Games, Games Everywhere!

Good gravy, there's a lot going on right now at the intersection of sports and culture. Let's not waste a minute!

We were going to start off by talking about the Olympics, but Lisa derailed everything by wanting to talk about the Crossfit Games, which started July 19. While the Crossfit Games seem to focus on athletes between the ages of 18-40, there are also "Teenage" and "Master" competitors. Today we learned that a "Master" is anyone over 40. That hurt... and we haven't even done anything. Nor do we plan to. Har har. We also talked about a new documentary about some of the competitors from last year's Games. Here's the trailer:

Then! Finally! The Olympics! They're not without scandal, of course, but Lisa looks forward to the table tennis competition, which should be fierce and not without intrigue. Brian's keeping a particular eye on steeplechase. John will be following trampoline gymnastics. Plus, y'know, other stuff. 

Oh, were we talking about the Olympics? Let's talk about them some more. It was Lisa's turn to bring in a rivalry, and she did not disappoint. Hopefully. (Tangentially related: A Romanian gymnast changed everything about the sport in 1976. We sort of discussed it. Lisa still cries when she watches the video.)

Shifting gears a little: What does it take to rebuild a team? What does that even mean in the current climate? The Bandwagoneers ponder the future of Illinois Men's Basketball in this regard. 

Social media had its ups and downs this week. We prefer to focus on the ups. Lisa is enjoying the roasting of English Premier League teams on Reddit, and John enjoyed this video annoucing an NFL retirement. Fun!

We have little doubt that things are gonna get crazy in the sportiverse these next few weeks. Due to the gentlemen taking vacations (EYEROLL), our next episode won't be ready until 8/11. In the meantime, tweet us your questions/requests for coverage/friendly missives/segment name suggestions to: @bndwgnpdcst  

Until then...