Lance Armstrong is charged with doping. Focus: Anyone in your life, or who influenced you, who fell from grace? Probably this is going to lean more towards the sporting realm, but the focus is wide open. The two that jump out at me are the entire Penn State coaching staff, and Pete Rose. JoePa should've gone down as the finest coach in the history of anything. Roads and stadiums should have been built in his honour. Instead, because of a completely idiotic decision to circle the wagons, he died without any fanfare and everyone's trying to forget what happened during his reign. HBO had a special on Derek Jeter's 3000th hit last week. He's probably the finest example of a gentleman role model in the professional athlete realm. It got me thinking, though, who has the most hits ever? Well, it turns out that it was Pete Rose. I'd always known that he was a liar and a disgrace (his fall happened before I ever watched MLB), but I had no idea until after I watched Derek Jeter that Pete Rose was The Best Ever. He holds almost every record, and not by a small measure. Permanently disqualified from the Hall of Fame, betting on his own team, bah. Way to ruin a perfect career with stupidity.
Not really mighty by any standards, but it had a pretty big effect on me. My middle school gymnastics coach was my idol through 7-8th grade. He was always there for advice, always had a funny joke at the ready, and had zillions of stories about his own experiences. I honestly wanted to grow up to be just like him. He got arrested for stealing from the gym. He was also a pathological liar, and, in retrospect, he was a pedophile (towards the girls, not the guys). He also didn't know how to be a coach and had lied about his qualifications to get the job. It was hard for me; up until then, I'd thought that adults were fundamentally good people. Sure, you hear about criminals and con men and the like, but up until then those people had always existed Somewhere Else. Having a guy that you've known for several years turn out to be a fraud made an impact on me.
Off topic, but that Lance stuff is horseshit. EVERYONE has been doping since in the mid-eighties. Just look at the average speed bump in that time period until now. Bikes haven't gotten that much better, but the juice has. <a class="postlink" href="http://bikeraceinfo.com/tdf/tdfstats.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://bikeraceinfo.com/tdf/tdfstats.html</a>
Yeah, you're absolutely correct. I recall reading an interview where a doctor who had worked with the Swiss cycling team from the late 70s until the early 2000s was interviewed about drug use in the sport. The conversation went something like this; "How many athletes have you worked with in your career?" "Between 300-400" "How many were using drugs of one kind or another?" "Almost all of them. There were maybe 4 or 5 exceptions." "How did those exceptions do?" "Among the very last to finish." The same goes for a LOT of Olympic sports. That's why I also never understand the fake outrage towards Marion Jones. She was using performance enhancers? So was every single one of her opponents. It's an interesting dilemma in such sports. You can be "clean" and not cheat, but you will never crack the top 100 in the world, never make a living, and no know will give a fuck about you. Or you can "cheat" like everyone else, be a legendary champion making millions of dollars and beloved by fans around the world. Are we really blaming normal human beings for choosing the latter over the former? How many sports writers getting on their soap box would sell their own fucking mother for a Pulitzer or a cushy contract with Sports Illustrated? The rewards of which are peanuts compared to what they're decrying? Focus- I was a big fan of Mel Gibson as both an excellent actor and a very talented director. While I still appreciate him for these things, I realize he is probably an anti-Semite and as looney as a top.
I don't give two shits about professional sports, and especially not baseball, but I think they should give Pete Rose a break. Who cares if he was betting on his own games? Unless he was throwing the games, what's the problem? Focus: Anyone in your life, or who influenced you, who fell from grace? Probably this is going to lean more towards the sporting realm, but the focus is wide open. Rush Limbaugh. When I was growing up, my parents were hardcore Republicans. I listened to Limbaugh and watched his show (remember his TV show?), and I believed what he said because I didn't know any better. One thing that he preached up and down was that drug addicts were the scum of the earth. Fast forward a few years, and he gets busted for buying oxycontin illegally. His on-air apology was reminiscent of Jimmy Swaggart's apology for getting caught with a whore. What really pissed me off was that he just got a "slap on the wrist" probation sentence, but a few months later, a disabled Vietnam veteran was convicted of the same crime, but had to do time in jail! Fuck you, Rush. Goddam hypocrite.
