The Sports Curmudgeon

Bobby Cox died over the weekend at the age of 84.  He managed in MLB for a total of 29 seasons – – five in Atlanta, four in Toronto and then twenty back in Atlanta.  He is in the Hall of Fame, and he ranks fourth in MLB history in terms of wins by a manager.  His overall record on the bench was 2504 – 2001 which is a win percentage of .556.  His teams made the post season seventeen times and the Braves won a World Series under him in 1995.

Bobby Cox was famous for his confrontations with umpires; a few of those “encounters” have become the stuff of legends.  He was ejected from games more than anyone else in baseball history and most appropriately he was tossed 162 times in his career – – the exact number of games in a season.  Many fans think of Earl Weaver as a super-hotheaded manager who was always involved in situations that got him ejected from games; Weaver was a piker compared to Bobby Cox; Weaver was only ejected 95 times in his career.

Rest in peace, Bobby Cox.

Moving on …  There are four NFL coaches who have LOST 4 times in Super Bowl games:

1. Bud Grant
2. Marv Levy
3. Dan Reeves
4. Don Shula

There are three NFL coaches who have LOST 3 times in Super Bowl games:

1. Bill Belichick
2. Tom Landry
3. Andy Reid

If you combine those two lists and if you assume that the Pro Football Hall of Fame voters eventually decide to honor Belichick and Reid – – as they certainly should – – the only coach left out of the Hall of Fame would be Dan Reeves.  Like Grant and Levy, Reeves had teams there 4 times and lost them all.  It took the Hall of Fame gatekeepers a while to recognize Grant’s and Levy’s worthiness; I wonder if they will ever look back and think the same about Dan Reeves.

Switching gears …  The FIFA World Cup will get underway here in North America exactly one month from today.  Globally, this is the biggest sporting event – even bigger than the Olympics – and there is almost no “buzz” around here as the kickoff time approaches.  I was not in Rio when the World Cup was there or in South Africa or in Qatar, but I have to think that there was more energy around the upcoming event in those places than seems to be the case here in the US.  There is a bar near Curmudgeon Central that is known as a “Soccer Bar”; its clientele is there to watch and to engage in soccer not other sports when there are conflicting schedules.  I happened to drive by that establishment over the weekend, and the only evidence of the impending World Cup was a small sign on the window near the neon sign that said, “OPEN”.  That small sign had the image of the World Cup Trophy and the dates of the Opening Ceremonies – – June 11 and June 12.

I don’t get it.  Soccer in the US continues to expand its fanbase.  It is not yet nearly the same size as the fanbase for American football or baseball or even basketball if you combine NCAA and NBA fans, but soccer is much more important in the sports landscape today than it was 10 years ago.  And still, there is no sense of energy around the World Cup.  I hope this spectacle does not fizzle out here in North America, but someone or something is going to need to provide a spark of interest sometime very soon to overcome what seems to be a whole lot of inertia.

Finally, a few comments about the “importance” of the World Cup:

“The first World Cup I remember was in the 1950 when I was 9 or 10 years old. My father was a soccer player, and there was a big party, and when Brazil lost to Uruguay, I saw my father crying.”    Pele

And …

“For me soccer provides so many emotions, a different feeling every day. I’ve had the good fortune to take part in major competitions like the Olympics, and winning the World Cup was also unforgettable. We lost in the Olympics and won in the World Cup, and I’ll never forget either feeling.”   Ronaldinho

And …

“I can still remember watching Italy win the 1982 World Cup. I was just an eight-year-old kid in Naples, my hometown, watching the games with a bunch of people in the houses of relatives and friends. I can recall that when Italy scored, we would shout and hug, even though we did not all know each other.”    Fabio Cannavero

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

 

 

            It seems as if the sports news floating about today all relates to cash grabs on the part of various organizations.  I understand that sporting entities exist for the purpose of generating revenue and that entities that generate revenue naturally seek to increase those revenues where possible.  But are there no limits?

The NFL in its continuing effort to plant its flag in new places every year scheduled a game in Australia for 2026; it will be played such that it airs in the US on the Wednesday after Labor Day and it will match the Niners and the Rams.  In the first place, that is a serious rivalry game for two fanbases and for either – or both – of them to try to go to that rivalry game will involve a round-trip flight where each leg is approximately 14 hours in duration.

