Michael Sam Sr.’s hypocrisy

So days after Missouri Tigers defensive lineman Michael Sam became the first openly gay college football, making the announcement Feb. 9 to ESPN and The New York Times, news has come out that his father, Michael Sam Sr., was apparently distressed when he received a text from his son. His father was at Denny’s celebrating his birthday, but upon receiving the text, he left to go get drinks. As reported by The Times:

Last Tuesday, Michael Sam Sr. was at a Denny’s near his home outside Dallas to celebrate his birthday when his son sent him a text message.

Dad, I’m gay, he wrote.

The party stopped cold. “I couldn’t eat no more, so I went to Applebee’s to have drinks,” Sam Sr. said. “I don’t want my grandkids raised in that kind of environment.

“I’m old school,” he added. “I’m a man-and-a-woman type of guy.” As evidence, he pointed out that he had taken an older son to Mexico to lose his virginity.

On Sunday night, just after Michael Sam announced his intention to make sports history, his father was still struggling with the news.

To apparently prove this, he recounted a story in which he took one of his other sons to Mexico to lose his virginity.

I’m not even sure where to start. Why would a father actually take a proactive measure to ensure that his son has sex for the first time and in Mexico no less? Why would a father even really be that interested in the minute details of his son’s virginity? Was this arrangement set up beforehand or did this noble fatherly act take place in a brothel down in some barrio?

Second, he said he doesn’t want his grandchildren to grow up in that environment, when everything that I’ve seen about Michael Sam Jr. is that he is an upstanding young man with a bright future and a good head on his shoulders. Shouldn’t a father be proud that his son had the courage to make the announcement and that he wants to live an honest and open life? Shouldn’t a father want his son to be happy and not have to sneak around and live in constant fear of embarrassment and rejection? No, instead Michael Sam Sr. seems to prefer the environment of intolerance and bigotry, where a person merely drinks their problems away and can’t be real about who they really are.

Stephen Colbert opined on the issue last night:

 

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The State of the WWE: Part 2

Immediately after the backlash surrounding Royal Rumble and raucous fans in Pittsburgh who were not happy — and that’s putting it mildly — that Daniel Bryan was excluded from the main event of the show, Randy Orton and Batista, in particularly, were said to have been equally enraged backstage as the WWE Universe largely rejected their matches and booed them six ways to Sunday. This fever more or less developed organically, as the live crowd went nuts when Danial Bryan opened the show, only to lose in a five-star match with Bray Wyatt. Fans then waited with bated anticipation for the better part of 2 1/2 hours for what they really wanted to see, which was Bryan not only getting into the 30-man battle royal, but winning the match to get a shot at the title at Wrestlemania, despite the fact that WWE did not advertise Bryan as a participant.

For what it’s worth, Batista, Orton and bookers backstage were apparently not anticipating the kind of reaction the show would receive, according to online reports. To compound the amount of vitriol WWE is still receiving from fans, CM Punk’s departure, whether he left because of sour grapes or to address real health and stress concerns, leaked online and now bookers are rethinking their approach leading into Wrestlemania because of these two main developments. Vince McMahon has apparently taken negotiation power away from Triple H and company officials regarding Punk and is doing it himself, which I find mildly humorous.

In any case, I can’t imagine why they would be so surprised by any of these outcomes. First take the John Cena and Randy Orton match at Royal Rumble. These have been WWE’s consistent cash cows for the past 10 years. I get that, and I think anyone who takes off the Bryan/Punk blinders will have to admit to this fact. But other simple truth is that fans are burned out on Cena and Orton, no matter how much they might be over with casual audience. Every few months after WWE has busily worked to repair Cena’s image by throwing him in front of the camera with troops or kids with cancer or some other sympathetic figure, and thus guilt-tripping fans into cheering him — After all, who would boo a guy who’s granting wishes to sick kids and supporting the troops? — most adults who aren’t female and especially Internet fans inevitably begin raining down boos on him, and company has to begin the laborious process all over again. So, how many times is the WWE going to fall back on the Orton/Cena program instead focusing on building up fresh talent?

The company will certainly milk Orton/Cena for all their worth, but discounting the fervor over Bryan, the Royal Rumble showed that fans, both in the arena and at home, have had enough of this tired feud and their listless, non-innovative and mediocre matches. We all know and understand that Cena and Orton are nearly ubiquitous and are going to be a significant part of every PPV for as long as they can go, but I don’t think anyone would raise much of a fuss if they were in more high-profile non-title feuds. Does WWE really think that people will only come to see Orton and Cena if they are in the title hunt? Cena and Orton have had 19 title WWE title reigns combined the last 10 years, while Punk and Bryan have had four runs since coming to the company. Bryan’s total days as WWE champ can be counted on two fingers. Granted, WWE threw fans a bone and allowed Punk to have the longest title reign in the modern era, but most of that time he was as a “cowardly heel” and wasn’t main-eventing PPVs (the final match) or winning cleanly.

