By Phil Hecken
It’s been a big past few days in the uni-verse, so much so that there are really three big stories on the front burner today. They’re all pretty bad, each in its own way. But let’s start with the two freshest.
As most of you probably know, Joe is gone now…good riddance:
And that’s not all…the really big news is that PSU is facing unprecedented penalties (although questions as to whether Penn State will face the death penalty are still being debated). We’ll find out what the NCAA has in store for PSU at a 9:00 am news conference this morning. At a minimum, it appears the University will be facing a tremendous monetary penalty, perhaps in the $30-60 million range (which sounds like a lot — and it is, but according to the last linked article, “To put the fine in perspective, Penn State’s athletic department had $116 million in revenue for the 2010-11 school year.”).
So, I guess the question as to “what will Penn State wear” on the field this coming season will be answered at that time. (For those of you who may have missed it, a week ago we ran a poll on this very subject, and the answers to the question of “The 2012 Nittany Lions will wear…” were as follows [with results] a) “No recognition for Paterno 45.35% (755 votes)”; b) There will be no 2012 Penn State football 31.11% (518 votes); c) A black armband 18.14% (302 votes); and, d) A commemorative patch for Joe Paterno 5.41% (90 votes). Looks like “a” or “b” will be likely.
Late last week, Paul wrote a fantastic article for ESPN entitled, “Should Penn State Change Its Uniforms?” That’s a highly recommended read in case you didn’t happen to see it when it came out.
Somewhat surprisingly, at least judging by yesterday’s comments, there are more than a few people who feel that JoePa is getting the raw end of the stick (no pun intended) and that he is (at least by the blame being foist upon him and now the removal of the statue) being unfairly blamed for the actions of others. Others feel that a statue removal is the least of PSU’s worries, as they may need to gird themselves for a year (or more) without their cash cow.
I think this is an issue that warrants discussion on the UW boards, whether it’s uniform-related (and tangentially at least it is) or not. And I’m sure you all will have plenty to say after the 9:00 news conference is concluded. I ask that you be civil to one another and to try to keep your comments short. My position on this from the beginning (or at least since the release of the Freeh report) has been that PSU should have voluntarily suspended its football program for a year, and offered every football playing student one of two options: the ability to transfer to another school (with NCAA blessing and without penalty) to continue to play football without needing to take a year off … or … to permit all student-athletes on the football team a full free ride for the remainder of their term as a student (that means room/board/books/incidentals/etc.) in order to complete their education.
Sadly, it appears the university has chosen to put their fate in the hands of the NCAA — and may be facing much worse than what I had thought was a fair self-penalty.
Whatever your feelings about this whole sordid affair, one thing does appear clear — the entire University cares more about its football program than anything else. It even appears (although your mileage may vary) that they’re trying to pin the whole thing on JoePa (though he obviously bears a percentage of guilt here) to let him take the fall for the school. I may be wrong about that. We may never get to the bottom of this nor find out true guilt or innocence of everyone involved. But I guess we’ll find out soon enough whether on not the football team will be wearing any uniforms this fall. And whenever they next do suit up, we will have to ponder Paul’s question as to what uniform they should wear.
Up next on the list of troubling things that happened in the past week is this, first reported in The Daily Record.com.uk, in an article entitled, “London Olympics: Lord Coe’s astonishing sponsors outburst.” Take a moment to read that.
Some key phrases in that article:
HEAVY-HANDED security chiefs will ban Olympic spectators for wearing the wrong brand of clothes, it emerged yesterday.
Games boss Sebation Coe warned anyone wearing a Pepsi T-shirt is likely to be booted out because it would upset sponsors Coca-Cola.
and
Asked if someone wearing a Pepsi T-shirt would be allowed in, Coe replied: “No.
“You probably wouldn’t be walking in with a Pepsi T-shirt because Coca-Cola are our sponsors and they have put millions of pounds into this project but also millions of pounds into grassroots sport.
“It is important to protect those sponsors.”
There’s more of course, but those are just two of the more ridiculous examples of how out of hand the Olympics is becoming.
In typical Lukasian fashion, Paul is the one who tipped me wise to this story — and as usual, he has encapsulated his sentiments towards this far better than I could. Here’s Paul’s take on this:
“The biggest issue, to me, isn’t the branding crackdown. It’s the endlessly repeated rationale for the branding crackdown. Official after official keeps saying, ‘[Sponsor X] paid millions of pounds, so of course we’re going to protect their interests,’ and these statements keep going unchallenged, as if it’s acceptable to put a price on boorish behavior. It’s like a Congressman saying, ‘Of course I created a regulatory loophole for so-and-so’s business. After all, he bribed me.'”
Well said, Paul. Well said.
This crap is nothing new to this Olympiad — we’ve heard disturbing reports in the lead up to the games of bakers using Olympic rings being told these displays were unauthorized and told to remove them. We’ve seen reports of police being told to put food in plastic bags to avoid “advertising” non-sponsoring brands. And even McDonald’s has exercised a heavy hand in it’s exclusive ‘right’ to sell Fries.
Enough is enough.
Last but certainly not least, Uni Watch continues the campaign to keep ads off of NBA uniforms. To refersh your memory, I draw your attention to Paul’s breaking of this story on Friday and my subsequent follow-up on Saturday. We’re urging all Uni Watch readers to contact the NBA, be it by twitter (for which we have begun a twitter campaign urging readers to tweet something like this: “@NBA — #NoUniAds”), E-mail, or even old fashioned means like the telephone or by engaging in a letter-writing campaign. Please refer back to Saturday’s post for all E-mail addresses or how to open a Twitter account.
You may notice the “logo” just to the right of this segment. That was created by my pal Tim E. O’Brien to aid in this most important fight against advertiser creep. And let’s not sugar-coat this — it is advertiser creep, not ‘sponsor’ creep (a much more benign-sounding term). Once again, Paul has put it most eloquently, much more so than I. Here’s Paul (again):
“Part of this war is the war of words and ideas, and one of those words is “sponsor.” We should not be referring to the NBA initiative as “jersey sponsorship,” nor to the advertisers as ‘sponsors.’ While these terms may not be inaccurate in the strictest Webster’s sense, the concept of sponsorship is more commonly understood to mean financial support for a needy cause.
When the local pizza shop puts up money for the local Little League team, for example, that’s sponsorship, because the Little League team genuinely needs a sponsor. Even the old TV line, ‘And now a word from our sponsor,’ was legitimate, because TV gives away its content for free. Without a sponsor, there’s no business model.
But the NBA doesn’t need this money. It just wants this money. The companies that would be paying for jersey space are not sponsors; they are advertisers. To refer to them as “jersey sponsors” implies that the jersey would not exist without them, or that they are directly subsidizing the cost of the jersey, which is false.
So let’s please avoid the terms ‘sponsor’ and ‘jersey sponsor.’ This is not sponsorship; it is just advertising, plain and simple. #NoUniAds“
And if you don’t think this possibility is very real, well, just a few months ago, even Paul had his doubts (another must-read). It lays out the position against uniform ads very well so if you are going to take the position supporting ads on NBA jersey real-estate, read this first. K? Thanks.
As far as Tim and his logo — he wanted to say a few words as well, and his suggestions for how to carry out our “#NoUniAds” campaign:
Look Stern, No Ads!
As discussed here on the Uni Watches since the midnight Thursday press release, the NBA is considering allowing 2.5″ x 2.5″ advertizements on their game uniforms. If you’re a uni watcher, you probably find this abhorrent. Paul, Phil and a bunch of us from the Uni Watch Bench Mob have come up with a campaign against this affront to American athletic aesthetics.
If you’re a twitterer, hashtag #NoUniAds to @NBA and tell them you’re against Uni Ads and you wont stand for them. If you read that last sentence and are worried you have aphasia, don’t fret, there are ways you can contact the NBA too. You can send The NBA an E-mail or send your comments directly to Uni Watch.
Update: Paul has a new article on ESPN about fan response to the uni ad proposal.
Whew — that’s a LOT of information to process on a Monday morning I know — but there was a LOT going on in the uni-verse the past few days. Foremost of course is the campaign to STOP THE NBA from putting ads on uniforms. The other stuff, is just…important.
On Saturday, I mentioned that I would be posting reader letters (or E-mails) to the NBA in today’s post — clearly it’s long enough as it is, but I will be doing so throughout the rest of the week. We’re going to be on top of this assault on the sanctity of the uniform, and we’re NOT going to stop until the NBA backs off. The frontlines start here. Do your part.
Throwing waaaaaaaaayyy back…
On Saturday night, the Minnesota Twins and Kansas City Royals had a throwback — to 1909 in another wonderfully done Negro Leagues tribute. I didn’t see the game (sadly), but our resident Minnesota sexagenarian, Rick Pearson, did — and I asked him to file a report. He did. Here it is:
It was a Negro Leagues throwback for the Twins and Royals Saturday. The Twins wore unis from the 1909 St. Paul Gophers (which they also wore at Target Field last summer). The Royals, as we’d expect, wore another of the many Kansas City Monarchs unis. Looked pretty good. The Royals royal blue equipment, including cleats, was something of a mismatch with Monarchs’ navy, and the Twins plain white socks weren’t quite right. Second time Twins and Royals have had a throwback this year, home and home (they did Millers vs. Blues in Minnesota earlier). So a question…Has that happened before?
Thanks Ricko! I dig the short-billed caps the Twins were sporting, and everyone knows I loves me some monochrome dark unis. Beautiful.
After I received that writeup from Ricko, reader Aaron Stilley sent along a really nice writeup he had done about the KC Royals wearing of the Monarch duds — definitely worth the look-see.
“Benchies” first appeared at U-W in 2008, and has been a Saturday & Sunday feature here for the past two years.
And now for something completely different….
Click to enlarge
Reminder: Paul is on summer break until Aug. 23. Phil Hecken is handling the weekday content and John Ekdahl is running the show on weekends; contact info for them is available here.
The Uni Watch e-mail address is being auto-forwarded to Phil, so any Ticker submissions or story ideas sent to that address will go directly to him. If you have a question or comment for Paul, go ahead and send it in, and Phil will make sure Paul receives it. We’re particularly interested in keeping up-to-date with college football uniform unveilings, so definitely keep submitting those. Thanks.
