THE PUTTDOWN

Pay disparity has been a popular topic for many years now, a constant topic for discussion down the pub about the amount of money professional athletes make for playing sports. Sources within the sports world have informed The Puttdown that many major sports will be looking to move towards equal pay throughout their sports. This week MLB has announced that they will be giving equal pay to every player no matter what position they play. Whether you are a starting shortstop or a bullpen pitcher, your pay is now going to be equal. This is great news for those players on the low end of the average pay scale. We spoke to the MLB commissioner to get his thoughts on the plan "We get asked a lot about the amount of money players are getting paid, so we thought it would be in the best interests of everyone that we just paid everyone the same amount, that way no one can complain." It will be interesting to see how the players react to the news, it will mean that superstar Mike Trout wi...

  Getting you ready for… FOOTBALL This is the first in a series of blogs to get you ready for upcoming sporting events, first up, the return of the English Premier League. Clearly, without fans in the stadium, that also means no going to the pub before or after the game. Obviously, we can’t be having football fans suffering from alcohol deprivation, so here is a handy game to keep by your side. Depending on how rowdy you’re feeling on that particular day, it can either be a traditional game of BINGO, or a drinking game. Easy peasy. 

2020 gets worse by the week. Recent announcements have seen college football conferences cancelled or suspended until the spring of 2021, leaving players, coaches and fans reeling in the news. One of the biggest questions that have come from these announcements is what will happen to the players. As a student-athlete, you are now just a student, which means you will finally have to start going to class. If you are an athlete reading this, you are in the right place, below we cultivated a list on what to do next, and thrive as a student. Get a pen and paper. This will be key, you will need this in all of your classes, to take notes from the teacher, or "coach" of the class.  The teacher is in charge, but instead of shouting at you when you miss a catch or fumble the ball, they will shout at you when you get an answer wrong or fall asleep in class. Try not to fall asleep in class. Books. What is a book you ask? It's like a playbook for the class you are taking, it contains ...

The first year of VAR being used in the Premier League has been an up and down affair. Controversy has shrouded its use leading to many fans demanding its exclusion from the league.   After a long first season, The Puttdown has been told that VAR has decided that it is time to hang up its video recorder. We were able to get an unprecedented interview with VAR to get their thoughts and feelings on what has been a tumultuous first (and final) year in the league.   The following interview has been edited for clarity.   The Puttdown (TPD): How do you think your year has gone?   VAR: Not great, if I was being truthful.   TPD: Why do you think that?   VAR: Every day has been very stressful. I turn up to work hoping for a pleasant day, but I can barely go a game now without something going wrong. It gives me anxiety attacks; pretty sure I’m losing all my hair, I’ve got wrinkles on my face that weren’t there last year.   TPD: When did you start to notice thing...

After all the talk between the MLB and MLBPA, it looks like we are finally going to get ourselves a baseball season. At this point there looks like there is nothing in the way of us seeing our favourite summer pastime. Or is there? Our sources tell us that discussions have been taking place between the Owners and Rob Manfred, and a new plan has been devised to stop the season going ahead.   Rob Manfred will declare the old school, unwritten playground rule ‘it’s my ball I’m going home’. It’s a rule as old as time, for those who have never seen or used it, this is how it works:  When you are playing a sport with friends, and you own the ball being used, you can decide to randomly take your ball and go home. People will do this for a couple of reasons. 1. If they have to actually go home (the least common use of the rule). 2. If they are losing or 3. If the ball owner hasn’t got their own way with regards to rules or teams, they will take their ball so no one else can play and g...

Fans of several sports around the world are currently looking for new sports to watch. It comes after many sporting organisations, teams, and players have come out in support of the Black Lives Matter movement.  Even NASCAR fans are looking for a new sport to watch after they banned the flag of the confederacy, how dare they not let these people remember their ancestors as they eat hot dogs and get blackout drunk while cars drive round in circles for an hour. I can only empathise with these people. Now that sports are starting to care about the injustices in the world, how are these fans going to escape the crushing reality of their mundane lives.  If they don’t choose another sport, the only other option available will be speaking to their wives and picking out new curtains for the recently painted living room. We spoke to one NASCAR fan who had this to say: "It's an outrage, but I've made my decision. I'm going to watch Quiditch. Yeah that Harry is a good man, and I ...

