Having a Hardy time

What is going on with Dallas Cowboys defensive end Greg Hardy? In May 2014, Hardy was arrested for assault and communicating threatening messages to his girlfriend going as far to threaten to kill her. In July 2014, he was found guilty of assaulting a women and was put on probation for 18 months and was put in jail for 60 days. Those charges were dropped when the alleged victim failed to appear in court. NFL commissioner Roger Goodell suspended Hardy in April for 10 games but an arbiter reduced his suspension from 10 games to just 4. That’s the off the field drama but last weekend, he had an on the field incident that has been seen by many.

Days before this incident occurred, Hardy was on the team’s radar for a different reason. On Monday, NFL Network Insider Ian Rapoport reported that Hardy had missed last Thursday’s practice and had not notified the team why that was the case. The official reason was an illness as noted by the team. In March, he signed a one-year deal worth over $11 million and some fans are suggesting buyers remorse.

After the game on Sunday October 25, head coach Jason Garrett and team owner Jerry Jones were asked about what happened on the Cowboys sideline. “He’s, of course, one of the real leaders on this team, and he earns it. He earns it with the respect from all his teammates. That’s the kind of thing that inspires a football team. … I don’t have any issue with him being involved in motivating or pushing in any part of the football team, because he plays and walks the walk,” Jones said.

Garrett said, “To be a good football player and a good football team, you have to have passion and put it all out there. … It was coming off the football field. That happens; you encourage guys, you try to get guys excited. You try to get guys ready for the next challenge. I believe from my vantage point, that’s what he was doing.”

New York Jets wide receiver Brandon Marshall, who has dealt with mental health issues in the past, gave his take on the Hardy saga on Inside The NFL.

Former New York Giants running back Tiki Barber told Sports Illustrated that the relationship between Hardy and the team will get worse as long as Jones condones the behavior. “Jerry Jones co-signs it and excuses it,” Barber said. “There is no excuse for what he did. I understand the emotion of the moment. You just gave up a 100-yard kickoff return to Dwayne Harris and it basically loses the game for you. There’s going to be emotion, but when you put your hands on a head coach and that’s acceptable then you create discontent in the locker room that is hard to get over.”

Many people including me believe that Hardy’s actions are making Jones and the team as a whole look bad and some will argue that Jones doesn’t care, I’m not sure if I agree with that but the Hardy saga added with the fact the Cowboys are seeing their hopes of returning to the playoffs for a second straight year slip away by the week is making life a nightmare for Cowboys fans. The hits keep on coming, in fact days before he made his 2015 debut against the Patriots, he said hoped to come out “guns blazing” and then made comments about Tom Brady’s wife. Anna Issacson, the NFL’s vice president of social responsibility, told NFL.com, “I couldn’t disagree more with Greg Hardy’s comments, and they do not reflect the values of the league. We are working hard to bring attention to the positive role models many other players represent and also to continue our education with all members of the NFL family.”

ESPN.com’s Ian O’Connor said that Hardy should be suspended and referred to Jones as “enabler in chief.”

“If the Cowboys have any sense of right and wrong here, they will suspend Hardy for the Seattle game and warn him that his next eruption will lead to immediate termination,” he said. “But the safe bet says the Cowboys would prefer Hardy take out his anger on Russell Wilson and then hope for the best. “They’re not going to get the best, of course. Greg Hardy is more likely to destroy the season than Tony Romo is to return in time to save it,” he concluded.

