Friday, February 25, 2022

The Liar In Winter

I'm pleased to report that I have settled into Unplayable Lies Western HQ to give this skiing thing one more chance... Since we're trotting out literary references with wild abandon, we'll just call this the winter of my discontent.  Third consecutive, but let's move on...

I had visions of catching up on other golf news today, but that just isn't going to happen for the simple reason that your humble blogger is just having too much damn fun.  There's a schadenfreudalicous element to it that might be a tad too self-congratulatory, but I've been plying this field since September 2014.

In terms of news, we touched on the meeting with players held by Jay Monahan on Tuesday, although we did not have full details, including this on the timing:

Monahan met with players Tuesday afternoon at the Honda Classic. While the meeting had been scheduled weeks in advance, it began just minutes after Phil Mickelson released a statement in which he apologized for “reckless” remarks about the Saudis and praised Norman’s LIV Golf Investments for sharing his goal of making golf better.

Wow, that fauxpology was such a dis to the Tour and his fellow players, just another curious data point on our journey.  The only thought I can offer is that he released it so close to the start of the meeting that players wouldn't have as chance to read it in any detail, but might just hear that an apology had been offered.

But, this was Jay's message:

PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan says he has “zero complacency” when it comes to the threat of a Saudi-funded rival league, and he has a clear message for any player still tempted to
leave.

“I told the players we’re moving on and anyone on the fence needs to make a decision,” Monahan said Wednesday in a telephone interview.

He also emphasized anew that players who sign up for a Saudi golf league will lose their PGA Tour membership and should not expect to get it back.

I didn't think much of that until I saw Geoff's commentary:

Why the ban was brought back up as the whole thing crumbles, is surprising and suggests there are still concerns the LIV Golf effort has legs. Because it seems like Monahan could have just belittled what appears to be left of a league down to some Kokrak’s, Poulter’s, Stenson’s, Westwood’s and Mickelson’s.

I see Geoff's point, but I suspect Jay knows that his biggest vulnerability is such an offer without the noxious Saudi's involvement.  Of course, given the actual enterprise value of all golf, who but the Saudis has such a need to distribute their wealth?

I'm here for LOLs, so Mr. Greg Norman seems a bit miffed at Jay Monahan, and has penned him a love letter.  I am not kidding when I tell you that the letter's salutation is as follows:

Dear Commissioner Monahan:

Surely you jest.

Is there any chance that Jay has an actual sense of humor and responded like this:

Dear Mullah Norman:

I never jest and please stop calling me "Shirley."

In a ranking of Unplayable Lies Piñatas, Greg Norman might well top the retired player category, and he's got some whoppers:

“For decades, I have fought for the rights of players to enjoy a career in which they are rewarded fully and properly for their efforts,” Norman wrote. “They are one-in-a-million athletes. Yet for decades, the Tour has put its own financial ambitions ahead of the players, and every player on the tour knows it. The Tour is the Players Tour not your administration’s Tour. Why do you call the crown jewel in all tournaments outside the Majors ‘The Players Championship’ and not ‘The Administration’s Championship?’”

Clever bit, Greg.  Though you might have noticed that those players had some thoughts last week in L.A.

Norman follows those three opening words with this:

“And surely, your lawyers at the PGA Tour must be holding their breath.”

And he gets on a roll here:

“But when you try to bluff and intimidate players by bulling and threatening them, you are guilty of going too far, being unfair, and you likely are in violation of the law,” Norman wrote. “Simply put, you can’t ban players from playing golf. Players have the right and the freedom to play where we like.”

You sure you want to go with intimidation?  Because....well, damn it, how am I going to top this from Eamon Lynch:

Pro tip Greg, never piss off Eamon Lynch.

I'm actually having trouble finding a text of the letter from which I can excerpt, but the last full 'graph is especially hysterical, in that he accuses Jay of trying to 

Can Jay ban players from the PGA Tour?  He cites this piece in his letter:

Let’s be clear: A lifetime ban is never going to happen. PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan is
no doubt being advised by high-priced lawyers who—if they are worth even a fraction of their lofty rates—have surely advised him of the legal consequences that will blow up in the PGA Tour’s face if it imposes lifetime bans on independent contractors who choose to associate with a competitor.