Uni Watch News Ticker (compiled by Paul & Phil): New away kit for Man U (from Leo Thornton). … In a first, active duty military members will be able to wear their uniforms in the San Diego gay pride parade. … Levi’s + Nike = Ewwww (from Rex Henry). … Check out these super-cool, if somewhat bossy, uniform mirrors (thanks, Kirsten). … Pretty cool photo of Shea Stadium under construction (from Ben Fortney). … “Phil Esposito, of course, wore No. 7 with Boston before traded to the Rangers,” says Neil Hochman. “I seem to recall him wearing 12 when he arrived in New York, because Rod Gilbert was wearing his soon-to-be-retired 7. Espo eventually wore 77. But this photo shows him wearing 5. Carol Vadnais, who was traded with Espo from Boston, wore 5 that season, while Bill Collins wore 15 and Nick Beverly 25. Wondering if Espo grabbed Vadnais’ jersey for this photo.” … Amelie Mancini, the French artist with the cool Left Field Cards project, was recently featured in an ESPN video segment. … A New Jersey DJ named DJ Prime has made — and I think is selling — a cap that shows the old 1970s Philllies logo combined with a 45-rpm spindle (from Jeff Ash). … “A village along the route of Stage 18 of the Tour de France dressed three donkeys in ‘leader jerseys’; stage winner (yellow), points leader (green), and King of the Mountains (polka dot),” says John Muir. … Several eras of White Sox jerseys available in this shot (from Brian Mazmanian). … Also from Brian: Remember the White Sox uni design contest from 1981? Here are some submissions from that contest that we’ve never seen before. … “I was at a Red Robin, sitting underneath a giant American flag made of baseballs,” says Jake Kessler. “It’s hard to see, but the small word written just below the seams of each ball is ‘China.’ Found it fitting, considering the recent Olympics story.” ”¦ It’s not every day you can buy a baker’s dozen World League football jerseys in one auction lot (from Dan Cichalski). ”¦ St. Mary’s High School in Orchard Lake, Michigan, is getting a red football field (from Tod Hess). ”¦ The Sabres introduced Steve Ott on Thursday, but the jersey they gave him at the press conference had the old Reebok vector logo on it rather than the wordmark (from Chris Steele). … The Twins wore their navy “Minnesota” jerseys on Friday — except for Brian Dozier, who pinch-hit in the top of the 9th (from Brandon Wyatt). … Matt “Chicago Shep” Shepardson noticed more Cubs helmet hijinx: “The helmet decals, starting with Matt Garza’s, didn’t like the humidity!” … Then there’s this cap screwup: Orioles Pitcher Chris Tillman and 3rd baseman Wilson Betemit wearing different lids during Saturday’s Indians vs. Orioles game (with thanks to Stephen Lindh). … Brinke had a couple uni notes: There appears to be quite a quite an Olympic military presence near the village. Also from Brinke: If you’re going to get Oylmpic ink, shouldn’t you have some form of spell check? … Reader “Too Tall” Paul Deaver loves him some manual scoreboards — which sometimes don’t quite get it perfect (although I’m sure Ernie Els didn’t mind that one bit). … My buddy Mike Colvin, who runs the aptly-named “Big Slices of Wrong” blog, sent in this pic of a Joe Mauer NOB — literally. Ewww. Also finding this “tickerworthy” was Gerry Dincher, who sent a slightly clearer shot. Yes, that’s much better. … Several readers mentioned, but Conor McGrann was the first to provide photo evidence of Andrew McCutchen’s zebra striped socks(!). Kent Stahlman also got a shot. Too bad he couldn’t have worn those with his pants cuffed (also, the socks look like they match his necklace). … Several readers, including Ryan Bohannon (with a Facebook shot) noted the Cubs wore a Ron Santo patch on their uniforms yesterday, while Chicago Shep (thanks again) got a screen grab of the patch in action. … The Rams sure had some big NOB lettering in 1970 (from Bill Kellick). … A little tough to see, but Team USA hoopsters are wearing a “CD” patch for the deceased former coach Chuck Daly (Thanks to Paul Miles for the tip). … And last but not least — this one is wonderful: We’ve all seen the famous 1979 All Star Game photo featuring Reggie Jackson in a Mariners uniform. But…until now, we’d never seen video of Reggie in that uni! Great find posted on the Dick Allen blog, and brought to UW attention by Anthony Juliano.
And that, folks. Is a wrap! One helluva first day for my weekday run on Uni Watch. Everyone have a great day, and keep it civil. There’s lots to discuss, and we can all do it in a mature, professional manner, right. Looking ahead, I have lined up a bunch of “Olympic Correspondents,” and I’ll be getting to their submissions this week and next. If you have any kind of an article you’d like to see during the next month, or would like to work with me on something, give me a shout.
“I hope we can all agree that one positive result in Penn State is the removal of all those engraved-in-bronze Nike logos in the Paterno shrine. When the PSU alumni erect a new bronze idol to their lord and savior JoePa, as we all know they will sooner than later, though mercifully probably not on campus, here’s hoping it is at least free from logo creep.”
–R. Scott Rogers
That “CD
Sorry, new computer. “That “CD” patch isn’t properly paid for by an official Olympic sponsor and therefore may not be worn.” That’s what the IOC will tell the USA.
They can wear a patch for Chuck Daly but not for the victims in Colorado?
priorities
But I guess we’ll find out soon enough whether on not the football team will be wearing any uniforms this fall.
Regardless of what penalties are handed down, I don’t think the football team playing in the nude would be neither appropriate nor suitable, given the circumstances.
Shouldn’t all athletics at Penn State face sanctions? I don’t know if this is fair or just, but this scandal went beyond the football program and its staff.
That is the big question: how many innocents should be punished? An institution is a just a bunch of buildings without people, so it’s the people who will be punished. Whether you think the girls volleyball team should be punished (because the AD was part of it), whether you think the mom and pop stores in State College should be punished (because they profit from the evil that is college football), whether you think the science department should be punished (because the university president was in on it), is very much a personal opinion.
For me, I don’t see how inflicting pain and suffering on more people solves anything.
… and on and on. It could go on to infinity: Penn State is a state school, so isn’t the Pennsylvania state government also responsible? Shouldn’t they be fined/sued/punished?
You nailed it, Robert.
The scandal went beyond the football program and its staff in the sense that it involved the AD, the President, etc. But in the end, what occurred was a result of 4 men wanting to protect the football program. So it should be the football program that takes the hit. Because I doubt that if, say, the moderator of the speech and debate club pulled a Sandusky the school would have taken similar steps to cover it up.
I personally don’t think the NCAA went far enough. They should have suspended the football program PERIOD. Because what does the $60 million fine represent? Maybe 4% of Penn State’s endowment? The vacating of wins is a symbolic gesture, and one that will be viewed by the Crappy Valley faithful, as well as the Paterno Family, as some sort of personal attack on JoePa. Reducing the scholarships and having the school field a dilapidated football squad will do nothing more than rally the lemmings at PSU further around the tarnished legacy of the program and Paterno and continue to act like victims.
Regarding unis, no recognition for Paterno. That’s just. Sure, he was a great coach, as Benedict Arnold was a great general for our side. Same treatment.
Nice pic of almost Shea…wonder why the Upper deck had so many more tunnels and sections than the other levels.
Credit, where it’s due – I found that on a Flickr stream by user “Photoscream”
As for the deck tunnels, more seating in the UD than the other levels.
Sure…more rows in the upper deck means more seats there, requiring more exits…I was thinking along the lines of equal circumference and missed the row factor. Thanks!
It’s getting a little redundant with the anti-jersey ads rhetoric. When 7 teams have been sold in the last several years (and ALL of them were losing money), the league has to do something to generate revenue or it will risk losing it’s players to foreign markets.
Granted, all NBA players are well overpaid, but the bottom line is that it’s the NBA’s product. Not yours, not any fans, it’s a private entity. Jersey ads suck, but would rather have continuously rotating ownership, movements and/or players shipping to China or Europe?
The NBA needs the money and if they want to do it, so be it…I care more about the game than I do the jersey’s or ads…
Perfectly fine position. But many of us here feel that sports teams are not just business entities but also civic entities that operate as a public trust (and also receive public tax breaks, play in publicly financed facilities, etc.), and therefore accrue certain civic responsibilities.
In any case, nobody has said they don’t have the legal right to sell uni ads. We just think it’s a bad move. Bad for the game, bad for fans, bad for the uni-verse, bad for American society. So we’ll keep speaking out against it. #NoUniAds
I would like to see someone put a well thought-out, labor friendly alternative that would satisfy the long term needs of the league. I have seen very little (if any). I am sure that if collective think tank that is uni-watch was able to provide a plan to the dollars and cents needed w/out “sacrificing” the beloved jersey’s…then someone here has a greater calling in life…to generate revenue w/out affecting tradition.
Every arena = corporate name, players are endorsing everything themselves (and are walking billboards as product recognition with their sneaker deals), I see it as a sad evolution, but I don’t mind it with hockey (AHL, Europe and minors…hopefully NHL will stay out, but selling ads on ice is fine…there we go…sell ads on hardwood..) and I won’t mind it as long as there’s a game to be played…
And just what are the league’s “long-term needs”? And how do such “needs” differ from simple greed?
Your proposal assumes that the league is in dire financial straits (something that’s never been objectively demonstrated, since the league won’t open its books), and that such straits are due to external factors rather than poor management on the league’s part. You yourself have already stated, “Granted, all NBA players are well overpaid.” Howzabout we start there. #NoUniAds
Then the superstars go to where the money is overseas, and your main product, the game itself, suffers. Quite often, you hear how small market teams can’t afford/attract big name stars…why? Because several teams dominate the money, and the union loves it…Can we agree there is no easy solution? it’s not something that is going to just come out in several posts…if that was the case, all the attorneys, owners, sales groups, and all corporate people involved in calculating these decisions would have much easier jobs…
Personally, I don’t care whether the players go overseas (although I realize you do, and that’s a perfectly legit position). But really, where is the evidence that this would happen? Is there a mass exodus underway that I’ve missed?
In any case, it’s instructive to note that when the league announced the uni ad initiative late Thursday night, here are some things they did NOT say:
– “This revenue will help keep us competitive.”
– “This revenue will help small-market teams.”
– “This badly needed revenue will help stem the tide of red ink on our teams’ books.”
– “This revenue will keep our talent from going overseas.”
They didn’t say anything like that, even though it probably would’ve been good PR do so. But no. Instead, they just crowed about making an extra $100 million a year.
I can see what that means. Can’t you? #NoUniAds
Mr. Lukas,
I’m not a PR guy. I understand how the beast works. I’m just as guilty as every single person who has ever had a connection with sports (myself is hockey, football & basketball) and spent money with any team/store etc.
Everything is calculated down to the penny. And if corporate sponsors want to spend their money b/c they feel by advertising with the NBA with pay dividends ten-fold, that’s ultimately their decision.
People buy stuff. Sadly, too often, people don’t think where it comes from. There is no ceiling to how much one team/league/player can make, and we should fault the sponsors too…but it won’t happen. Mass exodus? No, we haven’t seen it…and probably won’t (again, the players aren’t stupid and the union is strong), it goes along with the fans too..you won’t see a mass exodus of fans either.
Pop culture, the need to feel close to ones team and just rush of all sports that gives an escape for a few hours a week…I don’t think a small ad is going to drive people away, however, it will make them more nostalgic, and harken to the good ole days.
I don’t think a small ad is going to drive people away, however, it will make them more nostalgic, and harken to the good ole days.
Best argument ever. We should just let everything go down the crapper because it’ll make us feel warm and fuzzy about yesteryear. Makes sense to me! #NoUniAds
To whatever extent small-market (more accurately small-revenue) teams can’t attract free agents, another revenue source isn’t going to help unless it’s somehow slanted toward those small-revenue teams.
If uni ads are allowed, aren’t the Lakers’ uniforms going to sell for more than the Bucks?
If you took all the naming rights and in-arena advertising out of the NBA, owners would make a bit less money, which would mean that players would be paid a bit less money, and the games would go on pretty much the way they do now, except that the experience of going to the game would be improved.
Futurama I think sums this up best:
Leela: Didn’t you have ads in the 21st century?”
Fry: Well sure, but not in our dreams. Only on TV and radio, and in magazines, and movies, and at ball games… and on buses and milk cartons and t-shirts, and bananas and written on the sky. But not in dreams, no siree.
