AFC
(3) Kansas City Chiefs vs. (1) Baltimore Ravens
Sunday, Jan. 28, 3 p.m. ET on CBS
AFC Football Conference Championship (Chiefs vs. Ravens, Game Time 3 pm)Post + Comments (253)
This post is in: Open Threads, Sports
AFC
(3) Kansas City Chiefs vs. (1) Baltimore Ravens
Sunday, Jan. 28, 3 p.m. ET on CBS
AFC Football Conference Championship (Chiefs vs. Ravens, Game Time 3 pm)Post + Comments (253)
This post is in: Sports, Women's Rights Are Human Rights
Spain soccer outcast Rubiales facing trial for unwanted kiss at Women’s World Cup https://t.co/W9kVT1Bnrr
— The Associated Press (@AP) January 25, 2024
I noticed this in my trawl through online news sites — “Spain soccer outcast Rubiales facing trial for unwanted kiss at Women’s World Cup”:
After sullying his nation’s Women’s World Cup victory, former Spanish soccer president Luis Rubiales will face trial for kissing forward Jenni Hermoso without her consent at the final.
Investigative judge Francisco de Jorge ruled on Thursday that Rubiales’ kiss was “unconsented and carried out unilaterally and in a surprising fashion,” the court said.
State prosecutors accused Rubiales of sexual assault and for allegedly trying to coerce Hermoso to publicly support him in the public backlash against him.
Despite initially claiming he was the victim of a campaign led by “false feminists,” Rubiales eventually resigned from his post for his behavior in August during the World Cup final awards ceremony in Sydney. He has denied any wrongdoing.
The judge also ruled that along with Rubiales, former Spain coach Jorge Vilda, sports director of Spain’s men’s team Albert Luque, and the federation former head of marketing Rubén Rivera should be tried for allegedly pressuring Hermoso to defend Rubiales, a step she refused to take…
Hermoso testified before the investigative judge this month. The 33-year-old forward, Spain’s all-time leading scorer who plays in the Mexican league, has been widely supported in the country. The kiss scandal has many hoping it will spur a reckoning with sexism in Spanish sports.
Based on a sexual consent law passed in 2022, Rubiales could face a fine or a prison sentence of one to four years if found guilty, according to the prosecutors’ office in Madrid. The new law eliminated the difference between “sexual harassment” and “sexual assault,” sanctioning any unconsented sexual act…
FIFA banned Rubiales for three years until after the men’s 2026 World Cup. His ban will expire before the next women’s tournament in 2027. Spain’s sports authority also ruled him unfit to hold a post in sports management for three years.
Gotta think, when even the notoriously unpicky Daily Mail thinks Rubiales disgraced himself
Open Thread: Women’s Soccer Legal UpdatePost + Comments (17)
This post is in: Excellent Links, Popular Culture, Sports
I saw this: “. . .with Kelce promoting Pfizer’s VAX!! It is all a coordinated effort by Biden. Think about it. The Gen Zer’s and the young people follow Mrs. Swifty and Mr. Swifty is being laid by Pfizer. The government has long been known to use celebrities to get out a message.
— Southern Left (@left_southern) January 22, 2024
The Chiefs are the NFL's traveling circus: https://t.co/ToxjGfsw0O
— Defector (@DefectorMedia) January 22, 2024
Don’t pretend to understand football, but I usually find Ray Ratto a good read. From Defector – “The Chiefs Are The NFL’s Traveling Circus”:
… Yes, the Chiefs in all their weird three-ring magnificence have advanced to the penultimate step in their campaign, “How To Make The Most Histrionical Super Bowl Ever.” All they have to do is beat the Baltimore Ravens this coming Sunday to wed the people who obsess over Taylor Swift and her allegedly witchy tendencies, for good and ill, with the people who agree that Jason Kelce is the NFL’s newest and nudest spokesman for everything the Super Bowl in Las Vegas could, should, and would be…
Nobody [else] has bundled-up Taylor Swift evidently invoking timely wind gusts, and nobody has Jason Kelce shotgunning cans of beer like the quality-control elf at the brewery, barging about the suite while dressed in Western New York formalwear: no shirt, pants looped below his waist like Saturn’s saddest ring, and scaring his kids. Not even Jim Harbaugh dressed as a gorilla on the sidelines giving Connor Stalions piggyback rides during the national anthem would beat what the Chiefs will be bringing. CBS even had trouble keeping its Taylor highlights straight, not showing her after Travis Kelce’s second touchdown but showing her after Isiah Pacheco’s, as though she was there to suss out Kansas City’s running game. The network is clearly losing its keen eye on America’s taste for pandering.
But what about the Lions and the lovely story of their long wait to take center stage, you ask. Why can’t they be America’s Team? Please. You haven’t spent enough time in the new post-COVID America if you think a good football story is enough. And that goes for the Ravens and 49ers as well. The three of them just play football, and that’s not the kind of thing America needs in an election year, especially this one.
