Elon Musk and the Drake Maye Conspiracy

Conspiracy theories rarely begin with malice. More often, they begin with coincidence—improbable patterns repeating themselves, money moving in ways that defy common sense. I have had a view friends who are very attuned to these kinds of controversies, and once they grab hold of something it's like a mongoose fastened to the neck of a cobra.

FOR LEGAL PURPOSES I MUST NOTE THIS STORY IS A WORK OF FICTION

Drake Maye*

As soon as the Patriots won the AFC Championship I saw it in a flash, but like most level-headed theorists I had verify what I intuited. There was something fishy about the loss to the Broncos Sunday. It prompted me to go back and look at the game tapes--not the Pats & Broncs but the previous week. Was there something nefarious in the manner in which Bo Wix had his ankle broken? A second-by-second breakdown of the incident revealed something I hadn't noticed before.

Let's face it, the New England Patriots, a team most analysts had written off early, are headed to the Super Bowl. In the playoffs the Patriots have been widely regarded by analysts as outmatched, improbable finalists, but if you go back through the season, look how many games were decided by one or two bad calls by officials.

By way of contrast their opponent, the Seattle Seahawks, entered the playoffs with superior metrics across nearly every category that sports analysts love to cite: overall efficiency, defensive depth, injury management, and point differential. You would think the NFL would simply hand the Lombardi Trophy to the Seahawks while fans clustered around the halftime show.

What caught the attention of conspiracy-minded observers wasn’t just the wins, but the name Drake Maye, quarterback for the Patriots. On its face, the name means nothing. Until one notices Maye Musk, the mother of Elon Musk. At this point, responsible people stop. Conspiracy theorists, however, lean in.

From there, the questions begin—not as accusations, but as curiosities. What are the odds?

According to whispers circulating in betting circles, unusually heavy money began flowing toward the Patriots late in the season—money that didn’t align with conventional wisdom. Some gamblers described it as “confident” money rather than emotional fandom. Lines adjusted, not dramatically, but persistently, as if markets were responding to something they couldn’t quite articulate.

This is where the theory takes shape. Elon Musk, after all, is not a man associated with randomness. His public persona is built on systems, optimization, pattern recognition, and an open disdain for chaos. He has spoken often about simulations, probabilities, and the illusion of chance. To the conspiratorial imagination, that makes him the ideal unseen hand—not fixing games outright (too crude), but influencing outcomes through subtler, more deniable means.

Not bribery. Not rigging. Something more elegant.

The theory proposes that Musk, motivated by filial devotion, sought to honor his mother by orchestrating the perfect tribute: a Super Bowl victory bearing her name. The NFL, always sensitive to narrative and symbolism, would hardly resist such a storyline. A mother honored. A dynasty reborn. America loves a clean arc. 

 

Conspiracy theories thrive not because they are true, but because they are narratively satisfying. They impose intention where chance feels intolerable. Whether the Patriots’ run is destiny, coincidence, or simply good football is almost beside the point. What matters is how quickly we reach for hidden hands when outcomes refuse to behave. 

This kind of speculation has been going on for years. The controversial Drake Maye Conspiracy ultimately tells us less about football than about ourselves. It reveals how quickly coincidence becomes intention, how easily admiration for systems morphs into suspicion of control, and how stories rush in to fill the gaps where uncertainty lives.

The Patriots may win the Super Bowl. They may lose. Either way, the season will end as it always does—with explanations that feel insufficient to those who crave design. Conspiracy theories offer something comforting: the assurance that someone, somewhere, is in charge. That's why I am putting my money on Elon. I mean, the Patriots.

If reality refuses to cooperate, so be it.

* * * 

THIS STORY IS A WORK OF FICTION. It was conceived when I randomly noticed Elon's mom's name in a Wikipedia listing yesterday.

The Drake Maye photo is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported license.
For more information visit Wkipedia

It's Super Bowl Sunday: Is the NFL Rigged?

"Ready to Launch"

As most of us are aware, money is a big part of what this event is all about. In basic economic terms, it's a matter of supply and demand. There is only one Super Bowl per year and the stadiums have a finite number of seats. As a result, tickets come at premium prices and for this year's game the average ticket costs $6,800. If you think that's a lot, last year the average ticket cost $10,000. No kidding. It was in Los Angeles, and the home team was there on the field for that one.

Then there's all the gambling revenue generated. Over-unders and all kinds of other bets can be placed. Since much of this is black market activity, it's hard to say exactly how much money is riding on the various outcomes, but one estimate is that a half billion dollars is on the line tonight.

Then you have the money pouring in from companies that spend millions on advertising at this once-a-year event. The cost for a 30 second spot seems to rise with every passing season, now in the range of five or six million dollar. Advertisers who play this game do so because there's a massive captive audience.

