Friday, May 30, 2025

Filler for Teedge

zdaughter and I like to watch movies together and we recently polished off the first seven Mission: Impossible movies so we could go see the eighth in the theater.  Tom Cruise looks a helluva lot better than me but he still looks old.  He is older in this movie (62) than Jon Voight was in the first one (58).  His character's date of birth is shown at least twice and they don't hide the fact that he's 61, but it's still hard to suspend my disbelief at all the shit this old man does over the course of 170 (!) minutes.  And they're a tense 170 minutes!  Remarkably, neither of us had to pee during the movie and we both enjoyed it, and we got to do a few don't-tell-Mommy turns on the way to and from the theater in glorious weather.

But that's not the purpose of this post.  We sat through something like 26.9 minutes of trailers, one of which really jumped out at me.  This is for Teedge (and anyone who, like me, is stunned that KRS-One is involved).

Thursday, May 29, 2025

Husky Gameday, Part Deux

I am nothing if not a superstitious fellow. I threw away a school-logoed polo shirt earlier this season after we played our worst game of the District season. There are things that are non-negotiable about gameday. For example, we always warm up on the same side of the field, even though it's the furthest from our bench. My goalkeepers get high tens, versus the high fives all the other starters get as they're announced pregame. You get the point.

And so on this District Final Husky Gameday, I'm running back the blogtheme that undoubtedly contributed to our win on Tuesday. We've beaten our opponent tonight twice this season, but each match was scoreless at halftime. I think we're a bit more talented, but they did just knock off the unbeaten regular season champs (and were the only team to hold them to at least a draw during the district campaign). That's got our kids' attention. I don't expect we'll be as disinterested as the regular season champs were.

Pretty simple equation: we play like we're capable, I like our chances. Kick's at 6:00 pm. Up the Huskies.



Tuesday, May 27, 2025

Husky Gameday

Playoff beard engaged. Roster (mostly) healthy. Game at home tonight at 6:00. Win and we live to fight another day. Lose and the season ends. 

Friday, May 23, 2025

A (Not So) Small Request for the Shield

The National Football League didn’t become an American sports colossus by hibernating in the offseason. The Shield manipulates the calendar and turns even innocuous goings-on into events: player draft; scouting combine; schedule release; free agency window; owners’ meetings; rule changes; Jerry Jones eyelid tucks. Factor individual team issues into the mix, and hardly a week goes by without some tackle football news. 

Team Pro-Pigpile
The NFL’s latest intrusion on our attention spans came courtesy of the recent Spring owners’ meetings in Minnesota and word that the Philadelphia Eagles could continue to torment defenses in short-yardage situations with their Tush Push, or in Philly parlance, the Brotherly Shove. By extension, other teams may also attempt to duplicate what the Eagles routinely pull off. That they will almost certainly be less successful is likely to cement positions in the pro- and con- pigpile camps. 

The Green Bay Packers submitted the anti-TP proposal this go ‘round. Word was that the Eagles’ signature play was doomed, that there were enough owners sufficiently cheesed off to vote to ban the play (75 percent, or 24 of 32, is required to implement or change legislation). In the end, however, only 22 owners voted to ban. So, the majority of league owners remain against the play, but not enough to outlaw it.

Commissioner Roger Goodell reportedly is not a fan of the play, as well, but since he serves at the pleasure of the owners, he is in no position to go all Putin as it pertains to on-field activities. One argument from various corners of the league against the Tush Push is that it’s a threat to player safety, which is a big, steaming pile of disingenuous. 

First, the NFL admits there’s no data supporting that claim. Former Eagles All-Pro center-turned-media celebrity Jason Kelce, who advocated for the play at the Spring meetings, has said elsewhere he believes injuries are less likely to occur during the TP because a coordinated group shove among a small crowd of large humans fully aware of what’s coming is less violent than random full speed collisions. Frankly, any time league mouthpieces trot out player safety arguments, your antennae should start to twitch. 

