No, Terrell Owens isn’t the Best Wide Receiver in History

Owens seen praying to Jerrice, Lord of Receivers

Today I was made aware of a posting on Bleacher Report in which Terrell Owens was touted as the best Wide Receiver in history. The article asserts that Jerry Rice isn’t as good of a receiver because he benefited from having a better team around him. The writer asserts Jerry Rice isn’t as good as his numbers indicate because Ronnie Lott played safety. This is literally a thing he wrote. In complete seriousness.

He then goes on to completely disrespect Donovan McNabb, who was better than any QB Randy Moss had outside of Tom Brady when comparing him to Steve Young.

After that he triples down by asserting Owens’ All-Pro nods as actual reasons why TO is better than multiple Hall of Fame players. Maybe if the All-Pro roster compared more than what the players did relative to each other that would be a relevant fact, but it doesn't, so it isn't.

After all this, he quadruples down and cites Owens’ 2010, a year he played with Chad Johnson/Ochocinco and Carson Palmer as the reason why Owens was great. The writer noted that Jerry Rice was disqualified as the GOAT because of his supporting cast, and that TO did it all without the same, then he goes and cites the year he had two great players at QB and opposite him at WR. He cites that the receiver was on pace to recreate his best season (2001, according to him) when Owens had his 2010 shortened due to injury. Sure. Except 2001 wasn’t TO’s best season. I’d put that at 2007, where he had 15 TDs and 90 yards per game on 85 receptions or 2000, when TO had 104 yards per game and 13 TDs. So sure, 2010 was just as good as his best season, 2001, as long as you believe “best season” is code for “best fantasy season because he scored more touchdowns,” and even then it wasn’t his best fantasy season.

He finalizes his argument by talking about Owens’ productivity and long career. All while discounting the fact that Jerry Rice played so long he almost twice as old as some of his teammates his final year.

His argument makes no sense whatsoever and his “points” are completely disjointed, garbled nonsense. Especially since he ignores one massive, massive factor when asserting that TO is the best, and it is a point that any good baseball analyst (yes, baseball) will tell you: Terrell Owens played in one of the friendliest passing game environments ever, just behind the current one.

In baseball they are called “Run Scoring Environments,” and they have names we all know. Dead Ball Era. Steroids Era. Expansion Era. Dilution of talent, changes in rules and other outside factors changed what an “average” baseball player could do at the plate. All you have to do is look at passing and receiving totals over the last decade to see that Owens benefitted from one of the best “Run Scoring Environments” for passing games in a long, long time.

And he wasn’t even one of the best receivers of that era. Terrell Owens’ 2000 season was the most yards of his career, ranked 51st of all time. I am going to use this fact to show two very different things. First, since 2000, that is the 28th best receiving season. For those that are curious, he also owns #70, #109 and #169 of all-time (only the top 250 are ranked). In the current increased yard-totaling environment, TO doesn’t even come close to posting the best single-season numbers.

Second: Jerry Rice has eight of the top 250 receiving season of all-time, including #2, 24, 36, 37, 38 and 46. TO’s best season would be Jerry’s seventh-best. All of these were done in much lower passing environments. One way to track how much better Rice was than TO that accounts for their different passing environments could be, perhaps, percentage of total passing yards during their career versus the rest of the league? Well, Jerry Rice owns that hands-down. During Rice’s career, he accounted for 1.18% of all the receiving yards in the NFL. During TO’s career, he accounted for just about 1.01%. This, by the way, includes Rice’s garbage twilight years and his shortened two game season. Remove the two game season and everything after his age 37 season (the year TO “retired”) and you get an incredible 1.3% of all receiving yards during his time in the NFL. In his best seasons relative to the rest of the league, Jerry Rice accounted for over 1.7% of the league’s yards (twice). In TO’s two best seasons, he accounted for about 1.4% (again, twice). TO’s peak seasons compared to his peers was just slightly better than Rice’s “cleaned up” career averages.

Also did you notice I barely mentioned Moss? The case of TO vs. Jerry is so strong in the case of Jerry I don’t even need to bring up any other receivers. Rice is the hands-down GOAT and all others are pure pretenders to the throne.

That includes you, Terrell.

(and I haven’t forgotten about my positional reviews, RB/FB is just so depressing it’s hard to get through it)

Stop. Just Stop.

