Two of a Kind and a Joker's Wild

     While I have been privately ranting about the distinct possibility of the Minnesota Vikings this year not only becoming the first NFL team to have the opportunity to play the Super Bowl at home but also play 2 home games in attaining the NFC Championship, there have been other things on my mind. I will return to the Vikings windfall scenario later.

     There are a couple of disturbing events going on which have my ire in full bloom. None of them involve the continuing saga of the next manager for the New York Yankees or Aaron Judge's arthroscopic surgery on his left shoulder.

     No, these problems are the result of sports not getting it. I may not have the ultimate solutions for what I see, but the problems do need fixing.

     There is a basketball tournament being held in Portland, Oregon this weekend to celebrate the 80th anniversary of Phil Knight, the legendary sports apparel founder of international giant Nike. The Nike brand is omnipresent--Air Jordans are the epitome of the success of sports correlating with an athletic phenomenon. There was much ado about athletic shoes made cheaply outside of the U.S. and sold here at exorbitant prices producing a classic supply and demand frenzy engulfing both the well-heeled, and those who took to robbed other adolescents of their footwear or sold narcotics in order to purchase a pair of the status symbol sneakers

     Knight's immense impact in Oregon ranges from the economic boom that originates from the Beaverton campus, to the ties with the University of Oregon and its sports teams, to his philanthropy. Nike is an original, textbook story in marketing success. But with the spoils of success comes the unseemliness of the more lurid parts of sports.

     Sneaker contracts to basketball coaches became a genius concept. Top winners Mike Krzyzewski of Duke and Jim Boeheim of Syracuse come to mind as coaches who shamelessly knew how to play the system to its fullest. Except, as we are now finding out, the abuses are rampant in a sport which has historically been shady if not downright dismissive of the regulators to make their own set of rules. So, who loses in this situation? A number of coaches suffer like Rick Pitino at Louisville, along with assistants at places like Auburn, where kids who have one goal in mind--to play college hoops as a stepping stone to the NBA. These kids may not really belong in academic environs and suffer greatly as they are spit out of the system which tolerates AAU travel teams sponsored by Adidas or Nike (see Sonny Vaccaro, the quintessential sleazy front man for the sneaker companies who started this trend with camps, shoe contracts et. al) and recruiting (exploiting) youngsters with talent to attend parochial and private secondary schools to hone their physical skills to reach the next level. There they once more are foil for coaches and schools seeking recognition, fame and money. One and done players should have no place in college basketball. Administrators at the institutional level and in the NCAA are just as guilty and to blame for the corruption of basketball.

     Make no mistake, this exploitation is not limited to basketball. In football I show you Joe Paterno, a Nike god himself, who permitted sexual abuse and sacrificed his players in order to maintain his winning ways as Exhibit A for hypocrisy. Jim Harbaugh of Michigan is no milk toast either.  Coaches with fantastic records are subject to being fired because they aren't measuring up to conference and arch-rivals and not making the playoffs every season. Multi-million dollar contracts for football coaches which routinely exceed the combined budgets of the English and Mathematics departments, coupled with lucrative shoe deals that make them appear more like CEO's by their pay than state employees.  Sheer lunacy.

     So Division I behemoths Duke and North Carolina journey to Portland, Oregon to join UConn, Florida and Gonzaga among others in this homage to the King. All expenses paid, with a sojourn in Oregon over Thanksgiving, upcoming December final exams be damned. 16 elite teams in a tournament akin to the NCAA's March Madness. ESPN has its hands in it--the network which brings you all-time college hoops hypester Dickie V and his Diaper Dandies yet is laying off employees by the droves as viewership has dropped dramatically--making this a standout tourney when there are so many others happening at this time from Brooklyn, NY to Disney World to Las Vegas to the Bahamas to Cancun. The staggering dollars involved with this plethora of basketball opulence could prop up so many inner city schools, whose athletic programs exist on a shoestring.

     Thus it is befitting that rich take care of the rich in the PK 80 extravaganza. There never should be this PK 80-type reverence.  After all, as Sally Jenkins eloquently decried what amateurism is in college sports these days in her recent Washington Post column, this is not unique to the nation. Presidential intervention has previously taken place when sports reform is necessary. I hope her timely cries for assistance to end this mockery of amateurism do not fall on deaf ears and that there is a groundswell from the athletes themselves, because it sure isn't happening via any other avenue.

     Second on my list of peeves is the upcoming Heisman Trophy award for the best college football player in the U.S. Currently, the leader appears to be Baker Mayfield, the quarterback for the 10-1 Oklahoma Sooners. Perhaps Mayfield has put up the best numbers this year and has placed Oklahoma in a position to be a participant in the College Football playoffs if they won this weekend when West Virginia came to Norman (they did) and then if they are triumphant a second time this season over #10 TCU in the Big 12 Championship. Undoubtedly, Mayfield's numbers and wins over Ohio State, Oklahoma State and TCU merit strong consideration.

     However, as a person, Baker Mayfield does not epitomize what it takes to be a class act. He has his own demons--which is why he should not be given the Heisman Trophy. Everywhere he has gone, controversy has swirled around him, many times take a seat to his accomplishments.

