Let's tend to business.
Rushmore of Jack Lemmon movies -- "Some Like It Hot," "Mister Roberts," "Glengarry Glen Ross," "The Odd Couple."
Rushmore of most famous golf swings that did not happen in a tournament -- Since you creative folks pointed out so many movie golf swings, we will do two. Real-life famed golf swings are Shepard on the moon, a 2-year-old Tiger on "The Mike Douglas Show," Carson's air swing after his monologue and Tiger's flushed pitching wedge after he bounced that ball on his club like 12 million times in that great Nike commercial. As for the movie swings, well we know Happy is there, Carl Spangler with the gardening tool and his play-by- about his potential Masters championship as he handles the flowers at Bushwood is there, so is Judge Smails, because gambling is illegal at Bushwood and he never slices, and the dashingly handsome man that played Bobby Jones in the Baggy Pants movie with Will Smith and Matt Damon. That was an effortless swing.
Rushmore of desserts with a specific fruit in the name -- Apple pie, strawberry shortcake, peach cobbler, banana pudding.
We also offered a nebulous Rushmore on "Blazing Saddles," which turned 50 this week. Not sure I can pick a top-four collection of quotes. Not sure I can pick a top-four collection of scenes. I will instead offer this as we explore the new comments section together (more on that in a moment):
Is "Blazing Saddles" on the all-time comedy movie Rushmore? I lean strongly toward yes. Discuss.
One more point of order, we are still taking entries to the Super Bowl Props contest. Here are the details.
It's an easy betting entry for any and all. And like the beer at the Delta Rush parties, it don't cost nuthin', which is nice.
The lines for these 10 props may change in terms of what you see on line, but these numbers are final for our purposes since we want as many people to enter all week as possible.
Send your entry to my email -- jgreeson@timesfreepress.com -- and of course your friends and family are invited.
Here are the 10, and some will look familiar and some will be strangely unique:
1. Coin toss -- heads or tails.
2. Length of the anthem by Reba McEntyre over/under 87 seconds.
3. San Francisco minus-2.
4. Total, over/under 47.5.
5. Jersey number of the first player to score a TD, over/under 22.5.
6. Who will be the MVP?
7. Color of the Gatorade bath for the winning coach?
8. Usher's first halftime song?
9. Longest made FG over/under 50.5 yards.
10. Who has more total yards, George Kittle or Travis Kelce.
We always are intrigued by the prop bets and our annual Super Bowl contest above. And the multi-sport prop bets are not out yet.
One more news item: The NFL Hall of Fame Class was announced last night in the league's award show. (Yes, Lamar Jackson -- not to be confused with Hedley Lamar Jackson, that I know of -- won his second MVP. Second question: If Lamar retired tomorrow with two MVPs, is he a Hall of Famer? Discuss.)
The next class of Hall of Famers are Julius Peppers, Andre Johnson, Dwight Freeney, Patrick Willis and Devin Hester.
Really happy for Hester, who simply was the best to ever return kicks.
Kinda surprised that Antonio Gates did not make the cut to be honest. Back in each of their primes, if the Chargers and Colts discussed Freeney for Gates, which team says no?
So there's that.
To the bag.
From a slew of you
What's up with the comments?
Gang,
I am now labor. A content producer. I am not unlike Mongo, just pawn in game of life.
(Yep, feel a theme show brewing.)
But after a couple of questions up the food chain, I have been told that after re-signing in, it should not be much of a change.
That said, it does appear that all previous comments have been wiped clean. That's a good thing for some of you.
If you have any issues or questions, let me know. Sometimes, you can start a morning with the 5-at-10 and think, "We're awake, but we're very puzzled."
From Chas
Query for Friday's bag: CBS Sports' Power Rankings just zoomed up Pearl's peons from #16 to #3. Are you buying or selling at #3?
Chas,
Likely selling, but I'd be buying them at, say 6.
Here's the thing: There is not a truly great team in college hoops this year, so there are a couple of dozen teams that have a legit shot at winning the whole thing, and maybe a smidgen more.
Among them, the short list of true contenders, want to guess which top-15 teams in the country are in the top 10 in defensive efficiency?
Houston is 1; Auburn is 7.
Matchups matter come March. That is not breaking news.
Bad shooting situations happen almost every year. So do cold streaks, slumps, injuries and foul trouble.
But Auburn is built around defense and is deep enough to handle all the other predictable speed bumps that come with the tournament.
