F#CK the NFL

[Harvey]

(Still fondly recall the madness during those Maradona years @ Napoli, despite my pre-teen/teen years).

You might enjoy Sorrentino's latest, a biographical film set in Napoli at that time, The Hand of God.

[Belligerent Savant]

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Actually caught it a couple weeks ago, by happenstance. Very interesting movie (the direction, cinematography, semi-eccentric screenplay, etc), but apart from that, I loved listening to the dialect again -- I don't get to hear it as often now that my father and some others of the older generation are gone -- and also the overall sentiment/livelihood expressed by the characters in the film. It truly captures the essence of the Napolitano approaches to life/philosophy..

[MacCruiskeen]

(Still fondly recall the madness during those Maradona years @ Napoli, despite my pre-teen/teen years).

You might enjoy Sorrentino's latest, a biographical film set in Napoli at that time, The Hand of God.

My first-ever visit to Naples was in 1988, touring a play around Europe. It was a comedy, and we were in the habit of inserting the name of some local or global celebrity into the opening scene, just to liven things up a bit. So, two minutes in, S., my partner on stage says, "I was having lunch the other day with Diego Maradona, and - ". a huge cheer went up and the whole audience started chanting, "MA-RA-DO-NA! MA-RA-DO-NA!" This was a matinee, for schoolkids, the theatre was big and it was packed. One of the little buggers actually had a football with him, and they started throwing it and kicking it and heading it around in the auditorium, until it landed on the stage, so we kicked and headed it around too. Applause and hilarity. I scored a 'goal' and the place went nuts. Took the teachers ages to calm all these teenagers down, not least because the teachers themselves were laughing so much. At the interval, S. gave me an evil grin and said, "I'm gonna say 'Maradona' again, but I'm not gonna tell you when." I said, "Don't, it'll be chaos, they'll just go fucking nuts again." He did. It was chaos. They just went fucking nuts again. "MA-RA-DO-NA! MA-RA-DO-NA!" It was like Beatlemania, we couldn't hear ourselves speak, so we just left out about half the play and did the rest at double speed. Nobody minded. We got a standing ovation at the end, but it was mainly for Diego.

What a city that is. What a player he was.

[Belligerent Savant]

Yes. Exactly.

An energy and spirit that can only be experienced. They enjoy life, and camaraderie.


A stark contrast to the covidians today. Which is why those of us that appreciate the spirited exclamations of life rail against current madness so fervently.

[Joe Hillshoist]

from a few years ago, a post on fuckbook:


Here's one from 2015, on the occasion of the release of the Will Smith film, Concussion. Still 5 to 25 years for the prediction to come true, but I'm guessing I'm being optimisic about how the medical science findings will affect what mothers and others think and do.

Will the next 20-30 years see the fall of both MLB and NFL? My beloved baseball once loomed larger in U.S. culture than any other sport or popular entertainment. Levels of attendance and earnings are still at historic highs - a product of intense niche marketing. But interest has seen a radical decline among the young, including potential players (outside the Caribbean, of course!). Most people find the games boring, and nowadays infested with endless commercial breaks (the ballpark experience is little different in that regard). The NFL, meanwhile, is bigger than ever. The Super Bowl is a national holiday more representative of what "America" is today than Christmas: the game, the advertising industry's annual film festival, the half-time concert, the militarism. But the NFL's obvious and bloody secret has been laid bare by a science that cannot be denied. It will take no more than a fraction of Texas mothers determining that football is too dangerous for their sons to set off a process of eventual demise. This movie, meanwhile, is really good.

(It was pretty conventional in form, but still good.)

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I've had alot of concussions over the years. Probably nothing like the numbers linemen have in gridiron or even rugby, especially rugby league players would have got over a similar time tho.

There are a couple I remember where I felt more stupid in the days afterward. CTE is often at the back of mind these days, now I'm in my 50s and a bit less mentally together sometimes.