BBCollective

Timeless Ties: A Quadrennial Adventure in Sports and Friendship

Shifting Landscapes: Sports' Latest and Greatest Changes

Retro Rants Live: A Crowd-Powered 4th of July Special

The Power of Bloodlines: The Roosevelt Chronicles

Democracy in Dismay: Imagining the Impact of 2024's Election

Mastering the Greens: A Lone Star's Dynasty

Sitting on Top of the World: The Story of 'Shipwreck' Kelly

Calls, Cameras, and Cheating: Inside Michigan Football

“I am such an idiot.”: The Mickelson Meltdown

A Players Voice: Empowerment in Sports Media

Electile Dysfunction: A Speaker Selection Sh*t Show

From Founding Fathers to Political Heirs: The Adams Legacy

When Worlds Collide: The Octagon Meets the Squared Circle

Heartbreak in Green & White: Navigating Sports' Emotional Terrain

Glory Days: A Look Back at Washington's Dynasty

The Umpire of History: Baseball's Forgotten Influencer

Whistle While They Debate: Trump's 7 Dwarfs on the Debate Stage

Carbon Chronicles: From Causes to Cures of Climate Crisis

In this episode of The Bill Bradley Collective, join us as we dive into the notable 'last hurrahs' of this year in both golf and college football. We'll unpack the closing chapters of PGA Golf and the restructuring of the Pac-12 in college football. Tune in for insightful analysis and discussions on the impactful intersection of sports and politics in these farewell moments.

Step into the world of Hollywood turmoil as writers, producers, and musicians join forces in an unprecedented strike against artificial intelligence. Join us as we delve into the complexities of this groundbreaking movement, exploring the collision of creativity, technology, and artistic expression in "Beyond the Script: Uniting the Arts Against AI. - Title and Summary generated using AI

Step back in time to the exhilarating 1970s, where baseball history was written with passion, rivalry, and unforgettable moments. In our podcast we delve deep into the epic showdown between the Cincinnati Reds and the Oakland A's. Join us as we relive the clashes of these baseball giants, the legendary Big Red Machine against the dynamic Swingin' A's. Discover the stories behind iconic players, game-changing plays, and the fierce competition that defined this golden era. Through our analysis, captivating anecdotes, and historical insights, we uncover how this rivalry left an indelible mark on the sport and captured the hearts of fans across the nation. So grab your peanuts and crackerjacks and embark on a thrilling journey through the unforgettable battles on the diamond that continue to resonate with baseball enthusiasts to this day.

Take a journey back in time with this vintage episode from the vault, as the Bill Bradley Collective delves into a wide range of topics that continue to resonate today. Join us as we explore pressing issues such as Global Warming, Donald Trump, the pay gap in US Women's Soccer, and cheating in Major League Baseball.

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Welcome back to the Bill Bradley Collective, where this week your hosts seek to define what constitutes an “every-man” (or -woman) and then examine some notable examples of these every-day folk both in sports and in politics. Club professional Michael Block recently captivated the golf world with his 15th-place finish at the PGA Championship, remarkably outplaying most of the game’s elite. His week and common-man bonafides are discussed, as well as the the back stories of a pair of notably ideologically opposed young congresswoman, a controversial figure skating champion from famously humble beginnings, and a similarly underdog boxer who found fame and success against improbable odds. But first, we rant: as Ed takes on the Los Angeles Dodgers’ sorry capitulation to Christian interest groups in the wake of a Pride Night celebration; Zak surveys what’s left of the DeSantis 2024 Presidential campaign following a troubled and largely pathetic running announcement all too reflective of the Florida governor’s future political capital; and finally Andrew reflects on the week that was for now five-time major champion Brooks Koepka and what comes next for the LIV signee who once again found himself moonlighting as perhaps golf’s foremost active alpha-dog.                                                                           Title: Welcome to the Block Party: Everyday People in Sports and Politics

