Rivals United

Rivalries oftentimes, if not every single time bring out the best and the worst on people. As someone who is familiar with having to deal with things like this, it is refreshing that there are moments where you have the opportunity to chuck away the rivalry for a better cause.



Early on Monday, Everton put on a tribute for the Hillsborough 96, with the recently released findings from the Hillsborough Independent Panel that pretty much exonerated the Liverpool fans from any wrongdoing.


Everton tribute to the 96 who died at Hillsborough by emmysguysandgals

This is one of the many tributes that were conducted all across Britain during the weekend.

It was a very classy move by the Merseyside rivals to do this.

Still, even with the findings out, the quest for justice continues to see who is to blame for the 1989 tragedy and for them to be dealt with accordingly.

P.S. I remember the Ateneo-La Salle "Cory" game and how most, if not all, decided to chuck away their shades of green and blue and went with yellow in honor of the then-recently-departed former president.

Lebron and the Liverpool Shoe

Lebron James has said that he wants to be a billionaire athlete. To get there, he'll have to make smart marketing decisions with the stuff that he is responsible with. His latest effort to get to that milestone involves his latest plaything.

As part of his deal involving his sports marketing firm, LRMR Branding and Marketing, with the Fenway Sports Group just over a year ago, he secured a minority stake in the ownership of Liverpool Football Club. He already made his way to Anfield during the lockout to watch the Reds play. During that time, he gave the players custom-designed Beats by Dre headphones.

Now, he and his Nike cohorts apparently have designed a version of the Nike Lebron 9 Low sneaker, in what was termed as a marriage of an old passion (basketball shoes) with a new one (ownership of a football club). However, if you are a true Kopite, you will see some things that look kinda off.

If you can see there, that is not the Liver-bird, it is a more of a gryphon.

Those are 18 Premier League Trophies there, to mark the 18 championships. Unfortunately, the Premier League officially existed 20 years ago, and the last time Liverpool won a championship was in 1989-90, when it was still called the First Division. Here is a picture of that trophy:

What is especially interesting with this is that Nike's rival Adidas is the official outfitter of the Reds as of the moment, before the move to Warrior Sports.

It is rumoured that this version of the Lebron 9 will be released on May 5, in time for the FA Cup Final between Liverpool and Chelsea. Now we do not know if this colorway will be released given the backlash.

(h/t to The Big Lead and Yahoo!'s Dirty Tackle for the lowdown)

A Walk to Remember, from here to Hillsborough

If you are a Liverpool FC fan, the date of April 15 will resonate with you.

On that day in 1989, 96 Liverpool supporters lost their lives due to a human crush in a FA Cup Semifinal at Hillsborough Stadium. An additional 766 were injured from the disaster. It traumatized the community so much that it pretty much is a matter of fact that the Reds would rather not play any games on that date.

23 years on, Liverpool is faced again with a FA Cup Semifinal. This time, it will be at the iconic Wembley Stadium on April 14, where their Merseyside rivals Everton will be their opposition (the match is scheduled at 730pm in Manila).

There will be a moment of silence to mark the occasion, with a laying of flowers by the captains of both squads (Steven Gerrard and Phil Neville). A moment of silence will also be marked in the other semifinal (Chelsea vs Tottenham), with both teams wearing black armbands to commemorate the event. Liverpool also commemorated it last Saturday in their Premiership match against Aston Villa, which was the last match at Anfield before the anniversary of the tragedy.

Now there are a few Liverpool supporters who will be conducting a fund-raising campaign this weekend by running 76 miles from Hillsborough to Anfield. In solidarity with that effort, the Liverpool community in the Philippines a.k.a. the KOPinoys, will have a run of their own on Sunday, April 15, the anniversary of the tragedy. To be held at the University of the Philippines' Sunken Garden, the KOPinoys will be going around it seven times to approximate 15 kms (which is 9+6). There are no fees to be charged, the only request is to be clad in Liverpool gear to participate, as photo documentation of the whole event will be forwarded to the different Liverpool sites.

The meeting place is set at just outside the College of Business Administration at 6am. The run is to begin at 615am. Make sure to bring water bottles for this event.

I applaud the effort of the KOPinoys, led by Rick Olivares, for making this initiative.

Lebron James & Liverpool

We all know about Lebron and his desire to become a global icon. That is probably one reason why he left Cleveland for South Beach.
According to Wikipedia (which you may take seriously or not):

Endorsements

James has endorsement contracts with Nike, Sprite, Glacéau, Bubblicious, Upper Deck, McDonald's and State Farm.^[132][133] With Nike, James has released six signature shoe styles, and four additional shoes (20–5–5, Soldier, Soldier 2, Ambassador). He has acted in a 2007 series of commercials called "The LeBrons", as well as had his likeness voiced by Kenan Thompson in a 2009 commercial series titled "MVPuppets". In December 2007, James was ranked at #1 in the Forbes Top 20 Earners Under 25 with annual earnings of $27 million.^[134]

Now, Lebron, Inc. takes the next step in building his brand in an attempt to be a global marketing tool. He is now a minority owner of Liverpool FC. Yes, the team with the iconic anthem.


As such, maybe he is the magic talisman that would bring luck and hope to a star-crossed franchise. Wait, I think I have seen this scenario before...