Some might say that the entertainment conglomerate known as sports rarely crosses over into the socio-politico stadiums.  But I am here to tell you that has never been the case.  As far back as the first few Olympic games in Athens, politics has had its dirty hand in athletic competition.  For example, a young woman named Helen won the women’s 400 meter dash and then was abducted by the Trojans which brought about a great war between Greece and Troy (rumor has it that during her abduction she tore her achilles tendon and retired from the sport).  

That’s just one instance of many sporting events being pressurized by the political climate. “The Thrilla in Manila”; “The Rumble in the Jungle”… well, frankly most of Muhammad Ali’s fights were politically charged, not the least of which was his fight to stay out of the war in Vietnam (which he also won).  And not only do these global sporting attractions involve the politics of the athletes but also the people surrounding the event itself.  In 2024, we saw Rio de Janeiro scrape together the finishing touches on sub par event spaces, stadiums and hotels, likely breaking labor laws and infringing upon human rights.  In 2024, the World Cup will be held in Qatar, the first time for the global event to be held in the Middle East, in an Arab country… and we’re already debating on how to pronounce Qatar.

The point is that if you read the title of this article and thought to yourself, “Politics has no place in sports” or some dynamic of that sentiment then I’m afraid you’re simply wrong.  Politics is sports.  Sports is politics.  It’s all very competitive and that’s why we like both so much.  And in Houston, Texas, our brand of politics is football.  Enter Colin Rand Kaepernick.

Colin Kaepernick made headlines in 2024 for his refusal to stand during the national anthem because “I am not going to stand up to show pride in a flag for a country that oppresses black people and people of color.  To me, this is bigger than football and it would be selfish on my part to look the other way.  There are bodies in the street and people getting paid leave and getting away with murder.”  Kaepernick’s protest made waves across the nation, inspiring many athletes, teams and organizations to follow suit.  Needless to say, many Americans were also disgusted by his manifestation of outrage.

That was last year.  It’s Trump’s Uhmerika now and Tom Brady’s Last Minute Militia won the Superbowl.  And wouldn’t you know it… Ol’ Kaepernick is out of a job.  The stat sheet certainly reveals that Colin Kaepernick did not have a good season and his former team, the San Francisco 49er’s, underwent a regime change (yeah, that’s what they call it when a team overhauls its organization… REGIME change).  I should mention that Colin Kaepernick plays quarterback in the NFL.  The Houston Texans lack a reasonable excuse for that very position.  So here we are, football talk.

Tony Romo, Jay Cutler and Colin Kaepernick: the top three free agent quarterbacks in the NFL right now.  Tony Romo is still technically under contract with the Dallas Cowboys but he should wrangle free from those shackles soon and is largely considered to be the best option for the Houston Texans.  Jay Cutler… gross.  How to explain Jay Cutler? Jay Cutler is like an alcoholic that tends bar and spits on patrons and walks in on women in the bathroom and maybe at one time was good at football in high school when he was skinnier and didn’t chain smoke cigarettes while watching internet porn.  To say the minimum, Jay Cutler is not a viable option for the pristine character or personal hygiene requirements of the Houston Texans.

Kaepernick’s outspokenness has clearly soured teams on hiring him to play the game’s most complicated position.  And I would argue it’s that very outspokenness that makes him perfect for the Houston Texans.

Tony Romo might be the only thing equally as white as our beloved JJ Watt.  He’s quarterbacked the Dallas Cowboys (albeit not very well in his few playoff appearances); he once dated Jessica Simpson; he took a vacation to Mexico before a big important game that he got paid for whether he won or not.  It wouldn’t surprise me in the slightest if he worked at Abercrombie & Fitch for a summer in high school.  That kind of white.  He’s not very complicated nor outspoken, making him the Houston Texans’ ideal candidate.  Boring.

Kaepernick, on the other hand, is complicated (he can run and throw the football) and outspoken. He’s also younger, more spry, less injury prone and has likely never even met Jessica Simpson.  

Let me briefly explain complicated: Hakeem Olajuwon was complicated, as was Muhammad Ali, Margaret Court, Yao Ming, Bill Bradley, Jack Kemp, Conor McGregor, Becky Hammons and many others who reached past the simple game they played.

Colin Kaepernick’s outspokenness reveals that he is not afraid of complicated socio-politico minefields, he’s rather courageous in that department.  I’m sure he knew his refusal to stand during the National Anthem would cause a shit storm and perhaps that’s exactly why he did it.  I’m okay with that personally, but I assume many of you either don’t care or hate it outright.  And that’s fine.  I only ask that for a brief moment you suspend your apathy or distaste and extrapolate from his outspokenness qualities you desire in a quarterback.

Kaepernick is not motivated by money (I’m not real sure how I just typed that, it just happened).  I should say he’s not completely motivated by money.  After all, he’s clearly lost quite a bit of his future value due to his very public protest.  And he knowingly did so.  But isn’t that a good thing?  Doesn’t that mean that Kaepernick recognizes the stage he plays on is a bit bigger than his weekly paycheck?  And don’t you want someone that can look past the dollar signs to fixate on a larger goal, like winning a Super Bowl (he’s already been to one) for a franchise/city that’s never been able to?  IN THE FOURTH LARGEST MARKET AND MOST DIVERSE CITY IN UHMERIKA!  

I’m not suggesting that we should roll out the red carpet for Colin Kaepernick.  He made an unsavory comment during one of our ridiculous floods last year (he has since apologized). So he’s not without faults, just like Tony Romo.  

The only thing this white man is saying is: Colin Kaepernick should be the Houston Texans quarterback because Black Lives Matter.

No, really.  Kaepernick has shown us that his mind is bigger and more complicated than the X’s and O’s on the field and I believe we need someone so savvy.

In my earliest teens I had so many friends who I had no idea at the time were just a couple of years away from the end of their lives.  It felt like every year I lost another friend and skateboarding was what kept me out of the troublesome things that they had all gotten into.  Though my first deck was a Hosoi, the first deck I bought was a Powell Peralta Tommy Guerrero model.  Watching the Bones Brigade videos and reading the mags, guys like Tommy Guerrero were the ones I could relate to the most.  Skating the streets, hopping off of jump ramps, and just using curbs, ditches, and pretty much any terrain we could find, it always felt like Guerrero was the one Brigade member I wanted to emulate the most.  When I reached out to him, I had no idea that I’d actually hear back.  Though Guerrero literally helped shape my teens through his skating, he’s been a busy guy since that time and he never really seems to look back.  Co-founder of Real Skateboards, an accomplished and critically acclaimed musician, and former art director for Krooked Skateboards — under the Deluxe Distribution brand who distributes Spitfire Wheels, Thunder and Venture Trucks, as well as Krooked, Anti Hero, and Real Skateboards — Guerrero doesn’t ever seem to slow down.  It’s refreshing to see someone who just lives in the moment and who incorporates all of his past and his present into his future.  Free Press Houston was more than thrilled to sit down with him and talk about all he’s done, all he does, and all he has in the works for the future.

