4 Hard Downs: Numbers Matter, NCAA in Court & A Great Sunday
A gamble on gambling, yes numbers are that serious and a day with my dad
Heels are going to Omaha!
This was my Sunday. Watching the Diamond Heels punch their ticket. See my freshman dorm in the background of the Bosh. Know that I have ran around those bases during “Beach Bash” in a grass skirt and slide into home. IG DMs with my friends who played baseball and are thrilled with this team.
The best part?
I did it with my dad. My dad came over and we had beers and a little whiskey and watched the game wire to wire. We don’t get to do that very often. Between his other grandkids, my brother, my kid and my aversion to leaving the house when I get to be home alone it was nice. Two Michael Felder’s, Sr and Jr, just hanging out and talking baseball.
So, great time with my dad, getting ready for a swim meet that will last until 10 so might as well go ahead and SPOT THE BALL!!!
1st Down: The Number Mystique
There are two trails that this path leads you down. Let’s start with the idea of a number being yours like in the case of Jared Verse.
A quick summation of the situation:
He was 5 at Florida State. 23 in high school and 96 at Albany. Then he got 8 with the Rams as the 18th overall pick. He was defensive rookie of the year with 8. Two-time Pro Bowl guy with 8. Give him 8. Meanwhile, Dillon Gabriel, not good, clinging to 8 like anyone cares and now he is going to be stuck with a terrible number because all the QB numbers are taken.
Speaking of terrible numbers, this is the second part of “Numbers Matter” and that is there are some “bimp” numbers. “Bimp” means sucks and weak as hell. There are 2 levels to bimp; bimp overall and bimp for your position.
Overall numbers that just straight up are weak and suck? 61, 37, 38, 48, 53 and a few more.
For your position? The numbers that matter are more specific. Any position, single digits, including zero, is goat’d with the sauce.
The reality is if you think a number gives you super powers, you need it, like Bobby Rayburn in the fan:
Primo had to die for Bobby to get 33 and play like he could.
The most famous number controversy existed for decades because Michael Jordan wanted to be like his older brother Larry, who wore 45. He picked 22.5 aka 23 when you round up. He goes to play baseball, comes back as 45, I got the shoes, then realized he needed to be himself as 23.
There is a mystique, a ritual, a superstition to the number; and this is coming from someone who only got to pick his number once. High school as a freshman, all that was left was 15. College for some course of reason I got 21. College we had a freshman 4-star come in who wanted 21 and I had two choices 25 (as a double number) or 37 (a bad number). I went 25 as my first pick because I’ll be damned if I’m 37.
To go back to go forward, if we see Gabriel in a 33 jersey it will be hilarious. Verse getting what he needs and Gabriel getting what he deserves for not just taking the money offered by the Pro Bowl guy.
2nd Down: Sorsby and Sports
Sports. Courts. Courts and Sports. Sports in Courts.
Monday a Texas court granted Brendan Sorsby an injunction to be able to play for Texast Tech in 2026 after his 2 game suspension; offered by his attorneys. The NCAA is trying to beg at the foot of congress because they cannot win in court; not even for a guy who gambled on his own team.
On the UDPod we had a pretty animated discussion where DPalm said Sorsby should never play football again for money and I said I think he should get a suspension, community service and then be back. I guess I was right, huh? Teach people that gambling is bad, you can’t gamble on your team, but don’t strip him of football in your path to “set an example.”
I put myself in his shoes. I got in trouble in high school and my parents did strip everything away from me. All social. Car privileges. More chores. But they didn’t take away football and I was only allowed to do football. I got the room to my door taken off. My music collection taken away, only had AM radio. Had to sit on a stool in the kitchen. But I still had football. It made me be a better person. Kept my nose clean and I never got in trouble again.
3rd Down: I Don’t Believe In The Sanctity Of Sport
Maybe I’m jaded. Maybe I grew up in a place where the slogan is, “If you ain’t cheatin’ you ain’t tryin’.” Maybe it is because I grew up with parents who thought the NCAA was bullshit. Maybe it is because I grew up reading the history of the NCAA.
It is a scam. The NCAA is a joke. I know most people don’t even know why we have the NCAA. Look it up. It was formed to stop schools from having to pay out workman’s compensation as the very violent game of football had brutal injuries and deaths. Also formed to stop the small, at the time, net of players from unionizing.
It was fucking Union Busting and limiting benefits. That’s the nexus. Been a scam from jump.
Why wouldn’t they be a scam now? It isn’t romantic. It isn’t beautiful. It is doing what it was built to do and then people realizing, “this is wrong, I will fight this in court.” Such times, the NCAA loses.
Weed is legal after they told us it was so bad, illegal and now the government has done, in most states a 180 on that. Gambling should be ran by the mafia and off shore folks but now there are commercials celebrating its legality in all 50 states.
I’m never going to be on the NCAA’s side. I’ve sat in those meeting during camp. I know what line is being towed. Yet, when you see odds, partnerships, sponsorships and the ease of access; I’m not asking the players to be the governors of the system.
You lay down with dogs, you get fleas.
The church of college sports offers no sanctity. It is a house built on out of plumb 2x4s with glue. To use another construction metaphor, it is nailed into drywall, not screwed into studs. This is a house that is falling down around the NCAA and if the sanctity of the NCAA is what you’re championing, I can’t help.
I don’t think it is right, but the sanctity of sport and the NCAA isn’t where I would lay my sleeping bag next to on a camping trip.
4th Down: One Day Left
We have one day of school left to end the year. 3 or 4 more swim meets but, Thursday your boy is turning off the 6:13 alarm and just laying in bed. We just had the end of year party today, the awards day (times two) today and Monday was field day where it was was Real Feel 100 before a Real Feel 104 swim meet that evening.
One day and at least we get a break before another meet, fourth of the season, and a Thursday of nothing but swim meet. Tired boss don’t even describe it. So give me your blessing; one more round of dropoff, sleep in Thursday and charge into summer.
Cheers!!!