Soul Power: The Legend of the American Basketball Association

★★★★--Loved this well-done documentary about the American Basketball Association, an NBA rival with a different style of play that merged in the mid-1970s. There are many extremely engaging first‑hand accounts from figures like Julius Erving (aka Dr. J), George Gervin, Larry Brown, Artis Gilmore, St. Louis Spirits owner Daniel Silna, Dan Issel, Spencer Haywood, and Bob Costas, all of whom got their starts working for ABA franchises. Common, whose dad played in the league, narrates. Even if you know nothing about professional basketball, it's still a solid watch. 
 
Most interesting part is the business aspect, going through the successes and mistakes along the way that helped them survive and die out. A big win was that they acquired the second best player on the planet at the time, Julius Erving. He was the face of the league from 1971 to 1976. He is pretty universally considered one of the coolest people ever and was something of a proto-Michael Jordan, both on and off the court. They also nearly got the best, Kareem, but the league commissioner, George Mikan, a former pro and Republican politician, low-balled him, costing Mikan his job and probably ultimately killing the league. 
 

Erving was definitely the star of the doc, just as he was the star of the league. Dude is cool and charismatic as hell. A pretty safe choice as your marquee player, he was a black icon, but didn’t venture into racial politics, which I find disappointing but white dudes of that time were already well into that “shut up and dribble” mindset. 
 
It’s wild that the NBA still shits on this league that gave it the slam dunk contest and the three-pointer. The end talks about how the players from that league got screwed out their pensions until recently even though that was part of the agreement when the merger happened. Also, the NBA doesn’t count ABA stats, basically still arguing the league was inferior. It was not, and they even played about the same number of games each season, which makes things easy.
 
Just a couple little complaints. Something I hadn’t really noticed was the way some ABA teams made an effort to draft local college guys to boost ticket sales since people from the area were already fans of many of these guys since high school. I wish they had gone into this, but it isn’t even mentioned. It was something I noticed and then did some half-assed internet research to confirm it. There were several Indiana guys that played for the Pacers those years, guys from Notre Dame, IU, and Purdue, one from University of Evansville, and some regional players from various Michigan and Ohio schools. 
 

Another guy that stayed in the state where he was a college legend was Hall of Famer Dan Issel, who was one of the players that gets a lot of recognition in the documentary, and is still University of Kentucky’s all-time leading scorer. His three years on varsity (this was when freshmen weren’t eligible, which is stupid, this being 1967-70 were a pretty exciting time for college basketball even though those Kentucky teams always underperformed, losing in the round of 32 each of the three years he played at UK. This was during UCLA’s dominance with Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (Lew Alcindor at the time) winning national player of the year in 68 and 69. Regardless, the SEC was still the conference to be in with Issel and Pete Maravich of LSU as the top two players. Maravich in just three years is still the NCAA’s all-time leading scorer with at a more-or-less untouchable 3,667 points. He averaged and incredible 44.2 per game and his pickup style game was practically made for the ABA. He was another of the league’s prime targets (which isn’t mentioned) but stayed in the NBA. 
 

Interestingly, Kentucky didn’t integrate until the year after Issel graduated. It wasn’t until he played in the ABA that he ever played with a black person. The racial aspect of the film, while interesting, was maybe a little overplayed, calling it “the first integrated workplace in the United States.” It’s not like racism wasn’t rampant then or now. 
 
The only other thing that disappointed me besides trying to keep local college players with nearby teams wasn’t a fault of the documentary. It was that more footage hasn’t survived, especially from the early years.
 
Lastly, loved that my beloved Indiana Pacers were featured. There was a great local PBS documentary about those championship teams that came out in the early 90s. My uncle played ball with two of the guys in the doc, Billy Keller (my uncle was on JV when Keller was the man there) and George McGinnis, both Indiana Mr. Basketball winners. My uncle, Bob Jones, career was sandwiched between the 1965 Washington championship led by Keller and the 1969 championship led by McGinnis. They drafted a third Washington guy in 73, a guy named Steve Downing who played at IU, but he ended up going to the NBA. Again, wished they would have focused on the local guys aspect a little more.

From Deep: A doc about basketball and hip-hop

★★★--A basketball documentary. I’m a sucker for a basketball doc. In three parts. The first two parts were better than the third, which sort of went off the tracks. First part was a history of basketball and it’s connection to the black community. Second was hip hop’s roots and how it has always been intwined with the game. 

The third had the most potential and still requires the most thought and scholarship going forward. But it was also the most confusing, getting lost in the point it was trying to make. I think it was arguing that professional basketball players deserve more rights and to choose their employers via free agency without getting a bunch of crap. It also talks specifically about how the economic chasm between player and fan has never been greater. Just of sort of throws that out. 
 
Also gives a little bit of an apology for the LeBron James’ “Decision” from 2011. That’s when he had a television special to say he was leaving Cleveland. People I know from Akron and Cleveland are very protective of him, which is cool as I think he is a truly good dude. Tis true of him ass a teammate, father, politically active famous person, and so on. So I like what the doc says there, that the NBA and the city were making Lebron into a savior, which was unfair. It also talks some shit about Michael Jordan for being a corporate man in never taking a stance on anything political so he sells more Nikes, McDonalds, Gatorade, so forth. Jordan, that prick, did famously say “Republicans buy sneakers, too.” 
 
Overall, good but flawed and not super clear. Plus he sort of gets into dangerous territory when talking about African American culture for a weird looking Canadian. 

Johnny Eight-ball had one thing on his mind during his time in the NFL... It wasn't winning football games

Untold: Johnny Football - Ryan Duffy - 2023

This Netflix documentary has really taken the world by storm. Presents a side of the life and career of Johnny Manziel, Heisman Trophy winner and NFL bust Johnny Football (later Johnny 8-ball) that's about as sensational as it gets. The documentary delves into the unraveling of Manziel's football career in astounding and jaw-dropping fashion. Like his time in the show, these revelations prove extremely captivating.

One of the personal favorites is the scheme devised by Manziel's agent, Erik Burkhardt. to get his client through the NFL Combine before the draft that included a drug test that Manziel had no chance at passing. The plan went thus: Manziel would arrive in Indianapolis, the location of the combine, demonstrating his commitment to the NFL process. Prior to interviews and drug tests, Manziel's father would simulate a heart attack, prompting Manziel to fly back home to be with his family. During his time at home, he would cleanse his system and then reschedule private interviews with NFL teams, creating the image of family man who gave a shit. 

