Fearless | Irish Rugby | Jason Kidd | YouTube Rabbithole
Alright @YouTheReader,
Today’s tune is on this fine No Football Friday is Fearless by Taylor Swift. For the fellas who listen to the song while reading the sports, please play Taylor’s Version. As you are all aware, it’s still on sight with Scooter Braun. This was the opening song of her album with the same name, Fearless. I’m sure it’s special to her because it won her first Album of the Year at the Country Music Awards. Remember, before taking over pop and pop culture, she got her start as a country artist.
She is setting the scene as a rainy night. Usually, that’s a tell for a sad song, however, she is with a guy she likes so there is a glimmer to the drizzle. Being that this was her sophomore album, she was 18, so I’m guessing the parking lot is high school? I’ll have to check with my fellow Swifties before confirming.
If you’re not aware yet, Week to Week Notes will have a Taylor Swift tune once a month thanks to the calendar my mother got me for Christmas. This was February’s track.
Here is what Taylor had to say about what Fearless means…
“This is a song about the fearlessness of falling in love. No matter how many break-up songs you write, no matter how many times you get hurt, you will always fall in love again. When I wrote “Fearless,” I wasn’t dating anyone. I wasn’t even in the beginning stages of dating anybody. I really was all by myself out on tour and I got this idea for a song about the best first date. I think sometimes when you’re writing love songs, you don’t write them about what you’re going through at the moment, you write about what you wish you had. So, this song is about the best first date I haven't had yet.” (Source: Way Back Machine)
Unbelievable that Taylor performed the Guinness Challenge at the Super Bowl. Huge for #GuinnessChallengeSeason, I’m not surprised she split the G while on the jumbotron. I had to capture the moment so you can remember it.
The original album of Taylor’s came out on November 11, ‘08. That fall was right around the time I got my first kiss. It was a Saturday afternoon, the varsity Pirates were playing the Little Brown Jug or TZ. Either way, it was a big rivalry game that got rained out midway through, so we went to a friend’s trap nearby, and played truth or dare in a closet under a staircase. Thank goodness she fearlessly picked dare because in truth there was some fear…I was so nervous that I nearly missed.
Anyway, here is more proof that Taylor couldn’t get enough Pints of Plain while dancing with her best dress in a storm of champagne at the postgame Super Bowl afterparty.
Sorry fellas on to the sports…
Ireland vs Wales | Sat. Feb. 24 at 9:15 AM ET
One of the pubs in The City where you can watch the Six Nations Match is Mary O’s Irish Pub, especially if you’re a part of the Fairfield University Rugby Club. If it’s your first time, make sure to get the scones and Irish soda bread as Mary O makes them herself. They are the best I’ve ever had (sorry Mom). Mary O also has young daughters who are huge Swifties so in between the Irish session music, you might hear some songs like Fearless on in the background.
Ireland and Wales first started playing each other back in 1882. This will be the 135th match between the two countries, as Wales has come out on top 70 times, Ireland has won 57, and they kissed each other’s sisters 7 times. Since August ‘19, Ireland has won 6 of the last 7 meetings - which includes the ‘19 Rugby World Cup warm-up tests, ‘20 Autumn Championship, and ‘20-’23 Six Nations Championships.
Peter O’Mahoney is back from his knock and will be making his 50th Six Nations appearance. He’s also back to captain the squad after Caelan Doris held down the role against the Italians. Ireland currently sits atop the Guinness Six Nations standings as they are 2-0 with 2 bonus points. Since ‘17, the Six Nations has used a bonus point system. For every match a team wins, they get 4 points. For ties, you get 2 points. If a team scores more than 4 tries, they get awarded an extra point. Losing teams can also pick up a bonus point if they keep the match close, as games lost within 7 or fewer points earn 1 point. Currently, Wales is 0-2, but they have 3 points because they kept their matches with Scotland and England extremely close and even scored 4 tries against the Scots.
The only other Irishman who has played more Six Nations matches than O’Mahoney are Rory Best, Ronan O’Gara, Brian O’Driscoll, Cian Healy, Jonathan Sexton, Conor Murray, John Hayes, and Paul O’Connell. Against Italy, Hugo Keenan picked up a knock of his own so he’ll be out for this match. Head coach Andy Farrell has decided to insert Ciaran Frawley into the lineup. It’ll be Frawley’s first start in green. The fellow red-head fullback was born in Sydney, Australia, but his family moved back home to Dublin when he was 3. Frawley has played rugby professionally for Leinster since ‘17 but has spent at least a month in New York as an investment banking intern for Morgan Stanley in ‘13. (Source: It’s what his LinkedIn says)
Half-ass Opposition Research
The origins of the last name Davis trace back to Wales as far back as 1284. Allegedly, we ran shit for a bit, defeating the Welsh Kingdom of Gwynedd in Flintshire, Wales, and holding a seat at the table as a distinguished family. We wrote many medieval manuscripts in England, and Scotland, as eventually, we expanded the Davis Empire outside of Wales. The name has a few spelling iterations including Davies.
