NIL

Youth football participation steadily decreased for more than a decade after news about CTE started to break, but it is on the rise again. Roughly a million boys still play high-school football — twice the number that play either basketball or soccer — and it remains possible in much of the country to sign up your 5-year-old to be a linebacker. Most surveys of parents find that they understand there are risks but that they also don’t want to keep their kids from playing.

***

An official said on Monday the Neom giga project in Saudi Arabia is currently using one-fifth of all the steel produced in the world.
Manar Al Moneef, Neom’s chief investment officer.said the futuristic city will be the world’s largest customer for construction materials for several decades.
She told the Global Logistics Forum in the King Abdullah Financial District in Riyadh that the $500 billion project would be one of the world’s leading drivers of the global logistics sector in coming years.

***

English economist William Jevons observed in 1865 that steam engine improvements, which made coal use more efficient, did not reduce fuel use. Instead, these advancements, which made steam engines cheaper to operate, increased demand for coal even more.
This occurrence, called Jevon’s Paradox, could still happen today with energy consumption and AI. If AI could make energy production at least 15% more efficient, demand could increase as energy prices drop.

***

NIL

NIL is an acronym standing for name, image, and likeness. It has emerged as a way to compensate college athletes.

A NIL agreement is essentially a contract for the student-athlete to earn fair compensation for their time and effort. To market their likeness. A NIL agreement could also be an endorsement deal on a local or national level.

Where does the money come from? Collectives. A NIL collective is a group or organization, often run by boosters, alumni, or local businesses, that pools resources to provide financial opportunities to their specific college athletes.

For football, these collectives typically help players monetize their personal brand by facilitating endorsement deals, appearances, and partnerships with companies. Unlike direct pay-for-play systems, NIL collectives ensure that athletes are compensated for their marketability while maintaining their amateur status.

The top ten NIL earners are mostly quarterbacks, a few basketball players and, of course, Livvy Dunne.

Top 10 NIL earners

NIL 10 Rank

NIL Valuation

1. 1

   
   NCAASRShedeur SandersQB

   $6.1M

   2.8Mfollowers

2. 2

   
   SRLivvy DunneAll

   $4M

   13.6Mfollowers

3. 3

   
   NCAAJRTravis HunterCB

   $3.3M

   3.3Mfollowers

4. 4

   
   NCAASOArch ManningQB

   $3.1M

   370Kfollowers

5. 5

   
   NCAAFRCooper FlaggSF

   $2.6M

   899Kfollowers

6. 6

   
   NCAASRR.J. DavisSG

   $2.3M

   273Kfollowers

7. 7

   
   NCAARS-JRJalen MilroeQB

   $2.2M

   309Kfollowers

8. 8

   
   NCAASRCaleb LovePG

   $2.1M

   412Kfollowers

9. 9

   
   H.S.AJ DybantsaSF

   $2M

   432Kfollowers

10. 10

    
    NCAARS-JRQuinn EwersQB

    $2M

    303Kfollowers

Qatar

A]bout 830, the Hindu numerals entered Eastern Islam, at about 1000 Gerbert brought them to France; in the eleventh and twelfth centuries Greek, Arabic, and Hebrew mathematics streamed into Western Europe through Spain and Sicily, and came with Italian merchants to Venice and Genoa, Amalfi and Pisa. Transmission is to civilization what reproduction is to life.--Durant

***

In 2021, there were 5,981 unruly passenger reports, and the FAA proposed $5 million in fines against unruly passengers last year, according to the administration.
Last year, 1,099 investigations were initiated, a large increase from 2020, when there were 183 investigations into unruly passenger incidents.
This year, there have been 2,178 reports of unruly passengers, as of Nov. 1.

***

At least six Russian military aircraft have crashed since September due to what appear to be internal malfunctions.

***

"Unless we manage to reduce energy prices in Germany and Europe quickly and reliably," VW's CEO Thomas Schäfer wrote in a Monday LinkedIn post, "investments in energy-intensive production or new battery cell factories in Germany and the EU will be practically unviable."

***

Qatar

Smaller in total area than Connecticut and with fewer people than Kansas, Qatar is easily dwarfed by the 17 countries to previously host the World Cup. There are nearly 3 million people in the country, but only 300,000 of those are Qatari citizens. The rest are expatriates hailing from the likes of Bangladesh, Pakistan, and Nepal, all imported laborers.

