Tag: sports

Shape is a social construct

If a man can become a woman because he believes it, there is no reason the Earth can’t become flat for precisely the same reason:

As a football player, I’ve been a fan of Vikings receiver Stefon Diggs from the moment he made his first impact on the NFL as a rookie in 2015. As a potential social-media troll, he may have even better chops. Unless he’s really not deliberately riling up his followers when he suggests that he agrees with NBA player Kyrie Irving’s view that the Earth is flat.

Yes, whether the Earth is flat has recently become a thing in the sports world. Irving may be trolling, too, and the ultimately genius of the approach (if it’s all an act) is that it points out the nature of the age in which we currently reside. Given the ridiculous factual claims that people are willing to blindly embrace as true, maybe it’s not ludicrous to think someone genuinely rejects the long-settled notion that the Earth is round.

The Big Lead has items on both Irving’s comments and the tweets from Diggs. My own assessment is that Diggs is having fun with the issue, but that Irving actually may believe what he’s saying.

Irving would hardly be alone regarding the lingering notion that the planet is pancake-shaped; a few minutes with Google unlocked plenty of evidence of others who reject the evidence that the world is round. The argument hinges on the notion that the spherical theory emerged as a way to supplant religion with science, since the Bible suggests that the world is flat.

The claim is less stunning given that the flat-or-round world generally has morphed into a place where the line between fact and opinion has been obliterated, and all that matters is what you believe.

I believe I now need a nap.

The real question is: Bruce Jenner, brilliant troll or transgender truther?

MSESPN

Outkick the Coverage describes ESPN’s slow-motion seppuku:

The only sports fans with a large fan base in this country that skew liberal in their voting are NBA fans. And that’s because of black voters who, guess what, are actually more socially conservative and religious than many white voters. As business plans go ESPN going all in on liberal sports fans is the rough equivalent of Outkick saying that henceforth we will only write articles about hot girls in Saudi Arabia….

The first time I noticed ESPN’s new liberal slant was when the network decided to give an ESPY for courage to Caitlyn Jenner for making the decision to become a woman. Look, I’m all for people pursuing their own individual happiness, but there was nothing courageous about Jenner’s decision. To me true courage requires an individual risk either life or liberty. Jenner risked neither.

And, remarkably, just about everyone in sports media was afraid to point out how transparently about ratings this decision was. Hell, they even moved the ESPYS to ABC SO MORE PEOPLE COULD SEE HOW INCLUSIVE ESPN WAS.

It was a blatant attempt to gain viewers for the network.

And that was the jumping off point, the moment ESPN ceased to be about sports and became a mouthpiece of the farthest left reaches of the Democratic party. I’m all for political discussion, but when you ally yourself with one political party and your business ostensibly is to talk about sports, you lose viewers who see what you’re doing. That’s why I call ESPN MSESPN now, the network is desperate to prop up its ratings and has decided that becoming a shill for the left wing in the country is its best option. Sadly, this is just going to lose more viewers.

Not surprisingly, ESPN’s ratings are tanking. Ratings for opinion shows the Monday after the Super Bowl this year, a day that is generally one of the most viewed in the country, were down a whopping 33% on average for PTI, Around the Horn, SportsCenter and others.

Turns out that alienating a large segment of your audience is bad for business.

This is nothing more than basic SJW convergence in action. And the more that ESPN’s ratings tank, the more they will double-down, unless the SJWs are purged. Given that Disney is arguably the foremost SJW corporation, that would appear to be highly unlikely.

Revenge for ’98

I expected an Atlanta-New England Super Bowl, and I expected the Patriots to win, but I did not expect them to do it like this. Atlanta’s defense ran out of energy, which is why the Patriots were able to come back, but it was a Denny Green-style coaching disaster that permitted them to do so. I was very, very happy to see the Falcons blow it late and lose.

The fumble on the missed blitz-pickup is just one of those things that happens. But as I was watching, I thought there were five crucial coaching mistakes made by Atlanta, and they made all the difference.

  1. Third-and-one on the 22. FFS, don’t get cute. Run the ball, screen, or even a QB sneak. It’s fine to pride yourself on being aggressive and all, but the field goal was the kill shot there; chasing the touchdown was going for style points. The one thing you can’t afford to do there is turn the ball over, but as the Falcons learned, a deep drop and a sack can be pretty costly too. This missed field goal opportunity was sweet for those of us who haven’t forgotten the 1998 championship game. The playcall was particularly inexcusable as New England had already shown they will blitz to try to knock you out of range like they did after the failing to recover the onside kick.
  2. Third-and-eleven on the 32. You’re still in field goal range. They’ve just demonstrated that they can get to your quarterback. This is the right time for a draw play, a screen, a quick hitter, or anything that doesn’t risk losing yards.
  3. Always save your timeouts. Even if you’re up by more than two touchdowns, you may need them for a late field goal. Tough lesson to learn in the Super Bowl. And who was managing the clock on that last drive, Andy Reid?
  4. The Patriots have the ball, they’ve got 3:30 to drive 91 yards, and your defense is gassed. You’ve got the league’s best offense and have moved the ball almost at will all game. On whom do you bet? After the incredible Edeleman catch on the final Patriots drive in regular time, they should have let the Patriots score, sold out to try stopping the two-point conversion, and bet on their offense having two minutes to get into field goal range.
  5. Challenging the Edelman catch. It wasn’t fourth down. It wasn’t worth their last timeout.

