or is it?
I used to be a sports fanatic. Everyone in New England grew up with the Red Sox. They were our regional religion. And a few years later my brother-in-law would play for them. So, Sox.
(There was no pro football team in New England when I was young. The “Patriots” were a no-count AFL team with no stadium of their own until 1965. I left New England 3 years later.)
Even so, once I understood football — both by being a tomboy and watching from the marching band in junior high and high school — I loved it. I went to the Gator games dressed up with a big chrysanthemum, because before it was the Swamp and hosted more than the population of the city at the time I lived there, it was still the place to be on Saturday afternoons. I learned how quickly a game can turn, watching John Reeves and Carlos Alvarez take over a season the Gators were supposed to lose, following Steve Spurrier’s departure — from quarterback, not coach.
I really learned how quickly a game can turn watching Butch Davis coach the Miami Hurricanes from our season ticket seats on the 50 yard line, 10 rows from the bench, in the actual Orange Bowl, an arena with a character all its own. And, yes, a Gator can cheer for the ‘Canes, especially against FSU!
I was a lifelong Raiders fan, too, through thick and thin, city after city, Al Davis, post-Al, Art Shell, Jon Gruden….I went to Raiders games in any city I could afford to, including Pittsburgh and Miami. I had “gear” signed by Hall of Famers. Hats and jackets. I knew the stats.
But by the time the Raiders moved to a city I had lived in, and had Jon Gruden back as coach, the entire NFL system had genuflected before the god of political “correctness,” and I had stopped watching.
Let me just stop right here and say that sports was once the single best place to relax among all of America, with NO POLITICS.
Was. Once.
I used to be a racing fan too. I think it started when I lived in Monaco, and felt the palpable excitement that encircled all of Monte Carlo in the week leading up to the Monaco Grand Prix. That first year, I was just “living” in a hotel for a month and hadn’t moved there. And my month included the race week — but then my bosses on the cruise ships had an emergency. They’d had to fire all the gift shop staff, because they were stealing. And I had to come back, immediately and meet the boat in San Juan, to take over and train a whole new gift shop staff, as we sailed.
Needless to say, I was more than a little miffed. Those F1 cars and their drivers had been the most exciting atmosphere I’d ever been around, and I wanted to see the race, dammit.
(I moved to Monaco and lived there 9 months and missed the race on both ends.)
When we lived in Vegas, I started watching all kinds of racing, because Ken had grown up working on his father’s stock cars. He knew all about it, and it’s always more fun when you have background and inside. We watched Winston Cup and Champ, and the Formula races when they showed them. We went to the Las Vegas dragway, and one year went out to watch a section of the Mint 400 off road craziness. Our neighbor, a retired Ford Aerospace guy was helping man a “stop.”
I loved racing of all kinds. I got to “know” drivers like I “knew” football coaches. I followed the sport.
I was a fan.
I even became a fan of bicycle racing, because my husband once raced himself, in high school, at a time when few schools had such teams. He and I started watching the Tour de France together when I realized 1) we could record it and watch it when we were actually home, and 2) it was a big travelogue of France every year.
When I moved back to the South, NASCAR had emerged from Winston Cup and in a few years Champ would become IndyCar. My husband liked F1 and endurance races, so we went to races in Montreal and Sebring. It was a blast! It’s hard to overestimate the thrill of the sound and speed of an F1 car as it flies down a straightaway.
We were fans. We had a big TV and leisure time and discretionary income. LOL.
And then it all started to become something else. Something more, or actually less, than sports.
The NFL had let the tail wag the dog and was now ruled by BLM. Roger Goodall is so scared of losing his millions-a-year position that he’d give his grandchildren to Moluch if the Chinese and NWO handlers told him to. So, no more Raiders.
But we still had racing.
Then NASCAR was bought and paid for, and staged the Bubba Wallace racist noose hoax and never backed down. In fact, the Feebs showed up so quickly, I’m not sure they didn’t set it up. Just sayin’….
NASCAR lost almost as many fans as the NFL.
But we still had F1.
Then F1 decided that they had to honor the misguided racism of their only “black” driver and F1 was now “all inclusive” and “celebrating diversity.” This in a sport that completely run by very, very rich white people. So, guilt. Oh, and money.
Never having liked the rich thugs of basketball* and knowing what we know now about the nefarious and seditious elements within our favorite major universities (not U of F, but it’s only a matter of time) — we are sport-less.
Of course the so-called pandemic and all its constantly changing rules made everyone “sport-less” for awhile. And when sports returned, the transloonies were included in the women’s groups, so….
But in the last few days the entire “political correctness” lunacy has come full circle in NASCAR – and it’s outrageous enough to make us pay attention again, at least to one driver.
A couple months ago, an up-and-coming-but-mostly-unknown driver named Brandon Brown won the race in Talladega. It was early in the “F*** Joe Biden” chanting phenomena, and NASCAR fans were loudly chanting that in the back of Brandon’s winning interview — on NBC Sports. Since NBC Sports is bought and paid for by China and subservient to its NWO cabal puppetmasters, the interviewer insisted that the crowd was chanting “Let’s Go Brandon.”
And, as Forrest Gump liked to say, “just like that…” a movement was born.
“Let’s Go Brandon” became the politically correct way to be politically incorrect!
Everyone said it. It became flags, posters, wallpaper, wrapping paper, hats…even congressmen used it to close speeches. “Let’s Go Brandon” has become the catchphrase of 2021, because Brandon himself, the pResident, said it himself, on the Santa Clause call. You can’t make this sh** up….
The other real Brandon, who knew the day it happened what the crowd was really chanting, has had a very hard time of it ever since. His handlers told him to ignore it. So he did. But then his sponsors blamed him! Even thought the real fault is the stupid NBC interviewer. So last week he composed a thoughtful and well-tempered op-ed to explain what has happened to him since Talladega, and how he’s not political, but understands Americans’ frustration with what’s happening in our country.
Some people saw the opportunity to get noticed in a big way, and he got sponsored by “LGB crypto currency,” with a red, white and blue livery initially approved by NASCAR. It was exactly right. We still — for the next few seconds anyway — live in a capitalist country where a sponsor should be able to sponsor.
But then NASCAR had another pearl-clutching moment and got the vapors about the LGB logo and now claims it wasn’t approved.
Stay tuned to see what other industry-destroying move they make next!
But not to end on a sour note — a new development in bowl games has emerged this year. When Clemson won their bowl, over whatever team the bowl was able to scrounge up without virus issues, Dabo Sweeney got the proverbial cooler over the head dump. But instead of Gatorade — it was Cheez-Its!!! Hilarious.
And when South Carolina Gamecocks beat the UNC Commies at the Duke’s Mayo Bowl in Charlotte, the SC coach got dunked in — wait for it — Duke’s MAYO! It was heavy and took awhile to come out but again, hilarious! We are liking this new turn in college sports. I can’t wait for the Gator Bowl….just sayin’.
Happy New Year y’all!
* Not including Sam Jones, who passed away today at 88. He and his wonderful wife were nothing but class and kindness. RIP