Blogcritics

The Ramble: Steroids are Worse Than Gambling, Drug Free Olympics Impossible, Trevor Graham Trial Fallout, Horses on Steroids and the Dog Days of June

Sal Marinello — Mon, 26 May 2008 13:04:24 EDT

Talk of steroids, human growth hormone, EPO continue to dominate in the world of sports.
For anyone willing to pay attention and who is interested in learning about the issue of performance-enhancing drugs (PEDs) in sports, these are very interesting times. New aspects of this story are revealed daily and as a result the sports world will never be the same, and will never be viewed in the same way again.Steroids Are Worse Than...

The Ramble: Steroids, Steroids Everywhere and Human Growth Hormone Too

Sal Marinello — Wed, 7 May 2008 10:34:16 EDT

Stories related to steroids (and other PEDs) dominate the sports pages, from the Kentucky Derby to the NFL, from baseball to the Olympics.
The Performance Enhancing Drugs (PEDs) in sports story continues to evolve and will not go away. There are people who don’t care or wish that the PEDs story would go away, but their apathy and/or denial of reality has no effect on this snowballing situation.Eight Belles’ Tragic End. Both the trainer and owner of the tragic Kentucky...

The Ramble: Steroid Busts, Steroid Tests, Steroid Trials, Steroid Investigations, And Falling Production

Sal Marinello — Sun, 27 Apr 2008 19:47:59 EDT

In the past week there have been a ton of stories dealing with steroids and human growth hormone (HGH).
The present episode of the steroids/human growth hormone in sports story is a series of interconnected events that can be tied back to the BALCO Labs story, and this episode is but a chapter in a larger volume of stories than can be traced back to the Ben Johnson/Seoul Olympics scandal of 20 years ago. In the past week there have been a few stories...

The Ramble: Smaller Baseball Players, an Olympic Weightlifting Drug Scandal, Drug Snitches and Drug Cheats, Hamstring Injuries and Tiger Loses the Masters

Sal Marinello — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 23:32:11 EDT

As a recurring theme, the steroids and HGH in sports story dominates the news once again. Oh, and Tiger lost.
The public may not care, but the issue of performance-enhancing drugs in sports will not go away. As this is an Olympic year and the World Anti-Doping Agency and governing boards of sport – along with law enforcement – have decided to crack down on drug cheats, this news will continue to dominate. Of course there will be other...

The Ramble Is Back: Canseco, Conte, Opening Days the Final Four and Brett Favre's Comeback

Sal Marinello — Fri, 4 Apr 2008 00:53:10 EDT

Jose Canseco tries to stay relevant, baseball had all of its Opening Days and a whole bunch of growth hormone news.
After a long hiatus The Ramble is back. Because of too much Rainbow Six Vegas 2, switching back and forth between all of the NCAA March Madness games and having 3 young sons run roughshod over me, my attention span is shot and I can only handle writing a few sentences per subject. So I’m giving up spouting off endlessly and at length on a...

Announcement: Short-content feeds

Phillip Winn — Sun, 26 Aug 2007 12:00:00 EDT

Sunday, August 26, 2007, marks the switch of all Blogcritics.org article feeds from full-content to short-content. This is the result of several converging factors, and is unfortunately a permanent decision (as permanent as any decision can be on the web, that is). We are aware of all of the reasons that this is a Bad Idea, and we are aware that some of you will be quite upset about having to click on something to read the free content, and we're sorry. Unfortunately, despite great effort, full-content feeds are not currently economically viable. Two other factors are involved: full-content feeds have resulted in an unprecedented level of content theft, with BC content appearing on many websites, usually spam sites, without attribution or permission. This duplicate content causes a cascading set of problems, not the least of which is that search engines generally aren't favorable to duplicate content, and don't always guess correctly. Finally, our RSS advertising partner is strongly in favor of short-content feeds. We hope that you'll continue to subscribe to BC via RSS, and when an article grabs your eye, it's only a click away, still free on the BC website. Thank you for your understanding.