Qatar spent 12 years building around $220 billion worth of new infrastructure, including stadiums for the tournament and an underground metro. The eight stadiums hosting matches are all within a 35-mile radius of Doha, situated in and around the capital city.

A report published last year by The Guardian found that 6,500 of those workers had died since the country was selected in 2010 to host the tournament.

“Everything is new,” said The Athletic’s Sam Stejskal, who is staying in an apartment with Tenorio outside of Doha. The ground floor of the apartment building features a Kentucky Fried Chicken and Krispy Kreme, both of which just opened. “It feels sort of like a country that’s being unboxed for a World Cup,” Stejskal said.

Organizers have imposed restrictions on where and what media outlets can document, prohibiting filming or photography of residential properties, private businesses, and government facilities. The government’s hardline posture has already led to incidents. Last week Qatari security officials interrupted a Danish television crew’s live shot on the streets of Doha and threatened to break their camera equipment; organizers for the World Cup later apologized and said it was a mistake.

“There’s a genuine hostility between media, fans, and host nation that I’ve never known before,” said Ronay, who is covering his third men’s World Cup this year. 

--Barney Ronay, the chief sports writer for The Guardian

“Sports and the geopolitical power of these tournaments are indivisible. This is a tournament that was brought here for the glorification of a very tiny, very wealthy nation-state that has preoccupations with its standing in the world. That’s why we’re here. There is not a chance we would be here if not for the politics of sport.”--Wallace

Waiting for Kurtenbach

The Wilson play recently reminded me of the unspoken rules of old time hockey.

Years ago in Montreal my classmates were introducing me to the game. We would all go on Wednesday early and get standing room tickets and watch the Montreal Canadians, a great team at the time. One night the Canadians were getting badly beaten by the Leafs; a local hero who played for the Leafs got all three goals and the crowd had turned against the home team. Late in the period a Leafs rookie--Malone, I think--scored, his first in his career. He was thrilled and sought out the puck as a keepsake. A defenseman, furious at the turn of events, dropped his gloves and sucker-punched him in the face, knocking him unconscious.

The crowd around me went silent, then everyone stood.

"What's happening?" I asked.

"That was a terrible foul," I was told--even if  by the home team.

"But what is everyone doing?"

"Waiting for Orland Kurtenbach."

"What's that," I asked.

"Toronto's fighting center.' (Apparently a rare breed.)

"What are they waiting for?"

My companion looked at me curiously. "For justice, " he said.

Indeed, moments later, Orland Kurtenbach came over the boards, he and the defenseman (Terry Harper, I think,) met in front of the net, squared off and Kurtenbach knocked him unconscious with a professional looking left hook.

Dorfman

"People tell me the game is complicated. I tell them the game is simple. People are complicated." "Have a plan, relax, see the ball and trust your muscles."
Keep it simple, I tell them That's the challenge."
This is from the introduction to H. A. Dorfman's The Mental Keys to Hitting, a little known book but a bible among ballplayers.


The game is simple; people are complicated. Do not complicate the simple.

Darrius Heyward-Bey

This story has been hanging around the Internet on ESPN.
Wide receiver Darrius Heyward-Bey, with the help of his mother, who is a certified accountant, has been frugal with his nearly $35 million in career earnings.

Heyward-Bey made nearly $30 million in his four years with the Oakland Raiders prior to a stop in Indianapolis in 2013 and then joining the Steelers in 2014.  

The 29-year-old receiver has managed his money closely, saving "most" of it, according to ESPN's Jeremy Fowler. Darrius and his mother designed a monthly allowance for him and he pays her a commission to help manage his money and track his expenses.

"I get an email [from her] every Tuesday," Heyward-Bey told Fowler. "I can read it over, check it up. I see where the money is going."

Heyward-Bey also explained that he's able to continue to save because of his simple lifestyle.

"I don't have any kids and I'm not married, so the money I spend is on me. It's really easy to say no to myself. I keep things real simple. I'm not really a flashy guy. I understand what I want to buy. I invest my money well and pay my taxes."

According to Fowler, Heyward-Bey even shuts off the cable in his California home for the six months of the year he's not there.

