BBCollective

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Be Very Afraid: We Have Unisex Bathrooms Oct 18, 2022

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Welcome back to the Bill Bradley Collective, where with both Halloween and Election Day fast approaching, what better time for a conversation about the scariest possible outcomes and scenarios come November 9th. With so many Republican candidates hostilely banging election-denying, anti-choice, anti-semitic, homo-, trans- and xenophobic drums, it is fair to say the stakes in these midterm elections have never been higher. And the higher the stakes, the graver the potential ramifications of red victories at the municipal, state and federal levels. That and more, but first we rant, as Zak returns to welfare fraudster Brett Favre and the nefarious text messages that would seem to seal his criminal fate; Andrew checks in on the state of LIV Golf while hammering a few excess nails in the Phil Mickelson integrity coffin; and finally Ed salutes the freshly union-minted men and women of New Jersey’s Medieval Times, aka the Collective’s preferred home for theatrical jousting and turkey legs.

CTE: Collective Trauma Endurance Oct 11, 2022

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Welcome back to the Bill Bradley Collective, where in light of the situation enveloping the Miami Dolphins and QB Tua Tagovailoa, this week your hosts examine the NFL’s ongoing struggle with concussion protocols and head injuries. Long swept under the rug, the shield has in recent years become it’s lone grandest advocate for the fastidiousness of said concussion-related protocols. The optics of a stumbling Tua in a week 3 contest and his graphic exit from a week 4 game played a mere four days removed provided quite a bit of pushback against the NFL’s grotesque self-service. Tua’s future and that of Dolphins coaches and medical staff involved set the table for a conversation that, in the wake of other recent news considers chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) and the potential effect it may have on retired NFL back and Georgia Senatorial candidate Herschel Walker amidst disturbing behavioral revelations and numerous public oratory gaffes, as well as HOF LB Junior Seau’s tragic suicide and inactive WR Antonio Brown’s increasingly mercurial behavior following a devastating blow to the head in a 2016 playoff game. What, if any, is the answer to this crisis? All of that and more, but first rants, where Zak decries the excessive adulation sent Aaron Judge’s way in the run-up to achieving an *exclusively* American League record; Andrew relays an awed dispatch upon witnessing the televised debut of the NBA’s likely next sensation; and finally Ed reconciles the hypocrisy of retired NFL great Richard Sherman’s not-so-distant criticism of the league’s Thursday product with his current analyst position on those very same telecasts.

Fat City: Heavyweight History in Sensitive Settings Oct 04, 2022

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Welcome back to the Bill Bradley Collective, where this week it is the latest installment in our season-wide focus on sportswashing, with the spotlight focused on boxing. Perhaps the sport’s preeminent power-broker, promoter Eddie Hearn has staged two heavyweight championship fights: a 2019 tilt featuring Andy Ruiz and Anthony Joshua and a 2022 bout between the aforementioned Joshua and Oleksandr Usyk in Saudi Arabia. How and why these fights, contested for the sport’s showcase prize, could occur in such a locale with a record so poor on human rights set the table for a conversation that works in reverse chronology. 1974’s George Foreman/Muhammad Ali “Rumble in the Jungle” and 1975’s Ali/Joe Frazier “Thrilla in Manila” were contests of the highest profile, perhaps the two most famous in heavyweight championship history, controversially staged in Zaire and the Philippines, respectively. Both promoted by the ever-problematic Don King, these bouts and their eventually decided host venues laid the groundwork for Hearn’s modern appeal to the cash-rich coiffeurs of Saudi Arabia and their vast Public Investment Fund. It is a discussion of then and now, presented with a shot of fight nerd discourse and a broader chaser consideration of sportwashing in a sport where such a thing has existed for half a century or more. It’s this week, on the Bill Bradley Collective.

