Joe Ely’s classic song “Fighting For My Life” contains the lyric:
I don’t mean to crash the cymbals, I don’t mean to beat the drum
I don’t want to waste your time, I’d rather save you some.
TMQ’s favorite Batman film is “Batman: Mask of the Phantasm“. You can now skip the first 335 words of this week’s column. And if that’s all you were looking for, you can skip everything after the jump, too.
We were expecting TMQ to start up again soonish, and actually noticed that the first TMQ of the season went up last Tuesday. Unfortunately, some personal issues kept us from getting back into the swing of things until now. Future TMQ Watches will be posted on the same Tuesday as the TMQ, barring unusual and unforeseen circumstances.
And with that, let’s fill the chainsaw’s gas tank with two-stroke mix, pull the starter cord, and get going. Winter will be here sooner than we think.
Tyrone Freeman used to be the president of Local 6434 of the Service Employees Industrial Union (SEIU).
Then things started happening. The LAT did a series of reports on Freeman’s spending as head of the local. The federal Department of Labor, the FBI, and the IRS started investigating.
And now Freeman has been indicted on 15 counts:
Oddly enough, I see no mention of strippers. Freeman was apparently big on cigars and cognac.
Yeah, Hawaii is nice and all. But, dude, the Pro Bowl? Seriously?
Obit watch: Junior Seau, former linebacker for the San Diego Chargers, Miami Dolphins, and New England Patriots.
And the Kennedy assassination conspiracy has claimed another victim: Earl Rose, the Dallas County medical examiner who wanted to autopsy Kennedy but was overruled. Dr. Rose also did the autopsies on J.D. Tippit (the police officer Oswald shot), on Oswald himself, and on Jack Ruby.
I am aware of the rumors that I was the winning bidder on Munch’s “The Scream”. At this time, I have no comment.
Yes, we know we are a little late with this week’s TMQ Watch. ESPN has made it incredibly difficult to find TMQ, and we’ve been somewhat overwhelmed with plans for an upcoming party and work-related issues. Let’s jump right into it, shall we?
But not before noting that by publishing on Tuesday, TMQ missed two of the biggest NFL stories so far this year. Of course, he knew what he was getting into when he bought the tickets. We say let him crash.
The NFL has announced disciplinary actions against four players for the New Orleans Saints for their roles in the bounty scandal.
It looks like the the Vilma and Hargrove penalties were harshest because of their level of involvement. Vilma was the defensive captain at the time and allegedly assisted Gregg Williams with the bounty program, as well as offering “$10,000 to any Saints teammate who knocked Minnesota quarterback Brett Favre out of the 2009 NFC championship game.”
Hargrove apparently obstructed the investigation and lied to investigators; his punishment may have been mitigated somewhat because he flipped later on, submitting “a signed declaration that established not only the existence of the program at the Saints, but also that he knew about and participated in it.”
According to Pro Football Talk, all four players plan to appeal. This could turn into an interesting legal battle.
I’m trying to think of harsher player suspensions in the NFL, and I’m not coming up with much; Vick got an “indefinite” suspension that basically worked out to two years (most of which he spent in prison). Albert Haynesworth got five games for stomping on a guy. Plaxico Burress got four games for shooting himself. Roethlisberger got a six-game hit which was reduced to four games. And apparently a few players (Dexter Manley being the most famous) have gotten lifetime bans for multiple failed drug tests.
TMQ is back temporarily, for the first of his two yearly draft columns. We were actually kind of wondering about this; ESPN dropped “Page 2” a couple of weeks ago, and we were unsure if TMQ would stay or go.
Anyway, we are glad to see Easterbrook back, and, after the jump, we will mock his mockery…
…this is a bad day for the Saints.
This is going to be well covered elsewhere, short version:
I may have more thoughts on this later.
Edited to add: Now that I have a little more time to write about this:
TMQ generally does not publish outside of the NFL regular season (though Easterbrook does do a couple of columns around draft time). But as soon as the Saints scandal broke, we were expecting TMQ to say something, because:
We’ve been watching Page 2 for a couple of days now, but oddly, the first notice we had that Easterbrook’s commentary was up came by way of Pope Jim the First on his Twitter feed. We’ll get to that in a moment. Let’s get started with this special edition of TMQ:
Holy crap. The Saints were paying their defensive players to injure opposing players.
I’m going to out myself here as something of a closet Saints fan, at least since Katrina. I thought they had a great comeback story, and I was delighted when they won the Super Bowl (especially after being so historically bad for so long).
But this? This is beyond the pale. This doesn’t even compare to what the Patriots did; say what you will about Bill Belichick, but illegal videotaping doesn’t even begin to come close to what the Saints have been doing.
This is the kind of thing where the NFL needs to get out in front of this story now. There’s talk of suspensions, fines, and giving up draft choices; my first reaction is that some people need to be tossed from the league for life. Gregg Williams, who is now defensive coordinator with the Rams, participated. Mickey Loomis, the Saints GM, was told by both the team owner and the NFL to shut down any bounty program that may have existed (the NFL has been investigating since 2009); he did not. Coach Sean Payton “was aware of the allegations, did not make any detailed inquiry or otherwise seek to learn the facts, and failed to stop the bounty program. He never instructed his assistant coaches or players that a bounty program was improper and could not continue,” according to the NFL
I would start with lifetime bans for Loomis and Williams, and a suspension for Payton, and work from there.
In other breaking TMQ related news, Anne Arundel County Executive John R. Leopold has been indicted on charges that he misused his personal security detail. This is still a breaking story, and details are sketchy, but the WP is currently stating that he had his security detail drive him to parking lots and wait around while he “engaged in sex acts with another county employee.” (Apparently, they used a separate vehicle for the sex acts, not the one the security detail was hauling Leopold around in. So at least he’s got that small element of class going for him.)
Good news, everyone!
I’ve come up with a way for you to hear these columns in Professor Farnsworth’s voice!
Also, it turns out that this is the last TMQ of the season! Yes, no bad predictions review this year: just the Super Bowl column and then silence until draft time.
After the jump…
Before we get into this week’s TMQ…well, we were going to snark on Women’s Professional Soccer, but that’s kind of kicking a person when they’re down. (“…average attendance 2,714 before the World Cup final”, “…season’s final average was 3,518, slightly below the 2010 average of 3,601”)
Other than that…well, this is the slowest week in sports. Why don’t we just jump in now and avoid the Super Bowl rush?
Before we jump into this week’s TMQ, we thought we’d mention D.J. Gallo’s list of the worst college basketball blowouts in Division I history. “Long Island 179, Medgar Evers 62”. It took all of Long Island to defeat one guy? And “Texas 102, San Marcos Baptist 1”. “San Marcos Baptist Academy was — and is — a boarding school for teenagers.”
After the jump…
Terrell Owens has signed with Dallas.
Well, technically, Allen.
The Allen Wranglers, that is, of the Indoor Football League.
In the FARK thread on this, I suggested that the Wranglers should also seek out Tiki Barber. But I’m going to throw it open to you, good people; what other notorious team cancers can the Allen Wranglers sign? And if they sign enough of them, will the suburbs of Dallas collapse into a black hole?
Jim Caldwell fired from the Colts. 26-22 over three seasons, 2-14 this year. I don’t think there was anybody who didn’t expect this.
Moving right along, Harris County DA Pat Lykos did testify today before the grand jury investigating her office and the BAT vans.
This is another story where there’s really not much to add beyond the basic fact that she did testify, and apparently did answer questions (as opposed to pleading the Fifth). But we note it here as part of the ongoing story.