Category: Uncategorized

            This week will be a truncated version of Football Fridays to come, but it needs doing for continuity if nothing else.  First, let me look back at the miserable performance of  the Six Pack suggestions and the Money Line Parlays from last week.  I always start out a football season in a hole and spend weeks digging out to get back to even; this year was no exception:

• Spreads/Totals:         0-2-0    Year to date:   0-2-0
• M/L Parlays :              0-2       Minus $200     YTD:             minus-$200

2026 could not have started out any worse given that I limited my selections to only a few games.  Undaunted, I march on …

The Linfield University Wildcats begin their pursuit of another winning record in football this weekend traveling east to face the Titans of the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh.  The Titans were 5-5 in 2025 and lost the opener last year to Linfield in McMinnville, OR by 17 points.  Remember, the reason I track this is because Linfield has had a winning season in football every year since 1956.  Go Wildcats!

My “sleeper team” for 2026 is the Florida Gators and they begin their campaign with a home game this weekend against Florida Atlantic.  The Gators are 26-point favorites in that game; if they lose outright, my “sleeper team” might just become my “comatose team” for 2026.

Long-term readers know that I like to find unusual players’ names.  I think there will be a sufficient number that I run across to post one every week.  This week it will be

• Princewill Umanmielen  DE  LSU

 

College Football Commentary:

 

During the telecast of the UNC/TCU game from Dublin last week, I thought I heard the announcers say that UNC QB, Billy Edwards, was in his 7^th  year of college football.  That is not unheard of, but it is still unusual enough to send me checking.  Indeed, he has been involved in “collegiate” athletics for 6 years prior to the 2026 season.  It is way too much work to go and check every player on every roster of the 138 teams in Division 1-A football to see if there are other “Seventh Year Players”.  However, if there are others I would like to suggest that we name them immediately to:

• The 2026 All-Blutarsky Team

UNC beat TCU straight up in Dublin last week as an 8.5-point underdog.  Lots of people have pointed to an energized Tar Heels’ offense under Bobby Petrino in their first game.  I think there was another angle to the game that mattered; Bill Belichick called the defensive signals for the game.  TCU scored on its first two possessions and then – – Nada.  Say what you want about Belichick and how “the game may have passed him by”; his defense seemed always to be in the right place at the right time for the final three quarters of that game.

One of the early things I do in setting up these Football Friday presentations is to look over the schedule for the week.  One of the things I saw quickly is the Washington and Washington St. will play on Sunday afternoon.  Say what?  That match-up used to be the Apple Bowl game; it was the last game of the season and a humongous rivalry in the PAC-8 and the PAC-10 and the PAC-12 before the conference imploded.  Now, is the first out of the gate for both schools?  What’s next in the demolition of traditional rivalries – – Army/Navy on Halloween Weekend?

UNLV had hopes of being the “Group of Six” invitee to the CFP this year and I bought into that hype picking the Rebels last week.  Well, those hopes just took a sharp stick in the butt losing to Memphis who now also has that goal in sight.  Marshall has a new coach, Charles Huff; his teams at Marshall and at Southern Mississippi have made it to bowl games every season with Huff on the sidelines.  Back in 2024, he led Marshall to a 10-3 record but somehow the school could not get a contract extension done; so, he went to Southern Miss and posted a winning record there.  I don’t want this to be a humongous overreaction, but Huff’s record and his opening win in his first game at Memphis might mean that team needs to be watched.

Memphis will play Boise St. in Week 2 this year; Boise St also has its eye on an invitation to the CFP.  That could be an interesting match-up…

Sacramento State played its first ever Division 1-A game last week.  They have stepped up to Division 1-A and joined the MAC, which makes exactly no geographic sense at all.  Sac St. lost to Eastern Michigan 28-17, and it was about as one-sided as that score might indicate; remember, those players ventured more than 2000 miles from “home” to play that game and will repeat that odyssey multiple times in 2026.  E. Michigan is a middling team in the MAC so this result does not bode well for Sacramento State.

And speaking of the MAC and not-so-good teams there, UMass did not win a single game in 2025, and they were 30-point underdogs to Rutgers yesterday.  The final score was UMass 37 and Rutgers 21.  The Minutemen held Rutgers to a total of 30 yards rushing in the game.  This result cannot make the folks in Big-10 HQS happy…

UVa put a beating on NC State last week winning by a score of 34-8.  It wasn’t that close.  The Cavs led 24-8 early in the second half and then put on a dominant drive that sealed the game long before the final whistle:

• The drive consisted of 23 plays.
• It covered 75 yards; that is 3.3  yards per play; Woody Hayes nods in approval
• It lasted 12 minutes and 15 seconds
• It culminated in a 1-yard TD run by RB. Xay Davis.

Florida St ultimately prevailed over New Mexico St. 34-17, but the Aggies only trailed by 10 points early in the 4^th quarter.  The Seminoles got the win, but somehow I think Mike Norvell’s hot seat just got hotter…

 

Games This Week:

 

I know this is Week 1 of college football, and this is not a week where you expect to find a lot of short spreads, but this week has few short spreads in an ocean of lopsided ones.  I counted 59 games this weekend listed with double-digit spreads.  I might not be able to find a Six Pack – – or even a Two Pack – – this week.

Liberty at James Madison – 6 (50):  These schools are almost next-door neighbors.   Liberty represents C-USA and James Madison is part of the Sun Belt Conference.

Marshall at Penn St. – 24 (52):  The new coach at Penn St. used to be at Iowa St.  The Cyclones did not enjoy losing football games, but Matt Campbell has never been in an environment like Penn St. after an early season loss.

Ball St. at Ohio St – 49.5 (56):  Ball St. starting QB, Keldric Luster is listed at 5’ 10” and 250 lbs.  That is not exactly the physical profile of a typical college football QB.  That looks to me to be a shorter version of Jared Lorenzen, the former QB at Kentucky who carried the moniker – The Hefty Lefty.

UCLA – 1 at Cal (53):  This game has a reasonable spread – – but I have no handle on either team, so I have to pass.

Boise St. at Oregon – 24.5 (51.5):  As noted above, Boise St. would love to be the Group of Six participant in the CFP in December.  They can be forgiven for losing this game; Oregon is a Top Ten team, but Boise St. cannot be embarrassed here.

Clemson at LSU – 10 (51):  This is the College Game of the Week almost by default.  There is some heat between the two coaches and for that reason, I suspect that LSU coach Lane Kiffin will not take his foot off the gas once he gets a solid lead.  I like the LSU Tigers to beat the Clemson Tigers in this one and I think they will cover; put that in the Six Pack.

Norfolk St. at Old Dominion – 41 (52.5):  I said above the Liberty and JMU were almost next-door neighbors; these two schools are about 5 miles apart in the Tidewater area of Virginia.