Most notably, imposing a lifetime ban on players would trigger a slam-dunk antitrust lawsuit by Norman’s upstart league, the players, or even federal antitrust enforcers who have made it a priority to protect workers’ ability to ply their trade for whomever they please without interference from corporate giants.

The U.S. Supreme Court made clear in Lorain Journal Co. v. United States in 1951 that it is an antitrust violation for a monopolist to attack competition by coercing third parties—such as independent contractors—not to deal with a rival. Other dominant sports leagues employed similar blacklisting tactics in the past but abandoned them decades ago under antitrust pressure. For example, in the 1940s and 1950s, the NFL blacklisted players for playing with rival leagues. One of those players, William Radovich, asserted an antitrust claim against the NFL and its commissioner based on his ban. The NFL claimed it was immune from the antitrust laws under baseball’s antitrust exemption, but when the Supreme Court rejected that defense, the NFL quickly settled Radovich’s claim.

Can't move on without excerpting this bit, which seems quite the stretch:

Monahan’s lawyers have also likely informed him that he might potentially be personally liable for antitrust damages if he is found to have overstepped his role—as Commissioner of a non-profit organization whose Articles of Incorporation state that its purpose is “[t]o promote the common interests of professional tournament golfers”—by imposing lifetime bans on professional golfers for the offense of playing in professional golf tournaments that compete with the tour that pays Monahan’s multimillion-dollar salary. A sobering proposition, no doubt.

Color me skeptical....  But is this a source we should trust?  Geoff has some background on Alden Abbott, former Chairman of the FTC, who had some even shriller comments in an earlier piece:

The threat over the putt is precisely what the PGA Tour is applying to players considering playing in any new golf leagues, especially the rumored new league Norman is linked with. The Tour is trying to maintain its monopoly by telling players it will destroy their livelihoods, ban them from tournaments, and restrict their media rights. That’s not competition on the merits.

So, Jay sounds like quite the bad guy....  Apparently Jay is going to deprive Bryson of his "livelihood" after he decides to play on another tour and cashes a check for $135 million.  Good luck with that argument.

I've had this tab open on my home computer for some time, which seems a more sober analysis of this issue:

Can players be banned legally from the PGA Tour for joining the Super Golf League?

For starters, the PGA Tour, like any other employer or organization, has the discretion to enact rules of conduct of its members, employees and independent contractors. One of the provisions in the PGA Tour Player Handbook and Tournament Regulations is that each PGA Tour member acknowledges the commissioner, the tour’s policy board and the appeals committee have the authority to permanently ban a member from playing in a tour co-sponsored, approved or coordinated tournaments if the member violates its regulations. The handbook also provides that a player ceases to be a member of the PGA Tour if, in the judgment of the policy board, the member commits a serious breach of the Tournament Regulations, the PGA Tour’s Code of Ethics, or otherwise conducts himself in a manner unbecoming of a professional golfer.

That sounds logical...

One such regulation generally prohibits tour players from playing in events when there is aPGA Tour-approved or sponsored event taking place at the same time. Per the handbook, players who reach the 15-event minimum (which a member must meet as a condition of their membership voting rights) are eligible for three conflicting-event releases per season, which is why so many tour players were allowed to play in this week’s Saudi Invitational. However, the regulations also state such requests can be denied. In short, the PGA Tour likely has the discretion to decide that joining a competing tour is a serious breach of its regulations.

Now, one of the long-standing truths is that players are not tour employees but independent contractors. This seemingly bestows more freedom to when and where an individual can play and thus raises the question if the tour has the power to limit that. But according to Darren Heitner, who teaches at the University of Florida and has written several books on sports legislation, that contractor status is not as big of a factor in a potential league fight as some may believe.

“This response [of a suspension or ban] by the PGA Tour has the feel of a ‘non-compete,’ intending to prevent players from performing for leagues that do seem to be competitive to the PGA Tour,” Heitner says. “Players have the choice of complying or not.”

Now we understand why there's no off-season.  The psychological term "Projection" comes into your humble blogger's mind when I hear Mullah Norman accuse Jay of bluffing:

“To make such a case, that would require a player to show, No. 1, that the tour has monopoly power in a market and, No. 2, that the PGA Tour is trying to maintain that power through means other than having a superior product or business savvy,” Allen says.