Free Press Houston: You grew up in San Francisco where Thrasher is based, do you see San Francisco as the birthplace of street skating?  

You won the first street contest as an amateur, and you and Gonz both had pro models come out in 1985, but which one came out first?

Tommy Guerrero:  I don’t think San Francisco is the birthplace, but because of Thrasher being here they just reported on it more.  Things are happening simultaneously throughout the world, so who’s to say where the birthplace of street skating is.  We never really had a skatepark here after South Bay closed in 1980, so we just skated the streets cause’ that’s all we had.  Not many people in San Francisco have backyards or at least yards big enough for a ramp, so we skated street just based off of geography and necessity.  The terrain alone of San Fran made us ride street more than anything else.

Mark and I were the first to turn professional for street skating specifically, but I don’t know if his board came out before mine or not, so I don’t know who was first.  But you know, Lance [Mountain], [John] Lucero, and Neil [Blender] were all skating street before us.  They were just known more for vert skating.

FPH:  I know you don’t really get nostalgic, but when you were doing the Bones Brigade stuff, as it was happening, did it seem as revolutionary as it became known for?

Guerrero: We weren’t conscious of it at the time, we were just skating.  Thrasher and Powell got behind it so hard, which is what really pushed it.  I mean, when things happen, you’re in the moment, so it didn’t seem revolutionary at all back then.

FPH:  I’ve heard stories about skaters saying “Tommy bought us beers” or your (Mike) McGill smoking hash story.  I know the other guys were seen as “choir boys” by some of the other skaters of the time, but you guys drank and smoked out, right?  

Guerrero: No one did hard drugs, but we weren’t “choir boys” either.  Mostly just beer and occasionally weed, but that’s it.

FPH:  You and Jim [Thiebaud] started Real Skateboards in 1991, how big of a leap of faith was it to start your own brand back then?

Guerrero: It was huge.  We had no idea what we were doing in the beginning other than to just skate and stick to what we believed in.  Fausto [Vitello] and Eric Swenson gave us the money to order like our first 300 boards, or maybe it was 100, I forget.  Coming from Powell, I was paid off of royalties at a dollar a deck and that was it.  So coming into Real and taking a two thirds pay cut wasn’t easy, but I did it because I wanted to stay in skating for the rest of my life and it was important to do.  

FPH:  You guys have a pretty stellar team including possibly one of the greatest street skaters currently riding, Dennis Busenitz.  I see Busenitz and you having a lot in common where you both are tying two eras together, have you ever seen that as a common thing between you two before?

Guerrero: I’ve never really seen that, but the guys today stand out in two big ways being that they’re so technical and that they’re so consistent with their tricks.  Some of these guys are gnarly and effortless in how they come up with different variations of tricks.  When we first learned kickflips, we figured there were about thirty different ways to do them,  These guys today blow me away with how they can just keep taking things to the next level.  Because so many of them came into skating so recently, their starting point is off the charts already.  It only makes sense that they’d have the green light to just go nuts with it.

FPH:  I know you do art direction for the brands of Deluxe, do you still do graphics work or is it just taking what the artists work on and getting it to have the overall look that you want? Who’s idea was it to do the Trump deck?

Guerrero: I was doing Krooked hands on where Mark [Gonzales] would just send me the art and I’d handle the layout and the marketing of it all with the overall look and feel of the brand.  But the repetitive stress in my arms and in my hands along with being in front of the computer all day is not my place in this world.  So that all took a backseat years ago, and we have a really talented team of artists today.  So Jim will show me stuff and I’ll put in my two cents but that’s about it.  

Jim came up with that one.  He really likes to fuck with establishment.

Tommy Guerrero in Japan. Photo: Claudine Gossett

FPH:  Your grandfather was a jazz musician, you and your brother had a punk band that played with Bad Brains, DOA, and more; does it feel like music has helped shape who you are in more ways than one?

Guerrero: Yeah, completely.  Because skating and punk were still new back then with outcasts in both worlds.  With punk you didn’t need lessons, you didn’t need to learn “Louie Louie,” and you didn’t need a past in music, you just need that DIY energy.  When you’re a kid, when things are just fucked up, skating and punk back then were like saying, “fuck you” to the jocks and the people who beat you up.  Because when they’d come into our world, they were the outcasts, but we were the outcasts in the everyday world.  I can’t say this enough, but back then, skating was not cool.  The two worlds go hand in hand because skating and music are both built off of acceptance from your friends.  Music was another form of expression, and in a way, we’re all fuck ups.  But when you’re with your kind, things are just better.  Skaters see the world in a different way just in how we look at a red painted curb.  Every one else sees it as a red curb and that’s it, but a skater sees it as fun for hours.  We have seen friends die young while we grew up throwing ourselves into the ground for fun.  We’re different.  Not many people wanna’ fall down for a living.

FPH:  Your solo work feels like my impression of who you are in everything you do.  There’s a flow to it, especially on this last solo album, 2024’s Perpetual where it feels like who you are in that moment while embodying the vibe of the bay area.  Is that the goal, for it to be a flowing entity that exists in that moment and time?

Guerrero: To be honest, a lot of the time I have an idea of how to approach it.  On that one, I wanted to steer away from making an album in front of a computer, moving wav files around.  So I bought an eight track Tascam, and worked within the limitations of what I had in front of me.  The album before that one was darker and less open, so I wanted something with a sixties drum machine, a floor tom, and a surf almost desert rock guitar sound.

FPH:  The most recent album, Concrete Jungle from your group with Ray [Barbee] & Chuck [Treece], Blktop Project is all improvised correct?  Was that the plan from the start, to just go in and see what comes out?

Guerrero: We had a day and a half to record, because Ray is super busy, so we worked loosely on ideas and grooves.  We set up in a live room of the recording studio and the foundation of the album we did like it was a rehearsal.  We wrote a bunch on the spot, but that made it better I think because it was a challenge.  I go back and listen to it now and there are things on it that are really great moments.

FPH:  I know you just toured Japan doing solo sets and DJ sets, do you see the DJ sets becoming something you’ll start doing on the regular?

Guerrero: I’ve been spinning records for a long time now.  I have a friend who has a killer record collection who lets me borrow things, and since I turned 45, I decided to only spin 45’s.  I don’t use a Serrato or anything, but I wanted the tour to have a party atmosphere.  So I did the solo sets with just me and some looper pedals.  I wanted to spin the 45’s with a social type of gathering where I could do something different to change it up and keep it interesting for me and the crowd.  Because I go there alot and I really just wanted it to be a different experience for them so I don’t wear out my welcome by coming back again and again and doing the same ol’ things.  I also wanted to challenge myself by mixing it up.

FPH:  How did BS with TG become a thing?

Guerrero: I’d been talking about it for a while.  I love a good story, just BS ing with characters, especially skaters.  I love Steve Olson, and I’ve gotten to where I can get someone to just tell me story.  Originally I had planned to do it in a bar, you know how people will tell a bartender anything?  That’s the look I had in mind and I had a friend who was gonna’ let me use his bar, but it was complicated so I just got a camera and Frank [Gerwer] and we just did it.  He’s such a funny guy and so it made sense to use him for it.  It’s hard to have consistency because all of our videographers are all out shooting skaters.

