No Kentucky Derby Post Time for Me

Well, that was a dud.

No, not the 135th running of th Kentucky Derby won by 50-1 long-shot Mine That Bird. The horse ran the race you'd expect to see in the movies; National Velvet without Liz Taylor.



No, I'm referring to my post If the NFL Ran the Kentucky Derby that ran on Bleacher Report and on Hog Heaven.

It seemed like a neat tie-in for the week between the NFL Draft and the Derby. But the story only gathered nine views on Bleacher Report between Wednesday and Derby day (Saturday) and a mere 17 on Hog Heaven.

Lesson learned. You can't push water uphill. You can't talk a niche topic on a football site and expect an audience.

I spend a lot of time thinking about boring organizational issues in managing a NFL team. It strikes me that pro football is exponentially better at building an audience than the horse racing industry.

The NFL promotes its stars -- the players on the field. Horse racing appears to promote handicapping. (Capital "T" that rhymes with "B" that stands for betting.)

Horses are the dynamic personalities in the sport. Racing sees horses as the basis for gambling.

Dependence on gambling is killing the sport, in contrast to the NFL which keeps a strict, arms-length relationship to gambling. You don't see parimutuel windows at NFL stadiums.

The disengagement forces the NFL to build other streams of revenue: TV contracts, endorsements, expensive ticket sales, logoed-items. The NFL has revenue the Jockey Club must drool over.

Gambling invites restriction by States and disapproval by tsk-tsk moralists.

The Maryland Jockey Club laments the decline of the sport in Maryland. What do they ask for? Slot machines to match Pennsylvania and West Virginia.

What do they get? A long, drawn out fight that results in slots package that gives the horsemen a smaller cut than they say they need to survive and bidders disinterested in horse track locations.

Instead of slots, the horsemen might have asked for tax breaks, or subsidized prize money, or livestock incentives. Maryland would likely have turned those ideas down too, because of the gambling.

I'll wager that Maryland wouldn't have turned them down if the case were made to save a horse personality, like Spectacular Bid.

Maryland has a rich thoroughbred tradition. From the Maryland Horse Breeder's Association web site:

Marylanders have been breeding and racing Thoroughbred horses for more than 250 years. From the famed 18th century race mare and producer Selima (by the Thoroughbred foundation sire the Godolphin Barb) to such 20th century champions as Gallant Fox, Omaha, Native Dancer, Nashua, Kelso, Ruffian, Spectacular Bid and Broad Brush, Maryland-owned Thoroughbreds have been providing both excitement and profits for Free Staters.

The battle for support was led by Magna Entertainment, a track operator now in bankruptcy.

The NFL would have based the fight with saving Joe Flacco. The Jockey Club would have done better by hiring the NFL to lead its fight.

Hmm. Another great post that nobody will read. Thought I learned that lesson! :-P

NFL selects Holder for Vick inquiry

The Washington Post reported that NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell tapped former U.S. Deputy Attorney General Eric Holder to head the inquiry into Michael Vick's activity.

"According to league officials, the review will be conducted by members of the NFL's security staff and D.C. lawyer Eric Holder, a partner with Covington & Burling. Holder formerly was the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia. He was appointed deputy attorney general by President Clinton in 1997, and served briefly as the acting attorney general under President Bush. Holder's firm is the NFL's outside counsel. He is the second prominent D.C. lawyer to become involved in the case this week. On Monday, Vick hired William R. 'Billy' Martin to represent him."

Holder is a New York City native and graduate of the Columbia Law School. He joined the Public Integrity Section of the U.S. Department of Justice in 1976. In 1988, Holder was nominated by President Reagan to become an Associate Judge of the Superior Court of the District of Columbia. In these divided political times, I didn't know that Reagan-Clinton appointments were possible!

Holder's profile at the Covington & Burling web site describes him as "a litigation partner who handles, among other matters, complex civil and criminal cases, domestic and international advisory matters and internal corporate investigations."

Covington & Burling is one of the most prestigious of Washington, DC, law firms. Their partners are regularly tapped for federal appointments and high profile cases. Covington's Chuck Ruff represented President Clinton during the impeachment process. Covington is also the legal counsel to the NFL, the NBA and the NHL. Former NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue was a partner at the firm.

