Superimposable.org

Matt Jones’ suspension (or lack thereof) for cocaine possession has been clogging the airwaves of sportsradio (which I can’t stand, but the X (WXDX 105.9) in Pittsburgh repaced it’s afternoon drive host with my second least favorite windbag on the planet Mark Madden (failed talk radio host and WWE commentator, self proclaimed ’super-genius’—Sean Hannity is #1 for those playing the home game)–

More importantly, this issue has clogged up the sportspage, both online and on paper— I give you this idiotic article, and my response:

sportshack says:

Dear Roger Goodell,

I’d just like to start by saying that I like what you’ve done so far in your tenure as the commissioner of the NFL. You’ve laid down the law with players. When they get in trouble with the law, speak out against the refs, or make an illegal hit, you act swiftly and without remorse in handing out suspensions and fines.

But there is one player who has fallen through the cracks. I don’t know how he’s gotten by you. I’m talking about Matt Jones, who was caught with cocaine in July, then handed down a suspension in October, but appealed his penalty. Here we are in November and he still has yet to miss a game this year.

I think you might have forgotten about him. Maybe it’s because you were too busy suspending Adam Jones for getting in a fight with his bodyguard. Or maybe you got distracted by Santonio Holmes getting caught with marijuana and immediately being suspended for the game just a day after his arrest. Or maybe your attention was diverted by the comments made by Joey Porter about NFL refs causing an immediate fine. Or maybe it was Larry Johnson’s altercation in a bar that warranted a suspension without conviction.

You have handed out countless suspensions this year and all of them have been swift and stern, so why is it that Jones gets caught with cocaine four months ago and still has not missed a single game? In fact, he is leading his team in receptions right now with 45 catches for 524 yards and two touchdowns.

So what is going on here?

Despite admitting guilt, Jones has somehow avoided jail time and gotten any potential conviction banished from his record by sending his case to drug court. But all the other players were suspended without ever being convicted of anything. Holmes was a first-time offender with his marijuana possession but that didn’t matter. How is it that Jones even made it to October without any attempted suspension?

I just want an answer, Mr. Goodell. Any reasonable response will do. Even if you told me that it was complexion protection I could live with that. Or if you said he was a close friend of yours and they don’t get punished, I’d at least be at peace. But to sit here and do nothing has me puzzled.

If Jones has somehow pulled the wool over your eyes somehow, he should teach a class to the rest of the NFL, because getting caught preparing crack with a credit card in your car is far worse than commenting about refs, hitting a quarterback late, or having marijuana in your pocket.

But I’m not going to player hate on Jones in this letter; instead I’m calling you out.

Your lack of action here displays a severe inconsistency in your policies. With all due respect Mr. Goodell, I need you to prove to me and the rest of the league that there aren’t different sets of rules for different players.

Sincerely,

A Concerned Journalist

(Daniel Abraham from thetowerlight.com –independent student newspaper at Towson State)

Koolaidman sez:

Oh come off it, already.

This is Matt Jones First Offense… in the interest of disclosure, I was born and raised in pittsburgh, and am a steeler/wvu mountaineer fan.

Santonio Holmes recently faced his third arrest, third, since being drafted.

Pacman Jones has been a defense attorney’s wet dream.

As is the usual case, Czar Goodell awaited the conclusion of Matt Jones’ hearing before levying the suspension. He came down hard initially– 3 games for a first offense. Keep in mind Patriots RB Kevin Faulk was arrested in the offseason on drug charges, and was suspended one game, because it was his first offense.

(On the cocaine/marijuana or felony/misdemeanor argument, it’s not a very valid distinction. Under Federal law, pot and coke are both Schedule I substances… and the amount of cocaine jones was caught with (charged as a felony in Arkansas, because possession of ANY amount of cocaine is a felony in Arkansas— would have been a misdemeanor in many states, including Pennsylvania– the long and short of it is that Jones was arrested for a drug violation–his first personal conduct offense of any kind since joining the league)

Jones representatives have two lines of argument they are likely pursuing.

