SPORTS BALL!!! v2.0

Xprimentyl

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So apparently I wasn't the only one off-put by the study clause in Kyler Murray's contract:


"After seeing the distraction it created, we removed the addendum from the contract," the Cardinals said in a statement. "It was clearly perceived in ways that were never intended. Our confidence in Kyler Murray is as high as it's ever been and nothing demonstrates our belief in his ability to lead this team more than the commitment reflected in this contract."
 

Xprimentyl

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Aargh!! Really frustrating GP in Hungary yesterday.

After managing to make it into Saturday's Q3 for the first time in the last 6 races, Bottas nabbed P8... then the race started where, yet again, the backfield got the jump on him and he dropped to P12 by turn 1. Team strategy didn't help either, they opted for a one-stop race taking medium tyres to start, then switching to hards for the remainder. I think Alfa Romeo have blinders on as they don't seem to learn anything from the teams around them. About half the field started on soft tyres anticipating a two-stop race, and even after the first team to jump to hards showed they were not the ideal tyre for the race conditions, they put both Bottas and Zhou on them anyway, and both struggled in the backfield until Bottas' car shit the bed completely in the final few laps for his 4th DNF of the season. Another ICE, and likely another grid penalty for the next race.

And Ferrari shit the bed again. I don't know what their strategy was, and apparently, neither did they. They're fighting for both the constructor's AND driver's championships, are consistently one of the strongest teams on the track, but find ways to fuck themselves damn-near every race. They started P2 and P3 only to finish P4 and P6. LeClerc, fighting back cuss words, managed to stay composed enough in the postrace interview to say he didn't understand what the team was doing. You could see the rage roiling underneath his exhausted exterior. I'm sure that debrief session lasted a while (might even still be going on.)
 
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Xprimentyl

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Deshaun Watson suspended for the first 6 games of the 2022 season.


In a league where a personal foul that risks serious injury and taunting which hurts feelings are both 15-yard penalties, I expected as much in this case. Tom Brady got a 4-game suspension for underinflated footballs, of course a player accused and found [ostensibly] reasonably guilty of sexual misconduct gets a 6-game suspension.

On the sports side of this, the Browns now find themselves scrambling for a backup while Watson has his hand slapped for the first 6 games. I really hope Baker Mayfield shines in Carolina 1.) so he can gloat at the shit-show in Cleveland and 2.) so we can get more State Farm commercials out of him, hopefully some with digs at the shit-show in Cleveland.

Yes, under the right conditions, I can be pretty petty.
 
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Xprimentyl

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Man, the Formula 1 drama does not stop!

Sebastian Vettel, 4-time world drivers champion, announced his retirement last week ending his unremarkable stint at Aston Martin. The first question was who's going to replace him at the team. Many speculated they might promote someone from F2, but they scalped 2-time WDC Fernando Alonso from Alpine, literally right from under Alpine's nose. Alpine has been an extremely competitive midfield team, showing a lot of promise and ability. Alonso's teammate, Esteban Ocon, has show to be formidable when given the chance, a young upstart often battling Alonso convincingly on track. Welp, Alonso has packed up for 2023 to drive alongside Lance Stroll, F1's sole "pay driver" who's daddy owns the Aston Martin team. Will be interesting to see if the team leans on Alonso's talent and reputation, or favor Stroll because dad's footing the bills. We see how they did Vettel, so I wouldn't be surprised if it's the latter, but Alonso doesn't strike me as a guy willing to play #2 given his pedigree and racing acumen.


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And in other news, 7-time WDC Lewis Hamilton has joined the ownership group of the NFL's Denver Broncos. Hope you're happy, @Offworlder.


EDIT: Oscar Piastri to replace Alonso at Alpine. I know this makes a lot of race fans happy. I don't get to see much of the F2, F3 races, but I know a lot of fans have been calling for Piastri's promotion for some time, so can't wait to see how he does.


EDIT EDIT: Piastri is NOT driving for Alpine inn 2023.

