Episode 266: Buckle Up! It's the Fall Sports Mayhem Mash-Up Whip-Around
In this episode, Amira Rose Davis, Jessica Luther and Lindsay Gibbs recap the current madness of fall sports. But first, they share memorable moments from their live show at the University of Notre Dame.
Then, they discuss all things fall and sports, including updates on rookie quarterbacks and the start to the NFL; the MLB post-season; soccer, including English Premier League football standings and both the NWSL and MLS playoffs; F1 racing drama; college sports like football, soccer, volleyball and basketball; and excitement around the newest NBA season.
Following this discussion, they preview a special Patreon segment about the rise of pickleball's popularity. Then, you'll here a preview of this week's interview with Notre Dame Athletic Director Jack Swarbrick.
Next, they burn some of the worst in sports on the Burn Pile. Then, they celebrate those shining light, including Torchbearer of the Week, Elnaz Rebaki, the Iranian climber who recently competed in the IFSC Asian Championship without a hijab, breaking Iran's legal dress code. Though Rebaki has stated climbing without a head covering was an accident, many see it as an act of solidarity with protests in Iran over the murder of Mahsa Amini.
They wrap up the show with What's Good and What We'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, the feminist sports podcast you need. I'm Amira, and I am joined today by Jessica and Lindsay. Hi, y'all.
Jessica: Hi!
Lindsay: [laughs] Amira, the Texas, the y'all. I love it. [laughter]
Jessica: This is just how we speak here.
Lindsay: I know it's infiltrated Amira. I love it.
Amira: I've said y'all my entire life, but that's okay.
Lindsay: I'm gonna pretend like it's a new thing.
Amira: Okay. [laughs] But it's also very cold. I just want everybody to know that. I'm making soup today.
Jessica: I feel like we should be clear on what cold means to Amira and I. It's like 61 degrees outside.
Amira: It is raining, so that like makes it colder.
Jessica: And it's gonna make it to like 70.
Lindsay: I'll pray for you. [laughter]
Amira: Lindsay, you are also in a warm weather environment, but all of us got to see each other just last week in a real proper fall environment up in South Bend, Indiana, where the leaves are different colors and the air is cold and crisp. And it was lovely to see all of your faces. So, before we get into the show, I wanted to know what was your favorite moment from Notre Dame last week?
Jessica: I mean, I always love meeting and talking to students, and Dr. Annie Coleman did a nice job of making sure that we got to spend time with students, talking to them about what they do and what we do. And I just always find that invigorating, because you're like, ahh, there are people carrying this torch behind us. But I mean, honestly, one of my favorite things was that first night that we were there, the five of us ended up at the hotel bar together, drinking and eating. And I just loved seeing you all. And I loved that when we were the five of us together, not performing in some way, not with another group, where we could just like hang out together. So, that.
Amira: That was fun.
Lindsay: That was the highlight. The show itself though was really good. Live shows are so fun. But I think this might have been our best audience and our best Q&A yet, like, I don't know the questions were just so smart. You know, we did a show on a really heavy topic, but it felt like everyone was really engaged, and that was so special. But yeah, also the food at the hotel bar was so good.
Jessica: Yeah, the food!
Amira: Creamed kale.
Lindsay: So, it was just, there's a lot of highlights.
Amira: It was. It was the hugs, just being all together for their first time in three years was a lot of fun. Was really nice. And it's funny because, you know, there's only been a handful of times that we've actually all been together, but just in doing this for five years and seeing each other on a weekly basis and communicating all the time across multiple platforms, like, you just don't lose a step. You know what I mean? Like, it just feels like home. So, it was nice.
Lindsay: I was gonna say, we also got to go on the field. That was really cool. I feel like we should add, like, thank you so much to the people at Notre Dame who allowed us to go onto the football field and see the locker room. And I mean, we are a cynical bunch when it comes to the grandeur of college football, [laughs] but I think we all felt like it was an important place, and it was pretty cool.
Amira: Yeah. Jessica got to hit her ‘play like a champion’ sign.
Jessica: I did. And we went down the tunnel. Like, we went down the tunnel that they run out of.
Amira: I ran. I ran out. Yeah.
Jessica: Amira ran out of it. And the nice man who was standing guard of the field, he was adorable. We couldn't technically get on the field because they were monitoring it. But you could just tell that all the people that were very proud to be there and, yeah, it was grand. And that feels good, down on the field like that.
Lindsay: And the security guard there told us that women's basketball is his favorite event to work, [Jessica laughs] and he didn't even know who we were.
Jessica: There wasn't a pander. Yeah.
Lindsay: Like, he wasn't even catering that to us, like for a specific reason. It was not a pander. [laughs]
Amira: LOL. And as Lindsay said, our live show itself was actually great. If you haven't listened to it, that episode is out now. Also on Patreon is our full Q&A from that Notre Dame event, was just as lively and really fun as well. So, check those things out. All right, y’all, it's that time of year in sports where chaos is ensuing. I can't even sort out in my brain what sports are going in, what are coming out, what's happening. It feels like there's storylines abound. So I want to join y'all in a conversation of chaos. Can we do a fall sports mayhem mashup whip around of things? Yes?
Lindsay: Yes.
Jessica: Yeah, let's do it.
Amira: All right, well buckle up–
Jessica: Tressa, please name the episode whatever Amira just said. [laughter]
Amira: Buckle up, because it's a ride.
Lindsay: Buckle up. Okay.
Amira: We are taking a ride.
Jessica: Let's do it. Let's do it.
Amira: Strap in. We will start with a football, because it's fall, and if you ever go get one of those things from Home Goods that's like apple cider, pumpkin, football, fall leaves, it's like a quintessential fall thing. None of us are really paying much attention to the NFL these days. Lindsay, I did see a tweet yesterday about the Panthers. [laughter] It was a recap of the Panthers drives and it goes, “First drive: 3 plays, 7 yards, punt. Second drive: 3 plays, 9 yards, punt. Third drive: 2 plays, negative one yard. End of half. Fourth drive: 3 plays, 7 yards, punt.” And Lindsay said, “Is this bad?” [laughter]
Jessica: Wow.
