It’s mostly a controversy for those who are trying to score anti-trans rhetorical points
An interesting Twitter thread here about controversies regarding transgender women competing in women’s sports. It not only points out the dubious nature of the criticisms (no, transwomen don’t dominate their sports, even though accused of the “unfair” advantage of having once been men) but the occasional hypocrisies of the criticisers as well.
The thread can be read more holistically here.
“What’s in a name?” asked Maybelline-sponsored Bard William “Honda” Shakespeare.
Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum is undergoing a massive (and overdue) renovation, under the auspices of its lease to USC. But one aspect of that renovation — selling naming rights to United Airlines for $69M — is meeting strong resistance both from veterans groups (even if the words “Memorial Coliseum”) would remain, and from people who just don’t like commercialized stadium names, esp. on ones that have multiple Olympics and deep-seated community history.
Put me in that latter category. I still say “Mile High” to refer to Whomeverissponsiringitnow Field at Mile High. It’s, to my mind, a level of commercialism too far. (To be fair, United considers that sort of naming compromise — “United Airlines Field at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum” — to be a level of commercialism not far enough.)
That does raise the issue of, well, if United is willing to pay for it, who else is going to step up if they don’t get the eye-share of their brand every time the Coliseum is mentioned? That’s not an insignificant question. If sponsoring companies weren’t given the opportunity to put their names up in giant lights (and be mentioned by name in almost every news story about competitions there), perhaps they’d still give for a lesser option. Or perhaps we’d just need to reevaluate how such facilities are funded, or what level of luxury they actually need to accommodate.
I realize that, in part, it’s all a matter of commercial relations and business and money and who’s willing to pay for what. But sports stadiums have a funny role in a community. Even when publicly owned (as the Coliseum is, though leased with full rights to USC), they remain to some degree publicly funded (usually through tax breaks to their owners). And, while they aren’t quite public property — like government buildings and public parks and the like — they do hold a similar mindshare: a landmark, a place that represents the community and “their” sportsball teams, and, with time, something much more.
I’ll be curious to see how things work out back in LA.
Do you want to know more? United Airlines Says If USC Doesn’t Rename Memorial Coliseum, They Are Willing To Drop Out Of $69M Deal : LAist
Major League Baseball no longer has any actives who played the 20th Century.
You can officially feel old now.
This year, for the first time, there are no players on Opening Day rosters who were playing Major League Baseball in the 20th century. And MLB is about to see its first player who was born in the 2000s.
There were two Major Leaguers in 2018 who had played in the 1990s: Adrian Beltre and Bartolo Colon. Beltre retired at the end of last season after a 21-year Hall of Fame-caliber career that began in 1998. The 45-year-old Colon — who debuted in 1997 and has pitched 21 seasons in the big leagues — has not retired and has expressed the desire to continue his career, but he’s unsigned entering Opening Day.
Ichiro Suzuki, who played the Mariners’ first two regular-season games in Japan last week before announcing his retirement, didn’t start his Major League career until 2001. So did two other players who entered Thursday on their team’s Opening Day roster — Albert Pujols of the Angels) and CC Sabathia of the Yankees. They’re the earliest debuters left of anyone on an MLB active roster.
Also interesting — despite the sense that baseball is a bit softer on its players than football or basketball, MLB is the first league this has happened to; the NFL and NBA and NHL all still have active players who started in the 1990s.
[Handwave discussion about which century 2000 belongs in.]
Nothing earth-shattering, to be sure, just … an observation about the passing of time.
Do you want to know more? Baseball says goodbye, literally, to 20th century
And yet another world-leading sports champion has been suspended for doping, and had all titles, medals and points from the previous year wiped from the record books.
Of course, what else could you expect from the high-stakes, high-pressure, high-drama world of … um … Bridge?
As announced Thursday by the World Bridge Federation, Geir Helgemo was suspended for one year after he tested positive for synthetic testosterone and Clomiphene, a fertility drug that accelerates testosterone production in men, after September’s World Bridge Series in Orlando. The WBF said Helgemo — a Norwegian-born player who now competes for Monaco — admitted to doping and accepted his suspension, which ends Nov. 20.
One might obviously ask two questions (at least) about this news. The first would be … they do doping tests on bridge players?
