Forum MOVIE DVD VCD Cartoon Movie Cartoon Variax Berserk The Golden Age Arc. The NFL spin machine is fast at work doing its best to make it look like the investigation into the domestic violence allegations against Dallas Cowboys running back. An All Ireland Championship Preview For The Blissfully Ignorant. The showcase event of the worlds most provincial sport takes place on Sunday in Dublin. A Galway squad takes on Waterford in the All Ireland Hurling final, as Croke Park will be packed with a crowd of 8. In the U. S. or any nation other than Ireland, this matchup, and any hurling event, might have trouble drawing a crowd of 8. The games failure to catch the worlds fancy is understandable. If you didnt grow up playing hurling, you cant play it. The required skill setincluding the ability to catch a hard ball with one bare hand and hit it with accuracy 7. And, its not easy to grasp or explain hurlings rules. My mother, the child of Irish immigrants, used to tell a tale from her childhood about going to the Bronx in the 1. What is hurling she asked her dad in the car on the ride to her first game. He responded simply, Hurling is hurling. My first exposure to the sport came in watching the All Ireland finals replays on ABCs Wide World of Sports with my father, also a child of Irish immigrants. And though I couldnt tell exactly what the hell was going on, it seemed a combination of lacrosse and Kill the Guy With the Ball, and I was immediately thrilled by the nonstop action and awesome violence its peeved me since childhood that Americans tended to hear curling whenever I mentioned hurling. Now that Im older and freshly back from my first live hurling experience, at Croke Park on Aug. All Ireland semifinal, Ill try a less lay explanation of the sport Hurling is a game where two teams of 1. How To Watch Curious George Cartoon. Croke Park pitch is 1. American football field for two 3. But getting smashed is most of hurling, in no small part because theres only one referee in charge of the massive field and all those scrambling, stick swinging bodies. GC5VOvTc/hqdefault.jpg' alt='Download Berserk: The Golden Age Arc 3 - Descent Cartoon Now ' title='Download Berserk: The Golden Age Arc 3 - Descent Cartoon Now ' />For a far more learned description of the gamewith picturesgo here. But while the rest of the world will ignore whats taking place in Dublin, all of Ireland will shut down on game day. Irishmen and Irishwomen that arent in the stadium will wish they were. I learned this the hard way The 2. Ireland, and I went to Croke Park several hours before game time without a ticket but with a wad of Euros and a certainty that Id be able to buy my way in. This was before Stub. Hub or any online sites, when street sales were still the default MO for tickets selling. Id shown up similarly ticketless and cash rich at what I regarded as bigger events back home before, including Texas vs. Oklahoma, the Red River Shootout, held at the Cotton Bowl at the Texas State Fairgrounds during the middle of the damn Texas State Fair and in a year when both teams came into the game undefeated. So I pooh poohed the Irish folks who warned me in the days before the game that Id never seen anything like whatd I see in Dublin on game day. They were right. I spent hours wandering the streets outside the stadium with what Id guess to be about 1. Not only did I not get in, I never even found a single scalper before giving up and watching the game in a pub. The natives love for hurling is nothing new, and its partially by design. Hurling historians claim the game is at least 8. The sport, along with Irish football, another hyper provincial pastime overseen by the Gaelic Athletic Association, have been part of the national identity since the late 1. The first All Ireland finals took place in 1. GAA decreed that members would be thrown out of the association if they were caught playing soccer, cricket, or rugby, games which folks fighting for a free Ireland regarded as tools of the occupiers from England. Michael Collins, the most famous of the Irish leaders in the War of Independence against the Brits, called those sports Garrison games that only aid the peaceful penetration of Ireland by the British. The Brits, meanwhile, viewed the GAA as a branch of the IRA during the guerilla campaign that ended with the creation of the Republic of Ireland On November 2. British soldiers opened fire on unarmed crowds at a GAA event at Croke Park as retaliation for the IRA killing several British intelligence officers in Dublin. Fourteen Irish citizens, including Tipperary footballer Mick Hogan, were killed in the slaughter remembered as the original Bloody Sunday. The GAA only lifted its ban on non Gael games in 1. Croke Park, now a hallowed ground which has a whole side of the stadium named after the martyred Hogan, until 2. For all the games blood and gutsiness, literates looking for an excuse to give hurling a shot can lean on its importance to James Joyce, who put references to the sport in his big works. Take this romantic morsel from Joyces greatest hit, Ulysses, which he finished writing in 1. She swore to him as they mingled the salt streams of their tears that she would cherish his memory, that she would never forget her hero boy who went to his death with a song on his lips as if he were but going to a hurling match in Clonturk park. Enhancing the aboriginal ardor GAA athletes can only play for their home counties, with the association relying essentially on the boundaries of the 3. Ireland in 1. 