Who will run the show? Sep 27, 2022

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Welcome back to the Bill Bradley Collective, where this week your hosts dive into election season with a preview of four of this November’s most consequential gubernatorial races. Tune in for analysis, predictions, big-picture ramifications and much more on the Pennsylvania race between moderate Dem Josh Shapiro and far-right Trumpophant Doug Mastriano; the Arizona contest pitting Katie Hobbs against anti-Semitic election skeptic Kari Lake; and finally a pair of rematches from 2018, first Georgia’s showdown featuring incumbent Republican Brian Kemp and the widely celebrated yet seemingly overmatched Democrat Stacey Abrams and our native Connecticut, where Bob Stefanowski again challenges Collective favorite Ned Lamont. But first, a trilogy of rants, led off with Andrew’s reflections on the career ups and ills of a once-mulleted Big 12 head coach on the anniversary of his most (in)famous turn; Ed details the laughable and cliched criteria outlined by the NCAA in an actual job posting for their next President; and finally Zak places Brett Favre and a mostly silent media on blast for a lack of coverage of his prominent role in a Mississippi welfare fraud scandal.

Miller Time Sep 20, 2022

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Welcome back to the Bill Bradley Collective, where this week your hosts deep dive the history of the Major League Baseball Players Association and the recent inclusion of minor league players into the union. The union under Marvin Miller made considerable gains during his tenure as leader from 1966-83, including negotiation of a maiden collective bargaining agreement with owners, birth of the modern free agency system, increased salaries, and increased pensions, among other achievements. Modern history has not been quite so fruitful for the MLBPA, as recently negotiated CBA’s have seemingly swung the player/owner power dynamic increasingly to favor the latter. Now, with minor leaguers brought under the umbrella, nearly quintupling union membership, labor has struck a massive victory in the baseball ecosystem. What does the future hold for the MLBPA and their 5,500 newly minted members? But first we rant, as Andrew observes the fall out from the NBA’s investigation into Suns’ owner Robert Sarver and the inadequacy of the discipline handed down, Ed decries the racism at the fore of Jackson, Mississippi’s water crisis and some reprehensible comments from the state’s sitting governor; and finally Zak provides a history of baseball closers and entrance music and the panel settles on a unanimous choice for best entrance/closer combo of all time.

Get your passports ready: American Leagues in foreign countries Sep 13, 2022

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Welcome back to the Bill Bradley Collective, where this week we are sports-centric, with a main topic focused on the potential future for international expansion of Major League Baseball, the NBA and the NFL. Will a league with a heavy Latin, Spanish-speaking makeup like MLB consider expansion into Mexico, the Dominican Republic or perhaps even Cuba? Would the NBA, with their extensive investment in China ever consider planting a franchise or more in the Far East in the wake of Brittney Griner’s detention in neighboring Russia? Most importantly, will Roger Goodell and his 32 constituents be tuning in this week to hear Ed’s earnest case for a a global 40-team National Football League? Those questions and more, but first, we rant: as Ed shouts out the power of the labor movement and even commish Rob Manfred for his role in finally getting MLB to voluntarily recognize a minor league baseball union; Zak lowers the curtain on this year’s US Open with a dispatch on men’s semi-finalist Frances Tiafoe and his amazing story that dominated the tournament’s second-week headlines; and finally Andrew examines the unfortunate LIV presence at this week’s flagship European Tour event with some pointed condemnation for a once-celebrated champion’s disgraced withdrawal.

China Syndrome: the NBA and Eastern Authoritarianism Sep 07, 2022

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Welcome back to the Bill Bradley Collective, where this week we continue our season-long focus on sportswashing with a conversation centered on NBA business interests in China. Basketball exploded in the PRC upon native son Yao Ming’s arrival to the league as the first overall pick in the 2002 draft. Since then, the NBA has grown into China’s most popular sports brand and in return the league oversees a large piece in the operation of NBA China, valued in total at over $4 billion. This relationship is wildly controversial, and the circumstances of such form the crux of this discussion. Join us as we examine China’s authoritarian regime and the ongoing atrocities being committed; a pro-Hong Kong tweet from the phone of NBA GM Daryl Morey that upended the China/NBA relationship for nearly three years; the league’s response to the tweet and the bipartisan condemnation of said response from American politicians; LeBron James’ place in withholding criticism of Chinese oppression; and finally a consideration of whether this partnership of league and nation, however troubling, explicitly constitutes “sportswashing” when compared to Saudi-financed endeavors within professional golf and the English Premier League.

