You kidding me...playoffs?!?

  

They're serious, coach.  Don't worry, we'll get them.

Bokolis has long been against most forms of playoffs in sport.

The worst offenders are the NBA and NHL, who play seven-game series after seven game series when they are really playing the same game seven times.  There doesn't need to be any more than a one-off.  But, of course, since those two leagues were essentially traveling carnival shows until the 1980's- and probably longer for the NHL- they had to get gates.  So, that now means seven-game series, up to four times over.

Of the two, the NBA is worse.  With the NHL, because you have a constantly rotating stream of players, they go at an anaerobic level when out there.  At least you get bang for your buck (or loonie).  NBA players can't be bothered.

MLB and NFL had not quite as horrid systems, but both have also overcooked them.  

MLB would take up a lot of space here and ripping it apart is not the point of all this build up.  It's enough to say that Bokolis' position is that there should be no interleague play and no divisions, and certainly no wild-card- just two teams, one series.  You can play seven, it's fine.

Generally, the NFL playoff system holds some legitimacy because, since teams do not play all common opponents, there is clamor to grab the best few and put them in a tournament of one-off games.

Since the early '90s, the NFL has been trying its damnedest to stretch out its season so that its championship can be played over Presidents' Day weekend.  It experimented with a second bye week, but that was quashed after one year, probably because there were too many weeks with not enough good matchups to go around, kind of like week three of your suicide pool.

By adding a game and round of playoffs, the NFL is one week away from getting to Presidents' Day, but won't day go to a second bye, even with four more teams in the league.  That should tell you how badly it worked out for them.  More likely, they will surely push through an 18th game during the next CBA negotiations.

Bokolis was checked out of the NFL during the COVID year, but I reckon the league just shoved a 17th game down the throats of the players, similar to how the owners starved out the unprepared and unresolved masses of players to get them to accept a reduced share of revenues.  That's really another story.  All I'm saying here is that the NFL is almost there, and a Bowl on a weekend where we have Monday off will dramatically raise the profile of Presidents' Day.

Enough about that- Bokolis really means to lampoon the college football playoff system.  I was about the only person in my sphere who was always against a playoff structure.  The classic argument for it was that you could no longer have writers and coaches- who certainly weren't watching all the games/teams- picking a national champion.  This was fine when sports were about building character and the environment was collegiate and collegial.

When television and the money took over, it became a different issue.  It's corrupted the whole college process and experience but, again, that is for another story.

Every other year or so, some injustice or another would happen during bowl season, whether it was preventing us from seeing a #1 vs #2 match-up because #1 wanted to go to the bowl of its choice and wound up playing a lesser opponent, whether #3 had beaten #2 during the season, but somehow wound up ranked lower, all this kind of bullshit.  They built computer models, as if human bias didn't influence the inputs, and dicked around with it every year.

No satisfaction came, and the clamoring for a playoff system became louder.

The big obstacle, no matter what they tell you, was that this all had to take place between semesters, where kids were out of class and supposed to go home.  You couldn't just force them to play football for a month when they are supposed to be reconnecting with their people and recharging their batteries for the next academic semester.  Well, you could if you paid them.

And, that's what happened- NIL.  Now that the players are paid, there is no more illusion of the student-athlete.  Their job is to play sport for their university, which, combined with television, will whore them out.  If they manage to further their studies, bully for them.

Oh, and they get paid lovely.  Bokolis will relate a silly story here.

Bokolis' spawn goes to one of these mills, a FBS1 joint that has won national championships in football and in other sports that nobody really gives a shit about at the college level.  Spawn isn't there on an NIL deal- while Bokolis could ball a little bit, spawn has enough issues negotiating their shadow.  Mom and dad are paying.

Bokolis is speaking with said spawn as spawn is pulling into a parking spot before class.  Spawn is chuckling because they have arrived to the spot before the All-America athlete who is trolling the lot for a spot.

I bring this up because spawn is chillin' at school, puttering around with an automobile that probably prices out about $60k new (spawn's isn't new).  Spawn has a nicer automobile than Bokolis, but that's mainly because I refuse to pay $60k and up for a mobile tracking device that's giving out information on me to every cow-town, corporation and hacker that can access it.

Bokolis is not so cavalier as Grits n' Gravy to not GAF who's watching.  But All-America- in a sport other than football- is.  All-America has a ride that goes for well over $100k.

Bokolis told my kid to let All-America have the spot, that it might score some points that may be useful down the road.  Spawn was like, heyull naw, I have to get to class...all right, back on topic...

You may say, but they already had a playoff system before NIL.  Sure, a four-team deal that they fit around bowl season and that still gave the players most of December off.  The current 12-team deal runs for a full month (even if four of the teams still get most of December off just the same), and they will be up to 16 soon enough.

That right there makes Bokolis' prediction come true.  It's why I was opposed to it- once you open that box, I guaranteed that they'd turn it into March Madness, into an orgy.

The point of a playoff is to ensure any club that has a claim to the national championship gets to play for it.  It's exceedingly rare that you'll have any season where there are three teams with a legitimate claim.  If anything, you'll get one team that is the clear #1 with two or even three other teams that claim to be #2.

It's what you have this year, where only one school- Indiana- has claim to number one, while there are/were six schools with one loss (Ohio State, Georgia, Texas Tech, Oregon, Mississippi, Texas A&M).  The bolded teams have won their conference championship* and, coincidentally, those are the only clubs with what Bokolis considers a legitimate claim to the #2 spot.

*   Bokolis also doesn't believe in conference championships- a form of a playoff- and only sees value in them as an eliminator.

Both Oregon and Ohio State have already lost to Indiana so, according to Bokolis, they have no claim to a rematch- they've had their shot and lost.  No second bites at the cherry.

wah!  But Georgia got a second bite at the cherry with Alabama!  This is why Bokolis doesn't like conference championship games.  They are useless filler and, if there are rematches, result in one win mattering more than another.  I would also point out that Alabama already had two losses going into that game, so Georgia is already absolutely above Alabama without the second bite.

Ole Miss has lost to Georgia, so its claim is inferior to Georgia and therefore disqualifies it.  Texas A&M might have had a leg to stand on had they not gotten wiped by Texas.  As it was, combined with their dodgy victory over South Carolina, they were clearly seen to be fading and a cut below.  Unsurprisingly, they were the lowest-ranked of the one-loss teams.

So, in the final analysis, it's Georgia and Texas Tech that have the claim to be able to challenge the top team, which is absolutely Indiana.

Have them play, the winner plays Indiana, job done, don't need 12 teams.

In the old days, Indiana would've gone to the Rose Bowl and played Oregon, who would have still been in the Pac-10 and not have lost to Indiana during the season.  Two undefeated schools, dream matchup, winner is undisputed national champion.

Reality is, in this playoff format, Indiana will be made to win three neutral-site games, with at least one of them against a team that has no claim to be able to challenge them.

That right there is why it's all bullshit.

But, it's not why Bokolis is keying in this nonsense.  That was the preamble what's about to degenerate into a shitshow below.

My real aim was to laugh at those who feel they've been snubbed in this system.  Like when, a few years ago, when it was still four teams, Ohio State whinged about getting left on the outside.  They had all forgotten about a few years earlier, when they were give the 4th spot as a clear number four, with no claim to the championship, played with illegal uniforms and substance and won the whole thing.

Even funnier was this year, when Notre Dame got hosed by being shut out at #11 while they gave slots to enhancement talent James Madison and Tulane.

To make it worse, the committee had no issue ranking Notre Dame above the University of Miami for weeks, despite ND having lost to them and despite both teams having the same amount of losses, while BYU was a buffer between them.  But, when BYU lost its last game and there was no buffer in the rankings, the committee made things right and put Miami above Notre Dame, sending the domers home, as they will skip bowl season in protest.

Bokolis says put things right because, decades ago, Miami suffered just such an indignity, getting ranked lower than a team they had beaten and being shut out of the national championship at #3 despite a general feeling that it was a better side than both #1 & #2.

As for Notre Dame, piss off, you fucking domer cunts- whinging that you didn't get the last spot when you have no business playing for the title.

That doesn't even come close to evening the score.

Besides, if they had let y'all in, we wouldn't have gotten to see Michael Irvin BTA.

Hopefully, Cleveland Gary was smiling watching the selection show.