In the Lions-Cowboys Wild Card Game this weekend there was a controversial call that has been the talk of the sports world in the last day or so. It can be seen above. Rookie LB Anthony Hitchens is covering veteran Tight End Brandon Pettigrew. The result of this play was a defensive pass interference call on Hitchens, which was then picked up. By the strictest letter of the law, it was pass interference. Hitchens never turned to make a play on the ball and it plunked him squarely in the back. That wasn’t the controversy. The controversy came in that the refs then decided to pick up the flag and decide that it wasn’t pass interference.

The football world exploded. People posted a months-old article about NFL VP of Officiating Dean Blandino getting off of Cowboys owner Jerry Jones’ party bus in August 2014. This was their proof that, “the fix was in.” Stop that. Just, stop. Stop. STOP. That play did not cost the Lions the game, and if you’re going to fix the game, why do it in such a stupidly blatant way? There’s one thing in life that can explain away most conspiracy theories, including this one. It’s a principal known as Hanlon’s Razor:

Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity.

To understand why this quote is apt, one should turn to the methods used to pick the playoff umpiring crew for the NFL. Basically, they take the top performing officials at each position and cobble together a crew out of them. This works in baseball pretty well. If your job is to call balls and strikes, the second base umpire has almost no bearing on your ability to do so. In the NFL, the referees are responsible for holding 22 men accountable for their actions on the field. Much like the continuity of an offensive line strengthening the unit, the continuity of a referee crew strengthens their ability to make quick, and accurate calls. In this case, when they conferred, they determined that it was not a defensive pass interference penalty.

Was this call wrong? Probably. Was it devastating? Absolutely. Was it a vast conspiracy to make Ndamukong Suh cry? Absolutely not, but I wish it was true.

Did it cost the Lions the game?

Absolutely not.

The Detriot Lions orchestrated one of the most devastating and mind-boggling second-half collapses possible. The DPI no-call came at a point in time when the Lions were still winning the game. They were up 20-17 with just over 8 minutes left in the game when this happened. The no-call didn’t put seven points on the board for the Cowboys. It didn’t even put one point on the board for the Cowboys. The play that cost the Lions the game was the very next play. After the no-call on the defensive pass interference, the Lions sat at the Dallas 46-yard line, essentially midfield, with a fourth-and-one. If they move the ball three feet from their position, the game was theirs. What does Jim Caldwell do?

Wait, before you answer, please reference this information:

(yards per rush allowed during the 2014 regular season)

(the four plays prior to the DPI no-call)

Did you guess:
(a) Hard count to try to pull them offsides before punting
(b) Pass play
(c) Run play

If you know Jim Caldwell, you know he went with (a). He is conservative to an absolute fault, and this was a complete fault. His call in this situation epitomizes the issues I have with current coaching conventions. Too many NFL coaches play to not lose rather than to win. The Lions could have easily gotten one yard, and chose to not even try. They were running the ball well immediately prior to this play. Instead of going for the jugular and the win, they played to not lose. How did the Football Gods react?

Swiftly and spitefully.

Detroit punter Sam Martin completely and absolutely shanked the punt, and barely flipped the field on the Cowboys, giving the Lions a handful of yards of field position compared to if they had gone for it on fourth down and failed. The Cowboys marched down the field and scored.  Now, some might say that the no-call on the DPI put the Lions in this position. I can give them that. If DPI is called there, the Lions move much closer and likely score on the drive. The only problem is the Lions second half:

“Likely score on the drive” was not in the Lions game plan in the second half Sunday, as you can see here:

As you can see, they had as many turnovers in the second half (though they were gifted one back) as they had points. The Lions stunk in the second half Sunday.

The real reason why you can’t blame the no-call DPI? The Lions fumbled the ball twice in the last 3 minutes of the game. Twice! The first time, Demarcus Lawrence coughed it back up and the Lions recovered. Not content to let the game be competitive, they farted the ball away again just about a minute later. Demarcus Lawrence redeemed himself, recovering the fumble and punching their ticket to the NFC Divisional Round.

The defensive pass interference call was demoralizing, yes. It was curious, yes. It did not cost the Lions the game. The Lions had a complete inability to resemble an NFL offense in the second half. It is for that reason, and that reason alone, that the Lions have moved into off-season mode. For those of you still complaining about the DPI…

Please, stop.

