Barry Bonds Again

In one of my earlier posts I wondered if Barry Bonds' "accomplishment" was worthy of praise. I wrote the following:

With the rampant use of steroids and other performance enhancing drugs, the ‘record’ that Bonds now has will forever have an asterisk next to it that indicates there is another dimension to this story (i.e. steroid use) and Bond’s record will never be told standalone, instead will have a rider attached to it with the reference to the performance drug issue..

Well I learn today that Bonds has been indicted on charges of 5 counts of perjury and obstruction of justice. Related story via Yahoo News is here. Quoting from the Yahoo article:

"Barry Bonds has more to worry about than an asterisk now...On Thursday...a federal grand jury indicted him on five felony counts of perjury and obstruction of justice, charges that could result in a maximum sentence of 30 years in prison if he's convicted."

So the next question is, if found guilty, should the home run honor be stripped?

Outspoken Roman

Continuing fallout of the Jets/Patriots Game

So for anyone who does not read the sports pages, the Jets got crushed by the Patriots on Sunday 38-14 but there was an interesting side note to report. Apparently the Patriots were accused of videotaping opposing team’s coaches (including the Jets) and were fined a total of $750,000 as punishment for this practice. Story can is here.

This story is interesting in that we saw the NFL move quickly to police its own and to punish unacceptable behavior, regardless if it was due to an incorrect “interpretation of a rule in the Constitution and Bylaws” of the NFL. A lot of credit needs to go to Roger Goodell (NFL Commissioner) who moved out on this issue and quickly punished the Patriots and Coach Belichick who should be ashamed. Great opinion article here in the Sporting News.

But I agree with Nick Canepa writing online for the Union Tribune out of San Diego. He writes:

“Goodell almost got it right. He reportedly has fined Belichick $500,000 and the New England Patriots $250,000 more for taping defensive signals by Jets coaches during last Sunday's game.”

But Canepa continues:

“His answer should have been: no mercy. Put Belichick in the NFL's hoosegow, its gray-bar hotel, its slammer, its brig, its stir. Shawshank this cheat”

In other words, a monetary punishment has no real effect in the NFL that has a lot of cash to throw at penalties such as those imposed by Goodell. A better punishment would have been suspension of Belichick who has been around the NFL in a variety of jobs for sometime and should know better than this. To try and excuse this behavior with a wimpy statement like misreading the NFL bylaws is probably acceptable for a rookie but not a veteran coach like Belichick.

The Patriots should be better than this as they are a real contender for another trip to the Super Bowl this season and I would have preferred a tougher stance from the NFL leadership in this regard. Simplistically, it is all about integrity of the institution and we should expect better from our institutions, whether they be sports leagues or politicians. It has to start somewhere.

This is not surprising.

ABC News is reporting that Rutgers player Kia Vaughn is suing Dom Imus (and others) for defamation of character. First off, given this litigious society this is not unexpected but I can only imagine why only one player is suing. Don’t they realize that is what we do these days when we have been offended? This is a disgrace in my opinion (just as Imus’ rant against them was) and I think this case should be thrown out. The blood money has been paid with Imus being unceremoniously dismissed from his radio show and MSNBC. AP is reporting though that there has been some settlement between CBS and Imus to derail Imus’ threatened lawsuit for $120 Million, story is here so I am sure Imus is not hurting financially, although his image has been tarnished, especially when many of his high-profile friends were not around to defend him in the media onslaught after his remarks.

In light of this, Roland Martin, a commentator on CNN’s website states that some good has come from Don Imus’ firing, namely that Paula Madison was named to a position dedicated to diversity (Executive Vice President of Diversity). Why? Mr. Martin writes that “The importance of making a critical decision to fully embrace diversity really was a smart one by Capus because it showed that the network was listening to those who questioned some of its moves with respect to Imus.” Additionally the Imus firing sparked a national debate on derogatory language that is found in hip hop music. Where is this national debate going to go? Is there going to be a change in hip hop music that specific terms such as the ones Imus’ used be banned and not used? What are the penalties if this “ban” gets broken by 50 Cent or Ludacris? What about free speech? Isn’t speech (especially speech that we disagree with) protected? Imus’ commentary on the Rutgers women has been universally condemned which is not surprising given how quickly he was shown the door after the Imus Apology Tour, appearing on Al Sharpton’s show for example, taking his lumps. I didn’t hear though the free speech absolutists defend Imus (where was the ACLU) and I thought that was odd.

Moreover, this focus on diversity is extremely troubling. The implication being that a person of a specific color can only be related to by someone of the same color. NBC wasn’t diverse enough which was said to be the real problem there. This is nonsense. To say someone of Asian descent cannot find stories or report on stories that I as a white person would care about is actually quite racist. Is that why Katie Couric’s newscast is doing so terrible as she is not appealing to men? Heaven forbid blame falls either on bad programming decisions or an individual? Why would the strength of MSNBC news be increased if there is renewed increase on diversity? Would the World Champion New England Patriots (topical reference) have a stronger team if Bill Belichick were not white but rather some other race? Of course not. Focusing on diversity sounds very good and will placate those that are satisfied with such meaningless positions. It will not in my opinion, improve anything over at MSNBC. Diversity will not solve the next Imus.

Lastly, how will the Kia Vaughn’s lawsuit turn out? Well that settlement Imus got from CBS should be a nice start.

Update: Kia Vaughn's lawsuit was dropped in September. The Associated Press reported that Vaughn was pressured by Rutgers Coach C. Vivian Stringer to drop the suit but this was denied by Vaughn.