Mamula Retrospective

To coincide with the NFL draft combine, Profootballtalk takes a look back at workout wonder Mike Mamula and tries to dispel some myths about his reputation, college career, and Eagles tenure. 

It's a fair analysis. But it fails to mention the frustration Eagles fans had with Mamula's "just not good enough" play. Sure, his stats looked fine - even pretty good at times viewed at a certain angel. But that distracts from his actual play on the field where Mamula became more known for "almost getting to the QB" and not actually knocking down or God forbid sacking the quarterback. It was so endemic that the nickname "Almost Mamula" organically sprouted up.

But the big takeaway from the view that Mamula was a bust is because the Eagles traded up to get him. Yes, they could have stayed at 12 and gotten Warren Sapp. They also could have stayed at 12 to get Mamula. From a fan's perspective, it's not just your overall draft position that sets the expectations for your play but how you were picked. In Mamula's case, he's held to a higher standard because the Eagles were so aggressive (mistakenly so) in trying to draft him.

So it's not about "gaming" the combine but the draft day dynamics that should be the big lesson in the disappointment over Almost Mamula's career.

V for Valid

A pretty fair and spot on analysis of Villanova's recent tourney flameouts. Notwithstanding their regular season success and the first #1 ranking in school history, the dread about underperforming - again - in March hangs over this team and only grows with every win between now and the tournament.

2015: No. 8 seed NC State 71, No. 1 seed Villanova 68 (round of 32)
2014: No. 7 seed UConn 77, No. 2 seed Villanova 65 (round of 32)
2013: No. 8 seed North Carolina 78, No. 9 seed Villanova 71 (round of 64)
2011: No. 8 seed George Mason 61, No. 9 seed Villanova 57 (round of 64)
2010: No. 10 seed Saint Mary's 75, No. 2 seed Villanova 68 (round of 32)

And this dismal list doesn't even include the near loss to 15th seeded Robert Morris (!) in the 2010 opener nor a game 20009 AU team that played Nova a lot closer than the 80-67 final might suggest.

The irony is that Wright has had high seeds and flamed out early while Rollie Massimino usually squeaked into the tournament each year with a low seed but managed to upset a higher seed at least and regularly made it through to the round of 16.

Washington Post Editors

Hysterical editorial from Washington Post editorial elite demanding GOP elite to stop Donald Trump from being so popular with Republican voters. Does it get any more elite than that?

I'll have plenty more about this ridiculous editorial that somehow got published in one of the nation's (if not the world's) premier newspapers. The entire premise of the editorial is absurd, as is the editorial's analysis of the current political environment and Republican party.

To wit, this nugget:

A political party, after all, isn't meant to be merely a collection of consultants, lobbyists and functionaries angling for jobs. It is supposed to have principles: in the Republican case, at least as we have always understood it, to include a commitment to efficient government, free markets and open debate.

"Open debate?" The Washington Post editors must not be aware that the very Republican leaders they are appealing to - Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Judiciary Chairman Orrin Hatch just announced that the Senate would not even consider any Obama nominee for the Supreme Court. So much for open debate.

When will the news media like the Post understand that the problem isn't that Donald Trump is out of the Republican mainstream. No, the problem is that he is adhering to the party's principles.. 

Tapper a Phillies Fan

CNN reporter Jake Tapper is a Phillies fan and thinks the team needs pitching to get the World Series. He also thinks Rubio supporters are similarly delusional in touting all the long shot ways their man- and his team - can win it all.

"You guys sound like, I mean I hate to say this, I'm a loyal Philadelphia Phillies fan. You guys sound like Philly fans." - Jake Tapper.

Down Goes #1

You kind of knew it wouldn't be Villanova's night when Phil Booth managed to miss a dunk. And, indeed, Nova missed any number of runners and shots from less than 3 feet. At other times they looked disjointed and disinterested. While the Wildcats will lose the #1 ranking, it's hard to be too upset. They were never going to go undefeated the rest of the season, the Big East tournament, and the NCAAs.

This was a good loss - a competitive game in a hostile environment. They definitely had trouble with Xavier's 1-3-1 defense. And while I had just mentioned to my brother that unlike teams' past, this one was balanced so that no one player going cold would sink them. Alas, they all went cold. Well, except for Kris Jenkins who had the misfortune of fouling out.