The San Francisco 49ers - A Year in Review: Part 1 - The Quarterbacks

Colin Kaepernick broke free for a 90-yard TD in Week 16
Source: Kirby Lee  |  USA Today Sports

Jim Harbaugh is a Wolverine. Mike Iupati, Michael Crabtree and Frank Gore are free agents. Justin Smith is pondering retirement. Vic Fangio & Greg Roman have both interviewed for positions different for the ones they held for the 2014 49ers. This weekend marked the official end of an era. (Jim) Harbaugh was seen on the Ravens sideline sporting Baltimore gear last night. With the end of 2014 comes a review of not just the season, but of where the 49ers currently stand and the potential offseason moves for the future. This kicks off a multi-part review of the 49ers on a position-by-position basis (except special teams, I doubt an in-depth look at gunners and the long snapper is needed).

Quarterback                      2014 Review: C+                                                               2015 and Beyond: B

                             The Players                        2014 Cap Hit                         2015 Cap Hit
Starter                                  Colin Kaepernick              $3,767,444                           $15,265,753
Backup                                 Blaine Gabbert                  $2,011,587                           N/A (Unrestricted Free Agent)
Third String                         Josh Johnson                     $    335,294                          N/A (Unrestricted Free Agent)

Last season, Colin Kaepernick signed what at first appeared to be a massive contract--$126 million. In actuality, it was more of a “pay as you play” contract, wherein Kaepernick has de-escalators if the 49ers, or Kaepernick, are not successful. This season was thoroughly not a success. All is not lost, however, as Kaepernick’s season was only a failure when compared to the lofty pre-season expectations for him. I myself even said in the preseason that Kaepernick had way too many weapons to have any more excuses. After the season did not live up to expectations, many fans were clamoring for Alex Smith, claiming they preferred Captain Checkdown to the young gunner. Please, for a moment, review these season-long stats:

                                                          Player A                               Player B
Completion Percentage               60.5%                                    61.3%
Total Passing Yards                       3,369                                     3,144
Touchdowns                                  19                                           17
Interceptions                                  10                                           5
Yards/Attempt                               7.0                                          7.1
Sacks                                                52                                           44
Rushing Yards                                 639                                         179
Yards Per Rush                                6.1                                          3.4

These two players are pretty similar except Player B has only 5 interceptions and Player A is a much more effective runner. Player A is 2014 Colin Kaepernick with his “disastrous” 2014 and Player B is 2011 Alex Smith—the last full season he had as the starting QB for the 49ers. I understand that fans are frustrated, and I was frustrated right alongside them. There are fans calling for the 49ers to bench Kaepernick or bring in a vague, theoretical quarterback as “competition.” Fans are getting a little ahead of themselves, as 2011 was Alex Smith's best full season he had with the 49ers. As you can see, Colin Kaepernick is essentially the same player (if not more frustrating because instead of 2 completions for 7 yards, it's a completion for 13 and a completion for 1 yard).

Here’s the simple fact of the matter: If replacing a quarterback was so easy, then a lot of QBs would not have jobs right now. There are less than 100 NFL quality QBs in the world (factoring in age and eligibility), and the cliffs of elite, to great, to good, to mediocre, to awful comes very quickly, well within the first 30 or so quarterbacks in the entire world. The 49ers should stick with Colin Kaepernick, but the pocket passer experiment should smartly be over. He works best on the run and improvising. He is not Peyton Manning or Tom Brady, and he never will be. That doesn’t mean he can’t be a fine quarterback for the 49ers in the future, and it certainly doesn’t mean he’s a bust or a fraud.

Kaepernick received a C+ for this season because he performed poorly by our expectations, but he produced the most passing yards since Jeff Garcia in 2001, the second most touchdowns (to himself) since Garcia’s 2001 and the most rushing yards by a 49ers quarterback ever. The offense was uninspired, disastrous and moved in fits and starts, but by and large, Colin Kaepernick was a perfectly good NFL quarterback, especially by the standards the 49ers have had at QB since Jeff Garcia.

