Episode 221: Fall Sports Round-Up Spectacular
In this episode, the entire Burn It All Down squad reunites for a fall sports round-up spectacular! At the top of the show, Amira Rose Davis, Brenda Elsey, Shireen Ahmed, Lindsay Gibbs and Jessica Luther first share what they want to carve into a festive pumpkin. Then, they parse through the beautiful chaos that is fall sports and offer their insight and commentary on women's college soccer, women's college volleyball, men's college football, global football/soccer, hockey, baseball and the WNBA playoffs.
After the round-table, you'll hear Amira tease the interview of the week, a round-table discussion about the NBA and vaccines. Then, the team burns all that needs to be burned in sports on the Burn Pile. Next, they lift up and celebrate those shining light, including Torchbearers of the Week Sinead, Mana, Kaiya, the NWSLPA, all those who have been impacted by coercion, assault and harassment by coaches in the NWSL, and Meg and Katie for their reporting. They wrap up the show with what's good in their lives and what they're watching in sports this week.
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
Amira: Welcome to Burn It All Down. I'm Amira Rose, and today I'm joined by, guess what? All of my co-hosts! That's right y’all, we are ringing in fall – and happy October! – by reuniting all five of us back together on the pod for the first time in, I don't know, months? So we're all in today. That's Jessica, Shireen, Lindsay, and Brenda. And we're here to do a fall festival roundup reunion roundtable. [Brenda cheers] That’s right. We are in the time of year in which there are so many sporting things going on, not to mention off the court drama and issues. And it's just a lot to wade through for us, and we are people who, like, our jobs are to pay attention to this. So what we're going to do today is we're going to just do a quick roundup of updates from leagues, ask each other some questions, like what in the world is happening over in the WNBA playoffs? What’s going on in global football?
And so hopefully when you leave this roundtable, you'll know a little bit more about the beautiful mess that is the fall time of year for sports. I'm really excited to get into that, but before we go, in order to knock it into another long battle over pumpkin spice with Shireen, I'm not going to ask about favorite or least favorite fall things. Instead, I'm going to say that I go every year and get one of those carving kits for pumpkins and I make witches and I'm very impressed with myself. And so à la Bodega Boys – shoutout to Desus and Mero – if you could carve one image or saying into your pumpkin right now to put on your front porch or balcony or driveway, wherever, what would that be? Jessica.
Jessica: I'll go first. I did consult with Aaron on this, because I was like, what could it possibly be? And our most favorite family costume that we ever did was David S Pumpkins from the SNL skit, starring Tom Hanks, where Aaron and I were the skeletons and my son was David S Pumpkins, and his catchphrase is, “Any questions?” So we would probably do that one.
Amira: That’s great. Shireen?
Shireen: I have fallen in love with the baseball, and specifically the Toronto Blue Jays, for two reasons: because like a really good in blue, a compelling reason to like a team, and second, because of second baseman Marcus Semien. What? So I would carve Marcus Semien onto a pumpkin and just stare at it because putting the light inside is a metaphor for what he is to the team.
Amira: [laughs] Brenda?
Brenda: Well, since the Padres crashed out, I have nothing baseball oriented to put on that pumpkin, because I would love to do Fernando Tatís. But since I can't, I would put “Bitch, I know,” which Jessica Luther texted me last night–
Amira: YES! [laughs]
Brenda: For all the people that I work with, especially you five co-hosts, in a week like this, when there's all sorts of revelations, I want to say, bitch, we know! Like, we know. Stop trying to educate us. We've been doing this for years. It's tiring.
Amira: Here, here. That's a good fucking pumpkin. Linz, what would you carve into a pumpkin?
Lindsay: I would carve the Burn It All Down podcast logo into a pumpkin. And then, you know, the candle would be behind it, and it would look super badass, you know, the flames. Oh my gosh. Now that I'm thinking about it, I really want this, and I am not nearly artistic enough to do this, but please can one of our listeners make this happen? [laughs]
Amira: I dunno, I'm basic. I would put like “BELIEVE” in a crooked way from Ted Lasso, because it still just gives me joy, and I don't know, like, hitting a “BELIEVE” sign…Like I gotta get hyped up to do anything. I'm like, believe! I don't know what the hell I’m believing in? Maybe the power of me…Or actually, you know what? The power of us. And that would burn bright. So, those are our pumpkins. Now we'll see who actually can carve anything. We'll have a pumpkin contest. OOH, WE SHOULD HAVE A PUMPKIN CONTEST!
Shireen: I love the pie.
Amira: We’re going to have a pumpkin contest. [Brenda laughs] It is now time for our roundup spectacular. I just want to start off the top by saying there is a lot, obviously, going on in the NWSL off the pitch, and that's unfortunately also overshadowing what has been a very interesting season on the pitch as well. But for more on that, we do have a hot take up right now. Brenda and Shireen jumped on the mic to talk about all things NWSL as the news was breaking last week. So, check out that hot take, and we'll continue to give updates on that outside of this roundtable. All right, Jess, I'm coming to you first. Can you please tell us what in the world is going on in, as Shireen would say, the baseball?
Jessica: Okay. I'm going to do my best here, everybody. So, the biggest baseball news is easily the playoffs. Regular season ended on Sunday, October 3rd, but pulling back the curtain on Burn It All Down production, we're actually recording this on Friday, October 1st. So right now there's still a fair amount we don't know, despite each team in the MLB having played something like 847 games already this season. I will admit, I don't totally understand what's happening with the American League wild card. I tried really hard to read about it and prep for this. Apparently–
Amira: Chaos!