Still, they stayed in the game and only lost by 7 on the road to the #5 team that was playing really well and got every bounce. Hopefully it's a learning experience.

Fair and Balanced Revealed?

Ezra Klein's excellent analysis of the state of the GOP includes this revealing nugget about Trump and Fox News:

The first Republican debate featured Fox News — arguably the single most powerful actor in the modern Republican Party — trying to cut Trump's candidacy to shreds. The harsh questioning, which touched on everything from his past heterodoxies to his friendship with Hillary Clinton to his misogyny, kicked off a feud between Fox News and Trump that continues to this day.

The post-debate focus has always been on Megyn Kelly's hemoglobin count. But completely overlooked has been the justification for Trump's anger with her for the provocative and unfair treatment as moderator. Klein suggests he had a point.

Supreme Court Strategery

Word is that the White House is considering Republican Governor Brian Sandoval as a compromise pick to fill Antonin Scalia's vacancy.

Republicans, of course, have insisted the next president will fill Scalia's seat. Which is an interesting strategy given Donald Trump's improving chances of being the GOP nominee. Is Mitch McConnell really willing to let Trump and his proto-libertarian views really pick the next Justice? The alternatives, of course, are Clinton or Sanders which might be only slightly worse - from McConnell's perspective - than Trump.

Then again, on the Democratic side is it worth caving to GOP intransigence and swallowing a "Republican centrist" (whatever that means) now in the form of Gov. Sandoval instead of allowing holding firm, calling the GOP's bluff and allowing - at worst - a President Trump to nominate someone who could very well be more liberal than Sandoval?

Has Trump and his unpredictability so upset the political calculations when it comes to this Supreme Court that Republicans might actually be better off with Obama nominating a Republican judge. And on the flip side, might Democrats be better off letting the GOP run out the clock and having Trump potentially selecting a pro-business liberal for the Court? 

Interesting that in light of Trump's romp in the Nevada caucuses last night for his 3rd straight win that I haven't seen anything about potential Trump judicial candidates.

The Difference

Here's the fundamental difference between Republicans and Democrats when it comes to intransigence over filling a Supreme Court vacancy in an election year (and really this applies generally to all political protocols not just judicial nominations): Democrats talk and threaten and bluster about being obstructionist and running roughshod over decades of well-understood and established political norms and customs. But in the end, they never actually do anything. Republicans, on the other hand, usually do carry out their threats.

So it was with the perpetual gamesmanship about increasing the debt ceiling over the past 30 years. Democrats complain and kvetch but ultimately they vote for it. Republicans draw lines in the sand, don't raise the limit, close the government down, and force US credit downgrades.

So it is with Scalia's replacement. The important thing to remember about then Sen. Joe Biden and Chuck Schumer's nomination comments is that that's all they were...comments. They didn't actually ignore an actual nominee (and I would also argue there's an important time difference between June and February of an election year but that may be splitting hairs too fine) Contrast that with Mitch McConnell and Orrin Hatch who are now not just talking about not considering a nominee but actually doing it.

Crazy.

BS Report

Bill Simmons could have a field day with this Peyton Manning story about lawsuits and allegations of cheating, harassment, and settlements.

1B Coach?

The strange turn of events that has led  Ruben Amaro to become the Red Sox first base coach(?!), just adds to the bizarreness of Amaro's legacy (to say nothing of his judgment) as Phillies GM.

Perhaps the best that can be said about Amaro is that he was never as bad as many made him out to be. And while he did preside over a 102 game winning team and a World Series appearance, this best sums up his record:

Most of the credit for the good times went to his predecessor, Pat Gillick, and most of the blame landed on Amaro. 

To his credit, he did get Cliff Lee in the middle of the 2009 season that helped push the Phils to a second consecutive World Series. And Amaro did acquire Roy Halladay and did assemble the Aces wild starting rotation. But the one trade that still haunts is the bizarre (panic?) move to trade Cliff Lee at the end of the 2009 season immediately after landing Halladay, in an ill-fated attempt to "restock" the farm system. That replenishment - in the form of Phillipe Aumont, JC Ramirez, and Tyson Gillies - was an utter failure. And the whole point of getting Halladay was to bolster the existing rotation. Practically speaking, it became a trade of Halladay for Lee.

