Brian Grey Blog

I recall reading a story several years ago about former Supreme Court Justice Warren Burger explaining why he always read the sports section of the newspaper first. Try as I might (or as Google might) I was unable to unearth the exact quote, but paraphrasing Burger, he said he read the sports section first because it was always full of good news and highlighted the positive achievements of mankind.

Well, Mr. Burger passed away in 1995, and it is probably right around that time that the sports section of your local or national paper ceased as a repository solely of good news and stories of human achievement. Today’s sports section has plenty of stories about bad actors (that’s you Mr. Bonds) who have been taking column inches and words away from stories that make you feel good about sports.

Now that all said, I still start my way through the Sunday NY Times with the “SportsSunday” section. And today, I decided to read it with an eye towards what lessons can come from all stories — whether they be the kind Chief Justice Burger was referring to or not. Here are a couple that made me think about more than just sports:

NEW ENGLAND PATRIOTS AND TALENT

Harvey Araton’s piece about the New England Patriots quarterback drama between their long-time hero — but current injured star — Tom Brady and the relatively young guy Matt Cassell who finally got snaps this past season — and by December had become the hottest QB in the NFL — highlights how fickle picking talent in sports can be. The Patriots have made Cassell their “franchise” player and are poised to pay the guy about $6M more this coming season than Brady, even though Cassell may end up back on the bench.

And that’s the amazing lesson here. What talent did Bill Belichick see in Cassell in 2005 when he drafted the guy in the 7th round (one round later than Brady was drafted by the Patriots a few years before) after Cassell had spent five years sitting on the bench at USC behind Carson Palmer and Matt Leinart? Come on, Cassell hadn’t played in an actual game since December of 1999, his final game as a high school senior. Cassell’s ascent to become a top tier NFL QB is not only a testament to his perseverance but also to the phenomenal eye for talent that Belichick and his Patriot staff demonstrate time and time again.

Now how the Patriots navigate the salary cap with two highly paid QBs is a totally different story.

HANK AARON — THE BEST EVER

The all-time homerun king turned 75 years old this week. It’s nice to see that stories can still be written about true sports heroes even when cheaters who broke their records are talked about in stories on page 1 of the same section.

The first book I remember ever reading from cover to cover (not counting “See Pug Run” and other first grade favorites) was the book “Hammerin Hank of the Braves”. I still remember the narrative about Aaron’s upbringing in Mobile, Alabama and the descriptions of his “whip like” wrists as a young hitter. A lot of other guys get labeled as the greatest player of all time (Mays, Mantle, Williams, Ruth, Dimaggio, etc.), but to me Aaron is THE guy you’d want to pencil in as your #3 hitter everyday if you had one pick. Compare Aaron’s stats over 23 seasons to Mays’s stats over 22 seasons.

Aaron is the greatest baseball player of all time — it’s too bad he doesn’t get more air time.

MICHAEL PHELPS AND REEFER MADNESS

This is the type of story that probably didn’t show up much in Warren Burger’s sports sections: Phelps caught in the act working a bong like it was a saxophone. And the Times had plenty of readers write in to complain about Phelps’ actions and how he appeared to come across as an insincere athlete looking to keep is image intact in the name of his corporate sponsors. One mom went so far as to say: “I am a mother of four, ages 4, 7, 9 and 12, and a stepmother to five, ages 11, 14, 17, 19 and 21. How do parents respond when our children say, ‘If Michael Phelps smokes pot, why can’t we?’”.

Well, first off, nice to see Carol Brady has got free time to surf the Internet to see pictures of Phelps toking — or maybe she caught it on her local news or “Inside Edition”? I am guessing a couple of those step kids in the 17-21 year old range have already made their decision about pot smoking?

Perhaps a better line of questioning would take this reader’s concern and broaden it a bit. What would her reaction be if the picture was of Phelps at a party drinking a Bud Light or one of those sassy flavored distilled spirit beverages from a reputable firm like Smirnoff? And let’s suppose for a minute that Phelps had a sponsorship deal with say Budweiser or Smirnoff (maybe both!)? Heck, forget him having a sponsorship deal, let’s just talk about the fact that the lady’s kids watched the Super Bowl last Sunday where they saw plenty of Budweiser ads and the fact that everytime they enter a sports stadium they see beer and liquor ads of some kind (either as stadium signage, on the jumbotron or in the game program).

