SPORTS!!!

[billy.pilgrim]

ESPN returns 37 Emmys, disciplines employees after a decades-long scheme is unearthed

https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/esp ... 44238.html

“ESPN has returned dozens of Emmys and disciplined employees involved in a decades-long scheme to secure trophies for ineligible on-air personalities by submitting fake names for consideration, according to the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (NATAS) and the sports network.”

[Vrede too]

ESPN returns 37 Emmys, disciplines employees after a decades-long scheme is unearthed

https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/esp ... 44238.html

“ESPN has returned dozens of Emmys and disciplined employees involved in a decades-long scheme to secure trophies for ineligible on-air personalities by submitting fake names for consideration, according to the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (NATAS) and the sports network.”

... Since at least 2010, ESPN employees attached fake names to awards entries, the network said in a statement, and the scheme may have stretched back to 1997. When ESPN won an award, and trophies were awarded to all names submitted, employees took the extra trophies and had them reengraved with the names of on-air talent....

So, these "winners" would not appear on any list anywhere, all for faked $300 to $400 statuettes This should create a response for alleged sports cheaters being questioned by ESPN for years to come.

[Vrede too]

Florida golf and gators? "Hold my beer," says Australian tennis:

Dominic Thiem advances after brush with deadly snake at Brisbane

I've always wanted to visit Australia, but it seems like the whole continent wants to kill you.

Otoh, Australia is there to help with your "Dry January" resolution:

https://www.facebook.com/adelaidehillss ... 7902607778

Article

[GoCubsGo]

Florida golf and gators? "Hold my beer," says Australian tennis:

Dominic Thiem advances after brush with deadly snake at Brisbane

I've always wanted to visit Australia, but it seems like the whole continent wants to kill you.

Otoh, Australia is there to help with your "Dry January" resolution:

https://www.facebook.com/adelaidehillss ... 7902607778

Article

I told you!

[Vrede too]

ESPN returns 37 Emmys, disciplines employees after a decades-long scheme is unearthed

https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/esp ... 44238.html

“ESPN has returned dozens of Emmys and disciplined employees involved in a decades-long scheme to secure trophies for ineligible on-air personalities by submitting fake names for consideration, according to the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (NATAS) and the sports network.”

Bad times for ESPN:

The NFL buying ESPN is the final frontier in the effort to kill sports journalism
When the biggest league owns the biggest media outlet, how much wrongdoing do you think is going to get covered?

Last week, my colleague Sean Beckwith wrote about the NFL possibly buying a stake in ESPN, and the potential for the self-proclaimed Worldwide Leader in Sports to become nothing more than the PR arm of the most popular league in America (at least, more than it already is). Yesterday, over at The Nation, Dave Zirin wrote of the problem of the lack of critical coverage of the NFL and what that means for one of the biggest and most profitable corporations in America, which already owns a day of the week. Consider this: About 25 million Americans attend church on Sundays; 22 million Americans watch the NFL on Sunday Nights alone, and the league averages over 17 million viewers per game. In terms of sheer numbers, we are talking about a company that is nearly as popular as God.

What does it mean, then, to have fewer and fewer reporters covering the NFL critically? In his excellent piece yesterday, Zirin wrote:

“Good journalism was already in danger at ESPN, but it is one thing to hide important reporting at the bottom of a website, and it is another thing to spike any efforts to investigate the NFL at all. If the NFL has decision-making power at ESPN, that is probably an inevitability. We have seen this with the NFL Network, which hired stellar reporters only, according to journalist and former employee Jim Trotter, to limit the extent to which they can ply their craft.”

Another blow to sports journalism:

Sports Illustrated’s Entire Staff Told Their Jobs Have Been Eliminated After Authenic Brands Revokes License To Publish; Union Vows To “Fight For Every One Of Our Colleagues”

Is that the permanent end of SI? It's been decades since I was a subscriber, but I always valued its contribution to the sports (and beachwear ) world.

What does your son think about the state of ESPN and SI?

[Vrede too]

Jaguars asked FanDuel to return stolen $20M, source says

He embezzled and gambled away $20M???!!! I'm clueless about the legal technicalities, but off the top of my head I'm inclined to agree with:

... The source familiar with the situation said discussions are ongoing among FanDuel, the Jaguars and the NFL on what the source called "a settlement." However, the source said, "The way they see it ... we got this money fair and clear. It's not our problem that we have to forfeit it back to you."