No, a Chiefs Super Bowl would be contested for the part of America’s soul that hasn’t already been hedge-funded to Satan because it pits all the louts in the He-Man Woman Haters Club who resent Swift—because even if she isn’t a necromancer with captivating vocal range she still brings girls and all their cooties to the games and ruin the boys’ furniture-breaking adolescent fun—against everything that yesterday’s performance by Kelce The Elder provides. He is the unintended antidote to the Swifties without even trying, just standing on the front railing of the suite three seats away powerbombing Genesees after every first down. The cultural bloodbaths in living rooms across the nation will serve as a fitting warmup act for the meteor or asteroid we will all pray for come November.
And frankly, however Taylor and the Fun Kelce want to crush the week is all good with us. The Super Bowl, long a trade show with a football game tied to the end of it for tax purposes, has become a staid, predictable, events-by-the-numbers, money-on-the-hoof showcase. The halftime show is the same trumped-up extravaganza of last year’s pop stars waiting for their turn on Celebrity Jeopardy. The pre- and postgame shows are still where helium goes to die. Every overproduced ad is either for gambling, cars that drive themselves into trees, or medicines for diseases only yaks get, all with the soundtrack of a 1970s pop song you have to ask your parents about. (“Yeah, that’s Harry Nilsson, he did a song called ‘You’re Breakin’ My Heart’; your mother and I danced to it at prom.”)
And that’s just the stuff you like.
In other words, this is a fight not for the game or even the day, but the entire week. Las Vegas is the only place this can possibly work and even at that it may be more than the town can handle, so it is not just happy coincidence that this is the year when it all can come together. The Swiftmaster General, the Kelce Family Circus, Vegas just being Vegas—it can all make the football industry itself pale in significance at a time when it really needs a humble pie with roofing-nail crust catapulted into its face. Hey, it’s that or three more weeks of back-up quarterback legacy talk, and that’s the reason why you stopped listening to sports talk shows when you got a job, isn’t it?
Tuesday Evening Open Thread: The Sportsball CircusPost + Comments (287)
This post is in: Excellent Links, Open Threads, Popular Culture, Proud to Be A Democrat, Sports
Makin’ that sign
Must’ve taken all night.Losers. pic.twitter.com/BnJzJN6vOC
— Siren ?? (@sirentheswiftie) January 21, 2024
Commentor Scout211 shared this yesterday — from USAToday Sports, “The thin-skinned men triggered by Taylor Swift’s presence at NFL games need to get a grip”:
The multiple Grammy winner was all over social media ahead of Saturday’s game, the NFL’s main accounts included. Got prominent play during the game, too, with NBC’s crew panning to them in a suite, cheering big plays. When the musical superstar was shown on the Jumbotron, fans in the stadium went into a frenzy.
Yet Eminem’s presence at the Detroit Lions playoff game last weekend didn’t prompt the overheated vitriol that Taylor Swift’s appearances at Kansas City Chiefs games do…
It’s funny — and by funny I mean tiresome and lazy — how a high-profile female fan wrecks the game, while the prominent visibility of male celebrities or team owners at sporting events is accepted without complaint. Celebrated, even. Jerry Jones gets no shortage of airtime even when people aren’t trying to decipher his reactions to his team’s latest playoff meltdown. Matthew McConaughey’s presence at University of Texas games is considered kitschy and fun. Jack Nicholson was as central a figure in the Lakers’ Showtime era as Magic and Kareem.
But when Swift dares intrude on the NFL, a segment of people lose their ever-loving minds.
Swift has been called “Yoko Ono,” accused of having a negative impact on boyfriend Travis Kelce and, by extension, the Chiefs. She’s been dismissed as a bandwagon-hopper. And in the most ludicrous criticism of all, there are some who’ve suggested she’s using Kelce and the NFL to boost her own profile.
Yes, because the most famous woman on the planet, whose $1 billion-plus Eras Tour helped fuel U.S. consumer spending last year, needs the help.
“There’s still a segment of the culture where football is the sanctuary from femininity, from anything that’s feminized. This is where men get to be men,” said Cheryl Cooky, a professor at Purdue University who studies the intersection among gender, sports and culture.
“Taylor Swift is a scapegoat for all of the male grievances of a shifting gender order in the NFL. And the broader culture,” Cooky added. “This story is, in some ways, not a story about Taylor Swift but a story about fragile masculinity among sports fans and the residuals of old-school masculinity in some corners of fandom.”…
… [M]ost female fans will nod knowingly, used to the conditional acceptance of our fandom. We’re asked to explain how we became sports fans, as if the reasons are different than they are for male fans. We have our knowledge tested, literally, to prove we’re legit.
