Losing My Perspicacity August 23, 2024

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Good morning and happy free Friday! Welcome back to another edition of Losing My Perspicacity. This newsletter is entirely funded by subscriptions from readers. If you want to get LMP in your inbox five days a week, you can easily updgrade your subscription by clicking the button at the end of this newsletter.

Today: Colorado football hits up Saudi Arabia for blood NIL money; the NWSL lands a blockbuster CBA; Judy Woodruff lets me down; MAGA chumps don’t know football; and Javy Baez returns to Wrigley.

Here we go.

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What is Colorado thinking?

I am well aware that a particular faction of sports fans doesn’t care where the money comes from as long as it helps their team win. But certainly, we can agree that there’s a difference of degree between, say, asking money-hoarding boosters to chip in more cash to lure a prospective player and asking a country that treats women as something less than second-class citizens, murdered a Washington Post journalist, and was “deeply complicit” in for 9/11 for funding. Currently, Saudi Arabia is imprisoning women for their clothing choices and the crime of “feminism.”

Apparently, none of that was a deal-breaker for Colorado’s football team, who reportedly sought funding from Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF), which you may know better as the organization set up by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad Bin Salman (the man who the CIA believes ordered the murder of American reporter Jamal Khashoggi) to sportswash his country’s reputation and lure more tourists to the Kingdom.

From Sports Illustrated:

I’ve been close enough to sports for long enough to know that doing the right thing doesn’t enter the picture all that often. Teams make terrible decisions all the time if they think it will contribute to the W column. And the number of people who care about this issue is admittedly limited. After all, the Saudi-backed LIV golf tour has some audience, even if no one tunes in to watch it on television.

If you’ll recall, it took women footballers calling out FIFA publicly for soccer’s governing body to turn down wads of cash from the “Visit Saudi” ad campaign, and the WTA took plenty of heat for its decision to hold the 2024-2026 WTA Championships in Riyadh. Recently, Saudi Arabia sentenced feminist activist Manahl al-Otaibi, who promoted women’s empowerment on social media, to 11 years in prison. The UN was only able to ascertain that fact in April, after al-Otaibi had been missing for nearly six months following her arrest in November of 2023.

I guess if that’s the lot Colorado is willing to jump in bed with to secure more considerable NIL money and more power to them. If it were my school, I’d be livid and lighting them up all over social media.

I know it’s a hard sell with the men of the NCAA, NFL, MLB, etc., but some things matter more than winning football games.

NWSL players land a monster CBA

The last time players in a women’s pro sports league landed a game-changing collective bargaining agreement, it was the WNBA back in 2020. That deal was groundbreaking for a lot of reasons, among them was that the players secured fully paid maternity leave, a childcare stipend, workplace accommodation for nursing mothers, and allowances for family planning expenses, like adoption and IVF.

Today, NWSL players secured a new CBA of their own, and it’s a doozy.

The NWSL has been growing steadily over the last few years, finding itself in the sweet spot of players who want more and a league willing to give it to them. Having participated in two rounds of union negotiations at my former employer, I can assure you that it doesn’t always happen that way. Labor peace is a worthwhile and laudable goal.

Some of the highlights of the deal:

• The salary cap will increase from $3.3 million in 2025 to $5.1 million in 2030 and is tied to revenue sharing

• League minimum salary will increase from $48,500 in 2025 to $82,500 in 2030

• All contracts will be guaranteed

• Players get approval of all intra-league trades

• The health professional requirement per team increases from 6 to 10 people

• Charter flights will be increasingly used during the season

This deal aims to make players happier and give them more control over their careers. The NWSL also undoubtedly hopes to lure players, including some American players, back from European Leagues.

Open mouth, insert foot

Earlier this week, I wrote about Trump’s possible violation of the Logan Act in reportedly asking Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to reject a ceasefire deal because it would “help Harris’ campaign.” I included it in a run-down of stories because I thought PBS’ Judy Woodruff was above reproach at this point in her career.

Here’s the original interview I included:

So when Woodruff said, “The reporting is,” I assumed that meant the reporting from withing her news organization. Apparently, that was not the case.

The original Axios article looks to have been updated with a denial from the Israeli camp, so it’s impossible to know what, if anything, was actually said between the two or even what the original reporting was. And while “don’t agree to a ceasefire until after I’ve been elected” certainly sounds like something Donald Trump would say, we have no evidence that’s actually the case. So this is my mea culpa for trusting Judy Woodruff, who should spoken in a way that didn’t make it sound like she was talking about her own reporting. Dammit, Judy.

By way of apology, please enjoy Pink singing “What About Us?” with her daughter, Willow, at the DNC.

That “What About Us” really hits differently when you think of the women, members of the LBGTQ+ communities, and other marginalized communities that have lost substantial rights thanks to this Supreme Court.

MAGA doesn’t understand football

The MAGA crowd’s latest attempt to take down American’s supportive dad, Tim Walz, is to call the whole “Coach Walz'“ thing a lie because Walz wasn’t a head coach of his state championship football team.

I give them this: Accusing a defensive coordinator of not being a real coach in Big Ten country is certainly a choice. Tell the ‘85 Bears that Buddy Ryan wasn’t a “real” coach. Go ahead.

Good luck winning Pennsylvania and Ohio with such a knowledgeable football take.

We still love Javy in Chicago

Javy Baez returned to Wrigley Field this week, and you may have seen clips of the ovation one of the most beloved players of the 2016 World Series Champs team got from the Cubby faithful. What’s up with the people sitting down during that ovation? Get up! Show some respect!

It was enough to make me tear up. But not as much as my favorite Javy Baez moment of all time:

Still hands down the funniest single baseball play I’ve ever seen.

Have a great weekend. See you all on Monday.