If you haven't read Bill Simmons most recent column: Greed is good in NFL labor talks then you may not get the whole gist of my rebuttal.  I wouldn't even call it a rebuttal; it's actually just a column that shows the other side of things. Thanks to Bill Simmons and I hope you enjoy.

Take a deep breath, suspend all disbelief and walk through the following hypothetical (and admittedly ridiculous) scenario with me ...

It's December 1994.

I'm 10 years old, growing up in Western Pennsylvania, and my dream is to become a national sports writer.  Western PA is known as a hotbed for sportswriters.  Many great writers have grown up here and their legacies still live on to this day.  This region takes their sports writing very seriously, having after school groups of young prodigies come together at the age of six to begin to expand their skill sets in hopes of one day making it as a syndicated writer.  I have the passion for sports, but not the talent to write; at least not enough talent to be selected to one of these pristine groups.  My parents see my determination and know that if they can help me grow as a writer at a young age then I might have a chance to make it as one of the few select sports writers for a metropolitan newspaper.  They decide to take all their retirement savings and use it to get me a literature trainer.  Every day after school I work with a teacher to hone my skills in grammar, content, styling, creativeness; all areas that I need to excel at if I want to be considered one of the greats when I'm older.

Fast forward to December 1998. I've still been writing; still working with my after school teacher, and I've really became a talented sports writer.  I'm in 8th grade and I'm considered one of the most promising adolescent columnists to ever write in Western Pennsylvania.  High schools all around the district are contacting me in hopes that I consider enrolling at their school next year.  After some deliberation with my writing coach and weighing all the options I decide to attend McDowell High School in Erie, PA; a high school known for producing many national writers.  I'm in 9th grade and I'm one of the select few freshmen that have ever been put on the varsity newspaper staff.  There's a lot of pressure on me, but I know this is what I've been working for the past five years in hopes of getting a scholarship to a premier college for sports writing.  I'm putting out some of my best work during my freshman year.  By the time the second semester rolls around I'm already supplanting myself as one of the best on the writing staff and earning my column space on the front page of the sports section.

My junior year I've not only become the youngest editor of the school's newspaper ever, but I'm also receiving national praise from some of the top newspapers around the country.  I'm featured in the cities newspaper at least once a week and I'm receiving letters upon letters of scholarship offers from universities that I only dreamed of ever attending.  Famous writers that teach at these colleges are visiting me at my home and pitching me on why I should come to their school.  My popularity is unreal right now, not only are fellow students asking me for my autograph, but I have adults stopping me around town asking me to sign my columns for them as well.  I don't let the fame overwhelm me and I continue to focus on my goal of winning a state national writing title for my school.  After facing some staggering competition in the district and regional write offs my team of writers and myself reach the finals in Hershey, Pennsylvania.  It feels like a dream as I travel down state for the championship match up.  I'm ready for this.  This is what I was born to do.  I pen some of the best writing material that I've ever written and we capture the state title and we're ranked nationally in the top 10 of high school writing teams.  The following year I repeat the feat becoming the first school editor to ever win back-to-back state titles.

It has finally come time for me to decide on my future.   I have over 100 scholarship offers and it seems like more and more promises are being made to me every day.  Cars. Girls. Money.  A new house for my family.  Jobs for my parents in whatever city I decide to move to.  Guaranteed writing space in the sports section my first year on campus.  Pretty much whatever i want I can get and it feels good that I'm in this predicament right now.  The city has been anticipating this decision for years.  The nation has been anticipating this decision for months.  A press conference is held in my school's auditorium and there are news crews there that I've never even heard of before.  There are some opening comments from the principal and finally it's my turn to come to the podium to state where I'm going to attend.  I thank the school; thank my friends and family; and of course I thank God last.  I talk a little bit about why I considered writing for each school and then finally I make my decision.  Flash bulbs are going off and students are screaming as I announce that I will be continuing my writing career at Penn State University so I can write for a legend like Professor Paterno.

