#so he's technically a professional football player now | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

pelova4president · 10 months ago

Text

Fuck you, stargirl

Victoria Pelova x Reader

summary~ You’ve played with Victoria for aslong as you remembered, she was always faster, more technical and had so much more talent. It was hard to love her but harder to hate her.

Victoria was a different player, someone you couldn’t not notice on the field. Victoria Pelova was something different, outstanding. She amazes you, every time. She was kind, funny and an absolute baller. You’d hate to admit it but she was one of the greatest and that’s why she bothers you so much. She has everything and you’d never be like her. You’re not as funny or social as her, not as technical or fast either.

From the moment you met Vic, she has been nothing but kind to you. The two of you had gotten along at Concordia, your childhood club but then you into jong oranje. Playing at national level was something.. different. It was more competitive, everyone wanted that starting spot on the team.

After your first international break you and Victoria got back to the club, playing with the boys. The brunette had a starting spot for all four games, you only got subbed on in two games and around the 60th minute.

Vic was a good friend, someone you thought deserved everything she got. She got noticed and you loved that for her. It just stung a bit. The coach liked her more, the team liked her more and the fans liked her more.

When Victoria asked you to bike home with her after training you accepted. You’ve always biked home together and she’d tell you about her day but today she just couldn’t stop talking about National Camp and how it felt to score her first goal. Yeah, she scored her first goal on her debut.

“Het was geweldig, ik heb echt nog nooit zoiets gevoeld. Stel je voor hoe het zal voelen als we straks op een EK staan.” (It’s amazing, i have never felt something like it. Imagine how it will feel when we’re at the Euros.) she yelled enthusiastically. She was looking at the future like it was written in the stars, she was so sure of it all. “Vic over een paar jaar sta je zelf in het WK, het winnende doelpunt the scoren.” (Vic in a few years you’ll be at the World Cup, scoring the winning goal yourself.) I smiled at her. She frowned at what you said, ‘you’ll be at the World Cup’? “Wij gaan over een paar jaar naar het WK waar jij een tackle maakt die ons team zal redden.” (We are going to the World Cup in a few years where you’ll make a tackle that’ll save the team) Victoria grinned. You gave her a halfhearted smile and said your bye’s, disappearing behind the corner you turned left at.

When you got scouted by ADO Den Haag a few weeks later you were surprised to say the least. Their scout approached you after a game where you got a starting spot and played well. He told you about the procedures and what they would be asking of you. Later that week you had a talk with the coach and both of your parents. It was official, you were finally making moves into the professional football world.

When you biked home from training after a hard session, you finally told the brunette. You’ve been torturing your bottom lip for about an hour now, chewing on it like it was gum. How could you even tell her this, she should be the one making a move like this.

Vic was talking your ear off like always when you cut her off. “Vic, ik ben gescout door ADO. I kon geen nee zeggen, ik weet dat we samen zouden gaan maar ik moest. Het spijt me.” (Vic, i got scouted by ADO. I couldn’t say no, i know that we would go together but i had to. I’m sorry) you word vomited. The midfielder gave you a small smile after a little pause, “Ik weet dat je geen nee kon zeggen. Goed gedaan.” (I know you couldn’t say no. Good job.).

She understood it, it’d be okay. You thanked her for understanding and said your bye’s like always. Just this time without the ‘see you next week’.

To say you hated yourself for this decision was an understatement. You hated yourself for not staying and especially for ghosting Victoria. Why did you even ghost her.

Vic texted you, telling you how the team was on top of the league and that they missed you. You gave short and dry answers and eventually she stopped texting. She didn’t tell you about how many goals she scored or how the boys on the other team were so mad about losing to a girl, something that was your favourite thing to watch together.

You’ve been playing for ADO for about 7 months now and you still weren’t a regular player. You gave your everything but that wasn’t enough apparently.

AZERION VROUWEN EREDIVISIE !

Victoria Pelova, de Concordia youngster heeft getekend voor ADO vrouwen. Ze zal over een paar weken haar oude team genoot y/n y/l/n volgen naar de groen gele club.

Victoria Pelova, the Concordia youngster has signed for ADO women. She will follow her old teammate y/n y/l/n to the green yellow club in a few weeks.

You read it again and again but it didn’t change. She was going to be in the spotlights all over again and you’ll be the second choice. When the news had sank in you realised you’d actually have to see her again.

When you arrived at the ADO training ground you didn’t expect to be met with the sight of a brunette tying her shoelaces. It was still early, you always came in earlier, trying to train extra for that spot in the starting lineup. You already had your training gear on so swapping your boots next to the field would do. Unnoticed, or so you thought, you walked towards the freshly cut grass.

The trainings went like normal, nothing really changed. Except for the glances. And while you didn’t get a starting spot, Victoria did. Victoria Pelova was ADO’s new stargirl, their key player that would lead them to a league win.

You didn’t get any playtime anymore, you needed a change, a new club. And when you didn’t get a call up for the Under 23’s you knew you had to go elsewhere. Start fresh, create a new you, a better you. Bayern München contacted you and you had to say yes.

You did good, working on yourself like you’ve never done before. The girls, staff, fans and coaches liked you. You were a stargirl for once, Bayerns stargirl. That cdm position was yours and no one could take it away from you.

sydneylohmann posted on their story

You got into the National team again but this time it was the seniors, the team you’ve always wanted to be a part of. You made your comeback, the new you. Victoria was still in the Under 23’s so you didn’t have to see her yet, you dreaded that moment.

Victoria moved to Ajax not much later after your move to Germany. She was doing good, not that you were watching her or anything. Ajax ended on top of their league and got into the Champions League. They did so good they ended going through to the groupstages and what a surprise, Bayern got grouped with them. Just what you needed.

The first game was away and Victoria absolutely destroyed you on their home field. It gave you throwbacks to when she’d effortlessly ran and turned around those boys. But that was when you played together, when her talent was on your side. The game ended in a draw and a POTM for Pelova.

You shook hands with the red and white girls. “Goed gespeeld” (Good game). There was only one girl left, she avoided you, saving you for last and you knew it. You walked away, not caring about a stupid handshake. “Wacht! Y/n wacht nou even!” (Wait! Y/n just wait!) your ex teammate yelled.

You stopped in your tracks, didn’t say anything and didn’t move. “Ik snap je niet, waarom doe je zo?” (I don’t get you, why are you acting like this?) Victoria asked you confused. How did she not know. Everywhere you went, she went and stole the fucking show. Now you’re finally doing good, on your own and she’s making a fool out of you again. “Niks, ik was je gewoon vergeten.” (Nothing, i had just forgotten you) you shrug.

That was a fucking low blow, even you knew it. You heard her walk away and sighed. The moment those words came out of your mouth you regretted it. You didn’t forget her, you couldn’t. How did you manage to make this situation even worse.

The second game against her team was even harder. The brunette girl was going in for hard tackles and was on you every moment. You couldn’t do anything about it and got subbed off in the 67th minute. Ajax scored a goal and you lost on home ground.

I wasn’t long after that you couldn’t avoid her anymore, she got selected for the World Cup roster and that meant you had to see her everyday for atleast two months. This was the absolute hell.

You dreaded the camp and when it finally came you had to drag yourself out of bed and into your car. Waiting for your arrival was the media intern photographing you. “Hi, goedemorgen” (Hi, goodmorning) you waved to the camera.

Walking into the big hall you spotted a few of the girls, hugging and greeting them. Daan came walking towards you, bringing you in for a big hug. “Hey kleine, hoe gaat het met je?” (Hey little one, how are you?) she asked. “Ik ben niet echt de kleine meer maar goed, denk ik.” (I’m not the little one anymore but good, i think) you trailed off seeing the brunette walking in. “Oh y/n, jullie waren beste vrienden. Je kunt haar niet altijd blijven ontwijken.” (Oh y/n, you were bestfriends. You can’t keep avoiding her forever) Daniëlle sighed. You shrugged and walked towards the others. You’re not in the mood to talk about it right now.

You roomed with Jill, like always. Over the past year and something you’d told her practically everything, including the Victoria things. About your friendship, how you destroyed it, the jealousy, the guilt and your big big crush on her. Well you didn’t exactly tell her that but she just knew.

After an afternoon of looking at Victoria from across the room like a creep you flopped on your bed and opened instagram. You went through your highlights, in search for that one story. The one with you and the talented midfielder, the one you swore you ‘hated so much’.

11 October 2017

“Kijk je weer naar jullie foto’s samen?” (Are you looking at photos of the two of you together again?) Jill asked unimpressed. You groaned and sunk into your pillow. “Aaghh, ik heb het zo verpest!” (Aaghh, i messed up big time!) you screamed into your pillow.

Jill laughed at your misery, “Het is niet te laat, je bent gewoon een sukkel. Maak het goed, Vic zat de hele avond naar je te staren.” (It’s not too late, you’re just acting stupid. Make it right, Vic has been staring at you all evening) Jill said sitting down next to you. But honestly, could you make it right again?

You didn’t do much to make it up to her. You tried to act normal but your new normal was ignoring her. The hate you thought you had for her was so much more than that. It wasn’t really hate, it was so much more complicated. You hated that she was better but you also loved it. You hated that she was social, sweet, funny and silly but you loved it even more.

Both you and Victoria didn’t make any minutes at the tournament and you were gutted. It had been your dream, both of your dreams. And the loss to the USA was even harder. You were almost there, almost the World Champions.

Nothing really changed after the Euros, you still didn’t have any contact with the Ajax player. You were still playing for Bayern but it began to bore you. There wasn’t any change and the Bundesliga was too comfortable for you.

So you moved again, in January 2023 you signed for the Gunners. Your dreamclub, the club both you and Victoria had dreamed of playing at together. You made your dream transfer, and she did too.

ARSENAL NEWS !

After signing y/n y/l/n, Arsenal has now also signed the other Dutch woman, Victoria Pelova. The two play together for The Netherlands with our striker, Vivianne Miedema and used to play together at ADO. We’re delighted to Welcome Pelova into our squad.

You’d already met a few of the girls and Viv you knew already so when you walked onto the training ground you weren’t so nervous anymore. But it really bothered you that Vic had yet again taken a bigger part in your life. At this point you were almost living with eachother. Training went by rather quickly and you got home as soon as possible.

The team won every game the first month and you played in three of them. Victoria had already made her way into the hearts of the fans while you were.. overshadowed by her. But it was okay, she deserved it. You didn’t like the spotlights on your personal life anyway.

It was when you made a bad timed tackle in the quarterfinals of the Champions League and got send off with a second yellow that Vic decided to talk to you. You stormed off the field, not agreeing with the ref in the slightest, it wasn’t a good tackle but you didn’t really touch her, she wasn’t hurt.

You stomped into the tunnel. ‘Fuck fuck fuck is this gonna cost the team’ was the only thing on your mind. What if they didn’t make it through because of you. You’d never be seen the same again, you’ll lose your spot.

With your head in your hands you were overthinking every single aspect of your life. And then, someone opened the door. “Wat is je probleem y/n!” (What’s your problem y/n!) Victoria yelled. You sighed, refusing to look up at her. “Kijk naar me als ik tegen je praat! Jezus, wat is er!” (Look at me when i’m talking to you! Jesus, what is your problem!) she stood infront of you, expecting an answer.

“Niks, laat me met rust.” (Nothing, leave me alone) you said, just like the last time you really had a conversation. “Er is niet ‘niks’, waarom haat je me zo erg? Wat heb ik gedaan, ik dacht dat we dit samen wilden, samen in de Champions League finale voor Arsenal.” (There is not ‘nothing’, why do you hate me so much? What did i do, i thought that we wanted this together, the two of us in the Champions League final for Arsenal) Vic sighed defeated.

“Oh fuck you stargirl! Je doet alsof je niet weet waarom ik zo doe maar je weet hoe je altijd alles krijgt. Je bent beter in alles, ik kan niks voor mezelf hebben. Je bent overal, Arsenal, Nederland, mijn hoofd!” (Oh fuck you stargirl! You’re acting like you don’t know why i’m acting like this but you know that you always get everything. You’re better in everything, i can’t have anything for myself. You’re everywhere, Arsenal, The Netherlands, my head!) you said extremely frustrated. “Ik dacht eerst dat als ik je zou ghosten je weg zou gaan, uit mijn hoofd. Maar je gaat niet weg, het wordt alleen maar erger… Ik vind je heel erg leuk en dat maakt alles erger, ik heb je altijd leuk gevonden.” (At first i thought that if i ghosted you you’d go away, out of my head. But you won’t go away, it only got worse… i really like you and that makes everything worse, i have always liked you) the last few words left your mouth like a whisper, only meant for your own ears but hers heard them too.

“Oh” was the only word that left her mouth. You had prepared yourself for this moment for months, every scenario had played through your head. Except this one.

“Ja, ‘oh’. Vergeet maar dat ik dit ooit heb gezegd, het maakt niet uit.” (Yes, ‘oh’. Just forget that i ever said this, it doesn’t matter) you said standing up, ready to leave the stadium.

“Wacht! Wacht y/n!” (Wait! Wait y/n!) she called you back. She stopped you by taking your hand in hers. “Ik had het gewoon niet verwacht. Toen je niet meer reageerde op mijn appjes en daarna, die dingen zei-“ (I just didn’t expect it. When you didn’t respond to my texts and after, you said those things-) you winced at the thought of the words you had said to her the last time you spoke. “- toen dacht ik al helemaal niet meer dat je me mocht, laat staan dat je me leuk vond. Maar y/n je weet toch al dat ik jou de beste voetballer vind, dat ik overal kom voor jou en dat jij degene bent die ik leuk vind, al jaren.” (-i thought you didn’t like me at all, let alone that you liked me. But y/n you know that i think you’re the best footballer, that i go everywhere you go and that you’re the one that i like, for years now) your teammate whispered looking down at both of your dirty boots.

Smiling at her words you spoke again, “Hmm, zeg dat nog eens” (Hmm, say that again). Victoria laughed, looking you in your eyes. “We hebben het wel gedaan hè, nu alleen het WK nog.” (We really did it huh, only the World Championship now) you gave her a smile. She leaned in and placed a kiss on your lips. One that was just as sweet as Victoria herself.

y/n_y/l/n

liked by liekemartens and 117.829 others

🍝💌

comments

katie_mccabe11 the girrllssss

jillroord so my method worked huh

↳ y/n_y/l/n shut up

daniellevddonk kleine kinderen

↳ y/n_y/l/n jij bent 1.20cm, dat is echt klein

victoriapelova stargirl 💫❤️

viviannemiedema sukkeltjes

oranjeleeuwinfann wait who’s that??

A/N don’t know what to think of this fic but it’ll have to do.

#woso x reader #woso fanfics #woso community #victoria pelova #arsenal wfc #engwnt #nedwnt #jill roord #danielle van de donk #vivianne miedema #oranjeleeuwinnen #victoria pelova x reader

253 notes · View notes

sukunas-princess · 7 months ago

Text

No one asked for my rambling thoughts about Soccer Player Sukuna, but here they are (based solely on my knowledge of soccer from our lords and saviors Mary-Kate and Ashley's Switching Goals). Also I know it's technically football but Soccer Player Sukuna has a nice little ring to it :)

Not edited because I have pizza to eat.

Soccer Player Sukuna is obviously the captain of his professional team. He big, he powerful, everybody gets the fuck out of his way when he's running down the field because they do not want to get trampled and become one with the grass

The opposing team will do their best to block him, but most of the time, it's just like ⚠️⚠️⚠️ GET OUT OF HIS WAY ⚠️⚠️⚠️

Needless to say, this makes his team have an absolutely unbeatable winning streak

Soccer Player Sukuna is also SO BAD at talking even though he's the captain and the rest of the team look to him for encouragement and the press look to him for quotes.

Can he do all of the fancy soccer tricks?

Yes.

Can he get a trillion articles written about how talented he is?

Yes.

Can he give a quote to the press?

Lol.

Assistant Captain Yuji usually takes over that part.

Anyways Sukuna already hates talking to the press for a multitude of reasons.

But he hates it just a little less now that you've been assigned to cover the team by the local news.

Did he completely fuck up introducing himself to you?

SURE FUCKING DID.

His whole brain went "404 Name Not Found" when you smiled at him while shaking his hand

And all that came out was a "S--"

And then literally nothing else.

And you and the rest of the team were just standing there staring at him because where did the man go who is always shouting on the field? Where did the man who is a force to be reckoned with on AND off the field?

That man left the building. The only thing in front of you right now is a man that has a sweating forehead and it is definitely NOT from practice since they haven't even started yet

So cut to actual practice.

Where you're standing on the sidelines next to the coaches, casually chatting about the history of the team and you're making little notes in your phone

Sukuna keeps glancing over at you, thinking he's being slick, but he's actually being terrible at it

Team Member Toji (who has been watching this ordeal the whole time and is actually the only one brave enough to tease Sukuna about this newfound crush) takes the opportunity to chat you up

And Sukuna, knowing he is a much better player than Toji, will not stand for it

So he starts walking over to you to intervene, but he doesn't even realize he's done it until you say his name

And Toji, the coaches, and you are all just waiting for him to say something.

"Whaddja come over here for, Captain?" Toji teases him, "Is there something you want to tell them?"

Sukuna glares at Toji but his face softens when he turns back to you.

"I'm better."

That's it.

That's all his brain can come up with.

Toji is losing his fucking mind about how you've somehow turned their Big Scary Captain into a Little Pile of Goo and snorts at Sukuna

The coaches roll their eyes because it's just a known fact that he and Toji have a little rivalry thing going

And you're more than amused by this nervous (now actually sweaty from physical exertion) beast of a man in front of you

"Are you now?" You tease Sukuna, "Better at what?"

"Everything." He immediately replies, "I'm a much better player than he is."

And you smile back at him.

"Then show me."