Allen notes this is not new ground for the PGA Tour. In 2015, a class-action lawsuit was brought by caddies against the tour using antitrust and intellectual property claims, an effort that proved unsuccessful. “Prevailing in an antitrust lawsuit is much more complicated because the plaintiff would have to establish many things, but most importantly, a threshold requirement: defining the market,” Allen says. “That’s where the caddies lost.”

I actually thought at the time that the caddies had a decent shot, given that they weren't even in an independent contractor relationship with the Tour, but that lawsuit got bounced very quickly.

If nothing else, Normans antitrust allegations would require years of litigation, which might seem odd given that every meaningful player has expressed their voluntary "fealty" to the PGA Tour.

So, lets' trash Phil for a bit, shall we?  I've got a couple of threads, the first triggered by a Michael Bamberger piece.  He had opined on the possible rehabilitation of Phil, which unfortunately hit simultaneously to the fauxpology.  Mike first tackles this issue of Phil taking some time, asking the obvious question but then botching his reaction:

I can tell you what people who know the inner workings of the PGA Tour are saying with the cones of silence descending. Need some time away is a preemptive statement from Mickelson,
because a suspension from the PGA Tour commissioner is coming, unless Mickelson has suspended himself first. This is a work-in-progress and will be for months, if not years.

On the issue of ban versus suspension, the difference is semantical. A Tour commissioner and a star player have been down this road before, most notably Tim Finchem and Dustin Johnson in 2014. Starting in August of that year, Johnson did not play the Tour for a six-month period, during which he missed a PGA Championship and the 2014 Ryder Cup in Scotland. The Tour claimed it was a voluntary leave. But when the choice is leave or we suspend you, is that much of a choice?

This touches on one of my biggest gripes about the Tour, its refusal to announce disciplinary actions.

What happened was that Dustin failed a drug test, not his first, and would have been subject to a suspension.  The Tour allowed DJ to announce that he was voluntarily taking time off, and I'm reasonably OK with that as far as it goes.  I don't know why they even test for recreational drugs, but as long as it's not related to the actual golf, and I think performance-enhancing drugs would be, I think the public knows what such an announcement means.

But the Tour protected DJ by allowing him to announce a fictitious Jet-ski accident to explain his absence, and is thereby abetting a fraud on the public.  There's much that is wrong with this Tour, and this isn't a bad place to start.  To the best of my knowledge, every other professional sport discloses disciplinary action, and I'd like to see some reporters ask Jay that very question.

give Mike's piece a read, as it's all over the place but touches on interesting aspects to the story.  My sense is that, after seeing the bizarre apology, Mike is far less certain of Phil's ability to recover hos revered senior statesman role.

Joel Beall is an optimist, but the ration of howler per pixel might be a new land speed record:

Phil Mickelson can survive his latest controversy, crisis management experts say. Here's how

 Do tell.

Does Joel read what he's typing?  Because this is his second 'graph:

Mickelson has made a career of escaping the inescapable, and we’re not referring to punch shots
through Augusta National’s pines. Be it an insider trading scandal or purposefully hitting a moving ball or gambling ties to a mobster, Mickelson has managed to endure as one of golf’s most popular figures—a status seemingly permanently ensconced last May with his PGA Championship triumph at Kiawah Island. But that status, thanks to incendiary comments and a reported insurgency against the PGA Tour, feels very much in doubt.

And this is his third:

Conversely, he is far from the first high-profile athlete to find himself in trouble and those believing this is the end of Mickelson are in need of a history lesson. Rare is the transgression in sports that doesn’t beget forgiveness or a second chance. The question isn’t will Phil be able to bounce back from this, but how?

Given your incomplete list in the preceding paragraph, in what sense might this be a second chance?   I've used up all the fingers on my right hand and am heading towards the left, so by all means let's discuss whether Phil is worthy of, to round down, a sixth chance?

 Want some more cognitive dissonance in successive 'graphs?

Speaking Wednesday about Mickelson’s effort to explain himself, White said, “For the most part it's a good statement. He needed to apologize and take accountability, although he tries to explain too much and his accountability is a little lackluster. But he gets his point across. He contradicts himself a couple of times, but I'm not gonna hold that against him. If I had been counseling him I would've made that statement much shorter, to the point, take accountability a bit more and apologize.

