Done Deal
Georgia governor Nathan Deal vetoed House Bill 757 on Monday. You may have heard about it. It was in most of the papers.
The bill passed the state senate easily. It would have made it legal for religious groups to deny services, including denying to perform same-sex marriages. It has been called an anti-gay bill as well as religious freedom bill, depending on your stance on the issue.
Deal's quote on his decision showed the delicate spot he is in politically, in a state in which this bill pleases a large number of the populace rightly or wrongly.
"I do not think we have to discriminate against anyone to protect the faith-based community in Georgia, of which I and my family have been a part of for all of our lives," Deal said, per CNN.
A very large part of this decision was the outside pressure put on Deal by several huge industries, including threats from Hollywood that could have hurt Georgia's growing filming industry as well as the NFL.
The NFL came out in the last month and said passing this bill would greatly hurt the state's chances of hosting a Super Bowl. That's no small carrot. In fact, the city of Atlanta as well as the state of Georgia will spend billions of dollars on the new Mercedes Benz Stadium, the new home of the Falcons that is set to open for the 2017 season.
While we believe governments should not be in the business of spending public funds to build stadiums for private entities. That said, building a facility like the Mercedes Benz Stadium makes sense in that in the next five years, the building will host the SEC title game annually, several bowl games (including the national championship game), untold number of super concerts, the Falcons and some regular-season college football games as well as potentially a Final Four down the road.
Still, all of that may not make it worth spending that much of the public's money on a multi-billion-dollar domed stadium.
Now, add in a Super Bowl, and the state's investment in the new stadium fits the business axiom of "You have to spend money to make money." With a Super Bowl, the new stadium will pay for itself before the 2020 presidential election.
"NFL policies emphasize tolerance and inclusiveness, and prohibit discrimination based on age, gender, race, religion, sexual orientation, or any other improper standard," the NFL's statement said. "Whether the laws and regulations of a state and local community are consistent with these policies would be one of many factors NFL owners may use to evaluate potential Super Bowl host sites."
So Deal's decision clearly had multiple layers.
It's certainly the NFL's prerogative to make decisions on where it wants to do business, but it's more than a little hypocritical for the NFL of all people to demand equality from its business partners.
Take a look at the above policy and then take a look within the leadership positions of the NFL, and you are going to see an overwhelmingly large percentage of straight white men.
Yet again, the NFL preaching one thing as it lives another.
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More politics and football
See how much the overlap between politics and football have.
(Side note: Ninety-plus percent of the time, when lawmakers and elected officials get into sports, it's almost always grandstanding and a waste of time and money.
The above scene with Nathan Deal and this one are in the less than 10 percent, though.)
According to this story from TFP state government ace Andy Sher, the Tennessee state senate approved a bill to allow online fantasy sports such as Fan Duel and Draft Kings.
Good for them.
In the bill, it calls for the state to require registration and fees from the companies.
This is how it should be, in our view. Especially in states that have a lottery, otherwise the state is sponsoring a gambling monopoly and benefitting from it.
Nice job Nashville guys.
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UTC starts up
We have written this before, but it's staggering to think how far UTC football has come in a decade.
Consider the following:
Entering the 2006 spring, UTC was coming off a 6-5 record with a ton of optimism. That 6-5 mark was the high-water place under Rodney Allison, and it was hollow as a Trojan horse. They were outscored by eight points a game and outgunned by more than 80 yards per game. They had an NFL running back in Eldra Buckley.
It unraveled the following season, as UTC went 6-28 over the next three seasons.
Now flash forward to this spring, and where UTC is. The Mocs have to replace a senior class that featured Jacob Huesman, who by all measures is the most accomplished player in program history, and helped UTC to at least a share of three conference titles.
We are stunned by the overhaul.
And we are think TFP ace sports columnist Mark Wiedmer had an inspired idea in today's TFP. Weeds wrote that the 2016 Mocs could replicate the '98 Vols and win it all after replacing an all-time program legendary quarterback.
Here's Weeds' excellent column and it makes perfect sense considering all the pieces around new quarterback Alejandro Bennifield.
Man, it's a high cotton time to be a UTC sports fan right now. Enjoy it while it's here folks.
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This and that
- This week's sign of the apocalypse: In China, there are texting lanes. On the sidewalk.
- Kobe Bryant's Hall of Fame career has less than 10 games left in it. And it can't end soon enough, considering the Lakers were drubbed by 48 points by Utah on Monday. It also was one of the worst games of Bryant's career - he scored five points and made one shot and his plus/minus was -43.
- New Jersey is trying to end texting and walking.
- Another NFL owner comes out sounding stupid by downplaying head trauma and tackle football. This time it's everyone's favorite felon Jim Irsay, who must have attended the same seminar as Jerry Jones because they each used the asinine aspirin comparison. C'mon guys, be better than this. The ostrich defense has really never worked and in truth, while you may be trying to downplay the issue to current players weighing retirement earlier than ever (20 players under the age of 30 have retired from the league in the last year) or to parents wrestling with the decision of letting their kids play tackle football, you are actually doing the exact opposite. Every time one of the 32 most powerful guys in the most powerful pop culture entity in this country spouts off with this crazy comments, it becomes a story. And it makes the league look at best stupid on the issue and at worst - for players and parents - dismissive of it.
- How overpowering did Vegas view the UConn women before last night's 21-point win over Texas? On the straight-up money line (betting on UConn without the 30-point spread), you had to bet $63,000 to win $100.
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Today's question
Lots to discuss, and it's never too early for the mailbag.
OK, on this day 130 years ago, Dr. John Pemberton brewed the first batch of a little drink called Coca-Cola.
Safe to say it caught on.
What's the Rushmore of beverages (non-alcohol division)?
Go.