Quick story on my more immediate family…on my mom’s side, Nancy G was born a Davis, but they were allegedly Davies (likely from England or maybe another part of Ireland). My Uncle T is adamant that when they came off the boat they were Davies and by the time they passed through Ellis Island, they were Davis. This was very common in those days as American immigration officers had difficulty with the name pronunciations with all the different accents or simply had a job to do and were just trying to move the line along as new immigrants past the Statue of Libery into New York mainland. As for my dad’s side, they somehow settled in Connemara. My grandparents were popping out so many Davis babies left and right, that they eventually had to buy an old beaten-down Bed & Breakfast Hotel for a home with some farmland in Letterfrack. There is probably a lot more to the story, maybe I’ll add it to it next time the Irish play Wales in rugby.
Unfortunately, with any popular last name, there were a few bad apples. For instance that dipshit Jefferson Davis. However, all in all, the name comes from David, which supposedly means “beloved, peace, and serenity.” That warms the heart a bit. You can check out your last name at the source below.
Since Week to Week Notes will cover local hoops and hockey tomorrow, I figured I could get in a piece about another one of my favorite players when I was a kid. Last February I did a profile piece on Bernie Williams (Baseball), Darelle Revis (Football), and Vince Carter (Basketball). This February on 2/2 we covered Derek Jeter, last Saturday it was Curtis Martin, so today it’s Jason Kidd. I promise this will be the last Favorite Player Feature of this calendar year as we head toward the important stretch of hoop&puck, plus baseball is right around the corner. Next year might get kinda difficult picking my 3rd favorite Yankee and 3rd favorite Jet. I think I’ll go with Dwayne Wade in ‘25 for hoops but don’t hold that to me just yet.
Jason Kidd was born on March 23, 1973, in San Francisco, California. His parents are Steve and Anne Kidd. His father is African-American and his mother is Irish-American. They had 6 children, with Steve working for Trans World Carriers as a controller and ticket counter manager while Anne was a Software engineer. (SnogBlogy) Due to Steve Kidd’s job, he was around for quite a bit of Jason’s childhood and got him active in sports early. As a kid, Jason’s first sport was soccer, which he played until the 2nd grade. Then he started to pick up a basketball. Kidd was an AAU hooper from an early age.
J-Kidd became a legend of the Bay Area when he attended St. Joseph Notre Dame High School. In high school, he won 2 team championships and as a senior was named the High School Player of the Year by USA Today. Some of his former high school teammates were also very good athletes, Calvin Byrd and Joe Nelson. Byrd would go on to play at Villanova while Nelson pitched for 5 big league teams before taking a front-office job with the Boston Red Sox. The Villanova alum said, “Regarding Kidd's ability to intimidate opposing teams in high school: By his senior year, his team was already plus 10 points just because he was on the team.” Nelson was also very complimentary, explaining, “There's a joy that comes with playing with Jason. I can't tell you how many guys - myself included - got hit in the face with passes that were on the money because they weren't ready. That's happened at every level Jason's ever played - that happens because we like watching him, too. I played in the big leagues. I played with some of the greatest athletes in the world, and without question, Jason is the best athlete I've ever seen in my life.” (Source: SF Gate) Even his high school coach, Frank LaPorte, knew he had something special with Kidd. “He did some things out there even that amazed (college) coaches. One approached me and wondered if he was a junior (in high school). I said, ‘No he’s a freshman.’ Everybody knew. As an eighth-grader, Jason Kidd was the talk of the town.” (Source: Geoffrey Live)
As a West Coast standout, Jason Kidd was recruited heavily with offers from schools all over the country. He chose to play in his home state, attending California at Berkley. As a freshman, Kidd was the team’s starting PG as he was 2nd on the team in scoring with 13 points per game while he assisted on a team-best 7.7 a game. Kidd became a breakout star during his freshman year team’s run in the NCAA Tournament in 1993. California made it to the Sweet-16 as the #6 seed, beating the Duke Blue Devils. Jersey City’s own, Bobby Hurley dropped 32 points but was no match that day for Kidd’s 14 assists. As a sophomore, Kidd put up even better stats with 16.7 points and 9.1 assists per game, but the Cali would get upset in their opening round against Green Bay. That sophomore season he improved upon his 3-point shooting as he shot 29% in 1993 to 36% in 1994. Nonetheless, Jason when he first entered the NBA had the nickname “Ason Kidd” because he had no “J” for jump shot. (Source: My Research on Basketball Reference)
With the 2nd pick of the 1994 NBA Draft, the Dallas Mavericks selected Jason Kidd. Only Glenn Robinson was picked before him in a draft class that included Grant Hill, Donyell Marshall, Eddie Jones, and 2 Fab Five members (Juwaan Howard & Jalen Rose). Kidd immediately stood out from this bunch as he went on to share the Rookie of the Year in 1995 with Grant Hill. Despite only averaging 11.7 points per game, the 21-year-old formed the “Three J's” with 2 scorers in Jim Jackson (25.7 ppg) and Jamal Mashburn (24.1 ppg) on his 7.7 assists per game. That would be the lowest number of assists per game he would average until he turned 38. In his 2nd season at 22 years old, Jason Kidd was an All-Star averaging 9.7 assists per game. Despite his wizardry, Dallas was terrible and the young PG was considered immature by his coaches so they sent him packing to Phoenix in 1997.
