EL BARRIO, EL FALLS – Happy Monday Everybody! This is my steak-over-sizzle edition. All the topics today will stuff that won’t be as hyped but are the real deal. So here is what we will be talking about: Racism in Soccer, Jacob de Grom, KC Chiefs
Racism in Soccer
?Patrick Bamford: “It’s amazing the amount of uproar when somebody’s pocket is being hurt. It’s a shame that this doesn’t happen with issues like racism.”??? pic.twitter.com/lsYEtgAPHH
— PurelyFootball (@PurelyFootball) April 19, 2021
I know Ben Whitney said he could always skip anything about soccer – but this is great. So… there was a whole lot uproar about a breakaway league of top clubs to start their own entity. This was quickly shutdown was UEFA and FIFA flexed their collective muscle about banning players from international competition. However, when it comes to racism in soccer, these two organizations are nowhere to be found. Over the last few years we have had bananas thrown at players, monkey sounds made and racial epithets said by white players to black players. This isn’t even old or isolated because in Spain, a black player walked off the pitch after being called the N word and his teammates joined him. Then the Spanish Association forced them back on – or they’d be slapped with a forfeit. Their subsequent “investigation” claimed that nothing racist was ever said! FIFA finally suspended a Sparta Prague player for 10 games for using an epithet against against a Glasgow Rangers player and the black player that took offense and attacked him for some reason got 3 games. So when I read this quote from Patrick Bamford, I was like, “Yes! Say it again louder for the people in the back!”
Jacob de Grom Jacob deGrom (Management is apoplectic re the Staff’s constant butchering of this guy’s name)
I know we have talked about him two days straight… but this is different. I am remembering when he broke into the league, he was still behind Matt Harvey and Zach Wheeler, as well as not getting the kind of fan appreciation as Noah Syndergaard. Harvey was the brash guy who talked the talk and walked the walk, while Wheeler was the straight man. de Grom deGrom was the quiet guy, while the brash flame-thrower Syndergaard, who was a player-to-be-named-later in trade, was drawing attention. Soon enough Harvey proved to unable to walk the walk, Wheeler wasn’t able to bounce back from injury, and Syndergaard struggled with injuries. The one person who didn’t get the sizzle but has proved to be the real? Old Jakey!
KC Chiefs
While everyone is kissing the ring and licking the boots of the Tom Brady and the Tampa Bay Bucs, it is Cam James‘ Kansas City Chiefs you should keep an eye on. They lost that Super Bowl without their first choice tackles on the offensive line. So what did they go out and do? They went and traded for Orlando Brown of the Baltimore Ravens. Brown moved from being a top right tackle to being a top left tackle this recent season. Adding Brown to the roster gives the Chiefs their fourth new offensive lineman this offseason. Along with Brown, left guard Joe Thuney, center Austin Blythe, and right tackle/right guard Kyle Long were added to the mix. The team will also have right tackle Lucas Niang and right guard Laurent Duvernay-Tardif back after both players decided to opt out due to COVID-19 in 2020. All that running around we saw Mahomes do in the Super Bowl will be a thing of the past. People want to credit the Tampa Bay D and not the line situation Mahomes was facing will now all be singing a new tune.
Thanks for reading, comment below and come back tomorrow for Ben Whitney, who once skated on water.
