Sports at Large

If you've spent any time around toddlers, you know how much of a challenge it can be to get them to eat. Sometimes, they can spend as much time playing with their food, as they do actually eating it. With all due respect, watching the Baltimore Ravens play football this year can be a lot like watching a four-year-old at the dinner table. Sometimes, the spaghetti feels as likely to end up on the wall as it might in Tommy's tummy. Make no mistake: After last Thursday's electric 35-34 win over the Cincinnati Bengals, the Ravens are among the best teams in the NFL, with perhaps the most dynamic offense seen in recent years. Quarterback Lamar Jackson is well on pace to repeat as the league's Most Valuable Player, which would be his third such trophy overall in his seven-year career. Where Jackson has advanced is in his prowess at thinking the game. Second-year offensive coordinator Todd Monken has given Jackson free rein to run the offense as he sees fit. The results are obvious. For the first time in his career, Jackson is as frightening to a defense with his arm as a passer as he is with his legs as a runner. He has thrown for 20 touchdowns and only two interceptions and leads the NFL in quarterback rating. Part of the reason Jackson has emphasized his passing role is because of his new backfield mate, running back Derrick Henry. The Ravens have utilized the future Hall of Famer nearly flawlessly. Henry, in his first season in Baltimore, leads the NFL in rushing yards and has scored a touchdown in each of the team's 10 games. And that scoring has been crucial, as the Ravens have needed just about every point. Their vaunted defense, which has been the cornerstone of the organization essentially since the club arrived here from Cleveland in 1996, has largely let the team down. The Ravens are ranked first in the league against running teams, perhaps because opponents have learned that to beat Baltimore, it's prudent to pass. The team is ranked last against passing among the 32 NFL clubs. Cincinnati receiver Ja'Marr Chase, a talented pass catcher, to be sure, nonetheless, caught 11 passes Thursday for 264 yards and three touchdowns at the stadium. That, added to the 10 catches for 193 yards and two touchdowns in the September meeting between the two teams, means Chase has nearly 500 yards against Baltimore alone. Chase isn't the only receiver to have success against the Ravens; just the most obvious. The team has had trouble especially in the fourth quarters of games, where they have been outscored 106-82, allowing opponents to hang close and win, particularly in games against the Raiders and Browns. All that said, the team heads to a critical meeting against archrival Pittsburgh next Sunday with a chance to go into first place in the AFC North. If they could only keep all their food on the plate. And that's how I see it for this week. You can reach us via email with your questions and comments at Sports at Large at gmail.com. And follow me on Threads and Twitter at Sports at Large. Until next week, for all of us here and for producer Spencer Bryant, I'm Milton Kent. Thanks for listening and enjoy the games.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

We've reached the two-minute warning, if you will, of the 2024 presidential campaign, the near-conclusion of our long slog of an election season, the end of a grueling, bruising competition. By the end of Tuesday night, we may know whether Kamala Harris or Donald Trump will coach the American attack – offense, defense and special teams -- for the next four years. But for the collection of men and women who own National Football League franchises, the race for the White House is just another contest, this one on a different surface than artificial turf. According to a USA Today review of Federal Election Commission filings, NFL owners contributed at least $28 million to federal political candidates and causes during the 2023-24 political cycle. That's seven times the amount the group donated during the 2020 period. Obviously, when you generate the kind of revenue the NFL does – an estimated $20 billion last year – you've got cash to throw around. And with that cash come influence. That these captains of industry are so willing and able to invest in the partisan realm speaks volumes about the freedom we enjoy. These folks get their hands dirty helping to mold democracy. And make no mistake: they shovel a lot of dirt. A major reason that the investment of these owners is so much higher than four years ago is that one of those executives shoveled much more this time than the rest. When Denver Broncos owner Pat Bowlen died five years ago, control of the club was sold to a group that includes members of the Walton family, which owns retail behemoth Wal-Mart. Rob Walton, the eldest Walton son, gave more than $16 million of his own fortune, during that cycle, while his daughter, Carrie and son-in-law Greg, have given $1.2 million themselves. They're not the only owners forking over big bucks to be part of the political process. Falcons owner Arthur Blank and Carolina owner David Tepper gave more than $2.5 million each, while Jets owner Woody Johnson contributed $1.8 million in that round. While some of the NFL money went exclusively to Gridiron PAC, a league-created organization designed to lobby congressmen and senators, the bulk of those donations went to Republicans and right-leaning causes. Indeed, USA Today reported that 83 percent of campaign contributions went to conservative candidates, political action committees and related organizations. Most of Tepper's money, for instance, went to former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley's presidential run, while Johnson, who was appointed ambassador to Great Britain by Trump, made all his contributions to the former president. Meanwhile, Blank, a co-founder of Home Depot, made donations to Democratic candidates, including Harris, whom he has formally endorsed. And Steelers owner Art Rooney II also has given to the vice president's campaign. There's a better than decent chance that we won't know who will emerge victorious from this year's campaign for a few days or longer. It's a big difference between politics and sports, where the winner is known immediately. We will however know who one group of winners will be: the NFL owners. And they'll be unbeaten from this election to the next one and the next one. And that's how I see it for this week. You can reach us via email with your questions and comments at Sports at Large at gmail.com. And follow me on Threads and Twitter at Sports at Large. Until next week, for all of us here and for producer Spencer Bryant, I'm Milton Kent. Thanks for listening and enjoy the games.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Sometimes, in sports, we search long and hard for the story of the underdog, the overachiever, the Cinderella, if you will. We yearn for the tale of the scrappy fighter that beats the odds to emerge victorious, to grab the brass ring and all those other hoary cliches that are a part of athletics. Well, for the first few weeks of the season, many folks latched onto the Navy football team as just what the doctor ordered as a balm for the sickness that is modern-day college athletics. Through six games, the Midshipmen were up to the challenge, winning all six contests by double digits and with all but one of those wins coming by more than two touchdowns, turning the ball over only twice. Navy has gotten it done on both sides of the ball. Junior quarterback Blake Horvath has done a nice Lamar Jackson impersonation, averaging over 103 rushing yards per contest. And defensively, senior Dashaun Peele, a cornerback from Norfolk, has three interceptions, running two of them back for touchdowns, leading an opportunistic unit. After an impressive 56-44 September win over Memphis, the preseason favorite to win the American Athletic Conference, the Midshipmen, under second year coach Brian Newberry, sailed into first place in the league. And two weeks ago, Navy docked in a place they haven't been in six years: the Associated Press Top 25, arriving first at No. 25, then moving up a spot the following week. Indeed, there was talk that if the stars aligned properly, Navy could navigate its way into the first ever 12-team college football playoff, admittedly as an underdog, but there nonetheless. You have to go back a ways, roughly 40 years since the last time a Navy football team evoked this kind of excitement. Those were the days of Napoleon McCallum, the star running back who went on to play in the NFL for the Raiders and Chargers. And before that, the last halcyon times at Annapolis were in the 1960s when quarterback Roger Staubach won the Heisman Trophy, presented to college football's best player. It's not as if Navy hasn't fielded representative or even intriguing teams. Under previous coach Ken Niumatalolo, who spent 15 years at the academy, Navy achieved a level of noteworthy success. But the Middies' hopes of competing at the highest levels have run aground against the stark reality of modern college sports. Top high school athletes are drawn to universities that can provide both exposure on the collegiate level and the chance to advance to make a living on the professional stage. Well, the combination of the academies' strenuous admission standards and the requirement that graduates give the country five years of service, means the list of five-star athletes signing up to attend Navy, Army or the Air Force is short. Navy's hopes of getting to that playoff ran aground this weekend when they were trounced by No. 12 Notre Dame 51-14. The Middies committed six turnovers against the Fighting Irish and looked overmatched, casting doubt among some on their ability to finish among the elite. But with five games left on the schedule, including the showdown with Army, there's plenty of time for Navy's 2024 story to have a happy ending. And that's how I see it for this week. You can reach us via email with your questions and comments at Sports at Large at gmail.com. And follow me on Threads and X at Sports at Large. Until next week, for all of us here and for producer Spencer Bryant, I'm Milton Kent. Thanks for listening and enjoy the games.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

There's more than one way to stay on top of your profession. One of the best ways is to take what you do best and meld it with the new trends, making your operation germane and important, now and going forward. For the better part of eight decades, Anthony Dominick Benedetto, better known as Tony Bennett, was a musical force, a singer's singer, who began as a nightclub crooner, singing the standards of the day. By the time of his passing last year, Bennett was working with current favorites Lady Gaga and Carrie Underwood, staying relevant while retaining his old school charm. This past week, another Tony Bennett, this one a college basketball coach, took another path, electing to get out of the game rather than evolve with the times. The basketball Bennett, abruptly retired from coaching at the relatively young age of 55 and three weeks from the start of a new season. Bennett led the University of Virginia's men's team to its first national title five years ago and his Cavaliers would likely have been a force to be reckoned with in their conference and nationally. Indeed, Bennett recently signed a lucrative contract extension to stay at UVA for years to come. But Bennett told a hastily assembled press conference last week that he'd had enough of the game that had been a part of his life for over 35 years, counting playing and coaching, Bennett effectively came to the conclusion that he didn't leave the game, but rather, basketball has left him. Specifically, Bennett balked at coaching in the new paradigm of college athletics where power has shifted from the people who run it to those who play. Bennett said quote “The game and college athletics is not in a healthy spot,” And there needs to be change. I think I was equipped to do the job here the old way. That's who I am and that's how it was. My staff has buoyed me along to get to this point, but there needs to be change unquote. Waves of change have crashed over college sports in recent years. From the unholy alliances of schools in new conferences to the indirect and soon to be direct payment of athletes by boosters and schools and the transfer portal, the world that Tony Bennett entered years ago has evolved. Some coaches have embraced the change and tried to make the most of it. But for some like Bennett and contemporaries like Duke's Mike Krzyzewski, Roy Williams of North Carolina and Jay Wright of Villanova, college basketball has morphed into something they don't want to be associated with any more. And so each of those men, all national championship coaches and current, if not future Basketball Hall of Fame enshrinees, have called it a career, rather than try to make a go of it. The singer Tony Bennett is, of course, best known for the haunting song “I Left My Heart in San Francisco.” His namesake, the basketball coach, may come to be known for leaving his nerve and a chance to challenge the system in Charlottesville. It's not nearly as catchy, but a whole lot more heartbreaking. And that's how I see it for this week. You can reach us via email with your questions and comments at Sports at Large at gmail.com. And follow me on Threads and X at Sports at Large. Until next week, for all of us here and for producer Spencer Bryant, I'm Milton Kent. Thanks for listening and enjoy the games.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