FPH:  Are there dream guests for you or is it just a shoot from the hip thing on who does it?

Guerrero: Well, I’ve kind of gotten them all already.  I mean getting Mark [Gonzales], everyone in the skate community knows that there’s no one else like Mark.  He’s such a good guy and I’ve seen him give people the shirt off of his back before, literally.  He’s so funny and he has such great stories, plus knowing for so long I’ve gotten to see him through all of the incarnations of his life. Back when he’d come to my mom’s house she’d even be like “your friend Mark is a funny guy.”  I mean, I got Natas [Kaupus], the white unicorn of skating who never does interviews, Eric Dressen and Tony [Hawk], too.  I’d like to get Neil [Blender] and I really wanna’ do Ed Templeton but I wanna’ go down to where he is to do it.  [John] Cardiel is someone else I’d like to interview and [Geoff] Rowley just because he does what he does and just doesn’t give a fuck.  I went and did that one with Matt Hensley and we didn’t really talk about Flogging Molly, so I’d like to do a second one with him.  I mean, there are too many people in our history that I’d like to do but I’m unprepared.  I’m so fucked and I’m not the most organized person.

FPH:  You’ve lived a life under a lens, you come off as a guy who looks forwards and never backwards, but if you had the chance to go back and tell your younger self anything, what would it be?

Guerrero: Don’t be so stupid.

It’s insane and inspiring that Tommy Guerrero never seems to stop.  Between recording albums, playing shows, and running a skateboard company he still has the time to live in the moment without ever looking back.  You can find Real Skateboards at pretty much any professional skate shop, you can find his solo albums and work with Blktop Project in all of the digital outlets, and you can catch new episodes of BS With TG here on Youtube.  While he’s not one to relish the “good ole days,” he definitely doesn’t look on all he’s done without humility and grace.  Possibly one of the most humble guys you could meet, he’s definitely someone to admire as much today as he was thirty years ago.  

When I was 13 years old, I started skateboarding and it changed my life.  I skated every day from 13 to 17 and have kept it up at least three to five times a week ever since.  And while my skate heroes would change from icons like Mark “The Gonz” Gonzales, to more technical icons like Rodney Mullen, skateboarding has been a part of my life for many years.  As a kid in the suburbs, jump ramps, half pipes, and binge watching the same skate videos to learn tricks were what I did on the daily.  My first subscription to Thrasher came with the seminal album Bad Music For Bad People by The Cramps, and began a love affair I have for both music and skateboarding to this day.  Being a skater is like a tattoo that you can never remove, it immediately bonds you to anyone who’s ever tried to caveman a handrail or pull a hippy twist off of a launch ramp.  I also don’t know any skater from Houston who hasn’t skated the legendary ditch EZ-7, who hasn’t tried to cover a transition at Joe Jamail, or who doesn’t consistently look for new spots.  My bible was Thrasher magazine, through skating I was introduced to more “alternative” music and friends that I have to this day, and my skate shop was and still is Surfhouse.  But since no rider is complete without the perfect weapon, I decided to sit down with Carol and Lloyd Sandel of Houston’s Surfhouse, who’ve helped shaped so many lives through the purchase of little maple planks.  Nothing has really changed at Surfhouse since I was a kid.  They always stock the best products, it always smells like surf wax, and they’ve been at the corner of 34th & Ella since 1967.  My Protech helmet, at least 40 to 50 percent of my boards, and my Pro Designed kneepads were all introduced and sold to me by these two, and if you’ve never been in the oldest skate and surf shop in Texas, then you’ve definitely been missing out on one of our city’s landmarks.

Free Press Houston:  You two are both from Houston, correct?

Carol Sandel:  Yes, we’re both from the Northside and we’re both graduates of Sam Houston high school.

FPH:  What made you decide to open a surf and skate shop?

Lloyd Sandel:  I started the shop in the summer of 1967 in Spring Branch up the street from Henry Fry’s surfboard factory.  I had gone to California for college and I started surfing out there, and when I got back to Houston I was a mailman in Memorial.  The shop originally was to repair surfboards for BJ’s Surf Shop, but before we knew it, we were selling new surfboards and shirts, and it grew to something closer to what we do now.  We originally carried skateboards, back then called sidewalk surfers, because the surfers were into skating.  The surfers invented skateboarding and surfboard companies like Hobie, Simms, and Gordon & Smith were who made and sold the little skate planks.  We kept with both because both skateboarding and surfing exploded in popularity and as sports.

FPH:  Next year will be 50 years strong, does it feel like it’s been that long?

Carol:  Sometimes it does, but not really, it’s gone by so fast.  We’ve had fun the whole time, lots of ups and downs like any retail business; but it’s our family now.  

Lloyd:  When you’re younger or in your twenties, the concept of getting old or older is something that old people think about.  We’re older now, we’re fortunate in a lot of ways because we’re past the age of retirement, and we still can work.  We’re still married, we work together everyday, and we both still love it.  We’ve also taken on the elder grandparent role in the surf and skate communities, and everyone is so nice that it still brings us joy to do it.

Carol and Lloyd Sandel of Surfhouse, Photo: Rick Kent

FPH:  I know that you’ve always strived to carry the best in skate and surf products, has there ever been a product that you’d wished you could still carry?

Lloyd:  At one time we tended to carry what the industry calls “trendwear” items, like the latest shirt or shoe brands.  Town & Country, Bad Boys Club, Jimmy Z; we were the first to carry those brands in Houston.  But, after doing the accounting, we realized that we were selling more of our Surfhouse branded shirts than anything else, so that’s what we focus on mainly today.  It’s become such a large part of our business, that Carol has a list of people from around the world who want specific designs shipped to them.  The demand for the older sixties style designs is so high, that it’s hard for us to drop new designs.  We’ve even gotten into baby and kids clothes because people want those as well.

FPH:  As someone who’s seen trends come and go, do you think there’s a time when people won’t skate or surf?

Carol:  No, that’d be like if you said that people would stop playing baseball.  It’s become such a big deal now that I don’t see it ever going away.

Lloyd:  It’s also the only sport I’ve seen where the dads are cool with their kids, when the kids find out that their dad used to skate.  We have customers covering two or three generations, where the dad will say, “you set up my board when I was a kid, and now I want you to set up my son’s board too.”  Skateboarding is also a sport, where dads and sons can do it together.

FPH: Skateboarding has changed so much in the past 30 years, yet Surfhouse has been there to shape the lives of so many kids.  Do you see a time when local shops won’t be as important as they are in shaping a kid’s life, or in purchasing a board?

Lloyd:  I think that down the line, things could change because the internet is so huge.  But big box stores can’t sell pro quality items while paying someone minimum wage.  The knowledge of the salesperson and the quality of the product doesn’t fit into their business model.  A lot of times we hear from customers that we’re cheaper than what they can get online anyway, so while online is big; people generally get a better deal from us.

FPH:  You’re moving into a new location about 100 feet away, are there plans for Surfhouse to continue another fifty years?

