Tag: football

1:  athletic supporter.

2:  an enthusiast or participant in a specified activity.

This week in Sports-

NFL’s Jacksonville Jaguars apologize for Ebola prank by mascot

(Reuters) – The National Football League’s Jacksonville Jaguars apologized on Monday after their mascot used the Ebola epidemic to taunt fans of the Pittsburgh Steelers.

The mascot, Jaxson DeVille, held up a handwritten sign to the crowd that read “TOWELS CARRY EBOLA” while carrying a yellow “Terrible Towel” in his right hand.

…

HS soccer players allegedly hurl Ebola taunts at West African opponent

NAZARETH, Pa. – A West African player on a Pennsylvania high school soccer team was allegedly taunted by opposing players with chants of “Ebola!” during a game last week.

The Allentown Morning Call newspaper reports it received two letters from fans who attended the game last Thursday and alleged that racist remarks were hurled by Northampton High School players at a black player for Nazareth High School.

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Sierra Leone’s Soccer Team Struggles With Stigma Over Ebola Outbreak

YAOUNDÉ, Cameroon – Fans taunt them with chants of “Ebola.” Some opponents have hesitated to shake their hands or engage in the traditional swapping of jerseys. Humiliating medical screenings have become routine.

And in Cameroon, when the players on Sierra Leone’s exiled national soccer team checked into their hotel to prepare for an important match Saturday, some guests grew alarmed, and the police were called, a team spokesman said.

…

In Yaoundé, Sierra Leone’s players continue to face constant reminders of the virus: the daily temperature screenings, an isolated team hotel, hand sanitizer dispensers in the lobby and police officers stationed outside to shield the team from harassment.

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Drone, banner force end to Euro soccer qualifier

BELGRADE, Serbia (AP) — A small drone dangling an Albanian banner and circling the soccer field touched off fighting between Serbian and Albanian players and fans Tuesday, forcing a European Championship qualifier to be called off.

English referee Martin Atkinson halted the match in the 41st minute when a Serbian player grabbed the banner and Albanian players tried to protect it. Several Serbian fans ran onto the field and clashed with Albanian players. The score was 0-0 at the time.

The Union of European Football Associations said the match was later abandoned because of a ”disturbance” on the field.

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New Jersey High School Football Team Loses Season Following Hazing, Sexual Assault Accusations

A disturbing report concerning Sayreville War Memorial High School of Sayreville, NJ surfaced today courtesy of NJ.com, uncovering details about hazing and sexual assault allegations against the school’s football team. In the wake of these accusations, the area superintendent announced this week that the remainder of the team’s season would be canceled, effective immediately.

The punishment seems fair given the weight of the allegations. NJ.com’s full report on these accusations offers a clearer picture of the alleged incidents. Initiated by older players on the team, the story details daily incidents of scare tactics and sexual assault bordering on rape.

   In the darkness, a freshman football player would be pinned to the locker-room floor, his arms and feet held down by multiple upperclassmen. Then, the victim would be lifted to his feet while a finger was forced into his rectum. Sometimes, the same finger was then shoved into the freshman player’s mouth.

   …

   According to the parent, whose identity is being protected because the parent feared retribution against the family and the player, the routine was initiated when an upperclassman would enter the locker room and make a wolf call or howling noise.

   “[For] 10 seconds, the lights would go off and they would grab a freshman and they would go on,” the parent said. “Right on the floor. … It was happening every day. They would get the freshmen.”

   He added: “Kids would just sit around and witness [stuff] like this.”

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In related news: DC NFL team considers name change to “Washington Jocks”

Stay tuned for further developments via Deadspin

Before we start I’d like to make a meta statement-

DocuDharma is the home of guilt free Lefty sports blogging.

I intend to cover Puppy Bowl VI and Curling and Speed Skating and The America’s Cup.

So, let’s talk about Brett Favre, Super Quarterback-

15 Years with the Green Bay Packers, my second choice team after the Giants because I’m only half troll and my Viking forebearer was actually one of the original investors in what is the only publicly owned team in the NFL.

Add that to his miserable year at the helm of the Jets which while not my favorite is at least local to Stars Hollow (as are the Patsies) and you may sense my sense of betrayal and resentment that he is now playing for our hated rivals, the Vikings of Minnesota however much I may admire that at 120 years he is the oldest man in the NFL.

