Daily Links For 3/31/11

NBA Investigating Jay-Z - Jay-Z Was in the University of Kentucky locker room after their win over North Carolina and there are photos and video to prove it.  As a part owner of the Nets, Jay-Z should know better than that and I'm betting he does.  However, I think that Jay-Z, like everyone else, just doesn't care about the NCAA.  Because he's not an athlete, the NCAA can't really punish him and the NBA has already set a precedent of just fining executives for smoozing up to college players.  Jay-Z can afford to pay a fine or two.  The NBA should make an example out of him or someone for this kind of activity, whether it's a draft penalty or something else it shouldn't be just a fine.

Wilpons Continue To Try And Sell Part of The Mets - The Wilpons need to come back to reality.  Everyone knows that the Mets aren't doing too well financially...No one is going to buy part of the team from them if it's not a majority share.  It'd basically be a sunk cost to give the Wilpons the money for a minority share of the team.  You're just buying in to the ability to lose money with the Wilpons.  And everyone knows that the Wilpons absolutely need to get capital.   Each time you hear about what the Wilpons are willing to sell, the share gets bigger and bigger.  If investors just wait it out they know they'll be able to eventually work out a deal for a majority share of the team and likely get it at a good price as the Wilpons will be desperate.

Warren Moon angry about Cam Newton's treatment - Warren feels that people's dislike of Cam Newton stems from the fact that Newton is a black man playing quarterback.  That is crazy.  It has nothing to do with the fact that he is black.  Newton has proven himself a bad character guy.  He had problems at Florida before transferring.  He not only stole a laptop but was also caught cheating three times.  That is a red flag.  At the Combine, before he's played a NFL down, he was calling himself an entertainer and icon and talking about himself in the third person.  That is a red flag.  It's not because he's black, it's because he has shitty character.  Moon brought up the fact that people had seemed to get over their racial bias after JaMarcus Russell went first overall, but JaMarcus had horrible character and was not a hard worker off the field which is why he failed.  Teams don't want to draft Newton for his amazing potential and have the same thing happen with Newton that happened with Russell.

Pegged Cap was NFL Players Idea - The NFLPA was complaining about the NFL's cap offers and the fact that anything over the predetermined cap would be going mostly into the owners pockets...But as it turns out the pegged cap was the players idea.  It makes sense.  The pegged cap protects the players if the NFL ends up falling short of revenue projections.  It gets them a guaranteed cap set point even if the NFL itself isn't making money.  But because they are getting that, they shouldn't be complaining about the NFL getting more of the money over projections.  If the players want that protection from the NFL not making enough revenue, the NFL owners should get some sort of compensation for offering that protection, and that should be the owners getting a greater share of the money over projections.

Chad Pennington Tears ACL in Basketball Game - Only news because Pennington is such a class act.  He's a guy who has come back from injury after injury and was working his way back from another shoulder injury when this happened.  He's likely to miss the whole 2012 season, and is expected not to come back after that.  Hopefully he catches on as a coach somewhere next year if he's not going to be playing.  Too smart a player to end his relationship with football just because he won't be playing.