To be honest, I don’t like the idea of ads encroaching on the game (I realize most arenas have ads on the court), but I’d rather see a center court ad than a uniform ad. Moreover, the center court ad would be visible nearly the entire game, while you might only see a uniform ad during a timeout or free throw attempt. I would even say put the ads on the retail jerseys (which people see more often at close range than the jerseys in game anyway) while leaving the game jerseys unadorned.
“If uni ads are allowed, aren’t the Lakers’ uniforms going to sell for more than the Bucks?
Of course they are. And that’s a powerful reason why this is a bad idea, aside from all the others.
The rich teams get richer, and the poor teams fall farther behind. Hardly a recipe for a healthy sport.
I had a discussion a few weeks ago with a friend about the concept of ads on uniforms. He was for it. However, he was unaware that if you wanted an EPL or MLS (most teams) jersey, you were forced to advertise a product or service. If the NBA did go down that road, I would hope that his beloved Miami Heat carried an ad on their jerseys for something he was morally opposed to. I would bring it up repeatedly to him. Even if the retail jerseys didn’t have the ad, the fact that he had to watch his Heat tout something he hated would be just punishment.
I argued to him that, under the guise of good ol’ supply and demand, simply raise your ad rates on game broadcasts and arena signage. Tell advertisers that, because of fan backlash on jersey ads, you have to make up that lost revenue source somehow. Teams hike up ticket prices regularly (often with no real good reason), so why not use your same BS generator on companies as you do the fans?
Players are not “well overpaid.” NBA teams pay the players the value they believe they are worth. In the free market, if a business pays more than it can afford for either labor or capital, then it must either cut those costs or go out of business.
And so what if the best players start chasing higher salaries overseas? That’s capitalism, baby. Heck, given how the free trade era of the last 30 years has privileged the free flow of capital but not labor, and in the process gutted American industries by letting capital flow to countries with lower labor costs, the prospect of seeing labor allowed freely to cross borders to chase capital is kind of a cool thing.
But if the financial condition of the NBA really is so dire that it cannot keep itself afloat by obeying the normal practices of free market capitalism, and if selling ads on unis really is the only way for the league to remain solvent, then it’s time that we stop pretending that the NBA is a major sport in America. The new Big Three sports will be football, baseball, and hockey. The not-popular-enough-to-be-profitable NBA should henceforth be given exactly as much attention and respect, particularly by the media, as MLS soccer. Major sports leagues don’t need to sell advertising on uniforms. Period. If a league feels the need to do so, then it is not a major American sport.
Major sports leagues don’t need to sell advertising on uniforms. Period. If a league feels the need to do so, then it is not a major American sport.
Well said. I’ll be quoting that one. (And I suspect Phil will be doing so as well, at the bottom of tomorrow’s post.)
who me? i never quote scott…
I say this with regret, because I really, really wish soccer would be a major American sport. But it clearly isn’t yet, and part of the obvious evidence is the fact that the sport’s financial position is so hardscrabble that it has to sell uni ads to stay afloat. If you have to do it, you do it. But if you don’t have to do it, then you don’t.
And just think of how this will play out the next time an American city gets the Olympics. Say my favorite Wizards player is on Team USA at the 2024 games in San Francisco, so I buy tickets to see USA face Ubekibekistanstan in an early round, and I buy a repro Wizards jersey with my favorite player’s name and number in USA-appropriate red, white, and blue. But it has a Pepsi ad, so at the gate of the event the guard tells me that I have to remove my Wizards jersey because Coke is an Olympics sponsor. At which point I either can’t see my favorite NBA player in the Olympics, or I take off the jersey, and (A) lose the jersey forever, because it’s not like they’re going to put it in the coat check for you to pick up on your way out, and there’s $400 down the drain (remember it’s 2024, so you’ve got inflation plus ever-rising merch prices); and (B) get arrested for indecent exposure on account of taking off the only shirt I’m wearing, and I get thrown into a secret IOC prison where I disappear into a Kafkaesque rabbit-hole as if I never existed, and even my own family speaks of me only in whispers for fear that the IOC’s black helicopters will come for them, too.
That’s the nightmare world the NBA would create for its fans with uni ads.
ArrScott, I’m guessing that even in such a scenario you’d be able to turn your jersey inside out. Back in high school they used to do this with kids who showed up wearing shirts that teachers thought were indecent.
Though it’s highly unlikely, the NBA may produce a better product if it reduced its’ labor force and operating expenditures(aka: contracted some teams)?
“…given how the free trade era of the last 30 years has privileged the free flow of capital but not labor, and in the process gutted American industries by letting capital flow to countries with lower labor costs,…”
The US corporate tax rate is also a contributing factor, as is the ‘going rate’ of American unionized labor in many industries, wouldn’t you agree?
“…the prospect of seeing labor allowed freely to cross borders to chase capital is kind of a cool thing.”
Provided such crossing is done legitimately and is in compliance with federal immigration policy, right?
In the modern free-trade era, we’ve allowed capital and goods to flow freely across borders, but we’ve kept significant barriers in place that effectively prevent workers from crossing borders. “Compliance with federal immigration policy” is the point here, though it’s not only the US. John Wall could go to Italy tomorrow to play basketball, and any Italian basketball player could move to the US tomorrow to play in the NBA. But an American textile worker cannot move to Mexico to try to pit his high skills against the lower-skilled workforce there.
If we open the flow of capital without also opening our borders to freer flow of labor, as we have done, then we’re tilting the playing field in favor of countries with less-skilled and lower-paid workers. (Which is to say, that’s not really free trade.) So it may be a useful exercise for us to see a few elite Americans taking their labor across borders in ways normal folks are not permitted to do.
The ONLY was I feel NBA uniads will be acceptable in my eyes is if TV timeouts/commercials were removed from the games, much like they do in soccer. If it speeds up the game, I can look past how bad it will look. If that aspect doesn’t change and it’s 100% for additional revenue, then I’m 1000% against it.
Even if a league offered to remove some commercial availabilities as they put ads on their unis, they’d put the breaks back in within a couple years. Don’t you think that MLS would add interruptions for television if they could figure out how to do it?
“It even appears (although your mileage may vary) that they’re trying to pin the whole thing on JoePa”
Best line I’ve seen in any coverage of the entire situation. It’s easy to blame the dead man who can’t defend himself. Of course, what went on is reprehensible, but it’s now become that Paterno is seen as more responsible for the horrible the situation than Sandusky, which makes no sense. I have no doubt that a large percentage of the readers here, if told from one source that there was some fishy stuff going on with their best friend, while at the same time told by said friend not to worry, that it’s all in the past, would have stood by their friend (even though it’s not the right thing to do). He’s been made into almost a scapegoat.
It’s easy to blame the dead man who can’t defend himself.
Actually, I’m fairly certain his death has muted the outrage a little bit. If he were still alive, the outrage would be much, much louder. And he’d be “defend[ing] himself” against criminal charges.
Said this late last night…
Some will say, “Ah, they’re just blaming the dead guy.”
Wouldn’t it be just as wrong to say, “Sugarcoat it. Give the guy a break; he’s dead”?
So maybe let’s just cut to this…
Do we really, truly believe anything SO major could have happened involving the Penn State football program and Paterno NOT known about it?
So, given the extreme likelihood Paterno DID know, he pretty much had four options…
A. End it.
B. Deny it, or deny knowing about it.
C. Cover it up.
D. Kick the problem upstairs.
We cannot say for certain which he chose, but we do know it was NOT “A”.
In a sense, Paterno may have wished he was dead had he been alive to finally face the music. Time for all Penn Staters to
look at this situation objectively.
Time for all Penn Staters to look at this situation objectively.
Don’t hold your breath…
“And he’d be “defend[ing] himself” against criminal charges.”
And he would have a pretty good case.
What concrete evidence has been presented that he instituted a deliberate cover-up to “protect the football program?”
Perjury, conspiracy, obstruction of justice, child endangerment. That ought to cover it.
“but it’s now become that Paterno is seen as more responsible for the horrible the situation than Sandusky, which makes no sense”
sandusky received his sentence, now it’s on to the next in line (the dead guy).
Exactly. Sandusky has faced his justice, and now Paterno has to (if posthumously).
I also think it is proper for the NCAA to go after Paterno, Schultz and the rest of the Paternos since they were the ones employed by the University. Sandusky wasn’t for most of this period (although he was sheltered under its protection).
The people who were part of an NCAA member organization, and subject to NCAA rules, are the focus of the NCAA’s punishment – what exactly is wrong with that?
Great entry today…IMO, Penn State cannot be punished enough.
isn’t Paul supposed to be off the grid for a month? Go relax dude!
Touché.
What, and miss all the fun??
the author of the site isn’t allowed to be a fan of the site?
Should we all start posting purple jerseys while Paul is away?
link
Those Man U away kits look like the staff uniforms at a hotel spa: “Good morning, I’m Wayne. I’ll be doing your aromatherapy treatment this morning. Lavender or eucalyptus?”
Coupled with their checked tablecloth home shirts, it’s another stunning triumph for the Nike design team!
As an United fan, I hate when they go with a white away strip. To me, it symbolizes they are being lazy and can’t come up with a creative look. I liked last year’s blue/black stripes much better.
Although, I can’t say I’m too enthusiastic about Arsenal’s away strip this season. Might be a bit much…
As an Arsenal fan and season ticket holder, I wish we had a white away strip.
Chance, couldn’t agree more.
Amen!
Apparently, SAF requested a white kit, though don’t know why.
Without the strange collar, this would be a really nice kit.
Definitely prefer this to the home shirt, as well as some of the change shirts we’ve seen in recent years.
What’s odd to me is, if Nike just announced it, why do I remember seeing a picture of it in a flyer for a local chain soccer store probably almost 2 months ago? A mistake on their part, perhaps, as I’ve not seen any evidence of the new away kit online until now. I wish I’d saved it, but simply tossed it in the recycling bin after flipping through it.
Today on SportsCenter there was a reference to I’m Calling It Shea… and it wasn’t just showing a fan wearing the shirt. The anchor actually called it Shea and acknowledged the fact.
Here it comes boys…
Wow, they’re doing right by the current “student-athletes”.
It’s funny ,though, that the first punishment they mention is the monetary one. *shakes head*
Well, that’s the one that involves writing a check, so get it out of the way. Then move on to the changes going forward, especially those involving behavior and culpability.
For those who are working and can’t see what’s been handed down: 60 million dollar sanction, 4-year bowl ban, Vacation of all wins from 1998-2011, and 5 year probation.
but they’re playing this fall?
Also, players can transfer and play immediately.
Yes sir. No death penalty.
The $60 million was deemed the gross revenue from a single season. So they didn’t tell them they couldn’t play, but they will lose a year of income from football.
Heard a report the football program actually does $110M per year in revenue or something.
“Heard a report the football program actually does $110M per year in revenue or something.”
~~~
yeah um…that was in the first graf…“To put the fine in perspective, Penn State’s athletic department had $116 million in revenue for the 2010-11 school year.”
but that’s income, not operating expenses (which, not shockingly, were pretty large as well) … so that $60M is probably their profit, not just revenue
$60 million might be ticket and TV revenue.
Things over and above that (food sales, merchandise, etc.) might be harder to pin down.
Reduction in scholarships for four years, too.
