It was one of the rare beautiful things about 2020. It’s a shame it took an event as obviously evil as George Floyd’s murder while in Minneapolis police custody to be the catalyst for such touching moments. Seeing the groundswell of support for the Black Lives Matter movement in the aftermath, and therefore Black people overall, was long overdue. This was months into the pandemic, where no one would be vaccinated for several months. Yet, many weren’t deterred to show up, hand sanitizer and masks at the ready.

Marches took place around the country and world to show support for the Black community and those that had been historically marginalized, an outright rejection of Floyd’s murder caught on crystal-clear video. And it shined a light on the decade of police brutality against those of color. I attended BLM marches. I saw the makeup of the people with signs and megaphones. I covered a march organized by Mizzou’s student-athletes, who were at the forefront of the movement on college campuses. The demographic of those people: Two legs, ten fingers and toes, and a heartbeat. Every skin pigment was represented with a clear message — stop racial injustice in all forms. One of the most effective things about the support given at those 2020 rallies was how immediate and thorough it was. Floyd was murdered on Memorial Day, a national holiday that always falls on a Monday. Before the weekend was over, the response was clear. Every major city in America had a protest voicing their frustrations.

Let’s compare that to the response to hatred shown against the Jewish people in recent weeks. It’s been minuscule compared to late May 2020, or after Jacob Blake was shot by police months later. My argument isn’t how the support shown to people of color wasn’t deserved — far from it. It’s now time for the Jewish people to have that backing, especially in the sports world. Canceling Kanye West, suspending Kyrie Irving, and groaning at Marcus Stroman aren’t enough, although baby steps aren’t something to scoff at. I know I’m not the only member of the Jewish people to recognize them and be grateful for them. The slight differences between discriminating against someone for their race or religion don’t matter here. A large group of people is being unnecessarily attacked in the public eye.

Here’s a quick catch-up for those still unaware. Irving promoted an antisemitic book and documentary on social media last weekend. When asked about his posts, he clearly didn’t understand the ramifications, but also refused to apologize. He wasn’t suspended by the NBA, as the league doesn’t have a precedent for taking players off the court for being dumbasses on social media. It’s been up to the individual franchises, like the case of former Miami Heat center Meyers Leonard, who used an antisemitic slur on a video game livestream. He was suspended by his team indefinitely first, then given a one-week ban from the NBA before being ultimately traded to Oklahoma City. He never played a game for the Thunder and was released.

After Irving was given another chance to speak out on the situation during a Thursday media session, he did a lot of talking without “I’m sorry or “I have no antisemitic beliefs” coming out of his mouth. This was after NBA Commissioner Adam Silver, who is Jewish, condemned his behavior and the Anti-Defamation League said they’d partner with the Nets and Irving to donate $1 million to charities that help fight antisemitism. The ADL, whose mission is to stop the mistreatment of Jewish people and provide equal treatment for all, found 2,717 antisemitism events in 2021, a 34 percent increase from 2020. That averages to more than seven such incidents per day.

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Brooklyn suspended Irving indefinitely late Thursday evening, essentially until he can prove he understands why his actions were despicable. The laziness surrounding his attitudes toward the coronavirus vaccine and the Earth being round didn’t get him out of hot water this time. Irving did “apologize” Thursday night as well, but the sincerity of it is questionable coming only after his suspension. If someone is forced to apologize, are they truly sorry? I can’t say definitively evidenced by his misspelling of antisemitism in his post-suspension attempt at damage control.

Teammate Kevin Durant was asked Friday about his thoughts on Irving’s actions and his response was, essentially, for everyone to move on. He also took to Twitter to explain his mind-boggling statement, noting he doesn’t condone hate speech before also incorrectly spelling antisemitism. Do the Nets have an anti-autocorrect policy?

Words matter, explanations matter. Not acknowledging a huge platform you have because you’re famous is downright negligent. Don’t believe me when it comes to the Jewish people? Then explain to me the credible broad threat to New Jersey synagogues reported on Thursday by the Newark chapter of the FBI.

This isn’t a Jewish issue. It’s an issue that threatens and marginalizes Jews at large. Having a few people, some donning yarmulkes, sit in the front row at Barclays Center on Monday wearing “Fight Antisemitism” shirts isn’t overwhelming support. Durant not being aware of antisemitic hatred would be disingenuous. His longtime best friend, manager, and business partner, Rich Kleiman, you guessed it, is Jewish. Also, KD plays for Brooklyn and more than 10 percent of the world’s Jewish population lives in the New York metropolitan area. That’s 2.1 million Jewish people residing within 30 miles of where Durant suits up for home games, per the Jewish Virtual Library.

