And I thought it was impressive that Javy Baez was so creative with his tags during the Cubs' playoff run that it became my main takeaway from a World Series Championship that was 108 years in the making. Forget one of the most unforgettable Game 7's of all time and the success of Chicago's abundance of young bats, because the patently ridiculous ways in which their eccentric infielder slapped the leather down on overanxious base runners was the thing that will forever stick out the most in my mind. Turns out we ain't seen nothing yet, because apparently Javy Baez has taken it upon himself to turn every attempted attempted stolen base into his own personal stealing of the show. I mean, if he can flip the most run-of-the-mill throw-out into something that's worthy of shock and awe then what tag can't he put his own spin on? Nelson Cruz was out by a full city block, and everyone is still sitting here stunned by the move that had him sent back to the dugout. A no-look swipe while prematurely celebrating? This dude is turning pressure-packed timing plays in a sport that prides itself on it's joylessness into excessive displays of showmanship that we haven't seen since the 'And 1' Mixtape Tour. I'm half surprised the MLB hasn't come down on him for compromising the integrity of the game by making it more watchable. He keeps drawing attention to himself by regularly doing things that have never been done before and he'll have to turn down the volume on his cell phone when he receives the sternest of voicemails fromGoose Gossage.
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I'm not going to sit here and tell you that I am familiar with the Privateers' NCAA tournament resume. To do so I would also have to pretend that I knew that the University of New Orleans had Division 1 sports before last night, and no one would buy that I'm that knowledgable about college basketball even if I had Dickie V. selling it for me. Still - without knowing a single thing about their roster - I think it's safe to assume that it isn't built for the Madness of March. I try to refrain from counting teams out as Cinderella stories, but when you can't make it through the final minutes of a tightly contested play-in game without one of your players summoning the on-court persona of Spree...well, you probably don't have the mental make-up to run a six game gauntlet through programs more talented than you. Having ice in your veins is generally a characteristic of all the teams that are able to outlast their original seeding, and New Orleans' blood was reaching a boiling point before they even had a number to call their own in the Round of 64. Sucks we didn't get a cheap, mid-tourney tangent out of a guy whose name perfectly fits his home city like Travin Thibodeaux, but playing with a "guard" that couldn't even protect his own neck wasn't lending itself to the type of chemistry that equates to long term success. The pressure only builds the further you go, which means that even if they advanced to the Sweet Sixteen it's possible that they all wouldn't have survived. 1) 2) 3) PuckDaddy- The KHL’s Gagarin Cup playoffs are at the conference semifinal stage and one player has stood out, not because of how many goals he has, but how he’s scored them.
Andrei Kuteikin is a 32-year-old defenseman currently playing for Dynamo Moscow. He’s won the Gagarin Cup twice before with SKA St. Petersburg and Salavat Yulaev Ufa. He has three goals this postseason, which ties his career high. All three has been fired from center ice, which should be a heads up for any goalie next time they see him carrying the puck through the neutral zone. ---- There is nothing more to this than a hard, relatively accurate slap shot, some piss poor goaltending, and an asinine amount of luck. I know that. You know that. Andrei Kuteikin knows that. His teammates know that. His coaches know that. His opposition knows it. Their coaches know that. Every person that has absentmindedly watched merely five minutes of hockey in their life knows that. Hell, I bet even the puck bunnies waiting outside the locker room for some Russian lovin' know that. That doesn't mean that the result of the rockets he's been launched into the back of the net from 105 feet out won't have an effect on how he'll be defended going forward. No matter how unlikely a repeat occurrence is, you simply can't be the team that sits back while a player scores his FOURTH goal of the playoffs from the red line. As the old saying goes, "once is chance, twice is a coincidence, and the third time is a pattern". The person that authored that quote didn't even go up to four because they didn't think anyone would be stupid enough to let themselves get fooled more than three times. I don't care if your whole damn team - including the goaltender - sells out on a shot fake and lets Andrei Kuteikin limp wrist one into an open net from just inside the blue line, because at this point that would be less embarrassing than looking bewildered if (when?) he smokes a historically harmless shot through every line of your defense...AGAIN.
