Adrian Peterson’s comeback attempt

On Thursday, U.S. District Judge David Doty ruled in favor of Minnesota Vikings star running back Adrian Peterson when he overturned a ruling by NFL arbiter Harold Henderson’s denial of Peterson’s appeal, which may make it easier for Peterson to return to the NFL.

The NFL had suspended Peterson through April 15 at the earliest under the personal conduct policy in a child abuse scandal that took the league by storm.

Peterson’s legal issues started in May 2014 when he hit his 4-year-old son with a switch while the boy was visiting him in Texas. In September, he was indicted by a Montgomery County, Texas grand jury.

NFL spokesman Brian McCarthy said in a statement that he disagrees with the Judge’s decision and will appeal to the Eighth U.S. Circuit Court based in St. Louis. He goes on to say that Peterson would be placed under the commissioner’s exempt list instead of being reinstated.

NFL Players Association executive director DeMaurice Smith applauded Doty’s decision saying in part, the decision was a “victory for the rule of law, due process and fairness.”

There is a crux with the issue and it is that suspensions with players involved in domestic violence was at two games but increased to six. The union believes that it is fair for the suspension to be only two games instead of six because the injuries to Peterson’s son occurred after these changes were implemented.

In the past, Doty’s courtroom has been at the heart of NFL labor issues and his rulings have favored the unions more than the league.

Peterson is under contract until 2017, carrying a $15 million salary cap hit for this year and several high-ranking team officials have indicated that they want him to return to the team this season. Plus he is to make a base salary of $12.75 million this year. If he returned under his current contract, he would be the highest-paid running back and told ESPN in a December interview that he should not have to take a pay cut this year.

On March 10, the market opens with the new league year and when that day comes, the team could trade him. If they decide to go down this route, Peterson would not be owed any money by the team and the Vikings would only take a $2.4 million hit to their salary cap.

ESPN NFL insider Adam Schefter says Peterson has not been as adamant about returning to Minnesota and told ESPN.com that Minnesota may not be the best place for him to succeed. If he returns to Minnesota, Schefter says there are major questions as to when he would be able to return to the Vikings.

At the end of the day, it may make sense for the team to let him go because the controversy will likely not go away. Peterson was the 2012 MVP and when he is on his game, he is one of the most dangerous running backs in the league. Plus he is lethal in the open field. As a result, the Vikings have a very difficult decision and that decision may have to be made shortly after the new league year begins on March 10.

Freshmen ineligibility rule discussion

Just recently, the Big Ten floated a discussion that would consider making freshmen athletes ineligible in all or some sports. The Big Ten will not change its eligibility standards until there is a national consensus, according to a statement released on Tuesday after meeting with school administrators, faculty and student representatives.

ESPN.com had recently reported that the conference had begun internal discussions about the possibility of making at least some freshmen athletes ineligible. As a result, many say this proposal would have a negative impact on college basketball players since freshmen in those sports are more likely to get playing time compared to college football.

The league’s statement also said that it wanted to get input from other conferences in preparation for a more thorough discussion when the 2016 NCAA convention begins in San Antonio next January. Other conference commissioners have weighed in on the issue. Leaders from the Big 12 and Pac-12 have indicated that similar discussions have started in their respective leagues.

Purdue Athletic Director Morgan Burke says among Big Ten leaders, a consensus exists to “get education back on the proper platform.” He continues by saying in part that he doesn’t believe that an 18-year-old is impaired because they spend their first year of college in preparedness.

In 1972, the NCAA reversed a rule that made freshmen in college football and basketball ineligible to play.

PAC-12 commissioner Larry Scott says that there will be more serious discussions about whether to re-instate this rule in the upcoming months and year.

However, there are many unanswered questions. Would athletic skills become rusty without consistent competition? Would this be for just basketball and football or most if not all sports on campus? Would scholarships have to be added and increased tuition rates? Is the idea only to better prepare athletes on the academic side or is it to accommodate them socially?

In the last five years, a freshmen has been selected as the No. 1 pick in the NBA draft and according to CBS, an average of 10 freshmen have entered the draft since the one-and-done rule took effect in 2005. The one-and-done rule is a rule that says that in order to enter the NBA draft, the player must be one year removed from high school graduation and be at least 19-years-old.

