Johnny Football should make $225,000 a year.

Do I have your attention, college football fans? Sean Gregory, Senior Writer for Time Magazine, published a cover story article in the September 16, 2013 edition of Time Magazine entitled, “It’s Time to Pay College Athletes.” The article focuses on Texas A&M student and Heisman Trophy winner, Johnny Manziel. Manziel was recently suspended by the NCAA for signing autographs. He did not accept any money for his autographs. If he had, the punishment would have been much more severe.

One should note, however, that a Johnny Manziel jersey sells for $64.75 on the NCAA’s shopping site and a fan on eBay recently paid $127 for an autographed Johnny Manziel helmet. Texas A&M football games generate $86 million in revenue for Brazos County, Texas, where the university is located. The NCAA recently signed a $3 billion contract with ESPN and Fox which will be shared with A&M. Johnny Manziel’s coach received a $1.1 million pay raise after Manziel’s Heisman-winning season and now makes $3.1 million a year. Manziel and his teammates have not shared in any of this!

Remember, Manziel signed autographs for NO MONEY and received a one-half game suspension. How dare he make money while playing college football?

A&M is not a unique big-time college football program. Texas University football netted a profit of $77.9 million in 2011. Michigan football made $61.6 million in profit that same year. The Michigan vs. Notre Dame game on Saturday, September 7, 2013 was played to the largest crowd in college football history. The money just keeps pouring in for big-time college football and basketball programs.

So it does beg the question – Should college football and basketball players be paid beyond the athletic scholarships they receive? For example, Gregory points out that if the 85 scholarship players on A&M fell under the same revenue-sharing system used by the NFL, each player would receive $225,000 per year. This may seem like an outlandish figure to you. How would it affect the academic side of a college education? Or, you may ask, how important is education to many of these athletes, who seem to take the easiest courses just to stay eligible? Can there be a balance for these student athletes and the universities?

For me, there is a huge difference between $0 and $225,000. Somewhere between those two dollar amounts is a very reasonable and justified amount. The time has come to start somewhere.

1. Super Bowl XLVIII is being held outdoors at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey and it will be in February! Farmers’ Almanac is predicting heavy snow. Time will tell if this was a good idea!

2. I mentioned last week that Pete Rose’s 4,256 hits ranks 1st with Ty Cobb, Hank Aaron, Stan Musial, and Tris Speaker completing the top 5. Ichiro Suzuki just got his 4,000th hit in professional baseball, but 1,278 of those were in Japan’s top league. Pete Rose is adamant that those Japanese league hits should not be allowed in the conversation. I agree.

3. Some of us remember when Bobby Riggs lost to Billie Jean King in the “Battle of the Sexes” tennis match in 1973. Remember Riggs had easily beaten Margaret Court, the #1 player at the time and four months later took on King. It was a huge television spectacle. Riggs lost and, apparently, a number of underworld mafia figures won. It recently was reported that Riggs threw the match to pay off his own $100,000 gambling debts. Does anyone want to take this up with the mob bosses?

4. Parkland At Easton; Whitehall at Liberty on Friday night following Football Friday at 6:30. If you need to see a game LIVE, go to Southern Lehigh at Catty and set your TiVo to record our games.

5. Lafayette opens against Sacred Heart on Saturday at 6:00. Sacred Heart is 1-0 with a win over Marist. We have a “Sportscenter” feel this year with Matt Provence, Phil Ng, and Maurice Bennett at the game-day desk. Tune in on time!

NFL PICKS FOR THIS WEEK (88-55 for the 2012 season – 62%)
Denver
New England
Chicago
Cleveland
Atlanta
Tampa Bay
Pittsburgh
Detroit
Indianapolis
Seattle
Kansas City
St. Louis
San Francisco
Dallas
Washington
Houston

Week One in the NFC East

The 2013 NFL season kicks off on Thursday, September 5 at 8:30 PM on NBC. The defending Super Bowl champions, the Baltimore Ravens, will visit the Denver Broncos at Sports Authority Field at Mile High. NFL fans will be a “mile high” anticipating the start of professional football. This should be a ratings giant for NBC and deservedly so.

