Hump Day Hot Takes: 1.16.2019

It’s been a while HumpTakes readers. I’ve missed you. Hope your new year is off to a good start. Let’s see if I remember how to do this. Hot Takes incoming.

The Most Idiotic Thing In Sports

As you may have read either in this column, or various other pieces around the site, we writers at The Turf have a Facebook Chat and Writer’s Room page where we regularly talk about things happening daily in the sporting world. On Sunday, as I was watching the Eagles and Saints go at it, I dropped this comment in the chat:

Is there anything dumber in the sports world than aerial coverage of a game being played in a dome?

Me – In a facebook chat

Now, this was brought about because, coming back from a commercial break, Kevin Burkhardt was explaining some trivial thing while an aerial view of New Orleans and the SuperDome displayed on the screen. Before they could cut back to the field, Burkhardt was required to say “Aerial coverage provided by…”

Why???

The answer is simple. Because sports and sports coverage are all about money. Always have been, always will be. And the aerial shot, which used to always be covered by GoodYear, was free publicity. EXCEPT WHEN YOU PLAY IN A DOME AND NO ONE CAN SEE WHAT’S HAPPENING ON THE FIELD FROM ABOVE ON TELEVISION AND NO ONE AT THE GAME CAN SEE THE NAME ON THE SIDE OF THE BLIMP.

It’s needless spending. Which I know is the American way, but wouldn’t it be more cost effective to just have a bunch of stock footage of the locations with roofs? Like, look at this photo:

Does it tell you anything more or less about what’s happening under that roof than a live look at game time would? Don’t get me wrong, aerial shots are awesome. It’s why I own a drone. Things like this are amazing:

But actually, the more I think about it, even though I just spent 300 words telling you why I think aerial shots of domes are the dumbest thing in sports, I think something else might top it.

The Actual Dumbest Thing In Sports

This right here is the dumbest thing I have seen in quite a while. Now, full disclaimer, I fully enjoy Stephen A. and Max Kellerman, even though I disagree with one or both of them the majority of the time. And another disclaimer, I abhor the New England Patriots.

BUT

The Patriots are acting like Patroits fans. That is to say, they aren’t tuning out the noise and only focusing on the task at hand. And no one has said they suck. They’ve said they haven’t looked good by New England standards, because THEY HAVEN’T. But no one who isn’t a Brady stan will ever feel sorry for the Pats. And they know it. So why are they talking like this?

Because they know they aren’t as good this year and are trying to manufacture a “chip” for their shoulder.

I really hope it doesn’t work. But I have very little faith in a first time QB, and even less faith in Andy Reid.

Sigh.