Jackson Free Press

A dark storm is brewing in and near Natchez, Miss., after the publisher of MissLou Magazine, The Natchez Sun and Natchez Sun XPress made shocking statements about young black people on Jan. 11, 2017, apparently in jest.

Peter Rinaldi wrote in a MissLou Magazine column titled, "Bang, Bang, You're Dead": "Natchez has become increasingly dangerous in the last eight years. As the population becomes more demographically poor, uneducated, unskilled and dominantly African American, the number of shootings has gone through the roof."

Rinaldi then lists three shootings and two deaths since the year started. He then added: "This is not such a bad thing, as one cynic remarked. The more criminals who shoot each other and are 'taken out,' the safer it is for the rest of us, the logic goes. Three shootings, three bad guys eliminated. Fifty shootings, 50 bad guys eliminated."

Then, he turns to joking, it seems, saying that "we were glad to hear local officials have finally fashioned a new anti-violence plan, which will be advertised in print and on the airwaves shortly, with posters spread all over town." That plan, he wrote, is called the Natchez-Adams County Gangbangers' Rodeo, which will be held March 12 at 7 p.m. at Liberty Park (where Natchez's Klan rallies used to happen, but we'll get to that). It is open to those 13 and up.

Rinaldi then explains in detail how this "rodeo" will work: "Open to all gangbangers with a .45 or 9 mm handgun. Limited to 20 rounds per person. Entry fee $100. Must be paid in cash in advance. No checks." The participants will then get in a circle and start shooting each other when the referee fires the starter pistol. They all kill or maim each other, and the last one standing gets $10,000. Free hot dogs and beers will be served, as well as fireworks. DJ Mortem, he writes, will provide live rap music. (See images of his event description below.)

The Mississippi Rising Coalition on the Gulf Coast alerted me to the editorial. Lea Campbell of MRC sent me the following statement:

"This kind of blatantly racist and classist editorializing and commentary from the publisher of a magazine in the Natchez area is irresponsible and unacceptable. Widespread violence in a community is the symptom of underlying social problems like poverty, institutional and structural racism, underfunded and segregated educational systems, untreated mental illness among many, many others. Mr. Rinaldi fails to express an understanding of these factors and scapegoats the issue of increasing violence in a way that will only act to fuel further racial and class division in the community instead of bringing the various community members together to work on effective, sustainable solutions. Shame on him for using his power and platform in such a reckless, dehumanizing and negligent way."

She also sent this statement from an MRC member whose parents reside in Natchez: "There are a million reasons that these shootings are occurring, and not a single one of them is …

The world’s biggest sport is expanding its biggest event. In 2026, the World Cup will move from 32 teams to 48. While some might cry that expansion will ruin the tournament, it could, in reality, be a great move.

Here are how the current 32 teams are chosen: Europe gets 13, Africa gets five, South America and Asia get 4.5, North and Central America, and the Caribbean gets 3.5, the host gets an automatic bid, and Oceania gets a .5 bid.

Playoffs between other conferences decide those half bids.That means South America could get five teams instead of four if it wins a playoff for an extra team.

More bids means more teams from other places besides just Europe. Africa is a huge continent but only gets five teams into the World Cup. The African nations deserve more bids, and so do the Asian countries, North and Central America, and the Caribbean.

Europe is where some of the best national soccer teams in the world are located, but so is South America. Adding a team or two from South America could enhance the tournament.

It seems stupid to slam the idea of expansion until seeing how the 16 added teams are distributed across the confederations. If Africa gets four or five, Oceania gets one, North and Central America get two or three, South America gets three or four, Asia gets two or three, and Europe gets four to one, that would be a nice mix.

The main thing is not to give Europe a bunch more teams. The other confederations should get the bulk of the new bids, and Europe gets the leftovers, if there are any.

There are other details to be worked out since the group stage would go from four to three teams per group. The top two from each would advance to the knockout stage of 32.

One major problem would be stopping teams from colluding with each other to fix the outcomes of which ones advance. There are a couple of ways to fix this problem.

FIFA floated the idea of having penalty shootouts for group games that end in a draw. Personally, I think this is a great idea.

