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"Incredible change happens in your life when you decide to take control of what you do have power over instead of craving control over what you don't." ~ Steve Maraboli, Life-changing Speaker, bestselling Author and Behavioral Science Academic
"Incredible change happens in your life when you decide to take control of what you do have power over instead of craving control over what you don't." ~ Steve Maraboli, Life-changing Speaker, bestselling Author and Behavioral Science Academic
Bear Down Chicago Bears!!! Bears confident they can bounce back.
By Eli Kaberon, Bears Web Writer
Quarterbacks coach Matt Cavanaugh stands on the sidelines with Bears quarterback Jay Cutler .
Given how disappointing the loss was, players and coaches were upbeat Monday addressing the loss to the Panthers on local radio shows. Head coach Marc Trestman, for one, said he sees the game against Carolina as a learning experience, but it did not alter his view of his team long-term.
"The bottom line is it's there for us, our guys are willing to go back to work to try and get it done, and we've got things in perspective," Trestman said on WBBM-780's ‘Chicago Bears Coaches Show.' "We can't accept what happened (Sunday), we need to build that sense of urgency that a game like (Carolina) brought to us. But there's a lot of good things going on too, and I still look at the glass half full.
"I think we are working in that direction but we have to get it all together."
One area the team would like to improve is its play in the second half. The Bears had as many points as turnovers after halftime – three each – versus Carolina, and the team felt it gave the game away after being up by 14 points in the first half. It marked the third straight game the team has struggled to put up points after intermission, with six total points over their last six second-half quarters.
Quarterback Jay Cutler, speaking on WMVP-1000's ‘Jay Cutler Show,' said that the team realizes they could have earned the victory over the Panthers if they had executed better in all three phases of the game.
"It's a game we should have won. It's a game we gave away at the end," Cutler said. "We did some good things in the first half and just let it slip away in the second."
Cutler said the team is optimistic that a turnaround is likely given the talent the Bears have on their roster, especially on offense. Wide receiver
"I'm very confident in the guys that we have in that offensive huddle. We can turn it around fairly quickly," Cutler said. "It starts during the week, we have to make sure everyone is locked in to the details and knows exactly what their assignment is, knows what their adjustment is. Know why we are running the play and what we are trying to accomplish with each and every play. And guy have to take some ownership. "
Cutler owned up to his own mistakes, including two costly interceptions. Both of them came through the quarterback forcing throws into windows that were not open, a problem he is working to correct.
Facing the Falcons this coming Sunday, the quarterback is looking to put those issues behind him and continue the positive things he did, including completing more than 71 percent of his passes.
"(Jay's) a professional," quarterbacks coach Matt Cavanaugh said on the ‘'Chicago Bears Coaches Show.' "Playing that position, it's probably like playing cornerback in this league, you need to have a short memory. We are not going to ask him to not throw the ball, he throws the ball really well. As his coach, I'll tell you I thought he made two poor decisions in the game, and everything else was pretty good. But those two decisions, at those times, killed us.
"He can have a short memory, because he has a lot of confidence."
Against Atlanta, the Bears' offense will need to be mistake free to keep up with the Falcons' attack, which is loaded with talented players such as Matt Ryan, Julio Jones and Roddy White.
"We have our hands full," Trestman said. "They have a lot more guys offensively that are special players."
Conduct policy, Bills vote on NFL owners' agenda.
By BARRY WILNER (AP Pro Football Writer)
NFL owners will meet Wednesday to discuss the league's personal conduct policy, vote on the sale of the Buffalo Bills and look at further international play.
These are critical meetings for the owners, with Commissioner Roger Goodell under fire for his handling of the Ray Rice case, and with several high-profile player arrests involving domestic abuse.
Although the owners have supported Goodell remaining in the job, they also have been embarrassed by loud criticism of the league's recent missteps.''We need to limit this,'' Texans owner Robert McNair said of misbehavior by players, ''so punishment is not an issue.''
The discussion of social responsibility and the personal conduct policy initiatives will overshadow approval of the purchase of the Bills by Buffalo Sabres owners Terry and Kim Pegula. That transaction is considered certain, with three-quarters of the teams needing to vote in favor of the Pegulas.
Owners will be updated on the Los Angeles stadium situation; TV ratings, attendance and fan interest. They also will receive reports on the league's games in London - three this year for the first time, with two still to come. The NFL has an eye on adding more London games, perhaps as soon as next season.
But the spotlight will be on steps the NFL is taking to educate everyone in the league on domestic violence and sexual assault and abuse. The owners will view a short video, and then will see about a 40-minute presentation by the league's player engagement department about educating everyone in the NFL on the subjects.
Heading into Wednesday's meetings, Goodell sent a memo to the owners in which he explained why the personal conduct policy needs revamping.
''For the past seven years, the personal conduct policy has brought credit to the league and to NFL players,'' he wrote. ''But during that time, we did not sufficiently review the policy to keep it current and ensure that it properly reflected our values and those of our society. Our process for handling allegations of misconduct was not as well-established as it needed to be. We relied almost exclusively on law enforcement and the courts to investigate offenses and determine guilt. We did not set and adhere consistently enough to our own standards, and we allowed our disciplinary responses to fall below where they needed to be. Nowhere was this clearer than in the context of domestic violence and sexual assault.''
These are the first league meetings since Goodell admitted he was wrong in giving Rice a two-game suspension for punching his then-fiancee in an elevator. Following a torrent of criticism, Goodell announced stiffer penalties for future domestic violence cases. After video of the punch was released, the Baltimore Ravens cut Rice and Goodell suspended him indefinitely. Rice has since appealed the suspension.
Other abuse cases involving Vikings star running back Adrian Peterson, Cardinals running back Jonathan Dwyer and Panthers defensive end Greg Hardy also have been made public. All three are on an exempt list, suspended but still being paid.
Among the personal conduct items to be addressed, according to Goodell's memo:
---"When an allegation of misconduct is made, to what extent should the league or clubs independently review and investigate the matter? Or should we continue to rely on law enforcement to do so?
---"Is it appropriate to remove someone from the workplace prior to an adjudication? If so, when? In particular, should we establish a practice of 'leave with pay,' under which an employee charged with prohibited conduct is put on paid leave status until the charge has been resolved? And what should the parameters of such a 'leave with pay' status be ...?
---"What is the process for placing someone on paid leave status? Should these decisions be made by a third party, or a panel of outsiders, or should they be made by the commissioner?
---"What kind of support services should be available to victims and families, as well as to the accused?
---"What should be the commissioner's role in the disciplinary process?
---"What level of accountability should be expected of clubs?''
In the midst of the domestic conduct maelstrom, the Pegulas' offer of $1.4 billion for the Bills was approved by the NFL's finance committee. Promising to keep the franchise in Buffalo - honoring the wishes of the team's only previous owner, Ralph Wilson, who died in March, helped the Pegulas' pursuit. Paying far more than market value pushed them to the front of the bidding.
And on Wednesday, it should lead to confirmation of their ownership.
''The Pegulas have been a class act and very energized throughout the whole process,'' Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie said Tuesday. ''We will be delighted to approve them.
''They honor the history of the Wilson family and at the same time will take it in a new direction.''
How 'bout them Chicago Blackhawks? Blackhawks: Versteeg suffers lower-body injury in practice.
By Tracey Myers
Kris Versteeg suffered a lower-body injury on Tuesday and his status is up in the air for when the Blackhawks open their regular season against the Dallas Stars on Thursday.
Versteeg hobbled off midway through practice. Coach Joel Quenneville said Versteeg did not re-aggravate a previous injury. The forward had a serious knee injury back in the spring of 2013.
As for this latest Versteeg injury, Quenneville said it “didn’t look good.”
Defenseman Michal Rozsival is also likely out for the season opener. Rozsival suffered an upper-body injury last week and hasn’t skated since. Quenneville said Rozsival is not going on long-term injured reserve; he’ll probably just miss one or two games.
Meanwhile, the Blackhawks placed Brandon Mashinter on injured reserve, setting their roster at 23 players. Defensemen Trevor van Riemsdyk and Kyle Cumiskey will make the roster, giving the Blackhawks eight defensemen to start. There’s some question how the Blackhawks are under the $69 million cap. With bonuses from the previous season factored in, as well as van Riemsdyk’s $950,000 salary, the Blackhawks would still be slightly over the cap according to capgeek.com.
Quenneville said he was told the team is cap compliant, although there’s not much wiggle room.
Blackhawks: Keeping it 'simple' working for van Riemsdyk.
By Tracey Myers
Trevor van Riemsdyk didn’t know what to expect when he entered the Blackhawks’ training camp.
The 23-year-old wasn’t really on the radar in mid-September. When talk arose of which defensemen could make the Blackhawks’ roster, Adam Clendening and Stephen Johns were the first ones mentioned. Van Riemsdyk, meanwhile, had a simple plan.
“I just wanted to play well, show them what I could do, start off well at Notre Dame and go from there, hopefully play well in any games that they put me in in the preseason,” he said. “I’ve kind been just taking it day by day and trying to have a good day, a good practice as I go, and it's been working so far.”
Indeed it has.
Van Riemsdyk officially made the Blackhawks’ main roster on Tuesday and there’s a chance he’ll play on Thursday when the team opens its season against the Dallas Stars. It’s quite a whirlwind for the young defenseman, who’s practiced a good deal with Niklas Hjalmarsson the past few days.
Coach Joel Quenneville, who said that two of the three newer defensemen (van Riemsdyk, David Rundblad and Kyle Cumiskey) will likely play on Thursday, has been impressed with van Riemsdyk.
“Very noticeable (with) his patience with the puck, his composure, play recognition, knowing when to be active on the back end, in the rush off the point, alleviating forechecking pressure. Those are pretty good dynamic instincts for a young kid at this level and making the jump from college,” Quenneville said. “It’s a pretty good compliment to his hockey patience. At the same time, regular-season games are a different animal.”
Speaking of different, the Blackhawks have switched their defensive pairs some with the new additions. Hjalmarsson has moved back to the left side, which he played most of his career before he and Johnny Oduya paired. Hjalmarsson isn’t worried about adjusting back to the left side, and he’s also liked van Riemsdyk’s poise.
“Yeah, that’s something I noticed pretty quickly with him, the poise he has with the puck, (ability) to make plays,” Hjalmarsson said. “It’s important, especially nowadays. The pace is so quick. It’s always good to have some guys back there who can hold onto the puck and make plays.”
Van Riemsdyk, who said he’s benefitted practicing with the likes of Hjalmarsson, Oduya, Duncan Keith and Brent Seabrook, said he’s always tried to keep a simple game.
“I think that's part of my game that I pride myself on is knowing the times and the places to try to do a little more and knowing the time and place where just the pass right in front of you is the right one,” van Riemsdyk said. “I think at school (New Hampshire), there was maybe a few more times where you tried to do a little more and that's maybe why I had a few more points. But for the most part I just tried to keep it simple and pick my spots when to do those certain things.”
Van Riemsdyk has made the roster to start this season. He may play on Thursday night. His play will dictate if he stays here a while. So could the cap, which the Blackhawks are right up against; general manager Stan Bowman said that, while the team will carry eight defensemen to start the season, he wasn’t sure how long it could do that. But van Riemsdyk is here now and he plans to treat this opportunity much like he did his breakthrough training camp: by doing his best.
“I think I’ve just been able to keep it simple, be in the right spots, be in good areas, make smart plays, not try to do too much,” he said. “I don't think I’ve necessarily blown anyone away with the things I’m doing. I think I’ve just been trying to keep it simple and it's been working.”
Versteeg hobbled off midway through practice. Coach Joel Quenneville said Versteeg did not re-aggravate a previous injury. The forward had a serious knee injury back in the spring of 2013.
As for this latest Versteeg injury, Quenneville said it “didn’t look good.”
Defenseman Michal Rozsival is also likely out for the season opener. Rozsival suffered an upper-body injury last week and hasn’t skated since. Quenneville said Rozsival is not going on long-term injured reserve; he’ll probably just miss one or two games.
Meanwhile, the Blackhawks placed Brandon Mashinter on injured reserve, setting their roster at 23 players. Defensemen Trevor van Riemsdyk and Kyle Cumiskey will make the roster, giving the Blackhawks eight defensemen to start. There’s some question how the Blackhawks are under the $69 million cap. With bonuses from the previous season factored in, as well as van Riemsdyk’s $950,000 salary, the Blackhawks would still be slightly over the cap according to capgeek.com.
Quenneville said he was told the team is cap compliant, although there’s not much wiggle room.
Blackhawks: Keeping it 'simple' working for van Riemsdyk.
By Tracey Myers
Trevor van Riemsdyk didn’t know what to expect when he entered the Blackhawks’ training camp.
The 23-year-old wasn’t really on the radar in mid-September. When talk arose of which defensemen could make the Blackhawks’ roster, Adam Clendening and Stephen Johns were the first ones mentioned. Van Riemsdyk, meanwhile, had a simple plan.
