Tag: sports

The Specialist Always Wins

There is a panoply of ignorance on display in the recent UFC vs Navy SEALs debate in the sports world:

Sean Strickland, the UFC superstar, made some waves when he claimed no Navy SEAL could make it through the training he does. While he didn’t specify, it definitely seemed like he meant fight training. Could a Navy SEAL beat Sean Strickland in the octagon?

You know who else found the response to Strickland absolutely cringe? Andy Stumpf. For those of you who might not have heard of Andy Stumpf, he’s a legit dude. He was an operator in SEAL Team 6, got shot in Iraq on the same mission Tyler Grey was blown up, recovered and deployed again. The man isn’t a joke or someone pretending to have knowledge of the topic. He’s fought alongside some of the greatest warriors in America’s history, and he thinks this entire situation is embarrassing…

I spoke to another ST6 operator and one more Spec. Ops. veteran about Strickland’s comments. Both had reactions that mirror Stumpf’s and both admitted it wouldn’t be a fair fight against Strickland…..and that many UFC fighters would struggle in a Spec. Ops. training pipeline.

I don’t know about UFC fighters making it through the military training. I have no experience in that regard. But I am 100-percent certain that no Navy SEAL could ever beat a top UFC fighter in the Octagon. The two SpecOps guys are right. It wouldn’t even be a fair fight. Allow to explain:

I was never one of the top five fighters at my dojo, which was much respected by the other dojos in the Twin Cities, where we practiced an early form of MMA. Being the only dojo to ever take all the trophies from white belt to black in a statewide competition – it was only point-fighting, it must be said – we were basically the Cobra Kai of the state right down to the black gis, although the base of our style was, ironically enough, much more akin to Miyago-do, being Okinawan. I think it’s fair to say I was one of the top ten fighters there, as I was selected for a few of our public demos, including a pretty wild one at Glam Slam that involved fighting under strobe lights.

On several occasions, I had the opportunity to spar with guys who had military training, usually Marines for some reason. And while they weren’t completely hopeless like the normal guy walking in off the street with absolutely no training, they were never above the level of a fairly recent gold belt who had just started sparring a month or two prior. Never. I maintained a weight of 170, and didn’t even need to break a sweat to take apart a Marine who went 235, although, as I’ve said in the past, my little physics experiment in trying to go toe-to-toe with him was a complete failure.

When the Commandant of the Marine Corps was talking smack one day about the lethality of the Marine Fu that the Corps had adapted from the Israeli Krav Maga, I just laughed at him, pointed out that six weeks of fight training is inadequate preparation for going up against anyone with six years of fight experience, and told him to bring it on. He came at me and tried a basic takedown at the waist, so I put him face-down on the carpet in a neck-breaking lock that forced him to tap out in about five seconds.

Now keep in mind that my training was built around the striking arts and that my preference was always for counterattacking with a combination of speed and upper body strike power to stun and overwhelm an opponent. And yet, it took less than 10 seconds to completely incapacitate a very highly-trained Marine a) without harming him and b) without throwing a single strike of any kind.

Think about the degree of total superiority that implies. And yes, there were no shortage of witnesses, including Spacebunny.

Now, based on my experience fighting two national champions and one guy who was better than either of them, a fighter like Strickland would probably beat me in my prime in about 45 seconds. I’m confident that I’d get two or three good shots in – I was benching 295 then and even the very best guys had to be wary of my speed – but I’d definitely lose and lose comprehensively. So, there is no way, none whatsoever, that any military training would prepare a Navy SEAL or anyone else to beat a highly trained specialist like Strickland. It would be like spending a few weeks shooting clay pigeons with a shotgun, then challenging a Force Recon sniper to a long-distance shooting competition.

No, he does not have next…

DISCUSS ON SG

Another Enlightenment Fraud

Again and again and again, we see that the “human rights” promoted by the self-styled “liberals” of the Enlightenment were always fraudulent to their very core. Here we see in England how so-called “equality” only goes one way and works systematically to the disadvantage of boys:

One of the biggest girls’ football leagues in the country faces being shut down by the Football Association for refusing to allow a boy to play in its matches.

The Mail on Sunday can reveal that a row has broken out between the FA and officials running a female league in Yorkshire after parents complained their son had not been allowed to join.

It is understood the FA has threatened the West Riding Girls Football League with sanctions and a possible suspension if it does not agree to let boys on the pitch, a scenario officials have branded ‘a massive threat to the girls’ game’.

Last week an emergency meeting was held by organisers of the league – which has at least 6,000 under-18 girls playing across more than 300 teams – where managers voiced their concerns that allowing boys to play would ‘open the floodgates’.

The FA’s gender policy states that any under-16 teams must allow both boys and girls to play, despite admitting that ‘physical strength, stamina or physique’ can put one sex at the disadvantage of the other. Fiona McAnena, at sex-based rights group Sex Matters, said: ‘A boy on the pitch changes everything. The law is clear that female-only sport is allowed. It’s sex discrimination for the FA to tell girls they must accept a male player.’

