We all have heard stories about or unfortunately endured horrible family gatherings caused by bellicose friends and/or relatives, grudges or new slights, intoxicants, and other things. They make us cringe thinking about them, or not looking forward to them.
However, as a long time NFL fan/writer, I have often wanted to be a fly on the wall for the owners’ meetings. Powerful “titans of industry” (or at least great wealth), all in a room to decide topics big and small about the NFL. Since the league is one of the most ham-handed organizations in sport if not the world, time is probably spent on PR blunders and clean-ups. Most important, to them at least, is how to divvy up the billions of dollars generated by the games.
The owners’ meet next Tuesday in New York, and I wouldn’t want to attend unless anonymously and via Zoom. Already, the owners are angry with the Browns’ owners, Jimmy and Dee Haslam, not for picking up Deshaun Watson – they have and will face the fan backlash; but for signing him to a $240 million with ALL of the money guaranteed. Of course, this leads to every other superstar will be asking for the entire contract guaranteed. In a sport where each play could be a player’s last, only guaranteeing a portion of players contracts is standard practice to place some risk on the player and save the owners’ money.
However, the Haslams won’t be the main pariahs in the room. That spot belongs to Daniel Snyder and has been for a long time. The team has been a failure on the field, 156-212-1 record over Snyder’s 24 years of ownership. No titles, a merry-go-round of head coaches, a continuing search for an elite quarterback. For years, he fought the change of the “Redskins” nickname that almost everyone though was racist and an ugly throwback to an earlier time. If that wasn’t enough, there were allegations of a toxic club culture, sexual harassment, and accounting misdeeds. Snyder has been subpoenaed by Congress, and allowed to testify remotely from his super yacht in Europe. Snyder, who is under investigation by the NFL and Congress, feels as if he’s “backed into a corner” and “he’s behaving like a mad dog cornered.”
Despite all of that, the owners are mostly angry that Snyder’s discretions have bungled any chance of a new stadium, a proposal that once seemed inevitable and is now met with hard resistance by the public and officials in Virginia, Maryland and Washington, D.C. Showing that birds of a feather flock together, Snyder’s main supporter has been Jerry Jones, the owner, and GM of the Commanders’ primary rival, the Dallas Cowboys. Jones has so many skeletons in his closet that they aren’t news anymore but reportedly, Jones won’t stand behind Snyder anymore.
“Snyder’s already lost Jerry,” the ESPN report said, stating that Jones told confidants he “might not be able” to protect Snyder any longer. He has reportedly has “badmouthed” Jones and has “file” on him.
Like many of the people who have tried to tell the truth on Snyder, the owner has used strong-arm tactics, money, threats to get accusers to remain quiet. There are reports that Snyder has hired private investigators to dig dirt on as many as 6 owners and Commissioner Goodell. Snyder believes he has gathered enough secrets to “blow up” the NFL. “They can’t f— with me,” Snyder is reported to have said in regard to other owners.
The report quotes other people close to the league as saying: “He thinks he’s got stuff on Roger [Goodell].” A former Washington executive calls Snyder “the most powerful owner in the NFL” because of what he knows about other NFL owners.
“The NFL is a mafia,” Snyder allegedly told an associate. “All the owners hate each other.” Another NFL owner had the following response: “That’s not true,” the owner said. “All the owners hate Dan.” Of course, the team issued it’s own statement – it is “simply ridiculous and utterly false” that Snyder ever said that he could blow up the league, or that the league “can’t f—” with him, or that “the NFL is a mafia” or “all owners hate each other.”
It is possible that Daniel Snyder is the worst owner in the NFL, perhaps all of sports, but the question is, can the other owners force him to sell the team? It would take a 2/3rds vote of the owners, and since Snyder is petulant and his only aim is to be famous, which comes from being owner of Washington. Lawsuits would fly, the PR of the league, often bad at the best of times, would be worse. Overall, everyone would lose money.
Goodell could follow the route NBA Commissioner Adam Silver has taken in forcing Donald Sterling to sell the Clippers and Suns’ owner Robert Carver both over racist comments. Current reports say that the league will not be taking up Snyder’s fate this Tuesday, but now this is turning into a real life episode of Succession, but unlike that show, the money will be real and so will the animosity.

