Football
December 5, 2019 — Paul Mirengoff
The Washington Redskins were one of the teams that attended Colin Kaepernick’s workout in Georgia last month. Their attendance was hard to explain because signing Kaepernick made no sense for the team. But now, the Redskins have made a signing based (at least in part) on what they saw during the Kaepernick workout. The Skins signed to their practice squad one of the wide receivers to whom Kaepernick threw passes.
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November 17, 2019 — Paul Mirengoff
During a recess late in a trial where the plaintiff alleged he had been fired due to his race and/or his age, a federal district court judge said to his law clerk: Sure, this guy was discriminated against. But he wasn’t discriminated against because he’s black and he wasn’t discriminated against because he’s over 40. He was discriminated because he’s an a**hole. It might well be the case that, a
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November 16, 2019 — Steven Hayward
Paul noted a couple days ago the very public “workout” publicity stunt of Colin Kaepernick, which was scheduled to go off at 3 pm eastern time today at Atlanta Falcons stadium. But suddenly this morning Kaepernick complained that the media were being overly restricted, and suddenly moved the event to a local high school and delayed the start time. ESPN reported about an hour ago: Colin Kaepernick’s NFL workout is
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November 14, 2019 — Paul Mirengoff
In my post yesterday about Colin Kaepernick’s upcoming NFL workout session, I confessed to not knowing the NFL well enough to opine on whether it makes sense for a particular team to sign Kaepernick. However, there’s one team I know very well — the Washington Redskins. There is no good reason for the Redskins to sign Kaepernick. They have won just one game this season and, in an optimistic scenario,
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November 13, 2019 — Paul Mirengoff
The National Football League has decided to hold a workout for Colin Kaepernick this coming Saturday. It invited all 32 NFL teams to attend. A number of them have already said they expect to send representatives to the session. According to various reports contained here, these teams include New England, Denver, Atlanta, Dallas, Detroit, and the New York Giants. Kaepernick says he’s excited and ready to go. I’m against denying
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October 17, 2019 — Paul Mirengoff
Two years ago at this time, we (and many others) were writing about the decline in television viewership of the National Football League. Back then, the NFL was reeling from controversy sparked by some players kneeling during the National Anthem. The League’s critics included President Trump. Two years on, players are no longer kneeling, Trump is no longer criticizing, and NFL viewership is on the rise. According to Pro Football
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September 30, 2019 — Paul Mirengoff
Tomorrow is the 100th anniversary of the beginning of the 1919 World Series, the one that was fixed. Eight members of the Chicago White Sox (or was it really just seven) threw the Series so crooked gamblers could cash in on a Cincinnati upset win. Cincinnati did win the best of nine series, five games to three. Harry Stein has a good account of it in this article for City
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September 6, 2019 — Paul Mirengoff
Jim Langer died late last month at the age of 71. Langer was the center for the great Miami Dolphins teams of the 1970s, including the unbeaten 1972 team. Langer played defense at South Dakota State. He was not selected in the 1970 draft, which lasted 17 rounds, but he signed with the Cleveland Browns as a free agent. They promptly cut Langer, but Don Shula picked him up and
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May 21, 2019 — Paul Mirengoff
There’s a disconnect between how leftists view the treatment of African-Americans by our criminal justice system and how they seem to want African-American athletes who have brushes with the law to be treated. Consider the case of Reuben Foster. Foster, a linebacker who starred at the University of Alabama, was drafted in the first round by the San Francisco 49ers a few years ago. As a pro, he has had
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February 3, 2019 — John Hinderaker
Rumor has it that we’ll see anti-American kneeling during the halftime show of today’s Super Bowl. My guess is we will also see obnoxiously liberal, “social justice”-oriented ads aired throughout the game. Football isn’t what it used to be! But why should we be surprised? America isn’t what it used to be. Corporate human resources and marketing departments are almost monolithically liberal, and the bigger the company, the more likely
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January 14, 2019 — Steven Hayward
President Trump today hosted the Clemson Tigers NCAA football championship team, and served them fast food in the Oval Office: Trump really is a genius, because faster than you can say C. Everett Koop, a leftist was triggered. In this case it is David Roberts of Grist and Vox, who writes some really excellent energy articles on Vox, but suffers from an advanced case of Trump Derangement Syndrome: Um. .
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December 5, 2018 — Paul Mirengoff
The answer from a football standpoint is maybe. From a personal standpoint my answer is I hope they don’t. First, some background. When last we looked in on the 2018 Redskins, their quarterback, Alex Smith, had suffered a horrible leg break. Longtime Skins backup QB Colt McCoy had assumed command. No one questioned McCoy’s elevation. But McCoy needed a backup. For that job, Washington selected Mark Sanchez. In doing so
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November 19, 2018 — Steven Hayward
Now that was some kind of football game, so long as you think defense is nearly an afterthought in the NFL these days. I tweeted in the 4th quarter that we ought to just call tonight’s Rams-Chiefs game the Super Bowl and skip the postseason this year. But for my money, the greatest game I ever saw remains the 1981 overtime playoff between the Miami Dolphins and the San Diego
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September 10, 2018 — Paul Mirengoff
The NFL kicked off its 2018 season last Thursday with a game between Philadelphia and Atlanta. Despite the attractiveness of the matchup, television ratings were down 8 percent from last year’s opening Thursday night game. And last year’s rating were down 12 percent from the previous year’s. This prompted President Trump to tweet: Wow, NFL first game ratings are way down over an already really bad last year comparison. Viewership
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May 23, 2018 — John Hinderaker
The NFL has unanimously adopted a policy that is intended to end the controversy over players protesting the national anthem: players are not required to be on the field while the anthem is played, but if they are on the field, players (and staff) must stand. This is an instance of actions speaking louder than words. A lot of nonsense was said and written last season about the anthem protests,
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April 28, 2018 — Paul Mirengoff
JK Scott is the punter for last season’s national champion University of Alabama football team who, during a recent team visit to the White House, initiated a prayer for President Trump. He described it this way: I said ‘Hey, Mr. Trump, would you let me pray over you.” “He said ‘Yeah, come on.” From there, Scott put one hand on Trump’s shoulder and the other on his chest. “And I
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April 12, 2018 — Paul Mirengoff
On Tuesday, the University of Alabama football team visited President Trump at the White House. Trump honored the team for winning another national championship. The visit featured an impromptu prayer: Shortly after President Trump delivered his remarks, a group of players approached him and, after exchanging a few words, began to pray. The huddle showed the president bowing his head while a player placed his hand on Trump’s shoulder as
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