Big fish joins lawsuit as calls for non-contact training get more urgent
PLUS: An NFL coach learns that emails never die; Baz and Flem could face off in the IPL final; Paul Ford reviews Golden Boy; and a giveway re-cap.
A high-profile All Black of the recent past has joined the action against World Rugby and various national governing bodies, with the lawsuit arguing the sport’s overseers failed to provide sufficient protection from the risks caused by concussion.
It is understood the player is considering whether to go public, but has requested anonymity at this stage.
The relative youth of the player, along with many of those who have joined the suit, destroys some of the arguments used to mask or minimise the link between playing rugby and long-term brain health. When players in the 40s and even late-30s are exhibiting symptoms of dementia it is much harder to box them in with some of the older legends who have passed, like great mates Mac Herewini and Waka Nathan, and say that dementia is just one of many afflictions that unfortunately affects some older men and women.
A recent study commissioned by the Drake Foundation found 23 percent of rugby playing participants experienced changes to their brain structure, while 50 per cent showed a reduction in brain volume. While it is still unknown as to whether these changes will all translate to brain-damage or brain-disease symptoms (and the sample size, 44, is small by research standards), it is a further wake-up call for a sport that shouldn’t need any more alarms before enacting meaningful change.
The Drake Foundation’s founder James Drake, talked to the Herald this week ($).
DON’T DRINK AND PUSH ‘SEND’
One, but by no means the only, offensive email now-former Las Vegas Raiders coach Jon Gruden sent to mates in the NFL world criticised the sport for trying to reduce concussions. Yes, there are still people out there who think like that.
Gruden “resigned” yesterday from his role as the Raiders head coach, a precipitous fall for one of the golden “boys” of the sport, who won a Super Bowl with Tampa Bay, the franchise’s first, in between two stints at the Raiders and an eight-year stint as Monday Night Football’s colour analyst.
This New York Times report (metered paywall) reveals in spectacular detail Gruden’s email trail with some of the game’s more prominent executive’s and benefactors, that started in 2011 and continued through to 2018.
According to the Times: “In the emails, Gruden called the league’s commissioner, Roger Goodell, a ‘faggot’ and a ‘clueless anti football pussy’ and said that Goodell should not have pressured Jeff Fisher, then the coach of the Rams, to draft ‘queers,’ a reference to Michael Sam, a gay player chosen by the team in 2014.”
Gruden pretty much covered the board when it came to causing offence, denouncing also the emergence of women as referees and the tolerance of players protesting, while he used a racial trope to insult the head of the players’ union. Oh, and Gruden also shared pictures of topless women, including Washington Football Team cheerleaders.
Said the report: “Taken together, the emails provide an unvarnished look into the clubby culture of one NFL circle of peers, where white male decision makers felt comfortable sharing pornographic images, deriding the league policies, and jocularly sharing homophobic language.”
While nobody should feel any sympathy for Gruden, who has enough money to crawl back to his lavish man cave, it is a brutal way to learn that emails don’t die.
CONTINUING THE CULTURE THEME…
One of the first meaningful tasks New Zealand’s Greg Barclay had to perform as chairman of the International Cricket Council was to sack chief executive Manu Sawhney.
According to the Daily Telegraph ($), Manchester United is under pressure from British MPs for refusing to dismiss Sawhney from its board, despite revelations from an ICC cultural review that he “exhibited acts of “physical aggression”, affecting the health and wellbeing of staff.
“[Sawhney] resigned from his previous job at Singapore Sports Hub following a complaint about him which included similar allegations about his time there and at ESPN Star Sports beforehand – albeit one found to warrant no further action,” the Telegraph reported.
The paper has spoken to many of the complainants at the ICC, who paint a picture of the executive as a “narcissistic bully”.
United’s owners and executive have refused to answer questions about Sawhney’s ingoing presence on the board, which has angered Julian Knight MP, the chairman of the Digital, Culture, Media & Sport select committee.
“This opaque and dismissive attitude from Manchester United is yet another indication of a club which has quite serious issues and understandably has concerned its fanbase for a long time,” he told the Telegraph. “And because of its premier position in English football, this actually interests everyone involved in the game.
“Having someone at such a senior level at what is one of the biggest football clubs in the world and the biggest club in England with these allegations ongoing is deeply concerning.”
PAYS TO BE A KIWI IN THE IPL
A Kiwi coach, that is. Three of the four playoff teams were led by New Zealand coaches, with Brendon McCullum’s Kolkata Knight Riders playing off against Delhi overnight to see if they can join Stephen Fleming’s Chennai in the final.
Kolkata eliminated Mike Hesson’s Bangalore from contention in a low-scoring, last-over thriller and McCullum’s team was featured in Cricinfo this week as “the laboratory of T20”, a kind of hipster cricketing experiment.
