Day 548 and 20 Years, Part Three

There's another facet to the uniqueness of the calendars these days.

Today is not only the 20th anniversary of the PNAC Attacks, but it is 18 months since not only WHO declared COVID-19 a pandemic, but Rody Gobert set off the cascade, and a heretofore unheard of pretty-much-absolute shutdown of the American Sports Machine for 2 1/2 months...

And I remember starting, either a couple or a few days after, trying to find stuff on the Internet for people to do (Remember the Social Distancing Super Bowls??)...  Once it got to 30 or 40 days or so, I began this to cover what was in the sports news and all of the other stuff going on.

Did I actually think we'd make a year a half?  Well, kind of...

When Keith Olbermann began his Thurber-casts on his Twitter account, I actually (while I still had a Twitter account -- or at least one I could Tweet with) put my estimate, even with the amount of cooperation I hoped we would get, of some degree of sports-league normalcy in 18-24 months.

sigh  

Now, even with the NFL touting full stadiums for the start of the 2021 NFL season this weekend, we aren't ready and we aren't close.

I've already covered why at least twice in the last week or so:  A deliberate attempt by the rightward 30% or so of this country to take down this country and use a 1.5% death-rate lethal virus to do what they are too pussy to do themselves -- and don't realize that the virus doesn't give a flying fuck nor fig of your political belief systems, your belief in God, or, really much anything else you believe will protect you from this thing rather than a vaccine or whatever.

We will not gain what a vaccine is designed to do with this selective of a vaccinated population.  In that vein, I do not know when (or now IF) I will ever be able to truly put an end to the "Numbered Day" posts...

I've already made my stands pretty much clear on that end.  We've already lost one national sports network (NBCSN at the end of the year) and a regional set of sports networks (the regional NBC sports networks, replaced by networks branded by gaming company Bally) to the coronavirus, and I'd be shocked if we don't lose more.

But, that said, onto the news of the day:

• Speaking of that which we have lost, we've lost the Chip Ganassi Racing Team, as it will go out of business at the end of this NASCAR season.  Kurt Busch and Ross Chastain are impacted, and have announced their 2022 plans.  55 jobs will be lost.  The company buying their assets will attempt to employ as many of them as they can.
• And more of that which we have lost, as my anonymous friend points out:  After Teresa powerplayed Dale Earnhardt Inc. into oblivion, it was bought up by Chip Ganassi Racing Team.  So now, the last vestiges of DEI are out of the sport.
• The refs couldn't save Ohio State this week.  They lost to Oregon.  Should be 0-2.
• Funny story from last Sunday at the TOUR Championship.  Since Brooks Koepka had to withdraw with a wrist injury, there were an odd number of players for the final round.  So when Joaquin Neimann, in 29th and last place in the final round, teed off and wasn't doing particularly well on the front nine, he told his scorers and everyone else he was taking his round into overdrive.  He ended up finishing the back nine in 47 minutes.  When a PGA Tour official met him at the scorer's tent, he fined Neimann $10,000 for making a mockery of the Tour.  Of course, the official was kidding (remembering Kevin Na did a similar situation on the same course in the same situation), and my anonymous friend, who told me the story, said the Tour should've actually given him $10,000 for trying to campaign against slow play!
• Cristiano Ronaldo had his first full game for Manchester United in his return to the club today.  The good news for him:  He scored twice and Man U won 4-1.  The bad news for him:  At least one banner was unfurled from a plane protesting Ronaldo's presence on the team, given rape allegations in Las Vegas.
• Zack Greinke, on the MLB COVID list for the last 11 days, has revealed he actually tested positive for the virus, as did his entire immediate family -- all breakthrough cases!