In Phoenix was where J-Kidd first made the NBA playoffs. Coached by former Celtic, Danny Ainge, Kidd grew up a bit. He made another All-Star team in his first full season with the Suns, but during the lockout season of ‘99 was when he started getting into MVP discussions as he came in 5th in voting while being 1st All-NBA and 1st Team Defense. That season he led the NBA with 10.8 assists along with 2.3 steals per game. He would go on to lead the Suns to the playoffs and the NBA in assists the following 2 seasons. After 4 seasons with Danny Ainge as his coach, the Suns would lose in the 1st Round of the playoff every year, and he once again had issues with a coach. This time Ainge was let go and Kidd stayed as Scott Skiles took over. Under Skiles, the Suns would defeat a Tim Duncan-David Robinson Spurs team, but were no match to the Shaq & Kobe Lakers. The Western Conference has always seemed to have been stacked with great teams and this era was no different as Kidd could not beat the Sacramento Kings with Chris Webber in ‘01.
In the summer of ‘01, Jason Kidd would be traded to the lowly New Jersey Nets for Stephon Marbury. New Jersey the previous season had gone 26-56. While the Nets did have some solid young pieces such as Kenyon Martin, Keith Van Horn, and Kerry Kittles, not much was expected of the team. Upon his arrival, Jason Kidd immediately changed the trajectory of the franchise. The Nets went from being 23rd in defense to 1st. With the help of rookie SF, Richard Jefferson, the team was a defense-first fast-break type of offense with Kidd playing QB. Kidd, who took a liking to head coach Byron Scott, led a balanced offense in ‘02 that featured Martin (14.9 ppg), Kittles (13.4 ppg), Van Horn (14.8 ppg), Jefferson (9.4 ppg), and Kidd himself scored 14.7 points with 9.9 assists per game. The exciting Nets team of ‘02 would make it to the NBA Finals but unfortunately ran into prime Shaq & Kobe, getting swept.
The following season in ‘02-’03, the New Jersey Nets decided to partner with the New York Yankees’ YES Network. Basketball to me at this point was a foreign concept because my family dons pinstripes and bleeds green, but we never really decided to pick a team to get behind. During the winter months when there was no Yankee baseball, I was still glued to YES Network and was pissed off that they were showing NBA games instead of Elston Howard, Phil Rizzuto, and Whitey Ford Yankeeographies. Eventually, I gave the Nets a chance and started watching them. I mean, at the time I was living in Westwood, New Jersey, so it makes sense. The ‘03 Nets would again lead the NBA in defense. After getting rid of Keith Van Horn, RJ picked up some of the slack in his 2nd season averaging 15.5 points per game. K-Mart also was an absolute beast these days. J-Kidd to K-Mart alley-oops were unreal. The Nets would again make the NBA Finals, only this time to lose to the San Santonio Spurs in 6 games. In hindsight, the fact that these Nets team even made it to the NBA Finals and lost to Shaq&Kobe along with the first edition of Duncan-Park-Ginobili is pretty remarkable.
