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Women's National Team Fights Wage Discrimination
By bryanflynnWhat if I told you that the 2015 Women’s World Cup Final on television drew more viewers than game six of the 2015 NBA Finals, game seven of the 2014 World Series and game six of the 2015 Stanley Cup Finals?
The U.S. Women’s National Team were ratings gold with 26.67 million viewers on Fox and Telemundo for the World Cup Final agianst Japan. That was bigger than the 2015 Final Four Kentucky v. Wisconsin game, the final round of the 2015 Masters, a Triple Crown winning horse (American Pharoah) in the Belmont Stakes and more.
In fact, only a few NFL and college games surpassed the 2015 Women’s World Cup Final. The USWNT v. Japan was the 26th-most watched sporting event in 2015.
While the USWNT is breaking television records for women’s sports, the team isn't cashing record-breaking checks for its work. FIFA awarded the USWNT $2 million for winning the 2015 Women’s World Cup. For winning the 2014 Men's World Cup,
FIFA awarded Germany $35 million, so the German men earned $33 million more for winning the same amount of games as the U.S. women.
Germany also got to play all of its World Cup games on grass, and the US women tried to fight to get their game switched from artificial turf. The women’s players ultimately pulled their lawsuit before the World Cup and played on artificial turf.
You would be wrong if you thought that the USWNT would make more for winning the World Cup than the USMNT did for getting knocked out of the Round of 16.
The USMNT earned $9 million for the 2014 World Cup, so the men didn’t even win their group, much less the whole damn tournament, and made $7 million more than the women.
Last year, the USWNT generated more than $20 million in revenue than the USMNT. Yet the women get paid $1,350 win, lose or draw on friendly matches, and the men get paid $5,000 even if they lose, and can make a maximum of $17,625 for friendly match wins against teams ranked in the top 10, and Mexico, who is the main rival to the US.
This wage gap has caused the USWNT and the U.S. Soccer Federation to go to court after the USSF filed a lawsuit to stop any potential strike from the USWNT before the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
At issue is the USSF saying that both sides have an agreement until Dec. 31 of this year, but the USWNT says a memorandum of understanding that both sides signed in 2013 can be voided at any time. A court will have to sort out which team is right.
Five of the current stars for the USWNT, including Hope Solo, Alex Morgan and Carli Lloyd, have filed a wage-discrimination action against the USSF with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
This is the right time for …
The Laremy Tunsil Saga Drags for UM
By bryanflynnIt looks like it will be a long time before the Laremy Tunsil NFL Draft night saga will be over for the University of Mississippi. ESPN writers Mark Schlabach and Nicole Noren reported that the texts that showed up on Tunsil’s Instagram account did in fact happen last year.
The university is now trying to determine if someone altered the texts in any way before publishing them.
The texts in question are said to have occurred between February and April of last year and appear to show Tunsil asking UM Assistant Athletic Director John Miller for $305 for a utility bill and money for his mother’s rent.
Miller allegedly replied to Tunsil, “See Barney next week,” in what could be a reference to Barry Farrar, the Rebels’ assistant athletic director for high-school and junior-college relations.
The texts were just part of a horrible draft night for Tunsil. Minutes before the draft began, someone released a video on his Twitter account showing him smoking a bong attached to a gas mask.
That video caused Tunsil, thought to be a top-five pick, to tumble down the draft until the Miami Dolphins took him with the 13th overall selection. After being drafted, Tunsil admitted in a news conference that he did in fact ask for money, and the texts were real.
The NFL cut the draft-night news conference short after Tunsil admitted to the allegations. He has since declined to answer questions about the texts in two press conferences as a Dolphin.
In related news, attorneys for UM head coach Hugh Freeze have asked a judge not to have Freeze deposed for a civil suit that Tunsil’s stepfather filed against the young athlete. Lindsey Miller, the stepfather, is suing Tunsil for assault, defamation and intentional infliction of emotional distress.
The lawsuit came just two days before the first round of the draft. Court records indicate that Tunsil’s mother Desiree Polingo filed for divorce six days after Miller filed his lawsuit.
