Author Archives: Bri Moore

Charlie Sheen, ESPN, Jason Whitlock, Lawrence Taylor, NFL, Pete Rose

Crime and (Lack of) Punishment

Buried in the sports pages and difficult to find within hours of being posted on the ESPN, Fox Sports and SI websites, there is a story out there that no one wants to address.
Former New York Giants star Lawrence Taylor is now a registered sex offender.
No one, not even Jason Whitlock, seems willing to tackle this nasty news and offer an opinion on Taylor or the seedy underbelly of humanity in which Taylor has long dwelled.
While I am disappointed in the current voices of sports media for not touching this story with a 10-foot pole, I get it. I understand why. Who wants to go there?
The whole situation is disgusting, impure and just plain gross. Just reading Taylor’s comments on the matter leave you in dire need of a shower. You’d need turpentine for your eyes.
But if we don’t discuss this, if it’s not addressed, then we’re doing a great disservice.
Or maybe I just need to get it off my chest.
Life and sports aren’t always happy. Every day is not a video montage of “One Shining Moment.” It’s not always feel good stories.
I get it. During a time of optimism, with baseball on the brink of another season, the beginning of spring and the NCAA Tournament providing smiles and buzzer beaters (as well as a distraction from this silly NFL labor dispute), the last thing we want to talk about is a washed up, former pro athlete who has been given probation for the use of an underage prostitute.
But it must be said: Lawrence Taylor is sick, depraved and should be in jail.
It’s widely known that Taylor used narcotics throughout his career and was suspended several times by the NFL for drug use. It’s also widely know that Taylor really ramped up this activity after his playing career was over, spending thousands of dollars a day on cocaine and basically living in seclusion surrounded by other drug users.
Taylor has admitted to using prostitutes before, mainly between 1994-2001, but last year he was indicted on charges of third degree statutory rape, sexual misconduct and patronizing a 16-year-old prostitute. He recently pled guilty and avoided jail time, receiving six years’ probation.
But he made no apologies.
Taylor told Fox News’ Shepard Smith that he blamed the institution of prostitution for ending up with an underage girl, but never took responsibility for himself.
“I’m not the cause of prostitution,” Taylor said. “And sometimes I make mistakes and I may go out there. And I didn’t pick her up on no playground. She wasn’t hiding behind the school bus or getting off a school bus. This was a working girl that came to my room.”
Just the fact he had to distinguish her as someone who wasn’t getting off a school bus gives me the willies. But a working girl? Yeah, LT, she’s a real 9-5er with deadlines and a briefcase.
Need that turpentine yet?
Whether directly or indirectly, Taylor is one of the causes of prostitution. As long as there are people like Taylor willing to pay for sex, then there will be prostitution.
Taylor said, “I’m not looking for a relationship. Hey, sometimes I look for some company. It’s all clean. I don’t have to worry about your feelings. It’s all clean.”
Actually, Mr. Taylor – it’s anything but clean.
It’s sick and seedy and disgusting.
Regardless of age – 16 or 19 – Taylor has something wrong with him.
This isn’t Charlie Sheen crazy funny, with cute little catch phrases.
It’s just sick and twisted.
The fact that Taylor is indifferent to the whole thing is perhaps most frightening.
“I guess you call it a crime,” he said on Tuesday. “It’s one of those crimes you don’t think about. You never think you’re gonna get busted because everyone does it until you get busted, and then it’s more embarrassing than anything else.”
A crime you don’t think about? No, it’s a crime we don’t think about because most of us don’t engage in that kind of reprehensible activity.
Taylor’s in some different, alternate reality – probably brought on by years of drug use and an out of control, narcissistic and toxic personality that thinks he’s somehow on another level.
He once said, “For me, crazy as it sounds, there is a real relationship between wild, reckless abandon off the field and being that way on the field.”
No, LT, there’s not a relationship. At all.
Taylor created one in his own mind to justify his actions. People do that all the time, some sort of reasoning mechanism to try and convince themselves their actions are not misguided.
Prostitution is a serious crime. Everyone, contrary to his belief, doesn’t do it. And it should be more than embarrassing, it’s should be shameful.
It should be a harsher sentence that six years’ probation.
Taylor is an empty man with an empty soul. Perhaps he’s always been that way.
After the Giants won the Super Bowl in January of 1987, he said, “Everyone was so excited, but by then I felt deflated. I’d won every award, had my best season, finally won the Super Bowl. I was on top of the world, right? So what could be next? Nothing. The thrill is the chase to get to the top. Every week the excitement builds and builds and builds, and then when you’re finally there and the game is over…nothing.”
For people like Taylor, empty people, there is nothing. No joy, no sense of contentment, even during a peak accomplishment.
And so he has continually chased “The Chase” all his life. He’s filled it with prostitution and drugs, searching for the big build, the thrill of the chase.
What he should feel now is the cold bars of prison shutting on his face.
How can you plead guilty to third degree statutory rape and not be in jail? How is it we honor and even remotely respect people like this? How is this man in the Hall of Fame?
He should be first ballot Hall of Shame.
We mock and despise Pete Rose for betting on baseball, but allow Taylor into his sport’s ultimate honor with open arms?
Taylor talks about feeling empty and clearly tries to fill that void by less than noble or honorable means. Thanks to his actions,  we’re the ones left feeling empty and sad. Empty and sad that this emotionless, shell of a man could make millions of dollars in the NFL, in endorsements and movies to feed his actions and his own hubris while hard working people strive just to make it to the next day.
While innocent people die of starvation, of natural disasters – like the tsunami we just saw destroy a part of the globe – Taylor somehow avoids jail time so he can continue to do his best to erase human decency and morality, all while increasing its depravity.
He’s been found guilty of tax evasion, been arrested numerous times for narcotics and prostitution, and now has agreed to a plea bargain of two misdemeanors: sexual misconduct and underage prostitution.
Misdemeanors? Are you kidding me?
It’s safe to say we might have figured out what Taylor has really been chasing all these years: Prison.
It’s only right we fulfill that desire for him, to fill that need that burns deep in his empty heart.
Taylor’s earned it, right? He’s worked hard to achieve it, so I say we give him the same feeling he had after the Super Bowl – that empty feeling of nothing but hard time alone in a prison cell.
There’s no crime in wanting that for you, is there Mr. Taylor?
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Charlie Sheen

