I always thought part of the reason PTI (just checked since it's been at least a decade since I watched ESPN -- still on. Good for them) was popular was that it was easy to see that Kornheiser and Wilbon were friends. Meanwhile, it's impossible for anyone to like Bayless. Though I guess I could also see that making the ratings better.
During Thanksgiving weekend when I ended up watching wall-to-wall men's World Cup coverage on Fox, they kept playing promos over and over again for Undisputed and I kept thinking "Skip Bayless seems to make his co-hosts into bigger stars than he'll ever be." First, Stephen A. Smith*, now Shannon Sharpe.
* = Who has his own questionable things completely unrelated to Sharpe.
Churchill Downs moves meet to Ellis Park to examine protocols following 12 horse deaths
Hot take that they're really not going to address - This is kind of like trying to make football concussion-safe.
The fundamental issue is the sport itself. Horse racing (and I mean that in the broadest sense, everything from the breeding through to the racing itself) kills horses. The easiest way to keep em alive and healthy is to stop horse racing (which won't happen).
CA House just advanced a bill, today, that would require CA schools to pay revenue generated above a floor (2022 revenues) to players. Still has to get through state Senate and be signed into law.
Let's do this!
This is kind of like trying to make football concussion-safe.
Or circuses safe for elephants. Or Sea World safe for orcas.
I think we should wait to hear from the schools about how it will negatively impact players’ incomes.
I think we should wait to hear from the schools about how it will negatively impact players’ incomes.
They're already pulling together a strategy to lobby DC to pre-empt states giving salaries to players. That's a big long shot given way higher priorities (and no way this president signs anything) but it's hilarious watching all the administrators wring their hands over how they'll possibly come up with ways to redistribute dollars from coaching packages and luxury suites for the football team to having to build a spreadsheet to dole out money across a few hundred students under the age of 23.
PGA, DP World Tour, and LIV Golf agree to merger. It really is the sport of kings. And princes who have reporters chopped to bits.
WTF
Rich assholes gonna be rich assholes.
Credit to the Saudis though for finally figuring out that all that matters, ultimately, is money.
Kinda worried how this affects the LPGA. Or is it totally separate from the PGA at this point?
Credit to the Saudis though for finally figuring out that all that matters, ultimately, is money.
I think they've known this since forever.
They just finally, like the old Winston Churchill joke, found the right price.
And, to be fair, it's not like the upper crust elites that run in golf circles are some kind of principled men of the people looking to flatten the power dynamics and seize the means of production. They're kind of born (in all senses of that word) to be bought!
Jay Monahan meeting with PGA Tour golfers gets 'heated'
PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan was called a hypocrite in a heated meeting with players at Oakdale Golf and Country Club in Toronto on Tuesday, hours after the tour announced it was forming a partnership with Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund and the DP World Tour.
Australian golfer Geoff Ogilvy told reporters that a player called Monahan a hypocrite during the meeting, which lasted for more than an hour at the site of this week's RBC Canadian Open.
"It was mentioned, yeah, and he took it," Ogilvy said. "He said, 'Yeah.' He took it, for sure."
I actually had a source send me a video someone secretly took of Monahan during the meeting.
FSU Softball in the finals. Big underdogs but still hoping
Jay Monahan meeting with PGA Tour golfers gets 'heated'
PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan was called a hypocrite in a heated meeting with players at Oakdale Golf and Country Club in Toronto on Tuesday, hours after the tour announced it was forming a partnership with Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund and the DP World Tour.
Australian golfer Geoff Ogilvy told reporters that a player called Monahan a hypocrite during the meeting, which lasted for more than an hour at the site of this week's RBC Canadian Open.
"It was mentioned, yeah, and he took it," Ogilvy said. "He said, 'Yeah.' He took it, for sure."
I actually had a source send me a video someone secretly took of Monahan during the meeting.
No no, it gets better.
With the agreement, PGA keeps its tax-exempt status.