Burning Off a Pronounced Lack of Nervous Energy- the unfun job

I wanted to feel what it's like to write- and what I can produce- from extremely low energy.  Here goes...

Ever since Bokolis walked off the football pitch, the pace of just about everything has slowed tremendously for me.  The pitch was a fine distraction and diversion from all the bullshit the rest of existence relentlessly feeds us.  It spared me from having to encounter or associate with people who I felt had bought into it.

While Bokolis does his damnedest to sidestep all that nonsense, trying to sidestep it is- I gather- like trying to play a video game on master level when you're no master.  You slowly/surely/steadily get hit with the shit from the shitstorm until your power bar goes empty.

It's made all the more difficult when you're surrounded by people who eat that shit up (I guess the pun is intentional).  Bokolis has found myself in such an existence.  I am now torn between the allure of becoming old, fat and dumb, and swimming back upstream.

Bokolis cannot decide, as both options are at once equally appealing and unappealing.  My only coping mechanism has been to stack my chips, as the erstwhile cool kids might have said, and hope that the process kills me before I have to decide.

See, Bokolis had money and assed out multiple times in the 90s.  Most people lost their first money; I lost my second and third money.  At some point on that see-saw, Bokolis decided that I can't do this any more, so...throw in your metaphor- stood on 70 cents on the Price is Right wheel, hit the buzzer...errrr...took what was in the box on Monty Hall's table...I wasn't the big deal of the day, but went home quite better off than I started.

Money didn't mean all that much to Bokolis, except that it allowed me not to have to jump on the hamster wheel, not to fully engage the system, not to be laden by its demands.  Even in times of no (earned) income, I refused to be harried into slaving for a paycheck.  Essentially, I did work that, when combined with drawing from my stash, allowed for a largely carefree existence.  I'm not saying that I achieved Zen, but I'm still going to call it that.

Bokolis did not live anything approaching lavishly, even in the days of easy come, easy go.  But, unlike almost all of my friends (who were younger), I was unbothered by having to make rent.

At some point, Bokolis was roped into having to help out family- isn't it ALWAYS fucking family- doing, more or less, something that I've spent a lifetime avoiding.  It's put me in direct conflict with my ideology, how I've lived.

All this is for a family member who has always been driven by money/wealth, has plenty of it- certainly more than Bokolis does- yet needs me to keep it from falling apart.  Even though they have made this business their calling, somehow I am better at making the machines run.

The stakes are too high and there was no one else to do it.

Spiritually, it's prison.  Bokolis short-term memory is all over the place.  I spoon letters (though not numbers) in a way that I've never done.  It is testing my Zen.

Despite the attitude with which Bokolis- I post once a year and I can barely remember this asshole- writes this nonsense on here, I don't consider myself to be self-confident, but I do think I am self-assured.  I was captain of every football team that I walked into for the last 10 years that I played.  I never asked for it.  It just always found me.  I'm not going to explain why except to say that, when I get thrown into shit, I'm convinced I'm going to work it out.

Bokolis has got the same general attitude about my current drama.  The key difference here is that, unlike football, I can't stand what I'm doing.  It's been years now; I haven't grown to like it or even tolerate it.

Bokolis has come to understand that, rather than let ideology get in the way, all you can do is stack your chips while you can.  Money still isn't the motivator, but it's the measure of this game.

How much of it will Bokolis get to enjoy vs planning to keep it out of probate...I guess that depends on the stress.  The next kicking dirt on graves post may be about me.

Rickey coming, Jesus. Rickey coming

 In an alarming trend, milestones are now increasingly marked by people's passing.

Of course, Rickey is so fast, he was already banging on the pearly gates like, Henderson here! before Saint Peter could get to the front. 

Y'all know what court we was supposed to meet up on.  See you on the other side.

'til then, rest easy, Rickey.

Do you think I can beat Mike Tyson!

So, Bokolis corralled someone's account and hung in long enough to watch Mike Tyson be carried by Jake Paul for eight abridged rounds of what they claim was boxing.  This came somewhat close to retroactively ruining my childhood- some punk-ass white boy from the Cleveland suburbs besting a muthafucka from the streets.

Bokolis hopes Tyson got paid well for this.  According to the broadcast, Paul claims the idea for this circus was hatched when he asked a friend, do you think I can beat Mike Tyson?  Of course, I was able to rationalize that this wasn't the same Mike Tyson that I had built up in my head.

Already in a dark state of mind, this was a guy who showed up to the ring looking like it was past his bedtime.  Aside from sharing the belief that a legacy ain't nothing but a muthafuckin' Subaru, Bokolis can relate because I had fallen asleep during the undercard.  Twenty years ago, it might have been a disco nap. But, these days, it is decidedly an old-man nap.

Aside- also conducive to sleep was that this broadcast was brutal.  Is this what programming has become?

That was enough for Bokolis to think, uh-oh.  Other than seeing a random clip of Tyson training here and there, I know nothing about the build-up to this.  I've had friends telling me he looked good and in decent shape.

But, what Bokolis saw was a guy likely both neutered and bloated from painkillers.  Paul looked like he was on whatever the current version of Adderall is.  Tyson offered a modicum of energy in the first round, faded in the second- at least, that's what we saw after restarting the feed due to the buffering- and that's when I noticed that Tyson was working with a bum wheel.

If memory serves, this was the issue in his final proper fight.  His knee was gone, so he tried to get himself DQ-ed and, when that didn't work, begged off.

He didn't need to beg off against this opponent, as Paul is not an elite-level pugilist and Tyson was still able to mostly dodge what he threw.  That got Tyson to the finish line, well behind on the scorecards.

Rounds 3-8 were sad to watch, as Bokolis knew that Tyson had no chance.  The crowd was muted by its realization that 1986 Mike Tyson was not in the building.  Further humbling surely came with the realization that they had suckered themselves, and would have to wait for someone else to knock the GH out of Jake Paul. 

The only saving grace was that his reflexes were such that he didn't stand in front of Paul's right hand long enough to get KTFO.  This would've really fucked my shit up.

It was an eerie parallel to June 8, 2002.  Bokolis was watching Lewis-Tyson in, of all places, Cleveland, Ohio.  From the second round, it became clear that Tyson didn't have it and was going to get knocked out.  Unlike the nostalgic saps in jerry's place last night, the crowd in the bar in Cleveland was decidedly anti-Tyson.  While Tyson was champion in the hood, these middle-America white folk were full-on cancel culture.

It might have also been that it was a generation later, people who only knew Tyson as an ex-con rapist who wanted to eat his children and as the guy who, at the pre-fight hype fest that ultimately got the fight pushed back, told the punk-ass white boy who yelled out to put Tyson in a straightjacket that he would fuck you 'til you love me, faggot (after Tyson walked up and- a work, just like Tyson's slap on Paul was- threw a hook toward Lennox Lewis).

Disclosure- on three occasions, Bokolis has worked this into the act when shagging a bird, minus the part after the comma.  Needless to say, there was no second trade on any of them.  One was too thick- figurately thick- to get that it was coital shit-talk, the second was repulsed and couldn't wait to get away from me, the third liked it, and I couldn't wait to get away from her.

Just like that night in Cleveland, it ended with Round 8 and with Bokolis closing off another chapter.

Ale Bunga Ale

 

So, Berlusconi faded away, and Bokolis had a few things go through my mind.  For a bit, I wasn't sure what to think.

This man bankrolled AC Milan's surge to dominance, both of Serie A, the strongest league in Europe at the time, and through European football itself.  Officially, his reign over the club ran from 1986-2017, but the time Bokolis will most fondly remember is the the run of ass whuppin from 87-95.  There were Scudetti, there were European cups, and there was a barren period for the dreaded Juventus, which shut up everyone around me. 

Somewhere in there, Berlusconi managed to become prime minister of Italy.  When Bokolis had to explain Berlusconi to Americans, I would use the comp of Donald Trump for the bombast but, as Trump was a comparative piker, I would throw Ted Turner in there, mix the two and say that it was like Trump being president.  Then we would snicker, Donald Trump president, yeah right.

With Trump fulfilling the prophesy, it turns out that Italy were early adopters, you might say, of (right-)wingnuts.  Bokolis ribbed my Italian buddy about this, goading him (into invoking Benny Bianco from Bologna and) to state the obvious- just as they were in 1921, except, this time, it's the US increasingly looking like heading down the Via D'Annunzio.