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Welcome back to the Bill Bradley Collective, where this week we reflect on a week in the courtroom across the country, and three significant decisions involving the presumptive Republican nominee for President in 2024, a junior New York Congressional representative amidst his ongoing biographical and professional roller coaster, and a former collegiate “punt-God” drafted and shortly thereafter released following an alarming accusation of abhorrent personal conduct. In order: Donald J. Trump found liable for the sexual abuse and defamation of journalist E. Jean Carroll; “George Santos” indicted under *thirteen* different counts; finally Matt Araiza will controversially not be served criminal charges regarding his alleged involvement in the gang rape of a 17-year-old girl. We break down the legal-ese of these decisions, and the broader picture of what these rulings mean right now and moving forward for all three parties. But first the rants are ‘a-coming; where Ed shines a critical light on the conservative right’s continued assault on female autonomy with a glimpse into efforts in Texas to end no-fault divorce; Andrew calls bullshit on St. John’s University and their attempt to defame an ex-coach on grounds based in ageism and cultural deficiency while simultaneously hiring an older and far more morally cretinous successor; and Zak leads us into the main topic with a critical but understanding eye with regards to CNN’s dalliance with the aforementioned Trump: a case not-quite-for a New Hampshire town hall/television ratings bonanza criticized for granting exposure, but argued in favor of taking   the typical CNN viewer out of their accustomed left-center echo chamber, amidst an admitted myriad of lies and falsehoods.

Welcome back to the Bill Bradley Collective, where this week your hosts highlight some of the best of the rest in rivalries across sports and politics. This season at the top of every month we’ve gone long on the best rivalries across both sports and politics, and as rivalries are the lifeblood of sports and a heated, spirited discourse drive the best (and perhaps worst) of our politics, there are frankly too many left un-discussed. Contained within: the NFL’s longest, most storied story of contention; a four-year NBA-tilt from the 20th century reinvigorated in this postseason cycle; podium disagreements involving the presidential and punditry; a legendary modern sweet science quadrilogy and a back-page squabble pitting columnist versus Hall of Fame ace. Six great stories, six great rivalries falling just short of episodic contention recounted, this week. All of that, plus another trilogy of rants: Ed sings the “Deacon Blues,” where they’ve got a name for the winners in the world, and it’s not the moral high ground of athletic programs at the University of Alabama, aka the Crimson Tide; Andrew lays a skeptic eye on boxing’s latest young star with a look to his potential and a nod to his troubled history; and finally Zak champions the actions of Zooey Zephyr, and the significance of elected officials of minority color, sexuality and identity in this country under siege by LGBTQ-phobia.

Welcome back to the Bill Bradley Collective, where it is the first Tuesday in May and that means one thing (no, not the tired *NSYNC meme), its rivalry week and In this installment we present the saga of Al Davis and Pete Rozelle. Quite possibly the most significant off-field feud in NFL history, Rozelle and Davis are two of the architects of the National Football League behemoth as we know it, but never did these two contrasting visionaries work well in concert with one another. Join us as we start at the beginning, as Rozelle rises to NFL commissionership at a young age as both his league and American professional football are about to grab a lion share of the sports marketplace. Davis enters the fray as a pivotal figure in the upstart AFL, as both league commissioner and later owner of the Oakland Raiders. The two rival leagues merge in 1970 due in large part to their individual efforts, but the contention stayed live and well. The 1970s and 80s brought it to a fever pitch, where our protagonists spent plenty of time on opposing sides of the courtroom, over both Davis’ Raider players and the renegade owner’s desire to relocate the franchise from Oakland to Los Angeles in a famed anti-trust case. All the backstory, detail and legacy: it’s Al Davis v. Pete Rozelle, this week on the Bill Bradley Collective.

Welcome back to the Bill Bradley Collective, where this week in light of recent news we revisit the seemingly evergreen news cycle encircling the American debt ceiling. In a prior episode we set out to define what exactly in the fuck constitutes the “debt ceiling,” and this week we take it even further with an examination of how legislative threats and weaponization of the debt ceiling have affected our fiscal politics across recent Presidential administrations. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy decreed this week that any negotiations with regard to the debt ceiling would be met with GOP-sanctioned rebuke of certain keystone elements of Biden-regime economic policy. Join us this week with a look at how we got here with the “ceiling” and how coverage and exploitation of our national debt has evolved over our recent political timeline. But first comes a rant or three, where Zak forecasts some early but likely prescient 2024 electoral prognostications with a dismissal of the Florida GOP’s once-upon-a-time golden boy, head-scratching at the latest Kennedy family entrant and some kinda-, sorta- optimism for a gemstone endorsing Biden primary rival; Andrew makes the case for the potential end of the NBA’s latest (and as of now still chugging) dynasty with some shade for one of their pillar’s latest bit of mercurial on-court conduct; and Ed details the continued red-state effort opposed to the participatory rights of trans-athletes in high school and intercollegiate competition.