As a division, however, it is the NFC East that will really be spotlighted in Week One. Whether that is justified certainly remains to be seen. On Sunday, September 8 at 8:30 PM, the New York Giants will play at Dallas, airing on NBC. Then on Monday, September 9 at 7:00 PM on ESPN Monday Night Football, the Eagles will play at Washington against the Redskins. Fans’ expectations are at their highest since no one has suffered a loss yet. Let’s analyze these two matchups:

Giants at Cowboys
The Giants usually play well in September, but in the first six weeks of the season they go to Dallas, Chicago, and Kansas City, then play the Broncos at home. Their offensive line is banged up and the preseason offense has been non-existent. They may struggle early. If they do not struggle early, they will be set up to have an outstanding season. Late in the season, they play either at home or close enough to home to avoid road weariness. That equates to 57 days without air travel.

After being 8-8 the last two years, the Cowboys on paper look much improved. The expectations are for improvement on that record (9-7; 10-6 being the best they could hope for). This is the year for Tony Romo not to just move the football, but actually put points on the board. The defense looks solid. The Cowboys should return to the playoffs.

Eagles at Redskins
Your guess about the Eagles is as good as mine. Chip Kelly seems like a good fit for the Eagles, but will his high-velocity offense work in the NFL? Even if it does, will the Eagles stop anybody from scoring? Can Michael Vick stay healthy? He’s the best fit for their offense. The defense could not stop the run or the pass last year and there does not seem to be new talent on that side. They were 4-12 last year – the record will improve, but by how much? No idea!!

The Redskins, on the other hand, will be the favorite to win the division. They ended the regular season riding RG3 to a seven-game winning streak. They can run, throw, and defend the run. Can they defend the pass? That seems to be their weakness. A healthy RG3 could make them a Super Bowl contender.

The New “RCN Sports Talk”  Football ANTI-Poll

THE TIME HAS COME FOR REBELLION!

For the past several decades, RCN TV has featured a high school football poll on various sports shows.  The poll first appeared on “This Week In Sports“, and later became a regular feature on “RCN Sports Talk“.  As Lehigh Valley sports writers and broadcasters are often praised for their outstanding high school football coverage, I have always taken pride in the “RCN Sports Talk” poll results.

In the RCN High School Football Poll, RCN TV’s sports announcers  vote for the top “big schools” and “small schools” within the Lehigh Valley.  In addition, guest voters – athletic directors and football coaches in RCN TV’s extended viewing area – are invited to participate in the poll.  This ensures that the poll yields objective results.

In nine of the eleven years that I have tracked the results, our pre-season “big” and “small” number-one teams have won either a league or district title – or both.

However, before I can give a pat on the back to our collective staff (as I don’t make scholastic predictions), I would like to highlight some of the interesting – and sometimes embarrassing – issues that have surfaced.  For example:

• Newspaper X and Newspaper Y picked School A lower than School B.  The coach at School A then chewed-up the sports writer from Newspaper Z for not picking his school, failing to realize that Newspaper Z had actually picked School A to win.
• Geometry has NOT been a good basis for predicting teams. In the results of one year’s poll, schools A, B, and C were picked as top teams.  School A beat School B, and then lost to School C.  School C then lost to School B.  Which team was the best?  More often than not, it was School D.
• One coach told me that the reason his team had a successful year was because I didn’t pick his team and stated that they had no hope of winning a playoff game.  I found his comments amusing.  In my nine years of hosting “RCN Sports Talk“, I have never made a win/loss prediction for any scholastic game, let alone rip a high school program as he claimed to have heard me say when I made my supposed poll pick.
• The polls can also aggravate local football fans.  Last year, four of our six voting announcers (did I mention I don’t make predictions already?!) selected the Pen Argyl Green Knights as the team to beat in the Colonial League.  The Green Knights then went on to win several district and state playoff games.  Strangely (and I admit THIS ONE annoyed me), two other media voices commented during Pen Argyl’s play-off run that no one in the area thought that Pen Argyl would make it to the post-season.  And that Pen Argyl’s championship win was completely unexpected.  Thank you to the numerous Green Knights’ fans who brought this to my attention.  I was thrilled and, quite frankly, impressed, that so many people remembered the RCN TV predictions from August.

(Curiously, all records of any of RCN TV’s incorrect predictions were burned in a mysterious fire – the same one that enveloped all of Joe Craig’s incorrect “Stone Cold Predictions” over the years.)

