SPORTS BALL!!!

tippy2k2

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So the English Premier League just kicked off and the NFL preseason started last week so now seems like a great time to talk about SPORTS!


For watching, I am a big fan of The Minnesota Vikings and The Minnesota United (...stop laughing! MLS is super legi...shut up!). I am also a casual fan of Golf and Minnesota Wild as I'll watch it when it is on and I'll get invested if The Wild make the playoffs or if my golfer is doing well (I may play in a fantasy golf league...). I also play in a fantasy football league.

For playing (IRL), I'll play basically any sport if I get the chance to but that doesn't happen very often as I'm now one of those boring adults who can't just go out and play when I want to. I do play in a golf league and play golf quite a lot since you don't really need people to play (and somehow I'm still super bad at it).

For playing (in vidja game form), I play Madden 20, The Golf Club 2019, and then I will play NHL and Baseball but I won't buy the new versions of those as football and golf are the only sport games I really want.

So peeps, lace up your cleats/shoes/skates/go barefoot cause you play beach volleyball or something and let's talk sports!
 

Catfood220

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My team, Aston Villa got promoted to The Greed...ahem...Premier League last season by winning the Championship playoffs. Since then, they have had to rebuild the team, spending about ?130 million on players this summer. In the first game of the season, we actually did alright, we did a decent job of holding a lead against Tottenham Hotspurs until they remembered they are supposed to be challenging for the title this season and beat us 3-1. I have no high expectations of greatness this season, not getting relegated back to The Championship is the main goal. I will settle for a end of season position of 17th if it means we stay up. I think we will be ok.

There used to be a Premier League user group but it is now deader than dead as everyone who used to post there has either left The Escapist or got banned.

As for games, I used to buy Fifa every couple of years, but now days its a case of "EA, ewwwww."
 

tippy2k2

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Catfood220 said:
I'd love to get more into EPL and higher leagues but my dum simple brain has trouble caring if I don't have an attachment to the team (and since they're on the other side of the world, hard to have an attachment). I'll try to catch a game when I can but generally my soccer is MN United or The World Cup (when the USMNT doesn't cock it all up and miss it at least).

I do wonder if MLS will copy the best part of EPL since we seem to copy everything else and do Relegation/Promotion. They're growing the league at a pretty stupid high rate right now but they claim dem/rel won't happen. I just don't know how that could work since we do drafts and a salary cap instead of "shut up and take my money" like most soccer leagues.
 

Lil devils x_v1legacy

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Although the thread is titled " SPORTS BALL!" Does any sport count?
I was in gymnastics my whole life, was captain of my gymnastics team my senior year of High School and taught gymnastics while in college, along with all of the gymnasts and former gymnasts of the world, I have to say I am absolutely in awe of Simone Biles strength, ability and sheer talent. She is AMAZING!

Check this out:

Simone Biles is the first woman in history to land a triple double on her floor routine at the 2019 U.S. Gymnastics Championships in Kansas City, Mo. part of the Team USA Champions Series presented by Xfinity.

Simone Biles is the first person in history to perform this dismount. Watch her full beam routine from U.S. Gymnastics Championships in Kansas City, Mo. part of Team USA Champions Series presented by Xfinity.
Yes, that is right.. she just did a DOUBLE-DOUBLE dismount. That is INSANE. She is basically the goddess of gymnastics at this point.
 

tippy2k2

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Lil devils x said:
Although the thread is titled " SPORTS BALL!" Does any sport count?
All sports are welcome!

I'm not into gymnastics but I can sure as hell appreciate someone doing what Biles did. I think I could get about 1/4 a flip before I fell back on my ass and hurt myself...
 

Xprimentyl

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I?m a big NFL fan, and despite it objectively meaning nothing in the scheme of things, my San Francisco 49ers? preseason victory over the Dallas Cowboys Saturday meant EVERYTHING. I?m a +30 year fan of the Niners and the rivalry with the Cowboys, despite neither franchise being consistently competitive in a couple decades, will never fade. Didn?t help that I moved to Texas and have been surrounded by the insufferably fair-weather, bandwagoning, Lone Star clad, beer-gut-having, cocky, self-important, nerve-grinding Cowboys fanbase for nearly a decade. Point in case: high off of performances by Zeke Elliot and Amari Cooper last year, I had to steel myself against a lot of Cowboys fan shit talk in the lead up to this most recent game; the following day however, after they LOST, they couldn?t remind me fast enough just how pointless the game was.