#sukuna #true form sukuna #sukuna x reader #sukuna x you #time for pizza

132 notes · View notes

youkissedareaderinthedark · 1 year ago

Text

Part of It

Synopsis: Y/n has been the social media manager for the Argentina National Team for a few months now. She’s unofficially everyone’s favorite employee

young fem argentine reader x platonic argentina national football team

A/N: this fic will be regarding the entire team, but it will mainly feature: Alvarez, Fernandez, Molina, Garnacho, Messi, and De Paul, because those are the players I know the best.

more a/n: also please don’t be surprised if some of the info in this fic is false and the players are ooc, im not based in argentina so I could easily get a lot of these things wrong

. so

. for as long as you can remember, the only thing you’ve loved more than playing football is being behind a camera

. as a kid whenever you weren’t on the pitch itself, you were recording your teammates and friends, creating their own personal highlight reels

. and like every other kid in Argentina, you spent your entire childhood playing football

. but it wasn’t until you were a teenager when you started to discover your love for camera work

. it started when a teammate of yours asked you to record something for social media, initially as a joke

. but then the video got a couple hundred views, and you quickly began to love the feeling of creating something people can visually enjoy

. your teenage years were filled with football and videography

. then by the time your senior year came around, you knew you wanted to by apart of both scenes however you could in the future

. leading to your commitment to Cordoba National University with a major in communication and media studies

. you graduate in 2021, and spend a few weeks looking for jobs

. then you find Cordoba fc and their opening for a new social marketing manager

. you get hired within two weeks of applying as a social media manager

. because the Cordoba community is pretty small, you can spend a lot of time getting to know the players and the fans really well

. you learn a lot there, as it’s your first work experience for a professional football club

. you work there till the end of sepetmber/mid october, because through a few of your co-workers, you learn that Central Cordoba has an opening for social media manager

. which of course, you applied to and by the end of November, you’re part of the Central Cordoba staff

. it was a lot of fun; hanging out with players, befriending other staff, traveling with the team, and obviously, managing their social media

. you prove to be extremely efficient there, bringing in thousands of new fans

. which builds your reputation as an employee a lot

. and suddenly, you’re getting offers for different clubs around argentina

. only 1 stands out to you though

. Argentina’s national team offer

. because apparently, due to the world cup occurring at the end of the year, the communications directors wanted more publicity before the competition

. you obviously reply back, and a few weeks later you’re invited to their headquarters for an interview

. at first, you didn’t think you got the job because it took a while to hear back from the directors

. but then you wake up to yet another email waiting for you

. and you are officially argentina’s social media manager

. your first day is technically in april

. but you don’t meet any of the players until the end of that month

. you didn’t even know you were gonna meet the players that day so you were severely unprepared

. one moment you were making coffee with your co workers

. then lionel messi walks in beside rodrigo de paul

. they caught you by surprise

. both of them were really nice though

. you eventually learn that they all are

. your job mainly consists of filming the team together and managing the their social media accounts

. this is how you get to know each of the players

. you click with julian the most at first because of the age similarity

. he becomes your best friend within your first week

. any meetings that the both of you are included in are spent sitting on opposite sides of the room because you were told your friendship is “a disturbance to the work environment”

. you guys make it up by being attached to the hip before and after practices though

. a third of your camera roll is funny candid’s of julian

. you guys are bus seat partners and make fun out of annoying the other guys

. enzo is another close friend of yours

. you guys are always gossiping about something

. “did you hear about the new intern?”

. “apparently, somebody was found with somebody else in the break room after the meeting last week”

. “I swear he wasn’t even sick that one time, he was just at a party the night before”

. he tries to convince you to dye your hair like him

. and when you refuse, he lets you make up for it by helping him tone in

. you guys are always laughing together, no matter what the situation is

. you and molina have such a playful relationship

. you’re always making fun of him for no real reason

. he’s just trying to defend himself

. you do it for all of them, but his birthday photo dump is always the worst

. you two are always wandering around headquarters, looking for either someone to bother or something to entertain yourselves

. it always ends it great content though

. you have a soft spot for alejandro

. mostly because he has a crush on you and tries to play it off

. but you’ve known since the first few times of hanging out with him

. when you’re filming concent for the argentina pages, you’ll see alejandro trying to show off at least three times a video

. you find it hilarious

. the other guys tease him relentlessly for it

. you two are still good friends regardless

. he tries to be protective of you even though he’s literally four years younger than you

. again, you find it hilarious

. and he always gets shit from the other players

. leo is such a dad to you it’s funny

. he was so nice the first time you met him, and after that he unofficially adopted you as a daughter

. even though he’s only like 13 years older than you

. shows his care in small ways

. making sure you never get hit with a ball when you’re sitting in to a practice

. coming into your office when you’re both in headquarters to check on you

. making sure you’re safe when you’re traveling with the team

. whether it be just assigning another player to look after you or a whole ass bodyguard

. also protecting you from de paul

. because even though rodrigo acts as a bodyguard to both you and leo, he still likes to mess with you a lot

. he’s like an older brother to you

. super playful

. always teasing you

. agreesive type of love

. this is where messi comes in again

. insisting he puts you down and lets you do your job

. rodri also tries to convince you to get tattoos

. honestly that’s a whole team thing

. playful peer pressure is real there

. anyway

. you, julian, and enzo are such a trio

. getting up to the most random shit in other countries after games

. you guys were two seconds away from jumping into a canal in italy

. but then here comes leo

. scolding you guys like his children

. and sending you back to the hotel

. also, you have a jersey from almost every player on the team because before you got your own jersey, you always just picked someone random to wear on game days

. but then rodri started frowning when he saw you in julian’s jersey because apparently, you hadn’t worn his shirt in a few games

. and now you have a separate drawer just for jerseys

. oh and the world cup

. that was so fun for you

. traveling with the team to qatar

. hanging out in stadiums during practice, half upset because it felt like a million degrees

. but half in awe because holy shit you’re in qatar for the world cup

. you’re on the edge of your seat for every game

. the final almost killed you

. you were almost crying on the bench next to the other staff

. totally worth it though

. you started sobbing when montiel made the last penalty kick

. because you knew these guys, you knew how much they wanted it, how much they deserved it

. it was a mess of hugs and tears after that

. julian grins into your shoulder in a hug

. rodri tackled you

. enzo is basically jumping up and down with excitement

. you don’t think you’ll ever see alejandro that happy again

. you and molina are crying together

. and messi gives you the biggest hug

. it’s so fun celebrating with the team

. spraying champange with gonzalo

. singing along to music with paulo

. dancing around with lautaro

. and coming back to argentina after that

. seeing all the fans in buenos aires, looking around and seeing argentine pride everywhere

. surreal

. there’s definitely no feeling like it

. which is why you’re so sad when it’s time to go back to your clubs

. you came to an agreement with central cordoba to go back and work for them during the argentine league

. then coming back to the national team when it called

. so you can’t wait for next season

#reader insert #football imagine #football team x reader #platonic football team x reader #argentina national football team #argentina national team #argentina nt x reader #female reader #argentina nt fic #lionel messi #julian alvarez #enzo fernandez #alejandro garnacho #nahuel molina #rodrigo de paul #all platonic

242 notes · View notes

disasterbijamietartt · 2 years ago

Text

After getting a sound night of sleep I started to feel like being all “oooh, queer Roy makes so much sense! And Jamie x Roy suddenly looks like something that could happen!” was being unfair to Colin and his arc.

Like it was mean and greedy that I wanted a queer story arc with main characters.

Like I should be happy with the nice cookie they handed me and not demand the whole fucking jar.

And that now that Colin finally got his arc, I shouldn’t wish for something to happen that could potentially overshadow him.

What a daring expectation it is to get not one but actually two (or more, I see you Ted x Trent shippers) well developed and fleshed out queer story arcs in mainstream media! (ah, the trauma of growing up in the 80’s & 90’s and being lucky if you got a queer side character that wasn’t the butt of all jokes and / or didn’t die )

Until I realized, that it wouldn’t. That on the other hand, it would be so rewarding for Colin's arc, if he is the one to helps fucking legend Roy Kent and star player Jamie Tartt, two people he admires and respects (like, I'd have to check, but wasn't it Colin who asked Roy if he'd come to the bar with them in 1x3? Was Isaac, but still - like Roy calls him son in the second episode, so there is a connection) to come out of the closet.

Colin deserves so so much to fucking inspire someone, to realise that he IS a strong and capable man, that he matters (especially after he was taken off the starting eleven for Zava) and is influential.

Like, all this talk about him being a chameleon, how he never was the focus of the narrative, how Nate in the whole Holiday Inn Painting thing told him, that he is not someone who inspires, unlike Jamie and Dani, sets this up perfectly

It could also be, that he inspires one or two of the other himbos (like Dani), but it would be way more impactful if he, who always was no more than a background character, is the inspiration for main characters to address their own queerness and come out.

And while it is a great message that straight alpha males can have a soft side, the message, that you can be a dominant alpha male professional footballer AND queer is stronger. Like, Roy’s a legend and while Jamie currently isn’t the best player on the team, he is one of their star players and the narrative made it clear that he is hella talented and a big star to come. So that is another argument for it being them, since we have a whole lot of himbos to hammer the straight guys can be soft too message home.

And it would be a compelling narrative to have Colin, who is at least out to himself and in a relationship, Jamie, who is at best getting comfortable with the thought but not really at a place to actually date someone, and Roy, who — if my assessment is correct — is so deep in the closet it is surprising he hasn’t found Narnia yet.

Also because of the generational gap — though they are technically all Millenials, being a queer Millenial born in the early eighties is a whole different experience than being a mid or late nineties queer Millenial.

So, now we have the WHY, onto my ideas HOW it could play out (that will probably be contradicted by the narrative by tomorrow, but I want it out in the unrealistic case I’m right 🤪)

I picture something like Michael breaking things off in a couple episodes because he is sick of pretending to be the best friend & wingman, and Trent stepping in as a gay mentor (maybe they meet at a gay bar in Amsterdam by chance, Colin slightly panics and that is the moment Trent tells him he already knew but kept it to himself since it is Colin’s decision to talk about it — it is very important to me, that the person who has the agency in regards of his coming out is Colin!) and finally Colin finding the courage to come out to the team.

Now it is nice and good, if the team reacts supportive, but the additional layer of his coming out being the thing that sparks Roy and Jamie to come clean about their feelings?

Chef’s kiss!

There are several ways this could play out (like I have a trizillion ideas how Jamie x Roy could actually work and which role Keeley would play into this and how this could culminate in Roy x Jamie x Keeley endgame), but here is one:

Colin has a speech prepared that he gives in the locker room, everyone listens attentively and then we have a sweet moment with Isaac and the other himbos being supportive.

But!

Roy is making his little upset face, grunts something and storms off the locker room.

Something that visibly upsets Colin, which is why Jamie says he's going to give Roy a piece of his mind and follows him. Of course he’ll find him in the kit room.

Jamie is set to give Roy a sermon about homophobia and how his reaction right now wasn't cool even for an old person.

But Roy is close to tears and Jamie is confused and tries to comfort him, asking what is going on, and that is when Roy kisses him, Jamie’s being a bit surprised at first, but then kisses him back and …

Cue for a shot of Will standing in the corner, looking into the camera like he is in the Office with this “Why am I always in this room at the wrong time?”-face.

And when they get back, Roy asks Colin to come to his office to talk to him privately and then Roy apologizes and explains how Colin’s speech affected him, since he could have never been so brave, but now he is inspired to try to be true to himself.

And Colin is like “OMG I did this.”

And now, that he knows that he is fully accepted by the team as the person he truly is and and someone who does inspire people, he has the confidence to actually show his potential as a player and plays a significant role in Richmond winning the whole thing in the end.

And he uses his moment in the spotlight to come out publicly, since even though this is scary and homophobic fans will give him shit, he has a team and club that has his back and that is the way he can be truly inspiring.

And that is how we get Colin Hughes, most inspiring football player in the whole fucking world. 😌

EDIT:

After 3x6 and Colin stating he doesn't want to be a spokes person, I changed my vision a bit.

So, Colin still inspires Jamie and Roy to come to terms with there feelings/queerness, yadda yadda, and essentially inspires Jamie to come out publicly and take on the mantle as the spokesperson, since this is something that fits him better than Colin, since he is more comfortable being in the limelight and actually likes being the center of attention. Colin would be able to just kiss his fella after a game, but wouldn't have to carry the burden of being the first out player in the Premier League.

Also: It would be such a great ending for Jamie's arc, if Jamie’s legacy, the thing he’ll be remembered for, wouldn’t be being best striker in the Premier League or the world or anything like that, but that he’d been known for unapologetically being his true, best self—something he’d denied himself being for so long because of his dad’s abuse. And wouldn’t that be poetic?

#my meta #colin hughes #jamie tartt #roy kent #jamie x roy #ted lasso speculations #ted lasso

185 notes · View notes

lovelacefc7723 · 1 year ago

Text

After watching the preview episode of the re-cap show, my first thought is actually a confirmation of something I believe for awhile now, and it's that in my opinion Tobin & Christen truly are in a different phase of their life now. They've changed, right in front of our eyes, they have built this whole other work reality that no longer NEEDS to be connected with the field, they are beyond. I'm not saying they're retiring tomorrow (even though I think they WILL do it very soon), I just feel they have found their dimension elsewhere. And it's deeply beautiful.

I noticed just how GOOD they are despite this being their first experience in this kind of projects. I remember Tobin's first videos for the company, about her art, and she didn't even look at the camera. Since becoming co-ceo, and maybe since stepping up after Pinoe's silent exit, she kinda found this new confidence. She joins events and promotional works by herself that before she would have attended only with Christen, or not attended at all.

Now she produces and hosts a show, and she's funny, charming, thoughtful, wonderfully loud when she laughs and freely honest when she speaks.

Even the choice of their first guest is pretty revealing. It actually tells how little we know about their lives and their relationships. That's why I usually talk about opinions and impressions, because that's all we have.

And exactly about my opinion about their new phase of their life, I think Ellis and Christen probably might have talked about things at some point. And not about her tactical choices but about her silence when Christen tried to expose Dames' toxic behaviour. It's not something you just ignore and sit together to joke, laugh and talk Football.

The interview was actually really brilliant and honest. I think Tobin took the lead because anyway she had a different relationship with Ellis but also it really seemed more her space, she has always had a complete vision of football, tactically and strategically. That's why it seemed she really talked Ellis' language. And it was deeply fascinating, curious and educative.

I'm not gonna deny that listening to Ellis actually talking about football and about her choices was truly interesting. Despite all her personal mistakes, I think she really knows her job, and she knows how to do it. I never heard Vlatko having such professional insights and I really admired him before, when I still had not realized he has no idea how to manage team and players and he doesn't really care about them either.

Ellis was pretty honest about her tactical decisions, I don't know if she would do exactly the same now, especially with Christen. But I still love how equally honest Christen was with her. The quote "I'd let you babysit my daughter but I don't think I'll play you in this game" is not really a joke and both of them know it. But it was a moment of Truth.

I think Ellis appreciated and appreciates Christen both as person and player, she made a choice, a debatable one, but still hers. And Christen faced her for it. But in the end I liked to see that she still considered her time playing for Ellis as a learning experience, it puts everything in perspective.

I always thought Christen was way much more than the sweet and zen person we often see. She did make a few interesting remarks to Ellis among the lines of jokes, she knows how to tease Tobin (probably her favourite pastime), she can be snarky and witty, and it's pretty awesome.

That's why I was in love with the blunt confrontation between Tobin & Christen. It was actually what I expected, Tobin always so free and direct, Christen so smart, witty and a little biting! The Daily Debate was just amazing but what I noticed is that every time Tobin talked, with Jill or simply telling something, she always included Christen in her moments, in her thoughts, her memories, her experiences, she looked at her, waited for her reaction.

The most technical part of the conversation was so intriguing for a football fan. I loved the Marginal Gain philosophy, it's the success in the details.

Also, about the USWNT, I think Tobin doesn't have much admiration for Vlatko, as coach and person. At one point she said something like "talking about chewing and spitting …" and she went on saying she and Christen wouldn't be at the World Cup, it says something.

In the end, I think they really nailed this first episode. I wanna see Christen take the lead in the next episodes and I can't wait for them!

#tobin heath #christen press #woso #uswnt #football #soccer #re inc #jill ellis #women's football

82 notes · View notes

battleangel · 2 months ago

Text

2 NFL Player Deaths Under 35 — NEXT!

Let's get to the first death that occurred in May 2024.

The next and final death I am going to discuss happened one month prior in April 2024.

First of all, did you catch that?

Both players' deaths were under six months ago. This year.

Did you hear about either one?

And, even if you did during the off season, they have both been swept under the collective rug with 300+ other NFL CTE corpses now that the regular season is underway.

The first death is Ray Lewis Jr.'s, Hall of Fame Ravens Linebacker's, son Ray Lewis III, at 28.

He technically wasn't an NFL player but he did play professionally at the indoor arena level as well as playing at Miami University.

Ray Lewis’ (Hall of Fame Ravens Linebacker) son, Ray Lewis III,died at 28 this May of an accidental drug overdose.

He had Stage II CTE.

He started tackle football at age 5.

He played college football at his father's, Ray Lewis', alma mater, for the Miami University Hurricanes then he pursued a career in professional indoor arena football.

Google:

"Lewis’ family stated in the years leading up to his death, Lewis experienced issues with memory, was extremely forgetful & exhibited erratic, sporadic behavior & impulsivity.

His mother suspected he was battling CTE."

His autopsy report revealed an accidental cause of death due to a mixture of fentanyl, cocaine, methamphetamine, alcohol & anti-anxiety pills.

His father remains just as indoctrinated into the cult of football after his sons CTE induced accidental drug overdose at 28:

“We are proud to honor Ray Rays legacy by teaching OUR YOUTH about football SAFETY while sharing & supporting research on CTE.”

The emphasis with the capitalization added by me to convey my utter and complete total disgust — safety???????????????????????????

The mother had a totally different & sane take:

“Little did I know when I put my son in tackle football at age 5, I ran the risk of burying him 22 years later. I would have done things different now knowing the risks. We need to wait until our babies are at least 14 to allow them to play tackle football. It breaks my heart that you have to die to get a diagnosis for this disease.”

This only happened four months ago in May and I didnt hear one word about it before today and I only came across it today because I regularly research the effects of tackle football, the consequences of repetitive subconcussive head impacts & concussions & the NFL's, NCAA's & Pop Warner's continued deception & subterfuge dating back 100 years to the literal 1930's that repetitive SUBconcussive head impacts, NOT concussions, are the cause of degenerative neurological conditions & disorders like CTE, Parkinson's disease, ALS, Alzheimers, dementia & Lewey Body Disease.

So, I am always researching and coming across something which is the only reason I saw anything today regarding Ray Lewis' son dying of an accidental drug overdose and being posthumously diagnosed with Stage II CTE at the age of 28.

The delirium of a new NFL season is already upon us and, as we approach Week 3, there is already the requisite breathless reporting, endless storylines, drama & spectacle that accompanies each and every single season of football.

Even Hall of Fame linebacker for the Ravens, Ray Lewis', son dying of an accidental drug overdose & being diagnosed with Stage II CTE during the off season this May barely made a blip on our collective NFL obsessed radar and it clearly wasn't even an afterthought by the time the NFL season got underway a mere four months later earlier this month in September.

Nothing stops the NFL machine — not even the CTE induced accidental overdose death of one of the leagues most famous & recently voted greatest linebacker of all time's 28 year old son.

