Episode 179: What to Watch
The WNBA, NWSL, NBA, MLS, NHL, and MLB all wrapped up, but there’s still plenty of sports to follow in the coming months. Amira, Jessica, Brenda, Shireen, and Lindsay share what they’re watching, from 2022 World Cup qualifiers to Syracuse point guard Tiana Mangakahia’s return to the court after treatment for breast cancer.[4:16] And, as always, you’ll hear the Burn Pile [32:39], Torchbearers, starring basketball coach Nancy Darsch [44:27], and a post-election edition of what is good in our worlds [47:45].
This episode was produced by Martin Kessler. Shelby Weldon is our social media and website specialist. Burn It All Down is a member of the Blue Wire podcast network.
Links
Official: Tiana Mangakahia will play for Syracuse this season https://thenext.substack.com/p/official-tiana-mangakahia
NWHL changes governance structure, including new Commissioner in Tyler Tumminia: https://www.theicegarden.com/2020/10/13/21513812/nwhl-changes-governance-structure-new-commissioner-in-tyler-tumminia-womens-hockey
SECRET DEODORANT KEEPS WOMEN’S HOCKEY AFLOAT DURING COVID-19 WITH $1 MILLION COMMITMENT TO PWHPA https://pwhpa.com/secret-deodorant-keeps-womens-hockey-afloat-during-covid-19-with-1-million-commitment-to-pwhpa
Women's FA Cup paused in November while men's competition continues: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/womens-sport/2020/11/03/womens-fa-cup-paused-november-mens-competition-continues
Clemson athletics cutting men's track and cross country programs: https://www.tigernet.com/update/Clemson-athletics-cutting-mens-track-and-cross-country-programs
Nancy Darsch remembered as a 'trailblazer, a pioneer, a promoter' of women's basketball: https://www.espn.com/wnba/story/_/id/30259231/nancy-darsch-remembered-trailblazer-pioneer
Transcript
Lindsay: Hello hello hello everyone, welcome to Burn It All Down – the feminist sports podcast that we hope by now you both want and need. I’m Lindsay Gibbs, I’m your host today. I’m joined by Amira, Jessica, Brenda and Shireen. We’re recording this on Sunday morning, so it is the morning after Joe Biden became president-elect. We got a great show for you today; we’re gonna get re-focused on sports, talk about some of the sports storylines that we’re most excited about,
Shireen: I’m stanning, I’m ready, hardcore, for UConn women’s basketball, and always always ready for that.
Lindsay: Then Jess has an interview later this week, we’ll publish that on Thursday, that’s gonna tell you another horrific thing about the NCAA and how they have ruined some more lives, basically. We’ll talk more about that later in the show, but I wanna start off with what before Saturday was my highlight of the week, which was: Halloween costumes, sport Halloween costumes. What were the best ones you all saw this year? I’ll start. It was the baby…Not baby, maybe like toddler, doing the Sue Bird with the net around her championship, checking her phone. A child perfected that pose. It was amazing, and there was so much little girl swagger in that picture and I’m here for it. I’m just here for it. Amira?
Amira: My favorite was Russell Wilson and Ciara doing Busta and Janet, their music video. Russ looked ridiculous but Ciara looked phenomenal – duh, she’s Ciara. Also it was a bonus for all the little kids who dressed up like Peloton instructors. I never got over those.
Lindsay: Wow. That was so on-brand. Jess? [laughs]
Jessica: I didn’t realize it had to be sports, is that okay?
Lindsay: Of course.
Jessica: I really loved…There was an Instagrammer, her name is Drew Zandonella-Stannard, and she dressed up her daughter as each member of the Rose family from Schitt’s Creek.
Lindsay: Ohh!
Jessica: Her daughter looks like she’s 3, maybe 4, and it was just so adorable. She rolled it out over days, so it was very lovely.
Lindsay: Oh my god, that’s incredible. Shireen?
Shireen: I loved the little girls who dressed up as Naomi Osaka.
Lindsay: [gasps] Same!
Shireen: Then her reply to that was the cutest thing. There was actual photos of them smiling joyfully, which is actually in some ways how I think of her, and it was beautiful. I had a lot of fun with that.
Lindsay: I’ve saved the biggest Halloween-lover for last. Brenda, tell us about your favorite moments from Halloween this year.
Brenda: Well, I always love the redux of Shireen’s costume, the mug of white male tears. [Lindsay laughing] That is a classic, and she always reminds us of it, so it’s kind of like you get to experience it again. This year with my three daughters we dressed up as founding people of the republic and we rolled around in our graves [Jess laughs] in an 18th century cemetery. So, that was super fun.
Lindsay: Naturally, naturally.
Brenda: Yeah.
Lindsay: As one does.
Brenda: Yeah. What normal people do, basically. Yep.
Lindsay: [laughs] Alright, well, it is time to dive in. So, I gotta be honest, we had a lot of sports wrap up kind of within the same few weeks with the WNBA, NWSL, NBA, MLS, NHL, probably more that I’m forgetting kind of all wrap up, and then my brain just became overwhelmed with the election. The truth is there’s more of 2020 to come, and that means there’s more sports. So I’m trying to get myself back re-oriented with the sports calendar and I figured maybe I’m not alone and maybe that’s something we can do together. We’ve got some sports storylines that we are super looking forward to for the remainder of 2020. Maybe some that you don’t know about, maybe some you’ve just forgotten about that have been buried in your brain under all that anxiety, but I’m excited. Jess, please get us started with one of my absolute favorites.
