Keeping the stadiums empty

The Premier League submits to Black Lives Matter in front of empty stadiums. This sort of political propaganda should help ensure that stadiums across the UK and USA will remain empty, even when fans are permitted to attend games.

NASCAR completes its convergence

Between the banning of the Confederate flag and the announcement of a Black Lives Matter car, NASCAR should be all but out of business after another decade of decline:

NASCAR has officially banned the Confederate flag from its races and properties just a day after its only black driver, Bubba Wallace, demanded it be removed.

On Wednesday, NASCAR officials said in a statement that the Confederate flag 'runs contrary to our commitment to providing a welcoming and inclusive environment for all fans, our competitors and our industry'.

'Bringing people together around a love for racing and the community that it creates is what makes our fans and sport special. The display of the confederate flag will be prohibited from all NASCAR events and properties.'

Once you permit the SJW infestation, it's only a matter of time before they converge the institution. And once they metastasize, there is no coming back from it. The only thing left to do is build something new and do a better job of keeping them out next time.

Trump vs NFL, Round Two

You can almost hear the NFL media's collective voice shaking even as the sportswriters continue to cuck for Black Players Matter:

President Trump will again make NFL players kneeling during the national anthem an issue this year.

Responding to NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell’s statement that the league was wrong not to be more supportive of players’ protests, Trump tweeted late on Sunday night that he still considers kneeling during the anthem to be disrespectful.

“Could it be even remotely possible that in Roger Goodell’s rather interesting statement of peace and reconciliation, he was intimating that it would now be O.K. for the players to KNEEL, or not to stand, for the National Anthem, thereby disrespecting our Country & our Flag?” Trump wrote.

I think that can be not unreasonably described as a warning shot across the bow.

It always begins with a lie

“We, the National Football League, condemn racism and the systematic oppression of black people. We, the National Football League, admit we were wrong for not listening to NFL players earlier and encourage all to speak out and peacefully protest. We, the National Football League, believe Black Lives Matter.

“I personally protest with you and want to be part of the much-needed change in this country.

“Without black players, there would be no National Football League, and the protests around the country are emblematic of the centuries of silence, inequality and oppression of black players, coaches, fans and staff. We are listening. I am listening.”
- NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell

The corporate cancer has metastasized. Let the decline begin. It should be very amusing to watch all the self-satisfaction over their social justice posturing turn to horror as whites and Hispanics turn away from the league in droves. Since I already dropped the NFL GamePass, this year I'm going to stop putting up the weekly NFL discussion posts here.

I haven't made up my mind about dropping out of a longtime fantasy football league yet, and I'm sure that I will watch the occasional Vikings game. Regardless, at this point, I have already reduced my financial contribution to the league and league-related enterprises from ~$300/year to zero, which is a considerable reduction for a former owner of two Vikings season tickets.

And this is why you never apologize

Drew Brees did not read SJWAL. He should have:

Saints quarterback Drew Brees has issued a second apology for his widely criticized comments likening kneeling during the national anthem to disrespecting America. Brees posted a video on Instagram looking into the camera, saying again that he’s sorry, and promising to work for change.

What an idiot. At this point, there is a non-zero chance that he will be hounded into retirement, simply because he didn't have the backbone to stand by what he genuinely believes.

He’s now in the process of learning why it’s a mistake to apologize in the first place. SJWs always consider an apology to be the guilty plea that precedes and justifies the subsequent punishment. And a second guilty plea is not going to ameliorate the pressure, it's only going to encourage the SJWs.

Those of you who are still susceptible to civnattery should note that according to (((Michael Rosenberg))) of Sports Illustrated, it is now offensive to Vibrants to call for "unity".

Drew Brees doesn’t get to call that play. He did not seem to realize how condescending and offensive it is for a white person to tell Black people, “Hey, let’s all stand up and show unity here.”

The God-Emperor knows better than to apologize:

I am a big fan of Drew Brees. I think he’s truly one of the greatest quarterbacks, but he should not have taken back his original stance on honoring our magnificent American Flag. 
- President Donald Trump

Affirmative action and the NFL

The NFL is bewildered by the fact that the very people who are supposed to be benefiting from their proposed new SJW program are opposed to it:

Last Friday, news that the NFL would consider incentivizing minority hires for general manager and top coaching positions boomeranged around the league. It elicited an array of questions: How would this work? Would it make a difference? And for some black coaches, who have lived the very problem at the root of this proposal, they wondered why this was the first time they were hearing about an idea they viewed as unhelpful—or even insulting.

