Episode 254: What Does it Mean for Sport When Playoffs Are Boring?
In this episode, Shireen Ahmed, Lindsay Gibbs and Brenda Elsey talk about what it means when playoffs are boring. But first, they discuss FIFA's outrageous claim that the 2022 Qatar World Cup will be carbon neutral. Then the discuss if boringness, blowouts and sweeps are bad for sport, like the current NBA playoffs, Oklahoma softball, UConn women's basketball and UNC women's soccer. They also discuss how blowouts are coded differently in women's sports and individual sports. And they cap it off with the worst championship game they ever watched.
Following this discussion, you'll hear a preview of Amira Rose Davis's interview with the one and only Briana Scurry, USWNT goalkeeper about her new book that comes out June 21, called My Greatest Save: The Brave, Barrier-Breaking Journey of a World Champion Goalkeeper. Then, they burn the worst of sports on the burn pile. Next, they celebrate those shining light including Mithali Raj, legendary Indian women's cricket player who retried after a 23 year career. The wrap up the show with What's Good in their lives and What We're Watching This Week in sports.
This episode was produced by Tressa Versteeg. Shelby Weldon is our social media and website specialist. Burn It All Down is part of the Blue Wire podcast network.
Transcript
Shireen: Welcome to Burn It All Down, the feminist sports podcast you need. I'm Shireen, and I am joined by Lindsay and Brenda. Today on the show, we will be talking about when playoffs are boring, blowouts, sweeps, and the like. But before we do that, let's talk about a common thing and theme that goes through and flows through Burn It All Down: FIFA is stupid. Lindsay, you were blowing up in the chat about this. Do you wanna tell us what specifically irritated you?
Lindsay: This headline made me laugh/cry/bang my head against the wall. I saw an article on CNN about how FIFA said that it will host “the first ever carbon neutral World Cup” this year, [laughter] which is just like…The column says, “But not everyone's buying it.” Well, yeah, not everyone's buying it! Like, duh! Of course. And then like you click on it and I did just like a teeny bit of digging, but apparently their calculations that they were using to say this did not include the air conditioning they're using to air condition the stadiums, because it's too hot to play! And I'm like, how do you just get to just opt out of that one? Like, it's like, these facts are not…We’re just not gonna count this energy and these facts, because if we do that, it's not carbon neutral. Of course, I'm sure they're finagling any ways to say that it's carbon neutral without it. Anyways, it's just all bullshit and greenwashing and…Blah.
Shireen: So, I mean, nothing surprises me about the men's World Cup to be held in Qatar starting in November. But what I do really love about this is that this…Also, great use of the word finagling. I love that word. But the idea that they're going to twist and turn. Brenda, you talked to David Goldblatt recently in an episode, and this actually came up, and I just wanted to re-up that interview. But is this something that was expected, this particular type of greenwashing?
Brenda: Oh yeah. Everything's been expected about this World Cup for like 11 years. [Shireen laughs] Basically when you bribe for votes in the open, off the bat – not to mix sports metaphors – you're basically getting ready to accept any kind of human rights, environmental, racial justice, labor violation that you can imagine. And it's everything, it's all the nightmares coming true. And when Lindsay says I don't know what kind of calculation they're using, there’s a magical FIFA abacus [laughter] where they do magical money, like, this is where the development money is, and 20 million plus 20 million equals 40 million in Zurich and zero million to any of the people it was earmarked to. So I can't imagine what they're doing with something as complicated as trying to do like carbon offsets and things like that. I mean, how would they even…How do you even offset? The flights from Peru are 40 hours? [laughter] how do you offset that? Like, 20 million trees have been planted where? Qatar? Because I don't think that they can grow trees that easily.
Shireen: Something else I found out from a friend of mine who actually lives in Qatar, in Doha, and she was saying that the children's summer holiday has been shortened to only two weeks instead of like eight or nine, because they're going to switch their holiday from all of November and December. So they're basically giving the kids no summer break so they can take two. And so what they're saying is the fact that school buses or chauffeurs won't be driving children to school adds to the lack of carbon footprint. That's also being tabulated. It's ridiculous. There'll be no school traffic, ergo that doesn't worsen the environment.
Brenda: Wow.
Lindsay: I wonder what it's like to be this optimistic. [laughter] I just wanna read a comment underneath the CNN column that ends, “But not everyone's buying it.” And there's a comment that said, “I'd like to wait for #Qatar2022 to actually happen to judge. It's a lot already that they even care about the environment and are trying to make the World Cup #sustainable.” So, you know, why can't we just wait to judge, you know? [laughter]
Shireen: Because it's not like Qatar has given us any indication that they are anything but wonderful! It's not that there's any–
Lindsay: Where’s our good faith? Where's our good faith? [laughs]
Shireen: Oh, to be that commentator.
