BBCollective

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Not Maywether v Logan Paul May 04, 2021

Show notes

Welcome back to the Bill Bradley Collective, where this week your hosts are three imaginary fists in the face of the politics of boxing. The Paul brothers, faded MMA stars and the forthcoming business of a former pound-for-pound king are not the focus of this boxing conversation, but rather why it is we are not at the very least previewing a potential super-fight in the real world of the sweet science week in and week out. The best no longer fight the best with much regularity, and the forces that have created this climate and the fights each of your hosts want most to see, whether it be unification bouts at the higher weights, consolidation at the ever-deep 126-135 pound classes, or the hopeful though complicated pairings of Tyson Fury with Anthony Joshua and Terence Crawford with Errol Spence are the crucible of this survey of the boxing landscape in 2021 and beyond. The panel concludes with a veritable nerd-out on dream-hypothetical bouts between fighters of varying generations and timelines. But first come a rant or three, where Andrew attempts to rationalize the necessity of the PGA Tour’s Player Impact Program in maintaining an eco-system of 200 very rich guys as opposed to 40 absurdly rich guys, Ed reflects on an NFL Draft telecast especially noteworthy for the execrable pairing of a booger and cut-ins to conference rooms’ lacking anything remotely resembling racial or gender equity, and Zak commemorates May Day with a metaphorical flame-thrower directed at Connecticut’s failure to properly compensate lower-income frontline workers through this pandemic.

Bonus - NFL Draft Talk May 03, 2021

Show notes

Welcome back to the Bill Bradley Collective, where here you can sink your teeth into an abbreviated, perhaps bonus “episode,” as your hosts tackle all things 2021 NFL Draft-related. The Collective enters a busy week where tomorrow you’ll hear three fists in the face of boxing punditry regarding everything boxing; past, present, future. And then Saturday we are on location at New London’s own The Social Bar & Kitchen, for an outdoor, socially distanced conversation touching on sports, politics and their cross-section at a tremendous New London gastro-pub. Hit play today, as Zak and Andrew try to come to grips with the arrival of actual competence in the Jets’ front office, Ed sounds off with numerous scorching-hot takes on the events of the first three rounds, and super-producer slash resident Packers-owner Brandon fires off on the intriguing future of the man who stole draft headlines and dominated the NFL-news cycle, the great yet mercurial Aaron Rodgers. What could brighten a back-to-work Monday more than a bit of timely bonus content from your three (plus one more!) noble panelists here, at the Bill Bradley Collective.

The Collective’s Eleven Apr 27, 2021

Show notes

Welcome back to the Bill Bradley Collective, where this week your hosts appraise the landscapes of both the fantasy sports and sports gambling industries in the U.S., and the ever-closing intersectionality between the two. No this is not a never-ending fable of bad beats and variance-induced injustices perpetrated at the expense of the members of this panel, but rather a discussion about the effects the increasing omnipresence of fantasy leagues across all sports and the inevitability of legalized and regulated sports betting nationwide has had and will continue to have on how we as fans consume the games we love. As the two biggest operators in fantasy sports have now become two of the most powerful in American sports wagering, the trio examine how the divide between the the two institutions has never been more confluent. Changes to certain fantasy norms and traditions and predictions for the landscape’s future are offered to round out the conversation. But first cometh the rants, where Ed welcomes back long-time guest and nemesis Roger Goodell with questions regarding both the newsworthiness and morality of his vaxxed-enabled ability to embrace unwilling members of the 2021 NFL Draft class, Andrew reflects on twenty years in the life of a Knicks’ fan with a toast to this season’s fruitful efforts; last and most certainly not least Zak segues into our main discussion this and next week as he laments he and super-producer Brandon’s ill-placed bets on this past week’s Ben Askren/Jake Paul foray with a critical dissection of boxing’s eco-system in the context of post-millennial social media.