I Want A New Drug


Charlie Sheen’s gone off the reservation.
Lost his marbles. A few cards short of a deck. A screw loose. The engine’s running, but nobody’s behind the wheel. The lights are on, but nobody’s home.
Basically, the dude is whacked out crazy.
And we apparently can’t get enough of it.
My friends are texting me quotes. My mother can’t stop watching “The Today Show” for updates straight from Charlie’s mouth, delivered with passion by Charlie’s crazy eyes.
There are Facebook pages and Twitter accounts, growing in followers like some Cult of Crazy.
It got me thinking: why do we love a good, old-fashioned meltdown so much? What does it say about our society that we enjoy this kind of over-the-top moment when you watch someone’s downfall?
Charlie Sheen’s certainly not the first. Clearly, you worry for his kids, but at the same time, how can you not snicker (OK, laugh out loud) at some of his recent comments:
“I’m sorry, man, but I’ve got magic. I’ve got poetry in my fingertips. Most of the time — and this includes naps — I’m an F-18, bro. And I will destroy you in the air. I will deploy my ordinance to the ground.”
“Clearly I have defeated this earthworm with my words — imagine what I would have done with my fire-breathing fists.”
“They’re trying to destroy my family. I take great umbrage with that. Defeat is not an option. They picked a fight with a warlock.”
“I am grandiose. Because I live a grandiose life.”
I mean, really, how do you even respond to that without laughing?
If I were one of the sacrificial lambs donated by the networks to interview Sheen, I don’t know how I would even contain myself. Think of the fun to be had there.
Just for fun, my sample question would be, “Charlie, how evil are rainbows and why do you think they are a secret society hell bent on chasing water from our oceans?”
It’s like playing Mad Libs with him.
Charlie Sheen is________.

a)     A total, bitchin’ rock star from Mars 
b)    Winning
c) Currently living at Sober Valley Lodge
d) On a quest to claim absolute victory on every front
e) All of the above
 

