Bro Tide Bro

(And thanks to my anonymous friend for such a wonderful title that explains this so well...)

You know, I've talked a number of times about the concept that the only reason many schools exist is for their athletic factories...

I just never thought it would be so blatantly ADMITTED by the University of Alabama and everyone around it:

OT Cam Robinson and DB Lawrence "Hootie" Jones were arrested in January on stolen gun and drug charges.

Citing a lack of evidence (ROTFL!), Monroe, LA Village Idiot District Attorney Jerry Jones had this to say to KNOE Channel 8 of Monroe, LA on the subject:

"I want to emphasize once again that the main reason I'm doing this is that I refuse to ruin the lives of two young men who have spent their adolescence and teenage years, working and sweating, while we were all in the air conditioning."

Seriously.

Admitted, open-faced, that the athletes can do whatever the fuck they want.

And even another part of all this is that this is a LOUISIANA DA doing this for the University of Alabama and their football team, on top of the fact that they basically just laid carte blanche for rape, pillage, and plunder by every (meaningful!) football player within the sound of his voice and the pen of his jurisdiction on everything in their path.

It is obvious that, eventually, some aggrieved party is just going to have to go to a stadium and go off.

It is obvious that only those with "legitimate purpose" to the outside society have any rights whatsoever, the rest of us having none.

This (along with that ex-Stanford swimmer - who I intend to blog about to soon when I can wrap my brain around the entire situation!) is another reason we need to abolish the American sports machine as it currently exists.

And it's also obvious that, regardless of Alabama's record on the football field this year, the CFP Committee needs that sentence in front of them when the decisions are made as to who plays whom.

FUCK ALABAMA!

Rio Olympics: PLEASE Cancel Them Already!!

Three Olympic updates, all with ominous effects on the Rio Games:

• Rio itself has declared a state of emergency on it's finances and might not be able to meet it's Olympic financial obligations.  (Deadspin)
• Today, the weightlifting organizers have announced provisional measures to disqualify Russia from the weightlifting competition.  Kazakhstan and Belarus are also subject to such a ban.  Reasoning:  Doping.

weightlifting: Russia, Kasakhstan, Belarus face olympic ban #Rio2016. IWF rejects Russian as chair of EWF doping com pic.twitter.com/uRM7foDwdm

— Jens Weinreich (@JensWeinreich) June 22, 2016

• Of course, the Russian disqualification from weightlifting might be moot:  By July 15, WADA is supposed to receive a report on the accusations of the state-sponsored doping and test-evasion program which is believed to have inflated the medal count at the Sochi Homophobe-lympics.  WADA's recommendation will probably, then, be for the International Olympic Committee to blanket-ban Russia from the Rio Games.
• As of today (at an extraordinary summit for the Olympics vis-a-vis doping), however, it appears that Russia (and also Kenya) will be subject to having every athlete tested (at the individual sport level) by independent investigators before they would be allowed to compete in Rio de Janeiro.  (The Guardian)

How TPTB think we can be so stupid...

A firm in China is selling...  these...

Without further comment except to thank my anonymous friend for the info and that many other places are reporting this too:

My friend just bought this from China pic.twitter.com/eJWXaMTk9H

— Matthew Coller (@MatthewWGR) June 16, 2016

And now, the real dumpster fire begins...

Golden State, through arrogance and pigheadedness, threw away a 73-9 season and Cleveland is the champions.

Now, it's not a question of if people are gone off the Warriors, but how many...

Russia, Sports, and State-Sponsored Terrorism

Has not been a good week for Russia lately, and I have a feeling something further is about to go down as a result...

• I've already covered the threatened Russia disqualification from Euro 2016.  It is now clear, to most, that the hooliganism efforts of the Russian ultra-violent soccer fans is state-sponsored terrorism.

Some of the reactions from the Russian officials regarding the unrest for the England match were quite disturbing (from a Deadspin article after the Russia-England unrest last weekend):

1. From Igor Lebedev, on the executive committee of the Russian Football Union:  “I don’t see anything wrong with the fans fighting.  Quite the opposite, well done lads, keep it up!”
2. Later, he went and doubled down:  “In nine out of 10 cases, football fans go to games to fight, and that’s normal. The lads defended the honour of their country and did not let English fans desecrate our motherland. We should forgive and understand our fans.”
3. And then there's this:

Russian top cop: gay pride parades have made French police weak and unprepared for mighty, manly Russian hooligans https://t.co/RxdyyRtXzF

— max seddon (@maxseddon) June 13, 2016

To wit, I have one response:  #ShootBack

So now, today, British politicians are stating that some of the hooligans in France are actually Russian uniformed police who are acting on Vlad Putin's orders to disrupt Euro 2016.  This is an ominous situation for the World Cup in two years, which I would have to believe most of the organized world is about to boycott as a result.