There is a racial undertone to the Vick case, with some of Vick's supporters and bashers saying dog fighting is part of an "urban culture," with "urban" a code word for African-American. I can assure you that dog fighting is not part of the Black culture. It does seem to be the hallmark of low-life culture. But, I digress.

The NFL's is inquiring whether there is "indisputable evidence" that Vick's activities violated the league's personal conduct policy. Selecting Holder to lead the investigation will offset some of the suspicion that the league is just trying to take down a successful Black man. With Holder's reputation, I expect an accurate, thorough investigation without slipping into a "get Ookie outa here" tone -- even if that's what the league wants to do now. I'm not sure the NFL thought of Holder that way; or, perhaps they did.

Photo: Deputy Attorney General Eric H. Holder, Jr. in 1999 (Ray Lustig — The Washington Post)

Why Michael Vick is worried

A few days ago, I posted a piece implying that Michael Vick had more financial resources than the Surry County, VA, authorities investigating the dog fighting allegations against him. Thus, he had little to worry about the outcome of a case brought by backwater authorities.

He can start worrying now. The federal government is on the case. The feds, acting on a sealed warrant, searched Vick's Surry County property according to an AP story published today. The search warrant was filed without the knowledge of Commonwealth Attorney Gerald Poindexter, who was described as floored by the development.

"What is foreign to me is the federal government getting into a dogfighting case. I know it's been done, but what's driving this? Is it this boy's celebrity? Would they have done this if it wasn't Michael Vick?" ~ Gerald Poindexter

Good question. It might also have been a sense of foot-dragging by the County.

According to the story, Virginia State Police participated in the federal raid. The federal team consisted of investigators from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the U.S. Attorney's office. None of them would comment for the story. The USDA and State Police were members of the Surry County investigation team.

I've suspect that the authorities in Richmond (VA) were frustrated by the pace of Surry County's investigation. Poindexter moved with deliberation, as you might when the potential witnesses against Vick are sending you letters from their jail cell. Talk about credibility of the witness!

But, what are the feds after? Surely more than an animal case. The federal law prohibiting interstate transport of dogs for fighting didn't go into effect until May 3, 2007. The allegations against Vick, or his family members, occurred before that law went into effect.

No, the feds are sniffing for something more serious. Adding to Vick's problems are accounts that he gambled large sums of money at these dog fights. Large-scale gambling by football players draws interest from three-lettered organizations: N.F.L., and I.R.S.

Stay tuned to this one, folks.

Update: Why Michael Vick is worried - III

Update: Why Michael Vick is worried - II

Update: Feds bite Michael Vick

Photo: www.copyright-free-pictures.org.us/

Early fantasy look at the NFC East

Skin Patrol over at Hogs Haven lamented that he was reduced to looking at silly 2008 NFL Mock Drafts. We've both commiserated that we've not had much to footblog about. Luckily for us, it's not too early to look at fantasy football.

Michael Fabiano at nfl.com posted an early look at the fantasy value of NFC East players. That's early, too, but at least is more grounded in reality than a 2008 mock draft. I saw no surprises in Fabiano's comments. However, he had this to say about Clinton Portis.

"Portis should now be seen as more of a borderline No. 1 or 2 fantasy runner rather than the elite featured back he has been throughout his career."

The number of carries Portis has had, and the emergence of Ladell Betts leads to that assessment of Portis as a fantasy player.

Fabiano sees the Redskin offense schedule as the 5th easiest for passing and 4th hardest for rushing. The article didn't say how he arrived at that conclusion.

That mock draft thing? Not only do we not know 2007 NFL game results, thus the 2008 draft order, we don't know how the school boys will rank. They, too, have to play to hold or lose their draft rank. Somebody is going to get injured and lose their ranking. Some junior is going to come out early and insert themselves in the ranking. Silly.

