On What Propaganda is Condemned and Countenanced at Pyeongchang Winter Olympics

The 23rd Winter Olympiad in Pyeongchang, South Korea had a reoccurring theme of Peace, as was evident from the Opening Ceremonies.  It was well known that athletes from North and South Korea would march as a unified team into Pyeongchang Olympic Stadium.  

One of the draws for casual sports fans to watch the Olympics is the Opening Ceremonies. The pageantry of the Opening Ceremonies, as expressed through artistic expression as well as thematic choice sets the mood for the Olympic Games.  Afterwards, there is the Parade of Nations, when all of the competitors gather in a gesture of unity and good will.  During this long march of nations, television viewers often have to endure commentary from NBC announcers to add color and context to the visuals.  Often this dialogue is pap or seems scripted.

However, when the Japanese team made their debut at the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics, NBC Asia correspondent Joshua Cooper Ramos offered an incredible generalization.  Ramos claimed that Koreans looked with admiration to Japan as an important example of cultural, economic and technological transformation.




Several hours after uttering this insensitive and insulting insinuation, NBC Sports issued a hasty apology.

NBC paid $967 million for broadcast rights for the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics, and it would seem that they did not want to insult their hosts.

With that in mind, one wonders why NBC keeps pushing North Korean propaganda while covering the Winter Olympics.  No doubt that a unified Korean team marching during the Parade of Nations was a big story.  It epitomizes the international aspiration of brotherhood and exemplifies the Pyeongchang Game's theme of Peace.  

[Front Center] Vice President Mike Pence [Back Center] Kim Yo Jung, sister of DPRK dictator Kim Jun Un

It is understandable that an Olympic broadcaster would want to capitalize on controversy by showing how close Vice President Mike Pence was seated to North Korean Kim Jong Un's sister Kim Yo Jong during the Opening Ceremonies.




The coverage of the North Korea cheerleaders during the womens' hockey game between Korea and Switzerland does raise eyebrows.  It was a cute featurette to have a piece about the some of the 200 woman squad of  the North Korean "Army of Beauty" cheerleaders leading chants during the 0-8 rout of Korea.  Some say that the synchronized chants of the North Korea Beauty Cheerleaders stole the show. But what what telling is what they chanted and how they performed.  These NPDK cheerleaders chanted "Unity" waving "neutral" flags of a unified Korea. After each goal by their opponent, they chanted: "Cheer up!".  Perhaps that exemplifies a cultural trait.  


What has been shown but little explored are instances in which the female Beauty Squad use big heads of a Korean man.  Hmm.  Who could this be?  


It is dubious that it was an everyman Korean.  The Big Head looks rather like an idealized image of North Korea dictator Kim Jong Un. What does it say about the consequences of  "Unity".  Is that something that all Koreans also believe?

UPDATE 02/12/2018  BBC News quotes Korean media that the DPRK Army of Beauties cheerleaders were holding up big heads of Kim Il-sung, the grandfather of North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un (the first of the Hermit Kingdom's Juche post World War II dictators).  Yet the South Korean Unification Ministry insists that the cheerleaders were just holding up cut outs of "a good looking man". 

Bloody Hell: PC ESPN Goes 1984 on Red Sox Nation History

In George Orwell's prophetic novel Nineteen-Eight Four (1948), the protagonist Winston Smith slaves away at the Ministry of Truth (MiniTrue) erasing all sorts of inconvenient truths that deviate from the powers that be's current line.  Essentially, the novel anticipated historical revisionism for the purposes of political correctness.

2004 World Series Championship Ring

Sadly, the same process can be seen at ESPN. Curt Schilling, a former Major League Baseball player who gained notoriety for his heroic bloody sock pitching performance of game six in the 2004 World Series.  Schilling's clutch performance pitching on a bad knee set up the Boston Red Sox to break the nearly century old Curse of the Bambino, coming from a 3-0 deficit to win the MLB World Championship over the St. Louis Cardinals.

Five years ago, ESPN produced an hour retrospective of this incredible come from behind playoff rally titled "Four Days in October".  Schilling's performance was prominently featured.