I will go even further and say that Hardy should not be playing in the NFL, PERIOD because he is an absolute disgrace to an organization that fumbled the Ray Rice saga at the beginning of the 2014 NFL season. Furthermore, he sets a terrible example for others who may want to play football as they move up the ranks from high school to college and eventually to the NFL. What is even more of a disgrace is that his 10 game suspension was cut to 4 games and some on the Cowboys may never admit it but even with the talent that he possesses, is it really worth it to be playing with an individual who tends to steal the show for the wrong reasons? Yes any team wants to have a talented defensive end like Hardy who can disrupt the quarterback but I argue the longer he remains in Dallas, the coach and owner in part will continue to be asked about this saga when if they took decisive action to suspend him, they could’ve put this story to rest. The month of October is almost over and couldn’t end at a better time for the Cowboys, considering they’ve lost their quarterback Tony Romo for at least a few more weeks and add this Hardy saga to the mix and enough damage may have been done to make it almost impossible to undo the mess that was partially self-imposed.

Going forward, I don’t see any situation arising where teams will be intent on signing a player with all of this mess Hardy has made thanks to his actions. Let’s not forget that while he was still with the Carolina Panthers, the team put the franchise tag on Hardy in February 2014 and was guaranteed more than $12 million for that season before the domestic violence incident news broke. Why do I bring this up? Simply because with some professional athletes, you guarantee that much money in that period of time and that can and often has had the ability to make the likes of a Hardy feel like he is immortal and can do no wrong. It amazes me that some professional teams like the Panthers have not learned that when you give some professional athletes that much money, that tends to be a set up for one’s failure especially off the field where some of these incidents with high paid players in whatever sport have occurred.

Are they still America’s team?

For more than half a century, the Dallas Cowboys have been known to many NFL fans as “America’s team,” but lately their mediocrity on the field has many questioning whether they really are “America’s team.” Before the 2014 season in which the team made the playoffs before losing in the divisional playoff game against the Green Bay Packers, they had not made the postseason since the 2009 season and the franchise has gone 20 years since winning their last super bowl ring.

In 2014, the Cowboys lost the status of being known as “America’s team” after a six-year run with that title, the Denver Broncos won that title last year. The Harris poll started asking this question in the late 1990’s and the Cowboys have been near the top in every single year. The moniker has been around much longer than the late 1990’s, in the late 1970’s, Cowboys announcer John Facenda dubbed that term and it has been synonymous with this franchise. However, some raise the question that since moving into a billion dollar plus stadium in 2009, hasn’t AT@T stadium been known to have an over-sized scoreboard that tends to bring in more fans from the opposing team rather than creating a place that opponents fear.

Just recently, the Cowboys came out on top as the NFL’s most valuable franchise, with the franchise being worth $4 billion, coming in second is the New England Patriots at $3.2 billion. Looking at achievements since the turn of the century, shouldn’t the Patriots be known as “America’s team” because in 15 years, they have won 4 super bowl rings? That is a rhetorical question designed to challenge the conventional wisdom that sports fans hear constantly. Since becoming a franchise in 1960, the Cowboys have won 5 super bowl rings and the Patriots have nearly matched that total in just 15 years.

In the current season, the team is a meager 2-4 after winning their first two games but losing quarterback Tony Romo for at least 8 weeks after breaking his collarbone on September 20 against the Philadelphia Eagles.

In early February, NFL Films Bob Ryan and Ed Sabol, the founder of NFL Films, came out with a feature talking about the team’s 50+ year history.

I don’t have any animosity towards the Cowboys but looking at their performance on the field in recent years, with a couple of exceptions, the Cowboys have been mediocre at best and I feel we should be measuring that term by the performance on the field. Even if I were a Cowboys fan, I wouldn’t feel much satisfaction being a fan of a team that has had high expectations in recent years but hasn’t lived up to them. I’m not sure if I would go as far to say this title is overrated but I believe that “America’s team” is a bit over-hyped.

One of my issues is that the Cowboys often get the national game of the week whether it is on FOX, CBS, Sunday Night or Monday Night football because I have seen quite a few Cowboys games on the national game of the week and often they don’t live up to what the networks think should be a good match-up.  I feel as if the NFL and the TV networks that broadcast games are more concerned with having a popularity contest even if the teams playing are not as good and I would like to see games involving teams that actually are not just good for ratings but good in a competitive game that is often decided in the 4th quarter or overtime. However, I don’t see this changing anytime soon and in the future, the “America’s team” award or whatever you want to call it should be determined by merit not by what happened nearly half a century ago.

