Friday, January 21, 2011
The Crunchies By TechCrunch - Livestream Live Blog
The 2011 Crunches are underway, and it starting with a great piano solo by someone no one knows the name of. Whatever his hame, and you can see him on livestream, he's good. Jmmin.
The hosts are Sara Lacy and Paul Carr. Great for Sara. But I'm not going to any place she tells me to go to. (Just kidding.)
The Awards. Best Technology Achievement: Google Self-Driving Car. Runner-up: Quickie. Sara Lacy said the last year's runner up was Google Wave, so who wants to be that? Ha.
Next: Best Internet Application Award: Pandora wins the award (!) Rdio is the runner-up. Owen Thomas of VentureBeat is pissed. He yells "WRONG!" I said "RIGHT!"
Best Social Application: Presented by Google VP Marissa Mayer. (It's obvious she's been working out the abs by the way.) The winner: Dailybooth. Twitter is the runner-up. (No Foursquare? Shocking.)
Best Social Commerce Application. Presented by Chris Sacca, who's bashed Blippy for being actually founded by Indian labor, who are over-used and under-recognized. The winner is Groupon and the runner-up is ShopKick.
Best Booststrapped Startup:: Addmired Runner-up was Instapaper.
Best Enterprise App: Of the nominees here, I'm rooting for BuddyMedia, but let's see what happens. The Runner-up is Millienial Media, and the winner is BuddyMedia (I got it right.) But the applause was almost nil.
Best Clean Tech: ( I think the presenter Matt Marshall of Venture Beat may have had too much wine, but..) The runner-up is Kopenik and the winner is SolarCity.
Best Time Sink Application: Runner-up is Angry Birds and the winner is CityVille.
Bad joke about MySpace by Sara, using a poster (redone) from Weekend At Bernies to say it was being supported by friends (Weekend at Bernies was about a person, Bernie who was dead that two young men tried to make others think he was alive.)
Best International: Viki (well deserved). Runner-up: Soluto.
Best Design: Runner-up: About.me. Gogobot is the winner.
Best Device: Runner-up: X-Box Connect. Winner: iPad
Sara says we're in the home stretch - 20 down. And she takes time to tell us how the next category has nothing to do with Julian Assange. Now...
Best Touch Interface: Winner: Flipboard Runner-up? Matt Marshall says he thinks it was Instagram.
Best Mobile Application: Winner: Google Mobile Maps.
Angel of The Year: Runner-up: Ron Conway. Paul Graham is the winner.
VC of The Year: (Hopefully it's Fred Wilson, but let's see.) Runner-up is Fred Wilson. Yuri Milner of DST is the winner.
Founder Of The Year: Runner-up: Dennis Crowley. Winner: Mark Pincus of Zynga.
CEO of The Year: Runner-up: Mark Zuckerberg. Winner is Andrew Mason of Groupon. Andrew Mason is just a hoot. He says he has no idea why he's got the award and it's good because it comes before he "can fuck this up."
Best New Startup Or Product Of 2010: Runner-up: Square. Winner: Quora!
The founders of Flipboard and Instagram live together as roommates, by the way.
Best Overall Startup Or Product: Runner-up: Groupon Winner: Twitter. Wow. Facebook didn't win this year.
And it's over! The 2010 Crunchies are history. Now on to the party!
Jersey Shore Episode 4 Season 3.
Last night was the forth episode of the third season of Jersey Shore on MTV. This episode was filled with drama and emotion along with laughter. This was definitely the best episode so far and definitely can be considers one of the best episodes EVER in the history of Jersey Shore.
In the beginning Snooki is still in jail for her public intoxication and JWOWW is seen wearing a "FREE SNOOKI" shirt. I seem to remember this over the summer while the season was being filmed - does anyone remember reading JWOWW's twitter account and seeing a tweet about "bailing Snooki out of jail, the things I do for that girl" or something along those lines? Should have done a screenshot, but didn't think that'd be necessary at the time. Anyway, that brings up a question of how was she able to tweet - maybe an Internet cafe.
Snooki gets back to the house and is lectured by her father.
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| Courtesy of MTV |
Deena ends up with a guy named Dean who looks exactly like Ronnie - faux-hawk and everything. This guy looks just like Ronnie and the guys keep calling him Ronnie. Since Deena is hooking up with Dean (oh ha, Dean and Deena) they find it right to bring him back to the house and try to fool Sammi.
To the surprise of MVP[D] when they bring Dean up to the bedroom where Sammi and Ronnie are asleep and tell the couple that they found someone who looks just like Ronnie, Ronnie responds, "Are you talking about Dean?"
At this time the guys are all laughing and find it hilarious. Deena is downstairs at this time getting into some more casual attire, but upstairs Ronnie reveals to the boys that another similarity between Dean and him is that they both have girlfriends named Sam.
Well, that doesn't seem to matter when Dean tells Deena he has no girlfriend as they cuddle and grope one another in the hot tub.