Two immediately come to mind from last year. 1. John Galliano: I'm going to assume it isn't common knowledge on this thread that he was the head of Dior from 1996 to last year, when he got videotaped going on an anti-Semitic rant and was promptly dismissed from the house. Dior was my very first favorite designer since I started paying even the littlest bit of attention to fashion. It was the first label that I could recognize, and that inspired me to start learning about fashion history and the current industry. Of course, this whole time I equated Dior with Galliano, and even as my interests and knowledge about other designers greatly expanded and I started to have other favorites, I always had a special place for Dior in my heart. If it turned out he was any other kind of asshole that people can reveal themselves to be it would've still been bad, but it hurt extra badly when it turned out he was anti-Semitic because, well shit, he specifically doesn't like me. I'm not really one to cry when bad things happen about celebrities, but when something happens to writers or fashion people it really gets to me. I know people usually cry for musicians and actors, but designers and writers are the artists that I connect with most. It really upset me. 2. Anthony Weiner: Hopefully this doesn't fall too far into the political realm, but I was very excited about him pre-boner pics. He actually fought for what he believed in and didn't stoop to pandering or compromise and was feisty and spunky and funny. He was like a Republican with Democratic beliefs. I had high hopes for him that he would actually make some serious changes, and he was one of the very few politicians that I respected and admired. I would've voted for him for President if he didn't fuck up his career right as it was getting going. Then it turns out that he's just an asshole like all the rest of them. And now there isn't anyone I like in politics. Sigh.
If you can't see the inherent issues in that, I don't know what to tell you. You don't have to throw the game to profit from being on the inside. Betting on baseball is bad enough, but betting on your own games is absolutely indefensible. You can also factor in the fact that he's been an unrepentant jackass ever since. Its not like he's being falsely accused. He got caught and has basically acted like a fuckface ever since. Thats not going to buy you alot of forgiveness in the front office or the public. FOCUS: Its kind of obvious, and wasn't necessarily a "fall from grace", but Michael Jordan. I absolutely idolized him as a kid, not so much as a player, but the Jordan brand. There was just such a mystique about it. And growing up to realize that he's a first class asshole and completely incompetent when it comes to dealings in the front office of an NBA team. Sure people have known it all along, but think back to the mid-90s, even if he was aggressively obliterating people behind closed doors and ruthlessly destroying anyone who got in his path, he was still the dude who made the "I wanna be like Mike" Gatorade commercials and fucking Space Jam. He did a masterful job controlling his public image when it was still possible to do that without being truly a great person or otherwise superhuman.
This not to mention his Hall of Fame Speech and his Hitler 'stache in the Hanes commercials. You start to hear the stories about how his baseball season was nothing but an unofficial ban due to gambling, and it seems plausible. You hear that half his team was actually afraid of him because losing meant he was mad at you, and him being mad at you could cost you your roster spot, all of this shit COULD be possible. Then that's just not the guy you want to look-up to anymore. I still love him though. I refuse to acknowledge his stint on the Wizards.
Hey, a lot of great athletes are fuckfaces. Ty Cobb springs to mind, as does Michael Jordan above. I can't hate the guy too much for betting on his team to win.
You do realize that "fall from grace" and "was wallowing in the depths the whole time" aren't synonymous right? Focus: It turns out that the "cool substitute teacher," who was the principal's son and who our older siblings had hung out with in high school, was a pedophile. Whoops. I think he's still in prison.
It's different for a manager betting on his team to win rather than a player. It's one thing if he was betting on every game for them to win because then he will manage in order to win the most games throughout the season, which doens't change things. But, if he only bets on some games then he will manage those differently, and could in turn cause harm to some players in doing so. Say he has a pitcher out there who has thrown 110 pitches already but Rose doesn't want to go to his bullpen because he knows the guy out on the mound is better than whatever relievers he has currently. Leaves the pitcher out for another 20 pitches in a game that would have been otherwise meaningless if not for the fact that he had a few thousand dollars riding on it. Also, his "only betting on his team" could be that he was working with bookies and making sure that they didn't cover the spread even if they won. I'm not saying that it did or didn't happen but when you're a high profile player who has been gambling for a while I'm sure it's not too difficult for the bookies to convince you to make that jump. Focus: As the youtube video above said athletes shouldn't be role models. People want them to be, but then when you think back to the star athletes from your high schools, those are the guys you're looking up to in most cases. But, I must say I was shocked when the Tiger Woods stuff came out. One of the least likely people in my opinion to have something like that come out about.