To be fair, he was put in the unfortunate situation of having to extend and keep many winning and popular players just as they started to decline in much the same way that Lee Thomas and then Ed Wade kept too many players from the wildly popular 1993 pennant winning team too long. Indeed, at this point we should be so lucky if Amaro is a repeat of Ed Wade who wound up drafting the core of the 2008 Championship team: Burrell, Utley, Howard, and Hamels.

Maybe Amaro would still be GM if he had pulled the trigger on the rebuilding trades he made in 2015 a year earlier. In any case, the bounty of prospects Amaro did stockpile on his way out the door may be his greatest legacy of all.

Come inside these walls

Forget about the debate about the Vatican City's wall as a lame rebuke to the pope's comments about immigration and border security. The more relevant question is how many immigrants or refugees the Vatican - a sovereign state that is a member of the UN - has accepted this year or in the recent past. My bet it is close to if not 0.

It's Not Just Republicans

Interesting take on the Trump phenomenon and how his campaign is highlighting yuuge fissures between rank and file Republicans and the party leaders.

At the same time, the stubborn popularity of Mr. Trump, who defies Republican orthodoxy on issue after issue, shows how deeply the party's elites misjudged the faithfulness of rank-and-file Republicans to conservatism as defined in Washington think tanks and by the party's elected leaders.
The dichotomy is particularly vivid here in South Carolina, the most conservative state on the nominating calendar so far, where Mr. Trump holds a double-digit lead over his closest rivals in the latest polls.
"In a lot of senses Republicans have overestimated how much dedication to ideology was motivating their voters," said Ben Domenech, publisher of The Federalist, a conservative online journal.

Of course, this mismatch between the Republican grassroots and the governing elite is also something Democrats overestimated as well. It's a pity Democrats didn't recognize and try to exploit it before Donald Trump came along. Even more to the point, electorally speaking, it highlights that the threat of the Republican bogeyman voter that will be in lockstep opposition to any Democratic appeal or proposal is more fiction than fact. Indeed, Democrats may have overestimated this electoral force more than Republicans. 

So, for instance, when Democrats in swing states like Manchin in W. Virginia, Tester in Montana, Heitkamp in ND, or Shaheen in NH beg off supporting planks of the party's legislative platform because they need to burnish their conservative bona fides - they're overstating their political challenge and not trying hard enough to persuade all the state's voters of the plan.

Villanova - Temple

I'm getting pretty fired up for tonight's game. I re-watched this classic 1988 Villanova- Temple game (at McGonigle Hall!) last night. At the time, the Owls were the #1 ranked team in the country and Villanova was #20 (before they expanded it to the Top 25). 

Wow, what a game. Many consider it one of if not the best game in City Series history.

Doug West, Mark Plansky, shot blocking and future Sixer Tim Perry, freshman Mark Macon, and Ramon Rivas. It also featured Rodney Taylor who passed away much too soon. For what it's worth, 7', 2" super stiff Tom Greis had a very solid game both offensively and defensively. 

I think both these teams went to the Final 8 that year. If the refs hadn't called a bunch of questionable bogus 5 second calls on Kenny Wilson, Nova could have (should have) knocked off Billy Tubbs' Oklahoma team with Stacey King, Mookie Blaylock, and Harvey Grant.

It was the last time a Big 5 matchup included the #1 team in the land. Until tonight. And as if the rivalry game and top ranking weren't big enough, Villanova can claim the Big 5 title with a win. A Temple win means a three team tie between Villanova, St. Joe's, and Temple all at 3-1. If only it were being played at the Palestra.

Go Nova!

A Dome?

One of the overlooked minor details in the Rams move back to LA is that Stan Kroenke's relocation proposal was for a domed stadium. I'm not sure what the rationale is for a dome in perpetually sunny LA (will it increase the flexibility/utility of using the stadium for other purposes besides football) but it will be a shock to TV viewers who tune into a game only to discover the artificial light and artificial turf of the LA stadium. Showing off my East Coast bias - one of the most aesthetically pleasing things about watching the 4:00 pm (eastern) games in November and December is to see the sunny skies, warm weather, and green grass of games being played in San Diego, San Francisco and Oakland (with the dirt cutout infield). But the LA domed stadium will offer views nothing like that. What a pity.