I also can’t fathom why WWE somehow would have expected the story about CM Punk walking out of the company to remain a secret. We are coming off of one of the “big four” PPV’s of the year and leading in the WWE’s proverbial Super Bowl, with asinine sign-pointing aplenty, and fans would naturally have been wondering why Punk was not appearing on RAW or Smackdown each week.

I think it’s a positive that the writers are considering options for Wrestlemania with and without CM Punk in the mix, and whether or not he comes back, and this could — I stress could — be a sign that WWE is at least feigning interest in listening to the fans at this point. I hope they are keen enough to know that a stadium full of hardcore wrestling fans who traveled far and wide to see the show will be vocal about what they are seeing in the ring, and if Bryan (and Punk if he comes back) aren’t big parts of Wrestlemania, they might as well expect the rain of boos to commence. Lest anyone forget, if the fans gave up on the company tomorrow, there would be no Wrestlemania.

Read the first part of this series here.

The State of the WWE, part 1

For frequenters of this site, I am now going to start a series in which I talk about professional wrestling. Yes, as far fetched as it may sound, a person can be both a nonbeliever, be into philosophy and all that and still be a professional wrestling fan. Just ask CM Punk and one of my favorite YouTube users Steve Shives. In any case, if you are intrigued, by all means stick around. If this is not your thing, that’s OK too. I’m sure I’ll be ranting about religion again shortly.

In the mean time and to quote CM Punk, I’ve got a lot of things to get off my chest, especially after the apparent departure of the Second City Saint from WWE, the constant barrage of dinosaurs that get reintroduced each year during Wrestlemania season and the continued misuse of Daniel Bryan as the most over wrestler in the business at least since Stone Cold Steve Austin.

If you haven’t heard — If you’re a wrestling fan, who hasn’t by now? — CM Punk walked out of WWE this past Monday night after a prolonged period of being frustrated with the direction of the company, along with generally being banged up and probably overworked. The plan was for CM Punk to face Triple H at Wrestlemania to continue his long standing resistance to WWE leadership and The Authority. I, for one, liked that direction, at least as a way to give Punk a high-profile role on Wrestlemania because it harnessed some of the energy from the Summer of Punk when he was defiantly railing against Vince McMahon and the corporate suits back in Connecticut. Of course, CM Punk, in my view, deserves to be in one of the two big main events at Wrestlemania, but I was at least willing to get invested in a Triple H match if that’s the inevitable direction Vince and the Triple H, the shovel master himself, were going to go. CM Punk, after challenging “the streak” last year against The Undertaker, however, seems to have felt that wrestling Triple H was a downgrade for him, and I can’t say that I disagree.

Some of Punk’s decision, no doubt, had to do with the return of Batista, his subsequent win at Royal Rumble and the company’s plan to put the WWE World Heavyweight Title on him in the main event of Wrestlemania, even though he has been gone for four years and guys like CM Punk, Daniel Bryan and even Dolph Ziggler have been busting their asses every night for years now, only to take a back seat to a part-timer.

WWE has continued this trend for several years now, most notably when The Rock returned and was instantly inserted into the main event picture after a long hiatus making B-reel movies and eventually won the WWE title belt from Punk. Unfortunately for Punk, Bryan, Ziggler, Roman Reigns or anyone else who is hoping for their breakout moment at Wrestlemania, guys like Batista, John Cena and Randy Orton are apparently still selling the most merchandise and popping the biggest ratings on RAW, so until that changes, don’t expect any kind of new direction because it’s all about the money for WWE, in spite of whatever the fans might want, and apparently in spite of a completely hijacked PPV. The message at this point: WWE just doesn’t care about what the fans want.

And that was never more evident this past week on Raw when Triple H mocked the whole arena as fans cheered for Daniel Bryan after the no-show during the Royal Rumble match. In fact, WWE officials almost seem to be displaying a kind of neurosis regarding fan support of Daniel Bryan and CM Punk. In the segment on RAW this week, Triple H again mocked Daniel Bryan for being too small, and reports online indicate that WWE has been confiscating CM Punk signs at recent NXT tapings.

