Category: Siguenza on Sports

Categories
Siguenza on Sports

Fromm fumbles

For the second day in a row, an NFL quarterback was a major topic of discussion on social media for controversial comments. A quarterback who has yet to play a down in the league. Jake Fromm was drafted by the Buffalo Bills earlier this year from the University of Georgia, where he helped the Bulldogs to three SEC championship games as well as a spot in the national championship game, according to 24/7 Sports, who added that during his time there, Fromm sent texts to a female acquaintance about who should be able to buy guns. This morning, the acquaintance released those texts to the public.

https://twitter.com/ashleymp20/status/1268392579193876482
@ashleymp20 on Twitter

The logical first question here would be, How do we know it was Jake Fromm who sent those texts? Well, he confirmed it himself a few hours later when tweeting an apology.

Jake Fromm on Twitter

Now that we’ve established that, a host of other questions can come up, like What was he thinking? Why did this woman wait so long to come forward with this? That question has been asked.

There’s also a legal question of whether the acquaintance violated Fromm’s right to privacy by sharing the messages. It appears she has not, judging from the interpretation of U.S. law by Vinay Desai and Eloise Gratton of the law firm Borden Ladner Gervais LLP. Say Desai and Gratton, “once a transmission is sent and received by another person…that message is no longer protected” (2018, para. 11). As is said often on football telecasts when the quarterback is intercepted, that’s one throw Jake Fromm wishes he could have back. It’s also a reminder that everyone should watch what they text.

Categories
Siguenza on Sports

A Tale of Two QBs

Assuming that the NFL will have a season in the fall, it stands to reason that the issue of player protests over racial injustice will be a primary storyline. Speaking today to Yahoo Finance, Drew Brees made his thoughts known on kneeling during “The Star-Spangled Banner.”

Yahoo Finance on Twitter

As you can probably imagine, there is a mixture of condemnation and support for the New Orleans Saints quarterback, though the ratio as they call it skews more toward negative reaction to Brees’ comments. Meanwhile, the Green Bay Packers’ counterpart to Brees, Aaron Rodgers, created a post on social media that was better received, though people on both sides of the issue are making their opinions known on his account as well.

Aaron Rodgers on Instagram

The differences in response between Brees and Rodgers make the contest between the Saints and Packers scheduled for the third Sunday night of the season at the Superdome all the more interesting. Again, that’s assuming there is a season and that it starts before Sept. 27. Until then, we’re left with humorous Twitter takes like this one pointing out the general narrative about each team’s quarterback.

Max Meyerson on Twitter
Categories
Siguenza on Sports

At the intersection of Sports and Politics

Downtown Minneapolis in October 2016. (Brian Siguenza)

No matter who you are, politics is a very sensitive subject and you have to be careful about what you say and who you say it to because the discussion can escalate fast. And yet, it doesn’t feel right to talk about something like the NHL’s plan on returning to action and pretend as though the events that have unfolded in Minneapolis and across the United States in the last few days aren’t happening.

Indeed, sports are a very nice distraction from all the worries that we have as individuals. For three hours a night, longer on weekends, we can remove ourselves from the normal hustle and bustle, and get lost in a game of physical strategy. Much like a movie, except it happens in real-time and nobody knows how it’s going to end, not even the actors. This might help to explain why people are so eager to see live sports. It might also explain why some do not like athletes using sport to bring attention to real-world problems.

Ayesha on Twitter
https://twitter.com/andylassner/status/1266321654075936770
Andy Lassner on Twitter
The Philadelphia Inquirer on Twitter

But as the late Nelson Mandela suggested in a poignant speech 20 years ago, sports are so much more than the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat. Through the work of those who play them, sports have the opportunity to change lives. Listen carefully to his words, and perhaps you’ll find that Colin Kaepernick and other players who take a stand (or a knee) on societal matters understand the true spirit of being an athlete. And they deserve to be heard.