All the talk at the Charles Schwab Challenge is centred on Bryson DeChambeau’s transformation into the incredible hulk. What used to be a skinny 195-pound stick, has turned in to the 240-pound middle linebacker we see today. After a couple of years on the PGA tour and realising his scientific approach would only take him so far, he decided to hit the gym and now is attempting to break the golf ball in half on every swing he takes.   All any golf analyst can talk about now is how the sport needs to curb the distance golfers are hitting the ball. Richard, 64, on twitter even went on to say: “Its ridiculous, if I could hit the ball 350 yards, I would be on tour as well, something needs to happen so they start hitting the ball 220 yards like me #makegolfgreatagain”.  Here at the Puttdown, we have brainstormed some ideas that the PGA tour and other governing bodies could use to stop golfers from having fun…Sorry; stop them hitting the ball further than Richard down the country club...

Sports films are as old as the sports themselves. From the 1921 release ‘Two Minutes to go’ to more recent releases like the 2018 release ‘Uncle Drew’. They even span every sport imaginable such as figures skatings I Tonya to Mountain Climbings ‘Everest’. Choosing a top 10 sports films is an arduous endeavour, one person can see ‘Field of Dreams’ as a cinematic masterpiece, and another might see it as a film about a man speaking to ghosts. The following list has been compiled at The Puttdown through personal opinion. You may not agree with the list, but it just shows how different movies connect to us through our love of sports and our experiences within them. None of the movies mentioned above cracked the top 10, so let us begin. 10. Mike Bassett: England Manager   Sports movies have always suffered in trying to recreate the sport on the big screen. Mike Bassett: England Manager does a good job avoiding that as it follows helpless new England Manager as he attempts to lead England...

The Weekly Puttdown   The Puttdown is back, kind of. Sports are slowly getting back on their feet, one by one emerging from the ground like The Undertaker at Wrestlemania. In this edition of the Puttdown, we will bring you updates on the major sports leagues and how they are looking to start back up. NBA: 31 st July, mark the calendars. The NBA is pretty much ready, they have a start date and even better than that, a location. Games will be played at Florida’s Disney World Resort. 22 teams have been invited to play out the rest of the season and playoffs. The proposal was voted in with 29 votes to 1. The only team not voting in favour was the 9 th placed Portland Trailblazers, stating that there were better ideas on the table. Football (Premier League unless otherwise stated): The Premier League will return on 17 th June. The games will be played behind closed doors and will be played out until all 38 are played. There is brilliant news for fans, as the majority of games will be...

Everyone wants to win, and for every clean athlete who wins, there is a dozen of other athlete’s attempting different methods of cheating to be the best. At the Puttdown we have narrowed down the list of cheaters to what we think is the top 10 cheaters of all time. Honourable Mention This goes to the one and only Shooter McGavin. Not only did he hire a man to torment Happy Gilmore at a pro-am tournament, but he also hired a man to run him over in an attempt to stop him from winning the coveted gold jacket. 10. MLB Steroid Era Coming in at number 10 is the MLB steroid era. It would be easy just to pin this on Barry Bonds, after all, he was probably the most successful but there was so many of them that the whole era gets in at number 10. It was so bad that many players including Jose Canseco, Alex Rodriquez were summoned in 2005 to testify in front of Congress about the issue. Bonds continue to this day to be shunned entry to the baseball hall of fame even though he holds the r...

The Premier League is looking more and more likely to be going ahead. When it does restart, stadiums will be empty, a far cry from what fans would hope for. But in time, fans will start to be allowed back into the stadiums. Teams won't be permitted to allow full attendances, more likely starting off around the 30% mark, which means if the league isn’t careful, true diehard fans may miss out on tickets. Here at the Puttdown, we have come up with an exhaustive list of criteria to stop the fair-weather fans from attendance, and to make sure only the true fans are in the stadium when they return. Not Permitted Half and Half scarfs. Clearly, people who wear these pieces of attire only buy them so when friends and family come to visit, they can show the scarves to prove they were at the game. They don’t really care about the club; a die-hard fan would only have their own clubs emblem on their scarf. One of their last 10 photos on their camera roll is a selfie. These people...

The chances of getting MLB games this year seems to be getting slimmer by the day. Originally players had agreed to a pro-rata salary for the 2020 season, but team owners have decided to go against the original decision and are now asking for a shared revenue pay scheme for the season. This has led to players such a Blake Snell and Trevor Bauer to come out publicly and say they are not happy with the new deal, putting another dent into the chances of a season for 2020. Reaction to this has been interesting, to say the least. Some fans are backing the players, saying that the original deal should be stuck to, some saying the players are being greedy wanting more money. All I know is I want to watch the MLB this year, but it is looking less and less likely. There are some losers and winners from this (mainly losers). The biggest losers are the fans; with no play this year we will be waiting until next year to see any games. The Dodgers; Mookie Betts will become a free agent ...