During the ‘04 season, I first got my bearings on really what the NBA was. I got one of those mini basketball hoops kids put on the back of their bedroom doors, plus now I was interested enough to read Sports Illustrated’s NBA Preview. The Nets got off to a shaky start that year and decided Kidd once again didn’t see eye to eye with his head coach, Byron Scott. Even though at this point J-Kidd was known as a “coach-killer”, there was no way the Nets were going to give up on the PG that gave the franchise some life so they turned to assistant coach, Lawrence Frank. The Nets would steady the ship, sweep the Marbury-led New York Knicks, and take on the Detroit Pistons. In one of the more underrated playoff basketball series in NBA history, the Pistons would beat the NJ Nets in the Eastern Conference Semi-Finals. The series went 7 games and was an absolute blood bath as both teams were terrific on defense. Game 5 of that series went into triple-OT which featured a Chauncey Billups miracle from half-court. While the Nets would win that game and go up 3-2 in the series, they were gassed. They lost Game 6 at home and Game 7 in a blowout on the road. While of course, the players in the NBA today are much more offensively minded and skilled, there was a beauty to watch defensive rock fights like this as a kid.
The following season in ‘04-’05, the New Jersey Nets lost Kenyon Martin to free agency as he signed a bag to play for the Denver Nuggets. Jason Kidd and Richard Jefferson were somehow able to keep the Nets afloat and on the same day that the Yankees signed Randy Johnson, New Jersey traded for Vince Carter. I remember seeing that breaking news on YES Network. Randy Johnson and Vince Carter on the same day, I was stoked. Anyway, this edition of the New Jersey Nets was very exciting to watch. Vince Carter would end up being my favorite player growing up, but Jason Kidd was a close 2nd. Honestly, I was never much of a shooter in basketball so I tried modeling pieces of my game based on Jason Kidd. I obviously couldn’t dribble or pass like him, but I did pick up on the importance of being a smaller guy and boxing out. Kidd despite being a 6’4” PG, averaged 7.2 rebounds per game as a Net, played great defense, and he hustled. He also had an iconic free throw routine where he would blow a kiss to the hoop before shooting. (I didn’t do that either.) Nobody has ever topped it since.
Although they were fun to watch, the Nets didn’t stand a chance in the Eastern Conference as at this point the Pistons would beat the Lakers and almost repeat against the Spurs. The Heat would trade for Shaq and pair him up with D-Wade. LeBron was starting to emerge as the next guy and the Celtics had established their Big 3. By the time Taylor Swift had dropped Fearless, Kidd could tell the ship was sinking and the team would be moving to Brooklyn so he demanded a trade back to Dallas. Jason Kidd wouldn’t get his only NBA ring until he and mostly Dirk Nowitzki defeated the first season of the Miami Heat Big 3. Towards the end of his career, Kidd may not have had the same first step he once had on dribble drives, but he would shift his game to becoming a much better 3-point shooter. As. a Mav from ‘07 to ‘10, he would shoot an exceptional 43% from beyond the arc. By this point, Ason Kidd had found his J. “As I’ve gotten older, it’s just about timing, and not so much scoring 20 points or having 15 assists or 10 rebounds. It’s just being at the right place at the right time, and feeling that your teammates believe in you.” (Source: Geoffrey Live)
Not that Jason Kidd necessarily tarnished his on-court legacy by sticking around until he played for the Knicks in ‘13, but by then he was no longer the same player. Towards the end, while he was still a great passer and the smartest player on the hardwood, he was almost a shell of himself compared to his Nets days. Kidd also won gold in the ‘08 Olympics as Team USA’s Redeem Team as he was the point guard for the likes of LeBron, Kobe, Wade, and Melo. On that team, he only averaged 1.8 points per game but his 9.2 assists to turnover ratio was the tournament's best. That team was a juggernaut, winning by a margin of 40 points per game. Off the court, I should Note that Jason Kidd did tarnish his legacy quite a bit as he was arrested and pleaded guilty to domestic abuse of his ex-wife. He was also a moron who got behind the steering wheel of his car while drunk, totaled his car, and is lucky to be alive. This could be a lesson that sometimes your favorite athletes can make very awful mistakes. Not that in your eyes this might make up for these foolish actions, but since his playing days, he has started the Jason Kidd Select Foundation. It is a nonprofit aimed at giving young women an opportunity to excel on the basketball court.
For kids who may not have been around or watched him play, I don’t even really know who you can compare him to today. Maybe a bigger version of prime Chris Paul, but even with CP3, Paul was much better at getting his own buckets. When Kidd retired, he was #2 on the all-time NBA assists leaderboard, only behind John Stockton. Chris Paul today is less than 300 assists away from overtaking Kidd. Jason Kidd said he grew up emulating Magic Johnson, which makes a ton of sense. Kidd was a pass-first-floor general. Anything that he lacked as a shooter, he more than made up for in all other aspects of his game. He had eyes in the back of his head and was willing to make the impossible pass look like it was nothing. The guy was a wizard with the ball and a joy to watch play on the basketball court growing up.
YouTube Rabbithole
Cillian Murphy: The 60 Minutes Interview
My grandpa recommended this to me, cool interview, he’s the man.