And yes, according to Charlie, he’s all of those things and so much, much more.
That said, our attention has been captivated by this? Seriously? It’s fun and all…but, seriously?
People are either scared for this man or laughing at him. Meanwhile, the federal government is barely avoiding shutdowns by approving temporary spending bills. Democrat House Representatives in Indiana have fled to Illinois to avoid doing their job and voting on the calendar items because they don’t have enough votes to stop the purposed legislation.
Why are we not more engaged in these things, you know, the stuff that actually impacts our lives?
Whatever party or political allegiances you have, something’s really wrong here. The posturing, the pleading…sort of reminds me of Charlie Sheen.
I suppose that brings it full circle. The more I watch this unfold, I can’t help but wonder: Is Sheen faking it?
He did pass tests last week for every drug known to exist. (Unless he’s created something undetectable, which warlocks could do, you know, with fire-breathing fists.)
But think about it: Sheen is an actor. 
Was his show, “Two and a Half Men” (which I’ve never seen an episode of), grossly popular? Sure. But there’s a level of fame Sheen has never been able to achieve. It’s the one where everyone in the world is taking about you and only you for a brief period of time.
And most of the time it happens when you get the crazy eyes and spout off at the mouth a bunch of non-sense that makes people laugh, then say, “Wait, is he serious? No…he can’t be…he can’t actually think he’s a warlock – wait, this dude actually said he’s just winning?”
Tends to grab celeb-gossip headlines. Puts you in the cultural lexicon. Creates Sheen-isms.
Before this, Sheen was “Wild Thing” Vaughn, the guy who snorted coke, cheated on his wives and is Martin Sheen’s kid.
It’s easy to see why we fall for it. He’s been in trouble before, seemed like he partied too much and had a lot of drugs and women around him. Those are listed as ingredients on the recipe for crazy.
But you have to wonder the way it’s all playing out if Sheen’s not using his past as an advantage on us. He’s watched us eat up coverage of Lindsay Lohan and the whole reality TV craze, where we like to watch “real” people spew crazy on each other (the dirty secret, of course, is most of reality TV is just as scripted as a sit com).
So maybe Sheen’s scripted this.
It’s like he took all the fun, fabricated facts people have said about Chuck Norris and turned them into his own.
He’s drawing some major bank right now. He owns the network morning shows (don’t think he’d not getting paid for it), bringing in a massive ratings increaase for re-runs of “Two and a Half Men” and watching other channels show some of his old movies on a marathon.
He gets money for all that. Ratings and re-runs bring in the cash. And I suppose if there’s one thing we can tell Charlie’s telling the truth about, it’s that he loves money.
In that context, maybe Sheen’s right. 
He is winning.
And we’re letting him because we’re feeding the crazy. We’re transfixed by this, hypnotized by some alter-Truman Show. The more we eat it up, the more crazy we get from him. 
And there will be others.
Fame is a drug, too. Charlie Sheen’s certainly on that.
I can’t help but wonder if we’re all not high off the fumes.
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Amare Stoudamire, Carmelo Anthony, Charles Barkley, Chicago Bulls, Chris Paul, Kevin Garnett, Kobe Bryant, LeBron James, Miami Heat, Michael Jordan, NBA, New York Knicks, Ray Allen

