Top story.
Despite it perfectly quenching our thirst for blood and violence,
the National Football League is not without controversy.
Most recently, squeamish fans were in a tizzy over Buffalo Bills player DeMar
Hammond's heart, stopping on the field for just like a few short minutes.
Now here to agree with me under penalty of me getting my feelings hurt real bad,
is host of HBO's Game Theory with Bomani Jones,
Bomani Jones.
What's up, Bomani?
How are you doing, man?
Fantastic.
Do you find it a little strange that a peace loving country
like America would wholeheartedly embrace such a violent sport like football?
I mean, it would be an odd as watching
people knock each other out is typically kind of entertaining.
Like, this is one of those things where sometimes
you got to be honest with ourselves about what's going on here.
And like, an inappropriate joke is not necessarily a joke
that isn't funny is just not appropriate.
That's kind of where we are with football.
Like, we acknowledge that it's a lot of fun.
It's just the question as to whether or not it's really appropriate.
That's a very American conundrum.
I appreciate that the news media
focused on the hard news story.
Demar Hamlin's feel good recovery instead of the pointless fluff
of how players get mortally injured and who profits from it.
But look to compete with
all the Super Bowl on field violence,
Rihanna needs to step it up during her halftime show
and sing umbrella while attacking a dancer with an umbrella.
Absolutely.
Now, moving on, obviously there's big money in football,
especially if you count all the cash made by DraftKings
that was supposed to be spent on child support last year, “partnerships
with sports gambling companies and casinos represented a significant chunk
of the NFL's record $1.8 billion in sponsorship revenue.”
Crap. I bet that it was $1.9 billion.
I'm screwed.
My daughter's college fund is gone.
Bomani, are you comfortable with the normalization of sports gambling?
And can I borrow $200,000?
No, I can't really help you out with the 200 grand, but it is a little bit weird.
Like people gamble on sports,
but that's not really the reason that anybody got into it in the first place.
And it's not even like we're gambling simply on who is going to win
you, gambling on who's going to win by how much
Like we watch games to see who's actually going to win.
You don't have to watch to see who covers.
but every single sports broadcast has got the lines and the odds and everywhere
all over the place, which is basically like advertising for cocaine.
Now, Bomani's selfish refusal to bail me out brings me to
what has become a recurring segment called, ‘I'm so sorry, honey'
I'm so sorry, honey.
I'll make back the money, I promise. Oh.
Oh, God.
And that's, ‘I'm so sorry, honey.'
The only threat to sports gambling is
we still have bizarre non-gambling, non-digital
currency pathways to upward mobility.
And we all know the solution.
Burn down the schools!
You say you want to burn what?
Schools! The schools!
Burn the. schools.
Like not just the books, the whole school?
Oh, absolutely.
That's where they hide the books.
Moving on, 911 MVP
Saudi Arabia is absolutely killing it when it comes to the life
of journalists and sports, watching their reputation.
Most recently signing soccer star Cristiano
Ronaldo to a $75 million per year contract.
Bomani, some anti-murder dorks are upset about athletes accepting Saudi money.
But isn't it a greater sin to miss out on an easy buck?
Yeah, I've heard that argument before.
If they think it's going to make anybody think any different about them.
I think they have a drastic misunderstanding.
They can have all the events in the world and they can do all the sports.
But for the people whose minds they need to change,
if they keep dressing the way that they dress, nobody's going to be convinced.
I'm sorry. People just aren't as sophisticated as they seem to think.
They don't think that just because you have sports stuff
that it says anything about you as a person.
Saudi involvement in sports could be good for their human rights record.
If a sports journalists are giving on camera commentary during the match,
they can't be dismembered until after the post-game show.
Now, obviously, the Saudi investment fund has a lot of cash to throw at sports.
And if they're watching right now, I just want to say
this is not a news show.
This is sports, that's for sure.
Let me explain.
We all have high impact concussions.
We all eat 5,000 calories per day carb heavy diets.
And we've had to change
the name of the show 15 times because it was offensive.
But of course, we're not a sport unless we have brutal on camera injuries.
So on the count of three, drop the studio light
upon thine head and,
one, two...
Oh my, wow.
Austin, that was awesome.