USC: CLEAN HOUSE

Recent developments suggest that former University of Southern California star O.J. Mayo accepted many benefits, going back to high school, from the sports agency he is currently signed to, Bill Duffy Associates, with the help of Rodney Guillory and Louis Johnson.

Johnson says he is no longer part of Mayo's inner circle because Guillory created a strain in the relationship by misleading the things Johnson said about Mayo and "sabotaging" their relationship. Johnson told ESPN's "Outside The Lines" that Mayo accepted around $30,000 in cash and gifts during the past four years from Guillory, included in these are cash, a flat screen television, cell phone service and more.

I personally do not care what O.J.'s role in this process was, because he is just playing the game and according to many these gifts a just part of the game. I am worried about the adults that have taken advantage of the NCAA's loopholes and have manipulated the rules to the point that has made the players the enemy in these cases.

Guillory who was reports to be a main stay around Mayo and the USC locker room has had previous indiscretions regarding the rules of the NCAA. Formerly Guillory was linked to a Fresno State player, Tito Maddox. Guillory, indirectly representing Las Vegas based sports agency Franchise Sports, bought a plane ticket for Maddox to Vegas. Maddox estimated receiving $30,000; however Guillory could only be linked to the plane ticket.

Even worse for USC, Guillory is also linked as a runner for a sports agent in the suspension of former USC basketball player Jeff Trepagnier.


Mayo's odd run at USC started before he even arrived at USC's campus while HE was recruiting schools. Mayo seemed to know what he wanted before anyone else did, reports where that he wanted to go to USC so that he could be in Los Angeles to help promote himself for the NBA. According to USC Head Coach Tim Floyd, Mayo sent Guillory to all-but tell him that Mayo wanted to go to USC, also he would do the recruiting for Tim Floyd and USC.

At that moment Floyd and USC should have been wearier of Guillory and Mayo. Due to the experience that Floyd and USC has had with Guillory, and his past, USC needs to completely clean their organization of these supposed runners.

USC almost needs to seal off their sports programs from these outsiders and be more careful of the people that are around their athletes, before these outsiders bring them down and destroy their program and school.

Winners and Losers

I want to break down the draft some more to give out my final grades. So, today I will be looking at some of the winners and losers throughout the NFL Draft.

Winners:

The obvious answer to the winners of this draft are the Kansas City Chiefs.

Glenn Dorsey will step in right away as their stud defensive lineman and make the rest of their line that much better. In my opinion Dorsey's game will be able to translate well into the NFL ranks. Having Dorsey drop to them made the Chiefs decision an easy one. With his athleticism Branden Albert will be able to make an effective transition to Right Tackle. The Chiefs were reportedly going to draft Albert at five and they got him at 15.

They also got a CB that has a chance to start for them in Flowers, a change of pace back in Charles, and a good pass catching TE in Cottam who can back-up Gonzalez for the next 2-3 seasons.

Carolina Panthers:

I love the pick of Jonathan Stewart, who I thought was the second best back and think he can be a nice backup for DeAngelo Williams. I also like the pick of Jeff Otah who is a very good run-blocker and average pass-blocker. If he can improve his pass-blocking the trade will have been worth it. They also drefted an underrated pass catching TE in Barnidge in the 6th round.

They added depth to their defense with the picks of Godfrey (CB), Dan Connor (LB), Nick Hayden (DT), and Hilee Taylor (OLB), the first three I could see starting at some point in the next three seasons.

Dallas Cowboys:

I liked the pick of Felix Jones over Mendenhall due to the Cowboys circumstances, they need a speed back to provide a change of pace for Barber. I also like the move up to grab CB Mike Jenkins as a versatile DB that can line up at multipe positions and succeed. They also added depth with Martellus Bennett and Tashard Choice.

Miami Dolphins:

The pick of Jake Long was an obvious pick for a team that needs to rebuild, he will stabilize the line and provide some heart to a team that had none last year. I was surprised that Phillip Merling dropped into the 2nd round, even with the sports hernia, and Parcells was smart enough to grab him. Finally, Henne will either be the starter for the Dolphins or force John Beck to play better.

Minnesota Vikings:

The reason that I will put the Vikings in the winners column is that they went and got the best defensive player available in Jared Allen. To me you have to include draft trades in rankings and Allen adds 12-15 sacks for next season, barring an injury. They have also added great depth with Johnson (S), David Booty (QB), and Sullivan (C).

The losers are tougher to find, but in my opinion some teams reached for bad players and traded to much to make their picks.

Tennessee Titans:

I do not know if the Tidtans understand what the draft is supposed to be used for. They ignored their obvious need at WR until the fourth round when they finally drafted Lavelle Hawkins. I do not get what the Titans were thinking throughout the draft.

Houston Texans:

The Texans drafted Duane Brown, who is not ready to step in right away in NFL, in the first round. They also did not draft a player that is going to be a starter for them next season.

Jacksonville Jaguars:

I like Derrick Harvey and am not sure where he was going, considering some projections had him at 5 and others in the late teens. However, I would have tried to either trade my second round or first round to the Dolphins for a proven DE Jason Taylor. Then address the rest of my needs throughout the rest of the draft.

Character in the NFL

Everything that the NFL touches will always turn to gold, no matter how much the players attempt to destroy the image of the NFL through there actions.

Whether it is Adam Jones hanging out in strip clubs until three in the morning or Chad Johnson and Marvin Lewis squabbling through the media. Players and sometimes coaches want to hold these minor battles against each other and the law, yet the NFL can do no wrong throughout our society.