Kaepernick’s backups, Blaine Gabbert and Josh Johnson, will likely not be with the team next year. Gabbert was dreadful in his time as a starter with the Jaguars, and is an unrestricted free agent. If he is back, it is likely for his same salary—roughly $2 million. If all goes according to plan, he never sees the field, and the backup QB is a moot point. The third string QB, Josh Johnson, was a Jim Harbaugh disciple, playing under Harbaugh at SDSU. Johnson is 28 years old and at this point, he is complete as an NFL product. He is likely gone as it is unlikely he fits into the new head coach/offensive coordinator’s plans.

The 49ers quarterback situation was slightly better than mediocre in 2014, but I have hopes for Kaepernick in 2015 and beyond. He gets a B rating for the future since we’ve already seen what he can do when the offense is properly schemed for his talents. The rest of the QB situation will be different in 2015. It’s likely the 49ers draft a project QB late (like BJ Daniels) and bring in a solid backup veteran (if the cap allows, otherwise it’s more of the Blaine Pain Train).

This marks the end of part one of the multi-part series taking an in-depth look at the 49ers and what went wrong (and right) with 2014. I hope you all enjoyed it and I will be back with Part 2 – The Running Backs. 

Pablo is Not a Giant Anymore. That's Okay.

The Giants suffered their first, and biggest, loss of 2014 free agency today. Pablo Sandoval announced (via Instagram) that he had signed a deal with the Red Sox today. The details haven’t been made fully public yet, but what we know is that it’s (a) 5 years, and (b) around $100 million.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m sad to see Pablo go. His wink in 2014 before his clutch hit vs. the Royals, his three HR game in 2012 (which helped his MVP bid), the ever-present panda hats in the stands—there are a lot of good memories associated with Pablo. He embodied the weird relationship between the Giants and their fans. Players came and went, fell in and out of roles, but Pablo, Bumgarner and Posey were the constants. There were players that were the faces of the franchise and were consistently so over the last five years. Now one of the faces is gone.

You know what? That’s okay. I am okay with this. MLB has an uncapped salary structure and it isn’t my money, so I would have loved to see the Giants open their pocketbooks to resign Sandoval. They didn’t though, and every Giants fan sort of let loose a sigh of relief. While Panda has had his big moments in the limelight, he has also had a ton of other problems. Namely: the ton of weight he has gained and lost, and gained and lost… and gained. His weight, and production, has fluctuated wildly in his time with San Francisco.

There’s no doubting Sandoval’s skill, but his discipline may have Boston regretting this signing in 2017. Sandoval seems to have a serious issue with focus, which anyone can see by the junk he’ll swing at in his average at bat. He relies on his otherworldly hand-eye coordination—which leads to him hitting junk at his ankles or neck, as well as his impressive Fat Man Defense ™. That’s fine when you’re in your twenties, but his skills could deteriorate rapidly.

The Red Sox signed up for the post-season magic of Pablo Sandoval, but discipline issues may have them experiencing buyer’s remorse in a few seasons.

Looking at the Giants' Playoff Odds, Part 2

Pro Tip for Giants fans Wednesday

Maybe I’m cursed? I thought the Giants would be able to continue their moderate success of late as they went down to AT&T Park South in Petco (Giants fans routinely “take over” the park), but instead they were swept without a second thought by the Padres. The Dodgers continued their dominance, winning 3 of 4 in Chicago, averaging 9.25 runs per game over that series.

The Giants square off against the Boys in Blue to begin this week, and with the Dodgers’ number sitting at 3 (combined Dodgers wins and Giants losses), the Giants need to take 2 out of 3 for the Dodgers to not take the division against their traditional rivals.

Jake Peavy (3-0, 0.93 ERA, 15 K last 3 starts) vs. Dan Haren (2-1, 3.00 ERA, 16 K last 3 starts)
On July 26, the Giants sat at 58-47 when they traded a couple of minor league arms for the former Padres ace. He’d been struggling compared to his prior stint in the NL West, and since coming back to the friendly confines of the Best Coast, he has amassed a 2.16 ERA, 1.050 WHIP & 6.9 K/9 over ten games with the Giants. He has provided a much-needed shot in the arm for the Giants’ pitching staff that has seen the demotion of Tim Lincecum, the death of Matt Cain and the implosion of Tim Hudson. He will pitch well in this game, and give the Giants a chance to win this one.