10 a year, was it?
Paterno loses 111 wins.
That’s correct, Ricko. From 25 down to 15 for those years.
Paterno drops from first to eighth.
“Paterno loses 111 wins”
~~~
ESPN reporting that Paterno drops from 1st to 5th all-time.
I’m kinda “meh” on this aspect. It seems pretty low on the list of “important shit to remember”.
5th all-time in *FBS history.
This is the new Death Penalty. The NCAA will never shutter another program, after it took SMU 20 years to recover. Losing the 40 scholies will hurt more than some people think.
As a “delusional” Penn State fan, I don’t really care about vacating the wins, but I want to say this:
It’s a stupid “punishment”
People feel angry and uncomfortable with what happened and Paterno, unfortunately, is representative of the era in which these events took place.
So the solution: “Let’s do what we can to keep Paterno out of sight and out of mind. Seeing his name in the record books and seeing his statue make me think about the terrible things that happened. It makes me feel icky.”
The crimes that were committed were heinous; the failure to report was an egregious mistake.
But revising history does nothing. It will not do anything to ensure these things don’t happen again.
what would you have done then?
Vacating the wins for those tears is ridiculous.
The scandal was horrible and criminal, and should be properly punished, but it did not bring any unfair advantage on the football field. The pitchforks are out and many are rightfully being “stuck”, but changing history and altering the outcome of actual games played on the field for crimes committed and covered up off of the field is ridiculous. This particular sanction should be reserved for nullifying advantages made that are involving grades, money, recruiting, and the actual advantages gained or players bought, or allowed to play when they should not have been alloed on the field.
Even a righteous mob can be wrong in the types of punishments metted out to the guilty.
Wow, I don’t know Hecken personally, but his reaction to this whole Penn State situation certainly paints him as a hater. At the very least he certainly is beating them while they are down. Real lot of class Phil!!!
What happened to the white jersey (Best Young Donkey)?
Here’s something I just wrote for ESPN about fan response to the uni ad proposal:
link
#NoUniAds
Very nice write-up, Paul. I looked at the lone comment on it so far, and it’s sad. He says “Ads are coming if people like them or not more money is never going to be turned down.”
It’s attitude and non-action like this from the majority that will let things pass. As said about a million times here already, DO SOMETHING. When and if the NBA can be convinced that the negatives would outweigh the positives then it won’t “just happen”.
It’s OK — not everyone is going to feel the same way, or feel motivated to action. We all choose our battles, and there are certainly worthy battles I’ve chosen not to engage in.
But for those of us who’ve feel strongly about *this* battle, we MUST keep making our voices heard. PLEASE keep calling the NBA (212-407-8000, ask for Adam Silver’s and/or David Stern’s office), tweet to @NBA with the hashtag #NoUniAds, and feel free to email deputy commissioner Adam Silver (his publicly listed address is link). Do it NOW. #NoUniAds
Oh! A phone number! I had not see this yet. Calling momentarily.
Has anyone spoken to someone when calling?
Tweeted this earlier and will be emailing Mr. Silver to point out how utterly ridiculous Argentina looked playing against Team USA yesterday.
link, plus the maker’s mark. (There’s a Direct TV ad on the back.
When thinking about the NBA advertising debate, my thoughts went back to a few years ago when my one of my kids wanted a soccer jersey for Christmas. He listed the teams he liked, and, when looking at the jerseys, the advertiser/sponsor made my purchase an easy decision. I didn’t I want my son advertising beer (Celtic/Carling), but when I saw that Barcelona had UNICEF on the front, we had a winner.
Barcelona was a hold out in the race to sell sponsorship/advertising. In 2006 they agreed to give UNICEF $2 million per year and wear the UNICEF logo. In 2011, UNICEF got bumped to the back of the uniform when Barcelona signed a $230 million deal with Quatar. As former club president Joan Laporta said, ““Our team looks like the Qatar national team now.” See this NY TImes article for more info: link
Speaking of Quatar, when a Quatar sheik purchased the Malaga club, he dropped gambling company William Hill as sponsor because of Islam’s ban on gambling.
If NBA teams do allow advertising, there are so many unexpected twists that will present themselves.
I was more bummed out about Barça putting ads on their jersey than I’ll ever be about the NBA putting ads on theirs. At least I thought Barça stood for something other than unfettered greed, I was wrong.
This whole Penn state issue is crazy. I believe everybody with knowledge to the scandal has been removed. To punish the fans, players and community who rely on the Nittany Lions as source of positive community development is unfair. sport has an incredibly powerful impact on allowing healing to begin, progress and occur. In this case Penn state fines should be directly sent the victims of these actions and subsequent cover up actions. The Lions should be forced to wear all white uniforms with no markings not even a swoosh and I’d love to see Nike spear head that initiative. On the left side of the jersey there as close to the heart as possible there should be a round black patch that says “never again.” The rest of you can argue about how they should stop playing for one year and allow the athletes to transfer out but that just allows the suffering to continue. What happened at Penn State had nothing to do with athletics but about terrible decision making, covering up and deceit by a few people. The Community and athletes have suffered enough as have the victims. It is long past the time to start making this right but cancelling a football season is not how to do it.
“To punish the fans, players and community who rely on the Nittany Lions as source of positive community development is unfair.”
~~~
um…aren’t they playing football this fall?
It’s pretty simple: When you run a criminal enterprise — and make no mistake, that’s what this was — there will be consequences. Deal.
Paul-
are you referring to PSU as a whole?
if so: link
I’ve said it here before, and I’ll say it again –
The reprehensible actions of a few does not represent an entire community.
Yes, I’m referring to every single person associated with PSU in even the tiniest, most tangential way….
No. Duh. But the notion that “fans” are going to “suffer” as a result of the sanctions is (a) ridiculous and (b) irrelevant. When you send a criminal to jail, his family suffers. That’s called tough shit.
The point is, most people at PSU — yes, including the fans and students — could do with a little sacrifice, a little reordering of priorities. Because they were all complicit in a system that elevated football far beyond its place. And that was the crime that allowed all the other crimes to happen.
I agree, I’m not “suffering” as a fan.
But I’d contend that this statement-
“The point is, most people at PSU – yes, including the fans and students – could do with a little sacrifice, a little reordering of priorities. Because they were all complicit in a system that elevated football far beyond its place. And that was the crime that allowed all the other crimes to happen.”
-can be applied to almost all big time collegiate athletic programs.
The pedestal PSU fans put football on was no higher than that of any other major college football program. I don’t believe that’s why these terrible things happened.
They happened because people didn’t want to get involved; they didn’t want to take responsibility. Because sexual abuse is a scary, disgusting, uncomfortable reality for people to face; and it’s easier to hand it off to someone else to take care of.
[quote]The point is, most people at PSU – yes, including the fans and students – could do with a little sacrifice, a little reordering of priorities. Because they were all complicit in a system that elevated football far beyond its place. And that was the crime that allowed all the other crimes to happen.[/quote]
Could not agree with this more. At some point, we have to acknowledge that a community that puts its football program on so high a pedestal that the program believes it can operate not only outside of the law but outside of fundamental moral decency…well, perhaps it’s time that the community “suffers” for its part in feeding the beast.
The pedestal PSU fans put football on was no higher than that of any other major college football program.
Fine, let’s shut down some other programs too — works for me. I’d honestly have no problem with it.
But THIS is the program where that “Sports above all else” mentality resulted in criminal activity being tolerated and condoned. If Sandusky had worked for Notre Dame or USC or Oklahoma, would the same cover-up have happened? Maybe, maybe not. We’ll never know. What we do know is that PSU went out of its way to allow a child rapist to operate in its midst, mainly to preserve the football program’s reputation. That’s unacceptable, period. Talking about other schools, other programs, making guesses about what might be going on elsewhere — that’s just noise.
Pete Carroll and Reggie Bush aren’t at USC anymore, you know.
So you’re saying their only punishment should be cosmetic?
When a program gets so big it feels it is above common decency, aren’t even the people at the bottom to varying degrees responsible for feeding that attitude?
I mean, if you’re at the top of such a program and you believe you can do whatever you want to do, it’s for one of two reasons (or maybe both)…
1. You’re so powerful you really can make your own rules.
2. Your supporters will let you get away with it.
“I believe everybody with knowledge to the scandal has been removed.”
The Board of Trustees hasn’t had a mass resigning yet.
There is zero “punishment” for fans. Watching a winning football team isn’t a sacred right. Tom Jefferson didn’t write, “All men are created equal, and are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights, and among these are life, liberty, and cheering for a football team with a winning record.”
Having your favorite team suddenly transformed into a losing program that will have to struggle for years to regain its on-field quality isn’t “punishment.” It’s a normal part of being a sports fan.
thank you scott — well said
the “entitlement mentality” is not only alive and well, it’s pissed off
here, here!
Well put! Are they upset that they will have to pick a new winning team and they now have to invest in new gear? Crappy seasons happen. If you can’t accept a string of losing seasons (I’m not saying you have to be happy about it) then your not being realistic. Go ahead and hop on some other band wagon.
It was an organization and environment that allowed a sexual predator to operate. They knew what was going on but did nothing because they didn’t want to hurt the program. Lives got ruined because football was more important than children’s well being. They deserve everything they get. Defend Penn State and Paterno all you want, you are only defending harborers of a child molester. They looked the other way while children got raped. It makes you look foolish and it makes me sick. It’s football. It means nothing. The fans will survive. If Penn State fans are so upset about this, then their priorities are still way off and need to learn the big lesson here. Football isn’t supposed to be held above all else.
That is exactly the point that I’ve been trying to make.
“What happened at Penn State had nothing to do with athletics but about terrible decision making, covering up and deceit by a few people.”
Yes and no. The latter part of your statement is correct. But to say that what happened had NOTHING to do with athletics? It had EVERYTHING to do with athletics. The Big 4 covered up Sandusky’s crimes because it would have adversely affected the football program. Like I said earlier: If the moderator of the speech and debate club pulled a Sandusky, do you think the school would have taken the steps it did to cover up the crimes?
And the although cover up was perpetrated by a “few people”, those people were the face and authority of the university. They represent the university, and as such not only failed in their duties, they blatantly tried to cover up the rape of children by an employee on university grounds. Any punishment they get is not piling on; it’s well deserved and long overdue.
The justice of the NCAA’s sanctions are precisely this. In future, if a similar allegation of criminal activity within a major program arises, the calculus even for moral cowards like the Joe Paternos and Graham Spaniers of the world will be very, very different. Nothing that could possibly result from disclosure and alerting the authorities will even come close to outweighing the negative consequences of covering it up.
Far better than killing Penn State football, this is Khan leaving Kirk alone to starve to death in the center of a dead world, buried alive (buried alive … buried alive … KHAAAAAAAAN!). The deterrent effect on other schools facing any possible scandals in future should be significant, and successful deterrence of future wrongdoing is a key element of the justice of any punishment.
How’d that Kirk/Khan situation turn out? Penn State fanatics hope your analogy holds true.
Maybe it’s like Obi-Wan leaving a dismembered, burned-nearly-beyond-recognition Vader for dead.
No, wait…
JTH, Kirk tricked Khan by substituting hours for days in his communications with the ship. I suspect that for Penn State fans, years will seem like decades while these sanctions are in place.
wait…wtf happened in star trek II?
i know what happened at the end of space seed…
C’mon, Phil. You really want us to post spoilers here?