Lindsay: Thank you for reading that verbatim again, Amira, and letting me relive the glory.
Amira: [laughs] I literally memorized it because it was so terrible. They didn't get a first down for like…Did they get a first down by the end of the game?
Lindsay: Well, I don’t...You know, we've got like the backup to our backup is in there, and it's still this Temple guy and Matt Rhule's now gone. But you know, he had these Temple guys, which like, I don't know, there's just not many Temple players in the NFL. [laughs]
Amira: Hey, excuse me. Owls are everywhere, I'll have you know know!
Lindsay: Okay. Well…
Amira: I have to ride for Temple briefly.
Jessica: But not a lot in the NFL, though. [laughter] I mean, we could admit this.
Lindsay: But I think a giant percentage of the ones in the NFL are still on the Panthers roster and still making a lot of money. That's like our backup quarterback, because Baker Mayfield couldn't go, and Sam Darnold…These names are so depressing. And then–
Jessica: I didn't even know Baker Mayfield was a Panther.
Lindsay: Yeah. And then PJ Washington, that's his name, he ended up getting injured, and so we had a quarterback in that I never even seen before or heard of before. And it was so funny, because like, he completed a few passes and they got to like the red zone, and everyone was like, oh! And then he immediately threw an interception into the red zone. We were all like, [laughter] oh!
Jessica: Oh, the painful roller coaster.
Amira: I just like how they said, oh! [laughs]
Lindsay: Yeah. [laughs]
Amira: Ay ay ay. Well, I'm in the same kind of boat as you, Linz, in that I haven't really watched a Patriots game this year, but I looked up a few weeks ago when they were playing the Packers, because Mac Jones was out with injuries, so Brian Hoyer was playing, and then he got concussed, so they brought in this rookie Bailey Zappe? Zay-pay? Zah-peh?
Lindsay: That's a made up name. [laughs]
Amira: Right? I was unsure.
Jessica: Yeah. I was like, is this a real person?
Amira: I kind of feel like it’s “zap” because somebody had a headline that was like, “Zappe zaps the Browns.” Which is the only thing I have to go on at this point. He's a rookie, but he came in and he brought them to overtime with the Packers, like very...You know, he's surprising people. He had to start last week and they won, and then this week they were playing the Browns. Cleveland has been not terrible. But they ended up winning versus Browns 38-15. And so now there's a quarterback controversy because they're like, when Mac Jones comes back, should the rookie Zappe still start? And I'm just kind of here for this like rookie storyline controversy, whose name I cannot say, but like keeps winning as the third string rookie quarterback is always a story I can get behind.
Lindsay: This is not the same as what I'm going through, Amira. [laughter] You're so full of shit! [laughs] I'm trying to sympathize with you, oh, but my guys, my bad guys are doing too much winning! [laughter]
Amira: I was just saying I don't know his name. That's what I was relating on. [laughter] Anyways, so, things in football are weird. The NFC East is like good. The Eagles, the Cowboys and the Giants are all like really good. I don't like it.
Jessica: The Cowboys are good?
Amira: The Cowboys are good. Well, last night they were 4-1 playing the 5-0 Eagles last night on Sunday night football. My brother who's an Eagles fan and my dad of course is a huge Cowboys fan. I was just like, sending them emojis to try to instigate between them. [Lindsay laughs] None of them took the bait. [laughs] They clearly blocked me. Anyways, Eagles went up 20-0 in the first half. It looks like they were gonna run away with it, but the Cowboys somehow started coming back. And this is again with Cooper Rush, their backup quarterback. Micah obviously really holding it down. He didn't have a great first half, but really started putting pressure on the defense in the second half. And so then it was a 20-17 game and it was like, ooh, this is exciting. The Cowboys ended up losing. The Eagles pulled it out because they're like, Jalen Hurts is great, and apparently they're real. But that leads me to my transition out football to baseball, which is–
Lindsay: Wait, I’ll do this one line. One line. Tom Brady is bad, and it is fun. Okay, done. [laughs]
Amira: Oh yeah.
Jessica: Oh, I have one NFL thing. Dan Snyder still sucks. That's the only thing that I have kept up with in the NFL.
Lindsay: Yeah. Yeah.
Amira: Dan Snyder still sucks. Tom Brady screaming at his O line and everybody captioning it with what he's saying. Like, “I lost my family for you! The least you could do is block!” [laughter] Never ceased to humor me yesterday. But also Dan Snyder, who’s like, if nobody's seen the report, Dan Snyder digging up dirt on the other owners. And there's this great line where he's like, “It's like the wild, wild west. Everybody hates each other.” And another owner was like, “No, everybody just hates Dan.” [laughter]
Jessica: So yeah, still sucks.
Amira: So you know, we're sitting here with popcorn. Tear each other apart. Love to see it. But yeah, we're also in the upside down because the Eagles are good? And the Phillies are good? And that means there's a happy Philadelphia, which I love. I love a happy Philly. But it also is like clear evidence that we're living at the end of times. So, as we leave football behind, we get into baseball. We’re in postseason baseball. Newsflash: the Houston Astros are still very good at baseball. And I knew that they were good, but like, I was watching them clinch their divisional series, and they were like, for the sixth consecutive year. I was like, I knew they were good, but I didn't think they were like that dominantly good in the postseason, like, that they were always in contention. Reminds me of the Patriots like always being in the AFC title game.
Lindsay: Really, really, really–
Jessica: [laughs] She can't help it. She can't help it.
Amira: They were there, Lindsay.
Lindsay: Oh my god.
Amira: They were there, Lindsay.
Lindsay: Oh my god.
Amira: And so, that's how I feel about the Astros. I just looked up and I was like, wow, they're very good at baseball still, apparently. So anyways, I haven't been watching much of the baseball playoffs. Have you guys caught any of it?