BBCollective presents the 1st Annual Grover’s Apr 20, 2021

Show notes

Welcome back to the Bill Bradley Collective, where this week your hosts present the Grovers, a dual celebration and desecration of the best and worst respectively; in the actions of athletes, power brokers and political figures over the last calendar year. Broadly modeled off the soon forthcoming 93rd Academy Awards intended to award excellence in film in a year where there was minimal excellence in film, the sports and political world unearthed a similarly finite level of greatness but a true abundance of abhorrence. The namesake, shared by both our first and only non-consecutive term President and a Hall of Fame dead-ball era pitcher reflect the intersectionality of our nomination process and “ceremony.” Best and worst male and female in a leading role in the collective sport and political domain, a best and worst movement/event, and a nod for distinguished breakthrough round out our categories, but not before deciding who would conclude our hypothetical recreation of the Oscars’ “in memoriam” segment, in either disgrace or tribute. In contrast to the mutual admiration society that is the Oscars, this was a process and presentation that though much funnier (intentionally) than what Anne Hathaway and James Franco presided over in 2011, was genuinely committed to both highlighting the few in our content realm that inspire and vilifying the countless worthy that do the very opposite.

Pay Inequality in Women's Sports Apr 13, 2021

Show notes

This week on the Bill Bradley Collective, women are rightly at the forefront, as your hosts present something akin to a “state of the union” on the condition of the top women’s sports in the U.S. and abroad. Three unique situations: the 21st century achievement of women in professional tennis finally garnering equality in prize and sponsorship compensation, the present fight of top female American soccer players for similarly deserved recompense, and the now quarter century-old WNBA and what’s kept their athletes below a compensatory curve befitting their quality and what appears to be behind what may bring them closer to something more merited. The state of women’s golf and the superstardom a very notable few have achieved in the combat world round out the conversation. Tune in to a women’s event, because if not for a lack of requisite promotion, you just may have found yourself there in the first place. First, we depart from the regularly scheduled airing of grievances from three white males with an ashamed dispatch from Andrew on the abhorrent efforts of two of golf’s grandest figures to undermine the long overdue tribute to and celebration of Lee Elder’s great life’s work and perseverance at this year’s Masters Tournament opening ceremony, and Ed presents “Requiem for a Jets Quarterback,” the first (and hopefully last for at least this decade) remembrance of a failed NYJ signal-caller, specifically Sam Darnold following his trade to Carolina after three inglorious, though complicated years taking the snaps for Gang Green. Zak facing a live microphone in the wake of yet another in his lifetime full of premature Jets postmortems? It’s all coming to you this week on the Bill Bradley Collective.

Clarence Asked a Question Apr 06, 2021

Show notes

This week on the Bill Bradley Collective, your hosts tackle the just-commenced NCAA v. Shawne Alston Supreme Court case, following the opening oral arguments of this past week. The history and (false) precedents upon which the NCAA argues to maintain in previous cases in their belief in denying their “amateur” labor force commensurate compensation set the table. Their lone prior appearance before the Supreme Court rendered a decision not in their favor, as the University of Oklahoma’s Board of Regents argued rightly that television rights were not to be determined solely by the whim of the NCAA, but by the individual schools and in more recent times, conferences, throwing cold water on their market belief in a monopsony. In the wake of NIL (name, image, likeness) lawsuits from the likes of Sam Keller and Ed O’Bannon coming down in near unanimity on the side of the college athlete at the federal level the NCAA appears to be down bad, and after opening oral arguments before a court comprised largely of BBCollective villains, your hosts nevertheless come down with a unanimous verdict on how they project this case’s outcome. Before we delve into the legalese, we rant; Ed unveils his latest work, Matt Gaetz: A portrait of the Trump-sycophant as rapist and pathological liar; Andrew calls on golf’s power brokers to put their money where with mouth is in making a good-faith effort to combat voter suppression in Georgia; finally Zak documents Kim Mulkey’s transcendent job at turning her Baylor team from victim to foil following her crash-course in how not to mitigate a fatally contagious disease.

