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Balls, beers and buying valor....
May. 11th, 2015 08:25 pmBaseball season is in full swing, the winter sports are in the midst of exciting post-seasons, even horse racing and boxing are getting more attention than they usually do- and yet the mighty NFL seems destined to steal the headlines month after month. Not that any of today's stories were ones they'd prefer us to be talking about.
Latest to break is Tom Brady's four-game suspension for his complicity in Ballghazi. That conveniently spares Bills fans from facing him in the second week of the season. Fortunately, his biggest defender was quick to come forward:
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Earlier, word had leaked that the State of New Jersey has been running an expense account for Presidential hopeful Chris Christie, which he used to buy things at Jets and Giants games in the Meadowlands.
Edible things:
New Jersey governor Chris Christie is a big football fan, but he is also apparently a big fan of snacks at football stadiums. According to New Jersey Watchdog, Christie reportedly spent over $82,000 of taxpayer money on concessions at MetLife Stadium.
Christie paid for food and drinks at MetLife with a debit card 58 times over the 2010 and 2011 NFL seasons, accruing a bill of $82,594. That means he spent an average of nearly $1,500 on food and drinks every time he attended a football game.
The money came from Christie's state allowance, a $95,000 sum he's given on a quarterly basis to be "used for official receptions on behalf of the state, the operation of an official residence, for other expenses." Hot dogs and beers obviously qualify as "other expenses."
I've been trying real hard not to fat-shame this dude, no matter how deserved it might seem, but you have to consider his mean-spirited veto, earlier this year, of a bill to restore a miserly 90 bucks to the average Garden State family's monthly food stamp allotment. That's six percent of what he spends on brewskis and beer nuts at a single average game. Granted, watching Jets and Giants games can drive one to drink, but not THAT much.
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Lest you think I only pick on the opposition, I end with a condemnation of the Buffalo Bills, for accepting Pentagon dollars as a condition precedent to thanking veterans for their service:
Since 2011, the Buffalo Bills—along with 13 other teams—have received lucrative government contracts for military promotions. The Army National Guard and Air Force have built up a tab these past four seasons with the Bills that amounts to $679,000, according to a report published by NJ.com.
It shouldn’t come as a surprise after a week which saw NFL’s top star Tom Brady exposed as a cold-hearted liar, but in today’s NFL honor is for sale.
When the Bills announced a partnership with the Army National Guard in 2011, it was to framed as a positive PR step. The Bills and the ANG developed a “Coach of the Week” program to recognize local high school standouts and donate $2000 to that school’s athletic program for all 11 weeks of the high school schedule. The deal also gave the ANG recruitment presence in the tailgate area before games and airtime on then-flagship station 97 Rock. But that original partnership mushroomed into something much bigger in 2012....
Bigger, as in the $29,000 expense ballooning ::passes on Christie joke:: to a quarter million in 2012 and 2013 before falling to a mere $150,000 last year.
The report states that the New York Jets used similar revenue streams to honor individual service men and women during games as “Hometown Heroes.” If the Bills’ “Coach of the Week” program cost only $29,000, the remainder was conceivably spent on other forms of advertising not precluding on-field presentations under the pretense of public gratitude for one’s service to the country.
Since 2011 the Bills have themed-out entire game day presentations as “Salute to Service” days which include extended on-field military pageantry and camo accessories on the players’ uniforms and on other on-field visual elements. The most recent such day was November 9, 2014.
The “Coach of the Week” program honored its last recipient in 2013, but the “Salute to Service” gala continues apace.
For a league which can and virtually does print money- including a newly-minted million from the Patriots for their liability for Brady and his balls- it is shameful for them to be taking tax dollars as incentive to say thank you to veterans. But now that the team will likely beat New England this fall, the Pentagon will likely pay even more.
Latest to break is Tom Brady's four-game suspension for his complicity in Ballghazi. That conveniently spares Bills fans from facing him in the second week of the season. Fortunately, his biggest defender was quick to come forward:
----
Earlier, word had leaked that the State of New Jersey has been running an expense account for Presidential hopeful Chris Christie, which he used to buy things at Jets and Giants games in the Meadowlands.
Edible things:
New Jersey governor Chris Christie is a big football fan, but he is also apparently a big fan of snacks at football stadiums. According to New Jersey Watchdog, Christie reportedly spent over $82,000 of taxpayer money on concessions at MetLife Stadium.
Christie paid for food and drinks at MetLife with a debit card 58 times over the 2010 and 2011 NFL seasons, accruing a bill of $82,594. That means he spent an average of nearly $1,500 on food and drinks every time he attended a football game.
The money came from Christie's state allowance, a $95,000 sum he's given on a quarterly basis to be "used for official receptions on behalf of the state, the operation of an official residence, for other expenses." Hot dogs and beers obviously qualify as "other expenses."
I've been trying real hard not to fat-shame this dude, no matter how deserved it might seem, but you have to consider his mean-spirited veto, earlier this year, of a bill to restore a miserly 90 bucks to the average Garden State family's monthly food stamp allotment. That's six percent of what he spends on brewskis and beer nuts at a single average game. Granted, watching Jets and Giants games can drive one to drink, but not THAT much.
----
Lest you think I only pick on the opposition, I end with a condemnation of the Buffalo Bills, for accepting Pentagon dollars as a condition precedent to thanking veterans for their service:
Since 2011, the Buffalo Bills—along with 13 other teams—have received lucrative government contracts for military promotions. The Army National Guard and Air Force have built up a tab these past four seasons with the Bills that amounts to $679,000, according to a report published by NJ.com.
It shouldn’t come as a surprise after a week which saw NFL’s top star Tom Brady exposed as a cold-hearted liar, but in today’s NFL honor is for sale.
When the Bills announced a partnership with the Army National Guard in 2011, it was to framed as a positive PR step. The Bills and the ANG developed a “Coach of the Week” program to recognize local high school standouts and donate $2000 to that school’s athletic program for all 11 weeks of the high school schedule. The deal also gave the ANG recruitment presence in the tailgate area before games and airtime on then-flagship station 97 Rock. But that original partnership mushroomed into something much bigger in 2012....
Bigger, as in the $29,000 expense ballooning ::passes on Christie joke:: to a quarter million in 2012 and 2013 before falling to a mere $150,000 last year.
The report states that the New York Jets used similar revenue streams to honor individual service men and women during games as “Hometown Heroes.” If the Bills’ “Coach of the Week” program cost only $29,000, the remainder was conceivably spent on other forms of advertising not precluding on-field presentations under the pretense of public gratitude for one’s service to the country.
Since 2011 the Bills have themed-out entire game day presentations as “Salute to Service” days which include extended on-field military pageantry and camo accessories on the players’ uniforms and on other on-field visual elements. The most recent such day was November 9, 2014.
The “Coach of the Week” program honored its last recipient in 2013, but the “Salute to Service” gala continues apace.
For a league which can and virtually does print money- including a newly-minted million from the Patriots for their liability for Brady and his balls- it is shameful for them to be taking tax dollars as incentive to say thank you to veterans. But now that the team will likely beat New England this fall, the Pentagon will likely pay even more.