And despite women making up nearly half of the NFL’s fanbase, as we have for the better part of a decade, we’re still treated as an amusement to be indulged…
“Women are accepted within the (sports) universe when they’re conforming to some kind of gender norms and expectations,” Cooky said, pointing to cheerleaders and athlete moms. “But women who are in positions of power get treated much differently. If you’re not fitting in the box the NFL and fans want to put you in, that’s when you’re going to experience that blowback.
“Taylor Swift is not just the girlfriend in the booth sitting next to Kelce’s mom and cheering on her man,” added Cooky, a self-proclaimed Swiftie whose favorite album, Reputation, is centered around Swift’s refusal to accept narratives crafted for her by others. “She’s also this really powerful global phenomenon.”…
And it’s not just the right-wing misogynists who get their communal jollies hating on Swift:
right wing misogynist: this dumb bitch is so uptight
left wing misogynist: (bravely) this dumb WHITE bitch is so uptight https://t.co/DX0U0Q7dX2— Katie Martin (@katiedimartin) January 9, 2024
I feel like I'm going insane, Taylor Swift has literally done these things. She's endorsed Democrats, donated large sums of money to LGBTQ causes, produced an anthem in support of the LGBT community, etc. pic.twitter.com/uBLQv61xlW
— River_Tam (@RiverTamYDN) January 16, 2024
I admit I have no idea how the Pentagon allegedly comes into this.
— Patrick Chovanec (@prchovanec) January 10, 2024
The Pentagon is rejecting a Fox News conspiracy theory about Taylor Swift being recruited as an asset.
"As for this conspiracy theory, we are going to shake it off."
More: https://t.co/9YheqBoX8d pic.twitter.com/tSA4HmkM6K
— Rolling Stone (@RollingStone) January 12, 2024
If voting didn't matter, Republicans wouldn't mind if Swifties did it. https://t.co/brISVPF7sZ
— L O L G O P (@LOLGOP) January 10, 2024
Sunday Night Open Thread: Not So SwiftiesPost + Comments (92)
This post is in: Open Threads, Republican Stupidity, Sports
New: @TedCruz endorses Trump in Hannity interview
— Patrick Svitek (@PatrickSvitek) January 17, 2024
Felt like posting this earlier would’ve been a challenge to the Trickster God, but it looks like the ERCOT power grid held up safely, so…
THE TED CRUZ CURSE STRIKES AGAIN! pic.twitter.com/cLyAGiYzfN
— Isaiah Martin (@isaiahrmartin) January 15, 2024
Turns out the Cowboys were dead at 4:07pm when Ted Cruz clicked post on this tweet pic.twitter.com/EzgCDN6pUJ
— Wu Tang is for the Children (@WUTangKids) January 15, 2024
Men are mad at Taylor Swift for being at NFL games when they should really be mad at Ted Cruz. https://t.co/Z07niF9rht
— Olivia Julianna ?? (@0liviajulianna) January 15, 2024
Ted Cruz is now 0-2 in seizing things in January. pic.twitter.com/2fqsaAzzcL
— Txnewsprincess (@txnewsprincess) January 15, 2024
We cannot afford six more years of Ted Cruz. #CruzCurse pic.twitter.com/cKWOEXGUfj
— Colin Allred (@ColinAllredTX) January 15, 2024
Can we PLEASE seize the opportunity to vote Ted Cruz out this November, once and for all.
If you’re not folllowing @ColinAllredTX
then you should be.Never forget how Ted Cruz fist bumped fellow Republicans when they voted against healthcare for veterans. pic.twitter.com/Zn2tepjPlL
— Liberal Lisa in Oklahoma (@lisa_liberal) January 15, 2024
Wednesday Evening Open Thread: The Cruz CursePost + Comments (54)
by WaterGirl| 45 Comments
This post is in: Open Threads, Sports
Staying neutral as none of my teams are in the game, so the image is from a couple of years ago. Good representation of the joy of the game.
Looks to me like last night’s World Series thread got plenty of action, so I’ll put up posts for all 7 games until / unless participation in the threads drops way off.
I loved going to White Sox games with my Dad when I was a kid. And on summer nights when baseball was on, we would take our little portable TV out to the roof, set it on a tray, and plug it in through the window to the house. They are lovely memories, wearing our shorty pajamas on the roof, hanging out with my Dad, after dark, under our little blankies, watching night baseball games.
Totally open thread.
World Series, Game 2: Diamondbacks at Rangers (Open Thread)Post + Comments (45)
by WaterGirl| 80 Comments
This post is in: Open Threads, Sports
I don’t know either team, so I’ll just say “How ’bout those Cubs?”
Though in reality I grew up in Chicago as a White Sox fan – because my Dad was a White Sox guy, and I was Daddy’s Girl. My Mom rooted for the Cubs, but what can I say except girls and their mothers…
So who’s everybody rooting for?
If there’s interest in having a thread for each game of the World Series, we can make that happen. Just let us know in the comments if there’s interest.
Totally open thread.
World Series, Game 1: Diamondbacks at Rangers (Open Thread)Post + Comments (80)