Then, one of the world's most hilarious scenes in television history (okay, maybe that's a stretch, but it was so hilarious that even Dennis Rose, who refuses to admit he likes Jersey Shore, laughed out loud):
In the morning after Dean and Deena do everything except have intercourse Sammi tells Deena that Dean has a girlfriend - she plays it off like "whatever," when really it actually is a big deal since the night before he was going on about how he's single: hope the other Sam had fun watching that.
Tom and JWOWW start to have some problems - JWOWW is going out with her ex-hook up Roger who she has had a crush on since high school. It isn't until the after show (which was on immediately following this episode) that she is able to explain herself and for once she is relatable and it is really heartbreaking to really hear what she went through, but while watching the episode it just seems like she's being unfaithful to Tom by going around with another guy. While watching the episode eyes can be rolled at her for doing what she yelled at Ronnie for doing, but those who watch the after show know that the two cannot be compared.
JWOWW's breasts do a video with Pauly as a voiceover, but then the episode's tone changes.
JWOWW introduces Snooki to a "gorilla juicehead" named Nick who she at first is apprehensive about since he is part Italian, but then she decides to have sex with him. Over the summer while filming the two were seen and there was blog posts talking about the two and Snooki finally finding the perfect guy, but the two have since split - but it's still fun to enjoy during watching the show.
The previews for the next episode include Sammi crying and saying that she needs to go home - so this could prove to be even more dramatic.
Stay tuned: this season is definitely one that will end the Jersey Shore series with a big bang (if in fact this is the last season).
Second-Grader Classroom Sex In Oakland, MTV's Skins Called Child Porn. What's Up?
What's this world coming to? In Oakland, at Markham Elementary school, a two second-grade students were engaging in oral sex while the teacher was present in the classroom. MTV's catching heat for it's new TV program Skins, which features racy scenes of sex, violence and drug use among minors and using real minors in the cast.
While Oakland and the nation expresses outrage, this blogger asks why? Look, we created the environment that allows this behavior to surface, and now we're shocked when it hits the media?
For at least the last five years friends who are teachers in Oakland and in suburban New York have told me about catching kids as young as 13 "in the act" in Oakland and in New York, one girl giving oral to two boys in a closet. Story after story of kids behaving badly and now we're shocked.
But look at what we've done to create this: a society that's actively afraid of disciplining kids in public. A society with a larger number of single-parent families than ever before. A society were kids send "sex-based" text messages in an act called "sexting." With all that, and more, we're shocked.
But the ultimate shocker should be our collective fear of changing society so this stops. We must all get out of our shells, talk to each other, and not fear to step in to tell kids how to behave, even if they're not our kids.
In today's America we leave problem kids to the teachers. In fact, we're doing this in the Oakland case. No one has asked who the parents of these kids are. The punishment should be outing them for public information. After all, it's the parents, and not the teachers, who brought the kids into this World. They can start taking care of them, for a change.
Yes. Parents work more hours than ever. But that's where society can take up the slack: the neighbor next door or down the street. The police officer just giving advice and direction instead of a ticket. We don't have authority figures anymore. We have military weekday warriors. That's not solving the problem.
We have to look at society, and to see it just look in the mirror.
While Oakland and the nation expresses outrage, this blogger asks why? Look, we created the environment that allows this behavior to surface, and now we're shocked when it hits the media?
For at least the last five years friends who are teachers in Oakland and in suburban New York have told me about catching kids as young as 13 "in the act" in Oakland and in New York, one girl giving oral to two boys in a closet. Story after story of kids behaving badly and now we're shocked.
But look at what we've done to create this: a society that's actively afraid of disciplining kids in public. A society with a larger number of single-parent families than ever before. A society were kids send "sex-based" text messages in an act called "sexting." With all that, and more, we're shocked.
But the ultimate shocker should be our collective fear of changing society so this stops. We must all get out of our shells, talk to each other, and not fear to step in to tell kids how to behave, even if they're not our kids.
In today's America we leave problem kids to the teachers. In fact, we're doing this in the Oakland case. No one has asked who the parents of these kids are. The punishment should be outing them for public information. After all, it's the parents, and not the teachers, who brought the kids into this World. They can start taking care of them, for a change.
Yes. Parents work more hours than ever. But that's where society can take up the slack: the neighbor next door or down the street. The police officer just giving advice and direction instead of a ticket. We don't have authority figures anymore. We have military weekday warriors. That's not solving the problem.
We have to look at society, and to see it just look in the mirror.
Jesse James Engaged To Kat Von D, Says She's "Best Friend"
Jesse James, the American television personality and CEO of West Coast Choppers (did you know?) but more famous for having been Oscar-winner Sandra Bullock's husband, is now, almost a year after it was revealed he was cheating on Bullock, engaged to one of the women he was having an affair with, tattoo-laden Kat Von D.
And the kicker is he calls Kat Von D is "best friend." Yep.
