The Sports Curmudgeon

Davey Lopes died last week at the age of 80; reports had the cause of death as complications from Parkinson’s Disease and Alzheimer’s.  Lopes was a member of a LA Dodgers infield that basically played every day for more than 8 seasons; Lopes along with Steve Garvey, Ron Cey and Bill Russell (No, not THAT Bill Russell.) were probably listed in India Ink on the Dodgers’ lineup card.  After a successful playing career, Lopes went on to extend his baseball presence as a coach and a manager.

Rest in peace, Davey Lopes.

Let me get back to the issue of NBA expansion – – which the owners voted to “explore” earlier this month.  I’ve already discussed the balance that owners need to strike between an immediate cash infusion of $300M – 500M versus having to split the revenue streams by 32 teams as opposed to 30 teams.  All those guys are good at figuring out business deals, so forget that for now.  Here is a serious question:

• What will expansion by 2 teams do to the entertainment product that the NBA markets to the networks and the public?

The recently concluded regular season set a new low for tanking teams; living in the DC area, let me say to everyone who lives elsewhere that the Washington Wizards were non-competitive and abjectly unwatchable from about the first week of December 2025.  Even when they put their best players on the court at the same time – – something that never happened in the latter part of the season – – the team was simply awful.  Looking around at the final standings, the playoff teams and the lottery teams were almost fully known by the All-Star break.  Yes, there were still questions about “Top 6” versus “Play-in teams”, but the twenty playoff teams and the ten lottery teams were clearly in different categories.

That alone devalues the entertainment product; couple that with teams not trying to be competitive and you have an entertainment product that is easy to avoid.  And that, folks, is almost as bad a situation as the revelation that the games have been fixed all along.

So, ask yourself a question or two:

• Since several teams shut down starters and replaced them with bench players or G-League call-ups, how will the expansion teams be sufficiently competitive as to be “entertaining”?
• With somewhere between 25% and 33% of the 30 extant NBA teams categorized as “uncompetitive” this year, is there really sufficient talent to sustain 32 teams?
• By adding two marginally talented teams that are almost certainly going to be “lottery teams”, might that induce the “tanking existing teams” to start their capitulation even earlier in the regular season?
• Since the two expansion franchises will almost assuredly be in Seattle and Las Vegas, that means there will be two more “highly attractive” locales for teams and how might that hurt the current “small market teams” when it comes to attracting free agents?

When the league voted to “explore” expansion, do you think those sorts of questions are going to get as much analysis as the issues that involve dollar signs?  I doubt it, but I think they deserve a lot of thoughtful consideration.

The NBA since the days of “Bird and Magic” has marketed its star players not its teams or its champions.  The upshot is that the NBA is a star-driven entity and what the consuming public wants to see are those stars that have been marketed to them as “the thing to see”.  The NBA can expand all it wants; it can create a separate but equal league in Europe; it can merge with the Chinese Basketball Association if it wants.  None of those things will create a greater number of star players that can be marketed to the public the way the league has done it in the past.  “Star players” is a finite resource that is precious because it is a finite resource.

The absence of “star players” from a roster consigns the team to “lottery status”.  Just for giggles, go look up the box score for any game involving the Sacramento Kings and/or the Washington Wizards in March or April 2026.

• How many names in the box score do you even recognize?
• How many would you think about drafting for your fantasy team?
• It really is scary …

A goodly number of people will tune in to see the NBA Conference Finals and the NBA Finals, and the league will throw out its chest and point to those audience numbers to show how robust the product is.  Nonsense.  Those audiences tune in because they KNOW they will see good talent playing hard; those games are desirable entertainment for sports fans.  That is why a December game between the Memphis Grizzlies and the Chicago Bulls gets a ho-hum reaction from the viewing public if it gets any reaction at all.

NBA expansion is not as simple as the financial analyses would lead you to believe…

Finally, since I mentioned the Washington Wizards today, let me close with this from President Kennedy:

“Somebody once said that Washington was a city of Northern charm and Southern efficiency.”

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

 

 

Let me do a reset on an event from last week that attracted a lot of coverage:

• The NY Post published pictures of Pats’ coach Mike Vrabel in a hot tub with NFL Inisder, Dianna Russini, at a “couples retreat” in Arizona.
• The pictures were supposedly taken by someone who is not a paparazzi nor is he/she associated with a professional photo agency.  The motivation for the “release” of the photos was a payment labeled as “four figures”.  Maybe all that is correct; maybe not.
• Internet hilarity ensued and too many people made this into a story of gargantuan proportion.

With the benefit of a weekend of hindsight, let me try to be rational about this.  I will dismiss entirely any conspiracy theory that has as part of its foundation that the pictures were deepfakes created by some AI routine.  That would be an assertion that needs a wealth of critical evidence not something that can merely be held up to be true and therefore something else must logically follow from it.  Moreover, any such thinking also would create a motivation dimension; who “ordered” the deepfake and why?

