MichiganCardinal

Maybe hanging up is hyperbolic, but I think it’s widely known that there is no bluechip can’t-miss prospect in this class. If the Eagles were desperate for a QB and RG3 or Goff were sitting at 1.2 it would be a different story. I don’t see them sacrificing three starters for Hutch or Thib. Maybe two, but not three.

Likewise. I think the majority of the academics who pull the strings at Michigan are the same, but at the same time, money talks. In a big money sport, money yells. Schools across the US are perfectly content to contribute to questionable ethics within athletics on one hand while publicly praising their commitment to integrity and academic excellence on the other. Seldom are they put into a position where they have to choose though, and that’s where M finds themselves now.

I do think it’s interesting that Mary Sue has already become involved in this. After two decades of very steady growth as a university, building a reputation as a top-five public school with a very solid athletic department that excels academically and mostly doesn’t make bad press off the playing field, they’ve been thrown into total turmoil in the last year or so. Between Dr. Anderson, firing Schlissel, and the hockey team’s latest fiasco, they can’t seem to get the crisis management team off the payroll. MSC was brought back to right the ship, and her publicly apologizing to Wisconsin mere hours following the incident is interesting, and not something I think Schlissel would have done. For an institution that fancies itself as being a peer institution to the Ivies, their response will be telling. If this had happened to Stanford or Harvard men’s basketball, the coach would be gone, no doubt about it. If this had happened to UM women’s gymnastics, the coach would similarly be gone without second thought... OTOH, if this had happened at Ohio State or Gonzaga, the coach would be slapped on the wrist with a couple game suspension and be back by tournament tip-off. They’re in it to win it, not be the morality police. Does Michigan care more about its outer facing image and how their athletic department portrays them as a university, or do they care more about winning games and making money? Time will tell.

I will say I think Holmes should at least engage Philadelphia (and pretty much every team in between us and Philly) in conversation about their interest in moving up. Not all three picks, they’d hang up on him. If they would consider trading two of 15/16/19 for #2 though, I would strongly consider it, even though the draft chart says we would be losing that trade by quite a bit. Having two prospects in the teens is greater than having one in the top five this draft. IMO.

I don’t think he’ll be fired. I think he’ll be suspended the rest of the season and tournament (if M makes it).

The smoke coming from the City of Philadelphia burning after a trade like that probably wouldn’t be good for the environment.

The new American Dream

That sailed right over my head on first read.

They offered her $500k *after* a jury awarded her $3 million. And she took it. As sagnam said though originally she only wanted $20k. I tend to agree that the legal system fails more often than it succeeds. I can’t say it’s the worst in the world because I have no experience elsewhere. I can say the criminal system is certainly no better than the civil system.

The McDonald's coffee lady was actually a very legitimate suit. She had 3rd degree burns on her legs that required multiple surgeries resulting from outrageously hot coffee - like 200*, nearly boiling hot. She also wasn't the first person to complain, hundreds had complained of injuries from the coffee temp before she sued. McDonald's only offered her like $1000 to pay for her medical bills, and the jury found that McDonalds was negligent. They fined them two-days coffee sales, about $3 million. She ended up settling for about $500k and McDonalds lowered the temperature of their coffee. Then when the corporate lawyers actually lost to the everyday American, they launched this massive (and extremely successful) smear campaign to make everyone think "oh the system is so broken, she spilled coffee, launched a frivolous lawsuit, and got off with millions!" when really, she was the personification of the legal system actually working. The more you know.

I don't think the 3-4 / 4-3 distinction means as much as it did 10-20 years ago. Almost every NFL team nowadays uses the nickel (4-2-5) as their primary base package. The only exception I can think of is the Packers, who AFAIK still use more dime (4-1-6). Whether you envision that 4th up-man with their hand in the dirt like a DE (in the 4-3) or you keep them upright like an OLB (in the 3-4), their purpose is generally the same at the end of the day. In a perfect world that 4th man is crashing in on runs like a DE and creating pressure on passes like an OLB, no matter what you call them. How you start doesn't matter if you can finish in the backfield. That said, O'Connell coming in as a supposed offensive guru and picking a defensive scheme a half second after he's picked a defensive coordinator is a little alarming if I am a Vikings fan. Good thing I'm not.

This made me laugh. The turnover rate on those reps is so high that you barely get to know their first name before a new one is assigned. I would guess that people who pay more (club seats especially) get the better/tenured reps, but I got a happy birthday message from mine last week and had to scroll back to remember who they were.

