Are You Kidding Me?

Travis Henry, an NFL player has been arrested on federal drug charges. You can read about it here.

Are you kidding me?

Unbelievable

If you haven't been following the story this week, a senior football player at Fernley High School has gotten himself in a spot of trouble. He held a press conference and announced that he was going to sign a letter of intent to play at the University of California-Berkley.

Fantastic news for him, right?

No.

Upon hearing about the player's commitment, different recruiting services and universities he named in his recruiting process began asking questions.

Why?

The Cal Bears had never recruited this player. 

After the questions were raised, the player claimed that he had a paid a recruiter--a middle man between the player and schools--to help him get a scholarship. As the investigation continued, a bombshell was dropped:

The player made up the entire story.

You can read about it here.

Braylon Edwards Gives Back

Braylon Edwards, a football player for the Cleveland Browns, has announced he is creating $1,000,000 worth of scholarships through his foundation for inner-city youth. This announcement follows a previous pledge to donate $500,000 to the University of Michigan, where he played college football.

You can read the article here.

Isn't that a much nicer story than hearing about Ron Artest beating his wife or Adam 'Pacman' Jones causing a gunfight at stripclub?

Those Aren't Mine Baby...Honestly...

In the saga of Barry Bonds, a new chapter has unfolded. A recent report shows Bonds tested positive for amphetamines last season. When confronted about the positive test, Bonds replied it was due to a substance he had taken from his teammate's (Mark Sweeney) locker.

What substance could he possibly have borrowed? "Um, excuse me Mark. May I borrow this unknown cream?"

He's under investigation for pejury, he's tested positive for amphetamines, he's under investigation for cheating on his taxes, and he has cheated on his wife.

Tell me again why the public cheers for this guy? Oh, that's right. He can hit a baseball really far. Oh, now I remember. 734 and counting...

Signs of the Apocalypse Part II

Sports Illustrated recently released a salary report for all teams in the NBA. You can read about it here.

The total team payroll for 2006-2007 season is $1,937,265,735. That's right! Over $1 billion dollars is being paid to NBA players for ONE season. Not counting the playoffs, there are 2,460 NBA games per season. That means payroll costs teams $787,506 per game. Or, $16,406 per minute of NBA action.

According to the list, the average team payroll in the NBA is $64,575,524. There are approximately 480 players in the NBA. That puts the average NBA salary at roughly over $4 million dollars per year.

The NBA's highest paid player is Kevin Garnett of the Minnesota Timberwolves who pulls down a staggering $21,000,000 per NBA season. If we only count the regular 82-game season, Garnett makes a whopping $256,097 per game. He has averaged 38.2 minutes during his NBA tenure; if that trend holds true for 2006-2007, Garnett will make $6,700 per minute this season.

To put all this salary talk into perspective, let's examine 2006-2007 salary reports for other professions:

Teacher: $47,000 per year
Architect: $56,000 per year
Attorney: $82,000 per year
Accountant: $39,000 per year
Nurse: $59,000 per year
Physician: $151,000 per year

So, what do you think? Are our priorities screwed up or what? David Stern, I think we have a problem.

Money, Money, Money

In sad news, it has been confirmed that the Chicago Cubs signed Alfonso Soriano to an 8-year, $136 million dollar contract.

That's right: $136 million dollars for 8 years. 96 months. 2920 days. 70,080 hours. 4,204,800 minutes. 252,288,000 seconds.

OR:

$17 million dollars per year. $1.41 million per month. $47,000 per day. $1958 per hour. $32 per minute. $.053 per second.

The Sign of the Times:

He makes more in a day than the average Washoe County School District teacher makes in a year.

Signs of the Apocalypse

In sad news, it has been confirmed that the Chicago Cubs signed Alfonso Soriano to an 8-year, $136 million dollar contract.

That's right: $136 million dollars for 8 years. 96 months. 2920 days. 70,080 hours. 4,204,800 minutes. 252,288,000 seconds.

OR:

$17 million dollars per year. $1.41 million per month. $47,000 per day. $1958 per hour. $32 per minute. $.053 per second.

The Sign of the Apocalypse:

He makes more in a day than the average Washoe County School District teacher makes in a year.

Insignificant Stat of the Week

I read this article tonight about Kobe Bryant. Apparently, he reached 17,000 points in his NBA career faster than anyone else in the league's history--28 years 86 days old.

C'mon. Where do statisticians come up with numbers like this? 17,000 points? 86 days?

Can we get any more arbitrary than considering 17,000 points as a milestone?

Yup. We sure can.

The Associated Press article lists other NBA players and their respective ages when the reached 17,000 points: Michael Jordan, Wilt Chamberlain, Oscar Robertson, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, and Shaquille O'Neal.

The article notes: "Chamberlain and Jordan did so at 28, but Chamberlain was 16 days older than Bryant and Jordan was 196 days older. Robertson, Abdul-Jabbar and O'Neal were all 29."

Whatever...wake me up when Larry Bird comes out of retirement.