The Ramble: The Super Bowl XLI Post Mortem

Sal Marinello — Mon, 5 Feb 2007 17:59:47 EST

Super Bowl XLI was another less-than-interesting game on the field, but will forever be remembered as being the first Super Bowl with two black head coaches and for being the game in which Peyton Manning answered his critics.So let’s ramble.The Colts. No matter how bad their defense was against the run at times during the season, during the playoffs the Colts got the job done and shut down their opponents and made plays when the outcome of the game was in the balance. Manning did a decent job, but the MVP of the game and of the playoffs should have been the Colts running game and/or their defense. Run the ball, keep the other team in long yardage situations and make fewer mistakes than your opponents: the formula hasn’t changed in over 100 years.The Bears. Sloppy, unfocused, undisciplined. Horrendous tackling, poor offensive execution. However, with all these points against them, they still were in the game going into the final quarter. But they just couldn’t overcome the “Rex Grossman Factor.” Defensively, they played off receivers to keep them in front of them, but then missed first and second tackles way too often and allowed the Colts to move the sticks and keep the ball. Offensively, they didn’t seem to have anything that posed a threat to the Colts. The Turning Point of the Game. Up 14-6, the Bears were moving the ball at midfield and had a chance to put up at least another 3 points. With all the momentum in the world and the crowd behind them and the weather with them, the Bears turned the ball over and threw away all their “plusses.” The Colts, to their credit, answered.Peyton Manning. Didn’t play great, but did enough to win and got over an early, bad start that could have buried his team. Peyton should be grateful for the “Rex Grossman Factor,” for Joseph Addai, Dominic Rhodes and the Colt defense. The bottom line is that the Colts don’t need Manning to do it all – and they are better for it. Rex Grossman. Could be the worst quarterback to ever start in the Super Bowl. Who cares that he completed over 70% of his passes? As evidenced by the Bears play calling, the team had little faith in his ability to make any kind of play. If you’re a Bear fan there’s no way that you could want Rex back at the helm next year. Give me Bobby Douglass, Bob Avellini, Steve Bradley, Peter Tom Willis, Mike Tomczak, or Brian Griese. Hell I’d take Archie Manning right now over Wretched Rex.The Coverage. CBS does a good job minimizing the nonsense once the game gets started –- assuming you’re already accustomed to a certain level of nonsense to begin with –- as Jim Nantz and Phil Simms are a good listen. I give CBS credit for not cramming the booth with another body just because this is the Super Bowl. But please can we do away with the big desk and all of the talking heads during the pre-game, half time and post-game reports? It looks like a “Man Law” commercial is going to break out.The Hype. I’m really curious as to what the network’s mindset is with regard to who actually watches two weeks of this pre-game hysteria. Am I the only hard-core football fan who could care less? Is there really that much we need to know and hear about for two weeks? Otherwise what was a good story involving Dungy and Smith became an “Enough Already” issue thanks to the overkill brought on by the extra week in between the league championships and the Super Bowl. The Commercials. Another “Enough Already” issue. The networks have made up all of this buzz surrounding the commercials so that they can justify charging insane prices for 30 second spots. And what does it say about your product that you have to harp on the advertisements that are on when your show isn’t? Could you image if during the American Idol or Grey’s Anatomy promos we were told to tune into the show so we could see the great commercials? Halftime. I don’t care if you’re Prince, the Police, the Stones, the Who, Paul McCartney, or if the Beatles came back, once you appear in the Super Bowl halftime show you become a caricature of yourself. And for as good as he sounded, what was up with the schmata that Prince was wearing on his head? I know it was raining, but come on.The Game Itself. Super Bowl XLI was yet another of the NFL’s penultimate games that just didn’t live up to the hype. Sloppily played and long-winded there were no memorable moments on the field, nothing that you look at and know for sure will wind up on some NFL Films highlight reel of the game. Nothing that a kid will look back on and say, “I remember that play! That was one of my first NFL memories!” Perhaps there’s no way these games can live up to the hype and to our expectations, but that doesn’t change the fact that these games rarely do.So now that football is over, it’s time to reacquaint myself with NCAA hoops in anticipation of March Madness. It’s 9 degrees in New Jersey today. It’s going to be a long month.

