chants. Personal attacks. Obnoxious noise that would deafen those around me. All was fair game. I figured I was good for at least three defensive stops and a couple missed free throws per game. I am not kidding. But I never would have dreamed of throwing stuff at players or coaches.

If WVU fans want to have foul and curse laced chants; that’s cool.  I can’t even pretend to be offended by this.  But throwing a 50 cent piece at the team bench?  Throwing stuff on the court?   That is where the line is crossed for me.  I mercilessly rag on Philadelphia Phans for the antics they pull but at least it has been awhile since they stoned a rival with batteries. For West Virginia fans the idea of home court advantage appears to mean pelting the court with whatever isn’t nailed down.  Eers’ fans were so unruly, they actually made Bob Huggins look like a decent human being.  Do you know how hard that is?  WVU fans have only proven what Pitt fans have always thought of them to the rest of the nation.  You are a bunch of redneck hicks. 

Go on act proud to be a hick.  Own it.  Go burn some furniture.  Nothing say WVU won (or lost) like a Molotov ottoman on campus.  “Did we win or lose?  Who cares I have a barcalounger and some lighter fluid!”  

                         
                 Google WVU Fan and this is the first image that pops up... Need I say more?

Throwing stuff on the court and burning living room accessories is for amateurs who lack the creativity to come up with a chant better than Shit on Pitt.  Congratulations...your unoriginal redneck ass now belongs to the Jerk Store.   I can’t wait for the rematch at the Pete. I hope the Oakland Zoo lives up to it's name.

Thanks for coming and suckling on Daddy's Sugar Ball...
Bearcat

According to ESPN, Meyer signed the top (and one of the best in recent years) recruiting classes yesterday on National Signing Day.   I don't buy the whole "grading classes" - - but it's hard to argue with Florida getting commitments from 11 of the top 50 (and 17 of the ESPNU top 150).  Not bad for a guy who didn't know when he would return to coaching a little over a month ago.

Yesterday's Losers: West Virginia fans

The basketball Backyard Brawl got ugly last night in Morgantown.  Fans hurled garbage on the court (and caused Bobby Huggins to rock the mic), threw coins at the Pittsburgh bench hitting an assistant coach, and chanted vulgarities through most of the game.  By the way, the 6th ranked Mountaineers were in control for the whole game and won 70-51. 

Song to Wake Up to:

Thanks for coming and suckling Daddy's Sugar Ball...

Like the great Winston Wolfe, I’m here to solve problems and I’ll occasionally use this site to throw out observations and suggestions for fixing those things that are "broken" in our sports and entertainment worlds. To quote "The Wolf", "Get it straight buster - I'm not here to say please, I'm here to tell you what to do and if self-preservation is an instinct you possess you'd better fucking do it and do it quick. I'm here to help - if my help's not appreciated then lotsa luck, gentlemen."

After reading Kevin Kaduk’s excellent piece on baseball’s Negro Leagues Museum over at Big League Stew, I felt compelled to join in the fray and throw out my two cents for anyone that cared.

The Negro Leagues Baseball Museum is currently located in the heart of Kansas City’s historical 18^th and Vine section next to the American Jazz Museum. In the BLS piece, ‘Duk reminisced about his visits there:

The thought occurred to me that there weren't many museums set up better for teaching one subject […]

It's a day that remains hard to beat, one I'd recommend to anyone visiting KC […]

Yet when I look back at that visit — or any of my four or five other trips — one of the nagging memories is how devoid the museum was of other visitors.

And that's why it comes as no surprise to read yet another story on how the Negro Leagues Museum is in financial trouble and facing an uncertain future. Part of the quagmire is based on a decrease in donations due to the recession, but a lot of the situation is based on the infighting among the museum's leaders […]

So what to do about the museum — the only one of its kind — before it's too late?

Well, I’m glad you asked…even though I’ve never been to the Negro Leagues Museum (or even Kansas City for that matter), please indulge my thoughts on the matter.

