a non-football (mostly) one

As the title says, football is not the main topic of this article, though it is mentioned and has relevance.

… it’s August now, and this year has been… interesting, to put it mildly. Not worse than any other, for me at least, though I think I’m in the minority. My three main interests/passions at this point are sport, music, and pregnancy/birth. The latter two aren’t super relevant to this blog. I mention this because is I was listening to one of the birth podcasts I’m subbed to on iTunes and this guy who’s an OB went on this rant that I was somewhat surprised to hear. A little bit of context, as I think it’s necessary. The way this world is at this point is unbelievably polarized, in pretty much every facet. It comes down to politics, because things in a society are based around rules and power, both of which are inherently political. In the birth world it seems to be a matter of hospital care vs elsewhere, although it’s not straightforward politically. I have tons of thoughts on this, so I have no idea where this will go, but I’ll try to get to the point and make it clear how what I’m saying relates to sport.

Basically, the history of birth in this country, as I understand it, is women only started being told to give birth in hospitals in the 20th century. I’m pretty sure it was sold in the name of safety, something incredibly relevant considering the current state of the world. Long story short, this guy is a long time OB and is, in his own words, an “advocate for birth choices”. This means, to keep it brief, explaining what actually goes on in birth to women, as it’s something that’s conveniently not taught anywhere, and presenting options throughout the process. As it’s generally a female issue, the “political leaning” is more left, as it’s about choice and rights, which feminism and the left are proud to be advocates of. I personally cannot be bothered to give a shit about politics, as it’s an extrinsic distraction to my life. I last voted in 2016, and that was only out of some programmed feeling of obligation that I’ve since evicted. One of the things I’ll say is there’s an overlap between the “conservative” idea of not injecting people with drugs and interfering with the natural process that is birth, and this community. AKA the “antivax” “conspiracy theory” folks are ideologically in the same places as hardcore feminists, which is a very interesting mix. The feminist thing in birth is this view that every woman should be allowed to do literally whatever she wants with her body, whether it’s moral or not, and this obviously carries over to how she gives birth, if that’s the route she embarks on. The obstetrics model is about control, I mean safety, as well as generating revenue for hospitals, and OB’s are traditionally male. The conflict is obvious. My personal view is the more natural, the better. It’s concerning to me the way women are strayed, whether it’s programming fear when talking about reproduction, or saying you’ve gotta do this this and this before becoming a mom. I just the other day met this woman who I actually graduated with, even studied in the same department at UVA. She’s my age obviously and is due any day now with her second kid. I guess what confuses me, and if it confuses me it obviously confuses millions of girls and young women in the western world, is this idea of YOU MUST HAVE A CAREER AND BEING SUBMISSIVE TO A MAN IS EVIL… PATRIARCHY … Let’s be real, many people, male and female, are not necessarily meant to work an office job for 40 years and then retire and die. That shit is not even natural, but that’s another rabbit hole for another article.

Later in the podcast, which I finished listening to after writing most of this post, the two hosts were doing this thing that I often see, and it made me think of other little point to bring up. One is that in-group bias comes up everywhere. I see it in the soccer analytics community, which is even more “lacking diversity” than many other fields, given the “nerdiness” more or less required. That was a slight deviation again, but relating it back to the birth world talk, I noticed in the conversation that it’s not just in my daily life that people have an issue discussing things they don’t necessarily want to talk about. There was a question on the podcast where the OB and his midwife co-host were asked about racism in birth, usually in the hospital setting. This concept, in this country at least, for whatever reason only seems relevant when it’s white versus black. As if other races don’t exist. I don’t but this nonsense that white people are the only ones powerful enough for their racism to matter. Most white people are just as screwed as everyone else. Also, many Asians that come over to study and have a life here end up being more “privileged”, and this isn’t even taking into account the Jews, who statistically are the most successful in various categories. My take is that racism, or finding differences in other people, is an inherent trait that’s part of human nature and all this energy going towards supposedly ending it is a waste. Within “color communities” there are differences of class, language, shade of that color, and more. The point with the conversation on the pod is what’s the point of claiming that things exist without having a viable solution? It’s like saying, well, someone here isn’t happy with things so nobody can be. Doesn’t make sense. Also, and this is strictly my opinion, I hate this idea of relying on others to make your life better. There are numerous problems in the black community, and I don’t even want to get too into that, but specific to birth it’s a simple case of ignorance. I mean, other races are guilty of it, too. Part of it is supposed lack of being taken seriously. Now, in my mind, and I even have an example of this, knowledge of what’s going on in your body and mind will largely make medicine irrelevant. Or, maybe to word this better, if you know what’s going on with your body a doctor won’t be able to neglect/take advantage of you. An anecdote from my own life was when I was 17/18 and was dealing with a stress fracture in my right foot. Long story short, I injured it in a soccer tournament in the fall, continued running in indoor track because I didn’t notice that something was wrong, and eventually I couldn’t run anymore and had to get it checked. The problem, at least the narrative I built around it, was the doctors weren’t using the correct methods to assess the damage. They’d ask questions and use x-rays when what eventually found the issue was an MRI. The actual injury happened in like early November, yet it lingered until the middle of March due to negligence from everyone involved. I should have stopped running the second I noticed my foot was messed up, and the doctors could have been more on point with their assessment. At the end of the day, what was lost was my senior season of baseball, which isn’t THAT significant. In more life/death situations, which childbirth can become if mismanaged, it’s the responsibility of everyone involved to know what they’re doing.

