NASCAR, demigods, and reality

NASCAR?? Who understands it?

They have suspended Matt Kenseth for two races. All he did from his position 9 laps down from the leaders, was run into the leader and then push the leader's car across the track and into the wall.
The crowd loved it and applauded heartily. This confirms what many of us think already. Fans go to NASCAR races to see wrecks, much like hockey fans attend games to see a fight. Rarely is either group disappointed.
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What do I think? First, Kenseth has been talking about doing something like this for two weeks. Someone from NASCAR should have taken him aside and warned him that NASCAR would not tolerate this kind of thing. Second, I don't think that two races is enough of a suspension. They should have suspended him for the last three races of the season, fined him a bunch of money, and taken away some, if not all, of his championship points.

Other drivers have said that Logano had violated the "unwritten drivers code" and that Kenseth was merely enforcing the code. That's big talk from a bunch of little fellows. There is also an unwritten man's code that men don't talk to each other in the men's room. I have seen guys violate that rule, but I have never seen anyone slammed into a urinal as some kind of "enforcement".  Have you?

Guys in sports do stuff, that if you and I did in the real world, we would be in jail. While the problem has intensified as athletes have evolved into some kind of demigods, it is not new. Almost 50 years ago, Juan Marichal of the Giants attacked John Roseboro of the Dodgers and beat him with a bat. Marichal should have been arrested. Athletes should not be some kind of protected class. Wait, that takes us back to the demigod issue. If we won't tolerate it in the real world, why tolerate it in sports?

This is why our children are so confused. They see this crap in video games, in sports, in movies, and on television and think that this is reality. It's not.

Weekend Sports Recap?

I am not much of a sports fan, I routinely fall asleep during ball games or car races. It doesn't matter whether I am watching on television or if I am there in person.

I have heard all that I can stand about "fantasy football".  "Fantasy Football" is nothing more than a huge gambling scam in which all of the major media sources have decided to participate.

"Real" football is some kind of fantasy where we pay people huge sums of money to play a game. Then we have to watch them strut around after catching a ball acting like they have cured cancer or something. It's a game, idiot boy!! How many touchdown dances or end zone celebrations get performed at your job? When the mailman puts the right mail into your mailbox, does he dance around it and then pound his chest? When they give you the right order at the drive through window, do the McDonalds employees cross themselves and point up at the sky?? Do the Wal-Mart cashiers make that throat cutting gesture when they total up your purchase?

 Even though there is an election looming next year, how long will it be before someone in government wakes up and realizes that there is this huge national gambling network happening and the government isn't getting their piece of the action?? Wait!! Maybe I have missed something and all of this is taking place on Indian reservations.

Don't even get me started on NASCAR!! Here's a sport where they change the rules every week. Why do they still call it "stock car" racing? There isn't a single part from a production car on a NASCAR racecar. They can't decide if Matt Kenseth deliberately hit Joey Logano yesterday in the Martinsville race. Kenseth has been threatening to do this for a couple of weeks. So yesterday he had the motive, the means, and the opportunity. What is NASCAR waiting for? If they had called the Virginia Highway Patrol to investigate this "accident", it would be done by now. Joe Gibbs would be on his way to Martinsville to get Kenseth out on bail.

The NFL can't define a "reception". NASCAR can't tell you what an accident is or isn't. The government doesn't know what gambling is.

  It must be Monday..