But first things first that are just as relevant, and I think worth mentioning regarding the Chiefs.
I saw a graphic on my social media that was quite sobering. It was simply this.
The Chiefs played one of the worst NFL games Sunday in the Super Bowl era.
Just from a game stat standpoint. I don't remember them all, but, to wit:
No drives into the red zone. No touchdowns. Multiple missed field goals. Interception. Fumble (recovered). No sacks. Multiple penalties. No back or receiver with 100 yards. Quarterback with worst possible QB rating. What was it, I believe six qualified 3rd-&-longs by the opponent's offense, all converted.
There were more, I believe, and a couple of these are items I myself just remember -- that all together was an effort in abject futility that had never been accomplished in the Super Bowl era. Watching our effort out there Sunday night, it was start-to-finish exasperation -- I didn't know, however, it would qualify as being this bad.
The main reason I wanted to make this post was to emphasize a point I have made several times before, with an extra recommendation for any reader who cares to help make the case.
Please go to this article and read it, carefully -- an excellent take from fine social researcher Debra Soh. She is now committed to unraveling the hellscape that is online sports gambling, a practice which is official sanctioned by the big-time professional sports leagues, especially the NFL.
Of course you know I have written like crazy about it in this sports blog effort, but sadly, not many read my humble Chiefs blog. Much sadder is that no one seems to care to do anything about stopping this madness, and it isn't just because it is getting harder and harder to really trust the integrity of the games.
It is simply because the sports leagues and everyone involved with them -- making millions of dollars from the interest they want to generate from young people betting on everything --
Is killing those young people.
"Oh now don't be so melodramatic. It is no big deal. It is harmless fun."
Know what I say to that? Well, it'd be a really bad word followed by "...that."
It is folly to say crap like that about this, it really is. It is the worst idiocy and it is so horrifically sorry that so many do this gambling stuff, and then tell me to back off. Of course that sentiment keeps people from seeking to stop it, even working hard toward that end.
I could give a rats nard about the sports aspect of any of this, I already know it isn't wholly on the up and up. I also know if they made the strictest law against it all some gambling interest will still find a way to continue to exploit people in these ways.
I will still like my Chiefs and hope they win so I can have a good thrill for a couple hours on a Sunday. It is just that the SPORTS is what is a huge part of encouraging it, and the leagues' OFFICIAL PARTNER OF X, Y, Z BETTING PLATFORM is about as wickedly brazen as you can get.
Doesn't matter how many young lives are wrecked, just so we can squeeze every dime from whatever interest we can extract by virtue of the enterprise, it makes it perfectly fine. As long as we have the warning about gambling problems at the bottom of the screen in each ad we post, it's all good.
What evil.
I did peek at a bit of the baseball World Series this year, and I have not watched anything baseball for years and years. (Full disclosure: this is with the exception of a few times I have caught things like this on someone else's TV at a home I'm visiting or some instance like that.)
Anyway, it is like I've been Rip Van Winkle, asleep for years and years and I am waking up to this, now a wretched bastardization of anything that is truly baseball. I could cite a dozen different travesties. But one of them was looking on the TV during a pitch and seeing the graphically placed ad on the backstop fence right behind the batter, catcher, and umpire. They showed a number of different ads, but this one was the worst. It was
"[One of those online gambling sites]" and right next to it was the slogan, something like, "You can now bet on everything."
Everything.
It was something like that, very concise about betting on anything, anywhere you are, right there on the app on your phone.
Right there behind the live televised action of the game.
Blows my mind.
Blows my mind that this many people are just that... well, more unsavory words I can think of.
Yeah, that Chiefs game Sunday night? Maybe I shouldn't be paying any attention to any of it. I love Patrick Mahomes, he's wonderful, he's made the Chiefs at least right now the team of the 2020s -- how delightful is that. I revel in watching him play and do daring feats of football greatness.
But he schlurped Sunday night, and yes, much of that was he got no help from receivers who were just miserable and an offensive line that was beyond offensive.
But you know? What a metaphor for the actual machinery of the whole professional sports enterprise. Outside it is like whitewashed tombs but inside it is full of dead men's bones -- to quote The Living Word. (Oh, and the Chiefs were wearing their all-white uniforms Sunday. Whaddya know...)
I can't disparage only my Chiefs, but let's be honest, they're part of all of them being in on it. That hurts, it does.
I'd like to think this'll all change. I guess I can hope for that. As it is, I limit my Chiefs attention to just those games, for now anyway (simply because it may indeed be way less if nothing changes), and I pay no attention at all to any other sports, at least I am successful most times not to.
Maybe more need to...
Once again, Debra Soh's article is here. Get to it, please, and maybe say something about it to someone.
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The photo was by David Gray at the official Chiefs site. Thank you.
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