 

NFL Commentary:

 

            Former Dallas Cowboys RB and Hall of Fame inductee, Emmitt Smith, has been named in a lawsuit filed by an entity that places investments for Native American Cherokee tribes alleging that Smith and another partner were running a Ponzi Scheme.  As with any allegation of a Ponzi Scheme, it isn’t easy to summarize the allegations – – let alone the rebuttal claims – – in short order.  So, if  you want the details of this lawsuit, here is a link for you.

Aaron Donald is back with the Rams; indeed, he unretired to join the team in pursuit of a Super Bowl ring this season.  Let me channel my inner Captain Louis Renault here:

• I am SHOCKED that Donald waited until the exhibition games and Training Camp were concluded before making his announcement…

I mentioned earlier this week that Packers RB, Josh Jacobs, is on the Commissioner’s Exempt List while the league investigates and the legal authorities decide what to make of allegations that he committed battery against a woman back in May.  Unless there is the plaintiff recanting her story, this matter does not bode well for the Green Bay Packers.  If the league intends to wait until the matter is settled in court, that could take a while because Jacobs’ court date is not until November.  That is the half-way point in the NFL season.

Before the games start for real next week, let me do what curmudgeons always do.  I want to list the NFL teams that most people consider playoff contenders and point out one bad thing about each team on the list that could spoil their ambitions.  I will list the teams alphabetically lest anyone try to ascribe priority here:

• Bills:  Has the defense improved to the point that it can hold a lead when the team has one in the fourth quarter?
• Chargers:  Have they improved a poor pass defense from last year?  Remember, the Defensive Coordinator from last year is no longer there to hide that weakness under a ton of blitzing.
• Chiefs:  Is Mahomes fully healed and is there any gas left in the tank for Travis Kelce?
• Cowboys:  Can the defense stop anyone?  Can the secondary cover a corpse?
• Eagles:  What kind of passing offense will they present with the absence of AJ Brown?  Remember it wasn’t all that good with Brown in 2025.
• Packers:  When will Micah Parsons return to the team and can he play at his previous level?  Oh yeah, do they have a fill-in for Josh Jacobs?
• Pats:  Can they overcome the Super Bowl Loser’s jinx?
• Rams:  This is simple; the roster is old and older.
• Ravens:  They do not face a playoff team from last year until November 1^st; they must not lose more than one game in their first seven.
• Seahawks:  They lost Kenneth Walker III to free agency and Zach Charbonneau to knee surgery; can they still run the football?
• Texans:  Is CJ Stroud for real or will the defense have to carry the day again in 2026?

            There are no NFL games this week; action starts next Wednesday with the game from Australia between the Niners and the Rams.  However, one fundamental difference between the early lines on NFL games as compared to this week’s college offerings is that there were 59 college games with double digit spreads and as of now, only 1 NFL game for next week has a 10-point spread (Chargers/Cards).  In fact, eleven of the sixteen games in the NFL next week are carrying spreads of a field goal or less.  The oddsmakers are really leaning in to parity for Week 1 of the NFL.

So let me summarize this week’s Six-Pack – – which should not be difficult since there is only one game in there.  This seems like the remnant of a six pack that Norm from Cheers might have brought home:

• LSU – 10 over Clemson
• Sorry no Money Line Parlays on the card this week

Finally, let’s hear from Phyllis Diller today:

“The reason women don’t play football is because eleven of them would never wear the same outfit in public.”

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

 

 

To set the tone for today’s rant, let me begin with this from St. Augustine of Hippo who lived in the late 4th Century:

“Punishment is justice for the  unjust.”

Punishment was handed down by the NBA in the long-festering case of Kawhi Leonard/The LA Clippers/Circumvention of the NBA Salary Cap.  I am not going into the details of what was alleged to have happened by Pablo Torre on his podcast; if you need/want to refresh your memory on all that, Google “Pablo Torre Kawhi Leonard Clippers” and you will have your choice of links to that stuff.

After almost a year of investigation by an outside law firm, Adam Silver brought the hammer down on the Clippers and its management team – – and this was the Hammer of Thor and not the little hammer bone in your middle ear.

1. Owner Steve Ballmer and team president, Lawrence Frank are suspended for 1 year
2. The Clippers as a team is fined $30M – – AND – –
3. The Clippers will forfeit 5 first round draft picks.

The first two punishments above can be shrugged off; yes, $30M is a steep fine but the Clippers’ owner is reportedly worth somewhere around $145-155B;  so, I think he can pay this fine and still avoid frequenting soup kitchens for his meals.

It’s that third punishment that is stunning.  Without first round picks for at least 5 years – – and possibly more if the Clippers have already traded away one of their future picks – – the franchise is hobbled in terms of a “level playing field”.  One of the supposed justifications for that harsh measure is that the Clippers are “repeat offenders” in the area of salary cap circumvention with DeAndre Jordan’s contract back in 2015.  Assuming that to be the case, a harsh penalty is appropriate.

The interesting thing here is that Kawhi Leonard seemingly skates on the matter.  Leonard will be fined $700K.  Before you react to that number and say that it is a huge fine, consider that Spotrac.com reports his career earnings at $375,772,011 and that his salary for the upcoming NBA season will be $50,300,000.  That means the $700K fine is just a smidge over a drop in the bucket.

The Clippers have vowed to challenge this ruling; I presume that means challenge it in court since I don’t now of any “Court of Appeals” within the NBA that might overturn or reduce this punishment suite.  Somehow, I don’t think we have heard nearly the last word on the matter.

Now compare this situation with one that is facing the NFL Commish, Roger Goodell.

• The NBA had an owner who seems to have broken a league rule and has been hammered.
• The NFL has an owner who plead nolo contendere to charges of engaging in prostitution (a minor criminal offense) who has yet to be “punished” by the league.
• The NFL has a player – Josh Jacobs – who is on the Commissioner’s Exempt List because he faces charges of battery and “criminal damage to property.”  In the eyes of the law, Jacobs remains innocent.

I think Commish Goodell recognizes that he is in a delicate situation here.  Let me suppose that the NFL determines that whatever Jacobs did or did not do violates the league’s Personal Conduct Policy which is not congruent with criminal law.  If that turns out to be the case, the standard punishment for Jacobs would be a suspension of some number of games; there are many precedents for that punishment.

When a player is suspended …

• He cannot be in team facilities or team meetings or team practices for the suspension period – AND – he forfeits his pay for that time too.
• If he were suspended for 5 games, he would miss 5 game checks or 29.4% of his yearly salary.

So, why hasn’t Jed York been suspended yet?  Seeking sex for pay in a trailer park has to fall under the umbrella of the Personal Conduct Policy and the Commish knows that happened based on the court pleading and the fact that York served 2 days in jail as part of his sentence,  [Aside: York was also fined about $1000 in the case; I am confident that the check to pay that fine easily cleared and that the funds are now in the coffers of East Palestine, OH.]

