Two lawsuits emerged this week alleging Dallas wide receiver Dez Bryant owes more than $850,000 from jewelry and tickets to sporting events purchased on credit, as well as unpaid loans. David Wells, adviser to Bryant, said Wednesday the Cowboys player wants to repay his massive debts. "We'll get them all settled and dealt with," Wells said Wednesday. "We want to move on, that's what we want to do. We're working on it."Wells said the experience has weighed on Bryant. The lockout between the NFL and the players' association is about to enter its third week. Because of these lawsuits,and run ins with mall security, the perception is that Bryant is struggling financially ,irresponsible and immature. Bryant made $2.8 million in base salary and bonuses this past season. He also received $50,000 from Under Armour and other income from personal appearances. Bryant is scheduled to receive a base salary of $1.1 million this year with a $1 million roster bonus. He can't receive the bonus until the lockout ends. He will receive his base salary over a 17-week span starting in September. He is by no means broke, but he is definitley living beyond his means.
Details emerged this week about rapper Foxy Brown's alleged temper tantrum aboard a Caribbean cruise with Tom Joyner this month .Passengers on the cruise told TMZ, Foxy set up a nail appointment on the cruise ship .She then proceeded to show up three hours late. They told Brown they couldn't accommodate her when she strolled in. Foxy went completely ballistic. According to sources, security removed her from the salon and sent her back to her room. She remained in her room under supervision for two days.When the ship dropped anchor somewhere in the Cayman Islands the authorities kicked her off. Foxy was then escorted to an airport and flown home. Foxy has had numerous run ins with beauty salon employees, neighbors and also served 8 months in prison. She has not had a hit record in about 15 years,but still feels that she is entitled to be treated like a "star".
You look at these two situation and say "What does one have to do with the other"? On the surface nothing, you have to look deeper. They are two sides of the same coin. Two self indulgent individuals,whose entire worldview is me, me, me. Before Dez Bryant caught an NFL pass, before he was even out of college, he was suspended his senior year of eligibility for lying about having dinner at Deon Sanders house. Now that in and of itself was not that bad. You add his run in with mall cops a week ago,and this wanting to shine before it's time,this could be BET movie. Both of these stories are cautionary tales of money and celebrity too early. Foxy caught a case,went deaf and now performs at proms.While still trying to"battle" Lil Kim. Let's hope Dez doesn't marry a blonde and move to Brentwood ,or try to make it rain during an illegal dogfight. Most of all let's hope he doesn't start rapping about "Must be the money".
Thursday, March 31, 2011
Wednesday, March 16, 2011
Give us free!!!
First an foremost I would like to send my prayers out to the people of Japan during this trying time.Now let's get right to it. Minnesota Vikings running back Adrian Petersen caught a case of "foot in mouth" disease the other day.While being interviewed by Doug Farrar of yahoo.com "Shutdown Corner" he stated that the current labor dispute going on between the NFL owners and Players was akin to "modern day slavery".Here is part of the exchange;
AP: We're business-minded, also. It's not just fun and games. A lot of football players, whether it's Sunday or Monday night — we're out there on the field, competing, hitting each other. But people don't see everything else behind it. It's a job for us, too — every day of the week. We're in different states, sometimes thousands of miles away from our families and kids, and a lot of people don't look at it like that.
SC: It's nothing that I haven't heard from other players, believe me.
AP: It's modern-day slavery, you know? People kind of laugh at that, but there are people working at regular jobs who get treated the same way, too.
I don't think he meant that literally in the context of braving The Middle Passage and working for tattered clothes and grits.I don't know the man, so I can't say.I will however wait for the inevitable apology and clarification. The thing is, he was not that far off. I had a conversation with a good friend of mine about his comment.This is a condensed version of of what he thought "Of course his comment was way off base. I mean, how can a millionaire use the word slavery? That doesn't even make sense. Look, these guys get paid millions of dollars to play a game. MILLIONS. so to infer that the players are slaves or they make slave wages or they are treated like slaves, or just even mention the thought of slavery is asinine. Remember, these players agreed to play this game.Nobody is forcing them to play".That has been the major consensus across the board. Quit crying and play!