Maybe the craziest revelation though was that Manziel never watched any game film throughout his career. I played Division III college football for a truly terrible team. We watched anywhere from one to three hours of film nearly every day. We watched practices, games, games of upcoming teams, so forth. It was part of the experience, like stretching. I can't really fathom how someone could get away with that. 

Some other bombshells include a casual admission of a fourth-string quarterback taking drug tests on Manziel's behalf during his college days at Texas A&M. He was also signing autographs for money and getting cash under the table from boosters, which cost Reggie Bush his Heisman Trophy. There is also a bit about arranging a private workout for Manziel, during which his receivers were out all night doing coke with the star QB and missed the workout. As such, Manziel's semi-athletic agent stepped in to catch passes, which also defies belief. 

I could only assume the fallout from the documentary is going to be substantial. On a related note, I loved this doc! Dude does seem like a fun hang. 

Untold: Operation Flagrant Foul

Nice, interesting 30 for 30 style Netflix doc on the Tim Donaghy scandal. Donaghy was the NBA referee illegally gambling and influencing the outcomes of games. Tells how through his connections to organized crime, Donaghy made calls to benefit the gamblers he was associated with to cover spreads and what not. 

At one point Donaghy talked about how they'd get told by the league, handed down by Commissioner David Stern, known Indiana Pacer/small market hater, that they need to start calling more of this or that. Carrying or traveling on a certain spin move Jordan was fond of, for example. But when he makes one of those violation on His Airness, unquestionably the greatest player to ever play the game of basketball, Bulls Coach Phil Jackson tells him how it is:

“I started to understand what's within the game in the NBA. I was in Philadelphia and I am refereeing Sixers-Bulls. They were cracking down on the spin move that they wanted the officials to call traveling. Michael Jordan makes the spin move, I make the call. Phil Jackson comes off the bench and he starts giving me shit. I say, 'wait a second, Phil. You know as well as I do that's the spin move they're telling us to call.' And he said, 'while they might want that play called, they certainly don't want it called on him', and he pointed at Jordan who just walked by and stared at me. I got in the locker room, the other referee said, 'they want that call but don't want to on him.”

Yeah, indeed, it is a superstars league and they are treated accordingly. This of course brings into question the fairness of NBA games.

This is further evidence to the conspiracy theory that the NBA was more or less rigged under Stern in favor of the biggest markets and the players that sell the most jersey and if you are Michael Jordan, you get every call. You hear people talk about how when Jordan played the game was so much more physical. That's bullshit. Watch one of those games and you'll see Jordan get every goddamn call. “But the hand check rule!” You hand-check Jordan, you got a foul. Such is the case with all the super-stars. Look at the all time attempts list (Jordan is 11th, by the by). It's big guys who played forever (the Mailman, Wilt, Shaq Moses Malone, Dwight Howard, Kareem) like you'd expect and the guys that NBA protects (LeBron, Kobe, Jordan) with the exceptions of maybe the guys who played in the 60s/70s (Oscar Robertson, Jerry West), I can't say much with confidence about that era. In the playoffs, it is way worse. Jordan is tied for third with Tim Duncan. LeBron with over 100 more games than Jordan is first, he has also got nearly every call throughout his career, with Hack-a-Shaq at number two. The guys ahead of him all have way over 200 playoff games under their belts. Jordan had 179. As far as average per game, among players with 100 playoff games or more, Jordan is third in per game average, behind liabilities Shaq and Wilt.

All this is to say the Pacers should have won game seven of the Eastern Conference Finals in 1998! Small markets Utah vs. Indiana? Nah. Stern was never going to let that happen. This was how it was for most teams that were in cities that don't matter or didn't have one of the three best players in the league.

Anyway, so Donaghy was guilty as shit. Pled guilty to charges of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and transmitting betting information through interstate commerce. Okay. In the doc he admits to providing confidential information about games to the other two guys involved in the scheme, quasi mafia guys Jimmy Battista and Tommy Martino who he went to high school with in Pennsylvania. They all plead guilty, served at least a year in federal prison, and now hate each other. They all also participated in the documentary. 

Not the first of these Netflix Untold docs I've watched. They are worth watching if you like that type of story off the field type stuff, which I fucking love. One of particular interest is how Stern screwed over the Pacers after the Malice in the Palace when Ron Artest went into the stands and started swinging after fan John Green hit him in the face with a beer which caused a riot. Stern suspended the fuck out of my team including Artest for life which was later commuted to the rest of the season. This still makes me mad. Other NBA players that got suspended for a whole season include Latrell Sprewell for choking his coach and threatening him with death, Gilbert Arenas for pulling a gun on a teammate in the locker room. Even they didn't get a lifetime to start with though. 

The Forgotten Heyday of Black Baseball in Springs Valley: A History of the French Lick Plutos and the West Baden Sprudels

An article I wrote while I was a newspaperman. Holds up ight...

With spring in the air and baseball season already here, it is the perfect time to revisit the once-proud history of our national pastime in Orange County at the dawn of the 20th century. Long before Larry Bird put French Lick on the map, Springs Valley was already a Negro League mecca with two highly regarded African American baseball teams: the French Lick Plutos and the West Baden Sprudels. 

This destination spot, which was in its original heyday just over 100 years ago, may seem an unlikely host to such Negro baseball talent, given that it is located in Southern Indiana, which is not exactly known for its racial tolerance. But business was booming between rival hotels—the French Lick Hotel Resort and the West Baden Inn—who needed service industry workers and recruited blacks from Louisville to fill those positions offering decent pay for the “menial” labor.

Just before the hotels started pushing for African American workers, textile manufacturer and owner of the West Baden Inn, Lee Sinclair, added a bicycle/pony racing track in 1888 that featured an electrically lit baseball diamond in its center. The lighted diamond drew several major league teams to the area for spring training which was a relatively easy trip for Midwestern clubs with the expansion of the Monon Railroad, which connected Louisville with Indianapolis and Chicago, to include French Lick/West Baden as a resort stop off of the main route.

Around the same time that Sinclair's West Baden Inn burned down and was rebuilt into what is now the West Baden Springs Hotel in 1901, three-term Indianapolis mayor and restauranteur (and eventual US Senator) Thomas Taggart saw the economic potential of the area's mineral springs and purchased the French Lick Hotel Resort. Looking to compete with Sinclair, by 1909 Taggart built his own state-of-the-art baseball park to cash in on the travel baseball clubs looking for places to work out and rest up.