We’re Not So Different, After All

Roughly 20 years ago, the NBA revolved around just a handful of teams: The Boston Celtics, the Chicago Bulls, the Detroit Pistons, the Los Angeles Lakers and occasionally, the Houston Rockets, Utah Jazz and the Portland Trailblazers.
These teams featured rosters filled with two or three All-Stars and future Hall of Famers.
And no one had a problem with it.
In fact, it’s revered as the Golden Age of the NBA.
So why is it any different now? Why are we so bitter about superstars teaming up? Is it because we forgot the past?
That trend of stars playing with stars began again in earnest nearly four years ago, when the Boston Celtics acquired Ray Allen and Kevin Garnett in the summer of 2007 to team with Paul Pierce. It continued with LeBron James and Chris Bosh signing with the Miami Heat last summer.
Then, there was the now infamous toast at Carmelo Anthony’s wedding last summer – you know, the one where Chris Paul, Amare Stoudamire and Anthony toasted to playing together in New York for the Knicks.
The latest is the trade of Anthony to the Knicks from the Denver Nuggets, after Anthony basically told Denver to trade him because they would face long odds of resigning him. The Nuggets, for their part, were terrified of being LeBron’d – since James left the Cleveland Cavaliers during free agency, they didn’t get anything back. (Sorry, I don’t acknowledge the ridiculous compensation pick they were awarded by the league as compensation for losing James.)
In a way, Anthony did the Nuggets a favor. Instead of just signing with the Knicks this summer (well, presumably, since there’s a pesky little collective bargaining issue looming), Anthony gave the Nuggets ample opportunity to trade him and get value in return. And they did – four of the Knicks starters, three draft picks and $3 million.
It’s honorable of us as fans to long for a mystical time when professional athletes sought their own path.
It’s human nature for us to say that we wouldn’t go about it like LeBron did, televising “The Decision” and ripping the hearts out of Cavs fans.
And we can speculate freely that we would want to win a title “on our own” without help because we’re really not in that position.
What’s comical is former NBA stars pretending history isn’t repeating itself. Last summer, it seemed like everyone on the 90s All-Stars had a quote about it. His Airness, Michael Jordan, said he’d never do what LeBron did. Same for Charles Barkley.
Funny, as I recall, Jordan played with Scottie Pippen – and only won titles with Scottie Pippen. LeBron didn’t have anyone who could even resemble Scottie Pippen’s skill set in seven years in Cleveland.
Funny, as I recall, Barkley forced his way out of Philadelphia to Phoenix, where he played with Kevin Johnson and Dan Majerle to have a better chance at a championship. Then, in the later stages of his career, The Round Mound of Rebound played with Clyde Drexler, Pippen and Hakeem Olajuwon in Houston, trying to get a ring.
Um, fellas…I don’t see the difference between you, James, Bosh and Anthony in that regard.
What’s different about how the Celtics came together with Allen and Garnett joining Pierce, versus James and Bosh joining Dwayne Wade in Miami? Their age? 
Maybe we just felt bad for Garnett for wasting his prime toiling away in Minnesota. Ray Allen is Jesus Shuttlesworth, a pure shooter, and seemingly a nice guy, so we gave them a pass.

But what’s different about it, really? Bosh certainly isn’t Garnett’s talent, but he toiled away in Toronto for seven years. James saved Cleveland basketball for seven years, took them to the Finals and won MVPs with the likes of Boobie Gibson as a running mate. 

How can we hate a guy like James, who spent seven years making his teammates better, because he basically wanted better teammates? Why does he have to make them so much better, year after year? Why not go play with better teammates and focus on other aspects of the game?
