Talking Loud Ain't Saying Nothing

Since we are a sports blog, you'd think we'd comment on the Tim Donaghy scandal.

But we're not big-time journalists, so what are we really supposed to be saying that isn't being said everywhere else over and over and over again?

And since now ESPN only covers sports from a "story lines and scandals" perspective instead of a "what's actually happening on the field" perspective, you'll get plenty of this sort of thing from them.

The only thing I'm going to make sure to dispel is the part of the story that says "NBA refs don't make enough money so that there wouldn't be temptations."

Certainly, NBA refs don't make as much as the athletes. But to say they don't make enough money is ridiculous.

According to Marc Stein's ESPN.com article, entry-level officials make $85k a year. Most with experience earn six figures. They say Donaghy, with 13 years of experience, was making about $200k a year. They also earned more if they worked the playoffs.

Now, keep in mind that basketball season is from November to June. So they get about 4 months off a year. And that they probably don't even work 5 days a week. And they maybe are at their job for four or five hours total.

Let's just get it out there: most of the rest of us don't even earn $85k a year. And we work five days a week with maybe two or three weeks off a year. And we're at our jobs at least 8 hours a day, most likely more.

And most of the rest of us aren't tempted to be criminals.

So this guy makes significantly more money than most, and works significantly less. But his salary is the reason he had to work with the mob to gamble on games?

No sale.

This guy did what he did because he had a gambling problem. And a personal ethics problem. Not because of how much he earned for doing his job.

This guy would have done the same thing even if he earned the same salary as Kobe and KG. So let's stop it with that reason already.