However,  ESPN recently fired Curt Schilling from his on-air job because of  personal social media commentary concerning transvestites and those citing gender dysphoria from using whichever bathroom he/she/zhe prefers at that moment.  Subsequently, less than a week later, when ESPN 2 reran "Four Days in October", the chronicle of Schilling's crucial play (and the bloody sock) was strangely missing. In this case, one ought to call the channel "The Deuce" with good reason.

All week, Schilling has been proclaiming the unchecked political progressivism at his former employer, as well as noting that more than a few have displayed overt racism.  But because Schilling violated today's shibboleth of "transgender" acceptable, it seems his memory must be erased at what is purportedly a sports channel.


So know that Disney/ESPN is not only spewing liberal commentary within their sports coverage, they also have taken it upon themselves to rewrite history.  Perhaps one of the 1984 IngSoc mantras will become more poignant "Ignorance is strength". 

ESPN Cans Curt Schilling Over Transgender Bathroom Tweet

ESPN fired former Major League Baseball star pitcher and TV Color Commentator Curt Schilling because of sharing a meme on transgender bathrooms on Twitter.

Disney owned ESPN insisted that the company was dedicated to inclusiveness, so it terminated someone with a view which different from the current politically correct line.  It is intriguing that Disney owned ABC Good Morning America report blurred out the image of a transvestite who would have been eligible to use whatever bathroom which he/she/zei felt like using.  It seems that the ideals of diversity and inclusiveness can not be particularized in a reductio ad abusurdum.


This was not Schilling's first run in with social media PR challenges.  A couple of years ago, Schilling went on attack mode against a Twitter troll who sexually harassed his daughter  sparked by congratulations over admission to Salve Regina University.

Later in 2015, Schilling was suspended from covering the Little League World Series for sharing a controversial tweet which compared Muslim "population infiltration" with Nazis.

There seems to be an academic and corporate corporate push to be intolerant towards "ciscentrism" and those who do not acquiesce to "the new normal" regarding self designated transgendered bathroom fluidity. It is dubious if ESPN would punish an employee for sharing progressive political memes.

Bruce Springsteen, et ali, have forgone concerts in North Carolina while the Bathroom Law is in effect. The NBA has threatened to pull the All Star game unless the Tar Heel State relents on traditional notions that those with male genetalia should not evacuate their excrement around little girls. During a NBC Today Townhall meeting, Manhattan mogul Donald Trump insisted that just not worrying about transgenders using whatever bathroom they like is no problem.

From its inception, DC-Jockularity recognized the convergence of sports and public policy.  ESPN's aggressive application of standards reinforces the idea that ABC/Disney/ESPN is a progressive entity which pushes its agenda even unto sports coverage and will not brook dissent.

Walter Hagen on Second Place

On Leaders, Liars and Links

As Anthony Anderson intimated on Late Night with Seth Meyers, it is not unexpected that golf course Landlords get better lies. Yet Trump thinks that it has something to do with his...hands.




You know what they say about guys who cheat at golf.

ESPN Sports Cuban Propaganda

One of the reasons why sports is a popular pastime among Americans is because it has tended to be non-partisan. It is news which mentally reconnects aged athletes back to their glory days, while stoking local loyalties and friendly rivalries and forgetting the tumult of news from the "real world".

Unfortunately, the trend in the media has been to politicize everything, including sports news.  More than seeing sports through a lens of political correctness, the sports media has segued into political propaganda. 

A case in point was a ESPN Sportscenter social media sharing in regards to President Barack Obama's visit to Cuba after 55 years of bilateral hostility.

ESPN authorized a Tweet which whitewashed the brutality of Cuban dictator Fidel Castro's communist regime by promoting propaganda that Fidel was a sports fan. 

After a couple of hours of consternation, ESPN withdrew the post, but the damage was done by humanizing the despot. One of the reasons that Cubans believe that they won their long standoff with the United States is because of Fidel's romancing the American press. 

It may be true that Fidel is a big sports fan.  Fidel even yearned to play for the Yanquis in his youth. But ESPN featuring such factoids during a controversial trip to Cuba by President Barack Obama amounts to propaganda. 

To give a truer picture of the sporting Castro, it is important to understand how Fidel Castro used sports as a weapon to enforce his communist ideology.



