canyonwalker | Entries tagged with sports

Yesterday was the Superbowl, the most watched event of any kind in the US. An estimated 200 million Americans tuned in for it on TV. And they were rewarded with a US victory! And not just any victory but a back-to-back, 58 times victory!

US Wins 58th Consecutive Football Championship!

US Wins 58th Consecutive Football Championship!

That, of course, is because this championship is for a league that only US teams belong to. The finalists were my hometown San Francisco 49ers, favored by a couple of points by oddsmakers over the defending Kansas City Chiefs.

The 'Niners played strongly throughout regulation time but the Chiefs scored a field goal late in the 4th quarter to send the game into overtime. The Niners scored a field goal to take the lead, but then under the league's new overtime rules the Chiefs got one possession to decide their win or loss. They capitalized on the opportunity with a successful touchdown drive, winning the game in sudden-death.

Yesterday was the Superbowl, the biggest sports and TV event of the year in the US. I feel almost guilty I didn't watch (I went hiking instead) because apparently it was a nail-biter and— most importantly— the USA won for an unbelievable 57th straight year!

U-S-A! U-S-A!

USA Wins World Championship for 57th Straight Year! (Feb 2023)

USA Wins World Championship for 57th Straight Year! (Feb 2023)

Of course, it helps that this "world" championship sportsball game is only open to USA teams. 🤷

The Supreme Court Monday issued its ruling in Kennedy v. Bremerton School District. The case concerned a high school football coach, Joseph Kennedy, who was leading students in prayer at midfield after football games. Lower courts upheld the school district's decision to put Kennedy on paid administrative lead for illegal promotion of religious activities at an official school event, a violation of the First Amendment's establishment clause. The Supremes overturned those decisions, though, ruling that it was a legitimate, private expression of personal faith protected by the First Amendment.

One of the issues on which this case (or cases like it) turns is coercion. Yes, the prayer is nominally voluntary in that students are invited to join; but when it's a school authority figure who's leading it, there is enormous pressure on students to go along. The coach is the boss of who gets to play, in which position, and for how long. He's also a role model for the students. A student who objects to the group prayer— perhaps because he practices a different faith or perhaps is not religious— may find himself denied opportunities to play and ostracized by fellow students who support the coach.

Some cases about prayer in school have so-called gray areas. This case is not one of them. What happened here was, or should have been, black-and-white.

So, how did the Supremes decide 6-3 to ignore the obvious conclusion in this case? Well, they simply ignored the facts of the case. They. Ignored. Facts.

To underscore this point, Justice Sotomayor included pictures in her dissent. Pictures of large, loud scrums of people— not just team members but players on the opposing team and fans from the stands including local politicians— flocking onto the field to join the coach's prayers. Justice Gorsuch's majority opinion characterizing the prayers as "private" and "quiet" is simply dishonest.

Yesterday was Superbowl Sunday, a practical holiday in the US. An estimated 117 million people tuned in. And beforehand they mobbed stores to buy drinks and snacks, such as guacamole. Oh, wait, avocados are embargoed because Mexican drug cartels are taking them over and threatened a US inspector. Watch out for blood guac!

Superbowl Sunday is a time when I do anything but watch sports. Ditto for Hawk. So we planned a day with not-in-front-of-the-TV activities. Our first activity was to Get Out! We got out to Santa Cruz.

West Cliff Drive in Santa Cruz (Feb 2022)

West Cliff Drive in Santa Cruz (Feb 2022)

It was a great day for a drive with the top down in our convertible. Temps at home peaked at 81° again (27° C). Out at the coast it was cooler, especially around 10 or 11am when we arrived, but it was still a beautiful day. Once again we were dressed in shorts and short sleeved shirts... and dabbing on sunscreen... in mid-February!