Jessica: Sure, so, college basketball starts back up at the end of this month and I wanna give a hat-tip to Howard Megdal who pointed me towards this story, which is the person I want you to be paying attention to when the season returns: the Syracuse point guard Tiana Mangakahia. She’s Australian, her father’s Maori. She was diagnosed in the summer of 2019 with breast cancer at the age of 24. The diagnosis came after a season where she led Syracuse in points, 16.9, and assists, 8.4. She averaged 9.1 assists over her two seasons at Syracuse. She’s the school’s all-time leader in assists, has the 2nd highest scoring game. She's the fastest player in Syracuse history to reach 1000 career points. She’s also the only player in Syracuse women’s basketball history to record a points-assists-rebounds triple double. She’s recently been selected to the Australian national team. She’s phenomenal, she’s a great, great basketball player, and she’s back. She’s been granted an extra year of eligibility since she had breast cancer and missed out. She did eight rounds of chemo, double mastectomy and reconstruction. Breast cancer in my family, it’s too close to home in all kinds of ways to imagine going through all of this, and then to return to the court is really something. Here’s a clip of her talking to a local sports station in New York, CNY Central, back in January of this year before she had her surgery but after her chemotherapy.
Tiana Mangakahia: Yeah, I feel good. I feel a lot stronger, actually, than what I have in the past. I was playing pickup the other day and I just felt so much better. But yeah, I’m very happy that that section of this process is over.
Jessica: She’s been back with the team and practicing since February, so she’s ready to go. Here’s what she had to say about the support that she’s actually gotten from Syracuse.
Tiana Mangakahia: The basketball community has been amazing with the coaches, and obviously Liv and my teammates, really. Everyone’s just been amazing and the support has been crazy.
Jessica: Her story’s incredible, her play is spectacular. I’m just really excited to see her back on the court.
Lindsay: One of the best stories in sports, for sure. I personally can’t believe we’re this close to women’s college basketball season starting back.
Jessica: Yeah, I know!
Lindsay: It’s really hard, but now that there’s some brain space freed up for me [laughs] I’m starting to get excited with the usual caveats that we’re a little uncomfortable with sports happening right now as the pandemic is worsening. I know someone who is very excited to watch one basketball player in particular. Amira?
Amira: Yeah, and I’ve said this before on the show, I’m thrilled that Alexis is playing for Coach Blair down at A&M now and they just did a little intro spotlight for her where she talks about–
Lindsay: Who’s Alexis, sorry! Who’s Alexis? If people a new…
Amira: These listeners know! Okay…[Lindsay laughs] Alexis Morris is my baby cousin and she’s had quite a journey in college ball. She came out of high school the 6th ranked point guard, she was McDonalds All American Jordan Classic, she was a standout freshman at Baylor and then had some difficulties and left the program at Baylor, sat out a year and transferred to Rutgers, really did not have an okay time up north. Now she’s home and she wants to be home and it’s gonna be, I think, a great fit. She’s thriving…Her arms are jacked! We were like, okay lil Lex’s back in the gym! [Lindsay laughs] I think I’ve said this before…That was the first time the pandemic really hit me, because I just wanna go to her first game. But I’m happy that it’s coming and it looks like they’ll be able to actually have a season, so I’m thrilled to watch her. Y’all should keep your eye out because, you know, that girl’s good!
Lindsay: [laughs] I’m so excited having been following her journey through you. Of course, basketball isn’t the only sport coming back, we’ve got some women’s volleyball as well that’s already underway.
Amira: Yeah, so essentially when certain football conferences went back – the ACC, the Big 12, the SEC – those volleyball programs decided to chug on and play as well; the Sun Belt Conference as well. So all of those conferences are playing right now in a kind of localized conference-only schedule, which is kind of exciting because Baylor and Texas keep playing each other and, you know, they’re #1 and #3, they’re very good. The games that they played last week were absolutely thrilling. Baylor has never…That’s their hump, they can not get over UT, and it looked like they were about to two nights in a row, it just didn’t happen. So there's exciting volleyball being played now, but actually they voted to move the volleyball schedule into the spring, which is interesting for a number of reasons. The schedule as it stands now will begin being played on January 22nd, and the season will go til April 3rd. Then they will have a tournament, a 48-team tournament, for the month of April with the finals being April 23rd and 25th.
Now, it’s interesting because for years in the volleyball community we’ve talked about the ill-timing of their championships – they always are in finals week, always in December. My volleyball players are talking about, like, that right there should tell us that they don’t care about us as “student athletes” because our championships are always across finals week. This also is interesting because the ACC and Big 12 and SEC and Sun Belt Conference have not given any indication that they’re going to also play in the spring. So this, what they’re playing now, might just be like a fun little tournament or they could say, “Well, it's fine, we’re just gonna use those standings and not play all spring and then try to come into the postseason without having played for a few months.” So it’s kind of fun to watch and keep our eye on for what they decide to do.
Lindsay: I’m super excited. I think it’s just gonna be a good time for women’s volleyball in general. Of course, hopefully they’ll be back…Well, I don’t know if hopefully is the right word, but if the Olympics happen women’s volleyball will be there, and you’ve got Athletes Unlimited, which just held their softball season, now will be holding volleyball in February. Shireen, on the pro level you’ve got a women’s sports story for us to be on the lookout for?
Shireen: Yeah, just an update. Before I do that, I wanna also mention that I’m stanning, I’m ready, hardcore, for UConn women’s basketball, and always always ready for that.
Lindsay: Always!
Shireen: Their non-conference states have already been set out, they’re gonna start on the 28th and I’m very excited. As long as it’s done safely. Now, jumping into women’s professional hockey where my heart is, I’m ready for the PWHPA but they’re not necessarily ready to share their schedule. [Lindsay laughs] So, for those who do not know what’s happening there are 125 players in the P-dub this year including 38 Olympians and I shall name them, starting with Marie-Philip Poulin, Natalie Spooner, Sarah Nurse, Kendall Coyne Schofield – who actually is the president of the PWHPA board. Also, Hilary Knight and Brianna Decker. They’re gonna compete in what is going to be called the Secret Dream Gap Tour. The reason they’re the Dream Gap Tour is because that cash money. It’s the largest corporate commitment ever made for professional women’s hockey in North America.
