When Jets cornerback Antonio Cromartie let loose with his true feelings on Tom Brady, coach Rex Ryan defended him. Would Ryan show the same level of understanding when an opponent was perceived as taking shots at him?
SportsGrid
(AP photo/Jim Prisching)
John Wall has succumbed to the injured list. The ex-UK star and current Washington Wizard hurt his left foot in Washington’s loss to Chicago on Saturday night.
An excerpt from Michael Lee’s story in the Washington Post:
While Rose and his former Chicago Bulls teammate Kirk Hinrich joked with each other in front of the Wizards’ locker room after the game, Wall was in the back getting treatment and having his foot taped up. Rose eventually got tired of waiting and left the arena around the time Wall slipped his left shoe into his backpack.
Wall hopes that his foot will feel better once he gets some rest, but he didn’t want to leave the game on Saturday. “As much as I put pressure on it, it just got worse and worse,” Wall said after scoring 16 points with six assists. “I just took myself out.”
And now, a message from MLS Commissioner Don Garber.
“(TFC supporters) helped teach Americans how to be soccer fans, travelling, being passionate about Champions League and international games. It’s unfortunate that they haven’t been rewarded with a successful team.”
Knowing American soccer fans as I do, I cannot imagine the commissioner of Major League Soccer – a man usually so careful about his words that they generally contain nothing of interest – saying anything more offensive to his constituency. Way to piss off your customers, Don.
Don Garber’s stewardship has generally been good for MLS. The league continues to grow, not only in number of teams and dedicated stadiums, but in overall interest and relevance. TV ratings are still an abomination, something I would argue is one of The Don’s more pressing concerns, but attendance is good in a bad economy, new franchises are starting in hotbed markets, and name players are signing up to come to America’s league. Whether you agree with the strategy employed or not, MLS is much better off now than it was when Garber took the reigns.
But it’s clear Garber is having trouble keeping up with the evolving supporters culture that has taken hold around the league. MLS has become more responsive and engaged with supporters groups in recent years not because the league pushed for change, but because the rising tide slammed them squarely in the face. The league’s didn’t take a u-turn on selling to the soccer mom/family outing crowd as much as it folded in focus on passionate support. Or, if you choose to view it more cynically, they decided it was best to give the movement lip service.
Garber’s statements in Toronto put his lack of understanding on display. Even if he believes what he said, or if there’s a kernel of truth to the statement (which I’m not buying), it’s inadvisable to tell the rest of your league’s fans that a four year-old team “taught” anyone anything. I’m sure Garber felt the need to speak kindly of a group of fans currently going through some dissatisfaction with their club only a month ahead of the league’s showpiece event. Garber wants butts in the seats on November 21st, and rightly so; maybe pumping up TFC’s fans helps that cause as a direct challenge to their sense of superiority, and shame them into attending.
Not that any of that excuses the blatant disrespect shown everyone else.
At issue isn’t the notion that TFC has very good fans who have supported their team well through their first four years, or that they’ve done certain things better than some others (they have); at issue is the idea that MLS fans took their cues from Toronto or followed a model originated by Toronto. I’m struggling to refrain from being incredulous on behalf of fans of others teams, especially those that existed years before TFC fans began to give lessons.
The amount of passion fans express, manifested in the types of support mentioned by Garber, grows independently. There are cultural cues, of course, but fans don’t travel or support their teams in alternate competitions because someone else is, they do it because it’s a natural result of becoming a more invested fan. Columbus’ Nordecke didn’t look north before becoming what is, nor are Seattle’s large and boisterous home crowds a Toronto-inspired creation. From a top-down perspective, which Garber can’t help but have, and due in part to coincidence in timing, it may appear that Toronto’s strong support had something to do with the development of other fan bases around the league.
Correlation does not prove causation.
The reality is that this was a throwaway comment by a man playing to his audience.
He still shouldn’t have said it.
In recent weeks, there’s been much speculation in the main media about exactly what caused Serena Williams to miss the U.S. Open.
(Does Serena’s injury pass the eye test?)
Serena claimed to Christine Brennan of USA TODAY this week that she injured both feet on July 7 in Munich, but wasn’t exactly sure how she eventually ended needing 12 stitches on one foot and six stitches in another following a night out in the German city.