I get to Penn State in the Summer of 2003 and I'm considered a celebrity on campus.  There are 40,000 students here and almost everyone I walk by knows who I am.  Students are stopping me to shake my hand; talking to me about winning a national writing championship my first year on campus.  I have girls giving me their numbers and guys wanting to party and giving me their numbers too.  At this point it feels like I'm a writing God to everyone.  I attend my first writer meeting and it's a definite rude awakening as I see some writers there that I looked up to while I was in high school.  Professor Paterno gets us focused immediately and twice a day I'm participating in writing drills.  By the end of the first week I'm sore, tired and experiencing more pain in my writing hand then I've ever had before.  The practice is demanding, but I know the hard work will payoff once the school year begins.  I was right.  I'm selected to be part of the main sports writing team; a very tough task to achieve as a freshman.  The team has a solid year, coming up a little short on a conference title, but I still did very well considering I had to adjust to a whole new writing situation.  My sophomore year I continue to work hard in the off season, earning 2nd Team All-Big Ten for Sports Writing in the process.  We once again fall short of our conference title goal and I'm determined next year to make sure it happens.  My junior year I'm put on the honorable mention list for All-American Sports Writers.  I have an amazing year, setting school records for published columns and the team excels as well, as we win the Big Ten Writers Championship and earn a trip to Pasadena for the Writers Rose Bowl to square off against USC.  Unfortunately there's no playoff system in college because I feel like we could've won the National Championship this year.

As my senior season is coming around I'm considered one of the top sports writers in the nation.  I'm starting to see dollar signs after I graduate and I even have some agents from national news agencies secretly contacting me.  With the end in sight I start to slack off a little bit and the lack of conditioning hurts me during our summer drills.  Right before the season is about to begin I hear something pop in my wrist.  I'm sidelined for nearly the entire writing season after undergoing carpal tunnel surgery.  When I'm finally able to write again there's only a couple weeks left in the writing season and thanks to my injury among other factors, the team doesn't make it to a writing bowl this year.  I can't believe that my senior year was wasted and now I might not reach my dream of becoming a national sports writer, at least not at ESPN where I've been wanting to begin my career at ever since I got to Penn State.  I hire a writing agent that helps me with the process of gaining national exposure and interviews from various news agencies and companies.  He tells me I should participate in the Writer's Combine, which all the writing scouts will be at to measuring my writing speed, how many words I can rhyme with "door" and a test of general knowledge.  I also participate in Penn State's Writers Day where the scouts come to State College to see what I can do.

The initial wave of contracts went out to some of the nation's best writers and I wasn't offered as one of the top ten.  My vision was to be a featured writer for ESPN.com, but now that wasn't going to happen.  Soon after I received an offer to write for ESPN New York.  It wasn't exactly my ideal situation where I would sign a contract for $50 million to write for ESPN.com, but it was still an unbelievable opportunity and I would still be getting paid heavily in the process.  I finally agreed on a six-year, $30 million contract, which included $11 million in guaranteed money.  Most of the top tier writers out of college sign three year deals, but I went for the maximum contract to ensure I got the most guaranteed money I could.  I was finally rich.  $11 million guaranteed, are you kidding me?  I got more money now then I could ever dream of.   I was focused more than ever on my columns and I was prepared to make sure every company that passed me up for someone else would know they made a mistake.

 My first year at ESPN New York got off to a great start.  I was the first rookie front page columnist since Ray Mickens to be featured weekly on the web site.  The entire realm of sports writing was already extremely popular, but it was still growing and I was growing with it.  ESPN New York was considered the top subsidiary of ESPN.com and I was considered one of the top sports columnist in the nation.  I knew ESPN New York and ESPN.com were making enormous amounts of money thanks to me, but I still kept working harder in hopes of being considered the best in the country.  After my third year I reached that plateau.  There's been no disputing I was the best and the recognition wasn't enough for me, I wanted to be paid for it.  Unfortunately I still had three years left on my contract so I did what I felt was deserving and stopped writing for ESPN until they gave me a new contract.  If I'm the best then I should be paid like the best.  I stopped attending company meetings, had no contact with my managers and all my editors had no clue what was going on.  I wasn't going to budge.  All ESPN could do was fine me for not showing up, but I knew they needed me and that's the bargaining chip I was relying on.

Months went by and the major sports season was about to begin and they needed me.  ESPN New York was losing visitors and advertising money daily from me not writing for them.  Meetings were held and nothing was being resolved.  I was about to turn off my computer and stop writing for the entire year, but then something came over me.  I loved writing about sports and a year without doing so would tear me apart.  Hesitant, I signed a new contract with ESPN to write for ESPN.com with contract terms of four-years, $46 million, with $32 million guaranteed.  Basically I added an extra year to my initial deal and got an extra $11 million guaranteed.  Definitely not what I was looking for, but I'm still a very wealthy man after this deal.  I felt like a writer had finally won a little against the big guys.  Then again I didn't really have many other options unless I wanted to go to Canada and write for The Score for $2 million a year.