Now, they’re gonna compete with teams in Toronto, Calgary, Montreal, Minnesota and New Hampshire. So, six across Canada and the US, and they will play for cash prizes due to said cash money. Now, this I’m reading from the P-dub site: “New this year, players will be required to try out to make the regional training group. Each hub will be able to carry a roster of 25 active players that will be eligible to attend showcases.” So, for those of you that don’t know, those matchups will be called showcases. “In addition to scheduled showcases, each regional hub will play more regional games and players will have access to training opportunities. All of these changes are aimed to promote higher competition among regions and enhance opportunities for players to continue to grow the game.” That is from the PWHPA website. I’m very excited. They also had a merch launch not too long ago and I forgot to mention that, that for a period of time they had Adidas gear. I did get myself a toque, because I’m Canadian, I need all the toques possible.
Lindsay: The what?
Jessica: Yeah, what?
Shireen: Toques. Like, a hat. This is a toque.
Lindsay: Like, a toboggan?
Shireen: Like a hat. A beanie?
Jessica: A beanie!
Amira: A beanie.
Lindsay: In the south we call them toboggans.
Jessica: I’ve never even heard toboggan.
Lindsay: Wow.
Amira: It’s a beanie. [laughs]
Lindsay: We’re learning things! [laughs]
Shireen: It’s actually a toque, and I’ve never heard it be called–
Amira: Well, flamethrowers, I just want you to know, when we get BIAD beanies that’s what it will be listed as if you want some merch.
Shireen: Yeah, okay, so, they’re listed as beanies, but for all the Canadians they’re toques, so look for that. I’m glad Lindsay you said they’re toboggans because I only know toboggans as a sled in the winter on which to sit and go down hills of snow. So I appreciate you clarifying that. [Lindsay laughs] Moving on to the–
Lindsay: They’re both down here.
Shireen: Okay.
Lindsay: They’re sleds and they’re hats.
Shireen: So, I’m excited to see the Six. Let’s talk about the NWHL now. So, as you know, expansion has come into Toronto and I’m very excited about that. Not too excited about the Toronto numbers of COVID cases which as rising and actually will probably delay both. Now, I didn’t tell you a schedule for the PWHPA because they don't actually have one out yet because it’s fluctuating due to COVID numbers. In Montreal they actually had to shut down practice centers and only allow up to 10 to practice at a time, which for a hockey roster as you know is not possible. So, the NWHL, which started in 2015 and was the first women’s pro league to pay their players, we shared a couple of weeks ago that longtime commish Dani Rylan has stepped aside for Tyler Tumminia. According to the NWHL Zone, their website, “the mission of the league is to fuel the continued growth of the sport and brand of pro women’s hockey.” This league is comprised of six teams: Boston, Buffalo, Connecticut, Metropolitan Riveters, and Minnesota, and they recently expanded to a Canadian team: said Toronto Six.
So, the regular season was supposed to open in January 2021, and each team playing a full season of 20 games, and the Isobel Cup Playoffs, and was expected to happen at the end of March but right now that's all on hold. I actually talked to Erica Ayala this morning and she shared some information with me that all of this seems to be tentative, so these are not guaranteed dates. I definitely wanted hockey in my birthday month, January. I’m not super confident that’s going to happen. So, the NWHL will try to hold its annual All-Star Game, but not until after the Isobel Cup Playoffs are actually completed. So, we’ll see what happens, and for all you hockey lovers we’ll keep our fingers crossed, keep our masks on and just hope that everything goes along as planned because we all need to see those people on the ice.
Lindsay: Now, just quickly, Shireen, there’s been talk over the couple of years since the PWHPA formed, are they gonna usurp the NWHL, what's going on? But it seems like right now, am I right, that they both wanna further women’s hockey, they both have different visions for it and they’re both just kind of coexisting for now and, you know, we’ll see what happens in the future? Is that kind of the status quo?
Shireen: Yeah, I mean, I think they’re just continuing on two very different paths and some our guests have shared that before. The visions of the league are different but, no, I think both of them are aiming to support and amplify women’s hockey and encourage the next generation. So we’ll just keep our eye on it and see what’s happening.
Lindsay: Totally. Yeah, I think that’s the way to go for sure. So, that’s pro women’s hockey. I wanna talk a little bit about what’s going on with pro women’s soccer in the United States. The NWSL season is done but this week on Thursday – it’ll be live streamed on Twitch – Racing Louisville FC, the newest NWSL team, will be holding its expansion draft, which means there’s about to be a lot of mixup in the league. So, what happens with an expansion draft is when a new team comes they get to kind of select one or two players from every team in the league in order to build their roster because otherwise they're starting from scratch. Of course it’s not as simple as that; there are a few little quirks to it. Each team cam protect some players, up to about 11 players including 2 allocated US national team players. So the coaches and general manager will say, “You are not allowed to pick these players, this is the core of our team, these 11 players are the core of our team and not up for grabs.”
But given the restrictions of that there are some really big names that have not been protected such as Megan Rapinoe, Carli Lloyd, Christen Press, Tobin Heath, Becky Sauerbrunn are among those. That doesn’t guarantee that Racing Louisville is gonna pick them up because, you know, with players of that stature there’s always questions – are they gonna play in the NWSL, especially if it’s not a team they want to play for? Especially if it's not a city they want to move for. Their priority is the US women’s national team, and Racing Louisville might not wanna use one of their big picks for a US player on a Megan Rapinoe who hasn’t played in the league for a year. That would be a risk.
Jessica: I’m very interested to see how this all plays out in the end.
Lindsay: Yeah, it’s like we’re playing shuffle, you know?
Jessica: Yeah. [Lindsay laughs]
Brenda: Can I ask about Racing Louisville?
Lindsay: Yeah.
Brenda: So, the person making those decisions…Yeah, new coach, Linz. We were kinda hoping it was gonna be a person of color or a woman, but who’d they end up with there?
