We are full on into the NFL season, and our last podcast was sports filled. Since then, there have been some things that have set the world ablaze again in 2020. So, I thought I’d start this thing off with an old story that involves the title of this week’s blog. It basically deals with knowing who you can’t fuck with anymore.
I went to a predominantly white private high school growing up in New Orleans. In this environment, I got to see the nomenclature of white people on a daily basis. However, at its primal roots on a student level, there were certain groups you didn’t mess with if you knew better. The first group, being the black students, which I didn’t understand, but respected. At the time of my enrollment, there were at least 1400 students and maybe a little less than a hundred of them were black.
My guess was that when the school first open 50 years ago, the location was a 100% white neighborhood. With the advent of white flight in the 70s, the area is now a predominantly black neighborhood. While the school may be white, who wants to be the white guy starting shit in the black neighborhood. At first, I thought it was just 2 groups, the wrestling team and the football team. I found out there was a third group my sophomore year during my 7th period class.
We had assigned seating, and there was a football player who decided he wasn’t going to sit in his own seat, but rather in a seat by his friends. When the original occupant came to his seat to find the football player was sitting there, he said, “Dude, get out of my chair!” The football player replied, “Physically make me move.”
Now seeing this up close, my thoughts were that the occupant didn’t want that trouble today. But to my surprise, what happen next was astonishing. The occupant pushes the student that was in the desk in front of the football player out of their desk, then takes the desk with one hand and throws it to the front of the class. He then gets in the football player’s face and yells, “Is this what we’re doing today? Is it?” Two teachers who were outside in the hall heard the commotion and rushed in the classroom. Our teacher kicked both the occupant and the football player out of class. As they were leaving, the football player says, “But I didn’t do anything.”
Later, I found out the occupant was in ROTC. At my school, ROTC was a big deal. These guys were being prepared for a military career after high school. They wore their military uniforms every Wednesday, they competed in basic training competitions against other high schools, as wells as makeshift war games. So when you’re being semi-military trained, the occupant liked his odds of physically making the football player move that day.
This incident only came to me after seeing the heat that has been thrown at ESPN personality, Maria Taylor. Now I say she is a personality because she does so much at the network: sideline reporter, TV host, sports insider. She has earned her stripes and being a former Division I athlete in 2 sports in the SEC no less, she has been around the high intensity level of sports for a long time now.
So when Dan McNeil and Doug Gottlieb came for her over the most absurd things. With their mentality of ‘physically make me move’, Taylor had no problem clapping back because this isn’t what we’re doing today. McNeil, a radio host, tweeted on her wardrobe during her first appearance as a sideline reporter on Monday Night Football. He compared her outfit to something a porn star would wear to an adult film awards show. He was fired for those unflattering comments and Taylor responded in kind.
Longtime sports personality, Doug Gottlieb criticized her for not voting Anthony Davis onto any All-NBA teams. He questioned why she even had a vote in the first place. Always the contrarian, Gottlieb has dug in deeper off the beaten path since arriving at Fox Sports. Taylor has earned the right to vote on this NBA honor. Being that one of her main jobs is to be plugged into the NBA, one can surmise that leaving Davis of the All-NBA has merit. If Lebron goes down to injury, how many of us have faith in Davis’ ability to lead the Lakers to the Championship?
By now, it should be known that Taylor will defend herself in the classiest way possible. When we discussed her on the podcast, the Crew pointed out a comment I made being one of my Red Flags. Taylor is a former basketball and volleyball athlete, and her body type fits the prototypical athlete of those sports. I said on the podcast that Maria has those big basketball hands and I, myself believe in big hand energy in a woman. A woman with big hands is definitely not afraid to use them, or speak her mind. It is NOT a Red Flag for me, but it is a personality indicator that hasn’t failed me yet.
