On The Draft

Just a quick side note:
Football is my all-time favorite thing, and I'm trying hard to stay with it, but it's really not good when the run-up to the draft looks just like the Emmys or the red carpet bullshit on Oscar night.

I hate thinking about it, but the time may be coming when I just hafta to walk away.  We'll see what happens with the head-injury thing, and the long-term care for ex-pros, and especially how the teams and the league react once Michael Sam gets taken.

Gay Football Politics

"I applaud Michael Sam and wish him the very best as he continues the pursuit of his NFL dream. We will evaluate Michael just like any other draft prospect -- on the basis of his ability, character and NFL potential. His announcement will have no effect on how we see him as a football player." --John Elway, Exec VP Football Operations, Denver Broncos

And with that, any lingering political aspirations Elway may have had with the GOP are now officially and irrevocably dead.

Bad Lip Reading

Another look at a clip from a few weeks ago:



hat tip = Little Green Footballs

Told Ya

What We'll Prob'ly Not See Today

Today is the climax of the Festival In Superbowl-y Triumph, when the entire world can enjoy watching America FIST-ing itself on hi-def TV, thanks almost solely to a squad of Corporate Slags who'll give 3 or 4 million dollars to some other Corporate Slags to air a 30-second spot, placed by even more Corporate Slags at the ad agencies who've been whipping the armies of minimum-wage interns mornin' noon and night in order to come up with the little gems that we'll be raving about for a good two weeks, while we're slaving away to make the money we'll need to give to the beer companies and the insurance companies and the car companies and the sports franchises (and to the governments so they can give even more to those companies and franchises in direct and indirect ways) - just so we come right back here next year and do it all over again.  America - 'cuz FUCK YEAH!!!!!!!!!!!!

Here's one piece that I'm betting didn't make the cut.

Best Be Doin' Somethin' About it

Paraphrasing JC Cregg: "Does it bother you at all that they have to stop every few minutes because somebody requires medical attention?"

KUSA - Denver Broncos safety Rahim Moore had surgery Monday morning for lateral compartment syndrome in his lower leg, interim coach Jack Del Rio said.

Moore is out "this week for sure, possibly longer," Del Rio said. He was experiencing pain during Sunday night's win against Kansas City.

Compartment syndrome occurs when pressure within the muscles builds. This pressure can decrease blood flow, which prevents nourishment and oxygen from reaching nerve and muscle cells, according to the American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons.

"It's a new one for me. I'm learning about it. It's kind of one of these freakish things that kind of occurred," Del Rio said. "It can be a very serious injury and can lead to loss of limb or loss of life."

Concussions and Brain Disease and Crippling Joint Damage and Steroids and Thuggery and and and - I wonder if we're seeing the beginning of the end for football.

But then I get the feeling that it's all part of Bread and Circus - it keeps us occupied with trivial spectacle while our "leaders" busy themselves making our decisions for us.

Today's Shameless Fanboy Plug

All hail Keith!

There is no bigger pain in the ass (from what almost everybody says), and there is no better reporter anywhere in any field at any price.

The NFL recently agreed to pay $765M to be paid out to 4500 guys over a 17-year period.  As others have said, it sounds right decent, but... a little math (the kind that's simple enough even for me to understand) shows just how big this particular bamboozle really is.

The league made some $9.5 Billion last year - BILLION. If that number stays static over the 17-year lifetime of the deal (and we all know it's a lot more likely to go up rather than stay the same or go down), the total "cost" to the owners is less than one half of one percent of league revenue.

But of course, we can always count on some Press Poodle - who in this case owes his living to the NFL - to come up with some good PR Fluffery (in the form of sneering mockery which has become the prevailing journalistic style of Corporate Attack Dog Media).

Enter Pete Prisco at CBS Sports:

I just got off the phone with my attorney. Why?

I had a concussion playing 115-pound football and another in high school. Back then -- not leather helmet days but close -- they just called it getting your bell rung and stuck some nasty crap in front of your nose, and told you to go back into the game.

So I am suing.

Why not? I might get an extra $100,000 or so for my bank account. The precedent has been set. The NFL settled Thursday with a group of players filing concussion lawsuits to the tune of $765 million. So why not go after the high schools? Pop Warner? Colleges? And maybe even those two-hand touch games set up by our dads?

So, are you saying your coaches didn't know about the dangers of head injuries?  And that we should pretend it's still 1965 and make all of our health and safety decisions based on what we didn't fucking know 50 years ago?  Or are we finally unmasking your deep-seated fear that maybe your daddy didn't really give a fuck about you?

Here's Keith taking Mr Prisco down:



Nobody does it better.  Welcome back, Mr Olbermann - we've missed you.

BYU @ Virginia

I'm trying hard to be less of a football fan, but sometimes I just cain't hep muhsef.  It's my game and I love it.



My boy Luke plays on his HS LAX team, and since Americans have lost their ability to understand the causal relationship between paying less and less in taxes and getting less and less in terms of (eg) the quality of public schools (which includes "little extras" like Arts & Humanities, Athletics, air conditioning etc), the Booster Clubs for each of the sports teams (ie: parents) have to devise ways of raising several thousand dollars in order to provide their kids with commensurate "little extras" like transportation, lacrosse balls, helmets - just those incidentals that make the activity a bit more enjoyable, and maybe even - oh I dunno - survivable?

Anyway, our big money-maker is to volunteer as a group to scan tickets at UVa football games.  So there we were yesterday at Scott Stadium in Charlottesville for the season opener;  the Cavaliers of Virginia versus the Cougars of BYU, when a little airplane flew overhead towing one of those advertising banners - you know - it's usually something like "10% off all day tomorrow blah blah blah."  But not this one. We looked up and saw this:

Maybe you can teach an old Democrat new tricks.