It was the evening of February 20, 1980, when I arrived at the Moscow Airport. It had a long name and I have no idea what it was, but I do remember that it took me nearly three hours to clear customs. They really didn't want me in their country.
I was met outside of customs by a driver from the NBC News Bureau. My first question was, "Are they out?" His answer, "They're out of everything." "No, no, are the Russians out of Afghanistan?" His simple answer was, "You've got to be kidding." That's how I found out I wouldn't be back for the 1980 Moscow Olympics. President Jimmy Carter's boycott was going to stand up. I was scheduled to host Gymnastics and Athletics. (Track and Field.)
I mention this because of the recent rumblings out of Tibet and China's reaction. Communist forces moving in and a journalism black-out. However, as we know, word in one form or another always filters out and Olympic countries across the globe are beginning to make sounds about that "B" word, boycott. The difference now and 1980 finds the Olympic Rings have turned to gold, the gold of big business. Ironically this turn around was created by the very successful 1984 Los Angeles Games, also boycotted, that time by the Russians. Plus the Beijing Games closely involve the gold of business between China and the United States plus China's purchase of billions of dollars of loans to help the U.S. support our on going war with Iraq.
It's very complicated, but don't count on a boycott. Too many countries want to do business with the largest market in the world, China.
One other note. Isn't it ironic that in 1980 the Russians were in Afghanistan and in 2008 the United States is the occupying country?
The more the world changes, the more it stays the same.
Tuesday, March 25, 2008
Friday, March 21, 2008
HAPPY EASTER!
While searching the web I came across a taped segment from Oprah and I want to share it with you this weekend. There with Oprah was Mister Sour Mouth himself, Simon Cowell of American Idol.
He was talking with Amy and Randy Stoen of Minnesota. Their three year old daughter, Madelaine, has cancer and every day they drive her 100 miles for her cancer treatment from their home in Minnesota. Simon found out that things are so tough for the Stoens that they are having trouble making their house payments. He told them, not to worry, that day he was paying off their entire home loan of $162,000.
And he was now Madelaine's Guardian Angel. WOW !
HAPPY EASTER.
He was talking with Amy and Randy Stoen of Minnesota. Their three year old daughter, Madelaine, has cancer and every day they drive her 100 miles for her cancer treatment from their home in Minnesota. Simon found out that things are so tough for the Stoens that they are having trouble making their house payments. He told them, not to worry, that day he was paying off their entire home loan of $162,000.
And he was now Madelaine's Guardian Angel. WOW !
HAPPY EASTER.
Wednesday, March 19, 2008
The Best of Sports and The Worst of Sports
March Madness starts this week. I love the first round games on this Thursday and Friday. What a great time for 32 teams, half the field. They want to line-up and try their hand against the BIG BOYS. They'll lose and go home. BUT, they made it to the NCAA's. There are always some surprises. I pick Arkansas to scare a few teams. My second pick, maybe to the semi-finals, USC. "Fight On."
Major League Baseball starts playing for real in a couple of weeks. What ever happened to their latest drug problem, and congress?
Have you been reading about China. Unrest. And they don't like unrest. Haven't heard any more about Bush going to the Games.
About four decades ago Arnold Palmer was named the Athlete of the Decade. Several dozen sportswriters took him to task, claiming he wasn't a true athlete because he didn't run. HMMM, don't hear anything about Tiger, except he's the best ever. And I hope the NFL does clear up the mess with the Patriots and that the officiating in college basketball improves. What if they went to four officials, or even better, went back to one.
Major League Baseball starts playing for real in a couple of weeks. What ever happened to their latest drug problem, and congress?
Have you been reading about China. Unrest. And they don't like unrest. Haven't heard any more about Bush going to the Games.
About four decades ago Arnold Palmer was named the Athlete of the Decade. Several dozen sportswriters took him to task, claiming he wasn't a true athlete because he didn't run. HMMM, don't hear anything about Tiger, except he's the best ever. And I hope the NFL does clear up the mess with the Patriots and that the officiating in college basketball improves. What if they went to four officials, or even better, went back to one.
Monday, March 17, 2008
Happy Birthday!
Happy Birthday!!
This new BLOG is one week old today. I have discovered that a BLOG is a lot like a new marriage. "Gosh, what will we talk about, the rest of our lives?" There's plenty to talk about. St. Patrick came down my chimney last night and stole all of the left over green beer. BUT, our world still goes around and around.
