Jackson Free Press

Anytime there is a new ESPN “30 for 30” documentary, it is normally worth taking time to watch. But the latest entry, a five-part, almost-eight-hour-long series called “O.J.: Made In America” from director Ezra Edelman, might be the best documentary the network has done. If you haven’t watched “O.J.: Made In America,” don’t read any further, as this post contains spoilers.

Even 22 years after the murders of Nicole Brown-Simpson and Ron Goldman, this case still lives in infamy. The O.J. Simpson murder trial also brought up issues that we continue to struggle with as a society today, such as race and domestic violence.

Race and racism are where Edelman begins in parts one and two. He does a great job of showing the treatment of black people in Los Angeles as Simpson began his journey to fame on the gridiron and the Rodney King beating and trial spurred riots on the streets.

This look back at the rise and fall of Simpson provides some interesting tidbits in all five parts.

Simpson’s friend Joe Bell says the now infamous football player’s father was gay and tells how Simpson stole best friend Al Cowlings’ girlfriend, Marguerite Whitley. Simpson later married Whitley at age 19, and as the two stayed friends, Cowlings later drove the white bronco in the famous slow-speed chase.

Most of us at a certain age remember Simpson as the bumbling Nordberg from “The Naked Gun” film series, but in parts one and two of the documentary, you see the moves on the football field that made Simpson a Heisman Trophy winner and NFL Hall of Fame player.

One of the most interesting things in part one is that Simpson wanted nothing to do with the Civil Rights Movement. At one point, he told activist Harry Edwards, when approached about boycotting the 1968 Olympics, “I’m not black; I’m O.J.”

The documentary’s first episode touches on Simpson’s early struggles in Buffalo, as well as his first meeting with an 18-year-old Nicole, who was working at private L.A. nightclub The Daisy, and telling a friend that he would marry her.

The former NFL running back began dating Nicole while still married to Whitley.

Part two devotes some time to Simpson’s cheating on the golf course and his daughter drowning, but mainly, the focus is on his treatment of women. The documentary shows him as a womanizer and delves into how he mentally abused a pregnant Nicole by telling her his affairs were a result of her getting “fat.”

Domestic violence plays a major part in the second episode, as Simpson gets away with abuse because of his charm and celebrity. Even ESPN had a hand in the way the public viewed him.

In an ESPN show called “Sports Look,”host Roy Firestone makes excuses for Simpson’s 1988 attack on Nicole, who needed medical treatment as a result. Firestone was just one of the many people who made excuses for Simpson’s domestic violence. After one …

Before the focus on the NFL shifts from the regular season to the offseason, we should discuss a few things that happened before Super Bowl LI and going forward to the NFL Combine.

If you missed it, Saturday night, Feb. 4, which was the night before the Super Bowl, Dallas Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott was named Associated Press NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year at the NFL Honors ceremony. On Friday, Feb. 3, he was named Pepsi NFL Rookie of the Year. His coach, Jason Garrett, won AP NFL Coach of the Year.

Dallas thought Prescott would end up sitting out this year and learning behind veterans Tony Romo and Kellen Moore. Instead, Moore broke a bone in his leg in practice to move to second string, and early in the preseason, Romo injured his back making Prescott the starter. All the rookie from Mississippi State did was lead the Cowboys to the best record in the NFC and playoffs.

Prescott is the first Dallas player to win the award since Emmitt Smith in 1990. Smith went on to become the NFL’s all-time leading rusher and helped the Cowboys win three Super Bowls.

Cowboys running back Ezekiel Elliott finished second in the voting. Prescott thanked the 31 teams that passed on him and wished he could cut the award in half to share with Elliott.

Prescott now has to follow up his amazing rookie season with more of the same in 2017. He won’t be under the radar, and everyone will look to see if he has a sophomore slump.

Atlanta Falcons quarterback Matt Ryan won Associated Press Offensive Player of the Year and NFL MVP but continued the trend of NFL MVPs losing the Super Bowl. Ryan’s offensive coordinator Kyle Shanahan won AP Assistant Coach of the Year.