A more accurate picture of Fidel Castro's sporting sense is captured by hitting the links with the bloody revolutionary Che Guevara. 

[L] Che Guevara [R] Cuban Dictator Fidel Castro

It is dubious that Che's favorite sport was golf.  More likely it was coaching firing squads.

Jay Bilas: "Our Kids Aren't Made of Porcelain"

In late December, the Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association urged state high school administrators to enforce "guidelines" pertaining to sports fans. WIAA Communications Director Todd Clark inveighed against unsporting behavior, particularly in student cheering sections.  To wit, the WIAA wanted to ban chants as: "Fundamentals"; "Air ball"; "You can't do that"; "We can't hear you."; "Overrated"; Scoreboard" and "Season's over".  There is some thought that even the patriotic "USA" chant may be verbotten.  Per the WIAA's guidelines, these cheers could lead to a suspension.

Much to the WIAA's chagrin, these guidelines went viral on social media and were subject to considerable derision and some pointed First Amendment protest.

ESPN Sports Analyst Jay Bilas took to Twitter to mock the well-intentioned Nanny State sportsmanship dictat with reductio ad absurdum zeal. Bilas suggested a replacement tersely cogent cheer for "Air Ball" with the thoroughly polite " "We note your attempt did not reach the rim, but only to alert the clock operator that a reset is unnecessary."

High School students in Ashwaubeon, Wisconsin chose to make a symbolic protest against the WIAA's assault on their free speech rights by putting duct tape over their mouths at a basketball game.

 None of these cheers are even vaguely bawdy, such as the cheer of frustration: "Nuts and bolts--we got screwed".  These nanny state rules (disingenuously veiled as "guidelines") seems to demand sucking the spirit from zombie-like seat warming fans as their teams effectively compete for their participation trophies.

Once the story acquired national attention, the WIAA tried to back down. WIAA Executive Director Dave Anderson tired to quell the media maelstrom by issuing a "Sincere Apology" email which insisted that there were no new directives, no new rules, no new mandates, and no new enforcement expectations. Parsing Anderson's email, the key is phrase is new. Reading between the lines, the chants were just examples of unsportsmanlike behavior that WIAA guidelines prohibit.

The WIAA mandate touched upon Bilas bailiwick for "Toughness: Developing True Strength On and Off the Court" (2014). Bilas did recognize that there are ways of unruly fanaticism that crosses the line without over-regulating kids. Bilas recalled while he was playing basketball at Duke in the 1980s, the University President wrote an open letter challenging fans to behave better and be creative without crass cheers. This prompted the Blue Devil student section to react to bad calls with the cheer: "We beg to differ". A more modern approach might be to remind students that they should not do something they would not want put on television lest it go on their permanent records.

This is more than a high school sports story. It  exemplifies the totalitarian instincts political correctness which demands conformity from feckless fans. The WIAA follow-up employs the non-apology apology, denying the directive is anything new. It also shows the micromanaging mien of the Nanny State which nudges people through rules masquerading as "guidelines".  Lastly, it imposes overbearing burdens on people without challenging them to find creative alternatives to encourage more civil cheering.

Huge Hype Miscue for Fox Soccer?

In order to promote the US versus Mexico men's soccer match, Fox Soccer superimposed images of prior international games between the teams with selected speeches by 2016 Republican Presidential Donald Trump.




There was adverse reaction on social media to this Trump pump up video.

Reliably liberal sources like the Huffington Post vexed that Donald Trump is not a proper representation of American Patriotism and worry that it might inspire xenophobic fan chants worse than "dos a cero" (referring to Mexican losses in international matches against the US).

But such knee jerk liberalism ignores the inspiration of the Fox Soccer ad.  In September TV Azteca produced a pump up Mexican Soccer video which exploited more sharped edged Trump-isms on Mexicans.




 It would seem that some trolls on social media and the Lamestream Media can not take tongue in cheek hype and worry about how America is perceived in the world.

Perhaps a more soothing  and politically correct portrayal of American patriotism today is conveyed by President Barack Obama bicycling.

Trump Worms Endorsement from Dennis Rodman

During this Trump Summer before most primary voters seriously concentrate on electing a Republican Presidential nominee, the billionaire populist GOP candidate earned an unexpected assist.  Trump was endorsed by Dennis Rodman.

