A few weeks ago I would have said Tiger Woods descent two years ago on Thanksgiving was the quickest and maybe the farthest.  But today I’m not sure.

When the Big Ten on Monday removed Joe Paterno’s name from the football championship trophy that will be handed out after the conference’s inaugural football title game it hit me that this once legendary figure may have his reputation ruined forever.  Here’s a guy who did all things right and promoted so many great men to the National Football league and into the world but regretably he might be remembered first for enabling a pedophile to survive on his watch.

O.J. Simpson would be another candidate that fell fast and perhaps the deepest as even though he sits in a Nevada penal institution he will best be remembered NOT for his dazzling runs on the football field and in the entertainment business but for the double murder for which he was NOT convicted.

Mike Tyson was incarcerated for raping Desiree Washington, an 18-year old beauty pageant contestant at the pinnacle of his boxing career.  Frankly, that’s what I remember the most about Tyson who once was the Heavyweight Boxing Champion of the world.  I guess the second think I remember about Tyson was that he bit off parts of Evander Holyfield’s ear in a championship fight.  I know he had numerous victories in the ring but those are the things that I think about when Tyson’s name is mentioned.  And there are more….Barry Bonds, Michael Vick, Pete Rose, Mark McGwire, Roger Clemens, Lawrence Taylor - all once heroes and now villains.  And now perhaps Joe Paterno.

Add to this diverse group a sentimental favorite, with former owner Peter O’Malley saying he wants to return as the team’s chief executive and will work on forming an ownership group.

The O’Malley family owned the Dodgers for nearly half a century. Peter’s father, Walter, moved them from Brooklyn toLos Angeles. And many Dodgers fans connect O’Malley’s sale of the team to Fox in 1998 with the start of the franchise’s decline. Fox later sold the team to Frank and Jamie McCourt.

The winning bidder is expected to pay owner Frank McCourt a figure in excess of $1 billion for the team, the stadium and surrounding parking lots.

This is the best buy in all of sports.  The city loves the Dodgers; the area can afford the ticket prices and the Dodgers can draw 3 million people again on a regular basis – if they are competitive.

The team’s two biggest stars, center fielder Matt Kemp and pitcher Clayton Kershaw must be re-signed. Dodger Stadium, which turns 50 years old next season, also requires some spending for a makeover.  All doable with the right ownership group in place.

I expect to see Magic Johnson’s name being mentioned as a possible owner and certainly Mark Cuban’s name as well.  I don’t see Baseball approving Cuban as they have already denied him membership to “the club” twice – once with the Texas Rangers and again with the Chicago Cubs.  But I would not be surprised to see a foreign investor surface either.  But no matter who acquires the Dodgers, they should hire a guy like O’Malley who is respected by the community and knows how to build a winner.

With Jason Campbell on the shelf for several weeks with a collarbone injury, the 4-2 Oakland Raiders pried a disgruntled Carson Palmer out of Cincinnati Tuesday, giving the Bengals a 2012 first-round draft pick and a conditional 2013 pick for the 31-year-old Palmer.

Good for the Bengals to hold tight and NOT let a disgruntled athlete out of their contract!  As part of the management side of the professional sports business for more than 30 years, I have often felt that the contract between player and team is a one way street.  And the one way is on the players side.  If a player is not happy he or she is not going to play hard or up to their potential.  But the team still has to pay them.  So what most teams do is cave in to the player by trading them to another team.  Not the Bengals!  From Day 1 Mike Brown held to his guns and would not let Carson Palmer out of his contract despite angry Bengal fans and media criticism.  And Brown’s principled approach looks like it will pay off.  The Bengals are a surprising 4-2 and playing much better than anyone predicted.  Whether or not they continue to play well remains to be seen but this is one case where I give a big thumbs up to management.

Davis, whose name many people think was not his real name, created and captured the “Raider Mystique” that lives today. No NFL executive made more enemies than Al Davis and his “Just Win Baby,” mantra has been patented and is one of the most often quoted football quotes in the game today.  I also remember him saying, “The Quarterback Must Go Down and Go Down Hard,” which always seemed to happen to our beleagured quarterbacks.

We can talk all we want about how pro football really came of age in this country because of the Colts-Giants sudden-death game in 1958, and then really exploded when Joe Namath and the Jets became the first old AFL team to win a Super Bowl in Miami  But it was the merger that really changed everything, and any true history of that merger has an awful lot to do with Brooklyn Al Davis, who was moonlighting as AFL commissioner in those days and let the other side know that his league was going to start signing as many of the big-boy league’s players – especially their quarterbacks – unless they let him into the club.

So they did. And nothing was ever the same.  His public fights with Commissioner Pete Rozelle are legendary.  Rozelle tried to block Davis moving the Raiders from Oakland to Los Angeles but “Big Al” moved the team anyway. Vintage Davis.

Fooball lost their villain this weekend but they also lost the man who single-handedly did more for the game than anyone.