Unfortunately, the Giants face off against a guy who has been as good or better than Haren over the same stint. Since August 1st, Haren’s starts are punctuated by a 6 ER effort to start it, and a 5 ER effort his last time out (at Colorado, so toss that one out). In between those two starts, he hasn’t given up more than 3 ER in any given start and a 1.70 ERA, with a 34/7 K/BB ratio. The Giants are a free-swinging squad and with the high-K rate of Dan Haren, the Giants will struggle to get anything going. This combined with the Dodgers’ offense picking up tells me that this won’t be pretty.

LOSS. 2-4.

Madison Bumgarner (2-0, 2.37 ERA, 15 K last 3 starts) vs. Zack Greinke (2-0, 3.18 ERA, 14 K last 3 starts)
With a loss on Monday, this game will be for the Giants’ lives in the NL West race. Luckily, they have their ace on the mound for the game. Bumgarner is a Dodger murderer in his career. Against the Bums, he has held them to a 0.582 OPS, which is flat bad. He strikes the Dodgers out 24.8% of the time he faces a guy with a white LA on his helmet. As a Giants ace he should, and does, dominate their biggest rival.  He won’t disappoint on Tuesday, and will twirl a gem for what is likely his last start of the regular season (they’ll likely have nothing to play for this weekend).

Up against Bumgarner is Zack Greinke, who has been great in his own right this season. Greinke against the Giants this year has been his usual dominant self, and fewer 5 ER starts all season than Hudson has in September (more on that below). Greinke is also prone to crumbling in the big game, and can easily lose focus. With the Giants playing for more than the Dodgers, they will (hopefully) eke this one out.

WIN. 3-2.

Tim Hudson (0-3, 10.32 ERA, 5 K in last 3 starts vs. Clayton Kershaw (3-0, 2.57 ERA, 26 K last 3 starts)
LOSS. Tears will flow. The Giants’ fans lamentations and gnashing of teeth that follow this game will cause the heavens themselves to shudder. Tim Hudson is rocked for 35 ER in 0.1 IP, and the Giants are forced to play against Kershaw until they don’t strike out, resulting in the first 33 K, 11 inning game. Hunter Pence, frustratedly, throws his bat at the ball as it leaves Kershaw’s hand, resulting (somehow) in a double and the game is mercifully ended. Dodgers win this game and the division.

Okay maybe it won’t go down that way, but I can’t think of a more lopsided way for the Dodgers to win the division than the most frustrating pitcher over the last couple of weeks versus His Grace, Clayton of Houses NL and AL, First of His Name, King of the Mounds and the First Pitch, Lord of the Six Divisions, and Protector of the Strike Zone.

I know I originally said this was going to be a three-part series, but I thought the Giants would hold up their end of the bargain and not stink up the joint in San Diego. This will be the last of my Giants’ regular season series breakdowns for 2014 (barring an unlikely sweep). I’ll take a deep, close look at the Wild Card play-in game later this week, but for now, try to not cry when the Dodgers celebrate on Wednesday.

Looking at the Giants' Playoff Odds, Part 1

Drumroll, please...

With their win yesterday and a Dodgers loss to the Rockies, the Giants currently sit at 84-68, and 2 games behind the NL West-leading LA Dodgers with ten games to play. They’re also the clubhouse leader for one of the two wildcard slots in the NL, up 2.5 games on the Pirates, who are, in turn, 2.5 games up on the Brewers. This makes them 5 games up on missing the playoffs with 10 to play. As I write this, however, the Dodgers are currently losing to the Chicago Cubs. And then I had to go back in and put this sentence in because the Dodgers took the lead back. For the sake of simplicity, I am going to assume everything is as the game started, with the Giants 2 games back of the Dodgers.

As of right now, MLB.com’s Baseball Prospectus-powered playoff probability odds chart has the Giants at a 99% chance of making the playoffs and the Dodgers a 100% chance… Forget the playoffs, can the Giants recover from their June (and July) swoon and actually win the division? Let’s take a look, shall we?

First, the Giants have won 10 of 16 games so far in September, including taking two of three from the Tigers and sweeping the Diamondbacks. Major contributions from youngsters Joe Panik, Andrew Susac and Matt Duffy alongside the bolstering of the pitching corps with the addition of Jake Peavy and Yusmeiro Petit to the rotation have brought the Giants back from the brink of collapse. Up on the docket is likely the most important ten games of the season for the Giants. It’s split, and setup pretty well, for the Giants to control their destiny. Their magic number sits at nine, so if the Giants win out, it will include three Dodgers losses, giving them the division with a couple of games to go.