Then, to make those fanbases even “happier”, the game will be televised on Netflix as part of a 4 or 5 game package of game for the streaming service this year.  Commissioner Goodell did not reveal the amount that Netflix will pay for that game package, but he did say that streaming services are more competitive than networks for these “off-schedule games”.  Depending on which report you read here is the Netflix lineup for 2026:

• Week 1 – – the Australia game
• Thanksgiving Eve – – strong rumors about this being added to the schedule in 2026
• Christmas Day – – it’s a Friday this year and there will be 2 games then
• Week 18 – – Saturday game (some reports say this is not going to happen)

Good for the NFL and good for Netflix; I hope Netflix makes money on the deal so that it can continue to make the NFL richer than ever.  But maybe the schedulers and the strategic big thinkers in the league might not want to put major rivalry games seven or eight thousand miles away from the loyal fans of the teams.  Is the money that important?

Down a level, the NCAA football coaches association – – or whatever it is called this week – – voted to recommend expanding the CFP to 24 teams.  That is a vote of enlightened self-interest; coaches that make the expanded playoffs will get pay boosts which ultimately benefits other coaches who participate in the annual game of coaching musical chairs in December/January.  However, there is a potential economic glitch in that recommendation

• To constrain the duration of the college football season and to keep the Army/Navy game as an “exclusive event” the coaches association recommends eliminating conference championship games.

That poses an interesting choice for schools and conferences.  Conference Championship games have shown that they produce revenue and for the major conferences that is revenue that they need not share with any other schools.  For the “Power 4” conferences, the broadcast rights can be lucrative because networks and sponsors can be pretty sure that the two teams in that conference championship game will be recognizable and popular.  With the expansion of the playoffs, there will be a bigger inventory of “important games” but:

• That revenue will need to be shared somehow – – and – –
• What assurance do networks and sponsors have before the fact that the teams in the games will draw audiences to the TV screens?

I think a 24-team football playoff is a terrible idea and I will be interested to see how benevolently the “Power 4” conferences take to the idea of canceling their championship games.

And since bad things seem to happen in threes, the NCAA geniuses have all but decided to expand March Madness to 76 teams.  Interestingly, several coaches at some of the basketball power schools have said they think this is a bad idea.  John Calipari, Mark Few, Dan Hurley and Tom Izzo have all expressed sentiments ranging from skepticism to outright hostility to this expansion.  Much of the criticism from these coaches centers on the fact that as more teams make the tournament, the regular season games are rendered less meaningful.  That is trend that has been afoot for about the last decade or so and it would be a good idea for the NCAA to think about the erosion of interest there.  Let me give you Dan Hurley’s take on this as an example of the criticism:

“What I think makes the tournament special is the qualification for it.  You don’t want the regular season to be rendered meaningless and to take away from November, December, January, February.  The qualification process makes the regular season intense and pressure packed.  It should be a privilege to play in the tournament, not a right, and obviously if it expands too much and you don’t have to have a real good season to make it, that would take away from the tournament. Does it get too big?”

Now, certainly those favoring expansion will point out that the four coaches mentioned here never have to worry about “making the tournament” so that their comments can be colored as elitist and exclusionary.  I happen to think they are dead solid perfect in their position.

Finally, I’ll close today with this from outgoing Apple CEO, Tim Cook:

“Companies that get confused, that think their goal is revenue or stock price or something. You have to focus on the things that lead to those.”

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

 

 

It is not difficult to take the position that football is a “team game” and that quarterbacks get far too much attention – – positive and negative – – from fans and commentators.  But the fact is that quarterback play is very important with regard to team success and/or team failure and that situation allows for simplistic focus of attention on matters involving team records.  So, today, I want to look at several NFL teams that have ”questions” regarding their “quarterback rooms” as they prepare for OTAs.

