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With the tragic passing of Anthony Bourdain — and other celebrities in recent weeks — Tom Hoffarth and Steve Lowery share their feelings on the state of mental health in American sports and life.
Remember:
National Suicide Prevention Hotline: 1-800-273-8255 (TALK)
Self-Harm Hotline: 877-455-0628
Depression Hotline: 888-640-5174
Twitters: @Tom Hoffarth @SteveLowery12 @McKLVtheJon

After a brief absence, our probation officers have agreed it would be more productive to plug The Drill back in. Cordless has never been out style.
So from this latest 40-minute plus effort with Tom, Steve, Jon, Eric and Nicole joining the fray

Here are some reference points:
* “NFL owners, team presidents and chief executives react to President Trump’s comments,” is a Sept., 2017 piece in the Washington Post that reveals NFL owners who donated to Trump’s campaign, including the Rams’ Stan Kroenke.
* “Spanos issues reply after Trump rips NFL players, sport,” is from the San Diego Union-Tribune, also in Sept., 2017, about Dean Spanos’ displeasure with the Trump tweet and standing up for his players.
* A nifty piece by Drew Magary for GQ on this topic:

* Fox News decides to issue an apology after implying Philadelphia Eagles players were kneeling during the National Anthem.
*The Trump-NFL-Eagles narrative brings this illustration from Jim Thompson:

*The Wall Street Journal’s piece: “Gambling Is Coming, So Get Ready to Hate Sports” which includes:
“Gambling is what economists call an ‘inferior good’ — demand is higher among those at the lower end of the income scale. As economist Sam Papenfuss argued in a 1998 paper, state-sponsored gambling became popular as a way for high-income taxpayers to recoup some of the money spent on programs for the poor … Even if you believe the sports leagues can adequately police cheaters — and with modern data and techniques they probably can — gambling inevitably now becomes the tail that wags the dog.”
* From AwfulAnnouncing.com: “ESPN, FS1, and NBCSN are all reportedly looking into gambling-related shows to debut this year” back in March. And ESPN+ already has one with the witty title: “I’ll Take That Bet” with former Dodgers catcher Paul LoDuca.
* “Sports Gambling 101: What might our future of legalized betting look like” from the San Jose Mercury-News from May 21 opens with the paragraph: “First, it was legalized weed, now it’s sports gambling. What’s next, prostitution?”
*OK, one last “Back To The Future” jouney to the Biff Tannen Museum to find out whatever happened to Cal State Fullerton baseball fan Thomas Wilson:

We’ll set up the sports media pins for this weekend, you can knock ‘em down:

* Britney Eurton, our TVG reporter-turned-NBC SoCal reference point for all that is national Triple Crown coverage, gave us Santa Anita-based Bolt d’ Oro as her Kentucky Derby pick back in early May. Turned out, Justify was not just the stunner in the mud, but he’s come out pretty clean as a Triple Crown contender headlining Saturday’s 150^th Belmont (Channel 4, 1-to-4:15 p.m. with the race at 3:37 p.m.), which should attract more than just casual thoroughbred TV viewers.
Bolt d’ Oro hasn’t disappeared in a thunder clap – he’s running in the Met Mile as one of the older horses in that field at Belmont on Saturday, which will be part of the overall six-race NBC block of coverage (also on NBCSN, 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.).
And while it would be justifiably so for Eurton to align herself with those who hope, wish and predict a three-peat for Justify, the one we still lay claim for building the foundation of fame in winning the Santa Anita Derby last April, we’ll let her explain her thinking after we caught up with her Thursday morning from New York:
“For the industry, for the connections, the Triple Crown is always what you root on, right? But I think many more were confident when American Pharoah came in (in 2015) because of how impressive he was in completing the Preakness. A lot of people after watching Justify in his Preakness win were skeptical about how much he’s done in just a short amount of time. I actually do think we’re not giving him enough credit for what he has achieved. It’s remarkable to have five wins at this level, with the weather conditions as they were, to even be here to compete for a Triple Crown.
“But all of that said, my heart is with Justify, but it’s asking a lot for him to complete this bid, and I saw him run this morning over the Belmont surface and he looked phenomenal. He doesn’t look like he’s losing any weight. But in my head, if I was betting, would be in another direction with Hofburg. He has the breeding.”

Then again, there’s the odds that everyone watching will have some vested interest in Gronkowski.
Named after the New England Patriots tight end Rob Gronkowski, he didn’t make it to either the Kentucky Derby or Preakness but he adds a spicy narrative to this one.
“He’s such a question mark because he’s never raced over dirt, a mile-and-a-half … just a lot of unknowns,” she said. “But one thing we do know is he’ll get plenty of play. Honestly, there are people on both sides of the spectrum on this, whether a horse named after him helps the industry – I think it does. Anytime you get a superstar or celebrity talking about this, you’ll have more casual fans tuning in, some may root for him, some will root against him, I love how involved he’s getting, and if we can expose the industry to more people because of that, why not? It adds another dynamic.” Continue reading “Sports media notes 06.07.18: On NBC’s Belmont bets, Yankee-ESPN threats and no regrets when it comes to a Jim Gray Hall-of-Something induction” →

The 150^th Belmont Stakes in New York goes off at 3:37 p.m. PDT Saturday (Channel 4). A couple of minutes later, we’ll have a decent idea if there’s a second Triple Crown winner worth celebrating over the last four years. How soon we forget when it was such a rare occurrence. Justify, 5-for-5 in a career that did not begin until Feb. 18, has a decent shot at becoming the 13^th overall winner of the Kentucky Derby, Preakness and Belmont (in order, in a five-week spread). One way to prep for this is giving a mixed-message listen to a Jim Gaffigan rant that he whipped up for CBS’ “Sunday Morning” – “Every spring I have the same thought: Wait, we’re doing this again?” Again, NBC is doing the race, not CBS. The Paulick Report wonders if the piece is “funny or ignorant.” The odds are pretty good that whatever reactions viewers have to this will depend on what kind of blinders they most comfortable wearing.

Continue reading “06.04.18: Five things you should plan for the week ahead based on unscientific evidence of guaranteed importance” →

Assuming you spent the last three days unplugged from the world of sports we’ve got a simple cheat sheet  prepared for your safe return:

The Town will next head to The Land again with a chance to keep The Crown for the third time in four NBA seasons. The Warriors’ emphatic 122-103 emphatic Game 2 win Sunday night against the visiting Cavs, punctuated by Steph Curry shimming for an NBA Finals record nine 3-pointers, was rather stylish as it came while they wore their alternative “The Town” black jerseys, something the franchise has donned from time to time since 2017 to honor its Oakland home of 46 years. In the fall of 2019, the Warriors move from the Oracle Arena to a new $1 billion Chase Center at Third and South Streets in the Mission Bay neighborhood of San Francisco. Games 3 and 4 are Wednesday and Friday in Cleveland (6 p.m., Channel 7). In NBA Finals history, teams that have taken a 2-0 series lead have gone on to win it all 88 percent of the time. And while the Cavs came back from deficits of 0-2 and 1-3 to win the 2016 title on the Warriors’ home floor, LeBron James, having already played in more than 100 straight games this regular- and post-season, may be running out of steam, according to Cleveland Plain Dealer veteran columnist Terry Pluto.

Continue reading “06.04.18: The five things you need to know that happened last weekend before you get back to the Monday grind” →