1) Jones penalty was too harsh, given the precedent sent by the Faulk case and other “first arrest” cases. Santonio was arrested for Domestic Battery, a violent crime with a victim his first time out.

2) Because of the nature of Drug Court, Jones is not yet done with the judicial process. Most states treat drug court as a diversionary punishment—meaning the charges have not been fully adjudicated, and that the court retains the right to try, convict and/or punish Jones according to the statute should he not complete his rehabilitation program and community service.

If you look at other suspensions around the league for off field conduct, Jones initial punishment is much stiffer than the precedent set by Goodell. I think there is a strong possibility that Goodell, being conscious of the way that punishment of Jones may be interpreted, came down on Jones hard because of his race— so that people could not level accusations “complexion protection”– or that Goodell “has it in for african american players” (which, I think he does. I think that the punishments leveled against Pac, and Tank Johnson were too stiff. I think it is insane and counter to what America is all about that Goodell has been targeting players even when they are not convicted of a crime (hell, sometimes not even arrested).

I think that Goodell tried to hit Jones hard to avoid that sort of debate from occurring. The reason I think the appeal process has taken so long is that Goodell realizes he may have been overzealous with Jones’ suspension, and now is caught in a bind.

On one hand, precedent shows that Jones should have likely been given a one (or at the most two) game suspension… However, Goodell has been very inflexible on appeals (gotta love a system where you appeal to the same person who was judge, jury and executioner in the first case)–

I would measure a guess that the league has been dragging its feet because Goodell isn’t quite sure how to handle the mess he has created.

In your piece, you come off as more a hater than a journalist, though. I also think that taking a critical look at the situation, rather than offering a knee-jerk “why the h*ll hasn’t this guy been suspended yet?!” rant, would have brought you to a different conclusion.

——————

why did the koolaidman feel the need to take a shot at some writer from an off campus newspaper? Because he was checking on Jones news (he’s the #4wr on my fantasy squad)–and this uninformed gut reaction bullshit pisses me off… plus I figured it’d make good blog fodder.

This is the first post in the DrMemories category.  It’s also one of my older memories.  Not quite the beginning of my history, but close enough I suppose. Might as well start at (or near) the beginning.

Shortly after my fifth birthday, my Mother finally left her husband.  I won’t say my father for any number of reasons, few relevant to this memory.

At the time we were living Dayton, Ohio.  I remember we had a chain link fence around our yard, I had a Snoopy rocker/slide, and my favorite toy was “Popoids”.  I don’t remember any part of the exodus, only the arrival.

My Aunt at the time was living with her husband and my two cousins in a cabin outside of Garfield.  It was winter and their dirt driveway was long and treacherous.  Which is where this memory begins.  My Aunt met us at the top of their driveway in her Jeep Cherokee.  In my head the Jeep was always brown, but I wouldn’t swear to it.

The ride down the driveway (one I would take hundreds, if not thousands of times more in my life) seemed to take forever.  When we arrived at the house, I was awe-struck.  You see, they lived in an honest to goodness Log Cabin.  I don’t mean stylistically a log cabin, I mean a no-shit “this wall is this long because that’s how long this piece of stripped round timber is” cabin.  There was no brickwork save the central fireplace, and the only door inside the house was a single rough-hewn collection of planks cordoning off the master bedroom.

At some point that evening, my Aunt and Uncle smoked pot.  The smell has remained in my memory all my life.  They smoked from an ad-hoc pipe made out of a paper towel tube with a metal stem, some foil and what might have been elmers glue on the seams.  During my more experimental youth, I would revisit that smell every time I smoked Good Ol’ Country Backyard weed.

Strangely enough, I’ve never been able to remember if my Mom smoked the grass or not.  Given her age at the time and the circumstances, I suppose it’s possible.  But as vivid as this memory is, even now I don’t know for sure if she did or not.

