Shaun Hill will get a chance to start for the Rams

The St. Louis Rams’ starting quarterback Sam Bradford tore his ACL in a preseason game last week, his third major injury in five years, and will be lost for the season.

This means that Steve Lardy’s friend Shaun Hilshaun hilll will be the starting quarterback for the Rams for the entire season. After 13 years in the league, it will be his first chance to go into a season as a starter and show what he can really do. I wrote about Shaun a couple of years ago.

Hill, from tiny Parsons, Kansas, has been a backup his entire career in San Francisco and Detroit, (with high priced high draft picks Alex Smith and Matthew Stafford ahead of him on the depth chart) but when he gets a chance, he puts up good numbers. He isn’t particularly big, nor has a particularly big arm, which is one of the reasons he has never been a full-time starter. He has started 26 games in his 13-year career and gone exactly 13-13 as a starter, with good stats — 41 touchdowns, 23 interceptions and a quarterback rating of 85.9 (an average QB rating is about 83-85). In 2010, Hill started 10 games for the Detroit Lions.

Rumour is the Rams will try to get Mark Sanchez to replace Bradford, but his career QB rating is a paltry 71.7, way below the NFL average and way below Hill’s. Another rumour is that the Rams will try to get Kirk Cousins from Washington, which would make more sense, because in the limited amount he’s played, he has shown that he can be a good quarterback. Cousins will likely be a starter someday for some team.

But, Rams head coach Jeff Fisher immediately came out and said that Hill is his guy:

Shaun has a great feeling for the offense right now, and we’re gonna move forward with him,” Fisher said. “We’re not gonna change anything. He knows the system. Everybody knows, we’re gonna run the football first. And we’re gonna do that, and we gotta do that well, and we gotta do that to start the season. And then everything else will come off that.”

So, here is Shaun’s big chance at last, after 13 years in the league.

American Heart Association issues warnings about e-cigs, need for stricter regulation

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Oh, very interesting. The American Heart Association (not some rabble-rousing anti-smoking group — the AHA), this week came out with a very strongly worded position paper on e-cigarettes.

Specifically, the AHA expressed the need for the Food and Drug Administration to regulate e-cigs. The FDA proposed some regulations on e-cigs a few months ago, and is still taking public comment on those regs.

NBC story. (Emphasizing that e-cigs should only be used as a “last resort” to quit.

USA TODAY story.

To wit, the AHA brings up three main concerns about e-cigs:

  •  They target young people
  • They keep people hooked on nicotine
  • They threaten to “re-normalize” tobacco use, according to the American Heart Association’s first policy statement on these products.

I really appreciate what the AHA is saying because while in a lot of ways I am on the fence about e-cigs (If they legitimately help people quit smoking, and some people swear they do, more power to them), BUT the major issue I have with e-cigs is the way they are being marketed, and in some cases, downright blatantly so, to kids.

From the AHA statement:

“Nicotine is a dangerous and highly addictive chemical no matter what form it takes – conventional cigarettes or some other tobacco product,” said American Heart Association President Elliott Antman, M.D. “Every life that has been lost to tobacco addiction could have been prevented. We must protect future generations from any potential smokescreens in the tobacco product landscape that will cause us to lose precious ground in the fight to make our nation 100 percent tobacco-free.

Manufacturers present e-cigarettes as “cool and sexy and acceptable, which is a problem because you’re increasing addiction,” Bhatnagar said.

Exactly, the point is, e-cigs are being marketed as cool and sexy and acceptable, but in fact, they contain nicotine. So while they might help some smokers (emphasis on “some”) quit, they are keeping those smokers addicted to nicotine, which has its own health issues (such as increasing blood pressure, etc.). And worse yet, if kids use them because Blu ads make them look hip and cool, then they’re being turned into nicotine addicts to begin with — not by cigarettes, but by e-cigs.

The AHA agrees:

The FDA’s proposal fell short of what was hoped for by the AHA and other public health advocates. They believe e-cigarettes should be regulated under the same laws as other tobacco products and prohibited from being marketed or sold to young people. The proposal, they said, did not go far enough in limiting online sales, advertising and flavored products, all tactics used to make e-cigarettes appealing to young people.

I personally don’t get that worked up about the flavoured e-cigs, but I completely agree with the AHA about the marketing issue. The FDA in its original proposal declined to address e-cig marketing (possibly because the agency is concerned about being sued over the First Amendment), but did ban e-cig sales to minors. That’s a start, I suppose.

 

Boston Herald columnist calls for banning chewing tobacco in baseball

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Boston Herald columnist Michael Silverman wrote a powerful column this week that it’s time for Major League Baseball to ban chewing tobacco.

This is hitting home in Boston right now because former Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling, who helped the Sox win two World Series, recently revealed that he is battling a serious form of oral cancer — cancer he blames on his 30-year chewing habit. Schilling’s cancer and Tony Gwynn’s (another chewer) death this summer from salivary gland cancer have put chewing tobacco in baseball front and centre.

Schilling actually did quit chew for a while, but after a year-and-a-half the power of nicotine won and he started dipping again. From Silverman’s column:

“None of it [lectures] was enough to ever make me quit,’’ Schilling said. “The pain that I was in going through this treatment, the second or third day, it was the only thing in my life that I wish I could go back and never have dipped.”