Jessica: Apparently there is the possibility that there will be a four way tie on Sunday between the New York Yankees, Boston Red Sox, Seattle Mariners, and Toronto Blue Jays, all just for two spots. Only two of them can have it. By the time you're listening to this though, it will all be sorted and you will know the answers. The eight teams that are definitely into the playoffs are the White Sox, Giants, Dodgers, Brewers, Rays, Cardinals, Astros, and the Atlanta baseball team. The post season begins on Tuesday, October 5th. For way more info on the baseball playoffs from people who know what they're talking about, check your feed for Shireen's hot take with Kamila Hinkson, an editor for The Athletic covering Major League Baseball. It went up yesterday.
The big story though, for most of the season, the overriding story I would say, was Shohei Ohtani, the two way superstar who pitches and bats. He recently joined Willie Mays as the second player ever in the MLB to have more than 45 home runs, 20 stolen bases and more than six triples in a single season. Only Willie Mays in 1955 and Shohei Ohtani in 2021. That's it. That's the entire club. That's incredible. He also has over 150 strikeouts this season as a pitcher. He is, no surprise, the favorite to win the American League MVP this year.
I just want to briefly mention Kim Ng. Last year, she was hired by the Miami Marlins to be their GM, the first woman in MLB history to ever run a team. This was her first season then on the job. And while she was taking over a team that had made the playoffs last year, they'd actually kind of traded away most of their big players. So, it was a rebuilding operation for her. This year the team finished second to last in its division, which means she can only go up from here! And we're excited to see what she does in the upcoming seasons.
Amira: Yeah. Thank you for all of that, Jess. I did have a question about Ng. You know, we celebrated her last year, not just as a woman, but as an Asian woman. You can revisit my interview I did with Shiz about the meaning of her hiring. But also, I was thinking about that when you were talking about Ohtani, because he’s dealt with one racist ass thing after another this season. How is baseball confronting these issues and continuing anti-Asian rhetoric that we're seeing from all quarters?
Jessica: Yeah, there’s not a good answer to this question, Amira. There was a lot of talk earlier this year during the spike in anti-Asian racism and hate. Shireen did a great hot take around that. The Dodgers and their manager, Dave Roberts, they were very vocal in condemning the violence and harassment against Asian-Americans and Pacific Islanders. Terry Francona from the Cleveland baseball team spoke out against racist abuse aimed at his player, Yu Chang, who's from Taiwan. Detroit issued a statement condemning Tigers color commentator, Jack Morris, for being fucking racist against Ohtani during a broadcast. But these are what they sound like – they’re kind of isolated moments from specific teams.
So it's really an area that the league has to get better at.
Amira: For sure. And of course, Stephen A talked about how he couldn't be the star because…
Jessica: He didn't speak English.
Amira: Exactly. So, just bullshit. Well, thank you for that update. Obviously me and Shireen are pulling for a certain two teams in the wild card spot. But I will admit thinking that the Red Sox have long been out of it, and then I looked up, like, how are they still maybe in it? I'm very…Yeah. Ay ay ay. All right, Shireen, I would love for you to tell us what's going on in the world of hockey.
Shireen: Hello friends, let's go on this wild and icy ride that is hockey. So, let's start with women’s, because it's more fun and interesting, to be quite honest. I'm not going to say less racist and less complicated, because that's actually not ever the case. So let's start with the formerly known as the NWHL, which has formally changed its name to Premier Hockey Federation. Yay for taking out the gender binary within that league. But nay for continued comments by Toronto Six’s coach Digit Murphy being really weird and accusing people of talking about transphobia as negative nancy vibes. Don't love that. Making it really hard for me to love this team. Already have my Saroya Tinker jersey ready. Still, it's a problem. The league starts officially November 6th, and I think that that's really important for those that still want to support it. It’s important to love something and still talk about how problematic it can be.
Now, over to PWHPA. Their season starts November 12th to 14th with a Dream Gap Tour in Truro, Nova Scotia. There are five training hubs this 2021/2022 season for the PWHPA, and they are Minnesota, Toronto, Calgary, Montreal; and Boston will be replacing the New Hampshire hub. Now, I went golfing with Jayna Hefford last week – now that's quite a flex right there, isn't it? And let me tell you, in addition to the way that she plays golf like she plays hockey – world championship – there may or may not be a tour in Toronto in January, so let's maybe manifest that. We want to see this.
Now, onto the men's side. Right now we're in preseason. The NHL begins October 12th. There's a couple of stories that I just wanted to point out that are nice stories because I'm clearly not going to go through the whole thing. I do want to draw attention to Montreal Canadiens player, Jonathan Drouin, who is returning and thriving in hockey after taking a lot of the season off, did not participate in the playoffs because of his struggles with depression and anxiety. And also, to talk about that in a space like this is important and it matters. Love having him back. And you're probably asking, why am I talking about only one Habs fan? Because I can.
Also, another story that's really fun is the Seattle Kraken! Folks, the Seattle Kraken made their preseason debut. They beat the Vancouver Canucks last week 3 to 5. They began their part of the double-header on October 12th. So we're really looking forward to seeing that team. That is one of the only teams that has signed the Black Girl Hockey Club Get Uncomfortable pledge. We're waiting for everybody to pull up and do this. Also, I would be remiss if I did not comment on how beautiful the Kraken looked in their crisp white jerseys, and how the NHL stupidly tweeted, “Look at them whites.” Yeah, the jokes write themselves around here, folks.
Brenda: Okay. I have a question for you Shireen. I just want to…Okay. One thing I just don't understand at the most basic level: are the women's hockey teams independent of the men's teams? Do they have a relationship? What does that look like?
Shireen: So, some of the teams in the former CWHL were aligned with major hockey teams, like the Calgary Flames had adopted the Calgary Inferno. And if you noted, the names kind of switch off of each other. And then there was the Canadiennes of Montreal, who were not supported financially in any way that I consider acceptable. However, they were adjacent, they were aligned with…Now, when that league folded, we saw in this discombobulated way that hockey's treated in this country. And also, you know, the lack of sustainability. So as of right now, the PHF, formerly known as the NWHL, it exists independently. They might have collaborations, and let's just say the Boston team might have, you know, an event or charity event or a drive of something of that sort. But at the moment, there's no specific and deliberate collaborations between the men's and women's teams pretty much anywhere. Women's hockey doesn't get the respect it deserves.
