Thursday cannon fodder: farewell breakaway chess emergency

Howdy TSFers! Aaron here, filling in once again for PDB. He didn’t tell me why he needed me to step in, so I’m going to make something up. Let’s see.

Paul could not do Cannon Fodder today because he is teaching robots how to love. It’s going to take all day. Actually, that’s not all that bad in terms of efficiency - well done PDB!

Wayne Rooney will pull on the England kit one final time
Wazza will wear number 10 and will take the captain’s armband from Fabian Delph when he is subbed on. I’ll admit, Rooney has grown on me over the years. He always took more flak than he deserved for England’s frequent inability to live up to (unrealistic?) expectations.

Christian Pulisic suggested that he would be open to a Premier League move
Personally, I think he’d look great in an Arsenal kit. He’d be the wide attacker the club has needed for a while. I’d probably even break my “no names on kits” rule for him.

Benjamin Mendy has surgery on his left knee
Man, that guy cannot catch a break. This time it’s a meniscus problem, which shouldn’t keep him out nearly as long as the ACL injury he suffered last season.

Only four points separate the top six in La Liga. How is that?
It used to be a two-horse race between Real Madrid and Barcelona almost every year, with Atletico Madrid occasionally making some noise. Now, it’s the most open title chase among the bigger leagues in Europe.

Championship clubs threaten to breakaway over new TV deal
Leeds, Aston Villa, and Derby are leading the charge. This can’t be good.

The World Chess Championship is happening right now
U.S. challenger Fabiano Caruana is attempting to unseat three-time defending world champion Magnus Carlsen of Norway to become the first American world champion since Bobby Fischer in 1972. The article mentions “the English Opening,” “the Petroff Defense,” and a “Reverse Dragon” — I don’t know what any of those are.

NFL moves Rams-Chiefs from Estadio Azteca to the LA Coliseum
The field was an absolute disaster. Click through and check out the pictures. Yikes.

Meet the 24-year old woman running a professional hockey team
Cecilie Olsen started out as a volunteer social media assistant for Manglerud Star in GET ligaen, the top league in Norway. Now she’s the GM, and I’m super jealous.

Washington Capitals dressed an emergency goalie last night
It happens once or twice a year in the NHL — one of a team’s goalies will get hurt / sick too close to game time to call somebody up, so the team will sign a local guy as a backup for the night. This time, it was Gavin McHale, a 31-year old goaltending coach for the University of Manitoba’s women’s hockey team.

An oral history of Nirvana’s Unplugged
Every so often, the TSF writers will ask each other for good, new music to check out. Nirvana is decidedly not new, but this was an interesting read about one of the bands that defined a genre.

US Army considering creating esports teams to boost recruitment
It wouldn’t be a CF from me without something esports. And boy, is this something. Fortnite, Call of Duty, Tekken, League of Legends, PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds, Overwatch, FIFA, EA Sports Madden, and NBA 2K have all been floated as possible games. Anybody here familiar with all of those titles?

And here’s a bonus fun fact for the road
The LA Rams are the first team in NFL history with a 9-1 record to also have a losing record against the spread.