Lindsay: Well, you guys know me and I’m not an expert on European football, so when I heard the name Christy Holly I got excited it might be a woman. [laughs] But no, that’s an Irish football coach and former player who is a white man and is now the head coach of Racing Louisville. So yeah, he’s been in the NWSL before coaching at Sky Blue, so, how do you feel about that, Bren?
Brenda: [clears throat] I hope that they gave a lot of interviews and opportunities to the very deep field. No knock on swimmers, but he was a swimmer. Um…Just gonna leave there that that’s the…You know…[Amira laughs]
Lindsay: Yeah.
Brenda: That’s the history…
Shireen: I love the idea that you said it was a shuffle. It feels like the electric slide. [laughter] So, I find this all extremely fascinating, like, the ins and outs of the N-dub and what’s happening. I have to admit my heart stopped beating a couple of times while the list was released of secured/unsecured players. That was a bit…
Lindsay: How are you feeling about your Thorns?
Shireen: I love my Thorns. Christine Sinclair for me is everything and yes, like, on the list that came out it also said who was ‘allotted to Canada’ I think was the term on the list that they used.
Lindsay: Yeah.
Shireen: “Allotted?”
Lindsay: Allotted is the word they’re using…Or allocated.
Shireen: Allocated! Not allotted, sorry. Allocated. So, it was that. I mean, I’m super happy to see Dunn there, don’t get me wrong. That’s just filing me with joy.
Lindsay: Yeah, Crystal Dunn is on the Portland Thorns, which is awesome.
Shireen: Which is very exciting, like, that roster is incredible.
Amira: Especially because she’s been living her best life up there–
Lindsay: With her hot French husband, who’s a trainer there!
Amira: [laughs] I have it on good authority that there might be a certain someone doing a certain something for a certain podcast with a certain person…!
Lindsay: I can’t decode that, I can’t decode that. That was too secretive, so that was good. [laughter]
Shireen: Also, while we’re talking about that, totally unrelated, I love her IGs from home because her home decor is goals. It’s like a rustic that’s not too bougie but just beautiful. She just has very impeccable tastes.
Lindsay: Well, Brenda, you’re gonna wrap us up with a sports story you’re following which is a little different than what we’ve been talking about but I think just as exciting.
Brenda: I’m gonna make the pitch that it’s the most exciting. [Jessica laughing]
Lindsay: I bet.
Brenda: In my quest to make everyone interested in global football governance. I’m gonna say the drama story I’m looking at is the 2022 Qatar qualifiers. So, for people that don’t understand because they're coming from the US or different leagues, you might think to yourself, oh, cool, right? There’s a table, and when you win your division you're gonna go on and eventually win things. But that’s not the way it works for the World Cup. There’s 32 teams, and 31 of them have to qualify, so, the home country being automatically qualified. There’s 6 confederations and they all do this differently, there’s no one way. So, thinking about Canada, US, Mexico – they’re in CONCACAF, that’s an octagonal tournament.
Lindsay: What? [laughter] Brain is broken already.
Brenda: Yeah, right? I mean, you don’t even want me to explain it, except to say there’s some dubious ranking and then they, eight, come in and play each other. CONMEBOL, that’s South America, all 10 of the national teams play one another in home and away round robin matches. Then you have some pretty tricky things like, for example in Asia you take the top 12 ranking teams from 40 and then they play each other and it’s a 12-team intercontinental playoff. In Africa you have 28 teams out of 54 that play in the qualifiers and then there’s 3 different rounds. Again, a round robin in Europe…It’s bananas. There’s 55 teams seeded into 6 pods, it’s a nightmare. In Oceania they don’t know what they’re doing, they just cancelled it for now. Okay, so what does all of this mean and why should you watch it? What it means is that COVID has thrown all of this already super complicated stuff into a different orbit of complexity and nightmarish kind of figuring out.
So, what does that mean? It means if teams don’t make it, especially powerhouses like Brazil or Argentina, you’re gonna see them question the integrity of the entire tournament. There’s people within global football that never wanted in Qatar, never wanted it moved to December of 2022 – it’s always June. So, look for some high high drama with these countries, and when it’s national sides you get all the wild narratives about who’s cheating and who’s a cheater country and who deserves what. So, yeah, I would say that’s definitely something to watch, even if you might think global football is boring, this is definitely the time to pay attention, I think.
Amira: Hey, Bren…
Brenda: What?
Lindsay: [laughing] I was gonna say, Amira, are you gonna or should I…?
Amira: I was just gonna call her an emotional vampire! Every time you talk about soccer governance at this point it reminds me of when we did our first live stream during the WNBA finals, Jessica was watching the show What We Do In The Shadows where there’s all these different types of vampires and one of them is an emotional vampire who kills people or attacks them by–
Jessica: Takes their energy.
Amira: Takes their energy by…Jess really should clearly be the one telling this story. [laughs] Takes their energy by boring them to death. She’s told Brenda this, when she talks about soccer governance she’s an emotional vampire, every time! It’s super important and interesting but also a little vampiric. [laughs]
Brenda: Okay, so I slogged through that volleyball segment with a lot of good vibes–
Amira: True! But–
Brenda: Even though I have feelings about volleyball. So global governance–
Amira: But it’s at least about the play! It’s the governance part that cracks me up. Although I really enjoyed you. But I do have a question!
Brenda: Yes, ma’am.
Amira: Which is, I know this is supposed to be happy and joyful, you know, but also we’re Burn It All Down, on-brand. I didn't wanna leave this section without asking you for any updates to kind of what’s going on on the ground in Qatar with the human rights violations. There had been a rising death count…
Brenda: Yep.
Amira: The state of labor there, in indentured servitude, it’s terrible.
Brenda: Oh yeah. Yeah.
Amira: Also they’re worried about the heat and now COVID, and I wanted to know if you have any updates.
