The National Football League – do they take care of their own?

“Wherever this flag's flown – we take care of our own.”

In the first single from his upcoming album, Bruce Springsteen repeats again and again, “Wherever this flag's flown – we take care of our own.” Springsteen is asking a bittersweet question but failing to get an answer. The “voice of an American generation” questions how America and Americans are reacting to each other in these tough economic times. While not linked to the current plight retired National Football League players are facing, most retired NFL’ers have to be wondering why the NFL hasn’t taken care of its own.

Friday, 11 retired NFL players filed a lawsuit against the NFL in federal court in New Orleans. The lawsuit claims each of them has developed mental or physical disabilities from concussions or concussion-like symptoms, as a direct result of the years they played in the National Football League.

"Those who had sustained concussions reported more problems with memory, concentration, speech impediments, headaches and other neurological problems than those who had not been concussed," the lawsuit says. The lawsuit claims the league has only recently taken action to address the problem.

The other plaintiffs are: Tyrone Hughes, Eric Hill, Curtis Baham, Raion Hill, Maurice Hurst, Treverance Faulk, Keaton Cromartie, Vince Buck, Charles Commiskey and Tyrone Legette. Wives of the players also are named as plaintiffs in the suit.

The Louisiana lawsuit follows the consolidation of similar lawsuits that were filed on January 31 in Philadelphia Federal Court.

The NFL is a business that annually generates more than $9 billion. The latest collective bargaining agreement the National Football League and the NFL Players Association agreed to in early August (a landmark ten-year agreement) failed to address long-term medical benefits most NFL players need once they retire.

In addition to a lack of health coverage, many retired players face the same hardships millions of Americans are dealing with each day.

The Gridiron Greats Assistance Fund (GGAF) a group that works with retired NFL players facing financial hardship has been circulating information that offers a startling look at the terrible life some retired NFL players are facing:

• Former running back with the Miami Dolphins, suffering financial hardship because of the changing economy. He has changed jobs a few times in the last few years, each with a pay cut, all while taking classes so he can get a better job and provide for his high school age son. GGAF helped with one month of mortgage payments.

• Former punter with the Packers and Rams, suffering financial hardship because of cutbacks at his job. He is financially responsible for his young son. GGAF helped with utilities and rent.

• Former linebacker with the New Orleans Saints, suffering financial hardship since last year when his wife was diagnosed with cancer and has been unable to work. GGAF helped with mortgage payment.

• Former linebacker with the Detroit Lions, suffering from an incurable disease and has medical bills and financial hardships. GGAF helped with mortgage payments.

• Former wide receiver with the Jets and Ravens, suffering financial hardships due to his job not paying him over the summer. GGAF helped reconnect his utilities.

• Former running back with the Patriots, Falcons and Rams, currently living through a Chicago winter with water and gas pipes that were not working. GGAF helped negotiate with the contractor for donated services, so that he and his family would have heat and hot water.

• Former running back with the Oakland Raiders and Buffalo Bills, suffering financial hardship due to the economy and high medical/prescription costs, was pawning his possessions to pay for his prescriptions and food, most of the time having to choose which to buy. GGAF helped pay for rent to keep him from being evicted, and to keep his utilities on.

• Former running back with the Bengals and Buccaneers, suffering financial hardship in this economy. GGAF helped pay for rent.

• Former defensive tackle with the 49ers, suffering from brain trauma from football related injuries, has gone through nine brain surgeries, and suffers seizures. GGAF helped pay bills.

• Former defensive tackle with the Cowboys, Saints and Bears, suffering financial hardship, has trouble working because of memory issues. GGAF helped pay rent so he wouldn't be evicted.

• Former tackle with the Buccaneers, suffering from chronic fatigue syndrome and a reduction of pay due to the economy. GGAF helped with car payments so he wouldn't lose his car.

More than 100 million Americans watched Super Bowl XLVI on NBC. Families across America gathered together to watch the $3.5 million commercials, Madonna’s half time adventure and the New York Giants thrilling 21-17 win over the New England Patriots. More than 100 million Americans have little if any understanding as to what’s happening to the gridiron greats they cheered for on “Any Given Sunday.”

"The NFL knew аbουt the debilitating and permanent effects οf head injuries аnd concussions thаt regularly occur аmοng professional players, уеt ignored аnd actively concealed those risks," ѕаіd Gene Locks, one of the attorneys representing the players.

Craig Mitnick, who represents more than100 players and is Locks’ co-counsel, said "The NFL concussion issue is one whose time has come after being covered up, profitably hidden for many decades. It is long overdue."

Canadian Mike Schad who played in both the NFL and in the Canadian Football League is part of these lawsuits.

"Before they made all those changes I got ear-holed," said Schad, who would go on to play with the Philadelphia Eagles from 1989 to 1993 in a Philadelphia Inquirer report. "Next thing you know, I'm sitting on the sideline."

Central to the various lawsuits – how the NFL treated players once they were injured in a game. Time and time again players (NFL Hall of Fame member Tony Dorsett is one of these retired players suing the NFL) describe experiences were they suffered head related trauma in an NFL game and either returned to play in the game they were injured in, or in their teams’ next game.

Schad became involved in the lawsuits after he learned two of his former Eagles teammates had passed away. According to The Philadelphia Inquirer “safety Andre Waters killed himself at age 44; guard Tom McHale, Schad's backup one season in Philadelphia, died of a drug overdose at 45 after becoming addicted. Each was later found to have chronic traumatic encephalopathy, a degenerative brain disease in athletes with a history of brain trauma. It can lead to memory loss, confusion, aggression, depression, and dementia.”

Where is the moral outrage from the tens of millions of Americans who NFL football Sundays from early September through Super Bowl Sunday?

"What's a crisis for the league is just the perception of football and its safety and the sustainability of the game,” Robert Boland, a sports law professor at New York University told the Philadelphia Inquirer. "It is the single biggest sustainability concern for the league."