James Franklin has a problem. So, too, does Kevin Hambly. Franklin is the head football coach at Penn State and Hambly is the volleyball coach at Stanford. While they lead teams in different sports, their issue has its roots in the same source: the greed of those who run college football. Franklin's dilemma is that because the conference the Nittany Lions belong to, the Big Ten, a mostly Midwestern league, took in four schools from the West Coast – Oregon, Washington, UCLA and Southern Cal – he has to go on road trips to the Pacific time zone. Unfortunately for Franklin, the runway at the regional airport in State College, Pennsylvania is 6,701 feet long. While that's 20 times the length of a football field, it's not long enough to accommodate larger planes with higher fuel loads that can make cross-country flights, like the one Penn State had to take recently to go to Los Angeles to play USC. As a result, Franklin's team had to take a two-hour bus ride to Harrisburg to catch said flight and leave a day earlier than usual. Going forward, Franklin would like for the State College airport to extend the length of the runway so his team can jet west without a bus. Meanwhile, Hambly's problem is that because the four schools that bolted from the Pac-12 for the Big Ten, weakened the West Coast league that had been in business for decades, other universities, like Arizona, Arizona State, Colorado and Utah, all scattered too to find new athletic homes. As a result, Stanford and Cal, two sterling academic institutions which don't have particularly strong football footprints, also had to scramble to find a league for their teams to play. They ended up in the Atlantic Coast Conference, a league that, at last check, is nowhere near the Pacific Ocean. Hambly's volleyball team, a national championship contender, will travel close to 34,000 miles this year, more than any other fall program in college athletics. Yahoo Sports reports that the 25,000 miles the Cardinal will fly just for ACC games is more than the circumference of the Earth. To his credit, Hambly has taken all of this in stride, quipping that his frequent flier status on United is already Premier One K and could get higher. But this is no laughing matter, not for those who still hold on to the quaint notion of college athletics operating to make students more well rounded, athletically, intellectually and personally. Increasingly, however, the world of intercollegiate athletics continues to more closely resemble prostitution, with heretofore pristine academic institutions putting themselves on the stroll for more football bucks, the only question being the price they're willing to set for their virtue. While grabbing all that gridiron scratch, these schools are putting the less visible programs like soccer, swimming, track and, yes, volleyball and those athletes in jeopardy. And there's no sign that this fever will soon break. Having just expanded the college football playoff field from four to 12, there will likely be nothing to slow further conference realignment, short runways and long volleyball journeys notwithstanding. And that's how I see it for this week. You can reach us via email with your questions and comments at Sports at Large at gmail.com. And follow me on Threads and X at Sports at Large. Until next week, for all of us here and for producer Spencer Bryant, I'm Milton Kent. Thanks for listening and enjoy the games.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Spend a moment talking to Baltimore sports fans of a certain generation and it won't take long to figure out that they can carry a grudge against other cities and their sports teams. The root of some of those animosities are easy to decipher. Simple geography dictates that a rivalry between Baltimore and Washington must take place. For years, the Orioles and Senators did battle in the American League, though the results were more often skewed towards the Birds. Ditto in the NFL, where the Colts and the Redskins were competitors. There, too, the balance of power usually was focused here. In recent years, with new teams, the Ravens and Nationals and new names, the Commanders, added to the mix, the competition between the cities has shifted, maybe even mellowed a bit, but can still emerge under the right circumstances. And then there are the historical rivalries. Baltimore sports fans need precious little to get worked up about teams from New York and Boston. If what the Yankees, Mets, Giants, Jets, Knicks, Red Sox, Patriots and Celtics have done over the decades to the Orioles, Colts, Ravens and Bullets on the respective surfaces wasn't enough to light a fuse, the arrogance of their fan bases would provide the gasoline. But don't, for a moment, think we've forgotten the city that has become Baltimore's biggest source of athletic angst: Pittsburgh. Over the past 50 years, teams from the Steel City and Charm City have done battle at some of the highest levels of sports. The Orioles were done in twice by the Pirates in the World Series first in 1971 and next in 1979. Both series were decided in seven games with the Pirates winning the clinching game at old Memorial Stadium. Lately, it's the Ravens and Steelers who have provided the NFL with one of its most intense series of head-to-head clashes. Pittsburgh has won seven of the last eight games, but none have been decided by more than a touchdown. All of a sudden, however, there's a new spot on the sports map for Baltimoreans to detest and it sits on the confluence of the Missouri and Kansas rivers. Over the past decade, the Royals and Chiefs of Kansas City have become the Lex Luthor to Baltimore's Clark Kent. More accurately, they are the kryptonite to this city's Superman, the single force capable of destroying championship hopes. In 2014, the Royals swept the Orioles out of the American League Championship Series in four games. And, as we're well aware, Kansas City just took out Baltimore in two games in the Wild Card Series, extending the Birds' postseason losing streak to 10 games. Other teams have contributed to the skein, but the Royals have hung six of those losses. And need we remind you of what the Chiefs have done to the Ravens, dropping them in the AFC Championship Game in January and in the season opener this year? Enough is enough. One, if not both of our birds will have their day. And, even if not, Baltimore still beats Kansas City where it counts: food. Any sane person will take a crab cake over barbecue any time. And that's how I see it for this week. You can reach us via email with your questions and comments at Sports at Large at gmail.com. And follow me on Threads and X at Sports at Large. Until next week, for all of us here and for producer Spencer Bryant, I'm Milton Kent. Thanks for listening and enjoy the games.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

It's been a year since Baltimore sports fans suffered the first in the latest series of humiliations from their teams who raise their hopes with stellar regular season performances, only to crash and burn in the postseason. In the space of four months in late 2023 and early 2024, Charm City athletic supporters took shots in their collective guts from the Ravens and Orioles, who each won their respective divisions, then whimpered out of the playoffs. The Ravens have stumbled a bit out of the gate so far in 2024, placing their Super Bowl aspirations in a bit of jeopardy. It falls, then, on the Orioles to sing a redemption song for the area faithful who have waited ever so patiently in the short and long term. Yes, it's been a year since the Orioles won the American League East with 101 victories, the first playoff berth in seven years. But the World Series drought for this once proud franchise is at 41 years, and possibly counting. In a certain sense, Bird backers have been like Ralphie, the kid from “A Christmas Story,” who yearned to find a Red Ryder BB gun under the tree, but, more often than not, got a bunny suit. The BB gun seemed oh-so-close last October, when the Birds entered the playoffs with the top seed in the American League and home field advantage throughout, a straight shot to the Fall Classic. Or so we thought. The callow Orioles, with hardly a lick of playoff experience among them, were summarily swept out of the playoffs by the Texas Rangers. That the Rangers went on to win the world championship was of little consolation to the players and their fans, who had to wait a year to prove that last season wasn't a mirage, an anomaly. The first two-thirds of the 2024 campaign led many to believe that the Orioles were the real thing. With newcomers Corbin Burnes and Craig Kimbrel brought in to bring maturity and playoff experience to the young lineup, the Orioles looked poised to repeat as AL East champions, with three players, Burnes, catcher Adley Rutschman and shortstop Gunnar Henderson named to the All-Star starting lineup. However, the club sputtered after the All-Star break, with injuries and poor performances, and landed a wild card slot, finishing second in the division behind the dreaded Yankees. Though the equipment changes from sport to sport, the one thing that all our games have in common is that the postseason of any game is the place where reputations are made and where disappointments can be overcome. And that's how it will be for the Orioles in October. A deep run through these next few weeks will erase the heartache of last fall, A quick exit will trigger questions about who will be here going forward and what happens next. So, for the Birds and their fans, this next month essentially comes down to this question: Will there be a BB gun or a bunny suit under the Christmas tree. The good news is we'll know the answer long before Thanksgiving. And that's how I see it for this week. You can reach us via email with your questions and comments at Sports at Large at gmail.com. And follow me on Threads and X at Sports at Large. Until next week, for all of us here and for producer Spencer Bryant, I'm Milton Kent. Thanks for listening and enjoy the games.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

If you've bought tickets for concert or movie, you know that the price on the stub is just a starting point, an opening act, if you will, to the fees and hidden charges that come tucked in to the cost of admission. Sports is no different. In recent years, those who run the games have discovered new and inventive ways to part us fools from our hard earned cash. The latest addition to the parade of officials who have found novel approaches to shake down fans comes from the University of Tennessee. And this one is a doozy. When Volunteer football supporters get their bills for season tickets for next season, they'll notice a 14.5 percent increase in their bill. That's a hefty hike no matter how you slice it. But Tennessee athletic director Danny White told the faithful that nearly 75 percent of that markup was being assessed as a quote talent fee unquote to help the athletic department cope with the new reality of college sports, where athletes are paid for their use of their names, images and likenesses. Said White to the Knoxville News Sentinel quote "We've come a long way in the last few years. In this new era, it's going to get a lot more expensive. But there's also going to be a closer relationship between resources and competition than there ever has been before. And our biggest asset is our fan base." What White is alluding to is the result of a court settlement where schools will have to share revenue with athletes, perhaps as early as next year. Schools like Tennessee, who operate at the highest level of sports, will have to pay $22 million annually to pay their current athletes with another $5-10 million going to fund additional scholarships. That's on top of NIL payments. Despite the fact that Tennessee took in more than $200 million in revenue last year by virtue of membership in the Southeastern Conference and its lucrative deal with ESPN, not to mention the sale of 70,500 football season tickets in its 105,000-seat stadium, the Volunteers appear to need cash. That's what happens when you pay your football coach Josh Heupel $8 million a year, much less the exorbitant salaries paid to a bloated slate of assistant coaches and staff. Oh, and let's not forget White himself. His recent contract extension takes his annual salary to $2.75 million, making him the highest paid athletic director at a public university, and with a 5 percent raise to boot. To cope, the school has already doubled student fees from $10 to $20 per game for this season with another $5 hike coming next year. It's not as if anyone should have pity parties for the Knoxville faithful. The overall athletic program has been the best in the SEC for three straight years. And there are 15,000 people on the waiting list to get football tickets. Yep, everything is hunky dory on good ole Rocky Top. And the denizens there are willing to pay through the nose to keep it that way. And that's how I see it for this week. You can reach us via email with your questions and comments at Sports at Large at gmail.com. And follow me on Threads and X at Sports at Large. Until next week, for all of us here, I'm Milton Kent. Thanks for listening and enjoy the games.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

