With Charlie Harper

AS the massive Russian armed threat intensified against Ukraine this week, Tuesday morning’s press headlined President Joe Biden’s resolve to sanction the important new undersea natural gas pipeline Nord Stream 2 linking Germany and energy-hungry Western Europe with Russia’s natural resource riches.

“If Russia invades — that means tanks or troops crossing the border of Ukraine — there will be no longer a Nord Stream 2. We will bring an end to it,” Biden said. He did not specify how the US would terminate what is essentially a bilateral Russo-German commercial project.

New German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, on a visit to Washington and anxious to avoid public discord, was much more nuanced about the pipeline, retreating into generalities. “We are absolutely united; we will not be taking different steps, will do the same steps and they will be very, very hard to Russia,” Scholz said to reporters. But Western Europe relies heavily on Russian natural gas imports, and even a partial reduction would squeeze American allies.

There is lots of bilateral and multilateral head of government diplomacy going on in Washington and Europe these days. French President Emile Macron spent the day with Vladimir Putin on Tuesday. We’ll see what all this activity produces.

But several things look very likely: if Biden manages to hold NATO (and the EU) together in solid resistance to Russian warmongering and forestalls a Russian invasion, Putin will be surprised, perhaps even shocked. NATO and the West generally will actually be strengthened. Furthermore, Biden’s position at home and abroad will likely be significantly enhanced.

That would be a most welcome outcome for the beleaguered American President. Another would be a continuation and deepening of what looks like a real rupture in the ranks of his Republican Party opposition.

On the one hand, the GOP party apparatus, ironically headed by the niece of Trump hater and Utah Senator Mitt Romney, remains solidly behind the ex-President. This was emphatically reaffirmed this week when the Republican National Committee voted to censure GOP congresspersons Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger, who sit on what Trump calls the “witch hunting” January 6 congressional inquest committee.

The RNC accused Cheney and Kinzinger of “participating in a Democrat-led persecution of ordinary citizens engaged in legitimate political discourse,” using some Trumpian language to sugar-coat the infamous invasion of the US capitol still just 13 months ago.

Ex-President Trump made headlines by virtually promising to pardon the hundreds of January 6 rioters if and when he returns to the White House. He and the RNC seem to be on the same page on this. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell is not.

“We all were here. We saw what happened. It was a violent insurrection for the purpose of trying to prevent the peaceful transfer of power after a legitimately certified election, from one administration to the next. That’s what it was,” McConnell said this week. He was not alone among GOP senators in pushing back against Trump and the RNC on the issue of January 6 and the attempts to overturn the 2020 US election.

Speaking to the conservative Federalist Society in Florida, former Vice President Mike Pence finally admitted “President Trump was wrong” in thinking Pence could have used his office to subvert the election results. Ever cautious, Pence is still trying to avoid a schism with Trump, but he is widely reported to be planning a presidential run in 2024 regardless of whether Trump runs.

Dark clouds hover on the NFL’s horizon

This is not how NFL commissioner Roger Goodell would have scripted the two-week league hype fest between the conference championship games and the Super Bowl. Not at all.

He’d rather have the throngs of print and broadcast media who have descended upon Los Angeles for the game interview all the young, rifle-armed quarterbacks just getting started on their illustrious careers. There’s Justin Herbert of the Chargers, Josh Allen of the Bills and Kyler Murray of the Cardinals; rookies Mac Jones of the Patriots, Trevor Lawrence of the Jaguars, Justin Fields of the Bears and Zach Wilson of the Jets, and, of course, Sunday’s opponents Patrick Mahomes of the Chiefs and Joe Barrow of the Bengals.

Goodell could sit back in satisfaction while journalists marvelled at how the NFL has completed every game on its schedule during these past two COVID-afflicted seasons, or at how the popularity of America’s professional football has seemed to grow even in the face of adversity. Goodell could celebrate his success in negotiating a new ten-year deal with the NFL players’ association while Major League Baseball is heading for the uncertainty of a shortened upcoming season as negotiations stall over a new contract with the players. The NFL added a game to its schedule, and its 32 teams responded by achieving almost unprecedented parity. They did it without any NBA or NHL-style bubbles.

The sun should be shining brightly in Southern California on the NFL as the exciting prospect of Sunday’s Super Bowl looms. But that is not how the narrative is unfolding.

Things started to unravel for the NFL when the Dolphins owner, Stephen Ross, fired Brian Flores from his head coaching position in Miami after the 2021 season ended. The surprising move was widely criticized because it looked like Flores, previously associated with Bill Belichick in New England, had the Dolphins on the road back to respectability and more. Flores, who was one of the league’s three black head coaches last season, apparently agreed. He took a day or two to digest his firing and then sued the league and three of its teams, including the Dolphins, alleging racial discrimination in its hiring processes and retention practices.

Flores obviously believes he was fired in Miami and not hired for one of the league’s eight other open head coaching positions at least partly because of his race. It’s a huge story, and the fact his replacement on the Dolphins looks white but is biracial (his father is black) has done nothing to push the story off the sports front pages. Since ex-Bears and Buccaneers head coach Lovie Smith has been hired by the Houston Texans, Smith and the Steelers’ Mike Tomlin will be the only “totally black” coaches in a league where 70 percent of the players are black.

And that’s not only Goodell’s only headache. Last week, several women testified before a congressional committee about the alleged sexual harassment and other misdeeds by long-time Washington NFL team owner Daniel Snyder. Snyder, who was a Redskins fan as a kid, has long been unpopular with the team’s fans because he’s really rich, arrogant and his teams have consistently floundered, partly because he has favoured cronyism over competence in hiring front-office staff. He has also ordered his general managers to pick his personal favourites in the NFL draft, ignoring the advice of professional scouts. Most of the players picked by this method have been total busts.

The Washington Post, other local and even some national media outlets want Snyder fired. Goodell, is paid very well partly to ensure he protects his bosses, including Miami’s Ross who are the NFL’s 32 owners. He has refused to release the results of a league investigation last year into Snyder’s behaviour. Goodell seems to be prioritizing protection of an unpopular owner over the well-being of league employees.

It’s another bad look for a league and commissioner who should be basking in glory this week, because Sunday’s much-anticipated big game could be a dandy.

The home-standing Rams have been steady favourites over Cincinnati all week, and their four-point betting edge should hold right until game time. The Rams are simply a better, more experienced team than the Bengals on both offence and defence and they should win the game.

Interestingly, Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford threw the most interceptions in the league this season. And Burrow of the Bengals was sacked by opposing defences more than anyone else. Last year, we predicted the relative inadequacies of the Chiefs’ patchwork offensive line would offer Tampa Bay and Tom Brady a decisive edge. That’s just how it turned out. This year, Cincinnati’s patchwork offensive line will similarly afford the Rams and Stafford a decisive edge. While the game should be a lot closer than last year’s rout, the home team should win the Super Bowl for the second year in a row.