I don't care if this was just conjecture, I don't care if it was ass kissing, and I don't care if it was just one player wanting to remain close to his hometown. All the kind words and exaggerated conversations aside, Nick Fairley following up a career year by signing for less than he likely could have gotten on the open market to stay in New Orleans is proof positive that the attitude in the room has changed considerably. Obviously it doesn't matter how badly he wanted to be a Saint is he doesn't bring the same effort and intensity that he did last year, but retaining a talented player that felt the environment was so conducive to turning around his career that he hardly paid attention to potentially richer suitors is a step in the right direction. Simply put, it's just not something that would have happened a few years ago when the in-fighting reached it's peak and the offseason was littered with rumors of character issues. As long as Nick Fairley stays away from irrelevant R&B groups whose turn was the century then the days of Jimmy Graham congratulating Akiem Hicks on sucking his way onto the trading block are long forgotten. The Saints may feel haunted when they see the number 7 followed by the number 9, but a growing sentiment that it's only a matter of time before they contend was present amongst the players this season. The positive may have wained at times, but it never turned into the full blown negativity that led to 2015's complete rebuilding of the locker room. I don't know if the right pieces have been put in place to give Drew Brees a realistic shot of winning another Super Bowl, but I know that the disruptive defensive tackle that apparently ignored the always fruitful free agent market seems to think that they have been. Considering it's only March, that's enough for me. KWTX- Another Baylor athletics official has been fired amid the university's sex assault scandal.
DeMarkco Butler. KWTX learned Monday the university dismissed DeMarkco Butler, the associate director for football operations, over inappropriate text messages. Butler was just hired by the university last month. While Butler was let go because of inappropriate texts to a teenager, a school official indicated they were sent to an individual who was an adult under Texas statute. When asked about the firing Monday, David Kaye, Baylor's director of athletics communications said in a statement, "DeMarkco Butler is no longer employed by Baylor University. As a personnel matter, we have no further comment." Butler is the second person hired under new head football coach Matt Rhule the school has had to terminate. Brandon Washington, Rhule's newly hired assistant strength coach, was fired after he was arrested in a prostitution sting in early February. ----- I'm not knowledgable enough to tell you what level of complete and utter dysfunction is necessary to give a college sports team the death penalty. I don't know the point in which a criminal culture and a climate that clearly attracts sexual misconduct is deemed irreparable. I probably would have argued that 52 sexual assaults at the hands of football players over the course of 4 years was enough to make Baylor sit in the corner and think about what they've done instead of picking up the pigskin in the foreseeable future. It's pretty clear the NCAA felt differently, and I think we have to give them the benefit of the doubt with the amount of undeniable rationale they are known to bring to the table in regards to handing out punishments. Still, I can't help but wonder if they would want to kindly reconsider their decision now that Baylor had to fire a second brand new employee no more than a month after their hiring for questionable, sex-based promiscuity. Forgive me if I am wrong. I'm not exactly management material, but if people start applying to a university knowing that they have skeletons in the sac then isn't it fair to assume that particular university has an institutional issue? If those with checkered pasts or a text log full of dick pics to teenagers conduct job searches that continually end within the program that enabled rape to the point in which it became an epidemic don't you think it would have be considered more than a coincidence? I don't know if Brandon Washington or DeMarkco Butler thought they would be able to lawlessly fuck on the campus that used to encourage it. I do know that they both tried to within the introductory period of time in which new employees are generally on their best behavior, so they didn't think that their misconduct would be accepted by their new workplace then they weren't strictly informed that it wouldn't be.