What's Wrong with Hockey

"If you're going to slash him, break a bone. If you're going to hit him from behind, give him a slight concussion." -- Mike Milbury, NHL TV analyst

There is a lot wrong with the sport of hockey. For starters, the puck is small and moves so fast that it does not translate well to television. Since TV is where sports make most of their money, that is a problem and will limit its popularity and growth. As will the games foreignness. Most of its potential audience have never skated; everybody has thrown a ball.
But there is a bigger problem, the problem of how the game--and the players--see themselves.
First, there is a gap between how players regard each other in hockey as opposed to other sports. Somehow hockey players transcend sportsmanship. Yes, they have an uplifting handshake after the series and they interview well and charitably. But they unquestionably try to hurt each other for advantage. There is some of that in all sports--"wearing the other guy down," hit him on every play," "throwing the pitch inside"--but nothing like hockey. Hockey allows--encourages--the athletes to harm each other. Harm. Athletes who respected the game and each other simply would not do that. It is the difference between Navratilova and Harding, Musial and Marishal. But Harding and Marishal are notable exceptions; such players are the rule in hockey, so much so that some teams hire skating bodyguards to protect their players.
Secondly, sportsmanship is not encouraged by the league. Blatant assault, a crime on the street, is a two minute penalty on the ice. And this is constantly reinforced by the league in its decisions as it splits hairs over split skulls. A league comment on Cooke's felonious hit on Savard implied Savard did not play correctly, that his skating style invited injury.
Finally, there is the league's purposeful public face. This is nowhere more obvious than the league's handling of Sydney Crosby. Crosby is the game's premier talent. His level of play, his devotion to the game, his suffering through unending physical abuse are all tributes to him. More, he is a nice guy that any sport would love to have as its face. Never troubled. Never a problem. No outrageous off-ice behavior. Yet the league does nothing to protect him. He is always hampered in playoffs when the game mysteriously changes and is suddenly judged by rules quite different from the rules that created the playoff competitors. He is held, interfered with, obstructed, concussed and sometimes injured so he cannot play. Imagine what would happen if Curry or Harper or Djokovic became purposeful targets for injury. Only a seriously arrogant--or benighted--league would be willing to sacrifice the play and presence of its premier players.
Not only do they stand by as willing accomplices to his nightly muggings and near-death experiences, they criticize him and his exceptional play. This, from NHL commentator, Jeremy Roenick--a guy whose hiring is approved by the league. “If I were Sidney Crosby right now,” Roenick said, “I’d watch the work ethic that Jonathan Drouin has on a nightly basis.” Drouin? Drouin is having a good series but has had a bad year. The forward was sent to the minors, decided to request a trade, then deserted the team’s American Hockey League affiliate for five weeks. Drouin? Work ethic? The one element of Crosby's game I have never before heard criticized is his work ethic.
No other sport abuses its stars physically and verbally. No sport would allow it--because they might not survive it.

 

A Serious Stud

When Uncle Mo arrived at trainer Todd Pletcher’s barn in upstate New York, it became immediately clear this was no ordinary animal. He had this massive stride, Pletcher recalls. “He was a ground-gobbling machine.” His debut race came that August. He won by 14 lengths. He easily captured honors as top two-year-old colt in 2010
But, as a three year old and undefeated--and, at that point, the overwhelming Kentucky Derby favorite--Uncle Mo was upset at Aqueduct and diagnosed afterwards with a rare liver disease. He disappeared for four months, made a brief comeback and then went out in his last race with a 10th-place finish in the Breeders’ Cup Classic.
Mo spends his days now at Ashford Stud with the world’s most famous living thoroughbred, American Pharoah. Coolmore Stud, the Irish breeding powerhouse that operates Ashford, bought stakes in both colts late in their racing careers.
Pharoah arrived at Ashford to great fanfare after capturing the Triple Crown last year. His debut stud fee was set at $200,000. Only Tapit, the country’s dominant top stud, at $300,000, commands more. Mo, by comparison, started out at just $35,000 back in 2012. For while his career had begun brilliantly enough -- he was the top two-year-old colt in 2010 -- his struggles as a three-year-old blunted enthusiasm in the breeding community. But that has quickly changed. His debut crop of two-year-olds earned more money than those of any other stud in America last year. And so far in 2016, his offspring have made $4.8 million, enough to place him third on the stallion rankings list even though he has no older thoroughbreds competing on the racetrack yet. In his very first crop of three-year-olds, he has a trio of horses in the Kentucky Derby, including the favorite Nyquist.
Mo’s stud fee could rise from $75,000 today to as much as $150,000 in 2017.

