sports — #
Geoff Slattery: This Is United
5 April 2012
sports & culture — #
Grantland: Soccer’s Heavy Boredom
Soccer is boring. One of the misconceptions non-soccer fans have about soccer fans is that we don’t know this. The classic Simpsons parody of a soccer match — “Fast kickin’! Low scorin’! And ties? You bet!” — hangs on the joke that the game puts Americans to sleep while somehow, bafflingly, driving foreigners wild with excitement. Calling the game for Springfield TV, Kent Brockman practically grinds his teeth with frustration: “Halfback passes to the center … back to the wing … back to the center. Center holds it. Holds it. [Huge sigh.] Holds it.” One booth over, the Spanish commentator is going nuts: “Halfback passes to the center! Back to the wing! Back to the center! Center holds it! Holds it!! HOLDS IT!!!”
14 February 2012
sports & san-francisco — #
24 October 2011
sports — #
At this point, the Denver Broncos’ attitude toward Tebow seems to be that you can hide making a mistake if you insist on making it repeatedly while loudly proclaiming that it’s the opposite of a mistake. It’s like the supply-side economics of talent. The Broncos invested a #1 pick in him, and if they just keep reinvesting in the top-tier, benefits will eventually rain down on all. Reality can go suck it. Their faith in a higher power reflects both Tebow’s Christianity and supply-side thinking in general: unaccountably rendering time and investment upward eventually results in an invisible hand doling out funbucks.
13 September 2011
sports & culture — #
“Why,” asked Bryce Jordan, the president emeritus of Penn State, “should a university be an advertising medium for your industry?”
Vaccaro did not blink. “They shouldn’t, sir,” he replied. “You sold your souls, and you’re going to continue selling them. You can be very moral and righteous in asking me that question, sir,” Vaccaro added with irrepressible good cheer, “but there’s not one of you in this room that’s going to turn down any of our money. You’re going to take it. I can only offer it.”
16 August 2011
sports & video — #
Danny MacAskill, the incomparable trials cyclist, is back with Industrial Revolutions
5 August 2011
sports — #
If you like football, the new Total Quarterback Rating is going to change the way you think about the value of various Quarterbacks.