Hi everyone,

I’ve come back this week to pursue a topic near & dear to my cold, black heart – [DFO] Hate Week!

A Super Bowl tradition ‘round these parts since 2017, it grew out of a desire to counter the NFL narrative of Super Bowl week that everything is fine and that there’s nothing bad going on at all. Why would you even ask such stupid questions? Hey – look over there!

In most years, the topics for the four days have been fairly easy to discern based on how the season unfolded. And this year did provide some fairly obvious choices, which will be discussed in due course. But that lack of an overall aggravating hate-based narrative to the season means this spleen-venting will be somewhat more muted than in previous years. Of course, you may freely dissent in the comments, but do note that I cannot be wronger than I think I am.

COVID-19

First off, I think we’ve all had enough of this fucking pandemic. The longer it goes on, the more tired of it all even the most rational person can become. The need for a return to normalcy goes far beyond wishing it were 2019 again. The longer it’s gone, the crazier various segments of society have become.

In the sports world, there have been effects on the business & entertainment of sports that will impact their popularity for years to come. On a global scale, the recent 2020 Tokyo Olympics were held in summer 2021, and without fans in attendance. Same thing for the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics, which will likely be held without many athletes, once the Chinese figure out how to spread the disease within the athletes’ village so all but the Chinese competitors get DQ’d before events even start.

Attendance, after being prohibited for many months during the 2020 sports seasons, was reinstated for the 2021 seasons, with states & provinces having to follow local directives. The NHL has been the hardest hit, with many teams operating at reduced capacity, and Canadian teams having to play in some cases in empty buildings again.

Basketball has seen a return to mostly full arenas. The proximity of fans to the playing surface has led to a large number of interactions resulting in paid attendees being tossed out of arenas for their vocabulary and/or behaviour.

I’m not sure why most of these involve the Lakers, but it’s nice to see a guy like Lebron finally catch a break.

In the NFL, fans out of the house for the first time in months have decided to turn things up to 11. This is from three weeks ago but is typical of the general troglodyte that emerges from their hole to ruin the fun for all around them.

Fight at the #RAMS game. #SOFI #NFL See the Beer guy undeterred and does not stop selling. This guy needs a promotion! @RamsNFL pic.twitter.com/UUkwNylOwi

— Zmer Andranigian (@andranigian) January 18, 2022

^{If you ask me, the real monster in this video is the cameraman who switched from landscape to portrait.}

Hell – there’s still a fan in a coma after the Rams-49ers NFC Championship game. They’ve arrested a guy, but he made the $30,000 bail so he’s out pending hearings.

Which brings me to my final point – the main impact of COVID is that it’s led to a rise in stupid people saying stupid things, and smart people believing idiotic things. Remember when this clown was the League’s biggest PR problem?

It’s hard to believe the same guy that said this,

also said this.

But all that pales in comparison to the downfall of America’s sweetheart,

Noted Cal-Berkeley ungraduate Aaron Rodgers

has become the NFL poster boy for vaccine hesitancy, given his “immunized” state & self-stated voluminous reading on the topic. Naturally, he went unquestioned on the topic for most of the season, since we all know he can be a pissy bitch that will refuse to answer media questions if he doesn’t get his way. So he got treated with kid gloves for most of the season… right up until he came down with it & had to pony up that he hadn’t been vaccinated. After that, it was nothing but interviews with Pat McAfee and “discussions” with his “friend” Joe Rogan.

^{This generation’s Edward R. Murrow & Walter Cronkite.}

People aren’t exactly rushing to confer honours on him now. Every time he opens his mouth on the subject he loses more money but gains supporters on GETTR.

“Look, I’m not, you know, some sort of anti-vax flat-earther. I am somebody who is a critical thinker,” he said, adding, “I believe strongly in bodily autonomy and ability to make choices for your body … Health is not a one-size-fits-all for everybody.”

And it’s not like you can exactly blame the fiance – they have a mandatory vaccine policy at her “Big Little Lies” workplace, and I don’t exactly see Shailene Woodley complaining about not working. And to think – it was just a couple of years ago that Rodgers was beloved by many, and being rewarded for his charity work with plaques & papers. It’s always magical when a guy gets an honorary medical degree & he thinks that then makes him an actual degree holder in that field.

I guess that’s what made Bill Cosby such an excellent anesthetist.

Look – no one’s going to deny that there’s a lot of pandemic fatigue going around. The vast majority who have done their part are tired of waiting for this shit to end, and we are especially tired of seeing the unvaccinated getting way more coverage for their complaining & too little denial of medical services because of their stupidity. This poor kid,

had been waiting 18 months to get steel rods inserted to correct his scoliosis, only to get cancelled 4 times due to COVID outbreaks in hospitals and rooms filled with recovering patients. But the idiots who rails against vaccines and mandates are confusing what’s a “right” & what’s a “privilege”. If the thing you believe means you feel obligated to yell at a nurse on the way into a hospital, you are the bad guy. You shouldn’t get to believe in science only after you get sick. Rod & Todd aren’t working hard enough to clear out more hospital beds for the people who truly need them.

Never mind not seeing the latest “Spider-Man” on time – these are the numerous untold stories about how this era will be defined by our response to COVID. Frankly, I hope the Morlocks do judge us harshly.

Tonight’s sports:

• Olympics: various events I’m too lazy to look up
  • 8:00PM ET
    • NBC
    • CBC / TSN / Sportsnet
• NHL:
  • Hurricanes vs. Leafs – 7:00PM | Sportsnet
  • Devils vs. Senators – 7:00PM | Sportsnet1
• NBA:
  • Raptors vs. Hornets – 7:00PM | TSN4
• NCAA Men’s Basketball:
  • Virginia vs. Duke – 7:00PM | ESPN / TSN2
  • Kansas vs. Texas – 9:00PM | ESPN
• Wrestling:
  • Monday Night Raw – 8:00PM | Syfy / Sportsnet360
    • the Road To Wrestlemania Elimination Chamber in Dallas Saudi Arabia