The pictures that I believe to be real ones are clearly out of the ordinary; Dianna Russini is employed by The Athletic which in turn is owned by the NY Times.  With that lineage, it is not outrageous to label her as a “sports journalist” and the common working model for “journalist” and “person covered by said journalist” does not include hob-knobbing in a hot tub.  Lest anyone jump to the conclusion that I assume there is/was more to the event than was revealed in the picture, let me make something very clear:

• I do not care for a moment if Mike Vrabel and Dianna Russini have been playing “hide the sausage” in the past or the present or the future.  If in fact any putative such activity may exist, as long as it is consensual I don’t care.  I also don’t care if it is transactional.

The Athletic has an interesting situation before it.  Dianna Russini is someone who gets a lot of media attention on TV and on Sports Radio around the country based on her reporting in The Athletic and her reputation as an “insider”.  She is a valuable asset to The Athletic and I am not the least bit surprised that the folks in charge there have resisted so far, the knee-jerk calls for her to be fired for unprofessional behavior.

There was a situation that was sort of analogous to this one in Indiana a couple of years ago.  When Caitlin Clark was drafted by the Indiana Fever after her collegiate stardom, she arrived in town and there was a “Welcome to Indy” press event.  A columnist for the Indianapolis Star, attended that event and flashed a “heart sign” with his hands toward Clark and said something like – – this is a paraphrase from memory:

• Send one of these back to me and we will get along just fine.

The Internet went nuts over that one too.  That columnist was not fired; he was disciplined by the newspaper in that he was not allowed to cover Caitlin Clark or write about her; however, he remained in his columnist position with the paper.  [Aside: He is still with the Indy Star today several years after that clumsy exchange with Caitlin Clark.]

The Athletic will probably need to find some sort of discipline to effect in this matter but firing Dianna Russini seems overboard to me for the moment.  Firing her would make sense if and when the following set of events might happen:

• A major story involving the Pats breaks and Dianna Russini comes by some pertinent “inside information” completely independent of Mike Vrabel.
• People react negatively to her reporting with a memory of these photos by jumping to the salacious conclusion there.
• People then extend their negative feelings from Dianna Russini to The Athletic itself.
• If things ever get to that state of affairs …

Another “Internet aspect” of the hot tub incident has been an attempt somehow to connect it to the incident of Pats’ owner Robert Kraft and his dalliance in Florida with a massage provider who may indeed have provided a very specific massage technique.  Personally, I think those two things are as closely related as are the Loch Ness Monster and the kidnapping of the Lindbergh baby.

Here is my bottom line:

1. Even if the “hot tub encounter” is absolutely the full extent of the interaction there and if the encounter was part of an interview process for a major story release by Dianna Russini, it was unseemly at best and unabashedly unprofessional.
2. Any/All of Russini’s reporting on things involving the Pats will likely be given the “side-eye” by a large segment of football fandom.
3. How fans react to the rest of her “insider” reporting remains to be seen and – – I believe – – is the critical factor in her continuing to be considered a source of pertinent reporting.
4. As to Mike Vrabel, he had the Pats deep in the playoffs last season; as long as he does things like that with the team, he will weather this storm.

Finally, I close on a lighter note today with this from Rodney Dangerfield:

“I told my wife the truth. I told her I was seeing a psychiatrist. Then she told me the truth: that she was seeing a psychiatrist, two plumbers, and a bartender.”

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

 

 

Last week, I wrote about the Cleveland Browns starting construction on a new stadium in suburban Cleveland where the taxpayers are kicking in significant cash.  There is ongoing construction in the Buffalo area on a new stadium, and the Chiefs find themselves in the center of a bidding war to see which end of KC might house their new playpen.  Who knows when/if the Bears and the States of Illinois and Indiana will engage in a bidding war for the team locale?  I am always opposed to the idea of tax money being used for such purposes; and at the same time, I recognize that if merely one jurisdiction chooses to try to bribe a franchise to locate within its boundaries, then all of them need to be prepared to do the same to keep existing franchises in place.

I mention those situations because they almost look good compared to what is ongoing in Jax.  The existing stadium there – – EverBank Stadium – – will undergo renovation/upgrading to the tune of at least $1.4B before the inevitable overruns trickle in.  That is a lot of money poured into a 30+ year old field that only cost $120M to build in the first place.  Yes, today’s dollars are inflated as compared to the times when Jax built the field, but not to the tune of anything near $1.4B.

And this deal has holes in it despite any of the numbers or any of the purported upgrades that will come as a result of such lavish spending:

• The Jags are contractually bound to play at least one of their home games a year in Europe.
• Ergo, the field in Jax will be used one fewer time for every season where that commitment by the Jags’ team is still in effect.

