Thinking out loud…while wondering if we’re the only intelligent life in the universe, at least we can put a cap on the number of dopes out there…
Said to James “Sweet Feet” White by BB at his retirement presser this week: “Those banners up there wouldn’t be hanging there without you. I appreciate all you’ve done for me, the football team, and the organization.”
Join me in this one, won’t you? Ditto.
Eight billion people on this planet and we can’t find one guy who can win a fight against a Carolina Panther?
Scooby-dooby-dooby-dooby Fight! Fight! What is this – Sharks and the (not NY) Jets? I sorta agree with Matthew Slater on this one – this is football. Not the MMA.
But you often couldn’t tell that if you were there at either of the two scrimmage sessions at Gillette this week with Carolina.
Look, it’s one thing to be physical. It’s a part of this game. But nonsensical?
Players are penalized, and often disqualified, for fighting during the season. Why is the mindset during preseason any different – especially with jobs on the line?
Exactly that. Because jobs are on the line. Beware the rookie or newbie hoping to just be ‘remembered’ for that one, devastating hit.
If not a job here, maybe a remembrance or a job someplace else. That, too, is part of this game.
Now you may understand a bit more just WHY starters/regulars/stars don’t play much in the preseason. It often devolves into “cheap shot city.” Keep your head on a swivel, lest you get it knocked off.
And another reason why the preseason is becoming as useless as teats on a bull. BB himself said this week coaches probably get more from the scrimmages than the games.
Keep it up, knuckleheads. You may fight yourself right out of job if there aren’t any games to play.
Tweet of the Week I, from @TheBg_12: “I hate the Panthers. If you removed them from the NFL tomorrow nobody would give a ****.”
Likes from Week 1 against the Giants: Bailey Zappe’s “gunslinger” attitude. Mack Wilson. And the linebackers who played are demonstrably faster.
Dislikes from Week 1: The running game stunk. Does that mean the blocking stunk, too? Oh, and losing on a last-second field goal is never likable.
Joejuan Williams. Regression is thy middle name.
Jalen Mills. The new big dog in the defensive backfield. But can he wear that collar when the real games are played?
Always kinda like the NFL Network’s release of the leagues’ Top 100 players. It’s an arbitrary thing, of course. But the players know. So do the fans.
Through the first half (100-51) of the list, the Patriots find Mac Jones ranked at #85 and Matt Judon at #52. Certainly two key players for New England on their respective sides of the ball.
But don’t be surprised, as the remainder of the list is revealed over the next week, if the Patriots are shut out of the rankings from this point forward.
Eight billion people on this planet and we can’t find more than two guys to make the NFL Top 100?
11 games for Deshaun Watson. That’s certainly more than the six he was originally given. But based on what we think we know about him and his massage ‘habits’…and especially after hearing Browns’ owner Jimmy Haslem fawn all over his $230 million dollar man…anyone else need a shower?
Here’s the kicker. ProFootballTalk pointed out that if he had been suspended for the entire season, his bloated Browns’ deal would not have kicked in until next season…a difference to Deshaun of about $45 million. So this will count as Year One of a five-year-deal.
He’s already that much closer to a big payday, and to another contract…if he can earn it. Of course he wants to play this year. So what if he hasn’t played in almost two years? The money is everything, as it always is.
The man also needs and is required to have a “professional behavioral evaluation” and undergo a subsequent treatment program. And before he’s completed it, we turn him loose on society again all because he’s a good quarterback?
He was drafted by the Los Angeles Rams in 1971, but never played in the NFL…instead opting for the CFL for one year before moving on with his life. But I will swear I’ve never seen a better, true fullback than Texas’ Steve Worster…who passed away this week at age 73.
He ran with power and with speed. He’d put his ‘hat’ on you. It always took multiple players to slow him down, then pull him down. Worster was a rock star in the late ‘60’s and early ‘70’s, with chants of “Woooo!” ringing the stadium on every carry he had, as the first option for a newly designed and devastating offense known as “the Wishbone.”
He was also the catalyst for a recruiting class that eventually led Texas to 30 consecutive wins and two nattys. And as an enamored preteen of that era, growing up in a football-mad region, I can assure you I joined those chants every time he touched the ball.
God speed, Woo.
Eight billion people on this planet and he may have been one of the best basketball coaches, ever.