We're nearly past the second week of the new pro football season and the NFL is already at a philosophical crossroads. The league is again confronted with the specter of an incident in which one of its higher profile players suffered a concussion in a nationally televised game. When Miami Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa collapsed to the turf late in the third quarter of Thursday's loss to the Buffalo Bills, the reverberations touched off another round of debates over the safety of America's most popular and violent game. But not really, for, in the immediate, the discussion is zeroed in on whether Tagovailoa has a future in football, when we really should be talking about what to do about football as a whole going forward. For Tagovailoa, it marked the third time he has suffered a concussion, all in the past three seasons. In Week 3 of the 2022 season, the fifth-year veteran was struck with a blow that left him battling to maintain his balance. He was originally diagnosed then with a back ailment and permitted to return and start the next week, though he was sacked in that game, hitting the back of his head on the ground. Tagovailoa was carted off the field on a stretcher, but not before his hands and arms went into what is known as a fencing position, where they go up seemingly autonomically, a clear indicator of a concussion. Near the end of the 2022 season, Tagovailoa suffered another concussion, which kept out of Miami's last two regular season games and a playoff contest. When he returned last season, Tagovailoa told reporters that he had studied jiu jitsu to learn how to fall to avoid further concussion issues. He not only managed to avoid any apparent brain injuries in 2023 but he led the NFL in passing yards. As a reward for his success, the Dolphins signed Tagovailoa, a 26-yearold father of two to a four-year $212 million contract in the offseason, much of it guaranteed. The Dolphins can recoup some of that money through an insurance policy, but no one will be holding telethons or pity parties for a National Football League franchise. Not when each of the 32 teams pulled in more than $400 million last year, according to Pro Football Talk. You might think that an organization like the NFL might do everything in its power to make sure that its lifeblood, the more than 1,500 players who suit up each week would be as safe as possible. The league would point to the guardian caps, the soft-shell covering that goes on top of helmets, that is worn by linemen, linebackers, tight ends, running backs and fullbacks during practice since 2022. But use of these caps is voluntary during games and quarterbacks are not in those groups. Why? Because despite all the mounting evidence of the long term effects of repeated head trauma that comes with football, the NFL is betting on two things. One is that each Sunday afternoon and evening and Monday night and Thursday night, millions of us will line up for our weekly serving of televised, sanitized carnage. And two, there will always someone else to take Tua Tagovailoa's place. And that's how I see it for this week. You can reach us via email with your questions and comments at Sports at Large at gmail.com. And follow me on Threads and Twitter at Sports at Large. Until next week, for all of us here, I'm Milton Kent. Thanks for listening and enjoy the games.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Apparently, the observation that insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result did not originate with Albert Einstein. Regardless of who said it, it hasn't taken NCAA president Charlie Baker long to recognize that that trope is true relative to the organization he heads. Baker, who took over the governing body of college athletics in March, has come to understand that continuing to try to run collegiate sports in the 21st century the way it was run when it was created early in the 20th century is, well, insane. Perhaps that's why Baker has proposed a fundamental change in the NCAA's governing structure that could remake college sports forever and for good. Baker is effectively suggesting that athletes be paid by the schools. If you listen carefully, you can likely hear some of the NCAA founders spinning in their graves, but just because an idea is radically different than what you're used to doesn't mean that it shouldn't happen. Indeed, compensating athletes for their labors is an idea that's way past its time. Now, there are certainly those who will suggest that a college athlete should receive nothing more than a scholarship, room, board, books and fees. To those folks I say balderdash, or at least that's all I can say on these here FCC-regulated airwaves. Go to any college sporting event and look around. The student who takes your ticket is paid for the effort. Members of the band can head to a local club or arena and get compensation for their evening's work, even if they're already receiving a music scholarship. Goodness knows, the coaches and other athletic department personnel are handsomely rewarded for their labors, and particularly at the high end of college sports. So, why shouldn't the very people who make all of it possible, the backbones of the multi-billion dollar industry that college sports have become, get their share? To a degree, that has started to happen, as athletes have the Supreme Court-granted right to market their names, images and likenesses. But those funds don't come from the schools, which is where Baker's proposal comes in. The former governor of Massachusetts has floated an idea whereby schools in Division I, the most visible and wealthiest, would begin offering half their athletes at least $30,000 a year from a combination of NIL funding and an educational trust fund. The plan would cover male and female athletes and would extend not only to high revenue sports like football and men's basketball, but also to what are called Olympic sports. Baker is proposing that the schools create in-house revenue-sharing mechanisms that would lessen the impact of collectives that have formed where boosters and alums pay athletes. Baker's idea, if adopted without alterations, could drive a bigger wedge between wealthy schools like Maryland, where I went and not-so-wealthy schools, like, say, Morgan State, where, in the spirit of full disclosure, is where I teach. But at the end of the day, Charlie Baker deserves a big thank you from anyone who sees the insanity college sports has become and wants to do something different. And that's how I see it for this week. You can reach us via email with your questions and comments at Sports at Large at gmail.com. And follow me on Threads and Twitter at Sports at Large. Until next week, for all of us here, I'm Milton Kent. Thanks for listening and enjoy the games.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

If you left a pair of three-year olds in the middle of a room with a bowl full of finger paints and told them to have at it, they could hardly make more of a mess than Maryland Gov. Wes Moore and Orioles CEO John Angelos have with negotiations for a new Camden Yards lease. The stage was set Friday for an announcement that the two sides had hammered out an actual flesh-and-blood agreement that would bind the Birds to Baltimore for the next 30 years. By day's end, Moore had to put the deal on hold as State Senate President Bill Ferguson threw a monkey wrench into the proceedings with questions, if not flat out objections, about key parts of the lease. And so, with now less than three weeks before the end of the Orioles' original contract with the state for use of arguably the best ballpark in America, we seem to be back at square one with no firm commitment from the team to stay. Surely you remember the October night the team clinched an American League East title for the first time in nine years when Angelos and Moore partied from a sky suite like it was 1979, when the club was regularly winning titles. The video board flashed a message to the sellout crowd that the team, Moore and the Maryland Stadium Authority had quote agreed to a deal that will keep the Orioles in Baltimore and at Camden Yards for at least the next 30 years unquote. Come to find out that what we were all sold that night was verbal apple sauce. What the parties actually agreed to was a memorandum of understanding, a kind of oral agreement to agree, which sounded nice, but not at all binding. In a statement Friday, Ferguson, whose district includes Oriole Park, said he had issues with the notion that the long term occupancy of the stadium would be contingent on granting the Orioles a 99-year ground lease to develop the land around the park. That mind-numbing concession comes in addition to the idea that the Orioles will get the use of $600 million in state bonds to refurbish Camden Yards once Angelos signs any lease. Ferguson is also said to have been troubled by a supposed provision that would have allowed the club to abandon the lease in 10 years, not 30. Any lease would have to be approved by the stadium authority and the state Board of Public Works, where one seat is held by Moore, and the other two by state Comptroller Brooke Lierman and state Treasurer Derrick Davis, who is selected by the legislature. It is stunning, but not surprising that Angelos, who has pledged to keep the Orioles here as long as Fort McHenry overlooks the city, would think he could extract such unbelievable concessions. Likewise, it's amazing that Moore would not have run this by Ferguson or House Speaker Adrienne Jones or other key legislators to see if this turkey would fly. The governor and Angelos have a couple of weeks to clean up the mess they've made. Orioles fans and the people of Maryland deserve no less. And that's how I see it for this week. You can reach us via email with your questions and comments at Sports at Large at gmail.com. And follow me on Threads and Twitter at Sports at Large. Until next week, for all of us here, I'm Milton Kent. Thanks for listening and enjoy the games.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The industry of journalism in this country is under attack as never before. That's not news. What is news is when the onslaught comes from within, as in self-inflicted wounds. And while the division of journalism that extends to sports may not always be held in the highest of regards within the division, it is an essential and perhaps most visible part. So, when that necessary and noticeable wing of the Fourth Estate catches friendly fire, it's cause for concern. Twice, in recent weeks, sports journalism has taken hits, hits that were entirely avoidable and entirely of the making of those involved. In the first case, the wound should be superficial, but the shrapnel may hurt everyone, but the people directly responsible. During an airing of a podcast, Charissa Thompson, a former NFL sideline reporter, said she would make up reports, particularly if she couldn't reach a coach at halftime. Thompson made this admission to Erin Andrews, another sideline reporter, who copped to the idea that she had done the same thing, though in her case, Andrews said she made things up to protect a coach. Both Thompson, who now hosts NFL game programming on Amazon and Fox, and Andrews issued lukewarm clarifications for their admissions. Neither has been publicly reprimanded by their employers. Their conduct drew swift and, in some cases, furious condemnation from their colleagues who recognize the damage the admission of phony reporting can do to the institution of journalism, even if you don't equate asking a coach or player about their thoughts with Woodward and Bernstein during Watergate. Those sideline colleagues, almost exclusively women, further understand the harm that Andrews and Thompson have done to the cause of female sports reporters who already enter the fray at a credibility disadvantage from many simply because of their gender. That Thompson and Andrews appear poised to emerge unscathed is a cynical gambit from Fox and Amazon that viewers don't care what comes from their television sets. Meanwhile, the website Futurism reported that Sports Illustrated posted online pieces from fictitious writers whose headshots were generated by artificial intelligence. Officials at Arena, which owns SI, denied the allegations, but acknowledged that the magazine had carried material from a third-party provider that allowed writers to use pen names or pseudonyms. That material has been pulled, officials said, and an investigation is being conducted. Even if you take these officials at their word, the notion that Sports Illustrated, once home to some of the greatest names in sports journalism, giants like Jack McCallum, Leigh Montville, Gary Smith and Baltimore's own Frank DeFord, farmed out its space to what amounts to an advertising firm, is anathema. To be clear, organizations who fly reputable journalistic banners are already testing the limits of AI usage, up to and including posting stories generated by bots, rather than flesh and blood people, in the name of saving money. But the folks who run places like Fox, Amazon and Arena had better start considering what happens when the public can't trust what it hears or reads, even if it's just about silly games. And that's how I see it for this week. You can reach us via email with your questions and comments at Sports at Large at gmail.com. And follow me on Threads and Twitter at Sports at Large. Until next week, for all of us here, I'm Milton Kent. Thanks for listening and enjoy the games.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Everything in life is a matter of perspective, and depending on how you view things, the University of Michigan's win over Ohio State in Saturday's football game is either the universe setting things right or a triumph of darkness over the light. The Wolverines' 30-24 victory over the Buckeyes puts to rest – for now – any talk about deception and chicanery in sports in general and college football in particular. As you may have heard, the Big Ten Conference suspended Michigan head coach Jim Harbaugh for three games, including last Saturday's and the previous week's meeting at Maryland. The conference joined in on the NCAA's investigation over concerns that a Michigan analyst led an operation to steal signs in impermissible ways. The school immediately tried to forestall the punishment in court, but eventually dropped their opposition in exchange for the Big Ten ending their investigation. The Wolverines won their three games without Harbaugh, but the coach will be back for this Saturday's Big Ten championship game and any postseason contests. If you were paying attention, you may have noticed the presence of the word impermissible. That word implies that officials at the nation's repositories of higher learning, where integrity is supposedly always on the syllabus, are OK with their representatives trying to gain an edge over an opponent by figuring out what play they're about to run. There is, of course, a solution to all of this. The colleges can simply institute the system the NFL has been using for nearly 30 years. There, a coach communicates directly with the quarterback or his defensive counterpart who has a green dot on his helmet for a period of time before the next play begins. Last month, one school took messaging to another level. At Gallaudet, the football team got permission from the NCAA to use a 5G helmet that transmits a play from the coach's tablet into a lens that the quarterback can see over his right eye. The system was developed in conjunction with AT&T and debuted in a game against Hilbert College, a 34-20 win. Gallaudet quarterback Brandon Washington ran for 126 yards and three touchdowns, so something obviously worked. As a team representing Gallaudet, a school for deaf and hearing-impaired students, the Bison were allowed to employ the system so that opponents wouldn't read their sign language.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Following Thursday's 34-20 win over the Cincinnati Bengals, Ravens linebacker Odafe Oweh declared that the team wanted to make a statement. And so they did. In the process, they seized control of their division by soundly defeating their most significant opponent for a second time this year, the same team that knocked them out of the postseason last year. It was, indeed, a strong declaration of purpose by the hometown football team, coming a mere five days after a heartbreaking loss to the Cleveland Browns on the very same field. Yes, it would seem that the Ravens, winners of eight of their first 11 games and four of their last five, are poised to make some kind of statement. But precisely what statement are they making? What is this team's identity? Who are the Ravens? Are they the squad that blitzed Detroit and Seattle, two pretty good NFC teams by a combined score of 75-9 in October and early November? Or are they the team that dropped winnable games against Indianapolis, Pittsburgh and the Browns? There's a talented squad of defenders who rush the passer and guard opposition receivers better than any Baltimore defense since, perhaps the legendary 2000 unit that brought home Charm City's first Super Bowl since 1970. Like that defense 23 years ago which took its cues from Ray Lewis, this year's group is led by a brilliant linebacker, Roquan Smith. Smith, who came over in the middle of last season in a trade with Chicago, provides leadership both on and off the field, like Lewis, but with none of the phony bluster. He's capable of carrying the defense a long way. But, as has often been the case over the years, the Ravens' fortunes will likely rise and fall on the production of the offense. The receiving corps, which has long been problematic, has been encouraging. Free agent acquisition Odell Beckham Jr. has provided veteran leadership. That is, when he hasn't been hurt. And rookie Zay Flowers has shown flashes of brilliance. Tight end Mark Andrews, the most reliable pass catcher, suffered a season-ending ankle injury in the win over Cincinnati. His absence will be a profound loss and perhaps place more emphasis on the running game, which has been up to the challenge. It will be interesting to see how Andrews' absence affects quarterback Lamar Jackson. Andrews and Jackson have been joined at the hip during their six years together. We'll see if Jackson can adjust. And speaking of Jackson, this season, his sixth and the first with his new five-year, $260 million contract, has largely been positive. Jackson seems more content to rely on his teammates rather than place the burden of moving the ball entirely on his shoulders. Jackson has ended the last two seasons on the injury list, but the quirk in the schedule that will have the team play just one game over a 23-day span could help Jackson and the Ravens make a statement all the way to the Super Bowl. And that's how I see it for this week. You can reach us via email with your questions and comments at Sports at Large at gmail.com. And follow me on Threads and Twitter at Sports at Large. Until next week, for all of us here, I'm Milton Kent. Thanks for listening and enjoy the games.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

