Who Cares?!!?

The weekly Who Cares?!!? segment is back again, to chronicle the least cared about stories in sports.  So here we go.  As always, please vote at the bottom to tell me which story you could care least about this week.

(1) In just a couple of weeks, the country of Peru will debut its first Olympic Winter Games athlete.  When Roberto Carcelen, who hails from Lima, met his future wife in an online chat room and moved to Seattle, Washington, little did he know that love connection would eventually send him to the Olympics. Seven years ago when he relocated to Seattle and married his now-wife, Kate Clement, she encouraged the 38-year old former marathoner to take up cross country skiing.

How can you not root for this guy?

After watching the 2006 Winter Games in Turin, Carcelen became determined to represent his country at the Games for the first time.  Asked why there isn't more Winter Olympic participation from Peru, Carcelen cited two reasons: first, he mused that the snow is at too high of an elevation in Peru for skiing, and second,

"We [Peruvians] take a different approach to life.  We kind of like living life in a good way.  With sports, we're not like other cultures.  We like food, wine, and partying.  We have an active community, but we like all things."

This is simply a guy you can't not root for.  He's attempting to grow the sport in South America and has used his own money to train and qualify - qualify, I might add, legitimately instead of accepting a free pass from the International Olympic Committee.  Watch for him at the Opening Ceremonies next week, you shouldn't be able to miss him, he'll be the guy from Peru.

Carcelen trained in the Andes, on his own dime.

(2) On Thursday, in an attempt to build hype for a quarterback coaching school in Delaware, a 13-year old committed to play football for USC.  Even though he won't be eligible for 5 more years - and the commitment is non-binding for both sides - there is a significant amount of YouTube video floating around of David Sills, prodigy of Steve Clarkson's Dreammaker Academy.  Further proof, perhaps, that college recruiting has just gotten silly.

Thanks to Sills, expect Steve Clarkson's tutoring fees to go through the roof.

(3) Finally, a big flap currently going down over at Womentalksports.com, where the issue for debate is United States Olympic skier Lindsey Vonn's cover shot for Sports Illustrated.  Here's the photo:

Now, here's the argument from University of Minnesota professor Dr. Nicole M. Lavoi:

"When females are are featured on the cover of SI, they are more likely than not to be in sexualized poses and not in action - and the most recent Vonn cover is no exception."

Lavoi has faced some heat for this assessment (from which you can draw your own conclusions), but what cannot be argued is that when women are featured in sports media, it is much more typical for them to be posing, rather than in action.  Is Vonn in action, above? Lavoi doesn't think so.  So when The Huffington Post suggests that this is just "whining" and the "sexy pose is also a skiing pose," Lavoi responded by noting that just because she is wearing skis, does not mean this is a natural skiing pose.  Consider that Vonn is not wearing her helmet, her hair is made-up, and at no point during a skiing run would any skier's head be turned completely 90 degrees to one side.  Furthermore, as Lavoi points out, because of the angle of the photo and its' placement on the cover, the first place your eyes turn is towards Vonn's rear and only later do they move towards her face.  Wouldn't that classify the image as objectifying?

This is a Vonn "action" shot.  The focus is on her face.  

In the end, Sports Illustrated is out to sell magazines.  Even Lavoi recognizes that, but the issue is that the overwhelming majority of female athlete portrayals points more towards their sexiness (see Serena Williams and Candace Parker on the covers of ESPN the Magazine), detracting from their incredible talents as athletes.

So, which is the sports story you care least about this week?

The Sports/Media Complex at an apex?

Before I headed off to school this morning, I caught a couple minutes each of Mike & Mike and First Take on ESPN2.  In the span of just a few minutes, I saw last year's Super Bowl MVP Santonio Holmes hawking a rather ugly pair of Reebok trainers and a First Take host open her interview with Detroit Lions quarterback Drew Stafford with the following: "Drew, what does it take to have girl-approved hair?"  In case you're curious, that line is adapted from Axe's hair products, for which Stafford is a spokesman.

These help you train better.  Whatever you say, science.

Santonio Holmes with Greeny & Golic and his shirt matched his shoes.

I realize it's the Super Bowl and everyone is cashing in, but it's more indicative of what's happening at in the world of sports - and at the World Wide Leader - the past several years.

Advertisements are a big part of ESPN's SportsCenter

Looking specifically at ESPN, from their partnership with EA Sports that produced the strangest NFL Countdown segment ever...

...to asking their analysts which player in a given game needs to taste greatness the most...