Pete Carril’s Princeton team of 1988-89 was a part of one of the most famous games (maybe best games?) ever played in the NCAA Tournament…or in the then-named Providence Civic Center. The Tigers lost to Georgetown 50-49 in March of ‘89, almost becoming the first 16-seed to pull off the upset of a #1.
Watched every minute of it thinking the mighty Hoyas (with Alonzo Mourning) were going down.
But little David wasn’t done battling Goliath. The game helped revive the NCAA Tournament. Gave it a shot of adrenaline when it needed it. And gave hope to March “Cinderella’s” for years to come thereafter. As a 13-seed in 1990, his Tigers again almost bumped off #4 Arkansas.
It finally happened for Coach Carril, and Princeton, in ’96 as a 13-seed again. They beat #4 UCLA. The man could coach a backdoor cut. His innovative-yet-methodical ideology helped change the game. He was elected to the Basketball Hall of Fame in ’97.
He may have been coaching David, but he was a coaching Goliath himself. Coach Carril left us this week at age 92.
And if you don’t mind stepping into the “Wayback Machine” for one more, Holy Cross star and former Celtic Togo Palazzi also passed this week at age 90.
Palazzi played from ’51-’54 for the Crusaders, averaging more than 20 points per game, and led the Cross to the 1954 NIT championship – then the “true” natty in the sport.
Palazzi was drafted by the Celtics in the first round of the ’54 NBA Draft, fifth overall, and played six years between Boston and Syracuse. His son Matt is a former Friar guard during the Pitino-to-Barnes era. He assisted George Blaney as a coach at Holy Cross, and later became the schools’ first women’s coach, too.
Slowly…methodically…the 2022-23 Friar schedule is piecing itself together, if only because opponents are releasing their schedules. Rider did that this week, which features the Broncs in their opener on Election Day, November 8th at Providence. So I guess we can pencil that one in.
The Friars will also face Ed Cooley’s alma mater, Stonehill, in the Skyhawks’ debut season as a Division I program and a member of the NEC. That will come Nov. 15th at the Dun…oops, the AMP.
The PC athletic ticketing and marketing department received this year’s “Star of the Year” honor from Paciolan, a primary provider for the ticketing industry’s services with more than 500 clients across North America.
The Friars beat out Cincinnati, Ole Miss, and the Fox Theater in Atlanta for this years’ award…and let’s just say they’ll be getting “amped” up again soon? Previous winners included Virginia Tech, Kansas State, LSU, and Georgia.
Tweet of the Week II: In response to ex-Cumberland resident and current Marquette guard Tyler Kolek working out this week at the Ruane Center on PC’s campus, recent ex-Friar Nate Watson had this response – “First the name change of The Dunk. Now a Golden Eagle getting buckets in our practice facilities.”
Gotta love the loyalty. And rivalry never dies, does it?
Did you catch that the Postseason NIT is moving out of New York, and MSG? Seems almost like heresy to move the NIT from the Garden, but times are a’ changin’.
It’s not a bad idea to pump some life back into an event now considered nothing more than a consolation prize, or an afterthought. Vegas and Indy’s Hinkle Fieldhouse will host the next two NIT Final Four’s, outside of NYC for just the third time in 85 years.
And to SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey’s thoughts this week on possibly expanding further the NCAA tournament? I’ll join in with the crowd on this one.
No. Leave it alone. Don’t put a single, money-grubbing, fat, football finger on our country’s premier “national” event, just so a few more overrated “Big State U’s” can squeeze into another share of the money pie, which could then mean smaller bites at the plate for the littler guys later on.
Eight billion people on this planet and we can’t find one guy in the SEC who thinks about anything other than $$$?
It wasn’t earth-shattering news, but Creighton guard Rati Andronikashvili’s departure from the team to pursue European opportunities (he’s from Tbilisi, Georgia) does take a whack at the Blue Jays’ depth chart.
ICYMI, former Friar Kyron Cartwright has a new coaching gig. Cartwright is moving from St. Thomas Academy in Minnesota, where he worked for head coach and former UConn star Khalid El-Amin, to the University of Minnesota-Crookston in NCAA Division II.
UMass head hoop coach Frank Martin stepped back into the future this week, adding former UMass player and head coach Derek Kellogg as an assistant to his new staff. What goes around, comes around.
