The Sports Curmudgeon

Because I may not be able to post timely rants next week, let me use today to make a couple of brief remarks about ESPN.  I have been a consumer of ESPN telecasts since 1979; to say the network has changed/evolved over that time span is an understatement.

SportsCenter was the foundation piece of ESPN in 1979.  It was basically a newscast focused on sports; it is where you went to see highlights and to reallize the results of sports events from the recent past.  It had substance and virtually no glitz; the anchors for the program were reportorial and displayed almost no “personality”.

Compare that the SportsCenter today.  Now broadcasts are associated with specific anchors and most of them have an angle to their program.  Scott Van Pelt focuses a lot of attention on the gambling aspects of the games covered; when Michael Smith and Jemelle Hill anchored SportsCenter, I almost thought I had tuned into an hour of social commentary with a passing relationship to sports.  Anchors now make fashion statements in their presentation; in 1979, anchors wore a shirt and tie and a jacket and were seated for 99% of the program.

Personally, I think the scale has tipped too far in favor of “personalities” and “entertainment” at ESPN and I wish it would do a lot more “sports reporting” and presenting of “sports insight”.  And now you are free to flip me the bird and tell me you will not get off my lawn…

I mention this because Around the Horn will go off the air next Friday.  If ever there was a single program on ESPN other than SportsCenter that changed so drastically, I don’t know what it might be.  In the beginning the idea was sports debate with four acknowledged “experts” in sports.  Now the format has endured, but there is way too much focus on matters peripheral to sports and games offered up by people whose credentials as “acknowledged experts” is more than suspect.  In the old days, I cared about the opinions of people like Jay Mariotti and Bob Ryan and Woody Paige because they had gravitas.  Tune in today and most of the panelists evoke the following sentiment from me:

• Who’s that?
• Who cares?

Suddenly, the debate becomes a lot less interesting and when it angles off into social commentary as opposed to straight sports, it becomes worthy of channel changing.  At its peak, Around the Horn drew audiences of about 800,000; today the audience is about 300,000.  I will not miss the 2025 version of Around the Horn, but as audiences continue to decline for ESPN as a network, maybe a detached view of what happened to Around the Horn might be instructive for the ESPN mavens as they ponder the future of the network as a whole.

Finally, since all of today has been about sports broadcasting, let me close with a comment from a great broadcaster, Bob Uecker:

“Before broadcasting for 50-some years, I did TV, played 10 years in the big leagues, won a world championship – and played a big part in that, too, letting the Cardinals inject me with hepatitis. Takes a big man to do that.”

But don’t get me wrong, I love sports………

Yesterday, I mentioned that Rob Manfred has lifted the “permanent ban” on Pete Rose and Shoeless Joe Jackson choosing instead to see their banishment as a “lifetime sentence”.  I believe the beneficiary of that action is neither Rose nor Jackson but the Hall of Fame itself, which now has the opportunity to include two players whose on-the-field performances merit such inclusion.  Be aware; the ban on Pete Rose does not mean that some of his memorabilia is excluded from the museum portion of the Hall of Fame; there is plenty of that sort of thing on display there.

Clearly, my opinion is not universally hailed as a beacon of enlightenment.  Today, Sally Jenkins’ column in the Washington Post leaves no doubt that she thinks Rob Manfred was in an anatomically impossible posture when he made that decision.  Her column has this online headline followed by paragraph 1:

Baseball’s surrender on Pete Rose is a disgrace to the game

“Banning someone from baseball’s Hall of Fame is not a sentence to the electric chair, much as the worshipers of the emerald chessboard like to frame it so. It’s not a guillotine. It’s not denial of a second chance in life. It’s just a simple statement that says, ‘We will not enshrine you.’ We will not exalt and consecrate you, we will not immortalize you, we will not memorialize and reverence you under glass.”

