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Don't you detest when you see a coach who is always screaming at the players, has an ugly mug on his face, and is as arrogant as a college professor, as if coaching is his birthright, and not something more innately collaborative? Surely, they are coaches still like this, ones that believe that being a prick is synonymous with wearing a headset and looking at a playbook, such as the Giants's Brian Daboll, but there is one coach that I have been truly impressed by recently: The Detroit Lions's Dan Campbell. Campbell, who reminds me of my beloved Pittsburgh Steelers's Mike Tomlin, is "Football guy" personified: the kind of football coach who wakes up thinking about hugging his players, says "dude" every sentence, and puts them in the best position to succeed.
Last night, the Lions beat the Packers 34-31, partly because of Campbell's decision to go for it on fourth down when a field goal with 48 seconds left would have given them the lead. However, it would have also given the Packers the ball back with enough time for hotshot quarterback Jordan Love to tie or win the game for the Pack. Campbell went with the gunslinging move like David Caruso in NYPD Blue. He went for it, the Lions's running back, David Montgomery was able to make it despite Jared Goff falling down, and then the Lions counted the clock down before winning the game with a field goal. It was sport as theater. Now, the Lions still make me nervous -- Goff, the quarterback, is not an elite quarterback, and the surging Philadelphia Eagles's stingy defense can possibly make life hard for him --- but they are the *best* team in the NFL. Campbell's fostered a winning environment, as trite as that phrase can be.
Campbell's enthusiasm for the game is infectious, an unquestionably masculine but romantic view of coaching and football for the TikTok generation. He uses the traditional ways of being a football coach to also be chic and personable. He used to be a former player, and partly why he took the Lions job --- an organization that has not been very successful throughout its history --- is because he used to play there and he felt like he understood the Detroit community. Safety Brian Branch said that they would run through a brick wall for Campbell. I've always had this theory about American Football: It isn't always fun, because of the violence and the lack of clear financial comfort that some non-quarterbacks don't get, so unless you are Bill Belichick and you win all the time, your coaching style has to inspire devotion in your players. Joy must be apart of it, or what is else there? CTE?
Campbell is pure graciousness. He loves his players. It is easy to love them when they are good, and the Lions have an excellent offensive team, and a scrappy defensive team that has held steady despite some injuries. An offense that is based on running the football and play action, the Lions are fun to watch because they were made a different image than the Chiefs, or Brady's Patriots. It isn't a supreme quarterback with gaping holes throughout the roster. This is a deep team that relies on movement and pace. Watching the Lions play is fun, in a league that needs more weirdness and whimsy. But, Campbell seems like the star of the team even though he does not play. They were made in his image. He's the dude you want to be around, thus want to play for. Is this style something that will continue to spread throughout the league? One can hope.
Dec 6, 2024
Related Recs
I’m obsessed with this football team. When they win I’m happy. When they lose my day is totally fucked. This past season was particularly tough. We lost like five games in the last few seconds. It was brutal. But the future is bright because we have Caleb Williams, a star QB who paints his fingernails. Growing up in Chicago my dad was a big Bears fan. He would throw shit at the TV and get pissed. It’s probably in my blood. I appreciate football because it’s a true team sport. All eleven guys on the field need to contribute in order to succeed. I was on my high school team and I rode the bench, but our team went 11-1 in both my junior and senior years. It was my first time being part of something successful. We once had a game where 10,000 people attended. The whole town shut down it was insane. CLTV helicopters were there. We were a small school, but a lot of our guys got college scholarships, and one guy went to the NFL. So uh yea, football rules (minus the CTE). Da Bears.
Mar 21, 2025
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after all this time……
Jan 22, 2024
It is…
NORMAL - promotes a sense of belonging in America
SOCIAL - you can grill and watch it with your neighbors
COOPERATIVE - a true team sport
COMPLEX - a very strategically intricate game
BADASS - big guys, fast guys, sneaky guys
WOKE - the end zones say “end racism” on them
REAL - college football is fun but let’s be honest it’s stupid that the players have to pretend to be getting an education at the same time
Oct 5, 2024
Top Recs from @jayson
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I'm often accused of being an "old soul", a categorization I vehemently dislike because it pretends as if my taste is because of nostalgia, as opposed to what is actually cool and compelling. (If something cool comes out now, I enjoy it, but we're in a down period when it comes to culture). But, something old about me, is that I do not care at all about TikTok ending, if does happen. If Elon takes it over from the Chinese, you might as well leave anyway, but I'm just worried at why this is a huge deal for people. It's just an app. Another one will be made. TikTok is not culture, it directly flattens culture into these ten second clips that take music, movies --- things that you need to process --- into something that is now consumed by everyone at a rapid pace, not allowing for the nuances, the style, the aesthetics to sit with us.
I have never watched something on TikTok and thought that this is something in that pushing American culture to deeper heights. I am sorry. Now I am sure they're good stuff on the app, but it's not really a necessity. Whenever I hear the words "it's blowing up on TikTok", my mind immediately growls.
I understood why X becoming overrun with Elon bots and right wingers is a big deal; X actually created things, made careers, made American life, and American events available to be seen by everyone. However, TikTok is a corrupt fantasy, chopping at the wires that make physical connection important.
Read a book! Go to the movies! Go to the restaurant of a cuisine that is unheralded, go to a baseball game. Who cares about TikTok?
Jan 14, 2025
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There's something quite startling about Martin Scorsese's 1980's period compared to the rest of his decades as one of America's greatest filmmakers. In the 80's, he was weird, strange, and making weirdly manic films that feel more New York than even some of his movies about the mob. They're movies about characters who aren't glamarous people that they want to be, but rather, are losers who can't seem to correctly fucntion in normal society. They're non-violent sociopaths. I saw The King of Comedy at Metrograph recently, and it's exhilarating, hilarious, manic, and scary. With Jerry Lewis, Bobby De Niro and Sandra Bernhard, Scorsese was able to create a world where incels who are bad at comedy are wishing for fame. Sound familiar?
This is a great movie. In 1983, it was a box office flop. But in 2025, it is magical in how it's telling the future. A future of scam artists who don't want to work to get there, and don't want to sit in their mediocrity: they want to steal to get their fifteen seconds. Go watch this masterpiece.
Jan 28, 2025
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I am a NBA boy at heart, the players who play in the Association are the greatest athletes on the planet, and everyone should check out a piece I wrote on the Knicks: https://jaysonbuford.substack.com/p/the-knicks-are-struggling-to-be-fun
But MARCH MADNESS is here. So, look, college basketball can be overly sentimental, corny, for hick Midwesterns, and it is not the smart league that the NBA is. Imagine watching Nikola Jokic or LeBron James and that not being good enough for you. NBA haters are, like, a bad financial month away from being KKK members, hiding in plain sight.
However, the NCAA Tournament objectively rules. It shows games every day, every hour, non-stop, teams that you would normally not see play, and upsets, upsets that break your bracket. Upsets happen because mid-major teams get better throughout the year, especially when they play tougher competition before the conference schedules start. It's awesome to when they pull off a shocking upset.
The games are on all day! watch them! BA BA BA BA BASKETBAKLL, GIMME GIMME GIMME THE BALL CAUSE I'M GONNA DUNK IT
Mar 20, 2025