According to People Magazine James said:
"You know, sometimes the public and press gets it wrong. This is one of those times. 2010 was actually the best year of my life, because I fell in love with my best friend, an amazing woman who stood behind me when the world turned their backs."
Jesse James got it wrong. This blogger, at least, wasn't saying it was a bad year for James, but a bad time for Sandra Bullock. But his statement shows just how zeroed-in James was on his own needs, and not those of Bullock, his wife.
Jesse James cheated on Sandra Bullock, and while she was working her tail off, and with not one but four women (with rumors of a fifth), and now he calls Kat Von D his best friend?
What a slap in the face to Sandra Bullock.
Chevron Ecuador Plaintiff's Information Fraud Continues In 2011
Want an example of The Matrix? The Chevron Ecuador case. Just look at the cultural environment of information fraud that some so-called activists have created around the Chevron Ecuador issue. The lie is that American Oil Company Chevron polluted the Ecuadorian Amazon without cleaning it up between 1968 and 1992. The lie is that Chevron caused $27 billion of environmental damage to Ecuador. The lie is that Chevron is still operating in Ecuador.
Organizations like The Rainforest Action Network keep spreading that lie. They should try telling the truth. Of course, if they did, it would mean whatever funding they get would dry up in a heartbeat. But telling the truth would be a good start toward better community relations.
The truth is that Ecuador itself, and not "a group of Ecuadorians" as Justmeans.com reports, is behind the Chevron lawsuit. The truth is that Ecuador has recently stated that it, and not lead plaintiffs lawyer Steve Donziger, would collect 90 percent of any lawsuit award if Chevron lost the Ecuador case. The truth is that Steve Donziger himself admitted a few years ago that he would get rich from this case.
The fact is that, according to outtakes from the movie Crude, Donziger himself conspired to plan to intimidate the Ecuadorian court, considered issuing a threat to kill a judge, and said he had met with Rafael Correa, the President of Ecuador and the executives of Petroecuador, the state-owned oil company.
The fact is that under Correa, Ecuador has kicked out all American Oil Companies, and embarked on a plan of nationalization of the oil industry, even passing a law to take more revenues under certain conditions.
All of this, while Ecuador's poor stuffers. In Ecuador, the 20 percent of the nations wealthiest people own half the nations total income. And according to the CIA World Factbook, income distribution in Ecuador has gotten worse, not better, in the 2000s all the way up to 2009. In fact, it's so bad, it compares to that of Sub-Saharan countries.
Meanwhile, Chevron has not been active in Ecuador since 1992, yet the so-called activists have created The Matrix, where the truth is met with attack by minions who behave like controlled Androids.
God help them if they're ever released from The Matrix. They may find the truth of The Real World hard to deal with, and want to crawl back into it.
Organizations like The Rainforest Action Network keep spreading that lie. They should try telling the truth. Of course, if they did, it would mean whatever funding they get would dry up in a heartbeat. But telling the truth would be a good start toward better community relations.
The truth is that Ecuador itself, and not "a group of Ecuadorians" as Justmeans.com reports, is behind the Chevron lawsuit. The truth is that Ecuador has recently stated that it, and not lead plaintiffs lawyer Steve Donziger, would collect 90 percent of any lawsuit award if Chevron lost the Ecuador case. The truth is that Steve Donziger himself admitted a few years ago that he would get rich from this case.
The fact is that, according to outtakes from the movie Crude, Donziger himself conspired to plan to intimidate the Ecuadorian court, considered issuing a threat to kill a judge, and said he had met with Rafael Correa, the President of Ecuador and the executives of Petroecuador, the state-owned oil company.
The fact is that under Correa, Ecuador has kicked out all American Oil Companies, and embarked on a plan of nationalization of the oil industry, even passing a law to take more revenues under certain conditions.
All of this, while Ecuador's poor stuffers. In Ecuador, the 20 percent of the nations wealthiest people own half the nations total income. And according to the CIA World Factbook, income distribution in Ecuador has gotten worse, not better, in the 2000s all the way up to 2009. In fact, it's so bad, it compares to that of Sub-Saharan countries.
Meanwhile, Chevron has not been active in Ecuador since 1992, yet the so-called activists have created The Matrix, where the truth is met with attack by minions who behave like controlled Androids.
God help them if they're ever released from The Matrix. They may find the truth of The Real World hard to deal with, and want to crawl back into it.
Debby Kaplan Helps With a Better Lifestyle
Debby Kaplan is a Life Agent who has become my personal trainer & nutritionist. Within these weekly posts there will be vlog posts regarding diet and exercise and how to lose weight in a healthy way and be fit for the summer bikini months. This is targeted toward females in college, like myself. There are a lot of unhealthy choices in the college cafeteria and as most college students are not able to buy the most healthy food most are going to Burger King or McDonalds at 10 p.m. looking for a quick fix. There is also a lack of exercise part of this, and sometimes stress can contribute and also lead to this.
