#TallTakes: Players F Up

Rick Pitino Got Fired

Rick Pitino is great at two things: coaching basketball and getting himself embroiled in scandals.  The former University of Louisville basketball coach won’t be doing either in the near future after he was canned by Louisville last week for the part his staff played in a bribery scandal that was uncovered by the FBI.

Pitino survived ridiculously sordid scandals such as the the restaurant incident, the stripper/escort incident, and a number of scandals too numerous to mention here, and in the end the thing that did him in was probably the least egregious scandal he’s ever been involved in: some kids linked to his school got some money.

The fact that Pitino probably should have gotten fired awhile ago notwithstanding, this scandal bothers me in ways that you probably wouldn’t expect:

Doesn’t the FBI have more important stuff to do?

The white house is so infested with Russian spies that they walk in the front door, right wing terrorism is at an all time high, and local police forces continue to kill and imprison black men and women with impunity. How is making sure that talented kids don’t recognize their market value anywhere on the Federal Government’s priority?

 Bribing kids to go to your school is illegal?

NCAA coaches paying kids to go to their school is as American as apple pie and is as harmless as it is ubiquitous: I understand that Pitino had to go over this, especially given his less than stellar track record as well as the FBI’s involvement, but c’mon fam. Let the kids eat.

People really care about this stuff?

The NCAA serves two functions: to make as much money as they possibly can from the labor of young athletes while ensuring that said athletes get nothing. You would think that they care more about getting their own money than ensuring that athletes don’t get any but that’s just as important to them.

The very notion that a talented young person being monetarily rewarded to ply their trade warrants an investigation on any level is downright silly, and the only place it happens is the NCAA.

There’s no organization lording over teenage tennis and golf prodigies, ensuring that they don’t see their fair share of their sport’s TV money, Leo Messi didn’t need to go through a clearinghouse to play soccer, he moved to Spain from Argentina and started getting paid immediately.

When kids on this side of the world who are good enough to get paid to play basketball or football actually get paid it shouldn’t be a scandal, it should be standard operating procedure. The fact that any of this is a crime at all is the real tragedy here.

 

Donald Trump is the biggest idiot in the world part infinity

Yesterday US President Donald Trump opted out of actually giving a shit about the people in Puerto Rico to go watch a Golf tournament, because whenever he has a chance to do the right thing he will always decline. In his endless quest to be the worst possible person he can be in any given situation he dedicated the President’s cup trophy to Hurricane Victims in Texas and Puerto Rico because when he was completing his PhD in boorishness he never took any irony class.

You see this is the same guy that repeatedly and emphatically stated that global warming was a hoax, and then set out to use the US Government as blunt instrument against the environment. This is also the same guy who made it a special point to berate Mayor of San Juan and the people of Puerto Rico for daring to do something as audacious as asking their President to do his job and send help.

Because when you’ve been caught in an historically catastrophic Hurricane and you’re without food, medicine or water a shout-out is what you really need.

What an idiot.

 

The Juice is Loose

OJ Simpson is out of prison.

Yesterday, the former football star/accused murderer/convicted robber was released from a Nevada prison on parole.

OJ has been a pop culture sensation over the past year as the alleged murder he committed and subsequent trial became the subject of an acclaimed TV drama and an Oscar winning 10 hour documentary.

The notion that there is more of the OJ story to tell is a absurd but the truth is the enterntainment world as we know it was created by OJ. Think about it: The OJ trial gave us the 24 hour news cycle, the paparazzi and the Kardashians. And now OJ is free to live in the ridiculous world that he created.

It can only get weirder from here.

Cam Newton Beat The Pats and threw up the black power fist

In a world where Donald Trump is President, Colin Kaeprnick doesn’t have a job, the prison industrial complex still exists and The New England Patriots win the Superbowl every other year, it’s easy to just give up, shrug and sit back knowing that evil will always prevail.

But there are moments that happen every once in awhile that give us a glimmer of hope, something that reminds us that although they have us outnumbered, we gon be alright.

That moment for me came on Sunday when the Carolina Panthers lead by Cam Newton, one of us, took on the evil New England Patriots.

Up 23-16 on the 7 yard line, Cam took the snap from shotgun, kept the ball on a read option and proceeded to run clean over a number of Patriots linebackers and secondary for the score.

The Panthers would go on to win a game that the Pats would normally win on a last second touchdown. We gon be alright indeed.

 

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