Being in the same area code as the Browns and Jets ain’t ideal. Fielding a functional QB with a decent coach and good D usual prevents last place finishes.
Warren Sharp@SharpFootball ·8h 4th place division finishes since 2010:
10 – CLE 9 8 – NYJ 7 – TB, WAS, CHI, ARI 6 – JAX, TEN, DET 5 – DEN, CIN, CAR, SF, LV, NYG 4 – BUF, LAC 3 – HOU, PHI, LAR, MIN 2 – ATL, MIA, KC, NE, NO 1 – BAL, SEA, DAL, IND 0 – PIT, GB
O.T. Spain beating France is like if the 90s Jazz beat the Bulls. Sure, Stockton+Malone were formidable, but a tier below Jordan+Pippen+Rodman. However, the Jazz were well-coached, precise and disciplined. Spain was tougher than France, and they simply out-executed for one game. If this was a 7-game series, no doubt France wins, but much like the NFL, World Cup is do-or-die, and Spain dissected Le Bleu like frogs.
England-v-Argentina should be epic. Anyone familiar with history knows why. The FBI has found some shady shit going down with FIFA and Argentina, Miami dummy bank accounts, etc, Didn’t the U.S. just ‘loan’ them a few billion? All in the up-in-up, certainly…
🚨 The FBI is investigating Argentina's football association for money laundering.
Over $300 million in sponsorship money, from Adidas, routed through U.S. banks and a Miami firm called TourProdEnter LLC, is being examined by federal authorities. Shell companies, remittance… pic.twitter.com/ZoTpJJSxmV
Coincidently, Argentina has been given every break humanly possible. It’s not an exaggeration to say that the entire world outside Argentina will be rooting against them. Go England!
I’m a casual soccer fan. By that, I mean, I only watch the World Cup [W.C.] once every four years, and I missed the last one.
I don’t exactly know what the positions are, or what they’re supposed to do, memorize the formations, or which players are elite or hot, nor the intricacies of the rules or procedures. Contain general knowledge of history, traditions, and just about everything else. Soccer, surprisingly, was one of the few major sports I didn’t really play.
Sports is extremely regional. I met a guitarist from Alaska who couldn’t believe I never played hockey. “There weren’t too many hockey rinks in L.A. in the 80s.” Shoulda asked him how many rugby players he knew in The Last Frontier. Even BMXing, skateboarding, snowboarding, surfing in L.A. was more prevalent than hockey.
But that’s the fantastic part about fútbol. You don’t NEED to be an expert, and that’s likely why women follow it more than football or baseball [fit models sweating for 90 mins doesn’t hurt]. Soccer resembles NBA in that sense. Flow, action, relatively limited Xs and Os; much more about Jimēs and Joes…
I don’t know what a 9 or a 10 refers to unless it’s to the WC hotties, and that’s ok!
Nietzsche proposed that we have the Apollonian plus the Dionysian.
Apollonian was reason, harmony – order. Poetry.
Dionysian = feeling, passion, rapture – Music
He claimed the Greeks nailed it with their religious celebration in which they recited poetry/drama and also played music – all in arcadian landscapes beneath the crisp twinkling stars and dark rolling hills, which connected citizens, to the state, ea other, nature and the gods.
William Faulkner hinted that African American churches approximate those ancient Greeks with their preaching, singing, and dancing – an interactive exultation with less rote kneeling, standing, recitations; it’s both individual and communal [as well as cosmic if one believes].
To this day when I go to poetry readings, musicians almost always do a set, or even play in the background of readers; goes without saying, plenty of spirits flowing. If an art gallery hosts ‘the happening’, or occasional stand-up comedian attends, well, there ya go. Complete immersion.
Nietzsche also recommends that we listen to music in a language we don’t comprehend because the point of music is to transport – not to convince – and sometimes our reason acts like a speed bump to the divine. Gotta bypass the superego – after all, isn’t that what love – the most transformative and redemptive human feature – is?
All of which is to say – sometimes being a casual fan of any field – has its perks.
A 10 yr old boy isn’t going to be screaming at the TV that the formation doesn’t optimize the talent, that they lack pace and pressure, or that the manager needs to sub x, y, z…
A 10 yr old is going to savor the game like my GF enjoyed watching the Bears beat the Puke [TWICE!] last season – by basking in the tension, the energy, the Dionysian drama.
NTM Ole Butcho losing his mind.
Watching World Cup makes me a child again in that sense. It’s a nice break from the Apollonian,
“Why didn’t we trade up for Aaron Donald!” “Why is Marion Barber running out of bounds!” “Why isn’t Flus calling a damn TO!!!” “Why isn’t the NFL awarding the Bears comp picks!”