Switching gears …  The full NFL regular schedule for 2025 is now released and many people have parsed every aspect of the slate.  Until we know which teams will be surprising – – both positively and negatively by the way – – it is hard to draw firm conclusions about many of the matchups and their timing.  However, four general observations jump out at me:

1. The Chiefs will have a prime-time game five times in the first half of the NFL regular season.  I enjoy watching the Chiefs, but maybe this is a bit much?
2. I am surprised that one of those early season prime-time appearances by the Chiefs is not on opening night against the Eagles in a Super Bowl rematch.
3. The Vikes will play in two “international games” in consecutive weeks this season.  The Jags did that last year.
4. Both the Cowboys and the Lions will play on Christmas Day after both of them played on Thanksgiving Day.  Why not “spread the wealth”?

Speaking of football scheduling, the folks in charge of the College Football Playoff have set the dates for the quarterfinals, semifinals and championship game.  The schedule for the first-round playoff games – which produced nothing of interest last year – will be announced later. Here are the “main course” games:

• Quarterfinal Games:
• Wednesday Dec 31 at 7:30 PM ET – – Cotton Bowl
  • • Thursday Jan 1 at Noon ET – – Orange Bowl
    • Thursday Jan 1 at 4:00 PM ET – – Rose Bowl
    • Thursday Jan 1 at 8:00 PMET  – – Sugar Bowl
• Semifinal Games:
  • • Thursday Jan 8 at 7:30 PM ET – – Fiesta Bowl
    • Friday Jan 9 at 7:30 PM ET – – Peach Bowl
• Championship Game:
  • Monday Jan 19 at 7:30 PM ET – – Game is in Miami FL.

That schedule returns college football to prominence on New Year’s Day.  When I was a kid and you could count the number of college football bowl games on two hands, there were four games scheduled for New Year’s Day and it was the biggest football orgy of the year.

• There will be no NFL Thursday Night Football game on Jan 1, 2026, meaning that the day will belong to the “amateurs”.
• All the NFL regular season games in Week 18 will take place on Sunday Jan 4.  So, there is no direct competition with the college guys for the semifinal games either.
• It’s enough to make me wonder if those two sets of “scheduling mavens” had a few chats” as they were doing their jobs…

Moving on …  The LA Dodgers are about to activate Clayton Kershaw and have said he will make his first start for 2025 on Saturday.  Kershaw underwent surgeries on his knee and his big toe in the offseason and has been working in Triple A games as part of his rehab work.  In five Triple A appearances, he threw 21 innings allowing 6 runs striking out 16 batters and walking four.  This will be Kershaw’s 18^th season in MLB – – all with the Dodgers by the way.  Over the course of that career, he has thrown 2742.2 innings in the major leagues and has struck out 2968 hitters – – more than one per inning.

Finally, these words about schedules from Henry Kissinger:

“There cannot be a crisis next week. My schedule is already full.”

But don’t get me wrong, I love sports………

MLB Commissioner, Rob Manfred, took Pete Rose, Shoeless Joe Jackson and a bunch of other folks off baseball’s “permanently ineligible list”  yesterday using the following logic:

• Rule 21 bans people who bet on baseball; it is there to protect the integrity of the game.
• Once people banned for betting on baseball have died, they can no longer threaten the integrity of the game.
• So, while Rule 21 continues to apply, the purpose served by Rule 21 is rendered moot.

The beneficiary of that decision is the institution – – The National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum in Cooperstown, NY.  A baseball fan who visits that site today knows for sure that Pete Rose had more base hits than any other person ever to play in the major leagues, but he does not have a plaque in the Hall.  That makes no sense; it made sense while Rose was alive and still involved with gambling and gambling entities, but it makes no sense now that he is dead.  At this point, it is possible for him to be part of the formal history of the game in Cooperstown.  Continuing to exclude him is simply another instance of “cancel culture” which makes some folks feel good but changes nothing.

Before concluding that this action by The Commish cracks open the door for players wearing the “Steroid Label” to get into the Hall of Fame, let me offer one argument”

• Rose bet on baseball and broke Rule 21.  It is not even an airtight case that Jackson did the same.  Neither player enjoyed an enhancement to their career stats as a result of gambling.
• Such is not the case with the “Steroid Guys”.  What they used are called “Performance ENHANCING Drugs”.  Some analytics guru somewhere needs to come up with an algorithm to give weight to such “enhancement”.