The diamonds proved good for business as hotel guests enjoyed watching the games and placing bets on the outcomes. Pretty soon baseball was being played on a daily basis with the hotel scrambling to fill racially mixed (which soon became all-black) teams and even drew players from the less stable (at the time) Indianapolis ABCs.

Many players came and went throughout much of a typical baseball season since it wasn't uncommon for players to jump ship with a team willing to pay them more. Unless a player was a standout joining from another team, it was typical for the young men to sign on as a porter or waiter before moving to baseball full-time in the summer. Players made a higher-than-average wage of $30 to $40 a week while in play (average for the population at large was about $15 to $20) but the players would have to find steady work in the offseason.

Thus began the rivalry of the French Lick Plutos (briefly called the Hotel Men), named for the Roman king of the underworld Pluto, and the West Baden Sprudels, a gnome that according to folklore served as the guard to the Wiesbaden spring in Germany, which formed the Springs Valley League with the two teams playing nearly every day of the spring and summer of 1909.

In 1909, the Plutos won the “pennant” easily, besting the Sprudels 126 of the 146 meetings, and were declared state champs by the Freeman newspaper, a black publication out of Indianapolis.

The following year, however, would prove much more competitive after team captain and secretary (who was more or less responsible for promoting games) John Chenault, who played catcher for the Plutos, was killed by a wild pitch. It was July of 1909 with the Plutos playing a team from Evansville, who led by four runs with French Lick mounting a comeback when William Brannon hit Chenault in the chest with a pitch that stopped his heart. “He walked ten steps and fell over dead,” read the Freeman.

The 1910 season also saw legendary manager C.I. Taylor relocate from Birmingam, Alabama to Springs Valley for what he saw as a promised land of “baseball opportunity.” He also brought many talents with him to the area including players like submarine pitcher William “Dizzy” Dismukes and his brothers Ben, Candy Jim, and “Steel Arm” Johnny Taylor among others who went on to have long and storied careers in the negro leagues. In April and May of 1910, under C.I.'s leadership, the much improved Sprudels went 12-5-2 against their rival.

The 1911 season saw the Sprudels play 75 contests, going 53-22 on the year with several additions. The Sprudels were even given the opportunity to play against major leaguers when the Pittsburgh Pirates, which featured the year's batting title winner Honus Wagner (whose American Tobacco Company trading card is regarded as the rarest and most valuable card in existence [like the Gutenberg Bible of baseball cards]), came to town under dubious circumstances. While the Pirates played without Wagner, the Sprudels too were several players down. Regardless, the hosting West Baden managed a 2-1 victory with Dismukes at the mound, allowing only four hits in the contest.

In 1912 the Sprudels won the Springs Valley pennant for the third straight despite losing 12-of- 18 to start the season. That year saw both teams travel more and while one group went on the road, another was called in to play the team that stayed behind. In all, both teams played somewhere around 150 games that year, making them, according to Paul Debono's book “The Indianapolis ABCs”, de facto professional teams.

Some of the notable competition the Sprudels took on that year included the Chicago American Giants (in Chicago) in late July. “Steel Arm” Johnny, who now played for the Chicago team, jumped sides again to play alongside his actual brothers and pitched his way to a rare 7-6 victory over the American Giants. In the second game of the doubleheader, however, owner and manager Rube Foster, a Baseball Hall of Famer who most notably organized the first Negro National League which ran from 1920-31, held the Sprudels to five hits while he was on the mound, giving his squad a 7-1 victory.

In October of that year, the Sprudels also took on the Cincinnati Reds but came up short against the major league squad. No score was given in the Freeman paper.

The 1913 season saw the Plutos a much-improved squad with Taggart increasing his spending on the team to try to bring in talent that could win his squad the pennant once again. The most notable acquisition was one Bingo DeMoss who came out from an Oklahoma team. The second baseman DeMoss has been considered one of the finest fielding second basemen of the 1910s and 1920s Negro Leagues and was also said to have exceptional bat control.

Jelly Gardner, who batted ahead of DeMoss on the American Giants a few years later, said of his teammate, “If he thought you'd be out trying to steal, he'd foul off the pitch if he couldn't hit it well. He could hit 'em anywhere he wanted to.”

DeMoss and company won 8-of-9 against the Sprudels to start the 1913 season before leaving in mid-June for an extended road trip that would take them as far as North Dakota. In the meantime, the West Baden team stayed behind and took on a full schedule which included games with teams from Alexandria, Elwood, Kokomo, and Indianapolis, as well as out-of-state teams the Boston Bloomer Girls (a semi-infamous team comprised of six women and three men), the Nebraska Indians, and once again the Chicago American Giants.

Late in the summer, the Sprudels beat the ABCs in a best-of-five series that resulted in another Indiana championship though it may have been called a little early since the Plutos were still out of town—steamrolling their competition as it turns out, winning 60-of-67 games on their trip— wanting a shot at the crown. With both teams at the top of their respective games, the stage was set for an unheard-of 21-game series to decide the undisputed champion.

“It would seem foolish for a man to go to see the World's Series when he could get a chance to see the Sprudels and the Plutos in a battle royal for championship honors,” the Freeman said at the time. “The antagonism and enviousness that exist between these two teams make a game between them worth going miles to see.”

The series, however, proved anticlimactic as the Plutos ran away with it early. Overall, the Plutos went 108-33 in the 1913 season, beating the ABCs seven times in seven games and the American Giants once in seven tries.

The Sprudels, for their part, again managed games against major league teams after the season had come to an end. On October 6 of that year, the Reds came to town and bested West Baden in a game that was called at 7-4 due to darkness in the eighth inning. Sprudel Hall of Fame first baseman Ben Taylor led his team in the loss with a double and a crowd-pleasing home run off of pitcher Chief Johnson. The following day, pitcher Gene “Milo” Packard pitched a 9-0 shutout in favor of the Reds.

The 1913 season proved the end of the Negro League heyday in Springs Valley with C.I. Taylor and most of his players as well as several of the better Pluto players, including DeMoss, joining forces with the ABCs.

Though both teams filled rosters into the early 1930s, neither team pulled the talent they once had as the ABCs routinely drew the best players from the Sprudels and Plutos, effectively displacing both clubs.

The teams continued to play up until the early years of the Great Depression when the resort industry fell off dramatically at which point most African American workers at the resort lost their jobs. For several years after that, the teams merged into the Pluto Red Devils before folding completely.