Advertisers do more than just advertise during the game. Most have integrated campaigns that incorporate other forms of advertising and marketing including digital and social media, product placements and branded content. The big guys can easily spend tens of millions around this singular event.

Which leads some people to believe that the NFL has a vested interest in delivering a close game that keeps viewers watching all the way to the end so that advertisers get their money's worth and return again next year.

Sometimes it seems like a lot of games hinge on a penalty call by the refs, or the lack of one. Defenders of NFL integrity correctly point out that it's only one play, so it shouldn't really matter all that much. On the other hand, a single play can shift the game's momentum in a big way. How many times have we seen a fumble, interception or missed field goal spook the crowd and turn the momentum in favor of the opposing team? Those controversial calls by the refs can produce a sea change in a tight game. 

Conspiracy theorists are quick to jump all over those bad calls, and with the megaphone of social media the doubt gets carried off like dandelion seeds whistling in the wind. Controversial calls make many people skeptical about the integrity of the league. There's also the perception that the NFL favors certain teams or players.

None of this has been proven, and the NFL bends over backward to preserve the perception that everything's above board. The problem is, when it looks like you're trying extra hard to look clean, cynics jump on this as proof that you have something to hide. 

Alas. People will believe what they want to believe, no matter what anyone says.

* * * * 

As for this evening's game, it's only the 13th time the two number one seeds have come through the playoffs unscathed. Which of these will step up and dismantle the other?  Let's wait and see.

Photo: Creative Commons. Attribution: Andy Morffew 

What Is Financial Literacy and Why Does It Matter?

Here's a Tweet I saw recently. Seeking Alpha is an online community offering research tools, investment analysis  and forums for investors. 

Nathaniel E Baker
a senior editor at Seeking Alpha
https://twitter.com/natbaker

Stocks trim losses as traders realize lawmakers aren’t mentally equipped to do anything about any of this stuff anyway 

Seriously, we talk about teaching financial literacy in school. Maybe we should start by teaching it in Congress?

* * *

What is Financial Literacy?

According to Investopedia, financial literacy is the ability to understand and effectively use various financial skills, including personal financial management, budgeting and investing. The lack of these skills is called financial illiteracy. 

* * *

Having Money Doesn't Solve All Problems

Why? Consider these numbers, from another article by Tim Parker at Investopedia: "Why Athletes Go Broke." (See link below)

According to Sports Illustrated, 78% of NFL players who are retired for only two years file for bankruptcy, and after five years of retirement, 60% of NBA players suffer the same fate. According to a study in the  National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) as well, close to 16% of the NFL players in the study that were drafted between 1996 to 2003 also filed for bankruptcy within just 12 years of retirement. 

If you know anything about NFL salaries, they really aren't all roses. The median salary is still under a million dollars a year, and you can bet they work hard for it. The average NBA salary is 7 million though. Hard to believe that 60% of these guys are flat broke in five years, except that (a) they never learned basics of handling money or (b) who they could trust with their finances. Kudos to the survivors. 

If you won a million dollars in a lottery, who would you turn to to help you figure out taxes and what to do with the rest?

Sooner or later this is a skill you must learn to master.
Don't wait till it's too late, or you could have financial disaster.

Learning to live within your means and setting aside for the morrow,
Is better than the alternative future of having to beg, steal or borrow.

* * * *

Check out my poem, Futures and Other Investment Ideas 

Related Link

Why Athletes Go Broke

Flashback Friday: Super Bowl Weekend 10 Years Ago

FLASHBACK FRIDAY

This story below was written 10 years ago this weekend, not because the Cowboys were in the Big Dance, but because Dallas was hosting the game that year. It was a tribute to an organization that billed itself as "America's Team" and has been my youngest brother's team through the ages, a team that has won 5 Super Bowls and had some pretty illustrious years, especially under the much respected head coach Tom Landry. 

Football has become more than just another game. And the highlight of pro football is its crowning achievement, the Super Bowl. For fans, the Super Bowl means super hype, lots of spectacular spending on commercials and an opportunity to party with friends. For one day a year there will be more people watching one event than double the number of people on Facebook. (EdNote: This has changed.) 

Like the internet, its reach is global, and has been such since near the beginning. Not everyone is big on football, but there sure are a lot who are. This year's game will be held in Dallas in the new Cowboy Stadium which I mentioned in December when paying tribute to Cowboys coach Tom Landry, who played an instrumental role in making the Cowboys "America's Team" back in the Seventies. 

Another person who played an instrumental role in that era was quarterback Roger Staubach. For the record, Roger Thomas Staubach, incidentally, was born the same year as Bob Dylan and Jerry Jones, who became owner of the Cowboys in 1989 and proceeded to fire Mr. Landry. (He later admitted he handled that situation poorly.) To his credit, Jones built the new 1.2 billion dollar Cowboy Stadium with his own money and did not push that deal off on overburdened taxpayers, like other teams which I will not mention here. 

