Tag: Opinion

OPINION: Cartoons, Rorschach tests, and interpretations that fall ‘Just Short…’

The story of how a cartoon led one writer to an illuminating conclusion about a narrative regarding the Kansas City #Chiefs and NFL officials.

A tiresome narrative about the Kansas City Chiefs and NFL officials reached a tipping point this week when Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist Adam Zyglis published an illustration captioned “Just Short…” in the Buffalo News.

Zyglis’ cartoon (which we’ll refer to as “Just Short…” from here out) depicts his from-the-hip reaction to the Bills’ defeat at the hands of Kansas City in the AFC Championship Game on Sunday.

‘Just Short…’ made the rounds on social media after Buffalo’s season ended in the AFC championship game, and constituted the first time I had seen a mainstream media outlet run a story (or, I guess, cartoon) that seemed to reinforce the idea that the Chiefs were getting preferential treatment from the NFL’s officials.

On Tuesday, Zyglis posted a picture of “Just Short…” to his official Twitter account with a message that read “Interference… #NFLReferees”:

“Just Short…” features a bound blue buffalo with gritted teeth (ostensibly a stand-in for star quarterback Josh Allen on a memorable failed fourth-down conversion) struggling to run from left to right while the immaculately drawn hand of a referee holds it back on a red leash, which becomes the distinctive stripe in the Bills’ logo.

The chain crew (not pictured) holds its boxy down marker perfectly upright on the near sideline, and it shows that the action is taking place on fourth down.

The forward rod (or “stick,” which shows the line to gain) is tilted slightly to the right — away from the Bills logo, which has its head held over a singular yellow-and-white line on the field.

None of the Chiefs’ defenders are included in Zyglis’ illustration, and the Bills logo is not holding a ball in its canonically swept-back forelegs, which are well short of the line to gain.

I was appalled to see that a Zyglis’ cartoon had made it to print because, on its face, the premise of “Just Short…” — that officials had exercised undue influence to alter the final score of the AFC Championship Game, or otherwise played a role in Kansas City’s recent dominance — has been roundly dismissed by every serious sports outlet.

Now, Zyglis’ medium and mine are completely different. I have never had a particularly keen eye for visual art, or an ability to draw better than about a fourth-grade level, and I’m not the most insightful fellow on the planet.

As a result of these known inadequacies, I had a feeling that maybe I was missing an ironic angle that would be difficult for me to replicate here in the written word (despite my attempt at doing so above) given that Chiefs Wire’s usual quick-and-to-the-point style doesn’t leave much room for protracted prose.

Perhaps, I thought, Zyglis somehow meant to poke fun at the idea that the officials unilaterally swung the AFC Championship Game against Buffalo, and maybe any “joke” he was making just didn’t land for me as a Chiefs fan who is — admittedly — a bit sensitive to the seemingly constant minimization of Kansas City’s achievements that has been taking place on social media lately.

Or, I figured that maybe Zyglis is just a broken-hearted Bills fan who, at the time he sat down to draw “Just Short…”, was more inclined to believe in a grand conspiracy rather than admit his favorite team took a bad loss to a good opponent in a big game without any sort of collusion from a higher power.

We’ve all been there.

So, I reached out to Zyglis directly and was graciously given the chance to interview him about “Just Short…” in an effort to better understand the machinations of a mind that appeared to have embraced the demonstrably false narratives about the Chiefs and NFL officials.

What I found — predictably — was that Zyglis is a master of his craft who is far more eloquent in his preferred form of expression than I could ever hope to be in mine.

When asked about the inception of “Just Short…” Zyglis made it clear that the illustration wasn’t drawn with one play or call in mind.

“My goal is to summarize the biggest takeaway from the game with a strong visual metaphor,” Zyglis explained. “This cartoon was inspired by the series of controversial calls by the refs that held the Bills back at times from getting the edge in an extremely close game. As with any narrow loss, there are many reasons why the Bills didn’t win, from missed opportunities to coaching to a critical defensive injury. In the end, they didn’t find a way. But with two teams so evenly matched, a handful of bad calls at critical times can make a huge difference in the outcome.

“The call that best encapsulated the referee controversy was the ball spot on the fourth-and-1 sequence. In fact, many viewers thought the Bills got the first down the play before. I chose this as the metaphor in the cartoon because it was both the most consequential and the most egregious of the game, with the Bills pushing late to go up by eight points. Referees make mistakes on the field, being human, but the fact that it was reviewed and upheld added fuel to the fire.”

Though the degree to which the officials’ (perceived) errors contributed to the game’s final result is debatable, Zyglis made a point to stop well short of saying that he thinks there was willful or coordinated misconduct by officials that unduly benefited Kansas City or directly prevented Buffalo from winning.