Lindsay: I watched like the 17th and 18th innings the other night, [laughs] because that was ridiculous.
Jessica: Yeah, there was like marathon baseball recently. I saw that. Yeah.
Amira: It was like people in the 13th being like, this will be over soon! It's like, you have so long. Jeez. And meanwhile, we're over here in Formula 1, where they're like, we have to finish the race in under two hours! And baseball's like, we are going all day. Strap in.
Jessica: Until we die. Yeah. My only thing about baseball at this point is my relief over and over and over again whenever the Cleveland team comes up and their name is the Guardians. And Amira and I were talking about this, like, it takes a second to put all the pieces together because we're so used to their former name, but I always feel such relief that they changed their name. They're still good and I don't have to hear some racist shit every time someone mentions the team. That’s just nice.
Amira: It's lovely.
Jessica: I think Kansas City should pay attention. [laughs]
Amira: And I do really like how it just like, everybody's like, oh, the world's gonna end when we change these names. And I looked up the other day and they were like, the Guardians! And I know I looked up and it was Cleveland. It was fine.
Jessica: Yeah. They're winning. [laughs]
Amira: Yeah. They're all good.
Jessica: It’s been fine.
Amira: All good. All good. If you're into baseball, please let us know what also is going on, because clearly we will keep catching the 17th and 18th inning of marathon baseball. That's about where it is.
Jessica: I'll check in at the World Series.
Amira: There you go. All right. Moving on to soccer. Let’s start globally with like proper footy. In the Premier League, I just have to say, we're at an interesting place in the soccer calendar, of course, because Premier League is really just starting up there in their first month, but domestically in the US, as we'll get to in a second, they're winding down into the postseason. And then of course the World Cup just continues to loom in mere weeks at this point, y'all. So, I have to say, if you're not following the Premier League and you want to pick a team and go all in, this might be the year to do it, because it is fairly wide open. The only unbeaten record was toppled this weekend. Man City was the only team to not lose so far. Liverpool beat them 1-0. Liverpool is not having a great season, so it makes it very topsy-turvy.
Everybody, like whether you're an Arsenal supporter, a Liverpool supporter, if you're a Wolves fan or Tottenham or you're United, like, it is just kind of chaos. Everybody is kind of good and really good, but then also terrible, and so you never know what you're gonna get. So if you are waiting for a year to get involved in the English Premier League, you wanna get up early on the weekends and suffer with the rest of us, here is your invitation and your opening to do that. Things are heating up.
Jessica: That's interesting, Amira, because they're gonna take a huge break.
Amira: Yes.
Jessica: To do the World Cup, and then come back to do the second part of the season. So if it's already chaotic, who knows what you're gonna see.
Amira: I mean, exactly. Then you get all these very tired players coming back. And actually that's why the MLS started their season early, so they could wrap up. And MLS is probably one of the least impacted leagues by the World Cup. [laughs] So it'll be interesting to see. So, as the Premier League is starting to kick into drive here, MLS and NWSL, of course, are hitting their postseason frenzy. Jessica, there was a little game. Would you like to talk about it?
Jessica: I do wanna…I’m sitting here in my bright green Austin FC three stripe Adidas jacket in this cold weather that we talked about at the top. Austin FC played their first ever playoff match at home yesterday against Real Salt Lake, and it went to PKs. Austin is…I don't even know how to describe this team this season. It has been up and down, but they finished second in the west. They have Sebastián Driussi, who is one of the best players in the league, if not the best player in the league. And we have our great goalkeeper, Brad Stuver–
Amira: Stuuuuu!
Jessica: Who we've interviewed on this show. It went to PKs and the two goals that we scored were Driussi. And then Brad was amazing! Like, I can't overstate how good he was in PKs. He blocked two, and then the fourth one, the guy just whiffed. Like, it was like he was scared of Stuver. And they won. I mean, and the second block was amazing. He hit it off the top of the crossbar. He like got his fingers on it. Oh my gosh.
Amira: It wasn't like a standard dive and block. It was like up.
Jessica: No. And he just was scrambling to get back up, because we didn't know if the ball was gonna bounce in after it hit the ground again, and it didn't. It went the other direction. It was wonderful. So, they'll play again. I was exhausted at the end of the match. Like, I was trying not to cry. I felt like Amira. [Amira laughs] I was trying not to cry during PKs, like, what was happening to me? And we're gonna do it again in a week. They’ll play either Dallas or Minnesota. They play tonight. When y'all hear this, by the time y'all hear this, we'll know exactly who's playing. I did wanna, for those who care at all about the MLS – or not. If you wanna just catch a good playoff game on Thursday night, the day that this episode drops, LAFC, which got a bye for the first round because they finished number one overall in the league, they will be hosting the LA Galaxy, their crosstown rival.
And when these two teams play during the regular season, it's a huge deal. So the fact that they're gonna meet in the playoffs, that's one and done. LAFC is really good. They could win the whole thing. But if any team can stop them…And they've had a bye, which people say isn't always great, that rest can actually hurt a team, even if they're very good. So, that should be fun on Thursday. But then I of course care mainly about what will happen on Sunday night at 8:00pm eastern, 7:00pm central time, at Q2 Stadium down the road from here.
Amira: And we will note, FC Dallas is playing Minnesota the day we're recording this, on Monday, to see who they're playing. And like, if you want mayhem, let Dallas win.
Jessica: I know. That’s our big rival. I will just tell everyone that the supporters of Austin call FC Dallas “Frisco,” because that's where their stadium is actually located, in Frisco. And it took me…I was like, I didn't get it. I was like, there's no team in San Francisco. [Amira laughs] Like, I had to really put those pieces together.
Amira: Jessica. [laughs]
Jessica: I know. I'm admitting that out loud here. But we'll see. It would be great if Austin FC played Frisco at home here.
Amira: It would be wild. It would be a weekend to remember, because of things that I will tell you in two seconds. But first, Lindsay, what is going on in the NWSL playoffs?
