No Surprise: Saints players Bounty Suspensions upheld

Roger Goodell

No, don't make the "Oh My!" face, because this isn't a shock.

At all.

The NFL announced Tuesday afternoon that after further review (wink, wink) they've decided to uphold the suspensions on Scott Fujita, Anthony Hargrove, Will Smith and Jonathan Vilma for taking part in the much discussed bounty program alleged to have taken place while they all were players on the New Orleans Saints.

You can read the Press Release from the NFL RIGHT HERE

The commish (Jolly Roger himself) said; “Throughout this entire process, including your appeals, and despite repeated invitations andencouragement to do so, none of you has offered any evidence that would warrant reconsideration of your suspensions. Instead, you elected not to participate meaningfully in the appeal process…”

Goodell added; “Although you claimed to have been ‘wrongfully accused with insufficient evidence,’ your lawyers elected not to ask a single question of the principal investigators, both of whom were present at the hearing (as your lawyers had requested); you elected not to testify or to make any substantive statement, written or oral, in support of your appeal; you elected not to call a
single witness to support your appeal; and you elected not to introduce a single exhibit
addressing the merits of your appeal. Instead, your lawyers raised a series of jurisdictional and
procedural objections that generally ignore the CBA, in particular its provisions governing
‘conduct detrimental’ determinations…”

So there!

Essentially the commish is calling them all out, including Vilma, who is currently suing him in Lousiana Federal Court and saying "Prove to me I'm wrong". Fujita (now with the Browns) is supposed to sit 3 games, Hargrove (Packers) is docked 8 games, Smith (Saints) four games and Vilma is benched for 2012.

We know Fujita has said "I had nothing to do with it" and Hargrove is now denying that his voice is the one heard agreeing to be paid for his participation.

Goodell is putting the players, who have been on a PR offensive on the defensive here. Let's see how they respond.

Here's the NFLPA's response in the interest of equal quotation...

DEVELOPING: De Villota Crashes During F1 Testing (UPDATED)

F1 driver Maria de Villota crashed during a straight line test run at a British airfield this morning and is being treated for, what were initially called. "life-threatening injuries."

Her car hit the team support truck at the end of her first run at Duxford Airfield in Cambridgeshire. It was the first time she tested the MR-01 car.

Here's an eyewitness account of the incident...
((HT: BBC/youtube))


And the most recent statement from the Marussia team:

"The team can confirm Maria was transferred by ambulance from Duxford Airfield, where the accident happened, to Addenbrooke's Hospital in Cambridge.

"Since Maria's arrival at the hospital at approximately 10.45hrs this morning, she has been receiving the best medical attention possible at the hospital, which is the region's major trauma centre.

"Maria is conscious and medical assessments are ongoing. The team will await the outcome of these assessments before providing further comment.

"The team's first priority at this time is Maria and her family."

An early theory behind the accident, according to Sky Sports, is that the anti-stall mechanism on the car kicked in, sending the car into the truck.

De Villota, apparently, regained consciousness and was talking prior to her transfer to hospital.

WEDNESDAY UPDATE: De Villota has lost her right eye due to the injuries and remains in a critical but stable condition after having lengthy surgery "to address serious head and facial injuries sustained in the accident. The operation began yesterday afternoon and she was in theatre until this morning," Marussia confirmed in a statement.

DEVELOPING: NBA Hawks To St. Louis...???

According to the New York Post's Peter Vecsey, and his Twitter feed, we may now have the reason that the Atlanta Hawks are dumping all their bad deals...

They might be moving back to St. Louis...

It was a simple 140-character release...
Hawks are reloading, dumping money, about to relocate to St. Louis. What don't U understand bout DH only wanting to play 4 Nets

But it does present an interesting point about Atlanta Spirit and their lack of a desire to have any kind of business acumen or public relations with what's left of their fan base after the departure of the Atlanta Thrashers to Winnipeg this time last season.

And, of course, the prosportsdaily message board is running with it...

