Possible Final Quick Hits Before My Computer, Beginning With Another Death Sacrifice

• Deadspin again:  Morgan State football player Marquese Meadow died two weeks after collapsing at a football practice.  Another sacrifice to the altar, though it's not clear yet what killed him.
• More trouble for the Spoiled Children:  Anthony Brown has quit the USC Trojans and claims the coach is a racist.
• In what I believe is the continued tampering of the Rams by ESPN, the ESPN Rams reporter is actually believing Michael Sam will NOT make the roster, as he reports that it is believed Sam's opponent on the D-line for what appears to be the 53rd spot, Ethan Westbrooks, impresses more in practice.  (Sam played on the opening drive of the game tonight, and apparently was part of two of the tackles.)  We'll know within 48 hours -- all 32 teams play their final preseason games tonight, 53-man rosters must be submitted by 4 PM Eastern Saturday.
• Speaking of Sam:  Read this Tom Ley Deadspin piece on Michael Sam and the ESPN shower story.

In a ROYAL case of "headlining for clicks", it appears as if Deadspin is deliberately trying to get people pissed off with:  "ESPN Was Dumb, But Michael Sam's Showering Habits Do Matter."

That said, it becomes, very quickly, a piece that might have more to it than meets the eye.

Ley writes:

"If Michael Sam really is making a concentrated effort to avoid sharing a shower with his teammates, he is living under the exact same kind of fear that Jackie Robinson did, and that is devastatingly sad—so much so that it kills a lot of the warm fuzzies brought on by Sam's coming out. That is a very important story."

Which is true.  The saddest thing about it is that the LGBT community, as much as the African-American community needed Jackie Robinson in baseball, needs a transcendent athlete to shut up the homophobia in the sports world "made for men" (as Robinson made large steps in doing for the racism), and to shut it down (though, like Robinson, it will not take that one transcendent alone).

Sam is NOT that athlete.  He is a serviceable defensive lineman who has a commodity which WILL be in demand in the NFL -- the ability to get to the quarterbacks in a league which might flag a lot more chucks, holds, etc. which keep down passing scoring.

He is good enough to make the roster in a quarterback-driven (thanks, ESPN and rules committees) NFL. And ESPN is fucking scared of that, and so are most of the corporate sponsors of the NFL.

• The beer companies and bikini babes
• The beer companies and the women glorifying the touchdown heroes as if sex is to follow
• Cialis.  Enough said.
• The companies who make calendars of cheerleaders spreading in bikinis -- never mind that the league thinks so little of the ladies in general (and even less of the cheerleaders specifically) that they bother paying them an actual decent wage.
• The big-car companies, implying that bigger is better, on the road and in your...

etc. and so forth and so on.