On the playing front, however, it’s been a mixed bag for the Black Caps as they look ahead to a World T20 campaign that begins against Pakistan in Sharjah in the early hours of October 27.
Things didn’t go so well for Kane Williamson and his Sunrisers Hyderabad, who put together one of the worst IPL campaigns in history. Williamson had a decent enough tournament with the bat although his aggregate and average (266 runs at 44.33) was offset by a painful strike rate of 113.19.
Lockie Ferguson has been the obvious bright spot, with the paceman’s 12 wickets for Kolkata coming at an average of 11.83 and a tidy economy rate of 6.45. His performances have caught the eye of influential pundits.
Trent Boult (Mumbai) and Kyle Jamieson (Bangalore) have taken 13 and nine wickets respectively at an average near 30, but their economy rates (7.9 for Boult, 9.6 for Jamieson) have been comparatively high.
The others - Tim Southee, Tim Seifert (both Kolkata), Adam Milne, James Neesham (both Mumbai), and Glenn Phillips (Rajasthan) - have struggled for runs, wickets or opportunities and sometimes all three, though Neesham has chipped in with five cheap wickets.
My optimism levels regarding New Zealand’s chances at the World T20 remain at middling.
MIDWEEK BOOK CLUB
What is it? Golden Boy: Kim Hughes and the bad old days of Australian cricket
Who wrote it? Christian Ryan
Publisher: Allen & Unwin
Genre: Biography
Reviewer: Paul Ford
Named by Wisden as “probably the best cricket book ever written”, Christian Ryan’s biography of the only Australian captain never to write a memoir is a magnificent insight into the macho culture that pervaded Australian cricket and the golden-haired protagonist’s inability to fit in. You don’t want it to finish.
A Western Australian country boy and son of a country school principal, Hughes played the game in a swashbuckling manner. He was motivated by a desire to entertain and give the punters something to savour - and that rubbed against the grain for those players who instead saw winning at all costs as the primary objective.
Across interviews with more than 70 sources – excluding Hughes and his family – there are some staggering revelations about the childish antics of the two alpha males of the team, Dennis Lillee and Rod Marsh, both of whom thought the latter should have been captain. They set about undermining the skipper in myriad ways, including openly criticising his captaincy, ignoring field settings, despairing at the precocious risks he took and literally tearing the clothes off his back during a post-match drinking session.
The tales of savage net sessions are unforgettable. Paceman Geoff Lawson tells of a pre-Ashes net session where Lillee reverts to his long run-up when Hughes took strike: “He nearly broke Kim’s arm. Just ran in and bowled lightning and Kim had to go off for an X-ray… the day before the Ashes started.”
In Ryan’s examination of the enigmatic Hughes, the golden boy is not exempt from criticism. Instead he helps us understand that Hughes’ cockiness and blind optimism are part of his downfall – a prodigious batting talent left to sink or swim when he was appointed captain.
Golden Boy is a savage indictment of the cruelty that can exist in all dressing rooms, especially when the senior players and the captain do not see eye-to-eye. It helps us understand the ruthlessness that perpetuated Australian cricket in the 1980s, and the ripples into the contemporary environment 40 years later. And it’s only $20 max at a secondhand bookshop near you.
Paul Ford is the co-founder of the Beige Brigade, co-host and founder of The BYC (New Zealand’s favourite specialty cricket podcast, returning next week), and an all round good bugger. He can usually be found at the Basin.
PRIZE RE-CAP
To celebrate The Bounce’s first month, I’m giving away a signed Kane Williamson ODI playing cap with his Black Caps number - 161 - embroidered on the side. It even comes with genuine lint attached.
To enter, you have to be a paying subscriber, follow @dylancleaver3 on Instagram, like any of the relevant prize posts and tag one friend you think might be interested in either the cap or The Bounce (or both!).
Entries close on October 28 and the winner will be announced October 29.
IN YOUR INBOX TOMORROW
I’m thrilled to preview Patrick McKendry’s first appearance in The Bounce, with a heartfelt and elegant feature on his love for boxing, the intersection of the sweet science and sports writing, and his conflict with the received wisdom that you should never get too close to your subjects.
Here’s a little taster.
Parker, known for his hand speed, had been expected to be too quick and skilful for Whyte, a Jamaican-born brawler with a tough backstory from the streets of Brixton, South London. Stay in the sports writing business long enough and it’s not difficult to remain detached when you’re writing a live event to a tight deadline, but I had a feeling of dread when Parker was felled by Whyte, which grew in the ninth round and… felt like a hole in the pit of my stomach.
So thanks once more for your subscriptions, which provide me with the opportunity to showcase this sort of quality, independent sports writing.