Belichick wouldn’t have made any of those mistakes. I thought he made a minor one by failing to burn 20 more seconds on the clock on the touchdown play at the end of the 4th quarter, but got away with it due to the fact that Atlanta was out of time outs and as I already mentioned, their clock management was atrocious. But Belichick’s rolling the dice early by calling the onside kick and going for it on 4th-and-3 on his own 46 in the third quarter demonstrate why he is the greatest coach of all time. He knows when to take the right risks.

And yes, Brady is officially the greatest quarterback of all time. This trumps the Joe Cool game.

On a side note, those were three amazing catches, two by Julius Jones and one by Edelman. Jones looks, and plays, like a scientist created a combination clone of Terrell Owens and Cris Carter.

But regardless, we should have known that the team on whom the God-Emperor smiled would come through in the end. There was a prescient moment on BBC, when the commentator read a tweet saying: “Better stay up this time, you guys said it was over and we could go to bed with Brexit and the US election too.”

Super Bowl open thread

Discuss the game amongst yourselves.

OUCH! Brutal pick-six by Alford with New England driving. 21-0. It might well be over already with 2:21 left in the 2nd quarter.

HALFTIME: 21-3, Atlanta. The silver lining is that if Tom Brady leads an all-time Super Bowl comeback, he’ll ice his reputation as the Greatest of All Time. But it is looking increasingly likely as if Joe Montana will retain that status.

Championship Day

Aaron Rodgers’s heroics notwithstanding, I think the Pack’s run stops here. They were one strip sack from going out last week, and the Dallas rush didn’t put anywhere nearly as much pressure on him as the Falcons will. The Vikings showed the way to contain and control Rodgers, and the Falcons have the same sort of speed and power in their front seven that the Vikings do. And the Packers defense does not match up well with the powerful Falcons attack, so I don’t think it will be particularly close.

New England-Pittsburgh will be a good game, but I expect Brady to continue his dominance there. I expect Belichick to let Bell get his yards, but shut down the Steeler passing game.

My prediction for the Super Bowl remains what it was before the playoffs. New England-Atlanta, with Brady and Belichick claiming one more ring together.

Divisional Round, Day 2

Yesterday went as expected. Atlanta walked over Seattle and New England had no trouble with Houston. Today, I think Dallas will run over the Green Bay defense and keep the ball out of Aaron Rodgers’s lethal hands enough to win. No idea about Pittsburgh vs Kansas City, except that if it’s close late, Mike Tomlin will manage the clock better than Andy Reid.

UPDATE: Wow! Incredible play by Rodgers, both to not fumble the ball on the sack, then to hit Cook to set up the game-winning field goal. But the game was lost, not won, by the Dallas coaching staff. I couldn’t BELIEVE it when they downed the ball on 1-and-10, then didn’t run the ball twice when facing third-and-3.

If you don’t play to win in the playoffs, chances are you’re going to lose. And Jason Garrett did not play to win. What on EARTH was he thinking, to give the ball back to Aaron Rodgers with 35 seconds and two time outs in a tie game?

NFL Divisional Round 1

Seahawks-Falcons. Seattle has the pedigree, but Atlanta has been the quietly good team this year, their loss to the Vikings notwithstanding. I’d expect Atlanta to win without too much difficulty.

The Los Angeles Chargers

The San Diego Chargers are moving back to LA:

“After much deliberation, I have made the decision to relocate the Chargers to Los Angeles, beginning with the 2017 NFL season. San Diego has been our home for 56 years.  It will always be part of our identity, and my family and I have nothing but gratitude and appreciation for the support and passion our fans have shared with us over the years. But today, we turn the page and begin an exciting new era as the Los Angeles Chargers.

I won’t be surprised if both the Chargers and the Rams leave LA within a decade. The NFL clearly doesn’t understand that its core demographic base is middle-aged white family men, and that the changing US demographics are not working in its favor.

PUTIN HACKED THE SUPER BOWL!

The Russians are taking over the NFL and the Super Bowl through the Seattle Seahawks. It’s true! THE EVIDENCE IS RIGHT THERE ON PROFOOTBALLTALK!

The hat actually carries his number 29 and an inscription in Cyrillic letters which reads: “Restricted Air Space. No fly zone. Restricted by Earl Thomas.”


The hat was sent to him by Boris Khodok and the Russian Sea Hawkers, a group of fans scattered across the former Soviet republics and Eastern Europe. Saddened by their favorite players broken leg, they wanted to send him a gift, and found a Russian Navy hat worn by the pilots on the aircraft carrier Admiral Kuznetsov, who fly MiG-29s.

Back to 14

After watching parts of two nearly unwatchable wildcard games yesterday, I feel more strongly than ever that it is time to go back to the 14-game regular season and eight playoff teams.

I understand there is, for the time being, more money to be made from 16 games and 12 teams. But once something peaks, it either contracts sensibly in a cyclical manner or it collapses. The NFL should be thinking long term, as the demographic trends are against it, the quarterback-development breakdown in the NCAA is against it, and everything points to contraction eventually being the order of the day.

Not every move the Goodell-era NFL has been made is bad. The concussion protocol is sensible, the eight four-team divisions are great, and the emphasis on the divisional rivalries has helped maintain interest beyond the largely meaningless scramble for the last two playoff spots. Does it really matter who the two sacrificial lambs are when they only have a chance if the other team is starting its untested third-string quarterback?

If Goodell wants to really put his stamp on the game in a positive manner, he’ll focus on making the game stronger rather than mindlessly chasing dollars until the entire edifice collapses. The problem is that the NFL is still thinking in terms of expansion when the situation has changed and they should be thinking in terms of maintaining what they have.

This will serve as today’s wildcard-round post. One hopes the games will be better than yesterday’s.