Catching Up…

Unaccustomed as I am to be starting off a rant with a positive report, let me give that a try today.  Last week, there were reports that Dick Vitale has been declared “cancer-free” which in medical terms is a step above being “in remission”.  Vitale has been undergoing treatment for lymphoma for about 6 months and this is the latest positive news from that situation.  I have commented here in the past that there have been times when Vitale’s way over-the-top exuberance on a college basketball broadcast has diminished my enjoyment of the game.  Notwithstanding that criticism, I am happy that he is cancer-free.  Cancer sucks …

The FIFA World Cup scheduled for this November in Qatar seems to be doing a land-office business regarding ticket sales.  The event organizers plan to sell a total of 3 million tickets to the myriad events that make up the tournament and a report last week at frontofficesports.com said that they have already sold 2.45 million of those tickets.  According to that report, more than 520,000 tickets were sold between July 5 and July 16 on FIFA’s online ticket site.  The site is now dark, and people are awaiting an announcement from FIFA about when the next buying period will take place.

In other economic news related to the upcoming World Cup tournament:

• Telemundo has the US Spanish-language broadcast rights for the World Cup.  They report that they have already sold 90% of their available advertising inventory for the tournament.
• FOX has the US English-language broadcast rights for the World Cup.  That network has not made a statement about how its ad sales are going but they did say recently that they will take a “small army” of folks to Doha to cover the tournament.  FOX will have about 150 people on site in Doha and that there will be announcers in the stadium for every game in the tournament.

Moving on …  The story of Tom Brady “taking off” from the Bucs’ training camp has gotten a lot of speculative commentary as to the reason for his absence.  But before I add just a smidgen to that commentary let me say that he has not taken off “under mysterious circumstances” because to say that is to misuse the word “mysterious”.  Tom Brady has left the Bucs’ training camp under “secret” circumstances.  Here is the fundamental difference:

• For the circumstances to be “secret”, someone somewhere must know why he did what he did.  Surely, Tom Brady knows why he did what he did.
• For the circumstances to be “mysterious”, no one can yet know why he did what he did.  Since Tom Brady knows, these are not “mysterious”.
• The difference between a “secret” and a “mystery” is that someone knows what the “secret” is, but no one knows what the “mystery” is.

I have heard/read speculation that Brady is tending to “family matters” to include being with someone in the family who is ill – – and/or that he is reassessing his comeback from that 4-week retirement that he announced back in the winter – — and/or that he is off recording an appearance on The Masked Singer – – and/or that his marriage is in trouble.  I certainly hope that no one in his family is ill to the point that Tom Brady feels the need to leave training camp and I certainly hope that his marriage is not in trouble.  If he is off doing The Masked Singer, I hope he does a better job at it than Terry Bradshaw did several years ago.  If he is indeed re-thinking his retirement/comeback decisions, here is economic data:

• If Tom Brady plays for the Bucs in 2022, I believe he will earn $30M if he achieves all the bonuses in the contract.
• If Tom Brady retires, he will go to the FOX broadcast booth and under the terms of that deal will make approximately $37.5M in 2022.

I am convinced that Brady will not make an economic decision here simply because I do not think that a difference of $7.5M in income for this year is sufficient for him to break a sweat mentally.  But for those of us who ponder “retirement planning”, it is interesting that he would make more money in his first retirement year than he would make by “staying on the job”.

I will not pretend to know why Brady decided to do what he did, but I will say this:

• If Brady is committed to play for the Bucs in 2022, I really doubt that his absence from training camp for a week or two will render him unprepared for the season-opener at the Cowboys on Sunday night September 11^th.

If one wanted to find things to worry about as a Bucs’ fan this year, Tom Brady’s readiness for the season opener should be low on that list.

Finally, let me close today with an item I found in Gregg Drinnan’s blog, Taking Note:

“RORY WITH AN ACE — Rory McIlroy has been outspoken against those golfers who turned their backs on the PGA Tour for the Saudi Arabian cash of the LIV circuit. To which Patrick Reed, who isn’t the most-liked golfer in the world, said: ‘He’ll never win a Masters to complete a career Grand Slam.’ . . . That is said to have brought this response from McIlroy: ‘The only chance Reed has of getting a Grand Slam is at Denny’s.’”

For the record, the Grand Slam at Denny’s is a good breakfast…

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