Monday Morning Coffee

June 15, 2020

Suddenly I’m getting nervous that sports might not be coming back. The NBA in particular. Kyrie Irving is trying to rally the players against re-starting the season in Orlando next month to instead, focus on solving racial injustice. He’s even got Dwight Howard on his side. I realize that Kyrie’s heart and intentions are in the right place, but the man’s emotions are more volatile than the Dow Jones. Those emotions are causing him to miss the point: NBA players and pro-athletes have a voice against racial injustice because they are playing ball and using that platform. So why shutdown that platform when you need it most? This is why you can’t trust a guy who thinks the earth is flat to lead this effort. Dwight Howard on the other hand gets a pass because the mother of one of his children passed away recently, so if he doesn’t want to play I can understand that. With that being said, not playing would be a grave mistake of both social and financial consequences, and I refuse to believe that NBA players will actually follow through on this idea. Not even 20% of the league was on Kyrie’s call Friday, and I doubt that all of them even agreed with what he was saying.

Then there’s baseball, which appears to be ending its disastrous labor negotiations. The players decided to do so because they believe the owners aren’t negotiating in good faith. Hard to argue with them knowing that Commissioner Rob Manfred can implement whatever length of a season he wants, and it will likely be around 50-games. The sticking point is that no matter how long the season is, the owners only want to pay the players for 50-games and no more. No matter what side you believe is right, both sides look like crap, and have no self-awareness. Each side keeps making dumb public statements trying to win over the public. Nobody buys it. If Rob Manfred really had any vision or guts, he would implement something that both sides wouldn’t be happy with. Instead, having this dude in charge is like having your 10-year old negotiate a divorce between two parents. Even if you put the money issues aside, it’s going to be hard enough to re-start the season in the midst of the COVID-19 resurgence. Plus, even if we get some Mickey Mouse of a season this year, I can guarantee a strike will happen in the near future given the lack of trust on both sides. MLB should just rebrand their league as MBL. My Bottom Line.

Reggie Bush is being welcomed back to USC! After 10 years of being exiled from the history of USC due to archaic NCAA rules, the Trojans welcomed him back with open arms. Even in the midst of all the scandals going on at USC, this just feels right. Just because Bush got caught accepting gifts doesn’t actually change what happened on the field. We know he was still great. He also made the NCAA tons of money while he comparably received very little. Aunt Becky’s kid wants to know when she will be welcomed back by the Trojan family.

Ray Ciccarelli is quitting NASCAR because they are banning the flying of the Confederate flag. Yea I know, I had to Google him as well to see who he was, but I can see why he can identify with them. Both he and the Confederate Army have 0 victories. Even if Ciccarelli wants to stand by his claim that flying the flag doesn’t make you a racist, what it does make him is completely clueless when it comes to American history. You’ve gotta give a lot of credit to NASCAR for taking stand against it, even thought they knew it might not be received well from a lot of their viewers.

Do you realize how absurdly awkward this whole topic of racial injustice has become? Think about this: we have a President of The United States who has not addressed the country during civil unrest because his base is largely racist. We have organizations like the NFL and NASCAR who have had to make “difficult” decisions around denouncing racial injustice because it might alienate some of their supporters. Think about how ridiculous all this sounds in 2020. Did I say 2020? I guess all kinds of absurdity is possible this year. I mean to say think about how ridiculous this sounds in this day and age. We are still dancing around people who are racists and protecting these dinosaurs who are out of touch with society. It’s like 2020 is the year people learned they need to wash their hands and that racism is bad. I know lots of people want to “stick to sports” but this is impacting every aspect of life right now, including sports.

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