Sal Marinello is a National Strength and Conditioning Association Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist and Certified Personal Trainer, a U.S.A. Weightlifting Certified Coach, a full-time, private Professional Strength and Conditioning Coach, an assistant football coach and a Head Strength Coach for a suburban New Jersey High School. He writes a lot and has no free time.

The Ramble: Vince Young, That Urlacher Guy, Terrell Owens and Other NFL Stuff

Sal Marinello — Thu, 16 Nov 2006 22:44:11 EST

Let’s talk NFL. Two sentences per entry … that’s my rule and I’m sticking to it. Vince Young. He is just as good in the NFL as he was at Texas. The problem is that the Longhorns are better than the Titans.Brian Urlacher. Watching Urlacher every week is a treat that comes from having DirecTv’s NFL Direct Ticket. Not only is he the best linebacker in the business, he also bears an uncanny resemblance to former Bears great Dick Butkus.Celebrating Players. Nothing looks more ridiculous than a 260-pound football player doing a silly, celebratory dance routine. Critics of the league say that the NFL stands for the “No Fun League” because of the ban on celebrations, but the league just wants to keep these guys from making fools of themselves.Terrell Owens. It’s amazing that Owens gets so much press for being the third or forth best receiver on his team and the fifth or sixth best receiver in any given game. He leads the league in dropped passes and destroying teams.Michael Vick/Ron Mexico. He hasn’t gotten any better, so he’s gotten worse, and the Falcons are past their peak. His helter skelter style of play won’t win many big games in the NFL and as he gets older and takes more punishment he will rapidly become less effective.The Cincinnati Bengals. As the team sinks below .500 perhaps it’s time to consider that all of the Bengals off-field problems are causing them to have on-field problems. Bad characters with bad character can infect a team and adversely effect performance. The Detroit Lions. The worst-run team in the NFL and they don’t get enough heat for it. They're the NFL equivalent of Duke football.Raider Fans. The Oakland Raider fans should be credited for coming out every week and giving their team 100% support despite the fact that Al Davis has been putting a lousy product on the field for years. The fans of the silver and black deserve better.The Washington Redskins. Daniel Snyder’s team is giving the Lions a run for their money as the worst run team in the league, and are so very fun to root against. No team has spent more money and has less to show for it than the ‘Skins, and things aren’t going to change until Snyder learns to butt out and leave the football decisions to the adults.The Indianapolis Colts. The Colts are the A-Rod of the NFL. Great in the regular season, but haven’t won the big game. Jacked Up On ESPN. The Jacked Up segment on ESPN’s studio show where Tom Jackson highlights the hard hits of the week is embarrassing. Jackson and his studio mates all yell "jacked up" to coincide with the hard hits that they show, and is the kind of garbage that you’d expect on pro wrestling or local access and not ESPN.Tendon And Other Odd Soft Tissue Injuries. I don’t know if anyone keeps stats on this kind of stuff, but it seems as if there has been two to four torn tendon/blown out muscle injuries every week this season. It used to be that only body builders and power lifters suffered torn triceps/biceps/pectoral muscles and blown out tendons.Jake Plummer. The quarterback that people love to hate seems to be on the hot seat again and there’s talk that rookie Jay Cutler may take Plummer’s job. The anti-Plummerites need to understand that this season Plummer gives the Broncos the only chance to go deep into the playoffs.The New York Giants. Injuries have started to undo all of the early successes enjoyed by the New York Football Giants. It’s not crazy to think that with all of the injuries and with Eli Manning’s recent less than stellar play the G-Men could wind up an extremely ugly 8-8 record.And I even managed to keep my promise.