“I just wanted to play well, show them what I could do, start off well at Notre Dame and go from there, hopefully play well in any games that they put me in in the preseason,” he said. “I’ve kind been just taking it day by day and trying to have a good day, a good practice as I go, and it's been working so far.”
Indeed it has.
Van Riemsdyk officially made the Blackhawks’ main roster on Tuesday and there’s a chance he’ll play on Thursday when the team opens its season against the Dallas Stars. It’s quite a whirlwind for the young defenseman, who’s practiced a good deal with Niklas Hjalmarsson the past few days.
Coach Joel Quenneville, who said that two of the three newer defensemen (van Riemsdyk, David Rundblad and Kyle Cumiskey) will likely play on Thursday, has been impressed with van Riemsdyk.
“Very noticeable (with) his patience with the puck, his composure, play recognition, knowing when to be active on the back end, in the rush off the point, alleviating forechecking pressure. Those are pretty good dynamic instincts for a young kid at this level and making the jump from college,” Quenneville said. “It’s a pretty good compliment to his hockey patience. At the same time, regular-season games are a different animal.”
Speaking of different, the Blackhawks have switched their defensive pairs some with the new additions. Hjalmarsson has moved back to the left side, which he played most of his career before he and Johnny Oduya paired. Hjalmarsson isn’t worried about adjusting back to the left side, and he’s also liked van Riemsdyk’s poise.
“Yeah, that’s something I noticed pretty quickly with him, the poise he has with the puck, (ability) to make plays,” Hjalmarsson said. “It’s important, especially nowadays. The pace is so quick. It’s always good to have some guys back there who can hold onto the puck and make plays.”
Van Riemsdyk, who said he’s benefitted practicing with the likes of Hjalmarsson, Oduya, Duncan Keith and Brent Seabrook, said he’s always tried to keep a simple game.
“I think that's part of my game that I pride myself on is knowing the times and the places to try to do a little more and knowing the time and place where just the pass right in front of you is the right one,” van Riemsdyk said. “I think at school (New Hampshire), there was maybe a few more times where you tried to do a little more and that's maybe why I had a few more points. But for the most part I just tried to keep it simple and pick my spots when to do those certain things.”
Van Riemsdyk has made the roster to start this season. He may play on Thursday night. His play will dictate if he stays here a while. So could the cap, which the Blackhawks are right up against; general manager Stan Bowman said that, while the team will carry eight defensemen to start the season, he wasn’t sure how long it could do that. But van Riemsdyk is here now and he plans to treat this opportunity much like he did his breakthrough training camp: by doing his best.
“I think I’ve just been able to keep it simple, be in the right spots, be in good areas, make smart plays, not try to do too much,” he said. “I don't think I’ve necessarily blown anyone away with the things I’m doing. I think I’ve just been trying to keep it simple and it's been working.”
Hilary Knight on playing against men, being women's hockey ambassador (Puck Daddy Interview).
By Jen Neale
(AP Photo/Anaheim Ducks)
Decorated women's hockey player Hilary Knight is someone you want to have a beer with.
Knight is intelligent, wickedly funny, well-spoken, and yes, beautiful. In all honesty, after spending some time with Hilary, and watching her as she deftly navigated the seemingly hundreds of appearances and events she attended, I cannot think of a better ambassador for the women's game.
I had the opportunity to chat with affable 25-year-old after a hectic 48-hours in Anaheim.
Knight is intelligent, wickedly funny, well-spoken, and yes, beautiful. In all honesty, after spending some time with Hilary, and watching her as she deftly navigated the seemingly hundreds of appearances and events she attended, I cannot think of a better ambassador for the women's game.
I had the opportunity to chat with affable 25-year-old after a hectic 48-hours in Anaheim.
Enjoy!
Hilary Knight: Yeah.
PD: Isn’t that awesome?!
HK: Someone just Tweeted that at me. I’m like ‘woah, okay’.
PD: You really do!
HK: Really? Well thank you!
PD: You’re welcome. I guess there are worse people you could be compared to…
HK: [Laughs]
PD: Well, first, how are you doing?
HK: I… This has been a whirlwind. I’m standing here just kind of blinking. It’s just been great. To be able to have the opportunity I had yesterday [practicing with the Ducks], and just continue to promote and push women’s ice hockey in a whole new level is something that I aspire to do every single day. So, having that opportunity was great, but being on the ice with the guys, I felt like just one of the boys. It was fun.
PD: Now I noticed you opted to go with the visor, and not the full cage.
HK: Half shield, yeah! Absolutely. [Laughs] I was actually arguing with my rep, she’s like ‘no, you need to wear the cage and worry about your teeth and your smile.’ I was like ‘no, I want to be like one of the guys and wear a half-shield’.
PD: That’s badass.
HK: I know! I was like, ‘don’t get a puck in the face, Hilary’.
PD: That’s all you gotta do, avoid the money maker. [Laughs at own joke.] Now who were you most excited to skate with, besides everyone because that’s the standard answer?
HK: Obviously, Getzlaf. Perry’s great. Lovejoy is unreal. I remember watching him when I was younger.
HK: Obviously, Getzlaf. Perry’s great. Lovejoy is unreal. I remember watching him when I was younger.
PD: He's hysterical.
HK: Yeah! I mean, on ice, off ice, great guy. So, Emerson…
PD: [Interrupts] Did they make you feel at ease?
HK: Yeah.
PD: Did you know if they were kind of taking it easy on you? Did you feel that way at all?
HK: No, I didn’t know really what to expect because of the whole circus of the cameras and stuff. Going into a locker room that’s not even yours to begin with is certainly like you’re entering the lion’s den. But they were extremely welcoming, nice, and friendly, and made me feel more like part of the group, which is great.
PD: Who do you think in the NHL best represents your game? You say that you’d be down to play in the NHL. So who is Hilary Knight’s game just like?
HK: Actually we were just talking about this. My Wisconsin coach compared me a few times to [Dany] Heatley. That would be pretty cool if I’m like that.
PD: Not bad, really.
HK: He’s unreal.
PD: Would you rock the mock turtleneck like he does?
HK: I wouldn’t.
PD: It’s a fashion faux pas.
HK: I did it for one game day and I was chirped by all my teammates. [Laughs] They all motioned at me right here [waves finger in front of invisible mock turtleneck on neck] and were like ‘you can’t do that’.
[We laugh.]
PD: Have you ever had an offer to play for any men’s league?
HK: I have, yeah…
[WE ARE INTERRUPTED BY BRUCE BOUDREAU AS HE’S WALKING OUT.]
Bruce Boudreau: It was wonderful having you. Truly, come again. [Note: Not talking to me.]
HK: THANK YOU!
PD: I’m totally using that [in the post], by the way. So, THAT’s good! You could have been used tonight on the power play.
HK: [Courtesy laugh]. Hey, they got the job done. Whatever it takes.
PD: Good answer. [Raise my voice] YOU HAVE BEEN COACHED WELL. [We laugh as I nudge her publicist, Keren Lynch.] Okay, okay. So you’ve been offered to play where?
HK: There’s a men’s league in Canada and a couple leagues in Switzerland that have reached out. Which it turns out there are women’s leagues because women can’t play in the men’s leagues in Switzerland. So, it’s a very confusing situation. I wasn’t quite clear on that. But there was talks of going to play in the CHL, and I know my opponent Shannon Szabados played in the SBJHL or some acronym.
PD: Yeah, some letters. SBJHL-BBQ, whatever.
HK: It’s great. It’s great we get these opportunities. The thing I wanted to make sure is when I do get an opportunity is that I’m physically fit, and able to compete and perform at my best. It’s great to do it once, but I’m aspiring to do it more than once.
PD: Does it worry you, if you were to play with the men’s league, to get hit? I mean, looking at Amanda Kessel, your teammate, she’s sitting out because of a concussion. Does that worry you, about taking that step [to the men’s leagues], because you’re going up against someone that’s 6’6”?
HK: Yeah, but there are smaller players in the NHL. They have use different skills in order to work around the bigger bodies. I think, maybe this is me being naïve, or hopeful, or optimistic, but I could sort of play in to that role; maybe have that physicality between my ears instead.
PD: One final question. Since we’re promoting this whole girls playing hockey program, say I’m a mom – I’m definitely not a mom – say I’m a mom and I have a daughter that wants to play sports. Why should I put her in hockey?
HK: Why should she play hockey?
PD: Yeah!
HK: It’s a great culture to be a part of; there are hockey players all over the world. It has taken me to an education; getting an education at Wisconsin. I’ve been able to travel the world. I’ve been a part of the US Embassy as a Sports Ambassador.
PD: [Interrupts, again] THAT’S COOL! I didn’t even know that was a thing.
HK: Yeah! I’ve done so many things. I’ve posed naked [in ESPN the Bodies issue].
PD: DUDE. That was also badass.
HK: Thank you.
PD: If I had a body like you, I’d walk around naked all the time.
HK: You’d walk around? [Laughs] I’m actually a shy person, too, so I was all ‘I don’t know [about doing this]’.
PD: WHAT?! NO YOU’RE NOT! How can you be a shy person when you do that?!
HK: I was playing the ‘stuck in the mud’ game and ask ‘which one would you cover?’ Ooooh, I’d cover both! [Pantomimes covering top and bottom, um, neutral zones.]
[We’re cracking up at this point. Attempting to get serious again.]
HK: It’s led me to so many different opportunities. Now I can give back and be a role model and an advocate for women in sport.
PD: That’s really cool.
HK: So play hockey!
What We Learned: 20 bold predictions for the 2014-15 NHL season.
By Ryan Lambert
Well, it's that time of year again: the leaves are turning, everyone's pulling out their sweaters, and a team that thinks its unsustainable PDO from the season before is indicative of something they just do right and can keep doing right forever.
Yes, the NHL season is mere days away, and with that in mind, just about everyone is rolling out their predictions. Who's finishing where in their division? Who's going to win the major awards?
Who are the biggest sleepers and the bigger disappointments? That kind of thing. I don't have to tell you.
So with that in mind, it's time for us to look far (several months) into the future and make some predictions that are only occasionally wildly off the mark for this, the 2014-15 NHL season:
1. Corey Schneider will turn in a Vezina-quality season and the Devils will be among the top teams in the Eastern Conference.
2. The Oilers will improve dramatically. But not enough to get into the postseason.
3. The Stars' power play will be the best in the league, but it won't help them get past the second round once the playoffs start.
4. With their newly bolstered blue line, the Islanders will make a serious push for the top spot in the Metropolitan, but will still finish third. Can't argue to a playoff spot for the last season in Nassau.
5. Philadelphia will miss the playoffs in the East, but out West, the Canucks will be back in (barely).
6. When you give Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin actual depth in the lineup, you win the East. Pretty simple formula. Crosby, of course, wins the Hart and the Art Ross.
7. Despite the early injury, Jonathan Drouin will win the Calder. But Johnny Gaudreau is going to make a heavier push than many expect. Is skill, even on a low-scoring team like Calgary, will be that overwhelming.
8. Speaking of Calgary, they're going to finish 29th, behind 28th-place Buffalo. Worst team in the league this year? Carolina. And they don't win the draft lottery either, just as the NHL intended.
9. Dany Heatley will have a 25-goal season playing with Ryan Getzlaf and Corey Perry, because just about anyone can have a 25-goal season with those guys. But the Ducks till still take a step back, even with Ryan Kesler being effective on second-line mop-up duty.
10. The Senators' top line will be among the best in the league. Playing with Erik Karlsson, who'll win another Norris, helps a lot.
11. Ondrej Pavelec will finally be relieved of the starting gig in Winnipeg. After the season. By Kevin Cheveldayoff's successor.
12. As it turns out for Peter Chiarelli, having Matt Bartkowski in your top-four is not conducive to repeating as division champions, let alone winning the Presidents' Trophy. The Lightning will take the Flortheast instead.
13. San Jose's plan to be “tougher to play against” will be abandoned midway through the season, because it turns out using a first-ballot Hall of Famer on your third line just to be spiteful is idiotic.
14. Florida will be much better than people expect, both because Roberto Luongo will turn in another stellar season, and because they have so much good, young talent.
15. The top three finishers in that brutal Central division, in order: Chicago, Dallas, St. Louis. Minnesota will put up a fight as well, though, especially if they stick with Darcy Kuemper for basically all of next season.
16. A number of factors convene to put the Capitals back in the playoffs again. Chief among them, Brayden Holtby turning it around after a rough season.
17. Phoenix will lose a ton of money once again and inch ever closer to leaving, thanks to that insane-o out clause that lets them pack up if they lose $50 million over five seasons. The fact that they'll be in the Western Conference's basement all season won't help gate revenues.
18. A third straight Rocket Richard for Alex Ovechkin? No way, Steven Stamkos will play the full 82 and be the only player in the league to break 50.