This will be part one of a three-part series, each outlining the upcoming series and how it will change the Giants’ post-season outlook.

Next up is the Padres, so let’s take a look how this series is likely to shape up!

Game One
Tim Hudson (9-11; 3.41 ERA) vs. Odrisamer Dispaigne (3-7; 3.63 ERA)

Hudson is the second Timmy this year to have a sudden collapse (though Lincecum’s was years in the making), and was bounced hard after giving up 6 earned runs in ONE INNING against the Dodgers on Saturday. Luckily, the Padres aren’t the Dodgers. Hudson’s last three starts have been absolute disasters, but he was walking into buzz saws in all three. At Coors Field and at the Tigers are unenviable starts for anybody to have to make. Hudson has faced the Padres twice this year, once in AT&T and once at Petco Park. In his start at Petco, Huddy managed to hold the Pads to three hits and one run over six innings.

Despaigne started off strong, but like Hudson, he has gotten lit up lately. He has given up 19 earned runs in his last 6 starts for a cool 5.18 ERA. Four of these starts, however, were on the road. Petco Park is a notorious pitchers’ park, and Despaigne benefits greatly. In his 7 home starts, he has only given up only 12 runs; compare this to his 8 starts and 32 runs & things don’t look good for the Giants.

Both pitchers will go solidly late into the game, and the Giants will take advantage of a pedestrian bullpen (now that they have traded Huston Street). The Giants’ relief pitchers carry bloated ERAs over the last couple of weeks, but solely because of the 17-0 shellacking the Dodgers laid on the Giants. Overall, I like the Giants bullpen over the Padres 'pen. This one goes to the Giants.

Prediction: 4-2 win

Game Two
Yusmeiro Petit (3-3; 5.18 ERA as a starter) vs. Andrew Cashner (4-7; 2.20 ERA)

Petit replaced Lincecum in the rotation, and since then, he has feasted on positive matchups and been absolutely destroyed by better competition. It’s very telling that he is the current record holder for most consecutive perfect innings and still has a mid-threes ERA for the season. In his last 4 starts, he has allowed a combined 2 earned runs in his two good matchup starts (vs. Colorado & vs. Arizona) and has a combined 11 runs in his other 2 starts (at Colorado & vs. the Dodgers).  Luckily, the Padres are a positive matchup for opposing pitchers; they’ve managed only 82 runs over the last 30 days, just about half of the #1 team, the Angels (166 runs), good for third worst in the league.

There’s only one problem, the Giants are facing an incredible pitcher in Andrew Cashner. His season has been almost an afterthought as the hurler missed a couple months with injury. He hasn’t given up more than 4 runs all season, and in his 5 starts since his return, he’s given up only 7 earned runs. He’s a pitch-to-contact ace, a 21^st century ace, who uses his stuff to suppress hits and the strikeouts are an afterthought.

Petit will give a valiant effort and Cashner will roll. This one will likely get turned off in the 7^th inning after Sandoval rolls another weak grounder to second base.

Prediction: 3-1 loss

Game Three
Ryan Vogelsong (8-11; 3.98 ERA) vs. Ian Kennedy (11-13; 3.80 ERA)

If you want the platonic ideal of a couple of middle-to-end of rotation starters, you’d end up somewhere between Ryan Vogelsong & Ian Kennedy, depending if you want more middle of the rotation (Kennedy) or 4^th or 5^th starter (Vogelsong). This game was an interesting one for me to try to figure out, but let’s give it a shot. Vogelsong, like Petit, seems to be a boom or bust player for the Giants. He’s given up 4, 0, 8, 2 and 3 runs in his last 5 starts. Before that, he was smooth sailing, allowing 6 runs in his prior 4 starts.

Kennedy is much more consistent, giving up 3, 4 or 5 runs in 6 of his last 7 starts. His strikeouts have still been there, but he has been giving up a good amount of runs to go with those strikeouts. While most of these starts have been on the road, he’s been seemingly immune to the park suppressing tendencies of Petco Park.