Lindsay: Yeah, it was a really exciting weekend. Quote unquote quarter finals, though two teams had a bye, so not full quarter finals. But Kansas City defeated Houston 2-1 with a goal in the 10th minute of added time by Kate Del Fava.
Jessica: It was a great goal too.
Lindsay: Both of these games were so good. And then you had San Diego over Chicago in extra time, with a phenomenal goal by Alex Morgan. Alex Morgan's having the best season of her career, which is just really cool to see a player in their thirties as a mom, like, have their best season of their career. After like…I mean, it's not like she was shabby to begin with, right? [laughter] You know, I mean, it's so cool. But both OL Reign and Portland Thorns got byes, and so they're awaiting. OL Reign won the shield, but they will face Kansas City next week, whereas the Wave will go to Portland to face the Thorns. The biggest thing was, even beyond just how good the games were, was that Houston set an NWSL record, 21,284. This was a playoff record for attendance. And then it was broken later that same day with 26,125 playoff record crowd in San Diego. And so just really cool stuff for the NWSL.
And I know with everything going on, with the Yates report that we talked about last week, there's a lot of people who are like, should I even be supporting this league right now? And I get it, trust me. But Bella Bixby wrote a great kind of note to fans of the Portland Thorns, just kind of talking about how, you know, she totally understands if the games are not a safe space for you, and if like it's not healthy for you to go. But also said that, you know, if you are on the fence, this is what I offer you from a player's perspective. “Whether you support the Thorns or any other team in the league, or women's soccer across the globe, we need you more now than ever. Seeing our supporters packing the stadium lets us know that you are bearing this heavy burden with us. We ultimately have no choice but to carry the realities on the field. But you may have some choice on if you wanna bear that with us. And so showing up at a game days and act with solidarity with the women on the field.”
Jessica: God, I love that.
Lindsay: So that made me cry.
Jessica: Yeah. Wow.
Lindsay: Yeah.
Jessica: I will say I was, I was sad for the Dash because this was their first playoff game ever. They had never made the postseason. So to see them lose it at the last second like that, ugh. But that's so exciting to know that Houston had shown up for them.
Lindsay: A sold out crowd! Yeah.
Jessica: I love it.
Lindsay: It's huge.
Amira: I would say that these crowds are impressive and also lively. Like, I got chills watching all the pink towels in the air being waved around while the Wave was playing…Ooh, look what I did there. “Waved” around while the Wave was playing. Anyways, so it made me absolutely–
Lindsay: She doesn't even need anyone to encourage her. She just encourages herself on this. [laughter]
Amira: But it did make me excited still, of course, there's been an effort to bring the NWSL to Austin, impeded by a few other bureaucratic political barriers as well. But it made me really interested to see how the amazing atmosphere at Q2 would translate into women's soccer. And of course the national team opened up play at Q2. But still, I'm just like, as just like a thought experiment, I just wanna see–
Jessica: Yeah, me too.
Amira: Just like once, you know? So, anywho. As we move on from soccer, I want to take a brief detour into the world of motorsports, specifically Formula 1. Here's where things stand. Max Verstappen won his second* world title last week in Suzuka. It was actually hilarious because nobody knew that he won and everybody thought he was still a point off from winning, so everybody was like nonchalant about it. The interview ended and he walked away and the interview person literally was like, oh, wait, Max, come back, you're world champion! And he didn't get it, so he was just like smiling, and he was like, yeah, yeah. And then they go back into this little room where you have sound and video after a race.
Jessica: It's just the drivers.
Amira: Yeah, just the drivers. It's very like panopticon-y. You just like are watching them like Big Brother, you're just like watching what they say to each other. And in that little room, they were like, congrats, Max, you're world champion. He was like, but I'm not though. And they were like, yeah, you are! And he was like, no, they told me I'm not. And then they're like, no, you are definitely…You just won. And he was like, oh, really? And so he's not celebrating because he's just so confused.
Jessica: Like, one of the things about F1 is how little everyone understands the rules all the time. [laughs]
Amira: Oh no, there's no rules. And even when there are rules, they're not followed. [laughs] So, everybody's debate about if he got enough points to win because of like their interpretation of the rules about how points are awarded was fascinating, because we were like, this sport is wild. Nobody knows what's happening. Everybody's just making it up as it goes. So, that race is decided. There's still four more races on the calendar. This weekend they will be here in Austin, Texas at the Circuit of the Americas. Do I have any chill about it? No, I do not. When me and Jess got off the plane coming from South Bend, they had a big sticker on the floor that said it's time, y’all! Formula 1 is–
Jessica: She yelled.
Amira: I screamed.
Jessica: She literally yelled in the airport.
Amira: I was like, I'm so excited! I’m so excited. And now we get F1 Grand Prix in Austin, followed by Austin FC game, like literally the minute after.
Jessica: Literally.
Amira: I will be unable. I will just not be functioning. So I'm very excited. Of course, the Formula 1 calendar then will go to Mexico City, followed by Rio, and then they end in Abu Dhabi. While the driver's championship is settled, the constructor’s championship still needs to be shored up. There's still some stuff to drive for, and a lot of people are also driving to keep their jobs for next year. There's still two seats up for grabs. Jessica, you wanna tell us about the state of the W Series?
Jessica: Yeah, well it's canceled. Or they canceled the last 4, 5 events. The one starting in Austin, which is such a bummer for us, because we were possibly gonna go watch the W Series when it was here. And so yeah, they just apparently have run outta money, which is a chronic problem. I mean, motorsports are really expensive. I think I read somewhere that Formula 3, to run a season, is €3 million. Formula 2 is €6 million. The W Series was created so that the women didn't have to go out and actually find sponsors. And so they were racing in their own series, Formula 3 series. So there was a whole debate over like ghettoizing the women into their own thing rather than having them race alongside the men, which they’d normally do. So it's definitely disappointing. I do wanna shout out a piece by Hazel Southwell at ESPN that I adored, where she made the argument that F1 could, FIA, F1, they could do something about this if they really wanted to. They could help fund these women to drive.
