My first collaborative work for "The Fix is In"'s website has been posted

Brian Tuohy sent me an e-mail this morning and told me that my first contribution (with the help of two other contributors and Brian cleaning up messes like having to find different videos than I had posted here because of The FA taking down the ones I had put into the original draft of my portion of the essay) has been posted to his site.

You can read a quite comprehensive examination of the EPL's 2012 "Hollywood Finish" on Brian's website right here.

A number of comments:

• I would be remiss if I did not openly thank Brian Tuohy for the opportunity to post on his site as he needs and requires.  I know I can often be coarse, and do use expletives on this site.  I cannot do that over there, as Brian has a book, and soon two on the subject, to sell.  He is not paying me; I am posting there as a favor to him while he works on the second book and does not have the time to do as far-reaching of work as I know he would like.  Taking my style and anger at the current state of sport and curtailing it to a more professional standard will be a test for me, but I welcome the privilege.
• Secondly, I would be similarly remiss if I did not recognize the other parties in this work:  Matt Agosta of soccer site Suckyball, and Ken Smith, whom I don't have a link on and am not sure what he did, but Brian credited him with helping out.
• Matt Agosta said in the post:  "The main reason Manchester United and Manchester City were neck and neck for the final game is because they were tied on points. This is very rare and is the reason the season's end was such a big deal because both teams had identical points going into the last game."  According to the UK Guardian: 
  • "It's not often the title race has gone to the final day of the season recently. In the noughties, it only happened twice: in 2007-08 and 2009-10, and on neither occasion was there any genuine tension. Manchester United survived a couple of scares in 2008 at Wigan, but ultimately won 2-0 comfortably, while in 2010 Chelsea romped to an 8-0 victory over Wigan at Stamford Bridge as United sullenly and pointlessly beat Stoke City 4-0 at home. There were more nail-biters in the 90s: Andy Cole v Ludo Miklosko in 1995, Andy Cole's redemption at Middlesbrough in 1996 and Andy Cole's cute lob against Tottenham to secure the first part of United's treble in 1999."

•   So, for only the third time in the 20 years of the EPL, there was a competitive last weekend at the top.  And why was that?  Agosta notes in the article that there were two rather suspicious results for Manchester United when they appeared to have their sixth EPL title in seven years locked up:  a draw to Everton and a loss to relegation-threatened Wigan.  In fact, the article correctly points to that being eerily similar to the Packers losing to the Chiefs to drop their only regular-season loss -- a preview of their first-game playoff exit!
• These two games were before the second Manchester Derby of the EPL season, a game in which Suckyball and the New York Times reported was seen worldwide by 600,000,000 people -- three times the number worldwide of the most recent Super Bowl!!  On October 23, 2011, Manchester United went to Manchester City and drubbed them six goals to one on the road!  So, when the rematch occurred, City defeats United 1-0?
• So that sets up everything which you can read about on my part of the post.  It's clear that ratings were going to be high again, but who could've imagined this?  Someone like me.
• In fact, the Guardian has an post with the following title on it's website at this time:  "How Joey Barton Handed Manchester City the Premier League Title" -- just as I've posited.  I just question whether his actions were blatantly intentional in this regard!
• Something which has been understated in all this:  Barton says another QPR player encouraged him to try to get a Manchester City player sent off.  Where's The FA on this one?  THAT should be 10 matches!  (My best estimate for Barton would be, for the three Violent Conducts alone, about 3/4 of the season!)
• BOTH stoppage-time goals look suspicious as to the location of the goalkeeper.  I told you about the corner, Brian's added a note on the title-winner.
• The post notes, as a post-script, that Manchester City earned $97,000,000 in broadcast monies on their way to the title.
• Update on Barton:  Apparently, the appeal is tomorrow.  Barton, to be investigated by QPR afterwards, has requested his personal attorney to fight what The Daily Mail believes will be a 12-match ban.  At least one writer on The Telegraph believes the ban could be three months!  I think it should be much longer:  4 matches for the red, 5 matches for the kick, 5 more that the kick took place post-red, 5 more for intent to injure on the kick, 6 for the headbutt, 6 more that the headbutt took place post-red...  That's 31 matches (more than 3/4 of next season) right there.  I'd say a calendar year for starters, and then start investigating who the bloke might've talked to pre-match!