Dare I suggest that alcohol abuse has done more socio and economic damage to the lives of people – young and old – than smoking pot? I can’t say for sure, but it’s worth spending some time thinking about the question now that Mr. Phelps has been caught at a party with his Speedo down so to speak.

MANNY AND SCOTTY

And then there’s the Manny Ramirez drama. He turns down a one-year, $25 million deal to stay with the Dodgers — and we’re all left breathless as to whether Ned Colletti will blink before Scott Boras, Manny’s agent.

Listen, in these times it is reprehensible to imagine anyone saying that $25 million a year is not enough, particularly in light of January’s employment report. On the other hand, you could argue that this is capitalism at it’s best — good old supply and demand at work — and may the best negotiator win.

What gets me though is Boras’s quote in the Times article: “This [Ramirez] is not someone you add to your payroll…this is someone who pays for himself”. Ok, so the other 24 guys on the roster are just operating expense, pure and simple — Manny is the only guy who generates revenue? Should be a fun clubhouse wherever Manny ends up. But let’s go with Scotty on this one for a second. How about we agree that Manny is so valuable he pays for himself. Let’s see him sign up for an incentive laden contract based on a percentage of the Dodger’s gate receipts (above of course the baseline they were traveling on before Ramirez showed up last July).

I’d love to see a contract like this. Many gets X% of the Dodger’s revenue above a baseline level – stadium and merchandise revenue only, TV dollars are locked in for awhile yet — and we could really see Manny “pay for himself”. Of course, what happens when the Dodgers fall out of contention after the All-Star break and Manny starts mailing it in. Should the contract require that Manny and Scotty pay the Dodgers the same percentage below the agreed upon baseline?

Yes, I’ll keep starting my Sunday with the sports section — seemed to work well for Chief Justice Burger!

A couple weeks ago I ran across a picture of Steelers coach Mike Tomlin from a press conference.  His no-smile countenance, close cropped hair, piercing eyes…man he reminded me of someone.  But I just couldn’t place him.  Then it hit me!

Mike Tomlin and Chef from South Park…are they related!  Did the South Park creators use Coach Tomlin as their inspiration in creating Chef?  Check it out:

The potential connection between Tomlin and Chef made me more curious about the Steelers head coach.  What is it about the guy who in his second season could guide one of the most decorated NFL franchises to the Super Bowl?

To be fair, I don’t really know much about Tomlin.  I’ve seen a few interviews and post-game press conferences — most of what I’ve picked up are in those soundbites.  In fact all I’ve read about the guy is what was printed in Friday’s USA Today.  So what is it that makes me like a guy who coaches for a team that I don’t care about (afterall, I am still a Raiders fan despite the fact that they have fallen off the face of the NFL earth), other than the fact he resembles the coolest animated character in the history of cartoons?

Quite simply it’s the fact that as far as I can tell his no BS approach is legit and that his players have bought in to how he goes about pus.  The USA Today piece actually highlights a few of Tomlin’s favorite quotes, the ones he uses over and over to keep his team focused on winning it all:

“Iron sharpens iron” — pretty self explanatory on this one — I would suggest that the application for everyday life is pretty clear.  Challenge yourself everyday.

“More grounded, more humble, more selfless makes us more opportunistic” — this one captures the essence of “team” and getting more people to think this way in their day-to-day pursuits would be a real good thing.

“The time’s coming when we’re going to have to ante up and kick in like men” — sure he pulled this one from a movie (“Glory” starring Denzel Washington), but it hits the beat of accountability and ownership.  Again, pretty important concept these days.

“I’ll tolerate you until I can replace you” — A little too “NFL harsh” this one, but it does cut pretty sharply to the point of how important it is to be optimizing your talent at all times.  That said, you may want to find a more HR friendly way to convey this one to your team!