The Carolina Panthers are the defending champs of the NFC South; that is the good news.  The Panthers’ record in 2025 was 8-9-0; that is the reality.  Panthers’ QB, Bryce Young averaged 188 yards per game and threw a total of 23 TDs last year; so, what sort of challenge might he face in training camp this year?  My guess is that there will be no challenge at all because here are the other QBs on the roster today:

• Kenny Pickett
• Will Grier
• Haynes King

The Minnesota Vikings missed the playoffs last year and did not get stellar play from their QBs to be charitable.  This year, the Vikes have four QBs on their roster; three of them have shown flashes of competence amidst hours of dreary performance and the fourth is a complete unknown.  Here are the guys fighting to be the starting QB in Minnesota – – in alphabetical order because no other order makes sense to me:

• Max Brosmer
• JJ McCarthy
• Kyler Murray
• Carson Wentz

The Miami Dolphins parted ways with Tua Tagovailoa in this offseason and suffered a dead cap hit of almost $100M.  They signed Malik Willis in free agency to be their QB, and the jury is out on his suitability in such a role; but the athletic skills are there.  Nonetheless, behind Willis is a roster of question marks:

• Quinn Ewers – – drafted in 2025 and did not impress in 4 games last year
• Cam Miller – – drafted by the Raiders in 2025 and was on practice squad there
• Mark Gronowski – -undrafted free agent in 2026 out of Iowa

The NY Jets must be included in any compendium of “QB Questions” ever since the retirement of Joe Namath back in the Paleolithic Era.  The Jets will go with Geno Smith as their starter hoping that he can weave a storyline of redemption as he returns to the Jets after 7 years as a vagabond QB in the NFL.  Absent injury, it is difficult to see how Smith can lose the starting job because here is the rest of the Jets’ QB roster:

• Cade Klubnik – – 4^th round pick this year out of Clemson
• Brady Cook – – unimpressive in 4 games last year – – 2 TDs and 7 INTs
• Bailey Zappe – – 3 years in the NFL with stats that evince a “Meh!” response

I have to put the Pittsburgh Steelers in this compendium simply because they are – – willingly or unwillingly – – in the Aaron Rodgers Soap Opera (As the Football World Turns?).  If Rodgers plays in 2026, he will start in Pittsburgh; if not the Steelers have three guys who might inherit his job:

• Drew Allar – – drafted by the Steelers this year
• Will Howard – – drafted by the Steelers last year
• Mason Rudolph – – drafted by the Steelers in 2018

All the above “QB situations” focus on question marks for the teams but there is one team with a QB situation that is interesting from a different vantage point.  The Philadelphia Eagles in general are not in the “drama queen” category of NFL teams to the same extent as the Jets or the Raiders or the Browns, but in the “QB room” there is reason for head-scratching:

• Jalen Hurts – – In the last 4 years, he has taken the team to two Super Bowls, won one of them and was MVP in that winning Super Bowl game.  And yet, there are folks who think he is “the problem” with the team.
• Tanner McKee – – He rarely sees the field, but when he does, he plays well – – certainly better than many of the names cited above today.
• Andy Dalton – – The Eagles signed him this year.  Is he there to be a veteran mentor or is he there to be the backup if/when the Eagles trade Tanner McKee?
• Cole Payton – – The Eagles drafted him in 2026.  Why?

Lastly today, consider the QB situation for the Indy Colts:

• Daniel Jones – – He is the starter for sure so long as he is recovered from his Achilles injury suffered late last season.  The question is which version of Danile Jones will manifest itself in Indy – – the breakout version from 2025 up to the injury or the scuffling/erratic version evidenced with the Giants in previous seasons?
• Anthony Richardson – – The Colts chose not to exercise their fifth-year option meaning Richardson will be a free agent next year and the team gave him permission to seek a trade – – and none have materialized.  He is gifted athletically but cannot seem to mater “accuracy” in the passing game.  Over his career, his completion percentage is 50.6% and that is over 17 game appearances and 15 starts.  Quo vadis, Anthony Richardson?
• Riley Leonard – – He was a 6^th round pick by the Colts last year; he appeared in four games starting one and was what you would expect to see from a 6^th round pick in his first year in the NFL.
• Seth Henigan – – He was undrafted in 2025 but spent time on the Jags and the Colts’ practice squads last year.