“I wouldn’t argue that the refs were intentionally trying to hinder the Bills – you could never prove that,” Zyglis clarified. “I was simply saying from a practical sense, that key referee decisions and failures held the Bills back in a close game. Intentional or not, two key bad calls were reviewable and upheld. That’s not acceptable with the amount of money in this league and with a ticket to the Super Bowl on the line.”

Regardless of Zyglis’ intent, users on social media took his cartoon and ran with it. Controversial ex-Pittsburgh Steelers wide receiver Antonio Brown shared a picture of “Just Short…” with his followers on Wednesday, catapulting the illustration into the NFL discourse online.

“The cartoon really took off on X and Instagram,” Zyglis said. “It had over 40,000 likes with former NFL players retweeting it. It really tapped into an undercurrent that has been brewing all year of this distrust of the integrity of NFL games, especially with games involving the Chiefs. In my career I have never seen such a negative national response to the refereeing of a game. With fans fed up with suspicious calls all year, and ‘Chiefs fatigue’ setting in, the cartoon became ripe for the moment. It started as a cartoon for Bills fans and it resonated with a national audience.”

But what if Buffalo had won the AFC Championship Game? Had the matchup ended differently, would the calls against the Bills have warranted an artful outcry?

“In that hypothetical scenario, those bad calls would have not carried the same consequence, so no, I wouldn’t have likely drawn a cartoon on them,” Zyglis conceded. “The loss, and the fact that the game could have gone either way, magnified the calls.”

As it turns out, Zyglis’ decision to leave Kansas City’s defenders — and the ball — out of “Just Short…” was no mistake, nor was the work’s caption just a glib cliché.

“I intentionally left out the Chiefs and the ball because I wanted to show that these bad calls held the team back from progressing,” Zyglis explained. “I wanted to make it bigger than the one play and not about the Chiefs (as good as they did play). The irony of the caption ‘Just Short’ is that the replays suggest they weren’t actually short on that fourth down conversion. It was a way to also suggest Bills fans are proud of the season and the effort they put in. They didn’t fall short in our eyes. Even with the loss they exceeded everyone’s expectations.”

And you know what? I can live with that.

In my initial reaction to “Just Short…”, I failed to consider that Zyglis’ drawing had — in fact — nothing to do with the Chiefs at all, which should have been obvious given that he didn’t depict any of Kansas City’s players in his illustration.

Instead, with a little bit of context, ‘Just Short…’ becomes a poignant truth-telling of a Sisyphean struggle undertaken each year by the Bills and their supporters that was merely co-opted by an all-too-familiar class of online misanthropes who are always eager to add fodder to any unfounded claim they can find an audience for.

What some viewers (like me) saw as a desperate diminishing of undeniably impressive athletic accomplishment by the Chiefs — and others as a lightning rod for a baseless conspiracy — was intended to be neither.

I think the story of “Just Short…” speaks to a moment we’ve found ourselves in as Americans, if not more broadly as humans.

We live in a culture that rewards polarizing rhetoric — both in our online and “meat-space” interactions — and tends to divide folks into competing factions more often than it serves to foster any kind of understanding between people or a civil means of holding differing (but equally valid) perspectives in polite conversation.

As someone who watched his favorite quarterbacks (first Alex Smith, then Patrick Mahomes) struggle for playoff relevance against Tom Brady and the New England Patriots in the mid-to-late 2010s, I can absolutely empathize with Zyglis’ frustration over a few crucial judgment calls, even if I disagree with the notion that they materially altered the outcome of Sunday’s game.

By that same token, I can recognize that Zyglis didn’t draw “Just Short…” in service of a phony narrative about Kansas City and its relationship to officials, as I had initially thought.

Rather, because of my own defensive instinct, I had completely missed Zyglis’ core observation about Buffalo’s enduring quest to win its first Super Bowl, and the tribulations of Bills fans who want nothing more than to see their favorite team succeed in the face of ever-more intense adversity each season.

At its core, “Just Short…” is a Rorschach test for fans across the country who are either content to smell the flowers of the Chiefs’ budding dynasty or anxiously waiting for Kansas City’s run of dominance to wither so other teams can get their chance to earn a ring.

As with any piece of art, “Just Short…” opens itself up to interpretation, even though its message may seem clear at first glance.

Opinion: Saints should take Jaguars’ example and fire their GM

With GM Trent Baalke parting ways with the Jacksonville Jaguars, maybe the New Orleans Saints should follow suit with Mickey Loomis:

Organizational dysfunction.

These two words get thrown around social media spaces like people’s lives depend on using the phrase every chance they get. But what is true organizational dysfunction? Well, we got a glimpse of it with the Jacksonville Jaguars in recent years, and they finally made the decision to move on from general manager Trent Baalke.

It starts with complacency. Complacency with being mediocre, and rather than having the ambition to be the best, focusing on just getting back to being “good” or “serviceable.” The Jacksonville Jaguars struggled mightily in finding the right coach for them, struggled to build a core around their former No. 1 overall pick Trevor Lawrence, and ultimately struggled to find a vision of what they wanted to be. Does any of this sound familiar?