How do I feel about this news? In a word, bipolar. You see, I don't know whether to feel a sense of relief that there was a little more going behind the scenes during a Brandin Cooks trade that felt disappointing, or a sense of impending doom that Saints have put themselves in the unenviable position of being the Patriots new favorite trade partner. One second I feel like this plan was set in place from behind closed doors the entire time and the next second I feel like the Saints are about to get fleeced (again) by a team that never fails to make other teams act completely out of character. Sean Payton and Bill Belichick respect each other, but do they respect each other enough to be making handshake deals that take almost a week to come to fruition? I guess that's what we will find out shortly, because if New Orleans gives up the #11 pick in a deep defensive draft just to pay a #1 cornerback the market value then they have come under the same spell that forced the Seahawks to throw on the goal line and Falcons to actively piss away a 25 point lead. However, if they give up the #32 pick they received for Brandin Cooks or literally anything less than that then the trade that had most Saints fans cursing at their cell phone screen late on Friday night becomes much easier to live with. I refuse to underestimate the Patriots' front office just like I refuse to overestimate the Saints' front office, but it's beginning to look a lot like the franchises took the long way to the oh-so-rare player-for-player swap. There's simply no way two teams that have such high level of familiarity with one another hammered out a deal for a two-time 1,100 yard wide receiver without discussing - in detail - the short term plan for the restricted free agent that was rumored be a part of said deal less than a week prior to reconvening on another deal. Whether that plan involved Mickey Loomis and Sean Payton getting raped of their two biggest assets just to flip Brandin Cooks into a proven defensive player remains to be seen, and the fact that New England is on the other side of the negotiating table makes me want to close my eyes and pray harder than the disgruntled wideout they just shipped up to Boston. I guess nothing would surprise me, except for Malcolm Butler not becoming the next member of the New Orleans Saints. I guess 'One Angry Midget' has one hell of an institution or one keen ear to the organization, because he very well may have been spot on the entire time....
TheSportingNews- The NBA has fined Warriors swingman Andre Iguodala $10,000 for "inappropriate comments" after Golden State's loss to the Timberwolves Friday night.
Iguodala told reporters Friday he was unaware that coach Steve Kerr planned to sit him and three other Warriors stars Saturday night against the Spurs, saying, "Nope, no clue. I do what master say." He also used the N word twice in response to two other questions. He later told ESPN he did not mean any disrespect to Kerr and his comment was an inside locker room joke. Kerr told reporters he knew Iguodala was just being his usually edgy self with reporters, telling them, "You guys just got Andre'd. You got Andre'd." Iguodala clarified his comments Monday....
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Ha! Classic slavery joke! Can't believe people took it the wrong way when a professional athlete that is paid millions of dollars to play a sport implied that he's under a thumb as iron as the one that systematically kept his forefathers from freedom. Jeez everybody, is having a sense of humor too much to ask? The funny thing is that I'm only half kidding in the previous paragraph. It was an absolutely ludicrous thing for Andre Iguodala to say and - regardless of it's intent - it can easily be viewed as trivializing the plight of people that were literally property. That said, I'm somewhat of a black apologist in the sense that I find it hilarious when African Americans say things that make rich white people more uncomfortable than the underlying symbolism in 'GET OUT'. It was undoubtedly inappropriate and probably worthy of the fine that is received, but - at the end of the day - I wouldn't criticize Iggy for saying it. Although, that's probably because I selfishly would have loved to see the look on the present media's face when he did. What I will criticize Andre Iguodala for is acting like we are all on the outside looking in on a joke that isn't all that difficult to interpret. You can compromise my morals for a laugh, but don't insult my intelligence by acting like I don't understand what I am laughing at. Especially with some dumbass rationalization that the Golden State Warriors have a microscope on them because they are somehow offensive instead of just really, really fucking good. You want to be a well compensated public figure that's going use the enslavement of others as the premise for a comical retort then be my guest, but I would suggest owning it instead of attempting to explain it when it predictably comes around to bite you in the ass.
HockeyFeed- Beloved former National Hockey League forward Ryan Smyth was knocked out cold last night during a AAA senior game, and there has been considerable outrage on social media regarding the hit.