Of course, Rodman has also endorsed North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un, so it is hard to discern what Rodman's political disposition is, other than supporting friends. In the past, Trump was chagrined by prior attempts to by Rodman to worm a connection between the Big Apple billionaire and the  Pyongyang's newest Dear Leader.

New Wolverine Football Head Coach Jim Harbaugh Fights for The American Sniper Showing

It is as rare as a rocking horses manure that a campus screening of a Hollywood major motion picture makes the news, much less the sports section, but we live in interesting times.

The University of Michigan in Ann Arbor was scheduled to show "The American Sniper", the 2014 highest grossing motion picture about a Navy Seal who served four combat tours .  But the "American Sniper" screening was cancelled because of an open letter published by some U of M Muslim students which claimed that the Chris Kyle biopic ab that the film about the decorated Navy Seal was about “a racist who took a disturbing stance on murdering Iraqi civilians.” Aside from that blood liable, the letter worried that  American Sniper "not only tolerates but promotes anti-Muslim … rhetoric and sympathizes with a mass killer.”

So what does the University of Michigan, an institute of higher learning which sports the motto: Artes, Scientia, Veritas, do in a civil clash of ideas. The first instinct of the U of M Administration was to censor the controversial.  University officials canceled the showing and apologized for potentially making Muslim students feel unsafe.  The University planned to show Paddington instead, no joke.

After the Ann Arbor University Administration suffered from widespread derision over the politically correct pusillanimous decision, U of M backpeddled and promised to eventually show "The American Sniper" but only in a "safe space".

So allow for protests and ideological indoctrination afterwards.

Even this University of Michigan equivocation did not score well with incoming Wolverine football coach Jim Harbaugh.  Harbaugh took to Twitter to unabashedly show support to Chris Kyle and "The American Sniper".   Harbaugh played college football at "The Big House" of U of M before spending 14 seasons in the NFL then coaching in the NFL, including the San Francisco Giants.  Haurbaugh's bold proclamation about Wolverine Football gives the impression that he will not countenance safe spaces on the football field.

An early scene from "The American Sniper" depicts a life lesson given to a young Chris Kyle about the three types of persons in the world.

It is clear that Coach Harbaugh emulates a sheepdog.  What remains to be seen is if the team which he inherits, which went 5-7 in 2014 (including a Big Ten 3-5 record), are going to transmogrify into Wolverine Sheepdogs or remain collegiate sheep on the sports field?

A better question is what the University of Michigan learns from this episode.

Geno Auriemma: Men's College Basketball Is a Joke

University of Connecticut Women's Basketball Coach Geno Auriemma had harsh words for Men's College Basketball, pronouncing it a joke.  Auiemma believes that bolstering offense is the key to keep hoops with the times. 

Those were fighting words to ESPN commentator (and former University of Detroit Titan coach) Dick Vitale,who has made his career on college basketball, thus he thinks the current men's basketball game is, to use his lingo, AWESOME BABY.

Does Coach Auriemma think that having a three point line (which is significantly closer than the pros) does not add to the offense?  How about the shot clock, which mooted the Tar Heels infamous Four Corners offense?  Is Auriemma's objection to the recent  NCAA rule on charging which no longer sanctions physical play driving to to basket?  Does the UConn Coach consider that the NBA has drifted away from scoring free for alls that were commonplace during the 1980s?

For me, what makes the college game exciting is the rawness of the talent.  Most men's teams do not sport three starters who will make it into the pros.  Many need to develop their skills and rely on teamwork to be successful.  For men's college football, the strategy coming from the coach is key. If college basketball becomes a scoring-centric sport, strategy will become negligable 

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Obama Unsteady After Golf Junket

It was near record cold and windy day  for the end of March in the District of Calamity.  But this did not deter the Celebrity in Chief President Barack Obama from hitting the links. He hopped on Air Force One to Palm City, Florida with Houston Astros owner Jim Crane and partial owner of the Boston Celtics Glenn Hutchins to play the private Florida National Golf Club. Coincidentally, half of the foursome had close connections to the energy industry (including one from the much maligned Halliburton Corp.).