88. And all hurlers are now and have always been amateur, despite all the commerce the game has long produced through Croke Park sellouts, jersey sales and, as of this year, a TV deal with Sky. Sports. Gerry Mc. Inerney, who was on Galway teams that won All Ireland titles in 1. New York Times that because there was no hurling salary, he was forced to live in New York in the offseason during his playing days to work construction, despite being a superstar in his native country. You might get a couple of pints, Mc. Inerney said of his sporting pay. And make no mistake The top hurlers are heroes at home During my recent trip to Ireland, the reposal and funeral for Tony Keady, the best hurler in the universe in the 1. Galway for a weekend. There has never been any major hanky panky regarding one county poaching another countys athletes, or a hurler changing addresses to play for a squad with a better shot at winning the All Ireland championship, or under the table payments to keep stars playingat least according to every devout hurling fan I asked. As I can now attest, hurling at its highest level and in a live setting has more than enough action, drama, and sticks to the face to grab any sports fan, regardless of national or county loyalties. Not wanting to repeat being shut out of Croke Park, I bought tickets for a 2. All Ireland semifinal online and months before the game. Watching with my family and 7. Waterfords win over Cork thrilled me as much as any sporting event Id ever attended. And now, like all of Ireland, I cant wait to see this years final. Galway will be seeking its first All Ireland championship since 1. Waterford won its last title in 1. I was reminded earlier this week that my enthusiasm for the big game wont be shared by many folks on this side of the pond. I had phoned the biggest Irish bar in the D. C. area, where I now live, and asked the guy who answered if theyd be showing Sundays hurling match. Whats that he answered. Good god. Hurling is hurling, I told him. CORRECTION A previous version of this story said Waterford won its last All Ireland title in 1. Waterfords last championship came in 1. Ezekiel Elliott Docs Reveal Mysterious NFL Relationship With Prosecutors Group. The NFL spin machine is fast at work doing its best to make it look like the investigation into the domestic violence allegations against Dallas Cowboys running back Ezekiel Elliott has been long and arduous and absolutely had to take more than a year. Even though the criminal investigation ended in September with no charges, and even though Cowboys owner Jerry Jones was seen threatening the NFLs top investigator, telling her, Your bread and butter is going to get both of us thrown out on the street, the NFL would have you think its just a coincidence that the usual NFL water carriers are signaling that the investigation is expected to end soon during the lowest points in the sports media cycle. To hear the NFLs chosen news deliverers tell it, the holdup has been waiting on phone records for Elliott that were received weeks ago. But that glosses over whatever else the NFL has been doing for the past year. One thing they spent several months doing was trying to get as much as they could out of prosecutors in the Columbus area, who conducted the lengthiest investigation involving Elliott. At one point, when a prosecutor did not want to discuss his multiple conversations with a possible domestic violence victim, the NFLs director of investigations tried to put more pressure on him, even mentioning a Memorandum of Understanding between the NFL and the National District Attorneys Association to aid the League with respect to our investigative efforts regarding allegations of violations of the NFLs Personal Conduct Policy. Prosecutors have told Deadspin they declined the December request to discuss the contents of their multiple conversations with Tiffany Thompson beyond what was already in the public record. But the entire exchange highlights one of the thornier parts of the NFLs quest to get it right on domestic violence. Yes, that sounds good in theory. For now, though, it clearly now entails the NFLa private employerasking agents of the state to fork over nonpublic information about alleged victims whose spouses or partners work for them. Deadspin reached out to the three agencies that were known to have investigated allegations of possible assault involving Elliott and Thompson Columbus police, the Columbus city attorney, and Aventura police. Aventura police produced a thin selection of emails. From their end, the NFL investigation was just a private investigator emailing a random officer whose name he pulled off the internet on Sept. The investigator, Ed Du Bois, wrote that The NFL is very aggressive in its investigation of this conduct so please respond as soon a possible. Aventura police