The show always goes on.

Sickeningly, depravedly, mind numbingly, thoughtlessly, inhumanely, unfairly & unjustly.

But the show does goes on.

It always does in the NFL.

Nothing seemingly ever stops the non-stop allure and spectacle of the game.

Google:

"Ray Lewis III told The Baltimore Sun that he hoped to follow in his fathers footsteps:

“One day, I do dream of making it to the NFL. But I also have a dream of making a difference in peoples lives outside the football field.”

He died before the age of 30!

He died alone per the police report surrounded by anti-anxiety pills & a used drug needle!

Is the sport of football worth that much?

What makes people question football?

Does anything make us collectively stop and question ourselves and our rabid obsession & compulsive desire to endlessly consume a sport that is endlessly consuming its own players?

Or is it just, on to Chiefs Falcons Sunday night?

Well, I have a question amongst all the early NFL season hoopla, hyperbole & mass hysteria.

Football IS mass hysteria.

Why does anyone have to DIE to learn a LIFE lesson???

Ray Lewis III started tackle at age 5.

23 years of tackle football started at the absolute youngest & insanest age allowed by Pop Warner.

Dead at 28 from the sport of football which absolutely should have been included as an underlying cause of death on his death certificate.

It wasnt but it absolutely should have been.

In every case where the individual dies and is diagnosed with CTE — whether it was a drug overdose, accident, suicide, heart attack, etc. — CTE absolutely should be listed, not as the immediate cause, but definitely as an underlying cause of death.

And right next to CTE it should say — "Caused by X years of participation in tackle football".

But it won't, will it?

Because of the NFL, its farm system the NCAA & its feeder system, Pop Warner.

The $1 billion concussion settlement doesnt even cover CTE!

Players with CTE & their families only get payments under the settlement if they also had dementia symptoms along with their CTE diagnosis.

The NFL is cruel & sociopathic.

So, trust that the record breaking $13 billion that the NFL generated in revenue last season protects them from ever having to actually give a damn.

And certainly, prevents death certificates from being filled out honestly.

And prevents the American Academy of Pediatrics from recommending that 5 year old children — like Ray Lewis III — don't endure 336 head impacts a season on average in youth tackle football.

How is permanent brain damage safe for children?

All the hallmarks of CTE, including the symptoms & dangerous attempts to self-medicate leading to an untimely death, are present in the last years of Ray Lewis III's life as well as in his tragic death at 28.

The highly vaunted ironically titled “life lessons” imparted from “the game of football” often leaves its male participants fucking DEAD — just a small little detail always overlooked by footballs’ most rabid acolytes, fanatics & especially current & former participants, as well as the most hyped ambassadors of the game, who like Ray Lewis III's father & newest Fox analyst Tom Brady, are often the loudest & most unapologetic proponents, defenders & proselytizers of "the game".

You can learn the SAME exact lessons without fucking dying young & early for no fucking reason!

Basketball. Baseball. Track. Volunteering. Marathons. Debate teams. Chess. Reading clubs. Hiking. Camping. Rock climbing. Lifting weights. Travel. Solitude. Meditation. Vow of silence. Fasting. Minimalism. Frugality. Chastity. Abstinence. Restrictive food consumption. Analog living without digital or electronic devices. Esotericism. Spiritual enlightenment. Total environmental quietude - no music, podcasts, youtube, streaming, TV, movies, videogames, no sound noise or aural distractions. Being a magician, illusionist or mentalist. Aerialism. Fire breathing. Acrobatics. Dance. Acting. Singing. Writing. Poetry. Painting. Drawing. Illustrations. Screenplays. Improv. Comedy. Breakdancing. Street performance. Abstract art. Conceptual & performance art. Philosophy.

This is a very partial & incomplete list but certainly gets my point across.

I am purposely leaving off soccer until they get rid of heading the ball and ice hockey until they remove checking against the boards as that has led to players in both sports being posthumously diagnosed with CTE. Wrestling, with its takedowns, has also resulted in athletes being posthumously diagnosed with CTE. Mixed martial arts & boxing have all the same issues as football in terms of CTE so I have not included either sport in my above list. Lacrosse also causes many repetitive subconcussive head impacts so it is not included in the above list.

There are SO many different endeavors one can pursue in life that can discipline the mind, challenge the self, sharpen the will & resolve, instill perseverance & steadfastness.

I reject the disgusting militaristic & hegemonic notion that boys & men can only learn these lessons by pulverizing their bodies, battering their brains & destroying their minds through the “game” of football which, if you make it to the top echelon of the sport at the NFL level, leaves 1/3 of its participants per the NFL’s own actuaries with a neurological condition or disorder like CTE, Parkinson's, Alzheimer's disease, ALS, dementia & Lewy Body Dementia.

You don't have to DIE to learn a LIFE LESSON!

Football is a true cult.

So, that was the first off season football death with a player under 35 that occurred this off season in May 2024.

Let's discuss the second one that occurred a month prior, in April 2024.

Literally, only five months ago.

And it's already been disappeared by the viscera and spectacle of the NFL which washes away its' own dead participants.

Will Tua & Damar be added to the hundreds of the ever growing list of dead NFL players killed by the sport of football?

Tune into NFL Game Day Morning this Sunday to hear Eisen, Mooch, Irv & Warner breathlessly analyze, debate, breakdown & discuss!

Vontae Davis was a former Pro Bowl linebacker for the Colts, Bills & Dolphins.

Vontae's brother, Vernon, is also a former Pro Bowler as well as a Super Bowl winner.

Vontae was found dead alone inside of his mansion in April 2024 slumped over unconscious inside of his gym at 35.

While there was never a cause of death released to the public, per The Daily Mail, Vontae's ex-wife Meg Harpe, claimed that it was "100% CTE" and that there was definitely more to the story via a text message she sent to the publication.

Vontae's brother, Vernon, confirmed to the media that Vontae never did drugs and was the owner of a holistic wellness spa and had a team of chiropractors and massage & stretch therapists constantly at his mansion.

While Vernon was dismissive of CTE claims telling reporters that there was no way to diagnose that in a living person, Vontae himself admitted in an interview with CNN that he was concerned he had CTE and cited it as one of the reasons for his abrupt retirement from the NFL during halftime of a game.

In the CNN interview, Vontae claimed that he experienced an “out of body, spiritual moment” on the sidelines that led to a profound realization that football no longer aligned with his well being which caused him to abruptly retire from the league in the locker room at halftime.

While no cause of death was released to the public, the police did state there were no signs of a break in or foul play.

However, if we go back about a year prior to Dontae's death, there is a very familiar at this point decline and downward spiral in his personal life which makes me believe he did have CTE.

In January 2023, Dontae Davis was arrested in a DUI incident where he slammed his Tesla into a stationary truck injuring the owner who had been attempting to change a flat tire.

Dontae had just left a night club and was found asleep on the literal side of the road outside of his vehicle by police.

The same year in 2023, Dontae also divorced his wife, Megan Harpe, of eight years.

Additionally, Dontae faced two lawsuits in 2023, one from his father as he was in Dontae's vehicle during the DUI incident and a second from a vendor regarding non-payment issues for one of Dontae's businesses.

We have seen this precipitous decline before in football players suffering from CTE.

Dontae was a 10 year NFL veteran & multi Pro Bowl winner.

Dontae intercepted Tom Brady twice — once while guarding Randy Moss — Peyton Manning & Brett Favre once.

Dontae was a multipreneur who wisely invested his NFL millions into two businesses, a holistic wellness spa & a luxury chauffeur business.

Dontae was also working on a documentary about how he and his brother rose from impoverished backgrounds, with parents who suffered from drug addiction & alcoholism, enduring violence & trauma as they witnessed their uncle shoot their father, to become multi Pro Bowl NFL veterans with Vernon winning a Super Bowl.

Dontae was also committed to holistic wellness and did not even like to take OTC medication and stopped taking Toradol during his time in the league once he researched the long term consequences.

Dontae started his holistic wellness spa because he was committed to helping others heal in a holistic and integrative sense.

Dontae was also unafraid to follow his heart even when faced with enduring the backlash of millions of angry Bills fans demanding to know why he had supposedly "quit on the team".

Imagine you are an NFL player, a veteran who just turned 30 after having your third groin surgery, on a $5 million prove it deal with the Buffalo Bills.

Would you have the courage to walk out during halftime if you had had an epiphany on the sidelines as Vontae said he did?

From Vontae's Instagram post & personal tweet:

”I have been doing what my body has been PROGRAMMED to do”.

Tackling & running drills from Pop Warner to the Pros are Pavlovian whistle blowing conditioning brainwashing exercises of repetitive brutalistic violence!

Decades of tackling & hitting drills that literally brainwash these men as children to commit acts of violence upon one another. Its fucking creepy & dystopian as fuck if you really think about it. It is extremely militaristic but these are kids participating in these violent repetitive brain damaging tackling and hitting drills so it is even more dystopian — 5, 7, 9, 11, even 13 years old — they are legally minors, they are not adults!

They are children!

Why are they endlessly hitting each other in creepy violent militaristic drills with Pavlovian whistle blowing?

How else do you get them to override their bodys natural self defense mechanisms?

How else do you get them to turn off their natural self preservation instincts, go out there and hit somebody!

From Vontae's Instagram post & personal tweet:

“Its more important to me and my family to stop sacrificing myself for this game and to walk away healthy than to continue to embrace the WARRIOR MENTALITY and limp away when its too late”.

Warrior mentality is nothing but the brainwashing I described above.

Vontae simply told Coach McDermott that he was "done", removed his jersey and pads, walked out of the locker room and drove home.

Predictable backlash, personal insults & attacks & unmitigated fury ensued among some of Vontae's former Bills teammates, NFL analysts, team journalists and ofcourse the ever rabid and demanding "fans".

Why did Vontae describe this self-realization to CNN as an "out of body experience"?

Because he woke up from a literal lifetime of brainwashing to commit mindless violent acts since he was a child — tackling & hitting drills normalized in America's brutalistic militaristic culture — very publicly during a game at halftime.

And he had the courage not to suppress his realization & to remove his jersey — the ultimate talisman & almost mystical symbol representing all he had broken his body & bashed his brain for since he was a child in Pop Warner — the NFL team jersey with team logo proudly emblazoned on solid bold bright team colors — decades of brainwashing & Pavlovian conditioning — & he walked out of the stadium a free Black man — there is nothing more dangerous to the NFL and to the white supremacist capitalistic exploitative racist mass incarcerating colonialist AmeriKKKa.

The lifelong brainwashing that started when Vontae was a child had been short-circuited by his own self actualization.

ESPN.com:

“But his mind felt far away — like he was going through the motions in a game he had spent decades playing.”

Vontae sat on the bench on the sidelines then he realized what was happening.

His mind had finally caught up with his body.

Mentally, he was finished.

Vontae felt scared and vulnerable and wasn't sure what to do — all he knew was that he couldn't return to the field. He needed to get away.

“Im done.” Vontae told his defensive coordinator.

He removed his Bills jersey & pads & texted his wife.

“Babe, Im done. Im hanging up my cleats. I dont want to put my body through this anymore.”

Vontae called his brother Vernon who was in the Redskins locker room at halftime.

The brothers never called each other during games so Vernon answered right away.

“Im retired.” Vontae said.

Vernons heart sank. “Are you joking or are you serious?”

“…Im tired.” Vontae replied.

ESPN.com:

Dontae says, in the moment when he realized football was no longer his purpose, he felt overwhelmed but he trusted himself and left the field.

“It was honestly one of the best decisions I've made in my life.”

Dead at 35.

His ex-wife who he divorced last year that he was married to for 8 years said he “100% had CTE” and “there was more to the story” of his death.

No official cause of death was ever released to the public despite a full autopsy being done.

It does not appear that Vontae's brain was ever donated to be tested for CTE despite Vontae himself telling CNN in an interview that he feared he had CTE and it was one of the reasons for his sudden and abrupt retirement from the NFL.

10 years in the NFL. 3 years at Illinois. 4 years in high school. Multiple years in youth tackle football.

As a cornerback, all of those hits, all of those collisions, all of those head impacts, all of that violence adds up.

And, given the fact that he was running two successful businesses, had been married for nearly a decade, had wisely invested his NFL earnings and was extensively traveling before his life began to unravel a little more than a year before he was found dead alone in his mansion...

How many times do we have to see this movie?

Do you honestly think that Vontae Davis didn't die at 35 — just like Ray Lewis' son did at 28 — from the sport of football?

Or do you just not give a damn?

The sport of football with all its attendant spectacle, pageantry, glamour, allure, gloss, shine, breathless anticipation, endless storylines, drama, exhilarating highs, adrenaline rushes and of course the vicarious thrill of the violence along with the constant dehumanization of the players and minimization of the brutality of the sport by every analyst, color commentator, sideline reporter and journalist gives you a license not to give a damn.

The violence is sanitized and Photoshopped for your viewing pleasure and enjoyment.

Don't forget to order a large Papa John's along with your CTE drug overdoses and deaths under 35.

2 notes · View notes

nellie-elizabeth · 2 years ago

Text

Grey's Anatomy: All Star (19x08)

Oh man, this one was a tear-jerker! Poor Link.

Cons:

So I gotta say, Jo's characterization is a little puzzling to me lately. I feel like they're still going the Link/Jo romance route which I hate, but this week she really felt like she was relegated to a character being there to emotionally support Link on his journey. It's like... she got left by her husband, which I'm still furious about, had a baby, and now she's all settled into single motherhood and content with her career, which means that all that's left is for her to sit around and wait for Link to sort his shit out, and then they'll be together? That's the vibe I'm getting and I disapprove of it, let's just say.

I like the intern stuff overall but I'll admit I got a little exhausted the second Simone's secret boyfriend came in the door to greet her... like, can't we just let Simone and Lucas have a little sprinkle of happiness, here? I get that this is a soap opera and there's always more drama around the corner, but sometimes my brain just doesn't want to deal with more of it.

Pros:

As I said, I liked the intern stuff a lot. They're all repairing and painting the house, and fighting over who gets what bedroom. It's so lovely to have that intern house energy back. I really do care about Simone and Blue and Lucas and Mica and Jules. So far I feel like Jules is the one I understand the least about, but even with her I find my time enjoyable. And the others all have a lot of life and personality to them. It's fun watching them compete for the rooms, for the coolest surgeries, all of it. And we get different combinations of bonding. Obviously Jules/Blue and Simone/Lucas are shaping up to give us that romance energy, but this week we saw Blue and Simone connecting over the fate of their patient, football player the Tank.

And oof. They really did a lot in a short time to make you care about this twenty-two year old football player who just wants to get back out there and make his family proud. His goal is to be able to move them all to the states through his professional football career. And Link's job is to fix his leg so he can do that. Everything seems to be going fine, and then an unexpected clot forms, and the Tank dies on the table. It's pretty heartbreaking. Link is crushed, Simone and Blue have to call the young man's mother to give her the news, and reporters are swarming all over the hospital, accusing Link of killing this young talented man. That's not going to be good.

Simone and Blue's bonding was really sweet. Benson (Blue) is turning into a favorite of mine, because he's an overconfident asshole but they don't take that extreme too far. He's willing to be vulnerable, he doesn't scoff in the face of other people's pain. He needs to learn how to emotionally connect with his patients, and the compassion with which he treated Simone, and then the Tank's mother on the phone, shows that he's willing to put the work in.

In other patient news, we saw Jules and Jo treating a woman pregnant with her third child, who was experiencing some spotting. It turns out it's just stress and the baby is fine. Which is when we find out that the woman experienced extreme post-partum depression after her first two pregnancies, and this third pregnancy (an accident), is something she's terrified of going through with. She doesn't want to go into that darkness again, she's afraid of leaving her kids. So Jo and Jules walk her through an abortion, while her loving husband stays on the phone with her to hear how she's doing.

Grey's is always great at this kind of thing. It's an actual technical explanation of what an abortion at this stage of pregnancy would be like, and it's kind and informative and it's not, despite what I'm sure some people would say, preachy or judge-y or trying to say anything about the moral good or bad of the action. It's a medical procedure that a patient requested, nay, that a patient required, for her quality and longevity of life. That is all. I found it quite moving, to be honest. And Jo praising Jules for connecting with the patient was really sweet. Maybe there's a mentor/mentee vibe forming there!

Once again, I found Teddy's subplot pretty enjoyable because it wasn't focused on Owen drama. Get these two assholes a divorce, stat, and maybe I won't have to despise them. Anyway: Richard and Teddy's back-and-forth was genuinely hilarious. As was Bailey and Amelia each interfering in their own way. I love that Teddy had her demands, then Richard called her bluff, but then Amelia called Richard's bluff, and Teddy ended up with the job, along with some of her required enhancements, in the end. I'm sure things aren't going to be smooth sailing from here, but at least we landed on an answer. (The funniest bit was Teddy's bemused reaction to Richard using the word "service" to describe working at the hospital. "Kind of a weird way to put it, especially to someone who actually served...")

I'm prepared to eat my words, but I still kind of like the Maggie and Winston drama? Like, it annoys me a lot that we even went there, but all the times in the past I've been frustrated with Maggie it's been that she's so ignorant and entitled and selfish, and the narrative seems to frame her as justified. This time, I feel like Maggie is getting a very necessary wake-up call, you know? Winston is right. And Maggie needs to learn her lesson. Let's see where it goes, this could get really irritating really fast, but so far I'm strangely on board with it.

And that's where I'll stop. I note we still have Meredith narration, so it's almost like she never left. We'll see how her absence makes an impact, if at all, as we move forward!

8.5/10

#review #grey's anatomy #greys anatomy review #greys anatomy

2 notes · View notes

calacuspr · 22 days ago

Text

Ricky Martin – How to become a Director of Football

Not everyone who plays grassroots football is going to make it as a professional player. Even those who secure Academy contracts or break into the reserves or the first team can find themselves not making it at professional level.

Many of them drift out of the game, but with football becoming increasingly big business, there are plenty of opportunities for individuals to carve out a career in the game off the field.

Ricky Martin is one such example. He was an associate schoolboy for Norwich City and played grassroots football for Histon in the Eastern Counties League before getting his break at a young age at Cambridge United.

He explained: “I was a part-time coach at the club and I was running soccer schools so I was like recruiting players for them. When Paul Ashworth was leaving, they interviewed a couple of candidates but the salary package was so low that they couldn't really attract anyone full-time.

“Paul said to the club that I might not seem ready now, but I’d be really good for them and that I was someone that's going to have a career in the game. So I went and met Tommy Taylor, the manager at the time, and they offered me the job.

“At 20, I just knew that I had to get into the game. It was a very different landscape back then that wouldn't happen now. There’s far more structure to sports recruitment and you require a lot of qualifications, which at the time I didn’t have.