Smyth took an illegal elbow to the head from forward Kyle Sheen roughly midway through the third period of the match up between Smyth's Stony Plain Eagles and Sheen's Lacombe Generals. While there were calls for a suspension against Sheen from the Eagles, who claim Sheen had targeted Smyth in the past, that outrage is likely to build to a fever pitch once the video of the hit begins to make the rounds. ---- I am going to be honest, I have never heard of Senior AAA. I get the impression that it's Canada's much more skilled, much more competitive, much more prestigious, and much more organized version of high level beer league hockey. For that reason I have to believe that this disgustingly unnecessary cheap shot wasn't as out of the ordinary as it appeared to those that spend their time watching games between players that are held accountable for their actions. I'm not excusing Kyle Sheen for being a reckless scumbag that still hasn't gotten over the fact that he never made a name for himself in any league that was actually relevant. However, this hit was delivered well after the whistle for one reason and one reason - jealousy. The person that threw it was envious that the person on the receiving end of it accomplished what he never could. Ryan Smyth scored damn near 400 goals in the NHL, and - while I appreciate that he loves the game so much that he continues to play it competitively - that only leaves him vulnerable to the cheapest of shots from a 'never-was' that is still spiteful that his dream was never realized. Kyle Sheen is a 33 year old that doesn't even have a recorded statistic on HockeyDB since he was in his mid-20's. Knocking a local legend unconscious well after the puck went in the net is the most noteworthy thing he has ever done on a hockey rink. Exacting revenge on every person that was more successful than him has basically become his life's work, and apparently he doesn't care how many rules or jaws he has to break to do it. I don't have a problem with Ryan Smyth continuing to pursue his passion well into his 40's, but instances like this is why most NHLers hang them up once they realize their run at the top is over. It's just not worth it to put their health at risk against people that have nothing (including pride and shame) to lose. I'm sure Kyle Sheen has a hefty suspension coming his way. Unfortunately, it's one that won't cost him anything but his ability to keep playing relatively meaningless hockey for the rest of the season. Luckily the target of his blatant resentment is okay...
It would be pretty easy to talk about this devastating blow like it's microcosm of not only the Arizona Coyotes season, but their franchise as a whole. Constantly battling unusual circumstances, never know where they are headed next, can't get out of their own way, and - most importantly - always struggling with ownership issues. Seriously, I would have loved to be the devil on Shane Doan's shoulder as he skated through the tunnel after getting knocked back into the locker room by an 18 year old in warm-ups. There's not a doubt in my mind that he was cursing the entire existence of teenagers as he did. It doesn't even matter that the collision in question was the result of the savviest of veterans sneaking around the corner, blindly looking back for a loose puck while skating into oncoming traffic, and essentially giving himself a buddy-pass. The pain in his shoulder was easily enough to make a grown man blame someone who is less than half his age. We have reached a point in his career where Shane Doan could have easily fathered the rookies on the Coyotes' roster if he was a little careless during his college years. There is nothing that dads are more prone to doing than instinctively chastising their children for mental mistakes that they know they are too experienced to make on their own, and therefore too embarrassed to immediately accept responsibility for. There's no question Shane Doan calmed down the time he talked to his coaches/trainers and found some PG way to say "shit happens". I'm sure he - metaphorically speaking, of course - helped the wide-eyed kid that cleaned his clock dry his pants by making him feel better about an incident that left the face/pride of the franchise temporarily sidelined. He's too good of a leader not to. In the moment though? There's not a damn thing that Shane Doan wasn't ready to claim was the fault of the next generation. When he was getting that frustration out of his system the things he was muttering about Jakob Chychrun would probably make you think that the young defenseman swerved ever so slightly into his lane while Snapchatting - even though that rear-ending was simply a product of the 'Yotes captain wheeling recklessly.
TMZ- Ezekiel Elliott pulled a woman's shirt down -- exposing her bare breast -- during a St. Patrick's Day party in Dallas ... but a rep for Zeke says it was all in good fun.
Zeke was drinking a beer next to a group of people while on the roof of a Dallas bar to watch the St. Patrick's Day Parade on Greenville Ave. The woman is playing to paradegoers and motions at her breasts -- then points to Zeke. Next thing you know, he reaches over and pulls her top down, exposing her bare breast. She scrambles to cover up. We spoke with Elliott's rep who told us the woman wasn't upset ... and actually hung out with Zeke and a group of friends after the parade ended. ----- Full disclosure? I can kinda see why there was a little bit of confusion here. Maybe I too would stereotype that busty white girl that kept pointing at her rack that was already halfway out as the type of girl that wouldn't mind having her tits exposed by the running back she was clearly leaching off of. I am not saying it was smart to make that assumption and he definitely could have benefited from asking first, but I expected a lot worse when I read that he non-consensually exposed a woman's breast in public. As Dave Chappelle famously said, "fine lady, you are not a whore...but you are wearing a whore's uniform". If this young woman didn't want to be mistaken for a shameless groupie then she literally didn't make one correct decision from the second she got dressed until the moment she was undressed in from thousands of degenerates. That doesn't mean I am excusing Ezekiel Elliott. An NFL star that's standing on a balcony overlooking a massive crowd of people as the center of attention should know there's no shortage of cameras on him. Also, he should probably realize that those cameras aren't going to paint a person with a (likely fabricated) domestic abuse allegation on his resume in a positive light when he just randomly starts unveiling boobs without - at the very least - a handshake agreement. This is far from the worst thing we have seen from a professional athlete, but it is one of the dumber things we have seen from a professional athlete. Maybe just let the girl who is clearly readying herself to let her freak flags fly anyway do so on her own accord...especially when offering unsolicited help is probably going to make the situation appear more inexcusable than it actually is.