The Press Pool assessed that this was not a working trip as one wag reported: "You can tell this is a non work trip ... someone forward of the press cabin ordered 3 beers at 9:26 a.m.".   Hmm.  There were no reports on how Mr. Obama golfed on his 222nd round since assuming the Oval Office, as the Press Pool was relegated to maintenance shed at the Florida National Golf Club.

However, as President Obama returned to DC at Joint Base Andrews, in Landover, Maryland, President Obama was unsteady as he walked the ramp deplaning from Air Force One.

So what difference does it make how he handled his handicap if he had a good good time?  Well, for taxpayers, the junket was estimated to cost $850,000 just for flight (which will be reimbursed for a fraction of the cost).  But at least there was not a beheading in close proximity to the golf excursion as with ISIS execution of James Foley.

Cantankerous Knicks Owner Sent Poison Pen Piece to an Angry Fan

James Dolan, the CEO of Cablevision and owner of the New York Knicks (not the Archbishop of New York) has a reputation for being cantankerous.  Dolan embodied that idiosycrasy in his email exchange with an angry Knicks fan.

Irving Bierman, a 73 year old Knicks fan sent Dolan a cri-de-coeur as the Knicks are 10-41, which is the worst record in the NBA.  Bierman wrote:

60 year Knicks fan Irving Bierman [photo: Mike Spencer for New York Daily News 

"I have been a Knicks fan since 1952. At one stage I thought that you did a wonderful thing when you acquired EVERYTHING from your dad. However, since then it has been ALL DOWN HILL.  

Your working with Isaiah (sic) Thomas & everything else regarding the Knicks. Bringing on Phil Jackson was a positive beginning, but lowballing Steve Kerr was a DISGRACE to the Knicks. The bottom line is that you merely continued to interfere with the franchise.

As a Knicks fan for in excess of 60 years, I am utterly embarrassed by your dealings with the Knicks. Sell them so their fans can at least look forward to growing them in a positive direction Obviously, money IS NOT THE ONLY THING. You have done a lot of utterly STUPID business things with the franchise. Please NO MORE." 

Granted, Bierman's critical sentiments must have been hard for the Knicks owner to hear.  But Dolan would take no guff from a plebian fan of the Knicks.  So Dolan retorted with a poison pen piece.

[Front-Center] New York Knicks owner James Dolan

"Mr Bierman. You are a sad person. Why would anybody write such a hateful letter. I am just guessing but ill bet your life is a mess and you are a hateful mess. What have you done that anyone would consider positive or nice. I am betting nothing. In fact ill bet you are a negative force in everyone who comes in contact with you. You most likely have made your family miserable. Alcoholic maybe. I just celebrated my 21-year anniversary of sobriety. You should try it. Maybe it will help you become a person that folks would like to have around. In the mean while, start rooting for the Nets because the Knicks don't want you."

 Wow.  How to win friends and influence people--not!  It might have been a satisfying cathartic to put an angry fan "in his place" and tell him to switch allegiance but to pull out from your nether regions an ad hominem insinuation that your interlocutor is an alcoholic is remarkable.




Irving Bierman offered a measured response as he noted that he has not drank alcohol since he was 18. Bierman still stands by his critique: "[Dolan] has the audacity to tell me to become a Nets fan - you got to be kidding me.  He gets belligerent because I expressed an opinion.  It's a valid opinion." Bierman's wife was a little more colorful calling Knicks owner Dolan "a sick puppy".

Assuredly this exchange was not private as it was shared via social media. Last season, the NBA forced Donald Sterling to sell his ownership of the Los Angeles Clippers due to some untoward comments made in private. But Jimmy Dolan nixed a longtime Knicks fan in the arena of public opinion.

New York Knicks fans have the highest average ticket prices in the NBA at $129.38 for a hopelessly uncompetitive team.  Some sports franchises do well despite not having success on the playing field. The Chicago Cubs have not won the World Series in over a century (nor played in the Championship Series since 1945), yet they have a fiercely loyal fan base which included storied Bleacher Bums. But Wrigley Field is considered "A Nice Little Place on the North Side" by George Will (2014) and the Cubs has developed connections between the team and the fans. It can be argued that before the Brooklyn Dodgers abandoned the bandbox Ebbits Field, they were liked and considered vital parts of the community.

