Unverified Voracity Shows Teeth
Pretty much everything is the grimace emoji. Anthony Fauci on playing football this fall:
Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, tells CNN's Chief Medical Correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta, "Unless players are essentially in a bubble -- insulated from the community and they are tested nearly every day -- it would be very hard to see how football is able to be played this fall. If there is a second wave, which is certainly a possibility and which would be complicated by the predictable flu season, football may not happen this year."
Fauci is being conservative when he says a second wave is "certainly a possibility." And Michigan doesn't have any plans to put their athletes in Biosphere III:
“I can tell you we will not isolate our student-athletes and put them in a hotel and keep them there — they’re not professionals,” Manuel said. “We won't get into a situation where we are placing them into a hotel continuously to isolate them from their fellow students and whomever else. It’s just not in our plans is not something that we're looking to do. If that is the only way that we we have to proceed, then we will have to make other decisions, obviously.”
Michigan has two positive tests from 221 athletes they've given swabs to. This is June, in the only state that seems to be doing pretty well at reducing cases. Once students flood back from across the country and start drunkenly yelling at each other over Chubby Checker songs it's not going to take much of a slip for a bunch of infections. Unless our societal answer is "eh, screw it" this is going to one hell of a needle to thread. (It kind of seems like we're going the "eh, screw it route.)
FWIW, Dan Patrick says that a source told him the Pac 12 and Big 10 will only play conference games this fall. That seems like putting one boot on before diving into the school of piranhas, but okay.
[After THE JUMP: will the most spineless person in congress please stand up, or at least lean indicatively]
Don't judge a book by its cover. I wasn't expecting Biff Poggi to come out hard in favor of caution.
RUN FROM THIS. IF IT IS SO UNSAFE FOR YOU TO BE THERE THAT YOU NEED TO SIGN A WAIVER - YOU SHOULD NOT BE THERE. https://t.co/splvbhwpWa
— Biff poggi (@BiffPoggi) June 15, 2020
This is my fault, assuming there's an inverse correlation between sleeves and paying attention to things experts say. Or, at least, applying this heuristic in this case. I still believe in that inverse correlation.
The NCAA's NIL play. There are already two name and image NCAA bills in various bits of the federal government. Why would you need a third? Well:
I’m not sure why a self-styled conservative lawmaker who purports to believe in free markets and individual liberty wants to make college athletes second-class economic citizens with less freedom and rights than everyone else, but that is what Marco Rubio is proposing, here: pic.twitter.com/7igPKgjyeH
— Patrick Hruby (@patrick_hruby) June 18, 2020
The NCAA then confirmed that this was their lobbyist's bill by rushing to endorse it shortly after it was introduced. This is a rookie move—Rubio's initial tweet poses like he's "requiring" the NCAA to do stuff—and says the quiet part loud:
His bill sets out federal parameters for allowing student-athletes to profit from the use of their name, image and likeness without turning them into employees; preempts legislation at the state level; and importantly protects the Association from ongoing litigation as we move forward with establishing national rules on name, image and likeness.
That's the important part! They just, you know, said it!
At least this seems like money ill-spent by the NCAA:
Multiple Congressional staffers have told me today that Rubio's proposed legislation is a "non-starter" due to the concessions it makes to the NCAA's viewpoint.
— Dan Murphy (@DanMurphyESPN) June 18, 2020
A reminder that beating up on the NCAA is a bipartisan effort—one of the other bills is sponsored by Mark Walker, a North Carolina Republican—so it takes a uniquely spineless individual to propose the "Give The NCAA Everything They Want" bill. Notably, Rubio's bill would override and defang a bill his home state just passed by massive margins (and was happily signed by Florida's Republican governor). What a toad.
Speaking of lawsuits. Another one coming down the pike for the NCAA:
The suit, which seeks to be a class action, not only asks that the NCAA be prevented from having association-wide rules that “restrict the amount of name, image, and likeness compensation available” to athletes but also seeks unspecified damages based on the share of television-rights money and the social media earnings it claims athletes would have received if the NCAA’s current limits on NIL compensation had not existed.
This has the potential to put, conservatively, hundreds of millions of dollars at stake.
This lawsuit seems to go well beyond any of the legislation by demanding a portion of TV proceeds; state legislation has restricted itself to allowing athletes to seek endorsements and get employment based on who they are. Go big or go home, I suppose.
This firm apparently does little other than sue the NCAA repeatedly because it knows it is probably going to win. What a business model.
How the sausage is made. Guys just calling in, barely concealing their identities, and telling national radio hosts about systematic NCAA violations:
Cody in Tennesse, a former SEC Punter, called in with a ton of insight on illegal recruiting in College sports.
— Dan Patrick Show (@dpshow) June 11, 2020
For Today's Full Replay: https://t.co/cuXnYZhPfi pic.twitter.com/qywvlnJ6UG
It can't be long before this house of cards collapses, right?