Air - Ben Affleck - 2023

★★★-Air retells the story of Michael Jordan's historic signing with Nike in 1984 before ever playing a second of professional basketball. The idea for the film came from screenwriter Alex Convery, who noticed that the story was glossed over in the documentary series The Last Dance. 

Matt Damon stars as talent scout Sonny Vaccaro who had the biggest hand in the signing. Others at the table during the historic pitch include Phil Knight, co-founder of Nike played by Ben Affleck, marketer Rob Strasser (Jason Bateman), player rep Howard White (Chris Tucker), shoe designer Peter Moore (Matthew Maher), Jordan’s agent David Falk (Chris Messina), and Jordan's parents (played by the Viola Davis and her husband Julius Tennon). 

The movie apparently had Jordan's blessing as Affleck met with him before filming on what should be included in the movie (he specifically said that Davis had to play his mother). Nike wasn't consulted, supposedly, but that doesn't matter because they come off looking fucking great. As does Vaccaro, who is considered something of a dubious character (for more on him, check out the ESPN 30 for 30 documentary, Sole Man, which focuses on his life). 

Reviews were mostly positive with the Rotten Tomatoes score at a Certified Fresh 92%. Though there were some people that didn't like it. NPR's Aisha Harris criticized the film's “craven exercise in capitalist exaltation” and lack of character development. Similarly, Peter Bradshaw of The Guardian called it a “shallow, parochial and obtuse” corporate promo.

I liked it though it feels weird rooting for Nike. Claims that it is pretty much a commercial for Jordan's sneakers and Nike are pretty accurate, but it tells a hell of a story with a lot of talented actors. Certainly not the worst movie I've seen about Michael Jordan.

LeBron James is the NBA's all-time leading scorer

Incredible. Everyone who has a passing interest in the NBA knows this record. LeBron, while maybe not the GOAT, is in the conversation. And this is a huge point in his favor.

Spectacularly good for so long. It’s unbelievable. Only Tom Brady compares.

All those points and his best play of all-time was a blocked shot. Just thought I’d point that out for anyone hating.

Great moment when Kareem handed the ball off to LBJ. I never thought anyone would ever break Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s record. No one has been close for almost 40 years. And here we are. Do not take this level of greatness for granted.

Also, what a speech. “Fuck man, thank you guys.”

One last, after killing it in his State of the Union, Biden congratulated LeBron in a sweet/endearing message. What a day to be an American.

Desperate Mavs win overrated, walking distraction Kyrie Irving in trade war

Who in their right mind trades for Kyrie Irving? The Mavericks had a really good thing going, and went to desperate measures to get this guy? Things turned out great for the Cavs, Celtics, and Nets, after all. 

Obviously, dude completely torpedoed the Nets’ season with his trade request. Plus this is the type of thing that would discourage me as a GM from trading for him in the first place.

Winning basketball games isn’t exactly the only thing on his mind. He’s a clown who doesn’t help any team win and can’t keep his mouth shut about “the Jews” or the earth being flat.

With this guy, crazy things are normal; normal things are crazy. I bet he signs with someone else next season.

Indiana Pacers: somehow better after blow up their roster and trading their all-star center

Optimistic about the Pacers for the first time this year. Just took them blowing up the roster like they haven’t done in 20 years. I can’t believe what we got for what we gave up. Went from tanking for the draft to having guys the Kings were building for the future to “win now.” No idea what they are doing, but it’s the Kings and their gonna King.   

We get up-and-coming Tyrese Haliburton and decent vet Buddy Hield and keep Myles Turner and Malcolm Brogdon. Plus, we’ll have two first-round picks next year (one from Cleveland for Caris LeVert), one likely a high lottery pick. Can’t ask for much more from a small-market team that constantly gets shitted on. Won’t have to spend years at the bottom of the Eastern Conference standings to get some young talent. All it took was a couple of decent draft picks and opportunistic trading.  

We lose Sabonis, a solid two-time All-Star, but hopefully, this just gives Turner more of an opportunity to shine. I’m also pleased we didn’t give away the farm for some overrated “superstar” who can’t fucking score.  

Let’s hope this year they learn to play with each other and get lucky on draft night. Nice to have a team in the to root for again. Do this shit

Lenny Cooke is the greatest movie of all time

Lenny Cooke. "Like on Christmas Day, you think you’re getting this toy, and then Christmas comes, it’s not under the tree. It breaks you down emotionally. I broke down, realized I got bad advice. But you wonder, why not? Why didn’t my name get called?” Because you can't fucking play. 

Directed by Josh and Benny Safdie, the guys who did Uncut Gems. Liked that better but this is apples to oranges. The film follows this high school basketball player, Lenny Cooke, for about a decade of his sad life. In 2001, when the film starts, Cooke is one of the top ranked high school basketball players in the country. At that time he has ladies hanging on him, asking what team he plays for and shit like that, living it up with his boys. 

He thinks he is going to get picked in the 2002 NBA draft, but goes unselected. From there, we see him play in a series of minor leagues, getting fatter as times goes on, before finally he quits basketball. By the end he is living in some shit town in Virginia with his fiancée, who is getting tired of his shit while working two job, and his many children.

This guy. The takeaway is he thought he was going to the NBA out of high school with no fucking game. The little bit we see when he played LeBron when he was a senior and LeBron was a freshman shows that dude would never be able to hang. Meanwhile, the idiots he surrounds himself with tell him he is a shoe-in to go pro. None of these people know anything. The people that do are to polite to say he is garbage now. 

The end is pretty brutal. Dude got fat and just lived off his glory days. No job and no prospects at 30. Goes to an NBA game and meets with Joakim Noah and Carmelo Anthony after. Basically to say, "remember how good I was, lets go out to get fucked up." Noah is like, "nah, man." Then he talks shit to his friends for not visiting him enough. Looks like a tight hang. 

Finally, there is a scene where they superimpose Cooke talking to his younger self at the Five Star Camp. Basically an old man rant. Dude is a horrible public speaker, but that is apparently what he is doing for a living now. 

Pretty hard watch. Like Hoop Dreams mixed with a documentary about meth or something. It is solid though. 

Rocky IV is the greatest movie of all time

If he dies, he dies. Holy shit this movie is amazing. Watched it on Election Day because I needed something that could get me to believe in America again. This did it. Then a few days later, the results came in. I'm proud of you, America. We did it. Watched Rocky single-handedly defeat the Russians, and then Biden did that shit again.

Rotten Tomato Consensus: Rocky IV inflates the action to absurd heights, but it ultimately rings hollow thanks to a story that hits the same basic beats as the first three entries in the franchise.