The thing is, black coaches in the NFL have historically underperformed the average, which is the exact opposite of what should have been the case if they were being irrationally discriminated against.

All that affirmative action accomplishes is to confirm for everyone the very non-problem it is supposed to disprove, namely, the intrinsic inferiority of the group supposedly being helped. Seeing even more black coaches go 3-36-1, like Hue Jackson did at the helm of the Cleveland Browns, isn't going to convince NFL owners to saddle their teams with the disadvantage of an intellectually overmatched coaching staff, no matter how many draft picks are dangled in front of them as an incentive.

UPDATE: Common sense prevailed for the time being.

The NFL’s latest idea to incentivize hiring minority coaches and GMs does not appear to be going forward. Owners voted to table the resolution that would have incentivized hiring minorities, according to Jim Trotter of NFL Media.

Integrity

Don Shula was not only the only NFL coach to go undefeated in a season, he was a man of great sporting integrity. Hall of Famer Larry Csonka tells a story about an ethical choice that faced the late Miami coach the season after their undefeated 1972 championship season:

“We went into Oakland on a Friday and we were gonna practice there on Saturday. But because of construction in the stadium, we had to use their training room. They had practiced earlier in the day, they cleared out, and we used their locker room. I picked [defensive lineman] Art Thoms’ locker, because I’d played with him in college at Syracuse. I was gonna leave him a note in his locker—dead fish or something, mess with him a little bit. So I’m sitting in his locker, going through it to find something to write on. I find the Oakland Raiders game plan. Now that can be construed a couple of different ways. Knowing what they’re going to do . . . it’s their fault for leaving it there. Is it the right thing to do? Unquestionably it’s not the right thing to do. Was it cheating? I don’t know. It’s a fine line. I went and handed that report, quite quietly, to [offensive line coach and Shula confidant] Monte Clark. He said, ‘What’s this?’ I said, ‘I don’t know. I’ve never seen it before.’ I walked away.

“Here’s the bottom line: We lost the game. Even with the game report, we lost the game. After the game, I’m riding on the bus. Monte Clark sits down next to me on the bus. I said, ‘Monte, what the hell did you do with the game report?’ He said, ‘I took it to Shula and when he asked what it was, I told him. He said, ‘Tear it up. If we can’t beat ‘em straight up, we shouldn’t beat ‘em.’”

That, even more than the man's undefeated season, is a legacy worth leaving behind.

This is why you don't give up

The fact that some are handed every chance at success doesn't mean they will find it. Just as the fact that some are ignored and given no chance to succeed doesn't mean they won't.

A seven-year-old direct message to a recruiting analyst from the 2019 Heisman Trophy Winner, 2020 NCAA National Champion, and first pick in the NFL draft, who was not only overlooked as a high school player, but had to transfer colleges in order to get the chance to start.

NFL draft discussion

This is an open thread to discuss the draft.

NFL should start on time

The President expects the NFL season to begin as scheduled:

The President conducted a conference call with sports commissioners on Saturday, and as to one sport in particular he expressed an opinion.

Via ESPN.com, Donald Trump said that he believes the NFL’s regular season should begin on time in September. Trump also added that he hopes to have fans in stadiums and arenas by August and September.

The question you should be asking yourself in response to this is not "doesn't the President understand epidemiology?", but "what does the President know about the situation that you do not?"

Let's face it, he's already gone two-for-two in the face of the media narrative, first with regards to flights from China and second about the efficacity of Hydroxychloroquine against the coronavirus. I'd be willing to bet he'll go three-for-three contra the establishment media narrative concerning sex-trafficking once that news finally breaks.

At this point, only a wilfully-ignorant fool bets against the God-Emperor.

Corona-chan may kill women's sports

A reader writes about the beneficial impact of the health crisis on the world of sports:

I have been watching the economic impact that this virus could potentially have on the sports landscape. I read this article where the University of Florida AD discusses the economic impact of missing football season. 85 percent of the athletic department's budget comes from football. One season without football and we can bid adieu to women's sports. I can already hear the shrieks.

