The NCAA is in Trouble, and Players Shouldn't Have Any Sympathy

The COVID-19 pandemic has been devastating for a lot of industries, including sports. Each league is trying to find a way to play games that don’t blatantly put the health of its players, coaches and other staff members at risk. A big reason for this is that, even during a pandemic, there is money to be made from games, and no sports organization is as desperate to generate revenue than the NCAA.

While the organization was one of the first to address the pandemic back in March when it restricted fans from attending March Madness games, before scrapping the entire tournament, it faces an even bigger challenge in the coming months: football.

The cancellation of March Madness had devastating financial consequences on the NCAA, but the cancellation of an entire football season could be even worse. The sport is a huge revenue generator for a lot of colleges and universities that are going to see a decline in attendance, and therefore tuition dollars, this fall. But while schools may be left in a very difficult situation if there is no season, by no means should any NCAA athlete for any sport have to play in the midst of a pandemic.

It makes sense that professional athletes would want to play because playing their respective sports is how they make a living, and even with that being said many across different leagues have opted out of playing. College athletes do not get paid for playing their respective sports, an entirely separate issue, therefore the only incentive for them to play is to keep their scholarships. One could argue that some student athletes would want to play anyway for simply the love of the game, but that will almost certainly not be the case.

According to the Los Angeles Times, 30 UCLA football players wrote a letter to the university last month which condemned the school for failing to protect their health and safety. This came after certain schools, like Alabama and Auburn, began training camps early and saw a surge of COVID-19 cases among the players.

Certain conferences are taking matters into their own hands. Earlier this month the Ivy League announced that no sports would be played during the fall season. Some smaller Division III conferences have also cancelled fall sports.

But schools that generate a lot of money from football and are dependent on that money, like Alabama and Auburn, are likely going to try to find a way to play. The NCAA is already staring down a very uncertain future with all of the revenue lost, so it will encourage anyway to bring in money even if it means making unpaid student athletes put the health and safety of themselves and of their families on the line.

Whether or not the NCAA will, or can, force student athletes to play has yet to be seen. We will find out come the fall, and if early training camps were any indication then resuming games guarantees many players will get infected with COVID-19. The consequences of that could be dire, and that, combined with the huge loss of revenue from March Madness, puts the NCAA’s future in uncharted territory.

Photos courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

Report: Michael Rosen

Patrick Mahomes Signs Record-Setting Contract, And He Deserves It

Patrick Mahomes has secured a retirement plan for his great grandchildren. The star quarterback of the defending Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs recently signed a 10-year extension worth $477 million, plus a potential $26 million in bonuses for a whopping $503 million. The contract ensures Mahomes will remain in Kansas City through the 2031 season.

This is the most lucrative contract in American sports history, a title previously held by Mike Trout’s 12-year $426.5 million deal with the Los Angeles Angels. Mahomes is the first professional athlete to sign a contract worth half a billion dollars, and this doesn’t even include endorsements.

It’s fair to be angry at the fact that a football player is earning half a billion dollars, especially during a global pandemic and unprecedented unemployment. Although it should be noted that artists, such as actors and musicians, who are being paid similar amounts of money are seemingly immune to the same criticism. But there is no denying that half a billion dollars is a lot of money, and, at least from a pure sport standpoint, Patrick Mahomes is one of the few professional athletes playing today who deserves that type of money.

He has only played two full seasons in the NFL, and yet he already has a Super Bowl ring, a Super Bowl MVP, a regular season MVP and threw for 50 touchdowns in a single season. He is a classic gunslinging quarterback who is considered by many to be the best in the league, and at the ripe old age of 24 it’s likely his best seasons are ahead of him. Chiefs fans aren’t upset at the amount of money he’ll be making and for good reason. Mahomes brought a championship to a franchise that hadn’t won a title in 50 years, and he looks poised to bring a few more Lombardi trophies back to Kansas City.

But just because Mahomes is locked up for the next decade does not guarantee a dynasty for Kansas City. There are plenty of elite quarterbacks, past and present, who have only one Super Bowl to their name; Brett Favre, Aaron Rodgers and Drew Brees just to name a few. There’s also the fact that the Chiefs are going to be working with a tightened budget when trying to sign other players. Kansas City is not a huge market and having around $50 million dedicated to Mahomes each year for the next decade means the Chiefs probably won’t be handing out too many more huge contracts for a while. Locking up a generational talent like Mahomes was the right move, but the challenge now becomes maintaining and building upon the core around him while staying under the salary cap.

Photos courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

Report: Michael Rosen

Will We Finally See Teams Scrap Names That Are Offensive to Native Americans?

As we begin to finally address the ugly history of the United States in a genuine way many have called for change in a variety of forms, including the renaming of certain sports franchises. The two most prominent franchises in the discussion are the NFL team in Washington, D.C. and the MLB team in Cleveland, both of which use names based on Native Americans.

Changing the names of these franchises and similar teams has been discussed for years, but momentum to actually do so has never been greater than it is right now. FedEx, who sponsor Washington’s NFL stadium, have publicly called for the team to change its name. Cleveland’s manager, Terry Francona, has voiced his support for a name change. But there are still plenty of people out there who believe changing the names these franchises have had for decades is blasphemous and breaks tradition.

The issue with that argument is that neither of these teams have much history or tradition to celebrate under the usage of its respective names. Cleveland has only two World Series titles to its name, the fewest among the eight original teams that have been in the American League since 1901. Cleveland also has the longest ongoing title drought in MLB, its last championship came in 1948. Washington has faired slightly better with three Super Bowl titles, but it has lacked recent success having won only two playoff games in the 21st century. Not to mention the frequent chants of “sell the team!” that took place at FedExField over the last year. Clearly nothing else these teams are doing is leading to success, so a complete change in names and uniforms certainly can’t hurt.