Photo: www.msnbc.msn.com

Deal with that, Daniel Snyder

Two things I think I know about Daniel Snyder:

1. He's unpopular among NFL owners


2. He want to host a Super Bowl (in addition to winning one)

So it must gall our man Dan that the NFL will host the 2011 Super Bowl in Dallas, in Jerry Jones new Cowboys [insert corporate name here] stadium; a new 100,000 seat stadium. The new cowboys stadium is under construction and will be complete for the 2009 season. It will supplant FedEx Field as the NFL's largest venue.

Now I get it. Now I understand the underground discussions with District officials to build a super large [I've heard capacity of up to 125,000] stadium. Owner egos such as they are, that's just something Dan the Man won't sit still for. Won't stand for it either.

There are still huge political and financial hurdles to overcome. One of which is that Mayor Adrian Fenty and most members of the DC Council opposed the baseball deal. Another is that Snyder might not get the NFL owner votes. Jerry Jones is no favorite among owners, either. He got the vote. Business and marketing is the thing that Mr. Snyder is good at. He could get this done, if he puts his mind to it.

[We won't go into what he's bad at, like getting the team in the Super Bowl. Oops, I mentioned it. My bad.]

The irony is that one obstacle to Washington hosting a Super Bowl is that the team owns FedEx Field. I suspect a future Super Bowl is one of those things the NFL dangles in front of governments to extract public funding for stadiums. The NFL is really good at extracting money and the Super Bowl is a unique property. In baseball and basketball, championship games are home & home series between the contending teams. There is only one Super Bowl. In sports, there's nothing like it except the Olympics.

For an online tour of every NFL stadium, including those under construction, see Stadiums of the NFL.

Image: www.stadiumsofthenfl.com

He said Dr. Z was clueless

Don't know much about this blog, but the latest post at Turn Off ESPN is a winner. Gtripp lambastes Sports Illustrated's Paul Zimmerman for deciding now that Randy Moss will never get his vote for the NFL Hall of Fame. Although Moss is at mid-career with a potential resurgence in New England, Z feels that Moss has character issues and doesn't deserve the honor. That didn't stop Z-man for voting Michael Irvin in the Hall. Character doesn't encourage Z to vote for Art Monk.

Gtripp closes with the priceless lines

"And that, in a nutshell, is why they play the games. So dudes like Dr. Z come out looking completely and utterly clueless time and time again."

Like I said. Priceless.

Photo: AFP/Getty Images/Brian Bahr found here.

Redskin Bollywood

Hop over to Hogs Haven and take a peek at the Redskins Bollywood music video. Hilarious.

The drum roll, please.

It's NFL draft day. This has been the most thoroughly analyzed draft in league history. Not all that long ago, newspapers told you who was drafted for your team. Details about players were skimpy unless there was local interest about the player. There was very little about other team's draft picks.

Now, NFL Network makes an event of the scouting combine - live, no less. And people watch! A dozen web sites post the combine stats as part of scouting details that used to occupy, er, scouts. Hundreds of football sites run mock drafts. Taken together, you get a group consensus on how college players rank. Maybe group consensus equals group intelligence. Time will tell on that one. Then, there's the blogging phenomena where thousands of posts weigh in on team moves, past draft hits and misses, and team needs versus best available debates.

I think fan knowledge going into this draft is unparalleled. Three years ago, Joe Fan pretty much accepted their team's spin on a draftee. Today, teams may spend as much time defending the move they didn't make as much as the one they did. It's not like it used to be. Heck, it's not like last year.

The Redskin Report points to today's Washington Post report that the Redskins will hold on to their first round draft pick and select LaRon Landry. That is, hold on to it unless there is a last minute trade. (wha?) The Redskin Report also posts a stat analysis of mock drafts showing the frequency of where the first round players, along with the range. The mock draftkateers suggest that Amobi Okoye won't last past the ninth pick. If the mock drafts mimic what will really happen, then the Washington Redskins would be advised to trade down no lower than Miami's ninth pick if they have interest in Okoye.

It's a cool take on the mock drafts -- consensus views are the only way to look at mock drafts. However, if college statistics made your head hurt, TRR's table might not be for you.

Jim Ducibella at The Virginia Pilot published a thorough report on the year long process the Redskins follow to scout players for the draft. Interesting in its own right, it also explains why the Redskins won't make the rumored front office changes until after the draft. A new player personnel director needs to start at the beginning of the process, not the beginning of the draft.