There used to be a TV police drama titled The Naked City about life in NYC.  At the end, the tag line was, “There are eight million stories in the naked city; this has been one of them.”  There are not nearly eight million QB stories in the NFL, but these have been a few of them…

Finally, on a lighter note, here is something from George Carlin:

“Frisbeetarianism is the belief that when you die, your soul goes up on the roof and gets stuck.”

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

 

 

John Sterling died yesterday at the age of 87.  He was the iconic radio voice of the NY Yankees for 36 seasons and at one point in his career, he broadcast 5060 regular season games plus 211 playoff games in a row without missing a single one.  His voice and his calls were known all over the baseball world.  It would seem appropriate to observe here that:

• ThePearllllllllyGaaates swung open yesterday.  The PearlllllyGaaates …

Rest in peace, John Sterling.

A news item from a couple of weeks ago demonstrates one of the downsides of NIL money in college athletics.  With payments needed to maintain competitiveness in the revenue sports, colleges cannot spend those same dollars twice to fund non-revenue sports.  That reality is the Economics equivalent of the Law of Conservation of Matter that everyone studied in their eighth-grade science classes.  And that reality caused the University of Arkansas to eliminate its men’s and women’s tennis teams.

Reports based on press releases by the University said that the two tennis teams spent $2.5M in 2024/2025 and created revenue of $3,284.  Even if the cynic in you believes that those numbers have been stretched to justify the decision, I would suggest that the tennis team generated red ink not black ink for the school last year.  If I had to guess, I would think that the $2.5M cost was largely due to travel expenses for the team and given the minimal revenue generated, I wonder why the school even bothered to issue and sell tickets to its tennis matches.

Do not misunderstand here; I am not arguing for the elimination of NIL money in college athletics; I support that concept.  What is important to recognize at the same time is that making fundamental changes in the way college athletics had been run for decades will cause ripple effects throughout the structure and many of those ripple effects were not quantifiable at the outset.  I will not be surprised to see other non-revenue sports suffer economic fatalities at major universities that need to remain economically competitive in the large revenue sports.

As an example, consider Mississippi State; as of this morning, the athletics website shows only 6 men’s sports at the school – – baseball, basketball, football, golf, tennis and track and field.  There are eight women’s sports because Title IX requires “equality” between men’s and women’s athletics and none of the women’s teams comes close to the roster size of the football team.

When the announcement of the dissolution of the two tennis teams came, there was the obligatory rhetoric from the AD at Arkansas about how painful the decision was:

“After considerable reflection and thoughtful discussion, we have made the very difficult decision to discontinue our men’s and women’s tennis programs.  We understand the disappointment and emotion this news will bring to many. The landscape of college athletics continues to evolve, requiring us to make challenging choices as we balance competitive opportunities, resources and the long-term sustainability of our department. Ultimately, we concluded that we are unable to provide the level of support necessary for our tennis programs to consistently compete in the SEC and nationally at the standard our student-athletes, coaches, alumni and supporters deserve. We appreciate the efforts of Coach Udwadia and Coach Clary, along with all of our current and former student-athletes.”

All I can say is that if the programs only generated about $3K in revenue, he “disappointment and emotion” that this news will bring is not to very many folks at all.

Moving on …  The MLB news of the day is that Tigers’ pitcher, Tarik Skubal will go on the IL and undergo a “procedure” to remove “loose bodies” from his elbow.  The expectation is that he could be back in the Tigers’ rotation by mid-July.  This is not a trivial matter; Skubal has won the AL Cy Young Award in each of the two previous seasons.  Right now, the Tigers are in the midst of a tight race in the AL Central; they will need to hold on by their fingernails and hope that Skubal returns to the lineup and to his previous performance level ASAP.

On the assumption that Skubal’s absence for about 10 weeks makes him a longshot to win the Cy Young Award for a third straight year, there is an interesting possibility here.  Jacob deGrom (Texas Rangers) has two Cy Young Awards in the NL.  He is coming off Tommy John surgery and will turn 38 years old in mid-June.  However, his stats so far in this young season are significant:

• His record is 2-1 with an ERA of 2.01.
• In 31.1 innings, he has 40 strikeouts and only 7 walks
• His WHIP is 0.96

Finally, this economics lesson from Steven Wright:

“If it’s a penny for your thoughts and then you put your two cents in, somebody somewhere is making a penny.”

