Author: Scott Adamson

Clueless Movie Review: Justice League

By Scott Adamson
Adamsonmedia.com

“Justice League,” which opened nationwide on Thursday, is first and foremost a study of justice.

Batman (left) and Wonder Woman do battle against the forces of evil in Justice League. (artist’s rendering by Scott Adamson)

And when justice is part of a league, there are bylaws and dues, as well as games against tough opponents.

This is the main plot of the major motion picture, but the men and woman who make up the organization have their own stories which you may or may not know.

Batman, of course, dresses like a bat because his parents were killed in an alley coming out the back of a theater. I think they were watching “Left Behind” starring Nicolas Cage, so they left early.

Their murderer, Joe Chill, hated the movie so much he acted out in a most unfortunate way.

This made Bruce Wayne, suddenly a rich orphan, sad and mad. So, instead of becoming an ass hat, like a lot of rich people do, he became a crime fighter. And also a bit of an ass hat, at least as played by Ben Affleck.

Wonder Woman is an Amazon, but since she’s the most powerful of her kind I would go so far as to say she is Amazon Prime. According to Wikipedia, Amazon Prime brought in $6.4 billion in earnings last year.

You go, girl!

Wonder Woman, by the way, is Gal Gadot, who you may remember from “Wonder Woman.”

Flash (played by that guy in Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them) is a very fast person who doesn’t have a lot of friends because he’s a goober. His dad (played by the big naked blue guy from “Watchman”) is in prison for killing his mother, even though “Fantastic Beasts” actor doesn’t think he did it.)

Aquaman lives in the water but, in this movie, does not ride a giant seahorse. That kinda pissed me off because I really wanted to see that.

I don’t think this role is played by an actor. Best I can tell, he really is Aquaman.

And Cyborg is a former football player who became basically just a head and some shoulders but was hooked up to a box that turned him into a machine.

Sounds a little far-fetched, but whatever.

From left, Superman, Aquaman and Cyborg get ready to fight a special effects monster in Justice League. Not pictured is The Flash, who was too fast to draw. (artist’s rendering by Scott Adamson)

Ray Fisher plays Cyborg. You don’t recall seeing him in “Star Wars: The Force Awakens,” because he lost out on the role that eventually went to John Boyega, who is also in “Pacific Rim: Uprising.”

I’m looking forward to that.

And finally there is Superman, who some people thought was dead at the end of “Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice,” but actually just didn’t feel good and needed some extended bed rest.

Returning for his third appearance as the Man of Steel is the guy who used to date Penny from “The Big Bang Theory.”

They must fight Steppenwolf, who had eight gold albums and 12 Billboard Hot 100 singles before turning into an absolute dick. He is played by Computer Generated Imagery, one of the busiest actors in blockbusters, and controls an army of giant mosquito-looking things (also played by CGI).

Anyway, that’s basically the spoiler-free, opinion-free review. There is plenty of dialogue and scenes involving the characters, and if you like this sort of thing, you’ll enjoy it.

If you don’t, you probably won’t. I mean, don’t go in expecting Schindler’s List because Liam Neeson is nowhere to be found, although I did see him in a trailer for an upcoming movie where he’s talking to a bad guy on the phone.

But isn’t he always?

Also, since I could not obtain image rights to stills from the film, I have provided my own original artwork which is embedded in this review.

North Carolina FC jumps from NASL to USL

By Scott Adamson
Adamsonmedia.com

The United Soccer League continues to spread like wildfire.

And with its most recent expansion, the North American Soccer League was burned in the process.

On Thursday the USL announced that North Carolina FC will join Fresno FC, Las Vegas Lights FC, Nashville SC and a new franchise owned and operated by Major League Soccer’s Atlanta United FC in 2018.

In the case of North Carolina, however, the club is moving over from the NASL. That league is hoping for relief from the courts that will allow it to retain second division status: as of now, the USL will be the only Division II league in North America in 2018.

The United States Soccer Federation has denied the NASL DII status, due in part to its small footprint in the United States and Canada. It fielded only eight teams last season while the USL had 30.

“Today we are thrilled to announce the addition of another successful club to the USL,” USL CEO Alec Papadakis said in a statement. “We were very impressed with the level of sophistication of the operations and the ownership of North Carolina FC, led by their visionary owner and chairman Steve Malik. Steve brings a wealth of business experience to the league and has strong local community support.

“This is a first-class club with premier facilities, in a desirable market with a strong base of support – all the qualities that make a club successful in the USL.”

The NASL released a terse statement after the move was made official.

“The NASL confirms that North Carolina FC has withdrawn from the league. The NASL is proud to have supported professional soccer in North Carolina for five years prior to Steve Malik’s acquisition of the club at the end of the 2015 season. North Carolina FC’s departure from NASL represents the damage caused by the U.S. Soccer Federation’s decision to revoke NASL’s Division II sanctioning for the 2018 Season. The NASL remains committed to pursuing its legal claims to ensure that the future of its players, fans, and clubs remains bright.”