The Ramble: The Stupid Rules of Football Edition

Sal Marinello — Sun, 29 Oct 2006 20:55:44 EST

There’s no doubt that football has surpassed all other sports in terms of popularity. From legit to illegit gambling, television rating revenue streams, or the place the game occupies in the public’s consciousness, football is king. But football has way too many dumb rules.Instant Replay. Conceptually, a no-brainer. In reality, a nightmare. Instant replay just injects a high-tech layer of human error into the mix. There are many problems with the way instant replay is implemented, the biggest of which is the lack of specific, pre-determined camera angles that could be used to properly rectify situations where the ball is improperly marked either for first downs, touch downs, or out of bounds. There should be cameras set up at the first down markers from the sideline perspective and from overhead so the officials have a much better chance to make the right call in these situations. With all the NFL and NCAA do to ensure their product is top-notch, it’s silly that these kinds of camera angles aren’t set up. And don’t tell me about the cost -- especially for the NFL, where they pay people to enforce uniform dress codes.The other bit of replay ridiculousness involves how the on-field official has to run over to the peep show booth to review the video of the call in question. Let’s stop the charade that the field refs need to be in control. The fact that there’s an eye in the sky already proves the on-field guys aren’t the final say. The guys upstairs see the play first, are in a better position to make the correct call, and can make the call quicker.The NCAA needs to have all conferences follow the same rules with regard to how instant replay is used. Unless there is one way to use replay, teams will not have equal opportunity to get the benefits instant replay can offer.The Tuck Rule. NFL Rule 3, Section 21, Article 2, Note 2: "When a Team A player is holding the ball to pass it forward, any intentional forward movement of his arm starts a forward pass, even if the player loses possession of the ball as he is attempting to tuck it back toward his body. Also, if the player has tucked the ball into his body and then loses possession, it is a fumble." The fact this kind of thing has to be spelled out makes it stupid.Ball Carrier Can’t Advance The Ball Once Knee Hits The Ground. This is a stupid college and high school rule that says a ball carrier can’t advance the ball once his knee hits the ground, even if the ball carrier isn’t down by contact. This rule makes no sense and should be changed. An Illegal Formation Penalty Does Not Result In A 10 Second Run-off. If any of you saw the end of last week’s Rams/Seahawks game, you’ll know to what I’m referring. The NFL has a rule that basically says during the last minute of each half, a team without any timeouts can’t commit certain penalties with the ultimate goal of stopping the clock. While a false start results in a 10 second run-off, an illegal formation does not. So at the end of the Rams/Seahawks game, the Seahawks were not in the proper formation as they spiked the ball with about 5 seconds left in the game. As the flags hit the ground, the Rams and their fans were celebrating the victory, certain that the game’s final seconds would be run-off as a result of the penalty. However, referee Ed Hochuli correctly called the play as the rulebook states, which allowed the Seahawks to kick the game winning field goal. Bad rule.As a result of this situation, the league should change this rule to include all offensive penalties so teams cannot benefit from their own mistakes.The Ground Can’t Cause A Fumble. Why not? Especially in high school and college where the ground can cause a ball carrier to be down. In the NFL, where the guys are better, if a running back can be expected to hold onto the ball when getting lambasted by a 250-pound linebacker, they should be expected to hold onto the ball when hitting the turf. No “Horse Collar” Tackles. The “horse collar” tackle – when a defensive player grabs and tackles a player by the back of the shoulder pads – has been outlawed by the NFL this year. Apparently, the prevailing wisdom is this kind of tackle results in players being exposed to an increased risk of whiplash-type injury. Meanwhile, tackles where one defender holds up a ballcarrier so that two or three other defenders can take free shots with 15-yard running starts are still okay. Banning the horse collar tackle is silliness.Allowing Long Hair To Stick Out Of A Player’s Helmet. For all the attention to minutiae paid by the NFL and NCAA, these organizations allow players to wear their hair in such a manner that it hangs down over the name on the back of their jersey. This is actually a plea for the powers that be to enact a rule preventing anything from sticking out from the helmet and covering any part of the jersey. It can be marketed as a safety rule, if it makes them feel any better. But get rid of the long hair hanging out of the helmet.One Foot In Versus Two Feet In. In college and high school, receivers only need to get one foot in bounds with control of the ball for a valid catch, while the pros require two feet. However, in high school and college, you can push a guy out of bounds while he’s in the air to prevent the catch, while the NFL officials can overrule the push and say the receiver would have come down in bounds with both feet. Neither rule is really stupid, but the fact there are two different rules at the different levels is stupid. If the NFL wanted more offense in the game, they’d go for the one-foot in, no force out rule.No Contact With Receivers Downfield. It’s gotten to the point where defensive backs should be called defenseless backs. Any kind of contact with a receiver is pounced upon by officials as either illegal contact, pass interference, or holding. This rule should be loosened up to allow d-backs to bump the receiver and have other kinds of contact, but not impede the receiver in any way. To offset this new freedom for the defense, the NFL could allow the receivers to get only one foot in for a valid catch, while allowing d-backs to push receivers out of bounds. There would be a lot more exciting play with these adjustments.Unfortunately, instant replay is here to stay, but we can always hope football will try and fix these other stupid rules.