Debby Kaplan has given me a detox plan and diet. I will be interviewing other college girls and showing that her plan truly does work - and I shall be the proof. Weekly documenting of this. Debby K has been a long time friend of Zennie Abraham and is all for helping women.
It's hard for girls in college - there is lots of partying, alcohol and this inevitably will also contribute to the "freshman 15" which is not always easy to lose.
So - this will include my own body transformation. Stay tuned. This will include the food eaten that week, the exercises done, interviews with other females, progress made and other insight and facts that will help others achieve results.
Thursday, January 20, 2011
Miss Saigon Vietnamese Restaurant In Oakland, CA
Vietnamese Restaurant ? Oakland? In Oakland it's hard to top the food at Miss Saigon Restaurant, at 3345 Grand Avenue.
A local favorite since 1998, Timmy Nguyen, its owner, and his staff consistently serves good, fresh, and lovely-to-look at Vietnamese food, and well into the night. On all week nights except Wednesday, Miss Saigon is open until Midnight.
What this blogger recommends is a combination of the Spring Rolls, a Claypot dish, a Chow Mein dish, noodle soup, steamed rice, and a glass of red wine and a glass of water. Ordering all of that for two, including two glases of wine, is about $50. Want to cut down the price? Order water, only.
But regardless of your budget, you really can't go wrong at Miss Saigon. And, yes, I paid for my meal in full, no comp.
Is Google's Larry Page For Eric Schmidt As CEO Mark Zuckerberg Envy?
The basic reason given for the announcement is that Page is ready, or as Schmidt's own tweet reported, "Day-to-day adult supervision no longer needed!." Here's what Schmidt's blog post reads:
For the last 10 years, we have all been equally involved in making decisions. This triumvirate approach has real benefits in terms of shared wisdom, and we will continue to discuss the big decisions among the three of us. But we have also agreed to clarify our individual roles so there’s clear responsibility and accountability at the top of the company.
Larry will now lead product development and technology strategy, his greatest strengths, and starting from April 4 he will take charge of our day-to-day operations as Google’s Chief Executive Officer. In this new role I know he will merge Google’s technology and business vision brilliantly. I am enormously proud of my last decade as CEO, and I am certain that the next 10 years under Larry will be even better! Larry, in my clear opinion, is ready to lead.
Reading between the lines, this blogger thinks the rise of Mark Zuckerberg, right in Google's San Francisco Bay Area Silicon Valley backyard, has a lot to do with it. In other words, the move is pure and simple Mark Zuckerberg envy.
Look, every entrepreneur, from awful ones like myself to great ones like Steve Jobs, want to be known as the face of their product. And that desire is increased manyfold when the product is something you made by, in this case, programming hand. That's true for Google, for Apple, and for Facebook, and while far less so for Yahoo, which Co-Founder Jerry Yang allowed to spin so far beyond its original identity it may be impossible for it to recover, it's still basically so.
It's ego.
Larry Page wants to be seen as the face of his company Google again. When we think of Facebook, we think of Mark Zuckerberg. Period. That was true before The Social Network, and its more true today after the success of the movie. Google has no such flick about its formation and its early years. Moreover, Facebook has grown faster than Google has over an equivalent amount of time, and is now equal in Internet influence to Google. It's only a matter of time before Facebook extends its reach into consumer electronics.
All of this is Mark Zuckerberg.
While Larry and Sergey share duties with Eric Schmidt, Zuckerberg calls the shot in a business staff that's part friends, part family, and certainly more compact. Over this time, the triplets of Larry, Sergey, and Eric have done some extraordinary things with Google. But over that same time, the "face" of Google was more Eric than Larry or Sergey.
Now, in a full nod to Mark Zuckerberg, who calls the shots at Facebook, Larry Page's calling the shots at Google. Round One of this epic Internet business cage match has begun.
Stay tuned.
Eric Schmidt Steps Down as Google CEO
CNN Money reports Eric Schmidt stepped down as Google CEO three days after Steve Jobs announced he was taking medical leave. Schmidt announced that he would hand over the CEO job to Google co-founder Larry Page.
Business Insider posts this as their chart of the day:
CNN reports that Schmidt will still be an executive chairman for the company after leaving his role in April, but he will be focusing on deals and partnerships, as well as acting as an advisor to the other two co-founders.
On Twitter Schmidt wrote:
Things seem to be positive though: Google has added more than 1,000 employees and now employs over 24 thousand people.
Anthony Batts, Oakland Police Chief, And Fear Being Of Backstabbed
The topic of the week, aside from Mayor Quan's trip to The White House with San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee, is the possible departure of Oakland Police Chief Anthony Batts.
Frankly, this blogger can't blame Batts for seeking an escape hatch from the City of Oakland. His police force has been cut down to 656 officers (and it could go lower once the new deficit information hits the streets). The overall civic regard for Oakland's police force is at an all-time low. The Oakland Police Department is looking at a possible Federal takeover (due to issues with its compliance with the consent decree related to The Riders Case).
