BBCollective

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Labor Day the Collective Way Sep 07, 2021

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Welcome back to the Bill Bradley Collective, where this week in observance of Labor Day your hosts put the relationship between the NFL and labor rights and conditions under the microscope. A chronology of relations between the league and NFLPA sets the table: a look at work stoppages in 1982 and 1987 and the fallout and legacy of each, the famous collection of scab players that crossed the picket line, the legal fights that give way to the implementation of free agency, and the touchy historical maneuvering that grants the league certain antitrust protections. This gives way to the consideration of a column from former league player, NFLPA executive and now writer and on-air talent for ESPN Domonique Foxworth that outlines his belief in how and why decertification of the NFLPA would be beneficial to the union’s membership. Foxworth contends the downsides of decertification: agent regulation, the financial risks in transitioning from union to association and the prospect of a separate entity unionizing the players and ratifying a new CBA, are outweighed by the fact that as advertising and television revenues have made the league’s owners richer and more entrenched than ever before, it is only the sport’s elite class that has benefitted financially, and in Foxworth’s own words, those whose share has not grown “deserve to negotiate on a level playing field.” Consider it Labor Day the Collective way, but not before we throw three fists to the face of sports and politics with another fresh trio of rants, where Ed zags positive in celebration of Renee Montgomery and her direct role in the most recent chapter in Kelly Loeffler’s demise, Andrew welcomes(?) an MLB journalist to the #resistance following his bitch-slap of a “proud father” and D-list Trump flunky on Twitter, and Zak leads us into the main topic in examining the controversial vaccination sentiments from friend-of-the-program Urban Meyer that produced (from this panel) an abnormal round of agreement, while conversely drawing considerable ire from the NFLPA.

To Catch (but not hit) a Spy Aug 31, 2021

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Welcome to the Bill Bradley Collective, where this week we present yet another of our award-winning Dollop-style in-season bonus installments, as Ed unveils the remarkably strange but true story of one Morris “Moe” Berg. Located directly at the three-way intersection of baseball mediocrity, higher education and international espionage, Ed’s chronology of Berg’s life and times render his Collective brethren floored well before even the halfway mark. Join us for the narrative of baseball’s fourth greatest non-Gentile catcher, an adult life that commences with a pair of Ivy League degrees, followed by a professional baseball career that though otherwise feeble somehow spans nearly two decades across the AL, NL and Japan, before reaching his life’s apex mountain in “retirement,” both as the Ken Jennings of the radio age and as an agent of the CIA-predecessor Office of Strategic Services involved in increasingly consequential and delicate situations in Eastern Europe. Labeled “difficult” by direct kin, fluent in seven languages but unable to hit in any of them, for a time confused with a celebrity comedic ignoramus sharing the same forename, and later portrayed on film by Phoebe Buffay’s husband, Moe Berg’s life was one of achievement academically, athletically and in service to his country, while also providing we, the Bill Bradley Collective, with a great bit of posthumous humor this week. Berg homered six (6!) times over the span of a fifteen-year MLB career, and yet it takes Ed a mere forty minutes to hit Moe’s story out of the park.

A Called Strike: Baseball, 1994 Aug 24, 2021

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Welcome back to the Bill Bradley Collective, where with the dog weeks of the sporting calendar upon us, your hosts dive back into time with an examination of perhaps the most impactful labor stoppage in history, the 1994-95 MLB players’ strike. Twenty-seven years ago to the month, the MLBPA, working amidst an expired collective bargaining agreement for the season’s first five months, walked on August 12, 1994 and were not to be seen in a competitive game until April 25, 1995. The first time a labor stoppage eliminated an entire postseason across all sports and the first and only season in the World Series-era without one since 1904, the players’ strike resonates to this day. Join us as we discuss the specific conditions that led to the strike in the early ‘90s, a history of labor/management relations in baseball leading up to 1994, the unique competitive and individual storylines that the strike sent to the wayside that season, and the ups-and-mostly downs Major League Baseball has experienced in the twenty-six years post-resolution. But first, another oppressive summer afternoon brings about a further round of hot Collective rants, as Ed lights a match under the ass of yet another GOP governor following his taking a particularly reprehensible position regarding COVID-19 protocols in our schools; Andrew examines a sordid political/social life intertwined with an historically accomplished pugilistic career on the day of what may be Manny Pacquaio’s boxing swan song; and finally Zak welcomes a certain SpaceX and Tesla CEO back to the Collective firing line with a critical appraisal of his latest bit of tech-porn while considering what drives public interest in his vanity endeavors.