Recall that the Shield fought for years against concussion and brain trauma findings, despite mounting evidence and a string of high-profile deaths to former players. The league finally agreed to financial settlements for victims only because courts ordered it to do so. Hurdles and obstacles existed for players to receive payments, including conditions related to race that made it more difficult for black players to qualify for certain levels of payouts, a swell look for a league with a majority African-American labor force. 

The league also is so concerned with player safety that it added a 17th game in 2021 and is likely on the way to an 18-game schedule, as Goodell floated to ESPN bleating tank top Pat McAfee last April. Adding two games means that in a span of four years, players will be subjected to an extra half-season of potential injury, related to the long-time 16-game schedule, not counting the additional wear and tear of playoff appearances. “The key thing for us is looking at making sure we continue to do the things that make our game safer,” Goodell said later in a May 2024 piece on NFL.com. “Seventeen games is a long season, so we want to make sure we look at that and make sure that we continue the safety efforts.” 

The NFL’s “safety efforts” apparently don’t include in-season scheduling, either. Twenty-six teams will play games on short rest and recovery. Twenty teams will play three games over the course of 11, 12 or 13 days. Cincinnati, Detroit, Kansas City, Miami, Minnesota and Seattle each have two stretches in which they will play three games in 12 days. The Baltimore Ravens have a 3-in-12 stretch and another in which they will play two games in five days, as do the LA Rams. Buffalo has two stretches where it will play two games in five days. The Eagles will play three games in 11 days from late September into early October. Dallas will play three games in 11 days in November, and two games in five days in late December. 

The league self-congratulates for updated concussion protocols and penalties against head-hunting and outlawing chop-blocks and crackback blocks and altering the execution of kickoffs, all while increasing the number of games and limiting recovery time in pursuit of more money and even greater exposure. 

Mmm, omelette
One counter to the injury concern is that football is a violent game and players are well compensated. Everyone knows the risks and is free to pursue and follow less brutal endeavors. Fair enough. However, would a little more honesty kill anyone? Wait, maybe re-phrase that. A little more transparency wouldn’t hurt and probably wouldn’t change anyone’s mind, either. Something along the lines of: Look, we made a hash of brain trauma and CTE and we haven’t always been sympathetic to player concerns, but we’re trying to do better. We intend to fill your weeks and months with football because all the numbers and interest say you want it. Unfortunately, that means stretching the limits of player health and conditioning in some cases and could mean adverse results for your favorite players and teams. Omelettes and breaking eggs, and all that. Thank you for your consideration. 

How hard was that?

Tuesday, May 20, 2025

Gheorghasbord: The Good, the Great, and the Ugly

I'm generally amped up on adrenaline on nights when I coach games. As a player, one gets to exert enough to counteract the elevated energy. Not so for coaches, and invariably, I get home and am all hopped up. So I drink a couple of beers and go to bed too late. Which means you get cobwebby-brained blogposts that wander all over creation.

The good takes us to Cannes to celebrate a dude who's fast becoming my favorite actor. I think Pedro Pascal first entered my conscious when he played Javier Peña the first season of Narcos. Others will have seen him as Oberyn Martell in Game of Thrones, but I still haven't seen it. He's a pretty terrific artist, no doubt, but I've come to praise him for his outspoken support for trans people (his sister Lux is a trans woman) and this week, for basic human kindness in the context of immigration.

Speaking of basic human kindness, some very great news from a corner of the entertainment multiverse close to our hearts. Earlier this year, Max announced that it would no longer air new episodes of Sesame Street, putting Bert, Ernie, Elmo, Big Bird, Snuffalupagus and their pals in some jeopardy. This week, Netflix stepped into the breach, releasing a message informing us that our puppet friends would have a streaming home on its platform. This year marks the Street's 56th. Glad to see there's a place in the world for this:

And finally, all the way from great to bad meaning bad not bad meaning good. The Colorado Rockies lost to Phillies last night, 9-3. The defeat takes the Rockies' record to 8-39, by some measure the worst mark in history at this point in a season. Colorado's run differential is -150, which is more than twice that of any other team in MLB, save the woeful Baltimore Orioles. The Rockies have a 5.85 ERA and 1.61 WHIP, both easily the bottom of the league. On offense, their OPS is 28th of 30 teams, and they've scored the second-least runs on the majors. Their .170 winning percentage played out over an entire season would yield 28 wins, by far the least in history. And god bless the good people of Denver, but the Rockies are still drawing nearly 26,000 fans per game. I guess good weed and a ballgame are still a great combo.