It had something to do with rich Corinthian leather.
PAUUUUUUUUL!
I guess you can put me in that “Paterno is getting the raw end of the stick” boat. Mostly, with me living within proximity of Peen State and the local news media’s search to fill their news blocks, this is all I have been hearing since it dropped. One thing that I feel is very strange is the amount of focus on Paterno and the amnesia of the other people involved (namely McQueary, who went the proper channel of telling Paterno but also didn’t go to the police, but still doesn’t get shit on like Paterno does for doing the same thing).
This whole media circus is retarded, but I’m not trying to say Paterno is completely clean; he should have at least beat Sandusky with a fucking bat.
Besides, doesn’t Sandusky have, like, 442 years of jail time? That’s also a complete farce, but he’s in jail so it doesn’t matter to me.
In the first moments of the press conference, the point was made that the NCAA does have the right to sanction for a “conspiracy of silence.”
Does anyone have much doubt that there WAS a conspiracy of silence?
Vacating the victories wasn’t singling out Paterno. It was punishing the program. They didn’t just remove Paterno’s 111 wins. They took away all 112 of them.
I haven’t doubted it for a moment; it wasn’t just one person, which is what it sounds like around here whenever people talk about Peen State.
Before this all broke, I don’t think anyone would have argued that Joe Paterno wasn’t the most powerful man at Penn State, if not at the university at least in the athletic department.
I mean, the trustees even went to his house to get him to step down and he pretty much threw them out.
So now we’re retroactively claiming, “Oh, no, he was just another guy who worked there”? I don’t think so.
It all happened on his watch, when he had incredible power. Yes, it’s unfortunate that he isn’t around to defend himself or explain. But he DID have the opportunity in the time before he died. And he did not choose to do so.
“The Buck Stops, Wait, There Is No Buck. I Don’t See Any Buck, Do You? Wait Right Here, I’ll Be Back Later.”
According to the Freeh report, it was Paterno’s decision to not go to the authorities. He thought it was the “humane” thing to do. What a joke. Make no mistake, paterno called the shots in Happy Valley
What about McQueary, or any of the “janitors that saw what happened” and didn’t go to the police? McQueary waited ten days after seeing what happened to tell any other university officials.
Paterno wasn’t the only person covering up here.
No one has said he was.
Perhaps no one noticed, but his name was never mentioned in the NCAA announcement this morning.
No he wasn’t. But he was the big fish and controlled a lot of peoples actions, so he has to take the lion’s share of the problem. Yes, Sandusky is the real monster and criminal. Yes, others knew and did nothing as well.
Fact is Paterno stopped others from taking action…all in the name of football. People used to preach that Paterno was a good man and always taught his players things like responsibility, accountability, and doing the right thing. When it came down to it, he didn’t do it himself. Paterno was guilty of helaping facilitate the cover-up ans wasn’t as great a person as he claimed to be, fans need to learn to deal with that.
And maybe that’s why McQueary or the janitors never went to the police. Because they feared that Paterno was going to make their life very difficult from then on. Fear of retaliation, death threats fron Nittany Lion fans, that kind of stuff.
From a B1G press release, I just received.
Fine: Because Penn State will be ineligible for bowl games for the next four years, it will therefore be ineligible to receive its share of Big Ten Conference bowl revenues over those same four years. That money, estimated to be approximately $13 million, will be donated to established charitable organizations in Big Ten communities dedicated to the protection of children.
Give it up with McQueary. He told his superiors, who then did nothing in turn because they feared Paterno. Same goes for the janitors. You’re just bitter that your golden boy football coach was anything but.
“And maybe that’s why McQueary or the janitors never went to the police. Because they feared that Paterno was going to make their life very difficult from then on. ”
In fact, one of the janitors who witnessed Sandusky performing oral sex on a boy and didn’t say anything stated that retribution from Paterno was the exact reason why he didn’t go to the authorities.
I’m not sure the “I was afraid of what Paterno might do” excuse flies here. The crime is so heinous and morally reprehensible that McQueary really should have reported it to the authorities. And if I remember correctly he spoke with his father about it before he went to Paterno too. What repercussions would his father, a man I don’t believe was employed by PSU, have faced from Paterno had he gone to the authorities? Don’t get me wrong Paterno is fully accountable for what he did and was part of a cover up but it also seems to me as if several other people with equal opportunity could have gone directly to the authorities. In what world is it ever right to simply report a crime to your superior, however great or small the crime, why should it ever be someone else’s responsibility? Why if you were in McQueary’s situation would you have ever paused in that moment and thought “No, calling 911 or reporting this to police is probably not necessary”? That mindset would imply that you thought there might be someway the situation could be involved without police involvement. Paterno is guilty here, no doubt, but McQueary is equally guilty if not a fraction more-so as he was an eye-witness. And as he is alive would it not make more sense to focus efforts on putting him behind bars for a suitable length of time. Paterno isn’t going anywhere after all.
I don’t believe this! Maybe McQueary wasn’t as big a hero as we needed him to be, but he’s the only one who stepped up. Don’t celebrate or vilify the man. Leave him alone.
“I’m not sure the ‘I was afraid of what Paterno might do’ excuse flies here.”
And you know this how?
I won’t pretend to know what it’s like to work for what is essentially a cult. But I wouldn’t be surprised, and indeed am NOT surprised, that someone feared for his job and/or his future and possibly his life when faced with the prospects of taking on a man who was placed on a pedestal and a university that kowtowed to him. Could the janitor(s) have done more? ABSOLUTELY. That doesn’t excuse their inaction. But the fact that they were terrified about what repercussions they would face for outing someone who was a close friend and employee of Joe Paterno’s is not as far-fetched as people think.
Remember, Joe Paterno was the guy who went to the Board of Trustees and essentially told them, “I’ve agreed to resign at the end of the year. So carry out whatever investigation you have to carry out, but leave me out of it.” Such hubris and arrogance from a man who is technically an employee and subordinate of the school and the Board leads me to believe that lowly janitors were more than justified in fearing punishment from Paterno.
And I wholeheartedly agree that Mike McQueary could have and should have done more, but to state that McQueary is MORE guilty than Paterno when McQueary, no matter how flawed his thought process, actually reported what he saw to his superiors while Paterno (and Spanier and Curley and Schultz) COVERED UP THE ENTIRE SORDID MESS? That is mind-boggling .
Penn State deserves it all. I wish the coward Paterno were still alive to see the reputation he put ahead of the safety and well-being of children come crashing down.
I was satisfied hearing the list of sanctions. Don’t forget, Penn State is also open to multi-millions in lawsuits. Somewhere along the line, money and power corrupted their mission of education. I don’t think that will happen again for a long time at Penn State.
Taking away the wins and thus his record, was just what I was talking about yesterday when I said he did not deserve the legacy of a legend. Paterno made a conscious decision to protect his program by not stopping a monster…and it was an ongoing decision, not one brief moment of weakness.
Any attorneys here?
I keep hearing that Penn State didn’t get due process.
Isn’t that relevant to the government and the legal system, not to the dealings of an organization with it members?
I think what people mean is that Penn State didn’t get even the NCAA’s usual level of review.
But keep in mind: Penn State signed the consent decree for all of this. In doing so, they essentially waived any right to the NCAA’s usual process. It’s like pleading guilty instead of choosing to stand trial.
There you go. Any mention of “due process” is a hollow argument.
link
And besides, if Penn State doesn’t like what the NCAA handed them they don’t have to belong to the NCAA.
And they would DOMINATE the NAIA…
Here’s where Soccer-style Relegation would be nice, they should relegate them to NCAA Division III for a few years.
It doesn’t seem right that while (Glasgow) Rangers FC goes bankrupt, doesn’t pay their taxes and gets sent to the Scottish Third Division to play against teams who draw 500 a game, but Penn State still gets a chance to play to full stadiums in the FBS.
The NCAA’s punishment today basically makes Penn St. the modern Yale. Formerly great, giant stadium, completely irrelevant football wise. Not commenting on the justice or fairness of that, just an observation.
But Paterno losing wins. Great, another meaningless record. As a sports fan, I’m pretty sick of never knowing what I’m watching. I watched Reggie Bush win the Heisman–oops, no I didn’t. I watched Ben Johnson win Olympic gold–oops, no I didn’t. I watched Floyd Landis win the Tour de France–oops, no I didn’t.
All of sports is now like NFL replay. You don’t cheer what you watched, you cheer when you hear, “upon further review, the play stands as called.”
“The NCAA’s punishment today basically makes Penn St. the modern Yale.” Is it the crack talking, or is that sentence meant to be construed as some kind of bad thing? I’d have no problem with my alma mater being more like Yale … right down to the Yale football team (whose players one can be reasonably certain deserved to matriculate, and are there for an education).
It is, as I stated, an observation.
Maybe I’m being a bit of an old fuddy duddy, but is this really appropriate?
I get that you honestly meant that no pun was intended, Phil. I just think that you might have made a different choice entirely. My two cents, unsolicited.
nice job by Time Magazine
@NBA — #NoUniAds!
Paul’s usually got a pretty good head on his shoulders and I’m glad to see this is no different in that when Paul is here at his website, Uni ads are the end of all civilization, where as in public he realizes most folks won’t be upset (or care) about the uni ads. I like the contrast between his ESPN columns (which seem like BS that he’s just writing for the masses half the time) versus the clarity of his opinion you find here, versus the reality he faces when he is more public (like in Time.) It’s good to see he is not as delusional as he comes across on Uni-watch.com.
Oh, don’t worry, I’m fully delusional 100% of the time.
I can’t choose which quotes of mine are used by another reporter when he interviews me. I guess he left the “delusional” quotes on the cutting room floor. #NoUniAds
Yes, best they use the quotes that keep them from feeling compelled to write an intro such as, “We spoke with Paul Lukas, the ESPN crackpot who writes about uniforms…”
Better for their journalistic integrity.
:)
Better for their journalistic integrity.
Theirs and mine.
I did that interview on my cell while sitting in my car, in the rain, at a New Jersey gas station parking lot on Friday afternoon. I had just spent the afternoon interviewing an 80-year-old gentleman who had a pivotal role in MLB logo history (ESPN column to follow next month). It was a really nice afternoon — great guy, with a great family. His wife served me cookies. Then I left, turned my phone back on, and saw all the emails and messages from people who wanted to interview me about the NBA thing. Drove to a gas station, parked, got clearance from ESPN (I can’t do outside interviews until/unless they approve it), and did a few interviews, including the one with the guy from Time. Then drove home, thinking how one part of my day had been so nice and how the rest of it had been spent writing/talking about major unpleasantness.
What someone needs to do is take a video of the US/ Great Britain exhibition. The GB unis are lousy with advertising and look completely horrible. This is the path we’re going down because make no mistake the patch would be just the beginning it would soon be a much bigger ad.
I mean take a video to Stern
Big question for me: Will Penn State football lose any sponsors, or see its current sponsors remove their marks from PSU unis?
It’s like, if I’m Coca-Cola or Pepsi, I don’t mind being associated with Chik-Fil-A. People have a right to controversial political opinions, even if they happen to sell chicken sandwiches, and anyway there’s little exposure to reputational harm from having one’s brand displayed at Chik-Fil-A restaurants.
