It really happens
Everyone who went to bed at midnight last night woke up to a big surprise: College footballers from the five major conferences want to form a union.
Last week, Pac-12 players threatened to boycott the 2020 season unless the conference agreed to a series of demands from the athletes. Over the weekend, another group of players (including Clemson’s Trevor Lawrence and many Ohio State Buckeyes) began tweeting in concert about their longing to play. It seemed that the two groups were together – one was trying to use the leverage against the power structure of high school football, the other was hoping to work with the people in leadership and get to grips with this season.
Then came the flower whistle.
The #WeAreUnited movement of the Pac-12 players and the #WeWantToPlay effort of the other players went hand in hand. Lawrence and Ohio State quarterback Justin Fields (who could easily go first and second in the 2021 NFL draft) called for identical statements at 12:01 am ET for a set of NCAA-wide policies to address the pandemic’s impact to tackle college football. The goals are simple: create universal protections for health and safety and allow players to take on without qualifying. And then there’s the big one: ‘Use our voices to create open communication and trust between players and officials; eventually forming a College Football Players Association. ‘
This is enormous. Footballers at Northwestern tried earlier and failed to unite, but now you have a much larger group engaged in the effort. College football can function without Northwest. It cannot function without the ACC, Big 12, Big Ten, Pac-12 and SEC. There’s a chance that 10 years from now will look back at 12:01 pm on August 10, 2020, because the moment college football changed forever.
This is a player-led movement throughout. Although Lawrence and Fields used their status as the top players in the game to bring attention and urgency to the challenge, the power of the movement lies in their numbers and their support of athletes at various levels.
Dallas Hobbs, a largely anonymous Washington State defensive lineman, played an equally important role in getting the message across. Hobbs was given a chance to change things around.
Hobbs is a redshirt junior for the Cougars. He played in all 13 of the team’s games last year, seven started, and had 5.5 tackles-for-losses, good for third on the team. He was also named to the CoSIDA Academic All-District 8 First Team after earning a 3.81 GPA as Digital Technology and Culture major. he has Twitter and Instagram accounts just for displaying his artwork, including cool timelapse stuff like this:
As of this writing, Hobbs has only 241 followers on Instagram and 909 on Twitter. If nothing else, his ability to run this chart in the short term and with such amazing results is really good for him. He should have no trouble landing a great job in graphic design once he graduates.
You can not really do this
MLB made it crystal clear that clearing the benches is strictly forbidden this season, in order to limit unnecessary contact between players. And yet, the Astros have already been involved in two bench-clearing incidents.
Houston hit coach Alex Cintrón appears to be the plug here. Center reported the mother of Ramón Laureano, whereby Laureano charged the dugout.
MLB dropped the hammer on Joe Kelly for his role in the first bench-breaking incident in Houston, kicking him eight games (13% of the entire season), but no one else was suspended.
If the league wants to prevent future incidents like this, it should set an example for the Houston and Oakland players at the center of the brawl.
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On the LPGA Tour, Lydia Ko blew a five-shot lead with six holes to play. … The Indians again sent pitcher Zach Plesac before leaving the team hotel in Chicago to go out with friends. … Employees of cardinals who became infected during the outbreak of the coronavirus should visit the emergency room, says manager Mike Shildt.
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A good song
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