Sports this 'n' that

The NFL season officially begins tomorrow when the Super Bowl Champion Philadelphia Eagles host the Atlanta Falcons.

However, the real drama remains off the field. Players are still looking to make statements regarding racial/social injustice, but continuing to use the football field as a platform won't sit very well with President Manchild (Donald Trump), who, nearly two years into his term, still doesn't understand that the White House is not a board room, and as President, he has to treat everyone equally as citizens of this country, not employees.

Here's an idea. Save the protests for off the field. The players can get themselves booked for speaking engagements to address the issue. Being on the networks that serve as the league's media partners (i.e. ESPN/ABC, NBC, CBS, Fox) won't be enough. Forget about ESPN, for that matter. Let's put Richard Sherman, now with San Francisco, on CBS' Face The Nation. Let's have the man who started this thing, Colin Kaepernick, appear on Meet The Press.

Eliminate the on-field protests, which, thanks to President Manchild, has inflamed fans enough such that ratings have gone down the last two seasons, and, contrary to a Yahoo! article circulating today, really has little or nothing to do with ex-QB-turned-insurance salesman Peyton Manning, and then, the ratings go up, and fans will return. Simple as that.
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The Tri-City Valleycats return to the NY-Penn League playoffs tonight, and welcome back an old friend in the process.

Jim Pankovits, the man who led the 'Cats to their first league title 8 years ago, returns to Troy as the manager of Pinckney division champ Mahoning Valley. The Cleveland Indians' affiliate didn't play Tri-City during the regular season, so this is as fresh as a new loaf of bread. Start time is a half-hour earlier than normal, 6:30 (ET), to accomodate parents whose children have to start school tomorrow. Top seeded Hudson Valley plays Auburn in the other semi-final series.
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Troy High's soccer teams are still looking for their first wins of the season, nearly 2 full weeks into the season.

The boys have yet to tally a goal in two games, shut out by Guilderland in the home opener last night, 5-0, and have been outscored, 12-0, in the two losses. Meanwhile, the ladies finally put one up on the board, but it wasn't enough, as the Lady Horses lost to the Lady Dutchmen, 2-1. Maddie Rifenberick had 25 saves, and Abby Burns, daughter of football coach Bob Burns, broke the scoring draught. However, Troy had just 2 shots on goal the entire game, unable to consistently break the Guilderland defense.

The boys' result was not reported to the papers as of press time, but the girls' result was. Go figure. The ladies return home tomorrow night to host Shaker, while the boys are in Latham for an after school match.
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Back to Kaepernick. The former San Francisco QB has landed a deal with Nike, but the brainwashed (or, worse, brainless) Trump supporters are burning what Nike items they already have in protest. Can't these people get a clue? Kaepernick's initial reason for protest has been lost, thanks to Trump redirecting the message into disrespect for the country in order to push his own agenda. He keeps coming back to it every time something doesn't go his way. A narcissistic control freak shouldn't be in the White House to begin with, but, rather, in a rubber room, or a church confessional, take your pick.

Meanwhile, WWE superstar Titus O'Neil, one of the more civic minded of Vince McMahon's troupe, is working with police in his home state of Florida to collect unwanted Nike merchandise. O'Neil (Thaddeus Bullard, Jr.), a former football hero at Florida, would be a good candidate to represent WWE in any debate on racial injustice.