Here’s a novel idea – let’s actually put some athletes to work for that NIL money they’ll be making. University of Missouri athletes can now earn 20% ticket commissions on every ticket to an athletic event they sell. This offer also is good for any student at Mizzou, athlete or not.
And the Chicago White Sox have entered the NIL marketplace, following in the footsteps of the Florida Panthers and Atlanta Braves…signing eight college athletes in their local marketplace from multiple sports. All grew up in Illinois.
Anyone else see a big, red flag being raised in the background? ESPN reported this week the 11 college presidents and chancellors who make up the College Football Playoff Board of Managers met earlier this week – to begin discussing major college football potentially being governed outside of the NCAA.
And as expected, the Big Ten will enter a new stratosphere in their new media deal with Fox, CBS, and NBC. Seven years and $1.2 billion and potentially more expansion movement on the way.
Why? Wouldn’t you get in position to earn $70 to $100 million – or more – per school per year if you were Big State U? UCLA and USC, hello. Notre Dame? Win (more than) one for The Gipper?
Hoops won’t have much change, with the exception of new, added streaming deals…and women’s basketball will get its’ championship game on CBS – not ESPN2.
The Action Network’s Brett McMurphy reported there’s an escalator clause in the new media deal that calls for upwards of $10 billion to the deal if the league expands further. Whoa.
That should help cover the cost of sending UCLA women’s soccer across the country to Rutgers for a midweek conference game, amiright? Sheesh.
I mean, when is enough ever going to be enough for these guys? When the TV networks decide ‘no mas.’ And that won’t happen as long as we’re watching.
Smaht guys, those alleged academicians.
My buddy “Big E” sez he definitely married his wife for her looks…but not the ones she’s been giving him lately.
Cool that the NBA is retiring Bill Russell’s #6 throughout the league, like baseball did with Jackie Robinson’s 42. Fitting. Deserving. History-making, just like he was.
The Celtics announced they will wear a Russell tribute “City Edition” uniform on opening night, and a total of 12 times during the upcoming season. Which, not for nuthin’, will have the C’s on a national TV stage for a staggering 37 of their 82 games.
The NBA also created a “Rivalry Week” like college basketball has…beginning Jan. 23rd. Eleven nationally televised games will include Boston-Miami and LA Lakers-Boston.
Jayson and Jaylen can’t get along for that? Just sayin’.
WNBA viewership is up 19% this season. My guess is our buddy Edward in East Providence is up…like the Connecticut Sun…and all over it.
Before Thursday’s series ending loss at Pittsburgh (hey, is winning two out of three good?) Sox starting pitching had gone 36 innings with a 2.21 ERA, with only 12 walks and 29 K’s. You should go 5-1 with numbers like those, and they did.
Got this nugget from the Herald: Michael Wacha is 7-1 with a 2.44 ERA. When he’s on the mound, the team is 10-4. When he isn’t, the team is 47-56.
Nah. Pitching is overrated. But good pitching should never be.
Hey Nate Eovaldi – neck and shoulder ‘soreness’ and you get to miss a day of work? That’s some benefit plan you got there.
Four games out of the final wild card spot in the AL, with 40-ish games left to play? It feels like it’s 40 out with four left to play.
Middleboro’s Little League team is the first Massachusetts representative in Williamsport, PA for the LLWS since 2009. Hope they have time to enjoy the experience…with a win-or-you’re-out game already on the slate for Saturday night.
And if you’ve never had the chance to experience Williamsport, as a baseball fan, you’re missing out. It’s the “Field of Dreams” in real-life, something MLB or Fox or even Kevin Costner can’t conjure up.
PC’s Nate Leaman has been heading up Team USA again this year for the World Junior Hockey Championships…and the team rolled through the prelims with a 4-0 mark.
But the high expectations took a huge backcheck with a stunning 4-2 loss to Czechia in the quarterfinals. Seems that a neutral zone trap took care of the speedier Americans. So, no medal match coming up against Canada…and for just the second time in seven years, no Americans on the medal stand.
And it’s not going very well for those LIV golfers who hope to continue crashing PGA parties. A federal judge this week set a 2024 trial date in the LIV antitrust lawsuit against the PGA Tour. Which means Phil Mickelson, Bryson DeChambeau and the others will have to wait a while for their day in court…or on the course.
Eight billion people on this planet (we’re actually closing in on the mark) and we can’t find…one more pitcher? One more receiver? One more good home game for the schedule?
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