Tag: sports

Fire the anthem-protesters

Donald Trump comes out hard against the NFL players protesting during the national anthem:

“We’re proud of our country. We respect our flag,” Trump said to loud applause at a campaign event in Alabama. “Wouldn’t you love to see one of these NFL owners, when somebody disrespects our flag, to say, ‘Get that son of a bitch off the field right now’? He’s fired! He’s fired!”

Trump said an NFL owner who releases a player would instantly gain broad support across America.

“Some owner’s gonna do that. He’s gonna say, ‘That guy that disrespects our flag? He’s fired. And that owner . . . they’ll be the most popular person in this country. Because that’s total disrespect of our heritage. That’s total disrespect of everything we stand for,” Trump said.

Trump added that he believes fans should walk out if players don’t stand for the anthem.

“If you see it, even if it’s one player,” Trump said, “Leave the stadium.”

It’s a perfectly reasonable stance. We all know that the NFL wouldn’t hesitate to act if players started throwing Nazi salutes; they already come down hard on the expression of any opinion that is negative about homosexuality.

The Rubicon has been decisively crossed, so it’s time to start cracking down on “speech” Americans don’t like.

Always play by the rules that are actually in place, not by the rules that you wish were in place. I won’t say that I’ve entirely given up on the NFL, but I did not buy Game Pass this year and I have yet to watch a single game. I don’t think I will start this weekend either.

NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell’s response:

The NFL and our players are at our best when we help create a sense of unity in our country and our culture,” Goodell said. “There is no better example than the amazing response from our clubs and players to the terrible natural disasters we’ve experienced over the last month. Divisive comments like these demonstrate an unfortunate lack of respect for the NFL, our great game and all of our players, and a failure to understand the overwhelming force for good our clubs and players represent in our communities.”

I hope one of the NFL players calls out Goodell on this by kneeling while holding up a middle finger or a Nazi salute. It would be amusing to see how fast Red Roger would do an immediate 180.

Demographics is destiny

Adam Carolla is right. LA is now Mexico.

Attendance:

Los Angeles Chargers: 21,054
Los Angeles Galaxy: 25,667

It’s all about the demographics. Even so, an MLS team outdrawing an NFL team at home? The NFL has no idea how much trouble lies ahead thanks to the diversity it has supported over the years. It’s not an accident that every major league sport was invented by white Americans… or white Canadians. Other peoples simply aren’t as interested in them.

NFL Week One

This is the weekly NFL open thread. A reminder: those who attempt to take this opportunity to posture about their television-watching habits and answer a question that no one has asked will be spammed.

Black vs Blue and Green

More unexpected consequences of the NFL anthem protests:

There is new fallout from the fierce debate over Cleveland Browns players kneeling during the national anthem. Cleveland safety forces have backed out of a plan to hold a large flag on the field for the opening game.

A dozen Browns players created a firestorm during a recent preseason game by not standing during the anthem. They created the largest demonstration in the NFL during the anthem since former San Francisco quarterback Colin Kaepernick started his protest more than a year ago.

Some police officers and paramedics are doing something about it. The Cleveland Police Patrolmen’s Association and ILA Local 1975, representing the city’s dispatchers, EMTs and paramedics, said the Browns came to them weeks ago, and the team wanted city safety forces to hold the flag on the field for the opening game.

EMS union president Daniel Nemeth said it sounded great until a group of Browns players took a knee during the anthem.

“This hit home with me. I am a veteran, an 8-year veteran with the U.S. Marine Corps. So, to disrespect the flag by taking a knee is not something I was going to be a part of,” Nemeth said.

We tracked down police union president Steve Loomis out of state at a police convention.

“I’m here at a national police convention, and soon as they hear that I’m from Cleveland, the first question is ‘What about those stinking Browns?’” Loomis said. “So if the ownership of the Browns and the league are going to allow that type of stuff to happen, and then come to us and say,  ‘We want you to help us with the flag,’ that’s hypocritical. We’re not gonna participate.”