Sharapova and a Crime of Intent

Meldonium is also known as mildronate. It is manufactured in Latvia and only distributed in Baltic countries and Russia. It is said that Meldonium is used to treat ischemia: a lack of blood flow to parts of the body, particularly in cases of angina or heart failure. It works by dilating blood vessels and increasing blood flow, which in turn improves exercise capacity, physical and mental endurance, and also brain function.

Now that is quite a claim. Such a drug would have a lot of applications in many of the problems that are a function of poor blood flow. But surprisingly it is used only in the Eastern Block. Perhaps it will soon be coming to a Mexican clinic near you.
       
The World Anti-Doping Agency  found "evidence of its use by athletes with the intention of enhancing performance" by virtue of carrying more oxygen to muscle tissue.
L'Equipe reported that the scientific advisor to the French Agency Against Doping (AFLD), Professor Xavier Bigard, said in interviews with athletes at last year's European Games in Baku that a wide proportion of athletes admitted taking meldonium.
The drug was name-checked in the latest investigative documentary on Russian doping reforms by the German Hajo Seppelt. The documentary referred to a 2015 study in which 17% of Russian athletes (724 of 4,316) tested were found to have meldonium in their system. A global study found 2.2% of athletes had it in their system.
Several athletes have been suspended since the turn of 2016 after testing positive for the drug. Abebe Aregawi, the 2013 women's 1,500m world champion, has been provisionally suspended after meldonium was found in a sample she provided. Endeshaw Negesse, the 2015 Tokyo marathon champion, was also banned after reportedly testing positive for the same substance. Others include Olga Abramova and Artem Tyschcenko, two Ukrainian biathletes, Eduard Vorganov, a Russian cyclist and Ekaterina Bobrova, a Russian ice dancer.

But just because people use it does not mean it works.

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1043661815301717  has a summary of the drug's claims and purported mechanism of action.
The mechanism of action is based on the regulation of energy metabolism pathways through l-carnitine lowering effect. l-Carnitine biosynthesis enzyme γ-butyrobetaine hydroxylase and carnitine/organic cation transporter type 2 (OCTN2) are the main known drug targets of meldonium, and through inhibition of these activities meldonium induces adaptive changes in the cellular energy homeostasis. Since l-carnitine is involved in the metabolism of fatty acids, the decline in its levels stimulates glucose metabolism and decreases concentrations of l-carnitine related metabolites, such as long-chain acylcarnitines and trimethylamine-N-oxide.
 

Graphic:

Kang

Kang is one of very few South Koreans in the Major Leagues, but he is a significant one. Indeed, most South Koreans know Pittsburgh only because of Kang and the international reach of the game is constantly enhanced by this kind of international representation. Moreover, Kang is a genuine talent who is a student of the game, hits with power and plays excellent defense. Kang is crucial to the Pirates and their year. His injury is of tremendous significance to him, to the team and to the game.
Now the play. St. Louis' Chris Coghlan slid into Kang as Kang was trying to turn the double play at second. Coghlan was not sliding at the base, he was sliding at Kang. The moment he realized that Kang had sidestepped the slide Coghlan reached out with his legs and whipped him, catching his planted left leg at the knee, breaking it and disrupting his medial collateral ligament. There has been debate over the hit. Some think it legal, some--me included--think it was a deliberately cruel act. 
Still, this is a foolish argument, the aesthetics of the sucker punch. (The only other sport in the world that glories in the physical attack upon an defenseless player is the NHL. Even the NFL discourages it and professional boxing stops a fight either temporarily or permanently when a fighter can not defend himself from injury.) The real point is this: The turn of the double play by the second baseman in baseball is probably the single most precise play that can be done on defense. It is beautifully athletic and is the defining characteristic of great infielders; many talented infielders end up in other positions because they cannot make that play. Why would anyone allow it to be compromised by the inherent threat of career ending injury? Why should this complex athletic moment come with the concurrent need for self-defense?
The "hard baseball play" is a euphemism for nasty bad sportsmanship. More, it is incongruous; baseball is loved because it is a precise and athletic game devoid of the hulking mean-tempered savagery of football and hockey.
There is a game called "look out!" in which, during a golf game, any member of the foursome may, once--even in mid-swing, scream "Look out!" It use--or threat of its use--adds excitement and tension, wild play and leads to jolly 19th hole discussions. But it is not golf. 