Starting in 2016, the NCAA’s required high school GPA will go up from 2.0 to 2.3 and high school athletes will be required to complete at least 10 of their 16 required core courses before their senior year begins. Players who meet the old requirements but not the new ones can obtain an academic redshirt.

MAC Commissioner Jon Steinbrecher opposes this idea.

“It sounds really good,” Steinbrecher said. “I don’t think it addresses the academic issues people think it does. I think the literature and studies done show sitting as a freshman is not a predictor whether a person is successful academically by GPA or by graduation. Why are we making a group of kids ineligible for a year when for the vast majority of kids, they’re academically prepared to be there and to play?”

ESPN Big Ten reporter Adam Rittenberg believes if this proposal becomes reality, freshmen college basketball players may be inclined to play professionally overseas and adds that basketball players are more ready than football players as freshmen. Rittenberg says he feels it could happen because of discussions that are taking place at the highest levels of college athletics. He also says that the rationale behind this idea could be that the conferences are looking out for what they think is best for these athletes considering some of them are not ready from a maturity and academic perspective. At the end of the day, he thinks such a rule is unlikely to be put in place.

Derrick Rose and his future

On Tuesday evening, news came out that star point guard Derrick Rose would have surgery on his torn meniscus in his right knee and will likely miss the rest of the season. Fox Sports 1 Anchor Mike Hill couldn’t have put it any better when he tweeted, “Derrick Rose appears to be on his way to being one of the all time great “IF” players…..#Bulls.”

Rose was rookie of the year in the 2008-09 NBA season and won the MVP two seasons later but after his MVP campaign, he has had trouble staying on the court.

This is the third time that Rose has ended his season early with an injury. In 2012, he got injured when the Bulls played the Philadelphia 76ers in the first game of the first game when the Bulls were ahead by 12 with just over a minute left in the game. As a result, he missed the following season. Then in November 2013, when the Bulls were in Portland, he hurt his right knee and missed the rest of that season.

ESPN Stats and Info says that including the 2011-12 season, the one he got injured vs. Philadelphia in the playoffs, he has missed 192 games and that number will go over 200.

There are not many more players with the talent that he has and the Bulls were confident his presence would lead the team to win an NBA title or two. Bulls fans will remember in his rookie season, the Bulls were in Philadelphia and he pulled off a nasty crossover against Andre Miller and Miller slipped to the ground after that move. Now all the team can wonder whether he can play for them or for anyone again.

In 46 games this season he has averaged almost 18.5 points per game and 5 assists per game. Next season, he is expected to make $20 million and in the 2016-17 season, he is to make $21.3 million but his career will be defined by the injuries that he sustained, not his performance on the court.

If you are a Chicago Cubs fan, you’ll remember a pitcher by the name of Mark Prior who came up to the big leagues in the 2002 season with an incredible amount of potential only less than five years later to make his last MLB appearance. Chicago sports fans have seen a number of athletes like Prior and Rose who brought incredible potential only to be wasted in a short amount of time.

People have been discussing whether Rose is still an MVP caliber candidate after these setbacks. While he is only 26, injuries like these tend to take a toll on a player’s health when or if one comes back to play once they reach their 30s.

I was willing to give Rose a chance to make amends after he got injured twice but the third time, I think its safe to say that if the Bulls are going to win an NBA championship, it will likely not be with the player that wears jersey number one. We all know he is a fighter and he will do everything in his power to come back but if he does return to game action, the talk of winning an MVP will become almost impossible to be true.

In previous years, the Bulls could not win many games without Rose scoring 25 or more points but the Bulls have done better in games in which Rose is not 100 percent or even 90 percent. Looking to the postseason, assuming the Bulls make it, I think it will be extremely difficult for the Bulls to go deep without Rose.

Beyond the Rose injuries, Chicago sports fans have learned one thing: It is not safe to assume that a highly talented athlete will live up to his full potential. Chicago sports fans have seen this movie before and regardless of how talented one is, nothing is guaranteed and potential doesn’t necessarily equate to what “could be.”

