Category Archives: Sports
Commissioner Bans Wahoo
The Cleveland Indians 70 year old icon, Chief Wahoo, has gone the way of the image of The Prophet. Kind of. There was no rioting. There were no murders. Instead, baseball commissioner Rob Manfred offered Indians ownership a deal it couldn’t refuse. And Wahoo was sent to the showers.
In exchange, the Dolan family gets to keep discreet licensing rights to the chief on promotional paraphernalia. And Cleveland gets to keep the 2018 All Star game. Probably.
Wahoo Gear
Tribe gear worn by the players, however, will no longer bear the graven image of the famed indigenous cartoon person. Instead players will sport the block “C” on their sleeves and hats when they take the field.
I think it stands for politically “Correct.”
The End of Football
Ben Roethlisberger threw a touchdown pass to Jesse James. The pass put the Steelers ahead of the Patriots with half a minute to play.
Except the ball didn’t “survive the ground“. At least that’s how the replay official ruled it. And the Patriots went on to win.
Survive the Ground is a legalistic term NFL officials use to argue endlessly about how many football angels dance on pins.
End of Football
The end of football isn’t coming because of concussions and kneeling. It’s because they hardly play football.
Vox produced this chart in 2015 showing the game is mostly commercials and replays.
Reasons For Kneeling
NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said in a press conference on Tuesday that he didn’t order players to stand for the national anthem.
Colin Kaepernick got the ball rolling by sitting for the anthem. He was protesting police brutality. Here’s what he had to say last year:
“I am not going to stand up to show pride in a flag for a country that oppresses black people and people of color,” Kaepernick told NFL Media in an exclusive interview after the game. “To me, this is bigger than football and it would be selfish on my part to look the other way. There are bodies in the street and people getting paid leave and getting away with murder.”
Reasons for Kneeling
He was angered by the shootings of Alton Sterling and Philando Castile among others. Research by Heather MacDonald shows that twice as many whites as blacks are killed by cops. But whites make up 62% of the population and blacks 13%. And then it gets complicated.
Now players give all kinds of reasons for kneeling. Protesting Trump being high on the list along with expressions of unity, solidarity and equality.
President Trump’s NFL Rant
Some players are now saying they’re not protesting the flag or the country when they take a knee during the national anthem. But that’s not what Colin Kaepernick had to say when he started the whole thing:
“I am not going to stand up to show pride in a flag for a country that oppresses Black people and people of color,”
NFL Rant
It wan’t all about taking a knee during President Trump’s Friday night NFL rant. He also complained that the league doesn’t allow hard enough hitting:
“Today, if you hit too hard … 15 yards, throw him out of the game,” Trump said. “They are ruining the game, right?”
Medical researchers might want to take a knee over that.
Taking a Knee for NFL Ratings
According to Sports Illustrated NFL broadcasts on CBS are down 10% over the first two weeks of the season from last year. NBC is down 7% and Fox is off 3%.
Whether that’s due to hurricanes, players taking a knee or Trump’s executive tweet not to watch is unclear.