The Fire-Fighting, Tackle-Missing, Rose-Stealing Colorado Phenomenon Mar 30, 2021

Show notes

This week the Bill Bradley Collective presents another installment of our in-season Dollop-inspired features, as Zak documents the life and times of Ryan Sutter. Coming to you from the intersection of sports and pop culture, Sutter’s NFL career is here and gone in a mere five second kick return, but it is his second life five years later as the winner of The Bachelorette’s very first season (and the heart of one, Trista Rehn) that people most remember(?) the safety turned firefighter for. Zak’s yarn sets the table for a conversation that includes some of Ed’s memories and anecdotes on other famous Bachelor/Bachelorette moments and personalities, Andrew’s odd fascination with Sutter’s lone NFL foil, the 1998 New York Jets, and special guest Laura proves that her fantasy sports expertise is perhaps only matched by her command of the Bachelor-universe. Join us for the inspiring and heart-warming tale of how one man parlayed a broken piece of special teams coverage into being one half of reality television’s longest-enduring marriage.

- Our First Year: Sports Politics, & a Podcast Mar 23, 2021

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Welcome back to the Bill Bradley Collective, where this week your hosts reflect on both a full year in the COVID-19 pandemic and the completion of our first year as a podcast. The conversation focuses on the effect COVID has had on how we consume, critique and appreciate sports, and how this unprecedented year has shaped our consideration of this country’s politics and government. One of the silver linings of 2020 and this first quarter of 2021 has been the ability to record this podcast safely distanced and largely outdoors. Commencing a project centered on sports and politics days before the plug was essentially pulled on sports for months may have been something of a fool’s errand, but we’re still here a year later because of anyone and everyone that’s given the Bill Bradley Collective a listen. We are truly humbled by your patronage. First the rants, where we learn about Zak’s experience living in the shadow of wife Laura’s prodigious fantasy sports acumen; Andrew questions the continued decision to use ill-prepared, incurious NBA pundits in NCAA tournament coverage, and finally Ed examines the media’s sorry fascination with an oft-disgraced hoops coach and his latest career turn.

- Racism Boston & Sports Mar 16, 2021

Show notes

Welcome back to the Bill Bradley Collective, where this week your hosts examine the complicated history of Boston sports and race. The focus centers on the Red Sox and Celtics franchises, but not before acknowledging one team’s ethos of “white slot receiver/failed white college quarterback” need not even apply. From Tom Yawkey’s steadfast refusal to employ top black ballplayers to an oft-described mercurial pitcher’s racially prescient comments decades later and the subsequent dealing of a black superstar in recent times the Sox racial history is surely an unbalanced one. Like their north-end based brethren, the Celtics history is convoluted; a franchise that embraced Bill Russell and an unprecedented black starting five also felt the need to surround a diverse core with a largely white, undeserving supporting cast in later similarly fruitful years to appease a white demographic. We close with a tribute to a just-passed boxing mega-star, aptly-Massachusetts based with a truly marvelous legacy left behind. But first we rant, as Zak leads off with a well-deserved evisceration of a once-upon-a-time Democratic effigy turned widely accused sex criminal,; Ed reconciles his hostility for a villainous GOP Senator in the wake of his pro-labor sentiment towards Alabama-based Amazon factory workers; finally Andrew recaps the Big East tournament and specifically the long and complicated week had by the conquering head coach.

- Madness Mar 09, 2021

Show notes

Wellcome back to the Bill Bradley Collective, where this week your hosts put a proverbial bow on the 2020-21 college basketball regular season and preview the madness to come later this March. As it has everything in it’s wake, the COVID-19 pandemic ravaged the season and the tournament itself is set to be presented entirely from the state of Indiana, with hopes that a confined geographic venue will diminish the potential for further virus-induced havoc. Pandemic notwithstanding, college basketball appears to be an institution in decline, and your hosts set out to diagnose what has brought about said decline from its more halcyon times. Coach misconduct, the advent of the one-and-done, and general overexposure are among the culprits examined. Fear not bettors, for your hosts conclude with their picks to cut down the nets in Indianapolis and a few sleepers to keep in mind as you fill out your bracket. But first we rant, where Andrew offers a mea culpa to Donyell but doubles down on his beef with the unrelated but still lesser Marshall; Zak critiques the farcical outrage over an apt Biden analogy of premature mask censure to something becoming of primeval man; finally Ed presents another installment of “old white men in sports that have zero accountability” in a pointed takedown of a certain “Mad Hatter” in the wake of a now public history of sexual misconduct.

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