Marlow wrote:Dudes, it's just a game. WHY SO SERIOUS?!
It's a multibillion dollar industry too.
Yes, but that's the business side of it, not the 'playing' side (of course the two are inter-related, but a game is still a game). Criticizing athletes and coaches for what they should or should not have done is (99% of the time) not at all business-related; it's just ego-involvement as to the outcome! The ESPN talking heads act as if what they are saying has some actual relevance to something IMPORTANT, but it most decidedly does NOT (other than our emotional investment).
Conor Dary wrote:Basically because most sports writers are complete idiots
br wrote:Lolo going to be on the Katie Couric show today on ABC. Check your local listings.
I'd rather watch reruns of last week's weather on the Weather Channel than that...ugh.
I appreciate br's post for those track fans who are into that sort of stuff, but I pretty much feel the same way you do and I'm a Lolo fan. However, I would feel the same way if Couric was interviewing Usain Bolt. There are very few athletes who I find interesting enough to make me want to sit down and watch someone like Couric do a softball interview. The only reason why I was interested in the Oprah-Marion Jones interview was because I knew they were going to talk about drugs. I wish Gabe Jennings had become a middle distance superstar because his interviews were must-see TV.
"Softball" interviews of people who hold no place of power, responsibiity or authority in society don't bother me jazz. I say this assuming that I'm interpreting your use of the term "softball" correctly.
I like lots of serious things. But I like trivial, fun things too.
Athletes and their personalities (everyone has a personality of course, even if it's a boring personality) for the most part just constitute fun for me. Fall into my category of "guilty pleasure", curiosity stuff.
Rightly or wrongly I never feel like I am compromising or short changing my more serious or "intellectual" side, by indulging in trivial stuff like paying attention to what some athletes say and do away from the playing surface.
I know very few truly successful or highly intelligent people, who don't have for themselves a few guilty pleasures.
Sprintzfan don't get me wrong. If I'm flipping channels and stumble across a softball interview of an athlete who I like, I'll watch it, but it's not must-see TV for me. I DVR HBO's Real Sports every month and I always watch the hard pieces (investigative news stories) and skip past the fluff pieces (profiles of successful sports figures).
I get you jazz. Totally understand what you're saying about watching that kind of programming.
Hey, I did get to see Lo Lo on Couric. All I can say is that Lo Lo really doesn't have a clue. She comes across to me as TOTALLY sheltered and basically completely ignorant of the world in which she lives. I really do wonder, if she ever even watches the news. Seriously. I'm not saying that to be funny. She really does strike me as one of those folks, who couldn't even tell you who is running for President right now. A person who just doesn't follow news events, and other "serious" stuff. Non-entertainment, non-sports stuff. I get no indications from her, that she has so much as a clue, as to why various people have been crtical of her and her career.
She has totally personalized it. Like she is some high school athlete being "hated on" by cheerleaders or something. She doesn't seem to me to have a clue about the history of the country. Femimism. Sexism. Colorism. Or anything else. To her this isn't about any longstanding issues at all. It is just people being mean to her.
I know what I'm saying about her sounds harsh, but I swear I don't mean it that way. I think I feel more sorry for her being so ill prepared for the celebrity she currently enjoys, than I am angry or disgusted with her for being so naive and uninformed about serious issues in our society. And various historical struggles.
Now who I do have disdain for after watching that show is Katie.
I thought the way Katie handled the matter was shameful. Katie is old enough, and worldly enough, to understand some of the Lo Lo controversy, even if she doesn't agree with it. But instead of trying to help make sense of some of it for Lo Lo, she just fed into Lo Lo's "poor me", victim mentality about this entire thing.
Shades of Bobby Riggs and Billie-Jean. Lottsa money to be made for Lolo if she can turn her "smack-talk" into a match race. And you gotta admit she is the hottest smack-talker going.