On the night in question, Tunsil claims he was protecting his mother after his stepfather yelled obscenities and pushed her onto a table and chair. Miller says the attack was unprovoked as he was trying to protect Tunsil from meeting with agents. Neither men are currently facing criminal charges.
Miller’s attorneys want to depose Freeze about a statement that he released after the incident and for the names of two men who were with Tunsil that night—a man named Zo from South Carolina and another unnamed agent.
ESPN’s Outside the Lines was able to get documents from the Regulation and Enforcement Division of the Office of the Secretary of State of Mississippi that show an agent was penalized for direct contact with a student-athlete and family member from a Mississippi school in late June of 2015.
The agent met with the student-athlete and his family without giving written notice to the University of Mississippi as state law requires. Outside …
Home of The Masters, Augusta National, Finally Lets Women Join the Club
By bryanflynnFile this under the finally, about time file.
Augusta National Golf Club announced today that the club will welcome its first two female members when the club opens for its new season in October. For years, the home of The Masters has resisted allowing women to join the private all-male golf club.
Former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and South Carolina financier Darla Moore have accepted to join the club and will be the first female members to don a green jacket in the club’s history. This move has been coming since 2002.
Martha Burk of the National Council of Women's Organizations wanted the club to add women members in 2002 and lead a small boycott of the 2003 Masters tournament. Former club chairman Hootie Johnson, chairman during Burk’s protest, dug his heels in once saying Augusta National might one day have a woman in a green jacket, "but not at the point of a bayonet."
The Masters lost television sponsorship for two years and the club paid CBS to broadcast the tournament commercial free for those two years. Johnson retired in 2006 and Billy Payne has been more open to allowing women than his predecessor.
"These accomplished women share our passion for the game of golf and both are well known and respected by our membership," Payne said in a statement. "It will be a proud moment when we present Condoleezza and Darla their green jackets when the club opens this fall. This is a significant and positive time in our club's history and, on behalf of our membership, I wanted to take this opportunity to welcome them and all of our new members into the Augusta National family."
In the ESPN article linked above, it states from private sources that women have been considered for membership five years ago. It is about time, Augusta National added women members and hopefully these two women will not be the only female members added.
Russian Track and Field Team Banned From Rio
By bryanflynnThe International Association of Athletics Federations announced today that the Russian track and field team will be banned from the Rio Olympics, which is a historic move from the organization and might finally turn the tide against doping.
The IAAF voted unanimously to ban the Russian team, but individual athletes will still have a way to reach Rio as neutral athletes. Russia was first suspended back in November when a report from the World Anti-Doping Agency alleged state-sponsored cheating.
Today’s move was to confirm that Russia hadn’t done enough to earn reinstatement. The country claimed to have cleaned up its testing program, but a report from WADA showed that Russia was still working to obstruct proper drug-testing and violations of drug-testing policies.
In the WADA report, it claimed that Russian athletes tried to evade testing from February and May. The report also claimed that one female athlete had a fake clean sample hidden “inside her body.”
Russia said it would appeal the decision to the International Olympic Committee. The IOC has scheduled a summit of sports leaders for Tuesday to look at the anti-doping responsibility of the Russian team as a whole but will still allow clean athletes to compete.
Legal challenges to the ban are on the way after the ruling. Two-time Olympic champion pole vaulter Yelena Isinbayeva told Russian news source TASS that she would file a suit in the Court of Human Rights on the grounds of discrimination.
Some of the cases from Russian athletes could be heard in the Court of Arbitration for Sport.
There are grounds for Russian athletes to compete in the games. Those who have helped lead the fight against doping and athletes like whistleblower Yuliya Stepanova would get strong consideration to enter the games.
Other athletes who can show a strong case that they have been subject to rigorous testing and haven't been tainted by the Russian testing system could also be reinstated for the games. Athletes who entered the games couldn’t compete as Russian but as neutral athletes.
Many sport officials and athletes outside of Russia urged the IAAF to take a strong stance against the Russian team. The USA track and field team supported its ban.
