A few days ago, I stated as unequivocally as I could that any boycott of the Beijing Olympic Games would be a useless undertaking in terms of forcing political and social policy changes upon the government in China. I continue to believe that is the case. Moreover, because I remain firmly convinced that this is the case, it is now time to put an end to the highly symbolic and grossly stupid Olympic Torch Relay. Stop that nonsense immediately; take the damned torch from wherever it is and fly it to Beijing; bring it out at the Opening Ceremonies and light the puppy so that it can ignite the Olympic flame. By the way, I can’t wait for the Al Gore acolytes to complain about the Olympic flame’s contribution to greenhouse gasses and how taking the torch around the world has a carbon footprint equal to a jillion farting cows in feedlots around the world.
In 1996 – when the Olympics were to be in Atlanta – the torch relay came down a street that was less than 200 yards from my house. I had to slowly make my way to my home through throngs of mouth-breathers who jockeyed for position to watch someone jog down the street carrying the torch. I don’t know about where you live, but I cannot avoid seeing joggers every day of the year here in the DC area. Once home, I poured myself a nice glass of wine and ignored the silliness. What a waste of the space-time continuum…
In 2008, the torch relay has caused the Chinese government to send a paramilitary team to protect the torch and to keep protesters from accosting the runners and/or swiping the silly thing. In London, the Chinese torch protectors were forceful and efficient to the point where Lord Sebastian Coe – leader of the movement to bring the Olympics to London in 2012 – called the torch protectors “thugs”.
Then again, the torch carriers themselves have been known to find ways to make the torch relay into an event that will annoy the Chinese government. In France one of the runners – identified as an “environmental journalist” – decided that she would carry the torch for her part of the relay while wearing a headband with the flag of Tibet on it. She expressed surprise that the Chinese torch protectors took umbrage at that and took her headband from her. I wonder if she would have been so bold as to have worn that headband had she been running a relay leg in China itself. Somehow, I doubt that…
If there is no torch relay, there is no obvious event for protesters to disrupt. So just stop doing this and get on with the business of running the games instead of a symbolic relay race.
Meanwhile, the folks who are in charge of deciding what may be in the bloodstream of Olympic athletes and what may not be there have banned eating deer penis and turtle blood because of some metabolic substances that offer performance enhancement possibilities. Actually, if an Olympic athlete were to be able to run down a stag so that the athlete could kill it and eat the penis, that seems as if it might be part of the ancient “Olympic ideal”. On the other hand, in all of the myriad cookbooks that my long-suffering wife has, I find no mention of deer penis as a foodstuff to be prepared in any way. Maybe you could braise it in turtle blood…
I read that the NHL franchise, Minnesota Wild, is about to change hands and that the price will be between $240 – 260M. I realize that Minneapolis/St. Paul is one of the areas of the US where ice hockey is a big attraction, but this is a league with no significant television deal and one that had to cancel a season in order to put a hugely restrictive salary cap in place just to survive. When you put that in juxtaposition with estimates by financial publications that some NFL franchises are worth something in the neighborhood of $1.5B, it makes me wonder where the end of these spiraling values might be. Some folks suggest that when the Cubs and Wrigley Field and other assets are unbundled and sold, that franchise might bring in something north of $1B.
Earlier this decade we saw stock in the “dot-coms” turn into stock in the “dot-bombs”. At the moment, the US is working through economic issues related to the “housing bubble”. In those cases, assets with a basic and intrinsic value soared to price levels that made no economic sense – - and then they crashed. Is that happening in the world of sports with the prices paid for franchises?
By the way, how did you do in your WNBA Draft pool? Are you going to take your winnings and buy an extra team in the WNBA fantasy league this year? Just asking…
Sports Illustrated did one of its features listing the 25 toughest athletes in the world. Lists of that kind are innately silly and meaningless but SI managed to make it even sillier by putting Tiger Woods on the list.
Tiger Woods is a great golfer; there is no debate on that point. He is a man who wins and loses with grace, dignity and class; there is no debate about any of that either. Nevertheless, he plays a sport where competitors smoke cigarettes during the action and he is totally unnerved by the sound of a single camera shutter while he is competing. The folks who run golf testified in the Casey Martin trial that the ability to walk the course is an essential element of golf; most five year olds can walk the length of a golf course. If SI feels the need to slurp Tiger Woods yet again, they can make lists of the most dominant athletes or of the most charismatic athletes and sing paeans to him.
Since I am talking about silliness, let me mention the comments made by Rich Rodriguez’ lawyer relative to the trial Rodriguez faces with West Virginia. The lawyer claims that the $4M buyout that WVU seeks to collect makes WVU the equivalent of slave owners. The lawyer said:
“It’s like back before the Civil War when slaves had the right to buy their freedom. A penalty of $4 million is almost like a slave from Africa trying to buy his freedom in America. I think it’s an outrageous amount. It’s just not fair and it’s not related to any damages the university is suffering.”
Recall when Larry Johnson of the Knicks called himself a rebellious slave just as the last work stoppage in the NBA commenced. Johnson was making more than $10M a year and could change his employment status any time he wanted. That is not slavery – - and neither is Rich Rodriguez living under any conditions that even start to resemble slavery. Here is the deal. If there is a clause in his contract with WVU that says he has to pay $4M to leave, then WVU is perfectly within its rights to try to collect that money. If that clause is not there, then the court should toss the case out in no time flat. Unless of course Rodriguez’ lawyer can show that Rodriguez was coerced into signing the contract in the first place and that the contract committed him to a term of bondage. That would make this a case related to slavery. I will not be holding my breath there.
Finally, here are two comments about Max Mosely and his reported dalliances with ladies-of-the-evening:
“Parting thought: Max Mosley, president of the governing body of world auto racing, is alleged to have engaged in sex acts with five prostitutes in a scenario that involved Nazi role-playing. Needless to say, the incident has caused quite a Fuhrer.” [Greg Cote, Miami Herald]
“Rumor of the Week: Formula One officials accuse Patriots of illegally filming Max Mosley’s walk-through.” [Dwight Perry, Seattle Times]
But don’t get me wrong, I love sports…