Crosby and the All Star Game

Sydney Crosby, the best hockey player on the planet and the face of the league has missed five straight All-Star Games and has only played in one during his 10-year NHL career. His high ankle sprain in 2008 kept him out of the Atlanta All-Star Game and sidelined him for 6-8 weeks. In 2009, it was a left knee bruise; he missed a game immediately before the All-Star break. In 2010, there were Olympics. He missed 2011 and 2012 with concussion symptoms. Then another lockout. Then the Sochi Games. And now he misses the Columbus All-Star Game because of a minor injury ("minor" as the team says they expect him back next week, potentially missing two games but nothing more.)
The experts are miffed. They feel that Crosby is not showing loyalty to the organization he represents--but also feeds him. They are clearly experts because we simple slugs would say he is getting the hell kicked out of him, he needs recovery time whenever he can get it and any league that allows intentional injury of its showcase stars as a game tactic deserves no loyalty.

Mumps

Sydney Crosby has the mumps. So do almost 20 other players and referees in the NHL. The disease is rare. Most kids are vaccinated against it twice; first at the age of 1, and again around the age of 5, when they receive the MMR vaccine (measles, mumps, rubella) before starting kindergarten. Mumps is spread in respiratory droplets, often in the form of a sneeze. Symptoms can take up to three weeks to develop. Symptoms include glandular swelling (face, testicles) and sometimes encephalitis can occur. What is going on? Here is a nice summary from Matt McCarthy, an assistant professor of medicine at Weill Cornell Medical Center:

In 2006, thousands of college kids in the Midwest became infected with mumps, despite the fact that most had received the vaccine. This phenomenon is called vaccine failure, and scientists divide it into two categories: primary and secondary. Primary vaccine failure occurs when the body doesn't produce antibodies in response to the initial immunization, but this is relatively rare with the mumps vaccine. Secondary failure occurs when the body fails to maintain an adequate level of antibodies, despite having an initially strong response to the immunization. This is what we're seeing in the NHL.

Back in 2006, researchers found that college students who came down with mumps had been immunized more than ten years earlier than roommates who didn't contract the disease. A subsequent study confirmed this, revealing that protective antibodies were much lower in students who'd been vaccinated fifteen years earlier compared to students who'd been vaccinated just five years earlier. The takeaway here is that the mumps vaccine works, we just don't know how long it works. 

Losing the Luster on California Chrome

California Chrome won both the Kentucky Derby and the Preakness stakes and hopes were high he might win the Belmont, the first Triple Crown winner since Affirmed in 1978. He finished fourth behind Tonalist, Commissioner and Medal Count.

California Chrome is one of those wonderful stories that racing allows. His owners are Steve Coburn, a factory worker, and Perry Martin, a science guy who owns a testing lab in California. He is trained by 77 year old Art Sherman. They bought the mother for $8,500, bred her for $2,000 and the foal, California Chrome, has raced for millions.  The story is that they fell into this but Martin is an analytical man who has studied the breeding  techniques devised by Edward Stanley, the 17th Earl of Derby, a prominent breeder in the first half of the 20th Century. He picked his horses carefully. And while Coburn loves the spotlight, Martin did not attend the Preakness because it was his wedding anniversary.

After the loss, California Chrome co-owner Steve Coburn, the seemingly affable Good Old Boy, lost his Good Old Mind. He spouted off bitterly to any microphone that would approach. His complaint is legitimate: horses in the Triple Crown races do not have to run in all of them. This allows a horse to wait in the weeds and come into the 1 1/2 mile Belmont fresh, certainly fresher than the hopeful Triple Crown pretender. Tonalist did not run the opening two races, nor did Commissioner. Medal Count skipped the Preakness. Indeed, only three horses in the 11-horse field ran the entire Triple Crown series.

It is a tough series. Not many horses can do it. But the rules are known and most accept it for what it is. It is regrettable that such good fortune can not be accepted for what it is.