Every year the best college football players are invited to the NFL Scouting Combine in Indiana.Executives, coaches, scouts and doctors from all 32 NFL teams conduct an intense, four-day job interview in advance of the NFL Draft. Here is a brief breakdown of the skills they measure The 40-yard dash which is about about speed, explosion and seeing who can run the fastest. The bench press is a test of strength and endurance .The vertical jump which is all about lower-body explosion and power. The athlete stands flat-footed and they measure his reach.These are just a few.They also administer the 50-question Wonderlic test to all prospects, the test’s supporters believe that it can measure how mentally prepared a player is to handle the NFL’s demands. A high score say 20 is considered average. The standard is closer to 25 for positions that require quick thought, such as quarterback.A high score can solidify a player as a can’t-miss draft pick. A low score is seen as a red flag that can overshadow a player’s physical ability.This is from a slave auction in 1859 .Replace "slaves" with "players" and "buyers" with "teams". "The slaves were brought in early so that buyers who desired to inspect them might enjoy that privilege, although none of them were sold at private sale. The slaves were examined with as little consideration as if they had been brutes indeed; the buyers pulling their mouths open to see their teeth, pinching their limbs to find how muscular they were, walking them up and down to detect any signs of lameness, making them stoop and bend in different ways that they might be certain there was no concealed rupture or wound; and in addition to all this treatment, asking them scores of questions relative to their qualifications and accomplishments."Hmmm... NFL Combine anyone??
I am by no means making light of Slavery at all.The correlation between the two cannot just be ignored, or written off as the ignorant ramblings of a spoiled athlete. Before free agency, players were treated like property/slaves. They could be traded(sold literally) to another team (plantation,)uprooted from wife,kids and a city they had grown accustomed too. They are paid handsomely to play a sport. Now for those saying "come work at my job",don't get mad at the "slave" for feeling undervalued. Your job doesn't generate billions in revenue from TV,merchandising, or concessions . Think about this, if your job had a three and a half year career window, you would be trying to get as much compensation as you could. I will admit using the term slavery may have been a bit harsh.Especially when you are scheduled to make over 10 mill next year...but how much is Massa going to make off the sweat of these big bucks ? A lot more than 10 million. If you really want a better understanding of the sports and slavery connection read "$40 Million Dollar Slave" by William Rhoden "How sports stardom has brought black athletes wealth without progress and prosperity without freedom."review By Elizabeth Gettelman.So I sign off with the words of Cinque "Give us Free!!"
AP: We're business-minded, also. It's not just fun and games. A lot of football players, whether it's Sunday or Monday night — we're out there on the field, competing, hitting each other. But people don't see everything else behind it. It's a job for us, too — every day of the week. We're in different states, sometimes thousands of miles away from our families and kids, and a lot of people don't look at it like that.
SC: It's nothing that I haven't heard from other players, believe me.
AP: It's modern-day slavery, you know? People kind of laugh at that, but there are people working at regular jobs who get treated the same way, too.
I don't think he meant that literally in the context of braving The Middle Passage and working for tattered clothes and grits.I don't know the man, so I can't say.I will however wait for the inevitable apology and clarification. The thing is, he was not that far off. I had a conversation with a good friend of mine about his comment.This is a condensed version of of what he thought "Of course his comment was way off base. I mean, how can a millionaire use the word slavery? That doesn't even make sense. Look, these guys get paid millions of dollars to play a game. MILLIONS. so to infer that the players are slaves or they make slave wages or they are treated like slaves, or just even mention the thought of slavery is asinine. Remember, these players agreed to play this game.Nobody is forcing them to play".That has been the major consensus across the board. Quit crying and play!