But suspending an owner is not like suspending a player:

• He can’t be in team facilities or in contact with team officials or players during the term of the suspension.  Big deal …
• He can’t be in his luxury box for games during the term of the suspension.  So sad …
• He does not lose his “salary” because he does not draw a salary from the team.

So, a player suffers “banishment” and loss of salary while an owner suffers “banishment” only.  And that is the dilemma that I think is staring Commissioner Goodell in the face about now; if he suspends Jed York, his punishment will shine a spotlight on the fundamentally different levels of pain disbursed to owners and players who run afoul of the dreaded Personal Conduct Policy.

Finally, I began today with words from St. Augustine of Hippo; let me close with this from psychiatrist, Thomas Szasz:

“Punishment is now unfashionable… because it creates moral distinctions among men, which, to the democratic mind, are odious. We prefer a meaningless collective guilt to a meaningful individual responsibility.”

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

 

 

I rarely do this, but I would like you to follow this link and read one of my rants from January 9^th, 2017.  When you finish, I’ll be ready to expand on that idea today.

Nine years ago, I did not think that reorganizing college football so extensively was in the realm of the possible; now in 2026, one of the provisions of the “Save College Football Act” awaiting a vote in the US Senate is to prevent today’s conferences from breaking up because the top teams want to create a college football “Super League”.

Unlike 2017 when there were exactly 128 schools in Division 1-A football, there have been additions there.  This year there are 138 Division 1-A teams and that makes the math tricky so let me start by telling you that there will not be mathematical symmetry here and there will need to be some juggling and force-fitting of teams  into divisions to make this work.

I want to take the “Top 64 college football teams” and put them in the newly established College Football Champions League.  I want to take the remaining 74 teams that are playing Division 1-A football and organize them into the College Football Aspirants League.  Please note that I am trying to be kind and gentle with my labeling here; back in 2017, I called the first level categorization the Big Boys and the Little Boys.

Focus first on the Champions League.  Divide those 64 teams into 8 Divisions of 8 teams each.  The schedule for any team would follow a scripted pattern; 7 games against their Division opponents and 4 games against one-half of one other Division; the out-or-division games would rotate from year to year but all 11 games for all 64 teams in the Champions League would be against other teams in the Champions League; there are no “bunny games”.

The mavens who love the idea of an expanded CFP can use this scheduling chart to pick a field of 16 teams:

• Selection Method #1:  The first place and second place teams in each of the 8 Divisions are in the CFP.  The Committee will simply need to seed those teams and get out of the way.
• Selection Method #2:  The 8 Division winners are automatically in, and the Committee will then rank and seed the best 8 teams to fill out the CFP field on whatever basis the Committee might concoct.

            I prefer Selection Method #2 ever so slightly because it is easy for me to imagine that the third-place finisher in Division #1 might be significantly stronger than some of the other second place finishers in Divisions #2-8.  But I can live with either way …

But wait there’s more …  And there is a very contentious element here.

For the Aspirants League there is only room for 72 teams and there are 74 current teams that should get a seat at the table here.  There is no kind and gentle solution here; I know it is draconian, but two schools are going to be dropped down to Division 1-AA.  However, that decision will certainly be challenged in court; so, the real winner there is “Billable Hours”.

With 72 teams in the Aspirants League, there will be 9 Divisions of 8 teams each.  The scheduling there would be the same as in the Champions League; there are no “bunny games” and there are no games outside the commonly perceived level of competency.  There could be an Aspirants League playoff too and the games could fill up some of the minor Bowl Games.  However, the important thing for the Aspirants League is to identify its Top 8 teams because they will get promoted to the Champions League while 8 Champions League teams get demoted/relegated.

Here is how I would do the promotion/relegation:

• For relegation, the 8 teams that finish last in their Division in the Champions League get “sent down”.  There will need to be tie-breaker rules established ahead of time because there could well be identical records for two teams at the bottom of any Division.
• For promotion, the 8 teams that finish first in their Divisions get to “move up” – – but only if they elect to do so.  If a team is content to stay in the Aspirants League, then it can certainly do so and there would need to be a selection process for a team or teams that did not finish first in their Division to “move up”.

Promotion to the Champions League is potentially a curse and a blessing.  The blessing is that there will be more money coming in to the Athletic Department based on shared revenues for media deals with the Champions League.  The curse is that promotion may be ephemeral and there may be demotion one year hence; so, is that additional revenue worth the disruption.  For some schools the answer will surely be “yes”, but I would not want to mandate it as the only answer; promotion should be an invitation and not a requirement.

And now for the icing on the cake …  What to do with the teams that finish at the bottom of their Divisions in the Aspirants League?  Remember that two schools were “kicked out” of Division 1-A football to get the numbers right for the Aspirants League; those two schools would certainly want back in.

In addition, there may be other schools in Division 1-AA who might want to “graduate” and try their hand at a higher level of competition.  At the start of every season, there would be a time for schools outside Division 1-A to declare their intention/willingness to “move up” and here is how that would play out:

• If there are exactly 9 outside teams declaring for promotion to the Aspirants League, then those 9 teams would simply replace the 9 teams that finished last in their Division.
• If more than 9 teams declare, a Committee would have to decide which 9 are most deserving.  I would suggest that “surplus teams” have a playoff for those open slots, but others might prefer a simple Committee ruling.
• If fewer than 9 teams declare then fewer than 9 teams from the Aspirants League need demotion.  In this scenario, a version of my longstanding mythical SHOE Tournament would work.  Let’s say only 5 teams declare for promotion.  There are 8 last-place finishers.  A Committee would decide that two of those last place finishers will certainly go down but the other six teams would draw lots and play an elimination game where the loser goes down and the winner stays in the Aspirants League.

Meanwhile, at the top of the Champions League there will always be at least a couple of big-time games every week for TV presentations.  Focus on teams in the lower levels of the Divisions will increase because of the relegation provisions; the same goes for plenty of Aspirants League games because of promotion potential and relegation to Division 1-AA potential.

And somehow, all this increased focus on College Football is to be blunted by legislation pending in the US Senate.  Don’t ask why; just recognize this is the work of the US Congress – the place where good ideas go to die.  In my mind the only real question is this:

• Should we implement this in 2027 or in 2028?

Finally, I feel the need to close today with this from President Calvin Coolidge:

“Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent. The slogan ‘Press On!’ has solved and always will solve the problems of the human race.”

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

 

 

With the start of the NFL regular season less than a month away, I want to spend time today taking a synoptic view of the league and the upcoming season.  I will try to highlight things to look for as the season unfolds and to look at some ongoing issues I have with the universally acknowledged behemoth of US sports.  And I want to begin with the demise of the “Rooney Rule”.

