A Tale Of Two Commissioners

Opportunity was knocking Monday, but the Commish would not let him in.

Hearing the news that neither Andre Johnson nor Cortland Finnegan would be suspended for their on-field altercation, it’s clear that NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell dropped the ball on the ruling.  It should have been harsher.  Much harsher.

Johnson and Finnegan dropped sticks, threw off the gloves, and mixed it up in the fourth quarter of the thrilling yawn-inspiring Texans-Titans game on Sunday.  In a game between the NFL’s two most disappointing sweetheart teams over the past three years, an even more disappointing display of sportsmanship stole the show.  The reaction from Johnson was surprising based upon his even-keeled personality, though he was instigated by a Grade A rat in Finnegan.  There were shirts ripped, helmets comically ripped off and thrown (see: Finnegan), and a few ugly punches landed.  Finnegan and his dreadful haircut were on the receiving end of most of the heavy ones.

Goodell took over as commissioner and quickly built a reputation through a no-nonsense policy and heavy disciplinary actions doled out.   For the players, off field lapses in judgment now lead to suspensions, sometimes multiple games for repeat offenders like Pacman Jones and Ben Roethlisberger.  Helmet-to-helmet hits draw fines larger than the average joe’s salary.  But this?  This pummeling? These grown men acting like babies? A measly $25,000 each.  How will the Commish explain this ruling?  A fight at a strip club in the middle of the night draws a multiple game ban, but an obscene disregard for sportsmanship on national television is just a few thousand dollars.

He got it wrong.

Johnson, though a generally decent NFL citizen and clearly remorseful about his actions, should be suspended for at least two games.  I’m not just saying that because the Eagles’ secondary has decided to work from home and has to cover him on Thursday night.  Finnegan should have received somewhere between $75,000 fine and a one game suspension.  Though he was the victim of what would have been a misdemeanor assault on the street, Finnegan got his shots in.  If the video is slowed down, one can clearly see that he threw a punch first, before he ripped Johnson’s helmet off an threw it.

Goodell wants to clean up the league’s image, and has shown positive steps towards getting it through the players’ heads that they represent a company and should act accordingly.  But, what better opportunity to do so than this skirmish?  It happened on the field, in front of the fans!  Not in a bar bathroom, or a dark club VIP room, or on a police report.  It happened directly in front of the consumers, and Goodell missed a chance to improve the product.






Oh, and Reid f****d up.
That field goal was pointless.
End of story.

Will Evan Turner Be The Man?

For as long as I have been following the Sixers I have been spoiled.  No, not with a championship or deep playoff pushes or even the occasional t-shirt shot out of a potato gun.  I have been spoiled by a number: 3.  Any Philadelphia sports fan, and most basketball fans across the country would likely be able to match the number to the man.  For the 10 years that Allen Iverson donned the awful gold-lettered logo in Philly, he captivated a city.  From the moment he and his fresh high-top made Michael Jordan defend like Derek Fisher, he had everyone's attention.  I barely knew what basketball was at that time, let alone rooted for any team.  Yet, I wanted a pair of the white and gold Answers because everyone else had them.  As I learned to love the game, it was very easy to watch AI and love him too, championship or not.  Iverson will go in to the Hall of Fame as, IMHO, one of the top 25 greatest players of all time, and his number 3 will hang from the rafters of the WFC.

Some big Reeboks to fill?  I'd say so.

But I'm not putting those expectations on Evan Turner.  Besides, he probably wears a bigger size.

Turner came to Philadelphia after the Sixers got seriously lucky in the goofy draft lottery and jumped a few spaces up to pick #2.  After an underwhelming first two years at Ohio State, he blossomed into a brace-faced stud.  Averaging over 20 points a game with nine rebounds and six assists, he walked cooly out of college with a Player of the Year trophy under his wing.  Pretty mouth-watering for a team that is re-building, re-tooling, or re-energizing (whatever ownership shovels at us).  Wall was going to be number #1 the entire time, but Turner going #2 might have shocked some people.  Regardless, we're stuck with him and I'm excited about it.

In these crap years for the Sixers, much like the few years before the 1996 draft, people want a new star to carry the team to another championship opportunity.  Turner will not be that man, but I promise he will be a part of it.  There won't ever be another player and personality like Iverson, and everyone has to get used to it.

So what do we know about Turner?  He wants the last shot, baby!  He could start with taking a few more uncontested shots during the other 47 and a half minutes.  He tends to dribble in to trouble and take a shot 2 seconds after he should have.  He doesn't like his left hand too much, and he runs kind of like a girl.  But here is the thing, the first two can be dealt with.  He's always going to run like a girl.  If we have the point guard in Holiday that we've been waiting on, Turner won't have to create too many of his own shots.  BOOM, problem solved.  If the coaching staff recognizes that he struggles going to the left, set screens for him swinging right and have him be aggressive on taking quality shots.  BOOM, problem solved.
The good news is he crashes the boards well for someone at his position, has sticky fingers on defense, and has an overall positive demeanor and winning attitude.  And he wants the last shot, baby!
He has a golden opportunity in these next couple of years to develop in a solid #2 on a team with young athletes in a no-pressure environment.  And depending on the ever-tiring should we, shouldn't we trade scenario for Iguodala, he may even get a lot of minutes on the court.  What Turner needs to do now is not look at the Wizards' box score every night and try to live up to what he sees.  If he wants, he can practice the Dougie in the mirror at night, but never do it in public.
He was THE man at tOSU, but now he is just A man on the Sixers, but one with a ton of potential and a good young PG to help him grow.  And if the Sixers ever do find that next superstar to captivate the city, expect Turner to be a major reason for the team's success.

So I guess what I'm saying is: No, there will not be many kids in the school yard wearing #12 jerseys, bragging about their new Reebok Evan Turner retainers.  But that isn't the role he was destined, or should be expected to fill.