Month: February 2020

Week Three of XFL action and I gotta admit, I’m really enjoying the product. It is vastly superior to its previous incarnation in terms of quality of athletes and overall play, and it blows the AAFL out of the water in both regards. And while the previous edition of the XFL was widely criticized for the pro-wrestling entertainment elements, this year’s version is straight-up football and gimmick free.

To be honest, I did enjoy the original version of the XFL in 2001 with all the cartoonish aspects and lack of professionalism in a broadcast product. From the quarterbacks dating cheerleaders to the skycam to the “He Hate Me” players; I took it for what it was, entertainment. 

The NFL is often criticized as the “No Fun League,” something Vince McMahon saw as exploitable. You wanna take away big hits? The XFL encouraged it. Boring logos and mascots? The XFL had teams like the Los Angeles Xtreme and the Memphis Maniax. (It was the X-FL after all…) Loud obnoxious sports personalities? The XFL had Jerry Lawler and Jesse “The Body” Ventura as color announcers.

Everything the XFL did was over the top ridiculousness. No really… ri-dic-u-lous. 

But where the 2001 season of the XFL was defined by the insanity that is the mind of Vincent Kennedy McMahon, the recent launch is much closer to vest, but still intriguingly innovative.

During the Dallas Renegades and Seattle Dragons game in front of 22,000 fans in the Emerald City, the cameras focused on former Seahawk quarterback great now Dragons head coach Jim Zorn called a play late in the fourth quarter in a 21-12 game at home.

“Trips right beta 22 scat levels.”

Forget whether you understand what any of that means, though I absolutely find football terminology fascinating. Who doesn’t love hearing Dice right ice cream alert 6-54 José and each word is a different signal to each player. The wide receivers might be listening for the trips right, while the linemen are listening for the scat levels part of that play call. 

What is most intriguing for me as a media scholar is the unprecedented access this coverage gives us. As a broadcaster, or media producer, we often talk about giving the audience the best viewing experience possible. You want the viewer to feel as close to the action as possible. This is the next best thing being in the huddle.

And that’s the hook for me.

I’ll keep watching not just because I’m addicted to football, (which I am but I’m getting that under control). But this access the XFL is giving us here is exactly why I’ll tune in each week. Football, especially when played at the highest level, is a game of strategy, no different than chess played by a grandmaster or a gamer playing Sid Meier’s Civilization. Getting to spy on the Xs and Os as they happen is every football junkie’s dream. I’m sure it also feeds a few Madden addicts and armchair coaches who think they know the game more than they really do. 

Granted, there will be some hiccups, but as long as the XFL broadcast partners, FOX and ESPN, continue to allow us to listen in the live strategy sessions, I’ll keep watching.

This was certainly a weekend for fighting. UFC held an event in Auckland, New Zealand whilst the biggest heavyweight boxing match since Lewis vs Klitschko in 2003. No, seriously, it’s been that long since there’s been a fight of this magnitude that was this anticipated. 

The boxing match was billed as Unfinished Business, referencing the lackluster draw they fought to last year. Both men came into the rematch undefeated as a result of that draw, and a result would unify the majority of boxing’s alphabet title soup and effectively brand the winner as the most dominant heavyweight champion this era.

For the most part, the heavyweight fight failed to live up to the hype. Fury dominated the fight from bell to bell carving Wilder up like a Christmas candied ham. Fury has often been criticized for limited punching power, with Wilder needling Fury before the fight by saying that his two-year-old punches harder than him. 

In the end, it was that potent punching power that ultimately did Wilder in to the point that his corner threw in the towel. The boxscore will note that Fury defeated Wilder by TKO, but be assured, this was a mercy killing. Wilder’s ear was busted open in the fourth, looking like someone with one of Khan’s earworms burrowing into his brain. In the fifth, Fury backed Wilder into a corner (literally) and just pounded him like he was the dough for a mince pie in Fury’s native Manchester.