TRIPLE CROWN WINNERS
Year	Horse	Jockey	Trainer	Owner
1919	Sir Barton	John Loftus	H.G. Bedwell	J.K.L. Ross
1930	Gallant Fox	Earl Sande	James Fitzsimmons	Belair Stud
1935	Omaha	William Saunders	James Fitzsimmons	Belair Stud
1937	War Admiral	Charley Kurtsinger	George Conway	Samuel D. Riddle
1941	Whirlaway	Eddie Arcaro	Ben A. Jones	Calumet Farm
1943	Count Fleet	John Longden	Don Cameron	Mrs. J.D. Hertz
1946	Assault	Warren Mehrtens	Max Hirsch	King Ranch
1948	Citation	Eddie Arcaro	Ben A. Jones	Calumet Farm
1973	Secretariat	Ron Turcotte	Lucien Laurin	Meadow Stable
1977	Seattle Slew	John Cruguet	William Turner Jr.	Karen L. Taylor
1978	Affirmed	Steve Cauthen	Lazaro S. Barrera	Harbor View Farm

Gay Olympians Under the Sword of the Ammonites

 

For the first time since 2000 the U.S. will not send a president, former president, first lady or vice president to the Olympic Games. They will, however, send two openly gay athletes to represent the United States. Billie Jean King will be one of two gay athletes in the U.S. delegation for both the opening and closing ceremonies. Hockey player Caitlin Cahow, the other gay representative to the delegation, will attend the closing ceremony.

Obama has had plenty of chances to confront Putin. Instead he has chosen symbolism. Symbolism resonates well with abstract followers and is a hell of a lot safer--for Obama. He gets to take a position and get to pontificate or shrug if something goes wrong. The gay athlete, however, does not get that protection. She walks, like Uriah, to the forefront of the battle for reasons unconnected to her leader's.

William of Cumberland, a younger son of George II of Great Britain, was the general in charge of the war against the rebel Jacobins in Scotland, the last war on British soil. He incorporated the Scottish Campbells into his army, symbolic of the unity between the Scots and the English. (The lowland Protestant Campbells hated the Catholic Jacobin highlanders.) The Campbells led the charges in the conflicts and were quite brave. They suffered terrific causalities and most of the British Army casualties at the decisive Culloden.

But at least they were not real British troops. And Cumberland did not like them much anyway.

Armstrong and Roving Bands of the Morally Outraged

An American nonprofit body called the USADA is taking Lance Armstrong's French medals away. They successfully blocked Armstrong's complaints in an American court. Will the USADA now send their police to pick the medals up?

Armstrong's original lawsuit challenged the USADA's right to bring any judgment against him and criticized the USADA for ignoring "500 to 600" drug tests they say Armstrong had passed. His attorneys said the USADA was, instead, bringing a case based on witness testimony, known as "non-analytical positive testing."

Non-analytical positive testing.

Armstrong has said the agency violates his constitutional rights to due process. USADA officials say their process is fair and widely recognized by sports agencies across the globe.

That is apparently not entirely true.

In fact, the latest charges from USADA has spawned a turf war between competing sports agencies. The Switzerland-based International Cycling Union said USADA did not have jurisdiction to pursue the case and urged the American agency to turn over evidence to them to determine if an investigation should proceed. On the other hand, the World Anti-Doping Agency supported USADA's claims of jurisdiction. Any similarity     between these and the jurisdictional disputes of FBI and the CIA are coincidental; the FBI and the CIA are not self-appointed.

The International Cycling Union is the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI), the world governing body for sports cycling that oversees international competitive cycling events, issues licenses, enforces rules--particularly doping--classifies races and manages the points ranking system across mountain, road and track biking for both men and women, amateur and professional. It also oversees world championships.

The World Anti-Doping Agency was created in 1999 by the International Olympic Committee after it stole the march on the other nonprofits and held the world's first World Conference on Doping in Sports (in Lausanne, of course).

The U.S. Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) itself  is the national anti-doping organization for the Olympic movement in the United States. It is non-profit (of course) and non-governmental (it receives $10 million a year from the U.S.).

The particulars of the case are not so important (although arson, child molestation and armed robbery have shorter statutes of limitation than many of the charges against him.) Armstrong's personal achievements far outstrip his athletic ones. For this reason he is held in some considerable regard and, consequently,  self-appointed disciplinary agencies should be on firm footing when dealing with him. Otherwise they run the risk of appearing to be scolding, free-booting, blue-nose self-righteous clerics looking for a witch to dunk and retrieving awards they did not give--reminiscent of those constantly outraged groups that periodically put George Bush on trial in abstentia in college classrooms during lunch.

