1. “Ireland’s international supporters recently received an award from UEFA for their general conduct while attending the European Championships in Poland. We are, according to UEFA, the best supporters in Europe.
I suppose it wouldn’t sound as impressive if the award was titled ‘ The best supporters for two weeks out of 52’. For a myriad of reasons, our support is merely lent to the Irish senior team at major championships or single qualifying games, after which it reverts back to support of EPL clubs, mainly two of them, and mainly from the comfort of the couch at home, or the barstool in the local pub.”
The You Boys in Green blog examines the arguments put forward by the men, women and children who pass their local club to watch Premier League football.
2. “Neville is thorough; his Monday Night Football offerings are clearly the result of meticulous research. Putting together a 15-minute sequence on the art of diving, as he did towards the end of last season, takes dedication and commitment others lack. One Sky colleague comments on how Neville treats punditry the same way he treated professional football, where he succeeded primarily through hard work and intense preparation, rather than natural talent.”
The brains behind Zonal Marking, Michael Cox tells us exactly why Gary Neville is the best thing to happen football punditry since the instant replay for the Guardian.
3. “To be fair to Cathal McAllister, and to referees like him, he was only responding to a prevailing laissez-faire hurling culture. Take, for instance, the reaction in the RTÉ studio to the clash between Kilkenny and Tipperary – Ger Loughnane and Tomás Mulcahy shouted down the protests of Cyril Farrell who asked “where are the rulebooks” in reaction to the violent scenes we were treated to during the opening half of that contest.”
Brian McDonnell asks ‘is this the hurling we want?’ for BlueBlood.ie
4. “It was my first talk to a big company, and as much as the little voice in the back of head kept saying “you’re waffling! They don’t know who you are! I’m making no sense here! Why the fuck didn’t I wear a suit, it’s the bleeding Ritz Carlton!” I pulled through, and in the end felt it went ok! So that was that, off I went, and off they went. The economics crisis got worse and I kept on running!!”
David Gillick takes to his own blog to talk setbacks, depression and unwittingly inspiring a stroke victim to battle back one little step at a time.
5. “An environment as intensely competitive as baseball produces a very rapid and intense form of evolution: those who do not perform quickly find themselves back in the minors, while those who succeed are imitated. Under these conditions, adaptations spread quickly: when players notice a technique, strategy, or piece of equipment that gives a fellow player a competitive advantage they appropriate it for themselves. This happens with everything from elbow pads, which sluggers now use to protect their exposed arm as they crowd the plate, to the kinds of gloves they wear and bats they swing.”
On Deadspin, Christopher Hayes looks at the history and causes of doping in baseball.
6. “So maybe the Buckeyes didn’t necessarily have it coming. Maybe a better explanation for the lack of outrage over the unceremonious conclusion to Ohio State’s perfect season is that we’ve gotten so used to living in the upside-down world of the NCAA that we’ve stopped noticing that it’s upside down.
“In the end, it’s about getting an education. We are not professionals,” said Ohio State president Gordon Gee. “I would shut down our football program before we professionalized intercollegiate sports.”
For Bloomberg, Jonathan Mahler looks at Ohio State, whose rule breach means they cannot qualify for the play-offs despite a perfect 12-0 season, and suggests the college is in fact a model for the values the NCAA pretends to champion.
