Tag: sports

The Philadelphia Eagles have to go back:

President Trump on Monday abruptly rescinded an invitation to host the Eagles at the White House, citing the “smaller delegation” that was planning to attend and again stoking a national debate by insisting that players “proudly stand for the National Anthem, hand on heart.”

“The Philadelphia Eagles are unable to come to the White House with their full team to be celebrated tomorrow,” Trump said in a statement released late Monday. “They disagree with their President because he insists that they proudly stand for the National Anthem, hand on heart, in honor of the great men and women of our military and the people of our country. The Eagles wanted to send a smaller delegation, but the 1,000 fans planning to attend the event deserve better.

“These fans are still invited to the White House to be part of a different type of ceremony — one that will honor our great country, pay tribute to the heroes who fight to protect it, and loudly and proudly play the National Anthem. I will be there at 3:00 p.m. with the United States Marine Band and the United States Army Chorus to celebrate America.”

The Eagles were scheduled to be honored by Trump at 3 p.m. on the South Lawn. Fewer than 10 players planned to attend, a team source told the Inquirer and Daily News.

It would certainly be amusing if Trump ordered tax audits for all the Eagle players, ala Clinton. But on a more serious note, this is another demonstration that the USA is no longer a nation-state, it is a multinational, multiethnic, multilingual, multireligious empire of diverse peoples battling for power and influence over their rivals.

The crumbling of the American moral code continues:

The United States Supreme Court has ruled in favor of New Jersey in the state’s challenge to the federal law known as The Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act. The law barred states from legalizing gambling on sporting events with the notable exception of Nevada and less notable exceptions for sports lotteries in three other states.

The court’s ruling that the law is unconstitutional, which came by a 7-2 vote, sets the stage for states to start allowing gambling on sports. How that will be implemented from state to state remains to be seen, but the amount of money on the table will lead many of them to make risking a few bucks on your favorite team a fairly easy undertaking.

What’s next? Prostitution and sex slavery, presumably. The good news is that since gambling is essentially a tax on stupidity, the ongoing decline in average US intelligence should help maximize the revenues.

When designing a government system for the future, remember that it is the judicial branch and the concept of “interpreting the law” that proved to be the weak point.

You may recall that a few weeks ago I mentioned that I’d gotten a bit banged up and played a disappointingly bad game. Since then, I’ve been amping up my effort in practice on the theory “you play like you practice”, and it’s been having positive results. Two weeks ago, my side practiced a man down for the entire two hours – our captain’s basic theory of practice is to scrimmage until someone literally collapses, then play another 15 minutes or so – and still managed to come out on top. My shot was off, as I hit four posts or crossbars and failed to put anything in, but I made up for it on the defensive side.

In the league game, we crushed our former archrivals 10-3; we were up 7-0 before some of the defenders started getting careless and lazy. I had two assists, including one 30-meter pass that put the attacker beyond the defense just inside the box, one-on-one with the goalie. He ran on to it, hit it, and scored. I also had one decent chance from the left corner of the box, but hooked it wide.

The funny thing about the goal is that the guy who scored it hadn’t played with us this year, but had been serving as the ref at our home games. Ergo my complete thought process, as follows:

• open man long clear lane through THERE
• wait, is that M?
• isn’t he the ref?
• can’t be, we’re not at home
• KICK don’t fade don’t fade YES!

But practice this week was the best I’ve played in years. I scored six of our 13 goals, including one header, which practically never happens. I earned my third start in a row, which would have been more meaningful if we’d had more than 12 players on hand. We’ve lost four in the last three weeks to injury, which poses a problem because I simply cannot effectively cover a wing for 90 minutes at my age.

Fortunately, we got off to a fast start, which let me concentrate on controlling the defensive two-thirds of the left wing and leaving the front one-third to the attackers. I played for 20 minutes, took a 5-minute breather, then was switched to the right side, and started the attack that led to our second goal. I also made the dumbest possible clearance pass into the center instead of simply kicking the ball out of bounds when my first two passing options were blocked, but fortunately, our goalie bailed me out with a good save. It was the sort of mistake I would have benched my kiddy players for making, but our captain settled for a brief and well-deserved “WTF-FWT?” monologue in my direction at halftime and promptly put me back in on the right wing.