It’s almost childish the way Triple H and the gang have insisted on pushing the jacked up wrestlers like Brock Lesnar, Batista, Ryback, Cena and yes, Triple H himself, over smaller guys like Bryan, Punk and Ziggler who clearly have the fans in the palm of their hands, almost as if to say, “Get over on your own and you will get buried. We the WWE decide who will gets over.” This is just petty booking, and in the end, if WWE continues to go against the fans, I hope they are ready for their precious main event at Wrestlemania featuring the Randy Orton and Batista snooze fest to be crapped on just like Batista’s anti-climactic win at the Royal Rumble.

I read the news today, oh boy

According to a recent poll, half of Americans believe God has something to do with the outcome of the Super Bowl.

Scary levels of stupidity here:

Two weeks ahead of the Super Bowl, half of American sports fans say they believe God or a supernatural force is at play in the games they watch, according to a new survey.

That percentage includes Americans who pray for God to help their team (26 percent), think their team has been cursed (25 percent) or more generally believe God is involved in determining who wins on the court or in the field (19 percent). Overall, half of Americans fall into one of these groups, according to the survey Public Religion Research Institute released Tuesday.

poll

Read more here.

NBA Finals, brief thoughts

The Miami Heat won the NBA title tonight. What a surprise.

Had high hopes for LeBron James coming out of high school, but even with his second NBA title now, the Michael Jordan comparisons can stop there. LeBron’s PPG average versus Jordan in the NBA finals is not even close. Jordan stuck with the Bulls through some tough years and eventually lifted the team to greatness. LeBron abandoned Cleveland to join a stacked roster in Miami. And folks talk about how self-less LeBron is and how we should bend the knee to his greatness. Give me a fucking break.

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Robert Griffin III, blackness and race

If you don’t know by now, ESPN analysis Rob Parker was suspended this past week — and rightly so — because of the comments he made about Washington Redskins quarterback Robert Griffin III. Here is a video of Parker’s odious remarks:

Now, watching this, several questions immediately surface. First, as one of the other announcers wondered: Why was Parker even asking the question about whether RG3 was a “brother” or a “cornball brother.” What difference does it make? Would Parker be less of a fan if it was, in fact, the case that Griffin was a “cornball brother” — I understand that to mean a black guy who is not authentically black, whatever that means.

Examples here would be Tiger Woods or TV‘s Carlton Banks from “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air.” Parker raised this particular concern based only on these two assumptions: that Griffin might be a Republican and that he has a white girlfriend. Parker also said that the braids in Griffin’s hair were a plus in his book toward authenticating his blackness. Braids. Really? Parker does realize that white guys are perfectly able to don braids themselves. Does this make white people who have braids black poseurs? What about Adam Duritz (pictured at right)? I’m pretty sure Duritz would scoff at being called a black poseur.

Second, what the hell is “the cause? And is it asking too much of a 22-year-old freshman quarterback to even have a “cause?” In any case, I agree with Stephen A. Smith, another black analyst on the show who, after Parker’s nonsensical and borderline racist comments, said he was uncomfortable with the direction of the conversation:

First of all, let me say this: I’m uncomfortable with where we just went. RG3, the ethnicity or the color of his fiancee is none of our business, it’s irrelevant, he can live his life in whatever way he chooses. The braids that he has in his hair, that’s his business, that’s his life, he can live his life. I don’t judge someone’s blackness based on those kinds of things. I just don’t do that. I’m not that kind of guy.

In fact, Griffin’s actual comments on race, to which Parker was referring, actually sound more intelligent and grown up than Parker’s. Here is Griffin:

For me, you don’t ever want to be defined by the color of your skin. You want to be defined by your work ethic, the person that you are, your character, your personality. That’s what I strive to go out and do. I am an African-American in America. That will never change. But I don’t have to be defined by that.

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College coaches: price of failure

I don’t know what fantasy land college football coaches and athletic departments live in, but I wish I could utterly fail at my job and get paid millions of dollars to sit at home:

The University of Tennessee does not yet have a plan for how it will finance a multimillion-dollar buyout of former football coach Derek Dooley, who was fired Sunday, Chancellor Jimmy Cheek said Monday.

The university is “keeping every possibility on the table,” Cheek said, but declined to say whether university funds could be used to bolster a struggling athletics department budget.

… Firing Dooley, who coached three seasons to finish with a 15-21 record, will be expensive. Dooley’s contract stipulates UT will have to pay out roughly $5 million for the remainder of his contract, in monthly installments of about $102,000.

In the real world, failure means being shown the door, and if you’re lucky, getting one last paycheck from accrued vacation. Universities and professional sports teams could save a lot of money if they did away with guaranteed contracts and scaled pay based on performance, not just forking over egregious sums of money based on little more than on potential.

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