I'm bumping an old thread. Sue me. FOCUS: The moderators of this board. It's Friday evening, and there is no drunk thread started. There was ONE person who was appointed that job, and his dreadlocked ass is guilty of dereliction of duty. Since none of us regular idiots can start any threads on our own, I thought I'd bump a thread that I liked, and is fitting for the occasion. (The names have been changed to protect the guilty) Hegirl: "I like reading the personal messages of board members to see if anyone is talking about me." Bootah: "What can I say? I call myself a pervert with Asperger's syndrome, but I judge other people all the time. I throw a lot of verbal shit around, but don't you try it to me, because I will ban you. For a person who claims to be unemotional, I can be very emotional." Noam Chomsky: "I write on here all the time and try to make it sound like I know everything about everything, especially race relations and women." Nurse Drylock: "I was appointed moderator status via a suspicious contest. I disappear for months at a time, and come back expecting all board members to acknowledge and respect me. If you don't, I will ban you." Red Dog: "I was originally appointed to be the ONLY moderator to bump Drunk threads, but once my new baby came along, clicking a button is too much work. Also, please make sure that I don't break my neck while trying to suck my own e-dick over doing basic parental duties like changing a diaper. Because I'm definitely going to toot my own horn about that kind of stuff." Rhettdata: "I love making sharp comments, but if you make a joke about Canadians, I will ban you, even if the joke is really about Mexicans." Gaytius: Oh how I wish he actually were gay. I want that man's cock in the worst way.
Maybe outside the scope, but every girl I dated in college, once I started dating her. You could cut my learning curve with women out of a sheet of aluminum and stab someone to death with it. So there was basically four years where every woman was amazing, and I wanted to understand them to their very core and bond my being with theirs and explore every facet of their ambition and imagination. And it gradually dawned on me that people are awful. Not women in particular (I'm actually a big fan), just people. People are boring and they like stupid shit, and college girls are just as fearful and ignorant of everything as college boys are. They just carry themselves better. I remember one girl in my Freshman econ class who I - and I'm not proud to say it - worshiped. Super pretty; wore Ramones shirts. Drank beer like a boy. Perfect, right? I spend the better part of a semester working up the courage to ask her out. "Yeah, sure." like a choir of angels. We had a dumb fucking date, because college kids don't know any better, and I wound up back at her dorm room to [pretext for sex]. And she had a 'Sex In The City' poster on her wall. A pox on whoever brought that horse-faced cunt theater of a show to such a good network. My favorite show at the time was probably Family Guy, but I judged her nonetheless. Anyway, we didn't work out. Then I probably went home from that and listened to some Godsmack and did some preacher curls because that's what idiots do. I'm happy to say it's gotten better, and my recent string of girlfriends have been super. But god damn that shit takes a lot of practice.
Agree. But, in reality, not as thin as pop-culture references that I sprinkled in to rankle people who like Sex in the City.
Don't want to get into Dixie's obvious problems with some folk here, but he's got a point. I know that bumping threads and the like is not going to be the main focus of a mods life, but it has gotten pretty slack. If ya'll don't want to/don't have the time to actually moderate forum, give some new folks mod power so things can keep running smoothly. That drunk thread stays up weeks at a time and the rest of the board just dies.
Based on the above whining, I can only assume that this is what you were thinking as you typed: "This place has provided me with countless hours of free entertainment, but I still feel entitled to more. I know there's an entire world of potentially fulfilling hobbies and social options out there, but I want THIS place to fill those needs. Therefore, I am going to use this opportunity to demonstrate that due to my emotional instability I harbor actual, real world grudges with people I have never met before. You think you can make fun of me on the internet? Think again fuckers, 'cause you're about to get burned, bad. I mean, I won't actually go to any effort to disguise my pathetic belly aching with humor, but you're gonna find out exactly what I think of all of you. And you're going to care, too."
Just a heads up - you can't see it unless you're a mod, but the spam bots have gone out of control in the past six weeks. The Suggestion Thread alone gets around 30-40 pages per day. The entire Sports Board is getting bad; in fact, it's getting harder and harder to even find stuff legible without first sorting though twenty minutes of cleanup. So probably what's happening is people just aren't bothering. At least, that's a reason for my disillusionment.