"Well before I get too carried away with all these phenomena which you can see around you every day, you have got to remember that even in that hotel in Atlanta, in the winter, the poor still crawl into the postmodern cracks and sleep at night. So I mean it is not as though that turning the world, as it were, hyperreal has somehow done anything other than make our situation more extreme vis-a-vis those people who have fallen, as it were, out of the loop altogether." - Rick Roderick, "The Self Under Siege, Lecture 8: Fatal Strategies"
We are living in the age of peak hyperreality in the NFL. At the risk, or rather certainty, of bastardizing Jean Baudrillard's thought, there was no better image of a simulation without a referent than NFL owners linking arms with players in response to the First Heel's latest outburst of race-baiting vitriol. With this empty gesture of solidarity, Colin Kaepernick's original protest went the way of all signifiers in our complexity-besotted world, engulfed in the noise of responses and recontextualizations from a million traditional and social media platforms. The result has been a series of political gestures that, in the moment, carry with them the ecstasy of the hyperreal--the giddy sensation of an event being meaningful because everyone is looking at it--followed by the enervating, "Rashomon"-like fragmenting of political perspectives.
But as the Roderick quote above attests, at the core of this hyperreality, like bad loans leveraged to the hilt by the financial sector, are the people "who have fallen, as it were, out of the loop altogether"--in the case of Kaepernick's protest, people who have fallen to police bullets, and in the case of the NFL, people who have fallen (or will fall) to CTE. When it comes to pro football, we'll see how long the simulation can sustain itself before it collapses into the black hole of exploitation at its core. And when it comes to the good ol' U.S. of A., well....[cue national anthem].
On to the picks....
BDT vs. Pelicans
Look for the Pelicans to swoop down and rudely disrupt BDT's dwelling in this countertitration special, with Gronk potentially offsetting Brady and weakness plaguing BDT's RB department.
Bloodz vs. TTM
The intra-draft class showdown of Winston vs. Mariota headlines this battle of Bushwick expats, but we predict that Jones and Fournette will pace the Blood Spinners as they knock TTM off the undefeated pedestal.
Girlz vs. Ferries
A combination of lingering injuries and tough matchups at the skill positions point to lean times for the Girlz this week, while the Ferries look to keep chugging on the backs of a resurgent Wilson and workhorse backs Cook and Ajayi.
Nauts vs. Hanging w Hooper
Signs of life from Cousins and OBJ last week have Nauts Corporate Headquarters leery of HwH, but we're still betting on rookie phenom Hunt to carry us through.
Polk High vs. psych dog
As psych dog's running backs gain steam, Polk High's blue chippers have been nothing if not erratic. Plus the hindsight provided by Ty Montgomery's lowball make it hard to pick against the PSAS's canine flagbearers.
Trichs vs. Dijonnaise
Despite Rodgers and Nelson relighting the romantic spark in a big way against the lowly Bears, we like the thunderbolt-wielding Todd Gurley and the Trichs to keep rolling this week.
Picks record to date: 5-7
We are living in the age of peak hyperreality in the NFL. At the risk, or rather certainty, of bastardizing Jean Baudrillard's thought, there was no better image of a simulation without a referent than NFL owners linking arms with players in response to the First Heel's latest outburst of race-baiting vitriol. With this empty gesture of solidarity, Colin Kaepernick's original protest went the way of all signifiers in our complexity-besotted world, engulfed in the noise of responses and recontextualizations from a million traditional and social media platforms. The result has been a series of political gestures that, in the moment, carry with them the ecstasy of the hyperreal--the giddy sensation of an event being meaningful because everyone is looking at it--followed by the enervating, "Rashomon"-like fragmenting of political perspectives.
But as the Roderick quote above attests, at the core of this hyperreality, like bad loans leveraged to the hilt by the financial sector, are the people "who have fallen, as it were, out of the loop altogether"--in the case of Kaepernick's protest, people who have fallen to police bullets, and in the case of the NFL, people who have fallen (or will fall) to CTE. When it comes to pro football, we'll see how long the simulation can sustain itself before it collapses into the black hole of exploitation at its core. And when it comes to the good ol' U.S. of A., well....[cue national anthem].
On to the picks....
BDT vs. Pelicans
Look for the Pelicans to swoop down and rudely disrupt BDT's dwelling in this countertitration special, with Gronk potentially offsetting Brady and weakness plaguing BDT's RB department.
Bloodz vs. TTM
The intra-draft class showdown of Winston vs. Mariota headlines this battle of Bushwick expats, but we predict that Jones and Fournette will pace the Blood Spinners as they knock TTM off the undefeated pedestal.
Girlz vs. Ferries
A combination of lingering injuries and tough matchups at the skill positions point to lean times for the Girlz this week, while the Ferries look to keep chugging on the backs of a resurgent Wilson and workhorse backs Cook and Ajayi.
Nauts vs. Hanging w Hooper
Signs of life from Cousins and OBJ last week have Nauts Corporate Headquarters leery of HwH, but we're still betting on rookie phenom Hunt to carry us through.
Polk High vs. psych dog
As psych dog's running backs gain steam, Polk High's blue chippers have been nothing if not erratic. Plus the hindsight provided by Ty Montgomery's lowball make it hard to pick against the PSAS's canine flagbearers.
Trichs vs. Dijonnaise
Despite Rodgers and Nelson relighting the romantic spark in a big way against the lowly Bears, we like the thunderbolt-wielding Todd Gurley and the Trichs to keep rolling this week.
Picks record to date: 5-7
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