MLB 2015: pace-of-play

In an expected move, MLB announced steps to pick up the pace of the game this week. In 2014, the average length of a game was 3.13 hours and many experts believe this is too long.

Dayn Perry of cbssports.com mentioned that the average pace of a game as recently as 2009 was 2.92 hours a game and that MLB is considering changing the strike zone. Baseball Prospectus notes in their data that while the average time of game has gone up since 2009, the average team runs scored have come down in the low 4 range.

Part of the reason the games last longer are because the amount of pitching changes have gone up as well. Plus the average pitches/plate appearances have gone up in large part due to hitters fouling pitches off. Strikeouts may be fun for fans from the leagues best but that and walks contribute to longer at-bats. Baseball reference notes that a plate appearance ending in a strikeout takes roughly 4.8 pitches whereas a plate appearance ending in walk takes 5.5 pitches on average.

There are five main points that were announced:

Managers are required to challenge plays from the dugout and managers will not be allowed to do slow walks while waiting for their coaches to tell the manager whether to challenge the play or not while watching the replay on TV’s in the dugout. Furthermore, MLB is making other tweaks to the system which include an additional manager challenge for postseason games, tie-breaker games and the All-star game. Tag-up plays will be reviewable starting in 2015 and replay will not be used for spring training.

While batters are at the plate, they will be required to keep one foot in the batters box, “unless an established exception occurs.” Some exceptions include in bunting situations and when there is a wild pitch. Of course, this rule will be an adjustment that many players will have to adjust to real quickly and getting into this habit early is the best way to adjust to this new rule.

Once a broadcast returns from a commercial break, play must resume promptly. Umpires will have timers at their disposal to keep all participants on task. Two timers will be added for all stadiums, one near an outfield scoreboard and the other one on the facade behind home plate, which is near the press box. For local games, a timer will count down from 2 minutes 25 seconds and the number for nationally televised games will be at 2 minutes 45 seconds.

Players will be warned and fined for violations involving pitching changes but the fines will not go into effect until the second month of the regular season.

Managers will be allowed to retain a challenge after every call that is reversed. Last year a manager kept his challenge only after the first overturned call.

Some believe that a “pitch clock” will be added to the game in the future adding that it is only a matter of time considering that, Double AA and Triple AAA leagues are starting to use a “pitch clock” this year.

New Commissioner Rob Manfred said to ESPN in a September interview, “Attention spans are shorter. I think that it’s very important to us at least symbolically to say to fans, we understand that you want this to move as quickly as possible and we’re going to continue to modernize the game, without harming its traditions, in a way that makes it more enjoyable and more attune to the society that we live in.”

I think these new rules may entice more fans to come out to the park who may be reluctant to otherwise.

Why all NHL players must wear cages

While hockey can be a fun game for many fans, it can and usually is dangerous at the same time. In the last few years, it has not been uncommon for NHL players to get injured because of not wearing those cages that some hockey players wear. Considering that, some have argued that all NHL player should be required to wear cages.

Last year was the first year that all NHL players had to wear visors but some believe that the decision did not go far enough.

For example, in the strike shortened 2012-13 season, New York Rangers Defenseman Marc Stall got hit in the face on a deflected shot and missed some time as a result.

In 2011, Chris Pronger had his career end abruptly and his life altered seriously when he took an errant stick to the eye from Mikhail Grabovski. In his career, which lasted from 1993-2011, he did not wear a visor and some argue that a fully protected face likely prevents the severity of the injury sustained.

Not too long before Pronger, Bryan Berard nearly lost his eye thanks to a follow-through shot by Marian Hossa.

A good chunk of the debate seems to revolve around the fact that U.S. College hockey players are required to wear full facial protection, where Junior hockey players in Canada are only required to wear half-visors.

Casey Shea writes on CBS Pittsburgh that while he feels bad that hockey players get injured in these accidents but maintains that they are preventable. He continues by saying that while the league is working to make the game safer with concussions happening, why isn’t this being discussed more often?

As with any sport, injuries are part of the game but Shea argues that it is common sense to take steps to prevent injuries that are preventable like the examples mentioned above.

