Then, the trip itself. Nine weeks chronicled here in detail.
Now, nine weeks after our return. To mark the occasion I called Callum and caught him (shockingly!) at Jelly Hill. The turnout, he said, was low. He and Lucy were there along with Kirtseen and Callan. The fire fighting duo were expected. Callum blamed the weather, 55 and raining...true Glaswegian weather.
So, half a year passed in this trio of nine week blocks. A certain symmetry if you will.
And now to the purpose of today's missive. Hypocrisy. Two events from the sporting world and from a world (football, or American football) where my interest is slightly less than studying the mating habits of three-toed sloths. My friends know that I have watched less than five professional football games in the last five years, even eschewing last year's Super Bowl. You can blame the over-entitled pissant Eli Manning, whose fit of pique and refusal to play in San Diego finally demonstrated what a callow bunch runs across our less than Elyssian Fields.
Reggie Bush, the electrifying all-purpose back who was indeed the best college player in 2005, returned his Heisman Trophy. His crime, he took some money when he was an undergraduate, thus making him ineligible. The results of that are now visited on a coach and players who were nowhere near the campus in 2005. The irony of the NCAA and its punishment. The USC coach at that time, Pete Carroll, now coaches an NFL team and makes a multi-million salary that has him rooting for an extension of the Bush-era tax cuts. (In this case the Bush in question would be George W. and not Reggie.) Reggie is a pro football player with the current world champions, the New Orleans Saints.
The report was that the Heisman committee was considering asking for the trophy back. Bush relieved them of that hollow wringing of hands and gnashing of teeth by returning it of his own volition.
The hypocrisy is the entire system of college athletics. Coaches who earn millions of dollars, schools that earn comparable sums for appearing in bowl games, ticket sales, television revenue. Hell, Notre Dame has its own network, NBC! The only ones not making money, the kids on the field. Who are also banned from holding jobs or risk loosing their scholarships. And the Heisman itself. If you want to go and watch the presentation, a ticket will cost you $500.00.
Our second example of hypocrisy is Ines Sainz. Ms. Sainz, who might be a member of Mensa, was certainly not hired for her intellect. She is a stunning beauty. Walking Cialis. She would get the College of Cardinals electing the next Pope to melt into paroxysms of cat-calls and wolf whistles. Ms. Sainz walks into a locker room full of naked Jets and expects what? She was also upset that the team ran a play near to where she was standing on the field. These two incidents offended her. She was, well, treated like an object.
No journalist, male or female, actually needs to be in a locker room. There are press areas and mandates that require athletes to make themselves available to the press. This access is an anachronistic throwback to the days of fedoras, spiked stories, and cigarettes drooping from the mouths of Heywood Hale Broun or Red Smith.
The hypocrisy...do I really need to explain it? Thought not. But you might be interested to know that male reporters are denied access to the locker rooms of the WNBA, the Women's National Basketball League.
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