San Diego Chargers linebacker Joey Bosa won AP Defensive Rookie of the Year and Green Bay Packer wide receiver Jordy Nelson was named AP NFL Comeback Player of the Year after recovering from a knee injury. Oakland Raiders linebacker Khalil Mack was named AP NFL Defensive Player of the Year.

The NFL honored its past on Super Bowl weekend. During the NFL Honors, the 2017 NFL Hall of Fame Class was announced. Long-time New Orleans Saints kicker Morten Andersen was voted into the hall.

Andersen was one of the Saints’ biggest offensive weapons in the 1980s and 1990s and is the leading scorer in NFL, New Orleans Saints and Atlanta Falcons history. He is just the second player to make the hall strictly as a kicker. The first is Jan Stenerud.

In Andersen’s 25 seasons in the NFL, he played in 325 games, which is also a NFL record, while playing for five teams and racked up 2,544 points. He is one of the first kickers to make 40- and 50-yard field goals look easy.

Joining Andersen in the hall is St. Louis Rams quarterback Kurt Warner, Miami Dolphins defensive end …

One of the feel-good stories of the 2010 NFL offseason has come to an ugly end seven years later. The San Francisco 49ers signed undrafted free agent Tramaine Brock out of tiny Belhaven University in Jackson, Miss.

On April 6, 2017, Brock was arrested in Santa Clara, Calif., for suspicion of felony domestic violence against his girlfriend. He made bail the next day, and shortly afterwards, San Francisco released him.

Brock’s arrest happens to be the first major off-the-field incident for the new regime of General Manager John Lynch and Head Coach Kyle Shanahan. It is the third new coach in San Francisco in the last three years. They wasted no time in releasing the player.

Before Brock, no player in the history of Belhaven football had played in the NFL, and his road wasn’t the typical path.

He played at Long Beach High School in Gulfport, Miss., and then at Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College. He signed with the University of Minnesota after two years at MGCCC but left Minnesota after being suspended for academic ineligibility. He went from Big Ten-conference school Minnesota to tiny NAIA Belhaven.

Brock played his senior year with the Blazers but went undrafted in the 2010. He ended up signing with the 49ers and landed on the practice squad after training camp. In his rookie NFL season, Brock appeared in three games and made just three tackles.

The former Belhaven star played in 11 games in the following year and recorded his first career interception. He would play in all 16 games in the 2012 season and forced his first career fumble that season. The 49ers also reached Super Bowl XLVII that year but ended up losing to the Baltimore Ravens.

Brock had his best season as a professional thus far in 2013, with five interceptions, 13 defended passes and a touchdown. He played in all 16 games and started in seven during the season, which is also the first time that he started in the NFL.

Injuries derailed the Gulfport native’s 2014 season as he played in just three games with only two starts. Brock bounced back in 2015 with 15 starts in 15 games played with three interceptions.

Brock started all 16 games for the first time in his career last season as he set a career high in tackles with 49 total stops. He made one interception and forced this second career fumble.

The 49ers have a recent history of players, such as Ray McDonald and Aldon Smith, with off-the-field issues. The release of Brock was a message to the rest of the team on how things will now be done in San Francisco, even if Shanahan says it wasn’t message. When the team was winning earlier this decade, it overlooked bad behavior by some players.

Recently, San Francisco hasn’t been winning games, and that means the hammer comes down faster. Brock wasn’t a star for the …

The Jacksonville Jaguars are adding former star wide receiver Jimmy Smith as the sixth member of its ring of honor, Pride of the Jaguars.

The five other honorees in Pride of the Jaguars are former owners Wayne and Delores Weaver, the franchise's first-draft-pick offensive tackle Tony Boselli, running back Fred Jackson and quarterback Mark Brunell.

Smith retired suddenly in May 2006, but the former wide out’s legal troubles, which include drug and weapons charges, made it hard for the team to recognize him.

Early in his career, Smith was the perfect example of a player who overachieved and overcame adversity nearly every step of the way.

At Callaway High School in Jackson, Miss., he was a standout receiver who didn’t get any looks from Division I schools. He did get offered a scholarship to Jackson State University and made the most of that opportunity. He finished his time with the Tigers with 110 catches, 2,073 yards and 16 touchdowns. The smooth wide receiver graduated with a degree in business management.

