5-at-10: Weekend winners and losers, The Olympics Games begin, Rushmore of all-time NBA centers

Weekend winners

Red Whosehispants. The 17-year-old dude from Colorado who looks a lot like Jeff Spicoli and claimed the first U.S. gold medal of the winter games in one of those events that is the snow equivalent to skateboarding. Think of it this way, a gold medal is a pretty good reason to miss a school day of high school chemisty, right?

The entire Olympics coverage, in general. Good times. More on this in a moment. And the hubbub about Mirai Nagasu landing a triple axel was kind of cool.

Indianapolis Colts. The Colts hired Frank Reich on Sunday, ending an ugly week that featured the almost-hiring-before-defecting-back-to-Foxboro fiasco that was the Josh McDaniels situation. And all things considered, wouldn’t you rather have the guy that led the offense that overcame losing an MVP candidate rather than the guy who has led the league in scoring every year he has TB12 and ranked no better than 16th at every other stop without TB12?

LeBron. Cavs dropped bombs in Boston. And here’s the simple reason that the East runs through LeBron: When he plays like he did Sunday – aggressive on each side of the floor and determined to get to the rim – no team in the league this side of Golden State is clearly better. And the influx of new blood to the Cavs’ roster – as well as the addition by subtraction that the whole Isaiah Thomas fiasco ended up being – will be a springboard for James and the entire team. (Yes, this is a complete overreaction, but man, the NBA is so much more fun when the Cavs and LeBron are actually interesting.)

College basketball. Normally, as an institution, the NCAA in general and college basketball in particular can not get out of their own way. Think back to the major, off-the-floor trends and headlines in recent years and almost all of them range from puzzling to poor to pitiful. But the new committee announcement of the seeds and the top-16 teams is a really nice stroke of promoting the sport and fans, be them casual or hard-core. And the timing – the Sunday after the Super Bowl, when the sports world is looking for stuff to care about – could not be better. Here’s an interest column on the SEC’s role in those rankings – Auburn was a 2 seed and Tennessee a 4 – from TFP college hoops guru Mark Wiedmer. (You know the rule: If Weeds writes about college hoops, we’re in. That, and never date a woman with a tattoo of a dagger.) And there’s no doubt that these rankings will assuredly change, but the simple fact that the committee is giving us something to discuss – and the folks who only follow because of their brackets, some teams to keep an eye – is a very good twist.

Weekend losers

Reuben Foster. The former Alabama and current San Francisco 49ers linebacker was arrested over the weekend, his second run-in with the law in a month. This one included a charge of domestic violence charge as well as some weapons allegations. Not good.

Ray Romano is a funny guy and loves to play golf. Saturday, as one of the amateurs in the AT&T Pro-Am, Jordan Spieth was not among Everyone (who) Loves Raymond, as a skulled bunker shot almost tagged Spieth in the melon.

Russian speedster. Shut your pie hole, dude. In fact, what kind of punishment is it that the Russian team is not here but the Russian athletes are allowed to compete as OAR (Olympic Athletes from Russian)? Seriously. The corruption in the international olympic realm makes the NCAA, the mafia, the Democratic party, the 1919 Black Sox, the Corleones, Tony Montana (and Hannah Montana for that matter) and every Bradley County elected official go, “Dang, that’s some twisted and covered-up stuff going on there.)

College basketball officials. Yes, we all feel the way all the games are called is worse than it has ever been. A large part of that is we have more angles and replays and slo-mo than ever before and we are angrier than ever and always looking to bellyache about anything. But the complaints against college basketball officials, in this view, go beyond that. College basketball refs actually seem to believe – not unlike the worst of the worst of MLB umps with a narcissistic view of their roles in their game – that they are a big part of the reason people are watching. The theatrics. The attitude. The seeming pleasure of frustrating coaches and fans. Now there’s this, and it’s quite possibly the worst: A La. Tech player was ejected for dunking too hard. Read that again.

Julio Bell. Who, you ask? Well, Mr. Bell is a 52-year-old former boxer who has made a lot of coin in BID-ness with his wife and made a lot of investments in and around the Colombia area. He’s a big deal. Well, he fancies himself as a golfer, and he received a sponsor’s exemption into the Web.com Tour event last weekend at the Club Colombia Championship. Yes, sponsor’s exemptions draw a lot of angst and interest. Some players loathe them, especially on that level, in which every spot in each event could be the difference in an actual pro making mortgage payments or getting the springboard to the big time. It will be discussed at length next month when former QB-turned announcer Tony Romo takes an exemption on the PGA Tour. And that will bring interest to the tournament, not unlike what Steph Curry brought to the Web.com Tour last year. But Romo, who has a sub-zero handicap, and Curry, who shot 74-74 in his try, can actually play. Bell? Dude dropped a 93-105 with a grand total of four pars in two rounds to miss the cut by 56 shots. Yowzer. In fact, he was so embarrassed that he actually got DQed for not turning in his scorecard after his eye-popping triple-digit number in round two.



They let the Games begin

And we’re off. Olympics all day and all the time.

Hey, there’s Mike Tirico. And it’s impossible to get him confused with skating commentator Johnny Weir, who we feel certain is destined for his own reality show some point in the very near future. Buckets, that’s a fellow with a style sense that is all his own.

Moving on, because we as a society can not go through a big event without getting offended about something, NBC has relieved Joshua Cooper Ramo of his broadcasting duties after his comments during Friday’s opening ceremonies. Petitions and social media angst. You know the drill.