Carol:  We’ll move into the new location being built behind us sometime next year, we think. We have so much stuff to move, I think it might be better to just take the walls with us instead.  

Lloyd:  We hadn’t planned on doing the shop another fifty years, but we still love doing it, so the plan is to keep doing it until we can’t anymore.

FPH:  You’ve helped shape the lives of pretty much anyone who’s bought a skateboard or a surfboard here, aside from pro skaters like Houston’s Ben Raybourn of Birdhouse, are there any pro surfers tied to the shop?

Carol:  We’ve never had any pro surfers tied to the shop, but the surfers used to come down here in the seventies.  As far as skaters, it’s about the same thing.  In the eighties, the skate companies used to tour and do demos, but they don’t really travel down here like they used to.  We still know who’s coming up in town, and we stay in contact with skaters we sponsor like the Sowle Sisters.  

Lloyd:  The North Houston skatepark is the largest skatepark in North America, and touring skate parks has become a thing nowadays where people will take vacations to skate parks around the country.  Little towns that have built skateparks have seen their economies boom because of it, and the Sowle Sisters take a vacation to the West Coast every year and skate all of the parks in-between.  So even without the pros touring like they used to, we still get plenty of visitors who want to see the oldest skate shop in Texas.

You don’t have to take my word for it on how great Surfhouse is, alongside pictures of Christian Hosoi with John “Tex” Gibson that don the walls of the shop are the facts that many pros are customers as well.  Mentality Skateboards’ Dan MacFarlane, John Gibson formerly of Zorlac and now owner and pro at Embassy Skateboards, and Matt Niemann of Cockfight Skateboards are all customers of Surfhouse.  You can see the surf cam here, you can check out pics of the shop on Facebook here or here, see them on Instagram here, or you can meet Carol and Lloyd Sandel everyday at the shop itself.  They’ll also be at EZ-7 this Thanksgiving for the annual Turkey Jam Contest, now in its 33rd year.

 
 
Cricket in Houston! Driving in downtown Houston on a Wednesday night. The traffic could be for many things. The Houston Rockets basketball team in town, or people just getting off work. No, the crowds tonight are for cricket.

Yes! International Cricket has made its way back to the Houston area. Some of the world’s former best players are in town to show how great the sport of cricket is to the world. Or at least to Houstonians!

The match at Houston’s Minute Maid park  is second in a three city tour across the United States. The first was at Citi Field in New York City on the seventh of November. Houston was the second, and the final match was in Los Angeles on the 14^th on November. The New York match boasted an estimated twenty thousand in attendance to watch Warne’s Warriors beat Sachin’s Blasters by six wickets.

The hope is to bring some of the biggest stars ever to play the sport in a team format to spread the game here in the United States. Shane Warne (one of the best known bowlers in the history of the game of cricket) along with Sachin Tendulkar (another one of the biggest names in the sport before retiring) organized this event.

“I got together with Sachin 13 months ago to talk about organizing this tour. We talked to other legends of the game and came up with a plan to do this three match tour,” Warne said after the match. “We have had success in having clinics and teaching the youth while also doing a lot of promotion for the game. Hopefully, the game will get bigger and you’ll see the United States in the next Cricket World Cup.”

Cricket  is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of 11 players each on a field, at the centre of which is a rectangular 22-yard-long pitch. The game is played by 120 million players worldwide, making it the world’s second most popular sport. Each team takes its turn to bat, attempting to score runs, while the other team fields. Each turn is known as an innings (used for both singular and plural). The bowler delivers the ball to the batsman, who attempts to hit the ball with his bat away from the fielders so he can run to the other end of the pitch and score a run. Each batsman continues batting until he is out. The batting team continues batting until ten batsmen are out, or a specified number of overs of six balls have been bowled, at which point the teams switch roles and the fielding team comes in to bat. The format played for the three tour matches was T20 ,meaning they play 20 overs with each team batting once (also lasting three hours).

Sachin Tendulkar, known as the greatest cricket player of all time, represents India. He is the only player to have 100 international centuries, and the first player to have a double century in a one day international. His name is bigger in South Asia than some of bigger known stars around the world. He is so popular in his home country that he has to have an escort where ever he goes and his name is always in the gossip news. Most of those in attendance are here to see him play.

You have to take gradual steps. You are not going to get forty-five thousands Americans watching cricket but it has to have a start. If we can get two percent Americans watching that is still a start. For years cricket was not played here. Now the whole idea now is to try to motivate as many young kids to pick up the cricket bat. To which we been doing. There are guys from American teams coming to train. I think this is the seed for something great in this country.

For the match itself, Warne’s Warriors finished 262-5, wining the match in Houston by 57 runs. They also went on to win the final match in Los Angeles at Dodger Stadium by four wickets. In that winning the three match series ended three games to one against Sachin’s Blaster’s.

The key is will the series come again to the United States? Warne was upbeat about coming back.

“I sure hope so, as we where treated first class in every way here.”

But the crowd made up mostly of South Asians was at twenty thousand in Houston. There was even less in New York. Though the crowds where passionately loud, some left when Tendulkar came out of play.

Cricket is in the parks of Houston and you can see it at the city run parks over the city, but it has to become more diverse and get more Americans to come out.  This tour is a start but if it does not come back it will be another blip that Americans ignore as a whole.

It does not feel like it but it’s time for Major League Soccer (MLS) as they celebrate their 20^th season.

Opening day in Houston for the Houston Dynamo brings a lot of change. This past Saturday’s matchup was the debut of the their new coach, Owen Coyle, and the opening of their 10^th season against the Columbus Crew. This was the first time in Dynamo history that they were under a new coach after being led by Dominic Kinnear since the club’s beginning.

Kinnear chose to leave the club and return to the Bay Area to coach the San Jose Earthquakes. Coyle, a Scotland native, comes to the club after success in England and Scotland.  This will be his first season in MLS after spending most of his career as a player and manager in Great Britain, having most recently managed the English club Burnley.  After missing the playoffs for the first time last year, he hopes to bring his magic to the club as he did with Burnley.

Also new, the Dynamo move back to the Western Conference of Major League Soccer after spending four years in the East. Returning to the club is Will Bruin, Brad Davis and Ricardo Clark. Also Tyler Deric taking over full goalkeeping duties from Tally Hall who left the club to go to the expansion Orlando City FC. The sell-out crowd of 22,351 expected nothing but the best.

The first half ended 0-0 with the possession being even but with Columbus having more shots on goal with four to Houston’s two, and controlling most of the possession.  Kofi Sarkodie was hurt after being hit in the head. Blood spiralled from the top of his head and he had to change into a clean jersey. The scary moment did not take him out of the match, though, as he is known as being one of the most dedicated players on the field.

In the second half, Giles Barnes scored the first goal of the season for Houston in the 66th minute with an assist by Kofi Sarkodie.  Barnes took a Sarkidie pass after he beat Columbus Crew’s Waylon Francis on the right edge of the penalty area. Tyler Deric kept a blank sheet with six saves and the man of the match.

