It's game week. Hooray.
From the "Talks too much" studios, are you ready for some football?
Weekend winners
Jason Day. Dude is hitting a golf ball at a Tiger in early 2000s level. He shot 62 on Sunday and won the Barclays by something like 48 shots.
In this image released by Universal Pictures, characters, from left, Stuart, Bob, Kevin and Scarlet Overkill, voiced by Sandra Bullock, appear in a scene from the animated feature, "Minions." (Illumination Entertainment/Universal Pictures via AP) Universal studios. The studio's hit movie "Minions" became the third animated movie to top $1 billion at the box office. "Frozen" and "Toy Story 3" are the others. It's the third billion-dollar movie of the summer for Universal, which also had "Jurassic World" and "Fast and Furious 7." Yes, "Fast and Furious 7" made more than $1 billion and ranks fifth in the all-time box office sales.
The 5-at-10 family. We got a puppy Sunday, an English Bulldog named Bo Jackson. The kids are stoked. (And so are the parents to tell you the truth.)
Jake Arieta. The Cubs ace no-hit the Dodgers on Sunday night in dominating fashion. He fanned 12 and prevented the Dodgers from sweeping Chicago. Dude has nasty stuff - he hit 96 on pitch 114 last night - with a slider to die for. He was 6-0 with a 0.43 ERA in August and has become the National League Cy Young frontrunner. He and Jon Lester atop the rotation give the powerful bats in Chicago some dangerous potential in the postseason.
The Philadelphia Eagles. Wow, that's a first-team offense that is humming. The Eagles starters built a 25-0 lead Saturday night against the Packers, and the first three drives against the Green bay starters featured Sam Bradford going 10-for-10 passing.
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Weekend losers
Tim Beckman and Illinois football.
The MTV video awards. What a disaster. People wearing shirts with F-bombs on them. Kanye West announcing he's running for president in 2020. Oh my goodness.
Taylor Swift presents the video vanguard award to Kanye West at the MTV Video Music Awards at the Microsoft Theater on Sunday, Aug. 30, 2015, in Los Angeles. The Braves. The worst Yankees invasion to Atlanta since Sherman. The Braves were swept by the Bronx Bombers and outscored 38-11. Plus, a tragedy happened this weekend when a fan fell to his death from the upper deck at Turner Field.
RGIII. Reports that coaches and executives explored trade options for the embattle Washington quarterback are bad and mean no one wants him around the Redskins with the possible exception of owner Dan Snyder. The fact that no one was interested in trading for RGIII is worse and means no one else wants him around either.
The Green Bay Packers. So far the Packers have had injuries ranging from serious (Jordy Nelson out for the year with a torn ACL) to potentially serious (receiver Randall Cobb and starting tackle Bryan Beluga left the game this weekend with a shoulder injury and an ankle injury respectively).
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College football Monday
Wow, there's a lot of college football out there.
Here's Weeds' UTC column.
There was a great game between Montana and North Dakota State over the weekend. (Side note: Genius move by the organizers of that game to play it on the Saturday before the season starts.)
There was the ton of great college football stuff in the paper this weekend from the TFP aces.
Here's an interesting item that happened over the weekend.
NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell speaks to reporters during the NFL's spring meetings in San Francisco, Wednesday, May 20, 2015. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu) Yes, a couple of schools weighed the option of fining players with their newfound cost of attendance money.
It will assuredly never go anywhere, no matter what Cincinnati and Virginia Tech coaches may want to do. It would be a recruiting killer, so it will never happen unless it is universally applied.
And for it to be universally applied the NCAA would get killed in the press. Like Roger Goodell-levels of PR angst.
Kanye West, left, and Big Sean accept the award for video with a social message for "One Man Can Change the World" at the MTV Video Music Awards at the Microsoft Theater on Sunday, Aug. 30, 2015, in Los Angeles.That said, two other side questions from this fine system popped in our head:
First, are the coaches fined? What was the monetary penalty for Steve Sarkisian getting liquored up and pulling a Kanye West last week?
Second, in the above story there's a list of fines proposed by Virginia Tech ranging from missing class to dirty dorm rooms to being late to team meeting.
The most expensive fine was getting a personal foul penalty on game day.
So of all the things most important, it's game day that matters most, right coaches?
Yep, the more it changes, the more it stays the same.
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Floodwaters from Hurricane Katrina fill the streets near downtown New Orleans, La., in this Aug. 30, 2005, file photo. This and that
- Amid all the Hurricane Katrina hubbub, we thought this was an amazing story of the youngest Katrina survivor.
- This is as a good a random sports story as we have read in a while. Yep, two brothers have Twins.com and won't sell it to Major League Baseball.
- We thought Ward Gosseett did a nice job on this story that East Ridge High School football stadium is condemned.
- As Mean Gene Henley told us this weekend, the Mocs have had some success in top-10 matchups. He also shared the news that former Mocs star Derrick Lott was released by the Titans.
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Foxo SearchligtAmelia Earhart (Hilary Swank, left) and her husband and promoter, George Putnam (Richard Gere), meet with the press in "Amelia."
Today's question
Who won the weekend and who lost it?
If you need another, well Richard Gere turned 66 Monday. Yep, 66.
If you had to pick a Rushmore of leading men in the 1980s, Gere makes a strong case.
Whatcha got?