So what is my point?  These ranking polls and their accuracy mean NOTHING.  They’re for amusement purposes only and should be taken as such.  Local media members do an exceptional job bringing local sports to audiences – perhaps better than any scholastic region in the country.  The polls are meant to add some flavor to our coverage, and nothing more.  The steam that can erupt from the coaches’ and players’ ears when they learn that their ranking is below their team’s rival would be better served powering a small kitchen appliance than trying to get back at someone for “disrespecting them for their pick.”  This brings me to my rebellious decision:

For the first time in the history of RCN TV (including in its previous entities), we will NOT be doing a high school football poll this fall!

Oh, the horror… the nerve!  What gives Chris Michael the right to make a solitary decision and destroy decades of polling insights?  How will people sleep at night without an RCN high school football poll?

Okay, calm down.  I’ve spent months coming up with an idea to help you cope with this drastic and sacrilegious course of action.  My solution is:

The ANTI-Poll.

Not very inventive, I know.  And it could probably use a flashier name, with better SEO opportunity.  However, it’s the best I’ve got.

In lieu of a ranking educated guesses about the top teams in Lehigh Valley high school football, every two to three weeks, I’ll produce a random list of area teams based on impressions, facts, insights, etc., that I and other, more knowledgeable area football insiders observe.

The purpose of this insurrection?

To enhance RCN TV’s coverage of the sport, spotlight exceptional performances and give a few opinions on our local teams (in which I would not shed if you disagree with any or all of them).  Perhaps I’ll even add a morsel or two of information that you may or may not have heard in your travels and pigskin viewing.  And all this will be done without belittling students, putting down programs and disrespecting–TTTHHH teams, or any of the other comments I’ve heard from people who get angry at these rankings.

Feel free to email me your input at RCNSportsTalk@rcn.com.  I’ll be happy to read and even incorporate your opinions into the analysis during the course of the season.  Or you can state your case in person by calling in during  “RCN Sports Talk” every Thursday at 6 PM.  You can campaign, lobby or push for legislation to reverse this dramatic action, or get your local politicians involved for a complete reversal of this policy in time for Opening Day 2014!

But until then, please remember the premise, and keep it light this fall.

After all, it’s just for sport.

ABOVE THE EARS (SOME MUSINGS)

1. Remember Juan Pierre who played for the Phillies last year? He is with the Marlins now. He will soon pass Joe DiMagggio’s hit total of 2,214 hits. Juan Pierre with more hits than Joe DiMaggio?? I don’t believe it WHILE I’m typing it!! Want another interesting number – Michael Young of the Phillies has more than 200 more hits than DiMaggio!

2. By the way, Derek Jeter has the most hits of any active player with 3,308 hits and sits 10th all-time. Pete Rose’s 4,256 hits ranks 1st with Ty Cobb, Hank Aaron, Stan Musial, and Tris Speaker completing the top 5.

3. Boston University has joined the Patriot League and will compete in men’s basketball this upcoming season. Did you know Boston University gave Rick Pitino, who won the NCAA this year with Louisville, his first head coaching job and the new Sixers coach, Brett Brown, played point guard for Pitino at Boston University.

4. I attended Lafayette’s last scrimmage this past Wednesday and came away very perplexed. Colleges may only scrimmage themselves so as I watched and tried to evaluate the team, I was left with a “Catch 22”. If the offense “looks” good, is it because the offense IS good or is it because the defense is not very good? And vice versa! You don’t know until you know. That starts on September 7 vs. Sacred Heart.

5. Believe it or not, I stayed until 2:12 AM on Saturday night/ Sunday morning just to see if the Phillies would get their 4th straight walk-off win. They had plenty of opportunities, but failed. It was an interesting game to watch – 20 pitchers, 137 at-bats, 35 hits, 32 strikeouts. 28 walks, 44 players used, one win, one loss.

Blow the Whistle

The referee stands on the goal line, raises his hand, and blows his whistle. This signals the opening kickoff of every football game. The official start of the football season is this week and I am really looking forward to another year. Since Lafayette has a first week bye, the college scene for me doesn’t start until Saturday, September 7.

This is probably the last year of the Lehigh Valley Conference, as we have come to know it. The Mountain Valley Conference is poised to join the LVC for next season. And, this should be a great year. What I do not like is the fact that the two most highly touted teams, Parkland and Easton, will face each other in the opening week of league play. It is week 2 and the game is at Easton. It is always nice to build the drama as the season progresses. Since that will not be the case for these two powerhouses, we will be there to bring the game to you LIVE. There were 3 co-champions last year and there may be enough parity for that to happen again. Whitehall, Liberty, and Emmaus all look capable of upsetting the two favorites on a given weekend. There are two rookie coaches in the conference and Steve Shiffert at Easton has the longest tenure, by far, at 21 years. No one else has double figure years at their current schools.