I don't know if I'm more mad that they KEEP it or that I didn't know they already HAD it.
America! f*ck yeah!
ETA: Rory has capitulated, notes that his problem was with LIV, not PIF, which will make PGA Tour "stronger."
Hahaha. I stand on principle, sir. The principle of money.
Money! f*ck yeah!
Also, I think this makes it obvious that it's just a matter of time until a Gulf state buys a team in one of the Big 4 Leagues. The NFL will hold out the hardest, but they're going to come in with money amounts that I don't think the NHL, NBA or MLB (in order of most to least likely, and "least" is being used generously) can turn down.
ESPECIALLY with the MLB's regional TV deals going bust. Because Saudi Arabia can and will just write a check.
I think you're right.
NFL will hold out because they need the outside dollars less, they see themselves as a cartel of old boys (and what's the fun of being "Jerruh" if you're now going to be "less than" in the pecking order than a literal prince and guy who can order journalists killed?), and their fanbase skews toward nationalism, so the "foreign" part will be opposed.
I do wonder about if we've learned nothing from the last 25 years of Russia in Europe.
And the answer is: $
David Samson brought this up (also on LeBatard) today, but it's not impossible to imagine Saudi Arabia offering to buy an entire league and pay the owners of each team 3x over value.
Like, the NHL is reportedly worth $32.4 billion. It is NOT impossible to imagine Saudi Arabia offering $120B for the whole thing or $300B for the NBA ($90B valuation).
I don't think it'd happen, but a whole ton of stuff I thought wouldn't happen has happened.
That fund is only valued at $600bb so I don't see them putting such a large percentage of it into a single thing. The country itself only has $830bb GDP, which ranks T20 but behind places like Indonesia and Spain.
Do we think Indonesia is going to buy a sports league? That would be stupid.
Yes, they want to diversify away from carbon. No, sports and luxury resorts won't do it.
It's the rich man's idea of what they think creates value. "I like cars! And music! And entertainment! And hotels! And pools! And soccer! If I buy up that stuff it'll appreciate and I'll be rich forever and my society will be saved!!!"
It's the tourism trap. Sure, you can stay afloat. But you're not crating value or any kind of quality jobs in your society. At some point, eventually, you'll have to wrestle with that when either the oil dries up or the kids/grandkids take over your tourism economy and blow it, or the people you govern get sick of doing bottle service for really wealthy people and ask where their quality of life is at.
And it's not like expenses are going to be dropping in f*cking SA as the planet warms. That place is going to be uninhabitable soon unless you're a billionaire.
FSU Softball in the finals. Big underdogs but still hoping
OU finished 61-1.
Might wanna turn up the sliders a tad.
My Lady Vols only lost in the WCWS to the champion and runner up. Better season than I expected.
Vol sports across the board are better than I can ever remember in my lifetime (and I'm getting old). Baseball is in the Supers after starting slow.
I've never felt more disconnected from the pro game of golf.
I love the game. I love playing it and what it represents.
But I just can't give a shit about the week by week running of the pro game.
I will care about the Open and The Masters. Maybe the US Open if it's at a course of note. Maybe Ryder and/or President's Cup. But not much else.
And now PGA Tour saying "loyal" players get equity stake in the new (501c3) company.
Stanford's starting pitcher threw 156 pitches to beat Texas last night.
Like, I get it, but at the same time... no.
We drafted this promising guy from Stanford to be our workhorse and he was looking great. But 2 years into his time in AA ball his arm just literally fell off. I don't know what happened, but I am glad we aren't going to spend millions on him.
Am I weird to see this as morally wrong?
Aren't there team doctors around for concussion protocol that could have said something about pitch count?
Yeah especially after 2 insurance runs in the top of the 9th. Then the kid threw 20 more pitches in a 5 run game for no reason.
There's a trainer, a pitching coach, the head coach. Lot of people that should have had some sense
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