Top girls’ football league faces being shut down, THE DAILY MAIL, 3 March 2024

This is what inevitably happens when reality intrudes upon the dogmatic Enlightenment principles to which the secular champions of social justice have been appealing for more than 200 years. Whenever the ideological principle violates their identity priority, the principle always crumbles into dust.

We’ve seen it with free speech, as that has been trumped by the need for protect the ability of one group to believe they were uniquely persecuted in the 20th Century and for another group to ignore crime statistics. We’ve seen it with “democracy”, as that has been trumped by the need of Clown World governments to ignore the will of the people. And now we see it with “equality”, as three generations of unrestrained assaults on male-only activities are suddenly jettisoned as soon as female-only activities are threatened.

We are somehow supposed to believe that equality means telling girls they must accept a male player is sex discrimination, while not telling boys they must accept a female player is also sex discrimination. Which is, of course, a certain sign that satanic inversion is somehow involved.

The Enlightenment is the philosophical basis for Clown World. It is an outdated and sophistic philosophy that will disappear in the aftermath of Clown World’s demise.

DISCUSS ON SG

A Textbook Failure

It was a pretty good game last night. However, I’m beginning to conclude that for all his many strengths, Kyle Shanahan simply isn’t a big-game coach. Rather like Denny Green with the Vikings back in the day, he’s capable of putting together a great team and getting them to play very well in the regular season, but he doesn’t have the mental flexibility to win the chess games that is necessary at the championship level.

Some things can’t be controlled. McCaffrey uncharacteristically fumbling in the red zone, Greenlaw getting hurt running onto the field, the punt hitting the leg of the blocker, the extra point being blocked. But I was pretty certain that Shanahan choked when he failed to try to close out the game when the 49ers had the ball in scoring position inside the two-minute warning of a 16-16 game.

There are two ways to play to win in that situation. The best is to burn the clock down to 10 seconds, then score. This is necessary when playing against a top-tier quarterback. You can trust your defense to hold on in many cases, but not against a Brady, a Mahomes, or a Rodgers. The other option is to play for a touchdown. In both cases, you are playing to win the game.

However, the NFL tradition is to always play to put off the final decision. Perhaps this is a league-dictated thing, or perhaps it is the textbook decision because it allows a head coach to avoid the criticism and accountability that comes in the wake of an execution failure that makes what was the right decision at the time look incorrect in hindsight. Shanahan kicked the field goal with too much time on the clock, and was lucky that Kansas City only scored three to send the game to overtime instead of putting the game away with a touchdown inside regular time.

If you don’t play to win, you don’t really deserve to be a champion anyhow.

And who would have thought that Andy Reid – ANDY REID – would win a clock management battle? In the Super Bowl! This is surely a sign of the Apocalypse.

UPDATE: With regards to the entertainment scripting theory, I think the NFL actually wanted SF to win. The one egregious call was the defensive holding call on 3rd and 13 in OT. And the grounding call on Mahomes, while 100-percent legitimate, could have easily been waved off due to the receiver in the vicinity, had the league been favoring the Chiefs.

DISCUSS ON SG

How to See the Super Bowl

If you want to watch the Super Bowl in person without a ticket today, here’s a pro tip:

Just tell the security guards at the ticket gate that you’re an unaccompanied minor from Mexico. I’m told they have to let you in, seat you, and give you a hot dog, a coke, and season tickets to the NFL team of your choice, no matter what.

She’s got season tickets for the Jets next season.

DISCUSS ON SG

Big Bear on Taylor Swift

In which a subject I never thought it would be necessary to contemplate is addressed, as apparent Owen has set the Internet on fire again.

Why would a rich famous guy marry a 34-year-old woman? If you started immediately you MIGHT be able to have two kids. And she’s publicly had sex with a ton of guys. Despite her wealth she’s very low quality for any successful male. Just seems weird and almost like he’s a gay guy. Why would a successful man want a middle-aged woman who’s always on tour? Is it…could it be…because he’s gay?

I can think of a few possible explanations:

  • Travis Kelce is 34 as well. It is nice to have similar references as your wife. Most men marry a woman 1-3 years younger. And given that Taylor Swift is observably immature, she probably looks and behaves more like a woman who falls in that age group.
  • Taylor is very attractive. She held her own even when she was surrounded by Victoria’s Secret models before it went all diverse and inclusive. She’ll probably be far more attractive at 50 than many of her potential younger rivals will at 40.
  • Travis Kelce only has one brother. So two kids would probably strike him as normal, and thereby her age would not as be as disqualifying as those who value large families might assume.
  • Taylor is smart and talented. Perhaps Travis is a Renaissance Man who truly values… okay, that’s not it.
  • Taylor has generational wealth. Travis appears to be considerably more money-motivated than the average NFL tight end. See: Gronk.
  • Travis is a calculating fame whore and marrying Taylor Swift will establish him as a bona fide celebrity that will allow him to launch his post-NFL music and acting career.
  • Travis and Taylor are both gay and this will be a lavender marriage.
  • Everyone is right. The relationship is true love, Travis and Taylor are both gay, and the transpiracy theorists are correct and Taylor is actually a man.

