It’s all the same garbage.
That’s no longer just an opinion. It’s a fact. I have proof.
Recently I was at Newark Airport where, awaiting my flight at the strongly suggested two hours prior to its scheduled departure, I was forced to buy overpriced airport coffee as it was held for ransom by the Port Authority.
When finished, I tossed the paper cup into one of those large garbage cans that had three holes in the top to indicate where cans, paper and plastic trash should be deposited.
The holes were large enough to look deep inside. So I did. The garbage can contained only one large bag. Despite the designated holes, all the trash wound up in the same bag.
It was all the same garbage!
So was the Giants’ game Monday night at Kansas City — a game they could’ve won had it not been altered to some great but unknown extent by two taunting penalties; two penalties against professionals for inexcusably unsportsmanlike behavior.
The first was early, on Collin Johnson after play had ended on a kickoff. The second was against Eli Penny. With the score 17-17, it gifted the Chiefs 15 yards in a 20-17 Giants loss.
But try to find these signifiant episodes in TV highlights or in most published game autopsies and you’d be wasting your time. Excusably human mistakes among players, coaches and officials are deemed inexcusable, while the inexcusable are ignored.
So another game in a win-or-be-gone billion dollar industry was determined by two preventable acts — an unawareness of any and all circumstances except those that affect a player’s ego, to hell with everything and everyone else.
As for my own redundancies: Why isn’t such behavior addressed and eliminated from Day 1 of practice? Why aren’t college and then pro players encouraged — ordered — to walk away, to never cost their team a yard in me-first penalties let alone costing it an entire game?
Not that the media and marketing strategists are without blame. While they continue to pitch “swagger” as a game-enhancer, there has never been a game won by swagger, but scores have been lost to it. Swagger. It’s football’s version of “Why are you on first base when you should be on second?”
All The Same Garbage, 2: You’ll have to take my word for it. Watching it alone, I called it out loud, anyway: Michigan is doomed!
Saturday on Fox, Michigan took a 7-0 lead against Michigan State when the defense gathered to “pose” for a group selfie in premature, made-for-TV-highlights narcissism. Both Gus Johnson and Joel Klatt said nothing, in TV’s pandering, never-offend-the-offensive treatment of such conduct, this time under tough-guy coach Jim Harbaugh.
The last time many of us had witnessed such a premature group celebration was when the 49ers went up 10 early in the fourth quarter of Super Bowl LIV against the Chiefs. The 49ers gathered in the end zone to “pose” for an ain’t-we-great/we-are-the-champions! TV photo op.
The next thing the Niners did as a team was lose that Super Bowl. The same happened Saturday for Michigan.
All The Same Garbage, 3: Tom Thibodeau still needs to improve the Knicks’ fundamentals, such as understanding circumstances and team-first play.
Monday on MSG, the Knicks were down 10 at home against the Raptors, with 9:15 left in the game after R.J. Barrett scored on an uncontested, give-and-go slam. Very nice play.
But instead of instantly hustling back on defense or perhaps quickly sliding over to harass the inbound passer, Barrett stopped to mean-mug the camera and make a muscle-man gesture in self-aggrandizement.
All he had on his mind, at the moment, was himself and the rewards SportsCenter has conditioned players to expect as unconditional reward.
At that moment, we needed Clyde Frazier, who led so many Knicks comebacks with steals and foresightful backcourt defense, to say something, anything. He’d never play like that, and for only good reasons. But he let it go.
Toney reaction to Ruggs crash shows NFL must fix itself
So as Roger Goodell’s NFL continues to offend good folks with end zone and helmet-carried messages that NFL fans should cease being racists and immediately examine their social failings, he and the league continue to ignore what the most fair-minded can’t:
The NFL would be far better served to fix its own systemic problems — pursue right over wrong — before continuing its campaign that presumes all its fan base to be a bunch of hate-filled, unrepentant bigots.
Tuesday, at 3:40 a.m. on a Las Vegas street, Raiders WR Henry Ruggs III, allegedly two times over the drunk limit and driving 156 mph with an occupant in his Corvette, hit and killed an innocent woman and her dog, both in another car.
He has been charged with at least two felonies, including DUI resulting in death. A loaded gun reportedly was found in the car.
Ravens LB Malik Harrison was struck by what was reported to be a “stray bullet” on Sunday night in Cleveland.
Next came the Giants’ latest bright light know-it-all, WR Kadarius Toney, college man from the perennial football crime mill known as the University of Florida.
Toney tweeted, [all sic] “We young…..everybody make mistakes” in support of Ruggs. “y’all lookin at the situation like ‘this or that’ kuz it ain’t y’all…having so much too say….he know he messed up don’t drag em for it…”
As for the woman who burned to death, Tina Tintor, Toney didn’t even bother to tweet her name.
Given the chance to take back his words, Toney doubled down: “tough talkin don’t faze me…….gangsta.”
Classy.
Wanna buy some Giants’ PSLs, Roger? They’re good investments.
But the NFL and NFLPA are very selective in their public stances. And they’re sticking with their social sensitivity campaign: The NFL’s behavioral problem is not internal, it’s external: It’s you.
More silly stats on TNT
Do networks share stat-feeding gigs among dimwits? The Heat-Mavericks game Tuesday on TNT included the large-type enlightenment that Erik Spoelstra, at 5-1, is off to his best start “since 2019-20.” That was two seasons ago.
Reader Doug Heimowitz: “As I type this, it’s 9:45 p.m. World Series Game 5 from Atlanta is just completing the third inning. I truly love baseball. But whatever this is, it ain’t baseball.”
There’s now the presumption that everyone has a bet on everything, and if you don’t, get lost. From ESPN College Scoreboard show Saturday: “Oklahoma is up, 28-7 over TCU at the half. The line was Oklahoma, minus-19. Oklahoma looking pretty good.”
Michigan-Michigan State was so loaded with unintended, unnecessary replay stoppages — at least four, including one that clearly appeared to turn correct into incorrect — that Fox rules expert Mike Pereira became flabbergasted, unable to make sense of it all. But it’s “All about getting it right!”
The East Coast Boys Club has awarded Rob Manfred its annual “Good Guy Award” for allowing members to watch this year’s World Series. The club represents the boys from the east coast of Guam.