I never believe in the peaches-and-cream projections by developers and planners for the massive economic benefits that stadiums bring to locales.  And in the case of Jax in 2026, any such projections need to be scaled back a bit simply because it will not be used nearly as often as it could be.  Work is underway on the upgrades and that construction work will render some of the seating in the stadium useless for this year.  In 2026, the Jags maximum attendance for a home game will be 42,500 fans.  Yes, that is only for one season, but still it represents about a 30% reduction in game-day revenue which is shared with the Jags’ opponents.  That cannot be fondly viewed upon by other teams …

But wait; there’s more …  In 2027, the Jags will surrender the entirety of their home field to the construction workers, and the Jags will play their home games in Orlando, FL.  The good folks in Orlando might conclude that they got a windfall here, except:

• The stadium in Orlando – – what used to be the Citrus Bowl – – will get a $400M facelift and the seating there will be increased from 60,000 to 65,000 in time for the Jags’ 2027 home schedule.
• Camping World Stadium – – the current name for the Citrus Bowl – – is the venue for several college bowl games each year and the annual HBCU rivalry game between Florida A&M and Bethune Cookman.

So, Orlando residents will spend $400M to increase the size and the look of a field that is used for maybe a half-dozen games a year.  The seating increase is less than 10% so unless the games there in the future sell out, there will be little or no increased game-day revenue for the stadium directors to count.

Let’s tally all this up:

• The folks in Jax will spend $1.4B and more and not get a full home Jags’ schedule for a while.
• The team and fans will be inconvenienced in the 2026 season by ongoing construction.
• The team will “leave town completely” for the 2027 season.
• The folks in Orlando will pony up about $400M to expand their seating by less than 10%.
• The Jags will be there for only one season – – assuming no construction disasters back in Jax – – and then Orlando will have to scrape to find ways to recoup that $400M.

Looking at that string of events, the public contributions to stadium construction in other cities in the league begin to look halfway reasonable.  It is not all that difficult to construct a positive narrative around other building projects:

• The Browns have been a fixture in Cleveland since the 1950s save for a short hiatus when the team decamped to relocate in Baltimore.
• The Bills are an original AFL franchise with a rabid fanbase.
• The Chiefs are an original AFL franchise with an equally rabid fanbase.

None of those sorts of “stories” apply to the Jags and/or their fans.  Remember, there were times when the team had to cover up seats in the upper deck so as to hide the meager attendance from TV audiences.  The Jags do not have any historical significance in the league as compared to the Browns, Bills or Chiefs – – and maybe the Bears are next?  The Jags only came into existence in 1995,

Finally, Phyllis Diller had it right:

“I want my children to have all the things I couldn’t afford. Then I want to move in with them.”

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

 

 

Last week, I wrote about Tiger Woods’ latest car accident and his arrest.  I have had some time to think about that situation and want to expand my remarks here.  Let me begin by saying a few basic tenets for what is to follow:

• I bear no animosity for Tiger Woods as a person.  I do think that he has behaved in ways that has created a public persona for himself that is less than admirable.
• I do not play golf; I cannot pretend to understand how he did what he did on a golf course.
• Tiger Woods’ prodigious physical and mental skills on golf courses allowed him to create a buffer between him and “everyday life” to a greater extent than for athletes in other sports.

For more than a decade, the sportswriters of America lavished nothing but paeans of praise on Tiger Woods and allowed Woods and his entourage to intimidate the coverage by threatening to withhold access to “Tiger Information” should someone step out of line.  And to protect said access, much of the coverage was fawning.  Hiding from the press except on “game days” on the tour, allowed Woods to acclimate to a life of seclusion with the absence of scrutiny.  By the way, I am not exonerating the TV coverage here; like the print media, the TV folks used Home on the Range as the backdrop song for most of their coverage too:

• Where seldom is heard a discouraging word …

And here we are in 2026 with what was formerly an outstanding athlete who has been involved in multiple car crashes, myriad examples of infidelity and signs of drug addiction.  All those people who did nothing but pump sunshine up his ass for all those years have not done him any favors.

What might it take for someone or some ones who have access to Tiger Woods to try at least to have him get real help?  Does he have to kill a person or two in his next car accident for that to be the impetus?  What is it in his behavior pattern(s) over the last 5-10 years that would lead anyone with access to him beyond the public persona to conclude that he is in a stable and safe place in his life?

Oh yeah; he got “treatment” for things in the past and emerged from those episodes “changed for the better”.  Going off to a private retreat where the only prerequisite for emerging as a certified recovered person is to pay the bill and lay low for a decent interval is not real and actual “recovery”.  I read that Woods’ attorney sought and received from the judge in this case that Woods be allowed to leave the country to get treatment abroad.  Question:

• If you or I had been arrested allegedly with prescription pain pills loose in our pockets in our third or fourth car accident, what are the chances we would have been granted that privilege?

And there lies the nugget of the problem.  Once again, Tiger Woods is going to be allowed to behave in a way that no one else would be allowed to behave even though his behavior(s) have been antisocial at the least and dangerous to others to be sure.  How is he supposed to learn that his behavior(s) need to change if there are no consequences for his malfeasance?