While the New Orleans Saints do not have the number-one overall draft pick at quarterback, they have been running adrift for multiple seasons now after the losses of Drew Brees and Sean Payton to retirement and trade respectively. Additionally, the Dennis Allen hire was a resounding failure, and yet Loomis continues to defend him even post-firing, which certainly does not help his image, nor the image of a cohesive decision making process between him and the rest of the front office/ownership.

The roster management is one of the worst issues though. For a few years now many have called for things to be stripped down to the core, and whether or not you may agree with that assessment, the roster has not performed anywhere near expected, and has suffered significant amounts of injuries. Is this an age issue? Maybe, maybe not. Is it an unwillingness to bring in more experts to assess the situation and dive further into why soft tissue injuries are occurring at such a high rate? Yes.

Loomis has made it abundantly clear in multiple press conferences that he wants the team to remain competitive, which again, make your own assessment. But at the same time, coming off a 5-12 season, there is absolutely no sense of urgency, and you could see that from his post-season media appearance. I have no doubt that he is doing what he thinks is right, and I also understand that this may not be the easiest situation to deal with post-Brees and Payton. However, consistently trying to dig your heels in on the notion of needing to remain competitive after an atrocious season is a tough pill to swallow for fans.

On top of all of that, improving the roster has become an enormous difficulty because of the cap space. They always find a way to circumvent it which is fine to an extent, and required to at least be compliant, however it hamstrings the team each year in what free agents they are able to pursue, as they are not able to offer substantial contracts. Additionally, it forces them to make choices on who to retain, which allows players like Trey Hendrickson to walk. I personally have always been somewhat of a fan of watching it happen, but one of these years it would be so nice to not come into the offseason 50-90 million dollars in the hole, and rather have cap space to pursue players early in the process.

Then we can get to the draft picks, which sure, are not fully the responsibility of Loomis and who truly knows how much say he has in the process. So let’s for a second say its not him calling some of the shots on picks, why do you as a general manager see approximately (and I am going to be enormously generous here) eight players in the draft classes from 2018-2023 panning out, and allow the staff to remain intact that is making those calls.

  • 2018 was an absolute draft class disaster
  • Erik McCoy is the only player who is still a quality player for the Saints from 2019
  • 2020 you somehow got down to only four picks, and just one remains in Cesar Ruiz
  • 2021 you have Pete Werner and Paulson Adebo
  • 2022 you got Chris Olave, Trevor Penning, and Alontae Taylor
  • 2023 you got Bryan Bresee

Outside that, you also had guys like Kaden Elliss, Zach Baun, and C.J. Gardner-Johnson who have gone on to have solid seasons elsewhere, except that doesn’t help you. The Saints had 34 picks from the 2018 to 2023 draft class, if only eight were quality producers, that’s a 23.5% success rate. There are very few jobs where you can be right less than a quarter of the time and still have job security.

Overall, Loomis has gone from the founder of cap mythology and constructor of elite rosters to the pariah of the organization in many fans eyes in the span of about five to six years.

My opinion of the matter is this, Loomis deserves one more shot to get the coaching hire right, he has really only had one true shot at hiring a new coach post-Payton, and it was a dud no doubt, but mistakes do happen. If he is unable to hire a quality candidate this year, or worse, whiffs on the quality ones because he waited too long or could not sell them on the team, there needs to be discussions about a new general manager hire. Whether that come in the form of his firing or being moved into some other part of the executive management, it needs to be looked at if the organization continues down this path.

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Opinion: Derek Carr’s latest comments come off arrogant and delusional

Derek Carr essentially says to look at the tape for why he wouldn’t take a pay cut. It makes you wonder what tape is he talking about:

Derek Carr recently told ESPN’s Katherine Terrell wasn’t willing to play ball with the New Orleans Saints by taking a pay cut, and that is fine. Players are owed the guaranteed money in their contracts. It’s his rationale that is the issue.

Carr said he doesn’t feel he should take a pay cut, “Especially with what I put on tape,” referring to his level of play this year and last.

That statement comes off extremely full of himself and delusional. This isn’t to call him a terrible quarterback, but that’s a statement that should be reserved for a few elite players at a position. He’s not one of them.

Spencer Rattler had his struggles, but the season didn’t start going down when the rookie backup became the starter. Carr started in the first three games of the seven-game losing streak. Three of his wins came against teams picking top-10 in this year’s NFL draft, and one of them (the Carolina Panthers) beat him in a rematch.

The offense stagnated with Carr conducting them. You saw times where he would begin to panic after the pressure got there early in the game. You saw struggles with ball placement. And these issues go back to last year.

