Bud Selig, Roger Goodell & David Stern: pass the aspirin
Monday, July 23, 2007 | 10:51 AM ET
Two years ago, during the NHL lockout, Gary Bettman and his old boss, NBA commish David Stern, appeared together at a forum sponsored by The Association of the Bar of New York City.
In the middle of that discussion, Stern made some joke about the NHL. Bettman fired back by asking, “And how many hockey games have you seen?”
Bad idea, because Stern fired back with, “Certainly none this year.”
Ouch.
Bettman certainly wouldn’t forget that kind of comment. Can’t help but wonder if he called Stern last weekend and asked, “David, I need some extra cash. What games will Tim Donaghy be refereeing next year, and which team is he taking?”
Bettman’s biggest hassle last weekend was an ESPN.com report featuring emails indicating he pressured Predators owner Craig Leipold into backing away from Jim Balsillie. While Bettman (through a spokesman) went the old route of deny, deny, deny, there is no question that Stern, Bud Selig and Roger Goodell would trade a kidney for that to be their biggest headache.
Because Selig and the other owners chose to ignore steroids so the home run chase could save baseball, he’s about to watch the sport’s most important record broken by a person few think is clean. There is no absolute proof Barry Bonds took steroids, but there’s no absolute proof Adam Sandler is funny, and plenty of people believe that.
Even without the suspicion, Bonds is a loathsome individual – everything Hank Aaron isn’t. Serves Selig right. If he’d taken a harder stance in the first place, he wouldn’t have this problem.
Meanwhile, Goodell governs a league – the NFL – that soon will be able to create a real-life version of The Longest Yard. Mike Vick – once pushed as the face of football – faces federal charges related to his dogfighting activities. Nike is freezing the release of his new shoe, and he’s reportedly being pressured to take a leave of absence.
Quite frankly, the charges are disgusting, with the indictment alleging that, among other things, a dog was sprayed with water and then electrocuted because it wasn’t good enough to win. (Yes, these are allegations not proved in court, but it doesn’t look good for Vick.)
He met with the commissioner back in April, reportedly saying he had no direct involvement in this fiasco. He goes to court on Thursday, and if the federal government can prove any of this, Goodell might just spank the guy for lying.
Unlike ostrich-esque predecessor Paul Tagliabue, Goodell is a hanging judge. Tennessee defensive back Pacman Jones was suspended for the entire 2007 season because of his disturbing familiarity with police officers nationwide. In the worst incident, a bouncer was paralyzed by gunfire shortly after Jones created a riot by throwing money around a strip club during NBA All-Star Weekend in Las Vegas.
Goodell banned two other players – Chicago’s Tank Johnson and Chris Henry of Cincinnati – for eight games, presumably because their behaviour was only half as bad as Jones’. It could get worse. One radio analyst, Chris Landry of Fox Sports, claimed he’d been told up to 300 NFL players were involved in dogfighting. (In fact, former Dallas Cowboy lineman Nate Newton was arrested at a fight in 1991. Six years ago, running back Tyrone Wheatley waxed poetic about his love for it in the pages of Sports Illustrated.)
The league’s official uniform should be an orange jumpsuit. The San Diego Tribune put together a database showing 300 arrests of NFL players since 2000. Goodell might actually enjoy it if one of his teams tried to move to Hamilton. It’s better than going to bed worrying which one of your players is going to be tasered during the night.
Stern’s problem, though, is the worst because it directly affects the outcome of games. Players are expected to cheat, if they can, but your officials sure aren’t. At worst, they can only be guilty of incompetence.
This is any commissioner’s ultimate nightmare: that someone can owe so much to gamblers the only way out is fixing games. While Pete Rozelle is the model commissioner, Stern is the modern-day version – the man whose vision helped save the league from the drug-addled, no-one-cares days of the 1970s. He is the Teflon Man, rarely suffering lasting criticism even though the NBA is going through its worst problems since he took over as uberboss.
Not this time. Not with Tim Donaghy.
