White people are cowards because deep down most of them agree with what Trump is doing, but don’t have the courage to admit that is who they are. It is the same bargain the German people made with Hitler - you puff up our social status and throw us some extra wealth, and we’ll ignore the heinous crimes you are…

Disregard, I misread your message about the color barrier.

Wait, you are saying relegated clubs can’t have African American players?

Relegation does not solve everything, but it is still a better system than the fixed leagues in the US. It creates more drama for fans of crappy clubs fighting to stay up, and it does occasionally punish big clubs whose arrogant ownership has lost the thread (HSV in the Bundesliga this year, for example). The ideal…

The irony of course is that Wolf is not “the media”, she’s a comedian. What this event actually demonstrated is that the mainstream media is, if not completely in the tank for Trump, at least willing to defend the status quo and their own privileges no matter who is sitting in the White House. That is the opposite of…

That would be my impression as well. I stopped watching local news sometime in the 1990s, about the time that the internet and cable made it possible to get decent access to weather reports and local sports news. I also don’t know anyone with a paying job who has time to watch a news broadcast at 6 pm or is interested…

I’m sure FIFA doesn’t care about Trump’s human rights record or authoritarian tendencies. It’s Trump’s narcissism that is scary
Putin and Xi can be more or less counted on to stay in the background during the tournament. Trump is a constant threat to make the World Cup all about him. Do you think FIFA wants to deal…

OTOH, Russia/USSR has been a major soccer power since the 1920s. Better Putin’s authoritarian basket case Russia hosting than the evil USSR.

I wouldn’t be surprised Barron is a soccer fan given he spends a lot more time with his Slovenian mother than his deranged father.

The US really has no business hosting association football, every tournament in the US just becomes all about “look at the Americans watching football!”. On the other hand, nothing could be worse than Qatar.

Ljubljana is somewhat like Prague with its Habsburg architecture, residual Austrian cultural habits, castle in the middle of town, and obscure (to Americans) Slavic language. But it is much smaller. Sort of like saying Portland, Maine is a more charming/less crowded Boston. Slovenia is a great “mini-Europe” if you…

How could a Bernie Sanders supporter hate New England fans? We have the most left wing football fans in the country.

Come on. Philadelphia has amazing restaurants, and some very cool neighborhoods. It has hipster bars, real dive bars, rich Main Line towns, universities, sports teams with long traditions, more real racial integration than most US cities, incredible cultural institutions, and the people are generally more friendly (if…

Mr Higgins doesn’t know New Englanders at all. The New England elite to this day doesn’t give a toss about professional football. They would rather discuss the up coming regatta in Newport or work on their squash game. The sort of Irish-American upper middle class Pats fans Higgins mistakes for “elite” are the reason…

Don’t you right wing nut jobs ever get tired of attacking the best parts of America?

But Myles Jack didn’t strip the ball from Lewis. Lewis didn’t lose the ball until he hit the ground. It wasn’t a fumble. If the NFL is fixing games for the Patriots, why give the Jaguars the ball at that point? I agree calling it a fumble but declaring the ball dead made no sense from a consistency point of view. But…

Simmons definitely makes some good points. It may be complete conjecture, but his theory that self-promoting celebrity Brady was losing the locker room to a much younger Garoppolo, forcing Belichick to make a choice, makes a lot more sense than the Wickersham story, and makes Brady look worse than the Wickersham…

“I’m starting to think that the old “the day after the Super Bowl should be a day off work” take should also apply to Halloween”

The belief that all women are essentially prostitutes, it is just a question of price, is at the heart of the misogynist world view. Not at all surprised to hear Portnoy believes it.

Maybe a little bigger. Italy-France crowd was a lot better looking though.