Brenda: Well it’ll be really interesting because the state had really opposed a very severe stay in place, in the sense that like you could not just go into Qatar. So that means actually a lot of the observation has become less observant – there are fewer people going their with their eyes on it. So it’s not entirely clear but I think there’s no reason to be optimistic that they’ve done anything to help the migrant workers’ rights or safety precautions with construction which is still ongoing. So that’s part of this whole vampire suckage thing, is that there’s forces within football that would agree with our take on that and would really love to see Qatar not benefit from the World Cup, and I feel like that's gonna be a really interesting opening with COVID for some of the people that have always argued that human rights, state surveillance and all of the things, right, that shouldn’t be there, much less playing conditions.
Shireen: I just wanted to add onto that that our flamethrowers can keep an eye on this. Amnesty International has the Qatar World Cup of Shame, so you can keep up to date with what’s happening and the ongoings of the situation by going and checking that out. They have testimonials from laborers from Bangladesh and Nepal and India who predominantly make up this work force and the numbers are staggering. A bit of a trigger warning because it’s tough to read, but there’s many layers about this. I’ve been super critical in the past and on Twitter of the conversations around what’s happening in Qatar, because of course we want to acknowledge what’s happening actually with the stadium building, and it’s awful, it’s slavery in real time. But also the way that FIFA neglects to address it in any proper manner which we know, but also the conversation by media around this. There's a lot of pointed fingers at Qataris, and I’m not at all defending all that oil money, but there’s a way to do it without being Islamophobic and xenophobic in those critiques. At Burn It All Down we’re also very conscientious of that.
Lindsay: Alright, so this week in our interview Jess is talking to professional tennis player and former University of Massachusetts athlete, Brittany Collens, about why the NCAA is punishing the UMass tennis team, including stripping them of their 2017 Atlantic 10 championship, and why and how she is fighting back.
Brittany: It’s kind of grown into this thing of student athletes needing protection from the NCAA because this is a clear example of how they don’t protect their student athletes. They’ve labeled us as cheaters essentially by putting blame on us.
Lindsay: Alright friends, we have a mega burn pile here today because all five of us are here and ready to throw some things onto that bonfire. Shireen, what are you burning this week?
Shireen: Okay, I’m gonna throw the FA that have very often been on our burn pile. I’m gonna throw them back on there. The women’s FA Cup will halt while the men continue. There’s a certain branch of the women’s league that shall continue, but many of them have been shut down including academy levels, and this is staggeringly unfair. You want to wonder how they came to this conclusion, but it’s the same way that the FA deduce much of everything: with a whole lot of lack of information. So, hat-tip to my colleague Fadumo Olow at Telegraph Women’s Sport who covers women’s football predominantly, and she sent me a lovely WhatsApp to help me burn.
Fadumo: I’m sending you a massive pile of burn it down trash from across the pond. I don’t know if you’ve seen but we’ve got a second lockdown looming here in the UK, and obviously during the last lockdown made plenty of noise about the disproportionate, disadvantaged effect it had on women’s sports specifically. You thought the government would’ve learned, but apparently not, because you know what? They’re losing their shit completely now. The women’s FA Cup will be paused during this November’s lockdown whilst the men’s competition has been given special permission to continue. So, going forward, women’s teams below the championship will have to cease all training and games whilst ten non-elite men’s teams have been given special government permission to continue. So not only is this decision wild sexist and completely out of touch and just downright rude, it sends a clear message to girls and women that women's sports doesn’t matter and isn’t valued by those in power. So if you could kindly do us all a favor from across the pond and probably all over the world who are just sick and tired of men in power making just wild decisions without consulting us, please and please add this to your burning trash. Lots of love from a very infuriated fanbase in the UK. We love you loads and we love the podcast.
All: Burn. [laughter]
Lindsay: Burn, burn burn. Jess?
Jessica: So, a quick update for my burn pile last week about the Dodgers, Justin Turner, MLB and COVID. On Saturday NBC News reported that county officials in Los Angeles said nine – NINE – members of the Dodgers organization and one family member have tested positive for the coronavirus. So, there you go.
Lindsay: Shocking!
Jessica: This week, Clemson University announced it would “discontinue its men’s track and field and cross country program at the conclusion of the 2020-21 athletic season.” That includes indoor and outdoor track and field and cross country. The reason they gave is “significant financial challenges due to the ongoing pandemic,” but also mentioned competitive balance, gender equity and Title IX compliance, financial positioning, impact on diversity among student athletes and staff, and local and national interest in participation in the sport as factors in their decision. How much will this save the athletic department? A little more than $2 million. I bet you know where I’m going with this. Clemson’s football coach, Dabo Swinney, is paid $8.25 million annually. Earlier this year Clemson’s eight full time assistant coaches who were with the team last year received raises totaling $1.26 million. The team’s ten assistant coaches will earn a collective $8.145 million in 2021. That’s the highest in the nation. These numbers were calculated before Clemson announced that anyone making more than $400k would take a 10% temporary pay cut this year, but there’s more here that we should acknowledge beyond how ridiculous football coach pay is, that what people say – they keep telling me this – that these are “educational institutions.”
So, according to Eben Noby-Williams at Sportico, Clemson’s track and field program, “offers 12 scholarships that are distributed across 26 athletes, plus an additional 25 walk-ons, meaning that the tuition paid by runners in the program dramatically outweighs the cost of the scholarships awarded.” In other words, men’s track and field athletes collectively pay into the school more than they receive. There’s what Amira burned in episode 161 about Brown University when they initially announced that they were gonna cut men’s track and field. Track and field is one of the most diverse sports on university campuses. Anytime it’s cut we have to say that out loud and loudly. All of this sucks. I feel for these young athletes at Clemson and beyond who are having their programs slashed left and right as they watch their universities continue to pour money down the throats of certain coaches and into the pockets of very specific sports. Burn.
All: Burn.