Oh, and, on top of all of that, Oakland now has a mayor in Jean Quan that many Oakland Police officers - those remaining - just don't trust, or like.
Just telling it like it is.
And "like it is," is that while Oakland City Councilmembers have said nice things about Chief Batts, long-time Oaklanders know that such words only last until someone else can be found to replace him, and the climate to have that happen has developed.
That's called backstabbing: if you have a high profile in Oakland, they love you until they replace you. You'll seldome see it coming and it happens all too often in the City of Oakland.
(Just look at how many execs the Oakland Coliseum has went through. Between SMG and the elected officials, implementing the business plan crafted in 1996 (and never updated) has been almost impossible.)
Chief Batts was and is smart to seek an escape hatch. Until the Oakland City Council offers a pledge of support for him via resolution, rather than just pointing to his contract, Batts is going to have one eye out of Oakland.
This is where Oakland Councilmember Larry Reid, now President, has to fight. Historically, Larry has been the gentle lion, allowing the political bulldog that is Councilmember Ignacio De La Fuente to set the political agenda, especially in the face of now-former Mayor Ron Dellums.
But can Larry, who's said that maintaining Chief Batts is a priority, actually do that? Can he withstand the desires of Mayor Quan, who has no problem replacing Batts with someone else?
This is where we will see if Larry Reid can make his title of President mean more than just words.
Stay tuned.
As the NFL lockout approaches, the average fan is clearly unaware of all of the issues
As the NFL lockout approaches, the average fan is clearly unaware of all of the issues
By Dr. Bill Chachkes-Executive Editor-Football Reporters Online
(Eds. Note: this was first published last week @ Football Reporters Online's main website and Tumblr page, and on the NFL Business Blog)
As I sit here writing this at 4:30 am on the 12th day of January 2011, we are 49 days away from the first job action in professional football in 23 years. The “labor peace” that so many worked so hard for over the last 30 years to keep in place is about to go up in a puff of smoke like the $12 cigars that Madison av. money men favor. But this time, the formula for this impending action comes out of 280 Park Avenue, the headquarters of the NFL itself. I’m not saying this is directly the result of anything that Roger Goodell has done. If anything, he is trying to affect the quickest possible resolution to the problem. Except that mr. Goodell’s authority is limited by the owners who run the NFL. A small fraction of these owners want to see a ”correction,” like the stock market take place in pro football.
Yes folks, this is the doing of a small group of owners who could care less about the players health and general well being. All the more saddening is the fact that the owners in question have more to loose then they realize, and the league has gotten big business and the TV networks to play along.
Although I have been paying attention the last few years to the goings on, I took part in the NFLPA media conference call yesterday with Assistant Executive director (for external affairs) George Atallah and player executive board members Dominuqe Foxoworth (Baltimore Ravens) and Scott Fujita (Cleveland Browns). Most of the questions revolved around the current health and safety issues and the Leagues’ launch of a new website to address these issues. Underneath it all is the countdown to when players will be “Locked Out” of their teams’ facilities (March 3rd).
While most would paint this as a “Millionaires vs. Billionaires” fight, the players in this case are getting the short end of the stick. Players’ rights have never been more at risk now then in all the time since Bernie Parrish helped lead the drive to organize in the 1950’s.
It’s true I subscribe to the “more football is good” theory, but when it’s cast about as a way to get around very real concerns about player health issues, then we have to look deeper. The owners want to add 2 regular season games to the schedule: great, right? Get rid of two pre season games, shorten up the time frame with regard to OTA and mini camps.
Players feel this is the major sticking point in getting a deal done. Not who makes more money, the owners or the players. "To me, right now, as things stand, 18 games, the way it's being proposed, is completely unacceptable. ... I see more and more players get injured every season," said Fujita on yesterday’s call.
Atallah informed us that 352 players were on injured reserve for all or part of the 2010 season, a record high, and just about 1/5th or 20% of the total number of active players this year.
Foxworth added "We put our bodies on the line and produce a lot of revenue, and we get five years (of post-retirement health insurance), And then they want to tack on two more games ... which is just going to multiply the injuries and the ailments that we're going to see after we go into our 40s, 50s, 60s -- 70s, if we're lucky”. ... Foxworth, like so many players, has a growing family, and considers a two thousand dollar a month COBRA payment a steep cost to keep health insurance active while locked out. While some players could probably afford to pay it, most of the younger players with less then 3 years of service in the league would probably have to seek temporary employment at something else to help pay that cost.
"We're not willing to budge on health and safety, and we'd like to gain some more ground in ways we can protect former players and current players." Foxoworth added.
I had a conversation at the 2010 draft With Kevin Mawae, who until this September was the players’ association president. “It all comes down to money, plain and simple. The owners had more then the players until the last agreement. The owners want it back now because the economy took a bad turn, so they want to make up for the outrageously high contracts they give to rookies, which add up to more money then most current vets will ever see, Not that I’m saying that a Bradford shouldn’t get every cent he can. You can die or be paralyzed at any time on the field of play” He was very open and candid about what many players see as a travesty in the making.
