Bonds’ Bushes and...Balls’
Welcome back to the Bill Bradley Collective, where it is Father’s Day weekend and we are here to commemorate it with a deep dive into paternalism at work across the spectrums of both sports and politics. We lead with a mini-draft of sorts, as each of your hosts highlight a series of father/son pairs in seeking to find the most athletically accomplished duo of them all. The positive and negative impacts a “sports dad” have had historically on their gifted progeny at the highest athletic level lead out the sports end of our conversation to the political. Fathers/offspring both achieving high reaches of elected office may not be terribly common, but is always newsworthy. A pair of libertarian “physicians” who between them combined approximately 15 minutes as beacons of GOP hipsterism, and a war criminal and the somehow nouveau riche de la résistance sharing his last name and record on foreign policy are singled out. We shift to the concept of the American political dynasty, and the machinations that have allowed singular bloodlines to influence our politics and the politics of high office across multiple generations. But first the rants, where Zak eviscerates the retired “Round Mound of Rebound” for his condemnation of cancel culture despite Sir Mound’s own growing physical resemblance to a compound and an inglorious run on cable that should have seen him cancelled many years ago; a tandem run at COVID-protocols across sports in our as-yet-not-realized vaccinated future, as Ed examines an NBA superstar on the precipice of his greatest professional achievement and the positive test that has set that back for the foreseeable future and Andrew reconciles with the aggressive anti-vaccination position of a certain gritty, scrappy, high football/low real-life IQ guy in the wake of announced NFL COVID-protocols. In two weeks, ring in your 4th of July Weekend by joining us on July 3rd at New Londons own Draft Choice, where your hosts will both usher in a new season and will draft whom we believe to be the very worst people across sports. Hope to see you then, and as always, thanks for joining us on the Bill Bradley Collective.