Amid protests and rumors of protests, as I write this I am enjoying a quiet leisurely Sunday afternoon sans football. Of course it is impossible to avoid entirely amid the news stories of Dolphins kneeling and KC's Marcus Peters throwing a black power salute but I am exercising my rights too by not watching any of their bull.
Amid the idiocy of players insulting us for the privilege of watching them play a game for way too much money lies the NFL, threatening to fine Tennessee Titan's Linebacker Avery Williamson $6076 for wearing cleats commemorating the victims of 9-11. Williamson's red, white, and blue cleats bear the words 9/11 and Never Forget.
Most games are finished for the day and I have no idea of what the scores are and who won or lost, what's more refreshing is I really don't care. More importantly for all the sponsors and advertisers out there I didn't watch a single witty pop culture commercial and remain completely uninfluenced in my consumer purchase habits.
Cheers!
So what's it going to be?
1. Clinton by a landslide?
2. Trump by a landslide?
3. Close?
How do you think Jill Stein and Gary Johnson are going to perform?
And in other news, Colin Kapernick can go F'himself.
The hack quarterback for the 49'ers with a $114,000,000 contract, $61,000,000 guaranteed, $12,000,000 this year, refuses to stand for the national anthem. Well me? I refuse to watch any game with the 49'ers.
This is a post about morals, ethics, and the lack thereof.
In Sunday's AFC Championship game between the New England Patriots and Indianapolis Colts all the footballs were inspected two hours and fifteen minutes before the game, by half-time 11 of the 12 New England footballs were under-inflated by 2-3 pounds. Coincidence? Not likely, one ball may have had a slow leak, possibly two, but when 92% of the footballs you're playing with are under-inflated it's obvious what happened... someone let the air out.
Game day was cold, it was also rainy, a cold wet under-inflated football is marginally easier to catch and grip than a cold wet fully inflated one. Did this make a difference in the game? Maybe, but probably not by a 45-7 margin. If you didn't know, each team uses its own balls while on offense, how much do you want to bet that the one properly inflated ball was reserved for New England's field goal attempts?
This isn't the first time New England and its coach has been involved in controversy surrounded by ethical questions and accusations of cheating. In 2007 Head Coach Bill Belichick was fined $500,000, the team was fined $250,000 and lost a first round draft pick for filming the New York Jets Defensive Coach's hand signals.
Cheating and unsportsmanlike conduct should not be tolerated, disqualify the New England Patriots, ban Bill Belichick from the NFL (as head coach he's responsible), and send the Colts to the Superbowl against Seattle.
As a side note, I am an Eagles fan. I would have rooted for the Broncos as a current resident of Colorado if they were in it, and as a former resident of Massachusetts I would have rooted for New England against Seattle in the Superbowl as I rooted for Green Bay in the NFC Championship. That said, I would have the same opinion of cheating if it were the Eagles at the center of this controversy.
US defeats Ghana 2-1
I have to admit I'm not the world's, country's, or even county's biggest soccer fan. I wasn't even all that interested in it when my wife was playing competitively at the state level. Sure, I went to her games, but it was about as interesting to me as watching paint dry. My kids also played but there's something just not right with a game that can end 0-0. Believe it or not, I've never even played a game. Growing up it was Hockey, Football, and Baseball in that order, perhaps a game of stickball here and there. Soccer was the game the immigrant kids (mostly Greek) played.
I work with a woman whose daughter plays well enough to have colleges courting her and there are a few other fans in the office, so once again the World Cup is on TV in the office everyday. Sure I'll stand up and check out the replays, but frankly I'm not that interested. Soccer in America has an image problem, it's improving, but it's still a problem nonetheless. One executive even asked why people were watching it, "it's not an American sport".
So what about you?
Do you watch? Do you care? I've lived in England, I even lived in Korea when they co-hosted the cup with Japan (best thing that came out of that was street signs in English), but I just can't seem to muster any excitement over the games. Right now the best thing I can say about it is it's not politics... it's futbolístic.
