The View From Wisconsin

A few little things about Friday's opening ceremony in London:

• Yes, count me in on the chorus of haters that the ceremony wasn't covered live in some form, at least online, by NBC. There are actually people who wanted to see what was going on as it was being tweeted/blogged about live. Five hours is NOT that big of a difference (just ask anyone on the West Coast). 
• And here I thought Sir Kenneth Brannagh was playing a version of old John Bull as he quoted The Tempest in the opening segment of the ceremony. Turns out he was playing Isambard Kingdom Brunel, the leading man of the Industrial Revolution in the UK.
• Oh, and quotation:
  Be not afeard; the isle is full of noises,
  Sounds and sweet airs, that give delight and hurt not.
  Sometimes a thousand twangling instruments
  Will hum about mine ears, and sometime voices
  That, if I then had waked after long sleep,
  Will make me sleep again: and then, in dreaming,
  The clouds methought would open and show riches
  Ready to drop upon me that, when I waked,
  I cried to dream again.
• I loved the whole Bond and Queen bit. The waving fans across Britain thing was a bit much, but you'd expect that. 
• I guess I was half expecting Sir Paul to break out into a brief version of "Her Majesty" after singing "The End". I also understand how Paul had some issues with the start of "Hey Jude". I mean, the key change between the two songs is noticeable, and I'd have problems switching between the two as well. He's also sung the dimmed thing thousands of times over the years, so I suspect he's allowed to mess up now and again. 
• Has anyone explained why Emile's version of "Abide With Me" wasn't shown to US viewers? Yes, I get it - the performance would be the equivalent of say Jordin Sparks singing the "Batlle Hymn of the Republic." Still. 
• Someone please get the Kazakhstan Olympic delegation some iPhones so they don't have to use their iPads as they're walking into the stadium next time? 
• It would not surprise me if Michael Phelps didn't win a medal in these Olympics. Phelps has had the huge target on him since Beijing, and it's looking like he's not even the best swimmer in the pool right now. I doubt that a starting position on the outside lane is going to help him in the 400m final.
• Am I the only one who would like to see the US finally qualify for Olympic handball? Of course, to do that, the US would actually need to have a quality handball squad.

And the NCAA finally came down with its sanctions against PSU. Let's compare how they lined up with my predictions:

• Two year bowl-game ban. No bowls at all, 2013 and 2014 seasons, Three year post-season game ban. No Big Ten title games, no National Championship playoff games from 2013-2015. The NCAA was harsher - four years, no post-season play, period.
• Three year TV-rights/bowl revenue suspension. All revenues that would normally go to PSU from sources like ESPN, Fox, the Big Ten Network, etc. would go to a fund (run jointly by PSU, the Big Ten and the NCAA) for Child Abuse Prevention. The Big Ten did this, essentially by taking Penn State's TV rights and eliminating it for the next four years - at about $13 million a year. 
• Five year reduction of scholarships by five each year. Oh, BOY was I wrong. PSU's total loss of scholarships for the next four years is 20 per year - 15 per season, instead of 25, and no more than 65 total from 2014-2017, instead of 85. This will hurt Penn State more than anything else, as players who want to come to State College won't be able to. They did, as expected, allow current scholarship players to leave without penalty or discontinue playing football if they wished.
• In 2015, no games at Beaver Stadium. All games scheduled that year will either be played on the road or in a neutral-site venue located outside of the state of Pennsylvania. If a site cannot be secured, the school will forfeit the game. This one was a guess on my part - and it really wouldn't have made any sense to do so. The penalties already imposed were draconian in nature.
• After the first three year suspension of revenues from bowl games, PSU would take half of any other such revenues and place it in the said fund for the next five years. From that point onward, the school would make a minimum of a $1 million donation to the PSU CAP fund for the next sixty years - or until the last victim of Mr. Sandusky passes away, whichever is the longer. They didn't do this, but the $60 million fine essentially made the concept of an endowment program for child abuse prevention. 
• Removal of the Paterno statue from outside of the stadium. Penn State did this before the sanctions were handed out. Where the NCAA took it one step further was to have PSU vacate its wins in football between 1998-2011 - essentially dropping Paterno out of the ranks of the top coaches in terms of wins. 

The only thing about the sanctions that I didn't foresee was the vacating of wins, but that was about all they could do to address Paterno's now-tarnished legacy. I also suspected, but didn't mention, that PSU would go on probation for the next several years (five is what was announced).

Do I agree with all this? I think the NCAA essentially went as far as they could go without giving Penn State the so-called "Death Penalty". And, I also think they realized that no matter what they were going to do, there would be complaints that it did nothing to help those who'd been victimized by Sandusky. 

Either way, it was probably the best thing the university was going to get from the NCAA.

This is going to be a simple one this morning, as I'm not feeling 100%: Many are crying for the heads of the Penn State football team this morning - in particular, because of the so-called "lack of institutional control" over the Sandusky case - that the program should be given the so-called "death penalty" - suspension of the school's program for a year.

I feel, along with other noted observers, that such a penalty does nothing to right the wrongs of the past. However, I do feel that there should be some sort of a penalty - one that is harsh enough that the people involved with the program - and any other NCAA school - would think twice after hearing the penalty.

