Daily Dose
Daily Dose: 9/29/17
NBA commissioner expects players to stand for anthem
6:35 PMHey gang, Friday’s another double dip for me. I’ll be doing Around The Horn at 5 p.m. and, through the magic of television, also hosting #TheRightTime on ESPN Radio from 4-7 p.m. EST. Here’s Thursday’s show.
It's worth asking why we spend $600 billion a year on the military if we can't get more than 5000 troops and 50 helicopters to Puerto Rico.
— Chris Murphy (@ChrisMurphyCT) September 29, 2017
A lot of people are looking to get to Mars. There are long lists of folks who’ve signed up to get on a rocket ship and head to the red planet, knowing full well they’d never come back. But, with Elon Musk’s dream of landing people across the galaxy, he’s also got a plan to evolve that mission. He wants to create rockets that can take you various places across the globe in a matter of minutes. Like, the U.S. to China in half an hour. I can barely even get my mind around the concept, but, hey, we’re all for it.
If you’re wondering how Russian hacking may affect you, now you know. A new CNN report says that outside agencies were using fake black activist accounts to stoke racial tension before the last presidential election, which is fascinating. Not because they were disseminating false information — they weren’t — but because they were trying to increase turnout to many previously organized events, to naturally increase division among American citizens. In short, other nations are using are own racism against us, and it’s working.
What if I told you … that three presidents showed up at a golf tournament together for one of the greatest photo ops of all time. In case you don’t know, the Presidents Cup, the competition in which the United States faces off against the rest of the world, is underway. Presidents Obama, Bush (43) and Clinton all graced New Jersey’s Liberty National Golf Club with their presence. This whole situation should instantly be made into a 30 for 30 film. I can’t imagine a more star-studded lineup for a more mundane tournament.
NBA commissioner Adam Silver is trying to get ahead of any national anthem controversies. But it won’t be easy. Mind you, the NBA does have a rule that players are to stand during “The Star-Spangled Banner,” but also, this is a league that’s seen quite a few pregame protests in its day. Not to mention that the WNBA has been at the forefront on these public displays for some time. Now, Silver is saying he expects players to stand during the anthem, which seems to be a step backward in wokeness.
Free Food
Coffee Break: You might not be focused on what’s happening in Calgary, Alberta, but it’s worth noting. Basically, in the fight for a new arena deal in town, the NHL and a big company have inserted themselves into the mayor’s race, which is an awful precedent and development.
Snack Time: I don’t mean to be the guy making a big scene every time Ta-Nehisi Coates writes something, but that’s where we are these days. Check out his latest for The Guardian, about what we should have seen coming.
Dessert: Ladies and gentlemen, meet Petie Parker.
Petie Parker is Instagram's most fashionable Spider Man pic.twitter.com/y609KiLw4l
— NowThis (@nowthisnews) September 29, 2017
Daily Dose
Daily Dose: 9/27/17
Getting these tweets off is now a longer process
4:25 PMAlas, I didn’t get a win on Around The Horn on Tuesday, but Friday is another day. I’m sending out my NHL fantasy league draft notices on Wednesday, and I’m really excited about it.
#ChanceOnColbert. 🔥. pic.twitter.com/yaPMNAQB8r
— deray (@deray) September 27, 2017
Twitter might have ruined itself. On Tuesday, the company announced that some select users will be able to expand their tweets to 280 characters. Why? LORD KNOWS. The entire living reason why the site was so good was that everyone had to work within the limitations to communicate, and we all eventually got used to it as the one thing that was worth it: brevity. By moving to 280 characters, visually and in practice, the entire platform changes. Remember this day in the internet universe. We are forever changed.
The national anthem at sporting events is driving people mad. Now it’s become this thing that basically allows folks to make any random statement, no matter what it may be. Colin Kaepernick’s initial efforts to draw attention to police brutality in America have now been completely co-opted by the league. Now, a combat veteran who won a contest to be the Baltimore Ravens’ national anthem singer is resigning. In addition, Northwestern football has randomly decided to lock arms before their next game. Meh.
Smoking kills. We all know that. But that doesn’t mean that plenty of people don’t do it. And if you know black folks, you know that we like menthol cigarettes. They’re more harmful, and for quite some time tobacco companies have been accused of targeting the black community. Now in Minnesota, leaders are asking convenience stores to ban the sale of menthols, thinking that will help curb the sale of the items to minors, which is a big problem.
Don’t think that NFL players don’t know what their owners and fans think. And for the Carolina Panthers, that situation is more prevalent than most. Their owner is a former NFL player, and North Carolina is a state with quite a few military families and thus military bases. As a result, players were afraid to express themselves surrounding the national anthem. The team and management are now trying to ease tensions, and that season is officially off the rails.
Free Food
Coffee Break: There’s nothing cool about getting dragged off a plane. It’s embarrassing, often physically injurious and emotionally demoralizing. But if someone has an allergy to a dog that they can’t provide documentation for and those dogs are on the plane? Tough situation.
Snack Time: I don’t have kids. Which means I don’t have to deal with little things that you only use for babies then never again. But, if you’re in the world of sports bottles, you might hate that world.
Dessert: Yep. This is funny.
Dwyane Wade getting call from 216 number pic.twitter.com/6Tm8OXGd16
— Dellavedova Facts (@DellyFact) September 26, 2017
Daily Dose
Daily Dose: 9/26/17
Kyrie Irving claims he was trolling with his ‘flat earth’ theories
3:16 PMTuesday’s another TV day, kiddos. I’ll be on Around The Horn at 5 p.m. on ESPN. Bob Ryan’s on the show today, so the likelihood of career win No. 2 is pretty low, alas.
