Month: November 2019

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Dallas Cowboys Lose Thanksgiving Day Game

The black cloud that has fallen over the Dallas Cowboys wasn’t lifted over Thanksgiving Weekend. Dedicated fans to the sporting franchise were shocked and disappointed to see their cowboys lose against the Buffalo Bills by eleven points. This increases their losing streak to three consecutive games, with the team owner demanding that the team regain their capabilities. This win means that the Buffalo Bills have inched one step closer to the Superbowl, with the Dallas Cowboys stepping one foot behind.

The Dallas Cowboys have been hindered all season long for some unknown reason, with most sports analysts claiming that it’s the result of their head coach and his outdated tactics. The cowboys were in the process of winning on Thursday, starting strong throughout the first and second quarter.

Unfortunately, at the third and fourth quarters weighed in, the offensive began to march down the field at a slower pace. Even though Jason Witten and Dak Prescott were able to accomplish an eight-yard touchdown, the game quickly fell downhill for Dallas afterwards. It got so bad that the Bills achieved a garbage-time goal, bringing the score within a two-possession range. The Buffalo Bills accomplished two touchdowns with their head quarterback Josh Allen and Cole Beasley, who used to play for the Dallas Cowboy. Other notable players came when Devin Singletary and Josh Brown completed a 28-yard passing touchdown.

Dallas Failing

The Dallas Cowboys haven’t defeated any opposing team that’s coming off a series of wins, indicating that the lineup is quickly feeling the pressure this year. Somehow the Cowboys have remained at the top of the National Football Competitions East Coast Division, which means there is still a good chance that they can recover if the proper coaching techniques are implemented. Depending on how Jason Garret, the head coach for the Dallas Cowboys, responded to these losses will determine his future with the team. Additional problems that have faced the Dallas Cowboys recently include a horrendous loss to the New England Patriots.

Discussions regarding Jason Garret’s involvement the team have already begun. Sports analysts believe that Urban Meyer or Lincoln Riley are the two best choices for Garret’s replacement. Though neither one of these men has helmed a professional football team, they have acted as assisted coached and are known for keeping lineups in check. If Jason Garret cannot solve his coaching errors over the next two games, its almost guaranteed that his termination from the Cowboys will be finalized.

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FIA Investigating Formula 1 Fuel Sensors

The Formula One 2019 Season is coming to an end, with rumours growing before the final race in Abu Dhabi. Since Ferrari’s dominance after the winter break, many teams, including Red Bull, have claimed that they tricked fuel-flow sensors into gaining their straight-line advantage. The FIA announced a month ago that they would begin creating new technical directives that clamp down on the fuel-flow of F1 Cars. They confirmed that all teams would be required to run a secondary sensor come the 2020 Season.

The first driver that mentioned his speculation over Ferrari was Max Verstappen. Afterwards, Red Bull went to the FIA with concerns regarding the legality of tricking fuel-flow sensors. Immediately, speculation began all over the grid, and by the United States Grand Prix, those straight-line speeds had disappeared. Though Ferrari hasn’t been penalized for their actions, it was confirmed that they had altered fuel sensors to increase the rate of fuel to the engine. This was accomplished by managing an electric interference through the sensors flow rate bypass. Since then, the FIA has announced new technical directives that state this practice is illegal and contradicts with the rules.

The directive wasn’t publicly announced until after the United States Grand Prix in Austin. However, fans knew that something was wrong when the pace dropped tenfold for Ferrari. Their speeds in Brazil were lower than previous circuits after the summer break as well. Many have taken this as confirmation that Italian Horses broke the rules, but Ferrari has denied these claims and noted that performance drops are from other numerous factors.

FIA Moves In

The governing body for Formula One has since confiscated two of Ferrari’s Fuel Systems and is then using another sensor from a separate team to correlate the data. This confiscation came right after Sebastien Vettel, and Charles Leclerc struck each other at Interlagos. The FIA confirmed that all secondary fuel-flow sensor systems managed next season will be exclusively controlled by the governing body. The last race in 2019 will be the final time that Formula 1 Teams have full control over their fuel-flow sensor systems. Subsequently, all teams will have to race at a more even playing field.

None of the teams has publicly come forward to talk about the new racing directives. Most of them are focusing on the final race of the season in Abu Dhabi. Any teams wanting to contest this directive will wait the new year in January.

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2019 Formula One Season Boiling Up

Formula One’s Driver Championship ended in Austin at the Circuit of the Americas Grand Prix, with all eyes now looking towards Brazil. Red Bull and Ferrari are looking to win at the next two circuits. Charles Leclerc, Max Verstappen and Sebastian Vettel now move forward to Brazil and Abu Dhabi for a third-place position in the 2019 Championship.

The battle between these three for third place is the real championship of 2019. It was well known that Lewis Hamilton with Mercedes would win the 2019 Season. It’s also anticipated that he will win the 2020 Season before the regulation and car changes in 2021. Afterwards, most expect that Hamilton would keep up with the new young blood in Formula 1 and be forced to retire.

The teams are focusing on these last two races for money. Depending on your position in the constructor’s standings, more money is paid out by Formula 1 towards the development on next years car. Right now, Red Bull is third in the standings and Ferrari is in second. However, this could change in Brazil with Charles Leclerc facing a 10-Place Grid penalty. Gaining pole position against Charles would immediately jump Max and Red Bull into the second standing position. Regardless, Interlagos Brazil is a senior circuit that is known for supporting the Italian Horses.