This rule was well-intentioned from the start even if it had no enforcement mechanism.  The idea was to give minority coaching candidates a better chance to get one of the 32 head coaching jobs in the NFL than had been the case over most of the history of the league.  Some critics said that the rule was not about “minorities”; it was about Black head coaches, and it seems that there is a basis for that criticism.  Lots of commentators today say that there are only 3 minority coaches in the NFL, but actually, there are 3 Black, head coaches and a Hispanic head coach and a Muslim head coach of Lebanese extraction.  Put all of that aside …

Last year, the league turned over about 25% of its head coaches.  No Black men were elevated to those jobs; Robert Saleh was the only minority hired in the process.  And that happened even though the original “Rooney Rule” that required every owner/GM to interview one minority candidate for the job had been expanded to two mandatory interviews and expanded to coordinator and GM positions.  It is time to deal with reality.

NFL owners are going to hire whomever they damned well please to coach the teams they own.  If that means they must conduct a sham interview or three along the way, they will do that to abide by the rule and not incur the wrath of The Commish.  So, what started out as a well-intentioned step toward “social justice” has become feckless and demeaning to some of the people the rule intended to benefit.  Put the Rooney Rule out to pasture.

When Adam Vinatieri entered the Pro Football Hall of Fame this summer, he did so before Tom Brady, Robert Kraft and Bill Belichick.  Raise your hand if you said 15 years ago that would be the case …

There will be a couple of minor rule changes this season but a rule change that I would favor was not under consideration.  I want to get rid of Overtime Games in the regular season and give both teams involved a “half-win” and a “half loss”.  Here’s why:

• Having tied games in the standings cannot be anathema because they are tolerated after 10 extra minutes of play without complaint.
• The fact that the league cut the OT limit from 15 minutes to 10 minutes as a “player health and safety” advancement raises the question of why play even a minute of OT if it is dangerous to player safety and health.

Opposition to this idea could come from the sportsbooks who offer win total bets in half-game increments; having teams with “half wins” on their record could create push bets there.

I said there would be some minor rule changes this year.

• Probably the most significant rule change is one that won’t happen very often.  Starting in 2025 a team can declare an onside kick at any point in the game.  Before now, it could only be in the 4^th quarter by a team trailing on the scoreboard.   An onside kick cannot be a surprise; it still must be declared.
• The second minor rule change could become a major change if indeed it is invoked.  Starting in 2026, “league personnel” may consult with on-field officials when considering disqualifications for both flagrant football acts and non-football acts without any infraction being called on the field.   For the record, “league personnel” translates to the good folks manning the replay apparatus.  And if they do this correctly and use replay to find out who initiated an “unsportsmanlike display” instead of who merely retaliated, it could be very valuable in cutting out some of the nonsensical fracases that happen periodically.

The resignation of Mike Tomlin as the Steelers’ head coach was a boon to the sports broadcasting industry.  Tomlin made his debut on the set of Football Night In America in the Hall of Fame game and looked like a seasoned pro who had been doing that for years.  He conducted player interviews and actually asked some follow-up questions in the session; how refreshing is that?

Tomlin’s resignation also removed a Super Bowl winning coach from the sidelines, but it also allowed for another Super Bowl winning coach to return to the sidelines.  Mike McCarthy replaced Mike Tomlin in Pittsburgh.  Interestingly, McCarthy’s presence in Pittsburgh sets up an interesting comparison:

• There are only 4 Super Bowl winning head coaches who are still with the team where the coach won the Super Bowl.  They are Andy Reid (Chiefs), Sean McVay (Rams), Nick Siriani (Eagles) and Mike MacDonald (Seahawks).
• Meanwhile there are 3 Super Bowl winning coaches who now coach a team different from the one where they won the Super Bowl.  They are Mike McCarthy (Steelers), John Harbaugh (Giants) and Sean Payton (Saints).
• This tells me that winning a Super Bowl does not necessarily guarantee a coach a position for life within an organization – – as Bill Belichick found out about 2 seasons ago.

While I am on the subject of “Super Bowls” – at least tangentially – there are still four NFL teams that have never participated in the game.  Only one of those teams is in the NFC (Detroit Lions) and three are in the AFC (Cleveland Browns, Houston Texans and Jax Jags).  In one of his football novels, Dan Jenkins had the Lions in the Super Bowl game – -as the loser naturally – and in the movie Draft Day, the Browns’ GM’s brilliance in the draft has convinced Clevelanders that this is their year for the Super Bowl.  It won’t happen, but wouldn’t it be a great storyline of the Lions met the Browns in the Super Bowl in February 2027?

In order to be able to play in the Super Bowl a team must first make it to the playoffs.  I ran across this stat about playoff absences:

• If the Jets miss the playoffs again this year (as surely looks likely) it will be the 16^th consecutive season for the Jets’ team to be sitting at home watching the playoffs on TV.
• That 16-year absence would be the longest playoff drought in all the major US sports – – MLB, NBA, NFL, NHL.
• J – E – T – S … JETS, JETS, JETS !

Speaking of the Jets, do you remember that the Jets went through the entire regular season in 2025 – – all 17 games – – without intercepting a pass thrown by an opposing QB?  Opponents threw the ball 515 times against the Jets’ defense in 2025 and suffered ZERO INTs.

I mentioned the Hall of Fame game above.  I rarely watch that game because it is usually an ugly contest where only very few of the players have a realistic shot at sticking with their team in September.  This year’s game was different; there were two QBs on the field who looked as if they were indeed going to spend time in the NFL.  Carson Beck and Haynes King both looked like “real QBs” in the game.

I have a theory about why that was the case:

• Carson Beck played all or part of 6 seasons of college football.  [Aside: Don’t get me started on that …]  He appeared in 55 games including 43 games over the last 3 seasons.
• Haynes King also played all or part of 6 seasons of college football.  He appeared in 46 games including 36 games over the last 3 seasons.
• Both Beck and Haynes have had time to “mature” and “develop their craft”.  Some top-shelf college QBs declare for the NFL with twenty or fewer game appearances and lots less practice time and coaching instruction.  Those “greener QBs” may have more athletic skill that either Beck or King, but they often have a lot to learn about the game itself – – and it looked to me as if both King and Beck have figured a lot of that stuff out already.

There are some new/interesting features on the NFL regular season schedule and calendar this year.  The international game schedule will expand to include Australia in Week 1 involving the Rams and the Niners.  All in all, there will be nine regular season games played in overseas venues in 2026 with stops in Rio de Janeiro, London (3 games), Madrid, Mexico City, Munich and Paris in addition to the game in Melbourne, Australia.  The game in Paris (Saints/Steelers) will be the first one in France too.