 Dolan showed his contempt of longtime loyal fans in his bilious bloviation by put them in their place  unjustifiable character smears. What a small man with horrible P.R. skills! What does that say about the man?  With Dolan in charge, is that the sort of franchise you would want to spend your time and treasure?

In the land of the free, people should have the right to say what they want (as long as it is true) even if they sound idiotic.  A league should not enforce political correctness as it did in taking the reins from Donald Sterling.  That being said, that does not mean that fans do not have any sway.

The NBA is holding its All Star Game on February 15th and guess who's hosting it?  New York City (Brooklyn) where Jimmy Dolan urges disappointed Knicks fans to cheer.

h/t: Deadspin

Bono's Cycling Spill--Bad

The legendary rock band U-2 was scheduled to take a week-long residency on the NBC Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon to promote their new album "Songs of Innocence"  (2014).   But  U-2 was a no show as frontman Bono Vox was in a "high energy" bicycling accident in Central Park on a Sunday Bloody Sunday.   

Fallon and the Roots tried to compensate for U-2's absence with a dead-on impersonation of their 1988 hit "Desire". 

Alas, Bono's injuries were more serious than initially thought.  Dr. Dean Lorich, an Orthopedic Trauma Surgeon at New York Presbyterian/Weill Cornell's Emergency Department, revealed that Bono broke his right arm in six places as well as injuring his left hand, fracturing an eye socket and a shoulder blade.  The spill was so bad that bone protruded through the skin on his arm. 

The arm fracture required a five hour operation and involved three metal plates and 18 screws. While Bono is expected to make a full recovery, it will take some intense and progressive therapy to do so.

It is believed that Bono's accident occurred as he swerved to avoid another cyclist and he fell over.  The NYPD has been cracking down on cyclists over the last couple of years for traffic violations in Central Park. Street cyclists have a reputation for running red lights and wearing headphones while on the roadways.  Bono's crash is a reminder why these rules matter, even in Central Park.

While cycling fans look to stars like Lance Armstrong or Jens Voigt for inspiration, many participate in the sport with their own "high-energy" rides.  Bono's Central Park "spill" is a reminder that the recreation is not without its risks as well as its rewards.

Jose Canseco Offers the Finger to the Public

Jose Canseco, the controversial former American League slugger, once again has created headlines.  Last month, the 50 year old Canseco shot his middle finger off as he was cleaning his 45 caliber Remington. Canseco appeared emotional over the accident in an interview with Inside Edition.




Canseco had the digit surgically re-attached. But during a poker tournament, Canseco's finger fell off as he was tossing his cards on the table.   Rather than wallow in tragedy, Canseco adopted a farcical entrepreneurial tact.

Canseco took to Twitter to auction off his severed middle finger along with the firearm.  Of course, E-Bay does not allow auctions of firearms or body parts, but Canseco's auction offering is telling.

Canseco must be hard up for cash and attention if he is auctioning off his middle finger.  Of course,  Canseco's two divorces cost him $8 million a piece.  After his 17 year MLB baseball career with eight American League baseball clubs (primarily with the Oakland Athletics), Canseco was resigned to play Independent Baseball.  Later, he resorted to a short lived Mixed Martial Arts career and then doing Celebrity Boxing, notably fighting to a draw with Danny Bonaduce.

Canseco will be remembered for his tell all book Juiced: Wild Times, Rampaging 'Roids Smash Hits & How Baseball Got Big (2005).  Canseco's admission to taking steroids helped prompt Congressional hearing in 2010.

In his controversial public life, Canseco has been a target for criticism, hence his quote about being criticized for anything that he does.  But publicly suggesting that a blown off middle finger could be bought in an auction as a drink stir seems more than a bit out there.

Even though Canseco's 462 home runs puts him 32nd of the list for all time Home Run list and his four Silver Slugger awards, Canseco only garnered 6 Votes for the Hall of Fame in 2007, which means that Canseco is only eligible for admission through the Committee of Baseball Veterans.  By offering his middle finger to the public via E-Bay, one suspect that Canseco may wait as longer than banned MLB great Pete Rose for admission to Cooperstown.