19. The streak will end in Detroit because no one can stay healthy. Mike Babcock will stick around anyway.
20. And of course, the Maple Leafs once again won't make the playoffs. They will, instead, be worse than last year.
What We Learned
Anaheim Ducks: It's seriously awesome that the Ducks let Hilary Knight practice with them. It is not awesome that their girls' hockey program is still called the Lady Ducks. Why can't they also just be “The Ducks?”
Arizona Coyotes: Sam Gagner on the Coyotes is one of those things, a) you keep forgetting about, and b) is very intriguing indeed.
Buffalo Sabres: Oct. 13 will be “Kids Day” in Buffalo, and no, that doesn't mean they're actually going to give Mikhail Grigorenko a chance to succeed. Dude's like 40.
Calgary Flames: The Flames are going to be so young, and so bad, but maybe kind of fun to watch. So that first and last part are at least pleasant changes for them.
Carolina Hurricanes: What do you think Nikita Zadorov is doing on this second goal of Elias Lindholm's hat trick Friday night? It's obviously not “playing defense.”
Chicago Blackhawks: Gotta like the return for Nick Leddy, but when you gotta clear space with him in part because you signed Dan Carcillo to a baffling deal, well, that's bad. Hope that Bryan Bickell contract is worth it.
Colorado Avalanche: “So close to facing Chicago, a team the Avs resemble in a lot of ways.” Hahahaha yeah okay. In that they're both NHL teams, sure.
Columbus Blue Jackets: The Blue Jackets went 7-1-0 in the preseason. They also finished with a shot differential of minus-97, so that's fun.
Dallas Stars: I'm curious as to what the Stars' “identity” will be this season. They fell like a completely different team in a lot of ways, don't they?
Detroit Red Wings: Nice little goal from Riley Sheahan here against the Bruins. They're gonna need all their young guys doing that kind of thing this season.
Edmonton Oilers: Speaking of kids, have any in Edmonton done enough to make the big club? People seem to love Darnell Nurse in particular, and with good reason.
Florida Panthers: The Panthers were trying to pull off the Islanders' double-defense trade, but couldn't make it work. That blue line would have become very good, very fast.
Los Angeles Kings: A Kings fan in Florida who won $14,500 betting the Kings would come back from down 3-0 last summer used his money to sponsor a tee ball team. That's nice and everything, but it's like, buddy, invest in hockey. Come on.
Minnesota Wild: Here's a really nice profile on Thomas Vanek. And if you want to feel old, reading the subhead telling you he's been in the league for 10 years is a pretty good way to do it.
Montreal Canadiens: Max Pacioretty: “I know that I'm underpaid.” And it'll stay that way until 2019, bud.
New Jersey Devils: Ol' Double J can seriously stay in this league forever if he only dines out on plays like this.
New York Islanders: Here's the crazy thing: Even after taking on more than $6 million in cap obligations on Saturday, the Islanders still have nearly $6.5 million in room against the ceiling. Just in case anyone else wants to clear some space. You know, to be safe.
New York Rangers: The Rangers were actually considering whether it would be wise to put Derek Stepan on LTIR? The guy's out two months, isn't he?
Ottawa Senators: Pretty much no way Curtis Lazar doesn't make the Senators at this point. Which is fine because he has nothing left to prove at the lower levels.
Philadelphia Flyers: It's true, you can't call the Flyers the Broad Street Bullies any more because they're not going to use an enforcer this season. You can, however, call them Better For It.
Pittsburgh Penguins: Marc-Andre Fleury is playing for a lot more than a contract this year. He's also playing for his dwindling credibility as a legitimate starter in this league.
San Jose Sharks: Marc-Edouard Vlasic on Joe Thornton: “[H]e’s motivated more than ever to prove them wrong.” Them, in this case, is his coach and GM.
Tampa Bay Lightning: A top line of Ondrej Palat, Steven Stamkos, and Tyler Johnson could terrorize the Eastern Conference. When Drouin's back healthy that top-six starts to look very formidable indeed.
Toronto Maple Leafs: Sounds like Kessel should have done a few more sit ups this summer!!!! I'm in the Toronto media, by the way.
Vancouver Canucks: When you have about 14 guys who are basically second- and third-line tweeners, figuring out who officially goes on those two lines becomes tough.
Washington Capitals: Everyone believes in a combination of “using analytics” and “watching the games.” Literally everyone. No kidding. We really do. Come on.
Winnipeg Jets: Let's not start the “Told ya so” party just yet. Not that beating the Flames in preseason isn't great, but...
How 'bout them Chicago Bulls Session… Gibson steps up but Bulls fall to Pistons in OT.
By Adam Fluck
Bulls coach Tom Thibodeau has said that he has three big men starters in Pau Gasol, Taj Gibson and Joakim Noah.
With Noah sitting out for scheduled rest, Gibson stepped into the starting lineup on Tuesday and performed accordingly.
Though Gibson finished with 17 points, seven rebounds and three assists, the visiting Bulls fell to the Detroit Pistons 111-109 in overtime, dropping their preseason record to 0-2.
Gibson connected on eight-of-ten from the field and played 31 minutes.
Aaron Brooks and Jimmy Butler tallied 18 points apiece, while Gasol recorded five points, ten rebounds, five assists and two blocks.
Noah was in the lineup for Chicago’s preseason opener on Monday and logged 14 minutes, but the Bulls are proceeding with caution as their All-Star center works his way back into form.
Derrick Rose, meanwhile, did play but his time was again limited. Rose scored six points in 14 minutes, all from the free throw line. He missed all four of his shot attempts and as he did in Monday’s opener played only in the first half.
The Bulls will be back in action on Saturday when they travel to Milwaukee to face the Bucks (7:30 p.m. CT on WGN-TV).
What the NBA's new television deal means for its teams, players, owners and you.
By Kelly Dwyer
The league’s Monday morning news conference featured league commissioner Adam Silver, ESPN president John Skipper, Turner president David Levy and Washington Wizards owner Ted Leonsis, and was an expected, back-slapping affair. The four titans of their respective industries congratulated themselves on their good fortune in retaining rights for the same teams that have broadcast the NBA since 2002, while Silver deftly kept outrageous optimism in check in advance of what should be escalating player salary rates and a potential labor dispute between the league and its players in 2017.
For all the similarities in partnership, the deal should and will truly shake the league to its core. Between the tripling of television revenue and the ascending valuation of NBA franchises, this is a great time to be one of 30 NBA owners.
What does that mean for the rest of this particular picture?
The Fans
Though not everyone can afford a high-definition TV, a massive DVR, or the NBA’s League Pass package, those at-home rates are still dwarfed by the cost to attend games in person in most markets. While that’s not always true for some of the league’s smaller fan bases, sitting in front of the cathode tube ray to take in either a nationally televised broadcast or a “local” affiliate’s work (most cable systems have very odd ways of determining which fan lives in what team’s “country”) is the cheapest and oftentimes most rewarding experience.
There is a reason the top-rated television program nets only a fraction of the viewers that tuned in for the similarly ranked program from a few decades ago, and yet rates for televised sports are bringing in billions of dollars. People watch live sports, and they’ll sit through endless commercial breaks in order to keep in touch with these live sports. Even those of us who attempt to game the system while tuning in a half-hour late via Tivo in order to fast forward through commercials will still be taking in car insurance and chain restaurant ads by the time the second half hits, and both advertisers and television stations are more than aware of this. I’ve seen every episode of Conan O’Brien’s various talk shows since 1996, but I haven’t seen a single commercial on his show since 2004. By the end of the NBA Finals, though, I could more or less act out each of the NBA’s commercials by memory. Such is the live experience.
That’s an annoying give and take for the common fan, but the push-back is the availability. With NBA TV becoming a standard fixture on basic cable packages and ESPN, ABC and TNT already working within the realm of those packages, fans can basically take in a game a night. TNT is amping up its coverage, and ESPN is exploring ways of selling off live games to those that don’t have cable because of providers’ well-heeled reluctance to deliver a la carte packages to selective consumers.
The NBA is still selling off its digital rights to an outside party, to the dismay of many (to put it mildly) who find the online League Pass package more than lacking. How the league manages being able to reach out to a generation of twenty- and thirty-somethings who long ago swore off cable television, and yet still have interest in following the sport will be one of the defining moves of Adam Silver’s career. The NBA cannot afford to encourage scads of would-be consumers to eschew watching the actual game, preferring to click a link or two once the online reaction sets in.
The Production
Certain traits might annoy regular viewers, and certain announcers and talking heads might grate certain sensibilities, but by and large both the ABC and Turner families have put together a solid product. TNT has its mainstay "Inside the NBA" crew, in place since Charles Barkley made a cameo with Ernie Johnson Jr. and Kenny Smith late in the 1999-00 season, and while ESPN’s studio team remains in flux, the network did well to bring Bill Simmons on set – you might disagree with his analysis, but you also get the feeling he’s actually watching games in the days between Sunday’s national telecasts. That’s not a feeling you get from other, recently disposed members of the "ESPN Countdown" crew.
Turner’s rotating blend of announcers and analysts will be hit hard by Steve Kerr’s decision to take over as Golden State Warriors coach, and they would do well to attempt to dive down into the local ranks to hire one of the many local NBA announcers and analysts who are more than ready for national prime time. ESPN remains frustratingly staid as it continues to employ the catchphrase nonsense of Mark Jackson alongside the call-in radio hot-takin’ of Jeff Van Gundy – especially when their junior varsity team of Mike Tirico and Hubie Brown is far superior.
The league will continue to relegate, in a way, the NBA to the cable ranks, as the amount of Sunday afternoon games televised by ABC during the regular season will remain low in comparison to NBC’s run of things. In the face of a generation that isn’t bothering to pay for ABC or ESPN, though, this might not matter. With the league also paying for increased digital documentation in the form of SportVU cameras, the game might look a whole lot more interesting as we work our way toward 2025. One would hope Jeff Van Gundy would stop complaining about fouls by then.
The Game
Outside of the addition of a few klieg lights for national broadcasts, the game itself won’t change all that much. Players will still have to tip off for the odd contest, playoff or regular season, at noon Bristol-time, but that’s a tradition that dates back decades and won’t be changing any time soon. The implementation of camera after camera, with all manner of bio-meters possibly being attached to players to establish more and more data does bring up privacy concerns for some, but no player has raised a hackle heretofore.
The Players
The immediate question, in the wake of Silver’s news conference, is how the league will handle the influx of new revenue, and just how smoothly it will implement that money into its collectively bargained promise to send 51 percent of all basketball-related income to the players. The soft salary cap is currently stuck at just over $63 million, moving incrementally higher through the years, but when the league triples its broadcast rights agreement in 2016, that number should fly way, way up.
Right?
In theory, yes. The NBA often works with a demeaning, patriarchal line of thinking, however, and it may attempt to convince the league’s players’ union that such a jump in salary is somehow not a good thing for its players. That it’s not fair to its current batch of superstars, working on “maximum” contracts under the current television agreement, would have to see a second batch of stars make in upwards of $10 million more per season just by virtue of their timing.
This is all, of course, an absolute crock.
The “our-players-will-eventually-get-their-51-percent” line of thinking is bogus. There will not be out-and-out anarchy because of a massive salary cap jump in 2016, as most teams are rolling over cap space and flexibility from summer to summer anyway. We don’t live in an era where a player will pout endlessly, a la Shawn Kemp in Seattle, because he signed a contract for too many years and a more recent free-agent teammate is making more. The NBA has sought and won the right to limit lengths on contracts in the past three collective bargaining agreements, it won the rights to maximum contracts in the first of those three negotiations and it’s inappropriate at best (and un-American at worst) for the league to attempt to, in Adam Silver’s words, “smooth out” this revenue distribution the players have earned.
If outposts in Washington, New York or Brooklyn suddenly have enough money to tempt Kevin Durant … so what? That’s not an actual problem. Oklahoma City’s current failure to surround him with championship-level talent, and coaching missteps – those are the problems, here. If LeBron James signs for more money per year than Michael Jordan made at his peak … so what? James might be the best player ever, and 1997 is pretty far removed from 2016. If the league abhors chaos and free spending, then it should have just decided to re-sign with ESPN and Turner for the same amount that it’s currently receiving.
The Owners
Of course, the owners would never agree to such a thing. They’re allowed to make money, make mistakes, spend when they want and pull paychecks when they decide things are getting out of hand. You will likely see some owners, fearful about their other interests, deciding to cash in on the massive (and in some ways, pessimistic and incorrect) valuations on their franchise, and sell their team to whatever new One Per-center wants a shiny toy.
By and large, though, most owners will want to hang out near this money tree. Because, again, sports are the only thing on TV people consistently watch live.
The Front Offices
In pure basketball terms, this is the most intriguing aspect of the new deal.
