How do you like your frauds? Scrambled or over easy?
Case I: Just before PSL Stadium opened, the Jets concocted and publicized an online auction to sell its best PSLs.
The “winner?” A 44-year-old “businessman” from Colts Neck, N.J., David Findel. Boastful and bombastic, he made the TV, radio and newspaper rounds, claiming to have purchased two front-row seats for the dubious total of $414,000 — ticket costs not included. Was he crazy?
No, he was a crook. He’s still a crook.
Most everyone bought the story, and the Jets seemed more than happy to allow the public the impression that Jets PSLs are the equivalent to big bars of solid gold. So, too, for that matter, did the NFL, as commissioner Roger “It’s All About the Fans” Goodell publicly endorsed PSLs as “good investments.”
But The Post soon revealed that Findel didn’t have a pot to PSL in. Not only was he broke, he owed hundreds of thousands.
Findel already was connected to the Jets from the inside — to players, front-office staff and even Woody Johnson as the team’s unofficial mortgage broker and hanger-on. Findel and his widely reported $414,000 PSL purchase stunk like an inside con job, much like the Jets’ boiler room-style PSL sales techniques.
When a fellow Findel owed nearly $400,000 called to ask him how he could afford $414,000 in PSLs, Findel told him it was just “a publicity stunt.” Not that the NFL investigated or even cared, but that man claimed to have had that on tape.
Tuesday, Findel is scheduled to be sentenced after pleading guilty last year to $11 million in bank and wire fraud. Last week, he pleaded guilty to bankruptcy fraud, sentencing scheduled for Nov. 14.
It’s impossible to believe that the Jets were not party to Findel’s bogus PSL purchase and all the publicity that followed.
But the NFL doesn’t care, or has done nothing to show it does. Why would it bother if there’s no money in it?
Case II: FOX’s Sept. 7 telecast of Falcons-Bears included the posting of headlines that, according to analyst Daryl “Moose” Johnston, actually appeared in Chicago newspapers. The headlines trashed Bears QB Jay Cutler as a quitter for leaving last year’s NFC Championship with an injury.
Among the “actual” headlines FOX posted: “Cutler Lacks Courage” and “Cutler’s No Leader.”
One tiny problem: No such headlines appeared, not in Chicago, nor anywhere else. They were fabricated by FOX. And either Johnston didn’t know or he played along.
That’s bad, very bad.
Take it from a FOX victim.
Early in the 2000 Mets-Yankees World Series, FOX used real New York newspaper headlines to demonstrate that, despite Joe Torre’s successes as Yankees manager, his hiring in 1995 was met with disapproval by dopey sportswriters. My column, on the day after Torre was hired, along with my byline and picture, was shown to 42 million viewers as an example.
After all, the headline read, “The Madness of King George” — ostensibly a reference to George Steinbrenner for hiring Torre.
Yet, I never recalled thinking that Torre was a bad hire, let alone writing it. So I went into my files to find that column. As suspected, it had nothing to do with Torre or his hiring.
Angry, I called FOX’s truck at Shea Stadium. I was promised that FOX would do the right thing and issue a retraction. But not a word. And, 11 years later, I’m still waiting — although I’m occasionally still asked how I could be so stupid as to write that Torre was a bad hire for the Yankees.
Case III: NHL star Mike Modano, late of the Dallas Stars, last week announced his retirement, did so on his Facebook page.
But that didn’t stop ESPN from giving itself partial, typically fraudulent credit for the story. ESPN reported: “Modano confirmed the retirement to ESPNDallas.com.”
Yep, ESPN has learned that what Modano announced was exactly what he announced.
Holley smokes! Wrong call
For all the showboating that’s ignored, excused, pandered to and turned into NFL highlights, ESPN’s Mike Golic, among others, accused Dallas WR Jesse Holley of mindless self-glorification when he held out his arm — the one holding the ball — near the goal line in OT of Sunday’s Cowboys-49ers game.
Though Holley took an unnecessary risk, he wasn’t showboating. He was trying to score, trying to break the plane with the ball. He could see that he was being chased down, so he tried to stretch the ball.
Crazy. For all the foolish, careless showboating now performed before crossing the goal line that goes unspoken, this was the episode that took a hit.
* Raiders QB Jason Campbell and Bills QB Ryan Fitzpatrick played superbly Sunday in Buffalo, which was why Oakland was up, 35-31, late. But when CBS cut to its studio, what did they get for their achievement? Haughty, childish cheap shots from that studio.
“Fitzpatrick vs. Campbell, Hall of Fame duel in Buffalo,” Dan Marino or Boomer Esiason said sarcastically off-camera (the other laughed).
“Hah, hah, Hall of Fame,” host James Brown said. “I love it!”
* Once upon a time, CBS’ Dan Dierdorf, among many others, simply would say that a receiver was “open.” Now? “He got separation.” And when did “practice” become “reps”?
* Phil Costanzo of Englewood, N.J., asks: “If Mariano Rivera is a first-ballot Hall of Famer, doesn’t that make Trevor Hoffman a first-ballot Hall of Famer?” A: No, the cutoff is 602 saves, not 601.
* As soon as we heard St. John’s coach Steve Lavin boast about his AAU recruiting connections, trouble had to follow.
* The most interesting man in the football world? Kicker Abraham Mercado is the only non-black player on the Morgan State football team, Morgan State being a predominantly black college. Born in Mexico City and raised in Florida, Mercado is the son of Mexican parents. He’s also born-and-raised Jewish. Did we leave anyone out?
* Last Sunday during Cowboys-49ers, FOX inserted a video package pointing to all the great games between the teams since the 1970s. There was no footage included of Tom Landry or Bill Walsh, but FOX included Jerry Jones.