In an obviously prepared for him statement, Tiger Woods said:

“I know and understand the seriousness of the situation I find myself in.”

And therein lies the heart of the problem; I doubt he knows and understands it at all.  Basically, Tiger Woods is a superannuated spoiled brat, and it was the golf media and a ton of fanboys that created that spoiled brat.  And none of them are stepping forward to try and make a change in his life – – a change that might save his life and perhaps another life or two down the line.  The “story” here is not that Woods will not be at Augusta this year for the Masters or that he has given up is role as Captain of the US Ryder Cup team.  The “story” here is that this man needs to fight with his inner demons and so far, the demons are well in command of the struggle.

Dan Jenkins said that when Woods was a young golfer dominating the Pro Tour, he asked for access to Woods for a long-form story in Sports Illustrated.  Woods’ “people” turned down the request saying to the effect that they did not need any Sports Illustrated coverage at the time.  Later after Woods’ first car crash – – the one where his then wife “rescued him” by wielding a nine-iron to the windshield of the car – – someone contacted Jennings and suggested he could meet with Tiger and do a story on their meeting.  Jenkins declined; at that point, he did not need Woods’ coverage just as Woods did not need Sports Illustrated coverage years before.

The current arrest/charges will dry up and blow away; Tiger Woods will be clean as a whistle the next time he sets foot in that judge’s courtroom; he will have a “diploma” from wherever his treatment facility is located outside the continental US.  And when he leaves that courtroom with some required public service time, I fear the clock will start ticking down to the next traffic incident where he might be found dead on the scene.  Sure, he is the master of his own fate – – but lots of others will be parties to that event should it occur.  I fear this will not end well.

Finally, this from Robert Downey Jr.:

“Remember that just because you hit bottom doesn’t mean you have to stay there.”

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

 

 

Congratulations to the University of Michigan as the 2026 NCAA men’s basketball champion.  Their win last night in the championship game was anything but a walkover, but the Wolverines prevailed in a grind it out game that ended in a 69-63 score.  I said earlier that Arizona and Michigan were the two best teams that I saw; I underrated UConn with that statement; the Huskies are an awfully good team also.

Michigan coach Dusty May has been in that job for only two years, and he took over a team that had gone 8-24 in the season before he arrived.  Michigan’s cumulative record in the past two seasons is a stunning 64-13 with a Sweet 16 appearance last year and a national championship this year. May began his coaching career as a student manager at Indiana when Bob Knight was the coach there; he worked at a variety of jobs with AAU teams and small schools until he got a head coaching job at Florida Atlantic in 2018.  He was in that job for 6 seasons and never had a losing record.  In fact, he had FAU in the Final Four in 2023 which was the Cinderella story of the season.  It was that performance at FAU that got him the job at Michigan.  Dusty May is only 49 years old and should be a force majeure at Michigan for quite a while.

Yesterday, I wrote about an Executive Order aimed at “fixing” some of the problems with college sports today.  Michigan’s victory last night points to one of the things going on in college sports today that might be improved.  Let me be clear; nothing here is meant as a criticism of Michigan or its accomplishment; Michigan violated no rules that I can see in doing what they did.

The starting five players for Michigan last night were all transfer students; each one of them played somewhere else in college basketball last year.  Traditionally, that is a condition that could be seen as a stroke of genius for a professional team; traditionally, that is not the way collegiate sports were carried out.  I am not advocating for a return to the days when virtually no one transferred at all; but I do think some restrictions might improve the continuity of many college teams.

In other college basketball news, the UNC Tar Heels have hired a replacement for Hubert Davis as their head coach.  Michael Malone comes to Chapel Hill with NBA credentials as a championship winner there with the Denver Nuggets in 2023.  Malone’s exposure to college basketball is short; he was an assistant at several schools back in the 1990s before joining the Knicks’ staff in 2001.

If I assume that the reporting on this coaching search is accurate, UNC had a more difficult time reaching an agreement with a new hire than I would have expected.  North Carolina is a basketball blueblood; I thought they would answer calls from coaches’ agents along the lines of, “Don’t call us; we’ll call you.”  According to reporting, UNC made overtures to Tommy Lloyd (Arizona), Dusty May (Michigan), Nate Oats (Alabama), Ben McCollum (Iowa) and Scott Drew (Baylor) and all that interacting produced nothing tangible.

Well, actually all that did produce some tangible things; at least two of those coaches on the contact list got contract extensions at their current schools.  I call that “Cashing the Hubert Davis dividend check”; when Davis was fired it opened up a seat at the head table of college basketball coaching and coaches in solid jobs could use their dismissal of interest in that open job as leverage with their current employers.

