Andrew Luck has some money. He took back his life. More power to him.

"No one else besides the NFL is stupid enough to keep engineering ways to sustain an unsustainable game."

Andrew Luck's description of the cycle of injury, pain and rehab sounds a lot like the current state of cancer-ridden capitalism, except that "rehab" hasn't really occurred. But good for Luck; human rationality is such an elusive thing.

What Andrew Luck Means, by Drew Magary (Deadspin)

.. They want you to enlist. They want you to serve your team for God and country. That is the blueprint. The NFL has always been in love with its war metaphors. So it’s fitting that the league now finds itself existentially lost when trying to deal with the consequences of REAL human wreckage—of players discovering that this sport will kill them, and it will kill them faster the longer they play it. The NFL doesn’t want players like that. They want something beyond mere passion. They want players too obsessed to see the danger, or to feel the pain. They want you, pardon the expression, brain damaged. Andrew Luck knew better than to give his entire life to this league. He won’t be the last. In some critical ways, he is merely the first.

Mike Pence's NFL walkout proves our former governor still isn't "worth a bucket of warm piss."

About which we are thankful that Dave Zirin sets matters straight about John Nance Garner's quote. Warm spit never made any sense to me.

Mike Pence’s NFL Walkout Was a Cheap, Transparent Stunt ... For which taxpayers picked up the tab, by Dave Zirin (The Nation)

Vice President John Nance Garner once said that being the vice president was “not worth a bucket of warm piss.” (Many know this quote as “bucket of warm spit.” It’s “piss”.) The current holder of that office, Mike Pence showed on Sunday that Garner, if alive, would owe an apology to piss buckets everywhere.

Pence used the NFL to star in a cheap, transparent political stunt. The narrative Pence tried—and failed—to sell was that he showed up at the Colts-49ers game in Indianapolis and then supposedly left in a huff after being shocked—SHOCKED!—at seeing the San Francisco 49ers kneel. After assumedly taking a whiff of his personal smelling salts, he immediately released a statement that magically was already prepared, which read in part, “I left today’s Colts game because @POTUS and I will not dignify any event that disrespects our soldiers, our Flag, or our National Anthem.”

Except ...

It’s not what happened. It’s how it happened. This was staged: a taxpayer subsidized stunt aimed at attacking dissenting black athletes. It was revealed in record time to be yet another toxic effort by this administration to divide people along racial lines and distract us from a train wreck of an administration, described by Senator Bob Corker as “an adult day care center” that looks after a big orange baby.

Skip to the conclusion ...

This was amateur hour fraud. It was Gulf of Tonkin for idiots: a ham handed effort to isolate people brave enough to dissent in the face of the most powerful people in the world and raise issues of racism that this administration is too craven to discuss. It’s also very disturbing. The very week Sarah Huckabee Sanders spoke about Trump’s “respect for the 1st Amendment,” we had a staged spectacle with the highest levels of government attempting to intimidate and coerce people to not exercise those rights. It’s disgusting and another example of Pence’s degradation, his Faustian bargain with this administration. If Mike Pence thinks he can deodorize Trump with a fraudulent photo-op, he should know that even the contents of John Nance Garner’s bucket gives off less of a stench.

Long reads: Indianapolis at Baltimore in the NFL playoffs ... behind the matchup.

Before Peyton Manning, there were moving vans.

Infamously, the Colts were spirited out of loyal Baltimore in 1984 by a fleet of trucks dispatched by the mayor of Indianapolis to ensure the crazy Hungarian, Bob Irsay, didn’t change his mind and head toward Phoenix, or worse, that a judge somewhere would issue an order and deprive Indiana’s capital of a tenant for its dome.

It was almost 30 years ago. Today the Colts make a playoff appearance unexpected by many, with Manning now gone, a rookie quarterback (Andrew Luck) at the helm, and the team’s coach ill for much of the season. Ironically, the opponent is the Baltimore Ravens, a franchise formerly known as the Cleveland Browns before the late, much loathed Art Modell moved his team from Ohio to Maryland to replace the one “stolen” by the Hoosiers.