There is a day of reckoning coming for the National Football League. The Gridiron Greats Assistance Fund and other groups working with retired NFL players are getting their message out. The NFL will be forced to deal with their alleged inaction in Federal Court. A business that generates more than $9 billion annually in revenues needs to be “taking care of their own” and needs to be held accountable.

For Sports Business News this is Howard Bloom

Political and moral incorrectness and “Linsanity”

The world focuses a great deal of attention on the sports industry. We take our teams seriously, our athletes seriously, our games seriously. When all is said and done, “it is only a game” is as true today as it has always been. However, because the sports industry is taken as seriously as it is, at times we take sports far too seriously.

Sports is a multi-billion industry (the NFL generates $9 billion annually, MLB $7 billion) and the business of sports continues to drive interest and awareness. We live in an age where the evolution of social media continues to at times have an overwhelming impact on the word we live in. In an era of instant communication with stories going viral instantly, more so than ever, one can never be too careful about what one is saying – what you say may come back to haunt you in ways you never imagined.

The Jeremy Lin story continues to capture attention. It’s likely in the coming days and weeks the “Linsanity” will calm down and Jeremy Lin’s ultimate fate will be played out on a basketball court. However, as long as Lin remains the “flavor” of the day, how the media, how society looks at this media- driven phenom offers an opportunity to look at how the world we live in looks at a modern day “Linderella.”

Political and moral incorrectness reared its ugliness early Saturday morning on ESPN, the self-proclaimed worldwide sports leader. Friday night Lin’s New York Knicks lost 89-85, ending their seven- game winning streak, their first loss since Lin became the Knicks starting point guard on February 6. Lin had 26 points for the Knicks but also made nine turnovers. Someone working at ESPN.com created a headline for their game recap “Chink in the Armor.” The headline is completely inappropriate.

In its statement Saturday, ESPN said: “We are conducting a complete review of our cross-platform editorial procedures and are determining appropriate disciplinary action to ensure this does not happen again. We regret and apologize for this mistake.”

Rob King, ESPN’s senior vice president for editorial, print and digital media, Saturday said on Twitter: “There’s no defense for the indefensible. All we can offer are our apologies, sincere though incalculably inadequate.”

While in no way offering an explanation as to what went so terribly wrong at ESPN early Saturday morning, Wednesday night during an interview on ESPNews, Max Bretos, while interviewing Walt Frazier, the Knicks’ analyst on the MSG Network, used the same offensive racial slur.

According to The New York Times, an on-air statement delivered by Jorge Andres, another ESPN anchor, said an “anchor used an inappropriate word in asking a question about Jeremy Lin.” The statement continued: “ESPN apologizes for the incident and is taking steps to avoid this in the future.”

Embarrassed and maligned, ESPN made a decision on Sunday; a scorched earth solution to the series of events surrounding what amounted to a small part of their overall Jeremy Lin coverage, releasing the following statement:

“At ESPN we are aware of three offensive and inappropriate comments made on ESPN outlets during our coverage of Jeremy Lin.

Saturday we apologized for two references here. We have since learned of a similar reference Friday on ESPN Radio New York. The incidents were separate and different. We have engaged in a thorough review of all three and have taken the following action:

The ESPN employee responsible for our Mobile headline has been dismissed.|
The ESPNEWS anchor has been suspended for 30 days.
The radio commentator (Walt Frazier) is not an ESPN employee.

We again apologize, especially to Mr. Lin. His accomplishments are a source of great pride to the Asian-American community, including the Asian-American employees at ESPN. Through self-examination, improved editorial practices and controls, and response to constructive criticism, we will be better in the future.”

There have several other examples of inappropriate media reporting and the Jeremy Lin story.

Lin’s most important game to date was the Knicks on February 10 when Lin hit for 38 points in a nationally-televised ESPN game against the Los Angeles Lakers.

Fox Sports columnist Jason Whitlock offered this inappropriate tweet following the game on his Twitter feed “Some lucky lady in NYC is gonna feel a couple inches of pain tonight.” Whitlock was referring to Lin’s genitals and his Asian-American ethnicity.

Reaction was immediate on Twitter. “Linsanity” was trending worldwide. Whitlock was universally criticized.

The Asian American Journalists Assn. posted a letter to Whitlock, who is African American, on its Facebook page. "The offensive tweet debased one of sports’ feel-good moments, not just among Asian Americans but for so many others who are part of your audience," the letter according to The Los Angeles Times.

The AAJA asked Whitlock to apologize, which Whitlock did last Sunday on the Fox Sports site and via Twitter:

“I get Linsanity. I've cried watching Tiger Woods win a major golf championship. Jeremy Lin, for now, is the Tiger Woods of the NBA. I suspect Lin makes Asian Americans feel the way I feel when I watch Tiger play golf.

“I should've realized that Friday night when I watched Lin torch the Lakers. For Asian Americans and a lot of sports fans, his nationally televised 38-point outburst was the equivalent of Tiger's first victory in The Masters. I got caught up in the excitement. I tweeted about what a great story Lin is and how he could rival Tim Tebow.

“I then gave in to another part of my personality — my immature, sophomoric, comedic nature. It's been with me since birth, a gift from my mother and honed as a child listening to my godmother's Richard Pryor albums. I still want to be a standup comedian.

“The ... tweet overshadowed my sincere celebration of Lin’s performance and the irony that the stereotype applies to pot-bellied, overweight male sports writers, too. As the Asian American Journalist Association pointed out, I debased a feel-good sports moment. For that, I’m truly sorry.”

Whitlock enjoys being at the center of a firestorm, often being his own tempest in a teapot.

In 2006, after deciding he didn’t have enough time to continue writing for ESPN.com’s Page Two but while still wanting to appear on ESPN, in an interview with TheBigLead.com, Whitlock had less than complimentary remarks about two of his ESPN colleagues. Whitlock labeled Mike Lupica "an insecure, mean-spirited busybody" and referred to Robert "Scoop" Jackson as a "clown", saying that "the publishing of [Jackson's] fake ghetto posturing is an insult to black intelligence."