In the 1960’s, 1970’s and even earlier, some NHL players including goalies did not wear helmets let alone not wearing cages. Hockey fans who were not around in those days could not imagine any hockey player not wearing anything protecting themselves considering players like Montreal’s PK Subban let go a slap shot of at least 100 MPH on a regular basis.

It is extremely scary to think of the possibility of someone getting hit in the face with a blistering 100 MPH slap shot because of not wearing something that can protect you the most, that being a cage. If the NHL were serious about making the game safer, it is absolutely a no-brainer that all NHL players should be required to wear cages because without such a requirement, you may see more players sustain injuries because of that.

This should have been done years ago and while its better late than never, this proposed rule will ensure that fans can enjoy watching hockey whether its at home or in person while players don’t have to worry as much about being hit in the face with a 100 MPH shot and risk ending their careers too early.

Are professional athletes overpaid?

In November, Miami Marlins outfielder Giancarlo Stanton agreed to a whopping 13-year $325 million contract. That begs the question, are professional athletes overpaid?

Ryan McLaughlin wrote in csusignal.com that while they practice real hard everyday and sacrifice hours upon hours with their friends and family members to play for their respective teams, professional athletes are not worth every single penny they are given.

While the President of the United States does not have to go through what professional athletes do, the stress that goes into job of being commander-in-chief does take more of a toll on a person he argues and the salary of the President of the United States is not even $500,000.

Many athletes are making more than ten times the amount that the U.S. President makes. In July 2014, LeBron James signed a 2-year contract worth over $40 million with the Cleveland Cavaliers, but he mentions the contract could be a risk because he could have signed for 4 years and more than doubled what James got last summer.

McLaughlin mentions that the message to average folks is that James makes over 40 times the amount the U.S. President makes which means the work James does is more than 40 times harder than the leader of the free world.

He points to this example as to why we misplace the worth of a person’s actions in today’s world. There is a possibility that the reason these athletes are paid so much is because of their influence on the advertising market in the cities they play in. For instance, Oklahoma City Thunder star Kevin Durant signed a poultry 10-year $300 million deal with Nike, an iconic sports brand.

McLaughlin also mentions stats from the Bureau of Labor Statistics that the average income for a doctor is between $239,000 and $258,000, but doctors save lives every single day and their jobs are extremely stressful because if they mess up, trouble will ensue.

Professional athletes make mistakes every single day and while fans may not appreciate that, there are much bigger implications for doctors who make mistakes than when athletes screw up.

On the other hand, The Doctor Chris Mueller wrote in Bleacher Report from three years ago that in 2012 the lowest Cubs player was to make over $400,000 that year and numbers like that have not changed at all as 2015 progresses.

The other side of the argument says that aren’t we the fans and the one’s who dictate how much money they make in the first place? Mueller mentions that he doesn’t object paying $75 for a ticket to a game, and have bought officially licensed team gear such as hoodies and t-shirts for more than he is willing to admit.

He continues by saying that it is we the fans who give our hard-earned money to attend games in person, buy food and beer that is considerably more expensive at the ballpark and wear the jerseys of our favorite athletes. Imagine if attendance to games at Wrigley Field plummeted from nearly 40,000 to just over 20,000 or so? Numbers would have to go down in order to balance a budget.

When individuals make decisions that is is acceptable to pay an average day’s wage to attend a game that is at least three if not close to four hours, it sends a message to the athletes involved that they are worth every cent they make. He mentions that there are other reasons that athletes are paid in some cases ridiculously high amounts of money its injuries which many deal with during their pro career and after retirement.

The chance that many professional athletes will endure high-cost medical bills because of what they go through every single day is extremely high.

The amount of money that retired athletes often have to pay to keep their lives viable and you add that most insurance companies do not cover athletes which results in considerably higher medical bills than the average person would have to pay.

Many pro-athletes who currently are active and those who are retired are will go through physical stress later on in life especially those in full-contact sports.

Playing on consecutive days

Speaking at a conference during the All-star break in New York, NBA Commissioner Adam Silver intends to ease the compressed NBA schedule to keep players healthy in part.

