12/21/24
February 18, 2015
SportsFilter: The Wednesday 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.
Ugh. Is it too much to hope that the chant was an ironic statement about not allowing the black guy on the car simply because it was so crowded?
posted by rcade at 10:03 AM on February 18, 2015
Why, every time that something horrifically racist/sexist/xenophobic/whatever happens, does someone feel the need to stand up and make the point that the majority of their "group" is not racist/sexists/xenophobic/whatever? In this case - the head of the supporters' association wants you to know most Chelsea fans aren't racist!
There's no way of knowing that. There's no "I'm not a racist" checkbox to become a football team fan. Most people don't do these kinds of acts, but a bunch of people on a train seem to have done nothing (or, wrote it off as fan tribalism, rather than taking what they were chanting at face value) about it. Is that really a hair worth splitting?
Most people aren't blatantly horrific, but a lot of us (myself included) could do a heck of a lot to make it tougher for people who do to function in everyday society.
posted by dfleming at 10:22 AM on February 18, 2015
If the head of the supporters association said anything else, he'd be the former head of the supporters association.
posted by rcade at 11:16 AM on February 18, 2015
The Colts 2 game suspension of Trent Richardson for "engaging in conduct detrimental to the team" may allow them to cut him without paying $3.184 million in guaranteed money. What was the conduct? Sources say his "absence was the result of serious complications with his girlfriend's pregnancy that could potentially have endangered the life of the child".
Stay classy, NFL.
posted by yerfatma at 02:05 PM on February 18, 2015
Can't find a link online yet, but DeflateGate (and ESPN's reporting) gets more confusing: "To repeat @AdamSchefter report, an AFC Championship Game official sold one of the footballs that was intended for charity and has been fired". Reading another Pats beat writer who is live-tweeting Outside the Lines it sounds like ESPN can't get their story straight: OTL is interviewing a former ref who says their current story is wrong.
posted by yerfatma at 03:52 PM on February 18, 2015
posted by yerfatma at 04:20 PM on February 18, 2015
To be sure, it's cloudy and murky. Now lets find out just how unique it is.
I'll say it again: the further this goes, the worse the league is going to look.
Goodell has a crack investigative team working on this, so he's obliged to announce a finding. He can't let it fade into oblivion, as he and others now might dearly wish they could do.
If Kraft were an irascible rancher, there would be a hellacious mountain oyster party, and Goodell's scrota would be the prime offering of the evening.
posted by beaverboard at 05:28 PM on February 18, 2015
Those of you who thought this would become a farce were ahead of me. I concede the point and now want the investigation to take years and be longer than the Warren Commission report.
posted by rcade at 05:52 PM on February 18, 2015
How convenient for the Patriots.
Coupled with the great dinner Goodell had at the Kraft's place smart money is they'll get yet another pass from the NFL.
Oblivion appears to be the objective.
posted by cixelsyd at 06:09 PM on February 18, 2015
Yup, they fired a ref right after the game to cover up a scandal that didn't yet exist. We are through the looking glass here, people!
posted by yerfatma at 07:22 PM on February 18, 2015
Yup, they fired a ref right after the game to cover up a scandal that didn't yet exist.
Technically, the inklings of a scandal were already there before the game (since I think it was Baltimore that complained about it before, and that's why the league was looking into it during the AFC championship game).
posted by grum@work at 08:46 PM on February 18, 2015
It would be very easy for the league to divert attention from the ongoing debacle by forcing Rosie O'Donnell to relocate to Salem, MA. Then we could get the house party started.
posted by beaverboard at 11:19 AM on February 19, 2015
Yup, they fired a ref right after the game to cover up a scandal that didn't yet exist.
Now the referees union is demanding an apology from ESPN for its shoddy reporting. There was no on-field official fired, but supposedly an NFL employee was. What a mess the NFL has made of this whole thing.
posted by Howard_T at 11:27 PM on February 19, 2015
Police in Paris and Scotland Yard launch investigation on Chelsea supporters that were videotaped in the Paris Metro pushing a black man off of a crowded train and chanting "We're racist! We're racist! And that's the way we like it!".