When Carr essentially tells you to check his tape, you’d think he was in the MVP race. He did some good things in Klint Kubiak’s system, but those faults are present and prominent as well. The first two weeks were best when he just needed to be an efficient complement to a dominant running attack. He only completed 30 passes in those first two games, both wins, but the Saints went 1-3 when he was asked to attempt 30 or more passes this season (not counting a primetime loss to the Kansas City Chiefs where he threw 28 times).

Undeniable isn’t an accurate description of Carr, but the veteran is acting as if a pay cut is beneath him. He could’ve made his point without putting a target on his back, but his poor choice of words paints a less-than-flattering picture of him.

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Joel Embiid’s altercation with a columnist was the writer’s words coming home to roost

The NBA is investigating an altercation between Joel Embiid and a Philadelphia sports columnist.

Joel Embiid shouted at and eventually shoved a Philadelphia sports columnist in the 76ers locker room during an exchange of words after Saturday’s loss to the Memphis Grizzlies.

The altercation stemmed from a story written by Philadelphia Inquirer columnist Marcus Hayes that mentioned Embiid’s son and late brother in a criticism of the center’s lack of availability for the 76ers. The column’s lede crossed a line that could unfortunately result in Embiid missing even more time than he already has.

The altercation began with Embiid confronting Hayes as reporters entered the locker room, according to ESPN, saying “the next time you bring up my dead brother and my son again, you are going to see what I’m going to do to you and I’m going to have to … live with the consequences.”

The NBA is investigating what happened, a league spokesperson told ESPN’s Shams Charania. There hasn’t been mention of discipline for Embiid yet, though that’s completely within the realm of possibility and maybe even an expected consequence for his actions — just like Hayes getting shoved could have been an expected consequence for what he wrote.

Considering the personal nature of the column, Hayes is lucky things didn’t escalate further.

Using Embiid’s family the way Hayes did was disgusting and completely unnecessary for a critique about how much Embiid plays. I firmly believe in keeping your hands to yourself, but Embiid’s reaction is not hard to understand. If anything, it should be a lesson learned for the entire sports media industry that some things are off limits.

Hayes seemed to understand as much, apologizing on X for the Oct. 23 column just a few hours after it published and removing any mention of Embiid’s family. That it was possible to edit without changing the column proves how unnecessary that part was to begin with.

According to ESPN, Hayes also offered an apology to Embiid during Saturday’s altercation. Embiid, who previously addressed Hayes while talking to reporters Friday, saying “I’ve done way too much for this [expletive] city to be treated like this,” rejected the apology.

“That’s not the [expletive] first time,” Embiid said.

I’m not familiar enough with Hayes to know whether that’s true. But if the column does follow a similar pattern of behavior, Hayes needs to be held equally accountable as Embiid. If he can’t get his points across without personal attacks on athletes, the Inquirer should find a columnist who can.

Opinion: If the Saints will make a coaching change, now is the time

If the Saints are going to fire Dennis Allen and make a change in-season, now is the time to do it. The post-Thursday game break is an opportunity they can’t squander:

The New Orleans Saints dug their way to new depths in Thursday night’s lopsided 33-10 loss to Sean Payton and the Denver Broncos. They lost their fifth game in a row, their second loss by 20-plus points in just five days, and head coach Dennis Allen’s defense was criticized for quitting on him. It couldn’t be more obvious that now is the time to make a change.

Even with all the injuries and adversity, the buck stops with Allen, and his 18-23 record as their head coach speaks for itself. Taken with his Raiders  tenure, Allen’s 26-51 record all-but shouts. If the Saints are going to dismiss their head coach and name an interim to replace him during the season, the time to do it has arrived. They’re 2-5 after Week 7 for the second time in three years. Last year they peaked at 3-4.

Look at the schedule. The Saints will get a few days of extra rest before preparing for a road game with the 3-2 Los Angeles Chargers. After that they’ll return home and get ready for another away game, this time visiting the 1-5 Carolina Panthers. Then they get two home games with the 4-2 Atlanta Falcons and 1-5 Cleveland Browns before their real bye week. The NFL trade deadline slots in-between those Panthers and Falcons games, too.

Timing is everything in the NFL, and this is an opportunity they can’t squander. With ten days stretching between this blowout loss to the Broncos and an away game with the Chargers, it’s one of the best chances a new voice could have to resonate in the locker room. Whether that’s special teams coordinator Darren Rizzi or someone else on staff, an interim head coach would have time on their side to make meaningful changes and set a new tone.

But will the Saints take action? Tom Benson never fired a head coach in-season and there’s little to suggest Gayle Benson would sign off on it. General manager Mickey Loomis pinned his reputation to Allen when he chose to promote him to head coach and you have to wonder if he would willingly go down with that ship. Change feels inevitable for the Saints after this disastrous turn to the season. The only question should be when it happens,  and there’s no better time than right now.

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On ‘gun celebrations’ and the world we want to live in

New York #Jets WR Allen Lazard and South Carolina #Gamecocks DL Dylan Stewart sparked a dialogue about ‘gun celebrations’ in football.