Amazingly, Serena played an exhibition match the next day against Kim Clijsters in Brussels and then apparently flew to New York to have her feet examined by a doctor. Of that examination, Serena told Brennan:
“I came back to the United States from Germany and knew something was not right. My big toe was drooping, and I thought, ‘My toe shouldn’t be hanging like this.’ I saw a specialist in New York and had an MRI, and he said I had a tendon that was torn. He said I didn’t necessarily have to fix it, but I’d have a droopy toe the rest of my life. I thought it over and decided it was better to have the surgical procedure, for my career and for my life.”
Serena was photographed nearly a week after her injury partying in heels. More from USAT’s Brennan:
Asked how she could fit her swollen, painful feet into high heels three days before surgery, Williams said, “I was bummed about wearing the Band-Aid at my party, you know me, but there were six stitches under there, so I didn’t want those to show. I love heels, I’m a sucker for heels, so if I have to get the (surgical) procedure anyway, at that point, the doctor told me I needed to do it, so I took the pictures with those shoes, then wore flats the rest of the night. I couldn’t have worn heels the whole night.”
While describing her examination, Serena told Brennan that a doctor said surgery was elective. Then in her defense of wearing heels a week days after her apparent injury, Serena told Brennan that her doctor told her that the surgery was indeed required.
Speaking of contradictions, here’s how Serena described how her feet were supposedly injured in the first place:
“We were walking out of the restaurant and, all of a sudden, I felt pain,” she said. “The pain felt like kind of a stubbed foot, like ‘Ow,’ and I thought, ‘Wow, I stubbed my foot.’ Then in 20 seconds, or a minute, I started walking again. And it hurt some more. So we looked down and there was glass all over the floor. I was standing, recovering, thinking I got a little cut and telling my nephew, who was with us, to be careful. Then my practice partner put a cellphone down to the floor so we could see, and there was a huge puddle of blood. I said, ‘OMG, I don’t think this is good.’ “
Serena’s agent Jill Smoller told Greg Couch of AOL FANHOUSE on July 22, two weeks after the unreported Munich incident, that Serena’s injury did not come from stepping on glass:
“She didn’t step on glass,” said Williams’ agent and spokesperson, Jill Smoller. “So I don’t know where that came from. Her foot was cut. There was a deep laceration. She had surgery Thursday in Los Angeles … to repair a deep laceration on top of her foot.”
A prolific Tweeter, Serena was far from silent on her Twitter account between the day of her apparent injury, July 7, and her reported July 15 surgery date. Between the 7th and the 15th, Serena Tweeted approximately 59 times, but none of those Tweets made mention of anything pertaining to an injury or surgery.
Her first Tweet regarding her condition was Saturday night, July 17:
hi guys! thanks for all the get well wishes. it really means a lot
can’t wait to get out of bed & back on the courts & do what i do best!
On July 19, this post-op photo of Serena was Tweeted by Carmelo Anthony’s wife LaLa Vazquez:
A closeup of the photo reveals Serena suffering from what appears to be two black eyes:
The photo is made more interesting by rampant speculation in just the past couple weeks that Serena recently had cosmetic surgery. That in turn has led some to question the veracity and/or severity of Serena’s foot injury. (more…)
Andy Roddick suffered another disappointing loss last night, bowing out to Serbian Janko Tipseravic 3-6, 7-5, 6-3, 7-6 (4) in just the second round of the U.S. Open. But this big story wasn’t even Roddick’s loss – it was a foot fault call he persistently argued, bringing some ugly memories of last year’s U.S. Open to mind.
Those ugly memories, of course, involve Serena Williams’ outburst over – you guessed it – a foot fault call. Serena lost that match, just as Roddick did his. Thankfully, Roddick’s arguing contained nowhere near the vitriol of Serena’. Roddick merely made a bunch of sarcastic remarks, whereas Serena actively threatened the official.
Though, as you’ll see in the video below, Roddick got some pretty good lines in, we can’t help but wish players like himself and Serena would let controversial calls go a little more easily and let themselves focus on the actual match. Then again, maybe it’s easier said than done – even Roger Federer let it get to him at the U.S. Open last year. Maybe it’s just something about the tournament?
Video, shot by a fan, of some of Roddick’s remarks below. He keeps playing points and just keeps on arguing in between. A slow burn of a tirade.