Brenda: Gotcha.
Amira: Now I want to talk about college sports. And for the sake of time, I'm going to focus on my three favorite fall college sports. That is college football and women's volleyball and women's soccer. The name of the game for all three of these things is, let me say, organized chaos. There have been some shakeups across the board in all of these sports. And yet, at the end of the day, there's still powerhouse schools that we're used to dominating those sports. And so I'll start with the college football landscape. This is the first time in Jessica Luther's lifetime that Florida State is starting 0 and 4.
Jessica: Wow.
Amira: It is wild. Did you ever think you would see that day, Jessica?
Jessica: No, but I also had to have you tell me that that was happening, which I never saw that day either, that I wouldn't even know that that was happening. [laughs]
Amira: It is wild. The other big kind of shakeup is that Clemson is 2 and 2. I'm smiling here. Picture the gif of the person trying not to smile. But the thought of Dabo Swinney not being anywhere near… [laughs]
Jessica: That’s what happens when you let players have NIL rights.
Amira: Look at that. Your world is crumbling, Dabo. Yes it is. Yes it is! Other than that, though, right? Alabama, Georgia, Penn State, they’re still right there at the top. So you still get the fun kind of upsets of the college season, but it's not as chaotic as some seasons we've seen. But there's just enough shakeups that has also prompted people to think thoroughly about conference realignment. For instance, Arkansas, the Razorbacks are absolutely on one. They have declared themselves the Kings of Texas, despite being Arkansas, because they beat the Longhorns. They beat A&M. They are basically running through the Texas schools, and not many people saw that coming. Side note: the funniest thing about the Texas-Arkansas game was that Tara Davis and Hunter Woodhall, who are now engaged, went to the game together because of course those are their schools, and Tara and her friends looked miserable because Texas was losing and Hunter was putting horns down. And then Texas tweeted it out and said, get your man, Tara! So funny.
Similar story over in college volleyball, in which you see Texas, Louisville, Pitt – those are who we have been accustomed to seeing at the top of women's college volleyball. They are absolutely there, but we're also seeing other teams break into the top 10 for the first time. BYU…Like, it's interesting, and there’s really good volleyball being played. So I really say to everybody, check it out. The Baylor-Texas games are coming up and that is always very spicy. Over in soccer, it's more of the same story with UVA getting beat and dropping off of the top spot. Penn State was number six; now they're unranked, which tells you how their season has been going. All very tight games, a lot of goals in stoppage time. Brenda wants me to note that Hofstra is number seven, just behind Duke, which tells you just how turbulent this season certainly has been. [laughs]
Brenda: [laughs] Totally, totally.
Jessica: Amira, I’m wondering about COVID and how all these different colleges, all the different sports are handling COVID at this point, and letting fans…I’ve seen the videos and pictures from football stadiums just like full of people, but I have no idea what's happening with volleyball, which is indoors.
Amira: Right, exactly. And so football stadiums, they have obviously just kind of washed their hands of...You’ve seen the videos of Jump Around. You've seen the pack stadiums. That is clearly an economic decision that is never going to change. Soccer fields have been a little bit more open and able to have participants in them. The real concern, as you noted, has been indoor spaces. So, what many schools are doing in terms of indoor areas, masking mandates are, you know, there. Places like Maryland, who did a five set thriller that Penn State eked out just the other night, has a reduced capacity of attendance. So you're seeing that vary school for school, but I have seen indoor facilities in certain places in which there aren't people masked. So I think that that's something to keep our eye on as we move through the fall sports that occur a lot outside into the early happenings of the winter sports, which are going to absolutely have to deal with this problem as basketball season tips off, for example. Well, from college soccer to global soccer, Brenda, take it away.
Brenda: Whew. This is a toughie. There's been so much going on. You've got the qualifiers for the World Cup, which are literally all over the world, and that's really intense. So, it's hard to watch unless you've got Fubo. There haven't been so far any huge surprises, you know, Brazil topping everything, always, et cetera. But they've been exciting, and COVID has really shaking it up. For example, historically, last month the Brazil-Argentina kind of classic, one of the world's most exciting qualifiers, was suspended because the Brazilians said that the Argentines lied on their form. They were coming from the Premier League. They arrested them and tried to deport them on the field. The game had gone on like 12 minutes. We've no idea what's going to happen to that qualifier. Still investigating on the part of FIFA.
Jessica: I’d just like to say, being friends with Brenda Elsey means that you get like 50 text messages while that is unfolding on the pitch. [laughter] It was very thrilling.
Brenda: I've never seen anything like it!
Amira: I was on a plane when it happened, and I landed and I was like, Brenda, what's going on? And she was like, THEY’RE ON THE PITCH TRYING TO DEPORT THEM! I was like, what is happening?! [Jessica laughs]
Brenda: I was like, what is more high drama than…You know, the Brazilian government couldn't have done less to stop COVID over the last 18 months! So the fact that they would all of a sudden have this cloak and dagger…Like, there's Emi Martínez, lying on his…Who doesn't lie on passport forms, on immigration forums? Not me. But I'm sure everyone else does. [laughter] And so like, you know, did you bring zero into the country? You brought zero? [laughs]
Shireen: But can we talk for a second…And we loved this, Brenda, we always have, Dani Alves and Messi’s love and bromance. I missed those two on the pitch together. So to see them laughing it off, walking away, just heartened me. They weren't doing the samba together or anything that I would've preferred, but they were just…It was beautiful, that moment.
