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Off-Topic **** Qatar

Bottom line here is people are jumping to conclusions without a shred of evidence.

Hundreds of thousands of middle aged American males die suddenly every year.

It’s a scary thought, but it happens.

I’m not saying that’s what happened here, I’m just saying it’s a distinct possibility.

And I think it’s a little ridiculous to get all hyper emotional and jump to conclusions without even the slightest bit of evidence.

Like I said before, let’s see what the results of the autopsy are. We will have more to go on then. I wouldn’t rule anything out at this point, but let’s get some facts.
 
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LUSAIL, QATAR -- Grant Wahl, one of the most well-known soccer writers in the United States, died early Saturday while covering the World Cup match between Argentina and the Netherlands. He was 49.


U.S. media seated near him said Wahl fell back in his seat in the press box at Lusail Iconic Stadium during extra time and reporters adjacent to him called for assistance. Emergency services workers responded very quickly, the reporters said, and the reporters later were told that Wahl had died.


Wahl was covering his eighth World Cup. He wrote Monday on his website that he had visited a medical clinic while in Qatar.


"My body finally broke down on me. Three weeks of little sleep, high stress and lots of work can do that to you,'' Wahl wrote. "What had been a cold over the last 10 days turned into something more severe on the night of the USA-Netherlands game, and I could feel my upper chest take on a new level of pressure and discomfort.


"I didn't have Covid (I test regularly here), but I went into the medical clinic at the main media center today, and they said I probably have bronchitis. They gave me a course of antibiotics and some heavy-duty cough syrup, and I'm already feeling a bit better just a few hours later. But still: No bueno.''

From ESPN ⬆️

NOTE: “I could feel my upper chest take on a new level of pressure and discomfort.”

His own words. Classic descriptive symptoms of a heart attack. The old “an elephant sitting on your chest“, first year medical school stuff.

No I’m not saying that’s what happened, I’m just saying now we have a little more information.

Now if the autopsy comes back clean, then we can be somewhat more suspicious.
 
ithacane said:
Well I think they will now, yes! But if everyone just went to Qatar and played the game and went home afterwards, no I don’t think they would have

I remember up until probably the early to late 2000s, sports used to be just about sports. Politics and social justice were fought on their own playing fields. Sports has gotten into this garbage of now being a platform for other stuff. It hurts sports overall

Players and fans need to get back into separate states of sports and politics. Sports are where we all go to forget about all that other noise and enjoy a few hours of competition… we need to get back to that
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Well before the 2000s . Guys raising their fists at the Olympics. Jesse Owens? If you have a platform you should use it.
 
Sounds like he had an issue that wasn't treated or he didn't take seriously enough. We'll find out in time.

When conspiracy theories were flying though, I immediately thought the Saudi's would be the likely poisoner if anyone was. Extremely unlikely, so unlikely I wouldn't believe it without undeniable proof, but the House of Saud and Thani do not like one another in even the slightest.
 
Roncaneefc said:
Well before the 2000s . Guys raising their fists at the Olympics. Jesse Owens? If you have a platform you should use it.
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Yeah, you could even argue that sports protests have lit the spotlight on inequities that perhaps the mainstream was ignoring - Jackie Robinson's breakthrough into MLB followed by the Civil Rights era through the 1950's and 1960's, Muhammad Ali having his titles taken away and off to prison in protest of Vietnam and the draft, Curt Flood and MLB free agency, etc.
 
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ithacane said:
Well I think they will now, yes! But if everyone just went to Qatar and played the game and went home afterwards, no I don’t think they would have

I remember up until probably the early to late 2000s, sports used to be just about sports. Politics and social justice were fought on their own playing fields. Sports has gotten into this garbage of now being a platform for other stuff. It hurts sports overall

Players and fans need to get back into separate states of sports and politics. Sports are where we all go to forget about all that other noise and enjoy a few hours of competition… we need to get back to that
Click to expand...
1968 says hi.
bzo18hpk4n6m1h6zxezn.png
 
Too early to tell if this was a natural death or if there’s a few more layers to this.

But it’s crazy to me that some people are actually convinced that Qatar would never do such thing. Like what?

These guys have straight up admitted they don’t give a **** about all the migrant workers that died. The Saudi’s killed and dismembered Jamal Kashoggi for being a vocal opponent of Saudi government. It’s happening in Iran right now. This **** happens all the time in the Middle East.
 
Sports and politics have always been together. Sports have been used by politics and made big by them. They will always be connected, on every level.

With that out of the way... It stinks way too heavy here. Way too heavy.

The former maim executive for getting the WC was accused of torturing a Journalist for several days because of his reporting. I wouldn't be surprised if foul play was at hand.

The american journalist was given medicine to combat a cold that he suffered from in a hospital.
 
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Roncaneefc said:
Well before the 2000s . Guys raising their fists at the Olympics. Jesse Owens? If you have a platform you should use it.
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To what end?

What exactly did those moments accomplish?

To compare the fist raising to Jesse Owens is ludicrous.

Jesse went out and dismantled the supposed "Nazî supermen" in their home stadium. Truly remarkable and note worthy. He SHOWED the world he could beat their ***.