The salary cap has barely moved until this season, when it doubled the amount of its previous shift in the nine years before to vault to over $63 million. Considering a contract worth around $6 or $7 million yearly to be an “average deal” has been a go-to benchmark for years, and outside of weird and grandfathered-in outliers like Kobe Bryant’s contract or the baffling obsession over Joe Johnson, teams have enjoyed a relative amount of fiscal sanity. More on that later.
What front offices will have to do, whether this new revenue is gradually added to the pot if there is a massive 2016 uptick, is ignore the devil perched on their left shoulders. And usually that devil comes in the form of their boss, wearing a foam finger and bored in July when all his other country-club buddies are out having fun while acquiring Joe Johnson.
Scouting and executive work in the NBA has never been better, but the same could be said for the escalating intelligence of NBA front offices from 2005-10, when executives signed an endless amount of bad deals that led to those owners locking players out in 2011 in order to save themselves from themselves. NBA general managers are going to have to temper their nastier instincts and keep ownership at arm’s length, because it is just as important to scout properly, pay properly and sustain flexibility whether your salary cap is at $63 million or $83 million.
The Lockout
The NBA and its players’ union avoided a lockout in 2005. The league and the NBPA head managed to come up with a few needed tweaks to the collective bargaining agreement that expired that year, keeping both sides happy and ensuring labor peace.
Of course, not all that much changed in the NBA between that agreement, and the previous one that was struck in the first month of 1999. That CBA provided such a fundamental shift in the league’s approach to revenue – effectively creating three subsets of player salaries while limiting the abilities for its superstars to earn what they should in a free market – that the NBA was in a way still reeling from the environment the agreement created.
Between 2005 and '11, however, quite a bit changed. Owners and general managers signed a series of overarching contracts with middling or even All-Star-type players who didn’t deserve them, general managers refused to utilize the bargaining tools the league initiated in previous agreements that would help them keep things sane, and a lockout resulted.
And, now, with the NBA tripling its national television payments in 2016, a year before the players can opt out of the collective bargaining agreement, we’re expecting things to sail “smoothed out?”
With Noah sitting out for scheduled rest, Gibson stepped into the starting lineup on Tuesday and performed accordingly.
Though Gibson finished with 17 points, seven rebounds and three assists, the visiting Bulls fell to the Detroit Pistons 111-109 in overtime, dropping their preseason record to 0-2.
Gibson connected on eight-of-ten from the field and played 31 minutes.
Aaron Brooks and Jimmy Butler tallied 18 points apiece, while Gasol recorded five points, ten rebounds, five assists and two blocks.
Noah was in the lineup for Chicago’s preseason opener on Monday and logged 14 minutes, but the Bulls are proceeding with caution as their All-Star center works his way back into form.
Derrick Rose, meanwhile, did play but his time was again limited. Rose scored six points in 14 minutes, all from the free throw line. He missed all four of his shot attempts and as he did in Monday’s opener played only in the first half.
The Bulls will be back in action on Saturday when they travel to Milwaukee to face the Bucks (7:30 p.m. CT on WGN-TV).
What the NBA's new television deal means for its teams, players, owners and you.
By Kelly Dwyer
In news that was leaked over the weekend and made official on Monday morning, the NBA has confirmed it will sign a broadcast and Internet rights deal with ABC/ESPN and Turner that would stroll on to the 2024-25 season. The agreement, which tips off during the 2016-17 campaign, will pay the league and its teams almost $2.7 billion per season, nearly tripling the number both media entities currently dole out in a contract that was signed during the NBA’s least entertaining era in its history.
The league’s Monday morning news conference featured league commissioner Adam Silver, ESPN president John Skipper, Turner president David Levy and Washington Wizards owner Ted Leonsis, and was an expected, back-slapping affair. The four titans of their respective industries congratulated themselves on their good fortune in retaining rights for the same teams that have broadcast the NBA since 2002, while Silver deftly kept outrageous optimism in check in advance of what should be escalating player salary rates and a potential labor dispute between the league and its players in 2017.
For all the similarities in partnership, the deal should and will truly shake the league to its core. Between the tripling of television revenue and the ascending valuation of NBA franchises, this is a great time to be one of 30 NBA owners.
What does that mean for the rest of this particular picture?
The Fans
Though not everyone can afford a high-definition TV, a massive DVR, or the NBA’s League Pass package, those at-home rates are still dwarfed by the cost to attend games in person in most markets. While that’s not always true for some of the league’s smaller fan bases, sitting in front of the cathode tube ray to take in either a nationally televised broadcast or a “local” affiliate’s work (most cable systems have very odd ways of determining which fan lives in what team’s “country”) is the cheapest and oftentimes most rewarding experience.
There is a reason the top-rated television program nets only a fraction of the viewers that tuned in for the similarly ranked program from a few decades ago, and yet rates for televised sports are bringing in billions of dollars. People watch live sports, and they’ll sit through endless commercial breaks in order to keep in touch with these live sports. Even those of us who attempt to game the system while tuning in a half-hour late via Tivo in order to fast forward through commercials will still be taking in car insurance and chain restaurant ads by the time the second half hits, and both advertisers and television stations are more than aware of this. I’ve seen every episode of Conan O’Brien’s various talk shows since 1996, but I haven’t seen a single commercial on his show since 2004. By the end of the NBA Finals, though, I could more or less act out each of the NBA’s commercials by memory. Such is the live experience.
That’s an annoying give and take for the common fan, but the push-back is the availability. With NBA TV becoming a standard fixture on basic cable packages and ESPN, ABC and TNT already working within the realm of those packages, fans can basically take in a game a night. TNT is amping up its coverage, and ESPN is exploring ways of selling off live games to those that don’t have cable because of providers’ well-heeled reluctance to deliver a la carte packages to selective consumers.
The NBA is still selling off its digital rights to an outside party, to the dismay of many (to put it mildly) who find the online League Pass package more than lacking. How the league manages being able to reach out to a generation of twenty- and thirty-somethings who long ago swore off cable television, and yet still have interest in following the sport will be one of the defining moves of Adam Silver’s career. The NBA cannot afford to encourage scads of would-be consumers to eschew watching the actual game, preferring to click a link or two once the online reaction sets in.
The Production
Certain traits might annoy regular viewers, and certain announcers and talking heads might grate certain sensibilities, but by and large both the ABC and Turner families have put together a solid product. TNT has its mainstay "Inside the NBA" crew, in place since Charles Barkley made a cameo with Ernie Johnson Jr. and Kenny Smith late in the 1999-00 season, and while ESPN’s studio team remains in flux, the network did well to bring Bill Simmons on set – you might disagree with his analysis, but you also get the feeling he’s actually watching games in the days between Sunday’s national telecasts. That’s not a feeling you get from other, recently disposed members of the "ESPN Countdown" crew.
Turner’s rotating blend of announcers and analysts will be hit hard by Steve Kerr’s decision to take over as Golden State Warriors coach, and they would do well to attempt to dive down into the local ranks to hire one of the many local NBA announcers and analysts who are more than ready for national prime time. ESPN remains frustratingly staid as it continues to employ the catchphrase nonsense of Mark Jackson alongside the call-in radio hot-takin’ of Jeff Van Gundy – especially when their junior varsity team of Mike Tirico and Hubie Brown is far superior.
The league will continue to relegate, in a way, the NBA to the cable ranks, as the amount of Sunday afternoon games televised by ABC during the regular season will remain low in comparison to NBC’s run of things. In the face of a generation that isn’t bothering to pay for ABC or ESPN, though, this might not matter. With the league also paying for increased digital documentation in the form of SportVU cameras, the game might look a whole lot more interesting as we work our way toward 2025. One would hope Jeff Van Gundy would stop complaining about fouls by then.
The Game
Outside of the addition of a few klieg lights for national broadcasts, the game itself won’t change all that much. Players will still have to tip off for the odd contest, playoff or regular season, at noon Bristol-time, but that’s a tradition that dates back decades and won’t be changing any time soon. The implementation of camera after camera, with all manner of bio-meters possibly being attached to players to establish more and more data does bring up privacy concerns for some, but no player has raised a hackle heretofore.
The Players
The immediate question, in the wake of Silver’s news conference, is how the league will handle the influx of new revenue, and just how smoothly it will implement that money into its collectively bargained promise to send 51 percent of all basketball-related income to the players. The soft salary cap is currently stuck at just over $63 million, moving incrementally higher through the years, but when the league triples its broadcast rights agreement in 2016, that number should fly way, way up.
Right?
In theory, yes. The NBA often works with a demeaning, patriarchal line of thinking, however, and it may attempt to convince the league’s players’ union that such a jump in salary is somehow not a good thing for its players. That it’s not fair to its current batch of superstars, working on “maximum” contracts under the current television agreement, would have to see a second batch of stars make in upwards of $10 million more per season just by virtue of their timing.
This is all, of course, an absolute crock.
The “our-players-will-eventually-get-their-51-percent” line of thinking is bogus. There will not be out-and-out anarchy because of a massive salary cap jump in 2016, as most teams are rolling over cap space and flexibility from summer to summer anyway. We don’t live in an era where a player will pout endlessly, a la Shawn Kemp in Seattle, because he signed a contract for too many years and a more recent free-agent teammate is making more. The NBA has sought and won the right to limit lengths on contracts in the past three collective bargaining agreements, it won the rights to maximum contracts in the first of those three negotiations and it’s inappropriate at best (and un-American at worst) for the league to attempt to, in Adam Silver’s words, “smooth out” this revenue distribution the players have earned.
If outposts in Washington, New York or Brooklyn suddenly have enough money to tempt Kevin Durant … so what? That’s not an actual problem. Oklahoma City’s current failure to surround him with championship-level talent, and coaching missteps – those are the problems, here. If LeBron James signs for more money per year than Michael Jordan made at his peak … so what? James might be the best player ever, and 1997 is pretty far removed from 2016. If the league abhors chaos and free spending, then it should have just decided to re-sign with ESPN and Turner for the same amount that it’s currently receiving.
The Owners
Of course, the owners would never agree to such a thing. They’re allowed to make money, make mistakes, spend when they want and pull paychecks when they decide things are getting out of hand. You will likely see some owners, fearful about their other interests, deciding to cash in on the massive (and in some ways, pessimistic and incorrect) valuations on their franchise, and sell their team to whatever new One Per-center wants a shiny toy.
By and large, though, most owners will want to hang out near this money tree. Because, again, sports are the only thing on TV people consistently watch live.
The Front Offices
In pure basketball terms, this is the most intriguing aspect of the new deal.
The salary cap has barely moved until this season, when it doubled the amount of its previous shift in the nine years before to vault to over $63 million. Considering a contract worth around $6 or $7 million yearly to be an “average deal” has been a go-to benchmark for years, and outside of weird and grandfathered-in outliers like Kobe Bryant’s contract or the baffling obsession over Joe Johnson, teams have enjoyed a relative amount of fiscal sanity. More on that later.
What front offices will have to do, whether this new revenue is gradually added to the pot if there is a massive 2016 uptick, is ignore the devil perched on their left shoulders. And usually that devil comes in the form of their boss, wearing a foam finger and bored in July when all his other country-club buddies are out having fun while acquiring Joe Johnson.
Scouting and executive work in the NBA has never been better, but the same could be said for the escalating intelligence of NBA front offices from 2005-10, when executives signed an endless amount of bad deals that led to those owners locking players out in 2011 in order to save themselves from themselves. NBA general managers are going to have to temper their nastier instincts and keep ownership at arm’s length, because it is just as important to scout properly, pay properly and sustain flexibility whether your salary cap is at $63 million or $83 million.
The Lockout
The NBA and its players’ union avoided a lockout in 2005. The league and the NBPA head managed to come up with a few needed tweaks to the collective bargaining agreement that expired that year, keeping both sides happy and ensuring labor peace.
Of course, not all that much changed in the NBA between that agreement, and the previous one that was struck in the first month of 1999. That CBA provided such a fundamental shift in the league’s approach to revenue – effectively creating three subsets of player salaries while limiting the abilities for its superstars to earn what they should in a free market – that the NBA was in a way still reeling from the environment the agreement created.
Between 2005 and '11, however, quite a bit changed. Owners and general managers signed a series of overarching contracts with middling or even All-Star-type players who didn’t deserve them, general managers refused to utilize the bargaining tools the league initiated in previous agreements that would help them keep things sane, and a lockout resulted.
And, now, with the NBA tripling its national television payments in 2016, a year before the players can opt out of the collective bargaining agreement, we’re expecting things to sail “smoothed out?”
The players should have opted out of this CBA the second after they signed it, because they took in a raw deal as governed by a union executive director who was then voted out. Just because Adam Silver is a smart man of sound mind, it doesn’t mean he cannot be swayed by those who he is charged with representing – the NBA owners, 30 men who decided popcorn vendors didn’t need any jobs at NBA games in the weeks leading up to Christmas, because they made a bad deal with Josh Childress a few years before.