Look, there's no doubt that Ryan White deserves to get peppered with all the criticism after doubling down on his mistake by all-but-guaranteeing it ended up costing his team. That's one of those plays that he'll inevitably wish he could have back when he becomes the target of a colorful coach like Bruce Boudreau and a rant that displays all the symptoms of a Tourette's patient who is in the midst of a heart attack. There are certain times when you have to know you are going to be made an example of, and there's no better example of one of those times than gift wrapping a golden opportunity for a formidable rival during a tightly contested race for the divisional crown. That being said, tough to blame him for immediately voicing his displeasure with the call. How is the ref supposed to know how out of line he was unless the guy he called for the infraction is so distraught by the decision that he literally throws his head back away from the play that he had already tripped someone in order to stop? Even the most guilty of parties will bitch about a penalty after the whistle has been blown, but feeling so strongly that you completely ignore any and all of your surroundings during live play? That's such a powerful declaration of innocence that the official just might feel inclined to take time out of his busy intermission to double check that he did - indeed - get it right the first time. Hell, if there wasn't video evidence being shot from literally every angle on the ice then I think that a jury of his peers could probably have been tricked into dismissing the charges. Upon further review, there's no doubt that Ryan White had absolutely nothing to complain about. However, when you do something as stupid and unnecessary as take a penalty while trying to stop a Jordin Tootoo zone entry then the best you can hope to do is temporarily make a referee question his eyesight as he points to the net that you blatantly failed to protect. I Want To Personally Thank D'Angelo Russell For Blessing Us With This Unbelievable Blooper3/13/2017
Annnnd just when you think it's unnecessary to keep telling kids to keep their eye on the ball, a 21 year old professional athlete makes an ass out of himself by failing at something he was undoubtedly instructed to do the first time he ever played catch. I think Luke Walton will be able to get over one ridiculously lost possession - even in a game his team lost by two points - quicker than D'Angelo Russell's former tee-ball coach will get over the fact that none of his fundamental teachings stuck with his most accomplished player. In all seriousness, I was getting a little bothered by the lack of laughs at D'Angelo Russell's expense this year. It's not that I was rooting against his development as much as I was hoping to see continued, hilarious signs of immaturity. So yeah, it was a little disappointing watching him turn into a promising young player that learned from his mistakes. That is, until he tripped over a ball while booting it out of bounds without a single defender within 20 feet of him. That's the lowlight I needed to restore my faith in a young point guard's propensity for the patently absurd, and the best part is that it didn't even cost his teammate a fiancee this time! NationalPost- Joakim Jensen finally ended what is believed to be the longest game in hockey history, scoring in the eighth overtime in the Norwegian League playoffs.
More than 8 1/2 hours after the game started — and after 217 minutes, 14 seconds of play — Jensen broke through to give the Storhamar Dragons a 2-1 victory over the Sparta Warriors early Monday morning. The game ended at 2:32 a.m. In the longest game in NHL, the Detroit Red Wings beat the Montreal Maroons 1-0 in a 1936 Staney Cup final game on Mud Bruneteau’s goal at 16:30 of the sixth overtime. Storhamar leads the best-of-seven quarterfinal series 3-2. ---- We can sit here and talk about how the Sparta Warriors should look on the bright side after becoming a part of hockey history. However, the time it would take to convince them that losing in the 8th overtime is a positive might be the only thing that could eclipse the 8 and half hours it took for them to get their hearts ripped out in Game 5. Honestly, they shouldn't even play Game 6. Not just because there's no way to bounce back from a defeat that excruciating, but because they would be better served scheduling the therapy necessary to get over devoting a full goddamn workday to impending disappointment. Somewhere out there resides a grad student that had their computer crash as they were finishing their unsaved thesis paper who completely sympathizes with some Norwegian hockey team's wasted effort and energy. You know the results of a game are devastating for the team that came out on the wrong side of it when the team that was on the right side of it was probably more relieved than they were ecstatic. I imagine the Storhamar Dragons' celebration turned into deep breaths and yawns by the time they reached the locker room, because even the adrenaline they were undoubtedly running on had to be merely fumes at that point. There are losses that make you instantly want to avenge them and then there are losses that make you want to pack your hockey shit in the garage closet and not acknowledge the existence of pucks for months on end. Judging by the lack of movement on the bench after that goal was scored, I think we know which category this one falls under.