Shireen: We are recording on Monday, and tonight is Game 5 of the series between the Boston Celtics and the Golden State Warriors, the NBA finals. So they're at two games each right now, but to some, this year's NBA playoffs have been very boring. Every conference final was a blowout. And this made me think about playoffs being boring and what that means for a game. Are boring playoffs bad for the sport? I was reading up on this, and RP Salao of ClutchPoints blog had written, “That's been the theme of these playoffs, especially of late. Nearly all of the last several games have been one-sided affairs. Only one of the last 18 games, if you include Game 5 of the Celtics-Heat, has been decided by less than six points. 13 of the 18 ended with a double digit deficit, including half of them being at least 20 points.” So, I'm thinking about this, using basketball and particularly the NBA as not being fun. Like, I'm into the anticipation and the up and down emotions and, are they gonna do it?” Is it gonna be a comeback? It's gonna be close. Like, I like being that type of sports fan and I don’t feel like I've been energized in that way. And am I always energized in that way? Not necessarily, but I did really wanna talk about a little bit of that. Linz?
Lindsay: Yeah. I mean, I think that the games themselves haven't always been close, but this series has been very back and forth. It's very rare that you get both really exciting games and like a seven game series, you know? But I think in this, sometimes you get really close games, but it's a route or end in five. I know the Celtics have gone to multiple seven game series, and the individual games haven't been that intriguing, but the overall storylines and the matches have been really fun to watch. So, I love the NBA playoffs. It's hard to get me to dislike the NBA playoffs. Though the Celtics are certainly trying. [Shireen laughs] You know, it’s just like, I can't do the Boston thing. I just can't. But I've really enjoyed them and I think that of course I would love it, ideally, if the games were all nail biters til the end, like that would be, you know, in a perfect world. But it doesn't bother me too much.
Shireen: It does wonders for my anxiety, the nail-biters.
Lindsay: Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Also like, then it would just take away hours of sleep, because I get that like riled up at like midnight, you know what I mean? Like every night, that's not good. But I think that one of the reasons I like the playoffs NBA playoffs overall, we're kind of talking about the last couple rounds here, but you know, they have been trying to make things more interesting. They had the play in tournament, which this year I think gave us some really exciting opening rounds with both the Pelicans and the Timberwolves making it into the first round and giving us a really exciting series. And I think they would not have gotten in if it had just been like the standard eight seed situation. So I think, you know, rewarding teams that are peaking at the right time is a good thing. So I don’t know. I haven't been that upset by it, but I certainly understand, like, it has been really weird playoffs. The Heat-Celtics series in particular was really weird, because it was like either team was in front by 20 or the other team was in front by 20, right? Like, it was just like no rhyme or reason to it.
Shireen: And I think that if I'm looking at it at a micro level, that's what I'm talking about. Like, the games themselves, like, the point differential being so much, and that not being fun anymore. Like when you start beating someone, when someone starts getting 20’d in the second quarter, it's not fun anymore. I like nail biters. It also, you know, allows for much better tweeting, live tweeting of the game, if it's a nail biter. But anyways, Brenda, as our resident historian, can you tell us a little bit about the history of blowouts?
Brenda: Well, it's funny, you know, coming from soccer, I don't understand the length of series and what it does to the regular season and how that doesn't bother people. So let me just say, like right off the bat, I find that so annoying. That anxiety only needs to stay with me for 90 minutes – max 180. So I already am like, oh my gosh, this is grueling. But I should say, you know, historically when you see lopsided scores, when you're looking through old newspapers, the obvious observation is that the game hasn't really developed in certain places. So what we saw in Thailand versus the US women's national team in the last World Cup. A lot of people said, oh, they're so mean. That was pretty sexist. We all kind of came around to no, it just shows that, you know, the Thai federation needs to put more resources into their women's game, which is true of anywhere. I personally feel like I've intellectualized my fandom to the point where I do, about NBA playoffs, root harder for Stan Van Gundy to call a game, [laughs] because I love him so much and I can't stand his brother, Jeff.