Gist of the movie is that Soviet boxer Ivan Drago played by Dolph Lundgren beats Rocky's best friend, Apollo Creed played by Carl Weathers, to death during an exhibition match. This match is fucking incredible. Creed comes out dancing to James Brown singing "Living in America." James Brown is absolutely on fire here. Fictional people that were at this fictional fight got one hell of a show. First, they basically got a 10-minute insane James Brown concert, then they got to watch Apollo Creed die. Hell of a date night. Anyway, so Rocky decides come out of retirement to fight Drago in Russia, for no money, on Christmas, much to the shock of wife Adrian (Talia Shire). "You're doing what now?" In the next movie, we see Rocky is broke by the by. Maybe Adrian was right to be pissed about this, ya know? But nobody, even Adrian, thinks Rocky can win. But after repeated montages and truly impressive CompuBox numbers, he does and wins the Cold War for America in the process. Also, Uncle Paulie has a butler/sex robot that later goes on tour with James Brown. I shit you negative. Greatest film of all time. 

Maybe the most mumbly movie of all time, with Stallone and Lundgren, this shit consists of 33% montage. In one he climbs a mountain, for fuck's sake, with no equipment and wearing a light jacket in the Russian wilderness. 

Playing Drago's wife in the movie is Brigitte Nielsen who is actually smoking hot. Seeing her in her Flava of Love years is shocking after watching this. She is said to be an Olympic Gold Medalist swimmer at the 1980 games held in Russia. Totally on steroids. Her and Drago have a kid who also grows up to kick ass in Creed 2, but this bitch has left Drago for a higher-up at the Kremlin. Meanwhile, Drago's life is dark and in fucking shambles. 

Stallone, who has to be roided out of his mind here, is the MVP of the movie. Wrote, starred, directed a perfect movie. 40% on Rotten Tomatoes my ass. 

Sports Documentary: The Games of the V Olympiad Stockholm, 1912

Criterion Channel has all the official Olympic Game documentaries going back over 100 years. This is my new thing. I have seen exactly one of these prior. Leni Riefenstahl's Olympia. You know her. She did Triumph of the Will. Considered the great Nazi prapagandist. Technically that was the first official Olympic documentary. But giving this a viddy since it's available and seemed interesting. But it's kind of boring. Just watching people do the same thing, over and over, one after another, with a boring ass opening and closing ceremony.

Not exactly confident I could have won a gold medal if I were transported back in time to 1912, but compared to today's standards, these guys were like high school sectional athletes. The hurdlers were especially trash. Stuff happened like tripping and completely wiping out and still getting up to win the race to qualify for the finals. A guy sets the world record at 15.5 seconds for the 110m after knocking down like half the hurdles. I ran a 16 second in 10th grade and wasn't even the best on my team. I didn't even qualify for the finals in my sectional. The kid who won the sectional would have shattered this world record by over a full second. Men's gymnastics was a complete fucking joke as well. It has to be seen to be believed. It's more what I'd call a warmup than like a competition. 

Speaking of, there were a lot of sports that I know but had a hard time figuring out what the point of them were back then. Diving, for example, appears to be more like the long jump with a dive at the end. No flips or turns. Just swanning 30ft. That shit was done into a lake by the way. 

Picture is restored and looks amazing. I've read like 10 or so times why old timey, silent era film looks so good. Has to do with the size of the film. Can't really explain or understand it though. Just know it looks great. 

Some things of note. A dude dies from exhaustion during the marathon, which is fucked. Researching this race, found that another guy disappeared which is just insane. One Shizo Kanakuri, weak from the long journey from Japan, and having problems with the local food, lost consciousness midway through the race. He was found and cared for by a farming family. Being embarrassed from his "`failure" he silently returned to Japan without notifying race officials. Swedish authorities considered him missing for 50 years before discovering that he was living in Japan and had competed in subsequent Olympic marathons.

Also get to see Jim Thorpe after winning a pair of gold medals. He wins the pentathlon and the decathlon. Looked him up. That dude looks like a contemporary athlete. It's like a bunch of average dudes off the street and then this dude who looks like a damn super hero. Looks amazingly like John Cena. Dude is a stud. Wish there was more video of him in the film. 

One more guy of note that I'd never heard of that was super bad ass. One Duke Kahanamoku, born in 1890 under the Kingdom of Hawaii, just before the overthrow. A native Hawaii swimmer, he wins gold in the 100-meter freestyle. Won a total of five medals over three Olympics. The other two were in 1920 and 1924. Incredibly, was an alternate for the U.S. waterpolo team for the 1932 games. 

Dude's life was incredible. Was part of a landmark Supreme Court case resulting from an arrest he made where a civilian was tried for shoplifting in military court. It's complicated and he just made the arrest. Was an actor, the Sherriff of Honolulu, a Freemason, and a professional beach volleyball player. He basically single handedly popularized surfing in the early part of the century when he saved eight fishermen after a boat had capsized, killing most of the people onboard. He was able to drag the men to safety and get back to wreckage quickly with the use of his board. After that, lifeguards used surfboards as part of their standard rescue equipment. 

Legacy lives on too. Has statues all over the place in Hawaii, is in both the surfing and swimming hall of fames, had a comemorative stamp with his likeness on it issued in the 2000s, and was the subject of a Google Doodle a few years ago. You can read a little about him in the New York Times here. Dude is a total MVP. He knew how to party. 

Tour de Pharmacy is the greatest movie of all time

Tour de Pharmacy is Andy Samberg's second hilarious 30 for 30 style HBO mocumentary, the first being 7 Days in Hell, that knocks it out of the fucking park with raunchy humor, faded sports stars, and big name comedians. While 7 Days in Hell lampoons the 1980s and 90s tennis rivalries of John McEnroe and Bjorn Borg as well as Andre Agassi and Pete Sampras, Tour de Pharmacy takes on doping in cycling that has tarnished the careers of pretty all within the sport's ranks in the same way that Fred Armisen and Bill Hader's Documentary Now! pokes fun at Grey Gardens with the episode "Sandy Passage". 

The film gives a fictitious account of the 1982 Tour de France where all but five cyclist are disqualified after Orlando Bloom's character, JuJu Peppie, causes a massive pileup following he attempts to grab the boob of a female spectator. This causes a free-for-all melee which climaxes with John Cena's character, Gustav Ditters, also one the "Fab Five", more on that in a minute, ripping off a dude's unitard and picking him up around his shoulders, screaming like a wild man. This ultimate leads to an investigation where it is determined that Union Cycliste Internationale president Ditmer Klerken, played by Kevin Bacon, took $50,000 bribes from cyclists in order to skip their drug screenings. The only athletes to not partake in the bribes--Adrian Baton (Freddie Highmore), Ditters, Marty Hass (Samberg), Peppie, and Slim Robinson (Daveed Diggs).