Football is anything but a leisure sport. Violence is at its absolute core.

For some players, football is an outlet. It isn’t uncommon to hear from retired linemen about how they miss the physicality of the game, the feeling of being able to impose their will on other human beings on the gridiron.

None of this is new, and the urge to physically restrain or otherwise hinder the forward progress of another person is hardly unique to American football.

We humans fight wars, after all, and unspeakable acts are committed by people every day.

On Saturday, South Carolina Gamecocks defender Dylan Stewart was flagged for a celebration wherein he pantomimed shooting Ole Miss Rebels quarterback Jaxon Dart, who was lying defenseless on the field.

Stewart’s incident occurred after New York Jets wide receiver Allen Lazard was penalized and fined for a finger-gun celebration in Week 4 against the Denver Broncos.

In a vacuum, maybe this is acceptable – or at least understandable – behavior.

Perhaps Stewart, who is 19 years old, just got caught up in the moment and was emulating behavior he had seen from other people who were caught up in a moment, too.

Perhaps Lazard, nearly a decade Stewart’s senior, was merely intending to signal a first down, and his outstretched fingers and hand motions were perceived the wrong way by the referee on the field and the NFL officials who fined him.

And, perhaps nobody was hurt by either celebration, and neither deserved to be penalized for their actions.

As a football blogger, it isn’t my place to say where the line between celebration and offensive conduct is. Far be it from me to say that someone should be suspended, or fined, or even that they should get a stern talking-to from a coach on the sideline.

Those decisions are well above my pay grade.

But, as an American, it seems at least a little odd that there is a conversation to be had about this “gun celebration” business anyway.

Guns, their use, and our right to own them, are wholly pervasive in our culture. Our right to own them, in particular, is enshrined in our constitution, which was written by people with far more vision than me.

To be clear, Stewart’s infraction against Ole Miss was far more egregious than Lazard’s. To mimic “emptying the clip” into an opponent is a far more demonstrative action than merely “shooting” finger guns to indicate a first down.

But, at their core, these celebrations serve a similar purpose: to introduce “guns” into a game that, even to its detriment at times, is more than violent enough.

I’m not here to tell you what to think about either celebration, let alone what you should think about guns, firearm culture, or our right in the United States to bear arms.

Rather, I think the fascination with violence (or perceived violence) as a form of celebration is more at issue.

Is it ever appropriate to celebrate an achievement with a real firearm?

Is it ever appropriate to celebrate an achievement with a fake firearm?

What message does it send that, in a moment of ecstasy after making a crucial play, that any celebration would involve an imaginary firearm?

In my usual role over at Chiefs Wire, I covered Kansas City’s Super Bowl LVIII parade, where one person was killed and 33 people were injured after a mass shooting took place at Union Station in my hometown.

A day that should have been about celebration and achievement turned disastrous and deadly when real guns were introduced into the equation.

In a country where tens of thousands of people die at the end of a gun’s barrel (the majority self-inflicted) every year, why is it that these tools are part of any celebration at all, ever?

These are questions that, again, go well beyond my pay grade.

America’s identity is already at the center of every political advertisement you’ll see over the next month and, in an election year, the last thing this writer wants to do is ask people to re-evaluate their stance on guns.

But, as Americans, we have a choice to let this aspect of our culture live or die.

Lane Kiffin: Coach Florida fans crave, but a few factors tie him down at Ole Miss

All eyes are on Ole Miss head coach Lane Kiffin—an enticing candidate whose family ties and recent success may keep him from making the jump to the Gators.

Many believe that the Billy Napier era at Florida football has come to an end, which would conclude a three-season stretch marked by underwhelming performance and missed expectations.

The Gators skipper is not quite out the door but the fanbase nonetheless has been clamoring for a replacement since the Week 1 loss at home to the Miami Hurricanes.

Presumably, the program is now searching for a replacement head coach to get things moving back in the right direction. There have been a number of candidates that fans have been hoping Florida can reel in, but none are as big as Ole Miss Rebels head coach Lane Kiffin.

Who wouldn’t want a coach like Kiffin? He brings the swagger, the charisma, and most importantly, creativity on the offensive side of the ball.

USA TODAY Sports writer Blake Toppmeyer wrote about a scenario that Florida football fans are hoping would happen to make everything line up to hire Kiffin.

“Florida fans who crave Lane Kiffin as their coach need the Rebels to lose a few games between now and Thanksgiving,” Toppmeyer wrote. “It’s a fine line: Win enough to still look desirable, but lose enough for Ole Miss to miss the College Football Playoff and make Kiffin wonder whether he’s hit his ceiling with the Rebels and ought to uproot and resettle in The Swamp.”

However, it may not be realistic at this point. Of course, we all remember back in 2009 when he suddenly left the Tennessee Volunteers to be the head coach for the USC Trojans after just one season, but things are different now.

