12/18/24
February 15, 2013
SportsFilter: The Friday Huddle:
A place to discuss the sports stories that aren't making news, share links that aren't quite front-page material, and diagram plays on your hand. Remember to count to five Mississippi before commenting in anger.
I've been a Skins fan my whole life and I have wished they'd change the name ever since I was old enough to understand American history beyond a comic-book level.
As humans we're constantly faced with choices. Our whole lives are spent committing ourselves to actions and courses of action that have repercussions beyond the instant and our intent. So it is our responsibility to act in a way that decreases the amount of anger, hurt, and chaos, and increases the amount of kindness, compassion, and order. We may not always succeed in choosing the kinder path -- in fact, it is only human to so fail -- but we have so many opportunities for action that we can as easily return to compassion as we slipped away from it in the first place. This is basic stuff.
The point is that even when we don't know we're causing hurt, it's still on us to mitigate the amount of hurt we might cause. Once we know we're harming other people, it is abundantly clear that the human thing to do is to change from a hurtful stance to a helpful one. It is how great civilizations are made -- we often take for granted that we live in a civilization that already exists, when in fact we are still working to build our civilization every day -- by making things better for the next guy we make things better for all of us.
The Redskins ownership and management obviously knows that they are hurting people by using a racial slur as their team name. Other teams have done the right thing and are in no worse shape for it. The owners choose an inhuman path that damages our civilization, when they could easily take the path of least harm. It's an easy choice.
I've said this before, but I think they should figure out a way to have transparent shirts and upper body protective pads, and shorten their name to just Skins. Then their home scoreboard would always show the same two teams: SHIRTS and SKINS.
posted by Hugh Janus at 10:07 AM on February 15, 2013
There was a post a few days ago about fantasy baseball and the mention of potentially switching to a keeper league - just pinging for any more interest in that kind of thing. I've been looking for one for years from Yahoo so I'm definitely in.
posted by dfleming at 10:29 AM on February 15, 2013
In Russia, meteor strikes arena, or at least causes damage to it.
posted by tommybiden at 10:37 AM on February 15, 2013
The NBA is updating their site to include more nerdy data.
posted by yerfatma at 11:41 AM on February 15, 2013
Heya, baseball league commish here. Sorry I haven't updated. Been caught up with some other things. Seems like everyone's on board for it or at least doesn't object to it, so I'll look into powering up the keeper rules today or over the weekend.
posted by ursus_comiter at 12:29 PM on February 15, 2013
Hugh, very eloquently put and I agree to the nth degree. Oddly, considering the avariciousness of Snyder, the team seems to be totally ignoring the massive revenue surge they'd get from rebranding.
This is something soccer teams have known for decades, shown by their habit of changing jerseys every two seasons or so and by having separate variations (which also change) for extra competitions like Champions League and such.
But then Snyder's avariciousness may be rivaled by other, also less positive qualities he appears to have.
posted by billsaysthis at 01:22 PM on February 15, 2013
Thanks Ursus! Steve Sax Offenders commend you!
posted by dfleming at 01:54 PM on February 15, 2013
Seems like everyone's on board for it or at least doesn't object to it, so I'll look into powering up the keeper rules today or over the weekend.
Crap. Didn't see the keeper league stuff. If that's the case, I'm out. Don't have the time to keep up with it.
posted by goddam at 03:11 PM on February 15, 2013
Looking forward to it, ursus. Please don't recommend the use of PEDs to the Bloody Sox.
posted by Howard_T at 04:35 PM on February 15, 2013
Goodell paid more than $29 million by NFL in 2011 and $11.6 million in 2010. Not that much compared to Selig and Stern, who are estimated to earn somewhere in the mid-$20 million range.
posted by billsaysthis at 07:50 PM on February 15, 2013
Well said, Hugh. Proving once again that Washington fans are pretty classy, even if the team owner is not.
posted by Joey Michaels at 02:02 AM on February 16, 2013
The point is that even when we don't know we're causing hurt, it's still on us to mitigate the amount of hurt we might cause. Once we know we're harming other people, it is abundantly clear that the human thing to do is to change from a hurtful stance to a helpful one. It is how great civilizations are made -- we often take for granted that we live in a civilization that already exists, when in fact we are still working to build our civilization every day -- by making things better for the next guy we make things better for all of us.
May well be the best paragraph i read all year...
posted by Folkways at 06:35 AM on February 16, 2013
Thanks, I'm blushing.
posted by Hugh Janus at 12:41 PM on February 17, 2013
Trolling at its finest but i couldnt help myself.
Redskins no thoughts of changing name
Should i attach all the old "conversations" on this topic? here or here