He noted the number of times in which teams play four times in five days and said, “It’s a math formula at the end of the day in terms of the number of days in the season and the number of games we play, but we think we can make a dramatic reduction there.” He continues, “And while I don’t think we can completely eliminate four out of five nights, we hope to make tremendous progress.”

For example, the eastern conference leading Atlanta Hawks play more than 20 sets of back-to-back games this season and have already played a set of four in five days.

There is evidence that on the second of back-to-back games that teams play 1.5 points per 100 possessions worse and it gets worse when it gets to the fourth game in five days. According to databasebasketball.com, teams win just 43% of the second game in consecutive nights.

Currently, TNT broadcasts Thursday night games and besides the two games that are on TNT, at the most, there is one other game being played. ESPN broadcasts games on Wednesday and Friday evening and on many Sundays, ABC broadcasts day games. Silver also says that the league has reached out to the arenas around the league in attempt to opening up more nights and options.

The other possibility would be to add more dates to the schedule and Silver said that he would like to speak to teams and their owners about reducing preseason games—not practice days or training camp but some of them and start the season a week earlier. The NBA season usually begins on the week of Halloween.

When its all set and done, there will be 1,230 games played in less than 200 days and considering the game can get physically demanding, the condensed schedule is that one-two combination that Silver is trying to change.

Furthermore, some of the NBA’s best, Kevin Durant and Paul George ran north of 200 miles last season according to SportVU player-tracking, which is roughly the equivalent of running eight marathons into approximately a six six-month span.

The league in addition to reducing back-to-back games may have to consider cutting the 82 game schedule or start the week before Halloween and end the regular season in either the second to last or last Wednesday in April. If the regular season were to end in either the second to last or last Wednesday in April, an option Silver could consider is to make the conference quarterfinals a best of 5 instead of 7.

Currently all rounds of the NBA playoffs are a best of 7 and in baseball, the first round, the divisional round is a best of 5. As a result, while the regular season may end later, cutting those remaining two games from the quarterfinals will keep the finals on track to end in mid to late June.

If I were Silver, I would end the regular season on the second to last Wednesday of April and the postseason would still start in April but not by jamming too many games into a short window, which is his goal.

Should college athletes be paid?

Last week the NCAA voted in favor of allowing schools to pay their student-athletes for the entire time they attend the college. However, economists from the University of Chicago and Vanderbilt University believe this decision should have went further.

John Seigfried, professor emeritus of economics at Vanderbilt University, says in part, “The incentives to overuse players and the stark disparity between coaches and players will remain.” Seigfried co-authored a paper with Allen Sanderson, senior lecturer in economics at the University of Chicago.

Liz Entman posted on the Vanderbilt University News site and she mentions that, researchers contend that athletes should be paid according to the value they provide to the college/university. College sport programs are rarely the financial fortunes that they are perceived to be. Less than 1 in 5 programs are profitable and there is little evidence that a team’s popularity indirect effect has on sources of revenue such as increased enrollment, private donors and publicly funded agencies.

The researchers point out that College athletics main cost-control measure that limits players being compensated in grants and scholarships is a method of wage-fixing that would violate the 1890 Sherman Antitrust act in other settings. Artificially age minimums have been set forth in some pro sports, which make it virtually impossible for athletes who play sports like basketball and football to go pro when they graduate from high school. According to the researchers, the NCAA has become, “a de facto farm league,” and prospective athletes are trained in whatever sport it is at no cost relatively speaking.

These student athletes work much more than the 20 hours per week allowed by the NCAA and in some sports, seasons are longer than in previous years. However, the folks that benefit the most from athletes’ labor are the ones who coach them.

There are three high court cases revolving around athlete compensation are close to being resolved and one of them may change the game permanently.

First, is O’Bannon vs. NCAA, which guts wage fixing and permits schools to pay student athletes up to $5,000 per year of eligibility. The second one is about an appeal before the National Labor Relations Board surrounding Northwestern University, in which the university petitioned the board to think twice after a regional director’s recognition of Northwestern football players as university employees. The third case is Jenkins vs. NCAA, which seeks to eliminate compensation caps completely and is possibly the most potent one.

