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Bar Chat

09/11/2014

League Under Fire

New York Jets Quiz: 1) Who are the only two Jets to catch 90 passes in a season? 2) Who are the Jets’ top two all-time receivers in receptions? [Different from No. 1] Answers below.

The NFL and Ray Rice

“Did NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell see the video of Baltimore Ravens running back Ray Rice cold-cocking his fiancée in an Atlantic City elevator before that video appeared on the Internet on Monday?

“Did he know just how nauseating it is to see a man crumple a woman with a single, almost nonchalant blow before he penalized Rice with a spineless two-game suspension?

“The league claimed on Monday that Goodell hadn’t seen the video, that the commissioner was just like the rest of us, seeing the grainy, black-and-white clip on the gossip site TMZ for the first time. It showed Rice punching his fiancée, Janay Palmer, the mother of his young daughter, in the head, then dragging her unconscious body out of a casino elevator like a pile of dirty laundry....

“Just after lunch on Monday – seven long months after the assault, but a few short hours after the video of it went public – Rice was cut by the Ravens. Soon after, Goodell announced that Rice had been suspended indefinitely by the NFL.

“But it never should have taken this long. Not long after the assault, the police investigated and determined that Rice had knocked out Palmer. An earlier video showed Rice dragging Palmer out of the elevator as if he were hauling a trash bag to the curb.

“That alone should have been enough for the NFL to suspend Rice for a good, long time, or for the Ravens to get rid of him. It should have prompted the league to send a message to other players – as well as to its fans – that domestic violence will not be tolerated. But Rice was a star, and excuses are made for stars.”

“What did NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell know and when did he know it?

“Even if Ray Rice’s NFL career ended Monday – and it better have – this story didn’t end with it. He’s a monster? Got it. He’s done with the Baltimore Ravens? Terrific.

“But we’re still here, waiting for more information. Because the story isn’t over yet.

“The NFL has some explaining to do. So do the Ravens. And so does the Atlantic City prosecutor, come to think of it.

 “Because now we know exactly what Goodell should have acted upon harshly long before now. ...

“Before, we thought. We imagined. We filled in the blanks about what happened in that Atlantic City elevator in February between Ray Rice and his fiancée, now his wife, Janay. And they were ugly blanks to fill, because what little we knew, what little we’d seen, was ugly enough. We watched a video that showed the doors open and Ray Rice emerge from the elevator, dragging Janay like a rolled up sleeping bag. Only she wasn’t asleep. She was unconscious. How did she get that way? Like I said, we imagined. We filled in the blanks.

“But now we know, after seeing another video that we can’t un-see. What Ray Rice did to his fiancée on that elevator is now a matter of public record, not something to imagine but something we saw, and that changes things.

“It changes what we think about Goodell, the invertebrate behind that spineless two-game suspension Rice received in July for knocking his fiancée unconscious. It changes what we think about the NFL, which was offering on its website official Ray Rice jerseys – in pink, for God’s sake, for women – hours after the video went public Monday.

“It changes what we think about the Baltimore Ravens, because even if they did find the gumption to do the right thing on Monday and release the monster previously known as tailback Ray Rice, they’re the same franchise who welcomed him back with open arms in July. Coach John Harbaugh – a husband, a father of a pre-teen girl – called Rice ‘a heck of a guy.’ A Ravens senior vice president wrote a blissfully ignorant piece of ass-kissery where he tried to assure the outside world that the Ray Rice he knew was ‘a good guy.’....

“Whether Goodell saw the video or not, he definitely thought it was a good idea to get the victim’s opinion on how severely he should discipline her abuser – and when Janay Rice asked Goodell to go easy on her husband, Goodell complied. He thought he was protecting the shield, I guess.

“Ray Rice is gone from the Baltimore Ravens and suspended indefinitely by the NFL. That’s a very good ending to an absolutely horrible situation.

“But what of Ray McDonald, the San Francisco 49ers defensive lineman who is facing a felony domestic violence charge, yet still playing?

“Or Greg Hardy, the Carolina Panthers defensive end who was found guilty of assaulting his former girlfriend and threatening to kill her, who also is still playing?

“Why haven’t the Panthers released Hardy, who’s awaiting appeal on the guilty verdict, or even suspended him? Why haven’t the 49ers benched McDonald, who was arrested this month but has not yet been charged? Where’s NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell on these two?

“It’s a privilege to be an NFL player, not a right. They picked this profession, a career with great financial reward, but one that also puts them in a public spotlight and holds them to far greater scrutiny than were they to, say, be selling insurance. They are role models, and the league is in the business of creating role models, and setting standards for society.