It would hurt PSU in the greatest place it could - the checkbook. And I would also be in favor of PSU imposing these things themselves, instead of forcing the NCAA to administer them.

In lieu of a "death penalty, PSU football should endeavor to do the following:

• Two year bowl-game ban. No bowls at all, 2013 and 2014 seasons.
• Three year post-season game ban. No Big Ten title games, no National Championship playoff games from 2013-2015. 
• Three year TV-rights/bowl revenue suspension. All revenues that would normally go to PSU from sources like ESPN, Fox, the Big Ten Network, etc. would go to a fund (run jointly by PSU, the Big Ten and the NCAA) for Child Abuse Prevention. 
• Five year reduction of scholarships by five each year.
• In 2015, no games at Beaver Stadium. All games scheduled that year will either be played on the road or in a neutral-site venue located outside of the state of Pennsylvania. If a site cannot be secured, the school will forfeit the game. 
• After the first three year suspension of revenues from bowl games, PSU would take half of any other such revenues and place it in the said fund for the next five years. From that point onward, the school would make a minimum of a $1 million donation to the PSU CAP fund for the next sixty years - or until the last victim of Mr. Sandusky passes away, whichever is the longer. 
• Removal of the Paterno statue from outside of the stadium. 

On that worst of days for sports fans, it's time to post a few rants at some of the inane stuff heard on sports radio (Yes, Mr. Russo, I'm looking at your SXM channel):

• So many people want to change the MLB All-Star Game. Do this, do that. Make it "mean something." DON'T make it mean something. Have the players vote. Have the fans vote. Let the managers pick. Keep the Home Run Derby. Change it. "Fix" it. The one thing that I've heard as of late, though, is to change the dates: change it from a weeknight game to a weekend game. "Festivities" on Friday, Home Run Derby on Saturday, and the Game on Sunday - preferably in the afternoon. Well, that's all nice and good, but it ain't gonna happen. Because of the sheer size of the baseball season schedule, weekend home gates are the most important for MLB teams. Franchises do NOT want to have one of those weekends taken away from them - even if they're not playing that weekend, they don't want it taken the next year. Yes, it's silly and it's seemingly a last-century notion, but there are too many teams that rely on midsummer weekend games to bring in the fans and the money. Until you can convince teams to give it up for some other reason, it ain't happening. 
• The Dwight Howard fiasco in the NBA is one reason why I dislike pro hoops. Every year essentially half the league has little to no shot at making the playoffs, and all but five or six teams have a shot at making the finals. So players have no incentive to play for a team that isn't one of the "big six" (Miami, Boston, Chicago, Lakers, and a rotation of about three teams between OKC, Dallas and San Antonio), and they thereby hold out to get sent to the team THEY want to play on. Well, that's fine and good, but that hamstrings GMs - as the Orlando Magic's new GM, Rob Hennigan, has found out. So he's suspended trade talks, and now he's getting raked over the coals because everyone knows that the Magic aren't going to be able to keep him on their roster when the season starts, because he's going to refuse to play. Well, there is one little ploy that he does have up his sleeve, and I'm just surprised no one's thought of this - the Olympics are starting up here shortly. I'm not saying it will happen or anything, but if one of the players on team USA (or any other country that has an NBA star player on their squad) is hurt during the tourney, suddenly there could be an opening for a trade. Hennigan could adjust the deal so that the team with the injured player could be the "third party", and suddenly the Nets get their Superman. Will it happen? Hennigan's hoping it will, but it's a gamble. The worst case scenario is Howard sits the entire year for the Magic - think the DeVos family might try to challenge that with Stern if he pulls a Yashin and refuses to play? Either way, Hennigan has to play the odds.
• You start to wonder who's being the bigger idiot here - the New Orleans Saints for not giving their franchise player what they want, or Drew Brees for being a demanding prima donna over his franchise tag contract status. Yes, the Saints need Brees much more than Brees needs the Saints - but not that much more. Brees has apparently studied at the Brett Favre Institute of Holdouts - though he hasn't brought up the "R" word like Favre always did. 
• And finally, my favorite subject: Ryan, Ryan, Ryan, you're dead to me. You can say all you want, but the way it happened it looks essentially like you decided last year you weren't going to re-sign with the Preds, even if we gave you all of Opryland. I'm betting that what happened with Shea probably clouded your opinion. And how many of those "friendly" phone calls from Craig that your dad or uncle got were part of it? It stinks, kid. And what's worse, you didn't finish out your four years at UW, so I don't even have that as something to look back at. You obviously didn't pay attention back in 2007 with the whole reaction to Leipold's sale of the Preds. This man is a serial risk-taker. You're not an asset that he's adding to the club - you're something he's going to use to possibly get out of owning the team in a few years. Dude, if he's still signing your paychecks at the end of your contract, it'll be a miracle - or it'll be because he'll have moved on to owning a different team and he'll have convinced that team's GM to trade for you. And here I thought we'd be retiring the number 20 in the rafters of the Bridge. 
• Dear GMDP - $110 millon for 11 years for number 6. Do it.