Tag: sports

And the Knickerbockers of New Amsterdam caused all, the small and the great, and the rich and the poor, and the season ticket holder and the out-of-town tourist whose team is in town, to be given a mark on their right arm, and they provided that no man would be able to attend or to spectate, except the one who has the mark.

Just when we thought OutKick couldn’t be more on the money: vaccinations are now required to purchase second round Knicks tickets. The team just announced that tickets will be sold exclusively to vaccinated fans rather than sold to anyone who wants them. Ya know, how it’s been done for decades.

I here I always thought the rule was first tragedy, then farce. 

They must be pretty desperate if they think not permitting attendance by people who have already turned their backs on the NBA, and turned off their televisions as well, is going to make any difference to anyone at all.

It’s rather amusing to see one of the sporting world’s most converged organizations, the National Football League, finding itself caught between social justice and its pocketbook:

Race norming is sometimes used in medicine as a rough proxy for socioeconomic factors that can affect someone’s health. Experts in neurology said the way it’s used in the NFL settlement is too simplistic and restrictive, and has the effect of systematically discriminating against Black players.

“Because every Black retired NFL player has to perform lower on the test to qualify for an award than every white player. And that’s essentially systematic racism in determining these payouts,” said Katherine Possin, a neurology professor at the UCSF Memory and Aging Center.

In other major settlements, including those tied to the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and the Boston Marathon bombing, all claimants were treated the same.

“We concluded, fairly quickly, that we would take the top compensation for the white male and everyone would get the same, the top dollar,” said lawyer Ken Feinberg, who has overseen many of the largest settlement funds. “We would cure this compensatory discrimination by having a rising tide raise all ships.”

The first lawsuits accusing the NFL of hiding what it knew about the link between concussions and brain damage were filed in 2011. A trickle soon became a deluge, and the NFL, rather than risk a trial, agreed in 2013 to pay $765 million over 65 years for certain diagnoses, including Alzheimer’s disease and dementia. But as the claims poured in, Brody feared the fund would run out early and ordered the cap removed.

The NFL, which foots the bill, began challenging claims by the hundreds, according to the claims website.

In appealing one filed by Najeh Davenport, the NFL complained that his doctor had not used “full demographic norms” in the cognitive scoring. That meant factoring in age, education, gender — and race.

“I remain unsure what you are talking about. He was done using standard norms like everyone else. Using different racial standards is indeed discriminatory and illegal. We stand by our scores,” the physician said in response, according to court records….

The NFL’s dementia testing evaluates a person’s function in two dozen skills that fall under five sections: complex attention/processing speed; executive functioning; language; learning and memory; and visual perception. A player must show a marked decline in at least two of them to get an award.

In an example shared with The Associated Press, one player’s raw score of 19 for “letter-number sequencing” in the processing section was adjusted using “race-norming” and became 42 for whites and 46 for Blacks.

The raw score of 15 for naming animals in the language section became a 35 for whites and 41 for Blacks. And the raw score of 51 for “block design” in the visual perception section became a 53 for whites but 60 for Blacks.

Taking the 24 scores together, either a white or Black player would have scored low enough to reach the settlement’s 1.5-level of early dementia in “processing speed.” However, in the language section, the scores would have qualified a white man for a 2.0-level, or moderate, dementia finding — but shown no impairment for Blacks.

Overall, the scores would result in a 1.5-level dementia award for whites — but nothing for Blacks. Those awards average more than $400,000 but can reach $1.5 million for men under 45, while 2.0-level dementia yields an average payout of more than $600,000 but can reach $3 million.

The problem is that since blacks who play in the NFL have lower average IQs than whites who play in the NFL – which is clearly established through the league’s use of the Wonderlic test for all of its draftees – they don’t need to show as much cognitive decline to register as impaired. Indeed, there are probably a few very low-IQ players who would have registered as impaired before they played a single NFL game.

So, the average white player has to take more damage in order to reach the same level of “impairment” as the average black player, but proving this on a case-by-case basis is impossible without having an initial baseline for each player. Hence the need to race-norm, which of course flies in the face of the league’s official position on equality and therefore renders the NFL unable to utilize science or reason to defend itself.

It’s always nice to see the converged hoist on their own petard, and if there is an organization that deserves to be, it is the NFL.

A female advocate of the WNBA lectures people on why their reasons for not watching a terrible parody of a men’s sport are not acceptable:

This friend played sports at a high level, and he asked me, tentatively, whether he could explain why he doesn’t watch women’s sports. “Of course,” I said. “Let’s hear it.” I wanted nothing more than to understand why someone like him—an athlete, a millennial, a feminist—had never turned on a women’s basketball game. Or, more precisely, I wanted to hear why he believes he hasn’t.