Anyway, before she made her Michigan-Minnesota pick, Chris Fowler informed her that Robinson was a no-go due to injury, and she said he probably pulled a hamstring trying to race Usain Bolt.
guru wrote:Jones derides Michigan QB Denard Robinson, stating on ESPN's Gameday Saturday that he couldn't beat her in a race(much less Usain Bolt).
Guru, c'mon now, you know what Smack-Talk is, don't you?!
Umm, yeah, but Tim Layden summed it up perfectly
Jones said "a race,'' which she does for effect and for Lolo Brand. It's useful to call b.s on her every once in a while.
Ohferheavensake. If we had to call BS on every man's Smack Talk, we'd run out of hours in the day. Let a women do it, and she's a B-yotch??!! Whatever.
Marlow wrote:Ohferheavensake. If we had to call BS on every man's Smack Talk, we'd run out of hours in the day. Let a women do it, and she's a B-yotch??!! Whatever.
Part of the thing with "Smack Talk", is that there's actually a chance in hell you can do what you say you can...
Marlow wrote:Ohferheavensake. If we had to call BS on every man's Smack Talk, we'd run out of hours in the day. Let a women do it, and she's a B-yotch??!! Whatever.
Part of the thing with "Smack Talk", is that there's actually a chance in hell you can do what you say you can...
Guru just can't wait to hate on Lolo. You have no shame. If you know Lolo, you know she is one of the smack-talkingest athletes you are ever going to find. If she was a guy it would be no big deal. You smack talk for two reasons; to get into somebody's head and just for the sheer fun of it. This is an obvious example of having fun.
Paul Swangard, Managing Director at the University of Oregon's Warsaw Sports Marketing Center, tweeted this about Lolo's smack talking:
decafan wrote: If you know Lolo, you know she is one of the smack-talkingest athletes you are ever going to find.
So, as the original subject of this thread attests, she can dish it out, but she can't take it.
If you're going to "talk smack", dont whine and complain when someone does it to you.
Guru, are you being serious right now? Do you have any idea what smack talking is? I don't think you do. The New York Times calling her "the Anna Kournikova of track" is NOT smack talking. Newspapers don't talk smack. Generally, athletes talk smack to each other. Had the New York Times said, "Lolo couldn't even beat Anna Kournikova in a race", I could maybe agree with you. Lolo has no problem taking it and dishing it out with other athletes. She's good at it and it's funny to watch. The bottom line is; you hate her and have zero sense of humor.
Best US start times for today's world cup race at Lake Placid(overall start placing in parenthesis)
Aja Evans/Greubel 5.49(1)
Tianna Madison/Meyers 5.53(2)
Lolo Jones/Fenlator 5.60(5)
Fenlator had a couple of fabulous drives to rally them to 2nd - usually in the sliding sports early speed determines winners. Looking forward to seeing Evans in the sled with her.
guru wrote:Just so we keep the apples with the apples...
Best US start times for today's world cup race at Lake Placid(overall start placing in parenthesis)
Aja Evans/Greubel 5.49(1)
Tianna Madison/Meyers 5.53(2)
Lolo Jones/Fenlator 5.60(5)
Fenlator had a couple of fabulous drives to rally them to 2nd - usually in the sliding sports early speed determines winners. Looking forward to seeing Evans in the sled with her.
It's not really possible to get an apples to apples comparison on those start times. Remember, the driver also pushes. Fenlater is the slowest pusher of the drivers. Meyers is the fastest. Velocity at the load is also very important. You can get away with a slightly slower start time if the velocity is higher. You also have to consider the weight of the sled. Light push athletes put sheets of lead weight in the bottom of their sleds to make up the difference. Bigger athletes (Aja) also benefit at the start by having lighter sleds. But they can be hurt later in the race by having a higher center mass that smaller athletes (not a major concern for women, but still worth noting.) All that being said, Aja, Tianna and Lolo all did an amazing job in their first races. And Aja is a beast.