Serenity now, serenity now…
That being said, you can’t Homer your way through life. Voltaire, arguably the smartest man of his age, was disturbed by his neighbor whom he judge to be more content.
Who was his neighbor – some wise Himalayan sage? Nope. Some nobody. That’s what disturbed him. Here he was a man of renown, books, accolades, wit and genius – even the King couldn’t kill him because ‘one does not arrest Voltaire,’ yet some nosy barely literate homebody was indubitably HAPPIER than him by his own account.
Henry David Thoreau experienced the same when he escaped to the wilderness and crossed a lumberjack/trapper in the woods. He envied how such a simple man can instinctively connect to nature and peace without much schooling, reading or critical thinking.
Nevertheless, short of a lobotomy, neither Voltaire nor Thoreau could ever become them.
“It is better to be a human being dissatisfied than a pig satisfied; better to be Socrates dissatisfied than a fool satisfied.” – John Stuart Mill.
However, we can become a pig for a summer! OINK OINK! We can roll in the mud, samba, down steins, and shout in raw intoxicating exuberance:
Image courtesy of Bloomberg OK, I was going to post GP’s continuing saga on the stadium, but it’s the weekend, and most check out, have fun, as it should be, so I’ll save his “Fealty” piece for Mon.
Also, the World Cup literally kicked off in Mexico City yesterday, and what a spectacle! Here’s Mana with a surprise appearance. For you 80s rockers, I definitely recommend Mana/Jaguares and Heroes de Silenco esp if you wanna score a few easy points with the hot mamies [see what I did there?]
I must admit, I do not watch fútbol. It seems like a full-time job. Got a million players on a million teams all across the globe, and most of the great teams are in European time-zones. I’m also American, so I innately disdain ties, flopping while simultaneously craving something more violent. Or as Whitman exclaims,
“I sound my barbaric yawp over the roofs of the world.”
In HS it was usually the immigrants who played soccer. Us “real” athletes played football, baseball, basketball and wrestled. Soccer, Tennis, Badminton, even swimming and track were for ‘those’ guys; it’s a rather stupid attitude to hold, but hey, HS is nothing but one dumb idea after another.
However, all this changed in World Cup ’94 in Pasadena. A young virile Butch used to frequent Old Town Pasadena quite a bit, picking off drunk girls bar-hopping like a lion in the Serengeti. Hey, I was sloshed myself, so game on! No swiping necessary.
Anyways, World Cup hit Pasadena, and it was NUTS. I was too poor to travel, but the world cup brought Barcelona, Paris, Rio de Janeiro…to provincial moi. It was quite an eye-opener. It was also pure unadulterated euphoria. An international celebration with everyone draped in their flags, hanging off lampposts, singing their foreign songs! Contrast that to the present with masked Gestapo patrolling cities.
The World Cup starts this week in North America, and Channel NEIN has the inside scoop from the United States.
— Jean Jacques Dessalines 🇭🇹🇵🇸🇳🇪🇲🇱🇧🇫🇨🇺 (@JeanJacquesDes7) June 8, 2026
Ever since, I loved watching World Cup [not really soccer]. I think I know enough of it now to really enjoy it without being an expert on formations, managers, etc. It’s an acquired taste, I must admit. It doesn’t lend itself to ESPN Highlight reel clips. In many ways, it’s more like a ballet – or more accurately, ballet blended with hockey – where the tension builds over time like a volcano with sudden monumental eruptions. If you’re in a room of diehards, you can FEEL the tension – the anticipation – the dread – and if a gooooooaaaalll is scored – the ecstasy! God help fans when it goes to penalties. Very few sports can match the World Cup in drama and catharsis.
I also learned what a MAJOR deal it is internationally. I knew a Vietnamese guy whose little village slept in hammocks. They only had one TV in the whole village, and they all huddled to watch the World Cup around it at ungodly hours.
I frequented an English pub. The owner was literally one of the chefs for the Queen of England. St George crosses everywhere. Well, for World Cup, and ONLY World Cup, he’d open up his pub at 6am! I love Bangers and Mash, but never had them with eggs and coffee!
Canada, U.S. and Mexico host The World Cup this time around. It’s once every 4 years. I know the matches are mostly during day time, but if you can, do yourself a favor and hit a ‘soccer’ dive to watch it. Even if you’re not into soccer or are just a casual, I highly recommend it as an experience. If you’re lucky, you’ll run into some drunk Brits and Germans who start chanting their songs. And if you’re REALLY lucky, you’ll cross one of these!
🚨 🇲🇽 GOOOOOOOOOOOAL! Mexico strikes first! In a moment of pure magic, the Tricolor explodes the scoreboard open — Mexico 1 – 0! 🐴🐴 pic.twitter.com/ofFWUn7cR6