There was a minor uproar in the media when Rae Carruth was going through his trial back 1999 and was eventually convicted of conspiracy to commit murder amongst other charges and is currently serving a sentence of 19-24 years.

Nobody cared when Leonard Little killed a man in a drunk driving "accident" or when Little later got off after another drunk driving arrest. Why do we as a society allow Little to go all but on checked for his drunk driving record? Well because he is the Rams all-time leader in sacks, and he is an outstanding talent.

However, that all changed once Roger Goodell took over as the NFL Commissioner.

All of the sudden Adam Jones was suspended, amongst other NFL players. Now the character of a player was brought to a new light. The NFL would no longer stand for these players acting up in society. Now these "character" issues are starting to affect the NFL Draft and causing players to drop.

Last year some perceived character issues did not have much if any affect on the draft status of Marshawn Lynch. We will all see whether or not the perceived character issues affect the draft status of players like Marcus Dixon.

Operation Adaptation

Operation Adaptation is hosting a 2 day/2 night festival from April 18-April 20 that hopes to raise awareness of some of the environmentally healthy alternative products and processes, as many people strive to go green.

Features of The Festival

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  2 Stages


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  11 bands


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  People Powered Bike Stage


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  Tree planted for every ticket sold


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  Onsite parking and camping


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  Enviromentally friendly vendors


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  Corn-based utensils and dishes

Operation Adaptation hopes to inspire people of the younger generation to take steps to clean up the world.

The festival will feature music by many inspirational bands including Fat Maw Rooney, Willy Porter, Stealin' Strings, and Chinese Fingertrap.

The Milwaukee based Funk/Jam Band Chinese Fingertrap are going to be performing on Friday on the electric stage.

The bicycle stage will be powered by fans riding bicycles via a concert rig that runs off eight stationary bicycles and is completely independent of harmful fossil fuels.

Western Confernce Playoffs

Phoenix Suns @ San Antonio Spurs
To me the Spurs seem to be vulnerable this season. This seems to be the season that Bruce Bowen has finally lost his edge on defense and now relies heavily on somewhat dirty tactics. Tim Duncan is still the greatest Power Forward ever and will play well throughout the season.

However, Steve Nash can still take a point guard like Tony Parker to school on the offensive end. Also, I do not see anyone on the Spurs roster that can handle the combination of Shaq and Stoudemire.
My pick is the Suns over the Spurs in 6, because I cannot see the Suns winning at San Antonio in a game 7.

Utah Jazz @ Houston Rockets

I do not see the Rockets beating the Jazz without Alston, also I do not see them winning more than one game on the road at best.

With that being said I will say that the Jazz will sweep the Rockets.

Dallas Mavericks @ New Orleans Hornets

I think this series is going to go seven games. Dallas' trade earlier in the season did not make them noticeably better, and I know Dirk was hurt for part of the run late. I do not like either of these coaches in big games Avery Johnson is known for his over-coaching and Byron Scott has had his problems in big games in the past.

Dallas has good individual players in Howard and Dirk, and I think those to will play solidly.

However, the New Orleans Hornets have the better team. Jason Kidd cannot match up at all with Chris Paul, Josh Howard will be unable to stop Peja's shooting, Dampier will not be able to contain Chandler's rebounding ability. I finally get to rave about my MVP candidate, Chris Paul who can do anything from the point guard spot. He had the BEST season by a point guard of all time.

I am going with Chris Paul and the Hornets in 7 games.

Eastern Conference Playoffs

Now we get to what is probably going to be the only good series in the Eastern Conference - Washington Wizards @ Clevend Cavaliers. We know that LeBron James will get every possible call in this series, he is one of the few legitimate stars that will have casual fans from going away from the NBA Playoffs.

However, the Cavs do have quite a few problems throughout the series, namely that nobody matches up that well against Caron Butler. Also, nobody in the NBA really has anybody on their second team that can handle an 85-90% Gilbert Arenas. So this match up will probably come down to the final seconds in almost every game, and will favor the more consistent offensive team.

LeBron James will make DeShawn Stevenson eat his words in this game. You should never challenge the most dangerous weapon on the offensive side of the ball, because he will usually make you look like an idiot.

I think that the Cavaliers, who have been playing mediocre since their big trade, finally gel in the first round and pull out the series in Game 7 at Cleveland.

A quick look at the other three Eastern Conference First Round Series'-

The Big Three and Boston take care of Atlanta in 4 games.

Team oriented Detroit needs 5 games to get rid of pesky 76ers.

Dwight Howard dominates and lifts the Magic past Chris Bosh and the Raptors in 6 games.

Denver Nuggets @ Los Angeles Lakers

Denver Nuggets @ Los Angeles Lakers

The Nuggets have two good match ups going for them, Kenyon Martin against a player who plays smaller than his 6-10 frame in Vladimir Radmanovic. As long as K-Mart is able to get involved on the offensive end I would expect him to have a good to great 4-5 games.

The other match up that works toward the Nuggets favor on the offensive end is Carmelo Anthony, even with the distractions, against an older Lamar Odom. However, Odom should also
dominate Melo in the low post, if he wants to work that hard in the playoffs.

However, The Nuggets have NOBODY that can possibly stop Kobe Bryant from dominating the playoffs on the offensive and defensive side. Kobe is simply put the best player in the league hands down, sorry LeBron. Kobe has learned what Jordan did the best, mainly when you have to play your hardest. Kobe went through the motions through November and December and still averaged 26.5 points, 5 assists, and 6 rebounds.

My pick: The Lakers in 5