Tag: #PremierLeague

  • ODDS and ENDS – Stop Drinking Apps, Kids n’ Oysters, and Harry Kane

    “Odds and Ends” is my continuing series of random thoughts and follow ups…

    Last June, I took a month off from drinking. Not that I felt I was out of control or anything, but more a matter of having a drink everyday isn’t the healthiest. This year I decided to do the same thing, again for health, and also wanting to help lose the Covid weight. Then, yesterday morning, I noticed an ad on my Instagram feed for an app to help you “cut back.” And that was the phrase they kept using; to help you “cut back” on things in your life. Drinking, it’s clearly talking about drinking, but oddly not saying that. Not that I need the app, but the Cloud/Algorithm knew. It knew I was going to stop drinking in June. We’re living in The Matrix, people.

    We went out to eat as a family the other night. It was strange to be inside of a restaurant again, but we are vaxed, and we want to support the local places in the neighborhood. Anyway, the place we went had oysters on the half shell, and the wife and I couldn’t resist. When they came to the table, the kid wanted to try one, which took me by surprise. I told her no, that raw oysters aren’t safe for kids, as their immune systems haven’t developed enough. I didn’t know if that was true, but I felt like it was something I was told a long time ago. (We looked it up, and the FDA says that kids over five are safe to eat raw oysters and fish.) I want my kid to be an adventurous eater, but, even though she is six, she still seems too young to me. Still, I proud she wasn’t icked out by a raw oyster. In fact, she tried to take an oyster shell home.

    And is Harry Kane coming back to Tottenham, or is he going some where else? The last thing I really want to see is him off to Manchester United, Manchester City or Chelsea. I really hate to see Kane, Son, Bale, and Lucas split up, especially that Dele was worked back into a starting position at the end of the season. The defense does need work, and I understand why Kane said what he said about leaving; he wants to be on a team that wins trophies. I just hope the Spurs Management get their act together and build a proper team.

  • Behind the Scenes Drama of the Super League

    Here is the New York Times story about how the Super League died. Stories of greed and hubris are as old as Greek drama.

    www.nytimes.com/2021/04/22/sports/soccer/super-league-soccer.html

  • Europe’s Super League is a Mistake

    I have been following the Premier League for the past couple of years, and specifically supporting Tottenham Hotspur for the past three. I have watched them change mangers twice, get to the finals of the Champions League, got really annoyed when they didn’t re-sign Eriksen, got totally confused as to why Dele isn’t playing, and got really happy with the Kane/Son duo on the pitch. I even paid for Peacock so I could watch matches, and have tried to read up on the history of the team, so I at least have a bit of a knowledge to build off of.

    So, when the Super League was announced on Sunday, I had a resigned disappointment. Here is an explainer from the New York Times. Long story short, 12 of the biggest football clubs in Europe are forming a new league, and outside of these 12 teams making a whole lot of money, there really isn’t much benefit for anyone else. The Super League will kill off smaller clubs, actually eliminates competition, and just reeks of greed.

    And as an American, I just want to say, “Your welcome, European football fans!” Yup, we are great at greed and capitalism when it comes to ruining sports. I love baseball, but there is no mystery to that sport; whoever spends the most wins. Why don’t baseball clubs just announce how much they are planning on spending, and then the top 16 teams just play each other for the championship? It would cut out the pesky middle man, which is that boring summer season. There is no real competition during the baseball season, the playoffs is where all the action is, and money determines it.

    Which is what the Super League is. They have decided that their home leagues are meaningless, and having to deal with competition from smaller clubs is just getting in the way. The difference is in America, we still perpetrate the lie, while Europe is coming around to the truth; this isn’t about sports, it’s about making money.

    Again, you’re welcome Europe!

  • TV Review: Ted Lasso

    I try really hard not to be a judgmental person, which is all the more funny, as I am about to write a review of a tv show. I like to think of myself as a person that does not prejudge, and goes into situations with an open mind, but when I heard that Apple TV had made a show, Ted Lasso, out of the commercial for NBC broadcasting the English Premier League, it didn’t strike me as a good idea. I do think Jason Sudeikis is a pretty funny guy, but from what I remembered about the commercials, I thought it would be a one note joke about an American not understanding football.

    So, that was August of this year, when Ted Lasso debuted, and I never thought about the show.

    Then, I started to hear things about it. “It’s not so bad…” “Jason Sudeikis is really funny…” “It’s a good sports show…” “It’s a good workplace comedy…” “The cast is awesome…” and then, “It’s the best comedy on tv…”

    I still wasn’t convinced. And then I had a friend say to me that Ted Lasso isn’t the best show on tv, but it’s the only show that makes you feel better for trying to stay positive.

    Now, I was intrigued with that assessment.

    If you don’t know, Ted Lasso is bout Ted Lasso, a Division II college (America) football coach who just won a championship, who is hired to manage an English football (soccer) Premier League team, AFC Richmond. What Ted doesn’t know is that the team owner, Rebecca Welton, got the team in a divorce, and wants to run it into the ground to spite her ex-husband. Ted and his American assistant coach bring all their America positive attitude and can-do spirit to a jaded and bitter football club.

    I am sure you are like me and pretty much see where this is going; Ted’s positive attitude rubs off on everyone, who in the end comes to love Ted, and the team is successful. And you are not too far off. But I found myself binging through the episodes.

    First of all, it is funny. The writers and cast swing from word play, to spit takes, to sight gags, and every comedy convention in between, and somehow keep the feeling of realism without spinning out into parody or British silliness. But what kept me locked in was watching each of the characters make huge mistakes, or betrayals, and instead of what a lesser show would do, which is make the character learn a lesson and move on, Ted Lasso, plays on the characters finding reasons to be honest. In most of the cases, it is because they start seeing their co-workers as friends, and as such, they owe their friends honesty, and forgiveness. That building friendships, especially for adults, is very hard, and Ted Lasso is a show that was willing to take it’s time with ten episodes, to allow those relationships develop, in a wonderful and hilarious way.

  • Sports and Covid: Update

    I had written about my two sports teams which I follow were starting their season this weekend. Sunday to be precise. It was Tottenham Hotspur in the Premier League, and the Dallas Cowboys in the NLF.

    As luck would have it, both teams lost. And sort of in the same way; their defenses were lacking.

    Clearly, it would have been an even more enjoyable Sunday if they would have won, but I had a good time, sitting in front of the tv, talking to the TV, and supporting my teams.

    The wife did ask me if it felt good to have sports back, and I said that it felt good to do something rather normal. Normal in the sense that I was texting with my circle of college friends while the Cowboys played, and none of that conversation had to do with Covid. It was nice to look on social media and see friends posting about how awful the team played and that the season was over. It was nice to complain about something rather than the end of the world.

    It’s normal to take a break. It’s normal to talk about other things. It’s normal to have hopes that someone will put a ball through a goal.

    I have enough Covid issues to deal with; the kid going back to school, health insurance, social distancing, unemployment, eviction, and the election. It can really feel like too much, just about every day.

    But for a little while, I got to worry and hope that Kane would score in stoppage time, or that the defense would sack Goff.

    I’m not a huge sports fan, but I did enjoy about five hours of normal yesterday.