Also, why did no NBA player speak out against Irving? Is the Uncle Drew Cinematic Universe that profitable that you can’t dare cross him? Staying quiet to preserve personal and professional relationships is barely not compliance. The best the Jewish people can hope for from an active NBA player is… Robin Lopez retweeting Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s thoughts? Hurting and pain should be a two-way street. Just because vitriol doesn’t pertain to you, doesn’t also mean a free pass of being unsympathetic and not calling out those spewing hatred.

It’s been six days since Irving’s promotion of the antisemitic book and documentary. On Friday, the book held three different spots on Amazon’s bestseller list of religion and spirituality texts. The audiobook was No. 1, the original paperback was No. 5 and a revised version was No. 7. It’s a great question to ask why it’s still available for sale in any form on Amazon. The chance the book holds a trio of top-seven spots on a bestseller list without Irving is zero.

Without the suspension, Irving would’ve suited up tonight against the Wizards. The NBA only has one current Jewish player, Washington’s Deni Avdija, according to the Atlanta Jewish Times. Parading or exploiting Judaism because of this situation isn’t the right move with Avdija doing something flashy and out of his ordinary routine. Something subtle, like every Wizard wearing a t-shirt condemning antisemitism, would be another great baby step. Irving’s actions are a double-edged sword for the Jewish people. A staggering majority of people in the world aren’t antisemitic, and bringing light to the mistreatment of the Jewish people over time is a good thing to have a chance to prevent further suffering. Then there’s the fringe bigots, the such-minute minority with loud voices that Ye gave a megaphone to. Making sure they’re unwelcome in the NBA and society as a whole is paramount moving forward. That’s what Irving didn’t do until his paycheck was taken away.

Last night, the Philadelphia Phillies dropped Game 5 of the Fall Classic, falling behind 3-2 in the series. It was a better showing than their efforts the game before which saw Rob Thomson’s crew get no-hit, just the second time in World Series history any participant has been held hitless. However, that no-no had bigger ramifications than we may have initially realized.

You see, in order to get more people to use their app, popular online betting site DraftKings offered an interesting double prop ahead of Game 4 — an opportunity to bet on the over/under for total 76ers’ three-pointers plus total Phillies’ hits. ...I’m sure you can see where this is going.

The Sixers, who so far this season are averaging 13.8 three-pointers per game, were taking on the Washington Wizards that night. Philadelphia is hitting those shots at a stunningly high 41.2 percent. Sure, the Wizards have been an above-average defensive team against the three-pointer, allowing opponents to hit only 33.1 percent of shots from downtown (the ninth-best percentage in the NBA), but as long as the Sixers played their game and played it well, the Phillies would only need around 7-8 hits to secure the bag for over bettors.

The Sixers’ game started about two hours before the first pitch, and they did their part. They only had six three-pointers at the half, before going 8-for-12 from beyond the arc in the third quarter. All of a sudden, the 76ers had posted 14 three-pointers. Add another five in the final stanza from the likes of Tyrese Maxey, James Harden, and Tobias Harris, and the total, without any Phillies’ hits, was already at 19.

To put that in perspective, prior to that game, Washington had only allowed more than 15 once the entire season, and 12 times throughout all of the 2021-22 season. Philadelphia, on the other hand, had hit 19 threes in a game before, doing so on Oct. 24 against Indiana. However, the Sixers hadn’t hit more than 15 in two straight contests and hadn’t shot better than 50 percent from deep all season. Both streaks were broken on Wednesday. Even though the 76ers lost, bettors who took the over were jubilated beyond belief thinking they already won their bet before Game 4 of the World Series was even halfway through. My how wrong they were.

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The Phillies needed only one hit and those betters could rejoice. And then MLB history happened. Obviously, a no-hitter in the World Series is beyond rare. It’s only happened twice in MLB history, and the only other time was when Don Larsen tossed a perfect game against the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1956. We’d gone over 60 years without a no-hitter in the World Series and it had to happen that night, just one day after the Phillies dominated the Astros in Game 3, winning 7-0 and recording seven hits.

