December 20, 2022 News and Notes

• The Masters will allow LIV golfers in it's 2023 edition, according to ESPN.
• And I have to ask...  I just have to ask...
• WHO OR WHAT FOISTED THIS FASHION CRIME AGAINST HUMANITY ON HER CHRISTMAS TOUR, just completed??
• (And if you can't see the humor behind that, I do not -- in any way, shape or form -- know what to tell you...)
• Yes (in the event Instagram gets cranky), that is Debbie Gibson, dressing herself, and her backup dancers and singers, in full-length ugly-Christmas-sweater pajamas...
• shakes head morosely  Back to the regularly scheduled programming...
• There has, with an Army player actually purported to go high in the NFL Draft, been some discussion as to whether football players for the service academies should be allowed to make the attempt.  The only thing I have to say about it is:  If their eight-year service commitment (yes, it's that long!) is that ironclad, then the Army, Navy, and Air Force need out of college-pro sports today.   
• Jalen Hurts has a sprained shoulder and will sit out this week's Eagles-Cowboys showdown.  The former may be more significant than the latter -- the magic number to win the division is 1.   
• Oh, and we have to add the Rams to the list now:  After that non-competitive loss Monday night to the Packers, the defending Super Bowl champions, with three weeks to go in one of the most even seasons in history, forgot the First Rule:  "DON'T GET ELIMINATED!!!"
• This makes the Rams 4-10.  The worst record for any team after winning the Super Bowl was the 6-10 Broncos the year after Elway retired.
• The Rams are the eighth team to have a losing record the year after they won the Super Bowl.
• The Raiders, after throwing and losing the rigged Super Bowl to the Buccaneers, went 4-12 the next year.  So, if the Rams lose out, they will have the worst record of any team ever to even appear in the Super Bowl the previous year -- and they have to win out to prevent themselves from being the worst record of any team ever to win the Super Bowl the previous year.
• A day after ESPN put the entire top brass of the Phoenix Suns on blast for enabling Robert Sarver's culture, they report today that mortgage lender Mat Ishbia is paying FOUR BILLION for the team.  Talk about "mint to make money" in professional sports.  What have the fucking Phoenix Suns done, including the damage their corporate culture has done to the National Basketball Association, to be worth four billion dollars????  
• ESPECIALLY because, only three years ago, the Brooklyn Nets were sold for a then-record $2.35 billion, the same report notes.  HOW IN THE FUCKING HELL is that Phoenix team worth even half the Brooklyn amount?  The market stinks, the team has accomplished really nothing, and that's before you get to Sarver.  Something STINKS about this, and BAD!!!   
• Sarver bought the team in 2004 for a then-record...  $401 million.
• There does appear to be at least one possible vote against him:  Ishbia has had a long feud with the owner of the Cleveland Cavaliers.
• There was also report that Ishbia was a possible candidate for ownership of the Washington Commanders.
• Diana Kipyokei has been stripped of last year's Boston Marathon title and will be banned through the LA Olympics:  Not only a positive drug test but lying to officials about it.  Edna Kiplagat is the new champion, and, at 41 at the time, she is the oldest in history to win the women's Boston Marathon.