But if we stop feeding kids to the lions, how will we ba able to enjoy watching kids getting eaten by lions?
I don't want to "spoil" the NFL thread with this but, uh...
...lotta kids been dying playing football this year. A 13-year-old in West Virginia and a 16-year-old in Alabama, most recently.
I don't think this'll hcange anything anywhere, but it's worth pointing out, I think.
I'm seeing 5 deaths nationally this summer. That seems like a lot to me.
Some, but not all. The 13-year-old was "after receiving a head injury in practice" and the 16-year-old was "after suffering a “severe” brain injury during Friday night’s game.
I love America more than any other country in the world, and, exactly for this reason, I insist on the right to criticize her perpetually.
I love America more than any other country in the world, and, exactly for this reason, I insist on the right to criticize her perpetually.
CBJ forward Johnny Gaudreau dies at 31...
He and his younger brother were biking and lost a battle to a possibly impaired driver trying to pass another car.
I love America more than any other country in the world, and, exactly for this reason, I insist on the right to criticize her perpetually.
Prederick wrote:I don't want to "spoil" the NFL thread with this but, uh...
...lotta kids been dying playing football this year. A 13-year-old in West Virginia and a 16-year-old in Alabama, most recently.
I don't think this'll hcange anything anywhere, but it's worth pointing out, I think.
I'm seeing 5 deaths nationally this summer. That seems like a lot to me.
I love America more than any other country in the world, and, exactly for this reason, I insist on the right to criticize her perpetually.
Heat related is the stupidest way to have this sort of thing happen. There's no freak accident to it, you know it's scorching f**king hot out there.
The battle over football and head trauma may not be easily decided, but this one is. Football is meant to be played in the mud and rain and snow, not the heat. The August practice schedule may have worked back when the head coach was in high school, before 30-plus years of planetary heating, but that world is gone. Set a maximum allowed temperature for youth football activities, and any game or practice that reaches that even momentarily is cancelled. Places that are too hot can build indoor practice/playing facilities.
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"The golden shower threw me off." -- garion333
Then you’ll get pushback from the cold and holidays. Well, maybe less cold, because… you know.
I love America more than any other country in the world, and, exactly for this reason, I insist on the right to criticize her perpetually.
One of the most one-sided fights I've ever seen. Unexpected!
You get punched so hard you do this, you gotta consider hanging it up.
I love America more than any other country in the world, and, exactly for this reason, I insist on the right to criticize her perpetually.
‘I’m motivated by the puzzle’: how Courtney Dauwalter became ultrarunning’s GOAT
In 2023, Courtney Dauwalter became the first person, male or female, to win the Triple Crown, the three most iconic 100-mile races in the world, in a single season.
Ultrarunning, with races ranging from 50km to 250 miles, is defined by type-A personalities: meticulous, rigid, detail-oriented, even obsessed. Courtney Dauwalter, 38, is the exception to the rule.
Dauwalter does not have a coach or a strict training plan. She’s never been on Strava and doesn’t plan races far ahead of time. She runs in long shorts and baggy clothes because, she says, they are more comfortable. She eats candy while training and drinks beer afterwards, because that’s what makes her the most happy.
“My diet is to eat the things that look good in quantities that feel good,” said Dauwalter. “My fuel tank is based on joy. If I’m happy, the engine works way better.”
While her philosophy may sound casual, the results say otherwise. In the last decade, Dauwalter has won more than 50 ultras, often in dominant fashion, and is widely considered the greatest of all time.
Over the summer of 2023, Dauwalter became the first person, male or female, to win the Triple Crown in the same season. The triple consists of Western States 100, Hardrock 100, and UTMB, three of the most grueling, competitive and iconic ultras in the world. Only one other athlete, Kilian Jornet, has won all three in the span of an entire career.
Yet, despite a barrage of accolades, Dauwalter says winning the Triple Crown didn’t change her outlook at all. “I don’t think of it as an inflection point. I don’t think about any of my wins that way. No race is perfect. There is always something to do differently next time. I always hope to finish a race knowing I gave everything I had that day, but be able to tinker. I’m motivated by the puzzle.”
The puzzle, so to speak, is her secret to success. Like most highly successful people, Dauwalter is motivated by the process, not the results. However, her process is anything but traditional.
“After I wake up, I have two cups of coffee and go through an informal full body assessment,” Dauwalter explains. “Where’s my head? How are my feet? How are my lungs and what is my stress level? I listen to what my systems are saying, before I do anything else.”