treated it as a public records request. According to their emails, Du Bois picked up a stack of public records from their office on Sept. Thats where the email conversation ends. Columbus police told us they didnt have any records that matched our request, but the Columbus City Attorneys Office did. The relevant emails start on Aug. NFLs director of investigations, Kia Roberts, thanking city attorney Richard Pfeiffer for getting back to her and introducing herself. He wrote back explaining pretty much what the public knewa woman reported that Elliott had assaulted her, and they were investigating. He would let her know when the investigation was done. Roberts asked for an update on Aug. On Sept. 6, the same day the case was closed and documents were released to the public, an email was sent giving them to Roberts. The next day, she wrote back to offer a thank you. I will contact you, she wrote, if I have any further questions or problems. There are no more emails until a month later, on Oct. On that date, Roberts wrote that the NFL had fully reviewed the materials that you made available and that she had some follow up questions. Its pretty simple stuff Were there other audio statements taken from witnesses No. Who conducted the recorded intake interviews A part time employee of that unit. Had another call to police that Thompson had mentioned to the NFL been recorded Copies of calls to police are handled by the police, not his office. No more emails turn up until the next month, on Nov. At this point, Roberts said she has gone to Columbus and met with prosecutors in person. This email is to principal assistant city attorney Robert Tobias asking for a calendar he had mentioned during their conversation Tobias politely declines. Roberts returned in December. She was, as in all her emails, very polite and thankful for their help. But she still wanted more information, and mentioned the memorandum of understanding as a reason they should be cooperating with her. She sent this to the city attorney on Dec. The memorandum that Roberts mentioned attaching was not attached to the email. Deadspin asked the city attorneys office to check for the attachment and received this from Tobias In regard to the Memorandum of Understanding you reference, Ms. Roberts never attached it to her email. As you may recall, Ms. Roberts was asking if I would be willing to share the contents of my conversations with Ms. Thompson. I was solely focused on that request and never communicated to Ms. Roberts that she forgot to attach the Memorandum. We never received any Memorandum of Understanding attachment and I never pointed out the oversight or asked her to email it to me. Did he share the details of Thompsons interview Tobias said, No, I did not. Deadspin reached out today to the National District Attorneys Association for a copy of the memorandum. An automatic email reply said their media spokesperson was out of the office this week and suggested calling their main office. We did, but nobody answered and we were sent to voicemail. We forwarded our email request to their acting executive director but have not heard back. This post will be updated if they respond. As for the emails with Columbus prosecutors, there are just two more. Later that day, Roberts asked for help contacting the responding officers Tobias responded with the email addresses for the officers and told her, Youll need to reach out to the Columbus Police Department directly to acquire their phone numbers. And that was the end of it. The last email is now more than six months old. They show an NFL investigator repeatedly asking questions that involve comparing information given by Thompson to that she had given to different people. But somehow the NFL still has needed another six months to, according to NFL reporters, get Elliotts phone records. The entire NFL process, no matter how fancy they try to make it sound, is deeply conflicted. Theyre an employer whose main job is to keep teams on the field while the fans are happy and the cash is rolling in. The problem for decades was that there was evidence of the NFL and other sports leagues using their power and influence to downplay accusations or even make investigations involving their players magically disappear. Victims who call police want help and fair investigations, not cops asking for autographs. But those victims didnt ask for the NFL to do its own investigations they wanted it to not obstruct legitimate ones. Just like it always has, the newly woke NFL seems to expect special treatment all thats changed is the favors they want. Before, they wanted investigations to go away. Now, they want every last detail of those investigations fed to them so they can do whatever public relations spin they have to do. The NFL now thinks every prosecutor in America needs to cooperate with them beyond whats in the public record on every single investigation of, not just domestic violence, but the entire personal conduct policy, which is so broad it covers just about anything a person does. The NFL and Jerry Jones dont care if Elliott really did beat up Thompson, or if he didnt, or if maybe its a complicated situation, or if maybe it isnt.