So badly beaten was Wilder, that his cornerman and trainer surrendered purely out of concern for their fighter’s health, possibly saving Wilder’s career. Mark Breland’s decision has been criticized by Wilder’s management team and even the fighter himself, but Breland had only Wilder’s best interests and health in mind. Too many boxers in recent years have died from action in the ring, 

Contrast that to the other big fight this weekend. MMA star Karolina Kowalkiewicz. The Polish flyweight has been lauded for her toughness and cheered for her tenacity as one of the sport’s fiercest fighters in the women’s game. But much of the pre-fight press focused on Kowalkiewicz’s fight to stay relevant in a suddenly stacked strawweight division. Kowalkiewicz’s last fights have ended in a first-round knockout and two unanimous decisions. One loss is a hiccup, two is worrisome, and three are a downward spiral. She desperately needed a win.

The result of her UFC Auckland bout with rising star Chinese Yan Xiaonan was anything but pretty. 

Karolina Kowalkiewicz: “First time in my life, after fight, I cannot say I’m OK.” (via @KarolinaMMA) pic.twitter.com/5sAayzKykI— Chamatkar Sandhu (@SandhuMMA) February 23, 2020

Before the start of the second round, the referee nearly stopped the fight. Kowalkiewicz’s left eye had been popped pretty hard, and it was so swollen, it was nearly closed. she begged to continue, but it was very clear she was not in this fight from that point on. She begged the ref to stay in, but at that point, the sport has to step in for her. Even in the fourth when Kowalkiewicz nearly score oh a heel hook submission, Xiaonan was never in danger of losing the fight. She dissected Kowalkiewicz, answering for every strike and taking Kowalkiewicz to the mat at will.

There’s not a lot MMA can learn from boxing, but this is most definitely one instance they can. Someone from Kowalkiewicz corner or a UFC official shouldd have stopped that fight. She has fought too long and too hard to be eviscerated on a live pay per view show simply due to promotion apathy. It belies an abject interest in loyalty and care for the athletes who are literally putting their lives on the line for the sake of your promotional profit. 

Why would you not protect them at all cost?

The headline may be a bit harsh. 

I admit.

But that doesn’t make it any less true. Newsday put out this Tim Tebow fluff piece this week cheering the babyface that is Tebow in full gosh darn it all glory. While it’s not quite fangirl-ish in its rah-rah rooting for the good guy icon that is Tebow, it does take a significantly more pitying tone that he probably deserves. 

To be fair, it’s not as if Tebow asked to be the next Great White Hope, and I actually believe his “Aww shucks, I’m just here to play ball” folksiness. Tebow is like the guy you went to high school with who had dreams of playing ball and maximized every ounce of athletic talent he had in order to get where he has, but has ended up as a failure in back in your hometown, but without the sour disposition and passive aggressiveness. But we don’t write stories about that guy in national publications.

That guy fades into the sunset, only to be occasionally remembered in high light reels and conversations reliving the glory days at high school reunions. We don’t load this guy. He had his time, he peaked too early, and that’s pretty much the end of the story.

But Tebow has something else. Something in his pure white meat babyfacecharisma has captured the attention of conservative Christian white America. These folks love this guy just like they love John Cena, Olive Garden, and minivans. He has that never give up attitude that these folks just adore.

Part of it’s racialized. I doubt this religious fervor towards an athlete that was mostly known as a failure at the highest level would be at the same intensity. No one was screaming on sports talk radio when Herschel Walker got screwed out of medaling for the US in Winter Olympics. And let’s be honest, Walker was 10 times the success and athlete Tebow ever was. Hell, he only quit MMA because no one would book a 54 yr old in a fight. 

Part of it’s political. Just like Cena, there’s interest in his jingoism and American Dream story. He appeals to a certain segment of the public with his faith and his pro-life activism. And while we don’t know all of his political views, they identify with him.