Hiring a coach with NBA credentials as opposed to collegiate credentials deviates in two ways from UNC tradition.  This is – – as was announced at the outset of the coaching search – – an “out of the family hire” in Chapel Hill.  Michael Malone arrives with no ties and no history with the school; the last time the team had a head basketball coach “from the outside” was in the 1950s when Frank McGuire was the coach.  When McGuire left in 1961, UNC hired some guy named Dean Smith; for the next 64 years and the next four coaching hires, the head basketball coach at UNC has been someone from “in the family”.

Another way to look at Malone’s hiring at UNC is from a different perspective.  Last year, North Carolina hired a football coach with championship credentials at the pro level; this year, they have hired a basketball coach with championship credentials at the pro level.  Maybe this is a considered and thought-out strategy on the part of the folks who are driving the athletic bus in Chapel Hill.

Or maybe not …

Finally, consider this from author Curtis Tyrone Jones:

“It’s so hard to write a new story when you do everything by the book.”

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

 

 

Living in the DC area, one gets used to the infamous “Friday afternoon news dump” where the White House and/or the Congress blurts out a news item near the close of business on Friday in the hopes that lots of people will have gone into “weekend mode” at the time such that the controversy associated with the news is muted somewhat.  There was a news dump last Friday – – and it was different from most others because it involved sports.  The President of the United States signed an Executive Order described as being of “urgent national action to save college sports.”

I agree that college sports have become much more than “messy” over the last couple of years and that the NCAA is still feckless and useless in whatever it does to try to regularize what goes on there.  However, I never envisioned an Executive Order on the subject.  And yet, here we are …

Here are some of the features in the Executive Order:

• Eligibility for intercollegiate athletics will be limited to 5 years.  I like that provision; given all the waivers and set asides that have come into existence, some players are in their seventh and eighth year of “college sports”.
• The NIL collectives will come under Federal regulation.  Let me just say that “Federal regulation” is not universally successful nor productive; so, let me wait and see what that devolves to before I like it or dismiss it.
• Reinstatement of the “one-transfer rule” without sitting out a season.  I like that idea because it should limit the player being on five different teams in his “college” career.
• Grad-student transfers can be added on to a career if the player has completed a 4-year degree.  The NCAA should love that loophole because it will allow them to return to their glory days of the “student-athlete”.
• Colleges are to be “required” to fund Olympic sports and women’s sports.  That is clearly easier said than done, but I am not sure anyone is going to go on record in opposition to that requirement.

And the enforcement mechanism for failure to comply with this Order and/or relevant NCAA rules that are aligned with this order is an economic mechanism.  According to the Executive Order, the Feds can – – and presumably will – – “review federal government grants and contracts with schools” with an eye to cutting those funding sources if schools are not in compliance with the Executive Order.

So, having had a weekend to think about all this, here are a few first reactions:

• The schools, conferences and the NCAA should be happy to have this legal instrument in place as a starting point.
• I will be surprised if more than a month goes by without a legal challenge to the Executive Order brought by advocates for the players.
• This Executive Order might stir a few Congressthings out of their hibernation state and begin a process to codify something logical into law.  Yes, I recognize that I just used “Congress” and “logical” in the same sentence.  Hope springs eternal …

There will be public reaction to this Executive Order having exactly nothing to do with the content of the order and/or the possible benefits that might accrue to collegiate sports.  The fact is that the US is so politically divided today that the signature at the bottom of the Executive Order will frame the “debate” for too many folks:

• Option A:  If President Trump thinks this is the right way for college sports to exist in the US, then it must be the single best idea ever to spring into a human cranium.
• Option B:  If President Trump thinks this is the right way for college sports to exist in the US, then it must be corrupt, immoral and evil at its core and it must be expunged from human existence.

            And of course, the idea of an “Option C” where the Executive Order serves as the starting point for a set of reasoned negotiations to try to make things better becomes impossible due to the volume of the cries from proponents of both Options A and B above.  The Executive Order does not go into effect until August 2026; there is time for negotiation; there is time for Congress to find a way to agree on something that ought to be apolitical; there is time to ponder a new foundation for college sports in the US.  I wish I were more optimistic about the potential for the use of the time between now and August to be constructive.

Finally, this observation by Malcom X seems to be a good way to close out today’s rant:

“You’re not supposed to be so blind with patriotism that you can’t face reality. Wrong is wrong, no matter who does it or who says it.”

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

 

 

It’s time to clean up my clipboard, today.  None of the topics today are important but a couple are interesting.  The first one is the landing of Kirk Cousins in Las Vegas supposedly as the mentor for Fernando Mendoza who is expected to be the Raiders’ overall #1 pick in the Draft in a couple of weeks.  If the Raiders show patience and use Cousins as their QB for awhile and allow some sort of “mentoring relationship” to evolve, this could be a good deal for the team.  The only guaranteed money in the deal is reported to be $20M which is at the low end of “starting QB money”.

Kirk Cousins has been in the right place at the right time in his career.  His record labels him as “more than a journeyman” but “not a star” as a QB.  Notwithstanding that overall assessment, Spotrac.com says that Kirk Cousins has hauled in $321,692,254 in career earnings – – not counting the upcoming $20M from the Raiders.

