UConn James

Bronze medalist in the women’s heptathalon, Emma Oosterwegel, Netherlands 🇳🇱. 😍

Which includes me, too! 🎂 #ThisIs41 Happy co- natal anniversary, Marv! And Martin Sheen. And, yes, **** you, Tom Brady.

Sydney McLaughlin 😍. That is all.

This whole thing has been so ham-fisted, from the announcement with its shot across the bow that left a slightly bad taste in what should have just been a celebratory announcement, to it now being leaked to the press. This should happen behind closed doors. All sides in this just look so extremely crass and petty and money-crazy. Zero tact.

I had wanted to highlight the ROC women’s volleyball player Nataliya Goncharova, who at 34 was the player of the match in beating our 🇺🇸 ladies 3 sets to 0. Wow. I couldn’t take my eyes off of her. 😍. Where is LABillsFan with his Russian mail-order brides site?

This was insane. I don’t know how that was physically possible… being in 5th and a body length back with 50m left and boom. Just… how?!?!!! That was an awe-some thing to watch. Also, Ledecky in the anchor leg of the 4x200 freestyle. Franklin did not get them off to a good start, but the others recovered a bit of ground. Then Katie L. Thought she was gonna make it past the Chinese there, but she just barely ran out of pool. 🥈

As the reporter Roland Hedley on the “Doonesbury” strip says, “Twitter is the first rough draft of gossip.”

https://www.instagram.com/p/CR2GQvMiWuh/?utm_medium=copy_link

Granted, it’s not apples to apples. But there is an air that Osaka is blaming her poor performances on external factors. I’m a serious introvert as well, but those are the rules. The networks pay big money to these events, they expect to get to ask questions especially of the major stars. Handling interviews can be tough amid hyper-criticism. You can be introverted and still stick up for yourself without walking away. Her media person needed / needs to be more forceful in demands of reporters. And she herself should just be like ‘I’m not answering that question’ or ‘Ask me about the tennis’ or ‘I don’t accept the premise of your question.’ etc. I don’t see where they have the expectation to live inside a bubble. There was a South African women’s swimmer last night in the waiting area for the 200 heats last night and she was visibly shaking and nervy. Took a drink of water and the bottle was jostling. ALL of these athletes are under enormous pressure and if you aren’t nervous then something’s not right. If it was an ongoing anxiety issue last night or a panic attack, then say that… and I’d be shocked if this was a first time and they don’t have a treatment plan? But she really needs to not conflate a serious mental health issue with some existential [paraphrasing] ‘Who am I even doing this for?’ crap. The time to figure that out was the last five years… and CERTAINLY before US team qualifying last month. There are also musings out there that she did this because the judges aren’t giving her credit e.g. she has a higher threshold to earn the same points because she’s Simone Biles. And, yes, that can get in your head and make you angry, but that’s on you… and she just chose to quit.

It’s a crowded room, for sure. Hoping Antonio Williams gets a fair shot as a reserve, but may have to be on the squad. Like him as a change of pace / tactic back… more of a bruiser. But does he play STs well, ‘cause with this coach, you gotta do that as a backup. Taiwan Jones is now 33. There could be an opening. We really need Moss to come back strong from the injury. In midseason he was looking real good, especially for a rookie with a shortened camp.

They had the softball gold medal game like three days into the Olympics? That seems extremely brief. No round robin play, I’m assuming? Or is it that there just aren’t many countries fielding teams? US fell to Japan. US starting pitcher was emotional after but said they were proud to have come that far and competed.

🔥 It’s pretty sad to see this rash of top-form athletes dropping out of competitions due to mental health issues. Osaka in tennis, now Biles? I try to have compassion for this kind of stuff, given the givens of my own stuff, but wow. That is a very lame excuse — that she wanted this Olympics to be about doing it for herself and it became about doing it for other people? What even is that?!?!! Everyone who competes in the games will tell you they do it to represent their country. And it can be a lot of pressure, for sure, but she went through the Trials just a few weeks ago. You gotta cowboy the f up and if she wasn’t feeling it, give the space to someone who’ll use it. This is a SERIOUS stain on her legacy. Best ever? Nope. She folded. This is a generation of fragility, and it doesn’t look like it’s going to get better.

Yes. This is a situation where they have to divide it between eras, as the league adds more and more games. Realize there’s always a push by the media to have new record-breakers and to hold up the jock straps of current players for us all to sniff, but it’s categorically unfair to older gens who will lose their records just because current guys play more games per season.

Coming in late to this thread, but yes, Herbert showed a lot last season in both stats and what I saw of his instincts and touch on passes. Chiefs are probably still the best in the AFC on paper, but….