Perhaps the focus of our rage is or should have been on the character they showed in the process. Which, as I have written before, I completely agree with.
You can handle yourself better, LBJ.
You too, Melo.
You can show respect for the fans that turned out in droves, bought your jersey and were witnesses.
That aside, we’re all hypocrites.
Can any of you honestly say, with a straight face, you wouldn’t want to work with your friends? That you wouldn’t want to work in Miami, New York or Los Angeles?
That’s what this all comes down to. Do professional athletes get paid more than you do in your 9-5? Is the job more fun than TPS reports and Excel spreadsheets? More attention and glamor in the NBA than in Human Resources or Finance?
Undoubtedly, yes to all those questions.
I would work with five or six of my closest friends in a heartbeat if the situation presented itself, period. Add in that we have some of the best skill sets for our respective positions, it increases our chance of success.
And if someone told me we could do that in Florida or California instead of Cleveland, Minneapolis or Indianapolis, I wouldn’t even hesitate.
We forget that these people are human.
That doesn’t mean you have to agree or sympathize – or like it.
But tell me you can see the reasons why.
Let’s look at it this way: Since 1984, only seven different teams have won an NBA championship (Boston Celtics, L.A. Lakers, Detroit Pistons, Chicago Bulls, Houston Rockets, San Antonio Spurs, Miami Heat). Of those, only the 2004 Pistons didn’t have a superstar – just a bunch of really good players with different skill sets that complimented each other.
Many of those teams featured multiple All-Stars or superstars.
Combine that with how fans and media increasingly weight championships and multiple championships into an athlete’s legacy, guys know they have to team up with someone to win a title. It’s either that, or pushing management to get better talent around them.
Jordan did it.
Barkley did it.
Kobe Bryant tried to get traded just three years ago because of it. The Lakers promptly brought in Pau Gasol and have been to the NBA Finals three years running, winning the last two titles.
As fans, we say we want athletes to do it alone, but when have we ever willingly done it ourselves?
If you play open gym, pick-up basketball or a Y-League, do you pick the four worst guys or the four best?
If you coach a Little League team, do you take the best player and then surround him with lesser players intentionally, just to see if he can carry you, because that’s all you need?
If you work on a project team, do you want team members that have made mistakes and are apathetic about their jobs, or do you want someone in each position – all the way down to who answers the phones – who’s done it before, won awards and is recognized as one of the best?
How about if you were in a legal dispute? Do you want one good lawyer, or would you prefer a team of them?
It’s obvious we’re asking professional athletes to make decisions in the exact opposite manner we would.
Now, would I televise my decision to join a project finance team? Probably not. Nor would I say that I was taking my talents to Company X.
It may be that what we’re really frustrated about is the ego, the fame, the glory and the poor manner in which these athletes conduct themselves. They have so much that we want, that we believe we would do anything for – the talent or the opportunity, that we can’t believe they act this way. We’re allowed and entitled to be disgusted by it, to despise them for it in some ways.
Let’s just not be hypocrites, too.
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2010 Labor Dispute, Jerry Jones, Jerry Richardson, Major League Baseball 1994 Strike, NFL, Pat Bowlen, Roger Goodell, Scott Fujita

