Category: Sports

  • My Sporting Weekend

    I’m not the biggest sports fan, but I do enjoy writing about it, and spending this time, when I’m trying to figure out what to blog about, to think about sports in my life.

    This weekend wasn’t the best. Tottenham went down in flames against Arsenal. The North London derby was more like a stampede and massacre all rolled into one. And Arsenal isn’t a good team, but damn, they sure did make the Spurs look worse. It was one of those matches where the other team seemed to be everywhere on the pitch. I gave up at half time and cleaned the bathroom.

    Then I thought I would look up where the Cubs were in the standing, and I knew they weren’t having a good season, but I saw that they were 26 games back. It was like the Cubs from the 80’s had returned from the grave. I was expecting to see Mark Grace and Andre Dawson out there on the field. Looking at the Cubs stats for the season just made me angry again at the Ricketts selling off the team a month or two ago. Looks like another 100 years of rebuilding.

    And that now leaves me with Monday night football and the Cowboys playing against the Eagles. I have hope the Cowboys will win, as I despise the Eagles as a team, and Eagles fans as well. They are just not nice people. They threw snowballs at Santa Clause, you know. And the old Veterans Stadium used to have a jail and a courtroom in it to deal with the drunk rowdy fans. Anyway, I’m hoping that the Cowboys will win, and Elliot will have a good game. Like, “get me 15 points so my fantasy team can win this week,” good game.

    Not that I’m a sports fan.

  • Harry Kane Stays at Tottenham

    Have I mentioned that I know nothing about the Premier League?

    Let me reiterate; I know nothing about the Premier League.

    Except I think I can claim that I was right about Harry Kane and Tottenham Hotspur sticking together for this season.

    I am saying all of this because Harry Kane Tweeted today:

    I guess that settles that.

    Being that I don’t know or understand anything about the League, I don’t know what the correct interpretation of these events are. Did Kane blink? Did Man City lowball Kane’s value to Tottenham? Did Tottenham refuse to negotiate? Did Kane and Tottenham’s owners come to an agreement? Did Kane suck it up, and get back to being a player on the team? Who knows…

    What I do know is that this could be a fun season. Spurs have two wins in the Premier League, and are down a match in the playoff round of the Europa Conference League, but they did make some moves this summer to add players, and the big move was keeping Son. So, I’m looking forward to what Tottenham can do.

    Should be fun.

  • Premier League Begins on Friday

    If you know anything about me, it should be that I know nothing about how the Premier League works, and that lack of knowledge will not stop me from talking about it.

    The season kicks off tomorrow, and I won’t be watching. It’s nothing personal. Brentford will play Arsenal and I have nothing invested in either team, and I most likely will be with the kid at the park. I might watch highlights at night, but I doubt it.

    The match I will be waiting for is Tottenham against Manchester City. Only because the Harry Kane saga has yet to conclude. I have been wrong about everything that I thought I knew. I thought it was a ploy by Kane; wrong. He hasn’t shown up for training and says he won’t until he is released so he can sign with another team. (I might have that wrong.) Right now, odds are that team will be Manchester City. So, if in the next three days that happens, then we could have a very dramatic first match of the season.

    Or…

    As my track record has gone for this off season, I could be calling this all wrong. I’m probably calling this wrong.

    What I have learned about following a League where I have to pick it up all on my own, is that so much of sports has been taught to me. Either by my dad, my brothers, or by friends. It is like an oral tradition, being passed down from generation to generation, learning the in’s and out’s of the team, what the history is, and why the owners suck.

    I’m lacking all of this, so I have a wide learning curve. I just hope Tottenham make it back into the Champions League

    (I do know what that means.)

  • Simone Biles: Some Thoughts

    Simone Biles has got everyone talking. It’s been awhile, maybe the Trump days, since I have seen one person light up the internet with all kinds of opinions.

    For the record, Simone Biles doesn’t owe anyone anything. If she wanted to pull out of the Olympics seconds before she took the mat, that is her business. Personally, I don’t think she had to share her reasoning with the world, but being that she did, I think it is spurring a good conversation about stress, pressure, and mental wellbeing. The other thing that makes me feel better about this story is that it seems like the overwhelming majority of people are supporting her; athletes to fans. The only people I see getting mad at her are conservative white men.

    And then I had another thought this morning; what if Simone Biles doesn’t like gymnastics anymore? She is the gymnastics GOAT, but what if she just does like the sport? After everything that has happened to the USA gymnastics world, I could see her, and in fact all women gymnasts, say that they are done with it. Just because you are good at something, even the best, doesn’t mean you love it, or even like it.

    In high school, I knew a lot of guys who played football, and were really good at it, but they were only playing so they could get into college. They didn’t really give two shits about the sport, other than it was a “job” that would get them to a better life, by getting a degree. So, for that reason, they worked hard at it, but they didn’t love it.

    In our house, Simone Biles will still be a hero. It’s cool to work hard and be the best at what you do, but she is also showing that being mentally healthy is worth fighting for as well.

  • I Don’t Understand the Premier League

    So, I can admit that I was wrong. Or maybe I was living in denial. The Sun and everyone else is reporting that Harry Kane is going to Manchester City for 160 million pounds. I had thought it was a ploy by Kane to get the owners of Totenham to spend the money to build a team, as Kane still had one year left on his Spurs contract.

    Clearly, I was wrong.

    Now, here’s the thing that I don’t understand; with Kane going to Man City, what does Tottenham get in the deal? Is MC sending players, or cash or what? I am sure this has to do with me being new to the sport, but in the States, if a player is under contract, and another team wants them, then there is a buyout or a swap of players. From what I have read, it sounds like Man City is offering a lot of money and Tottenham’s owners are letting it happen.

    That can’t be right, right? I feel like I am missing something.

    The only good news in the world of Tottenham is that Son Heung-Min signed a four-year extension on his contract. Now I just need to find out if Lucas, Dele, and Bale are going to hang around as well. I know Lloris will be there, as he’s out there modeling the away kit on the team’s website.

    I am looking forward to the start of the season. That will be on August 15th, against, irony of irony, Manchester City.