I think it is imperative for the Negro Leagues Museum and MLB to partner together and create a traveling exhibit for everyone to get a glimpse of what the Museum holds. They could travel to major and minor league games across the country and set up in concourses and parking lots.  How many tailgating areas at most ballparks are taken up by a stage with some bad cover band on it? Wouldn’t that be a good spot at the ballpark to generate interest? And if MLB does right and promotes the hell out of it for the summer, fans would know to add time into their day at the ballpark around a visit.

I appreciate the history of the Negro Leagues in Kansas City, but as ‘Duk points out KC is "not a magnet for tourists." Maybe it’s because I’m on the East Coast here in Pennsylvania, but I’m not planning a trip to Kansas City any time soon. But if I ever found myself there, I would absolutely go - - however the shareholders and curators can’t wait for the business trips and conventions to bring in rabid baseball fans.

If the powers that be are dead set against moving the Museum out of Kansas City, then I believe they need to approach and work with the Royals on a long-term solution. Either they need to incorporate the Museum into the current architecture of Kauffman Stadium or build on an annex attached to the baseball complex. That way if I’m one of the 20,000 fans attending a game, I would plan a trip to see the Museum on my visit or the next time I come to a game.

But as ‘Duk (among many others) points out, financially and organizationally the Negro Leagues Museum is probably better off if they would move to another city. If you were to ignore the logistical and honorable issues of moving out of KC, which city should be chosen? Here is an outsider’s top five suggestions:

Memphis

• Already generates plenty of tourists and visitors as a hub between the Midwest, Mid-Atlantic, and Deep South
• History of two teams (the Eclipse and the Eurekas) in the first Negro league, the Southern League of Base Ballists back in 1885
• The Memphis Red Sox were part of the Negro American League for all 14 years of its existence (1937-1950)
• City steeped with strong ties to the African-American community

Baltimore

• The Baltimore Black Sox were a storied franchise in many different incarnations of the Negro leagues
• Could potentially be positioned near the Babe Ruth Museum only a few blocks away from Camden Yards and the thriving Inner Harbor area
• Part of the high-population I-95 corridor (DC, Philly, NYC)

Pittsburgh

• Rich tradition in the Negro Leagues with the Pittsburgh Crawfords and the legendary Homestead Grays (a mere 7 miles away)
• Native Yinzer Walter S. Brown helped found and lead the National Colored Base Ball League in 1887 which contained the Pittsburgh Keystones as one of their six teams
• Viability in a hollow downtown area would be a huge question mark for a city that doesn’t have many people planning family vacations to visit
• Very little crossover with those coming to see the Andy Warhol Museum

Chicago

• The Giants were a fixture on the city’s South Side in many different versions of the Negro leagues
• The Midwest roots of the Museum would stay intact (albeit 8 hours away by car)
• Obvious increase in tourism for the visitors to the Second City
• However, moving to a big city isn’t the panacea that many would have you believe as the failure of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Annex in NYC proved

Cooperstown
As ‘Duk suggests:

Bringing the museum to Cooperstown would increase foot traffic and donations. More importantly, it would expose more baseball-minded folks to the Negro Leagues beyond the usual fare about Jackie Robinson, Satchel Paige and Cool Papa Bell.

(And I should say here that I envision the museum not being absorbed by the existing Hall of Fame — which already includes Negro Leagues members and associated exhibits — but remaining autonomous in a specially built wing or in its own building. The Negro Leagues deserve more than being turned into a simple sidebar.) […]

So why not move it to the one place where everyone arrives with baseball on the brain?

Something needs to be done and done quickly...this Museum means too much to the great game of baseball to let it flounder and die because of mismanagement and a poor business plan. I suggest the caretakers look at the situation with an unflinching and honest eye and decide what is best for all fans.

Yesterday's Loser: Dr. Conrad Murray

Wacko Jacko's personal physician is in Los Angeles (from Houston) and prepared to surrender to authorities if they file charges against him in the King of Pop's death.  Murray admits to administering Jackson propofol shortly before he died and an autopsy revealed the cause of death was "acute propofol intoxication" in combination with the use of sedatives.

Song to Wake Up to:

Thanks for coming and suckling Daddy's Sugar Ball...