Now, if all you did was focus on these quotes in the Tomlin story, you’d easily overlook a couple of his own quotes that really capture why the guy has the impact he does on his team:

“People aren’t very good listeners by nature…Part of being a good communicator is recognizing and understanding that and trying to make the complex simple.” Amen!  It’s super easy in today’s world to get lost in data, information overload and the like.  Finding a simple way to consistently deliver a message is a valuable skill for leaders.

“I’m not interested in evaluating my performance, and particularly I’m not interested in my players’ evaluations of my performance…I’m paid to evaluate them.” Again, a little “NFL harsh” here, but the essence is there.  You can’t get caught up in what people think of you as a manager — you have to stay focused on managing your talent and team in the way that you believe gives you the best chance to achieve your ultimate business goals.

“Every morning when I come to work…I walk past five Lombardis, not five rushing titles.” This is my favorite of his quotes.  The only trophy that matters is the one that measures what the team achieves…not the ones that measure what individual players achieve.

So yes, I am a Mike Tomlin fan.  My pick Sunday is Steelers 20, Cardinals 17.  Now I have to get back to researching this connection he has to Chef?

I am writing this while the pain is fresh and the ego sufficiently bruised. Sprawled out on my hotel room bed in Jackson Hole I am beginning to wonder if rigor mortis can set in to a still living body? Right about now it kind of feels like it can.

Rigor mortis brings me to the first big secret that your snowboarding friends will fail to mention before your first snowboarding foray and that is that falling really f&@%ing hurts! At least twice I thought I’d broken a wrist or forearm, and once after landing on my left rib cage I fully expected to cough up some blood.

Another little factoid nobody will mention is that the part about being on your toes with your back facing down hill is a totally freaky maneuver. Of course it’s a necessary skill but it’s the kind of thing that would have been worth practicing once or twice before going way up the hill.

Now here’s the third lesson – you will begin to hate your instructor after a couple hours. Mind you, my guy was perfectly fine and by all accounts knew what he was doing. But as I started to get tired, stiff and was hitting the ground somewhere between every “C” and “S” turn, my ability to be “coached” went to hell. It was like everything I’d learned in the morning was forgotten and I was out there just rolling my body down the hill.

At this juncture it’s fair to say that the novelty had worn off of snowboarding for me and I was really regretting not having learned how to do this stuff when I was six. Oh, and speaking of learning to do this is a kid – all the munchkins on the slopes will really piss you off when you see how easily they pick up snowboarding!

And a last good lesson your friends won’t share with you: don’t eat lunch. Just take a Clif bar and some water and keep plowing ahead. Even if you have to call it a day a little early I would say going as long as you can without a big food break helps you keep moving up the learning curve and not feel like you want to throw up on your first run after lunch. Not to mention the fact that rigor mortis starts to set in while you are chowing your burger.

So, net of all of the above, would I recommend a second lesson? My guess is that the memory of the pain will subside and that with a couple more lessons I can stay on my feet a whole lot more. Staying on your feet seems to make snowboarding a whole lot more fun.

And now that I know a bunch of other stuff my friends “conveniently” left out, I’m ready for day two!

I took a detour off the typical Silicon Valley meeting circuit today and hopped over to the East Bay to have lunch with Billy Beane, GM of the Oakland A’s. 

First, let me say that the Oakland Airport Hilton does a pretty darn good New England clam chowder (if you like the creamy variety), and the halibut special was pretty good too.

But I digress.

Any sports fan knows Billy Beane — thanks partly to the success the A’s have enjoyed over the past decade, and in large part to the book “Money Ball” by Michael Lewis.  Having played, coached and even done a bit of scouting, Billy’s efforts with the A’s are particularly of interest to me.

What I found most interesting in meeting with Billy today was how curious and smart he is.  He had a lot of interesting questions about what life is like these days with venture backed start ups and investing, and we talked about several topics out of the realm of baseball and sports.

I think this is a characteristic that you find in people who are at the top of their given profession — the fact that they have keen interest in other topics and can engage in conversation outside their domain expertise.  It seems to compute that being able to stretch your brain around other areas helps develop creativity and new perspectives that you can bring to your “day job”.

Perhaps this is a lesson for all.  Being a leader in your field and having a diverse set of interests and knowledge may not be mutually exclusive.  In fact, they may very well be complementary?