“I understand it but the downside is that sometimes clubs don't sometimes take a chance on someone that is up and coming because they need to tick qualifications boxes. You’d now need a lot more experience to oversee a whole youth programme at the age of 20.

“I was leading the whole Academy programme for kids age nine to 18 and some of the players were only two years younger than me. I had five unbelievable years and I wouldn't be where I am today if it wasn't for that opportunity.”

Martin was identifying young talent across East Anglia and securing players who might have gone to Norwich. The Canaries then came calling, appointing him as Assistant Academy Director and then Academy Manager.

The Canaries are a team renowned for developing young talent and Martin’s impact was integral to that success. He was involved in the development of players such as Jacob Murphy, now an integral part of the first-team at Newcastle United, Ben Godfrey who enjoyed a fine spell at Everton before moving to Atalanta in Serie A, and James Maddison, who was plucked from Coventry City and developed before getting moves to Leicester City and Tottenham Hotspur.

Norwich also won the FA Youth Cup, beating Chelsea in the middle of a dominant spell where the west London side won the trophy seven times in nine years. The Canaries also secured Category One status for their Academy, the highest rating in the English youth system.

But football moves forward and so do careers, with Martin keen to take on more responsibility. He explained: “I needed something different and I felt going into a first-team environment was my next step. I needed a new challenge.”

Martin pitched his vision of becoming a Technical Director to the Norwich board, which he secured just as the club was relegated to the Championship at the end of the 2013-14 season.

“The role of the Technical Director was new and is still evolving today. I was there to oversee all the departments. So medical sports, science, operations, recruitment and first team logistics.

“Alongside the manager and the Chief Executive, we formed a management triangle, working side by side. Some clubs put the technical director above the manager, but we wanted a more collaborative approach.

“I assisted the manager to ensure that everything off the pitch was taken care of. The heads of departments would all report to me and we ensured that we had the right staff in place developing a philosophy of trying to create a best in class environment.”

With varying needs and timelines, juggling each of the departments required delicate management skills to ensure that everything ran smoothly, Martin saw the Canaries get promoted in the Championship play-off final against Middlesbrough before leaving in 2017.

He became a football consultant, advising clubs around the world on various aspects of football administration and youth development.

Within two years, he was back in the Premier League, having been appointed by West Ham, a club renowned for its youth development, as Academy manager.

“When a club like West Ham come calling and gave me an opportunity to lead up their Academy system, it was very exciting and with their tradition and their heritage, it was a great opportunity.

“We managed to get 17 debuts in the first team and saw some young players really kick on and develop their careers. We worked with some really great staff as well, with really great youth developers.”

After three and a half years in east London, Martin was offered the chance to become Technical Director again at Stoke City, who had been relegated from the top flight and looking to put a strategy in place to help them push for promotion.

“When you go into a club, it's new and there's always challenges. Stoke certainly had some challenges and I saw the opportunity to make my mark and put a foundation in place so that the club could move forward again.

“In my first summer we made 18 new signings, so it was a very busy window. When you've got a lot of a lot of players coming in, it's very hard for all of them to hit the ground running, so they needed some time and now some of them are really developing.”

Martin left Stoke earlier this year, and is now biding his time before making his next move.

“I'm a developer of people and so developing young people in an academy is somewhere that I feel really comfortable. I really enjoy seeing young players develop, but also young practitioners and coaches and medical and sports science staff. My next role won't necessarily be as a technical director or sporting director. It could be back in the academy field and developing young people, departments and systems that need to be put in place to optimise the potential of the club and its academy programme.

“In England, I feel we now have one of the best youth development programmes in the world. The facilities and the infrastructure and everything that goes behind running a successful football club are producing some outstanding talent, not just players but some outstanding youth developers and practitioners.

“I've seen so many changes, such as a lot more emphasis around player care and well-being. There's also work around diversity and I've been lucky to be involved with the Premier League on some action groups to help to increase diversity in the workforce.

“It's really valuable because it clubs needs to reflect the diversity of the players and the fans and that's been an imbalance. It’s really empowering to have such a pivotal role in inspiring our young people and our young players.”

With the game growing for men and women from grassroots to elite level, Martin believes football is a great career for those passionate about working in elite sport.

He added: “There's some great opportunities for support staff at the academies and first teams have also really grown. From data to nutrition, sports science, recruitment operations, logistics and law, there's so many now skill sets that are required to have an effective football club.

“Any young person that wanted to get into the game and we're just talking here about the men's game. But you've also seen the growth of the women's game that's and how their academies are growing now and the great work the WSL is undertaking so I can only see that space getting bigger.

“Whether you go straight in on a work placement and look to develop your career that way, or go to university and get your degree and the qualifications required to come into a football club, it's all about people working really hard and maximising their potential.”

Martin also sees the evolving world of football as a good thing and an opportunity to learn from different viewpoints.

He added: ““The Academy director role and the sporting director roles are constantly evolving. I can see them getting bigger because of the expansion of the different departments and because of how much more diverse the game is becoming. In five years time, I think some of the bigger clubs will have an assistant sporting director with a different skill set to complement their colleague.

“You've already started to see that already in the Premier League with how big the game is becoming. Football is a worldwide game so the more we can open up and the more we can learn from different cultures and different environments around the world is going to be really powerful.

“Sharing of knowledge is important. Obviously the Premier League is a really strong brand at the moment and a lot of people want to come to England to work here. But I also see some great opportunities all around the world where leagues and clubs are doing some unbelievable work. I see some really interesting opportunities going forward.”

#Norwich City #Cambridge United #Stoke City #Director of Football #Chelsea FC #James Maddison #Middlesbrough #Academy football #Histon FC #Eastern Counties League #Premier League #EFL #Football League

0 notes

fletchersmith · 7 months ago

Text

Raull Ellam: Taking the bodybuilding scene by storm

It’s a dream for many to transition into the Footballing world in hope to become the net Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo but it’s very niche to hear about someone changing their future to take up a different passion in a different sport.

We’ll be deep diving into Raull Ellam’s career so far and why he decided to change from following his Grandad’s footsteps into bodybuilding, where his family have a impressive showcase of awards.

Raull Nawaz Ellam is a 20-year-old from West Yorkshire who had history in playing in the football academies of Barnsley and Huddersfield Town. The 6ft 3 individual played a variety of positions including left winger, attacking midfielder and right back. His most recent spell in football was two years ago, where he signed for Bradford Park Avenue in ambition to break into the first team.

This didn’t go to plan, as his minutes were very limited and saw him playing most of his football for the academy. This wasn’t what Raull wanted and ultimately ended up with him changing over to bodybuilding.

How did Raull get into football?

Raull was lucky enough to be raised with many sporting figures around him, which gave him many options when deciding a sport to proceed with. His grandad, Roy Ellam had a stellar of a football career.

Starting his career off at Bradford City where he made 149 apperences scoring 12 goals, after five years with the Bantams he decided to move to fellow West Yorkshire rival Huddersfield Town where he gathered 206 appearances scoring eight goals.

Leeds United came calling for Ellam’s signature and got it, where he made 11 appearances and helped winning the Division One title before moving back to The Terriers.

At the final stages of his career, Roy moved to America to play for Philadelphia Atoms and Washington Diplomats where he faced both Pelé and Eusebio.

Raull held similar characteristics to his grandad with his height and footballing knowledge but was more of a technical player and wanted to be used higher up the pitch.

Why bodybuilding?

Raull’s mum Jeanie Ellam has a very successful career in bodybuilding and is one of the best mentors somebody could have. Jeanie won the World Amateur Body Building Association (WABBA) championships in Verona, after qualifying at the Hercules Olympia in Colchester. She didn’t just stop there either, she also won the WABBA English Grand Prix in Milton Keynes, where she won the Trained Figure class.

Following from her successful career, Jeanie now helps run Roy Ellam’s gym, located in Mirfield which is a family run gym and is extremely popular to everyone within the local area.

Raull has always had a passion for the gym, from starting consistently training from the age of 15 his love for the gym has always been the same, despite the passion of becoming professional footballer. The only thing which has changed inside the gym has been his training, switching from hybrid training (a mix of running and weightlifting to help with his stamina). His training now focuses on strength gaining and intense sessions which will optimally give him the most progression towards his goals.

How is Raull doing?

Raull left Bradford Park Avenue in March 2022 and has been committed to following his mother's footsteps since then. He now offers a PT (personal trainer) program where he focuses on improving his clients. He has also started uploading videos to TikTok.

As you can see from above, Raull’s most viewed video has over 630,000 views and over his whole account he has gathered 116,000 likes. His story and motivational TikTok's are helping inspire many, who have an ambition to get into the gym and improve their physique.

Raull runs his family gym ‘Roy Ellam’s fitness connection’ where he offers help and support to any newbies who may have a lack of confidence when attending the gym or don’t know where to get started.

What the public think

I conducted some online straw poles to see what the public thought about the transition between football and bodybuilding.

The first question which I asked was if people believed that transitioning between football and bodybuilding was a unique career change. Because of my football-based following on X these results won’t give the bodybuilding scene any justice.

71.4% voted towards it being a unique change while 14.3% said it wasn’t.

My second question asked the public if they have watched or attended any bodybuilding competitions. I asked this question to try see the popularity of the sport.

100% of the audience said they have never watched a bodybuilding competition.

From the previous results i wanted to see how people ranked football compared to bodybuilding in difficulty to go professional in. Like the trend with all of my previous poles football is massively in favour, with 90% of the audience voting for football being more difficult.

The final post for the X audience was to see how common it would be for them to follow someone's journey into taking bodybuilding seriously.

There is some very popular Youtuber’s who document their journey and showcase what they are doing to prepare for upcoming competitions. One of these is Chris Bumstead, who has over 23 million Instagram followers and 3.6 million YouTube subscribers and is a five-time champion of Mr Olympia.

60% of the audience stated that they find a bodybuilders journey not very interesting, then 40% rated it from 4-6.

Raull’s story isn’t just unique but it’s inspiring to many, taking the jump from doing something which you’ve been doing for your entire life and risking it all to proceed in something you have a passion in is something which many people will look at with admiration.

We spoke to Raull, getting his justification about his career change and what keeps him motivated everyday, we also spoke to the former World Amateur Body Building Association Championship winner Jeanie Ellam about her thoughts on his progress so far.

youtube

#Youtube

1 note · View note

dear-ao3 · 3 months ago

Note

it's race week irw tae ,ce sek

and yes, that is george, as in george russell. the artist of this lovely graphic. graphic design is his passion.

anyway. today is august 3, 2024 and welcome to spa.

no no not like a bath spa. spa-francorchamps, the race track in belgium. the last race before summer break. the longest track on the calendar and usually a notoriously rainy trip

but before we could get there. silly season was back once again. shape of a haas contract, form of esteban ocon

thats right, the rumors were true. esteban ocon is going to haas and he will be teammates with ollie bearman. and i am pretty sure that he signed a multi year contract.

so haas has confirmed their driver line up. five seats still remain as we head into summer break: vcarb, sauber/audi, alpine, mercedes and williams (and maybe red bull?). this is about standard. usually most teams will want to have this all squared away before summer break so they can spend the back half of the season focusing on the world championship, but its not unheard of to do this. toto wolff has dragged out signings before (with george) and we know from last weekend that he intends to do that again this time.

the following drivers are all still jobless: logan sargeant, zhou guanyu, valtteri bottas, carlos sainz, daniel ricciardo

and then these guys are also in contention for a seat: liam lawson, mick schumacher, and kimi antonelli

and someone else lost their seat this week. but not a driver, a team principal. the alpine team principal, actually.

they released the following statement:

"bwt alpine f1 team can confirm that bruno famin will move away from his current role as team principal of the f1 division by the end of august. bruno will be in charge of all other motorsport activities of the renault group at viry-châtillon. a new team principal will be announced in due course"

bruno, by the way, had only been team principal for about a year, after his predecessor, otmar szafnauer, had been announced to be leaving Last Year at spa. bruno was team principal for an interim period and then promoted to full time real team principal

this is wholly unsurprising, actually. first because alpine is Probably Definitely Almost Certainly stopping their collaboration with renault for engines (and go to mercedes or ferrari) and bruno had ties to them (i think?) also alpine has had a shit ton of staffing changes, including their technical director and head of aerodynamics and pretty much all of their senior staff this year. also lets not forget: flavio briatore is back as a consultant. and as nico rosberg pointed out last week: he has a lot of say apparently.

so have alpine done anything good this week? well they did a deadpool/wolverine livery:

esteban had a deadpool helmet and pierre had a wolverine one

and now why would alpine do this? well alpine has (in my opinion) one of the most baffling list of investors, including but not limited to:

rob mcelhenny (known as a writer for its always sunny in pennsylvania, and kaitlin olson's husband)

michael b jordan (the actor from the black panther, not the basket ball player)

rory mcilroy (professional golfer and 3x pga tour winner)

patrick mahomes (quarterback for the kansas city chiefs football team and 3x Super Bowl champion)

travis kelce (another kansas city chiefs football player (i dont know his position and im not googling it sorry i only know the mahomes position because my ex boyfriend liked him), 3x super bowl champion and taylor swifts boyfriend)

ryan reynolds (owner of mint mobile the phone company, the 2010 sexiest man alive, board member of the match group (which operates like every dating app ever) and also literally deadpool)

so obviously alpine did this probably as a sponsor deal promotion thing because one of their investors is literally The Movie Itself. this was though great for esteban ocon who got to celebrate the public announcement of him leaving alpine with dressing up like a super hero, and he is a massive marvel and comic book nerd (i think he actually did a deadpool helmet a few years ago and gave it to ryan reynolds)

but enough about alpine, lets move on to red bull

first and foremost, max came into the weekend with a 10 place grid penalty. this was because they changed the engine on his car. i dont know exactly How engine regulations work but i Think (and please know i didnt look this up this is just what i pieced together from hearing christian horner and various sky presenters talking) that every car gets an allotment of engines that they can use during a season/set period of time and that allotment is four (?) and you can use more than that but you have to take a grid penalty for changing the engine. and there are strategic reasons for this, mostly because engines wear out and some tracks you need more power at. spa is not necessarily one of these tracks, but it was speculated that they put the engine in and ran it at practice and then swapped it back out after the first practice day to use at a different race (and they wouldn't take another penalty because they had already put this engine in the car, theres not rules against swapping around your engines as long as youre not putting in a new one, it has to be one thats already been used or within the allotment and weigh the same). or at least i Think so.

anyway. it was strategic to have the penalty taken here because spa, unlike other recent tracks, is an easier track to pass on. michael schumacher once won this race from 16th place and i think max himself has won it from 11th. that was last year (and maybe even the year before that?) when he took the very same engine penalty at this track. so just cause max has a 10 place grid penalty, dont count him out here.

max also responded to the curfew red bull supposedly imposed upon him and said "its not that i have a ban or whatever. i also dont need to tell them what they do int heir private time during the weekends. and thats the same for me" he also then later said "i mean, ive won three world championships. i think i know pretty well what i can and i cannot do"

yuki also told the press that "apparently, even what helmut says, red bull can play around with anything he wants. even the contract is almost nothing. to be honest i didnt read it (his new contract) properly"

and of course, the checo seat replacement rumors continue. he has denied them and says the wants the speculation to stop. however, liam lawson and daniel ricciardo will be doing a filming day in imola after spa and whoever performs better will likely get checos seat if he gets replaced. and why, you might be asking, is yuki not in contention for the seat?? despite the fact that hes been consistently doing better than daniel?? well as everyones been saying "he has ties to honda" (because hes japanese) (red bulls current engine provider) and they are on track to replace honda with ford so it aparently doesnt make sense for them to promote yuki? or so it seems. yuki originally got into alpha tauri (vcarb) because red bull was switching to honda and honda wanted a japanese driver in one of the cars (im pretty sure). so by that standard i am personally inclined to think that theyre just being racist. which is unfortunate because yuki is a great driver and i hope he does get a shot in red bull.

max also called checo very handsome and said (along with daniel) that he would not fit in an f1 car at 53

in more fun news, max was quizzed on cat breeds and he knew almost all of them:

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Oracle Red Bull Racing (@redbullracing)

instagram

and to make it fair, they also quizzed checo on dog breeds

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Oracle Red Bull Racing (@redbullracing)

instagram

moving on. williams.

there are some Rampant Rumors running Wild down at williams and that rumor is that team principal james vowels and logan sargeant are no longer on speaking terms. the rumors are not confirmed and there isn't a really reliable source (the source is actually indy car driver marcus ericsson who "heard from some of his american friends" that logan isn't having a great time at williams and then he also said that logan and james arent talking on a podcast)

logan responded to this saying that "marcus ericsson has a reputation of talking about other people without ever even having a conversation with me in his life. so yeah. its doesnt carry any weight. its not true."

in any case, it seems like logan is due to get replaced with continued rumors of him not making it through the season still circulating as well. whos replacing him? well we dont know. carlos is back on the table but carlos is still on the table everywhere (even at mercedes again aparently) and i think valtteri is still an option as well as probably a few other people.

but despite that and whatever the fuck else is going on at williams, they decided they needed to have an egg and spoon race.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Williams Racing (@williamsracing)

instagram

and in said incredibly baffling video, alex albon gave us all some enlightening advice: "life isn't always about winners and losers. its about...eggs."

alex albon also attempted to draw the olympic rings and failed epically at it. he then accused (jokingly) williams of purposefully making him and logan look like idiots in the pr videos. hes not wrong.

down to mclaren for our government mandated mclaren update. they didnt really do too much, tho oscar did call lando short in a video that i cannot find right now. you'll just have to trust me as you have been for this entire post. because i really could be lying about all of this. i doubt that youre clicking on all of my links. they could all be rick rolls and you'll never know. dont believe everything you read kids.

ah heres the video

anyway lando was asked about his actions from the week before (u know the whole Not Letting Oscar Pass business) and he said he should have "just let him pass straight away. its such a stood thing that i didnt because we were free to race" he also said "the fact that i kind of clouded over oscar's race win, first race win in formula 1, is something ive not felt too proud about. the fact that we have a 1-2 and that was barely a headline after the race, nothing was really spoken about it...." and finally: "oscars done a lot for me in the past and helped me in many races. he drove a better race than i did, he got a better start and mine sucked so...he deserved it."

so it seems all is good between the two of them?

tho oscar liked every other drivers comment on his post congratulating him on his win Except for lando's, and then liked landos several days later

zak brown aparently had a bet with oscar that if oscar won he would get a mohawk. and this was his solution for the hungarian gp win (which he was not present for btw he was dealing with indy car cause he deals with all the mclaren teams not just f1)

oscar was less than impressed:

valtteri, meanwhile, was asked at the press conference what he would have done in lando's position, would he have given the place back?