Also, for the first time ever, there will be an NFL game on “Thanksgiving Eve”.  That game will feature the Rams and the Packers and will be available on Netflix.  And there will be one other Wednesday game on the docket this season.  Because of the travel time and the time change involved in that Week 1 game in Australia, the league needed to slot it in on Thursday of Week 1.  That schedule slot is normally reserved for the reigning Super Bowl champs to kick off the season and so the league stuck with that “season opening tradition” and moved the Seahawks/Pats Super Bowl rematch to Wednesday night of Week 1.

That “Super Bowl rematch” has an interesting wrinkle.  The Super Bowl MVP was Kenneth Walker II, and the Seahawks lost him in free agency.  The other main RB for the Seahawks last season was Zach Charbonneau who will not be available until mid-season as he recovers/rehabs from surgery.  Super Bowl champions usually lose players in free agency; that is not particularly noteworthy; but the Seahawks will either have to sign an experienced RB late in the Training Camp cycle or go with a tandem of rookies at the position.

Off-season trades involving top-shelf players are not a staple of your typical NFL off-seasons.  However, this year Myles Garrett, Trent McDuffie, Jaylen Waddle, Maxx Crosby and DJ Moore were traded from one team to another.  [Aside:  Yes, I know; the Crosby trade was reneged, and he is still with the Raiders – – but they tried to trade him this summer.]  And probably the most anticipated trade and the one that inspired the most commentary was the one that sent AJ Brown from the Eagles to the Pats.  When you add up all the “inside info” and the “remote mind reading” that preceded that swap, it almost equaled the hoopla associated with the Travis Kelce/Taylor Swift relationship/marriage.

The removal of Brown from the Eagles’ roster makes the Eagles an interesting focal point for the season.  As has been the case for every year of the Nick Siriani regime, the Eagles have a new offensive coordinator; Sean Mannion will scheme their offense and call the plays in 2026.  The Eagles’ offense in 2025 was far too predictable; this is Mannion’s first coaching position where he will call plays; so, even if he too is predictable, it might take defensive coordinators a while to figure out his tendencies.

One of Sean Mannion’s unwritten responsibilities is to rejuvenate the career of Jalen Hurts who took a lot of the blame for a stagnant Eagles’ offense in 2025.  In addition, a lot of the remote mindreading involving the AJ Brown trade focused on Hurts and his purported relationship rupture with Brown.  Good luck to Sean Mannion on his multi-faceted set of responsibilities; Philly fans are so patient that they will surely give him the benefit of the doubt for at least the first two games of the season.

Many people think the Eagles’ QB needs a new incarnation.  Such is not the case in Miami; Malik Willis is the starter there and is not in danger of losing that job unless he is injured.  Here are two disturbing stats for Dolphins’ fans:

• Malik Willis has never thrown more than 40 completions in an NFL season in his career.
• Unless I missed someone on the Dolphins’ depth chart, Malik Washington caught the most passes last season; he snagged all of 46 of them.
• Stats aren’t everything to be sure, but those are foreboding omens…

Another interesting QB situation came out of the blue just this week.  Teddy Bridgewater was in the Lions’ Training Camp as the backup to Jared Goff; then he announced that he was retiring from football and that left the Lions with only 2 QBs on the roster – – Jared Goff and Luke Altmyer.  You will be excused if you do not immediately identify Luke Altmyer from your memory; he is an undrafted free agent this year out of Illinois.  So, the translation of that situation is:

• The Lions needed a backup QB in case Jared Goff has to miss time in 2026.

The Lions addressed that need quickly signing Joshua Dobbs to a 1-year deal.  Dobbs has been in and around the NFL since 2017 and the Lions will be his seventh stop along the way.  In his career, Dobbs has started a total of 15 games; that is a classic background for a backup QB and the fact that Dobbs has been around in that sort of role for so long and with so many teams speaks to the fact that he is unlikely to be a royal pain in the ass in the locker room.

The NFL as a whole continued seemingly to print money last year.  Since the Packers are a public corporation, the Packers must open their books to meet legal requirements and from that one can deduce something about NFL finances.  One thing in those Packers’ filings is that the team received $453M from the league as its share of the national revenue for 2025.  Since that national revenue is shared equally among the teams the math here says:

• $453M per team X 32 teams = $14.5B for the league

And that league revenue number is probably a tad smaller than reality because the NFL Front Office has to take a piece of the action – – sort of like “League Overhead” before the teams get their share of the bounty.  And with expanded TV options continuing to surface – – see the Wednesday Night Games discussed above as one example – – that revenue is not going to dry up and blow away any time soon.

Earlier, when speaking about the actual demise of the Rooney Rule, I said that owners looked to evade the wrath of The Commish.  However, a recent comment by one of the owners, Jimmy Haslam, is likely to have gotten some scrutiny from The Commish in camera.  In an interview, Haslam did what owners often do around this time of the year; he expressed hope and optimism for his team.  But Haslam took that sort of upbeat posture to a different level.  He said that his team – the Browns – were going to beat the Las Vegas estimate of 5.5 wins for the season and went so far as to say he would take the OVER.

With all the issues and problems involving gambling on sports and the integrity of the games and all that stuff, I cannot believe that Roger Goodell needed one of the owners to be giving out “betting advice”.  Agreed, it is better that Haslam took the position that he did in lieu of saying that his team would suck rocks this season and be lucky to win even a game or two; but “taking the OVER” is stretching a point.

Finally, I’ll end this synoptic view of the NFL prior to the 2026 season with these words from Vince Lombardi”

“Leaders are made, they are not born.  They are made by hard effort which is the price which all of us must pay to achieve any goal that is worthwhile.”

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

 

 

With the NFL teams reporting to Training Camp as the prelude to the 2026 season, it is only proper to rant today on matters related to the NFL.  However, the storylines of interest this morning have little to do with which teams will be contenders in 2026 and with teams will be laggards.  Today is about a whole lot of off-field stuff.

First up is the news out of Wisconsin saying that Tony Romo was pulled over by the gendarmes and failed to perform well in “standard field sobriety tests”.  Romo was arrested on charges of OWI – – Operating While Impaired – – which is the Wisconsin version of DWI just about anywhere else and he was subsequently released.  From reading reports on this situation, this matter is not a criminal charge because it is the first count of OWI facing Romo; that means this is a civil infringement of the law and that means the potential punishments are administrative and not time in the hoosegow.

One civil action that could happen in the case is the suspension of Tony Romo’s drivers’ license; according to one report I read, Romo has been notified of the State’s intent to suspend his license and that means he is prohibited from driving himself around until the pending matter is resolved.  There are also traffic citations involved that could result in fines of several hundreds of dollars – – none of those details should be of major concern to Romo.