“Apparently, Hardy and McDonald are lucky alleged domestic abusers. They were very fortunate that they did their abusing, alleged or for real, far from the view of a video camera....

“Or what about Rice’s Baltimore teammate, Pro Bowl linebacker Terrell Suggs? Suggs’ longtime girlfriend, Candace Williams, claimed in a protective order filed in 2012, obtained by the Baltimore Sun, that Suggs punched her in the neck and drove a car containing their two children at a ‘high rate of speed’ while she was being dragged alongside.

“Also, in a 2009 incident, Williams said Suggs, ‘held me down on the floor and poured bleach on me and our son, held me down on the floor and kicked my face and broke my nose. Throughout our relationship since early 2007, he has punched me in the face and stomach and threatened to take the children from me if I left him. He stole my ID so I could not leave.

“This man played Sunday for the Ravens in their loss to the Cincinnati Bengals. Why? Was it because there’s no video? Of course it was.”

“When the crawl lines of ‘VIDEO OF NFL PLAYER KNOCKING OUT HIS WIFE’ all stop playing on a loop, when the caravans of outrage from domestic violence groups gradually pass – that moment in a week or so when Commissioner Roger Goodell and the Baltimore Ravens can exhale feeling the worst is behind them – there always will be one disturbing fact:

“If not for TMZ, Ray Rice would be playing Sept. 21, when the Ravens visit Cleveland.

“A man who hit a woman so hard he dropped her like a rag doll and left her lifeless-looking body face down on the elevator floor for several moments – before trying to clear her feet of the elevator door as if she were a cumbersome piece of furniture he was moving – was supposed to go to work like every other American in two weeks’ time....

“The fallout from this episode has moved beyond Rice’s criminal behavior and onto Goodell’s overall fitness to do his job, a shameful Atlantic City district attorney’s office apparently more compassionate toward abusers than the abused, and a team so tone-deaf that Monday it still had a Tweet on its official account posted from a May news conference that read, ‘Janay Rice says she deeply regrets the role that she played the night of the incident.’

“Ray Rice beat a woman, and for that, he deserves all the public shame and financial loss that comes with it. But at least he is in counseling now, hopefully gleaning the tools and support he will need to ensure he never hits a woman again.

“I can’t say the same for Goodell, his deputies or Ravens owner Steve Bisciotti and his employees. If anyone needed sensitivity training these past few months, it was this morally inept crew.

“This entire episode has taught us about the NFL from beginning to end, how a $9 billion colossus is far more concerned with preserving its image than with the behavior of its employees....

“This is what happens when a league gets comfortable with camouflaging the truth. When you tell concerned mothers their sons are more liable to suffer concussions riding their bikes than playing football, maximizing profits has eclipsed common decency. Under Goodell, the NFL has lost its moral direction.

“This country has provided the NFL and its franchises untold billions in public funding, untold billions in federal regulatory protection, and for that, Goodell’s league has a responsibility to be of value to the public – to not merely provide the entertainment value modern-day gladiators bring, but also social value.

“And on this front, time after time, it has failed. If this were a democracy, Goodell would be voted out of office....

“Roger Goodell is not a leader of men. He’s an overpaid, tone-deaf functionary whose power now needs to be checked. He needs to go too.”

“About Roger Goodell’s raised consciousness. About the NFL commissioner’s seemingly unbidden turnabout on the subject of domestic violence, his uncharacteristic admission that he ‘didn’t get it right’ when he suspended ex-Baltimore Ravens running back Ray Rice only two games for socking his fiancée unconscious, while throwing the book at marijuana tokers. About the curious timing of Goodell’s much-congratulated epiphany, and the Ravens’ sudden moral outrage, and the appearance of that stomach-heave inducing elevator video on TMZ, in which Rice decks his bride so hard she drops like a piece of lost luggage from an airplane bay....

“(Really), what did Goodell and the Ravens think a professional football player knocking his wife unconscious looked like?

“That Goodell is an unduly vain commissioner, and a self-serving one with his eye on some further prize, has always been obvious. That he obfuscates and evades on tough issues unless they are convenient for him, that his convictions are highly selective and so is his enforcement, has never been more apparent. On Monday morning, with the surfacing of that video, Goodell’s nature became totally clear. The NFL claims in a statement that no one in the league office had previously seen the tape. That is almost surely not the truth, unless the NFL wanted it that way. This is a league that works with Homeland Security, confers with the Drug Enforcement Agency, collaborates with law enforcement and has its own highly equipped and secretive private security arm. You’re telling me it couldn’t get a hold of a grainy tape from an Atlantic City casino elevator? But TMZ could?....