 Welcome back to the Bill Bradley Collective, where this week your hosts examine the fallout following a U.S. District Court decision in Texas suspending FDA approval of abortion drug mifepristone. Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk’s decision is the latest in a recent series of attempts by conservative legislators and heads of court to not simply restrict but to eradicate any and all abortion rights afforded American women. Mifepristone, used to bring about abortion and manage early miscarriage, has since the year 2000 stood up to rigorous vetting by the Food and Drug Administration. Its suspension of approval has drawn massive rebuke from not just abortion rights groups, but the scientific and medical communities at large. Join us this week as the Collective examines how it is we got to this point, the expected response of the Supreme Court, and just how significant the consequences of federal court appointments really are. But first, some somewhat lighter listening with a three-ball of rants headed directly for the corner pocket: where Ed details the thunderous whimper emanating from Dallas following the pitiful conclusion to a Mavs’ season where both their present and future combusted following the acquisition of Kyrie Irving; Andrew observes the 25th anniversary of a famed Spike Lee joint that carried a fair bit of prescience with regard to the future of collegiate sports and recruiting, and Zak foreshadows some of this week’s main discussion with a look at the potentially irrevocable damage being done to the Biden agenda surrounding Dianne Feinstein’s continued (lack of) presence on the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Welcome back to the Bill Bradley Collective, where with the NFL Draft merely a couple of weeks ago and the free agency period wading in the deep end of the pool, your hosts examine the very relationship at hand: that between what constitutes “free agency” and the labor movement, at large. The curious cases of QB’s Aaron Rodgers and Lamar Jackson take centerstage, but the conversation dives deeper into the factors that have made this offseason in particular markedly more owner/franchise-friendly than beneficial to the league’s rank-and-file union member. But first a rant or three: where Zak plays Cronkite and runs through the week in another horrifying (if you’re not a conscienceless right-wing ghoul) in this week’s news cycle with special attention paid to the inhumanity being afforded both trans-gender teens and anti-gun state legislators by conservative government constituencies; Andrew takes a victory lap upon UConn men’s basketball’s 5th national title and the young men, coach and conference that made it possible; and finally Ed submits the triangulations of one of perhaps this country’s eldest, most corrupt and certainly most interminable under our Constitution’s bylaws conservative idealogues. Just another jam-packed week here on the Bill Bradley Collective. Title

Welcome back to the Bill Bradley Collective, where it is rivalry week, and with baseball back in action what better athletic struggle of epic proportion to profile than that between the Boston Red Sox and New York Yankees. Likely the most visible rivalry professional sports has to offer and one with it’s geographic profile at the center of the BBCollective Universe, Sox/Yanks is more than a century old with hostilities perhaps hitting their peak within the last twenty years. The sale of a guy named Ruth from Boston to New York altered the baseball narrative for the next 100 years plus. Four Boston early 20th-century championships gave way to 85 years of subsequent Yankee dominance. But along came 2004, where the Sox staged the greatest comeback in the history of postseason sport and set the stage for a run that made them MLB’s most successful to now 21st century franchise. You know the players. Williams/DiMaggio. Fisk/Munson. Yaz/Reggie. Jeter/Ortiz. You know the fights. Spaceman/Nettles. Zimmer/Pedro. A-Rod/Varitek. You know the personalities. Clemens and Schilling. Rivera and Buckner. Martin and Francona. This week, you get a Collective cross-examination of the Boston Red Sox/New York Yankees rivalry through estimations of their greatest players, greatest games, and their vast economic advantages over much of baseball in the modern era. “Yankees Suck, “Boston Sucks,” this week, on the Bill Bradley Collective. 

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Welcome back to the Bill Bradley Collective, where March Madness has arrived and this week your hosts set out to forecast the future of the college basketball. With the transfer portal humming and student athletes’ taking advantage of fifth-year eligibility, the sport as a whole hit some historic statistical benchmarks amidst great parody and competitive balance. All is not so bullish as it pertains to the future though. Despite the arrival of NIL and athletes finally able to legally profit off themselves, the emergence of the G-League as an alternative to college for elite high school recruits, the inevitable downsides of power conference expansion and re-alignment, and the potential havoc these factors may wreak upon the on-court college basketball product are all signs of a sport in a state of serious flux. But first, let there be rants: where Zak reviews another week in behavioral dereliction with the presumptive loser of the 2024 GOP Presidential primary Ron DeSantis; Ed presents Dr. Aaron Donald Rodgers or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Embrace My New Asshole Quarterback; and finally Andrew chastises Hollywood’s celebration of amoral billionaire sneaker mavens in light of Ben Affleck’s forthcoming Phil Knight/Sonny Vaccaro biopic.