He’s been in Oxford, Mississippi, for five years and has really enjoyed his time with the Rebels. Kiffin has settled in, and with the success he has going for him currently, it just doesn’t make sense for him to leave that all behind and start all over again in trying to man a rebuild for school.

Kiffin also has family ties with Oxford. His oldest daughter, Landry, is currently attending Ole Miss as a sophomore, and has been loving it. In fact, back in 2022 when Kiffin was rumored as the next head coach for the Auburn Tigers, it was Landry who convinced him to stay.

ESPN senior writer Chris Low revealed what Kiffin’s daughter, Landry, did to get him to stay with the Rebels. 

Low wrote, “Kiffin was leaning toward taking the Auburn job toward the end of the 2022 season when Landry came to him with a heartfelt message. ‘You left me one time for another job when you went to Alabama, and now I’m here with you and you’re going to do it again?’ she asked her father.”

Low continued, “Landry and her friends created a slideshow, complete with music, showing all of them together with Kiffin at Ole Miss.”

It just doesn’t seem logical for Kiffin to leave a school that his family loves.

Having worked under Nick Saban with the Alabama Crimson Tide, Kiffin may have learned the value of stability and long-term growth within a program. He might believe that continuing to develop the Ole Miss program will be more rewarding than jumping to a program that is currently in turmoil.

Kiffin has significantly improved the Rebels football program, achieving two seasons with at least 10 wins in the last five years, with the potential for a third this season. He has completely turned that program around and has helped his team make a bowl game every year he’s been there.

And now with the growth of Ole Miss’ NIL program, “The Grove Collective”, it has provided advantages in terms of recruiting and creating a presence with the transfer portal. Kiffin wouldn’t just throw that all behind and start from scratch at a new program.

With the way things are going with Florida in terms of desperately getting that program back to the mountaintop of college football, there needs to be an understanding that it will most likely take Kiffin some time to rebuild the program which can create pressure to produce immediate results.

While the allure of Kiffin’s coaching prowess and charisma may captivate Florida fans, the strong connections he has established at Ole Miss—coupled with the program’s recent successes and the stability he has built—suggest that it would be more prudent for him to continue his journey with the Rebels rather than embark on a challenging rebuild in Gainesville.

Follow us @GatorsWire on X, formerly known as Twitter, and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Florida Gators news, notes and opinions.

The WNBA’s feckless condemnation of fan hate is too late for a participation trophy

The WNBA does not get a trophy for doing the bare minimum.

The WNBA took more than four months to stand in solidarity with its players over repeated harassment, but it finally issued a statement Wednesday denouncing bigoted and threatening comments. It was the bare minimum and long overdue.

As much as the 2024 season should have been solely about basketball, it wasn’t. More fans meant more eyes, and with more eyes, the ugliest parts of humanity — racism, sexism, homophobia and learned ignorance — were amplified at the league’s front door. While the WNBA seemingly handled its previous fan growth spurts well, the intensified harassment of players highlighted a lacking support system that took nearly a whole season to receive performative duct tape.

For months, the league publicly sat on its hands while players endured abuse from fans, including death threats (Warning: NSFW language) and being followed to homes and hotels. The online conversations and in-person confrontations were so glaring, so unhinged that WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert was asked to explicitly address them in an interview with CNBC. Engelbert fumbled the opportunity and later apologized once it became clear her words didn’t meet the moment. However, a new statement from the league Wednesday, in light of more fan abuse, reflects how loudly the WNBA is failing its players.

https://www.instagram.com/p/DAXSA5fRNCf/?igsh=eHhzOGpxcXo5dnRt

Here’s what the WNBA shared:

“The WNBA is a competitive league with some of the most elite athletes in the world. While we welcome a growing fan base, the WNBA will not tolerate racist, derogatory or threatening comments made about players, teams and anyone affiliated with the league. League security is actively monitoring threat-related activity and will work directly with teams and arenas to take the appropriate measures, to include involving law enforcement, as necessary.”

Why did it take more than four months for the league to put out the bare minimum to denounce what has so clearly impacted its athletes like Angel Reese, Breanna Stewart and Alyssa Thomas throughout the season? Why did nothing happen until after one of the league’s other stars, Caitlin Clark, was met with in-person fan harassment during her first playoff series?

I don’t have the answers to those questions; Engelbert and WNBA leadership would have to explain the exact reasoning. But releasing the statement now reeks of cowardice and is almost entirely unserious, especially when players have been speaking out on it.

A professional league with a decades-long reputation as a socially aware entity cannot be this delayed and outwardly obtuse. Beyond the jerseys are people who deserve better from the folks they have entrusted to support them at their jobs.

When we start normalizing vitriol as everyday discourse, the bar for morality and humanity is in the basement. Anyone can tell you not to feed into the “trolls” and the “bots.” However, simply “ignoring them” is a privilege many athletes don’t have.

In some ways, the sports world has become desensitized to hate hurled at athletes, and if that doesn’t change and boundaries aren’t established, the consequences are potentially dangerous.