and valtteri said: "obviously i would give the place back because i am an amazing team player"

this of course was a dig at germany 2018, back when valtteri was at mercedes and lewis's teammate and was told by james vowels to stop attacking lewis in the infamous "valtteri, its james" radio.

he also got a bum squeeze from lewis at the drivers parade

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by FORMULA 1® (@f1)

instagram

kevin magnussen gave haas the most backhanded compliment, saying that "upgrades we've had this year, they've actually worked. thats the first time in haas history that we've brought upgrades to the car that made it faster." kevin has been a haas driver for all but one year that the team has existed btw (and that year was 2021 when he was briefly replaced by nikita mazepin and then he got fired for probably finding the russian Ukrainian war on the side of russia three weeks before the 2022 season started) so he knows a thing or two about haas upgrades. that also says a lot about gunther steiner, the previous and disgraced ex haas team principal.

speaking of ex disgraced team principals, mattia binotto, the ex ferrari team principal (who is largely credited with a decent amount of charles's suffering) is making a reappearance on the grid as the chief operating and chief technical officer of sauber (which will become audi) so essentially, he is one of the team bosses.

everyone was curious if this was going to affect carlos sainz's decision about where to sign, because he is still unemployed and binotto was his team principal for 2 years at Ferrari, but he didnt really give an answer, as per usual. he was too busy pretending to speak french:

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Scuderia Ferrari HP (@scuderiaferrari)

instagram

anyway. aside from that. there were some announcements in regards to regulations changes for 2025. this is Different than the regulations that were announced for 2026 last month and theres a few important things:

points system will remain the same

there will be an increase in pre season testing

the minimum driver weight has been increased by 2kg

the last one is actually really important. and i will stumble my way through the explanation.

so. there have always been minimum weight regulations for the cars and prior to 2019 it was the weight of the car without fuel (including tires), the driver and the drivers kit all had to equal at least the minimum weight. this was a problem for two main reasons:

drivers who were smaller had a bigger advantage because they weighed less so they could have slightly more weight to put on the car/ move around blah blah

drivers were literally starving themselves or doing insane things to cut their weight to make the cars performance better (see: nico rosberg circa 2016 cutting his socks, stripping his helmet of paint and stopping cycling to loose weight in his legs to go faster to beat lewis)

so that wasnt great.

in 2019 they introduced a new regulation for weight which was that the driver's weight would be weighed separate from the car's weight. the driver weight was the weight of the driver, the seat and their whole kit and that whole combined thing needed to weigh at least 80kg minimum and then that weight is added to the weight of the car to equal at least the whole car's minimum weight.

so presently the driver's weight needs to be at least 80kg and that gets added to the car's weight and both need to equal at least 798kg

with the weight of the seat and the kit, this means the driver needs to be around 77-78kg at Most (that is 171 pounds for my fellow americans). this is particularly difficult for taller drivers (such as esteban ocon, alex albon and george russell who are all over 6 feet tall) (average weight of a 6 foot male being 160-196lbs (72.5-88kg) and yes they are athletes at the top of their field so its likely theyre not really average weight but this is just so you get an Idea)

so, as ive mentioned, all of the drivers are on specific diets and workout plans etc but the taller drivers do have a harder time because of the weight cap with some of them being right at the max, which isn't really great (lets recall a few races ago where george's race engineer told him to basically loose weight despite the fact that he has one of the strictest diets of anyone on the grid because of his height).

the good news is! for 2025 the driver weight minimum has gone up to 82kg, bumping up the minimum car weight to 800kg, meaning the drivers can now be 79-80kg. this was introduced to promote driver health and tbh, good for them

now that that business is out of the way. spa.

spa is a track that has seen a lot of shit. its a very long track, the longest on the calendar, 4.352 miles long (almost double the length of some tracks) and has a lot of elevation changes and is is almost always raining here at least a little.

spa saw the most recent driver death in f2 in 2019. (though there was another death in 2023 in a lower level of formula racing) if you dont want to read this (there will not be in depth detail, skip to the next colored heading)

as i have said, spa is dangerous in the rain and a grand total of 49 people have died at this track across various events since the 1920s

anyway though, 2019.

it was lap 2, a driver named alesi had a puncture and crashed at the radiation curve, several people behind him braked, but a driver named antoine hubert didnt see the accident and clipped one of the slower moving cars. he hit the barrier and then was struck by another car piloted by juan manuel correa at about 130mph. hubert ended up dying in the accident and correa broke both of his legs and had a spine injury, as far as i know he has recovered.

several of the younger drivers in f1, especially pierre and charles, had been good friends with antoine. charles won his first f1 race the next day and dedicated his win to antoine. every year since charles and pierre and others have paid tribute to antoine at spa.

this year all of the drivers paid tribute to not only antoine but also dilano van't hoff who died last year in the formula regional european championship at spa. he was involved in a multi car collision in the wet.

other interesting races at spa include the 2021 race, which was red flagged for several hours due to rain and everyone pretty much just fucked around in the garages for hours. this was also the same year lando crashed in qualifying in a massive rain storm after being on track for pole position. george also managed to pretty much secure his mercedes seat at that same qualifying because he watched lando's line during the red flag and absolutely sent it to hell in his williams (which was a SHITBOX) and ends up p2. it was also his first f1 podium because only 2 laps of the race were completed and it was behind a safety car, so no passing

also up there is the 1998 grand prix which had probably the most hilarious looking start to any race ive ever seen (everyone slid into eachother because david coulthard spun and managed to take out 12 people, no one was seriously injured) and this is also the race where michael schumacher nearly killed david coulthard

now no, this did not occur on track, but rather off the track.

lets briefly set the scene here.

coming into the race, schumacher (then a 2x world champion) was 7 points (13 under the current point system) behind mika hakkinen, though he took an early lead to the race following the restart and it looked like he was going to overtake hakkinen in the championship (the two were rivals)

so halfway through the race, schumacher is starting to lap people, one of those people being david coulthard who was running in ninth after some crashes and repairs and whatever. coulthard was also, notably, hakkinen's teammate at mclaren that year.

the Ferrari team principal at the time, jean todt, actually left the ferrari pit wall to walk to the mclaren pit wall to make sure that coulthard would move out of schumachers way when he inevitably lapped him, because this was aparently a thing you could do at the time.

regardless, coulthard managed to do anything But get out of Schumacher's way and moved off the racing line at exactly the worst time. schumacher ended up crashing into him at 140 mph in the poor visibility and his ferrari ended up losing a wheel, the front wing and most of the nose. somehow though, schumacher made it back to the pits and jumped out of the car with one mission: kill david coulthard.

why did he want to do this? well. simply. he thought that this was literally a plot by coulthard and mclaren to kill or at least injure him to benefit mika hakkinen and take him out of the title fight against hakkinen (hakkinen had also retired earlier in the race)

this is where we get this infamous photo of schumacher on his way to presumably kill coulthard

this was After he had already fought past all of the ferrari mechanics. despite everyone's best efforts he did get to coulthard and yelled "you tried to fucking kill me!" at him. the two drivers were barely restrained from fighting eachother and reportedly coulthard said that had michael tried to come and fight him, he would have given him a "glaswegian kiss" (headbut designed to break someones nose).

in any case, the two eventually got over it and coulthard admitted years later that the accident was his fault but it was not done on purpose.

what does this have to do with the 2024 belgian gp? virtually nothing its just a bonkers story.

speaking of! lets get into it.

as predicted, it was a very very wet run of practice. i only watching practice 3, which had pretty much no track time because of rain and a crash by lance stroll that red flagged everything for awhile.

and in case you're wondering what the visibility situation was well i guess keep wondering because i thought i saved a video of an onboard but aparently i didnt. it was rainy. like a lot.

"take yourself off for a spa weekend, they said. what about some water therapy for a saturday, they said" crofty said. crofty was in fact correct.

considering pretty much nothing happened at fp3, we got some interesting commentary for awhile, including commentary on a nearby karting race at a kart track that the drones briefly showed, a beautiful spider web and a shot of a guy sitting on the side of what could only be described as a cliff cave to watch the race. ted told us that he "sought exposure because i want to feel the rain on my face," they talked about using a field of cows as weather radar (aparently this is a thing?) and someone (i think crofty) said "well forget the weather radar, the cows have stood back up, that means the rain is stopping soon." they also debated max orange versus mclaren orange (theyre virtually the same color) both of which were out in full force because technically both lando and max are at least part belgian (and so is lance stroll, but they didnt mention this) despite neither of them racing under the belgian flag, they argued over how to pronounce a french word that i will definitely misspell, the talked about the corner names and the current football stats and how the cameras kept panning to puddles.

the most interesting thing that got brought up was the speculation that red bull had swapped max's engine out for an older one after taking the penalty because the team had broken curfew the night before.

aside from that thrilling commentary. yuki ended up with 60 place grid penalty for changing slightly more power unit things than max did and would be starting at the back of the grid. and oscar said over radio that he had "turned into a skateboarder" in one of the turns after he had gone off the track. and in practice 1 alex albon went 3rd fastest, just 7 tenths off of oscar in p2.

and with that riveting practice session done: qualifying

and please note, i was really tired when i watched this and my notes are a little lacking, but it was also a thoroughly standard qualifying session

it was wet and there was a risk of rain. everyone was on inters.

and incredibly, alpine was doing insanely well. like maybe there had been more than just a paint job on their car (they did in fact have upgrades)

checo as we know needed a good qualifying. there was one very hilarious moment in q2 when danny rics managed to knock him out, but then checo ended up going faster. he ended up only making it into q3 by .003 seconds, just barely beating alex albon.

and q3 saw the return of a beast, the beast being charles leclerc, who managed to put his ferrari up in p2, right behind, yep you guessed it, max verstappen.

"call that pole, kinda?" max joked over the radio because he would be getting the 10 place grid penalty.

still though, he was interviewed where he said "i dont know how quick were going to be, i hope were in the mix"

charles said that he was "not expecting it" and the conditions were tricky

and checo ended up in p3 and said it was "really difficult" but he had a "good feeling about tomorrow." which was good, because he needed a good qualifying to keep his seat and he got one. this was, by the way, checos highest start since china. china was race 5, spa is race 14.

the most hilarious thing to come out of this tho was the lestappen yap session

it went like this:

max: its better than expected, the weather in like, qualifying. i guess ts gotten bad

charles, ignoring him: which set of tires did you keep for tomorrow? you have two sets of....?

max, immediately: yeah, two medium, one hard

which is Hilarious.

yes, tire type is pretty public knowledge they talk about it on the broadcast and everything, but still the fact that max really just openly was like oh yeah sure here u go! with Zero hesitation makes it funnier.

and so, we were onto the race and it was dry, thank god

first, as i said, it is easier to overtake here than it is at other tracks, so dont count anyone out. second, it is pretty darn standardly a two stop race, but tire strategy is still important

unlike in 1998, everyone survived lap 1. charles was still leading on his inherited pole position. checo though had already been overtaken by hamilton and lando had taken a little trip into the gravel. max, as predicted, had already gained three positions.

"were going to find out just how fast that red bull is today," martin said.

charles's lead did not last very long though because lewis overtook him on lap 3, becoming the second person to lead the race.

zhou started moving very slowly on lap 4, it seemed like he was loosing power and was trying to desperately make it back to the pits. but then the problem seemed like it had fixed itself? "control alt delete and off he goes!" ted said, absolutely done and dusted.

by lap 6 lewis was over a second in front of charles and out of his drs zone, but there was "something moving down by my legs," he said on radio

and welcome back, sebastian vettel because this was almost an exact copy of sebastian vettel's radio during practice 2 at the 2018 Brazilian gp where he said:

"theres something loose between my legs, apart from the obvious. so something flying around my feet. around my feet. i mean, id be proud if it was what you think it is, but its not!"

(the thing turned out to be a small screw)

meanwhile, aparently zhous problem was not control alt delete because he lost the hydraulics and had to retire on lap 7.

and heres were the tire strategy came in. mercedes, ferrari and mclaren all had two sets of hard and one set of mediums, red bull, as we knew from the lestappen yap session, only had two mediums and one hard. the hards were preferrable because the undercut is strong here (you want to pit before the people youre trying to pass)

carlos was the only one to start on hards and he was doing quite well, so maybe that was the right choice.

people started pitting on lap 8 for the hards. people being nico, followed by alex, logan and daniel. williams had a beautiful double stack.

max had made it up to 8th place by lap 2, but he was still stuck there behind lando. on lap 11 he decided that he had had enough of this and pitted for hards to undercut lando.

george had the same idea, but he pitted for hards on lap 11 to undercut carlos

george came out 13 and max came out 14, but george was able to pass yuki quickly and take p12.

this made all of the front runners (and bottas) nervous and lewis checo and oscar all decided to pit on lap 12. max was still behind yuki in 14th.

charles hopped on the radio and attempted to once again fix the ferrari strategy by saying "if we are getting undercut, lets go long"

ferrari ignored him and pitted him on the next lap. he came out in fifth.

this left carlos, still on his hards, leading the race by 4.356 seconds, followed by hamilton, leclerc, piastri, perez, russell, verstappen, norris, albon, ricciardo, alonso, ocon, gasly, bottas, hulkenberg, stroll, sargeant, magnussen and tsunoda

it was still anyones race to win and everyones race to loose.

carlos boxed on lap 20 and came out 8th, putting lewis back in the lead.

george was able to get past checo and took p4. this left checo right in front of max and gave red bull a dilemma. did they tell checo to let max past because max was faster? and lando was trying to pass max....

instead of dealing with that dilemma, red bull decided to box checo on lap 22

hamilton was still leading by 1.865 seconds, followed by charles, oscar, george max and lando. and lando was actively chasing max for 5th. but he locked up and lost a bunch of time.

back at the back of the grid though, logan held his own against yuki fantastically, who tied and failed to get past him. williams tho wrecked it by pitting him pretty much right after.

"the tires are still good" lewis said on lap 25.

"thats the kind of radio call we used to hear from lewis when he was dominating championships" martin said wistfully.

but someones tires were doing better than lewis's and that someone was george, who said over radio to "think about the one stop" on lap 27, right after leclerc pitted.

lewis then pitted, leaving oscar leading the race. again, it was still really pretty wide open, four different people had led it so far.

carlos was right in front of lewis and the commentators theorized that he could be told to disrupt lewis to help charles, but he didnt really do that.

oscar meanwhile took the fastest lap, but he still needed to pit again.

"last lap was purple," oscar's race engineer said.

"it goes without saying," oscar said, "but clean air is king"

max had pitted again, this time to undercut george. lando pitted again to try and get max. lando was on the hards and max was on the mediums,

then oscar pitted, leaving george as our fifth race leader.

oscar also overshot the box and nearly ran into the front jack man, who rescued the whole operation

george though, was aparently staying out. lets remember that he had boxed on lap 11. it was now lap 32. he was leading by 7 seconds. and he thought he could win. lewis though was second and on the fresher tires. so it was going to be a fight to the end.

"i think that lando is pushing behind me, let me know what you want me to do" max said, the epitome of politeness and grace over the radio this week, on lap 33.

lando had in fact been told to push because the "tires are robust" and he was only eight tenths behind.

oscar overtook charles on lap 36 for third position, lewis was aparently threatened by this and thought that oscar could be the one to win the race.

george was now 3.880 ahead of lewis who was 3.587 ahead of oscar.

crofty pointed out on lap 37 that "george could still win this race, there are no team orders from mercedes." but there was speculation that George would be told to let lewis past if and when lewis got to him because he was gaining on george and going slightly faster.

and where did checo end up in all of this? well he was passed by carlos in lap 39, stuck down in 8th. "not a stellar race for sergio" martin said.

Hamilton did start to close on george on lap 40. "just make sure you give eachother plenty of space" came the radio message. so no team orders. they were free to race. and race they did.

george's tires were 30 laps old, lewis's tires were 14 laps old. oscar was 3.8 seconds behind lewis and gaining. but he was too far back to challenge the mercedes 1-2

coming into the final lap, george was just barely holding off against lewis

"its the russell hustle against hammer time!" crofty said as they headed into the final lap

george was .548 seconds ahead of lewis who was .811 ahead of oscar. it was the closest non-safety car finish between the top three since 2016

and george managed to hold lewis off in the most insane tire master class since monaco. all of his last 20 laps were in the 1.47s range

GEORGE RUSSELL WINS THE 2024 BELGIAN GRAND PRIX!