So like, that's where my head goes. Like, I've just sort of outsourced in my brain that point. And what I get interested in in blowouts is like, why, if it's not just money, what has this team done to like elevate this sport? Do you know what I mean? Like, can I figure it out? Are there clues? I guess I don't like get that bored with it. The only thing historically I wanna say is historically one thing I really love about blowouts is a mercy rule. I don't know the way you feel about it, but I feel that I really like mercy rules. I, as a player, a very terrible softball player as well. I feel like it's important in sports to have rivals, and then to humiliate and obliterate people. It's not great. You know, I don't like the unwritten rules, like the bat flip kind of stuff, but I do feel like, you know, if you give your rival a little modicum of respect and gentleness, that that's a good kind of takeaway. Do you know what I mean? Like maybe if the Treaty of Versailles went that way, we wouldn't have World War II. I don't really know. Don't obliterate your enemy.
Shireen: I mean, I feel like with mercy rules with youth, I get it. But I’ve played in an adult league and we've been beaten like 8-0 and we've beaten people pretty badly. And the problem is as a striker, my objective is to score. That's my job. So to tell me to not do it, it's really hard for me. Yeah, you can pass, you can try different dribbling steps, you can dribble backwards, you can pass. Like, we had a rule, not a mercy rule, but we're like, guys, let's try to pass six or seven times before we put it in the net. So as a player, in a lopsided league, it's hard to do that. And of course we've been being really bad.
Brenda: Well, it's worse in soccer because you don't have the subs. In basketball, you can pull it and sub them back in if it looks like they're getting closer. In soccer, you can't do that really anymore, but they should allow you to like flip players, like have the goalkeeper play striker.
Shireen: That's what we do. That's what we do. We play our keeper out when we're winning by like a lot. Or if we all just wanna be really funny, I'll go in net, which is hysterical for everybody involved. But I don't know if I necessarily agree about a mercy rule because how do you tell someone who's been training so hard to do something to just stop?
Brenda: Well, it's like when the game's over, just stop. Just don't do that. [laughs]
Shireen: I get it, but it's really hard psychologically. Also, I'm the mother of a goalkeeper, and I remember once Jihad had a game, I think it was about five years ago, and she was called up to play and her team just gave up and they were clobbered 13-0. And she was in net, it was the worst game and she hated it. She did it. But the other team didn't stop because there was no mercy rule. So at the same time, I feel a different way as a mother of a goalkeeper. So, when thinking about blowouts and whether they're bad for sport, lopsidedness – is this a sexist argument? Because I'm also thinking about women's college sports here. And for those that don't know, and we just talked about last week on the show, Oklahoma just won the college world series, where they had a 15-0 win against UCLA, and in the Game 1 of the finals beat Texas 16-1. And again, Amira talked about it last week in episode 253.
But this was also an argument that was used against UConn women's basketball for a very, very, very long time. And in 2018, they beat a team by 88 points in the NCAA tournament – your face, Brenda! [laughs] So is it bad for sport or necessary for growth? Because as Brenda already mentioned, when in the 2019 Women's World Cup, we saw Thailand get smashed. So that meant that, you know, Thailand and the Asian Confederation had to invest more money. So, sports are still growing, and I don't know. What do you guys think about that?
Lindsay: I think that ultimately dynasties of any kind, really great teams only help sports as in general grow. It's not my favorite thing to watch, right? I mean, I love Team USA basketball, right? I don't love watching them run through everybody else in the country at the Olympics every year. But I appreciate the greatness and I know that it's gonna ultimately lead to a better spot for the sport. I mean, people pay attention to dynasties. People latch onto dynasties. When there's a regular winner, there's also a villain of sorts, right? And that's always really, really helpful, because one day that team is gonna have to lose, that team is gonna get beaten, and you're gonna, you know, kind of unleash a lot of parity, unleash a lot of excitement. So I think it's the ebb and flow. You know, obviously in these international sports that we're talking about, it's a little bit different because it's about investment, about countries investing in the sport.
You know, as we discussed at the time, the discourse around that 13-0 win over Thailand was exhausting on all accounts, right? It was in some ways patronizing to the Thai players and villainizing the American women in this weird way when it was like, it's a sport where goal differential matters. Like, are they supposed to just not try? They worked their whole lives for this, right? Like, they're out there to compete. You compete. It sucked to watch it. Wasn't fun to watch. I didn't enjoy it by any stretch of the imagination, but it was the reality of the situation. And it's not their job to hide that necessarily. It's their job to draw attention to ways to fix it. And I think they did that, and we want more investment so that the women's game can grow.