“I’ve actually thought about this a lot over the years,” he said. “Because I often feel some level of guilt about it, but when it comes down to it, I just think that if I’m going to take the time to watch sports, I want to be watching them at the peak of how they can be played—speed, strength, all of it. And to me, that pinnacle is happening on the men’s side.”

I nodded as my friend spoke. He hit all the expected notes. I don’t watch because they can’t dunk; I don’t watch because they’re like a good boy’s high school team; I don’t watch because, you know, I could probably beat them one-on-one.

Perhaps you even saw your own reasoning reflected in his. At its heart, this reasoning insists that people don’t watch the WNBA because men run faster and jump higher. That is, in fact, true. Most men do run faster and jump higher. And, yes, it’s incredibly exciting when one of those men runs fast and jumps high and we watch, in awe.

It’s a soothing rationale, this little story we tell ourselves about our insatiable appetite for windmill jams. It’s foolproof, too, because this reasoning doesn’t just absolve sports fans of any further introspection, but more important it absolves the marketers, the TV networks and the sports apparel companies. Hell, it even seems to pardon the women themselves: It’s not your fault; sports fans crave something you just can’t give them. This reasoning presents itself as more than logical; it’s biological.

Actually, it’s pathological. It’s chronic, and irrational, and it’s been stalking the WNBA since its founding. In the U.S., this lie is the serial killer of women’s professional leagues. To name a few: the American Basketball League (1996–98), the Women’s United Soccer Association (2000–03), the Women’s Professional Softball League (’97–01) and Women’s Professional Soccer (’07–12).

The WNBA, though, is resilient. When launched in 1996, the league was ahead of its time—in almost every way. Long before Big Business saw the value, the players of the W stood against racial injustice, and for equality, and took the hits—“Every direction we turned, we were walking into a wall,” says WNBA legend Sue Bird—for representing the folks at society’s margins. “People think you’re supposed to look and talk and be a certain way, but the WNBA blasts all of those things out of the water,” says A’ja Wilson of the Las Vegas Aces. “And you should want that. We are standing on the shoulders of women who didn’t back down just because casual sports fans didn’t think they were worthy. That’s what makes our league better, because we have faced those hurdles. I can’t think of another league that gets hit with every single last knock, and I don’t see that going away, but we’re not going to let that stop us.”

Understanding why we watch sports isn’t just a thought experiment. It has practical implications. Rather than passively believing the WNBA is biologically inferior, we can actively recognize that no athletes in modern history have faced more cultural obstacles than the players of the W. Not only are comparisons to the men ubiquitous—and the differences rendered clearer because of the unique intimacy of the sport—but also, more important, no women’s league has a higher percentage of Black athletes, meaning that for nearly a quarter century the WNBA has been rowing against the headwinds of racism, sexism and anti-LGBTQ sentiment.

What a deeply stupid article! The amusing thing is that this idiot woman is trying to sell the WNBA on the very same basis that has most – not many, but most – former NBA fans turning off the men’s game, thereby offering additional support for my hypothesis that SJWs are both evil and stupid.

Most women’s sports are not an alternative or a variant of the similar men’s sport. They are parodies. And they harbor absolutely no appeal for any actual fan of the sport itself, unless one happens to find entertainment in the comedic aspect of watching sustained incompetence.

There are some women’s sports that are superior to the men’s versions. For example, women’s tennis is better in the rare circumstances that it is competitive for the same reason that men’s tennis was better when the players used smaller wooden rackets. It’s boring to watch two 6’6″ men using oversized titanium weaponry to launch rocket serves at each other that neither of them can return. And women’s soccer actually makes for relatively interesting viewing now that no top-level male player not named Ronaldo or Messi is capable of beating a defender one-on-one anymore.

(I think the men’s game could use bigger fields or two less players per side to open up more space, but that’s a tangent for another day.)

In general, women’s sports are tedious, parodistic, and parasitical on the male versions. Which is why the WNBA will collapse, sooner rather than later, as a consequence of the NBA’s vanishing audience.

Drew Pearson demonstrates the correct way to respond to those who hate you and everything for which you stand. This practically defines the term “open up your hate and let it flow into me.” What would otherwise have been a pedestrian announcement of a second-round draft pick is transformed into a celebration of community pride. 

Also and even so, Drew Pearson pushed off.

The debacle of the European Super League demonstrates the fundamental flaw with libertarian ideology. Whereas communism is rule by the envious, libertarianism is rule by the fraudulent:

Florentino Perez has warned that no club can leave the European Super League after signing binding contracts to participate and denied JP Morgan have pulled their backing to fund the competition.

