Blog

Under fire, the NFL thinks pink

October 6, 2014

A shout-out to two former colleagues covering the NFL’s domestic abuse crisis.

Jane McManus of ESPN continues her fine reporting with a piece on the NFL’s addition of more women to the team that will ultimately help clean up this mess. A revelation: Off the Field, the NFL wives organization, is just being included in the discussion now. (Apparently, a first letter from the wives to the league was lost. What a surprise.)

If you’ve been reading this blog, then you know that Jane and I worked together at The Journal News, a Gannett publication. One of our estimable colleagues was longtime religion reporter Gary Stern, who contributed a piece on the entwined lives of NFL commish Roger Goodell and suspended player Ray Rice in the paper’s Oct. 5 edition. ...

Alex Smith, Colin Kaepernick and ‘the good wife’

October 4, 2014

So the San Francisco 49ers face-off against the Kansas City Chiefs Sunday, Oct. 5 for the first time in the regular season since the Niners traded quarterback Alex Smith to the Chiefs, signaling that Colin Kaepernick would be their guy.

The Niners seem destined for an embarrassment-of-quarterback-riches drama. This is the team that traded Joe Montana – possibly the greatest quarterback to date – to the Chiefs no less, because they had Steve Young.

When Alex Smith suffered a concussion back in 2012 and Kaepernick took over for him, leading the Niners to the Super Bowl, well, it was a bit like that moment in “42nd Street” when the star breaks her ankle, the ingénue goes on and the rest is theatrical history.

Even though Kaepernick has better statistics than Smith – and from a pure performance standpoint is a helluva lot more thrilling to watch, because he’s a running quarterback – the Smith-Niners reunion has led to the inevitable “Did the 49ers Make the Right Choice?” column.

Here’s the thing...

Michael Phelps – in the drink

October 2, 2014

Well, it hasn’t been a very good day for swimming, has it?

Michael Phelps – the most decorated Olympian to date, with 22 medals, 18 gold – was charged with driving under the influence early Tuesday morning, crossing double lanes and clocking in at 84 mph in 45-mph Fort McHenry Tunnel in his hometown of Baltimore. His blood alcohol level was .14. (The legal limit in Maryland is .08.) A trial has been set for Nov. 19.

Complicating matters for Phelps is that this isn’t his first DUI arrest. That was in 2004 when he was 19. In 2009, the Internet had a field day with pictures of him smoking a marijuana pipe. A judge might very well set Phelps’ celebrity aside – or even make an example of it – and sentence him to jail time. And he could lose his license. Maybe he should, or at the very least be forced to install one of those devices that disables cars that drunk drivers enter.

Of course, that wouldn’t stop him from getting behind the wheel of another car. ...

This is your brain on football

September 30, 2014

At my uncle’s birthday party recently, I spent part of my time with my little cousin Mark, eating birthday cake and watching the 49ers (my team) come back against the Eagles (his).

Mark is a solidly built, cherubic 9-year-old with a curly top and an appetite as big as his grin. Already a talented hockey player – like his poised, more reserved older brother – Mark told me he’d love to play football, but his parents, my goddaughter and her husband, won’t allow it.

Good call. Time magazine’s Sept. 29 issue has a poignant cover story that’s a must-read for any parent – or, for that matter, anyone interested in the game’s recent, headline-grabbing developments.

It’s the story of 16-year-old Chad Stover, who sustained a traumatic brain injury during one of the many games played under the “Friday night lights” across this country every autumn. Indeed, on fall Fridays when I leave my office late, I can see those lights and hear the throng gathered at the local high school clear across the highway.

Maybe that’s what I had in mind in this passage from my upcoming novel “In This Place You Hold Me,” about a quarterback’s search for identity amid the brutality of the NFL...

Oh, captain, their captain

September 29, 2014

How do you fall out of love?

Does it happen all at once? Or subtly over time until one day you realize that your heart no longer skips a beat when you look at the box score?

I had loved the New York Yankees and, by extension, all of baseball from the time I was about 6 years old. That’s when I first saw the old, old Yankee Stadium, all blue and white. To me, it looked like a wedding cake. The first time I walked inside and saw the field fanning out to embrace infinity, I had only one thought: “I belong here.”

Over the years, I had many memorable moments there – particularly watching the magical teams of the late 1970s – and I would go on to write about the Yanks during their magnificent run at the end of the 20th century.

But also over those years, I found myself so emotionally invested in the Bombers that I couldn’t take their defeats. Then my Aunt Mary, my beloved Tiny, who would’ve been 92 on Oct. 1, became fatally ill, and even winning became painful. Indeed when the team won the World Series in 2009, the gulf between its euphoria and my despair seemed unbreachable.

After that, Tim Tebow and Colin Kaepernick happened to me, and I made the journey that America has...

In the pink?: The NFL and women’s health

September 27, 2014

Oct. 1 begins Breast Cancer Awareness Month, and as usual the NFL will be up to its helmets in pink paraphernalia. But pardon me if it’s seems more than a tad hypocritical this year with all the domestic abuse scandals rocking the league.

It’s great that the NFL is concerned about advertisers, er, women getting cancer. But a woman with a cracked skull might have more immediate concerns, you know?

In the meantime, domestic abuse organizations are keeping up the pressure. Hope’s Door in Pleasantville recently issued a “Call to Action” as we mark the 20th anniversary of the passage of the Violence Against Women Act.

“Unfortunately, the recent horrific incidents involving the NFL remind us that domestic violence continues to be a major societal problem that can no longer be ignored,” said Jane Aoyama-Martin, executive director of The Pace Women’s Justice Center said. “I am encouraged by the public outrage, since years ago it would have been swept under the rug and ignored.” ...

Hope’s Door will be taking part in a Manhattan march remembering Gladys Ricart on Sept. 26, the 15th anniversary of her murder by a former, abusive boyfriend.  Images courtesy Hope’s Door — Hope’s Door will be taking part in a Manhattan march remembering Gladys Ricart on Sept. 26, the 15th anniversary of her murder by a former, abusive boyfriend. Images courtesy Hope’s Door

Women, 1; NFL, 0

September 24, 2014

Let’s here it for the women who’ve been beating the drum on the NFL domestic violence scandal – CBS’ Hannah Storm, who made it personal; ESPN’s Janet McManus, who keeps on digging. (Truth in advertising: Jane and I were colleagues at Gannett. She’s one of those brilliantly educated people who can talk just as knowledgeably about classics as she can about sports. Jane – one of the models for Brenna James, the sophisticated sports columnist in my forthcoming novel in “The Games Men Play Series,” “In This Place You Hold Me” – also brings a compassionate eye to what she does.)

That combination of smarts and empathy is something that’s sorely lacking as recent developments suggest that NFL and team leaders just don’t get it. The latest to weigh in – and trip all over himself in the process – was Baltimore Ravens’ owner Stephen J. Bisciotti, who was on the defensive at a news conference, claiming that he and his team did not press the league to bury former running back Ray Rice’s arrest for cold-cocking his future wife, Janay. Let’s just say that the adage that a good defense stops a good offense doesn’t apply here.

Indeed, The New York Times’ Juliet Macur – another heroine fighting the good fight – said in a Sept. 23 column that Bisciotti, commish Roger Goodell and company should “please just stop talking.” ...