Apparently so. The World Bridge Federation is recognized by the International Olympic Committee (though they don’t play bridge at the Olympics … yet). As such, part of the WBF’s means of labeling themselves a “sport” and therefore getting all sorts of other interesting sponsorship and prestige and etc. opportunities, its competitors have to abide by World Anti-Doping Agency rules.
The second question would be: um, how did these drugs actually help Helgemo’s “performance”?
That part is a lot murkier.
Kari-Anne Opsal, president of the Norwegian Bridge Federation, said the drugs were “not performance enhancing”. In a statement on the federation’s website, she said: “Geir Helgemo … has previously played for the Norwegian national team and is our biggest star. Many within the bridge community know Geir and respect him.
That said, there’s been no small amount of doping news around the cut-throat world of professional bridge over the last few years.
The sedentary world of top-level bridge has somehow been on the World Anti-Doping Agency’s radar for years. WADA’s 2016 summary of that year’s drug-test results found that 22 percent of the doping tests done on bridge players came back positive, up from 3.6 percent in 2014. Most of the 2016 positives were for “diuretics and other masking agents,” though one was for “anabolic agents.”
“Bridge is played in tournaments two or three weeks long,” Jaap Stomphorst, a physician and doping expert who works with the WBF, told the Independent in 2015. “People tend to get tired, so a stimulant can keep you awake during play.”
So, yeah … no, I got nothing.
Here’s hoping Mr. Helgemo gets clean before he gets back into competition again. The bridge world really doesn’t need another scandal like this to draw such bad amused press.
Do you want to know more? WaPo, The Guardian, Anti-Doping World
Best video of last night's #SuperBowl halftime show. https://t.co/iP2O5bwksq
— Dave Hill (@Three_Star_Dave) February 4, 2019
Best video of last night’s #SuperBowl halftime show. https://t.co/iP2O5bwksq
The boy did diving at high school over the winter, which (I assume) led him to share this video with us this evening. Greg Louganis, at the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles. Spectacular.
Trump wants the entire Philadelphia Eagles team, as Super Bowl champs to visit the White House.
Some of them decline to visit, esp. given Trump’s shenanigans about the anthem protests.
So Trump disinvites the entire team.
“The Philadelphia Eagles are unable to come to the White House with their full team to be celebrated tomorrow. They disagree with their President because he insists that they proudly stand for the National Anthem, hand on heart, in honor of the great men and women of our military and the people of our country,” Trump said in a statement. “The Eagles wanted to send a smaller delegation, but the 1,000 fans planning to attend the event deserve better,” he added.
Trump said Eagles fans are still invited to the White House “to be part of a different type of ceremony — one that will honor our great country, pay tribute to the heroes who fight to protect it, and loudly and proudly play the National Anthem. I will be there at 3:00 p.m. with the United States Marine Band and the United States Army Chorus to celebrate America,” he said.
To my mind, Trump disgraces the flag and the anthem through his grandstanding on the subject more than any protester ever could.
Trump disinvites Eagles from White House, plans ‘different type of ceremony’ for fans
President Trump on Monday abruptly announced that Super Bowl champions the Philadelphia Eagles would not visit the White House on Tuesday, citing the team’s participation in national anthem protests.
I hope EVERYONE realizes how un-American it is to say that people who don't stand for the Anthem should leave the country.
— Joe Walsh (@WalshFreedom) May 24, 2018
RT @WalshFreedom: I hope EVERYONE realizes how un-American it is to say that people who don’t stand for the Anthem should leave the country.
Political correctness is ruining free speech in America. To fight it, we insist that professional athletes participate in nationalist rituals in the proscribed fashion without expressing any views, to avoid offense. To do otherwise would endorse snowflakes and their safe spaces.
— BlamelessHat (@Popehat) May 23, 2018
RT @Popehat: Political correctness is ruining free speech in America. To fight it, we insist that professional athletes participate in nati…
Amid angry tweets from the President, loud shouting from some football fans, and declining ratings (which were declining even before the episode), the NFL has partially caved on the whole “taking a knee during the national anthem” thing. Under the new rules, which basically go back to the status quo ante of some years ago, players will no longer be required to be out on the field during the anthem, but, if they are, they will be required to “show respect” during the anthem, including standing, etc.