Moving on …  There was a comment attached to a rant last week about the Browns drafting Shedeur Sanders as a second QB in the 2025 Draft.  Commenter Rich pointed out that in 1965, the Jets took Joe Namath in the first round of the AFL Draft and took John Huarte in the second round of that Draft.  Since Sanders lasted until the 5^th round this year, it made me wonder if any “fifth round QBs” had ever “made it” in the NFL.  Thanks to Commenter Rich, I went down a rabbit hole.

1. Mark Brunell was a fifth-round pick by the Packers in 1993.
2. Bob Waterfield was a fifth-round pick by the (Cleveland) Rams in 1944.

That is all that I could find for the QB position but in searching through some old Draft lists, there were some extremely good players that came out of the fifth round of NFL Drafts including:

• Stefon Diggs – – Vikes – – 2015
• Kevin Greene – – Rams – – 1985
• Rodney Harrison – – Chargers – – 1994
• Lester Hayes – – Raiders – – 1977
• Tyreek Hill – – Chiefs – – 2016
• Robert Mathis – – Colts – – 2003
• George Kittle – – Niners – – 2017
• Richard Sherman – – Seahawks – – 2011
• Herschell Walker – – Cowboys – – 1985
• Mike Webster – – Steelers – – 1974

One other “fifth rounder” that bears mention here is Dick LeBeau drafted by the Browns in 1959.  Fans today know him as a top-shelf defensive coordinator – – which he was indeed.  However, he was selected for the Hall of Fame as a player well before people recognized him as an outstanding defensive coordinator.

And there you have the distillation of about 5 hours of digging and sifting through lists of fifth round picks thanks to Commenter Rick …

Switching gears …  Here is another potential rabbit hole for me to enter – – but I am not even going to try this one because it would take way more time than it is worth.  So, I will just set the question, offer one possible answer and leave it at that:

• Q:  If the Steelers do not sign Aaron Rodgers or trade for another QB, their QB room will be Mason Rudolph, Skylar Thompson and will Howard.  Is that the least impressive team QB roster ever?
• A:  Maybe not.  Once, the Cowboys’ QB roster was Quincy Carter (starter) with Ryan Leaf and Clint Stoerner as the backups.

            You make the call …

Finally, here is something to ponder:

“The word abbreviation sure is long for what it means.”

But don’t get me wrong, I love sports………

The “Blame Game” started early in this MLB season.  It began late last week when the Pittsburgh Pirates fired manager Derek Shelton.  Indeed, the Pirates have been disappointing this season; as of this morning, their record stands at 14-28, putting them dead last in the NL Central Division and in danger of losing touch with the rest of the teams there.  This is a surprise to me because in mid-September of last season, the Pirates were within hailing distance of a wild card playoff spot.  Remember, the Pirates shut down Paul Skenes by that time in the season because Skenes had already thrown a full season of college baseball before coming to the Pirates.  I do not question for a moment the decision to do that, but had he been available for three or four more starts last year …?

So, with Skenes set for a full season and some further development anticipated from youngsters like Oneil Cruz and Ke’Bryan Hayes, it appears to have been an offseason where the Pirates added a free agent or two.  Playoffs, here we come …  Not happening; if my scanning is correct, the Pirates offseason free agent dabbling amounted to signing Tommy Pham to a 1-year deal.  Pham is a decent player, but he is not the sum and substance of a “push to break through to the playoffs”.

Yes, the Pirates are underachieving so far in 2025 – – but it is only Mother’s Day for Heaven’s sake.  Derek Shelton is not the problem in Pittsburgh; the front office – – and maybe the ownership too – – is the problem in Pittsburgh.

Once the news of the Pirates’ managerial change hit the streets, that seems to have provided cover for the Colorado Rockies to fire their manager, Bud Black.  If you look at the standings, you can say that the move is totally justified; as of this morning, the Rockies check in with a record of 7-34; they are already 20 games behind the Division-leading Dodgers.

• [Aside:  At their current pace the Rockies project to a final record of 28-134 which would make last year’s Chicago White Sox look like world-beaters.]