Reflecting on the 2015 Chicago Cubs season

What was otherwise a season in which the team exceeded expectations, the 2015 season ended on a sour note for the Chicago Cubs in which they were swept in the NLCS by the New York Mets. During the regular campaign, the team won 97 games and came within 3 games of catching the St. Louis Cardinals for the rights to win the NL Central, though the Cubs beat their arch rival in the division series. During and before spring training not many expected the Cubs to win close to 100 games, in fact the consensus was somewhere in the 80’s.

(AP Photo/David Goldman)

One of the key points of the regular season occurred during a game against the Colorado Rockies in which the Cubs were trailing for a while, then came back and were trailing in the bottom of the 9th with two outs and Kris Bryant came to the plate with a man on and launched a two-run homer to give the Cubs a 9-8 win in which the Rockies took the lead in the 9th. After July 27th, the Cubs never looked back, going into play the next day the Cubs were 52-46, which that late into the season wasn’t that bad considering where they had been at that point in previous seasons. After they lost 7-2 at home on the 28th in which I had the privilege to see in person, the North Siders managed to win 45 games with just 18 losses since that late July evening. Basically, close to half of the team’s victories came days before the trade deadline and after August 1.

One of the main sources of scoring all season came from the long ball. During the regular season, the team scored 689 runs and hit 171 gofer balls but their dependency on the home run ball exposed them in the championship series. In the playoffs, the Cubs scored 32 runs in the two series and 23 of them came from the long ball. Hours after the season came to an end, President of Baseball operations Theo Epstein said that the winter months cant go by fast enough.

"We can't get to Opening Day fast enough, a chance to go back and finish what we started." https://t.co/NtmMe3xNqE pic.twitter.com/sD4gmIgZhA

— Chicago Cubs (@Cubs) October 23, 2015

Another high point of the season occurred on August 30 in which Jake Arrieta threw a no-hitter against the Dodgers in L.A. and that was one of 22 victories he earned during the regular season. Even with Lester and Arrieta manning the top two in the starting rotation, Epstein said that the team will be looking for another starter whether it is a 3 or 4 or it is a big name like David Price, who pitched for Joe Maddon during their days with the Tampa Bay Rays. At this point it is not known what direction the team will go, whether they will trade some of their young talent like Starlin Castro for another top of the line starting pitcher or go after Jordan Zimmerman, who is a free agent having pitched for the Washington Nationals and is from the Midwest.

Another aspect of the game that needs to be improved and Epstein said this, that is to keep the other team’s running game in check. All too often we saw opposing base runners gets outstanding jumps and as a result, the catcher has virtually no chance to throw out the base runner whether at second or third base. I have mentioned the reliance on the home run ball, the 2016 team needs to be able to generate more runs without the long ball because there are times in the season for every team where the home run ball is simply not there.

I know its been 100+ years since the Cubs last won the world series but its important to put things into perspective, in 2012 under Epstein’s first full season as president of baseball operations, the Cubs lost 101 games and I can assure that at this time 3 years ago, many Cubs fans were not feeling as optimistic as they are in 2015 going into 2016. I thought the Cubs would beat the Mets in 6 or 7 games but most of the team’s current roster had not experienced any playoff baseball before October. In the long run having an experience like this could actually play out to the benefit of the core of the team in large part. Even though the Cubs did not achieve the ideal result in 2015, don’t worry Cubs fans, you can expect this franchise to be back next year and beyond. Epstein knows what he is doing, he won world series rings in Boston in 2004 and 2007. The future is bright on Chicago’s north side, we finally have people in high level positions who know what they are doing for once and that is what fans have been eager to see for many years.