Columbus controlled the ball for the most part, but where not able to beat the Dynamo defence. Deric made some outstanding saves at the end of the match to keep the score 1-0, giving manager Owen Coyle and the Houston Dynamo their first win of the season.

After the match manger, Owen Coyle was very happy with the performance of the team. “In terms of individual performance,” he said, “we had a array. Tonight every one of them showed commitment to their teammates.”

Coyle also added that having players who were committed to improving shows how great the team is.

“We still have some things to improve, but we will be back at it on Sunday to get ready for next week. I am happy that players come to me and ask what they can do to improve.”

“It was great to get a shutout to start off the season,” Man of the match Tyler Deric said afterward.

Coming in after Tally Hall was injured last year late in the season brought a lot of pressure on Deric going into this season, but he proved himself in his first match as he kept the team in the game with some super saves.

Koffi Sarkodie stayed on the field even after being injured.

“It felt good to get that first win,” Sarkodie stated after the win. “It’s a long season and we have a lot of work to do.”

Coyle and others on the team said what a tremendous talent Sarkodie is, as he is always the last one off the field after practice ,working on his play.

“Our back four and Tyler kept us in the game,” said Demarcus Beasley. “It’s a team effort, we don’t have a star player of a certain number 10. We have a team and we need everybody at 100% and Tyler was that man tonight. We have a lot to improve on, but at the same time it’s a great feeling to get the win.”

Beasley the star United States International was present on the left wing the whole night, and in the 81^st minute his shot went high over Crew Goalkeeper Steve Clark.

The Dynamo have little time to sit on their win, as they are at home this Friday night at the BBVA Compass Stadium  against the expansion Orlando City FC. Match time is 7:30 PM.

Art by Blake Jones

Modern (aka, “flat track”) roller derby is now entering its second decade. Modern derby was born in Austin, TX around 2024, but it became “official” in 2024 when the United Leagues Coalition formed, representing a handful of cities. The following year, the ULC morphed into the Women’s Flat Track Derby Association (WFTDA), a skater-run administrative body that oversees all aspects of game play from rules to safety to sanctioning to tournaments, much like the NBA and NFL — but different in some fundamental ways (more on that in a minute). While the game in its current form has roots from the 1930s, WFTDA legitimized fair game play and also fostered its international growth. While there are a handful of banked track leagues and leagues that skate under a different rule set, WFTDA remains, by several strides, the most common type of play you will see around the globe. The Men’s Roller Derby Association (MRDA) even plays by the WFTDA rule set.

While modern women’s roller derby appears feminist from the outside — with strong, powerful women engaging in grueling, team-based, full-contact competition according to their own rules — that’s probably because it is on the inside, too — whether or not skaters choose to identify as feminists. WFTDA requires its member leagues be majority-owned and -operated by the skaters of women-only leagues. Additionally, one tenet of WFTDA membership requires that each member league self-govern following democratic principles and practices. Each league must identify a minimum of two representatives to the WFTDA who are given duties within the organization, voting rights, and a voice in its operations and ruleset. Tournaments are run by WFTDA skaters. Rulesets are argued over by WFTDA skaters. Games are sanctioned by WFTDA skaters. Not only does WFTDA expect its leagues to self-govern democratically, but it holds itself, as a greater administrative body, to the same standard. No other major sports league in the history of American or International sports can stake that claim. What a radical idea. 

And in case you were wondering how WFTDA defines who “women” are, WFTDA scripted one of the first gender policies for inclusion of trans-identified skaters in competition, ahead of the International Olympic Committee. It’s not perfect, but unlike the IOC, it has greater leeway for self-identification and privacy and does not require sex-reassignment surgery.

So dedicated has WFTDA been to the promotion of the sport that the organization has attracted skaters to form leagues in all but one continent. Nowhere was this more apparent than the second inaugural Roller Derby World Cup (hosted by a private entity, but played with the WFTDA ruleset) in Dallas this past December. In 2024, the very first World Cup attracted 13 national teams. Two months ago, the World Cup had 30 national teams competing with Team USA taking the gold, Team England silver, and Team Australia won over Team Canada for bronze. New to the World Cup were the first teams from Asia (Team Japan) and Africa (Team South Africa).

While the full-contact nature of roller derby can lead to serious lower-body injuries (upper-body injuries are less common and concussions are rare), rollerskating is actually a low-impact sport. This peculiar property of roller derby also allows for a tremendous spectrum of body types to excel at the sport: there is room for everyone, one need only get through the intense training regimen. To highlight this point, one can look at the two world class jammers from the  2014 World Champion WFTDA team from New York City, the Gotham Girls All Stars. Suzy Hotrod, one of the most respected jammers in the world was a featured athlete for her muscular physique in the NSFW 2011 ESPN Body Issue alongside Olympians Apolo Ohno and Julie Chu. Her teammate, Bonnie Thunders, is even more decorated, with nearly double Hotrod’s point-per-jam averages at international championship level-play. And Thunders stands a few inches over 5 feet and barely broke a 100 pounds a few years ago. Her agility and speed set the gold standard for roller derby and she earned the nickname “the LeBron James of roller derby.” If anything has changed about Thunders, its been her — and countless other skaters’ in the top 10 teams — dedication to packing on the muscle in the off-season to keep up with the change in strategy.

Speaking of, strategy has been the biggest change in the sport in the past five years behind its breath-taking growth. The sport has become more controlled with short bursts of speed and changes of direction (mimicking hockey movements) than the traditional skate-forward-fast-turn-left of the early days. As a Canadian derby blogger writes, “thinking that the strategies that defined the banked track would survive forever on the flat one is equivalent to thinking that ice hockey strategies could be transported to field hockey: different surfaces, different games.” The nature of the flattened track allows for the game to function at multiple speeds, but most efficiently, at slower speeds. The slower speed also allows for greater foot agility. And while some may think that slower means lazier, the heavy focus on defense means that jammers have to increase their core strength to push against multiple-blocker walls. Blockers have to up their high-intensity interval training to constantly dart in all directions to maintain position over opposing jammers. This increased physicality means that skaters at the top of their games work out as much as five or six times a week, easily exerting 1,000 calories or more in a workout. High-competition skaters regularly do CrossFit in their spare time to keep up.

But, the big question remains — where it will go from here? This same question popped up in the 2024 documentary “Derby Baby,” which hinted that some skaters wanted to go pro or move into a relationship with the existing USA Roller Sports organization. There was a brief campaign in 2024 to have it included as one of the roller sports in the 2024 Olympic Games, but that lost. There was hotly contested internal debate about whether or not the sport was even ready, as WFTDA had made some significant revisions to rules in the previous years. The skaters that comprise the sport don’t seem to have any  answers to their direction, except that they want to continue growing the sport, it’s clear that no one wants to give up their autonomy. With its inherent “by the skaters, for the skaters” mission, why would any WFTDA skater want to give up that kind of self-determination?

2015 Season Preview

The 2024 season at Houston Roller Derby season starts Saturday, February 21 at 7 p.m. at the Bayou Music Center with a double-header of the league’s four home teams. The season continues every 3rd Saturday until August. Here is a look ahead of what to expect from the home teams.