This is the summation of an obvious cynic, but because so much can change between now and 2017, and because so much will be hot-rodded once the money hits in 2016, one has to assume things could go pear-shaped.
That’s if Adam Silver lets it work that way, of course. The check is in the mail, and the ball is in his court.
NLDS: On a night of improbables, Cardinals clinch fourth straight NLCS trip.
By Ryan Fagan
The Cardinals celebrate as Yasiel Puig walks off the field. (Getty Images)
The improbable happened Tuesday evening at Busch Stadium.
Actually, lots of improbable things happened, and they all added up to a 3-2 Cardinals victory that wrapped up the NLDS and sent the Dodgers home for the winter.
Let’s look at a few examples.
The improbable parade started a few hours before the game, when the Dodgers released their starting lineup for Game 4. It did not include Yasiel Puig.
Now, whatever you might think about Don Mattingly’s decision to sit Puig, who was riding a skid of seven strikeouts in eight at-bats — but who also tripled and scored LA’s lone run in Monday night’s loss — everyone can agree that, heading into the series, the idea that Puig would be a healthy scratch in a potential elimination game was laughable.
But it happened. Puig sat on the bench until the ninth inning, when he entered the game as a pinch runner. He didn’t advance past second base.
The player who replaced Puig in center field, Andre Ethier, reached base twice but was involved in a pretty improbable play himself.
The Dodgers had scored a pair of runs in the sixth inning to grab a 2-0 lead and had runners at the corners with two outs. A pitch from Seth Maness bounced in front of catcher Yadier Molina, and Ethier made a move toward home. But the ball didn’t get away from Molina, who fired to third baseman Matt Carpenter.
Third base ump Jerry Meals initially ruled Ethier safe, but the Cardinals challenged and the call was overturned, ending the inning. It wasn’t lost on anyone that Ethier was thrown out on the bases replacing Puig, the guy who was thrown out on the bases more times this year than Dodgers fans would care to remember.
But on to the biggest improbable of the game.
On its own, a left-handed hitter who struggles against left-handed pitching hitting a home run off a left-handed pitcher who thrives against left-handed hitters would seem almost impossible. But when Clayton Kershaw faces the Cardinals in the postseason, nothing seems to fit the “impossible” description.
So we’ll just label Matt Adams’ three-run home run off Kershaw as improbable, even though Kershaw had given up only one home run to a left-handed hitter during the regular season, and Adams had just three homers against lefties in 68 games this year.
It was the fifth home run a Cardinals left-handed hitter hit off a Dodgers left-handed pitcher in the series; three of those were against Kershaw.
“It’s hard to believe, it really is,” St. Louis left fielder Matt Holliday said. “(Kershaw is) so tough on both sides. But the thing about it is, it was one curveball that was probably a little higher than he wanted it to be, and Matt made a great swing.”
And the Cardinals made that improbable stand up, which is why they’re heading to the NLCS for the fourth consecutive season. They beat the Rangers in the 2011 World Series, lost to the Giants in the 2012 NLCS and lost to the Red Sox in the 2013 World Series.
At this point, the Cardinals’ presence in the NLCS is one of the few probable things about this entire postseason so far.
NLDS: Wild-card Giants close out Nationals after wild turn of events.
Associated Press
Joe Panik scored the go-ahead run in the seventh inning on Aaron Barrett's bases-loaded wild pitch, and the San Francisco Giants beat the Washington Nationals 3-2 Tuesday night to return to the NL Championship Series.
The wild-card Giants won 3-1 in the best-of-five Division Series by also scoring on a walk and a groundout. Hunter Pence turned in a defensive gem in right field that helped to hold the Nationals at bay.
Santiago Casilla put the potential tying run aboard in the ninth on a two-out walk to Bryce Harper, then retired Wilson Ramos on a grounder to end it. Casilla was mobbed on the mound as fireworks shot off from the center-field scoreboard.
San Francisco travels to St. Louis for Game 1 on Saturday. It's a rematch of the 2012 NLCS, when the Giantsrallied from a 3-1 deficit to beat the Cardinals on the way to their second World Series championship in three years.
Harper splashed a tying home run into McCovey Cove in the seventh, but Washington's season ended with a third straight one-run defeat, including that excruciating 2-1 loss in 18 innings Saturday in Game 2.
The Nationals never got on track offensively, lacking the power that carried them to an NL East title and the best record in the league at 96-66.
After his wild pitch snapped a 2-all tie, Barrett got set to intentionally walk Pablo Sandoval. But the right-hander sailed a toss way over the head of Ramos, who quickly retrieved the ball near the backstop. Ramos threw to Barrett covering the plate, where he tagged out a sliding Buster Posey.
The call was upheld after a replay review of 1 minute 57 seconds, denying San Francisco an insurance run.
Just like a night earlier when Giants ace Madison Bumgarner's one miscue cost his team the game, Barrett blew it this time.
San Francisco hit consecutive one-out singles against Barrett in the seventh, and then Pence walked to load the bases for Sandoval.
Pence produced the play of the night when he slammed his back into an archway on the right-field wall to rob Jayson Werth of extra bases in the sixth. Fans enjoying the game from the outside portwalk witnessed the catch from just behind Pence and broke into frenzied cheers.
The very next inning, Pence could only watch as Harper hit a towering drive over the right-field arcade and between two boats among a large group of kayakers in the cove. It was the 104th splash homer at 15-year-old AT&T Park and third in the postseason.
Rick Ankiel did it for the Braves in the 2010 NLDS.
Hunter Strickland, the rookie reliever who gave up Harper's solo home run to the third deck in the seventh inning of Game 1 and then later said he would challenge the slugger again if given the chance, got his opportunity in the seventh and paid for it.
Still, Strickland did enough to earn his first postseason victory. Sergio Romo pitched a perfect eighth and Casilla closed it out before the celebration began.
Harper crushed a 3-1 pitch from Strickland, then appeared to give the pitcher a look as he rounded the bases before shouting out toward the field from the dugout.
San Francisco fans cheered when the rival Dodgers were eliminated by St. Louis at Busch Stadium earlier Tuesday, putting the Cardinals in their fourth straight NLCS. They went crazy once their Giants clinched another chance to play for the pennant, and the city is counting on the Giants' every-other-year trend of winning it all.
San Francisco won the World Series in 2010 and again 2012.
Washington rookie manager Matt Williams, groomed in the Giants' system as a player, and his stunned players head home to the nation's capital after a much quicker exit than they envisioned.
Giants starter Ryan Vogelsong didn't allow a hit until Ian Desmond's leadoff single in the fifth, the Nationals' second baserunner. Harper followed with a sharp double down the left-field line to put Washington on the board.
Pinch-hitter Nate Schierholtz walked two outs later and Vogelsong received a mound visit from pitching coach Dave Righetti before retiring Denard Span.
Winless in September, Vogelsong returned to his top postseason form. Pitching for the first time since Sept. 26 after going 0-4 in five September outings, Vogelsong allowed two hits in 5 2-3 solid innings.
The 37-year-old journeyman has not allowed more than one earned run in five postseason starts, winning Games 2 and 6 of the 2012 NLCS and Game 3 in a World Series sweep of the Tigers.
Nationals starter Gio Gonzalez found several ways to hurt his own cause in the second. The Giants loaded the bases after Brandon Crawford's one-out single before Gonzalez misplayed Juan Perez's slow dribbler for an error. Vogelsong beat out a bunt single that went untouched and then Blanco drew a four-pitch walk to force home the first run.
Sandoval's 14-game postseason hitting streak was snapped with an 0-for-3 night.
Golf: I got a club for that… The danger in Paul Azinger becoming Ryder Cup captain again.
Actually, lots of improbable things happened, and they all added up to a 3-2 Cardinals victory that wrapped up the NLDS and sent the Dodgers home for the winter.
Let’s look at a few examples.
The improbable parade started a few hours before the game, when the Dodgers released their starting lineup for Game 4. It did not include Yasiel Puig.
Now, whatever you might think about Don Mattingly’s decision to sit Puig, who was riding a skid of seven strikeouts in eight at-bats — but who also tripled and scored LA’s lone run in Monday night’s loss — everyone can agree that, heading into the series, the idea that Puig would be a healthy scratch in a potential elimination game was laughable.
But it happened. Puig sat on the bench until the ninth inning, when he entered the game as a pinch runner. He didn’t advance past second base.
The player who replaced Puig in center field, Andre Ethier, reached base twice but was involved in a pretty improbable play himself.
The Dodgers had scored a pair of runs in the sixth inning to grab a 2-0 lead and had runners at the corners with two outs. A pitch from Seth Maness bounced in front of catcher Yadier Molina, and Ethier made a move toward home. But the ball didn’t get away from Molina, who fired to third baseman Matt Carpenter.
Third base ump Jerry Meals initially ruled Ethier safe, but the Cardinals challenged and the call was overturned, ending the inning. It wasn’t lost on anyone that Ethier was thrown out on the bases replacing Puig, the guy who was thrown out on the bases more times this year than Dodgers fans would care to remember.
But on to the biggest improbable of the game.
On its own, a left-handed hitter who struggles against left-handed pitching hitting a home run off a left-handed pitcher who thrives against left-handed hitters would seem almost impossible. But when Clayton Kershaw faces the Cardinals in the postseason, nothing seems to fit the “impossible” description.
So we’ll just label Matt Adams’ three-run home run off Kershaw as improbable, even though Kershaw had given up only one home run to a left-handed hitter during the regular season, and Adams had just three homers against lefties in 68 games this year.
It was the fifth home run a Cardinals left-handed hitter hit off a Dodgers left-handed pitcher in the series; three of those were against Kershaw.
“It’s hard to believe, it really is,” St. Louis left fielder Matt Holliday said. “(Kershaw is) so tough on both sides. But the thing about it is, it was one curveball that was probably a little higher than he wanted it to be, and Matt made a great swing.”
And the Cardinals made that improbable stand up, which is why they’re heading to the NLCS for the fourth consecutive season. They beat the Rangers in the 2011 World Series, lost to the Giants in the 2012 NLCS and lost to the Red Sox in the 2013 World Series.
At this point, the Cardinals’ presence in the NLCS is one of the few probable things about this entire postseason so far.
NLDS: Wild-card Giants close out Nationals after wild turn of events.
Associated Press
Pablo-Sandoval, Wilson Ramos (Getty Images)
Joe Panik scored the go-ahead run in the seventh inning on Aaron Barrett's bases-loaded wild pitch, and the San Francisco Giants beat the Washington Nationals 3-2 Tuesday night to return to the NL Championship Series.
The wild-card Giants won 3-1 in the best-of-five Division Series by also scoring on a walk and a groundout. Hunter Pence turned in a defensive gem in right field that helped to hold the Nationals at bay.
Santiago Casilla put the potential tying run aboard in the ninth on a two-out walk to Bryce Harper, then retired Wilson Ramos on a grounder to end it. Casilla was mobbed on the mound as fireworks shot off from the center-field scoreboard.
San Francisco travels to St. Louis for Game 1 on Saturday. It's a rematch of the 2012 NLCS, when the Giantsrallied from a 3-1 deficit to beat the Cardinals on the way to their second World Series championship in three years.
Harper splashed a tying home run into McCovey Cove in the seventh, but Washington's season ended with a third straight one-run defeat, including that excruciating 2-1 loss in 18 innings Saturday in Game 2.
The Nationals never got on track offensively, lacking the power that carried them to an NL East title and the best record in the league at 96-66.
After his wild pitch snapped a 2-all tie, Barrett got set to intentionally walk Pablo Sandoval. But the right-hander sailed a toss way over the head of Ramos, who quickly retrieved the ball near the backstop. Ramos threw to Barrett covering the plate, where he tagged out a sliding Buster Posey.
The call was upheld after a replay review of 1 minute 57 seconds, denying San Francisco an insurance run.
Just like a night earlier when Giants ace Madison Bumgarner's one miscue cost his team the game, Barrett blew it this time.
San Francisco hit consecutive one-out singles against Barrett in the seventh, and then Pence walked to load the bases for Sandoval.
Pence produced the play of the night when he slammed his back into an archway on the right-field wall to rob Jayson Werth of extra bases in the sixth. Fans enjoying the game from the outside portwalk witnessed the catch from just behind Pence and broke into frenzied cheers.
The very next inning, Pence could only watch as Harper hit a towering drive over the right-field arcade and between two boats among a large group of kayakers in the cove. It was the 104th splash homer at 15-year-old AT&T Park and third in the postseason.
Rick Ankiel did it for the Braves in the 2010 NLDS.
Hunter Strickland, the rookie reliever who gave up Harper's solo home run to the third deck in the seventh inning of Game 1 and then later said he would challenge the slugger again if given the chance, got his opportunity in the seventh and paid for it.
Still, Strickland did enough to earn his first postseason victory. Sergio Romo pitched a perfect eighth and Casilla closed it out before the celebration began.