And know this: I am already invested at 40-to-1 on Auburn to win it all.
And also know this: Bearddawg is right, every AU and UT fan I know would trade Final Four desires for a guaranteed spot in the football title game next year.
Where are all the white women at?
From Ted
How do you think Nick Saban will be as a commentator? Do you really think he is done?
Ted,
I could be 100% wrong, but I think Saban is done on the college level for sure.
NIL took away his greatest edge, which was stockpiling talent with the promise that if these five-stars came to Bama, worked hard, became starters, they'd be millionaires in three years.
Those five stars don't want to hear about three years; those five stars want to be millionaires yesterday. (And Alabama also now realizes that it was behind the 8-ball in terms of NIL initiatives, because they had Saban recruiting at an elite level without the extra NIL stuff.)
That talent stockpile allowed Saban to overcome so much -- loss of assistants (which he replaced with star candidates because those replacements knew winning would cleanse their resume), discipline issues and in-game mistakes (five stars everywhere else get long leases because those programs need the star-power; Saban could replace five stars with five stars), and so much more -- and build a dynasty college football will likely not see again.
Plus, if he wanted to coach in college, why leave Alabama?
I don't think he has a taste for the NFL either, so yeah, I think he has hung up the whistle.
As for Saban the commentator, well, first, a lot of folks do not realize how funny he can be. Seriously.
As for GameDay, in a perfect setting, they put Desmond Howard on side assignments (man, his football analysis is so simplistic, the only way I know to describe it is it seems like real-life advice from a scroll of fortune cookies), with a four-man table of Rece Davis, Pat McAfee, Saban and then Herbstreit.
Saban actually likes McAfee, which will be a relief and help add to the chemistry.
Then only cut to a live feed-in for Lee Corso's headset thing at the very end. Who other than the Howards and the Corsos are against that?
As for big games, I want Saban sitting in the analysis chair with Peyton Manning and even Eli as they break things down.
Because let's face it, no one in the history of college football can reach into their briefcase, grab a more impressive resume and say excuse me while I whip this out like Saban.
From Spy
Welp, so much for all that LIV Golf heat, huh?
Spy,
Your point is valid and carries a little extra sting considering the circumstances.
Several regulars around these parts noted that with the PGA weather conflicts, they watched LIV Sunday. It was also Jon Rahm's first event.
Well, the numbers have to be crushing to the oil folks writing these nine-figure checks.
According to this story, LIV pulled in 432,000 viewers on the CW, its most ever.
The PGA rerun of third-round action from Pebble Beach got more than 1.2 million in the same slot.
Yikes. Hi, my name is Jim. Most people call me, Jim.
(Side question: Do we believe Philly Mick when he said he has 47 career hole-in-ones? I kind of think that is possible considering how much golf that dude has played in his 53 years.)
From a slew of you
Super Bowl preview?
Gang,
I will not bore you with a litany of the commonalities of "win the turnover battle" and "staying ahead of the chains" and other blather, that while 100% true, is like half-heated drive-through fries.
And most of my betting advice will be in this afternoon's Jay's Plays emails, but here are some broadstroke thoughts about how the Chiefs are going to prevail. (Love Vader's moneyline play to be honest.)
-- San Francisco has been considered the best team in football for most of the season. Sure they got thumped by the Ravens, but the Ravens are hollow at the top and got flustered because of their lack of experience.
The 49ers have seven players who made first-, second-, or third-team All-Pro. That's amazing. But the three most important people in Sunday's Super event are the QBs, the defensive play-callers and the offensive-minded head coaches.
K.C. gets the advantage in each of those boxes.
-- The NFL in its salary cap structure has become a league that maximizes any of the following advantages:
QBs on low-pay (edge San Fran, which explains the seven All-Pros and also creates great pressure to win now because at some point Brock Purdy is going to get paid); all-time QB play (edge Kansas City clearly) and players who create double teams.
Now know this: Want to guess which offensive and defensive player in the NFL was double-teamed most this season? Yep, Travis Kelce and Chiefs DT Chris Jones.
Is that enough? I think so.
But I could be wrong, and then I would have to wonder what in the wide, wide world of sports is a-goin' on here? (And yes, the rest of that quote references Kansas City, but not the Chiefs nor the Royals.)
Have a Super weekend, friends. Keep an eye out for Jay's Plays this afternoon and a Bets and Ballgames podcast later today.