El Niche Cache
July 10, 2020
The Niche Cast Podcast
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Scotty’s Word
The bro Wildcard knows a lot more about the Joseph Parker business than I do, yet the story about David Higgins outlining how Junior Fa turned down whatever amount caught my eye yesterday. I’m super biased when it comes to Parker vs Fa (and their respective camps vs each other) and despite a Papatoetoe connection with Parker, my bias leans heavily towards Fa via the Fa/City Kickboxing connection.
Keep that in mind as I roll through this and it wasn’t too long ago that I shared an interview with Eugene Bareman via Combat TV in which he outlined some Parker vs Fa matters. The video’s below and remember that this is from June 10th:
Now, one month later and Higgins is in the media talking all sorts of crap as he tends to do and my vibe is that team Parker is trying to bully team Fa throughout this process. Parker obviously has more leverage and power in this situation, hence we are seeing headlines in Aotearoa such as ‘Junior Fa turns down $500k’ etc so it looks like Fa is the one who isn’t keen for the fight or other negative implications.
Team Parker views themselves as so far beyond Team Fa that they can low-ball them and dominate the negotiations.
Team Fa is holding steady under Bareman’s ‘know your value’ mantra from above.
The whole narrative can be flipped against Team Parker if you adopt a mindset of Team Parker putting up weak offers that don’t move negotiations forward; depends on your perception or bias. I generally reckon Team Parker view Team Fa as nobodies and that they are doing Team Fa a favour in attempts to get this fight done, then ponder how much Team Parker really wants to push this to completion.
I’m always on the side of CKB, specifically Bareman who is very smart, quiet and gets shit done. Fa also works with promoter Lou DiBella who is cut from that same boxing cloth as Eddie Hearn and well, DiBella lost this ol’ debate way back in 2008…
Regardless of DiBella, I’m all in on Bareman and his mentorship. Parker vs Fa would be a monster in Aotearoa, not only because these are two heavyweights from Aotearoa, they are both from South Auckland and it’s a classic Samoa vs Tonga match up (Fa’s Tongan). Aotearoa would stop for this fight and I reckon it would be bigger than David Tua vs Shane Cameron, just don’t expect Team Fa to bow down and accept how Team Parker want this to play out.
Funny thing about that Joe Rogan vs Lou DiBella is that the UFC is aligned with ESPN now and while there is a lack of fresh sports content, the UFC has given ESPN ample sports content during the pandemic. Rogan: “your sport is getting swallowed”.
Speaking of the UFC and matua Eugene Bareman…
Bareman’s now in UAE for this weekend’s UFC 251 event (fight island). I’m keeping a close eye on Alexander Volkanovski’s rematch with Max Holloway as their first fight was incredibly technical and strategic, which will only be repeated. Bareman’s partly responsible for that as Volkanovski spends time with CKB and while it’s the two fighters who decide the fight, coaching will be crucial in this fight and my #KiwiUFC lens will be fixed on sussing Bareman’s influence.
Crazy thing about UFC 251: fights are scheduled for between 5-8am local time to align with the USA market.
UFC 251 is headlined by Kamaru Usman vs Jorge Masvidal and that’s a crazy story in itself. I came across this cool note about Usman:
Two more try assists for Shaun Johnson last week, but his outing vs Gold Coast Titans started with this mishap where Johnson had a clear overlap and the pass went behind Chad Townsend:
That had no impact on Johnson though and he found his groove. Here Johnson gets the ball in front of the Titans defender Beau Fermor, then skips to his outside to lure in Fermor and Ash Taylor. That leaves a big hole for Briton Nikora to steam through:
This time Johnson puts on a few steps, first a left foot:
Then a right foot step back inside the defender, breaking through the line on that inside channel where he offloads to Jayden Brayley to score:
Johnson’s footwork creates both tries; skipping outside a defender to draw in two defenders, then whack-whack back inside. First going outside, then going inside.
Also noteworthy is the gap between Johnson and Nikora. This gives Johnson space to skip to the outside, while also giving Nikora space to pick his line to run.
Johnson is averaging 1.5 try assists per game this season.
Johnson’s best try assist tally is 18 in 2011 and 2016. In 2011 Johnson averaged 1.12 try assists per game and in 2016 he averaged 0.75.
Benny The Butcher always delivers
Also partial to some Boy Pablo
Wildcard’s Notebook
In case you were still under any illusions as to what makes the world of professional sports go around, the last few days have been pretty illuminating. The last few months even as various leagues around the world scramble to get back into action with that one defining aspect giving them all the incentive/warning they need: money. The Premier League, the NBA, down to the NRL and Super Rugby in these parts... as feelgood as some of the stories have been (defs pumping the brakes on the NBA at the moment in that regard but they’ll surely get there eventually) and as good as the sports watching experience has been since it returned... nobody’s really under any misconceptions that the major impetus for those returns was money.
So it goes, that’s the world these sports exist within. Players are paid very well (at the top end) to do what they do because we love it, because we watch it, because we support it, because in many cases it’s a part of our culture and identity. Coaches and executives too. Sponsors get involved because of that direct reach to consumers. Broadcasters for the same reason. There are still many, many inequalities involved and it’s far from a perfect system but again it’s the one we’ve got. For now at least... because the inverse of that dense capitalist model is the humanist uprising we’re seeing these days with people marching together to demand a better world, centred around the insidious ugliness of racism in society.