When you're not graduating on time but still gotta take the class photo pic.twitter.com/rkdDPrxqlc
— Jemele Hill (@jemelehill) September 26, 2017
Donald Trump is not an NFL owner. He’s the president of the United States. He wanted to be a sports owner, but that didn’t really work out. It’s a shame, too, but he actually probably would fit right in with those guys. Alas, they don’t want him and Monday they showed him that. Now, he’s saying that he thinks the NFL should create an actual rule to prevent players from kneeling during the anthem. Seriously, Puerto Rico is about to get washed off the face of the earth, and this is where we are in the White House.
I drink a lot of milk. This is a known fact. Every time I show up in a meeting room with a quart of it, people recoil in horror as if I’m somehow doing something not considered reasonable in polite society. Anyway, milk comes from cows, and I drink it in the “whole” variety. But these days “milk” doesn’t even really mean much, outside of something being a form of dairy liquid squeezed from another product. Almond milk is surely something you’re familiar with. Cockroach milk might be less familiar to you, but that, I can live with. But pea milk? NOPE.
Kyrie Irving ain’t fooling anyone. A while back, when he said during a podcast that he believed that the Earth was flat, most people believed him. Why? Because most people aren’t in the business of lying about basic scientific facts as a way to call attention to themselves. Now, he’s claiming that he only did that as an “exploitation tactic” — whatever that means. First of all, I don’t believe this, whatsoever. But even if I did, it doesn’t change how I feel about flat-earthers, anyway.
If you paid players to play major college sports, you’d have way less controversy. But, alas, this is the world we live in, so when the FBI gets involved to tell us that a bunch of schools having been paying players for years, we’ve got to act like we’re outraged. I, for one, am not. But folks are getting arrested, including big-time people from big-time sneaker companies. Of course, if all this is true, it fundamentally changes the entire purpose of the NCAA, which is fine by me, too.
Free Food
Coffee Break: Oh, and if you’re wondering why people are protesting at NFL games, look no further than Pittsburgh to explain. A fire chief in Pennsylvania posted on Facebook that Steelers coach Mike Tomlin was a “no-good n—–,” which should give you an idea of how old that guy is.
Snack Time: If you’re looking for a hockey team to root for this season, you might want to take a look at the Winnipeg Jets, who we can say at the least, are very woke.
Dessert: Mark Cuban wins the day, y’all.
Mark Cuban loaned the team plane to J.J. Barea to fly supplies to Puerto Rico. Barea will return tonight with his mother and grandmother.
— Tim MacMahon (@espn_macmahon) September 26, 2017
Daily Dose
Daily Dose: 9/25/17
Prayers for Puerto Rico
12:25 PMHappy Monday, kiddos. If you missed #TheRightTime on Friday, I explained why I feel that extending the nets at MLB ballparks will drastically affect the experience of any baseball game. Take a listen here.
NFL spokesman Joe Lockhart: "Everyone should know, including the president, that this is what real locker room talk is."
— Ben Volin (@BenVolin) September 25, 2017
President Donald Trump officially launched his beef with the NFL on Sunday. He did the usual throwing out of Twitter broadsides, and the league’s players responded much in kind. Even New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady said that Trump was doing too much. But one guy who works at the Buffalo Bills stadium was so mad about national anthem protests that he quit his ACTUAL job at the facility. That aside, let’s be careful how we use the word “unity” surrounding what the NFL is doing now, because, well, it’s not even really about that.
It’s a sad day in Nashville, Tennessee. And not because Vanderbilt got absolutely destroyed by Alabama, or because the Tennessee Titans couldn’t pull one out against the New England Patriots. A masked gunman entered a church parking lot and shot and killed someone and injured a handful of others inside the church. Obviously, this could have been a much bigger tragedy, but thankfully a church usher stepped in to confront the gunman. It’s not yet clear what the motivation for the shooting might have been; there will be a civil rights investigation.
Puerto Rico is part of the United States. In case you weren’t aware of that. Because some people aren’t. The island territory that’s brought so much to the culture, from music to sports to fashion, etc., is so completely devastated from Hurricane Maria that it’s starting over from scratch. Their crops have been completely banged out, the place is nearly unrecognizable, and now they’re worried about the status of a dam, whose failure is apparently imminent.
Everybody loves Darren Sproles. The little man who managed to make it in the NFL for so long after being a star at Kansas State was such a genuinely great story in terms of his success in hanging around the league. But on Sunday he was dealt a blow that will basically end his career, which is awful. The Philadelphia Eagles running back broke his arm and tore his ACL on the same play, ending his season. He was within earshot of 20,000 career all-purpose yards. Sad.
Free Food
Coffee Break: Baseball has a long season, so you’ve got to run a lot of short-range bits to keep yourself entertained when you’re on the road. You can mark down “Blue Jays players wearing Blue Jays players Snuggies” as an instant classic.
From Jose Bautista's Snapchat before the game #BlueJays pic.twitter.com/ycwc4pcXYJ
— BallHer (@BaseballHer) September 24, 2017
Snack Time: Offset has been doing a whole lot in the past year, and that doesn’t even include Cardi B. But, since you need it, here’s a list of his best guest verses of the year.
Dessert: Never forget the Little Rock Nine.