It ain't right. It just ain't right. I'm not going to devote anything more than the next paragraph to correcting the wrong, but the fact that it took two grown men engaging in a fist fight that was more fitting of a high school hallway to get me to pay attention to NASCAR seems like a disservice to racers everywhere. Dangerous is generally synonymous with entertaining, but these guys weave through traffic while going damn near 200 MPH for a living and they had to roll around on the ground like drunken buffoons before they finally elicited a vesiceral reaction from me. The incident that caused this should have been way more exciting than the ensuing melee, but my heart didn't start pounding until Kyle Busch threw a weak cross that would make a 4th grade bully look like a badass. I suppose that's a result of the sport consisting of 500 treacherously monotonous laps, but - if you venture north of the Mason-Dixon line - the risk these dudes put themselves at is only paralleled by the lack of respect they get "rewarded" from the casual sports fan. I have no intention of making white dudes repeatedly driving around in a circle regular scheduled programming or anything crazy like that. However, those with a higher tolerance for boredom and an attention span that's a wee bit longer than Kyle Busch's fuse probably should. Not just because they are putting their health at risk behind the wheel, but because apparently the track is the only nationally broadcasted place to watch something that takes place in the living room of every home that houses more than one teenage son.
You know, it's not so much that I'm annoyed with the return that the Saints ended up getting for Brandin Cooks. Personally, I think he was worth more than a pick that was so late in the first round that it might as well be in the second round and a hop, skip, an a jump up in a middling Day 2 draft slot, but fans tend to overrate the value of the players they root for and wide receivers tend to fetch merely bargain pricing when they hit the trade market. What I am annoyed by is the Saints sitting down at the negotiating table with the New England Patriots in the first place. I don't know what deals they were presented with or if any of them would have been considered a "win" for the Saints, but I do know that a franchise that constantly muddles the brain of their competition - both on and off the field - just got a player they've raved about for years on end for the low, low price of a complete uncertainty. Bill Belichick probably flashed a sheepish smirk once the paperwork went through, and - given his track record - that makes me feel like the Who Dat Nation should probably be bearing a collective frown. Unless Jeff Ireland summons the ghosts of New Orleans dire scouting past then the #32 pick in an extremely deep draft can provide more to the Saints defense than a speedy wideout can provide to an offense that has kept it moving through the departure of far more transcendent talents than Brandin Cooks. That being said, a 23 year old with multiple 1,100 yard seasons and the ability to take it the distance on any given play just got added to a Super Bowl champion, and I'm not entirely sure how that works in accordance with the ultimate goal of giving Drew Brees another viable shot at a title before he retires. I know you shouldn't make trades with any team but your own in mind, but if there were a team to debunk the validity of that common used philosophy then it would be the team that has somehow turned conference championships into an annual occurrence. This deal could make the Saints better and STILL increase the gap between them and an organization that is currently the class of the league, and that idea is downright frightening. Especially if this report of passing up on adding a familiar face and a known quantity/quality to the secondary has any truth to it whatsoever...
Malcolm Butler's name is still blowing in the trade winds, the Saints are apparently trying to restructure current contracts, and one source that's proven reliable in the past seems to think that those two things are related...
However, if I were to view the move as what it currently stands then I feel a lot like some of the players that it directly affects, and that's not a good thing...