Off-court, The Philadelphia Inquirer reported that in 2005, he set fire to a neighbor’s lawnmower in a dispute. Happens all the time. On-court, media all over North America are going back over games he refereed to for examples of inconsistency.
Two stand out: Feb. 26, where New York, favoured by four-and-a-half, beat Miami 99-93. What stunk about that one was the foul shooting, as the Knicks outscored the Heat 30-5 from the line, where a referee can absolutely affect the game. The other was Game 3 of the brutal San Antonio-Phoenix series. Donaghy makes one call so bad that analyst Mike Fratello is clearly stunned when he says, “I don’t know what he saw. (He made) the call from halfcourt.” (It was a horrendously late whistle that sent Manu Ginobili to the line about three seconds after he’d shot it.)
The whole game is called so terribly that, 1) you’d think all three refs were gambling and 2) Fratello’s commentary is hilarious, because he can’t believe what he’s watching. San Antonio, a four-point favourite, won by seven.
This is a disaster.
Apparently, Stern will call a media conference this week to say he didn’t know about the gambling probe until after the season. However, there are reports he had spoken to Donaghy about his gambling.
It’s almost unthinkable to believe Stern could ever be in trouble, but this could do it.
The other thing to be aware of, if you’re not an NBA fan, is that sometimes this league reeks of conspiracy.
The most oft-cited example is Game 6 of the 2002 Western Final between the Lakers and Sacramento. The Lakers, down 3-2, were handed 27 free throws to the Kings' nine in the fourth quarter, and won 106-102. Then, they won Game 7 en route to their third consecutive NBA title. That game was a joke.
But it’s one thing to believe in conspiracies. It’s another to actually have evidence. It’s rare Gary Bettman can wake up and say, “I’m better off than those other three guys.”
But today’s the day.
==
I always read the comments posted underneath this blog, and a couple of you have brought up the Maple Leafs. I can understand why Toronto would not want Nashville moving to Hamilton.
Because the Predators would win the Stanley Cup first.
Think about it: Look what David Poile has done under a limited budget. Even in the great summer sell-off of 2007, you can’t help but look at that roster and say, “Geez, this guy does an unbelievable job of drafting and identifying talent.”
Now, imagine him working for Jim Balsillie, someone who will not be afraid to spend money, someone whose ego will demand an immediate contender. If I was Maple Leaf ownership, I’d be scared out of my mind. (Then again, if I owned the Maple Leafs, I wouldn’t run the organization so badly. Still can’t believe how president Richard Peddie totally neutered John Ferguson. Four years after Peddie fought off internal politics to hire Ferguson, he says the guy isn’t ready for the job. Unreal.)
Sure, the Maple Leafs don’t want another team in the region. Balsillie’s made it clear that he doesn’t want to pay them off, feeling his way-above-market bid for the Predators is enough. (Memo to Jim: That approach won’t work.) But, for Toronto, this is about more than money. It’s about the loss of a monopoly. It’s about competition. And, make no mistake, it would be a total embarrassment if Hamilton won the Cup before Toronto.
Don’t think that isn’t on MLSE’s collective mind.
But are the Maple Leafs actually blocking the move? Well, Bill Daly’s been quoted as saying that such a veto doesn’t exist. But, one journalist I know swears he’s actually seen section 4.3 of the constitution, which would allow one team to block a move into its territory.
Stephen Brunt made the argument in his column last Saturday that the Maple Leafs were quietly watching, “very secure” in his words, because they could block any move. (Brunt, by the way, is not the journalist I was referring to in the last paragraph.)
Allow me to offer a different interpretation.
I think the Maple Leafs are being quiet because they know this is never going to come to a vote. Bettman is so determined to stop this that they won’t have to exercise such an option, should it exist. No, they don’t want Nashville to move to Hamilton. But they don’t have to be the bad guys, because Bettman’s doing it for them.
« Previous Post | Main | Next Post »
This discussion is now Open. Submit your Comment.
