As is their wont the Saudis are paying so much in appearance fees that a large number of top Tour pros is headed there. Dustin Johnson, Bryson DeChambeau and Phil Mickelson are among the players to have committed to playing in what organizers hope will be a World Golf Tour. Golf Channel’s Rich Lerner and Eamon Lynch likened the players to those who took money to appear in Sun City in the 1970s. Kashoggi’s publisher The Washington Post got straight the point. “There’s no disguising the fact that it’s blood money.”

A cynic might say watching the back of a trainer’s neck instead of the game is symbolic of a hockey season tortured by the insanity of Covid constrictions. On a nightly basis we see half a roster playing three-quarters of a roster. In many cases the players not allowed to play are asymptomatic and no threat to others. But, whatever.

You have to concede this about 2021: At least it was consistent. The year started out miserable and soul destroying and continued that way till the final days of this misbegotten year. It’s a wonder any sports were played at all. From draconian lockdowns over Covid-19 to draconian lockdowns over the Omicron variant, we never knew who was playing, where they were playing and whether anyone would be there to see them play.

Steve Yzerman: “At the end of the day, I think — and now I'm getting political — but at the end of the day our players are testing positive with very little symptoms, if any symptoms at all. I don’t see it as a threat to their health at this point. I think you might take it a step further and question why are we even testing, for guys that have no symptoms."

There will likely be endless protestations and appeals of the Abu Dhabi decision. Was it fair? We can’t say. What is true, however is that F1’s use of live driver audio during the race gave viewers a unique insight into the tension and exultation of the participants. This candid commentary is one of the selling points of F1. Why don’t tother sports follow them?

Why are the tall foreheads of MLB shutting down the sport to save a system that has worked so well for the Tampa Bay Rays? There is a ready template to compete and prosper in smaller markets. Why is this news to other owners? Likely it’s easier to lock out players than do the heavy lifting of the Rays. With no threat of losing a franchise via relegation (as in soccer) or being cut off from the MLB gravy train why bother?

Health® experts forgot the principle economist Thomas Sowell famously observed. “There are no solutions; there are only tradeoffs.” Using an absolutist approach politicians and their embedded media concentrated all their costly efforts on a vaccine. The collateral damage from their single-minded pursuit of vaccines doomed untold millions of lives to addiction, suicide, delayed surgery and neglect.

With so much Canadian capital riding on smooth relations with Xi— plus the need to bring China into Trudeau’s daffy climate schemes— does Justin Trudeau dare anger the regime by insulting their Olympic propaganda coup? Canada knows this: If Trudeau shows backbone in a tough international dispute it will be the first time.

What sells the format is the sibling chemistry. Five-time NFL MVP Peyton the tape wonk, the searing, candid reaction to boneheadedness and the unbreakable self confidence. Eli, meanwhile, the modest foil sniping at Peyton about everything from the size of his forehead to how he eats chicken without breathing.

So if you’re looking for why Aaron Rodgers might have looked elsewhere for information on Covid-19 check out the carcass of disgraced establishment healthcare and the willing wind therapists who peddled it. And who now want to bury Rodgers for going off script.

What did the NHL and NHLPA do since 2010? When they saw that their omertá had worked in sidelining Kyle Beach’s complaints they moved on. While Beach suffered silently as his career crumbled. And while his assailant went on to attack again in Michigan. Worse, in December of 2020, the Blackhawks rewarded GM Stan Bowman, making him president of hockey operations.

This just in: Even if the virtual strike zone is off an inch or two it’s the same standard for both pitchers and all hitters. There’s also no need to put people out of work. The home-plate ump can still make calls on foul tips, swinging strikes, plays at the plate and the running of the game. Enough already.

Even if, arguably, Jonathan Quick’s overall talent and technique are not superior to Carey Price’s, his peak proved more productive, more significant and more legendary. Plus, Quick had to fight to reach his esteemed position in the league after being an unheralded third-round pick seven years prior to his 2012 triumph. Let’s say he won the battle if not the PR war with Price.

Apparently the public has computed the unreliability of the media, and— like MLB hitters turning down the shift to accept the easy bunt—are taking steps to reclaim their lives from the Fear Merchants. As long as fear won, the entrenched interests sought to exploit the observation of Canadian psychiatrist J.T. MacCurdy. “We are all of us not merely liable to being afraid. We are also prone to being afraid of being afraid.”

Almost two years into the panic black NBA stars, of all people, are the ones making this point to the civil libertarians or free-speech liberals that freedom is for everyone, not just for those with whom you agree. Who’d have thunk’ that?

NBC largely kept us from the lively banter and occasional flare-ups on-course between players and caddies or players and fans. And when they grew nasty over putts not conceded the on-course interviewers never mentioned it to the players themselves in post-round interviews. Instead, announcers often referred to reading the lips of players. Why? The repartee is the secret sauce in such events, beloved by fans.

With nothing likely on the pitch clock till at least 2022, get set for some long ball games this autumn. With no disincentive for loitering, players will continue to act like taxi drivers— paid by the minute.

One thing that seems sure amidst the data breakdowns and the football clichés: Unless Tom Brady wins yet another SB, the team hoisting the trophy is most likely going to be a team with a QB on a manageable salary-cap number. Outside of Brady’s SB wins the past decade, the teams that have won the NFL’s top prize— or played in the big game— have had QBs on entry-level contracts at a fraction of what the big boys make.

Gauging from stadia full of maskless fans this past weekend around CFL and college football the general public has moved beyond viral doom playing wack-a-mole with the public. They seem to be saying they accept the “risk” that, for under-70s, 99.998 percent of them will not die of Covid. That message seems lost on league officials.

Holding your principles when everyone around you is going along to get along is an exhausting process. It is like the free-speech laws now being trampled by Twitter, Facebook, the Liberal Party and others. We protect free speech not for the people we agree with— but for the people with whom we disagree. In the paranoia and power grabs of today‘s “health passports” those principles are being forgotten in the rush to “make it easy”.