The Battles

Internally, there has been substantial competition between Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas. Mercedes placed first and second at Circuit of the Americas, with Valtteri Bottas winning the race from his teammate. Bottas now moves forward to Interlagos and Abu Dhabi for a second back-to-back win. This will be easier for the Finn, who can highlight on the fact that Toto Wolff won’t be at the upcoming race to assist Lewis Hamilton.

Ferrari and Red Bull have actively been battling one another for 19 Races. In the first half of the season, the Honda-powered Bulls were able to defeat Ferrari regularly. Unfortunately, new fuel mixtures enabled the Italian Horses to fight back after the summer break. Multiple races were won back to back, with Charles Leclerc taking the first win for Ferrari at Monza in decades. These two rival teams will fiercely compete with each other over the next two races, with Max and Charles are known for driving aggressively. There’s the chance we will see the two upcoming rivals touch each other or worse, place a DNF.

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Barty Breaks $10 Million Barrier

Topping the ranks of women’s tennis for 2019 is Ashleigh Barty. Now, this tennis star cut another record when she smashed the $10 million prize money ceiling for the season. Barty earned herself a spot only shared by one other for having the most lucrative WTA Finals ever, as her on-court earnings slipped to an impressive $10.93 million.

The recent windfall in the Australian’s income just more than doubled her career earnings in only one season. This could increase even more if Barty manages to defeat Petra Kvitova and thus qualify for the semi-finals. If Barty makes it to the final four in the tournament, she will be sure of at least $1.45 million, and if she moves on to the finals and takes victory, the total value of her prize money stands at $5.98 million. Considering the odd scenario that she might lose during the semi-finals, the 23-year-old player will still depart back on her journey home from China with $890 000 in hand.

Holding Your Future in Your Hands

The results of the finals are very much in Barty’s own hands. That is also the way that she prefers it to be. Currently, the contest within the pool is still keen to compete for the finals, but the action plan for Barty to proceed to the desired position is rather evident. The Australian star needs to take Kvitova out of the run and then she’ll be in the top view of the Red Group.

This will secure that she advances to the semi-finals. Once again even if she loses, she might still be able to slip into the finals if she manages to snatch a set from Kvitova and Kiki Bertens manages to gain victory over Belinda Bencic in a total of three sets. This would be a much more complex scenario, yet still possible. When counting back the number of games won and lost by each of the competing players, this might gain her access to where she wants to be.

Barty vs Kvitova

Barty stated that every single time the two of them met on the court, it had been a challenging experience. She also noted that each time is different. Now playing in China, the condition would once again be changed. What she needs to do is to be able to find Kvitova’s strengths and eliminate their effect while working on her weakness and still stay true to her pattern of play. Barty also expressed that the two tennis forces do have tremendous respect for each other. She stated that Kvitova does have a way to bring out the best performance she has to deliver on the court.

Does Barty manages to proceed, she is bound to meet up with either Elina Svitolina, the titleholder, or the champion of Wimbledon Simona Halep or Karolína Plíšková, to secure the desired spot in the finals.

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The link between Football and Dementia

The sports legends of the world give it they’re all while playing, both mentally as well as physically. This extreme devotion to the sport often takes its toll on their bodies and later on they have to pay the price with their health. This has just been proven once again as studies revealed that professional footballers stand a much higher chance of suffering from dementia as well as other neurological diseases than others.

The University of Glasgow’s Brain Injury Group has just completed a 22-month study which revealed that professional footballers have an increased likelihood of suffering from dementia or any other neurological severe disease later on in life, of three and a half times. They also revealed a risk increase of five times for Alzheimer’s and four times for motor neuron disease and twice for Parkinson’s. The causes of these finding, however, remains still uncertain and researchers couldn’t determine whether this is due to the heading of leather footballs, regular concussions or any other contributing factor. Further research funded by the Football Association will now continue to determine the contributing factors affecting the lives of these heroes.

No Changes

The Football Association stated that the study has been revealing. They mentioned that it used digitized data from NHS Scotland and compared the cause of death of 7 676 former professional male footballers born between 1900 and 1976 with the data of 23 000 people living ordinary lives. Yet the FA stated that this is not yet providing enough evidence to bring about any change to any aspect of the game. Still, Marc Bullingham, FA chief executive said that they would continuously monitor the situation and continually reassess all aspects of the game if any new evidence brings about new findings.

Over past years the Professional Footballers’ Association has been criticized for their slow response to the problem of dementia in former players. With the new research coming to light, family members of former players who have already passed away due to these diseases required an apology from the FA. One such player is Mike Sutton who formerly played for Norwich. Sutton’s son Chris Sutton stated that over the past decade the FA has been slow to give any response to the evident dementia problem among former players and now he wants an apology for this.

Another family expressing their shock regarding the situation is the family of Jeff Astle. Astle, the former striker to West Bromwich Albion, passed away in 2002 due to what was stated by the coroner as “industrial disease”. His career of heading heavy footballs at least partly caused this. They now said that they are shocked by how large the scale of the problem is.

These families will never get their loved ones back, but they do have some questions answered now and want the FA to show that they cared enough for their players to make the necessary changes to protect and support them.