In those heady days, it was kind of a cute novelty to have the owner run the whole country.  His time in charge lasted about as long as novelty does. 

That said, once Berlusconi came back from being prime minister, Milan, while still a top club, no longer would dominate as they did.  During his second run as Prime Minister, his stench of both his politics and appetites started to define him, even in the eyes of Milanisti.

By the time he came back from his third turn, the world had been introduced to the terms bunga bunga and culona inchiavabile, Barbara was fucking the striker, Pirlo was off to Juventus. Berlusconi, in addition to hurtling towards senility (as American football fans have seen with Al Davis and are now seeing with Jerry Jones), was in the process of having his comeuppance finances dwindle and empire unravel. 2011-2017 was a period of regression for AC Milan while we waited for Bunga Bunga to divest, and even that was a shitshow.

Berlusconi shitting all over Italy was possible to overlook while Milan were delivering trophies, but ultimately became impossible to reconcile.

Suave homes, the hedge funds have got it from here.

I bet that y'all thought this was going to be about the Iron Sheik. 

I'd have too much to say, and it's already been done.  In at once treasuring and lampooning him, we've all effectively been eulogizing him for the last 15 years.  He was always a Bokolis favorite, as he looked like one of my uncles, and almost as ornery.

With any luck, he has come up on his daughter's murderer, put him in the camel clutch, and humbled him for all times.

Suave homes, namber vun, there'll never be another.

Boom! He's on his back!

When Bokolis followed gridiron football, one of the things that made it worthwhile was listening to John Madden blather on about something that was apparent to a fan capable of critical thought, though maybe not to the larger nation of mongoloids, in such an endearing way that excused him telling us stuff we should already know.

Bokolis was too young to have experienced Madden the coach, and too old to give a fuck about the video game. So, my impression of him will remain as the broadcaster from the 80s and 90s- with a beer commercial thrown in- who knew and cared just a little bit more than the rest. Bokolis brings this up because, watching a college basketball game today, I saw some kid, after his team battled all game to whittle a 10-point deficit and finally tied it in the final minute, settle for shooting from Curry land, down two with 20 seconds left. A friend of mine, when I relayed this to him, lamented that everyone thinks they can shoot 3's. It reminded Bokolis of an old Madden line, one where he explained that two things everyone thinks they can do, but can't, are kick field goals and play tennis. It was one of the many times Madden stumbled on to genius. Bokolis would like to think that, if Madden had stayed in the public eye long enough to experience the current NBA, he would have added shooting 3-pointers to that. Suave, homes. You blazed quite a trail.

Feudalism by any other name...

So, it seems the bloodsuckers at UEFA/FIFA have met their match in this soulless cunt, who is looking to blow up football as we know it by bringing to existence the long-threatened European superleague to finally run the European Cup competition, currently doing business as the misnomered Champions League*, out of business once and for all.

Feudalism by any other name...despite the stated nationality of the bloke at the head of the table, Bokolis' inner circle of friends considers him a middleman/facilitator, and puts the blame for this squarely on the shoulders of the American ownership regimes of EPL teams.

As it is, with the proposed league saying that the squad can't play domestically and its players could be precluded from playing int'l, this has the potential to bite them in their ass.

Most of the relevant players would have no problem choosing riches of the superleague over country, but what happens when they are no longer good enough to play for the new G-20 and the lord kicks them off the land? Like a deposed nobleman, they'll be thrown in with riff raff, and still(?) banned from playing int'l.

The fans might be the bigger issue. We've hung in with the CL through all perversions because we still manage to hold some silly romantic connection to the European Cup. This new league would be like rewriting the Constitution, to which we have no allegiance, and not (self-)required to support. For Bokolis' part, I have been slowly extracting myself from football these past few years. My head is still lodged up its ass, but the rest of me is out.

The P in EPL has always, to some degree, stood for Plastic. The chief purpose of rebranding was to capture the national/int'l TV market- the so-called 'plastic fans' who who don't live near the grounds and don't go to the matches. Of course, television now makes up the bulk of the big clubs' revenue; spectators are just there to help with the TV ambience.

Similarly, the TV revenue in play here renders those local fans to being a bunch of local peasants, like someone living in a bungalow next to a high-rise who won't sell to the developers.

Surely, the new bloodsuckers would buy off UEFA/FIFA for its blessing. The EPL and the FAs are not Bokolis' hero- just a more tolerable lot of bastards. They are all cut from the same cloth.

The fans' only recourse is to disavow the clubs. Only the English fans are capable of this. Bokolis would count Gary Neville among them. While G.Neville the filthy manc cunt is to be reviled, I very much like the way G.Neville the analyst shakes. He is just about as quick to slam his own club for its misdeeds as he is any other, and praise a club he dreads just as quickly as he would his own, which are about the best things you can say about an analyst. He rightfully shreds MUFC and LFC in the same breath.

Have you ever noticed the difference between who gets the championship trophy in football (the captain) and who gets it in American sports (the owner)? As part of the greater culture, as Bokolis pointed out to his circle, you see a big difference right there between Britain, hardly as left-leaning as much of western Europe, and America. In America, where corporations seemingly have more rights than humans, and the free speech granted to a corporation and its money extends to the right to tell you to STFU- with the threat, implicit or explicit, to throw you off its land- when your view clashes with its own, a man with an opinion like this wouldn't even get three minutes to voice it on corporate media, let alone an uninterrupted three minutes.

Bokolis remembers reading- maybe 10-15 years ago, an article about the growing American ownership of clubs in the EPL and how they were already lobbying to scrap relegation. Someone was cited as saying it will never happen because they need 2/3 of the votes, and then the league has to also agree, which it would never do. I thought, just you wait, pal.

It's this kind of nonsense that America is seeking to bring to old world Europe, only it has stormed the beaches of England this time.

Rugby for fairies LIV at Miami

Bokolis split the conference championships- the Packers were run over, a bad bet, and the Chiefs blasted their way out of adversity.  This leaves it at 5-5 for the playoffs, with it coming down to the final game.

Chiefs (-1.5) over 49ers - Bokolis is taking somewhat of a chance posting the evening before the match.  I am leaving myself open to the dead-hooker story.  In reality, I was in at -1 a long time ago, so any dead hookers will have to say missing until Monday.

Lay people are all over the Chiefs, while players seem to be favoring the 49ers.  Anyone taking the 49ers has to be putting tremendous stock in their defense and running game.  They might also be banking on Andy Reid mucking up the playcalling like he used to, on Kyle Shanahan winning that battle.

Bokolis will be banking on that 49ers running game not being nearly as good as you think it is, on the Chiefs daring Jimmy G to beat them, and, even if everything goes wrong, on Mahomes and that offense being able to blast their way out of it.  I see this as the Chiefs having a 75% chance of winning, which should translate to more than a two-point victory- more like two touchdowns.

When I cook beef...

When Bokolis found out about Kobe Bryant's number being up- via a Yo! Did you hear what happened to Kobe? text from one of my homeboys- my response was that I feel about how Tony felt about Omar- an eerie parallel, don't you think?

All Bokolis saw was a link to the TMZ story, which, at that point, was four minutes old.  Of course, I don't believe in push notifications; my friends take care of that shit for me.  While keying in k-o-b-e, I didn't consider or speculate what it could be.

Bokolis didn't click through to the story.  I presumed he was on there with his secretary/mistress 'on business' and that it was a case of statistics catching up with him.

See, Bokolis has never thought much of Kobe.  Leaving aside his forcing a trade before he had ever played a game, I had him lined up as a cocky fuck needing to get the shit slapped out of him, and the only reason that wasn't happening is because Shaq was around.  While I'm not knocking his hustle, I can't have respect for someone who can't clear his own orbit, yet portraying the big willy.  I had even less respect when he later effectively whacked the guy under whose flag he flew (pun unintentional).  I guess Shaq could've kept himself in better shape.

Bokolis' opinion was crystallized when Kobe bought and/or was bailed out of a murky rape situation, where some bird went to the room not realizing what happens when you go to the room, and, this time, Kobe wound up having to take the pussy (and/or ass, apparently).  Moreover, I was already pretty well detached from the NBA.

So, while Kobe might have spent the rest of his days- when he wasn't yelling puši kurac in between free throws- rehabbing his image, I'd never have known.  If he turned into a genuinely good person, it's news to me.  In fact, Bokolis considered his later self-applying the nickname black mamba was his way of trolling for having gotten away with it.