Thanks for the time — and the lunch — Billy.

(Note: This post written on my iPhone WordPress app – so no linking or images available for your reading pleasure.)

For those who don’t get the chance to read the Sunday New York Times, allow me to react to a few pieces from the two sections I read cover-to-cover today: Business and Sports.

First, the Business section:

Janet Rae-Dupree’s “Innovation Should Mean More Jobs, Not Less”, highlights yet again how our national investment strategy is missing the mark. Why are we channeling so much money and mindshare towards failing financial institutions and industries as opposed to fostering growth through “innovation” spurred by investment in new, transformative technologies?

I made this comment in an earlier post in reaction to the auto industry bailout, but 5 or 10 years from now what will pay bigger dividends, giving GM a loan or giving an equal financial stimulus to spur IT investments? Don’t think you need an economics degree to answer this question, just a little history education and some intuition.

Robert Frank’s “Should Congress Limit Executive Pay?” opens a door to an interesting proposition. Frank argues that current anger — stirred up by bailouts and the recession — pointed at executives who earn way more than their employees (in relative terms) is not reason enough to legislate caps on exec pay.

Frank compares CEOs to high paid sports free agents and then matter of factly states: “And the market-determined salary of a job generally offers the best — if imperfect — measure of its importance.”

Ok, notwithstanding the double caveat of “generally” and “imperfect”, let’s really test what is “important”. How about we privatize education and health care, and let star teachers and doctors get paid based on how important society would really value them compared to a pro athlete or bank CEO.

And from the Sports section:

Thayer Evans and Pete Thamel cover an increasingly important topic in “Barely Teenagers, Already Groomed for Stardom”. The piece about a select football academy for seventh and eighth grade football players highlights (whether we like it or not) that we live in a “star struck” society. We want to prop up the shiniest stars – partly for aspirational reasons and partly to then gobble up tabloid stories when the star gets tarnished and dinged up.

I don’t actually have an issue with this football academy. Kids finding something they want to passionately pursue is great. Within the right context this is no different than a kid practicing piano for hours or becoming a voracious student of science.

Where the context breaks down is when parents, college coaches and corporate sponsors get involved.

Here are some suggestions:

1. Make the kids submit their applications 100% on their own, no parental guidance – and having a meaningful academic filter would send a positive message early for these young athletes.

2. Only let high school coaches be involved – no college coach involvment and no rabid youth coaches or dads allowed on the field.

3. And make the kids buy their own shoes and gear – and drink tap water from unbranded coolers! If sponsors want to be involved they can contribute to a scholarship fund for college football players below the Division-I level.

A lot of good can come from a young athlete pursuing a dream at an early age, so long as it’s all pursued in the right context.

Just got word of the contract extension that the OSU Beavers have given to their football coach Mike Riley.  Here’s a link to the story that’s out.

For those that question the value of paying college football coaches in excess of a million dollars a year, Riley is a case worth considering.

As a kid, my grandparents used to drive my brother and me down I-5 from Portland to watch games at Parker Stadium and Autzen Stadium each fall.  My recollections of these trips is pretty clear:  lots of rain, sitting in crappy end zone seats on wooden bleachers, getting passed by dozens of cars on I-5 with Washington license plates and, of course, watching some really horrible OSU and Oregon teams get hammered.

OSU in particular sticks out in my memory.  They would consistently go 1-10 and in most of the games I remember they weren’t even competitive (notwithstanding the fact that their coach Craig Fertig had been a standout player at USC).  The impression that I had then as I got older of OSU wasn’t very positive.  In fact, the whole university in my mind was colored a dark shade by the fact that they sucked in football.

Fast foward to 2008.  Mike Riley has built a competitive football program — ask Pete Carroll — that is now a top tier Pac-10 contender and wins Bowl games against teams from all conferences.  What’s more, he is a stand up guy and it seems he runs a clean program (as far as anyone really runs a clean program).

What I really liked in the article announcing his new 7-year contract extension is Riley’s quote:

“I have a terrific job at a place that I truly love…The entire coaching staff has built a program in all areas that we are proud of. I look forward to many more successful seasons as coach of this team.”