I hate to say I told you so, but in this instance, I told you so. The experiment by Jerry Reinsdorf and the White Sox to bring back Tony LaRussa to manage the team was a folly. I remember not being a LaRussa fan during his first tenure with the White Sox, mostly how the way he managed pitchers. Of course, he did get the team to the playoffs in 1983 before being eliminated by the Baltimore Orioles.
Credit to LaRussa, he and pitching coach Dave Duncan learned and became better. The duo led World Series Champions in Oakland and St. Louis and a Hall of Fame career. Sox Owner Jerry Reinsdorf outvoted GM Rick and Hahn and SVP Ken Williams to bring back LaRussa, who had been out of the dugout for nine years, and mostly was known for drinking and driving violations.
Two seasons ago, the White Sox clinched their division titlke very early and the team, apparently encouraged by then manager Ricky Renteria to take the rest of the season off in effect did. Unfortunately, the tailspin did not end in the playoffs and the Sox were swept by Oakland. Renteria was not the man, so the search began for a replacement and there were several name managers available, but none of them were interviewed. Reinsdorf, LaRussa’s friend said on numerous occasions that his one regret in baseball was allowing then GM Ken “Hawk” Harrelson to fire LaRussa, so he convinced LaRussa to come out of retirement. Of course, he is an old school manager leading a young team.
One thing struck me as a problem right away; LaRussa’s partner, Dave Duncan, who had been LaRussa’s pitching coach his entire managerial career, is retired and did not joint the team. I think that Duncan was more than a pitching coach – he was like comanager. One of the problems that has been evident for LaRussa’s second stint in the White Sox dugout is the reverence that someone like Duncan would have provided. Some of the nutty intentional walks and other decisions may have been stopped.
The biggest problem may have been hubris. The team is loaded with big time talent, and the rest of the teams in the division had been also-rans. Two things happened in my opinion: first, the players suffered numerous injuries. I believe that the Adonis-like players: Luis Robert, Eloy Jimenez, Yoan Moncada, and others. Instead of working on flexibility, building lots of muscle may actually be detrimental to a baseball player. Add to that, they believed that they could just walk in and win the division, and therefore continued with bad defense, especially in the outfield, and dumb baserunning errors. LaRussa apparently didn’t hold them to a high enough standard.
Old age caught up to LaRussa in the end, a pacemaker that needed to be adjusted and a second, unspecified illness force the manager to leave the team in August, and caused him to step away for the rest of the season, and now the third year of his contract for 2023. There are a number of possible candidates to replace LaRussa. GM Hahn has said that he is looking outside of the organization, which may mean no to former catcher A.J. Pierzinski and former manager Ozzie Guillen (which I think is a smart move). Of course, Reinsdorf prefers people he knows that have loyalty. Time will tell.

For the first time in three years, the Toronto International Film Festival was open for business, almost 300 films, live audiences, masks required in the theaters, lots of celebrities and more World Premieres than I can remember. Almost every film was a world premiere. For the 20th time, your friend and humble narrator ventured up to watch movies.

Friday, September 9

I flew up in the morning, in time for one film, a German-Romanian drama from director Ulrich Seidl called “Sparta.” The film’s main character fights an inclination to pedophilia, but apparently, the parents of the actors said they were left in the dark about the subject matter. The actors were between 9-16 at the time of filming in 2018 and 2019. The night before I left I received an email that the film had been pulled from the Festival. That’s OK – got to hang with friends.