And I just wanna quote this one part that she has. She wrote, “Collectively, motorsport has taken a nature documentary makers' approach to careers failing. Yes, it is sad that the baby elephant will die without water that the team could give it, but intervening would be immoral. That seems, once again, to be the approach of the F1 paddock that has been happy to post W Series to its social media. As anyone in the field of content creation can attest, "exposure" has never paid a single bill.” And I just wanna say, in other stuff that Hazel has written…Jamie Chadwick is the one who won the W Series. This is the third time. But when she signed back on for the W Series this year, it was like a sad thing, because she hadn't made a Formula 3 team. And so it was like, if the whole point of the W Series was to get women into the regular Formula 3 driving…And so we'll see whether or not it pays off to get these women into these seats that they have tried so hard to get into. But yeah, a bummer. I did interview Sabré Cook last year about the W Series, if anyone is interested in hearing a little bit more about it.
Amira: Yeah, and it really was a bummer. I think me and Jess were so excited about it, and literally the day that we were like working on our credentials I had to Google something, and the first article that came up was, “The W Series might run out of money before it makes it to Austin.” And we were like, oh shit. And also I think it has to be said, Jamie Chadwick also races for Jenner Racing. And I think one of the weird things about the W Series as it's developing is Caitlin Jenner has become like a really big presence over there, which is unfortunate because Caitlin has been so transphobic and ridiculous to youth, especially trans girls in sport. To see the W negotiate her presence in the W series is something that we’ll be keeping our eye on. And I was looking forward to the rest of the season to continue to parse out a lot of these things that is now just off the table because the series isn't continuing.
So that's your brief. A note about motorsports: if you're in the drama and want to really get into the scandal, you should know there is a budget scandal abrew that the FIA has to, again, figure out if they're actually gonna enforce the rules that nobody knows. Okay, we're getting towards the end of our wonderful, wacky tour through the sporting landscape. I want to talk briefly about college sports. Have y'all been watching any college football?
Jessica: No.
Lindsay: A little bit more than usual, which is none. [Amira laughs]
Jessica: I did, you know, understand that Alabama lost this weekend. Like, I'm not in a hole, but I don't actually watch it actively.
Amira: [laughs] You're not under a rock.
Jessica: Yeah. [laughs]
Amira: Yeah. I did watch the end of the Alabama-Tennessee game, and like teared up when they played Rocky Top, but I think I was just like happy for people being happy.
Jessica: They were very happy.
Amira: I'm unclear if I cared that much. They were exceedingly happy, I have to say. I've been watching Texas games.
Jessica: I will Google the score because you'll text me something about Texas football and I'm like, oh yeah, they're playing.
Amira: Mostly I love all of these alumni in my life, like Courtney Cox, friend of the show Courtney Cox, and so I enjoy texting Courtney throughout the game because they care. I'm just here for Loreal Sarkisian’s outfits every week because she's just like bringing Black girl magic to the Texas sidelines. Yeah, college football is like happening, is like my main takeaway. It’s just still kind of rolling on. It’s still…Realignment, all of these things that we've talked about, like the changing landscape of college sports. I had a whole interview with Victoria Jackson about this just a few weeks ago. It just feels like it doesn't matter. College football is gonna continue to be this behemoth that trudges forward. I do wanna briefly talk about other college sports, because women's soccer is really great, and women's volleyball, and these are their big seasons. And the turnouts continue to be fantastic for them.
Texas volleyball is #1 in the country still. Still undefeated. Me and Jessica are going to a game next week. Had a big rivalry with Baylor up in Waco this weekend that they won. Women's soccer, seeing the familiar teams continue to be dominant, but like some other teams start to poke through as well. So if you are living near a college or wanna watch college sports but don't wanna watch college football, I highly recommend women's volleyball as well as women's soccer, which are always fantastic things to tap into. Lindsay, there's another college sport on the horizon that's about to start. What do you have your eye on?
Lindsay: Yeah, we got college basketball coming.
Jessica: Yay!
Lindsay: The women’s, it'll start…I think November 7th is tip off day, and there's some good games coming up in November. November 11th, like right out the gate, we have South Carolina-Maryland. Like, hello! And November 20th, we have South Carolina-Stanford, like hello! So, Dawn Staley has a lot for–
Jessica: Yeah, what a schedule!
Lindsay: Yeah, her schedule, she is saying hello. I looked at like Charlie Creme's bracketology over at ESPN and they've got the way too early top 25. Just to give you a sense, South Carolina, Aliyah Boston's back. They're expected to repeat, you know, they could go wire to wire number one again. But Stanford also expected to be really good, right back there again, Haley Jones and Cameron Brink are back, as well as a lot of other good returners.
Jessica: I honestly thought Haley was a senior. I was shocked to see that Haley was still on Stanford. I was thrilled, I love her, but I was like, whoa.
Lindsay: It's wild. But I think one of the biggest things to watch is Tennessee, is…Like, Charlie Creme had them at number four and predicted that there're gonna be a number one seed. So, this could be like the real year for Tennessee returning to dominance. Like, could they push South Carolina for that SEC crown? You know, it's gonna be really, really exciting. And I just think it's so good for the game to have Tennessee back at the towards the top again. And of course UConn, it's gonna be a long time since they've entered a season with this little hype. Paige Bueckers tragically tore her ACL and will be out all season. I think there'll still be a top 10 team, but you know, a little different. And ACC is just stacked top to bottom. Don't even have time to go into it. But basically everyone at ESPN has predicted a different winner for the ACC, [Amira laughs] which I just think is like really fun.
Jessica: Oh, I like that.
Amira: Yeah. So, college basketball…Which is wild to me, because it's still like September 2nd in my head, and yet college basketball is like here. And it's scary because that means it's like almost November. So, as we round up our roundup, I wanna stick to basketball. College basketball isn’t the only basketball that is about to get off the ground. Of course, the NBA is inching closer to its return. Jessica, anybody you have your eye on?
