Caputo's Takes on the Sports World

Lots to talk about in the Sports World here at Caputo's Corner.  December is shaping up to be quite an active month as we come down the stretch in the NFL season (not like my team will have any say in the outcome) and coaches are getting canned left and right in the NHL, including in Washington.  Things are getting awfully creepy on college campuses in the wake of the Penn State fiasco, just ask Syracuse.  Caputo's Corner takes a look at the goings on.


Boeheim (from rumorsandrants.com)


-So now Syracuse is under the pedophile coach spotlight.  Syracuse basketball is very much like Penn State football when it comes to prominence in the sport, and Jim Boeheim is about as iconic a basketball coach as Joe Paterno was a football coach, and now they can share something else in common...albeit a litte more grotesque.  Longtime basketball assistant Bernard Fine was fired this week after an individual who is now 29 years old came forward and accused Fine of abusing him while he was a Syracuse ballboy several years ago.  In the immediate aftermath of the accusation, Boeheim immediately came to the defense of his assistant in a very angry manner, essentially dismissing the accusation as false.  Now, as the facts start to trickle in, namely a tape recording on which Fine's wife admits to the deviant behavior, Boeheim appears moreso to have egg on his face.  These allegations are not new, but the University did its own investigation in 2005 and found no hard evidence of wrongdoing, thus leaving Fine on the payroll at the time.  Boeheim claims to have no knowledge of the alleged misbehavior, and thus will not receive the same treatment that Paterno received at Penn State (where things are just getting worse for Jerry Sandusky...as the civil suits are now starting and he's now considering just copping a plea).  All of these episodes are simply pathetic.  What has college sports devolved into?  College sports used to be about pride, sportsmanship, and fun.  Now they are all about improper benefits, academic fraud, and sexual abuse of minors.  Meanwhile, the University of Maryland just whacked 8 varsity sports starting at the end of the academic year.  Now, let me ask you, who involved with those programs are involved in any of the deviant activities mentioned before?  The answer: nobody.  And why again are their programs getting the ax?  I'm not saying to cut football and basketball.  It just seems weird to me that swimming and diving are "unsustainable" while football and basketball rake in more money than they can count...in spite of all of the bad behavior going on. 

Suh (from askmen.com)

-Ndamukong Suh was suspended for two games by the NFL for this act of savagry on Thanksgiving Day...I didn't know Thanksgiving was a day where stomping on somebody was a valid sign of affection.  Suh was ejected for that play and his run of personal fouls over the course of his short career has quickly attained him the label of a "dirty player." Whether or not he intends to play dirty is really nobody's guess, but the bottom line is that this guy is extremely talented.  He was nominated for just about every award a defensive lineman can receive while at Nebraska, the Outland, the Lombardi, the Bednarik, the list goes on and on.  However, ever since the Lions chose him with the #2 pick in the 2010 draft, he has developed some kind of mean streak.  Now his trophies are being replaced with yellow flags, steep fines, and now suspensions and ejections.  I am kind of surprised that after this latest episode that the league is not mandating that Suh receive anger management or some other kind of therapy.  Once is a mistake, twice is a trend, and three times is a problem.  In Suh's case, this is far more than just three times.  This may have been the first time he had been ejected, but there have been several severe penalties that ejection could have been warranted, but the refs chose not to do so.  Getting ejected in this league is hard to do and Suh pulled it off with style.  I really think some anger management would do him some good.  Since the league won't step up to the plate and make him get some help, perhaps the Lions will step in and make him do it.  Perhaps pressure from esteemed bloggers like myself will make him do it.  No sir, not the NFL, they'll just take their fine check, give him a token suspension, and call it a day. 

-The NBA lockout is over, we think.  After several failed proposals, the league and union seem to have finally come to an accord that will allow the season to start on Christmas Day with a tripleheader.  The season has been reduced to 66 games.  And that's all I have to say about that.