Wall Street: Sports Never Sleep. Aug 17, 2021

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Welcome back to the Bill Bradley Collective, where this week we are coming to you from the intersection of Lambeau Field and the Fortune 500: an examination of the corporatization of sports. As consumers of sport we are exposed to it on a nightly basis: pre/post-show brought to you by “x,” halftime/intermission brought to you by “y,” telecast presented by “z.” Every athlete, franchise, broadcast and league are all to leveraged degrees beholden to corporate interests. The questions we seek to answer this week are fairly straightforward. Has the inundation of corporate advertising across each of the live and televised sports experiences hijacked enjoyment of the contests themselves? Does the athlete have corporatization to thank as the root for greater salary, social presence and Madison Avenue opportunity? Has corporate influence somehow “well-actually’d” their way into the good graces of the socially conscious fan in affecting some degree of real progress? All of that and more, but what’s a Tuesday commute without a fresh batch of rants to set the table? First, with unabashed joy, Zak looks forward to the post-basketball career of a retired prep-to-pro eccentric with a look at his attempted foray into collegiate golf; with unabashed disdain Ed unloads on the overdue exit of Andrew Cuomo, the immoral return of Deshaun Watson, and the grim labels we accord to women in power versus women in peril; finally Andrew assesses baseball’s wannabe second mid-summer classic, with a bit of love for the aesthetic but mostly shade for the game’s namesake and messaging on racial equality throughout the sport’s history.

- "They’re All Gone": Munich ‘72 Aug 10, 2021

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Welcome back to the Bill Bradley Collective, where this week your hosts hop in the DeLorean and head back to 1972 with an examination of that summer’s Olympic Games. Hosted by Munich on the heels of the problematic ’68 affair in Mexico City, these so-called “serene” Olympics are best remembered for the Munich massacre, in which members of the Palestinian Black September Organization took nine members of the Israeli Olympic team hostage, after murdering two more. All nine hostages were killed shortly thereafter. The attack itself and how/why it unfolded as it did, media coverage and the decision to continue the Games in the wake of the tragedy are the focus. Also highlighted is the highly controversial gold medal game in men’s basketball between the U.S. and the Soviet Union, as well as looks at two of the biggest individual stars of the games, American swimmer Mark Spitz and Soviet gymnast Olga Korbut. But first come an Olympic triathlon of rants, where Zak runs the duck test on the Russian Olympic Committee in calling bullshit on the entire purpose, Ed spotlights the peculiarities of both the modern pentathlon and the bylaws of karate; finally Andrew documents overcoming the inanity of the NBC/Peacock schedule en route to appreciating the triumphant performances of the American men’s and women’s basketball teams.

Profile - The Story of The "Hurricane" Aug 03, 2021

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Welcome back to the Bill Bradley Collective, where today we present the second episode of this special double-drop week, centered around the life and impact of late American-Canadian middleweight contender, Rubin “Hurricane” Carter. The theme for this season is criminal justice and sports, and as Carter’s boxing career was cut short by a 20-year imprisonment following a wrongful conviction for murder in 1967, his story is well-fit for this season’s profile feature. The circumstances of Carter’s troubled early life set the table, as he bounces from juvenile detention to the U.S. Army to prison in his native New Jersey for assault. It is in the Army where Carter discovers boxing, and following his release from prison Carter turns professional and works his way up to a world-class level in the middleweight division. Not five years removed from prison, Carter finds himself and a late night triple homicide occurs in a Paterson, New Jersey bar and Carter finds himself and acquaintance John Artis as the principle suspects. The only “crimes” Carter commits that night are those of being black and perhaps in the wrong place at the wrong time, but that does not stop an all-white jury of convicting he and Artis of the three murders. A 1976 re-trial inexplicably finds Carter convicted for a second time, and it is not until 1985 following a petition of habeas corpus in federal court that Carter is finally freed. Carter’s life and case famously gain the attention of Bob Dylan, as his 1975 song “Hurricane” asserts the singer’s belief in Carter’s innocence. A well-received 1999 biopic featuring Denzel Washington as Carter, “The Hurricane,” depicts Carter’s trials, time in prison and eventual release. His is a complicated life. A life marked by violence, criminally as a youth and professionally by later occupation, gives way to a legacy as a foremost face of victimhood perpetrated by the ills of our criminal justice system. It’s a story, broadly, about the black American experience, but just as important is that somehow, over fifty years removed from Carter’s wrongful conviction, the circumstances of his life have never been more relevant to the discourse on criminal justice reform in this country.

