Technical difficulties have delayed Podcast #42. This seems par for the course. 2017 has been a rough year all around and while there have been a few bright spots, I think it is fair to say that Burke and I are excited to put it behind us. We should be able to post the pod before too long. Here is to hanging out with family, eating too much, watching basketball and the Winter Classic and being thankful for all the positives in the world. 2018 Better Rock!
This is not a post about legal issues at all. I wanted to chat about this on our podcast, but we seem to always run over on time. It's April 16 and this here is what I've watched this weekend:
I'll probably watched a bit of playoff hockey and a few cooking shows in between. I always feel weird when people ask me what I've done over the weekend and I have to make my errands and things sound more interesting because most weekend I'm just watching sports.
Thanks for indulging me.
-G
Note: This isn't a typical post for Under Further Review since it isn't really about anything legal (aside from a corporate law point of view, which I do not get into here), but this was something that I wanted to talk about.
Liberty Media has purchased a controlling interest in Formula 1 for $4.4 billion. Formula 1 (F1) features the fastest road racing cars on some of the world's best tracks and it generates a sick amount of revenues. It has been run by Bernie Ecclestone, a highly controversial figure (take your pick as to the reason), for the last four decades. He will continue to run F1 for the next three years, which will maintain continuity for F1 while Liberty Media takes over.
I had no idea what Liberty Media was until news of its purchase of F1 started circulating, but they own a large stake in Live Nation, are involved with the Atlanta Braves organization and have European media interests.
I am an F1 fan. But it is getting harder and harder for me to stay engaged. It is due mostly to Red Bull and Mercedes’ years of dominance and the fact that races don’t appear to be super competitive. It’s always been about strategy and tire preservation and not about flat out racing, but even the strategy has lost a bit of its luster for me. It isn’t too much fun when the World Champion (either the Driver or Constructors) is determined fairly early on in the season and it becomes about who comes in second or third or how the middling or back marker teams fare. I haven’t been a huge fan of F1’s newest bright star, Max Verstappen, because of his risky and aggressive moves, but I do appreciate the fact that he is trying those things and is racing.
Also, it’s been difficult to watch my team – McLaren – and its drivers struggle. Jenson Button, my favorite driver, is taking a sabbatical from F1 next season and may return in 2018. He will be spending his sabbatical taking a break from the rigorous schedule of F1 by participating in several triathlons and taking 100 km bike rides up Mount Ventoux. You know, the usual rest break.
As discussed at length in our soon-to-be released podcast from this weekend, it turns out that Ryan Lochte is not the innocent victim of an armed robber masquerading as a police officer but instead a drunk dude-bro who made a series of increasingly poor decisions (including public urination, lying to his mother, lying to Matt Lauer, lying to the police, fleeing the country and leaving his friends behind to deal with the aftermath of his lies). This parade of bullshit culminated in three of his teammates being detained by Brazilian police, him providing not one but two of the worst apologies in the history of apologies and losing, at last count, three sponsors.
While I could (and did) go on and on about this - I think Al Roker perfectly expresses what so many of us have been thinking:
AL ROKER AIN'T HAVING IT NO MORE pic.twitter.com/1ADRIyPQ7h
— Kofie Y. (@KofieYeboah) August 20, 2016
Just keep stirring that caipirinha, Al.
~ B
We are so glad that are visiting with us! Under Further Review with Burke and Gen is our podcast that we are so excited about and happy to finally share with you. We love sports, find celebrity culture interesting and we make our living in the law and in Under Further Review we have combined those passions and interests to talk about athletes and celebrities and their legal issues. Most of the time the content will be informative and, hopefully, a deeper level of information that you would find in most articles and graced with some of our general irreverence.