Laureus on YouTube
Categories
Siguenza on Sports

Flying the friendly skies

A United aircraft. (Pascal Renet via Pexels)
White United Airlines plane. (Photo by Pascal Renet from Pexels)

Last week, I mentioned in a post my objection to using the phrase “stick to sports” at those who make their living in athletic competition. The issue I take with the phrase is that it dehumanizes the athlete, suggesting that they are nothing more than a commodity to be used solely for our entertainment. The way I see it, the players that we watch on TV and read about on the Internet aren’t all that different from us. They get up in the morning, go to jobs, and have the same basic needs. Like those of us who are not athletically gifted, they sometimes want to be left alone.

Case in point, an anonymous NFL player who caught United’s red-eye service to Newark from Los Angeles back in February. The player is now suing United for an incident that occurred with a female passenger whom he and the person accompanying him said was acting rather erratically. The suit, filed in Los Angeles, alleges that the woman made inappropriate gestures to the player, including touching him around his upper legs. She also harassed him over the use of a face mask he had worn out of concern for COVID-19 (Fox 11 Los Angeles, 2020).

Pandemic or not, air travel can be a very stressful experience. All passengers and crew deserve to be treated with respect regardless of the circumstances. There’s no need for additional turbulence.

Categories
Siguenza on Sports

A Premier payout to broadcasters

It’s no secret at this point that the absence of live sports has been catastrophic for the people who organize them. Major League Baseball commissioner Rob Manfred told CNN last week that clubs would collectively lose $4 billion if no season were to be held. It has also hurt the media corporations who have paid good money to carry games, only to be reduced to digging deep into the archives for substitute content.

Today in the Wall Street Journal, a report that the current members of the English Premier League were expected to pay back $367 million to the organization’s broadcast partners. The estimate is divided among the twenty clubs that make up the EPL and proportional to the number of appearances on television. One of the more popular teams, Manchester United, announced its total bill to be around £20 million, equivalent in US currency to $24.5 million.

Wall Street Journal Sports on Twitter

An incomplete season would result in a return of £750 million (SportBible, 2020), which converted to American dollars is just shy of $1 billion, thus giving the EPL a billion reasons why it can’t declare Liverpool the champion when it has a clear lead over the field.

Miguel on Twitter
Categories
Siguenza on Sports

Too soon to resume sports?

A youth baseball game in Denver. (Brian Siguenza)

Part of the overall push to start normal activities in American culture has of course been to bring back organized sport, and we’re starting to see signs of competition picking up again. NASCAR held a race at Darlington this week, and Major League Baseball eyes a July opening. Then there are youth sports, which some states will allow to happen as early as the end of the month.

KPRC 2 Houston on Twitter
Iowa High School Athletic Association on Twitter

Pat Toomey, a Republican senator from Pennsylvania, weighed in on the matter with a discussion he hosted today with sporting officials, athletes, and a doctor.

Senator Pat Toomey on YouTube

But is it a good idea to be starting up youth sports so quickly when we’ve seen so many summer events like Wimbledon, the British Open, and the Olympics either moved or outright canceled due to coronavirus? Not to mention the analysis by scientists that the virus hasn’t left and could exacerbate again come fall. How will youth games be conducted: do the athletes get tested as vigorously as major leaguers are expected to? Will there be spectators in attendance? In Texas, as KPRC reports, the proclamation suggests that it will be left up to the teams to decide. Finally, is it really fair to the kids that they end up being guinea pigs in this experiment to debunk science?

Perhaps that last question is not for me to answer. One thing is for certain, a lot more variables are at play here than just people wanting sports again. Dismissing this crisis makes it that much harder to fight it.

Categories
Siguenza on Sports

Tom Brady’s cringe-worthy pitch

Timing is everything.

Perhaps no one should understand this better than Tom Brady. The quarterback, drafted in the lower rounds out of Michigan, was certainly in the right place at New England when the man he backed up, Drew Bledsoe, suffered an injury early in the 2001 season.

Almost 20 years and six NFL championships later, Tom Brady has subjected himself to some rather bad timing. We’re not talking about his move to Tampa Bay during a pandemic that may alter the season, but the launch of his immune supplement during the said pandemic. Called Protect, HuffPost reports the product boasts ingredients like vitamin C and zinc, which according to Brady will work to keep the immune system “healthy.”