While we are here, it’s fair to note that NBC has planned more than 2,400 hours of coverage from the 18 days in Pyeongchang. (And while we’re here, the line of what is and is not offensive to some seems to get more and more blurry with the passing international event. Consider this: We were forced to read and hear how a dictator’s sister was “Stealing the Show” according to some reports, and the CNN puff piece on her made her seem more Kim Kardashian than Kim Yo Jong. That said, the CNN defenders will assuredly toss out that they did point out that her dictator brother, who many believe murderer one of their brothers as well, “has ruled with an iron fist since coming into power.” Uh, you think so doctor?)

Anyhoo, the Games, like they do every four years and like soccer does at the World Cup-level, has drawn huge interest from all walks of folks in this country. And the soccer comparison – it’s patriotism for the vast majority of us, folks – is perfect because no one is screaming that this is Halfpipe’s time to surge in popularity or that the reason someone doesn’t like Moguls is because they don’t understand the Moguls.

That said, the Moguls, the Halfpipe and even the star of the winter games, the figure skating events, are really tough for the average fan to follow because, simply put, there is so much that is judged and interpreted.

Weir’s insightful and shall we say ‘happy’ insight aside, there’s simply no way to know for most of us to know what we’re watching. The Canadian men’s skater Sunday night fell twice and still ran away with the event.

Yes, he fell, which for the longest was always throughout to be clear and ultimate sin in the sport, and managed to have notched enough tricks and dohickys to build up enough credit for the judges to believe he was the best.

That’s when the light bulb went off. Of course that makes perfect sense.

Style points. Degree of difficulty, or as college football fans know it better, strength of schedule.

Determining the best figure skater is like determining the best college football team. Perfect routine filled with less-than-strenuous jumps and hurdles, you are Central Florida and can finish fifth.

A couple of stumbles here and there, but beating some perceived big boys, well, that can get you to the medal round and from there, it’s anyone’s guess.

Who blocks and tackles better? Who executes? Who converts on third down in the biggest moment on each side of the ball?

Who triple axels and lutzes better? Who sparkles? Who converts on the triple in the biggest moment on each side of the ice?

That clears everything up. (Now all we need is Weir to do some play-by-play in, say Starkville. Thoughts?)

This and that

– Johnny Football speaks. Here’s a clip from the former Heisman winner Saying alcohol was the root of his issues.

– Paul Pierce had his number retired by Boston on Sunday after the Cavs dropped the hammer on the Celtics. Side question: Does Paul Pierce reach the limit of a player worthy of having his jersey retired? (The answer may surprise you. Did you know Pierce is second all time in franchise history in points scored with more than 24,000 points, roughly 2,300 more than Larry Bird.)

– Ted Potter Jr. won the AT&T Pro Am on Sunday. He made more than $1.3 million for the effort. Former Baylor School stars Stephan Jaeger finished tied for 43rd ($25,160) and Keith Mitchell ($18,777.50) also cashed checks this week.

– A rare baseball free agent signing, as Yu Darvish landed in Chicago for six years and $126 million. Yes, that’s some quality cheddar, but it also is the latest example of baseball trying to reset the market and its spending malfeasance. Consider this: In recent years, Darvish’s $21 million annual salary is no where near what David Price (seven years, $217 million), Max Scherzer (seven years, $210 million) and even Zack Greinke (six years, $206) in recent years. In fact, in a rare reversal of fortunes (see what we did there?), Darvish, who was clearly the best free agent starting pitcher on the market, got significantly less than what the Cubs gave Jon Lester (six years, $155 million) back in 2015.

– Speaking of the lagging free agent market, there are several theories on it. Here’s one about supply and demand of all-or-nothing sluggers who have been devalued by the glut of names on the market and the power-arm starters who may have lost importance because of the two-times-through-lineup-and-turn-it-over-to-abullpen-filled-with-guys-throwing-95 strategy. There’s also the clear point that Buster Olney made on Golic and Wingo this morning that teams now realize it’s better to lose win 60 games, save money and get the No. 1 pick in every round of the draft than it is to win 76 and be on the treadmill of mediocrity with mid-level picks and mid-level payrolls. Olney reload a sobering story that one GM told him there are more teams competing for No. 1 overall than competing to win the World Series. Tanking has arrived in full force baseball fans. Call it the Houston Method.

– Just putting it out there: ESPN First Take had a ratings record year, up seven percent after moving from ESPN2 to ESPN in 2017.

– NASCAR did some stuff this weekend. Some guys went fast at Daytona, and the guy who replaced Junior is on the pole. Or something like that. (Side note: Let the conspiracy theorists begin if the dude driving Junior’s ride runs away and hides at the 500 next week.)

Today’s question

Weekend winners and losers. Go.

We will cover this almost daily for the next couple of weeks because, while we are not into the Winter Games as much as the Summer Games, we still enjoy the stories and the emotions of the Olympics.

With that what is your favorite Winter Olympics sport to watch? Discuss. (And while watching in part last night, it dawned on us that we’d have a better chance to put a bat on a MLB fastball than complete anything close to some of the ice stunts those folks were doing. Wow.)

As for Feb. 12, well, Happy Birthday, Abe Lincoln, who would have been 209 today. Charles Darwin also was born on this day in 1809.

On this day in 1999, President Clinton was acquitted in his impeachment trial.

Josh Brolin is 50 today.

Some big names died on this day: J.C. Penney in 1875 and Tom Landry and Charles Schulz in 2000.

As for the Rushmore, Bill Russell is 84 today. Rushmore of NBA all-time centers.

Go.