World Cup fever is taking over, the Mets and Knicks make an enemy out of the media and the NCAA remains as clueless as ever with their latest action.
World cup fever
I admit I am not the biggest soccer fan. I’m not a soccer hater by any means and respect all the great soccer players and fans out there. But when it’s World Cup time, i transform into the biggest soccer fan around. For a few weeks, I am a die-hard fan and I’ve officially been diagnosed with a case of World Cup fever. My symptoms were too much to ignore during the USWNT match with Spain on Monday. It was tense and I felt a tightness in my chest, a clear sign of heart disease, and being a sports fan. Thankfully, Megan Rapinoe booted in a pair of penalty kicks for the 2-1 win. World Cup fever, catch it.
NCAA remains clueless
The NCAA is not an institution that cares about student-athletes. There’s just no way that can be true when the NCAA is fighting against a California bill that would allow college athletes in the state to be paid for the use of their own name, image or likeness, beginning in 2023. The penalty the NCAA is toying with is prohibiting these schools from competing for championships and the eligibility of players would be in jeopardy.
Just imagine the NCAA without the “Conference of Champions” and how disastrous that would be for the NCAA. They are so dead-set against athletes getting a little piece of the pie that they’re trying to prevent them from even having a seat at the table. It’s long overdue for the universities to separate themselves from the NCAA that gives FIFA and Illinois politics a run for who can be the most corrupt.
New York makes an enemy out of the media
Well, the media has become Public Enemy No. 1, and with the Commander-In-Chief making it a daily obsession to make news outlets the enemy, it was only a matter of time until sports tried to control the media. Over the weekend, a pair of New York teams made enemies out of the media. The Knicks banned the New York Daily News from attending the Knicks’ post-draft press conferences and were subsequently fined $50,000 by the NBA for violating the NBA’s rules regarding equal access for media.
On Sunday, it was the Mets who gave the Big Apple another black eye. Mets manager Mickey Callaway unleashed profanities at Tim Healey of Newsday as if he was a Mets fan watching his handling of the bullpen. Then, pitcher Jason Vargas had to be held back by teammates from charging the writer during a heated confrontation in the team’s clubhouse after losing to the Cubs on Sunday.