I’m guessing that younger Indianapolis fans in Southern Indiana may not remember the sheer, unrelenting, dysfunctional weirdness transpiring from the very moment Irsay creatively acquired the Colts in the 1970’s. Even before leaving Baltimore in the dead of night, the team was on a long-term downward spiral, setting a record for defensive futility unmatched until “bested” by the New Orleans Saints during the recently concluded NFL season.

Every Stat Tells a Story: The 1981 Colts, by Mike Tanier (Football Outsiders)

"This may sound stupid, because we are giving up 35 points per game, but we're playing better defense," McCormick said, somehow straight-faced. "We're 1-13, but we've still got pride."

The owner’s drunken ineptitude continued unabated during the early years in Indianapolis, culminating in an infamous Sports Illustrated profile of Irsay in 1986.

Now You See Him, Now You Don't, by E.M. Swift (Sports Illustrated; December 15, 1986)

Getting a fix on Indianapolis Colts owner Bob Irsay's background isn't easy, but this is certain—he has turned one of the NFL's best franchises into a laughingstock.

By the mid-1990’s, the elder Irsay was aging and burned out, soon to die, and control of the team passed to his son, Jim Irsay, whose reputation generally has been sound, but even so, by 2002 there was much speculation that the siren call of a Los Angeles metroplex, abandoned by Al Davis’s Raiders, might lead to a second Colts move westward.

Irsay marches to different beat: Owner builds his own life yet is facing same decision as dad, by Scott MacGregor (The Indianapolis Star; November 3, 2002)

Though Jim Irsay hasn't yet taken the steps his father did in the early 1980s -- shopping the Colts to the highest-bidding city -- the similarities then and now are striking: the owner complaining of an antiquated stadium, a market that may lack support for the team, a city that must come up with more financial help.

The emergency was staved off by Lucas Oil Stadium (and more governmental support than we’ll likely ever fathom). But this is professional sports, and it’s all about the money. It may not be the verdict you like, but it has the virtue of being hypocrisy-free.

Enjoy today’s game. I haven’t witnessed a down all season, but it may finally be time to start watching.

This Friday, Live @ Five shifts venues to the 400 block of Bank Street.

There, down by the Post Office, we eagerly await the arrival of Dragon King's Daughter. Sushi will not arrive until September at the earliest, so we need to have some fun in the meantime.

Following is the city's press release detailing the next two Live @ Five shows, and a visit to the Riverfront Amphitheater by the Post-Mannings. For those wishing to comment, there is an interesting discussion underway at the city of New Albany's Facebook site.

I've also posted orientation information at my Potable Curmudgeon blog.

---

PRESS RELEASE
June 12th, 2012


Today, Mayor Jeff M. Gahan announced more details for the City of New Albany’s Summer Entertainment Programs.


For the June 15th and June 22nd shows, the Live@5 Summer Concert Series will be set up on the 400 block of Bank Street in between Elm Street and Spring Street.  


City Administration is continuing to tweak certain aspects of the program, and will continue to visit various destinations in New Albany.


Vendors for the next two weeks shows include the New Albanian Brewing Company, River City Winery, and the Irish Exit. Domestic and craft beers will be on tap, along with River City Winery’s craft wines.


As for the Riverfront Amphitheater, the Indianapolis Colts will be joining us on June 28th for their “Colts Fan Fest” Tour. The fan fest will run from 5-7pm, and will feature live music by “Free Fallin’ (A Tribute to Tom Petty),” autographs from select Colts players and cheerleaders, free Colts giveaways, the Colts In Motion traveling museum, and a chance to win Colts tickets.


Be sure to keep up to date with the City’s Website, Facebook page, and Twitter feed for more info on Live@5 and other summer entertainment initiatives.