— Terron Armstead (@T_Armstead72) March 11, 2017
Let me start by saying that this news is absolutely hilarious. The only people that shouldn't laugh when they read this is Washington Redskins' fans. Hell, I would argue that even they should see the self deprecating humor in a self proclaimed "draft expert" being entrusted with extinguishing what has become an organizational dumpster fire. Sometimes funny is objectively funny, and Mike Mayock running an NFL team solely because he's pretty good at doing the athletic equivalent of shooting craps is just that. That being said, I'm not so sure he wouldn't be a fine hire. If John Lynch and Magic Johnson have taught us anything it's that putting unqualified people in positions of power is all the rage. You could argue that the particular unqualified person in question isn't due a promotion with how mediocre he's been at his current occupation, but the fact of the matter is that his current occupation is inherently impossible. His job is easy in the sense that their is no consequences to being wrong, but it's exceedingly difficult in the sense that there is no way to be right with any consistency. You can only be so reliable when you're asked to judge 18-22 year old kids on every single measurable other than their dick size and watch them beat the crap out of lesser competition in order to prognosticate what they'll be capable of as they mature and grow into their bodies. Seeing as he's been on my television every offseason for as long as I can remember, I have no choice but to assume that Mike Mayock is a better talent evaluator than most, and that's an unbelievable important skill to have as a General Manager. The problem here is that the Washington Redskins don't have anywhere near the league-wide respect to make a move like this without instantly getting roasted. You know the benefit of the doubt that the New England Patriots have earned? Picture the exact opposite and that's what's given to the franchise that just fired their GM for being either drunk, missing, or incompetent for months on end. I don't know if the poor man's Mel Kiper will make a passable executive, but I do know that hiring a guy that most people look at as a punchline isn't going to help an organization clean up it's reputation as a clown show. In reality, Mike Mayock is probably too smart and accomplished to accept employment from Dan Snyder, but tell that to the person picking apart every scouting report he's ever botched in head scratching fashion.
TMZ- A live war broke out between beloved R&B group Jagged Edge and NFL star Nick Fairley -- when the Saints star hijacked their concert ... and the singers told him to get his "big ass" off the stage.
It went down Feb. 24 at the Grand Marshal's Ball -- a Mardi Gras event in Fairley's hometown of Mobile, Alabama -- where Nick was the Grand Marshal and Jagged Edge was the featured entertainment. But when JE took the stage, all hell broke loose because the 6'4", 300-pound defensive lineman refused to get off ... and the singers felt he was disrespecting them. Security was called in ... but Fairley still wouldn't leave. You can hear people yelling at Fairley to go. At one point, a frustrated Jagged Edge says, "You want the mic? You can have this show my n**ga." JE cut the session short and a full scale melee almost erupted when members of Fairley's family stormed the stage ... one yelled into the mic, "F**k Jagged Edge!" ----- Honestly, this was inevitable. Free agency was simply going too well. It wasn't even 24 hours old and the Saints had followed through on the foresight to bolster their receiving core prior to what feels like the fateful trading of Brandin Cooks. They strengthened the second level of their defense with speed and potential. They put a smile on Drew Brees' face by finally picking up the young, reliable guard that they have desperately needed for awhile now. That was way too much positivity for one day! Of course the disruptive (on and off the field apparently) defensive tackle that just signed to an all-too-reasonable long term contract after coming off the ultimate "prove it" season had a two week old incident go public as the ink was drying. It was the only way to keep Saints fans grounded after a busy couple of hours that reaffirmed their faith in a front office who - to put it mildly - hasn't exactly spent the last few offseasons rolling sevens. This was the restoring of a delicate balance, and - to be quite honest - I'm glad it came at the expense of Jagged Edge. As for the spectacle itself? Well, I know it should leave me fearful of what may be to come from an already enigmatic guy that just got his hands on a hell of a lot more money, but it just doesn't. Not because I think he had the right to be on stage during a Mardi Gras celebration, but because he had more of right to be on stage during a Mardi Gras celebration than Jagged Edge did. Did I fall asleep in time machine? Pretty sure it's 2017 and the members of Jagged Edge are damn near eligible for AARP cards. I think it's time to stop asking 'Where Da Party At?!' when you're about 15 years older than everybody at it. Congrats to them for their longevity, but if you want me to be overly concerned about a local boy turned pro football player attempting to commandeer the stage than the artist he's interrupted is going to have to be more relevant than an R&B group whose recent ballads should probably be about buying baby food instead of fucking bitches. Either that or it's going to have to cause a much more violent scene than some washed up singers shouting