Bailing on the debate
ESPN is getting out of the politics game. It's a move that is not surprising considering all the blow-back it has received over the last half-decade.
So that decision makes sense, until it doesn't.
In fact, the decision is too reactionary for me, and its universal umbrella opens the organization up for criticism from both sides.
ESPN has made sure to remind us at almost every turn that, other than "Outside the Lines" and the occasional "E:60" segments, the "E" in ESPN stands for "entertainment" and there never has been a "J" for "journalism" in the four-letter mothership.
But to completely ignore politics because of the potential polarization seems kind of gutless to me.
Do I turn to ESPN for the breakdown of the U.S.-Iran diplomacy efforts? Well, of course not.
But I care a whole lot more about what Dan LeBatard and others have to say about only white Red Sox players attending a White House celebration. (I hope LeBatard and Co. do not change a thing with their show, which is the best national show going right now.)
And the growing divide between the news networks - if it's Trump-related, we know the CNN and MSNBC folks are going to criticize it and the Fox folks are going to fawn over it - there is a void to be filled here.
In matters related to sports, such as White House visits, Colin Kaepernick, racial slurs being punished with ejections, et al. - you know, matters in which politics and sports collide - ESPN should be involved.
They should just be more balanced and better at doing it. Find the actual debate that happens between other networks but is missing within the other news networks. Heck, the entire afternoon ESPN line-up is filled with people arguing about this or that - "Bucks are better" "Bull! Raptors are righteous!" - why not matters when sports and politics overlap?
In fact, I think this is a missed chance for ESPN to be part of a better way. But instead of improving the conversation, its new president has decided to pretend like that conversation does not exist.
So yes, ESPN has announced it's taking its balls and going home.
So long social media?
Not sure how it started, but Wednesday the Twitter worm turned a tad.
The #IfSocialMediaDidn'tExist was trending on Twitter, the platform that has become the lightning rod for lightning bolts of hate and harassment, for the social media morality mob and the pearl-clutching PC folks.
It has become the landing spot for some much of the extremes of the good and bad of social media
If social media didn't exist, there would be far fewer celebrities for celebrity sake. The folks - think Kardashians as the starting point - who gamed the system and reaped the rewards by using Twitter and Instagram rather than talent or ideas to reach those lofty perches of fame and wealth. That would be a great thing.
If social media didn't exist, we would share less but talk more, type anonymously less and listen more, and still not know what "LOL," "WTH," "SMH" or "LMAO" mean - and we would still know how to spell.
We would have more kids playing outside. We would be more personally connected. Good. Better. Best.
That said, we would not know Grumpy Cat - or his 12 kajillion photogenic furry feline friends - or see criminals this stupid.
(Side note: Yes, that is a fugitive who is wanted on seven outstanding warrants. ((Side note on the side note: Are there normal warrants or less than satisfactory warrants or even just OK warrants? Is this the next level of everyone getting a trophy that every warrant is so sensitive that they all are 'outstanding' these days? I really doubt that.)) Said fugitive has vowed to turn himself in if his mug shot gets 15,000 likes on Facebook.)
Only on social media, right? Good and bad.
A proper reversal
Other than Tiger Woods, I think the leader in the clubhouse for the biggest storyline in sports through the first half of 2019 has been the officials and the review process.
From tennis to the NHL playoffs to the Final Four calls to everything in between, it has been a cloud over the action that has become a perpetual talking point.
No play was more debated and controversial than the missed pass interference in the NFC title game. You know the one.
Well, the league overreacted to that missed called and said all PI and non-PI calls were reviewable.
They took some of the flaws out of that overreaction Wednesday when the Competition Committee rightly declared that all PI challenges must be initiated by a coach's challenge.
Originally, all PI and non-PI in the final two minutes of each half were going to the booth. And since almost every play in the final two minutes - when teams are trying to move quickly and in big chunks - are passes, and almost every pass play is close to PI on one side or the other, every play in the final two minutes would be reviewed.
That would turn two minutes into 20. At least.
It also allows the NFL a seriously great out.
If a coach is out of his challenges because he used them all or missed on some earlier, then he should have saved one for a meaningful moment.
This and that
- There is so much great stuff from Murfreesboro and the Spring Fling on this website right now that it would be impossible to list it all. That said, tip of the visor this morning to Gene of Many Hats Henley, the Times Free Press UT beat ace, who also did a ton of soccer and is in the mid-state for the spring high school championships, for penning this awesome story of a McCallie senior who did not hit a tennis ball this season but found other ways to help in the D-II state title run.
- Dear buckets of being against everything sports should be about. This story tells us that Division III powerhouse St. Thomas is being 'involuntarily removed' from the MIAC for being too good.
- Dan Aykroyd has written a "Ghostbusters" prequel with the beloved group from the 1980s classic fighting against the paranormal in high school. Be afraid. Be very afraid.
- For those wondering, from the SuperBook in Vegas, here are the updated odds to win the NBA title: Warriors are 5-to-12 (bet $120 to win $50); Bucks are 11-to-4; Raptors are 10-to-1.
- By all accounts the live performances "All in the Family" and "The Jeffersons" last night were true to the originals and well-received. I was - stop me if you heard this - at a ballpark and forgot to tape it. The shows used original scripts and the clips I saw of Woody Harrelson as Archie Bunker, he was true to one of the most well-written, simplistically complicated and genially comedic and was aces. I will catch-up and rematch those.
- A very critical Game 5 in the Eastern Conference Finals, whether folks watch or not.
- Braves played. Braves rolled. Yawn, Austin Riley hit a three-run homer. Freddie Freeman got three hits. Max Fried went six strong. A simple truth about baseball contention is beat the teams you are supposed to. The Braves should be the Giants, and if they handle their business today, that would be three of four.
Today's question
Lots to get to today.
Did you watch the "All in the Family" and "The Jeffersons" reboot last night? If so, what did you think?
We also have this scenario we want to explore - and this is more and more common as the betting age expands and the betting stories multiple: Scott Berry bet $400 on the St. Louis Blues to win the Stanley Cup. That payday would be worth $100,000. Some of the betting houses who calculate the odds have offered $12K. He said no. They offered $30K - Nope - and then $40K and he said not again.
If you are in that spot, what would you take for that ticket?
On this day in 1980, "The Shining" was released. That's still a scary son of a gun.
On this day in 1883, a baseball game between one-armed players and one-legged players was played at Recreation Park in Philadelphia. The Snorkeys topped the Hoppers 33-17. The Hoppers may be one of the best team names of all times.
For some reason, May 23, is National Lucky Penny Day.
What's the Rushmore of superstition "lucky" trinkets? Does a penny rate over a rabbit's foot, for example?
Go, and remember the mailbag.
Contact Jay Greeson at jgreeson@timesfreepress.com.