Brenda: I mean, that was one of the parts about it, right? They were standing around for an hour with nothing to do. And all of these men are incredibly violent towards each other, but also incredibly affectionate. And so they've played together for years, you could see them joking around, and just everybody going, “What the fuck?” So that was amazing and super cute. But the qualifiers all over the place are kind of fascinating. Every confederation does it differently. Besides that we have the Champs League and you also have Copa Libertadores or the club championships ongoing. And that's been really interesting. Just one story: we probably saw the biggest upset in the history of the Champions League this past week when Real Madrid lost to Sheriff. Now, I doubt anyone has ever heard of this club, because I really haven't. And so I'm just going to assume most of you haven't heard of Sheriff Tiraspol?
Amira: Which is, by the way…They don't even have sponsorships on the front of their jersey. You'll hear why in a second. But if you have to listen to anything, go find Thierry Henry, who’s like now my new favorite person, commenting on this. But the reactions to this were hilarious in how people were like, “They don't even have names! I would have gotten naked if I had scored the winner on that!” Like, the reaction to this upset…And then, Brenda, please tell the people a little bit about Sheriff, because my only question about it is literally like, wait, what? What the fuck? So, please.
Brenda: Amira had sent me a really good breakdown of the history of this from Aaron West, and that's on Twitter, he did a little video of it. Basically they are a Moldovan – technically – federation team, but it's from the breakaways state of Transnistria, and I watched a whole little documentary from the BBC on this breakaway state, and basically it's majority ethnically Russian, founded by KGB agents. So, this club is a way in which they're normalizing their state itself. And there's all kinds of arms trafficking that goes through this small agricultural patch of land. It seems the majority of the population…The flag has a hammer and sickle, and the majority of them would like to reconnect with Soviet Russia. Apparently they are unaware that that doesn't exist right now. And they want to revive it, and they're sort of like, “Putin could do so much more for us than Moldova.” So, it’s really fascinating. You should know, just like every other team in the Champs League, there are a ton of Mali football players, Nigerian, Côte d’Ivoire, and of course, Brazil, Brazil, Brazil. So in that sense, whatever agents out there, it’s still making it work. So as much as it's an upset, if you really look at the dirty money, it looks like the rest of the Champs League.
Amira: Football being football.
Jessica: So Brenda, Messi has moved to PSG. How's he doing?
Brenda: He's doing just fine. You know, if you're not really obsessed with like clickbait stupidity, he’s doing absolutely fine. I mean, it took him a couple of games to score a goal, big whoop. [Amira laughs] They're playing him way far back. Okay. He should be a little more center perhaps, but you know, he didn't try to take number 10 from Neymar. He laid down on the ground–
Amira: Gloriously, with the thumbs up! [laughs]
Brenda: Gloriously, with the thumbs up, like, “It's cool! Please don't write articles about how I'm resentful of this!”
Amira: Oh, but there are articles! [laughs]
Brenda: And there are! And it's like, he can't do anything more to express the fact that he's absolutely fine with number 30, which just basically means he's three times the player Neymar is. [Amira laughs] And no, it all looks really good. It all looks really good. Mbappé seems a little uncomfortable with it, but you know, it was the Mbappé pass that he scored that glorious, glorious goal in the last Champs League game. And it seemed very seamless to me. Shireen?
Shireen: I just have a question because you know, I tweeted something at you of some ridiculous…I love the drama, and I also am here for Amira loving Thierry Henry. COYG from back in the day, bitches. But on that French drama that we sometimes see, we get to Anelka. Nicolas Anelka, getting out there – and this is the first and only time I'll ever quote a Daily Mail piece. But do you think Kylian Mbappé should be the reigning player? And as according to Anelka, Messi should worship at the altar of Mbappé. How do you feel about that? Do you feel that's violence?
Brenda: I feel like Anelka is really desperate for relevance and, you know, was mediocre then, is mediocre now, as a thinker, as a player. Sorry. I know, I know, that's how nasty I really am about him. I'm like, oh really? Like, you're going to go out there…The first thing he did was thank Mbappé for an amazing pass. It was super selfless. And the first thing Messi did was be like, wow, that was totally you. Right? And again, he was literally laying at the man's feet. So, I don't really think we have a problem here. I mean, Mbappé looks a little uncomfortable adjusting to a new person on the offense. And I think that is nothing wrong with Mbappé. He’s probably just like, okay, Pochettino, where am I exactly going? You know?
Amira: That is the calmest I've heard Brenda express that, [Brenda laughs] because group chats during the game were a little more…Colorful!
Brenda: Well, I was disappointed with his performance. I mean, he missed a bunch of passes. I guess I'm looking for Mbappé to be the reigning champ. So, I have no problem with Anelka saying that. I'm just like, I've been feeling like Mbappé should be growing a little bit more than he has since 2018. I love him. He’s wonderful.
Shireen: And Brenda continues to want to take a bullet for Messi anytime.
Brenda: [laughs] Or Mbappé, for that matter, but–
Amira: Oh my goodness. I am moving on on this roundup. So, last but not least, Lindsay, please tell us what is going on in the WNBA playoffs.
Lindsay: Okay friends. So, I'm obviously watching the WNBA playoffs like a hawk. It’s taken over my life in the best way possible. It is Sunday night right now and both semifinal series are at the most dramatic point possible, with the underdogs having a 2-1 series lead, meaning the top seeds, top two seeds have to win the game fours on Wednesday in order to extend this to a sudden death game five. So, how did we get here? Well, the first two rounds are just one game each. In the first game you had the Sky destroy the Dallas Wings, and the Mercury eked out a victory, a very exciting victory over the New York Liberty, 83 to 82. In the second round you had the Mercury and the Sky really keep rolling.