All the members of the Fab Five all have their thing. Baton is a woman pretending to be a man. Ditters has suddenly gotten huge. Hass is a white American who went to college in Nigeria and now claims the whole continent of Africa, Peppie dies on his bike because of the many drugs he has taken (and leads the pack despite being dead), and Robinson (nephew of Jackie Robinson) is determined to break the color barrier in some sport but by that point has very few to choose from. All are also suspected of taking PEDs.

Pros:Turns a pretty serious subject into a pretty funny farce. Fantastic cast. Light and colorful, everything I ask for from an 80s period piece. It's super short (so just the right length).

Cons: Lance Armstrong. No. We aren't there yet, dude. Pretty silly in a way that could be irritating. Parts drag a bit.

Notes:  The easiest chuckles the film gets are from the present day versions of the remaining Fab Five which are all just funny visual gags. Basically, these are people that could play their dads (or mom) on a normal program. In the contemporary interviews you get Danny Glover wearing a fake afro playing the Robinson character (who SPOILER ultimately won the race), Jeff Goldblum playing Samberg, Dolph Lundgren playing the older Cena, and Julia Ormond playing the female one.

The cameos are nice little surprises. In addition to the ones already mentioned we see J.J. Abrams, Phylicia Rashad from The Cosby Show (she knows something about people tarnishing their images and what have you), Mike Tyson who explains his first love was cycling, and Chris Webber (the former Michigan Wolverine that was part of a different "Fab Five"). And also there was Lance Armstrong.

Ok. We have to talk about Lance. He is in this. He plays a huge role in it. He is very funny. His presence sort of ruins the movie. Hear me out. It's not that dude denied taking drugs, it's that he came at everyone who accused him so hard and forced his teammates to also take drugs and continually lie about it, or get his wrath. Not ready to see this guy joking around about being such a huge dick and not being sorry about it.

Overall, though, the movie is solid but I was glad it ended when it did. As long as Samberg keeps putting these things out, I'll keep on watching them.

Googling Yourself Can Be Interesting

Quitters never say die.

If any potential employers were to Google my name, Aaron Brewington, there is practically no chance of me ever getting a job in the future.

For the longest time the number one thing to pop up was a list of registered homeless persons living in New York, it was funny to everyone in college, not so much now though. I wish I could say that would be the worst thing with someone who shares my Christian name, but no, it gets much worse. These are the things my namesakes have done in escalating order.

First up there is the AB who was once the maintenance supervisor for some Podunk county school system until he was charged with felony official misconduct when a program he was running with the local prison that allowed non-violent inmates to work on school grounds doing maintenance work, he instead transported two inmates off-campus to his home where they could work on his tobacco farm.

Next, there was the AB who severely injured his passenger, one Alicia Seedorff, while trying to drive home after drinking in bars, one of which was named One-Eyed Jakes, that served him to the point where they should have known he was drunk. The result was he lost control of his vehicle, left the road, rolled, crashed and ejected Seedorff from the vehicle, thus explaining the severer injuries.

Most heinous of all is the incident involving an Aaron Brewington, though he was not the shooter here, that ended in the death of a 5-year-old in Harlem. 18-year-old big brother Rayshawn Brewington was fucking around with a 9-millimeter Ruger pistol in the bedroom he shared with his two brothers at a homeless shelter when the gun fired a single bullet, striking his 9-year-old brother, AB, in the shoulder and hitting the boy, Lonnie Brewington, in the head. The accident killed Lonnie later that day. This whole thing is so sad and depressing though I am not sure if I am going to end up posting it.

But there are some good things about just good old me. There is my blog, of course, and a picture from a high school reunion of sorts, and my Div School stuff, and my articles with the High Point Enterprise. But the blast from the past I enjoy the most that was quite unexpected and touching seeing after a few years out of my alma mater Kenyon College was a write up about my IM basketball team that ended up winning the A-League title my sophomore and senior years. Play with that team was one of the funnest things I remember about college. We were ridiculous. We had the best player in the school on our team, Colin Hodgkins, and all of the kids were just great guys who had game and knew how to celebrate a post-game victory. I leave on this piece written in the Kenyon Collegian in March of 2003. Most of it are inside jokes that most of you won’t get but hey, I might explain them later.

***

Quitters never say die, win A league title

In the Ernst Center Mar. 27, the Quitters defeated the Cougars 48-41 to win the 2003 intramural A-League Championship.

The all-sophomore team of Ben Golden, Aaron Brewington, Jon Echlin, Sam Farmer, Eric Fitzgerald and Colin Hodgkins were 9-2 on the season. They finished the season on a six-game winning streak.

As Brewington nailed six three-pointers to start the game, the Quitters jumped out to an early 24-5 lead. The Quitters' man-to-man defense kept the Cougars from entirely erasing the lead. The halftime score was 31-17 in favor of the former varsity athletes. Although the Cougars battled back to eventually cut the deficit to two points, the Quitters held on to secure its championship, getting key buckets from Farmer and Hodgkins. Team captain Fitzgerald kept his team in man-to-man defense, which ultimately secured the win.

In the semi-finals, the Quitters knocked off Shark Attack behind Hodgkins's 22 points. The Cougars beat Team Sykes.

The Quitters, a compilation of two teams known last year as the Quad Squad and Rim Jobs, lived up to its name early in the season when two original roster players quit the team for personal reasons.

Yep, Al Davis, Still Insane

Oakland Raiders owner, Al Davis, or Sith Lord Darth Sidious as he is also known, managed to further tarnish his legacy this past week with his ludicrous picks at this year’s NFL Draft.  What I will remember most from the 2009 NFL Draft will be the out-of-touch-meddler’s decision to take Maryland receiver Darrius Heyward-Bey, who most did not project as a first rounder, with the No.7 overall pick and in the second round going with safety Michael Mitchell of Ohio who wasn’t even supposed to get drafted, justifying the picks with something like “I like their speed, they’ve got great speed.” 