What does the future hold for college sports? If athletes were to be given medical coverage and competitive compensation, it will require that the college dips into their general fund and to force university leadership to have real conversations about how much a school is willing to charge its student body to support the athletic programs. Furthermore, this will create potential problems regarding title IX because there are many more men in revenue-generated college sports than women.

The researchers conclude, “It seems unlikely that the landscape of big-time commercialized intercollegiate athletics 10 years from now will resemble today’s incarnation, or anything seen in the last half-century.”

If this question were posed 25 years ago, I would have been hesitant to support the notion that student-athletes should be paid. Since that time, the cost of living has skyrocketed including but not limited to increased college tuition, thus I think its a good idea to compensate these athletes. Unless you have been in their shoes, no one really understands how hard these athletes work everyday to improve themselves and considering the further up one goes, the competition becomes even more stiff.

In the end, paying student athletes the value they contribute to the college/university will benefit the college/university in the long run.

2015 Chicago Cubs preview

Cubs first baseman Anthony Rizzo declared a month ago that the Cubs will win the NL Central in 2015. Is that too much to expect?

The Cubs have made improvements in the off-season among them being signing Left Handed Pitcher Jon Lester, hiring Joe Maddon as their new manager, who had a successful run in Tampa Bay.

According to Bovada.com, the odds for the Cubs to win the word series were 50-1 before Lester signed, after he signed, that number has improved to 12-1, which are the same odds as the Detroit Tigers who have players such as Justin Verlander and Miguel Cabrera. What’s more, they now have better odds than the St. Louis Cardinals, who won it all in 2006 and 2011 and made the fall classic in 2013.

Jesse Rogers of ESPN Chicago believes that the Cubs will hover around .500 in 2015 even with the additions made this off-season including Jason Hammel. Rogers continues by saying that he doesn’t believe 2015 is the year for the Cubs but believes that this season will set the tone for an even better 2016 season and beyond and to figure out which players will be part of the future beyond 2015.

According to ESPN Stats @ Information, the last team to make the postseason playing four rookies was the 2005 Atlanta Braves. In 2014, the Cubs on-base percentage was a dismal .300, which was ranked 28th out of 30 MLB teams and led the league in strikeouts, which in order to contend in 2015, those numbers have to significantly improve.

The Cubs went 73-89 in 2014 and in addition to Rogers, Rob Neyer of FoxSports.com doesn’t believe in all the hype that the Cubs will win it all in 2015. Neyer believes that if the Cubs win between 85 and 90 games in 2015, it would be “a near-miracle.”

From the point Hammel and Jeff Samardzija were traded midseason, the younger team took on a bigger role and went 33-35, which isn’t horrible but may be too much to expect this quickly.

According to Elias Sports Bureau, the team’s average age was 27 years 50 days when they played their last game in 2014.

FanGraphs predict that the Cubs will win 83 games and lose 79 games in 2015. This may sound like a disappointing season but consider that the Cubs lost over 100 games in 2012, that would be an improvement and this means a legit shot at even 85-90 wins.

Just two weeks ago, ESPN’s Keith Law said that the Cubs have the best ranked farm system in the big leagues. Law defends his decision by saying, “strongest collection of top-shelf hitting prospects I can remember since I started working in baseball,” he says that if there is one weakness, it is pitching but he suggests it may be an exaggeration.

One of the additions made that has not received as much press is the signing of Catcher Miguel Montero, who was with the Arizona Diamondbacks. Montero got on base nearly 33 percent in 2014 and that is better than the Cubs have had with Wellington Castillo, who in 2014 made it on base less than 30 percent of the time. A four percent swing upward doesn’t sound like a big deal but can make a difference especially in 1-2 run games in which the Cubs have had trouble winning over the last number of years.

If you look at the projected starting rotation, you start off with Lester who went 16-11 with an ERA of 2.46. Then you go to Jake Arrieta, who had a record of 10-5 with an ERA of just over two in a half. Hammel, finished 10-11 in 2014 but before he was traded to Oakland, he was 8-5 but finished the season with a respectable ERA of 3.47. The first three pitchers in a rotation are important in order to contend but the last two slots for the Cubs are a little uncertain.