I think we've seen that, you know, at the college level, it's not the same as the international level, but you know, we have seen that great programs do draw attention and do get other teams to invest in the sport and put their money, especially in a sport like basketball, where there's so much talent all around the country and the world. But now of course, UConn hasn’t won in a while and there's a lot of parity and you've got new greats like South Carolina kind of rising to the top, and that's really fun to watch as well. So I don't know. I just can’t get too worked up over it. I always think we have to appreciate greatness. I always take parity over greatness. Like, I like close things and I like not knowing who's gonna win. I like uncertainty, but I also understand that dominance is a part of that cycle, right?
I think it can be talked about in a very sexist way, to go back to your question, when women are involved, because women's sports are always playing for their very legitimacy and existence, right? You know, at any point, it's like, well, if you see a blowout in a men's sport, you're not gonna say, well, the NBA shouldn't exist, right? Whereas if it's in a women's sport, you know, it's a referendum not on that tournament, not on those specific teams or those specific players, but as like the legitimacy of women's sports as a whole. So that part of the conversation is exhausting.
Brenda: Yeah. It's interesting. I think about the UNC women's team and Anson Dorrance. I don't know. Does he have 21 NCAA titles with them? I don't know. [laughs] So, so, so, so many. And so when I say it interested me, that's a case that interested me. What was UNC doing right? I wouldn't say any of us saw Anson Dorrance as a feminist icon. So it wasn't that. [Shireen laughs] Not that, you know–
Shireen: [laughing] Sorry, sorry.
Lindsay: Speak for yourself! [laughter]
Brenda: Do you know what I mean, though? It wasn't like…The thing that is true though, is that he had coached the UNC men’s team before going to the women. And I think that makes a difference because he was very successful. You see? So, they got a real quality coach to build that program. You know, like the Brazilian national team where they took someone who had never had a winning record in the men's league, gave Vadão the coach of the Brazilian women's national team, one of the top women's teams in the world, and was just like, you're lucky to have a men's coach. You know what I mean? But instead, so when you look at that dominance, of course that has to do with the players, but it also has to do with having a really highly skilled coach who believed strongly and wanted to build a dynasty. He wasn't looking to leave that program, you know? That was gonna be his program that he built up. And he hired a lot of his very talented players as assistant coaches. And that was another really smart move. I mean, he jockeyed the resources of US Soccer Federation with the resources of UNC, which was a big sports school coming into Title IX.
Shireen: And Linz, what about individual sports?
Lindsay: When I think about kind of boring playoffs, you know, I think about like major tournaments and finals are always like where there's a big stage, right? Like, everyone wants the most exciting final. You pay the most money to see the finals, you know, whether it be Wimbledon or the French Open or US Open. And then if it’s a route, you know, people act like very put off and very annoyed. And when it's women, there's always the equal pay talk because, you know, “The match was under an hour, why do they want equal pay?” And I just always think it demeans the meaning of the trophy. You know, my great friend, Courtney Nguyen, who works with WTA, always says like the greatest thing about a grand slam – and this is true about the Olympics too – is like, it's always the best day of someone's life, you know? That's like early rounds, when there's so much happening, and the final is like that on like a much grander stage, right? Somebody is going to win a major title, and you're gonna get to see it. You're not just watching that one match. You're watching the culmination of all this hard work in their life. And you just kind of have to put that into perspective.
Once again, I obviously prefer thrillers. Like, that's great, but I've been to major finals where it's boring, and I still find myself crying at the trophy ceremony. I still find myself leaving feeling like I witnessed something incredible, because you have. I think I just have a hard time getting wrapped up in the discourse because sports are never just about that moment. Sports are never just about that game or just about that series, right? It's a culmination of storylines. It's a culmination of hard work. So, I'm not saying I never complain about blowouts or boring games, because I'm sure if you go to my Twitter I tweet so much nonsense that I do. You're really lucky if you get, right? We're lucky if we get the seven game series. Those are the moments we cherish. Those are the moments that, you know, when it goes to the last second, the LeBron block in one of the last seconds of the game seven against the Warriors, whatever that was a few years ago, like, those are epic moments for a reason, because they're so rare to happen on that stage. So, you know, you kind of have to have the boring ones to appreciate the great ones.
Shireen: Yeah. I like that. It's easy for me to sit here and be like, oh, I want nail biters, when I've happily lived through the beautiful reign of Barcelona FC when they were just killing everyone. Brenda, I know you feel the same way. [Brenda laughs] When they were sweeping through and winning every damn trophy. I wasn't out here being like, oh, I wish Juve was more competitive! No, I was happy that they were winning. So, I do say this and I accept my own contradictions. I am a work in progress. Anyways, moving forward. Are there ways to make these playoffs better – different format ideas, or ways that they're already being implemented? Bren?