The Rockies are not merely bad; they are memorably bad.  They lost a game last week by the score of 21-0; earlier this year, they lost games by scores of 17-2,10-2 and 11-1; their run differential is already at minus-129; the next-worst run differential in MLB today is the Miami Marlins at a measly minus-72 runs.  The Rockies cannot hit major league pitching very well and the Rockies’ pitchers cannot get major league hitters out efficiently; that is not a managerial issue.

Dave Roberts is the manager of the LA Dodgers; he has no “lack of talent” issues on his plate.  Roberts previously worked with Bud Black in San Diego.  Here is what Roberts had to say when he heard of the firing:

“I don’t think Casey Stengel could change the outcome of that ballclub, and that’s not the manager’s fault.  But obviously, they felt they needed a change in voice or direction.  But for me, there’s not many people that are better than Buddy Black.  So yeah, that’s very disappointing; it is certainly not his doing.”

Roberts allusion to Casey Stengel there is particularly cogent because it was Stengel – – unquestionably a competent manager of baseball teams – – who led the NY Mets in the first years of that club’s existence.  Here are some stats:

• In 12 seasons with the Yankees, Stengel’s teams went 1149-696 (win percentage = .623).  The Yanks won 10 pennants and 7 World Series in those 12 seasons.
• In 4 seasons with the Mets, Stengel’s teams went 175-404 (win percentage = .302).  The Mets finished 10^th in the NL in each of Stengel’s 4 seasons there.
• Casey Stengel was “out of baseball” for one year between his time with the Yankees and the Mets; clearly, he forgot everything about how to win baseball games in that hiatus.

So, if the current standard for managerial instability is underachievement/uncompetitive records, who might be next?  I would not advocate changes here, but two situations come to mind:

1. LA Angels:  For a while, the Angels led the AL West and were playing solid/winning baseball.  Then, the Angels went into a funk, and they are now last in the AL West with a record of 17-23.  Ron Washington is the Angels’ manager …
2. Baltimore Orioles:  Lots of people – – me included – – thought the O’s might win the AL East with a bunch of really good young players.  Not so; the O’s are last in the AL East with a record of 15-24.  The big problem is the Orioles’ pitching staff; they have injuries to starters and free agent acquisition, Charlie Morton, has been shelled almost every time out; his record is 0-7 and his ERA is 8.82.  Brandon Hyde is the Oriole’s manager …

So, is there any good news in MLB this morning.  If you want to feel good about something in baseball this morning, check out Aaron Judge and the season he is having.  The season is 25% over already and here is what Aaron Judge had been doing at the plate:

• Batting Average = .414
• OPS = 1.283
• RBI’s = 40
• Runs scored = 39

Finally, today has been mostly about losing and failure.  Here is what Bill Gates had to say relative to that:

“Success is a lousy teacher. It seduces smart people into thinking they can’t lose.”

But don’t get me wrong, I love sports………

Last week, a reader wanted to know my current thoughts about Bill Belichick.  I suspect these are not going to be satisfactory to many folks.  The BIG question in my mind about Bill Belichick is this:

• We know that he is a great football coach and that he had success at the NFL level for about three decades, but can those skills and coaching techniques translate to the Division 1-A collegiate level?

Currently, the “Belichick Story” has nothing to do with that question and had focused in on his “relationship” with a woman one-third of his age.  The intensity of the “investigations” into this “relationship” are even more smarmy than the relationship itself.  By all appearances, they are two consenting adults whose actions are scrutinized only because one of the participants is a “recognizable person”.  So, my current thought on the matter is to ignore this story for a week and it will dry up and blow away.

A secondary question in my mind about Bill Belichick is this:

• Does he really intend to coach football at UNC for real or is this merely a way to assure that his son gets that head coaching gig when Dad bails at the eleventh-hour and fifty-ninth minute?

Once again, a little “benign neglect” [Hat Tip to Daniel Patrick Moynihan] will yield an answer to the secondary question more certainly than any sort of “probing”.