The Brawlers

One of the biggest losses that The Brawlers will feel this season is long-time crowd-pleaser and jam skater phenom, Freight Train. The quick-footed tour-de-force recently moved from Houston to Austin, where she will very likely join the ranks at the ground zero of roller derby, The Texas Rollergirls. Missing, too, will be powerhouse Pattin Painz and stalwart D’Amity. But before you get too weepy, too quickly, the Brawlers will keep vets, Radium DK, Flyon Maiden, and 2xForce. Their biggest goal to a Champs run will be cultivating their returning skaters to take it up to the next level and making haste with up-and-coming rookie, Chi Chi’s Rodrigues.

The Valkyries

The thunderous goddesses return this season to be lead by vets, Hot Assets and Dutch Destroyer — both members of the Houston All-Stars. They will also be suffering a gap left by Goldie Bloxx who retired after almost a decade with HRD. But, the crowd will be happy to see the athletic and quick Speed’O return to jammer duties. This year should see sophomore, Kelly Killpowski, stepping up her derby game from her previous skating life as a hockey star. And the bright-eyed, bushy-tailed rookie, Tchaikillsky, will be joining them in 2024.

Bayou City Bosses

The second-placed Bosses will also be missing big talents from their offense in Photo Finish, and their defensive beasts, Mayhem Angelou and Sox Star. Returning to their deadly defense in 2024 are Jenetic Defect, Betty Watchitt, and Mommy Fearest. And, Big Bad Voodoo Dollie will continue to zip warp-speed around the track as a jammer, alongside foxy-sly Feisty this year. Keep your eye on rookie Pseudonym.

Psych Ward Sirens

Of all the teams returning in 2024, the Sirens had the smallest change in their lineup and will be returning with crowd-pleasers, Brand-aid, Jekyll and Heidi, Mistilla, and Singapore Rogue, all members of the All-Stars. Many will recognize the face of one “new” skater on the 2024 squad, The Angie-Christ will be donning skates once again from a several-year hiatus from home-team skating, though she’s been tearing up half-marathons across Texas. Additionally, SyRenge will be returning from a maternity leave to stand alongside vet Bustin’ Beaver on the jam line. Their offense will be rounded up with the ravenous upcoming rookie, Mad Cap’nCap.

Houston All-Stars

As with many WFTDA leagues around the country, the home cities of their respective All Stars rarely get to see the holistic display of talent at home. Much of All-Stars training occurs at closed practices and at multi-day tournaments out-of-town. Additionally, to a notable conundrum, many cities have trouble attracting crowds to All-Stars games. The treat of getting to watch the league’s best skate together as a team on the world-wide stage of international roller derby, or of seeing the skills of international skaters and teams, is somewhat lost on home crowds. If anyone knows why, send me an email to explain, because I don’t get it, but I might be biased as a rabid fan of international play.

The 2024 Houston All-Stars actually began their season in December with sanctioned and unsanctioned games against Team Columbia, Team South Africa, and the Sun State Roller Girls from Queensland, Australia. The All-Stars typically host home games at their practice space, Houston Indoor Sports, near I-45N and the Beltway. They have a tentative game against long-time rivals, Tampa in April, and another scheduled against the Oklahoma Valley Victor Dolls from Norman, OK in July.

At the end of 2024, the All-Stars took a dangerous dive in Division 1 rankings at one of the annual four WFTDA Regional Tournaments, losing all three games and placing last of 10 teams at the tourney. They are currently ranked 42nd from an all time high in the top 20 in 2024. They are painfully close to losing their Division 1 ranking and dropping into Division 2, if they don’t squeak above the 40th cutoff point by June. They will have a fresh start with returning coach, Spanky, as Chris and Dylan will be stepping down from coaching. The squad will be missing long-time vets from their offense, Brandi Brown (Brand-aid) and Freight Train. But they keep the ever-charismatic, talented, and sassy Death By Chocolate, HRD’s unofficial ambassador to all things derby. Nature abhors a vacuum, and it will be fun to see how the returning skaters and new rookies will fill the retiree’s shoes.

Regional Derby

If women’s roller derby is considered somewhat “underground,” men’s roller derby would be hovering below the earth’s crust. Despite having existed in a handful of cities for almost seven years, it’s taken much longer to get off of the ground. But, it’s gaining traction. The Rocket City Rollers in nearby Deer Park are fomenting a powerful group of lads in the HardWood Rollers. Catch one of their games to see what the guys are doing with the traditionally female sport. Hint: it is a bit different.

 Lastly, I’d be remiss to not say something about the Texas Rollergirls (Austin, TX). They are the godmothers of roller derby, but more importantly, remain one of the top leagues in the entire world, consistently ranked in the top 5, coming microscopically close to a world title in 2024. If you have the opportunity to catch one of their All-Stars game (The Texecutioners) or even a home game, grab it. Texas! Texas! Kill! Kill! Kill!

The opinions in the article are the author’s, only, and do not necessarily reflect Houston Roller Derby or the Women’s Flat Track Derby Association.

They ran like bugs fleeing bug spray. They grabbed their children and ran. They fell in heaps, gasping for air, their lungs and their eyes on fire.

Pregnant women birthed stillborn babies as they ran.  There’s photos to prove it. [Go ahead and click that link — no graphic images, just text, I promise.]

In the thirty years since, more than 15,000 additional people have died from lingering effects of the poison. Thousands more will pass the remainder of their lives blind, sick, and in pain.  Every single moment for the remainder of their wretched lives.

In the thirty years since, Dow/Union Carbide have continued to draw in billions of dollars in profits ($4.8 billion in 2024 alone), but they have yet to admit responsibility, properly compensate victims and survivors, or even clean up the abandoned plant (which continues to contaminate the groundwater.)  Their CEO, Warren Anderson, fled criminal prosecution in India, and is living a cushy life on easy street in New York’s Hamptons.

The Bhopal Disaster — the worst industrial disaster in the history of the world, was not the result of an accident or a mistake — it was the result of criminal negligence. Dow (Union Carbide) was fully aware of faulty safety equipment, but the billion-dollar corporation just could not be bothered to spend a few bucks ensuring the safety of the community where its operations lay, nor the safety of its workers, while raking in the billions.

In 2024, they did pay out a $470 million settlement, which comes out to about $500 per victim.  When asked about that paltry sum, Dow spokesperson Kathy Hunt said that $500 is “plenty good for an Indian.”

But what does this have to do with the University of Houston, its new stadium, and UH’s (Indian-American) President?  Well, last week, the University of Houston announced that it had sold the naming rights to its new sports stadium to the Texas Dow Employees Credit Union for 10 years, for $15 million. Check out this passage from the press release:

“With TDECU, we have a great friend of the University that shares our philosophy, values and mission. When two winning teams come together, great things happen,” said University of Houston President Renu Khator. “TDECU Stadium is a powerful symbol of our commitment to athletics and student success that will bring together faculty, staff, students, alumni and the city of Houston. We cannot thank TDECU enough for helping us to make this gift possible.”