There is an interesting calendar aspect to this matter.  When he was released, Romo was given a court date of September 21^st; that is a mandatory appearance order of the court.  The NFL season begins on September 9^th and there will be two CBS game telecasts which should involve Tony Romo as the prime football color analyst for CBS games.  The second week CBS games for the late afternoon time slot – – usually where the #1 announcing team is assigned – – are:

• Jags at Broncos in Denver at 4:05 ET on Sept 20
• Raiders at Chargers in LA at 4:05 ET on Sept 20.
• His mandatory court date is in Wisconsin at 8:30 local time on Sept 21.

I suggest that the best word to describe this matter is Awkward.

Dean Martin had an interesting piece of advice that Tony Romo should consider:

“If you drink, don’t drive.  Don’t even putt.”

Moving on …A second NFL-related story from last weekend also involves the nation’s highways.  About two weeks ago, Niners’ head coach, Kyle Shanahan, was involved in serious collision on the road which went unreported until last weekend when it was announced that Shanahan would not be able to perform his “head coach duties” at the start of Training Camp.  Once the cause for that absence was revealed, the extent of Shanahan’s injuries became known, and they are not trivial According to reports he suffered:

• A broken nose
• Three broken ribs
• A broken hand
• A severe concussion – – AND – –
• He required 40 stitches to his face

All the reporting here points to a full recovery which is obviously the most important aspect of the matter.  However, there have been more than a couple of insinuations that the reporters who cover the Niners sat on the release of the story for more than a week and some folks are wondering how or why that happened.  That is an interesting perspective on the story because it seems to me that one of two conditions obtained here:

• For a two week period, the beat reporters – – and the “Insiders” – – never noticed that Shanahan was not “on duty” or if he were on duty he looked like he had been worked over by a half dozen bouncers.  That does not speak well to those reporters and their ability to “break stories” related to the Niners.

OR…

• Those reporters knew something about the accident and Shanahan’s injuries and either chose to sit on it or sat on it at the urging of team officials.  That does not speak well to those reporters who assert that they are “journalists”.

Neither of those conditions above is flattering to the folks who cover the Niners – – but I can’t think of too many other scenarios that explain the multi-week lag in reporting there.

Finally, the close-out line today comes from a sign that hung in the classroom where I took Driver’s Ed back in high school; the message was simple:

“Know Safety – – No Pain

“No Safety – – Know Pain”

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

 

 

Sometimes, you read a report and think there is something strange going on – – and then the story takes a turn into something even stranger.  Such seems to be the case involving Ryan Gold who is/was the Arizona Cardinals’ director of college scouting and who has been suspended by the NFL league office for violating the league rules on gambling.  According to the first report I read about this, the NFL carried out an investigation and concluded that Gold “provided confidential, non-public inside information regarding 2026 draft selections by the Cardinals before the picks were announced” and that he had also “participated in parlay bets on NFL and college games.”  The report also said that in its investigation, the NFL examined pertinent “electronic records”.

First, I was surprised to learn that people were betting on who the Arizona Cardinals might or might not take with their various draft picks back in April.  [Aside:  Note, I assume that this “gambling violation” involved only the 2026 Draft and not previous Drafts.]  And then I noted that Gold has been with the Cardinals in various capacities for 13 years meaning he had to have been briefed on the nature and the scope of the Gambling Policy more than a couple of times.  Here is how the NFL characterizes its Gambling Policy:

“The Gambling Policy, which is annually reviewed with all NFL personnel, strictly prohibits anyone in the NFL from participating in or facilitating any form of sports gambling, and from providing third parties non-public information.  Although there is no reason to believe the integrity of any NFL game was affected, the League takes any violation of the Gambling Policy with the utmost seriousness.”

We might quibble about the need for the NFL to prohibit “any form of sports gambling”; there seems to be a tenuous connection between “integrity of NFL games” and wagers on the World Cup contests or perhaps some action on a women’s college softball game.  But the rule is the rule and after 13 years working for a team in the NFL, you would think that would be “crystal clear”.  At this point in the story, I just figured that one of two things applied to Ryan Gold:

1. He really thought those rules did not apply to him  – – OR – –
2. He is so consumed by the rigors of scouting college football players that he is not aware of the world outside that realm.

And then the story got stranger …  Through his lawyer, Gold plans to appeal the suspension and proclaims his innocence.  There is nothing new about that but the basis for his declaration of innocence is that it was his wife – – not him – – who placed the parlay bets and that those bets were of the $10 magnitude and that they were done in conjunction with some of his wife’s high school friends.  I have to admit that I never saw that coming but even if that all turns out to be true, how might that explain the alleged provision of non-public information about Draft picks?

Next up in this story could well be a white rabbit proclaiming that he is late for an important date …

Moving on …  The wave of firings at ESPN creates openings/opportunities on the network.  The loss of Ryan Clark as a participant on First Take would seem to be something that needs to be considered.  My first thought was that it would be an opportunity to have a reunion or a rapprochement between Stephen A. Smith and Skip Bayless; that would create an interesting dynamic on the program.  But then I thought of an even better pairing with Stephen A. Smith, and it is someone who has a history with ESPN and who – – I believe – – is not encumbered by any current ties in the sports media business.

• Ryan Clark should be replaced on First Take by Jay Mariotti.

We have heard the Stephen A./Skip Bayless product before; maybe some folks have a degree of nostalgia for that; I don’t.  Mariotti would be a combative “opponent” for Stephen A. Smith – – and for Chris Russo too – – and the dynamic would be new/fresh.

You heard it here first…

Finally, this observation by Oscar Wilde:

“Morality is simply the attitude we adopt towards people whom we personally dislike.”

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

Last week, I mentioned Warren Spahn and some of his career achievements.  That mention resulted in two emails – – separated by about 15 minutes – – from the “reader in Houston” that I want to share this morning.

• “Spahnie also was never on the MLB disabled/injury list and missed three prime-age seasons from ages 22-24 due to military service.
• “However, his only time on any injury list was when he was wounded at the famous bridge at Remagen over the Rhine River.
• “My uncle and he were combat engineers with the 276th Combat Engineers who worked on bridges/pontoons for Patton’s troops during the Battle of the Bulge and later at Remagen.
• “I’m not sure of the exact details, but when I was the visiting team’s bat boy at Ebbets Field in the mid-1950s, my uncle met Spahnie after a game and they talked about the good old days.
• “Spahnie was wounded in the foot during the winter of 1945, while they were working to repair and maintain the crossing for the 1st Army tanks, Army troops, artillery pieces, and trucks. He was helped off the bridge by some fellow engineers, and a little while later, the bridge collapsed into the river, resulting in a lot of engineers either getting killed, injured, or missing, as their bodies flowed down the river. My uncle, who was injured, ended up with a case of frostbite, as someone saved his life when the bridge collapsed, as he couldn’t swim. Both were later given purple hearts and bronze stars, as were many others also awarded for their heroism.
• “Also, when Spahnie came up with the Braves as a rookie, he came in relief for the Braves vs. the Dodgers at Ebbets Field and manager Casey told him to throw at Pee Wee Reese, which he did not do. As a result, the next day he was sent back down to the Eastern League because Casey said he had no guts. The Braves ended up in seventh place that season and Casey was fired after it.
• “Spahnie and Casey reunited over two decades later in 1965 with the Mets. Spahnie is the only player who played for Casey before and after he was considered a genius manager.
• “When with the Mets in 1965, Yogi who was a Mets coach at the time, temporarily came out of retirement and caught a few games, including one for Spahnie. Yogi said it may not have been the oldest battery ever at the time (Spahnie was 44 and Yogi 40), but it was probably the ugliest with Yogi’s face characterized by pockmarks, heavy-lidded eyes, and wide nose and Spahnie’s hooked (“Hooks” was his nickname) broken nose.
• “Now you know the rest of the story.”