At this rate, the sports media should stop worrying about NFL owners ever hiring Colin Kaepernick -which they will never do anyhow – and start worrying about them having him disappeared.

Why I don’t go to conventions

This pretty much covers it, in a nutshell.

 

Romance and the Power of the Female Gaze panel with Donna Maree Hanson, Carrie Vaughn, Nick Hubble and Cassandra Rose Clarke. #Worldcon75

Ye cats. I don’t care how big and influential Castalia House becomes in the future. You will never, ever, see me at one of those things. My one experience 20 years ago at MiniCon was considerably more than enough for me.
Besides, I have far more important things to do. Tonight, two teams from my soccer club are playing a friendly; the veterans are playing the men’s second team. I am the starting left wing for the former, while Ender is a starter for the latter. The kid is brimming with confidence, claiming his team just has to keep it close until the second half, when they’re counting on us running out of gas. It’s not a bad strategy, since we probably have an average of 16 years per player on them. Our oldest player is a few months older than me, and he’s 22 years older than their oldest player.
I realized how much is on the line when I ran into the star of the first team yesterday. He asked if I was playing, and when I said that I was, said that he’d see me there. I was a little surprised (and concerned, since he is exceptional), but he explained that most of the first team guys are coming to watch. Which means the losers will not hear the end of it any time soon.

They have to go back

They are right. They’re not part of our culture. So, why are they permitted here at all?

The Saudi Arabian soccer team refused to line up for a minute’s silence for the London terror victims on Thursday night because it is not in keeping with their culture. A spokesman for Football Federation Australia explained they were told a minute of silence was ‘not in keeping with Saudi culture’ ahead of the match.

Fans were left outraged at the display ahead of the World Cup qualifier against Australia in Adelaide.

Pictures show the Australian team lined up at the halfway mark, with the Saudi players ignoring the gesture as they get in formation to start the game. Saudi players on the bench refused to stand for the minute’s silence.

I want to see FIFA crack down as hard on the Saudi football association as they would on a nation that failed to toe the line on their idiotic diversity-celebrating.

Simply gorgeous

The amount of control and skill exhibited there, not only by the goal scorer, but the three previous players who touched the ball, is truly remarkable. It still wasn’t enough to beat Real Madrid, but it does justify the description of the sport as “the beautiful game”.

My last season started pretty well. I practiced indoor over the winter with Ender’s loan team, and although I did pick up a minor ankle sprain when getting them almost literally broken by the shifty center-mid, I did have one shining moment of Messi-like glory when I managed to dribble past three opposing players before scoring. It was enough to provoke a respectful “whoah” from the young guys; I didn’t bother to tell them it was one of the first times in 30 years that I’ve managed to beat three players in succession without relying on speed.

Of course, the kids show no proper respect for their elders these days. After I was floored by virtue of blocking an attempted cross with my face, instead of rushing to my aid, my obviously concerned son shouted “you break it, you bought it” at the guilty party.

I started most of the games this season, but almost all of them on the wing rather than in attack. We didn’t have a particularly good season, as we finished last in a group that we probably could have won if we hadn’t given away three games to injury, one of which was mine. A number of the younger guys have replaced the old guard, and but we still don’t have a proper replacement for our oft-injured center-mid, and without him we just don’t generate very many good opportunities for the attackers.

But we have a new captain next year, and he’s a bit more of a tactician than his predecessor, so it will be interesting to see what he does and how he shuffles the players around. I’ve played up front with him before, so I’ll be curious to see if he puts me back on the attack or relegates me to the bench in favor of one of the younger guys on the wing. Either way, it’s fine. Given my age, I prefer to play 40 to 60 minutes per game rather than the whole 90 minutes.

Ender’s season was difficult, as he spent most of it coming off the bench and playing on the field instead of in goal for a team that lost all of its games except the last two. But his season ended very well indeed, as he played the final game in goal, held the opponents to two goals, stopped two one-on-zeros (picking up a yellow in the process) and came up with a last-minute kick-save to preserve a 3-2 upset. He’s also very happy to be returning to our club next season; our second team needs a backup goalie since the first-team goalie is moving up to join the vets, so they asked for his return from the loan team.

