Tag: sports

Dear white sports fans

Please to go away now. We neither want nor need you.

Love,
ESPN

For comparative purposes, I recently reviewed a few SportsCenter episodes from the past couple of decades, and it is indeed noticeable how little politics and culture intruded into the tsunami of highlights and witty banter that once marked that show. That was reflective of the overall newsier focus ESPN had in those days….

A scan of The Undefeated on most days shows a range of content that extends far beyond sports. When The Undefeated put together its list of the 44 most influential black Americans in history, only five — Muhammad Ali, Michael Jordan, Jesse Owens, Jackie Robinson and Serena Williams — made their mark as athletes. Scanning the list of Undefeated pieces commemorating Black History Month, less than half were about sports.

These observations are not criticisms; they just show how The Undefeated — and, by extension, ESPN — is willing to stray from sports…. There is no denying that culture, sports and politics are fused together more today than at any time in recent memory, and there’s an argument to be made that ESPN is rightfully taking advantage of that trend. But there’s also no denying the presence of a fervent fan base that prefers the ESPN of old, meaning these worlds will continue to collide.

One thing is clear: Those of you who have not held your tongue about ESPN’s move away from an all-sports-all-the-time mantra also should not hold your breath waiting for a change.

ESPN has made it clear: It’s not sticking to sports.

Apparently as many as 90 percent of the 100 on-air people let go this week were white men. Longtime NFL and NHL reporters are gone, while clueless, no-talent SJWs like Jemele Hill are not only safe, but are being increasingly promoted.

It’s a straightforward case of SJW convergence in action. ESPN is no longer capable of fulfilling its primary purpose, because the pushing the SJW Narrative is more important.

I quit watching ESPN a long, long time ago, although I had watched it from the early days of late night World’s Strongest Man competitions and Australian Rules Football. It is somewhat fascinating to observe such a large organization so resolutely commit suicide in this fashion.

Dear ESPN,


Roger that. 


Adios,
America




UPDATE: for those of you who, like me, neither read nor watch ESPN anymore, it’s worse than you imagine. A LOT worse. Believe it or not, this was featured on ESPN yesterday.

Four poets on the new feminism

Apr 27, 2017
espnW Poetry Month Feminism Women

In honor of National Poetry month, espnW asked four poets to reflect on their definitions of feminism, and the importance of movement.

What Leaps from a Storm’s Throat, by Patricia Smith

Postcard from Diana Prince on Themyscira, by Tracie Dawson

Start Here, by Carrie Ann Welsh

My Struggle with Feminism is Black, by DéLana R.A. Dameron

PUNCHLINE: (Editor’s note: An earlier version of “Five Poets on the New Feminism” featured Revolution by Dr. DaMaris Hill. We have decided it is not an appropriate selection for our site, and have removed it from the feature.) 


It only took 18 years to go to that from this.

An almost inevitable end

Former New England tight end Aaron Hernandez commits suicide in prison:

Aaron Hernandez’s life sentence for murder has come to an end. The former Patriots tight end, who scored a legal victory last week, committed suicide in prison last night. The Massachusetts Department of Correction issued a statement saying Hernandez was discovered hanging in his cell at the Souza Baranowski Correctional Center in Shirley Massachusetts around 3:05 a.m. this morning.

I’m mostly surprised that he took as long to get around to it as he did. Few have fallen so far, or so completely unnecessarily. Unfortunately, one of the natural reactions to success, and to being given a lot, is to greedily pursue more, with little regard for the possible costs.

If nothing else, Hernandez’s fate serves as a warning for those tempted to be unsatisfied with a modicum of material success.

Got to go with Lucky 13

SB Nation’s March Madness predictions:

West regional
Gonzaga moves into the Sweet 16 after beating Northwestern (which takes down Vanderbilt).
Notre Dame beats Princeton, Bucknell beats West Virginia, Notre Dame moves into the Sweet 16 with a win over Bucknell.


That sounds about right. I have a bet going with a WVU guy. If the Mountaineers win, he donates $5 to Infogalactic. If the Bison win – and everyone knows they are dangerous come Tournament time – he gets the free Castalia ebook of his choice

Vikes release AD

It’s nothing personal, it’s just business:

The Vikings have decided to let former MVP Adrian Peterson go.

The team announced they were not picking up the option on his contract for next year, making the veteran running back an unrestricted free agent next week.

“Adrian is an important part of the Minnesota Vikings organization,” Vikings General Manager Rick Spielman said in a statement. “We will continue to have conversations with his representatives and leave our future options open while determining what is best for both parties moving forward.”

It’s the right call. That being said, I hope they’re able to work something out to bring him back less expensively so AD can retire as a Viking. Fortunately, All-Day is handling it well.

“It’s been a great 10 years with the Minnesota Vikings. They know what I bring to the organization as a player, with my work ethic and dedication. I spoke with Rick Spielman this past weekend. The door is still open to find some common ground.”

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.