Jessica: Well, yeah. So, to be clear, by the time people hear this, NBA will have started back up, but it has not started for us at the time of recording. But yeah, last week, all of a sudden everyone was talking about Victor Wembanyama, who is, let me tell you, is a basketball player from France. He's 18. He's either 7’4” or 7’3”, depending on your news source. His wingspan though is 8’ long, and he's a good enough shooter to play point guard, even though he is 7’4”.
Amira: It’s scary.
Jessica: Yeah. He recently played in the battle royale in Las Vegas where the French team played against the NBA G League teams. He is phenomenal. If you have not seen him play, you should go. It doesn't look right because he's so tall, but he's shooting three pointers. Like, you can't block him, but then if he plays defense, you can't shoot over him. He is phenomenal. LeBron James has called him an alien. He's like, forget unicorn. Because how do you block? How do you block a 7’4” dude from shooting a three pointer? So, to be clear, I just wanna be clear here, he can't be drafted until next summer, but everyone is talking about the NBA draft because of him, and because it's supposed to be a pretty good overall class. Like, it would be great even if Victor wasn't in it, but he is.
And so the real talk here is about tanking. Like, people are saying that we have never seen a player like this in the NBA, that he is the future of the league. Like, you know, major hyperbole around this kid, but from every direction. Like, if you read anything about him, there will be a sentence about how we've never seen him before. And so the talk now is like, how many teams do we expect to tank in order to try to get him?
Amira: And this season hasn't even started yet, which is what I love. [laughs]
Jessica: It hasn't even started! It is wild. So, I didn't really…Like, I listened to people talk about him and I was like, okay. And then I went to watch and I was like, no, my brain can't make sense of what it is seeing. [Amira laughs] So, I'm excited. It'll be interesting to see. I think they'll continue to talk about the draft even as the season starts, which is a really weird thing for the NBA, but also very exciting.
Lindsay: I’d very much like the Hornets to win zero games this year. Zero games. [laughter] Please.
Jessica: And then you'll have your Wembanyama jersey, your Hornets jersey.
Lindsay: Yeah, yeah. [laughs]
Amira: Well, it's clear that there's so many things happening in the world of sports this fall. So whether you're watching playoffs of a variety of sports, soccer, baseball, whether you're getting into football, if you're going in college sports or just waiting for college basketball to start, or maybe just maybe you're watching a new sport like pickleball. That's right. There is pickleball news to be had. For more on us talking about pickleball, maybe even telling you what the hell that is, check out our Patreon, where Jess, Lindsay and I will be talking about why pickleball is a thing.
Amira: While we were at Notre Dame, Brenda and I had the chance to sit down with Notre Dame athletic director Jack Swarbrick. To hear us discuss the changing state of college sports, that conversation is available in your feeds now. Check it out.
Jack Swarbrick: And through the NCAA, we failed to articulate a new model for college athletics and we clung to an absurd model – amateurism – that made zero sense. And even after we were given that message by courts, we still pursued it.
Amira: It is now time for everybody's favorite segment, the burn pile. Lindsay, can you please kick off our burning today?
Lindsay: So, Tennessee had a huge win over the weekend in football, beating Alabama 52-49. It was a really exciting game. You know, Volunteer fans just swarmed the field, orange everywhere after the win. And they actually took down the goal post [laughs] and carried them off the field and threw them in the river, which is just like such a normal thing for somebody to do. You know, the celebration was cool to watch, but not even 24 hours later, the official Tennessee football account tweeted, “Y'all remember how we tore the goal post down, hauled him out in Neyland and dumped them in the Tennessee river? Yeah, that was awesome. Anywho, turns out that in order to play next week's game, we need goal posts on our field. Could y'all help us out?” So there's a link to something they call Volstarter, which is like, you know, get it? Kickstarter? Hah hah hah hah hah. Which is getting people to donate to help pay for the new goal posts.
Jessica: What!?
Lindsay: Obviously this is just a kitschy way to do fundraising, but it's so infuriating! They're literally like, “Make a gift…Honors history…Give $16 because it's been 16 seasons since the Vols beat Alabama…Give $52.49, the final score of the breathtaking game.” And then, you know, there are options for like $25, $100, whatever. This athletics department brings in like $130 million per year. The endowment is like $1.6 billion. I know everyone fundraises, and I know this is just like a kitschy way to do it, but this is annoying as hell. I hate it. I hate it. I hate it. And Twitter roasted them, and my favorite comment was, “Only Tennessee could have its biggest win in 25 years and still find a way to take an embarrassing L.” [laughter]
Jessica: That’s very good.
Lindsay: Let's just burn college athletics and this fundraising bullshit. Like, just replace your own damn goal posts! Burn.
All: Burn.
Amira: The World Cup is approaching, meaning all eyes are going to be shifting to Qatar, which has really been under quite a bit of scrutiny for the last few years leading up to the World Cup for a number of things, including migrant worker abuses, which we have continued to document on this show. This week however, Fox Sports, which is the primary English language rights holder to the competition, released a statement clarifying its stance that they will not be bringing up anything about migrant workers on its broadcast. David Neal, who's the executive producer of the World Cup coverage, said, “Our stance is if it affects what happens on the field of play, we'll cover it, and cover it fully. But if it does not, if it's ancillary to the story of the tournament, there are plenty of other entities and outlets that are going to cover that. We believe the viewers come to us to see what happens on the field, on the pitch.”
This is so tiring. This is similar to what they did around LGBTQI rights in Russia. This is sportswashing at its finest. Everybody's come to see what happens on the field and on the field only. But this decision to not engage, to act like the world is not happening, to act like the very field that they're playing on was not laid down by migrant workers who have lost their lives, who are still dealing with issues right now. One of the things that migrant workers are experiencing is a huge effort to get them out of the country that they have toiled in for years. They are being removed. There is a memo sent that said can we try to clear up migrant workers by mid-fall so that they're gone before the World Cup starts? One of the reasons this is a problem is many workers have been telling news outlets like the Guardian or Human Rights Watch, et cetera, that they were sent back before the end of their contracts and they have yet to receive full salary or their allowances.
