Tag: sports

Discuss amongst yourselves….

Breaking news from Minnesota: Black Lives Matter activists have chained themselves together to block the light rail lines going to the stadium. This should turn out well for them.

4th Quarter Update: Very smart coaching by Pederson. He’s already burned four minutes on what he clearly intends to be the final drive. He’s going to try to get it down to less than 20 seconds with no New England timeouts before he lets them score. The best way to beat Brady is to keep him off the field.

The fact that NFL security is in the hands of the woman who botched the Seth Rich murder investigation is not exactly confidence inspiring. On the other hand, perhaps we can hope that Roger Goodell knows something about Hillary Clinton.

Let’s face it, if the sort of people who arrange these false flags ever did decide to put on a show at the Super Bowl, you know they would prefer to do it in Minneapolis or some other flyover city that they couldn’t tell you is in Indiana, Minnesota, or Nebraska. And given how much trouble the Deep State appears to be in, it would be astonishing if they didn’t wave a few false flags in the next month or two in order to “prove” to the American people how the corrupt federal agencies are keeping them safe and how important it is that faith in these massive, unaccountable secret organizations not be undermined.

Seriously, though, what is with all of these Clintonistas in positions of corporate power at entertainment industry companies like Warner Bros, DC Comics, and the NFL?

I’ve been very impressed by Bill Belichick over the years. He is one of the greatest NFL coaches of all time, if not the greatest. But one thing has always confused me about him. He is both a superlative strategist AND a superlative tactician. This is not normal. In fact, this should not even be possible, due to the way that two entirely different types of thought processes are involved.

Now, an intelligent man can certainly perform both functions at an above-average level, but to be better than nearly everyone else at both is so unlikely that it borders on the impossible. However, it turns out that Belichick is not the rare exception after all, that he is merely a great tactician. How, then, has he become known as such a great football strategist as well?

The answer is that there are two Bill Belichicks. Or rather, there is a brilliant strategist who is entirely content to remain in Belichick’s shadow. The two best friends have been a team since their year together at Phillips Exeter Academy, but it is Ernie Adams, not Bill Belichick, who is the literal genius. The interesting thing is that neither the sports media nor most of the Patriots players truly understand the nature of their incredibly effective partnership.

Ernie Adams is a man of mystery with the Patriots. He’s been with Bill Belichick for virtually his entire coaching career, but no one knows exactly what he does, even though he is at every practice and every game. We asked a number of Patriots players and coaches at media availability over the course of Super Bowl week what they know about him.

“I think he’s quality control,” rookie defensive tackle Adam Butler said. “He’s like checks and balances. I feel like he just checks and makes sure everyone is on the same page and is making sure we do things the way we want to.”

“Not much,” offensive lineman Ted Karras said. “He’s a guy that is around every day and does his job.”

Added safety Duron Harmon: “Ernie does a lot for this team. He helps obviously the coaching staff prepare for the games. I can’t give you too much information, but that is just what I would say. He does a good job helping the coaching staff make sure we’re prepared for our weekly matchups. Probably one of the smartest people in the building. He knows probably every rule in the rule book. That shows you how smart he is, how in-tune he is to the game and I think he’s a big part of what we accomplish here.”

Unlike the other two, Harmon knows what’s up. Belichick is the leader and the tactical genius, and Adams is the strategic brain. He is a statistics quant who “helps the coaching staff” by writing the weekly game plans which Belichick then implements. In game development terms, Adams is the designer and Belichick is the producer. That’s how the Patriots are able to completely change their style from week to week. That’s also why it has almost been irrelevant who has been serving as offensive or defensive coordinator over the years, and why very successful OCs and DCs have struggled after leaving New England.

I remember I asked him about a play and he recalled a play from like the early 2000s and the game and the score. I was like, ‘Oh my Gosh.’

Bingo. Thanks to Adams, New England has led the way in the statistical analysis of pro football for nearly 20 years, which is why they always seem to be able to counter even the most effective opposition game plans and make adjustments to defeat it. The Patriots have been racing with intellectual turbo technology while all the other teams are normally aspirated. It’s a bit amusing to note that the sports media made a big deal about how Cleveland’s now-jettisoned management team was going with a quant-heavy approach two years ago when New England has been using it all along.

How do I know this? Well, you see, I have my own connections at Phillips Exeter Academy, both friends and family. And that’s why we’re not likely to see Brady leave New England before he retires, no matter what scenarios the media happens to concoct. Brady, more than anyone, understands how important Adams is to his historic success.

This also may explain why Belichick never talks much about football strategy. First, it’s really not his thing. And second, doing so would almost certainly reveal his unexpected limitations on the subject.

West Ham United is under fire because the director of transfers is both astute enough to realize that fielding an all-African soccer team is sub-optimal player management and naive enough to have explained his reasoning.

Henry sent an email on January 27 — in response to an inquiry about a footballer of Cameroonian descent — to another senior West Ham official and an agent. In the email, Henry wrote: ‘We don’t want any more Africans and he’s not good enough. I sent Thomas to watch him and the other lad last week and he said no. If Palace take them good luck.’ Sportsmail knows the identity of both recipients but a stipulation before being sent the email was that they should remain anonymous.

Henry was asked if there is a club policy regarding African players. Initially he replied ‘no’, only to be informed that we understand he has told more than one agent in the last month that the club does not want any more African players.

Henry then confirmed it was true and suggested it was a policy supported by club management. ‘Yeah,’ Henry replied. ‘Because we had three and we felt we didn’t particularly want any more African players.’

Asked why, Henry replied: ‘Erm, no reason. It’s nothing racist at all. It’s just sometimes they can have a bad attitude.

‘We had problems with Sakho, with Diafra Sakho. We find that when they are not in the team they cause mayhem. It’s nothing against the African race at all.