Saturday, May 17, 2025

Recurring Series Recurs

When we last checked in on the gay sports bar scene, we were celebrating D.C. best sports bar, Nellie's. Eight years between recurring segments is still recurring.

Today, we return to the topic in plenty of time for you to book your tickets to St. Paul. On August 9 in that fair city, The Black Hart of Saint Paul is hosting a Dildo Derby to raise money for Southside Harm Reduction, a local non-profit serving those fighting drug addiction. 

Though it may sound like it, the Dildo Derby is not a soccer match between Stephen Miller and Russ Vought. In fact, the event seems engineered to create (faux) outrage in MAGAWorld. It combines something draped in Americana (the Cub Scouts' Pinewood Derby) and something naughty (um, dildos). Participants build wheeled dildos and race them down a slanted track.

The host venue bills itself as "a neighborhood, queer, and soccer bar in the Midway neighborhood of Saint Paul", going on to note American soccer's historical support of the LGBTQ+ community. As the pub's website says, "Soccer fandom through the US, but particularly in Minnesota has a long tradition of proactively supporting progressive beliefs of inclusion and advocating for queer visibility in sports."

Located just blocks from Allianz Field, home of MLS' Minnesota United, The Black Hart will likely be packed all day, as the FA Cup final between Crystal Palace and Manchester City is taking place as I type this and the Loons host St. Louis this evening. Sounds like a fun place to spend a day, dontchaknow.

Minny-summit in August? Get your dildos ready.

Thursday, May 15, 2025

The Fall and Rise(?) of the Anti-Wrexham

If you're a sentient member of our society, you're undoubtedly aware of the truly fairytale story of Wrexham FC, the club from a down-on-its-luck Welsh* mining town that was purchased by a pair of American actors and subsequently went on a back-to-back-to-back run of promotions that's seen the club climb from the hinterlands of British football to the precipice of the world's most famous league. You're likely aware of all of it because the actors in question, Rob McIlhenny and Ryan Reynolds have parlayed their expertise in image-creation into a wildly successful documentary project that's followed Wrexham's rise.

* You will, undoubtedly, remember how fond the Welsh ladies are of your humble narrator.

You'd be forgiven if you were less familiar with the recent nightmare history of Sunderland AFC, a club based in a port city in the northeast of England. The Black Cats spent 2006-2017 in the Premier League, finishing a club-record 10th in 2011. They, too, were the subject of a well-made documentary, Sunderland 'Til I Die, which chronicled the club's relegation in 2017, and then again in 2018. The story arc took the team and the town from the lofty heights of the best league in Europe to England's third division, and introduced an increasingly sordid and incompetent band of owners and executives to the mix. 

Future Liverpool captain Jordan Henderson came up
through the Sunderland academy
Sunderland wallowed for a bit in League One, finally returning to the Championship (England's second division) in 2022. This season, they finished fourth in the division, which qualified them for the four-team tournament for the final spot in the 2025-26 Premier League (Burnley and Leeds qualified automatically by finishing in the top two).

The first round of the Championship promotion tournament is played over two legs. Sunderland won its first match on the road, defeating Coventry, 2-1. On Tuesday, they returned home to the Stadium of Light needing only a draw to advance to the one-match final at Wembley. They played like a team in search of that draw, and finally gave up a goal in the 76th minute.

The match went to extra time, with two 15-minute sessions to determine a winner, or failing that, a penalty shootout. Sunderland earned a corner at the 120+2 minutes, and on the last kick of the game, did this (go to the 6:45 mark).


Dan Bullard will never buy a drink on Tyneside again, as his header brought the Black Cats to the precipice of a return to Premier League glory. Sunderland will play Sheffield United on May 24 for a lot of marbles, and most people will root for them. Everyone but Marls.