The Mercury upset the number four seed Seattle Storm in overtime. The Storm were playing without Brianna Stewart, who's been injured. There was a super emotional moment after the game with Sue and Diana swapping jerseys. It was a lot. We don't know if Sue's coming back. Anyways, that was just too much. But then the Sky upset the Lynx. The second round should definitely be best of three, but we don't have time for that whole argument – although it's not even an argument, I'm just right. So here, the semifinal series have been the Phoenix Mercury taking on the number two seed Las Vegas Aces, and then the Chicago Sky taking on the top-seeded Connecticut Sun who had won something like 13 straight games coming into the playoffs. Anyways, so, just some highlights from these semifinal games.
The Aces took care of business against the Mercury in game one, but since then the Mercury have absolutely throttled the Aces. In game two, Diana Taurasi scored 37 mf points, motherfucking points, on like one ankle. The Mercury won 117 to 91. And then in game three, which I just watched, the Mercury trounced the Aces, 87 to 60. So, the other series, the Sky came out like a rocket and upset the Sun 101 to 95 in a double overtime game that almost killed me. And then the Sun looked like themselves in game two, but game three just happened and the Sky beat the Sun 86 to 83. The Sun completely collapsed down the stretch. It was really hard to watch. I have no idea what's going to happen on Wednesday night. No idea. I hope we get two game fives. Screw my anxiety. This is just too thrilling
Shireen: Linz, most surprising or exciting player this postseason?
Lindsay: To me, it's just the cohesion of the Chicago Sky. Like, they looked awful the last couple of weeks of the regular season. Awful. And now they look like the team that we all thought they could be. You know, Mercury didn't look nearly as bad as the Sky did going down the stretch, but it's still kind of wild to see them playing their absolute best basketball right now. And look, I'm really surprised at how the Sun and the Aces just look completely discombobulated. I mean, these teams, these are the two deepest teams in the league, and it's almost like they just have so many weapons that they don't know what to do with them. So, I can't really pick out one thing or like one player, but those are my surprises.
Amira: So, lots of focus has been on Sue and Diana, and are they done? And of course, yes, I cried when they swapped their jerseys. But I really wanted to ask you, after this season, who is the future? Who might emerge as a force this year? Not the now, not who we already know is dope, but who showed flashes of something that you're excited to see back on the court next year?
Lindsay: I want to give a quick shoutout before I answer this question to Brittany Griner and Courtney Vandersloot, two kind of living legends who I think that often get overlooked kind of, you know, in the shadows of the Taurasis and the Sue Birds of the world, who are just killing it this postseason. And I love seeing them get their shine. Sloot had a triple double, the second triple double in WNBA playoff history behind Sheryl Swoopes. So, just wild. But I mean, for me, the future, it's really easy. It's Kahleah Copper, the guard from Rutgers on the Chicago Sky, who is averaging like 18 points, 5 rebounds, 2.4 assists per game this postseason. She had 26 points in game three. It's just ridiculous.
And then Brianna Turner, I mean, Brianna Turner of the Phoenix Mercury averaging a double double this postseason. She's playing shutdown defense on A’ja Wilson, which is just like…I didn't know that was possible, really. And then in game three, she had 23 points, 17 rebounds. I mean, Copper's in like her sixth season, so she's not that new, but she's really just emerging as a force of nature. And Turner’s in her third season, I believe. But like, these are going to be all-stars every single year. Take it to the bank. It's an embarrassment of riches in this league.
Amira: Well, there you have it folks, our fall festival roundup spectacular, with all five of us back together again.Be on the lookout though for our Patreon space, because there's lots of opportunities coming up to join us for watch parties, whether it's WNBA playoffs, certain derbies coming up. We will be there with our opinions, as always. We have eyes on many different sports, and now after this roundup hopefully you'll have a little bit of eyes in those places as well.
Public comments made last week by a handful of NBA players and the subsequent conversation that followed both had me feeling a type of way. Okay, many types of ways. So I called up friend of the show, Dr. Courtney Cox, and invited her back on to break it down with me. But we didn't stop there. We also invited Dr. Brooklyne Gipson from the University of Illinois and Dr. Candis Watts Smith from Duke University to join us in a roundtable where we put it all on the table. We ask questions of each other, we talk about everything from the NBA to what happened to “shut up and dribble” to Ted Cruz's co-signing your thoughts – what do you even do with your life at that point? [laughs] We talked about if the emphasis is in the wrong place, with a league approaching 96% vaccination rate; with the WNBA, a blueprint for modeling vaccinations in a league, you know, who are we giving a platform to? We also talk about disinformation in digital spaces, and more. Yep. We get through a lot, all of that coming at you on Thursday. Check it out.
All right y’all, we are going to burn some stuff now, and I will start. I want to burn the arena problems that the Phoenix Mercury are facing yet again. This is not new, but it's still bullshit. So, they are currently in the WNBA playoffs. In their first round they faced an issue where they couldn't play in the Footprint Center, which is their downtown arena that they usually play in, because Maluma was having a concert. So, that's already annoying, because as much as I like Maluma, they shouldn't be displaced because of a concert. Brittney Griner said it's really fucking frustrating. And I’m like, yeah, understood! And then in this current round that they're in, they've seen not one but two conflicts.
The first made a pivotal game three be moved to Arizona State's arena, which is a college arena. It is not downtown, and it is not their home area. Why did they move? Well, because of fucking Disney On Ice. Listen, maybe you're like me and you’re also traumatized after years of sitting through Disney On Ice shows, which made this just even worse. But on the fourth night of a Disney On Ice show, they are moved out to ASU to play this pivotal game three. Not to mention that they were supposed to have game four also out of ASU because the Lakers and the Phoenix Suns were playing a preseason game. Yeah, that's right. An NBA preseason game was going to move a WNBA pivotal playoff game to a different location.