"I would be gobsmacked if it happened," the source added.

3½ years - Sloppy sloppy accounting/monitoring/auditing by the Jaguars.

... One veteran daily fantasy player told ESPN on condition of anonymity that they believe ParlayPicker is "the biggest loser ever on FanDuel."

"He was legendarily bad," the person said....

I'll say!

[O Really]

$6 mil gets gone every year for 3 years and nobody notices? No wonder the Jags are such a sorry franchise from top to bottom.

[Vrede too]

$6 mil gets gone every year for 3 years and nobody notices? No wonder the Jags are such a sorry franchise from top to bottom.

Exactly, that is
Better than a Mitch Trubisky or about two Justin Fields per year:
https://www.spotrac.com/nfl/salaries/br ... arterback/
More than the NFL average for almost any position:
https://www.marca.com/en/nfl/2023/07/10 ... b456f.html
About the average for NFL head coach:
https://www.sportskeeda.com/nfl/how-muc ... aches-2023

[Vrede too]

Does anyone have experience with online gambling? Sports betting has just become legal here and multiple sites are offering $250 to $300 in "bonus bets" if one bets $5 or $10. Are these the good deal that they appear to be? I know they're designed to get me hooked, but I'm not built that way. I'll easily drop the gambling once the bonuses are used up, and I like the idea of free money. Is it legit or all a scam? Thanks.

[GoCubsGo]

Does anyone have experience with online gambling? Sports betting has just become legal here and multiple sites are offering $250 to $300 in "bonus bets" if one bets $5 or $10. Are these the good deal that they appear to be? I know they're designed to get me hooked, but I'm not built that way. I'll easily drop the gambling once the bonuses are used up, and I like the idea of free money. Is it legit or all a scam? Thanks.

No clue, sorry.

[O Really]

Me either

[Vrede too]

Me either

I decided that it is a scam, sort of. One site offers 5 x $50, so I'll use that as an example. They tell you in the fine print that they keep the stake with any winners. Sure there are bets where the net could be $50 or more, but those are very long shots, not even worth the time. More responsible betting will see me gaining $10-25 if I win while the casino recaptures its $50. So, in reality:
I'll spend or win back the initial $5-10;
I'll invest time and energy;
I'll walk away with $50-125 at best, NOT > $250, big whoop ;
They will have my email, credit card # and other personal info.
There's a small chance that I'll get hooked, which is the whole point.

Nope, hominy don't play that.

[Vrede too]

I never knew this:
https://www.tiktok.com/@j.billiard3/vid ... 2526669057

[Vrede too]

A 40-year-old just became the oldest woman to win a World Figure Skating Championship. What she wants non-athletes to know

... ‘I’m the oldest everywhere’ – and proud of it

She had an impressive junior career as a singles skater, winning the 1999-2000 international Junior Grand Prix Final and capturing the silver medal at the 2000 World Junior Championships.

But she suffered a spate of injuries, including a broken left ankle, a torn ligament in her right ankle and a significant hip injury. So she retired in 2001, at age 17.

For the next 16 years, Stellato-Dudek lived a relatively normal adulthood. She became a successful aesthetician and got married. She was no longer attempting risky triple jumps on international ice.

But the pangs of unfinished business kept nagging at her. What if she had quit the sport too early? What if she had more to accomplish in skating?

So she tried on her old skates and attempted the unfathomable – learning how to become a pairs skater in her 30s and returning to competitive ice....

Stellato-Dudek uprooted her life in Chicago and moved to Montreal to skate with her new partner. The gamble paid off, and now Stellato-Dudek and Deschamps are unlikely world champions at ages 40 and 32....

2026 Olympics loom – with another obstacle

Stellato-Dudek is not done. Her next major goal is to compete in the 2026 Winter Olympics at age 42 – potentially shattering records once again.

But first, she needs to become a Canadian citizen. When she and Deschamps first teamed up a few years ago, they decided to represent Canada instead of the US because they thought it would be faster for her to get Canadian citizenship than for him to attain US citizenship.

“I’m doing all that I can do to make myself more attractive to Canada,” Stellato-Dudek said with a laugh after winning the short program this week, according to NBC Sports.



... her palpable intensity and voracious approach to training every day leaves little doubt she can be ready for the next Olympics.

“She is a warrior,” her partner said. “For her, it’s the Olympics every day.”

O Canada!

