Why do NBA teams need helmets?

This is where I feel the outrage over Pop sitting his players for select games is misplaced. His job is to make and succeed in the playoffs. He’s a military man - he sees the war and pursues victory there and doesn’t waste resources going after Pyrrhic victories by fighting every battle like it’s the true goal. Now,…

Yup. It’s referred to as a “jock tax”, typically imposed on athletes and sometimes also on entertainers). They claim it helps recoup/justify some of the subsidies the state or city provides toward construction of the facilities (i.e. corporate welfare for millionaires and billionaires).

You realize there’s more types of “orientals” than Chinese and Japanese so I think you’re probably in the clear.

They made “Drafts” (particularly the NFL) into television events in a way they were not previously.

The market for the entire tournament (like 50+ games, now that it has 24 teams) does not have much global reach and clout (they stage some matches as doubleheaders, which they don’t do on the men’s side because they’re confident they can sell more tickets by selling everything as stand-alones). Interest is driven by…

For that primary, I decided to vote on the GOP ticket because the Democrats were so unappealing (the most moderate Republican choice on the ballot being more appealing than Blagojevich). Even in the general election, I went Green because I couldn’t bring myself to vote for him. Sadly, I was right. He was a shady…

Positioning is very subjective. Now that we see her limited vertical jumping ability, it calls into question why she left so much space behind/over her. However, if she were positioned further back to hedge against that and got beaten by a ball across her face, I’m sure it would’ve been deemed “questionable” in that…

Wasn’t it precious how the England WNT coach said this is their “third World Cup semifinal” citing ‘66 and ‘90?

The Federation. What is passed along to players depends upon terms of the contract between players and the federation. Generally, there are bonuses for advancing through the tournament. I could not find much coverage of that question online, but here’s a report from the 2012-13 tax year (which reflects the 2012…

How does it make sense to have the FIFA ranked #1, #2, #3, and #5 teams on the same side of the bracket?

Uhh, correct on the larger point about UEFA having Olympic qualification related to the WWC finish, but wrong on France not qualifying yet. They secured qualification by winning their Round of 16 match: http://olympictalk.nbcsports.com/2015/06/24/wom…

France looked way better in their loss against Colombia than the U.S. did in their victory.

In the salary cap era, no evaluation of a trade should be published without accounting for the salary cap impact. Sometimes that is the motivation behind the trade more than the actual players involved.

I hate that when tickets go on sale before the season, we don’t get advance notice of the umpire assignments for every game. That way I can’t buy tickets to see all my favorite umps perform.

“said when hired he would not be involved in personnel”

Something that’s gone under-reported about the “Hope Solo and family” incident in June 2014 is that the WNT played two friendlies against France that week. In the first one, she tied Scurry’s record for career shutouts with the USWNT. The second one, in Connecticut, Solo was excused for “a family commitment” and then…

That’s not entirely accurate - she did “fail a drug test”: http://deadspin.com/5924566/hope-s… and, separately, with her antics following the 2007 Women’s World Cup semifinal she pretty much got herself kicked off a team/left before a tournament was over (roughly equal to “left before the game was over”) and she has…

“Drink and driving with a confederate flag” would be Dukes of Hazard horseplay. I suspect the “stars and bars” were not involved in this incident, as there were not a write-up in the Dallas Morning News describing it without reaching a definitive conclusion as to its involvement.

It was nice unselfish play and patience in waiting for an open look (instead of the all-too-common “forcing a half-chance”), but in all honesty, considering all the praise I saw for this goal before watching it myself, it’s being a bit overhyped. The goalkeeper essentially moved herself into a screen position so was…