Moving on …  I want to look at the offseason activities of the Pittsburgh Steelers; I think they have been unusual.  Correct me if I am wrong, but I believe the Steelers are the only team in my memory ever to jettison their leading passer from last season (Russell Wilson) and their leading rusher (Najee Harris) and their leading receiver (George Pickens).  I am not trying to say that those three players are great; they are all of “starting quality”, but for a team to clean house to that degree in one offseason is more than unusual.

I mentioned the Pickens trade to the Cowboys last week and I want to elaborate on it a bit.  George Pickens is not the best WR in the NFL, but he qualifies as a starter for a boatload of teams.  The Cowboys got him for a third-round pick in 2026 and a late-round pick-swap in 2027.  Excuse me, that appears to be a stone-cold bargain for the Cowboys who desperately need another WR for their roster.

My guess – – and it is only a guess – – is that the Steelers’ organization had had their fill of Pickens’ antics and just wanted him gone.  Last year, Coach Mike Tomlin said Pickens needed to “grow up in a hurry” after he got two unsportsmanlike conduct penalties in a game; and later in the season, Pickens was almost an hour late arriving for a scheduled game.  Now, before you conclude that the Cowboys are the clear winners in this matter, consider that the Steelers have a history of trading away talented wide receivers with “maturity issues” and surviving the aftermath:

1. In 2019, the Steelers traded Antonio Brown to the Raiders for what appeared to be a bag of beans.  Brown never played a down for the Raiders and ended his career walking off the field shoulder pads in hand in the middle of a regular season game for the Bucs.
2. In 2022, the Steelers traded away Chase Claypool to the Bears who subsequently traded him to the Dolphins in 2023.  Currently, he is on a 1-year deal with the Bills.
3. In 2024, the Steelers traded away Diontae Johnson to the Panthers who then traded him to the Ravens in the middle of the 2024 season.  After bouncing around on the waiver wire at the end of 2024, he signed a one-year deal with the Browns for 2025.

The Steelers seem to have a knack for drafting talented – – and flawed – – WRs and then trading them away for seemingly small prices and moving on as an organization.  It will be interesting to see how George Pickens fares with a star on his helmet.

Switching gears …  Darek Carr surprisingly announced his retirement from the NFL over the weekend.  Carr says he has a shoulder injury that requires surgery and rehab that would negate the entire 2025 season and thus he chose to hang up his cleats.  One report I read said that by retiring as opposed to having the surgery and going through the rehab and collecting the guaranteed money in his contract, Carr left $30M on the table.  Not to worry, if my calculations are correct, Derek Carr made something in the neighborhood of $200M over his NFL career; so, you are not liable to see him in a homeless state any time soon.

But leaving $30M “on the table” does make me wonder:

• Did the doctors tell him that the surgery/rehab would be arduous and that there is only a 50/50 chance for a full recovery?
• Does he realize his “fire for the game” is diminishing and his moral compass does not allow him to collect that $30M under “false pretenses”?

I obviously don’t know the answer(s) here, but I do know that the New Orleans Saints have a precarious QB situation now.  Here are the QBs on their roster:

• Jake Haener
• Spencer Rattler
• Tyler Shough – – 2^nd round pick in this year’s Draft.

We saw both Haener and Rattler in starting roles last year.  Neither one inspired much confidence.  The Saints have a rookie head coach (Kellen Moore) whose reputation is as an offensive innovator.  That situation could be fun to watch if it heads in a positive direction or it could be a massive dumpster fire.

Finally, since today dealt with football matters, let me close with something from Bear Bryant:

“If anything goes bad, I did it. If anything goes semi-good, we did it. If anything goes really good, then you did it. That’s all it takes to get people to win football games for you.”

But don’t get me wrong, I love sports………

Back from a couple of weeks in Europe visiting Dublin, Budapest, Vienna, Passau, Ringenberg, Nurenberg and Prague.  I am not quite in sync with the Eastern Time Zone of the US and I am not nearly caught up  on all that transpired during my European adventure; nonetheless, I will try to do a quick skimming of the surface regarding the last couple of weeks in sports.