 
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McElroy

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Question: do you have a driver or team in particular that you follow, or are you of the "I just like to see a good race" mentality?
I rarely watch the whole race, and I'm mostly interested in seeing how the championship goes overall, like how teams' positions and pace vary from race to race. Thus if Verstappen runs off with it I'll lose interest. And of course Valtteri because he's a fellow Finn.
 
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Xprimentyl

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I rarely watch the whole race, and I'm mostly interested in seeing how the championship goes overall, like how teams' positions and pace vary from race to race. Thus if Verstappen runs off with it I'll lose interest. And of course Valtteri because he's a fellow Finn.
Ah, gotcha. Yeah, the season started off interestingly enough with the battle between LeClerc and Verstappen being an honest fight, but with Ferrari shoving it up their own tail pipe and Verstappen pulling away, the midfield fights are more interesting to watch. I think that's why I like when P1 pulls far enough ahead that the broadcast has to switch to other battles on track.
 
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Xprimentyl

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Oof, Daniel Ricciardo out, Oscar Piastri in at McLaren for 2023. Wonder if Danny Ric's got his eyes on that Alpine seat or if it's even his to look at...

 

Xprimentyl

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Well, fuck. After the cruel summer break in Formula 1, I was dressed and ready for its return at Spa (Belgium) at 6am Friday only to have my driver (Valtteri Bottas) retire when he bottomed out during the first free practice after two whole laps. Grid penalties saw nearly HALF the field starting "from the back." Race day yesterday? Both Lewis Hamilton and Bottas were retired after collisions with other drivers in the first lap; Hamilton was clearly at fault for his, but Bottas was just trying to stay out of the way of the tangle between Latifi and Tsunoda when Latifi slide into him and beached him in one of Spa's new gravel traps. ON HIS FUCKING BIRTHDAY. In my sincerest hopes, with so much of the race left out there and both out of it, Bottas and Hamilton went for a beer together.

Max Verstappen "Verstappen'd" it as usual, storming from P14 (after his grid penalty) to win it all handily. Seriously, they should just give him the P1 trophy at the start of each race so we can watch the actual, more interesting contention in the mid-to-back field. Near the end, the cameras were trained on Verstappen despite him being over 10 seconds ahead of his teammate Perez in P2, like, why are we watching this??

Ferrari "Ferrari'd" it again. Poor Charles LeClerc was on "plan G" last I heard. I spit out my coffee laughing when I heard that. It's not uncommon to hear teams moving to plan B or even C, but "plan G?" How hard have you screwed the pooch when you're on plan G?? A grid penalty saw him starting from the backfield, and despite much speculation that he might be capable of Verstappen-esque charge to the front, found himself caught in a DRS train and struggled to pass in the midfield. In a pathetic attempt to salvage the point for fastest lap, he was pitted on the last lap for a fresh set of soft tyres, and still didn't manage to nab fastest lap. Once the noise at Alpine, McLaren, and Haas quiets down, I think we'll find that Ferrari is actually the loudest team in the room in terms of drama.

New regs to come for sure. Literally no one started where they qualified on Saturday due to grid penalties. As it stands, each driver is allotted 3 internal combustion engines (ICE) per season; upon replacing it the 4th time and every time after that, the driver takes a grid penalty, and with almost half the field taking grid penalties at the halfway mark of the season, clearly 3 is too few. They assign grid penalties to keep the richer teams from replacing their engines every race, so I get it, but the cap is so low, even the poorest teams suffer for it. It's basically saying you can spend up to $3 at Starbucks, anything over $3, and the barista will spit in your coffee. Try spending less than $3 at Starbucks; I think a tall black coffee is like $5.25.
 

Xprimentyl

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Max wins and Valtteri's Alfa is fucked. What a surprise.
Man, it's bad enough that the team that calls themselves "Ferrari" can't get shit right for themselves, but the Ferrari-powered engines are just as shit. I was happy for Bottas getting out from under his toxic relationship with Mercedes, but this Alfa Romeo relationship is proving to be a different kind of bad. I knew to expect him to be less competitive in an inferior car, but can my guy at least finish a fucking race?? The year started off promising, but as other teams have adjusted and gotten better, AR has seemed to stay the same.