What might greatness taste like?  Miller Lite thinks they have the answer.

...the commercial/infotainment element of sport is certainly at its apex.  But it's not just ESPN, as noted in posts from the past couple of days.  Television, advertising, and sport are more intertwined now than ever before, across all sorts of sports - professional, amateur, or otherwise.

Is there any way for consumers to opt out of this growing machine?  Well, more and more sporting contests are available online.  Also, blogs are also doing some good work right now - when it comes to insightful information and analysis - especially if you are interested in a sport that doesn't receive much television coverage.  And finally, players have opened themselves directly - some more open than others - with technological tools like Facebook and Twitter.

It may not be the end of the world, or even the end of sports, just that the line between advertising and content is getting more and more blurry, and we fans have seemingly so little input in that process.

Update: NCAA March Madness Expansion...highly likely

Even though the NCAA has denied they are expanding the Men's 2011 NCAA basketball tournament, NCAA president Greg Shaheen has said that the organization is currently "investigat[ing] the possibility of expanding the tournament" to 65, 68, or 96 teams."

So what about the NIT, taker of 32 teams just outside the NCAA tournament's bubble?  Apparently, the NCAA's deal with the NIT expires after this season, and the teams sent to that tournament could become a part of the now-expanded NCAA tournament in 2011.

Reports have coaches in support of the move.  Illinois head coach Bruce Weber told a Chicago news site,

"Selfishly I think as a coaching profession, there's so much pressure on you to get into the tournament, if you don't get in, you're a failure.  So, I think it would help keep jobs, it would maybe stabilize some programs, so I am definitely for it.  I think most of our coaching profession is."

Fair enough coach, but what happens when getting into the tournament is no longer a mark for coaches to meet?  Would fans and universities (presidents and athletic directors) create new benchmarks, like say, progressing to the round of 64?  Seems like a specious argument until you consider that even if 96 teams make the NCAA tournament, that means there are 251 teams that won't (a total of 347 Div 1 NCAA basketball schools).  From the current system where just 18% of NCAA teams make the tournament, the potential of a 96-team tournament would bump that percentage to almost 28%.  Wouldn't future coaches contracts take that into account?

Bruce Weber would have trouble wearing this jacket at the DMV 

if he got fired from his job at Illinois.

"Sitting at 2-5, I'm all for it," Texas Tech coach Pat Knight quipped yesterday.  But besides job preservation, coaches are realizing the economic impacts for their organization.  As Knight continued,

"From a money standpoint, I think it'd be good because it's not like people are going to not watch those early round games just because they extended it.  I'm sure they're going to be able to get TV contracts."

According to ESPN Dallas-Ft. Worth, Kansas coach Bill Self also recognizes that TV is a huge element of expansion:

"Whatever it is, if it's 96 there's going to be 97, 98, 99 that feel like they got left out...I think television will dictate so much of it.  I think it's worth discussing, but I haven't seen anyone's formula that would be the right formula.  Football can't figure it out and they deal with less teams."

While it's highly unlikely that Bill Self and Kansas will have to worry about being the 99th team on the outside of the 2011 NCAA Tournament, I find it interesting that Knight and Self acknowledge that television controls the sport.  It's no different than most other sports in the States or the world over, for that matter, but it is interesting that fans have no say whatsoever in sports and TV scheduling.  Consider the fact that college football, during the regular season, is broadcast five or six nights a week on ESPN.

Ranked number 1 in February 2010, 

ranked number 99 in February 2011?  Not likely.

As for the impending NCAA TV deal, currently Sports Business Daily has CBS partnering with Turner Sports (TNT/TBS) for a deal that will show the opening rounds on cable and eventually make the move to CBS for the later rounds.

Is the NCAA ready for these guys?

Long a player in the professional basketball ranks, is TBS/TNT a good fit for the NCAA tournament?  Furthermore, from an attendance standpoint, will an expanded tournament be able to fill the large arenas that typically house the opening rounds?  These questions are just a few that surround an issue I don't think is going away any time soon.

For your viewing pleasure, here's the 2009 "One Shining Moment," the best annually-occuring montage in all of sports.  And, of course, the only sports montage featuring the incomparable Luther Vandross.  The 2011 version?  Will probably need a new title..."One Shining Slightly Longer Period of Time?"

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As a short aside, one country that had placed regulations on TV scheduling for sports until recently was Germany.  Until 2006, in the nation's top soccer division, the Bundesliga, 7 games would be played at 3.30 pm on Saturday and 2 games would be played on Sunday at 5 pm.  And that was it.  Until Rupert Murdoch's Sky broadcasting, in 2006, moved one of the Saturday games to 6.30 pm and another game to Friday evening at 8.30 pm.

