Tag: sports

How to Fail

Johnny Manziel was given a team iPad where coaches could secretly track the amount of time he spent watching film. But the problem was that Manziel didn’t watch any film. Literally not a minute.

It would probably surprise most of you how few people are capable of performing even the most basic and rudimentary aspects of their jobs. And it’s not as if the solution is necessarily more pay.

Johnny Manziel signed a 4 year, $8,248,596 contract with the Cleveland Browns, including a $4,318,980 signing bonus, $7,998,596 guaranteed, and an average annual salary of $2,062,149.

Note that not even two million dollars per year was enough to get the guy to watch five minutes of game film.

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He Even Lost His Name

Jack Nicklaus’s bid to reclaim his own name from (((a former business partner))) was rejected by (((a Florida judge))).

In a recent federal court decision, Jack Nicklaus suffered a setback in his attempt to regain control of his name and likeness owned by former partner Howard Milstein. On Aug. 1, Judge Robin Rosenberg of the U.S. District Court of the Southern District of Florida ruled that due to a prior decision against Nicklaus by the New York County Supreme Court on the exact same property in question in Nicklaus Companies, LLC v. GBI Investors Inc., he lacked the ability to grant Nicklaus any control of the property in question.

I neither know nor care much about the travails of a rich golfer who lost control of his own name in pursuit of even more riches. But it’s a reminder that if something looks too good to be true, it probably is, and that if there is wording in the contract permitting the other party to a) take full control or b) not pay, the other party will usually find a way to make that happen.

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Adios, Bitches

The end of Megan Rapinhoe’s international soccer career was truly glorious. The most annoying athlete in all of sports finished by blowing a golden opportunity to finish off Sweden on penalties in the World Cup by putting the ball five feet over the crossbar; an inept penalty attempt worse than the average high school girl’s. It’s up there with Roberto Baggio’s 1994 catastrophe, only worse, since a) Italy reached the finals, b) Baggio was just trying to keep Italy even, not win the game, and c) four years later, Baggio took and made a penalty in the 1998 World Cup to become the first Italian player to score in three World Cups.

And just to make the moment even sweeter, the outspoken anti-American lesbian-infested SJW squad, which prior to the tournament had been favored to win it, ended up losing the round-of-16 knockout match 5-4 on penalties after future star Sophia Smith put her penalty wide and over, followed by some other player whose name I don’t know hitting the right post.

I used to support the US Women’s National Team back when Mia Hamm and Brandi Chastain were playing for it, and while I like Alex Morgan and Sophia Smith as players, the current team as a whole is an obnoxious, overpoliticized, and overrated embarrassment to the country. It’s good to see them lose in such an ignominious manner, especially to a team mostly comprised of pretty European blondes.

As for the winning penalty, it was a close call, but the VAR was conclusive. The US goalie did a nice job of deflecting the ball and quickly recovering to knock the ball out of the goal, and I initially thought she’d saved it, but a different angle and the VAR review showed the ball did fully cross the line.

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A Failure of Leadership

The Pacific-12 conference, first founded in 1915 as the Pacific Coast Conference, is pining for the fjords.

“The Big 12 Board of Directors has voted unanimously to admit Arizona State University, University of Arizona and University of Utah to the Big 12 Conference,” commissioner Brett Yormark said in a statement.

The Pac-12 Conference really has no one to blame but themselves.

Former commissioner Larry Scott once had an opportunity to add the Texas Longhorns and Oklahoma Sooners, but declined. He also had an opportunity to partner with ESPN with the failing Pac-12 Network, but declined.

The windows of opportunity don’t ever remain open for long. Good leadership understands that. Mediocre leadership never does anything because it fears making a mistake, which ironically, often turns out to be a mistake.

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ESPN Goes Full Feminist

On Thursday night, ESPN will present an all-female version of SportsCenter focusing only on women’s sports. Indeed, the virtue signaling to the left will go all in on the women-only concept because not only will the on-air staff be all female broadcasters, but all the producers, camera people, and other off-air staff will also be an all-female affair, according to Variety. That isn’t all. During commercial breaks and between reports, ESPN will air ads and segments to flog the financial-services firm Ally, which has entered into a sponsorship deal with ESPN owner Disney which calls for 90 percent of its spending on the network to benefit women’s sports reporting.

