Brian’s Twisted Thoughts #1

Posted by brianreiss on January 28, 2015
Posted in: Blogs. Leave a Comment

Gosh, how long has it been since I posted an honest-to-goodness blog on this site? About a year? I think it was when I went to witness the Horizon League tournament final at the Nutter Center last March. That was my attempt to pull the curtain back on what credentialed media go through when covering the event. In hindsight, I think it was pretty interesting.

I meant to post another one many months ago when the gang and I went to the Western and Southern Open tennis tournament last August, but never got around to it. That was a very interesting experience, and maybe I’ll write about that if/when we go next year. The thing is, how many times can I realistically do that? I mean, we don’t get many chances to write about once-in-a-lifetime events, and I’d rather not wait months, or even years in between blog posts.

So instead, I’ve decided to peruse the web and look high and low, far and wide, shallow and deep, for stories, notes, or general things throughout the sports world that are wacky, weird, mind-blowing, just make you go “WTF”, or things that grab my eye, and give my twisted thoughts on it. So here we go, my first, and hopefully not last, attempt to write a regular blog, entitled Brian’s Twisted Thoughts.

In an NBA D-League match between the Iowa Energy and the Rio Grande Valley on January 27th, two players, Jarnell Stokes and Kalin Lucas, were ejected for fighting with each other. It’s never good when a fight breaks out at a sporting event (except for hockey, where it’s the norm), but here’s the twist, the players fighting each other were on the same team. I understand emotions get high during a high-profile game. I can understand tempers flaring up when things go wrong. But it should only go as far as yelling and screaming. Coming to blows and bloodying your own teammate up? Too far. It does make you wonder if this is one of the reasons one or both of these guys are in the D-League, and not in the NBA.

Check out this weird tweet from UFC President Dana White, just 3 days before the big middleweight fight between former middleweight champion Anderson Silva and Nick Diaz:

That certainly inspires confidence. This after Diaz no-showed the open workouts for this weekend’s fight. Enough so that Dann Stupp from mmajunkie.com actually openly considered the idea that Diaz would no-show the fight. I don’t think that’s going to happen. First off, no-showing for a fight is a surefire way to get blacklisted from the UFC. More importantly though, these fighters don’t just sign contracts with promoters, they also presumably sign something with the state commissions. In this case that commission is the Nevada State Athletic Commission, which is arguably the most powerful commission in the USA. If Diaz wants a guaranteed way to be suspended from fighting anywhere in the US, and likely any other country with a similar governing body, he’d better show up to fight. But as crazy as Diaz had been in his career, he’s not stupid, at least I can’t imagine he’d be that stupid.

Apparently there is a twitter account devoted to two cats whose owners felt it necessary to dress them in Seahaws gear. Worse yet, they were given the names “Meowshawn Lynch” and “Richard Purrman”. I get it, and at the same time, I don’t.

The WWE Royal Rumble took place last Sunday, and while the triple-threat WWE World Championship match with Brock Lesnar, John Cena, and Seth Rollins was nothing short of incredible, the Rumble match itself was a severe dud. The mood went downhill when Daniel Bryan, a burgeoning fan-favorite, was unceremoniously eliminated after lasting in the match for 10 minutes, much earlier than the crowd in Philadelphia, and several viewers around the world, had anticipated. The anger from fans started to flow, so much so that the match’s winner, fan-favorite Roman Reigns, was mercilessly booed by the fans in Philly, even after a live endorsement from The Rock. Vitrol for this turn of events was so high, that #CancelWWENetwork was trending worldwide on Twitter for close to a whole day.

Then, like an RKO from out of nowhere, WWE announced on Tuesday that the WWE Network (which I have not cancelled, yet), had surpassed 1 million subscribers. I’m conflicted with this announcement. I agree with the masses that the continued mistreatment of Daniel Bryan is not something the WWE should be rewarded for. But if the seemingly mass cancellation of the network wasn’t enough to keep WWE from reaching 1 million subscribers worldwide, what is the fanbase to do? Perhaps a repeat of show-hijacking? Interesting times await, and like a train wreck waiting to happen, we will watch anyway.

Finally, this isn’t twisted, but it does excite me personally, the schedules for the Dayton Dutch Lions‘ W-League team was recently announced. That and the men’s PDL schedules run from May to July, with potential PDL playoffs likely extending into August. Those who know me know that I am a member of the Oranje Legion, the supporters group for the Lions. After wondering for months whether or not we have seen the last of the Dutch Lions, it’s a relief to finally see when the action will start back up. The womens’ team starts up on Friday May 15th against Braddock Road Stars Elite (Fairfax, VA), while the men’s home opener is still TBD. The Dutch Lions’ games should take place at DOC Stadium on the campus of West Carrollton High School this season.

Well, that’s it for my first attempt at a regular blog. To misquote Tony Kornheiser, “I’ll try to do better next time”.

UPDATE: Oops, looks like the mens’ PDL schedule was released a tad early, as it’s since been taken down…

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