By Ken Reed
There were a couple new lows in SportsWorld this week.
Here’s the quick synopsis:
Kirby Smart Disallows Transfers to Miami
Mark Richt is now the head football coach at the University of Miami. He formerly was the head coach at Georgia. Kirby Smart left a coordinator position at Alabama to take the head job at Georgia. In one of his first major moves, Smart banned any of his players from transferring to Miami to play for their old coach.
Smart is allowed to do this do under existing NCAA rules. So, basically, the NCAA says Smart can leave Alabama for a greener pay day at Georgia but he can refuse to let his players leave the Georgia plantation.
“Kirby Smart may never speak to me again and I don’t care,” said ESPN talk show host Mike Greenberg.
“This is a disgrace, an absolute disgrace. If a kid decides for whatever reason to go from one school to another, he should be allowed to no matter what. You (Smart) got to take whatever job you want and get paid millions of dollars.”
USA Today college football writer, Dan Wolken, pointed out that despite NCAA rules allowing the transfer ban, not all coaches choose to use it. “Mark Richt last year at SEC spring meetings on why he doesn’t restrict transfers: ‘Life’s too short.’ Pretty much a perfect quote.”
Let’s update the scoreboard on transfer policies: Richt 1 Smart 0.
Jerry Jones Says Trying to Link Football and CTE is ‘Absurd’
A little more than a week after the NFL’s top health expert, Jeff Miller, said there “certainly” was a link between the brain disease CTE and playing the game, Jerry Jones said there is no such established link and that to say there was is “absurd.”
Miller said his conclusion was based partly on the work of Boston University neuropathologist Ann McKee, who has diagnosed CTE in the brains of 90 of 94 NFL players.
“It cannot be rare,” says McKee. “In fact, I think we are going to be surprised at how common it is” in football players, says McKee.
Dr. Julian Bailes, a former Pittsburgh Steelers doctor and co-director of the NorthShore Neurological Institute said he thinks its dangerous for the NFL to continue to cast doubts on established CTE research.
“We can’t let these scientific discussions be hijacked by people creating doubts about causation,” said Bailes. “The only known cause we have thus far is repetitive cranial impact.”
The absurdity known as Jerry Jones continues …
— Ken Reed, Sports Policy Director, League of Fans
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