Welcome back to the Bill Bradley Collective, where it is once again rivalry week with a conversation about the complicated relationship between Founding Fathers John Adams and Thomas Jefferson. The two chief architects and drafters of the Declaration of Independence, and the second and third men to hold the office of the Presidency, Adams and Jefferson’s individual histories are tied at the hip. For all they accomplished together in their early years serving in the Continental Congress, their ideological differences gave way to great political conflict while in office, and a personal impasse post-Presidency that was eventually reconciled via prolonged written correspondence. Those ideological differences and the contrasting lives and legacies of Adams and Jefferson guide much of the discussion. The hosts also examine how their politics and philosophies have come to shape and still influence today’s affairs of state. A political rivalry that perhaps did more than any other to push forward the best interests of country over self, Adams and Jefferson, this week on the Bill Bradley Collective.

Welcome back to the Bill Bradley Collective, where it is another installment in our critically acclaimed series of Dollop-style bonus episodes. This week Ed presents the story of the 1899 Cleveland Spiders baseball team. There are often brutal seasonal campaigns across team sports, but the Spiders of 1899 set high marks for futility that have lasted well over a century. Join us this week for a deep dive into a team that managed a near impossible 20 wins against 134 losses, found themselves outscored by a mind-blowing 723 runs, averaged a mere 145 fans per home game despite only playing 42 of them, and unsurprisingly ended the franchise as the Spiders disbanded at season’s end. That story, the 1899 Cleveland Spiders, is this week on the Bill Bradley Collective, and be sure to tune in next week for our next conversation on rivalries across sports and politics, as we examine John Adams and Thomas Jefferson.

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Welcome back to the Bill Bradley Collective, where this week your hosts tackle everything “overrated,” across sports and politics. It is a draft-ish episode this week, as the boys informally select what they each consider to be the most overrated in each of the following categories: most overrated political/sporting institution, most overrated athlete/coach, and most overrated politician (spoiler alert: President). There’s no scoring or ranking, just a chance for the panel to expose a bit of truth on the failings of otherwise widely celebrated staples and persons across our sporting and political landscapes. Stay for the main discussion, but as always come for the rants: where Andrew shines a light on the Warner Bros.-Discovery conglomerate and the hypocrisy behind whom they choose and choose not to grant exposure across their many platforms; Zak kicks a little more dirt over the political grave of House Speaker Kevin McCarthy and the future of proxy voting in Congress, and finally Ed targets one of the Collective’s favorite billionaire fail-sons James Dolan and his absurd move to use facial recognition as a means to keep personal foes and rivals removed from entering Madison Square Garden.

Welcome back to the Bill Bradley Collective, where the NFL postseason has arrived and football is the focus. Tune in this week as your hosts put their prognosticating hats on with picks and predictions for the sport in 2023. Super Bowl predictions and hot takes for Wild Card Weekend start things off, but there’s plenty more on top of that, including what to expect at the top of this spring’s Draft, who will take the quarterbacking reins of the Collective’s beloved New York Jets, and what 2023 may have in store for Patriots’ head coach Bill Belichick and his offensive staff. But first, we’re ranting: as Ed ponders the political capital of Grover Norquist in the context of the Republican Party in 2023; Andrew details Vince McMahon’s unseemly return to WWE and what it means for the company’s future; and finally Zak outlines the hilariously dubious history of New York congressman George Santos amidst new revelations.

Welcome back to the Bill Bradley Collective and what is surely one of our most jam-packed episodes. The focus this week is a look at the continued fallout from the January 6, 2021 attack on the United States capitol, two years removed. Your hosts assess the findings of the House Select Committee on the January 6 attacks, the key players that served on the committee, and both Donald Trump’s political and personal future amidst the investigation’s conclusions, conclusions suggestive of criminal conduct by the disgraced ex-President. Before rants, we open the show with a conversation on the sporting world’s dominant news story of the week. In a Monday night contest against the Cincinnati Bengals, Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin suffered cardiac arrest following a seemingly routine tackle. The moment itself, reactions across the league and media, the league’s decision to scrap the game and Hamlin’s inspiring recovery lead us off this week. Then come the rants: where Ed pays a heartfelt tribute to late Connecticut state representative and friend Quentin Williams just a day after his tragic passing; Andrew holds ESPN and Warner Bros. Discovery to the fire for their silence on UFC President Dana White following a recorded physical altercation with his wife; and finally Zak sums up a surreal week in Congress as far-right Republican house members did their best to keep Kevin McCarthy from being elected House speaker and C-SPAN made for must-see-TV.