The Dallas Cowboys drafted Smith in the second round with the 36th overall pick in the 1992 NFL Draft. Injuries hindered his play for most of his time in Dallas. In his rookie year, Smith broke his leg and missed all but seven games, and he didn’t record a catch in the entire season.

In his second season with the Cowboys, Smith was expected to become the third wide receiver before he was forced to have an emergency appendectomy in August 1993. He missed the entire season after developing a post-surgery infection that nearly cost him his life.

The Cowboys released Smith in July 1994 when he refused to take a pay cut. He signed with the Philadelphia Eagles but didn’t make their roster.

After being out of football for the entire 1994 season, Smith’s mother sent a folder of his newspaper clippings to then Jacksonville head coach Tom Coughlin. This earned Smith a tryout, and the team signed him in February 1995.

In his first season in Jacksonville, Smith caught 22 passes for 288 yards and three touchdowns. In 1996, he scored 1,244 yards on 83 receptions and seven touchdowns, beginning a streak of seven straight seasons with more than 1,000 receiving yards.

Smith played in all every Jacksonville game from 1995 to 2002 and became one of the top wide receivers in the NFL. In 2003, he only played in 12 games, as he received a four-game suspension for violating the league's substance-abuse policy.

The 2003 season saw Smith fail to reach 1,000 receiving yards. He only caught 54 passes for 805 yards and four touchdowns. He then bounced back in the 2004 season to catch 74 passes for 1,172 yards and six touchdowns.

In his last season in the NFL, Smith garnered 1,073 receiving yards on 70 catches with six touchdowns. His retirement in May 2006 shocked many fans. He denied rumors of facing a …

News of music star Prince’s death rocked the world yesterday, and rightfully so, as an icon of the industry is now gone. Earlier in the day, however, reports were already coming in that former WWE star Chyna, whose real name was Joan Marie Laurer, had died.

Sadly, her death is too often a side of pro wrestling and her sudden exit from the business is still a major part of speculation between fans. Laurer’s went from the top of the wrestling world to working in adult films to posting rambling YouTube videos about vitamins and being a vegan.

At one time, Laurer was one of the biggest stars in the WWE. Then known as the WWF before a lawsuit from the World Wildlife Fund forced the name change. She rose to fame during the “Monday Night Wars” between the WWE and now defunct WCW.

Laurer, from Rochester, N.Y., began her professional wrestling career after working as a model and bodybuilder. She started, as most wrestlers do, on the independent circuit before meeting wrestlers Paul Levesque, better known as Triple H, and Shawn Hickenbottom, better known as Shawn Michaels.

Both Levesque and Hickenbottom were members of a group of wrestlers known backstage as “The Kliq” with Kevin Nash, Scott Hall and Sean Waltman.

Laurer’s trainer, “Killer Kowalski,” also introduced her to the son of WWE owner Vince McMahon. She chose to join the WWE over WCW and, according to Laurer, a chance to join the NWO, whose members included Nash and Hall.

When she joined the WWE, she was paired with Triple H and Michaels when the duo started their stable called D-generation X, but she mainly played the role of Triple H’s bodyguard. Laurer was also billed as the “Ninth Wonder of the World” because Andre the Giant was billed as the “Eighth Wonder of the World.” She stayed with DX after Michaels left the company due to back problems.

During her time with DX, she and Triple H began to have a romantic relationship in their real lives outside the ring. This relationship would later be a factor in her decision to leave the company.

Laurer broke several barriers for women in professional wrestling. She often fought against male wrestlers, and she also scored victories over the likes of Chris Jericho, Triple H, Jeff Jarrett and Kurt Angle, all of whom went on to become world champions.

She became the first woman to compete in the “King of the Ring” Tournament and the “Royal Rumble.” She is also the only woman to win the Intercontinental Championship. Laurer and Triple H split on-screen in 1999, and a year later, the couple separated in real life, with Laurer claiming that he had cheated on her with Stephanie McMahon, Vince’s daughter, before the two officially broke things off.