“On Monday, Goodell’s audience found itself in the position of questioning the sincerity of his apology for behaving in a way that led to his sincerity being questioned. For years now, NFL players have questioned his sincerity on issues like concussions, player safety, discipline and drug testing. With the Rice scandal, the full football viewing public will likely now view Goodell through the same skeptical lens.”

Regarding the second video, TMZ’s Harvey Levin claimed Monday night, “It almost feels like the NFL didn’t want to know. The only reason all of this has happened today is that the NFL was backed into a corner because we put this video up.’”

For her part, Janay Rice, in an Instagram post, defended her husband and marriage, saying in part: “No one knows the pain that the media & unwanted options from the public has caused my family. To make us relive a moment in our lives that we regret every day is a horrible thing.... If your intentions were to hurt us, embarrass us, make us feel alone, take all happiness away, you’ve succeeded on so many levels.”

Ravens owner Steve Bisciotti told fans on Tuesday that the organization botched the investigation: “I am sorry we let you down.” Bisciotti added the Ravens should have pressed to obtain a copy of the video.

“Seeing that video changed everything,” he said in a letter to fans. “We should have seen it earlier. We should have pursued our own investigation more vigorously. We didn’t and we were wrong.”

Bisciotti also wrote a lengthy missive to season ticketholders, spelling out a timeline and blaming prosecutors for letting Rice off easy.

As for Roger Goodell, he faced criticism from the likes of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) who said of him, “I think he’s a very weak leader, especially considering he makes $44 million a year.”

But in an interview with CBS on Tuesday, when asked if the Rice episode should cost him his job, Goodell said, “No, I’m used to the criticism; I’m used to that. Every day I have to earn my stripes.”

As to the second video, Goodell said, “We had not seen any videotape of what occurred in the elevator. We assumed that there was a video, we asked for video, we asked for anything that was pertinent, but we were never granted that opportunity.”

A spokesman for the now-closed Revel casino said the casino gave all tapes to the Atlantic City police department, the Atlantic County prosecutor’s office, the Division of Gaming Enforcement and Mr. Rice’s lawyer.

League owners, who have seen the value of their franchises explode during Goodell’s tenure, are backing their commissioner. Along those lines, Tuesday, the Buffalo Bills announced that the estate of late owner Ralph Wilson had reached “a definitive agreement” to sell the team to Terry and Kim Pegula, the husband and wife owners of the Buffalo Sabres. According to the Associated Press, the Pegulas will pay $1.4 billion, a record for an NFL team. The previous high was $1.1 billion for the Dolphins in 2009. It seems readily apparent the Bills will thus remain in Buffalo.

As reported by the New York Daily News, Rice had inked a five-year, $35 million deal in 2012, after being drafted in 2008 out of Rutgers by the Ravens. This second contract included a $15 million signing bonus, and his performance last season earned him another $7 million bonus.

Rice has 6,180 yards rushing for his career, including four 1,000-yard seasons, 2009-2012, and three Pro Bowl appearances.

Lastly, the cast of “Fox & Friends,” which I do not watch, is hereby placed in the December file for “Jerk(s) of the Year” consideration for saying on their show that a lesson from the Ray Rice scandal is “to take the stairs” because there are cameras in elevators. No wonder “Saturday Night Live” parodies them as they do. Obviously, expect SNL to do even more so this coming season.

Jerry Jones

The Cowboys looked dreadful in their opener, down 28-3 to San Francisco at home before losing 28-17, with quarterback Tony Romo throwing three picks.

“(Jones arrived) through sheer gumption. His story does not really tug at the heart. He is not, in fact, all that charismatic, unless you find unabashed audacity charming. Jones has bulldozed his way to unprecedented success in an arena – sports team ownership – filled with people awash in success.

“He has, of course, also completely ruined one of the country’s most beloved teams. The Cowboys are now 136-137 since 1997.

“Explaining Jones, the general manager who oversaw this stunning fall into mediocrity, isn’t all that complicated, really. It’s an old story: the same traits that led to his success as an owner have betrayed him as a GM. In one realm big and bold works. In the other, at least now, nuance is what matters. Putting together a modern-day football team is intricate work mostly dependent on an ability to coldly evaluate players based on return for investment....

“If Jones wants to win he has to turn over the football operations to people who understand the game now. This season is too late to save – Dallas’ defense is a bottom five unit in the league – but stepping away as the decision maker now would begin the transition. He can still be the face of the franchise. He can still make the final call on major moves. He’s the owner, after all.

“His legacy, though, depends on his ability to find the bright minds who understand assembling a team constrained by a salary cap, and then writing them a check. It won’t even have to be that big, comparatively so. A few million dollars – nothing for him – is all it will take.