In the NBA Playoffs, the Lakers went out in Round 1 losing to the Timberwolves.  Only once in 5 games did the Wolves fail to hit triple digits on the scoreboard which indicates a porous defense for the Lakers.  Indeed, in the high-profile trade where the Lakers acquired Luka Doncic for Anthony Davis, what the Lakers did was to trade away their only strong defender.  So much for the conspiracy theory that the NBA engineered the trade to get the Lakers into the NBA Finals – presumably against the Celtics – to goose TV ratings with the two blueblood franchises in the Finals.

Speaking of the Celtics, they are trailing the Knicks 2-0 in that second round series.  In both victories, the Knicks rallied from 20 points down on the road to win those games.  Game 3 is tomorrow in Madison Square Garden…  If that game does not draw a big TV audience, the NBA is in trouble.

Gregg Popovich is retiring from coaching the San Antonio Spurs; he is the President of the Spurs in addition to being the head coach; as of now, he will continue in that executive role.  Popovich was an Assistant Coach with the Spurs from 1988 to 1994.  He took over as head coach in 1996 and has been there ever since.  His teams have won 5 NBA championships, and the Spurs lost in the Finals one other time.  His regular season coaching record is 1422-869 (win percentage = .621)  Popovich suffered a stroke in November 2024; he is said to be recovering well, but the idea of continuing with the stress of coaching after such a health scare makes his retirement easily understood.

Personally, I have always admired the way Popovich has dismissed the inane questions put to him by sideline reporters.  Once he was asked on the way into the locker room at halftime of a tie game what he thought the team needed to do in the second half to pull out a victory.  His response was a classic:

“Score more points than they do.”

Moving on …  I was surprised by the precipitous fall of Shedeur Sanders in the NFL Draft.  I said prior to the Draft that I did not think he would be a great first round pick, but he lasted  until Round 5 where the Browns took him as their second QB in the Draft.  My first thought was that scouts had detected a serious flaw in his game but after thinking about it for a while I have another idea.  Maybe – – just maybe – – Sanders suffers from something I will call “Colin Kaepernick Syndrome”.  Hear me out …

• Kaepernick would be the focus of media attention and reporting on any team that signed him and given his absence from the game and his performance in his last games as a regular player, the best he could hope to be is a backup QB.  Teams do not want their backup QB to be a focus for the media; teams want their backup QB to be a wallflower not a spotlight entity.
• Shedeur Sanders may or may not turn out to be a franchise QB someday, but his draft slot says that most scouts/coaches/GMs see him as a project meaning that he will be a backup for some time.  In that case, Sanders would be like Kaepernick and draw attention to himself and the backup QB position which is not what the ideal NFL team model looks like.

The Browns have 3 QBs on their roster already in Joe Flacco, Kenny Pickett and Deshaun Watson; in the Draft the Browns took Dillon Gabriel and Shedeur Sanders.  There is little likelihood that the Browns will keep all 5 on their books; usually only one player on the Practice Squad is a QB.  Suddenly, the Browns’ Training Camp became a point of interest; can Sanders even make the cut?

The Ravens released kicker Justin Tucker.  Yes, he had a sub-standard season in 2024 but historically, he is one of the best placekickers in NFL history.  The “problem” here is the allegation that he behaved inappropriately with some female massage therapists over the years.  The message there is that it is easier for the Ravens to find a replacement kicker than it is for the team to appear to condone or accept such alleged behaviors.

And of course, the Aaron Rodgers Saga continues.  All signs point to him signing with the Steelers who did not draft a QB until Round 6 last month but you never know with Rodgers.  I have said here before that he is addicted to public attention, and I think that factor is playing into the hemming and hawing at this late date.  Once again, hear me out:

• At least 5 days a week someone writes a story about Rodgers and his “decision” for the 2025 season and beyond.  The day Rodgers signs on somewhere or announces his retirement, those stories 5 days a week will dry up.
• If he signs with the Steelers, the focus will be on how he blends in with the team not about his latest “darkness retreat” or a long weekend on ayahuasca.  He will share the storyline with teammates and with coach Mike Tomlin who does not give the impression that he likes prima donnas very much.
• And to make that storyline reduction even bigger, making his decision final would open the door to another QB “narrative” that is waiting to happen as the Niners and Brock Purdy decide what their future will be after 2025.  Purdy’s contract is up this year; he will make $5M this year.  As a franchise QB, he might ask for $50M per year; should the Niners pay him that much; will they pay him that much?  There is a storyline that could relegate Aaron Rodgers to “old news”.

