Barry Zito’s Dirty Secret

Continuing in the great week-old tradition of BZDS, I would like to welcome another great guest post to the site.  This week, we are fortunate to have the vitriolic voice of Jeff Clifford to inform us about the situation surrounding the latest supposed USC debacle.  This scathing criticism is well-founded, and frankly, right on.  So let’s see what Cliff thinks this is all about…

M-A-Y-O. B-U-S-H. L-A-C-C. Four letter words hover like an anvil over USC this week. Already accused of turning a blind eye to the financial dealings of Reggie Bush’s family a few years ago, Troy could now lose sight altogether. O.J. Mayo’s brief tenure as a college student may leave Troy sighing a collective “F-U-C-K.” A certain four letter network’s airing of these allegations on “Outside the Lines” fueled widespread condemnation - by the very same network. Judging based solely on their own flimsy investigation (citing hard evidence that Mayo has the “gifts” but providing only circumstantial evidence that it was paid for by Rod Guillory), ESPN’s columnists - specifically terminally self-important Pat Forde and the wholly obtuse Jason Smith - have targeted USC and their compliance office as the culprits. Forde even went as far as suggesting that USC should get the death penalty. But there is hope. Much of the evidence is scant at best and the informers unreliable to say the least. Lloyd Lake, a felon, and Johnson, burned by Mayo in his attempt to extort him, have an axe to grind. Mayo was thoroughly investigated earlier this year by the NCAA and USC, and was ultimately cleared. He and Bush were in the spotlight constantly and yet nothing has been proven - even after years of investigation in Bush’s case. The other shoe may drop on USC, but it hasn’t and wont without more evidence. Even if everything they reported is true, ESPN is still guilty of using their virtual monopoly on sports news to be the judge, jury and executioner. As if their shameless east coast bias hadn’t robbed them of credibility as a national network, they allow their columnists to cement hearsay into unmitigated fact. Forde’s article was a new low. This kind of speculation happens all the time at many campuses, and yet never has anyone said a school deserves the death penalty or a coach be fired without any evidence of wrong doing. Maybe it is time we look at ESPN as the New York Times or NBC of the sports news world - and Forde and Smith as Shattered Glass. Maybe, for Troy, the F-U-C-K should be F-Y-O-U to ESPN.

If Sunday’s ESPN brought the specter of sanctions on the program, Monday brought the welcome news of the defeat of another four lettered goliath - the L.A.C.C. No, not the exclusive owners of L.A. Country Club’s satanic North Course, but the Los Angeles Coliseum Commission. For those of you unfamiliar with this illustrious body of South L.A. politicians, they are the people who have colluded civic interests into forcing the NFL to relocate only to the decrepit Coliseum. Since 1994 they have hijacked the NFL from the people of Los Angeles. When Peter O’Malley brought the city plans to build a brand new NFL stadium in Chavez Ravine and get an expansion team called the Dodgers, it was the LACC who asked him to be a team player and bow to the city’s interest. Three years later, O’Malley had to sell everything, burned by the people who promised to help him if he played ball. 14 years on, they still held our NFL dreams in their corrupt hands. Even when USC offered to put $100 million into the renovation of the Coliseum in exchange for the master lease, the LACC balked, expecting the NFL to cave. Except the NFL didn’t. The NFL brilliantly used the absence of football in LA to pry new stadium deals out of almost every team in the league. Finally, this week, Troy conquered the LACC, with a little help from a man named Ed Roski. Roski, a Los Angeles billionaire developer, helped AEG build Staples Center ten years ago. L.A. has been waiting for a private investor to finance a stadium on private land and build outside the zone of the Commission’s power. Finally. Roski owns lands in the City of Industry which he will develop into a state of the art stadium and retail facility (losangelesfootballstaduim.com). Roski put a dagger into the heart of the LACC. Whichever NFL team moves to LA will definitely not be playing in the Coliseum. And so, on Monday, the LACC approved USC’s master lease proposal, giving Troy a triumph more important than ESPN’s attempt to bring tumult. And ESPN didn’t even report it. Perhaps MAYO and BUSH aren’t putting blinders on USC, perhaps the evil four letter network just can’t see.