Post a Comment
From the Pressbox »
About the Author
Elliotte Friedman is the host of the CFL ON CBC. Prior to being named host in 2006, Friedman worked on the CFL on CBC broadcasts for the three seasons as a sideline reporter. A Toronto native, Friedman is well known for his additional work on Hockey Night in Canada, as well as his presence on the Torino 2006 Winter Games telecasts as a hockey reporter. Prior to joining the CBC, Friedman worked at The Score network and was widely regarded as one of the best reporters in the country. Friedman used his reporting skills to break stories and file feature reports for high profile events including six Stanley Cup Finals, four Grey Cup Championships, two World Series and one Olympic Games. He is also a regular on the nationally syndicated Prime Time Sports radio telecast, hosted by Bob McCown.
Recent Posts
- Fall of the Argos can be traced back to Austin firing
- Friday, September 12, 2008
- Rejuvenated Matthews a good choice to revive Argos
- Tuesday, September 9, 2008
- Things I’ll never forget about Beijing 2008
- Tuesday, August 26, 2008
- Never let your emotions cloud your judgment
- Thursday, August 21, 2008
- Cheering for Priscilla Lopes-Schliep
- Tuesday, August 19, 2008
- Subscribe to From the Pressbox
Archives
- September 2008 (2)
- August 2008 (4)
- July 2008 (1)
- June 2008 (1)
- May 2008 (5)
- April 2008 (11)
- February 2008 (3)
- January 2008 (5)
- December 2007 (2)
- November 2007 (3)
- October 2007 (3)
- September 2007 (5)
- August 2007 (3)
- July 2007 (8)
- June 2007 (3)
- May 2007 (2)
- April 2007 (3)
- February 2007 (3)
- January 2007 (2)
- December 2006 (4)
- November 2006 (10)
Comments
Jamie Gray
What has happened to the sport of cycling and especially the Tour de France? I am ashamed to even step foot on a bike. I feel as though all of the past results will be tainted in one way or another. It is disgusting! Fair play and sportsmanship is a lost art in all sports nowadays.
Posted July 31, 2007 12:05 PM
Luthor Alexander
Winnipeg
Can't wait to see Barry Bonds break the record!
For the level of gameplay that ALL baseball players are at (like in economics and inflation, muscular development adjusted to time), his homers have been a remarkable sight that have been seen before everyone's eyes.
Posted July 31, 2007 10:31 AM
Alan Laing
Since CBC is getting into world-class soccer, just a word about the performance at the U-20 World Cup: Please in the future choose play-by-play commentators who are more experienced in this particular sport. Steve Armitage, who is certainly a veteran, has perhaps less experience with soccer than other commentators, and while I respect his calling of other sports, his performance was really not good enough for a major world-class event: there were missed calls, lack of identification of players, wrong interpretations, and a little too much US-type chatter. At one point (not necessarily his fault) there was a discussion of a game that had occurred earlier in the day, not realizing that many working-people had intended to watch it later on one of your other stations. Not user-friendly. Take a cue from the Premier League commentators. Thanks for listening, and I have no interest in being "published".
Posted July 28, 2007 07:06 PM
G Godlin
Unbelievable that CBS sportscasters have adorned themselves with USA pins on their lapels to cover the Candain Open. Not to mention (with excpetion to the Golf Channel) it only took 12 minutes for the boradcasters to start complaining about how this is not an "Open" championship, no wonder that this once great event has been belittled by our "friends" to the south. Might was well ass this with the AVRO Arrow to of "How are bestest buddies screwed us" wall.
Posted July 28, 2007 06:28 PM
David
Toronto
How about the great conspiracy involving Michael Jordan? He apparently had a really bad gambling problem, so much so that the NBA felt compelled to suspend him. However, the league could never do that to its marquee player. The solution? Have Jordan "switch careers". The NBA colluded with the Bulls' ownere - who also owns the Chicago White Sox - to have Jordan serve a one-year suspension by trying out with the baseball club. Works out well for everyone. Neither Jordan's nor the NBA's reputation is tarnished.
Posted July 25, 2007 10:38 AM
Rainer Schmid
You've nailed it!!Having grown up in the U.S., as a youth I was constantly being told the pro athletes should be my role model..what a farce..it's only ever been about money.