Catasauqua looks like the odds-on favorite to win the Colonial League. They were 12-1 and 10-0 last year and have three Division 1 prospects back. Pen Argyl will, also, be formidable and the two clash on Friday, October 11. We will be there for that one, too. I think Southern Lehigh can surprise, but it looks like Catty has too much talent for anyone to dethrone them.

The rules will continue to emphasize player safety and much of that emphasis will be on head-to-head contact:

Direct helmet-to-helmet contact and any other contact
both with and to the helmet must be eliminated
from the sport of football at the interscholastic
level! Using the helmet to inflict punishment on the
opponent is dangerous and illegal. Coaches and
game officials must be diligent in promoting the
elimination of contact to and with the helmet …

Also, no contact can be initiated with a helmet-less opponent (personal foul) and a helmet-less player can not participate in the play (illegal participation).

Mr. Referee – Blow the whistle!!

Charlie Manuel & Eagles Preview

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.”

– A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens.

Probably the greatest opening line in literature, the start of one of my favorite novels. It’s a phrase I sometimes ponder during the more hectic times of my professional year.

It is a wonderful time right now. There’s excitement over the new football season. The MLB pennant races are kicking in. The NBA and NHL seasons are right around the corner. All of the fall college and high school sports are kicking in. So much to talk about and cover. It seems there just isn’t enough time to do all the sports justice. This was especially the case this past Thursday, coming on the heels of Charlie Manuel ‘s dismissal as the Phillies manager. In addition, there was all that we had to discuss with the local Eagles/Phillies beat writers on our RCN Sports Talk show, not to mention squeezing in a few high school football comments as well.

Because of all the great expertise of Mike LoRe and Brad Wilson, the hour flew by. Time only permitted a few minutes on many different topics that needed to be addressed. Here’s a clip of just a few of the items discussed (to catch the entire program, it will be available on RCN On-Demand for the next several weeks), as well as some bits of information that the men shared this us off-air that we didn’t have time for.

Other Eagles / Phillies notes:

• The Eagles are still approximately $20 million under the cap and they CAN defer that money to next year.

• For the first time, perhaps ever — Joe Craig (our resident Eagles Homer) is not optimistic for Chip Kelly’s first year and has his Birds predicted to win less games than I do (I’m going with 9 and a playoff berth).

• Our panelist seems to hope that Rich Dubee doesn’t return as the Phillies pitching coach next year, with multiple examples of former/current players that have had poor experiences with Dubee and much more positive results with current bullpen coach Rod Nichols. Brad also doubted that Dubee’s possible departure would sway Roy Halladay in his decision to return in 2014.

• I tried to limit our panelists’ “Phillies Wish List” for improvement for 2014 to three items, but they all agreed it’s going to take more than just three ‘significant’ free agent signings to make this team a serious playoff contender. I don’t see how they can make many trades to add big time talent, with only Jonathon Papelbon as a legitimate big trade bullet. How much they could get in return for him hinges on how well he rebounds on the mound this September.

What are your Eagles’ predictions? Your thoughts on Charlie Manuel and expectations for this fall? Post a comment below and tune in each week to talk sports on Thursdays with us.

Happy Labor Day everyone!

1. It looks right now like Michael Vick will be the Eagles’ starting quarterback. Nick Foles would certainly be a fine backup. The Jets, on the other hand, look like they have good backups, but no true NFL starter!

2. A similar battle for the QB spot at Penn State has junior-college transfer, Tyler Ferguson, battling with true freshman, Christian Hackenberg, for the starting role. Neither has ever taken a snap at Penn State.

3. I attended Lafayette football practice last week and the offense looked real sharp. However, college practice leads one into a Catch-22 scenario – if the offense looks really good, it might mean the defense is not so good or vice versa. Is the glass half full or half empty?? The question will not be truly answered until September 7 vs. Sacred Heart.

4. Those of us who played football, either high school and/or college, certainly remember the “dog days of summer”. Those were the first couple of weeks of two-a-days when the heat and humidity coupled with the coaches’ screaming made practice almost unbearable. The low temperatures and low humidity this past week makes it seem too easy for the players. Thank goodness, the coaches still yell!