During the 8 p.m. Saturday window this week, there was a cavalcade of the usual college football suspects on television. As you moved up and down the proverbial dial, there were Georgia, Ohio State, Texas, Oklahoma, Florida and LSU all battling for touchdowns and eyeballs. Tucked in among that forest of masculinity was an unusual listing, namely the championship match of the National Women's Soccer League. History will note that the New York/New Jersey Gotham football club won the title over the Reign team based out of Seattle 2-1. It will also note that the match marked the end of the brilliant careers of Megan Rapinoe and Ali Krieger, two of the most decorated players in American soccer history. But history may also note that the score and outcome of the match were insignificant to what follows. In conjunction with the championship, the NWSL announced a new four-year media rights deal with four outlets – CBS, ESPN, Amazon and Scripps – worth $240 million. It's the largest media rights deal in women's team sports history and an otherworldly increase from the $1.5 million the league was getting from CBS just last year. As you might expect, entities are lining up to be a part of this burgeoning enterprise. The league will grow to 15 teams in the next three years, with groups in more than 12 other cities hoping to get on board. And the league is bringing on one notable prospective owner after another, adding female titans of industry as well as athletes from basketball, tennis, gymnastics, soccer and the other football. Now, just as every ice cream flavor or musical taste isn't for every person, so are some sports more interesting to folks than others. That's my not-so-subtle way of saying that soccer is not my cup of tea. I appreciate the athleticism and grace associated with the beautiful game and applaud those who play and love it. I'm just not one of them. That said, you can't help but be impressed with the steady growth women's professional sports in general, and soccer in particular, have shown in the U.S. From the seed planted with the women's World Cup win in 1998 to now, women's pro soccer has come along, at times in fits and spurts, but now standing on its own as a viable option for participation, investment and viewership. Much of the credit for the NWSL's growth must go to its commissioner, Jessica Berman, who, in just 20 months at the helm, has alternately nurtured and dragged the league firmly forward deep into the 21st century. Berman, who came to the NWSL after stints in the NHL and the National Lacrosse League, has led the charge to clean up the league following a desultory recent history of sexual abuse and misconduct allegations. As OL Reign defender Lauren Barnes told the Los Angeles Times, quote It'd be dumb not to invest in women's sports unquote. Indeed, the National Women's Soccer League has become the very smart play, And that's how I see it for this week. You can reach us via email with your questions and comments at Sports at Large at gmail.com. And follow me on Threads and Twitter at Sports at Large. Until next week, for all of us here, I'm Milton Kent. Thanks for listening and enjoy the games.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

While the sports world has been fixated on the goings on with the University of Michigan football program and the potentially explosive cheating scandal we told you about last week, the really important action has been taking place 2,000 miles away. In an Oakland, Calif. Courtroom, a judge is preparing to rule on a case that may decide nothing less than the future of American sports. As far as can be gleaned from her bio, U.S. District Court Senior Judge Claudia Wilken is neither a former athlete nor is she a sports fan. Yet, if the events of last week are an indicator, history may prove Wilken, who sits in the Northern California district, to be one of the most significant figures in American sports history. Wilken is hearing motions in a case where three current and former college athletes have brought suit against the NCAA. The athletes, Arizona State swimmer Grant House, former Oregon and current Texas Christian basketball player Sedona Prince and former Illinois football player Tymir Ta-meer Oliver, are seeking to take the NCAA for a very expensive ride. The three athletes contend that they are owed millions in lost broadcast revenue denied them before 2021 by the college athletics governing body and the five biggest conferences. The suit arrives as athletes have come in recent years to receive payments for the use of their names, images and likenesses. Prince, Oliver and House contend that they are owed damages for what they could have made had the NCAA and the conferences not restricted those earnings before 2021. We've long railed in this space about the historic resistance of college administrators to granting athletes compensation beyond a scholarship, a foolish and old-fashioned opposition at best. The NCAA has begrudgingly loosened those prohibitions, though not by choice. As a result, increasing numbers of young people are making thousands, if not in some cases, millions, presenting themselves as commercial pitch persons locally and nationally, as the markets will allow. What's been missing is the athletes' share of the billions colleges receive in television money that the NCAA, conferences and schools garner from the networks in rights fees. Their professional brethren get their share of TV scratch through collective bargaining with the NFL, Major League Baseball, the NBA, the NHL and others. College students should get the same. And that may be the next phase. The attorneys representing the trio bringing the suit are arguing that any potential damages should be granted to current and future athletes who competed from 2016 to the June 2020 date the complaint was filed. That's more than 14,000 athletes in different classes, if you're counting. Wilken, who has previously cleared the way for athlete compensation in two other cases, seemed amenable to opening the gates beyond the three plaintiffs in arguments made last week. The full lawsuit is to be heard in 14 months, but the NCAA shouldn't wait to go into full panic mode. You see, the plaintiffs are seeking $1.4 billion in damages, which, under federal antitrust law, could triple to $4.2 billion. That's nearly 10 times the assets the NCAA reported for last year. And that dread couldn't happen to a nicer group of people. And that's how I see it for this week. You can reach us via email with your questions and comments at Sports at Large at gmail.com. And follow me on Threads and Twitter at Sports at Large. Until next week, for all of us here, I'm Milton Kent. Thanks for listening and enjoy the games.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Stop me if you've heard this before: There's cheating going on in college sports and no one knows what to do about it. Actually, the situation that has arisen with the University of Michigan's football program is still at the alleged status, as there have been no official findings and no admissions of guilt in a matter where there are accusations that the Wolverines, or people on their behalf, have been stealing signs from the opposition. For the record, the Michigan head coach, Jim Harbaugh, the brother of the Ravens' John Harbaugh, has explicitly denied knowledge or complicity in the matter. But, in a world that traffics in the credo that if you ain't cheatin,' you ain't tryin,' it's hard to take Jim Harbaugh or any college coach seriously. Numerous outlets are reporting that Connor Stalions, who is listed as a Michigan recruiting analyst, has developed a rather intricate system of pilfering opponents' signs. Allegedly, Stalions, a Navy grad and Marine Corps captain, was in charge of a network where people watched Michigan's opponents in advance of games and reported back what they saw. Or they recorded the signs and transmitted their findings to a central location. While you're allowed to decipher signs in the moment, NCAA rules do not permit you to do it using advance intelligence or by audio or video recordings. The NCAA, the college sports governing body, has launched a preliminary inquiry into the allegations. That could blossom into a full blown investigation especially if the interrogators find something on Stalions' computer. Now, to be clear, sign stealing is a way of life, not only in football, but in baseball and other sports where communications between the sidelines and the playing field can be intercepted. That sort of thing hardly seems, well, sporting, especially in a game like football that sells itself on honor and character and truth from man to man and among teams themselves. And this seems particularly noteworthy on the college level, where coaches sit in the living rooms of potential recruits and pledge to moms and dads that they will turn their callow boys into men of integrity. This current allegation finds Michigan and Harbaugh in a particularly precarious position. The coach, who led his alma mater to the Final Four of football last year and who is leading the No.2 ranked team in the nation this season, is already on a dangerous limb, ethically speaking. The NCAA believes that Harbaugh may have lied about meeting with recruits during a time when he wasn't supposed to. The university suspended the coach for the first three games of this season in an attempt to forestall further punishment, but that case and this case combined could be the end of the line for Harbaugh in Ann Arbor. Of course, there's been scuttlebutt that Jim Harbaugh was looking to rejoin his brother back in the pro ranks even before all this. You see, in the pros, what you might call cheating is known as gamesmanship. And gamesmanship just might suit Jim Harbaugh to a T. And that's how I see it for this week. You can reach us via email with your questions and comments at Sports at Large at gmail.com. And follow me on Threads and Twitter at Sports at Large. Until next week, for all of us here, I'm Milton Kent. Thanks for listening and enjoy the games.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The landscape is dotted with plenty of ways for people of a certain age to try to stay relevant, up to and including sports cars, hair plugs, Botox and tummy tucks, to name a few. But while those solutions may work for people, how do long-standing organizations stay up to date and pertinent in the public eye? Well, if you're Thomas Bach, the president of the International Olympic Committee and you lord over a movement that is becoming less and less significant, there's just one thing to do to start trending, as the kids say. You add some sports and games that the ancient Greeks could never have imagined back on Mount Olympus thousands of years ago. Recently, Bach and his IOC cronies have permitted local organizing committees, who lay out millions and billions for the privilege of hosting these two-week sporting spectacles – usually at tremendous financial loss to the local taxpayers – to add so-called demonstrator sports. These games can serve as world showcases for sports that might have intense local appeal within the host nation, but not be particularly well known or appreciated outside those borders. For instance, the committee behind the 2028 Games in Los Angeles got the go-ahead last week to add a package of largely American-centric sports to the list for five years from now. When the Summer Olympics return to the United States for the first time since 1996, the world will see some tried and true offerings, such as baseball and softball, which were dropped from the list after the 2008 Summer Games, but returned two years ago in Tokyo. The French, who will host next year in Paris, are eschewing softball and baseball for surfing, skateboarding, sport climbing and breakdancing. That's right. Someone will get an Olympic gold medal next year in breakdancing. The LA Games will also welcome back lacrosse and cricket to the fold after long absences from the Olympic slate. Though Baltimoreans never have to be sold on the beauty of lacrosse, the game's reach has spread globally in recent years. And while cricket isn't an American game, per se, for now, its appeal certainly extends far beyond these shores. Indeed, India, the most populous nation on Earth, is a cricket hotbed. The fact that television rights for the 2028 Games have not yet been settled there can't have been lost on the IOC, which has never missed an opportunity to make a buck. Which brings us to the other sports. The Southern California Olympics will add squash, a game played in more than 150 countries, but hardly here in the States. It will also welcome for the first time, flag football. It doesn't take a genius to see what's at work here. The National Football League, which, like the IOC, has never passed up a chance to extend the brand, has waged a serious behind-the-scenes campaign to introduce its version of football to the world. What better way than through two weeks of Olympic exposure? So, NFL Commissioner Smilin' Roger Goodell and his IOC bro Thomas Bach, will gladly risk being seen as out-of-touch hipster types if they can get a little green with their Olympic gold. And that's how I see it for this week. You can reach us via email with your questions and comments at Sports at Large at gmail.com. And follow me on Threads and X, the artist formerly known as Twitter, at Sports at Large. Until next week, for all of us here, I'm Milton Kent. Thanks for listening and enjoy the games.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

