“The family of Junior Seau has sued the NFL based on findings by the National Institutes of Health that the linebacker had CTE, a disease from traumatic brain injuries linked to depressions and suicides. Seau, at age 43, committed suicide by shooting himself in the chest. He played 20 seasons in the NFL and allegedly suffered repeated blows to the head. The first reaction seems to be “these guys choose to play a violent game”. So they assume the risk of head injuries like concussions – a natural consequence of playing that violent game.  And therefore there is no basis for the lawsuits against the NFL.”

…read the rest at SportsMoney.

“It is hard to know what to believe anymore. We watch movies and cannot tell what is animated through computer aided design and what is real. We used to believe baseball players were not cheating the sport but found out that many of our heroes lied about using performance enhancing drugs. Some people over the decade believed Lance Armstrong’s adamant representations that he was not doping.”

… read the latest from Roger Groves at SportsMoney.

“Most of us had a choice at 8 pm Monday night: Watch The Antique Road Show, Miss America Secrets Revealed, or the BCS Championship Game between Alabama and Notre Dame. By halftime, the score was 28-0 and little prospect of a changed circumstance so some of you may have regretted the BCS choice. Not me. Not because of any particular affinity with the school. It’s that we don’t always know then history is being made. When we recognize it, it is wiser to embrace it than ignore it.”

Read the full Roger Groves piece on SportsMoney.

“You have heard by now that Kansas City Chiefs player Jovan Belcher killed Kasandra Perkins, his girlfriend and mother of his own 3-month old child. He then went to the Chief’s stadium parking lot, talked to the team’s General Manager and Head Coach Romeo Crennel. When the police arrived, Jovan reportedly walked 20 or 30 feet and fatally shot himself in the head. The Chiefs played the next day after a vote of its team captains in consultation with Crennel. They won their first game in 70 days and only the second time this season.

The game is secondary. The decision whether to play game is secondary.  Life and the loss of it are far more important and tragic.”

Read the entire piece by Roger Groves at SportsMoney.

Notre Dame is going to play for college football’s crown jewel – The BCS National Championship. ND is the first to start the season unranked and end up earning a BCS birth. A movie will probably be made about this unimaginable rags-to-riches saga, complete with last-minute victories against all odds. Yet according to my informal unscientific poll of football fans, Brussels sprouts have an approval rating 74% higher than Notre Dame Football.

Roger Groves explains the reasons why at SportsMoney.

Maryland and Rutgers are moving to the Big Ten Conference. Whether it’s good or bad depends on whose interests you are trying to protect. If you are a fan steeped in ACC or Big East traditional rivalries you are peeved, perturbed and a little pissed off. If you are the Maryland athletic director or president, you say “Hmm. we have a $4 million athletic budget deficit. We cut 7 sports programs this year as a result. Our choice is to keep those cuts, or move to the Big Ten and restore those programs and achieve financial stability long into the future.”

Read the entire piece by Roger Groves on SportsMoney.

“I have assumed ever since I could spell sports that the NCAA requires schools to provide a qualitative nutritional program for student athletes – since the schools lure these special teenagers away from their parents’ kitchens in exchange for a scholarship – since schools vow that they care more about the students than winning games – and since a strong healthy athlete is good for winning games. And particularly in the big-money sports like football where the teenagers are subjected to grueling boot camps during hot 2-a day summers and beyond, with time commitments akin to a full-time-job.”

Read the latest piece from Roger Groves at SportsMoney.

“Last year, Maurice Jones-Drew gained more yards than any running back in the NFL. He was on the top of his game, Pro-Bowl selectee, peaking in marketability, with plenty of market value left in his 27 year old limbs. He was so convinced that by his production over the past several years, he held out of training camp in attempts to have the his team, the Jacksonville Jaguars, agree with his assessment of his market value.”

Read the latest piece from Roger Groves at SportsMoney.

“The integrity of college football depends on many things, including players and officials not gambling on the games or otherwise receiving a personal gain at the expense of the game. Accordingly every year the NCAA has structured sessions for college athletes, explaining the gambling rules and their various implications.”

Read more at SportsMoney.

The NFL’s governing documents and the 2011 Collective Bargaining Agreement give broad power to the Commissioner to impose discipline against players and coaches. No reasonable person objects to the general principle that the League should protect its integrity and brand against outliers and felonious or unconscionable activity.  But one reason we have become the most respected legal system in the world is because we have a fair process for determining who should be punished. Before most industrialized countries, we evolved a system of due process, fair hearings, evidentiary standards designed to reveal the truth and filter out biased, untruthful or otherwise unreliable testimony.

… read the latest piece from Roger Groves at SportsMoney.