The WNBA doesn’t suddenly get credit because it decided to have a spine and speak out in defense of its players. There is no participation trophy for showing common decency; it’s the expectation. Ultimately, this rests at Engelbert’s feet, and if she and the league’s leadership won’t do what’s right, the safety and well-being of players across the league could be at risk.

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The Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese rhetoric is getting handled way too timidly by the WNBA

The WNBA is seemingly only worried about its pockets, not the humanity of its players.

WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert had a chance to do something that should have been done a long time ago — condemn the people who have used Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese‘s names to further their own agendas. Instead, she sidestepped the opportunity to use her platform, opting for the dollars instead.

Since the 2023 National Championship and into their rookie WNBA seasons, Clark and Reese have been at the center of some of the wildest vitriol women’s sports have seen in recent years. Their stardom has galvanized an extremist movement of  “fans” whose only goal is to find the opportunities — the cracks — in the foundation of women’s basketball and fill them with racial, sexist and bigoted sludge.

The narratives driven by “supporters” (and perpetuated by media personalities like Charles Barkley) have grown so loud and dangerous that Clark and Reese were forced to respond and reveal unhinged behavior like death threats and stalking. But the league has been publicly silent about what’s happening. Recently, Engelbert gave a corporate, safe non-answer when allowed to denounce the rhetoric and refocus the conversation on basketball. Here’s what she told CNBC:

“Well, one thing that’s great about the league right now, we do sit at this intersection of culture and sports and fashion and music — like the WNBA players are kind of looked at now as cultural icons. And when you have that, you have a lot of attention on you. There’s no more apathy. Everybody cares.”

“It’s a little bid of that [Larry] Bird-Magic[Johnson] moment…we have that moment with these two. The one thing I know about sports, you need rivalry. That’s what makes people watch. They want to watch games of consequence between rivals. They don’t want everybody being nice to one another.” Social media is different today than it was in 1979 when it didn’t exist.”

“But…I always tell the players — I was told a long time ago if someone is typing something in and you wouldn’t ask their advice, ignore it. It’s a balance. But certainly, from a marketing dollars — corporate partners are stepping up to endorse these players more so than they were five years ago because they see the benefit of having women and diverse women representing their brand.”

The problem with that answer is that it ignores the elephant in the room.

It minimizes the ugly truth that a small but extremely loud and rapidly growing contingent of WNBA “fans” is dramatically shifting what the conversations should be about. Engelbert’s answer also comes off as dismissive of the gravity of what is being spewed directly to both players, in the names of Caitlin and Angel and other WNBA players.

Earlier this season, Aliyah Boston had to delete her social media because the things said to her were well past basketball. A man tracked down Chennedy Carter and the Chicago Sky to reportedly hurl racist and misogynist marks after a hip-check foul. And those are only two examples.

Dozens more instances involve players, which only worsens when social media is involved. The internet has become a cesspool for people to operate unchecked, all behind the mask of WNBA fandom and free speech. Finding the right words to say on such topics is never easy, and it often requires more profound thought before speaking. But how much longer is this supposed to go on? How bad does it have to get before the league says something?

The WNBA has always been a socially-conscious league focused on being aware of things larger than basketball. However, it cannot turn a blind eye now because its bank account says it’s not worth the fuss. Doing so is disingenuous to every player who has ever played in the league and any future athlete who will wear a WNBA jersey.

The plot has officially been lost when money trumps humanity, and the WNBA is dangerously close to completely fumbling Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese’s impact.

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Becky Hammon’s mishandling of the Dearica Hamby allegations might be the end of her time in Las Vegas

Becky Hammon should be ashamed.

This is For The Win’s daily newsletter, The Morning Win. Did a friend recommend or forward this to you? If so, subscribe here. Have feedback? Leave your questions, comments and concerns through this brief reader survey! Now, here’s Mike Sykes.

Good morning, Winners! Welcome back to the Morning Win. Thanks so much for rocking with us today. We appreciate you. I hope you had a fantastic weekend.

Becky Hammon certainly didn’t. I’m not telling you that so you can feel sorry for her — she brought this on herself.

Let’s start with the news, though.

Hammon took a portion of her post-game press conference on Sunday to tell anyone who would listen that she did no harm to current Sparks All-Star Dearica Hamby when she was a member of the Aces.

Hamby filed a lawsuit last week against the Las Vegas Aces and the WNBA, alleging that because she was pregnant after signing her contract extension in 2022, she faced “repeated acts of intimidation, discrimination, and retaliation from the Aces” before the team shipped her to Los Angeles. The details are brutal. Hamby alleges that after Hammon and the Aces found out she was pregnant in July 2022, they reneged on certain agreements in the deal.

More crucially, Hamby also claims to have been bullied by Hammon.