However, the more exposure to women’s sports one actually has, the less inclined one is to support them, let alone permit one’s daughters to participate in them. It amounts to signing them up for knee surgeries and sexual inversion. It would be interesting to see which path produces statistically worse results on average, women’s team sports or the stripper’s pole.

Regardless, a good father will keep his daughters away from both.

UPDATE: We are reliably informed that ESPN will be following Elon Musk’s lead and rebranding as the Ladies Entertainment and Sports Programming Network.

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Whatever Could it Be?

The 18-year-old son of NBA star LeBron James suffered a heart attack during basketball practice at USC.

Bronny James, incoming USC freshman basketball player and son of Lakers star LeBron James, suffered a cardiac arrest during a practice with the team Monday. According to a statement from the James family via The Athletic’s Shams Charania, Bronny collapsed on the court and was taken to the hospital. He is in stable condition and no longer in the ICU after being tended to by the team’s medical staff.

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Everything is Fake

And it has been for a long time. Miles Mathis explains why he’s pretty sure that Wimbledon and other tennis championships have been scripted from time to time over the last 50 years, including Arthur Ashe’s 1973 title and Andy Murray’s 2013 defeat of Djokovic at the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club.

I believe Connors was paid to throw Wimbledon to Arthur Ashe. See here for how staged it all was. Or you can watch highlights here, where I think it is blindingly obvious. Remember, Ashe was nine years older and had only been playing 3-set matches since 1973. So it is convenient he beat Connors 6-1, 6-1 in the first two sets at Wimbledon, in ludicrously short points. Watching that film will show you Connors didn’t disguise it very well. He is grinning like a naughty child the whole time. At several points, you can see that Connors is throwing it so clumsily, Ashe gets mad and hits the ball out on purpose himself. It is the sloppiest professional match of all time, and Connors has an ugly unforced error on almost every point. Looking back, it is difficult to believe the crowd didn’t riot or boo them off the court. Even the announcers are stunned into silence. How do you comment on someone throwing a Wimbledon final in such outlandish fashion? I have to believe someone pulled Connors to the side after the first two sets and ordered him to quit hitting every ball out.

They said, “C’mon, man, we are paying you to make this look real. This is just pathetic!” The misdirection on this match is awful to this day, with many people hired to misdirect, saying Connors choked, Ashe played him for a fool, etc. Some criminally miscount unforced errors. One guy claims Connors had 13 unforced errors in the match. You have to laugh. He had more unforced errors than that in the first three games. You can see more unforced errors than that in the brief highlights reel I linked to above at Youtube. As you study that highlights reel, I encourage you to also study the crowd. It just proves once again that people are zombies. They sit there quietly clapping on cue as this transparent crime against reality unfolds in front of them.

It’s not hard to imagine Jimmy Connors deciding to make it obvious for everyone, given his puckish personality. And I don’t think it’s an accident that these “stunning historic upsets” so often feature something like “the first Black champion” or “the first British champion in a billion years”. Remember, sports are first and foremost an entertainment business, so making money and producing memorable storylines are their priorities, not “providing all competitors with a level playing field”.

The fact that the International Olympic Committee is not inviting Russia and Belarus to participate in the Paris Olympics only underlines the fact that sports are subservient to the Narrative.

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Taking the N Out

N stands for national. As in National Football League and National Basketball Association. Of course, NFL also stands for Not For Long.

In the wake of the effort by the Saudi Arabian Public Investment Fund to basically take over the PGA Tour, the Qatar Investment Authority could soon have an ownership stake in the NBA’s Washington Wizards.

Via Mike Vorkunov of TheAthletic.com, the group will buy a piece of Monumental Sports and Entertainment, which owns among other things the Wizards.

The reportedly “small stake” values the company at $4 billion. It also requires approval of the NBA’s Board of Governors. Although foreign ownership of an NBA team is unprecedented, the league has opened the door to it.