Note to players – don’t ever let in-game comments from other players who are not the captain influence your subsequent actions. My decision was stupid, but it only came up because I had just previously been warned by another midfielder about the danger of bringing the ball up myself out of the box instead of passing it. The thing is, I KNEW I could safely beat the opposing wing, no problem, which I had just done, and which I could have easily done again. But with that admonition freshly in my mind, I looked to pass it instead of simply blowing past the guy, and this time, both pass options were completely blocked. So, with the thought “must pass the ball” on my mind rather than “in deep, play safe”, I looked inside, saw the right color, and made the stupid and dangerous pass into the middle, where my teammate received the ball, and was promptly knocked off it by an opposing player. I should have simply done what I did the previous time, take the ball outside, beat the opposing wing, then look up before looking in.

We didn’t score again, but we kept control of the ball and the game despite being unable to substitute after one of our attackers was taken down hard early in the second half and banged up too much to run. We won 2-0 and moved up to second place, with a game against the first-place team next week. Despite the injuries, we’re 3-1 in our last four games and we should be getting our best defender back in a week or two.

This is an open thread to discuss Day One of the NFL Draft. And just to get the conversation started, if I was the GM of the Cleveland Browns, I’d take Barkley, then Mayfield, with Allen as my fallback unless Darnold was still available and Mayfield wasn’t.

I don’t think that is what they will do, however. I think they’ll take a quarterback at 1, then the Giants will take Barkley, as they should.

This season has been a difficult one for me so far. Four games (including two friendlies), two starts, no goals. I had a horrible game last week, which was of some concern to me because it’s the first time I felt as if I was playing like a fragile old man afraid to go in and win a contested ball. One thing I’ve noticed with age is that it’s harder to play in cold weather and that one tends to become more contact-avoidant for fear of injury. Then again, the last time we played our most recent opponent, one of our defenders snapped the leg of an attacker like a twig with a late tackle, so it could be argued that this is more late-onset wisdom than cowardice. It also doesn’t help that I’m now playing at 180 instead of 190, which helps with the speed and endurance, but puts you at a distinct disadvantage when going shoulder-to-shoulder with a 200-pound defender.

Anyhow, I had a distressingly bad game last week. Even when I am overmatched in terms of speed or fitness I can usually keep at least the defensive half of my wing under control, but the left defender and I were completely out of sync and allowed two crosses that led to goals, at least one of which should have never happened. We both stood there, waiting for the other to close on the guy with the ball, and gave him the opening he needed to cross it. In fairness, I probably shouldn’t have been playing at that point, as I’d already taken myself out of the game earlier after receiving a hard knee to the thigh that left me limping for three days afterward. But still, I had told the captain I was okay to go back in, so that was entirely on me.

The problem was that the bruise slowed me down just enough to inhibit me from trying to move the ball forward myself, and we had changed our stopper from an attack-minded player to a defensive-minded one, so when I received the ball on the wing, I looked to pass it in to the middle right away rather than pushing it up myself. This would normally have been all right, but with our new stopper, instead of advancing the ball he invariably passed it back to one of the other defenders. More than once, I ended up with the ball again, which meant our attacks were going precisely nowhere.

It was probably one of the worst games I’ve ever played, and my on-field plus-minus was uncharacteristically negative at net -1, but fortunately we were playing a weak team so we ended up winning 5-3 anyhow. The problem was that our next game was against the second-best team in the league, and one which we have always had to be on our game in order to beat. And, of course, at my age, there is always the looming possibility that one simply can’t play anymore.

