Sports

[Badfinger]

Time also goes in a straight line, and this happened after the Ray Rice incident which could influence measures taken. Like Bjorn said, I had remembered this was not the first time he'd been implicated in something like this.

 

Plus remember that this is America. Sex is worse than violence, duh.

[Professor Video Games]

One thing that continues to bother me about the NFL is how they repeatedly strong-arm broke-ass local governments to fork over hundreds of millions of dollars for new stadiums while keeping most or all the profits from tv deals and ticket sales, and paying relatively meager rents. And of course the NFL itself is a tax exempt nonprofit. And I mean not that it's limited to the NFL (the Braves just pulled this garbage in Atlanta) but the NFL is the most profitable for sure.

[Twig]

And of course the NFL itself is a tax exempt nonprofit.

What? How is this even possible?

[Bjorn]

What? How is this even possible?

 

It's misunderstood by a lot of people. The NFL organization itself qualifies as a professional organization (like a professional organization for lawyers, or doctors, which are  non-profit organizations. Just in this case billionaire sports team owners). Each team is still an individual business that pays taxes. Now, its still bullshit, because the NFL is not really like any other professional organization at all. And it allows the owners to shift certain types of funds into the NFL that might otherwise be taxable, but it's not the crazy tax windfall it is sometimes portrayed as.

At least that's my understanding of it.

[Badfinger]

It's $10m a year in taxes. They're not sheltering the literal billions of dollars they take in, but it's still a lot.

 

It's a tax-exempt non-profit because they are a "trade organization" created in the 1940s. It's not THAT misunderstood, and it's definitely bullshit. MLB was tax-exempt until 2007. The NHL and the PGA still are.

 

 

http://www.todayifoundout.com/index.php/2014/01/nfl-tax-exempt/

 

http://blogs.reuters.com/stories-id-like-to-see/2014/09/23/just-why-does-the-nfl-have-tax-exempt-status/

[Professor Video Games]

Yeah in the grand scheme of things it's not a big deal, but it's fun to bring up . Now god only knows what sorts of financial maneuvering the individual teams do to avoid taxes, but it's probably no better/worse than any of our other giant corporations these days.

 

And it's beside the point of them demanding help funding their stadiums when they are pulling in more money than ever. What I would love to see is a local government demand a share of tv revenue or something in exchange for help funding a stadium. Of course no team would ever agree to it but a man can dream.

[Bjorn]

It's not THAT misunderstood

 

Not a year goes by where I don't end up in at least one conversation (offline) where someone thinks that literally no NFL team pays any taxes at all, and see multiple more like that online.  I have endless faith in Americans to misunderstand even basic things. 

 

And yeah, the stadium bullshit that goes on is easily the most ridiculous tax funded crock the NFL is involved with.  That has been worth literal billions of dollars over the last several decades. 

[Badfinger]

Like most well run corporations, they basically don't pay taxes. But yes, that's a wholly separate conversation and not specific to sports.

[Bjorn]

Cool story today.  One of KU's student managers is a kid whose own college playing career at a small, NAIA school was cut short his freshman year due to having a lung collapse, multiple times.  He's been helping with the practice squad this year, simulating upcoming opponents.  Bill Self suited him up as a player today, officially added him to the roster, headshot in the media book and he was sent into the game for the final minute against TCU.  Kid's never going to be able to play serious ball again, but for once in his life he got to walk onto the floor of Allen Fieldhouse as Kansas Jayhawk.

 

Fucking cool. 

 

Also, this happened (eh, time stamps don't work when embedded, play I'm talking about starts about the 21 second mark).

Best thing about that is the big ass smile on Ellis' face afterwards. He's always so serious, I don't think I'd seen him smile at all for the first two years he was here. Good to see him having some fun out there now.

[Bjorn]

K-State fans did an excellent job of making sure no one is paying much attention to their upset of KU last night.  While storming the court, one fan intentionally body slammed Jamari Traylor, while a crush of fans pinned both Bill Self and Bruce Webber against the scorer's table. University police are now trying to identify the man who slammed into Traylor. This may ultimately be the final straw that results in changes to policies about storming the court. And its a shame, as KSU played their ass off to win that game, but that's lost in the discussion.