Bulls season preview

Ever since Derrick Rose entered the league as a 20-year-old in 2008, the Bulls have had extremely high expectations. In 2011, they made the conference finals against the Miami Heat but were dispatched in short order in 5 games led by LeBron James. Last season, they made the conference semifinals only to be dispatched by a team led by James in 6 games, that team being the Cleveland Cavaliers. Shortly after the team’s season ended, head coach Tom Thibodeau was fired even with the successes his teams achieved in the regular season, they could not get over the playoff hump and win a championship like many expected when he was hired back in 2010. During the regular season the Bulls won 255 games and lost 139 under Thibodeau’s watch but won just 23 out of 51 games in the playoffs. Shortly after that move was made, the team hired Iowa State head coach and former Bull Fred Hoiberg to be the team’s new coach. With the new head coach, the team’s focus will shift from defense to offense despite the fact that the team has not seen much turnover in their roster since their last game in the 2014-15 season.

One of the stories that has been dominating the team is whether star point guard Derrick Rose will be able to play over the injury bug that bulls fans have seen all too often since winning the MVP award in the 2010-11 season. This year’s team has some more depth and the Bulls can win more games in which Rose doesn’t score 35+ points. One of the other key players on the team will be Jimmy Butler, who has the ability like we’ve seen from Rose in the past to draw fouls driving to the rim. However, Bulls fans would like to see Butler’s shooting percentage go up and some believe that if he can average 25 or more points per game, that could make him a “dark-horse candidate for MVP.”

During last season, big man Joakim Noah spent most of the season dealing with a knee injury that kept him from being the force that bulls fans have seen many times in the past. After the end of last season, he had knee surgery in early May. According to ESPN.com’s Nick Friedell, during the off season, Noah spent a good chunk of the summer working out at the Peak Performance Project in Santa Barbara, California, an athletic training facility that to a certain extent helps athletes get back on track after suffering from certain injuries.

“I just feel bouncier, just lighter on my feet. Just waking up in the morning and moving good, that’s a good feeling. Doing a lot of yoga every morning before I come in. Just taking care of myself a little different. This isn’t my first rodeo,” he said.

With Mike Dunleavy Jr. out for at least the first half of the season and possibly longer, sophomore small forward Doug McDermott who was drafted from Creighton in the 2014 NBA draft, he will get a chance to prove that he should be getting more minutes than he earned last season due in part to defensive liabilities. However, with a new head coach, McDermott is being given more freedom at least during the preseason and it is paying off. As of the preseason games played through October 14, he has scored more three-point shots than anyone else in the league and is making over 43% of shots from behind the three-point line.

The main question going forward is do the Bulls have a legitimate shot at making the NBA finals? If they are to make the leap to the finals, they will likely have to defeat #23 on the Cavaliers and star point guard Kyrie Irving. Some have set a threshold of how many games the team should win in the regular season and the consensus is around 50. My personal prediction is that they will win 52 or 53 games in the regular season but they will need to bring the intensity on the defensive end because there have been too many instances of the team having defensive lapses that could easily have been prevented.

Chicago vs. New York

The Cubs finally know who their opponent is for the National League Championship series and that opponent is the New York Mets. New York defeated the LA Dodgers Thursday evening 3-2 in the decisive game 5 of the National League Division series. In the hours before knowing their opponent, there was much debate of which team the Cubs would prefer to play but catcher David Ross said other than a shorter trip to the big apple, they did not have much preference.

It was announced on Thursday that one key player will not be playing during the NLCS.

Javier Baez gets chance to shine for Cubs with Addison Russell out for NLCS, by @MDGonzales http://t.co/bRTlUMdwhn pic.twitter.com/L6YI5WmLbc

— Chicago Tribune Sports (@ChicagoSports) October 15, 2015

An MRI revealed that Russell suffered a moderate strain in his left hamstring after stretching out a double into a triple on Monday vs. the St. Louis Cardinals. Russell hit .242 with 13 home runs and 54 RBI’s in 142 games played during the regular season.