Finally, it’s aspirational. People have formed a parasocial relationship with Tebow, rooting for him, cheering him on, “He’s a good guy… why wouldn’t I want him to succeed?” “He loves Jesus just like me!” “He never gives up!” Cheap motivational posters aside, the “If you believe it, you can achieve it” notion still lives in a buyer’s market.

As such, there’s smarks like me that will heckle Tebow just as we do Cena. We’re tired of the rah-rah masochism that comes with being a fan of someone you like on a personal level, not for their athletic talent or ability on the field or in the ring. Occasionally, that pluckiness and can-do attitude could win us over, but most likely, not. 

I’m jaded, cynical, and a bit pessimistic, so count me out on the “rooting for Tebow” train. If only we could get hime to adopt the Cena catchphrase, “You can’t see me” but in the literal sense.

Sunday’s NBA All Star game was one the most, if not the most, entertaining all star game ever played. It was everything one could want in a meaningless game celebrating the very best the sport has to offer. Traditionally, MLB’s All Star game has been the only authentically entertaining contest of all the major sports, and not just because that game had the gimmick to matter for the postseason, and in doing so created a bit of controversy of its own, which most likely led to that gimmick’s demise.

That is not to say that only baseball has cornered the market on gimmicks, the NBA had a few quirks designed to up the entertainment quotient for its annual game as well. Ratings had dropped in recent years, as fans across the board have become bored with the “east vs west” dichotomy that had worn thin decades ago as the NBA’s Western Conference has routinely dominated in the regular season and in the playoffs. The East has won only four of the last 11 championships and three of those teams contained an essential ingredient: LeBron James. Not since Jordan’s Bulls teams has a team from the East consistently been considered the favorite to win the championship each and every year.

Now the teams are picked by the team captains, each getting a gym class style pick ’em to decide each team’s roster. I’m pretty sure the stakes are a little less in terms of who’s the last pick like a middle school game of flag football’s choice between tomboy Jenny and Kevin, the weird kid that picks his nose and stares at the results.

Instead, Team LeBron and Team Giannis picked their team from relative NBA studs, though quite a number were making their All Star game debuts. Milwaukee Bucks great Giannis Antetokounmpo for his part did not win over fans with his picking prowess. Anytime your draft skills are compared to the Browns it’s not a good sign. The Greek Freak definitely had a plan, strategically picking younger newer talent, while the Laker’s LeBron James went with established stars and future Hall of Famers. Kahwi, Dame, and Paul are all bound for Springfield, and I’ll claim Harden and Westbrook are two. Come at me bro.

But even with all that talent, the game still needed to pull in the casual viewer and what better way to do that but with a little pull at the heartstrings and a little social activism? Each team was playing for a specific charity and they won money to be donated to their selection for each quarter won, with those periods existing seperately from the other until the final quarter tally. Fitting that the teams then split the first half and then tied in the third. Whomever won the fourth and final quarter won all the cash earned in the third after the draw.

But instead of a timed fourth quarter, with a definitive final second to tick off, the teams played to a predetermined goal of 157 points. No different than the neighborhood playground rules of first to 20 wins, the NBA All Star game now had an old school last shot wins feel.

And that was perfect.

I found myself so much more invested in the result than that of just seeing another celebratory athlete blowout. In past years, I’ve watched the game to see breakaway dunks, ridiculous no-look passes, and fantasy team ups in the basketball version of The Avengers, but much like my interest in the Slam Dunk Contest, that desire to watch waned.

But the intractability of that point total: 157.

The math was easy enough, just add Kobe’s 24 to the leading total score entering the fourth, and there you have it, 157. But it strikes at the best part of sports: its unpredictability and the anticipation of the unexpected. We don’t know what the total will be until the end of the third, and when we do, we’re not sure of how we’ll get there. This gives an otherwise empty game verifiable stakes, (Who’s going to win? Which star will step up?) And that’s what sports is really and ultimately why we love them. Let’s hope other sports take the same initiative and put a little effort into making their All Star games a bit more meaningful.