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Traina Thoughts: On Election Day, Here Are 10 Sports Policies That Need to Be Implemented
1. Election Day is an important day since the country is a hot mess right now, but I'm going to keep things light. Every politician has their platforms and preach about the things they want to change. Sports is no different from the country. There are plenty of problems in the sports world that need fixing.
If I was running a campaign to be put in charge of sports, here are the first 10 policies I'd implement:
• Props are allowed for TD celebrations: Michael Thomas should not have been penalized for his cell phone stunt on Sunday. He should've been praised. If you score a TD, you should be allowed to do whatever you want without a 15-yard penalty.
• Either get rid of DH in the AL or use the DH in NL: It's ridiculous that baseball still has each league playing by two different rules. I don't care if MLB has a DH or not, just make things the same in each league.
• Ban all three-person booths: No sporting event needs three people calling the action. Two is plenty and always makes for a much more enjoyable broadcast.
• Get rid of college football's "down without contact" rule: How many times have you seen a receiver make a great diving catch, but he can't get up and run because he hit the ground even though a defender never touched him? This might be the single stupidest rule in all of sports and it needs to go.
• The Super Bowl will be played on a Saturday: A no-brainer. And I don't believe the ratings would suffer going from Sunday to Saturday. The game is too big to take a significant ratings hit.
• Champagne celebrations for winning wild-card play-in games are not allowed: Yes, this is very "get off my lawn," but MLB's champagne celebrations are out of control. Can you at least win an actual series before popping bottles?
• Jim Ross must call Monday Night Raw: It will never make any sense that the WWE has access to the Vin Scully of its sport, yet doesn't use him.
• No time outs allowed in the final two minutes of NBA games: This adds excitment and prevents the final two minutes from taking a half hour to play because of incessant time outs.
• Get rid of all blackout rules: Blackout rules, in this day and age of streaming, is archaic. If you live in New York and pay $300 for NFL Sunday Ticket, you can stream every game except the ones airing on local channels. Why?
• Ban all All-Star Games: The players don't care, ratings show that the fans don't care and they're just useless.
How many of these do you agree with? How many of these do you hate? Let me know on Twitter.
2. The Miami Dolphins aren't sticking to sports on Election Day. They're urging their fans to vote on a bill that would legalize gambling in Florida.
3. Here's some good news: Vegas sports books took a beating on Sunday with NFL favorites dominating.
Here's a great recap of just how bad Sunday was for the books.
4. LeBron James loves his basketball pajamas.
5. I'd love to see someone from the "wrestling isn't real" crowd say that to Triple H's face.
6. This week’s Sports Illustrated Media Podcast features an in-depth interview with ESPN’s Tony Reali, who discusses the many ups and downs of his life and maintaining his infectiously positive attitude. On the professional side, Reali talks about his journey, going from Fordham to “Stat Boy” on Pardon the Interruption, to hosting Around the Horn since 2004 while previewing the many changes coming to ATH, which relaunches on ESPN on Nov. 5.
On the personal side, Reali opens up about dealing with anxiety and addiction and trying to gain control of his life. He also talks about how he got through the devastation of losing one of his twin boys this summer during the lead up to childbirth. It is a powerful and honest conversation with a lot of it centered on mental health.
You can listen to the podcast below or download it on iTunes.
7. RANDOM YOUTUBE VIDEO OF THE DAY: I saw Bohemian Rhapsody over the weekend and Queen's performace at Live Aid in 1984 plays a big role in the movie. The full set is on YouTube, but it's 25 minutes long. If you like their music, but have never watched the full video, you absolutely should. Here's a six-minute clip of the performance.
Traina Thoughts is the best of the Internet, plus musings by SI.com writer, Jimmy Traina. Get the link to a new Traina's Thoughts each day by following on Twitter and liking on Facebook. Catch up on previous editions of Traina Thoughts right here.And make sure to listen to and subscribe to the SI Media Podcast hosted by Jimmy Traina.
IN CLOSING: ESPN apologizing for James Carville, who ripped SEC commissioner Greg Sankey on College GameDay, is one of the most ridiculous things I've ever seen.
