Dez Bryant will NOT be Hazed

The Dallas Cowboys are some people’s favorite to win the Super Bowl this year. If they make it to the Super Bowl the Cowboys will be the first team to play in the Super Bowl in their own stadium. But there already may be some internal animosity brewing that could become a sore that keeps the Cowboys from reaching their full potential.

Dez Bryant the first round Wide Receiver from Oklahoma St. is already stirring up some trouble at Cowboy’s training camp by refusing to carry the pads of fellow WR veteran Roy Williams. In the odd world of the NFL where the players wish to be treated like men, some of them still hold onto hazing rituals of rookies as if they were pledging a fraternity. I never joined a fraternity because I think they are the most absurd groups on earth. I’ll be damned if someone is going to force me to carry out ridiculous acts of subordination for the sake of being accepted, so I fully appreciate where Dez Bryant is coming from on this topic.

Bryant was picked by the Dallas Cowboys to join their team in order to help them win football games. He was not picked to carry the pads of a teammate. Some may say that being hazed is part of belonging to a team, I say it is not. Forget the fact that Roy Williams has underperformed his entire career and hasn’t earned the right to tell anyone what to do. Even if that was Jerry Rice trying to get a rookie to carry his pads, it is flat out a stupid and immature ritual.

Williams now says that he will take this to Step 2, alluding to some of the things that he and possibly some other veterans may do to the rookie Bryant. He mentioned stealing his credit cards as one of the possible actions involved in Step 2. Williams said that he had to endure some rookie hazing and so Bryant too must do the same. It seems to me that Williams should be more worried about his own steps if he wants to remain a starter.

While most rookies may go along with these types of ridiculous stunts Bryant is not one of them. If Williams continues to push the hazing envelope with Bryant it will be interesting to see the affect it has on the Cowboys this year. Remember, in the NFL there is a very line between winning and losing and it is these types of locker room disturbances that cane have a lasting affect.

Lance Armstrong is a Cheater and a Liar

Let me see if I get this straight. Cycling is the most doped up, drug induced sport in the world, this is true and it’s not even close. And the person that dominated the sport for so many years never did any doping or drugging, right? That is what all the Lance Armstrong supporters want me to believe? So if that’s the case, then there are only two conclusions that can be drawn.
1) Lance is a liar and all his supporters have their heads in the sand. Or, 2) cyclists are the most pathetic and weak ‘athletes’ on the planet. How else does someone dominate a sport full of cheaters but not cheat themselves? Lance is THAT superior to everyone?! Really?!

Before I go any further, let me say that Lance’s overcoming cancer is a true story of inspiration for many people with cancer and to people in general. He didn’t give up when he could have, he battled through chemo and all that, and I don’t wish to detract from his story of survival. But this is not about overcoming cancer, this is about being a cheater in a sport filled with cheaters and Lance’s continued pleas of “I never did it”.

This story deserves even more attention because Alex Rodriguez is about to his his 600th home run, and people wish to disparage this achievement because A-Rod has admitted that he had used steroids in his past. How many home runs did A-Rod hit as a result of juicing? I don’t know, no one knows. How many did Mark McGwire hit as a result? There is no way to tell. But the outrage that is shown towards A-Rod’s accomplishments and the complete denial that is shown towards Armstrong’s accomplishments is mind boggling to me. Granted, cycling does not have the appeal in this country as baseball does, and that certainly explains a portion of the difference in attitudes. But there is more to it than that.

In my opinion, one of the biggest reasons that Lance gets a pass on being an obvious cheater, and now a perpetual liar, is that Lance is white and A-Rod is not. You don’t have to look any further that the difference in how A-Rod is treated when compared to McGwire and Roger Clemens.

So to all of you supporters of Lance Armstrong out there, remove your blinders and see what is the most glaring lie in sports right now. Lance Armstrong cheated, lied, is a cheater, and is a liar. Now go put on your tight shorts and go ride your bikes off of a cliff like the lemmings you are.

Where I come from we call someone a ‘hump’ when we wish to convey that we have no respect for that person. Said person has done something that causes us to either lose any respect we had for the person, or never respect them at all. David Stern, commissioner of the NBA, is hump, and in my eyes has always been a hump.

Stern is credited with turning the NBA into the money machine it is today. It was under his watch that the NBA moved from being a red-headed step child of the sports world to a US game with the most international appeal. The NBA
Finals weren’t even shown live on TV in the early ‘80s. Then came Larry Bird, Magic Johnson, Dr. J, and eventually Michael Jordan. Now the NBA players are having prime-time specials to announce the team for which they are going to play. If people want to credit Stern with the NBA’s rise in popularity, then also blame him for turning a team sport into an individual sport.

But that is not what has my ire raised today. What has me calling out Stern today is the NBA’s ridiculous fine of $50,000 levied against Minnesota Timberwolves’ president David Kahn for speaking of Michael Beasley’s past marijuana use. The team was fined an additional $50,000 for the same ‘infraction’. The NBA deemed the comments inappropriate. I understand that $50,000 is not a lot of money relative to the amount that Kahn and the T-Wolves are worth. But the fines are also proof positive that David Stern is a complete hump!

Kahn commented that he believed the newly acquired new two overall pick from last year had matured a lot in the past year. Kahn pointed to Beasley past known use of marijuana as a sign of his immaturity and made the comparison that Beasley is now more mature because he doesn’t do that anymore. Whether he does or doesn’t isn’t the point. Beasley posted a picture of himself on Twitter showing off a new tattoo and in the background of the picture was a bag o’ weed in June of 2009. It was public knowledge, it was world wide web knowledge, that Beasley smoked weed, but when Kahn talks about it he is being inappropriate?! How does that make any sense?! It only makes sense in David Stern’s hump world that people should be punished for speaking openly about such a topic. The NBA that exists today is dominated by young men that have grown up in a weed culture, they smoke weed, weed is part of their lives and they make no bones about it. But David Stern, being a self-loathing hump, hates the very thing he created and he will cut the head off of anyone that is honest about the league.

LeBron stays in Cleveland and gets someone, maybe CP3
The Knicks will get someone else, maybe Tony Parker, maybe Carmelo, and they might be able to keep David Lee.
The Heat got their guys.
The Bulls got better with Boozer.
The Celtics will keep their core intact.
The Magic will keep their core intact.

When all of the above happens, the East will have just gotten hyper-competitive, and the NBA will become a better product.