A friend of mine is from Canada, so for football fun during the NFL off-season, she got a group of us into the CFL (Canadian Football League.) Knowing nothing about the sport, we each picked one of the 9 teams as ?our team,? and are in our third year of impassioned competition with each other despite 90% of the games not being televised stateside. We mostly watch for final scores on our phones and trash-talk like we were there or know what?s going on. I am all in for ?my? the Ottawa Redblacks; we made it to the Grey Cup (akin to the Super Bowl) last year! Didn?t see a single game, but loved every minute!

Same Canadian friend runs a pool for NASCAR for us. She has a card for each race with the numbers 0 through 9 listed and hidden under a peel-off tab. Every race day, we meet up at our local pub, each pay her $5 and blindly sign one of the ten lines; she then peels it off to reveal which number we get. If our number is the last number on the winning driver?s car, we win the pool, i.e.: if car #18 wins, whoever has the number 8 gets $50. We?re on our fourth year doing this, and I?ve learned more about this ?sport? than I ever would have imagined as I thought it completely idiotic before; I kinda get it now ($50 incentive doesn?t hurt.)
 

Lil devils x_v1legacy

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Silentpony said:
Lil devils x said:
It is going to be heartbreaking in 20 years when it comes out she's on steroids and they strip her of her medals
Why would you think/say that? You know she is strictly tested right? Why diminish her accomplishments?

It is not uncommon for gymnasts to be extremely muscular btw, I remember this one girl in my gymnastics class that was just as muscular as Biles and she didn't need steroids either. From the way Bile's trains, I am not surprised at all in her size.
 

Silentpony_v1legacy

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Lil devils x said:
Silentpony said:
Lil devils x said:
It is going to be heartbreaking in 20 years when it comes out she's on steroids and they strip her of her medals
Why would you think/say that? you know she is strictly tested right?
Because she's an American backed Olympic athlete. They're all on supplements, and if they're not they're stupid because everyone else is as well.
Trust me, my father went to the Olympics in '76 in Canada. Even then everyone was on everything they could be. There's a reason each generation is beating every other generation.

Fuck me I did competitive track on the state level and was openly told by my coach if I didn't do injections I wouldn't make it past the qualifying races. I didn't and did not.

Edit: It could be she is uniquely gifted and is the literal best gymnast the world has ever seen, bar none, and was naturally born to be the best gymnast ever. Its just hard for me to believe that even the best natural athlete can compete against an entire league of people on enhancement drugs.
Its that whole 'Armstrong is on steroids' this all over again, where if they gave the medal to the first cyclist that didn't test positive for steroids it went to a guy in 100th place.
 

McElroy

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There's a Finnish forward in the Premier League for the first time in over 10 years. That's pretty cool.

I follow a lot of sports but mostly only on a Sports News Today -level. Most keenly international events, like the upcoming Athletics World Championships. And of course...

The International begins on the 15th. But that's maybe not considered sports... (an esport thread would be useless, so I will allow it)
 

Lil devils x_v1legacy

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Silentpony said:
Lil devils x said:
Silentpony said:
Lil devils x said:
It is going to be heartbreaking in 20 years when it comes out she's on steroids and they strip her of her medals
Why would you think/say that? you know she is strictly tested right?
Because she's an American backed Olympic athlete. They're all on supplements, and if they're not they're stupid because everyone else is as well.
Trust me, my father went to the Olympics in '76 in Canada. Even then everyone was on everything they could be. There's a reason each generation is beating every other generation.

Fuck me I did competitive track on the state level and was openly told by my coach if I didn't do injections I wouldn't make it past the qualifying races. I didn't and did not.
According to her test results, she is not. If you remember, Russians hacked the database and released her information after they were kicked and the only thing she tested positive for was her Ritalin for ADHD and that is not going to really help her in regards to her Gymnastics to begin with outside of helping her concentrate so she doesn't injure herself by being distracted. This isn't the 70's, the rules are far more stringent now. I was even tested in High School and they stand there are watch you pee.

The rules and world have changed since then I think.
 

Silentpony_v1legacy

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Lil devils x said:
Silentpony said:
Lil devils x said:
Silentpony said:
Lil devils x said:
It is going to be heartbreaking in 20 years when it comes out she's on steroids and they strip her of her medals
Why would you think/say that? you know she is strictly tested right?
Because she's an American backed Olympic athlete. They're all on supplements, and if they're not they're stupid because everyone else is as well.
Trust me, my father went to the Olympics in '76 in Canada. Even then everyone was on everything they could be. There's a reason each generation is beating every other generation.

