Fair Pay to Play Act is only fair
California took one small pen stroke, but one giant leap toward college athletes being compensated when Gov. Gavin Newson signed into law Senate Bill 206 on Sept. 27 on HBO’s “The Shop.”
The Fair Pay to Play Act was officially signed Sept. 30. Though it will not go into law until Jan. 1, 2023, California made the right move in setting the ball rolling toward athletes being paid for their names, images or likenesses.
Safety is not NFL's priority
Lost in the recent off-field crimes and allegations against players such as Kareem Hunt, Tyreek Hill, Antonio Brown and, well, Antonio Brown, is an on-field issue that is equally critical in and of itself: player safety.
The league was reminded of this problem again Sunday with a hit that was utterly disgraceful.
Injuries, benchings usher in new QB era
The wave of the future is here, and it’s not self-driving cars or artificial intelligence. It’s the first and second-year NFL starting quarterbacks: the New York Giants’ Daniel Jones, Jacksonville Jaguars’ Gardner Minshew II; and of course Patrick Mahomes of the Kansas City Chiefs and Lamar Jackson of the Baltimore Ravens.
Dodgers will win 2019 World Series
When the champagne pops once again in the Dodger Stadium clubhouse in just over a month, it will be sprayed in the home team’s clubhouse this time.
In an annual event that now seems as guaranteed as death and taxes, the Dodgers clinched their seventh-consecutive National League West division title last week.
Brown signing will make or break Pats
At at glance, the signing of Antonio Brown by the New England Patriots five hours after he was cut by the Oakland/Las Vegas Raiders on Saturday all but guaranteed the team would repeat as Super Bowl champions.
Then the Patriots came out on Sunday Night Football and removed all doubt. They made the Pittsburgh Steelers — nearly a playoff team a year ago — look like they belong in the XFL, bludgeoning them to the tune of a 33-3 score with Brown not yet in uniform.
Colts' Luck went out of NFL on top
Andrew Luck made the right decision to retire at 29 years old.
In fact, for a man with an architecture degree from Stanford, the timing made perfect sense.
Second time not a charm for NFL
Seemingly in a competition with itself for which professional sports league can have both the worst and most wildly inconsistent stance on domestic violence, the NFL decided July 19 not to discipline Kansas City Chiefs wide receiver Tyreek Hill in regard to allegations of child abuse.
This decision is baffling, and it speaks to a larger indictment on the NFL: The league cannot decide what its policy is on domestic violence, which is worse than not having one at all.
Steroid users do not deserve spot in baseball Hall of Fame
Mariano Rivera, Roy Halladay, Mike Mussina and Edgar Martinez. These are the four players who were voted on by the Baseball Writers Association of America be inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame this Sunday in Cooperstown, N.Y.
However, as in previous years, baseball’s all-time “home run king” Barry Bonds and seven-time Cy Young award winner Roger Clemens fell well short of the requisite 75 percent of votes to be inducted.
NBA’s battle for LA begins
For the first time ever, there is a true NBA LA rivalry. The Hallway Series —as the four times the Los Angeles Lakers and Los Angeles Clippers play each year has come to be known — will be much more like a hallway crusade this year.
California sports betting is a no-brainer
On June 27, California state lawmakers proposed a November 2020 ballot measure to legalize sports betting in our home state. This measure should absolutely be added to the ballot and be passed by voters.
The measure must gain a two-thirds vote in the state Legislature to be added to the ballot, where it could be approved with a majority vote. State Sen. Bill Dodd of Napa and Assemblyman Adam Gray of Merced proposed the measure.
The NCAA compensation conundrum
College athletes deserve to be paid if their likeness is used in any way, shape or form to promote their respective university’s brand. But in practice, this simple statement becomes the sports equivalent of rocket science.
The long-debated topic of paying student-athletes came up again this week, and paying California college athletes, specifically.