To get back to sport, the guy was ranting on how professional sports have managed to sabotage themselves. It’s crazy because I swear this guy is on the same wavelength as me. I went to a Nats-Cubs game on pride night a few years ago, which unfortunately I now remember as being the time I got way too high off these weed muffins, but that’s a story for another day. The point is I legitimately could not give a shit who you’re shagging. Back in the day I was programmed to think of “promiscuous” girls as sluts and the like, but experience has taught me just to focus on myself, and that things like that are largely irrelevant on a day-to-day basis. The point though is these franchises, as well as football clubs in Europe, take part in the initiatives or whatever that cater to “non-traditional” sectors of society. As in, straight white men were the ones that established these institutions, but the millionaires who’ve taken over aren’t happy with just that as the fan base. The whole hooligan fiasco in England, and I get that this is a sensitive topic as people lost loved ones, was what led to the commercialization of football in that country. It also killed the fan culture, as the sport became a product sold to the masses around the globe rather than “the working man’s game”, bringing in billions in revenue. Money is the reason for this behavior, that is, going to the extreme to reel in new customers. Think of the broadcasting and the fact that sports have chosen to continue without fans. As shocked as they may be, the owners don’t actually care about fans that go to games. They’re addicts, and it would take something incredibly drastic to lose that sector of support. Thus, they know they can go against the core support in order to gain audiences elsewhere, because the locals are too stupid/weak to cut ties with the organization. I think of the fact that Eintracht Frankfurt, a German football club owned by fans, had that slogan plastered across their shirts for the DFB Pokal final. Why is that? Obviously, it’s to gain a global audience. If an American happened to turn on ESPN that day to see the final and saw the white shirt, based on the news media, they’d have a reaction to it. Some would be drawn to it, while others would be repelled. I’d also say that soccer fans tend to be “left-leaning”, so it’s a calculated move. Same with the Premier League and the drawn-out BLM stuff. Like I said, there’s a ground based in reality, which is that murder is wrong. This much is obvious.

Personally, and I wrote this in my brief origin story post, I simply cannot get behind a club that’s owned by some billionaire. It’s even worse when it’s someone from another country. I’m sure some owners have done well and had their minds in the right place, but those are few and far between. A billionaire doesn’t just buy a club with the intention of winning trophies; that’s just a symptom of what will make him the most when he decides to sell. Liverpool is a great example. I don’t have the figures, but Henry and his group will make a pretty penny whenever they’ve decided to cash in. Now, getting back on topic, I’ll bring up this comment that’s been going on for years, which is “shut up and dribble”. I want to say this came up with one of the various “newsworthy” situations involving a black person, usually male, being killed by a white person, usually a police officer.

