What a beautiful race in the Preakness. I actually had I’ll Have Another in the Derby (it was luck) but did not attend the Preakness so did not make any bets. But I would’ve bet on Bodemeister, which all but had the Derby locked up until he just couldn’t close. Surely, in the shorter Preakness, Bodemeister’s late race struggle would not be repeated? I’ll Have Another had other ideas.
– Q&A with Allen Kenney of Crystal Ball Run about The Essential Smart Football. I discuss difficult questions like, “Who is the Christopher Hitchens of football?” (A tough question.) A more serious excerpt, regarding how one determines what are football’s most important strategies and ideas:
Brown: To some extent it’s going to be in the eye of the beholder. But the nice part about football is, at the end of the day, it’s about two things: winning games and developing men. . . . The hard part in judging importance is that importance is not always so obvious. While there are few geniuses in football, there are “ingenious” ideas, and those ingenious ideas tend to multiply and reproduce throughout football very rapidly. And, yet, those who came up with the ideas may not have the talent or the circumstance or even the fan support to see the benefit. In football, innovators are not always rewarded.
In a lead in to a chapter I quote Goethe: “Daring ideas are like chessmen moved forward; they may be beaten, but they may start a winning game.”
– Me on ESPN Radio, 1080TheFan.
– Burnt Orange Nation on TESF.
– Barack/Nixon.
– In Dog We Trust (This American Life Podcast).
– Michael Sandel on the Moral Limits of Markets.
– The Greek Run: The Euro Crisis.
– The Premier League is Sensational.
– Inside JPMorgan’s blunder. (Paywall.)
– Dental Abuse Seen Driven by Private Equity Ownership.
Make sure to check back tomorrow morning around 9AM EST for a very in depth article, which includes roughly 30 minutes of all-22 game cut-ups, organized by concept, featuring one of the greatest NFL quarterbacks of all time.