Wednesday on TribLIVE Radio is Jagoff of the Week voting day, and we offer our sincere congratulations to Roger Goodell and the NFL Disciplinary Office as headed by NFL VP Ray Anderson for their victory of our prestigious weekly award. The Goodell/Anderson team won by a mere vote over Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin today.
The Goodell/Anderson party began their campaign after issuing their loss-of-draft-pick threat to the Steelers organization as part of the punishment handed down to Tomlin for Sideline-Gate. Officially, “a modification or forfeiture of draft choices will be considered after the final order of the 2014 draft has been determined.”
A modification? Will they be forced to swap picks every round with the eventual Super Bowl champion? Will their picks be announced at Radio City Music Hall by Ryan Leaf? Will they be forced to select the player Mel Kiper advises as next best on his Big Board?
And why does the order of the 2014 draft matter? If the Steelers finish 7-9 including a loss at the hands of Scott Tolzien in Green Bay, is it deemed further punishment is in order?
Your guess is as good as mine.
A good theory as any I’ve seen proposed suggests this scare tactic is merely to keep a dungeon door open in case further evidence in Sideline-Gate is revealed between now and the May draft. Such as evidence that Mike Tomlin indeed once appeared on the TV show Soul Train.
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Also on our TribLIVE Radio program today…
Longtime college hoops writer Mike DeCourcy of The Sporting News joined. Check out the podcast at: http://files.triblive.com/podcasts/sportstalk/1204HOOPS13.mp3
I’m disappointed that Pitt and Penn State don’t play yearly in hoops when it seems such an easy fit. And Panthers coach Jamie Dixon sounded lukewarm about scheduling annuals after his team’s Wednesday win over the Nittany Lions, but DeCoury’s take was:
“Jamie’s schedules are what one would call ‘esoteric’. He gets criticized by national media and some fans for playing schedules that aren’t marquee or aren’t appealing. Jamie’s job isn’t to appease anyone other than his bosses and his customers. And if his bosses are willing to go ahead and schedule the games that they schedule and his customers continue to pay for the tickets, which they have, then he is fulfilling both of those counts. And his real count is to get Pitt ready to play in the ACC. There are times when he had deeper, more experienced teams when it made sense to challenge those teams more, mostly to keep them interested. This team is very young in a lot of positions and almost entirely unformed going into the year.”
In other words, if Pitt fans don’t like watching Youngstown State instead of Penn State (or better), stop going to the games. Tough to argue.
DeCourcy also gave an interesting take on former Pitt big man Steven Adams’ early NBA success, saying:
“No I didn’t think he’d be good early [in the NBA] but he is athletic and tough but he’s not asked to be more than that with the talent around him. I don’t think there’ll be a time this early or maybe ever where you could throw [Adams] the ball and expect good things to happen at the NBA level. I think he short-circuited his development. Sometimes it’s hard to recover from that.”
And in regards to claims that Pitt mis-used Adams last season (a claim I subscribe to), DeCourcy offered this rebuttal:
“No, I don’t think Pitt used him badly at all. They did what they could to try to get a lot out of him, but he wasn’t ready to deliver more than he did. And I don’t agree at all that [Pitt] is better without him. The reason they’ve looked good early is because the opposition hasn’t been great.”
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Finally… quite the Crosby finish in OT last night as the Penguins came back to knock off the Islanders 3-2. However, I continue to marvel at the season Evgeni Malkin has now begun to spin with James Neal back healthy. Geno has directly assisted or caused 6 of the last 8 Penguins goals going back to the Florida win Saturday night. Malkin is playing absolutely incredible right now. Other than a bad crosscheck or two late in the game last night. It’s a fair trade.
Ken Laird
Talk Show Host / Reporter
TribLIVE Radio at Triblive.com
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