Triple H went on to later marry Stephanie and has since become an executive in the WWE. Laurer left the WWE in 2001, though both …

Former University of Mississippi Damore’ea Stringfellow is one of 95 underclassmen to declare for the 2017 NFL Draft. Monday, Jan. 16, was the deadline for players who are three years out of high school to announce their intentions.

Some players who decided to forgo their college eligibility received information from the NFL’s College Advisory Committee, which graded them as a first- or second-round pick. An interesting article on ESPN.com from Kevin Seifret took a closer look at the process.

Those who received a favorable free evaluation from the CAC are graded just on their football potential. The CAC doesn’t look at their off-the-field issues, or academic or medical problems.

A great example used in the story is University of Oklahoma running back Joe Mixon. There is no doubt that Mixon has first- or second-round talent on the field, but it will be interesting to see how teams view his year-long suspension for assault in 2014.

A video of Mixon punching a woman in the face and breaking her jaw, cheekbone and eye socket came out in December 2016. Recently the NFL has mishandled some very public cases of domestic assault .

Mixon entering the draft is another case where the league could be scrutinized depending on where he is drafted. If the talented running back is taken in the first round, it proves that winning in football matters more than off-the-field issues.

Just looking at football talent, it makes sense for players such as former Louisiana State University running back Leonard Fournette and Texas A&M University defensive end Myles Garrett to leave school early. That is not the case with every player who does, though.

Some get bad advice from friends and family or look to improve their life and their families’ lives by becoming a professional player. During the NFL Combine, it is good to hear NFL Network’s Mike Mayock’s evaluation of players.

Mayock is quick to point out that he doesn’t know a player’s personal situation, but he can tell if the player should have stayed in school and might be hurt by coming out early. That doesn’t mean Mayock is correct on every case.

In the 2015-2016 season, 322 players were evaluated, and 73 were told to return to school but declared for the draft anyway. Of those 73, 11 went in the first or second round, but 20 went undrafted.

That is the tricky part of the draft. It only takes one team to fall in love with a player and have need at that position.

Sometimes draft order hurts a player. One prime example is current Green Bay Packer quarterback Aaron Rodgers. The draft order of the 2005 NFL Draft meant that Rodgers could, and eventually did, slide after the San Francisco 49ers made their pick at No. 1.

That meant Rodgers fell all the way to the 24th pick, mainly because teams after the 49ers felt …

It is easy to say that Baylor University is a prime example of what is bad about college sports. The university is a textbook example of how the win-at-all-cost approach can lead an institution of higher learning into selling its morals for wins.

A major sexual-assault scandal broke out at Baylor with police arresting defensive end Tevin Elliott for rape charges in 2012 and his conviction in 2014. New information shows that then-head coach Art Briles helped Elliott stay on campus.

Elliott was accused of a second count of plagiarism that would have him suspended from the university and ineligible for the 2011 season. He missed an April 2011 deadline to appeal, but Briles personally got involved to help Elliott get an appeal.

Briles sent an email to then-university President Ken Starr about overturning the suspension, which Starr did, allowing Elliott to stay in school and on the team.

Briles, Starr and assistant coaches continued to hide or fix problems that Elliott had in missing classes, meaning those in charge at Baylor helped Elliott stay on campus, where he ended up raping a woman.

Elliott isn’t the only case at Baylor. Repeatedly, the coaches and even the Waco Police Department buried reports of players’ misbehavior. Recent reports show that the coaches tried to get people who Baylor football players had victimized not to press charges or report incidents.

A Title IX lawsuit from one woman alleges that from 2011 to 2014, at least 31 players committed 52 sexual assaults. Philadelphia law firm Pepper Hamilton revealed in a report that 17 women reported sexual assault or domestic violence from 19 players, including four gang rapes.

The scandal eventually took down Starr, Briles, assistant coaches and others in positions of leadership. Those in power did nearly everything possible to keep players from being arrested or charged with crimes, and tried to hinder the work of Title IX coordinator Patty Crawford.

Baylor isn’t a program that traditionally won a ton of games, and the last bowl game before the university hired Briles in 2008 was in 1994. The school’s last winning record before Briles was in 1995.