When Brandon Hyde sat at a microphone last week and declared that he was irritated at the abrupt end to the Orioles season, he spoke for a shockingly small number of Baltimoreans. For the overwhelming bulk of Birds fans, the sweep at the hands of the Texas Rangers in the American League Division Series was a not so pleasant coda to an amazing season. Thousands, if not millions, of Charm City types got reawakened to the magic of Orioles baseball, a feeling long dormant around these parts. As the season wore on and one series led to another and the wins stacked up like empty shells at a summertime crab feast, people around town latched on to this team in a way they hadn't in years. Suddenly, it became cool to wear black and orange again, to get splashed and to name your sons Adley and Gunnar and Cedric, the way sons of a different baseball generation were named Cal and Brooks. And the shorthand from the season's sudden termination was that with young players like Adley Rutschman and Gunnar Henderson and Jordan Westburg, this will be the start of something big, a bright future of playoff appearance after playoff appearance. But, maybe after overseeing seasons with 108 and 110 losses in two of his first three seasons as manager, Hyde is allowed to be a bit more circumspect, a little more wary of declaring that happy days are here again. The truth is that the Orioles did underachieve in the postseason, through largely no fault of the players or Hyde. The manager is right to be ticked that his club isn't still playing. For all the dazzling young talent on the roster and on the way from the minors, the Orioles frankly let a golden opportunity slip away. While Hyde made a couple of questionable calls during the Texas series, the Birds were effectively grounded in late July when general manager Mike Elias didn't sufficiently bolster their lineup with playoff-experienced talent. To wit, the Orioles had just six players on their postseason slate who had ever played in the playoffs before last week. The Rangers, meanwhile, had extensive playoff experience, including shortstop Corey Seager, the 2020 World Series Most Valuable Player when he was with the Dodgers. To get that experience means you have to spend money, and that's where Elias could be let off the hook. The Orioles started the 2023 season with the second-lowest payroll in all of baseball, while the Rangers had the second-highest in the American League. Elias and Hyde can only cook with the groceries they're provided and that points right to ownership, led by CEO John Angelos. Under Angelos, the Birds have been perennially at the bottom of payroll lists. That's great for the bottom line, but lousy for producing perennially winning baseball teams, which is what this should be all about. The Orioles, as presently constituted and with the sting of this year's near miss as fuel, look like they're primed to bring Baltimore another exciting run in 2024. But without a little more experience on his roster, Brandon Hyde isn't likely to be any happier next October than this one. And that's how I see it for this week. You can reach us via email with your questions and comments at Sports at Large at gmail.com. And follow me on Threads and X, formerly known as Twitter, at Sports at Large. Until next week, for all of us here, I'm Milton Kent. Thanks for listening and enjoy the games.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

No matter what this October portends for the Orioles, the immediate and perhaps extended future appears to hold considerable promise for the franchise. Here's hoping Baltimore baseball fans get to experience the joy of rooting for a championship-caliber team in person at Camden Yards after suffering through such a miserable past couple of decades or so. Now, you're probably asking ‘where's this guy been?' More than usual, that is. Didn't he hear that the Orioles and the state of Maryland have locked arms on a 30-year lease to keep the Birds in Baltimore deep into this century? Wasn't that our new governor, Wes Moore, in the owner's box the night the team clinched the American League East, yucking it up with Orioles CEO John Angelos, as the new deal was announced? That was the conclusion that we were supposed to draw from all that hoopla. But, as our good friends in Public Enemy admonished us so many years ago, don't believe the hype. Indeed, the very next morning, we found out that the impression we were left with, that five years of protracted negotiations between the Maryland Stadium Authority and the Orioles had come to an end with the Birds agreeing to stay in their nest for the next three decades was a false one. Instead of signing a binding lease, the two parties entered into a memorandum of understanding, the legal equivalent of one of those promise rings folks give and receive before engagement and marriage. Not a lot is known about what's in this MOU. The two sides have kept things close to the vest, especially since Moore took office and installed Craig Thompson as the MSA chairman. We don't know whether Thompson or Moore, who has a friendship with Angelos, is the principal negotiator. We don't know when the MOU will be replaced with an actual lease or how long the negotiations will go on. Everything about this process has been out of the public sunlight. In fact, things have been so private that MSA members reportedly agreed to the MOU in a phone call and not in a public meeting. The Baltimore Banner reported that Thompson called each of the members of the authority and got their approval, which he deems to be legal. And perhaps it is, but it sure doesn't seem like the way business should be done. Not when the Orioles can receive up to $600 million in state bonds to renovate their 30-year old ballpark. Not when the Orioles will be freed from the requirement that they pay rent for Oriole Park, as one of the terms in the MOU seems to indicate, in exchange for taking over management of the park. Not when the club would apparently get the right to develop some of the land around the stadium, a potentially lucrative chit. So far, Moore has been publicly seen in an Orioles jersey, but hasn't been heard uttering much more than platitudes about what happens next in terms of getting his buddy John Angelos to put actual pen and ink to that 30-year lease. A promise ring or MOU is nice. A marriage contract, or, in this case, a lease, would be better. And that's how I see it for this week. You can reach us via email with your questions and comments at Sports at Large at gmail.com. And follow me on Threads and X, formerly known as Twitter, at Sports at Large. Until next week, for all of us here, I'm Milton Kent. Thanks for listening and enjoy the games.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

There's been a collective feeling around Baltimore since the news broke that Brooks Robinson died that we now have this guardian angel above the clouds, doing what he can to make things better. And yes, in the immediate days since Brooks died, the Orioles clinched their first American League Eastern Division championship in nine years and their first 100-win season in 43 seasons. In addition, the club's management signed a long-awaited lease extension to stay in Baltimore for the next 30 years. So, yeah, you could make the argument that the great third baseman is already working the heavenly umpires on behalf of the Birds. But I would submit that the legacy of Brooks Calbert Robinson Jr. extends far beyond any mere baseball team or season. That's because Brooks Calbert Robinson Jr. was and is the greatest force for good this city has ever seen. His stature as an elite athlete here is beyond reproach, but just in case, here's a refresher: Brooks was the Most Valuable Player in the World Series, the American League playoffs and regular season and played in 18 straight All-Star games. And he is the greatest third baseman in the long history of the greatest game God ever invented. Some put the qualifier defensive in front of that description. They say that his .267 career batting average and 268 home runs pale in comparison to other third basemen, namely Philadelphia's Mike Schmidt, who hit more than twice as many homers as Brooks. Well, to that, I would say that Brooks' defense – evidenced by his 16 Gold Gloves, and his status as the all-time leader in four defensive categories, put him above Schmidt or any other guy who played the hot corner. But where Brooks Robinson really excelled was in his humanity. There isn't a single person who ever came in contact with him who left with a bad experience. Think about that for a moment. How many people who aren't in the public eye are that genuinely good, that unfailingly decent? Not many, and I would argue that number decreases by the day, thanks to the increasing isolation we feel and the coarseness of our society. We seem encouraged to separate ourselves from each other and too many of us take the bait. Now, take that to a public level. Imagine what it must be like to have to be on all the time whenever you step out of your home, never being able to flip someone off who cut you off in traffic or mutter a curse word to a demanding slob who thinks you owe him or his kid an autograph just because. Now you know what life for Brooks Robinson was like, here and everywhere. And yet, he was just that decent, just that good to everyone. The late sports writer Gordon Beard observed that in New York, people named candy bars after Reggie Jackson, but in Baltimore, people named their kids after Brooks Robinson. So, yes, these Orioles may do amazing things on their own this October, but you'd better believe they will have a heavenly assist from the best there ever was in black and orange. And that's how I see it for this week. You can reach us via email with your questions and comments at Sports at Large at gmail.com. And follow me on Threads and X, formerly known as Twitter, at Sports at Large. Until next week, for all of us here, I'm Milton Kent. Thanks for listening and enjoy the games.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

