Seahawks Romp; Bezos Bails on Free Press; Bay Area Moves; The Black Hole; Racism Rages On

Congratulations to the Super Bowl champion Seattle Seahawks, the team with the best defense in football, an excellent running back in Kenneth Walker III, the offensive player of the year in receiver Jaxon Smith-Njigba, and a winning quarterback in Sam Darnold.

The New England Patriots, who had reached the Super Bowl after a 4-win season just a year ago, were no match for the Seahwawks defense.

One must wonder how the Minnesota Vikings feel today after giving up on Darnold a year ago, after he led them to 14 regular season wins, because of one bad game in the playoffs?

To put their future in the hands of J.J. McCarthy?

Good luck with that.

Bezos Capitulates: Once heralded as the Washington Post's savior, owner Jeff Bezos has turned out to be its executioner.

Last week the paper announced massive layoffs, including one third of its staff, 300 journalists and its storied sports department. 

The Post's sports section was known nationally for its investigative reporting and in-depth profiles. It was home to sportswriting icons like Shirley Povich, Sally Jenkins, John Feinstein, Michael Wilbon, Tony Kornheiser and Thomas Boswell.

The Post was also a champion of diversity at a time when the press box was virtually all-white and all-male. 

Emilio Garcia-Ruiz, who edited the Post's sports section for six years and now the editor-in-chief of the San Francisco Chronicle, was one of the Post sports editors who hired a number of women sportswriters.

Going forward, according to executive editor Mike Murray, the Post will reassign several reporters to cover sports as "a cultural and societal phenomenon."

All in all, this dismantling of the Post is a far cry from what Bezos promised when he bought the paper back in 2013.

"My stewardship of the Post and my support of its mission, which will remain unswerving," Bezos wrote in 2019, "is something I will be most proud of when I'm 90 and reviewing my life."

He reinforced that commitment in 2024, saying "The advantage I bring to the Post is when they need financial resources, I'm available. I'm like that. I'm the doting parent in that regard."

Instead, he has let the Post die, or wither away into whatever it is about to become. He has refused to support its mission and provide his financial resources, when even less than 1% of his reported $250 billion net worth could sustain the paper for a long time.

His abandonment of the Post is particularly distressing at this moment in America, when democracy and freedom of the press are under attack by the Trump administration.

As one writer, Brian Phillips, put it, "Bezos isn't destroying the Washington Post because it isn't profitable. He's destroying the Washington Post because he's calculated that a robust free press threatens the ability of his class to warp society around their interests."

Legendary Post editor Marty Baron put it more succinctly. Bezos shredded the paper "to ingratiate himself to Donald Trump."

The Post's mantra has been "Democracy Dies in Darkness." Thanks to Jeff Bezos, things are much darker today.

Bay Area Moves: It's been an up and down couple of weeks for the local pro teams in terms of signing free agents and making trades.

The San Francisco Giants scored a couple of very positive additions with the signings of center fielder Harrison Bader, an outstanding defensive player, and second baseman Luis Arraez, a three-time batting champion with a .317 lifetime average. Arraez bolsters the lineup, Bader bolsters the previously woeful outfield defense. Two solid wins for team president Buster Posey.

The Golden State Warriors, on the other hand, finally unloaded Jonathan Kuminga, a favorite of The Inside Track, along with Buddy Hield. In return, they got seven footer Kristaps Porzingas, an excellent player when healthy, which is...almost never.

Porzingas suffers from POTS (Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome), a disorder of the nervous system causing extreme fatigue and a rapid heart rate, and various leg, knee and foot injuries. He's played only 17 games this year.

Worse yet, his contract expires at the end of the season, so the Warriors may only have him for a couple of months.

It's anyone's guess as to how many games he'll actually suit up for. Right now he's tentatively scheduled to return to action after the All-Star break on Feb. 19.

Kuminga, on the other hand, may thrive in Atlanta and become the player many of us always thought he could be.

Maybe Porzingas will get healthy, sign a long-term deal, and surprise everyone. Or maybe he'll only play sporadically the rest of the season and then sign with another team.

Oh-for-Ten: The NFL likes to give lip service to diversity with its league statements, helmet tags, end zone posts and Rooney Rule interview requirements, but talk is cheap.

This year 10 teams, representing almost one-third of the league, were looking for new head coaches.

And no black coaches were hired. As in zero.

Roughly 70 percent of the players in the league are black. But no black coaches were hired. Robert Saleh, who is Lebanese, was the only minority coach deemed worthy of the opportunity. The NFL had six coaches as recently as 2024. It will have three this fall.

Acknowledging the problem, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell said, "We're reevaluating everything. We still have more work to do."

Ya think?

The problem here isn't the Rooney Rule, it is a group of extremely rich, extremely conservative owners who simply are not comfortable with minority coaches.

Many of them are supporters of Donald Trump, which leads us to our next item.

Racism Rages On: To honor the beginning of Black History Month, that paragon of diversity, president  Donald Trump, sent out a video depicting former President Barack Obama and First Lady Michele Obama as apes.

Seriously. 

Then, he refused to apologize for it and said he "didn't make a mistake" by posting it.

Just when you think he can stoop no lower, Trump proves yet again that with this degenerate, despicable excuse for a human being, there simply is no bottom.

Blatant racism used to disqualify one from public service.

Not in the current climate, in which Trump and his sick followers demonize people of color, call them "garbage", say they have "low I.Q/", roust them from their own homes to deport them, and separate them from their children.

Predictably, Trump said the selection of Puerto Rican singer Bad Bunny, the most popular performer in the world, to headline the Super Bowl halftime show was "an absolutely ridiculous choice". 

But the energetic singer, whose given name is Benito Antonio Martinez Ocasio, delivered an uplifting, emotional 13-minute performance built around the concept that "Together, We Are America," which was emblazoned on a football he held in his hand.

As the concert came to a close, another message appeared on the Levi's Stadium jumbotron: "The only thing more powerful than hate is love."

Unfortunately, those messages are lost on the current racist occupant of the White House, who claimed that Bad Bunny's performance was "an affront to American Greatness."

From this writer's perspective, it was a joyful example of what makes America great.