Beautiful Losers

As you’ve probably heard, this Sunday could be the last NFL action you’ll see for awhile.
Over the past few months, you’ve heard a lot about 18-game schedules and player safety. But really, truly, it’s about the money. It’s always about the money.
Just like the ugly and embarrassing baseball labor dispute in 1994, it’s not the players that have a problem with their piece of the pie. It’s the owners.
And it’s the commissioner, Roger Goodell, spinning his weave in order to maximize his brand and get the most money out of our collective pockets.
Goodell and a group of owners (Jerry Jones, Robert Kraft, Pat Bowlen, Jerry Richardson to name a few) are see the opportunity to make the NFL even more profitable than it already is. They each want their own Scrooge McDuck “Money Bin” and they’ve come too far now to turn back on it.
This group wants a collective bargaining agreement (CBA) that “accounts” for the investments they’ve made in new stadiums and other capital expenditures.
They think they got a raw deal when the current CBA, which they opted out of in 2008, expires next month.
They think the players receive too much of the revenue share of their adjusted gross revenues.
They think this is about them.
What’s perplexing is how these clearly successful entrepreneurial figures feel like they are being scammed. Revenue sharing does not address the fact that some teams have or have had favorable stadium deals that call for little or no expenditures from the organization, while others, ironically Jones’ Dallas Cowboys and Bowlen’s Denver Broncos, had to take out massive loans for new or renovated stadiums.
In turn, this upsets owners like Richardson, who owns the Carolina Panthers, because he has to write an eight figure check that subsidizes another team, say the Cincinnati Bengals, who’s owner (Mike Brown) is making a fine penny or two because of low overhead.
To make matters worse, there are owners who intentionally keep revenues and overhead low to maintain their spot in the bottom half of revenue-generators in order to ensure they will receive a subsidy.
All of this leads to this question: and this involves the players how? Sounds like the owners and the league need to figure out some new rules on playing nice and essentially cheating the system.
In regards to the stadium issues, the response to that would be simple. Isn’t that the cost of doing business? Of being an NFL owner? Why does a city, state of its residents have to foot the majority of the bill for a new stadium? The fans use the stadium, but they pay for tickets in order to use the facilities. They’re already paying for the use of the stadium, correct?
Let’s look at it like this: why don’t the owners pay more for player’s health insurance so they are taken care of long after they retire? Don’t the players get their ailments from playing for the NFL and it’s teams?
If you want the people to pay for your work office that aren’t employed by you, how can you use the logic that you won’t pay for healthcare of your former employees who, had they not played football, might otherwise be healthy?
It’s a twisted little game to play when you start bringing money, logic and sport together at the same table.  
They don’t usually make good dinner conversation.
In order to make-up the difference of what this group of owners feel they are losing, they are seeking a proposed 60 percent cut of a smaller revenue pie. 
Under the current CBA, owners get a credit of more than $1 billion for operating and investment expenses off the top of the annual revenue pool – that’s currently around $9 billion – before the remainder of the money is divvied up. 
Now the owners want about $2.4 billion in credits, citing the changing economic times. These additional credits include – and this is straight from the proposal – “professional fees”, practice facility costs and travel.
Um, what company asks for employees to pay for overhead and maintenance?
The players have tried to call the owners’ bluff, repeatedly asking the owners to open their books to prove the financial crisis they face. And the owners have always refused.
In addition, the 18-game schedule is nothing more than a slight of hand. If Goodell gets his way, it’s more revenue for the NFL and stretches the season. The players don’t want it for two reasons: 1) Naturally, they won’t get paid anymore than they already do and 2) Injuries.
Look at the New Orleans Saints, who used something like 235 running backs this season. The Green Bay Packers, NFC Champions, had 15 players put on injured reserve this season. They are currently fighting over whether or not those 15 guys will be in the team picture.
And while clearly the players aren’t inescapable of the blame, the owners seem to be playing some mystifying game called “Vagueness.”
Back in training camp last summer, Goodell made the rounds to all the teams. When he got to Cleveland, current Browns linebacker Scott Fujita, who sits on the player’s union executive board, called him out: “What is it going to take for us to get the deal done?”
Goodell’s response: “I don’t think there’s any sense of urgency right now. I don’t think there’s going to be one for a long time.”
Goodell went on to say that these things have a way of working themselves out.
Except when they don’t.
That baseball strike of 1994 is always remembered bitterly and all history remembers is the “greedy” players. However, the ordeal began because  the owners were unhappy with the deal they had. Baseball player’s union head Donald Fehr severely misread the situation and ordered a preemptive strike by the players with seven weeks left in the season.
All that did was cancel the 1994 World Series (sorry, Expos).
Is that where we are headed? Perhaps there won’t be a Super Bowl in Indianapolis next year at this time. Perhaps there will be no fantasy football, no Sunday afternoon Red Zone, no Madden ’12.
And that’s the real story, as it always is, with labor disputes. While the owners and players, who are already far richer than the NFL’s average fans will be in 10 lifetimes, argue and fuss over credits and billions of dollars and who’s paying for state-of-the-art facilities, the fans will be without the sport they love more than both the owners and players ever could.
Face it: we care more than they do.
We always have.
We always will.
Bob Seger once sang about a “beautiful loser,” someone who want both sides of the coin, security and freedom. That’s what comes to mind when Goodell says if there’s not a new deal done, he’ll cut his own salary to $1. Fear not, he’s been banking $10 million a year since he became commissioner of the NFL in 2006, so I think he’ll survive the work stoppage.
Question is, will the game and its popularity survive?
We’ll all answer that question, collectively, soon enough.
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Uncategorized

