Well he did play for PSG for years but at this stage soccer is so rife with sports washing cash it’s hard to avoid at the upper levels. They know the right wing loves them polluting petrol and sportsball and don’t really care about human rights.
I mean you can avoid it to some extent, but not entirely if you want to be a top player.
You don’t have to be a poster boy for it though. It turns out Messi likes their money but doesn’t approve of their laws and constraints on him and his family. We know what that makes him.
The women’s World Cup is nearing its conclusion and Spain have beaten Sweden in one semi final and Oz are playing England (and it’s in Oz). Australia beat Ireland in their first match so I’m going for them. I would have been for Spain over Sweden too.
Oh, and world rugby have decided to show their super high concern about CTE by over ruling the TV match officials who upgraded England’s captain’s provisional yellow card to a sending off for a high, no arms tackle attempt straight to the head of a welsh player with great force which forced him out of the game. Unfortunately this particular player has had absurd leniency shown to him quite a number of times at this stage. I mean he obviously wont change his technique, knocking someone out sure is effective, as he doesn’t tend to get sanctioned. I actually can’t blame him for it, he keeps getting told it’s okay.
I believe the comments page of the Torygraph are going mad on it, and nearly all fuming at World Rugby for letting him off. Oddly enough the review panel were all Australian. I obviously haven’t checked the Torygraph as it’s a cesspool of privacy infringements.
I am only beginning to understand, a bit, how big a deal American football is. I was in town the other day and right beside the central bank was a large shop devoted to selling merch for a one off match being staged in Dublin. I think it’s essentially a display match? Then there’s this:
Like for a really big international match on in the same stadium there would be a sum total of one road closed for a couple of hundred metres, a filter on a couple of others, and the train station right at the stadium closes shortly before the match to avoid overcrowding (not much of a walk from the next station either way) and the couple of streets around would have people selling dodgy scarves with both teams on them. Flags too. But honestly you could ignore it in town quite easily and it’s not because it’s such a big town that you won’t notice like maybe London or Paris or something.
Anyway, turns out it’s a really, really big deal. Who knew?
Any of us who grew up in the American south, especially! American football is big all over the country, but in some places in the south, it’s practically a religion.
I have not read that… I’ll have to check it out… but yeah, it’s crazy how much people love American football down here and are willing to sacrifice their kids’ well being to it… So much so, that it opens up spaces for scam artists:
Of course, a major part of the problem is how often sports are seen as a ticket out of poverty, which I’m guessing the Kingsolver book addresses?
Seems like there was another documentary about football specifically in Texas, but I can’t remember what it was called… If I find it, I’ll update with a link here.
Green Bay Packers fans, and Wisconsinites in general are often called “cheeseheads” because of the amount of cheese and other dairy products that come out of Wisconsin, so fans will wear foam cheese wedge hats to the games.
I have one adult and one child-sized cheese hat. I make no apologies.
American football is big all over the country, but in some places in the south, it’s practically a religion.