Frankly, I’m a little shocked that Big Bear went for the lavender interpretation and not the last one. He must be mellowing out now that he’s not being cancelled every five minutes.

I can’t believe I’m actually going to be pulling for the 49ers this Super Bowl. I will never forgive Clown World for this. And in other Chiefs-related news, there has been a mysterious lack of agitation at ex-KC Offensive Coordinator’s annual failure to get a head coaching job this year.

DISCUSS ON SG

The Fatal Stress of Freshman Year

Ah, yes, I remember well the terrible stress of 9th grade. That dreadful combination of teenage hormones and all the new challenges of high school were just too much for some young hearts to bear. We must have lost nine or ten of our freshman class to fatal heart attacks that year, most of them healthy and fit young girls.

Oh, wait, no, we didn’t…

A 14-year-old died last week after she collapsed on the court during a high school basketball game. Amari Crite, a freshman at Momence High School in Illinois, was playing a junior varsity basketball game Jan. 25 against Tri-Point when she fell and later died.

The Kankakee County Coroner’s Office said the cause of death is under investigation, according to The Daily Journal. Reports say Crite was running back to the defensive side of the floor when she collapsed.

“We are deeply saddened to confirm the heartbreaking news of the passing of one of our 9th-grade students on January 25, 2024,” Momence Superintendent Shannon Anderson said in a statement.

High school basketball player, 14, dies after collapsing on court during game, 3 February 2024

Back in the day, a “broken heart” in high school meant that a girl had been dumped by her boyfriend of the previous three weeks. These days, thanks to the mRNA vaxx, it means myocarditis, if not a fatal heart attack.

I wonder what that “investigation” will reveal? Presumably nothing that is even remotely related to the truth. But I understand Black Warrant may have something to say about this sort of thing…

DISCUSS ON SG

An Elegy for SI

Peter King, the longtime Sports Illustrated football writer, pens a tribute to the once-beloved magazine:

Nothing describes how the sports media business has changed better than the precipitous decline of Sports Illustrated. More than a bit of melancholy washed over me Friday, processing the news of the battered place. Because even if SI survives 2024, it will do so as a skeleton of what it was.

I have only good memories of my 29 years with the franchise. In the midst of the sadness and bitterness over SI’s demise, I want to share a few of the reasons why I will always consider myself the luckiest man on the face of the earth because I got to work for the greatest sports journalism franchise for the guts of my career.

I remember the phone call—absolutely, totally out of the blue—from managing editor Mark Mulvoy in spring 1989. I was 31, covering the Giants for Newsday. Mulvoy asked if I was interested in interviewing for a job at the magazine. It’s still one of those things to this day that I can’t quite believe happened. I went into the mag’s Rockefeller Center offices, across from Radio City, and Mulvoy got to the point pretty fast. He wanted me to write the “Inside the NFL” column and, in fact, there wasn’t much of an interview. He asked me if I wanted the job.

Outer voice: “That’s fantastic. I’ll talk to my wife today and get back to you tomorrow. That okay?”

Inner voice: Are you bleeping kidding me? WHERE DO I SIGN BEFORE YOU CHANGE YOUR MIND?

Much excitement when I got home. My wife, Ann, asked me: “What will they pay you?” I told her I had no idea. I never asked.

FMAI Divisional, Peter King, 22 January 2024

SI was the victim of changing technology as much as it was of its own convergence and corporate financialization. But it remains the great historical record of American sports, covering the period from 1954 to 2024, which in those 70 years included Peak America. It was also evidence of how excellence leads to success, as it brought together talented and truly-dedicated writers with first-rate photographers.

Unfortunately, it also serves as a cautionary example of what lies ahead for America.

Speaking of favorite Sports Illustrated covers, this one from November 10, 1975 was definitely mine.

DISCUSS ON SG

A Strange Hill to Die

At some point, even these reality-challenged sportswriters have got to find themselves thinking, “you know, maybe Novak Djokovic knew what he was doing when he gave up his chance at two Majors in order to avoid taking the vaxx.” The irony, of course, is that Djokovic didn’t even metaphorically die, as he is now widely recognized as the greatest tennis player of all time, whereas the journalist Dixon is now, quite literally, dead.

I’ve followed sports my entire life, and I don’t ever recall seeing coaches, journalists, and players collapsing and dying the way they have been since the vaxx was pushed them.

DISCUSS ON SG