Will COVID-19 be the needle that finally bursts the sports bubble?

I am originally from Denver and still read the Denver press. In the article I read the gay couple came in and said that they asked for a cake for their wedding anniversary. The owner of the shop refused service. The couple said they were on of the shop in "twenty seconds". The baker argued that providing a cake of any kind to a gay anniversary party served as an endorsement of something he found objectionable, namely gay marriage. The couple never got as far as actually ordering a specific cake.

My understanding is that if the couple had actually asked for something objectionable then the baker would have been on stronger legal ground. The Supreme Court decided the case narrowly. I think they avoided a more sweeping ruling because if you apply the baker's logic broadly enough, no one would have to provide a service to gays if homosexuality violated their religious beliefs. And if you deny rights to gays would you set a precedent to allow a crackpot fundamentalist Christian to deny service to Jews because he believes they killed his savior?

 

The article I read said they he offered to make any other baked goods, and the men "stormed out." Any of those "baked goods" could have been used at their wedding celebration (it WAS a wedding, not an anniversary). So it was not "I will not sell you anything for your celebration."

Supreme Court rules for Colorado baker in same-sex wedding cake case - CNNPolitics

The baker considered himself an "artist." I suspect his "artistic talents" were sought after, and it included something more elaborate and specific than a run-of-the-mill cake. I suspect they were in the store longer than 20 seconds.

 

I understand where they come from and why they exist - a handful of national sportswriters, some of whom I like, have pushed NCAA/evil for years, especially in the last 5-10 years - but they're really dumb.

The NCAA is flawed. Every institution is flawed and imperfect. But the amount of shit it takes, compared the satisfaction of almost collegiate athletes with their experiences, is pretty hilarious. The media created it, too.

 

If you take the scrums out of rugby, is it still rugby?

As someone who is completely lost outside of the front row when I play, I am very much against this.

World Rugby considering dropping scrums in drastic rule change

 

I can’t think of a bigger change in any other sport. Maybe removing faceoffs in hockey?

 

Agreed. Let's see how much the national critics like it if and when their published wishes come true and there is no March Madness. Or even a world without the College Football Playoff, which, while run by an independent entity, includes NCAA members.
Want to pay the players? OK. That won't happen until and unless member institutions start cutting back on football coaching staff and support staff salaries. But as they learned with the restricted-earnings lawsuit, which they lost 0n restraint-of-trade grounds, they can't legislate salary cuts at the NCAA/organizational level. It's going to have to be a market decision. And it's gonna take a while for that to make a difference because most FBS coaches have three or more years to go on their contracts.

 

Why? We have heard about a dearth of top American tennis players for a couple of decades - if not longer. Additionally, tennis is the sort of sport where world-class professional talent - if they really are that good - go to the pros, not play for an NCAA program.

When's the last time we heard about a world-class player and his/her college days? It's a perfect traditional college sport in that we don't hear about players threatening to leave school a year or two early to go pro.

 

One of my favorite sports facts: Jimmy Connors played at UCLA and John McEnroe at Stanford. For one year each, I think.

 

Interesting.

 

It’s mostly because of their decades-long sanctimonious “amateurism is a virtue” BS that they would spout endlessly when denying players flights home for family funerals, banning cream cheese for bagels and destroying Cleveland State while allowing coaches and administrators to rake in millions of dollars.

 

I don’t think it is. I think it’s mostly the political and worldview leanings of the media. Yes, TV money in college sports got out of control - which is why the NCAA fought it all the way to the Supreme Court in the 1980s - and that’s some of the issue. But it’s been around since the 1990s, when the salaries frankly weren’t out of control. They got that way around 20 years ago.