“That, and admitting that he wasn’t the right guy. Which, so far, has been a price Jones is unwilling to pay.”

[I have no comment on the story of the woman who just accused Jones of sexual assault dating back to the spring of 2009. She is seeking more than $1 million in damages in a lawsuit, while claiming threats have been made on her life by Jones and the Cowboys and thus she has had to move out of Texas to an undisclosed location. An attorney for Jones called the suit a “shakedown.”]

NFL Bits

--Boy, the Giants were hideous Monday night against the Lions, as Eli Manning continued his awful play going back to last season in throwing another two interceptions, after leading the league in the category with 27 in 2013. The Lions’ Matthew Stafford, on the other hand, looked great, and is clearly in much better shape than last year as he eluded the Giants’ pass rush time and time again to then make plays downfield to the likes of Megatron, Calvin Johnson, who had seven catches for 164 yards and two touchdowns. In the process Johnson tied Herman Moore’s team record with his 107th straight game with a catch.

“How many times did the Giants say that in the past days? The head coach said it. The quarterback said it. The new offensive coordinator practically growled it. The message was universal from the football building in East Rutherford: Forget what your eyes are telling you about this Giants team this summer, they’ll be just fine when the real games begin.

“Well, it would appear that the old adage is true: If it looks like a duck and quacks like a duck, chances are, it’s an Eli Manning pass.

“Because this team wasn’t just as bad as the fans feared in their season-opening 35-14 loss to the Lions on Monday night. Somehow, it was worse. Somehow, the Giants made that ugly preseason feel like the good old days.”

Eli Manning is 33 years old and his contract runs through 2015. There doesn’t seem to be a rush to negotiate a new one at this point. Certainly not until this season is over.

--Indianapolis Colts star pass-rusher Robert Mathis tore his Achilles and will miss the rest of the season. Mathis was already suspended for the first four games of the season for a violation of the league’s PED policy, but he suffered the injury during a workout. Mathis led the NFL with 19.5 sacks last season, his 11th with the Colts.

--I didn’t realize Tom Brady was 2 for 18 on passes thrown 15 or more yards downfield against Miami the other day. That was an issue last season as well.

College Football

Boy, gotta be honest. This would be a good Saturday to go to some flea markets, or hit a museum, or go for a hike in the Rockies, because there isn’t one “must-see” game on the docket. Oh, sure, I’ll probably catch some of No. 6 Georgia at No. 24 South Carolina, and I guess Tennessee at No. 4 Oklahoma, until it’s 24-0 Sooners midway through the second.

Otherwise, Rutgers-Penn State is a huge game locally. It has been ages since the two last played, and while Penn State doesn’t consider this a rivalry, the fact is the Nittany Lions recruited more than a few kids from New Jersey that otherwise would have probably ended up at Rutgers. Now that they are both in the Big Ten, and this is Rutgers’ debut in same, the stakes are huge for the Scarlet Knights. The atmosphere should be electric in Piscataway. Penn State is a 3 ½-point favorite.

--Earlier, Penn State received a huge boost as the NCAA Executive Committee announced it was immediately lifting the football team’s bowl probation and that it would restore the team to a full complement of 85 scholarships in 2015-16.

The action follows the endorsement of former Sen. George Mitchell, who was hired as Penn State’s athletics integrity monitor after the Jerry Sandusky scandal.

In July 2012, NCAA President Mark Emmert hit Penn State with a $60 million fine, imposed a four-year bowl ban and took away more than 65 scholarships over a four-year period.

The Nittany Lions had two years left on the bowl ban and would have had just 80 scholarships next season and a full 85 in 2016. But now it will have 85 in time for 2015.

Needless to say, if you are a student or a fan, you’re fired up. I have zero problems with his.

Sandusky was convicted of 45 counts of child sex abuse and is serving a 30- to 60-year prison sentence. Former school president Graham Spanier and other officials are awaiting trial.

As for current coach James Franklin, his contract calls for a $200,000 bonus for making a bowl (plus other bonuses not impacted by the lessening of the sanctions).

--USC athletic director Pat Haden was fined $25,000 and reprimanded by the Pac-12 for his actions on the sideline during the Trojans’ 13-10 win against Stanford.

Haden left the press box, at the request of coach Steve Sarkisian (who was also reprimanded), in an attempt to influence the officiating. Haden apologized and imposed a sideline ban on himself for USC’s next two games.

The AD’s actions will not influence his position on the College Football Playoff selection committee.

--SMU alum Paul P. said at least the tailgating is awesome thanks to the new stadium on campus. Saturday, Sept. 20...Texas A&M comes to town. Early predicted score 72-3. But a good time will be had by all...except for the Mustangs’ players.