"boys again! what a performance!" he shouted over the radio "oh yes! great strategy! you guys are the best! cmon!"

toto called him the "tire whisperer"

this made three wins in four races for mercedes, and made george the first driver other than max to win more than one grand prix in a season since checo at the beginning of 2023.

and! this was the fourth 1-2 of the season with a different team. red bull, ferrari, mclaren and mercedes all had a 1-2 now. the last time that this had happened was in 1960.

max did though manage to extend his lead because he came in just ahead of lando

Gunther steiner did the post race interviews and whoever was on the sound team did an absolutely ass job because you couldnt hear anything. he did ask lewis if he thought that he could win the championship though, and lewis laughed and said "no"

so instead, enjoy some pictures of george right after he got out of the car in quite possibly the most interesting celebration ever:

lewi, by comparison, came out of the car and sulked

they caught toto right before the podium and asked him how george kept lewis behind and he said, honestly "we didnt think it was possible"

he was also on the phone in the garage before the podium, FaceTiming with susie, his wife and head of the f1 academy

it was also the tenth consecutive podium for mclaren. this is pretty impressive when you remember that there have only been 14 races so far.

the cooldown room was insanely funny. george took awhile to get there and it was just lewis quietly raging in the corner because he really really had wanted to win and oscar kind of sitting there awkwardly and not knowing if he should say something. he didnt say anything.

the podium though was a vibe especially for mercedes. the cameras even cut to kimi antonelli trying to get a piggy back ride from lewis's engineer, bono.

george was positively pleased, right chuffed and absolutely gobsmacked.

he and lewis even held up the i think it was the race director??? who joined them on the podium

and! over on the mclaren side, mark webber was there to support oscar and looking like an absolute proud dad after he hadn't been there last week for his win

so. lets get a quick update on the points:

our top 4 in the constructors championship are

red bull: 404

mclaren: 361

ferrari: 340

mercedes: 284

and our top 10 in the drivers championship are

max: 275

lando: 197

charles: 174

oscar: 164

carlos: 160

lewis: 143

george: 141

checo: 128

fernando: 47

lance: 24

and with that, lets get into the post race show where they agreed that this was "george's best victory in f1 to date" it was his third. but it was still his best.

his tire degradation was half as much as what everyone else's was, and he stayed out for 34 laps, remember. on the longest track on the calendar. this was also following mercedes completely redoing their set up because the upgrades that they had brought actually made the car slower.

even zak brown had to congratulate mercedes, saying "pretty awesome race, hats off to mercedes....impressive of max to hold off lando on mediums"

the commentators even said that mclaren should essentially take notes because this was how to do a proper 1-2 without screwing over either of the drivers. helmut marko also aparently said that mclaren needed to make a real number 1 driver call over the break and make it be oscar because lando keeps making mistakes.

this is now also been four races since the last time that max won, which is the first time that this has happened since 2020. but everyone usually brings in one (or two) more big set of upgrades and that could still flip the championship

and they interviewed one christian horner who said "i thought max drove a good race....checo....we need to have a look at that" this is because, if you will remember, max started p11 and ended p5 while checo started p2 and ended p8. "you never want to go backwards" horner said.

max said pretty similarly. "it was very difficult to pass....plenty of things to analyze....we know we have work to do and we want to do better." he acknowledged that "its not realistic to think that we can go from p 11 all the way to the front again, those days are behind." he later said that "our biggest worry is not with my teammate, but with the car"

checo said that it was "not great for us" because "we didnt have the pace today" but continued to shut down any seat rumors despite the fact that we know that liam and daniel are testing next week

they also interviewed carlos who revealed that he had been on a one stop strategy, which is why he had stared on the hard tires. and, very predictable he was asked about his seat for next year. he said "you guys need to understand no, it's been a long first half of the season for me having to deal with... a season with ferrari" which is first of all funny as shit. but he then said " in every week the race changes (with teams he wants to sign with) "im going to take my time"

they speculated that he was going to williams though

speaking of williams, james vowels was asked again if they were keeping logan and he said "silverstone, Budapest, he was where we needed him to be in terms of growth pattern, thats what im looking for. this weekend hes off the pace." and he again hinted logan might not make it through the season.

and they talked to yuki came in p17 and said that "well considering i started from zandvoort i think that p17 isn't bad"

charles apparently said post race: "i had a crack on the tear off in the last 20 laps. it didnt do anything for performance but i couldnt see well in my right mirror." and he still managed to hold max behind him and finish p4. it was also ferrari's 10,000th championship point that they have gotten in their history, the most our of any team.

they of course also talked to mercedes

george said that he was "really realxed" during the race and was "comfortable with [himself] and the car" and "proud to get the 1-2"

lewis was slightly less thrilled, likely because of the fact that he thought he was going to win, or get team orders to win. but he did say he was "happy for the team" and when asked about the possibility of him doing a one stop he said "i had my own strategy" but he also said that the team getting a 1-2 was amazing heading into the break and offered a "huge congrats to the team" in true lewis style

he was also to hilariously bitchy in some of the other interviews, saying things like "i was trying to get close obviously but george did a great job going long on the tires. every stint i had tires left but the team pulled me in so....unfortunate but it is one of those days" and "i mean, george wasn't really in my race, for most of it and so if the strategy had been done right he wouldn't have been in my race and we wouldn't be having that but it's great" and "yeah... it is what it is, it's done. i'm moving forward, i'm going into my break, i'm gonna have a great time." and that he did. he left the paddock almost immediately after he was done with interviews and hopped on a flight.

george posted this instagram post immediately post race:

and in entirely unrelated new sebastian vettel entered a 150km bike race (and came in 44th) under the name sebastian sprater (his wife's last name)

and leo learned how to swim

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Leo Leclerc Saint-Mleux (@leo_leclercc)

instagram

and max and daniel left the track together in a helicopter

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Max Verstappen (@maxverstappen1)

instagram

and i think that just about does it. relatively chill race weekend tbh, considering that this is formula 1. so the next race weekend is a month from now on august 23-25 in zandvoort, the dutch grand prix. in the meantime, factories are getting shut down for summer break after a few testing things happening next week so thats that everyone, congrats on making it this far on the update post and ill see you in about a month, enjoy your-

wait a minute.

what's that?

george's car is taking a long time at the weighing station?

well surely that means nothing, sometimes that happens, its probably not anything-

oh.

oh i see.

thats probably not great? surely they wouldn't-

oh!

well then!

yes, so, turns out george russell's car was underweight. as i talked about up top, the car and the driver must combined weigh at least 798 kilos. george's car came up a kilo and a half short (about 3.3 pounds).

and you might be wondering Oh Why Did They DSQ Him??? Why Not Fine The Team???? well lets remember back to austin last year when both lewis and charles were DSQ'd for having like .001 more millimeters of wear on their floor than they were supposed to. the rules exist for a reason and you dont want to be caught getting around them

(also considering that merc didnt drain the fuel entirely they probably knew that the car wasn't legal)

they weighed the tires new and used to see if that was the difference and it seemed to be. mercedes officially blamed it on their error and cited the lack of a cool down lap in spa (because its long) so the cars can't collect marbles (bits of rubber) onto the tires to up their weight before weighing. mercedes also said that george did not get a weight advantage from this. but 1.5 kg is a lot. remember all that stuff nico did (like strip the paint off his helmet to loose only like 80 grams to go .002 faster) to beat lewis? surely weight must be involved somewhere.

this is also now three races in a row that they've screwed over george. in silverstone he retired due to water pump problems, in hungary they didnt fuel him enough for qualifying and now his car is under weight. here was their official statement:

george was obviously disappointed, naturally. his best f1 victory had just been snatched from him and given to his teammate through no fault of his own. he posted this

(peep the three red hearts from alex albon?)

so since george was DSQ'd that meant that

a record breaking 105th win for lewis! now he was the only driver to have more than one win in the season besides max! but remember, he instantly hopped on a flight so he didnt know this was happening.

this meant that oscar got bumped to p2

and charles got bumped to p3.

charles actually refused to leave until it was announced. and after receiving the news he said:

"yeah of course, obviously you never want to do a podium with a disqualification of one of your colleagues. they have done an incredible job today and it’s not the difference of the weight that made him win. they won because they were the stronger team today. however in these type of things, it’s difficult to do an exception and it’s understandable that they got disqualified but it’s unfortunate because he has done an incredible job as well as mercedes. but it’s part of racing."

it was funny tho Charles inherited pole and then also inherited a race in.

lewis said something similar on his instagram story

and damon hill, the 1996 world champion, even said:

and i think that just about does it.

so heading into the summer break we have the constructors championship standings:

red bull: 408 mclaren: 366 ferrari: 345 mercedes: 266 aston: 73 vcarb: 34 haas: 27 alpine: 11 williams: 4 stake: 0

the drivers championship standings:

max: 277 lando: 199 charles: 177 oscar: 167 carlos: 162 lewis: 150 checo: 131 russell: 116 fernando: 49 lance: 24 nico: 22 yuki: 22 daniel: 12 ollie: 6 pierre: 6 kevin: 5 esteban: 5 alex: 4 guanyu: 0 logan: 0 vaktteri: 0

the the following seats still open:

vcarb williams mercedes stake/audi alpine and perhaps the elusive red bull seat.

and so, provided nothing terribly earth shattering happens before then, i will see you all in a month for zandvoort :)

Sorry i tried to scroll past but, i know nothing about f1 other than max verstappen is fast, my dad doesnt like lewis hamilton, fast car goes in a loop and sometimes expodes. Could you give me a crash course in f1 drama? Im very intrigued. Whats the tea as it were?

a terribly loaded question, but i will do my best. i’ve talked about some of the drama before like the red bull second seat and the chronicles of haas but allow me to briefly try my hand at explaining the nightmare that is the upcoming silly season

under the cut we go

silly season is when the drivers go through contract renewals, extensions and switches. usually it’s confined to the first half of the season (march-july) but it has been known to extend all the way to the last race of the season and they like to switch people around at random sometimes. driver contracts are complex, there’s a lot of money involved and basically You Are The Face Of The Team so if you have a shit season then you make the team look bad. but at the same time you could have a shit season because you have a shit car. it’s sticky stuff.

so. there are only twenty seats in formula 1. 10 teams. each team gets two drivers. (there’s also reserve drivers but we’re not going to get into that). who ends up with a contract is largely up to the teams, they can pull the contract out from under people they can also cut you mid season. they’ve done it before.

of the 20 drivers on the grid, 14 of them have contracts expiring at the end of the year. yes. 14. you see how this could get complicated.

so let’s meet the teams.

red bull racing. they came first this year (and last year) in the championship. like aggressively first. like they won the championship by over 350 points. they are definitely the team to beat. but if you end up with a seat at red bull, you do have to deal with max verstappen being your teammate and he won all but three of the races last year. he’s the golden boy. red bull are also notoriously silly when it comes to contracts and famously swap people mid season who aren’t performing.

mercedes. merc is home to 7 time world champion lewis hamilton and they have won the championship a great many times, though not since 2021. they are kind of in their flop arc and their car the last 2 years has been pretty garbage, but they have still made it work because they were able to come in second last year.

ferrari. god help the poor little meow meows with a ferrari contract. ferrari is a notoriously great team and they’re trying to get back to the top again but their strategy every single time has fallen short. to the point where their drivers are the ones doing the strategy in their cars while driving. they came in third last year and have been decently consistent at getting first in qualifying and then getting beat by max verstappen on race day.

mclaren. they’ve definitely worked their way up over recent years. they ended fourth last year and have had some championship wins before but not nearly as many as say merc and ferrari. their team ceo (owner? director?) is a little interesting and their car started out a pile of flaming hot garbage at the beginning of the year but they did manage to get their shit together.

aston martin. they are owned by canadian billionaire lawrence stroll, father of lance stroll (one of the drivers for the team). they’ve undergone several name changes over the recent years (force india, racing point, etc). they positively slayed at the start of the season and then one day they sucked. they finished fifth in the championship.

alpine. the frenchest french team. they’re (i think?) still partially owned by the french government. both of their drivers are french. (their drivers also hate eachother but we’ll get to that. just know they’re in the middle of a modern french civil war). they had the opportunity to have a good rookie driver (oscar piastri) this past year but in a thrilling twitter battle, he publically flamed the shit out of them and went to mclaren instead (and slayed). they're usually solidly middle of the pack. they ended sixth in the championship.

williams. williams has been one of the back of the grid teams for the last many years but they have finally started to get their shit together and don’t quite suck as much as they used to. all of the points this year were scored by only one driver though (except one but we’ll get there). they came in seventh.

alpha tauri. they are the sister team of red bull. so technically redbull owns both teams (meaning they can swap drivers between teams. they like doing this.) they’ve just kind of been There for awhile but they did slay towards the end of the season when one of their drivers led the race for several laps. basically tho, this team is the gateway to redbull. they came in eighth.

alpha romeo. recently renamed to stake f1 team (but sometimes they are going to be called kick sauber. this is a whole other drama post and i’m not getting into it). they’re also just kind of there. generally unproblematic. seems that really great drivers who get ixed out of a contract for a younger driver end up here or young drivers who are in their early years are here before they go to a better team. they ended ninth this year.

haas. oh haas. goofy team. they suck. point blank they suck. they keep loosing sponsors because they suck, they don’t win ever (one time they came first in qualifying last year). they cursed themselves in australia in 2018 by not tightening their tires and its been downhill ever since. they came 10th. their team principle got let go (fired?) who’s to say today.

so those are the teams. it is important to note that:

-there is a cost cap. each team is allowed to spend no more than 135m per year.

-not all cars are equal. some things are standard. they all undergo the same testing. but the cars are all very different. so you can be a good driver but stuck in a shitty car. which makes it impressive if you are doing well in a shitty car.

let’s meet our drivers!!!

starting with the guys who’s contract is not ending in 2024:

max verstappen. 3 time world champion. 26 years old. general beast on the track. he dominated the whole season. he’s currently racing for red bull and has a contract with them through 2028.

lewis hamilton. 7 time world champion. 39 years old. he drives for mercedes. he will not leave mercedes until he retires. he really really wants to win an 8th world championship and is willing to stick it out a few more years as long as merc still believes in him. his contract expires in 2025.

george russell. the other merc driver. 26 years old. hes aggressively british and says thinks like blimey unironically. walking meme. got his merc seat in 2022 right when they entered their flop arc by getting his tractor of a williams to finish second in qualifying in the middle of a rainstorm. his contract expires in 2025.

lando norris. mclaren driver. 24 years old. he has notably never won a race in his five years of formula one (mostly because right when his car finally was good enough max verstappen was 20 seconds ahead of anyone) but he is regarded as Very Good. he has only ever driven for mclaren. and even though there is another year left on his contract there is mass speculation that he will not renew his contract with mclaren after it expires and he may move up to one of the top teams (red bull, merc, ferrari) (tho i think he doesnt hate himself quite enough to go to ferrari). his contract expires in 2025.

oscar piastri. the other mclaren driver. 22 years old. this was his rookie season and he positively slayed. like people compared his rookie season to lewis hamiltons rookie season. he also had the positively funniest start to his rookie year because alpine announced that he would be driving for them (he had been their reserve driver and in the alpine academy) and he posted a tweet that basically said yeah thats false i never singed anything with you and im going to race with mclaren instead (he dodged a bullet) and then alpine tried and failed to sue him for $4m USD. he signed a contract extension with mclaren this year and his contract expires in 2026.

lance stroll. aston martin driver and son of the aston martin owner. hes doing ok, tho there was conspiracy that he wanted to quit and have a tennis career awhile ago. but basically since his dad owns the team it seems that hes guaranteed a seat for as long as he wants one.

so now. moving onto the good shit. the people who have contracts expiring in 2024. hold onto your hats people.

charles leclerc. (everyones favorite slutty little soup can). 26 years old. he is currently at ferrari and he has been since 2019. notably, he was given the longest contract in the history of ferrari after a stellar rookie season at sauber (renamed to alpha romeo, renamed to stake f1) where he got the tractor of a car consistently into the points. having the longest contract in the history of ferrari was a flex at the time, but now its likely how he will introduce himself at therapy sessions. ferrari have fucked this man left right and center up the ass with a plastic lunchroom spork. hes talented, he can drive, and he can drive well. but the strategy that ferrari has absolutely sucks. either something is wrong with the car (see him blowing out his gear box on the formation lap in monaco, his car completely crapping out and spinning into the barrier in brazil before the race even started) or they fuck up his pit stops or put him on the wrong tires and honestly its just frustrating. but will he leave??? likely not. you'd have to pry ferrari out of his cold dead hands and at this rate that might be where this is headed though there has been some minor speculation of him going to another team like merc or red bull, but merc doesnt have any open seats and red bull is a whole other dumpster fire of drama. ferrari are going to have to pay him a boatload of money to make him stay.

carlos sainz. the smooth operator. 29 years old. ferrari driver. previously carlos was at toro rosso (renamed to alpha tauri), renault (renamed to alpine), and mclaren before signing with ferrari. he has been at ferrari since 2021 and has voiced that he would like to stay with them for however long he can. there is speculation that lando might replace him at ferrari (but landos contract is not up until 2025) and there is also some speculation that alex albon might replace him. while charles is clearly the golden boy at ferrari, carlos is slightly slower but also definitely consistent. he was THE ONLY non red bull driver to win a race this past year, in Singapore after max verstappedn was knocked out of qualifying by alpha tauri reserve driver liam lawson (more on him later) and because he basically came up with his own strategy in the car while he was driving.

sergio perez. aka checo. red bull driver. 33 years old. and oh boy here's where we open the can of worms. checo was previously at racing point (renamed aston martin) and it was very near the end of the 2020 (?) season and he was out of a contract. he had a bonkers race where he was knocked to the back of the grid and then overtook everyone and somehow ended up winning (there is more to that story but just trust me) and christian horner, red bull team principle, mr ginger spice and definite disney villain called him and said congrats sir you have a seat at red bull! well. fast forward. hes been causing problems. problems as in crashing a lot, generally not doing great and pissing the crap out of red bull. it is basically guaranteed at this point that he will not be getting a contract extension. there was actually talk this year of him losing his seat mid season to one of the alpha tauri drivers, because remember, red bull owns both teams and they can switch them whenever they want to (and they have!) but ultimately this did not happen. even though checo has a seat at red bull until the end of 2024, its mass speculated that he is going to get switched with an alpha tauri driver, probably daniel ricciardo (more on him shortly) mid season because there is a speculated clause in daniels contract that says that if checo isn't performing well in the first few races daniel is getting his seat.

daniel ricciardo. 34 years old. alpha tauri driver. man oh man what a guy. outside of being the prankster of the paddock, he has one of the most batshit careers of anyone currently on the grid. he started out at red bull and was showing real talent and skill and was on track to win things (and was!) and was there until the end of 2018 when max verstappen (his teammate) started getting preferential treatment and also red bull started having a lot of problems with their engines (which were being outsourced from Renault (now alpine) and another team on the grid) and well very very long story short he made the surprise move of the century and decided to sign with Renault (which makes no sense they're the one with the engine problems) and was there for 2 years before moving again to mclaren where he was reportedly not treated very well and had a hard time driving the car so they mutually ended his contract with them early and he basically retired at the end of the 2022 season and became a red bull reserve driver. then halfway through the 2023 season alpha tauri ixed one of their drivers, nyck de vries, because he wasnt doing well and promoted daniel back up to a full time driver at alpha tauri (which we know is only a step down from red bull) but then he broke his hand in a crash in zanvort (?) and then he was replaced for a few races by formula 2 driver liam lawson (who we will also talk about) and then he came back to finish out the season in alpha tauri after he was cleared. daniel has admitted openly that he never should have left red bull and he was given bad advice to do so. hes towards the end of his career at this point and its well known that he Really Really wants to finish out his career at red bull again. he and max have already been teammates before and they do work well together and daniel is great driver (see his comeback in texas (or maybe it was brazil?) this year). so. Pretty Sure that daniels going to get either an extension at alpha tauri or go up to red bull. thats what we all want. get this man in a red bull we need him there biblically.

