SI:AM | FIFA Squashes Its First World Cup Protest Attempt

Plus, the U.S. kicks off against Wales.

Good morning, I’m Dan Gartland. Can I just fast forward to U.S.-Wales at 2 p.m. ET?

In today’s SI:AM:

⚽ The mood in Qatar as the World Cup began

🏈 The Patriots’ stingy defense

🏀 1 vs. 2 in women’s hoops

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UEFA teams bow to FIFA’s threats

On the first full day of the 2022 World Cup, it’s FIFA and the Qatari government that have notched the biggest victory.

The captains of seven European squads competing in the tournament had intended to make a quiet but direct statement about Qatar’s human rights record by wearing rainbow armbands with the phrase “OneLove.” But before England’s win this morning against Iran, FIFA made it clear that any player wearing the armband would be issued a yellow card. Rather than risk being sent off, English captain Harry Kane instead wore an armband that featured the phrase “No Discrimination.” (BBC reporter Alex Scott, a former England women’s national team player, wore the OneLove armband on the sideline.)

The OneLove campaign was led by the Netherlands’ national team. The other countries whose captains had intended to wear the armband were Wales, Belgium, Switzerland, Germany and Denmark.

“This is completely against the spirit of our sport, which unites millions of people,” the Dutch football association, the KNVB, said in a statement. “Together with other countries involved we will critically look at our relation with FIFA.”

It’s understandable that teams would not want to jeopardize their performance by conceding an automatic yellow card on a top player, but isn’t the message of the armband supposed to be that some things are bigger than soccer? The image of Kane (or German captain Manuel Neuer or Welsh captain Gareth Bale) receiving a yellow card for his rainbow armband would have been instantly iconic.

Even with the armband protest apparently squashed, off-field matters will continue to be a major talking point throughout the World Cup. As Greg Bishop wrote from Qatar yesterday, the mood around the hosts’ opening game against Ecuador was uneven. Whether it’s the alleged bribery, the deaths of migrant workers, the last-minute reversal on beer sales or statements from players, there will be plenty to distract from the games. The test will be whether the games have the ability to drown out the noise.

The USMNT’s first game

In actual on-field matters, the U.S. will play its first game of the World Cup today at 2 p.m. ET against Wales.

It’s only the second World Cup appearance for Wales, and the country’s first since 1958. (It bowed out in the quarterfinals that year.) For the Dragons it all comes down to Gareth Bale, the 33-year-old winger who scored on a free kick against Ukraine in June to end his country’s World Cup drought.

"You kind of see it on the field, but being up [close] to him, literally, physically he’s like a specimen,” USMNT midfielder Kellyn Acosta, Bale’s LAFC teammate, said. “And then he does have that glow because when you admire someone, you kind of see them in a different light—just the way that he carries himself.”

In all likelihood, this will be Bale’s first and last World Cup. The pressure will be on for him to deliver and, as he showed in the MLS Cup earlier this month, he’s more than capable of coming through in the big moments.

The best of Sports Illustrated

Ahead of the U.S.’s World Cup opener against Wales, Brian Straus’s Daily Cover explores how this year’s team is similar to the 2002 squad that made the quarterfinals.

Straus also wrote about the one thing the U.S. and Wales have in common: a long wait for this World Cup moment (even if it was way, way longer for the Welsh). … The Patriots’ win over the Jets yesterday proved they have the best defense in the NFL, Conor Orr writes. … Pat Forde pointed out an interesting trend: the large number of first-year coaches in the college football top 25. … USC was the big winner in Richard Johnson’s college football rankings after Tennessee’s shocking loss.

Around the sports world

Coach Robert Saleh called the Jets’ offensive performance “dog s---” after they put up barely 100 total yards. … Matthew Stafford left yesterday’s Rams loss to be evaluated for a concussion. … Justin Fields hurt his shoulder on the Bears’ final drive. … Florida pulled a scholarship offer from a quarterback prospect after he was seen on video using a racial slur. … Tennessee quarterback Hendon Hooker will miss the rest of the season with a torn ACL. … South Carolina beat Stanford in a dramatic No. 1–vs.–No. 2 women’s basketball matchup.

The top five...

… things I saw yesterday:

5. The thrilling end to the Mavericks-Nuggets game.

4. Injured Chiefs receiver Mecole Hardman’s tweets during the end of Kansas City’s win over the Chargers.

3. Toronto’s championship-winning field goal block in the Grey Cup.

2. Travis Kelce’s game-winning touchdown catch.

1. This pinpoint pass by Patrick Mahomes.

SIQ

Which two Baseball Hall of Famers not only share today’s date as a birthday but also were born in the same small town?

• Cool Papa Bell and Chipper Jones
• Stan Musial and Ken Griffey Jr.
• Wade Boggs and Bob Feller
• Satchel Paige and Craig Biggio

Friday’s SIQ: Which of these players did not win an MVP award while playing for a team with a losing record?

• Alex Rodriguez
• Carlos Delgado
• Andre Dawson
• Cal Ripken

Answer: Carlos Delgado. He finished in the top five in MVP voting twice (fourth in 2000 and second in ’03) while playing for Blue Jays teams that finished the season in third place.

Here is the full list of MVPs who played for losing teams:

• Ernie Banks, 1958 Cubs (72–82)
• Ernie Banks, 1959 Cubs (74–80)
• Andre Dawson, 1987 Cubs (76–85)
• Cal Ripken, 1991 Orioles (67–95)
• Alex Rodriguez, 2003 Rangers (71–91)
• Mike Trout, 2016 Angels (74–88)
• Mike Trout, 2019 Angels (72–90)
• Shohei Ohtani, 2021 Angels (77–85)

Dawson and Rodriguez played for teams that finished in last place.

The fact that Trout and Ohtani are teammates and still make up such a significant portion of that list is a total indictment of Angels ownership. How hard can it be to build a winning team around those guys? Not as hard as the Angels have made it look, surely.

From the Vault: Nov. 21, 2011

Heinz Kluetmeier/Sports Illustrated

This is one of the issues that made me want to work at Sports Illustrated. I was in college when it came out, and the coverage of the Penn State scandal (from SI and other outlets) helped me realize the ability of strong journalism to hold powerful people accountable for their actions.

This issue of the magazine has three stories about the Penn State scandal. (Rarely do you see a topic covered so extensively in a single magazine, but that’s how big this story was.) The biggest was by L. Jon Wertheim, who detailed the enormous scope of the scandal, focusing on how Penn State enabled the abuses of former assistant coach Jerry Sandusky. For example, after assistant coach Mike McQueary told Joe Paterno that he had witnessed Sandusky assaulting a boy in the locker room, the school’s only response was to forbid him from bringing children on campus:

Sandusky’s alleged activity continued. It just moved elsewhere. The only two victims in the grand jury report whose identities remain unknown—whom authorities couldn’t contact—were the ones assaulted on the Penn State campus. Had Sandusky not been so brazen in Mill Hall [where Sandusky was a volunteer high school coach], had he simply restricted himself to the football facilities in State College, there is little to suggest he would have been caught. For Sandusky—if not for the boys—Penn State football was a safe haven.

Wertheim’s story is accompanied by shorter pieces by Tom Verducci (a Penn State alum), who wrote about how the scandal rocked a university community that prides itself on being tight-knit, and Jack McCallum, who wrote that the scandal would be a black mark on Paterno’s coaching career for as long as he lived. Little did McCallum know, Paterno would die less than three months later.

Check out more of SI’s archives and historic images at vault.si.com.

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