Fuck me I did competitive track on the state level and was openly told by my coach if I didn't do injections I wouldn't make it past the qualifying races. I didn't and did not.
According to her test results, she is not. If you remember, Russians hacked the database and released her information after they were kicked and the only thing she tested positive for was her Ritalin for ADHD and that is not going to really help her in regards to her Gymnastics to begin with outside of helping her concentrate so she doesn't injure herself by being distracted. This isn't the 70's, the rules are far more stringent now. I was even tested in High School and they stand there are watch you pee.

The rules and world have changed since then I think.
But if a Government is behind you, why wouldn't they find ways around those tests? Usain Bolt, fastest man ever, tested negative for any drugs. Until they did blood work and found out he was on unique steroids that were untraceable in all but the most Dr. House level of testing. Normal pee tests didn't detect anything.
If those drugs are around, why wouldn't an athlete take them? Wasn't it the last Olympics the entire Russian swimming team tested positive and American swimmers threw them shade when they won their events? Everyone knows everyone else is on something.

Also blood doping is all but undetectable
 

McElroy

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Wow if it didn't take too long for someone to start the complains. Yes-yes, most sports are fucked and the athletes are roided. Watch it for the show. Hell, they will have skateboarding in the Olympics in 2020.

Biles in particular stands out because while she sure is built, she is also only 1.42 meters tall. That basically means she had a really short puberty at age 9 or 10, and I'd wager it wasn't entirely up to chance.
 

Avnger

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McElroy said:
Biles in particular stands out because while she sure is built, she is also only 1.42 meters tall. That basically means she had a really short puberty at age 9 or 10, and I'd wager it wasn't entirely up to chance.
Short people totally don't exist naturally...
 

Lil devils x_v1legacy

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Silentpony said:
Lil devils x said:
Silentpony said:
Lil devils x said:
Silentpony said:
Lil devils x said:
It is going to be heartbreaking in 20 years when it comes out she's on steroids and they strip her of her medals
Why would you think/say that? you know she is strictly tested right?
Because she's an American backed Olympic athlete. They're all on supplements, and if they're not they're stupid because everyone else is as well.
Trust me, my father went to the Olympics in '76 in Canada. Even then everyone was on everything they could be. There's a reason each generation is beating every other generation.

Fuck me I did competitive track on the state level and was openly told by my coach if I didn't do injections I wouldn't make it past the qualifying races. I didn't and did not.
According to her test results, she is not. If you remember, Russians hacked the database and released her information after they were kicked and the only thing she tested positive for was her Ritalin for ADHD and that is not going to really help her in regards to her Gymnastics to begin with outside of helping her concentrate so she doesn't injure herself by being distracted. This isn't the 70's, the rules are far more stringent now. I was even tested in High School and they stand there are watch you pee.

The rules and world have changed since then I think.
But if a Government is behind you, why wouldn't they find ways around those tests? Usain Bolt, fastest man ever, tested negative for any drugs. Until they did blood work and found out he was on unique steroids that were untraceable in all but the most Dr. House level of testing. Normal pee tests didn't detect anything.
If those drugs are around, why wouldn't an athlete take them? Wasn't it the last Olympics the entire Russian swimming team tested positive and American swimmers threw them shade when they won their events? Everyone knows everyone else is on something.

Also blood doping is all but undetectable
TBH though I don't think steroids would even help that much in female gymnastics as muscle building isn't the primary objective but more of a side effect of training and the side effects would interfere with her ability to execute since so much of gymnastics is mental. Athletes with superior strength endurance and ability still can't do what she does. You have to keep in mind that male and female gymnastics are different.

Most of the issues with failing drug tests for female gymnasts have been about using shit like decongestants and crap, not steroids because steroids do not really help female gymnasts all that much. Most female gymnasts see bulking up as being problematic to their balance and execution rather than want to actually do it. It is often difficult for gymnasts who train like Biles does to keep the bulk down, not that they want to make more of it. Female gymnastics isn't really like a lot of other sports.
 

McElroy

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Avnger said:
McElroy said:
Biles in particular stands out because while she sure is built, she is also only 1.42 meters tall. That basically means she had a really short puberty at age 9 or 10, and I'd wager it wasn't entirely up to chance.
Short people totally don't exist naturally...
Ah yes it's a coincidence silly me