liam lawson. now technically liam is not actually a formula 1 driver. hes a formula 2 driver, but he was daniels replacement for five races and there has been some speculation and some confirmed news about him so hes getting included. when he was racing for f1 he was at alpha tauri. hes 21 and looks like he belongs in the movie grease. no one was expecting him to slay in formula 1 and he positively knocked everyones socks off. the scene: Singapore. which, if you'll recall, is the one race that a not red bull driver won. this was largely because liam lawson slayed the absolute game in qualifying. the qualifying part of racing determines what order the cars start in on the grid for the race and theres three parts, the first two parts the bottom 5 drivers each time get knocked out and then the top 10 complete for the last 10 spots. liam lawson knocked BOTH max verstappen and checo perez out of qualifying in the second round by going very slightly faster than them, effectively fucking up red bulls race and allowing carlos to win. and he also scored points in that race, which no one was expecting. now thats all fine and dandy, but here's the speculation: hemlut marko (im pretty sure) (who is somehow decently involved in the decision making at red bull though i couldn't tell you how) said that he thinks that liam lawson will be in an f1 seat no later than 2025. meaning that he will probably get offered a contract this year. and hes already raced for alpha tauri. red bull have sunk a good amount of money into him. they clearly want him. so if he gets offered an alpha tauri seat in 2025, that means theres a good chance danny rics is going to red bull. do you SEE how the plot here is THICKENED

yuki tsunoda. age 23. currently at alpha tauri. and fun fact, the only alpha tauri driver to race there the whole year. he had three separate team mates. he is slaying and hes often slept on. he has a bit of a temper and likes to shout on the radio and also hates working out (they had to force him to move to italy or something to work out, long story) but hes been kinda killing it. he led several laps in the abu dhabi race this year and hes decently consistent. people think theres possibility that he could get moved up to red bull on account of the fact that he is younger than daniel and clearly has more years in him,, but there is also possibility that he might not because red bull like to make stupid decisions. and if he doesnt get moved up to rebel, will he stay with alpha tauri? we don't know.

alex albon. age 27. currently a williams driver. alex albon is another one with a batshit career. he started out his rookie year in 2019 at alpha tauri then got moved up to red bull halfway through the year when red bull decided that pierre gasley wasnt doing a good enough job (more on him later) and stayed with red bull for a solid year and a half until he lost his seat in 2021 to checo. he has been with williams for the last two years and is basically carrying the team. like. williams as a team scored 28 points this year. and alex albon scored 27 of those 28 points. and as we know, williams is still kind of in their shit arc (though they are doing much better. they didnt score any points for a solid 2 (?) years. so this is an improvement.) and if you can get a shit car to perform you catch the eye of bigger teams. now, alex has already been a red bull driver. and he was on the cusp of podiuming two separate times when lewis hamilton ran into him. this (among a few other things) basically killed his chances at getting resigned at red bull because he wasnt ""performing"" and red bull are bitches who love to win. but some people think that red bull should give him another shot. like daniel, hes already been max's teammate and he can definitely drive. but theres also talk he might go to ferrari because ferrari think that he might compliment charles's driving style (or something). but going to ferrari at this point is kind of suicide. so.

logan sergeant. age 23. the only american on the grid. the other williams driver. he just finished his rookie year. he scored a grand total of one single point this season, in texas, and it was because charles leclerc and lewis hamilton both got disqualified because the floor of their car had more wear (by literally less than millimeters) than it was allowed to, bumping him up from 12th to 10th. he has never done better than alex albon. he was also the very last driver to get a contract for 2024, with williams waiting until i think december of 2023 to announce his contract extension. clearly, hes on thin ice. but people have also said that he needs time to get used to formula 1 (other people have pointed out that oscar piastri slayed his rookie season this year and this statement about needing time is largely false). where logan ends up next year though will largely depend on how well the 2024 season goes for him.

fernando alonso. 42 years old. many people like to point out that oscar piastri is actually younger than fernando's racing career. he won tiktok creator of the year (somehow) and is also a 2 time world champion. he retired a few years ago, just to show back up again and slay. during the first half of the season when aston martin had a zoom zoom car he killed it, and then they had problems on top of problems and he didnt do well. except for that one race in brazil where he came in third, beating checo by literally .05 seconds. he hasn't really made any hints about retiring a second time and he is kind of carrying aston Martin right now (he scored 205 points this season, coming in 4th and tying in points with charles leclerc, lance stroll only scored 74 points this year.) and they did have their best year yet this year. (though they are relatively new).

pierre gasley. 27 years old. french. drives for alpine. the french team. previously he raced with toro rosso (now alpha tauri), then got promoted to a red bull driver in 2019, then halfway through the season they decided he wasnt doing a good enough job and he got demoted back down to alpha tauri. then he won a race with alpha tauri just to stick it to red bull. after the great oscar piastri contract twitter war, he was signed as alpines second driver, with Esteban ocon being the other driver (more on him soon). estie bestie and pierre (both french) were childhood friends and now hate each other for unknown reasons and basically feuded on the track for most of the season. french civil war at alpine. he scored 62 points in 2023 and came in 11th. not really sure where he will end up, it is possible that he will stick it out at alpine.

esteban ocon. 27 years old. also french. currently driving for alpine. another one with a silly bonkers career. he started out at force india and had a baller few seasons there but his teammate at the time was checo, and checo didnt really cooperate with him too much and caused some drama that cost estie bestie some places and some points. max verstappen also beat him up in the garage once. thats not really relevant but it did happen. anyway, after the owner of force india was arrested for .... i don't remember what maybe it was embezzlement or bankruptcy or something money related, the team was backed by lawrence stroll and became racing point. but all of that happened mid season and lawrence was basically like look ill back you guys for now but next year my son gets a seat (lance) so one of you two (checo and estie bestie) have to go. and ultimately they let estie bestie go even though he was more consistent because checo had more sponsors and they needed money. so he was out of formula 1 for a few years (but was a merc reserve driver) and then went to Renault, which then became alpine. he did come in 12th though overall this season, just behind pierre. so. will alpine keep both him and pierre and keep the civil war going? whos to say.

nico hulkenberg. 36 years old. haas driver. in his 200+ f1 races he has never been on the podium and he really really wants to be on the podium. unfortunately this will never happen in a haas because haas fucking sucks. and everyone knows it. he is getting towards the end of his career though. though! stake f1 will become the mario Andretti and audi team in 2026 (don't question it) and they have supposedly voiced interest in nico. so we will see if he hangs on that long to end up at audi. for now tough, hes definitely hating it at haas. though, haas are going to have a different team principle next year so maybe that will change things. i have a sneaky feeling through that haas will probably end up with another 2 rookie drivers because everyone else is smart enough to not race for them.

kevin magnussen. 31 years old. haas driver. hes another deeply interesting character. he has had one podium. in his rookie season. in his first race. and none since. kevin started at haas in 2017 and then left at then end of 2020 when he basically got kicked off because the team needed money and they wanted to bring in drivers with more sponsorships. these drivers were mick schumacher and nikita mazepin. so kevin basically was forced to retire after the 2020 season. this went decently well for haas. until russia invaded ukraine right before the start of the 2022 season and, well, nikita was Russian and it was never distinctly proven that his dads company (who was sponsoring the team) wasnt also funding the invasion. so nikita got fired and they were literally like 2 weeks out from the start of the season, down a driver. who are you gonna call? kevin magnussen! and hes been back ever since. but hes clearly getting annoyed with haas. there was one great clip from this year where his car caught on fire and he kind of just stared into to, clearly hoping it would burn for a long time. so the likelihood of him extending his contract is looking slim.

valtteri bottas. 34 years old. currently a driver for stake f1 (alpha romeo, kick sauber, whatever you wanna call it). previously, he was a mercedes driver and notoriously helped lewis hamilton win a great many championships, until he lost his seat to george russell in 2022. there was a rather awkward part of the 2021 season where valtteri knew that he was out of a merc seat the following year and kind of just chose violence. he slayed. then he went to alpha romeo, grew a mullet and made a calendar of his ass. quite the glow up if you ask me. hes also very interested in cycling. honestly though, i have my own personal speculation that hes going to retire at the end of this year.

zhou guanyu. 24 years old. driver for stake f1 (alpha romeo/kick sauber, etc etc). hes doing alright. he just finished his second season, in his first season he was majorly out qualified by valtteri but this past season he managed to out qualify him a good 6 times. which is decently good for the tractor of a car hes driving. its possible that he could get a contract extension, but like logan, its probably going to depend on how the 2024 season goes for him.

and thats all the drivers. theres also a few others i didnt talk about, like some other f2 drivers who want seats and mick schumacher, who is currently a merc reserve driver, all of which could be contenders for f1 seats. but one things for sure. this is going to be the silliest fucking silly season.

feel free to add on and peer review me

#not a tag #from saph #written while the power was out actually #strange expense #f1 #saph explains silly season 2024 #formula 1 #belgian grand prix #Instagram

3K notes · View notes

smol-and-grumpy · 3 years ago

Text

You Are The Reason - 01

Pairing: Ex hockey player Dean x Figure skater Reader

Summary: Y/N needs an ice dancing partner if she wants to make it to the Olympics in time. Dean’s a fallen hockey star who’s in dire need of something good in his life. When their worlds collide, will it work in their favor? Or… the Olympics AU nobody asked for

Warnings: Meet-cute, enemies to something more?

WC: 1,891

Beta: @deanwanddamons

Read this series and many more ahead on Patreon!

If you like what I’m writing, please consider leaving me a tip to keep me energized.

Series Masterlist ~ SPN Masterlist

Present Day

Dean is sitting in the stands, way in the back and high up enough so that nobody will notice him, as he watches his former team run their practice. They have just switched from suicides to warming up their goalie.

Every now and again, he takes out his flask, downing a swig, closing his eyes while the burn travels down his throat. He enjoys it more than he should.

Dean has nowhere else to be, lest anywhere else to go since he has to clean the ice after. He could technically dip down the road to the bar but that’s not going to end well and he’d be neglecting his newly appointed duty. So, he sits there until practice ends. Sits there until his flask is empty as the last of his team skates off the ice and disappears into their changing room.

He waits a good ten minutes to be on the safe side before making his way down through the seats on shaky legs. After his accident, his contract hasn’t been renewed, which isn’t surprising. It’s a sure thing he knew was going to happen, but still, it was completely different to actually hearing it from his boss’s mouth rather than from his agent. They did pay for his rehab and the remaining time on the contract will stand as it is, which is something his agent managed to negotiate, but he’s out of the team and they offered him to drive the fucking Zamboni to fight against his boredom.

A freaking Zamboni! Fucking hell.

Never in Dean’s life had he thought that he would one day become a Zamboni driver.

His agent had tried to get attention from other teams for him, but apparently, it wasn’t meant to be. He is too old and his injury may never bring him back to his full potential. Nobody wants to gamble with a player these days. Dean gets it, he really does — but it hurts nonetheless. His dream to at least make it to one more Olympics before his career ended burst into flames when that Trenton fucker mowed him down.

He still doesn’t know what he’ll do after the season is over — and by proxy his contract will run out. Maybe he’ll go back to his hometown, teach kids how to play hockey. But no matter where he goes, he’ll always be stared at with pity filled eyes, and Dean seriously has a problem accepting that.

Looking at his watch, he notices that he maybe had waited too long, so now he’s sprinting to his Zamboni and starts to clean the ice for the ice skating practice that will start in only ten minutes. He can do it. He’s always up for a challenge. Normally, he needs about fifteen minutes to clean the ice properly, but he’s ready to beat that record.

The job is mundane, downright boring. Driving around in circles on a giant sweeping machine is definitely not something Dean signed up for when he signed his professional contract almost a decade ago. But at least it distracts him from his apartment, which seems to be too empty after Amara left him.

He had barely gotten out of the hospital when she left. Not that they had anything lasting, or that he was into her that much to begin with, but Dean clearly never made good choices when it came to women. Amara probably knew that he was useless to her when injured, seized the opportunity, and bailed. All he knows is that she married a professional football player a month after she left him and is now pregnant and already divorcing him. Apparently, she milked him for what he was worth too, so a bullet dodged there, right?

But yeah, the days seem to get lonelier and there are only so many long walks he can take or bars he can frequent to get drunk at, until someone winds up talking to him and sending him pitiful glares. He just— he can’t bear to see the look in people’s eyes anymore. Moving away would be an option but he can only do that once his contract runs out.

When he’s driving his last circle, some eager figure skaters are already waiting behind the boards. Dean ignores them, driving his Zamboni to the garage and finishing his task of unloading the snowy mass the machine accumulated.

He’s going to refill his flask in the locker room before he takes a seat in the stands again, waiting for practice to be over so he can fit in some of his own training before he has to clean the ice for the night.

“Good job, everyone!” The coach claps her hands as skaters hurry off the ice. “Have a good night and I’ll see you tomorrow bright and early.”

That’s Dean’s cue to go down and get his own skates on. He finishes lacing his shoes and bends his knees, testing the feel on his feet. He comes alive as soon as he puts them on, the feeling unreal. Straightening up, he makes his way to the ice.

However, when he’s about to jump over the board, he spots someone’s still on the rink. The girl is wearing black leggings and a black tight turtleneck, with her hair up in a bun as she draws figures on the ice with her blades, clearly lost in her attempt to nail the series of twizzles she’s going for.

He gets on the ice nonetheless, skates closer to her, and because he’s a dick, he calls out, “Hey, your practice time is done. It’s my time now.”

She stops in her tracks to cast him a glare. Her eyebrows knit together when she says, defiant, “Is it? I didn’t see your name on the rink time schedule.”

Dean snorts. “You don’t even know my name.”

“I don’t need to know it to know that it’s not your ice time.”

Well, fair enough.

“Wanna race for it?” He asks, voice brimming with cockiness. His arm was injured, not his legs. Dean can skate fast as fuck. He still has it in him.

The girl eyes him suspiciously, her gaze taking in his form of sweatpants and sweatshirt with his former team’s logo on them. “Sure, why not?”

“Winner gets to decide who has ice time.”

“Or we can act like adults and divide the rink?”

Technically, they could. She’s right. But Dean really loves challenges and he’s not giving up so easily. Also, he’s sometimes still a petulant child.

He chuckles as he skates over to the line, his hands spreading out when he shrugs, “Where’s the fun in that, princess?”

“I have a name.”

“Not when I have a say in it.”

“Y/N.”

“Huh?”

“My name. It’s not princess.”

He grins, “Whatever you say, your highness.”

She’s quick too, appearing next to him in a second, bringing a whiff of her perfume — or maybe it’s her shampoo — with her and Dean’s strangely drawn to it. It smells like apples and reminds me of his childhood at home. It makes him warm and fuzzy. He doesn’t think it’s her, per se, he just hasn’t got laid in a very long time. Yeah, that must be it.

Deciding to ignore him, she says, “So, whoever reaches the line first wins?”

“That’s too easy, isn’t it? Where’s the fun in that?”

There’s the frown again, “Does everything have to be fun with you?”

“Life’s dire enough, we should at least enjoy the ride, right? Come on, get that stick out of your ass, princess.”

“There’s no st— Fine!” She grumbles, folding her arms over her chest. It does make her boobs look good in that turtle neck, he can’t ignore that. “What do you want to do?”

Dean licks his lips before he stares at the expanse of ice before them. “Suicide drill. Whoever finishes first wins.”

He’s expecting her to gasp, to say that she can’t do it but he isn’t expecting that smile that looks about as cocky as the one he normally uses.

“Okay, try to keep up, loser.”

Before Dean can even say that they should set, she’s already off.

That little fucking cheat!

He bolts forward, determined to get her by the third line. He’s panting hard, and she’s so close that her blades get tangled with his skate. Before Dean can say that she should watch the fuck out, they collide, tumble together, and land on the ice, ungracefully.

Dean’s lying there, staring up at the ceiling, the cold ice seeping through his hoodie. He still has trouble wrapping his mind around what happened when she starts to laugh next to him.

“Fuck.” He thinks he has hurt the elbow of his good arm, but it’s not grave, “You okay?”

Y/N’s still laughing when Dean sits up. He can’t help but join her. The exercise brought adrenaline to his bloodstream, released endorphins in the process, causing him to feel light-headed. Holding out a hand for her to take they somehow manage to stand up while they both are still laughing. It’s the most he’s laughed since— Jesus, since forever.

“So, what do you say, princess? Split the rink?” He asks once he catches his breath. His eyes take in her flushed face, her returning smile bright, the white of her teeth showing. It gets his heart doing something, which is new. He doesn’t think he’s felt anything like it lately.

“You got yourself a deal.”

They skate together to center ice, and Dean can sense that she’s already back in her own little headspace.

“What is it that makes you train so hard?” He asks carefully.

“The regionals will be in a couple of months. My partner quit on me and we’re going to look out for another but until then, I need to be on top of my game,” she explains, and then she glances over at him. “And you?” She asks, and adds with lifted eyebrows, “What’s your deal?”

Dean ducks his head, shaking it slightly. “You don’t recognize me, do you?”

Folding her arms over her chest, she looks intensely at him, as if she is trying to work out who he is. But then she shakes her head no before a smile appears, “You don’t know me either, so…”

He laughs at the bluntness. “Fair enough. I’m Dean.” He doesn’t elaborate but skates over to where he left his things. He climbs over the board, retrieving his stick and puck before jumping back on the ice. She watches him as he starts to do his rounds, warming himself up thoroughly. “C’mon princess, we have an hour until I have to clean and close the rink.”

That seems to startle her back to reality. Y/N ducks her head, skating to the other end of the rink and they both carry on doing their own thing for the next hour.

Every now and then, Dean catches himself watching her, mesmerized by the grace she possesses, how she seems to fly over the smooth surface. He doesn’t even know he is staring until she calls him out on it. “C’mon, Dean, less staring, more practicing!”

He didn't know that this was the start of a new friendship because for the next fortnight, for three nights a week, they would meet and skate together.

Please share your thoughts with me, I’d love to hear your feedback.

#you are the reason #dean winchester #dean winchester x reader #dean winchester x you #dean winchester fic #dean winchester fan fic #dean winchester fan fiction #nathalie writes

191 notes · View notes

csykora · 2 years ago

Text

Today, as people who don't work in professional hockey, we pretty much all accept the fact that repeated concussions can cause chronic and severe changes in a person's physical, mental, and behavioral health.

But while medical research absolutely has shown that to be true, the research on TBI and CTE in hockey is still in a desperate state.

At last count I'm aware of, the number of former NHL players whose brains have been studied was still in single digits. The number of hockey players at any level who have been studied has barely cracked twenty.

In comparison to the number of American football players who have been studied--and who in many cases fought their hearts out to be studied and to make this a fact most of us now just accept--that's really tiny. Sure, there are differences in the size of the sports, but it's not proportional.

Sample sizes like that matter. Right now, NHL leadership can get away with saying that CTE is not a problem in hockey because technically the current evidence supports them.

Of those who have been studied, the diagnosis rate of CTE has been high. In one study from BU's CTE Center, six out of the six NHLers studied had it, and nine out of the sixteen total hockey players.

The obvious shadow on these results is that retired players athletes who had already shown symptoms before their deaths are much more likely to donate their brains to be studied. And if we accepted that only a single-digit number of retired NHL players, most of them widely-known as goons who played in an era of punch-happy hockey that's already over, out of the thousands of people who have ever played in the NHL, experienced symptoms and sought to be studied and were diagnosed, well, that proves it isn't a common problem!