What Goes Around…

Tuesday night after the Los Angeles Lakers destroyed – and I mean absolutely throttled – the Cleveland Cavaliers 112-57, former Cavs star LeBron James took his talents to Twitter and tweeted the following:
“Crazy. Karma is a b****. Gets you every time. It’s not good to wish bad on anybody. God sees everything!”
LeBron must subscribe to the school of thought that God is on his side and is a vengeful God with intent to humiliate James’ former franchise and its owner, Dan Gilbert, for being so mad at him for leaving Cleveland.
He might be the only one.
Clearly, James hasn’t emotionally recovered yet from the pure venom directed his way by his former team and his former teams fans. His mind might be on the Miami Heat and winning the NBA championship this season, but his heart is heavy and dark. He’s still holding onto the words Gilbert wrote in anger after LeBron took his “talents to South Beach.”
If you recall, Gilbert wrote a scathing letter questioning James’ character and that karma would come back and get LeBron James. In a series of interviews since, Gilbert has implied that James quit during the playoffs in each of the past two seasons. He said that LeBron didn’t care about Cleveland.
LeBron has said that Gilbert never cared about him.
Suppose the question becomes, does he have to? He’s your boss. He pays you to do a job. We so often blur the line of entertainment and business in sports that now there’s larger obligations, unwritten rules that we apparently have to follow.
Maybe the larger question is why Gilbert was mad to begin with. James’ was his contracted employee for seven years. James’ fulfilled the obligations of his contract. There were no contract stipulations demanding undying devotion to the Cavs, delivering an NBA championship or even handling himself in an appropriate manner if he chose to leave the team.
It’s already been discussed and widely accepted, by James himself, that he mishandled the situation with the train wreck that was “The Decision.” But Gilbert also mishandled his emotion filled rants since that time.
Dude, he’s gone. Get over it. Start paying attention to the fact your team stinks something fierce. These emotional attachments just aren’t good for anyone.
But bringing God and how He works into it doesn’t help either.
That’s the second time this week God has been brought in reference to something that happened in the realm of play.
On Monday, following Auburn’s 22-19 victory over Oregon in the BCS National Championship, Auburn head coach Gene Chizik proclaimed, “First of all, I can’t be more blessed to be part of a whole team like this. Man, God was with us.”
Tim Keown of ESPN.com wrote about this instance as well and I’d basically say the same thing: so does that mean God hates Chip Kelly and Oregon? Was He sickened by the Oregon DayGlo uniforms? Something against Ducks?
It’s not the implication that God plays favorites in regards to sporting events, but that God even cares about Auburn football, Oregon football or the war of words between LeBron James and Dan Gilbert.
It’s one thing to praise whatever deity you believe in for blessing you with talents that have allowed you to be in the moment or to excel in something, or for the opportunity. No one begrudges guys like Tim Tebow for that.
However, a line is crossed when you insinuate, perhaps through your own stupidity and understanding of the situation and others, that God cares about the outcome of the game or a situation for you more than someone else.
For Chizik, we don’t even know the final outcome. Meaning, will Auburn even get to keep the national championship it just one? You know, that whole Cecil Newton “pay for play” thing? 
And if Chizik is so convinced God cared more about Auburn and his players than Oregon, Chip Kelley and his players, as Keown suggested in his column, is Chizik donating his performance bonus for winning the title – $600,000 – to a charitable organization?
If not, if Chizik keeps that check (likely), then I’d love to say the following:
But you said yourself that God blessed you and your players and led you to victory, so that money is not rightfully yours, it’s God’s. Give it back. Otherwise, you’re stealing, essentially, from the very man who blessed you, right?
I’d venture a guess that Chizik’s head would explode trying to process that line of thinking.
I’m sure God wants you to have the money, coach.
As for James, he’s partially correct. It’s not good to wish bad on anybody. But isn’t it also not good to revel in the pain and defeat of others? Won’t that jeopardize the karma as well?
A massive ego is rarely considered a good thing either, but all of this is coming from the same man who once declared that he spoiled everyone with his play.
In fact, let’s inspect, for fun, another LeBron quote, shall we?
Following a game several years ago, James told the media, “That’s not fair. I was fouled.”
But being a man of faith and apparently a believer in karma, there’s a good reason that foul wasn’t called, right? It had to have been punishment for some past indiscretion or wrongdoing, however small. Or, God was with the other team and the other players and coaches that night.
It’s a vicious little cycle, isn’t it?
See, we open our mouths, but a lot of the time, all that comes out is trash, jibberish or nonsense. Maybe it’s because fans and the media beg athletes, coaches and entertainment figures of all kind to talk, but then we don’t like what we hear.
Or perhaps it has nothing to do with that. 
Maybe God has bigger things to worry about. Maybe karma exists, but not on the miniscule level of the professional sports realm. Maybe there’s a tad too much personal emotion and investment put into the lives of multimillionaires who play games for a living.
Or, just maybe, we should all just do what we were told to do a long time ago.
If you don’t have anything good to say, don’t say anything at all. After all, it could come back to bite you.
Just ask LeBron James. 


On Wednesday night, the Heat were beaten by the Los Angeles Clippers and James was hurt.


Now that’s karma.
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