I'm headed off to the Redskins Draft Party at FedEx today, more to snap a few pictures for later use, than to watch the draft on the big screen. So, no Running Redskins draft reaction until tomorrow. The folks at The Warpath and ExtremeSkins message boards, and MVN Draft University plan live blogs of the draft. Get your fix there. Tonight and tomorrow, run through the blogroll to your right for fan reaction and analysis of the Redskins draft moves.

"With the sixth pick of the draft, the Washington Redskins select . . . ."

Photo: 2006 NFL Draft, The Orlando Sentinal

Donovan McNabb can't win the Super Bowl

I'll never understand Eagles fans. Here's a link to a post written by an Eagles' fan who's debating his father about Donovan McNabb. It seems Dad thinks NcNabb can't win the Super Bowl. You have to read the post to believe I'm not making this up. It's hilarious in its absurdity.

Go look and laugh.

Why does McNabb get bashed so much? In Philadelphia, yet? There are 32 teams in the NFL. At least 29 of them would give up body parts to have Donovan at QB. Poetic justice would be if McNabb were driven out of town and immediatly led his new team to the Super Bowl. Irony would be if his new team was the AFL champion and the team they beat was the Iggles.

Philly fans!

Money is NFL's true priority

Kudos to Michael Wilbon who beefed on the NFL for fining Chicago linebacker Brian Urlacher $100,000 for wearing a hat. Wilbon, appearing on George Michael's Full Court Press on WRC-TV Friday, properly noted that commissioner Roger Goodell moved more swiftly in cracking down on Urlacher than on player's repeated criminal misbehavior.

Urlacher briefly, and I think absent-mindedly, wore a Vitaminwater-logoed ball cap at an interview leading up to the Super Bowl. Gaterade is the official drink of the NFL. Players are prohibited from endorsing other drinks at league events. Urlacher's offending hat is for sale on ebay.

Wilbon is Washington's most prominent sports columnist. DC locals know that the Chicago native is really a homer for the Bears, Cubs and Northwestern Wildcats, Wilbon's alma mater.

During a game at FedEx Field, I overheard a comment that "the NFL forgives quick" for personal misconduct of players. That doesn't apply when players violate the league's money deals, apparently.

In fairness to the league, endorsements involve large sums of money. You can imagine the blistering phone calls from PepsiCo, who owns Gaterade, to NFL-HQ. If I were in Pepsi's shoes, I would demand some give-backs. There's been no word of what Urlacher's mistake cost the NFL.

The league's response to violations of endorsement deals goes back ten years, I read. The precedent for response to violations is in place. The frequency and nature of recent player personal irresponsibility is a new phenomenon as is the NFL's response. Five or six years ago, an incident was a singular event for the player. Pacman Jones and Chris Henry lowered the bar on impulse control. I think it's a generational thing. Make no mistake, while persistent stories of player boo-boos offend fans, they also affect the NFL's ability to do endorsement deals.

Jones took out a full page ad in the Nashville Tennessean apologizing for his escapades, promising local fans "I will do everything in my power to regain your trust and respect.'' Here's a start. Drop the "Pacman" persona. It's a baby name that just might encourage juvenile conduct. I expect more of Mr. Adam Jones than of Pacman. So might Pacman.

1 Corinthians 13:11

Photo: The Washington Post
Photo: www.axcesssports.com from here.

More Washington Redskins draft moves

With teams hiding their intent in the run-up to the draft, there's little for bloggers to do, but write about what others are writing. In the blogosphere, that's called "conversation."

Don Pierson wrote a story for MSNBC Trading down in NFL draft not so easy. He makes the case that it's generally tough to trade down because the other team must swallow a huge a contract for an unproven rookie. It's a risk not many general managers are willing to take. As an example, Pierson quotes Bears GM Jerry Angelo on the Redskins trade offer for Lance Briggs.

"We have to digest what it is from a cap standpoint," general manager Jerry Angelo said. "The sixth pick is an inordinate amount of money and there are cap issues in terms of our plan."

Pierson points out that the difference between last year's sixth and 31st draft pick was about $15 Million in total contract, of which $10 Million was guaranteed.

