Just when you thought it was safe to go back to the chalkboard, Shame Game II.
Just when you thought it was finally time to talk X's and O's and shake off the slough of despair caused by the nonsensical player lockout, football is back in the limelight for all the wrong reasons.
Wilfork: tweeted that he is not prepared to comment on allegations at this time
The second week of this strange, foreshortened pre-season is under way, with plenty of juicy talking points, but we have again found someone has stolen the story, made off with the meat, hijacked the goods.
In a scenario that would surely have been rejected by a Hollywood scriptwriter as too fanciful and turned down by the creators of Miami Vice as OTT, dozens of current NFL stars (and even more college ones) have been fingered in a scandal of Biblical proportions.
Everywhere you look since Yahoo Sports (in an amazing and exhaustive piece of investigative reporting) broke the story of Miami University's alleged flagrant and long-lasting flouting of college rules, the fallout has engulfed greater and greater sections of the gridiron world.
It has been on all the news channels - inevitably - as the mix of sex and sports is a rich cocktail at the best of times. When it is served up in such salacious detail, and over such a long period, the media goes totally Planet of the Apes.
CNN, CBS, ABC, you name it, every channel has had their take on Miami's stunning array of alleged crimes (you have to say 'alleged' at this stage as a full inquiry has yet to even start, let alone find anyone guilty). I'm sure if I had been watching, it would have been mentioned on QVC and the Food Network, too.
The initial 'round-up' of 'suspects' included Vince Wilfork of New England, Carolina's Jon Beason, Denver's Willis McGahee and Kellen Winslow of Tampa Bay, all named as beneficiaries of $930million Ponzi scheme crook Nevin Shapiro.
There was Antrel Rolle (New York Giants), Randy Phillips (just waived by Detroit) and Devin Hester (Chicago), as well as Andre Johnson and Daryl Sharpton, both of Houston. In fact, the Texans have no less than seven ex-Hurricanes on their current roster, all of them under the current shadow of suspicion.
Then there was a secondary fall-out that touched on Broncos quarterback Tim Tebow, listing him as a target of a Miami 'bounty' during his days at the University of Florida (to his credit, Tebow largely laughed it off, but the implications of the pay-to-maim allegations have genuinely sickened many commentators).
So what does all this actually have to do with the day-to-day business of the NFL, you might ask? And the immediate answer would be, not a lot, at first.
The finger of fate (and a VERY strong digit, at that) is pointed squarely at the University of Miami and an eight-year catalogue of mis-deeds, all initiated by convicted felon Shapiro. There's no suggestion any of the above-named players have done anything wrong since they joined the pro ranks.
But you can bet your bottomest of dollars (most bottom? Bottom-most?) that the NFL's lawyers and other office honchos who are sensitive to bad publicity (which is pretty much everyone from Commissioner Roger Goodell down) will be cringing at the welter of lewd details and rule-breaking that has been unearthed so far.
And the bad/even worse/worst news for some of the named players is that the victims of Shapiro's Ponzi scheme have made it clear they are keen to recoup some of his ill-gotten gains, even if it means suing the likes of Wilfork and Co.
So far, there has been a lot of soft-shoe shuffling from the many players named in the Yahoo Sports story but no outright, 100 per cent rejections. And, if Rolle's initial comments are anything to go by, the league is positively going to HATE how this all moves forward.
Rolle said: "To me, it doesn't matter what's true or what's not true. Because, right now, to me, it's irrelevant. It don't concern me at this point."
But, in this era of 24-hour media and non-stop coverage, that kind of 'denial' isn't going to hold up for long. And it IS going to concern him in the very near future.
The fact this mushroom cloud of bad behaviour from South Beach has spread so far, so fast is testament to the way the big colleges like Miami impact the NFL. There are no fewer than 54 ex-Hurricanes from the 2002-2010 period currently on the rosters of the 32 teams, and the way past players like Gino Torretta and Jim Kelly have visibly winced at seemingly every line of the story, you just KNOW it has substance.
So, when the NCAA - college sport's governing body - begins its inquiry in earnest, you can be sure there will be plenty of people in the paid-for ranks who will be holding their breath that the stench stays on the 'amateur' side of the dividing line.
The REALLY unfortunate side of all this extra-curricular carrying-on is the lack of attention being paid to this most unusual of pre-seasons, which is a bit like watching a bizarre version of the usual August skirmishing, on fast-forward in some places where the first-teamers are seeing more action than usual, and in slow-mo in others as coaches try out as many back-ups as possible.
Trying to evaluate any of the teams at the moment is a bit like trying to discern the real contenders in Britain's Got Talent before anyone sings a note. It's not going to happen.
Yes, Tom Brady and Co scored 28 points in the first half at Tampa Bay last night at a canter but how well prepared was the Buccaneers' defence? Sure, Philadelphia turned the ball over at Pittsburgh like it was the hottest of potatoes, but how much of that was simply lack of repetitions from a team with 28 new players on their roster?
Of course, it is kind of amusing to report that a defence already labelled the NFL's new 'Dream team' gave up three passing touchdowns - all of 20 yards or more - in the first half, and the Steelers' first team offence put together two 14-play drives in their two possessions.
But trying to decipher what it actually MEANS three weeks before the big kick-off is a job for Mystic Meg (my crystal ball being still at the dry cleaners).
Hopefully, the Miami furore will have died down to merely a dull roar by this time next week and I can bring you some meaningful reports from the front line. But, like the university's current head coach (who is the one person not implicated in Shapiro's schemes, it seems), I won't be holding my breath.
No comments:
Post a Comment