And then, 15 minutes later came a clarification:

• “I stand corrected. Spahnie was placed on the DL list twice during the 1963 season at age 42, marking the only time in his career he had to go on the DL. Both instances occurred due to elbow soreness and irritation. He missed two starts in July and two starts in August. Despite these setbacks, he started 33 games, led the National League with 22 complete games, and finished the year with a 23-7 record.”

Moving on …  Earlier, I mentioned some NFL free agents who have still not decided where to play in 2026, but who are still good enough that it would be surprising if they did not find a home.  As teams open their training camps, there are three players that are on rosters for now, but who just might wind up being traded or released based on off-season actions by their teams.  In alphabetical order they are:

• Maxx Crosby:  The Raiders actually traded him to the Ravens, but the Ravens voided the deal based on their physical exam of Crosby.  If the Raiders were willing to trade Crosby in March, why would it be outrageous to think they might do so in August?
• Anthony Richardson:  He sought permission to seek a trade back in February/March and the Colts gave his agent the green light.  Richardson is still on the Colts’ roster this morning meaning the Colts are lukewarm on him at best and there is not going to be a bidding war for his services elsewhere.  In addition to recurring injuries, Richardson has been “less than fully satisfactory” when starting at QB for the Colts.
• Kayvon Thibodeaux/Brian Burns/Abdul Carter/Arvell Reese:  The Giants have used top draft picks on edge-rushing linebackers in the past couple of seasons such that they have an embarrassment of riches at that position and needs elsewhere on the roster.  I would not be surprised to see one of them traded away to a team that needs help at that position.  My guess is that Thibodeaux would be the one on the market but any of the four would bring a nice return to the Giants.

            Finally, this from Sir Arthur Conan Doyle:

“Depend upon it there comes a time when for every addition of knowledge, you forget something that you knew before. It is of the highest importance, therefore, not to have useless facts elbowing out the useful ones.”

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

 

 

I spent yesterday considering the MLB standings near the halfway point in the regular season; with the All-Star break upcoming there are only about 3 weeks of play until the trade deadline, so let me offer some thoughts about that upcoming event.

• The biggest question mark out there is Tarik Skubal.  The Cy Young winner is on a team that is 10 games under .500 despite having a run differential of +11.  He is on a one-year contract and will be an unrestricted free agent at the end of the 2026 season.  So, will the Tigers keep him and try to get into a wildcard slot this year or will the Tigers use him to gather up prospects?
• Three teams that could go either way at the trade deadline are the Pirates, the Nationals and the White Sox.  All three are in “rebuild mode” but they are better in 2026 than just about anyone thought they would be.  Just that dynamic would make it interesting to follow the actions of the three front offices over the next several weeks, but there is another  overhang here.  All these teams have owners whose history is to choose not to pay top dollar for players.  The trade deadline often involves some hefty contracts.  Ergo …
• What has happened to the Orioles and where do they go from here?  Three years ago, the O’s won more than 100 games with a young and upcoming roster.  Two years ago, they won 91 games and made the playoffs.  Last year they won 75 games and this year they will have to rally significantly to get near .500 for the season.  So, what might they do at the deadline?  Their record over the next several weeks could have long-range implications for the team.
• Similarly, what happened to the Red Sox this year?  They were considered “dark horses” in the AL East back in March; they have played like donkeys and not horses in 2026.  Demonstrating their inconsistency, they recently swept a 4-game series with the Yankees only to turn around and get blown out by the Nationals twice.  Maddening …  If the Red Sox decide to go full throttle on the sell side at the trade deadline, that could make a couple of quality starting pitchers available in Sonny Gray and Brayan Bello.

The next month will be a time where the various “Baseball Insiders” earn their keep.  MLB fans will be watching closely and will want to be informed …

Moving on …  The USMNT lost to Belgium last night 4-1 ending the Americans’ run to make the “Elite Eight” in the World Cup tournament.  The decisive score of the game obviated any more commentary on just how or why FIFA changed the punishment for US striker, Folarin Balogun; the bottom line is that it did not matter even a little bit.  Some of the comments after the game focused on the lack of energy or intensity by the Americans in the game.  Maybe I am not sophisticated enough to discern such fine points; what stood out to me in the game was that the Belgians had more skillful players than the US did and to me, that explains the outcome.

A much more surprising World Cup outcome was England beating Mexico 3-2 to advance to the quarterfinals of the tournament.  The game was played in Azteca Stadium in Mexico City where the Mexican team took the field with a record of 70-17-2 which would qualify as a “home field advantage”; the last time the Mexican national team lost there was in 2013.  Moreover, Azteca Stadium sits at an altitude of 7,350 feet above sea level.  Forget “Mile High Stadum” this place is almost a mile and half high.

In England, the highest elevation is 3209 feet above sea level.  So, even if there were a soccer pitch atop Scafell Pike – – there is not – – the English could not have trained at even half the elevation of this contest.  And to add to the intrigue there, the English team played with only ten men for the last 40 minutes of the game and scored what turned out to be the game-winning goal while playing a man short.

Amazing …

Finally, this from George Carlin:

“If you can’t beat them, arrange to have them beaten.”

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

 

 

Since this idea crossed my mind, I assume it also impacted others; might Brandon Sorsby spend the 2026 football season in the CFL as he prepares for draft eligibility in April 2027?  Well, the answer is a resounding “NO!” from the folks in charge of the CFL.  In a statement by the league, they did not leave a whole lot of wiggle room:

“Upholding the integrity of the league and ensuring fair competition are paramount to the CFL.  The allegations involving Brendan Sorsby are serious and concerning. At this time, the CFL will not register a contract for him, and no team will be permitted to add him to its negotiation list.”

The CFL season is about month old now and as of this morning there are two winless teams in the standings – – the Lions and the Redblacks.  Even if either team were tempted to make a run at Brendon Sorsby, that avenue has been cut off.