‘I mean, look, there are top African players. There’s not a problem with them. It’s just sometimes they cause a lot of problems when they are not playing, as we had with Diafra. He’s left, so great. It’s nothing personal at all.’

Asked if he thought his view was discriminatory towards African players, Henry asked: ‘In what way?’

Asked then if he thought his comments amounted to a slight on African players, he replied: ‘No. I don’t know what you are trying to get at here. All I said was, look, we have a great lad in Kouyate, he’s brilliant, a great player for us, he’s a good lad.

‘But the likes of Sakho have caused mayhem. When he’s not playing … he always wants a new deal. That’s all it was. It was nothing discriminatory at all.

‘I could say we get offered Russian players. I just find with Russian players that they don’t settle in England. It’s like Italians. How many Italians come and settle in England? As a club we are not discriminatory at all.

‘If you’ve got too many, they all sit together and it becomes a situation where you can have problems. But then you can have problems with English players. I don’t know what you are driving at.’

The ironic thing is that West Ham already has six Africans on the first team that the director brought in. So, the man is clearly not racist or unwilling to employ Africans. What is he supposed to do, bring in more players they think aren’t good enough to start and are likely to cause trouble because they have too much time on their hands?

This is one reason I never explain myself or my reasoning to anyone anymore, except when I feel that doing so is going to serve my objectives in some way. I certainly don’t explain myself in response to questions, much less demands that I do so. It is almost as important to never explain your reasons for your actions as it is to never apologize. Just as an apology is taken by some as an admission of guilt, an explanation is taken as an invitation to a debate.

Consider the difference when you’re asked if you are going to go somewhere you don’t want to go.

1. Are you going to the meeting? No. Why not? I am not going. Um, well, okay….
2. Are you going to the meeting? No. Why not? Well, I’m busy. Come on, I can see that you’re not that busy. Well, also, I don’t like so-and-so. I don’t think he’s going to be there. And even if he is, you can just ignore him. But… but I don’t want to go! Well, you have no reason not to go. Disqualified. See you there at three!

No matter what reasoning you provide, someone can always invent an excuse to not accept that reasoning and then insist that you have to do what you don’t want to do or that you truly are what you deny being. So don’t give them the opening. All Henry should have said was “no, we don’t want him.” That would have saved him his job and his club a considerable amount of trouble.

And when people ask “why”, just tell them “what part of ‘no’ did you find hard to understand? I am not in the habit of explaining myself.” While there are those to whom we owe explanations, the vast majority of people who ask for explanations do not merit them. I get emails every day asking me to explain my position on X, Y, or Z. In most cases, I simply ignore them.

The only correct response to “I don’t understand why you believe XYZ” is “I don’t care what you understand.” The vast majority of people demanding explanations are not seeking to learn, they are seeking to argue.

Ran into a friendly acquaintance of mine at the gym. We’ve played against each other for years; he is quite a bit younger but was permitted to play in our veteran’s league because he was a professional referee or something. I was never quite clear on what the deal was, to be honest.

Anyhow, he had told me he was up for promotion to Serie A in the coming season, so when I saw him, I didn’t even say anything, I just raised an eyebrow. He smiled and pumped his fist; the league not only came through with the promotion to the top level but had him rated highest in the second league through the first half of the season. He’s smart, athletic, and multilingual, so I have absolutely no doubt he’ll be doing Champion’s League and the Euros before too long.

Competitive bastard too. I marked him for an entire game in an indoor tournament and had to throw everything plus the kitchen sink at him to keep him from scoring… and just barely managed to do that.

The Greatest of All Time, Roger Federer, has won his 20th Grand Slam, beating Marin Cilic at the Australian Open 6-2, 6-7, 6-3, 3-6, 6-1.

To be honest, I thought he was out of gas when Cilic broke him twice in the fourth set. He came back hard and went up 30-love in the first game of the fifth set, then seemed to have exhausted himself in doing so when Cilic came right back to make it 30-30. But Cilic seemed to crack under the pressure, as he put a relatively easy shot wide to give Federer the advantage, and from that point on, Federer just poured on the gas.

Once he broke Cilic and held serve again to go up 3-0, it was over. What a legend.

The BBC’s take on this cracked me up:

Federer, 36, becomes only the fourth player after Margaret Court, Serena Williams and Steffi Graf to win 20 or more major singles titles.

Yes, that’s exactly why he’s so well-regarded. Because he’s the fourth-most-accomplished tennis player in tennis history….

Sacksonville vs Tom Brady’s Hand. Nick Foles, Backup QB vs The Team of Destiny. Discuss amongst yourselves. Also, SKOL!

Haven’t seen a defense hit like the Jags since the 2000 Ravens. Of course, the rules have changed since then, which could be a problem.

UPDATE: 24-7 at the half. About all I can say is that if you can’t stop the Foles-to-Ertz connection, you have no business trying to stop Brady-to-Gronkowski. So far, this game has all the flavor of a Denny Green playoff classic, where the coaching staff simply gets outprepared and outcoached by the opponent’s coaches. It would be nice to see some serious adjustments demonstrating otherwise.

UPDATE: 38-7. Game isn’t over, but it’s over. Outplayed, outcoached, there is simply nothing to complain about. I have the feeling that the defensive backs were told not to worry about double moves because Foles wouldn’t be throwing deep. Coach Zim is going to have to up his game if he is going to succeed at this point in the season; my earlier impression of a Denny Green playoff classic would appear to have been correct. I am very impressed with the Philadelphia coaches, as they clearly had their team very well-prepared for this game.

About the only silver linings to be found are that a) it will be cheaper to keep Case next year and b) the NFL ratings for the conference championships are promise to be abysmal.