At practice, I played hard for more than two hours despite the bruised thigh, finished fourth in the team penalty kick competition, and that served to get my mindset back to normal, more or less. However, on game night I knew we were in trouble when two of our three best players showed up but did not suit up due to injury, and was even more alarmed when the captain started me at attacker despite last week’s debacle. I like playing up front, but not when both our starting wings are more inclined to push forward and assist the attack than getting back to help out the defense. Sure enough, despite controlling the ball for most of the first 10 minutes, we went down 1-0 on their first serious attack coming from the wing. We produced little in the way of chances, except for a header on a corner that just missed and one cross that I put just inches too deep in front of our other striker. At halftime were down 2-0 on a beautiful free kick that struck the underside of the far corner and banked in. It wasn’t even one of their best players taking it either; these guys are really good. Not even Buffon at his best could have saved that one.

I was out for a while, and we went down another goal, but they were starting to wear down a bit, and I went back in on the left wing, which helped us start putting pressure on both wings. I burned the defender on the side once, but my pull-back pass into the box was too fast for our captain to put in the net, although he scored a beautiful goal on the following post-corner chaos. The ball came low and hard, bounced off my shins on the far side, and ricocheted off a defender. As they pushed forward on the clearance, our captain retrieved it, turned, and shot high just as the goalie was moving up, catching him completely off-guard. 3-1.

We kept attacking, but that was all we managed and that’s how it ended. It was a good game, all in all, and they deserved to win. We get along with them well despite last season’s unfortunate incident, and there were two or three amusing “here, it’s your ball – no, really, it’s your ball” situations after someone went down and both sides called for a halt in play. It was a festive evening, as Ender’s team was playing on our other field and won their game 5-2. It was fun to introduce him afterwards to one of the former pros who plays for the team that beat us, as Ender has a lot of respect for the retired pros and internationals, and they are always pleased to be recognized by the younger generation of players.

So, false alarm on the age front. The former pro and I were talking about the challenges our years pose, as we are of an age, and he figures we can both play until at least 55. My original goal was to make it to 50, but I am happy to revise that in view of his professional opinion.

I was watching these Saquon Barkley highlights, and they really reminded me of Adrian Peterson, except for the fact that Barkley also catches the ball very well.

The sports media is getting frustrated about the way in which NFL teams have learned not to hand them the hammer with which to hit them:

Let’s get it all out in the open. Regardless of how you feel about a player’s right to kneel during the national anthem, two men have peacefully risked their livelihood and dreams to prove a point they feel is vital. It’s time for the coaches and general managers who have enjoyed playing both sides of the issue to throw their cards on the table, too. Don’t leave an amateur psychologist like me to guess, because here are my notes:

• You might be scared that a billionaire owner will fire you if you press them too hard on signing Reid or Kaepernick and, like them you will be unemployed.

• You might feel like signing and supporting players unafraid of speaking their mind will lead to you losing command inside the facility, and you will no longer be able to walk around pretending you are George S Patton in Nike khakis.

• You might resist having your opinion out there because you don’t want good players who care about social justice issues but only speak about them in societally approved ways to not come to your team in free agency.

Don’t leave it to your favorite reporter to clean it up on television via “sources,” either.

We might not like the answers, but what about this flimsy, hollow middle ground feels good to anyone right now?

No, let’s not. If the sports media wanted honest answers, it should have it should never have started prosecuting and calling for the disemployment of those whose answers it didn’t like. They destroyed the very information flows upon which they relied; if you bite the hand that feeds you, you probably shouldn’t expect dinner tomorrow.

The minute any team official admitted that they will not sign Kaepernick or Reid due to the fact that they are known troublemakers who put politics ahead of their jobs, the entire sports media will tee off on them and sic the social media mob on them. Which is why no team official who cares about keeping his job will ever admit that.

The NFL’s new catch rule guidelines look promising:

The NFL’s competition committee has recommended changing the language of the league’s catch rule in an effort to avoid future controversial calls.

The proposal seeks to define a catch as:

1. Control of the ball.

2. Two feet down or another body part.

3. A football move such as:

• A third step;

• Reaching/extending for the line-to-gain

• Or the ability to perform such an act.