So, right after the whoa!, and saying that I felt about how Tony felt about Omar, Bokolis keyed out, the black mamba is in the black land.  I somehow refrained from keying in Kobe cooked.

Of course, soon enough, the news comes out that one of his daughters was on board*.  Well, fuck, that changes things.  Then it was five people.  Damn, the devil him him hard.  Then it was nine people.  Jesus, this is a fucking mess.

*   Aside- it may have said that in the TMZ article, but Bokolis didn't open it, and was not aware until it was more widely reported.

You can look up the details of the doomed flight.  Whether you believe that the pilot was trying to please his boss, or that Kobe demanded to plow ahead is up to you.  Bokolis does not have that answer.  I do know that this guy was taking a chopper to a girls basketball game because he couldn't be bothered with sitting in LA traffic.

You may also see him as #girldad, as if trending hashtags count in the final judgement.  Bokolis would hate to think that this was karma catching up to him (or the devil coming to collect) but, if I were his accuser/victim, I would definitely be thinking that.

The sadness comes from realizing that there are grieving people left behind, and is for the people roped in with this muthafucka.  The tributes are heinous.  It is sad how we try to make kings or deities out of people.  When you're gone, goodbye, so long, farewell.  False idols, muthafuckas, false idols...this guy was just another cunt.

Suave, homes, ya dun well.

Rugby for Fairies 2019-20 Conference Championships

Bokolis, 4-4, is looking to make hay this week so as to not have it come down to the pro-wrestling clown show in two weeks.

CHIEFS (-7) over Titans - Yes, this would bust Bokolis' long-held prediction of the Chiefs not getting to the bowl, but this is not a hedge.  History has repeatedly told us that teams like the Titans- run heavy, pass light, rely on no mistakes- almost never turn this trick three weeks in a row.  Derrick Henry is a special player and could pull this off in the cold and, even if not, the Titans can still cover.  However, it was only the Chiefs' momentary offensive jitters that put them in a 24-0 hole last week.  This is something I don't expect to recur.  The Titans will have to do a lot to keep up.

Packers (+8) over 49ERS - Bokolis doesn't promise that the Packers will win this game.  But, given that I don't think enough of Garoppolo to believe that he can beat the Packers by this much without help from his defense.  I'm going to take Rodgers and his back of tricks to keep it close.

Another divisional beatdown

So, about when the Texans made it 21-0, Bokolis was thinking about the beating I was taking this week and thinking that the silver lining was that my long-held prediction that the Chiefs and the Jets would not be back to another super bowl until all the rest of the teams made it first would still hold.  To boot, the potential was there for the Texans to come off the list,which also includes the Lions, Browns and Jaguars.

Aside - since the Cleveland Browns were paused/didn't exist when Bokolis first made the statement, and the Jaguars and Texans were, respectively, a recent addition and non-existent, I would claim victory if the Lions somehow made a super bowl.

Bokolis didn't watch the Saturday games and didn't start tracking the Vikings-49ers until some point in the second quarter.  But, I knew the Vikings were sunk when, after intercepting late in the second quarter and already in field goal range, they went 3-and-out.  I also had the sense that only one of the Saturday road teams would cover, so I was resigned to 0-2 right there.  Ultimately, my hasty picks disregarded my acquired perceptions: the Titans had a proper running back and the Vikings couldn't run between the tackles.

As if Bokolis didn't already know, after the Ravens were stuffed on the first 4th and short, it confirmed what the early part of the game had made apparent:  the Ravens and their QB weren't ready for the playoffs.

That's how it goes.  Bokolis didn't feel bad because I was lukewarm on those games.  Of course, back in the old days, I would have been backing up the truck on the Chiefs, as I had the most conviction on that game.

Imagine, then, how Bokolis felt when I turned on the game- I thought it started at 3:30- and saw 14-0.  That truck was hijacked.

When the Texans botched their plan to go for it on 4th and short while leading 21-0, ultimately standing down and taking a field goal, Bokolis didn't disagree.  Piling up points as a bunker seemed the correct thing, because 21 was never going to be enough- and it's not the hindsight talking.  However, and, that's an all-caps and huge font however, taking the field goal there, only to try a fake punt- and botching that planning as well- in their own territory made no sense.  I knew they would not make it to the end right then and there, but I still wasn't sure that KC would cover the 10 (the line nudged back up to 10 by game time).  The Chiefs, who scored their first TD on a short field, were handed another short field for their second TD, which sped up the comeback.

They brought the truck back, with a little extra in it, no questions asked.

Actually, there was a red flag the whole time, as Deshaun Watson spent way too much time after plays (seemingly) schmoozing with officials and players, things that should not be on his radar.  He is not a winner.

Aaron Rodgers is a winner.  This is being keyed in on either side of halftime of the Seahawks-Packers.  Not having to worry about a running game, the Packers seem to be getting pressure the same way the Chiefs did, and Bokolis sees Russell Wilson staring at the defensive end the same way Deshaun Watson was.  So, the Seahawks are suffering much the same way.  Of course, Russell Wilson is about the only QB who can get away with this, but not without a running game.  To boot, Aaron Rodgers isn't making mistakes, making the Seahawks secondary look foolish, and the Packers are cutting through the Seahawks.

As it is, at 28-10 Packers, halfway through the third quarter, Bokolis is waiting for the Seahawks to bog down on their current drive before hitting publish, so I can get to bed.  At 28-17, I'm aggravated that I've got to hang with this, that, even if the Seahawks manage to hold the Packers AND score another touchdown, covering would come down to a 2-point conversion. The perils of results over process.

Actually, the Seahawks scored early enough that there was a little more to it than that.

The lack of a running game might seem glaring, but Russell Wilson is a running game.  What they won't tell you is that the Seahawks were done in by a lacking secondary, especially #21 and #28...and probably some dodgy replay angles.  Jimmy Graham did not get the first down at the end.  Thirty Forty years later, rulings are as dodgy as they ever were.

1-3 for this round, 4-4 for the playoffs, down the vigs.

Rugby for fairies 2019-20 Divisional Round

So, after a 3-1 wild card week, Bokolis is confronted with a couple of lukewarm Saturday matches. Then again, there is little that is more lukewarm than last Saturday's curtain jerker.

Vikings (+7) over 49ERS - Bokolis doesn't really think the Vikings will win, but I do think some combination of they have enough to keep with or cockblock the 49ers/the 49ers don't have enough to dominate the Vikings and/or the slower track will help converge performances.

RAVENS (-9.5) over Titans - Bokolis has to believe that the Titans have shot their wad.  The Titans are more equipped to hang than the Vikings, but the Ravens are better equipped to dominate.

CHIEFS (-9.5) over Texans - This is supposed to be game where the side barely squeaking by in the last round goes to the top seed and gets duly hammered.

Seahawks (+4.5) over PACKERS - From what Bokolis is told, the Packers are a soft 13-3- it allegedly includes a couple of ass-kickings- and Aaron Rodgers is making mistakes that he wasn't making in prior years. There's also something about the Seahawks road record- huh?!?  I'm not buying that the Seahawks will win, but I do believe that the Packers are not equipped to pull away.

2019-20 Rugby for fairies wildcard rehash

With what he considers to have been one and a half solid picks, a concussed QB and a luck-out, Bokolis manages a 3-1 wild card round.  While I didn't watch Saturday's games, I was texting with a group of blokes who were full of tickets and banter.  That is also connected to the Sunday update of the lines; the group was in constant uproar for every movement, which influenced me to be current.  The Seahawks actually went off at +1, but I felt a second update would've been too much.

After sleepwalking through much of that game, looking like they didn't want to win, just as they did last year, the Texans were in position to close out the fading Bills- whythefuck did the Bills go for it on 4th and 27 with all their timeouts?!?- but nearly pissed it away themselves when, scared to attempt a long-ish FG, they were stuffed on 4th down.  The QB had his Eli moment, and they pulled it out.  The betting public was nice enough to bet the game down to 2.5, so it's a cash...yaaay! dumb money.

Brady performed suitably shitty, and Derrick Henry was as good as advertised, maybe better.  As the Titans were running down the clock, some joker tried to call a pick six, to which Bokolis replied, when Brady gets the ball back?  When Brady did the deed, instead of crowing, I wrote, TaInt-ed legacy. TaInt, of course, is how Bokolis refers to what the mouth-breathers call a pick six.  It's a pain in the ass to text, even if you're not an iPhone fanboy who can't be bothered to capitalize, so, thankfully, it hasn't caught on.