The Atlanta Hawks

Following the disclosure that co-owner Bruce Levenson was selling the team because of racist emails he had sent, General Manager Danny Ferry was disciplined by CEO Steve Koonin for making racially charged comments about Luol Deng when he was being pursued as a free agent this year. It was during an investigation into Ferry’s remarks that Levenson’s damaging emails were first discovered.

Atlanta’s WSB-TV reported it obtained a letter from Hawks co-owner Michael Gearon Jr. citing Ferry for telling the ownership group that Deng “has a little African in him” and was “a two-faced liar and cheat.”

Ferry apologized Tuesday saying he was only repeating comments he had heard from others in the league.

“In regards to the insensitive remarks that were used during our due diligence process, I was repeating comments that were gathered from numerous sources during background conversations and scouting about different players,” Ferry said in a statement.

“I repeated those comments during a telephone conversation reviewing the draft and free agency process. Those words do not reflect my views, or words that I would use to describe an individual and I certainly regret it. I apologize to those I offended and to Luol, who I reached out to Monday morning.”

Gearon, in a letter to Levenson, compared Ferry’s comments to those of Donald Sterling.

“We believe these comments by Ferry were far worse than Sterling’s because they were not from a private personal conversation – they were in a business environment on a business matter in front of a dozen or more people,” Gearon wrote. “If Ferry would make such a slur in a semi-public forum, we can only imagine what he said in smaller groups or to individuals.” [ESPN.cmo]

“Deng, who is from Sudan, is considered one of the hardest workers in the NBA and one of the league’s good guys. In April, he was given the J. Walter Kennedy Citizenship Award. He is a two-time All-Star and spent the first nine-plus years of his career with the Chicago Bulls. He was traded to the Cleveland Cavaliers last season and signed with the Miami Heat this summer.”

Ferry and Deng both went to Duke and played for Coach K.

Ferry’s job is in jeopardy (though he still has it as I go to post), especially since one employment attorney told Gearon that the fallout could be devastating.

Ball Bits

--Clayton Kershaw won again on Monday night, allowing one earned run in eight innings to move his record to 18-3, 1.67 ERA. Should that ERA come in at 1.70 or lower, it would be the first time a lefty has achieved this since Carl Hubbell in 1933, who had a 1.66 ERA that season. 

--The Dodgers’ Yasiel Puig has not homered since July 31, going 24-for-115, .210, since then with just 5 RBI.

--For the third year in the last four, David Wright will fail to complete a full season due to injury, this time a battered left shoulder. He thus finishes 2014 with a whopping 8 home runs and 63 RBI, to go along with a .269 batting average and .698 OPS, easily his worst ever. And for this he was paid $20 million, and will be for years to come.

--The Mets are looking to bring in the fences a second time at Citi Field. Pathetic.

--Baseball has urged umpires to apply common sense when it comes to home plate collisions. The rule, 7.13, designed to protect catchers from collisions at the plate, has become a fiasco as replay officials have taken too strict an interpretation of the rule and on occasion ruled a runner safe because the catcher didn’t leave a clear path for the runner, even if the runner would have been out by a mile. Now that is supposed to change. A memo from Joe Torre, Major League Baseball’s executive vice president for baseball operations, spells out that umpires and replay officials are “not to call a rules violation on a catcher unless his positioning hinders or impedes the runner from scoring before the tag,” as reported by Tyler Kepner of the New York Times.

Hopefully, this prevents an embarrassing call come the playoffs.

--Major League Baseball released its schedule for 2015 and it’s going to be a late one, sports fans. Opening night is a Sunday affair, April 5, while the regular season ends Oct. 4, meaning a Game 7 for the World Series would be Nov. 5.

So I can now issue my EXCLUSIVE Game 7 World Series forecast, the Los Angeles Angels vs. the Chicago Cubs, and we’re talking heavy snow at Wrigley beginning in the seventh inning, which will force play to be suspended until two days later Nov. 7, where thanks to a polar vortex, temps will be in the mid-20s, with a wind chill of 5.

Golf Balls

“Ponte Vedra Beach, you have a problem. The FedEx Cup playoffs, instituted by the PGA Tour to deliver a fabulous finish to the season, has become a dusty stagecoach ride to exhaustion.

“It’s clear the PGA Tour’s yellow-brick road is in dire need of repairs when the reigning Tour Championship winner, Henrik Stenson, does not qualify to defend his title and expresses relief....

“Stenson finished 11 strokes behind (winner Billy) Horschel, who closed with a 69 for a 72-hole total of 14-under 266, two strokes better than Bubba Watson, and then described his situation as ‘win-win.’ He explained: ‘East Lake is a really great golf course, and I would really like to come back and defend and to play it again. But I finally get a bit of a break.’