Meanwhile, the Steelers also traded away WR, Geroge Pickens to the Cowboys.  Mike Tomlin said that Pickens needed to “grow up” related to some of his antics with the team and the local media.  Evidently Pickens – – an above average WR – – remained immature.

Finally, another quote from Gregg Popovich:

“I’m not too interested in talking about the past. It doesn’t do us any good whatsoever.”

But don’t get me wrong, I love sports………

Lee Corso announced his retirement yesterday; he has been an ESPN football analyst for the last 38 years; he will make his final appearance on College Game Day in Week 1 of the college football season.  Prior to becoming an analyst in ESPN, Corso played college football at Florida State and coached at Northern Illinois.  This should be a sad day for college football fans; Lee Corso was an icon of the sport much the same way that John Madden was an icon of NFL football on TV.

Someone pointed out to me about 10 years ago that Corso was the master of “product placement advertising”.  He told me to watch Corso’s hands on College Game Day; when he was not reaching under the table to put on the headgear of his pick of the day, he was always holding a long yellow pencil and it turns out that he then had a job with the company that makes yellow #2 pencils.  I checked it out; indeed, Corso had a pencil in his hand much of the time.

Corso’s headgear gimmick was so “off the wall” that it was entertaining, and people looked forward to that segment of the program.  Unlike recent changes to the program, it never descended into rampant jackassery though it had the potential to do so.

Bonne chance, Lee Corso.  The game of college football that you helped to grow and prosper is entering a new way of life.  With your retirement, so are you.

With the departure of Corso from College Game Day the back-and-forth among the serious voices on the show will likely change a lot.  Kirk Herbstreit and Lee Corso had a style of banter that was serious and light-hearted/breezy at the same time.  I’m not sure that Herbstreit and Coach Saban can pull off that second characteristic of their interactions.  That is not a knock on Saban at all; that is simply a recognition that change is coming to the program.

And since I brought up Coach Saban and the jackassery element that has seeped into the show:

• Am I the only one who looks at Saban during a “silly segment” and thinks that he would rather be prepping for a colonoscopy than be part of that silliness?

I know that ESN pays its on-air talent well, but Coach Saban cannot possibly “need the money”.

Moving on …  It was on March 12^th when the NY Jets released Aaron Rodgers; that was more than 5 weeks ago.  I am not surprised that he has slow-played his decision as to his playing status for 2025; that keeps his name in the headlines which is something that seems to be of great importance to Rodgers.  Yesterday, he was on Pat McAfee’s program – one of his favorite outlets – and answered some questions that have been hanging fire at least since March 12^th and for some folks since about the middle of the 2024 NFL season when the Jets up and fired both their coach and their GM.

In typical Rodgers’ fashion, some of his answers were maximally nuanced:

• What has taken so long for you to decide if you are going to play again in 2025?  

“I’m open to anything and attached to nothing. So yeah, retirement could still be a possibility. But right now, my focus is on … my personal life.”

There have been rumors about Rodgers signing with the Giants, the Vikings and the Steelers.  Based on the NFL’s schedule rotation, the Steelers and the Jets will play each other in 2025; and that game will be in NY.  Every sports radio talk show host is lighting candles in church and offering up prayers for Rodgers to sign on with the Steelers because that single event can fill up a dozen radio segments the day after the signing and multiple dozens of segments for the week leading up to that Steelers/Jets game.

Switching gears …  With MLB fully engaged, fans at the ballpark will be challenged in 2025 to order up and consume some new culinary concoctions.  Here is one awaiting Arizona D-Backs’ fans for 2025:

• Start with a heap of Cajun Fries.  Top with thick cut bacon strips and “white cheddar mac and cheese”.  Then garnish with deep fried onion strips.
• Wash that down with a couple of lagers and you may have had your recommended input of carbohydrates for three days.

Finally, a question to ponder from Steven Wright:

“What’s another word for Thesaurus?”

