Hey now. So a couple of little side projects to run by you, the reader. We plan on uploading plenty of Red Sox material the next while to this location, however there is some side-table action ongoing also. You can do us a solid by checking the below original material from the makers of Boston Irish out.
We have been doing some writing for the website Irish Central, and today we uploaded a piece on the essential futility of filling out a March Madness bracket. Take a couple of minutes, check it out, like it, share it, facebook it and tweet it, support the arts, and irreverent sports writing!
We have also been churning out previews of the weekly Spanish soccer league, La Liga, out for the website BetDash. The last week out of 13 reccomended bets, amazingly 11 have come off! Check out the suggestions made in the two most recent articles, listed below.
Goodness me, the New Orleans Saints have landed themselves in quite the juicy pickle. The NFL is basically, at this moment, winding up Popeye style to deliver a debilitating haymaker right in the Saint’s kisser. Roger Goodell, the NFL commissioner, is this week meeting with his minions to decide the punishment for the Saints ‘bounty’ scheme, where they paid out extra dollars to players who injured and or sidelined opposition players.
After a Mulder and Scully like investigation the NFL has uncovered in a damning report that the Saints paid ‘’$1,500 for a "knockout" shot and $1,000 for a hit that results in a player being carted off the field’’ . The sensational NFL report found between 22 and 27 defensive players on the Saints, as well as former assistant coach Gregg Williams, ‘’maintained a bounty system for inflicting injuries on targeted players.’’ Payments under the scheme doubled or tripled for the playoffs.
The Saints appear to be offering zero resistance thus far, and indeed Williams called his role in the pool a "terrible mistake" when he issued a public apology late last week. Williams, in particular, has a lot to answer for. Williams was the Redskins' defensive coordinator from 2004 to '07. The below hit on Peyton Manning took place in that timeframe, and the good people of Indianapolis would like to talk to Gregg about it.
There is absolutely no doubt that Sean Payton, as head coach, knew about it. Unbelievably the league first investigated the Saints in early 2010, and issued a ‘cease and desist’ order. Payton knew about the order, as did Williams. Yet, still the bounty hunters plied their trade. New Orleans Saints owner Tom Benson stepped in and directed the bounty program be discontinued immediately. However, they persisted. In its damning, positively toxic, release Friday afternoon, the NFL said Payton "was not a direct participant in the funding or administration of the program" but said "he was aware of the allegations, did not make any detailed inquiry or otherwise seek to learn the facts, and failed to stop the bounty program. He never instructed his assistant coaches or players that a bounty program was improper and could not continue."
Here’s where the whole story gets positively murky.
Murky waters: Ornstein (Grey t-shirt) and his buddies
The NFL review of the situation has uncovered a very shady character, hiding in the dark shadows of the Saints guilty conscience for the last six years. The NFL report has uncovered that a convicted felon named Michael Ornstein, on at least four occasions, pledged his own money to the Saints' defense's bounty fund. Ornstein was an NFL executive in charge of marketing but was convicted of fraud amounting to $350,000 in 1996. He reappeared a decade later, as the marketing agent who represented Reggie Bush when he turned pro. It subsequently came out that Ornstein was a central figure in providing Bush with illegal benefits while at USC. Despite this, Ornstein followed Bush to New Orleans and became a member of the Saints' inner circle.
Ornstein, who is disturbingly a close friend and confidant of Sean Payton, pledged $10,000 in 2009 toward knocking an opposing quarterback out of a game. In 2011 Ornstein made two separate contributions towards targeting the quarterback. Unfortunately for Payton, Ornstein made at least one of these damning pledges in email to his buddy, the head coach of the Saints. How does the NFL know this? They have the email!
This all leads to the Superbowl of 2009. It was during that Super Bowl season that Ornstein was allegedly offering $10,000 to players to injure opposing quarterbacks. In addition, the NFL said its research has concluded that the bounty pool amounts peaked in 2009, the year the Saints won the Super Bowl.
Here’s a simple solution.
Take the 2009 Superbowl off the Saints. Award it to the Colts. They were pretty much cheated out of it when the entire refereeing crew ignored the blatant, clear as day block in Manning’s back on the interception return that won it. Take the trophy off them, fine and suspend all players involved in this scandal, and, most of all, fine and ban both Williams and Payton. Saints owner Tom Benson must act and act with conviction to protect whatever dignity the Saints organization is left with, by sacking Payton.
The weight of evidence is heavily against both coaches. These two men are completely indefensible. They encouraged a system where players were maliciously trying to injure other players.
Neither man deserves to coach in the NFL ever again.