“He’s not going to necessarily push it right now,” Cubs manager Joe Maddon said. “Let’s go on more of a normal pace with the training staff and not test it to the point where he could re-injure it again too soon by trying to be too aggressive.”

Replacing Russell is Javier Baez who is more of a polished hitter but has had issues with defense in the past. Baez played 28 games in the regular season after being called up on September 1 and had a batting average of .289.

The schedule for the series has been released.

All times ET, all games broadcast on TBS

Game 1: Sat., Oct. 17 at Citi Field, 8:07 p.m.
Game 2: Sun., Oct. 18 at Citi Field, 8:07 p.m.
Game 3: Tues., Oct. 20 at Wrigley Field, TBD
Game 4: Wed., Oct. 21 at Wrigley Field, TBD
Game 5: Thurs., Oct. 22 at Wrigley Field, TBD *
Game 6: Sat., Oct. 24 at Citi Field, TBD *
Game 7: Sun., Oct. 25 at Citi Field, TBD *
*if necessary

During the regular season, the Mets won 90 games and won the NL East easily over a slumping Washington Nationals team. While the Cubs won 7 more games than New York, they play in a division that saw the Cardinals win 100 games.

After July 25, New York led the league in runs, home runs and slugging percentage. A big part of those numbers can be attributed to the acquisition of outfielder Yoenis Cespedes from the Detroit Tigers in late July and third baseman David Wright coming back from the disabled list in August. He was put on the 15-day disabled list on April 14 after suffering from a strained right hamstring after stealing second base. Weeks later he was diagnosed with spinal stenosis and there was concern that he would not come back at all. However, those concerns were not warranted as he returned to the big league team and hit a home run on his first at-bat since his injury on August 24.

This will be the first time the Mets have been to the championship series since 2006 when they eventually lost to the St. Louis Cardinals in 7 games while the Cubs are in their first championship series since 2003 when they lost in 7 to the then Florida Marlins. Game 6 of that series was known as the infamous Bartman game.

MY PREDICTION: as mentioned above the Mets are an entirely different team since the trade deadline. Their batting order is more potent than it was when the Cubs last saw them in early July. During the regular season, the Cubs won all 7 games against New York but as Cubs TV play-by-play man Len Kasper said on Twitter shortly after the Cubs knew their opponent that any Cubs fan who thinks this series will be a cake walk are wrong.

Bleacher Report featured columnist Joel Reuter believes that Jake Arrieta will be in the position to pitch the Cubs to their first world series appearance since 1945 in game 6 and predicts that he will continue his dominance Cub fans saw in most of the regular season and in the playoffs.

I predict that the Cubs will continue their momentum gained from games 2, 3, 4 of the division series even though they haven’t played since Tuesday, thus there could be some rust early on. On the other side, the Mets had a game on Thursday night in southern California and had to travel cross country on Friday back to the big apple. With everything said, this will be a well pitched series but at the end of the day, the Cubs offensive starting lineup will be a little too much to handle for the Mets. It will be a close series half way through but the Cubs will show they are the better team at the end, Cubs 4 Mets 2.

The unwritten rules of baseball

On Saturday evening, in an attempt to break up an inning ending double play slid late into second base Chase Utley of the LA Dodgers injured New York Mets shortstop Ruben Tejada and unfortunately for the Mets, Tejada is likely out for the remainder of the series and season if the Mets advance, with a broken right fibula. The double play was not even turned or attempted and Utley never touched the base. In the moments after the play happened, Dodgers manager Don Mattingly challenged the call claiming that Tejada never touched second base and he won that challenge. There was some confusion because Utley left the field after originally being called out by the second base umpire.

According to MLB rules, on a replay where BOTH the fielder misses the bag/tag AND the runner misses the bag, the runner is ruled safe.

— Dave Hogg (@stareagle) October 11, 2015

Almost immediately after the game, there was reaction on social media.