[…]

“From the beginning of this process, we have been very strategic with how we chose our naming rights gift. We wanted an entity that aligned with our core values, cared about its workforce and its clients, invested in the community and the University. We’ve found that and more with TDECU,” said University of Houston Vice President for Intercollegiate Athletics Mack Rhoades.  [Emphasis added.]

Now, don’t get me wrong, I think it’s great that the Texas Dow Employees Credit Union, which has $2 billion in assets, is so generously supporting UH athletics even though so many Dow employees (and Dow’s neighbors) are sick from various cancers due to chemical exposure. I also think it’s great that UH has built a new stadium costing $120 million (well, only $105m after you subtract TDECU’s “generous” $15m contribution) at a time when it has raised tuition 25% since 2024.

Surely, I need not remind you of Dow’s practice of buying “dead peasant” life insurance on its employees, which list the company as the beneficiary of a deceased former-employee’s life insurance policy (rather than that employee’s family). So, Dow takes out life insurance policies on its workers, exposes those workers to hazardous chemicals, and then it gets a check when the poor wretch dies.

Aren’t they rad? Isn’t it great how they “share the philosophy, values, and mission” of the University of Houston?  Watch out world — when winning teams come together!  Shame on UH President Renu Khator for giving Dow Chemical this opportunity to green-wash their image after they said that $500 for a lifetime of suffering is “plenty good for an Indian.” Some Indians require $15 million, I suppose.

But wait–let’s look at President Khator’s last sentence again. “We cannot thank TDECU enough for helping us to make this gift possible.”  Am I the only one confused by this? Who is giving what gift to whom? Khator’s sentence implies gratitude on the part of UH for TDECU making it easier for UH to bestow a gift on TDECU. The fuck? Who is the “us” in the latter half of the sentence? It’s UH, right, because Khator speaks on behalf of UH. So…TDECU helped UH give TDECU a gift?  It just doesn’t add up — it’s like some kind of circular circle-jerk.

Anyway, the subject of naming stadiums and public monuments has been on my mind ever since Enron Field became Minute Maid Park.  Here is a status update that I shared on Facebook just a few days before the UH/TDECU announcement while I was on a road trip through the Midwest:

Louisville, KY has one stadium named for Kentucky Fried Chicken and another named for Papa John’s pizza. My hometown has a stadium named for a soft drink (Minute Maid Park) that was originally named for a corporation (Enron) that turned off grandmas’ lights (rolling blackouts in CA in 2024) even as it looted grandmas in an unregulated utilities environment (fabricating power plant catastrophes to jack up prices, por ejemplo). Papa John is a dickhead (net worth: $600m) who says he can’t afford to buy his workers health insurance because it will cost him $0.14 per pizza.  (Forbes has calculated that number closer to a nickle a pizza.)

Many years ago, when I first learned of the name change from Enron Field to Minute Maid Park, I asked my friend, “Remember when we used to name big public buildings and monuments after people we admired? What happened?”

“We ran out of them,” he said with a smirk.

But not really. There are tons of people I admire, who inspire me to better myself. Most of them are not famous (no celebrities and dramatic scumbags on “reality” TV) but there’s still a lot of them.

Anyway, Colonel Sanders chose 11 herbs and spices because 10 is too round of a number.

And let’s not forget that the Rockets’ old stadium (the Summit) became Compaq Center and then Lakewood Church ™.

So a few days later, after that Facebook post and after UH/TDECU made their announcement, I tracked down one of my heroes: Diane Wilson.  Wilson is a fourth-generation shrimper and a political organizer/activist who, since 1989, has been fighting Formosa Plastics, Union Carbide, and Dow Chemical (since their merger with Union Carbide) in her hometown of Seadrift, Texas.  She is a grandmother and a real, down-to-earth, rural, blue-collar bad ass whose very existence debunks the stereotype of environmentalists being out-of-touch, urban elitists with lots of book-learning but lacking in hands-on, real-world, practical experience.  She has been arrested close to 20 times, been on at least five hunger strikes, climbed a 70-foot tower, chained herself to it, and dropped a banner reminding Dow of their criminal negligence, been called an eco-terrorist by the Coast Guard for trying to sink her shrimp boat on top of the pipe where Formosa Plastics was pumping poisons right into the bay. She has been arrested more times and done more time in prison than the corrupt executives and managers at chemical plants and the politicians who help them cover up their crimes put together.

“It’s like a blow to the stomach,” says Wilson about the UH/TDECU announcement. “It’s like the world is upside down.”

I am not a UH alumnus, but I nonetheless propose renaming the Cougars’ new stadium the Diane Wilson Memorial Stadium.  Now there’s a heroine we should all be proud to claim! I recommend you head down to that great local socialist institution, the public library, and check out Wilson’s amazing autobiography, An Unreasonable Woman.  It reads like a cloak-and-dagger thriller, with leaks from whistle-blowers too scared to lose their jobs, leaks from executives wracked by guilt because their grandchildren were born with birth-defects due to their own chemical waste, corrupt politicians, corrupt regulators, small-town elite making deals with notorious, internationally-known polluting scofflaws, scores of dead dolphins washing up on the beach, and worst of all, attempts to buy off Wilson.

That last bit — her refusal to sell out, is really what earns Wilson my eternal gold star.  Too many people I know are willing to compromise, to make a deal with the devil as long as they get their own cushy position. In the first third of the memoir, Wilson tells how the Boss Hogg like local banker came down to the fish house where she worked in his three-piece-suit one day, asking why she had called for a town meeting to discuss their county being listed as number one for toxic waste in all the US.  That’s all she did — call for a meeting, and that was enough to raise the ire of the town’s elite.

A few days later, she went to the bank on a work errand and her cornered her again. Said he’d talked to the people at Formosa Plastics and they were willing to create a “community group” with her as the chairperson. She could give off the aura of oversight, call herself chairperson, have nominal oversight, rubber stamp whatever the company wanted, and draw a generous salary for herself.  In a town where she was quickly becoming a pariah, he offered her “respectability.”

But Wilson refused to be their pawn, and in the 25 years since, she’s learned just how corrupt the whole system really is.  She talks about the alphabet soup of regulatory agencies which do nothing but rubber stamp plans drawn up by industry. She is leaked information (as I mentioned) by employees who fear losing their jobs in the short-term more than their health in the long-term, by low-level government inspectors whose attempts to enforce existing laws are thwarted by their superiors, by higher-ups in the company who are wracked by guilt.  She is betrayed by family members, scorned by her town, rebuffed by her “elected representatives,” yet she persists, against all odds.

I cannot emphasize this enough, especially for those who insist on “working within the system” — Wilson has no such delusions.

“Hard core civil disobedience is the only way to go,” says Wilson. “I tried talking to the politicians. I wrote letters to my representatives, at every level — local, state, federal. I gathered signatures on petitions.  I tracked down evidence and took it to the regulators.  All I learned is that they were all in cahoots with one another — tipping one another off as to what I was up to.”