That is the most frustrating thing, and reportedly it’s because the Lakers, the holdup…They eventually got it moved, but the Lakers wanted to broadcast it on their like Laker spectrum channel or whatever. It's a preseason game! Move your asses. They did come together. They worked with the Suns together. They moved up their preseason game so that the Footprint Center was available for the Mercury, but like, why does it have to come to this? It reminded me of when the Mystics met the Storm in the WNBA finals a few years ago, and they moved the Mystics’ home games out to George Mason, which is A) not in downtown DC, B) a headache to get to, and C) George Mason has the same color as the Storm, so they're playing in a green and yellow arena, which their opponents are…That’s their colors!
And it was just like, why are we still here? Why are we still doing this? It says too much about power and priorities and scheduling, and they just deserve better for multiple reasons. But also because, you know, we've seen them lead the way on so much this year, whether it's voting rights or vaccination records, which is a different conversation that we'll get into later. But the point is, we know the W deserves better. Stop fucking playing games with their arena. This is just dumb. Burn it down.
All: Burn.
Amira: Lindsay, speaking of vaccination records, what are you burning?
Lindsay: Okay, so, I've just got like a multi-tiered burn. We've had NBA media day with NBA stars – not a lot, but a vocal minority, including like Kyrie Irving and Bradley Beal come out and say that they were not getting the vaccine, that it was a personal choice. They still might get vaccinated, but at the time of media day they were anti-vax. But you also had another contingent of NBA players, including LeBron James, and Draymond Green talk about how, yes, they got the vaccine, but they would not get involved in telling their teammates to, that they didn't want to get involved in family or personal issues. LeBron specifically said we're talking about individual bodies, we're not talking about something political or racism or police brutality. Which is just not true! [laughs] Like, the vaccine, that's just not true. I was really disappointed because LeBron says that he was hesitant, but he did research and got the vaccine. It'd be very powerful if he shared that. Once again, shoutout to the WNBA for not going this route.
But then really throwing on the burn pile Ted Cruz, who capitalized on this by tweeting that he stands with Kyrie Irving and Andrew Wiggins and Bradley Beal and Jonathan Isaac, the players not getting the vaccine. And he hashtagged it #NBA and hashtaged it #YourBodyYourChoice. And he says, “I've never said this before, but I agree with LeBron James.” He went on to quote tweet LeBron James’s quote tweet of Draymond Green’s speech about how he wouldn't force anyone or encourage anyone to get vaccinated. But anyways, Ted Cruz, what are you doing? You do nothing but tell these NBA players and the Black community in general “just shut up and dribble.” And here you are standing by them and using them for clout? No. And then of course, we're going to burn the hashtag “your body, your choice” when used to be talking about vaccines. The comparison between abortions and vaccines is just so fucking gross. It's the difference between public health and personal health, and we're are all part of our communities. So, it's kind of a multi-layered burn pile, but burn.
All: Burn.
Amira: Shireen, what are you burning?
Shireen: This one is terrible, as usual, because, you know, our burn piles are always so joyful. Trigger warning for racist abuse and white supremacy here. In the Ukrainian hockey league we have players from all over the world, and I want to specifically torch a player, Andrei Deniskin, whose horrifically egregious racist gesture offended and was directed at Jalen Smereck of the HC Donbass. And the Ukrainian team that Deniskin plays on his HC Kremenchuk. Deniskin’s a forward and he was denied an opportunity to score, and for which she targeted Smereck. And what he specifically did was pretend that he was peeling a banana and then took a bite out of it. And the worst part is, when he does this, you know exactly what the fuck is happening in that moment, and the entitlement and the horrible way in which this was done.
So, Jalen Smereck has actually decided to step away from the league as a result of this. And immediately the statements came down from the IIHF that “we stand with Jalen Smereck,” and UHL said “we stand with Jalen Smereck.” The penalty that Deniskin will actually face is he'll be suspended for three games plus a possible additional 10. So a three games suspension, but he can get out of the additional 10 if he pays a fine of $1,870. In the meantime, Jalen Smereck has stepped away from his livelihood and stepped away from what he loves because of this. And he literally said, “I will not play another game in the UHL until Andrei Deniskin is suspended or removed from the league.”
And I think this is really important to know, that the burden of this is going to fall on the Black player, and it's unacceptable. I hate this and I hate the comments coming out of the World Hockey Federation and coming out of the UHL. Even the NHL is like, “we stand with him” – what the motherfucking else are you gonna do? You’re gonna post? Some intern is going to post something on your social media? Where's the anti-racism education? Where is that? We can't just be non-racist, we need to be anti-racist and intentionally anti-racist. I want to take all of this…And it's bullshit. I want to take all of it and I want to throw it on the burn pile. Burn.
All: Burn.
Amira: Alright. Bren, what are you burning?
Brenda: This is so bad, it’s almost hilarious. So, kind of quietly this week, the Brazilian federation, the soccer federation president, the most powerful federation in the world besides maybe Germany or England, Rogerio Caboclo was suspended for one year by the Brazilian regional labor tribunal for sexual harassment of a woman who had been employed by the football federation since 2012. So, it had been ongoing, persistent. And of course it's not just her, of course there will be many more. But this particular case was egregious enough that the…Okay, sorry. You're going to…He called the woman the name for a female dog, which is the same as it is an English, the b-word, but it's the p in Portuguese. And so he was suspended for one year. Then he can come back and be the football federation president. This is only happening because the government stepped in. Not because FIFA or CONMEBOL did anything to the man, despite many reports. He has to contribute some money to a women's organization, but he also has to contribute to a dog charity.
Amira: Are you serious?
Brenda: I am so fucking serious right now. So, is it an insult to dogs?
Amira: [laughs] What!?
Brenda: What is the message? What is the message? Are dogs out there feeling offended that they were mixed up with women? I really can't for the life of me figure it out. I haven't parsed it out. I don't think I need to. I think I could just burn it. So, burn.
All: Burn.
Amira: All right, Jessica. Bring us home.