The Giants will win this one in the highest-scoring game of the series. The runs will total more than the rest of the series combined.

Prediction: 7-4 win.

Hopefully this has been a good read for you all! After this series, if things go the way I believe, the Giants will be closer to the NL West crown with 7 games to go (provided the Dodgers don't just keep winning...). I will be back after the Padres series to look at the real series for all the marbles: Monday, Tuesday & Wednesday at the Dodgers. If one team sweeps that series, it’s pretty much their division. This is the home stretch. This is why we watch baseball!

Go Giants!

Did TMZ Bail Out the NFL?

Why did it take TMZ for the NFL to do the right thing?

This morning, TMZ released shocking, brutal footage of former NFL RB Ray Rice viciously and repeatedly hitting his then fiancée Janay Palmer. We had previously seen the result of the altercation, as video of Rice dragging an unconscious Palmer was released earlier this year. In July, Roger Goodell and the league office handed down a paltry 2-game suspension shortly after banning Josh Gordon for a year for violating the NFL’s substance abuse policy by the thinnest of margins.

By the thinnest of margins, I mean that if Gordon’s two urine samples been tested in the opposite order, he wouldn’t have been suspended. Gordon was voluntarily placed in stage three of the NFL substance abuse program, which led to the collectively-bargained sixteen game ban.

Obviously, outrage reigned. How can Gordon be banned for eight times as long as Ray Rice for two drastically different offenses, Rice’s obviously much, much worse? Well, it was collectively bargained, and agreed-to by the league and the players. The outrage in contrasting these two suspensions by the public was justifiable. Marijuana is legal in two states, and decriminalized in many others. In no state is domestic abuse legal. Clearly, Roger Goodell had miscalculated.

Time passed, and the outrage surrounding the two games descended into impotent mumblings and grumblings. Everybody knew Goodell was in the wrong, and clearly Goodell agreed. A couple of weeks ago, he admitted he was wrong and reformed the personal conduct policy (which the commissioner has the power to control) to be six games for the first domestic abuse incident and a lifetime ban (with an ability to apply for reinstatement) after the second offense. People applauded the commissioner for his admission of being wrong and the reformation of the policy.

The next day, he announced nine games for Aldon Smith (for a series of incidents). Still, Ray Rice sat at a two game ban and loss of a paycheck. Chump change for such a disgusting incident.  What could Goodell do? His hands were tied, he couldn’t go back and extend a suspension off of public outrage.

A few days after the new domestic abuse policy, 49ers D-Lineman Ray McDonald was arrested for allegations of felony domestic abuse. Six games, and possibly more, were (and still are) on the table for McDonald. This put the new policy in an awkward place. Jim Harbaugh preached “due process,” and immediately ripped a hole in the letter of the law. What happens when it’s a he-said/she-said issue, like the McDonald case seems to be? Goodell couldn’t suspend McDonald for something when he hadn't been formally determined in a court of law to be guilty. Does Goodell wait? Does he rule six games for just being in that situation? There was precedent for that; Ben Roethlisberger was accused of sexual assault (more than once) and though never charged, he was given a suspension for violating the personal conduct policy for even being in that situation.

Goodell’s firm stance, which had been thoroughly applauded, was immediately questioned and put to the test. As of writing this, there is still no result from the McDonald incident, and it appears, per Goodell, there won’t be pending the legal proceedings. The commissioner’s firm stance suddenly didn’t appear so strong.

Then this morning, TMZ released the footage of Rice. Less than 12 hours later, Rice was out of the NFL. This allowed Goodell to right his wrongs and attempt to recoup the credibility the league had lost. Ray Rice was cut by the Ravens and Goodell followed suit by banning him from the league. He went as far stating that no team could acquire his rights without Goodell approving it. In short, it appears as though Ray Rice will never be on another NFL roster, and given the CFL recently re-affirming that they would uphold any NFL suspension (with regards to Gordon), he’s likely done playing football in North America.  This is a very good thing.

It’s just a very bad thing that it took TMZ for Roger Goodell to get it right.  But he finally did; Janay Rice won’t file criminal charges, but the NFL can finally say that they did everything they could for her.

The real question is why did it take this long? What else could have happened in that elevator? Why did it take direct visual evidence for Janay Palmer's assault to have some semblance of justice?

Why isn't Ray Rice in jail?