We're only a month and change into the 2023 college football season, but there's already a dominant storyline and a central place where the story is being told, as well as a vehicle to tell the story through. The place is the University of Colorado and the story is the rebirth of the Buffalo program, And the conversion has come courtesy of new head coach Deion Sanders, who has brought a bright spotlight to the previously football-sleepy hamlet of Boulder. Could you expect anything less from a guy who was nicknamed Neon and called himself Prime Time during his Hall of Fame playing days that included a stop in Baltimore with the Ravens? The narrative that has been crafted is that Sanders has, through just four games, already wrought a miraculous transformation from the team that won just one of 12 games last year. In the process, the Buffaloes have become the story of the fledgling college campaign. Indeed, their success and that of Sanders is something of a metaphor for what college football has become: namely, an unbridled money grab where every man and school is out for themselves. Sanders, who now refers to himself as Coach Prime, has never shied from diving headfirst into the pool of self-aggrandizement. Even on the rare moments where he has theoretically done things for a greater good, there's always been a side hustle, a benefit for ole Prime Time. For instance, Sanders, who, before three years ago, had never coached anywhere beyond high school offensive coordinator where he led his sons at their school, took the head coaching job at Jackson State, an historically Black university in Mississippi. His three seasons in Jackson brought two conference championships and badly needed attention to the Tiger program in particular and Black college football in general. With his magnetism and charisma, Sanders could have taken Jackson State and HBCU football to heights not seen in decades, something he hinted at doing when he arrived. Instead, he bolted for the higher profile and higher paying job at Colorado. There's no harm in a person reaching for a better personal situation, per se. And since arriving in Boulder, Sanders has reportedly enriched the Colorado coffers there to the tune of an estimated $45 million in earned media, according to Front Office Sports. But it's how Sanders has done it that raises a few eyebrows. For one, Sanders took virtually all of the better players he recruited to Jackson State to Colorado, including his son, quarterback Shadeur, and five-star player Travis Hunter. On top of that, Sanders unapologetically cut loose many of the players who were already in Boulder, NFL style, while adding a college-high 29 players through the transfer portal. Absent Saturday's Oregon game where the Buffaloes were humiliated by the Ducks, Sanders has already posted three wins, two more than Colorado won all last year, always reminding anyone who will listen who's responsible for the upturn. You can't help wondering though whether the final Deion Sanders story at Colorado will truly be ready for prime time. And that's how I see it for this week. You can reach us via email with your questions and comments at Sports at Large at gmail.com. And follow me on Threads and X, formerly known as Twitter at Sports at Large. Until next week, for all of us here, I'm Milton Kent. Thanks for listening and enjoy the games.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Former baseball slugger Dick Allen once pithily said quote if a horse won't eat it, I don't want to play on it unquote, a reference to playing on artificial turf. It's a sentiment that made the rounds after quarterback Aaron Rodgers tore his Achilles tendon in the New York Jets' season opener against the Buffalo Bills. Rodgers, who went down four plays into the new season, his first with the Jets after 18 years in Green Bay, crumpled in a heap on the artificial turf of MetLife Stadium in the Meadowlands. Though there's no proof that what happened to Rodgers was caused by playing on the turf in New Jersey, cries of protest rose nearly immediately about the continued use of fake grass around the NFL. David Bakhtiari, a Green Bay lineman and former Rodgers teammate, offered a loud and profane criticism on Twitter. And after NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said in an interview, he believed some players preferred playing on turf over natural grass, Bakhtiari fired back, wondering quote What kind of toad poison is the commish smokin unquote. Let's assume for the sake of argument that Smilin' Roger hasn't been hitting the psychedelics. Indeed, Goodell went onto explain that while some players say they'd rather play on grass, others want artificial turf because it makes the game faster. It's been nearly 60 years since AstroTurf, the initial incarnation of artificial grass, was invented to allow games to play indoors at Houston's Astrodome, Later, the use was expanded to permit more northern climes like Minneapolis, Detroit and Seattle, where grass doesn't grow so well past September, to be able to have surfaces that were consistent. As the multi-purpose stadium came into vogue in places like Philadelphia, Pittsburgh and Cincinnati where football and baseball teams shared a facility and regular grass suffered under the wear and tear of near daily use, fake grass became more in vogue. The field composition was a row of plastic grass and an attempt at a cushion atop what was essentially concrete. The result wreaked havoc on players, leaving a rash of rug burns, knee injuries and the premature end of several promising careers. And, to what end? Well, if you said cost containment, you win the bonus prize. Maintaining a field with fake grass is a whole lot cheaper than the real stuff, especially for indoor stadiums, because, as a homeowner will tell you, the real stuff goes brown in the fall and winter. Half of the 32 NFL teams play on turf, as opposed to just five of 30 Major League Baseball clubs. The likely reason is because NFL owners need to maximize revenue by adding more events to their stadiums beyond the 10 games. Turf fields help facilitate that process, even as the league rakes in record profits. But there are ways to achieve both, Take the Arizona Cardinals' domed stadium in Glendale, where the grass is grown in trays and rolled indoors for play. Making a similar move around the league would be a kind gesture on the part of NFL owners. And if you think that will happen, then you're probably smoking some toad poison, too. And that's how I see it for this week. You can reach us via email with your questions and comments at Sports at Large at gmail.com. And follow me on Threads and Twitter at Sports at Large. Until next week, for all of us here, I'm Milton Kent. Thanks for listening and enjoy the games.   https://www.si.com/nfl/2023/09/13/mailbag-grass-turf-debate-injury-rodgers-jetsSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In a sport like football that takes itself way too seriously, there is no place more sacrosanct than the position room. It's the place where players who play the same position and the specific coaches who lead them congregate to contemplate in the days leading up to that week's holy war. For the Ravens, who opened their 2023 season Sunday against the Houston Texans, their quarterbacks room looked different than any other quarterbacks room in the 103-year history of the National Football League. In that room are quarterbacks coach Tee Martin, assistant quarterbacks coach Kerry Dixon and signal callers Lamar Jackson, Tyler Huntley and Josh Johnson. The three players and the men who coach them are the pulse points of the most important position on the football field. That they are all Black is not insignificant. Sports sell themselves as meritocracies, where the only qualifications for success are that you be faster or stronger or occasionally smarter than your opponent. And no sport sells its alleged equality more than football, which regularly wraps itself in the American flag. It is the most popular American sport, by far, yet also the sport that has been the slowest to embrace racial progress. Football teams, be they collegiate or professional, have been glacier-like in moving to hire coaches of color. And until recently, the numbers of Black quarterbacks at either level have laughably low. But the times are changing. More Black young men are lining up behind center at major colleges than ever. And a record 14 Black quarterbacks started in this weekend's season opening NFL games. That's important, because of the prominence the position carries. It's the glamour spot of athletics, the most visible and highest profile place to be in all of American sports. And it has traditionally been dominated by White men, from Otto Graham and Sid Luckman in the early days through Johnny Unitas, Joe Montana and Terry Bradshaw in the middle to Tom Brady more recently, the story of the NFL has historically been told through players of a certain color. These days, the highest profile quarterbacks are Patrick Mahomes, the two-time Super Bowl winner from Kansas City, Philadelphia's Jalen Hurts, whose Eagles were bested by Mahomes last February in the Super Bowl and the Ravens' Lamar Jackson. Jackson, who signed a monster five-year contract in the offseason after much hemming and hawing, is one of only two players in NFL history to win the Most Valuable Player trophy unanimously, Brady being the other. His ability to maneuver through traffic has made him one of the dynamic figures to watch in the league. That Lamar Jackson is coached by two Black men and backed up by two others is a big deal. It's presumably the first time in league history that a quarterback room has been completely filled by Black men. The moment was so meaningful that the Ravens sent out a photo of the five without much comment. For 2023, the Baltimore quarterback room will be the room where it happens. And that's how I see it for this week. You can reach us via email with your questions and comments at Sports at Large at gmail.com. And follow me on Twitter and Threads at Sports at Large. Until next week, for all of us here, I'm Milton Kent. Thanks for listening and enjoy the games.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Of all the places one might expect to go for absolution, it's a fair bet that a volleyball match would be fairly low on the list. Yet, that's exactly what happened last Wednesday at the University of Nebraska's Memorial Stadium, though hardly any of the more than 92,000 people in the house realized that was what was happening at the time. All they wanted was to see their beloved Cornhuskers play host to Omaha. And they got that, as five-time national champion Nebraska won in three sets. But the crowd – the largest ever to see a women's sporting event anywhere on Earth – did more than take in a volleyball match. For one magical night, those players and that crowd helped in some small measure restore a note of nobility to college athletics, an industry sorely in need of cleansing. In case you hadn't heard – and if you haven't, you haven't been paying attention – the state of college sports resembles nothing less than a cesspool these days. From one corner of the nation to the other, long-time relationships and commitments are being torn asunder all in the name of money, which seems to run afoul of the lofty goals we ascribe to the hallowed halls of academia. In the latest chapter of the sad tale that college sports has woven in recent years, the University of California at Berkeley and Stanford, having been cast adrift by eight members of the Pac-12 Conference, jumped aboard the Atlantic Coast Conference for admittance next year. You heard correctly. Two San Francisco Bay area schools with outstanding academic reputations, as well as Southern Methodist University in Dallas joined an association of schools that are mostly within a three-hour drive of the Atlantic Ocean. While Stanford and Cal are compatible academically with schools like Virginia, North Carolina, Duke and Georgia Tech, they have nothing in common with them geographically. Yet, in the world that college athletics have devolved into, Bears and Cardinal and Cavaliers and Tar Heels and Blue Devils and Yellow Jackets are all neighbors. Into that morass stepped the Nebraska-Omaha volleyball match. The Cornhusker program has been one of the shining jewels of college sports for decades. In 46 years, the Nebraska volleyball team has racked up over 1,350 wins, with 34 conference titles and those aforementioned five national championships. It's a legacy of achievement that sets the women of Lincoln apart. And while those women have tasted success at the highest level of their sport and booming attendance at their indoor facility, the one thing they haven't known is the feeling their football brethren have experienced regularly. That would be the Tunnel Walk into the bowl of Memorial Stadium in Lincoln having 83,000, the stadium's capacity, all clad in Nebraska red, screaming on their behalf. And so they did, only the volleyball team was able to do the football squad 9,000 better, as temporary seats were placed on the field to boost the capacity higher. College athletics has a long way to go to restore normalcy and decency after the cash grabs of the last few years. But for one warm August night in 2023, a big house on the prairie played host to a little dignity. And that's how I see it for this week. You can reach us via email with your questions and comments at Sports at Large at gmail.com. And follow me on Threads and Twitter at Sports at Large. Until next week, for all of us here, I'm Milton Kent. Thanks for listening and enjoy the games.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Dear John Angelos, How ya doing? Seriously, how are you feeling these days? It doesn't stink to be you, lately, not by a longshot. And yet, you seem to be doing your best Eyesore impersonation by casting a pall on the situation, publicly and apparently privately. In theory, it must be great to be the CEO of the Baltimore Orioles. Your team is the toast of the baseball world, riding high atop the toughest division in the game and you are a pen stroke away from $600 million in state funds. But while every Orioles fan is breathlessly awaiting a playoff run in October, he or she is also anxiously waiting for you to sign a new long term lease that binds the Birds to Camden Yards well into the future. You let the first deadline to sign a five-year extension pass in February, theoretically, to continue negotiating with the Maryland Stadium Authority. The current lease expires December 31 and you can take the team anywhere you want after that. Surely you know, John, that sports fans in this town have a particular paranoia, entirely justified, when it comes to their teams coming and going. They've watched the Bullets and Colts bolt Baltimore for other locales, leaving the city high and dry. It's the hook of civic pride your father, Peter, used 30 years ago when he convened a group to buy the Orioles out of bankruptcy court from Eli Jacobs. The idea was that a group of Baltimore-based investors would do everything it could to keep their Birds here. Perhaps it's to keep leverage that is keeping you from signing a lease that would do just that. Of course, saying that doesn't give you the benefit of the doubt, but then, you haven't done or said much recently to earn that. To wit, you reportedly held up negotiations to get a more favorable partner, namely the new governor, Wes Moore, your buddy, to whose campaign you made a sizable contribution. In January and again during spring training, you promised to open the team's books so the public could assess the Orioles' financial situation, the one where the team's payroll is $70 million, 28th out of 30 Major League clubs. That hasn't happened, yet, you told the New York Times last week that a team should quote live within your means and within your market unquote. You added that without favorable financial terms, the Orioles would have to raise prices dramatically to keep young stars like Adley Rutschman or Gunnar Henderson. What you've left out is that the Orioles took in $264 million in revenues last year, according to Statista. Yes, it's dramatically less than the Yankees and Red Sox, their Eastern Division rivals, but not exactly chopped liver. Those numbers are bound to rise this year, what with higher attendance, which leads to more ticket revenue. And a new lease would bring an infusion of those state funds to renovate Camden Yards. Let me close this letter with a few words of friendly advice: Do us all a favor. Sign the lease. And if that's not enough to get you feeling better, take the next step: Sell the club. It will relieve stress on everyone, most of all you. And that's how I see it for this week. You can reach us via email with your questions and comments at Sports at Large at gmail.com. And follow me on Threads and Twitter at Sports at Large. Until next week, for all of us here, I'm Milton Kent. Thanks for listening and enjoy the games.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

For many, this time of the year brings on memories of joyful times, of camaraderie with like-minded kids, of days spent under the bright summer sun in blissful play. We're speaking of Little League baseball. In any town or city, there was the coach, invariably a parent endowed with the patience of a saint as he tried to teach easily distracted kids the basics of a game that often befuddles adults. Then there were the kids of all shapes, sizes and abilities, some taking the contest super seriously, while others muddled through following butterflies and waiting for the post-game pizza and ice cream. And then there were the hats and uniforms, usually ill-fitting but proudly supplied by a local hardware store or drug store owner, eager to merge civic pride with a bit of advertising. And if all the stars aligned, your local club could make their way to the Little League World Series in Williamsport, Pa., where they might get the chance to play a group of kids from across the globe for a peek into the ideals of childhood. Not to get all Norman Rockwell here, but if you've seen what Little League baseball has become, it's easy to yearn for those good old simpler times. Now some of the changes have been for the better. There are, for instance, reasonable restrictions on the number of times and days a pitcher can pitch, so as not to exploit or harm young arms. And one of the best changes is that little girls can fully access the field of dreams just like little boys. Nine years ago, Mo'Ne Davis, a 13-year-old from Philadelphia, took the country by storm when she became the first girl to win a game and throw a shutout in the Little League World Series. Last week, 12-year-old Stella Weaver of suburban Nashville became only the second girl ever to score a run during the World Series. But all the breezes of change that have swept through Little League baseball are overshadowed by the tornados of upheaval that have shaken the game to its core. We all should have learned lessons from the 2001 scandal where a supposedly 12-year-old from the Bronx named Danny Almonte shaved two years off his age, with the help of his father and coach, But, according to the Washington Post, the message of doing whatever it takes to get ahead, still holds sway. The Post reported that a pair of attorneys have alleged that the coach of a Northwest Washington Little League team has lied to parents, officials and other coaches about the eligibility of kids while attempting to poach some of the best players for his league. The coach, who has coached and umpired in D.C. for over 30 years, strenuously denies the allegations. The Northwest team was eliminated short of reaching Williamsburg, but the fame and attention now attached to what was once just a kid's game make it likely we haven't seen the last Danny Almonte or his like. And that's how I see it for this week. You can reach us via email with your questions and comments at Sports at Large at gmail.com. And follow me on Threads and Twitter at Sports at Large. Until next week, for all of us here, I'm Milton Kent. Thanks for listening and enjoy the games.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

