Tuesdays with Tom: The Return of the Mailbag
Answering questions from the readers; plus Jury Duty, Crocs and sports on streaming
Welcome back to the official Tuesdays with Tom mailbag! We’ve done these sporadically over the years and we’re bringing it back. Pretty self explanatory so I’ll just dive right in. Let’s see what people have on their minds.
Will the Pittsburgh Steelers make the playoffs next season?
Dad
Despite what Roger Goodell and the NFL’s television partners tell you, there’s no legitimate reason to think about the NFL in May (by the way, Chargers fans, does a cute video announcing a mostly predetermined football schedule make up for horrific playoff losses? Let me know!). But Dad is an avid reader and Steelers talk is 365 days a year. With that said, it’s foolish to go game-by-game predicting wins and losses on their 2023 schedule today. So let’s take a broader view for the Steelers.
Last year, the Steelers weren’t supposed to be good. Even for a team that hadn’t recorded a losing season since 2003, the expectations for Pittsburgh were tempered at best. Then, they started the season 2-6 and everyone left them for dead. But something happened in the second half of the 2022 season. The Steelers rallied to a 7-2 record and by the last weekend of the regular season, they were a few minutes away from making the playoffs. It wasn’t always pretty, but quarterback Kenny Pickett got better each week and they grounded the offense around a run-first approach with timely passing. The defense also improved and finished ranked in the top 10 in the league.
It’s natural to think that they could build off their second-half performance going into 2023. With Pickett firmly entrenched as the starter, he should take a step forward in his second season with the same playbook and several talented players around him. The Steelers focused on signing veteran offensive linemen to bolster that unit and I like the low-risk upside of bringing cornerback Patrick Peterson into the secondary. On top of that, they just raked in a draft class that everyone raved about. If they were that close to the playoffs in a down year, imagine what they can do with more talent and an improving QB. The AFC is a gauntlet, but asking me today I’d have Pittsburgh in my AFC playoff picture for next season.
What is your go-to home cooked meal?
Brian M.
I’ve been writing this newsletter since 2018 and I believe this is the first time anyone’s ever asked me about my cooking routine. They’re not handing out Michelen stars in my apartment anytime soon, but I can make a few decent dishes. I usually make a nice protein or fish with some rice or a vegetable like broccoli or brussel sprouts. I don’t cook for enjoyment. I get in and out with a plan in mind. If I can’t make something in 30 minutes, I’m probably not doing it. I do like making breakfast food and grilling when that is available to me. Otherwise, I keep it pretty simple.
Can lightning strike twice for the Chicago Blackhawks with the first overall pick in the 2023 NHL Draft?
Blackhawks fans & haters
I know a large swath of NHL fans groaned when the league announced that Chicago won the NHL Draft Lottery a few weeks ago. It’s the second time they’ve won the lottery and earned the No. 1 overall pick in the draft. The last time that happened? 2007. The team drafted Patrick Kane. We all know how that turned out. 16 years later, the Blackhawks are starting over again and this stroke of luck couldn’t come at a better time. They hit rock bottom this year and Bedard is widely considered to be the best draft prospect since Connor McDavid, the best NHL player alive and a two-time league MVP for the Edmonton Oilers. The Kane-Bedard similarities are eerie. Bedard is a 5-10 offensive wizard with an impressive wrist shot and legendary stickhandling for a 17-year-old kid. On paper, the Canadian teenager is the real deal. It will be a tall order to replicate what Kane did for the Blackhawks and that’s an unfair thing to expect from a young player who’s never played in the NHL. However, the potential is tantalizing to consider. At worst, drafting Bedard will give the Blackhawks and their fans some hope to cling onto for the next few years. At best, they could have one of the league’s next great superstars. Like it or not, the Blackhawks rebuilding dreams just got a whole lot sweeter.
Should I start The Wire on HBO?