The suspension of the Russian team might finally start to get athletes and the team to strongly consider the cost of doping to win major competitions. This is the strongest rebuke of athletes doping in any sports history.
The 2016 Olympics, or the Games of the XXXI Olympiad, are scheduled to begin on Aug. 5 in Rio de Janeiro.
53 Former Wrestlers Sue the WWE Over Concussions
By bryanflynnThe NFL is trying to settle a concussion lawsuit against it. A concussion lawsuit against the NHL is currently pending.
Now, 53 former wrestlers are suing the WWE over concussions. It really only seemed to be a matter of time before the biggest wrestling organization in America ended up in court.
Some of the lawsuits’ better known plaintiffs are Jimmy “Superfly” Snuka, Paul “Mr. Wonderful” Orndorff and Joseph “Road Warrior Animal” Laurinaitis. Some interesting facts: Snuka was just declared mentally incompetent to stand trial for the murder and manslaughter charges stemming from 1983, Laurinaitis’ brother John still works for the WWE, and Orndorff made an appearance at WrestleMania XXX and on Monday Night Raw in 2014.
James Harris, better known as Kamala, is a Mississippi native and is also named as a plaintiff in the lawsuit. Harris had both his legs amputated due to diabetes in 2014.
The lawsuit alleges that the WWE hid the risk of brain trauma from wrestlers and put profits over the welfare of performers’ health. Attorney Konstantine Kyros, whose name sounds like wrestling heel or bad guy, filed the lawsuit.
Kyros has tried to sue the WWE in the past and has already seen two class-action lawsuits against the Stamford, Conn.-based company dismissed. He also has two wrongful death lawsuits pending against the WWE.
One major obstacle to this lawsuit is if the wrestlers can prove the WWE knew the dangers of concussions and hid them from them. As ESPN’s legal expert Lester Munson points out, do the wrestlers and their lawyers have a “smoking gun” to prove that the WWE knowingly withheld concussion information?
Another hurdle for the wrestlers will be that they were, and still are, considered independent contractors. Unlike the NFL and other sports leagues, wrestlers don’t have a union to represent them.
The current lawsuit addresses the fact that the wrestlers are independent contractors and states that independent contractor is the wrong designation.
Even if the wrestlers get the lawsuit in front of a judge or jury, many of them worked for other organizations. In the days before the WWE became a national company, wrestlers worked for organizations that were territory based.
Several of the wrestlers in this lawsuit started out during the territorial days. In those days, the different territories were under gentleman's agreements, and the National Wrestling Alliance was the governing body.
Nearly all of the wrestlers in the lawsuit wrestled for organizations such as World Championship Wrestling, New Japan Pro Wrestling, Extreme Championship Wrestling, Total NonStop Action and others.
In fact, some wrestlers in the lawsuit spent more time with other organizations than they did with the WWE. The fact that the WWE bought both WCW and ECW might play a part in the lawsuit.
Any wrestler who spent time in ECW might have a hard time proving any health problems they had were suffered in the WWE. The former
Laremy Tunsil's Scandals Take Over First Round of the NFL Draft
By bryanflynnHere's a quick rundown of what happened during the first round of the NFL Draft: The Los Angeles Rams made University of California quarterback Jared Goff the No. 1 overall pick, and the Philadelphia Eagles took Carson Wentz, a quarterback out of North Dakota State University, making him the No. 2 pick.
After Goff and Wentz went in the draft, all eyes fell on University of Mississippi offensive tackle Laremy Tunsil. In fact, it was a terrible night for Tunsil and got worse as the night went along.
Shortly before the draft started, a video on Tunsil’s Twitter account, which was hacked, showed someone who was wearing a gas mask. later confirmed to be Tunsil, taking hits from a bong. It didn’t take long for the video to go viral and for ESPN and NFL Network to begin discussing it and what it would mean for him.
Before the draft, Tunsil was considered to be one of the top players in the draft, and many thought he would be the first player to hear his name called. After the video got out, he began to fall down as reports came out that teams had taken Tunsil off their draft board.