John Fitzgerald, the director of the award winning documentary 'The Emerald Diamond' has created a shorter version of the movie, designed to give first time viewers a taste of the piece, and a quick look at the recent history of baseball in Ireland. The Emerald Diamond, in its original format, is a 90-minute documentary about the Irish National Baseball Team, Baseball in Ireland on the whole, and a look into the history and the future of the game therein. The film's budget of $70,000 was financed on credit cards by the first-time filmmaker, and recieved universal critical acclaim.
The film debuted to a sold out crowd in New York on February 25, 2006 and has been seen in dozens of theaters across the United States since then. It has been featured by The New York Times, New York Post, FoxNews, National Public Radio and has also been covered extensively by the Irish media. Reuters came to Corcaigh Park, home of Irish Baseball, and reported the story as such.
On November 12, 2006, "The Emerald Diamond" won the Critic's Choice Award at the National Baseball Hall of Fame Film Festival in Cooperstown, NY. The award was selected and presented by film critic Jeffrey Lyons.
Without further ado, here for your viewing pleasure is the shortened, edited version of The Emerald Diamond. It is a really enjoyable, funny and informative movie. if you do find yourself drawn to it, visit the links at the foot of this article to show your support. Enjoy!
Former German Uber-striker Jurgen Klinsmann may have physically taken on the role as US national soccer team manager back last July, however his reign will, in time, be considered to have started last night. The United States took a notable scalp with a hard fought 1-0 win over European soccer giants Italy.
The goal was a well worked team effort, with a crisp, efficient finish by Clint Dempsey.
That’s a lovely touch from Jozy Altidore to set it up. Dempsey is fast becoming not just a great player, but one of the most successful players to have worn the USA jersey. Or, that odd-ball, high-school style jersey they had on last night, either! Dempsey’s goal makes it 25 in 83 Internationals, not a shabby haul for a midfield player, and not bad for International level either. Dempsey is already the all-time leading scorer amongst US players in the Premiership with 43 goals, and at only 29 years old he has plenty of time to add to that impressive haul.
To put the win in perspective, this was the first time the USA have ever beaten Italy. Furthermore, Dempsey became just the fourth American to score against Italy, joining Buff Donelli (1934), John Harkes (1992) and Landon Donovan (2009). If you want to be picky you can include the own-goal Italy scored against themselves in 2006.
The States continue to go from strength to strength under Klinsmann, with last night’s big win they have now won four straight under the German.
There are still plenty of ignorant doubters out there in the US sporting media, but one undeniable fact is the US sporting public loves a winner, and if US soccer continues to produce results, it is only a matter of time before soccer breaks into the cartel that is NFL, NBA, MLB and to a lesser extent NHL.
For now, those loyal US soccer fans there is can enjoy a tremendous win against a famous opponent.
Quiet weekend in US sports news (unless of course you were ‘glued’ to the NBA All Star game, and who wouldn’t be transfixed by ten multi millionaire playboys jogging up and down a court tossing each other alley-oops ad nauseum). Sunday in particular was an extremely lazy day in terms of sports across the Atlantic, so more American eyes than usual were trained on coverage of the English Premiership, with Arsenal entertaining Tottenham in a wildly entertaining 5-2 Arsenal come-back win.
The game had a bit of everything, great goals, plenty of passion, and some truly terrible, and I mean terrible, defending. Former Manchester United great Gary Neville was Sky Sports pundit for the day, and as the goals flowed, Gary exploded, saying that people can say what they want but the Premiership is the best league in the world.
Neville is on something of a roll. Last week, as Italian side Napoli picked Chelsea to pieces, destroying them 3-1 (it could have been 7-1), Neville dead-panned that Napoli were no great shakes. Apparently Neville had forgotten Napoli’s incredible destruction job on the expensively assembled Oil Money Globetrotters otherwise known as Manchester City.
Napoli are enjoying a tremendous season. They are daringly playing three up front, and remaining disciplined and organised at the back. On Sunday they easily dispatched former Italian giants Inter Milan, 1-0 (and in that case, it could have been 5-0 but for some heroic goalkeeping).
Neville triumphing that the Premiere League is the best league in the world is nothing short of redundant. There are so many easily-picked holes in his statement that you could write a 3,000 word article on same. How better to retort, however, than a couple of quick glimpses at what happened in La Liga on the weekend.
First, to the Rayo Valecano v Real Madrid encounter. Rayo are real minnows by anyone’s standards, but they are playing some neat, attractive football this season and charging up the Spanish league. They fenced back and forth with the Spanish giants Madrid for 52 minutes, and then this happened…
That was just the entrée. The match of the weekend didn’t happen in London, instead it was in Madrid, as Barcelona travelled to Atletico, in the hopes of clinging to their La Liga title challenge. The match was an incredibly passionate, skillful encounter. Madrid threw everything at Barcelona, and with 10 minutes to go, a 1-1 draw looked on the cards, then, this happened..