Also, I found it very interesting that the NBA has had to increase their line of credit from $650M to $1.2B to cover operational costs. They already lost $200M before the season started with their Chinese debacle so this can't be good for the most "woke" league in all of sports. The NBA is not nearly as popular as the media makes you think. ESPN breathlessly covers it because they spent $24B on a contract to air games until 2025. With the financial perils ESPN faces, I find it hard to see them making it through that contract. Now I'm sure that league will do everything they can do to keep an already bottomless money pit in the WNBA afloat, but for how long?

Personally I love college football and enjoy the NFL. But if going one year without it means we rid ourselves of a lot of nonsense I can gladly find other things to fill my Saturdays in the fall.

Is there anything she can't do? 

Brady leaves Patriots

I have to admit, despite all the warning signs, I'm still genuinely surprised. I thought he would retire a Patriot:

Tom Brady is leaving the New England Patriots. After 20 years with the organization, the quarterback posted a tweet on Tuesday, saying his farewell and his thanks to Bill Belichick, Robert Kraft and the entire Patriots organization.

In other NFL news, the Vikings resigned Kirk Cousins and traded Stefon Diggs for the #22 pick, a fifth-round pick, a sixth-round pick and a 2021 fourth-round pick from Buffalo. I don't like to see Diggs go, but that's an excellent haul that couldn't be turned down, especially in this year's receiver-rich draft.

I think he's going to LA to play for the Chargers. It makes the most sense for his post-football career.

UPDATE: Apparently, I am wrong.

The Bucs have an agreement in principle with Brady for a deal worth roughly $30 million per season, Ian Rapoport of NFL Media reports.

17 games is go

I hate the concept, of course, as well as the expansion of the playoffs, but no one asked me. In any event, the NFLPA approved the new CBA agreement with the NFL owners in a very close vote:

NFL players voted to approve the new proposed collective bargaining agreement, which signals 10 years of labor peace, increased revenue share for players, added benefits for former players, an expansion to a 17-game NFL regular season and more playoff teams.

The 10-day voting period closed at 11:59 p.m. on Saturday night. Owners voted to approve the new CBA on Feb. 20.

The NFL Players Association issued the following statement:

"NFL players have voted to approve ratification of a new collective bargaining agreement by a vote tally of 1,019 to 959. This comes after a long and democratic process in accordance with our constitution. An independent auditor received submitted ballots through a secure electronic platform, then verified, tallied and certified the results."

It's not all bad, and in fact, it helps the average player quite a bit. But it's still sad to see the records of yesteryear rendered even more irrelevant as what was left of the league's historical continuity is further destroyed.

How not to do customer service

It's also interesting to see how incompetence permeates through every aspect of an organization. From Peter King's weekly NFL column, to which I'm not going to bother to link because it is very long and mostly unrelated to the excerpted section:

Spike Lee has been a season ticket holder to Knicks games for about 30 years. He is America’s Sporting Masochist. He has evidently been entering Madison Square Garden through the media entrance for a while, and the Knicks wanted him to enter through the VIP entry gate instead. The Knicks picked last Monday night, when Lee was on a crowded elevator, to enforce the rule that he should be entering through the VIP entrance. According to Spike, he was asked to leave the building and re-enter through the proper gate. Lee said no. Which led to a fight, and Lee going on ESPN to lay waste to the Knicks, and the Knicks issuing a press release to rip Spike. As only it could, the New York Post hilariously labeled the brouhaha “Gategate.”

Now, I am definitely not a subscriber to "the customer is always right" theory. Some customers are morons. Some are a massive pain in the posterior, so much so that one is better off without them as customers. As our valued supporters of the Replatforming know, I tend to prefer the "just RTFM, please" approach. But this sort of thing is stupid because it is so pointless and unnecessary. It obviously isn't an actual problem, it's just some autistic gamma in the organization sperging out about the fact that a category is being misapplied.

The correct thing to do is fire the autistic gamma for failure to be human, not publicly attack your best customer because his broken perspective of the world was offended.

A hard no

I'm with JJ Watts on the new NFL proposal to the NFLPA:

The new proposal includes expanding the NFL's regular-season schedule to 17 games, which wouldn't go into effect until 2021 at the earliest. ESPN's Adam Schefter reported earlier this week that the proposal would also boost the sport's postseason from six teams per conference to seven.

The NFL has been remarkably stupid under Roger Goodell. But this takes the cake, especially in light of the appearance of a new potential competitor. Watering down the regular season AND the postseason defies belief.