In fact, an overhaul of identity could benefit these teams. While some hardheaded fans may abandon their team after a name change, many will stick with the team and will need to replace all of the hats, jerseys and other merchandise they have purchased that feature the old name and logo. These teams could see a huge increase in merchandise sales, especially if the new name and logos are done well and are aesthetically pleasing.

Teams changing names because of public outcry is also nowhere near as unprecedented as some are making it out to be. The Tampa Bay Rays were originally the Devil Rays before religious groups expressed their discontent with having the word ‘Devil’ in its name, a fate the New Jersey Devils have somehow avoided. The Houston Astros were called the Colt .45s its first three seasons before management realized advertising a firearm in the team name may not be the best idea.

But this is all secondary to the primary reason these names should be changed, which is that they are racial slurs that are offensive to Native Americans. If a team changes its name and logo and suddenly experiences success on the field and financially that it did not experience before, then good for the team. But if teams have had to change their names in the past because of religious reasons or to not promote the sale of firearms, then teams should definitely have to change their names if they are rooted in racist rhetoric.

Photos courtesy of Ballpark Digest and Sports Teams Wiki.

Report: Michael Rosen

MLB Finally Has a Plan to Play Baseball in 2020, but its Future Looks Very Dim

Of all the professional sports leagues that were trying to implement a plan that would allow them to resume playing games amid the COVID-19 pandemic, MLB may have had the brightest and harshest spotlight. A bitter negotiation process between the players and owners was seemingly going nowhere; players wanted to ensure their health and safety were the highest priority and that they would be paid a fair portion of their contracts, while billionaire owners cried poor that they were losing money due to the lack of games and kept lowballing players who would be putting their well-being on the line to play baseball. Yet somehow a deal was finally reached.

After players rejected the fourth deal the owners put in front of them, the owners unanimously agreed to proceed with a 60-game season under the terms of a deal made with the MLB Player’s Association back on March 26. While there are still many kinks to work out, MLB has finally joined every other professional sports league in at least having a plan to resume games.

As is the case with every other league, the unconventional season structure raises questions in terms of the sport. How legitimate will the World Series champion be if it only had to play 60 games under unprecedented circumstances? It is much easier to bat .400, a feat no one has accomplished in nearly 80 years, in a 60-game season than the usual 162 games. If a player accomplishes that feat or any similar ones will they be considered legitimate? What makes MLB unique among other sports is how much of a marathon the regular season is. Plenty of teams have played well in their first 60 games only for things to fall apart over the next 102, which means we could see some very unusual playoff contenders.

This is of course assuming that the league actually resumes play. We have seen coronavirus cases not only spike up in many states across the country, but in clubhouses for every sport as well. We are beginning to see players opt out of the season due to the risks involved, including Ian Desmond of the Colorado Rockies, Ryan Zimmerman and Joe Ross of the defending champion Washington Nationals and Mike Leake of the Arizona Diamondbacks.

It’s becoming increasingly likely that we will not see professional sports played again in 2020. While this would be devastating to every player, fan and owner, MLB has the bleakest future of any North American professional sports league. The discussions of how to safely and fairly play baseball during a pandemic have expanded the rift between players and owners, all before the collective bargaining agreement is set to expire at the end of 2021. It may be a very long time before we see MLB games again, even after the COVID-19 pandemic ends.

Report: Michael Rosen

NHL's Return Would be a Welcome Sight for Sports Fans

The NHL is one of many sports leagues that has put a plan in place to resume a season that was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Although we do not have an exact date as to when games will resume, we do know what the postseason layout will look like and it could lead to some very intriguing matchups.

Back on May 26 the NHL announced its plan to conclude the season with a 24-team playoff format in certain hub cities that have yet to be determined. The unconventional postseason bracket will feature eight best-of-5 series in the first round and a round-robin tournament between the top four teams in each conference to determine seeding for the remainder of the playoffs. After that the playoffs will resume as usual with four rounds of best-of-7 series.

The biggest criticism of this format is the uneven seeding that may emerge after the first round. For example, the Toronto Maple Leafs are the No. 8 seed among the 12 teams in the Eastern Conference. However, if it beats the No. 9 seed Columbus Blue Jackets in the first round, it is scheduled to face the No. 1 seed in the following round. This means you could have a situation where a No. 8 seed is playing a No. 1 seed while a No. 12 seed is playing a No. 4 seed. However, there is also the possibility that the team that finished the regular season with the best record in the conference, the Boston Bruins, could be as low as the No. 4 seed.

But NHL playoffs have always been unpredictable with upsets occurring across the board. Just look at last year when every division winner was eliminated in the first round, including the Tampa Bay Lightning who tied the record for wins in a season before being swept by the Blue Jackets who had never won a playoff series. While the seeding may not be fair it certainly does not kill any team’s chances, and there are plenty of teams that have a good chance to hoist the Stanley Cup.

Last year’s finals participants, the Bruins and eventual-champion St. Louis Blues, finished the season with the most and second-most points in the league, respectively, and could be on a collision course for a finals rematch. The aforementioned Lightning are hoping to redeem its playoff failures from last year with a championship, and the Maple Leafs, who have spent a ton of money in hopes of ending its 67-year cup drought, are looking to win its first playoff series since 2004 after a disappointing regular season. But there are also teams like the Philadelphia Flyers who were red hot just before the season was postponed.

As with every sports league, there is no telling how well teams will play following this delay. But seeing any of the 24 teams lift the cup would be a welcome sight after all we’ve been through this year. Even if it’s lifted in an empty arena.

Photos courtesy of Flickr users Kaz Andrew and Laurie Rivera.

Report: Michael Rosen