The Saints are good for once after years and years (and years) of futility and I have one word for you-

Katrina.

So now you know how every right thinking fan should root and if you don’t…

Well, you’re still welcome below.

So the storyline goes something like this-

Colts == Peyton Manning, Super Quarterback.

For the last 2 weeks of the season, after they clinched the playoffs, the Colts put their scrubs on the field including the game on the 27th that they lost to the Jets 29 – 15.

In addition they totally dicked over Baltimore in their move to Indianapolis.

Now as satisfying as it would be to see them punished for their arrogance, I’ll take the time to remind you the Jets are one of the most conservative donating teams in the NFL (though the league as a whole is only slightly less conservative than NASCAR) so it’s basically a pick ’em on who to hate more.

It doesn’t matter anyway since they’re both playing for second because both the Vikings and the Saints can beat either of them.

Starting Now on CBS.

Update:

Umm…

You’ll have to wait on that Weekend News Digest for sure.

While everyone is talking about health care, there are some definite winners in the health care debate: the Indianapolis Colts.

13-0 this season, playing in Jacksonville as I type, the Indianapolis players are winning the health care debate of “do we sit our players or not”?

They aren’t (so far), and, they are winning the game.

cross-posted from The Dream Antilles

Plexico Burress, Shakespearean Tragic Hero



OMFG. New York Football Giants star receiver Plexico Burress last night shot himself in the thigh with a handgun.  Will he play again this year?  Who knows?  He was released from the hospital today.  There are other questions though.  Like: WTF is he doing with a loaded pistol in a night club during the season?  And htf did he shoot himself in the thigh?  Isn’t that like totally embarrassing?  And is this the stupidest economic “accident” we’ve seen this year, a year of gigantic, incredibly stupid economic “accidents?”

So those of us in the “life as figure of speech” department were thinking about Plexico Burress this afternoon.  And we were thinking hard.

The big question for us is whether he’s a metaphor for the United States’s economy?  Or the war effort in Iraq?  Or the Bush Administration?  Or the War on Terror^TM?  Or something else that’s a gigantic f*ck up?

What kind of figure of speech is he anyway?  Is this an example of synecdoche? Is this an example of metonymy? Is it metaphor?  WTF is this anyway?  And, more important, what does it mean, if anything, to us?

The New York Times supplies the back story:

It was unclear what led to the gun’s discharge. There were no reports of any fights inside the club before the shooting. The police did not say whether any charges would be filed, but they noted that felony charges were possible if a person possesses a loaded, unlicensed handgun in a place other than his residence or business.

Under the league’s personal-conduct policy, violations of local gun laws can result in a player’s suspension…snip

It is the latest controversy involving Burress, who signed a five-year, $35 million contract with the Giants just before the season opener. He was suspended for 12 days, including a victory over Seattle, because he missed meetings without explanation.

Against San Francisco on Oct. 19, Burress shouted at Coach Tom Coughlin on the sideline after drawing an unsportsmanlike-conduct penalty. The N.F.L. fined Burress $45,000 for verbally abusing the officials.

Coughlin held him out of the first quarter of the Oct. 26 game against the Steelers because he missed treatment on a neck and shoulder injury the day before.

The Times also reports that Burress, who is 31, has a 5-year $35 million contract.

I know that you, dear readers, are incredibly busy and perplexed by other, vital questions, but seriously now, have you ever heard of anything as ridiculous and expensive as this?

Then again, oops.  I guess so.  How about Michael Vick?

Oh, goddess supreme, preserve us in safety from the end of this Empire.

adopted from The Dream Antilles

I have a confession to make.  I know it’s not vogue to discuss our personal finances here, or brag about our personal wealth, but I have to out myself anyway.  I want to confess.  I’ve been keeping a secret from you.  And I owe you an explanation. You didn’t know it, but I am a proud owner of a professional sports franchise.

No, I didn’t get $100 billion dollars in dot com bubble and buy a part of Manchester United.  But I do own a part of an English football (gringos, that means soccer) team, Ebbsfleet United.

As today’s New York Times reported:

[Will] Brooks, a 37-year-old former advertising copywriter, set up a Web site in 2007 called MyFootballClub.co.uk that asked a simple question: how many people would be interested in pooling their money to buy a soccer club, so that ordinary fans could vote on every decision, from uniform design to player selection? More than $400,000 was raised on the first day of public registration.