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

 

 

There are reports everywhere that LIV Golf is about to dry up and blow away in the immediate future.  There will be dancing on the grave of this entity which tried to reinvent golf such that it would have dominated the sport and relegated the PGA to minor league status.  It looks as if even the deepest of pockets was insufficient to make that happen.

However, when LIV is lost to the great sand trap in the sky, every PGA golfer should quietly and privately lift a glass with an adult beverage therein and toast the folks who tossed millions of dollars around like nickels and for a moment scared the PGA near to death.  Here is what happened once LIV offered salaries and prize pools much larger than was customary in the sport:

• The PGA – without any major new influx of money from rights fees – raised many of its tournament purses by 50-100%.
• PGA golfers need to thank the LIV folks for that because it would not have happened without the LIV folks.
• And maybe PGA golfers need to put some pressure on the PGA financial folks because somehow they found a lot of “new prize money” in a budget that did not meaningfully expand revenues.  So, how much more “flexibility” might there be in those secluded accountings?

[Aside:  The PGA that organizes and runs the PGA Tour events is a “non-profit entity” and is exempt from Federal Tax.  Does that make sense to you?]

Moving on … NBA Commish, Adam Silver, declared a “War on Tanking” and started processes to come up with ways to drive it to extinction.  None of the ideas that were floated made a lot of sense to me and the latest suggestion is even dumber than earlier ones; the trend here is ominous.  Here is how to stop tanking – evidently:

• There will be 10 teams in the NBA Lottery – – the ones that do not make the playoffs or the play-ins.
• The “Bottom-3 teams” will each get X ping pong balls in the Lottery Hopper.
• The “Other-7 teams” will each get X+1 ping pong balls in the Lottery Hopper

The whole idea of the Draft in the first place is to help the worst teams become more competitive and this idea will punish the worst of the worst.  The only way such an idea might make sense is to assert that every team that ever finishes in the “Bottom-3” only got there by tanking.  [Aside: I saw with my own eyes the Sixers’ team that went 9-73 for a season; they did not tank the season; they were simply outmanned and outcoached.  Period.]

The US Government has in the past “declared war” on things like poverty, drugs, cancer and terror.  All I can say is that basketball fans should hope that Silver’s “War on Tanking” will be more successful than those government efforts.

• Memo to Adam Silver: Once you resolve the tanking issue, please turn your attention to integrity issues.
• Damon Jones just pleaded guilty to gambling charges; Chauncey Billups and Terry Rozier still have to face a day in court on similar charges.
• “Tanking” is an “integrity issue” just as is “gambling” an “integrity issue” and both could become existential threats to your league.

Switching gears …  Another head has rolled at Football Night in America; it appears that Chris Simms will be out of a job there.  For the moment, the cast there has been reduced by one; Tony Dungy and Chris Simms are out, and Mike Tomlin is in.  I have said here before and will repeat myself here, the cast there is far too big; there is not enough time for any of them to express a cogent thought even if they actually have one to offer.  If I count right, the current on-camera cast is 8 people which I think is about 3 too many.  I don’t like to see people lose jobs, but there could be a significant benefit there by “thinning the herd”.

Next …  Tomorrow they will run the Kentucky Derby.  My track record for picking Derby winners and profitable wagers for the race is stupendously awful.  Undaunted, I will offer here my idea for wagering on the race tomorrow with a budget of $100.

• Commandment (#6) and The Puma (#9) with
• #6, #9, Renegade (#1), Danon Bourbon (#7), So Happy (#8), Incredibolt (#11) and Pavlovian (#16) with
• #6, #9, #1, #7, #8, #11, #16  ($1Trifecta ticket costs $80)
• $10 to win on Commandment (#6) and $10 to win on The Puma (#9).  Cost = $20.

 If history is any judge, none of those horses will be a factor in the race – – whatever…

And just to be sure that no one here forgets my enjoyment of word playing with names, let me remind everyone that the #18 horse in the Derby field this year is named Further Ado (Morning Line = 6 to 1).  I do not wish any misfortune for the animal, but if by chance he turned up as a late scratch tomorrow:

• They would still run the Kentucky Derby without Further Ado.
  • • BaDaBing!   BaDaBoom!!!