Do you really need to do this? The doom and gloom from athletic directors about the consequences of not playing a season is ridiculous. They have more money annually from their conference than ADs 20 years ago got in a decade. And there seems to be nothing slowing down the dump trucks of money television provides:
Historically, new TV contracts have generated huge increases in the first year of a new deal. Despite the current economic downturn, analysts believe the demand for those rights will be just as flush as ever. Case in point: On Saturday, the New York Post reported that Turner and Major League Baseball agreed to extend their postseason deal, which expires in 2021, with an increase from $350 million a year to “the $500 million per year range,” a roughly 40 percent bump over the length of the deal.
“I don’t think that the current short-term issues, whether it’s pandemic-related or recession-related, are going to be substantive contributing factors,” said Chris Bevilacqua, a prominent TV sports consultant who’s worked with several major conferences. “These (sports rights) are all long-term deals. They’re all very valuable rights — especially college football.”
Lower level programs that feed mostly off their student body do have some problems, but also pay their coaches absurd amounts.
Etc.: NCAA won't hold events in states where the confederate flag has "a prominent presence." This means Mississippi. Probably should mean Georgia too. Two former junior hockey players have filed a lawsuit alleging horrific hazing and sexual abuse practices are pervasive in major junior. Full attendance for what football does happen is off the table. Warde Manuel says Michigan won't try to muzzle their athletes. Juwan Howard will coach his son this fall. Gonna be weird?
I have no idea why, at this point, anyone would place significant trust in Fauci, the CDC, the FDA, or the federal government at any level. It's like sticking with Chamberlain or McClellan or Steve Sampson or Jurgen Klinsmann or New Coke for ffs. It's just not supported by the record.
Klinsmann was absolutely incompetent. Berhalter has not impressed me so far, though.
If you want to doubt Fauci, CDC, FDA, etc than sure. They're not perfect by any means. But don't let your alternative be dumbass politicians and media hacks with zero scientific knowledge who see this pandemic purely through the lens of some cultural war.
Right. Thankfully, that's not the only alternative. In fact, I don't think it is an alternative at all - it's the same thing, that is to say, Fauci et al. ARE the dumbass politicians and media hacks. I suppose they don't have "zero" scientific knowledge though.
I think seeing this pandemic through the lens of a cultural war must be exactly what leads people to continue to believe in Fauci, Trump, the FDA, the CDC, Cuomo, or any of the other people and organizations who have failed us so completely. I mean, I don't see any other reason why you would still place trust in them other than some sort of blind loyalty to the red tribe or the blue tribe.
I wish people would feel strong enough to break free from those tribes. At least I can teach my students to think for themselves. :)
You're a teacher? Are you teaching the kids that the POTUS has about the same amount of credibility as the CDC in the area of infectious disease? You just suggested that they're on the same plane.
i weep for our children.
I would have far more trust in the CDC and FDA if statements/advice from them wasn't forced through the decidedly red lens of loyalty.
You sort of sound like a bad teacher more than anything else, letting your biases and unfounded skepticism of "experts" leak into your teaching practices. But yeah, keep thinking you're teaching your students how to "think for themselves" by listening to someone who rejects experts.
So who do you trust and listen to?
I'm curious to know where you get your information if not from Fauci and the CDC. Who do you trust?
Can you please let us know the district in which you teach so that I can be sure it's not where I live?
I'd like to know as well, as you seem to be an educator who isn't a sheep.
Sheep Shit, more like!
As a teacher, you must be aware that there's difference between getting the correct answer by guessing randomly with no information at all vs continually adjusting your opinion by critically thinking about new incoming information.
And that sometimes even the smartest and most trustworthy people get things wrong. Being wrong once in awhile doesn't give you some sort of license to stop listening to them.
I remember when Fauci gave an optimistic take on deaths of 65,000, and when he advised against wearing masks to the general public. I remember questioning those statements. I also trust him to try to provide us with his best current state of thinking on a brand new virus that nobody else knows fully about either.
Exactly. The scientific method is self-correcting over time. The problem with which many people seem to struggle is that science is a slow and incremental process that is often probabilistic, which doesn't satisfy people's need for the right answer RIGHT NOW. That's why, psychologically, we are often easily fooled by very confident people, who actually know very little.
Unfortunately, trumpsters have consistently been demanding the WRONG answer RIGHT NOW. Like, Covid is just a seasonal flu. It will magically disappear by April. No need for masks or social distancing. Let's all cram into a crowded arena and scream our lungs out at each other to show how much we love Trump. (Oh, that's not until tomorrow.). You cannot make this shit up.
Sadly that is pretty accurate to how science under govt grants works. I used to work for a company that may have been fabricating data (I have no evidence but I suspected based on some conversations I had with key people) to get a grant then do the “experiments” which are basically engineered to give the data that is desired. It was really shady and I’m glad I don’t work there anymore.
Hmm.....and yet technological advancement continues at a pace beyond all of history?
He's not that kind of teacher!
You are fucking dumb as nails, like all your trumpista brethren. The nation will be better when you all go back to your basements. November (and January) cannot get here fast enough.