In Santa Cruz we walked along the sidewalk and various trails along West Cliff Drive. It's an old favorite of ours for visiting Santa Cruz, though the last time we did it before this weekend was a few years ago. So it's good to get back there! Usually when we do this walk we start a few miles from downtown and walk to the boardwalk and back. This time we walked in the opposite direction— to Natural Bridges State Beach and back. More pics to come soon!

We wrapped up our hiking around 12:30 and headed back over the hill to Silicon Valley. Traffic headed out to the coast in the opposite lanes of winding Route 17 was getting backed up. We were glad we'd chosen to get an early start, even when we thought the Superbowl would reduce the number of beach-goers!

Once back in the San Jose area we had another Superbowl Sunday mission to accomplish: Shopping.

We'd been talking about replacing our dinnerware (plates, bowls, etc.) for a few days. On Saturday we'd suddenly seen a style we both liked on a chance visit to a Home Goods store. The challenge is, Home Goods is mostly an overstock store. The plates we like are from an established European manufacturer but they're a canceled product line. That means the inventory is hit-or-miss as remnants of the last production filter into these stores. We visited 4 stores Saturday evening after hiking at Las Trampas and another 4 stores Sunday, scooping up whichever pieces we could find at each store.

We tired of the hunt around 6pm and headed home for supper. The hunt's not done; it's just that we were done for the day. 😅 Traipsing around to so many stores in one weekend is tiring.

At home we scrounged for dinner. I reheated the leftovers of pizza I'd made on Friday. Hawk made a bowl of nachos. "Our avocados are getting ripe," I pointed out. She sliced one over her nachos. Although it was bought a few days before the embargo we don't know if it was a conflict-free avocado. She might have eaten... blood guac. 😳😨🤣

As we see how the Omicron strain of Coronavirus is playing out in the U.S. and other countries there is some reason to take heart. While it's more transmissible than previous strains and able to creep around the protections of the vaccine (vaccines are, what, 80% effective against it vs. 90-95% against Alpha and Delta?) the sickness it creates is less severe. People have milder symptoms, recover faster, and experience lower chance of death. This leads to a mindset of complacency. People argue, "Well, we're all going to get it eventually, and now it's not that bad, so let's stop trying so hard to avoid it." But here's the thing: we're playing the JV team.

For those not familiar with U.S. terminology, "JV" is Junior Varsity, the lower division of sports teams at schools. Omicron is like a lower division Coronavirus team because of its relative mildness. But what if the next strain to come around is first division? Premier league? The Sigma strain, let's call it; suppose it combines the high transmissibility & ability to sidestep the vaccine that Omicron has (or worse) with the severe sickness of Delta (or worse). If we've given up on public health by then we'll be screwed.

Crossposts: https://canyonwalker.livejournal.com/1047351.html

Today is the Superball of Sportsball, or as everyone is calling it this year— probably for bullshit trademark reasons— The Big Game. I always feel like a Schmendrick for how little I care. ...Which is sad because this year the USA won. U-S-A! U-S-A!

...Of course, that was because both teams were USA. Yes, this is Superbowl LV (IIRC from Latin class, that means Superbowl Designer Handbag) and like all preceding Superbowls the only teams in the league for this "world" championship are USA teams.

USA Undefeated World Champions of Football

USA Undefeated World Champions of Football

So little do I care about it that I didn't even know which USA teams were playing... until I saw an ad for it this afternoon. It's the Kansas City Chiefs and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, BTW. ...Which is funny (to me) because the last time I cared about sportsball was so long ago that those were two of the worst teams in the league!

At that rate by the time I care again maybe the Superball will feature the Detroit Lions and the Cleveland Browns. 🤣

Crossposts: https://canyonwalker.livejournal.com/902195.html

Tales & Trails of a Traveling Wiseguy

Entries tagged with sports

US Wins 58th Consecutive Football Championship

USA Wins World Championship 57th Straight Year!

Supreme Court Ignores Facts in School Prayer Case

How We Spent Superbowl Sunday

We're Playing the JV Team

Sports Superball!

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