That's one reason the Oakland Raiders at No. 1 and the Detroit Lions at No. 2 in this year's draft aren't overwhelmed by offers from teams willing to risk big bucks on prospects who find it difficult to live up to the increasing hype and pressure.

Pierson doesn't come out and say it, but a team would be well advised to put some of that first round contract money on an upgraded scouting department and make better picks in the middle round of the draft. (Hint, hint)

Tom Kowalski's story at www.mlive.com says that a deal for the Detroit Lions' number two pick hinges on who the Oakland Raiders take with their number one pick. The consensus is that the Raiders will select JaMarcus Russell. That could prompt up to four teams, including Washington, to offer the Lions trade up deals for a shot at Calvin Johnson. However, Kowalski points out

The Redskins are going to have trouble making a deal for the same reason they couldn't work out a trade with the Lions for cornerback Dre Bly (now with Denver): they don't have enough ammunition. The Redskins don't have a second-round pick because they dealt it away -- and that's going to cripple their chances of competing with other teams.

Oakland will blow up this scenario if they take Johnson instead of Russell.

Skin Patrol at Hogs Haven touched on this in his story Redskins want the Lions pick. He closes the story by cataloging how the Skins frittered away their middle round picks in the Snyder/Gibbs era.

In another sign of football news drought, Patrol beat me to Kowolski's story by an hour or so. Usually there are so many team stories published, and rumors whispered, that everyone can take a different facet of the news and create unique content around it. For the next ten days, bloggers will pounce on every news snippet to be first to comment. If you are third or fourth with a post, you start asking "is there anything I can add to this story, or will this just be another me-too entry?"

There's always the option of a hiatus. The Redskins Report was on one. They are waking up in time for the draft. (TRR was my muse and inspiration when I started this blog.) The Curly R is focusing more on W, its baseball site. Skinsaphrenia was traumatized by last season. They went into hibernation in December, only recently awakening. War Cry is still active. The Warpath and ExtremeSkins message boards are still engaged, but most posts are the hypothetical "should we take . . . " variety. Hogs Haven, if you didn't know, is one of the top five blogs listed on Fair Catch. Check out my other friends in the blogroll to your right.

Running Redskins is hanging in for the run up the draft and a few weeks thereafter, then will wind down until training camp. Summer is coming. The Bay is near, and the boat needs attention.
________________________
Michael Vick is donating $10,000 through the United Way to help the families of the Virginia Tech victims. Mike gets bashed a lot, including by me. He deserves props for this, so I want to acknowledge his concern and generosity.

All the way, baby

David Covucci at collegiatetimes.com writes that the Redskins are a sure bet to go 16-0, as they are every year. See his game-by-game analysis of the upcoming season here.

Joe Gibbs to agitated fans: cool it!

The coach-in-chief sought to calm fans by assuring that the Redskins are just doing their homework by inviting top draft prospects to interviews at Redskin Park in Ashburn, VA. Visits by Calvin Johnson, JaMarcus Russell, Brady Quinn and other first day draft prospects led fans and bloggers to wonder what that could mean for players on the roster.

Gibbs called the activity "due diligence." "We have brought in every player that we felt like would be a first-round player," Gibbs said. "We brought in a top running back. Does anyone here think that we are going to entertain drafting a running back? I don't think so."

The Redskins have floated so may scenarios for the draft that no one outside of Redskins Park really knows what to expect. All the vibes suggest that the Skins would like to move their sixth pick of the first round in exchange for a player. Asante Samuel is a rumored target -- if the Redskins can sign him for a number closer to Dre' Bly's than Nate Clements'. Completing a trade with Chicago for Lance Briggs is not out of the question, although I hope that one fades away.

I bet "due diligence" calls are burning up phone lines between lots of teams. You shouldn't expect announcements of big deals until draft day (April 28) when we see how Messrs. Russell, Quinn, Johnson and Adams go in the first four picks.

Photo: www.flickr.com from here.

Skins regular season schedule announced

The NFL announced its regular season schedule today. You can view the Redskins regular season schedule here.

Photo: Redskins - Giants, littlerottenrobin, www.flickr.com