Saturday, September 10

I could have watched “The Warrior King” in the morning, but I figured the film would be coming to regular theaters (although star Viola Davis was there). I found another film interesting – “De Humani Corporis Fabrea” is a documentary about spending time in hospitals and using the small cameras used for surgery to record what it looks like to be inside the human body. I was a biology major in college and was curious.
The film was often visually fascinating – the shots in the operating room, the pictures from inside the body, the comments from the doctors in the OR were all insightful. Unfortunately, unless you’re in medical school, this not a very good film. The filmmakers shot in several French hospitals over several years, but there was no guiding link. Not that a documentary has to be a story, but usually, there is a theme – one day in a hospital, stories of the patients or the doctors. The film returned to several characters, but there was no rhyme or reason as to why we’re following them around, what made them compelling.
One of the filmmakers, Lucien Castaing-Taylor attended the screening (the other director Verena Paravel was not there) and said that he was an anthropologist and were not interested in a “plot” or telling a story. That was obvious, and while visually interesting in many places, I started off with the worst film of the Festival right off the bat.
Things got much more interesting after that. First, when leaving De Humani, the crowd I was in were held back – not allowed to leave. The reason? Former Senator, First Lady and Presidential candidate Hilary Clinton and her daughter Chelsea were coming through the lobby. They were in town to publicize a show they were doing together. My phone wasn’t ready for a picture – oh well…
One of the films I most wanted to attend was “Black Ice,” a Canadian documentary about Black players in the NHL and the discrimination and racism they faced and still face today. I had only heard of the Colored Hockey League of the 1890s, up through Willie O’Ree, the sad story of Herb Carnegie – the best Black player to never play in the NHL (but still a member of the Hockey Hall of Fame), up to the present day. This included traumatic stories from Akim Akiu who got a coach fired for using racist language directed at him; life for Wayne Simmonds.
As much as hockey is loved in Canada, it should be little surprise that it won the People’s Choice Documentary Award, but I am a little surprised because it told some horrible stories that don’t paint Canadians as the kind, accepting people many believe they are. The film, coproduced by Drake and LeBron James, was another World Premiere and lots of hockey stars attended including P.K. Subban, Simmonds, Akiu, and Nasim Kadri. It was a terrific film.
Continuing a Canadian theme, my next film was a fine comedy called “The End of Sex.” In this film, a couple try to rekindle their routine sex life when their kids go off to a winter school break camp. Write Jonas Chernick is Josh and Emily Hampshire from Schitt’s Creek were the couple and of course, there are old crushes, new crushes, frustration and looking at your relationship through a different lens. It was routine, but it was very funny, especially if you are in a long marriage and have kids.

The busiest day of the Festival for me, and it started with a star-studded documentary. “Sidney” is a documentary on the late Sidney Poitier, directed by my college roommate’s old friend from East St. Louis, Illinois, Reggie Hudlin and executive produced by Oprah Winfrey. While I generally try to avoid Ms. Winfrey at all costs, the film was a very through, honest view of Mr. Poitier’s life. Ms. Winfrey had filmed 8 hours of interview footage with Mr. Poitier before he died which Mr. Hudlin used in fine form to allow the subject to narrate his own life.
Of course, this World Premiere had to have an appearance from Ms. Winfrey and her Sancho Panza Gayle King, which would have been enough to make me puke, but five of Mr. Poitier’s six daughters attended the screening and provided quite a lot of background on their father. This film will be on Apple TV – see it!
The next film is also very good – “Chevalier” is the story of Joseph Bologne, a brilliant violin player and composer in the years before the French Revolution. Kevin Harrison, Jr. (“Waves”) was most effective in bringing the man to life while hobnobbing in French high society including Queen Marie Antoinette. The story of course has racism and transcendence, in telling a tale of a great, obscured artist. Directed by Stephen Williams who has been best known for directing premium television series like “Watchmen,” “Lost,” and “How to Get Away With Murder,” did a wonderful job in this historical costume drama.
With “Sparta” pulled from the Festival, this left me with an extra ticket, which I used for a film called “Runner.” Writer-Director Marian Mathias tells the story of an 18-year-old woman who lives with her father in Missouri. A dreamer with a plan to build and flip some houses, has not been able to do anything well except drink at the local bar and ring up debts (most people believe him to be mentally ill). The father unexpectedly dies and the girl, names Haas (Dutch for “hare” or “runner”) takes her father north to Illinois for burial. She has little money and her house is in the process of foreclosure. Once there, rain postpones the burial and she ends up hanging out with a young man who has a bicycle.
Not a romance as such, the two hang out together, spending much time in fields. The photography was unusual because the sun never shone, the sky was always grey and even seemed lighter and grey when it was supposed to be dusk or night. I understand that this was supposed to be a film about a period of the characters’ lives, but Haas remains in the same predicament – no money, house about to be taken away. It moved slowly and had no point to me.
The final film of the day was an interesting exercise called “Sanctuary.” The heir to a hotel empire (Christopher Abbott) meets with a dominatrix who he has been seeing for some time (Margaret Qualley) trying to break off the relationship. It turned into a sexually charged, 21st Century take on “Sleuth” – a two character film as both characters play verbal and physical games to gain the upper hand on the other character. It was an interesting game to watch, but the movie wimped out at the end going for the easy happy ending that didn’t really fit.