A Much Different Time

Notre Dame Heisman Trophy winner Johnny Lattner has passed away. His obituary hearkens back to a time long gone - when Heisman Trophy winners would leave the NFL to serve in the military. It is inconceivable that such a thing would happen today - even for players from the service academies -  and as this nation is "at war" with terrorists. And for those that want to cite Pat Tillman, he was not a top college player (in addition to winning the Heisman Lattner was drafted 7th overall), and in fact is the exception that proves the rule.

Who's to Blame?

Did Richard Cohen really blame the police for the hundreds of Middle Eastern refugees who sexually assaulted German women on New Year's Eve in Cologne?

Here's what he wrote:

The Cologne incident, too, while larger in scope, has not — or not yet — been repeated. There, too, the police have learned from their mistakes.

What, pray tell, were the police's mistakes (note the plural Cohen uses)? Not racially profiling MIddle Eastern migrants? Presuming that refugees would tend to be law abiding? Allowing migrants to assemble in large groups? Downplaying the incident initially so as not to draw attention to it?

It''s a pity Cohen doesn't elaborate on this important point.

Whoops, I Did It Again!

Unwitting Ironic Statement of the Night

Marco Rubio finally admitting to and apologizing for his robotic repeating of his talking points during Saturday night's presidential debate.

"So, listen to this: That will never happen again. It will never happen again."

As Chris Christie would say, there it is again! The repetitious talking point! Even when he's apologizing for repeating his same points over and over....he's repeating his same points over and over.

Super Bowl Post-Mortem

Wow, didn't see that outcome happening. Not the meager Denver offense, which was as mediocre as expected. It was the complete inability of the Panthers offensive line to stop a rampaging Von Miller and Demarcus Ware. I understood why a depleted Patriots line with undrafted players and free agent castoffs couldn't stop Ware and especially Miller. But I never saw coming Newton geting so teed off on. 

Honestly, the Panthers looked out of sync and sorts all game. From the penalties to the missed field goal, to the dropped passes, to the lack of execution they just looked off.

Other random thoughts:

* Forget all the inane questions about whether Roger Goodell would let his sons play football. What do you think his answer will be when his multibillion business is predicated on negligent and safety-averse parents letting their children play youth football. The more relevant question in the lead up to the big game would have been what he thought about the propriety of NFL teams taking money from the DoD to "honor" military veterans and promote the armed forces. It came to mind after the repeated shots of the US soldiers in Afghanistan, the flyover, and the presenting of the colors.

* The kids spawned in the euphoria of past super bowl victories was at first interesting from a statistical point but quickly got very, very creepy. Is this part of the Goodell plan to breed/rely on the next generation of football participating children?

* Forget yellow and red cards and 2 personal fouls getting a player ejected. How about eliminating the bizarre rule where a personal foul inside the 15 yard line only results in a half the distance to the goal penalty. Talib's face mask penalty was one of the more vicious you'll see, made worse by his admission that he did it on purpose knowing that it was only going to cost him about a yard or two. Contrast that with the Panthers' grasping defensive holding penalty on third down at the end of the game that gave the Broncos an automatic first down that they then converted into a TD. What was the more dangerous and egregious play? And yet, which was a more substantive consequence?

* Poor Coldplay.

* Was it a conspiracy or sympathy? I don't recall CBS ever showing a graphic of Peyton Manning's Dilfer like stats: 13-23, 144 yards. 

* Speaking of which, while CBS was showing graphics of Manning's historical records, viewers at home did not see the final play of the game. Which Nantz described as a "merciful" end, which is funny because with about 5 minutes to go the Panthers had the ball for what could have been a game winning drive - so I'm not sure what game Nantz was watching.

* Aside from the expected early game jitters and overexcitement, something did not quite look right with Newton. He appeared to be constantly out of breath and experiencing pain in his non-throwing shoulder. Did anyone else notice? the CBS crew certainly didn't.

* Petulant, petty, front-running Cam Newton re-emerged yesterday which is too bad. He could have handled the post-game press conference a little better, but if i'm a Panthers' fan I want my QB to be sullen and pissed off after a Super Bowl loss. At least you know he cares. And you know Josh Norman cares.

* John Elway's heavy bet to go all in after the Broncos' Super Bowl loss to the Seahawks and make a series of championship runs during the fast closing window of opportunity with Peyton Manning paid off. Sure, they'll be in salary cap hell for the next three years but at least they got the ring.