“Even Ann Richards,” Wilson adds, “she was supposed to be one of the good ones. Even Ann Richards wouldn’t talk to me.”

Wilson fought back.  She fought back against Formosa Plastics, which came to Seadrift because they had been forced out of their home in Taiwan for their awful record of pollution, she fought back against Union Carbide, whose Seadrift plant blew up in 1991, seven years after the Bhopal disaster, she fought back against President Bush in his rush to war and against the treatment of detainees at Guantanamo Bay.  She hasn’t yet managed to close Guatanamo or end the Iraq war, but she has won zero-discharge victories from Dow and Formosa.[Note: The technology for zer0-discharge, which means capturing and safely storing hazardous chemicals at their origin, thereby preventing them from poisoning the air, land, and water, that technology has existed for a long time. Zero-discharge was the goal of the US Clean Water Act of 1972, and all plants were mandated to be zer0-discharge by 1985. We are still not there — because these companies would rather pay fines and/or buy off judges, regulators, and politicians rather than implement these simple, existing technologies.]Despite this, like a true hero, Wilson remains humble. “When people ask me how I did it,” she says, “I tell them all they have to do is pick up the phone. You don’t need a 501(c)3 and grants and a grand plan. Just take the first step, and the road will rise up to meet you.

For the UH alumni in our readership who find this stadium name offensive, I suggest you follow Wilson’s advice and drop her a line here or tweet at her here:  https://twitter.com/UHpres

[UPDATES:  Here are a couple videos you might enjoy.  The first is a BBC interview with one of the Yes Men, a San Francisco-based activist/prankster group who made international headlines on the 20th anniversary of the Bhopal Disaster by successfully impersonating a Dow executive making apologies and promising amends on an international newscast (more details here and Dow’s hilarious response here).  The second video is the first installation in a 30 min short documentary about Diane Wilson called TEXAS GOLD.]

On June 1^st, BBVA Compass stadium was host to a “friendly” soccer match between Honduras and Israel. Both countries have the same national colors and a similar look to their flags. I am a big fan of futbol and I went eagerly to the match with my alt family from Honduras. I wore a Honduras jersey and was eager to cheer on this team, dressed to represent Honduras. To represent my own heritage as a Palestinian-American, I also brought my Palestinian flag. I made sure my flag was allowed (based on the size, etc.) and I was all ready to go. For the first 15 minutes of the match I stood up and cheered and stomped my feet with the rest of the crowd chanting “HON-DU-RAS” and waving my Palestinian flag, my colors vibrant and loud against a sea of blue and white…and apparently also racist. I was told I had to sit down, which I did, only to be told to get back up again and follow the manager of security away from the stadium seats and into the concession area. I followed, and there waiting for me were three more BBVA security personnel and four police officers. When I asked them what was wrong, the manager of security, Nathan Buchanan, told me I am not allowed to carry this flag because it implies a “racial slur” and it is in BBVA Compass Stadium violation. I asked him to show me evidence of his accusations and asked him how my flag, a part of my identity as a Palestinian-American, implies a racial slur. He could not answer whether he did not know or could not articulate why he was ordered to remove my flag and me from my seat. I was getting very emotional at this point, I had my flag wrapped around my neck like a scarf, and he said he would take my flag and “check it in” for me, that I was not permitted to return to my seat until I surrendered my flag. The Israeli government has banned Palestinians from hanging their flags outside their home, and arrests the occupants of the home for having it on display on their own land. Every day, in Occupied Palestine, Palestinians are denied entry to neighboring villages, to schools or their family’s home and in many cases to hospitals thanks to Israel’s apartheid state. Yes “apartheid,” that word implies racism, yet my flag implies a racial slur? I asked him several times if I could go back to my seat and he would spread his arms out to create a blockade with his body and his arms so I could not pass. “This is private property,” he said. I told him I paid for a ticket to enter. I could not keep my eyes from gathering tears, but forced myself from letting them fall. “What country are we in again?” I asked. “Just because Israel is playing a match, does that mean you should treat me this way? Because of my Palestinian identity? I am a U.S. Citizen!” I have attended many soccer matches, many of which at the Dynamo stadium, and I have worn a different national jersey every time. Why was I pulled away that day? Who ordered this singling-out and on what grounds? When I asked him if he would feel comfortable with his actions once my treatment became public, he offered a compromise which was that I could keep my flag as long as I did not wave it. The first half was nearly over; they were extended three minutes when I was finally able to return to my seat. I had spent over 15 minutes defending myself from being bullied. I missed the first half because I waved a Palestinian flag at an international match in my hometown. I am proud and honored to be an American, to be able to enjoy the civil liberties that people in many countries are not afforded, but I would have never thought that the influence of an Israeli soccer team on U.S. soil would compromise our most basic liberties.

I asked BBVA Compass Stadium to clarify their flag policy, to explain how a flag could be “racist.”  (I suppose you could say that all flags are “racist,” but still, why single out this one?)  This is what Houston Dynamo [parent corporation] spokesperson Gina Rotolo had to say:

The decision to not allow the Palestinian flag to be displayed during the game was based on the sole intention of maintaining the safety of those in attendance. The flag bearer was instigating the crowd, and we felt it was important to diffuse a potentially volatile situation as emotions began to escalate.

Of course safety comes first, so I asked Ms. Rotolo how exactly was Hammad  “instigating the crowd?” Did she threaten anybody or called for violence? Rotolo replied:

This patron instigated the crowd by waving the Palestinian flag in front of Israeli supporters.  Given that her actions caused emotions to escalate, the appropriate course of action, in our eyes, was to ask her to please refrain from waving the flag.

So…there you have it.  “This patron instigated the crowd by waving the Palestinian flag in front of Israeli supporters.” It is now considered “racist” for an American of Palestinian descent to wave her flag at fans of the Israeli soccer team.  The First Amendment can be suspended in a stadium built with taxpayer money because some Israeli soccer fans might be moved to violence by the mere sight of the Palestinian flag.  The good people of the Houston Dynamo Organization think that it is “racist” to merely remind Israeli soccer fans that Palestine exists. I am trying to imagine what the complaint sounded like.  “Excuse me, Mr. Buchanan, that flag over there is really pissing me off–causing emotional distress–and I might have to hurt the lady holding it so you better get four cops to impound that flag or else I’m going to beat her up and it will be all her fault.”

YOUR TAX DOLLARS AT WORK

Rotolo did not answer my questions about who complained, nor would she clarify the stadium policy on flags or how this flag violates that policy. She did not answer questions about which other flags are banned. According to Hammad, Honduras fans were shouting “faggots” and “motherfuckers” at Israel fans, and a fight between an Israel fan and a Honduras fan was going on just a few rows behind her, at the very time that she was removed from her seat…yet she was the one singled out for “instigating violence.”  Go figure.   [UPDATE: A previous version of this story implied that the head of security at BBVA Compass Stadium, Nathan Buchanan, reports to the Dynamo Organization. This is incorrect. Mr. Buchanan, in fact, reports the the Dynamo’s parent corporation, the Anschutz Entertainment Group.  My apologies. -HS]