Moving on …   This item has been hanging around on my clipboard for several weeks now.  Back in April, the folks at Churchill Downs announced that they were going to buy the branding rights for the Preakness Stakes and for the Black-Eyed Susan Stakes, the sister race that happens on the day before the Preakness.  Evidently, the idea was that Churchill Downs would lease back the rights to the Maryland horse racing officials to stage the two races each year.  Before you ask, I don’t understand the subtleties of that transaction but that is what has been widely reported.

Well, the State of Maryland must understand something in that proposition that it does not like because Maryland governor, Wes Moore, announced that the State of Maryland would “exercise its right of first refusal to match the Churchill Downs offer of $85M” for those branding rights.  Don’t ask me to explain the nuances here but the Governor’s remarks make it clear that something important was contained in the original offer by Churchill Downs:

“The Preakness Stakes is more than just a race.  It is a cornerstone of Maryland’s history, culture and economy.  This decision (to match the Churchill Downs bid) secures a vital asset for our state allowing Maryland to shape its horse racing destiny and by leveraging the Preakness’s iconic status and partnering with industry experts to enhance the fan experience  and preserve Maryland’s position as a key power player in the Triple Crown for generations to come.”

Who knew?  Certainly not I …

Switching gears …  The MLBPA presented some of its ideas to the baseball owners as the early stages of negotiations for a new CBA chug along.  The union suggested that the trade deadline to be moved to a window between July 21-27. Currently, the Commissioner’s office chooses a date annually between July 28 and Aug. 3. This year’s trade deadline is Aug. 3.

The players are onto something here; the trade deadline was in mid-June once upon a time and rosters after that time were more firmly set than is the case today.  I like the idea of an earlier trade deadline, and I would like to see it moved a lot more than a week or so; make the trade deadline July 1 every season and deal with it.

The union went off the reservation with the addendum to that original proposal.  They want to make some trades available after the trade deadline.  That sort of negates the idea of a “deadline” but that seems not have bothered the authors here.

The union wants to expand major league rosters from 26 players to 28 players for the first two weeks of the regular season.  Owners will reflexively oppose that idea since that adds two more “major league level salaries” to their books even for only a couple of weeks.  My sense is that the union put this on the table as a bargaining chip somewhere down the line.

The union also set forth a slew of proposals to regulate – – and presumably to reduce – – the back and forth for players with the parent club and the minor leagues.  As with the roster expansion idea noted above, this is a mere ripple in the negotiations where a salary cap and salary floor are out there for discussion.  All these ideas being floated now are ancillary to the big-ticket issue in reaching a new CBA.  There are still more than four months to go before the current CBA expires so there is no real urgency to get moving on any “big stuff” so this is the phase where each side will offer up “wish list items”.

Significant action in situations like this demand urgency and urgency is related to deadlines.  The big deadline here is December 1, 2026; that is when the current CBA expires; it will probably be until the month of November before serious give-and-take talks take place.  Nothing will happen now because the next scheduled meeting of the negotiators is not until the All-Star break in mid-July.

Finally, keep this sports-themed thought with you over the Holiday weekend:

“The British blew a 13-colony lead …”

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

 

 

There are some big names on the move in the NBA so far in this offseason.  And of course, the biggest name of all – – LeBron James – – will ponder his options for a while before selecting the fan base who will then be expected to adore him for the next year or two.  [Aside:  Is LeBron James the Aaron Rodgers of the NBA or is Aaron Rodgers the LeBron James of the NFL?]  Let’s review the bidding:

• Bucks traded Giannis to the Heat for 4 players and 4 first-round picks.  On the assumption that Giannis’ injury from last season was an aberration and that he can mesh well with Bam Adebayo and Tyler Hero, that trade should make the Heat a serious contender in the NBA East.
• Grizzlies traded Ja Morant to the Blazers for Kris Murray and Jerami Grant.  Morant looked at one time to be a rising superstar in the league; off-court behaviors and injuries changed that perception.  From the Grizzlies perspective, this trade looks as if they have given up having to deal with an infant terrible.
• Hornets traded LaMelo Ball to the Timberwolves for Naz Reed and a basketful of picks and pick swaps that extend all the way out to 2033.  My sense is that the Hornets have decided to rebuild and that made this trade thinkable.
• Hornets traded Miles Bridges to the Suns along with a 2029 first round pick and got back Grayson Allen, Royce O’Neale plus a first round pick in 2033.  This solidifies my sense that the Hornets are in rebuilding mode.
• Celtics traded Jaylen Brown to the Sixers in exchange for Paul George and two first round picks plus two second round picks.  I have no idea how or why the Celtics made this trade, but I have learned not to second-guess Celtics’ GM, Brad Stevens.

These big name moves – along with several much less dramatic roster alterations – have created a lot of buzz around the NBA for the last week or two.  And there is one other story floating around out there that could create more hyperactivity on the Internet.

• Ben Simmons says he is ready to return to the NBA.

In case you have forgotten, Simmons was the overall #1 pick in the NBA Draft by the Sixers in 2016.  Let’s just say that his time in Philly was tumultuous and that he was traded to the Net and then to the Clippers without coming close to the star status that one might expect from an overall #1 pick.  Simmons showed defensive skills and excellent passing skills in his previous encounter with the NBA, but he almost refused to shoot the basketball, and offense is a critical element of NBA basketball.

Simmons asserts that he has exorcised the demons that clouded his previous times in the league and sort of like Richard Nixon during his return to politics in the 1960s, Simmons has pronounced himself as rested and ready.   Here is what he said in an interview with Men’s Health magazine:

“I plan on getting as strong as I can physically, getting my ass on the court, and then the team realizing that my abilities will be needed.  …  You can’t teach 6’ 10” and IQ.”

He’s right, you know.  Neither size nor intellect can be taught.  And in that final statement, Simmons plants the seeds of doubt for his return.  When he was previously in the league and disappointing coaches and fans from Philly to LA, he was then 6’ 10” and had his same IQ.  It didn’t all work out for the best then; might it work out better now?  Teams will have to decide on the likelihood of  that outcome in 2026 and going forward.

My assessment of Ben Simmons is that he had/has some prodigious talents that he wasted in his early years by spending way too much time cultivating celebrity status and not working on the deficiencies in his basketball game.  Simmons can declare himself a changed person, but it will be the assessment(s) of various NBA GMs and coaches that decide if a team will be willing to give him a landing spot for his return to the league.

Moving on …  I want to pose a question here.  The NBA has had a problem with teams tanking seasons as a strategy for becoming a contending team down the road.  The league has wrestled with “fixes” for that strategic behavior over the years; while nothing has been a perfect cure for the “tanking problem”, the NBA has acknowledged it and tried to make it better.  With that as a backdrop, think about this:

• When MLB teams “sell off” their best players at the trade deadline, isn’t that a “tanking strategy” that could cast doubt on the integrity of MLB games?

You make the call …

Finally, this from Mel Brooks:

“Bad taste is simply saying the truth before it should be said.”

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