But don’t get me wrong, I love sports………

The Sacramento Kings lost a play-in game to the Dallas Mavericks last night.  That is newsworthy only in the fact that it will be the Mavs and not the Kings taking part in the NBA Western Conference playoffs.  What is different about that game is what happened after the game:

• The Kings and their GM, “mutually agreed to part company” but the Kings did not fire their coach – – at least for now.

The Kings have hardly been a stalwart franchise in the NBA for the last decade or so, but someone there decided that the loss last night was at least equally due to roster construction as it was to coaching strategy and tactics.  Have the Kings broken new ground here?

Moving on …  The Atlanta Braves have to be pleased to see Sencer Strider back on the mound.  Strider missed all of the 2024 season following elbow surgery and he had been working his way back in minor league games.  He appeared in 3 games with the Gwinnett Stripers in the Triple-A International League; his performance there was very positive:

• He threw 13 2/3 innings in those games and struck out 27 hitters.

Yesterday, Strider made his first start for the Braves facing the Blue Jays.  Although the Braves lost the game, Strider’s inaugural appearance was encouraging:

• He went 5 innings yielding 2 runs and 5 hits while striking out 5 batters.

The Atlanta Braves are off to a miserable start in 2025; if they are going to right the ship and make a run at the division title, they are going to need to have Strider performing well for the rest of 2025 and to get Ronald Acuña, Jr. back from his ACL injury.  Recent reports on Acuña’s status are promising.  According to a report at SI.com Acuña has been cleared to take at bats but is not yet ready to run out of the batter’s box.  He is “cleared to ramp up activities” and the hope is that he could be back in the Braves’ lineup “next month”.

Sticking with baseball and rehab assignments …  Late last season, Dodgers’ starter Clayton Kershaw had to leave a game due to pain in his left big toe.  He never returned to the mound for the rest of the season or for the playoffs and then had surgery on that toe and on his knee around Thanksgiving.  Yesterday, Kershaw had a minor league rehab start for the Oklahoma City Comets of the Triple-A Pacific Coast League.  Rehab from surgery is a series of small steps and Kershaw took a small first step yesterday with these stats:

• He threw 3 scoreless innings, gave up 2 hits and struck out 2 batters.
• He threw 30 pitches and 22 were for strikes.

According to a report in the LA Times, the Dodgers hope that Kershaw can be back in the big leagues in mid-to-late May.  That timetable would give him four or five more rehab appearances in Oklahoma City.  Kershaw has been with the Dodgers for his entire career dating back to 2008; his career accomplishments point him to the Hall of Fame soon after he retires:

• 10-time All-Star
• 3 Cy Young Awards
• 1 NL MVP Award

Switching gears …  Recently, I noted here that all was not well in the Kent St. football program.  With Spring Practice about to begin, the school put head coach Kenni Burns on administrative leave with pay while it investigated some unspecified issues.  I pointed out then that Burns’ two-year coaching record at Kent State (1-23) was not going to provide him with much cover during that investigation.  Indeed, it did not.

Kent St. fired Kenni Burns last week after the investigation turned up “multiple violations of his contract, including how he  used a personal credit card”.  It is more than a bit late in the game for Kent St. to hire a new coach for the 2025 season so the former offensive coordinator, Mark Carney, will be the interim head coach as a coaching search develops over the next season.  Carney has his work cut out for him; Kent St. was 0-12 last year; their defense won my “Brothel Defense Award” for giving up the most points per game in college football last year.  Here is what the first half of the schedule looks like for 2025:

• Vs. Merrimack – – a Division 1-AA team – – a winnable game at home
• At Texas Tech – – Probably a 2 TD underdog against an 8-win team from the Big-12.
• Vs. Buffalo – – A conference game against an opponent that won 9 games last  year
• At Florida St. – – Seminoles were really bad last  year, nevertheless …
• At Oklahoma – – Sooners were disappointing last year, nevertheless …
• Vs. UMass – – Could be a race to the bottom in this contest.

Finally, these words from Dave Barry:

“Camping is nature’s way of promoting the motel business.”

But don’t get me wrong, I love sports………