Without a coach or set training plan, Dauwalter trains entirely on feel. Her days are structured loosely, which allows for adaptability. She makes decisions intuitively, like how many hill repeats to run or how big her loop should be that day. “After checking in, I make an idea of what workout I’m going to do. As I head out on my run, I keep doing the system checks to see how I’m feeling as I start moving. If I feel good I may hit the gas pedal, if I don’t I might hit the brakes.”
Dauwalter started this year with a win at Transgrancanaria 126k in February and followed it with a win at Mount Fuji 100 in April. In July she won Hardrock for the third year in a row, but claims that none of these races were as easy as she would have liked.
“After last summer I was more tired than I’ve ever been, so I took a lot more time off than usual. I usually take about a month, but I took a lot of months to chill,” says Dauwalter. “I was exhausted physically and mentally.” The longer break meant she lost more fitness, which made her return more challenging.
“I ran Transgrancanaria in 2023, so it was easy to compare the two races. It was a lot harder this time,” says Dauwalter, despite winning by more than an hour.
After winning Mount Fuji, Dauwalter felt like she was back on track. “Training was going well and I felt good going into the race, but Hardrock was one of those days that the gears didn’t line up. In the first few hours I knew it wasn’t going to be smooth. Everything took a little more effort than it should have, so I just kept reminding myself to be patient and to let time be our friend.”
Still, Dauwalter broke her own course record by two and a half minutes. She hopes to race again this fall, but doesn’t know which race it will be. “I’m just enjoying as much as possible right now, not thinking about what comes next. Instead of trying to predict the next chapter, I just want to live in this one.”
I've always been curious about how, reportedly, one you hit ultra-runner length races, women begin to outperform men.
I love America more than any other country in the world, and, exactly for this reason, I insist on the right to criticize her perpetually.
Virginia's Tony Bennett retiring ahead of basketball season
Virginia men's basketball coach Tony Bennett will announce his immediate retirement Friday, the school announced.
Bennett, 55, was set to begin his 16th season with the Cavaliers in less than three weeks, with the program opening the campaign against Campbell on Nov. 6.
As of Thursday afternoon, the school had not named an interim replacement. The most likely option is associate head coach Ron Sanchez, who spent five seasons as the head coach at Charlotte before returning to Charlottesville prior to last season. Associate head coach Jason Williford also has been by Bennett's side during his entire tenure at Virginia.
Bennett is a two-time national coach of the year who led Virginia to the national championship in 2019. He won six ACC regular-season titles and two ACC tournament titles.
I love America more than any other country in the world, and, exactly for this reason, I insist on the right to criticize her perpetually.
Holy shit.
And we do have a NCAA basketball thread. But probably time to start one for the new season.
NIL.
"The hardest thing to say is when I looked at myself and I realized I'm no longer the best coach to lead this program in this current environment," Bennett said at his retirement news conference. "If you're going to do it, you gotta be all-in. If you do it halfhearted, it's not fair to the university and those young men. So in looking at it, that's what made me step down."
Bennett, 55, has long bemoaned the direction of college athletics and increased emphasis on the transfer portal and name, image and likeness.
"I think it's right for student-athletes to receive revenue. Please don't mistake me," he said Friday. "The game and college athletics is not in a healthy spot. It's not. And there needs to be change, and it's not going to go back. I think I was equipped to do the job here the old way. That's who I am.
"It's going to be closer to a professional model. There's got to be collective bargaining. There has to be a restriction on the salary pool. There has to be transfer regulation restrictions. There has to be some limits on the agent involvement to these young guys. ... And I worry a lot about the mental health of the student-athletes as all this stuff comes down."
Bennett said he initially thought about stepping away at the end of the 2023-24 season, but he and his staff immediately began the rebuilding process and he signed a contract extension in June that would have kept him in Charlottesville until 2030.
Last weekend, however, when the university had its fall break and Bennett and his wife, Laurel, went away, the retirement thoughts solidified.
"Just kind of processed about what the future would be," Bennett said. "And that's where I kind of came to the realization that I can't do this. It's not fair to these guys and to this institution that I love so much to continue on when you know you're not the right guy for the job."
He's not wrong. This current place is unworkable long term. Coaches are acting as GMs in a system with zero rules. You can't be half-amateur/half-professional. It's just going to take longer than it should to get to the obvious answer (professionalization).
I love America more than any other country in the world, and, exactly for this reason, I insist on the right to criticize her perpetually.
The episodes of Pablo Torre Finds Out where he talks sports business with former ESPN CEO John Skipper and former Florida Marlines President David Sampson are super-enlightening:
(Yes, Samson is very, very hateable, but try and swallow the bile.)
I love America more than any other country in the world, and, exactly for this reason, I insist on the right to criticize her perpetually.
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