* Midway through the second half didn't it just feel like a regular Sunday night game? Or worse, a Thursday night game?

* Even without a fair catch, defenders have to give punt returners a bit of space to catch the ball which is why i don't understand why they didn't call a penalty on the Panther who touched Sanders right before he caught his big punt return.

* I must have read at least four long articles in the Times, ESPN, the Post, etc. on the specially grown and installed turf at Levi's Field. And yet all I heard during the game was how terrible the field and the footing was. How does that happen?

* Glad to see referee Clete Blakeman got the league memo on calling penalties on helmet to helmet hits no matter what you have to do. Denver's Malik Jackson hit helmet to helmet with Cam Newton. But since Newton was a runner he's not "defenseless" so that can't be called (i.e., the Ryan Shazier rule). Instead, he  got called for an unnecessary roughness "late hit." To be fair to Jackson, it was a bang bang play and Newton wasn't down when Jackson went to hit him and maybe not even when he did make contact. Still, the NFL doesn't want Nantz and Simms explaining a la the Steelers-Broncos game why helmet to helmet hits are still legal in today's NFL. We'll know when the NFL's neurologists and spotters are actually doing their job when they buzz down to take a look at Cam Newton after a hit to the head like he suffered. Until then, we'll all pretend the NFL is getting serious about head trauma.

* How reluctant was CBS to report that Philly Brown was out of the game with a concussion? Is it better to deliver news like that, or pretend that players like Julian Edelman don't have concussions and are continuing to play?

* is there any irony that Broncos owner Pat Bowlen is suffering from Alzheimer's?

A FIRST In School History

Prediction

Panthers 41

Broncos 14

TO

On Super Bowl Sunday and in the wake of his falling short in the HOF balloting, it's worth remembering what Terrell Owens did in Super Bowl XXXIX.

As Mike Florio notes,

At times, Owens was indeed disruptive, for various reasons. But did Owens really make his teams worse? He returned from a broken ankle to be arguably the best player on the field in Super Bowl XXXIX, and the Eagles lost that game to the Patriots not because of anything T.O. did but despite an effort that everyone who was paying attention recognized as heroic and memorable.

 

Only after the Eagles refused to acknowledge those contributions with a contract providing him greater compensation and protections did he decide to provoke a trade or release in 2005. Was it an ill-advised, selfish move? Yes, but it was compelled by a system that allows teams to rip up contracts when a player underperforms but prevents players from doing the same when they overdeliver.

 

A decade later, media and fans seem to better understand that, when players choose to act like owners, players shouldn't automatically be vilified the way Owens was.

First off, Owens was outstanding vs. the Patriots. He led the team in receptions (9) and yards (122). And he did it on a broken ankle.

But the behavior of Jeffrey Lurie and his management team may even be worse than what Florio blandly describes. There are rumors that TO asked to have his contract guaranteed before the game so that if he reinjured himself - playing as he was on a not fully healed broken ankle - he would be taken care of. Lurie et. al said no. TO played anyway, and played great. It was this refusal and the realization that TO's big numbered contract was actually not as lucrative nor as long as he thought  prompted him to try to renegotiate it after the Super Bowl.

I recall it being clear at the time that TO's contract was very team-friendly and a heap of abuse was dumped on TO for wanting to re-do a year after he signed it. Florio is right that fans are more savvy about player contracts than at that time and (slightly) more understanding of player efforts to renegotiate. Where TO lost the fans (and his teammates) was with the disruptive way he went about sabotaging the team on the field and in the locker room as a reprisal.

Rubio's Petard

There's a delicious irony in Marco Rubio getting pounded last night by Chris Christie over his "25 second memorization" critique of Rubios' super-scripted debate responses. The attack is a meta-critique of debate prep and process in the exact same way Rubio blasted Jeb Bush in a debate several months ago that criticized Bush not for the accusation he made but that his advisors told him to say it to score a political point. In both instances, the substance of the point isn't the issue but about how practiced and inauthentic the candidate really is. In the case of Rubio, it's a devastating line of attack since his biggest claim to fame during the campaign so far has been his supposed eloquence and ability to deliver a message - and not about the content of the message itself. That it was delivered by a governor against a senator is a bonus in that it reminds voters that Washington politicians (as opposed to state chief executives) talk a great deal but get very little gets done.