It takes a special quality to thumb your nose at a city, a state and a culture to hold out for just what you want just the way you want it. Call it persistence. Call it self-confidence. Call it arrogance. Whatever it is, Orioles CEO John Angelos has it in abundance. That quality has been on display for quite some time in the Angelos family, John's father, Peter, a supremely gifted attorney and the longtime chairman of the Orioles, never suffered fools gladly. Peter Angelos made it clear that during his working life and in his time as the chief executive of the Orioles that he knew what he wanted and would do what it took to get it, even at the expense of his image. I witnessed it first-hand 27 years ago when the contract of Orioles radio announcer Jon Miller was coming to an end. Miller, who is on the short list of the most gifted play-by-play men in baseball broadcast history, was beloved in this city and dearly wanted to stay. But Peter Angelos decided that Miller's on-air work wasn't sycophantic enough. He told me that he wanted Miller to quote bleed a little black and orange unquote, those being the Orioles' team colors. Miller bolted for San Francisco, where he has been ever since. His departure cast a pall over the reputation of all who have followed him in the booth. Flash forward to the present day where John Angelos is in charge. Another gifted Orioles announcer, Kevin Brown, apparently ran afoul of the boss Bird by having the temerity to express that the team hadn't played well recently in Tampa and with facts to back it up. For that, he was suspended for two weeks. We say apparently because, unlike his father, John Angelos didn't step forward to claim his handiwork, leaving it for others to surmise, given the family history, that he was offended by Brown's trip to the land of truthfulness. The team's attempt to stifle honest dialogue, though universally condemned in and out of town, could have been waived away as, well, just weird if not for revelations about the ongoing negotiations to get the Birds to commit to Baltimore long term. The city's major newspapers traded reporting about dealings between John Angelos and the Maryland Stadium Authority, which owns Oriole Park. First, the Baltimore Sun reported that John Angelos halted negotiations until the new Maryland governor, Wes Moore, took office in January. The clear implication was that Moore, who received campaign contributions from John Angelos, would treat the club more fairly. The paper later added that Thomas Kelso, the former stadium authority director, accused Angelos and Moore of keeping him in the dark about negotiations. The Baltimore Banner reported that John Angelos has tried to extract more money as well as land from the state above the $600 million the club will get in bonds for stadium renovations once it signs a long term lease. If the Orioles sign a new lease before the December 31 expiration date, all of this may be forgotten. But history suggests that John Angelos probably isn't done putting into practice the lessons he's learned from his father. And that's how I see it for this week. You can reach us via email with your questions and comments at Sports at Large at gmail.com. And follow me on Threads and Twitter at Sports at Large. Until next week, for all of us here, I'm Milton Kent. Thanks for listening and enjoy the games.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Greed, duplicity, betrayal and treachery. Sounds like the plot of a summer blockbuster movie or a Robert B. Parker mystery novel. That and the latest chapter of “As College Sports Turns.” In a breathtaking span of roughly 24 hours last Thursday and Friday, five schools, the universities of Oregon, Washington, Utah and Arizona and Arizona State University all bolted from their moorings in the Pac-12 Conference for new homes. Utah, Arizona and Arizona State landed in the Big 12, an amalgam of schools scattered across the country from Morgantown, West Virginia southward to Orlando and westward through Texas and into Provo, Utah. Their migration follows, by a week, Colorado's move to the Big 12 from the PAC-12. Meanwhile, Oregon and Washington, who were founding members of what was the Pacific Coast Conference in 1915, tossed 108 years of history aside to become the 17th and 18th members of the Big Ten. That means that as of next August, college athletes from Seattle and Eugene, Oregon, will be playing games in College Park and Piscataway, N.J. And vice versa. If none of this makes sense to you, welcome to the wonderland world of college sports, where down is up, left is right and longtime alliances can be dashed at the drop of a hat and at the pursuit of a penny. And make no mistake: Every single move that has happened in college sports going back nearly 40 years to when the Supreme Court lifted the restrictions on the number of times a school can appear on television has taken place for two reasons: money and football. Actually, those two go together like a horse and carriage, though it's hard to know these days which drives the other. Well, that's not entirely true. Television and its zeal to present football, the biggest money maker in all of sports, to as many eyeballs as possible, are what has fueled this unholy and relentless move of schools to ignore traditional coalitions and basic geography. This wave of conference relocations, which will bring Southern California and UCLA to the Big Ten next year is just the latest in a series of moves that included taking Maryland out its 60-year home in the Atlantic Coast Conference nine years ago. In a cold cost-benefit look at the moves, it's hard to argue that the universities are wrong. The passel of television contracts that will bring Saturday Big Ten football to FOX, CBS and NBC this fall will pay the league more than $1 billion annually. That comes out to between $80 and $100 million per school per year, giving Big Ten universities a tremendous advantage over the rest of the field. Indeed, officials at Florida State have talked to an investment firm about creating a private equity fund so that that school can keep up. Lost in all this is what happens to non-football athletes, who will see their experiences, in and out of the classroom, debauched to provide television programming for zealous football fans. The future for them and for the schools left in the wake of this naked money grab feels less like a rom-com and more like a horror show. And that's how I see it for this week. You can reach us via email with your questions and comments at Sports at Large at gmail.com. And follow me on Threads and Twitter at Sports at Large Until next week, for all of us here, I'm Milton Kent. Thanks for listening and enjoy the games.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

We're six weeks away from the start of a new NFL campaign, but we may already have identified the big winners of the pending professional football season. That would be the Washington Commanders and their fans, who have emerged from a nearly quarter century of masochistic behavior. Under the stewardship of Daniel Snyder, the Washington franchise, under its current name and the racially insensitive previous one, careened from one misstep to another. On the field, the Commanders won just under half their games from 1999 on. They reached the playoffs only six times during that period and finished last in average attendance, even after they pared down the size of their Landover stadium. However, it was off the field where Snyder's organization ran far afield from the standards of decency. Investigations conducted by news organizations and the NFL itself found that Snyder and people connected to the team engaged in conduct that either tolerated or flat out promoted sexual harassment. Results of the league's probe were released two years ago and called the Washington workplace toxic and unprofessional. Snyder was forced to step away from daily management of the team for a time and the organization was fined $10 million. Through Congressional hearings, lawsuits and reports that Snyder collected information on other owners and Commissioner Roger Goodell to try to hold on to the team, the drumbeat for him to relinquish control grew louder and louder. However, it wasn't until reports that Snyder may have withheld revenue from the league surfaced that the push to get him out got serious. Josh Harris, the principal owner of the Philadelphia 76ers of the NBA and the NHL's New Jersey Devils, convened an investor group and made an offer of just over $6 billion to Snyder, a price 7.5 times the $800 million that was paid in 1999. When the sale became official a couple of weeks ago, you'd have thought normally staid Washington had become Endor, the forest moon where the rebels defeated the empire in the Star Wars saga. On Snyder's way out, the league released a report chronicling sexual harassment and financial irregularities. He was slapped with a record $60 million fine, a pittance compared to what he got for the team, but it's not nothing. In the two weeks since the sale, Harris and his investment group, which includes NBA legend Earvin Magic Johnson, have set about trying to restore the Commanders' reputation in the D.C. community and beyond. Last week, the front office barred a pair of local radio announcers who demeaned a female TV reporter attempting to cover the team's training camp. They called the woman Barbie and insinuated that she was there as a cheerleader. Through the ban, the team immediately served notice that things would be different now that Snyder's gone. At the same time, Harris and Johnson suggested that they'd be amenable to restoring the previous team nickname, one that many Native American groups labored long and mightily to remove. After so many years of losing, the Commanders may still need a little while longer to learn how to win. And that's how I see it for this week. You can reach us via email with your questions and comments at Sports at Large at gmail.com. And follow me on Threads and Twitter at Sports at Large. Until next week, for all of us here, I'm Milton Kent. Thanks for listening and enjoy the games.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

So, what does $260 million get you? We're about to find out, now that Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson has signed a new contract to remain arguably the most beloved figure in Charm City for at least the next five years. Jackson, who announced his deal Thursday in a social media post, is sitting theoretically atop the heap in the NFL world, where he has become the highest paid player for the moment, pending the next quarterback signing. But it's how Jackson and his new contract play in Baltimore that is the most important part of this soap opera. And make no mistake, the last few months have been a page right out of “Succession” or “Gray's Anatomy” or name your favorite drama with offers and counteroffers and negotiation, all largely played out of the public view. That made for a world of speculation and hurt feelings. That's usually the case in a high-profile, high-stakes negotiation and the Ravens and Jackson will have some fence-mending to do in the near term. Jackson, who reportedly sought a five-year, fully guaranteed contract, didn't get that, as only $185 million of the pact is assured. Yes, I acknowledge the obscenity of such a phrase to folks who deserve so much more than they receive in their respective workplaces, but that's an argument for another day. At any rate, the Ravens' front office and coaches will have to convince Jackson that he has a value above his price tag, that they believe he can guide the franchise to the third Super Bowl title in its history. Towards that end, general manager Eric DeCosta and head coach John Harbaugh have welcomed Todd Monken, a new offensive coordinator, who will direct the Baltimore attack in a pass-friendly direction. That should showcase Jackson's ability to throw and take the pressure off him to make things happen by running. The team added celebrated wide receiver Odell Beckham, Jr. and took Boston College's Zay Flowers in the first round of last week's collegiate draft, all apparently to make the team more explosive and presumably to make Jackson feel better. And that's important, because from all appearances, Jackson's feelings were bruised in the two years that he and the team negotiated on this deal. The former unanimous MVP and Heisman Trophy winner reportedly asked for a trade after the season. Money may salve some wounds, but it remains to be seen how much bruising Jackson's ego took in the process. But the Ravens aren't the only party that needs to do some fence mending. Jackson has missed large chunks of the last two seasons with injuries. Many wondered if Jackson sat to protect his financial future, thus placing his needs ahead of the team's. In a city that likes its sports heroes to be of the blue collar, always hard at work variety, Jackson's reputation has taken a bit of a hit and it's incumbent on him to remove whatever stink remains with the fanbase. Hall of Fame coach John Madden once said winning is the best deodorant, and that may be the case with Lamar Jackson. Admittedly, he may be asked to work miracles, but Baltimoreans now have 260 million reasons to make the request. And that's how I see it for this week. You can reach us via email with your questions and comments at Sports at Large at gmail.com. And follow me on Twitter at Sports at Large. Until next week, for all of us here, I'm Milton Kent. Thanks for listening and enjoy the games.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

