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Saturday, February 23, 2002
Not Fair League  By Ben Maller Despite being America's favorite sport, many of the National Football League's middle class players continue to get a raw deal. Gene Upshaw led the player's association into a horrible collective bargaining agreement years ago that continues to be a disaster. Several well known players who are coming off down years, but are not done, were released this week for, "Salary Cap Reasons." Among those players getting a pink slip were defensive end Michael Sinclair of Seattle who led the NFL in sacks with 16 1/2 back in 1998. The Denver Broncos said good-bye to 35-Year old linebacker Bill Romanowski who has four Super Bowl rings (2 with the 49ers, 2 with the Broncos) because they say they couldn't afford his salary.  Carolina kicked cornerback Doug Evans out the door after he was 5th in the NFL with eight interceptions last season. Mitch Berger was the top punter in the NFC when he went to the 1999 Pro Bowl and yes he was waived by the Panthers this week. Ken Dilger gets my vote as the most crazy salary cap dump. Dilger the tightend of the Colts played in the Pro Bowl for the AFC THIS SEASON.  The NFL Players deserve better. I think it's a joke that the owners make as much money as they do yet claim they can't afford to pay mid-level veterans for salary cap reasons. The league is made up now of mega stars like Kurt Warner & Marshall Faulk who make between 7 and 12 million a season and a bunch of rookies. Don't you dare become a middle-aged NFL player or you'll be looking for work. permalink Friday, February 22, 2002
Friday Thoughts, Opinions and Notes  By Ben Maller Nick Van Exel takes his selfish act to Dallas. This trade makes no sense to me. Why in the hell did Mark Cuban make this deal? The Mavericks were playing great basketball and seemed like they were heading in the right direction. Of course, Dallas was not good enough to beat the Lakers,and after this deal they are in worse shape. The 1995 Lakers are back in Texas. Del Harris is an assitant coach for the Mavericks and Nick Van Exel, Del's buddy, is a guard for the Mavs.  All the Lakers are doing this season, as they did last, is proving that the NBA regular season is completely useless.  Many in the NBA think that Jalen Rose will be happy in Chicago because he'll be "the man." Rose is not about winning but instead about stats. I wish I could have gotten him in my fantasy basketball league. Rose scored 36 points in his Bulls debut. The Phoenix Suns can join the ranks of the San Diego Padres and Florida Marlins, from other sports, as teams that have had fire sales. Tony Delk and Rodney Rogers are above average NBA Players. The Suns got a bag of dog crap in return for the two veterans. This trade would have never happened had Jason Kidd still been in the Valley of the Sun.  Proving there is not much to do on an off night in Cleveland, Shaquille O'Neal attended a game in Canton featuring SI cover boy LeBron James. Shaq's appearance caused a near riot. You'll never hear the Washington Wizards front office employees say anything bad about Michael Jordan. Last season's per-game ticket gross at MCI Center was $400,000. This season, it's $850,000. That 125-percent increase will result in a $20-million increase in ticket revenue for the MJ Wizards this season. Pokey Reese, now of the Pirates, blamed the special treatment that Ken Griffey Jr. received for the Reds' struggles last season. I wonder how Reese would feel about playing in New York where everyone is mega rich.  Not only did Barry Bonds, Brett Boone and Juan Gonzalez get a lot less on the free agent market, many players couldn't even get a big league contract. Of 119 free agents who had signed as of Thursday, 45 were stuck with minor-league deals. That's almost 40%. According to reports, that is a record number for any offseason. Among those on minor league deals... Jose Canseco, Dante Bichette. Troy O'Leary and Rudy Seanez. Talk about growing up... Royals shortstop Neifi Perez admitted this week that he's 28 years old instead of 26. Perez also said he acts like a 15 year old. The over/under on Gary Sheffield breaking down in Atlanta is July 1st. Sheffield is a big baby and here is hoping the overrated ass falls hard in Georgia. I saw Sheff's comments in the LA times about Shawn Green... I wonder if he hates Jews? Mo Vaughn made one the biggest free agent mistakes in baseball history. Why would anyone of his status sign with Team Disney? At least Mo gets to play in a town his size... Queens... Ben Maller Trivia Question of the Week: Who had the most home runs during a presidential administration? New Red Sox owner John Henry should run a radio station. Henry told Florida Marlins employees that they would have jobs in 2002. Oops, the team got sold and 60 of them were fired. Henry should be a program