All sports leagues make changes in the hopes of increasing revenue. But as NASCAR has demonstrated over the last decade, it's very far from impossible for these changes to result in steeply declining revenues.

XFL 2.0

I'll admit it, I am intrigued:

NO EXTRA POINT KICKS

Teams can go for one point from the 2-yard line, two points from the 5-yard line or three points from the 10-yard line. That means a team could score a nine-points in one possession. These three different scoring options will make a regulation tie a lot less likely. The options will create a fascinating wrinkle in coaching strategy. It’s likely that two-point conversions will be most common, but after a defensive touchdown, why not go for three?

SAFER KICKOFFS AND PUNTS

Two other game play innovations involved the kicking game: Kickoffs have been altered to make them safer so players aren’t hitting each other at full-speed. The kicker will kick off from the 30-yard line, 5 yards farther back than in the NFL, as a way to limit touchbacks. Most players will line up across from each other between the other 30- and 35-yard line and cannot move until the returner catches the ball.

The XFL made some changes to disincentivize punting, in the hopes of encouraging more teams to go for it on fourth down. Balls that are punted into the end zone or out of bounds will be marked at the 35-yard line, as opposed to the 20 in the NFL. The XFL is calling that a “major touchback.” If a team does punt, it will be more difficult to cover. No player on the punt team can run downfield until the ball is kicked, which will give returners more space to work with.

It looks as if the XFL is making a serious attempt to improve the game of football rather than simply imitate the NFL. That doesn't mean it will be successful, of course, but it does suggest that it may be worth watching. I really like the extra point(s) option. That's an indication of good game design.

Super Bowl LIV

This was my prediction the last time Andy Reid got to the Super Bowl:

Andy Reid is a solid coach, but he is not a great one. He doesn't get outcoached, for the most part, but neither does he outcoach anyone, not even Mike Tice. Bill Belicheck, on the other hand, has repeatedly proven himself to be a Jedi master, with game plans in this year's playoffs that left two very good teams, Indianapolis and Pittsburgh, in near-complete disarray. Notice how there hasn't even been a whisper of Charlie Weis being distracted by his moonlighting job as the Notre Dame head coach of late. The Patriots are a strategic machine, awesome to behold.

Factor in the Terrell Owens injury and the "happy-to-be-there" factor of the Eagles, and I suspect that under the guidance of the maglia ex machina, the Patriots will methodically dismantle the Eagles. I don't think it will be a blow-out, and the combination of a tough Eagles defense and a screw-the-gameplan drive filled with scrambles by McNabb will probably help the Eagles make a last, desperate push to keep the game close in the third quarter, but this one should be over early in the fourth with a nail-in-the-coffin Patriots score.

I suspect Kyle Shanahan learned more from his Super Bowl failure than Andy Reid did from his. Despite all the media hype surrounding the Chiefs and Pat Mahomes, few observers seem to be paying much attention to the actual performance of the two teams this year or the way in which they played in getting to the Super Bowl. I really don't like the way Kansas City seems to come out flatter than flat in big games this year.

It is, of course, well known that in championship games, defense generally trumps even the most explosive offenses. The 49ers have the second-best yards/game defense and the eighth-best points/game defense. The Chiefs actually have the seventh-best points/game defense, although they give up more yards and rank only 17th in that category.

But when it comes down to it, I have more confidence in Shanahan + Garappolo + DEF-SF than I do in Reid + Mahomes + DEF-KC. Also, if the 49ers have the lead, Shanahan isn't going to make the mistake that Houston's O'Brien did by taking his foot off the gas.

49ers by 10.

Football Outsiders, on the other hand, predicts a Chiefs victory:

I give the slight edge to Kansas City. I think San Francisco will be able to have offensive success running the ball, but their defense is not going to go out and make Patrick Mahomes look like Kirk Cousins looked three weeks ago. Calling for a high-scoring game didn't end up working out for me last year but I'm calling for a high-scoring game again this year. I also think it will be close, but the Chiefs are the favorite with the better chance to come out ahead.

Both MDS and Florio from ProFootballTalk are also picking the Chiefs.


HALFTIME: 10-10. I don't watch the halftime show, or the commercials, but the game itself is pretty good. Shanahan was getting a little too cute early on, but now that he's gone back to the run, I expect San Francisco to start to take control in the third quarter.