Now it's March 2011.  I'm amongst a group of ten writers that are about to sue ESPN if a collective bargaining agreement isn't agreed upon within the next week.  ESPN wants each of us to write two additional weeks' worth of columns in exchange for reducing our "involuntary" in services that we have every year.  We also will get a reduction on draft columns that we have to write before a major sports season begins.  Many writers are against any concessions that ESPN wants us to consider, specifically the additional writing weeks, claiming that more carpal tunnel injuries will be caused due to the additional workload.

Many past writers have been coming out lately explaining how typing on a typewriter really caused damage on their wrists.  ESPN has been studying these claims and trying to reduce wear and tear on us by making sure we have ergonomical furniture and computer hardware. I guess I understood from a young age that using my hands to write a lot would probably cause some damage to them.  Are we going to stop writing because carpal tunnel has severely injured some individuals?  I don't think so.

Other veteran writers want to hold out for more money.  Some of us think that salaries are too exorbitant for newly signed writers just entering the field.  Then we have the group of writers who want ESPN to take some of their profits and give it to the old writers for their medical bills since health care costs are a lot more expensive these days.

Maybe I'm just the writer that actually understands business and I wouldn't give in to anything if I owned ESPN either.  Just think about it for a minute.

I'm the owner of ESPN.  I'm the one that took the risk over three decades ago to pay hundreds of millions of dollars for this company in hopes of making a profit from it.  The risk paid off and the company has grown rapidly over the past 30 years.  I'm a billionaire now and deservedly so.  I'm the one that took the risk initially and it paid off.  My employees are making more money per person then less than 1% of the people in the country and they want to complain about money because my company keeps growing.  I guess they don't realize that this is how business works.  There is a company and there are employees.  The owner of the company makes the majority of the money if it's a profitable business and the employees receive competitive salaries and earn raises or bonuses each year depending on how well they perform and how well the company performs.  I'm a private company.  I don't have to show my financial statements to anyone, especially not my employees who are making monstrous salaries, just because they think they aren't getting a big enough percentage.

So what if I'm an owner that wants to make more money.  That's what business owners are supposed to do.  If you don't want to write for those two extra weeks a year in exchange for some considerations that lessen your workload at other times then leave.  Where else are you going to make the amount of money that I'm paying you?  I give my writers the best facilities to write in, the greatest staff of editors and producers to help them excel at their job and they still think they deserve more.  I'm the one who risked it all years and years ago when ESPN was nothing and helped turn it into the most powerful sports network in the world.  I guess that's what the writers don't understand is that I'm this successful because of the product that the company puts out, not because of who puts it out.  Of course I need talented people to maintain my audience, but there are always talented people out there.  If Gene Zarnick, Bill Simmons and Rick Reilly all leave ESPN tomorrow with the rest of the writers then of course I'll be stuck in a predicament, but I will be alright in the long run.  There is no other market like ESPN and because of this I will always have consumers.  I may not have the best talent, but the product is more than talent.  It's all the ESPN networks, including television, radio and print.  It's the fan bases in all the cities that care for their teams and will still want to read about their team even if their favorite writer isn't writing here anymore.  ESPN belongs to America and America will never give up on ESPN because of that.  So go ahead writers, leave.  Go see what you can do with your college degree at a different company and then come crawling back a year later begging to keep the same deal we had.

That's of course how I would feel if I owned ESPN.

Or maybe my fellow writers are correct to hold out until we get what we want.  We've dreamed of this opportunity to write for ESPN from a young age, worked hard and had the determination to finally get to the apex of the sports writing world.  I love writing.  You've read my story about how I grew up in a region that honored sports writers and that's what I aspired to be.  I worked hard through high school and college to get to where I am now and I deserve all the accolades from it.  The only problem is that my story isn't unique.  Many other sports writers have a similar story to mine and many more will have the same story in the future.  

I'm replaceable.  ESPN isn't.

So are we the greedy ones or are the owners?

I'm not really sure, but I do know that whenever this deal gets signed, no matter the outcome, I can always just stop writing again to get myself a better contract anyway.

Are some sports really meaningless?  If you turn on ESPN or listen to the radio then it would sure seem so.

How many times have you heard these remarks?

The college basketball season is meandingless due to the size of the tournament field.

Baseball's regular season is meaningless because there's 162 games in the season.