Your team is rock bottom of the premier league, about to go up against one of the best teams in the country and there is not an ounce of hope of beating them. It’s the middle of winter; you put on your favourite jersey and 3 more layers on top to keep off the cold. As you leave the house you put on a beanie, scarf and make the short trip to your home ground. You walk through the turnstiles to your seat and take in the pre-game activities. You rub your hands together to try and keep some feeling in them as the game begins. You know your team doesn't have much chance of winning, but there is hope. You take an early 1-0 lead, but in the back of your mind, you know nothing at this point is for certain. The ball is around midfield when it gets played forward, more in hope than expectation. Your top striker runs onto the ball, chests it down and slots it past the goalkeeper. The stadium proceeds to erupt; you start high fiving everyone around you, an improbable 2-0 lead against on...

Before we begin, I’d like to offer a brief update on the Nike Belichick situation, detailed at length in a previous blog; ESPN requested Nike as an analyst for their 3 hour (not a typo) Schedule Release special. His owner, Bill, proved to be the thorn in his side this time, rejecting the request, apparently with some whimsical excuse about 3 hours being ridiculous and a dog not being able to hold a microphone.  Moving on. Up until now, college athletes haven’t been allowed to accept any money from any outside source during their time at college. Whether that’s advertising for a local donut shop, or accepting a small loan from a family member; just ask this year’s 2nd overall pick in the NFL draft, Chase Young. He had to sit out a game for this exact reason.  The governing body for college sports, the NCAA (*boo*), recently announced that they will allow college athletes to negotiate sponsorship deals from third-parties. Essentially any deal that doesn’t involv...

With no/not much sport around to watch, I've taken to watching old sporting events to help keep my sanity during the pandemic. One of the events I decided to watch was the 2016 NBA finals between The Cleveland Cavaliers and the Golden State Warriors. This being one of the best comebacks in the history of the sport (And just sport in general). We will skim over the first 4 games. The first 3 were won in a blow out fashion, Warriors winning 2 and the Cavs taking the 3rd. The biggest takeaway from these first 3 games for me was how annoying Draymond Green was. Not only does he not stop talking, but he also screams 'And 1' every time he's touched. He is also an incredibly gifted defender, constantly putting up exquisite shot defence and disrupting play which means I have to at least respect him, which I'm not happy about. The first 3 games also highlighted how deep the Warriors squad was, considering neither Klay Thompson or Steph Curry had over 20 points...

Baseball fans rejoice! The Korean Baseball Organisation has started its season, making it one of the first major professional sports leagues to return since the start of the Corona Virus pandemic. If you don’t already plan on watching the KBO, maybe it’s time you start thinking about it. Here is a short guide to help you on your way. It was founded in 1982 and features 10 teams. The defending champions are the Doosan Bears, with the most titles being held by the Kia Tigers (11). It will, however, be an uphill struggle for the Bears to defend their title as they lost league MVP, Josh Lindblom, to the MLBs Milwaukee Brewers. As far as the standard of play goes, you are looking at AA ball in the USA, maybe a step higher than the currently playing Chinese Professional Baseball League (CPBL) which ranks around A ball.  It might not be what MLB fans would have wanted six weeks ago, but it is a potential for live baseball that we are all craving. If you are in the US you are ...

One of the many highlights of the first-ever virtual draft this past weekend was the rare, intimate look into the homes and families of these high-flying NFL execs who can appear anywhere from heatless to overly sentimental to inhumane depending on your team loyalties. This leads us nicely to the goodest of boys who expertly selected Kyle Dugger from Lenoir-Rhyne with the 37th pick. Of course, we are referring to Nike Belichick, the canine companion of the 6-time Super Bowl winning coach of the Patriots. Ever since the NFL's pyjama Olympics (combine), Nike has had to come to terms with never playing in the NFL. The sadistic rule-setters decided that he was, in fact, ineligible on account of his 4 legs and superior intelligence. His football IQ is clearly higher than the Steelers center who failed to snap the ball on command. Nike pointed to the black cat who famously played in the Cowboys and Giants tilt on Monday Night football last year. "obviously it has nothing to do with ...

With talk of professional sports coming back, there is talk about how the leagues will be set out and what will happen. Below you will be able to see MY hopes and predictions for what happens when the individual sporting leagues return. NBA: At this point in the year we would be in the middle of the playoffs. I believe once the leagues return, they will go straight into the playoffs but instead of 8 teams from each division qualifying, everyone qualifies, that's right, that includes the New York Knicks. The playoffs will be set up in a March Madness-style, winner takes all in the majority of the rounds. This will be until the conference finals, which will be expanded to a 3 game series and the finals a 5 game series. Lebron James will lead his Lakers to the final to only be beaten again at the final hurdle, by Giannis and his Bucks. The Bucks have Donte DiVencenzo on their roster, a previous NCAA champion, and master of the March madness format. He will, unsurprising to me, go on...