Another societal issue is this weird notion that athletes, actors, musicians, etc. are supposed to be role models that we look up to and take commands from. Call me old fashioned, but I don’t sit around listening to sport talk shows or half time commentary from the “professional analysts”, and I’m certainly not going to take stock in the thoughts of people who’ve only been trained to play a sport. Take LeBron. I was a huge fan of him in high school, but I simply cannot relate to him or any other millionaire athlete trying to play the “oppressed” card. It’s like watching a Premier League game, in England, UK, and they’re wearing “#BLACKLIVESMATTER” on the back of their shirts. Is it not obvious what’s going on? It’s the same thing as diversity hires for the sake of wanting to be seen as “woke”, rather than hiring the best person for the job. I saw this “popular opinion” on twitter basically complaining about the fact that there aren’t enough black coaches. It’s the same in the NBA, despite the percentages. Why isn’t there an outcry that there aren’t enough white American NBA players? Or Hispanic? Exactly. But back to the coaching thing, because I have an actual explanation rather than just bitching about it. I’m not sure why this is, maybe it’s a mental thing, or an “implicit bias” based on physical attributes, but black footballers tend to play certain positions. How many do you see playing as a technical CM or a goalkeeper? Not many, right? Even CB’s tend to be tall and athletic, which covers up positional and technical deficiencies. The point I’m making is for whatever reason, you tend to get black players playing positions that largely rely on “pace and power” instead of technique.

As an American, I see it first hand with how our national team is trying to develop. Simply put, the US has only recently begun to produce actual footballers. We had no problem churning out keepers, largely because it’s more of a reactionary position that’s benefited by size and athleticism. Even now, the best players in the national team were developed (or even grew up) abroad. If anything, there’s a bias towards former players who may not “deserve” jobs. To take it further, in England at least, how many black British central midfielders are there? Look at who’s managing. Most of the successful ones were CM’s when they played, and I’ll just wager that there’s a reason for that. Whether it’s leadership, or having an all-around game that translates to management, it’s not a coincidence that players in certain positions tend to be more likely to go on to coaching. I’m going on a tangent, and I have plenty of thoughts on that issue, but let me return to what I was saying. It’s a massive mistake to take for granted the core support of whatever type of business you’re running. Doesn’t take a genius to realize that, yet here we are. The first ridiculous example I can pinpoint was Colin Kaepernick in the NFL. I’ll praise him for standing up for his beliefs when it wasn’t the popular thing to do. At the same time, to make him seem like a hero and act like he was a franchise QB that was being blackballed or whatever when he couldn’t get a job is a reach. My problem with the whole situation now is that kneeling or whatever is now seen as the norm, and if you aren’t completely in line with what the popular narrative is, you’re somehow complicit. It’s clutching at straws. Look, like I said, I’m most certainly not alone when I say I don’t watch sports to see some bullshit narrative. Everyone with an ounce of sense knows that police abusing their power and killing people is fucked up. It’s not a debate. Also, I’ve gotta point out the levels of hypocrisy out there. All over the world messed up things are going on, yet people pick and choose what to get outraged over when it’s beneficial to them. Once again, LeBron is an example of this. I remember last year that whole Morey-China thing was going on and none of the players defended the “human rights” side, but went with the money. Mesut Ozil has had this ongoing issue with people going against him for being “pro-Turkey”, for lack of a better way of phrasing it. He’s also Muslim, which brings about a whole other set of issues.

A related recent event was Desean Jackson saying “bigoted” things about Jews and once again, it was swept under the rug. In fact, Steven Jackson and other rich black folks defended him. Of course, some people like Charles Barkley and Steven A called them out for being hypocrites. The irony is Jews often lean left and are supportive of “progressive” social causes, yet here we see the lack of support from blacks. That’s an obvious hole in the leftist ideology, as it were. Playing the victim works when you’re the victim, but when you’re seen as “the oppressor”, you’re just as bad as the rich white man. Anyways, the final point I’m gonna make is that at the end of the day, all these things are simply distractions. It’s also convenient that there’s an election year at the same time as a worldwide pandemic and outrage over something that’s been happening since races were mixed in this continent. At the end of the day, sports were originally meant to be one area versus another, a tribal thing if you will. Globalization has changed that, clearly, as well as the astronomical profits these billionaire owners continue to make. It’s bad enough that people are being inundated with fear tactics on a daily basis. Now, you can’t even indulge in what’s supposed to be a literal “past time”, AKA way to pass the time in your pathetic existence, without facing a barrage of polarized agendas everywhere. Social media isn’t indicative of reality.