Fights are meaningless in the game of hockey.

Every day there's a new person saying something in sports is meaningless.  The problem is that they forget to extend their sentence and say it's meaningless to them.

I just don't get it.  If something is so meaningless then why are you talking about it?

Really though, are some sports meaningless?

I don't know; I don't see it.  

Maybe I just love sports to much ever think that way.  Maybe I turn a blind eye to meaningless sporting events.   Maybe I change the channel if I'm not enjoying something.

I guess I'd rather not waste my time thinking about why I dislike something and why you should too, but instead I just enjoy what I like.

Actually I'm probably just a lot smarter than the people talking on television.  I use this special gift I have called common sense.

So how about we all use some of this common sense we have and analyze what meaningless really means and then maybe people will stop using such a meaningless word.

 It's pretty simple here folks.  Meaningless just means that something doesn't have any meaning; it's insignificant and can't be explained.

Can any of the meaningless sports examples above really be described as unexplainable and insignificant?  Heck, you show me a tandem staring contest and I could find meaning in it.

There's no sport, not even a part of any sport that is meaningless.  If someone is participating in it, someone is watching it or someone is talking about it then it definitely has meaning.

The real problem isn't that something is meaningless, it's that something is less important.

I think we've all participated in a college football BCS/playoff discussion in the last few years.  All the BCS pundits love to use the phrase, "every game means something" when they're trying to defend the system.

If that's the case then after the first week of the college football season half of the schools seasons would be deemed meaningless.  A week later 75%.  A week later 87.5%.

Does that mean that college football's regular season is better than college basketball's if nearly 95% of the fan bases can stop watching television after week four of the season?

We can hold a debate another day, but the point I'm trying to make is that we use importance to try to determine meaning and many times the two don't go hand in hand.

People have different likes and dislikes.  Some teams excel and some teams fail.  That's just how it is.

We don't need people telling us that something is meaningless.  We're smart enough to figure out what we want to watch on our own.

Life changes and people change, but for the most part, sports stay the same.

For fans beating a rival is important no matter if it's the beginning of the season or end of the season or if you're 20-0 or 0-20 at the time.  

We don't need told if it is or isn't meaninful to us.

The next time you turn on ESPN and hear someone babbling about why a sport is meaningless, then remember one thing.

The only thing meaningless in life is listening to someone try to change your mind about something that you already know is true.

 

Welcome to T-Shirt Time Thursday!

Usually to give away t-shirts I do some elaborate contests that take effort from you and effort from me; I didn't want to that this time, but still wanted to give away a couple t-shirts.

In honor of t-shirt time on the Jersey Shore I've come up with a perfect way for you and a friend to win a free Favre Dollar Footlongs t-shirt (from sizes available).

All you have to do is come here at 11pm after The Jersey Shore ends and tweet the message below.  I will be posting the secret word following the episode.  Whomever is the 10th person to get a friend to retweet the message below will win themself, plus their retweeter, a free t-shirt.

Simple enough.

Just come back at 11pm and copy the message, insert the secret word and tweet it.  Get a follower to retweet it and the 10th one wins!

Message:

It's t-shirt time! Retweet this message and you and I can win a free t-shirt from www.FavreDollarFootlongs.com  Secret Word: (Insert the secret word)

Secret Word (appears at 11pm): #TeamSober

If you haven’t heard by now, BYU basically just ended their dreams of a National Championship thanks to the dismissal of Brandon Davies for a violation of the honor code.

Davies is a sophomore starter for the Cougars who averaged 11 points and 6 rebounds a game.  He started 26 of the 29 games and was a key part of the Jimmer Fredettes.

I’m glad he’s suspended; I hate Cinderella teams.

Let me clarify that a bit.  I hate Cinderella teams that are favorites before the tournament starts.

They’re fun to watch, but annoying to hear about from every media member.  Each year people act like it’s an unprecedented feat that mid-major won a tournament game, even if they were seeded far higher than the team they faced.

So thanks Brandon Davies for doing whatever you did.  I appreciate it.

The big question everyone wants to know is what exactly did Brandon Davies do to kick him off the team?

Everyone has their assumptions due to the absurd honor code of Brigham Young University.

It wasn’t that he drank coffee, didn’t show up to mass or had a girl over.  I don’t think it was drinking alcohol or smoking pot either.