“In November 2022, the NBA Board of Governors decided to permit passive, non-controlling, minority investments in NBA teams by institutional investors, including university endowments, foreign and domestic pension funds, and sovereign wealth funds, subject to a set of policy guidelines adopted at that time,” an NBA spokesman told TheAthletic.com. “All such investments require league review, NBA Board approval and compliance with the policy.”

The NFL currently allows individual ownership only, but there has been talk of expanding the universe of potential ownership interests to counter the struggles associated with finding individuals having enough cash to buy at least 30 percent of a team from the get-go.

There can be no doubt about it any longer. The money owners, as opposed to the sports owners, are ruining every sport they have invaded. Jerry Jones has proved to be a cancer.

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Not Even Hot Girls

Should talk to the media. The Cavinder Twins discover that the media lies before it even puts its lies into print.

“The interview for this article was obtained by a false pretense that it would be written about our life after NIL, why we didn’t take our fifth year, our passions, and business opportunities,” she wrote. “We were specifically told via the publication the context would be to ‘see the Cavinders as a very important story not only in the context of women’s college sports but the new media culture and business. They’re building a hugely successful brand, and they’re at the forefront of a new space, and we think that’s exciting and newsworthy.’

“We discussed with our team and met the media opportunity openly after reviewing the intentions. Haley and I welcomed this man into our home. He followed us throughout the entire weekend asking us questions and understanding what goes on in our daily lives. After the weekend, we had a sit down interview in our kitchen for over an hour and was only asked one question regarding our ‘physical looks.’

“The subsequent article not only demeaned our athletic and business accomplishments, it furthered the narrative that hard working, creative and driven women can only do well if they are deemed attractive. The piece disregards our work ethic and dedication toward NIL and business endeavors. He fails to acknowledge the young girls/woman [sic] that follow us and that we work so hard to inspire. Instead, he degrades us down to ‘hot girl(s).’ We agreed to do the interview and wanted to support a woman ran news outlet. We are both disappointed and disgusted by this journalism practice and blatant sexist trope. We only wish to inspire young woman [sic] to chase their dreams, work hard, think big. Now we must also defend them against men that wish to sum their potential to physical appearance.”

Hanna Cavinder Calls Out Publication for Interview ‘Obtained by a False Pretense’, 14 June 2023

It’s hard to blame the stars of social media for not understanding the fundamentally dishonest nature of the mainstream media. But I have no doubt they’ll learn very quickly that when one has an audience of thousands, or even millions, one has no use whatsoever for the dubious benefits dangled by the narrative police.

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The PGA Surrenders

The PGA Tour waved the white flag and merged with LIV Golf:

In the bitter civil war between the tradition-steeped PGA Tour and its filthy-rich, Saudi-backed rival LIV over the future of golf, the money has come out on top. Leaders of the two organizations delivered a bombshell announcement on Tuesday that they will merge through a deal that will drag global golf into a ‘new era’ – whether the players, fans and sponsors like it or not.

The news, which blindsided players and executives on both circuits, follows years of bitter disputes that have pitted the sport’s leading figures against each other over money, power and ethics in the gentleman’s game.

While LIV poached some of golf’s biggest stars – including Brooks Koepka, Dustin Johnson and Phil Mickelson – with deals totaling hundreds of millions of dollars, those loyal to the PGA, including Rory McIlroy and Tiger Woods, have had the rug pulled out from under them after snubbing eyewatering paydays on moral grounds.

Ultimately, the PGA was unable to keep up with the relentless investment of oil money in a circuit bankrolled by Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund, the investment arm of a nation with a dismal human rights record. Something had to give.

I strongly suspect that LIV Football (aka Soccer) is next. In the aftermath of the failure of the European Super League and the massive offers being made to iconic players like Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi, it appears obvious to me that the strategy will be to first buy the players, then use that leverage to force advantageous mergers with the existing powers.

Whenever money or power become central, the richest and the most ruthless are guaranteed control. Keep that in mind when you set your own priorities.

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