After 20 film festivals, there are many times when time seems to bend back on itself – stars you’ve seen before, directors whose earlier films you’ve seen. Monday started this trend. Oscar winner Jessica Chastain who I’d seen in person at TIFF for the film “Molly’s Game” attended her latest movie, a well-acted but fairly by the numbers drama called “The Good Nurse.” In it she plays a real-life single mother with a very dangerous heart condition and not enough time on her job to get health insurance. Into the medium size town where she lives, comes a new male nurse, played by Oscar winner Eddie Redmayne. The man has been bouncing from hospital to hospital, which is unusual because he appears to be quite a capable nurse.
People start dying and the hospital covers-up any possible wrongdoing by forcing the nurses to silence and playing the police for fools, but Chastain’s character Amy knows what’s happening but how to prove it without losing her job and children and life, is very good. I haven’t read the book on which this film is based (but the real-life protagonist did attend the screening – another World Premiere), but I found myself very happy that the film didn’t take an easy way out and turn the third act into another slasher/kids in danger film. Again, it was a déjà vu screening for me. The film was the director’s (Tobias Lindholm) first film in English. As it turned out, I had seen one of his earlier films, “A Hijacking” which I saw in 2012. I liked that film, and I like this one also. It will be on Netflix.
Another Netflix film was my second of the day, but boy am I glad that I saw it on the big screen. Director Edward Berger brought the German anti-war book “All Quiet on the Western Front” to the screen. In German, it was a vivid and memorable view of World War I but from the eventual losers’ view. Of course, the defeat would have ramifications for the entire world in the years to come, but all of that death and destruction over just a small amount of land showed the horrors and wastefulness of war. Well worth seeing.
The third film of the day was called “The Menu.” Imagine a mix of The Food Network and the Addams Family. Ralph Fiennes is Chef, whose restaurant is the most expensive, most secluded food experience in the world. Of course, the restaurant workers are all cult-like members and like slaves to the demented and dangerous Chef. Directed by Mark Mylod (Succession) and starring Anya Taylor-Joy (The Witch), John Leguizamo, a restaurant critic played by Janet McTeer, three tech guys, and Judith Light who all are not there by accident. Ms. Taylor-Joy’s character has been brought by a man to eat for free.
VERY dark humor, with a great deal of panache and daring, this film is not for everyone, but if you like your satire sharp, this is a very entertaining film.