Every year the best college football players are invited to the NFL Scouting Combine in Indiana.Executives, coaches, scouts and doctors from all 32 NFL teams conduct an intense, four-day job interview in advance of the NFL Draft. Here is a brief breakdown of the skills they measure The 40-yard dash which is about about speed, explosion and seeing who can run the fastest. The bench press is a test of strength and endurance .The vertical jump which is all about lower-body explosion and power. The athlete stands flat-footed and they measure his reach.These are just a few.They also administer the 50-question Wonderlic test to all prospects, the test’s supporters believe that it can measure how mentally prepared a player is to handle the NFL’s demands. A high score say 20 is considered average. The standard is closer to 25 for positions that require quick thought, such as quarterback.A high score can solidify a player as a can’t-miss draft pick. A low score is seen as a red flag that can overshadow a player’s physical ability.This is from a slave auction in 1859 .Replace "slaves" with "players" and "buyers" with "teams". "The slaves were brought in early so that buyers who desired to inspect them might enjoy that privilege, although none of them were sold at private sale. The slaves were examined with as little consideration as if they had been brutes indeed; the buyers pulling their mouths open to see their teeth, pinching their limbs to find how muscular they were, walking them up and down to detect any signs of lameness, making them stoop and bend in different ways that they might be certain there was no concealed rupture or wound; and in addition to all this treatment, asking them scores of questions relative to their qualifications and accomplishments."Hmmm... NFL Combine anyone??
I am by no means making light of Slavery at all.The correlation between the two cannot just be ignored, or written off as the ignorant ramblings of a spoiled athlete. Before free agency, players were treated like property/slaves. They could be traded(sold literally) to another team (plantation,)uprooted from wife,kids and a city they had grown accustomed too. They are paid handsomely to play a sport. Now for those saying "come work at my job",don't get mad at the "slave" for feeling undervalued. Your job doesn't generate billions in revenue from TV,merchandising, or concessions . Think about this, if your job had a three and a half year career window, you would be trying to get as much compensation as you could. I will admit using the term slavery may have been a bit harsh.Especially when you are scheduled to make over 10 mill next year...but how much is Massa going to make off the sweat of these big bucks ? A lot more than 10 million. If you really want a better understanding of the sports and slavery connection read "$40 Million Dollar Slave" by William Rhoden "How sports stardom has brought black athletes wealth without progress and prosperity without freedom."review By Elizabeth Gettelman.So I sign off with the words of Cinque "Give us Free!!"
Wednesday, March 9, 2011
Back to the Future...again
Hollywood superstar Matt Damon has said that he is disappointed with Barack Obama.Damon had gone all out in support of Obama during the 2008 elections, but apparently the honeymoon is over.During an appearance on the CNN show ''Piers Morgan Tonight'', the Oscar winning actor said that Obama "misinterpreted his mandate" and that he "definitely wanted more" from the President. When asked about Obama''s role in the Afghanistan war effort, Damon said, "I don''t think the mission there has been very well articulated. And I think it would help to kind of reframe the way we''re thinking about being there and why we''re there." Damon is among a growing list of celebrities ,Barbara Streisand,Jay Z to name a few who have grown a bit disenchanted with our President. I usually don't take celebrities seriously when it comes to politics, or anything else outside of their chosen craft . This time I can feel their pain ...to some extent .
I voted for Obama, and still support him.I just have an issue with the way he has handled certain situations (Henry Louis Gates, Shirley Sherrod) and campaign promises,closing Guantanamo and ending the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan etc. I have written previous blogs about the Obama experience, Back to The Future and Back to the Future II. I along with everyone else was caught up in the Hope and Change rhetoric. So caught up in fact that we all expected Obama to, "Hop out the boat, so he could walk on water".When it became apparent that Obama was not a savior, but a man faced with a very difficult job,perceptions changed. People who voted for him usually fall into two categories . They either feel he has not done enough of what he promised and has not lived up to expectations, or he has done the best he can, with the hand he was dealt. I fall in between. He has done okay with the hand he was dealt, but there is lot more that he can do and should be doing.
Lets get the facts correct. According to Politifact.com of the more than 500 promises made by Obama on the campaign trail 134 have been kept, among them a repeal of "Don't ask, Don't tell" ,establishing a Credit card bill of rights and the big one Universal health care. 39 promises have been outright broken, among them "Repeal of the Bush tax cuts for higher incomes" and as we just learned, he will not "Close the Guantanamo Bay Detention Center" which was opened after the illegal war on terrorism during the Bush Presidency.The reason people want it closed is some of the people being held there have not been charged with a crime and may never be charged with a crime.They may be held indefinitely wth no evidence whatsoever.The proposed closing was one of his major campaign promises. 220 of his promises are in the works and 41 he has compromised on. That is not a bad percentage of kept promises to say the least, since most politicians make promises they can't deliver, nor do they try.