The NFL is in a wonky place with all that. On the one hand it’s one of the prime examples in world sport of an ultra-capitalist environment where money screams louder than anything else, where players are more or less expandable to the cause beyond a top tier of elite talents, where banal corporate branding is as banal and corporate as anywhere else, where player welfare is continually threatened for the cause of the league’s bottom line. But, on the other hand, the NFL is also quite racist. So... yeah, tricky situation to find itself in for sure.
The Washington R*dskins might change their name. A thorough review of the whole thing is ongoing and it’s expected that they’ll probably swap it up in the end. Which is a wild reversal of position from the team, since majority owner Dan Snyder has never shown any hint of doubt about this in the past despite the pretty obviously inappropriate racial slur that’s a part of that brand. As with all these things, there’s obfuscation involved. There are those that claim the name honours the Native American community, while the logo was designed by a former tribal chairman of the Blackfeet. But the name itself is a racial slur, it’s literally a dismissive colonialist phrase that was born in a time of slavery. You don’t have to think too hard about it to see that this team was named in a way that would never be allowed nowadays and the only logical reason to keep it is out of a loyalty to that flawed history. Well, that and because it’s expensive to change it.
So why the review all of a sudden? Because in the wake of the Black Lives Matter marches, it’s now become more expensive to keep the name than to change it. Say what you will about the generic brand statements that we’ve been seeing about how [insert brand here] stands with the fight against racism and blah blah blah. I happen to think they’re meaningless token gestures but it’s better than nothing I s’pose. Yet a number of retailers around America have actually put a bit of money where their social media mouths are and have ceased selling R*dskins merch recently. Walmart, Target, Dick’s Sporting Goods... you won’t get your Dwayne Haskins jerseys from those places any time soon. Similarly FedEx, the R*dskins’ stadium sponsor, have put out a formal request for a changing of the name while investment firms are putting pressure on Pepsi and Nike because of their relationships with the Washington Professional Football Team and those brands have passed that pressure down the line in public statements in support of a name change. Even the team’s damn coach, Ron Rivera, is on record saying it would be “awesome” if a name change went through before the 2020 season.
Pleas from activists in the Native American community have gone nowhere but once the money starts to disappear there’s a swift review to figure things out. Dan Snyder was apparently in favour of keeping the logo and finding a more respectful name and, yeah, that sounds do-able. If you’ve been leeching off indigenous culture since 1933 then you might as well start giving something back (and properly too, not like this). But then again would you trust them to do it respectfully even without the name? Nah, probably not. Best to steer clear entirely and not give themselves that room to keep being idiots.
And once this one’s done, maybe the MLB can have a chat about the Cleveland Indians which is a less overtly offensive nickname but also a pretty stupid nickname (which has existed since 1915 and has led to some very overtly troubling imagery – google Chief Wahoo). I’m talking aesthetically here, ‘Indians’ is a ridiculous nickname. Come up with something better please. That’s just embarrassing.
Speaking of money in the NFL...
Look, when you’ve got the best quarterback in the league coming into the best years of his prime on the back of a Super Bowl title with a top quality roster around him including a great head coach then you do what you’ve gotta do. A ten year contract is a lot, no doubt about it. Patrick Mahomes is now contracted for five years longer than any other active player at the current moment. He’s also now the holder of the richest contract in the history of American sports... more money coming his way on this deal than even Mike Trout’s current deal.
This is the other side of that money thing. A deal like this is enabled by the massive profits the NFL makes but towing that corporate line. Fair play to Pat Mahomes because he’s earned that bank, no doubt about it. He’s going to be the face of the sport for the next decade, a generational talent and seemingly a good dude too, he’s great. I will remind you that Colin Kaepernick is still out of a gig despite the fact that when people a couple years back were trying to discredit his chances because of his heavy play-action approach and all that they soon took the sack on that play because what Kap was doing in 2013 has proved pretty influential, everybody wants a mobile quarterback these days. Mahomes. Lamar Jackson. Dak Prescott. Deshaun Watson. Even a bit of Josh Allen if you want (don’t rate him much myself but he’s had some good wins). Hey maybe the R*dskins oughta sign Kaepernick, go full hundies on the reboot against racism, give him a year or two helping Dwayne Haskins along?
Tell ya what, I’ve been catching up on season four of Rick & Morty on Netflix lately. Nobody really seems to talk about that show, not compared to the explosive crossover success it had in the first few seasons. Probably a bit of fatigue involved in that, plus the wait between seasons tends to be pretty long. Season four only has ten episodes and they’re split up over two five-ep runs... but Adult Swim’s deal with the show is a long term one, with at least another sixty episodes coming down the line. The Rick & Morty empire is not going away... which is why it pleases me to say that this fourth season is drop dead hilarious, like there are episodes here as funny as anything they’ve ever done before. The narrative train had be gasping for air, it was brilliant. People aren’t talking about R&M like they used to but it’s as good as it’s ever been.
Also...
Yeah mate, get on that one post-haste.
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