This would stand to reason.  The state-sponsored doping and intimidation tactics to desecrate the Homophobe-lympics in Sochi were also part of what is becoming evident as Putin's concept of "hybrid warfare" -- extend the violent reach internationally while using propaganda to hold the line on the homeland front.

Oh, that...

• The Russian track disqualification from Rio 2016 has been upheld by the IAAF this week.  The IOC officially supports this disqualification.

And it needs to be quickly followed by an IOC removal of the entire Russian team from the event.

Word is, they're not boycotting.

• Declan Hill has a number of thoughts as to where a lot of this can go.

If you think this doesn't end violently -- you're funny.

Actually, you're not funny, but you better get that point and get it fast, world sports community.

And here might be the consummation of the Copa America mess...

Nice job, Mexico.  SEVEN-NOTHING to Chile.

Chile won the last Copa America, so that stands to reason.  But with the USA now having Argentina in the way of the final, one has to think it's a Chile-Argentina final, right?

The one saving grace:  The quarterfinal at the finals' site DID draw 79,000.  The USA quarterfinal only drew 47,000, but the stadium in Seattle only seats 39,000 for soccer unless they expand it.

But can they get 80,000 for the final in East Rutherford if (and I hope ONCE) Messi and Argentina take the Red, White, and Blue and make them their bitch to the tune of about 4-0 or so?

Am I the only person with Bay Area ties who thinks...

... Cleveland is going to win tonight and they will (IF NECESSARY!!!) get help to do so?

I was going to post this last night, but a crazy neighborhood and an uncooperative police department are making things a bit sticky around here.

Anyway, Steph Curry's wife needs to shut up about the series being rigged, but she may be eventually right -- but not for the reason you might think coming from this former (and future) resident of the Bay Area...

The shine is off the Warriors and everybody, save the Bay Area (and, apparently, Miami) wants them to lose tonight -- and that might be enough that (if and only if required -- and it may not be) Cleveland might finally break the drought and 73-9 will go for naught...

The heel turn is complete. pic.twitter.com/aL1osh4kN0

— Rusty Olson (@Rusty_Olson) June 19, 2016

As it now deserves to be.

Golden State, who the fuck do you think you are?  Curry should be banned for tonight's game for throwing something into the stands (liability risk, if nothing else!), Draymond Green should've been banned for at least both games 5 and 6, and the entire shine has come off the Warriors.

We can discuss when this idiocy started (some think when they got win #73, I'm thinking more Western Conference Finals, others have other opinions), but the fact is, as Rusty correctly puts it, between the unsportsmanlike conduct of the Warriors and the Cleveland championship drought, the heel turn is complete.

Tonight's game might be the biggest in recent NBA history.  A Warrior win probably makes them considered the greatest (single-season) team of all time.  A Warrior loss probably breaks this team up, Draymond Green first, Harrison Barnes to follow.

A Cleveland win breaks the drought.  A Cleveland loss has an albatross around the team's and city's neck, as well as it's favorite NBA son.

And here's Rig #2 of Copa America, and it's a biggie!!!

You know, if you're that obviously going to script a USA-Mexico showdown either in the semifinal or the final of the Copa America Centenario, could you please tell the South American teams first?

Brazil was eliminated third in Group B today, and these were the highlights of the 1-0 Peru win which did it -- watch the goal at 53 seconds...


ARE YOU FUCKING SHITTING ME???

That's two games now so far that we can basically put down as rigged (and that doesn't count the very convenient result of Costa Rica upsetting Colombia Saturday night so the USA wins Group A -- very entertaining match and not even the own goal would've said anything obvious, just a very convenient result!!!) so far...

It's becoming clear we are going to have USA vs. Mexico at some point in this process.  Will it be the semifinal (Mexico has to win Monday night to win the group -- a draw would do it as well) or the final (if Mexico loses, though, they'd have to go through Argentina, while the US' half of the group probably becomes Ecuador (who they play in the quarterfinals), Venezuela (who plays Mexico Monday) and the Chile-Panama winner (Chile in case of draw).)

I mean, you want some reasons why they would rig this to maximize US chances in this tournament?