Here is a statement from Armstrong's site: http://lancearmstrong.com/news-events/lance-armstongs-statement-of-august-23-2012

Procrustus in London

A woman from Saudi Arabia, Wojdan Shaherkani, entered the Olympic judo competition this week. Her opponent was Melissa Mojica, one of the world's top judoka in the heavyweight category. Shaherkani had never participated in an international judo bout before. Ever. She was invited to the Olympics in a symbolic attempt to "strike a blow for women's rights in Saudi Arabia." She was the first woman to participate for Saudi Arabia in history.

She lasted 82 seconds but, on the brighter side, she was not hurt. But it was interesting to see the Olympics in a nonathletic light. Here was a woman in competition who had no reason--other than vague and symbolic ones-- to be there. And Jordyn Wieber was not in the individual gymnastic competition in spite of having every reason to be there.

And so we distort and compromise the nature of things to accommodate our desires. And nothing is what it seems or should be.

Where Only the Very Best Can't Win

 Jordyn Wieber, the famous American gymnast, finished fourth in the overall preliminary round  behind two Americans and one Russian.

She has a storied history. She was all-around world champion in 2011. She was national champion two years in a row. She is a powerful, skilled gymnast, likely the best of an American team which might be the best team ever. Yet she will not be in the finals for the individual championship. Why? While fourth over-all, she was third on the American team in the individual preliminaries. And each team can send no more than two representatives to the individual championship finals.

Now this might be good for television ratings, this might make some lesser gymnasts happy to go and perform in the finals, it certainly will make politicians who want to "spread the wealth around" happy.

But it certainly is opposed to every tenet of competitive athletics, which values effort, ability and achievement.  And fairness.

Dupree and Sandusky

Marcus Dupree has been the subject of a recent ESPN television short biography. It is a terrible tale of stupidity, fraud, exploitation and failure revolving around Marcus Dupree, one of the nation's most extraordinary athletes ever. (He ran the 100 yard dash in 9.5 seconds, was 220 pounds and as a freshman for Oklahoma's football team ran for over 200 yards--while playing a half a game because of an injury--against the best defensive college team in the nation that was averaging a little over 64 yards a game rushing against them.) The story, however, is less about this elite young athlete than the craven and incompetent adults whom he had the misfortune to encounter.

He grew up in Philadelphia, Missippi and I doubt he was ever out of the tiny town except when traveling for a sport. When he was seventeen he became a national sports figure as a high school athlete. Bigger and faster than Jimmy Brown and still growing. He developed a vampiric collection of "friends and advisers", ended up going to Oklahoma to play ball and ran afoul of the coach, Switzer, got hurt, became disillusioned (and overwhelmed) and began a long spiral culminating in injury, failure and a return to Philadelphia as a truck driver. There was, however, considerable collateral wealth absorbed and disseminated among his "friends and advisers." Barry Switzer called it his greatest failure as a coach.

This is a terrible story of individual misjudgment, stupidity and avarice. But despite its breadth, it is individual. And hopefully we can learn from individual error. But the Penn State scandal is not individual; it is cultural and it teaches no lessons. It has become an entity, an evil entity. The basic reason that Sandusky was allowed to continue on in his behavior was the institution of Penn State football. It was the cause and the effect, a self feeding black hole of felonious corruption. Sandusky and his protection became integral with the football program, as integral as two-a-days.

Madness and evil teach no lessons. The program must be destroyed.

A Bad Lesson from Sports

I heard an interview recently with a serious and successful business man who talked about the economy, unemployment and the business world in general. One thing he said stuck, especially to my medically sensitized brain. He was speaking about hiring and firing people and said he never hired a bad or incompetent guy. The employees he picked were always up to the job. He fired only in two instances; first, in a business downturn as his business was growing and was sometimes stressed to make payroll and , second, in the instance of an employee under performing. He said that when an employee underperformed it was never because he could not do the job. His failure was always due to the same problem: The employee always had a poor ability to assess himself and always, always, overestimated his performance.

Humility. Caution. Critical self assessment.

