Weekend winners
Everyone involved in the McGregor-Mayweather fight. More on that in a minute.
Baseball in general; Rhys Hoskins in particular. Baseball had fun with the nicknames on the back of the players’ jerseys – yes, even the Yankees did it – and fun is always a good thing. As for Hoskins, dude has 11 homers in 18 career games, which is a MLB record. If the Phillies rookie hits a homer in his next 11 games, he’ll be the quickest to 12, too. Now add in the power show that Giancarlo Stanton is putting on as the Marlins slugger now has 50 homers.
Dustin Johnson. We forget how good he is, right? It’s been since before the Masters – when he was everyone’s favorite to win the Green Jacket – that we regarded him as a boss. He reminded us why down the stretch Sunday to win The Northern Open, besting Jordan Spieth. He did so with a monster, 340-plus yard drive that turned the daunting 18th into a pitch and a putt for a birdie on the first playoff hole. As great as Spieth is, when Johnson is on his game, Jordan has nothing for DJ.
Stanford. OK, maybe we suggested late last week that The Cardinal was way, Way, WAY underrated. And yes, they played Rice on Saturday, and Uncle Ben’s rice may be tougher. But Stanford looked the part of legit college football power. That, friends, was impressive.
The offensive line discusses play between series. The University of Chattanooga Mocs met the Jacksonville State Gamecocks in the Guardian Credit Union FCS Kickoff at the Carmton Bowl in Montgomery, Alabama on August 26, 2017. Weekend losers
UTC. That was a painful opening weekend. It started with news Friday that Alejandro Bennifield was suspended for the first four games by the NCAA for an academic issue. The offense was stagnant with Nick Tiano behind center – and to be fair, that was as much about the O-Line struggling to block JSU as anything Tiano did or didn’t do. The defense was very good for the most part but gave up a couple of painful big plays.
Tennessee Titans. Yes, it’s preseason football. But the first-team offense for the Titans (other than DeMarco Murray, who has missed a lot of time with a lingering hamstring injury) played into the second half against the Chicago Bears and through the first three quarters scored exactly as many points as you did. Bagel. And it’s not this this was the ’85 Bears friends. Side note: Marcus Mariota looked really mediocre Sunday, and that’s on the kind side.
Isaiah Thomas. The entire blockbuster deal that featured Thomas and Kyrie Irving and other pieces and picks between Boston and Cleveland is hanging in the balance because the news about Thomas hip in his physical is less than stellar. Now the Cavs want one of the Celtics previous first-round picks – either Jayson Tatum or Jaylin Brown – or the deal could be voided. Man, imagine the return of Irving to the Cavs’ locker room. As the kids say these days “AWK-ward.” Plus, for Thomas, who is a free agent after this season, this news hurts his already shaky chances at a max deal.
U.S. Open tennis. No Serena. Five of the top 11 ranked men players are out. Can we just have Federer in finals and not waste everyone’s time the next two weeks?
Preseason injuries. Yes, they are always a part of the preseason, but there were a couple of noteworthy knee injuries this weekend. The Chiefs lost running back Spencer Ware (fantasy owners need to grab Kareem Hunt ASAP) to a PCL. More painfully, the Patriots lost receiver Julian Edelman, who tore his ACL. From ESPN stats and info, the Patriots are 84-19 since 2009 with Edelman on the field and 15-10 without him.
Conor McGregor watches replays after losing to Floyd Mayweather Jr. in a super welterweight boxing match Saturday, Aug. 26, 2017, in Las Vegas. (AP Photo/Isaac Brekken) The fight in which everyone won
Everyone involved in the mega-fight has to be considered a winner this morning right?
Boxing? They champion won and did so by changing his style and doing work. It also had people talking about boxing, and that’s something that’s not exactly an everyday occurrence these days.
MMA? Sure. Conor McGregor acquitted himself famously considering he was only using a small percentage of his combat arsenal. (Now if McGregor leaves the sport, well, that would be a bad thing.)
Floyd Mayweather. Dude is 50-0. No one else has ever done that. Also, he likely earned somewhere in the $300 million neighborhood, and we all know that’s a really nice neighborhood. McGregor. Dude lasted longer than most expected. He won, by most accounts the first three rounds and took the action to Mayweather. His actions in the ring and his charisma outside of it make him the most famous and marketable fighter in the world.
The public. The late push of interest is going to make this the most purchased pay-per-view event in sports history. And it didn’t disappoint by almost every measure.
The money. Try this number $1 billion. That’s what some folks believe the pay-per-view numbers could generate.
Teddy Atlas and Stephen A. Smith. Dear Lord, their post-fight exchange was gold, Jerry. Gold. Could we have more of that please.
Maybe the referee, who a lot of folks think may have stopped the fight a little prematurely, but for a fight that a lot of people thought was going to be a farce, everyone came out smiling.
And cashing checks.
There’s something to be said for low expectations, too.
This and that
– Heart-breaking conclusion for Keith Mitchell on Sunday. He needed a birdie on the par-5 18th to get into the top 25 and earn a PGA Tour card for next season. He made par and finished 26th on the money list, about $6,000 back. Either way, it’s been a breakthrough season for the former Baylor School golfer who has made more than $151K this season.
– Vontae Burfict is a dirty, Dirty, DIRTY player and is facing a five-game suspension for an illegal hit. In a preseason game fort Pete’s sake. If his five-game suspension stands, it would be the second consecutive season he started the season on the sideline because of dirty tactics and it would cost him almost $882K. But we’re pretty puzzled that he got suspended for the hit in question, considering it was against a running back on a pass play and it did not even draw a penalty flag. This feels like a career achievement award for Burfict, who is the most fined player in the NFL since entering the league in 2012.
– DeShone Kizer was named the Browns starting quarterback. Ho’s this for an amazing stat: He will be the 27th starting quarterback for the Browns since 1999 when the NFL returned to Cleveland. No other team has used more than 20 in that stretch.
– The Dodgers lost a series to the Brewers over the weekend, the first series loss for L.A. since June 5-7. But the big news is Clayton Kershaw will return to the rotation Friday.
– Japan hammered Texas in the Little League World Series title game on Sunday. Man, some of those kids from Japan looked 17.
– Hurricane Harvey continues to dump tons of rain on the Houston area and likely will cause the BYU-LSU game to be moved. Here’s the story from CBSsports.com. At the bottom of that story is news that Sam Houston State’s opener against Richmond – and new coach Russ Huesman – has already been postponed.
– Congrats to Derrick Lott, the former UTC defensive lineman. He signed with the Detroit Lions over the weekend. That means there are a program record eight Mocs currently in the NFL
– This is a fun story about an NFL player taking a knee during a game.
Today’s question
Weekend winners. Weekend losers.
Discuss.
Cool day in history.
Scientific American published for the first time on this day in 1845. In 1837 on this day Worcestershire sauce was born. Twenty-six nations agreed to the Geneva Convention in 1864 on this day.
Shania Twain is 52 today. Ron Guidry – Louisiana Lightning is a great nickname by the way – is 67 today. Rick Rossovich is 60 today. Jason Priestley is 48 today. So is Jack Black.
LeAnn Rimes is 35 today.
MLK delivered his “I have a dream” speech at the Lincoln Memorial on those day in 1963.
Rushmore of most famous speeches.
Go.