This is not to say that the financial issues aren’t important, and that the NFL and it’s workforce don’t need to agree to mutually beneficial terms to insure the survival of the great game of football. They do, and soon. But when you want to force a bad deal down one side’s craw as management is trying to do, I have to question what the owners (at least some) are doing here. If you were truly concerned enough to install and reinforce rule “tweaks” to the game this year to prevent more head to head contact injuries, why would you cut off players’ access to health care during a job dispute? Why have the TV networks agree to pay you money even if no games take place in 2011? Why threaten to lay off or furlough up to 50 percent of League and team staff?
Cowboys Owner Jerry Jones recently said on a 60 Minutes interview segment that “it wouldn’t be so bad if the lockout went to the 11th hour before something got done” That doesn’t sound like a man who cares about his players or their families does it? Fujita doesn’t think so either, calling those comments irresponsible.
What the NFL owners don’t see here is beyond costing both sides a great deal of money and anguish. They are going to kill off the popularity of the game, that the NFL won when professional baseball struck in 1994. I’d want to know why I’m getting charged how ever many thousands of dollars for my tickets next year if there won’t be football played, if I still had season tickets. As my fellow writer David Levy points out many times over in his article series about the fan experience these days, Most average people have been priced out of going to see the game they love. If the owners love this game so much, why do they want to kill off it’s popularity, esp. when this past weekend’s “Wild Card Playoffs” broadcasts averaged over 32 million viewers per game.
This is what people should be asking of the NFL.
By Dr. Bill Chachkes-Executive Editor-Football Reporters Online
(Eds. Note: this was first published last week @ Football Reporters Online's main website and Tumblr page, and on the NFL Business Blog)
As I sit here writing this at 4:30 am on the 12th day of January 2011, we are 49 days away from the first job action in professional football in 23 years. The “labor peace” that so many worked so hard for over the last 30 years to keep in place is about to go up in a puff of smoke like the $12 cigars that Madison av. money men favor. But this time, the formula for this impending action comes out of 280 Park Avenue, the headquarters of the NFL itself. I’m not saying this is directly the result of anything that Roger Goodell has done. If anything, he is trying to affect the quickest possible resolution to the problem. Except that mr. Goodell’s authority is limited by the owners who run the NFL. A small fraction of these owners want to see a ”correction,” like the stock market take place in pro football.
Yes folks, this is the doing of a small group of owners who could care less about the players health and general well being. All the more saddening is the fact that the owners in question have more to loose then they realize, and the league has gotten big business and the TV networks to play along.
Although I have been paying attention the last few years to the goings on, I took part in the NFLPA media conference call yesterday with Assistant Executive director (for external affairs) George Atallah and player executive board members Dominuqe Foxoworth (Baltimore Ravens) and Scott Fujita (Cleveland Browns). Most of the questions revolved around the current health and safety issues and the Leagues’ launch of a new website to address these issues. Underneath it all is the countdown to when players will be “Locked Out” of their teams’ facilities (March 3rd).
While most would paint this as a “Millionaires vs. Billionaires” fight, the players in this case are getting the short end of the stick. Players’ rights have never been more at risk now then in all the time since Bernie Parrish helped lead the drive to organize in the 1950’s.
It’s true I subscribe to the “more football is good” theory, but when it’s cast about as a way to get around very real concerns about player health issues, then we have to look deeper. The owners want to add 2 regular season games to the schedule: great, right? Get rid of two pre season games, shorten up the time frame with regard to OTA and mini camps.
Players feel this is the major sticking point in getting a deal done. Not who makes more money, the owners or the players. "To me, right now, as things stand, 18 games, the way it's being proposed, is completely unacceptable. ... I see more and more players get injured every season," said Fujita on yesterday’s call.
Atallah informed us that 352 players were on injured reserve for all or part of the 2010 season, a record high, and just about 1/5th or 20% of the total number of active players this year.
Foxworth added "We put our bodies on the line and produce a lot of revenue, and we get five years (of post-retirement health insurance), And then they want to tack on two more games ... which is just going to multiply the injuries and the ailments that we're going to see after we go into our 40s, 50s, 60s -- 70s, if we're lucky”. ... Foxworth, like so many players, has a growing family, and considers a two thousand dollar a month COBRA payment a steep cost to keep health insurance active while locked out. While some players could probably afford to pay it, most of the younger players with less then 3 years of service in the league would probably have to seek temporary employment at something else to help pay that cost.
"We're not willing to budge on health and safety, and we'd like to gain some more ground in ways we can protect former players and current players." Foxoworth added.
I had a conversation at the 2010 draft With Kevin Mawae, who until this September was the players’ association president. “It all comes down to money, plain and simple. The owners had more then the players until the last agreement. The owners want it back now because the economy took a bad turn, so they want to make up for the outrageously high contracts they give to rookies, which add up to more money then most current vets will ever see, Not that I’m saying that a Bradford shouldn’t get every cent he can. You can die or be paralyzed at any time on the field of play” He was very open and candid about what many players see as a travesty in the making.