Next on the odds and ends list …  The Cleveland Browns are in the process of building a new stadium that will be different from other NFL venues.  The bottom level of the facility will be 80 feet below ground level and the structure will stick out of the ground by 221 feet.  It is an indoor stadium which means the league will put a Super Bowl there once it is up and running and all the bugs have been worked out.

The cost is estimated to be $2.4B and the opening date is projected to be Week 1 of the 2029 regular season.  The facility is not in Cleveland proper; it is in a suburb of Cleveland called Brook Park about 20 miles from the current home field for the Browns.  The fact that it was outside the city limits was the source of legal and legislative strife that must have finally been resolved.  The new site cannot be too inconvenient for Clevelanders since it is adjacent to Cleveland’s airport.

It is not unusual for NFL teams to play home games in geographical places that do not match their common place names e.g.:

• Giants and Jets play in suburban NYC – – actually in NJ
• Rams play in Inglewood, CA
• Bills play in Orchard Park, NY
• Commanders play in Landover, MD – – for a while known as Raljon, MD
• Cowboys play in Arlington, TX
• Niners play in Santa Clara, CA – – an exurb of SF

            Moving on …  The NFL announced a deviation from tradition for the 2026 regular season schedule.  Normally, the regular season opens with the Super Bowl champ playing a home game on the Thursday after Labor Day.  Not so next season.  The NFL has scheduled a regular season game in Week 1 to be played in Melbourne, Australia and due to significant time zone issues, that game will happen on Thursday night here in the US.  [Aside:  The teams will kick off at 10:30 AM on Friday in Australian time.].  So, to minimize the deviation from tradition, the Seahawks will play the first game of the regular season at home on the Wednesday after Labor Day in 2026.

Not only will that game in Melbourne be the first regular season NFL game in Australia, but I think it is a strange choice of games by the league.  The Australia game will be the Niners versus the Rams.  I am not overly surprised that the league put good teams on the schedule there; as the saying goes, you never get a second chance to make a first impression.  However, the Rams/Niners is a major rivalry in the NFL, and I am surprised that a game that would mean a lot to both fan bases will be taking place – figuratively – on the other side of the Earth.

Another tidbit …  The NY Post reported that Puka Nacua was allegedly involved in a drunken incident back on New Year’s Eve where he bit a woman.  In addition to the “bitee” filing a lawsuit against Nacua, she also sought a restraining order against him.  Naturally, his attorney downplayed the incident and also reported that Nacua has been in a holistic rehab facility for several weeks seeking to make himself a better person.

Obviously, I have no knowledge of the alleged incident, but I would offer the holistic rehabilitators this advice:

• Put Nacua in contact with any three random kindergarten teachers who have experience in convincing children not to bite the kid sitting next to them.  He’ll become a better person for it.

Finally, this from physicist Isaac Azimov:

“People who think they know everything are a great annoyance to those of us who do.”

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

 

 

Some days, these rants write themselves.  The topics are obvious; my slant is clear; I have links to necessary data to support my assertions.  This is not one of those days; this is a new – – at least for me – – way for a rant to write itself.  For all practical purposes, I will turn today’s offering over to “the reader in Houston”.

You may recall that he previously told me that Mattress Mack’s promotional bet for March Madness this year would be on the final Four team closest to Houston, TX. If that happens, anyone who bought an expensive mattress from him during the promotion period would get a full refund.  Here is the update:

“As I previously wrote you, Mattress Mack is betting on the team closest to Houston of the Final Four for his annual NCAA mattress giveaway. Originally, his hope was that UH or another Texas team would make the Final Four. However, since no Texas team made it to the Final Four, he had to go out of state.

“Of the Final Four teams (Arizona, Michigan, Illinois, and UConn), I thought Arizona (+180) was closest to Houston, but upon further Google Map review, it turns out U. of Illinois (+470) is about 120 miles closer to here than UA.

“Based on Mack’s recent gambling history, if I was wagering, I would take UConn (ATS or SU) vs. Illinois on Saturday.”

Next  up …  You may recall that yesterday, I closed with a Mark Twain quip about April Fool’s Day.  I do not watch Jeopardy but “the reader in Houston” did last night.  That generated this email that arrived this morning:

“Final Jeopardy – Subject – The Calendar: Mark Twain wrote the quip that on this day of the year, ‘we are reminded of what we are on the other 364’.

“That was today’s ‘Final Jeopardy’.  One of the contestants who was way ahead with $58,800, bet $44,200, but wrote, ‘What is Labor Day?’  If he had read today’s Sports Curmudgeon blog, he would have been $88,400 richer before income taxes.”

What can I say?  Of course you should read these rants on a daily basis; this is one of the tangible benefits one may receive in doing so; for the rest of the days, you will simply enjoy the sublime harmony of the vibe here …  But wait, there’s more!

