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And, like that, sports are back.
The PGA Tour started Thursday morning. (Side note: You guys rock. Rock. There are almost 50 entries in one day for the Colonial-thing-since-we-couldn't-do-the-Masterfully-Mastering-the-Mastery-of-the-Masters thing. And yes, a lot of us need Rory to start quickly and play well through Sunday. Side question about the side note: Man, when I was a kid and before we knew better, that Colonial white bread was LEEEE-git. I bet I ate north of 1,000 bologna sandwiches on white bread with mustard and mayo and Kraft American cheese. Sure, I ate it off a commemorative McDonald's plate decorated with lead paint and drank old-school Cokes from asbestos-coated Burger King glasses. Yes, I was a large child.)
With golf returning, NASCAR back and U.S. soccer a month out, there are a smattering of sports beyond Russian table-tennis and sub-premier European soccer leagues. (Side note, part II: Bundesliga is terribly fun to say. Side question about the side note, part II: What's the funnest word to same? Not the meaning or the implication. Just to say. Go.)
Still, despite the highlights and the excitement, the bets or the contests, the critical news from each restart in our new sporting snow globe of the post-peak-pandemic has to do with tests.
Not the mental tests or the physical ones. Not the tests a course, a track or an opponent present.
The tests for Corona. We have to be aware - and for me, somewhat uneasy - about the results.
Thankfully, all of the tests came back negative before the first swing at the Charles Schwab. But man, when - and it's not if but when, right? - a team or a sport gets a double-digit positive how they respond is the next big thing.
Because sports right now feel a lot like how Marcus Aurelius described the early days of the creation of Rome in Gladiator: "There was once a dream that was Rome. You could only whisper it. Anything more than a whisper and it would vanish... it was so fragile. And I fear that it will not survive the winter."
And the focal point of change
There are a lot of names and faces that have been fulcrums in this time of civil unrest that truly feels like it could be a starting point for real change in matters of race relations in our country.
Of course there's George Floyd, the man who had the life choked out of him by a former Minneapolis police officer.
There's Colin Kaepernick, who is somewhere between Medger Evers and a clairvoyant stock consumer like Lt. Dan when he got Forrest invested in some fruit company.
And now there's Bubba Wallace, the only black driver in NASCAR's top circuit.
Side note, part III: Go ahead and raise your hand if you had NASCAR as the sports engine (Sorry, Spy) of racial conversation. I'll wait.
Wallace finished 11th last night at Martinsville. Martin Truex Jr. won the race. Those details are rather trivial.
What's anything but trivial is the announcement and the loud mumbles of backlash from a few and the landslide support from outside NASCAR.
NASCAR banned the Confederate flag this week at Wallace's well-worded and impassioned request: "No one should feel uncomfortable when they come to a NASCAR race."
There have been some salty and downright horrific responses to this decision, even a lower-level driver who I have never heard of retiring because of the decision. Check Twitter and search for 'NASCAR confederate flag' and after the news reports, there are some certifiable loons that will make your hair hurt and your skin crawl. (Side note, part IV: If you are going to check the Twitter hate, a) make sure you have 10-15 minutes, because it's terribly difficult to look away from this train wreck, and b) make sure no one under the age of 12 has eyes on your screen. Egad.)
There was a time in my life that I understood the "Heritage not Hate" slogan.
That time is gone. And it's gone for a lot of reasons.
(Side note, part V: Here's today's A2 column about something that we discussed a bit around these parts Wednesday. The difference in my eyes about canceling Gone with the Wind between banning the Confederate flag is the difference between art and symbol.)
Couple things about discussions, debates and disagreements in general.
First, check who your allies are, and if you are not comfortable with who shares your opinion and stance, you may want to review said opinion.
Second, check for consistency in your view and general perspective.
To that end, if you are someone who even silently wondered about Colin Kaepernick's kneeling and putting something ahead of this country, isn't supporting the Confederate flag the same thing? Because after all, the Confederates were a warring enemy with our country after all.
If you think Kaepernick is putting something ahead of the American flag, aren't you doing the same thing when you fly the Confederate flag?
Thoughts?
Posting up King James
LeBron James could also be added to that above list of names that have become a central figure atop the public pyramid of protests.
He has a past of being way more involved as an active player than any of the NBA's previous transcendental stars since Kareem and maybe even Bill Russell.
He was among the first to present a social media split screen of the Minneapolis officer on a knee on Floyd's neck and Kaepernick on a knee during the anthem.
LeBron dropped the hammer on Laura Ingraham's hypocrisy after she told James and Kevin Durant to "shut up and dribble" while she encouraged Drew Brees to speak his mind after he said he could never respect anyone who knelt during the anthem. (Brees has apologized multiple times since his original statement. Heck, he may have apologized in the last 20 minutes.)
