I’m one of those people who didn’t really want Chicago to win its Olympic bid and so took the loss as a stroke of good luck. Sure it’s a bad thing whenever the U.S. loses an international competition of that sort, but the reality is that hosting an Olympics isn’t really all it’s cut out to be. Besides gaining a bit of extra panache, it’s hard to identify any sustainable tangible benefits for the host city. Instead, while city recognition may indeed get a bit of a pop, which is likely better suited for emerging cities looking to make a statement, the host city is most often saddled with an extraordinary amount of debt. And the venues built with that debt often fall into disrepair thanks to years of underuse, begging the question of whether there was any worth to it all in the first place. This WSJ article on the financial albatross that has become China’s Bird’s Nest stadium sums the issue up rather nicely.
A Woman Possessed
The below clip is making the rounds for very obvious reasons. It shows a University of New Mexico female soccer player going absolutely ballistic during a match against BYU. What amazes me about this video isn’t necessarily the thrashing that she imparts during the game, which is certainly brutal in and of itself. Rather, I’m more amazed by the lack of action on the part of: 1) her teammates/coaches; and 2) the referees. Clearly, her coaches not only condoned the behavior but, given their blatant inaction, may have also directed her to act in that fashion. I mean, any normal coach would rip that girl out of the game after the second violent infraction, so it stands to reason that the coaches were more than just OK with her behavior. And her teammates deserve plenty of blame as well, for any one of them worth their salt would’ve intervened to shut her down.
Regarding the referee, he or she should be suspended a couple weeks at the very least. In my opinion, I’d say this person doesn’t deserve to ref ever again. This isn’t simply a case of missing a few calls; this ref was completely asleep at the switch, allowing this nutjob to run rampant over her opponents and put several BYU players at risk of serious injury. It’s not just a bad game for this referee, it’s one of the worst cases of successive misjudgment that I’ve ever witnessed as a long time player/fan of several sports. And it’s totally unacceptable. We all have bad days at the office, but this goes well beyond that.
