Back to the sports....

Got this from ESPN.com today...thought I would post it here. My first thought was, "good, the NCAA got this one right for a change."

You see, I don't feel that there is anything wrong with college athletes appearing in a commercial in their town. Typically, the NCAA is so corupt that it thinks they can exploit these "amateur" athletes in their own promotional material, but the minute someone goes and attempts to use their likeness outside of the NCAA bubble it becomes a violation. It's crap. So I'm actually GLAD that nothing happened to these Notre Dame athletes.

However, my next thought was this. Of course they didn't bust Notre Dame. Or pretty boy Matt Leinart last year. But if this was Ted Ginn Jr. or Troy Smith from THE Ohio State University? Holy hell would the Buckeyes have the media and the NCAA come down on them. It'd be all over deadspin, that's for sure. I'm not even kidding here people. "Unintentional" and "inadvertant"? What a joke! As if college students don't have a clue that appearing in a promotionl spot is an endorsment! Right, they wanted you to do it because you're a good actor, not because you play football for Notre Dame.

Again, I'm glad nothing happened to this kids, but for the NCAA to believe that these players had no idea that what they were doing was an endorsement is either completely nieve or completely corupt.

Here is the article, from espn.go.com. It's part of the go network. go dot com.

SOUTH BEND, Ind. -- The NCAA won't penalize Notre Dame football and basketball players who participated in promotional spots for a sports talk show on a local television station.

While the NCAA found that the athletes had made an improper "implied endorsement," there was no indication the violations were intentional, John Heisler, Notre Dame's senior associate athletic director, said Wednesday.

"As best as anyone can tell this was completely inadvertent all around," he said.

Notre Dame reviewed the actions of the athletes after questions were raised about the promotional spots last week. The school turned its findings over to the NCAA on Tuesday, Heisler said.

"There are no penalties involved and no eligibility implications as far as the three student-athletes are concerned," he said.

The second-ranked Fighting Irish open their season Sept. 2 against Georgia Tech.

Last year, USC quarterback Matt Leinart had his eligibility temporarily revoked after appearing in a promotional segment on ESPN. Leinart was reinstated without missing a game after Southern California petitioned the NCAA. The NCAA said Leinart's actions were "unintentional and inadvertent."

A Week to Remember Forget

So this was supposed to be a great and busy week...and it has been. Wednesday night was supposed to be a fun, low key game...then mother nature intervened.

Where to begin?

Monday morning we had our first meeting for All-Star logistics that ran for almost 2 hours. ZZZZZZZ. Then I had one of my sponsors come in for a meeting they had scheduled (at 8:30 that morning when they are supposed to give me 3 days notice) to use their suite during the day with their advertising agency. They took up half my afternoon with 8 million questions and a handful of complaints to the catering service, Levy, among other things. I ended up sticking around here and getting work done until about 7:00, which wouldn't have been bad, except that the Cubs had a night game and many streets were ALREADY being shut down for Lalapolooza (sp?) so the traffic on Lake Shore Drive was terrible. Took me about 2 hours to get home. I could've riden home in HALF that. Easily.

And I would have. Except it has been about 100 degrees every day for a week. Not fun. I also couldn't/can't because I rode up to play in a beach soccer tournament last weekend at Montrose Harbor and now the bike it a little dirty with sand. I need to clean it up and get the rear wheel realigned from when I drilled a pothole pretty hard. The weather was bad one day last week and I just didn't see it until the last second so I had to try to jump the bike over it. Needless to say, the back wheel hit, hard, and it's been a little out of line ever since.

So, then, Tuesday morning as I got to my car, I saw a parking ticket. I have already written my letter to contest it because my sticker CLEARLY says that I can park in a 383 Zone during Cubs' night games. I'm really pissed about the ticket too. Tuesday night was another long one, probably left the office around 7:00 and then went to get an oil change before the long drive home. I think I got there around 8:30.

Wednesday night was the mother of all long days. We were supposed to play against Kansas City in a US Open Cup match, which is sanctioned by US Soccer, not MLS. Basically, we were at their mercy instead of how we normally control EVERYTHING in our own building. At about 7:00 they started seeing lightning in the distance and decided that we needed to postpone the start. We had about 5,000 people (Open Cup games don't sell very well) standing in the concourse away from the seats just drinking and waiting for announcements. At about 8:15 it starts pouring rain with nasty lightning. It would clear up about 20-30 minutes later and they'd show all clear on the radar, and then, BAM, out of nowhere another cell would drill us. This went on for a couple of hours until at 10:30 the game operations crew came over the radio. "If the teams aren't on the field and warming up by 11:59, then we're not getting the game in."

You see, in all my years of soccer, I haven't ever seen a sanctioned USSF game called off for weather. Not only that, but this is the Open Cup. The next round begins in a couple of weeks. It's not like this tournament makes any money and Kansas City spent the money to fly up here for the match. Lucky for us, K.C. is coming back for a Wednesday tilt on August 16th, so they are going to come up a few days early and play us twice in three days. So now I have added Monday, August 14th to the summer from scheduling hell.

Thursday wasn't so bad. After not getting ANY sleep the night before, I threw the contacts in my Jack Bauer man-bag and wore my glasses to work. I had a fairly long day, but that included a free (crappy) lunch courtesy of the league office and another All-Star meeting that took about an hour. I managed to leave at around 6:00 and fell asleep the second I walked in the door. I got up and watched the end of the Indians' game on the deuce and then went back to bed around 10-11. Not sure, really. I was in a daze most of the night.

So here I am again, back at it today, bright and early. Today the MLS All-Stars are on the field practicing (as I type this) and then there are some run-through things this afternoon for tomorrow's match. At 4:00, the gates open up and Chelsea takes the field around 5:30 for practice. If anyone reading this would like tickets, they are on sale for $25...but if you send me an email at the office (bcaputo at chicago-fire.com) I can comp out 2 tickets for you and a guest. The charade of Chelsea ends between 7-8, at which point I have to head downtown to the River East Art Center for the MLS All-Star Gala. I'll be there sometime between 8 and midnight, or a bit after. It should be a pretty cool event, it's a private gathering for MLS All-Stars, former All-Stars and national team players, league and Fire staff and a few VIPs.

Then on Saturday...oh lord. Security is ridiculous. I'm a senior level account executive over here and I don't even have an ALL access. The gates open for the Soccer Celebration at 1:00 (basically a fan-fest) and then the park opens fully at 3:30 (before then you can only be in the plaza.) Then at 5:00 they'll shut the SC down and force everyone into their seats so the place looks full (which it will be) when the TV goes live at 5:00. Kick-off isn't until 5:48, but the on-field stuff gets going at 5:20. After the game ends, I'll probably have post-game parties and crap to get to long into the night.

Sunday I get up at the ass-crack of dawn to head up to Vernon Hills for MY team's game. We have been struggling lately, although I managed to put another ball in the net. You'd think the captain would have changed the line-up around a bit by now, but he hasn't. I can't wait to run my own club so I can make those decisions. When I get home Sunday, I will probably crash very hard and not wake up for a week.

This should be a great and memorable week for me, but I fear I'm going to be too tired to really enjoy myself.