Fist raisers at Olympics...didn't change a **** thing.
 
Gi0logy said:
Too early to tell if this was a natural death or if there’s a few more layers to this.

But it’s crazy to me that some people are actually convinced that Qatar would never do such thing. Like what?

These guys have straight up admitted they don’t give a **** about all the migrant workers that died. The Saudi’s killed and dismembered Jamal Kashoggi for being a vocal opponent of Saudi government. It’s happening in Iran right now. This **** happens all the time in the Middle East.
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First of all, initially, there was a lot of jumping to conclusions. With no evidence.

Everyone knows what some of these actors are capable of, but there are much worse actors in the Middle East, and elsewhere.

Ever hear of China?

Bottom line, in absence of any additional evidence, this has all the hallmarks of the classic middle aged male sudden cardiovascular death. Listen to his own words.

In any event, I’m assuming there will be an autopsy.

Very sad for his family. Any death is sad for the family, a sudden unexpected death in a 49-year old in a foreign country even more so.
 
Roncaneefc said:
Well before the 2000s . Guys raising their fists at the Olympics. Jesse Owens? If you have a platform you should use it.
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JSmoot said:
1968 says hi.
View attachment 218778
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You can pick onesies and twosies here and there, sure. I was making a general statement that they were rare. Nowadays u have statements sprayed on the court or in end zones and whole teams kneeling during the anthems. U almost can’t escape it anymore… but back then it was the reverse… u hardly saw it
 
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Empirical Cane said:
To what end?

What exactly did those moments accomplish?

To compare the fist raising to Jesse Owens is ludicrous.

Jesse went out and dismantled the supposed "Nazî supermen" in their home stadium. Truly remarkable and note worthy. He SHOWED the world he could beat their ***.

Fist raisers at Olympics...didn't change a **** thing.
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Imagine if Owens decided not to go in protest.
 
ithacane said:
Well I think they will now, yes! But if everyone just went to Qatar and played the game and went home afterwards, no I don’t think they would have

I remember up until probably the early to late 2000s, sports used to be just about sports. Politics and social justice were fought on their own playing fields. Sports has gotten into this garbage of now being a platform for other stuff. It hurts sports overall

Players and fans need to get back into separate states of sports and politics. Sports are where we all go to forget about all that other noise and enjoy a few hours of competition… we need to get back to that
Click to expand...
there was a lot of stuff surrounding Qatar and FIFA when the cup was awarded. it was never going to be smooth to begin with along with Qatar refusing to play nice with their tourists (ironic bc Qatar is mostly foreigners in their pop makeup)

also, I guess you dont remember anything about sports and chose to forget all the times pre 2000 when social justice and politics took stage.

I guess, he just felt like doing this --
1670683083125.png



also this - https://www.zinnedproject.org/news/tdih/-muhammad-ali-convicted-refusing-vietnam-draft


come on w that bs. sports always intertwined some politics and world events into it. you just ignored it.
 
hoops156 said:
there was a lot of stuff surrounding Qatar and FIFA when the cup was awarded. it was never going to be smooth to begin with along with Qatar refusing to play nice with their tourists (ironic bc Qatar is mostly foreigners in their pop makeup)
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I agree… FIFA is corrupt as **** and just takes the highest bidder it seems

Praying for his family and hope they get to the bottom of the cause of death
 
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ithacane said:
I agree… FIFA is corrupt as **** and just takes the highest bidder it seems

Praying for his family and hope they get to the bottom of the cause of death
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honestly, im curious to see how smooth the body retrieval will be. im sure the state dept will get involved. I would obviously say that without an autopsy it looks like he did just suffer from a health event ((I saw some stuff in the stadium), but he also talked about his experience there (threats, etc.) so who knows what it'll reveal. I hope for his family and for other people there, it was just that. a health event. nothing nefarious. grant wasn't unknown when he went over there. all in all, Fifa shouldn't have given Qatar the cup but what's done is done. prayers to grant, his family, and friends. I was just talking to my friend today about how his podcast and reporting got me into soccer more and more. he was also a great basketball writer before covering soccer too.
 
hoops156 said:
honestly, im curious to see how smooth the body retrieval will be. im sure the state dept will get involved. I would obviously say that without an autopsy it looks like he did just suffer from a health event ((I saw some stuff in the stadium), but he also talked about his experience there (threats, etc.) so who knows what it'll reveal. I hope for his family and for other people there, it was just that. a health event. nothing nefarious. grant wasn't unknown when he went over there. all in all, Fifa shouldn't have given Qatar the cup but what's done is done. prayers to grant, his family, and friends. I was just talking to my friend today about how his podcast and reporting got me into soccer more and more. he was also a great basketball writer before covering soccer too.
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His retrieval will likely be complicated. In all likelihood, we'll ask the Qataris (they can be prickly) to allow one of our docs from Al-Udied AB (in Doha) to perform an inital autopsy. Once we get him back, he'll likely go to Landstuhl or perhaps Andrews where we have DoD-level autopsy capabilites.

Just my speculation...
 
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