I got my own thoughts and explanations on what really happened and I’ll present them to you with The Top 10 Reasons Brandon Davies was Dismissed from BYU:

10. He got into an argument with Coach Dave Rose and made him speak during a game

9. He was wearing a pair of Pajamajeans

8. He was selling Jimmer autographs on eBay

7. He was living with a bunch of drag queens for a spinoff reality show called, Bro Wives

6 . He was heard cackling during an episode of Mr. Sunshine

5. He was caught in the act of doing Humpilates with Jimmy K

4. He actually enjoyed watching the Oscars and though Celine Dion was good looking.

3. He was filming a basketball trick shot video (Every athlete should be suspended for this)

2. He was caught watching a pirated copy of Justin Bieber: Never Say Never

1. He was planning to start a Porn House in Provo with Charlie Sheen (BiWinning!)

Duke is coming off a four-point loss Saturday night to Virginia Tech that I couldn’t care less about.

Congratulations Hokie Nation!  

You finally beat the Blue Devils for the first time in five years and now you’re on your way to finally reaching your goal of an NCAA Tournament bid.

After so many years of getting their bubble burst, it will be nice to see Virginia Tech as a No. 10 seed on the bracket.

Duke fans don’t hope for mediocrity, we expect superiority.

Even though the game was basically meaningless to Duke, except for the fact that it puts them in a tie with North Carolina for the ACC regular season championship, it still bothers me a little.

Losing doesn’t bother me; knowing the best PG in the nation is sitting on the bench does.

It seems like that’s my reaction every time Duke has faced a loss this season. Only three times for all the Duke doubters out there.

I look towards the middle of the Duke bench, see Kyrie Irving sitting between the scholarship players and the walk-on players and say, “We would’ve won if Kyrie was playing.”

Maybe Kyrie Irving’s my anti-depressant. Some people use Prozac, others drink their tears away; I've got Kyrie Irving.

Kyrie’s what gives me a glimpse of hope when I’m down after a Duke loss.

Everyone’s drug of choice only lasts so long before they need more of it though. Pop more pills, drink more alcohol—whatever your vice, the more you use it the more you need.

I need more Kyrie Irving.

My hope of a repeat national championship is fading away with each remaining regular season game. With only Clemson and North Carolina left on the schedule, I don’t think I could withstand another loss—at least not with Kyrie on the bench.

There are too many questions that need to be answered.

What if he didn’t get injured? Could Duke have run the table?

How great could he have been? A National Player of the Year candidate?

It may seem selfish to think about these things when I have the No. 4 team in the country with only three losses and a National Player of the Year candidate in Nolan Smith leading us towards another run in the tournament to root on.

You are right. It is selfish, but I don’t care.

Ever since Kyrie verbally committed to Duke University on October 22, 2009, I envisioned him leading us to another national title.

Duke finally got that coveted 5-star point guard recruit that would be able to step in from day one and change the game.

My presumptions were correct.

In his first eight games as a Blue Devil, Kyrie averaged 17 points, four rebounds, five assists, 1.5 steals, a free-throw percentage of nearly 90 percent and he shot 45 percent from behind the arc.

Unfortunately, those first eight games were also his last.

Now we wait.

We wait to see what comes from the toe injury that sidelined Kyrie indefinitely. We wait to see how Duke fares in the tournament with or without him and we wait to hear the decision on if Kyrie will turn pro or not.

Maybe I’m just tired of waiting.

Kyrie Irving is a Dukie for life no matter if he stays or goes.

In my mind, he will always be considered one of the greatest Blue Devils even if he never plays in an ACC regular season game, in an ACC tournament game or in a NCAA tournament game.

That says a lot about Kyrie Irving.

So is it selfish to want to see Kyrie more than the team, even when Kyrie always puts the team over himself?

It might be, but when you witness someone showing the passion and determination that Kyrie does each and every game, while still being sidelined, then you could only imagine what type of player he would be like on the court.

Selfishness it may be. Probably more curiousness of what it could be.

That’s where I’m at with my Kyrie Irving uncertainty.

I’m at the point now where I’d rather see him get a chance to play North Carolina next Saturday than I would have Duke win back-to-back national championships.

So maybe I’m not being selfish; maybe I just want Kyrie to have one more game in a Duke uniform before he moves on to bigger and better things.

Maybe I just need to see it happen so I no longer need to justify a loss or think about what could’ve been.

Kyrie Irving is my anti-depressant and I need one more hit to get me through this year.

If I get that hit, I'd probably just want more though.