NHL Rallies Around Ottawa After Terror Attack on Parliament Hill

After the morning terror attack by an Islamist terrorist on Parliament Hill in Ottawa, much of Canada's capital remained in lock down for much of the day. Thus it was no surprise that the NHL postponed the Ottawa Senators- Toronto Maple Leafs game at the Canada Tyre Centre scheduled for the evening.

Social media allowed NHL players, coaches and reporters to express messages of sympathy and solidarity with the besieged Canadians. 

For me, the most touching tribute to our neighbors to the North was at Pittsburgh Penguins-Flyers game in Pittsburgh where the crowd sang O Canada, the Canadian National Anthem.

Neither club was from Canada or a border town, yet American hockey fans recognized this was Canada's 9/11 moment and showed solidarity.

Steve Austin on Tackles

Towards the end of the first half of the Ohio State Buckeyes and the  University of Cincinnati Bearcats football game, a rowdy fan dressed in in a rushed onto the field at Ohio Stadium in Columbus.

This unruly behavior was unwise to do around Ohio State Buckeye Football Assistant Coach Anthony Schlegel.  The Buckeye's conditioning (strength) coach was a linebacker for OSU as part of the class of 2006. In addition, Schlegel was a 3rd round draft choice by the New York Jets in 2006 as well as playing for the Cincinnati Bengals.

So when the disruptive fan evaded a security guard while storming onto the football field, Coach Schlegel sprang into action.  Schegel made a horse collar tackle and body slammed the disruptive fan onto the turf, but Schlegel was not penalized on the play.


 The record setting crowd of 108,262 Buckeye boosters roared its approval. Security officials then escorted 21 year old Anthony Wunder off the field, who apparently is a 6'2" Ohio State University Senior  who hails from Cincinnati.   Wunder will be arraigned on charges of criminal trespass for his stunt.  No word on how many ice packs Wunder needed after his close encounter with Schlegel.

While the Buckeyes beat the Bearcats 50-28, the big winner of the day seems to have been Coach Schlegel for his protective tackle.   Pro wrestler Steve Austin shared his kudos on Twitter, suggesting that Schlegel earned several performance perks usually reserved for players, Another enterprising Buckeye booster scored the scene into a music video titled "Here Comes the Boom".

Andy Murray on Scottish Nationalism

As Scots go to the polls to vote "Aye" or "Nay" on Scottish independence, British tennis star Andy Murray has stopped being coy about his viewing on Scottish nationalism.

Murray won the 2013 Men's Singles championship at Wimbledon, the first time a UK player has won in 75 years.  If the Yes campaign succeeds, it would vitiate this mark.  As Mike Myers might exclaim on in his Scottish comedic skits: "If it's not Scottish it's crap!"

Rihanna Reacts Ribaldly to SEE B.S. Sports Fecklessness

After CBS spent $275 million for the 2014 Season to win broadcast rights to broadcast NFL Thursday Night Football from September 11-October 23 (and December 20th), the Tiffany Network wanted to make a splash in prime time to draw advertiser.  Thanks to the ex Baltimore Raven RB Ray Rice incident, CBS Sports is drawing criticism.

CBS created pre-game promos which featured popular singers Jay-Z and Rihanna singing "Run This Town".   But as TMZ released the video of Ray Rice knocking his financee out in an elevator, CBS pulled back from this  marketing path.  

Rihanna had suffered felony domestic abuse at the hands of singer Chris Brown in 2009.  But CBS steadfastly denied that Rihanna's past  had anything to do with cancelling the song as well as a comedy sketch appearance with Don Cheadle.  CBS sanctimoniously stated:

We thought journalistically and from a tone standpoint, we needed to have the appropriate tone and coverage. A lot of the production elements we wanted in the show are being eliminated because of time or tone.

Instead, CBS Sports featured CBS Morning Show hostess Norah O'Donnell somber questions which centered on domestic violence to precede a professional football game.

One week later, when the Baltimore Ravens were not playing, CBS Sports signaled that it wanted to use the Rihanna material. The Hip Hop chanteuse saw BS and called out the network.



After Rihanna's Twitter postings, it is highly unlikely that the videos will ever be used.

h/t: Twitchy