Would they (meaning Spirit) have the cojones to pull the same stunt twice...???
The HQ thinks they would... but that's just us...

So, as a salute, we give you this...


It would make sense if a group would pursue this for the ScottTrade Center.

Remember back in May, Tom Stillman and his 16-person consortium, including his father-in-law, former Senator John Danforth were introduced as the new owners of the St. Louis Blues after the Matthew Hulsizer deal fell through.

The Stillman group is the eighth owner of the Blues since 1966. They bought the team from Towerbrook Capital Partners and Sports Capital Partners Worldwide, a group headed by former franchise chairman Dave Checketts for US$130-million for the Blues, the AHL Peoria Rivermen, the Scottrade Center and what the team said was a "substantial" interest in the adjoining Peabody Opera House.

The stumbling block for anyone to get out of Philips Arena is the lease deal- which is locked into a US$75-million penalty if some party wants to leave Atlanta in the next seven years. The bonds are set to be paid off on the arena by 2028, but the debt service and any departure are not locked into one another exclusively.

Reports: Hawks trade Joe Johnson: Danny Ferry Executive of the Year? (UPDATED WITH SECOND TRADE)

Joe Johnson

Well, well, well.

It appears that Atlanta Hawks fans may indeed have gotten their wish. According to multiple reports, the Hawks have traded Joe Johnson to the New Jersey...oops, sorry Brooklyn Nets.

Why is this significant?

Because Johnson while a very good player, is being paid more money than anyone in the NBA. The Hawks owed him $90 million for the next 4 years and now apparently don't have to pay it.

They'll get Jordan Farmar, Anthony Morrow, Johan Petro, Jordan Williams, a lottery protected 1st round pick next year and possibly a sign and trade receipt of DeShawn Stevenson.

Read more from AJC.com RIGHT HERE

Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo Sports has more details RIGHT HERE

This trade would make brand spanking new Hawks G.M Danny Ferry the frontrunner for NBA Executive of the Year.

Why? Simple. And we know this from covering the Hawks and being based in the ATL.

Johnson is a good dude. And a better than average basketball player. The Hawks are a decent team that has plateaued. They needed a change.

While Joe is good enough as a "Lead" guy to get them in the playoffs, he's not good enough to get them over the top. And his salary is SO big that it would have kept the Hawks from finding the true "Leader" that they need.

The trade frees up his salary and gives them a bunch of bargaining chips to find another great player. Josh Smith and Al Horford are good building blocks. But they need help. Help Johnson couldn't consistently give.

He tried. Really...despite what many Atlanta fans thought, the guy gave all he had. It's just not his personality to take over things. He's a laid-back passive kind of guy and it came out in the way he sometime played. If he tried to force things and get out of character, he just made things worse.

So the Nets get a semi-marquee player they hope will team with Deron Williams and possibly Dwight Howard to open their new arena. There is a thought they won't pursue Howard because of the money needed for Johnson and Williams. Don't believe that for a second. Mikhail Prokhorov wants butts in his new seats and he's smart enough to know he needs a winning product...this year. And our bet is he will do whatever is necessary to make that happen.

PM UPDATE: And if that wasn't enough, Ferry has apparently sent Marvin Williams packing to Utah for Devin Harris- pending league approval.

And, with that, goes Williams and his $15.8-million over the next two seasons. Harris has one year left on his contract at $8.5-million. That means that Ferry has dumped over $105-million in salary while bringing in only $23-million.

Conjecture from Stein and Windhorst over at the four-letter is that Dwight Howard could now be interested in moving to Atlanta since New Jersey would be in no financial shape to bring in Deron Williams, Joe Johnson, and Howard.

Early returns have Danny Ferry being very serious in a very short period of time...

Here's Magic GM Rob Hennigan confirming what we all know...
((HT: MyFoxOrlando))
FOX 35 News Orlando

Sandusky trial fallout: More info coming as stories grow apart

Jerry Sandusky

--UPDATED-- The family of former coach Joe Paterno released a statement late Monday afternoon asking that Penn State be completely forthcoming with any e-mails related to this story and that they be given to the Louis Freeh investigation to be in turn released to the public.
 ----------------------------------------------
Interesting.