Staubach was a Heisman Trophy winner in college and learned early what it takes to remain cool under pressure. With Staubach at the helm, the Cowboys garnered their first Super Bowl victory, Staubach being named Most Valuable Player. Coach Landry described him as "possibly the best combination of a passer, an athlete and a leader to ever play in the NFL." 

Better luck next year.

Whether you win or lose, it's a highlight for any player to be in the "the Big Dance" and whether you win or lose you get a very nice chunk of change. One thing you don't get, however, when you are on the losing end, is that super ring. The Ring's the thing. Staubach has two. You only get them by being part of a team. “If you are a team player, it’s in the gut that this is a lot more special than any individual award,” Staubach once said. 

While leading the Dallas Cowboys from 1969-1979 the team never had a losing season. Here's a summary of his other career highlights and awards:
1985 Pro Football Hall of Fame Inductee
6× Pro Bowl selection (1971, 1975, 1976, 1977, 1978, 1979)
5× All-NFC selection (1971, 1976, 1977, 1978, 1979)
2× Super Bowl champion (VI, XII)
NFL 1970s All-Decade Team Super Bowl VI MVP
1963 Heisman Trophy
1963 Maxwell Award
1963 UPI Player of the Year
1971 Bert Bell Award Dallas Cowboys Ring of Honor 

O.K.... time to start getting ready for the Game. Anyone here checked out some of the commercials that will air later today? Chevy has a couple that are pretty cool. And who's slated to be this year's Go Daddy Girl? We'll soon find out.

 

Super Bowl Trivia: Who owns more Super Bowl rings than anyone alive?

See the answer HERE

* * * 

THE ABOVE was published in 2011 on Super Bowl Sunday. This year's answer to that last question is different from the answer of 2011. Tom Brady has 6 Super Bowl rings, more than any other quarterback, and is aiming to garner a 7th this Sunday in Super Bowl 54. The amazing thing is that he's making this attempt with a new team, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. 

This has certainly been the NFLs strangest year, due in large part to Covid. Most games were played in empty or semi-empty stadiums. TV viewers heard crowd noise generated in the same fashion as laugh tracks on sitcoms. The effect was surreal, almost turning these competitions into WWF artifice. 

A Comparison Between NFL Athletes and Musicians Like The Beatles

Last week I heard about Tony Dorsett and the sad news about yet another football pro with degenerative brain disease. It stimulated a whole range of thoughts, one of them being how the arc of a career for an athlete is so different from that of a musician.

For football players, you're fortunate to get fifteen years as a pro, and much less if unfortunate in a variety of ways. It's a rough game, even without the new rules. It takes a toll on the body.

On the other hand, look at a guy like Sir Paul McCartney. Sure, the superstardom of The Beatles lasted about the length of a so-so NFL career, but his life as a musician and performer was still in in its infancy. Dylan is still performing at 72. Leonard Cohen, CSNY, Yes and so many of the stars who filled cars, bars and auditoriums with their music way back when. Even Springsteen is going strong with (from what I hear) 4 hour shows in which he's shakin' and makin' it happen.

What do football players have to look forward to besides a lot of achin'? Especially those who have chewed through all their bacon. According to news reports, 78% of them also go bankrupt within five years of their leaving the game. Considering how much money they make, that is a heckuva lot of wasted capital being siphoned off to who knows where.

This is not to suggest that musicians never go bankrupt. Or never have injuries. Fame itself can be a dangerous experience, verified by the likes of Jim Morrison, Jimi, Janis, Kurt Cobain, Amy Winehouse and the short-lived brilliance of Basquiat.

Being a pro football player does seem to put you in a heady space. Cheerleaders and fans rooting for you from adolescence onward. If you're among the best you star in college, get huge signing bonuses and maybe even grab yourself a Super Bowl ring. You live for the moment, and get your heart broken in the moment. You usually have been working out while others were laid back, and you've made a lot of sacrifices for this adulation and the moola that comes with it.

Then it's over. You hang up your spurs. What next? The glory of those times will never return. With all that money you don't know who your real friends are and whose just hanging around to milk you. Your habit of "living large" is the only lifestyle you know. Now what?

Two Minnesota Vikings attended the church we went to when we lived in St. Paul in the early 80's. One of these was Wes Hamilton, starting guard for more than ten years. I asked him what he planned to do when he retired. He said he was going to buy a printing business and provide for his family. That's certainly a contrast from being on the field. I also remember him saying he's had his bell rung a few times. I'm hoping this hasn't taken a toll on him as it has for so many others.

Most guitar players never achieve the dream of record contracts and stardom, but most of the ones I know do keep making music, for the duration of a lifetime.


On the home front, there are a lot of music and performances happening this week here in the Twin Ports. Be sure to pick up a Reader, Transistor or today's Wave section of the DNT. And keep on keepin' on. 