I’m always sad to see another season end, but these days I’m also relieved to reach one without any serious injuries. This summer, my goal is to cut another 7 pounds, stretch every day, and do speed drills once a week. I’ll need to do all that just to keep up now that we have guys who are 17 years younger joining the team this fall.

RIP Frank Deford

The last great American sportswriter is gone. We are fortunate that his words live on. My goodness, how the man could write.

THE boxer and the blonde are together, downstairs in the club cellar. At some point, club cellars went out, and they became family rooms instead. This is, however, very definitely a club cellar. Why, the grandchildren of the boxer and the blonde could sleep soundly upstairs, clear through the big Christmas party they gave, when everybody came and stayed late and loud down here. The boxer and the blonde are sitting next to each other, laughing about the old times, about when they fell hopelessly in love almost half a century ago in New Jersey, at the beach. Down the Jersey shore is the way everyone in Pennsylvania says it. This club cellar is in Pittsburgh.

The boxer is going on 67, except in The Ring record book, where he is going on 68. But he has all his marbles; and he has his looks (except for the fighter’s mashed nose); and he has the blonde; and they have the same house, the one with the club cellar, that they bought in the summer of 1941. A great deal of this is about that bright ripe summer, the last one before the forlorn simplicity of a Depression was buried in the thick-braided rubble of blood and Spam. What a fight the boxer had that June! It might have been the best in the history of the ring. Certainly, it was the most dramatic, alltime, any way you look at it. The boxer lost, though. Probably he would have won, except for the blonde—whom he loved so much, and wanted so much to make proud of him. And later, it was the blonde’s old man, the boxer’s father-in-law (if you can believe this), who cost him a rematch for the heavyweight championship of the world. Those were some kind of times.

The boxer and the blonde laugh again, together, remembering how they fell in love. “Actually, you sort of forced me into it,” she says.

“I did you a favor,” he snaps back, smirking at his comeback. After a couple of belts, he has been known to confess that although he fought 21 times against world champions, he has never yet won a decision over the blonde—never yet, as they say in boxing, outpointed her. But you can sure see why he keeps on trying. He still has his looks? Hey, you should see her. The blonde is past 60 now, and she’s still cute as a button. Not merely beautiful, you understand, but schoolgirl cute, just like she was when the boxer first flirted with her down the Jersey shore. There is a picture of them on the wall. Pictures cover the walls of the club cellar. This particular picture was featured in a magazine, the boxer and the blonde running, hand in hand, out of the surf.

Never in your life did you see two better-looking kids. She was Miss Ocean City, and Alfred Lunt called him “a Celtic god,” and Hollywood had a part for him that Errol Flynn himself wound up with after the boxer said no thanks and went back to Pittsburgh.

It is said, and quite rightly, that America does not produce great writers or great literature. We waited in vain for the Great American Novel, and all of the various pretenders wound up falling well short. But I would say that there is a uniquely American literary form that reached its heights in the 20th century, of which Frank Deford was the last of his breed.

Sport and sorrow

I usually find the “mascot” custom in European football to be ridiculous, bordering on creepy, but there are occasionally circumstances that make it all worthwhile. American sports fans are probably unaware of how an English Premier League team has adopted a dying little boy befriended by its star striker as its mascot.

Bradley Lowery led out his beloved Sunderland for their final home match of the season against Swansea, just a day after his parents announced that his cancer is spreading. The brave five-year-old was the club’s mascot for their final Premier League match at the Stadium of Light this year and also featured on the front cover of the matchday programme. Wearing a Sunderland shirt which thanked the club and fans for their support, Bradley walked on to the pitch in the arms of England striker Defoe, with whom the five-year-old has struck up a close bond…. The five-year-old may have to spend his sixth birthday in hospital but he was able to fulfil his wish to be at the Stadium of Light for the final game of the season. 

There are a lot of things wrong with sports, and professional sports in particular. But there are things that are right about them too. In this case, it is a powerful reminder of how love can transcend the evils of a fallen world.