Bokolis decided pretty early on that the Saints didn't want to win, and was reminded of the Saints' shitty play calling and their equally shitty run-blocking.  They had one excellent drive.  I'm starting to understand that this is likely related to there being certain throws that Brees doesn't want to make, or can't make.  It seemed that the Vikings were taking away his first option, and his response often showed his confusion.

On the other side, this kid Cook is pretty good, but he can't run between the tackles.  Keep that in your pockets for next time.  When he scored- between the tackles- to make it 20-10 Vikings, Bokolis was quick enough to key out that the Vikings were smart enough to call a draw play, which I later amended to stumbling onto the correct call, before they could rub my nose in it.  Besides, I said, he had only performed to expectations- it's just that we expected the Saints to have 30 points by then.

That was a push-off, by the way.  The Saints get hosed again.

The Seahawks were probably better, but losing Wentz rendered the Eagles non-competitive.  The Seahawks teased everyone by doing the minimum and committing a few penalties.  Nonetheless, Bokolis thinks the Seahawks playcalling was a bit better than I've seen from them in big games.  They kept themselves out of trouble and didn't have to (overly) rely on Russell Wilson pulling a play of of his ass.  I mean, it was the same 17-9 as the regular season, so discussion is done.

That's all the fuck I've got.  We go again next time.

The Waybach machine: NYF Giants at SF 49ers into rugby for fairies playoffs

To get myself in the mood for NFL playoffs, Bokolis found an old playoff game on YouTube.  In this game, the San Francisco 49ers, on their way to winning Super Bowl XIX, defeated the New York Giants 21-10.  While the Bill Belichick-led linebacker corps intercepted the legendary Joe Montana three times, and the 49ers did not score in the second half, the Giants' offense could not score a touchdown of its own.

Despite detesting the 49ers more than any other team, Bokolis loved watching games played at Candlestick park, especially playoff games, because the slow track made for some hitting.  While the Walsh 49ers were known for his revolutionary v2.1 of Paul Brown's offense, mis-labeled as the "west coast offense," it was when they had a suitably punishing defense that Walsh won his three super bowls.

In the moment, Bokolis could not appreciate, or even acknowledge, such a defense.  Even though the Giants had emerged from the dark ages, any Giants fan was already well-used to an offense pissing in the wind.  So, the Giants not getting anything done against the 49ers didn't make the latter seem like anything special.

The first drive ended in a 49ers touchdown, but left the Giants with what ifs.  A Montana pass deflected off of Roger Craig's hands and right to defensive back Bill Currier with room to run.  You can debate what would have happened, but Bokolis says Currier was gone.  Both running backs were in the pass pattern, and the only receiver, surely quicker than Currier, would've been blocked.  It would've been a matter of getting past the linemen.  Give me that play and let's see what would've happened.

Aside- The defensive backs have always been an issue on the Giants.

Dwight Clark then caught a 3rd down pass to extend the drive where he probably didn't get both feet in bounds.  On the next drive, Ronnie Lott intercepted a pass at midfield and was contacted while on the ground, but was allowed to get up and run to the Giants' 12.

It would take another two years for Phil Simms to blossom (at the super bowl played in the Rose Bowl {nudge nudge}, get it?).  Simms would often try to hang in there that little extra so that his receivers (who were never very good) would get open.  In this game, it seemed that he often waited too long, probably because his receivers couldn't get open.  It didn't get any better the next year in Chicago.

Now that Bokolis is good and ready- good and ready, yeah- fast forward to the playoffs.

TEXANS (-2.5) over Bills - In a battle of the teams that have rolled over so many times in the playoffs, Bokolis is not buying Buffalo and thinks it will go wrong for them.

Titans (+4.5) over PATRIOTS -  For a guy like Brady, Bokolis would typically have to see him fall to believe it.  But, with nothing other than Edelman around him, I've seen enough shitty play from Brady this season to believe that, short of Gronk showing up, the best he will do is pull out a close one that the other team has pissed away.

SAINTS (-7.5 -7 Sunday edit) over Vikings - Didn't the Saints cock this one up a few years ago?  They had better be playing to leave no doubt.

Seahawks (-1.5 PK Sunday edit) over EAGLES - Bokolis never quite trusts the Seahawks, as they make things harder than they should be, and have to resort to QB Wilson to pull some (jizz-stained?) magic out of Ciara's ass.  But, the Eagles have not done it against any team that is any good, QB Wentz hasn't done it with a full team, and won't have TE Ertz to help.  Ertz is solid and doesn't do stupid stuff on the field, which will be missed, even at home.

Sunday note- lines moved to Saints -7 and PK.  Winning back the hook in the Saints, especially since I would've bought it anyway, and simply needing the Seahawks to win are too much to ignore.

23 girls 4 cups?

Bokolis decided to wait until all the afterglow simmered down to talk some shit about the US Women's National Team running out winners of its fourth world championship.  Despite any efforts to sidestep the noise, I've had to endure the nonsense of those who think the women should be paid more than their male parallels, and of those who think they are being edgy in using '90s references to insinuate that each practice ends in a daisy chain.

Still others have thumbed their noses by bringing up that, a couple of years back, the side lost a scrimmage against a FC Dallas under-15* side by some distance.  This gets met with some broad straight out of Dave Lozo's GSF academy coming through with the they weren't really trying excuse, and allusions to insecure men who would dare bring this up, as if a victory against 15-year old American boys is supposed to be groundbreaking.

Aside- they call it under-15, but it should more properly called '15 and under.'

No, whether elite US women footballers win or lose a scrimmage against a u-15 side is not relevant.  Bokolis hasn't seen any footage, and I imagine it has been burned or locked away.  We don't know at what levels the sides were playing.  It is reasonable enough to speculate that they boys were going at 90%-100% and the women were going at 70%.

It is far more damning that they would have to go that far down the latrine to find a pace of play and level of athletes that suits their preparation.  You see, if playing full bore, this USWNT could probably hang with a u-17 side, or u-18 side taking pity on them.  They've already learned that they can't practice against a serviceable college side because the male players can't figure out the appropriate amount of pity to take.

A side of 15-year old boys going virtually full-bore provides the women with a tolerable amount of physicality and speed against which they can practice.

Of course, 15 year old American boys aren't well-drilled footballers.  They largely rely on their athleticism.  This, of course, does nothing to help the women become better footballers.

And, Bokolis' issue with the assessment of this squad was that, while they had, far and away, the best athletes, this world cup showed quite clearly that they did not have the best footballers.  Sweden, England and the Netherlands all had better footballers.

Hey, jerk- the US beat all those teams!

In all those cases, their superior athleticism won out.  Against England, they also flat-out got lucky- lucky that VAR caught the offside despite England again splitting the US centre-halves after having done so on their lone official goal, lucky that the England women made like the England men when it came to taking a penalty.

That said, they were never threatened.  Bokolis thought Alex Morgan stumbled onto brilliance with the tea-sipping display, but the raised pinky was bad form.

Sweden punted the group stage match, apparently trying to play possum in case of a possible meeting in the final.  The US clearly dictated the play, but had trouble producing any football capable of breaking down Sweden, and benefited from the dodgy new-age offside interpretations on the second goal.

By the time of the final, it should have been abundantly clear that the Netherlands had no shot of standing up to the superior US athleticism.  Nonetheless, it took a dodgy VAR penalty decision for a foul on Alex Morgan, who had been diving/embellishing all tournament, to break the ice.  Bokolis immediately dismissed this in real time, even as I quickly texted my group that, sooner or later, this diving dishrag was going to get one of these calls.  Sure enough, here came the prompt to re-referee the game.  I also told my friends that I would bet one of my testicles that Rapinoe was going to her right on the PK.  How the Dutch keeper didn't deduce the same is beyond me.

The second goal was legitimate, and took advantage of what should have been the glaring liability in the Dutch side, the centre-half wearing the number 3 jersey.  She was exposed in the Japan game, and this should've been known.  The US should've piled on about four more.

Bokolis must admit that I had no prior knowledge of the Dutch side, much less that they won the latest Euro.  I immediately noticed that they all played like they thought they were Dennis Bergkamp.  Of course, they bunkered up once the competition got better, which reinforced Bokolis perception that their best female athletes are still riding bicycles or speed skating, playing field hockey or whatever.