This is not to say that the financial issues aren’t important, and that the NFL and it’s workforce don’t need to agree to mutually beneficial terms to insure the survival of the great game of football. They do, and soon. But when you want to force a bad deal down one side’s craw as management is trying to do, I have to question what the owners (at least some) are doing here. If you were truly concerned enough to install and reinforce rule “tweaks” to the game this year to prevent more head to head contact injuries, why would you cut off players’ access to health care during a job dispute? Why have the TV networks agree to pay you money even if no games take place in 2011? Why threaten to lay off or furlough up to 50 percent of League and team staff?
Cowboys Owner Jerry Jones recently said on a 60 Minutes interview segment that “it wouldn’t be so bad if the lockout went to the 11th hour before something got done” That doesn’t sound like a man who cares about his players or their families does it? Fujita doesn’t think so either, calling those comments irresponsible.
What the NFL owners don’t see here is beyond costing both sides a great deal of money and anguish. They are going to kill off the popularity of the game, that the NFL won when professional baseball struck in 1994. I’d want to know why I’m getting charged how ever many thousands of dollars for my tickets next year if there won’t be football played, if I still had season tickets. As my fellow writer David Levy points out many times over in his article series about the fan experience these days, Most average people have been priced out of going to see the game they love. If the owners love this game so much, why do they want to kill off it’s popularity, esp. when this past weekend’s “Wild Card Playoffs” broadcasts averaged over 32 million viewers per game.
This is what people should be asking of the NFL.
Yakking Jets Need More YAC in Pittsburgh
Yakking Jets Need More YAC in Pittsburgh
By Jon Wagner-Sr. Writer-Football Reporters Online
Mark Sanchez’s first pass set the tone last Sunday in New England.
It was a short, 2nd-and-6 pass to the left for wide receiver Jerricho Cotchery, who turned the reception into a 16-yard gain to the New England 48 yard-line.
And, on just the second play of the New York Jets’ monumental divisional playoff upset win over the New England Patriots, the Jets had moved into New England territory for the first of four straight times to start the game.
The Jets sorely needed that, after suffering an humiliating 45-3 embarrassment on the same field just six weeks earlier.
As Important as linebacker David Harris’ interception breaking Tom Brady’s NFL-record streak of 339 consecutive pass attempts without a pick on New England’s opening possession, the Jets simply being on the Patriots’ side of the field so often to begin the game was a definite tone setter and collective a psychological lift for Gang Green (even though it took the Jets until their fourth drive to finally get on the scoreboard).
Cotchery’s first catch was a foreshadowing of just how important the “Yards After the Catch” stat would mean to the Jets as the game unfolded.
After all, it was Patriots’ quarterback Tom Brady and his group of dangerous receiving threats who were supposed to make most of the big plays in the passing game. The Jets’ passing game? A mere afterthought, by comparison.
Yet, as the Jets’ defense did a remarkably good job of closely blanketing Brady’s receivers all game, it was the Jets’ receivers who turned into the game’s biggest playmakers, especially after catches were made.
Unexpected, but actually pretty fitting for a team that boldly talked trash all week, leading up to the game.
Yes, the team that likes to yak, winning with YAC.
Sanchez finished that fourth possession with another short swing pass to the left, this time for running back LaDainian Tomlinson, who in his tenth season, finally scored on his first career postseason touchdown catch with what else? YAC.
After taking the screen pass, Tomlinson eluded a tackler en route to seven-yard touchdown to give the Jets a 7-3 lead early in the second quarter.
YAC later came into play again, as the Jets made the Patriots pay for a bad gamble, after New England, still trailing just 7-3, with only a 1:06 left in the first half, failed on a fake punt from its own 38 yard-line.
Four plays later, wide receiver Braylon Edwards, taking a short pass that was really intended simply to move the chains on 3rd-and-4, dragged tacklers with him into the end zone on a key 15-yard score that gave the Jets a 14-3 lead by halftime and had New England playing catch-up for the remainder of the game.
Then, in the fourth quarter, with all of the momentum on the Patriots’ side after a touchdown and a two-point conversion drew New England to within 14-11, came the biggest YAC play of all.
The Jets needed to respond. A three-and-out after the Patriots scoring might have ultimately led to a New England rally and spelled doom for the Jets’ season.
But, on 2nd-and-6 from the Jets’ 29 yard-line, with Gillette Stadium rocking the as loud as it was all day, Sanchez again found Cotchery, this time, over the middle, for what appeared to be a routine first down gain.
But nope. The YAC attack, again.
Cotchery turned the play into a backbreaker for the Patriots, moving across the field to the right, and up the right sideline for the longest play of the game – a 58-yard reception to the New England 13 yard-line.