Instead of being the first tackle picked, Tunsil watched as the Baltimore Ravens drafted Ronnie Stanley out the University of Notre Dame in the sixth pick, and the Tennessee Titans drafted Jack Conklin out of Michigan State University in the eighth pick.
The Miami Dolphins finally stopped Tunsil’s drop by taking him with the 13th pick. Tunsil was supposed to be a top-five pick, but he didn’t even go in the top 10.
The first reports said that the video of Tunsil was five years old, but then it changed to two years old. But it didn’t matter when the video was taken. The damage was done, and it cost him millions.
The top pick in the draft will sign for about $28.5 million, and the fifth will sign for about $24 million. Falling all the way down to the 13th pick means Tunsil will sign for about $13 million.
The video cost him $10 to $15 million in salary in his first contract.
But his bad night wasn’t over. After the Dolphins selected him, a post on his Instagram account showed the offensive tackle asking a coach for money.
That post came up during his first press conference.
The money reports said he did it to pay bills and rent. Tunsil already had to sit out games last season for the Rebels due to receiving improper benefits. The day before the draft, reports surfaced that his stepfather, Lindsey Miller, filed a lawsuit against the offensive tackle …
NCAA Lowers the Boom on Former USM Men's Basketball Coach Tyndall
By bryanflynnThe NCAA finally released penalties on the University of Southern Mississippi men’s basketball program and former coaches, including Donnie Tyndall, who are receiving the most severe penalties with the program.
Tyndall, who was given a 10-year show-cause penalty, earned the worst one. The show-cause penalty for him runs from April 8, 2016, to April 7, 2026. A show-cause penalty means the punishment for Tyndall follows him to any other NCAA school that hires him, unless the school hiring him can "show-cause” (prove a good reason) why it shouldn’t be penalized for hiring Tyndall.
Dave Bliss, former Baylor University men’s basketball coach, is the only other coach to be hit with a 10-year show-cause penalty. Here is why Bliss was hit with his punishment.
The NCAA Division I Committee on Infractions based the punishment on the fact that Tyndall acted unethically and failed to promote an atmosphere of compliance when he directed his staff to engage in academic misconduct. Tyndall was also accused of fabricating paperwork to justify payments to student-athletes.
The report from the NCAA says that Tyndall got members of his coaching staff to complete fake coursework for prospective players so they would be eligible to play as soon as they got on campus.
“The activity began within six weeks of the former head coach starting at the university, involved the majority of the former coach’s staff and involved approximately half of the prospects the university recruited during a two-year period,” the NCAA said in the report. “The former head coach directed two graduate assistants and a former assistant coach to travel to two-year colleges to complete coursework for prospects.”
Tyndall was also accused of paying players as well.
“One former high school coach mailed the money directly to the former head coach, who would then deliver the money to the student-athlete for university bills,” the report stated. It also said: “The former head coach also facilitated cash and prepaid credit card payments to two prospects from former coaches.”
While at USM from 2012 to 2014, Tyndall led the Golden Eagles to a 56-17 record and led the team to two NIT berths. While Tyndall was at Morehead State University in New York, the program was placed on two years probation due to activities by a booster.
Tyndall left USM for the University of Tennessee before the accusations of violations came out but was fired after the Volunteers administration found out the scope of his misdeeds. Currently Tyndall is an associate athletic director at NAIA school Tennessee Wesleyan College.
Direct from the NCAA report here is the penalties and corrective actions imposed by the panel which include:
A three-year probation period to run consecutive to the present probation period. The three-year period will begin on Jan. 30, 2017, and run through Jan. 29, 2020.
A two-year postseason ban for the men’s basketball team. The school will be credited for the self-imposed postseason bans during the 2014-15 and 2015-16 …
Did Wins Mean More Than Protecting Women at Baylor?
By bryanflynnScandals are nothing new in college sports, especially in football. It wouldn’t be shocking if every school in the country engaged in some sort of rule violation.
Schools in the Power Five conferences—ACC, Big 12, Big Ten, Pac 12 and SEC—are going to garner most of the spotlight for those violations. But in reality, not every scandal is equal.
