As corny as it may sound, the World Cup is one of those events that not only brings people of various ethnicities & nationalities together but also shows precisely just how much we actually crave community, need & want internationalism and shows just how united we can be.
The Sorsby stuff has been "taked" to death but here is mine after sitting in it for a few days. Barring a change on the legal side, he will be a member of the team in the fall. That's not up to TTU. If he is on the team, he will likely (per contract) earn his full revenue share/NIL money. TTU has no choice in that matter either.
The only question then for Texas Tech, is if he plays or if he sits on the bench and earns a paycheck.
So what the rest of the country is asking Texas Tech to do, is to pay him to practice, to be on the team, and not play football. This, they say, will protect the integrity of the game.
But what did he do that supposedly compromised the integrity of the game in the first place? He placed bets...from the bench.
So what we're really talking about isn't protecting game integrity in 2026 at all. We're talking about punishment. Punishing Sorsby for 2022.
Punishing Sorsby by paying him $5 million to not play. That's not much of a punishment if you ask me.
When you tear away all the bluster and moralizing, what they are really asking is for Texas Tech - and Texas Tech alone - to be punished.
Not Sorsby, not Indiana where it happened, not Cincinnati who played him after. Texas Tech alone.
The rest of college football would love nothing more, and would be laughing the entire time.
Our program should evaluate his mental and physical fitness, and his compliance with the order put in place. We should make sure that, all else being equal, he is our best option before going out on that field. Maybe he is, maybe he isn't.
But we should not let bullying, threats, and emotion (from those who already wished us harm) to have any bearing on that decision whatsoever.
Strip it all away and they are really asking for Texas Tech to be the only party in this scandal to be punished. The only party who, by any objective measure, has done absolutely nothing wrong.
Do that, and the outrage from the peanut gallery will not turn to adulation, or even silence. It will turn to mockery.
.@JamesTalarico: There's been a lot of talk in this race about what it means to be a real man.
Recently on the campaign trail I told the story of my adoptive dad, Mark Talarico. Every Saturday morning, he would mow our lawn, and then without anyone asking him to, he would go next door and mow our neighbor's lawn because she was a widow. My dad never talked about it — he just did it, because that's what a man does.
A man takes responsibility, upholds his commitments to his family and his neighbors, and does what's right, even when no one is watching.
Here's what real men don't do. They don't lie and cheat their way through life, sell their soul to the highest bidder, or steal from other people in order to enrich themselves. Real men serve others. Weak men serve themselves.
I welcome this debate about what it means to be a man, and I don't think Ken Paxton or Ted Cruz are in a position to tell anybody what a real man is.
Hot take: No professional sports team should ever receive a single cent of public taxpayer money to build a stadium. If a team can afford a billion-dollar roster, they can afford their own real estate. Why are we still subsidizing billionaires?
Pope Leo XIV has issued a manifesto calling for robust regulation of artificial intelligence. His first encyclical, “Magnifica Humanitas,” has sparked widespread online reactions. Many young people appreciate his stance, seeing few leaders addressing AI's rapid rise.
I know it’s become pretty cliche and cringey to talk about at this point but if you’re under like 25 I cannot stress enough how one time Obama wore a tan suit and people spent a week arguing over whether or not it was demeaning to the Oval Office and they were serious about it.
The picture in my office of Dirk's 3 in Game 2 of the 2011 Finals. I stare at it often - especially at the many fans who know the ball is about to break their hearts. @swish41
You could run a smart, quick attack ad during the NBA finals in Central Texas. "Greg Abbott, Dan Patrick, and Ken Paxton don't want smart, valuable, immigrants legally contributing to Texas's economy. They don't think the Spurs should be able to have Victor Wembanyama."