I played soccer in college and we made the NCAA tournament twice. The 2 years we didn’t make it, I certainly wouldn’t have given a fuck whether or not we beat some random mediocre team from Missouri. Put it this way, if there were an epic campus party the night before, everyone would abandon their commitment to a dry…

Rivalries, conference titles, rankings, pride. Every Alabama Auburn game means something. Who cares about the 4th place ACC team playing against the 3rd place Big Ten team for the fucking George Steinbrenner trophy?

Surely the schools make money off these scrimmages via ticket sales and media coverage? I’m gonna need more than “the game counts because it makes money (for the school, not the players)“ to be convinced that the Pinstripe Bowl means more than jack shit

Which incents the players how?

“in which they hold a scrimmage that counts for jack shit”

If you haven’t seen it already, find and watch this. You’ll feel better http://www.imdb.com/title/tt371540…

Beyond that, this is an excellent letter. I fully support flames of this magnitude

Hey! Real Madrid got lucky? Screw you buddy

Re: Barnwell’s list, Vick, RG3, and Sanchez were worth it. All of three of them skyrocketed interest in their respective franchises. Not RG3's fault his coach put him out to pasture, not Sanchez’s fault he had no receivers and Brian Schottenheimer as his OC, and Vick was a perennial pro bowler who also had trash…

You've solved it. This has to be a dead letter fishing expedition

Doesn't he also seem like the blandest guy on the planet? What does he bring to the table? I'm not saying the answer is Bobby Valentine unreasonably throwing his third baseman under the bus and eventually causing said beloved third baseman to be traded, but the guy is like an anthropomorphic stock photo of a generic…

Comedy aside, Bill Belichick would lose a few hundred thousand dollars and cost his franchise a couple more draft picks if he pulled something this obvious in the NFL. Why isn't it a bigger deal in baseball? I remember a similar deadspin story about the Marlins essentially keeping a player on the DL/in the minors…

Remember when the Rockies won like 19 straight to reach the world series, had an extended break before the series started, then got swept? That was a great time to be a Red Sox fan

The best part of pocket is the recommendation feature. I follow like 30 people who share awesome articles and act as my personal curators. At this point, that’s the now the primary function of the app, save for the half hour before a flight when you store whatever you’re reading before airplane mode goes on. Because…

Julio Jones?

I wrote about this in another comment. Not trolling at all. Goals aren't everything as you pointed out

HAHAHAHAHA

The thing I disagree with is that he wouldn't be as effective playing in congested areas. A lot of his most brilliant moments involved positioning himself in a crowd of 3 defenders to play a through ball onto a player he hadn't even been looking at.

I didn’t say that lightly. Americans in particular revere individual athletic talent over anything - the proverbial “he put the team on his back doe!” moments - and as a result tend to value speed, technique, dribbling, and the ability to create one’s own scoring chances as the pinnacle of athletic achievement.

So you don't understand soccer. That's OK