Red Bull accused of cheating.

Toto Wolff all but giving up in the W13, team strategies finally favoring the #2 driver in Russell.

Alpine shitting the bed with the whole Piastri fiasco.

McLaren fucking off on Ricciardo, the only driver win for them in a decade.

Gasly in limbo at Alpha Tauri.

Not sure which is more interesting to watch, the racing or the drama in F1. "Drive To Survive" couldn't even make this shit up as much as longtime fans/purists would have you believe.
 
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Xprimentyl

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The NFL season officially kicked off last night with the Buffalo Bills routing the defending Super Bowl champs the Los Angeles Rams 31-10. I'm a 49ers fan; Rams are in our division, so I am a happy camper.

Honestly, it shouldn't have been that bad if the Rams had to lose. Rams' QB Matt Stafford looked unstoppable for a hot second, but then the "commentator's curse" walked in butt-naked when they mentioned his 10 straight completions to which Stafford replied with the first of 3 picks in the first half. Outside Linebacker Von Miller, who was on the Rams' roster last year for their Super Bowl run, got to his old QB several times. I won't go so far as to say the Rams were "exposed;" they're still a solid and formidable team, and the Bills are no slouches either (came into the game as the favorite in a lot of people's eyes,) but I definitely see some chinks in the Rams' armor I hope they don't repair before the twice we have to play them.
 

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Yeesh, the boys are playing rough this year. Dallas Cowboys' star QB Dak Prescott injured his throwing hand and will require surgery, likely out for a decent while. Pittsburgh Steelers' star linebacker TJ Watt tore his pectoral muscle, could be out for the YEAR. Minnesota Vikings collectively hurt Aaron Rogers' feelings with an upset victory against him and the rest of the Green Bay Packers. EDIT: and the 49ers are losing our RB Elijah Mitchell for a few months due to an injury and TE George Kittle has a nagging groin injury that will likely see him miss some time.

And my Niners shit the bed. Everyone hyped up QB Trey Lance as the 2nd Coming, and he and the rest of the team blew a 10 point lead to lose to the Chicago Bears in the second half. Fortunately, I didn't have to see the game, but watched the scores on my phone. The second we put up with 10 unanswered points, my heart sank. Most fans are happy when their team takes a substantial lead, but for us, "10" is the magic number. We're famous for putting up 10 and it not being enough to keeps us comfortably ahead. When the Bears finally scored, I could hear the death knell in the distance.
 
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Xprimentyl

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Yesterday's NFL game was a blast. First off, I hate the Seahawks. Second, I hate QB Russell Wilson for his decade with the Seahawks that made my Niners' lives a nightmare twice a season. So seeing Seahawks fans boo him as he marched back into their stadium wearing a Broncos uniform was uniquely satisfying.

After that, despite my not having a dog in the fight, I can say it was a fun game to watch. Gino Smith actually looked really good, showing flashes of brilliance at points. And the Broncos managed to keep the game close despite royally screwing themselves on penalties. I thought the refs were being too strict, but further review shows they got almost every call right (except a flagrant personal foul they missed against the Seahawks shortly after nailing the Broncos for almost the same thing.) It came down to a dramatic 64-yard field goal attempt that would have ranked up there with the longest in history... which the Broncos' kicker missed going wide left by a foot or two. Seahawks won 16-17.
 

Bob_McMillan

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Roger Federer retiring from the game. Crazy. I wonder how long it will be before another player takes his place as one of the faces of tennis.
 
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Kyrian007

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Any thoughts on the Thursday Night Football being a Prime exclusive? I am right now drowning in phone calls to my radio station today from folks who probably haven't used a radio in years asking me where (and how) to tune in to hear the game. It didn't really register to me, I have Prime and wasn't even thinking about it. But people are pretty used to being able to see the game they want... for free somewhere. I'm reminded of the dark days of local blackouts and people scrambling to find some broadcast... any broadcast.
 