It's also the third time this season that fans have rushed the floor after beating KU. Like, I know we're the big dog in the league and beating us is exciting. But people, show some fucking class. This is not KU's strongest year, we ain't gonna win the national championship, we even have a chance to lose our conference championship win streak. These schools just look kinda silly (to be fair, KU has done this same thing in football, a sport we are terrible at, and I think its just as silly when we do it).

[Professor Video Games]

Maybe this belongs in the pedantry thread, but a body slam involves picking the guy up and throwing him down. That was more like a body check. Regardless, it's dumb and storming the court or field has become so overdone as to have lost any meaning. Any upset, no matter how minor seems to warrant this kind of thing. Save it for winning a championship or something, I dunno. When football stadiums are installing collapsible goalposts you know it's gotten out of hand.

[Bjorn]

Fair point about body slam versus check.  Otherwise, yeah, storming the court is just super dumb. 

[Professor Video Games]

Being a terrible person, I was curious to see a student body slam a college basketball player (ie a giant). Very disappointed

[Badfinger]

In my opinion storming the (playing surface) owns. It's just overused.

 

I was on the field when my school's football team won the National Championship, so I may be somewhat biased on that perspective.

[jennegatron]

Moving to the west coast & having a long commute has seriously messed with my ability to follow basketball as well as I would like. It's incredibly frustrating to come home and have NBA games half or completely over before I can even eat dinner.

DAMN YOU TIME ZOOOONES

[Dewar]

In my opinion storming the (playing surface) owns. It's just overused.

 

I was on the field when my school's football team won the National Championship, so I may be somewhat biased on that perspective.

 

In my book, it is appropriate when it's the last game of the season, and that's it. Kind of a "this field is now closed for athletic competition for the year, and fans are allowed on it now" thing.

[jennegatron]

http://www.sportingnews.com/nba/story/2015-02-25/craig-sager-to-return-to-sideline-reporting-next-month-nba-leukemia-fashion-jackets

 

All that is good and pure in sideline basketball reporting is returning.

[Bjorn]

http://www.sportingnews.com/nba/story/2015-02-25/craig-sager-to-return-to-sideline-reporting-next-month-nba-leukemia-fashion-jackets

 

All that is good and pure in sideline basketball reporting is returning.

 

Hooray! \o/

[Bjorn]

KU outright won the Big 12 Conference Championship tonight, the 11th in a row.  My daughter was in elementary school and couldn't have cared less about basketball when this streak started, and now she's an adult screaming right next to me as we cheer them on.  And much screaming there was at this game.  Overtime, injuries, trailing most of the game.  Fucking nailbiter. 

[jennegatron]

It's pretty impressive log jam up at the top of the Big 12 this year.

[Bjorn]

Yeah, swing a couple of games different directions, and it could have been a 4- or 5-way tie for the conference champion, which I'm sure would have been a first. 

[jennegatron]

I'm not much of a college basketball fan, but I've gone to quite a few OU games, and a game out here in Davis as well. It's way more fun as a casual fan when more teams are good. I've found this to be true in the NBA as well where my allegiances are more distributed than in the NFL where they're laser focused on Green Bay.  

The Western Conference being so stacked this year (and for the past 4 season that I've paid attention to) means that there are way more interesting games when at least 1 team in the game is worth watching. (It makes it very stressful as a Dallas fan, especially when I look at the dumpster fire that is the bottom 8-9 teams in the east)

[Bjorn]

I love how competitive the Big 12 is over the last few years, and it isn't even consistently the same teams.  ISU and OU have both been really good for a bunch of years now.  But Baylor, Texas, OSU, KSU and now WV can all have great years as well.  It makes it harder to get a high seed going into the tournament, but it also means that our teams that do get in are really tested and confident in themselves, having already played some of the best teams in the nation. 

 

KU will lose this conference championship streak eventually, it has to happen.  But I just really want them to at least tie UCLA's record 13 consecutive championships.  Every year has gotten more nerve wracking as we get closer to it.

[TheLastBaron]

I was at a Sheffield Wednesday game where a Leeds fan punched Wednesday's keeper in the face and that basically ruined fans on fields for me. Most people aren't Leeds fans, but it still bothers me even when it's benign now. The streaker at the world cup pissed me off.

Edit: I found the clip, it was more of a push to the face than a punch, but it's still stupid.

[Badfinger]

The Eagles just released and traded two of the biggest names on the roster. It is blowing up all over the place here, and they now have $50m+ in cap room. This shit is essentially bananas.