Yeah. I mean… there are cameras all over the place, at least for broadcast, and they use the angle that gives the best view of the play e.g. on a fumble. If that happens from the opposite side, he’s still going to be “driven crazy,” no? 🤨🤷🏻‍♂️

Michael Phelps got busted for it too. But his was after an Olympics, iirc. It’s the timing of this that is the especially sad / stupid part on her end. 🤷🏻‍♂️ I heard say that she might be eligible for a 4x relay race that happens just after the month suspension is over.

CBSSports article revealing that with the league’s delayed timing on ending the one-shell rule, most teams will NOT be able to use different helmets in 2022, and will have to wait until 2023. https://www.cbssports.com/nfl/news/nfl-alternate-helmets-heres-why-eagles-and-others-reportedly-wont-be-wearing-throwbacks-in-2022/?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=news_tab&utm_content=algorithm Here’s hoping that they issue a special dispensation for this situation so throwback sets can be used next year. Stupid legalese.

💯. I was really surprised the player’s union didn’t push for a second bye week this season. Guaranteed they will once the effects of the 17 games are seen. The league seems to be scared to extend the season into Feb. I mean… WHY? Only reason is to give players those few weeks more of an offseason, which is a consideration seeing as they’re away from their families so much during the season. And perhaps a chance to have & recover from those off-season surgeries. But it’s all going this way for 18 games (+2 preseason) & 2 byes. Not including this in the planning for the new stadium, read: having at least a retractable roof, is stupid.

I seem to recall in recent years that the Pegs had bought up land surrounding the stadium. I don’t think it was all used for practice fields. Maybe it’s just me, but it would’ve been nice if the part about possibly playing elsewhere during construction was broached down the line. They really couldn’t pass up the opportunity to get in an un-veiled threat to the pols during what should just be celebratory news? Couldn’t just let us bask in a totally positive direction of the franchise for a hot minute?

This was a serious issue in the French Open that impacted the players, line judges & the tv broadcast as the shadow line crept onto the court from side to side. The stark thing where one side is glaring sun, the other in dark shade. There’s no camera setting that can make it better. To be fair, in the FO’s case at the Roland-Garros stadium, that shadow was caused by the retrofit of a retractable roof, which added the structure that caused the shadow there. One of the big reasons to do it right the first time instead of having to add things out of later necessity and having them cost so much more and be all clunky / ham-fisted.

There seem to be two schools of thought. Populous cities have gone bigger e.g. MetLife, Jerry’s world. Some smaller cities have gone smaller than previous stadium e.g. Ford Field. Personally, I think it should go smaller. The pandemic is only highlighting some of the factors. NFL has become more of a TV & screen league; TBH, it’s a much better product & view on screen and the people who are going seem to be there for the ambiance / tailgating / social & social-media side of things (how many fans do you see in stands who are looking at their phones the whole time. It’s just stupid to me). More average people are being priced out of going to games, more luxury suites & seating is taking the place of general seat capacity because they can charge more and that isn’t revenue-shared. We seem to be a club where the trends don’t fit, however. Corporate & luxury weren’t selling. General seating at 80K (less when the replaced the metal benching) had to be done to pack in as many as they could to reach a number through mass. Maybe that changes with new digs and a competitive team 🤷🏻‍♂️.

I was & still am a proponent of a retractable roof. Plans can change, especially at this super-early stage. We have to be building for the weather that’s going to be for the next 50 years, which means stronger storms and wilder weather due to climate change / global warming. (For heavens sake, no power poles for Mylar balloons 🎈 — EVERYTHING utility-wise should be underground!!!!) Weather takes a serious toll on exposed surfaces. Concrete breaks down faster, plastic fades & goes brittle / cracks, paint fails, etc. A partial covering won’t do it for wind and snow and rain. If you’re going to go through the bother to create the structure for a partial why the hell not go for a full solution? Half measures are always terrible.

There were reports in recent years that the Pegs were buying up adjoining land.

A tidbit on the UniWatch page today has a quote from the Rams COO Kevin Demoff revealing that there is a league rule that prevents teams from showcasing new uniforms — unless it is a complete redesign for all team unis, where they traditionally are showed near the NFL Draft — until after 1 July. So if any team is going to have a new alternate or throwback, as the Browns & 49ers have been heavily rumored to have developed, it comes a little later. There’d been rumors of the one-shell rule for helmets ending this season, which would create many more opportunities for throwbacks, but so far there’s been nothing official. Once it does end, it’d be great to see the ‘90s throwback for a game or two a year… taking the place of the red ketchup bottle Color Rush set. With the league adding more games, it seems worthy to slightly increase the number of uni choices, especially for throwback options. As for the Rams debuting a new alt, let’s just hope for something without gradients and off-white / “Bone.”

Beautiful pup 🥰. Definitely NOT a Weimaraner, but could be a Weim-Lab cross.