Every bar and restaurant in the area is full of fans either to watch the early game of baseball and then the Bucs or to watch the Rays and then go the Buccaneers game at Raymond James Stadium.  All of which reminds me of the economic impact professional sports generates for cities who are fortunate to have “big league” properties, like this area.

I hope both teams don’t lay an egg but as I’m writing the Rays have just dropped their game to the Rangers 4-3 and the Bucs are trailing the Peyton Manning-less Indianapolis Colts 10-0.

Of all the franchises in Baseball, the Dodgers, with its origins in Brooklyn and their subsequent departure from New York, is arguably the most storied franchise in the history of America’s National Pastime.  Sure, the Yankess have won more World Series Championships and have the advantage of always playing in Gotham City and certainly have more players in the Hall of Fame.  But the Dodgers, owned by Walter O’Malley and built by Branch Rickey for many years have been known as the “model” franchise.

The move from Brooklyn after the 1957 season to Los Angeles literally tore the hearts out of many Dodger faithful who to this day have never forgotten or forgiven the O’Malley family.  The Brooklyn Dodgers of Ebbets Field and Jackie Robinson lore were now a left coast team.  But the O’Malley’s, Walter and son Peter, built Dodger Stadium and were the first franchise to draw more than 3 million people and did it 6 more times before any franchise had done it once.  In the late 70′s they still had bleacher tickets for less than a dollar.

But after the O’Malley’s sold the Dodgers to Fox Entertainment who then sold the franchise to Frank McCourt in 2004 it’s never been the same.  The McCourts, Frank and now ex-wife Jamie, through their ugly and public divorce have now been ousted by Major League Baseball.  Peter O’Malley in September of 2010 publicly suggested that the McCourt’s sell the team but they wouldn’t listen.  Now we have a franchise in shambles and being run by Major League Baseball.  What a shame.  But… the Mets could be the next franchise to be bailed out by MLB.  Stay tuned.  This will be intereting.

Bonds was found guilty of obstruction of the law this past Wednesday and the court declared a mistrial on the other three counts against him.  Why?  Because Greg Anderson, Barry Bonds’ trainer, went to jail rather than talk to the government about Barry Bonds’ alleged use of steroids and performance-enhancing drugs, what he said he thought was flaxseed oil. That won’t be the case with Roger Clemens as Brian McNamee, Clemens’ former trainer, told the people putting together the Mitchell Report for baseball on steroids everything they wanted to know about what McNamee said was Clemens’ drug use. Why? Because McNamee wasn’t going to jail for Roger Clemens.

If you want to know why the bad news for Barry Bonds on Wednesday – a felony conviction for obstruction of justice – was bad news for Clemens, too, start there. Bonds is lucky that Anderson would rather do time than talk to the feds, because if he had testified in Bonds’ trial, it is likely that Bonds would have taken a fall on all three counts against him, three for perjury and one for obstruction.

Clemens is accused of lying in front of Congress. It is why he has been charged with one count of obstruction, three counts of making false statements, two counts of perjury. Bonds’ lawyers were so sure the government couldn’t make a case against Bonds on anything, not without Greg Anderson’s testimony, that they didn’t call a single witness. It will be different for Clemens, who today seems to be in more trouble than ever.

Not only will the prosecution call McNamee, not only is there more medical evidence against Clemens, there is a problem for him with a guy who will be a star prosecution witness as much as Brian McNamee:

Andy Pettitte.

Clemens best friend, who gave sworn testimony to the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform saying that Clemens had told him 10 years ago that he had used human growth hormone, known far and wide by now as HGH.

This is what Clemens said, and famously, about what Andy Pettitte said in his deposition:

“Andy Pettitte is my friend. He was my friend before this. He will be my friend after this and again I think Andy misheard. I think he misremembers.”

I think Roger Clemens will get his day in court and be given the same chance that Bonds got but at the end of the day it will not be the left hand of Andy Pettite but the right hand that promises to tell the truth that will do Roger Clemens in.

Two days ago we heard that the University of Connecticut’s largest donor, Robert Burton, is upset and wants his $3 million back and his name removed from the campus football complex.

According to the Hartford Courant the athletic director did not discuss his choices for a new football coach with Mr. Burton. Burton’s demands were made in a letter to Gov. Daniel Malloy, which stated that he had already sought legal counsel and that the family has been hurt and embarrassed for the last time.

At first blush I was taken back by this seemingly absurd demand and I thought about Joe Paterno’s famous quote about donors:  “We want their money but not their two cents.”

That was my first thought but after a lot of thought I have another take.  In the sponsorship world, it is imperative that we know our customers inside and out.  And with the larger sponsors we need to know them even better.  How could the University of Connecticut NOT know that their largest donor thought he had a say in the hiring of a new football coach?  Although it seems utterly preposterous that a college would let a donor have input on matters such as described above, apparently in this particularly instance, the UConn Athletic Department’s Sponsorship Sales people have not done a very good job of knowing their customer/sponsor or having the proper relationship with their largest sponsor.

I’m not expecting the University to be giving any money back but nevertheless, this was a very good example of how important relationships are!