Brenda: Shorter, shorter, shorter, shorter. I think fewer games. I think they've been extended for money. I think it's weird. I think to have them go, like, how long are the NBA playoffs? I've been watching them all. And so like, when did the Celtics start with the Nets? Like, I feel like it was a year ago.
Shireen: After March. [laughs]
Brenda: Right. And they're gonna finish in like July? And what's even happening? Then why have a season? So, yeah, I think two games at most, one in each, and then point differential like they do in soccer. But then people will be like, no, it's fun, you get to see players develop relationships against each other and develop their skills against each other and stuff. And that’s...I get it. I do. But I'm a multi-sport person. I have no time for this. I've just incorporated the basketball playoffs, and my dishes are overflowing. So, I don't know. I think shorter. Boom, punch type of thing. Punchy.
Lindsay: Yeah. I mean, I do think like the WNBA has done some interesting stuff, like as far as taking away conferences for the playoffs, right? So, when it gets dull is if there's like a best team in each conference, that you feel like is automatically gonna get to the finals each year. And I think that was true for the Warriors for a few years. Not this year, like I said. I think this year why I've enjoyed the playoffs is because I haven't known who's gonna win. I still don't know who's gonna win. Like, I still have no idea whether the Celtics or the Warriors are gonna win, and that's intriguing. But I do like that the WNBA has taken away conferences and just seed one through eight. And so things like that, I'm certainly open to. Always a little bit shorter, though I do love a seven game series, like in the finals, because I think it's just the back and forth is interesting.
Brenda: I could compromise with the last one. I could totally compromise with the last one.
Lindsay: The first two rounds being seven games is absolutely absurd. And just a shameless money grab. But also, like I've been saying this whole time, there are just times when there's gonna be an injury, something that was supposed to be exciting is gonna be really, really lopsided, right? Or there's just gonna be one team one year that's just so much better than everyone. Like, there's zero way to guarantee that everything's a seven series, that you don't know the winner til the last minute. There's just no way. And that's fine, because once again, that means we appreciate it more.
Shireen: So, moving on to just between you guys, what is the most boring playoff, worst championship game you've ever watched?
Brenda: So, this is called the FinnFest. It’s because some Finnish people moved to Michigan, and it takes place around a place called Wolverine Lake. And it happens every year, and it's basically like, it's mostly over 40 softballers, men, they include some younger ones on their roster too. And I don't exactly know. And they start drinking at around 9:00am. And so you asked what was the worst or most boring? It is so bad. I remember just being terrified that someone was either just gonna have a constant brain injury from a ball hitting them, or they were just gonna like vomit all over the field. It is the grossest sports tournament I've ever been to. It's called the FinnFest. I'm trying to make it a tourist attraction right now. If anybody really wants to go and see super hyper drunk softball, that was the worst, I think. [laughs] I think that's the all time worst. And it gets boring, because later on, you know, when they just stop their drinking fueled like slash fest, then it's just like, they're just holding on for dear life to their bats. So yeah, that's the worst for me. I don't remember any like major professional sports, because I wasn't dragged to it or if it was so boring, I forgot.
Lindsay: That was an incredible answer, Bren. [laughs] I was not expecting that!
Brenda: They could Google it. It exists.
Shireen: That's a hard one to follow.
Lindsay: I'll say like the 2018 NBA finals, when the Warriors, peak Warriors versus LeBron's Cavs. And that first game was really close and LeBron had like this epic game. And then at the end, that was the JR Smith, like, taking the ball out when he shouldn't have, like JR Smith forgot how much time was left in the game. And they ended up losing. And it was like, you knew. That was game one, and you knew the Cavs had given literally everything they had in that game. They lost it. And you just knew that they weren't gonna win another game. That series, you knew it was gonna be a sweep. And it was a sweep. Like, there was zero inevitability after that first game. You know, it was just like, that was their absolute best shot. They missed it.
Shireen: So, this year, do you remember when England, the women, beat Latvia 20-0?
Brenda: It sounds familiar.