The NHL does something similar in the regular season when games are tied at regulation and have played a five-minute overtime. If a NHL game is tied after regulation, the game goes to a shootout. The team that wins the shootout gets two points, and the losing team gets one point.

Teams that win the shootout could earn three points, and reaching it would earn a team one point. Teams that lose in regulation would get no points, of course.

Adding a shootout is good because overtime in group-stage games could add too much extra wear on players’ legs. Going straight to a shootout saves players if they are level after 90 minutes of play.

A shootout would change …

The need for a new defensive coordinator is becoming an offseason tradition at Mississippi State University. MSU recently tapped Todd Graham as its fourth defensive coordinator in as many years.

Since Dan Mullen has been the Bulldogs head coach, defensive coordinator is one coaching position that has become a revolving door. This is his seventh defensive coordinator as he enters his ninth year with the school.

In his first season, Mullen hired Carl Torbush as the defensive coordinator. Torbush left after one season to become defensive coordinator at the University of Kansas.

Manny Diaz began his first stop in Starkville in 2010, replacing Torbush. Diaz left after the season to become defensive coordinator at the University of Texas in Austin.

Diaz’s departure brought Geoff Collins to the defensive coordinator position. Collins ended up being the longest-tenured defensive coordinator under Mullen, as he stayed for four seasons.

Collins left Starkville after the 2014 season to become defensive coordinator at the University of Florida. He was recently named head coach at the University of Temple after spending the 2015 and 2016 seasons with the Gators.

Chris Wilson was co-defensive coordinator under both Diaz and Collins and left after the 2013 season. He is currently the defensive line coach for the Philadelphia Eagles.

Diaz returned to the Bulldogs after Collins departed to begin his second tenure as defensive coordinator. Once again, Diaz left the job after just one season to become defensive coordinator at the University of Miami in Florida.

Mullen brought in Peter Sirmon for the 2016 season as the third defensive coordinator in the last three years. Sirmon is now on the move to the University of Louisville and will replace new MSU defensive coordinator Graham at that position.

MSU and Louisville are essentially trading defensive coordinators from the 2016 season. Graham spent the last three seasons with the Cardinals, and his defenses each season ranked in the top 20 nationally. His 2014 defense led the nation with 26 interceptions. He spent 2010 to 2013 as the defensive coordinator at the University of Georgia.

Last season under Sirmon, the MSU defense ended up 110th nationally in total defense and 93rd in scoring defense. The 2016 Bulldogs defense gave up 31.8 points per game, and the Cardinals only gave up 23.3 points per game and finished ninth in the nation in total defense.

Several of Mullen’s defensive coordinators have left for what they considered better jobs. Mullen would do well to try to keep Graham in Starkville for a few seasons. It would help the Bulldogs to have some consistency at the defensive coordinator position and would help the players to not have to learn a whole new defensive scheme each season they are at MSU.

If something seems familiar about this year’s NFL Playoffs, you would be right. Rematches seem to be a theme in the first two rounds.

There were three rematches on Wild Card weekend, and the only game that wasn’t a rematch was the Seattle Seahawks’ 26-6 win over the Detroit Lions.

The Houston Texans avenged a 27-20 loss to the Oakland Raiders with a 27-14 win. The Pittsburgh Steelers made up for a 30-15 loss to the Miami Dolphins, turning the tables for a 30-6 victory. Green Bay beat the New York Giants in the regular season 23-16 and bounced New York from the playoffs with a 38-13 win.

All four games this weekend, which is the Divisional Round, are rematches of regular-season matchups. That means seven of the eight playoff games so far will be rematches of teams that meet during the regular season.

In week three, New England destroyed the Houston Texans 27-0 in a game that Patriots quarterback Tom Brady didn’t even play in, as he was suspended. Week four saw the Steelers blow out the Kansas City Chiefs 43-14. The playoffs have two rematches from week six: the Dallas Cowboys against the Packers (The Cowboys beat them 30-16) and Seattle and Atlanta (the Seahawks beat the Falcons 26-24).