Things To Do On Super Bowl Sunday

Hype: A fad. A clever marketing strategy by which a product is advertized as the thing everyone must have, to the point where people begin to feel they need to consume it. ~Urban Dictionary

I would be remiss to not acknowledge the highest profile pop event of the week here, so I will take a stab at bringing a few original observations to the table if such things be possible.

Traditions are an important part of all our history, both corporate and individual. Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, Independence Day, Easter, Valentine's Day... These events roll across our whole society once a year and even when we don't actively participate, we tend to be aware of them. The Super Bowl seems to have joined these esteemed occasions, and it wasn't always do.

Though many people still treat it like it's just another football Sunday and an excuse to party, for a lot of people it can not be just another day. I'm thinking here of the advertisers who put millions of dollars on the line to introduce or reinforce their brands. The ad agencies involved know that a "win" here will be worth millions in future contracts. A "fail" might cost some people their jobs and most certainly will bruise a few reputations.

For this reason, one of my annual rituals with regard to the Super Bowl has been to purchase a USA Today on the Friday before so that I can get an advance read on what commercials will be aired during the event, because until recently the commercials have all too often been the highlight of the game, creating the most anticipation and the most water cooler buzz the following day.

Another feature of the game is the gambling. The NFL may be a multi-billion dollar business, but the sports betting in this country must be on the high side of a quarter trillion. Or at least that's the number sports journalist Howard Cosell put out there before his passing in 1995.

Finally, there is the game itself. Usually it is about the players, but this year it seems the Big Game is taking a back seat to the wonder of a nationally aired sibling rivalry. Or at least that's how some of the pundits are playing it. The Harbaugh brothers keep insisting it's about the players, but since it became the most hyped annual event in sports it has never been about the players or the game. It's always been about "the story" with journalists looking for scoops under every bush and behind every closed door.

At what age did the younger Harbaugh begin to resent being picked on my his older brother? At what age did he vow to get even? Well, you can see it all right here on international television, right now... this afternoon, 3 February 2013.

There are, however, other things happening in our world besides the Big Game. This weekend at the Harrington Arts Center in Superior, Wisc., they are hosting The Willard "Bill" Palmer Legacy Celebration. Most outsider, when they think of the Northland they think of our beastly cold winters. Some think of our abundant natural beauty and still others perhaps think of this as the birthplace of Bob Dylan. But those who move here for any length of time soon become aware that this corner of the universe is a hotbed of accordion musicians. My father-in-law and brother-in-law were both accomplished on the instrument. And over time you find a lot of other closet accordionists influence by the Accordionaires among others.

This weekend the Harrington Arts Center has opened its doors to celebrate three days of memories surrounding the legacy of Willard Palmer. This man filled concert halls to capacity around the world. And it wasn't just about polka.

Thursday evening I had a chance to examine the bowels of this one-time Presbyterian church which now houses 1500 accordions from all over and of all stripes. Today, there will be guided museum tours and other events including a reading by Anthony Bukoski from his book Children of Strangers at 5:00-6:15 p.m. And yes, that means you'll miss the coin toss and kickoff.

Other suggestions depend on what part of the world you reside in. Museums haven't closed. Pool halls are open. There are probably some good books your working through. It may be you have snow to shovel.

Whatever your plans today, make the most of it. And tomorrow we'll turn the page for another year.

Super Bowl Sunday in Cincy

GLENDALE, Ariz.–Most Super Bowls never live up to the endless barrage of hype and tonight's 42nd version, held in a large Airstream trailer of a stadium parked in the desert, might not, either. But we'll either get history being made by the New England Patriots, who are on the verge of a level of perfection unknown in football, or we will see history denied by the New York Giants in a monster upset. ~ Dave Perkins, The Toronto Star

Well, there's nothing quite like having your own team in the Big Game. The Browns are not there, but Bill Bellicek, unquestionably one of the greatest pro football coaches of all time (unless they discover his brain is on steroids) used to coach the Browns early in his career. I liked him then so I will be rooting for him today. Go Patriots.

In case you have not heard, the Patriots are living a dream season. There are one step away from the magical undefeated season, only the second in NFL history, and the longest run yet. Supposedly football is a game where "any given Sunday" either team can win. But despite the era of free agency and huge egos, Bellicek has assembled a no nonsense, awe inspiring record of dynastic proportions. It's not supposed to happen this way, yet it has. Which means this guy is the real deal, worthy of being compaed to the greats, Lombardi and Landry.

For this reason, all eyes will be on Glendale. Or a least, seventy million will be... or is that seven hundred million? Who knows. I am sure the talking heads who host today's game will be letting us know.

In the meantime, however you spend the day, enjoy it. Preferably with friends. By tomorrow this game will be history, but a good friend is for ever.