The Norwegians were better footballers, too.  But they didn't measure up athletically and weren't deep.  They had nothing left for England.  Bokolis will leave out Germany, as this was not even close to a proper German side.

Spain were not better footballers but, thanks to their tactics, the US did nothing from open play.  They won two penalties, one on an excellent embellishment by the only proper footballer on the US (Tobin Heath), and a dodgy one on what was a straight-up dive, and a bad one at that.

Perhaps it wasn't surprising that their best performance was against France, who had the most similar squad makeup, enabling the US women to press their athletic superiority against a side who weren't necessarily better footballers and worse yet, were set up to rely on their athleticism to bully lesser sides.

Since Bokolis always says that Ligue 1 is MLS, but faster, I got a kick out of the females being similar.  France had two singularly unique players in winger Kadidiatou Diani and the giant centre-half Wendie Renard, players for whom the rest of the world had no answer.  To boot, the side was stocked with players from Olympique Lyonnais, which has won the women's Champions League four years running.

Like the Norwegians, the birds from Lyon also figured out that they might not be as good without Ada Hegerberg.  They tried to match the US athleticism, and they failed, big-time.

The new-age nonsense worked against the US in this game, as they had their third goal taken away because the VAR machine said a heel was in an offside position.  Get the fuck out of here!

Nonetheless, the US outplayed the French, and only conceded because the player wearing the number three jersey (Mewis) played the whole French team onside by dropping too early on the free kick.  The analysts neglected to bring up what was in their face, instead blaming it on Horan, who was apparently marking Renard but, like the rest of the team, trying to play the French offside.

To boot, those analysts didn't figure out to give Crystal Dunn credit for the job she did on Diani until after the match, by which time the whole world had already weighed in.  They hadn't done it at halftime, when Dunn had already plugged what, going into the match, seemed like the biggest liability.  It was all the more amazing because Dunn, playing out of position at left back, had shown herself (in prior matches) to be a naive defender, allowing herself to be pulled out of position in search of something to do.  Diani certainly had a few tricks up her sleeve to wrong-foot Dunn, Dunn's fight allowed her speed to hang with Diani.

The French were neutralized, and there was maybe one other person in the world who could have done that job as well as Dunn.  But the Velvet Mafia didn't want her on the squad because she wasn't feeling the rainbow, so Dunn got the chance, and gets all the plaudits.

Bokolis had a chuckle because her teammates seemed to refuse to pass Dunn the ball.  I wondered whether they didn't trust her, or they didn't want to give her too much to do.  Subsequent games suggested it was the latter.  But, hey, at least they let her play.

Bokolis would now give individual assessments of each player...would- but I don't want to break any ground.

You know the rest, lift the cup, parade in NYC, Rapinoe drops a few f-bombs while demanding equal pay (if not more) based on wild distortions of reality, a bunch of them dressed up like porn whores at the ESPYs- what's that?  It's their prerogative? Sure it is, just as it is Bokolis' to say they dressed up like porn whores- and now they'll go back to playing in front of 6,000 at their league matches while the rest of the world forgets about them until the next cycle.

No one can say this in the face of their distortions because they'll just shout it down as insecure men and patriarchal hate and all this other nonsense.  Bokolis will give them more credit than they deserve by calling it an attack of cognitive dissonance rather than than their own attempt to counter bullying with bullying.

You see, ladies, you can't get paid like the men because, while the footballing world is going to be locked in to every qualifier for ever major nation (and most middling and minor nations), the world is set to pick your plight back up in June 2023.  What's your next trick?

Cup runneth...dry?

So, it's the birds' turn to play football.  Said slightly more properly, it's the turn of the women to be in the bright lights for playing football.  The Women's World Cup is upon us.

Like the hockey women, the female footballers are whingeing about not being paid like the men for what they perceive to be the same work.  While Bokolis' cock-jerk reaction is to guffaw and to tell them to get paid like men, go earn like the men, I grudgingly admit that the issue might be a little more nuanced than that.

But, Bokolis will say that equal pay for equal work is bullshit.  Negotiations are all about leverage, which is a catchphrase that really means a side's ability to bully.  When you don't own the factors of production, your ability to bully is limited.

Bokolis will now dismiss the merits of their case.  I actually did some poking around on this.

The USWNT claims that because they do better than the men do in international competition, that entitles them to draw at least as much water as the men.  More accurately, they do comparatively better than the men.

This is because the US women have a relatively higher-level of athlete in their talent pool and because the US women had a head start on most of the world, certainly the nations that would be considered top among the men (Germany, England, France, Spain, Italy).  Germany caught up; France caught up; England and Spain are catching up; Italy haven't yet reconciled that women are allowed to be something other than mothers or whores, and the Dutch women seem to be committed elsewhere.  Others will eventually catch up, and the rankings of the US men and women will converge.

If the best male athletes in the US focused on (soccer) football, even with a lack of quality coaching, we would pound the rest of the world back into the dark ages, crushed as they would be that we took their sport away from them.  Ironically, that would do more for the women's game than anything the USWNT have ever done.

They do not do better than the men, as they do not play the same competition; they play against a talent pool that isn't as developed, or as deep.  Would you like us to take off the governor and put you in against men?  After enough ass-whuppings, at some point, evolution will smile on women and they'll be the physical equals of men.  Society would have broken down by then, and we'd probably have had an ice age or two, affording women even more chance to better their place in its reconstruction.  But that also presumes that women would have evolved to be the hunting equals of men- and equally adept at avoiding being the hunted- which is how we got the drop on them in the first place.

Before that, if we dropped the current USWNT into the fourth tier of English (Men's) Football- League Two- for a full season, they would most likely get relegated. Bokolis is told the league average wages (using 2017-18 figures, employ an inflation multiplier accordingly) is about 1000GBP/week, or 46000GBP ($60k USD, rounding up) per full season. Once they were relegated to the Conference National League, which straddles the line between full-time and semi-pro, wages figure to drop by 25%-35%. $40k-$45k/yr seem fair for you ladies?  Because, you would very likely be relegated from there, as well.  Bokolis is pretty sure that players in the 6th-tier of English football get paid more from their day jobs than from football.

On the basis of percentage of revenue generation, the failed leagues demonstrate that the women cannot draw anywhere near the men.  This is even the case in the US, where the WUSA, WPS, W-league, WPSL Elite have folded and the NWSL is still trying to gain traction.  All this, while MLS chugs along just fine, despite those guys being just a little better than Bokolis was.  At least in the US, the women's clubs function independently of the men's.  In Europe, the women's teams are typically arms of a larger (men's) club.

Sure, as revenue earners, the USWNT compares far better in relation to its male counterpart than does the rest of the world.  In the US, 'soccer' is perceived as the girls sport- that is, it is the sport females are best equipped to play.  Said another way, it is the sport we'd most prefer our girls to play.  You've got seventh-generation American fathers, who wouldn't be caught dead watching soccer, mindlessly putting their daughters into soccer because it seems like the thing to so.  This has been going on for a couple of generations and, as a consumer group, American women- despite what they tell you- have a standard of living suitable to support their national team.

"Girl Power" and all that notwithstanding, women in the rest of the world still prefer men's football to women's football.

As such, taken in total, the men's world cup cycle generates 40x-50x the revenue that the women's world cup cycle generates.  Said another way, for every billion that the men's game generates, the women's game generates $20-$25 million.  Nonetheless, the WC prize pool for women is already at a greater payout rate than for the men. This is actually understandable, as there are far greater carrying costs associated with the men, who are far more greatly valued assets.  If Sheikh Mansour puts in a bid for Alex Morgan- well, you've heard what happens on those yachts- whatever he pays is barely going to eat into what City will get by selling Leroy Sané back to a German side.

The players suffer further humiliation by having the lords of the game- and a few other chauvinists-  suggest that they'd be more of a draw if they played in revealing, form-fitting and otherwise more suggestive outfits.  Does it need to be said that this could also be harmful, even dangerous?  The fucked up thing is, as it is a weighing machine in the short term, these fuckers would be right in the short run.