We live in a very sports obsessed world. The athlete trains himself in many ways; one focus is to win. How to win is taught. He never learns that a task is too big, too complex. He never learns he is outgunned because, if he does, he is beat before he starts. Blind optimism is a particularly athletic trait; confidence is paramount and sometimes tips the balance. And lack of confidence can kill. The great competitors take advantage of this and make the competition more than just the sport; it becomes a complex battle with history and personality and texture and, if his opponent accepts the new ground rules, he is beat. Muhammad Ali was a genius it this; Patterson the perfect victim of it.

But this does not work in the real world. The real world is indeed complex with history and personality and texture that all must be considered and managed. Confidence and brashness might beat the cornerback but it does not solve problems. Self assessment is hard and may be a success trait. The highest scoring students in self esteem testing are the lowest scoring students in grades.

It is significant that the first--and sometimes the only--Greek word the student learns is hubris.

The Oscars and a Union of Elites

The Academy Awards, seen as a social test or study, can be fun.

First, the interface. Hathaway seemed to be a winning, energetic girl who tried valiantly to fill her job. Her efforts were all the more noble beside her partner, James Franco, who, despite apparently being a well regarded guy, seemed to have intimations of doom and emotionally withdrew.

The award recipients were not so interesting in themselves, although True Grit was a finely made film. The behavior of the recipients was interesting. It has become quite the fashion to thank one's family when an award is given. This has become as routine as thanking one's producer or director or agent. This concern flies in the face of the entertainment industry's reputation and one can only hope it is genuine.

The other preoccupation--that was not universal but certainly frequent and prominent--was the occasional interjection that certain workers on the movie sets were union workers. This pretense always received a positive response from the audience as the multimillionaires showed their solidarity with their only wealthy colleagues.

One must have a peculiar notion of unions and unionism to participate in such a thing. Unions emerged to create a labor monopoly to oppose the industrial capital monopoly. Their conflicts were life-and-death confrontations for both. Incomes were not the only thing at stake; health, working conditions and the very fabric of families were on the line for both sides of the argument. As time went by, the purpose of unionism changed. The government stepped in to monitor safety and working conditions, health programs evolved and became routine, the success of capitalism raised all the boats. Unions, in search for relevance, tried to make labor a participant in the capital side of industry without the risk. This required an amalgam with government to change commercial rules--the government would buy only from union companies, the government would underwrite companies whose labor contracts were inherently self-defeating--so that with globalization, the jobs began to seek cheaper labor elsewhere, first in more capital friendly states then in cheaper countries.

What is left now is two groups of unions. One is incestuously linked with the very people they negotiate with--public employee unions and unions working for government subsidized and declining industries. Their "confrontations" are closer to collusion. These unions like teachers or hospital workers, often target people who are particularly vulnerable and who cannot influence the outcome. Neither of these organizations will keep their impossible promises and will try to prolong their death throes by becoming ideological and adopting the eidos of old French Socialism. The other union group is a boutique group that follows traditional extortion techniques in their negotiations to take more money out of their industry, like the Hollywood industry and the sports industry.

Boutique unions? A-Rod and Angelina are union members; none of us could have a beer in any of their clubs. Samuel Gompers couldn't. Unionism has changed; it is no longer the organization of the common man than the American Bar Association is.

Or maybe the American common man has changed.

Athletes and their Crowd

When Steinbrenner was buried, not a Yankee player was in attendance. When LeBron James weighed his choices he thought not once of the Cleveland fan or his community. Yet somehow the fan feels the athlete has an investment in him and his world, has some concern about him, responds to his cheers and exhortations. He feels they are joined by their common interest in his team, that the fan is the famous "twelfth man."

This identification is a true public relations miracle. How the coddled, babied, egocentric, self-absorbed and money addled athlete could possibly be seen by the public as representative, heroic, outgoing and responsible in his community staggers the imagination. How many local citizens have to be shot, throttled, beaten, thrown up on, wrecked, groped, raped and terrorized before the community figures it out? The athlete is not one of them. He is not a community member, not a local citizen. He is an obnoxious visitor at best, an alien mercenary at worst. And he cynically exploits the community's best unifying hope: To create a common bond and direction among its people.

This world needs achievers and we need to note them. Heroes would be great, too, but we need achievers. We need them to prove the value of distinction, to show the rewards of effort and sacrifice. We need them to emulate. And we need communities; we need the feeling of some occasional unifying point where we can gather, like around a campfire, and share in our commonality and recognize our filial bond.

We ask too much of these athletes. Let them play. It's the game and the audience we are there for.