College players get NIL? Aug 30, 2022

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Welcome back to the Bill Bradley Collective, where this week college football is back and with it a conversation about the current state of compensating collegiate athletes. In this brave new world where student athletes are finally able to obtain NIL (name, image, likeness) deals for their own profit, the landscape remains controversial and complicated. Join us as we examine the unprecedented television rights contract inked between the Big 10 and CBS; how female athletes across less-exposed collegiate sports have prospered under the NIL rules; NCAA efforts to reel NIL in with threats of an appeal to Congress; the expected sentiments of college football’s white coaching elite; and finally another unanimous verdict from the panel in favor of compensating our scholar athletes. First we set the table with rants: as Zak throws jabs at a Collective cohort by highlighting some rather embarrassing truths about the man chosen to patrol the home sidelines of Rentschler Field this season; Ed continues to point the verbal flame thrower in the direction of Florida’s small-handed senior Senator following some inane commentary decrying student loan relief; and finally Andrew talks LIV Golf’s latest arrivals, the future of the PGA Tour’s seasonal structure, and the greatness of the newly crowned Tour Champion.

We did this before the Dollop!! Aug 23, 2022

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Welcome back to the Bill Bradley Collective, where it is a special bonus week documenting the intersection of Rafael Trujillo’s rise to power in the Dominican Republic and the legendary career of baseball legend Satchel Paige. Trujillo rules the Dominican for north of thirty years, both officially as President and an unelected military warlord. Trujillo rises up the ranks of the Dominican military swiftly, despite an extensive criminal reputation and finds himself elected President in 1930. Trujillo oversaw one of the bloodiest political regimes in global history, aided by a cult of personality promoted by the leader. As part of that effort, Trujillo looked towards baseball as a means to reinforce his appeal. By 1937, Satchel Paige is a legend of the Negro Leagues, a rubber-armed fire-baller firmly established as one of, if not the greatest of baseball’s blacklisted by segregation in the major leagues. Trujillo recruits Paige and a handful of some of the great black ballplayers in history, most notably “Cool” Papa Bell and Josh Gibson to play for Los Dragones, a team operated by the dictator himself. The circus of that season, in which the Dragones dominate en route to a league championship observed by a military firing squad patrolling Paige and his teammates, is detailed as the story’s climax. It is as direct an intersection of sports and politics as can be told: brutal Caribbean dictator enlists services of natively segregated star ballplayers as a means of enhancing his public image. And that story is here on the Bill Bradley Collective.

The Donald’s Gambit Aug 16, 2022

Show notes

Welcome back to the Bill Bradley Collective, where this week the road to the November midterms continues as your hosts examine the primary landscape after a busy week of elections. The Collective’s native Connecticut held primaries this week, not without some interesting results with regard to the Donald Trump shadow that seems to loom large over so many elections nationwide. The Trump effect is real, as Trump-endorsed Republican candidates for Senate and Governor in Connecticut came through victoriously. But the conversation doesn’t end here at home, but seems to be at the very center of Republican primaries in Arizona, Georgia, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin among others, where Trump has played the role of king-maker in this Republican primary season. The true litmus test for this largely pro-“stolen election” set of nominees and the so-called Trump effect will ultimately come this November as the makeup of both national and many statewide houses hangs in the balance. But first come the rants: where Andrew cedes his normal beat with a look at a newsworthy week in boxing with a nod to some of the big fights to come this fall; Ed details the latest terrible, horrible, no good, very bad week in the life of disgraced GOP buffoon Marco Rubio; and finally Zak takes the reins on this week in LIV Golf, following a rough afternoon in court exposing some apparent holes in the outfit’s financial arrangement with contracted players.

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