Guy Who is 20 Years Behind on Pop Culture
We don’t just recommend new TV shows in this space. Sometimes, it’s worth revisiting a classic! I just finished my first rewatch of The Wire in over a decade. When I first watched it, I was a college student with minimal professional experience. I fell in love with the show and its wide ranging cast of characters. I decided to revisit the series a decade later and I was curious how I’d respond to the show with much more life experience under my belt. It turns out I still love this show, but now for entirely different reasons. It’s well known that The Wire was a hidden gem during its linear TV run from 2002 to 2008. This highly esoteric, grounded series about the institutions of Baltimore was unlike anything on TV before and it took viewers a long time to get used to it. Each season added many new characters and groups to its massive cast and storylines weaved in and out like a long-running novel series. At its core, The Wire is about how people are constantly battling systems and how those systems consistently let them down. Unlike most police dramas, it gives a 360-degree view of the many nuances of police work and the people that do it, including how a lot of the criminals they’re chasing aren’t so different from the cops. It is an undeniably riveting and realistic portrayal of day-to-day life. Now that I’m much older, I really resonate with the characters who try to make changes and advance up the ladder, but are stifled by politics and internal bureaucracy. If for some reason you’ve never seen The Wire, I am confident you’ll find it a rewarding watch. For those who haven’t watched it in many years, you’ll probably see it in a different light, like I did, while still loving the show wholesale.
Will Jerry Reinsdorf ever sell The Chicago White Sox?
White Sox nation
The sardonic phrase “no good deed goes unpunished” was coined after a 12th-century Latin author’s work about inverted morality. Today, it’s often used when a genuine act of kindness backfires on someone. If regular people are subjected to this ironic fate, I’d argue the opposite is largely true of billionaire sports owners. Too many times in professional sports, no bad deed goes unrewarded. We’ve seen many examples of athletes behaving poorly and their employers swiftly punishing them. But compared to athletes, owners are almost never held accountable for their crimes. Just ask Daniel Snyder, who is about to collect a $6 billion paycheck to go away after 24 years of horrendous behavior as the Washington Commanders owner. Being an owner is essentially a get out of jail free card for nearly any mistake. It’s one of the only lines of work where you can be grossly incompetent at your job, year after year, reviled by the public and continue to see the value of your business increase no matter what.
Jerry Reinsdorf is well aware of this dynamic. He bought the Chicago White Sox in 1981 for $19 million and bought the Chicago Bulls in 1985 for $16 million. He might not be a garbage human being like some of his counterparts, but his longtime approach to ownership is competitive malpractice. He’s always been very focused on making money and less concerned about fielding a winning team. And for a man who owns two teams with a combined estimated value of $6 billion, he often takes penny-pinching tactics to the extreme. For example, did you know Reinsdorf negotiated a tax incentive with Illinois to avoid paying ticket fees if the White Sox draw less than 2 million fans per season? If the Sox do happen to be more popular than an average MLB team, it would cost him roughly $3-$9 per ticket sold. What sports owner goes out of his way to financially incentivize himself being less popular with fans? Luckily for Reinsdorf, this has only happened once since 2011. Schemes like this are commonplace in the Reinsdorf era. He’s famously loyal to his executives and, despite preaching a culture of accountability, he rarely holds anyone to it. The White Sox have won three playoff series since 1917. All of them were during the 2005 World Series year. Yet somehow Kenny Williams is the second longest tenured executive in the MLB. Reinsdorf is also still cashing in on Michael Jordan’s legacy with the Bulls even though they’ve barely sniffed a Finals run in the 25 years since he retired.
At 87 years old, nobody knows how many more years Reinsdorf or his family will own the White Sox and the Bulls. He remains wildly unpopular with fans and the White Sox pathetic start to this season is a great showcase for the dreary culture that Reinsdorf fosters as an owner. But only one thing is certain in this scenario. Jerry Reinsdorf will not be punished for his actions. He’ll either die absurdly rich or become even more wealthy selling his appreciating assets to someone else. And people wonder why billionaires are so unpopular these days.
Tom’s Thoughts of the Week
In the last two episodes of Friday Night Beers, Vince and I drank beers called Hell or High Watermelon and Red Stripe. The delicious wheat beer from 21st Amendment Brewery has a strong chance to be our beer of the year and it was a pleasure revisiting that brewery on the show. You likely remember some Red Stripe commercials from many years ago, but it turns out the memory of Red Stripe exceeds how it actually tastes. However, it was a good discussion about how Jamaica is often presented within American culture. Please subscribe, rate and review our podcast here and follow our Instagram page for relevant updates!