Under Briles, Baylor won 10 games in a season four times, and before him, it had won 10 games just once in program history. There is no question of whether Briles could recruit and coach, but when it came down to integrity and morality, he failed as a leader.

Winning mattered more at Baylor than players committing physical and sexual assault. Another recent lawsuit alleges that regents in a meeting with Baylor alumni and donors on why they couldn’t keep Briles and other involved in the scandals because they “didn’t uphold with the mission of the university.”

One donor is quoted as saying in the same meeting: “If you mention Baylor’s mission one more time, I’m (going to) throw up. … I was promised a national championship.”

The NCAA is …

One of the more interesting stories this week is that New Orleans Saints Head Coach Sean Payton met with former NFL quarterback Johnny Manziel during Super Bowl week.

There are few examples of a player destroying their career the way Manziel has. NFL teams are known to put up with a lot of crap from players with loads of talent. Heck, any sports-related field is willing to put up with a ton from stars because they are stars, including the MLB, NBA and even the WWE. Just check out the stuff that wrestler Shawn Michaels pulled in his younger years, but “The Showstopper” was one of the greatest talents ever in the ring.

The general consensus has been that it is all right to party like a rock star on Saturday if you can deliver the goods on Sunday. Famed New York Jets quarterback Joe Namath partied with the best of them but still could get it done when the game started. So could New York Yankees great Mickey Mantle. Manziel, on the other hand, couldn’t pull off the feat when the Cleveland Browns drafted him in 2014.

It worked for the quarterback when he was at Texas A&M University and made the news for his bad behavior. The same wild and crazy lifestyle didn’t go over well in the NFL, where players are supposed to be prepared on game day.

Since the Browns drafted in the first round with the 22nd overall pick, the former Heisman Trophy winner seemed to be in scandal after scandal. On the field, Manziel’s talent couldn’t eclipse the dumpster fire that he was off the field.

His antics eventually got old, and the Browns cut him in March 2016. No team wanted him during the offseason, and not many teams have shown interest in the quarterback.

If any coach could get a player to straighten up and live up to the talent that he possesses, it would be Payton. Payton and his current quarterback, Drew Brees, wouldn’t let Manziel act the way that he did with the Browns.

New Orleans, as a city, would be the big risk for signing Manziel. Few cities in America have a reputation for being a place to have a good time like The Big Easy. The temptation for Manziel would be great, and that is where Payton and Brees would have to keep him in check.

It doesn’t seem likely that New Orleans will sign Manziel, but Brees is 38 years old and in the final year of his contract. Payton doesn’t hurt anything by kicking the tires on a quarterback who could be really talented if he fixed his work ethic and personal life.

Remember Michaels mentioned above. Most of the superstars in the WWE disliked him when his back issues forced him to to leave the company. He later returned with the company after a four-and-half-year absence as a better person, according …

Folks tailgating at The Grove this fall on the campus of the University of Mississippi will no doubt talk about potential NCAA sanctions. At some point, the talk might turn to another university that’s just over 630 miles from Oxford, Miss.: Baylor University in Texas.

Rebels fans might be scratching their heads wondering why they are looking down the barrel of the NCAA’s gun, but Baylor University isn’t. The answer is simple: There are no rules in the massive NCAA rulebook on what is going on at Baylor. Last year, a sexual-assault scandal in the football program came to light, and since then, the allegations have continued to mount.

Each new lawsuit against the university is painting an ugly picture about what was going on at Baylor. Still, the Bears will get to compete for the Big 12 title and head to a bowl game, but not the Rebels.

In an article on Sports Illustrated’s website, SI.com, writer Andy Staples breaks down the reasons why the NCAA won’t punish Baylor.

He points out that the organization jumped the gun against Pennsylvania State University in 2012.

The NCAA punished Penn State in the wake of the Jerry Sandusky child abuse case. For the most part, many of the sanctions have quietly been reduced or repealed.

Personally, I was against the punishment for Penn State, not because of I’m a fan of the university but because the NCAA overstepped its boundaries. We can all agree that the NCAA should relax some rules and do away with others, but it can’t just make up rules on the fly.