Actually, MLB does want to ban chewing tobacco. Cigarettes are banned in the clubhouse and dugouts. Chew is banned (on the field, mind you) in minor league baseball and in college, but MLB can’t ban it because the Player’s Association won’t allow it.

 

Silverman writes:

If only the players and Major League Baseball could see that they are dead wrong when it comes to how they rationalize and allow the use of smokeless tobacco rather than eliminating the addictive and cancer-causing substance.

Anyone who heard the higher timbre in the 47-year-old voice of Curt Schilling on WEEI radio and on NESN for the Jimmy Fund Radio-Telethon as he spoke for the first time about his battle with mouth cancer yesterday, or anyone still grieving the loss of 54-year-old Hall of Famer Tony Gwynn in June to a similar cancer, received a chilling reminder that, incredibly, tobacco still has a place in baseball.

Silverman further writes:

Schilling didn’t need an ashtray at Fenway when he played since smoking tobacco had long been banned.

But chewing tobacco?

Oh no, you must understand: That’s totally different. Smoking tobacco’s bad. Chewing the stuff? Well, players in Schilling’s era and players in today’s game can chew all they want. Just don’t let anyone see the telltale circular bulge of a can of snuff in your back pocket, try not to pause in the middle of an interview to spit out the juice and by all means, don’t ask a clubbie to head down to the local convenience store to stock up.

No, MLB forbids and frowns on all of that.

But otherwise, go right ahead: Kill yourself if you want to.

That’s your right.

And finally, Silverman concludes:

Baseball survived when smoking was banned from the clubhouse.

Banning smokeless tobacco won’t kill it, either.

 

Paul Ryan hates John Boehner’s constant smoking

AP BUDGET BATTLE A USA DC I’m just posting this because I think it’s hilarious. According to this USA Today story, Wisconsin congressman Paul Ryan said that in meetings with House Speaker John Boehner, he tries to sit as far away as possible because of Boehner’s constant smoking.

“I try to sit as far away from him as I can in meetings that I know are going to be stressful,” House Budget Chairman Paul Ryan, R-Wis., told Time in a Q&A published Thursday. “I just hate getting that smell in my clothes.”

OK, maybe just worth a chuckle. What isn’t quite as funny is Boehner has long been a stooge for Big Tobacco in Congress and has taken hundreds of thousands (maybe even millions) in contributions from Big Tobacco. boehner Several years ago, Boehner even handed out checks from the tobacco industry’s lobbyists to members of Congress — on the floor of the House no less —  in order to garner their votes on some issues benefiting the tobacco industry.

Curt Schilling reveals he has oral cancer, blames chewing tobacco

Hey, back for an update after a long break.schilling

Another baseball, chewing tobacco bombshell: Former Red Sox, Diamondback and Phillies pitcher Curt Schilling revealed yesterday that he is battling oral cancer, and he directly blames his years of chewing tobacco while playing baseball.

“I do believe, without a doubt, unquestionably that chewing was what gave me cancer,” he said [on NESN]. “I’m not going to sit up here from the pedestal and preach about chewing.”

Schilling, of the legendary bloody sock in the ALCS, is the second high-profile baseball player who has been in the news this summer over chewing tobacco and cancer. Several weeks ago, Tony Gwynn died of salivary gland cancer several weeks ago after years of chewing tobacco.

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Tony Gwynn

The Schilling case is just the latest reason to ban chewing tobacco in baseball. Currently, minor league players are not allowed to chew tobacco on the field, while in MLB, players are not allowed to smoke cigarettes. However, the players’ union insists on protecting players’ right to continue chewing tobacco on the field. I’ve posted about this repeatedly over the past year, for some mystifying reason, chewing tobacco is deeply, deeply ingrained in the culture of baseball. Why? No one seems to know. No one seems to have any answers for that. Baseball players simply chew. A lot. And a lot of baseball players have gotten oral or mouth cancer — Babe Ruth died of oral cancer and Roger Maris died of some kind of head/neck/oral cancer.

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Schilling described the seven weeks of painful radiation therapy he underwent. The therapy caused him to lose 75 pounds because he has trouble eating solid food. He also has trouble generating saliva due to the treatment.

“Recovery is a challenge,” Schilling said. “There are so many things that are damaged during the process. I don’t have any salivary glands, I can’t taste anything and I can’t smell anything right now. And there’s no guarantee they’ll come back.”

Red Sox manager John Farrell talked about Schilling and the culture of chewing tobacco in baseball.

“I don’t want to call it a tradition, because it’s not,” Farrell said Wednesday afternoon. “But it’s a norm in baseball culture.”

“MLB has taken steps to dissuade players from using it through educational programs that are administered to every team,” Farrell said. “It’s even got to the point [in the minor leagues] now where players can be fined if smokeless tobacco is in view of the general public. There have been some of those warnings and penalties levied on some of our players.

“I think we all recognize that it’s addictive and causes cancer. That’s proven. [But] at this time, it’s upon the player to make the conscious decision for himself to use it or not. All we can do is continue educate guys what the ramifications are. … On the heels of the unfortunate passing of Tony Gwynn and what Curt is going through, you would think this would be a current beacon for guys to take note that there’s a price to be paid, if you’re one of the unfortunate ones stricken by cancer.”

Schilling apparently was diagnosed with a “lesion” on his lip 10 or 15 years ago and had the lesion removed. He quit chew for a year-and-a-half, but then got back in the habit. So, even after wising up, even after a lesion was found, the power of nicotine won out.