     Mayfield started his collegiate career at Texas Tech, where he became the first ever legitimate walk-on quarterback ever to start in his first collegiate game. While Mayfield's first few games for the Red Raiders were outstanding with near-record setting performances, he succumbed to injury. While he won the 2013 Big 12 Conference Freshman Offensive Player of the Year award, Mayfield left the program due to a "miscommunication" with the Tech coaching staff. While Tech disputes it, the disagreement was over a scholarship for Mayfield and the fairness of the competition for quarterback in 2014. That's a red flag.

     He then enrolled at Oklahoma, unannounced to the coaching staff there. Once more a walk-on, this time at even a higher profile football school, Mayfield had to sit out at least the 2014 season by rule. Not content with that, he filed an appeal with the NCAA on the basis of his being a non-scholarship walk-on at both Tech and Oklahoma, thereby making the rules for scholarship players inapplicable to his situation. The NCAA denied the appeal.

     Additionally, the Big 12 Conference imposes an additional year of ineligibility for transfers to member institutions. An appeal to the Big 12 was also denied. Oklahoma then asked Texas Tech to authorize an immediate release for Mayfield. Tech said no, but then later gave Mayfield a release from a commitment to their school. So he sat out 2014 and lost a year of eligibility.

     This led to the "Baker Mayfield Rule." The Big 12 Conference now allows walk-on players without a scholarship offer from the school they are leaving to transfer within the conference without losing a year's eligibility. Now he was a target for many in Big 12 land.

     Before the start of this season, Mayfield was cited for public intoxication, resisting arrest, disorderly conduct and fleeing in Fayetteville, Arkansas. He was belligerent, non-compliant, with food stains on his shirt and slurred speech. The resisting arrest charge was dropped and he paid a total of $460.00 in fines and court costs plus $483.20 in restitution. New Oklahoma coach Lincoln Riley said the matter would be handled internally, which resulted in 35 hours of substance abuse education and no loss of playing time. He never thought he really did anything wrong. Another black eye for him.

     Mayfield took the Sooners into Ohio Stadium and defeated the Buckeyes on their home turf. He interacted with the fans throughout the game instead of focusing on being a representative for his college.  One of the great rituals of college sports is when Ohio is spelled out in script by the Ohio State band and a person gets the honor to dot the"i." When Oklahoma triumphed, Mayfield took an OU flag, paraded it around the stadium and planted it at the center of the field, defiantly stating to the world his disrespect for tradition and his opponent. Only when there was so much negative national attention did he apologize for his excessive, youthful exuberance. More narcissistic behavior.

     Then there was last weekend versus Kansas. When the team captains met at the center of the field for the coin toss, the KU captains refused to shake Mayfield's offered hand. After Oklahoma trounced the Jayhawks in a chippy affair replete with late and illegal hits, TV cameras caught Mayfield grabbing his crotch and shouting obscenities towards the KU bench.

     This last episode of misconduct has led Oklahoma to bench Mayfield for the first series of the West Virginia game, but he played until the coach inserted the reserves. Plus he will not be a captain on Senior Day, which upsets him. The Big 12 Conference reprimanded him along with the KU players.

     It hasn't stopped. I don't want hear about his competitive nature overwhelming him. Where are the coaches and the university educating Mayfield, muzzling him? Although the three UCLA basketball players broke the law in China by allegedly shoplifting sunglasses, they received real punishment from their school with an indefinite suspension, notwithstanding that they are lucky not to still be in China, perhaps in a Chinese jail.

     Since there is no real impact on this kid, the best way to maybe put some perspective in his life is to snub him with the Heisman voting. Make him the poster boy, along with Johnny Manziel, a.k.a., the former Texas A&M quarterback who won the Heisman Trophy and who never was set straight enough to get his life in order. Heisman voters, hear my plea, not that of Matt Leinhart, a former Heisman winner who works for FOX, the TV home of the College Football playoffs, who believes Mayfield's antics need not be punishable in the Heisman arena. Do not make the Manziel mistake again. Don't even invite him to New York for the ceremony. Be brave. Try helping Mayfield get a grip on life before he flames out. You are adults imbued with the responsibility of presenting positive heroes in athletics. There are other worthy recipients.

     With all that envelops collegiate sports these days, the potential dilemma facing the NFL for the 2017 playoffs is much simpler than that facing collegiate sports.  Isn't it time that the NFL, who has tried vainly to evade controversy with the Super Bowl, finds a way to avoid the Vikings benefiting, should they secure home field, with a true home field advantage if they are in the Super Bowl at their own stadium? Three playoff games without travel. Unheard of. What can the NFL do--make Minnesota dress in the visitors locker room and use an alternate site to practice? Root for the Philadelphia Eagles to win in Minneapolis?

     The NFL needs to have three neutral site venues from hereon, with at least two being the Rose Bowl and Orlando, FL. I think that San Diego is a third option, a way to appease the city and its populace for the Chargers' bolting to LA. Honolulu is a fourth great place for the game. It beats seeing the Vikings, on  repeatedly frigid winter days in the upper Midwest, roll unimpeded to fame (or infamy with an asterisk)in an indoor venue. The NFL Competition Committee or its soon-to-be $49 million Commissioner needs to address this--I recognize that many former sites will not be happy in losing the gigantic fiscal infusion a Super Bowl brings.

     With this much chaos around, I long for baseball and its relative serenity. Please feel better Aaron Judge. Our sad eyes long for your smile.