Finally, WC Fields has a perfect way to close out today’s rant:

“Horse sense is the thing a horse has which keeps it from betting on people.”

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

 

 

 

 

             They seem to have decided to mess with the best thing going yet one more time.  March Madness was nigh onto perfect with 64 teams – – and then they added 4 more teams causing play-in games to set up a championship bracket that is totally symmetrical.  It expanded March Madness, but it did not make it better; the finality of 6 layers of “one-and-done” play prevailed.

Now, it seems clear from reporting just about everywhere that the college basketball mavens are going to expand it again – – this time to 76 teams.  It once was an event with 63 games; then it became an event with 67 games; now it will become an event with 75 games.  So, why do I think this is not a great idea?  After all, more tournament games should equate with more excitement, no?

Part of my problem is that the added games – – pairing off the “Bottom 24 Teams” in a bloated play- in round – – will not showcase anything that nearly approximates the best available squads.  I went back to look at teams who the “experts” assessed to be just outside the umbrella of a 68-team field in March 2026 and found these three teams:

1. Auburn – – 19-15 overall record and 7-11 in SEC games
2. Indiana – – 18-14 overall record and 9-11 in Big-10 games
3. Oklahoma – – 19-15 overall record and 7-11 in SEC games

Those are schools with a high level of recognizability; those are also teams that would not have been compelling TV draws at the end of the 2026 college basketball season.  And the fact of the matter is that unless there is a set-aside to let in more of the so-called “mid-majors” in the proposed 8-team expansion, those slots are going to go to teams in the major conferences that have already proven conclusively that they are only marginally competitive in their own conferences.  Should I have been happy to have had Va Tech in last year’s tournament field after its 8-10 record in the ACC?

• Do I like this idea?  Not even a little bit.
• Have they killed the goose that lays the golden eggs?  No; the Madness will survive.
• Is anything other than greed behind this thinking?  Sorry to say, but no.

And just as you think that decision will create some bad entertainment events, think for a moment about what is likely to happen in the women’s tournament that will also expand to 76 teams.  Here is a data point:

• Last year #2 overall seeded South Carolina played the #67 seeded Southern University in Round 1.  South Carolina won by a score of 103-34.  I’ll bet that was enjoyable to watch…

So, now the idea is to add teams not quite as good – – or slightly less bad? – – than Southern was last season to take on top teams like South Carolina or UConn or UCLA.  Keep talking; I’m not convinced just yet …

I said above that the mid-majors are going to get squeezed by this addition of slots because the real and perceptive view of “strength of schedule” will favor the eighth or ninth place finisher in a “big conference” over a middling team in a conference that might not be known to 75% of the TV audience.  If I am right in that assessment, then this must be the season for squeezing the small college sports programs dry.

Recently, I pointed out how NIL money was enticing low-round projected football players to stay in school to collect NIL money and – hopefully – to improve their Draft positioning with another year on the field.  Well, it should not be a humongous surprise to anyone reading here but there is more NIL money at the power conference schools than there is at schools in the Sun Belt or the MAC.  So, where might you guess the better players have migrated …

Consider this tidbit I ran across; I assume it is correct but do not have the time or energy to confirm it:

• Only 13 players from schools outside the Power 4 were drafted in the 7 rounds of the NFL Draft last week.

There were 256 players drafted last week.  One player did not go to a college in the US.  Ergo, 242 players taken in the Draft came from the Power 4 conferences.  That is 95% of the Draft Class.

So, of those players opting to “stay in school” and collect NIL money and hopefully improve their Draft status, how many of them are signing on with Power 4 teams as opposed to second level teams that might not attract any scouts to some of their games?

Finally, Ralph Waldo Emerson provides an interesting closing remark today:

“Democracy is morose, and runs to anarchy, but in the state, and in the schools, it is indispensable to resist the consolidation of all men into a few men.”

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

 

 

There are two “paradigm shifts” afoot in the sports world today that I want to discuss.  The first shift is happening to and for players in the WNBA.  In a pre-season media day involving the Indiana Fever, a reporter lobbed a softball question at Aliyah Boston about her offseason workouts and where they had happened.  Boston’s reaction/reply was:

“You in my business.”