ESPN ended their association with Whitlock. Soon after ESPN decided they had had enough of Jason Whitlock wrote in The Kansas City Star (September 2006) that he was fired altogether from ESPN as a result of his remarks; he wrote that the company doesn't tolerate criticism and acted as they saw fit.

Aside from his online Twitter apology (published by Foxsports.com Whitlock’s primary employer), Fox Sports decided not to discipline Jason Whitlock. Both the ESPN.com headline and Jason Whitlock slurs were inappropriate. Someone lost their job at ESPN for poor judgment, its business as normal for Fox Sports – the same company who has brought Homer Simpson to America and the world.

Last Wednesday, following the Knicks 85-79 win over the Philadelphia 76’ers (their seventh consecutive win), the MSG Network (the Knicks primary broadcast partner) published a picture of a fortune cookie, that featured Jeremy Lin (with his tongue sticking out) and the caption “The Knicks Good Fortune.” MSG suggested the picture was captured from a sign a fan brought to Madison Square Garden that night. The image is silly and insulting. Regardless of who created the sign, the offensive sign appeared on MSG. MSG should be held accountable for the sign appearing.

Jeremy Lin has established himself as a starter for the New York Knicks. The NBA will showcase Lin this weekend during the league’s All-Star Weekend. Lin will appear in Saturday night’s Rising Star’s game (showcasing rookie and sophomore players). This is the same Jeremy Lin who was cut by two NBA teams in December (Golden State and Houston) and was playing for the Knicks NBA D-League (minor league) team just three weeks ago.

The Jeremy Lin story has energized the Knicks and the NBA. It is a breath of fresh air the sports world needs. The ultimate unknown – becoming an overnight sensation. Jeremy Lin has earned all the accolades he’s received. What Jeremy Lin doesn’t deserve (or for that matter anyone else) are the racially insensitive remarks, comments and pictures that have appeared.

For Sports Business News, this is Howard Bloom

Jeremy Lin – making the most of his opportunity

Is Jeremy Lin a one hit wonder? Is Jeremy Lin “The Knack” of the NBA, they of “My Sharona” fame? Less than ten games as an NBA starter it remains to be seen if Jeremy Lin will start the remainder of the Knicks 46 games.

Regardless, Jeremy Lin has saved the NBA’s 2011-12 season. The NBA was well on its way to a season of obscurity following a lengthy labor dispute that forced the NBA to start their regular season on December 25 and led the league to a truncated 66 game schedule.

Lin has been compared to Denver Broncos quarterback Tim Tebow. That isn’t the right athlete to compare Lin too and the differences outweigh the similarities. Tebow was an NFL first round draft pick, and won college football’s Heisman Trophy presented to the college football player of the year. He’s on a short list of the greatest college quarterbacks of all time.

Kurt Warner is a far better comparison. Warner's journey from Northern Iowa quarterback to NFL superstardom was unconventional. Cut by the Green Bay Packers after the 1994 training camp, Kurt played for the Iowa Barnstormers of the Arena Football League from 1995-1997 where he earned all-Arena honors. The St. Louis Rams signed Warner in December 1997 and assigned him to the Amsterdam Admirals of NFL Europe in 1998.

Shortly thereafter, following an injury to starter Trent Green, Warner led the Rams to a victory in Super Bowl XXXIV and was named the NFL and Super Bowl Most Valuable Player.

Like Warner did in 1999, Lin has captured attention that extends far beyond basketball and sports fans because of the story. Undrafted by the NBA when he graduated from Harvard in 2010, cut by two NBA teams (Golden State and Houston), buried in the NBA D-League (a minor developmental league) Lin has emerged as the leader of a New York Knicks team that has been playing well above its collective abilities since Lin became a starter seven games ago. He was nearly cut from the Knicks too by the way.

Wednesday, White House spokesman Jay Carney told the media who were travelling with President Obama on Marine One, that Lin's game-winning 3-pointer at the end of Tuesday night's game against Toronto was the subject of conversation with the President.

Carney says Lin's success is "just a great story, and the president was saying as much this morning."

The President says it's a story that "transcends the sport itself."

China has felt “linsanity”.

“His jerseys have sold out, even including the counterfeit ones,” Zheng Xiaojun, a 24-year-old clerk here in the capital of Zhejiang province, near Shanghai told The New York Times.

In what shouldn’t have come as a surprise, the Chinese government appears to be in the initial stages of claiming Lin as a native son. Lin’s parents were born in Taiwan. They moved to the United States where Lin was born.

Yu Guohua, described by The New York Times as “Lin’s closest relative still living in northern Zhejiang” the community his parents grew up, told the Times Lin had come to play basketball with the Jiaxing High School team last May and been mobbed by admirers.

Yu admitted that he did not have a chance to meet Lin during his visit, but spoke with his family. “His father was very supportive of Lin’s playing basketball, but his grandmother was not, for fear he would be injured,” Yu said.

According to The Times report: Lin’s combination of success in the N.B.A. and strong Christian faith — he has spoken in the past of becoming a pastor someday — has fired the imagination of many Asian-American Christians. There are some early signs that he may also be catching the attention of Christians in China, who continue to face varying levels of persecution.

Only 1,500 of the initial 1.4 million microblogging messages on mainland Chinese web sites that mentioned Lin also mentioned Christianity.

But these messages tend to be fervently enthusiastic.

“Your physical agility has shown me the glory and omnipotence of God,” one Internet user wrote.

“How should young Christians live the life of the Lord?” another blogger wrote. “We have a good example in Lin Shuhao’s miraculous performance and we should cheer him on.”

At the Zhejiang Theological Seminary here in Hangzhou, Professor Yan Ronghui said that she was planning to use Lin’s religious faith and basketball successes as a model for students in her course in “theological English” this semester.

Hu Shubang, a 25-year-old student at the seminary, told The New York Times that Lin would become a natural symbol for Christians in China to use in seeking converts.