Jessica: Okay. So, a note that I'm going to be talking about sexual violence in my burn, because some things are always the same. On Thursday last week, Sports Illustrated's Priya Desai and Jenny Vrentas wrote a piece about two decades of reports of sexual harassment and assault against players on the University of San Francisco men's soccer team, and the fact that the school did little to address these problems. That time period covers the tenure of three coaches, two school presidents and four athletic directors. The one, Scott Sidwell was there for the majority of the time. Sidwell, spoiler alert, is now a deputy athletic director at Penn State. I honestly struggled to narrow down what even to say in this burn pile because the piece is so long and there's so much in there worthy of being mentioned here. So just know that what I'm going to talk about is the tip of the iceberg of what Priya and Jenny reported.
A social media post this past summer led to “dozens of past and present USF students posting accounts spanning nearly 20 years of sexual harassment or abuse by members of the men's soccer team.” Dozens, y’all. The soccer program at San Francisco is good. It has won five NCAA titles and, over the last 25 years, sent 14 players to the MLS. That shouldn't necessarily matter, but we all know that it does when we're talking about this stuff. After that social media outpouring last summer, the school hired a law firm, Hulst & Handler, to investigate. They found that “eleven soccer players accused of engaging in sexual misconduct” over the past decade. But also, ultimately concluded that the players' sexual misconduct and disrespectful behavior toward women and queer individuals, “was not pervasive among members of the USF men's soccer team,” and that the university acted “diligently” in response to reported allegations.
Plenty of people harmed by players felt this was, to say the least, a shit conclusion. As I spoke to multiple women who had reported issues with the team across the years, including one who reported way back in 2003 that players were filming women without consent in intimate settings with their teammates. In 2012, a student reporter was going to cover the issue, but was shut down by the school. But the school did its own investigation at that time, during which a former men's soccer player said that a teammate once referred to group sex as “team bonding.”
Finally, Priya and Jenny looked at the specific case of Manny Padilla. Padilla played a bit in the MLS and was most recently with the New Mexico United in the USL. He was dismissed from that team last summer after USF confirmed that in 2015 the school found Padilla was in violation of their sexual misconduct policy because he'd sexually assaulted another student, touching her without her consent. He remained at the school and on the team. He was placed on university probation until May 2017 and given a deferred suspension until May 2016, meaning it would go into effect only if he committed another offense. He did though violate his no contact order by asking a teammate to try to convince the woman to drop her complaint. She dropped out of school because of everything that happened with this case.
Sidwell, the AD who is now at Penn State, never told the men's soccer coach about the finding of responsibility against Padilla, and the school continued to use him and their media around the team featuring him, promoting him. This piece was really hard to read. I want to thank Priya and Jenny for this reporting, and I just want to throw all of this into a flaming bonfire of a burn pile. Burn.
All: Burn.
Amira: After all that burning, is time to light up and lift up some torchbearers of the week. Shireen, who are our on the call torchbearers of the week?
Shireen: Jessica Mendoza and Melanie Newman are the first all-women duo to call an MLB game.
Amira: Awesome. I will go next, to shout out our testifier of the week: Karl-Anthony Towns, who opens up about what he has gone through in the last year, losing family members, particularly his mother to COVID, and then battling COVID himself. It is on a SI cover, a beautiful story by Michael Pina, please go check it out. He also talks about how he's managing to find his way back to himself after ripples and ripples and waves of grief over the last year. Next, Brenda, who do we have as our champion of the week?
Brenda: Aleshia Ocasio dominated the 2021 Athletes Unlimited softball season to become the second champion in the league.
Amira: Jessica, who is our world record breaker of the week?
Jessica: AT the 2021 World Raw Powerlifting Federation meet in Kansas City, Tamara Walcott scored a new Raw world record deadlift of 288.5 kilograms. That is 636 pounds that she lifted off of the ground. That's incredible.
Amira: Amazing. Brenda, who's our attorney of the week?
Brenda: Attorney Jennifer Abruzzo in the Biden administration, who declared that the NCAA athletes can unionize, and advising them against it is a violation of NLRA, and that basically is amazing after four years of presidential administrations pretending that that legislation doesn't exist. So yay!
Amira: And multiple decades of the insistence that student athletes love amateurism. [laughter] All right. Our MVP of the week is, no surprise here: forward Jonquel Jones from the Connecticut Sun, getting 48 out of 49 first place votes for the league MVP. This year, she led her team to a league best 26 and 6. She averaged 19.4 points, 11.2 rebounds. 2.8 assists, 1.3 block shots and 1.3 shields. That is the making of an MVP, my friends. All right. Can I get a drumroll, please?
[drumroll]
Shireen, who are our torchbearers of the week?
Shireen: I wanna special shoutout to the NWSLPA backing up Sinead, Mana, and Kaiya, and all those who have been impacted by the abuse, coercion, and torture, and maltreatment by coach Paul Riley and other coaches in women's soccer. Thank you to Meg Linehan and Katie Strang, friends of the show, for this incredible reporting at The Athletic, which dropped last week. And a very specific thank you to the NWSLPA for what they said was, “The NWSL has failed us. We are taking our power back.”
Amira: And we all stand behind you as you do. All right, friends, what is good in your worlds? I really want to know. It's so great to have all of us together again to share this. Brenda, I will start with you.
Brenda: Okay. So, I got tickets for the live show of Letterkenny in February. I'm really excited about that. Oh yeah! And in Central Park last weekend, I saw Billie Eilish on accident. [laughs] It was like a…I don't know, a UN environmental thing?