Both. This is only my second season as a STM, so I could lie in the future if Holmes/Campbell works out and claim I knew it from their announcement. In truth though, when I moved back to Michigan in early 2020 I would have gotten season tickets for the 2020 season if there were fans. I don’t have any intention to not renew based on performance, though obviously the product is better when we win, and I’m sure I will tire of it at some point if we are consistently winning 6 or less games. For me, it’s been a way to do something I enjoy (the entire experience) and reconnect with various friends and family. I brought someone different to every game last season, some of them were even old friends from school who flew in. My seats are pretty decent (section 109 row in the 20s on the aisle). They go for more than I pay on the resale market. There are only 8-9 games, so it’s not like I’m “burdened” with 80 trips to Detroit for the Tigers or 40 for the Pistons/Wings. I’m satisfied with the product I get. Might change with age, guess we will see.

Renewed my 2023 season tickets today. Chuckled as I authorized automatic payments for home playoff games.

You and so many others! If we want to say that the person who paid $30 for a ticket to a college baseball or USPBL game has paid for the right to yell at an official (within reason), fine. Whatever. Those officials are pretty well compensated, and are experienced enough to know how to tune that out and know their “role”, so to speak. Call that “thick skin” if you want I guess. When we transfer that to youth ball though, we are removing a ton of smart young officials from an already limited pool of officials, because they (as a teenager) can’t manage being yelled at by adults (who they look at as authority figures). Something that has nothing to do with balls, strikes, safe, and out. They quit. Who can blame them?

In some of those, the 16yo umpire was me. And I tend to agree. I don’t think it’s on the umpire to “allow” or “not allow” the behavior though, and I don’t think it has anything to do with their level of training. If someone is going to show their ass, no one can stop them. All an official can do is remove a participant. As you said, it’s on the league to react appropriately from that point on. When the league didn’t suspend a coach for the cheeseburger comment (and subsequent ejection), despite a league rule I had created that required it, because the coach was buddies with the president, I told them it would be my last year.

As an aside, if anyone in the area ever has to go through something like this in the future, I cannot recommend Pet Passages enough. I’m working with their Lake Orion location. They’ve been phenomenal, from my first tear-filled phone call, to accommodating any special request I had, to making me feel like their only client. I can’t imagine doing that job on a daily basis, but they are truly greater than I ever could have imagined.

It’s funny you bring this up. I got the paw print from the cremation service today, and I had the same thought. Thinking of getting his print tattoo’d on my back, since I know my buddy always had mine.

20 years ago there were about 13,000 MHSAA registered officials. Today, there are about 7,000. The trend is going nowhere but down.

I used to oversee umpires for a moderately sized Little League in the area. I used almost exclusively youth umpires, working their first job. When grown men are calling my 16-year-old umpires "pencil neck", telling them they're too skinny and need to eat a cheeseburger, getting chest-to-chest on a field with another coach in front of them, flipping them off on the field, and telling them they'll meet them in the parking lot (all very real scenarios that happened either in that league or another), how do we seriously expect these kids to say "yeah I want to keep doing this! I want to get better!" They either quit on the spot, or stay with it long enough to make some pocket change in high school. They don't stay on as officials when they go to college. They don't become the good 20-30yo officials you want working high school games, or beyond. Then the officials you get are retired 60-70yos and people complain because they are old and can't move. Ultimately, the problem is not with the official, it's with the coaches, parents, adults, and society generally that thinks it's okay to yell at other people in a kid's game, because that person who is working "should have a thick skin".

Why is that? These are often young children playing a sport they barely know, because their parents are making them. These officials are making $30 or $40 a game plus a hot dog, and oftentimes are kids themselves. People verbally accost officials one day and then are up in arms when their game is rescheduled for lack of officials the next. If "thick skin" is a job prerequisite, you're taking out quite a lot of very good, qualified officials for something that has absolutely no bearing on the game.

As a sports official, I won’t work youth baseball anymore for this same reason. I work college and semi-pro baseball, but won’t do travel baseball. I never worked basketball or soccer, but would be the same way. I will work youth football for select leagues, because if game admin does their job and keeps the parents in the bleachers, there is a degree of separation. After I was verbally accosted at the age of 14 by a 40-something 6’ tall dude in a muscle shirt while working a seven year old softball game, nah, I’m good. People can keep wondering why there is a massive officials shortage and why the officials who show up for those youth games suck though.

Final: Motor City Sonics: 8 MichiganCardinal: 8 mtutiger: 6 Buddha: 5 Hongbit: 4