“Just by his being a Christian, it is a fantastic way to broadcast the ways of Christ,” he said in the Times report.

China is very important to the NBA. According to the Times there are more than 300 million people playing basketball in China. The NBA needs to find a voice in the Chinese market after Yao Ming retired last year.

What about the Lin’s economic impact?

- According to Tuesday’s Toronto Star, Lin had the top selling t-shirt at the NBA.com’s online store;

- According to Tuesday’s USA Today, Lin’s Fathead sales overtook Tom Brady as the top seller;

- According to yet another USA Today piece, Lin has boosted MSG stock over the last week, MSG Network has seen ratings increase by 70% since Lin’s star began to shine, and web traffic for Lin on Facebook, Twitter, and the team’s website have spiked significantly;

- According to Forbes Mike Ozanian Lin’s impact on MSG ratings could help to resolve the squabble with Time Warner Cable which has blacked out Knicks games in the local market for roughly six weeks.

What’s amazing – less than two weeks ago no one knew Jeremy Lin.

“All of the sponsors are going to pile on right now, especially as he’s riding this wave,” Quency Phillips, a marketing agent who represents several NBA and NFL players told The Toronto Star. “There’s nobody else out there like him. It’s the perfect groundswell of everything.”

"There's no question brands will be interested in Jeremy Lin," Jeremy Walker, head of sports marketing and branded entertainment for GolinHarris, told Reuters by telephone from Hong Kong on Monday.

"You only have to look at what Yao Ming has done not just for the NBA but for brands that he represents both in the States and in China.

"Every top Chinese star that comes out from the Olympic Games or wherever it might be, there's always going to be an awful lot of interest for brands because all the major brands in the world are still looking to China for growth.

"A lot of brands want that positive 'halo effect' association they are going to get from being involved with a superstar."

Jeremy Lin will determine his future as a basketball player playing for the New York Knicks. What seems to have been missed is Jeremy Lin is making the most of his opportunity in the world’s media mecca. If Jeremy Lin were playing for the Portland Trailblazers or the Memphis Grizzlies someone would have to call ESPN and let them know about the story. Jeremy Lin is in the right place at the right time with the right story, but his chance is coming with the New York Knicks.

The Greater New York area is home to six major daily newspapers, WFAN the biggest all-sports radio station in America, YES the largest regional sports network in the United States; the platform Jeremy Lin is showcasing his skills is extensive. He is making the most of his opportunity. He has building a foundation for success on and off the basketball court, one that he “might” be able to one day earn tens of millions of dollars from, but two weeks in the NBA do not offer a guarantee of anything.

What Jeremy has been is a great story for the NBA in a year when the league so desperately needed one.

Sources used in this Insider Report: The New York Times and Forbes.com

For Sports Business News this is Howard Bloom

When you wish upon a star – Jeremy Lin

Jeremy Lin completed a remarkable week as an NBA player on Monday when the league named Lin the East Division Player of the Week. Lin led the New York Knicks to a 4-0 week, averaging 27.3 points, 8.3 assists and 2.0 steals. His 109 points over his first four career starts are the most by any player since 1976-77, and he became the first player in NBA history to tally at least 20 points and seven assists in each of his first four starts. Lin scored a career-high 38 points on Feb. 10, in a 92-85 win over the Lakers.

NBA player of the week, one week does not make an NBA career – whether Jeremy Lin is for real remains to be seen but he is the flavor of the day.

“If Jeremy Lin is the real deal on the court, expect him to be the most popular athlete marketer off the court for many years to come,” gushed sports marketing expert and branding strategist Ronn Torossian, CEO and president of 5W Public Relations, a firm based in New York in a New York Daily News report. “This young man will be the face of the NBA — and surely the face of many mainstream, major brands.

“Linsanity has just begun,” Torossian continued, “and this 2010 Harvard graduate is destined for marketing greatness if he can deliver on the court. Jeremy Lin is a marketer’s dream — and to top it all off he is playing in the biggest media market in the world. He can be bigger than David Beckham, bigger than Michael Jordan — he’s Tiger Woods prescandal. Jeremy Lin is the American dream — for people, marketers and the world.”

After receiving no athletic scholarship offers out of high school and being undrafted out of college, the Harvard University graduate reached a partially guaranteed contract deal with his hometown Golden State Warriors last year. Lin is one of the few Asian Americans in NBA history, and the first American player in the league to be of Chinese or Taiwanese descent.

How Lin made it to the Knicks has a fairy tale quality to the story. Born in Los Angeles, raised in Palo Alto, California, Lin was one of the best California High School Basketball players in 2005-06 during his senior year in high school. He was named first-team California All-State and Northern California Division II Player of the Year. Only 6’3” – Lin didn’t receive one Division I scholarship offer.

Lin wanted to go to either UCLA or Stanford. Neither school offered him a scholarship, just a chance to “tryout” for their teams. Lin put together a DVD of his playing highlights and sent the DVD to all the Ivy League schools. Harvard and Brown both guaranteed Lin a spot on their respective teams but Ivy League schools don’t offer athletic scholarships. Lin had a 4.2 grade point average in high school, which fit Harvard's academic requirements.

Rex Walters, University of San Francisco men's basketball coach and a retired NBA player, believed NCAA limits on coaches’ recruiting visits impacted Lin. Lin played Division II high school basketball.

“Most colleges start recruiting a guy in the first five minutes they see him because he runs really fast, jumps really high, does the quick, easy thing to evaluate," Walters said.

Throughout his four years at Harvard, Lin demonstrated tremendous drive and determination. His senior year was special. In his senior year (2009–10), Lin averaged 16.4 points, 4.4 rebounds, 4.5 assists, 2.4 steals and 1.1 blocks, and was again a unanimous selection for All-Ivy League First Team. He was one of 30 midseason candidates for the John R. Wooden Award and one of 11 finalists for the Bob Cousy Award. Fran Fraschilla of ESPN picked Lin among the 12 most versatile players in college basketball.