Jessica: Was she performing or did you like walk past her? [laughter]
Brenda: No, no. She was performing. I don't know how, like, nature-y, hike-y she is. I don't know if she's an environmentalist, but she played in one–
Shireen: She has a new sneaker collaboration with Nike that Kia Nurse was wearing, so…
Brenda: She definitely wore sneakers and bounced around, and I couldn't believe she was 19, and she did a lot of kind of feminist ecological talk, and it was nice to see the youth out there. Coldplay played as well. At the very end, surprise! Paul Simon came out [Shireen gasps] to do a couple of songs, including The Boxer and The Sound of Silence and, yeah, right? And like half of the people there were so young, they were like, what? Santa’s up, you know? But I was like, oh no, damn! Like, that's so sort of monumental, right? Him in Central Park. And I always think of my parents having that record album of Simon and Garfunkel live in Central Park. So, I videoed it for them and sent it. So it was fun!
Amira: So nice. That's amazing. What's good for you, Linz?
Lindsay: My what's good is simple. It's that I'm in Houston right now on a reporting trip and, you know, I’ve tweeted it so I guess I can talk about it: I’m working on a podcast series, a deep dive podcast on the Houston Comets. I am so excited. And so, in Houston with my team, doing in-person masked reporting, and I love it so much. And I'm going to get to see Jessica and Amira later this week. So, extra excited about that as well.
Amira: That’s amazing. Shireen, what's good in your world?
Shireen: Well, if you asked me last week, I would have said the Blue Jays, because they were winning, and now they've entered this thing with the Yankees, and I’m stressed and I don't love that, because I told Jessica this morning, I'm a hockey/soccer player. Why am I stressed in September? This is not normal! It's not good for me! I don't need this. I deserve better. Anyways, hanging on to hope for them. I love teaching. I absolutely love my students. We had a mock media availability with the Rams basketball team, and they were professional and I love them. I was like such a proud instructor watching them all have the presser etiquette and, you know, it was just wonderful.
Amira: Awesome. I am thrilled about the CBS Champs League coverage desk! Micah Richards, Kate, Jamie – they are funny, and when I tell you, like, I am laughing. I am logging on for Champs League coverage like an hour before game start to laugh, because it is like watching a real life Roy Kent comment on…It’s the funniest thing to me. So, that has brought me much unexpected joy. I'm also really happy about this little cold front we had come through. So it has felt like fall here in Austin, Texas. I've got to wear my hoodies.
Jessica: You’re such a southerner now, [Amira laughs] like, the cold front means that it's in the 60s and upper 80s, [laughter] and like, I'm in a sweater. I'm like, “It's so chilly!” [laughs]
Amira: And we’re all wrapped up. Like, “It's so cold!” [laughs] And also I have to say, I've already gotten my boys’ Halloween costumes. They were decisive this year. They were really easy and cheap and in stock.
Jessica: What are they?
Amira: The little one's going to be Miles Morales, which is something that Jackson already did. But when Jackson was Miles Morales, he wore…It was like the jacked up suit, before it was souped up. So he had the hoodie and the shorts over like the black tights and then like some high tops. And Zachary has like, if Miles’ suit actually gets hooked up, and so it has like padded muscles. So, Jackson's kind of mad about it. And then Jackson's going as, in his words, the Black Shang-Chi. So, he is very excited. He wants to find 10 rings to throw at people – by people he means his brother and sister, not just like random trick or treaters. [laughter] But he has the staff instead. So they are both going as Marvel characters, which is completely on brand I feel like. So that is really happy because it's kicking off what is a very busy spooky season around these parts. Jessica, what's good for you?
Jessica: Last weekend, I went away to Comfort, Texas, which is west of here in the hill country with three of my friends from my romance novel book club. And we went to Camp Comfort, which is like little cabins, and we spend a bunch of time…One of my friends, Cheasty, is really good at starting and maintaining fires, which was like a new thing I learned about her after 15 years of friendship. So we sat around the campfire and she played a guitar and we all sang together and we ate a bunch of junk food and talked a lot and played a new game to me called Farkle. And I won, so that was great. As Aaron would say, never play games with me. And then Amira and I are going to Houston later this week for a project that we will hopefully soon tell you all about, that we're very excited about. But the really exciting thing is that Lindsay is also in Houston for work, so we will get to see Linz in person on Thursday, and we are really excited about that! So, I'm looking forward to it.
Shireen: Selfies! Selfies, please.
Amira: We're watching a bunch of stuff, because we already told you this is a hectic time of the sporting calendar. So if you are like Shireen and into the baseballs, you have tonight on Tuesday when this comes out, the wild card game in the American League versus the Red Sox and the Yankees, they're at Fenway. That is tonight 8:00pm Eastern. On Wednesday, you’ll see the Cardinals and the Dodgers face off in the National League wild card game. And then starting Friday and all through the weekend, you'll have the opening games of the division series.
Turning to basketball, both WNBA semifinals have gone to game four. The Sun faces off versus the Sky at 8:00pm Eastern on Wednesday, October 6th. Later that night, 10:00pm Eastern, the Aces take on the Mercury. If there are game fives necessary, they will be on Friday, October 8th at night. And of course on Sunday, October 10th, we will have the WNBA finals game one at 3:00pm Eastern on ABC. Lastly, we're in the international break in global soccer, so there are lots of World Cup qualifiers across many leagues. Check your local listings for whatever team you're trying to track or follow. There should be some good games coming up.
That's it for this episode of Burn It All Down. This episode was produced by Tressa Versteeg. Shelby Weldon, of course, on our webs and socials, and Burn It All Down is part of the Blue Wire podcast network. You can follow us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram. Listen, rate, subscribe to the show wherever you get your podcasts. For show links and transcripts, you can check out our website, burnitalldownpod.com. You'll also find a link to our merch store over at Bonfire, our Patreon, of course. Especially for you patrons out there, be on the lookout. There's a few watch parties coming up. We've got some great events on the horizon. And as always, it's a pleasure to feel your love and support and keep bringing you guys these episodes. It was so good to have all of us all back together for this wild fall festival roundup. So from me, Brenda, Lindsay, Shireen and Jessica: burn on, not out. And we'll see you next week, flamethrowers.