Lindsay: Whew. Alright, I’m gonna bring us to the election portion of our burn pile. Now, I’m gonna start with this news that was touted as this happy and inspirational story which is that Patrick Mahomes, the quarterback for Kansas City, NFL, asked the team to turn their stadium into an election day voting site. Apparently the election board in Kansas City said that due to a lack of voting machines that wasn't possible – which is ridiculous. But Mahomes was not stopped. He ended up splitting the cost of new voting machines with the ownership group of his team. About $100,000 he and his foundation paid for these voting machines. Now, that’s great that he did that. He has the means to do so and obviously that’s wonderful. But there are two things about this story that infuriate me. First, of all the things we spend our tax dollars on, voting machines should be pretty high up on the list. To make sure that there are enough voting machines for everyone to vote in the election. It’s a pretty basic tenet of democracy. So I feel like voting machine shortage going to private individuals should never really be a thing.
But the fact that it was the Hunt family that owns the team that made…That Patrick Mahomes ended up splitting this bill with them is infuriating. They’re worth $15.3 billion. The last decade of course the taxpayers have paid $375 million for stadium renovations, and this June the court gave the team about a $1 million tax break for the stadium for purchases such as a bronze statue of Lamar Hunt Sr. What I’m saying is, if anyone had to pay the private bill for this it should’ve been the Hunt family. All of it. Happy for Mahomes obviously, proud of the work he’s doing, but this whole system just onto the burn pile.
All: Burn.
Lindsay: Bren?
Brenda: This week Kelli Stack, who played in the Canadian Women’s Hockey League and is a member of the United States women’s national hockey team, she took to Twitter to complain, why are so many fans of women’s hockey so liberal? [Lindsay laughs] This isn’t new for Stack. She’s an unabashed Trump supporter and very conservative, and that’s fine, I guess, but there’s something about going after your fanbase in women’s hockey that I find particularly disturbing about her comments. Then she even sort of engaged with groups of fans, and I guess I just want to burn the decision of women hockey players that go all for Trump, that question the election – you know, pick up a book, read a newspaper. He hates you! Why are so many fans of women’s sports liberals? Well, I don’t know, Kelli Stack. Probably because they trend away from misogyny. It’s not a real hard question to answer. I know we all grow up in the systems that we do and whatever but she’s getting to the point where she’s been informed, so I wanna burn the real real bad takes that go after fans of women’s sports as being liberal. I’ve seen it a lot and it annoys me. Burn.
All: Burn.
Lindsay: Amira, bring us home.
Amira: Yeah…[pause] I wanna…I mean– [Lindsay laughing]
Lindsay: I know, it’s tough.
Amira: Tommy fucking Tuberville.
Jessica: BURN! [laughter]
Amira: Exactly. Exactly!
Brenda: Burn!
Amira: Back in episode 147 I went a little deeper in a burn pile about why I find him so repugnant, but I also wanted to remind y’all that part of my framing for that burn pile was reacting to this dumb article that was like, “Will he be able to overcome the Auburn–Alabama divide? Because he’s only polling a few points under Jeff Sessions.” That’s where I took my burn pile to remind y’all that he will be just fine in motherfucking Alabama. His clear deference to Trump…Remind you that this is a man that said that he’s been in cities and you can’t drive through a neighborhood and terrorism has taken over and ‘Sharia Law’ is everywhere and this is the Middle East and yada yada…All this stuff that it’s so awful. If you thought that his election might have eased up on some of this inflammatory rhetoric then, nah, I have a bunch of stuff to sell you. Because what we’ve seen this week is same old Tommy.
In a time where the current administration is stoking violence, particularly taking aim at Detroit, at Philadelphia, at Atlanta, particularly taking aim at these places to try to say that these results are illegitimate, to stoke violence…People were arrested driving from Virginia with guns to the PA convention center because they wanted to “enforce” whatever they think is happening with the election. This is real. They painted a target directly on the back of primarily Black Americans, and Tommy fucking Tuberville uses this time to say the election results are out of control. It’s like the whistle’s been blown, the game is over, the players have gone home but the referees are suddenly adding touchdowns to the other team’s side of the scoreboard. Not only is it dumb, [laughs] and it’s really fucking dumb, it just is dangerous quite honestly to fan these flames. It's also dumb, did I mention that? It’s the stupidest analogy.
But thank goodness we have people like fucking Jake Tapper [laughs] off the top rope came in to remind him: actually this would be like, remember that Auburn football season in ’08 when you would only talk about your five victories and pretend your seven losses – including to Alabama, hoo boy! – didn't happen. I really appreciated that. But as this goes on I just want to, yes, preemptively burn Tuberville for all the awfulness he’s going to bring with him to the fucking capitol, but I also really wanted to take a beat and say that it’s dangerous, I’m scared about the next two months, and having asshats like Tuberville continue to fan the flames of these stupid trumped-up claims that this election was anything other than what it was: fair, equitable, and a clear mandate for you to get the fuck out! [sighs] I don’t know, I’m frustrated with that, but I’m still seeking joy in what was delivered. So Tuberville can fuck off and we can just burn it down.
All: Burn.
Lindsay: Let’s lift up some torchbearers, but first I wanted to take a moment to just say we’re thinking of all of those at ESPN who lost their jobs this week. There were massive layoffs in the company, and we’re especially thinking of the legendary Claire Smith – we hope you all find your next work homes swiftly and that you’re taken care of. Alright, torchbearers of the week! Honorable mentions, Amira – this happened this week, I know it’s hard to believe, but what was our royal engagement of the week?
Amira: Of course Megan Rapinoe and Sue Bird made it official! My favorite thing was all the people who were like, wait, weren’t they already engaged? No they weren’t! But we got all the serotonin boost that we needed at the start of the week – allegedly – when they announced their engagement. We know they’re a dynamite couple and congratulations to Meg and Sue on your royal engagement.
Lindsay: And Biden congratulated them, which just made me happy because of what we’ve been dealing with with people in power in women's sports and homophobia, so that’s good. Jess, who are our trophy women of the week?