This is even more of an issue because many of them use recruiters that they owe money to for securing them jobs in Qatar in the first place. So they're actually returning in debt. All of this is a huge issue. The exploitation of workers and laborers is a huge issue. The treatment, the ongoing treatment of them is a huge issue. The other issues around Qatar, around how journalism has to act or not act there. There recently was a report talking about the very strict way that Qatari federations are handling how you report and who can report. The very real concern about queer folks who are going to the World Cup. These things are ongoing. And if Fox Sports’ decision to have such a narrow lens, to only focus on the pitch, only focus on the game is engaging in a very high level of sportswashing, is acting like everything is fine. If we put this cloak over everything, by a beautiful goal, by a competitive game, that that is the thin veneer that covers all of this other atrocity that people have been continuing to raise their voice about.
I'm not sure I expected any different, but now that it's here and now that it's upon us, it feels like we've been talking about all of these things for years and nothing has changed. And now seeing it in your face where not only has nothing changed, but actually you see how the media is being complicit and completely erasing these issues and having them straight out say this is of no concern to us. We're gonna do our product, and viewers are gonna watch, and that's all that viewers care about. I think part of the reason I'm irritated is because I think he's right, and I wish that weren't the case. It's frustrating. I'm appalled. And I want to burn it. Burn.
All: Burn.
Amira: All right, Jessica, bring us home.
Jessica: Last week, 21 year old English tennis player Tanysha Dissanayake announced that she was retiring from the sport because she is suffering from long COVID. She wrote in her retirement statement, “That's a wrap on the best 16 years of my life. The sport has made me into the person I am today. It's been a crazy journey, and I’d do it all again if I could, but after over a year of being unwell, it is time to move on. This was the hardest decision I've had to make, and even harder to accept. I don't know a life without tennis in it. But this sport has taught me so much, and I know that great things are in store.” Dissanayake last played in a tennis match in June, 2021, a month before she contracted COVID. She was 19 at the time of her final game.
In an Instagram post that Tanysha put up hours before her retirement announcement, she has pictured in a wheelchair on a beach with the caption, “Just rolling with it,” and the hashtags #LongCovid and #LongCovidAwareness. In an Instagram post from May of this year. She wrote, “300 days of being housebound. 300 days of choosing between walking and talking. 300 days of being unable to read. 300 days of not playing the sport I love. 300 days of social isolation. 300 days of not living, just existing. 300 days of my life lost.” Tanisha was born in Sri Lanka and moved to London when she was six, but by the time she made it to the UK, she'd already been playing tennis for three years.
She's probably not a name you've heard in tennis, but that's kind of the point here. We are still in a pandemic, and plenty of people, including athletes of course, are suffering the long term effects of the COVID virus that have made it much harder or even impossible to continue to compete. This is yet another reminder of the toll of this pandemic, and that it is not over, in terms of people getting sick, people dying, and those who have yet to recover. Those who may never recover. So this week I want to burn that Tanysha had to give up her dream at such a young age because of this fucking virus, and to burn that plenty of people wanna act like the pandemic is over and that we haven't just lived through a traumatic mass casualty event, that we aren't still living through it. So, burn.
All: Burn.
Amira: It's now time to highlight some torchbearers of the week. We'll start first with our honorable mentions. Jessica?
Jessica: Sarah Bovy, Michelle Gatting, and Doriane Pin of the Iron Dames auto racing team combined for the first ever win for an all-female squad in the history of the European Le Mans series. They took the LMGTE class victory in Portugal this weekend.
Amira: Miranda Tibbling of Sweden grabbed the Women's speed final title at the Parkour World Championships in 32.82 seconds.
Lindsay: India won their seventh Women's Asia Cup title in cricket, beating Sri Lanka with an eight-wicket demolition in the final.
Jessica: The UK hosted its first ever all-female boxing card this past weekend at the O2 Arena in London, in front of a crowd of 20,000 fans. The headline bout was between Claressa Shields and Savannah Marshall. Shields defeated Marshall to become the undisputed world middleweight champion.
Lindsay: Friend of the show Elana Meyers Taylor, multiple Olympic medalist in bobsledding, received the Women's Sports Foundation’s Wilma Rudolph Courage Award. The Women's Sports Foundation says of Elana Meyers Taylor, “What makes her deserving of the Wilma Rudolph Courage Award is not only her grit, determination, and undeniable impact she has made within the sports community, but also her efforts to show the world that mom athletes can compete and win, while using her platform to advocate for racial justice and disability inclusion.”
Amira: Yeah. We got a few couple goals for you as well. Valtteri Bottas, in his week off from Formula 1, crossed the finish line first with his partner, cycling Olympian Tiffany Cromwell, winning the “Wanna” distance in the Kansas Belgian Waffle gravel cycling race. He did admit in an Instagram caption that Cromwell let him win. They both are so adorable on their little podium together. Also adorable, friend of the show Zee King and Jess Fishlock – both OL Reign players are officially engaged. I love them so much. They’re impossibly cute. You can see both of them in the NWSL playoffs next weekend.
Lindsay: Also, Hunter and Tara got married over the weekend. We love them! [laughs]
Amira: There's just so much love in the air.
Lindsay: There's so much love. Stanford upset number one UCLA in soccer, on a night dedicated to Katie Meyer and mental health. Meyer was Stanford's standout goalkeeper who died by suicide last spring. Stanford handed UCLA their first loss of the season, beating them 1-0 and ending UCLA’s perfect season.
Amira: And now can I get a drumroll, please?