Shireen: It was the worst. Okay, so here's the thing. Women's soccer, women's football, there can be many, like, I remember Germany beat Kazakhstan like 17-0 in 2011. Bad, bad, bad. But I remember England beating Latvia, and I watched snippets of the game because after the 15th goal, do you really care? And when your keeper is out there actually trying to. And we talked about this, you know, there's a disparity. And I do wanna pad what I'm saying with the fact of resources and disparity in terms of development and everything like that. But those games are hard to watch as a player, as a fan, even as a sports journalist, because after a while you're like, if you turn around to get a sip of water and then they score and you're like, I don't even know what's happening anymore. In ’99, I remember Canada beat Puerto Rico almost 20-0 if I'm not mistaken, you know, just before the women's World Cup in ’99. I remember that. And that was terrible. And I read about it because I didn't watch it live, but I was just like, this is awful. Do you know what I'm saying? Those kinds of things don't make me feel happy about the sport. And it's important to be happy, and like Lindsay said, to enjoy it. Like, I think we all wanna appreciate sport as best we can.
This week, Amira interviews Briana Scurry, US women's national team goalkeeping legend, about her new book that comes out June 21st called My Greatest Save: The Brave, Barrier-Breaking Journey of a World Champion Goalkeeper.
Briana Scurry: I decided a long time ago that I needed to be able to be authentic and real and true to not only the amazing of my life, but also the devastating things. So, am I ready to tell the stories and tell my journey in the proper way? Because I didn't want to candy coat anything. I felt like it was important for me to go into those dark rooms that maybe I had padlocked and put up barriers that I haven't been in for years, to go in there, because you gotta talk about all of it if you're gonna talk about any of it.
Shireen: Moving on to the burn pile. Linz, what are you burning this week?
Lindsay: Today I'm burning LIV Golf and in particular the justifications that some players are trying to make for playing in this series. Just say it's about the money and shut up, [laughs] because you're just making yourself look so much worse by trying to pretend this is anything other than that. So, for those who don't know, LIV Golf is a golf tour that is funded by the sovereign wealth fund of Saudi Arabia, the public investment fund. The CEO was Greg Norman and it's, you know, trying to rival and take players from the PGA Tour. This has been brewing. It finally started this week. And it's tough, because there's always a lot of moral equivocating, right? And most sports teams are owned by rich people, and rich people are often very bad [laughs] and do very bad things with their money. It's hard to find any government that is not problematic and that has not engaged in very, you know, problematic human rights issues, period. But this just takes things to a little bit of a different level because it is the Saudi government itself running the league. It does not care about making money. It does not care about investment. It is a commercial for Saudi Arabia, and it is just like the pinnacle of sportswashing.
These players, including Phil Mickelson, who it's been reported was given $200 million. The players that are playing there have been banned from the PGA Tour. They can still play majors because the majors are not run by the tour itself. There was so much crap said this week with these people trying to justify why they were doing this. I wanna read what Charl Schwartzel, who won the inaugural 54 hole event and received $4.75 million, said: “Where the money comes from is not something I've ever looked at in 20 years. I think you can find faults in anything.” Graeme McDowell said, “If Saudi Arabia wanted to use the game of golf as a way for them to get where they think they want to be, and they have the resources to accelerate that experience, I think we are proud to help them on that journey.” Proud. And Phil Mickelson of course has gone on and on about how he is against human rights abuses, he wants to use golf as a force of good in a morally ambiguous world, and he thinks that is what Saudi Arabia is doing.
To cap things off, I think former White House press secretary Ari Fleisher has been the news conference monitor for all this, [laughs] just like a little bow on top. And look, this should be a topic in one of our shows coming up. There's a lot more than just one burn can do. But to me, it's the justifications, right? Just say it's about the damn money. It's about the damn money. Don't try and pretend you have a soul. You sold your soul. That's what you did. You're getting paid handsomely for it. Done. That's it. I'm good. So I just wanna kind of burn these excuses. This is a story we will keep following. And I just, you know, listen, I'm not saying the US government is perfect, by any means. The US government does not run a golf tour directly, so it's a little different. And also LIV Golf is just such a stupid name. LIV, 54. It's Roman numerals for 54. Just say 54! I don't know. I don't like it. Burn!
All: Burn.
Shireen: [laughs] Also, if Saudi Arabia's interested in, you know, upping their reputation, they could maybe not murder journalists.
Lindsay: Like, at the last golf tournament I was at a couple of weeks ago, I'm sitting there talking to the Washington Post sports reporter about this, right? He’s like, these golfers are literally saying this to my face. Like, they murdered my colleague. They murdered my colleague, and then these golfers are just giving these bullshit explanations to my face.
Shireen: Gross. Bren, what are you torching?