You make your idiotic statement without in any way saying why we should mistrust Fauci and the CDC. They missed things here on there, based on a fast-moving event, but they've largely been spot-on about what to expect and how to deal with it. The fuck is your damage, dude?
My favorite part of your post, is that you supported your opinion with ZERO data. That made it clear you have a preconceived agenda.
never mind
Im sorry but Fauci has been Negative Nancy since day one and hes been wrong on ALOT so I take his word with a grain of salt
Eh, but he's been right more than he's been wrong and this is an extraordinarily tricky scenario. And again - he's a doctor and public health official - not an all-knowing soothsayer. He's going to be wrong sometimes but he's the best we got.
It's also frustrating to look at the map and see cases increasing in a lot of places that resisted locking down and/or opened before it was safe to do so. And the states that did in fact follow the guidance and issued stringent lockdowns are now coming out of it, reopening their economies while continuing to see cases go down. The areas that were impatient or willfully ignorant are perpetuating this health crisis.
The nationwide picture is complicated though. Minnesota started reopening in mid-May even though its case numbers and positive test % were going up at time. But their numbers have gone down since, even after all the protests. Then there are states like Montana and Alaska that had almost zero cases for a long time but now are suddenly seeing some.
It seems like the one sure way to have a sustained decrease is to have had an outbreak first. Pretty much all the states that look good now were looking terrible two months ago.
Yeah but its June, most of the country have been shut down for 3+ months but we're seeing fairly major outbreaks now. That tells me that enough people were not taking it seriously that it hung around for a long time and continued to spread. The George Floyd protests certainly didn't help but a lot of states had already started opening up before that. My state never issued stay at home orders and then opened bars and restaurants despite CDC guidelines (it didn't seem to be based on anything). I was afraid that Americans' self-centered attitudes and impatience would prolong the outbreak and that seems to be happening.
https://covid19.healthdata.org/united-states-of-america/minnesota
Looks more like Minnesota had plateaued in mid-May. Also, the stay-at-home order ended in mid-May but from that site it looks like a lot of businesses are still closed.
Arizona is the perfect example. Our governor did what he needed to do at first but then caved under pressure from our gun toting protesters, unlike Gov. Whitmer, and then opened up too soon, and now look how high our cases have gotten.
Michigan's officially had 6,067 COVID deaths. Arizona's officially had 1,312. A couple of months ago people were asking on this website what Michigan was doing wrong.
Maybe your governor screwed up, or maybe the virus is just now making its way to new territories - maybe both. There are a lot of datapoints coming in and it's hard to process them all.
Dang! And I thought the remarks about Sen Rubio would be what sets off the politics storm!
He has not been wrong a lot. Early on, he said this virus is gonna hit us hard and will devastate us if we don't lockdown NOW. We locked down; it rolled back. He got the projections right for the most part. He said don't take your foot off the pedal and maintain social distance -- at which point the anti-science Trump blockheads chose to disregard the advice because they really valued tattoos and haircuts. Now, as Fauci said, the numbers are skyrocketing again.
The only significant thing he did was to initially downplay using masks. But he self-corrected in keeping with the data. But half the country ignored him because Amurka.
I think Democrats and Republicans can join together and agree that little Marco is an air headed dunce
I know lobbying has its usefulness in government, but this is peak trash lobbying. Rubio saying 'he' is introducing a bill 'requiring the NCAA' to do stuff, when really its just the NCAA's hand up his backside making him talk
Sadly little Marco had me duped. He was my pick for that crowded 2016 republican presidential primary. I liked his stance on immigration reform that got him crushed by the conservative part of the party and doomed his chances. He hasn't done much worth liking since then.
As someone who played fairly high level hockey from the ages of 5-20, I can tell you those allegations don't surprise me and are very likely true, and also going on at almost every level of hockey, including college and down to pee-wee. I never personally experienced anything worse than the old Tiger Balm in the jockstrap trick, but I know for a fact some pretty horrific stuff happens in hockey.
As a 16 year old American goalie and one of the youngest players in the entire SJHL .... can confirm
Can we all agree, whether R or D, that Marco Rubio is one of the most spineless politicians of all time? They guy, even moreso than the rest of them, stands for nothing.
I actually voted for him over Trump because I wanted a Hispanic Republican President. But boy was I wrong with that vote. I never imagined how successful Trump could of been.
"could of"
Gucci stays on-brand!
And here he "could of" said something not moronic!
But Noooooooooo!
Hey I’m admitting I was wrong to vote for Rubio ! You not gonna catch me admitting to being wrong too often lol.
Gucci at the doctor's office: "Man, really dodged a bullet not catching the common cold, glad the diagnosis was stage 4 pancreatic cancer instead!"
Rubio would have been fine, but Trump has been the best president since at least Reagan. Lucky to have him.
“We’re lucky to have Hitler.” - Germans after the Weimar Republic
Why is it always Hitler ? If you are gonna compare Trump to some terrible dictator, go big. Try Mao or Stalin. Since accuracy doesn’t matter to you anyway.
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