5 - A Case Of The Mondays Aug 02, 2021

Show notes

Do not adjust your calendars, yes it is Monday and yes, we are the Bill Bradley Collective kicking off your work week with a special Monday drop. Following a busy and tumultuous week across the sporting world, your hosts had takes we couldn’t fit into Tuesday’s season profile so we went ahead and recorded a bonus installment for you, our faithful listener. Tune in as the panel examines the expected fallout from Texas’ and Oklahoma’s pending exit from the the Big 12 for the “greener” pastures of the SEC; a look at the just concluded NBA Draft and the biggest news item of that night, Russell Westbrook’s trade to the Lakers and what to anticipate from Bodie’s L.A. homecoming; and a conversation about the fire sale that was the MLB trade deadline, as a pair of recent World Champions gutted their rosters while fortifying baseball’s big market powerhouses. What’s a BBCollective experience without a proper rant or 3? Andrew describes the drastic stakes that awaited South Korea’s top two male golfers entering the Tokyo Games; Zak condemns the tasteless jabs thrown from an A-list comedian at Simone Biles’ in the fallout of her withdrawal from Olympic competition; and finally Ed details the latest bit of intellectual insolvency from a rising star in the GOP sphere following a mind-boggling take on socialized medicine. Don’t forget tomorrow is Tuesday, and you know what that means. Coming to you tomorrow with this season’s profile feature, something perfectly aligned with this season’s theme of sports and criminal justice, we are the Bill Bradley Collective.

Toky-no? & Our uncertain Olympic future. Jul 27, 2021

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Welcome back to the Bill Bradley Collective, where this week the Games of the XXXII Olympiad, more commonly referred to as the 2020 (2021?) Summer Olympics are underway, and your hosts are here to break down many of the major themes enveloping the events through a political and social lens. Ed frames the conversation around a terrific piece written on these games that asks a number of questions: what is the world doing in a country wishing they had never bid for these games in the first place? How does the United States leave home a premier sprinter for a positive marijuana test and in turn endorse CBD training supplements? How do we reckon the long-term kleptocracy of the governing bodies overseeing these games and our patronage of said spectacle? And perhaps most importantly, what does the future hold for the Olympic Games going forward and their very existence? But as we do in this space, the rants lead us in; as Andrew examines the Woodstock ’99 music festival with a focus on the machinations that made the festivities the horror-show they were and how little we’ve learned as a country now over two decades later; Zak surveys the pissing contest between a pair of very public billionaire "entrepreneurs” following the culmination of their latest high-profile vanity projects, while asking why exactly we should actually care; and finally Ed puts England’s PM’s feet to the fire in the wake of his half-assed effort to assuage the despicable racial backlash hurled upon black English footballers following Euro 2020’s (2021?) finale.

- Our Draft Choices Jul 20, 2021

Show notes

This week on the Bill Bradley Collective, your hosts venture into some familiar waters. You’ve heard us draft our favorite sports movies, draft our respective choices for the worst people in sports and in politics, respectively. But this week, we try our collective hand at amending sports drafts, namely the NBA and NFL’s, with a concerted concentration on labor rights and economic feasibility. But first, we rant, as Zak implores high-profile athletes to set a precedent on behalf of COVID vaccination efforts in light of the fallout from the MLB All Star Game and postponement of 2021’s most lucrative prizefight; Andrew assesses the latest set of falsities presented from the chaise lounge of President #45 regarding golf’s grandest championship; finally Ed considers Illinois’ formal ban of lying to minors under interrogation by police and the potential fallout nationwide

The War on Drugs is back on Track Jul 13, 2021

Show notes

Welcome back to the Bill Bradley Collective, where with the Summer Olympic Games in Tokyo somehow set to commence, we examine the suspension of American track and field sprinter Sha’Carri Richardson following a positive test for marijuana. Richardson recorded the fastest time at the U.S. Olympic trials in the 100-meter, just months after recording the sixth-fastest 100-time in women’s history, qualifying her for the Tokyo games. She admitted to using marijuana following the recent death of her mother as well as to cope with anxieties brought on the pressure of Olympic qualification. Expected to be one of the brightest stars on Team U.S.A., how Richardson could be subject to discipline (from one of the most corrupt bodies in sport) for doing something *completely legal* (in Oregon) and how common sense was unable to prevail in getting her suspension overturned is the main focus of the conversation, while additionally touching on the opposite reaction afforded Michael Phelps by both the USOC and public several years ago, and also President Biden’s soft both-sides messaging on Richardson’s situation. But first we rant, where Ed tells an Orwellian tale of seemingly impossible wretchedness regarding passage in Texas of an-anti abortion bill that taps citizens to collect bounties on anyone remotely involved in the process; Andrew describes toxicity at ESPN in the context of serious journalists being stripped of the ability to do serious journalism on entities that the “world leader” has billions of dollars at stake in while Ed and Zak take on the Bristol cesspool in lieu of this week’s Rachel Nichols/Maria Taylor controversy; Zak brings it home with a stark condemnation of American tax policy by contrasting the individual tax situations of the billionaire franchise owner, the millionaire athlete and the low-wage arena-concession laborer.

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