Posted July 25, 2007 09:38 AM
Stan Levenson
Your article on the leafs is terrfic. If I live to be 1000 years of age I will never understand two things. 1- How dumb the leaf nation is acceptng all that BS from MSLE. As long as the present onwernship is their the leafs will never be in contention for a Stanley Cup. 2- Why won't the media in the city start educating the leaf nation and the rest of the hockey world how badly MSLE is be run by very incompetent people. Having said all this it is still very difficult and exteremly costly to go to a leaf. ( Please note I have not gone to leaf game in tne years or more and futhermore I have no desire to do so. Am I asking too much for this to happen Thank you for the opportunity to express my views Stan Levenson
Posted July 25, 2007 08:46 AM
Michael Anstead
Vancouver
I can understand that a selfish player would cheat to improve his performance. I can imagine the circumstances that would lead a pathetic official to corrupt his sport. But I cannot fathom that anyone would be so cowardly and small that he could enjoy the cruelty of dogfighting.
Posted July 25, 2007 04:19 AM
Super Robertson
Vancouver
Excellent article Elliotte!
The new heavyweight journalist is emerging.
SR
Posted July 25, 2007 12:41 AM
Ken Hakstol
Lethbridge
Real simple solution to this steroid stuff and misbehavior. Make the team accountable for the actions of the players coaches and management. Starting at the beginning of the season if a player is caught using steroids or is convicted of a criminal offence the "team" forfits any games that the individual played in up to that point. The owners, coaches and players would have a collective interest in making sure that everyone follows the rules. The risk to the team would far greater than the reward of individual enhanced performance or a thrill off the playing field. The offseason stuff let the law deal with that. While this is not likely to happen because there is too much money involved it is a simple solution that would remedy these problems in all sports. We teach our kids that being on team means you have a responsibility to your teamates and coaches and they have a commitment to you why do professional atheletes get a pass on this?
Posted July 25, 2007 12:22 AM
Tommy Devlin
After watching Stern smugly smirk after the fiasco of the Phoenix/San Antonio play-off suspensions, I can only smile at his current consternation.
If Stern new about allegations about this referee prior to this year's play-offs, how can he continue as the commissioner?
Time for a new leader, methinks.
Ditto for hockey.
Posted July 24, 2007 10:32 PM
Jakob
Whitehorse
Yaaaawwwn...
Fix your hair
write about something you know about
Posted July 24, 2007 09:06 PM
Ellis Dee
Tell me: do you really believe that the NHL doesn't have similar problems with their own referee's and linesmen?
When watching the game on television, I'm always curious to hear what the officials are saying to the players and coaches at certain parts of the game. Could they be talking about strategies to "fix" an outcome of a period? Is there instant betting going on, for each period, including over-time, and now included, the shoot-out? Five opportunities to manipulate the outcome. In the playoffs, it takes sixteen wins to claim the cup, and twenty-eight game in which to do it. Do the math: the gambling potential in the NHL is massive. Two questions: just how clean, really, is the NHL? How much, really, do you trust Gary Bettman, a former NBA man?
Posted July 24, 2007 08:50 PM
Bill (Canadian in the USA)
Great article. I have lived in North Carolina foreight years and hockey is kicked off the front sports page by smaller sports in no time. Sure, the Hurricanes got lots of support when they won the cup in 2006. However, once they are out of the playoffs, it all goes dead. As a Winnipegger (there is no such thing as an ex-Winnipegger), I am still broken hearted over the loss of our Jets. Someday, we will return. I hope that Hamilton gets an NHL franchise. GO BASILLIE - GIVE IT EVERYTHNG YOU'VE GOT! Show them what you're made of! The one writer was right - we've got your back. You've got our support. Go Hamilton! Someday, we Winnipeggers will return to join you.
And we'll all win the cup before Toronto...
Posted July 24, 2007 06:47 PM
Ken Y
i think that what David Stern does, RIGHT NOW, determines how much damage is done. Baseball survived Pete Rose, the NBA can survive Tim Donaghy... if Stern is stern and straight. If they get to the bottom of any and every betting ref and ban them for life and prosecute them to whatever extent that is possible. The NBA has been tough on its players, it will have to be even tougher on the refs.