The final day of films featured two films that I most wanted to see at the festival. First, Martin McDonagh’s “The Banshees of Inisherin.” Mr. McDonagh is known best for “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri” and “Seven Psychopaths” which I saw at TIFF in 2012. My favorite film he directed was “In Bruges,” the tremendously funny film starring Colin Farrell and Brendon Gleeson (Gleeson was not at TIFF this year, but I saw him live at my very first TIFF Film “The General” in 1998). This film reunites Farrell and Gleeson, this time as friends on an island in Ireland in 1922. Life went along in the town until one day Colm (Gleeson) tells Padraic (Ferrell) that he doesn’t want to be friends with him anymore; in fact, he doesn’t want him to speak with him anymore. Of course, the situation grows and grows more out of control with disastrous consequences. Again, very dark, but extremely funny.
When one is picking films, often you pick movies that fit into your schedule and look interesting. You’re giving it a shot, as it were. Well, “The Gravity” by Cedric Ido is the story of people of color living in project-type buildings just outside of Paris. We meet a number of characters surrounding the protagonist Daniel (Max Gomis) who is planning to eave town with his girlfriend and child. E is also a top track and field runner, which is how he spends much of his day, along with dealing a but of drugs for his brother who was paralyzed in a fall as a kid.
This is happening as the planets in the Solar System are about to line up perfectly for the first time in millennia. Most of the characters in the film are oblivious to this fact except for a street gang who looked like they just stepped out of Batman – The Dark Knight comic, Black kids with red hair who believe that the alignment will change the word, and they are looking for that change and more than willing to help bring it about including human sacrifice. This was an interesting idea, even though the ending doesn’t make sense, but there is lots of violence which was well done, and characters you cared for (and a homage to (”Iron Man”).
Over the years, I have tried to catch Asian action films at TIFF; movies in the spirit of John Woo’s greats “The Killer” and “Hard Boiled.” There were 2-3 Asian films of this type this year, but one fit the schedule – a South Korean film called “A Man of Reason” directed by South Korean superstar Jung Woo-sung, in his first directorial job, playing a man who was in the rackets but got caught and sent to prison for 10 years. The girlfriend he had surprised him with a 9-year old daughter. Like many films in the genre, the ”Boss” who was Jung’s ‘s friend before prison now wants him to come back to work for him, but he wants a normal life. The Boss doesn’t see it that way and sends people to kill him, especially a couple of characters who reminded me of the Joker and Harley Quinn – homicidal psychos who kill while they’re joking around. One of the assassins are captured, the kid gets kidnapped, and there’s chases and a botched swap. All the while, lots of people get shot, and there are some wonderful explosions. The kind of mindless action one expects from this.

Well, that’s it for TIFF 2022. I am not surprised that the overall People’s Choice Award winner was Steven Spielberg’s “The Fabermans.” This was Spielberg’s first film at a Festival but I did not wish to see it. The current trend of directors making films based on their childhoods ( ‘s “Roma,” Kenneth Branugh’s “Belfast”) but I’m not really interested in their childhood stories, especially Spielberg’s – the story of a nerdy Jewish kid growing up in Arizona. I have long said that Spielberg is not a great artist like Scorsese or Wells or Hitchcock – he is Walt Disney for the 21st Century.
Anyway, continuing the tradition of ranking the films I saw from worst to first:

13. “De Humani Corporis Fabrea”
12. “Runner”
11. “The Gravity”
10. “Sanctuary”
9. “The Good Nurse”
8. “The End of Sex”
7. “A Man of Reason”
6. “The Menu”
5. “Black Ice”
4. “Chevalier”
3. “All Quiet on the Western Front”
1. (tie) “The Banshees of Inisherin” and “Sidney”

I almost didn’t include the documentaries – “Sidney” and “Black Ice” because documentaries are very different from “regular” films, but I compromised. (Because I love hockey so much, I could have had “Black Ice,” and “Chevalier” tie also, but I loved the top 5 films and found it hard to rank them.)
In the end, I certainly recommend the first nine films, and suggest trying out the final four if you’re adventurous and looking for something different.