“You can tell he's backtracking because all the people that he's been in business with with this Saudi league are probably furious. In one interview he killed a multi-million-dollar deal for not just himself but for a lot of other people, so I'm sure there are many unhappy people. He has a lot of clean up to do, and it's not just his image.”

For the most part it's a good statement, except for the long list of everything that's wrong with it.  Noted.

“There are so, so few cases of an instance so bad that an athlete can’t return to the public. O.J. Simpson is not able to come back, that’s really about it,” Reisinger says. “Anything Phil has done is not a death knell. You lay low. You make your voice heard. He would be best to disappear for a bit. As long as he doesn’t repeat what he said, I don’t think what he’s done has permanently damaged [him].”

Making his voice heard hasn't exactly worked out thus far, eh?

Given the annoying ubiquity of Points Bet odds, can we perhaps get their odds on this?

Ideally, this time would be one of reflection for Mickelson, and not just for PR’s sake. When athletes find themselves in trouble, there’s a tendency for the figure in question to be defensive. To some level they acknowledge they made a mistake, yet there’s also a belief they are being treated unfairly or the situation is being blown out of proportion. This can be destructive as it lays the brick to go down a similar path in the future.

For Mickelson, there needs to be an admission and education of what he did, what he said and how he said it was wrong, White asserts. And when he returns he needs to make that education known.

I'm all ears, but this is Phil we're talking about....

Phil's apology included the typical "I'm sorry if you're offended" bit, making this a tad curious:

Reisinger says this is a period of accountability, where toughness is paramount. “You’re going to have to take this on the chin,” he says. “People are going to want to see that you’re hurt for what you said, that you can take it. That’s easier said than done.” And part of this exodus is, well, to prevent further damage. “Even if he believes what he said to be true, part of his failing was that he was incomprehensible,” Reisinger says. “There are better ways to say what he was trying to say, better avenues to do what he’s trying to do. He needs to clean himself up.”

But isn't Phil's problem more that he was completely comprehensible?  That he was willing to hop into bed with those that kill gays?  I mean, is there some nuance that I'm missing?

Yanno how people are always using the "When did you stop beating your wife" query?  Apparently this guy isn't aware that it's not taken literally:

“There’s crisis management cases where it's domestic violence, and that’s rough because that resonates with people because the public can’t conceive of laying hands on another person,” White says. “This wasn’t that. Phil didn’t get arrested. There was no drunk driving. He didn’t hurt an animal or child. There are levels of crisis management and this isn’t at the top.” White says look no further than Aaron Rodgers, who was a pariah early in the NFL season for lying about his vaccination status only to win MVP at the end of the season.

So, in his next presser he should lede with, Look guys, it's not like I whacked Amy?

I've got some amusing memes, then we'll get on with our days:

 The best present ever, thank you @MattMollica

Is there anyone left to block?  Amusingly, yes:

Phil Mickelson’s social media blocking spree apparently includes golf influencer Paige Spiranac.

On Tuesday, the social media star claimed in a tweet that Mickelson blocked her on Twitter. It is unclear when he blocked Spiranac, though she is certainly not alone as Mickelson is on a social media cleanse after making controversial comments about the PGA Tour and a potential Saudi-backed golf league.

The popular “No Laying Up” podcast, golf writer Geoff Shackelford and Ladies European Tour pro Meghan MacLaren also have been blocked by Mickelson on Twitter, according to screen grabs.

OK, blocking Paige Spirinac is too far beyond the pale for him ever to be allowed back into polite society.


Makes sense, especially since the ladies hold an event in Saudi Arabia.

Lastly, Mr. Norman might just possible, I'm just spitballin' here, have an opinion of himself that's inconsistent with facts on the ground:

If I were creating memes or writing for the Babylon Bee, I'd post an article revealing that Greg Norman had been fired by the Saudis and replaced with.....wait for it, Hunter Biden.  Hey the kids love the "ripped from the headlines" bits.   He's perfect and has time on his hands, as his Ukrainian interests are undergoing a valuation reset.

Have a great weekend, but it appears the usual Monday Wrappage will have to wait a couple of days.  Tomorrow I'm headed to Sun Velley to visit my brother and family and I don't see me lugging the laptop.  I'll be back with you next week, just not sure exactly when.  

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