5. Catasauqua vs. Wilson LIVE on Saturday, August 31. I can’t wait!

You Are Cordially Invited..

It was announced this past Friday that the Lehigh Valley Conference invited the Mountain Valley Conference (except for Lehighton) to join them in the creation of an 18-team super conference, tentatively maintaining the LVC name. And to do it by next season!

With Lehighton moving to the Anthracite League in football and the Schuylkill League in most other sports, the MVC was looking at the scheduling nightmare that goes along with just a 6-team league. Ironically, just a few months ago, the MVC invited the LVC to merge with them, but the request was not made to Central Catholic or Bethlehem Catholic. By omitting those two schools in the initial invitation, it gave the LVC the opportunity to “remind” both schools (particularly Beca) that there could be consequences to very overt recruiting. The message was delivered and the invitation was not accepted.

So now, the MVC has been “cordially invited” to join the LVC, bringing all the schools together. In terms of football and basketball, there are certainly plusses and minuses.

On the “plus” side, the super conference will now include all the AAAA schools in District XI. The merger would bring Allen and Dieruff back into the Lehigh Valley football picture and I certainly like that. By merging, all teams would battle for their spots in the District and State playoffs. This eliminates the complaint that some MVC teams got better seeding or easier qualifying because they played a much weaker schedule. Certainly, with 18 teams, the scheduling still may slightly favor one team over another, but that happens now. Also, the MVC will have no trouble filling their schedule.

On the “minus” side, an 18 team conference can certainly look a bit unwieldy when it does come to scheduling. In football, do you create two 9-team divisions and play for a championship? That sounds like a reasonable idea. In basketball, 3 divisions seem to be the best approach, but, if you play your division foes twice and the other teams once, you have the allotted 22 games filled. From there, a championship tournament could certainly be created. Even the “minuses” do not seem so bad.

Although I argued a few months ago, that the LVC was just fine the way it was and did not need to accept the MVC invitation, I do believe the “return to sender” invitation makes sense. I am quite certain the RSVP from the MVC will include acceptance. The nightmare will be for the AD’s to figure out the scheduling for all the other sports. And for a Sports Director at RCN to choose which League games to schedule for our viewers!!

Kudos to the RCN Marketing Department for staging a coup for us!

They arranged for an exclusive one-on-one interview with the 76ers’  staring forward and the former 2nd-overall draft pick Evan Turner  for us, and the interview came on the heels of the Sixers announcement that they FINALLY named a head coach! (Watch Evan’s reaction below when I ask him about the long process).

Before we talk about the on-the-court issues, I asked Evan about (and give him credit for not ducking those questions — including the one on his own future with the team as he’s in his last year of his contract), a quick word about Mr. Turner and his camp. I’ve been to a number of camps with pro and former pro athletes, and I was very impressed with the way that Evan conducted himself with the youngsters. He genuinely seemed interested in the kids and spent TONS of time talking with them (one youngster must’ve had his ear for at least 25 minutes). He never blew anyone off, answered everyone’s questions, and never once—even briefly—acted like he did not want to be there.

He spent time working on drills with his staff (his supporting coaches also really seemed to do a great job), and had some fun with them during individual drills (the kids, of course, loved it when he dunked). It was very nice to see an NBA star be very humble and very accommodating to his fan base. Over the last few years, we’ve gotten a number of people who say they no longer have interest in the NBA. We’ve had more than one viewer call it a “thug league,” based on some of the athletes who bring guns into locker rooms and wear gangsta clothing while on team trips, et al. I myself have never had an issue with a 76er player or a member of their organization (I covered them regularly for four years), and was happy to see that Evan did nothing to divert that opinion.

As far as the interview, we listed a few of the questions below, with the rest of the interview to be show on this Thursday’s “SportsTalk” show at 6 pm and on RCN On Demand for your viewing pleasure.

What do you think of the 76ers off-season moves, the hiring of Brett Brown as head coach, and Evan’s future with the team? Do you think he’ll ‘step-up’ with the new regime, or should the team “tank” for a higher draft pick? Post a comment below and email us at RCNSportsTalk@rcn.com and we’ll address your comment/questions on our next program (our Aug. 22nd show will also include beat writers discussing the Eagles/NFL issues, the Phillies & Charlie Manuel’s departure, and high school sports preview features).