MUST READ: The new ESQUIRE magazine with George Clooney on the cover. Way in the back is the article on FORMER CENTCOM commander Admiral William Fallon. I've lost count but he must be the 8th or 9th FOUR STAR that C. in C. Bush has fired in the last five years. And to think Bush wants history to compare him to Truman. But Truman only fired ONE FIVE STAR. Back to the article in Esquire. Admiral Fallon will make an outstanding Secretary of State for our next president. Fallon wants to talk with the Middle East countries, not create war with them.
Happy St. Patricks.
This new BLOG is one week old today. I have discovered that a BLOG is a lot like a new marriage. "Gosh, what will we talk about, the rest of our lives?" There's plenty to talk about. St. Patrick came down my chimney last night and stole all of the left over green beer. BUT, our world still goes around and around.
MUST READ: The new ESQUIRE magazine with George Clooney on the cover. Way in the back is the article on FORMER CENTCOM commander Admiral William Fallon. I've lost count but he must be the 8th or 9th FOUR STAR that C. in C. Bush has fired in the last five years. And to think Bush wants history to compare him to Truman. But Truman only fired ONE FIVE STAR. Back to the article in Esquire. Admiral Fallon will make an outstanding Secretary of State for our next president. Fallon wants to talk with the Middle East countries, not create war with them.
Happy St. Patricks.
Friday, March 14, 2008
Friday's Special Guest Blog
As an added feature to my blog I have asked a few select guests from around the country to contribute for the weekend. Here is the first from Jeff Davis:
The NFL does not make many mistakes, but when they do it is always a "doozie." SPYGATE falls within that category and was the first major catastrophe faced by their new commissioner. I asked my friend Jeff Davis, the author of the best seller, and highly respected, "ROZELLE - The Czar of the NFL," for his thoughts on this on-going and volatile subject.
Rozelle v. Goodell – How to Handle a Scandal
By Jeff Davis
It’s pure and so simple. The way a commissioner handles his first major crisis not only defines his term in office, but the way his league will operate in the public marketplace.
Pete Rozelle, the man who built the NFL into a multi-billion dollar business easily coped with trouble because he liked and understood the role of the media and valued the public’s need to know as well. That was borne out by the way he tackled his first crisis in 1963, when he was confronted with evidence on several levels that two of the game’s larger than life stars, Green Bay Packers Golden Boy Paul Hornung and Detroit Lions defensive tackle Alex Karras had been betting on games.
Rozelle conducted a thorough investigation, and got the facts. The other shoe dropped on April 16, 1963 when he announced he was suspending both players indefinitely for betting on games. He stressed that no player, especially Hornung and Karras, had done anything to rig the outcome of a game, either by throwing one or shaving points.
That move reassured the public that the commissioner was properly policing the sport. . The suspensions told everyone that he meant business. And, when he reinstated both men eleven months later, Rozelle let the public know that rehabilitation was possible. Textbook crisis management.
Roger Goodell, the current NFL czar, THINKS he knows what he’s doing, but his actions in the “Spygate” case involving the hubris-filled New England Patriots and their powerful owner Bob Kraft and brighter-than-thou coach Bill Belechick, vividly demonstrate otherwise. Goodell is served by media advisers who hate and distrust the press as they hold the public in disdain. It’s a lethal combination that could undo his nascent regime
Goodell could have hit the jackpot last September when the New York Jets caught the New England Patriots taping their defensive signals. That maneuver, ordered by Pats coach Bill Belichick, allowed his video crew to match game footage with the sideline signals. By halftime, he could make winning adjustments in full awareness of what the opponent would do next. That was out and out cheating.
Then, the commissioner acted. He fined Belichick $500,000, the largest in history against an NFL coach. Belechick apologized in a manner of speaking to his team and owner for embarrassing them. To be accurate he should have said, he was sorry he got caught. Unbelievably, . Goodell, , unlike Rozelle who suspended his two great stars Hornung and Karras, said the fine was punishment enough. Goodell did nail the team for another $250,000, pin money in today’s accounting, and took away one of the Pats’ two first round draft choices. Patriots owner Bob Kraft refused to comment. Oh, yes, Goodell had the tapes in question confiscated.
Goodell’s solution: fines, no suspensions, and loss of a pick, were slaps on the wrist. Then he revealed that the league had DESTROYED the evidence, the tapes on the ridiculous grounds that the media might get hold of them. So much for transparency. That was manifested when it was revealed that Goodell never interviewed former video assistant Matt Walsh about the practices that went back to his taping the St. Louis Rams in a pre-game walkthrough before Super Bowl XXXVI.