The goal itself is a thing of technical beauty. The great Messi himself could try this sweeping, curving shot 10 times and only catch the back of the net on 2 or 3 of the attempts. It was an almost impossible attempt, pulled off by a pure genius. Whatever about the technicality of it all, the reactions are brilliant to watch. The Madrid goalkeeper flaps his arms in complete dismay, whilst one of the defenders just kicks the goal post. Messi’s team mates react with a mix of ‘Oh my god did he just do that?’ and ‘Unbelievable, he just did that!’
Gary Neville’s boring, inane comment that the Premiere League is the best soccer league in the world did nothing but show him up to be a blinkered commentator. This is backed up by his insistence that Napoli, enjoying a fine season, are ‘no great shakes’. It is sad when a man talking to millions upon millions of viewers hasn’t even bothered to check out the alternatives, before a jingoistic comment that couldn’t be further from the truth.
Hey, everyone is fully entitled to their opinion, but at least taste the other dishes before you go telling everyone that Fish and Chips is the best meal available.
At this stage there has been basically no stone left unturned when it comes to New York Knicks rookie sensation Jeremy Lin. As each shot hit nothing-but-net in his incredible 38 point destruction job on the Lakers a couple of weeks ago, his burgeoning stardom went ballistic. It broke a hole in the stratosphere. The carpet bombing campaign of rushed articles that followed almost broke the Internet. We know everything. He came from Harvard, nobody in the NBA wanted him initially, he likes ice cream, puppies and is possibly more religious than Timmy Tebow. If the tidal wave of good-will articles written are to be believed, Mr. Lin would appear to be a talk-you-down-off-the-ledge kind of chap.
As the swirling tornado of his fame faded slightly with a couple of pedestrian outings, things took a dramatic turn with two events. ESPN published a disgraceful headline with a serious racial slur in the form of a schoolyard play on words, while a Fox journalist made even dirtier, more disgraceful references on Twitter.
Jason Whitlock of FOX sent out a couple of subsequently deleted Twitter messages that were nothing short of shocking. They alluded to race and sexuality, and put it this way, if they had been written about a Caucasian or an African American, Mr. Whitlock would probably be in jail.
The response was, well, meh. The response was relatively loud. It wasn’t a nuclear storm of rebuke and anger, as it should have been. It was, in a word, meh. ESPN fired a no-name (in that they didn’t name him or her) headline writer. The Fox journalist, who doesn’t even deserve to be named, is still in a job (no, seriously, he is) and the world went on turning. Apart from a couple of articles saying ‘Hey maybe we should have another look at this whole racism thing’, we would appear to have stood-down to normal alert levels.
The bottom line would appear to be that for certain groups in the United States, you may not even suggest a hint of a thought of the beginnings of a suggestion of a racial slur. For some, you can do it, get your wrists slapped, but ultimately get away with it. For other, hey, knock yourself out, and here’s a shovel!
Let’s break it down like a fraction
Group A: The untouchables – Caucasians (rare as it is) and African Americans. There is no wiggle room here. Instant metaphorical death for the career of anyone who comes close to even touching a racial slur against these two groups.
Group B: The Whitney Houstons (It’s not right, but it’s OK) – Asians, Asian Americans, Japanese and natives of Pacific or Caribbean Islands. Joke about this group, and whilst people will show some indignation, you will probably be OK. If you are Jason Whitlock or other FOX journalists, you can make a seriously offensive joke about anyone in this group and get to keep your job.
Group C: The Knock yourself outs – Your American Indians, your Irish, your Italians. Anything Aborigine or Native basically, most minority ethnic groups. Knock yourself out. Fair game. The racial slurs and stereotypes against these types are freely evident in modern American sports. The mascots, the nicknames and even the logos. Leprechauns are offensive to most Irish people. Lumping all Italians in with the Mafia is wildly racist but widely accepted. Let’s not even get started on American Indians. Apparently mass genocide wasn’t enough.
One final little addition to the Group C section. If you take a step back and think about it for a second, how completely insane is it that we have a team called ‘The Washington Redskins’. It is so mind numbingly stupid and racist that it appears to have slipped past the censors. Imagine for a second a team called ‘The Seattle Yellowskins’. Stunningly racist, and completely unacceptable, right? Well, if that wouldn’t be socially acceptable, how come we have a team called the Redskins, and no one gives a single damn about it?
You could go on all night. Imagine the ‘Brookyln Blackskins’. It is almost scary to even type it, as a team with that name would basically start riots up and down the United States of America.
Well why aren’t we all up in arms about the Redskins?