In the last 12 hours, James became the target - a fair target too - and his ultimate motives and sincerity of freedom and fighting for rights was strongly questioned.
Yes, LeBron has been front and center as America deals with our issues about civil rights and issues between black and white.
Well, when given a chance last fall to respond and represent the Hong Kong freedom fighters and protestors who were battling China's communist leadership, LeBron was completely happy to shut up and just dribble.
Yes, this is a nine-month-old story that feels like it has aged in dog years in an ever-changing time. But LeBron was called out hard on it in the last 24 hours.
From Joshua Wong, the secretary general of a Hong Kong activism group fighting for democracy and process, on Twitter:
"Defending democracy is vital, but @KingJames only talks loud in the US. On China, not only is he silent, he actively shuts others up. He called @dmorey "misinformed" and "not really educated" for supporting #HongKong. All he cares about is money, not human rights. Hypocritical."
Wow.
Back ground is vital here: @dmorey is Houston GM Daryl Morey, who Tweeted "Fight For Freedom. Stand with Hong Kong." and the backlash from China - which was a monster business partner with the NBA at the time - and continues to be a focal point for Nike, which is a monster business partner with LeBron.
Morey dialed the comments back after LeBron's response and backlash from China leaders. The controversy has cost the NBA hundreds of millions.
Heck, James Harden said at the time: "We apologise (sic). We love China." Say what? "We love China."
James and the Lakers were in China when this happened and when asked about Morey, James said Morey was "either misinformed or not really educated on the situation."
In the following days amid the growing news story, James cancelled the rest of the Lakers' news conference. And, as paraphrased in an ESPN story when describing a team meeting to NBA commissioner Adam Silver, "James told the room that it was too much for the players to take on in that moment - to explain a complicated issue with racial, socioeconomic and geopolitical layers."
Fast-forward to today, and there are a couple of key items:
> The persecution of protestors in Hong Kong makes the police barricades in this country look like a long weekend at the Ritz. This Hong Kong protestor, who plead guilty to 'rioting' got four years in jail.
> Choosing to literally shut-it-down and dribble on a matter of freedom for Hong Kong but being a leader for freedom for those from Harlem to Hollywood, certainly is not a good look (especially when it behooves your billfold);
This backlash - even without a strong stance and at times denials and indifference that rose to the levels of silent support from Silver, LeBron, Cuban et al. - eventually cost the league hundreds of millions of dollars despite their back-pedaling and the attempts to silence and reverse Morey's original and very benign social media post.
All of that makes NASCAR's announcement this week even more pronounced
The NBA gets a lot of street red for being woke; but shouldn't NASCAR right now? Because potentially alienating your long-standing fan base and potentially hurting your bottom line for the chance to be on the right side of history makes NASCAR's decision - even if it's terribly belated - is way better than how the NBA in general and James in particular handled those fighting for equality in Hong Kong.
This and that
- Wow, sorry, that got heavy in a hurry. On the other side, Rob Manfred, the MLB commissioner, said "100 percent" there will be baseball in 2020.
- You know the rules. Here's the fourth installment of TFP college football expert David Paschall's top SEC games he covered in the 1990s. (I was informed that the order is sequential not a ranking.) This one - a shootout between Eric Zeier and Jay Barker - was a dandy.
- This, friends, is well worth your time. It's called "Difficult conversations with a black man" and it's Emmanuel Acho sitting down with white folks and having difficult conversations.
- RIP in peace Claudell Washington, the former Braves outfielder with the insanely broad shoulders. Side note: Did you know that Washington hit the foul ball - and least in the video clips - that Ferris caught during his famous Day Off at Wrigley?
- The first round of the MLB draft was finally held. (For some reason I thought it was Tuesday. So it goes.) As expected, loads of college players - a more known commodity - were plucked early. The Braves took left-handed pitcher Jared Shuster with pick 25. It's the eighth time in 10 years the Braves used a first-rounder on a pitcher.
- The numbers on "Be Water" were way better than the numbers on "Lance." "Be Water" drew the largest premiere numbers for a 30-for-30 since "42-to-1" in December of 2018.
Today's questions
Thoughts? It's a free-for-all Thursday folks.
Also, have you sent in a mailbag question? Fire away.
It's June 11, Peter Dinklage's birthday.
On this day in 1973, according Darren Rovell, Secretariat appeared on the cover of SI, Time and Newsweek at the same time. The only other two to pull off that trifecta are Mary Lou Retton in 1984 and O.J. in 1994.
How about this: On this day at that time, the sitting president said, "Segregation is morally wrong and that it's time to act." That president was JFK and that year was 1963. Wow. The more things change
Jurassic Park debuted on this day in 1993. American Idol debuted on this in 2002.
Rushmore of reality TV shows. Go.