Yes, Heyward-Bey is by all accounts a great kid, he had the fastest 40-yard-dash of any player at the combine, and its good that he is getting top ten pick money, but Oakland took him way before he would have otherwise come off the board.  Sure there is no guarantee that you are going to get the guy you want if you trade down in picks, however, in this case they clearly could have gotten more bang for their buck with Michael Crabtree still undrafted.  Everyone was pretty much in agreement that Crabtree was going to be the first receiver taken.  But, apparently, Crabtree is a dick and there are also some durability issues that Davis didn’t like. 

Based on the fact that the top two projected wide outs were still on the board, if he wanted to, Davis could have pulled what Eric Mangini did with the Cleveland Browns.  Mangini, it seems, wanted a certain player, in this case California’s Alex Mack, the best center in this class, but nobody was going to draft him until late in the first round.  The Browns, who began the day selecting fifth overall, a pick that would have been expensive and taken up a lot of cap space, weren’t about to do things the Raiders way and draft the guy way before anyone who wasn’t insane would.  Instead they shrewdly traded down, first with the Jets of all people, the organization Mangini was just fired from, where they got both a first (No. 17) and a second round pick (No. 52) as well as three of his former players.  But No. 17 still wasn’t low enough, so they traded down again, dropping two slots, this time with Tampa Bay for their pick and a sixth rounder.  Not yet satisfied, they swapped spots with Philadelphia and acquired another selection in the sixth.  All that wheeling-and-dealing gave the Browns one the most successful drafts of any team in the NFL—they arguably got the guy they wanted and more for a lot less than they would have in selecting him at No. 5, which would have been crazy.  But this craziness, paying a guy top pick money when they could have negotiated and got him cheap with more to show for it, is exactly what Oakland did.  Although, with all the crap being talked about Heyward-Bey and Mitchell as being shitty picks, they will probably play, as the latter explained, like they have something to prove, which they do, because even if they turn out to be great, people will still give them hell because of the decision imposing, ridiculous Al Davis. 

I say Davis here because we all know that who ever happens to coach the Raiders is only the puppet through which Davis makes all the real decisions which has at least been the case since Lane Kiffin traded Randy Moss for a fourth round pick supposedly behind his, Davis’s, back.  The Kiffin saga doesn’t exactly help his case for mentally stability either.   This highly publicized epic feud will probably follow Davis (and maybe even Kiffin) to the grave.  From day one things never went smoothly with Davis calling his new coach by the wrong name when announcing Kiffin, now screwing the pooch as head coach at the University of Tennessee, as the guy who would lead his team back to greatness back in January of 2007.  After going 4-12 that season, everyone thought Kiffin was going back to college football until he publicly stated that he was going anywhere and was committed to the Raiders.  Apparently, Davis had other plans and drafted a letter of resignation on behalf of the 32-year-old coach that Kiffin refused to sign which would have cost him the guaranteed $2 million left on his contract.  The following season was a circus with Kiffin still on as head coach and Davis threatening to fire him at any moment, finally doing so over the telephone in the middle of their schedule.  Davis then held the infamous press conference where he accused Kiffin of lying and sabotaging his organization which was him trying to show cause to avoid paying out the rest of the agreement.  At best, Davis comes out looking like a bitter old man who redefined overreaction when he felt some young prick had disrespected the thing he loves most in the world.  At worst, he is a vindictive, petty psychopath willing to sink the fucking ship of his team’s success to screw a guy out of the last couple months of his contract just to prove a point.  That point being nobody fucks with Al Freaking Davis.

Our course Davis had the last word and in dramatically petty fashion when his organization sent a letter to Kiffin’s new employers.  The letter is literally incredible and totally illegal—just think if one of your ex-bosses who absolutely hated you and was schizoid sent a formal letter to the people signing your checks at your new job disclosing your “personal agenda in [your] on-going efforts to damage” that former company—and points to the fact that Davis sure as hell can hold fucking grudge.  Boy oh boy.

This stuff is too bad coming from someone who was so important in making the NFL the greatest league in professional sports.  For instance, there would have been no NFL/AFL merger without Al Davis.  Though he refused to combine the leagues while commissioner of the AFL, he more-or-less single-handedly brought the AFL into a legit organization that could compete with the NFL.  He was responsible for finding some of the most talented coaches ever and giving them their first shot—John Madden, Mike Shanahan, and Jon Gruden, all Super Bowl winners, got their starts with Davis’s Raiders.  He also helped integrate the league by hiring the first Latino head coach back in ’79 and the second black coach in ’89.  Plus he is the only owner to ever hire anyone without a penis, Amy Trask, as president/CEO of an NFL franchise.  The Raiders have also had some NFL distinction in that they are the only club to play in a Super Bowl in every decade of since the inaugural biggest game in sports, having won three of those games (76, 80, 83) and coming very close as recently as 2002 when they lost the big game to Tampa Bay in what is known as “Jon Gruden Bowl” he having coached Oakland the previous season.  But since then, Davis has done his best to distinguish his team as the league’s biggest laughing stock, described above, which started the year after their last Super Bowl when they went 4-12 and their coach at the time, Bill Callahan, said “we’ve got to be the dumbest team in America.”  Such insubordination could not be tolerated and Callahan was fired and everything really went to shit when he rehired Art Shell, that second Afro-American coach mentioned up there, only to refire him after the Raiders finished in last place which catches us up to the Kiffin era of unprecedented lunacy.

For all his kookiness though Al Davis is fixing to stick around until the Raiders win two more Super Bowls.  Since Davis is known to overrule his coaches on anything and everything (including the play calling) with his insistence his team runs an offensive game plan that pro football has passed by and only worked sporadically for the last 30 years, what that really means is until he dies.  

This week picks for the NFL: Week 12

I have mentioned before that I used to gamble a lot and I ended up getting pretty good at the NFL picks game that I used to play at a bar run by my old man’s bookie. I liked this because the entry fee was only like $10 and the payout, depending on the week, was about $800 for first and a few hundred for second and third. I got first once and second a couple of other times so I would say that I was remarkable good at it, especially since I didn’t even get in every week and was still floating around the top of the leader board. So I figure my investment was something like $100 and I got back around $1000, maybe more, which isn’t all that bad in the seedy world of underground illegal gambling. The way we did it was we picked all 14-16 games and attributed a total number of points to that team based on how sure we were that that team would win, so if we thought Pittsburg was a lock to win over Cinci, we would give them 16 points, but if we just couldn’t really decide or if we were iffy we would give them a score of 1 point, and so on and so forth down thru 16 to 1. So these are my picks for this week.

16. Pittsburg over Cincinnati- A shoe in. Pittsburg almost always finds a way to win, especially against division rivals, and even more so against the Bengals, who aren’t very good.

