What We Know Now: The NFL May Have a Problem Much More Serious Than Bullying‏

This weekend I am wrapping up a piece for East End Philadelphia for my “Deep Six” series of columns.  One of the things that I mentioned is the overuse of the term “bullying” in the media and how that word has been misapplied to a lot of things in modern life, and recently the NFL has gone through an issue where a guy accused a teammate of such things.

The issue that I am speaking of would be the Richie Incognito story, and thankfully it has disappeared quickly for the time being.  I have this feeling that the NFL is going to wait to release their findings until after the season is over so as not to distract the fans from the playoffs which are going to be awesome this year.  And I had thought in my mind that we were done hearing about bullying in the NFL for the time being… But I was wrong.

What We Know Now: SBM Explains the NFL’s Flex Scheduling Procedures

Al Michaels and Cris Collinsworth discuss the next step in their plan to shit on our brains.

Flex scheduling will be here before you know it, and here at SBM we figured that we’d go ahead and break down what that really means.  For that, we go to the fine folks at NFL.com to help you the fan understand just how it works.  However, before you go any further, there are two things you need to know here:

1)  The rules are broken down into two sections – A summary of what the flex scheduling means to you, and another portion which is called “NFL Flexible Scheduling 101”

2)  The only reason for the second section is because the league assumes you (the fan) are stupid. 

WHAT WE KNOW NOW: GOING OVERCOVER ON THE RICHIE INCOGNITO STORY, PART II‏

On Monday morning the story involving Miami Dolphins guard Richie Incognito and offensive tackle Jonathan Martin became much more severe.  Whereas in our first piece we had no idea what was said, we now know that both the NFL and the Miami Dolphins have listened to an audio recording of Incognito where he uttered the following:

“Hey, wassup, you half n—er piece of shit. I saw you on Twitter, you been training 10 weeks. [I want to] shit in your fucking mouth. [I’m going to] slap your fucking mouth. [I’m going to] slap your real mother across the face [laughter]. Fuck you, you’re still a rookie. I’ll kill you.”

For the record, this is only one of the messages that was released.  Apparently there are many more, as well as a series of texts which refer to him being called a certain part of the female anatomy.  He also apparently called him some kind of homophobic slur, and I’m sure we can all picture in our minds which one it was.

So let’s break it down as to why this is going to piss people off so much – line by line, and reading in between the lines as well.

WHAT WE KNOW NOW: GOING OVERCOVER ON THE RITCHIE INCOGNITO STORY, PT. 1‏

(Editor’s note:  This is part one of a two part story as compiled on Sunday, November 3rd, 2013.  Breaking news that has changed this story has just been released.  We’re going to go ahead and run what we have here, and then do a follow up that will run on SBM the morning of Wednesday, December 6^th.)

A very bizarre story involving two Miami Dolphins linemen has come to the forefront this week.  The players involved were right tackle Jonathan Martin and guard Richie Incognito.  The alleged misbehavior revolves around a certain event in particular…

Sources told ESPN that one of the significant allegations being reviewed is that Incognito got Martin to contribute $15,000 to help finance a trip to Las Vegas by some Dolphins last summer, even though Martin preferred not to travel with the group. 

While ESPN is still the worldwide leader in blowing things way out of proportion, they’ve also been on this story for almost a week and it looks like for once they may have nailed it. 

What We Know Now: Bo Pelini Must Be a Big Lee Elia Fan

 

Flash the clock forward to 2011. The Nebrasks Cornhuskers have just scored a huge comeback win against Ohio State. The problem was that a big chunk of the fans had left before the comeback, which led head coach Bo Pelini having a very Elia-esque moment which was brought to  light this week by the good people at Deadspin.

This is fun. Here we have an audiotape of Nebraska football coach Bo Pelini flipping his shit about both the media and the Cornhuskers’ fans after a 2011 game. Why are we getting this now? Well, our tipster was particularly exercised by Nebraska’s flameout against UCLA on Saturday, which has led to some awkwardness in Huskerdom. In the 2011 audio, Pelini says the word “fuck” a lot. He seems to have no idea he was being recorded.

Our tipster says the recording was made on Oct. 8, 2011, just after Nebraska had come back from three touchdowns down to beat Ohio State in Lincoln. He or she only recently had come into possession of this audio before sending it our way. It was recorded moments before Pelini did his postgame radio interview with Greg Sharpe of the Husker Sports Network. Pelini sounded anything but relieved by the big victory.

In the recording, Pelini is talking to Sharpe and to a woman whose identity we’ve been unable to determine. Pelini initially seems upset with an unknown person who works at the Omaha World-Herald, whom he calls “a piece of shit.”

So, after you take in all that has happened, it is time for us to boil all the media bullshit off this story and get us back to the hard facts we all know are present here.

To Continue Reading, Click Here…

SBM Exclusive Feature: What We Know Now – Ten Things Soccer Needs To Do To Gain Popularity in America

Now that we are into the off-season for the “real” soccer leagues, it is time to give the American Major League Soccer some tips so it can actually become a “major” league.  One of my favorite sports blogs  recently did a piece on why soccer sucks and will never catch on in America. It its current configuration, Aidan from Worcester is absolutely right.  The trouble is that his piece is very American-centric, and therefore misses some important points. Not that there’s anything wrong with that; the last time I checked Massachusetts was still in America.

The more I hear the assorted rants of the “soccer will never be popular in America” crowd, I can’t help but notice they sound just like the guys 40 years ago who kept saying nothing would ever surpass baseball as the de facto national sport. Well, baseball got passed in the 1980’s, and whether you want to admit it or not, soccer is gaining in popularity ever day in this country. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying soccer would ever become the national sport of this country; that’s just never going to happen. But it easily has all the opportunity to become a very major sport, but it also isn’t doing anything to help itself achieve that status.

So, here’s where I’m going to ask you to make a decision. If you are a fan of soccer and think it can grow in popularity in America, go read Aidan’s piece first, then come back to this one.  Conversely, if you think soccer sucks, then read this piece first , then go over to his article. Either way, read the one you agree with last so that nobody tries to find either of our houses with an enraged mob.

Now,  let’s get to the ten things American soccer must do in order to not repeat the mistakes the North American Soccer League (NASL) made 30 years ago.

SBM Exclusive Feature – What We Know Now: The Aaron Hernandez Story Is About To Get Intense

Patriots’ Tight End Aaron Hernandez, shown here with his cell phone which is reported to be in a much different condition at the moment

by Ryan Meehan

I do realize that even as freelance journalists, we have a little bit of responsibility to not jump the gun on a story where we don’t know all of the facts.

I am going to sort of break that brotherhood and that trust because I’m pretty convinced that this debacle involving New England Patriots tight end Aaron Hernandez is not going to go away any time soon. 

SBM Exclusive Feature: What We Know Now – Ray Lewis and The Recent Steroid Allegations

Subject one: Ray Lewis

by Ryan Meehan

As the Baltimore Ravens were on the team bus headed to media day, coach John Harbaugh was alerted of a story that was just breaking involving Ray Lewis.  Lewis finds his last NFL surrounded by controversy due to speculation that he may have taken a banned substance in order to speed up his recovery from a torn tricep injury that he suffered in a game against the Dallas Cowboys this fall.  Given that it is very early on in the story’s life cycle we’d like to introduce to you a brand new segment called “What We Know Now”, which will allow us to report stories that have just broke but are still young so there is a certain speculation that remains.