[Vrede too]

Harrison Butker responds to Serena Williams' ESPYs dig: 'Sports are supposed to be the great unifier'

Harrison Butker apparently didn't enjoy watching Serena Williams joke that he wasn't welcome in the world of women's sports.

A day after the tennis legend roasted him onstage alongside her sister Venus and "Abbott Elementary" creator and star Quinta Brunson, the Kansas City ... kicker issued a statement to NBC News complaining about the joke:

"I thought Mrs. Williams was a great host and applaud her for using her platform to express her beliefs on a variety of topics."

He added: "Sports are supposed to be the great unifier and at an event dedicated to celebrating a diverse group of men and women who have accomplished great feats, she used it as an opportunity to disinvite those with whom she disagrees with from supporting fellow athletes."

Don't use your platform to be a christofascist misogynist bigot then.

... The line about Butker came during a segment in which the Williams sisters and Brunson gave a tongue-in-cheek seminar on how to enjoy women's sports. Butker wasn't the only person to be the butt of a joke — the trio subtly called out ESPN's Pat McAfee for calling Caitlin Clark a "white bitch from Indiana" and Williams made a crack about how winning a Grand Slam while pregnant is more impressive than if LeBron James won an NBA championship with his son Bronny.

The Butker line, however, was the most direct. It came at the end of the segment when Venus was explaining how everyone should get into women's sports, to which Serena said "Except you, Harrison Butker. We don't need you."

Brunson added "At all. Like, ever," while the crowd broke into laughter and applause....

[GoCubsGo]

Fuck him.

[O Really]

I know, "First Amendment...yada" but that doesn't protect against civil and societal consequences. If Butker wants to stand up and spread his shit, he can't whine when he gets it back.

[Vrede too]

Florida golf and gators? "Hold my beer," says Australian tennis:

Dominic Thiem advances after brush with deadly snake at Brisbane

I've always wanted to visit Australia, but it seems like the whole continent wants to kill you.

Aha, irl you are:

Bill Bryson, In a Sunburned Country, page 6:

“[Australia] is the home of the largest living thing on earth, the Great Barrier Reef, and of the largest monolith, Ayers Rock (or Uluru to use its now-official, more respectful Aboriginal name). It has more things that will kill you than anywhere else. Of the world's ten most poisonous snakes, all are Australian. Five of its creatures - the funnel web spider, box jellyfish, blue-ringed octopus, paralysis tick, and stonefish - are the most lethal of their type in the world. This is a country where even the fluffiest of caterpillars can lay you out with a toxic nip, where seashells will not just sting you but actually sometimes go for you. ... If you are not stung or pronged to death in some unexpected manner, you may be fatally chomped by sharks or crocodiles, or carried helplessly out to sea by irresistible currents, or left to stagger to an unhappy death in the baking outback. It's a tough place.”

[Vrede too]

More:

... Bryson gets a lot of mileage out of Australia being a "wondrously venomous and toothy country."...

[Vrede too]

...

I know how much you appreciate nontraditional "beauty" representations :

SI Swimsuit Models React to Ilona Maher’s Stunning Digital Cover Feature
The two-time Olympian posed for the September digital SI Swimsuit Issue in Bellport, New York.

American rugby player and Olympic bronze medalist Ilona Maher is SI Swimsuit’s September digital issue cover model. The exciting news was unveiled on Instagram this morning, and unsurprisingly, it was met with major fanfare....

“AHHHHHH in love ,” SI Swimsuit’s inaugural digital cover model Alix Earle gushed.

“BEAUTYYYYY @ilonamaher ,” brand legend Hunter McGrady cheered.

“MY QUEEN,” two-time SI Swimsuit model Sixtine applauded.

“i knew this was coming & i am obsessed,” brand alumna Olivia Ponton noted.

“Omg yesss @ilonamaher!!!!” four-time SI Swimsuit star Katie Austin added.

“I can’t wait to see the photos ,” 2024 brand rookie Jena Sims said.

Maher, who has a combined 6.1 million followers and counting across Instagram and TikTok, uses her platforms to remind followers that women can be multifacited—it’s one of the many reasons she was selected to be September’s digital SI Swimsuit Issue cover star....

Guardian: US rugby star Ilona Maher hailed as ‘feminist trailblazer’ for swimsuit shoot
Olympic star turns Sports Illustrated swimsuit model after saying she’s targeting World Cup in England next year

Ilona Maher’s 2024 SI Swimsuit Photo Shoot in Bellport (video)