It’s super weird how grantland was the perfect accompaniment to deadspin.

I can’t fucking handle Simmons anymore, so I expected to hate the Ringer (since Lowe and Barnwell are still with ESPN), but I’ve been reading a lot of it lately. It’s surprisingly good, and somehow feels less douchy than Grantland.

The sad part is that in Simmons’ world, having a drunk Ben Affleck on his show was the coolest bro thing. How did that make it on the air?

So many thoughts:

I’d rather watch a loop of Willie Beamen’s Met-Rx commercial/rap video (?) for 60 minutes than this. You listening, HBO?

Why not both?

What kind of feces? Human? Or from the possible pet monkey? Or a dog? Or cat?

Garbageowlowski should have never been on the pitch in the first place. Why not start Nagbe or Pulisic? Klinsmann was scared shitless before the match even started.

It was young Messi tearing it up in Germany that summer a decade ago that first opened my eyes to what people meant when they called soccer the beautiful game. That World Cup, the next one, following my favorite player from Argentina in the summer to Barcelona in the fall—those were the events and performances that…

Nah, gotta be Leroux. They didn’t make player jerseys back when Chastain was playing.

Chastain?

Wondolowski?

Basically what every study shows is that stadiums/arenas simply shift patterns of entertainment spending. Instead of going to dinner and a movie or to an amusement park, you go to the ballgame, meaning that tax revenue evens out (though it can create some micro-geographic differences, if for instance people spend less…

There has never been a study that wasn’t sponsored by a team or sports league that shows any real financial benefit to a community.

There is never any shame in getting beaten by someone who is just plain better than you are, only in not giving it your all. I’ve been following the USMNT since it has been good enough to actually be on television (1990) and we have come so, so far. While we still have a long way to go, I remain optimistic. Hell, if…

It’s hard for me not to fall into the fatalist category. Just seeing how good other teams are doesn’t make Beckerman or Wondo any less bad, and the decision to start them any less terrible.

How the fuck Bradley and Zusi were allowed to play a full 90 is beyond me.

What does pedant mean?

Nah, but I have heard through the grapevine that it’s pissed some people there off. Oh well!

I think they were more upset after the stuff I wrote earlier this year about Destiny malaise and the delay of D2. Still, in general they’ve been very professional, unlike certain other companies. I’ve tried to make it clear to Acti/Bungie that while there’ll always be an adversarial nature to our relationship (as…