He gained national attention for his performance against the 12th ranked Connecticut Huskies, against whom he scored a career-high, tying 30 points and grabbed nine rebounds on the road.

After the game, Hall of Fame Connecticut Coach Jim Calhoun said, "I've seen a lot of teams come through here, and he could play for any of them. He's got great, great composure on the court. He knows how to play."

But Harvard is in the Ivy League and there have been very few Ivy League basketball players selected in the NBA draft. The NBA draft is a two round draft; eight teams had invited Lin to pre-draft workouts but Lin wasn’t selected in the 2010 NBA draft.

On July 21, 2010, Lin signed a two-year deal with his hometown Golden State Warriors, his favorite team growing up. Lin's deal was partially guaranteed for 2010–11, and the Warriors held a team option for the second season. The reports noted that the deal would include a first-year salary of close to $500,000 with more than half of it guaranteed.

Nike saw something that most of the NBA had missed – the brand they could build around Lin – and how the Asian-American market would react to Lin. As the first American player in the NBA to be of Chinese or Taiwanese descent, Nike believed if they placed some of their marketing machine behind Lin, they would see a return on their investment. Nike signed Lin to a three-year contract (he had what amounted to a one-year NBA contract), and put his NBA jersey on sale before he had even played one NBA game.

Lin made the Warriors 2010 opening night roster but didn’t dress until the teams’ second game of the year – Asian Heritage Night. Lin managed to get into the game with 2:32 left in game and received a standing ovation.

At Toronto on November 8, 2010, the Toronto Raptors held Asian Heritage Night to coincide with Lin's visit with the Warriors. More than 20 members of Toronto's Chinese media covered the game.

Tuesday night the Knicks visited Toronto. The Raptors again held Asian Heritage Night, and sold out only their second game of their season. Unprecedented media demand forced the Raptors to turn away many requested media credentials for the game.

Three times during his 2010-11 rookie season, Lin was assigned to the Warriors' D-League affiliate, the Reno Bighorn. The D-League was created for players like Lin, players who needed a chance to prove themselves and receive playing time in basketball’s minor league.

The Warriors walked away from Lin’s contract on December 9, 2011, the first day of the team’s training camp. On December 12, 2011, Lin was claimed off waivers by the Houston Rockets. On December 24, before the start of the season, the Rockets waived Lin to clear payroll to sign center Samuel Dalembert. The New York Knicks claimed Lin off waivers on December 27 to be a backup behind Toney Douglas and Mike Bibby after an injury to guard Iman Shumpert.

The Knicks sent Lin back to the D-League on January 17, 2012. Six days late fate and maybe a touch of Jeremy Lin’s destiny intervened. The Knicks recalled Lin to the NBA.

On February 4, 2012 (the game before the four games that led to his selection as NBA Player of the Week) Lin came off the team’s bench to score 25 points, collect five rebounds, and hand out seven assists—all career-highs—in a 99–92 Knicks victory over the New Jersey Nets. Teammate Carmelo Anthony suggested to Knicks coach Mike D'Antoni at halftime that Lin should play more in the second half. After the game, D'Antoni said Lin has a point-guard mentality and "a rhyme and a reason for what he is doing out there."

During Lin’s remarkable run, both Anthony and the Knicks other NBA all-Star, Amare Stoudemire, haven’t played for the Knicks. Anthony has been injured. Stoudemire missed the Knicks last five games following the death of his brother. Stoudemire returned to the Knicks line-up on Tuesday night.

"The only positive for us during that whole week was we were watching the ball games and we were watching Linsanity," Stoudemire said, following practice on Monday. "My family was getting a kick out of it. That's the only smiles they really had all week. It was great to see that. It's been a tough week."

Jeremy Lin’s arrival as an NBA start couldn’t have come at a better time for the NBA. The NBA is playing a truncated 66 game schedule. Many believed sports fans didn’t care anymore. The remainder of Jeremy Lin’s 2011-12 NBA contract ($800,000) became guaranteed on Friday, when Lin hit 38 points last Friday – a “tour de force” performance against Kobe Bryant and the Los Angeles Lakers. The game was televised nationally by ESPN.

"Players playing that well don't usually come out of nowhere. It seems like they come out of nowhere, but if you can go back and take a look, his skill level was probably there from the beginning. It probably just went unnoticed," Bryant said, after Lin scored 38 points.

The Associated Press has called Lin "the most surprising story in the NBA." Bloomberg News wrote that Lin "has already become the most famous [Asian American NBA player]." Time.com ran an article titled, "It's Official: Linsanity is for Real".

Hall of Fame player Magic Johnson said, "The excitement [Lin] has caused in [Madison Square] Garden, man, I hadn't seen that in a long time."

Lin credited his success to playing without pressure. "I've surrendered that to God. I'm not in a battle with what everybody else thinks anymore," said Lin.

What Tim Tebow was to the National Football League, Jeremy Lin is to the NBA – a deeply religious athlete with courage and deep conviction and a commitment to excellence. He is a true athlete from the sports bygone era. Five or six games do not make an NBA career and it remains to be seen if Lin is for real. Regardless, Jeremy Lin is the breath of fresh air the NBA needed.

Sources used in this Insider Report: Wikipedia For Sports Business News, this is Howard Bloom

Risk vs. Reward – retired NFL players and their suing game

An additional 62 retired National Football League players and 30 of their wives joined the growing group this past Friday that has filed a lawsuit against the NFL. The complaint alleges fraud and negligence against the NFL and accuses the league of hiding medical evidence about the risks of concussions and failing to warn players they risked permanent brain injury if they returned to play too soon after they sustained a concussion. There are more than 300 former NFL players now involved in one of most important lawsuits in recent sports history.

"The NFL knew аbουt the debilitating and permanent effects οf head injuries аnd concussions thаt regularly occur аmοng professional players, уеt ignored аnd actively concealed those risks," ѕаіd Gene Locks, one of the attorneys representing the players.