But if I’m Nike, I don’t want my swoosh anywhere near a Penn State uniform after this. I’ll still sell uniforms to any paying customer, but I do not want my name or trademark associated with a child-rape protection racket. And until the NCAA penalties are no longer in place, Penn State football will be widely associated in the public mind with the child-rape protection racket that was run there. (Fairly or not: This isn’t about what is true or just; it is about the reality of public perception.)
I’ll be curious to see if Nike has a different calculation of the risks to its reputation here.
swooshie kept tiger
Tiger cheated on, and possibly got beaten up by, his wife.
This ain’t Tiger. This is OJ. Would swooshie have kept OJ?
Wait, don’t answer that.
“This ain’t Tiger”
~~~
oh, i know that…not the same ballpark — hell, not the same league or planet…
but some folks, including those who might like the chicken sammich chain for just this reason, might feel that tiger’s behavior is morally reprehensible (i do, but for reasons having nothing to do with the teachings of jesus christ)
if nike is willing to overlook those “moral failings” as some might put it, then surely this is worse, but on a black/white scale (either it’s morally wrong, or it’s not) then you’d think they’d keep PSU as well
Now, see, I was just kidding with the Tiger/OJ thing. But you raise a serious point. I don’t propose that Nike is, or ought to be, concerned with moral failings as such. It’s the danger that too-close association with certain things subject to public approbation will hurt the sponsor’s reputation. The point isn’t that Tiger did or did not do wrong; it’s that Tiger’s reputation did not become so toxic that being his sponsor was likely to lead people to associate Nike with Tiger’s moral turpitude.
Whereas for me, it’s hard to imagine anyone in America seeing Penn State merchandise in the store this year without having “child rape” come to mind. If I’m Nike, I don’t want the subconscious mental reactions of any of my potential customers to go as follows:
Oh, look, a Penn State jersey. Oh, right, little boys being raped. Hey, look, Nike.
I’m not imagining that Nike should sit in moral judgment and be in the business of looking or overlooking anyone’s bad behavior. If I ran Nike, I wouldn’t make decisions on that basis. I do imagine that Nike is interested in protecting its own reputation from being defamed by too-close association with people or institutions the public viscerally hates.
If I had to bet, I’d bet on no change in the PSU-Nike relationship. But for me, the risks to Nike’s reputation are high enough that if I ran Nike, I would seek to distance myself. Not because PSU did anything particularly wrong, but because PSU has become particularly infamous.
They’ve already distanced themselves a little, of course — they took Paterno’s name off of their child-care center.
I know you’re talking about things more related to their product and such. But still, it’s a start.
It really is too bad that you are NOT Nike. Perhaps then the company would have some sort of morals, ethics, and socially responsible attitude. If it doesn’t help the bottom line, they’re not going to care. Nike won’t change a thing, bet on it.
Well, that would be one way to pretty much do away with shoe deals:
“Only players who are faithful to their wives are eligible.”
I mean, if today we’re talking about facing up to reality regarding Paterno we probably also should face the reality that as a group professional athletes will never be poster children for marital fidelity.
Well Nike could turn this into a positive by donating all profits from the sale of PSU football items to the organizations the NCAA has directed the $60 million.
It wouldn’t surprise me if…
*Nike supplies Penn State gear with no maker’s mark this year, thereby making a “corporate statement”.
*Nike continues to supply them with nothing changed, figuring to cash-in on all the coverage the team will get, as well as selling to all the “I bleed navy & white” buyers who will spend to support such an unjustly punished program. (eyeroll)
*Nike convinces them to redesign their unis (for the “cash-in” reason stated above).
*Nike continues to supply them as usual for a year or two (or however long the current contract is in effect) and then cuts them loose if the program has tumbled so far.
In other words, Nike will do what they think is best for Nike.
Now we’ll just have to see what they think that is.
Yep, whatever their decision, you can bet it will be all about that bottom line. They can spin it (and they will) however they want, but Nike is only out to help Nike. It’s capitalism at its worst, IMO.
… because Nike should not be interested in what’s best for Nike.
I don’t want to see Nike’s mark removed from the jerseys. People will notice that it’s not there, and subconsciously associate the lack of such a logo as being a punishment, and the presence of a logo as indicating a team in good standing.
Saw this today – new helmet for Appalachian State for their game vs. Coastal Carolina:
link
“The Sabres introduced Steve Ott on Thursday, but the jersey they gave him at the press conference had the old Reebok vector logo on it rather than the wordmark”
That doesn’t even look like a real uniform, rather a cheap replica.
Fitting for Ott. Cheap replica of a tough guy.
” Levi’s + Nike = Ewwww”
I dunno man, jeans with Drifit to help prevent swampass and sweaty balls? If they came in any fit besides 511 (skinny), I’d get a few pair.
Ditto.
To go back to another story from last week,
The Muppets are ending their relationship with Chick-Fil-A.
/Gonzo’s chickens are safe
—-
Most interesting tidbit I’ve seen so far regarding PSU is that the game between PSU and OSU in 2010 has now been vacated by both teams.
Can the mutually vacated win be awarded to a deserving football program, like say the Minnesota Golden Gophers, who could really, really use a retroactive victory or two?
It is all strange. I was at that game. Ohio State won. But officially the win got vacated. But PSU still gets the loss.
How about this bizzare record.
Ohio State is 14-13 vs PSU on the field. Ohio State is 13-13 officially vs PSU. And PSU is 8-14 officially vs Ohio State
Wait, seriously? So “vacated” isn’t the same as “forfeited”? If you’re correct, then that’s just stupid. What does that even mean? The game was played; somebody won and somebody lost. If PSU is not allowed to pocket the win, then the other team must by definition be the winner. That, or the game itself is disqualified, and the loss disappears as well as the win. A game that no team wins but one team loses is so bizarre that it risks rending the space-time fabric and destroying the universe.
When an Olympic medal is revoked, the other medalists don’t keep their current medals; each moves up one. Same when the Tour de France results are revised every September after the drug tests are done. If the idiots who run the IOC and the TdF can figure this out, the NCAA has no excuse for introducing fundamental temporal paradoxes like this.
Are the uni tweaks/concepts section going to be on the weekends?
no
depending on the size of the posts during the weekdays, i may run a couple then — stay tuned (and yes, i got your tweak)
Will do.
Ads on NBA jersies….dont like it at all.
how is this going to affect small market teams?
will the advertisers force the team to get better-sign top players to increase the return on their investment?
will the advertisers have the team’s nuts in a vice>?
cause you know the team will be forever associated with their adulterer. carmelo anthony jersies will have a giant mcdonalds logo on it (yellow and red patch on the knicks jersey….ugh)
what type of shady stuff is going to happen.
slippery slope.
As is customary, Arr Scott has been an exemplar of clear thinking and expression fused with strong values. His taste is pretty good, too (ie, coincides with my own. This applies to both NBA and Penn State.
But just a word about due process. I don’t trust prosecutors and cops (even classy models like Freeh) as much as many people appear to. In my experience of criminal law, cross-examination is an important element in determining the guilt of any individual.
BUT. There is zero mitigation available to PSU as an institution. Boys were raped and the institution qua institution abandoned legal and moral obligations. It looks to me as if Paterno is guilty of a crime, but those 1998 data are not irrefutable imo. What is doubt-free is PSU guilt at every juncture. So throw the book at ’em, and let’s not hear any sob stories about punishing the poor innocent bystanders (who contributed to the whole sickness of exalting a “football program” as if it were the defining enterprise of a university. If PSU were to end up like Yale (big stadium, big-time irrelevance), that would be most fortunate. Yale’s a good school.
Connie, that’s an important caveat.
People like to say that Joe Paterno and the Nittany Lions put Penn State on the map. I say, wrong map.
The loss of scholarships will severely hamper Penn St for many years. They are dropping down to 65 scholarships for 4 years, which is only 2 more than FCS/1-AA schools. The FCS schools are actually in a better position because they can give partial scholarships, Penn St can’t.
For the next 15 yrs or so, Penn St becomes an FCS school playing in a BCS conference. The negative recruiting effects will last much longer.
The NCAA didn’t kill Penn St football outright, but they essentially broke their arms and legs and left them for dead. In the end, more devastating than the SMU-type Death Penalty and well deserved.
Interesting point. I had not thought about that.
PSU got a punishment they do deserve. It should be a while before they are relevant. They were actually a non factor in the Big Ten anyhow.
While I’d agree that advertising on jerseys is unseemly and not something I’d want to see I have to disagree with a point made earlier regarding the addition of uni ads meaning a sport isn’t really major anymore. Is Arr Scott suggesting that soccer in Europe is not a (if not THE) major sport? I accept that there is a difference here as the structure of the NBA league is different to the way soccer operates. However, entertain the possibility that teams do need the revenue from the uni ads to keep paying the top players their inflated wages (and I’m not saying they do) then if you don’t allow that then those players may theoretically leave for, say, the Spanish League where, with uni ads allowed, the top players can get greater salaries. Now as this process starts it might only be a few top names. But those top names attract more viewers and ‘sponsorship’ to the Spanish league. This provides more money to the teams and they lure more top stars. Eventually the Spanish league becomes top dog and the NBA is little more than a sideshow. This obviously isn’t likely but if the gulf in revenues between the NBA and other top basketball leagues ever came down then the NBA could feasibly start losing top names. Is that really worth keeping a nice ad free jersey for? The NFL and MLB are much less likely to face this reality as those sports are much less established in other countries.
His point was that IN AMERICA uniform ads brand you a sub-major sport, because our sports culture is not based on uniform advertising.
Also, and ironically, major sports in America are socialist enterprises in which the government is expected to provide the basic capital investment in facilities (stadiums and related infrastructure, or as an economist of a certain disposition would say, the means of production). Which makes teams in these leagues civic institutions and not mere private capitalist enterprises. Whereas in Europe, most sports leagues are actual capitalist enterprises, fully private, including the private financing and ownership of their stadia and other infrastructure.
So, NBA, you want me to take you seriously as a major American sport? Then don’t sell ad space on your jersey, because that’s something major sports simply don’t do in America. We do a few things differently in America, and that’s one of them, and if you don’t like how we do things in America, well, there’s the border, and don’t let the door hit your ass on the way out. Alternately, you want to act like a European league? Great! Get your filthy mouth off the public teat and stop sucking down my tax money to pay for your basic business expenses. It’s called “capitalism” – you’re welcome to give it a try. After you’ve paid back every dollar in public stadium financing currently outstanding on every NBA facility and taken over the private ownership of all league facilities, then and only then can you come back and talk to us about the “opportunity” of selling ads on jerseys.
you need to try the decaf
Hepped up from that Nats-Mets game. But there’s so much stupid BS about “socialism” of late that it really, really pisses me off when actual socialism, such as the basic structure of American pro sports, not only is overlooked but actually defended as the operation of the free market. How many quarter-billion-dollar bites of taxpayer money does the NBA have to take before we notice that they’re not actually capitalists? Baseball and football largely have the decency to put on a pretense of recognizing some civic obligation beyond mere profit maximization, presumably out of respect for the intelligence of the ordinary chumps who actually pay their way. Not so the NBA, which seems to hope we all don’t notice that we built and own most of their workplaces.
“Hepped up from that Nats-Mets game.”