Sure, it is a scandal if a kid asks for money to pay his mom’s rent and utility bills. That story will have legs and be discussed at length by the media, but besides the NCAA, do we really care that much that a kid got money while in college?
To the rival school, it means something, but in the grand scheme of things, it really isn’t that major.
The major story in college athletics is the way coaches, administrators and even school presidents turn a blind eye to sexual assaults.
The recent scandal at Baylor isn’t anything new. It just highlights, again, how schools try to sweep sexual assaults under the rug.
Right now the U.S. Department of Education is investigating 161 institutions for their handling of sexual-assault investigations. Baylor currently isn’t on that list, but you should expect that to change at some point.
It also makes one question if winning on the field is more important than the safety of women on campus.
ESPN has investigated and documented the Baylor scandal in great detail. Baylor looked the other way over sexual assaults from at least 2009 to 2015.
At the same time, the Bears were starting to turn things around on the field. In late 2007 Baylor hired Art Briles away from the University of Houston.
Baylor went 8-16 from 2008 to 2009 on the field but finished with a winning record of 7-6 in 2010. It was the first winning season for the Bears since 1995, and the team went to its first bowl game since 1994.
The Bears were the "feel good" story of college football during the 2011 season, as the team tied a then-school record for wins with 10, won a bowl game for the first time since 1992 and finished the season ranked for the first time since 1986.
Baylor quarterback Robert Griffin III became the first player from the university to win the Heisman Trophy.
To the outside world, this was one of the great turnaround stories in college football history.
Off the field was another story for Baylor.
The university failed to investigate sexual assault cases for two years from 2013 to 2015, a violation of Title IX federal law. Baylor didn’t even hire a full-time Title IX coordinator to comply with a federal directive until late 2014.
One glaring case involved two players, Tre’von Armstead and Myke Chatman, who were named in a Waco police department report involving sexual assault in April 2013. The university knew of the report, but …
The Storms Before the NFL Draft
By bryanflynnThere has been plenty of news before the NFL Draft’s kickoff tomorrow night, Thursday, April 27, that could send players down the draft board. Some is understandable, and some could be considered ridiculous.
Let’s start with the ridiculous and work our way to more serious elements. One thing to remember: the run-up to the draft is one long job interview.
Last week in the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, writer Bob McGinn reported the scores of several players who took the Wonderlic intelligence test at the NFL Combine. ESPN’s Darren Rovell pointed out two players who scored an 11 out of 50 on the test and Rovell was roasted on social media. Since then, Rovell took the official test and wrote about taking it and how it changed him.
The leaking of Wonderlic scores has gone on since the NFL began using the test in the 1970s. If you don’t know, the test is 50 questions taken in 12 minutes with just a pencil and scrap paper. The employers use the test to assess the intelligence of prospective employees.
If you follow the NFL Combine, everyone does the same testing. All the players bench-press 225 pounds, run the 40-yard dash, and so forth. Not all the tests really apply to every position, but to get an apples-to-apples comparison, every player does the same tests.
The Wonderlic doesn’t mean a ton for most positions. If any position makes sense, it is the quarterback position, where you have to process a good deal of information and do it quickly.
What other players score on the test really isn’t entirely game-changing but is important. Players have known for years that the NFL gives the test at the combine. Agents have been preparing players for the test for years, as well.
If everything is a test at the combine, the way a player approaches the Wonderlic is a test. Remember, this is a giant job interview. If a player scores low on the test, teams might do more research on the player to find out why.
NFL teams will want to know why a player bombed a test that he knew he had to take. Did the player care enough to even prepare for the test? Is the player bad at taking tests? If the player didn’t care to prepare for the test, teams will wonder if that player will prepare for a NFL career. The test is part of an evolution process and not really about how smart the players are.
No one should be made fun for what he scored on the test. It is simply a way for teams to see whether players are going to put in the work that is needed to be in the NFL.
It also never fails that a player or two will fail the drug test at the NFL Combine. This year, it was University of Alabama linebacker Reuben Foster and University …