Posted July 24, 2007 06:05 PM
Steve
Vancouver
Elliotte,
Enjoy reading your columns. Though I think you should be required to write more than 1 per week.
NBA is a joke. You have an incompetent ref working arguably what should have been the NBA finals...and then you find out he's on the take with the mob.....NICE.
NFL has half it's members on parole (okay, i slightly exaggerated)...but you get the point. Atleast their commissioner is trying to do something about it.
MLB.....uh, Commissioner won't be in attendance when arguably the most hallowed record in all of pro sports gets broken. Need i say more.
NHL...Gary's taken this league as far as he can. He has done some good, but now with 2 arguably failed labour wars in his back pocket, i think he's gotta go. His best before date is up. The mark of a good leader is to know when to move on and to know when an experiment has failed. People in Nashville, Tampa, Miami and Carolina don't care about hockey, and never will.....needless to say, Gary never has been a good leader Sure he's got some bravado and self-confidence bordering on arrogance, but at the end of the day he's all about Gary and not what's best for the league...atleast not anymore.....this is a guy who's playing not to get fired. When you're at a press conference and get asked about a new contract and pretend not to know. That's bush. If my salary went from $4m to $5m, i'm pretty sure i'm gonna be aware. The guy that should get that job......Paul Beeston.
And now we find out that golfers....GOLFERS are on the juice. Is nothing sacred? Next thing you know, they're gonna tell us Wayne Gretzky's wife is part of a large book making operation....oh shoot, they just did. I think i should just go back to work...atleast things are normal.
Steve
Vancouver
Posted July 23, 2007 03:50 PM
S Seymour
Mississauga
You seem to forget the refereeing conspiracy when Dallas's Brett Hull scored the winning goal against Buffalo with his foot in the crease ! Mr. Clean (a.k.a. Bettman) has his share of blemishes too.
Posted July 23, 2007 03:42 PM
Marco Normandin
Woah!
Great Article.
Thumbs up!
Posted July 23, 2007 02:54 PM
Jason
Toronto
Im from Toronto and I would support a new team in Hamilton since I have no interest in the Toronto Make Beleafs. Hamilton would, no question, be more of a successful team in the playoff then the Leafs. All MLSE wants is money and the blind Leafs fans keep giving it to them on the basis of empty promises that they are trying to improve the team every year. BRING THE PREDATORS TO HAMILTON!!
Posted July 23, 2007 02:25 PM
François Paltrinieri
First of all, Elliotte, I love your work. You've always written gems and always had outstanding commentary on sports. I hope that everyone now understands how much Bettman hates the idea of US teams moving to Canada, especially Nashville's beloved Predators. Balsille was already foiled once, with regards to the Penguins, and is now in an uphill battle for the Preds. His bid is far greater than his competitors (30M more), so I say he should up his bid by another 30M (chump change to him)to make Bettman look more ridiculous, and to make it impossible for Leipold to ignore him. Go get those Preds Balsille, you know every Canadian hockey fan has your back (except maybe Leafs fans, for the reasons Elliotte laid out). Ps. For the record, the Leafs region has enough capacity (dollars and people) to support 2 NHL teams, so they have no case. As far as Buffalo goes, they are officially outside of the league minimum in terms of market distance from team to team, so they have no claim either. Plus, there's no way they have the cash to fight a lengthy court battle with Balsille...
Posted July 23, 2007 02:00 PM
Matt
Kingston
As always a great article Elliott, Keep up the good writing.
I thought Bettman was in REAL trouble this time, but as your article shows, this is nothing compared to the other commishes..
Now if only we could get you, Brunt & McGowan to do a roundtable on prime time sports every week! (3 favorite sports journalists)
Posted July 23, 2007 01:17 PM
rob keys
Ottawa/toronto
I feel that since Canada finished last we DONT need soccer here thats a South America/ Latin sport anyway. Make sure they dont come back here, it a waste of time..........
Posted July 23, 2007 12:41 PM