It was a bad beat for the record books. Where one team went above and beyond to make the over happen, the other literally made history to make sure it didn’t. The Phillies failed to capture a 3-1 World Series lead, dropping a game at home after they’d grabbed the series advantage by stealing a game in Houston.

The Phillies couldn’t recover from that embarrassment in their following game. They allowed Justin Verlander to record his first World Series win in his ninth World Series start. That’s just adding insult to injury. The Phillies better hope they come back and win the series, otherwise, not only will they have let the baseball world down by letting the Astros win a legitimate World Series, but they will have let down the betting community as well and much like Philly sports fans, they don’t forgive and forget quite so easily.

College football fans would presume that a one-loss SEC team who doesn’t have to play in the conference title game would’ve lucked out as far as the College Football Playoff is concerned. Georgia made it last year with one loss, as did Alabama in 2017-18. The only one-loss SEC program not to get an at-large bid was Texas A&M and that was in the COVID season.

The winner of the Tennessee-Georgia game will be in the captain’s seat for a spot in the CFP barring a late-season upset. Even if they lose to Bama in the title game, they’ll still have a great shot of making it. If an SEC team goes undefeated in the regular season only to have a hiccup against the Tide, a team the selection committee always loves, my guess is they’ll get the benefit of the doubt over whoever loses the Ohio State-Michigan game. We can debate whether that’s fair all day, yet the number of competent teams in the B1G, let alone Top 25 iterations, is pretty bleak.

However, my guess is if the CFP committee opts for three SEC teams, you’ll see some Jan. 6-type shit at wherever the committee’s headquarters are located — with even more anger, but just as many Midwesterners. So with that said, the path to the playoff is far more treacherous for the loser of UT-UGA because they would no longer control their own destiny, and consequently cede it to Nick Saban.

While it’s possible that the Tide could lose one of either contests at LSU or at Ole Miss, I wouldn’t want to have to rely on it. Yes, the Dawgs or Vols could beat Bama in the title game to save their division brethren, but as I mentioned previously, even with a loss, the SEC East champ will still be in line ahead of the school they beat Saturday. Thus the much-needed motivation and focus that it’ll take UT or UGA to beat Bama won’t be quite as dialed in as it would be if their season was at stake. Plus, UT already beat them, so a split is basically a push.

I haven’t even mentioned the CFP chances of an unbeaten ACC or Big 12 champ, a one-loss Pac-12 champ, or a one-loss Michigan or Ohio State. Basically, if there was ever a year that a one-loss SEC team would be SOL come selection time (that doesn’t coincide with a once-a-century pandemic), it’s this year.

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In Week 10 of 2021, there were three perfect power five teams, and two of them were Wake Forest and Michigan State, who both lost that Saturday. Michigan, Ohio State, Clemson, Georgia, and Tennessee all have flawless marks in 2022, but one of them won’t after an afternoon between the hedges Saturday.

Playing keep-away is the key to a UGA win

As far as the game itself, the Bulldog defense and crowd are important as they’ve ever been. Josh Heupel and Hendon Hooker don’t have ESP with one another even though it wouldn’t shock you if that was the case with how lock-step they’ve been all season. The Vols fly up and down the field, and that doesn’t give the defense a chance to sub out players, or the crowd an opportunity to work itself back into a lather.

The UGA offense, led by QB Stetson Bennett, isn’t the type of unit that’s capable of going throw for throw with Hooker and all his weapons like Bryce Young and Alabama did in their shootout in Knoxville. It’ll have to be more of a consistent ball-control attack that makes every possession more valuable.

We’ve seen the formula for stifling uptempo offenses, and that’s by limiting opportunities and disrupting the rhythm. The best way to do that is to keep them off the field for large swaths of game time. Think a long drive to end the half, and another lengthy march to start the third to open up a double-digit lead. So, Kirby Smart, defer if the coin toss goes your way.

For Tennessee, it’s much the opposite. A fast start would go a long way and help the defense force UGA to be one-dimensional. If they turn this into a track meet, aka their type of game, it’ll take Bennett having an outing like he did against Oregon to win, and the Vols’ defense ain’t the Ducks.

Brian Kelly vs. Nick Saban: Round 3

It’s odd being in a position to root for Kelly. Even during his previous run-ins with Saban, I was more interested in seeing how bad Notre Dame got beat than believing the Irish could knock off the Tide. The Golden Domers met Bama in the 2013 BCS title game and the first round of the 2020-21 CFP, and were outscored by a total of 73-28.