Public outcry drowned out common sense. For the NCAA, the PSU case became, “We have to do something,” and not a question of whether organization had the ability to do something. The NCAA has learned its lesson so far in the Baylor case, but public outcry grows by the day.

It is amazing that an organization that has rules for when a coach can call or text a recruit doesn’t have rules when something horrific like what happened at Penn State and what is happening at Baylor. Maybe that should change.

Even before the Penn State scandal, the NCAA had a chance to change the rules and bring the hammer down on programs that were covering up crimes. In 2003 also at Baylor, basketball player Carlton Dotson murdered fellow teammate Patrick Dennehy.

Then-Head Coach Dave Bliss lied about Dennehy, saying he had become a drug dealer to pay his tuition. In reality, Bliss was paying for Dennehy’s tuition in order to get around NCAA rules.

Long story short, Baylor got in trouble, not for trying to cover up a murder, but because a coach playing fast and loose with rules in the NCAA books. Bliss got a 10-year show-cause penalty, which has ended his chances of coaching at another NCAA school.

It was a chance for the organization to look at changing …

This is worth repeating after Tampa Bay proved me wrong on Thursday and beat the Minnesota Vikings. Parity is in full effect in the NFL this season.... There is going to be a team that started slowly and makes the NFL Playoffs. My personal pick is the New Orleans Saints and that pick looks even better if the Saints win against the Broncos on Sunday night.

The NFL owners recently approved two new rule changes that will be one-year test rules next season. Both were highly controversial, one among coaches and the other among players.

First, here's a look at minor rule changes.

All chop blocks, which are when one offensive player is blocking a defensive player high, and another hits the same defensive player low, are now illegal in the NFL.

Defensive players are at risk to major injuries because of the blocks and in most cases, the NFL already outlawed them. Offensive linemen can still cut block (a one-on-one low block) a defensive player.

Now, just one season after the NFL experimented with the idea, points-after-touchdown kicks ("extra points") are permanent from the 15-yard line. There were 71 misses on extra-point kicks last season with the new rule change, and 27 teams missed an extra point. The defense is still allowed to try and score on missed extra points as well.

The owners also tweaked the horse-collar rule. Now, it is a horse-collar penalty to take a player down by the nameplate or above to make a tackle. Again, this is a player safety rule, but it will have some effect on games next season.

Other changes include:

Eliminating the five-yard penalty for illegal touching after a player goes out of bounds and reestablishes himself inbounds. Now, it is just a loss of down.

Coaches can use the coach-to-player radio system whether they are on the sideline or in the coaches booth.

Teams will receive a delay of game penalty if they try to call a timeout when they aren’t allowed to.

Eliminating multiple spots of enforcement on double fouls after a change of possession.

Teams now don’t have to designate which player will return from short-term injured reserve, although teams can still only bring back one player each season from IR.

Now, here's some information on the controversial rule changes:

First, players or coaches can be ejected from a game after two personal foul penalties. Players and coaches met this rule with resistance, with coaches fearing that players would bait others into penalties.

Only certain types of personal foul penalties will qualify for the ejection. Throwing a punch, forearm or kicking an opponent, if contact is made or not, will be part of the new ejection rule.

Using abusive, threatening or insulting language to an opponent, official, teammates or league officials or using baiting or taunting acts or words to foster ill will between teams can now lead to an ejection with two fouls.

While coaches or players won’t like the ejection rule, it isn’t likely to cause many, if any, ejections. A similar rule exists in college football but rarely comes into play as far as ejections go during games.

The biggest rule change that will affect every game is the new kickoff rule. Now, touchbacks after kickoffs will come out to the 25-yard line instead of the 20-yard line. …

This morning the NCAA came down hard on Penn State in an unprecedented action not involving infractions of NCAA rules. Penn State was hit with a four year bowl ban, $60 million fine and a reduction of 10 initial scholarships and 20 scholarships for the next four years. Also 111 wins vacated from 1998 to 2011, basically symbolically ending Joe Paterno's legacy.

While the NCAA didn't give Penn State the death penalty, it did cripple the program for the next 10 to 20 year if not more. Players still eligible can transfer to other schools and play immediately.