The Web fantasy became reality when members voted in February to take over Ebbsfleet United, a tiny, unsuccessful club in southeast England, for slightly less than $1 million.

MyFootballClub has about 31,000 members/owners from all over the world (including the author of this article [and the author of this essay]), all of whom pay an annual subscription of about $60 to be a member of the nonprofit trust that owns “the Fleet.”

The club is run on the principle of one person, one vote for every decision, major or minor. Ebbsfleet recently made headlines in the British press when members voted to sell John Akinde, a talented young striker, for about $250,000, the first vote of its kind.

Why would somebody do this, you might ask? Why would somebody spend the princely sum of $60 +/- per year to own a share of a professional sports team, especially an English football team that is four five divisions below the Premier League? And why would somebody proudly wear an owner/manager t-shirt for Ebbsfleet?  And why would I care about, let alone agonize about a team that has lost its last 4 games?

This is the kind of thing that, if you don’t get it instantly, it’s very hard to explain. It might even be impossible to explain if it doesn’t light you up on hearing it.

I love the game. I love the game in its disorganized, pick up form, and in its most star filled, regimented, corporate package. I love the game when the ball is made of rags and duct tape. I love the game when it’s played before 50,000 screaming fans. And I love the game at all the spots in between. I’d rather watch re-runs of Boca Juniors playing River Plate (El Club mas poderoso de Argentina) in the rain in a scoreless tie than most professional US football (pigskin) games.  I’d rather get all muddy, sweaty, and tired playing this game than most other activities.

So the chance to play a new role in the game, as if I were a small scale Sir Alex or George Steinbrenner or Roman Abramovich, is just delicious. It’s fantastically exciting! Let’s face it, I can make some room in the upper arcana of teams I like to follow for Ebbsfleet United, of which I am a proud owner.

And to top it off, I’m delighted to bring this kind of inexpensive, democratic ownership to sport.  To show its promise. After all is said and done, Ebbsfleet United is a great experiment and I want to see it succeed. It’s something great that the Internet has made possible. Its success will inspire other groups of people to own other clubs. We will slowly take ownership of professional sports back from the undeserving, spoiled, greedy billionaires, spread it around, and make it a widespread, public, affordable phenomenon.

Can you imagine what it would be like if people across the world, hundreds of thousands of them, owned the Boston Red Sox or the New York Mets?  Can you imagine how much more intense the games would become?  Can you imagine how it would be if the ownership instead of being imperious were democratic?  If betting increases interest in the games, can you imagine what ownership of the team does?

Further, can you imagine what it must be like for the Ebbsfleet players, playing 5 leagues down from the Premier League?  They go from complete and utter anonymity to having 31,000 people across the globe watching them, following the games, criticizing their form, making suggestions.  The stadium for Ebbsfleet, Stone Bridge Road in Gravesend, Kent, only holds a total of about 5,000 fans (the Rose Bowl, on the other hand, holds about 92,000 people). Can you imagine both the pressure and the joy as a player of having 31,000 owners watch you play?

This is popular, democractic (with a small “d”) professional sports.  It’s new.  It’s brilliant.  It’s an experiment with tremendous possibilities.  I’m completely revved up about it.  Just ponder the possibilities.  Just imagine how this applies to other endeavors.

For more, click this.

It’s Giants 3, Pats 7, with 0:59 left in the first half.

So far, there have been a few funny commercials, but nothing of Bud.Weis.Er. fame.

Who do you want to win? Who do you think will win? I’m voting for Particle Man.

[Update: 5:44 left in 3rd Q]: Pats just tried throwing on 4th down. Oopsie. It would have been a 49-yard field goal attempt. Now the Giants have it.

[Update: 11:46 left in 4th Q]: First down at the 5 for the Giants! The score is still 3 Giants, 7 Pats. Hopefully, not for long.

TOUCHDOWN GIANTS!!!

[Update: 4:12 left in 4th Q]: Eek! Pats inside the 30.

[Update: 2:42 left in 4th Q]: Pats score. FRAK!

[Update: 1:20 left in 4th Q]: Giants still driving…

Update: 0:35 left in 4th Q]: TOUCHDOWN GIANTS!!!!!!!!!

Update: 0:01 left in 4th Q]: Belichick leaves the field. Sore loser.

GIANTS WIN! GO ELI!