Craig Mitnick, who represents more than100 players and is Locks’ co-counsel, said "The NFL concussion issue is one whose time has come after being covered up, profitably hidden for many decades. It is long overdue."

Britt Hager, a former linebacker for the Philadelphia Eagles and Denver Broncos, commented, "If the NFL knew that our futures were at risk and covered that medical evidence up, shame on them, they need to do what is right by us."

On January 31 (media day at Super Bowl XLVI), a multidistrict federal judicial panel approved six of the cases to be tried together in Philadelphia, perhaps within a year.

"Here might be the weapon that brings the mighty billionaires to their knees and forces them to accept their liability," says former Vikings Guard Brent Boyd, founder of the player advocacy group Dignity After Football.

NFL commissioner Roger Goodell addressed the lawsuits filed by the retired players during his “State of the NFL” on February 3, two days prior to Super Bowl XLVI in Indianapolis.

“We have done a great deal to try to address issues that are specific to our former players. We will always make sure that player health and safety is the No. 1 priority in the NFL. We will not quit. We are not done yet. We’re going to do what we possibly can to help our retired players, the current players and future players, by making the game safer,” Goodell said.

“And we will do that with rules, we will do that by improving the equipment, and we will do it by making sure that we pioneer research that’s going to make sure we understand all there is about brain injuries, brain disease, and make sure we’re being responsible leaders.”

The NFL is facing multiple lawsuits filed by retired players (and their wives). Legally, Goodell wasn’t in a position to comment on the specifics of the lawsuit, given the legal ramifications the NFL is facing.

One question that should be asked – when anyone agrees to work in a profession is it fair to believe that they accept the “physical” conditions of their employment? Football is a violent game, an occupation where men hit each other, run into each other – is there not an understanding of the risks involved with playing professional football?

The genesis of the current lawsuits the NFL is facing date back to July 2011 when 75 retired players filed a lawsuit in Los Angeles claiming the NFL were aware as early as the 1920’s (the NFL began in 1920) of the inherent risks of concussions on players' brains, but concealed the information from players, coaches, trainers and others until June 2010. (That lawsuit and the other related lawsuits will now be heard in a Philadelphia court.)

"For decades, defendants have known that multiple blows to the head can lead to long-term brain injury, including memory loss, dementia, depression and (chronic traumatic encephalopathy) and its related symptoms," says the 86-page lawsuit, filed in Los Angeles County Superior Court on Tuesday.

"This action arises from the defendants' failure to warn and protect NFL players, such as the plaintiffs, against the long-term brain injury risks associated with football-related concussions. This action arises because the NFL defendants committed negligence by failing to exercise its duty to enact league-wide guidelines and mandatory rules regulating post-concussion medical treatment and return-to-play standards for players who suffer a concussion and/or multiple concussions."

However, "It was not until June 2010 that the NFL acknowledged that concussions can lead to dementia, memory loss, CTE and related symptoms by publishing (a) warning to every player and team," says the suit. "The NFL-funded study is completely devoid of logic and science. More importantly, it is contrary to their (the NFL's) Health and Safety Rules as well as 75 years of published medical literature on concussions," according to the suit, which asks for a jury trial and damages.

Four current members of the Football Hall of Fame are part of the current lawsuit, including Tony Dorsett. In the second quarter of a 1984 Dallas Cowboys – Philadelphia Eagles game (Dorsett was playing for the Cowboys) Dorsett suffered a helmet to helmet hit, the hardest hit of his Hall of Fame career.

"It was like a freight train hitting a Volkswagen," Dorsett says now. "Did they know it was a concussion?" he asks rhetorically during an interview with The Associated Press. "They thought I was half-dead."

And what did the Dallas Cowboys do? They shined a light in his eyes, asked him who sat next to him on the Cowboys team bus and put him back in the game in the second half. Dorsett remembers running plays the wrong way in that second half – yet he still managed to run for 99 more yards.

"That ain't the first time I was knocked out or been dazed over the course of my career, and now I'm suffering for it," the 57-year-old former tailback says. "And the NFL is trying to deny it."

What about the risk vs. reward – that playing football is dangerous – and Tony Dorsett was paid to play in the NFL. Much of the money he made while playing football was lost through a series of bad investments.

"Yeah, I understand you paid me to do this, but still yet, I put my life on the line for you, I put my health on the line," Dorsett says. "And yet when the time comes, you turn your back on me? That's not right. That's not the American way."

That, in many ways, is the heart of the matter – how the NFL is treating its former players, the athletes who built the NFL into one of the most successful businesses in the world today. Out of the four major North American sports: the NFL, Major League Baseball, the National Basketball Association and the National Hockey League, NFL player contacts are the only ones that are not guaranteed. Only the bonuses players receive when they sign their contracts are guaranteed. The NFL generates in excess of $9 billion annually. In what is arguably the most dangerous professional team sport, the NFL does not offer its players lifetime medical insurance.

There is risk vs. reward in any profession and NFL players are well paid. The real question that needs to be asked (and will be answered in a Philadelphia court): Is the NFL responsible for the quality of life their former players are being forced to lead –and are later-in-life health issues, a direct result of having played in the NFL?

For Sports Business News this is Howard Bloom

Nordiques Nation, the imminent future of the NHL in Quebec City and the end of the NHL in Phoenix

The world in which the NHL’s Phoenix Coyotes live collided in two different places on Saturday. When the dusts clears in the coming days, weeks and months, the Phoenix Coyotes will move to Quebec City in time for the start of the 2012-13 National Hockey League season. It is no longer a matter of “if or when” the final nails are being pounded into the Coyotes’ Phoenix coffin, as Quebec City is ready to start building the Coyotes future home, a $400 million state-of-the-art arena in Quebec City – the future home of the Coyotes.

More than 2,000 colorfully dressed hockey fans made the five-hour trek from Quebec City to Ottawa’s Scotiabank Place on Saturday, joining more than 20,000 fans in sending a loud and clear message to NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman – Quebec City wants back in the NHL. At the same time, The New York Times offered an expose on the imminent end of the NHL’s failed Phoenix odyssey.