As people who don't work in professional hockey, we don't accept that, because it's pretty fucking likely that there are a lot more hockey players with CTE out there who just haven't been studied. But right now, the NHL can still easily say that (and the AHL, and many junior leagues, will follow).

These sample sizes also limit the data we can look at when we think about questions like which parts of hockey are the most risky. (It's easy to assume that fighting is the most "dangerous", but a majority of documented concussions are caused by other less obvious factors.) If we're only looking back at the careers of a couple guys from a different era--when standards of both play and record-keeping of injuries were different--how can we figure out what happened and what we need to change?

Every hockey player who's willing and able to help with this research is answering a desperate need. Players like Ben Lovejoy, the first to make the pledge during his NHL career, and most recently JT Brown soon after his retirement, are not just adding to the numbers for future research but bringing this issue forward in a way that it still has not been in hockey.

Jonathan Huberdeau is an unarguable skill player: he's not a fighter or even a particularly heavy hitter: no hockey fan hearing his name, even if they don't know much more about him, would write him up as a goon. Every athlete matters, it fucking sucks that we don't care more about hockey goons and heavy-hitting football players, but the point is that if those are the only people we've studied it's easy for the leagues to blame them for their injuries, and makes it harder for us to say if that style of play really is the issue.

He might not be the face of the NHL, but he's the face of it this summer! He's coming off a hyped season followed by an even hotter offseason. Only Matthew Tkachuk is hotter in hockey media right now. That offseason means he's now in Calgary, so he's bringing attention to TBI specifically in Western Canada. (The fact this is phrased as "in solidarity with soldiers" is very silly, but also seems like a 100% calculated move to get the stereotypical Western Canadian on board).

This is big.

Thank you, Jo.

#jonathan huberdeau #calgary flames #florida panthers #nhl #hockey injuries

53 notes · View notes

jungwoniics · 3 years ago

Text

🎊 𝟭𝗦𝗧 𝗘𝗡𝗡𝗜𝗩𝗘𝗥𝗦𝗔𝗥𝗬 🎊

≡;- ꒰ ° 𝗹𝗶𝗮'𝘀 𝘀𝗽𝗲𝗲𝗰𝗵 . ꒱

╰┈➤ hello everyone! so there is 10 days till enhypen’s 1st anniversary so i’m deciding to do a special series to celebrate this very special occasion! ✨

╰┈➤ so basically for this series, i will be posting a drabble/short fic each day for a week leading to 30th Nov.

≡;- ꒰ ° 𝗹𝗶𝗮'𝘀 𝗶𝗻𝗯𝗼𝘅 . ꒱

╰┈➤ series date: 23-30 Nov 2021

╰┈➤ series schedule: can be found below

╰┈➤ taglist status: closed!

≡;- ꒰ ° 𝘀𝗲𝗿𝗶𝗲𝘀 𝘀𝗰𝗵𝗲𝗱𝘂𝗹𝗲 . ꒱

23 Nov: Lee Heeseung

↦ title: His Tutor ↦ genre: fluff, crack/humour ↦ synopsis: All through high school, you were a nobody. Well, technically, you were the nerd the cheerleaders pick on. The football players often asked you to tutor them just so they could get their grades up and be allowed to play. But now you were stepping up as the seniors of the school. And as usual, a football player asks for your help in Math, only this particular football player was Lee Heeseung, aka your crush.

24 Nov: Park Jongseong

↦ title: The Boss’s Girlfriend ↦ genre: angst, fluff, crack/humour ↦ synopsis: Working as a journalist in a big newspaper company, you constantly need worthy stories to research on and write about to prevent getting sacked. That was not a problem for you. In fact, you were one of the best journalists in the company. However, when your boss' girlfriend is hired as another journalist and starts stealing your ideas, things get much tougher.

25 Nov: Sim Jaeyun

↦ title: Can We Cuddle Now? ↦ genre: fluff ↦ synopsis: Your boyfriend, Sim Jaeyun, had been so busy with work the past week that you hadn’t been able to spend much time with him. You understood that it was due to a new project he had, but even the most understanding people need to feel loved at times.

26 Nov: Park Sunghoon

↦ title: We’re Enemies ↦ genre: fluff, crack/humour ↦ synopsis: You and Sunghoon were professional figure skaters. The difference between the two of you was that while you had a life outside of the rink, he didn't. He would spend his time practising in the rink while others went to hang out with their friends. While the two of you were supposedly enemies, you also had feelings for him which made everything much more complicated.

27 Nov: Kim Sunoo

↦ title: Hatred vs Disagreements ↦ genre: angst, fluff ↦ synopsis: You and Sunoo used to be really close friends but you drifted apart when the two of you ended up in different classes and rarely saw one another. After two years, the two of you are in the same class again but there's just something different about him. Life is tough when the person you like disagrees with everything you say.

28 Nov: Yang Jungwon

↦ title: Kitchen Disaster ↦ genre: fluff, crack/humour ↦ synopsis: While Yang Jungwon was just another boy in your class, you had the mindset that all boys were always playing around and never serious which was why you never talked to them. When Jungwon ends up as your partner for cooking class, you find that all your suspicions about boys were true. But there were also things about them that you didn't know about.

29 Nov: Nishimura Riki

↦ title: Second Place ↦ genre: angst, fluff ↦ synopsis: Both you and Riki were a part of a dance crew and also attended the same high school. Despite the two of you being best friends, you were always second to Riki in the dance crew. One day, your Physical Education teacher announces that the class was starting a new module: dance. Desperate to take this as your opportunity to step out of Riki's shadow, you put your friendship at risk.

30 Nov: ENHYPEN

↦ title: Oh, You Have A Boyfriend? ↦ genre: fluff, crack/humour ↦ synopsis: telling them you have a boyfriend, them as your brothers

𝘁𝗵𝗮𝗻𝗸 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴!

46 notes · View notes

shhhlikeme · 4 years ago

Text

Getting Railed By Your Jealous Bf Ushijima After He Meets Your Childhood Ex (Who Wants You Back!)📱📞

———————————

Birthday Event Req By @juminly :

So I was trying to request the following >.<: a NSFW Ushi drabble with f!reader. Ushi being triggered by jealousy or something that happened between f!reader and someone else? I initially wrote a few kinks and you could go ahead with whatever inspires you! [cockwarming, face-sitting, blowjob, mirror sex, bondage, dirty talk or anything else tbh... and soft!dom!ushi]

———————————

A/N: I’m glad we overcame the technical difficulties for you to eventually send this req. hope you like it babes. I still have 2 more reqs from the event that shouldn’t take too long, thanks for being patient!

(NSFW 18+)

———————————

Getting Railed By Your Jealous Bf Ushijima After He Meets Your Childhood Ex (Who Wants You Back!)📱📞

———————————

Sooooooooo

It’s canon that Ushi is a very calm and collected bf

Your friends love him 💕

Your pet loved him 💕

And your family loves him

Or that’s what Ushi always thought...... until tonight.

You and Toshi went to your parents house for an elegant middle aged people dinner party they were throwing with all their friends from the neighborhood

Ushijima wore a suit and everything 💜💜💜 you wore in a beautiful green dress and small heels to match him

CUTIES

The dinner party was great: 🎶 classy , bougie, ratchet extremely classy haha 💎

Until.......

your parent’s best friends’ son—Jeremy—happened to be home too.

Actually , he surprised everyone, crashing the party unexpectedly

And he brought gifts🤨.

Making a huge entrance that had everyone screaming in delight and hugging him, Ushijima couldn’t help but feel a little jealous of the way your family fawned over your childhood friend

Your parents can’t help but gush over Jeremy, because they’ve always wanted you to marry him and move with him to America to study cosmetic surgery

In high school you two dated a little, but then you realized it was all for the benefit of your parents and you agreed to break up but remained distant friends

You were good with that , as you thought it was a mutual decision

But it wasn’t. Jeremy truly had feelings for you and they hadn’t stopped just because he moved away and finished med school

“These are for you, Y/N.” Jeremy smoothly handed you a bouquet of your favourite type of flowers

You hadn’t the heart to tell him your favourite type had changed since high school :S

“And Wakatoshi-san, I didn’t know you would be here. Apologies.” He shook his hand.

Ushijima’s face was hard. “I don’t know why I would not be.....?” He answered with a slight eyebrow raise, squeezing Jeremy’s hand right back.

Hose down that fire Y/N

Anyway, even though your parents like Ushi a lot, it was pretty obvious to you AND your boyfriend that both them + Jeremy’s parents never gave up hope that you two would one day get back together

Not to mention They were as subtle as elephants in a library

They got the fucking photo album, showing everyone including Ushijima pictures of you and Jeremy bathing together as babies and kissing before prom

SMFH!

“Oh, you live in Beverly Hills, now?” Your mom’s eyes sparkled at Jeremy as he showed her pictures of his mansion on his phone. “Y/N looooves that part of Los Angeles, don’t you, honey?”

You noticed Ushijima stiffen. He was thinking about the love of his life, you, living in LA in Jeremy’s ugly mansion and it pissed this Ace off.

You nodded slowly, giving your mom a warning glance. “Sure, when I was 15.”

“Hey Jeremy, your father told me last weekend that you know of bunch of players on the LA Rams?”

Jeremy nodded proudly. “Yes sir. A lot of their wives and mothers are patients of mine, so the starting line up usually sends me Christmas cards with season passes and signed memorabilia so that I up their women on the waiting lists. Whenever you’re in America and you’d like to go see a game, just let me know.”

You rolled your eyes at how loud your father exclaimed in joy. “I keep telling you to call me YF/N!” He clapped. “And that’s a real sport right there. Football, Baseball, Soccer. Everything else is a joke to real men.” Your father finished.

“DAD!” You chastised, stomping your foot under the table.

“What—?”

You glowered are him. “In case you FORGOT.....Ushijima happens to be a professional volleyball player.”

Your dad had clearly forgotten, trying to blubber out an apology. Ushijima interrupted him, putting a hand on yours to settle his furious girlfriend.

“That’s quite alright, sir. I took no offence to it.” Ushi was used to other men not recognizing volleyball as a manly sport—he is very confident so that didn’t bother him. Rather, what stung was the fact that your father had never asked Toshi to call him by his first name before, and you two had been dating for three years.

To your dismay, Yours and Jeremys parents continued to say annoying shit like that all night

Jeremy loved it 🙄

You hated it, and defended your man at any chance you got

Ushijima stayed silent through it all, trying to calm you down actually.

Like I said he’s confident and not easily shaken

He only had had enough when the conversation changed to Jeremy’s explanation of liking his life and his career but it all never seeming good enough because of “the one that got away” and how “she seems happy in a relationship now” but “he would do anything to get her back”

Meanwhile he’s sneaking heartfelt glances at you 🤬🤬🤬🤢

Your mother and father were doting, looking at you and eachother as if to say “come onnnnn Y/N give him another chance”

Ushijima picked up on it all.

At one point during Jeremy’s explanation of ‘the one that got away’ you stuck your finger down your throat to make a gagging noise childishly

YOUR PARENTS WERE NOT HAPPY LMAO

anyway, at the end of the night you said bye to everyone..... and Jeremy asked to speak to you in private on the empty porch

Ushijima watched with a locked jaw by the car, leaning on it so he could stare openly

He was justly heated as he watched the conversation (but couldn’t hear anything) happening on the porch at night

He witnessed Jeremy write down what had to be his number and hold it in front of you for you to take

You hesitated, not sure if you should take it just to avoid causing more waves with both parents or to stomp on his foot

Luckily you didn’t need to do either because Ushijima had silently stormed over in a millisecond, whisking the paper from Jeremy’s hand, staring at his number written on the paper before crumbling it and throwing it over his shoulder.

“She doesn’t need it. Goodnight, Jeremy.”

Ushi grabbed your hand and walked you to the car angry af, you had to jog in your heels to keep up with him

This man was maaad and silent the whole way home, thinking about how everyone seems to be so sure that your ex could have given you a better life

He still held your hand the entire drive though, so clearly he wasn’t mad at you ❤️

He hated that everyone liked this Jeremy better all because he went down the conventional path to success:

Hadn’t Toshi paid for everything? Hadn’t Toshi massaged your feet? Hadn’t Toshi made you extremely happy? Hadn’t they seen how you were treated? Did you believe someone could do better?

Nonsense.

Toshi knew that he was the BEST boy and that no one could dare love you more or treat you better....... and you tended to agree

But Toshi needed to hear you say it.

He needed to feel it, too.

Upon arriving at yours & Toshi’s gorgeous modern home:

Toshi hurriedly closed the door

you hadn’t even fully taken off your heels yet when you felt your boyfriend pressed himself against you from behind, lifting your dress up and rubbing his long hard cock print on your pantied pussy lips as you bent over

You moaned and started to get wet immediately

“Take off the panties.” He ordered.

you did obviously 😭 almost tripped with how fast you did it

Horny bish lol

Your boyfriend then picked you up in his strong arms and walked a few steps into the foyer, placing you so your ass was sitting on the 7th marble stair. He knelt down in between your legs and spread them while you sat on the staircase

He squeezed your ass in his large hands and dove into your pussy with his lips then tongue, immediately skipping the gentle licks... and tongue fucking your entrance into oblivion

His tongue was wet, strong and needy and fuck you choked on your own cries

You threw your head back, already screaming Ushi’s name

“Mmm scream my name just like that. Let everyone hear who you belong to.” He paused tongue fucking you to order.

you shuddered as you felt his warm breath on your clit and Ushi expertly enclosed his mouth around your sopping cunt, French kissing your clit into his mouth and sucking on it like a tiny lollipop

You tugged on his hair and screamed his name louder, feeling your interior walls clench

Once your legs started shaking because you were about to fall over the edge, Ushi picked you up again, making you wrap your legs around his waist

Toshi bent down quickly to empty his pockets which consisted of his keys, wallet, and his phone, placing it where you were just sitting when he was eating you out

Ushiwaka pressed your back against the wall beside the staircase.....

He held your entire body weight with one arm as he leaned in to kiss your neck, using his other hand to unbuckle his belt and kick his pants off

When he was freed & nude, he asked you kindly if you were ready and once you nodded he put one of his feet on the sixth stair, the other on the fifth, then thrusted deep into your soaking heat

He wasted no time in pounding you into the wall, the slight pain of the hard wall and your boyfriend’s hard dick somehow heightening the pleasure factor

Ushijima took both of your wrists in his gigantic hand and locked them above your head as he gave you nice and deep thrusts the way you both like it

“So fucking wet. All because of me, correct? I’m the only one who makes your pussy drip like this.”

Your pussy answered:💧 💧💧💧💧💧💧💧

Your vaginal walls squeezed around his dick and you bit his shoulder because the pleasure disallowed you to speak and Ushi groaned out

“Say. This. Tight. Pussy. Is. Mine.” He grunted as he circled his hips a bit while pounding, his voice grave.

Toshi picked up the pace as your soaking wet walls clenched around him even more from his dirty talk.

“Say. Who. This. Pussy. Belongs. To. Beautiful.”

You were being fucked too well, you couldn’t speak, you could only moan ... like usual

But your boyfriend wasn’t having any of that tonight.

He let go of your captive wrists and held you with both hands again, stepping downstairs and stopping in front of the large mirror in your foyer, turning so that only you could see yourself poking over his large shoulder, along with your boyfriend’s fine juicy ass and back calf muscles 🤤

Ushi grabbed the back of your neck (not enough to hurt) but just enough so that your head was up and you were looking at yourself in the mirror. He began to fuck you again, getting nice and deep in your pussy as he made you bounce on his dick in his arms

“Are you seeing yourself?” He laughed sexily. “Getting dumb-fucked, Princess? Whose dick are you taking, Y/N?” Wakatoshi groaned as your pussy clenched around him even more. He could tell you were about to cum and that he wouldn’t be long after. But he needed to hear you say something first.

“Who is your first choice, Y/N? Who fucks you like this every night? Who’s dick can you never get enough of? Me? Or Him?”

In your stupor, you watched yourself in the mirror: Toshi’s delectable ass flexing as he pushed in and out of you, feeling his strong hand gripping your neck. You weren’t a big talker during sex and bae knew that, but the amazing feeling of this angry jealous sex was too much, his big dick felt too fucking good..... and one particularly hard thrust from him that grazed your g-spot in the besssst way gave you the energy to cry out;

“YOU, TOSH. FUCK THAT JEREMY, HE COULD NEVER FUCK ME LIKE YOU DO. OR TAKE CARE OF ME LIKE YOU DO. I DON’T WANT OR NEED ANYONE ELSE BUT YOU. YOU’RE THE BEST BOY WITH THE BEST DICK. NO ONE CAN EVEN C-COME CLOSE TO YOU. YOU —OH, OH, OH MY GOD, I’M GONNA—“

Wakatoshi let go of your neck, landing soft kisses on your neck while he returned to gripping your ass with both hands now, sliding you up and down his long, hard, soaking wet dick from your juices.

It felt so fucking good 😩

“That’s right princess. I’ve heard enough, baby. I knew it: I just needed to hear you say it. Now cum for me.”

when you did, you made sure to scream out all the praises you always told toshi when you weren’t getting fucked, making him feel like a King, reassuring him that your mind, body, and soul belonged to him and NO ONE else.

Wakatoshi found his release soon after from your pussy but also from your words, shooting his thick cum up inside you for you to take as he caressed your back and whispered how much he loved you in your ear.

Then, as you laid limp in his arms, he left his cock to stay warm inside you and went back to the stairs, fully prepared to go head up and bathe you, then put you to bed.

But as he passed the sixth step, though, Toshi bent down to pick up his keys, wallet and phone that he’d set there.

As you fell asleep on his shoulder, Ushi grinned at his phone screen, pressing send to the voicemail message he’d just recorded.

Whoops 😏 must have accidentally butt-dialed someone before fucking you and left a long message by accident

😕ohno😕

With a photographic memory, it wasn’t difficult for the Ace to remember such a plastic surgeon’s phone number when Ushi saw it on the note.....

And Toshi could explain to you how sorry he was that he’d accidentally dialed it before railing you to sleep on the stairs and in the foyer

But truth be told, your boyfriend’s only real regret would be not being able to see the look on Jeremy’s face when he listened to it on his flight back home.

Bday Event Masterlist

#aone and ushijima birthday event #ushijima smut #wakatoshi smut #ushiwaka x reader #ushiwaka x y/n #ushiwaka x you #haikyuu boys #haikyuu!!#sexy hq boys #haikyuu stories #hq headcanons #haikyu headcannons #haikyuu imagines #hq sexy stories

1K notes · View notes