15. Denver over Oakland- Denver has an impressive offence and their D looks good at times. Oakland, however, is a joke and never really looks all that great. This is a lock.

14. Tampa Bay over Detroit- Garcia is another one of those guys who I think doesn’t really get a fair shake, he is a winner and he is as tough as they come. I can’t say the same for Culpepper or anyone for Detroit for that matter.

13. Dallas over San Fran- Romo is back and so is Dallas, the bastards, and there is something about Singletary I don’t like as a coach, maybe it was throwing an assistant under bus or calling out individual players (that I have less of a problem with) but something, whatever it is, doesn’t sit right and I think the SF locker-room gets the same vibe.

12. Chicago over St. Louis- Jeeze, talk about a toilet bowl. Chicago got killed last week but I still they bounce back against the awful Rams.

11. Baltimore over Philadelphia- Philly is unpredictable but I think the Ravens defense is just too damn good for the Eagles to move the ball and I like that rookie quarterback they have behind center.

10. Washington over Seattle- If Portis doesn’t play, I would drop this to 4 but still take Washington

9. Buffalo over Kansas City- I don’t really know too much about these two teams, but what little I have seen would suggest that KC is horrible and going to be rebuilding next year. I like Herman Edwards but for some reason he doesn’t seem to be able to win games. I think it is time for a change.

8. Indianapolis over San Diego- A rematch from last year’s AFC semi-finals, I think the Colts, who are having a disappointing year, get their payback as Manning and his crew really saw things coming together last week, though they did play Houston.

7. Minnesota over Jacksonville- Internal problems for the Jags and their season I think is over. Plus the Vikings have found some success in ancient gun slinger Gus Ferrot who doesn’t always look so bad. And then the Vikings do have a guy named Adrian Peterson. That guy is pretty good.

6. New Orleans over Green Bay- Green Bay is playing super well right now but I think Brees is going to torch them since all those defensive touchdowns means they are doing a lot of gambling and that can cost them and Brees is the type of player to make them pay for let it all ride.

5. Cleveland over Houston- Another toilet bowl, but I think Cleveland has underachieved this year with all their offensive weapons. So playing the perennially crap defense of the Titans I think they will get some huge numbers and another win.

4. Miami over New England- Miami is a much improved team from last year and I like Pennington who I have always thought was a much better QB than he is given credit for. Plus I like the one two punch of Brown and Williams. But they are playing the Pats and they are a team of winners but I don’t really think that is necessarily true of the guy they have behind center who has until recently seen hardly any action for nearly a decade.

3. Jets over Titans- The Titans are undefeated, I thought they would go maybe 500 this year, and they have done it with the suprising play of veteran quarterback Carrey Collins. They are having an unreal season but there is no way they can run the tables. I think this is the week they go down considering the Jets have their own veteran in Favre whose play is improving as of late. But I am keeping this one low because the Titans are very good and beating teams with relative ease.

2. Atlanta over Carolina- Two teams that have somehow found ways to win, this one is a tough one to call but my gut says that Delhoume will blow it in the end.

1. Arizona over the Giants- This is a super tough call, hence the 1, but I am going to take the Cardinals against the reigning Super Bowl Champs because I like Kurt Warner who is finally back to his St. Louis greatness, St. Louis I am sure is thrilled that they went with Bulger instead of their former MVP.

Grieving teams learn hard lessons after tragedy

The piece below was published last Sunday as my follow article to the game I covered on Friday at Glenn. I didn't want to go the “Debbie Downer” rout being mindful that it had been a month and being sure the kids were probably tired of talking about it considering the tragedy of it and all. But I did ask everyone I interviewed how they were holding up and such and what teams were doing and things like that as sort of a warm up to get them going. So at the last minute I decided that it more or less had be my follow because I have been, let’s say, upset since David Foster Wallace’s death considering that I have been looking to his commencement address delivered to my graduating class as practically a religious text.

Here is the piece:

Last Friday’s match up that pitted the now 1-4 Glenn Bobcats against the 2-3 R.J. Reynolds Demons would to most observers appear like a game hardly worth notice in its mediocrity. However, in this unexpected setting, there was a supreme truth to be learned with life-or-death significance void of self-interest or cynicism. It was a parable of hope.

One month ago, Reynolds linebacker Matt Gfeller died in a horrible anomaly and in his honor they have worn no.57 decals and patches. They’re also a reminder that adolescent myths of invincibility and immortality to committed pursuits get shattered when reality proves fragile and temporal and directed by forces beyond control. Yet they must play on, as their teammate cannot.

Talking about how his team has held up, Reynolds coach Mike Propst vented “anything we do, win or lose, on or off the field, you know… whatever,” considering how unimportant a loss becomes when compelled to think about bigger issues.

However, in the midst of an excruciating situation, players have learned a deep truth novelist David Foster Wallace, who woefully died last week, said in his commencement address at Kenyon College, “involves attention, and awareness, and discipline, and effort, and being able truly to care about other people and to sacrifice for them, over and over, in myriad petty little unsexy ways, every day.”

“Sports have a way of healing things,” Propst said. He added that their opponents have done some “wonderful things” to make the burden easier to bare, but Glenn “did some extra things they didn’t have to do and that’s just been special.”

One such thing came soon after the horror when Glenn coach Dickie Cline, who not so long ago had a player pass, interrupted practice to talk about issues more serious than sports—assuming one thinks that possible—when he declared the obvious but overlooked truth that life is cruelly and unbelievably short.

“We do not know when it is going to be taken,” he said. “That is why you need to live your life to the fullest and to make sure your right with the-Man-Upstairs. Because you never know when its your turn.” This televised message for players to take responsibility and own up to their true interior selves was also an act of mercy since it took just a little attention off of the traumatized Reynolds community.

Though Cline would never say it, his team faces similar yet far less consequential dismay with their recent slump. But confident in his team’s “men of character,” there is hope that “something positive will ignite this team.”

When tragedy strikes the self-contained world of football, it paradoxically makes everyone more cognizant of the world off field since it refuses to indulge the fantasy of a seamless break between realities. There, things like personal character and communal disposition become extremely important to success. To deal with a player removed from not only his role on the team but from all aspects of life is a transcendentally profound and sad experience—teams have come apart when a player changes clubs or gets sidelined for a few weeks. Yet, as Cline’s words also pointed toward, through the tragedy there comes the more important awareness that life actually means something beyond self-interest.

Reynolds won the game 34-0.