What if I told you that a documentary about jury duty was a hilarious, wholesome TV experience? Enter Jury Duty, an unexpected comedic delight from Amazon’s Freevee streaming service. Jury Duty’s premise is a throwback to the days of The Joe Schmo Show and other reality TV programs built around an elaborate hoax. Amazon hired two writers from The Office to create a mockumentary style comedy about a jury trial and covertly spent 17 days filming an everyday court case. The twist is that none of it is real, but one man thinks otherwise. I was worried that this concept would fall apart quickly as the mark either figured out the hoax or became the unwitting butt of every joke. But Amazon somehow found the perfect hero for this unusual and funny reality show. Ronald Gladden is a regular 29-year-old man who becomes very invested in the case and his fellow jurors (who are actually actors playing absurd characters). Another welcome addition is James Marsden, who devilishly lampoons himself as one of the jurors and nails the stereotypical self-important celebrity persona with Curb Your Enthusiasm-style success. As the incredibly strange case progresses, Ronald’s good-hearted nature and desire to lift up the people around him becomes the focus and it’s impossible not to root for him. Jury Duty pulled off an impressive feat in eight short episodes. It somehow made being a juror seem like a fun, life-changing experience while also giving a non-famous stranger a platform to teach us all the value of being kind to others.
We used to make fun of my father for loving Crocs and owning several pairs back in the day. But perhaps he was ahead of the curve. I thought I was seeing things when I noticed a bunch of teenagers wearing crocs in several places and, after doing some research, it’s officially confirmed. Crocs are unironically popular again! From Justin Bieber, to SZA, to Bad Bunny, famous people are embracing Crocs like never before and the masses are following their lead. In 2022, Crocs posted $3.6 billion in revenue, a record high for the company, and the popularity of Crocs is widespread. As for why the much-maligned shoe that was a relic of 2000s footwear is suddenly on the rise, there’s a few theories out there. One of them is that the pandemic inspired many to ditch fashion for function and many think Crocs are comfortable shoes to wear. There’s also a surge with people bedazzling their Crocs with all types of things. Essentially, the shoes appeal to younger people or fans of 2000s fashion today. There’s even a market for luxury brand Crocs like Balenciaga. That’s right! You can pay $625 for a pair of women’s Crocs if you so desire. I won’t say that I saw this coming or that I’m buying a pair of Crocs, but it does prove that all fashion trends are cyclical. Everything that was cool, becomes uncool and then eventually cool again. So, with that in mind, I’m sorry, Dad. You truly are a fashion icon with your Crocs.
I wrote about the increasingly fragmented landscape of sports broadcasting rights a few weeks ago. You can add these two items to that growing list. Next year, the NFL will broadcast a Wild Card round playoff game exclusively on Peacock. It’s the first time that a NFL postseason game will not be available on linear TV and only on streaming. But that’s not all. At their most recent earnings call, Disney suggested that they are considering making ESPN available as a standalone app -- without the need for a cable subscription. Let’s look at these separately. With the NFL-Peacock partnership, it’s not a shocking development for a league that’s slowly experimenting with streaming. But it is an unwelcome one for fans who are trying to cut down on streaming costs. Peacock has made some strides in the streaming game, but I’d say it’s still a lower priority for consumers to subscribe to. That will temporarily change once a flurry of NFL fans sign up for Peacock to watch one game. Because if I know anything about NFL fans, even if they acknowledge that the league is constantly screwing them over and asking for more of their dollars, they’ll continue to do whatever they ask to watch their product.
The bigger dilemma here is the ESPN situation. For decades, ESPN has been cable’s golden goose. ESPN+ already exists, but in order to watch most of their marquee programs, like football and basketball, you still need a cable subscription. Making all ESPN content available without a cable package would be a paradigm shift for the entire cable landscape. I don’t believe that Disney will remove ESPN channels from cable subscribers because they want to continue earning money from that. However, it could be the final blow to the fledgling business of cable. Many cable customers only keep their subscription because of live sports and if they don’t need cable to watch ESPN, they can cut that cord for good. The days of non-sports fans subsidizing the cost of live sports are coming to an end and soon you’ll have to decide how badly you want keep sports on your TV screens with your hard earned bucks.