Harper crushed a 3-1 pitch from Strickland, then appeared to give the pitcher a look as he rounded the bases before shouting out toward the field from the dugout.
San Francisco fans cheered when the rival Dodgers were eliminated by St. Louis at Busch Stadium earlier Tuesday, putting the Cardinals in their fourth straight NLCS. They went crazy once their Giants clinched another chance to play for the pennant, and the city is counting on the Giants' every-other-year trend of winning it all.
San Francisco won the World Series in 2010 and again 2012.
Washington rookie manager Matt Williams, groomed in the Giants' system as a player, and his stunned players head home to the nation's capital after a much quicker exit than they envisioned.
Giants starter Ryan Vogelsong didn't allow a hit until Ian Desmond's leadoff single in the fifth, the Nationals' second baserunner. Harper followed with a sharp double down the left-field line to put Washington on the board.
Pinch-hitter Nate Schierholtz walked two outs later and Vogelsong received a mound visit from pitching coach Dave Righetti before retiring Denard Span.
Winless in September, Vogelsong returned to his top postseason form. Pitching for the first time since Sept. 26 after going 0-4 in five September outings, Vogelsong allowed two hits in 5 2-3 solid innings.
The 37-year-old journeyman has not allowed more than one earned run in five postseason starts, winning Games 2 and 6 of the 2012 NLCS and Game 3 in a World Series sweep of the Tigers.
Nationals starter Gio Gonzalez found several ways to hurt his own cause in the second. The Giants loaded the bases after Brandon Crawford's one-out single before Gonzalez misplayed Juan Perez's slow dribbler for an error. Vogelsong beat out a bunt single that went untouched and then Blanco drew a four-pitch walk to force home the first run.
Sandoval's 14-game postseason hitting streak was snapped with an 0-for-3 night.
Golf: I got a club for that… The danger in Paul Azinger becoming Ryder Cup captain again.
By Ryan Ballengee
Five weeks into the NFL season, in many cities around the country, the most popular man in town is the backup quarterback. Why? Because he could be the key to turning this whole season around...if only he got the chance to play.
Odds are, though, that single player, unless he's the next Tom Brady, will struggle to win more than a few games, much less transform a franchise.
***
Donald Trump has seemingly teased running for every major political office in the last decade, namely for president in 2012 and again is letting the drumbeat start for 2016. He's yet to declare candidacy, and he probably never will.
Trump is a smart man. He knows when to buy distressed assets, like golf courses. He knows how to work the financial system. He is also well aware that he is at his most politically potent -- like former Alaska governor Sarah Palin -- on the sidelines.
Running does him no good, especially if he feels there's no chance to win. It's better to let people wonder what could be in their imagination than risk defeat, or worse, disappointment were Trump to win an election.
***
I believe Paul Azinger truly wants to be Ryder Cup captain again. He immersed himself in the job in 2006, carrying his work all the way through a brilliant win at Valhalla in 2008. Azinger would do it again, given the opportunity, using the plan he turned into a cookbook for success as a guide.
Let's say Zinger got the job for '16 at Hazeltine. And that's a big "if." What if he did everything right, pushed all the right buttons and still came up short? What if the Europeans came to the U.S. and won yet again?
That's the danger in Paul Azinger returning as captain of the Ryder Cup team. He would be setting a no-win trap for himself.
If he loses, critics and fans alike might believe that '08 win was a fluke. They could say it was a poorly prepared European captain in Nick Faldo that gave the U.S. the edge. They could wonder when Anthony Kim is coming out of the witness protection program to give the Americans another Patrick Reed it so desperately needs. There's plenty of second-guessing to go around if Azinger's second coming brings a loss.
If he wins, then it's the outcome every hopeful American expects: Azinger returns to his rightful place, wins and remains Ryder Cup royalty until he abdicates the spot to a disciple. We should've done this years ago! But Azinger won't do this forever, and he certainly can't win forever.
Paul Azinger's greatest contribution to the Ryder Cup won't be winning in 2008. It will be in spearheading the development of a true Ryder Cup program that, at a minimum, turns this series into a back-and-forth affair worthy of the talent on both sides of the Atlantic. Azinger can collaborate with current players to develop a player and selection strategy that reflects the modern tour and models itself as a hybrid of the '08 model and the Europeans' succession planning it does so well. He can set into motion a decade or more of continuity that anticipates future captains, the aging and changing of the team makeup and unified preparation.
In other words, Paul Azinger should be the general manager of the American Ryder Cup team, not its manager. That will mean sharing praise for future American wins with the button-pushing captain. It'll mean fewer people will understand what Azinger did to, in NFL PR parlance, get this right. However, Azinger is not only up to the task, but he's willing to do what it takes to restore the country he loves on a stage he loves maybe as much.
An American Ryder Cup renaissance is not a one-man, one-time job. It'll take a team and time. The effort will require patience and persistence, not the abandonment of an approach if it fails. Let Azinger sit at the head of that table, the one constant in an otherwise rotating cast of players, captains and PGA of America officials.
Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson rumored members of task force to choose next U.S. Ryder Cup captain.
By Emily Kay
Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson make for a lousy Ryder Cup twosome, but the U.S. superstars are teaming up to help revamp the Americans’ system for choosing captains and players.
Brandel Chamblee will not be happy about this.
Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson, whom Chamblee blamed for "corrupting" the Ryder Cup experience after the Europeans decimated the Tiger-less but Phil-led Americans at Gleneagles last month, are rumored to be part of a squad whose job it will be to select future U.S. players and captains.
Never considered the ultimate team player, Woods, who missed the debacle in Scotland as he continues to recover from back surgery, will ally with Mickelson and PGA Tour and Ryder Cup veterans Jim Furyk and Steve Stricker, among others, on a task force charged with overhauling the total Ryder Cup approach.
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Tim Rosaforte Follow
@TimRosaforte
PGA Pres @tedbishop38pga confirmed he did talk to @TigerWoods but would not confirm if Phil Mickelson was going to be on task force.
The committee of some 10-to-12 members will likely consult with past players and captains, including Lefty’s favorite leader, victorious 2008 skipper Paul Azinger, according to multiple reports.
"The decision has been made to assemble a task force that will include PGA of America representation, past captains and current players to really dive into an open analysis of all aspects of the Ryder Cup to see what we can do to improve and give Team USA its very best chances of success,’’ PGA of America CEO Pete Bevacqua told The New York Post on Monday.
Mickelson came under fire from Chamblee and others after he hijacked the post-Ryder Cup news conference to lash out publicly at the way Tom Watson ran this year’s team. With new details dropping almost daily about the poisonous relationship between Watson and his players, many observers have credited Mickelson’s remarks with forcing change -- adjustments that PGA of America officials may not have undertaken had the five-time major champion whispered his complaints offstage.
Mickelson, benched for a full day for the first time in 10 Ryder Cup appearances, reportedly mouthed opinions that other players held but declined to put on the record.
"Basically we are giving the task force a blank canvas on all things on the Ryder Cup to give the PGA some input," PGA president Ted Bishop, who hand-picked Watson as some sort of "out of the box" experiment, told GolfChannel.com. "The PGA is willing to take a step back and listen to some people that are involved in the process."
One welcome modification will occur almost immediately, with the PGA eliminating its practice of announcing the next captain after its annual meeting in November.
"There will be no captain announced in 2014. I don’t know what the time frame would be but we are in no hurry to make that decision. We want to give the task force a chance to weigh in on a lot of things," Bishop said. "We don’t even have a short list of candidates [for the 2016 seat]. That discussion hasn’t been started."
Two-time leukemia survivor Jarrod Lyle Monday qualifies for Frys.com Open.
By Ryan Ballengee
Jarrod Lyle has beaten leukemia twice in his life. So what chance did the field in the Frys.com Open Monday qualifier have?
The Australian, who last played on the PGA Tour in March 2012, shockingly did not receive a sponsor's exemption into this week's PGA Tour season kickoff at Silverado Golf Club in California's Napa Valley. The gritty fighter he is, Lyle played to earn his spot in the field.
Lyle shot 66 in the one-round event, landing himself in an eight-for-four playoff to fill out the field in the event. He maneuvered his way through the playoff and has a spot in this week's tournament. He already has a spot in the field for next week's Shriners Hospitals for Children Open in Las Vegas.
In March 2012, Lyle announced he was again battling acute myeloid leukemia, a condition he faced when he was 17 years old. Lyle and wife Briony have also become parents to daughter Lusi just days before Lyle began this latest fight with leukemia. In Nov. 2013, Lyle made his competitive return to golf at the Australian Masters, making the 36-hole cut and finishing tied for 57th in one of the country's bigges tournaments.
This past July, Lyle made his return to the U.S., playing in the Web.com Tour's Midwest Classic and finishing T-11. He missed the cut in three subsequent Web.com Tour starts in August.
The PGA Tour comeback officially starts for Lyle on Thursday, who will be playing on the PGA Tour on a major medical exemption. He has 19 starts to earn $283,825 which, combined with his 2012 earnings, would give him enough money to match No. 125 on that year's PGA Tour money list.
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NASCAR: Power Rankings: It's Joey Logano and then everyone else.
By Nick Bromberg
1. Joey Logano (LW: 2): Logano would be leading the standings no matter the Chase format, he's the most recent winner and he's the only driver with multiple wins in the Chase. Pretty simple, don't you think? Logano is going to be a factor at Charlotte, though he wasn't exceptionally good there in the 600. When his car was back in traffic, he just didn't have the handling to get near the front. Though you can say that about almost anyone and everyone at intermediate tracks.
2. Kevin Harvick (LW: 5): Do you blame Kevin Harvick for coming to pit road thinking he had a flat tire? While you can make the argument that Kansas was another self-inflicted wound for Harvick, playing it conservative with any possible tire issues was the way to go. Harvick ultimately didn't have a flat, but if he did and didn't come to pit road, he would have finished a whole lot lower than 12th.
3. Kyle Busch (LW: 6): You could have gotten really, really good odds on Busch being in second place in the points standings after Kansas. And his happiness with breaking the hex the place has held on him was evident when he said he had won after the race. Oh, and we have to ask a question. What was more surprising on Saturday. This?
4. Jeff Gordon (LW: 3): Gordon got tagged by Jamie McMurray and had a heck of a save to prevent his car from doing more than brushing the wall. However, he lost a ton of track position because of the incident and didn't get it back. Congratulations, Jeff, you were the highest finishing Hendrick Motorsports car! We just won't go around telling people that you were 14th.
5. Brad Keselowski (LW; 2): Keselowski referred to the tire issue he had as "Russian Roulette" and it was simply his turn. If there was an underlying cause unrelated to the setups that Keselowski and Earnhardt Jr. were running (and both drivers reported no issues before the sudden meetings with the wall), the new Chase format highlights just how ridiculously significant an issue like that can be. While both Earnhardt Jr. and Keselowski would be in a deep points hole under the old format, they'd have six races to make it up. Now they have two races to win and advance. We'll continue this thought with Junior's paragraph.
6. Kyle Larson (LW: 7): Dude just keeps on cranking out good finishes, doesn't he? Given how he's performed at Chicago and Kansas, he's going to be the trendy pick to win at Charlotte. And remember, last year's fall race at Charlotte saw Keselowski, a non-Chaser, win the race. It'd certainly be an interesting scenario; Larson gets his first win while Keselowski, Johnson and Junior are all potentially in a scenario to have to win at Talladega to advance.
7. Matt Kenseth (LW: 8): Kenseth had a cracked nose on his car and then an unscheduled pit stop for a loose wheel and finished 13th. Departing from Kenseth, television ratings for the race were down from last year, the second straight race with declining ratings from 2013. We're not going to go as far as to say it's time to be alarmed (talking about television ratings seems futile at times), though you certainly can't say that the new Chase format is drawing additional viewers. Or if it is, it's certainly at the expense of others.
8. Jimmie Johnson (LW: 4): It's a four spot drop for Johnson after he qualified and crashed. Had he simply crashed after qualifying and running in the top 15, this is harsh, but Johnson spun in qualifying and started at the back. It was just a bad weekend for the No. 48 team. All hope isn't lost by any means, but yes, Johnson not advancing past this round is a real possibility.
9. Carl Edwards (LW: 11): Edwards finished fifth on Sunday and looks like a great shot to get to the final eight. And based off his finishes from earlier in the year, don't be surprised if he gets to the final four as well. He finished 8th at Phoenix, 13th at Martinsville and 14th at Texas. Those aren't great runs, but consistent enough to keep Edwards hanging around.
10. Ryan Newman (LW: 10): Newman finished a spot behind Edwards and he's following the same trendline. The ability to avoid bad finishes may be more imperative than being excellent, and Newman has shown a strong ability to succeed at the former. If he can sneak in another top five or two the rest of the way...