Speaking out yet again after a flurry of clubs withdrew, Perez – who heads the controversial competition – slammed teams for ‘manipulating our project’ and vowed that the tournament ‘still exists’ and will go ahead regardless.

The Premier League ‘Big Six’ – namely Manchester City, Chelsea, Manchester United, Liverpool, Arsenal and Tottenham – were the first to pull out of the Super League 48 hours after its official founding, but Real Madrid chief Perez stated earlier this week all 12 clubs involved signed a ‘legally binding contract’.

Speaking to Spanish outlet AS, the 74-year-old has reiterated his point that the plan is only on standby and accused others of ‘manipulating’ what the Super League project is about to mask fears of what they could lose.

When asked what penalties clubs who have withdrawn could face, Perez said: ‘I’m not going to explain now what a binding contract is… But the clubs can’t leave. 

If legality is determined solely by whatever one party can talk another party into signing, then the society that will result is rule by conmen. The 11 clubs were talked into the Super League by Real Madrid, which faces bankruptcy under the current setup due to its profligate spending and massive debts. Now they face the prospect of paying huge fines they can’t afford if they don’t proceed with a plan that will destroy them and harm the sport. 

It’s well and good to point out that no one has to sign a contract… right up until you realize that for all their protests, courts have been upholding the concept of “contracts of adhesion” that don’t require any signatures for decades.

It is the Devil who loves binding contracts. So it should come as no surprise that a society based on contracts soon comes to resemble Hell on Earth.

They killed the Super League despite the best efforts of the banks and the biggest European soccer clubs:

Plans for a European Super League have officially been suspended after all six Premier League clubs announced their intention to withdraw from the controversial £4.6bn scheme. 

On Sunday night, 12 European clubs pledged their support for the controversial breakaway competition that threatened to drastically change the football landscape in England and across the continent.

Six clubs from England – Manchester United, Manchester City, Chelsea, Liverpool, Spurs and Arsenal – had agreed to join the league, while three teams from Spain and Italy apiece – Real Madrid, Atletico Madrid, Barcelona, Juventus, AC Milan and Inter Milan – made up the remaining six places.

However, just 48 hours after the monumental announcement did the European Super League begin to unravel, with England’s participating clubs each releasing statements announcing their intention to step away from the competition. 

Imagine what would be possible if conservatives took their politics, and Christians took their faith, as seriously as European soccer fans take their sport. 

The love of money is the root of all evil. 70 years of success isn’t enough to prevent Europe’s biggest soccer teams from falling into the clutches of the bankers:

 A group made up of the biggest soccer clubs in Spain, England and Italy has agreed to join a breakaway league that has the potential to change the landscape of world soccer, according to The New York Times. 

So far, 12 teams have reportedly endorsed or signed up for the super league, including Real Madrid, Barcelona and Atlético Madrid from Spain; Manchester United, Liverpool, Manchester City, Arsenal, Chelsea and Tottenham from England; and Juventus, A.C. Milan and Inter from Italy. 

The report suggested that each permanent member of the proposed breakaway league, which would begin in 2022, has been promised €350 million ($425 million) with JPMorgan Chase & Co. in discussions to help finance the league….

Under the proposals reviewed at the time, the super league, which would play its matches in the middle of the week, sought to secure 16 top soccer franchises as permanent members and to add four qualifiers from domestic competitions. The clubs would be split into two groups of 10, with the top four teams in each group qualifying for the knockout stages, culminating in a final that would take place on a weekend.

The event would, according to the documents, generate hundreds of millions of dollars in additional revenue for the participating teams, which are already the richest clubs in the sport. (An alternative version of the plan proposed 15 permanent members and five qualification spots.) The group had entered into discussions with JPMorgan Chase & Co. to raise financing for the project, according to people with knowledge of the matter. The firm has so far declined to comment.

UEFA found a powerful ally in opposition to the plans in FIFA, soccer’s global governing body. FIFA warned that any player who took part in such an unsanctioned league would be banned from appearing in the World Cup. The statement came after UEFAs president, Aleksander Ceferin, demanded support from his FIFA counterpart, Gianni Infantino, amid mounting speculation that the breakaway would have FIFA’s backing.

European soccer leaders huddled on the telephone and in video conferences over the weekend to forge a counterattack. However, finding a solution to the potential loss of the biggest brands in soccer is not an easy task. The Premier League, for example, would lose much of its sheen — and almost certainly a lot of the commercial appeal that has turned it into the richest league in soccer — should it move to banish its top six teams.