Attendance figures, according to Wikipedia's page on the Copa:

US match 1:  67,439
The other first Group A match (Costa Rica-Paraguay):  14,334

US match 2:  39,642
US match 3:  51,041

Haiti-Peru:  20,190
Ecuador-Peru:  11,947 (and these are the two teams which advanced out of Group B!)
Brazil-Haiti only drew about 28,000

Mexico match 1:  60,025 (in the same stadium in which Ecuador-Peru couldn't crack 12,000!)
Mexico match 2:  83,263 in Pasadena
The two non-Mexico matches in Group C to date have drawn somewhere 23-25,000.

Panama-Bolivia:  13,466
Chile-Bolivia:  19,392

Any further questions?

Mike

Riot in Marseille Threatens To Toss England and Russia from Euro 2016

And here we really go with the real stuff now...

(And I'm keeping this just to stuff endemic to the blog, though I very easily could see myself making a statement on the bloodbath in Orlando last night.)

Let's get right down to it. The 1-1 draw between England and Russia at Euro 2016 was the centerpiece of a soccer riot in Marseille, as the stadium was home to crowd disturbances, racist behavior, and several dangerous scenes, according to a UEFA report which may result in sanctions against the Russians.

However, THREE DAYS of this shit had been reported between locals, English, and Russian fans.

Hence, UEFA has decided to threaten the nuclear option and state that disqualification of the English and Russian teams is on the table for this incident (though, at least at this point, a fine is far more likely -- with Russia possibly losing points in the tournament).

And we now find out that today's match with Northern Ireland and Poland in Nice was also marred with violence.

This is only the second full day of Euro 2016, and it is becoming clearer and clearer with each passing moment that the tournament may not be feasibly able to be held in a Europe which is more resembling a volcano than a continent.

Are we going to see legends die every Friday now?

I have a friend of mine who's a big classic rock and older music fan, and I've been contacted several times as we have lost Bowie and Prince and innumerable others this year.  The friend has basically said to me on several occasions:  "All hail 2016.  We just lost..."

Now, it appears it's sports' turn:  A week after losing Muhammad Ali -- and on the day they honored him in Louisville -- Gordie Howe is dead.

If you don't know of Gordie Howe and his contributions to hockey for many decades, you don't know why they called him Mr. Hockey.  He even had a scoring anomaly named after him -- even though he only performed the "Gordie Howe Hat Trick" twice.  (A goal, an assist, and a fighting major.)

I am really getting the impression something catastrophic is about to go down in our culture.  I'm not talking an individual act here -- I'm talking TEOTWAWKI or something to that effect.  We're literally losing everybody, and one has to wonder what's next!!!

Good to see we can still count on soccer for crooked officiating...

Wow.

No one should've thought that Sepp Blatter being ousted would take care of things, but this is pretty blatant.

The next month or so features two gigantic international tournaments:  The Copa America is having it's Centenario tournament (100th anniversary) in the United States, and Euro 2016 just kicked off in France.

Friday's Rig Job of the Day was in the Chile-Bolivia match in the former.  Both teams are in Group D, and this is their second match.

Fox Soccer with the highlights, and just watch what they called a penalty to gift-wrap a 2-1 win for Chile...


He might as well have flipped off the Bolivians while he was at it!!  That was a Sepp Blatter Special there.  Chile won the Copa America last year to gain entry into the 2017 Confederations Cup in Russia (Mexico won the same right for CONCACAF).  This tournament is a celebration tournament of 100 years of the Copa America.

Yep, I'm finding new sources: Gawker's bankrupt and probably done.

Gawker filed Chapter 11 today.

Retrial motions have been denied, and the fact is it's only taken longer than we expected, but it does sound like Hulk Hogan (and a backer that I really need to look in to more with a serious vendetta) are going to take down Gawker.

USA Today has been reporting that Gawker has been looking to sell many of the blogs to cover the judgement.

Facts are facts:  There are things "people" do not want known -- as it relates to sports, entertainment, or anything else.  One of the reasons Gawker (rightly) got nailed is that much of high-level America is very carefully constructed to protect the rich (often, if not always, at the expense of everyone else!) and powerful.  Hence, to actually expose it, you have to (at best) tread a very fine line -- one Gawker crossed.

The entire existence of our sports culture in this country (regardless of where the "Super Fraud" actually is) is based on a lot of evil.  Don't get me started with this piece of shit from Stanford and his dad (I'll post on him when I can stomach it and try to phrase it in a way that not only will make sense and be honest, but probably won't get me too criticized.).

The Greatest Is Dead

Obvious departure from normal format here -- yes, one could speak of Ali-Liston I, but now is not the time nor place.

Muhammad Ali died tonight in an Atlanta hospital, according to the family spokesman.