Two things become evident. Rozelle got the news out through the media to the public as fast as he could and he did not conduct a coverup in the cases of Hornung and Karras. In addition Goodell , by his actions in not handling this matter correctly has inadvertently invited Congress in the form of Sen. Arlen Specter to investigate the league – which is bound to endanger the anti-trust exemptions Pete Rozelle labored so hard and valiantly to get. Those exemptions created the NFL money machine that rules all of sports.
Goodell, has enmeshed himself in a web of deceit that still has not unraveled. And we all know what happens when cover-ups ensue. Just ask those involved in the granddaddy of all “Gates.” Remember? It was called “Watergate.”
The NFL does not make many mistakes, but when they do it is always a "doozie." SPYGATE falls within that category and was the first major catastrophe faced by their new commissioner. I asked my friend Jeff Davis, the author of the best seller, and highly respected, "ROZELLE - The Czar of the NFL," for his thoughts on this on-going and volatile subject.
Rozelle v. Goodell – How to Handle a Scandal
By Jeff Davis
It’s pure and so simple. The way a commissioner handles his first major crisis not only defines his term in office, but the way his league will operate in the public marketplace.
Pete Rozelle, the man who built the NFL into a multi-billion dollar business easily coped with trouble because he liked and understood the role of the media and valued the public’s need to know as well. That was borne out by the way he tackled his first crisis in 1963, when he was confronted with evidence on several levels that two of the game’s larger than life stars, Green Bay Packers Golden Boy Paul Hornung and Detroit Lions defensive tackle Alex Karras had been betting on games.
Rozelle conducted a thorough investigation, and got the facts. The other shoe dropped on April 16, 1963 when he announced he was suspending both players indefinitely for betting on games. He stressed that no player, especially Hornung and Karras, had done anything to rig the outcome of a game, either by throwing one or shaving points.
That move reassured the public that the commissioner was properly policing the sport. . The suspensions told everyone that he meant business. And, when he reinstated both men eleven months later, Rozelle let the public know that rehabilitation was possible. Textbook crisis management.
Roger Goodell, the current NFL czar, THINKS he knows what he’s doing, but his actions in the “Spygate” case involving the hubris-filled New England Patriots and their powerful owner Bob Kraft and brighter-than-thou coach Bill Belechick, vividly demonstrate otherwise. Goodell is served by media advisers who hate and distrust the press as they hold the public in disdain. It’s a lethal combination that could undo his nascent regime
Goodell could have hit the jackpot last September when the New York Jets caught the New England Patriots taping their defensive signals. That maneuver, ordered by Pats coach Bill Belichick, allowed his video crew to match game footage with the sideline signals. By halftime, he could make winning adjustments in full awareness of what the opponent would do next. That was out and out cheating.
Then, the commissioner acted. He fined Belichick $500,000, the largest in history against an NFL coach. Belechick apologized in a manner of speaking to his team and owner for embarrassing them. To be accurate he should have said, he was sorry he got caught. Unbelievably, . Goodell, , unlike Rozelle who suspended his two great stars Hornung and Karras, said the fine was punishment enough. Goodell did nail the team for another $250,000, pin money in today’s accounting, and took away one of the Pats’ two first round draft choices. Patriots owner Bob Kraft refused to comment. Oh, yes, Goodell had the tapes in question confiscated.
Goodell’s solution: fines, no suspensions, and loss of a pick, were slaps on the wrist. Then he revealed that the league had DESTROYED the evidence, the tapes on the ridiculous grounds that the media might get hold of them. So much for transparency. That was manifested when it was revealed that Goodell never interviewed former video assistant Matt Walsh about the practices that went back to his taping the St. Louis Rams in a pre-game walkthrough before Super Bowl XXXVI.
Two things become evident. Rozelle got the news out through the media to the public as fast as he could and he did not conduct a coverup in the cases of Hornung and Karras. In addition Goodell , by his actions in not handling this matter correctly has inadvertently invited Congress in the form of Sen. Arlen Specter to investigate the league – which is bound to endanger the anti-trust exemptions Pete Rozelle labored so hard and valiantly to get. Those exemptions created the NFL money machine that rules all of sports.
Goodell, has enmeshed himself in a web of deceit that still has not unraveled. And we all know what happens when cover-ups ensue. Just ask those involved in the granddaddy of all “Gates.” Remember? It was called “Watergate.”
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