This will not be exhaustive in any way, shape, or form. I’m just writing about whatever caught my interest since the last time I wrote, which was way too long ago. It’s not my fault the sports world hasn’t been entertaining me.
NFL
I watched a few NFL games, mostly just to hang around my
dad on Sundays. The NFL did get their
best possible Superbowl match up
with Tom Brady and the Buccaneers against Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs. 40-something Brady willing his new team to a
championship game was triumph in and of itself.
Since I like both teams, I was kind of looking forward to the game.
Unfortunately, I read and watched some of the pregame
media propoganda. A USA Today columnist demanded Brady apologize for being friends with
Trump and called him “White” as a
pejorative. Three newspaper reports that
I glanced at took shots at Brady, while calling Mahomes a social justice
conscious pillar of his community. I
didn’t like having torn loyalties to begin with, much less now having a
political angle added to the game. I
just wanted to watch and enjoy a good game, but that was too much to ask for.
When the time came, I ended up watching two movies that
were on another channel and kept up with the game during the commercials. All I saw when the Chiefs had the ball was
Patrick Mahomes running for his life.
I’ve seldom seen a worse offensive line breakdown. After the game, I think the stat was that
he’d run 500 total yards, but mostly in the wrong direction. It’s telling that the call of the game was
that of a streaker invading the field late in the fourth quarter.
I did find a Fox
Sports Radio affiliate at night to listen to commentary about the game (out
of Shreveport? “Home of LSU sports talk”). They insinuated that the refs had thrown the
game for the Bucs. Looking at the calls,
you could make the case, though I think the Chiefs’ offense did a good enough
job of losing the game without any help.
There’s also the question of why the fix would favor
Brady. Commissioner Roger Goodell hates him, except for
the ratings he gets. The NFL storyline
favored Mahomes taking the mantle of GOAT from Brady with this game. They wanted Brady playing in the Superbowl,
but him winning wasn’t the narrative they wanted. I have no explanation. For now, I’m just enjoying Brady shoving the
media’s hit job on him right back down their throats, as usual. This isn’t the first (or second, or third)
time they’ve tried to bury him.
MLB
It’s been a heck of an offseason for the Padres, who picked up some front line
pitching help. Unfortunately, the Dodgers then picked up Trevor Bauer to regain the preseason
division victory. The Rockies finally dealt unhappy superstar
Nolan Arenado. They sent him to the Cardinals for a bunch of Little Leaguers and actually paid the
birds to take him. I like both teams,
but this really hurts. I talked to my
Aunt Judy in Missouri to see if she was happy about the trade. She’d never heard of Nolan. If a player doesn’t already play for the
Cardinals, she’s never heard of them.
That’s a true homer fan.
There have been a bunch of Hall of Famer deaths over the off season. Tommy
Lasorda passed away and reportedly did bleed blue in the hospital. How do you not love Tommy? I felt a bit sick over the Dodgers winning
the World Series last year, but now I have to admit, I’m glad that Lasorda got to see his team win another
one before his passing. Hank Aaron heroically took the Cold
“vaccine” to demonstrate to the black community that it was safe to take. He then died in his sleep hours after taking
the second dosage two weeks later. At
least his passing gave the media yet another opportunity to call everyone a
“racist,” for how he was treated while chasing Babe Ruth’s home run record.
Aggie
Sports
Let’s just move on.
No, no. There’s good news to
report. The Men’s Basketball team’s governor-imposed exile finally ended having
only ruined their entire pre-conference season.
No, of course, they still can’t play in the great state of New Mexico,
but thankfully they found a high school in El Paso to host their “home”
games. (No fans allowed, of
course.) What? It’s Eastwood! My mortal high school enemies! Myself being a proud alumni of J.M. Hanks High School, which is like
ten minutes down the down from Eastwood, am horrified. It’s a betrayal. So far, the Men have managed to win two of
their first six WAC games in a
conference they were expected to win.
Pshaw, being forced to skip those early season games and doing things
like having preseason practicing are obviously overrated.
On the other hand, tell that to Coach Mike Jordan and the Volleyball
team. They went over to Tucson cold and
untrained and beat Arizona in a
scrimmage in five sets. So far, they’ve
also won their first six conference games too.
UTEP has been nice enough to
let them use Memorial Gym to play their
home games at. It helps that Jordan’s
former assistant coach is currently the UTEP head coach. All this, and star Juliana Salnoa isn’t even playing, because she has to pursue her
nursing degree this semester. The coach
has apparently brought in some explosive freshman talent and excellent
transfers. I almost get the impression
he’s having trouble deciding which great player to start from set to set. And, I can’t watch my girls play. Damn it.
Baseball is
starting the season on the road, much like all of the northeastern teams who
come here at the beginning of the season, since their home fields are covered
in the snow. The Softball team is relocating to Florida to play their pre-conference
games. Neither team has a place to play
their home games yet. The Women’s Basketball team may as well be
on the back of a milk carton; they’ve disappeared. I heard that the Soccer team beat UTEP
recently, but I don’t know where they’re playing home games either.
ESPN
Radio
Oh, I must make a special note here of the “Worldwide
leader in Woke.” Until the day after the
Superbowl, when I wanted to hear some sports talk about the game, I suddenly
realized I hadn’t listened to national sports radio in a couple of months. (I have been regularly listening to local
sports talk in the afternoon.)
Apparently, I wasn’t the only one not listening. ESPN Radio’s ratings have been down 50%
during this time.
What a shock. They
fired all the big name (and big salaried) SWJ talent that had been eroding
their ratings for the last several years and replaced them with no name (and
dirt cheap) SWJ talent a couple of months ago.
Every time I scan past their local station, they’re talking about the NBA, whose ratings have also taken a
big drop this season. So the network is
talking about unpopular political opinions and about an unpopular sport using
subpar talent. It’s inexplicable that
ratings have continued to go down.
What can you do to change directions if you’re ESPN
Radio? Start charging people for your
bad opinions, of course! I nearly hit my
head on the floor as doubled over laughing as one of the no name hosts was
promoting their new podcast service.
They’re promising commentary on the intersection of sports, social
justice, and politics for a small monthly fee.
Even the guy reading the copy was having trouble making himself believe
somebody might actually want to buy this.
It’s so pitiful, it’s kind of sad in a way.
I don’t know how much longer sports as we know them are going to be around. I really don’t. Between political nonsense, a lack of paying customers in the stands, and declining ratings (the NFL’s have gone down too), there’s got to be culling. My antipathy may turn to apathy here shortly and I’ll just watch WWE.
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