[drumroll]
The torchbearer of the week is climber Elnaz Rekabi, who is an Iranian climber, one of the first professional women to climb for Iran. She burst onto the scene back in 2013 by self-financing herself. This weekend in Seoul, in the Asian Climbing Games, she competed without a hijab on, choosing to do this act of civil disobedience in her competition, adding to the protest that we've seen over the last month following the murder of Mahsa Amini, who was arrested and beaten for not wearing her veil properly. The wave of protests that has burst out in Iran have been led by teenage girls, among other things. And we're seeing it move into the athletic activism space.
Despite the consequences of competing without a veil, Rekabi pushed forward, got to the final round of the Asian championships, and finished in fourth place this past weekend. The Iranian Mountaineering and Sport Climbing Federation did announce this result, but using an edited image of Rekabi wearing a hijab. Rekabi, in all other pictures, you can see her ponytail flying in protest. Because of your bravery, of your success and your activism, we salute you, Elnaz Rekabi, you are our torchbearer of the week.
Amira: All right, y’all. What's good in your worlds? Linz?
Lindsay: I can think about right now is the construction that is happening in my place and around me. They're literally working on the floors in the condo above me, which means it sounds like they're drilling into my head, and any minute now they're gonna burst into my place to finish stuff that should have been finished weeks ago. I'm still gonna be without a sink. For those who don't know, my kitchen flooded on July 3rd, and I've been without a kitchen and had to have all my floors replaced, and it's been a nightmare. And I still don't have a kitchen. I won't have a kitchen for like another probably month, because we're waiting on the cabinets. It might be a little bit sooner than a month, but it's gonna be a while.
But the good news is that work is being done. I do have floors now, for the most part, and there's no hole in my kitchen wall. And tonight I can move my furniture somewhat back in place and get my living room somewhat into a sustainable order. I just gotta get like furniture moving pads so I can move everything on my own, because I am single and you need to get some of those little furniture moving things to not scratch up the new floors. So, it's a lot, it's a lot. It's like ruined my last four months of my life. But the good thing is, there is actual progress, so, sorry, that wasn't that much of what's good. [Amira laughs] It was a bit of a rant.
Jessica: You're allowed.
Lindsay: When it feels like your head is being drilled into, because it's happening right in the roof, that's all you get from me right now. [laughs]
Amira: Well, I'm glad for progress. Jessica, what's good with you?
Jessica: Well, Austin FC won last night, and Brad was great, so that's that's good for sure. I'm really enjoying Abby Jimenez's romance novels right now. So, I read Part of Your World and now I'm on to The Happy Ever After Playlist, and it's so good that I'm actually sitting here thinking like, when today can I go back to read more of that book?
Amira: Oh, I love a book like that.
Jessica: And that's always such a fun feeling, when you find that kind of book. Amira made me listen to the audio book of The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, and it was amazing. It was as good as she promised it would be. And I just finished this string of speaking events, like I did that amazing BookPeople event with Kathy Valentine from The Go-Go's and Caryn Rose, who wrote Why Patty Smith Matters. And then of course I saw my lovely co-hosts at Notre Dame. And then on Saturday I participated in a panel at the Western History Association’s conference in San Antonio that a good friend from graduate school, Paul Conrad, who was a professor at the University of Texas at Arlington. He was on the planning committee for the entire conference and he had put this panel together about Texas in this moment. It was nice to be able to see all these people doing all these cool things, but also really nice to have that behind me, I will say.
And my final thing…I don't know, I feel bad even saying this, Linz. [laughs] We built a studio in the back of the house. It's almost finished. It was nice, in part because they built…It’s outside the house, so it was away from us, but it's just gonna be nice to have more space in our small house, but also buying all the stuff for it. And I will just highlight that I bought a mat to go outside of the doors of the studio. That's like one of those, how do you describe, like a straw, a grass mat, you know? But it has the BELIEVE stamp from Ted Lasso. So that's how we'll greet everyone. And we got Ralph a dog bed for the studio. And to break it in, I've laid it next to his other dog bed in the living room, and it normally takes him like weeks to like even sit on the new beds when he gets them. And yesterday he was already sleeping on it. So, that is a good sign.
Amira: Yeah. It looks great. The Western, which is the Western History Association conference was in San Antonio. So I headed over to San Antonio to see Paulina present a great paper from her research on Mexican women in sports in the mid 20th century. Got to see a lot of my former colleagues from Penn State as well, because all of them do some combination of borderlands, Indigenous, environmental, western history. So it was great to have the little mini reunions. I did have to rush back from San Antonio on Friday night though because Samari was part of the dama court in for her friend’s quinceañera, which was a good time. She got all made up and looked very grown and it was very scary, in a sweet sort of way. Also, the best part of quinces is also the most random part when this like giant transformer comes and dances… [laughs]
Jessica: I was wondering, on your Instagram post, I was like, what?
Amira: Yes, it's a thing. Nobody really knows why it's a thing, but it's a thing. The boys just love the transformer dude. And they pass out big balloons and you just kind of dance with balloons to transformers. It's quite fun. And Anahi looked so beautiful and I was just so proud of her. So, that's kind of what's good in my world. COTA is coming to town, I'm very excited. It's like Christmas if I gave a shit about Christmas. So, that's also what's good for me. [laughs]
We’re watching a bunch of things this week. We basically detailed all of the chaos happening in fall sports in this entire episode. But just to recap, you have MLS playoffs, NWSL playoffs, you have the MLB postseason, you have the NBA starting, you have Formula 1 in Austin. You have all of these things and more. Check it out. There's lots to watch.
Well, that's it for this episode of Burn It All Down. This episode was produced by Tressa Versteeg. Shelby Weldon is our web and social media person. Follow Burn It All Down on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Listen, subscribe and rate the show wherever you get your podcasts. For show links and transcripts, please check out our website, burnitalldownpod.com. You'll also find a link to our merchandise store over at Bonfire. It's hoodie season, so they tell me. There are some hoodies there for you. Also, of course you can visit patreon.com/burnitalldown for our conversation today on pickleball plus so much more. Check it out. Burn on, not out, and we'll see you next week, flamethrowers.