Day: June 20, 2014

All the beauty of the World Cup (let’s ignore the socio-political drama of the thing for a moment and focus on the sport itself) has distracted me from my dogged pursuit of footballery. Through all of this round football I missed commentary about, perhaps, the most important moment in NFL offseason: Darelle Revis is now a Patriot.

This matters on so many different levels and is as epic as the releases of first Drew Bledsoe (in order to start a then unknown Tom Brady) and Peyton Manning being released (in order to draft and start an already known Andrew Luck). The Revis thing is different. Sure, the Patriots let go of a proven corner, but as with the Bledsoe situation, this is the Patriot Way. What makes this particular signing so special is that it pulls back the curtain to show us the ‘wizard’ is just a corporate beast. I’m not talking about Revis specifically. I’m talking about the entire business of football. As players often say, football is a business. Regardless of the emotion we fans put behind the ball, it is simply a business model that works more for the owners than the players. We as fans force this sense of loyalty on our players. However, the teams are rarely loyal to them.

The team sees the business end of things. I remember watching the great Jerry Rice forced to wear a Raiders uniform, because he wore out his usefulness in San Francisco. A lot of fans expressed anger over twitter (we can debate the value of tweeting something from beyond a digital chasm) with Revis’ choice to play for a bitter rival. I was pissed too–not because he decided to sign with them, but because they have him and he gets to torment NY QB’s for at least two games this year. I think that fear of Revis is at the core of everyone’s displeasure. However, the facts are this: New York didn’t want him and New England did. This is how business works. Unfortunately, we fans are wooed by the idea of legacy and retiring in the same jersey you first put on, as though the players have some responsibility to the company that isn’t in any way reciprocal.

I bring this up now because we are on the eve of decision 2.0 in the NBA. 4 seasons ago Lebron James was featured in a 1 hour special that culminated in him signing with the Miami Heat for a reduced contract. He took less money to play with the people he wanted to play with and for a shot to leave his mark. Mission Accomplished. 4 years = 4 NBA finals appearances and two rings. Now he has a chance to go 5 for 5 and maybe get a 3rd ring, but a lot of the media pundits are saying it is time for him to go home to Cleveland (as if he owes that team anything). LeBron doesn’t need to play for Cleveland. He does more than enough for the state, and has the right and the wallet to do what makes him happy. He is, in many ways, the opposite of Revis because of the nature of the game. Revis is a mercenary now. He needs to make max dollar, because there are so many brighter stars (in more regarded positions on the field) than him that he cannot make his billion off the field. LeBron can and he will–no matter what team he ends up on.

My money is still on Miami.

I finally sat down and watched Elysium. The film is 4 star according to the unknown (and unclear sourcing of) rubric on Direct TV. 4 stars might be a bit meaty, considering the clearly nutsoid actions of the secondary antagonist. Overall however, the film presented a rather sensible dystopian vision based primarily off the ‘corporate = affluent’ model of future thought. In some ways it is an ode to Ayn Rand, whose seminal work spoke of the great minds of the world going on strike and retreating from the common world. That is what happens with the government and ultra-rich in this story. They retreat  from the world–literally. They move to a fixed orbit space station that affords them all the pleasures of a perfect earth while the rest of the people suffer planetside.

The plot of the story moves us quickly between earth and space, building a larger socio-political message arou[nd what essentially is a love story gone awry. I enjoyed the action and the pacing, but the dynamics between the characters were limited at best. The ‘love’ story is told through flashbacks that center on a mother figure and a quote–a moment in time–that seems somewhat meaningless to the general plot. At the same time, the visuals, reminiscent of District 9, are very powerful and help to cement what is a weak character story dipped heavily in a very interesting world.