~~~
yeah, you can thank me in october when you clinch the division by one game over the braves
Baseball and football largely have the decency to put on a pretense of recognizing some civic obligation beyond mere profit maximization, presumably out of respect for the intelligence of the ordinary chumps who actually pay their way.
Or maybe out of fear that Congress will revoke their anti-trust exemptions.
I’m abstaining from the comments today. Too much to read, too much will make me mad.
Instead, I’m working on my breathing all day with my new Zen VHS, “Jim Vilk’s guide to not raging on the interwebs.”
#NUA – we’ll protest some more tomorrow.
PSU – People can bitch all they want, the statue came down, the sanctions were HARD. Everything a reasonable person wanted done to that place is happening.
IU welcomes your former players.
Good stuff today Phil!
And don’t bother responding to this. I’m taking the rest of the day off.
“IU welcomes your former players.”
We need more schools to get sanctioned (for less serious crimes) so we can scarf up their players.
Penn State will probably still finish ahead of us in the Big11Ten standings.
—
While this was happening, I wondered how people in Bloomington would have reacted if something horrible (more than Neil Reed) had occurred with Bob Knight. I was no fan of Knight during my time there, but I’m sure his shoe money going to the library helped me.
Avs to honor Batman Victim:
link
Anyone else receive a reply from the NBA? Because I just did. Here it is:
Dear Coleman,
Thank you for contacting the National Basketball Association to express your opposition to the idea of placing sponsor logos on jerseys. We understand your strong feelings on this issue and appreciate hearing from you. Our fans are extremely important to us, and we value what you have to say.
The NBA and its teams continue to evaluate the opportunity to add corporate branding to game jerseys. Jersey sponsorship is a well-established practice in sports leagues around the world. Â It is also not a new concept in American sports. NASCAR, Major League Soccer, professional golf, the WNBA, and the NBA Development League all feature sponsored uniforms.
The NBA is a global sports league; fans connect with our game in more than 200 countries and territories. As much as we value our traditions, the NBA also realizes that we, along with the rest of the world, need to change and adapt in order to remain competitive in a global marketplace. Â
Thank you again for sharing your feedback. We truly appreciate the passion you demonstrate for the NBA. Your feedback helps us as we work to enhance all aspects of our league.
Sincerely,
Chelsea
NBA Fan Relations
Looks like I’m not the only one to get copy and pasted… I sent a reply back…
Chelsea,
While I do thank you for your prompt reply, I do take issue with part of it.
“NASCAR, Major League Soccer, professional golf, the WNBA, and the NBA Development League all feature sponsored uniforms.”
Let me tackle these one at a time if I may. I apologize if any of this comes off a little sarcastic or rude, but, well, a point needs to be made that we as fans are not as dumb and easy to push over as the NBA seems to think.
Firstly, NASCAR: this association should not be included in the conversation. It, along with others you have mentioned and that I will address individually, is a sport where the athletes competing have NO home track, stadium, field, etc. NASCAR drivers and teams are responsible for their own revenue.
Second, MLS: I am an even bigger fan of the MLS than I am of the NBA by far. What you fail to realize, apparently, is that the fan base, while growing by leaps and bounds, is nowhere near comparable to the NBA fan base. MLS also does not have commercial breaks. Soccer matches are pretty much 90 minutes of action, take away injuries and halftime. There are no convenient breaks every 3 or 4 minutes to go to “a word from our sponsors”. Comparing your association to the MLS is ridiculous and you, or whoever put out what I imagine to be a generic, mass reply to the thousands of emails you have received on this topic, should know better.
Professional Golf: see Nascar. As much as I hate to see sponsors/advertising on golfer’s “uniforms”, its at least a little more understandable here.
WNBA: … You’re kidding me, right? They still exist?
Lastly, NBA’s D-League: Um, yeah. I’ve seen about 30 seconds of a D-league game. Ever. And that was on SportsCenter.
I know this email may seem long winded to you, but you must realize that we, as fans, are your bread and butter. Companies won’t pay for a 2.5 x 2.5 inch ad on a jersey that A) no one is buying or B) no one tunes in to see on television. I may be just one fan, but there are many more just like me. We matter, remember that.
Respectfully,
Coleman W. Mullins
Plus, of the examples she used, 40% of them are under the NBA umbrella. To me, that’s like a food manufacturer changing the recipe of their iconic brand with the introduction of a particular ingredient and saying, “But we use that same ingredient in 40% of our other products.” Yeah, products that carry less market share and that are generally regarded as inferior to the main brand.
Here is the email i received from the NBA offices today… This is not a good sign at all!
Dear Dan:
Thank you for contacting the National Basketball Association to express your opposition to the idea of placing sponsor logos on jerseys. We understand your strong feelings on this issue and appreciate hearing from you. Our fans are extremely important to us, and we value what you have to say.
The NBA and its teams continue to evaluate the opportunity to add corporate branding to game jerseys. Jersey sponsorship is a well-established practice in sports leagues around the world. It is also not a new concept in American sports. NASCAR, Major League Soccer, professional golf, the WNBA, and the NBA Development League all feature sponsored uniforms.
The NBA is a global sports league; fans connect with our game in more than 200 countries and territories. As much as we value our traditions, the NBA also realizes that we, along with the rest of the world, need to change and adapt in order to remain competitive in a global marketplace.
Thank you again for sharing your feedback. We truly appreciate the passion you demonstrate for the NBA. Your feedback helps us as we work to enhance all aspects of our league.
Sincerely,
Chelsea
NBA Fan Relations
Paul,
You are better at this type of thing than I am. What would be a good response to this e-mail?
Just a slow clap directed at the NBA for willing to compare itself to NASCAR, Major League Soccer, professional golf, the WNBA, and the NBA Development League, that’s all. Maybe a persistent snicker too.
Exactly. If the NBA wants to compare itself to its own two sub-leagues, along with MLS, arena football, etc., they’re basically saying they’re not a top-level pro sport. I had always compared the NBA to the NFL, NHL, and MLB, but I’ll stop doing that now.
Comparisons to things like golf, NASCAR, tennis, boxing, etc. have zero relevance to this situation. Those are individual sports featuring individual athletes, not team sports featuring team uniforms. Apples and oranges.
And right here…
“The NBA is a global sports league; fans connect with our game in more than 200 countries and territories.”
…is the key phrase.
In virtually all but two of those countries, ads on unis won’t raise an eyebrow. In fact, they are move likely fall in line with was all those countries think is a “big time” uni.
A million negative responses from the U.S. and Canada are “pffft” compared to the worldwide market, where jersey ads won’t matter one bit.
The NBA no longer sees itself as North America-centric. That’s the deal. And the future.
If that’s the case… fuck them. It’s time for a new pro basketball league.
Yeah. They’re such a global force that they apparently can’t even manage the money they have now, so obviously they need more of it.
If I hadn’t already stopped watching basketball years ago, I’d totally stop watching it now.
Here is a rare case of American exceptionalism that’s REAL, instead of jingoistic hooey. We should jump on this: No uni ads — U-S-A! U-S-A! Keep that foreign nonsense like uniform ads out of our games. U-S-A!!
#NoUniAds
I keep saying this.
In chess terms…
See the whole board.
Oops, that’s supposed to be farther down.
Ricko,
Are people from all those countries going to start flying into MSP 41 times a year so they can fill the Target Center? However much the NBA (or any other American league) wants to be global, its primary market is still going to be the United States.
You confuse agreeing withe them with explaining what’s behind what they’re up to.
No, but a whole lotta people in Spain might watch. And buy Rubio jerseys.
We think NBA teams’ only source of revenue is tickets sales, do we?
To answer hyperbole with hyperbole, we think that games in half-empty arenas will be less attractive to the people around the world who are supposed to be so excited about watching teams that look more like what they’re used to.
Not sure if anyone got this email, but I just received this from Chelsea of NBA Fan Relations. First, my edited version of Friday’s original email, sent today:
“To whom it may concern:
I have submitted this email before, but I have made the decision to re-send it because I mistakenly used the words “sponsorship” and “sponsors” in my previous email, when I meant to say “advertising” and “advertisements”, and I believe that there is a difference between “sponsors” and “advertisements”.
To the League Office:
Hello, my name is Terry, I am 21 years old, and I am a long-time Los Angeles Lakers fan. It has been brought to my attention that NBA commissioner David Stern and deputy commissioner Adam Silver are considering allowing advertising patches to be affixed to NBA clubs’ uniforms (pending team consent, of course). I am highly opposed to this, but I am sure you already have a large stockpile of these emails in your inbox at the moment, so I will not take up too much of your time.
The main reason that I am opposed to this is because with so much of the NBA branding already heavy with advertisements, I feel that the uniform should be the one ad-free zone. I do not watch NBA games for the advertisements, I watch for the game itself. Growing up as a Lakers fan, I can honestly say that I do not remember 98% of the players on the team from the 1990s, but I still cheer for the Lakers. I do not remember all but three members of the Atlanta Braves from the 1990s (Andrew Jones, Chipper Jones, and Javier López Torres notwithstanding), yet I still cheer for the Braves. I do not remember a single solitary member of the New Orleans Saints from the 1990s, yet I still cheer for the Saints to this day.
Why? Because I cheer for the Lakers, Braves, and Saints, not for one particular person. Players come and go, they are traded, they retire, heaven forbid, they are taken from this life at an untimely moment (in the case of former Washington Redskin Sean Taylor), but the thing that stays constant (design changes aside) is the uniform. We — as fans — cheer for the uniform, no matter who is wearing it. The only thing that I want to see advertised on the Los Angeles Lakers’ uniforms is the team name ‘Lakers’.
I do hope that this letter reaches the League Office, and I strongly wish that you at least consider the emails that are pouring in on this topic. I have always respected David Stern and have always seen him as someone who other commissioners in various leagues can learn from, and I do not want this potential stain on the uniforms to darken my perception on him.
Thank you for your time,
Terry Duroncelet Jr.”
Chelsea responded with this:
“Dear Terry:
Thank you for contacting the National Basketball Association to express your opposition to the idea of placing sponsor logos on jerseys. We understand your strong feelings on this issue and appreciate hearing from you. Our fans are extremely important to us, and we value what you have to say.
The NBA and its teams continue to evaluate the opportunity to add corporate branding to game jerseys. Jersey sponsorship is a well-established practice in sports leagues around the world. It is also not a new concept in American sports. NASCAR, Major League Soccer, professional golf, the WNBA, and the NBA Development League all feature sponsored uniforms.
The NBA is a global sports league; fans connect with our game in more than 200 countries and territories. As much as we value our traditions, the NBA also realizes that we, along with the rest of the world, need to change and adapt in order to remain competitive in a global marketplace.
Thank you again for sharing your feedback. We truly appreciate the passion you demonstrate for the NBA. Your feedback helps us as we work to enhance all aspects of our league.
Sincerely,
Chelsea
NBA Fan Relations”
Could just be a copypasta with a name change for the recipient, but you never know.
“Could just be a copypasta with a name change for the recipient, but you never know.”
link
That reply makes me angry.
Agreed. I replied to my “copy and paste” job immediately. My entire reply to theirs is posted above. I held my tongue quite a bit, but I was honest. Hopefully someone actually READS these emails we’re flooding them with daily.
Yeah, “Chelsea” reads all of them. My favorite part is the “opportunity” to add corporate branding to the uniforms. Opportunity.