So players will not be, arguably, compelled to perform political speech, or be obliged to act patriotically. But only in the context of not being visible. Any actual protest they have about things (e.g., the original concerns expressed about police actions against African-Americans) will need to find another venue or opportunity.
I’ll be curious to see what comes next. The nationalists will crow that they’ve put “those people” in their place (the President is already blathering about it). The underlying issues remain unresolved. How many players will choose to sit out the anthem behind the scenes, and how will that work?
And will the fans who claim they stopped watching because of this actually turn around and start watching (assuming they actually stopped)?
It’s an easy compromise for the NFL owners. I’m not sure it will truly make anyone happy (except for a few dolts), but it will mean the owners aren’t getting angry calls from the White House, so I guess that means that their biggest concern is addressed.
I remain amazed by Donald’s pathological need to threaten people into compliance.
I mean, who in their right mind would actually tweet this: “The U.S. has put together a STRONG bid w/ Canada & Mexico for the 2026 World Cup. It would be a shame if countries that we always support were to lobby against the U.S. bid. Why should we be supporting these countries when they don’t support us (including at the United Nations)?”
I mean, we’re not even talking about something like a world nuclear treaty or something that even matters in a substantive fashion. It’s about a freaking soccer tournament.
But everything for Trump is about You Will Respect/Fear Me, or I Will Make You Respect/Fear Me. It makes some of the behind-the-scenes accusations seem all the more plausible.
(It’s also worth noting that the only reason Donald felt he had to tweet this is that, despite, yes, a strong group bid with Canada and Mexico, the major contender, Morocco, is getting a lot of support because of Trump’international activities, including the Muslim-ish Ban.)
[Originally posted last Friday.]
1. I was a bit irked when I discovered the offspring had not set the alarm properly and was still asleep when I headed downstairs. I provided a poke, only to be informed fifteen seconds later (and quickly validated) that apparently either my alarm clock was screwed up, or else I had spontaneously awakened about half an hour early, thinking my alarm had gone off.
2. The offspring could have been forgiven for being a bit off, since she was in her first auto accident last night, driving home from a swim/dive meet in unexpectedly snowy/icy conditions, coming to a gentle (yet still ABS-invoking) stop at a signal, and getting rear-ended by another car whose ABS was not quite effective enough. NO INJURIES. Just a lot of jangled nerves (and a badly damaged rear bumper).
3. I actually served as announcer at said swim/dive meet, which was a first for me. It involved a lot less improv than I had been afraid of (which is good, since it was my first swim/dive meet, and I was unfamiliar with the cadence or what, specifically, I should be announcing). But it was a lot of fun, people asked if I did it for a living (!), and, to relate to No. 2 above, the girl who did the rear-ending was one of the competitors at the meet, and her mom (who drove up about five minutes after I returned to the scene) had been there, and both recognized my voice.
4. It turns out the Hulu app on our Blu-Ray player is no longer supported by Sony or Hulu, so we can’t watch Marvel’s Runaways that way. However, the Hulu phone app (but not the web page, as far as I can see) supports Chromecast, so that should work out well. Which is good, because we watched the first ep. and it was excellent.
Prior to 2009, you didn’t see all the players at NFL games standing the sidelines during the national anthem for prime time games. Prior to that year, NFL players in such games stayed in the locker room, though on Sunday afternoon games the players were out on the sidelines. [1]
In 2009, the NFL set a new policy saying that, nope, players had to be out on the sidelines during the national anthem during prime time, and suggesting (but not mandating) that the players should stand during the anthem.
(There have been reports that the Defense Dept. paid the NFL to do this. The actual DoD actions, that have been documented, were payments to the NFL in 2012 for various patriotic displays at NFL games, itself a sketchy practice.)
The kneeling protests by NFL players during the anthem, protesting racism (esp. law enforcement) in America, have been highly controversial (which, indirectly, is kind of what you want protests to be). The president has been livid about it, fans (some at least) have been angry, the NFL owners have been unhappy about the brouhaha but haven’t been willing to force the issue (perhaps because compelling people to act patriotic is, even if legal, also kind of sketchy).
Well, word is that the NFL owners may try to defuse the whole mess by simply going back to having the players stay in the locker room until after the national anthem. That will probably make all sorts of people unhappy, too, but its also an unhappiness that doesn’t have a weekly set of visuals to go with it.