Props

Here are a number of interesting prop bets that I like for today's game

* Any total passing yards option for Manning that is under 200 yards total.

* Under 35.5 passes attempted by Manning.

* Over 1.5 interceptions

* Cam Newtown for MVP (-140)

* No missed PAT (-360)

* Under 34 yards for longest completion by Manning

* Broncos score in all 4 quarters (No -360)

Obviously I like the Panthers to win the game based on these picks.

Cool Fan Protest

I don't know the particulars of what the Liverpool fans are protesting with respect to new ticket prices or American ownership, but I'm very impressed that they were able to organize a sizeable number of fans to walkout during the 77th minute of the match. How cool would it be if American fans could or would do something with one of the professional sports teams.

A Question and an Impossibility

Here's an interesting question that no one from the NFL or Broncos wants to talk about. How much and in which direction would the line move if the Gary Kubiak announced that Brock Osweiler was going to start tomorrow's Super Bowl instead of Peyton Manning? Currently the line is -5.5 for the Panthers. My guess is that it would move in the Broncos favor---at least a half point and maybe even a full point to -4.5. 

This all was prompted by the prop bet i heard about that was the over/under of the number of players who threw passes in the big game. The line is 2.5 passers and the over is +175. Now maybe this is all about whether Emmanuel Sanders or Mike Tolbert toss a pass on some trick play. But I was thinking of whether Osweiler would come in for a struggling Manning.

Here's the thing. Manning isn't coming out of tomorrow's game, no matter how dreadful he is. I fully understand it. On the biggest stage and in what could be the last game of his first ballot Hall of Fame career, Kubiak is going to stick with Manning no matter what. Even if that "what" is a struggling offense with no first downs, and 3 INTs before halftime. Unfortunately - and let's face it - that scenario is a definite possibility given Manning's history in the playoffs and especially in the Super Bowl.

All of which makes me think that while I think the Panthers will win, they could win very big. There may come a time during the game where the Broncos and Manning are struggling but the game is still within reach. I don't expect to see Osweiler even if it makes sense. Kubiak will continue to throw Manning out there and for that I think the game could get out of reach shortly afterward.

Josh Norman should take away the deep ball and with Manning's weak arm strength these days, the Panthers' elite set of LBs seem uniquely suited to stopping his short and intermediate throws.

Again, writing this gives me no pleasure. But it is the reality as Manning did not have a good year and is at the very tail end of his career. The Broncos D has carried this team most of the season (though Osweiler was 5-2 as the starter) and especially in the playoffs. Indeed, Manning only threw for 17 completions and 176 yards vs. the Patriots in the AFC Championship.

But it's sad to realize that for as great Manning has been, him not playing and a second round pick out of ASU named Brock Osweiler may give the Broncos a better chance of winning the pro championship.

Media's GOP Double Standard Bigotry Problem

It's easy enough for the media to lampoon Donald Trump as narrow-minded and mean-spirited for wanting to enforce immigration laws and to suspend Muslim migration from the Middle East to the US. But there's finally an article that highlights that these views aren't held just by Trump among current presidential contenders. The big problem according to Max Fisher is the media's double standard when it comes to reporting on Islamaphobia by Trump vs. the rest of the GOP field.

The key points:

But what is really striking to me about Rubio's comments is the media's reaction, which has been fairly muted in contrast to how it covered Islamophobic comments from Donald Trump. That's not to say that the media is endorsing or ignoring Rubio here, but the pretty clear distinction in coverage shows how an establishment candidate like Rubio can navigate the media's unwritten rules and get away with participating in the tide of Islamophobia that has already become violent.

He goes on to note:

What Rubio has revealed here, intentionally or not, is how a major political candidate can slip at least seemingly Islamophobic comments past the media without generating the same level of scrutiny and adversarial coverage that Trump has drawn...
This double standard became particularly transparent in December, when Trump praised Russian President Vladimir Putin. The media, again, heaped open scorn on Trump — how dare he praise a murderous dictator and American adversary? And, indeed, it was deplorable...
But mainstream political figures had been praising Putin for years, often in the very same language, and it never drew the same media condemnation. But the media treated those comments, though substantially identical, as acceptable.