Yeah, somehow, I didn’t see the above comments addressing the copypasta. My bad =P
Excellent! You can’t advertise for the London 2012 Olympics, but nobody ever said anything about the “Lodnon 2102 Oimplycs”
link
I’ve got a response from NBA, wonder if we all got the same copy-pasted text:
Thank you for contacting the National Basketball Association to express your opposition to the idea of placing sponsor logos on jerseys. We understand your strong feelings on this issue and appreciate hearing from you. Our fans are extremely important to us, and we value what you have to say.
The NBA and its teams continue to evaluate the opportunity to add corporate branding to game jerseys. Jersey sponsorship is a well-established practice in sports leagues around the world. It is also not a new concept in American sports. NASCAR, Major League Soccer, professional golf, the WNBA, and the NBA Development League all feature sponsored uniforms.
The NBA is a global sports league; fans connect with our game in more than 200 countries and territories. As much as we value our traditions, the NBA also realizes that we, along with the rest of the world, need to change and adapt in order to remain competitive in a global marketplace.
Thank you again for sharing your feedback. We truly appreciate the passion you demonstrate for the NBA. Your feedback helps us as we work to enhance all aspects of our league.
Sincerely,
Chelsea
NBA Fan Relations
We did. See mine, along with my prompt response, above.
Just wanted to say thanks for the shout out in today’s ticker. I’ve had over 300 hits today alone which is by far a record for bigslicesofwrong.com. The site is absolutely free and I don’t make a dime from it. It’s just a place to collect all that is wrong in the world and was inspired by uni-watch to a large extent. I quoted Paul on Friday and will also do what I can to prevent ads from creeping onto player jerseys. Thanks to everybody who stopped by and I hope you come back soon!
welcome
I just posted this higher up as part of another thread, but I want to start a new thread, so…
The situation with uniform ads — the rest of the world uses them, we don’t — is a rare example of American exceptionalism that’s real and genuine, instead of jingoistic hooey.
We should jump on this: No uni ads – U-S-A! U-S-A! Keep that foreign nonsense like uniform ads out of our games. U-S-A!!
#NoUniAds
america — FUCK YEAH!
U-S-A
#NoUniAds
U-S-A
#NoUniAds
If the NBA does an about-face on this, can we expect to see you conduct a press conference from the deck of an aircraft carrier with a “MISSION ACCOMPLISHED #NoUniAds” banner behind you?
As long as you supply the aircraft carrier (and the flight suit).
That works for me.
We’ll provide the flight suit, just hold an impromptu conference on the deck of the Intrepid. Close enough, right?
Frick, you can go one step bigger, they have a space shuttle there now!
we gotta get that photoshopped pronto…
anyone wanna take a shot at that — email me the result and if it’s good, i’ll post it tomorrow!
Don’t you dare!
Seriously: The last thing we want is to be associated with one of the great political PR disasters of modern times.
How about this link
Let’s get them to play an NBA game on an aircraft carrier (a la the NCAA) without uniform ads as a concession to us fans. Or make Stern sign an agreement not to put ads on uniforms and have him sign that agreement on the deck of a battleship.
…and keep the flags off the unis also
Lakers will get (insert Forbes Top 50 Company)
Bobcats will get some local business like Bo Jingles chicken
maybe it’ll work if theres a flat univerisal fee for advertising for all the 30 teams
say $xx for every team. and promise the advertisers that the team will play X amount of games on TNT/ESPN in addition to local TV
If the Bobcats get Jones BBQ and Foot Massage, I’ll almost forgive the NBA.
Forbes doesn’t track the top-valued companies; Fortune does. (Having written for the latter, I can tell you that everyone at both magazines is soooo sick of them being mistaken for each other.)
Forbes tracks the 400 wealthiest Americans, however. I suppose those people could advertise. Maybe they’d get a special 1%ers rate….
thanks for the clarification. i wont make that mistake again. by the way, i love the site. keep up the good work.
Bojangles is a national chain btw
Another idea I’ve thought about: What if we put a different corporate logo over part of the Uni Watch logo each day, just to show how annoying it is?
Monday: MasterCard
Tuesday: FedEx
Wednesday: Ford
Thursday: Some bank
Friday: Some insurance company
Etc. Might help to make the point…. Just thinking out loud….
But then the casual observer might mistake those for legitimate advertisements. Maybe use the logos of defunct companies instead?
Plymouth, Enron, Oldsmobile, BankOne, Pontiac, Arthur Andersen, Gimbels, etc.
Problem is that it will only make the point to those who read the site. However many of us there are, we are already opposed to it. I think it’s an awesome idea that you should plug to your “other” job ;)
Ads plastered over the ESPN logo would get a LOT of attention!
I kind of agree with tc: vacating Paterno’s victories seemed like justice at first, but when you think about it, it only serves to distance the NCAA record books from the scandal. The NCAA certainly took advantage of the Paterno Mystique: they weren’t above touting him as a shining example of collegiate sports rectitude. Who penalizes them?
The sanctions are a little like the “death or exile” question in the new Batman movie: they’ve effectively killed the program, without having to actually pronounce a death penalty.
The school should have had the courage to say, “We’re a mess. The program is a mess. We’re blowing it up, and starting from scratch. Maybe well return to D-1 football some day, maybe not, but we’re going to be transparent and clean.”. Instead they said, “For decades, we’ve told you that we are the epitome of collegiate sports integrity. And we are…starting now.”
Vacating wins is such a dopey concept. Does anyone really believe that Peterno doesn’t still hold the all-time wins record? It’s like saying that UMass doesn’t have a Final Four on its resume.
Don’t bring my Minutemen into the discussion. Our football team won’t get our free win over PSU until 2014. Also, we still have that Final Four banner up no matter what the NCAA says.
I hate the NBA. I don’t wear uniforms. I don’t buy sports related clothing. I see the increasing corporatization of sports and turn away. I gave up some time ago.
But I have always been interested in the uniform as a piece of art. And you don’t stick an ad a piece of art unless you’re trying to be ironic…or something.
I sent Mr. Silver an email expressing my disappointment.
^ ON a piece of art
you sent mr. silver an email on a piece of art?
that’s awesome jim!
:)
link
^ link
The Millwaukee Buck doesn’t look as cute.
This image bothers me.
It’s tantamount to corporate logos on uniforms.
Though one could argue the marring of the original piece.
Time heals all wounds.
Two last things: if Paterno had retired at the end of the 1999 season, like he should have, none of this would be happening. He is at the heart of the conspiracy, not because he was loyal to Penn State, but because he was obsessed with his own legacy as the Winningest Coach of All Time.
Second, worldwide, most soccer stadiums are privately financed and privately maintained. If every NBA team were willing to buy their stadiums from the public, and take full responsibility for upkeep and improvements, I could like with jersey ads.
might be a repost, but this might make Paul happy. Jim Henson company ends business relationship(which i never new they had one) with Chick-Fil-a
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Good for them.
But I’m confused. Everyone keeps telling me that no company (especially the NBA) would ever turn down a business opportunity ever, because the function of business (or life) is to accumulate as much wealth as possible, no matter the moral or ethical concerns. But now this Jim Henson thing — hmmmm. Could it be that what everyone’s telling me is false???
What a crazy thought.
some crazy guy once wrote, “just because you can sell something that doesn’t necessarily mean you should sell it.”
surely no one would believe this fool
some people just refuse to heed those words
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i think most people are saying that adding an ad or two on the front is considered a moral/ethical dilemma. now if a team where to make a deal with a organization that had conflicting view points then there could be an issue.
Phil Esposito did indeed wear #12 that first year for a while with the Rangers.
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However, I suspect he wore #5 during the Rangers’ west coast swing that November, when they picked him up; Vadnais did not report immediately.
I just want to thank everyone commenting today for being adults. This has been one of the biggest combinations of uni/non-uni-related comment days I’ve seen in a while, and while it may bring heated opinions, it has not brought any childish behavior you would undoubtedly see on other sites. This is easily a testament to the quality of people who frequent this site.
Well done Uni-Watchers!
Now they’re telling the kids what to wear
link
(link)
I ain’t watchin’.
It’s amazing what human beings are capable of when their shame gland has been surgically removed.
^^^This. Every. Last. Molecule. Of. This.^^^
I have to steal this (with credit to you, of course).
yeah, i’m thinkin’ this may be the QOTD tomorrow…
When I read the piece on security having to put their food in plastic bags for the Olympics, it made me think of the restriction the Philadelphia Eagles put on fans bringing hoagies into the stadium (Hoagiegate). If memory serves, after 9/11, the team tried to ban fans from bringing hoagies into the Vet for security issues (debate that all you want). After considerable backlash, they conceeded as long as the sandwich was wrapped in clear plastic so that security knew it wasn’t a bomb. While the security issue may be debated (perhaps the Iggles just saw this as an opportunity to force fans to buy concessions at the game), it still wasn’t done for advertising purposes. Way to go IOC, you’re trying to treat the police like they were Eagles fans all for the almighty dollar/pound/Euro/whatever.
Nba address unreplyable (if that is a word)…here is what I tried to write…
I see that you chose to use the word “sponsorship” numerous times throughout your letter. Â The logo ads are anything but, they are simply advertising where it doesn’t belong. I often sponsor boy scouts, girl scouts, etc because they need the funding to achieve an achievement or goal otherwise unattainable. You simply want more money. Â If your league is folding and sponsorship is needed, that is a different story, however please call this advertising as it is…incremental revenue for a league where it is simply not needed to sustain business or achieve something previously unattainable.
Look up in the lede and find the link for Saturday’s post. It has the email address you have to use.
Correct, I tried to reply to their form letter sent to my email.
Yeah, I tried the same thing at first. Pretty shitty that they email us from an address we can’t reply to.
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support from elton brand!
Mad love to Elton. He gets it.
Ichiro to the Yanks.
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Ichiro in pinstripes will look very odd
I wonder if he will wear #51, or if that number is still kinda reserved for Bernie Williams.
Fuck the Yankees
very classy move by Ichiro
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Supposedly Michigan will wear these special uniforms for their game with Alabama…
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Assuming that these are real, I doubt it’ll be in the TechFit style, because Michigan went back to a respectable fabric in the middle of the season last year. As for the design, these don’t suck =)
Ichiro is wearing No. 31 for the #Yankees
Who the fuck are the #Yankees? A Japanese team or something?
So the Yankees really have retired number 51 for Bernie Williams? You’d think that Ichiro would be able to get his undesirably-high 51 wherever he went…
Now the IOC could learn from this:
link
I think this is Silver’s big move to succeed Stern as Commish. I got the same boilerplate reply as everyone else. To ‘unreplyable’, the NBA email format is First Initial, Last Name, i.e., Brian McIntyre (Senior Communications Advisor to the Commissioner) is link. Maybe we should give ‘Chelsea’ a break and cross-train Mr. McIntyre.
Odd that the day you link to a photo of Reggie Jackson in Mariners gear we get Ichiro in Yankees gear.
fascinating
Big news: A player has joined the #NoUniAds campaign. Elton Brand tweeted this today: link
Already posted in the comments several hours ago.
Yes, this is major! I just wrote an ESPN piece about it, which should run tomorrow morning.
If we made him a #NUA logo shirt, could you get it to him, do you think?
Elton Brand cut by the Mavs in 5…4…3…