At some point we moved into a duplex in Hyde Park, my mother sharing the apartment with a strange man who ate only macrobiotic food.  I’ve no idea how long we stayed at my Aunt’s before moving, and I don’t actually remember anything from in-between.

I have this half conceived notion that Superimposable will be a dumping grounds of sorts.  There is no focus per se, just a place to write for yourself.  If there is an agenda, it belongs solely to the author.

Things are intentionally semi-anonymous. I say semi-anonymous because the authors (probably) know who the other authors are.  Otherwise, any claim to ownership is solely up to the individual author.

I guess the point is to allow people to write freely, without fear of it somehow being held against them at a later date.

I’ve had the idea of chronicling bits of my life for a while.  I’ve even made a few false starts.  This may end up being another one.

As the mood strikes me, I am going to brain dump various memories, parts of my life, here to superimposable.  For the sake of temporal organization, I’ll be tagging each post with the year I think it happened in, and possibly a season.  With the expectation that this will become an ongoing habit, I’ll also use the drmemories category, just for easy aggregation.

Ok,

Time for the trashiest thing I’ve ever seen– Back in March of ‘06, I went to Biloxi, Mississippi to do some post Hurricane Katrina volunteer work… dealing with FEMA and all sorts of fun…

At the time there was very little hotel availability near Biloxi, construction crews and displaced families had it pretty well booked solid… So I decided to stay in Mobile, Alabama–about an hour to the east, and commute to Biloxi each day.

Now, some of the things I saw surrounding the Hurricane and Recovery make for a pretty good set of stories, but that is for another time.

I decide one night to take advantage of my micro-fridge and get something other than take out/fast food… So, I find the local Super Wal Mart. Continue reading ‘Something a lil less heavy.’ »

Update: a recent article in Slate covers the CRA in more detail

The old KoolAidMan recently exchanged emails with a republican friend of mine who suggested that the economic collapse is the fault of the  Community Reinvestment Act-- so briefly check that out— and then go below for what has really gone so horribly wrong… Complete with a Lindsay Lohan reference! Continue reading ‘The Real Problem with the Economy, and Why We Need a Little Government Regulation’ »

Ok, If you’re like the koolaidman, you’re already sick of this election. I’m sick of John McCain reptilian face and turkey neck. I’m sick of email forwards and crazed rednecks who think Obama is going to suicide bomb his own inauguration…

I’m sick of Sarah Palin’s “Fargo” accent that makes her sound even less intelligent than not knowing what the Bush Doctrine is… or intimating that being able to see Russia from Alaska givers her x-ray vision inside of Vlad Putin’s innermost thoughts.

Continue reading ‘Time for the Obligatory Palin Conspiracy Theory!’ »

Your move first.

Oh, dogs.  Yeah, I like dags…

…but not when they shit everywhere.

Normally, the beginning of the day goes by without incident.  I collect a paycheck, but have no work to speak of, so my days are filled with boredom and cigarettes.  On any given morning I wake up, piss, and go outside for a smoke.  This morning was a bit different.

Continue reading ‘d’ya like dags?’ »

Scene:

A crowd of twenty-somethings in a basement, thoroughly intoxicated. In the middle of the room is a table, upon which there are several paper plates. Each plate holds a large amorphous Jell-O blob, so rich in alcohol it barely maintains cohesion.

Larger than necessary speakers blare 90’s rock music while the crowd looks on as two men talk. Man One is wearing ass-less chaps, a hooded sweatshirt, and very little else.

In a flash, Man Two is on his knees eating vodka-soaked Jell-O from a large plastic kitchen spoon. The crowd roars with laughter. The spoon? It’s clenched firmly between the ass cheeks of The Man in Chaps.

At the time, this makes perfect sense.

Continue reading ‘Social Lubrication’ »

And here.. we… go….