director. lol  Its a Kickers League? The New England Patriots made Adam Vinatieri their franchise player. While the Denver Broncos did the same with Jason Elam. This is crazy to me. After watching Al Del Greco and Kris Brown implode the last couple of seasons, there is no reason to give the franchise tag to a non-football player. James Lofton is giving coaching a shot. Lofton is leaving Fox Sports to be the receivers' coach with the San Diego Chargers. I wonder if Lofton knows how bad the Boltz receivers are. Years ago Jimmy Raye was an assistant coach with the LA Rams, and his son was a star football player at Irvine High. This week, Raye joined the New York Jets coaching staff. It's hard to believe that Raye has been an NFL assistant for 25 years now. Dick Jauron is still waiting for Bear Bucks. GM Jerry Angelo promised that he would take care of Jauron but has yet to do so. I wonder if the Bears have their eye on one of the many hot coaching candidates out there such as Art Shell, Marv Levy, Buddy Ryan or Mike Ditka. At least four players that played in the Pro Bowl a couple weeks back were released. The NFL is a great biz, you play at a high level but still get fired cause you make too much.  It's a four-peat for the Miami Dolphins, for the fourth consecutive year the Dolphins are raising ticket prices. This despite being unable to sellout last year's playoff games and a salary cap in the NFL. Maybe I just don't have the Olympic gene. I just can't get into watching curling or figure skating. It seems like a big waste of my time. I think the world is really coming to an end. After watching Sportscenter lead with figure skating on their 6pm eastern edition, Christian Brennon started off the coverage breaking down Michelle Kwan's skate that night. A source close to KCAL Channel 9 tells me that the station will be changing its newscasts in the near future. For the past few months each Lakers' game has been followed with the PORNO News. Several years back as Keith Olberman was negotiating to leave MSNBC and join Fox Sports Net I had a chance to sit next to him at Dodger Stadium. Olberman told me that he believed ESPN would lose touch with the average sports fan and get so big that they would blow up. If early reports for the ESPN Movie "A Season on The Brink" with Brian Dennehy are accurate, Olberman might be right. It looks like the NFL's best radio play-by-play guy, Howard David, is heading to Miami. David will do mornings at the all-sports station in Florida. David is the voice of the New York Jets and national broadcasts on Westwood One.  Now a message from our sponsors... A friendly reminder to listen to my radio show this weekend on your local Fox Sports Radio station. It's me along with Patrick O'Neal at the Fox Sports Update desk from 11pm till 2am(pst) tonight into Saturday morning. Then Sunday morning, from 4am till 7am, I'll be back again with good OLD Bob Page. Sunday night listen to my new program from 10pm till 2am along with Jason Smith on your local Fox Sports radio station. Ben Maller Trivia Question of the Week Answer: Jimmy Foxx had the most home runs during a presidential administration. Write Back:Send Ben Maller E mail by CLICKING HERE! permalink Wednesday, February 20, 2002
"Just Rebuild Baby"  By Ben Maller Al Davis did something this week he had never done before, he gave up a chance to win right now to build for the future. The trade of coach Jon Gruden is a white flag to fans and other teams in the AFC. The Raiders are going to rebuild baby. '02 figured to be the Silver & Black's last chance, with this group of players, to win a world championship. With Gruden gone, now its almost a lock that they will fail. Two years ago the Raiders lost to Baltimore in the AFC Championship game and this past year they fell to the Patriots in the snow game that was taken away from them because of the blown call by referee Walt Coleman. Now this chapter in Raider history will come to an end. Rich Gannon is 36, Tim Brown is 35 and Jerry Rice is 39 so the core of the offense is at the end of the line. On defense, Eric Allen is 36 and Trace Armstrong, who was hurt last season, is 36 as well. This team's time to win was right in front of it and now it doesn't have a head coach.  Some say, hey, Jon Gruden was going to leave after next season, anyway. That might be true, but what would mean more to a Raider fan:. Gruden leaving as a world champion or Gruden leaving for 4 draft choices and some cash?  So its wait till next ,year baby for the "Raider Nation" permalink Tuesday, February 19, 2002