Jessica: Manchester City women's side won the 50th FA Cup trophy against Everton last week.
Lindsay: Woo! Shireen, we’ve got a policy pioneer?
Shireen: We do. Shoutout to Pakistani squash player Noorena Shams who implemented the first anti-bullying policies at the squash training facility in Peshawar, Pakistan. These are the first anti-harassment protocols established in a sports center in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province in Pakistan.
Lindsay: Amazing. Brenda, who are our allies of the week?
Brenda: Brazilian men's footballers – a rare appearance on this segment of the show – [laughter] showing solidarity with a rape survivor, Mariana Ferrer, who was re-traumatized by the judge during her case. It is terrible and frightening, but whole clubs have published statements in support, like Corinthians, Bangu, and Flamengo; and individual players like Richarlison have an ‘X’ on their hand while playing and have taken to social media to support her.
Lindsay: Incredible. Can I get a drumroll please?
[drumroll]
Our torchbearer of the week is Nancy Darsch, the pioneering women’s basketball coach who passed away last Monday at the age of 68 after battling Parkinson's disease. She is one of many of our legends that we’re losing in the game far too soon. She’s best known for the dozen years she was Ohio State women's basketball coach. She led the Buckeyes to their lone Final Four appearance, in 1993. But she also was in college when Title IX was passed. She was an assistant for Pat Summit during the early days, and she was a two-time coach in the WNBA with the New York Liberty and then the Washington Mystics. She was actually the first coach to win a WNBA game, leading the Liberty past the Los Angeles Sparks in the league's inaugural matchup. It’s just so important to remember our legends and appreciate them while they're still here. Okay, I’m actually excited for this segment this week. What’s good, friends? Bren.
Brenda: Okay, what’s good is that we were able to celebrate the election of Joe Biden or maybe even more deeply the loss of…
Amira: Diselection.
Brenda: Yeah. [laughs] So, yeah, I just hung out with friends and was at a fire pit and it was super fun.
Lindsay: So I filled out my what’s good before things were official because I was trying to…My anxiety during the week as we waited for the results was so much. So I would like to say a couple of things that got me through this week were Ryan Russell’s boyfriend’s TikTok, which I will link in the show notes. Ryan Russell is the NFL player, he’s a free agent right now. He came out as bisexual, and his boyfriend’s TikTok is just so amazing, they have so much fun, they show so much affection and it's just lovely to see Ryan so happy and so himself and so comfortable as himself. Certainly a pioneer. Also the mess of the season of The Bachelorette has really helped me so much. Shireen?
Shireen: I did this thing on the weekend, I was just really busy and then I called a cohort classmate of mine and we went for a walk.
Lindsay: Oh!
Shireen: I did this walk, I went for a walk.
Lindsay: A walk! Whoa, what is that? [laughs]
Shireen: I don’t like walking, and those that know me know this, but like I said – a form of transportation? Is it a leisurely activity? What is it, really? So I enjoyed that tremendously. I also went on this amazing dinner experience last night again. It’s called Seventh Fire, it’s an Indigenous chef named Rich Francis who’s coming out with this CNN docu-series which is…Think Anthony Bourdain on a reservation. So, it’s going to be super cool. I went last night with five amazing friends of mine, all racialized women, and it was wonderful. I have to say that. Also, I finished season 2 of Cobra Kai with my kids and there’s so much discussion about this, it’s occupying a lot of our brain space which is really good. I’m sort of revisiting my crush on Johnny Lawrence that I had 30 years ago, because I actually crushed on Johnny Lawrence, not on Daniel LaRusso. So…We can talk about this after.
Amira: Wait, like the Lawrence brothers?
Shireen: No, like Johnny Lawrence the character.
Lindsay: I don’t know who this is.
Brenda: The bad guy?
Amira: Oh, we’re talking about Karate Kid.
Shireen: He’s the GOOD guy –– you gotta watch the series! [laughter] Y’all don’t know!
Jessica: I watched Cobra Kai like two years ago.
Shireen: Okay, I’m late to the party
Jessica: I know all about Johnny Lawrence. [laughs]
Shireen: I know, but I just don’t feel like he’s bad! I think we need to reexamine the story.
Lindsay: Amira, I also thought she might have meant Joey Lawrence.
Amira: Joey Lawrence, right! [laughter]
Shireen: Like Blossom? You mean from Blossom?
Lindsay: Yeah! [laughs] Shireen, I don’t know. You’re full of surprises!
Shireen: You know what though, I stopped wearing hats – not beanies, but hats – because people told me before I wore hijab I was a carbon copy of Blossom. So I just stopped. Yeah, it’s weird. I’ll send you guys a photo later.
Amira: Is that that show about that white girl?
Brenda: Yeah.
Shireen: Yeah, and she’s super problematic in her politics too. So I was like, I’m not doing that.
Jessica: The actress.
Shireen: Yeah, the actress.
Lindsay: Yeah, I don’t think Blossom the character…[laughter] I don’t think it was a very political show. Amira?
Amira: My goodness. [laughter] I slept, I ate, I popped champagne…Well, spiked cider. It was lovely. I would say the things that got me though the week, barely, were the interwebs, which are also my what’s good. The Nevada memes were my favorite things. [laughs] My favorite one was the…I’ll put it in the show notes. The little boy running very slowly, he’s walking with his arms…And he’s Nevada, and the dad comes to try to push him along. Because they’re moving so slowly. I know Shireen was a big fan of the Blues Clues one that Lindsay sent where each ballot they're counting they’re opening it like Blues Clues and saying, “We just got a letter…” [laughter] It was perfect. But I have to say, after it was called the interwebs took over once again. iMarkkeyz, who I love, had a number of really fun things that I’ve been jamming to, including taking Paula White’s obscene prayer and making a Dembow remix [laughs] which is…Just listen to the beat, guys. I love it.