The NHL took over the ownership of the Coyotes at the start of the 2009-10 season while they were dead last in attendance. The Coyotes are averaging 11,624 fans per game this year, still dead last in NHL attendance. The Coyotes finished 29th in attendance last year of the 30 NHL teams.

The first edition of the Winnipeg Jets moved from that Canadian city to Phoenix in 1996. With a series of owners and a real estate deal that never worked, the Coyotes filed for bankruptcy protection during the 2008-09 NHL season.

Canadian Blackberry founder Jim Balsillie tried to buy the team. (He had failed to buy the Pittsburgh Penguins when they were in bankruptcy protection and then tried for the Nashville Predators.) Balsillie was interested in buying an NHL franchise and moving the team to the Southern Ontario market, where territorial rights are protected by the NHL Constitution.

The City of Glendale, AZ, owners of the Jobing.com Arena where the Coyotes play their home games, have covered $25 million in annual losses each of the last two years. There have been suggestions the Glendale City Council is ready to invest another $25 million of taxpayer dollars to keep the Coyotes there. This is a classic example of “throwing good money after (a very) bad” idea, but those taxpayer bailouts are about to come to an end in Glendale.

“We’re going to try to avoid a move of the Coyotes,” Bettman said in a radio interview before the All-Star Game last month. “But if we don’t sell the club, I’m not sure that this won’t be the last season here.”

On Saturday, The Arizona Republic reported former Coyotes and retired NHL’er Jeremy Roenick who played for the Coyotes for six years, is interested in joining former San Jose Sharks CEO Greg Jamison in his bid to buy and keep the Coyotes in the Phoenix area.

Chicago Bulls and Chicago White Sox owner Jerry Reinsdorf has been talking about owning the Coyotes for the last four years. The NHL wants $170 million for the Coyotes. It’s safe to assume given the NHL has yet to approve either Jamison or Reinsdorf will be the next Coyotes owner.

Forbes Magazine in their latest NHL financial valuation believes the average NHL team is worth $240 million. According to Forbes (the well-respected list is subjective) believes the Phoenix Coyotes are worth $134 million, $106 million less than the NHL average and $36 million less than what the NHL is trying to sell the team for. No one is going to pay $170 million for a sports franchise that is losing more than $30 million annually and is only worth $134 million. The NHL needs to find a new home for the Coyotes.

The Quebec Nordiques formed as one of the original World Hockey Association teams in 1972. The franchise was originally awarded to a group in San Francisco, as the San Francisco Sharks. However, the San Francisco group's funding collapsed prior to the start of the first season, and the WHA hastily sold the organization to a group of six Quebec City-based businessmen who owned the highly profitable Quebec Remparts junior team.

The team left Quebec City after the 1994-95 NHL season. The Nordiques played their home games in the Colisée de Québec, originally built in 1949 with 15,176 seats. The Canadian dollar was in a free fall (as compared to value of the American dollar), NHL salaries were paid in American dollars and the teams’ owner Marcel Aubut believed the Nordiques needed a new arena.

Aubut asked for a financial bailout from Quebec's provincial government, the request was turned down, as few in Quebec were willing to subsidize a hockey club that paid multimillion-dollar salaries (bailouts for Ottawa and Edmonton were also rejected for the same reason). In May 1995, shortly after the Nordiques were eliminated from the playoffs, Aubut announced that he had no other choice but to sell the team to a group of investors in Denver, Colorado. The franchise was moved to Denver where it was renamed the Colorado Avalanche.

Sixteen years later, the long talked-about plans to build a new $400 million arena appear to be ready to put shovels into the ground and start building the cities state-of-the-art facility.

Friday, SportsNet.ca reported all that is standing between Quebec City and their new arena is an environmental assessment and clean-up. The new arena is to be built beside the Pepsi Colisee. Pierre Karl Peladeau, president and CEO of Quebecor (one of Canada’s biggest media groups) is ready to own the team. Quebecor has a management contract in place for the new arena. The $400 million cost of the arena will be covered by Quebec and Quebec City taxpayers. Quebecor has pledged to pay $63.5 million for naming rights and $4.5 million in annual rent if the company is able to buy the team.

The Coyotes death watch began in 2003. The team moved from downtown Phoenix to Glendale (20 miles outside the city). The real estate market collapsed the planned retail shopping outlets that were a key to the decision to build the arena never happened. The NHL missed the 2004-05 season due to the labor lockout and the NHL was all but dead in Glendale.

“The team was doomed the day they signed on to move to Glendale,” said Jordan Kobritz, who teaches sports management at Eastern New Mexico University in a New York Times report. “The Coyotes have had two strikes against them from the time they arrived.”

It’s time for the NHL to move this dead desert dog. The end long ago arrived for the Phoenix Coyotes. Losing tens of millions of dollars annually – enough is enough. The Coyotes will be playing in Quebec City next year, welcome back Nordique Nation to the NHL.

For Sports Business News this is Howard Bloom

Hockey is Canada – Canada is Hockey

The CBC, Canada’s national public broadcaster, holds their annual Hockey Day in Canada on Saturday, a daylong celebration that features Canada’s seven National Hockey League franchises playing on the full CBC network. The day-long broadcast runs more than 12 hours. Saturday may be Hockey Day in Canada, but if you ask most Canadians – every day is Hockey Day in Canada –as chronicled in “Hockey: More than a Game” where the producers in this documentary discuss how hockey is central to Canadian culture.

The Conference Board of Canada released a report on Thursday that suggested there are only two additional Canadian markets that could be home to an NHL franchise: Hamilton and Quebec City. The study dismisses Toronto as a possible home to a second NHL team.

There are a number of reasons the authors of the report believe a second NHL team in Toronto wouldn’t work. They included four so-called “pillars” the authors of the study offered: population, market wealth, corporate presence and a level playing field.