North Carolina FC just completed its 11th season in Cary, N.C. and was christened the Carolina RailHawks when it began play in 2006 – as a member of the USL. The team jumped to the fledgling NASL in 2010.

Last season while playing at 10,000-seat Sahlen’s Stadium at WakeMed Soccer Park, it ranked among the top 15 in attendance outside of MLS.

“We are excited to be joining the USL effective immediately,” Malik said. “The USL has seen tremendous growth, not only in new markets and franchises, but in the quality of play and fan awareness. We look forward to contributing to that growth in years to come.”

How about some ‘December Madness’ in the FBS?

With each passing Tuesday, the College Football Playoff picture moves closer to being fully drawn.

Out of Left Field is written by Scott Adamson. It appears weekly and sometimes more frequently if he gets up in the middle of the night and can’t go back to sleep. Follow him on Twitter @adamsonsl

I still think there should be a much bigger canvas.

While the Bowl Alliance was an improvement over the Bowl Coalition, and the Bowl Championship Series was better than both, the CFP is supposed to cure all of the Football Bowl Subdivision’s ills because it’s a PLAYOFF!

The party line can be found on the CFP website: “The College Football Playoff preserves the excitement and significance of college football’s unique regular season where every game counts.”

Actually, every game already counts, otherwise scores would not be kept and leagues wouldn’t have standings.

But yes, it is fun to have semifinals and a championship. If the season ended today, Alabama and Miami would meet in the Sugar Bowl and Clemson would play Oklahoma in the Rose Bowl, with the winners tangling in Atlanta in the College Football Playoff National Championship Game on Jan. 8.

However, that’s more like an invitational than a playoff.

If you want a real postseason tournament, you need to have all the FBS conference champions represented.

And before you argue that an expanded playoff would be too much for the student-athletes, please tell that to the Football Championship Subdivision, which has already seen its tourney grow from 16 teams to 24.

NCAA Division II actually has a 28-team field, and Division III features 32 schools.

But I won’t be greedy: I’ll go with a 16-team FBS field, which I think would work out fine.

There are 10 conferences, so the champions of those leagues would automatically earn a bid. The other six teams would receive at-large berths, which would be up to the playoff committee to decide.

This tournament would put an end to the Power 5 and Group of 5 dynamic, which – in reality – only creates two divisions within the FBS. Because let’s be honest: the College Football Playoff was designed solely for the blue blood leagues, despite what can be found on the CFP website:

“Every FBS team has equal access to the College Football Playoff based on its performance. No team automatically qualifies.”

You can change “FBS” to just “BS” in the first sentence.

The odds against a Group of 5 team making a four-team playoff are astronomical, so the best a “mid-major” can hope for is making a New Year’s 6 bowl.

What concessions would have to be made to accommodate an expanded postseason?

Only one, really.

The 12-game schedule teams currently play would need to be trimmed back to 11. That way, the schools that advance to the national championship game will play 16 games.

That’s a lot, but only one more than the current CFP finalists participate in.

Also, this would preserve the conference championship games in all leagues, which would serve as play-in contests for the tourney.

So, using the current standings in the 10 conferences as a guideline to populate our automatic qualifiers, the field would feature Miami (ACC), UCF (American Athletic), Oklahoma (Big 12), Wisconsin (Big Ten), Florida Atlantic (Conference USA), Toledo (Mid-American), Boise State (Mountain West), Washington State (Pac-12), Alabama (SEC), and Troy (Sun Belt).

That leaves six wildcard spots to fill, and the selection committee would figure out who those teams were, along with seeding the 16-team bracket.*

* Don’t get your drawers in a bunch if I didn’t list your team as a potential league champion. Again, just guidelines based on current records. I still haven’t found enough plutonium to generate the 1.21 gigawatts needed to power my DeLorean into the future, therefore I don’t know all 10 of the 2017 titlists.

And for those who think it’s ridiculous to put, say, the Sun Belt champion in the playoff, why?

One of the beauties of the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament is seeing the little guys go dancing, even if most of them don’t get to dance for very long. Plus, upsets can and will happen.

The first round would see No. 1 vs. No. 16, No. 2 vs. No. 15, etc., and be played at the site of the higher seed. That format would also be used in the quarterfinals, but then the semis could be set up as they are now – played in existing bowls around New Year’s Day.

But what about the other bowls?

You can still have them.

With 16 teams out of 130 making the playoffs, that still leaves plenty of room for classics such as the Bad Boy Mowers Gasparilla Bowl, Famous Idaho Potato Bowl and Dollar General Bowl.

Those who think bowl tradition is still a thing can still have their thing, while a more legitimate national championship tournament would bring the FBS in line with the rest of NCAA football.

Will a 16-team tournament ever happen?

I hope so.

CFP officials won’t admit it, but they’re already chomping at the bit to expand the field to eight teams. If and when they do, they’ll tell you a quarterfinal-semifinal-final format is the best way to determine a champion in big-time college football.

Yet once they realize how much more money 16 teams can put in their coffers, they’ll claim a four-round tourney is the greatest thing since the forward pass.

Just wait and see.