The Ramble: Instant Replay, NFL, Plummer's 'Stache, Ryder Cup, Ryan Howard, And More

Sal Marinello — Sat, 23 Sep 2006 17:16:05 EDT

I’ll keep it short and sweet as space is short and the topics are many.Get Rid Of Instant Replay. Instant replay sucks. Su-su-su-sucks? That’s right, sucks. The only reason I’m here is that I might buy this crummy snobatorium (name the movie). Anyway, instant replay was supposed to fix problems but all it has done is add another layer of human involvement in the process of officiating football games. The instant replay system does nothing more than provide another opportunity for human error -- high-tech aided human error, but human error nonetheless. The system still depends on people, and as we all know, people screw up everything that they lay their hands on.Jake Plummer’s Mustache. The mustache must go. Jake can keep his starting job, but the “Porn 'Stache” needs to be shaved off ASAFP. It’s really awful looking and can’t engender support or earn respect from his teammates.Bad NFL Teams. There’s nothing worse than a bad NFL team. Teams that leap to mind; the Raiders, the Redskins, the Lions, the Packers, the Titans, the Texans.Daunte Culpepper. Brand new knee, same bad head. With all the attention spent on the Dolphin quarterback’s miraculous recovery from major knee surgery everyone seemed to forget that Culpepper has been pretty bad ever since he lost Randy Moss a few seasons ago. Even though is knee is all better, his decision making still stinks. Can we expect a Joey Harrington appearance?Terrell Owens. Now that he’s back on the field he actually has to live up to the hype. During the first two weeks of the season he hasn’t even been the best receiver on his team, never mind on the field. All eyes will be on Owens when he and the Cowboys check into Philly on October 8.The Washington Redskins. What a great failure story. Owner Daniel Snyder has thrown money at everyone from Steve Spurrier to John Hall as well as guys at almost every position on the field and has little to show for it. This season he joined forces with deposed movie star/Scientologist Tom Cruise. Based on this association with Snyder, Cruise’s career is in jeopardy.The Ryder Cup. It was played in dreary old Ireland this past weekend and the Americans lost.Ryan Howard. There’s been noise that if Howard hits 62 home runs this season that he should be crowned the single season home run champ due to the drug-related taint attached to Barry Bonds and Mark McGwire. Since there’s no way to prove that any of today’s players are clean, Howard’s home run totals will just have to be considered to be a product of the era and looked upon with the same skepticism as all the other outstanding achievements of power hitters. That’s the price that baseball pays for not cleaning house.The NHL. Rumor has it that the professional hockey season is about to begin in North America.The Detroit Tigers. Looks like the Tigers will hold on to win the pennant in the AL Central, but how much hope can their fans have when they consider that they’ll have to depend upon Kenny Rogers come playoff time? When Rogers gets shelled cameramen in the area should be aware.Receiver Ties Jerry Rice’s Touchdown Record. No, not in the NFL, but in Division 1-AA as the University of New Hampshire’s David Ball scored 3 touchdowns this Saturday to tie Rice’s record of 50 career TDs. Rice torched defensive backs from the years of 1981-84 while at Mississippi Valley State with his partner-in-crime quarterback Willie Totten. Rice went on to be the NFL’s all-time leading receiver and a contestant on Dancing With the Stars, while Willie Totten -- who was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 2005 -- is now the head coach at his alma mater.Baseball’s MVP. Despite what some experts think, pitchers shouldn’t win the MVP; they have their own award named after Cy Young. Especially in this day and age of 6 inning starts where a good starting pitcher participates in about three-fourths of every fifth game. Using the American League as an example where Cy Young candidate Johan Santana will start around 34 games, position players in the running for this year’s award have all played in over 145 games.The MVP’s should be Ryan Howard in the NL and Derek Jeter in the AL.Let’s end it on a high note, shall we? Until we meet again.

