The Brian D. O'Leary Show - Is the money in sports worth more than the truth? - January 3, 2023
The Brian D. O’Leary Show
January 3, 2023
Fountain.FM
Support us with Bitcoin/Satoshis over at Fountain.FM
For the best and most complete show notes, go to our Substack page.
https://briandoleary.substack.com/
Update (moments before I hit publish):
Horribly sad, if true.
“There is a lot of speculation on the Internet about whether or not Damar Hamlin will recover from his injury.
I am very sad to report that this is unlikely.
While I very much hope that I am wrong about this, the evidence that is known is not favorable.”
https://stevekirsch.substack.com/p/the-most-likely-scenario-is-that
I link to another Steve Kirsch article later…
What happened last night on Monday Night Football?
In broad strokes, we know what happened: a young ballplayer, Damar Hamlin, went into cardiac arrest during the course of play.
But the reaction to this terrible event has been all over the board with virtue-signaling from all sides without a concern for the truth.
There has been no legitimate reporting on the event from the news or sports media. Anything we’re finding out is because of independent media. I am not sure what all of this means, but I have some thoughts…
In this podcast, I analyze last night's events and it only runs about 30 minutes. But if you want to get a bird’s eye view of what I’m talking about, the rest of these show notes should suffice.
The talking heads on ESPN were stuck with talking about an event that nobody can really prepare for. Instead of rising to the occasion, the hours of coverage—until they strangely cut to an axe-throwing competition after the Bills-Bengals game was ultimately postponed for the night—were full of fluff and talking for talk’s sake.
We learned very little about what happened to Damar Hamlin other than he received CPR and went to the hospital and remained in stable but critical condition.
Here’s the play:
The folks on ESPN emoted and talked. We learned nothing other than certain people lack composure on air when push comes to shove.
Ironically, an article that came my way earlier today praised the efforts of the entire ESPN team and its coverage, going so far as to call it a “masterclass” and that “we’ll be teaching their coverage of Monday night’s story in journalism school for decades.” This is from a supposedly credible writer.
He went on. “There was no speculation. No rumors. No reporting of what was being speculated on Twitter. Just honest conversations, straight reporting, real human emotion.”
In case you’d like to know more about these factual but feckless statements, I analyze the situation in more detail on the podcast.
One thing we didn’t mention was Skip Bayless’s reaction to all of this. In the first place, Skip is a world class jerk and he doesn’t help himself when he tries to Tweet or talk himself out of the various predicaments he caused by his own words.
Jason Whitlock Tweeted what are essentially my sentiments about Bayless in this situation:
“It’s all so phony. All of it. The outrage toward Skip and this reaction by Skip. It’s all performance. Sad and embarrassing.”
https://twitter.com/WhitlockJason/status/1610288252925222912?s=20&t=_GviJG4RxbG_dDpW8c832Q
The problem in all this coverage is that nobody was even the least bit willing to put on the mere façade of being a journalist.
As I saw it from the beginning, ESPN was in no position to find out the truth in what happened on Monday night.
The network often acts like it has hard-hitting journalists, but many of them have proven to be total frauds. Some may do good work, but as a whole the sports journalism angle from ESPN is a joke.
Look no further than the epic With the Benefit of Hindsight podcast by John Ziegler & Liz Habib.
In the Penn State case and now in this recent episode, ESPN has a vested interest for the truth to NOT emerge!
Sure, the Expert Class™ learned very quickly last night what “Commotio Cordis” might be. Essentially, it is freak timing from a blow to the area of the heart at an exact or precise beat that would cause cardiac arrest. It happens and probably most often in youth baseball of all things.
Was Hamlin’s injury a result of this? Unlikely, but not impossible or implausible.
Could it have been a result of vaccine injury? Quite possible, but not a soul on television was willing to even bring it up.
As I Tweeted last evening:
“Moral hazard for ESPN if either likely scenarios are true.
They’ll never admit that football is a gladiatorial pursuit w/ obvious known risks that most players, coaches, fans & media choose to ignore.
If he “shook a clot,” there’s no way they could square the circle on that one”
https://twitter.com/BrianDOLeary/status/1610127880851460099?s=20&t=_GviJG4RxbG_dDpW8c832Q
A Substack to which I subscribe, written by Steve Kirsch was on top of this whole thing early. The article speaks for itself.
As it stands, the Bills-Bengals game won’t resume this week. What does that mean for the NFL season, particularly the postseason? I don’t know.
Nor do I particularly care.
They could call the game a tie. They could declare the Bengals the victors by virtue of them being up 7-3 when play was suspended. They could flip a coin. They could also push back the start of the postseason and play the game in a “Week 19.”
What is Roger Goodell and the NFL going to do? Probably none of the above.
All of this portends the rapid demise of football and all professional and high-level amateur sports. Neither the sports media nor the leagues themselves take the games or the health of the players all that seriously.
Serious enough to take your money. Not much more. Admittedly, I am a sucker for sports and so they’ve all taken a lot of money from me over the course of my life.
Of course, as frauds, the typical sports media operation is sure to supply you with all the correct emotions you are supposed to feel, but there is so much money involved that nobody is willing to ask the simplest questions, let alone the hard ones.
Article with a similar point of view as me…worth reading nonetheless:
Whitlock: Damar Hamlin and sport of football are in critical condition by Jason Whitlock
Chuck Hughes
The 28-year old Texas native is the only player to die during the course of play in an NFL game.
In 1971, Hughes was playing for the Detroit Lions against the Chicago Bears.
With about a minute left in regulation and the Bears ahead 28-23, the Lions were closing in on the Bears endzone, needing a touchdown to win the game.
Hughes jogged back to the huddle near the Bears 15-yard line after a Lions incompletion on the previous play and fell face first on the Tiger Stadium turf. Reports say that Hughes was dead when he hit the grass.
The number 85 for the Detroit Lions is retired for Chuck Hughes. The Lions also give out an annual award to the most improved player in the name of Chuck Hughes.
College football game mentioned:
College football players mentioned:
- Ronnie McAda
- It is likely I witnessed McAda’s best performance of his career. The guy was phenomenal that day. I saw Michael Vick play once at Alumni Stadium and he was more electric, but McAda was the most dominating quarterback I’ve ever seen for one game…and it was almost entirely rushing the football.
- Doug Flutie
- Flutie was sensational in college. 1984 Heisman Trophy winner. Unbelievable player, really.
Tweet mentioned:
From Jerry Lawler @JerryLawler:
“I would be willing to bet that Damar Hamlin has suffered a cardiac arrest from the blunt trauma of that blow to his chest... I know what this is like from experience...”
https://twitter.com/JerryLawler/status/1610098564373389312?s=20&t=_GviJG4RxbG_dDpW8c832Q
Myth mentioned:
How Teddy Roosevelt changed college football
Roosevelt did have something to do with changing the game, but TR was largely a blowhard who had delusional ideas about masculinity, especially his own.
Thanks to some help and legislation on behalf of presidents TR and Woodrow Wilson—who was likely the worst president in American history (certainly in the top 5)—the game did change.
Do I give these monsters any credit for the joy I experienced with game I grew up watching and playing? No I do not.
Liberty Classroom
If you like what you read and hear from me, you’ll probably want to check out Liberty Classroom if you are at all concerned about the education you may have missed out upon.
For all the rest of it, go to BrianDOLeary.com for more information.