That was not a slide and that is not how u 'go in hard'!

— Chipper Jones (@RealCJ10) October 11, 2015

If that was a superstar shortstop we would have a Tulo Rule being enforced tomorrow

— Justin Upton (@JUST_JUP) October 11, 2015

After the game, Joe Torre, former big league manager and current MLB chief baseball officer was asked the question about Upton’s tweet and he responded by saying, “No, I think every player’s important. Because someone’s not an All-Star player, that to me is not part of the circumstance here. God forbid it should ever be.”

For clarity, here is the rule from MLB regarding take out slides.

“If, in the judgment of the umpire, a base runner willfully and deliberately interferes with a batted ball or a fielder in the act of fielding a batted ball with the obvious intent to break up a double play, the ball is dead. The umpire shall call the runner out for interference and also call out the batter-runner because of the action of his teammate. In no event may bases be run or runs scored because of such action by a runner.”

This hasn’t been the first time Utley has slid hard into second base vs. the Mets.

MLB.com columnist Anthony Castrovince believes that this episode of sliding late into a base will accelerate MLB’s urgency to institute a rule which would crack down on late slides. In his press conference at Dodger stadium on Saturday night Torre mentioned that when the Arizona fall league gets underway, players will be taught to slide right to the base. Furthermore, the NCAA has similar rules that the Arizona fall league is set to test and they read in part, “On any force play, the runner must slide on the ground (via a headfirst slide or a slide with one leg and buttock on the ground) before the base and in a direct line between the two bases (with his entire body), though it is permissible for his momentum to carry him straight through the base. The runner may deviate from the direct line as a means to avoid making contact or altering the play of the fielder.”

Former MLB outfielder Eric Byrnes offered his take after the game on MLB Network.

Play was unfortunate and ugly. Utley did what base runners are taught to do. Rule needs to be implemented to protect infielders.

— Eric Byrnes (@byrnes22) October 11, 2015

He emphasized a few times that if MLB does not implement a rule, slides like this will continue to happen.

This play could change the complexion of the NLDS but more importantly brings the debate to center stage of what the unwritten rules of baseball are. Of course at a young age and when one is coming up through the minor leagues, you are taught to do everything possible to break up a double play.

At the same time, base runners must exercise proper judgment, i.e. knowing if its worth it to go all in to break up a double play. As a baseball fan in general, I have seen situations in which a base runner misses second base and no outs are recorded but the second base umpire calls the runner and batter out because the runner intentionally slides out of the defined baseline in the opinion of the umpire. Unfortunately I don’t think these calls are made often enough.

Even if MLB were to come up with a rule before tomorrow’s Dodgers Mets game at Citi Field, Tejada is still injured and will be for sometime likely missing part of the 2016 season. At the same time, while I feel that good players play hard but clean, how many more injuries do we need to see before a change is made? Buster Posey was lost for the season back in 2011 after a head on collision at home plate and shortly thereafter, the Buster Posey rule was implemented basically banning collisions at home plate. The main reason why we continue to see at least borderline slides is because the base umpires are not calling runners out enough. I agree 100% with ESPN.com writer David Schoenfield in which he says that the rules on the books are not being enforced.

Utley has played most of his career with the Philadelphia Phillies and the Phillies play the Mets at least 5 series a season and the crowd in Flushing will boo Utley when his name is announced by the Mets public address announcer for the rest of his playing career in all likelihood. Even after this series is over, much of the baseball world will be talking about this play during the off season. This unwritten rule may indeed become a written rule and the fact that MLB has not taken any action is the main reason we are having this discussion. There is a way to keep the tradition of the game intact while enacting measures to keep players safe.