Here’s a huge asset for OSU.  A guy who has brought a ton of national recognition to Oregon State University and a guy who is going to continue doing that for at least the next seven years.  Ask a kid from Oregon today where he or she would consider going to college and I’d imagine OSU is on their list.  Better yet, ask anyone in the state or even in the broader OSU administration whether they think Riley’s contributions are a net positive or negative to the University.

I bet there are a plenty of other schools who would die for a guy like Riley and the impact he delivered.  In fact, a bunch of them are probably related to those people in the cars with the Washington license plates who used to pass me in my grandfather’s Chrysler Imperial on I-5!

Since Sunday I have struggled with the following quote in the NY Times:

“It’s more frustrating than anything that I can think of right now…I can’t see my way clear to the solution.”

So said NCAA President Miles Brand in Pete Thamel’s Times article questioning the lack of African American football coaches in Division I-A (now the FBS I guess).

There are currently only 4 African American coaches among the 119 FBS schools and only one – Miami’s Randy Shannon – coaches at a school that is eligible to play in the BCS Championship game.

The issue has been recently highlighted by the fact that Auburn overlooked Turner Gill (the guy who turned around Buffalo) for a guy who was fired at Iowa State after going 5-19 over two seasons. Auburn blew it.

But back to Miles. Perhaps he should dig in to the NCAA men’s basketball situation. Men’s NCAA basketball D-I programs have African Americans as head coaches at almost 30% of schools. Surely there are some learnings to be had there?

Better yet, how about playing off of Georgia Tech basketball coach Paul Hewitt’s idea of having this be driven by the young recruits. Hewitt’s example is simple: if offensive and defensive recruits went to play for say Shannon at Miami, and in a couple years Miami won the BCS title, perhaps that would trigger more minority hiring.

Ok, so how about Miles does something to make this issue front and center to recruits and their parents.

How about mandating that each recruiting packet or letter sent to a kid contains the summary stats of that school’s hiring profile across not just the coaching staff but the university’s administrative positions (no surprise that these jobs are underrepresented with minorities as well).

At least let the players and parents make an informed decision based on the inclusion of this information.

Then there’s always the idea of having the NCAA spend as much time on this issue as they do defending the current bowl system and negotiating their TV contracts.

Every 6 months or so a press release or story comes out that ESPN.com is redesigning their site, all in an effort to simplify user interface and improve user experience.  The latest push — according to Silicon Alley Insider is driven by a desire to boost traffic — Comscore has ESPN down year-over-year in uniques.

First off, when was the last time you heard a big publisher (heck, any publisher) really place credence in the Comscore numbers?  My guess is that like most of the bigger guys, they are still seeing YOY growth in ad impressions and specifically “premium” ad impressions.

But I digress.  Let’s be real clear, a redesign isn’t the magic elixir for radically boosting traffic.  The sports category is one of the most mature and crowded verticals online and there is a basic formula that works for the big media site:  basic news & analysis, scores and photos.   Those three content categories account for typically > 80% of a sports site’s impressions (not counting fantasy page consumption which for some sites rolls up to a sizeable chunk of page views).  The only way a redesign moves the needle in traffic is if:

1) the new experience makes it much easier for users to get from page one to the stuff that they are really interested in and looking for in the first place, and therefore they stick around longer, or

2) the new look also comes with a new product offering or robust feature set that gives users a reason to dig deeper in to the site

Beyond the maturing of the category, the other dynamic is the emergence of other outlets for sports content — blogs or niche sports sites — continue to lure audiences away from the core branded offerings from big media guys.  The social networking rise hasn’t made a huge impact, but when lumped in with niche site growth probably contributes to pulling some audience away as well.

Monetization is still heavily consolidated at the big guys, but consumption is spreading out and there may be an opportunity for a few of these smaller guys (Citizen Sports, Bleacher Report, YardBarker, FanIQ, etc.) to aggregate a different sports consumption experience that the big guys will eventually find is more valuable to own outright than to simply bolt on as a traffic roll up.