Even with a sport so staunchly defended in Germany as soccer, nothing is impenetrable to the mighty force of television.  Which means fans won't have a say here either - whether it's NCAA football, basketball, or any other sporting contest.

How many teams?...and Green Men Galore...

Will next year's March Madness have 96 teams?  According to reports, including this work from Sports Business Daily, the NCAA is looking to opt out of its current contract with CBS after this year and initiate a new bidding process for a 12-year deal.  They have until August 31 to opt out of the three remaining years left on an 11-year, $6 billion contract.

The 2011 NCAA tournament will be hosted in Houston, and, 

if the NCAA gets their way, 

every other arena available in the continental U.S.

The NCAA is hoping for a new deal that will give them a no-penalty exit clause and, more importantly, the ability to expand to tournament to 68 or 96 teams.  Under the 68-team format, there would be three play-in games to start the tournament.  A 96-team field would include an extra round for 64 teams, with the top 32 teams would receiving a first round bye.

Could the people on the side move in a bit?  

We gotta fit in 32 more.

It's being reported that Turner Sports, ESPN, Fox, and even CBS are interested.  According to Sports Business Daily, the options for the NCAA are thus:

• The NCAA could keep its current deal with CBS
• The NCAA could make a new deal with CBS
• The NCAA could make a new deal with a new partner, or
• The NCAA could create a split-rights agreement.

More games, more money for the NCAA -- the same reason there's no playoff in division one college football.

Anyway, here's something completely unrelated, but it made my weekend.  Gotta love those Canucks...

Pro Combat returns...

During a week that saw two NBA players suspended for bringing guns into their locker rooms, Nike's brand new Pro Combat advertisement featured an image of Lakers guard Kobe Bryant, with the following quote:

The word "chamber" is a reference to the part of the gun that holds the bullet before it's fired.  The ad has appeared in recent editions of Sports Illustrated and ESPN the Magazine.

We seemed to be left with a choice: either Nike has truly inappropriate and accidental timing, or the advertisement is an example of Nike subtle, and intentional, marketing scheme. (If I'm leaving an option out, let me know).

Nike released a statement yesterday to deal with the increased publicity surrounding the ad:

"The Nike print ad featuring Kobe Bryant was intended to illustrate his all out play and commitment on the basketball court.  It is a commonly used reference for shooting the basketball and no offense was intended."  

Depending on your interpretation of the events, basketball and violent (or least the insinuation of violent) metaphors are natural - and not to be questioned - companions.  As such, James defended the ad and Bryant.  Addressing reporters after a game on Friday, James said,

"[The ad] has nothing, zero, to do with guns.  At all.  At all.  Zero, that's very simple.  For somebody to even say that - that's a basketball term.  To try to highlight Kobe and say that he was referencing guns is totally ridiculous."

Certainly, that statement is credible.  I, too, believe that Kobe wasn't intentionally referencing guns.  It's more that gun and violent and war metaphors are just natural parts of the sporting lexicon.  James revealed as much, just a few sentences later:

"...We say a lot of things as basketball players that make a reference to guns and violence, but it's not really guns and violence."

The problem is that it connotes violence.  Naming a product "Pro Combat" insinuates combat, as in war.  That is, in part, why city officials in Cleveland rejected the LeBron Pro Combat mural in November of last year.  At the time, Cleveland commissioner Tony Coyne said "he felt the 'combat' reference is also inappropriate, at a time when U.S. soldiers are fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan."  Has that situation changed?  Is it now, suddenly in 2010, appropriate to be mixing metaphors without contemplating the ramifications?

To use another example, if, according to James, "it's not really guns and violence," then a team nickname like the "Bullets," would be harmless, no?

The franchise moved from Baltimore to Washington in 1973

The team's logo until 1997

Ownership of the now-Washington franchise changed the name from Bullets to Wizards in 1997, amid concerns of the violent connotation.

Unless he's Lord Voldemort in disguise, 

there's nothing violent about this guy.

Either way, I have a hard time believing this was an accident on behalf of Nike.  The previous "Pro Combat" advertisements suggest that they are fully comfortable portraying sport as violent war.  But regardless of whether it was or not, it's just another example of how violent language is normalized in the world of sport.

Which, as your mom always told you, is all well and good until someone gets hurt...or has a gun drawn on them in an NBA locker room.