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Boston has found themselves with their backs up against the wall squeezing out a win to extend their series with the Heat. While the Nuggets find themselves down 3-1 for the third time in these playoffs, yet another team has to answer the question if they are convincing enough to put Denver away for good? Giannis won his second NBA MVP in consecutive years, but his shortcoming in consecutive playoffs has everybody questioning his future with the Milwaukee Bucks.
Will he re-sign after next season? If I am the Milwaukee Bucks, am doing everything in my power to make sure he stays in town. I remember the sports commentary show, Real Sports, did a report on him a few years back. It turns out that 50% of the Bucks revenue comes from overseas. Whenever the Bucks are on the road, and the city they travel to has a high Greek population. The Greek fans are waiting for him after the game, and win or lose, he goes out to greet his fellow expatriates. He is a true international basketball ambassador.
If Giannis decides he will not re-sign after next season, whether he informs the Bucks before or after next season, there are two destinations I can see him going to: Miami and Golden State. With Miami, they will be a more offensive version of the Clippers. If the Warriors take a chance on him, as long as Klay and Steph are in the starting lineup with him, Giannis will never see another double team when has the ball in his hands.
In the past year, we’ve been having incremental interventions with Batman over his fanaticism of the Knicks. On the podcast, we brought up that with the departure of Mike D’Antoni as head coach, the new coach might want to hold James Harden accountable, bring in more low post scoring options, or the Rockets might want to blow it up altogether. Will the Knicks be dumb enough to trade for him? Is the risk of giving up top prospects worth it to get James Harden? Batman knows this is a bad idea, but the Knicks will be the Knicks.
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Week 2 in the NFL was a devastating one for the league. A lot of stars fell victim to the injury bug which leveled sometimes completely. NFC Champion 49ers lost their star defensive lineman, Nick Bosa to a torn ACL ruling him out for the rest of the season. The most bizarre injury occurred before the game even started. Tyrod Taylor took a medical shot from the team doctor to numb the pain from his cracked ribs. Unfortunately, the shot punctured his lung and gave him chest pains, making him unable to play. Had he played it would’ve been the most matchups between black QBs in NFL history.
My Saints loss to Tideking’s Raiders. Our defense had no answer for Darren Waller and one could say that Derek Carr looked more like Drew Brees than Drew Brees did. Brees’ age has always been a subject of note for the past few years. I have shot down those notions because the age question held no merit for me since we were finishing our season in the playoffs competing for the opportunity to go to the Super Bowl. But this past Monday Night against the Raiders was not impressive. The Raiders defense was not consistent and Brees was not on his game. For the first time, I saw an aging quarterback.
On our final segment of What Did We Learn? The Tideking brought up that a bad rookie QB can set your franchise back a decade. Of course, he was referring to his Raiders franchise and the Fat Bastard who shall not be named. It made me think of other franchises that have met their doom after a bad rookie QB. The new Cleveland Browns that started up again in 1999 has seen little success at the QB position since its inception. The Washington Football Team has not seen a consistently good quarterback since Mark Rypien.
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Finally, we learned this week that the cops that shot Breonna Taylor will not be charged for her murder. Her death was ruled justifiable homicide since her boyfriend, Kenneth Walker, opened fire on the officers first. Only one of the officers was charged with wanton endangerment of Taylor’s neighbors. When it was announced last week that the City of Louisville paid Taylor’s family a $12 million settlement, I knew then the officers were going to get off.
The judicial system is ultimately broken. It does not consistently defend the rights of people of color. When judges, prosecutors, and police officers are proven to have done wrong, it has been shown that only 3% are actually held accountable by the letter of the law. No jail time, just disgraced. With disgrace, you can rebuild and find some stability more so than actually being convicted.
The system will protect itself at all costs. It is no different than a casino, the house always wins. We have to make sure we get out and vote on November 3rd and every local election from here on out. This president is not our typical politician. At the end of the day, he is still a landlord. No one cares less about their fellow man than a landlord. All he cares about is how he profits from any situation. My hope with this next election is that business for him will end on January 20, 2021.
Tony Love
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