The regular season scores matter little since all the games took place in the first half of the season. All these teams have changed over the course as players have returned from injuries or suspensions or teams have lost players to injury or suspension. Each team has seen improvements in play since these teams first met early in the season.

Teams that lost in the regular season meeting went 2-1 in the Wild Card round. The only team to repeat its regular season performance was Green Bay, and if that holds for the Packers, it is good news for the Cowboys.

Rookie quarterback Dak Prescott threw his first career interception against the Packers, but the Cowboys forced four turnovers. Prescott had a fumble in the game as well. Dallas took control of the game with its 191 rushing yards.

Pittsburgh and Houston flipped the script on their regular-season foes, but both teams faced backup quarterbacks in the rematch. Houston couldn’t defeat New England without Brady, and Brady is back and on fire.

The Steelers did beat Chiefs starting quarterback Alex Smith, but Kansas City has speedy return man Tyreek Hill and is better in pass coverage. The most important part of this rematch is that it is at home for the Chiefs.

Seattle and Atlanta’s first meeting ended in controversy. The final play that mattered in the game looked like Seahawks cornerback Richard Sherman interfered with Falcon wide receiver Julio Jones.

It will be interesting to see if Sherman is on Jones and how closely the officials call that matchup. These two superstar players could decide this game.

Another interesting tidbit is that …

The national championship football game between Clemson University and the University of Alabama rematch on Monday, Jan. 9, lived up to the original from the year before. It had all the makings of a heavyweight fight—and without a doubt, it was a fight.

Alabama began the game on defense, pounding away at Clemson’s offense. The Crimson Tide landed shot after shot on Tigers quarterback Deshaun Watson, including what looked like a blow to the head on the third play of the game.

The early knockdowns certainly had an effect on Watson, as he looked sluggish and timid early on while Alabama built a 14-0 lead that felt much larger. Clemson added to its own misery with a fumble that the Tide recovered.

Still, the Tigers found a way to keep standing round after round and drive after drive against the Tide. Clemson kept the game close with a touchdown in the second quarter to cut the Alabama lead in half at 14-7.

Alabama went for the early knockout but couldn’t finish the job on Clemson. The Tide forced another fumble in third but only got a field goal to make it 17-7 on a drive that started at the Clemson 16-yard line.

Three points were all the Tide could muster from two Clemson turnovers. Alabama couldn’t figure out a way to score points with its defense or special teams the way it had all season.

Clemson came alive in the second half with a touchdown to make it 17-14. Alabama answered right back with a quick strike to make it 24-14 late in the third quarter, but the Tigers responded with yet another touchdown to cut the Tide lead to only three points, making it 24-21 early in the fourth quarter.

The Tigers took their first lead in the game with 4:38 left to play, but they didn’t see their 28-24 lead last long as Alabama’s offense kicked back into gear after being nearly nonexistent for most of the second half.

Alabama scored with 2:07 left to lead 31-28, meaning the Tide had to put the pressure on its historically great defense to win the title. Clemson was more than happy to put its superb offense back to work, as it had found ways to tear through the Tide for most of the second half.

Watson and his teammates on offense made play after play against the Tide to keep driving down the field. Clemson scored the game-winning touchdown with one second left to finish off Alabama 35-31.

In the end, the Alabama defense had punched all it could but couldn’t land the knockout blow, and the Tide ended up staggering down the stretch. Clemson weathered the early storm to rack up 511 total yards after 34:44 in possession of the ball, 99 plays and going 7 for 18 on third down.

Even with a freshman quarterback, Jalen Hurts, Alabama …

Gov. Phil Bryant signed Executive Order 1392 which requires state employees to complete online sexual harassment awareness training.

"This should be a low-cost alternative to expensive seminars and provide a standard of prevention in this litigious society," Gov. Bryant said in his Facebook post announcing the order. "Everyone deserves a workplace free from intimidation and hostility. I will not tolerate sexual harassment in those agencies that fall under my control."

The State Personnel Board offers the training, and the Department of Finance and Administration will help state agencies administer the training, the executive order says. All state agencies must report to the governor's office by June 30, 2017, with evidence that their employees have completed the training.