Amira: Okay, and then everybody starts dancing. It’s lovely, you should watch it.
Jessica: Y’all couldn’t see it but Amira was dancing while that was playing.
Amira: I was dancing because first of all, if you have a Dembow beat I’m gonna dance. So anyways, it was very good. Then of course the one, the remix, You about to lose your job. Between me and Samari probably played too much, because then the baby said this–
Amira (voice recording): What’d you say, Zachary?
Zachary: You about to lose your job!
Amira: Yes, that was him roaring at the end of Job because Zachary is also on-brand. So that is what…Oh, no! My last what’s good is my most important what’s good: Black women.
Lindsay: In the White House! [laughs]
Amira: Just like, Black women generally. Black women in the White House, Black women on the streets, Black women getting people out to the polls, saving democracy. Black women are fucking sickening in the best way.
Shireen: Yup, yup, yup.
Amira: I just love us so much.
Lindsay: Ugh, yes. Okay, Jess, please, finish with…I think you’re gonna talk about my favorite thing [laughs] beyond democracy being saved.
Jessica: I really appreciate all my co-hosts letting me have this. The best thing…Well, before I get there, the thing that saved me this week: Aaron and I watched the thing that I enjoyed the most which was The Old Guard, which is a couple of months old, the movie with Charlize Theron and Kiki Layne and I loved it. I would have watched Old Guard 2 if it had been on Netflix at the moment we finished the first one. But the best thing that happened yesterday, on Saturday, was the Four Seasons Total Landscaping, which is amazing. [laughter] I’ll try to say it short. So, Trump announced that in Philadelphia they were going to do a press conference at the Four Seasons, and Four Seasons hotel chain had to then tweet, “NOT HERE!” Not at our hotel chain! It turned out that someone in his camp had booked it at Four Seasons Total Landscaping. You just have to go look at the picture, like, when I tried to explain this to Aaron he made me get a picture of it because it is so…I don’t even know the right word. It’s just…
Lindsay: It’s so cathartic.
Jessica: It’s like a garage door? [laughter] It’s like a big garage door like at an auto mechanic’s shop and they’ve just taped Trump signs to it and it’s next door to an adult toy shop…?
Amira: Fantasy Island.
Jessica: Fantasy Island. [laughter] It is amazing.
Lindsay: It has a dildo-shaped door.
Jessica: It’s the kind of thing that, like, you wouldn’t write that. If someone wrote this as the end of the Trump 2020 campaign you wouldn’t believe it to be a reality, and I have just been laughing about Four Seasons Total Landscaping for…I’m going to be laughing about it for weeks. It is just perfection. I’m really thankful for it.
Amira: Because it keeps getting funnier!
Lindsay: And to make things better – I don’t know how you do, but Giuliani was in the middle giving this ridiculous press conference when it was called, so he was told in real time! At the Four Seasons Total Landscaping! [laughing]
Amira: And half of the press started leaving. I also have a thread about this, I encourage you to look at it because the best thing was somebody couldn’t get into the Four Seasons landscaping company so they went to Fantasy Island to interview the shopkeeper. There’s a picture of it on the thread, he’s just standing in the middle, like, next to dildos and a sign that says, Reminder: you need coins for the videos. He goes, “Since I couldn’t get in to the Trump press conference, I went to Fantasy Island next door. Zarif Jacob, an ex-architect, could not fathom why the presser was near his shop—or even happening. ‘He lost. He knows he lost.’ Also, people were taking up the spaces in his parking lot.” [laughter]
Lindsay: Corey Lewandowski, he was at one point the campaign manager, now just a guy on the campaign, but he tweeted–
Amira: Just a guy.
Lindsay: I got to bring it up last night because it was just so good.
Shireen: My favorite thing about this was someone tweeting ‘LAWN AND ORDER!’ I was dead. I was done.
Lindsay: ‘Lawn and order’ was perfect. Then Corey Lewandowski, part of the Trump campaign and administration, tweeted earnestly at 9:01pm – so, right after Biden’s speech – “All great Americans in PA use Four Seasons Total Landscaping. They love this country and are American Patriots. Thank you!!” [laughing]
Jessica: I don’t have the attribution but someone tweeted, “Our moment will come too” — Waldorf Astoria Plumbing & Heating Co. [laughter] I was just…It’s too good.
Lindsay: It’s so good.
Amira: I apparently am not a great American, you know, because I don’t go to Four Seasons Total Landscaping in PA. But you know what great Americans in PA do? VOTE YOU THE FUCK OUT! Woooooo! [cheering, clapping]
Lindsay: Alright, so now that we’ve freed up some brain space, we’ve talked about some good stuff, we’ve told you the sports storylines we’re getting excited about. Now, what we’re watching this week is Thursday and Friday, November 12th and 13th, we’ve got the most exciting qualifiers for the World Cup 2022, South America. All national sides are playing. Also got the Masters in November, which is just really weird, but I think the weather might pull it off. Honestly I’ve never loved Georgia more, so we’ll do that. Shireen talked about how the FA Cup is cancelling most of its levels for women for this month, but the elite elite clubs are still playing, so that’s still going on. Then in women’s volleyball we’ve got a lot of Big 12 action on the 12th and 13th; West Virginia and Texas are battling, and also Texas Tech and Oklahoma.
Alright, thank you all for listening. I hope that you all have taken a sign of relief. One thing I think that’s important to remember is that being happy and hopefully now has absolutely zero relation to how hard you work for justice tomorrow. You can be happy now and still work just as hard tomorrow. But anyways, thank you all so much for spending this time with Burn It All Down. We’re on Twitter, @burnitdownpod, we’re on all of your podcast apps. Rating and reviewing is the best way to help us, as well as joining our Patreon which has got some new content coming out this week – patreon.com/burnitalldown. For as little as $2/month you can get access to special behind the scenes and help make this podcast possible. We love you and we’ll talk to you later this week.