“To the fans who come to the playoff events expecting the greatest show on grass, Stenson offered his heartfelt apologies. ‘I think it’s hard for the crowds sometimes to understand what we go through with the schedule,’ he said. ‘Again, if you want to perform at the very highest level, at your peak, you’ve got to get the rest and practice in. You can’t play every week.’....

“The unintended consequence of a bottom-heavy schedule, in which two majors, a World Golf Championships event and four playoff events are crammed into the season’s final nine weeks, is that it is going to hurt the top. Don’t be surprised if players disappear between October – when the season starts anew – and the Florida swing in March.

“ ‘You’re going to start seeing some of the best players rarely between next week and March,’ (Geoff) Ogilvy said.”

Ogilvy adds, “No one wants to feel sorry for us, because this is an amazing thing we get to do,” but of course he has a great point. As a fan it’s constantly been on my mind watching these past two months.

It’s hardly good for all the tournaments in October and November, let alone the two Hawaiian events in January and the West Coast swing in February.

At the same time it’s how the likes of Jimmy Walker can get off to blazing starts.

Wild Kingdom

All manner of significant events in the animal world the past few days.

“A 50-year-old man has been killed in a shark attack off a beach in Byron Bay (New South Wales), the most easterly point on the Australian mainland” and a popular tourist destination.

“He was seen floating in shallow water, close to the shore line, and dragged onto the beach. An ambulance was called and he was pronounced dead a short time later,” a police statement read.

“Police said the wife of the man was watching from the shore.”

“I saw what looked like seaweed but it was blood in the water. I didn’t know it was a person but when I realized, I ran out and waded to the bank and grabbed him and did CPR but it was too late.”

He told local media he saw a “six or seven foot” shark in the water.

This was the tenth fatal shark attack in Australian waters in the last four years. Six victims have been in Western Australia.

Separately, Senior Vice President and Director of Shark Attacks for Bar Chat, Bob S., related a story from Alabama. Last weekend a fisherman named Jamie R. (purposely omitting last names in stories of this kind these days) was attacked by a shark on the bay side of Dauphin Island. The 43-year-old suffered the bite while he was fishing, standing in the water, reeling in a fish, when the shark attacked.

“He was not coming for me, he was coming for the fish, and unfortunately, I guess I got in the way of the shark,” recalled Jamie R. “He grabbed a hold of my leg, and at that time, I took my rod, jammed the butt end of my rod into the top of the head, and he released me.”

The man was able to get away on his jet ski and reached a boat launch, where he was taken to a hospital and is recovering.

But several years earlier, the same fellow almost lost the same leg when a stingray nailed him. Jamie R. said people underestimate how dangerous they can be. [FOX10]

--Then you have the cougar attack in Cupertino, California. As of this writing, the cougar who savagely went after a 6-year-old boy still hadn’t been found but the boy will survive.

The kid was hiking with his parents in an open space preserve near a winery when the cougar attacked and started to drag the boy into the bush. The parents were able to fight off the lion but when the boy’s parents returned to their car, the mountain lion continued to follow them, which authorities said represented “extremely unusual behavior.”

The thing is the incident took place in an area that is well-known to be a mountain lion habitat. Yet it’s a popular hiking destination.

Ergo, look for a full assault by the cougars this fall. Kind of like a scene out of Game of Thrones, I’m thinkin’. 

As noted in the Los Angeles Times, there have been “13 verified mountain lion attacks in California between 1986 and 2013 resulting in three fatalities.” I’m guessing the number killed is closer to 6,000. Wouldn’t want to hurt the tourism industry, you understand.

--The co-founder of a home for retired circus elephants in Maine died after one of the animals accidentally stepped on him. The experienced vet fell at the barn of Hope Elephants, which he had established with his brother, decades after working as an elephant handler at a traveling circus. He apparently fell and struck his head on a concrete floor before an elephant stepped on his chest. Authorities said the elephant wasn’t aggressive in any way. Just a tragedy.

--Yup, seriously, I totally forgot about the men’s final of the U.S. Open on Monday. I didn’t write any notes to myself like I do with every other event of this kind. I forgot to...because I was underwhelmed by Marin Cililc vs. Kei Nishikori.

Well, I didn’t miss anything. Cilic won 6-3, 6-3, 6-3, the 14-seed defeating the 10-seed.

Now if Cilic, 25, backs this up and makes the final next year of the French Open, I’ll probably be very interested. [The time difference for the Australian Open normally precludes me from catching any of that one.]

