Day 876

• Turns out I was wrong.  The jury in the Alex Jones situation gave 10X the damages in punitives -- he's on the hook for $45 million.
• If early indications at training camps are any precursor:  Helmet hits and fights could well be the order of the day in the NFL this season.  Safety caps on helmets being experimented with are having players do illegal helmet hits more, and a number of reports of players getting thrown out of practice or practice berations by coaches due to fights have hit the wire this week.
• Today is the annual Ocho Day on ESPN -- the offbeat day of offbeat sports inspired by the movie Dodge Ball and it's fictional ESPN 8.
• The major European soccer leagues begin play this weekend.

Day 875

• The original judgement against Alex Jones is about $4 million.
• But it appears that a bombshell turncoat on the part of his own lawyers may not only mean criminality for perjury, it may also mean he was involved directly in January 6 and it's coverup.
• The lawyer not only made the contents of Jones' cellphone public record behind his back, he also may have revealed they contained many documents Q-Anon Republicans (up to Secret Service, at minimum!) have tried to destroy for the last two years!
• In a decision which may make it much harder for election deniers to have a path to do so, Pennsylvania's Supreme Court by 5 (Democrats) to 2 (Republicans) has allowed stand what two lower state courts denied in the 2019 no-excuse mail-in state ballot law.
• Clayton Kershaw has suffered a mid-season injury -- again.  Low-back pain in the last of four games in San Francisco this week.
• A four-game sweep for the Dodgers, even though Craig Kimbrel has everyone nervous for October!  Five in a row for the Dodgers, and only up by 12 because the Padres have done the same!
• Whit Merrifield is probably an unhappy camper right now.  He was traded this week -- to Toronto.  Meaning he was forced to get vaccinated for COVID.
• Brittney Griner will ostensibly spend the next 9 1/2 years in a Russian prison.  More likely, she will be executed when The Most Powerful Man In The World damn well feels like it.
• Tonight is the night many people jack off for:  The return of the NFL...  The Hall of Fame Game, Cliff Branch vs. Tony Boselli -- excuse me, Raiders vs. Jaguars.
• Peter Harvey, former New Jersey Attorney General, will hear the appeal of the six-game Watson suspension.  Harvey was part of the group that sanctioned Ezekiel Elliot for six games.
• Aaron Rodgers is a fucking idiot.  By admitting he now takes the psychadelic drug DMT for his mental health, he probably opens himself up to investigation under the league's drug policies, because a similar drug, DMA, IS on the banned list.
• The Saudis apparently have standards -- they don't want walking golf drunk John Daly ambling around the LIV Tour.

Day 874

• I can't believe Roger Goodell has done the right thing -- I guess "stopped clock, blind squirrel"...  The NFL has exercised it's right to appeal the 6-game Watson suspension.
• Goodell can either hear it or have his designee do so.  This decision IS final.
• The Premier League will no longer have a pre-game anti-racism taking of the knee.  Play begins this weekend to get a sufficient break in for the World Cup in Qatar.
• 11 LIV Tour golfers have sued to effectively end the PGA Tour, claiming an illegal monopoly.
• Now I know what the earlier comments problems were:  They were changing on Google's blogs to a different system.

Two days after we lose Russell...

Word just coming over the wire now...

Vin Scully has passed.  94.

Five years after his retirement, just before the Dodgers won the World Series, even FOX' Joe Buck called him "the greatest to ever do it".

I don't know if there's anything I can say to or about him that would do him justice.

At least, now, he can go join The Great Scorer and call all the games in the beyond.

Save me a seat, Vin.  And a radio.

Day 873

• The Padres have won the Juan Soto Sweepstakes.
• It appears the NWSL may be done -- one of their major sponsors is a crypto-fraud outlet and the completely predictable has occurred.
• The official number for Tiger Woods to sportswash has been announced -- $700-800 million.
• There is at least some discussion for Bobby Lashley to have a bare-knuckles boxing match with Mike Tyson.
• The owner of the Miami Dolphins has been suspended for almost 90 days, and the team has lost it's 2023 first-round draft pick and 2024 third-round draft pick for what is being described as the largest tampering outfit in the league's history.  It's vice chairman has been partially banned for the entire 2022 season.  At least three years of tampering Tom Brady and Sean Payton while they was under contract -- discovered through discovery of the Flores lawsuit.
• Roger Goodell denies, for now and for at least the current information, the "Tank For Tua" situation.  Which he has to for any number of reasons...   

It's official, and water is wet...

Announcement came about an hour ago.

Mr. Touchdown, USA is still the Big Man On Campus.

So let's get this straight, motherfuckers:  

• You have a serial sexual predator who is preying on over 25 women providing massage-therapy services.
• You have a situation in which the team he is playing for (Houston) is part of the goddamn process -- aiding, abetting, and in accessory of the man's criminal activity.  They settled with at least 20 or so of the victims, all but admitting they were part of it.
• The team then, with the player facing a suspension which many believe the NFL is seeking the Life Ban equivalent (thrown out of the sport, can apply for reinstatement in one year), trades the player to the Cleveland Browns for at least three first-round picks...
• ... who then, KNOWING that this predator never should set foot on an organized football field again (or outside of prison), promptly signs the idiot to THE BIGGEST CONTRACT IN NFL HISTORY...
• and even backloads it to basically admit that he's not going to play this year...
• And now today we find out that DeShaun Watson is only going to be suspended SIX GAMES because the NFLPA is all but telling you to your damn face (and Goodell is fully agreeing, mind you!) that this brand of overt and in-your-face sexual predation and toxic masculinity is part and parcel to the goddamn product on the field.

Now, I'll be the first person to admit that Watson's place as It's All About The Quarterback and one of maybe the 15 or 20 highest-profile players in the National Football League was probably a quite large part of this decision.

But you cannot tell me this is not an open-faced endorsement of sexual predation in the name of football at all levels.

DeShaun Watson should be rotting in prison right next to Ben Rapistburger.

And, like WorthlessBurger, this piece of shit is still going to have an NFL career.

Roger Goodell, YOU APPEAL THIS SHIT.  This decision is GARBAGE.  It all but gives the green light for Foobaw Man across the country to rape, pillage, and plunder like a goddamn animal.

(Yes, not that that Green Light hasn't been given for decades, but this just puts another neon sign up.)

It is time for violent protests at NFL games by women's groups.  Yes, and I am adding the endorsement of violence.

No one (even with my calls for it) is going to EVER hold the SPORT of football accountable for the animals it is producing (either through the lacing with CTE and all that, or the fact that they are predators in the first place and that the game's culture demands it).

Someone is going to have to actually do something.  Perhaps even "Black Sunday" style.  But the fact is that if you are a woman, at this point, who is willing to allow the NFL to be as part of your Sunday (but to lampoon it, expose it, whatever) as most American men do, then, frankly, you accept being down on all fours with the collar around your neck.

Good.  God.

PS:  Before anyone asks:  Life ban for Watson, the Texans' ownership is thrown out of the league.

ETA about noon PDT:  And you mean to tell me simply THE NUMBER OF WOMEN INVOLVED IN THIS is not sufficient evidence for a life ban???  ARE YOU MOTHERFUCKING KIDDING ME?  If you actually believe that shit, how does he get six games at all?????

Day 872

• It appears that the Pluto launches of Jeopardy! and Wheel of Fortune are nothing more than On Demand offerings.  Jeopardy! has season premieres of over 30 seasons, Wheel...  Yeah...