Three plays later, wide receiver Santonio Holmes reminded everyone of his spectacular tip-toeing grab to win Super Bowl XLIII for Pittsburgh, with a similar touchdown catch that put the Jets ahead 21-11, with 13 minutes left.
New York still had to hold on from there, and the Jets even needed another score off of a good onside kick return to put the game on ice. But, Cotchery’s big YAC play was the final key turning point toward one of the biggest victories in Jets’ franchise history.
Ironically, Holmes will now have go through his former team – as will the rest of Sanchez’s targets -- on Sunday to help the Jets reach their first Super Bowl in 42 years.
Strangely, as those receivers prepare for New York’s biggest game of the season, the usually talkative Jets have so far, become suddenly quiet and even respectful of the Pittsburgh Steelers this week.
Whether or not the Jets revive their yakking as Sunday’s AFC title game draws closer, remains to be seen.
But, if the Jets are to finally return to the Super Bowl this year, their YAC-ing must continue.
By Jon Wagner-Sr. Writer-Football Reporters Online
Mark Sanchez’s first pass set the tone last Sunday in New England.
It was a short, 2nd-and-6 pass to the left for wide receiver Jerricho Cotchery, who turned the reception into a 16-yard gain to the New England 48 yard-line.
And, on just the second play of the New York Jets’ monumental divisional playoff upset win over the New England Patriots, the Jets had moved into New England territory for the first of four straight times to start the game.
The Jets sorely needed that, after suffering an humiliating 45-3 embarrassment on the same field just six weeks earlier.
As Important as linebacker David Harris’ interception breaking Tom Brady’s NFL-record streak of 339 consecutive pass attempts without a pick on New England’s opening possession, the Jets simply being on the Patriots’ side of the field so often to begin the game was a definite tone setter and collective a psychological lift for Gang Green (even though it took the Jets until their fourth drive to finally get on the scoreboard).
Cotchery’s first catch was a foreshadowing of just how important the “Yards After the Catch” stat would mean to the Jets as the game unfolded.
After all, it was Patriots’ quarterback Tom Brady and his group of dangerous receiving threats who were supposed to make most of the big plays in the passing game. The Jets’ passing game? A mere afterthought, by comparison.
Yet, as the Jets’ defense did a remarkably good job of closely blanketing Brady’s receivers all game, it was the Jets’ receivers who turned into the game’s biggest playmakers, especially after catches were made.
Unexpected, but actually pretty fitting for a team that boldly talked trash all week, leading up to the game.
Yes, the team that likes to yak, winning with YAC.
Sanchez finished that fourth possession with another short swing pass to the left, this time for running back LaDainian Tomlinson, who in his tenth season, finally scored on his first career postseason touchdown catch with what else? YAC.
After taking the screen pass, Tomlinson eluded a tackler en route to seven-yard touchdown to give the Jets a 7-3 lead early in the second quarter.
YAC later came into play again, as the Jets made the Patriots pay for a bad gamble, after New England, still trailing just 7-3, with only a 1:06 left in the first half, failed on a fake punt from its own 38 yard-line.
Four plays later, wide receiver Braylon Edwards, taking a short pass that was really intended simply to move the chains on 3rd-and-4, dragged tacklers with him into the end zone on a key 15-yard score that gave the Jets a 14-3 lead by halftime and had New England playing catch-up for the remainder of the game.
Then, in the fourth quarter, with all of the momentum on the Patriots’ side after a touchdown and a two-point conversion drew New England to within 14-11, came the biggest YAC play of all.
The Jets needed to respond. A three-and-out after the Patriots scoring might have ultimately led to a New England rally and spelled doom for the Jets’ season.
But, on 2nd-and-6 from the Jets’ 29 yard-line, with Gillette Stadium rocking the as loud as it was all day, Sanchez again found Cotchery, this time, over the middle, for what appeared to be a routine first down gain.
But nope. The YAC attack, again.
Cotchery turned the play into a backbreaker for the Patriots, moving across the field to the right, and up the right sideline for the longest play of the game – a 58-yard reception to the New England 13 yard-line.
Three plays later, wide receiver Santonio Holmes reminded everyone of his spectacular tip-toeing grab to win Super Bowl XLIII for Pittsburgh, with a similar touchdown catch that put the Jets ahead 21-11, with 13 minutes left.
New York still had to hold on from there, and the Jets even needed another score off of a good onside kick return to put the game on ice. But, Cotchery’s big YAC play was the final key turning point toward one of the biggest victories in Jets’ franchise history.
Ironically, Holmes will now have go through his former team – as will the rest of Sanchez’s targets -- on Sunday to help the Jets reach their first Super Bowl in 42 years.
Strangely, as those receivers prepare for New York’s biggest game of the season, the usually talkative Jets have so far, become suddenly quiet and even respectful of the Pittsburgh Steelers this week.
Whether or not the Jets revive their yakking as Sunday’s AFC title game draws closer, remains to be seen.
But, if the Jets are to finally return to the Super Bowl this year, their YAC-ing must continue.
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