11. Denny Hamlin (LW: 12): We're going fifth, sixth and seventh for these three spots. Hamlin won at Talladega in the spring, so that has to be a boost of confidence heading into what's probably the most random race of the Chase. If he can survive Charlotte with a good finish, there's a good shot that JGR will have all three cars in the final eight.
12. Dale Earnhardt Jr. (LW: 9): How would interest decline in a Chase without Keselowski, Johnson and Junior? Obviously Junior is the biggest fan draw of the three, but the other two aren't slouches. While the new Chase system isn't designed to be fair and create drama and surprise, when it comes to attention being paid to it, three of the sport's biggest stars missing the final eight isn't good.
Lucky Dog: Two straight top-10 finishes from Martin Truex Jr. He did this once earlier in the year and his next finish was 37th. Let's see if Truex makes it three in a row.
The DNF: Well, at least Kurt Busch knows that if he would have advanced to the next round of the Chase he wouldn't be in a position of possible success.
Dropped out: No one.
2. Kevin Harvick (LW: 5): Do you blame Kevin Harvick for coming to pit road thinking he had a flat tire? While you can make the argument that Kansas was another self-inflicted wound for Harvick, playing it conservative with any possible tire issues was the way to go. Harvick ultimately didn't have a flat, but if he did and didn't come to pit road, he would have finished a whole lot lower than 12th.
3. Kyle Busch (LW: 6): You could have gotten really, really good odds on Busch being in second place in the points standings after Kansas. And his happiness with breaking the hex the place has held on him was evident when he said he had won after the race. Oh, and we have to ask a question. What was more surprising on Saturday. This?
4. Jeff Gordon (LW: 3): Gordon got tagged by Jamie McMurray and had a heck of a save to prevent his car from doing more than brushing the wall. However, he lost a ton of track position because of the incident and didn't get it back. Congratulations, Jeff, you were the highest finishing Hendrick Motorsports car! We just won't go around telling people that you were 14th.
5. Brad Keselowski (LW; 2): Keselowski referred to the tire issue he had as "Russian Roulette" and it was simply his turn. If there was an underlying cause unrelated to the setups that Keselowski and Earnhardt Jr. were running (and both drivers reported no issues before the sudden meetings with the wall), the new Chase format highlights just how ridiculously significant an issue like that can be. While both Earnhardt Jr. and Keselowski would be in a deep points hole under the old format, they'd have six races to make it up. Now they have two races to win and advance. We'll continue this thought with Junior's paragraph.
6. Kyle Larson (LW: 7): Dude just keeps on cranking out good finishes, doesn't he? Given how he's performed at Chicago and Kansas, he's going to be the trendy pick to win at Charlotte. And remember, last year's fall race at Charlotte saw Keselowski, a non-Chaser, win the race. It'd certainly be an interesting scenario; Larson gets his first win while Keselowski, Johnson and Junior are all potentially in a scenario to have to win at Talladega to advance.
7. Matt Kenseth (LW: 8): Kenseth had a cracked nose on his car and then an unscheduled pit stop for a loose wheel and finished 13th. Departing from Kenseth, television ratings for the race were down from last year, the second straight race with declining ratings from 2013. We're not going to go as far as to say it's time to be alarmed (talking about television ratings seems futile at times), though you certainly can't say that the new Chase format is drawing additional viewers. Or if it is, it's certainly at the expense of others.
8. Jimmie Johnson (LW: 4): It's a four spot drop for Johnson after he qualified and crashed. Had he simply crashed after qualifying and running in the top 15, this is harsh, but Johnson spun in qualifying and started at the back. It was just a bad weekend for the No. 48 team. All hope isn't lost by any means, but yes, Johnson not advancing past this round is a real possibility.
9. Carl Edwards (LW: 11): Edwards finished fifth on Sunday and looks like a great shot to get to the final eight. And based off his finishes from earlier in the year, don't be surprised if he gets to the final four as well. He finished 8th at Phoenix, 13th at Martinsville and 14th at Texas. Those aren't great runs, but consistent enough to keep Edwards hanging around.
10. Ryan Newman (LW: 10): Newman finished a spot behind Edwards and he's following the same trendline. The ability to avoid bad finishes may be more imperative than being excellent, and Newman has shown a strong ability to succeed at the former. If he can sneak in another top five or two the rest of the way...
11. Denny Hamlin (LW: 12): We're going fifth, sixth and seventh for these three spots. Hamlin won at Talladega in the spring, so that has to be a boost of confidence heading into what's probably the most random race of the Chase. If he can survive Charlotte with a good finish, there's a good shot that JGR will have all three cars in the final eight.
12. Dale Earnhardt Jr. (LW: 9): How would interest decline in a Chase without Keselowski, Johnson and Junior? Obviously Junior is the biggest fan draw of the three, but the other two aren't slouches. While the new Chase system isn't designed to be fair and create drama and surprise, when it comes to attention being paid to it, three of the sport's biggest stars missing the final eight isn't good.
Lucky Dog: Two straight top-10 finishes from Martin Truex Jr. He did this once earlier in the year and his next finish was 37th. Let's see if Truex makes it three in a row.
The DNF: Well, at least Kurt Busch knows that if he would have advanced to the next round of the Chase he wouldn't be in a position of possible success.
Dropped out: No one.
Donovan to captain US in national team finale.
By AP-Spots
Landon Donovan will captain the United States on Friday in his national team finale.
Donovan, who is retiring at the end of Major League Soccer's season, is the American leader with 57 goals and 58 assists. It will be the 157th international appearance for Donovan, a veteran of three World Cups who was controversially dropped by Klinsmann for this year's tournament in Brazil.
''Landon had an exceptional career, very, very special career,'' Klinsmann said. ''He should hopefully enjoy every second of it.''
English Premier League explores global expansion.
By Rob Harris
English clubs' interest in playing matches abroad has prompted the Premier League to explore the possibilities of expansion overseas.
U.S. coach Jurgen Klinsmann said Tuesday the 32-year-old Los Angeles Galaxy forward will start and play about 30 minutes against Ecuador in the exhibition at East Hartford, Connecticut.
''Landon had an exceptional career, very, very special career,'' Klinsmann said. ''He should hopefully enjoy every second of it.''
Klinsmann added San Jose forward Chris Wondolowski to his roster, expanding it to 22 players. Wondolowski, a member of this year's U.S. World Cup team, was scheduled to arrive Tuesday night and will miss San Jose's Major League Soccer game at Portland on Wednesday.
''Julian Green is struggling still with his rib injury that he caught at the Bayern Munich game there two weeks ago,'' Klinsmann said. ''So I called Wondo, if he doesn't mind, and he's thrilled, obviously, as usual.''
English Premier League explores global expansion.
By Rob Harris
Chelsea's Diego Costa celebrates after scoring his sides second goal of the game during their English Premier League soccer match between Chelsea and Arsenal at Stamford Bridge stadium in London Sunday, Oct. 5, 2014. (AP Photo/Alastair Grant)
English clubs' interest in playing matches abroad has prompted the Premier League to explore the possibilities of expansion overseas.
The league was forced to scrap plans six years ago to add an extra 39th round of matches at venues across the world amid opposition domestically and from FIFA. But league chief executive Richard Scudamore recently acknowledged that clubs still back the idea.
People with knowledge of the situation have told The Associated Press that clubs have now asked the league to conduct a feasibility study into global expansion options. They spoke on condition of anonymity because the discussions have been in private.
Although playing a regular season game abroad would appear unlikely in the immediate future, the league is looking into organizing lucrative pre-season friendlies and expanding the existing Premier League Asia trophy tournament to other continents.
The international interest in preseason games was highlighted by Manchester United's friendly against Real Madrid in Michigan in August. Organized by a third party company, it attracted a crowd of more than 109,000.
When asked about Premier League pre-season or even regular season games abroad, United managing director Richard Arnold told the AP: "That's still an area that's under some development. You've seen on the tour the engagement we get abroad."
Premier League games are broadcast into 650 million homes in 175 countries, according to league statistics. The league has been wary about reviving plans to take a game abroad after the initial discussion in 2008 angered both domestic fans and FIFA, with questions also about upsetting the balance of the division by inserting an extra fixture.
"The clubs wanted it (the regular season game abroad in 2008) and they all would still probably want it now," Scudamore told the BBC in August. "It will happen at some point. Whether it is on my watch, who knows?"
Pointing to the crowds at some pre-season friendlies in the United States, Scudamore said: "You wouldn't get more even if there was three points, six points, or even nine points riding on that particular game."
While clubs like United and Liverpool can secure lucrative deals for pre-season games, it would be clubs with smaller global fan bases that could benefit from the Premier League helping to organize fixtures.
The Spanish league organized its second "World Challenge" tour ahead of this season, for Almeria, Atletico Madrid, Deportivo La Coruna, Malaga and Valencia as Barcelona and Real Madrid cut its own deals.
Charlie Strong says his Texas team needs to learn how to win.
Charlie Strong says his Texas team needs to learn how to win.
By Nick Bromberg
Before the season began, Texas coach Charlie Strong startled some fans when he said his team wasn't going to win a national championship.
He's turned out to be true. At 2-3, even if Texas runs the table and wins every game the rest of the season, the Longhorns won't be in the College Football Playoff. But before talk can begin about Texas winning multiple games, the Longhorns first have to get back to .500 and start building confidence.
And Strong said Monday after his team's 28-7 loss to Baylor that his team is still learning how to win.
"Well, you look at the team, and I just know that [we would] like to be better than what we are," Strong said. "This is a team right now that's lacking confidence. It's lacking confidence where you go and finish the game. It's confidence to believe. As I said on Saturday, we've got to learn how to win."
"When you learn how to win the games and you walk into a game you're going to feel different about it. Like, hey, we can go win this football game, so it's a continual building process. When you have success early and you're dealing with a young team, then you've just got to continue to build on it because defensively you should play good on defense because the number of starters that you have coming back. And that's what's happening right now."
However, Texas hasn't had much success early. Its wins are over North Texas and Kansas, teams that have a combined four wins over SMU, Nicholls State, Southeast Missouri State and Central Michigan.
Strong said his seniors were becoming more vocal and named RB Malcolm Brown, who didn't lose much in high school. In his three-plus seasons at Texas, the Longhorns have lost 17 games.
Saturday's game for Texas is the Red River Rivalry against Oklahoma, a team that was upset last week by TCU.
"I told them as of right now, I did not feel like we were there yet," Brown said via Orangebloods.com. "High school football doesn't really compare a whole, whole lot to college football. I said I really felt that in high school, we never went into a game thinking we were going to lose. I can't even tell you any game we went in and I wasn't like, 'we're about to smash this team.' I told the team last week or two weeks ago I don't feel like that (about this) team, and that was something we needed to get is that type of confidence."
Last year, Texas beat Oklahoma. A Texas football program lacking for confidence is striking and it's especially noteworthy when the next game is against a rival who the Longhorns pasted the year before.
A win this season against the Sooners could produce a ton of confidence. But Texas knows that its offense will have to produce to have any shot of winning on Saturday. As we saw in 2013, you never truly know with a rivalry game. But as unlikely as last year's win looked, a Texas win looks even more unlikely, especially as the team admittedly struggles with its self-esteem.
Against Baylor, QB Tyrone Swoopes had his worst game since he took over for David Ash. Texas could have broken into double figures, but Swoopes fumbled a snap on fourth-and-goal from the one. He'll have to rebound proficiently against an Oklahoma defense that gave up 496 yards of offense to TCU.
"We know we can play a good brand of football," Quandre Diggs said. "We've been doing that all year. So it's not just defensively, though. We've got to continue to just help those guys on offense and continue to be the big brother out there and just don't point any fingers, just go out and help those guys get better each and every week. I think that's one thing that we have to do as a defense, continue to just help those guys and continue to just be there for them when they need our help."
10 former college athletes sue networks, leagues.
AP-Sports
A group of 10 former college athletes have filed a proposed class action, antitrust lawsuit against several television networks and college conferences, including ESPN, CBS, NBC, ABC, Fox and the Southeastern Conference, for profiting off their names and likenesses without their permission in both ads and televising games.
The lawsuit filed Friday in U.S. District Court in Nashville features former Vanderbilt safety Javon Marshall as lead plaintiff along with former teammates Eric Samuels and Steven Clarke. The lawsuit wants a class action for all current and former players in the Football Bowl Subdivision and Division I men's basketball.
They don't handle rejection gracefully.
The NCAA, to its credit, stepped in and ruled that Simmons can sit out this year and still play for Seton Hall during the 2015-16 season should she choose to do that. Nonetheless, while that's better than nothing, the NCAA doesn't deserve a free pass since it's the one whose rules make it possible for coaches to restrict freedom of movement for athletes in the first place.
Phelps suspended for 6 months after DUI arrest.
By BETH HARRIS (AP Sports Writer)
In the lawsuit, plaintiffs allege the release student-athletes are forced to sign is ''unconscionable, and vague,'' rendering it void and unenforceable.