Brenda: It's really, really simple. I am torching the South American soccer media, and specifically, I'm just gonna point out one example, which is Las Últimas Noticias. That's a major newspaper in Chile, as just one example of many, many, many. You know, I read South American sports news, and why? And the top of the paper, the cover or headline, was about Arturo Vidal, who maybe you remember is part of the Chilean national team. He played for Barcelona. He played for Juventus. He's really, it's fair to say, at the very end of his career, not really doing anything interesting. And the paper has a giant photo of him just on vacation. It's just like, here he is with his shirt off. You've seen him a million times, and he is on vacation. And so that's the sports news for Las Últimas Noticias, right? Also, Christiane Endler just won the women's champions league, as you know, this phenomenal goalkeeper from Lyon. That is just unbelievable. It's unbelievable. Arturo Vidal’s vacation is…A washed up. He's awash in so many ways.
The Chilean national team didn't even qualify for the World Cup, didn't even qualify just recently. He's not even playing! He's just somewhere doing something rich people do that has no consequence whatsoever. And Chile's best soccer player just won the most important European club tournament. And it's just this little tiny footnote that you have to go to page 17 to read about. So, fuck you, Las Últimas Noticias, and all the people who write for you that made this decision. I don't know that every journalist did, but some of them do. It’s pathetic. It's the same thing as when she won goalkeeper of the year, they literally had news about a restaurant that opened with a sandwich named after the retired midfielder that no one knows. They will do anything to put men on the cover of sports pages. I wanna burn it. Burn.
All: Burn.
Shireen: So, my burn is very specific to the Bobsled Canada Skeleton federation. Now you're probably like, wait a minute, but Shireen, you love sports and you love Canadian sports. Yes, but the federations are trash. And this is a perfect example of that. Big props to Lori Ewing and her reporting. She's with The Canadian Press. BCS, Bobsled Canada Skeleton, actually put in a specific clause for the 2022-2023 agreements for their athletes saying they cannot divulge or convey to others any information that paints BCS in a poor light. Now, if anyone's been paying attention to sport in Canada, they know that so many federations are absolute dumpster fires, and the issues of maltreatment and abuse are on the rise in incredibly alarming amounts. So for them to do this is suspicious. It's unacceptable. So you're basically telling an athlete, if you've been abused you can't really say anything because it goes against the agreement. It's terrible.
So, this is one quote that Lori got from an athlete specifically: “It basically draws attention to the very thing we're complaining about, that everything is very one sided. They hold the power and they're continuing to dig in by extending the force of which their power can be wielded to tell us as athletes that we can't speak negatively against BCS.” Now, like I said, the athlete did not wanna be identified for fear of retaliation. And this is everything to me. Like, part of the issue here is transparency. You're telling your athletes that they can't say anything to anyone if there's issues of like power dynamics, abuse, you know, negligence in terms of coaching and administrative efforts? That's bullshit. I stand with the athletes in this in solidarity, and I wanna take all of this – BCS, this is a shitty, shitty move – I wanna take it and I want to burn it to the ground. Burn.
All: Burn.
Shireen: After all that burning, let's lift up some amazing people this week. I'm gonna start, and I am happy to say that Marie-Philip Poulin, otherwise known as Captain Clutch, captain of the Canadian women's national hockey team, has been hired by the Montreal Canadiens as a player development consultant. Basically means that she will remain as a player and do this job part-time, but I'm very happy. This is a definite get for the Habs. Congratulations to you. I love this for all of us. Brenda?
Brenda: Congrats to the Oklahoma softball team who just won the women's college world series after beating Texas in the final. This was Oklahoma's sixth world series title, and second in a row. Among the many stellar players at Oklahoma, we have to cheer for the phenomenal home run hitter Jocelyn Alo. Hitting two home runs versus UCLA made her the only player in women's college world series history to have two games with multiple home runs. And now, with 122 home runs in her college career, she holds the NCAA softball home run record.
Shireen: Damn Lindsay?
Lindsay: Yeah, we wanna shout out some excellent recent hires in college basketball. Rachel Baker has been hired as the general manager of Duke men's basketball. We love that. Tiffany Coll is now the head coach of women's basketball at American University. And Sugar Rodgers, former WNBA player, is the assistant coach of women's basketball at William and Mary University.
Shireen: Brenda?
Brenda: Linn Grant became the first woman ever to win the golf DP World Tour. The 22 year old Swede captured a nine stroke victory in the 2022 Scandinavian mixed tournament.
Shireen: Can I get a drumroll, please?