4TH QUARTER: SF 20 KC 17. Kyle Shanahan is still a choker. Twice, he's faced 2nd-and-5, tried to get cute instead of relying upon his superior running game, thrown incomplete twice, and been forced to punt. Incredibly stupid considering they have the lead, the ball, and the clock. SF could and should win this game, but if they lose it, it's on Shanahan's poor play-calling in the fourth quarter.

Unbelievable! San Francisco is averaging nearly 9 yards per rush on the ground. It's first down inside Kansas City territory with four minutes left. So, naturally, you THROW THE BALL FOUR TIMES I A ROW for zero yards to lose the game. Absolutely INDEFENSIBLE stupidity. This is the second time Shanahan has thrown away a perfectly winnable Super Bowl for his team.

I don't like the 49ers. I didn't want them to win, although I'm not looking forward to all the unwarranted, but inevitable Mahomes worship to come. But watching the SF playcalling in the 4th quarter was downright painful. I can't even imagine how berserk the more knowledgeable 49er fans must have been going when watching that coaching choke job for the ages.

Championship Weekend

I like the Titans and the 49ers today, because defense wins championships. Discuss amongst yourselves.

UPDATE: And it's over. Chiefs just went up 35-17 halfway through the fourth quarter. I did NOT like anything Tennessee did since the last five minutes of the first half. The KC defense was actually better than the Tennessee defense.

Apples to apples

I was pretty sure that I was faster than Derrick Henry back in the day, but I didn't realize I was THAT much faster:

Also a standout track & field athlete, Henry competed as a sprinter at Yulee from 2010 to 2011. He posted a personal-best time of 11.11 seconds in the 100-meter dash at the 2011 FHSAA 2A District 3 Championships, where he placed seventh.

I found that mildly amusing, as my best high school 100-meter time was 10.82. Of course, it's not just Henry's speed that makes him a great running back. It's one thing to run that fast at 135 pounds, it's another thing to do it at 235. I remember watching Darrell Thompson play at the University of Minnesota during my college track days and thinking, "I wonder if I could do that? He's slower than me... but then, he is probably a LOT harder to bring down." Thompson and I were at the same meet once, but we didn't run against each other. He was beaten by one of my teammates, though.

It's even more amusing to see that Wikipedia considers Henry to be "a standout track & field athlete" when it doesn't even mention my track & field career, which included multiple conference championships, both individual and team, at the high school and NCAA D1 levels.

UPDATE: An alternate history sidenote. In my very brief football career, which ended at the age of 8, I almost never got on the field because the coach always played this one boy who was very fast and strong at running back. The boy also grew up to be an excellent sprinter in high school, although we never happened to run against each other due to being in different conferences and regions. But there was no shame in sitting on the bench behind him, as he wound up being an All-American running back who held his conference's career rushing record for 12 years.

Years later, that coach apologized to me for never even trying to give me a chance to get on the field. But I didn't have a problem with it at the time, and it was probably a blessing in the end because I'm the only one of the three Minnesota sprinters mentioned who hasn't had any knee or hip surgeries. I certainly wouldn't still be playing soccer. But it is intriguing to think of how good one high school's football and track teams might have been if I'd stayed in the public school system and continued playing football instead of soccer.

The virtue of failure

Mike McDaniel, the 49ers run-game coordinator, explains how the various failures of the coaches on the Mike Shanahan tree has led to their astonishing success this year, with heavy influences on three of the four NFL teams still in contention:

“Our greatest strength has been our weakness, where our longest tenure at a place has been three years,” McDaniel says in August. “And we’ve had to do it with not always elite players. Some of the biggest shortcomings, the worst things that can happen to a coach, is the system that’s set up for failure. How do you get jobs? You win. People that win in the same place, those people get promoted. Well, often times those people—there are compounding variables for success. And they won because, Tom Brady, for instance.”

He continued: “What getting fired but still being the league allows you to do is you have so many different things where you have to figure out a way to make sh-- work. And that has made us night-and-day a thousand times better; the best years we’ve ever coached have been the years where we had to scratch and claw for everything. To lose a ton and stay in the NFL—that was the perfect storm for us to expand and innovate.”

It reminds me of Mike Cernovich's advice to me: scratch and claw. Reinforce success and abandon failure. Eventually, you'll be able to refine your approach to find something that not only works, but succeeds.