Barnes was the second overall pick of the 1974 NBA draft out of Providence, who he led to the 1973 Final Four, selected behind UCLA’s Bill Walton. But Barnes opted for the ABA and won rookie of the year in 1975 with the St. Louis Spirits, averaging 24 points, 15.6 rebounds. He averaged 24 points per game the following season with St. Louis as well, but then drifted around the NBA for a few years, a shell of his former self owing to his drug issues. It’s sad. This was an amazing talent.

But even though I last ran this oldie but goodie just 15 months ago, time to repeat a few Marvin Barnes stories.

Barnes was a classic, as spelled out in Terry Pluto’s book on the era, “Loose Balls,” the best history of the league.

One day Marvin was late for practice (he always was) and the coach asked him why.

“I lost my car in a lot downtown,” said Barnes.

“What kind of car is it?” asked Coach McKinnon.

There couldn’t have been 3 Bentleys in all of St. Louis.

Another Barnes habit was showing up just 20 minutes before a game. He’d stuff his face with food while getting taped and then, as the team warmed up, would sit with his women in the stands. After losing a road game, Marvin would shout when the team got back to the hotel, “Party hardy, gentlemen. Party hardy.”

Coach Joe Mullaney had this Barnes experience. “I was coaching the Spirits and it was right at the end of the first half. Marvin got the ball about 20 feet from the basket on a breakaway and there were about 4 seconds on the clock. He could have walked in and dunked it. Instead, he took three steps BACKWARDS and heaved up a 3-pointer. It was the most undisciplined, outrageous play I had ever seen at any level of basketball.”

Broadcaster and former ABA star, Steve Jones. “The morning after a game, we’d be on the bus ready to go to the airport and Marvin would come out with a woman on each arm. He would kiss them both a couple of times before he got on.”

At one point Barnes bolted the Spirits for two weeks because teammate “Jumpin’ Joe” Caldwell told him he was being screwed on his contract. Caldwell’s agent, Marshall Boyer, was a mess. Harry Weltman, the Spirits owner, said of Boyer, “I had lots of conversations with the guy and none of them made any sense. He would close his conversations by saying, ‘Men move at night.’ What the hell did that mean?”

Barnes was never on the early morning flights so one day the Spirits had a game in Norfolk after playing in New York. Everyone called Marvin from the airport and he just said that he’ll catch a later plane. So Marvin missed the 9:00 a.m., 11:00 a.m., and 1:00 p.m. flights. When Barnes finally got to LaGuardia he found that all the flights to Norfolk were gone. So Marvin started explaining his plight to some folks and was told that the only way he could get to Norfolk was to charter a plane, which is what he did, cutting a deal for a private plane to take him there. Barnes arrived about 10 minutes before the contest.

“Boys, game time is on time,” he announced upon his arrival. Marvin was wearing a big, wide-brimmed hat and his floor-length $10,000 mink coat. He had a bag of McDonald’s hamburgers and fries and, opening his coat, everyone could see he had his uniform on. Of course he had 43 points and 19 rebounds that night.

Meanwhile, during the game, the pilot showed up to get paid (he certainly wasn’t going to trust Barnes to send him a check) so Barnes ended up writing one out for about $1,000 right in the middle of the contest. [Source: Bob Costas, the St. Louis Spirits’ radio announcer at the time.]

--New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, who just a few weeks ago I told you had given up on the idea of sports betting in New Jersey, suddenly reversed himself again on Monday, saying he had decided to suspend enforcement of state laws banning it, though virtually every legal expert says no way will a casino or racetrack want to risk running afoul of federal anti-gambling statutes, which was the reason why Christie gave up on the idea last month in the first place!

This is stupid. The vast majority of us in my state (at least of males who follow sports, I’m guessing) want sports betting, but talk about a politician panicking over his presidential aspirations...and a collapsing Atlantic City that makes him look awful, especially in a potential Republican presidential debate in, say, Iowa. 

As I wrote in this very space, Christie said the other week that he couldn’t tell casinos to break federal law, especially as a former federal prosecutor, and now he’s saying, sure, just do it. 

That said there is a distinct chance a federal court will rule in New Jersey’s favor. Lloyd D. Levenson, an Atlantic City lawyer who represents some casinos, said he thought sports betting would be up and running by February, and, granted, what Christie’s move does do is prompt the casinos, and racetracks, to step up work on the framework for betting operations. [NJ.com]

Monmouth Park said it could be prepared to offer wagering on professional sports by the end of the month.

Of course the sports leagues have long been against expanding sports betting further than the few states allowed to conduct it today, but then this past weekend, NBA Commissioner Adam Silver, appearing at a Bloomberg Sports Business Summit in New York, said of legal sports gaming in the U.S.:

“It’s inevitable that, if all these states are broke, that there will be legalized sports betting in more states than Nevada and we will ultimately participate in that.”