You're not likely to find the words of English poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge hanging in the lockers of professional athletes now or ever. But the line “Water, water everywhere, nor any drop to drink” from Coleridge's poem “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner,” is quite applicable to the situation that is endemic in American sports these days. Everywhere you turn, you're going to see some reference to legalized sports betting and it ain't subtle. Sometimes, it's commercials between innings and during timeouts. These days, you're just as likely to see comedian Kevin Hart barking in one gambling ad than you are, say, LeBron James or Adley Rutschman. In other instances, it might be announcer references to betting odds or point spreads during the game. In some cases, the allusion to gambling is right there on the court or on the field, so you don't miss the Invitation to lay down a bet or two or three or a hundred. Yet, while all this wagering is going on, the men and women who make it possible, the athletes are barred from taking part in it. Indeed, the NFL laid down indefinite suspensions against three players – Shaka Toney of the Washington Commanders and Quintez Cephus and C.J Moore both of the Detroit Lions – for betting on NFL games. The league also suspended two other Detroit players, Stanley Berryhill and Jameson Williams for six games each for gambling on non-NFL games. Cephus and Moore, who were both cut by the Lions Friday, are the fourth and fifth NFL players to draw bans of at least a year in the past four years for wagering on football games. This is in keeping with the hard line drawn by NFL Commissioner Smilin Roger Goodell, who said 10 years ago quote “The N.F.L. cannot be compensated in damages for the harm that sports gambling poses to the goodwill, character and integrity of N.F.L. football unquote. That's when the NFL was lobbying Congress to pass legislation barring legalized sports gambling. However, once the Supreme Court gave its stamp of approval to wagering in 2018, all bets were off, so to speak. To demonstrate the pretzel logic the NFL has displayed on gambling, consider that Josh Shaw, one of the players who drew a lengthy suspension back in 2019 was cut from the Arizona Cardinals. Shaw has not played since he was suspended. Meanwhile, a sports book operates at State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Arizona, the place where, you guessed it, the Cardinals play. The NFL and Goodell are so concerned about the pernicious influence that gambling can have on football that they not only have a team, the Raiders, operating in the capital of gambling, Las Vegas, but next February's Super Bowl, the holiest day on the American sports calendar, will be played in Vegas. Goodell and his commissioner cronies have every right to be alarmed about the image of athletes laying down bets on games they're involved in, though there's no evidence that happened in last week's suspensions. But as long as the leagues take the Claude Rains approach to gambling, they can't be shocked, shocked that the players want some of the action. And that's how I see it for this week. You can reach us via email with your questions and comments at Sports at Large at gmail.com. And follow me on Twitter at Sports at Large. Until next week, for all of us here, I'm Milton Kent. Thanks for listening and enjoy the games.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Pick your favorite movie scene of good triumphing over bad, whether it be the death of the Wicked Witch of the West in either the Wizard of Oz or the Wiz or the destruction of the death star in Return of the Jedi. None of those likely compares to the elation felt by fans of the Washington Commanders of the NFL upon the news that a great evil is about to be purged from their midst. Word leaked last week that Commanders owner Daniel Snyder has agreed in principle to sell the team, thus bringing to a close one of the most ignominious eras in sports history. In the 24 years since Snyder bought the team from the estate of Jack Kent Cooke, the Commanders franchise, which previously operated under a moniker which was a slur to Native Americans, was poorly run. In the Snyder era, the team has reached the playoffs six times and has won 10 games in a season only three times. The team has employed 10 head coaches in that time and has failed to reach, much less win, the Super Bowl. The Commanders' record of 164 wins and 220 losses during Daniel Snyder's stewardship is 27th best in the NFL. The team's average attendance at their moribund stadium just off the Capital Beltway was the worst in the league last year. By comparison, during that same span,, the Ravens have won 10 games in a season 13 times and gone to the playoffs 14 times with a pair of world championships and only two head coaches. It's not just on the field where the Snyder-led Commanders have been abysmal. Over the last nearly quarter of a century, Daniel Snyder and his underlings have reportedly been part of some of the most reprehensible conduct attributed to an NFL team – and that's saying something. Among the greatest hits: the club allegedly cheated season ticket holders out of their security deposits and is being sued by the District of Columbia's attorney general over the allegation. Most significantly, Snyder and some of his executives have been accused by former employees of sexual misconduct and harassment. The NFL reportedly has investigated the charges and levied a $10 million fine against the franchise, but has so far declined to release a report of the investigation. Indeed, as part of his exit strategy, Snyder is said to want to be indemnified against any and all claims against him while he was Commanders owner. At any rate, Snyder may be out by the end of May, and with a $6 billion parachute, which would be nearly eight times the $800 million he paid for the team in 1999. That paycheck would be courtesy of Josh Harris, a billionaire who owns the Philadelphia 76ers of the NBA and the New Jersey Devils of the NHL and leads a purchasing group that includes NBA legend Magic Johnson. The sale, which needs approval of 24 of the 32 NFL franchises, has to be finalized, but when it is completed, one of the truly bad people in ownership will be out of the game for good. And that's how I see it for this week. You can reach us via email with your questions and comments at Sports at Large at gmail.com. And follow me on Twitter at Sports at Large. Until next week, for all of us here, I'm Milton Kent. Thanks for listening and enjoy the games.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

More than 10 million people tuned into last week's NCAA Division I women's basketball championship game between Iowa and LSU. For many, what they saw was a bit of a revelation. They saw young women like Iowa's Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese of LSU, play basketball at its highest level, exhibiting shot making and athleticism to a degree only dreamed about when women first started playing the game in the early 20th century. They also saw something likely not imagined back in those early days of peach baskets and courts divided into third: the exuberance and cockiness of Clark and Reese and their teammates. Throughout the season, Clark, who was among the nation's leaders in scoring and assists, gesticulated to crowds and at opponents, most frequently paying an homage to wrestler Jon Cena by waving her hand in front of her face, taking to mean ‘you can't see me.' So, late in last Sunday's contest, with the game no longer in doubt, Reese, a Baltimore native, returned Clark's gesture at her, following her around the court for a few seconds. Then, Reese added a twist, pointing to her ring finger, the place where her championship jewelry would eventually go. It was the ultimate in your face moment, and touched off a torrent of attacks aimed at Reese, who is Black, as social media commentators called her trash and worse. Reese's supporters, who see the criticism in racial terms, are entirely right in that perspective. Angel Reese or any other player of color should be able to wave and taunt and humiliate an opponent the same way Caitlin Clark or any White player does. Indeed, in the week after the game, Clark took pains to say she was not offended by what Reese did and felt any criticism of her fellow junior was unwarranted. She's right, of course, but in this case, two things can be true at the same time. Yes, players of all ethnicities should be free to conduct themselves as they please, but maybe, just maybe, they shouldn't want to. There's nothing necessarily wrong with finding whatever it takes to get yourself motivated to play a game, particularly at the level that Reese and Clark play at. But, as quaint as it may sound, the game, whether it's basketball or football or a backyard whiffle ball contest is bigger than any one contestant. Or at least it should be. There's nothing wrong with expressing oneself, but that self-congratulation should come in an athletic contest within the context of the game. No one who saw Angel Reese set a record for most double-doubles or who watched Caitlin Clark score 41 points in successive tournament games will forget that. Shouldn't that be enough? And make no mistake, this isn't a misogynistic take. Watching men flex and preen and stop to admire their individual achievements in team contests is just as off-putting as watching women do it. It is true that every dog has his day. Athletes ought to remember that especially for the time when the fire hydrant shoots back. And that's how I see it for this week. You can reach us via email with your questions and comments at Sports at Large at gmail.com. And follow me on Twitter at Sports at Large. Until next week, for all of us here, I'm Milton Kent. Thanks for listening and enjoy the games.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The skills required to be a university president or athletic director must include effective administration, fundraising and glad handling of alums and boosters. Apparently, stand-up comedian must also be on the list or should be. That's the takeaway from the New York Times op-ed from John Jenkins, Notre Dame's president and Jack Swarbrick, the athletic director last Thursday. Admittedly, neither Jenkins nor Swarbrick intended their piece to be hilarious. It just ended up that way, as the pair tried to defend the indefensible. The two men essentially argue for a continuation of college sports the way it used to be, when everyone was happy and content with merely receiving a scholarship and a letter jacket for their efforts. The Notre Dame pair called on the federal government to give colleges the power to keep the scholarship system in place without having to pay athletes a wage besides room and board, books and fees, an idea that Charles Barkley pilloried during an NCAA tournament broadcast. They want the quote student-athlete unquote to maintain closer ties to the university community at large, limiting, for instance, the number of days players can be away from campus, as well as mandating more interaction with the classroom, dining hall and dorms. In the op-ed, Swarbrick and Jenkins say that permitting athletes to monetize their names, likenesses and images is a good thing, but nonetheless call for the NCAA to crackdown on potential abuses. And they also floated the idea that if schools have to pay athletes in the sports that generate revenue, namely football and men's basketball, they may stop offering the non-revenue sports, which is namely everything else, including women's sports. One could almost empathize with Jenkins and Swarbrick – almost, that is – until you consider the way things are. Let's take Notre Dame, for instance. According to the Athletic sports news website, the school reported over $215 million in athletic revenue to the federal Department of Education for the 2021-22 school year. Of that, nearly $140 million comes from football. And unlike schools like Maryland that split television money with other members of a conference, Notre Dame, which has assiduously held on to its football independence, has its own deal with NBC to televise home football games. And the program will get more money when new college football television deals are struck in the next few seasons. Notre Dame offers 24 varsity sports, but has not added a new sport since 1997, meaning it has not borne the additional cost of new sports and athletes in 25 years. While many schools are struggling to maintain athletic solvency, it is a problem largely of their own making. Paying coaches eight figure salaries and maintaining overly bloated staffs has nothing to do with the players. To their credit, Jenkins and Swarbrick support a medical trust fund to help athletes who get hurt in service to dear old alma mater. And they think schools should let players who go pro be able to come back at the schools' expense. But until colleges and universities do what's right for the young people who put those schools on the map, all the talk from presidents and athletic directors is just a cruel joke. And no one's laughing. And that's how I see it for this week. You can reach us via email with your questions and comments at Sports at Large at gmail.com. And follow me on Twitter at Sports at Large. Until next week, for all of us to here, I'm Milton Kent. Thanks for listening and enjoy the games.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Maryland's new governor is wasting no time establishing himself as the state's fan-in-chief. Last Friday, there was Wes Moore with his wife, Dawn, and their kids at the Maryland women's basketball team's first round NCAA tournament game against Holy Cross. After the game, Moore and his family made their way into the Terps' locker room, where he proclaimed that the team was quote making us all proud unquote, adding that quote the whole state is going to go on this ride with you unquote. While that visit to College Park was undoubtedly significant, it frankly paled in comparison to a trip Moore made out of state earlier in the month. In his first foray out of Maryland as governor, Moore went to the Atlanta area to take a tour of the Braves' six-year-old stadium complex. Accompanied by Orioles' chairman John Angelos and Craig Thompson, the new chair of the Maryland Stadium Authority, Moore looked around the Braves' facility. He also got a look at an adjacent development with restaurants, shops and a music venue. It's believed that that area, called the Battery, is a model for what Angelos wants the space around Camden Yards to look like. Angelos reportedly wants to develop the area around the park into an entertainment area and the stadium authority can borrow up to $1.2 billion in bonds for stadium improvements including presumably for projects like this. There is a catch, however. The bonds can only be borrowed if the Orioles and Ravens each sign long term leases for their respective taxpayer-owned facilities. The Ravens have ponied up for 15 years in January, leaving the Orioles to sign. Angelos has publicly said that the club will not leave Baltimore, but last month, the club missed an opportunity to extend their lease by five years. The lease expires at the end of the season. Giving Angelos the benefit of the doubt that the Orioles will stay, we are left to wonder what the holdup is. Could it be that the team is attempting to wring every possible dollar out of the ballpark that is the model facility in Major League Baseball? Well, there's word that the club is shopping out naming rights to Oriole Park, presumably to affix a corporate moniker on a facility that has gone without since it opened in 1992. Add that to the 37 years the Birds played at Memorial Stadium and it would be 68 seasons that a Baltimore baseball team has operated at a ballpark that didn't have a bank or internet company or insurance firm on its marquee. While the Orioles have every right to a profit, that right comes with an obligation to fans to put some of those dollars back into the team. Don't forget that the Orioles paid less in salary to players on their roster last year than pitcher Max Scherzer alone received from the New York Mets. This despite receiving significant income from the TV channel they hold a majority stake in. If nothing else, when it comes to the Orioles, Wes Moore needs to be less fan in chief and more chief watchdog, ensuring fans and taxpayers get more bang for their bucks. And that's how I see it for this week. You can reach us via email with your questions and comments at Sports at Large at gmail.com. And follow me on Twitter at Sports at Large. Until next week, for all of us here, I'm Milton Kent. Thanks for listening and enjoy the games.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Lamar Jackson is betting big on himself. Will he roll sevens or snake eyes?See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Serena Williams exits the stage in Grand Slam fashion.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

St. Frances' program doesn't look like any high school program you've ever seen.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Ravens GM Eric DeCosta has a big money decision to make over Lamar Jackson.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Now that the NFL has scrapped race norming, Black players may finally get their due.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.