[drumroll]
Torchbearer of the week is Mithali Raj, 39 year old Indian women's cricket legend, has retired. 10,868 runs scored over a career that has spanned nearly 23 years. If you can go to Twitter, you see hashtag #ThankYouMithali. It's incredible. The tributes, the women's sportswriters from all over the world that are talking about her, sending tributes, sending videos, statements about her greatness. There was one particular line that I got that gave me shivers, and it was written by Vinayakk Mohanarangan. They wrote, “The records that Mithali Raj broke and created are numerous, but beyond those numbers, the impact she had in her early years will be her everlasting legacy.”
Shireen: What's good, Lindsay?
Lindsay: Well, I survived birthday weekend, so that's good. I hate birthdays. You all know I hate birthdays so much. So, got through it. I'm very glad that's in the past. I had a really hard time with this one. Like, I don't know why 36 just like hit me. Ugh. I felt weird for weeks leading up to it. I don't know. I just didn't like it. So that's done and I feel much better. It's done. Got to see some family, so that was good. And yeah, I'm just feeling good. So that’s what's good, is I don't deal with that shit for another year. So thank god.
Shireen: I just wanna say that I resisted all temptation to do a big post because I know you don't love it, but I love you. And I ate something sweet on your birthday, quietly. It was very hard for me to be quiet, but I love you.
Lindsay: Thank you. [laughter]
Shireen: Okay. Bren, what's good for you?
Brenda: Well, this is the repechage, the time in World Cup moments where one team plays another from a different confederation to qualify or not for the World Cup. We're recording this on Monday, June 13th, and Peru has just lost in PKs to Australia, which is a drag for me. But as we're talking about exciting, I have to tip my hat that it certainly was, you know? On top of that, last night, Sunday, June 12th, my very own brother, Ryan Steele, made history by planting an open mouth kiss on his boyfriend, Charlie Williams, another dancer, at the Tony's. And I was super, super proud. It'd be gross if I said I taught him everything he knows. So I don't have any cute turns of phrase that way, except to say I love Charlie and I love Ryan and I love pride month. And what a beautiful way to celebrate. I couldn't be prouder to be associated with him, biologically or otherwise.
Lindsay: Yay!
Brenda: Yeah, it was so sweet.
Shireen: That is so great. I wanted to say one of my best friends in the world, her daughter got married on the weekend. And I have friends whose children are getting married. So it's like, oh my god. I went, I cried through the whole thing, unsurprisingly. It was pretty beautiful. They're a young couple and so, so sweet. So I'm really happy for Miriam and Mohamed. I've been getting to spend some really good quality time with my kids. And it's really wonderful to note that as they get older they become less annoying in ways. And I'm so happy for that, because I really like my children. And I know I've been a mom for like 22 years, but like, it was pretty great. I also wanna say, I've been closely following Shakira being single.
Brenda: Oh my god. Yes.
Shireen: I’ve talked about this with Brenda a lot. Piqué, who's a subpar defender and he's a subpar partner, as we know. And so in this year, 2022, of Shakira, I'm so happy that she's free. I'm so happy she can live her best life and be valued and loved as the superstar she is. So, I love that. So I'm just here to send good vibes to her. I'm going to be...It’s been really nice weather in Toronto. It hasn't been like super, super hot, because I melt in heat. I know in America and particularly like Jessica and Amira was talking about it, it's like a hundred degrees or something like that. No, thanks. Hard pass. I like a cool breeze. And so that's a lot of happiness in my life. Also, I got engaged. So, that's pretty great.
Lindsay: Yay!
Shireen: Love you guys. [laughs] Yeah, I'm happily engaged to somebody who's wonderful. So that's fun. Do you like how I threw that in there?
Brenda: Yeah, that was just a slider.
Lindsay: Yeah!
Shireen: What are we watching this week? The NBA playoffs, definitely. WNBA, as per usual, NWSL. The FIFA inter-confederation playoffs, CONCACAF versus OFC, Costa Rica versus New Zealand will be Tuesday, June 14th at 2:00pm eastern time. That's it for this episode of Burn It All Down. This episode was produced by Tressa Versteeg. Shelby Weldon is our web and social media wizard. Burn It All Down is a part of the Blue Wire podcast network. Follow Burn It All Down on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Listen, subscribe and rate the show on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Spotify, Google Play and TuneIn. For show links and transcripts, check out our website, burnitalldownpod.com. You'll also found a link to our merch at our Bonfire store. And thank you, thank you, thank you to our patrons. Your support means the world. We wouldn't be able to do this if it wasn't for you. If you want to become a sustaining donor to our show, visit patreon.com/burnitalldown. Burn on, and not out.