I don't think people understand the vital difference between a well-rehearsed (and physical) team vs a collection of individuals with no real understanding - new players, makeshift centre-backs, other players out of position. Make do an mend when missing a ton of quality = v.hard

THREAD

Can we talk a little bit about what Cal McNair is about to do to the NFL, and the leverage owners have had over players for roughly 100 years?

I would be FASCINATED to know what the NFL league office and other owners are thinking about the Watson/Texans standoff

Every 8-10 years, the owners and players negotiate multi-billion dollar CBA agreements, where the owners are trying (and succeeding) to maintain leverage over players through the salary cap, franchise tag, penalties over holdouts, etc. etc.

if a 25 year old QB forces his way out of an NFL team, it's a Crossing the Rubicon moment. It's never happened before in NFL history, and it would be almost solely due to Cal McNair's inability to properly run an NFL franchise

if the Texans trade Deshaun Watson, it sets a major precedent. I don't expect it to happen often, but if it happens once, it will happen again with another young QB

The Texans already screwed the rest of the NFL by allowing Bill O'Brien to make the incredibly impulsive Laremy Tunsil trade, getting hammered in the contract negotiation, and completely re-setting the market for left tackles in the league, which other teams now have to deal with

1/? A thread...Why am I right about certain aspects of strategy, even understanding it better than Nicklaus? Far too often players of past generations hold their playing background out as an appeal to their authority. I did not play on the PGA Tour, why?

2/? I didn't specialize in golf until high school which left my true playing experience far behind my peers. I then transferred schools after my freshmen yr & had to sit out 1.5 yrs. I then played spring my 3rd yr & fall my 4th b4 breaking my leg in Feb my redshirt jr yr

3/? After breaking my leg I didn't touch my clubs for almost 18 months. I got a job in real estate in Dallas after graduating & played golf on my bday (July 4) at Gleneagles in Plano & shot 68. I stewed all night watching fireworks & dreamt of professional golf.

4/? The right blend of emotion from fireworks w/friends, a great round of golf that day, & the perfect amt of beers & I decided I was going to quit & play professional golf. I won my 1st mini tour event six weeks later with 67-68. Following yr I traveled the Hooters Tour w/...

5/? Chad Campbell & Chris Riley & knew I had the physical skills they did but I only won twice on that Tour while Chad won damn near every week. I attributed it to my being an over the top hothead. Truly world class basket case. This is b/c I was a perfectionist & couldn't...

The U.S.-China Rivalry

The US and China are the 2 greatest rivals in the 21st century. It’s American democracy vs Chinese socialism at the level of Roger Federer vs Rafael Nadal in the 2008 Wimbledon Men’s Final. Who’s the better player? American democracy or Chinese socialism?

2/Probably no people have scrutinized American democracy more than China has, the world’s oldest civilization. “American exceptionalism” is under Beijing’s microscope. American democracy has catapulted the US into becoming the world’s greatest superpower in less than 200 years.

3/China, whose momentum will overtake the US in GDP by mid-century, has the same drive as Nadal (who proclaimed Federer was “the greatest player in the history [of tennis]") going against Federer at Wimbledon Final in 2008. Ever cautious, patient and wise, China respects its

4/opponent (as did Nadal) for its achievements. In order to better the US Beijing knows it must be more competitive, up its game and improve its skills. The US-China rivalry is one wherein “iron sharpens iron”. Yet whereas Beijing views American democracy thru an objective,

5/ideologically unbiased lens, the same can’t be said of US Congress, many of whom fear/think China wants to “take over the world” (to wit SoS Mike Pompeo) to “spread communism”. Having 5,000 years of culture, including Confucianism, China has the clearer and more objective view

The Story Of Biafra Football Club (1969- 1978)

By Bianca Odumegwu Ojukwu

Indeed there was a country... and there was also the Biafra Football Club.

In the dying months of the breakaway Republic of Biafra, a group of idealistic young football lovers gathered together

in Valls, Barcelona (Spain) to honour the heroic struggle of The Biafrans .

They created a symbolic pennant and founded the Biafra Football club in order to draw world attention to the plight of Biafra, using one of the most potent methods known to humanity.

Football.

CF Biafra had about a hundred players from Reus to Pla, from Nulles to Tarragona they settled in El Vilar, within the federated amateur league and rode all the way to the Third Regional League.

Half a century later, the golden anniversary of the Biafra football club

was celebrated.

Though now extinct, Biafra , to those idealistic young men, was a mirror for their own struggles . In their perception, their own region of Catalunya ( Catalonia) was going through the same situation at the hands of the Spanish government as Biafra was

experiencing, at the hands of the Nigerian government.

They found a common bond and affinity with the Biafra struggle through the formation of the Biafra football club in Valls.

The club existed until 1978 when its activities were truncated by lack of economic resources.