Kyle Hendricks had an outstanding 2014 considering he broke in after the halfway mark of the season, went 7-2 with an ERA of 2.46. The question remains can Hendricks sustain those numbers in a 162 game season? The league will certainly adjust to Hendricks and he will go through periods in which he struggles and he will have to adjust to the adjustments made against him. In 2013, Travis Wood did finish 9-12 but had an ERA of 3.11 but returned to earth in 2014 and had an ERA of over 5.

I contend that the team has improved in the off-season but not as much as some insinuate. In the last few years, the Cubs have struggled against teams in their own division including the Cincinnati Reds and Pittsburgh Pirates. They have to do much better against these two teams if they have any ideas of winning the central division.

Zachary D. Rymer of Bleacher Report says that the Cubs dream looks more like a wild-card birth and believes that the Cubs will be in better position to contend for the division in 2016. I know its like beating a dead horse but realistically expecting the Cubs to go deep in the postseason and possibly winning it all in 2015 isn’t realistic at this point. Thus Cubs fans will hear a familiar saying, “Wait until next year,” with a caveat, I think the Cubs will be in better position to contend in 2016 and beyond because they finally learned from teams like the Cardinals that you have to develop your players in the minor leagues.

Considering where the Cubs were when they lost 101 games in 2012, many thought it would take many years for the Cubs to contend but they have made headwinds more quickly than many expected. Cubs fans should acknowledge and appreciate the strides the North Siders are making.

The NFL and player arrests

According to U-T San Diego, there were more than 50 NFL players who were arrested in 2014. This certainly had its impact on the perception of the NFL in 2014. I will mention some players who are in that crowd and what needs to be done to clean up this mess that the NFL is in.

On September 17, Jonathan Dwyer was arrested in Arizona on aggravated assault charges in connection involving an 18-month-old child and a women.

Alan Branch of the Buffalo Bills was arrested on the morning of August 23 in a town named Cheektowaga after officers found out that Branch was vomiting on the driver’s side of his car. According to police, Branch failed a sobriety test after his blood alcohol content was .14 nearly twice the legal limit in New York state.

Cleveland Browns Wide Receiver Josh Gordon was hit with a DWI charge after being pulled over for speeding in North Carolina. Gordon’s BAC was .09% and just this week, he was suspended without pay for at least one year for violating the league’s substance abuse policy.

Greg Hardy of the Carolina Panthers was arrested on May 13 and was charged with assaulting a women and communicating threats to this person in North Carolina.

Davone Bess of the Cleveland Browns was arrested on January 17 for assaulting a law enforcement officer and resisting an officer at Ft. Lauderdale airport. He checked himself into a medical facility after being released from custody.

Fred Davis of the Washington Redskins was arrested in Fairfax County, Virginia on February 20 on suspicion of DUI. Whats interesting is that he was suspended indefinitely by the league the day before for violating the league’s substance-abuse policy.

Last but not least, Ray Rice then of the Baltimore Ravens was arrested in Atlantic City, New Jersey after an altercation with his fiancee at a casino. Furthermore, Rice was indicted by a grand jury on March 27 on one count of third-degree assault.

On September 8, TMZ released additional footage of Rice from an elevator in which he punched his fiancee. In the immediate aftermath, the Ravens terminated his contract and NFL commissioner Roger Goodell announced that he had been suspended indefinitely but was reinstated on November 28.

Jason LA Canfora of CBS sports says that if he was the commissioner, he would spend time with players who accomplished so much on and off the field. Furthermore being able to relate to players in a unique way and bring out the best in athletes off the field. Former NFL Cornerback Reggie Howard is currently the President and Executive Director of the United Athletes foundation. He recommends that Howard should be on a personal-conduct committee that hands out punishment to future offenders.

This isn’t limited to NFL players but many of these guys were told that no matter what they do, nothing bad could happen. Professional athletes also are given multimillion dollar contracts, which can prove to be detrimental to many of these athletes. Professional athletes need to be dealt how to manage their money in a much more responsible way and have a concept of the money they are about to receive. The big problem is the lack of concept that many athletes have when they get these huge contracts. Some athletes are under the impression that there is no way that you can go from having $100 million to being broke and lets hope that athletes who have ideas of doing this will say no.