When I wrote about the sale of the Connecticut Sun and the impending relocation of the team, I mentioned that the Sun’s owners had a higher bid for the franchise but that it had been nixed by the league.  I did not understand how or why that happened, but it did.  Well, “the reader in Houston” is evidently on a first-name basis with the owner of the Houston Rockets and now the Connecticut Sun – – to be renamed the Houston Comets – – and sent along this explanation:

“The commissioner had previously identified Houston, not Boston, as the next city in line for a team, following the expansion process or by the purchase of the Sun, as the Mohegan Tribe was in beaucoup debt and needed cash badly. Since relocation decisions are made by the WNBA Board of Governors, not by individual teams or buyers, this allowed the Board to veto the proposed move of the Sun to Boston or possibly Hartford.

• “Til, as the Rockets owner, besides being in a powerful position and ‘blessed’ with a Midas touch, offered a strong ownership structure with the Toyota Center available. Also, Houston is a top-10 media market with a history of success in the WNBA, having hosted the league’s first dynasty with four straight championships.
• “Boston obviously has an NBA arena, but the WNBA was willing to pass on them with the expectation the city would be in line for an expansion team as early as 2031, as the league preferred to let Boston remain open for a potentially higher-priced, future expansion franchise in the area of $400M or above. The league viewed the Boston potential owners as ‘taking’ a market, rather than growing into one which Houston offered.
• “The Houston move also shows where the league is headed – away from independently owned franchises.”

“The new franchises, such as Golden State and now Toronto, and upcoming teams in Cleveland/Detroit/Philadelphia, are either owned by or strongly aligned with local NBA ownership groups.

“Independently owned teams like the Chicago Sky, Atlanta Dream, LV Aces, Dallas Wings, LA Sparks, Seattle Storm, and the Sun are the remaining fully independent clubs, though they face pressure as the league pivots to billionaire, often NBA-linked, owners.”

So, there you have it; a little information, a little entertainment and zero work on my part.  How better do you start a day?

Finally, to keep with the “Houston connection” for today, here is something from George Foreman:

“When I was a kid in Houston, we were so poor we couldn’t afford the last 2 letters, so we called ourselves po’.”

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

 

 

The NFL actively seeks to be “in the news” 365 days a year.  In looking to meet that objective, this is the time of year when the NFL owners adopt new rules for the upcoming season; that comes from an annual meeting of the owners at this time every year.  This year, there will be five rule changes and one surprising rule that will not change.

The rule that will stay allows for the Tush Push.  Last year, a ban on the Tush Push came within one vote of passing; I thought for sure that meant the end of the Tush Push this year but that was not the case.  As far as I can tell from reports, the idea of banning never came before the owners for a vote; so, I guess the sentiment is:

• Long live the Tush Push.

The five changes this year are interesting, but none will change the game to the extent that the so-called Dynamic Kickoff changed the game.  Here are the changes:

1. After a score, the kicking team can declare an onside kick at any point in the game.  Previously, the kicking team had to be behind in order to try an onside kick and even then, it had to be in the fourth quarter of the game.
2. Eliminate the incentive for a kicking team to kick the ball out of bounds intentionally when kicking off from the 50-yardline.
3. Modify the receiving team alignment on kickoffs
4. League folks can consult with on-field officials on matters related to ejections for things like flagrant fouls or non-football acts.
5. For 2026 only, the NFL Officiating Department can overrule clear and obvious mistaken calls on the field.

Let me parse these quickly:

1. I am not sure this change is a big deal; teams in the lead do not try a lot of onside kicks.
2. This only affects kickoffs that come after a 15-yard penalty on a scoring play preceding the kickoff.  This is a good idea; it probably will not happen often.
3. The alignment modifications are immensely arcane; no fan viewing at home will discern a significant change in the game as a result of this rule change.
4. This is a great idea; when a fight breaks out, officials upstairs can view the play and see who started it and who retaliated and who deserves punishment(s).  The officials on the field often do not get to see the “whole picture”.
5. The last rune change is there in case the NFL has to go with “Replacement Refs” again due to stalled negotiations between the NFL and the Referees’ Union.

Moving on …  Surely, you have read about or seen pictures of the recent “two-car accident” involving Tiger Woods.  He was arrested over the weekend on charges of DUI and refusing to take a DUI test; not surprisingly, he made bail and is out and about.  At no point between the time of the accident and the present did I think Tiger Woods would be sentenced to jail for this accident and that whatever charges were brought against him would either be dismissed or pleaded down to something trivial.

I also said to a neighbor on Monday of this week that I fully expected an announcement that Tiger Woods would be “seeking therapy” and that he would be taking time to heal and to recalibrate his life.  As if on cue, here is the headline for an article at CBSSports.com:

• Tiger Woods will seek treatment following DUI arrest, stepping away from golf days before 2026 Masters

And here is how Tiger Woods articulated his current predicament and what he was going to do about it:

“I know and understand the seriousness of the situation I find myself in today.  I am stepping away for a period of time to seek treatment and focus on my health. This is necessary in order for me to prioritize my well-being and work towards lasting recovery.

