Welcome to Monday Morning Links! I attended a wedding this weekend, so for fun, I have a good theme to put today's links under.
Something Old
One of my favorite wrestlers and personalities, CM Punk, got thoroughly trashed in his UFC debut. However, his "failure" reminded me of a story Dave Berri wrote way back about Shaquille O'Neal coming off the bench in Boston. People pay lots of money for good seats at basketball games. Shaq was paid to sit on the bench, though. Similarly, CM Punk got paid to fight. As an MMA fan, which Punk is, you can't ask for better. Well maybe staying on your feet longer than 10 seconds ...
Something New
Jonathan Weiler and Matt Andrews have started a fantastic podcast. Check it out here - http://themjpodcast.libsyn.com/ If you like the intersection of sports, politics, and history from two amazing UNC professors this is the podcast for you. Jonathan has been a guest on the Boxcore Geeks show, so I'm psyched he has his weekly show. The first episode is on Colin Kaepernick and the history of protesting in sports. It's one of the best takes I've heard on it.
Something Borrowed
Since this is a link show, technically it's all borrowed. Anyway, another great podcast - Politically Re-Active with Hari Kondabolu and W. Kamau Bell is a must listen. Last week's show had Shaun King on to discuss, what else, Colin Kaepernick! We talked that on last week's Boxscore Geek's Show and all I can say is had I known these two great podcasts were coming out, I'd have just passed on it and said to listen to them instead :)
Something Blue
The Broncos are my defacto team to root for in the NFL. Of course, I now live in Wisconsin, so I have some dissonance with the Packers. Luckily they don't face each other in the regular season. I'll consider it a good problem if I have to worry about them in the Superbowl. Regardless, the Broncos do have blue as one of their colors. How cool is this?
.@Broncos QB Trevor Siemian to become 1st QB to start for a defending #SuperBowl champ whose never thrown a regular season NFL pass #9news
— Cheryl Preheim (@CherylPreheim) September 8, 2016
To be fair, Siemian wasn't a huge upgrade over Peyton Manning, but I'll take it!
Enjoy the links and hope it's a good start to your week.
-Dre