Now, back to ESPN’s traffic issues.  One of the mysteries has always been the desire to keep as much of their premium voice and content behind a pay wall within “Insider”.  Let it free – let it be shared, sent around by users and used to really spark discussion amongst the community under the ESPN brand across all users, not just a few hundred thousand willing to pay for it.

On the redesign front, de-cluttering is always a good thing.  I’ve always been a believer that fewer, highly targeted and compelling choices at the front door is what gets users making their way in to your property and spending real time with your content experience.  I don’t think auto play videos, and cramming as much stuff “on to the shelf” is the way to achieve this goal.

Of course, the bigger challenge will be explaining to the corners of ESPN Inc. who get cut from the homepage, why they are no longer on the homepage.  I have always suspected that appeasing all the internal constituents has tended to pull sites like ESPN.com back to jamming as many pixels above the fold as they can fit.  Sound familiar?

This was the quote from Manny Ramirez after his late season surge led the Dodgers to the playoffs (and a first round dumping by the Phillies).

Now that we are in Hot Stove season, all eyes are on baseball – specifically guys like Ramirez (who had his $45 million offer pulled back by LA), C. C. Sabathia (who is pondering a $140 million over six years offer from who else, the Yankees) and Scott Boris (the super agent who will be trying to work his magic in a tough economy).

So what should we expect?

First, a few guys will be paid top dollar – the brightest stars always are. But the numbers to watch are the guys after the top 5 or so. Teams are gonna feel the revenue pinch in ’09 and owners have taken a hit to their own portfolios.

Second, baseball will be a bit of an exception. The other 3 big US sports have salary caps that implicitly tie player salaries to league revenues. League revenues will take a hit – tickets and merchandise in the near term, TV revenue a bit further out when new deals are negotiated.

Nobody can be fully immune from this bubble burst.

Like Manny says: “Gas is up and so am I”. Uh Manny, have you seen gas prices lately?

Wow…so much to talk about.

Auto Industry Bailout

First, let’s ask why are we contemplating a $25 billion bailout for the U.S. auto industry? Well, not really a bailout – that would imply that the industry would get back on it’s feet. Does anyone really ever see GM or Ford being competitive in the global auto industry? i don’t see it. So why don’t we think of ways to spend that $25 billion more effectively. How about:

1. Education and training for U.S. auto workers so they can transition in to a career where the U.S. can compete?

2. Small business loans that help help small and early stage companies grow and hire (see point #1 above)

3. Research tied to commercial products and services that address global warming

Take a read of David Yermack’s weekend piece in the WSJ about how much capital the U.S. auto industry has destroyed over the last 30 years. Add a number 4 to the list above: just give a check to each laid off auto worker that would add up to $25 billion. This would likely have a more positive impact on the U.S. economy!

ESPN Wins BCS Rights

With 2 years remaining on Fox’s BCS deal, ESPN has stepped in to outbid the broadcast network for the rights to the BCS Championship and related major bowls (Orange, Sugar and Fiesta – Disney already has rights to the Rose Bowl). This just solidifies ESPN as “the worldwide leader in sports”. The unique aspect of the BCS is fact that ESPN will control content rights for all the major bowl games across all platforms (TV, mobile, digital download, etc.). Unlike other “leagues”, the BCS doesn’t have aspirations to build its own digital destination so the media company (e.g. ESPN) gets to leverage their investment to the extreme.

Having spent time at Fox Sports, I am sad to see another event pulled out from under Fox Sports. One can only imagine what will happen in the next few years when rights to the NFL, MLB and NASCAR come up for renewal? Maybe now is the time for Fox Sports to figure out a way to partner with Turner — it may be the only combo that could challenge ESPN in the market.

Jerry (Finally) Leaves Yahoo!

You had to expect this sooner rather than later. Jerry Yang is finally resigning his CEO role at the company he founded 14 years ago. In retrospect, he seemed way to sanguine about things during his interview with John Battelle at the Web2.0 conference in San Francisco earlier this month. What’s most interesting now is to guess what happens to the company. Who can Yahoo! recruit at this point to come in as CEO — is there any realistic option at this point than to sell the company to Microsoft at a huge discount to the $33 per share shareholders could have received earlier this year?