That too-vulgar-for-cable-TV roast of David Ortiz, during which Patriots star tight end Rob Gronkowski told a terribly old “cheap Jew” joke apparently meets with commissioner Roger Goodell’s new definition of NFL players having “spontaneous fun.”
After all, that was over a week ago, and still nothing from the NFL. So it must’ve passed the league’s stink test. And that’s OK. It’s not as if good ol’ foul-mouthed Gronk made fun of installing transgender bathrooms in North Carolina. That is the kind of rank social insensitivity thing that can get one in hot water.
And it isn’t as if he called out vulgar black rappers who denigrate other black men as “N—-s” and trash women as expletives good for nothing but on-demand, wham-bam sex. Those “entertainers” become the very special guests and performers of those same leagues that threaten states with removal of their business until the state legislates change to meet the highest-minded standards of those leagues.
The inconsistencies come flying at us like trumps from President Tweet.
Brent Musburger was publicly spanked by ESPN for his outrageous on-air sexism — he noted the conspicuous, that Alabama QB A.J.
McCarron’s girlfriend, now his wife, Katherine Webb, is gorgeous. That was unforgivable, inexcusable.
But the same ESPN has no problems when its “serious female broadcast journalists” who should not be subjected to sexual objectification disseminate photos of themselves posed in bikinis.
And “The Body” issue of ESPN’s magazine is out, in case the Internet doesn’t fulfill one’s prurient needs.
But shame-shame on Musburger.
Our colleges have become bastions of female empowerment. Good. I didn’t send my two daughters to college to depart as second-rate humans. And the schools make it damned clear that sexism of any kind will not be tolerated on these campuses!
Except … except in the case of recruiting basketball and football players. That is when some campus lovelies will help serve as bait, escorts, or in Rutgers’ NCAA-exposed case, female “ambassadors,” members of the “football hostess program.” Like Hostess cupcakes.
But then the same colleges that use attractive, come-hither young women as recruit-bait will hold seminars for the same recruits, to remind them or tell them for the first time that women are not to be sexually mistreated or treated as punching bags.
But some of the consistencies are at least as flabbergasting as the inconsistencies.
FOX Sports last week laid off roughly 20 staffers, most of whom contributed to a website that featured strong reporting, well-written and well-thought opinion pieces with just a minimum of transparent shilling of all things FOX and FS1, none of which apparently pleased new management.
The decision to turn the site into a FOX Sports video showcase was made by Jamie Horowitz, who also has busied himself throwing millions of dollars to hire ESPN expendables such as let’s-debate-the-time-of-day Skip Bayless, and NBA “Insider” and false-credit-taker Chris Broussard, and extremely embarrassing ESPN busts Ray Lewis and Cris Carter.
While at ESPN, Horowitz helped turn the network into a just-make-noise box, a cross-promotional wasteland that became the target of steady, well-deserved national ridicule.
And now he seems to have been hired to do the same for FOX Sports.
Then there are those inconsistencies that make you think you got off on the wrong planet.
One moment Wednesday, Yankees manager Joe Girardi was seen on YES giving Gary Sanchez an in-game dugout tutorial on how to better get down to block pitches thrown in the dirt. Soon, Girardi would explain that Sanchez didn’t run out a double play because he has a strained groin muscle. Got that? Neither do I.
Then there are the consistent inconsistencies.
The Rays’ Alex Colome is among the MLB’s leaders in saves with 20. Yet, in 35 innings he has allowed 31 hits and walked 14, blowing four saves and losing three games.
But you don’t have to be an effective pitcher to be among the leaders in saves. That is why so many closers pitch for so many teams. Career saves specialist Fernando Rodney — 281 saves! — is so special he now is pitching for Arizona, his seventh team in the past eight seasons.
It is like when the stock market takes a beating and analysts explain it as “a correction.” So how come when the market goes on a run it isn’t identified as “incorrect” or that something wrong is occurring?
Then there’s “drug deal gone bad,” an “untimely death,” and “affordable housing,” the latter built for those who can’t afford housing. But I just work here.
Whistle blowers sound off in new book
The best stories are told by refs, umps and civil court judges. To that end, retired 30-year college basketball ref, Mickey Crowley, with the help of Ralph Wimbish, who used to edit this column, has written a seat-of-power (bathroom) companion book, “Throw The Ball High,” from Page Publishing.
It is loaded with fabulous.
Jim Valvano: “Mickey, can I get a technical foul for thinking that you stink?”
Crowley: “Of course not.”
Valvano: “Good. I think you stink.”
UConn’s Jim Calhoun, when the Big East had coaches rate officials after every game, told Crowley and his partner he was rating their performance a 5 out of 10. “You guys can split it up anyway you want.”
Crowley also shares a photo of scribbled hate mail he received and kept for decades, likely from a guy who was getting 2 ½ in a 3-point loss.
Even the forward, written by former Columbia and Fordham head coach Tom Penders, is a hoot. He writes of a poll taken by Eastern Basketball Magazine, asking refs to name the coach who gives them the hardest time. The “winner”? Seton Hall’s Bill Raftery.
There is a latter-day picture in the book of Crowley and Raftery, arms around each other’s shoulders, both with huge smiles.
An ‘epic’ steroid Derby
ESPN last week promoted its Home Run Derby telecast on “SportsCenter” with video of the “epic” 1996 battle between Mark McGwire and Barry Bonds. No mention of steroids; that would’ve ruined everything.
Again we’re moved to salute NYRA’s afternoon show “Belmont Park Live” — soon from Saratoga — as seen on MSG. The talk, opinions, interviews, replays and pace make the wait between races fly by. It is just consistently good, intelligent TV.
The Mets on July 6 will conduct a blood drive at Citi Field. Donors “must be in good health,” which eliminates most of the Mets.
Great news, Knicks fans, from reader/psychic G. Mark Morley: “This week, the father of a player who will be on the next Knicks’ championship team will be born.”