Ways to make college football better

In January, Ohio State defeated Oregon in the first ever college football playoff and more than 30 million people watched the historic event. There are some folks who believe than an 8 team playoff would be too much for the players to grasp and wouldn’t be fair in general. Furthermore those against expanding the playoff from 4 to 8 would believe that a college football season with 868 FBS games is better than an 872 game FBS. However, the discussion of how to improve the game has not received as much press as some would believe it should.

Adam Silversten of CBS Sports and others from CBS Sports discuss their suggestions for improving the college game as a whole.

Dennis Dodd, senior college football columnist suggests that the game get rid of the kickoff acknowledging that the idea sounds crazy but contends that many injuries come from this part of the game whether one is on the receiving team or kicking team. The big question when pondering this is does the kickoff generate excitement? Yes fans will see returners take the ball the other way to the house but we live in an era where player safety is a top priority for any level of football. Dodd brings statistics into the equation mentioning that during the 2014 NFL regular season there were 1,226 kickoffs and 6 of them were taken back for a touchdown, a success rate of 0.4%.

Jon Solomon of CBS Sports suggests that college football use a running clock. He notes that the NFL does this and the concept is being studied in college football inner circles, would reduce game times and plays. He continues by noting that college football continues to add games and never takes them away and estimates that college football players are involved in a couple hundred plays more than this time a decade ago. “I don’t think there would be a whole lot of opposition from coaches,” said Arizona’s Rich Rodriguez, an up-tempo coach. If college football adopts this recommendation, the fans will likely be uncomfortable with this but many players may admit that less plays will save them much needed energy for later in the season.

The afore mentioned Silverstein suggests that college football should be required to have pylons and sideline cameras adding that we are in the digital age adding that there is a high definition camera all over the field and one hovering over the sky. He continues by arguing that while their potential use has been met with favorable views including at the 2015 college football playoff national championship game, there has hardly been any movement adding pylon cameras. These cameras will help officials determine whether a touchdown called on the field is indeed a touchdown. Even plays that don’t end up in touchdowns like whether a running back got enough yardage to move the chains should be plays in which officials use the technology at their disposal to make a definitive and affirmative call. He concludes by saying that in the current game, there is way too much room for error in games that are important to millions of fans.

With regard to player safety, I have mentioned in the past that there is no perfect solution to keeping players safe from injuries. The fact to the matter is that football is an extremely dangerous game and injuries are unavoidable. Plus you add to the mix if football rule-makers at any level imposed so many rules regarding physicality, some football fans may tend to think that the game they’ve been watching is suddenly turning into a game of flag football. Dodd is on to something when he argues that there is hardly any excitement when a kickoff happens whether after a score or at the beginning of the game, and there are many injuries that occur in this part of the game. I’m not sure if I would completely eliminate the kickoff but if injuries continue to occur during this part of the game, college football should then consider eliminating the kickoff.

With regard to the running clock, I am open to seeing that proposal adopted in NCAA football and Solomon is on to something when he says that NCAA football players are amateurs, who are unable to collective bargain for their rights and with that being the case, players could see less wear and tear on their bodies. More importantly for those who wish to make it to the NFL, players with promising talent could play longer assuming that no injuries happen while one is on an NFL team.

The best suggestion to improve NCAA football is to use the technology available in the 21st Century. Having officials guess on a play that can have major ramifications destroys the credibility of NCAA football and could drive down ratings especially if a play is more than a first down play. The suggestions to make NCAA football seem to be endless but I contend that if NCAA football adopted these changes, the game would become even more popular than it is right now and college football is extremely popular in many parts of the nation. At the same time, I’m not sure I see the urgency on the NCAA’s end to adopt any of these recommendations unless something happens that changes the game for years to come in a negative way more likely than not.

Chicago Blackhawks season preview

On June 15, 2015, the Blackhawks won their third Stanley Cup since 2010 when they defeated the Tampa Bay Lightning in 6 games and starting Wednesday, they will attempt to show the NHL that they are the best in the NHL as they open the season at home vs. the New York Rangers.