a couple expletives at a dominant pass rusher who had a bit too much to drink and was just trying to get a better view of the shenanigans taking place in his hometown. Yes, the Devils are at rock bottom. Yes, they've lost nine games in a row. Yes, the only goals that they have scored in the last three games came during the third period of a loss to a team that is so far and away the worst team in the league that if their season was turned into a sports parody it would simply have to be called 'A Minor-League Of Their Own'. Yes, watching them is a chore and elicits such a lack of feeling and emotion that I have to do so with one hand on my dick to make sure I still have sensations in my body. Yes, the current state of the New Jersey Devils makes the former state of last year's New Jersey Devils look like heaven on ice. Yes, Cory Schneider is having a down year, Adam Henrique and Kyle Palmieri have regressed to the mean statistically, Taylor Hall is fondly dreaming about the days in which his career was incinerating in a Western Canadian dumpster fire, and there is almost no positives for even the most optimistic of fan to blindly nit pick. Key word...almost. You see, playing hopeless, listless hockey as they all but plummet into the sunken place may not seem like a step forward, but it's just as positive of a development as picking 11th in the draft for what seems like the 11th time in a row. I don't root for draft position and I never will, but organizational turnarounds are a lot easier to come by when you have the chance to select players that are more likely to contribute to it. Ray Shero's goal from day one was to collect assets and with each passing, increasingly demoralizing loss those assets are getting better. I didn't even have to do my due diligence/required fawning over teenagers to know that. So while it sucks that trading Adam Larsson for Taylor Hall didn't accelerate the rebuilding process in a way that only spoiled, irrational Devils' fans would imagine that it would, it did inevitably give the Devils a better chance of filling the void left by doing so. Those picks are more valuable and it's all but a certainly that more than couple of them (they have ELEVEN) will be moved for players that can help now. Everyone that is invested in this team is feeling the growing pains that they should have felt last year if they weren't dulled by the aspirin that was Cory Schneider. That doesn't change the fact that this offseason is an important one, and - while it didn't feel like it in the moment - getting embarrassed by a team that has approximately 7.5 wins on the year can only make it a more productive one. A Manager For George Mason Basketball Somehow Spotted A Rogue Contact Lens From Across The Court3/10/2017
Irony at it's finest. Those tiny transparent things that help people see better are better seen by those that don't fucking need them to go about their lives. Tough break for the visually impaired, but that's why it's good to have a manager on the bench that probably provides nothing more than 20/20 vision and uncanny intuition. I mean, nine times out of ten that guy rushes over to other side of the court with the confidence of someone whose 4-5 beers in and ends up having to play it off when he finds nothing more than a bead of sweat. I know this because I have good eyes and - from afar - I have mistaken just about everything that isn't a blade of grass for my wayward, lost-in-plain-sight golf ball. Maybe this was just a result of pure luck, but either way this dude needs a promotion. I don't know how superhuman sight benefits a basketball team, but there's got to be a better role for a dude that's basically one step from being able to see into the future than patting his peers asses after making sure they are hydrated.
You know who wishes this clip existed two days earlier? The ace of the team that ever-so-slightly benefited from the hilarious play that perfectly captured the essence of spring training...
Seriously, there is no amount of unnecessarily censored tweets that could lend as much credence to the meaninglessness of March baseball as a video of a guy quite literally quitting mid-play. This GIF is for the obsessive lunatics that are treating practice games like appointment television and criticizing players for not recreating the 'Get Out' challenge in hopes of beating out a ground ball. If watching it didn't remind them of how insignificant spring training is then there is no saving them from dying an early death incurred from treating Triple A at-bats in games that don't count like they are life and death situations. I suppose I'm not the best person to judge because I consider this time of year to be pre-preseason and the first 81 games of the MLB calendar to be the actual preseason. However, I truly believe there is no competition that can still be considered "professional" that is as inconsequential as games that need to be played out-of-region because even the weather in baseball cities isn't ready for baseball. I know this because - as bad and unnecessary as the NBA preseason is - I have never seen a player react to a double team during it by rolling the ball out of bounds and walking off the court. So props to Asdrubal Cabrera for giving us a great "fuck this, I'm out" and visually reaffirming Justin Verlander's message. Hopefully it provided a reality check to at least one person who was scoring games that are less important than wiffle ball tournaments like they are taking place during a pennant race. |
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