Lavin's a Big Fat Loser  By Ben Maller Why does this fraud continue to go on? Steve Lavin is as big a stiff as he was the day he took over for Jim Harrick as head basketball coach at UCLA. The Bruins have been one the biggest dissapointments in college basketball. Of course this is nothing new to fans in Westwood. You come to expect this from a group lead by a coach who has no buisness coaching the storied Bruins. UCLA is 17-8 with losses against such powers as Ball State, Pepperdine, Villanova and this weekend's disaster against Arizona State. Going by the RPI rankings, Lavin's boys are 3-1 against top 25 teams, but when they play teams ranked between 26 and 100 in the RPI, they are 7-7. In other words when the Bruins play teams they should eat for lunch they are a .500 club. Duke is 10-0, Cincinnati is 9-0, Maryland is 6-0 and Florida is 11-2 against those same teams ranked 26-to-100 in the RPI's. Lavin is a nice guy and a good interview. He's just a poor basketball coach. UCLA fans deserve better. Anyone will be able to recruit players to Westwood. Why wouldn't top players want to go to school in LA, play in the Pac-10 and get to look at all those California babes. Lavin will get another job when he is fired. He can go to San Diego State, Hawaii, Nevada or Portland State. Just get him out of LA!! Let's hope that UCLA fans don't fall into the NCAA tournament trap. You've seen it before. The Bruins play to poor teams in the first few games of the tourny and end up in the Sweet 16. The First halfway decent team they play a Duke, Maryland or Oklahoma they get their ass kicked.W permalink Monday, February 18, 2002
Sad Day For LA  By Ben Maller This was supposed to be the day that Los Angeles football fans got their team back. Instead the NFL welcomes its 32nd franchise with an expansion draft to stock the Houston Texans. This is a dark day for those true football fans in southern California. Commissioner Paul Tagliabue and the 31 other owners in the NFL decided that the nation's biggest city was not as valuable to the league as the ninth largest market. Its hard to believe that its been seven years since a team played pro football in Los Angeles. After the 1994 season and a 4-12 record Jerome Bettis, Chris Miller, Isaac Bruce and Georgia left Anaheim for St. Louis. Tim Brown, Jeff Hostetler and the Raiders had a 9-7 record in '94 when Al Davis decided he wanted to go back to Oakland. Ever since those pigskin lovers have had to travel to the Bay Area to watch real football, the Chargers to the South and the Cardinals to the East don't count as pro Football teams.   With all the money and power in Los Angeles I don't understand why someone has not stepped up to bring the NFL back. To me a team in LA would sellout everyweek and be the model franchise in the league. They should play the Super Bowl every year in this town. So while the Texans draft Tony Boselli, Aaron Glenn and Jermaine Lewis those of us in So Cal will have to hope that some rich fat cat can come along and persuade Al Davis to bring the Raiders back to LA. Heck the Chargers, Cardinals and Saints aren't looking so bad at this point. Big Ben's Houston Vs. LA Breakdown Houston is the ninth largest media market in the nation. With nearly two million city residents and 4.5 million in the metropolitan region. Houston is America's Fattest City (Back to Back Titles) Houston pased Los Angeles as the Smoggiest City in the USA. Houston was the home base for Enron that stole millions from the American People Houston's baseball team plays at Enron Field. Los Angeles is the second largest media market in the nation. With 3.6 million in the City of Los Angeles; 14 million in the greater LA area LA is where the American Dream is manufactured in Hollywood. Los Angeles is where you can stand in the footsteps of stars and breathe their hallowed air LA is the home of the music industry that has given us Brittany Spears and Jessica Simpson Los Angeles is the home of the entertainment industy that gave us Baywatch and VIP. LA's baseball team plays at Dodger Stadium. LA's basketball team the Lakers have won back to back championships. Ben's Bottom Line: Even without an NFL Team Los Angeles still kicks Houston's Ass! permalink Sunday, February 17, 2002
The SI Jinx at 17
 By Ben Maller Sports Illustrated has taken its black cat out and thrown it in front of high school hoops star LeBron James. Despite being just 17 years old and a junior James was put on the cover of this weeks magazine. According to the story James would be a lottery pick right now except for the fact he's not old enough. James is looking to the NBA because he may not graduate from school due to excessive absences, and moving around a lot, or if he graduates, his degree will be "gift" wrapped. James is said to have zero desire to go to college so he will be in the NBA draft for sure next year. It seems unlikely that James will be able to live up to the Sports Illustrated hype. James was contacted about a guest spot on a radio station and according to a source James said he didn't do radio interviews cause none of his friends listen to radio. This guys a real Einstein. permalink |
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