Silver, in noting the NBA would profit from gaming added:

“If you have a gentleman’s bet or a small wager on any kind of sports contest, it makes you that much more engaged in it. That’s where we’re going to see it pay dividends. If people are watching a game and clicking to bet on their smartphones, which is what people are doing in the United Kingdom right now, then it’s much more likely you’re going to stay tuned for a long time.” [Bloomberg News]

--Joan Rivers wrote in her 2012 book, “I Hate Everyone...Starting With Me,” that she wanted some of the following for her funeral.

“I want my funeral to be a huge showbiz affair with lights, cameras, action,” she wrote. “I want Craft services, I want paparazzi and I want publicists making a scene! I want it to be Hollywood all the way. I don’t want some rabbi rambling on; I want Meryl Streep crying, in five different accents... I want to look gorgeous, better dead than I do alive. I want to be buried in a Valentino gown and I want Harry Winston to make me a toe tag. And I want a wind machine so that even in the casket my hair is blowing just like Beyonce’s.”

Longtime gossip columnist Cindy Adams was there and addressed those in attendance. She noted after in the New York Post for Page Six some of the following:

“Howard Stern actually said, standing amidst white flowers, tall in the holy pulpit, inside the House of God, to a jammed audience of maybe 700, speaking directly into a microphone, that he knows for a fact – ready for this? – that ‘Joan Rivers’ only problem was that she had a dry vagina.’

“Plus: ‘Whitney Houston’s bathtub death would’ve been averted if her vagina was that dry because it would’ve sucked up all the water and she’d have floated.’

“Trust me, nowhere does The Book of Psalms mention any such thing.

“Touching, I’m talking about real touching. One-namers like Geraldo, Ivanka, Blaine, Hoda, Oz shrieked; Barbara Walters dropped her pen, Judge Judy screamed, Tommy Tune gasped, Billy Bush applauded, Clive Davis gaped.

“Police were on duty. Guards were patrolling. Streets were blocked. Cars were shunted blocks away. Gates were up. People with clipboards abounded. Pews were assigned. Press was around. The City turned out for Joan. This was a high-class four-star, triple-A send-off. If you have to say bye-bye, this was the way to do it.

“Deeply moved, overcome with emotion, tears in his eyes, Donald Trump, all heart, grabbed me, kissed me and said tenderly: ‘When you go, I’ll personally see that you get an even bigger funeral.’”

[The New York Daily News reported in Wednesday’s edition that the doctor performing the routine surgical procedure on Rivers’ vocal cords performed an unplanned biopsy that should have been done in a hospital. The vocal cords then seized, cutting off her air supply. Apparently, the doctor noticed “something” and then proceeded. Rivers and her doctor had only signed off on an endoscopy. There is no criminal investigation of the clinic.]

--Interesting piece on exercising by Kevin Helliker in the Wall Street Journal. While I have noted some recent articles touting the benefits of short-burst exercise over the kind gained through, say, a lot of long-distance running, particularly for the older folk, there has been an explosion in participation in one-mile races.

While the numbers for distance races continue to rise, this Saturday’s Fifth Avenue Mile, a New York Road Runners event, will host a field of 5,000, up from 52 at its 1981 debut.

“(Nonetheless) the more-is-better school of exercise would hold that a single mile offers skimpy health benefits compared with the 26.2 miles that marathoners traverse. But, a research paper published in July in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology, says milers enjoy the same mortality-fighting benefits as marathoners. The study of 55,137 adults over a 15-year period found that those who ran less than an hour a week lived longer, as did those who ran more than three hours a week. Both groups on average lived three years longer than non-runners.”

Top 3 songs for the week 9/13/75: #1 “Rhinestone Cowboy” (Glen Campbell...the one and only) #2 “Fallin’ In Love” (Hamilton, Joe Frank & Reynolds...like this one...) #3 “At Seventeen” (Janis Ian...this tune has aged well...)...and...#4 “Get Down Tonight” (K.C. & The Sunshine Band) #5 “Fame” (David Bowie) #6 “Fight The Power Part I” (The Isley Brothers) #7 “Could It Be Magic” (Barry Manilow) #8 “I’m Sorry” (John Denver) #9 “Run Joey Run” (David Geddes...ughh...) #10 “Wasted Days And Wasted Nights” (Freddy Fender)

New York Jets Quiz Answers: 1) Al Toon caught 93 passes in 1988; Laveranues Coles, 91, 2006. 2) Don Maynard (1960-72) had 627 receptions for 11,732 yards with 88 TDs, the leader in all three categories; Wayne Chrebet (1995-2005) is next with 580.

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