My prediction is that severing the big teams from their domestic leagues is going to backfire, as the combination of foreign players and foreign competition, combined with the extreme convergence that will be imposed upon the new league, will cause them to be replaced by new domestic favorites.

I’m a longtime Arsenal and AC Milan supporter, but I can’t even imagine having any interest in this super league. It’s basically going to be like an All-Star game all season long. UEFA and FIFA are among the most corrupt organizations on the planet, but at least they have a genuine and substantial commitment to supporting the sport at all levels. This new league doesn’t, won’t, and can’t, it’s about nothing but TV money. Which is why kicking out every organization and player involved is the right response.

UEFA were strong in response, announcing that every club and player that takes part in the Super League will be banned from all competitions at both European and  international level – and extends to international level and competitions including the European Championship…. The new league represents the American takeover of elite European football, which will become a closed shop run by its founder members. It is bankrolled by US banking giant JP Morgan and is the brainchild of Real Madrid president Florentino Perez and the American owners of three leading English clubs. 

In addition to being proof that too much money ruins everything, it will be an interesting test of nationalism vs financial capitalism. I won’t be surprised if the top six English teams that leave for it eventually become less popular than the teams that stay in the Premier League. 

Sports journalists are less willing than alcoholics to admit they have a problem:

Almost every single sport has experienced a TV ratings erosion over the past year, and dishonest people with an agenda have liked blaming the lower ratings on sports becoming more political.

Well, the least political sport on the planet just got some depressing ratings news. This weekend’s Masters on CBS generated its lowest viewership numbers in 28 years.

I don’t follow golf closely, but to my knowledge, there have not been any golfers who have kneeled during a playing of the national anthem. There have not been many golfers who have protested anything. Courses have not featured political messages.

Yet the biggest tournament of them all just pulled its worst numbers since 1993.

Have a few people here and there stopped watching sports in some ridiculous protest because of politics? Yes. Is it a significant, game-changing number? No.

The obvious and most significant reason for any and all sports TV ratings loss is cord-cutting. People are saying goodbye to cable at a rapid rate. From 2014 to 2020, 23{3549d4179a0cbfd35266a886b325f66920645bb4445f165578a9e086cbc22d08} of households cut the cord. Approximately 6.6 million households cut the cord in 2020 after 6.3 million households cut the cord in 2019.

While we have data on cord-cutting, we don’t have numbers for how the pandemic has changed the viewing habits of sports fans. But it’s obvious people’s lives are different, their schedules have changed and their priorities have shifted. We can’t quantify any of these things, but they are absolutely a factor in sports across the board losing viewers.

Actually, it’s much more likely that there is a knock-on effect. I didn’t watch the Masters, so I have no idea if it was a big diversity fest, although the fact that a Japanese golfer won it for the first time ever does tend to indicate that it might have been.

But at this point, I suspect people are beginning to assume that televised sports are all converged, and they’re actually beginning to preemptively turn them off. I haven’t not only quit watching NFL football, but I’ve quit watching Premiership and Seria A football as well, in addition to the Champions League. I assume that they’re chock full of SJW hectoring, but I don’t actually know, because I preemptively stopped watching them. 

The NCAA is 100 percent committed to equality concerning the non-payment of all student-athletes, regardless of sex or sexual identity:

The National Collegiate Athletic Association Board of Governors said on Monday that it “firmly and unequivocally supports” transgender biological male athletes competing in women’s sports at the college level.

It comes amid an ongoing push by Republican-led states to enact measures that seek to protect female athletes, who are likely to have a biological disadvantage if forced to compete against male-born students.

“The NCAA Board of Governors firmly and unequivocally supports the opportunity for transgender student-athletes to compete in college sports,” the board wrote in their statement. “The NCAA has a long-standing policy that provides a more inclusive path for transgender participation in college sports.”

NCAA also addressed questions about how the association determines which states will host championship games.

“When determining where championships are held, NCAA policy directs that only locations where hosts can commit to providing an environment that is safe, healthy and free of discrimination should be selected,” the board wrote.

The states should respond to this by passing laws forbidding universities to charge for tickets or for television and merchandising rights to sporting events in which the players are not monetarily compensated.

From Peter King’s weekly football column:

Interesting contrast in your column [from the story about the British book heist that I posted last week] that the 1566 Latin edition of Copernicus’ world-changing theory was valued at $293,000. Meanwhile, the Tom Brady rookie card from 2000 was priced at $2.3 million.

Actually, I think this is a good sign. By the time the West hits rock bottom, the only value of the original Copernicus book in most people’s eyes would be for kindling.

And this is why you should subscribe to Castalia Library while the printing presses still function.