Hello! Welcome to Tidbits!!! This is meant to cover things that more abstractly catch my interest in sports that I do not want to focus on for too long. Just some short tidbits about things around the world. If you like one of these things or are further interested in one, let me know! I would be happy to elaborate more on that topic another time. You can find all kinds of things in here but here’s the topics in today’s edition:

• St. Pauli relegation battle
• Ja Morant Grenade #2
• Volk recrowned Champ of Featherweight
• WNBA Draft
• NFL Draft
• Bryce Mitchell getting choked out

I do have some goals to get more things out like this more consistently. This entire thing took me about an hour. Sports are fun and easy for me to talk about. Now if I could only finish one of those other projects I am working on…

If there’s something you want to ask me, I have an email! Feel free to shoot other Tidbit topics to this email: esirfacelive@gmail.com

1. St Pauli relegation battle

C’mon, how did you not know we were going to the Bundesliga first? My dearly beloved Pauli has somehow found itself 7 points ahead¹ of the relegation playoff place with 5 matches to go. To say my heart could not be warmer would be an understatement. For those who know me, this is literally a dream come true for me. Cinderella-esque moments and scenes are weaved in Pauli fiber. You can watch Pauli on ESPN+ (or the high seas) and you should.

You may not know much about football, so allow me a moment. The best-case scenario here, is Pauli wins twice in the next 5 matches. There’d be no doubt, they would stay in the Bundesliga at that point. There’s some other sweatier paths that we may have to walk but with 7 points of advantage, there feels like there’s something for me to hope for in this world.

2. Ja Morant Grenade #2

He is just straight trolling at this point. I love it. The hands on his face, it’s cinema. Pure comedy gold. I do understand wanting to end gun violence. I do understand that the league wants a “clean image” and works very hard to maintain that. I also hope Ja “sprays a mini-gun” into the crowd if they win their second play-in game. Life is full of contradictions I suppose.

3. Volk recrowned Champ of Featherweight

This one is weird. I am of the camp that believes there’s a reason that most fighters who try to win a belt past 35 are fooling themselves. Not like I would know “what it takes” to win a belt, however there is science that suggests your brain may physically not be able to handle it. Thus, Volk is in a weird spot. He does not have that many knockdowns or KO losses in his career. Also, in terms of his mental, he is one of the most rock-solid dudes ever. Stoic is doing him a disservice. His poise is comparable to the non-chalantness of Thierry Henry. His intensity remains at a level of a champion though. He keeps pushing. He keeps reminding us, that no matter what, anything is possible.

I really hope that more fighters don’t try this though. This is not usually how this story ends. There are very few fighters like Alexander Volkanovski. Also, he fights in a very low weight class, which means the force delivered with each blow is less. Translating to less head trauma over a longer term? Possibly! I don’t know science, I am speculating.

4. WNBA Draft

Damnit, I missed it. The W needs to do something about these events. I don’t know what it is. I really have no idea what would be better scheduling wise, but I only knew about the draft date a day before. Misogyny at large in the media? Surely, not. I’m sure ESPN did not spend like 20 minutes of primetime broadcasting debating KD’s legacy impact by losing with the Suns this season in the weeks leading up to the draft.

The bit is over. Realistically, I think the WNBA needs to explore some more radical broadcasting options. I want to see them trying weird shit. Not Nickelodeon slime game weird. I am talking decentralized broadcasting weird. Allow me to pay $20 and show WNBA broadcasts (price point is way too low but you get the idea) or just stream all your games on YouTube. Do something to get eyeballs on the league. More people are watching than ever, BUT even more could be watching.  

I genuinely believe they’d be better off at this point. I want the WNBA on ESPN. Genuinely, I do. They belong there; those women can hoop. However, at ESPN, they have continually been treated worse than college fucking baseball. Why sit there and take that? Their outreach is severely hampered and limited by a traditional media deal. ESPN, is neither incentivized to or going to treat the WNBA with more attention and time than they do currently and that sucks. Despite it sucking, it doesn’t feel like an unsolvable problem.  

I am realizing I have a lot to say about this so I am going to stop there for brevity’s sake. However, I hope you get the idea.

5. NFL Draft

I am never going to do a draft board. What a waste of fucking time and what a desperate reach for attention. What fucking charlatans. Every year, we trot out a galivanting cavalcade of bozos who get to pretend that they know something about what the dunces in NFL front offices think. I want to ask you an abstract question. Why do you want to know what they think? I do not spend my days thinking what a cat thinks. Its nothing. They think nothing. I don’t need a brain analyzer to tell me that.

I also don’t need some coked up dumbass on ESPN telling me what the Titans are going to do with their picks.⁴ To imply that you think you know what the worst drafting organization in the last 10 years has in store for me is laughable. The mere existence of “Mock Draft Analysis” is insulting to my intelligence as a fan. Eat my entire ass. You are fucking stupid and you are making up nonsense based on an arbitrary if/then situation. The problem with sports media is this shit right here. Its not smart but to call it for dumbasses would be insulting to dumbasses. It is meaningless conjecture. White noise. In a month, it has no value. It has literally zero value currently.

“Eric you are being a hater, why are you mad?”

      As a larger concept, the draft is an outdated system designed to rob players of market value and grant all negotiating leverage to the team. Yet, here we are. Talking about some Mel Kiper clone’s opinion on a world-class set of athletes.  Do not look at the man behind the curtain, right?

6. Bryce Mitchell getting choked out

Choke on that you fucking idiot. Folks stop giving this absolute scrub attention. He’s worse than Colby Covington dude. He is actually insane. Also, a real depiction of future generations of people when we see the repercussions of losing our Department of Education.⁵

Sources

1. https://www.sofascore.com/en-us/team/soccer/fc-st-pauli/2526
2. https://www.instagram.com/reel/DISgMjSOkY6/
3. https://www.newsweek.com/karl-malone-statutory-rape-allegations-resurface-ahead-all-star-1782418
4. https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/44674126/tennessee-titans-2025-nfl-draft-picks-cam-ward
5. https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c07zpmzxln1o