In the nearly 4 month off-season, the Hawks lost a few key players who were on last season’s cup winning roster and made key contributions in order to make winning the cup a possibility. More notably, less than a month after winning the cup, the team traded Patrick Sharp to the Dallas Stars in part due to salary cap issues. Also, in July, Brandon Saad signed a 6-year contract with the Columbus Blue Jackets worth $36 million after the Blackhawks traded his negotiation rights as a pending free agent in exchange for Artem Anisimov, Jeremy Morin, Marko Dano, Corey Tropp and a fourth-round draft pick in the 2016 NHL draft. Saad was also part of the team who won the Stanley Cup in the strike shortened 2012-2013 season vs. the Boston Bruins. Meanwhile, Kris Versteeg, who had been in his second tour of duty with the team was traded to the Florida Panthers. He was on the first Stanley Cup team in 2010 when the Hawks won in 6 games vs. the Philadelphia Flyers. Two veteran defenseman Johny Oduya and Antoine Vermette left the team for free agency, Oduya is now with the Dallas Stars while Vermette is back with the Arizona Coyotes, who traded him to Chicago last spring for a long postseason run.

Even with the subtractions from last year’s team, the Blackhawks still have their core in place. Jonathan Toews, who is the captain of the team and Marian Hossa will be there to light the lamp starting Wednesday evening to lead the offensive attack that is one of the most dangerous scoring teams in the entire NHL. On the back end, Duncan Keith, who was the 2015 Conn Smythe Trophy winner will be back along with veteran Brent Seabrook and Niklas Hjalmarsson and they will see considerable minutes on the ice especially in close game situations. We cant forget about the man behind the pipes, that being Corey Crawford. While he doesn’t receive the fan fare that a goaltender like Carey Price of the Montreal Canadiens does, he has contributed considerably to two of the three cups the franchise has won since 2010. Also on his resume is two William Jennings trophies and the man behind the bench, coach Joel Quenville, who has won 754 regular season games and 115 playoff games, helped guide his teams to three Stanley Cup titles in six seasons.

The NHL’s biggest off-season story has been Patrick Kane, who has been accused of raping a women in early August near his mansion just outside Buffalo, NY. Nearly two months have passed since the story first broke and Erie County District Attorney Frank Sedita III had planned to present the case to a grand jury in early September but that has been postponed indefinitely. Those people who expect Kane to be absolved of any wrong doing and those who want him indicted prefer that the process be expedited but its more important for the DA to resolve it correctly than quickly.

The rape investigation took a bizarre turn recently when the accuser’s lawyer said that an empty paper bag that once held the women’s rape kit was secretly placed in the doorway of her mother’s home.

Although you can never underestimate this team especially in the playoffs like I did last season, while I think they will make it to the playoffs, I do not see the team going as far as they did in the 2014-15 season. The western conference is extremely competitive and the east is starting to improve. Not to make much of this but EA Sports NHL 16 simulation picks the Anaheim Ducks to defeat the Montreal Canadiens in the Stanley Cup finals. Furthermore, EA Sports NHL 16 predicts that the Blackhawks will have exactly 100 points, third in the Western Conference. Even with the subtractions from last year’s team, I believe that the team has enough fire power to win the central division even though the division will be extremely competitive. At the same time, I do not believe that the team has another long postseason run in them although no one can underestimate their ability to defy the experts odds. I’ve mentioned this in previous posts but will mention again that one of the most difficult accomplishments in sports regardless of sport is to repeat as defending champions. I mentioned the Kane rape investigation, depending on what happens as the season goes along, if there are developments that hurt Kane’s defense, that could become a side issue that takes attention away from the team’s effort to repeat as Stanley Cup champions in the local and national media. I was asked of whether I thought Kane would play in the days after the news broke and I wasn’t sure either way but as long as he has not been charged with anything, I didn’t have any reason to believe he wouldn’t show up to camp, play pre-season games and be ready to start on Wednesday night against the Rangers.