The feeding frenzy of coaches trying to lure Penn State players away might show football programs are not even thinking twice about happened to the Nittany Lions today. I doubt that the punishment of Penn State will curb the spending and power of college football.

Even though NCAA president Mark Emmert says the Penn State punishment doesn't open Pandora's Box in college sports. It does raise a serious question of why not.

The NCAA did nothing in 2003 when Baylor basketball player Carlton Dotson murdered teammate Patrick Dennehy. Former Baylor head coach Dave Bliss even conspired to cover up the true facts of Dennehy’s murder. Baylor was punished for NCAA violations but in there was no punishment that was included for the murder of Dennehy. Baylor basketball has bounced back to play in the post season in basketball four times since the NCAA levied penalties on the Bears in 2005.

Should the NCAA go back and punish Baylor (retroactively punishing school is something the NCAA does all the time)?

What about the death of Virginia women’s lacrosse Yeardley Love? In 2010, Love was murdered by her former boyfriend and men’s lacrosse player George Huguely.

Love’s mother, Sharon Love, is suing the state and coaches ignored Huguely's erratic behavior, including two alcohol-related arrests, frequent intoxication and attacks on another female student, a teammate and a Virginia tennis player.

Sharon Love claims the university, head coach Dom Starsia, assistant coach Marc Van Arsdale, and athletic director Craig Littlepage didn’t discipline Huguely for his behavior or get him treatment for anger management and alcohol abuse.

If the claims are true, should Virginia be punished for not protecting Love from Huguely and because of their lack of concern she ended up dead?

In an ongoing investigation, several Montana football players along with another man are accused of gang raping a fellow student. In the Montana case, head coach Robin Pflugrad disciplined several players but didn’t report the incidents to his superiors.

Montana university president Royce Engstrom said in a statement "The University of Montana has determined not to renew the contracts of Athletics Director Jim O'Day and head football coach Robin Pflugrad." Then Engstron thanked both O’Day and Pflugrad for their service as he let them go.

The Department of Justice is investigating the university and campus police, along with the …

There has been plenty of talk this week about the state of TV ratings for NFL games. Currently, the league is experiencing a dip of 10 to 11 percent in the ratings from the previous season.

Everyone is speculating what is causing the ratings to drop, but there is no magical answer to the decline in viewership.

But here are my reasons, from smallest to biggest.

6. Scandals

It seems like the scandals never end in the NFL—Bountygate, Conclusions, Deflategate, domestic violence by players, and so on and so forth.

It wouldn’t be surprising to see fans stop tuning in because they are tired of hearing about a different scandal each week. After a while, everyone gets fed up with the constant, never-ending negative news coming out of the league.

These fans will probably return around the playoffs as long as another giant scandal doesn’t grip the league for the rest of the season. If the scandals keep up, these fans could find something else to watch.

5. Anthem Protest

Just look on Facebook or other social media sites, and you will see articles on folks protesting the protesters in the NFL.

Since players started kneeling during the national anthem, fans have supported and criticized the players involved. Those who dislike the protest have decided not to watch.

Casual fans and those who don’t follow a team regularly are probably the ones more likely to not watch because of the anthem protests. Hardcore Dallas Cowboys, Green Bay Packers, Pittsburgh Steelers and other national-team fans are going to tune in each week.

These fans will come back at some point, but they will probably not watch while they are mad at the players. Few people are that upset over the players to not watch at all, so in reality, this could make up a small number of viewer loss.

4. MLB Playoffs

The ratings for the MLB playoffs are up this year. Why? Because fans have strong interest in the teams still alive this postseason.

They want to see if the Chicago Cubs can break their curse and win their first World Series since 1908. They want to see if the Cleveland Indians can win their first World Series since 1948.

With the playoff games on TBS, MLB Network and FS1, fans are finding channels they don’t normally tune into and watching this postseason.

MLB’s postseason is going to steal more casual fans from NFL games. Everyone wants to see something they have never seen before, and a ton of people have never seen a Cubs or Indians team win the World Series.

These fans will return to football once the World Series is over in late October or early November, depending how long the series lasts. This is one of the few times in recent years that the MLB playoffs have been more compelling than the NFL regular season.

3. Too Much NFL