Dreams Blog

Molinaro’s Paterno/Freeh Slant                                                          People will believe what they want to believe, but the most understanding among us realize that both reports – Freeh’s and the one produced by Paterno’s supporters – are less than definitive.                                                                                                                   The Freeh report tried too hard to arrive at profound statements. It overreached. The Paterno rebuttal does much the same. People were paid to discredit the Freeh investigation and – what do you know – they found that it wrongly condemned Paterno.”Full of inaccuracies,” declared former U.S. attorney general Richard Thornburgh.                                                                                                                        But as ESPN.com noted, before he signed up with the Paterno team, Thornburgh was on record as saying that the Freeh report would be required reading at universities across the country.                                                                                                                                  Now Thornburgh finds Freeh’s findings to be riddled with “bias” and questions the “credibility of the entire report.                                                                                           “Some of us may just want to move on from this story. But we shouldn’t without pausing to reflect on one final thing.                                                                                                       Joe Paterno has been dead more than a year, but with the campaign to resurrect his image up and running, it’s as important as ever to remember that Paterno and his legacy are not the victims here.
Hand Wringers
The Sports Curmudgeon resides in the DC area that is rife with “Hand Wringers.” About this stage every year they start stirring and go on a great deal to show how politically correct they are. The SC had this to say: “I do not mean to endorse the use of a team name that is offensive to many people. I am simply tired of all the impotent hand wringing evidenced by letter writers to the Washington Post and by columnists in the Washington Post. Other than the adrenaline rush one gets when seeing one’s words take such a noble stand in a publication, those writings change nothing. They belong in a category of their own that I would label “Blatherreha”.                                                                                       The owner of the Washington Redskins and the National Football League, which issues him the franchise to own this team, have made the following situation crystal clear: As long as the NFL team housed in Washington continues to bring in revenues in the top 10% of all NFL teams, there is no reason to change the name of the NFL team housed in Washington. Ka-beesh?                                          As much as the local hand-wringing writers might want to frame this issue as a moral one, it boils down to an economic one. Until and unless there is sufficient agita generated in the fan base of the Washington Redskins to motivate those folks to stop spending any money on anything associated with the Washington Redskins, then the name is likely going to stay the way it is and the “Outrage Cycle” currently building will crest, go on the wane and then rise again in a couple of years.”
Not All Change Is Good- Do You Read Me?
Mike Bianci (Orlando Sentinel) wrote about the latest changes in recruiting regulations. “Just wait until the new recruiting rules kick in and college coaches begin inundating Billy Bluechip with phone calls, text message, smoke signals and love letters.
Rdcvespected college and high school coaches are referring to the new recruiting rules that take effect Aug. 1 when college coaches will be permitted by the NCAA to make unlimited phone calls and send unlimited text messages to high school recruits.
In the past, coaches have been limited by dead periods and were only allowed to make one phone call per month from June 15 to July 31 to recruits who had finished their sophomore year, and two phone calls per month after Aug. 1 of their junior year. The NCAA actually banned college coaches from texting recruits back in 2007, but now suddenly will allow unlimited texts and phone calls.
“It’s going to be like the wild, wild West,” (George) O’Leary says.
The NCAA likes to preach academic integrity but then pulls a stunt that will become a nightmare to high school coaches and teachers everywhere. How can you say you’re serious about education when you’re giving thousands of college head coaches and assistant coaches carte blanche to call and text high school students at all hours of the day and night?
Recruiting Guideline
Mike Bianci (Orlando Sentinel) gave us this recommendation: “Former Purdue coach Alex Agase on why he never recruited players from California: “Any kid who would leave that wonderful weather is too dumb to play for us.”
I Was Just Thinking (Uh Oh, Not Again)                                            With all the recent news about head injuries in the NFL, how come there weren’t that many in years ago (maybe in the Andy Robustelli/ Rosie Brown years)? Was it a lack of knowledge or was it because the players weren’t that big? Perhaps those players didn’t lead with their heads.                                                                                            Borscht Olympics                                                                                    Bob Molinaru (HamptonRoads.com) talked about next year’s Winter Olympics and wrote: “Estimates of how much it will cost to stage the Winter Olympics next year in Sochi, Russia, are already in the $50 billion range. Pretty steep considering that London put on the Summer Games for $14.4 billion. It’s not hitting below the Borscht Belt to note that widespread corruption – the Russian way of doing business – is blamed for the exorbitant price tag.  The Sports Curmudgeon said, “The climate for the city of Sochi is classified as “humid subtropical”; the weather there this year has seen temperatures hovering in the 50s and 60s. To be sure, the Winter Games will happen in the mountains outside the city, but once again, there is the potential for a climatic mismatch between Mother Nature and a sports extravaganza. According to a report in the St. Paul Pioneer-Press:
“Temperatures at Sochi’s Krasnaya Polyana ski resort hovered about 50 degrees this week after a cold snap the previous week when athletes competed in test events amid snowstorms with temperatures dipping to 20 degrees.
“This week temperatures reached 66 degrees in Sochi and 59 in the mountains.
“Dmitry Chernyshenko, head of the Sochi organizing committee, said Sochi’s snow-making system and other technologies will enable organizers to ‘cope with any challenges of the weather.” Was that something also said by the 2014 Super Bowl Committee?
HA! They thought that NY Winter weather might be bad for the SB.