Amazingly enough, Bokolis does not want this.  I like my sex with my sex, and my sports with my sports.  Some hornbag will make youtube videos cherry-picking the best-looking asses of female volleyball players in those shorts and get a bunch of people to look.  Still, I'd rather see the pros of the skin trade, swimsuit models and porn whores, in those outfits than athletes.  Seeing pics of Hope Solo's nasty looking growler- even though that was not meant for our consumption- was bad enough.  Seeing Megan Rapinoe in the swimsuit issue was a soul-scarrer of a train-wreck.  I'd much rather watch them play football than shake their asses.

Aside- ever since Bokolis let a female friend convince me that Alex Morgan was not that hot, I've never been able to judge the looks of any of them.  In fact, when I saw Julie (Johnston) Ertz WAGged out at Super Bowl 52, my first thought was alarm that she may have given up football.  Of course, she has been playing professionally the whole while, but I'd never know.

Besides- and, Bokolis will blow that fantasy right out of the water for you- for the most part, jocks, female and male, are weird.  But, hey, they've got to earn, so go on with your patronage.  I'll try to reel this back in, while also trying to forget about Rapinoe in a thong.

So, they don't measure up physically, and they don't earn like the men. To boot, as opposed to doing their own thing, they have submitted their game to the patriarchal FIFA's rule. Nonetheless, the women are effectively asking that the cash cow that is the men's game (further) subsidize the women's game by bringing pay in line with the men- in effect, to bump up the women just for the sake of doing it.

hmmmm....ok, Bokolis will bang it around.

Training should be funded as closely to equal as is feasible all the way up and down the age levels, and elite-level women should not have to train and play on crappy turf fields, which would be unconscionable in the men's game.

As far as being paid, the reality is women's football is currently a second class sport, and there is a certain amount of grinning and bearing it that female footballers will have to suffer from choosing a calling that doesn't fund itself.  If schoolteachers have to suffer and no one cares, no one is going to give a fuck about the lot in life of a female footballer.  That said, Bokolis thinks there is little to be gained by being ruthlessly pragmatic.  Continuing to treat them like second-class citizens could quite possibly damage revenue on the men's side by turning women off to the men's game.

The American women, in particular, attempt to invoke Title IX, intended for federally funded and/or educational institutions, and assert that it should apply in this case.  Bokolis scratches his head, as, not only does Title IX involve entities that are not intended to be profitable (which FIFA most certainly is not), Title IX is the main roadblock to ANY college athletes getting paid.

While the education aspect is certainly not applicable, Bokolis isn't sure that the "Federal financial assistance" aspect of Title IX is applicable here.  Even if it is, it probably wouldn't be much of a problem for USSF to forego any federal funding, thus being able to tell the women to go fuck themselves.  Even if they get some of what they want from their federation, while the USWNT would be improving its own situation, it would seem a bellwether, but none of this would necessarily apply to other nations.

FIFA takes a big chance by alienating the US Women.  FIFA has gained much from the US market, even as it has barely tapped the well.  It is not the wisest thing to do anything that could jeopardize that income stream.  Is FIFA going to come through for all federations?  The answer is, not until it figures out how to make itself look like a superhero for doing so.

As it is, Ada Hegerberg, a Norwegian considered the best female footballer, has declined to play in this World Cup.  Her reasons are not entirely clear, but it is evident that she is sick and tired of the way FIFA and the national federations treat the women's game.  Even if she is the best player, she is just one woman, and the competition will shrug it off.

If the USWNT, whether as champions or not, were to boycott the next World Cup (to take place, presumably, in Australia), it would make a dent.  If the US boycotts AND whoever wins this year (France?) boycotts the next WWC, then it would be a sham.  If you lose the American woman as a consumer, the women's game is in trouble, and it's going to do no favors to the men.

Y'all muthafuckas didn't think I was going to do predictions, did you?

YNWA Six

This may be seen as crowing for winning the European Cup.  Bokolis has previously diminished the significance of winning the made-for-TV leagues.  Still, we won it and they didn't.  All things equal, though, Bokolis would've preferred the League.  Let's see where it goes.

At some point during Liverpool's second match of the EPL season, Bokolis had seen enough to declare that this was the best Liverpool side I had ever seen.  I had cooked up a scenario where they would amass 92 points and would be in with a shout for the League, but likely falling short.

The reassessment after round 22 yielded a projected total of 96 points.  Mind you, this was after Manchester City were on the right side of the luck of two posts and a GDS- 11 millimeters- to take a 2-1 decision against Liverpool.

As City could claim a maximum of 101 at that point, six dropped points in this scenario would be enough.  As City was having trouble with away fixtures, while Liverpool had taken all 45 available points against non-top 6 sides, Bokolis doubted that City could take maximum points at the middling quartet of Bournemouth, Brighton, Burnley and Palace.

Before City ever got to any of those places, they lost at Newcastle, three of the six points Bokolis was looking for.  I had taken my hand out of my pocket to reach for the trophy.  City ran the table from there, 14 wins from 14 matches.  Even though Liverpool bettered my outlook by one point, they were not afforded the necessary room for error.  The staggered matchdays gave the effect of head-bobs down the stretch of a horse race.

City got the ball 25.9 millimeters over the line at Burnley and, against Leicester, Vincent Kompany, after both he and David Silva committed fouls that could've resulted in red cards- Silva more so than Kompany- rifled in a 30-yarder, one of those shots that defenders dream about, one they usually put into the stands.

Just as he punted league position last season for the sake of the Champions League- Liverpool could've finished second but, aside from a few quid and bragging rights among the simple, second doesn't get you anything more than fourth- Klopp concentrated on the league while trying to get away with doing the minimum in the Champions League group stage.  The gambit got them to last season's final, where they fell victim to the dirty rat cunt motherfucker Sergio Ramos bulldogging Mohammed Salah's shoulder into the turf with no VAR, no recourse, and, oh yeah, two howlers from their keeper.  

To start this season, Klopp did the opposite, favoring the league.  He was trying to incorporate Naby Keita and Fabinho into the squad, but each took a while to get accustomed to the tempo of the squad.  Keita definitely trying to do too much out there, his speed and skill helping and hurting at the same time.

He also often started Milner and Henderson together.  This was often counterproductive, as they do enough of the same things that each would have to find other things to do on the pitch, which necessarily weakens their effectiveness.  They were more effective on the pitch at the same time when one of them, typically, Milner, came on as a sub, when there would be a defined duty for the substitute.

Liverpool just about slid by in the group stage, sealed by a 1-0 win at home against Napoli, when a ball that should've gone anywhere else fell lovingly to the upgraded goalkeeper, Alisson.  The victory was part of an eight wins in eight December that had them top of the table.

One of the things Bokolis appreciates about Jurgen Klopp is that he consistently learns from mistakes and improves the process, and, by extension, the team.  This season's mistake was where, in three (almost) successive matches, Klopp employed what Bokolis would call his 0-0 lineup.  To digress, elaborate and, possibly, explain myself:

Klopp mostly fields a 4-3-3 formation.  In a 4-3-3, not only are you always supposed to be attacking, the idea is to get the ball to your attackers as quickly as possible, leaving the opposition defenders without midfield support.  A 4-3-3 is meant to create imbalance, and it presumes that the side creating the imbalance would be in better position to deal with it than the more passive opponent.

Of course, the side creating the imbalance is itself imbalanced.  If you try to play defensively in a 4-3-3, you take your attackers out of the game.  You will either disconnect them because the midfielders will be too busy supporting the defense, or you will retreat to what will function as a 4-5-1 with two players playing out of position.

A 4-2-3-1 would be a better option for a more defensive setup, and it is Klopp's preferred formation.  However, neither of Salah or Mané like to play up top, and neither of them can pass worth spit.  Firmino can pass, but he is better at passing to midfielders than forwards.  And, he is certainly not fast or strong enough to be left to deal with two centre-halves focused (primarily) on him.  This is a bigger issue because Liverpool do not have a trequartista, capable of determining and exploiting the weak points of the opposition.  Henderson would do his best, and Keita is capable, but Keita took most of the season to find the right tempo, and was injured soon after he found it.  Ox could do it, but was still on his way back after tearing up his knee.

In Bokolis' 4-2-3-1, the danger is always going to be that the wingers do too much backtracking and run themselves into the ground before they can impact the attack.  The idea is that they funnel the opposition towards the holding midfielders. who would then combine with the relevant defender to destroy the buildup and have the wingers as a handy outlet after possession is gained.