Tom Brady on Twitter

Needless to say, some people in the medical community were not amused.

Seth Trueger on Twitter
Mean Mary Jean DNP, RN on Twitter

While generally, I am not a fan of the “stick to sports” rhetoric that is heaped upon athletes on social media and the only mention of COVID-19 appears in the disclaimer that shipping may be delayed, I have to admit that the introduction of this product when there is so much conflicting information about the virus and whether there’s an acceptable treatment probably wasn’t the best idea. For someone who has had a lot of success in his career, Tom Brady did about as well here as his final pass as a Patriot.

Categories
Siguenza on Sports

Remembering Phyllis George

I was working on another post when a news alert flashed across the top of my computer screen informing me of the passing of Phyllis George at age 70. A Miss America winner, she was best known for her work on The NFL Today with Brent Musburger, Irv Cross, and Jimmy “The Greek” Snyder.

USA Today on Twitter

You think about the aspects of sports broadcasting that are commonplace today–the breakdown of every matchup and factors to consider going into the game, which can be useful for placing bets–those came to be during the Musburger/George era of the CBS pregame show. But more than that, what George’s presence on The NFL Today showed was that women could co-exist in a male-dominated field, paving the way for the likes of Lesley Visser, Hannah Storm, Michele Tafoya, Beth Mowins, and so many more. For that, Phyllis George is a true pioneer in the world of sports media.

Here are a couple of videos to show you: a 1977 broadcast with Musburger, George, and Cross, then Musburger recalling the show’s first few years to Rich Eisen.

Classic Sports on YouTube
(original footage from CBS Sports)
The Rich Eisen Show on YouTube
Categories
Siguenza on Sports

MLB commissioner on CNN discusses plans to play ball

Chase Field in Phoenix, home of the Arizona Diamondbacks. (Brian Siguenza)

CNN’s Thursday night town hall on coronavirus was the television program to watch if you wanted an idea of what a return to live sports might look like. That’s because Major League Baseball commissioner Rob Manfred spent approximately fifteen minutes speaking with moderators Anderson Cooper and Dr. Sanjay Gupta about his organization’s plans to start the baseball season. You can see a portion of the interview below.

CNN International on Twitter

There wasn’t any real earth-shattering information to come out of the conversation between Manfred, Cooper, and Dr. Gupta, but it was interesting nonetheless to hear the commissioner talk of playing games in front of no fans and the procedures that the league and its teams would take to keep players safe. Some items of note:

  • Manfred asserted that players who were uncomfortable with assuming the risk of being in close contact with others would not be forced to return to work.
  • In the event a player tests positive for coronavirus, he would be quarantined for two weeks, and then MLB would conduct additional tests on anyone the player may have had contact with.
  • Owners could stand to lose $4 billion if a season did not happen, an impact Manfred called “devastating.”
Anderson Cooper 360 on Twitter

Do the economics outweigh the health risks involved in playing sports during the pandemic? That is a question the major organizations are having to ask themselves and should be a contributing factor in plans to resume competition.

Categories
Siguenza on Sports

Introducing My Fan Blog

I have certainly picked an interesting time to pursue a Master of Business Administration emphasizing sports management; a time when sports are not live, save for ESPN’s overnight airings of baseball from Korea. That also makes it seem like a bit of a struggle to write about sports. You would think that someone who has a Journalism degree and written an entire work of fictional literature centered around college football–with some other wacky elements added in–can be creative and resourceful when talking about topics that intrigue them. And you would be right, which is why it is with great pleasure that I welcome you to Siguenza on Sports, a regular blog where I will offer my musings on things as they pertain to the wonderful world of athletic competition.

Even with the majority of sports still on hiatus, there is plenty to discuss, like the timetable for returning to events, what they might look like at first, and their implications to public health and the economy. We will get to those in good time but for now, I just want to set the starting point for what I hope will be an informative and maybe even entertaining read for you. If you see something that triggers a thought, by all means, please share it with me!