The Ramble: The Short And Sweet Edition

Sal Marinello — Sat, 5 Aug 2006 23:17:41 EDT

There’s so much going on that I’m going to say what I have to say using as few words as possible, or die trying.Penalize Rhett Bomar Not The Sooners. College athletes like Rhett Bomar – and not always the institutions that they represent - should be penalized when they willfully and blatantly violate NCAA rules. In a manifest violation of NCAA regulations, Bomar had a no-show job at an Oklahoma car dealership last year and pocketed at least $18,000, and as a result should lose at least two years of eligibility and be forced to sit out for a year.College Football Polls Are Nonsense. In college football the defending champs should always be ranked number one until they lose a game. There is no way that Ohio State should be picked ahead of Texas in any poll since the Longhorns beat the Buckeyes last year in Columbus, and that the two teams play on September 9.Fantasy Football Is Ridiculous. Any endeavor that results in football players being judged solely on their stats rather than the outcome of a game is ludicrous. Fantasy football has had the overall effect of elevating those who produce stats rather than results.Justin Gatlin’s Excuse. According to Gatlin’s coach Trevor Graham – a man who has been neck deep in performance enhancing drug scandals for most of his career – a rogue masseuse rubbed testosterone cream on Gatlin after a race so that Gatlin would fail his drug test. There’s no indication that Gatlin’s camp is blaming either the testing lab or the French.Floyd Landis’ Excuse. According to the Landis camp the French and the lab that performed the test on Landis’ urine are to blame for Landis' high level of testosterone. There’s no indication that Landis’ camp is blaming Gatlin’s masseuse… yet.Dan Marino for Nutrisystem. There’s something really depressing about this Hall of Fame quarterback pitching Nutrisystem’s weight loss products. I know that when he was playing he did those cheesy Isotoner glove commercials, but the Nutrisystem commercials are worse.Football Hall of Fame. There’s something refreshing about the non-statistical emphasis placed on candidates for entry into Canton. There is much less controversy surrounding picks to be enshrined as a football immortal than there is with the baseball equivalent, and there are fewer oversights and inconsistencies with regard to the football greats.No Athletes Were Shot This Week. The Second Amendment wasn’t in play this week, however Detroit Pistons reserve center Dale Davis was arrested and subdued with a stun gun in a disorderly persons beef with police outside of a Miami Beach Hotel. Davis’ agent has said that the cops picked on his client because he was black, but didn’t address the inconsistency of why the cops wouldn’t have at least picked on a small black man and thus had an easier time administering the beat down.Dave Mirra. How many of you lost sleep because Mirra’s injuries – suffered this week in a training run – will cause him to miss the X Games? How many of you even know about the X Games or in which event Mirra competes?Barry Bonds Hits Home Run 723. Bonds has only 15 home runs this season, and is a good bet to hit under 20 home runs in a season for only the second time in his 21-year career. At this pace, with a bum right knee that’s getting bummer by the day combined with the fact that old sluggers lose their power in a hurry, Bonds won’t break Hank Aaron’s record of 755 dingers next season even if he does catch on as a designated hitter someplace in the American League.Michelle Wie. When this golf phenom finished her third round of the Women’s Weetabix British Open – Weetabix! – at four over par, she was 11 shots off the pace. Wie needs to concentrate on winning some tournaments – or at least playing into contention – before she worries about qualifying for men’s events, or her failure to do this will ruin her career."Man Law." This Miller Beer advertising campaign has jumped the shark. After two or three commercials this approach has run out of steam, and has become self-parody.For this edition of The Ramble brevity wins, but will it be able to hold sway over the powerful forces of loquaciousness? Tune in next week to find out.