This would work better with, say, Milner and Shaqiri as the wingers.  But, this only happens with Salah and Mané subbed out, and Klopp is not about to do that.  Except for protecting a late lead, for a few minutes, this formation is not viable for Liverpool.

The 4-3-3 typically involves a narrower midfield, and leaves the dirty work on the wing to the fullbacks.  While there is always room to operate on the flanks, that's where they want it.  The true way to carve up a 4-3-3 is diagonally through the middle of the park.

Because of the lack of depth at fullback, Klopp would often have to use Milner as a fullback when one of his regulars was hurt, as he had probably seen enough in his first day as coach to avoid Alberto Moreno at all costs.

Milner is Bokolis' kind of player- the proverbial man's man and pro's pro.  I have liked Milner since he was on City, even while Yaya Toure got all the praise.  From back then, I used to say that, for 60% of the time, Milner is as good a midfielder as anyone in England.  Once he played more than that, the diminishing returns would kick in and Milner would reach the cracking point and become somewhat less effective.  If Liverpool have to burn Milner at fullback, not only are they missing him in midfield, but he's that much closer to cracking.  It should've been known to them, as we saw it late last season.

What's worse, the demands placed on the fullbacks in a 4-3-3 make it a far more demanding position for Milner.  Thanks to the all-around mastery of Virgil van Dijk, Robinson and Alexander-Arnold got into minimal trouble from constantly bombing forward.  While Milner is still in top shape, he is not as fast as either regular fullback, and had a bear of a time dealing with fast wingers when filling in for them.  It was his experience- he knows when to hit, when to foul, when to take a yellow card, and when to win the ball- that allowed him to be effective.



Faced with these imperfect scenarios, Klopp would compromise and field a 4-3-3 with three defensively-minded midfielders, which Bokolis would tell my friends- before the game- was his 0-0 lineup.  This involved Henderson, Wijnaldum and Fabinho in midfield.  While not afraid to get forward, Fabinho is a decidedly defensively minded midfielder.  Once he found the pace of the team, he became a fixture, as he has a captain's level of understanding.  Wijnaldum, on Liverpool anyway, is a worker bee who is comfortable and can contribute in attack, but he does not himself create in attack.  Of the three, Henderson is easily the most capable of creating in attack and can score himself.  That said, his most visible contributions are more often when he is strong on the man with ball, turning over possession.

Klopp fielded these three in matches against Bayern Munich (2/19), at manchester united (2/24) and at Everton (3/3).  Granted, in the Bayern match, it was the first leg and Fabinho was at centre-half because Virgil van Dijk was out, so Klopp felt he had to favor his defense.  At manchester united, who were reaching the end of an extended new coach honeymoon, he had to put Milner at left back because Trent Alexander-Arnold was out, so he again fielded a midfield that favored his defense.

Both of those matches ended 0-0, with Liverpool looking punchless.  For the intervening match against Watford (2/27), Klopp came to his senses, and was rewarded accordingly.

Therefore, the most egregious mistake was fielding the 0-0 lineup of Fabinho, Wijnaldum and Henderson in midfield against Everton, despite having seen what it got him against Bayern and against united, despite having struggled for goals in the reverse fixture against Everton while still fumbling around with formation and rotation, despite fielding the strongest back line.

As with united and Bayern, Liverpool were listless against Everton.

It turned out that this would be the tipping point, as both Liverpool and City won all of their remaining matches.  Bokolis would like to tell you that this lineup was part of Klopp managing to City dropping points somewhere, like he did in the group stage.  But, it took Jordan Henderson complaining to Klopp about playing so far back to get the side back to an attacking setup.

We didn't get the League, but the Champions League was on.  The 3-0 loss in Barcelona was bitter because this isn't the Xavi, Iniesta, vamos a la fiesta vintage.  This is diving cunt Messi, (insert offense here) cunt Suarez, doesn't-fit-the-setup Coutinho, with Busquets and Pique wondering where all the cowboys have gone, kind of like the Yankees post-2001.

The striking thing about watching Barcelona at home is that they get to every loose/second ball.  When Bokolis was playing, I found this quality indicative of a side playing harder and/or smarter.  With Barcelona, it is also a function of being on the right side of refereeing decisions.  Their fans have no small part in this, as they have perfected the tactic of whingeing for calls.  They seem to anticipate when contact will occur (and their player will fall), so they are hollering before the referee has had a chance to process what he's seen.  The hollering then plays a larger role in the referee's decision-making.

While the fans are yelling, Messi and company roll around and wave invisible cards.  Barcelona commit the same (or worse) fouls, but don't get called for them at home.  Lest it seem that this is Bokolis' bitterness talking, it was even worse when Neymar was there, with both the diving/embellishing and the uncalled fouling.

It is easy, then, to draw the inference for why their play away from home in the Champions League has been god-awful these last two or three seasons; they don't get these calls.  In addition to not having the audacity to dive and/or embellish as much as they do at home, the opposing fans will also shout down their more legitimate claims.

Whether the analysis is sound or not, there was bitterness at the 3-0, but not despair.  Bokolis had these impressions of Barcelona before putting them here.  If Roma rolled them over last season, why couldn't Liverpool?  I can't say that I knew Liverpool would turn the tie around; I thought they'd likely get two goals at Anfield, that they might get a third in regulation, but I wasn't so sure that they'd also keep a clean sheet.  What we got was more than we could ask for.

If Liverpool had won the League, Bokolis wouldn't have cared about the Champions League.  Winning the League is chiefly about not having to hear the nonsense.  Without the League, the European Cup then became about Klopp no longer hearing the nonsense.  Because it was Spurs, there was no way we could lose, and no way we could live it down if we lost to the spuds.  Most of the people with whom I've become friendly through football are Arsenal supporters; I could not let them down.  As I told my friends, I only want the result, not the game.  Just give me the 3-1.

Accordingly, Bokolis watched the game with my buddy in a (half-empty) place where they know nothing about football.  While I might have yelled at home, I'm not much for screaming, and I didn't want to be in a place full of screaming Liverpool fans and I REALLY don't want to be around them if we lose.

Apparently, Klopp was also not concerned about the quality of the match, as he again fielded his 0-0 lineup.  Klopp was boxed in, as he didn't have Nabi Keita, had to save Milner for later, and he wouldn't dare trot out Ox or Shaqiri.  Ugh- he knows to let Henderson have a more advanced role, but I don't know...

This time Klopp and Liverpool lucked out by winning a penalty 26 seconds in.  Bolokis saw Mané check up after running down Henderson's pass over the top and thought, bah, you should've just shot first time this early.  The movement is over now, everyone knows you can't pass for sh...handball!?!  Penalty!

Spurs fans are insufferable, including one acquaintance who said he would go to his grave knowing that wasn't a penalty.  Remember how Bokolis said Mané was a terrible passer- he was apparently trying to float a ball into the space behind Sissoko, where Henderson was making a run and where he would've had a clear lane to one-time the soft pass from the top of the box.  Mané hit Sissoko in the chest with the pass, which deflected onto his raised arm.  It's a very unfortunate penalty, as even a perfect ball had little chance of leading to a goal-scoring opportunity, but you cannot have your hand up like you are hailing a cab, especially when you are stationary.  But, hey, delude yourself all you want.

Beyond saying that it wasn't the best-taken penalty, no one further analyzed it.  No one said a thing about Lloris basically shying away from the shot by pulling his hands away from where the ball was going.  Because Bokolis didn't want the bad energy, I also kept quiet about it.

The 0-0 lineup looks like a better idea when you basically start the match leading 1-0.  When a physically limited Harry Kane talks his way into the lineup, and a talent-limited Son Heung-min is favored over anyone, you'll generally be fine with one goal.  Son isn't horrible, but his form is so inconsistent that he is a wild card.  If you leave him alone for long enough, he might just get one past you.  Kane was nowhere, as much because his teammates couldn't get him the ball as because of his apparent lack of match fitness.  For all his time on the ball, the best Son could muster on this day was a knuckling 25-yard drive that forced a parry out of Alisson.

Spurs fans further deluded themselves in thinking that they were in the ascendency because the dominated possession.  They were allowed to hold the ball because they couldn't do much with it.  They did eventually threaten, but any anxiety was because Liverpool didn't look terribly interested in getting a second.

They got the Derek Jeter fist pump upon Salah's take, and a standing double fist-shake on Origi's late clincher.  No yelling.

Alisson- worth every penny.  van Dijk- worth every penny

YNWA