I’ve been extremely busy lately, and so I’ve missed the opportunity to discuss so many things: the White Sox – the most underachieving team perhaps in history; LIV versus the PGA; Northwestern traveling to Ireland and returning with a Big Ten victory. So many stories…
I had to find time for the amazing feats of Albert Pujols and Serena Williams. Pujols, who has been a shadow of his former self with the Angels and Dodgers, returned to the site of his greatest success, St. Louis, to help where he could and quietly retire. That’s what many of us thought; he’s done, time to celebrate his Hall of Fame accomplishments and begin the 5 year wait before his inevitable enshrinement in Cooperstown. The Cardinals, as usual are in the hunt for the ultimate prize, leading the Brewers by 6 games in the NL Central as of this writing, but Pujols has turned on a switch. On July 5th, Pujols was hitting .189 with 4 homers and was about to take a ceremonial appearance in the All-Star Game on previous achievement. Since then, Pujols is hitting .388 with 11 home runs in 98 at bats and has his 694 home runs, just 6 homers to reach the magic 700 plateau which has only been reached by Aaron, Ruth, and Bonds.
Of course, there are naysayers who think this is a chemically assisted surge, rumors of CEDs have swirled around Pujols his entire career, but the same can be said of every top athlete is almost every sport, especially baseball. That argument falls apart when you ask why didn’t he do so when he was in Anaheim or Los Angeles? Why wait until half way through the season if all you have to do is take some drugs and turn back the clock? Regardless, I think that most of the sports world is rooting for Pujols to hit 700. Rooting more than for Aaron Judge to hit 62 homers, or any other baseball milestone. Even I, an avowed Cardinal hater is rooting for Pujols, who has publicly been nothing but a class ambassador for the sport.
Then, there’s the U.S. Open Tennis Tournament. Despite compelling stories like that of Rafael Nadal playing through terrible pain to keep playing, and the selfish ass Novak Djokovic who was not permitted to enter the U.S. or play in the tournament, the story has focused more than usual on Serena Williams. In an interview published just before the start of the tournament, the 40-year-old future Hall of Famer announced that she is “pulling away from tennis” making it possible that this U.S. Open would be her last. She’s entitled – she’s older, has numerous business interests, a marriage, a 5-year-old daughter and hopes to perhaps have more children.
Serena’s record in her four matches this year is 1-3 but she was granted a well-deserved at-large spot in the tournament. Her first round opponent, Danka Kovinic is hardly a household name, but she is ranked 80th in the world. The tennis world came out, celebrities got tickets and appeared; the largest crowd in Arthur Ashe Stadium was in attendance; the television ratings were very good. The Open had a ceremony set up for the end of the match in case Serena lost and that was the end. Hall of Famer and historic activist Billie Jean King led the ceremony, but no one told Serena.
With expected rust, Serena staggered out of the gate, but ended up gutting out a 6-3, 6-3 win that was closer than the score indicated. However, a new factor was in play – the crowd was almost completely on Serena’s side. All players now will be facing not just Serena Williams, but the crowd. This was evident for the next, bigger test – her second round opponent was the number 2 ranked player in the world, Anett Kontaveit of Estonia. Both players held serve in the first set, until Ms. Williams broke serve to take a 5-4 lead. But Ms. Kontaveit broke back to 5-5 leading to a tiebreaker that Serena won. The second set was all Ms. Kontaveit, who broke Ms. Williams on her first two opportunities. Serena put on a masterclass in the third set, breaking Ms. Kontaveit three times to win the set 6-2.
So put away the rocking chairs; hold on to those farewell ceremonies. Ms. Williams will play unseeded Ajia Tomijanovic in the 3rd round. They have never played one another. In addition, the Open gave an at-large berth to Serena and her sister Venus to play women’s doubles. The 14-time Grand Slam doubles champions will play Linda Noskova and Lucie Hradecka Thursday. With many of the top seeds now defeated, Serena could have a clear path to the semi-finals, and maybe even win.
It can be said, without question that Serena Williams is truly the GOAT among tennis players, both women and men. If she wins the U.S. Open, it would be a historic cherry on the top of her career (almost as amazing as winning the Australian Open while in the early sates of her pregnancy). Meanwhile, the Cardinals have one month of games left to get Albert Pujols his 700 homers. Both have been class acts; both have opened doors and been inspirational to many. Most of the sports world are with you.