According the 2006 Canadian census (the information from the 2010 census is in process of being released) the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) is home to more than 6 million people. The GTA is defined as the central city of Toronto, along with four regional municipalities surrounding it: Durham, Halton, Peel, and York. However, if the area is expanded to include Canada’s Golden Horseshoe urban agglomeration, the population reaches close to 9 million or 25% of Canada’s population. Anyone living within the Golden Horseshoe can easily travel to Toronto.

Putting market wealth and corporate presence together (two more of the pillars), corporate Canada is based in Toronto and within the GTA. As far as market wealth, a 2012 Financial Post study reported that the GTA’s (and area) per capita average is 9% higher than the Canadian average.

That dismisses the first three pillars the report draws its conclusions from. The fourth point: the level playing field looks at the Canadian dollar vs. the American dollar. Current economic indicators suggest the Canadian dollar will remain at par with the American dollar for the foreseeable future.

The report also focused on the Toronto sports landscape. Toronto is home to a Major League Baseball, National Basketball Association, Major League Soccer, Canadian Football League and National Lacrosse League teams. If you asked a Toronto sports fans what is their favorite sports league, they would insist it’s the National Hockey League. If the law of supply and demand were applied to the Conference Board of Canada’s “playing field” criteria, it’s the other sports franchises that would be impacted by a second or third NHL team in the region, not the NHL.

The report also suggests “the prospective owner of a second Toronto NHL team would have to negotiate market entry with the combined new Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment ownership group that now includes both Bell and Rogers. These large communications and media organizations recently acquired the Leafs’ corporate owner, MLSE, in order to maximize Toronto sports content for their various media platforms. A second NHL team in Toronto would represent even more media content and would further complicate the already-complex negotiations on who gets to broadcast what.”

Once again the authors of the report miss the mark. Bell Media owns TSN, Rogers SportsNet. The highest rated programs on both TSN and SportsNet are NHL broadcasts. A second NHL franchise in the GTA would offer both TSN and SportsNet opportunities for more NHL games and additional advertising dollars for the ratings driven programming.

In late November, developer Graeme Roustan announced a plan to build a $300 million, 20,000 seat arena in the Markham area (located within the GTA). Roustan and Toronto developer Rudy Bratty have created GTA Sports and Entertainment as part of that plan. Roustan and Bratty suggested they would bring their proposed plan to Markham City Council in the next few months. If that facility is built, it will be home to an NHL franchise. The other possibility is a second NHL team in the Air Canada Centre.

Los Angeles Staples Center (owned and managed by the NHL’s Los Angeles Kings) is home to the Kings and the NBA’s Los Angeles Lakers and Los Angeles Clippers. If the Anschutz Entertainment Group (AEG) can make it work in Los Angeles, Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment can make it work in Toronto.

The two cities the report suggests can be home to NHL franchises, Hamilton and Quebec City, both face significant challenges before they can become home to an NHL franchise.

Hamilton’s Copps Coliseum opened in 1985. If an NHL franchise were to move to Hamilton, Copps would need to undergo extensive renovations. This arena doesn’t have corporate suites, lacks club seats and doesn’t have many of the amenities NHL teams require in their arenas.

Quebec City continues to talk about building a $400 million arena, but thus far, it’s been nothing more than talk. Quebecor, a Canadian media company, has a management contract (the company wants to own Quebec City’s NHL team as well) and has bought the naming rights for $33 million and $63 million (fee based on the area being home to an NHL arena). Everything appears to be in place, but construction has yet to begin and no date has been set as to when the shovels will start digging. Le Colisée de Québec (the 11,000+ arena the Nordiques played in) could be home to the new Nordiques next year. However, if civic leaders don’t start building their new arena, the NHL will (though they should not) move the Coyotes to Quebec City.

The report concludes: “Canada could sustain a maximum of nine NHL franchises—a conclusion based on our analysis of the market conditions required to support an NHL-level professional hockey team today. And while Winnipeg, Hamilton, and Québec City do appear to be viable locations for NHL franchises, they are all at the lower limit. These markets have only the minimum market size and income, and a relatively small number of corporate offices. They would need the Canadian dollar to remain strong; and these smaller markets will always be more vulnerable to any negative shocks to the national economy or their community than their larger competitors.

“Yes, they could be successful in the NHL—but only if they have dedicated owners who are in it for the long run and who manage their business operations carefully.”

Interestingly enough the report believes both Hamilton and Quebec City fall short of the needed corporate presence. Looking at the GTA (and the sum of all its parts), the region has the necessary corporate presence for two more NHL franchises. The Toronto Blue Jays (MLB), Toronto Raptors (NBA), Toronto Argonauts (CFL) and Toronto Rock (NLL) will be hurt by two or three NHL teams in the Greater Toronto Area. The NHL teams will thrive with corporate Canada in their ability to generate television and radio rights fees and in ticket sales. The other sports teams will suffer – not the NHL teams. If the marketplace determines the fate of sports in the GTA – the NHL wins.

There remains one very big issue the NHL faces before moving one, two, or even three franchises to Canada – the current NHL collective bargaining agreement (CBA).

The NHL’s salary cap includes a cap and a salary floor, dictating both the most and the least an NHL franchise can spend on their teams’ payroll. When the current NHL CBA was agreed to in July 2005, the Canadian dollar was worth 75 cents as compared to the American dollar. The seven current Canadian teams are the economic engine that is driving up the NHL’s salary floor. The 2005-06 NHL $39 million salary cap was the 2011-12 salary floor. NHL teams in Miami, Dallas, Anaheim, Long Island, Columbus, Raleigh and Nashville can’t justify a team payroll of $39 million. When there are nine or ten Canadian- based NHL teams – both the salary floor and salary cap will increase - something every National Hockey League player wants to see take place.

The bottom line – expect to see two or three NHL teams in the Greater Toronto Area in the next five to seven years and a team in Quebec City.

For Sports Business News this is Howard Bloom