LSU’s new head coach has been as successful as any coach this century who hasn’t lifted the national title trophy. Saban has been as successful, if not more successful, than any coach in the history of college football, and that’s borne out in the two’s previous high-profile matches largely because Saban is the superior coach but also due to Notre Dame not being in the same class athletically as Alabama.

Well, now Kelly has a similar level of talent, and the Tigers have been better than I thought they’d be this year. Had LSU been able to pull the W all the way out of their ass in Week 1 against Florida State, we’d be talking about CFP implications.

LSU quarterback Jayden Daniels has a 12-1 TD-INT ratio, and also leads the team in rushing, accruing more than 500 yards over eight starts. If the Bayou Bengals have any hopes of winning, he’ll have to do his best Hendon Hooker imitation, and ditto for receivers Malik Nabers or Kayshon Boutte’s joint effort trying to replicate Jalin Hyatt’s five-TD day against Bama.

The other factor Kelly has in his favor that he didn’t have in prior matchups with Saban is a belligerent Tiger Stadium at night. The longer the game stays close, the more rambunctious that crowd gets. Wait, is rambunctious the right word? I meant delirious. 

In the aftermath of Kanye West’s antisemitic rants, Kyrie Irving did what instigators do. He got busy pouring gasoline on flaming hot tensions, then pretended to be an innocent bystander when the lights came on. Basic home training dictates Irving should have apologized profusely on day one just to escape this news cycle from hell, but the Nets’ cantankerous point guard never makes anything easy.

Nearly a week after Irving tweeted the link to a trailer for the 2018 movie “Hebrews to Negroes: Wake Up Black America” on Amazon Prime Video, which makes several absurd and offensive claims about Jews, Irving flailed so badly in making amends that Commissioner Adam Silver requested his presence for a one-on-one meeting.

Instead, Irving refused and doubled down telling the media over the weekend, “I’m only going to get stronger because I’m not alone. I have a whole army around me.”

Because of quotes like the one above, Irving has spent the last week as the human version of that viral clip of the foolhardy sheep stuck headfirst in a ditch, then scampering off after getting freed and accidentally stuck itself in another crevice.

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During Irving’s FIRST attempt at explaining himself, he also added, “Whether you want to go watch it or not is up to you. There’s things being posted every day. I’m no different than the next human being, so don’t treat me any different. You guys come in here and make up this powerful influence that I have … [and say], ‘You cannot post that.’ Why not? Why not?”

Irving has either been willfully ignorant of the spread of open antisemitism since Kanye West’s despicable comments, or he doesn’t care. His nonchalance is even more egregious for someone who not only refused to get vaccinated, but labeled himself as a martyr and stated his intent to be a voice for the voiceless earlier this year. Suddenly, MLKyrie is oblivious to the parasocial relationship celebrities and NBA superstars have with the general public. Conveniently, Kanye’s first tweet after his account was reactivated was a nod to Irving.

On Thursday afternoon, Irving sounded like the Fonz attempting to cobble together syllables that were intended to equate to an apology without actually saying the words. For example, here’s how Irving danced around the question of whether he was an antisemite.

Sir, this is a Wendy’s… and the question was whether you’re an antisemite. The Nets saw enough and on Thursday night suspended him for at least five games, a ban that will cost him over a million dollars.

During this time, he’ll meet with Silver, but Irving might want to study Drew Brees circa the summer of 2020. It pains me to stan Brees this way, but he’s a prime example of how simple it can be for prominent athletes to unstitch themselves from a sticky predicament of their own making.

During an offseason interview with Yahoo Finance two years ago, Brees was asked for his take on other players kneeling during the anthem. Just weeks after the murder of George Floyd by three police officers, Brees thought it was wise to respond by expressing his disapproval of “anybody disrespecting the flag of the United States of America.”

In the aftermath, the Saints quarterback was skewered by teammates such as Michael Thomas, Cam Jordan, Emmanuel Sanders, and even foes like pre-heel turn Aaron Rodgers called him out on his schtick.

But, he took the path of least resistance, sucked it up, and issued not one, but TWO apologies. First on Instagram and then in an Instagram video. By the time the season swung around, Brees’ flag comments were merely a footnote, and a year later, he was a studio analyst for NBC. That didn’t last because he sucked on camera, which signifies how easy it can be for even the least charismatic among sports figures. I’m certain Brees didn’t re-educate himself on how kneeling during the anthem wasn’t a slight towards inanimate United States flags in under 24 hours, but he did the right thing despite playing in a vastly more right-leaning league than the NBA. It’s so simple to do when you’re not trying to be slick and deflect.