We expected him to be different because he looked like us,played basketball like us and listened to our music, plus "he spoke so well,he is so well spoken". Add that to the fact that he was an intellectual from Harvard, and after 8 years of idiocy from Baby Bush we couldn't wait to vote him into office. Like I have said previously, he could show some more spine when dealing with the opposition,whether it's Republicans or members of his own party. Obama fanatics that think any critique of the President is racist if they are not black, an Uncle Tom sellout if they are,is the real sellout.You let color blind you to high unemployment rates, high gas prices,a falling economy and lowered morale. Do I think it's all on Obama no, but he wanted the job.Let's see if he wants it for another 4 years. Be careful what you wish for, you just may get it.
I voted for Obama, and still support him.I just have an issue with the way he has handled certain situations (Henry Louis Gates, Shirley Sherrod) and campaign promises,closing Guantanamo and ending the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan etc. I have written previous blogs about the Obama experience, Back to The Future and Back to the Future II. I along with everyone else was caught up in the Hope and Change rhetoric. So caught up in fact that we all expected Obama to, "Hop out the boat, so he could walk on water".When it became apparent that Obama was not a savior, but a man faced with a very difficult job,perceptions changed. People who voted for him usually fall into two categories . They either feel he has not done enough of what he promised and has not lived up to expectations, or he has done the best he can, with the hand he was dealt. I fall in between. He has done okay with the hand he was dealt, but there is lot more that he can do and should be doing.
Lets get the facts correct. According to Politifact.com of the more than 500 promises made by Obama on the campaign trail 134 have been kept, among them a repeal of "Don't ask, Don't tell" ,establishing a Credit card bill of rights and the big one Universal health care. 39 promises have been outright broken, among them "Repeal of the Bush tax cuts for higher incomes" and as we just learned, he will not "Close the Guantanamo Bay Detention Center" which was opened after the illegal war on terrorism during the Bush Presidency.The reason people want it closed is some of the people being held there have not been charged with a crime and may never be charged with a crime.They may be held indefinitely wth no evidence whatsoever.The proposed closing was one of his major campaign promises. 220 of his promises are in the works and 41 he has compromised on. That is not a bad percentage of kept promises to say the least, since most politicians make promises they can't deliver, nor do they try.
We expected him to be different because he looked like us,played basketball like us and listened to our music, plus "he spoke so well,he is so well spoken". Add that to the fact that he was an intellectual from Harvard, and after 8 years of idiocy from Baby Bush we couldn't wait to vote him into office. Like I have said previously, he could show some more spine when dealing with the opposition,whether it's Republicans or members of his own party. Obama fanatics that think any critique of the President is racist if they are not black, an Uncle Tom sellout if they are,is the real sellout.You let color blind you to high unemployment rates, high gas prices,a falling economy and lowered morale. Do I think it's all on Obama no, but he wanted the job.Let's see if he wants it for another 4 years. Be careful what you wish for, you just may get it.
Thursday, March 3, 2011
Public Enemy #1
20 years ago today Rodney King was videotaped being brutally assaulted by officers of the LAPD. CNN will be doing a special about the entire affair from the beating, the LA riots and the overhaul of the Los Angeles police department Rodney King, 20 years later.Now has anything really changed? We still have stories like Oscar Grant in 2009, an unarmed black man who was shot and killed by a police officer while he was handcuffed and laying on his stomach Man's Fatal Shooting by San Francisco Subway Police.You have Sean Bell who was murdered in a hail of 50 bullets on his wedding day. The name are familiar to most.Amadou Diallo, February 1999, street trader from Guinea, shot 19 times when white NYPD officers mistook his wallet for a gun and fired 41 bullets. Four officers acquitted.Patrick Dorismond, March 2000, unarmed 26-year-old Haitian security guard, killed by NYPD officer Anthony Vasquez in bungled drugs sting. Dorismond reacted angrily when undercover detective asked him for crack cocaine and was shot in struggle.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)