Tough TV judge Simon Cowell appeared in a commercial promoting Domino's Pizza during Friday's Yankees vs Cubs game on YES, and it was like… what money can't do, it can.
Exhibit A: Hey Jets financially loyal fools, what's happening with your “good investment” PSL under Roger Goodell's “it's all for the fans” mandate?
From now through Dec. 1, the Jets are scheduled to play just one Sunday home game in either the 1 p.m. or 4:20 p.m. start slot.
Goodell and his TV-gold-addled minions have decided that Aaron Rodgers has established the Jets as a primetime team (bless his expected longevity), and ticket buyers, especially those who were double-duped by buying Jets PSLs (long-term timeshares), will once again be damned.
Yes, once you've escaped the requisite drunkenness and carousing at NFL stadiums (another profit center), you enjoy the drive home on a weekday night after midnight.
And it wakes up to the docile and timid silence of the sports media that was once relied upon to protect fans from figures like Goodell.
Or they could call Goodell's office on Sunday morning and offer to refund, say, 25 cents for every dollar they have yet to pay in seat rental fees that would be a “good investment.”
Exhibit B: Someday, and I hope it will happen sooner than later, our sports commissioners will be subpoenaed to testify as co-conspirators in some of the transactions they authorized and profited from.
Last week, the Connecticut Department of Consumer Protection's Gambling Division fined the much-televised DraftKings $19,000, a fine that common sense would estimate as a punitive sanction worth thousands of dollars. The word “gambling” can be used honestly to mean that consumers are being “duped” into losing bets, or it can be used vaguely to suggest that losing bets are no different from playing risk-free parcheesi.
Here's the problem: Over 500 Connecticut customers playing DraftKings' online slot machines attempted roughly 21,000 spins, but received absolutely zero payouts. That's right, they didn't get a cent back from those 21,000 spins. DraftKings pocketed all of its profits in an estimated week.
DraftKings, which claims that zero of the 21,000 spins were due to computer glitches, is an “official partner” of the NFL, NBA, NHL, PGA Tour and UFC.
Exhibit C: Consistently, and perhaps criminally evidently, NFL rosters increasingly contain rookie college players on full scholarships or higher who are functionally illiterate, semi-illiterate and socially dysfunctional.
Last week, Patriots rookie wide receiver Javon Baker, a braggart who played four years on a full scholarship at the University of Alabama and then the University of Central Florida, got a traffic ticket because his car windows were so dark the license plate was hard to see.
His response to the officers, recorded on Instagram:
“It's not gonna affect me if you tow me. Please, bro. You have other things to worry about. He's trying to fine me. … Why would you do that, bro? I'm dropping someone off at the airport…
“You're not yelling at me and thinking I don't deserve to yell back. Who do you think you are? Just because you're a police officer doesn't mean it doesn't mean anything, brother. I pay you with my tax money. See, brother, you work for me.”
After being lightly reprimanded by new Patriots head coach Jerrod Mayo, Baker said he “regrets nothing.”
Whether Baker was right or wrong is not the issue, but the way he handled his four years at college was pathetic, truly sad, and there will be more tragic things to come.
After all, if Baker doesn't succeed professionally, what legitimate career is he going to pursue after four years of college?
As college sports grows into something that is not educational, is this a pathology? How can we solve this problem, or at least treat it so that it subsides?
First, we need a true right-wing congressman who, at the risk of incurring the wrath of wealthy alumni, 50-yard-line politicians, and assorted yahoos, must subpoena college presidents and demand hearings to explain why fully-scholarly students leave college unable to read, write, balance a checkbook, or speak; why they leave as academically impaired and disabled as when they entered?
And remind them all that the state's continued funding of colleges and universities that spend insane amounts of money on students who have no other reason to attend or work there than to win baseball games (that sounds terrible, doesn't it?) may be put to a binding referendum. Simply put, it's time to vote. for Are you for or against education? Are you for or against fraud?
Yankees manager Boone can't seem to discipline undisciplined players
Aaron Boone continues to claim that he is master of fantasy. Just as he believes he can line up all his relief pitchers like an assembly line, ready to strike out 1, 2, 3 and be replaced by the next robot, he tolerates Alex Verdugo's career cool-guy habit of not running to first base as “picking the field.”
But how do we “take aim”? How do we know that the shortstop is not going to kick or throw the ball, or that the first baseman is going to catch it?
How will Boone continue to manage, or be allowed to manage, fantasy baseball while managing the New York Yankees?
We all learned long ago that selfish cheating flags hurt NFL teams' games just by following what happens afterwards.
But how many team owners, GMs and head coaches do you think went into Week 1 lecturing their players to shut up and insist (demand) that they not take any unsportsmanlike conduct penalties? After all, how hard is it to not provoke your opponent?
But since you and I can only speculate, we are both bound to assume that such important messages are not getting through. Self-destructive behavior will continue.
And the compliant TV commentators, not wanting to offend the most disagreeable or be accused of being old sticklers or worse, will be quick to bring up such game-changing misconduct again.
Former Giants player Robustelli publishes book about father, “Pope of the NFL”
Columnist Bob Robustelli, the son of No. 81, the Giants' great defensive end of the 1950s and '60s, wrote a book called “The Pope of the NFL: The Story of Andy Robustelli and the Family Who Loved Him.”
Robustelli was one of my heroes growing up. The 1971 Pro Football Hall of Fame inductee was drafted by the Rams in the 19th round out of Arnold College of Physical Education in Connecticut in 1951. The first pick in that draft was Giants star receiver/running back Kyle Rote. The third pick was future Giants quarterback Y.A. Tittle.
Edited by Peter Golenbock, the book is available to buy on Amazon.
The game has changed… What would you have thought if you were Red Sox starting pitcher Tanner Hauck on Wednesday against the Mets when, with the score at 0-0, third baseman Rafael Devers hit Lindor for the fifth after Francisco Lindor had reached third base?
Want to play as Public Friends with your opponent? After the game? Before the game? During a recreational league match? No problem. meanwhile Is this an MLB game?