However, Irving’s confirmation bias prevents him from true self-reflection. It took an entire year for Irving to apologize for claiming the earth was flat and that was the least harmful controversy he’s attached himself to in the last five years.

“At the time I didn’t realize the effect. I was definitely at that time, ‘I’m a big conspiracy theorist. You can’t tell me anything.’ I’m sorry about all that.” Irving said onstage at Forbes’ Under 30 Summit. “For all the science teachers, everybody coming up to me like, ‘You know I have to re-teach my whole curriculum!’ I’m sorry. I apologize. I apologize,” he said.

The other dangerous aspect of Irving’s comments is how he framed himself as the victim through his repeated attempts to pit his pro-black intentions against antisemitism. Especially when one of the core tenets of the film he’s spreading is a fake Hitler quote implying that white Jews are imposters covertly focused on global domination.

On Thursday night, Irving gave in with his own Instagram apology, but this may not be over yet because this is Kyrie Irving we’re talking about. Irving winning his staring contest with the Mayor of New York, his employer and the city of New York over the life-saving vaccine mandate further inflated his MLKyrie alter ego. However, he’s not a voice for the voiceless. Irving will continue to be a habitual line stepper because he likes the sound of his own voice.

It is strange that there was some perception floating out there that Justin Verlander needed a win in the World Series to somehow justify his career. When you’ve got 244 of them — no matter what pitcher wins might mean or don’t mean these days — and another 15 to boot in the postseason, you’d think your career was pretty well stated as one of the best in recent memory.

But it was out there, as Verlander had been only OK in his World Series career instead of the fuck-you machine he’s basically been in the regular season and everywhere else in the playoffs (ask Oakland A’s fans what they think of Verlander in the postseason). He’d made six career World Series starts, and though half of them were quality starts, his team hadn’t won any. So it was easy to reach for that on the biggest stage, i.e. his resume was missing something.

This was horseshit, of course. Verlander’s seven World Series starts now account for 1.3 percent of his total starts, both regular season and playoffs. And again, half of his World Series starts before Thursday night, and now four of seven, were of the quality variety. So really, he’s had three bad starts in his World Series career, or half a percent of his career starts.

Considering that when a pitcher is starting in the World Series, he’s either facing a great offense that is the main reason the opponent got there in the first place (2017 Dodgers) or one that’s caught fire enough in the past couple weeks to get them there (2006 Cardinals, 2012 Giants). If Verlander had to face that quality of offense hitting that well in every start, we’d marvel at him going six innings and giving up three runs or less three out of seven times. The same applies to Clayton Kershaw, of course, but the ease with which the Dodgers get through the regular season now and the use of the playoffs to define all will never let him live freely, either.

Seven starts spread out over 16 years, and yet there was the best pitcher of his generation having to somehow prove something to someone, someone merely interested in being a counter to popular thinking simply to do it, probably.

Verlander had to dance through the raindrops a bit in Game 5, but he did it, surrendering only Kyle Schwarber’s leadoff homer in five innings. He struck out six but walked four, leading him into the fire which he then got out of.

His game plan wasn’t all that different from Christian Javier’s in Game 4, throwing 56 fastballs out of his 97 pitches. He would only give up three hits on his fastball the rest of his outing, the only three he gave up after Schwarber’s homer. He attacked Bryce Harper relentlessly, and stayed up in the zone just like Javier did.

Of course, Verlander has more weapons than Javier does, at least at the moment. So he played his slider and curve off that fastball in the top of the zone, rarely burying it at hitters’ feet as you might expect. Rhys Hoskins and J.T. Realmuto saw a heavy dose of sliders which they didn’t do anything with. That was probably the difference between Verlander’s Game 1 and Game 5 start, that being he actually knew where his breaking stuff was going.

Whether it becomes a capstone victory for his career depends on whether the Astros can get one more win. Verlander’s career shouldn’t look any different if they do or don’t, even if staring down one of the most hostile environments MLB has to offer and being the guiding light for his team is pretty damn ballsy. But it’s probably a small relief to Verlander, and to all of us who insist on overdosing on logic, that there’s something to point to in the World Series where Verlander was Verlander. Even if it is the most unnecessary ammo ever.