The greatest nom de plumes one can give are not just the ones the mouth speaks.  They are the ones the man behind the mouth can prove.

Yes, when he was in full Ali Mode, Muhammad Ali had the biggest mouth in sports.  He said he was "The Greatest of All Time", "Pretty", "A Bad Man", and all sorts of other jibes, insults, and who knows what.

But he was Heavyweight Champion of the World when being Heavyweight Champion of the World meant something -- and more than to just boxing. 

He was a man of convictions.  It's not easy to understand when a name and everything attached to it is no longer yours.  There came a day, as Ali looked around him, that he was no longer "Cassius Clay", even with a 1960 Olympic gold medal (regardless of the story of how he lost the physical medal).

He was Muhammad Ali, a proud Black Muslim, but with nothing of the stereotypes of Islam of today.  Yes, he was brutal in the ring -- but he a passionate and devout man, only wanting the respect he was due as not only Heavyweight Champion of the World (or seeking the title again), but of him as a man.  As a human being...

And it's that Muhammad Ali that we also remember tonight, as he goes beyond and embraces Howard Cosell for the first time in many, many years.  Cosell... A braggadocious white man, with as big a mouth as Ali.  But Cosell knew to listen to this man and what he had to say -- and then make sure that his job was to say it, so that the world could not ignore it on the basis of the man's religion, nor the color of his skin.

Ali conscientiously objected to the Vietnam War, lost everything, and then won everything again.  I remember when there was even a Saturday morning cartoon of Ali on NBC back in the 1970's.  Ali went beyond sport.  For sport, this is like when music lost Michael Jackson, when movies lost John Wayne, and I'm not even sure who on television could compare.

But, as many whose heart and courage go beyond what their body can take, Ali stayed too long.  Cosell could not bear to watch as Ali declined, and then, as the years progressed, we saw the real toll:  Parkinson's.  The loss of motor control.  The mind being aware of everything going on, but of little else.

I remember crying in 1996, when the IOC re-awarded Ali a new gold medal at the men's basketball final in Atlanta -- and then hoping that the man would be greater than nationalism, and that NBC would show the Yugoslavian players respecting Ali.  (NBC did so.)

I remember crying again at the MGM Grand on one of my Las Vegas trips, when the Florida Marlins opened their new stadium on ESPN.  By now, it was clear Ali was even worse off than the Parkinson's had made him beforehand.  I couldn't believe the announcer, almost in pity, pleading for an "Ali!" chant.

But he is now dead.  The Greatest.  And not just as a function of being one of the most respected Heavyweight Champions of the World.  He was a rough-houser in there, and not afraid to break a rule or two.

But he had more than just his mouth and his true talent.  He had a heart, and a conscience.  That's what took him from saying he was The Greatest to being The Greatest.

Be at peace, Muhammad.

The Latest Victim of Match-Fixing: NRL Rugby?

Details of breaking NRL match fixing scandal. Claims of 6 players involved, each receiving 50,000 dollars. https://t.co/dsfKGEHhQu

— Chris Celestino (@SecureGame) June 2, 2016

I guess it's never surprising when you hear stories like this anymore, but we're now looking at Australian Rugby for a match-fixing scandal, according to "Secure the Game" and Chris Celestino.

At least two 2015 matches of the National Rugby League are being investigated for possible match-fixing.

On a possibly-related note, Corey Norman of the Parramatta Eels has been warned by police for "consorting with criminals", as well as being rumored to have been in a casino late last week with the date-rape drug MDMA and other muscle relaxants.

Several other players (including Penrith's James Segeyaro and Parramatta's Junior Pablo) have been similarly warned after being seen in a photograph with an Australian gang boss.

No further action by the NRL has been made yet, but a league-wide warning to the players has been made.  Under the law in New South Wales, you can be prosecuted for associating with such people, but only after you've been warned by the police not to do so.

That said, there is no current word that the three players listed (or just who the players are) are part of the match-fixing situation.  One of the two matches involved Parramatta, but it was a match they won -- perhaps implying, if their players were involved, this was a "spot fix", where players would manipulate particular events in a match to influence betting, but still attempt to keep the final result of the match as clean as plausible.

The other match involved appears to involve that a brothel owner (with a criminal past) approached several players with $50,000 each to throw a game to ensure that the favored team covered the spread of 7 1/2 points.

This is about as bad timing as you can have for this kind of thing in Australian rugby.  The first match of the classic "State of Origin" trilogy for the year (between players born in Queensland and those in New South Wales) had just been played a day or two before.