Castanza

I agree on the NBA enjoyment, was just highlighting the game is played different today and requires different types of players. You don’t see Shaq like players anymore and instead have more athletic leaner more dynamic players Wemby….all started with Dirk and Durant pushing limits.

NFL - The game has completely changed due to rule changes. The game is far less violent today than it used to be 15-20 years ago. NBA - The game and how it's played is just completely different. It's much more dynamic today than when Jordan played in the 90s. You can see the transition of the game by watching early 2000's- 2010's. Nothing wrong with it, just a different game. But the focus on individual skill vs team IQ has exacerbated the flopping.

There is a reason those fences are pointy on top . We had the same thing happen here in my neighborhood. Doe got stuck but it was more than just skin. Best practice if you aren't comfortable freeing the animal yourself is to call your local Wildlife Management Officer and they will come handle it. Sometimes they dispatch the animal in cases like that. For ours, the doe got herself off as they were going to her aid. Her rear leg actually ended up losing blood flow and she essentially had a "dead and rotting" leg hanging off her body for two years before it fell off. I do wonder what lucky neighborhood dog found that in their yard one morning. She ended up having multiple fawns the next two years regardless of the handicap and for 4 years she walked around the neighborhood with only three legs. Animals are extremely resilient and tough.

It's all about entertainment value and brand building now. Agents want to protect their assets hence all the rule changes imo. Look how quick star players fall from the limelight these days. There is no shortage of talent to pull from these days. The idea of a franchise player is done. Players realized they have to get what they can while they can because things can change quick with a 6 month sideline injury and well advertising moves on, agents move on, teams move on. There is a long list of "what happened to <insert name>" out there.

Messi has an old school mentality. High IQ, incredible skills, and tenacity. There is zero flop in Messi's game. He's like an NFL running back when he has the ball and will run through just about anything if he can. The game would be so much better if people had his tenacity instead of the flop tendency. Sports across the board are getting soft. I think it's more engrained in the generation than any specific sport. NFL, MLB, NBA, Tour de France etc. all getting soft.

Looks like the rotation is beginning....some of these names are starting to run away already

Where are you watching the World Cup? Live Sports is the biggest market with the highest viewership that is only growing. Netflix has a very diverse global content catalogue to begin with so I can see them chasing down things like World Cup coverage a positive. You're also seeing leagues like the NFL expand internationally with a more games every year being played abroad. Netflix is a great platform with a global audience to capture that market. https://www.thestreet.com/entertainment/netflix-disney-youtube-bidding-world-cup-streaming

Why would they cancel? YouTube TV is $65 and $85/m respectively. If Netflix charged me $40/m and it included current content and sports I would drop YouTube TV in a minute.

That’s every sport now. It’s a terrible investment these days…parents spend 10s of thousands on sports for their kids only to have less than 2% of them get scholarships and only what 1% of those kids go pro? I played HS Basketball for the 16th AAAA team in the country back in the early 2010s. I got looked at by a few big schools (Penn State) early in my HS years but not coming from a wealthy family it was near impossible to keep up with the AAU fees and general expense for offseason play/training schedule. Decided it wasn’t for me as it became a job and I lost the love of the game. My point is unless you’re willing to commit 100% from a family perspective in terms of time and money and friendships it’s incredible difficult these days to do anything in sports. 100x worse now with kids in Middle School having agents!

There are a lot of niche sports cultures in the US but that doesn’t always translate to growth. When I was in Columbus sports bars were always packed with Columbus Crew fans. But the traditional big three are definitely changing and there seems to be some more pipelines developing for “alt” sports like Lacrosse, Soccer, Rugby, Volleyball, etc. in the US. But the US is nowhere near close to what you find in say the UK with clubs signing kids at 10 and developing them from there.

Ass whooping performance

Spain has so much depth on their team too. They can completely change the team dynamic with a few substitutions. Is US survives Belgium I don’t see them surviving Spain.

End of an Era! Not a great finish as the team didn’t mesh well, but one Hell of a career. Respect

I mean the red card is political no? Not really off topic because it's a big deal for the USA vs Belgium game. I feel like the discussion still revolved around football and the FIFA rules. I mean it's hard to ignore Trump inserting himself into the World Cup. Anyways it's final. Belgium appeal has been rejected by FIFA so I think most can agree on here that it shouldn't have been a Red Card, the FIFA rules allowed the change, but it was unprecedent and Trump definitely influenced the change which most would say is a negative. Checking out till gametime! Good luck Belgium fans hope it's an entertaining match.

High quality gotcha @Gregmal