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Xprimentyl

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Any thoughts on the Thursday Night Football being a Prime exclusive? I am right now drowning in phone calls to my radio station today from folks who probably haven't used a radio in years asking me where (and how) to tune in to hear the game. It didn't really register to me, I have Prime and wasn't even thinking about it. But people are pretty used to being able to see the game they want... for free somewhere. I'm reminded of the dark days of local blackouts and people scrambling to find some broadcast... any broadcast.
I have Prime too, but I don't like the idea of TNF being exclusive to it at ALL. It's live sports, an American institution, one of those few moments where every class of man puts differences aside, cracks open a beer and watches the game. Who thought it'd be a good idea to gate one of those moments behind a premium subscription to a company that already has more money than God? And it really frustrates me that Amazon is flaunting like it's something new and exciting. No, assholes, all you've done is taken something away from people so you can sell it back to them. I honestly have know idea why the NFL would allow this.
 
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Kyrian007

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I have Prime too, but I don't like the idea of TNF being exclusive to it at ALL. It's live sports, an American institution, one of those few moments where every class of man puts differences aside, cracks open a beer and watches the game. Who thought it'd be a good idea to gate one of those moments behind a premium subscription to a company that already has more money than God? And it really frustrates me that Amazon is flaunting like it's something new and exciting. No, assholes, all you've done is taken something away from people so you can sell it back to them. I honestly have know idea why the NFL would allow this.
I do, the NFL wanted a piece of the whole "more money than god." But I'm still kind of torn. It is a pretty stupid kick in the nuts to the fanbase, but then again... excepting last night (because it was the first broadcast for a new... network/service) when was the last time TNF got a good or interesting matchup? It is almost always the least interesting game of the week. Once the newness of the Prime deal wears off, I'd suspect the schedule will go back to reflecting that. Next week is a little interesting (because of the trainwreck that is the Browns,) but by week 4 in the schedule... Dolphins Bengals? Week 5, Colts Broncos? Week 6, there it is... Commanders/Bears. Possible the worst and least interesting game of the week. Even your 49ers, Week 15 9ers/Seahawks? You're going to murderize them, fun for you but not particularly interesting.
 
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Xprimentyl

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I do, the NFL wanted a piece of the whole "more money than god."
Oh, I get it, I just have no idea why an entity already so massively successful as the NFL felt the need to sign such an "in-your-face" deal with the devil like this. What next, sell exclusivity to the Super Bowl to Hulu?

But I'm still kind of torn. It is a pretty stupid kick in the nuts to the fanbase, but then again... excepting last night (because it was the first broadcast for a new... network/service) when was the last time TNF got a good or interesting matchup? It is almost always the least interesting game of the week. Once the newness of the Prime deal wears off, I'd suspect the schedule will go back to reflecting that. Next week is a little interesting (because of the trainwreck that is the Browns,) but by week 4 in the schedule... Dolphins Bengals? Week 5, Colts Broncos? Week 6, there it is... Commanders/Bears. Possible the worst and least interesting game of the week. Even your 49ers, Week 15 9ers/Seahawks? You're going to murderize them, fun for you but not particularly interesting.
I see where you're coming from, but as a fan of a team located in a city I've never even been to let alone lived in a market where I can reasonably expect to see them on any given gameday, I don't really care which teams play; I just love to watch football. I don't care if the two worst teams are playing; a game is played, and one team is going to play better than the other, and it's a contest I'd rather watch than say the Emmys, Survivor, or whatever public service drama might been eating up primetime. And I also know that as uninteresting as the matchup might be, there are fans of those teams out there who want to watch who previously could, even if they were relegated to the least interesting day of the game week, but now they might not be able to because they're not paying Amazon's asking price. That's bullshit. They've literally taken something we always had away from us, and slapped a brand new price tag on it expecting a "thank you" for the effort.

(And don't jinx my Niners with such a dismissive statement as we're going to "murderize" the Seahawks. We got banged up in that first game, and Lance isn't the 2nd Coming he was supposed to have been. Plus, the Seahawks have been our kryptonite, and Gino Smith isn't looking too shabby, so my palms, as they always have been for the past decade, will be thoroughly sweaty on Seahawks Day.)
 
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