Hamby detailed Hammon’s questions about her dedication to the team during her pregnancy. Hamby said Hammon told her that she “didn’t hold up her end of the bargain” by getting pregnant and that, by signing the extension, Hamby implicitly agreed not to.

It’s jaw-dropping stuff that, if true, would be more than reasonable enough to result in Hammon’s firing. But, according to Becky, none of this ever happened.

“Here’s some facts,” Hammon told reporters. “I’ve been in either the WNBA or the NBA for now 25 years. I’ve never had an HR complaint. Never, not once. I still didn’t, actually, because Dearica didn’t file any. She didn’t file with the players’ union, she didn’t file with the WNBA. Those are facts.”

You want to talk about facts? Let’s talk about facts.

Hammon claims the bullying “didn’t happen,” yet, somehow, after a months-long investigation spearheaded by the WNBA itself, the league found enough wrongdoing by Hammon to suspend her for two games last season. That’s a fact. Hammon can’t tell us that she didn’t do anything wrong here when we know that to be true.

It’s not unreasonable to believe that it’s true, either. The WNBA has been shaky in the past when handling player pregnancies. All we have to do is look back on how the Mercury treated Skylar Diggins-Smith during her pregnancy last season. It sounds pretty similar.

That might surprise you, but it shouldn’t. The WNBA might be a highly visible league, but we’re still dealing with simple workplace dynamics here.

On one end, you’ve got a coach in Hammon who makes $1 million per year and led her team to a championship (with Hamby included!) in her first season as a head coach. On the other, you’ve got a player who doesn’t even make a quarter of what her coach makes and wasn’t the best talent on the roster.

Given those facts — since, again, Becky says we’re talking about facts — whose side do you think the Aces chose? Whose side do you think the WNBA chose? It’s easy math.

You can’t help but feel like Hammon just put her foot in her mouth. What she’s telling saying is so easy to pick apart.

At best, what she’s doing here is downright irresponsible. There’s a reason folks don’t talk about pending litigation. What she says here will be used in court, and when the parties go into discovery, I’d bet this moment will somehow look worse than it does today. It might even lead to the end of her tenure in Vegas.

At worst, this is sinister and downright ghoulish. Hammon is gaslighting Dearica by telling her that what she had to endure was somehow “over the top care” from her former head coach.

And that, folks, is precisely what workplace bullying looks like. We’ll see how this plays out in court.

Bo Nix … Is that you?

Mandatory Credit: Ron Chenoy-USA TODAY Sports

If you asked people who they thought was the best bet out there to win Offensive Rookie of the Year in the NFL this season, you’d probably hear a lot of Caleb Williams. Maybe Jayden Daniels or Drake Maye. Maybe even Rome Odunze or Marvin Harrison Jr.

You probably wouldn’t hear much about Bo Nix, but the guy has looked solid so far in a couple of preseason games for Sean Payton and the Broncos.

Prince Grimes says Nix is the hottest bet for OROY today. He makes some sense of it here:

“To start, the Denver Broncos rookie almost certainly locked up the team’s starting job with his preseason play, which already gives him an edge over at least two and maybe three of his classmates who won’t see the field. J.J. McCarthy was ruled out for the season after knee surgery. Michael Penix Jr. (+6600) is stuck behind Kirk Cousins for the foreseeable future. And Drake Maye (+3500) is backing up Jacoby Brissett for the time being.

That leaves Caleb Williams (+140) and Jayden Daniels (+500) as the most immediate competition at QB, and both have much shorter odds than Nix at +1200.”

This is impressive stuff from Bo Nix — especially considering how little time he’s had in Denver. That starting spot is up for grabs and he seems to want it.

Am I impressed because my expectations were at 0? Maybe. But who cares! I’m still impressed, nonetheless.

Do the Soto Shuffle

It’s hard not to get excited when you see Juan Soto come up to bat. Not only do you know there’s a solid chance you’re about to see something special, but you also know the Soto Shuffle is coming.

I get just as excited as these kids do every time I see it.

I hate that he’s doing this for the Yankees these days, but this still gets me just as hype as ever.

Soto Shuffle, forever.

READ MORE: These little leaguers imitating the Soto Shuffle is everything

Quick hits: Your first fantasy football pick … It’ll be OK, Vikings fans … and more

— Here’s Charles Curtis with more on who you should use your first pick on in fantasy football this year.

— The Vikings will have a rough season, but Christian D’Andrea has more on why that’s OK.

— This technical on Caitlin Clark was so silly. Here’s Robert Zeglinski with more.

— Lamar Jackson is somehow a sleeper to win MVP again. Here’s Prince Grimes with more.

— Christie Sides and Noelle Quinn getting into it was not on my bingo card. Here’s Meg Hall with more.

— Tyreek Hill doesn’t really want to race Noah Lyles. Let’s be serious.

Thanks for reading, gang. Appreciate you. Let’s do this again tomorrow. Talk soon. Peace.

-Sykes ✌️