Reports during the WNBA Draft spent a lot of time and attention on the “reuniting” of Azzi Fudd and Paige Bueckers not as teammates but as “a couple”.

This is paradigm shift number one today; players in the WNBA are now going to be subjected to more scrutiny in their private lives than before and the reason is because the WNBA players fought for and won greater public recognition as entertainers.  The public cares about the players these days much more that it did 10 years ago when the WNBA would have been glad to accept the label of “afterthought”.  Here is a certainty in the US in 2026:

• Celebrity status = Diminished privacy

I am not advocating that situation to be ideal or even worthwhile, but it is the case.  And for the last year, the WNBA players wedged themselves into a higher level of celebrity demanding to be paid better and to be treated better by the league owners.  They got concessions from the owners – – and not insignificant ones – – which carries with it the consequence of greater public scrutiny.

The second “paradigm shift” is happening to NFL teams as a whole and is exemplified by the Philadelphia Eagles spending a 7^th round draft pick on Uar Bernard who is 21 years old and from Nigeria; he has all the “measurables” in terms of size and speed to be a defensive end/linebacker but here is the rub:

• Uar Bernard has never played even a single down of organized tackle football.

One reaction to this might be that Eagles’ GM, Howie Roseman, hit the jackpot several years ago drafting rugby player, Jason Mailata, and developing him into a top-shelf offensive tackle; and so, this is nothing more than him taking another shot at a big payoff.  Indeed, that may well be Howie Roseman’s mindset there, but I think there is more to that selection than that.

College football has been the “farm system” for the NFL since forever; the big difference between the NFL’s “farm system” and MLB’s ”farm system” is MLB’s system costs MLB money and the NFL’s system comes free.  This year, there were 256 players taken by NFL teams in the Draft, but the pool was not nearly as deep as has been the case in recent years.  That is not just me talking; that is what NFL scouts and “personnel people” have been saying about this draft class for at least a month.  And why might that be the case:

• NIL Money

Picture Joe Flabeetz who plays football for Whatsamatta U; Joe is three years removed from high school graduation so he can choose to declare himself ready for the NFL Draft.  But Joe is in a different position today than he would have been in years gone by; he already has an agent – – a relationship that would have rendered him ineligible for college football ten years ago.  The reason he has an agent is for the agent to negotiate his NIL money by playing off various colleges against one another in the Transfer Portal – – which did not exist ten years ago in the form it does now.

So, Joe Flabeetz has two things now that were not available in the past:

1. He is collecting NIL money which is much more than a living wage
2. He has access to someone who can sniff around and find out what NFL scouts think about him.

So, Joe Flabeetz’ agent, Sam Glotz, checks his sources at the NFL level and reports to Joe that he is unlikely to be drafted in the first three or four rounds in the upcoming draft.  That means it makes economic sense for Joe to stay in college and play another year for NIL money and potentially play his way into a higher degree of interest from NFL scouts.  And therein lies the paradigm shift.

Rounds 5-7 have always been a crapshoot for NFL teams but now the situation is made more difficult by legitimate late round picks opting to “stay in school” because it makes economic sense and football sense for them.  Hence, Howie Roseman spent an asset – – not a huge asset in a 7^th round pick – – to make sure that the Eagles would be the ones to try to develop Uar Bernard into an NFL player.

Here are Bernard’s “measurables:

• He is 21 years old.
• 6’ 4” tall and 306 lbs. with 6% body fat
• He ran a 4.63 in the 40 yard dash at the International Player Pathway Pro Day – – sort of like a “Combine” for foreign players.
• He had a 39-inch vertical jump and a 10’ 10” standing broad jump.

He was a basketball player in Nigeria starting at the age of 16 and has never played organized football, but with those measurables he compares favorably to exiting NFL players and to others in this year’s draft.  Why is he in the draft?  Because there is no NIL money in Nigeria and he did not have access to someone like Sam Glotz.

The NFL’s “farm system” has changed and GMs will need to adapt to the change.  Uar Bernard is not likely to be the last person drafted from a place totally apart from a college campus and a college football environment.

Finally, this from Norman Cousins:

“Wisdom consists of the anticipation of consequences.”

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