The recommendation, revealed Wednesday by NFL senior vice president of officiating Al Riveron, will be voted on by owners next week, perhaps as early as Tuesday. The new rule will get rid of provisions pertaining to the slight movement of the football once it hits the receiver’s hands and the going-to-the-ground requirement.

It’s interesting to see that despite the SJW-convergence of the league office and all the promises to fund this or that SJW-inspired initiative, no team has signed either of the two architects of the anthem protests. It appears the NFL’s general managers are less committed to the self-destruction of their sport than the league or its owners.

A number of people have asked me for my reaction to the Kirk Cousins signing by the Vikings. My three primary thoughts:

• Good, this is exactly what the Vikings obviously had in mind once it became clear that they weren’t going to ride with Case Keenum in 2018. Neither Bradford nor Bridgewater were ever a possible option, despite whatever nice things about them were being said by various Vikings figures.
• The price was actually a little better than I’d expected. I was thinking they’d have to cough up the $30M/year to nail down the deal. The Vikes have loads of cap room, and the QB is where you want to spend it if you can get a good one.
• Spielman is going all in after the Super Bowl this year. Teams have a small window of opportunity, usually from one to three years where they can be considered legitimate Super Bowl contenders. The Vikings had an unexpected shot in 2017, but they were outcoached in the NFC championship game and Nick Foles seriously outplayed Case Keenum. Considering how the Eagles and Rams have both improved their rosters, the Vikes clearly could not stand pat.

I have zero concerns – zero – about Cousins’s losing record. Teams lose games, not quarterbacks. Cousins is 29, a top-six quarterback over the last three seasons, and he’s now got a much better team around him. Nothing against Keenum, who is very likable and played about as well as he possibly could have in 2017, but is not capable of winning a game on his own the way an elite quarterback occasionally must.

If Cousins just runs the scheme, with our skill players and behind our solid O-line, he’ll have over 4,000 yards and 30 touchdowns. Put that opposite our defense and we’re serious contenders.
– Vikings staffer

I wanted the Vikings to lock Keenum up inexpensively as an top-notch long-term #2 after he won his fourth game of the season. But once that didn’t happen, I did NOT want them to sign him to the kind of big money he got in Denver as their long-term starter, simply because he is not good enough to be an elite starter. If you watch a quarterback for an entire season, you get a pretty good grasp of what their limits are, and Keenum is a tough, smart, low-turnover game manager. If your defense controls the other offense, he will not lose the game for you. And that’s a great thing.

The problem, of course, is that if the defense can’t control the other offense, he will not win the shootout. We saw that against Carolina before we saw it against Philadelphia. We very nearly saw it in the second half against New Orleans. And that’s the $8 million difference between Cousins and Keenum.

Sometimes the obvious move is the smart move. So, the Vikings did the right thing.

The US Winter Olympic team shows what unity in diversity looks like.

Over the past six years the U.S. Olympic Committee has made concerted efforts to promote diversity among its team members. In 2012, a committee was formed to improve diversity and Jason Thompson was hired as director of diversity and inclusion.

In an angry tweet, Davis, who has won two golds and two silvers in previous Olympics took a shot at Hamlin, the holder of a single bronze medal.

‘I am an American and when I won the 1000m in 2010 I became the first American to 2-peat in that event,’ Davis wrote on Twitter. He then slammed TeamUSA for ‘dishonorably’ tossing a coin to decide who would have the honor of carrying the flag. ‘No problem. I can wait until 2022,’ he added before using the hashtag #BlackHistoryMonth2018.

Why don’t African-Americans simply compete as their own team? After all, we are frequently informed by them that they are a separate nation and a proud and vibrant people with their own history and culture. Shouldn’t they be able to have their own Olympic team too? Isn’t it racist to deny them that right? Why should they be forced to march behind the flag of bigoted white people, like slaves, instead of behind a proud Black Power flag?

On a tangential note, there are few things more reliably predictive of things about to head south than a commitment to diversity.