It's what happened when South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley took issue with Trump's strident immigration stances (unnamed) while at the same time she was refusing to let Syrian refugees settle in her state and joined with 26 other states trying to over turn the Obama administration's immigration actions.

It's easy for the media to call out the prejudices of the marginalized, and much harder for those actually in power. Of course, it's just two institutional establishments winking and nodding at each other at the expense of the downtrodden.

 

The Walmart Strategy

The key paragraph from this Dallas Uber driver revolt story:

The experience of the Dallas UberBlack drivers is telling. When Uber entered Dallas in 2012, many of the drivers were either independent hired-car operators or contractors for limousine companies who bought or leased their own cars...
The drivers formed a tactical alliance with the company to help it gain the city's approval, which local cab operators resisted.
But the relationship began to sour in 2014, when the company decreed that drivers with cars made before 2008 would no longer be able to participate in UberBlack...
By the time Uber handed down its UberX directive in September, the drivers had long since recognized that they were at the company's beck and call. Because of Uber's popularity, almost all their other sources of business had dried up. And Uber had earned the imprimatur of the City Council, which made the drivers politically expendable, too.

So the story goes use non-cab drivers to champion your illegal/non-regulatory entry into a market with policymakers. In turn, the start up's success eliminates all of the competition. When Uber's pricing power is near monopolistic, it starts in on the former champions now current drivers - who have no recourse since all the no alternative options have been driven from the market.

It's a similar refrain to Walmart's low-cost producers. They are enticed into agreements with Walmart by the allure of massive selling volume. Walmart insists on razor thin margins for whatever product is being provided. In order to provide the sheer amount of product, a company foregoes all other customers and focuses exclusively on its Walmart account. As the sole customer, Walmart then insists on even lower prices, which the vendor has to accede to since they don't have any other customers and have increased investments in ever larger capacities.

The Snake and CTE

The news isn't surprising but it must be haunting to learn that Ken Stabler had stage 3 CTE. Stabler's status highlights some key lessons about football and brain trauma. The more you play, the more likely and more severe the damage. No position is immune from the scourge - even QBs. And the fact that they're finding it in players from the days of yore - before the speed, size and hits of the game truly amped up in the 90s and 00s - should be terrifying for the health prospects for players in that more recent era.

And I also wonder what Stabler's liver looked like!

What?

Two surprises from this interview:

1. Former Buckeye coach Jim Tressel is president of Youngstown State University?

2. Former Eagle Kurt Coleman paralyzed someone on the football field?

182

Here's some news that is very hard if not impossible to find on the NFL website. The number of concussions in the 2015 season.

PFT has the number at 182 - or more than 10 per week in the 17 week/16 game season. It's a stunning 32% increase over last year's number! And as an indication of the opaqueness of the NFL stats as well as the whole process of diagnosing and counting concussions, it's not clear whether Case Keenum's Nov. 22 head injury was included in the count. 

In fact, the NFL's Dr. Ellenbogen attributed to the spike in concussions to "lower threshold for diagnosis." The Keenum case would seem to directly contradict that statement and suggest that that the NFL and its hired medical personnel are still in denial about the extent and severity of its head trauma crisis.

It also would be interesting to see the numbers for the playoffs. Off the top of my head, there were 2 concussions in the Steelers-Bengals game (Bernard and Brown). How many others? 

Also, in a weird way the concussion count distracts attention from the more serious and much more prevalent problem of sub-concussive blows to the head that are a primary cause of CTE. In that respect, 182 should be considered a floor and not a celebratory ceiling.

Who Works for You?

"Enforcement isn't about big government or small government. It's about whether government works and who it works for." - Elizabeth Warren.

A Queen is Crowned?

Good grief. Not content to merely declare Megyn Kelly one of the winners of Thursday night's GOP presidential debate, the Washington Post now calls her "the start of the show."

What happened to the journalistic principles of not making the reporter or news organization part of the story, much less the centerpiece? Or is this a way to demean the rest of the Republican field who couldn't outshine the white, blonde, bombshell who was asking them questions? The focus on Kelly also has the fortunate side effect of brushing off uncomfortable questions about the appropriateness of Fox News' press releases mocking Donald Trump or exploring legitimate questions as to whether Fox moderators ask harder questions (or at least more incendiary) of certain candidates.

Maybe Megyn Kelly should throw her hat in the ring. She's got the full support of the national press.