Sports & Entertainment Beat

If there’s one thing that the docuseries and (as of Monday night) winner of four Emmy Awards “Welcome to Wrexham” highlights, it is never to underestimate the power of storytelling through sports.  In the case of “Welcome to Wrexham,” authentic, compelling and feel-good storytelling about a humble Welsh town and its humble football club has vaulted both into the collective consciousness.  Other feel good storytelling came on successive days last week as both the Dallas Cowboys and Philadelphia Eagles were eliminated from the NFL playoffs. Yes, my New York Giants did not make the playoffs, BUT they got a better draft pick a head start on their trip to Cancun – so you tell me who came out on top.
 
However, the stories that sports can tell are not always rosy. Last week, Israeli footballer Sagiv Jehezkel was suspended by Turkish football club Antalyaspor for a goal celebration in which he paid tribute to the people taken hostage in Israel 100 days earlier. He was, by the way, arrested and deported by Turkish authorities for the same act --  but that’s neither here nor there.  Just a few days before that, South Africa’s U-19 World Cup Cricket team stripped one of its top players, David Teeger (who is Jewish) of his captaincy out of fear that protests could be inflamed during the tournament. That said, in the 1936 Berlin Olympics, in which the Jews were banned from competition by Nazi Germany, Jesse Owens—a black man—took home four gold medals for the U.S., in what many viewed as an affront to the Nazi regime. So perhaps amongst the dearth of courage and surplus of antisemitism, perhaps there is still an inspiring story to come…

• • The NFL’s decision to put the AFC Wild Card matchup between the Kansas City Chiefs and Miami Dolphins behind a paywall on NBC’s streaming service Peacock, ruffled some rainbow-colored feathers. But in the end, 23 million people tuned in to watch Taylor Swift watch a football game.
    
    
  • Recently convicted actor Jonathan Majors, who had already had his deal with Marvel Studios terminated, was also axed from playing the lead role in an upcoming film about NBA Hall of Famer Dennis Rodman’s infamous trip to Las Vegas during the 1998 NBA Finals. You know you’re in a bad way when your conduct keeps you from playing Dennis Rodman.
    
    
  • Former Heavyweight champion boxer Mike Tyson brings his cannabis brand back to his roots in New York state – even in retirement, he keeps adding to his list of knockouts.
    
    
  • NCAA president Charlie Baker testifies before Congress on the state of college athletics and name, image and likeness regulations—which would be the clearest sign that federal legislation is on the horizon—if not for the fact that, you know—it’s Congress.