“I’m committed to taking the time needed to return in a healthier, stronger, and more focused place, both personally and professionally. I appreciate your understanding and support, and ask for privacy for my family, loved ones and myself at this time.”

Question:

• Did he miss any of the touch-points for prepared statements in situations of this kind?

What is the “Over/Under” for how long he will be in “treatment” before he emerges “healthier, stronger and more focused”?  If I set the date at May 10^th, I’ll take the UNDER.

Finally, since today is April Fool’s Day, let me close with this from Mark Twain:

“The first of April is the day we remember what we are the other 364 days of the year.”

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

 

 

There is WNBA news today.  The Native American tribe that owned the Connecticut Sun – – along with the Mohegan Sun casino – – sold the WNB A franchise to Tilman Fertitta who is the current US Ambassador to Italy and who also owns the NBA’s Houston Rockets.  The sales price was $300M and Fertitta is expected to move the team to Houston in 2027 and re-name it as the Houston Comets.  Meanwhile, the team will play out the 2026 season in Uncasville, CT.

That price tag of $300M is the highest amount ever paid for a WNBA franchise; the two new expansion teams that will enter the WNBA later this decade only paid $200M as their “entry fee”.  The tribe had a higher bid of $325M from a minority owner of the Boston Celtics who planned to move the team to Boston, but the league evidently nixed the deal because it “preferred” having the team play in Houston instead of Boston.  No, I don’t know why that was the case; but according to multiple reports, that is what happened.

In other basketball news, the NBA reportedly is considering three “proposals” to eliminate – or at least minimize – tanking teams.  Please note that a league that continues to permit tanking loses any claim on the moral high ground when the phrase “integrity of the games” comes forth.  And in the NBA now, tanking is more common than fighting for advantageous playoff positioning.

There will be ten teams in this year’s Draft Lottery; there is absolutely no doubt which ten teams that will be; the Lottery participants have all seen to it that they cannot be excluded.  I could probably make a strong case in favor of at least eight of those teams as “intentional tankers” so if I were looking for an adjective to describe the current “tanking environment” I would probably say that the practice was “rampant”.

The proposal that seems to get the most attention for now would be to expand the Lottery to include the ten teams that do not make the playoffs PLUS the eight teams that take part in the play-in round of the playoffs.  That would almost double the number of teams seeking high picks theoretically diminishing the incentive to lose regular season games.  While that is mathematically the case, I think such a system would simply relocate the tanking line.  Teams would be incentivized to finish below sixth place in their conference rather than fifth or sixth place because a Lottery seat would accrue to teams finishing seventh and below.

There is a theoretical solution to the problem, but I doubt it could be implemented.  Tanking is sort of like pornography; Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart said:

“I shall not today attempt further to define… ‘hard‑core pornography’… But I know it when I see it.”

Trying to define tanking is a fool’s errand, but fans and Commissioner Adam Silver know it when they see it on the court in regular season games.  So, if the Commish had the cojones once or maybe twice to strip a “tanking team” of its draft pick for a year, tanking would screech to a halt.  Maybe if David Stern were still exchanging oxygen in the biosphere, such a situation might happen …

Meanwhile, Mark Cuban has offered an idea to pump up the interest in regular season NBA games.  Rather than shorten the season to make individual games more meaningful, Cuban suggests shortening NBA games from 48 minute to 40 minutes.  He points out correctly that games of 40 minutes duration are the norm in college, in women’s basketball, in FIBA games and in the Olympics; ergo why 48 minutes in the NBA?

His reasoning is that with fewer minutes to be played, there will be less need for “load management” by teams in the regular season.  Cutting 8 minutes off regulation time would save almost 10,000 minutes of action and until you think about it closely, that should mean fewer rest breaks for star players.  Let me channel Hamlet here:

“Aye, there’s the rub …”

No player in the NBA is averaging as many as 40 minutes per game; Tyrese Maxey leads the league with 38,3 minutes per game.  Let me randomly pick three NBA stars here:

• Kevin Durant plays 36.5 minutes per game
• Luka Doncic plays 36.0 minutes per game
• Anthony Edwards plays 35.5 minutes per game

Why would a coach reduce their playing time significantly if the game were shortened to 40 minutes?  Would it not be a “winning strategy” to have a teams “best players” on the court for almost the entire game – – which would not cause any change in their “scheduling”?  The impact of Cuban’s proposal seems to me to be on the sixth and seventh man on each team who will see fewer minutes and then on the eighth and ninth man who might not see the floor more than two or three times a month.

Finally, this from Maya Angelou:

“There is nothing so pitiful as a young cynic because he has gone from knowing nothing to believing nothing.”

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