(Questioning the American compulsion to engage in a communal expression of patriotic fervor before sporting events apparently is not on the table. Why is there a big national anthem at football games and NASCAR races, but not before Formula 1 races or golf tournaments? What purpose of national interest or celebration of liberty does such a mandated display actually serve?)
——
[1] https://www.snopes.com/nfl-sideline-anthem/, http://www.cnn.com/2017/09/25/us/nfl-national-anthem-trump-kaepernick-history-trnd/index.html
And that includes some publc school districts levying punishment to student athletes who take a knee during the national anthem.
You cannot force someone by law or other threat of state punishment to express (or not express) political sentiment. That includes patriotic displays. It would be as wrong (and illegal) to tell someone they must say or do something patriotic as to tell them they must not.
The Supreme Court has been very clear on this, dating back to the pretty-hyper-patriotic days of the Second World War. They ruled in Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette that students could not be compelled to pledge allegiance to the flag (emphasis mine), as it would be a violation of the First Amendment’s freedom of speech:
If there is any fixed star in our constitutional constellation, it is that no official, high or petty, can prescribe what shall be orthodox in politics, nationalism, religion, or other matters of opinion, or force citizens to confess by word or act their faith therein. If there are any circumstances which permit an exception, they do not now occur to us.
It that’s so for an explicit expression like the Pledge of Allegiance, how much more so for standing or hand-over-hearting for a patriotic tune? And calling something a “tradition” or saying that such protest must be done “respectfully” (i.e., out of sight) is no way to dodge around it, either.
Regardless of how one feels about the merits of such national anthem protests, they are in their own way more attuned to what the flag and the nation behind it stand for than “officials, high or petty” demanding behavioral orthodoxy and expressions of patriotism under threat of penalty.
What the Supreme Court Says About Sitting Out the National Anthem
Some public schools are telling student athletes they can’t kneel during the anthem – but that’s unconstitutional.
The usual good stuff from Samantha. A couple of additional notes (beyond what I’ve written elsewhere on the matter):
1. There seems to be an unacknowledged conflict between the same people saying …
“I tune into sports to watch sports, not politics, so these athletes expressing political views is really inappropriate”
and
“How dare they disrespect our country, our national values, our military, and all this country represent?!”
In case it’s not clear, standing up and saluting for the national anthem is a political act. It’s declaring allegiance (or at least conformity) to an expression of national identity and patriotism — the very definition of politics.
If you’re not interested in politics at a sporting event, then why are we doing a big national anthem ceremony in front of all our sportsball games?
2. That 2009 thing Samantha mentions? Yeah, that’s an interesting one bit of historical not-so-trivia:
I have no idea if this movie is good, or bad, or inspiring, or boring, or what.
But the title of this movie about Jesse Owens is simply, thoroughly, once-in-a-lifetime brilliant.
Race
Jesse Owens’ quest to become the greatest track and field athlete in history thrusts him onto the world stage of the 1936 Olympics, where he faces off against Adolf Hitler’s v…
I am not a big sports guy, but when my home town team makes it into whatever sportsball game is being played, I'll follow it along. I picked up a Broncos flag back when they first changed their logo, and put it out when they get to the AFC playoffs, etc.
And, the past couple of times the Broncos made it to the Super Bowl, Jackie and Scott have hosted a Super Bowl Party. And … well, to say the least, it was a much more enjoyable experience than it was last time Denver made it in.
http://www.denverpost.com/broncos/ci_29489135/von-miller-defense-carry-broncos-super-bowl-50
So we ate well, drank well, cheered, booed, and enjoyed a reasonably close game that ended in our local tribe able to celebrate victory and burn cars out of joy, not anger. Huzzah!
Thanks to Jackie and Scott for the hospitality, and hopefully we'll be able to make it an annual event.
IN YOUR FACE, PAGAN CAT WORSHIPERS OF THE OTHER TRIBE’S SPORTSBALL TEAM! WE ARE A BETTER TRIBE! #Broncos #SB50
My sportsball team’s number is bigger than their sportsball team’s number! My tribe is superior! Now there is singing!
Go, my tribal sportsball team, go!