''The conspiracy between and among the Broadcast Defendants, Licensing Defendants, Conference Defendants and the NCAA has created a marketplace resembling a plantation type arrangement where Defendants financially benefit in the collective amount of billions of dollars, while Student Athletes, the driving force of college sports, receive nothing more than their cost of attendance,'' according to the lawsuit.
''This conspiracy has created an anticompetitive marketplace in which all Defendants commercially exploit the substantial value of each Student Athletes' images.''
ESPN spokesman Josh Krulewitz declined to comment Tuesday. SEC spokesman Herb Vincent said the league does not comment on pending litigation.
Marshall last played in 2013 when Vanderbilt went 9-4 and finished in the Top 25, and the lawsuit notes he played in several games televised in prime time. But the lawsuit - first reported by The Tennessean - noted he never received any compensation for the commercial use of his name and image by the broadcast or licensing defendants.
Other plaintiffs are Sean Parker of Los Angeles, who played football at Washington; Patrick Miller of Chicago, who played basketball at Tennessee State; Rod Wilks and Byron Moore of Knoxville, both former Tennessee football players; Chaz Moore of Chattanooga, who played football at Chattanooga; Marlon Walls of Memphis, a former Tennessee football player; and Chris Conner of Nashville, a former Maryland-Eastern Shore basketball player.
The lawsuit accuses the broadcast networks, including the SEC and Longhorn networks, of ''colluding'' with conferences to ''fix the amount Student Athletes are paid for the licensing, use, and sale of their names, images and likenesses at zero, or, at most, a portion of the cost of attendance'' by refusing to negotiate or sign contracts with the students themselves.
The lawsuit accuses the broadcast networks, including the SEC and Longhorn networks, of ''colluding'' with conferences to ''fix the amount Student Athletes are paid for the licensing, use, and sale of their names, images and likenesses at zero, or, at most, a portion of the cost of attendance'' by refusing to negotiate or sign contracts with the students themselves.
The lawsuit also alleges the broadcasters adopted the rules of the NCAA and the conferences.
The conferences named as defendants are the Atlantic Coast Conference, the Big Ten Conference, the Big 12 Conference, the Pacific-12 Conference, Conference USA, Ohio Valley Conference based in Tennessee, and the Big East Conference. Others named include IMG Worldwide, Inc.; Big Ten Network Services, LLC; CBS Collegiate Sports Properties, Inc.; JMI Sports LLC; Telesouth Communications, Inc.; T3 Media, Inc.; Learfield Sports LLC; and William Morris Endeavors, LLC.
The conferences named as defendants are the Atlantic Coast Conference, the Big Ten Conference, the Big 12 Conference, the Pacific-12 Conference, Conference USA, Ohio Valley Conference based in Tennessee, and the Big East Conference. Others named include IMG Worldwide, Inc.; Big Ten Network Services, LLC; CBS Collegiate Sports Properties, Inc.; JMI Sports LLC; Telesouth Communications, Inc.; T3 Media, Inc.; Learfield Sports LLC; and William Morris Endeavors, LLC.
Alabama's shameful behavior highlights need for transfer reform.
By Jeff Eisenberg
Too many of today's college basketball coaches share something in common with scorned lovers, overeager job applicants and annoying door-to-door salesmen.
They don't handle rejection gracefully.
Alabama women's basketball coach Kristy Curry's attempt to prevent standout guard Daisha Simmons from playing for Seton Hall this season is the latest shameful example.
Simmons completed her undergraduate degree at Alabama this past spring and decided in late May to transfer to Seton Hall so she could play her final season of college basketball closer to her New Jersey home. She told the Asbury Park Press last week that her motivation for leaving Alabama stemmed from not getting into the MBA program she wanted to pursue and wanting to be closer to her older brother, who has end-stage renal disease and requires kidney dialysis several times per week.
Whereas most graduate transfers are automatically eligible to play immediately for their new school as long as they enter a graduate program unavailable at their previous institution, NCAA rules dictate that Simmons had to request a waiver because Seton Hall is her third school, not her second. The waiver should have been a foregone conclusion except that Curry refused to sign it and Alabama administrators so far, remarkably, have backed her up on that decision.
Alabama athletic director Bill Battle told the Asbury Park Press he supported not signing off on Simmons' transfer because the timing "left little or no time for the women’s basketball team to make alternate plans to replace her." Alabama president Judy Bonner rejected a request to revisit the matter on Monday, saying she considers the matter "closed."
An Alabama spokeswoman did not immediately respond to an email from Yahoo Sports seeking further comment from either Curry or Battle. Perhaps more information will emerge that will help explain the rationale behind how they've handled this situation, but at this point it's hard to imagine there's anything either could say to justify their stance.
Does Curry have a right to be upset about losing Simmons? Of course. She averaged 13.8 points and 4.3 assists as a junior for Alabama and figured to be one of the best players on the Crimson Tide again this coming season.
Does Curry have good reason to take out her anger on Simmons by attempting to keep her from playing at Seton Hall next season? Heck no, and she's abusing her power by doing so. All Simmons is doing is the same thing that Curry did when she left Texas Tech for Alabama in May 2013 — taking advantage of a better opportunity available to her elsewhere.
In reality, Curry and Alabama have almost nothing to gain from their stance. Not only does Simmons appear to have no interest in returning to the Crimson Tide, the school is also enduring a torrent of negative publicity as a result of its decision. College basketball luminaries from Jay Bilas, to Fran Fraschilla, to Dick Vitale have each ripped Alabama for putting its own interest above the happiness of one of its former student-athletes.
Alabama athletic director Bill Battle told the Asbury Park Press he supported not signing off on Simmons' transfer because the timing "left little or no time for the women’s basketball team to make alternate plans to replace her." Alabama president Judy Bonner rejected a request to revisit the matter on Monday, saying she considers the matter "closed."
An Alabama spokeswoman did not immediately respond to an email from Yahoo Sports seeking further comment from either Curry or Battle. Perhaps more information will emerge that will help explain the rationale behind how they've handled this situation, but at this point it's hard to imagine there's anything either could say to justify their stance.
Does Curry have a right to be upset about losing Simmons? Of course. She averaged 13.8 points and 4.3 assists as a junior for Alabama and figured to be one of the best players on the Crimson Tide again this coming season.
Does Curry have good reason to take out her anger on Simmons by attempting to keep her from playing at Seton Hall next season? Heck no, and she's abusing her power by doing so. All Simmons is doing is the same thing that Curry did when she left Texas Tech for Alabama in May 2013 — taking advantage of a better opportunity available to her elsewhere.
In reality, Curry and Alabama have almost nothing to gain from their stance. Not only does Simmons appear to have no interest in returning to the Crimson Tide, the school is also enduring a torrent of negative publicity as a result of its decision. College basketball luminaries from Jay Bilas, to Fran Fraschilla, to Dick Vitale have each ripped Alabama for putting its own interest above the happiness of one of its former student-athletes.
The NCAA, to its credit, stepped in and ruled that Simmons can sit out this year and still play for Seton Hall during the 2015-16 season should she choose to do that. Nonetheless, while that's better than nothing, the NCAA doesn't deserve a free pass since it's the one whose rules make it possible for coaches to restrict freedom of movement for athletes in the first place.
Wisconsin endured a spate of negative publicity in 2012 after preventing promising freshman forward Jarrod Uthoff from reaching out to Marquette, Iowa State and every school in the Big Ten and ACC. Saint Joseph's coach Phil Martelli became talk show fodder the previous winter for refusing to sign the paperwork needed to allow transfer Todd O'Brien to play at Alabama-Birmingham. And earlier this year, Kansas State declined star guard Leticia Romero's transfer request for weeks before finally conceding to withering national criticism and allowing her to leave.
The only silver lining to all these cases is they continue to shine a spotlight on how one-sided the rules are in favor of coaches and administrators and against athletes.
There's no reason that a transfer should need his or her former coach's permission to leave for the school of his or her choice. It gives far too much power to coaches, who, as we've seen time and time again in recent years, seldom handle break-ups gracefully.
Phelps suspended for 6 months after DUI arrest.
Michael Phelps walks away from the starting block after winning the men's 100-meter butterfly at the Bulldog Grand Slam swim meet at the University of Georgia in Athens, Ga. Authorities say Olympic swimmer Michael Phelps has been arrested on a DUI charge in Maryland. Transit police say they stopped the 29-year-old Phelps at the Fort McHenry Tunnel in Baltimore around 1:40 a.m. Tuesday, Sept. 30, 2014.(AP Photo/David Goldman, File)
Michael Phelps' comeback took a major hit on Monday, with USA Swimming suspending the 18-time Olympic champion for six months and forcing him to withdraw from next year's world championships.
Phelps also lost six months of funding from the sport's national governing body as a result of his second DUI arrest. The 29-year-old swimmer is banned from participating in USA Swimming-sanctioned meets through April 6, 2015.
Phelps can still train with his North Baltimore club, but he had already qualified for the world championships in Russia next August, which is the biggest international meet leading up to the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics.
Phelps came out of retirement earlier this year with his sights set on competing at a fifth Olympics in Rio. Being barred from the world meet could put a serious dent in those ambitions.
His latest arrest came about a month after Phelps won three golds and two silvers at the Pan Pacific Championships in Australia. He had retired after the 2012 London Olympics, having won a record 18 gold medals and 22 medals in four games.
Phelps' monthly funding stipend of $1,750 will be halted for six months, costing him a total of $10,500. That is small change compared to the millions he earns through several major endorsements, including Aqua Sphere, Subway, Under Armour, Omega and Master Spas.
''Michael accepts USA Swimming's sanctions,'' according to a statement from his representatives at Octagon. ''He has apologized for his actions and, as he shared yesterday, is taking steps to address them.''
Over the weekend, Phelps announced he was entering a six-week, in-patient program, a week after he was arrested and charged with drunken driving in his hometown of Baltimore.
''Swimming is a major part of my life, but right now I need to focus my attention on me as an individual, and do the necessary work to learn from this experience and make better decisions in the future,'' he said in a series of posts on his Twitter account.
U.S. Olympic Committee CEO Scott Blackmun said, ''We think the sanctions are appropriate and we are glad that Michael is seeking help. We are grateful that nobody was hurt and appreciate the speed at which USA Swimming and Michael took action.''
USA Swimming said Phelps violated its Code of Conduct, and cited a section of its 2014 Rule Book in punishing Phelps. Its executive committee approved the sanctions, which take effect immediately.
''Michael's conduct was serious and required significant consequences,'' said Chuck Wielgus, USA Swimming executive director. ''We endorse and are here to fully support his personal development actions.''
While Phelps was still working out his schedule for the upcoming year, he will miss the first three U.S. Grand Prix meets in Minneapolis in November, Austin, Texas, in January and Orlando, Florida, in February.
The earliest he could return to Grand Prix competition would be at a meet in Mesa, Arizona, that begins April 15.
USA Swimming's punishment was its harshest ever imposed on its superstar. The governing body suspended Phelps for three months in 2009 after a photo emerged of him using a marijuana pipe, even though he was not charged.
USA Swimming took no action after Phelps' 2004 drunken driving arrest when he was 19.
Phelps was charged on Sept. 30 with driving under the influence, excessive speed and crossing double lane lines on Interstate 95. He registered .14 percent on a blood-alcohol test after he was stopped on a speeding violation; the legal limit is .08 percent in Maryland.
His trial is scheduled for Nov. 19.
If convicted, Phelps faces up to one year in jail, a $1,000 fine and the loss of his driver's license for six months.
In 2004, Phelps was arrested and charged with drunken driving on Maryland's Eastern Shore, fresh from the Athens Olympics, where he won six gold medals.
Phelps pleaded guilty to the charges, but as a young first-time offender he avoided conviction. A judge imposed 18 months' probation and a fine but waived the conviction, which means Phelps now faces the same penalties a first-time offender would.
On This Date in Sports History: Today is Wednesday, October 8, 2014.
MemoriesofHistory.com
1956 - Donald James Larsen of the New York Yankees pitched the first perfect game in the history of the World Series.
1957 - The Brooklyn Baseball Club announced that it had accepted a deal to move the Dodgers to Los Angeles.
1975 - Doug Jarvis (Montreal Canadiens) began his streak of 984 straight games in the NHL. The streak ended on October 10, 1987.
2003 - Jarome Iginla (Calgary Flames) became the first black player in the NHL to become captain.
2009 - The UFL (United Football League) began it's first season with four teams.
1957 - The Brooklyn Baseball Club announced that it had accepted a deal to move the Dodgers to Los Angeles.
1975 - Doug Jarvis (Montreal Canadiens) began his streak of 984 straight games in the NHL. The streak ended on October 10, 1987.
2003 - Jarome Iginla (Calgary Flames) became the first black player in the NHL to become captain.
2009 - The UFL (United Football League) began it's first season with four teams.
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