Injuries, Pro Sports, and Patriotism

Let’s play Guess the Speaker.

“I'm very angry because once again the national teams take players and we lose out due to injuries.”

Mark Cuban? Nope.

It’s AC Milan CEO Adriano Galliani, talking to the media about his disgust with the fact one of his defenders, Oguchi Onyewu, was injured while playing for the U.S. against Costa Rica in a World Cup qualifier on Wednesday and may be out for six months.

As a result, Galliani will now be paying Onyewu to watch Milan from the sidelines– something that is understandably irksome to him.

But is anyone surprised this happened? It’s not the first time, obviously, that a professional player has been injured while competing on the world stage, but what makes this case unique from others before is that Galliani is demanding the US Soccer Federation provide compensation to AC Milan for depriving them of Onyewu’s services.

It’s an interesting demand, and, if successful, would completely destroy international competitions as we know them. Is there any country that would recruit a professional athlete if they received, along with his obvious talents, the risk of writing a multi-million dollar check if said player should tear an ACL?

Onyewu’s salary is estimated to be about $1.1 million per season (he just signed a 3-year deal with Milan this July), so his salary wouldn’t decapitate the US Soccer Federation, but imagine how devastating it would be, just as an example, if French Basketball was forced to cough up $11 million for an injury Tony Parker. I can’t imagine their budget could even begin to take on those sorts of costs, could they?


The whole idea of professional athletes performing in international competitions is tenuous at best and ridiculous at worst. While the World Cup will likely never change, simply because of the immense history and dollars involved, I would be surprised if we see NBA players and MLB players competing in international competitions for much longer; the vast amounts of money invested in these gentlemen are just too large.

If nothing else, then, Oguchi Onyewu’s injury may provide a hint that this era may finally be coming to an end.

McClendon Has Some More Wine To Sell

We all experienced Aubrey McClendon's version of Billionaire Garage Sale last spring, you'll remember, when he unloaded millions of dollars worth of wine via an auction house in New York.

It went pretty well, and combined with the dough he earned selling his collection of western art to his own company (that was a tough sell, no doubt), you'd think he wouldn't have to worry about selling off any more assets to cover the rent.

You'd be wrong.

Turns out Aubrey had so much fun parting with his wine in April, he's doing it again! In less than a month, Spectrum Wine Auctions will be offering The Aubrey McClendon Collection at the St. Monarch Regis Beach Resort in Dana Point, California.

"Fine wine buyers have a once in a lifetime opportunity to buy rare and normally unavailable vintages," Spectrum's Greg Roberts commented. Well, I suppose if your lifetime was the equivalent of a tse-tse fly's, you'd be right, Greg, but considering McClendon just got done selling $2.2 million worth of his wine less than six months ago, don't you think you ought to take it a little easy on the hyperbole?

Jack Sikma & The Trade of Eternity