Friday, July 30, 2004
Fluffed Up, Dumbed Down, and Sweaty
Today is one of the best days of the year: the opening of Green Bay Packers' training camp. Football season--which never really ends anymore thanks to the country's ever-growing obsession with it--begins again. And so this morning, it's items and comments from the Wide World of Sports:
Item: The biggest story in football this week was the shock retirement of Ricky Williams of the Miami Dolphins. He was one of the most dominant running backs in the game last year, but he's always been a bit odd. He posed wearing a white wedding dress for a picture on the cover of Sports Illustrated with his then-coach, Mike Ditka of the New Orleans Saints, shortly after Ditka traded all of the Saints' draft picks in 1998 for the right to pick Williams in the draft. Later, he insisted on giving locker room interviews while wearing his helmet. After being medicated for social anxiety disorder, Williams seemed to have become fairly normal, and last year, had the breakout season everyone had been predicting for him since he became a pro. But last week he suddenly retired, leaving $16 million in salary on the table, and hopped a flight for somewhere in Asia. It's come out this week that Williams was facing a suspension for a third violation of the NFL's substance abuse policy--he's apparently got quite a taste for ganja, and has told friends he simply can't understand why it isn't legal--but that pending suspension apparently had nothing to do with his retirement.
Comment: Despite stories this week claiming that Williams is utterly serious and has walked away for good, I still suspect he will be playing somewhere in 2005. In addition to foregoing the money he was set to earn, he might also have to pay back up to $8 million he's already received. He's only 27 years old and has three kids--thus, a lot of years left to support a family.
Item: Another Williams, Willie (no relation to Ricky), has decided to play college football at the University of Miami next year. Willie Williams is 18 years old, has been arrested something like 13 times already, and is on probation for a felony burglary that occurred while he was on an official recruiting visit to the University of Florida in 2002. But Miami rolled out the red carpet for him, and its coach and president are making all sorts of noise about Williams' right to play football and the high standards he will be held to.
Comment: Miami's football program, while it produces great professionals, is beneath contempt as a social institution. Would you want your kid to enroll at a campus where Willie Williams is going to get a free pass for the kind of things that would get your kid kept out, or thrown out?
Item: ESPN is running a series this week on sports and music. This features live performances by different artists on the network's flagship news show, Sportscenter.
Comment: In recent years, ESPN has itself fluffed up and dumbed itself down, ignoring the very thing that made it what it is--solid sports reporting and analysis--to make time for stuff better left to MTV or the E channel. Sportscenter has become an endless series of promos for other "entertainment product" (some on ESPN, some on corporate sibling ABC, some from corporate parent Disney), and the network is rife with junk sports like the X Games, the Great Outdoor Games, and the World Series of Poker. ESPN has still got no peer when it comes to broadcasting football, baseball, basketball, and hockey games, but it's becoming increasingly irrelevant as a source for pregame, halftime, or postgame information.
Recommended Reading: OK, so you need some politics. Salon has a fine analysis of John Kerry's speech last night. It also has another edition of Patrick Smith's "Ask the Pilot," in which he talks to Annie "I flew on a terrorist dry run" Jacobsen. Jacobsen has been lionized by conservative media outlets for her story, even though it's been shot full of holes by the likes of Smith and others. Although she claims to be a Democrat, her justifications sound like they're straight from the conservative playbook--I saw what I saw and I believe what I believe. Don't confuse me with the facts.
This morning on The Hits Just Keep On Comin': Friday Top 5: Let It What?
Today is one of the best days of the year: the opening of Green Bay Packers' training camp. Football season--which never really ends anymore thanks to the country's ever-growing obsession with it--begins again. And so this morning, it's items and comments from the Wide World of Sports:
Item: The biggest story in football this week was the shock retirement of Ricky Williams of the Miami Dolphins. He was one of the most dominant running backs in the game last year, but he's always been a bit odd. He posed wearing a white wedding dress for a picture on the cover of Sports Illustrated with his then-coach, Mike Ditka of the New Orleans Saints, shortly after Ditka traded all of the Saints' draft picks in 1998 for the right to pick Williams in the draft. Later, he insisted on giving locker room interviews while wearing his helmet. After being medicated for social anxiety disorder, Williams seemed to have become fairly normal, and last year, had the breakout season everyone had been predicting for him since he became a pro. But last week he suddenly retired, leaving $16 million in salary on the table, and hopped a flight for somewhere in Asia. It's come out this week that Williams was facing a suspension for a third violation of the NFL's substance abuse policy--he's apparently got quite a taste for ganja, and has told friends he simply can't understand why it isn't legal--but that pending suspension apparently had nothing to do with his retirement.
Comment: Despite stories this week claiming that Williams is utterly serious and has walked away for good, I still suspect he will be playing somewhere in 2005. In addition to foregoing the money he was set to earn, he might also have to pay back up to $8 million he's already received. He's only 27 years old and has three kids--thus, a lot of years left to support a family.
Item: Another Williams, Willie (no relation to Ricky), has decided to play college football at the University of Miami next year. Willie Williams is 18 years old, has been arrested something like 13 times already, and is on probation for a felony burglary that occurred while he was on an official recruiting visit to the University of Florida in 2002. But Miami rolled out the red carpet for him, and its coach and president are making all sorts of noise about Williams' right to play football and the high standards he will be held to.
Comment: Miami's football program, while it produces great professionals, is beneath contempt as a social institution. Would you want your kid to enroll at a campus where Willie Williams is going to get a free pass for the kind of things that would get your kid kept out, or thrown out?
Item: ESPN is running a series this week on sports and music. This features live performances by different artists on the network's flagship news show, Sportscenter.
Comment: In recent years, ESPN has itself fluffed up and dumbed itself down, ignoring the very thing that made it what it is--solid sports reporting and analysis--to make time for stuff better left to MTV or the E channel. Sportscenter has become an endless series of promos for other "entertainment product" (some on ESPN, some on corporate sibling ABC, some from corporate parent Disney), and the network is rife with junk sports like the X Games, the Great Outdoor Games, and the World Series of Poker. ESPN has still got no peer when it comes to broadcasting football, baseball, basketball, and hockey games, but it's becoming increasingly irrelevant as a source for pregame, halftime, or postgame information.
Recommended Reading: OK, so you need some politics. Salon has a fine analysis of John Kerry's speech last night. It also has another edition of Patrick Smith's "Ask the Pilot," in which he talks to Annie "I flew on a terrorist dry run" Jacobsen. Jacobsen has been lionized by conservative media outlets for her story, even though it's been shot full of holes by the likes of Smith and others. Although she claims to be a Democrat, her justifications sound like they're straight from the conservative playbook--I saw what I saw and I believe what I believe. Don't confuse me with the facts.
This morning on The Hits Just Keep On Comin': Friday Top 5: Let It What?
