Jennifer Aniston Stops By, Wild Florida Golf Course Police Chase & Is That Tua Playing Pickleball?
Like I said, it's been a busy week behind the scenes
If you were thinking I was off with Screencaps this week, it's because we've been working hard on what you see this morning on the OutKick homepage. A Penn female swimmer stepped forward last week to talk with me on the Lia Thomas transgender swimmer story that has been festering over the last two weeks.
Yes, it's quite a pivot from my normal work, but it's important work around here to tell these inside stories of what the athletes are feeling when presented with such a massive shift in the athletic world that they've grown up in.
Take a look at that story at some point today.
Another story you don't want to miss is on 'Slick,' the middle school basketball player with Down syndrome who had quite a night Tuesday. OutKick reader Scott Kruse (his last name is out now because he's Slick's principal and that was an important detail to the story) emailed me Wednesday morning and this is what his email turned into.
Slick's story will brighten your day for sure.
• Now, let's get down to some Screencaps business. Chad R. emails from time to time and has great questions that make me stop and think a little bit. Here's today's question:
I hope you are well. I was just curious what is the best sporting event you attended in person? Thanks for your time.
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Two events spring into my mind: Game One of the 1990 World Series and Ohio State in the 2015 national championship game. Those were two wonderful sporting events, but there's an x-factor between these two -- my dad took me to the 1990 World Series.
Like I've told you guys, I grew up with Reds blood running through my veins. I remember going on vacations with other families and the boys would all race to get the sports section first at Bob Evans or whatever place we were having breakfast. We had to see what the Reds did last night. I've written about waking up in the morning and racing to get the Dayton Daily News out of the mailbox to see what face Mr. Red had that day (smiling = win, frown = loss, no emotion = late game).
1990 was a massive year for my childhood. I was on a state champion Little League team that summer and my dad came home from work with those World Series tickets. That was a definite lesson in not waiting to see your team down the road in the World Series.
• Mike T. in Idaho has a report about his new sauna in case this is on any Christmas lists out there:
I just realized that I haven’t shared with you the finished sauna pictures.
We ordered the sauna in September from Costco, the manufacturer is “almost heaven “ Couple of shipping delays, but it arrived in Eagle in October.
When we returned home, we set the kit up. Easy to build, screw together pieces and very good instructions. Had some issues with hiring a licensed electrician as it’s crazy here, but was able to hire a qualified electrician. Day to install the wiring and presto, hot sauna! With steam, not infrared!
Love the heat / steam and very very impressed with the sauna, highly recommended. We chose an indoor model for our old Tiki bar space.
• I heard from our resident football ref (seriously, he's an official ref) Michael F., who gave an explanation on the highway robbery New Jersey high school state championship ending. Michael and I have come to the conclusion we don't always see eye-to-eye on calls, but that's a healthy Internet relationship. We agree to disagree and move along.
Michael writes:
As always, love reading your stuff on a daily basis. I just happened to check out the video of that play in the NJ state championships, and it’s definitely a tough play. As officials we hate this kind of strip and recovery play because everything happens so fast - it can fool even the best officials at times. Add in the goal line, and this is a bastard play of the highest order.
In a play like this, the umpire (the visible official in this video) has no goal line coverage. He will NEVER rule touchdown, even in obvious cases. The ruling of TD/No TD is strictly on the line of scrimmage officials, and unless they clearly see the ball breaking the plane of the goal line, they’re going to hold any signal until they crash in after the play is over. The umpire does have coverage on fumble/down by rule, and can rule that the player was down before he was stripped of the ball - however in this case, the first time we actually see the ball is when the defender is turning with it.
Remember, the officials cannot rule on what might have happened - they can only go on what they actually see. It may be logical to assume that the ball carrier was down by rule or had broken the plane of the goal line with possession of the ball but that cannot be assumed by the officials. Procedurally, they did everything correct, especially with replay available to them. In terms of judgment, nothing in the video tells me they clearly got it wrong, so I’ll go with what they originally ruled. You and I are going to disagree on that, obviously, but that’s how it goes.
And besides, these are state final officials. Some/most/all of them probably work college football too. They can handle a little heat after the game.
Ok, what about the guys in the replay booth since this game was using the Big Ten replay equipment?
Assuming that NJ high school operates in the same way that college replay does, the replay official needs to be able to see for certain that the ball has either broken the plane of the goal line (with a shot down the goal line itself) or see that the ball carrier is clearly down before losing the ball. The primary principle of replay is the assumption that the call on the field is correct, so to overturn a call there has to be new and clear information in the replay that allows the replay official to change the ruling.
The end zone shot seen in the Instagram video is potentially a great angle to see the ball carrier either fumbling or down by rule, but since the ball isn’t visible until after the defender has turned with possession it would be of no help to the replay official. I would guess there were more angles than that available, but I don’t know what the camera setup was like in the stadium. Given that the replay official ruled "call stands", and not “confirmed”, that indicates nothing in any of the angles he received gave any new information to the replay official that would allow him to take a position one way or the other.
• And Dean B. in Monroe, GA has some advice for all of us thinking about these Bluetooth fart fans I saw at Home Depot:
Long time follower with a word of advice on fan install. Buy 2 fans when u go to replace. When the first one dies, the xtra one u bought will just pop in the housing of the one u installed.if u can use a sawzall from below to cut old housing out u might b able to install from below.A headlight is gonna b a big help.
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Excellent advice and excellent emails from all of you who keep hammering away. I'm incredibly proud of the community. I keep saying it, but this is where the action is right now on the Internet. Not a day goes by where someone isn't making me think, presenting a differing opinion, some sort of funny response to something as mundane as a conversation on bathroom fans.
Keep it going. Keep passing the word. Send Screencaps to your friends, your dad, your wives, your kids.
Email: joekinsey@gmail.com