Who Cares?!!?

Another installment this week of the Who Cares?!!? segment.  Again, you tell me which sports story you care the absolutely least about.  Here we go.

(1) First up, the NHL's Buffalo Sabres found themselves in an interesting predicament in San Jose last weekend and it had nothing to do with a hockey game.

Turns out that the hotel they were staying at in San Jose was also hosting a Furry Convention (a Fur-Con).  As a result, a number of people dressed as furry animals/mascots got to take some pictures with NHL stars - including this gem with soon-to-be US Olympian (and Sabres goaltender) Ryan Miller:

There are more shots featuring Sabres forward Drew Stafford on his Twitter page.  In the end, the furries may have brought the team some laughs, but not much luck.  The team lost 5-2 the Sharks that night.

(2) Second, after a three years absence, Michael Schumacher is returning to Formula One racing with MercedesGP Racing.  The forty-one year old resumes his career in a sport he dominated from 1994 to 2006 with racing teams Benetton and Ferrari.  During those years he won seven Formula One championships (1994, 1995, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004) and a total of ninety-one races.

Guess who will be riding shotgun.  No, not the man standing.

The German joins the Stuttgart-based GP team with fellow a German, twenty-four year old driver Nic Rosberg, creating what Daimler chairman Dr. Dieter Zetsche has labeled as a de-facto "German National Team."

(3) Third, after becoming the school's fifth coach to win a National Championship, Nick Saban is about to become immortalized in bronze by the University of Alabama.  Work has begun on a statue of the University's coach, set to cost approximately $50,000.  With input on the design from Saban's wife, Terry, the school hopes to have the statue in place on Bryant-Denny Stadium's Walk of Champions plaza by the spring game. (Note the spot in the first picture below where Alabama had built a place for the next coach statue...now, those are expectations).

Bear Bryant...

with the other three coaches and soon to include...

current head coach Nick Saban

Saban's statue will join those of Alabama championship coaches Wallace Wade, Frank Thomas, Paul "Bear" Bryant, and Gene Stallings.

So, tell me.  What do you care least about this week?




The Who Cares?!!? stories not making the cut this week:

• Roger Federer steamrolling towards another major tennis championship
• Major League Soccer on the brink of a major labor dispute
• MLS' highest paid player, Landon Donovan, scores his first goal in England for Everton
• Chad Ochocinco will have some kicking duties at this weekend's NFL Pro Bowl

Even more updates on Juventus and Phoenix...

Juventus lost yesterday, again in dramatic fashion and again by a score of 2-1.  This time, it was to nemesis Inter Milan in the quarterfinals of the Italian Cup. Appropriately, the winning goal was scored by Mario Balotelli, the target of Juventus fans' racist chants. More importantly, practically every news source reporting on the game made mention of the banning of Juventus fans from yesterday's game in Milan.  So, that was an improvement over last weekend's game.

Inter Milan's San Siro Stadium, sans Juve fans

Inter fans with an creative birthday salute to their head coach, Jose Mourinho

The Yankees of Italian football have now lost nine of its last twelve games and are no longer in the running to win the Champions League, Italian Cup, or the Italian Scudetto (league championship). As a result, the team's head coach was fired today.

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A second update with an eye on the NHL's Phoenix Coyotes. Of course, I've mentioned the bankruptcy and attendance issues, but I caught the following from their shootout victory at home on Thursday:

Note the writing on the dasher boards on the top right

Those are ads for the Coyotes on Facebook and Twitter

So far as I know, Phoenix is the first NHL team to place their Facebook and Twitter pages on their home arena dasher boards.  Most teams do have FB and Twitter accounts, but the Coyotes feature theirs prominently on their home web site:

Credit to the Coyotes as well as the NHL.  Just a couple years ago, the NHL conducted a fan analysis that showed that the NHL fan demographic is the most technologically savvy/connected in all of sports.  As a result, I think the NHL has done such a great job with access through team websites, highlights, and video, that the lack of highlights and information on the World Wide Leader isn't such a big deal.  Frankly, it seems that watching ESPN offers so little valuable information/analysis for any sport these days, that I'd rather use my computer to go straight to the source.

And when you have Coyote players starting flip-cup games in bars on road trips, as they did last Sunday after a game against Washington at Georgetown's Rhino Bar, well you just can't beat that kind of access to NHL players.  As the bar manager, the crowd gathered, and a group of defeated Georgetown undergrads found out, NHL players are some of the coolest athletes in sports.