We felt compelled to tell a story here because we just read through the grand jury testimony of former Penn State athletic director Tim Curley and former V.P Gary Schultz.

And it was a fascinating read.

But first, the explosive report from CNN about e-mail chains between the two men and school president Graham Spanier continue to add to what is a scary and immensely disappointing portrayal of how Penn State didn't react when confronted about possible Sandusky indescretions.

The e-mails, first mentioned a couple of weeks ago, talk about the group deciding after consulting former coach Joe Paterno advised them to be quiet, to do just that.

CNN is expected to release more e-mails this week.

Now...back to the Grand Jury testimony.

OSG Sports read through a large portion of the 276 page testimony of Schultz and Curley at the Dauphin County Courthouse.

You can read the testimony by following the link RIGHT HERE

Without giving away the spoilers, start on about page 173 or so. That's where the attorney's begin talking to Curley about the incident where Mike McQueary found Sandusky in the shower with a young boy.

Curley went to great lengths to say McQueary was very not specific about what he had seen. The part that stands out the is when he describes who decided not to do anything and why.

Curley essentially says it was his decision because he didn't consider it a criminal act. He talked at length about discussing it with Schultz and with Spanier, but they deferred to him. Curley says he confronted Sandusky, but believed his story. He also went to the Second Mile he says, but does not detail the outcome of that conversation.

Curley also speaks of going to Joe Paterno's home to with Schultz to discuss the incident the day after McQueary reported it.

But the scariest part is when Curley was asked if he knew of the 1998 incident Sandusky was involved with. He said he didn't.

However....that differed from Schultz's testimony. Schultz recalled meeting Paterno at his home though he did confirm that the decision on what to do was left to Curley.

Spanier was however consulted as well and signed off on everything.

What is disconcerting is this: Schultz said he was aware of the 1998 incident and in some detail. He was aware of the Police investigation and aware that it was somewhat similar to what the were dealing with in Lasch Hall that McQueary had seen.

And Schultz didn't think the two "Similar" incidents warranted getting police...or investigators involved.

Really?

We highly, highly, highly recommend you read the testimony/link above.

In case you missed it, read the full testimony RIGHT HERE

While none of this confirms "Officially" anything in the reported E-Mails, it does allude to things reported in them. It does not directly implicate Paterno in anything, but it seems to infer he may have known more at the time than he let on. Considering Paterno's penchant for at least acting absent minded about some things, it is very conceivable that he didn't remember a lot of it when he testified too.

And if this proves to be the cover-up that it appears to be; these guys need to end up in the same place Sandusky does.

Beckham Bends Rules In California Classico

((HT: ESPN2/MLS))

The LA Galaxy-San Jose Earthquakes match is usually the Yankees-Red Sox version for Major League Soccer. Both teams don't like each other one bit and the games are usually pretty chippy.

Last night's 4-3 match was no different...

San Jose had the lead going into extra time and tried to milk the clock after a foul in their end...

Here's the incident that may give David Beckham a visit to the Commissioner's Office...


The HQ likes the fact that even the Earthquakes mascot got into the deal and we surmise that some of Beckham's drive came from his unheard-of snub for his home squad for the party in London in a month's time...

Boise State Exits Mountain West

((HT: KBOI-TV))

This was one of the larger questions of Galactic Realignment- would the teams out west actually file paperwork and work their way to the Big East for football by the fall of 2013...

At least, Boise State- the largest wildcard in the bunch- decided to beat the dealine late last night to say "yes."

Had they waited until July 1, it would have increased their exit fee incrementally to $US5-million they had to pay the MWC from the zero-dollar fee plus the loss of US$2.5-million in revenue by making it last night...

Here's Troy Oppie...


The larger question is now: Where will Boise head for all of their other sports...? They'd like to go to the Big West, but that's still up in the air.