For the first time since 1906, college football players can now peddle the rights to their name and likeness.
For the first time since 1869, pro baseball is now basically loaded up with 30-second, 20-second, 15-second and 8-second timers, to make the game faster and thus pull in more television viewers, more cash.
And now — drum roll, envision 1929 — the gentlemen's game of professional golf, the PGA Tour, has prostituted itself by turning a permanent trick with LIV Golf, backed by Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund, which is chaired by the bloody Crown Prince, Mohammed bin Salman.
We are to dismiss that U.S. intelligence concluded he murdered the journalist Jamal Khashoggi. We must also dismiss that his Kingdom of Saudi Arabia makes others, too, disappear, houses political prisoners, tortures them, limits free speech, bans free assembly, and was complicit in the 11 September 2001 terrorist attack.
To its victims, PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan had said, "My heart goes out to them." To his players he had asked, "Have you ever had to apologize for being a member of the PGA Tour?" Well, we must dismiss all that as well. Monahan now says, "I recognize that people are going to call me a hypocrite. Anytime I said anything, I said it with the information that" — a curious qualifier — "I had at that moment."
What changed his mind? Call me a cynic, but I suspect it had something to do with the crown prince's sovereign fund offering to pay $250 million in prize money for the inaugural season, $25 million at each of the first seven events, and a guaranteed split of $20 million among players. The once high-bred commissioner of the gentlemen's game is now a fat sow gaudily smeared with deep-red lipstick.
If anyone has any doubts about what a festering, pus-oozing wound the LIV partnership has inflicted on the PGA, just consider that the Orange Blight announced on Truth Social that the deal is "Great news.... A big, beautiful, and glamorous deal for the wonderful world of golf. Congrats to all!!!" Trump is among the 17% of amoral golf fans who have a favorable view of the Saudi LIV, according to the pollster Morning Consult.
FedEx, which heavily sponsors the PGA Tour's season, is so embarrassed by the pimp-arranged partnership, it "didn’t respond to requests for comment," reports The Wall Street Journal. "Marketing partners and suppliers of the PGA Tour ... have [also] largely remained" silent, as is afforded them by Miranda.
The Times' sports columnist, Kurt Streeter, is a bit put out by Comissioner Monahan & Co. having jumped in bed with the crowned gangster: "They said it was about principles, but it was always about money.... Human rights, it turns out, are a bore, and an obstacle. 'Sportswashing,' as it is known, is powerful and effective."
The PGA commissioner understood that if he lounged under the streetlamp long enough, the bloody crown prince would start by sniffing, and then come running. Because to MBS, there ain't nothin' like a whore. Once in the sack, they've both prostituted themselves. And the players, I'm sure, will get over it.